http://www.ushpa.org/legacy/safety/Fatality%20Report%202016%20Jan-Sep.pdf
2016/05/21 - Jeffery Bohl
Jeffery Bohl (56), an Advanced (H4) pilot and USHPA member since 2012, suffered fatal injuries during a flight in Groveland, FL. The pilot executed an aerotow launch in 8-10 MPH winds crossing slightly from the right of the runway. After correcting a right yaw and bank of the glider as it came off of the launch cart, the pilot's glider went into an increasingly left banked, nose up attitude without any observed pilot corrections. At approximately a 45 nose up attitude and at 50 feet AGL, the pilot's weak link broke and the glider pitched an additional 30 or more degrees nose up. From this attitude at approximately 80 feet AGL, the glider yawed/slipped left and impacted the ground at a near vertical attitude resulting in fatal injuries.
Jeffery Bohl (56), an Advanced (H4) pilot and USHPA member since 2012...
- Not worth mentioning that he worked as a United Airlines pilot for his day job?
- Really? From the fatality report it sounds like he was totally clueless. What experience and Special Skills did he have and who signed him off on his ratings?
...suffered fatal injuries during a flight...
Suffered fatal injuries DURING a flight. What are the odds? Bet he crashed after suffering those fatal injuries. Gives the public the impression that he suffered the fatal injuries when he crashed and unfairly portrays the sport as being a lot more dangerous than it actually is.
...in Groveland, FL.
Really? Does anyone know where Groveland is? What was he doing down there? Doesn't sound like a place with any mountains from which to fly.
The pilot executed an aerotow launch...
Oh! He was AEROTOWING! NOW I'm starting to get the picture! Ya know most hang gliders have not been designed to be motorized, tethered, or towed. And towing's really dangerous 'cause there's such an enormous degree of complexity involved that nobody really understands the physics of hang gliders under tow so we have to seek out the best opinions from the most keenly intellectual tug pilots and process them to the best of our muppet abilities.
So anyway, what glider was he flying and how was he hooked up to the towline?
...in 8-10 MPH winds crossing slightly from the right of the runway.
The regular runway or an improvised "runway" running the width of the ACTUAL runway?
After correcting a right yaw and bank of the glider...
- Of the glider? Not of the minivan?
- How many hands was he using to correct the right yaw and bank of the glider and where were they placed while he was effecting the correction?
...as it came off of the launch cart...
How come he didn't foot launch? Wouldn't that have been a lot safer?
...the pilot's glider...
Not to be confused with the accountant's glider.
...went into an increasingly left banked, nose up attitude without any observed pilot corrections.
- He WAS observed with the bar stuffed and his body torqued as far and hard as physically possible under the right wing but since the tug had just made a hard turn to the right and the glider was locked out - meaning it was physically impossible for the pilot to do anything more effective than retard the progression of the lockout - we can HONESTLY (
) say that no pilot CORRECTIONS were made. Like when a rock climber falls off a cliff we can report that he did absolutely nothing to adequately slow his descent.
- How 'bout his tow bridle? Wasn't the upper attachment doing anything to counter the nose up attitude? No, wait. Under the rules of Davis's
Risk Mitigation Plan for the Quest Air Open two point bridles were determined to be inappropriate / too risky - like the Tad-O-Link he was using used to be.
At approximately a 45 nose up attitude...
Yeah? What's the normal nose up attitude for an aerotow?
...and at 50 feet AGL, the pilot's weak link broke...
- ...and instantly increased the safety of the towing operation - at the cost of a bit of inconvenience. Instant hands free release, nail that flare timing, back to the head of the launch line.
- What WAS the "PILOT'S" weak link? And what was it supposed to do for him? In sailplaning it's the GLIDER'S weak link and it's supposed to...
Tost Flugzeuggerätebau
Weak links protect your aircraft against overloading.
...protect it from overloading.
...and the glider pitched an additional 30 or more degrees nose up.
- 'Cause the pilot shoved the bar out an extra two feet so's he could get enough altitude to set up a safe approach to the old Frisbee next to the launch line.
- Bullshit.
From this attitude at approximately 80 feet AGL, the glider yawed/slipped left and impacted the ground at a near vertical attitude resulting in fatal injuries.
Fatally injured TWICE - once during the flight and again at its conclusion. Just wasn't his day. So was the Groveland Hang Gliding Association able to get the task off for the last day of its little fly-in after that?
Just like Ryan Instant-Hands-Free-Release Voight tells us. Motherfucker just decided to quit flying the glider. Suffers fatal injuries a couple times. Big surprise. This sport ain't for everybody, ya know.
The more time these pigfuckers have to "investigate" these "accidents" and prepare reports the more pure unadulterated sewage you're gonna get. You gotta read this one real carefully to know that there was a tug of some kind on the other end of the string and there was absolutely nothing that it did or didn't do relative to the glider's flight that was worthy of any mention whatsoever.
If you look at the pattern of the fatality reports published over the history of the sport it becomes obvious that the aforementioned pigfuckers have been constantly pushing the shit content percentage envelope. They see what they can get away with and adjust accordingly next time. If you wanna get the best information possible on any given incident don't look at what Davis/u$hPa publish several months down the road. Look at the stuff that others post before the dust settles that Davis/u$hPa immediately delete.
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9418.html#p9418
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16439
Some day we will learn
Steve Morris - 2010/03/31 23:58:54 UTC
In 2009 there were several serious hang gliding accidents involving pilots on the HG forum (or who had close friends on the forum that reported that these accidents had occurred). In each case there was an immediate outcry from forum members not to discuss these accidents, usually referring to the feelings of the pilots' families as a reason to not do so. In each case it was claimed that the facts would eventually come out and a detailed report would be presented and waiting for this to happen would result in a better informed pilot population and reduce the amount of possibly harmful speculation.
In each of these cases I have never seen a final detailed accident report presented in this forum. So far as I can tell, the accident reporting system that has been assumed to exist here doesn't exist at all, the only reports I've seen are those published in the USHPA magazine. They are so stripped down, devoid of contextual information and important facts that in many cases I have not been able to match the magazine accident report with those mentioned in this forum.
The end result has been that effective accident reporting is no longer taking place in the USHPA magazine or in this forum. Am I the only one who feels this way?
And that was the better part of seven years ago.