my hang glidding accident at High rock on March, 2013

[wmelo]

Dear friends,
As you may already know, last Saturday I joined the CHGPA hall of shame of those who landed on a tree. The good news is that I did not suffer any major injury. The bad news is that I do not think that I will get my cliff launch certificate very soon.

In a nutshell, this is what happened: Getting ready to launch at High Rock, I heard neutral from all sides for a few seconds, I yelled clear, and moved forward. A fraction of seconds later, I found myself stuck on the tip top of a very high tree next to the launching area! Jesse and Mathew run to the tree where I was struggling to hold on and started offering me life-saving advices about what I should do and not do. Their advices proved to be priceless! I was able to free myself from the glider using my harness knife and place myself in a secured position. Jesse and Mathew tried to send me a long robe, but I couldn’t reach it because the tree was very high. So, they told me to stay put. I stayed there for a couple of hours until firefighters and Special Operations arrived. They used a very long ladder to rescue me. God bless our firefighters!

Another very significant reaction came from Karen. As soon as I hit the tree, Karen, who was assisting me on the launch, run to my wife to offer reassurances. It is hard to put into words how important Karen’s action was: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

Sunday morning many pilots contacted me and gave me words of encouragement. Knut and Jon offered their help to rescue the glider. Mathew researched and found a tree service company that could go to High Rock before the snow storm. By 2:30pm, I was back in High Rock with my older son (Vico) and his friend. The tree service was already there and started pruning the tree. Jon and Amy drove 2 hours up to High Rock to help me out. As soon as the tree service was able to put the glider back on the ground, Jon, Amy, and Vico broke down the glider and put it back on my car: They were terrific! Again, I have no words to thank them for helping me.

I learned many lessons from this embarrassing experience, and I will be much more conservative and prudent in the future. Looking back, and seeing the video afterwards, I can see that I made several mistakes on the launch. In the following paragraph, I will provide my personal assessment. I am sure that other pilots will be able to assess my mistakes and provide a better analysis about what I did wrong by watching the video (http://vimeo.com/62656435)

I was not on the edge of the ramp, so when I moved forward I exposed the left wing to the cliff. That mistake, combined with a strong wind gust that hit on my left wing as I was launching, put me in trouble. In my opinion, the greater mistake I made was a bad call from my part. I should not have persisted to launch that day. I got excited by the successful launches and flights of other more experienced pilots who were able to explore their opportunities, and launched successfully. The conditions proved to be too challenging for my level. Probably, a more experienced pilot would have been able to control better the glider and recover. Unfortunately, I did not react fast enough and ended up on the tree.

I have also a few recommendations for those who have not yet landed on a tree. Other pilots have already posted similar recommendations in CHGPA, but I wanted to highlight them again:

• a) Have a radio/cell phone. In my case, I could communicate easily. However, if I was in another place, it would have been very may complicated, or even impossible, to maintain communication without a radio/cell phone.

• b) Have your harness knife attached to your harness. My one was not attached. This created another layer of stress. If I had lost the knife, it would have been VERY difficult to release me from the glider.

• c) Have a strong rope with you so you can attach yourself to the tree. It does not need to be a very long rope, but long enough to secure you. I did not have one. I was lucky I got a good branch where I could be safely seated (see attached picture).

I will bring my glider to Blue Sky ASAP to get it checked and repaired. Hopefully, I will be able to fly again this spring after spending some time in the training hills!

I hope my bad experience will be helpful to other pilots.

Cheers,

walt

[jyoder111]

Thanks for the write-up, Walt. Glad to hear you got your glider down before the snow. I agree with your advice and would also add that many pilots will keep a long length of very thin strong line in their harness to let down and draw up a rope from people on the ground if they are stuck high up like you were. Dental floss is often recommended for this, as it is strong and comes in 100 yard long spools. Just add a small weight to the end.


Ok, Discussion:

From the video it looks like your left wing was high the entire time as you prepared to launch, but that could just be the camera angle. It also shows that I held onto the right wire well after you yelled clear. My recollection is that I felt the right wing drop sharply as you yelled clear, I tried to pull it up for you and throw it forward to counteract the turn, but to no avail. If my actions somehow contributed to you being unable to counteract the turn in flight, then I am deeply abashed and sorry.

What do you all think? If you are wiring a wing and it drops as the pilot is launching, should you just let it, or step forward and try to throw it up and forward as you let it go? Could a push like that disrupt the airflow and further stall the wing? I've seen Bacil do this once and appear to help save a pilot's launch.

Anyway, Walt, so glad you're alright after that incident, Walt. Hope to see you back in the mountains soon!

Jesse

[Ward Odenwald]

Walt,
I’m happy that you’re ok and any tree landing that you can walk away from does not rate “the hall of shame.” We’ve all had our share of scary takeoffs and most of us have been lucky enough to fly-out of poorly executed launches. Jesse’s description of his earlier flight that day indicated strong unstable conditions “High Rock was flyable, but treacherous” (which may or may not have been communicated to you prior to your decision to fly). The turbulence that you experienced on the pad suggests that Jesse’s assessment was still current. I’m sure that others will weigh in on the finer points of a windy cliff launch but given your level of mountain flying and cliff launch inexperience especially during strong turbulent conditions, perhaps the first/most significant mistake was to take your glider off of the car. I believe that we would all learn from the discussions that you had with your observer(s) and the other pilots that helped you form your decision to fly. I hope that you and the other pilots describe these discussions. Ward

[Dan T]

Walt, I wasn't there and I deliberately haven't looked at your video so I will make no attempt to critique your launch. Many of us long time pilots, myself included, have experienced an error in judgement and/or technique that put us in the trees. You are not alone there.

It's helpful to assimilate constructive critiques and other forms of input. Take some time to reflect on what you did wrong and right. (You did many things right such as attaching yourself firmly to the tree and not trying to climb down prematurely.) Perhaps get some practice at the training hill to rebuild your confidence. Then let it go and move on. What you don't want to do is unnecessarily continue to engage in self doubt once you've extracted all the constructive lessons from the experience that you can. Self doubt makes a person tentative which increases their risk of an incident in the future.

Dan

[lbunner]

Walt, I'm glad you are ok. A couple thoughts, you have made the correct assessment in that your biggest mistake was to choose to fly that day. Windy cliff launches are not the time to get your cliff launch rating. I reviewed the video a number of times and it appears something else is going on with the launch that could have contributed to the left wing going high.Your right wing man appears to have his hand on the wire into your launch run. This may not be the case but I'll let others put in their two cents.

[deveil]

The hands on the right wing were immediately apparent. Looked at it a lot. I'm thinking that the left wing was coming up and forward and the wire of the right wing was just sitting there in the wireman's hands while he's thinking to himself,"what the ****?!".
There was a lot of stuff apparent from the video but I, myself, don't see anything on that wireman whatsoever. My two cents ('did a bunch of launches at HR just a couple of weeks ago).

gary

[jyoder111]

I reviewed the video a number of times and it appears something else is going on with the launch that could have contributed to the left wing going high.Your right wing man appears to have his hand on the wire into your launch run. This may not be the case but I'll let others put in their two cents.

Larry, I was on the right wing. First time I saw the video, I thought "holy @#$%, did I cause that? Looks like I just hung on and the glider pivoted around the right wing and into the trees."

By slowing the video down frame by frame (or close as you can by clicking start-stop on vimeo), it appears to me that my memory serves and I wasn't holding on, but feeding it forward and lifting as best I could.

What are your thoughts on this? In my earlier post I asked what people think about trying to lift and fling a wire forward if the other side gets popped on launch. Is this a safe practice, or should we go totally hands off no matter what?

Jesse

[theflyingdude]

Walt, glad you survived your first (and hopefully only) blown cliff-launch and tree-landing! From my armchair quarterback position, it looks like your wings weren't level and you weren't launching aggressively by being pulled in and leaning forward diving off the edge of the pad. Windy cliff-launches generally require an aggressive, nose-low departure. It basically looks like you didn't have good control of the wing at any point during the video and I agree with Ward that given your experience level and the conditions on Saturday (at least from what I can tell from watching the video and the conditions we had at High Point that day), you should have backed off. That's sometimes a difficult decision for an inexperienced pilot to make on their own and why we rely on Observers to supervise low-airtime pilots. I've been in trees shortly after launching on a couple of occasions and it's a humbling experience, but don't let it eat at you too much! Consider it a lesson learned the hard way, but one without catastrophic consequences. Get back on the horse and be more selective about the conditions you choose to fly in, at least until you have more experience under your belt.

One other observation that not everyone will agree with - when I'm using a wire crew, I prefer they place both hands over top the side wires with palms open, rather than grabbing the wires.

JR

[RichH]

Walt ..Jim gave you excellent feedback.. My only addition would be in stronger conditions you might want to consider moving closer to the edge.. I had a similar launch at Mt. Ascutney VT ..The bottom line for me was to go back to the drawing board..get some expert advice ( actually hired a well respected instructor to help me work on my launches..took a week and Jeff Nicolay critiqued every aspect of my launch We worked at it every day during that week . I was a hang 4 at the time with quite a few hours but my cliff launches had become a bit lazy over time) The bottom line is to correct the mistakes and having an experienced instructor pointing out and working on your skills is helpful for any pilot at any level....

[Ashley Groves]

Walt;

kudos for posting. Glad you were OK.

It looks like you have gotten a lot of good feedback on angle of attack, wings level on what on camera looks and sounds from the conversations a difficult launch day.

I was not at the site, and it is hard to see from the camera angle and position what the right wingman contributions was or was not. There was definitely wire contact well after the "clear" command was given. Previous statements was that it was an attempt to help a bad situation. Kudos to Jesse for leading the discussions of what was appropriate for a wingman in the situation.

My 2 cents is that there is really nothing a wingman can do to correct an unbalanced launch or fix the angle of attack. There is a lot of damage a wingman can do in those last fractions of a second while letting go, especially a tight hold. I have seen other launches, including a tandam cliff launch blown by wire crew, so it makes me cringe.

I do prefer the open handed loose grip, or verbal feedback when that is not possible. Once the "clear" command is given, wire crew must release. I have wired pilots who have expressed a preference for tight wire hold, so there is some variation in this.

That is my opinion, intended as a discussion I believe Jesse discussed having. Again, I was not there and am limited to the one camera angle. I am not describing cause for this incident in particular, just a general approach to wiring.

[RichH]

The right wing man had little if anything to do with it...the left wing was out of position before the pilot began his run...

[Matthew]

I observed Walt. And he had backed off the cube on an earlier attempt.

It was a weird day. We’d have these nice long lulls… then a glider would get up on the cube and it would start cranking.

This happened to me earlier in the day. It lulled for almost 20 minutes and I went up to launch and it started to rock and roll. I backed off the cube and down the steps… and then it mellowed out again like someone had flipped a switch. Back up on the cube again, it started blowing. I waited through a couple of switchy cycles and had a nice launch in a long lull.

After I launched it ramped back up for over an hour. I landed after a couple of hours and Jesse and Kristoph launched.

Back at launch I talked to Walt and a couple of others who had not launched there before. I stressed the importance of waiting for a good long lull when the wind varies. I told Walt how a pilot had been in the trees when launching after only hearing one cycle of neutral on a switchy day. I said to wait to hear several cycles of neutral from the wire crew and also to make sure and FEEL that the glider is level and balanced before yelling clear. Walt and I had also discussed saying "Ready" and then "Clear" earlier in the day.

The lulls started to get longer in duration and Karen got up on the block. Again the wind picked up as soon as she got on the cube. After moving to the front and back of the cube a few times, she backed off of launch. Of course, it mellowed out again. Pete got up on the block and he had to wait through several strong cycles before getting a good cycle. With it seeming to be mellow again, Walt got up on the block and after waiting through several cycles he backed off. I’m not sure how it went with the order of Karen, Peter and Walt’s first attempt.

Anyway, it smoothed out again and Felix got to launch and had this great long cycle of light winds. His left wing came up as he launched but he got on top of it and flew away from the cube.

With daylight fading and winds again appearing to be calmer, Walt got up for a second attempt. Like had happened before, the winds picked up as soon as he got up on the cube. We decided to wait it out.

We got a lull and he picked up the glider and moved it forward. I was on the left wing. We indicated neutral. Walt took another step forward and repositioned the glider. We indicated neutral and he yelled clear. I was a bit surprised.

His left immediately wing came up. Both Karen and I thought he’d be able to fly out of it with a hard correction. He seemed to be moving in slow motion and he brushed a pine tree with his right wing. Even then it looked like he’d be able to fly out of it. But he continued in a slow turn and alit into a very tall tree.

Luckily, he was unhurt and he was able to stabilize himself in the tree until the rescue arrived and very slowly worked out a plan to get him down.

Matthew

[DanTuck]

Walt,

I was not at High Rock so my words only count half but I've watched the video and think there's something else worth noting. It appears to me that you were transitioning your hand position from grapevine to bottle grip at the moment your left wing got lifted. Basically you had no control of the left downtube (entire glider, really) when you really needed it and it came right up without any resistance. I'm thinking that if you had not been mid-hand transition, you may have had a much better chance of grabbing the left downtube before it got so far up and out of wack. Pure bad luck with the timing of the gust but it's a risk everyone takes when they do a hand transition during launch. This is why I prefer and advise holding one style of grip (your choice - grapevine, bottle, whatever) throughout your entire launch run. I've gotten accustomed to holding the grapevine grip throughout my launch and feel I have much better control. As always YMMV, other pilots have good reasons for their launch techniques as well. Lots of other more important things already noted but I thought this worth mentioning.

[dbodner]

My 2 cents is that there is really nothing a wingman can do to correct an unbalanced launch or fix the angle of attack.

I'm not sure I agree. I think there are times when a bit of correction from the wire crew can save a launch gone bad. It's probably a case-by-case kind of thing.

Walt, on days when you've gone up and backed off once or several times, or when you're struggling with the glider for some time, there can be a tendency to do what some politely refer to as a "fuck-it" launch. The frustration level gets so high that you accept imperfect conditions for your launch. I don't know if that's the case here.

[XCanytime]

Walt ..Jim gave you excellent feedback.. My only addition would be in stronger conditions you might want to consider moving closer to the edge.

Walt,
Glad you are OK. In the conditions you were launching in, the safest configuration is being right at the edge of the cube. At the edge of the cube the majority of the wing is in the airflow, and less susceptible to trashy air downwind of the lip of the cube. A step or two back removes the majority out of the airflow and into trashy air downwind of the lip of the cube. All bets are pretty much off if you choose to launch a step or two back in strong gusty conditions.

Another benefit from being at the edge of the cube is that by being in "smoother" airflow you get, in theory, more airspeed for free w/o taking a step off of the cliff. The glider may be flying off of your shoulders or the wire crew may be simply holding you down while the glider is literally flying on the cube. From the video I suspect your glider is very deficient of airspeed, hence the steep dive off of the cube to gain airspeed. That generally is not a big deal if your wings are level and the glider has some airspeed when stepping off of the cube. The ensuing dive is not too radical. However, being back a step or two robs you of the free airspeed at the edge and if a roll is induced from the trashy air downwind of the lip of the cube as you step off, it's a bad situation.

One reason I went to the Pulpit is that it would be much easier, IMHO, to launch from the gravel pad and safer for the wire crew. There is no cliff to fall off of for the wire crew. With 3 wire crew at the Pulpit, launching from deep down near the bottom of the pad fore of the the rocks on either side would result in an elevator ride straight up in strong winds, provided you have level wings, the right AOA, and pick a good time to launch.

The mountains aren't going anywhere anytime soon, so they, and us, will be here to welcome you back when you are ready. There is no rush.

Best Regards,
Bacil

[Danny Brotto]

Walt

I am glad that you are okay and am thankful that the gang pitched in to help you out. Thank you for posting the video. There has been a lot of valid feedback but I’d like to cover a few things that have not been mentioned.

Early on in the video, you can see the heads of people on the right pillar ahead of the glider. Perhaps it’s just the perspective of the video and in reality the people are behind the wing however from my view it seems that the spectators were not cleared from the pillars to get behind the glider wing. It is imperative that spectators are behind the wing. None of this “keep your head low and you’ll be alright” advice. It will be disastrous if a spectators gets scraped off of the mountain during a blown launch. All spectators must be behind the glider; no exceptions… period.

I think it would be helpful for you to have streamer on you glider. It would have been helpful to help detect what was very likely a significant west cross.

At about 1:09 in the video, a crow flies into view from the SW to the NE. It’s path shows that decidedly westerly cross. Its wings were folded and at one point the bird is seriously turbulated. Notice the double surface glider parked in the air above the pad. Your glider was buckling and carrying on while on the pad. At one point I heard hear Kris (“The Polish Eagle”) talk about the difficulty with penetration. If an experienced pilot like Kris is bringing up penetration issues, I seriously would reconsider flying. I understand that it was cycling and perhaps the velocity was trending down, but there were enough clues that it wasn’t soup yet (or even if it was ever to even become appropriate.) Also consider the glider. Don’t get me wrong, I have a Falcon and fly it in the mountains but it is definitely not a high wind glider.

In sailplane parlance, this is called the “Silly Season”. There’s the winter lay off and then the decidedly typically stronger conditions. Excitement and anticipation + reduced skills + weather issues = problems. We need to be especially vigilant about things this time of year.

Regarding the discussion about how a launch crew should hold a side wire, my $0.02 is overhand with both hands and with the hand appropriately clenched; tight if turbulent, less so if benign, but never open. I’ve seen open palmed technique result in a wire dropping out of and then away from a crew’s grasp in turbulent conditions. I’ve see one handed grasp pull a crew off balance and almost fall off the cliff. I’ve seen a crew loose the side wire with an underhand grasp (palms closed but facing upwards.) If you are launching me, I will specifically ask for two hands palms down and no open palms. In my experience (not opinion, experience) this is to help keep both me and you safe.

So please get your glider back together, make a donation to the fire department, and get back out to the Rock on a more benign day.

Danny Brotto

[peeetaaar]

Hi Walt,

I think you've gotten some great advice and some very good suggestions from everyone here so far, so I won't contribute more in terms of the mechanics of the launch since most (everything?) that could be said has been said already. It's important to learn from mistakes, but it can also be detrimental to overthink what happened. I would say read the comments, think about what you would do next time, and then when you are ready, hit the training hill, like you said, and get back to working on what you want to work on.

As the only other Falcon (I think?) to launch that day, I can say it was definitely a sketchy day. If my 3rd walk from the platform to the edge didn't give me a relatively smooth/calm cycle, I would have backed down and broken my glider down, not because I didn't feel confident or eager to fly, but mainly because, as many have said, it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than it is to be in the air wishing you were on the ground. It's definitely a tough decision to break down, especially when other pilots are flying, but the mountains and the air aren't going anywhere, so no need to push it. I'm sure this will be a good learning experience for you. I know I've had plenty of good learning experiences and they can only make you a better pilot in the end.

Take care,
-Peter

[deveil]

oh... what the hell . . .

Viva la Brotherhood! (chgpa)

Viva la Forum! (MarkC)

[deveil]

oh, and you too, Walt, of course <wink>

[theflyingdude]

Walt

I am glad that you are okay and am thankful that the gang pitched in to help you out. Thank you for posting the video. There has been a lot of valid feedback but I’d like to cover a few things that have not been mentioned.

Early on in the video, you can see the heads of people on the right pillar ahead of the glider. Perhaps it’s just the perspective of the video and in reality the people are behind the wing however from my view it seems that the spectators were not cleared from the pillars to get behind the glider wing. It is imperative that spectators are behind the wing. None of this “keep your head low and you’ll be alright” advice. It will be disastrous if a spectators gets scraped off of the mountain during a blown launch. All spectators must be behind the glider; no exceptions… period.

I think it would be helpful for you to have streamer on you glider. It would have been helpful to help detect what was very likely a significant west cross.

At about 1:09 in the video, a crow flies into view from the SW to the NE. It’s path shows that decidedly westerly cross. Its wings were folded and at one point the bird is seriously turbulated. Notice the double surface glider parked in the air above the pad. Your glider was buckling and carrying on while on the pad. At one point I heard hear Kris (“The Polish Eagle”) talk about the difficulty with penetration. If an experienced pilot like Kris is bringing up penetration issues, I seriously would reconsider flying. I understand that it was cycling and perhaps the velocity was trending down, but there were enough clues that it wasn’t soup yet (or even if it was ever to even become appropriate.) Also consider the glider. Don’t get me wrong, I have a Falcon and fly it in the mountains but it is definitely not a high wind glider.

In sailplane parlance, this is called the “Silly Season”. There’s the winter lay off and then the decidedly typically stronger conditions. Excitement and anticipation + reduced skills + weather issues = problems. We need to be especially vigilant about things this time of year.

Regarding the discussion about how a launch crew should hold a side wire, my $0.02 is overhand with both hands and with the hand appropriately clenched; tight if turbulent, less so if benign, but never open. I’ve seen open palmed technique result in a wire dropping out of and then away from a crew’s grasp in turbulent conditions. I’ve see one handed grasp pull a crew off balance and almost fall off the cliff. I’ve seen a crew loose the side wire with an underhand grasp (palms closed but facing upwards.) If you are launching me, I will specifically ask for two hands palms down and no open palms. In my experience (not opinion, experience) this is to help keep both me and you safe.

So please get your glider back together, make a donation to the fire department, and get back out to the Rock on a more benign day.

Danny Brotto

I'm not going to hijack this thread with a debate on how a launch crew should hold a side wire, but I respectfully disagree with Danny's "experience" (not opinion) based upon my own "experience" (not opinion). I'm more than willing to trade the possibility of the wire dropping out of and then away from a crew's open-palm grasp with the knowledge that I'm getting direct feedback on what the glider is doing, how the wings are loaded, and that no one will be hanging on after I yell, "Clear!" YMMV.

I agree with Rich and Bacil about the need to be on the edge of the pad in strong conditions and with Dan about not transitioning hand position while in the midst of the launch. This was something that Dennis Pagen was emphasizing at one of the Team Meets I attended at Henson's Gap a few years back. He videoed everyone's launch and then critiqued them at the pilot's meeting the following day. The majority of pilots changed hand position as soon as the glider lifted off their shoulders and while that didn't present any serious problems in the conditions we had at the time, Dennis's point was that in turbulent launch conditions, changing grip at that critical moment could mean a loss of control.

JR

[lbunner]

In spite of the negative apsects relative to Walt's glider and harness, this event has prompted some very good and timely discussion regarding cliff launching. My cliff launch experience is significantly dated with most of it from the 80's so it was refreshing to hear so many inputs on what it takes to successfully launch from the cube. I went through all the posts and tried to summarize what I re-learned. Here is what I came up with.

Windy Cliff Launch Technique
Assess The Conditions
1. Gust differential commensurate with pilot skill level
2. Wind direction commensurate with skill level
3. Winds holding steady for a period of time commensurate with skill level
Launch Technique
1. Experienced wiremen with specific guidance on expectations during the launch sequence
2. Wings level
3. Both wings evenly in the airflow
4. Glider at the edge of the ramp
5. Nose angle (angle of attack) commensurate with relative airflow
6. Aggressive body position ready to dive off the ramp
7. Maintain hand position throughout the launch run into the air

What did I miss?

[theflyingdude]

In spite of the negative apsects relative to Walt's glider and harness, this event has prompted some very good and timely discussion regarding cliff launching. My cliff launch experience is significantly dated with most of it from the 80's so it was refreshing to hear so many inputs on what it takes to successfully launch from the cube. I went through all the posts and tried to summarize what I re-learned. Here is what I came up with.

Windy Cliff Launch Technique
Assess The Conditions
1. Gust differential commensurate with pilot skill level
2. Wind direction commensurate with skill level
3. Winds holding steady for a period of time commensurate with skill level
Launch Technique
1. Experienced wiremen with specific guidance on expectations during the launch sequence
2. Wings level
3. Both wings evenly in the airflow
4. Glider at the edge of the ramp
5. Nose angle (angle of attack) commensurate with relative airflow
6. Aggressive body position ready to dive off the ramp
7. Maintain hand position throughout the launch run into the air

What did I miss?

That's a pretty good summary, but the first rule should always be: Know when to hold them and no when to fold them, aka, beer-thirty came early!

JR

[theflyingdude]

In spite of the negative apsects relative to Walt's glider and harness, this event has prompted some very good and timely discussion regarding cliff launching. My cliff launch experience is significantly dated with most of it from the 80's so it was refreshing to hear so many inputs on what it takes to successfully launch from the cube. I went through all the posts and tried to summarize what I re-learned. Here is what I came up with.

Windy Cliff Launch Technique
Assess The Conditions
1. Gust differential commensurate with pilot skill level
2. Wind direction commensurate with skill level
3. Winds holding steady for a period of time commensurate with skill level
Launch Technique
1. Experienced wiremen with specific guidance on expectations during the launch sequence
2. Wings level
3. Both wings evenly in the airflow
4. Glider at the edge of the ramp
5. Nose angle (angle of attack) commensurate with relative airflow
6. Aggressive body position ready to dive off the ramp
7. Maintain hand position throughout the launch run into the air

What did I miss?

That's a pretty good summary, but the first rule should always be: Know when to hold them and no when to fold them, aka, beer-thirty came early!

JR

Oops, no edit button - Rule #1: Know when to hold them and know when to fold them!

[XCanytime]

There is an edit button JR. It's just to the left of the "QUOTE" button when you are logged in and view your post(s) on the thread. Bacil.

[callen]

Larry,
I would add "fly the glider" to the list. Though I wasn't there and can't tell from the video most launch and landing issues tend to be a result of letting things happen and not aggressively flying the glider to the bitter end.

Charlie