July 8, 1995 ---- Ft. Funston
I had been in the air over an hour at Funston, this was my first
time getting up there for more than 15 minutes(H3 with 50hr). Dan
Murphy had launched me off earlier, and I beached it, so I was
tired from glider hauling. My eyes were watering, and I felt that
I should go in and land.
All the other gliders were off at Westlake, and it turned North and
strong I was following another glider North along the ridge, when he
disappeared past the drain pipe. I could not find him, and decided to
head back to launch to avoid a midair. In the North conditions, I had
no idea how to set up an approach, but I set up at 1000 ft, back in
the corner by the highway. I did a number of maneuvers such as S turns
and 360s and got down to about 300ft.
At this time I realized that due the wind direction and strength, I
was going to get thrashed by turbulence coming off the cars in the
parking lot, clubhouse, etc. I also became paranoid, one of my best
flying buddies had been killed the year before a Lakeview. This
flight was dedicated to him, at his home site. At some point, I
thought he was out to get me. That is a long story, suffice to say,
that it was a factor that made me hurry, without thoroughly thinking
things thru, I was mentally tired. This paranoia was exacerbated by
hearing devilish laughter coming from the pilots at the bush, they
knew I was Phuct!
I was going to aim for the gap between the parking lot and the club
house, but needed to do a few S turns to make sure I did not overshoot.
In doing this, I got in the rotor, which was much further back than
expected. I rapidly dropped straight down, nose on the horizon. During
the fall, I unzipped the harness and went for the downtubes one at a
time.
During the fall, I unzipped the harness and went for the downtubes one
at a time. I kicked my legs forward to gain airspeed instinctively.
During the fall, I was turned heading SW toward launch. I gained enough
airspeed to get the glider flying, but I was ground skimming at a very
high rate of speed, nearly downwind.
I did not think I had enough room to slow down, and could not judge how
much effect the downwind was contributing to my ground speed. My toes
were in contact with the ground, and the thought was that if I flare
really hard, I will convert the extra speed into a climb, and come down
hard without any horizontal speed.This did not happen. I executed a
perfect hard crisp, opened handed flare, with hand high on the frame.
This did not stop my forward momentum at all. The Glider stall broke,
started dropping a wing, but my ground speed was above 15 MPH. I had had
my legs cocked for impact, and there was not enough time for my brain to
get past “WTF?” and say “Run”. The nose rotated through the stall, with
my arms outstretched, but somewhat bent in the flare position. I was
thrown through the control bar. Lights out.
I woke up with my face in the ice plant. The Smell, the mellow wind,
still some echos of laughtercoming from the bush. I thought I was dead,
I thought maybe she would see me now, and knowand care. My left arm was
extended above my head, I tried to bring it to me so I could turn over.
It would not obey. It was interesting that it now wobbled and I could
feel the bone separating, but no pain. I brought it to me with my right
arm, noticing my Avocet watch was smashed.My brain returned to reality,
and its first thought was “Oh, Crap, my Glider is F’d”. The keel
And left DT were Snapped. I was wearing an open faced Bell Trails Helmet.
My head began to throb.I tried to unhook, but could not.
At this time, I was aware that the laughter from the bushes had stopped.
They were now coming infull rescue mode. The first real pain I felt was
when someone helped me unhook, and I collapsed backon my harness. I could
have gotten to my feet, but I was worried about the pain in my neck. I
beganto shiver uncontrollably; I was going into shock.
The guys got a whole crowd of people to pile theircoats on top of me. The
EMTS came and gave me morphine. I was on top of the world. I could not
believe all these people would give up their coats for me. I could not
believe the pilots were so on top of the situation. Steve was going to
take care of my glider. Mark and others were all over theplace,
controlling the crowd and letting the EMTs work.
Pete flew overhead and I waved at him, to show I was OK. He met me at
the Hospital. I felt amazingly awesome, encouraged by a large amount of
perfect strangers willing to help.
I just had one of the best flights of my life. I could have avoided
injury by simply staying up, and waiting for someone else to show me
the proper approach, I was worried about conditions worsening. I missed
a chance, when I did not notice the one other glider in the area landed
north of the cliffs. I could have landed further back. In the end, all
my training, study, practice were sufficient to save my life, when things
happened very fast. Wheels would have helped maybe.
Only one thing left to remember: RUN!
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