SAFETY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

By

Wally Anderson, Safety Director 

There have been two local accidents since the last column. I haven’t received an accident report for either one so all the information reported herein is unofficial. 

During the BAPA XC League’s season opener. A pilot was on landing approach in front of the two trees & reportedly about tree height or a little more, whereupon the pilot suffered an asymmetric collapse leading to two complete revolutions before impacting the ground. The pilot suffered a lumbar fracture requiring surgery to stabilize the spine and was airlifted to the hospital. The people there who responded & kept the pilot from moving deserve many thanks as the surgeons stated that the pilot very well could have been paralyzed otherwise. Good going guys! The pilot was flying a DHV certified 1-2 glider, which would not normally react so severely to a reported 50% or so collapse. There was some speculation that it could have been rotor, but supposedly it occurred in front of the trees which would seem to negate this idea. We’ll probably never know for sure what exactly happened, but the LZ was reported as very ‘poppy’ like summer. One idea is that it could have been a nascent dust devil that didn’t have any significant debris in it which could very well have caused such severe rotation.