Reserve deployment near Mt. Isabell at Rat Race 2016 comp скачать в хорошем качестве

Reserve deployment near Mt. Isabell at Rat Race 2016 comp

Skip to 1:20 for the actual accident Accident occured on June 22 2016, it was 4th day of Rat Race paragliding compentition at Woodrat, Oregon. That day I decided to fly my old wing - EN-B Mistral 7 (my current wing is EN-C Swing Nexus) to compare speed and glide. It's over 2.5yrs old, over 150hrs, never inspected though, but lines were stretched 1yr ago (over 3cm for rear risers AFAIR). I didn't fly Mistral for probably over half a year and was not current on it. I had hard time launching it (it tended to fall back as if there was a knot in break lines or rear risers, I checked that - there were none.) I suspected that it might come out of trim, but also reason might be I forgot how to launch it and get used to my Nexus. Anyway, during the flight I realized that it's glide is speed is worse than Nexus, even though last one has bigger size (29m2 vs 27m2). On the way to Mt. Isabel waypoint I found myself in strongish headwing and fairly turbulent conditions (it was lee and a bit low). I still decided to push forward, tag waypoint and return. On the way back I hit updraft, which I carefully started to turn left. At some point left wing is going to fall out - I carefully stop it and then slow down right one a bit to control turn. There was not much input done. Then I notice, that the wing is stalled (pretty unexpected). I release it - and expect the surge, and then overcontrol it, not letting it fly. After that pilot error there were 3 attempts to release the wing, neither of which looked like full release. After last attempt to release and overcontrol it, wing tried to twist, and I decided to throw reserve immediately. While reaching for the handle with right hand I still was holding/pulling left break, so the wing entered a SAT maneuver. I realized that I was still pulling break only at the point when reserve opened. Fortunately I got my reserve repacked just before the comp (thanks, Jeff Greenbaum!), and it opened quickly. G forces were building up quickly otherwise. On the reserve descent there were not much time to think. I intended to kill the wing first, but then decided not to (and I think it was [lucky] good decision at that point - the wing met tree first and took all the damage, reserve flew around and hang below, undamaged). I also tried to steer the wing a bit to get closer to roads, but that didn't quite work as intended. I didn't have any tree kit with me and even if I had one, I'd not use it as long as I was not trained to do that. Luxury two story nest (wing up there, reserve dangling down below) appeared to be at about 30m/100ft AGL. Fortunately that was close to the roads, so Rat Race rescue team (led by Pete, and Forest was the one who climed up the tree) was able to come quickly, and I was safe on the ground within less than 3hrs since the crash. Thank you, guys! There were no pilot injuries, wing got two tears on bottom surface, should be repairable. Full tracklog of the flight may be found here: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leona... ** Aug 2016 update ** Wing inspection discovered the following: 1. Wing porosity is ok (over 300s per JDC MK1) 2. All lines got shrunk to some extent. 2.1. Shrinkage happened symmetrically left to right (well within 15mm tol.). 2.2. Shrinkage uniformly increased from front-center towards rear and sides: central A lines shrunk only for 1cm, while A tips shrunk for 5-6cm, stabilo - 7-8cm and rear lines shrunk for ridiculous 11cm. Thus definitely wing trim was significant contributing factor for the accident happened, still accounting for others.