A Friend In Need
Ann Sasaki
You've gone on a mountain trip with a group of friends and fellow pilots.
The skies are sunny with puffy cumulus clouds, there's lift and laughter.
As you reach launch, everyone is grinning in anticipation of great
flying. Andafter a hard day of thermalling, you can look forward to a
refreshing swim at the lake and then relaxing around the campfire,
cooking dinner and kicking back. Your dog has come along to provide
support and let you know you're the best pilot in his book. Life looks
sweet and you're really glad you organized this group of compatible
flyers.
Your favorite flying buddy hooks in and launches. He finds lift and gets
above launch immediately, the skunk! Conditions look good and you are
now ready and waiting for your cycle. All of a sudden, you hear people
exclaiming and shouting. You look up and your buddy has a problem. He's
working to reinflate his canopy but he's starting to spin. You feel sick
watching this. He throws his reserve but the ground is approaching
rapidly. Everyone is yelling. Just before your friend smacks in hard,
his reserve inflates and cushions the
impact. All pilots start running down the slope to where the pilot has
hit.
When you arrive by his side, you really feel sick. He's hurt but you're
not sure what to do. He seems to be having trouble breathing. You think
you should take his helmet off, but what if his neck is injured? Someone
radios for help on the repeater and someone else has a cell phone which
may work in this remote spot. Either way, it will take a long time for
the paramedics to arrive. The road up is OK but then it's a hike out to
launch and down to the spot where the pilot has crashed. He's your buddy
and you don't know how to help him...
Just painting this picture is hard. So far I have never been at the
scene of an accident when there weren't more qualified people than me who
could deal with the situation. However, so far in my career I have seen
many small and large accidents. I'm dreading the day when I am the only
person there, but I want to be prepared in case this happens.
Last Spring I attempted to organize a First Aid/CPR class for BAPA
members. There was only one person interested in attending, and he lived
in Sacramento! Since then we've had our share of tragedy and I hope that
more people may want to attend. So, I would like to hear from all BAPA
members who have an interest in a First Aid/CPR class which will be
tailored to our needs and will be conducted by Bob Ost and/or one of his
fellow firefighters who is highly qualified in this area.
The class will be held on a weekend day, probably running from 8:00 a.m.
to 3:00 p.m. It will be in the San Francisco peninsula area (possibly
South SF). The cost will be minimal - about $40 - $50 per person
including training materials. We need a minimum of around eight people
in order to hold the class. Please contact Ann Sasaki at (415) 355-8888
or paradog@worldnet.att.net if you are interested in attending a First
Aid/CPR class.
...All of a sudden, someone comes running down the hill toward the scene
of the accident. He's carrying a first aid kit. Thank God, you say to
yourself. Your friend the fireman who was supposed to meet you in the LZ
at 9:00 a.m. but got a late start and had a flat tire on the way up. At
least he made it, better late than never. He takes over calmly and you
know that everything is going to be OK. You resolve to get some training
so that next time you will know what to do, at least the most basic
stuff. Flying makes your life complete and you
want to have a long and safe career, along with these great friends who
share your
joy.
Another Flight in Paradise
Gerald E. Myers
It turned South four days ago, and has somewhat surprisingly stayed
south.Usually, on the Northern California coast, south is pre-frontal,
lasts maybe two days, then swings back to the usual North. On Monday, all
the hang glider pilots in Southern Humboldt (all three of them): Larry
Smith, Rob McAffrey, and Everett Chester flew at Shelter Cove. This was
the first time in over a year that they had all flown together, as
Everett has been getting time in an ultra-light; and it was great for the
three friends to be in the air again together. Not big time (it was a
little light), but good time.
Saw Rob Tuesday morning, and he said Larry and Everett were going again
today. So when they showed up at the high launch at 1300, I was dressed
and waiting. With only 3 hangies and 2 paraglider pilots in a 100 mile
radius, it was great to have Everett back, and he'ed never seen a
paralider up close. It was marginal light, so I went and slowly, slowly
dropped out and wound up on the 400 launch. My car and Larry's pickup
showed up in about 3 minutes, and I balled my wing and stuffed it in the
back of the car. As I turned to go for the rest of the gear, there was
Larry with it.
"This must be one for the books, Larry -- A hang glider pilot carrying a
paraglider pilots gear!"
"Hey, Penguin, we got to treat our wind dummys good."
Then it picked up a bit, so I grabbed my gear, kited for awhile so
Everett could get a close look at the gear- even dropped it on him once
so he could see it real close -- with much laughter all around. Finally
launched, but still wound up flushed to the beach. Car was waiting.
Stuffed wing, parked car at LZ, rode up in pickup, watched them set up.
Helped wire off Everett, hold nose for hang check, then wired Larry. Only
the third time I'd wired, and it was getting twitchy SE, so had hands
full; but I'll get the hang of it sooner or later. Larry off, nobody
maintaining long in front of high launch, so they headed out to bowl at
Marina and I drove Larry's pickup down to LZ. Lift was pretty
concentrated, so Larry bailed to let Everett work some rust out. When I
left, Everett was still 500 over and maintaining.
No real great flying, but a great day of friends cooperating and
appreciating each others craft. No waivers. No member classes. No mine's
better than yours. Just a beautiful day --- and the whales spouted a few
times for us to boot.
We really can get along....
Penguin
Letter to the Editor,
Russ Locke, Director, Region 2
Dear Editor,
A number of related Bay Area paragliding issues have come to my attention
lately. I have read with considerable concern the letters surrounding
the site rating for Mt. Diablo. It's not clear to me where this
situation currently stands. I have the impression that the club might be
voting on a site rating proposal(s) at the next meeting. I hope I'm
wrong about this, because this is a very bad idea for a number of
reasons. It seems like every time a situation arises that is unpopular
with a segment of the population, this idea comes up that, since we are a
democracy, critical issues should be put to a vote of the entire
population, in this case the members of BAPA. The reality is that we are
not a Democracy, but a Republic. We elect representatives to make those
critical decisions for us. That process exists within BAPA, the Wings of
Rogallo, the USHGA and continues on until it gets to some guy named
Clinton over on the wrong coast. In the case of hang gliding, we have
evolved over the last 25 years into our current situation by having our
most experienced pilots make decisions for the rest of us on every facet
of the sport, including site management. There are times when we may not
like it, but overall, it's very difficult to argue with the established
success rate.
The discussions as to whether or not the change to a Para 4 requirement
at Diablo would have prevented the three medevac incidents miss the
point. The reality is that the site rating and the medevac incidents
are, for the most part, separate issues. The site rating should be what
is believed to be appropriate by the most experienced pilots in the club,
period. The three medevac events should be of grave concern to all
paraglider pilots in the Bay Area regardless of their individual rating.
Three is a very distinct trend and unless immediate action is taken to
stop this trend, someone will end up in a coffin. That action may
consist of a detailed investigation of the events surrounding all three
incidents, as well as all other similar incidents even though the end
results weren't as catastrophic. The findings of the investigation as
well as all recommendations of the investigating group should be
disseminated to as wide an audience as possible. The ball is in the
members of BAPA's court. My experience with the hang gliding community
is that negative trends will continue until some positive effort is put
into preventing future accidents by making some sense of the mistakes
made and disseminating that information to the appropriate pilot
population.
A second issue that has come to my attention is that incidents at flying
sites outside of the Bay Area have created a situation where local pilots
have become wary of pilots with ratings earned in the Bay Area. This is
not a debatable situation - it exists and it will affect all Bay Area
pilots who travel to flying sites outside this area during the next
season. The only way this can be rectified is by reestablishing the
local pilot's confidence though repeated flights without incident. Each
time there is an incident, the stop watch is reset.
The bottom line is this. Paragliding is potentially more dangerous than
hang gliding. Paragliders are considerably easier than hang gliders to
learn to fly and therein lies a major part of the problem. Learning to
fly a conventional hang glider is one of the most difficult forms of
aviation to master. Hang gliding pilots are put through a training
process that is more difficult than learning to fly a 747. Learning to
fly a hang glider takes a long time by conventional aviation standards.
However, in taking that time hang glider pilots not only learn the
technical skills to fly their chosen craft, but also pick up a lot of
other information, such as identifying strong weather patterns, that help
them fly safely. Since paraglider and hang glider pilots share the same
sites, the paraglider pilot has a greater potential for an inexperienced
pilot (by hang gliding standards) to face strong conditions in a craft
that has an inferior ability to handle those conditions (again, by hang
gliding standards). Paragliders are not more dangerous than hang
gliders. But because of the narrower range of safe weather conditions,
coupled with the ease of learning the mechanics of flight, the
opportunities for novice paraglider pilots to get into trouble is
certainly greater. Mt. Diablo is a very specific example where our
future safety record is going to be directly linked to our ability to
marry the knowledge of the senior pilots flying the site, both hang
gliding and paragliding, to the skills of those newer pilots coming to
the site.
Russ Locke
Director, Region 2
Fly Safe
Thom Switzer
SkyTimes Paragliding
Greetings fellow pilots:
The new season is upon us. This year I urge everyone to fly with
safety in mind. The last two years have shown this period of the flying
season to be the most dangerous. Pilots who have not flown for two to
three months are about to fly again. I would like to reminded people
that the skill level they ended last season with was obtained through
flying the whole year. You should take your time and reestablish those
skills. Don't let your desire to get back in the air overwhelm your
sense of caution.
We should all be flying with our friends and judging the conditions
together. I encourage you to talk each other out of flying if conditions
are marginal. If we will listen to each other, and look out for each
other we can reduce the number of accidents we have had in the past.
The local pilots have a responsibility to acquaint themselves with
the new pilots that are going to fly their site. These pilots need to
be cautioned about the pitfalls and hazards as well as the house thermals
and great lift band. Pilots that are new to a site need to listen and
talk the local pilots. If we work together we can increase the chances of
an incident / accident free spring.
At the Dumps as well as Tiger or any of the other sites the unsettled
spring-time air masses mean things can change rapidly. If we are over
anxious to fly we may miss the signs of danger. Take your time and
remember you have the whole season to get your flying fix.
Let's all get a flight of over two hours and be at the top of the pack
at least once during this new season. Don=92t be greedy! Live to fly
another day.
See you in the sky.
Thom Switzer
Skytimes Paragliding
email Switzer@hooked.net
http://www.lightning.net/~eric/thom/