FW: [nwparagliding] Almost getting sucked into a Q-nim

[Discover Paragliding!]

A great post from Matty Senior up in Seattle.

 

Going XC this weekend? Think about this experience.

 

Seems a familiar story somehow...

 

Happy to hear all involved are alive and well!!!

 

Brad

 

See you up there,

 

Brad and Maren

Your 'Couple' of Instructors!

www.DiscoverParagliding.com

503-861-2772 (w) 503-440-0733 (c)

 

From: nwpara...@yahoogroups.com [mailto:nwpara...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of MattySenior
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 10:56 AM
To: nwpara...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [nwparagliding] Almost getting sucked into a Q-nim__ 

 

"Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies has lived. We
take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping
us." This is a quote I heard of about 6 months ago and wrote it down
on a small piece of paper and put it into the window of my wallet. It
reminds me of why I enjoy paragliding so much and is a reflection of
how I like to look at life. On Tuesday I (we) almost died flying on
the flats by getting sucked into the convergence of two Cumulus
Nimbus developments. I wanted to write about my(our) experience so
others can learn from our very foolish mistakes.
It was the third day of the Chelan Classic, with a forecast of 99
degrees, light winds with a 20% chance of thunderstorms, the day was
shaping up to be identical to the day before. We had a small
contingent of paraglider pilots at the comp and had all been working
together, flying together as much as possible and sharing
information. The day before we all managed to fly around the edge of
some pretty large developments with great success all managing some
pretty nice flights. Tuesday shaped up to be very similar to the day
before as we watched the clouds begin to build. Climb rates were
strong (1500fpm+) and cloud base was around 12,000feet. As we moved
out onto the flats at around 2:30 the developments were big but there
was plenty of blue around them and no immediate threat. As we moved
east over Mansfield things started to look much better to the east
with 95% of the sky totally blue there were only a few small Q's to
be seen ahead of us. Our self appointed task for the day was Sims
corner and back to the soccer field about 100km and very achievable
considering the conditions. There were 5 of us working as a group
Brian Webb, Conrad Kreick, Brett Yeates, Kyndel Banister and myself.
As we pushed on to our turnpoint at Simms Corner the small Q's ahead
of us began to build but no bigger than the day before. We were all
very aware of the conditions radioing back and forward to one another
of our observations, thoughts and concerns. East still looked good
but behind us there was a large cell growing fast over Waterville
indicated by an increasing amount of shadowing on the ground below
it. There was also another Q'nim forming fast toward Brewster with
its anvil head blasting tens of thousand feet in the sky. As we took
the turn point and headed back towards Mansfield there was a nice
blue street separating these two developments with some small Q's
forming in the middle of it. At that point we all were aware the day
was drawing to a close and getting back to the soccer field was going
to be impossible. We talked amongst ourselves agreeing we should just
fly back to Mansfield and land. Brian was out front by a mile or so
and radioed through that he was in some serious lift, spiraling and
going up and suggested it was time to land. Brian is a very
experienced pilot and it took me all of 1 second to follow his advice
and begin spiraling myself. From 7000feet I began to wind my Boom 5
up tighter than I have ever spiraled before. With its long lines it
only took about 20-30 seconds before I couldn't handle the G's any
more so exited and looked at my instruments again to notice I was now
at 7100feet. This is when I began to realize the seriousness of the
situation I was in and needed to get down fast. I went straight back
into a hard spiral holding it for twice as long, pulling massive G's
and descending at over 2000feet per minute. Eventually I had to stop
to avoid blacking out, I noticed my altitude was now 7400 feet. I
couldn't keep doing spiral after spiral so smashed my speed bar
pulling big, big ears trying to fly away from our blue corridor that
had suddenly turned black as the two cells took over the sky. Conrad
had luckily landed just before Sims and wasn't in danger, Kyndel was
still pushing on to Mansfield tracking to the south of me and Brian
was still in a similar predicament as me only closer to the eminent
gust front. Brett and a hang pilot were several thousand feet below
me spiraling hard as well. My goal now was to fly around until I
could find some air that wasn't going up at 1500fpm+ and spiral in
that and try to get on the ground as quick as I could. I was lucky
and found a very small patch of 200-300fpm up and spiraled my brains
out trying to focus on pegging away at 1000 feet at a time.
I was thinking I really need to focus now on being careful not to
black out, taking quick 10-15 second breaks in between sets to ease
the G's and give the stomach muscles a break. Below I saw Brett land
by the road as I continued to track the sink north over his head
spiraling hard. Less than 2-3 miles away the gust front was
approaching and the wind on the ground was getting bad. Although the
wind was a concern I just wanted to get down and if it meant getting
dragged through some flat fields I was OK with that so long as I
wasn't in the air. I continued my spirals to 100feet above the ground
then pulled my ears in and radioed through to the group that I was OK
and going to be on the ground soon. I landed on a road going forward,
immediately detaching myself from the wing, put my hand on my knees
and began to dry reach from the G's I had endured. I was alive, safe
and very very lucky. Within 1 minute of being on the ground the wind
picked up from 20mph to 40mph+. Brian however wasn't so lucky he got
caught by the gust front coming into land several miles west. With
his comp glider on full speed he was flying backwards fast. At the
same time Conrad was on the ground nearby and observed the winds to
be at least 30-40 mph. Brian landed going backwards and was dragged
face first through a dry dusty field. Blinded and choking on the dust
as he got dragged, he managed to pull on one brake until he had one
wing tip in his hand disabling the glider. Kyndel got lucky and found
a good line of sinking air on his way west and landed safely seconds
before the gust front.
Here is a list of the mistakes we made and lessons we learned from
our very narrow escape.
•We flew back towards a developing sky because there was a blue
corridor.
•We were fixated on two tasks, first flying back towards the soccer
field, then once that began to be unachievable back to Mansfield.
•We were fixated on the task(s) rather than safety.
•We should have landed sooner or flown away from the development.
•We ignored signs on the ground of strong vertical development –
dusties converging.
•Always try to fly out of the strong lift to spiral down.
•Hopefully no one will ever been in a similar situation but if you
are turn the volume of your radio on full so you can hear updates
from fellow pilots while your spiraling and make sure your sink alarm
is on so you can audibly hear your descents. (There is nothing worse
than spiraling hard with your leading edge horizontal to the horizon
and your vario beeping that you're climbing.)
•Don't push full speed bar then pull bug ears on a comp wing.
•Make sure you don't blackout because of the G forces created by high
descent rate spirals.
•If in doubt land.
 ,_._,___

[Steve Forslund]

I was on the ground before any big lift or gust fronts and radioed that it was anvilling out 15 minutes prior. There was a column of rain going down and dust going up east of us (the overdevelopment was along the rim) with the energy passing to the north.There was also a monster stationary(20-40 minutes) dust devil that looked about 10 acres wide a perfect column that  looked structural as if holding up the clouds. Further south the sky let go at once with a wide line of dust heading towards Mansfield. When I landed at Mansfield the wind was very light, 5 minutes later it was 8-12 and 5 minutes more it was 25-30. Some hang pilots were landing on purpose while others were still high flying towards the clouds. Hang Pilots also returned to the Butte below the over development before the gust front

 

Sorry no pictures I forgot my memory card that day.

 

 

Steve Forslund

MC Construction

602 471 9180