Mid-air with a paraglider
05-23-2004, 10:11 PM
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Mid-air with a paraglider
Ok I don't have video or even pictures (not yet) of this crash but at least it's an interesting story to tell.
I've been flying with the Torrey Pines Gulls now for about 5 weeks, before that I had some experience with a park flyer so while my skill level is not advanced, I can fly pretty well for a novice pilot. Anyway here in San Diego if you want fly slope, Torrey Pines is definetely the place to be. It's a 350 ft cliff by the beach with an awesome view and even better lift. So far everything sounds perfect right? Yeah the problem is that we need to share the sky with paragliders, hangliders, other rcs and during 6-weeks a year we also share the sky with full scale gliders. So needless to say it is a BUSY airspace on the weekends (during the week you can fly by yourself). Knowing how to fly an rc glider and respecting other rc pilots is on thing, staying away from all the rest is the problem with flying out here. In order to have harmony in this caotic airspace, we a simple rule (which I broke) called the blue sky rule. All you need to do is to ALWAYS keep blue sky between you and anything else in the air and no problems occur.
I was about 300ft away and 400 ft high and I saw a paraglider going over my head. This is when I became over confident and made a bad judgement call, I decided to go around the paraglider insted of going away from it or simply diving and flying below the jellyfish. When I made my turn, I broke the blue sky rule by superimposing my glider in front of the paraglider, at the time I could swear I was far from it so I tought I would make my turn with no problem, but guess what? I was heading straight into the paraglider's chute and before I could think of anything else I hit it and saw my Spirit's fuselage diving straight to the cliff's edge and the wing floating away.
This is my first crash and I gotta say that it is a terrible feeling to see your loved plane crashing in such a hopeless manner. I know this is not the only crash I'm gonna have but I know for sure it is the last mid-air with a paraglider I'm gonna have. As sad as it was, I learned what I should have already known, ALWAYS FOLLOW THE BLUE SKY RULE.
I'll see if I can get a pic of the fuselage hanging by the cliff. It's even worse to see the plane's fuselage and not be able to reach it.
I've been flying with the Torrey Pines Gulls now for about 5 weeks, before that I had some experience with a park flyer so while my skill level is not advanced, I can fly pretty well for a novice pilot. Anyway here in San Diego if you want fly slope, Torrey Pines is definetely the place to be. It's a 350 ft cliff by the beach with an awesome view and even better lift. So far everything sounds perfect right? Yeah the problem is that we need to share the sky with paragliders, hangliders, other rcs and during 6-weeks a year we also share the sky with full scale gliders. So needless to say it is a BUSY airspace on the weekends (during the week you can fly by yourself). Knowing how to fly an rc glider and respecting other rc pilots is on thing, staying away from all the rest is the problem with flying out here. In order to have harmony in this caotic airspace, we a simple rule (which I broke) called the blue sky rule. All you need to do is to ALWAYS keep blue sky between you and anything else in the air and no problems occur.
I was about 300ft away and 400 ft high and I saw a paraglider going over my head. This is when I became over confident and made a bad judgement call, I decided to go around the paraglider insted of going away from it or simply diving and flying below the jellyfish. When I made my turn, I broke the blue sky rule by superimposing my glider in front of the paraglider, at the time I could swear I was far from it so I tought I would make my turn with no problem, but guess what? I was heading straight into the paraglider's chute and before I could think of anything else I hit it and saw my Spirit's fuselage diving straight to the cliff's edge and the wing floating away.
This is my first crash and I gotta say that it is a terrible feeling to see your loved plane crashing in such a hopeless manner. I know this is not the only crash I'm gonna have but I know for sure it is the last mid-air with a paraglider I'm gonna have. As sad as it was, I learned what I should have already known, ALWAYS FOLLOW THE BLUE SKY RULE.
I'll see if I can get a pic of the fuselage hanging by the cliff. It's even worse to see the plane's fuselage and not be able to reach it.
05-24-2004, 06:06 AM
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RE: Mid-air with a paraglider
I'm sure the paraglider was thrilled. You should be happy you didn't seriously injury or kill someone. This hobby is not to be taken lightly and careless actions by one person can lose a flying site for eveyone. Please be more careful.
05-24-2004, 09:00 AM
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RE: Mid-air with a paraglider
reminds me of a story i heard from one of my local slopes. Devils Dyke just north of brighton on the south coast of england. the west bowl of the slope is reserved for para and hang gliders while the right side (not so good but still ok) is for rc flying. one day a foamie, wild thing i think flew into the canopy of a para glider that had strayed over our side of the slope, slid down the strings and hit the guy on the head before falling away and flying off. noone was hurt and as far as i know the para glider could be heard laughing as he flew off.
05-24-2004, 11:29 AM
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RE: Mid-air with a paraglider
I'm glad noone was hurt and I sure I'm gonna be more careful. Coincidence or not after the paraglider landed I went to apologize and it turns out he is a British guy from Brighton, he took it in a nice way, he was more worried about what happened to my glider than expecting for an apology. Pretty nice guy.
05-24-2004, 08:49 PM
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RE: Mid-air with a paraglider
Yeah tell me about, when I went to talk to the paraglider pilot some other guy that saw the crash from the air while flying his paraglider told me he could swear the fuselage came down at almost 100 mph. If that is true or not I don't know but from what I saw if that thing landed on someone at the beach...
but to our luck the cliff claimed it.
but to our luck the cliff claimed it.
05-24-2004, 08:54 PM
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RE: Mid-air with a paraglider
Last weekend was pretty spooky at Torrey Pines, on Friday a hanglider crashed right from the take off because he got stuck on the turbulence, Saturday one of the guys almost crashed his 4 meter scale sailplane because of what seems to be radio interference during his landing approach and about 30 min after that I had my mid-air, I haven't spoken to any of the guys yet but I hope nothing happened on Sunday.
