The glider is an Airborne Blade and I find it to have a very large A frame- long downtubes, which didn't help in this case. Really though conditions just turned for the worse and that will happen. The best decision was to ride it out and get high like the other two did.. but there is no way to know that at the time cause i've seen it get much worse in Cochrane, we were landing in +60km/h winds the week before but it was generally smooth compared.
As one person said above, I was pushing out my downtubes HARD and could not get my turn rounded out, I just fell out of the sky, there was zero glide or lift from the wing. Not having my feet out in front of me and kind of 'belly landing' it definitely saved my legs and then at the point just before getting thrown like a rag doll I just let go of everything.
I thought that we were in either a nasty convergence or that it was about to really howl (as it tends to do there) you can see the lenticulars on the front edge of the chinook arch behind the hill.
I came in just behind a very experienced pilot who only managed to bend a downtube in a spinning landing.
I came in fast and really no different from any of the 20 or so top landings that day...
there was four of us in the air and we all did what we could to stay in contol. The Canadian Worlds team member was doing some unintentional acro behind the hill, another guy was shot a thousand feet up. At one point I did almost a full 360 yaw turn, no other motion just spinning. Twanging wires left and right...the other guy and I wanted down NOW,
As the pilot of that wild ride I will try and answer some questions and give the story behind why..
First of all, I was completely fine and nothing was broken in the filming of this video!
I had four flights that day in some of the nicest butter smooth air with about six other pilots. All with great top landings and really close flying to one another. On this last flight all of a sudden the conditions changed rapidly...
damn.. looks like left hand / back wind from here, but that doesn't explain why the glider did not level the drop (even a bit) when the pilot pushed the down-tubes.
The glider is an Airborne Blade and I find it to have a very large A frame- long downtubes, which didn't help in this case. Really though conditions just turned for the worse and that will happen. The best decision was to ride it out and get high like the other two did.. but there is no way to know that at the time cause i've seen it get much worse in Cochrane, we were landing in +60km/h winds the week before but it was generally smooth compared.
mulacanuck 2 years ago
As one person said above, I was pushing out my downtubes HARD and could not get my turn rounded out, I just fell out of the sky, there was zero glide or lift from the wing. Not having my feet out in front of me and kind of 'belly landing' it definitely saved my legs and then at the point just before getting thrown like a rag doll I just let go of everything.
mulacanuck 2 years ago
I thought that we were in either a nasty convergence or that it was about to really howl (as it tends to do there) you can see the lenticulars on the front edge of the chinook arch behind the hill.
I came in just behind a very experienced pilot who only managed to bend a downtube in a spinning landing.
I came in fast and really no different from any of the 20 or so top landings that day...
mulacanuck 2 years ago
there was four of us in the air and we all did what we could to stay in contol. The Canadian Worlds team member was doing some unintentional acro behind the hill, another guy was shot a thousand feet up. At one point I did almost a full 360 yaw turn, no other motion just spinning. Twanging wires left and right...the other guy and I wanted down NOW,
mulacanuck 2 years ago
As the pilot of that wild ride I will try and answer some questions and give the story behind why..
First of all, I was completely fine and nothing was broken in the filming of this video!
I had four flights that day in some of the nicest butter smooth air with about six other pilots. All with great top landings and really close flying to one another. On this last flight all of a sudden the conditions changed rapidly...
mulacanuck 2 years ago
What happened and why?
What did the pilot say???
WonderBoyyyyy 2 years ago
damn.. looks like left hand / back wind from here, but that doesn't explain why the glider did not level the drop (even a bit) when the pilot pushed the down-tubes.
scary
IDLVI 2 years ago