Accident and Incident Archive 1998-2004

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Historical SHGA reports are preserved for their continuing educational value. Names have been ommitted according to current club reporting policy.

Blown Launch

Kagel 5-1-2004 5:45-6:00 pm.
Novice/H2 pilot on his 17th or 18th solo flight, supervised.
Joe Greblo in LZ observing with a telescope & Kevin Coltrane on launch, both instructors with radios. Pilot had a radio strapped to his basetube so he could hear them. Site: kagel mountain, dirt ramp launch, no obstacles…. Wind conditions at 5:00-5:15 were 11-14 mph average with some gusts to 15-16, lulls to less than 10, and occasional gusts to 20.
...By the time the accident pilot was ready to launch [a] mellowing trend had continued, no winds higher than 15 and very little gust factor. His...launch held good course & speed for several seconds away from hill.
Out from launch the glider rose rather smoothly back up to about level with launch. The glider was observed to turn 90 degrees to the right. Side view of the pilot showed at least the right hand and probably both on the downtubes, with almost full arm extension, AoA very high, and head turned slightly left. The glider was aimed at the top of the ridge to the right of launch, moving slowly. At this point both instructors were on the radio asking the pilot to pull in.
There was a stall break, the glider rolled right and dove, recovered from stall and rolled back mostly level as it did so, but now pointed back at the hill with a tailwind & high ground speed. On prompting from the instructor on the hill, the pilot pushed out at close enough to the right moment to slow the glider as much as possible and approach the ground at a shallower angle. The glider had a slight yaw to the right and perhaps a slight roll to the left when it hit the ground, left wheel first, whacked generally on the left leading edge. Left downtube bent at the midpoint, apparently absorbing a good chunk of the impact energy in doing so…. The pilot was completely unhurt….
Talking with the pilot afterwards: he did not realize why he was unable to turn back away from the hill. he did remember hearing the instructors telling him to pull in before the stall break, and after the stall recovery he heard the instructions to flare as he approached the hill. the pilot did not recognize the stall. he may have panicked slightly or target fixated after the 1st 90 turn had him aimed at the steep ridge.
Several "luck" factors contributed to helping him avoid injury: the stall recovery resulted in the glider being aimed at perhaps the most benign impact point on the hill: shallow uphill slope, no obstacles, wind shadow/gradient.... [Pilot] heard, processed, and acted upon the radioed instructions to flare at about the right moment (or maybe it was just a lucky instinct reaction).
Hypothesis: the pilot attemted to change a hand position from downtubes to basetube while he still had positive bar pressure, and when he let go with one hand the glider turned to the right. The mean bar position (pitch) snuck out a few inches at the same time. The pilot did not recognize the different bar position even after getting his hand back onto the control frame. He tried to turn back to the left by shifting his weight over, but forgot to control pitch (pull back in) while doing so and the glider stalled.
Recommendations: fly out further from hill. Don't go prone or move hands from downtubes until a LOT later. Get students to recognize that they are close to the ground on launch as well as landing.... Examine how we teach stall recognition: practice gentle snap turns paired with MCA flight to highlight differences in control based upon AoA/bar position.

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Second Flight on Topless Glider

Sylmar Flight Park
7/26/02, Topless Hang 3

Aggressive advancing hang 3 pilot with approximately 100 hours mostly on single surface gliders made his second flight on a Topless glider.

Witnesses say he began to oscillate on final and lost his runway alignment causing him to slam in hard enough to damage his full face helmet and put a one inch gash in his forehead. Local flight instructors have been critical of those pilots that loaned him their topless gliders.

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Double-surface Beach Launch

Dockweiler Beach
Oct 23, 1999, XtraLite 164 Hang 4

- Before this, I could claim that I'd never blown a launch. Fortunately, this was not a high altitude launch. It was really stupid, for several reasons. I went to Dockweiler to show support for Joe, Andy and Noah, and set up to fly, although there was too little wind, and the launch is so short. I figured I'd never get it flying on that shallow a launch, with that little room to run, so I decided I needed some speed at the top of the launch. The only way to get it was to back up on the flat and run at the launch. Bad idea. I was running on the flat in no wind, with my 80-pound glider and 40-pound harness, so I didn't get up that much speed to begin with. My intention was to make a quich change in pitch and run down the slope, but I think I just jumped off the top and pushed out. It was ugly. I don't remember any mushing, I just pounded into the sand halfway down the slope, taking out my right down tube, only the second one in the four years I've owned this glider. Lessons learned: 1. Use a training glider and training harness on the training hill. 2. If you use your regular mountain-flying equipment, just run down the slope. If you don't fly, you don't. No big deal. 3. Don't be such a jerk-off.

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Paraglider Hits Kagel Wash Powerlines

Riverbed/Bridge near Kagel LZ <?????@????.com>
October 11, 1999, Paraglider Not Rated –

Conditions were pretty strong for PG's but about four highly experienced P-4's launched and one had a great 2 hour flight. One of the pilot's wife was along and she was rated a P-2. She launched after her husband had already landed in the LZ and she flew for awhile and then tried to make the LZ. For some reason, she came up short and chose to land near the west side of the bridge which is just north of our Kagel LZ. Her paraglider wing hit some powerlines when she was a few feet off the ground and the fabric caught fire and the flaming canopy fell onto some bushes, setting them aflame. The pilot balled up her wing and got the fire out on it, but was unable to extinguish the brushfire. A couple of heli-tankers and 4 fire engines responded and put out the fire.

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Incident: Speedbar Installed Backwards

Kagel 5/16/99,
167 Sport Hang 3

Not an Accident, more like Something Stupid that might have caused an accident. For years now I've been flying with those large 12" wheels, which have saved me from injury more than once. I decided last month to take a big step, and replace them with 6" dia. wheels. You know, the split kind with a small rubber center wheel to keep them from sliding around on your control bar. Well, I bought 'em at Windsports, and on Sunday morning I went to the LZ, and put the small rubber inserts on my speedbar. They were new and a little tight, so I couldn't slide them both on from one end, so I took off the Speedbar to get them in from both ends. I replaced the Speedbar, zipped up the glider bag, and then got the first available ride up the hill. I set up the glider on top, and then snapped the two new 6" wheels onto their inner hubs. I remember looking at them, and telling LinnieMac how strange they looked. I got in my harness, did a very detailed preflite inspection, and got up to the launch ramp. I hooked in, picked up the glider, brought the control bar up against my shins, and then started my T.O. run. One step later I was in the air, nearly stalled, and still at the beginning of the ramp. I let out a yell of surprise. I mushed down the ramp, just clearing the chapparal. A few seconds later I went prone, got into my harness, and THEN discovered that I had replaced the Speedbar BACKWARDS. It was now a "slowbar".i.e., instead of bending up and forward, to allow a comfortable grip at around best L/D, it was bent down and rearward, where it was best gripped for a near stall. And that's what I had done on launch. When I felt the bar against my shins, I had assumed I was at the proper angle of attack. I wasn't. I spent an hour in the air flying with my hands spread out touching my new wheels, which is very tiresome. At times I even grabbed one of the new wheels themselves, to shift my weight faster. I started to worry a bit about my upcoming landing, because I knew when I went back upright on Final the bar would be against my shins again, and therefore I would be near stall again, but in the event I came down O.K. This time.
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Incident: Flare to Avoid Spectator

Marina Beach
185 Dream Hang 3
September 18, 1998 at 14:10:15 (PDT)

A great day at Marina ending in a non-injury crash. I was flying in ideal 15-17 mphs- west late afternoon winds, when after an hour flying way down south over the cliffs I returned to the LZ. I was crabbing at about a 45 degree angle to the shoreline, at about 25 mph GROUND speed, with a barely adequate airspeed, at about 25 ft. above the cliff edge. When I reached the LZ, instead of trying to edge on back and land, I decided to keep on going to try and get across the gap, and see if I could get back up to the launch ramp height. Big mistake. As I got lower and lower, the available beach landing area got narrower and narrower. As I came around the turn directly in front of the Launch ramp, I was out of altitude, still going about 25 mph ground speed with the wind almost directly behind me, I saw that the beach ended about 75 ft. in front of me, with water now directly ahead and to my left; the cliff to the right. To make the trap final, there was this guy sitting in a beach chair at water's edge, with his back towards me, directly in my path. I was within 2-3 seconds of ploughing into him. I had no choice, so I flared and deliberately dug my left wing into the sand at the same time. Fortunately I didn't cartwheel, I just went crunching right through my right downtube. I wasn't hurt. This time

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Downwind Landing No Wheels

Andy Jackson airpark, Crestline
Falcon 195 Hang 3 - July 23, 1998 at 12:48:20 (PDT)
…At launch it was blowing 25-30 mph ssw. I flew at 2000' over the lz after flying 3 hours. It was at 4:30 pm. I noticed 5 hang gliders landed in various directions. The windsock was moving at sw, west, and nnw and nne every 30 seconds to 2 minutes. It was difficult to make decision at that time. Luckily, it was blowing 15 mph ssw as I made a nice approach. On my final approach, I had to increase airspeed due to strong wind gradient, then at 30' the wind switched to 10 mph nne, that was on my tail. I was zooming real fast. I was getting my legs ready to run and flare hard, suddenly I was on the ground. My elbow hit the right downtube real hard. I was told that many pilots on the ground yelled 'whack' and laughed. Seriously, I was hurt badly. I had help by others to get me around and put my glider away. The Falcon 195 glider and downtubes showed no damage or bent. My elbow was very swollen and put in the ice. I went with friend to the hospital and had surgery the following day. The dr put in a screw where "funny bone" is located and wrapped the pin and wire among the upper/lower arm bone. It'll take me 2 to 4 months to heal. The analysis of the accident was my fault and nature's fault. I'll have to accept the nature's fault (wind switching). Also my fault that my glider didn't have a pair of wheels which could prevent the nose-dive(whack). I've noticed many pilots like me didn't have wheels on the basetube. Since I got Falcon 195, I never whack this glider, even landed in zero wind with no-step flaring. One in many flights could hurt me as well as you. Please have wheels on your basetube. I'll be happier if I had biggest wheels!

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Downhill Landing Injury

Ave. S
High Performance. Hang 4
April 28, 1998 at 16:21:36 (PDT)

We were at either Ave. L or S, whichever is the closest flying site to the small lake in Lancaster, I forget which lettered hill this is. Conditions: 10-15 N to NE, with "on and off" conditions. Pilots would fly for 30 minutes then get flushed and land. More pilots would launch, fly for 30 minutes, get flushed and land and so on. Prevailing wind on launch switched between NE and a light N. There was moderate thermal activity. At 4:30 pm, the wind in the LZ was blowing 2-5 mph from the North and steadily decreasing in velocity for the remainder of the day. The majority of the previous pilots that landed in the LZ made their final approach from West to East At that time the wind was intermittent, either 2-5 from the East or 0 mph (however when the wind was at 0 mph. an Advanced pilot chose to go on final from East to West and "belly-flopped"). The supine pilot chose a South to North final approach (which is downhill). At this point I'm not willing to pass judgement on PRECISELY happened, but others at the scene may be able to. The pilot said that he flared too late. I personally recall seeing the pilot sliding on his feet briefly, sitting back, leaning back and then hitting his rear-end on the ground. His derierre really didn't hit too awfully hard, but the pilot informed us that he had a similar prior injury 20 years before. Pilot assumed the "I am humble in your presence Allah-oh-great-one" position. Pilot was alert and oriented, in major major pain ("the worst pain I have ever felt"), moving, not bleeding and no visible deformation or complaints of anything other than "I know EXACTLY what it is, my lower lumbars!" We removed his complicated-to-use harness and patient assumed the most comfortable position on his own. It was quickly ascertained that the patient was in control of his physiological well-being and only needed time to calm down, rest, relax and gather himself. The possibility still existed that he might have had a fracture-even a spinal fracture. Rest, Ice and Elevation were applied and we made the patient as comfortable as possible-shade, light water, etc. Slowly but surely patient began moving. His movement abilities did not improve after a certain point, and he required a person under each arm to lift him and walk with him. Patient could move both legs and feet, but had severe pain in his left leg. Patient could not drive on his own and was transported sitting reclined in the front seat of Jay's economy car to her & George's home 2 miles away. Patient needed same assistance from the vehicle into the house and onto a bed. Patient was extremely alert at that point in time and began making phone calls to his Chiropractor. At this point in time this is all that I know. In retro-spect: Why didn't the pilot land uphill? (Performance Flying by Dennis Pagen, as quoted by Butch Peachy: "When in doubt, land uphill"). Also the pilot stated that he knew he needed landing practice. Could the pilots personal physical damage have been avoided had he let the glider whack at that point? Couldn't he have gone through EVERY tube in his glider and still come out better in the long run? It's $75 a class if you use your own equipment through Windsports...Patient chose not to go to the Hospital at that time.