Mea Culpa! H@ Syndrome strikes!

[Cyndia]

On Friday September 25th, I broke my left arm up at Big Sur. Fortunately, it was just a comminuted fracture of the left humerus which reduced pretty nicely on its own so I do not need surgery however, I won’t be flying for awhile.
Prior to going to Big Sur, I asked Joe if I could fly if the conditions were good ie: no clouds, reasonable winds etc; since I have flown the site before and had up-to-now showed better sense, he agreed. On Thursday, Richard showed me the secondary LZ which had been freshly mowed and looked like a landable place to me. We discussed the different approaches, where I should be to make sure I would make it safely with enough altitude, where I should stage, where my numbers should be, etc. Friday morning, Hungary Joe and Caitlin arrived and I went over my plan with him as well, got a different perspective on the site but agreement on my flight plan.
My launch was ok and I got out over the ridge with a lot of altitude and felt very comfortable with my plan. The other pilots all found lift and were above me. Initially I thought to land in the primary LZ and so informed Richard, but I had a lot of altitude and so decided for the secondary. I did not realize that when I mentioned I would just land in the bigger field, Richard relaxed so when I changed my mind it was too late for him to land ahead of me to check conditions.
As I came over the field, I had a lot of altitude and found my numbers. The wind was blowing about 60 degrees cross to my runway at, I estimate 6-8mph. My problems started when I began my 360s. The rotor or gradient really tossed me around and I got scared and thought the best thing to do was get down. If I would have instead turned to downwind and extended that and my base, I would have at least been on the right path with some room. Instead I lost sight of my numbers and rounded out in the middle of the field instead of 20ft from the start of the field as we had planned. Plus instead of heading into the wind I was going almost precisely 90cross to it. I rounded out high because I was headed for some tall weeds with my plan to flare hard and parachute down into them. Regretfully that did not happen. Instead of staying loose, I grabbed on tight pushing out without bringing my hands up. When my feet reached the ground, the weeds stopped me and the glider pitching its nose forward and catapulting me through the control frame.
I immediately radioed Richard that I was ok, but my arm was broken. Richard landed, some touring Australians took care of me while Richard got Steve. I was bundled into the car to go into SLO with the certainty I would be back in time for s’mores! (I have never broken a bone before, silly me!)
I had heard of H2 Syndrome but felt that as cautious as I was, I would be exempt. Clearly that was not the case. I am sure that if Joe thought I would even contemplate it, he would have said no flying until he was there. Richard has apologized to me numerous times but it was not his fault; I truly believed I could handle the secondary site and it was entirely my decision to land there.
The HG gods definitely whacked me for being over-confident and are reminding me daily as I will be in a cast at least 8 weeks. Then I’ll start upper body strength building until I can get back to the beach to work with Greg until he clears me to fly high again. In the meantime, wind to your wings, I will be back.
Fly Safe
~ Cyndia

[Steve90266]

Thanks for posting, Cyndia. We appreciate you sharing your experience, so that we may all learn from it.

Glad to hear you will be back soon!

[Fat Fred]

Cyndia, I am sorry for your injury to both your body and your pride. This seems like an excellent synopsis and I wish you a speedy recovery.

-Fred-