so you thought you might have a go and glide over the milking shed to catch your last thermal for the season for some extra excitement...glad to hear you tell the story...
Some details in short: it's a kortel mylon, it wasn't fixed properly (my fault), and probably opened at start. It was almost a 2 hours long flight (towed start): www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:AndrasHaasz/19.3.2015/11:59 And I didn't notice it's open until landed! I was lucky.
Andras Haasz it wasn't properly fixed and mostly because of the towing it got deformed. impossible to get this if the carabiner was closed. thank god you landed. i thought you were flying so carefully on approche because you knew... from now on you'll be tripple checking these before hitting the sky! :-D
I would highly doubt the carabiner would be stressed enough to bend open during regular flight. (it's only carrying half your body weight after all) So it likely did happen almost immediately under the stress of the tow. Wow! Somebody was watching over you that day.
It took me ages to figure out what I was looking at. Inspected the right carabiner, then went ... "it looks fine to me, I can't see what everyone is * *notices left carabiner / coat hanger* * HOLY CRAP >_> That looks like a design that could do with some added redundancy to me, maybe a second loop of some kind? I've only ever skydived though, I am assuming this is paragliding?
Those caribiners look like what you might pick up in a hardware store. Well it's been two years, I hope you are still alive, and that you purchased some real caribiners designed for paragliding???
Hi Andras, I am glad that you are ok. Can you give us more info about the carabiner (maker/mode) for how long did you fly with them. Any suggestion why the carabiner broke ?
It's a peguet mylon, I used it for 4.5 years (360 hours of flying) without any problem. It was the default factory equipment of the kortel harness I use. www.peguet.fr/self-certified-maillon-rapide-quick-links/trapeze-maillon-rapide If you screw up it properly, no problem: the breaking load is 1250 kg. But if you miss it: nothing! That was the problem: something detracted my attention, and forgot to doublecheck it before start.
The reserve is under the seat, at my right hand. If I notice the carabiner during the flight, I definitely pull it up, put in my lap, and try to fix the carabiner somehow. If I can't fix it, at low altitude (200m) I throw it out.
Yeah, but think of the money he saved! Instead of $44 for a pair of fancy carabiners, he bought a great pair at the big box store for just 3 bucks. After a new pair of underpants, he still came out way ahead.
Andras, a friend of mine who's against flying with helmets hypothesized that the reason you didn't see the open biner was because your helmet limited your peripheral field of vision. Would you agree, and if not, to what would you attribute that? Many thanks, brother, and I'm glad you landed just fine!
Renato Granzoti Hi Renato! I flew yesterday and checked it. Yes, you might be right... I use a helmet with chin guards, and it blocks the lower part of my view! Of course, it's not an excuse, just a kind of explanation. Anyway, I don't think that flying without helmet is good idea - it could be really dangerous.
Andras Haasz Andras, would you mind showing us a picture of you wearing the helmet? I would have never expected that in over 2h of flying and weight shifting and looking around you wouldn't have seen it. Your harness' riser mounting points with your specific helmet are really quite a dangerous combination when mixed in with an unscrewed mountaineering carabiner, that's for sure. What a freak situation!
***** While there may be helmets that restrict your field of view, there are many that don't and still protect you (I wear a snowboarding one and it's great. Zero restriction). My concern is with anything that happens below 60ft, and I've seen a good bit of it, from pilot getting a collapse at take off, glider turning toward launch and hitting a tree, to pilot getting caught by a dust devil on final landing approach and being swung around the ground. In both instances the helmet cracked but they didn't hurt their heads. Using the same logic (falling from 1k feet) you could justify not carrying a reserve or using your harness' back protector. In Brazil we say "passarinho que come pedra sabe o cu que tem". Which roughly translates to: "bird that eats rocks knows the anus that it's got!"). ;)
Neal Wood Yes, probably. I checked it yesterday, and indeed, it blocks the lower part of my view. I think I should get another one, without chin guards.
Andras Haasz Thank you. I'm new and just getting to the bottom. I had faith your a good person. That not noticing had to be a good reason. And I'm sure even OSBA would not diagnose this properly. That I do have faith. I'm not telling anyone about there own safety. Just like I Dont want anyone telling me.
Very Lucky ! U can celebrate ur second birthday. But i don`t understand how u couldn`t recognize that during flight ? The carabine was shortt beforte complete material failure !
Braekyn Hmm that's a mountaineering carabiner all-right. I'm a rockclimber but I'm looking into flying PGs. I've done a bit of research and both PG and climbing crabiners are designed to withstand 20Kn but climbing ones are designed for use with climbing ropes and PG carabiners are designed for use with nylon straps. Your safety is your responsibility at the end of the day but I'd consider using a PG carabiner.
