Incident at Bald Butte Saturday

[David Cantrell]

Well, the spring carnage continues, even though we are well into the flying season.  There was another paraglider incident Saturday.  The incident occurred at Bald Butte, in the LZ at the Ranger Station.

Mark S., Patrick J., and I went to fly Bald Butte.  Patrick J. landed in the pear trees (two rows in). He missed the tree, however the glider did not and was draped across the tree. He was injured but still able to walk around. The injury occurred when he hit the ground standing upright.  Patrick exhibited progressive pain by the time we got the glider out of the tree so we made a trip to the emergency room.  The word I got was the femur bone was cracked below the knee.

The land owner was also very upset.  The pears were still green and we knocked a bunch of them off the tree.  The landowner did provide a ladder and poles to assist getting the glider out of the tree.  The farmer would not accept any compensation for the lost crop, he just wanted us off his property.  The farmers eldest son suggested we visit his wifes fruit stand up the road and make a purchase, so we did. 

The farmer had a brilliant suggestion also, one that I have heard somewhere, I just can’t remember where.  It may have been during our beginner training, mentoring program, clinics, site guides, pop-up windows.  Anyway, he suggested people should not fly there that cannot land in a LZ of that size (which is just smaller than a soccer field). 

Lessons Learned:

1.     No, we don’t need to post ladders and poles at the site when we go flying there.

2.     No, we don’t need another pop-up window on the site quide.

On a more serious note though :

1.     Make sure your radios are in working order.  I was originally hanging out at 3K ft. trying to hook a thermal and a mile away from the LZ, when I observed the pilots glider drapped across a tree.  I could not see the pilot moving around.  I radioed the pilot multiple times but got no response. I started sinking out because of lack of concentration, so I pushed out to go land and see what was going on in the LZ. It turns out, the pilots radio keeps jumping frequencies and won’t lock.

 

2.     Pilots just have to know what their limitations are.  Even if a pilot has a restricted LZ sign-off, if your skills are rusty, perhaps you should fly elsewhere or plan ahead to land elsewhere.  The LZ conditions were light North wind and light thermic action.  I did not experience any abnormal conditions flying out to the LZ from launch. 

 

Anyway, I am glad Patrick’s injury was not more serious.  It really bothers me to see my fellow flying buddies get injured.

 

       3.    Be very familiar with how to perform a parachute landing fall (PLF).  I have done hundreds of them and in my opinion they are much safer to do than trying to

             stand upright upon landing.  It’s just more convenient to stand upright upon landing.  You can do a safe PLF traveling backwards, sideways, forwards, or

             straight down. I have done them all, at night, in foggy conditions, and loaded with equipment.  The trick to performing a PLF is to become so familiar

             with them that you can PLF without having to think about how to do one, because the need to PLF in this sport is usually a split second decision.

 

    Thats all for now, I need a beer !

 

Dave

[Oleg]

Is Patrick OK though?
How was the air?
What time did you guys launch?

[gabe]

I thought the femur was above the knee?  Sorry to hear about Patrick.  I know that from experience any given LZ looks a lot bigger from the ground than it does from the air.  Another way to improve tight LZ capabilities greatly is to become proficient in the use of a paramotor.  Motors afford the ability to practice landing a thousand times more frequently than free flight, and also when you have 75 lbs of awkward engine on your back you tend to try and hit the spot that is closest to the car as you can.  It has made me MUCH more confident in tight LZ use.  

[Mark Sanzone]

 

That is correct.  It was not a femur fracture, but a fibula fracture (small bone behind your shinbone).  I got an update from Patrick today.  Stable fracture, no surgery. 

 

Here is some generic info I looked up:

 

Fibular fractures in adults are typically due to trauma. Isolated fibular fractures comprise the majority of ankle fractures in older women, occurring in approximately 1 to 2 of every 1000 white women each year [1]. Fibular fractures may also occur as the result of repetitive loading and in this case they are referred to as stress fractures.

In older adults, the key risk factor for fractures of the fibular or tibial shaft appears to be bone mass. Factors that reduce bone mass had greater impact than overall health status or other risk factors for falling. Cigarette smoking is another important risk factor for fibular fractures [2].

Athletes engaged in sports that involve cutting, particularly those associated with contact or collision, have a higher incidence of fibular fractures [3]. Typical examples include American football, soccer, and rugby. Participants in downhill winter sports have relatively high rates of fibular fractures. These are more common in snowboarding than skiing, and fracture patterns are different for each. Skiers often fracture the proximal third of the tibia and also the fibula, whereas snowboarders are more likely to sustain isolated fractures of the distal third of the fibula.  They can also occur in paragliding due to impact with the ground. 

 

I made up that last line...

 

Mark 

[Patrick Johansen]

Air was very turbulent when I landed. Wind was from the NE while I was
coming in. I was doing "S" turns over the last row of pear trees to lose
altitude. I was about 30' over the last row of pear trees when the wind
abruptly switched to NW and picked up speed. I turned into the wind to
land and just dropped rapidly with little forward motion. When I hit the
ground I had my knees slightly bent, my right foot landed on a rock or
something and slightly twisted my ankle. I rolled but then couldn't get
up. I felt like I had ripped a muscle or tendon.

With the wind blowing that much from the north, the forest service building
creates a great deal of turbulence in the LZ.

My wing blew back with the lines hitting the first row of trees and the wing
going into the second row.

I didn't realize my radio had changed freq. until I tried to call Dave to
warn him of the turbulence in the LZ.


Patrick Johansen
Pat...@PK80.com
503-781-4492

-----Original Message-----
From: cp...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Oleg
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 6:53 PM
To: Cascade Paragliding Club
Subject: CPC: Re: Incident at Bald Butte Saturday

[Steve Forslund]

Here is a google picture of the Bald LZ.

Doing s turns it is important to keep your energy/airspeed up or as you
drop through the gradient you may end up flying too slow, close to a
stall or spin and needing a bit of a surge to get back up to flying
speed. Not saying that is what happened just pointing it out.

SF

[Patrick Johansen]

Went back to the Ortho doctor last night.  He has taken off even the brace.  He says the bone is cracked just below the knee, but if that was all that was wrong he would tell me to but an Ace bandage on it and wait for it to heal.

 

The big problem is that the tendon is torn.  He says that my foot must have twisted inwards, twisting the tendon and ripping it, and the same to the bone.   He says I can walk on it and don't have to worry about putting weight on it.  I can walk on it as long as I can stand the pain.

 

I tried it, I cant stand the pain.    But I have found that I can walk on it with a cane, so I don't need the brace and don't need the crutches, so this makes working a little easier.   He said that it will take about 6 to 8 weeks to heal, no sports till then.

 

He said that in about 8 weeks I will be able to tap dance again.  That is really cool because I couldn't tap dance before.

 

So, it appear the real culprit was that I landed and twisted my ankle.

 

Patrick Johansen

Pat...@PK80.com

503-781-4492

 

---

From: cp...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mark Sanzone
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2012 9:09 PM
To: weownthe...@gmail.com; cp...@googlegroups.com
Cc: David Cantrell
Subject: Re: CPC: Re: Incident at Bald Butte Saturday

[Cloudsurf Paragliding]

Sorry you got hurt Patrick,
Get better quick. It happens!

[Erik O]

Patrick, Just curious... do you wear a low cut shoe, or a sturdy boot with ankle support?  

I have both and it's always attractive to fly or hike light.  

Hope you get better soon.

[tobias]

I had a little problem there a couple of years ago.  I set up my normal landing pattern and then ran into a sink hole that caused my glider to get intimate with one of the fruit trees.  So, the evidence would suggest there's some bad sink ju ju there which should oughta be avoided.  An approach over the fruit trees should probably be avoided to  eliminate the ju ju.  Just saying.

...Toby

On Monday, July 23, 2012 6:26:59 PM UTC-7, Dave Cantrell wrote:

[Patrick Johansen]

So in looking back, in the future I would not do "S" turns over the trees but come 20 feet further north so that if something goes wrong, I would not end up in his trees.    The field is pretty small though so if the wind is out of the North, and it is thermal, it can be a pretty tight landing.   I have thought a lot about Steve's comment, about coming in too slow, and that could be part of the issue.  I did put on some break because I didn't want to come in fast because there isn't much space but that might not be the best thing to do.

 

Patrick Johansen

Pat...@PK80.com

503-781-4492

 

---

From: cp...@googlegroups.com [mailto:cp...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of tobias
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 9:24 PM

To: cp...@googlegroups.com
Cc: David Cantrell

Subject: CPC: Re: Incident at Bald Butte Saturday