Blue Sky
Davis Straub - 2005/06/21
There was an aerotow accident here a few weeks ago, that hurt an experienced female pilot. I hope to publish the facts about that accident as soon as I have the accident report (which was written up by Steve and immediately sent to the USHGA). Steve has provided me with all the details and there is a lot that can be learned from the eight second accident, and I'm looking to spread those lessons fare and wide. Steve is not shy in the least talking about it. He wants to help instruct everyone.
There's no such thing as an accident - AT or any other flavor in this sport.There was an aerotow accident...
Bit of an understatement, dontchya think?...here a few weeks ago, that hurt...
Her name's Holly Korzilius. It's out on the Capitol club rag. (Good thing she wasn't an INexperienced female pilot. One can only imagine the devastation that would likely have resulted.)...an experienced female pilot.
But, failing that, I might settle for a load of ass covering total bullshit. We don't always get to do what we hope to do. In this particular instance we need to carefully scrutinize each actual fact from a dozen different angles to make sure that it only reflects poorly on the experienced female pilot - the pilot at the back end of the line to be precise.I hope to publish the facts...
An "accident". Yeah, thanks. We got it the first time....about that accident...
32 words so far - and three of them are "accident". How many more repetitions do we need to confirm beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt that it WASN'T?...as soon as I have the accident...
- John Woiwode got mostly killed 2005/07/07, under six weeks after Holly, on a fundamentally incompetent non commercial platform exercise in southwest Wyoming. The report, however, was detailed, thorough, extensive, exhaustive, literate, consistent, accurate, honest. All three individuals involved in the operation were identified by name, qualifications, experience. And even though the participants were and remained clueless about the core issue it revealed exactly what happened and why. It's probably the best incident report ever published in the history of the sport....report (which was written up by Steve and immediately sent to the USHGA).
It was published 2005/09/18 - a bit under two and a half months after impact. So what's the big fuckin' rush to get this Flight Park Mafia total crap into print?
P.S. If anything on the John Woiwode ever made it into u$hPa's shit rag of a magazine I can't find a trace.
- Good thing Steve sent it to u$hPa so immediately. The more immediately it's sent the more we can be sure of its accuracy, thoroughness, honesty. The incident won't be reported in the magazine until 2006/09 - sixteen months after impact. If he'd worked on it another couple weeks it might not have been published until 2006/10. And just think about all the extra people who would've died due to the delay of getting this information so properly spread fare and wide.
Obviously if it's a legitimate report on a legitimate safety issue that needs to be addressed you want it published a week ago. Sixteen months and you're looking at...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25656
The young girl who died hang gliding solo
...pure unadulterated cover-up.Jim Rooney - 2012/03/06 18:34:14 UTC
ND's onto it.
No one ever wants to wait for the accident investigation... they want to know "NOW DAMNIT!" and there's always a lot of self-serving arguments surrounding it.
And it's always the same.
The same damn arguments get drug up every time. And they're all just as pointless every time.
We have a system in place.
It works.
Let it work.
Our procedures are well established at this point in time and there are no gaping hidden holes that need to be addressed immediately.
RR asked what the status was.
ND's provided the answer (thank you).
Please take a deep breath. And wait.
Accident investigations involving fatalities take a long time. And by long, I mean they can take years.
(yes, years, I'm not kidding)
The sky is not falling.
Examples of legitimate safety issues that need addressing last week are virtually nonexistent in the sport 'cause we don't have much in the way of critical moving parts. And about the only time we DID have a relevant issue - that for towing the lower connection was to the control bar rather than to the pilot - Donnell Hewett attempted to address it with about the only thing he ever got somewhat right and u$hPa's response was to silence him for a bit over two years.
...a totally unbiased and disinterested source...Steve...
- From where did he get them? I was under the impression that he'd shipped them all off to u$hPa a half hour after impact....has provided me with all the details...
- How the fuck would you know whether or not he provided you with ALL the details? We don't even have consistent accounts of what was going on with the front end. This statement is an obvious LIE. This shows us in no uncertain terms that we're looking at a cover-up conspiracy.
- Isn't there always. Hard to recall a crash from the recorded history of hang gliding in which there wasn't a lot to be learned. The problem is that, with extremely rare exceptions, the human brain doesn't have the capacity to retain and properly process all this information. If we learn something from this one we'll have to toss something learned from a previous one to make the necessary space....and there is a lot that can be learned...
- If there isn't a lot that can be learned from an incident that starts pointing to the negligence and incompetence of instructors, tow operations, drivers, assistants and shoddiness of Industry Standard equipment.
Good thing it wasn't sixteen seconds....from the eight second...
Oh, it was an accident? What's the point then? Accidents are just inevitable shit happens events. There's nothing you can really do about them. This one was at the best run training and towing - scooter, truck, AT - operation on the planet. u$hPa's most recent Instructor of the Year watching the train wreck from start to finish... As far as I can tell there was absolutely nothing that could've prevented this one. Like the Titanic, Challenger launch, Jim Rooney tandem thrill ride unhooked launch, Zack Marzec inconvenience tumble fatality......accident...
But if you spread them fare and wide won't their effect be pretty thin, diluted? Wouldn't it be better to concentrate them somewhere? I'm thinking that if the right attorney got properly tuned in and Blue Sky and Steve were sued out of existence we might have a better shot at getting things cleaned up at the national level....and I'm looking to spread those lessons fare and wide.
I guess we'll have to take your word for it. (Funny the way his name was never once mentioned in anything pertaining to this one in any u$hPa publication. Maybe he was just a little bit shy talking about it. Probably 'cause he was too modest to credit himself regarding the running of this five star operation.)Steve is not shy in the least talking about it.
So WE TOO may aspire to hypoxic levels attained by Holly Korzilius and Bill Priday! Does he want to help anyone who doesn't wanna travel from LA to Manquin and pony up a hundred and fifty bucks for an introductory scooter tow lesson? If you go to his website, http://www.blueskyhg.com/, there's absolutely nothing in the way of instruction that takes you beyond lowish Two level - and precious little beyond One.He wants to help instruct everyone.
The only possible asterisk is:
http://vimeo.com/116997302
which was a Wills Wing product geared towards instructors for getting mostly intros efficiently and reasonably safely off the ground and up to low Two level. Zilch on Holly level pro toad crap.
If you REALLY wanna help instruct EVERYONE you have to start by tearing down all the lunatic murderous crap infesting the sport at a dominant global level. Name an entity other than this one that does that.
OK Davis, Steve... It's been over a decade and a half since all this valuable information from which so much could be learned started going out. Name one thing one individual is now doing differently - and hopefully better - as a result of this incident and the reporting on it.
We get in a time machine, stop Holly, run her the short clinic she needed to understand how to fly pro toad safely. Her tow is a non event. Everybody has a nice flying weekend at Blue Sky. Holly and Scott continue their careers to the average dropout point. Do Quest pro toads Zack Marzec and Jeff Bohl get any more killed. Does John Claytor get his neck any more bent?
Compare/Contrast with what happened with Pete Lehmann getting his knee sanded down to the bone at Zapata and Zack Marzec getting fatally inconvenienced at Quest not long thereafter.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec
William Olive - 2013/02/27 20:55:06 UTC
Like the rest of us, you have no idea what really happened on that tow.
We probably never will know.
There was absolutely nothing to be learned or even speculate about yet virtually overnight and minus any clearly defined policy change many of us suddenly became happy with a slightly stronger weak link.Jim Rooney - 2013/02/28 01:17:55 UTC
Well said Billo
I'm a bit sick of all the armchair experts telling me how my friend died.
Ah but hg'ers get so uppity when you tell them not to speculate.
So it would seem that the less likely it is that everyone will be able to learn from a given incident the more likely it is that everyone will learn something from the given incident. Also the more quickly everyone will learn it.
What they're gonna forget at the speed of light is the individuals who'd been sreaming their lungs out about this shit for the previous couple decades.
Yeah, I don't even read all of those long winded "explanations". 
God, I hope I'm wrong...
