Broken arm Saturday for discussion

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: Broken arm Saturday for discussion

Post by Tad Eareckson »

I'm trying to get him to take offense.

Getting people to take offense is the only thing I've ever been really good at. If I can't even do that anymore I don't have much hope of accomplishing anything else.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: Broken arm Saturday for discussion

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post11959.html#p11959

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe3YmdIQTM


Been resisting doing a stills project on this one since Larry posted it here eight years, four months, and a day ago. Handheld camera from next to launch, low resolution, the glider fills very little of the screen during the really exciting parts but it's a really important career ending flight, we can see everything we need to, great smoking gun material.

Incident - 2012/02/18; Harrison H. Schmitt Big Sky Hang Glider Park, Sandia LZ, 35°10'55.69" N 106°31'08.78" W; stationary winch, turnaround pulley; foot launch

The players...

- Bryan Bowker - victim, veterinary surgeon; two rated almost certainly, Surface Tow signoff; Wills Wing Falcon 3 170 glider with substantial wheels; Wills Wing Z5 pod harness; easily reachable one point three-string shoulder mounted bridle/release assembly; 130 pound Greenspot weak link at the end of the towline very probably doubled

- Mark Knight - perpetrator, relevant instructor. Will be dead after Dragonfly tug falls apart at Phoenix 2014/02/24 - two years and six days after the conclusion of his victim's hang gliding career.

- Mel Glantz - winch owner, operations director, partial Hewett disciple

- Unidentified - driver/copilot

- Larry West - failed voice of reason; observer; sole incident reporter

01-0128
- 01 - chronological order
- 01 - seconds
- 28 - frame (30 fps)

Note windsock behind/above front/upwind end of tow rig - straight in, light.

01-0128
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02-0216
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03-0306
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04-0314
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Hook-in check.

05-0318
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Airborne, prone, hands on the control tubes at shoulder or ear height where he can't control the glider. Will remain so positioned to and through impact.

06-0325
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Soccer goal and kids in background.

07-0407
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08-0421
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Hands have been shifted down maybe ten inches.

09-0501
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Keep those hands up on the control tubes so that you'll be able to land safely in the unlikely event that the focal point of your safe towing system suddenly increases the safety of the towing operation. Be Prepared. Can't go wrong with that motto.

10-0510
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Final frame on tow. Things about to go much safer with the huge margin always afforded by free flight mode.

11-0513
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12-0514
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13-0517
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Yeah, start rotating upright. Because we can run faster on our feet than on our ears. (To quote Greg DeWolf.) (And also to quote George Stebbins quoting Greg DeWolf.)

14-0520
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15-0526
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You're pulled in as far as possible with your hands in safe landing position. Keep up the great work. (And kudos to all your instructors, mentors, role models.)

16-0605
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17-0617
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18-0627
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Nice altitude gain - considering you popped off tow 1.8 seconds ago.

19-0707
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Now would be a really excellent time to rotate to prone and stuff the bar as much as your arms and extended fingers would allow.

20-0717
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But what do I know. I haven't flown a glider in the better part of a dozen years.

21-0727
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22-0807
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23-0817
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I can't watch any more.

24-0827
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25-0907
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26-0914
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Impact.

27-0919
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I'm doing these frame by frame 'cause it's within this 0.3 second (27-0919 - 35-0927) interval that we have taking place the transfer of energy that's gonna demolish this guy's right arm, end his hang gliding career, interrupt his professional career, irrevocably alter his life for the worse. And even at this point if both his hands hadn't been trapped on the control tubes in safe landing position...

28-0920
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29-0921
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30-0922
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31-0923
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32-0924
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33-0925
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34-0926
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35-0927
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Aftermath...

36-1010
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37-1113
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38-1226
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: Broken arm Saturday for discussion

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Something MAJOR that I just caught and that we've all missed before...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe3YmdIQTM


The camera's back at launch...

01-0128
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...to the right of the winch. We can hear the engine just fine from that fixed position. Launch is being initiated here:

02-0216
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We start a premature and steep climb here:

08-0421
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09-0501
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about two and a half seconds into launch.

AND WE CAN HEAR THE DRIVER IMMEDIATELY EASE OFF ON THE GAS.
Wills Wing / Blue Sky / Steve Wendt / Ryan Voight Productions - 2007/03

NEVER CUT THE POWER...

Image

Reduce Gradually
Increase Gradually
Close your eyes and just listen to it - power up for launch, power dialed back when Bryan goes early Day One scooter training on us, retrieval chute pops.

EVERYTHING WOULD'VE BEEN FINE. He'd have been eased back down onto his wheels, briefed, hooked up for another go. But...
Larry West - 2012/02/20 14:49:54 UTC

...and he got mad (he was already stressing) and said "Larry, we just flew and those guys said I was flying like a Hang 3.", at which point I just walked away and waited for something bad to happen......which it did 5 minutes later.
And...


Steven Pearson - 2015/01/16 20:08 UTC
Copyright 2007 by Sport Kites, Inc.
doing business as
Wills Wing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Steve Wendt

But with the towline we use a standard weak link like we would for aerotow.... and that in this particular case it's 130... Uh... This... In this particular case it's 130 greenline, 130 pound test.
How can pilot competence ever hope to compete with the Infallible decision making performance of a loop or two of Cortland 130 lb Greenspot braided Dacron Tolling line?

We all heard this - but it was exactly what we should've heard and expecting to hear and didn't grasp its significance. What we all FOCUSED...

Image

...on was the hands way up on the control tubes and the premature high pitched climb.

Do correct me if I'm wrong though.

P.S. The video's title frame 04:18 - three before my 08-0421 selection. We all have a good feel with respect to what to start looking at.

P.P.S. If this nicely reported and video documented incident doesn't show us how far south of totally useless u$hPa's Pilot Proficiency Program is then I don't know what will.
---
P.P.P.S. - 2020/06/28 21:15:00 UTC
...we can see everything we need to...
We can see - AND HEAR - everything we need to. And u$hPa really hates stuff like this.
Steve Davy
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Re: Broken arm Saturday for discussion

Post by Steve Davy »

Watched and listened to the video at half speed a few times. I don't see or hear anything "that we've all missed before".

What I see is the weak link breaking and then hear the engine's sound reduced.
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Tad Eareckson
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Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: Broken arm Saturday for discussion

Post by Tad Eareckson »

With a gun to my head I'd swear the RPMs, pitch, volume all start dropping the instant Bryan starts climbing out of skim mode. And I think that would be instinctive anyway for anybody with any feel for what he's doing who's driven a winch a few more times than Jean Lake Driver had launched a platform. But other takes are more than welcome.

Also...

There's undoubtedly a way to do this properly digitally that I have yet to figure out. But failing that...

Let's get ourselves some guinea pigs. Don't tell them (individually) what's going on, black out your screen, run the tape from 03:00 to 09:00. They're gonna recognize engine noise, ask them what they hear. I'm hoping they'll say fast, slowing, pop, continues slowing. But let's record the first impression. Maybe run it a couple times before asking for the impression.

Then they're probably gonna be interested in what was going on and we can do show-and-tell.

I'm sure we're all a lot more isolated than we were back in the old universe several months back but I'll be at a small get-together on the Fourth and...
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