Learning from a HG accident

[wmelo]

Dear friends,
I am writing this message to talk about my experience regarding the hang glider accident this Saturday, and discuss potential lessons learned.

As you may already have been informed, a HG pilot had a landing accident this Saturday @ Pulpit, and ended up being air lifted to a hospital in PA after being attended by EMS. I was the 1st to attend the pilot since I was already in the LZ. Another HG pilot, Antonie -- who assisted the pilot to take off as a wire crew --, quickly drove down the mountain and tremendously assisted the pilot, and helped with logistics, i.e., securing the glider and the pilot car, and driving the car and glider to hospital so the injured pilot could take care of his belongings when he leaves the hospital.

Yesterday, I received news that the pilot is recovering. He did not need a surgery, but he will need some time to fully recover from his back injury.

This unfortunate experience made me assess our protocol as active member of this small community. Those are some of the lessons I learned that I would like to share with this community, start a dialog, and hopefully come out with better procedures that could help us better address future accidents since they will happen again!

a) Pilots shall always check the LZ before flying. The main LZ was not good for landing due to the high grass and crops. Unfortunately, although Antonie proposed, we did not visit the secondary LZ. This is especially important to visiting pilots who may not be familiar with our sites. Although, we cannot impose, we should strongly encourage pilots not familiar with a site to visit the LZ (s) before flying. As a community, we should take ownership in these cases, and do our best that this protocol be followed: mea culpa I did not do it!

b) Pilots shall exchange contact information with the association and with pilots flying the same day. As member of the association, we have filled documentation indicating points of contact in case of emergency. However, this information may not be easily available to pilots on the site. I would recommend that:
a. We share our contact info with other pilots before flying including emergency information and health insurance information
b. We implement a simple way that pilots (visiting or not) could inform this type of information to the association (perhaps, a simple web page linked to our web site)

c) Pilots shall fly with a radio. Although each HG 3 pilot shall be able to fly without assistance, the accident this Saturday may have been avoided if the pilot had received flying instructions via the radio. Since it was the 1st time he landed in the secondary, a more seasoned pilot could have provided lifesaving instructions if the pilot was in contact with others via radio. Most importantly, a more seasoned pilot may act as an “observer” (even a HG3 does not require an observer). I remember that once Bacil gave me instructions via radio that helped me tremendously when I was in trouble deciding to go to the main LZ or land somewhere in the middle (no man land).

d) Pilots shall have a plan in case of accident. The same way we talk before flying about who will rescue who after a XC, we shall also define a protocol in case shit happens. We are a very small community and therefore we shall be better prepared. After the pilot was air lifted to the hospital, Antonie and I started brainstorming about what to do with the pilot car and glider. Although things can change, we should define our roles and responsibilities in the case of a fellow pilot has a serious accident as it was the case this weekend.

Thoughts? Guidance? Recommendations?

[bowen.tim]

Walt,

Just as an FYI, while you and Anthony were brainstorming what to do with the pilot's glider and vehicle, we (Bacil, Charlie, Rich Bloomfield and myself) already had a plan in place. We spoke with Rich and he was going to stow the vehicle and glider at his house in McConnellsburg . When you spoke with Bacil later, you had already decided to take his vehicle and glider to the hospital.

In regards to some of your concerns, I think everyone acted quite responsibly. On launch, we noticed that he had a bad landing. We were in phone contact with you from launch almost immediately. Bacil made the strong recommendation that 911 should be called, even though the pilot was conscious and walking around. In addition, it was wise that we did not have a mass of pilots in the LZ while EMS was tending to the pilot.

Kudos to you and Anthony for the extra effort in this matter.

[wmelo]

Thank you for your input.

I am glad a plan was being made when the injured pilot was being attended by the EMS. It was a good plan, but pilots in the field didn't know about it.

My point is that it would be better if we have a plan in place before an accident happens, as we do when XC is the goal of the day. Plans of course can change, but it would be less stressful if we have a "draft" plan.

BTW, the pilot was not walking around. He was breeding with great difficulty & could not walk. People in the property initially thought I was the pilot, since they saw me running they initially thought everything was ok.

[Dave Gills]

I tried talking to you on 146.500

You probably still had the radio on the harness when you ran out to check on him.

I'm glad he will be ok soon.

[wmelo]

good point! I should have kept my radio on hand: I didn't . Another lesson learned! Fortunately att signal is ok @ pulpit. @ WS my cell barely has 1 bar signal: radio would be even more important

[Ward Odenwald]

Walt et al., have raised important issues concerning last Saturday’s Pulpit crash that we need to act on! Forum exchanges are good and, in addition, I believe that personal/group discussion(s) will also enhance our chances of making a lasting safety difference. To this end, I suggest that we meet at my place (Woodbine, MD) to help define the best-safest way forward. We can get together on June 23rd (Friday evening) if we have a consensus among interested pilots (HG and PG). I’ll follow up with more details once we agree to meet.

Please post if you can participate.

Ward

[krryerson]

We all do fly with battery backups for our cellphones, during comps and live tracking apps, which can also be used for other activities, like biking, hiking, etc.

Battery backups for $17, works great.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00P7N03 ... UTF8&psc=1

Installing free cellphone live tracking apps works great and I use Airtribune at https://airtribune.com/feed, which can be used any time.

During MidWest, Monday was cancelled, so I went biking alone, on an old remote trail. During this bike trip, used
Airtribune live track for fun and for safety, letting them know I was live.

Had my battery backup ready too.

Knut

[Dave Gills]

I have one of these inside the glovebox of my harness with all my emergency contact information.
They are $2 at True Value hardware.

Sorry...No money

[wmelo]

those suggestions are great. Ward's idea is fantastic!
I am available to meet

[Lucky_Chevy]

My first thoughts are for the speedy recovery of the pilot. I have been in his position and know it was hard to forgive myself and get past the accident. To those of you who know him best, please convey that he is part of our flying family and that we will not turn our backs on him.

When he feels up to it there is a bit of paperwork that USHPA would like filled out. The online form is at: www.airs.ushpa.aero

Great job first responders. I'm sure things could have been smoother but you took action did a great job.


Dan

[markc]

I'm really sorry to hear about this accident! If there's anything that the community can do to help out, please pass it along. You (might) be surprised by the offers: Many of us have 'Been-there, Done-that'. We get it.

Regarding the opportunity for learning from the incident:

Maybe you have "ICE" (In Case Of Emergency) contacts in your phone. But what if the phone is busted beyond repair? Or your ICE contact isn't available?

Maybe you have a tracker app running. But what if you land in an area with no coverage? Or your battery dies mid-flight? Or ...

Maybe the local HG/PG club provides emergency contact info. But what if the website is down?

My suggestion: Carry contact information (physical, as in a business card) in your wallet. And that same info should be behind the sun-visor of your vehicle.

Sure, I have an "Immediate Family and Close Friends" group in the contacts of my Android phone. With individuals identified by both name and by family relationship ("brother", "niece", "dad", "mom", etc). But that won't be of much help if things have gone south in a big way.

And sure, a physical list of contact names and phone numbers isn't going to help much if your wallet or vehicle aren't accessible.

But it's a starting point.

And if it was a convention that many/most pilots followed, then it could make things *lots* easier when your friends are dealing with the unexpected.

MarkC

[Eric]

I'm no medical professional. I won't be able to make the 6/23 meeting, but here are some ideas.

Emergency med IDs or med stat cards are a good idea. For example, both my motorcycle jacket and my whitewater kayaking PFD have pockets for a card. The pocket has the med ID symbol sown on the outside, so responders can easily find then use the information. I also have the Medical ID on my iPhone, but as Mark points out, that could get trashed in an incident. The kind of info to include would be things like medical conditions, allergies, current medications, blood type, emergency contact and phone number, backup emergency contact and phone number, and maybe even insurance information or the location of any current medications being taken (if on person).

I saw on the UHGPGA Facebook page that some members of UHGPGA (or maybe some local NOLS instructors) may be putting together a PPG/HG specific 2 hr WFA curriculum. If there's a NOLS instructor in our area, maybe they'd be willing to put together a curriculum for CHGPA specific to the types of scenarios we might encounter at our sites. REI does courses with NOLS too. Especially helpful to know is what to do or not do with respect to the injured (especially when it comes to moving them!) and what kinds of information EMS might like to have upon their arrival.

And lastly, I personally carry the credit card-size flowchart USHPA sent out to me when I renewed my membership last time or the time before. It even covers what radio frequencies to use during an accident. They also have the emergency procedures on the site and a good article too:

https://www.ushpa.org/page/being-prepared

https://www.ushpa.org/legacy/documents/ ... edures.pdf

Btw, kudos to my bro. He's been the 1st non-medical responder to his unfair share of accident scenes, mine included...

[lbunner]

Walt et al. thanks for sharing. This will make us all safer.

[stevek]

what happened?

[bowen.tim]

A pilot had a bad landing in the secondary LZ.

[Ward Odenwald]

Still willing to host a safety meeting on Friday evening but looks as if there is little interest in Friday. If there is a better day/time/place please post. We could accomplish this by a pre-flight morning meeting at Woodstock or the Pulpit on a flyable day.

Ward

[krryerson]

Just My Thoughts:
Knut

[stevek]

Wow! That's helpful

[krryerson]

K

[krryerson]

Can't make it, sorry!

[bowen.tim]

Steve, I am not sure if that was sarcasm or not, but if it was let me add a few more details from my perspective. I was up at launch and the pilot had a hard landing. 911 was called by another pilot in the secondary LZ. When EMS arrived, they determined that a life flight should be called. The pilot spent maybe 2 days in the hospital.

That's all I have. I guess if and when the pilot wants to elaborate, he will.

[markc]

A mere 11 days out from what sounds like a pretty damn hard crash.... Seems doubtful that the pilot is yet in a position to comment, eh? Hopefully he will when the time is right.

But even if not, I think the intent of this thread is to think about ways to be prepared if/when something goes south. Could happen anytime/anywhere/anyone, true of any sport that involves risk.

Wilderness First Aid courses. Standard locations for emergency-contact/health-issue-info/keys/etc. Use of tracking apps. Radio frequency protocols in case of an accident....

What other ideas are out there? Share your insights and experience!

Mark

PS: I really like the idea of a pocket in your harness, as mentioned by Eric in the context of kayaking and m-cycling.

[Blaine]

I keep a tourniquet and an Israeli compression bandage in my harness. Two great tools to control bleeding until the real medics can get there and both can be self administered with one hand. I carry them at work and have used them many times.

[brianvh]

a decade and a half ago Rich Donohue proposed the idea to me that everyone should fly with one of those plastic name tags, with all emergency information on the back. The edges could be sealed with tape to weather proof them.

I always felt bad for not promoting it, it was a great idea.

Brian (currently in NYC)

[CraginS]

Blaine said, "I keep a tourniquet and an Israeli compression bandage in my harness.”

Blaine, and everyone else, please do not use a tournequet unless you have had an advanced first aid course within the last five years that included a discussion of tournequettes. What many of us learned decades ago in Scouts or Red Cross first aid courses no longer applies. I’m not qualified or current to give the latest advice, so please, get it from the professionals.

thanks!