It’s been quite a while since the last report. My apologies for being lax and not getting them out on a timely basis. One problem is that I’m not receiving first hand information in most cases. 

I’d like to encourage everyone to fill out accident & incident reports. This is very easy to do & you don’t have to be the pilot involved, just a witness to the event. Your perspective as a witness is often better than that of the pilot involved. It’s very easy to file reports. Just go to the club web site, http://www.sfbapa.org/, click on accident reports & fill in the blanks. This will also automatically forward a copy to USHPA as well. As always all names are kept strictly confidential by both  BAPA & USHGA.

Dissemination of the information gleaned from accidents & incidents is of immense value in improving pilot safety. As the old aviation adage goes, “Try to learn from the mistakes of others, you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself!” 

Below is a synopsis of the recent occurrences that I’m aware of. 

There was a beach landing involving the glider getting at least partially in the surf. As I understand it the pilot was OK & did manage to retrieve his glider. This is an old story that keeps recurring & is easily preventable. In soaring/gliding flight one should always have at least one LZ within easy reach at any given time & plan one’s flight so as to have time to set up a proper approach to any given bail out area. When the tide is in & there’s not much beach and/or the wind is light & one flies north it’s very tempting to keep going in the hope of getting up & not leave enough time to execute a safe landing. Often this occurs when the wind is northerly & one has to turn downwind to set up a landing necessitating a low level 180 degree turn over the water in order to get back into the wind. Please remember that, unless you are 100% sure that you have enough altitiude to execute the turn and get back over the beach you are better off landing downwind & running it out. This is not as hard as some people think and even if you can’t quite pull it off the sand is quite soft so injury is pretty unlikely. This option is infinitely better than risking landing in the surf or even getting part of you glider in the surf, both of which are extremely dangerous & life threatening. 

There were two incidents of pilots unsuccessfully attempting 360 degree turns near terrain, one by an experienced pilot at the Dump & one by a student at Ed Levin. ‘Inside’ turns are historically a major cause of injuries with both hang glider & paraglider pilots. You think we would have learned over the years, but obviously not. There are numerous variables that can easily fool pilots attempting these, including wind drift, lift & sink, turbulence from rotors & on the edge of a termal, slope of the hill/ridge etc. Sailplane (real glider) pilots never ever do this & always make 180 degree reversing turns away from the terrain anytime they are anywhere near it. We should probably take a clue from them & follow their example. 

There was an experienced pilot attempting a windy launch on Tomcat who got snatched upon inflating his wing & was lofted backwards. Because of he strong winds he had opted to lay the wing out on the edge of the launch area. The wind had inflated one side of the wing w/the opposite side still somewhat bunched up. The pilot attempted a ‘Cobra’ type inflation figuring there would be less force in the high wind conditions whereupon the wing suddenly lifted up off the ground a couple of feet & launched the pilot horizontally whereupon he impacted butt first into the berm at the edge of the launch area sustaining a broken tail bone & a minor compression fracture of a thorasic vertebrae. This is a complex set of circumstances & I will let everyone draw their own conclusions. Suffice it to say we should be extremely careful when launching in strong winds as minor things that wouldn’t matter in lighter conditions become much more critical. 

Finally, there was a pilot reportedly doing ‘wing overs’ in the ‘Death Bowl’ between Cheetah & Tomcat whereupon he experienced a collapsed. He managed to recover but ended up down on the islolated beach below with his wing draped over the rocks at the end of the beach. He was OK at this point but when he was attempting to extricate him glider from the rocks he slipped on the wet rocks wedging his leg in between two of them. Unfortunately he had lost his balance & fractured his leg when he fell over. Extraction from this area is extremely difficult & took quite some time. I don’t have enough information to offer an opinion as to what caused the start of this series of events.

This area, however is very steep & jagged & produces some nasty rotors. Often a subtle change of direction of the wind can make a major difference. If one crosses this area in either direction one should be aware of the wind direction & velocity be thinking where the rotors might be. It’s obviously best to have lots of altitude as well when transitioning the area.  

Fly safely! 

Wally Anderson

BAPA Safety Director