2025 Spring USHPA Accident Review Committee Webinar (reviewing statistics from 2024)
Robert Slebodnik
A Word from the Safety Officer:
I just watched USHPA’s Accident Report Committee’s Webinar for Safety Week and Accident Report for 2024. Here is a link to the one-hour and six-minute webinar: https://youtu.be/rpwPkC7RNj0?si=ifqJIswtgPNMD4Dc.
I think it is worth watching.
What follows is my summary of the findings, and I have included several screenshots from the Webinar’s PowerPoint presentation.
70% of incidents happen in spring and early summer. The Committee hypothesized that two factors are at play here: pilots are rusty after not flying much in the winter, and spring conditions can be turbulent. For Paragliders, 42.7% of all incidents occurred in the period March-May. One recommendation is to re-acquaint yourself with your equipment before you go to the launch site. Ground handling and the training hills are a great way to do this.
Most incidents happen either at launch or landing, which makes sense as these are the times we are closer to the ground. 70% of all incidents (when considering HG and PG statistics combined) occur during launch and landing. For PGs, failed launches account for 20.2% of incidents and failed landings account for 28.1% of incidents. A couple of failed PG launches in 2024 occurred due to accidental reserve deployments, which I suspect is probably traceable to inadequate pre-flight procedures. Most incidents in mid-flight (like collapses, which were 14.6% of all PG incidents) are resolved without consequences. In PG mid-flight incidents where a reserve was thrown due to a deflation, there were no injuries. Activities like our Chute Clinic were praised by Chris Santacroce as a way of giving pilots a chance to practice throwing a reserve. Again, ground handling and training hill practice are encouraged to get up to speed before going to the launch site.
A significant number of issues come from not reaching the intended LZ. It's good to be conservative in your assessed attitude to make it to the LZ. It is always a good choice to get there early and lose the remaining altitude next to the LZ. I think that another strategy is to have good designated emergency LZs and to be familiar with their particular issues such as hazards, areas of rotor, etc.
USHPA also recommends the buddy system when it comes to safety. Have someone do a check over on you before launching. This is consistently done in competitions, and a good practice if someone is available. Chris Santacroce also recommended a daily briefing where pilots discuss the conditions and anything that could contribute to an incident on that particular day (e.g., a higher number of pilots flying that could lead to mid-flight hazards or pilots feeling rushed at launching).
We should be mindful not to pressure or rush other pilots. Pilots should feel free to step aside if something does not look right and take their time to recheck anything that is of concern.
For our club, I’d like to suggest that in this year we focus on:
(1) making sure that pre-flight checklists are used consistently and appropriately. I have promised myself that I will not launch without taking my written pre-flight list (laminated on a small card) in hand and reviewing it prior to every launch. I find that taking it in hand gives me assurance that I have checked everything. I also have promised myself that if I have to stop my launch sequence, that I will take out the check list again. If you see me not doing this, please mention it to me. I will thank you for it.
(2) Having a pilots gather before launching and discussing issues that may affect flying on that particular day. This could include weather issues, rotor, the number of pilots flying, anything that could increase the chances of an incident. This is especially important when we have new members flying our sites or when there may be conditions peculiar to that day. It is a good way to share knowledge, and it may prevent an incident from occurring.
Please refer to the screenshots that are attached.
I encourage pilots to post comments on any of these issues.
Thank you,
Bob Slebodnik, Safety Officer
