SAFA Skysailor Magazine

25 November | December 2023 SKY SAILOR same problem. I’ve gotten away with it, until this day. I’ve been talking with a couple of our instructors about where the harness problem may lie, so when I’m able I’ll be tearing the settings apart to find out what’s going on. One of the instructors has observed in similar occurrences where pilots are pulled back that the action can lead to an involuntary brake input in a phase of flight (launch) where you really do not want this to occur. Not being able to hang with my feet down, meant I was not able to use my legs to abort the take-off when my feet touched down. And the fall brought the final piece of the puzzle into play – that bloody rock my shoulder smashed into. If that wasn’t there, I would have had a hard fall, picked myself up, dusted myself down and relaunched. What have I/we learnt? 1. If there’s a problem with your gear, sort it out! You may be able to fly around a problem, up to a point. After that point there’s pain lurking. 2. Be mindful of the changed launch behaviour of your aircraft at higher altitude launches, and additionally with significantly lower humidity. There will be less lift generated. You will need more room to launch with light conditions prevailing. 3. Spend plenty of time watching the thermal cycles evolve, taking particular notice of the duration of the cycles of differing strengths. Launching into a light cycle may not be the best choice, particularly when item 2 above is also in play. 4. Take into account your level of currency for the conditions and give yourself plenty of margin for error. 5. If travelling and flying overseas or interstate, make sure you are well insured. The flight home from Spain would have been horrific in cattle class. Thankfully, my insurer recognised that and arranged the business class seats for me. So, there we have it. I’m out of action for 6 to 12 months. The level of disappointment experienced from this accident cannot be understated. It’s gut-wrenching. I may as well have saved myself six grand and thrown myself down the back steps. It’s a course of action I definitely don’t recommend as a means of getting an upgrade to business class. Fly safer than I did. Got a story to share? Send your story and photos to skysailor@safa.asn.au . Have a look at the information on the Impressum page of the latest SkySailor on contribution formats and picture size.