[Bob Kuczewski]

If there was a delete button, we wouldn't be wasting time.

To delete other people's posts would require a moderator level access, and I think that can only be granted on a forum by forum basis.

Let me try this ...

I've been considering giving other people moderator privileges (which allows tinkering with other people's posts) in a limited capacity. I could set up a subforum for you and give you that ability within that subforum. That might also give you infinite editing abilities. I've been hesitant about doing it because I'm not sure if that opens any security holes that would allow someone with those privileges to possibly use them outside of their own subforum.

Would that make a significant difference for you if we took that risk?

[Rick Masters]

I would like to be able to organize my posts and delete off-topic posts. I want to make corrections in style and substance back to post #1. The result is quality, not risk. The real risk is loss of enthusiasm. Other perceived risks involving loss of data can be ameliorated with automated backups.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Here's what I think I can do right now ...

I can create a subforum for you in the Blog forum that will allow you to create as many topics as you like and edit your posts in all those topics with no time out. That will also allow you to delete posts of your own and anyone else's in that subforum at any time. It will also let you edit anyone else's posts within that subforum as long and often as you like. The one thing that you can't really do easily is change the order of your posts. The posts will appear in temporal (posting) order within each topic. So the only way to insert a post is to create a new one at the end and then copy each preceding post to the next empty slot - one by one - until you've opened the slot where you want to insert the new post.

Given that this is an experiment (for me and for the forum), I ask two things:

1. I will want to include a notice on that subforum that all content within it is controlled by Rick Masters and warning people that you could actually change their posts.
2. I will want your word that if you find any security loop holes (like me accidentally giving you similar permissions in other forums) that you'll both let me know and not exploit them.

If you're good with those two conditions, I'll create a subforum bearing your name (or anything reasonable you like) in the Blog forum, and we can see how it works.

With regard to the risks, backups are only so good. In a forum like this, if I have to go back even a week, that will mean that we'll lose a week's worth of everyone's posts. Also, the reason I'm very hesitant about permissions is that Jack ("sg" from hanggliding.org) once accidentally gave the wrong permissions to someone that allowed them to change any post on the entire HGAA forum. Jack made some comment at the time which indicated that the forum permission settings were both complicated and unintuitive. And Jack had been managing phpBB forums for many years ... even back then. Now that I've been running this forum, I've had to deal with the permission settings from time to time (for example, to ban a person from a club forum at the club's request - while permitting them to post to the rest of the US Hawks). In those cases, I was limiting their rights rather than expanding them, and it was still very tricky and non-intuitive. So I have a healthy amount of fear that I may accidentally give you permissions that I hadn't intended, and I'd like your help to notify me of that if it should happen.

[Free]

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/ ... -1.2105917

The Air Accident Investigation Unit report said the pilot and the passenger launched from a ridge near Lough Bray Lower after which the pilot encountered what he described as the most aggressive turbulence he has experienced in his 14 years of flying.
The report went on to state: “The pilot said that the wing collapsed due to the turbulence. He attempted to recover, but due to continuing turbulence and instability the wing collapsed twice more.

“The pilot believed that the wing was actually recovering from the final collapse when, due to loss of height caused by the successive collapses, he impacted terrain with forward speed.”

The pilot, who had 284 hours of flying experience, sustained a concussion, several pelvic fractures, a dislocated shoulder and a compound fracture of the humerus which required surgery. The passenger suffered two broken ribs, a punctured lung and a fractured bone in his hand.

The passenger, who was himself a private pilot licence holder, had purchased a coupon on the internet for a paraglider flight. He said the flight was an experience flight and that he had not joined or enrolled with any club or training school beforehand.

[Bill Cummings]

man dies in hang gliding accident

http://www.keyt.com/news/man-dies-in-hang-gliding-accident/31555834

[JoeF]

The filename has the infamous misnomer.
However, the present article title is more accurate: (soaring parachute paraglider)
Paraglider Dies After Falling 1,000 Feet Near La Cumbre Peak

Much ache for the daughter of Ronald Faoro.
Condolences flowing.
Peace to her and the friends and family.
Dr. Ron Faoro (St. Francis Pet Clinic photo)
Santa Barbara Mourns Veterinarian Killed Paragliding


http://www.stfrancispetclinic.com/
http://www.stfrancispetclinic.com/dr-ron-faoro

Probable immediate challenge: FTHI properly, but full report is not in.

[[How many pilots wear a rescue chute?]]

[[Associated Press: "Paragliding resembles a combination of hang-gliding and skydiving, where a pilot launches on foot and sits below a fabric wing that catches the wind."]]

[Bob Kuczewski]

I too offer my condolences to his daughter who must have suffered both a traumatic and terrifying experience.

Greynald said he suspects Faoro’s leg straps may not have been fastened, but pointed out that it’s impossible to know whether something was missed in a pre-flight check or if something went wrong later.

It should be very easy to determine if his leg loops were fastened by inspecting the harness after the accident. I don't know why that wasn't reported.

[wingspan33]

I am also confused by this unfortunate incident. As a "tandem" paragliding flight, how is it that the pilot can "fall" out of his harness while the passenger stays in theirs?

In the tandem PG flights I have seen (on video) the passenger sits in front of the pilot in, what I would figure as being, a special tandem harness. Perhaps there is more than one way to attach a passenger to a (normally?) solo(?) inflatable canopy?

It seems to me that the other local (PG?) pilots present on that day should know the tandem set-up used in this case.

And another question has come to mind. Was this pilot-in-command a Certified/Rated USHPA PG Tandem pilot? It's easy enough to look him up (i.e., his ratings) within the members section of the USHPA's web site. But as a non-member I can't do so myself.

The fact that something went seriously (fatally) wrong with the "securing" of the pilot-in-command's harness (leg loops?) makes me wonder if he actually was a USHPA Rated PG Tandem pilot. The options are that he was not USHPA Tandem Rated, or that he failed to take the requirements of that rating seriously. As to the later, how is it that the individual who issued the USHPA Tandem (1?) rating failed to insure that this unfortunate individual UNDERSTOOD the serious nature of Tandem paragliding?

The USHPA needs to look very seriously into this incident. There is simply NO GOOD REASON for this PG Tandem pilot-in-command to be dead, and his daughter permanently traumatized. I would think that the FAA SHOULD also look into this incident. Why? Well, for a while now the USHPA has turned a blind eye to the (un)safe activities of USHPA Rated PG Tandem pilots. One of those Tandem PG pilots (who has violated multiple FAA Reg.s) is actually now a USHPA Regional Director!

[Rick Masters]

I don't see this as a paragliding issue. Rather, I see it as a beautiful testimony to the character of a loving father to take his daughter into the sky and share with her one of the most wonderful things he had found in life. Free flight. This was a very personal decision on a beautiful day for flying and I respect it. As a free-flight pilot, as well as a father with a daughter myself, I understand where he was at. I am confident he would have checked her harness thoroughly and double checked it. Caught up in his concern for her, he missed something in securing his own harness. Aviation extracts the ultimate price for such mistakes, regardless of aircraft types, and he paid it. But worse, much worse, and as a father I can say this with certainty, I know in his last moments, he was not thinking of his fate. He was thinking of hers.

You want to lash out at the U$hPA or regulatory licensing. I understand that. But who are you going to punish? The one who made the mistake has already been executed. There is no more left to do.

Actually, there is more for us to do. That is to recognize what is actually wrong. Until we do that, we cannot move forward.

Neither the hang gliding harness nor the paragliding harness are properly designed.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I think every accident contains a lesson to be learned, but that lesson may or may not be obvious.

I think Rick is right that a father is highly likely to have great concern for the safety and well-being of his children. Yet somehow this accident happened, and the daughter was very fortunate to have survived.

In hang gliding, we're all extremely aware of the danger of launching unhooked. The ongoing arguments on how to best avoid this danger (hang checks, hook-in checks, "Aussie method", hook-in streamers on wires, hook-in signs at launch, "you're always unhooked", lift-and-tug, etc.) serve to bring the issue to our attention. But in paragliding, I am generally unaware of such a strong emphasis on hook-in checking. This may be from a perception that it's difficult to launch a paraglider "unhooked" because it's already doing a "lift and tug" as soon as the canopy comes up. If the pilot isn't properly hooked in, it's generally assumed that the pull of the canopy will quickly make this known (since it's the pilot's weight in the harness that anchors the paraglider to the ground before launch). However, in a tandem operation, the weight of the passenger may mask the fact that the pilot isn't properly hooked in. This might be a contributing cause in this case. But whatever contributed, I agree with Scott that "There is simply NO GOOD REASON for this PG Tandem pilot-in-command to be dead, and his daughter permanently traumatized". I believe the accident is telling us about some aspect of paragliding that was overlooked either specifically in this case or in general throughout the sport.

By the way, here's what I was taught in the two sports. In hang gliding, I was taught to check the "4 C's": Chinstrap, Crotch, Clearance, and Connection (the "crotch" part of that checklist covers the leg loops). In paragliding I was taught to count to 4: One chinstrap, Two carabiners, Three body straps, Four risers). The three body straps check is intended to catch the two leg loops and the chest strap.