Hang Glider Pilot Fatality at Henson's Gap in Tennessee

[sailin]

Hi all,

You may or may not be aware of the recent tragedy that has struck our east coast hang gliding community. Several days ago a pilot flying Henson's Gap in Tennessee died of injuries sustained after an encounter with a Gust Front/Thunderstorm. Below is the link to the thread on "Hanggliding.org" about the incident.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.ph ... fc9c46486e

I first want to say my sincere condolences go out to pilot Tim Martin's family and friends, and also the southeast flying community that he was apart of. From reports of all that knew him he was a great husband, friend and ambassador to the sport we love. He will surely be missed.

My hope is this thread will not only bring this tragedy to all our attention, but also spark some discussion in our own little flying community about over development, thunderstorms and gust fronts. What factors/rules do you use to minimize your risks of encountering such weather and what is your thoughts on tactics if you do? Certainly thunderstorms/OD are always a possible threat, but even more so now with the hot, humid weather we are in for over the next several months. Experienced pilots please contribute heavily to this discussion.....your experience and observations over the span of your flying years is of incredible value to newbies like myself and probably everyone else too.

thanks,
Jon

[rasmussenv]

Coincidentally I just came up and read this after standing out on my deck watching massive trees in my backyard swaying violently as this thunderstorm approaches (no rain yet), and thinking how I sure wouldn't want to be out in such wind. No experience or observation to add to the thread, but it was so timely I had to respond. And just an hour ago it was sunny and I was thinking of going to the pool.

I am all the more inclined not to risk going out on days when thunderstorms are forecast. There are sunny days ahead (like Monday!).

[brianvh]

Typically if you hear thunder or see rain in the distance you either don't launch or try to land immediately. This may cause problems if the gust front hits as you are landing.

Many years ago at a high rock party we were hit by a gust front that uprooted tents, etc. Many pilots saw the rain and landed, but one noted H2 came in quite a bit *after* the rain and gust front had past: he had stayed in the air and flown around the storms. How you handle the situation while in the air is situation dependent: how far is the storm?

Some of us were flying at the maryland state fair in cumberland. The first person to fly was clearly fighting turbulent air for no apparent reason and landed quickly despite obvious lift, but the rest of us decided after a bit of deliberation we could handle it if we also landed quickly. It was gnarly, and after landing we saw what we couldn't see from launch: around the bend of the valley was a rainstorm. We let the fact that we had made an extremely long drive to a special event and went up a 4 wheel drive road convince us it we had to fly despite evidence it could be dangerous. If that storm had developed further it might have been lethal. If turbulence has no apparent reason, it's probably convective and hence unpredictable.

While at Hyner once we were watching thunderstorms down the valley. Dennis Pagen was talking about how he never launches if he sees rain down at the end of the valley, because the gust front gets funneled along and hits at nearly full force whatever the distance. Yet half an hour later with the storms apparently stationary at the end of the valley he launched and went up, and like a bunch of lemmings we followed him. About 20 minutes later the air became very turbulent and everyone tried to land ASAP. One pilot got blown to another field, another we watched come in like he was riding a bronco and crashed into a tree. Remember that experienced pilots may have more wisdom than they exercise.

And yet out west it's fairly common to fly with storms on the horizon. I think it has to do with flying at the edge of an extremely open plain so if the storms are distant there is no funneling effect and the gust front dissipates with distance. I hope someone with experience out west can speak to that.

[dbodner]

And yet out west it's fairly common to fly with storms on the horizon. I think it has to do with flying at the edge of an extremely open plain so if the storms are distant there is no funneling effect and the gust front dissipates with distance. I hope someone with experience out west can speak to that.

Brian may be right. But, I also think the distant objects you see out West just seem to be so much further away than the distant objects we see in the East. I wonder if the higher cloud ceilings contribute to that effect.

For my part (and back on topic), if the sky looks "dramatic" or even "interesting" I stay on the ground.

[XCanytime]

Radar at 2P showed a vigorous tstorm moving thru the area close to Daniels. Bacil

[brianvh]

Bacil brings up a good point. With all the smart phones out there and America's unparalleled radar network, it makes sense to whip out the iphone and check the radar map when you are thinking about launching if there's a significant chance of storms. Couldn't do that a few years ago, stupid not to take advantage of it. But remember that storms can develop quick, even in a 1 hour flight you can go from clear radar to nastiness, so keep scanning the horizon as you fly.

[Dan T]

I was at Daniels yesterday and watched the storm on another pilot's iPhone that Bacil was referring to. The storm hit a good 15 minutes ahead of what the radar image led us to believe. Only after the fact did we realize that there might be a delay in the transmission of the radar image.

Fortunately we were all on the ground and all we did was get soaked. A cheap lesson in not relying too much on technology.

Dan

[lbunner]

Yesterday was the last day of the ECC. The comp was a huge success with 6 awesome days of flying. The weather forecast For the day was unsettled to say the least. We called a couple of tasks and all cued up on the launch line. We watched a T-storm pass west to east just south of us. The safety committee used smart phones to assess the conditions and then call the day as there was just too much energy in the air. About five pilots free flew and landed shortly after. Two hours later it blew up and rained hard. Even though I wanted to fly, I am thankful that the safety committee did the right thing.

[mcgowantk]

The topic of flying around thunderstorms is timely and I am looking forward to some more conversation on this point.

Even if you don't want to fly when there is a risk of storms, one may pop up unexpectedly. Plus, many good flying days have a risk of storms, perhaps just 10 or 20%, so you may miss some good days if you try not to fly at all when there is a risk of storms. Lastly, it is hard to make decisions completely independent of everyone else. You may fly on a day when others are chosing to fly or you may decide to stay in the air longer because everyone else is staying up. In the east, the air is so humid and hazy, you may end up flying near a thunderstorm without much warning. Lastly, a number of times I have experienced great climbs and found the cloud above me spitting verga (I have been hit by rain, slush, and snow on summer days at altitude) but those clouds never developed into a storm. However, even these events can cause gusting conditions on the ground and wet sail problems. Therefore, the obvious point is that you need to be watching the weather whenever you fly.

Generally, the factors that I try to use to stay away from thunderstorms include knowing whether storms are forecast, looking at the height of clouds before storms build (tall cummies indicate that it is more likely to OD), and just plain looking at the bottom of the cloud to see if it looks too black for me to feel comfortable to fly under. And the flying for dummies point, if you can see rain, you can guess the likelihood of a gust front and other problems to be much higher. Although, sometimes pilots will fly as long as it is not raining on them.

There are lots of sources on weather and storms. Pagen has a book called Understanding the Weather that has some great background on storms.

Reading back on the above, I think I sound a little preachy and that my advice does not provide much specific guidance. I think it comes down to judgment. So maybe a story of my own is in order. One of my favorite thunderstorm stories happend more than 10 years ago. I got a late start driving down to Daniels. Halfway there, I could see a large cu-nimb over the mountain. When I arrived an hour later, about 20 pilots were climbing out under that cloud. A very experienced observer told me to hurry up and launch because the conditions were great. I asked about this huge cloud above the valley and was told that it was not a problem. Being a new Hang III, I dutifully drove up the mountain and began to set up. Just as I spread my winds, all hell broke loose. As lightning, rain, and hail started spewing from the cloud, pilots started diving to the LZ. I had never watched a microburt from the top of a mountain before as rain pancaked out along the ground in a 100 foot wave while the air above that wave was dry. My memory is that everyone got down OK. Afterwards, some of the pilots mentioned how the storm came out of nowhere. Now, I had seen that cloud from 50 miles away and I was trying to set up in all of this so my judgment may not been the best. But afterwards, it did ocurr to me that it should not have been a surprise to anyone that a storm hit. But it was a surprise. Perhaps because you cannnot see the height of a cloud when you are directly under it. Regardless, suprises seem to happen, even to careful experienced pilots. It also was interesting that everyone landed in the LZ that day. It would have been easy to fly farther away from the mountain and land in a more wide open, safer LZ. I think about that day often, especially when I am thermalling up to base!

Now storms out West are a different story and perhaps deserve another post.

My final thought is that if you are thinking about the risk of storms, you are 90% of the way there. Landing a little early or missing a flight on a day likely to OD seems to be worth the lost oppurtunity when compared to the risks you take when flying near big storms.

Take care

Tom McGowan

[XCanytime]

A Hang II pilot called me up on Friday and asked me what I thought about going flying on Saturday at Daniels, and I put it plain and simple: the risks are not worth it when there will be better flying days in the future at Daniels when there is NO POP. Daniels Mountain is going nowhere in the near future. When you have dewpoints around 70 degrees Farenheit, and the sun is stirring up the atmosphere maximally between 1P and 4:30P, there is so much energy around that something is going to give. Flying is mainly about understanding the weather. The atmosphere can be likened to a huge "ocean" of air, and pilots need to be able to judge whether it's a good day to "swim" in the atmosphere or stay on the beach (ground). Pagen's book Understanding the Sky should be in every pilot's hang gliding library and it should be read over and over again. Bacil

[brianvh]

I'd like to back up the support of Pagen's understanding the sky book. When I went to grad school in meteorology I thought I'd learn a lot of secrets other pilots didn't know. Instead I found nearly everything relevant to flying I had already learned in Pagen's book for $30. Meteorology textbooks are costing over $100 now, and other than perhaps putting things on a more mathematical basis and touching on other topics not directly related to flying, they won't prepare you any better. Some people complain the book is too technical or dry. Compare to a textbook, then deal with it.

Other than solidifying my knowledge, the only flying related thing I learned in grad school that I didn't get from Pagen's book is the idea that the ground will cool faster at night on a cloudless sky, hence setting up better conditions for a cloud dive!

Also, lapse rates are easier to remember in the metric system: adiabatic lapse rate is 10 C/km. Average lapse rate is 2/3 that. Even a dumbass like me can keep that in my head.

[XCanytime]

Other than solidifying my knowledge, the only flying related thing I learned in grad school that I didn't get from Pagen's book is the idea that the ground will cool faster at night on a cloudless sky, hence setting up better conditions for a cloud dive!

It's called "radiational cooling" and I learned that cheaply from WJZ Baltimore weatherman Bob Turk many moons ago.

[Larry Huffman]

In addition to "radiational cooling" the absence of wind will also let the atmosphere cool faster. Wind at night mixes the air and slows cooling.

Larry