I was getting mad at the pilot about then, thinking, you can’t seriously be thinking about going all the way to that big open space way down there. Oh well, he’s the pilot in command, not me. Maybe the position of the passenger was throwing things off.
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I saw something like this happen years ago in Flinders, Victoria, Australia. The harness was attached to an aluminum channel, which was pressed into a fixed channel attached to the glider. A bolt, which prevents the inner channel from popping out, was supposed to be installed before launch. So of course the two channels popped apart, but only a couple of hundred feet up, in ridge lift.
edit: its bizarre. The passenger started to fall during the takeoff run. The instructor could have pushed the nose up right then and got it on the ground.
Then after launch there was a place to abort off to the right. Instructor ignored it and headed for the trees.
Then in the grass the instructor ploughs into the grass with the wheels instead of slowing and putting his feet down.
@tekna2007 I had the impression that the pilot didn’t even know there was something wrong until he was almost past the trees, when he started grabbing for the passenger.
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Gosh, it’s terribly pretty though. Switzerland’s one of those countries I still struggle to believe is real.
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A Swiss Miss-hap.
(Now I want some cocoa!)
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Way too much and way too little suspense all at once.
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i admire his attitude about this, but jesus fracking christ on a unicycle, i wonder how many times his life flashed before his eyes during that trip?
my second thought was, “gee, no mention of a lawsuit or anything?”
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It was interesting that he made no outcry or some other audible indication of surprise/horror when he realized his harness just wasn’t doing its job. My guess is that his instincts immediately kicked in and all his energy was focused on grabbing on to anything.
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Well, I’d be dead.
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I get that everyone is human, but how the hell does a hang gliding instructor fail to strap someone in?
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Maybe because that step was so obvious and normal that it was left out of the normal checklist. Like we all put our seat belts on, but how many of us check that our seat belts are on?
Personally? Every time. I’ve been doing that since I started buckling myself in at the age of like 5, and I’ve never forgotten or failed to notice a belt wasn’t secure since.
I can’t actually imagine not noticing. I feel uncomfortably naked without it at this point.
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From the description, it sounds like the instructor was having trouble controlling the glider. I’m neither a hang-glider nor a physicist, but I imagine it would be difficult to make a right turn if somebody were hanging off of the left side of the bar?
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I’m a pilot and his danging is certainly f’ing with the center of gravity (recall that all control with a hangglider really is by shifting your CG around). So with that much of a dead weight more or less straight down – in thinking on this again – he simply may not have been able to do much except go straight ahead, which is what he did (more or less). A hard pitch or roll may have been out of the question.
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It looked like he started to try that then made a snap decision to abort the attempt. Most of the control of a hang glider lies in weight shifting. With the passenger a dangling counterweight, the pilot had much less control. He may also have guessed that any non-gentle maneuver could have caused the passenger to immediately lose his precarious grip.
Lots of powered aircraft haven’t survived improperly stowed or shifted cargo.
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When I was a kid I went skiing with my dad but stuck to the lower slopes for most of the day to learn. The first time I saw one of the bigger ramps leading down from the chairlift it freaked me out. I was scared but I went for it anyway. Imagine my surprise when I jumped off to ski down the ramp but my hand didn’t let go of the lift. I was so focused on my skis and so tense that my hand was still just holding on. By the time I made the conscious decision to let go, the chair had already dragged me over the side on the ramp. I fell about fifteen feet but landed in fresh powder.
The point is: when you tense up it can be really easy to hold tight. It’s a lot harder to let go.
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But it descended too slowly.
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Hang glider pilots can move their bodies more than half a metre to the left or right and I don’t see the instructor trying that. Of course, doing that would apply both vertical and angular stress to the passenger, which might be a bit suboptimal.
In the case I witnessed (see above) the unsecured pilot was able to steer out of ridge lift and on to the beach. He had plenty of control authority in yaw, but not a lot in pitch, because the A frame is positioned ahead of the CofG. So it was a fast descent, and you certainly don’t want to land in a confined area if your pitch trim is set to “very fast”.
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He’s from Florida. A lawsuit goes without saying.
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Well dangit, that’s just begging for clickbaity headlines!
