Woodstock Thursday 4/14

[pch]

I'm seeing, in my weather crystal ball, a really nice soaring day this Thursday at WS, NNW(320)6-8mph. ETA 9am. May be launchable before noon. Hugh?

[Danny Brotto]

I was thinking the same thing about Highland... although it might be a bit puffy (on the long upwind glide side.) Dr. Jack is calling for 4,000 ft top of lift. Might not be great but any interest in doing the towing thing?

Danny Brotto

[sailin]

I am definitely hoping to fly tomorrow.......

Not sure where the best place is though with the forecasts..........what say you experts?????

Woodstock looks like it could be very light and questionably soarable.

Pulpit looks like it could definitely be nice and soarable IF it sticks to the forecasted wind direction of 310 degrees........BUT it seems like the pattern here the past couple weeks is for it to go pretty far north, pretty early on.???

Maybe High Rock?? I have flown there once and soared, but I don't really have much experience pairing these forecasts up with this site just yet. Seems like it could be nice there though?

I would be up for some towing at Highland too but it looks pretty breezy for most of the day there?

Are any observers available and willing tomorrow........somewhere??

thanks,
Jon

[lbunner]

I am up for the Pulpit today. Any others?

[tomceunen]

ETA noon!

[lbunner]

Tom, which site?

[mcelrah]

Pulpit! I will be carpooling with Tom, observing one each H2 and P2. - Hugh

[lbunner]

See you there! ETA about 1030.

[mcelrah]

Tom and I arrived at the Pulpit shortly after noon to find Jon Brantley set up (with Amy crewing), but not Larry - alas, he suffered an equipment mismatch - the new control bar sent to him does not work with the downtubes on his fancy T-2C, so he graciously helped Jon launch and retrieved Tom from his first short XC to Mercersburg. Tom had a total of three flights, two to Mercersburg, and the last almost to I-70 at Indian Springs. Laszlo had three short flights, I got one (PG), P2 Dan Dewitt one. Jon had two, but the second one ended in a tree south of the secondary - he saw that a thermal had turned the wind in the LZ to SW and tried for a different field in that direction, ended up with a choice between the tree and power lines. He made the correct decision among those bad choices and was unhurt. Broken keel and downtube, a little sewing of the keel sleeve needed. Gorgeous day but with north cross. - Hugh

[sailin]

ot long after my first flight I was met in the secondary by Hugh and Laslo, who had both suffered the same fate as me in the sinky, predominant north cross air. By the time Laslo had landed though we had started to notice a regular flow in the valley from the southwest for a while and then back to the north and then back to southwest and so on. We all packed in my truck that Amy had graciously drove down and headed back up to launch. It looked much nicer than before with a lot less north cross so i set up and decided to have another go at it. You could see the sometime southwest wind in the valley from launch for a little while due to a small fire in the valley that was letting off a bit of smoke. I got set up quickly and moved up to the ramp.I had a decent launch in a nice cycle and headed to the north right away (trying to improve on my previous flight that I had allowed myself to get too far out in front of launch ) I caught a little lift but just as soon as I was in it, I turned out of it Just not super comfortable being really aggressive with the marginal lift so close to the ridge yet. I headed out to the secondary with little bumps along the way that I couldn't seem to do much with. I knew landing was going to be potentially tricky due to the southwest/north thing going on in the valley. I decided to head for the southwest end of the secondary where I knew the american flag there would be revealing the situation on the valley floor. Not long after I made it down there I felt a push from the southwest and looked down to see the flag fully extended and blowing from that direction. Being so far down the southwest end of the LZ and not exceptionally high due to the sinky air on the way over, i didn't think i would be able to make it all the way to the north end of the LZ to execute a safe turn onto final heading southwest. I knew from scouting missions on previous flights that there was a southwest/north oriented field just on the other side of the treeline on the southwest end of the LZ.... just on the other side of Jugtown Rd. I had tucked this field away in my mind for a "just in case " moment. Not wanting to land downwind and downhill (I was sure I would shoot over the crest) I convinced myself that this just might be that "just in case" moment. I made a bad decision. I turned 90 degrees and headed to the southwest for the field . What initially looked like I would make it on glide quickly became a realization that i might not. I lost more altitude then I could afford (mostly because of the now headwind) and I soon had to question whether i was going to clear the last tree okay or clip the top of it and then topple into the powelines that lay just beyond it. It was going to be marginal so I pushed the Falcon down button (pulled in) to descend and then flared hard into the bushy tree. I landed about 15 feet up in the tree and hung uninjured from my hang strap. With some help from a couple of the local residents I was able to get unclipped and on the ground without too much trouble. Another couple minutes later and a little more help and the glider came out of the tree without too much trouble as well. Damage was a broken down tube, a broken rear keel segment and a tear to the keel pocket. A close call that could have ended worse.
I made a very bad decision to leave the secondary without a much greater altitude safety margin. I should have landed downwind/uphill in the northeast corner of the secondary LZ instead of flying over trees and powerlines to reach an upwind bailout LZ. Furthermore, I should have never committed myself to the southwest end of the LZ without the means to make my way back to the north end with enough altitude to do a safe approach in that LZ for a southwest wind direction. I should have staged in a more central position in the LZ and tried to view the flag direction from there.
With any accident, it is not just one mistake or bad decision that gets you there. This one was no different as I made several bad decisions that ended with my close call. I am frustrated with myself because I thought I would have made better choices with the circumstances and options I had.
This will be a huge lesson for me in things that I THOUGHT I had already known but still failed to follow. Hopefully some other pilots out there will benefit from my poor choices.

thanks,
Jon

[bustedwing2]

Nice writeup,hindsight is 20/20.Glad you suffered no bodily harm.I still fly with big wheels,the falcon down button and a prone rollout in a field with no TALL weeds and the toes for brakes has covered my mistakes a time or two,stopping distance can be surprisingly short. RichB(still a 2)

[mcelrah]

Jon,

Excellent description of the situation you found yourself in, your thought process, and analysis of what went wrong and what to do differently next time. The truth is that we are going at not much more than bicycle speeds, so often - but not always - get to learn from mishaps with only the cost of broken aluminum. I hope Steve is able to put your wing back together quickly so you can get back on the horse that threw you soon.

- Hugh

[lbunner]

Jon and Amy, I enjoyed discussing flying with you yesterday in spiet of not getting to fly. Jon sorry about the mishap, your critique is spot on, I can't think of anything else to offer. Can't wait to fly with you two, hopefully soon.

Ciao

[hang_pilot]

Hi, Jon-

Thanks for sharing your thoughtful write-up and welcome to the tree club. Membership is not a necessary rite of passage, but the tree club has many skilled pilots; so, don't get too down on yourself.

Looking forward to sharing some air with you and Amy soon.

Best,
Daniel

[hang_pilot]

Ciao

...does this mean you're going to the Worlds in Italy, Larry?

~Daniel

[Roger]

Damn jumping trees! I hate em! One jumped up and swatted me down too. I hate jumping trees...

[Ward Odenwald]

Before double-surfaced gliders, it was common knowledge among pilots who flew off of the mountain ridges along the eastern seaboard that they could resolve themselves into two groups; those that had landed in trees and those that will end up in trees. Given the certainty of this classification there existed a long-standing discussion about the finer points of "parking your glider" in a tree with topics ranging from; which trees are better than others; to how to relocate your glider/tree in a forest that you’ve only viewed from above and are now lucky enough to reenter with a saw. Here are some important points that everyone who flies over forested areas should consider before it happens:

1. Do not land ON the tree - fly the glider (with good airspeed) INTO the center of the tree canopy. By flaring just above the canopy there is less chance that the glider will become lodged in the tree limbs. If the glider is not securely anchored, it can easily slide out of the tree and that’s not a good thing. Once you have committed to a tree, your first goal should be to stick your glider deep into its limbs. The deeper you are, the better your chances of being close to limbs that will support your exit.

2. Before trying to exit the tree by yourself, use your cell phone and/or radio to call for help! In the early days this was not an option.

2. Practice climbing/stepping onto the control bar while hooked in and then unhooking. Sounds easy but its most likely something that you haven’t tried before. Also, practice getting out of your harness with one hand while the other arm is wrapped around an upright. Try doing this while you are hooked in and also free of the glider.

3. Learn the basics of repelling and tree climbing! After climbing down to the last limb of a very, very tall tree in the fall of 80, I realized that I knew nothing about how to use my parachute lines to lower myself down the rest of the way. I wrapped my harness around the last limb to secure it and then opened the chute (which fully extended without touching the ground). While trying to lower myself via the chute lines, the bridle line snagged on my coat under my armpits about 4 ft below the last limb that I let go of and then I was really stuck! The tree (located ~10 miles north of the Pulpit launch) was part of a dense forest where the trees were competing for sunlight by growing tall and were also discarding their lower limbs in the shade of the leaf canopy. I ended up swing over to the trunk and clinging to it by wrapping my arms and legs around ~ half its diameter and then slowly uncoiling/removing the bridle line from my arms. Using the “tree hugging” technique, I finally slid the rest of the way down the trunk at dusk and walked for a long time in the dark before I found a farmhouse with someone home.

4. Tree selection: most of the time it's a “spur of the moment event” with very little time to shop. Evergreens are not an option with little chance of securely lodging your glider into them. Your target should be the center of the tree canopy and not its edges (the bigger the canopy, the better). If you do have time, avoid areas with high tree densities that are typically not near the top of the ridge. As mentioned above, trees that are part of forested valleys are generally very tall with few limbs close to the ground.

I don’t have any references but I’m almost certain that there are articles on the “art of tree parking” in the literature. Dennis Pagen must have discussed this in one of his books.

Welcome to the club Jon!

Ward

[mcelrah]

We will practice some of the techniques for extricating oneself from the glider/harness while suspended - at the parachute clinic on 4 June.

This is the second time in 3 months that I have observed an incident where landing in a tree saved someone from hitting power lines...

- Hugh

[jyoder111]

Whew! Glad you're all right, Jon. I'm sure you're bumming about it, but don't let it get you down too much!

Jesse

[uplandann]

Glad you are okay, Jon!

Ann