Reported near collision above Kagel

Please tell what happened and how it might have been avoided. Names should be ommitted. This forum should help others learn from mistakes that caused or nearly caused a mishap.
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greblo
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Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:22 am

Reported near collision above Kagel

Post by greblo »

The following was sent to me by the pilot of a twin engine aircraft. I've not included his last name as a courtesy. The event happened on Monday, September 27th, and we speculate that the hang glider pilot is question was a visiting Danish pilot. Any further information would be helpful.

It will also be helpful for all club members to understand the serious implications here and to realize that this is not the first reported "near mid-air collision" over Kagel.

Subject: Mid Air Collision Risks
Date: October 1, 2010 10:34:24 AM PDT
To: [email protected]

Gentlemen, I am writing you as your school and operation is near an area where I nearly collided with a hang glider this week. I can’t know if the individual I nearly hit is associated with your operation. The purpose of this is not to cast blame on anyone but is in the hopes that you can pass the word on about the risks of colliding with powered aircraft.

I was flying from Northern California to San Diego this past Monday (10-27-10) around 4 pm. I was on an IFR flight plan at 9,000 feet. The route segment in issue was Victor 459 which is generally a straight line from Lake Hughes VOR to Seal beach VOR (the line runs just east of Whiteman and Burbank). Over the mountains probably north of Whiteman, in turbulent conditions, we suddenly saw a hang glider about 100 feet above us and 100 feet to our right. The glider had a yellow cocoon and an orange wing. We were moving in excess of 190 kts. and had no time to move. It was pure luck that we didn’t collide. A collision would certainly have killed the pilot of the hang glider and would very likely have taken my twin engine aircraft down as well.

The Victor Airway in question (V-459) is a major route into the LA basin from the north and there is a lot of high speed traffic on it. Without debating the issue if a hang glider should be on or near a Victor Airway it is beyond question very dangerous to be operating a slow moving hang glider that has no transponder on or near a Victor Airway. If you can encourage your members and students to be aware of where these powered aircraft routes are and to avoid them at altitudes where powered aircraft are likely to be found you will be helping to save lives.

My Response:
Dear Arthur,

Thank you very much for your email.

I'm disheartened to hear of your conflict with a hang glider this past week and I'm confident your email will aid us in our efforts to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. I'm grateful that you've brought this to my attention, and respectful of your insight into effective ways to solve problems.

With your permission, I'd like to distribute the details to the pilots in our hang gliding club, and to the supervisor of So Cal Approach (in San Diego). I am a private pilot and a volunteer FAA Safety Team representative out of the Van Nuys FSDO. I also work closely with our FAA Safety Team Leader, Karla Borden, at the Van Nuys FSDO in matters of flight safety.

It is clear to us that flying a hang glider in a Victor Airways poses an increased danger to both the hang glider and the powered pilot. For this reason we (flight instructors, local hang gliding clubs and flight park operators) discourage flight in Victor Airways, and many hang glider pilots refuse to fly in them. For those hang glider pilots that choose to transverse a Victor Airway, Federal Aviation Regulations place all burden of right of way upon them. In flight, hang glider pilots are required to "see and avoid all aircraft".

Some of our pilots operate with portable PCAS (a traffic alert system). Nearly all our pilots communicate with each other on amateur band radio and are active in calling out approaching aircraft.

It's worth noting that hang glider pilots have relatively unobstructed vision in all directions (compared to powered craft) and are trained to remain extremely vigilant when flying operating within controlled airspace. This is no guarantee that they always will be, however a great deal of time and energy is devoted to this subject during training and within our local hang gliding community.

The day of your encounter, we had a fairly unusual weather pattern in southern California; one with confidence that hang gliders would be able to get substantially higher than the usual summertime ceiling of 5,000 ft. MSL. This type of weather only occurs a few days a year in this part of the country. As such, on Monday morning I put in a call to the Burbank Tower and asked them to aid us in notifying the commercial and general aircraft community of the possibility of seeing unpowered hang gliders at elevations of up to 13,000 ft. over the mountains, 9-10 miles north of Burbank Airport.

I also placed a request for So Cal Approach to advise VFR and IFR traffic in this vicinity, of the possibility of hang glider traffic, between the surface and 13,500 ft.


There's no reason for you to have received Burbank's ATIS information, but it would be helpful for us to know if you received any advisories from SoCal prior to the incident. I realize, an advisory is just an advisory, and it doesn't relieve the hang glider pilot of his obligation to "see and avoid all aircraft". If you didn't receive an advisory for ATC, then we have an additional problem to explore.

In addition to distributing information on your close call, we will continue to work hard to educate our pilots to operate carefully and responsibly when flying in this area. We will also continue to reach out to the powered flying community to make them aware of our presence. Attached is a very brief power point presentation on the subject, that we would appreciate you sharing with pilots that fly through this area. We welcome any and all efforts to keep our skies as safe as possible.

Please feel free to respond, and thanks again for taking the time to advise us of this concern.


Sincerely,

Joe Greblo
Examiner, CFI,
US Hang Gliding Association,
Sylmar Hang Gliding Association
Safety is a book, not a word
Michael Robertson
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Ken Andrews
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Airspace presentation

Post by Ken Andrews »

The PowerPoint presentation that Joe refers to is available in PDF format here: http://www.shga.com/uploads/Burbank.pdf.
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JD
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Re: Airspace presentation

Post by JD »

Ken Andrews wrote:The PowerPoint presentation that Joe refers to is available in PDF format here: http://www.shga.com/uploads/Burbank.pdf.
Thanks Ken. I wasn't aware of this excellent presentation of our airspace situation.
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OP
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Post by OP »

Joe, that was a well written response.
greblo
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Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:22 am

Post by greblo »

Thanks Orion,
I felt it was important to be short and sweet.
Joe
Safety is a book, not a word
Michael Robertson
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dhmartens
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Re: Reported near collision above Kagel

Post by dhmartens »

greblo wrote:The glider had a yellow cocoon and an orange wing.

You would think those colors would be visible. Perhaps some type of aviation strobe would help on days where high altitude is expected.

paramotor led strip
http://www.xcshop.com/shop/product.php/ ... -led-strip

general aviation led strobes
http://www.kestrel-air.com/html/aircraftlighting.html

Some of these led lights only weigh 3 ounces. Some of the Bike ones can be seen at 3 miles.

I saw several bike tail light at dealextreme.com for under 4$
http://www2.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.8278

I think 90 flashes per minute is the maximun FAA allowed though.

Doug

http://www.soaringsafety.org/prevention ... -2010B.pdf
Transponders in sailplanes
addicted2climbing
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Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2007 9:50 pm

Post by addicted2climbing »

Hello All,

In regards to Visibility, I use to put Holographic Tape on the leading edge of my Competiton R/C Sailplane. Its the same stuff that is on your visa card but without the logo. Anyhow, when flying really far away, as the glider circles every time it faces the sun, it will blink tons of crazy colors and you can see it very well. I use to fly so far away I was flying the blinking most of the time.. Since I have a falcon, I was going to buy some and put it on my keel and Kingpost. However those with mylar sails could put it on their leading edge... Its pretty cheap and it may be a worth while investment..

Here is a link: http://www.identi-tape.com/deco-holo.html#
I use to buy the rainbow sheen... a 3' wide strip on an HG leading edge would light up like a christmas tree...

Best regards,

Marc
JBBenson
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Re: Reported near collision above Kagel

Post by JBBenson »

greblo wrote:The glider had a yellow cocoon and an orange wing.
Definitely someone from Denmark.

;)
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Christian
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Post by Christian »

Pilots flying IFR on airways listen to a steady stream of traffic alerts from ATC, which sees every other plane on radar. When advised of traffic, the pilot must find it visually and tell ATC they see it. This often takes a moment, even when told the altitude and where to look. Meantime the pilot may be studying an approach plate and working the radio and running checklists. He's not scanning the airspace for random dangers because he doesn't expect to see anything.

A hang glider working a thermal is quite obvious from a cockpit. But a hang glider on glide can be just about invisible.

Also consider: if you see a plane coming at you at 200 mph, what is your plan? It is to make him see you by banking sharply. Given the closing speed and the imprecision of evasion assessment, there's very little a hang glider can do to get out of the way.

It's a big sky and the chance of collison, even on an airway, is remote. But it scares the devil out of everybody involved and invites far-reaching new regulation.
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Jim
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Post by Jim »

Glad you asked, Christian. Two aircraft approaching head-on are always supposed to veer right. And for those who wonder why Moyes battens and aircraft lights are green on the right, red on the left, if approaching another craft in the dark and the green is on the right, you are going in the same direction. If the red is on the right, you are closing head-on: turn right immediately. When traffic has encountered us in the air, they always turn right away from us. So, it would make sense for a glider to turn or fly to the right of an oncoming aircraft.

This is also a good convention for HG vs HG unless one is closer to mountain. Best is to keep your eyes up and your head on a swivel and avoid close passes.
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