some of my best flights were at Elsinore on days like this, rough, windy, stable means potential wave, and the only way to get in it, is to ride up through the roll under the crest of the wave. If you only bitch about the bumps and fear the rough air, you'll never experience the magic of climbing 10,000 feet in baby smooth air overlapping wings , talking with your brothers climbing through 13,000 feet.
Mitch, I was aware that potentially, there was "wave to be had", but I freely admit that (it being the first time) I felt like I was in over my head. I wasn't sure how much the glider could handle and how close I was to some sort of tuck. But as I intend to do some serious wave hunting in the near future, I may be able to post more videos in conditions like these - with a pulse of under 300bpm and an altitude of over 3000m 😆 I suppose that day "prepared me" for what's to come if I get into wave flying properly. Incidentally: do you have any videos or flight tracks that we could look at from those Elsinore adventures ? Would be awesome. Thanks for commenting!
I only managed this a few times hang gliding Elsinore, pure f'n magic, but later when I recognized it coming, borrowed a chute and took a 1-26 up and worked on spins from 12K, over and over for a few hours, re-entering the wave until so comfortable with spins I got tired of it. Later, my SEL designated examiner was stunned when I demo'd spins during the test. Wave is so much fun!
Wow, also floored by a comment from the legend Mitch. I experienced magic air at Chrestline once. Just up and up to 12-13,000 feet, had a hard time recognizing the terrain ha ha. Then you could see that big brown dust wall coming out of the desert to the east and better start side slipping to get to the LZ before it hit with those 40-50mph winds.
As a paraglider pilot, I must say you did exceedingly well keeping calm and staying focussed on the job. Many will panic and commit more errors when conditions are not benign. 8:36 was scary as hell. Well done mate. Watch the conditions next time !!
Reminds me of the time when I was sailing a laser in 25 knot winds and was unable to come about without capsizing. I kept getting further and further out into the straight where it was getting even more choppy. It's scary until you get back. What do pilots say? "it's much better to be on the ground wishing you were up in the air than up in the air wishing you were on the ground"
Watching this caused me a whole lot of anxiety. Been there done that. I flew from 1977 to 2007. I had the same experience on a few occasions. The first time was while flying a Comet 185 over Mt. Woodside in BC Canada. Pulling the bar in resulted in no forward motion. I was settling into the mountain. After 3 attempts I got as high as i could and went over the back. After flying over a federal penitentiary (a big no no) I was able to get into some clean air and set in down a couple miles behind launch. It is better to be on the ground and wish you were in the air, than be in the air and wish you were on the ground.
Thanks for sharing...brought back some memories of Terrace B.C. 1980. Took off when i probably shouldn't, but seemed fine on the top of the hill. Played for 20 min or so in good but bumpy conditions....then suddenly got sucked up into the mist. My machine was not very fast (old Australian Cohen) and it could not keep up with the increasing windspeed. I spent over an hour side slipping and doing everything I could to make the thing fly as inefficiently as possible. Being in the mountains and not wanting to get on the backside of the one I was over made me reluctant to do any circling (with a downwind leg). Although I did get pushed back behind the mountain top for a while (it dropped off steeply to the valley floor behind), I slowly managed to edge my way forward when I was just inside the cloud with the ground barely /intermittently visible and once out over the valley in front again it got very rough but lift dropped off a bit. Once I got down above the forest, it got very hairy and I had to land on a road in the turbulence between the trees, which went surprisingly well. My only instrument was an altimeter which at its peak it showed 12,300 ft ASL (Canada was still in imperial then) which was about 9,000 ft above take-off (landed at 600 ft ASL). I was frozen and exhausted when I finally got down, and my arms were a bit rubbery from trying to keep the nose down. Although I was a bit worried a few times when I was going backwards towards a certain crash, I kept thinking how exhilarating it was and how much I was learning from this forced 'exercise'. Can't say I enjoyed every minute of it, but most of it was a hoot. I had flown for several years continuously at Byron Bay, Frazer Island, Stanwell Park etc. in Australia a few years before that, (OK, I was a beach bum with a hang glider) but this one taught me a lot in a very short time - but of course I wouldn't necessarily want to do it again.... May safe winds and good judgement always be with you...ain't hindsight great!
Watching this and reading how many here had similar experiences confirmed that my decision to "quit while I was ahead" after 20 years of hang gliding was wise. Fly long enough and there will inevitably be days that you regret launching. Worse yet perhaps is that you end up knowing pilots that were seriously injured or killed. Nevertheless, I am incredibly grateful for my 20 years in the sport and often find myself hang gliding when I dream.
Same for me, flew in early 70’s - made my first two gliders myself. Saw too many die, and my glider was old school seated not prone. Switched to fly airplanes but that tried to kill me too so gave that up as well. Miss both but good with my decision.
Flew on similar sites from 1979 to 1995. I was 16 when I started. Eventually there are other things to do. It still amazes me that one would actually decide to quit being an eagle....😢. I miss it a lot sometimes.
@@calikalbocalikalbo6082 In the mid 90's when paragliders were the new thing, a bunch of other hang gliders and I were waiting for the winds to improve so we could launch. We were all watching a single paraglider in the air so as to judge the conditions. The guy cored a powerful thermal and gained about 500' in about 5 seconds. The spontaneous hoots and hollers that cheered him on from below quickly turned to gasps of horror as his canopy collapsed upon entering the rotor on the margin of the thermal. The guy fell 500' like a rock before managing to reopen his canopy roughly 300' AGL. He cored the thermal again and repeated the entire horrific cycle a second time. Put me off paragliders forever.
I fly an Air Creation trike, and to be honest, I would have been terrified by that kind of turbulence. You did a good job, IMHO, in staying in control and getting down safely.
I forgot the fellows name, down in AZ who was the AC dealer in the SW. But he was a hang glider pilot before becoming an Air Creations dealer. He had a terrible mishap as a Hang Gliding Pilot and lost normal function of his legs. Pegasus owner here, BTW.
Wow. I have no frame of reference for this but it was easy to see the struggle and the near desperation to get back on the ground! Nicely done with the landing.
Wow! I was in the same conditions two years ago. Strong and gusty wind with thermals. It was unforgettable struggle for life every inch from top to ground. Indeed, greed is a bad adviser. Fly safe! Good luck dude!
Great split video view and loved your over dub. As you say I have never seen an Atos behave like that in the air. Made a similar bad call in a flexwing from a small hill into a valley and my turbulence went all the way to the ground. My wing required two new downtubes, but I walked away in one piece though sore for about a week. Would like to comment on what has been said about wave flying by others to this post. I have flown in wave several times over the years in Scotland, and been lucky enough to not experience bad turbulence either entering or leaving it. It Is one of the most joyful feelings of your flying career, the vario Is singing louder and louder as you smoothy soar ever skywards. You do then to worry when you approach 3000m about oxygen levels and start to explore where to go to get down, but thankfully for me no horrific turbulence to "get used to". Thanks for sharing.
Wow, I'm a paraglider and not knowing to much about hang gliding, but it's scary what I saw happened there and I'm glad that you and your friend managed to safely land. I sometimes fly in this type of conditions, of course in our speed wind limits, and my first priority is to get as soon as possible in front of the ridge without getting concerned about loosing too much altitude and landing before I wanted, that means straight into the wind with full speed and in my opinion you didn't do that after your takeoff. You flew slightly to the right, as if you were afraid of losing altitude and having to land. Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I personally learned a lot by watching videos like this.
Thanks ! It was deceptively calm for the first 20,30 altitude above launch metres - which is why I didn't make sure to get some distance between myself and the ridge. I have the utmost respect for PGs that fly in high wind conditions - they are, in a sense, the more rounded pilots because they have to "look after their wing", something that us HGs don't have to. Happy landings mate !
This brought back the moment I got too close to some storm cells. It was a stupid move on my part. We were on our way back from France to the middle of the UK in much heavier powered flexwings.. It was the final leg and get-home-itis got the better of us. The wind direction changing 180 degrees in an hour should have been a big clue. I really thought I was going to be written up as a statistic. All those feelings flooded back when I watched your flight. I really thought you were entering a fully developed tuck there. Great piloting skills right on the edge and thankfully a happy ending.
As the saying goes - "It's far better to be down here (on the ground) and wishing you were up there (in the sky), then being up there and wishing you were down here". Glad to see you lived to fly another day! I think your final remarks in this video are a perfect summary for this type of flight. 👍
I have been dumped out of violent thermals and been pitched past 90 where I had to pull my leg out of the cocoon harness in anticipation of falling into the sail, indeed touching the sail with my foot, plummeting over 100' in a vertical attitude, where lucking the luff lines did their thing, thinking alrighty then, lets not do that again :-) (Mt Swansea, Invermere BC, 1987ish)
Very well done, just come on your channel and your honesty is brilliant! If that was a first time you excelled, whatever 'errors' you might think you encountered! When I was flying flex wings I knew it all, flew 70 miles to see a colleague living in the Welsh Mountains. Had lunch and on taking off had to virtually come out of the trike to stop it inverting, flew home at nearly twice the speed compared to the outward leg and because of buildings next to airstrip turbulence made landing impossible! So, reasoning with myself and realising I was dealing with a 40mph wind gently put her down dead into wind with a landing run of a few feet! Yippee, the feeling of elation of mental success leading to physical safety put huge smile into my character!
I've been in that situation couple of times. 1980: 1300ft mountain edge. Kaapschehoop, South Africa. Worst time was when I was blown backwards. I turned downwind at top speed, trying to avoid the rotor effect that could drive me into the ground. Eventually I turned around and lost about 200 feet instantly, but just manage to clear the ground, facing the wind. I had to pull in maximum and when level out inches above the ground, I broke my trapesium vertical bars as I ploughed about 60ft/ 20m through the grass. What a feeling when your canopy covers you like a blanket, but alas I crawled away from under it. Praise to God.
WOW !!! Being one of the first hanggliderpilots in germany ( some 50 years ago, flying with Mike Herker and later with the Thalhofer Flamingo) what astounded me the most was the sophistication of those modern hanggliders. With extendable flaps it looks like. Like on a "real" airplane! Must add a lot of flying pleasure to hanggliding. Like we had selfbuild hanggliders in a delta-shape. They where later disqualified by the Luftfahrtbundesamt because of their tendencie for a "Flattersturz". Unbelieveble how the design of hanggliders has evolved in the meantime. I envy you guys.
i'm not a pilot, but that looks really scary. The movement at 6:55 😮then at 8:30!! Respect for sharing your bad experience with the world, so that others might learn something. We don't always want to admit or confess when we made a mistake (deciding to take off on that day & maybe not checking forecast as fully as could have been), & you have been brave enough to share yours. I've windsurfed for many years, and there have probably been days when I've gone out in more extreme conditions that I probaby should not have attempted. This is also how we learn too though isn't it? by challenging ourselves against the conditions & gaining experience.
Situationen wie diese ...lassen uns wieder ehrfürchtig werden. ...lassen uns am Ende des Fluges Halleluja singen. ...flößen Respekt ein. Respekt auch für dich und deine Skills. Danke fürs hochladen. Du hast eine sehr sympathische Stimme. Und die Übersichten am Anfang waren hilfreich um sich reinzudenken.👍
Great video, and thanks for sharing. Your main point is very well taken -- be sure of the conditions you are launching into! Some years back, I took off in what felt like mild conditions from Walts point in the Owens valley, when unbeknownst to me, the conditions on the valley floor were 5-10 mph gusting to 40! (and there was a reason no one had driven up from the valley that day!). Strong air is more likely to be turbulent, but it doesn't have to be. Years ago in my RamAir, I had a great flight at Fort Funston (San Francisco) when it was 35+mph at the cliff (and 15-20mph where I launched lower down at "the dumps"). But the air was smooth and it was an exhilarating flight. On a later day, buoyed by my previous flight, I launched in similarly strong conditions, failing to recognize the air was different; it was so turbulent it was nearly uncontrollable. ( I was in the air wishing I was on the ground). After landing, more careful observation of the birds showed the degree of turbulence I had flown in. It's safer to assume strong conditions will include strong turbulence!
Geoffrey, thanks for your comment ! I spent a few years in California, but never got to fly the Owens - but it's still on my wish list, and one day I'll do it. Do you go there sometimes ? If and when I make it across the pond with my VQ, we should meet up and fly there together 🙂
Wow, thanks for posting that. Really interesting. Glad you made it down safely. I've never hang-glided but have always wanted to give it a go. I am however a helicopter pilot with some 40 years of experience and a Paraglider pilot for the last couple so I can appreciate your decision making process and am glad you managed everything ok. Guess you won't be doing that again
In the 80s, I was a young hanggliding pilot also, and we had a proverb: "It is better to be on the ground and regret not being in the air, than to be in the air and regret not being had ground" but really congratulations to you, what composure and good piloting, well done 👋
Thank you for sharing. In Windy you can use the Aerologie or Airdiagramm to get the wind in different heigth, But like you said always better to check different sources. Good flight season 2022.
Quite an experience you got there, you landed safely and without any damage to the wing, that's called experience. Well done ! 👏 Flying in laminar winds must seem so dull now 😂
Wow! well done for getting down safely. I flew hang gliders 30+ years ago and the rigs I flew would not have recovered from that. I love the look of the Atos..
Gees dude , the pressure you were putting on that bar , very lucky to of nursed her back down ( im sure there was allot of skill involved too 😏 ) , a flight you won't forget in a long time . well done , lesson learnt I think.
One day flying the Owens Valley California later in the afternoon super strong valley winds set up blowing up the valley while a couple of us were still in the air. I had my bar stuffed and was flying backwards for a long time just trying to get down. It was a big effort to keep the wings level. My landing approach was negative ground speed until about 40 feet AGL where the wind gradient made the headwind low enough to for me to start moving forward. This was near the Bishop airport and it's a good thing that there is a lot of wide open space there.
Whew! That was a real nailbiter, thanks for sharing the blow by blow. I can remember being in a similar predicament in the 70s at Crestline, so of LA, in my Seagull 7. 35 mph takeoff, not sure what I was thinking, I would normally not launch above 30 or even 27 or so. Had to go for its I guess that day. I got airborne somehow (one hell of a hairy wire launch, went straight up like a rocket). Fought for 3 minutes, climbing and climbing straight up, 500', 750', but not penetrating and even drifting back now and then which was terrifying, thinking it was only a matter of time before I blew back over the top and that would be it for me...Crestline is part of a 5000' mountain range, not a high wind scenario I had ever wanted to be in. Yet I had launched. I had the bar buried the whole time and was saying my prayers. At some point fate smiled on me: I found a trough of slower horizontal air, pure luck because I started to sink but also penetrate noticeably. I kept flying straight out with the bar buried until I was level with takeoff, about 1/2 a mile out or so, then relaxed a bit, but kept on going all the way to landing. I never did that again. And I was lucky to learn that lesson without paying the ultimate price.
James, interesting coincidence: I voluntarily ended my paragliding "career" at Marshall peak - just in front of Crestline as you well know... It was a thermically extremely active August day in 1996, when my performance class glider decided to dive underneath me when I got spat out by a monster thermal at around 3000m AGL. Foot got tangled in the lines as I barely missed the canopy... long story short: I was lucky to land near that Devil Canyon water reservior "lake"... after that day, I decided to give paragliding a miss. Nearly two decades later - I began my HG adventures. Happy landings dude 🤟
It wasn't "fate that smiled on you," friend, it was the Lord Jesus Christ showing his extreme love for you by saving your life. That's good, but now "what about your soul? "
Yep, it looks like you were almost "tucked." Old saying: It's better to be on the ground wishing you were flying, than to be flying wishing you were on the ground.
I had a similarly scary experience when I first started flying. On a large Typhoon that the previous owner flew dual. A lightly sloping site that I was advised only ever to fly in light winds because of turbulence. Turned up there alone, rigged and walked to the edge. Then decided it was too windy and I would die if I took off. So I walked backwards from the edge and stood on the basebar when a gust came. After the gust I stood up to walk further back and was immediately picked up into the air. Bar at my knees I was going backwards up the hill. I seriously thought I was going to die. I managed to eventually pull forwards and then spent 25 minutes in a washing machine trying to get down. Funnily enough I now prefer to fly in light winds!
That has happened to me when I was flying hang gliders I couldn’t penetrate going backwards or down I realized I had to do something different than trying to go forward so I started doing long S turns and I started to slowly move out of the lift band and was able to make the LZ. I was so exhausted after a 2-1/2 hr flight ( 1hr trying to get off the hill) and the sun going down I think it took me 3 times as long to break down and load up my kite. Learned a great lesson
I did not expect the flaps would help. They just convert drag into lift, neither of which you look like you need. Flaps up, speed max, direct away from the ridge and out of the acceleration zone as you did. Your "drop" looks like you lost all lift and plummeted. I flew paraglider. If we get a drop out like that the wing folds up, then reinflates and tries to overtake you downwards for airspeed. If you don't put the right controls in at the right moment you fall into the wing, "Gift wrapped for god" they call it.
Wow. Epic video and explanation. Thanks for sharing. I see you working hard there man. OMG that near tuck. Been flying hg for 15 years before I got into pg, did lots of soaring in different conditions but this is really nasty stuff.
Thank you for your kind words ! After about 2 minutes, it was pure stress and I switched to "survival mode". I don't know just how close I came to "equipment failure/reserve deployment" but I think it was reasonably close. I guess the one consoling conclusion from the whole ordeal is: a hang glider will carry you through a lot more unharmed than you think. Which isn't to say, of course, that that's supposed to be a "carte blanche" to switch to "unencumbered by weather forecasts mode" - but it could give you hope and confidence when you find yourself in the s**t up there 😛
@@Theworldofhanggliding You are very welcome, i know what effort it takes to put it out there, both mentally and the effort of editing hehe. Sharing great shots of cool flights anyone can do, but sharing one's lessons takes a different kind of pilot. I run a channel too and am thinking about making a reaction to your video (one of the great uses of youtube hehehe!), explaining what happens in a bit more detail to my (mainly pg and ppg) audience and translating this into a lesson they can take something away from. So just wanted to give you a heads up and ask: would you like it if i link in my description to your video as well or rather not?
@Flightcoach please do link and share, that's a great idea ! I actually forgot to add this to my last comment, and your comment now reminded me ! I really like your channel as well, and I think you present useful information clearly and well-said, and you include a, should we say reflective/"spiritual"/psychologically insightful aspect as well (it's somewhat difficult to put in words, but I think you know what I'm referring to). Looking forward to further 'channel cooperation' ! 😊🤝
@@Theworldofhanggliding that is awesome to hear thanks for the huge compliment. yep know what you mean: Always reflecting here... which is quite easy with a bald head 😉 This is going to make a nice video I'm sure. Let's keep in touch
It is true that the day was not the best and that you should not have gone flying. But from here you learn and that is what it is about. Things to highlight, you did not panic, something that I have seen in pilots with some frequency and you solved the matter as best as possible, only having set the flaps at that height and with that intensity of wind was the only error that you can be criticized for the time in flight. My sincere congratulations, I know what you went through and I understand you, greetings!
35 years ago i did a flight in a Ka-8 wooden trainer (Stallspeed 52-55 Kmh), glider with 40 Knots of wind 45 degress off the runway. Normally we would get 400 meters altitude on the winch. It release this day at 720 Meters :-D Had it been the Ka-6 instead i would have done a loop straight after release but unfortunately not allowed in Ka-8...I was the only one that flew the Ka-8 that day, parking the poor thing in the hangar directly after the flight :-D Those were the days :-D
Scary. Reminded me of one time when I was giving flight instruction of an advanced mountain flying course in an ASTAR helicopter at 8,500 feet, with a company student pilot. Without warning, the weather changed and high winds were NOT forecast, but they hit us like a ton of bricks. Suddenly, we hit rotor winds on the leeward side of the mountain that measured 65 knots on our wind direction indicator. “KNOTS” mind you, not “Kilometers/Hr.” The wind pushed us up at a 1,500 feet/minute climb and I had the helicopter collective pitch control set completely at “flat pitch.” But we continued to climb, while getting rocked in severe turbulence. We had times of momentary loss of flight controls. We continued with that violent climb until we cleared the mountain ridge at 11,500’ msl. Then we finally descended into less turbulent air. But I siht my pants! Hahaha.
My version of my error, was a Snow storm moved in and 0 vis. (and the National park way behind was closed for the season) Vario was screaming UP even with the bar pulled way in. Great job you did there
I watched Tony Barton and Adam Parer share a tandem hang glider flight and landing on a sharp cliff edge in very strong winds: they knew the site perfectly and judged the wind shear interface perfectly: exactly 3 metres up for almost a minute and then they popped below and dropped straight down vertically. Amazing instant education on invisible wind shear just like your video. I'm glad that you took off your flaps and control improved. Always pull in?
It is just insane how stripped down those hanggliders are compared to a normal glider: no tec vario, no parachute, not even a speed sensor and then you guys fly in heights below 200m? I now get why this sport is so dangerous, but i can now also imagine how much more fun this could be compared to normal gliding.
Way back in 1976 I was flying a WW Swallowtail and got into something very similar at Blue Mountain in Ontario. Just as hairy! Takeoff was about 600 feet above landing area and I gained at least 600 feet SCARY FAST. Decided to tuck the bar in tight and take the speed and beating to get down. You don't forget flights like that...even more than 40 years later.
Captain, I had to look up what a Swallowtail actually was (I'm too young to know what it was) and now that I have seen what it looked like - I can only say my hat is off to you, Sir ! I would NOT want to handle a beast like that in strong conditions. The crazy beginnings....
@@Theworldofhanggliding Thanks so much for the reply! That WW Swallowtail was an amazing step forward in Rogallo design. Bob Wills was winning competitions regularly with it and it definitely resisted the dreaded "luff dive" quite nicely. Bob W's mom (Maralys) told me I needed to get flying prone with their new Simpson harness when I sent them the $$$ to buy the Swallowtail. That was super advice because I could push the bar WAY BACK towards my knees and fly faster than any other hang glider of the times if the situation called for it. I used it in competition and eventually was ranked #3 in Canada...way back then...lol. It was great for pin-point landings when you did a stand up "pump & dump" type action...would rarely drop a wingtip if you did it right.
Say, I am wondering if you have any pictures of the old days flying at Blue mountain. If you do, please consider sharing them in the Canadian hang gliding and paragliding history group on facebook. We would love to see them!
Da habt Ihr Zwei, richtig Glück gehabt. Wir haben Euch zugeschaut und schon mit dem schlimmsten gerechnet...aber cool geblieben und Glück gehabt. Grüße Michael von den Schrattenbachern🤙
Michael, danke für den Kommentar ! Ja, es war teilweise extrem unschön. Ein Schuss vor den Bug zur rechten Zeit. Sowas passiert mit nicht mehr. Freue mich trotzdem wieder auf die Schratte und euch nette Leute im Verein. Viele Grüße zurück !
I've been in a very similar situation with a Paraglider. With a load on the bottom part of the suggestions, I faced a very heavy lift and considerably stronger winds on higher altitudes (300 m above ground). It wasn't too easy to release all the brakes and push all the "throttles" to the maximum and let the wing go faster (with such a low load) up to the desired speed. At least, it wasn't bumpy... Safe landing at the end, and I immediately called my friend to trade-in for a smaller wing.
With the compression of the air over the ridge resulting in the reverse ground track would a strategy of trading speed for altitude to get above the compression layer and the tracking to a safe landing area been an option? I ask because I encountered the same issue in a small slow powered aircraft attempting to cross Avery high escarpment when a massive cold high pressure air mass moved in way ahead of forecast (long ago decades before the internet and cell phones). I was a few hundred feet above the plateau where the compression layer and quickly went from very slow ground speed to a negative ground speed. At that point I elected to reverse course enough to clear the dangerous turbulence and spiraled up 1,000 ft (~300 meters) and turned back on course. At the higher altitude it was still bumpy and slow but the reverse ground was no longer an issue. A short distance ahead and the air smoothed out and the ground speed increased.
I had one of my flight instructors tell me that it's so much better to be down here wishing you were up there, than to be up there wishing you were down here!!!
You did very well, congratulations! Very difficult condition. Extreme turbulence. Does it look like you're light or was it the wrong impression? Either way, the Atos always does better than any other flex glider in severe conditions. Brazilian friend hugs!
Irmao, you're right: I'm towards the light end of the VQ Race load scale. I weigh ~73kg, so takeoff weight is roughly: Atos 43kg + me 73kg + harness 9kg + other stuff 4kg = about 130kg. Grande abraco, saudade do meu Brasil 🥲
@@Theworldofhanggliding >> Really, you take off with little load. You could almost fly a VRS Light at this weight. Too bad Felix doesn't have a small size VQ or VQR, I would certainly be a customer. I wish you great flights in this 2022! Keep sharing your videos. Hugs from the Brazilian friend!
As far as I know, it is possible to check the wind gradient on windy: If you check the wind speeds at different heights, you get a good picture of the wind speeds according to their height. Or is that not enough info? (doing it myself like this)
Awesome! Hahaha I had a similar flight a few years ago. I was at cloud base in strong conditions, I noticed my airspeed was above 90 mpr then noticed the ground, I was slowly going backwards! And going up, I was going up into the cloud. I thought no thanks, and did a 180 turn, it felt like I peeled off like a fighter jet. My Air speed dropped off to about 40 right away but the ground was showing me something else. I was back at the mountain carrying a lot of speed, and decided to head over the backside and head for the airport. From the point where I turned to where I was coming up on the airport I maybe dropped 500 feet from cloud base. I stopped looking at my airspeed and altimeter and picked a spot to land. I was fast linear wind flying backwards, I kept my eyes on the spot I wanted to land. I flew backwards all the way to the grass next to the runway, landed walking backwards. I was flying my new WW Ramair. I wish I had a go pro. Good job getting down. When small squaws are blowing through, for the day, Better to go do something else.
I had to look up the Ramair - that's going waaaay back ! Thanks for sharing that story; makes me feel a little better, seeing that I'm not the only one getting into sticky situations. 😉
I had one like this in Lebanon, Oregon where I was high (2500' AGL of the valley) over the hill (1000') and could not penetrate and had to shoot the back side; I tried to make it to an airport (~1.5 miles) that was downwind over trees, came up short, turned back into the wind, came over a powerline next to the road, over the road aimed at a big pine tree with me about 30' off the ground, was hit by a gust, which popped me over to the side over a driveway next to a house where I landed about 3 m from the front picture window dropping straight down and flaring in the fenced front yard which was 10 m x 10 m INSIDE the fence, no damage. As I was breaking down the wing on the lawn, the people came home, and wondered what I was doing, and I said I landed here. They had NO idea what a miracle dropping into their fenced front yard was. I think flying my Delta Wing Mystic 150, and I think about 1990?.
That was stressful just to watch. I bet it was a lot more so in the moment. Good that you kept a cool head, made a decision and committed to it. I think I agree with your comments about the empennage keeping you from tucking. Do I hear some South Africa in your English?
wow this was intense! I’m a Hang 1 and still learning the basics. I look forward to learning more about wind gradients so i don’t set out on a day like this. Thank you for sharing. Also from where do you get the wind gradient information?
Max, the overall weather situation (when you have a high or very high wind gradient) pretty much "announces itself" fairly clearly. It's probably going to be either pre-frontal, and the front is already within 200, 300 km of the site, or pronounced pressure differences between high pressure and low pressure affecting the site where you want to fly. Also, as one other commenter remarked, the cloud formations give you a hint. If there is anything "lentil-shaped" - stay on the ground. As you progress, you will learn more about this, but suffice it to say: I don't expect that you'd get "caught out, out of the blue" by conditions like the ones in this video. The "usual suspects" in terms of weather forecast such as windy.com, Meteo Parapente, Skysight, DWD, and others all offer a windgram/wind gradient type of diagramme. For some of them, you have to have the advanced/premium edition to show it, on others it comes free. Keep flying and welcome to the coolest activity in the world 😎
@@maxonthetrack Mainly from experience, and knowing it is a thing, especially in higher wind speeds. Expect the windspeed to drop as you get closer to the ground, and even moreso, when you are very close; expect to fly faster PRIOR to descending into the gradient so you are not surprised. You may have low forward inertia relative to the ground and then you descend leaving you with no groundspeed and a quickly tapering airspeed (stall), so best to carry extra airspeed commensurate with the expected gradient.
Intense flight but in the comp world things aren't really bad until the control bar is ripped out of your hands and you get slammed up against the under side of your wing. The bad part is the klunk as you come back down to the end of the hang strap. I was always surprised more gliders did not get broken in half this way.
Thank you very much ! Stay tuned for more things to come, including an Atos review, PG & HG "round table" and more. Just need to find time to put it all together and upload...
Had a similar flight on a cliff face. The thing is if you are having a hard time penetrating forward the area of the ridge with the most vertical air will also be the best option for penetrating. I had to fly directly in front of the steepest cliff face or I would be flying backward. I parked and waited it out and lucky for me the winds died. getting away from the ridge and into horizontal air can be done with ridged wings much better than the flex wing I was flying back in 93 but every glider has its limits as this video showed. BTW I will never ever fly a paraglider because of my fear from a few hang-glider flights back in the early 80's. I know what it feels like to be paralyzed unable to penetrate.
Ich erinnerte mich sofort an Dein "Wer so fliegt, stirbt" Video, als ich mich entschied, die Eselei zu veröffentlichen als Warnung 😆 Die Frage ist: wer kriegt hier die "Kirsche des Wahnsinns" auf die Flugsahne ? Ich denke, wir können sie uns teilen 🤭 Schon irre, was die Geräte aushalten... Allzeit gute Flüge und hoffentlich bis bald diese Saison !
Would you be able to turn and run with the wind, and land in those paddocks behind you at all? Or would you plummet suddenly on the back side of the ridge, losing all lift? (I’ve never flown at all, aside from being a passenger, so no actual knowledge on flying at all).
This is giving me terrible anxiety. I've only ever flown a canopy, but I have had to deal with accepting I wasn't getting back to the drop zone and I was going to be landing backwards.
Excellent video and commentary. Would like to hear what Felix has to say about how the VQ Race handled the turbulence and how close you came to tucking. I've been in wave a few times while taking sailplane lessons at Minden, Nevada USA. In one flight we spent an hour in rough air under a roll cloud before getting into glass smooth lift to 7600m. Mitch knows best, but I would not want to endure that turbulence in a flex or rigid wing hang glider. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment George. It's somewhat ironic: a very good friend of mine and I have been researching wave flying for some time now, and we intend to embark on that adventure in a repeatable, planned and reliable manner under an Atos. However, it's only been research and theoretical contemplations up to this point; and here I find myself in a potential wave situation, but I am utterly unprepared for it (and at least, on that day, didn't have the stomach for it). I really hope that, to "get to the carrot of a nice smooth wave", I won't have to go through this kind of washing machine every time... Wishing you wonderful flights stateside !
I have experienced similar conditions. When the wing wingovers uncommanded you know its time to consider where the handle of your chute is located. I flew Elsinore for 38 yrs and its definitely makes you a better pilot. Twice I encountered conditions the glider was not designed to flyin and consider myself lucky.
Phew! I used to hang-glide almost 50 years ago (the kites were much simpler then). My mentor, after a serious close call decided to call it quits, basically because he had come to the conclusion that the addiction to flying all too often over-powered the reasoning of common sense. I trusted his judgment completely and did the same..... But wow...kites have come a long way since then! Not sure I'd make the same decision now-a-days!
well done as a glider pilot myself you did the right thing go behind the ridge and you would be in a world of hurt the only thing worse than wishing you were up on the ridge is being on the ridge wishing you were on the ground, bravo
Congrats for having survived this mess and thx for posting your experience for educational purposes. I do have learned the lesson w i t h you :-). PS: Your English is flawles, btw.
