Puimoisson accident - pilot comments

[Jonathan Cross]

I found this a good reminder for mountain soaring. 

https://www.weglide.org/flight/703551

The pilot's candid comments on the flight are quite useful (google translate does a good job converting it to english), as is being able to see the actual flight trace.

[Brad Pattison]

Great story and (not so) great trace.  Massive sink as he turned presumably toward and below the ridge.  Sad but glad he survived.  It takes a huge amount of energy to fracture a sternum.  Luckily he is able to tell the story.

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Brad Pattison

Gig Harbor, WA

c: 253-686-1415

[Thomas Van de Velde]

I've flown over that exact same spot at higher altitude. Many pilots get caught off guard in these bowls at lower altitude. Depending on the wind direction they can behave very differently. There's a risk of familiarity bias with the prevailing winds in the southern Alps. When that wind is different than usual it can lead to bad surprises. I know of one fatal accident (with an instructor onboard) nearby at the Les Monges mountain where an Arcus flew into a strong downdraft created by the opposing side of the bowl and wasn't able to turn away. As Chris and the mishap pilot mention, it's super important to turn away from the ridge when turning below ridge height. I've been coached on this myself by an instructor at St Auban, who - even though I turned above ridge height - told me that it'll probably be fine 99% of the time, but you only need that 1% for things to go terribly wrong.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sgc_news/CAJc298NsHVHydgn_S5RyOJ8SrnezVwEtEcJWpdC51P8A6BD9Ng%40mail.gmail.com.

[Ron Bellamy]

A similar phenomenon happens to tow pilots as well. We lost a very proficient tow pilot near the Hilton ranch in the Sierra Nevada mountains a number of years ago in a similar fashion. Stay above the ridge or far enough away to be able to turn away and be aware of who you might turn into if you do have to make a quick turn. 

Ron B..

Sent from my iPhone

On Sep 3, 2025, at 3:51 PM, Thomas Van de Velde <thoma...@gmail.com> wrote:



I've flown over that exact same spot at higher altitude. Many pilots get caught off guard in these bowls at lower altitude. Depending on the wind direction they can behave very differently. There's a risk of familiarity bias with the prevailing winds in the southern Alps. When that wind is different than usual it can lead to bad surprises. I know of one fatal accident (with an instructor onboard) nearby at the Les Monges mountain where an Arcus flew into a strong downdraft created by the opposing side of the bowl and wasn't able to turn away. As Chris and the mishap pilot mention, it's super important to turn away from the ridge when turning below ridge height. I've been coached on this myself by an instructor at St Auban, who - even though I turned above ridge height - told me that it'll probably be fine 99% of the time, but you only need that 1% for things to go terribly wrong.

<Screenshot 2025-09-03 at 6.40.39 PM.png>

On Wed, Sep 3, 2025 at 3:41 PM Brad Pattison <bpatt...@gmail.com> wrote:

Great story and (not so) great trace.  Massive sink as he turned presumably toward and below the ridge.  Sad but glad he survived.  It takes a huge amount of energy to fracture a sternum.  Luckily he is able to tell the story.

On Wed, Sep 3, 2025 at 10:48 AM Jonathan Cross <jonathan...@gmail.com> wrote:

I found this a good reminder for mountain soaring. 

https://www.weglide.org/flight/703551

The pilot's candid comments on the flight are quite useful (google translate does a good job converting it to english), as is being able to see the actual flight trace.

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Brad Pattison

Gig Harbor, WA

c: 253-686-1415

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