[Rick Masters]

Starving ladderless peasants, weak with hunger, struggle to pull an Ozone Warbler out of a tree.
"You!" shouts the man in the black cap. "Go get barbeque sauce!"
"I can't," the peasant replies. "I'm starving!"
"Well, I'm not going to get it. I threw the grappling hook. I'm exhausted!"
"Where's our ladder? We need our ladder."
"The taxidermists took it."
"Why'd you give it to them?"
"I didn't give it to them. They took it."
"Well, go get it"
"I can't. I'm exhausted! Go get the barbeque sauce."
"I can't," the peasant replies. "I'm starving!"
Unfortunately, no egg was found.

[Rick Masters]

High in a lonely forest, an Ozone Warbler calls hopefully for a mate. "Hallop! Hallop!" it cries, searching the skis for a female.

    "In this rare photograph," says a professor from the university, "the Ozone Warbler presents a classic nest arrangement. Just above the tree are a set of power lines which may snag a female and drop it into the tree. At the top of the tree, the Ozone Warbler has positioned the colorful upper portion of its nest to be easily seen by a passing female. Below the Ozone Warbler, the lower section of the nest is positioned to collect droppings, which discourages predators and provides a pleasent, homey aroma for the creature. This arrangement also indicates that the Ozone Warbler intends to remain in the tree for an extended period of time, so the tree must be rich with grubs and crawling insects to eat. Hopefully, a female will be attracted by its cries and they will mate, producing an egg."
    Unfortunately, no egg was found.

[Frank Colver]

Once again a paraglider pilot lands under a reserve parachute, barely missing high tension lines, in an uncontrollable descent. What happened just before this accident? The paraglider looks OK so must be another one of those many "pilot error" accidents.

Why are so many paraglider pilots "error prone"?

Frank

[Rick Masters]

Frank,
    Sometimes a soaring parachutist will see power lines only a moment before impact and brake agressively, causing a stall and vertical fall - or brake agressively and perform a sharp turn, resulting in a tip stall and fall. Technically, this is pilot error albeit on a dangerous aircraft to make sudden maneuvers with. Real pilots chose aircraft with actual pitch control (they can go up or down). Paragliders do not qualify. Their only pitch option is to degrade the glide slope with trailing edge drag.
    Hang gliders retain much more kinetic energy, making it more possible for them to perform advoidance maneuvers successfully and keep flying. Of course, a hang glider can stall as well, but the hang glider has a lot more to work with than a paraglider operator. Hang gliders are also not three storeys high and this makes them much more maneuverable in tight situations (they can dive under things!).

[Frank Colver]

Yes, but, this guy came down on his reserve chute, as I pointed out. He would not have had time to deploy it, if he was about to fly into the power lines. The collapse had to have happened at a higher altitude. He must have been above the PDMC.

[Rick Masters]

We don't know if he came down on his reserve.
It may have popped open as he hit the tree or come out of his harness as he fell through the branches.
If it was fully open, why didn't it snag above him, instead of the paraglider canopy?
It looks to me like the paraglider was above him when he hit the tree.
To my mind, there is no way the parachute would have ended up where it is if he had come down on it.
It didn't snag on anything.

Why are so many paraglider pilots "error prone"?

Because they are not really pilots.
They're riding big, fat floaters with minimum control that often vanishes in turbulence.
Real pilots master pitch, yaw and roll.
Real pilots do not substitute lift for pitch.
Real pilots dive to trade altitude for the kinetic energy to maneuver.
People on paragliders are going along for the ride with severely limited pitch control.
They are parachutists on critically balanced and dangerously modified parachutes that threaten to collapse if they go fast.
I call them operators so as not to offend real pilots.
They operate the paraglider until their lines go slack, anyway...
Then they throw another parachute.
It's not really a decent example of airmanship.
In fact, its embarrassing.

[Rick Masters]

October 4, 2017

High in a lonely tree, a ladderless starving peasant reaches an Ozone Warbler after a long, perilous climb.
    "I got it! I got it!" he calls down to the starving horde below. "Now wadda I do?"


"Grab it by the ankle and toss it down," cries the crowd, waving torches to light the barbeque and carrying bottles of Texas barbeque sauce.
    Unfortunately, no egg was found.


An Ozone Warbler favorite.

[Rick Masters]

Real pilots do not substitute lift for pitch.
Real pilots dive to trade altitude for the kinetic energy to maneuver.
People on paragliders are going along for the ride with severely limited pitch control.

[Rick Masters]

January 25, 2018

High above the quiet town, an Ozone Warbler rests peacefully.
Occasional chirps of "Hallop! Hallop!" ring through the silent neighborhood.
"Isn't this wonderful?" says a lady from the Audubon Society. "Without the roar of air conditioners, fans and refrigerators, we can hear the birds again!"
"I wish they'd nest in trees like other birds," says an exhausted utility worker.

[Rick Masters]

January 30, 2018

Just as the two taxidermists lower the Ozone Warbler from the tree, three cooks from a nearby North Korean restaurant emerge from the bushes and begin plucking it.
"Hey," shouts one taxidermist from below, "that's our Ozone Warbler."
"No," asserts the head cook. "We find Warbler first. It here on ground. Nobody around."
"Wadda ya mean," protests the taxidermist. "We just lowered it from the tree. We've been working all morning."
"I give you fifty dollar!" the chef responds.
"No way, we can get more than that if we stuff it!"
"I give you fifty dollar and breakfast special."
"Oh?" The taxidermist pauses. "The breakfast special, eh? Hmmm..."