Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

January 30th, 2006

Highly experienced H4 pilot not wanting to wait for the line of pilots waiting for up cycles decides to launch the N side of Kagel even though the wind was clearly blowing more westerly than northerly.

David Cutter was flying his Zaggy at the time and the area he was soaring was more west north-west as well.

Conversation with pilot right prior to his decision to launch the backside was about how testosterone on days like today gets in the way of good judgment. After that conversation the pilot went to the north launch.

Pilot launched and disappeared quickly. Although the spectators were waiting for him to round the corner and appear of the south side of Kagel no one spotted the pilot. After a short time people on launch suspected the pilot may have landed on the north side of the mountain. Although attempts were made to locate the pilot from other pilots that were airborne, no one could see the glider.

Shortly after a few pilots from launch decided to search the north side and attempt to locate the pilot that was missing. A call to the LZ revealed that the pilot had indeed landed out on the NW spine of Kagel and was OK but needed the driver to remain there until he packed up the glider and could hike up to the top.

Some Good Samaritan pilots assisted the pilot in retrieving his glider and walking it back up top.

Pilot was NOT injured and the gliders intial inspection revealed a torn sail (small tear).

By the way the wind direction turned south 10 minutes later.

Can we get an accident report to our safety director and to the USHGA? These kinds of reports help others to avoid the same mistakes. Our safety director is Joe Greblo this year.

Also, who it it? Inquiring minds want to know!

Here's the accident report. The pilot is not named, but it isn't hard to figure out.

Site: Kagel Mountain site, north launch (3537 ft. MSL) / Sylmar, CA
Date: Sunday, 1/29/06
Time: Approximately 3:00 pm
Injuries: None
Pilot: Advanced rated pilot, with AWCL, CL, FSL, RLF, TUR, and X-C special skills, and several hundred flight hours at this site
Glider: A-I-R Atos
Prepared by: Kenneth Andrews, USHGA #76491

On Sunday afternoon, the accident pilot crash-landed on the north "back" side of Kagel Mountain. He was unhurt, and while his Atos rigid-wing glider is a little marked up, it suffered only minor damage.

The wind had been mostly west all afternoon, sometimes with a northerly component, and sometimes southerly. A couple pilots launched at the main south-facing launch on Kagel Mountain at about 1:45, while most pilots chose to wait. Eventually a couple more pilots prepared to launch at a nearby cliff (sometimes used in no-wind conditions), and around 3:00, the accident pilot decided to launch from the northeast side of Kagel.

Reports are that in the 5 MPH northwest wind, his launch was a little irregular, but he did get safely clear of the terrain. He then turned left and disappeared from view, already low and losing altitude fast. When he did not reappear around the end of the mountain as expected, a rescue team of four pilots (including myself) walked down the trail along the back ridge, that runs NNW from the Kagel summit. At the end of the trail (0.4 miles, 3100 feet MSL, 440 feet below launch), we found the accident pilot in bushes just below us and on our right hand (northeast) side.

The pilot reports that he found extraordinary sink in his short flight. Just before reaching the end of the back ridge, he was faced with an unpleasant choice: he could crash-land in the trees and brush immediately beside him, or try to get around the corner and risk a possible downwind crash-landing in steep and rocky terrain. He chose the former, and the resulting damage was minimal. The pilot was unhurt. The glider's sail suffered a tear a couple inches long in the undersurface, a smaller tear on the leading edge, a bent weak-link in a downtube, and some unknown (likely minor) damage to the carbon-fiber D cell leading edges. Retrieval of the glider was inconvenient, but caused no apparent further damage.

It is generally agreed that Kagel's northeast facing launch is a poor choice in northwest winds. The accident pilot said he had launched there under similar conditions before, and believed he could do so again. The cause of the extraordinary sink he encountered is unclear.

This decision to launch turned out to be wrong. But the incident also demonstrates that good things come from active decision-making in flight. It cant be easy to choose to make a controlled crash into terrain, with obvious inconvenience and embarassment, when there is also the option of continuing on and just hoping for the best. He came out unhurt. I'll learn from that.