Mishap at Big Sur 2012
Oh good - an official Safety Director. I can't begin to tell you how much I admire you guys and appreciate all the solid work you do. Just imagine how...Steve Murillo - 2012/12/16 19:55:59 UTC
Manhattan Beach
My apologies for posting this late entry. I did not feel it would be appropriate for me to post this until I was officially the Safety Director for the SHGA.
...screwed up our sport would be without it.Zack C - 2012/06/02 02:20:45 UTC
I just cannot fathom how our sport can be so screwed up.
Sorry, Steve. I feel it was massively INappropriate for you to sit on this report for roughly two months. That's roughly two months in which people are less informed and more likely to repeat the some potentially lethal mistake.For the record, the pilot involved submitted this to me roughly two months ago.
So how come he reports that it happened two days prior?Here is a summary of a flight incident which occurred at Wild Cattle launch, Big Sur, CA on September 30th, 2012.
Who, one notes, was quite capable of publicizing the incident himself in a much more timely manner.From the PILOT:
It wasn't a structural failure. It was a failure to properly assemble and preflight the structure.Here are the facts and my opinions surrounding my structural failure at Big Sur.
At a time of your convenience.Please use the information any way you feel will be helpful to the hang gliding community at large.
Studies?I look forward to the results of your studies.
Yeah. DO send a copy to USHGA. The dedication that organization has to the safety of its pilots is truly remarkable and...I hope you will forward a copy of your accident investigation to the USHPA and to the SHGA for the benefit of other pilots.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25321
Stop the Stupids at the USHPA BOD meeting
...never ceases to amaze me.Mark G. Forbes - 2011/09/29 02:26:23 UTC
We can establish rules which we think will improve pilot safety, but our attorney is right. USHPA is not in the business of keeping pilots "safe" and it can't be. Stepping into that morass is a recipe for extinction of our association.
Yeah, I got another take I'll get to in a bit.In my mind, there's no mystery as to why this happened. Simple carelessness was almost certainly the cause, but if anyone concludes otherwise, I'd like to hear the reasoning.
Me too. Totally irrelevant.The following is generally true for me and is very true for that day.
1. I often choose to accept a lot of distractions (questions from other pilots, assistance to anyone who needs it.)
Me too. Totally irrelevant.2. I often choose to accept a lot of responsibilities in addition to my own flying responsibilities (guidance, instruction, public relations, etc).
Totally irrelevant.3. I don't often fly the same glider twice in a row.
There's a Falcon 4 out now.I fly many different style gliders, including all three models Falcon.
Of all Falcon models the preflight procedures in the owner's manuals are the same. And you ALWAYS skip the most important/critical of the lot.Of all Falcon models, this specific failure is only possible on the Falcon 3 model.
Bullshit. The mental acuity issues pertinent to this incident date back to fifth grade.4. I'm getting older and perhaps losing some of my mental acuity.
Totally irrelevant.5. I'm a very experienced pilot that is likely guilty of complacency during set up and preflight procedures.
You have absolutely no business running trips and training students - and the asshole who signed you off should be stood up in front of a wall.The date was Sunday, September 28th in the early afternoon at the launch Wild Cattle launch site a few miles north of the Plaskett Creek Campground. Conditions had been blowing down in the morning but it had turned around and a couple of pilots had already launched into smooth, mostly un-soarable conditions.
I set up my glider (a Falcon 3 195) while monitoring my other responsibilities of running the trip and the student training.
So where's the video? Afraid it won't make good advertising for your trip running and student training enterprises?My harness was a knee hanger style with a 22 Free Flight 22 gore PDA reserve and a half shell helmet. I also put a video camera on the wing for this flight (unusual for me).
- It's also very easy to miss by simple observation.Although I was not in a particular hurry, and I performed what for me is a normal pre-flight, it is clear that I failed to insert the base tube corner bolt through both the lower downtube bracket and the base tube, completely missing the hole in the base tube. This problem is simple to prevent simply by a quick visual inspection that the base tube is inserted all the way to the edge of the lower downtube bracket, before inserting the bolt. It is also very easy to inspect during the pre-flight, by the same simple observation.
- It's IMPOSSIBLE to miss if you do the most critical of all of the preflight checks listed in your owner's manual - but you ALWAYS skip that one.
What's your hook-in check and how much time elapsed between it and launch? Just kidding.The launch conditions were very gentle with light winds of around 3 of 4 mph.
After performing a hang check and hook in check, I proceeded to launch the glider, only to find the wings folding upwards a moment before I became airborne.
Why use the numeral for three and the word for four and misspell it?At the next moment, the slope of the hill steepened, the ground dropped away and I found myself several feet in the air with each down tube being pulled laterally out of my grip. At this point the glider has a massive amount of dihedral, substantially increasing the sink rate and glide ratio of the glider, and bringing it back down to the slope of the hill. Within 3 or for seconds...
Talk to Pete Lehmann about that. He failed to install the bolt in one of his HPAT control frame corners and probably survived because his parachute was still in the container and protected his chest after he crashed through the trees. High enough to get killed, too low for deployment....from the moment of lift off, I settled back to the ground and was sliding smoothly down the slope, very fortunately without a scratch or a bruise.
It has been suggested by some, and I tend to agree, that the glider may have failed sooner, rather than later, due to the fact that I chose not to perform a smoothly accelerating launch run, but rather a jerky, hopping, launch. Had I chose to perform a more conventional launch run, the glider may have remained structurally intact longer, placing me much higher and much further away from the ground at the moment of the structural failure. I would argue that any significant increase of altitude beyond that attained during this accident, would have seriously increased the danger to the pilot (me), and likely require the successful deployment of the reserve system to avoid death or serious injury.
The WHAT?Conclusion:
I believe that the accident...
No. The INCIDENT was caused by your failure to properly assemble and preflight the glider - which is forgivable - and your gross negligence in NEVER performing a proper, effective preflight on every glider you fly - with isn't....was caused solely by my failure to perform a proper, effective pre-flight.
- 1 through 5 are garbage.The reasons for my failure to perform an adequate preflight may be any one or more of the statements numbered 1 through 5 above.
- You didn't even mention the one thing that mattered.
- If diminished mental acuity WAS an issue then how good an idea is it for you to continue to run trips and train students?
I don't have any questions but... HOW?Please call me if you have any questions.
Respectfully, PASSENGERRespectfully, PILOT
Yes, that helps a great deal. From now on, in addition to being ready to abort if the glider rises above the point at which it would stop if I were hooked in, I'll add hopping my launches to give me a good shot at shaking apart an incompletely assembled control frame. That way I can continue skipping my preflight sidewire load tests in addition to my hook-in checks.WITNESS1:
Hi Steve, many of the pilots were around the glider when PILOT launched as he was waiting for it to clear a bit so he sat there awhile. When he moved into position someone was asking about how many steps they should take for the launch run. He started hopping on one foot laughing about how many feet it took. I think he made it about three hops, the glider was just getting into the air when the downtube broke away from the base tube.
PILOT tried to grab for it but the wings folded very fast and he went down. I think he fell about eight to ten feet, maybe a bit higher because of the slope.
Others were closer to the edge than I who may have had a better view of what happened after the wings folded.
Hope that helps!
Try reading through your fuckin' owner's manual sometime when you've got nothing better to do.WITNESS2:
I read through PILOT's accident report and I feel like he covered everything.
I like the way this is going!One way that I may have contributed to his glider falling apart sooner was that I gave PILOT a piece of advice just before launch and he humored me by doing the opposite of what I suggested. I advised him to launch very smoothly so his camera mount wouldn't shake or hit the ground. Had he done what I said his control bar may have jiggled apart later in the flight.
You made a suggestion which resulted in him taking the opposite action which resulted in the glider falling apart early enough to prevent him from getting mangled or killed.
Try these next time.
- Before he clips in and moves to launch tell him not to put his foot on the middle of a sidewire and push up on the leading edge 75 pounds worth.
- When he's standing at launch position tell him to leave the glider resting on his shoulders and not lift it up as high is it will go.
Here's a thought... What are the three points of the glider assembly it's most critical to look at when anybody's on launch.I was on PILOT's wires before he launched and watched in horror as the wing fell apart. It looked a lot scarier than what PILOT experienced since he only felt to be a few feet from the ground the entire time. To everyone watching from launch it appeared that he was falling vertically nearly a hundred feet to the ground. I'm not sure what else to add. It happened so quickly.
How? It only helps if it prompts people to change their behavior.I hope this helps.
Just like the one that resulted in Chad Elchin's Dragonfly falling apart at eight hundred feet.FINDINGS:
The cause of structural failure was an incorrect assembly at the downtube/control bar juncture of the Falcon 3 glider. The control bar was only PARTIALLY inserted into the downtube bracket. Therefore, when the pilot pushed in the keeper bolt, it was not inserted into the control bar, and a false assembly was accomplished.
Which is one of the reasons that there's a preflight procedure that covers that issue in the owner's manual that none of you assholes ever bothers to read.To an untrained or less than critical eye, this false assembly can appear to be correct, and this presents a critical danger to the assembly of the Falcon 3 model glider.
Yeah. I made that same mistake ONCE. After that I got a lot smarter and - if nothing else - ALWAYS made a point of checking those pins during preflight and at any time beyond that when I had the slightest doubt. And that's something ANYONE can check with a couple of tenth of a second glances at launch position.During my investigation into this incident, other pilots revealed that they had made the same mistake in the past.
(I wonder if we're related.)In one instance a pilot stated that he had missed the bracket on BOTH SIDES of the control bar.
Mine fell apart carrying to and several yards short of launch.The glider simply came apart in his hands as he was standing on launch.
NOTHING in this sport happens by ACCIDENT.This incorrect assembly did not happen by accident...
So far, so good....but rather by omission.
He didn't do the fuckin' preflight. He NEVER does the fuckin' preflight.The PILOT clearly states that he found himself in an environment where his attention was being pulled in many different directions at once, both during assembly and afterwards during his pre-flight.
NONE OF WHICH included reading the fucking manual and following the fucking preflight procedures 'cause you haven't and won't even mention that in this bullshit report of yours.RECOMMENDATIONS:
This incident resulted in several posts on the club Forum, discussing possible remedies to this potentially fatal FALSE ASSEMBLY of the Falcon 3 downtube/control bar juncture.
What do you mean - "VENDOR"?This investigation is being forwarded to the vendor for further consideration.
- Do you mean the asshole Wills Wing dealer who was negligent in selling the glider to this asshole without making sure that he knew what the fuck he was doing with this toy?
- Or do you mean Wills Wing itself which apparently doesn't give a rat's ass if its asshole dealers do their fucking jobs?
Did anyone recommend reading the fucking manual and following the fucking procedures? Just kidding.One recommendation on the forum was to wrap a ring of red electrical tape around the control bar marking the correct position of the base tube/downtube juncture, making it easier to spot when the assembly is incorrect. Another was to etch the control bar, marking the correct location.
The problem is that you don't have a ghost of goddam clue what a thorough - or even a half assed - preflight IS.The more important and obvious recommendation is to perform a thorough pre-flight EACH AND EVERY TIME you fly, no matter how many hours of flying you have under your belt.
And always make sure you skip the most effective procedure you have to detect a problem like this.If distractions arise that require you to walk away from your gilder during pre-flight, start from the very beginning when you come back.
It takes about five seconds to load a sidewire. And one is all you need to detect this issue. (Actually, although I always do both sides, I could never see the point in doing more than one.)Are two extra minutes worth your life? Absolutely!
Moron.END OF REPORT
Ya think, Jonathan?NMERider - 2012/12/17 02:41:40 UTC
Read the well-documented Wills Wing Falcon:
http://www.willswing.com/pdf/manuals/Falcon%203%20OM%20November%202009.pdf
Page 16:This would have probably revealed the issue prior to launch.While pushing up on the leading edge between the nose and the crossbar junction, step on the bottom side wire with about 75 lbs. of force. This is a rough field test of the structural security of the side wire loop, the control bar, the kingpost, and the crossbar, and will likely reveal a major structural defect that could cause an in-flight failure in normal operation.
Yeah Doug, get a folding basetube. That way you can continue to ignore what's in the owner's manual and what Jonathan just said and continue to skip the sidewire load test.Doug Martens - 2012/12/17 07:07:38 UTC
Reseda
http://www.willswing.com/features/controlBars.aspWills Wing offers a wide range of control bar configurations, each designed to provide the optimum balance of performance, economy and ease of use appropriate for a given glider model and its intended use.
AT Streamlined Downtubes With Folding Basetube (No Longer Used on Production Models)
The Wills Wing AT streamlined downtubes offer enhanced performance over conventional round downtubes in an economical streamlined profile. The folding speedbar basetube option shown speeds set-up and breakdown by eliminating the installation or removal of any nuts or safeties during the process. A more economical, non-folding speedbar is also available.
Yeah. And if the basetube is impossible to pop apart it's a no brainer that there's nothing wrong with your sidewires so everybody just carry on as before.I think a cable runs through it which might make it nearly impossible to pop apart.
Hey Steve...
It was the middle of last month that Jonathan suggested you useless douchebags should read the fuckin' manual and adhere to what it says. Did you wanna even acknowledge what he was saying? Or do you Sylmar assholes operate the same way USHGA does? If there's a solid procedure to address a lethal issue pretend it doesn't exist and pointedly ignore anyone who mentions it lest issues of negligence and liability arise?
