Pilots tend to think about too high or low on an approach. You need instead to think about controlling the distance to touchdown and making it right for for the altitude you have. The advantage of a base leg approach is it allows you to vary your distance to touchdown by cutting the corner if you need to be closer or squaring off the turn if you are good or overshooting the final a little if you need more distance. Also the base leg allows you to evaluate wind drift and think what that means to your final approach. What you don't want to do is be making steep desperate turns near the ground. That will kill you in a light airplane and bend downtubes in a hang glider. I have owned three hang gliders, licensed in sailplanes, and 5000 hrs+ instructing in light airplanes.
I may have missed it, but looking at the windsock you turned down wind on what appeared to be your final and then you tried to correct it too late. Unfortunately you had plenty of ground speed but virtually no airspeed. It was hard not to notice throughout the flight you were flying too close to stall. I'm glad everything came out so well. But in the future, please keep up your speed. You may also want to try what I call a W,X,Y,Z at 500'. "W" Check the wind strength and direction. "X" marks the spot you want to land. Knowing the strength and direction of the wind helps you check for obstacles in your path. "Y" is the notch of the VG, set it. And "Z" unzip. Then Re-evaluate at 200' Food for thought. Thanks for posting, how else will we learn. Wes
+W Schield Very right and thank you for the feedback. I have improved a bit since I think. I've got a few videos posted since, though I mostly tow up these days. Still, the landings are better.
A lot to learn from this. Reviewing it with your instructor should really be beneficial. It's hard taking the beating that comes from posting an oops on youtube. Bravo to you for manning up.
Please discuss these points with an instructor, happy flying. First thing to look at is flying speed. I.e. airspeed. This really is the most important. Throughout the whole flight see how your nose relative to the horizon is bobbing up and down. This is called nodding or dolphining the glider is close to stall. This is confirmed by your straight arms kind of doing a push up on the base bar. Also all your roll inputs are done by pushing from the opposite arm. THe glider is obviously hard to control partly due to cross controlling but also due to lack of air speed. Stop all this. Pull in a couple of inches to get the glider flying with the bar under your chest not out in front. then do pulling motions with the inner arm toward the upright in the direction you want to go to initiate roll try to lead with your feet. a bit of a pull in for two seconds first will give the glider more speed to turn and better control then ease out to coordinate the turn. Airspeed airspeed airspeed especially if it is rough or there is gradient pull in. Lack of airspeed kills. If you keep forgetting while new move your hang point forward. Finally look up constant aspect approach. .this will help avoid steep turns low down.
+FCbisleybob Very right. I'm really not sure why I flew like I flew on this day. I feel like I've advanced tremendously since doing aerotow. After trying to stay in the sweet spot of a tug during turbulence, landing is easier by comparison :)
Thanks for being brave enough to post this video footage. I watched it about a dozen times frame by frame almost. Some smooth flying and yep,,, some bad choices, but non the less, I learned from it as others will have too. Thanks again Man.
Thankfully, you walked away, so in effect a good landing! Yeah, I'm no hanglider pilot, but I could see that coming, too slow n too low. You got balls for posting so respect to you. Stay safe.
I had a landing where I was going long at that same LZ back in the 90s. Those cabins got big QUICK, but I didn't make any low turns. Accelerated stalls in a turn are NOT good. A lot of aircraft accidents which are fatal are accelerated stalls. It just gives you a high speed rate of descent when you hit the ground. Thanks for sharing though. We've all been there and good to learn from. I haven't flown in about 20 years and looking to get back into it soon.
I learned to fly trikes at this park. And that wasn't so bad - no injuries, and apparently no damage either. I'd call that a rough landing, rather than a crash. Keep flying!
Glad you are okay. I was mystified as to why you made that last turn downwind before attempting to turn upwind and coming up short, but that's easy for me to say from the comfort of my couch. Anyway, happy flying.
Chris, hope to see you soon at LO. Planning a trip down in a couple of weeks. My only comment on this is I've dealt with cross-controlling myself. My best fix was just to relax, and focus on staying centered. Then when doing turns, etc., focus on staying centered and as suggested by another commenter, pull in with the inside arm, bumping that way, keeping my head and shoulders, centered. Makes the glider smoothly turn, because the focus on centering also causes me to keep my bar pressure light, my speed good and steady, and I can feel what the glider is doing better. I'll need to brush up in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck. Thanks for posting.
At the last turn you made, I was just saying to myself No No No No Nooooo!!!!! And then, I was happy when you stood up : ) Really exiting stuff! Thx for posting.
+MrFalcon195 Ha! It's funny because every time I watch this video it's sort of the same thing. Except at that last turn I say "What were you thinking? WHAT were thinking? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
Glad you are okay. Thank you for sharing. I saw someone make the same type of decision at LM last year, but he didn't get up for a while. I have 1 HG areotows and 5 training hill launches, 65+ sailplane flights, and 3 Cessna flights. I have the impression that hang glider pilots aren't told to fly a disciplined pattern to landing. I have seen evidence of haphazard patterns from hang glider pilots, and that scares me. Hitting the goal speeds and altitudes, while in the pattern, is strongly emphasized in my sailplane and SEL training. I would never turn 180 degrees in a sailplane unless I was at least 200 feet above the ground. And, for a sailplane: On the downwind leg, the sailplane should descend to arrive abeam the touchdown point at an altitude between 500 and 600 feet AGL. Base altitude should be no lower than approximately 500 feet AGL. The stabilized approach should be established no lower than 100 feet AGL. {Excerpted from FAA Glider Flying Handbook, free online}. None of this applies to hang gliders, but the idea of a disciplined pattern may. God speed.
+Kramp Drucker Kramp, please don't let my video give you the impression that hang glider pilots are not disciplined in their landings! I won't be invited in the clubhouse anymore. You are supposed to come into the LZ making left turns, you are supposed to do a standard DBF approach, and you are supposed to do each step at the safe altitude for the conditions. I didn't plan a good D... pretty much realized it during the B... and we all saw what happened during the F. :)
You made that last turn so low, I really thought you were setting up for a downwind landing so I was thinking , "this is not going to be good" but, for a different reason.
Glad you're not seriously hurt from this. #1 problem you're day dreaming, #2 best approach for lookout is standard aircraft approach for newbies. (matts advice) #3 cross controlling the whole flight #4 flying way to slow. #5, no real plan for landing in your head, #6 last minute death turn, which could have broken your neck, and killed you. That's a big field man, should have just kept going straight. love that place, last time I flew there I got 3 1/2 hrs, and 6500 over. my best in the Sequatchie. hope you learned from this. Cheers!
No beeps on your vario? A couple of spots looked like lift. Also seemed you were flying faster than necessary, hard to tell for sure. Definitely not the finest landing approach. LOL! I was always good on the approach but always sucked on the last 10 seconds LOL! I have been away from flying awhile now, but still fun to watch. Glad no injury or damage. Never flown Look Out but always loved the look of that ramp. Any videos from Golden B.C, and you would see my home site. Awesome views from 12,000.
It was about 26-27 years ago. We came down from the Fraser Valley for a day. The next day our friend took his new glider down there by himself. He was angered because we wouldn't go and in a negative mood. It was a barn he hit . It was on his final. I have a piece of the shingle as a keep sake. I picked it up off the ground.
Thanks Chris for posting.... Takes some good-sized balls to post mistakes of one's self. I am going to LOM for my first time, first real HG lessons sometime this summer. It's so much better for me to see someone's mistakes and get decent commentary, than to see near-perfect form and not know what I'm looking at because few people comment favorably on good form. Thanks again for posting!
+SagaSeaCraft That's exactly what I hoped would come of this. I hope your lessons are progressing well. Just bear in mind, you are going to make mistakes. It is inevitable. But that doesn't mean you can't learn as much as you can to prevent them where you can. Kudos to you for doing that.
I broke my arm with a similar landing at that hang gliding park. I held on to the down tubes to long and got a spiral fracture of my left arm. Glad you let go in time.
There are times when a spiral approach is actually necessary. But you usually would still want to rock upright, get hands on the downtubes, and get the wings mostly level in order to land, even if you don't get into the wind. Regardless, it's good this lesson was essentially free! Only other thing (Besides what's been stated here at length- airspeed, approach planning) is that when you were stepping onto the ramp, you apparently dodged around two yokels who didn't get out of the way of your side wires. It's their job to get out of the way, and your job to tell them to. I helped pour some of that concrete. It's not a bench. It's a launch. in the 5 or 6 years since, I hope you've gotten a bit more assertive.
Since you helped pour some of that concrete, I'm surprised you didn't notice that the "yokel" sitting on the back edge of the ramp with no shirt is Greg Heckman...the best thermal pilot at Lookout. He would have gladly moved if needed. But you couldn't get on the ramp in the center because it's too high a step up. That's why the carpets are at the right side for doing hang checks. Then you step up on the right corner. Now we have graded all the dirt behind the ramp to be level and you can step up anywhere you want.
I only flew there in ‘05 and ‘06. I know Heckman’s name, but don’t know if I ever met him. Maybe at Team Challenge or something. I think you’re the trike expert, right? I hope everybody is doing well.
Rad flight buddy...Looks like you misjudged your final approach.. I assume your trying to shave off some altitude with a 360 at the end, which clearly shaved off just a bit too much :)...... perhaps and S approach for shaving some altitude upon final approach would be a safer strategy. You may have hit some sinking air that didn't help your situation. luckily no sheds, houses, cars, trees, people or other obstructions were inadvertently targeting. Great flight thought man, it looked fun as hell! sincerely
that fits the classic interpretation of auguring in, for no reason in a large enough field. bet you won't do another 360 at tree top level in that wind direction again.
4 года назад+1
Thanks for the nasal inspection in the first few seconds of the vid - all clear.
You flew most of that flight like you were flaring it, as if you wanted it to stall. Interesting that the glider doesn't stall very much, must be a pretty good glider. You stalled it near landing, and were very lucky the glider is so forgiving because the tip stall turned you down wind, and you could have gone in head first stalling it down wind in the prone position.
Not to pile on as I'm sure you are aware of this, but for new pilots of any type aircraft, you want to get set up for final early and never make any sharp heading changes or turns once you commit to a landing.
Thanks for sharing this video. I'm headed to LMFP this summer to learn to hang glide, and I'm looking at landing videos to see what to do and what not to do. It takes courage to share the "here's where I made a mistake" video, but I've rewatched your approach multiple times to get an idea of the field layout and strategies for landing. It looks like you thought you might run out of runway, tried to circle around to bleed off airspeed and altitude, and underestimated how much altitude/speed would be lost in that turn (and those trees mandated a tight turn there, too!). Glad you walked away from that one unharmed and with an unharmed glider. Any advice for a noob who's probably going to face-plant a few times on the bunny hill next month?
Whoooooo ! That was a scary landing brother ! I would humbly advise not to make those very low altitude turns on final. A rotor at low alt and the wing banked like that and you are goin in with a probable trip to the hospital or the morgue.
I'm glad you were smiling and thanks for sharing . You are flying constantly on the verge of stalling . Most important (timely decisions ) - your downwind leg , base leg and final are total mess . Seems to me you need more theory first..... Be careful and try to learn something from this - don't just hope - next time will be better. Take care ....
+istra70 Couldn't agree more. I've made some strides since this mess. I don't regret putting this up though so hopefully other newbie pilots avoid the same mistakes. We're in this together!
Chris Kelcourse Yes, and thanks for sharing. It is always better ( less painfully and costly) to learn from others, especially in hang gliding - we constantly learn. If you will ever go cross country, you will see how important is to anticipate ....there must be no surprises. Take care....
At 4:53 you were in the good positon to get out of prone - pull on a little speed and come in straight for a landing - but you turn downwind - still in prone position - there was no setup for landing whatsover ??
This is not a disaster. You just made one last incomprehensible turn to the left at a low height above the ground and with the wind at your back, which caused a rapid descent and little time to prepare for landing. At least you've verified that the landing policies actually apply. ))
Sitting here with plates and pins in my arm from a motorcycle racing crash and looking for a safer sport to try. Don't think it will be this one.....or will it?
That was not a landing. Glad you and your glider are okay. You should review this video with your insrtructor and discuss weight shift technique, speed to fly, landing approach, speedspeed on approach and flare. Launch looked okay. Welcome :-)
I used to swing around like you were doing . whilst you believe you are weight shifting almost 90% of your weight shift is lost because your body is not SHIFTING all it is doing is pivoting around your hang point . I invested in an ASI and my flying improved in leaps and bounds . also get some bigger wheels with rubber tyres it may not look cool but who cares if you can walk away from a misjudged landing . I am 74 years old gave up on hang gliding 30 years ago .. and stuck with flying r/c models .. Now FPV drones with failing eyesight . glad you walked away from that one .
Not terrible...common beakover and no harm done to self or glider. I did a ground loop in Utah and also came out unscathed ,no damage...lol. flew Lookout Mountain twice on my trip cross country. both sleigh rides do to lack of wind and 0 lift. Loved the volleyball games as i camped out in my van for 3 days. Great people running the site!!! super friendly. This was 32 years ago right before I got married and sold the Wills Wing. Learned to fly Ellenville NY. Good times.
I had a friend who landed his brand new glider into a barn roof at Lookout. Went by himself, newer pilot, could of flown his old glider but no, he had to wreck his new one. I kept a piece of a shingle from the roof as a keep sake to remember " if conditions and circumstances are wrong ,DON'T FLY!!!! I
+edward kirton Was it a barn or a cabin? I saw someone take a dive into a cabin on the edge of the Lookout Mtn LZ maybe... 3-4 years ago... curious if that might have been him. If not, which barn? I've circled around that place enough to know every shack in the area.
That wasn't much of a crash, but I'm glad it wasn't. It takes courage to hang glide and that's lacking in societies moral fiber. You're one of the brave. You've got a beautiful hobby there - enjoy every minute.
The thing about unpowered flight is that you don't have an engine to bail you out if you misjudge your approach. Fortunately neither you , nor the aircraft, was damaged , so it's really not a "crash" . Just a hard landing.
Why did it happen? Why did you pull your legs out of that clothes thing in time? I'm not a hang glider, but thinking of doing it. Just wondering how big is the risk and how this landing could have been prevented. Are you OK now?
Was more an “ugly landing” than a “crash” in the end. I assume the last second left turn was unintentional and was a result of some combo of too little speed. Get on downtubes earlier, look straight ahead, and always come in fast (unless you end up landing downwind, as appears to have happened here). Good thing wheels took a little of the shock.
A hang glider pilot must never set up the landing in a turn. The left and the right sides will see different speeds, and the result can be seen in this video. Set up the landing leveled up, assume upright position, speed through the gradient, ground effect, and flair at the right moment (don’t flair in strong head wind though)
Agree with other comments, don' t turn down wind at such a low level, do a few short s turns if need be. And as my instructor used to say,"A lot of feet waging going on but not much weight shifting" Glad you let go of the uprights at the end otherwise your wrists would have taken the impact.
+B.S. Nininger Agreed. Nothing makes it more obvious than a tail cam. I think it's the easiest bad habit for an HG pilot to slip back into but I've come up with some methods to do better.
Chris Kelcourse Many, many years since I binned my glider, but that twisting was a thing I found myself doing - makes a heck of a difference when you work it out, shift your weight and the glider turns instead of wallowing about! I never really learned to land well, always had issues timing the flair. I am sometimes sorely tempted to give hang gliding another go!!
By the audio of the wind you fluctuated your airspeed from very slow to stalling .Your arms were Straite out .To fly the same track again with more airspeed, speed is your power. Also make your last 100 ft with more speed again,but have a long straight line to the landing point you have put your eye on. have your feet free legs folded,You'll learn where you keep speed up to round out close to landing ,the time to slow down and feel the pressure your pulling in to maintain flight is getting lighter ,Nezt it will push back by iit's self,wanting to drop the nose to regain speed.This point is the right time to flare.
One of the pilots sitting on launch is Greg Heckman, the best thermal pilot at Lookout. He sometimes can't be bothered with moving out of the way. We just go around him!!😅😅 EDIT: actually back when this video was made you had to get on the ramp on the far right corner. The ground behind the ramp was lower in the center and much lower to the left side. So those guys weren't in the way at all.
Lol, he had wind, lift and a lot bigger hill. I jumped off a hill, well speed bump compaird to tha mt.and bent the kite I came down so hard also hit a rock and cut my knee open. I think he did very good, my flight lasted 1 min if that. At least he moved way away from the trees and down the mountain. What gets me you drive to the top, jump off fly 3 4 50 miles then have to walk back with the kite, now that's the part that sucks.
Flying too slow will cause slow responses and even no response, I’d have pulled in the bar to increase airspeed and bleed of the airspeed once committed to final straight approach and landing
My heart started pounding when I saw that first control input, and nothing got better from there. Twisting and pushing = please get back to the bunny hill ASAP. At no point during that flight did you appear to be in control of your aircraft.
+Tim Bugge C'mon Tim.. have you been to a bunny hill? If so you know it's mostly for teaching you launching, not flying. I thought my launch was decent. I agree my flight was a demonstration of poor control, which is why I wanted to share for others to learn.
+Chris Kelcourse >>Spent two years teaching full time for Mission Soaring in SF back in 2000-01. Tried my best to make sure students were pathologically terrified of pushing and twisting before I sent them up higher than 100 feet. A later video I saw of yours looked like your course corrections (i.e. "turns") were better coordinated. Watch as many HG crash videos as you can and see if you can recognize poorly vs well coordinated course corrections.
Should have went farther on down wind keep your eye on the LZ and maybe you should be in a a single surface till you get that aircraft approach down good
Ps Don't be a passenger. Ok it's gone wrong but at exactly 5 17 a sharp pull in wih a right input would have levelled her off and prob got a a chance at landing. It looks like by then you we're accepting whatever happened. Chin up thanks for posting. I've don't this and worse always learning. I crashed into a whole load of waiting pg,s during my training landing downwind lol many moons ago.
+MegaVinny73 later one of them landed on me as I was moving my glider the chords rapped around my keel Then the wind dragged us both into a barbed wire fence. I personally ink it was planned revenge.
Was that a good landing? It looks like all hang gliders would be extremely hard to land. I always wanted to try this but I found when I went to the grand canyon I have a sever fear of heights. I probably could do it but might freeze up at the wrong time. I fly commercial aircraft and like flying but small engine aircraft Zip. Funny thing is I am a A&P and a Commercial Aircraft Engineer. Do what you hate do what you fear. Go Figure
Maybe i see this to critical but those two dudes on the ramp. Sitting there, Talking. Blocking the ramp like it was a bench. We all were rised differently. Good Landing, I dont have the balls to do something like that.
YOU KNOW YOU MADE THE SHITE WHEN YOUR VIDEO IS STILL GETTING VIEWS OVER 5 YEARS LATER. I BELIEVE YOU REALLY SHOWED YOU COULD SAVE IT AND YOU DID. IT COULD HAVE BEEN ALOT WORSE. YOU FLEW AND YOU WALKED TO THE CAR. THATS A GOOD DAY OF HANG GLIDING
Pilots tend to think about too high or low on an approach. You need instead to think about controlling the distance to touchdown and making it right for for the altitude you have. The advantage of a base leg approach is it allows you to vary your distance to touchdown by cutting the corner if you need to be closer or squaring off the turn if you are good or overshooting the final a little if you need more distance. Also the base leg allows you to evaluate wind drift and think what that means to your final approach. What you don't want to do is be making steep desperate turns near the ground. That will kill you in a light airplane and bend downtubes in a hang glider. I have owned three hang gliders, licensed in sailplanes, and 5000 hrs+ instructing in light airplanes.
I may have missed it, but looking at the windsock you turned down wind on what appeared to be your final and then you tried to correct it too late. Unfortunately you had plenty of ground speed but virtually no airspeed. It was hard not to notice throughout the flight you were flying too close to stall. I'm glad everything came out so well. But in the future, please keep up your speed.
You may also want to try what I call a W,X,Y,Z at 500'. "W" Check the wind strength and direction. "X" marks the spot you want to land. Knowing the strength and direction of the wind helps you check for obstacles in your path. "Y" is the notch of the VG, set it. And "Z" unzip. Then Re-evaluate at 200' Food for thought. Thanks for posting, how else will we learn. Wes
+W Schield Very right and thank you for the feedback. I have improved a bit since I think. I've got a few videos posted since, though I mostly tow up these days. Still, the landings are better.
On the last turn upwind, windgradient could also be a factor. The lower wing just stops flying. ...beentheredonethat....
@Brandon Ohara Just outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. Close to the Alabama/Georgia line.
For someone like me who has never done this...id say it was a perfect flight lol
Same
A lot to learn from this. Reviewing it with your instructor should really be beneficial. It's hard taking the beating that comes from posting an oops on youtube. Bravo to you for manning up.
he stalled the glider on the last moment when he was still too high and try to land with his belly, he might have pulled it off landing on his feet
Please discuss these points with an instructor, happy flying.
First thing to look at is flying speed. I.e. airspeed. This really is the most important. Throughout the whole flight see how your nose relative to the horizon is bobbing up and down. This is called nodding or dolphining the glider is close to stall. This is confirmed by your straight arms kind of doing a push up on the base bar. Also all your roll inputs are done by pushing from the opposite arm. THe glider is obviously hard to control partly due to cross controlling but also due to lack of air speed. Stop all this. Pull in a couple of inches to get the glider flying with the bar under your chest not out in front. then do pulling motions with the inner arm toward the upright in the direction you want to go to initiate roll try to lead with your feet. a bit of a pull in for two seconds first will give the glider more speed to turn and better control then ease out to coordinate the turn.
Airspeed airspeed airspeed especially if it is rough or there is gradient pull in. Lack of airspeed kills. If you keep forgetting while new move your hang point forward.
Finally look up constant aspect approach. .this will help avoid steep turns low down.
+FCbisleybob Best observation and explanation..thank you..
+FCbisleybob Very right. I'm really not sure why I flew like I flew on this day. I feel like I've advanced tremendously since doing aerotow. After trying to stay in the sweet spot of a tug during turbulence, landing is easier by comparison :)
porposing, not dolphining.
EXCELLENT ADVICE. THAT JUST HELPED ALOT OF JUNIOR PILOTS
Er sollte erst mal fliegen lernen, vollkommen verdreht im Flieger.
Thanks for being brave enough to post this video footage. I watched it about a dozen times frame by frame almost. Some smooth flying and yep,,, some bad choices, but non the less, I learned from it as others will have too. Thanks again Man.
Thankfully, you walked away, so in effect a good landing! Yeah, I'm no hanglider pilot, but I could see that coming, too slow n too low. You got balls for posting so respect to you. Stay safe.
I love how people are sitting at your launch and you step up and they just sit there like a 747 couldn't get them up from this spot.
Yes it takes big balls to jump off a perfectly good moutian.
Well that was a belly flop on land if I ever saw one... glad you're okay. Hope the glider is in good shape still
"That was some of the best flying I've ever seen, right up to the point where you crossed the hard deck"
I had a landing where I was going long at that same LZ back in the 90s. Those cabins got big QUICK, but I didn't make any low turns. Accelerated stalls in a turn are NOT good. A lot of aircraft accidents which are fatal are accelerated stalls. It just gives you a high speed rate of descent when you hit the ground. Thanks for sharing though. We've all been there and good to learn from. I haven't flown in about 20 years and looking to get back into it soon.
Love the camera position. It's almost a hang gliding tutorial as well as scenic views!
"Hang gliding ground boop" would be a fairer title. Glad you were ok though.
I learned to fly trikes at this park. And that wasn't so bad - no injuries, and apparently no damage either. I'd call that a rough landing, rather than a crash. Keep flying!
Glad you are okay. I was mystified as to why you made that last turn downwind before attempting to turn upwind and coming up short, but that's easy for me to say from the comfort of my couch. Anyway, happy flying.
Great camera perspective! Beautiful scenery. Landing looked like a slight oops...I'd be happy with it myself - you walked away.
Chris, hope to see you soon at LO. Planning a trip down in a couple of weeks. My only comment on this is I've dealt with cross-controlling myself. My best fix was just to relax, and focus on staying centered. Then when doing turns, etc., focus on staying centered and as suggested by another commenter, pull in with the inside arm, bumping that way, keeping my head and shoulders, centered. Makes the glider smoothly turn, because the focus on centering also causes me to keep my bar pressure light, my speed good and steady, and I can feel what the glider is doing better. I'll need to brush up in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck. Thanks for posting.
At the last turn you made, I was just saying to myself No No No No Nooooo!!!!! And then, I was happy when you stood up : ) Really exiting stuff! Thx for posting.
+MrFalcon195 Ha! It's funny because every time I watch this video it's sort of the same thing. Except at that last turn I say "What were you thinking? WHAT were thinking? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
+Chris Kelcourse Ha ha ha ha! Yes, that's funny !
Glad you are okay. Thank you for sharing.
I saw someone make the same type of decision at LM last year, but he didn't get up for a while. I have 1 HG areotows and 5 training hill launches, 65+ sailplane flights, and 3 Cessna flights. I have the impression that hang glider pilots aren't told to fly a disciplined pattern to landing. I have seen evidence of haphazard patterns from hang glider pilots, and that scares me.
Hitting the goal speeds and altitudes, while in the pattern, is strongly emphasized in my sailplane and SEL training. I would never turn 180 degrees in a sailplane unless I was at least 200 feet above the ground. And, for a sailplane: On the downwind leg, the sailplane should descend to arrive abeam the touchdown point at an altitude between 500 and 600 feet AGL. Base altitude should be no lower than approximately 500 feet AGL. The stabilized approach should be established no lower than 100 feet AGL. {Excerpted from FAA Glider Flying Handbook, free online}. None of this applies to hang gliders, but the idea of a disciplined pattern may.
God speed.
+Kramp Drucker Kramp, please don't let my video give you the impression that hang glider pilots are not disciplined in their landings! I won't be invited in the clubhouse anymore. You are supposed to come into the LZ making left turns, you are supposed to do a standard DBF approach, and you are supposed to do each step at the safe altitude for the conditions. I didn't plan a good D... pretty much realized it during the B... and we all saw what happened during the F. :)
You made that last turn so low, I really thought you were setting up for a downwind landing so I was thinking , "this is not going to be good" but, for a different reason.
Glad you're not seriously hurt from this. #1 problem you're day dreaming, #2 best approach for lookout is standard aircraft approach for newbies. (matts advice) #3 cross controlling the whole flight #4 flying way to slow. #5, no real plan for landing in your head, #6 last minute death turn, which could have broken your neck, and killed you. That's a big field man, should have just kept going straight. love that place, last time I flew there I got 3 1/2 hrs, and 6500 over. my best in the Sequatchie. hope you learned from this. Cheers!
I agree.....the last minute turn was a bad idea here. But we all take our turn learning. This was your turn, :)
No beeps on your vario? A couple of spots looked like lift. Also seemed you were flying faster than necessary, hard to tell for sure. Definitely not the finest landing approach. LOL!
I was always good on the approach but always sucked on the last 10 seconds LOL!
I have been away from flying awhile now, but still fun to watch. Glad no injury or damage.
Never flown Look Out but always loved the look of that ramp. Any videos from Golden B.C, and you would see my home site. Awesome views from 12,000.
It was about 26-27 years ago. We came down from the Fraser Valley for a day. The next day our friend took his new glider down there by himself. He was angered because we wouldn't go and in a negative mood. It was a barn he hit . It was on his final. I have a piece of the shingle as a keep sake. I picked it up off the ground.
Thanks Chris for posting.... Takes some good-sized balls to post mistakes of one's self. I am going to LOM for my first time, first real HG lessons sometime this summer. It's so much better for me to see someone's mistakes and get decent commentary, than to see near-perfect form and not know what I'm looking at because few people comment favorably on good form. Thanks again for posting!
+SagaSeaCraft That's exactly what I hoped would come of this. I hope your lessons are progressing well. Just bear in mind, you are going to make mistakes. It is inevitable. But that doesn't mean you can't learn as much as you can to prevent them where you can. Kudos to you for doing that.
That wasn't a crash, merely an uncontrolled landing. Glad you're ok
I broke my arm with a similar landing at that hang gliding park. I held on to the down tubes to long and got a spiral fracture of my left arm. Glad you let go in time.
There are times when a spiral approach is actually necessary. But you usually would still want to rock upright, get hands on the downtubes, and get the wings mostly level in order to land, even if you don't get into the wind.
Regardless, it's good this lesson was essentially free!
Only other thing (Besides what's been stated here at length- airspeed, approach planning) is that when you were stepping onto the ramp, you apparently dodged around two yokels who didn't get out of the way of your side wires. It's their job to get out of the way, and your job to tell them to. I helped pour some of that concrete. It's not a bench. It's a launch. in the 5 or 6 years since, I hope you've gotten a bit more assertive.
Since you helped pour some of that concrete, I'm surprised you didn't notice that the "yokel" sitting on the back edge of the ramp with no shirt is Greg Heckman...the best thermal pilot at Lookout. He would have gladly moved if needed. But you couldn't get on the ramp in the center because it's too high a step up. That's why the carpets are at the right side for doing hang checks. Then you step up on the right corner. Now we have graded all the dirt behind the ramp to be level and you can step up anywhere you want.
I only flew there in ‘05 and ‘06. I know Heckman’s name, but don’t know if I ever met him. Maybe at Team Challenge or something. I think you’re the trike expert, right? I hope everybody is doing well.
This is too close to jumping off of the roof of the garage with an umbrella for me.
Set up a good circuit and approach INTO wind. Will sure assist in a good touch down. Whether it's a hanglider, glider or powered aircraft.
Hey you walked away from the flight, been there to. Landings and gravity are not always as nice as the flight. Blessings
Click bait gets me again, YT has some real master baiters....
Meh ,i had more of crash when I tripped over the dog.
Rad flight buddy...Looks like you misjudged your final approach.. I assume your trying to shave off some altitude with a 360 at the end, which clearly shaved off just a bit too much :)...... perhaps and S approach for shaving some altitude upon final approach would be a safer strategy. You may have hit some sinking air that didn't help your situation. luckily no sheds, houses, cars, trees, people or other obstructions were inadvertently targeting. Great flight thought man, it looked fun as hell! sincerely
that fits the classic interpretation of auguring in, for no reason in a large enough field. bet you won't do another 360 at tree top level in that wind direction again.
Thanks for the nasal inspection in the first few seconds of the vid - all clear.
You flew most of that flight like you were flaring it, as if you wanted it to stall. Interesting that the glider doesn't stall very much, must be a pretty good glider. You stalled it near landing, and were very lucky the glider is so forgiving because the tip stall turned you down wind, and you could have gone in head first stalling it down wind in the prone position.
Not to pile on as I'm sure you are aware of this, but for new pilots of any type aircraft, you want to get set up for final early and never make any sharp heading changes or turns once you commit to a landing.
Turned too close to the ground and did not level wings or flare early enough. I've done it before, but I won't do it again.
Thanks for sharing this video. I'm headed to LMFP this summer to learn to hang glide, and I'm looking at landing videos to see what to do and what not to do. It takes courage to share the "here's where I made a mistake" video, but I've rewatched your approach multiple times to get an idea of the field layout and strategies for landing. It looks like you thought you might run out of runway, tried to circle around to bleed off airspeed and altitude, and underestimated how much altitude/speed would be lost in that turn (and those trees mandated a tight turn there, too!). Glad you walked away from that one unharmed and with an unharmed glider.
Any advice for a noob who's probably going to face-plant a few times on the bunny hill next month?
When are you going? Looks like ma great place
@@marktompkins190I went there for HG training, can confirm it is a great place!
I admire your taste in harness colors. Glad you walked away from the landing.
When I got to the end of this vid I was so relieved to call out the video title as clickbait...stay safe and happy flying!
Carry a bit more speed. Notice if you relax the glider speeds up if trimmed properly. Then shift hips with a slight pushout to turn.
The camera was hella secured.
Thank God for wheels, they've saved me a couple of times from bad landings. Live and Learn.
Whoooooo ! That was a scary landing brother ! I would humbly advise not to make those very low altitude turns on final. A rotor at low alt and the wing banked like that and you are goin in with a probable trip to the hospital or the morgue.
Have you seen here on YT that 'seat-belt'type system with poulies this dude came up with..???
20 seconds into the video and I am wondering why those two men are sitting on the side on the ramp while a glider is preparing for take off.
I'm glad you were smiling and thanks for sharing . You are flying constantly on the verge of stalling . Most important (timely decisions ) - your downwind leg , base leg and final are total mess . Seems to me you need more theory first..... Be careful and try to learn something from this - don't just hope - next time will be better.
Take care ....
+istra70 Couldn't agree more. I've made some strides since this mess. I don't regret putting this up though so hopefully other newbie pilots avoid the same mistakes. We're in this together!
Chris Kelcourse Yes, and thanks for sharing. It is always better ( less painfully and costly) to learn from others, especially in hang gliding - we constantly learn. If you will ever go cross country, you will see how important is to anticipate ....there must be no surprises. Take care....
At 4:53 you were in the good positon to get out of prone - pull on a little speed and come in straight for a landing - but you turn downwind - still in prone position - there was no setup for landing whatsover ??
I'd love to do this sometime so much!
Nobody’s stopping you. Go for it
It's a great thing to learn to do--don't put it off.
finde random Video: erster angezeigter Kommentar ist einfach von den Real Life Guys und 4 Jahre alt
Wich part
I would recommend you get into hang gliding and stay away from the crashing business.
Just a crappy landing at 5:20, just one too many turns plenty of room there take a nice long straight final
This is not a disaster. You just made one last incomprehensible turn to the left at a low height above the ground and with the wind at your back, which caused a rapid descent and little time to prepare for landing. At least you've verified that the landing policies actually apply. ))
Sitting here with plates and pins in my arm from a motorcycle racing crash and looking for a safer sport to try. Don't think it will be this one.....or will it?
That was not a landing. Glad you and your glider are okay. You should review this video with your insrtructor and discuss weight shift technique, speed to fly, landing approach, speedspeed on approach and flare. Launch looked okay. Welcome :-)
I used to swing around like you were doing . whilst you believe you are weight shifting almost 90% of your weight shift is lost because your body is not SHIFTING all it is doing is pivoting around your hang point . I invested in an ASI and my flying improved in leaps and bounds . also get some bigger wheels with rubber tyres it may not look cool but who cares if you can walk away from a misjudged landing . I am 74 years old gave up on hang gliding 30 years ago .. and stuck with flying r/c models .. Now FPV drones with failing eyesight . glad you walked away from that one .
Not terrible...common beakover and no harm done to self or glider. I did a ground loop in Utah and also came out unscathed ,no damage...lol. flew Lookout Mountain twice on my trip cross country. both sleigh rides do to lack of wind and 0 lift. Loved the volleyball games as i camped out in my van for 3 days. Great people running the site!!! super friendly. This was 32 years ago right before I got married and sold the Wills Wing. Learned to fly Ellenville NY. Good times.
As a former hang gliding pilot, it looked like you let the wind take control of your landing.
I had the same kind of Landing at Kill Devil Hills, NC broke the left down tube and cut my inner left thigh.
I had a friend who landed his brand new glider into a barn roof at Lookout. Went by himself, newer pilot, could of flown his old glider but no, he had to wreck his new one. I kept a piece of a shingle from the roof as a keep sake to remember " if conditions and circumstances are wrong ,DON'T FLY!!!! I
+edward kirton Was it a barn or a cabin? I saw someone take a dive into a cabin on the edge of the Lookout Mtn LZ maybe... 3-4 years ago... curious if that might have been him. If not, which barn? I've circled around that place enough to know every shack in the area.
I would like to ask why you were turning some just as you were landing?
Its helps him to fly high na
That wasn't much of a crash, but I'm glad it wasn't. It takes courage to hang glide and that's lacking in societies moral fiber. You're one of the brave. You've got a beautiful hobby there - enjoy every minute.
Actually from the way it dropped out from under you expected worse but you handled it really well. Were you ok?
A bit of a splat there at the end. Most pleased you are ok.
The thing about unpowered flight is that you don't have an engine to bail you out if you misjudge your approach. Fortunately neither you , nor the aircraft, was damaged , so it's really not a "crash" . Just a hard landing.
Why did it happen? Why did you pull your legs out of that clothes thing in time? I'm not a hang glider, but thinking of doing it. Just wondering how big is the risk and how this landing could have been prevented. Are you OK now?
omg I was like, really, a full turn at THAT attitude!! lol you need like 10x more speed to pull that off..............
Was more an “ugly landing” than a “crash” in the end. I assume the last second left turn was unintentional and was a result of some combo of too little speed. Get on downtubes earlier, look straight ahead, and always come in fast (unless you end up landing downwind, as appears to have happened here). Good thing wheels took a little of the shock.
Any landing you walk away from is a good one! 😊
A hang glider pilot must never set up the landing in a turn. The left and the right sides will see different speeds, and the result can be seen in this video. Set up the landing leveled up, assume upright position, speed through the gradient, ground effect, and flair at the right moment (don’t flair in strong head wind though)
Looked like you passed through a lot of lift. Why didn't you circle and see how good it was? Or was this a beginner flight?
Agree with other comments, don' t turn down wind at such a low level, do a few short s turns if need be. And as my instructor used to say,"A lot of feet waging going on but not much weight shifting" Glad you let go of the uprights at the end otherwise your wrists would have taken the impact.
Pps look up constant aspect approach helps avoid turning low and late
Nice landing bro, are you OK after this?!
Why didn't he release the bar when he realized the hard landing is inevitable? He wanted to break his arms?
Might want to work on the cross controling a bit.
+B.S. Nininger Agreed. Nothing makes it more obvious than a tail cam. I think it's the easiest bad habit for an HG pilot to slip back into but I've come up with some methods to do better.
Chris Kelcourse Many, many years since I binned my glider, but that twisting was a thing I found myself doing - makes a heck of a difference when you work it out, shift your weight and the glider turns instead of wallowing about! I never really learned to land well, always had issues timing the flair. I am sometimes sorely tempted to give hang gliding another go!!
Didn’t look too bad at all. Could have been far worse. I want to try this!!
That's a "crash landing"??? Nice footage, but this is click bait.
I have been there, rough landing.
By the audio of the wind you fluctuated your airspeed from very slow to stalling .Your arms were Straite out .To fly the same track again with more airspeed, speed is your power.
Also make your last 100 ft with more speed again,but have a long straight line to the landing point you have put your eye on. have your feet free legs folded,You'll learn where you keep speed up to round out close to landing ,the time to slow down and feel the pressure your pulling in to maintain flight is getting lighter ,Nezt it will push back by iit's self,wanting to drop the nose to regain speed.This point is the right time to flare.
How are those little wheels supposed to roll on a grass field?
You need about 12". Just sayin'.
The glider does not seem to respond to control inputs very well>
What's up with people sitting on the launch? Pilot had to move around them. Not cool
One of the pilots sitting on launch is Greg Heckman, the best thermal pilot at Lookout. He sometimes can't be bothered with moving out of the way. We just go around him!!😅😅 EDIT: actually back when this video was made you had to get on the ramp on the far right corner. The ground behind the ramp was lower in the center and much lower to the left side. So those guys weren't in the way at all.
Why dont these gliders have bigger wheels?
Dude I'm glad you're fine.
“I CAN FLY!!!!” SPLAT!!
Lol, he had wind, lift and a lot bigger hill.
I jumped off a hill, well speed bump compaird to tha mt.and bent the kite I came down so hard also hit a rock and cut my knee open. I think he did very good, my flight lasted 1 min if that.
At least he moved way away from the trees and down the mountain.
What gets me you drive to the top, jump off fly 3 4 50 miles then have to walk back with the kite, now that's the part that sucks.
Flying too slow will cause slow responses and even no response, I’d have pulled in the bar to increase airspeed and bleed of the airspeed once committed to final straight approach and landing
The man survived that's a good landing.
My heart started pounding when I saw that first control input, and nothing got better from there. Twisting and pushing = please get back to the bunny hill ASAP. At no point during that flight did you appear to be in control of your aircraft.
+Tim Bugge C'mon Tim.. have you been to a bunny hill? If so you know it's mostly for teaching you launching, not flying. I thought my launch was decent. I agree my flight was a demonstration of poor control, which is why I wanted to share for others to learn.
+Chris Kelcourse >>Spent two years teaching full time for Mission Soaring in SF back in 2000-01. Tried my best to make sure students were pathologically terrified of pushing and twisting before I sent them up higher than 100 feet. A later video I saw of yours looked like your course corrections (i.e. "turns") were better coordinated. Watch as many HG crash videos as you can and see if you can recognize poorly vs well coordinated course corrections.
Where were the guys in the LZ yelling WHACK!!??
"'WHAAACK'' ! as they say in So. Cal.
Should have went farther on down wind keep your eye on the LZ and maybe you should be in a a single surface till you get that aircraft approach down good
Learn to FLY! Note the wind direction, and PLAN your approach.
Ps
Don't be a passenger. Ok it's gone wrong but at exactly 5 17 a sharp pull in wih a right input would have levelled her off and prob got a a chance at landing. It looks like by then you we're accepting whatever happened.
Chin up thanks for posting. I've don't this and worse always learning. I crashed into a whole load of waiting pg,s during my training landing downwind lol many moons ago.
FCbisleybob Hah, I bet those PG's were pleased :-)
+MegaVinny73 later one of them landed on me as I was moving my glider the chords rapped around my keel Then the wind dragged us both into a barbed wire fence. I personally ink it was planned revenge.
Was that a good landing? It looks like all hang gliders would be extremely hard to land. I always wanted to try this but I found when I went to the grand canyon I have a sever fear of heights. I probably could do it but might freeze up at the wrong time. I fly commercial aircraft and like flying but small engine aircraft Zip. Funny thing is I am a A&P and a Commercial Aircraft Engineer. Do what you hate do what you fear. Go Figure
Maybe i see this to critical but those two dudes on the ramp. Sitting there, Talking. Blocking the ramp like it was a bench. We all were rised differently. Good Landing, I dont have the balls to do something like that.
I felt this almost 9 years later
Not too bad, you and the bird will live to fly again!
Yep, that's what I did my first and only time back in the late 1970s.
Good landing you walked away
I can see why you crash landed with such a small landing area!
YOU KNOW YOU MADE THE SHITE WHEN YOUR VIDEO IS STILL GETTING VIEWS OVER 5 YEARS LATER.
I BELIEVE YOU REALLY SHOWED YOU COULD SAVE IT AND YOU DID. IT COULD HAVE BEEN ALOT WORSE.
YOU FLEW AND YOU WALKED TO THE CAR. THATS A GOOD DAY OF HANG GLIDING