[Rick Masters]

This blog is for soaring parachutists to seek honest advice from Rick Masters.
I'm here to help.
Go ahead, ask.
Otherwise, I'll pull your questions from other forums.    

[Rick Masters]

Dear Uncle Rick,
After my accident in Chile in 2016 Feb,
http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=78251
I developed some form of PTSD which appears during turbulence or stronger thermic activity.
I was hoping that time will resolve it, but it seems after 15 month the situation might be even worse.
I can fly now only in calm weather or in the evening...
If I take off in midday, I usually wont resist more than 20-30 min flights.
I flew cca 50 hours since the event.
Has anybody the same experience and did he(she) recovered somehow ?
I don't want to give up flying.
tigertiki

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Hi Tiger Tiki,
Don't worry, you don't have PTSD.
You accident simply made you afraid to fly a paraglider in strong conditions.
That accident must have knocked some sense into you.
I have never flown a paraglider and I don't have PTSD,
but I am afraid to fly a paraglider in strong conditions.
It's the same thing, but I don't have to almost kill myself to realize it.
See? It doesn't have anything to do with PTSD.
It has to do with intelligence.
You have simply realized that you can die when your canopy collapses.
Before, you didn't really think about it much.
Now you do.
That's good.
There's nothing wrong with you.
You are simply realizing that there is a great deal of danger to your life when you fly without an airframe.
What's an airframe?
It's that thing that makes a hang glider look and act like an airplane all the time.
Even in turbulence.
You poor paraglider guys...
You settle for second-rate garbage and then when the inherently defective crap tries to kill you,
you whine that if you give it up (which makes perfect sense), you won't be able to fly anymore.
This would be sad, and even I would shed a tear, if I wasn't rolling on the floor laughing at your apparent distress.
And then you go and ask other soaring parachutists who haven't wised up yet what you should do.
Hence this blog.
I'm here to help.
Far from giving up flying, you haven't even experienced real flying, yet.
You should try it.
Hang glider pilots have no reason to worry about all the things that are bothering you, now.
Hang gliders don't collapse.
Hang gliders don't get blown into places you don't want to go.
Hang gliders don't drop like a brick when they go fast.
Hang gliders don't suddenly slam you into the ground during landing approach.
A hang glider won't turn on you and try to kill you at a moment's notice.
You can actually find the air you are terrified of now to be relaxing and fun and a hell of a lot safer in a hang glider.