Hang Gliding - Rushed Flight to Aide Downed Pilot 

Respect my friend, you did absolutely the right thing !

Hats off to you sir. You did what any man should have done in this situation. Fly safe.

I was in the same situation. It was 1980 in Tzaneen, South Africa. We were a group of ~5, (Hennie Prinsloo, Bokkie Luger, Colin,Drew and I, Ters) flying off Wolkberg/ Cloud mountains. I left last after a thunder storm passed. The guy in front was a heavy chap Drew? also a champion water polo athlete. He left about half an hour earlier. (He was forbidden to join us because of his team's upcoming championships). Any way I jumped off (3000ft above the floor ) and followed an eagle in a fantastic thermal. Just as I though I am going to have the flight of my life, I saw Drew approaching end finals over the magnificent Transvaal bush veld, heading for the plowed field. Unbelievable, his left wingtip hit the very last tree, and the glider spinned 180 deg. There was no one near and the cars were very far from getting gown there. I had to go down, fast! They say height is money in the bank and that aft'noon I was rich. Unfortunately I had to spend that money very fast. I flew to right above him, still perhaps 4000 ft up and just could not get down. I did wing over after wing over, stalls upon stalls. Aerobatics galore. Fantastic feeling however it felt that whatever I do, I just could not get that glider down. Eventually I landed at about the same time first car arrived. Drew's arm were broken in two places. We braced it with a T-shirt and rushed him to the Pietersburg hospital, some 80/ 90 kilometers away. No Heli- casivacs for us. This is Africa! Man those were the days.

Just to update everyone, despite some totally inaccurate reports in the comments, the pilot has recovered and has recently taken to the air again!

As a fellow paraglider i take my hat off to you. Happy to know he will make a full recovery.

Thank you for sharing this and getting the pilot's consent! It's amazing! I hope he was okay! Good on you for getting over there quickly!

Well done on spotting a fellow pilot having difficulty, from watching this video it looks like you either saved a life or prevented him further injury and suffering before more help arrived, there's one or two negative comments here aimed at the lack of action in the video...fools who don't fly. I bet your heart was pounding, plenty of action in this video if you know how unforgiving the sky is.

Fair play to you man. It is very encouraging to know there are people like you out there have the compassion & use it with a level head.

Sir, many thanks for your attentiveness and concern for others; a true credit to the sport. Thanks also for the link and clarification. Fly safe - fight gravity!

It's good to see pilot standing up for each other in good and bad, nice work gentlemen.

Thanks for this 🤞🙏

Well played man, well played..

I never saw the other hang glider

Great idea, will definitely make one for my glider. Thanks for sharing and for the idea mate !

The glider was inspected and the cause is known. Best advice, rig your glider carefully and make sure you do a thorough pre flight check!

Good work Dan.

Well done Mate, Glad the said pilot is ok. Fly Safe!

I have thought rigid wing gliders suck ever since flying my Delta Wing 6D with Icarus 1’s at Sylmar 30 years ago and seeing my buddy John Morrison in a body cast after his accident. So glad this pilot is ok!

Bravo Dan. Your landing was faster and perfect also.

Love this best video I've ever seen on RU-vid and I have the most respect for you and I don't know who then 873 that I've put thumbs down at the top of this post

What was happend with rigid wing glider? What was wrong, so it maked glader crashed? Glad to know pilot is ok.

Thanks for helping him, God bless you...

Good job getting down fast. Glad pilot was able to fly again. I fly a sport class glider so I don't know much about rigid wings.

Great job. You did everything you could! Outstanding citizen you are.

what are these idiots saying that they don't see anything? WTH are they doing instead watching the vid? Glad the pilot recovered. Good on ya to come on down to help him out.

Gliding takes a certain character - you have no power and are at the mercy of the winds and your own wits. Glider pilots have a true understanding of trading energy for altitude. People wondering why he didn't just drop out of the air have to realize that the higher you are the more your potential energy is. That potential energy will be traded into kinetic energy when changing altitudes (or you can change kinetic to potential by gaining altitude). You can't just trade a bunch of altitude and hope to land - your speed upon landing will be so great that you will end up injured, or dead, next to the guy you are trying to save. It's all about physics.

WOOWWW...AMAZING FROM YOU....YOU ARE A DUDE TO FLY WITH....CHEERS ...HAPPY FOR THE PILOT FOR THE FULL REVOVERY AFTER THE ACCIDENTE :) AND NICE TO SEE PILOT LIKE YOU !!!!

how come you don't have any rescue alert device ,with one hand click distance , that can send h SOS with GPS coordinate to someone?

other glider enters view at lower left part of the screen at 1:08

Just noticed the pilot that flew to the field only had one hang-loop. Need a back-up...always have 2 loops man. Just sayin. I am also an HG pilot - flying since 1989 - had a few "Rut-Roh" moments, 1 - ALWAYS do a thorough uninterrupted Pre-Flight, 2, Do a proper hang-check. Stay safe up there!

Aren't you supposed to leave your glider with the nose pointing down towards the ground to prevent it from flying off? (remembering from some hang gliding guidebook I read in the library back at uni 28 years ago!!!)

If you fart in one of those hang wings can you still smell it?

As a fellow hg pilot, I'm thinking that you're in a lone mass of rising air and that the lower 'rigid' glider is showing you the absence of any lift at launch and I'm thinking at any moment you're about to hit that sinking air. Ah, it was the other guy's faulty set-up that kept him down there.

that time you needed three hands, 2 to glide the glider and one to reach into your pocket for a cell phone to call 911...

So I take it that this glider can not be controlled by weight shift?

Wow, that's some great skills ! I've always thought how hard it should be to fly with HG, but here's another perspective, how are you gonna get down fast & safe with all the speed & height ? It was interesting to see your technique ! Glad that nobody got hurt.

Wonder why you turned the camera away from the issue at hand ?

What a hero

what do u think happened?

Can a glider land any time he/she wants? How does a glider "put on the breaks“?

Like a short film.

good job

What was the cause?

I've been thinking so many times, what if that bag support snaps and pilot just falls to ground.

well I tell you guys I hope if my glider hit the lz and no movement, I'd sure appreciate a fellow pilot throwing away a nice flight to land and help. you're a standup man in my eyes. I must say im not a fan of ridgeds. I saw one crash also, they seem squerrely and hard to fly. is he extra glide ratio really worth it?

video games have proven that if you roll upon landing, you'll take no fall damage .

Muy bien colega, yo hubiera hecho lo mismo, paso del vuelo y bajo a socorrer a mi compañero, FELICIDADES. Espero que todo fuera bien y ya esté volando.

Were you on Kingston Ridge?

Love From India Mumbai City Much More Respect you Sir added HangGliding is not only An Hobby But Can b Used in Every Emergency Call of Duty Provided Law Of HangGliding With Appropriate Trainings Medical Emergency Need of Hours2 save lives Single or Groups After reaching the exact soot of needs Call for help Proved Humanity crisis can be a life saving God Bless all My opinion may be absolute Solutions But A soul tions Awaiting to Explore Cheap n Quick Relieve can be made Thanks to this video uploader Thanks to all comments Who may agree with me or not Thanking all Then What our skills for?

So, seems like an old 90 yr old dude that died mid-air??? What happened? Nothing visible. No captions to explain it.

Any reason the rigid didn't deploy their reserve?

why you dont use a walkie-talkie ??

Well, thats 4 minutes and 49 seconds I'll never get back.

Good on you for getting there as fast as you could. I really don't understand why this video has almost as many thumbs down as it has ups. Anyone might think you'd said the earth was a globe and upset the loony flat earthers or something similar.

Why your connection with glider looks rotated?

Wow!

geçmiş olsun çok üzüldüm :(

Good friend going down a fast that you can for help yo the crashed pilot! Very good job! And me Happy for the injured pilot going better! Fly safe and help your flying Friends!

location ?

It will be good if there can be a protective enclosed compartment of some sort to be added to this kind of glider.

good landing

Wait I’m confused. What happened?

kudos , i,ve had to do that a couple of times flying ul trikes

Near Lewes in Sussex? Maybe Bopeep Lane?

OUTSTANDING !!!

Like a flying witch in cloak and is unbeatable!

I wonder how the proliferation of wind turbines on ridges is affecting the safety of this sport, not to mention all the tarnished scenery.

WHERE IS THE ACCIDENT ?

did he get ill during the flight or something?

Respects

Oh no

A rigid wing? Never heard about, cool. Lucky guy.

3:47 Batman! Thank god you've arrived!

jeeze, you should really point out the glider very hard to spot what is going on

Going with the win

Shit! Kudos on you, pilot. This is a great demonstration of airmanship. Would love to have details of the accident (flap problem on the rigid?). But I suppose the pilot wasn’t in the best mood for tales. Glad to hear he’ll recover!

What is this secretive cause guys? Did he forget something by setting the glider up??? Let us know what did he do wrong so that we don't do the same thing in the future either. This is how you learn! I don't understand what is to hide about. If you wanna really hide something, you shouldn't post this video at first place!

This pilot is seriously a good potential candidate for the FAI / CIVL Pepe Lopez Medal (Award Recipient.) - If nothing else, just the nomination would honour him. www.fai.org/civl-awards/civl-individual-disciplines ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34455 Who is the pilot, so we can initiate application proceedings? Application should proceed quickly in order to get it onto the CIVL Plenary Agenda in time. See: www.fai.org/civl-about-us/civl-meetings

In the city, each bulkhead and guards its own plot, and here farmers allow to trample their fields!?

Dunno about hang gliders but as a general principle folk should never interupt folk rigging or checking for airworthyness.

🙏🙏🙏 Namaste Love From India Mumbai City Much More Respect you Sir added HangGliding is not only An Hobby But Can b Used in Every Emergency Call of Duty Provided Law Of HangGliding With Appropriate Trainings Medical Emergency Need of Hours2 save lives Single or Groups After reaching the exact soot of needs Call for help Proved Humanity crisis can be a life saving God Bless all My opinion may be absolute Solutions But A soul tions Awaiting to Explore Cheap n Quick Relieve can be made Thanks to this video uploader Thanks to all comments Who may agree with me or not Thanking all Then What our skills for? 🙏🙏🙏 Namaste from India to all of you lovely skilled kind heated Global Responsible citizens

I take my hat to you hang glider guys flying in all sorts of turbulence/weather hanging under a parachute..I"ll stick my little DR400..good for you to go to help..

and I want to do this why?? Oh that's right, I don't. This confirms it. I thought the pilot was going to be ok despite how bad it looked. Sad. Eric Hill of the bachelorette just died on Sunday due to a hang gliding accident. Sad.

lucky boy...

Did he shit on himself in mid flight???

agora entendi, o acidente é que deu uma caganeira na hora do voo...é aí é ruim mesmo.

captions remind me radioactive man comic crust, hard

??????

What's with the dislikes?

Are you ok? Yeah. Just taking a little dirt nap is all...

- a very lucky man until that medical bill arrives.

So why didn't you face the A frame of your kite in the direction of the downed pilot so we could all see just what it was you were doing before the car arrived?

?????????????

if I understand the other handglider crash on ground... The accident with handglider I know... Me too crash in three ... Very dangerous the landing...

Did you find the cause?? I once insisted on a crashed glider beinng checked before anyone moved it, thank god we did as we found the cause. Stopped it hapening again too. glad this guy was okay as was the chap I was above apart from broken legs and cuts and brueses. I will add he latter flew with two plaster cast on, we had to more or less throw him on take off and catch him on landing, stupid I know but he did enjoy that flight. he still flys to this day..Cheers pete

If God wanted us to fly he wouldn't have given us scuba diving fins...

Where is the accident ?

I just almost died let me do it again

Not after he gets the ambulance bill

No body crashed tho? Nothing happened