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By remmoore
#401132
On a related thread regarding HG incident reporting, NME wrote:
"Buy the USHPA digital archive https://ushpastore.com/collections/fron ... 9346102599
Read the decades of extensive accidents reports in past issues until it stopped. There is almost nothing new happening since then. SOS--different day. :roll:"

Overall, I agree with his suggestion. Those of us who have been doing this for long enough see many of the same mistakes repeating through the years. I think, however, there may be some mistakes which are not so common, but still tend to bite advancing pilots. I think it would be great to list and discuss as many as we care to. I'll start:

Mt. Diablo tend to attract brand-new H4's - pilots who've been dying to fly there, but didn't have the rating to do so until now. One of the skills many of these pilots haven't yet been exposed to much is the uphill landing. Initiating new H4's to varying degrees of uphill LZ's isn't very difficult, but there is one aspect of the skill I used to not emphasize, until the incident occurred...

The one point I never thought to emphasize regarding uphill landings is - you land going uphill. I didn't realize that there might be pilots that were so entrenched in the goal of landing into the wind, that they thought it superseded landing uphill on a significant slope. I had a H4 pilot attempt to land flying downhill ( and I do mean down a hill!) and realize too late he wasn't going to come even close to pulling it off. He tried to climb up over some low powerlines to land in an adjacent gold course. He clipped the lines, dove into an adjoining street, and woke up to a cop standing over him saying, "Are you all right, buddy?" He was lucky to have only a moderate concussion and heavily damaged wing. It was then that I realized not everyone is going to recognize that uphill landings require the commitment to edit the ingrained directive to land into the wind. I now discuss this situation with every pilot new to Mt Diablo, and I think there are plenty of other pilots who might not yet understand how to avoid such a mishap.

RM
By kan-glider
#401136
Hi All;

I think this is a great idea. The title “HG MISTAKES TO BE AWARE OF” says it all.

1. I further propose (and thus agree with remmoore) that this could be a repository of individually listed such mistakes that are either observed or experienced.

2. I also propose that each post on this topic might well illustrate ONLY ONE such mistake. Long winded and complicated posts may be perceived as tedious. Be clear and concise.

3. I also propose that we avoid micro-analyzing or otherwise dissecting each post.

4. I also propose that we avoid being contentious, being argumentative, or adopting a negative “tone” to these posts. I’ve noticed often times, that when people get arguing, they are surprisingly actually agreeing (in principle) with each other, but are describing their points of view differently. Give the author of the post a break. We're all on the same side, right?

5. I also propose that we STAY ON TOPIC.



The format for my posts on this topic may be outlined, all or in part, as follows:



What was the mistake? (IN CAPITAL LETTERS; the very first sentence in order to bring immediate focus to the reader)

What bad consequence could have, or did actually happen?

At what point in time did the pilot or others start to go wrong? What could they have done at that time to eliminate this event? I’m concerned here about the incipient stage of the event.

When the upcoming bad outcome became obvious to the pilot or others at the later stage of the event, what could they have done then to minimize or even eliminate the bad outcome?

What did I learn from this example?



I will start contributing shortly.

Doug
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By NMERider
#401137
Dang, Doug! That was a great proposal! Here we go:

Mistake: FLARING IN A TURN!!!

Consequences: Whacks, downtubes, tip wands, Greek Chorus heckling.

Incipient Stage: Poor hand transitions, going for the cone, control lag, poor awareness of the glider momentum, too short final leg.

Minimizing Steps: Run out the landing, forget about the cone.

What's I learn?: Focus on a clean, straight, yaw & roll-free ground skim and forget about style points or the cone.
By kan-glider
#401140
Mistake: FIDDLING AROUND WITH GETTING INTO YOUR COCOON OR POD IMMEDIATELY AFTER FOOT LAUNCH (be it hill/cliff or surface tow foot launch)

Consequences: Being distracted with this when you should be attending FULLY to getting and keeping control, resulting in a wonky transition away from launch. Partial or complete loss of control, delay in a much-needed response to turbulence, and a minor or major crash (depending on site) may be the result.

Incipient stage: Forget about getting into cocoon or pod until WELL away from the hill (or ground) and until good clean and fast control has been attained. Visualize each launch just prior to launch to NOT include any early pod or cocoon attention.

Minimizing Steps: If you feel the glider being sluggish, PULL IN, attain good control first; don’t continue fooling with cocoon or pod. Resolve to not fool with pod or cocoon that early next time.

What I learned: Right after launch, hang semi-prone, keep good speed and control all the way out. Be high and well away from the hill (or ground) before making an attempt to get into pod or cocoon.
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By AIRTHUG
#401149
re: above, cocoon fiddling...

Stepping into a cocoon harness is actually much easier to do immediately after the launch run. Take as many steps as needed for your launch, then one more right into the cocoon. If you miss, then absolutely FLY THE GLIDER before worrying about it any further. I just wanted to drop this idea here because, once you fly around semi-prone, and especially after transitioning hands to the base tube, stepping into a cocoon is like 400% more difficult. If you watch experienced cocoon pilots- a lot of whom are "old schoolers"- you see that immediate step right into the harness. That's not to be cool... it's because it's actually way easier that way :wink:

YRMV, AYOR, MSMD, PPPPPPP...
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By mgforbes
#401152
Failure to recognize a significant change in conditions

Jean Lake, Nevada, evening glass-off, west-facing ridge.

Soaring for over an hour, pointed west into the setting sun, back and forth across the desert scrub and rocks. Time to land.

Strange...the windsock is pointed downhill? Must be broken. I'm right above it and the wind is blowing uphill. Oh, well.

Why is my ground speed so insanely high? It's almost like I'm landing downwind!

<whack>

Early evening, catabatic flow. Air aloft is still flowing uphill, but on the surface where the rocks have cooled off, it's flowing *down* the face of the ridge. Standard protocol is to fly cross/downwind directly at the ridge, into the down-slope flow, and land going uphill into the wind. Instead of what I did, downhill and downwind. Conditions can change rapidly with altitude.

MGF
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By TjW
#401155
mgforbes wrote: Mon Nov 20, 2017 3:32 pm Failure to recognize a significant change in conditions

Jean Lake, Nevada, evening glass-off, west-facing ridge.

Soaring for over an hour, pointed west into the setting sun, back and forth across the desert scrub and rocks. Time to land.

Strange...the windsock is pointed downhill? Must be broken. I'm right above it and the wind is blowing uphill. Oh, well.

Why is my ground speed so insanely high? It's almost like I'm landing downwind!

<whack>

Early evening, catabatic flow. Air aloft is still flowing uphill, but on the surface where the rocks have cooled off, it's flowing *down* the face of the ridge. Standard protocol is to fly cross/downwind directly at the ridge, into the down-slope flow, and land going uphill into the wind. Instead of what I did, downhill and downwind. Conditions can change rapidly with altitude.

MGF
This can happen at Crestline, too. Here, though, there's a mistake to make even after you recognize the wind shift, and that's being focused on landing on the grass. Our custom-built LZ is normally a slight uphill slope into the prevailing wind.
In catabatic conditions, the grass is a slight downhill into the wind. Solution? Don't land on the grass. Deliberately overshoot the grass into the training hill area, which is flat for a short while before heading up again. You might get a sticker in your sock from the weeds, but the landing will be much easier.
To generalize: don't get so hung up on what you normally do as to ignore a safer solution.
By Dave Gills
#401174
Load tension on the hang strap & get to the control bar as quickly as possible.

Launching into a monster thermal with your arms around the down tubes is a good way to get your ass kicked.