Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

Thursday, I was able to sneak off to fly. The forecast was excellent, and I thought perhaps I would be able to join up with some of the usual suspects for a nice XC flight.

Snagged a ride with Greblo at 10:30 (a bit early, but better that than late!) Got to the top and nobody else was there except the Greblo truck. Nobody appeared to be in the LZ either. No cars other than the ones there when we left. So, Dave ?, Chad, Andy B, Darryl and I set up. It is looking good.

During setup, I found out that my GPS was on. Batteries nearly dead. Luckily I had a spare set. Then, I stepped on a rock wrong and twisted my ankle. After putting on my ankle-support dancing shoes, it seemed ok, so I continued. Then, while suiting up, a bee stung me on the back of my neck. Is someone trying to tell me something? Maybe.

So after getting suited up and launching, I immediately climb to 4200 feet. It looks better over trash, so I head there. I am almost immediately in survival mode. Scratching low and losing it, I race back to the third bowl below it's rim. Gradually I find something that stops the plummet. I hang on for a few minutes, and it turns on. Soon I'm back up to near 5k. Yet Chad has already been above 7k.

I can't seem to get through the inversion. Taking this thermal I join Chad and Dave. During the climb, my glider starts making sounds like someone is drumming on it. I glance up and see a moving shadow on the top of my sail. A hawk? I ask Chad about my nose-cone (the idea just comes to me.) He says, "Yep it is completely off." But on the Litespeed, it is attached via a cord. So this thing is flapping in the breeze, whacking my sail. Sometimes it attaches and the glider flies better. Sometimes it makes the whole glider shudder. I (foolishly) decide to keep flying.

I get up to 5200 and go towards Big T. Arriving at middle T above the rim, but only by a few hundred feet, I hang on to a small, weak thermal and gradually get to 5k. I realize that I'm now pretty far back, but it starts getting better and better. Soon I'm at 7500 and back by the white canyon. I keep climbing, although much slower. I arrive at 8k and decide that I'm far enough back that continuing that way is better than trying to go back to Big T. (In retrospect, I could easily have made it back.) So I turn and head for the spine that connects to Gleason. Nothing. Bad glide. Oh heck, my glide is suffering from the nose-cone issue. And it really sounds like a base drum above me. I arrive at the spine lower than I expected, and find zip. Sliding up (Eastish) along the spine, I get nothing except turbulence. It is clear that the wind here is MUCH stronger than it was back at Kagel and Big T. And from the WSW. Finally, I have to decide between landing on the spine, going S into unlandable terrain, or over the back to Acton. I checked out an LZ on Google Earth a few months ago. It looked good, and I can see it from where I am. I see another one a bit farther W, but with the WSW push, I opt for the one farther East.

I arrive there with 500-800 feet of altitude. I see the trees around the ranch house and it is howling. At least I know the wind direction. I start to set up an approach and get a bit of lift. By now, I'm down to 300-400 feet. I take one turn and am nearly too far back from the LZ. And only 10-20 feet higher. And it is NASTY air. And downwind is not quite unlandable, but pretty darned rugged. I shove my ego overboard and set up a landing approach straight into the wind at good high speed. The horses in the coral at the upwind end of the field start kicking up dust. Oh, it is 45 degrees different on the ground than at 200 feet! So, I adjust my track (there is lots of room to do so.) At 20 feet, I'm pulled in pretty darned far (45?). Suddenly, at 8 feet, there is no wind. Boy I'm glad I wasn't going slow! I drop and shove the bar out (not too far) and make a sloppy, but safe landing, falling to my belly. (Remember the ankle?) I stand up, and the wind comes back at 20+ mph.

I unhook, and turn the glider around carefully. I take off the harness, and in that process, see that the owner of the ranch is watching from the yard. So, after the harness is off, I turn the glider back around and kite it to the gate into her front yard. It is quite literally, 8-30 mph, with the wind being 20 most of the time. So much for the light wind forecast! No wonder I got trashed.

The nice lady offered me water, food, lemonade and a ride. She had a 10 month old daughter, so I declined the ride. (She could only have taken me into town (Acton) anyway. I called my wife, whose schedule allowed her to take some time off in the afternoon Thursday. She went to get the kids early, came and got me, and we went to Kagel for my car. Then dinner and home.

Now for the important part: WARNING TO LITESPEED OWNERS. When folding up my glider, I found that there were 5 or so tears (punctures?) in the top of the sail. Apparently, the loose nose-cone was able to slash my sail when it came off. So, if you ever have your nosecone come completely off (as opposed to just the top flapping), land as soon as possible to avoid such damage. I imagine the same could happen to any glider that has a lanyard holding the nosecone on.

Perhaps I should have stayed home, what with all the issues. My neck still hurts from the bee sting. My ankle is (slightly) swollen. My glider has slashes in it. I used up some "wife points" with J, and didn't get all that far. (I really thought I'd make it home and then take the train back to Sylmar the next day for my car, using my bike to get from the train-station to the LZ.) Oh well, there are days like that. And I did learn the minimum altitude I can leave to go that route. Next time, I'll be higher first.

But where were the rest of you? If you didn't leave the local area, it was a GREAT day! (The forecast really did miss the wind, and overcall the lift and altitude deep in the mountains. But it looked good out in the desert and was good at Kagel!)

I was drooling over the forecast and the reports of altitudes.

However, I had a preoccupation with activities that result in a paycheck twice a month.

If I was financially independent (I didn't say wealthy) like some people, I would have been there.

Thanks for the report

Great story writing, George. That's some misadventure!

BTW - I chose to fly Crestline yesterday rather than Sylmar. I was expecting climbs to 10K and a trip over the backside, but the marine breeze blew up the LA Basin and killed off a lot of the thermal generation. Could have had an extra 700' at Kagel. Shucks!

Glad things didn't turn out any worse for you.

- Jonathan

Thanks.

I almost went to Crestline too. Glad I didn't. When I got high at Big T, it appeared that the sea breeze had come into Pasadena too. I couldn't see around Lukens, so I don't know if it made it to the mountains, but it sure looked like it. That's why I didn't try and go to Crestline. That and no wingmen or ground crew.

Glad you had a good flight.

George,
From the sound of it, the reason you were alone is because only a Hang V would qualify to survive such an ordeal. The rest of us knew we couldn't possibly take such a beating and make all the right decisions. I would probably have been so rattled at launch that I wouldn't have remembered to loosely attach my nose cone to allow the glider to be divergent and able to dive, precipitously, to keep up airspeed.

Whew! A harrowing tale. Us Hang IVs know when we're beat and should stay in.

Gnarly man, gnarly.

Yes indeed, it was a great day at Kagel - well worth the day off! George - once we hit 8000 over big-T, I bugged out and headed back to the west, but after tagging west towers with Chad, I was wondering why I didn't go to Lukens when I as at 8K? I guess I was spooked by being so low initially and almost having to land at the big-T wash. I was scratching in front of the various T's for quite some time, and really thought the flight was over. All I could find were little pops and bubbles that got me no where. I finally got some more consistent lift that got be above the peak, and eventually caught the one that took us both to 8K. It was a beautiful day and very clear - you could see the ocean, islands, and just about anything - we even saw two sets of Condors over the 2200 heading east. Awesome day!!!
DT

Yea, wonderful. Great day at Kagel. I think I speak for those of us who were not there: Just shut up.....shhhh....zip it.....zogby poll of 10,000 likely voters says: quiet 45%, button your lip 45%, undecided = 10% ....www.shutyourpiehole.com

Can you make it happen again tomorrow?

I think the word here is complacent. I've noticed on several of your recent flights (the ones I've seen lately here in Sylmar and Crestline) that your nose cone was usually falling off or barely attached during your landing sequence. It's hard to believe you were unaware of this.

Video of the recent Crestline fly-in shows the evidence.

Todd Siebert currently has the same problem. He's getting a new sail any day now. His landings lately seem to be less than graceful, often not getting the full flare authority he's well known for.

I believe your latest incident clearly indicates that when you know there's a problem (provided that in this case you were aware of it) the prudent thing to do is get the maintenance done to preclude any in flight problems.

Rarely in aviation mishaps is there just one thing that leads up to an incident. It's usually a chain of events that lead up to the incident. Break any one link and the incident is avoided.

Fix your velcro problem before your next flight . At this point I'm sure you will. Good lessons in this story. Thanks for reporting and educating others.

The problem is that I DID replace the velcro after the flight you mentioned, where it was loose. So if the problem is the velcro, then it is the hook-side, not the fuzzy side, since the fuzzy side has been replaced. (Took me three hours with a needle and thread!)

A note to Chip: I was complacent all right. I fixed it after the first flight that I knew about it. I didn't fly the glider again until it was fixed. Clearly I should have fixed it before I knew about it. I am just so complacent.
By the way, if others noticed it was loose on several landings, why did nobody say anything until the day the it came fully loose and I had my conversation with Bud Rob about it? A "Your nose cone looked awfully loose, dude!" would be much appreciated, especially if it wasn't the first time!

The only thing I can conclude is that a) The hook side is bad too, but I've never heard of that happening without MUCH more wear or b) I didn't attach it well myself, which would be a human error, not an equipment one. I will check soon, and spend some time messing with it. (I did test after fixing the fuzzy side and everything seemed nice and robust. But the glider wasn't set up, so maybe I missed something.)

Either way, I should have tugged on the darned thing more. Since I had fixed it and flown twice since then, I just put it on normally. So, most likely, I mis-aligned it. Pilot error.

The other pilot error was not landing when I discovered it 15 minutes (or so) into the flight.

I think that this spring might be time for a new sail.