[reluctantsparrow]

Okay, so pressurized down tubes may be a bit complicated but a "smart" ballistic is a very simple idea we already possess the technology for. All that is required are three pieces of information.
1. an accurate terrain map
2. an altimeter
3. a variometer
I will post the idea on a PG site and see what happens with it.
Such a simple solution would have saved Willi Muller, who understood stall speeds VERY well.
Willi suffered an initial collapse about three hundred off the deck, got his laundry flying again then suffered a second collapse that took him down. I never saw Willi go for a reserve but he disappeared from my view the last hundred feet.
The instinct of long time pilots to "fly our way out of it" instead of going for the reserve was a factor in the fatality I witnessed last week as well. I had a clear view of that incident all the way to the deck. Kinda hard to erase such images from ones mind.
Wrong forum to post this idea perhaps, my apologies.....RS

[Rick Masters]

I will post the idea on a PG site and see what happens with it.

    Don't forget to mention my name.

Wrong forum to post this idea perhaps...

Not at all.
Plummeting paragliders are a hazard to navigation.
That's not safe.
And they go splat.

BTW, I ask hang glider pilots about their witnessing fatalities.
A few have seen other hang glider pilots die over their flying careers ranging, sometimes, back to the early 1970s.
But a lot have seen soaring parachutists die just since the late 90s.
My own experience is curious.
I've never seen a hang gliding fatality despite holding contests from Gunter, Mazourka, Cerro Gordo and Walt's Point and witnessing a hell of a lot of hang gliding over many years.
But in a period of only two years, I witnessed two soaring parachutists crash and die and I was at the 2002 Paragliding Nats when the news came that Bruce Wallace had just died on Mt. Langley.
Strangely, the 2002 Nats was the only PG event I've ever attended.
It led me to eventually believe that paragliding was more dangerous than hang gliding.

[reluctantsparrow]

Just drove home from a milk run. Actually, half & half, cheese, and cigarettes. Saw a PG rig I recognized parked on the side of the road so I pulled over. Met the driver but not the pilot. Where's the pilot I ask? ( a local PG named Jerry). Oh, he's in the next field over and he's fine, I saw him kiting his wing. Uh, you saw his wing but did you see Jerry? I ask. Well, No, the driver says.
My reaction? $%&*(#GDFu&^^%ing.....Follow me I tell the driver...
I am so sick and tired of being first on the &%%$$^ scene of these accidents. This time in the field just below MY HOME aT MY site (not dog mtn.)...at a site where I need no %^&%% key, NO USHPA membership,... and there are no #$$ gates....year round...
This is really pissing me off....this happened less than one hour ago....AND I saw the fatality at DOG mtn. just last week....I am Soooooo tired of this....gonna go smoke a bowl....later....RS, SJ....

P.s..REally appreciate you guys....later

[reluctantsparrow]

Update on the injured PG pilot, sorry about the bad grammar in the previous post.
Jerry was taken to harborview in Seattle and suffered a cracked pelvis, broken ribs, torn bladder, torn stomach, and is on a respirator. Might not even make the fatality list.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Update on the injured PG pilot, sorry about the bad grammar in the previous post.

Thanks for the update, and your grammar was completely understandable under those circumstances. The pilot (Jerry) was fortunate that you showed up. Thanks for being a credit to hang gliding pilots everywhere.

For the record, I read your report shortly after you posted it. I just couldn't find the words to reply.

P.s..REally appreciate you guys...

We really appreciate you too ... very much.

[reluctantsparrow]

BTW, I ask hang glider pilots about their witnessing fatalities.
A few have seen other hang glider pilots die over their flying careers ranging, sometimes, back to the early 1970s.
But a lot have seen soaring parachutists die just since the late 90s.
My own experience is curious.
I've never seen a hang gliding fatality despite holding contests from Gunter, Mazourka, Cerro Gordo and Walt's Point and witnessing a hell of a lot of hang gliding over many years.
.

I have to admit you got me thinking Rick, and in spite of competing in the Chelan classic for many years and hang gliding for over 45 years, I have never witnessed a hang gliding fatality either.....I am going to make another video PG pilots and the top brass of USHPA wont like but truth is truth and thanks to this thread I have found the ultimate safe splat protocol for paragliding......"Learn to hang glide"......Agreed..RS

[Frank Colver]

I agree, RS, the safest way for a paraglider pilot to land (or launch) is to be in a hang glider instead.

What is interesting to me is that about 20 years ago (maybe more) I mentioned to a long time hang glider pilot, flying in the Lake Tahoe area, that I was interested in paragliding. He said that sooner or later I would drop in on my butt from a low altitude collapse, due to turbulence near the ground, and end up with spinal injuries. That was before they started putting the big pad under the harness seat. The first time I saw one of those harnesses with the big bulging pad, I remembered what he said.

What I think is more important here is that way back then, over 20 years ago, the danger of turbulent low elevation PG collapse was being recognized, at least by HG pilots.

Is the USHPA incurring a liability by not educating the flying public about the always present danger of low altitude collapse (can you say "Russian Roulette?)? Even my highly experienced PG school instructor, in 2012, only mentioned the need for a reserve parachute in case the PG collapsed and tangled lines but she said nothing about low elevation collapse dangers. She is now dead.

Frank

[Rick Masters]

The wind was blowing 15 mph so the paraglider pilots went home, extremely depressed. Then:


The USHPA is paragliding or whatever mania comes along next.    
Their allegiance is to the money and to the majority.    
That ain't hang gliding. That's a corporation.    
They've said as much.    
What we need in the USA is a national hang gliding association, devoted to recreational hang gliding, with recreational hang glider pilots as members.    
No one has worked more toward that goal than BobK.    
A hang gliding association wouldn't worry about any supposed liability of paragliding.    
Paragliding would be a separate sport - not one to which we are joined at the hip.    
We would no longer be pressured to hide the truth about its safety.    
And no, we wouldn't be helping to insure it.    

[Rick Masters]

Safe-Splat Problem Solved!

[reluctantsparrow]

Latest Flybar vid. Scott Campbell steps forward to fly the thing and gives some GREAT feedback, especially concerning harness configurations. I am doing a lot of tests but my camera is on the blink.
Scott and I are outfitting his WW Falcon to the flybar set up so a lot of local pilots can give it a whirl and give their feedback. Of course I will get it all on film....ALSO...
Wait until you guys see the "FlyBAR/aerotow" Drawings I came up with a couple nights ago! Going to call it the "SkyChariot"....(because it LOOKS like a chariot). My aerotow set up will be totally foot launchable and portable.....no rear wheel...just a skid....can't wait to bend it up...
Moving forward to do a kickStarter. There is enough interest. Not going to do a tutorial at this point. Too many things have to be built to spec for the FlyBar to be safe and I did a cost analysis. In a short production run I can build them for less than anyone can build a "one off"....
I did not plan to go into business with this. I like my life just fine the way it is...but no Manufactures have stepped forward and there is a demand.......so....going for it.
BTW.....the Wills wing "fixed Carraige"....In the vids released so far I see problems...they have attached more weight to the airframe of the glider without lowering the center of mass of the pilot? So the pilot has less roll authority to begin with and then has to overcome all that weight that has been added to the airframe? Am I missing something? There just HAS to be a loss of roll authority with that set up. No ability to pull forward beyond the DT's? I don't quite get it but knowing Wills Wing I am sure they will get it all working great before release.
As far as the flybar....things are going to move forward quickly from here on out...