Some good news

On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 9:34:10 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:

When the pilot bailed out his parachute leg straps were not buckled...

It was reported elsewhere that the pilot landed within 1 km of Route 16, and so I bet he landed in a tree.



I wonder if the unbuckled leg straps facilitated exit from the harness? Following a stream might have got him downhill to Route 16, but bushwhacking in NH is difficult due to dense undergrowth.

Kudos to pilot for keeping his head and self-rescuing!

Kudos for the pilot for self rescuing, but even more kudos for the other pilot for thinking outside the box and turning downwind and fly cross country, significantly increasing his chances to find drier air or a gap further downwind.

Ramy

Holy crap! I just felt that feeling you get when you almost fall over a ledge. I'll bet that pi loo ot will never forget the leg straps again. Checklists people!!!!!

Glad no "physical" injuries are among the wreckage.

Sean
7T

Am Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2015 18:48:11 UTC+2 schrieb Ramy:
... but even more kudos for the other pilot for thinking outside the box and turning downwind and fly cross country, significantly increasing his chances to find drier air or a gap further downwind.

Ramy

Why would that be out-of-the-box thinking?! It's pretty much plan A in moist wave conditions.

Bert
Ventus cM TW

On 10/21/2015 4:02 AM, Tango Whisky wrote:
Am Dienstag, 20. Oktober 2015 18:48:11 UTC+2 schrieb Ramy:
... but even more kudos for the other pilot for thinking outside the box
and turning downwind and fly cross country, significantly increasing his
chances to find drier air or a gap further downwind.

Ramy

Why would that be out-of-the-box thinking?! It's pretty much plan A in
moist wave conditions.

Bert Ventus cM TW


When I first began pondering wave flying - and dambetcha, the possibilities of
getting trapped on top or enveloped in IMC and having to "do something about
it" thoroughly got my attention! - my Plan A became "waiting until I was
*forced* (e.g. by approaching sunset) to descend," my Plan B was "retreat
downwind until "some better option appeared" (and *screw* retrieve
inconvenience), while Plan C was bail out. This mental conversation occurred
well before obtaining my license or going XC.

Eventually - thanks to flying large-deflection-landing-flap-equipped gliders
and moving to an area where "really wet waves" were pretty much a rarity, I
inserted - if I was absolutely certain clear air between peak-tops and cloud
bases existed - a Plan A.5) IMC descent through the clouds (convenience - woo
hoo!).

Fortunately, other than sometimes playing the waiting game while aloft
(usually due to gnarly pattern/lower-down conditions), I never really had to
seriously consider implementing any of the other options.

My take on the "need for this bailout" was it was likely due to a form of
"get-home-itis" (i.e. diving for a closing hole) leading to IMC below
peaktops. Once there, the decision to abandon the plane was the right one, I
think.

By way of personal analysis of a traumatic situation that easily could have
ended fatally, even had there not simultaneously been aloft another glider
with whom he theoretically might have been able to discuss the situation(who,
it's my understanding, began a descent for home before reconsidering the
rapidly closing wave window, climbed back aloft and used
altitude/time/distance to implement my Plan B), by committing to the "window
or nothing else" Chris G. forfeited whatever options the time-aloft option
alone may have ultimately brought him....and I realize it was already late-ish
in the day.

So, yes, hindsight suggests to me better options & decisions were still on the
table when he implemented the decision chain that save for deciding to bail
out could have ended fatally...but thoughtful pilots will also recognize he
DID "break the chain." There but for the grace of God...?

Bob W.

In a nut shell: He had the wrong plan A, but the right plan B ;-)
Happily for him, it did work out in the end.

In the Alps, wave with northerly winds is typically stable situation (it can last for a week), and more or less dry. It's a large scale situation controlled by a high pressure zone. If you want to descend in IMC, you just need to make sure that you won't hit an embedded rotor. Ceilings will most probably be where they have been hours ago.

Wave under southerly winds is controlled by a depression coming in, and has a time scale of something like 12-36 hours. With the depression moving rapidly closer, wind direction and moisture can change rapidly over the day until finally the warm front cuts off everything with rain. A descend in IMC without solid information about the clearance between ceiling and ground is just Russian roulette.

Bert
Ventus cM TW

On Tuesday, October 20, 2015 at 10:59:52 AM UTC-4, son_of_flubber wrote:
On Monday, October 19, 2015 at 9:34:10 PM UTC-4, Karl Striedieck wrote:

When the pilot bailed out his parachute leg straps were not buckled...

It was reported elsewhere that the pilot landed within 1 km of Route 16, and so I bet he landed in a tree.



I wonder if the unbuckled leg straps facilitated exit from the harness? Following a stream might have got him downhill to Route 16, but bushwhacking in NH is difficult due to dense undergrowth.

Kudos to pilot for keeping his head and self-rescuing!


To combine quotes from OLC and Billy Madison... "I award you no points and may god have mercy on your soul"

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0...Id=-2096417488

last location is my landing spot, the glider is a bit more than a mile due east from where i touched down.