[Rick Masters]

August 30, 2015

VF61 of the Italian Vigili del Fuoco (Fire Brigade).

VIDEO
http://www.unionesarda.it/articolo/cronaca/2015/08/27/soccorsi_nelle_campagne_di_teti_dopo_lo_schianto_di_un_parapendio-68-432214.html#
In this video, VF61, a 1988 Augusta AB412ep of the Italian Vigili del Fuoco (Fire Brigade), hoists the body of Pasquale Maoddi, an employee of the Italian energy giant ENEL. The Augusta AB412ep is powered by twin turbines and can survive the loss of one engine within the Helicopter Dead Man's Curve.


Maoddi, who died in the collapse of his paraglider near Lake Cucchinadorza, was flying below the Paragliding Dead Man's Curve at the time. He was the one-thousand, three hundred and seventy-fourth global paragliding fatality that I am aware of.

To help visualize the size of this number, consider that three fully loaded 747-8I jumbo jets are capable of carrying only 27 more passengers.




About 2010, after I had been investigating global paragliding accidents for a couple of years, I had a dream. I was hiking through a jungle in South America when I came upon a crashed 747. The jumbo was intact, having come in at a shallow angle, smashing the jungle trees flat in a long narrow path. I climbed up through the broken hull and encountered row upon row upon row of dead paraglider passengers, all strapped into their seats, wearing helmets, radios, variometers. All dead. I stumbled out of the plane and glanced down the trail of devastation to see the tip of the tail of another 747 rising out of the forest. At that time, I had no inkling that there would be a third. It is mind-numbing to realize, now, that they will soon begin boarding a fourth jumbo, probably before the end of the year.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Thanks Rick. That gives more insight into the sincerity of your efforts.

About 2010, after I had been investigating global paragliding accidents for a couple of years, I had a dream. I was hiking through a jungle in South America when I came upon a crashed 747. The jumbo was intact, having come in at a shallow angle, smashing the jungle trees flat in a long narrow path. I climbed up through the broken hull and encountered row upon row upon row of dead paraglider passengers, all strapped into their seats, wearing helmets, radios, variometers. All dead. I stumbled out of the plane and glanced down the trail of devastation to see the tip of the tail of another 747 rising out of the forest. At that time, I had no inkling that there would be a third. It is mind-numbing to realize, now, that they will soon begin boarding a fourth jumbo, probably before the end of the year.

[Rick Masters]

September 19, 2015

A Royal Navy Sea King Mk 5 winches a soaring parachutist with a broken back from the side of a cliff in "a very risky operation."

[Rick Masters]

September 20, 2015

A Westland WS-61 HAR3A Sea King search and rescue helicopter of the Royal Air Force was used to recover the body of a soaring parachutist in Cumbria. The WS-61 Sea King was developed from the American Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King and fitted with Rolls Royce engines. This aging helicopter was produced from 1969 to 1995. The sponsons, which project from either side, house inflatable buoyancy bags for emergency water landings. (Press ctl- to view entire image).

[Rick Masters]

September 18, 2015

A Royal Navy Westland Sea King search and rescue helicopter winches a soaring parachutist with a head injury out of a ravine in Cornwall.
The British helicopters of paragliding pride themselves in being 15 minutes away from nearly anywhere.
This national network of quick-response search and rescue greatly assists in keeping down the fatality rate of paragliding in Great Britain.

[Rick Masters]

September 18, 2015

A Eurocopter EC145 of the French Security Civile takes off from the Coupe Icare free-flying festival with a Saudi soaring parachutist who broke his back in a crosswind takeoff attempt.

[Rick Masters]

September 4, 2015

A Eurocopter EC145 of the French Securite Civile winches up a seriously injured soaring parachutist at Nyons.
Unlike hang gliders, paragliders collapse in normal atmospheric turbulence and suddenly drop their helpless falling human cargo in inaccessible areas that can be reached often only by helicopter.
The helicopters of paragliding have gradually become a state-funded facet of the sport throughout the world, placing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer-owned aviation resources in unending service to this strange mania of gambling with one's life. In fact, if you like to see helicopters in action, simply search Google for the words paraglider, parapente, parapentiste, parapentista, parapendio, parapendista, paragleiter and gleitschirm and you will be richly rewarded.

More photos of F-ZBPQ. http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?regsearch=F-ZBPQ&distinct_entry=true

[Rick Masters]

October 12, 2015

GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," is a Eurocopter Dauphin AS365 which was used privately in the Mediterranean before being placed into service by Great North Air Ambulance Service in 2011. Here, GNHAB prepares to airlift a soaring parachutist with a broken back and pelvis to a hospital in Newcastle. If required, the AS365 can fly at a speed of 190 mph for three hours without refueling. The Great North Air Ambulance Service has three AS365s. One was used three weeks ago to locate the body of soaring parachutist Mark Paterson in the same valley.


May 30, 2015

The newest addition to Great North Air Ambulance Service is GNHAC, another Eurocopter Dauphin AS365. GNHAC is shown here during a rescue of a soaring parachutist who fractured his spine in a fall from four meters.

May 1, 2015

GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," accompanied by a Westland WS-61 HAR3A Sea King of the Coast Guard, rescues a soaring parachutist with "life-threatening injuries. Having over 20 million dollars worth of rescue helicopters within 15 minutes of any paragliding incident in Northern England inspires great confidence among the members of the Cumbria Soaring Club, if not the taxpayers.

February 15, 2015

Rescuers from GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," prepare to airlift soaring parachutist Tony Thompson. “I’m really appreciative of the air ambulance team," said Thompson. "They do a really good job and I think it’s a service that we all have to support.”


December 12, 2013
A Great North Air Ambulance rescues a soaring parachutist with severe head and leg injuries.

July 22, 2013
A Great North Air Ambulance rescues a soaring parachutist with back injuries.

February 22, 2013

Here GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," retrieves a soaring parachutist with chest and spinal injuries. The venerable twin turbine AS365, which costs 8.9 million US dollars new, has been in continuous production for over 40 years.

October 22, 2012

GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," rescues a soaring parachutist whose paraglider collapsed at 60 feet, resulting in a broken back and pelvic injuries. Without the extensive fleet of rescue helicopters available at a few minutes notice to any remote location, paragliding deaths in England would be much more common.

[Rick Masters]

-- The Pride of Cumbria, cont. --
February 15, 2013

GNHAB, the "Pride of Cumbria," receives a soaring parachutist with a broken leg.

[Dayhead]

Rick, I totally get it that paragliders are much more susceptible to turbulence than are hang gliders.

But at my home site of Crestline/ Marshall, we aren't seeing the total collapse of PG that you continuously show in your videos.

I'm a 39 year Hg pilot that wonders why I shouldn't be bi-wingual, as many of my flying buddies are. Paragliding is popular at our site, and many pilots are bi-wingual.

It sure looks like a lot of fun in the late day glass-offs. We have more Hg accidents in the LZ than the PGer's do.

I'd appreciate your ideas about late day glass-offs using the PG as the vehicle. I'm seeing one PG landing after another that are actually boring, and seeing HG landings that are exciting indeed.

My personal feelings are that HG design philosophy over the last 3 1/2 decades is to blame for the rise in popularity of PG.

Is paragliding the New Hang Gliding? Shudder the thought...But it's looking like that may be the case, unfortunately.