Session #14

June 5, 2016

Site: Dog Mtn

Time: approx noon

Conditions: SW breeze 5-12 with cycles where you could hear it in the trees at launch, 80-85F very warm day. Direction and velocity were cycling.

Cummulative flights to date: 20

Assistance at launch: left wing tip

Number of flights: 1 crash immediately after launch

Dave and Dianna Auman where at launch with a friend. Dianna and their friend launched and were having OK flights from what Dave could see. I decided to have Dave assist me while standing on the ramp to get a feel for the conditions to make a decision on whether to attempt a launch. I had Dave on my left wing tip. From what I recall, he was actively assisting me 80% of the time I stood on launch.  This should have been a clear indicator that I should reconsider attempting a launch.  The breeze did not feel consistent and even the best cycles did not come straight in. This also should have been all I needed to scrap the attempt and wait to see what the day would bring. I launched anyway. The launch on that short ramp had me intimidated but my run and take off felt OK with the wings reasonably level. Immediately after launching I got my right foot up and over the leading edge but I was unable to put enough pressure forward with my hands to keep the nose from pitching up significantly. About the same time I felt I was turning left and input right rudder to correct. I applied too much rudder and found myself in a sharp right turn at a high bank angle headed for the treeline on the right side of launch. With no room left I held things steady and slowed the ship down with the slim possibility that I would clear the tree line. I was 6-8ft short and impacted the only dead snag in the tree line. The glider hung up where it hit. I was easily able to disconnect from the sling attaching me to the glider and get out of the tree. The glider sustained significant damage. Very likely that I will need to rebuild the entire left wing panels which will take several months of shop time. My injuries were minor abrasion to my right elbow and major bruising to my rib cage on the left side.

What did I learn:

Cleaning sand out of the glider is a lot easier than a re-build. 20 consecutive successful launches and landings off a 70-80ft high dune might have been sufficient training to launch and land at this site if all of those flights had been in the bare glider or hammock sling seat configuration where I had mastered kicking up into the cage. This was a ramp launch, cycling breeze, slightly crosswind and lots more vertical to the LZ (read: intimidation factor)...my focus was getting up into the cage as quickly as possible having only done this once on the last session I had at the beach which was clearly insufficient.

What to do next:

I need to practice more at Kiwanda until kicking up into the cage becomes not only automatic but with as little perturbation in pitch as possible. Rudder control must also be much more automatic (part of what I experienced was over control into that right turn). I believe at least 20 more flights off the dune needs to happen where I kick up into the cage with very little pitch perturbation. This may take even more than 20 flights. The coastal dune site I have been using requires a right turn fairly soon after launch to avoid landing in the surf so my experience to date actually has given me some practice in making small roll changes without over control. The key here is that it was not enough training in the final flying configuration I will be flying the Easy Riser in. Recall from my previous training flight that it was the first time I kicked up both feet onto the leading edge and flew down in the cage. I had convinced myself that it was so easy to do I did not need to repeat it before going to the next step and launch from the Dog Mtn ramp. Needless to say I was wrong on that decision. Two things happening simultaneously I believe was key to my incident at Dog. Failing to execute the swing up into the cage without maintaining constant angle of attack and at the same time needing to make a roll correction to maintain a straight off flight path. Clearly I was unable to do both. Another part of this I did not get to explore was the landing which requires the pilot to drop both feet off the leading edge while holding pitch steady. I noticed this on the last flight off the dune. I dismissed it as something minor but feel it could cause a whip stall if one got in a hurry to drop while still well above the ground on approach. This glider is very easy to fly but will quickly spin in if stalled in a turn. The last flight I had at the beach I found it took a mental effort to let my feet come down out of the cage since it is such a secure and comfortable position. So I think dropping my feet early is not going to be a problem but I'd rather make darn sure through sufficient practice at the beach.

Unfortunately the impact very likely tweeked the entire frame so I will need to do a complete re-build involving at the very least, fabrication of the lower left leading edge spar which was completely broken on impact and then, of course re-covering and re-rigging. I am also guessing the internal root diagonal brace rib was also destroyed so I will need to create a form to reproduce that curved rib with new tubing. Because of the difficulty in covering I experienced with the first re-build, I plan to replace any of the frame tubing I need to in order to achieve a completely straight and true frame. I will likely document this in a continuation of my intitial re-build blog (easyriser1.blogspot.com).

Re: Pilot safety
I did not break ribs but I did bruise or crack a couple that took at least two months to heal.  I plan to buy a rib cage protector vest available for go cart racers next.  The pilot position totally exposes the rib cage to those 2 inch hang tubes so that any lateral force on impact is going to do some damage to your rib cage.  With this configuration I would judge this to be almost as important as wearing a helmet.