Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 10:39 am
I thought I’d share what I do for hook-in verification just in case it might be useful to someone. My system has been working for me for about 20 years now. If you’re a new pilot, talk to your instructor before following any advice that I might give.
The theme here is redundancy through doing multiple different checks. Redundancy is the only way to get high reliability from a system of not-so-reliable components. In this case a component is a human trying to remember to do a check.
I hook in where I set up. I don’t ever move a glider toward launch without first hooking into it. If you see me doing that, please stop me because it means that I’m having a major brain fart. I recognize that there is a tradeoff between the danger of getting flipped over while walking to launch and the danger of launching unhooked. I think that the former is far less likely to result in disaster.
I also define an imaginary boundary around any launch that cannot be crossed without stopping to check everything. My checks don’t take long, but the boundary should be far enough (30 feet or so) from launch to allow room for anyone who’s in a hurry to go around.
The main check I do at the boundary involves kneeling down until my hang strap and my leg loops are tight. The advantages of this check over the traditional hang check are: you can do it by yourself, you get a leg loop check in the process, you can more easily see your carabiner, and it’s quicker. I don’t do a traditional hang check unless I’ve changed something (glider, harness, hang strap, biner, etc.) that might affect hang height.
Once within the boundary, I stay hooked in. If I back off launch, I go back outside the boundary before unhooking. After that, everything starts over (or I start pulling battens).
Once on launch, I set the glider down and reach back and tug on my hang strap before lifting the glider. I’ve tried to make this an unconscious habit that will still happen even if my brain is shut off. I often do it several times per launch. By the way, when I pack up my harness, I don’t hook my biner to anything. I don’t want it to feel like it’s hooked into a glider when it’s not.
Finally, let’s try to get into the habit of checking the hook-in status of anyone that we see on or near launch with a glider, whether we’re currently helping them or not.
The theme here is redundancy through doing multiple different checks. Redundancy is the only way to get high reliability from a system of not-so-reliable components. In this case a component is a human trying to remember to do a check.
I hook in where I set up. I don’t ever move a glider toward launch without first hooking into it. If you see me doing that, please stop me because it means that I’m having a major brain fart. I recognize that there is a tradeoff between the danger of getting flipped over while walking to launch and the danger of launching unhooked. I think that the former is far less likely to result in disaster.
I also define an imaginary boundary around any launch that cannot be crossed without stopping to check everything. My checks don’t take long, but the boundary should be far enough (30 feet or so) from launch to allow room for anyone who’s in a hurry to go around.
The main check I do at the boundary involves kneeling down until my hang strap and my leg loops are tight. The advantages of this check over the traditional hang check are: you can do it by yourself, you get a leg loop check in the process, you can more easily see your carabiner, and it’s quicker. I don’t do a traditional hang check unless I’ve changed something (glider, harness, hang strap, biner, etc.) that might affect hang height.
Once within the boundary, I stay hooked in. If I back off launch, I go back outside the boundary before unhooking. After that, everything starts over (or I start pulling battens).
Once on launch, I set the glider down and reach back and tug on my hang strap before lifting the glider. I’ve tried to make this an unconscious habit that will still happen even if my brain is shut off. I often do it several times per launch. By the way, when I pack up my harness, I don’t hook my biner to anything. I don’t want it to feel like it’s hooked into a glider when it’s not.
Finally, let’s try to get into the habit of checking the hook-in status of anyone that we see on or near launch with a glider, whether we’re currently helping them or not.