זוכרים את וידאו הקראש של הבחור שטס
בקרבת רכס מיוער וצלל את המטרים האחרונים לקרקע אנכית? בכל מקרה קראתי על העניין בפורום של OZ ולהלן דברי הבחור שבאופן מפתיע יצא עם חבלות קלות The crash on the video at Tiger mtn. was me. It happened on June 16th, but I haven't filed my accident report yet. I also haven't viewed the video yet, but Russ tells me I was lucky to not be paralyzed or killed. I agree. I was amazed to find myself basically uninjured, other than a couple bruises on my legs, a strained shoulder and back, and a minor contusion/bruise on my right temple. I think my pride was hurt the worst. The bruises were gone within a few days. I can still feel a little residual tightness in my shoulder and back. Having not viewed the video, what I remember after hitting the tree, is being spun to the left and almost immediately slamming into the ground on my right side. I may have closed my eyes, because I don't remember the ground coming up. The ground where I landed was very soft / marshy, with 3ft tall grass, which combined to soften the impact. The glider also absorbed much of the impact, ending up with a broken left leading edge tube, and one bent and one broken downtube. (I haven't inspected it for any other hidden damage.) I moved enough to determine I wasn't injured, got up, and unhooked from my upright glider. A few people waded thru the blackberry bushes and tall weeds to check on me (thanks), and I assured them I was OK. A few minutes later, the EMT's showed up and checked me over, and satisfied themselves that I was OK. I packed up my broken glider and skulked home. I attribute my accident to pilot error. When I turned final, I was shocked at how high I still was. I intentionally drifted off to the right, then turned back. I found myself approaching the tall trees and pwr lines on the west side, and turned too hard (overcontrolled) back to the right, when I really intended to just re-align with the field. Recovering from this turn carried me across the trees on the east side, where the wind was more blocked, and I sunk to the point of having to try to dive between the trees. My left wing hit, I spun, and the rest is explained above. The main pilot error is that I never should have been attempting to s-turn there in the first place. I should have just dove straight ahead and used the whole length of the LZ and the blackberry bushes beyond, if neccessary. The real stupidity is that I had almost done the same thing a month earlier, but still let it happen this time. Also, I have a homemade drogue chute that I could have deployed, but I didn't consider that before s-turning and getting into trouble. I know the drogue would have gotten me down within the LZ, provided it deployed OK. Rick Wallick
בקרבת רכס מיוער וצלל את המטרים האחרונים לקרקע אנכית? בכל מקרה קראתי על העניין בפורום של OZ ולהלן דברי הבחור שבאופן מפתיע יצא עם חבלות קלות The crash on the video at Tiger mtn. was me. It happened on June 16th, but I haven't filed my accident report yet. I also haven't viewed the video yet, but Russ tells me I was lucky to not be paralyzed or killed. I agree. I was amazed to find myself basically uninjured, other than a couple bruises on my legs, a strained shoulder and back, and a minor contusion/bruise on my right temple. I think my pride was hurt the worst. The bruises were gone within a few days. I can still feel a little residual tightness in my shoulder and back. Having not viewed the video, what I remember after hitting the tree, is being spun to the left and almost immediately slamming into the ground on my right side. I may have closed my eyes, because I don't remember the ground coming up. The ground where I landed was very soft / marshy, with 3ft tall grass, which combined to soften the impact. The glider also absorbed much of the impact, ending up with a broken left leading edge tube, and one bent and one broken downtube. (I haven't inspected it for any other hidden damage.) I moved enough to determine I wasn't injured, got up, and unhooked from my upright glider. A few people waded thru the blackberry bushes and tall weeds to check on me (thanks), and I assured them I was OK. A few minutes later, the EMT's showed up and checked me over, and satisfied themselves that I was OK. I packed up my broken glider and skulked home. I attribute my accident to pilot error. When I turned final, I was shocked at how high I still was. I intentionally drifted off to the right, then turned back. I found myself approaching the tall trees and pwr lines on the west side, and turned too hard (overcontrolled) back to the right, when I really intended to just re-align with the field. Recovering from this turn carried me across the trees on the east side, where the wind was more blocked, and I sunk to the point of having to try to dive between the trees. My left wing hit, I spun, and the rest is explained above. The main pilot error is that I never should have been attempting to s-turn there in the first place. I should have just dove straight ahead and used the whole length of the LZ and the blackberry bushes beyond, if neccessary. The real stupidity is that I had almost done the same thing a month earlier, but still let it happen this time. Also, I have a homemade drogue chute that I could have deployed, but I didn't consider that before s-turning and getting into trouble. I know the drogue would have gotten me down within the LZ, provided it deployed OK. Rick Wallick
