Flight in known/knowable turbulence

In Early July at about 0900 an intermediate rated paraglider pilot impacted the ground on the east end of the South Side soaring ridge.  The pilot reported that earlier the wind meter behind and above the ridge reported 20-25 SSE.  The pilot was flying a 13 meter zero for the first time.  The pilot was flying east of the main gash and turning to the west when a large collapse occurred on the left side of the glider.  Despite weight shifting to the open side the collapse rotated the pilot around and into the hillside.  After the incident the trimmers were found to be set differently with the right trimmer at trim and the left fully let out.  The pilot reported that other pilots also concurred that the conditions were “weird.”

Strong winds from the east (20-25 SSE) have long been known to cause turbulent conditions at the South Side.  Even before construction of all of the homes in front of the ridge this has been the case.  If you look SSE of the ridge you will see small hills not too far away out in front of  the ridge.  They are far enough away to be overlooked by most pilots.  Nonetheless, mechanical turbulence is known to reach as far as 10 times the height of objects downwind of those objects.  The stronger the wind the farther the turbulence reaches.  Turbulated winds in excess of 20 mph is more than enough to cause a serious collapse in even a mini wing. 

The wind meter at the south side is more that 50 feet above the ground and does not measure the compressed wind speed found just out from the edge of launch.   It is likely that the wind that collapsed this glider was in excess of 25 mph. 

Flying in strong winds is an advanced skill.  Many advanced pilots will not fly when conditions are as strong as cited in this incident.

From the UHPGA website safety briefings for the South Side:

Known Hazards:

Strong east wind rotors off the hills south-east of launch and become turbulent enough to collapse paragliders.

From the Book of Risk:

How to avoid it.  (Flying in known turbulence)

Study the weather a lot, read a lot of books about weather especially related to paragliding and hang gliding:

Understanding the Sky by Dennis Pagen

Thermal Flying by Burkhard Martens

Mastering Thermaling by Kelly Farina

Weather for Dummies

Talk about the weather to other pilots you fly with.

Violation of Traffic Norms. Pilot Vigilance (mid-air collision).

At the South Side, a newly passed off P2 pilot was flying the eastbound ridge soaring pattern followed by another pilot also flying eastbound but against the pattern and close to the ridge.  Two other pilots flying westbound turned left to avoid the pilot flying eastbound close to the ridge.   The P2 pilot felt cut off by the left turning westbound pilots and made a hard turn to the right followed by an attempt to immediately regain the ridge by flying between the other eastbound pilot and the ridge resulting in the mid-air collision.  

The following steps could have avoided this collision.

1.  When the green flags are up do your best to fly the pattern. 

2.  Use common sense and be flexible.  

3.  If you see someone not flying the pattern, learn the colors of the glider and stay clear of it. 

4. When westbound, avoid trouble by keeping right or top-landing or side-hill landing and not by flying through opposing traffic.   

5. When eastbound, avoid trouble by keeping right and flying away from the ridge.  Keep right to avoid others cutting you off from these options (read number 2). 

6.  If you leave the pattern to avoid trouble, or for any reason, be very careful reentering; land out and get a ride up if you cannot safely reenter.  

7.  Look around constantly and look as far ahead as possible to anticipate trouble.  If it feels crowded to you, go land until traffic lessens.  

8.  Clear your turns. 

From the Book of Risk:

Get competent instruction to lean to fly.

Study and learn how to fly in various circumstances.

Mentally review potential patterns before launching.  If you are in doubt ask an 

instructor or competent pilot

Report of Object Fixation included as reported by Steve Mayer

Early June:

I was instructing a P2 pilot on day two of mini wing instruction. Day one went flawless with 6-7 excellent flights. Pilot is an experienced sky diver and we spent a lot of time reviewing bad habits sky divers often make, mostly over controlling and being "heavy handed". Instructions were to fly like "a little old lady" and make slight turns and always go back to hands up as your "get out of jail". On day this day we moved down in size from a "mini wing" to a "Hybrid" so 18 meters to a 16 meter. Instructions were to have a first flight like yesterday, nothing new and get used to new wing and feel., I wish I'd stressed the little old lady thing and not being heavy handed again.  

Pilot kited a while and launched without incident, went right and got close to the hill. He started pulling harder and harder turns towards the hill then away (I was saying MOVE AWAY) and think he would pull away and then correct back the other way. There were quite a few students on the lower hill and all saw him look right at them and pull HARD toward them and the hill where he banked up and slammed into the hill. We have video of the incident and it appears he looked and flew right at them.  

Pilot was conscious and alert complaining of back pain. Emergency services were called. We stabilized the pilot. Several EMS trained people were on the scene as well as myself. He was evacuated by ambulance and taken to an ER where he was released several hours later with fractures to his lower back but no long term damage and was told he could fly in 4-6 week's. He kept a great attitude and is planning on finishing. up soon.

Lessons learned... slow down on progression down to smaller wings.  

Don't assume a pilot can handle something smaller without more education

Remind all pilots about object fixation and how real it is.

Remind all pilots that when in doubt or in trouble look toward the LZ and SLOWLY turn that way.  

Remind pilots that Pilot Induced Ocolations are real and happen.

Take extra time to work with sky divers and drill in these points and the bad habits and trends we see.

a similar accident happened to another of my students 10 years ago. Also a sky diver, also day two where day one went great. I didn't spend the time reminding them how fast things go bad and he did similar and got LEFT, Right, Left, Right, trying to correct and actually went upside down in a barrel roll and slid into the LZ and was lucky enough to walk away. I often talk about this story with my sky divers as a "no way, that could never happen to a pro sky diver" and now I'll be adding this second story to help drill in the point. I've taught over 100 mini wing courses and still believe mini wings are far safer to fly than even paragliders but special precautions need to be observed.

I also recognize and know that hearing a radio is often difficult as the speeds are high and the timing is critical. In this latest incident the pilot did hear he but panic's and really doesn't remember why or how he turned to hard into the hill but after reviewing the video it seems he looked and steered at exactly what he was trying to avoid.

Final lesson is that I will never let a speed flying student fly under my supervision without an airbag harness. I follow this myself and am a huge fan of airbags for this reason but still the majority of mini wing pilots and harnesses do not have an airbag. I will preach the savings grace that back protection of any kind can help if the worst case happens. We now have replaced all our speed flying training harnesses with new updated airbag models. I am not sure if the outcome would have been any different but it's possible.  

Humbly,
Steve Mayer
Cloud 9 Paragliding

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks. 

In early May a novice pilot was preparing to launch when another pilot saw that the novice pilot's chest strap was not buckled and one riser was attached backwards.

From the Book of Risk:

What is it: (distracted pre flight)

Anything that distracts your metal focus from preparing your equipment for safe flight.

  

Having conversations with others during the set up or preflight of your equipment.

Motivational talk, “GO FOR IT,” “LET’s GET SOME,” “KICK ASS.” 

Loud music on launch.

How to avoid it:

First of all, you can’t fix stupid and people around you are just going to do these things; accept it and don’t further distract yourself by arguing with them.  AVOID CONFRONTATION ON LAUNCH.  

Focus is the key, practice mindfulness.

  

Use checklists.  If you notice your mind has wandered at any point during a checklist start over form the beginning.  Starting over helps to increase mindfulness by practicing noticing that your mind has wandered.

 

Let people who are trying to talk to you know that you need to concentrate on your preflight.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

Distracted Pre-Flight Preparation and Checks.

In early May an intermediate rated mini wing pilot hiked the POM North Side to the lower launch by the windsock.  Winds were strong.  The pilot put the wing in a rosette intending to walk down from the saddle to a lower section of the side-hill. The wind inflated the glider ripping it from his hands.   As the glider inflated the pilot noticed that his risers were twisted.  Due to a lot of practice ground handling the pilot was able to untwist the risers just before he was plucked from the ground.  

In this case the pilot’s preflight was distracted/interrupted by the strong wind conditions.  Obviously, anything including strong winds that interrupt your preflight checks increases your risk. 

Regardless the size of glider, launching in strong winds is an advanced skill that even advanced pilots avoid when possible.  In this case the pilot was intermediate and accepted risks avoided by some advanced pilots. 

Flight Outside of Conservative Weather Parameters. Flight Outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters.

Flight Outside of Conservative Weather Parameters

Flight Outside of Conservative Equipment Choice Parameters

In early May a speed wing pilot impacted the ground at the top of the back upper bench of the North Side.  Conditions were strong with winds gusting to approximately 25 mph.  The pilot was reported to have been doing spirals and barrel rolls too close to the ground for the pilot’s level of experience.  The pilot was also flying a mini wing he was not experienced with.  The pilot was able to relaunch and continue his flight to the LZ.

Lessons to be learned here involve the pilot flying in extreme conditions and on wing he was not experienced with.  Witness reports indicate that the pilot was flying maneuvers beyond his level of experience and ability.  

From the Book of Risk:

With the aid of counseling, mindfulness meditation, religion or whatever means of your choice, understand your ego.

Flight outside of conservative weather conditions

Flight outside of conservative weather conditions

In early May an advanced rated pilot was flying a C rated glider for the first time in strong wind conditions at the North Side POM.  The pilot reported using the speed bar frequently during the flight presumably to keep the glider from being blown over the back of the upper ridge.  After more than an hour of flying, in which the pilot said he felt comfortable with the conditions, the pilot found himself descending in the compression zone behind the upper ridge unable to penetrate to the front of the ridge.  Use of bar at that point just increased the rate of decent.  Fearing descent into the mechanical rotor behind the ridge the pilot turned south, flew to the south behind and away from the ridge and landed in strong surface winds on a small hill near a housing development.

In this case the pilot seems to have turned directly downwind from the point he determined he could not penetrated the headwind head on.  Another strategy is to first crab to the west.  Crabbing is flying crosswind so you are not trying to penetrate the full strength of the wind.  Moving west in this fashion can also increase your ground clearance because the ground’s elevation is dropping away.  If you still cannot penetrate forward of the ridge you will have more clearance fly over the back nearer or over the South Side.  Don’t try to land at the south side, rather land as far south as you possibly can.  Mechanical turbulence can propagate as far as 10 times as far behind the ridge as the ridge is high.   

From the Book of Risk:

As you fly continually assess the wind strength and cloud development.

Know how to get down quickly.  If you see a weather risk you do not wish to accept fly out away from terrain.  Find the greenest most obstruction free landing area you can and land as far away from even the smallest obstacles as possible. 

From the UHGPGA website safety briefings for the North Side:

1. While benching up at the north side fly to the front occasionally to check penetration.
2. If you are above the back ridge and cannot penetrate forward get as high as possible and fly to the west end.  Fly over the south side and land in the fields well south of the south side.

 

Flying in strong winds always increases pilot risk.  The stronger the wind the higher the risk.  There are strategies to mitigate those risks.  At the North Side, those would include staying well out in front of the back ridge.  All of the wind piling up from the bottom of the ridge to the top must combine to make it over the top.  As a result the winds will always be considerably stronger over the top of the ridge.  The depth of this compression zone changes with wind conditions.  

With stronger wind comes stronger turbulence everywhere those stronger winds exist.  

Always weigh your risks against your rewards.  Is moving slowly, or sitting parked in high winds at the edge of being blown back over the back ridge worth the added risk?

Flight (kiting) in known/knowable turbulence.

Flight (kiting) in known/knowable turbulence.

Mid Spring, a pilot was kiting on the Grass at the North Side LZ in strong, gusty, turbulent conditions. Pilot was kiting in the mid-section of the LZ nearer the sidewalk than the launch area. A strong gust picked up the pilot off the ground pushing him backward toward the parking lot. Pilot struck a parked vehicle in the parking lot, but never stopped flying the wing. He was able to safely bring the wing back down and disable the wing in the middle of the parking lot. No known injuries to the pilot, but damage to the struck vehicle did occur.

From the Book of Risk:

Don’t fly (kite) closer than 500 feet to the ground (thinks you don't want to hit), except at take off and landing, anywhere that turbulence might be present. 

This type of kiting is valuable to improving a pilots handling skills for in the air or on the ground.  The lesson is obviously to do it with a safe margin. 

Flight outside of conservative weather parameters.

Flight outside of conservative weather parameters.

In late winter, a speed wing pilot crash landed on the North Side of the Point of the Mountain.  By his own report the winds were switching at the time of launch and landing.  The pilot forward launched in a Southwest wind running down the road at the top of the back ridge.  The pilot soon encountered significant lift that did not make sense in his mind so he turned to the west to leave the lift.  At this time the lower wind sock was showing wind from the north northeast. Setting up for landing the pilot noticed his ground speed was excessive.  And he planed to skid the fast landing out on his butt.  At 20 feet AGL the pilot felt himself drop suddenly to the ground causing some injury.  

The pilots description of switching light winds combined with thermic winds indicates complicated wind gradients.  When a glider transitions from one air parcel to parcel moving slower or in a significantly different direction the glider’s air speed can be affected.  If the glider’s air speed is lowered it will immediately dive to regain its airspeed.  When this happens close to ground it feels as though you drop to the ground like a rock.   Lesson learned here is that even with light winds, switching conditions close to the ground increases your risk level.

Changing weather conditions increase our risk because it is possible that conditions can switch form safe to unsafe or the transition can be momentarily unsafe.  XC flying by its nature is flying in changing conditions.  When we are high this is less of a problem than when we are low.  Speed flying and ridge soaring cause us to spend a much greater amount of time close to the ground and therefore it is wise to be even more conservative in the weather we choose to fly in.  Just waiting for conditions to stabilize after a change can decrease our risk.

From the Book of Risk:

Begin your day early studying weather forecasts.  Learn to read them and what they mean.  Watch the wind, clouds and birds as you travel to and set up on launch.  As you fly continually assess the wind strength and cloud development.