[Rick Masters]

PARAGLIDING SLAUGHTER UPDATE 24 Jun 2017
PG fatality #1580 and #1581
Tandem joyride in Spain: commercial operator and paying passenger

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding July 3, 2017

A soaring parachutist shares a refreshing drink with his new friend as he prepares for a cross-country flight.

[Rick Masters]

PARAGLIDING        July 8, 2017

Could you land your hang glider on this field?
This pajama boy couldn't land his paraglider on it.
His silly laundry collapsed at 20 feet in the air in perfectly normal ground turbulence and he fell two stories straight down, seriously injured.
You know what hang gliders do in ground turbulence?
We just pull in the bar and blast through it.
If the air is still a little wild, we flare and let go and drop the nose and hop to the ground.
That "Whack!" that scares the pee out of the pajama boys is just the air frame and sail taking the blow, not us.
Grass is soft. It doesn't hurt anything on the hang glider.
We just don't think anything of it.
Luckily, this pajama boy didn't have to carry a hang glider from his car to the launch site. Whew!!
So that makes it a good day for him, I guess.
It's funny, I never even thought anything about carrying my hang glider from my car to the takeoff.
Sometimes, if it was a ways, I'd go back and get my harness.
It was no big deal.
It was nothing at all.
Nothing.
And I never worried about things like a lack of penetration, thermal turbulence, collapse, nose-down spirals, cravats, cascades or the fear of them.
Never.
I totally enjoyed flying my hang glider.
I would never give up flying a real aircraft for the chance to die on a slower, less responsive piece of garbage.
I just don't understand these pajama boys.


"You old hang meanie!!! Stop teasing our pajama boys!!!"

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding     July 10, 2017

A soaring parachutist goes cross-country with his new friends after his paraglider collapsed in perfectly normal air turbulence.
"Are we there yet?"
"Nope."
"Do I get a button?"
"Nope."

[Rick Masters]

PARAGLIDING SLAUGHTER UPDATE    July 10, 2017


Pako Galan, keyboardist of the Kronos Orchestra, PG fatality #1593

------------
However, thanks to the use of an air frame to keep the airfoil intact in perfectly normal air turbulence, this freeflight musician is still alive: https://soundcloud.com/rick-masters

[Rick Masters]

Parasailing

Look at his leg straps.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I'm not sure why the assistant had to do that crazy gymnastic thing while launching. I'm also not sure why he had to go along and basically ride piggy-back on the passenger. It makes me wonder if the weight of the assistant helped force the passenger out of his harness. But that shouldn't be possible with a proper harness either.

As for the leg straps, I didn't see the problem, but my video resolution isn't great. If you've got a snapshot that shows the problem, please post it. There may be a lesson there for us hang glider pilots as well.

[Rick Masters]

These guys always say the customer released himself. I can't see how the passenger could have released himself with that life vest strapped around the hook. Looks more like the added weight of monkey boy on his shoulders failed the sewn point at the rear of the ancient leg harness, opening up a hole for him to fall through. A lot of these parasailing accidents stem from failure of harnesses that have been used way past their useful lives - with the stitching frayed right off.
An expert here thinks the leg rings failed
https://thewest.com.au/news/wa/expert-claims-leg-rings-failure-led-to-fatal-fall-ng-b88535549z
but both rings would have had to fail simultaneously, so Occam's Razor suggests the stitching.
Maybe we'll find out.

[Frank Colver]

I went parasailing once off the beach at Mazatlan. It was a very enjoyable ride but my main concern was the condition of the Mexican company's equipment. Everything appeared to be in good condition but I had a lack of trust.

Frank

[wingspan33]

As I read the latest posts here I noticed this -

Rick Masters wrote -

However, thanks to the use of an air frame to keep the airfoil intact in perfectly normal air turbulence, this freeflight musician is still alive: https://soundcloud.com/rick-masters

You're a very creative individual Rick. I myself have put together a few songs and written LOTS of lyrics.* So besides you, here's another "musician" (better at singing than guitar) who chooses to fly a wing with bones!


*None have been published, but these days that's much easier via the internet.