We’re in Tapalpa to paraglide at the nearby site. Our first day we found the launch and got our gear organized and did a little kiting to get back into it since it’s been a few months since we flew. We had contacted a local pilot (Miguel) to get site information and he turned out to be up at launch. He was very helpful and filled us in in the launch and landing, and set us up with a someone who could drive down to pick us up if we both flew.
I got in a late afternoon flight of about 30 minutes before the approaching rain made me nervous and I headed down. Unfortunately, I misunderstood the instructions and landed in the wrong one of a pair of fields, in the new barley. At least I landed near the edge and kited over to the road. Unfortunately, another pilot followed my bad example and landed in the middle of the field.
The next day we got in morning flights while conditions were mellow. We call it a “sled ride” when you don’t get any lift and just glide down. Here they call it “piano”, as in how a piano flies if you throw it off a cliff - straight down.
We were happy with our morning flights and arrived back at launch ready for more. We walked out just in time to see two pilots launch and one of them almost immediately have an accident. You could see he hit a little turbulence since his wing wobbled. Then the left tip folded in, which is usually harmless. But whether it was the turbulence, or a wrong reaction by the pilot, it went from minor incident to his wing collapsing and spinning into the ground. The whole incident was over in a second.
He had been quite close to the ground which was bad because there was no time to recover or throw his reserve parachute. But good because he didn’t have far to fall. Not that you have to fall very far to get badly hurt. He went down in heavy bush and small trees not far below launch. We could see the wing draped over the bushes but couldn’t see the pilot or what kind of shape he was in.
Shelley dropped our lunch on the ground and we immediately started working our way down the hill. It was slow going through the bush, but thankfully there were a few vague animal trails and only occasional thorns. But once we were inside the bush we couldn’t see. We yelled to the pilot to see if he was ok and to use his voice to guide us. He answered and didn’t sound too bad. At least we weren’t going to a body. I arrived first with Shelley right behind me. The pilot was standing up and amazingly only his right shoulder was hurt. I started asking him questions about how he was, but quickly realized that this was Shelley’s area of expertise and turned it over to her. She did a quick examination but there didn’t seem to be any other issues other than his shoulder. We offered to make a sling for his arm but he didn’t want it. By now Pedro (the site caretaker) had arrived with a machete and he cleared a better path for us. The pilot was able to walk slowly back up the hill to launch.
We heard later he broke his shoulder blade. He even showed up the next day at launch with his arm and shoulder strapped up. He was very grateful for our help. He had been flying for almost 30 years and this was his first accident.
It was unnerving for us, to say the least. Obviously, you know incidents happen, but you want to think you can be smart and minimize the risks - the same thinking we’d had with climbing. But on the surface this seemed totally random. Conditions weren’t bad, we’d just had straightforward flights. The day had heated up a bit but not that much.
We found out there were actually several contributing factors. Most critically it was a high performance wing. The trade off for performance is that it’s not as stable and does not recover as well on its own. This kind of wing requires skill to fly properly. But he hadn't flown it lately, he was from Germany and it was a wing he left in Mexico. He didn’t even remember, till too late, that it was a high end wing. On top of that it was old which can also make it unsafe.
So we felt a little better since none of these factors applied to us. We had relatively new wings (Phi Symphonia) that met the highest “A” safety rating. A tip folding in on our wings would have much less effect and would be extremely unlikely to lead to a crash.
On top of that, the afternoon was also a bit stressful. About a dozen other pilots showed up. And the wind dropped to nothing and even slightly "over the back". And it sprinkled rain off and on. We almost gave up and left, but it seemed like there might be a chance to fly if we waited. There is a lot of inertia in a big group like that. There were probably times that were launchable, but no one wanted to be first. Eventually a local pilot set up and did a zero wind forward launch. That opened the flood gates and a lot of people started getting ready. The problem was that a lot of them spread their wings out on launch and then didn't launch. By this point Shelley didn't want to fly, but I was still keen to get in another flight. Eventually I had to ask someone if they weren't going to launch, could they please move their wing. Just when I was ready someone moved the flag/windsock from in front of another pilot and stood right in front of me, blocking my launch. But then the other pilot didn't launch. Finally the other pilot launched, Shelley helped herd the people away from in front of me, and I launched. For a zero wind forward launch I thought it went ok. The wing dipped slightly to one side, but I got underneath it and straightened out. Apparently someone else had yelled "stop", but I never heard them. I was listening for Shelley to tell me if anything didn't look right. I'm not sure why the other person thought I should stop.
The final frustration of the day was still to come. Shelley drove down to get me and decided to be a good Samaritan and offer rides to other pilots. But the other pilots were part of a group and they had their own shuttle, except they didn't know who was getting picked up where or when. So everyone dithered in the hot sun for almost an hour. Finally we gave a ride to a pair of pilots who weren't part of the big group. Then one of the group decided maybe he did need a ride to the rest of his group so we crammed him in as well. Then the road was blocked because they were filming a movie. We found a way around on back roads. But then we had to go back to the blocked intersection to deliver the one pilot to his group. In the end we never found his group and left him at the intersection. By the time we got back to town it was well after dark. Needless to say, I was very frustrated. What a day!
See Shelley's version of the day
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