Laszlo

[Joe Schad]

Laszlo is at the Winchester Medical Center at 8pm.

Joe

[Matthew]

Lazlo is in the hospital with a broken pelvis after crashing into a tree at Woodstock and unsuccesfully trying to climb down the tree. He's expected to make a full recovery. He will provide more details after he is released from the hospital.

Matthew

[Spark]

Ouch!!! ... Hang in there, Laszlo.

I found out about it through the OzReport news links:

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/301681259604703.bsp

[eggzkitz]

Laslzo-

Heal fast man! If only there had been a trapeze up in that tree....

[charlieg]

Can we visit? Still at Winchester Hospital Center?
Charlie

[jim kaplan]

Magda, his wife, told me last night that it's likely Laszlo will be coming home today. It sounds like a long recovery though.... a few months. Jim

[laszlo]

I was released from the hospital yesterday (Thursday). The fractured pelvis is expected to heal in 2-3 months. I walk with a cane, and can move around, but a bit slow for my taste. Here is what happened (sorry for the length):

We were planning to fly to Hungary with my wife Tuesday night (departure at 10:15 pm, Dulles airport). I finished packing and had some time on my hand, and decided to do one more flight at Woodstock. Magda said it was a stupid idea, but I did not listen (she was right)-- the weather looked perfect, and I had many great flights at WS in the last two weeks (logged in about 15 hours in the air flying on five days).

When I arrived at launch at 3:30, the wind seemed a bit light, but cycles were coming in, some straight, some slightly from the west. I launched into what seemed like the beginning of a straight cycle. The glider came up OK, I turned and started to run. At the second step, I felt the pressure gone on the right side, suspected a slight collapse, but this has happened before, it usually popped out fast, and I was too committed at that point (in hindsight, I should have aborted). So I took one more step, and started to fly. The bottom of the harness barely cleared the tree tops, and when I looked up, I saw that the leading edge was tucked under the glider all the way from the middle to the right end. I weightshifted to he left, and pulled the right brakes a several times. No result. Pulled down the stabilo line as far as I could and released, but still no result. It dawned on me that this might be a big cravat, and the only way to clear it is to try a full stall, but I was so close to the tree tops that it would have ended in an uncontrolled crash in the trees. So I tried to steer the glider along the steepest incline, heading towards the bottom. With weightshift and some brake I was able to control the direction, but I was losing altitude too fast. I prepared mentally for a tree landing, and headed towards what looked like a healthy canopy (so the branches will not brake). Had a smooth landing on top of a tree, to the right of the finger with the power lines, close to the bottom of a ravine, and about halfway between launch and the bottom of the ridge.

When I looked down, I was surprised to see how high I was (somewhere between 20-30 yards from the ground -- this was a very tall tree). I had one tree landing before at Woodstock, about 3 years ago, and at that time managed to climb down, and also pull the glider down (with some help from HG pilots). I was sitting on a very solid branch, and I could see a decent route to climb at least halfway down, where two halves of the trunk of the tree come together. With some effort, in about 20 minutes I managed to pull the glider out of the tree above my head, and collect it in my lap. I saw that if I could swing the glider and the harness away from me in a backward direction, it must fall all the way to the ground as there were no tree branches there. So I took off the harness (big mistake), disconnected one of the risers so the harness can pull the glider down even if part of the glider touches some branches, and pushed the whole package away behind my back. It started to drop down about 5 yards, but then the harness came to rest on the only remaining branch right under me (I did not swing it far enough). Disappointing. I started to climb down. I made it to the main trunk alright, although the last few yards I had to wrap my arms and legs around the tree to execute a controlled slide down. I found myself about 10 yards from the ground where the two half of the tree came together. Below me the tree trunk looked really wide, with no branches to step on/hold on to. My common sense was telling me it was time to admit defeat and call the rescue guys. I realized that I left the floss in my harness, so there was nothing with me which I could have lowered to the ground and pull up a rope. The rescue would take a lot of time, making me to miss the flight, causing a lot of trouble for my family (and the rescue service). So I persuaded myself that the trunk did not grow straight up and there was a possibility to continue with the controlled slide down even though I could wrap my arms around the tree. Incredibly stupid decision (frankly, I cannot explain it – I must have been delusional). As soon as started the slide, my arms moved upwards, my grip quickly deteriorated, and within a few seconds I was in free fall (in hindsight, it is clear that the sliding down "strategy" only works when I can fully wrap and lock my arms around the tree -- and even then, it is a risky move).

I hit the ground hard, lost my breath for a few second, but was conscious and could move every part of my body. Tried to stand up and walk (another stupid idea -- safest to lay still), but it hurt too much. Called 911, and waited for the rescue to come. They put me on a stretcher, pulled it up to the car standing on Tower road, took me to a helicopter, which flew to the hospital in Winchester. Really excellent service -- hard to express how thankful I am, and how much I admire all the rescue folks involved. In the hospital, they took some X rays and a CAT scan, and told me that there are no broken ribs, but I fructured my pelvis. It should heal fine without surgery, but will require a lot of rest. My wife and daughter, plus Joe Schad and his wife visited me in the evening (many thanks, Joe!). Juan, Matthew, and Tom called before I turned off the cell phone and tried to sleep, and Ellis, LE land others left messages (it was good to know that the para/hangliding community is with me). The next day, a tree climbing professional in Woodstock, hired by Matthew (many thanks!), got the glider out of the tree (indeed after he pushed the harness off that branch, the glider dropped all the way to the ground).

There is a long list of lessons to draw, here are just three:

-- Flying under serious time pressure is a bad idea, as it affects judgment about the acceptable level of risk
-- One should not take off with a collapsed glider, since the collapse could be a lot worse than it looks at first sight.
-- And most importantly, after a tree landing, one should not get out of the harness and try to climb down. Call rescue right away.

None of the above is new. The challenge for me is to really internalize these.

Laszlo

[mcelrah]

Thanks for the write-up, Laszlo, and heal quickly - we will miss you at the flying sites. If you are able to ride in a car by then, maybe you could come to the Pulpit and High Rock parties (since you have no visible scars, casts, etc - don't want to scare off the newbies, heh, heh...). Now is the time to schedule lots of dinner parties...- Hugh

[theflyingdude]

I would add add a fourth lesson (assuming it's applicable):

You should never fly alone.

[eggzkitz]

Laszlo

Thanks for the thorough debrief... it is always a learning experience to read these.

Glad you are OK and will be flying again soon.

It is deceiving I guess how tall even these east coast trees are. In many cases I think they are sometimes a blessing for the PGs, as they prevent hard landings in some cases. I had a friend whose life was saved by a lone tree that snagged him from a death cascade collapse when we were flying at a comp in BC. We all flew with tree rescue kits there because the trees were 100+ feet tall... but I've never used one since. In any event, it makes me wonder if I should be flying with one here. They are damn helpful in such a scenario, provided you know how to use them.

Hope to see you up and about soon.

Jeff

[mcelrah]

OK, you talked me into it. Could someone review the contents of a tree kit? Floss with bobber, light rope, radio, cell phone, climbing harness? - Hugh

[eggzkitz]

Sure-
Here is a website that describes the basics. I think Charlie is flying with one if you want to see one ready made. There is a company selling them premade with all the necessary stuff, but this one is a DIY kit.

http://www.alpenglow.org/paragliding/wr ... escue.html

We had another tree landing at Woodstock today, and if the pilot had had one of these, and knew how to use it, the 20+ rescue trucks could have stayed at home.

Jeff

[eggzkitz]

Here is the pre-made one:

http://stucaruk.mystarband.net/TowMeUp% ... 20Kit.html

[Matthew]

Who?

Matthew

[charlieg]

My kit is from www.towmeup.com. $84 for the total kit -- but will sell you components.
Tree landing yesterday was one of Juanito's students - second mountain flight -- first was earlier in the day. I don't recall her name. Was suspended for about 1.5 hours until the rescue folks got her down. Kept in great spirits.
Otherwise a great flying day for me. Was up for just over 2 hours for a single flight when I came down to see if I could help with the situation.
Charlie