Paraglider pilot missing in eastern Nevada

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 5:44:12 AM UTC-8, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Tango Eight wrote on 12/10/2020 3:59 AM:
On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 1:05:42 AM UTC-5, kenward1000 wrote:
Recently sat in on a Zoom seminar about XC flying hang gliders in the Owens Valley, hosted by the SF Bay Area largest HG/PG club. The presenter is an experienced pilot. However several points he made, alarmed me. First he didn't recommend that anyone carry oxygen, as he doesn't, because he feels he doesn't get hypoxic. Second he claimed that he regularly flies above 18K', sometimes higher than 20K', w/o O2. I get hypoxic above 14K' in my LAK-12.. No discussion of MOAs, unaware of Procedure Alpha on the Whites. Disdained aircraft radios in favor of ham radios. I've flown the Owens several times in a HG, and the conditions encountered made me decide to get a glider rating and use the right tool for flying XC there. The thought of flying XC in a PG in the mountains just makes me shake my head. That's a hard NO for me.

The presenter seems hypoxic at sea level.

T8
The Mountain High electronic oxygen regulator was originally developed for HG pilots, because a
lot of them need it! Perhaps the next seminar should include Pat McLaughlin of Mountain High.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

This is the direct result of an unregulated dangerous hobby - any reasonable regulations would prohibit this. And I favor less regulation.

Tom

Writes the foolish and stupid person who drives 80 mph and cheats on his taxes.
R

I believe if we never aged and continued flying forever, it will eventually kill us....
I believe if we age and continue flying it will kill us much sooner than that. This is highly controversial topic.. I imagine some irate responses here... FAA retirement age used to 60 and now relaxed to 65. Rought rule of thumb? I don't know what the right age is but it is probably different for each person. Question is, will each person know when it is

I started flying gliders at 30 and had determined when I turned 70 I would retire before a young instructor tapped me on the shoulder and said I needed to do some rides with him. So when I turned 70 after 4000 hours in 4 different sailplanes, I retired. Sat down and made a list of all my friends killed in glider accidents......15. At nearly 84 (1 month) I am still gazing wistfully at cloud streets forming over my house in Arizona.......but I am still gazing

Gary Kemp "NK"

I started flying gliders at 30 and had determined when I turned 70 I would retire before a young instructor tapped me on the shoulder and said I needed to do some rides with him. So when I turned 70 after 4000 hours in 4 different sailplanes, I retired. Sat down and made a list of all my friends killed in glider accidents......15. At nearly 84 (1 month) I am still gazing wistfully at cloud streets forming over my house in Arizona.......but I am still gazing

Gary Kemp "NK"

A point I would make about senior aviators would be to stay with the ship you have been flying. A friend of mine who was in his late 80’s was doing all right flying his LS-6. Then he decided to buy a new ship with an electric motor. It was clear to several of us that he just wasn’t up to the new technology and I told him so! He was killed flying his new ship, nobody knows exactly why, but I’d say he was a victim of the new technology?

Gary, you had great success flying your Nimbus-3 that required aggressive stick and rudder to make it do your bidding. Then you borrowed a Ventus to fly the Nationals.............the new bird wouldn’t tolerate any aggressive control inputs. I’d say you started questioning your piloting abilities, but it wasn’t you, it was the different ship?
BTW, your old bird is up for sale, still has NK on the tail!

JJ..........86 and sticking with everything I’m familiar with!

On Saturday, December 12, 2020 at 8:45:14 AM UTC-7, John Sinclair wrote:
I started flying gliders at 30 and had determined when I turned 70 I would retire before a young instructor tapped me on the shoulder and said I needed to do some rides with him. So when I turned 70 after 4000 hours in 4 different sailplanes, I retired. Sat down and made a list of all my friends killed in glider accidents......15. At nearly 84 (1 month) I am still gazing wistfully at cloud streets forming over my house in Arizona.......but I am still gazing

Gary Kemp "NK"
A point I would make about senior aviators would be to stay with the ship you have been flying. A friend of mine who was in his late 80’s was doing all right flying his LS-6. Then he decided to buy a new ship with an electric motor. It was clear to several of us that he just wasn’t up to the new technology and I told him so! He was killed flying his new ship, nobody knows exactly why, but I’d say he was a victim of the new technology?

Gary, you had great success flying your Nimbus-3 that required aggressive stick and rudder to make it do your bidding. Then you borrowed a Ventus to fly the Nationals.............the new bird wouldn’t tolerate any aggressive control inputs. I’d say you started questioning your piloting abilities, but it wasn’t you, it was the different ship?
BTW, your old bird is up for sale, still has NK on the tail!

JJ..........86 and sticking with everything I’m familiar with!
Thanks JJ, good advice, I had never really thought of that as a problem, but clearly there was something dramatically different with the Ventus, I of course thought it was me. btw I saw the ad for the Nimbus 3

NK

On Friday, December 11, 2020 at 3:02:53 PM UTC-8, wrote:
I believe if we never aged and continued flying forever, it will eventually kill us....
I believe if we age and continue flying it will kill us much sooner than that.

After instructing for 34 years, the absolute worse part of that experience was reminding older and some younger with health problems, their flying days were over. The worse of the worse were those who were in denial and down right belligerent. They would work the system and try to find another instructor even another place to fly. When they ran out of places that would not let them fly, they bought a self launcher and the rest is history. All of this group are so self serving and could not give a damn about the negative impact on the community.

There are many high risk things that agree with the statement " I believe if we never aged and continued flying forever, it will eventually kill us..." Being around skydivers, surfers, pilots and rock climbers, I have lost handfuls of friends over the years. Sadly most in gliders..

You have to truly admire those have recognized the signs and choose to leave the world in a way we all respect. Yeager and Hoover comes to mind.

BG