Oceanside incident
lukewda...@gmail.com
Oceanside incident
On Friday I landed my tandem paraglider next to the "hotel on the hill". This was not a planned landing. The positive side (other than lessons learned) is that there were no physical injuries. The negative side is that I made a couple of very poor decisions that put us in that predicament and there was a potential for a much worse outcome! I am still pretty shaken by a couple of my decisions but I am going to be as objective as possible in this post.
This was my 20th flight as a T1 pilot. It was my second flight of the day. The conditions had seemed nearly soarable at times with winds definitely switching from SW to S but were very manageable. The air had been described in various ways as weird (almost like thermic changes in wind direction even though it was cloudy). They were certainly similar to conditions I had flown many times at this site. Earlier in the day I flew a larger tandem wing with the same passenger for my first flight. During this second flight there were puffs of lift that gave hope for soarability. I ended up soaring too far north. Upon turning back toward the beach we hit lots of sink, with less penetration, I realized I would not have as much clearance getting back to the beach as I was expecting. I let my trimmers all the way out (for speed) and tried to take a straight line over the point to reduce inefficient movements. Initially it seemed like it would be a low pass over the "hotel", however it turned into a landing that barely made the point (Maxwell point is what I am calling that whole little peninsula with the "hotel" for sale).
Why was I so low so far away from the point?
On a pass below launch I had a little more lift than expected so I followed the terrain back further than I should have (below and a tad NW of launch as I remember). Really I was not paying enough attention to my location relative to Maxwell point (the most important terrain feature to consider in this situation as you have to cross it to reach the beach). As I often mentally connect a line from launch to Maxwell point when flying, I sort of subconsciously created a false location in my head that I had plenty of glide to fly over the point. I should have been more active at looking around which I'm sure would have led to an earlier turn. Instead I was focused on looking forward for lift. This mistake reminds me of other mistakes made by less fortunate pilots at CLO.
Options I considered in the moment!
After turning back south we hit lots of sink. My first decision to make was whether I stick closer to the hill or go straight for the lower terrain on Maxwell point. My thought process was that staying closer to the hill may get me into lift sooner but we also risked rotor from winds that seemed very south bouncing off of that terrain. It also meant that we were much closer to houses and power lines where a good sink cycle had a high risk of landing on said houses or power lines. In addition if there is no lift we are surfing houses on a more gradual slope all the way down to the beach. That was my initial assessment that led me to decide a straight line for the point was the best decision: With hindsight I think this decision was probably a good call but I'm open to other viewpoints. As we got closer to the point the possibility of a landing instead of a flyover was gaining traction. This is where I am not sure if I made the right call. There was a brief thought of turning around and just trying to land on tunnel beach. We hit some lift right after that the thought of turning around started to make some sense. At this point I persuaded myself to stick with the current line which was headed straight for (and hopefully over) the westernmost structure (with open space to the right and a parking lot on the left). I was trying to avoid flying over the parking lot as it seemed like if I was forced down there it may be very weird air. If we cleared the structure we would be clear to the beach. As we got pretty close we hit some more sink and my passenger stated that we should probably go right. I was right there in my thought process and we went right as it looked like we may not clear the building. We ended up landing a couple steps from the edge of the flat spot to the west of the structure. To illustrate how close of a call this was, we landed at the top edge of the gentle upslope. Fortunately the landing went as fortuitously as we could have hoped in that situation. The wing fell back onto the brush just feet from the edge of a very steep drop off (a cliff). Weirdly it was when we gathered the wing that I realized exactly how close it was. The fact that my decisions put someone else in harm’s way goes without saying. The gravity of that weighs heavily upon my mind so I will let that statement stand on its own. By the way my passenger was awesome and super positive about the experience (at least outwardly)!
Options that I did not choose:
1) Staying closer to the hill: Thoughts?
2) Landing at Tunnel beach: This thought crossed my mind briefly and I was prepared to make a hard turn if I was too low nearing Maxwell point. I was uncertain of the rotor I would encounter and I remember the beach being very rocky and it didn't seem like there was a lot of room. Definitely less than ideal on a tandem wing (but what was ideal here?). Hindsight tells me that maybe I should have made a decision early on to put the wing down here and not risk flirting with a cliff or making a last minute turn with less time to gauge the LZ and set up.
3) Flying all the way back to Lost Boy beach. That beach has been landed recently and it probably had enough sand to land on below the rocks. I think there would have been more room to land there and a longer runway. To be honest I didn't consider that option at all but maybe I should have. It was around the corner before I turned around and it may have been a stretch to reach as we neared Maxwell point. An earlier decision would have made this option more palatable.
4) Flying around the point. We landed at approximately 180 feet above sea level and high tide would be around 1-2 hours later with a 6.24 foot high tide. There would have been another 500 horizontal feet to fly and get around the point, with who knows how much sink (on either side of the point), and beach underneath much of the way. I never gave this much thought although it may have presented the second option of going back to tunnel beach as more palatable if became obvious it would work out.
5) A straight line to the tip of the point. It would be about 60 feet lower (I wasn't sure of the exact difference at the time). Longer distance to fly but possibly less rotor as we are spending more time further from terrain. Of course it would be pretty committing flying over the water. Flying back to tunnel beach may or may not be underneath the rotor if it doesn't look like we would make the point.
Factors and considerations leading to the incident:
1) Scratching without diligently checking for glide to beach and penetration.
2) Flying a smaller wing that probably had a lower glide ration in the current air than the wing I flew earlier in the day. With the same passenger we were on the bottom of the range on the first flight and probably 5kg from the top end of the weight rang on the second flight.
3) Not turning back to a beach that I knew I could reach.
4) It would be a good idea to make a mental note as to exactly where the beachline is in various places. As we never plan these types of flights, maybe be more observant from a tourist perspective.
5) I needed to be more active in the different flying characteristics of this wing. I really was flying a lot like I would have flown a solo wing.
6) There was a lot to process in a short time period with some unknown variables. Some folks are better than others at that. Spending more time processing contingencies before launch can go a long way.
Final thought: I have never considered myself to be a great at anything when it comes to flying a wing. I think I am pretty good pilot but. I do think that I have become very good at being a conservative pilot who makes good decisions. I did not do that here.
This was especially hard for me to write because I am embarrassed that I made mistakes that could have hurt another person. That has shaken me! By writing this I am hoping to accomplish a few things: 1) I need to own my mistakes in front of my community. 2) I hope that many of you can find something in all this that will help make you a better and safer pilot. 3) It would be nice to get input on some of the options that I did not choose to take. 4) I am hoping that pilots out there feel comfortable writing about your own experiences when we can learn from: Many lessons go unlearned because the outcome is positive. Many dangers go unnoticed because no one has quite succumbed to them.
Of course the community at Oceanside was supportive and I still say that I couldn't surround myself with a better group of people. I am going to continue my tandem journey but I need to make sure I do a better job of setting up my ground rules and figuring out how to make sure I consistently avoid the mental lapses that I showed on Friday.
Luke D
Holger Selover-Stephan
Michael Cook
Big Nick Fulmor
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cascade Paragliding Club" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cpcl+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cpcl/b0769251-90cb-4f9c-bbb4-385da0331029n%40googlegroups.com.
Dirk Larson
On Aug 15, 2022, at 7:26 AM, Big Nick Fulmor <nfu...@gmail.com> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cpcl/CAF3iKUd0W%2BMiuy9xgrMNpQT%2BawXuqdb5GRZXWH7z_%2Br5R15Kyw%40mail.gmail.com.
Bradan...@discoverparagliding.com
Luke,
Awesome for you to write this up! We so need more sharing of
incidents and accidents in our local community. Thanks for being
above the pack on that.
We have long required a minimum of 50 flights as a T1, before
considering a pilot for the T3 rating. (Chris S. had a great way
of putting it: '25 minimum required flights. Have at least 45 if
you expect to pass...') This it because 'most' T3 candidates seem
all confident at 25 flights, but really haven't had anything go
wrong to humble them and make them feel the weight of the actual,
very real, responsibility of taking another pilot aloft. Many
pilots, Maren and I included, did great up to flight 25, but we
both made humbling mistakes at around flight 35. Nothing serious,
and no injury, but if Murphy had conspired against either of us,
it could have been much worse. So, consider this: Having your
incident already, and having that humility really hit home early
puts you ahead of the curve! :-)
I am sure you are going to be a great, thoughtful and careful T3
when it's time. Let us know if there is anything we can do to
help!
Brad
PS: Did I mention how awesome it is that you did this write up?!?
It's sincerely and deeply appreciated! :-)
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cascade Paragliding Club" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cpcl+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cpcl/008a01d8b01c%24f37a21b0%24da6e6510%24%40gmail.com.
mark mgforbes.com
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2022 7:26 AM
To: groov...@gmail.com <groov...@gmail.com>
Cc: Cascade Paragliding Club <cp...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: CPC: Re: Oceanside incident
Jason Groshong (Monmouth)
mark mgforbes.com
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2022 7:48 PM
To: Cascade Paragliding Club <cp...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: CPC: Re: Oceanside incident
