Ozgun update

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Mark Sanzone

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Dec 3, 2019, 10:26:48 PM12/3/19
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He texted that he had the surgery and it went well!  

Jason Wronski

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Dec 3, 2019, 11:22:37 PM12/3/19
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AWESOME

Michael Cook

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Dec 4, 2019, 11:02:23 AM12/4/19
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He's gonna be needing help I am guessing over the next few weeks in particular. Maybe a club effort? Schedule a few dinners and whatnot brought over? 

dave_blizzard

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Dec 4, 2019, 3:22:18 PM12/4/19
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Just visited Ozgun at OHSU.  He looks great and has an attitude to match.  The surgery went well and his prognosis seems to be all thumbs up.  I understand that his back now has 2 rods up and 2 rods down from L1 for stability.  After leaving the hospital, he'll be staying with friends in Lake Oswego for about a month - until he is cleared to fly.  He's most appreciative of our offers to help and will keeps us informed,  I'll be bringing the club's walker and a pair of crutches to him tomorrow.

dave_blizzard

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Dec 5, 2019, 5:30:02 PM12/5/19
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I took Ozgun our CPC's walker earlier today and he was most appreciative.  Seems he may need it very soon - he's doing so well that he will likely be released to his friends in Lake Oswego later this afternoon.  More good news is that his wife and son are coming tomorrow for an extended stay - Oz has realized that he'll need more help than he originally thought. 

Dirk Larson

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Dec 5, 2019, 5:44:02 PM12/5/19
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Good news. I cannot think of a better ambassador than you, Dave. Thanks for being there for a CPC family member.

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 5, 2019, at 2:30 PM, dave_blizzard <davemb...@gmail.com> wrote:


I took Ozgun our CPC's walker earlier today and he was most appreciative.  Seems he may need it very soon - he's doing so well that he will likely be released to his friends in Lake Oswego later this afternoon.  More good news is that his wife and son are coming tomorrow for an extended stay - Oz has realized that he'll need more help than he originally thought. 

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Özgün Babur

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Dec 9, 2019, 4:15:38 PM12/9/19
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Hi everyone, it is scary to see a mail list thread with someone's own name. I am really grateful for all your care after my accident. It significantly changed the rest of my life.

What happened:

On Saturday Nov 30th, I arrived to Cliffside around noon to fly. Perfect timing as the wind was picking up a little bit, making it soarable. Prepared myself for the extra cold weather. On top of my winter gloves, I was wearing mittens. I launched and started flying as usual. After several zig zags around/over launch height, I noticed a light thermal patch just over the launch and decided to chase it to climb further. I started a left turn, then realized that I need to turn tighter to better clear from the hill. As I increased my left brake, I got into a spin. I did a hands up to recover and I thought that the wing was recovering, but it didn't. And after a few seconds I hit somewhere between launch and the weather station.

After the accident:

I was lying still on the ground and remember hearing people. While there were many people helping me I remember talking to Wes and Andy. They were firm about not moving me before the ambulance arrived. Later I learned that this seriously saved me from a permanent injury. My L1 was totally shattered and my surgeon said it is very uncommon to have no nerve damage when L1 is in that shape. I got a fusion surgery on Monday and discharged from the hospital on Friday.

Causes:

The accident was 100% my error. I can only speculate on what caused it.
1. Relatively new wing: I recently upgraded my wing to Gin Leopard from M6. I thought I was ready for this move but probably I was mistaken.
2. Winter gloves and wraps: I usually fly with a wrap after taking the brakes. But that day my hands were substantially larger due to extra mittens on them. I didn't account for that when I wrapped the brake lines. Probably I was using more brakes than I was realizing.
3. Possible excessive outer brake: Kelly gave me a feedback several weeks ago after watching my flying at Sollie. He said when I am active piloting the wing in a turn, my outer hand also goes down more than usual. Same thing may be happening just before my spin.
4. Not tossing the reserve: I was not high enough maybe but still I think a better desicion after the spin would be to throw my reserve immediately. I had a Beamer in my harness and it could be opened in few seconds.
5. Using the wrong harnesses: I have Lightness 2, which is great for being light, but less great for back protection. It has a certified protector foam at the bottom. Upper back is protected by the stuff in the storage space. But between them, there is the reserve and there is only a thin foam between the reserve and the pilot. I think this is also where L1 is. I should have chosen a better harness.

Aftermath:

I honestly feel ashamed of this incident. If it was someone else, I would label that guy as dangerous and be careful around him. The incident made modifications on my self image.

I thank everyone who helped me during and after the event. I also apologize to everyone who I stole from their flying times.

I am currently using the "club walker" that Dave B. brought to me before my discharge. Thanks for that. It is very useful. Thanks to Mark S. for visiting me in the hospital, and to David Le for driving my car to Portland and keeping it. Thanks to Wes and Andy and other people caring for me just after the crash. Thanks to Kelly for giving me the important feedback. If only I could use it better. And thanks to everyone who messaged me when I was in hospital.

Gliderpete

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Dec 9, 2019, 5:14:52 PM12/9/19
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DearOzgun,

1. So sorry to hear of your suffering and so glad that the prognosis looks pretty good.

2. Thank you for a really beautiful write up.

3. One more factor in this event is the choice to initiate and continue a circle toward the hill without enough clearance for safety

We are all, or at least most of us, closer to having this accident than we think. Keeping enough distance from the hill in a small thermal is not a trivial judgment call, and I for one find it sorta surprising that we don’t have more accidents than we actually seem to experience. Seems like once we commit to the 360 that is a few inches too close to the slope, there is essentially no way to recover. Every time we choose to circle there is that point of no return as we begin to come around to facing the slope. We have to make that critical call about continuing the circle, and do it correctly every time. I know I’ve sometimes been lucky and left way too little margin. There is no rule of thumb to know where that threshold is... we just have a few milliseconds to call it and leave “enough” margin. Humility may be helpful.
I am far from perfect at this. However, when I’m thinking straight I try to recognize that final last chance to turn out of each circle and consciously make the commitment to continue each time, noticing my clearance with those high stakes in mind. I intend to do that until I’m high enough to clear the top of the hill. As I said. Not perfect at this. Thank you for the painful reminder. Best wishes for a reasonably comfortable recovery process and so thankful for your neurological intact- ness. Pete

Sent from my iPad

> On Dec 9, 2019, at 1:15 PM, Özgün Babur <ozgun...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi everyone, it is scary to see a mail list thread with someone's own name. I am really grateful for all your care after my accident. It significantly changed the rest of my life.
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Mark Sanzone

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Dec 9, 2019, 6:14:01 PM12/9/19
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Ozgun,  
Great write up, thanks for sharing.  Don't be too hard on yourself.  We have ALL made mistakes that resulted in some level of injury and then berated ourselves for it.  (The exception may be some of you very new pilots who have not done this yet! Rest assured your day will come :)

Another thing to note is that it was not one thing that lead to the accident but a multitude of contributing factors.  This has been the case in every accident I have ever heard of.  

We all wish you the best for a quick recovery. 

Mark

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Kate Eagle

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Dec 9, 2019, 7:21:37 PM12/9/19
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Thanks for the write-up, Ozgun! Sharing your incident will certainly help the rest of us have a bit more perspective on our own flying! So grateful for the pilots intervention onsite to help prevent further spine injury and glad to hear that you are doing remarkably well following such a serious accident! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

info

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Dec 9, 2019, 8:02:09 PM12/9/19
to ozgun...@gmail.com, Cascade Paragliding Club
So glad you are well and going to be Okay.

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jeffrey wishnie

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Dec 9, 2019, 8:13:00 PM12/9/19
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Echoing the others: very glad you are recovering well, and thank you for the write up.

Years ago I had a good conversation with someone, probably Santacroce or Gadd or Belcourt or all of them, about maintaining a margin-of-safety.

We all know paragliding is risky, and we work to manage and mitigate the risk. 

This person had a good rule of thumb to help newish pilots maintain margin: never change 3 things, and be extra wary if you've changed 2.

At the time we were talking about things like: a new wing, a new harness, a new site.

But it's pretty easy to generalize to "be extra careful if anything is unusual for you, and be extra extra careful if several things are."

I am NOT second guessing you hear, and you shouldn't either. It sounds like you handled a bad situation well, and while crashing sucks, you are with us and recovering, that falls in the GOOD OUTCOME/ WELL DONE column as far as I'm concerned!

All I'm saying is that I have a takeaway from your excellent write up that if I find myself (as I will) in an unusual-for-me situation like new glider + different-glove-configuration + freezing-my-butt-off, I will try to remind myself to add margin like consciously taking wide turns, or being extra conservative with terrain clearance.

A last thought—I have, more than once, accidentally spun and stalled new-to-me gliders several times when moving to something hotter. After some scary/lucky sh*t (altitude is your friend) I got it into my head to either tow up on new-to-me/hot gliders to test and learn stall/spin point, or to be pretty gentle as I feel it out in the air, at altitude, on a regular flight.


On Mon, Dec 9, 2019 at 4:21 PM Kate Eagle <katefly...@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the write-up, Ozgun! Sharing your incident will certainly help the rest of us have a bit more perspective on our own flying! So grateful for the pilots intervention onsite to help prevent further spine injury and glad to hear that you are doing remarkably well following such a serious accident! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

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Steve Forslund

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Dec 10, 2019, 10:07:22 AM12/10/19
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 Thanks for the great write up. It is good to remember that stepping up
in performance the spin is usually much harder and the entry more
abrupt.  I think there was one other factor in play, the cold dense
thick air of winter tends to feel safe. Carving around in butter.

 Best wishes on a quick and complete recovery

Steve Forslund

dave_blizzard

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Dec 19, 2019, 12:42:27 PM12/19/19
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Mark, Meeky, and I recently visited Ozgun and his wife at his friend's home in Lake Oswego.  Ozgun answered the door after demonstrating his mastery of the club's walker.  He looks great and says, besides having a difficult time sleeping for extended periods, he's doing quite well.  He also said that, on the day of his accident, someone put his wing together for him using a BGD wing strap.  I now have that strap and would like to get it back to its owner.  Is that you?  If not, do you know who's it is? 
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