Aeros, The Need Continues....

 Our Friends at Aeros continue to need our help.

As the completely unjustified action of the Russian Military and its WAR against the people of Ukraine continues, the Ukrainian needs our support. Well governments around the world provide military assistance, the needs of day to day life continue. Please see the message from Aeros below and help if you can.  Thanks..... Martin and Mia 

A good kind of Rotor.....

 For Sale, Rotor Havana

If your a short skinny assed pilot, this might be a sweet option for a good price. After a few years of trying to enjoy the benefits of this well made harness I decided to sell it.  I'm 5'11" and 165 pounds, right out on the very limit of the fit.  

If your 5'9" up to 5'10" and weigh less than 160pounds it could be the perfect harness. (Manufacture came very close to making this a perfect harness but missed by just a few cm's...  ) 

The Rotor Havana is super well made but they are a race harness and need to have an exact fit. My fit made for a super clean rig but did not make for a comfortable "butt lever pitch control".  Stuffing on a couple extra layers for spring flying and it simply won't work.  

Zipper setup is the smoothest of all the harnesses. Getting upright is supper easy. I'm right out at the very end of the adjustment, a shorter pilot might find it to be a perfect fit. (Because of the fit, I did add a trim lock system that is easily removed)

I'm asking $1200 USD, essentially "new" with less than 50 hours air time.  I will not ship and I would want anyone interested to pick up and fit the harness before purchase.  I will be in Mansfield (Washington USA)  for the first 3 weeks in July if anyone cares to send me a note via the blog and arrange to drop by... Or if you are in Canada, I will be in Abbotsford through to the end of the month... Cheers!

(BTW, I'm planning to go back to my old smelly Moyes Matrix for now.....) 

 

Keeping it Simple?

 So... the other day I decided to "charge" my flying junk......

Thinking back to them "Old Days" when a helmet was considered an option I get the feeling we certainly have lost site of the concept of keeping it simple! What inspired this little assessment was my new Bluetooth headset system which has 3 devices that need to be charge.... so laying it all out (and looking for another wall outlet to hook another charger to...): 

• -Heated gloves
• -Flytec 6030
• -Android Phone (this is for flying only, my old S7)
• -Battery pack (just incase anything dies?)
• -Icom Radio
• -Headset BT dongle  
• -Headset BT PTT
• -BT Headset 
• -Garmin InReach Mini
• -Garmin 935 Watch (cool feature that allows you to operate the Mini) 
• -Not included... my actual phone. 

Finding 10 electrical outlets... not easy! Would not come as a surprise if one day something in this mess does not simply burst into flames....  😆

May 22, 2022 (Back in the Air...)

After nearly 3 years away from Mansfield it was the perfect conditions to get back in air. 

There has been plenty of windy unstable weather around but there was a brief window, a day where light winds, low chance of overdevelopment. Mia stepped up to run the rig (the best tow op in World!) 

The glider, harness, rig had not changed during the Covid time out but I tossed in the usual long list of little changes that could create some challenge. After all, at the base of the tow system is our 1990 Ford F150... you never know when its going to have a snit (like its owner).  We have a new towline recovery chute, new Bluetooth headset system in my kit, some toasty electric gloves that I have never used, a Garmin InReach Mini GPS tracker, first time I've used an Android backup (running XC Tracker)... it was cold so I layered up and was like a stuffed sausage in my harness. 

Conditions turned out to be perfect for a "low drama" flight. Managed a nice 180km FAI in 5 hours, L-Road to Wilson Creek, up past Wilbur to Sherman and managed to pick my way back across the top to L-Road (lift was dying and a headwind was picking up). Top of lift for most of the flight was 8000 asl, tho I did manage 10,000 late in the day.  Radio with its BT headset worked perfect. I fired up the Electric gloves a few times, they kept the cool air from freezing the fingers. Being stuffed tight into the Rotor harness left the Butt lever not working well "butt" I managed ;-).  

The Garmin InReach failed to track the flight? Not sure what was up with that, thought I turned tracking on but? Guess its back to the "manual" to see what step I missed.

Thought it was going to be an easy landing with pretty good breeze at L-Road but it thermal blocked just as I turned final, botched my landing and skidded in like a Euro, no harm to the glider but did manage to tweak my shoulder. Oh well. (Looks like Motrin, Ice, Heat and Scotch for a few days). 

I've decided to end my participation in the OLC (DHV, PG and such... ),  Plenty of reasons for this change but mainly it comes down to not wanting to be part of a "game". Going to shift over to personal goals.  If people want to read about our flying in central Washington it will be their choice. Hopefully this SeeYou snap will work (as a flight summary)?  I do have a online log book with OLC server, might post the link at a later date. 

Thank You to Mia for crewing for this one, I hope to return the favor!

For now, it looks like it's going to be a bunch of windy blustery weather for the next week. Likely won't get big bird back into the air until end of June.  Felt nice to get some airtime....

Cheers

Long Time Away....

 In the fall of 2019, we closed up our little shack in Mansfield Washington. As usual, we felt sad to be ending our time in town but as always, looking forward to "Next" year and another season of flying.  The "lock-up" included all the usual preparations for what can be brutal winter weather. Little did we know just how long it would be before we could return. 

It was January of 2020 when there was a departure from what we had always known as "normal".  Late winter, early spring we would begin planning for another season, typically including a March or April blast down to re-open the shack. The world wide pandemic called "Covid" changed everything.  

Covid the beast taught me a great deal about people and community. I witnessed everything from selfless commitment to the war on this virus to selfish disregard to others and the future. Some governments reacted in a way that any giant bureaucracy can, health and science,  others with denial and ignorance (one famous leader was quoted as saying "it will go away in spring"....).  Right or Wrong, lockdowns, travel bans and border closures became the tools used to combat the early stages of the virus. The first Vaccine would not arrive until early 2021. In that year, Covid did its damage. 

Learning to live with this new era of reduced contact was a challenge for us all. When the virus was not the problem, the effects of social isolation was not far off. My mother, at 94 years of living became confused by the world around her and passed way June of 2020. She had a very long and wonderful life but like many in our medical system at this time suffered from the changes that Covid brought to our world. (I work in the Hospital, Health Care and Hospitality industry, I witness the carnage the "cure" would bring to our society). I'm not saying I know what was right or wrong, I do know the choices were hard. I also know that human selfishness made this world wide problem much more difficult than it would have been had we all worked together. 

For 2020, the option to travel to our property in Mansfield was pretty much out of reach.  Testing and travel/border restrictions made the task so difficult we could only watch our favorite summer place via a fleet of cheap web cams that we left on and connected... at least we had the pleasure of seeing the flocks of birds and deer that took up residence on our property! (including the building and battles for nesting supremacy "on" the cameras ;-) )  Also want to say THANKS to our "Guy" Donny and is crew for taking up the lawn cutting, keeping the place respectable and presentable.

After the somber summer of dealing with the passing of my mother it appeared the twists and turns of fate were not done.  Early September 2020 brought the giant Pearl hill fire. This astounding beast in Washington State was actually the combination of the Cold Spring fire (Near Omak) jumping the Columbia river and creating the Pearl Hill fire.  With an unseasonably strong Red Flag north wind, a careless man made fire on the Labor Day Long weekend sparked near Omak and ran all the way to southern Jameson Coulee.... over 50 miles in days to create the largest complex fire in the history of Washington State.  Right in its path was Mansfield and our summer shack. This is my Video that captured the events of the fire passing around Mansfield.  Amazing work done by both fire crews and farmers in the area. There were structures lost but they were few. Sadly the Cold Spring portion of this fire caused two deaths in a young family trying to get out of the way (my condolences) . Locally, several old homesteads (including L+13, one of our staging areas were destroyed), and a local landmark/home in Saint Andrews were lost. 

Done with 2020, in came 2021.... the Americans had a small problem with the attempted overthrow of their government?... Blame it on Covid, everybody was just a little stressed and had to take it out on something... or somebody? Oh well, democracy at work. 

Spring 2021, travel restrictions continued, Vaccine started to kick in (and so did the anti vac people... ). Trusting the science we got our shots (and tracking chip used by Bill Gates?).... we gave hope to the science. 

By Summer of 2021, a mass heat wave kicked off in British Columbia, estimated to have been responsible for 700+ deaths. The heat wave brought record temps across the Northwest (Hanford WA recorded 120f).  Lyton BC recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada , 121f and the next day caught fire and burned to the ground, setting off a summer of monster fires across the province. 

Fall 2021, things started to calm down when it came to world calamities. Another round of Covid, a wave less than the last leaving some hope.  Then mother nature dished out something special for southern BC and Northern Washington State... an "atmospheric river" , this caused mass catastrophic disasters included severed major highways (shutting down connections to the west coast), biblical flooding in the Fraser Valley (near our home)... and pretty much disrupted life for another 3 months..... oh and that Covid thing, kicked out another surprise... Omicron, dwarfing infection rates greater than every previous wave of Covid.  

Arrive 2022 (holding our breath for "what's next"?). Finally a little light at the end of the tunnel. Travel restrictions were being amended (tho... lets just say people were becoming mentally unhinged and were traveling regardless of the risk... which brought us the smash hit Omicron). Logistically using self administered Covid Testing the option to visit our place in Mansfield appeared doable, so we committed to this two week stay. Of course, not a time of year to go flying but at least a chance to chase out the mice, clean up 2.5 years of dead bugs and dust and turn the shack back into a home. All in all the place did well (and my cheap web cams and network continue to work!).

Ah but not all smiles and roses.... What next? The idiot Putin and his Russian gangsters decided to invade Ukraine. Our worlds newest member of the Adolf Hitler club. He even used dark warnings suggesting if the "The West" came to aid Ukraine, he would start using the nukes. This is as his army lobs shells back an forth over his old Soviet era atomic power facilities (including notorious Chernobyl).  10+million people displaced, 3 million refugees escaping to the west. Madness. 

The Russian army is slowly laying waste to Ukraine,  Our friends in Kiev, the employees of Aeros, one of the few hang gliding manufactures left in our sport, have had to take up arms or flee this senseless destruction. Well the west ponders and pontificates its support for Ukraine, there is hope the the Ukrainian people and their will, is enough to stop this criminal act committed by the Russian leaders and military. 

As to what could possibly be waiting for us in 2022?... God only knows. 

Strength to Ukraine and its people.... (my mother was born north of Odessa)

 

 

 

ATOS Control Cable Twist....

 

A recent Facebook post on the “A.I.R. Atos” user group brought up the suggestion that a twisted control cable incident may have caused a crash:

From Face-Book, post crash, the "cable twist" :

I was skeptical that the twist would disable the system, but my curiosity got the best of me.  I decided to give this a closer look (in particular, the suggestion that this “wrap” caused both spoilers to deploy at the same time).  

 With my wing setup for its spring pre-flight I tried to simulate the wrap shown above (on one side, then both sides). Admittedly, it was not easy to get this much twist to happen. The only way I was able to create a fixed twist in the cable was to jam some short sticks in both wire sets to get them to hold the “twist”.  Without the artificial effort, they tended to completely un-twist with any amount of control input.  

Eventually I managed to simulate the twist and yes, it did cause resistance and yes it did cause both spoilers to lift off the wing (or, more accurately, did not allow them to return to the normal closed position).

 What was obvious during the control check, the control bar movement was not smooth and there was substantially more resistance than a normal control check. This unusual resistance would have inspired some further investigation.  

 So lets start with the obvious (and I'm pretty sure the pilot involved would agree....), a proper PRE-FLIGHT INSPECTION was not done and would have caught this twist (if indeed the twist was present prior to launch). In this scenario, the site is windy and exposed, as I understand it, pilots make a habit of leaving the side wires disconnect (to avoid wear of the nose control cable).

 I am not totally convinced the twist was present pre-launch.   Finding the twist post crash may not be proof that the twist was there at take-off. (tho… the pilot’s description does suggest something was wrong with the controls during takeoff).

 There exists the possibility that the crash had stretched the spoiler cables. Any impact strong enough to damage a control bar weak link creates the opportunity to cause control cable stretch (more precisely, tighten the twist and or “set” the twist of the cable).  Of course these control cables have very little stretch, but because of the length of this cable, they can develop and store a substantial amount of twist (force) and in this situation may have caused the cables to twist “post crash”.

 Here is some basic information on cables and the type of stretch related to its construction:

 https://www.cmacable.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/1704constructional-stretch-1.pdf

 A fresh set of “new” control cables will not tend to twist the connections of the control system. A few high load incidents can cause cable stretch and create enough twisting effect in the cable that it will cause the support block to roll over and twist the cables (and yes, even with the spoiler end of this cable being a soft/flexible mount of the spoiler cord on the outboard section of the control system).

 During setup, there should be no need to twist the shackle fittings to straighten or compensate for any twist found in the spoiler cable and its support block. Even with a very weak bungee support cord. These cables should line up without any need to force or twist any part of the connection.  If you find that the block twists more than 90 degrees when the system is connected, you need to correct the problem.

 A new cable might be in order, or at the very least, a careful inspection.   If you are sticking to the original cable set, then it will be necessary to disconnect one end of the control cable, let the cable “relax” and roll / twist to its normal alignment, then re-connect. The spoiler cord end is one option, but I find the better option is to correct the issue at the nose/support block end. This makes it allot easier to figure out how much twist is involved and access is allot easier then mucking about with the cords, knots and settings of the outer attachment.  

 Outboard control cable end (buried inside the sail):

 

Inboard end connection (cable removed):

 

 The other reason you might want to work with the support block end is you will need to cut off the shrink wrap anyway to refresh your support bungee. If your replacing he bungee for the first time, be sure to use the material used by A.I.R., some bungee material may look the “same” but may be too strong for this application.

 Caution…There is a bunch of work that might put you off, like needing to use thread locker products, the lock tab, even the possibility that the bolt strips out of the soft aluminum connecting block... such is life, if your uncomfortable working on your glider, get help.

 Cable connection, assembled and with a proper natural alignment:

Another point to consider, do not try to solve a twisting issue by simply refreshing or installing a stronger support bungee (to get the bungee to pull the twist out of the system).  The only purpose for this bungee is to support the weight of the connection block and maintain a light tension on the spoiler cable. 

As to the suggestion that a twisted control system caused the crash in the Face Book post? Yes, it is possible. A combination of way too much control system play (greater than 1” of travel in the control bar movement before actuation), a weak bungee cord , a twist loaded into a stretched wire and a lack of pre-flight inspection could be just the right combination of things to get this very simple control system to fail.   

 If there is any tendency to twist when you are making the control system connection, you need to correct the problem. 

Of course, this incident could have been caused by other known issues such as the factory advisory regarding nose pins:

 

 Or if you have an older wing with Dyneema control nose line:

 

 Or as mentioned on a earlier blog post,  your control wire gets pulled back up through the sail access and you inadvertently cross your assembly sweep cord: (http://towforce.blogspot.com/2018/04/air-atos-q-series-set-up-error.html )

 

Without question, the ATOS control system is amazingly simple and safe if you do a proper pre-flight inspection.

If you are not going to complete the setup of the control system (because of circumstances related to where you fly), the nose cone must be left off and lower surface unzipped (An ATOS is this configuration must be considered as, not ready for flight and a complete control system check is required). 

Any time you connect the control wires to the control bar, you must visually inspect the internal wing connections and routing, you must complete your control system check and of course, you must close the zipper and install the nose cone for flight. 

DO A PROPER PRE FLIGHT. 

Believe it or not, I have had pilots tell me that during their pre-flight something felt odd, but they flew anyway! Yikes!… if something does not “feel right” track it down! Remember, the spoilers on an ATOS are kind of important (just a bit of an understatement?)… don’t leave home without them 😉

 Cheers and Fly Safe!

 

 

 

My Accident Report, Woodside May 27th 2020

(Previously posted on the West Coast Soaring Club Incident Forum)


Woodside Accident Report:
May 27th 2020,
I would like to start this report with a few comments. First and foremost, I’ve done many accident reports through the years (primarily for others) and it’s a privilege to be able to file this (a)live!

No matter how long you have been flying, you can never stop focusing on safety. It’s a high risk game and mistakes can be fatal. Please…. Share your mistakes so others can learn. This report is about how I let my guard down and allowed complacency and distraction to creep into my decision making process. The mistakes I made nearly ended my very long flying carrier.

The Accident:

On May 27th, 12:30, with light and variable conditions, I was attempting to launch my rigid wing hang glider (ATOS VQ-Race) off Mount Woodside in the Fraser Valley.
The conditions on launch were warm with clear sky, slightly thermic, with an inconsistent, variable breeze coming into the launch ( 0 – 5mph, generally “up the hill”). Hooked in and on launch getting ready to go, it took several minutes for conditions to yield a favorable cycle.

I picked up my glider and started my run. Within the first few steps I immediately noticed that something felt wrong. The glider felt heavy and I recall a “not quite right” sensation (which may have caused me to hesitate my stride?).

One or two more strides further into the launch run, I felt the glider was getting ahead of me and not lifting. Now totally committed to the takeoff, I was trying to keep up with the wing. In a desperate effort (too little too late), I went prone in my harness, grabbed the base and pushed out to try and save the takeoff. Too little too late, with obviously not enough airspeed, I was starting to settle back onto the slope. The control bar base tube began catching some low brush and the rock covered terrain. Very quickly, the control bar failed and crumpled at the weak links (more on this later).

With the control bar collapsed and me dragging across the terrain like an anchor, the glider pitched/flew forward, nosed over and rolled itself upside down and ended up inverted and pointed back up the hill. I distinctly remember hearing the awful noises of what sounded like my Carbon wing grinding to a halt. As the glider and I “nested” onto the hill, I ended up on my back, laying on top of the inverted undersurface of the wing. My very first thought was… “Shit… this can’t be good for my glider!” (Seriously).

It took a few seconds to assess my condition. I was pretty sure that I had some injuries but my initial assessment made me think they were minor, gloves, helmet and harness appeared to have done their job. I did a quick look around to see if the event was finished… (like Willy Coyote sitting at the bottom of a cliff waiting for a rock to come tumbling down the hill…..). Everything seemed stable, though I was still uncomfortably trapped with my harness strapping me to the wing. I then realized I had a witness who was probably thinking they just saw somebody die…. So I did the customary shout out that I was “OK”…. Stupid and embarrassed, but “OK”.

As the witness arrived, I managed to get unclipped, got myself off my wing. Pretty sure I made some sarcastic comment about the flight being much shorter than expected and moved onto the “what’s next phase”.

My next concern was the thought that…oh, oh… likely somebody down at the FlyBC ranch probably saw this and would be calling 911…. Arrrrrgh… evening news stuff. As luck would have it, Jim from FlyBC had just arrived with his usual bus load PG pilots that made up my rescue crew. After a few minutes I was able to catch my breath, get out of my harness and flight gear and coordinate the newly recruited recovery team into getting my glider back up to the setup area. (Special thanks to all of those that gently carried by baby back up to launch!)

Post-Accident Assessment:
Back on top I assessed myself for injury. My wrists were pretty sore (left wrist had some swelling, but I figured since I was still able to use the hand probably not broken). I also had a bunch of other scrapes, scuffs and bruises, no doubt were going to hurt later on when the adrenalin started to wear off. (For sure it was going to be an evening with Dr. Motrin and his nurse, Ms. Ice Pack)

The Glider…. this left me amazed. For anybody who has ever owned anything Carbon, you can appreciate how the material is both amazingly strong and at the same time very fragile. You don’t try to “fly through rock” and expect a very good outcome.

The first and most obvious damage, the control bar appeared to be a mess. This beautiful sculptured carbon fiber work of aerodynamic art was all twisted up like a pretzel. Upon closer inspection, other than some slight cosmetic damage (Downtube alignment pins) the control bar was in fact in great shape.

As a bit of a comment, what makes the ATOS downtubes special is the short length of stainless steel tubing inserted in the middle of each downtube. It is designed to crumple, absorb energy and allow the downtubes to fold in a hard landing well at the same time stop the glider from nosing over and drilling the pilot in the back of the head with the nose plate. Depending on how creative the pilot is, it does not always break/fail as designed but lucky for me, the brilliant design of the ATOS downtubes probably saved the day. (I was able to replace two of the weak links on launch, allowing me to continue the inspection with the glider upright and back on a assembled control bar.)

Next up, my biggest fear…. What had the crash done to the Carbon fiber leading edges? (To be clear… I was not trying to assess the glider for airworthiness on launch, that would come several days later with a full airframe inspection.) Much to my surprise, I was inspired by the basic inspection that found NO damage…. Given I had just try to fly my baby through rock, I was blown away. The net damage to the glider (after a full inspection several days later) was two bent downtube weak links, a bent control bar pip pin with one downtube required a minor carbon repair to an alignment pin, a very minor tear in some leading edge sail cloth (Dacron patch) and lastly some green and brown cosmetic stains across the span of the leading edges from where “mother Woodside” clawed me back to earth. (or perhaps cradled my dumb ass back onto the ground?)

All in all, both myself and my glider survived the ordeal.

No question, I was Lucky…. VERY Lucky.

Accident Evaluation:

So, now the question….. “What happened”?

The simple answer is…. I blew my launch. (Thank you Captain Obvious).

In my 45+ years of flying hang gliders I have never considered myself to be a gifted pilot. I have to work hard at flying safe and success does not come naturally. Woodside is my home site. I’ve logged hundreds of launches from this site, many of those launches in similar conditions to what I had on this day. So why was today a problem? After carefully assessing what lead to the crash I suggest it all boiled down to a few fundamental mistakes.

I started with the nose too low and flew the glider into ground. (Now that’s embarrassing). Truth is, I have always found launching a rigid wing hang glider, way easier then launching a flex wing hang. They seem so much more efficient at creating lift. There is no inflating the sail, the whole airfoil begins to generate lift from the moment you start to move through the air. As nice as this launch characteristic is, rigid wings do have one minor flaw. Some have described this flaw as a “sticky pitch”. The essence of this flaw is based on the pitch curve of a rigid wing hang glider.

The pitch curve of the ATOS-VQ is very near neutral but still considered to be “stable”. Perhaps, better explained as, when in flight putting the nose “down” (speeding up) will see the glider eventually return to trim (the speed that the glider will fly hands off). This “near neutral” characteristic is even more dramatic if the glider is not loaded via the hang strap and pilot. To deal with this characteristic on launch, all you have to do is have a slightly higher pitch setting during take-off, the glider will then lift and find its own “trim” as the glider is loaded. As I see it, my fundamental mistake was setting the nose too low and essentially flying the glider into the ground. (not certain, but I think the witnessed may have filmed the launch but left before I had chance to ask him… so maybe, somewhere out there in F-Book land or YouTube could be a video of my epic fail…. Post a link if you find it!)

In addition to the mistake of setting the pitch too low, I feel I made other accumulative mistakes that likely contributed to the accident. If you want, you can call them my little list of excuses….

I have thousands of hours of experience, hundreds of takeoffs from this very site yet I now feel the simple rule of maintain my foot launch proficiency was at the root of the mistake. From an “experience” perspective, my foot launches are starting to get rusty. In the past 10 years, nearly all of my launches have been from tow. My foot launch numbers have started to dwindle to perhaps less than 5 or 6 launches a year from Woodside (and no other foot launch site). That “rust” (such as the memory reflex that I rely upon for my pitch setting) should have inspired a more careful consideration of the launch conditions. You can get caught in a trap if you think your years of experience will automatically apply to the task in front of you. I had become complacent and should have given my “rust” greater consideration and should have waiting for more optimal launch conditions (after all, there was no pressure to launch as I was the only pilot there).

The choice of launch position was also a mistake (the spot that I had chosen to start my launch run). I decided to not use what I would normally consider to be the optimal takeoff path for these light and variable conditions. To explain my decision I should start by saying, the ATOS has a very wide wing span (44ft/13.2m). Paraglider pilots that use this launch have installed a windsock on the south side/edge of the take-off area. The position of this wind indicator does limit my options as to where I position myself for takeoff. On days where the wind has a more southerly component I will often ask that it be removed. On this day, wind conditions did have a southerly component and were very light. With only a spectator on launch and already clipped in, I made the decision to launch to the north of the sock.

This launch choice is not as steep, has some vegetation and could be considered a bit shadowed and potentially a thermal trigger point with “dead air” caused by the vegetation. Given the light conditions I should have not compromised my options.

BTW, the position of this sock has been something I have tried to deal with in the past. I’ve tried to have this sock moved to a position lower down on the south slope but it keeps migrating back up the hill by the PG community. Not blaming anybody as I easily could have asked for the sock to be removed but I don’t believe the paragliding community fully grasps the safety risk it creates… a risk that I should have dealt with myself.

Last on my list of excuses… a little thing about the psychology of flying, or as I like to call it, a “head full of distractions”.

We all have them… those day to day “things” you experience and store in your head. Most good pilots can compartmentalize this stuff and put those “things” away, not allowing them to interfere with the task at hand. Thing is, having investigated many crashes through the years I am well aware that distraction has proven to be a major influence on how a pilot handles the decision making processes. We should never have a head full of issues when we get onto launch. The problem is, you need to identify when the distractions are getting out of hand (or cannot be ignored).

For example, in my crowded little box of distractions….

There is this Covid Pandemic thing out there. Unless your living in a cave, this topic can’t help but linger in the back of your mind. My work, my summer flying plans, my local flying all get to share space in my brain with this “little flu”.

Also, on the list of distractions was a great sadness that I have started to develop regarding “My Mother Woodside”. Woodside is the only site in the lower mainland that I can fly my rigid wing. It’s truly very sad how my favorite flying site of the last 40+ years has been decimated/raped by all of its users. The road has taken a pounding, there are no more peaceful times to be had without crowds. We now see (more than ever) vandalism, garbage and destruction of our launch (I mean, for God’s sake… how many times can you put a bullet in a defenceless out-house?) . The crowding and use has reached the point I can no longer bring myself to fly the site on a sunny weekend. I now have to time my adventures to rare mid-week trips.

On the day of my accident, I had deliberately gone out early with some garbage bags, rake and shovel just to clean up the mess of multiple fire pits and garbage on launch (some of the limited space in my head was also being taken up with special thoughts regarding my fellow humans that feel crapping on our beautiful launch is something they feel obliged to do….)

Next distraction, the flying conditions.

I had hoped my planning for this weekday flight was going to pay off with a rewarding cross country. Unfortunately as launch time approached it became obvious the conditions were crapping out with the dreaded stabling out of the Fraser Valley air mass. As I got out to launch I was truly doubting I could get to the high ground needed to go XC. I know for sure, my attitude on launch was “let’s get this over with” (oh, my…..”negative waves Moriarty”… famous movie quote by Donald Sutherland)

Lastly, like all of us, I have my own little sack of “Life’s little distractions”… they were generously tossed into the mix probably not that helpful.
I suspect, on this day I did a poor job shutting the distractions out but being on the hill there is no question my focus should have been on flying. It might even have been a good time to ask myself, should I be flying?

Hopefully, if you have managed to make it this far in my report…. I suggest there are a few takeaway/lessons to be had.

Maintain your skills. Don’t let experience turn into complacency, or worse let all of your experience create a false confidence.

Don’t let the “rust” build up. Know your skills and be honest about what it takes to maintain those skills/proficiency. If your skills are starting to suffer, improve your odds by accommodating those weaknesses, pick better conditions, pick a better time or just take the time to knock off the rust (hopefully by not attempting to fly through rock?).

Focus on the task at hand. Do not ignore things that may have an influence on your decision making. If faced with challenges where options could improve your situation, do not ignore the opportunity to change/improve your plan.

Heck, maybe just avoid trying fly through rock?

Cheers and thanks for your time.

Fly Safe!

Martin Henry