Neal Michaelis    aka flychild
Friday, 3/6/2015

Parma Downwind Oak Tree Crash

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3167
Posted by flychild » Tue Mar 10, 2015 12:45 am

I'd prefer to report on a great XC flight, hours spent in the flow. But sometimes that flow ends with a thud.  At least it did for me last Friday.

The flight itself was great.  I had been out of town for a couple of weeks and was looking forward to flying again with friends.  Having missed the Eagle van I drove myself up to Skyport.  They had apparently gone up to EJ, but I prefer to launch Skyport unless there is a good reason to go higher to launch.  I figured I'd join up with everyone in the air anyway.  And the retrieve is shorter.

I launched into a nice light cycle and made quick work of climbing out, getting over to the R and R and on to EJ.  I could see that Tahoe Eric and one other were over La Cumbre and heading west.  The peak worked quite well without much fussing around to find the real climb and off I went to 5800' before heading west to chase down Eric who was on his way to the VOR.  From that altitude it is an easy and carefree glide along the back ridge.  Eric was already climbing when I got to the VOR but not too far into the climb yet.  We shared a thermal and a shout out to each other before making a turnpoint of it and heading back east.  We used the front points on the return to Cathedral, then over to the R and R and Thermal Factory.

The west wind seemed to be picking up a bit at this point, but it wasn't really showing on the water. Everyone was heading to Parma by this time and I was looking forward to a little socializing in the LZ so I followed suit.  I made sure to stay upwind of the LZ as usual and then spiraled down to set up for an approach.  As I exited my spiral I took note of somewhat more west wind than anticipated.  The trees were visibly shaking and my upwind penetration was slow.  However, the wind sock in the LZ was showing somewhat lighter SW, likely shaded by the larger trees to the west of the flagging.  I made another quick 360 to burn some more altitude before making my downwind leg into the LZ.

This is where my decision making started to go wrong.

Sensing the stronger than normal west wind had me concerned about the suck of the canyon on the base leg.  It's bad enough in a light wind and can take you by surprise, ruining your final into the LZ.  While considering this I somehow waited too long to make my downwind entry into the landing field, letting myself get too low on the upwind end.  It wouldn't have been too low on a light wind day, but with the extra velocity my glide into the field was not only sped up, but also surprisingly sinky.  Once I turned downwind into the field it was only a second or two before I realized my error.  With essentially no spare margin my hand was up, no more cards to play.  You are going to land every time you fly, hopefully in a place of your choice.  But now I was going to land, or more precisely CRASH, into a tree going downwind awfully fast.  No time to even think about turning it around into the wind.  Game over, going the wrong direction into a smallish oak tree.

The trunk of the tree forked into two main branches about 5 feet up and I managed to aim right between them, avoiding a much worse outcome.  The beautiful flow of free flight on this day ended for me with a resounding THUD!  I unclipped and climbed down, scraped up a bit and with a bruised rib, cursing myself for being so stupid.  How could I have made such a dumb mistake?  The consequences are too high to make dumb mistakes.  It was my first paragliding accident in nearly 14 years, and the last time was due to a structural failure of a poorly manufactured wing, not pilot error.

So how did I mange to err this time?  Not giving myself enough margin, in this case a little extra altitude on my approach.  Better to be too high on final and have to burn it off than not make the LZ.  I was aware of the "extra" wind, and that it might make the landing more difficult, but I failed to make the necessary adjustments, and proceeded as I would on any "normal" day.  This is one of the main lessons to be learned from this situation.  When you take note of something that is a little different than normal, something that alerts you to a possibly trickier than usual landing, you need to follow through on that thought instead of falling into old patterns.  It's clearly time to adjust the program and adapt to the situation.

Parma is our regular LZ, but it also a fairly challenging one.  I've often thought that it is much safer to go XC since there are so many easier and safer LZs to choose from.  Bottom line is that a little extra margin is probably a good idea.  Exactly how much is up to each pilot to decide for themselves in each situation.  What are you comfortable with?  We also get used to landing our regular LZs and can get stuck in a mind set about how to land them.  It's important to stay just as vigilant landing Parma as you would landing a new LZ at the end an XC flight.  The consequences are the same.

I wish this had been an XC report instead of an accident report.  Hopefully by discussing and analyzing these situations we can help to improve our safety in the sport.

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