SAFA Skysailor Magazine

60 SKY SAILOR September-October-November | SPRING 2026 AIRS Safety Wrap-up – Spring 2026 by Iain Clarke – SAFA Safety Manager Now to this issue’s AIRS reports. We’ll kick off with some old reports and move forward in time. #853 – PG incident SIV reserve deployment, Vic PUI was taking part in a SIV clinic at Warranga Basin (Vic). At an altitude of ap- proximately 1000m they were performing a series of full stalls in the controlled and safe environment under instruction, over water with two rescue boats on hand. During the exit of the last stall (11th for the day), PUI experienced a violent dynamic recovery followed by a spin, possibly contributed to by an asymmetrical brakes release. The spin very quickly escalated to multiple twists of the risers, which consequently locked the brakes in asymmetric position, preventing control over the stalled paraglider. After a short, unsuccessful attempt to untwist the risers, PUI decided to deploy their reserve. The parachute came out easily and deployment was rapid. The wing was still in a stable twisted configuration and down-planing. The descent rate under reserve felt quite fast. When PUI landed in the water the Personal Floating Device failed to inflate automatically. In the water PUI was struggling to find the inflation handle of the PFD and the back protection of their pod harness had a lot of buoyancy Greetings fellow pilots. The weather is still pretty chilly down here in Hobbiton. We get lovely crisp, clear, sunny days with stable conditions as the highs pass by pretty frequently. The fronts associated with the lows are a bit different though. Even so, our overall rainfall is reducing and there is rarely snow on the mountain. Regardless, my mind is turning to having my gear in readiness for the coming season. We have our reserve repack day looming and I’m starting to look to the weather forecasts again.