Published with permission of the pilot.  By Ian Brubaker

The hang gliding accident that occurred on August 16th, 2020 at the Point of The Mountain, North Side had several key decision making factors that ultimately left the pilot in a position where he had no outs and crashed breaking his femur, and breaking both downtubes. The following is an analysis of his flight.

The pilot is a H2 rated pilot and has held his rating for many years. On his most recent trip to The Point, he was getting back into hang gliding not having flown in some time, though he had flown the site years ago. The pilot flew a similarly rated site the previous day, Crafwords Ridge, without issue.

Upon launching, the pilot remained low on the ridge, as it was late day and the lift was becoming light. The pilot set up an approach after making a couple passes along the ridge. He was heading Eastbound along the ridge and turned once he reached the East corner of the lower LZ. He traveled away from the ridge before heading Westbound towards the pond. The pilot continued this path until almost reaching the farthest West end of the LZ, and attempted a left 180 degree turn back towards the hill. During that

turn he was downwind, entering a severe wind gradient, and had little airspeed left due to his lack of altitude at that point in the approach. He completed about 150 degrees of the turn before impacting, stating that he had “no airspeed” despite looking like the glider was diving fast towards the ground.  The pilot also stated that he did not realize how low he was until already in the turn.

There are three main factors that contributed to this accident: Lack of a proper flight plan, lack of currency, and misjudged altitude cause by not looking back at the desired landing zone. These are the factors that lead up to the accident, but the final cause of the accident was a low turn to the ground, combined with lack of airspeed near the ground, exacerbated by a strong wind gradient. 

A flight plan was not formulated before takeoff, as reported by the pilot. Such a plan is imperative in each flight, and planning for different outcomes, alternative flight paths, and emergency procedures are as important as the original flight plan.

The pilot had many opportunities to land in other LZ’s, but was unaware of the risky situation building because he was not looking back on his desired landing target. His focus remained ahead on his downwind leg, causing him to incorrectly judge his altitude for landing. The base turn had a steep bank angle. Then, 90 degrees into the turn, the glider slowed down, likely due to the pilot realizing he was low to the ground. Finally, the glider appears to have stalled in a turn into the ground as confirmed by the pilot reporting he had “no airspeed” all the way to the ground. It should be noted that where the pilot was turning to land, a consistently strong wind gradient exists there, especially in Northeast winds.

While proper planning, pilot decision making, and pilot currency are important takeaways from this

accident, the most critical error was not looking back at the desired target for landing, and insufficient airspeed when approaching the ground. Though sometimes unnerving, it is imperative that pilots constantly look back at their desired landing target to judge their angles of approach and adjust their approach as necessary. Had the pilot looked back at the target, realizing how low he was, he may have initiated the turn sooner and kept more airspeed throughout the base to final turn.  

Below is a visual depiction of the flight path (red), possible alternatives (blue), and alternative LZs (yellow).