Posted on October 19th, 2010 (Oz Report):
Oz Report Forum wrote:First story
Second story
Police are investigating the death of an Hidalgo County lawyer killed while hang gliding in Edinburg. Lemuel Lopez died along the stretch of Constitution Street and Highway 281 Wednesday evening. Police say he was in a hang glider being pulled by a pick-up truck.
Lemuel had been learning from Donnell Hewitt and was likely flying a Wills Wing Falcon.
Donnell Hewett writes:
Lemuel Lopez was a wonderful person with an adventurous spirit who took six hang gliding lessons from me and logged some thirty flights totaling about ten minutes in nine months. He was progressing well with consistently good take-offs, climb outs, straight flights, releases, and landings. He was also progressing well in ground school and was well aware of the risks of trying to tow on his own. Therefore, I was shocked to learn that he had built himself a towing system and was killed while using it to tow in Edinburg (some 100 miles away from me in Kingsville).
I have filed an accident report to USHPA and am continuing to investigate what happened. So far I have learned that he was towing with his own unproven towing system accompanied only by an inexperienced driver. He foot-launched successfully and climbed to an altitude of about 100 ft on a 250 ft towline. When the driver could no longer see the pilot in the rear view mirror, the driver stopped and may even have backed up somewhat before getting out of the pickup to watch the flight. The pilot apparently tried to release without success by cutting his weak link with a pocket knife. He continued to fly straight ahead with the towline draped over the control bar still attached to the pickup. When the towline tightened, the glider nosed down and the pilot crashed head first into the ground. He was killed on impact.
As stated previously, I am continuing to investigate the incident to confirm the above report because I have had no opportunity to interview the only eye witness, namely, the driver who obviously has been distraught over the tragedy.
There is a lot to learn from this accident (and a lot more to find out). The only problem is that we've already learned it many times.
Posted on Oct 20 2010 (Oz Report):
Oz Report Forum wrote:From: Lionel Hewett
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:02 PM
To: Davis Straub
Subject: RE: Truck towing accident?
Davis,
No, they did not simply hook the rope to the pickup. They were using a home built payout winch that I have never seen. And, I suspect that they tested its tension setting by pulling some line out immediately before foot-launching, because that is the procedure they had been practicing when using my equipment. But when one fails to release and overflies the payout winch, the normal towing tension is enough to force the glider into the ground, especially when the towline is routed over the control bar. I am confident that they were also using a weak link (because that was what they always trained on), but again a towline force sufficient to cause a tuck is not sufficient to break a weak link.
Clearly, Lemuel thought he understood the critical components of my towing system and tried to duplicate what he thought was important. He also thought he was competent to launch, climb out, release, and land because he had done so consistently numerous times. He simply forgot or ignored the dangers of (1) towing without an instructor present, (2) using an inexperienced crew, (3) not using an observer with the winch, (4) not using a reliable release at the pilot end of the towline, (5) using a pocket knife rather than a hook knife as an emergency pilot release, (6) not having an emergency release at the winch end of the towline, (7) failing to release from tow, (8 ) dragging a slack towline, (9) overflying the tow vehicle, and (10) flying too high on a short towline. These are mistakes that cost him his life. They are also mistakes well known to the towing community and must continue to be emphasized in every tow-training program. My mistake was failing to emphasize the danger of these mistakes sufficiently to prevent him from making them.
Donnell
too, 
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