17 minutes of hell - Flex Hangglider didn't check wind gradient!
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- čas přidán 4. 02. 2022
- It was the first flight of the year that i did on my Wills Wing U2 flex wing hang glider together with a friend, an ATOS rigid wing pilot. We both missed checking the wind gradient that day (which was rather extreme) so it wasn't necessarily the flight we had expected...
Since the ATOS pilot had a rather intense experience ( • 9 minutes of hell - fl... ) people were asking how the flex pilot did. So that is the reason i am releasing that material now. I guess others may learn from it. And hopefully it prevents other pilots from making the same mistake. - Sport
You know it's a dangerous sport when the pilot gets into the body bag BEFORE even landing.
🤣🤣🤣
;)
Thank you SO much for sharing this experience with the viewing audience! I'm a paraplegic/double amputee who used to fly prior to my injury. In many ways, I can live vicariously through experiences like this. Though you don't know me from Adam, I can't begin to explain how grateful I am to watch as others get so much enjoyment from pursuits such as this. Most importantly, I wish you more safe and adventurous flights. Thanks again, prost! = )
Thank you very much for your nice feedback and your great mindset! All the best for you!
This is 'para GLIDING' bro.... I think you pulled up the wrong video.
Best of luck !
@@adambane1719 Copy that my friend! As wide open as I am to activities such as this, I do also have to do cope with the realities of such endeavors. Since I'm a paraplegic, the bones below my level of injury (T2) are especially fragile. While I could conceivably jump attached to another, the eventual landing could easily result in another injury (compression fracture). Honestly, I'd be the first one to set aside these potential complications, but I'd also feel especially guilty were I to add to my medical issues just because I'm eager to find that adrenaline rush. I have no desire to make others feel the guilt of my careless/selfish actions.
@@adambane1719- This is HANG-GLIDING! Head first versus feet first makes a HUGE difference. Sorry, but it’s a completely different training experience and certification process too. Please be careful with misidentification as accidents are all too-often bundled under: “paraglider”.
I’ve seen a paraplegic paraglider who does it attached to an off road buggy. Never say never
Flight Time: 17 Minutes.
Flight Distance: 4 Feet.
Almost ;P
Lovely narration, vivid description of the situation, feels like we are there with you. Thank you!
Thank you very much for your feedback!
Dear Mr.Monday - I'm sure that the rest of the season will bring us (even) more joy than this little number 😂 Klasse gemacht, ich freue mich riesig auf diese Saison mit Dir, da geht was 🤜🤛
Dear Mr. Albatros, uhmmm i mean Atos... 😉 Hopefully you are right. Maybe the second flight at Schrattenbach will be a bit smoother.... 😛 And hopefully we will have a great new flying season. Lass krachen alter Falter! ;) (Bei mir fliegt hier vor lauter Wind gerade beinahe das Dach weg. 😯)
Wow!! What can I say!! So glad you were ok. That was a very serious flight and you were working constantly. That must have been so very tiring. This sort of flight really takes it out on the arms and the nerves! As my flying instructor always said, “It is better to be down here, wishing you were up there, than being up there, wishing you were down here!!” So very true. Wind can be your friend, when you are a free-flyer but it can also hurt you badly, if you don’t take care. Fly safe! 😀✌️☘️
It’s a flight to remember… 😉 Fly safe!
Tons of active piloting! Looks exhausting! Also, those sporty hang gliders are prone to loss of lift at stall speed so it’s super important to avoid inducing a stall at low altitudes / maintaining ground speed. Be careful not to lose lift under one side of the wing or the other.
Fascinating flight! Nearly 50 years ago, I flew a standard Eipperformance rogallo in variable 40+ mph winds and feel fortunate to remember a most harrowing 2.5 minute flight. Nice to see the glider improvements.
Thanks for your comment! We have so great gliders nowadays but most people join paragliding instead of hanfggliding. They don't understand what they are missing out on...
My First glider was an Eipperformance Cumulus 10. Terrible glider, nearly broke my neck landing with it.
I remember having one of those days where it was a very hard fight to get any form of decent happening due to strong wind. Was fighting it all the way down and I was physically and mentally exhausted by the time I got on the ground. It's not a nice feeling at all. Thanks for sharing!
It was definitely an "interesting" situation... ;P
This video looks terrifying sorry that you had to go through the sams.
Wow...the silence of the video after you landed. Like night and day. I can almost feel the relief here.
You are right, very relieved
Your voice is so relaxed. But the tension in the video is high. Very comical relating your
expert skills and confidence, but then recognizing that nature and wind are unpredictable.
Great video with cool explanations, thanks
Thank you very much for your feedback! :)
I had a day as bad for different reasons. Massive thermals and dropping sink had me 3 times up to 4500ft then 3 times skimming the trees. The flight was 15 minutes long... I near kissed the ground after landing. The only thing worse than wanting to fly is wanting to be back on the ground.
You handled this incredibly well, cameras wash out the bumps you had a true rodeo that day.
Thanks a lot for your comment! Happy landings!
I had a similar experience at Point of the Mountain Utah south side. No one else flying there... Doh! Not the radical ascension, but massive turbulence. I couldn't wait to land about 12-15 minutes also.
@FITNESSOVER45 maybe meant 450, 4500 multiple times in that short length on a hang glider, you’d need rockets on the ends.
I would want straps on my wrist connected to that bar your holding just in case,,,,I watched that video of those two guys on one of these and the passenger wasn’t connected,, pilot was desperately trying to not let guy fall and guy was hanging on for dear life!
@@jameshicks7125I was just up there on a hike July 1 or so, a paraglider guy passed us hiking up the Cherry Canyon Logging Trail, super windy day, we were worried about him, about an hour later he was hiking back down. Wise decision!
Glad to see ya landed safe an I like how you narrated the flight 👍
Thank you very much!
That's quite a workout you had there! Nice landing despite gusty conditions.
An unnecessary workout of course... 😜 But hopefully good preparation for the new season...😀
Back in the mid 1990's I worked at a gas station at the base of a mountain in San Bernardino California. It was right at the lower part of the Cajon pass, every morning I met this hang glider that would ride the thermals that came out of the canyon. He would reach an altitude where you could not see him anymore. I remember he said he was training to break the Altitude record, don't remember his name. He may have been a member of "The Crestline Soaring Society" as it was nearby.
We are crazy people altogether... ;)
‘We haven’t got a car phone Del!’
You can't back out... ;)
@@flyguy-hanggliding What a classic!..🤣
Holy shit! Strong wind is NOT your friend.
You’ve probably heard a thousand times…It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than in the air wishing you were on the ground.
If you are having a difficult time penetrating the wind, and you are at altitude, go for the LZ while you have the altitude so you’re clear the opticals below. I know you wanted to watch your friend land, which is OK but you don’t want to land into trees or powerlines. Get to your LZ first. That’s the most important thing in your particular situation.
Great video!!!! Hope you have many, many years of safe flying! It’s the greatest sport on the earth!
Former instructor, Wind Sports, Southern California.
Thank you very much! Flying (thermalling) is just so great..i love it! And i will be much more cautious in the future regarding weather assessment... ;)
You mastered that like a pro. Now I can breathe again!
Thank you....and please continue breathing! :D
Another great Werner Herzog documentary!
Everybody loves Werner Herzog (besides Kinski)
Glad you made it back safe, it looks like you had lots of options to lad which is nice
Thanks! Yes there were plenty of landing options (even the official landing zone which wasn't appealing to me)
Nice to have Werner Herzog narrating this for us
Ya, narrating hang gliding videos is his true love it seems.... ;)
When you think about it, that bag is a very thoughtful piece of equipment. It helps make sure the recovery crew have an easy cleanup when you're done.
hahaha lol!!!!
Still happy they didn't have to do a "cleanup" ;)
Hahahaha reminds me of a couple of flights. I was thinking "bottom land" about five seconds before you. Glad you got down safely, thanks for the video.
Thanks for your feedback. Hope you still enjoy hang gliding!
@@flyguy-hanggliding sadly, at 71, I'm not fit enough, but I have the memories, and a few scars! hahahaha. I enjoy music festivals now, so my legs are too valualble to risk!
You keep enjoying it! Best wishes.
Those 2 little wires supporting his entire body weight freaks me out
They are strong... ;)
This would be akin to Bob Ross narrating a traffic accident.
Well, no accident here…. and everybody likes Bob Ross…! 😉
I didnt know Werner Herzog was a hang glider.
😂
That explains why i am always flying with this other pilot named Kinski... ;P
You set that down like a butterfly with sore feet. Butter. Sheer butter. Wunderbar!
Thanks!
I love how he notices the kindness behind his friend running towards the landing site.
Love your comment! :)
@@flyguy-hanggliding See, that's the thing about love.... it's terribly infectious.
You seem like a very very nice man. Glad you had a safe landing.
Thank you very much. You obviously are too!
Cool. You got bunch of cameras, appreciate your hypnotizing pretentious tone, pretty cool man. Love and respect
Love and respect for your feedback. Most people only tell me i sound like Werner Herzog... :P
@@flyguy-hanggliding don't remember leaving comment lol. So unsure why I used the word "pretentious " but yes Werner Herzog. Lol. Yes yes
I’d say you are a highly skilled hang glider pilot. Nice job.
Thank you very much ;)
Your voice sounds like if Werner Herzog would narrate the whole experience with a stoic mindset. :)
Looking back its always easy to be "stoic"
If pilots are watching this to determine how flexies and rigids comparatively respond to turbulence, I can give my experience that my Atos handled turbulence like the Death Star - big, heavy, cruised through turbulence like it didn't exist. On a given day my fellow flex wing pilots often would comment on how rough the air was; I was typically surprised - in my Atos I hadn't noticed any rough air at all.
That's also my experience. But this time it seemed a bit different. I guess the only difference was the height, with the gradient resulting in worse conditions for the rigid pilot.....
Very interesting. Great video.
Thank you!
I didn’t know Werner Herzog narrated hang-gliding videos 😉
It seems to be Werner's true passion :P
This may have been a dangerous situation, I'm glad everything turned out OK. I've always wanted to fly a glider, looks so fun. I used to jump freefall and I've had those days where you're pointed into the wind going backwards no matter how you set your trim and pull on the lift webs. Looks fun, cheers.
You should check out hang gliding (in "normal" conditions). It is just so much fun then!
Thank goodness you were able to land safely!! ❤
Thank you! I was happy to be back on the ground...
Rumor has it Stockton Rush salvaged the parts to work on his Space Program.
?
Thanks for posting. I've had two similar experiences, I suspect a mountain upwind caused rotors with strong winds, but both were far away so I'm not sure.
Not fun! And the second time a friend took off after me and almost crashed back into the mountain!
Let's just not do that again... ;)
I learned the hard way not to launch at a popular flying site when no one else is flying. It was at the south side of Point of The Mountain in Utah. My first time flying there, after usually flying the Oregon Coast and Pine Mountain. Constant, steady wind about 14 MPH coming straight, stable wind streamer on flying wire, the lift on the wing felt nice just standing there. A 2 step launch situation. Off in the distance were cumulus clouds, I thought there is no way that there could be much turbulence here so I launched. Quickly ascended to about 2000 feet over launch, then I was hit terrifying turbulence. I fought to a hard landing and bent a down tube. I am lucky that's all it was, but I learned never to fly a new popular site unless others were flying. I went back the next morning and there were about 20 other para and hang pilots and had some wonderful soaring.
Learning by experience is thorough but not always the best... ;P
@@flyguy-hanggliding Can be deadly in this sport.
Oh the wind gets INSANE there. I'm local. There are times where you can't even see the mountain 2 minutes after a strong wind comes out of nowhere. That's a super popular spot around here. Really nice on nice days, that point of the mountain and the terrain sets up some epic updrafts
Great job landing with your hands on the base bar. Thanks for posting. I've had my share of days like this and worse. It's not uncommon.
Thanks for your feedback! And i always enjoy your videos. Happy landings!
@@flyguy-hanggliding Cheers!
@@GlideLA PS: in retrospective i feel it is rather interesting how the conditions develop during that flight. And also comparing it to the rigid wing pilot‘s experience that day who climbed a bit more and had an interesting experience too (if you didn’t see that one yet it is linked in the description). Cheers!
@@flyguy-hanggliding I did see the ATOS get tossed around when it was posted. Thanks.
Danke sehr fürs teilen. Ich war einer der Piloten die sich nach dir erkundigt haben. Wenn ein Atos schon Probleme hat muss es für dich ja eher schlimmer gewesen sein
Had a flight in Owens Valley in 1996 I think. Conditions developed into very strong where you felt 10 seconds out of control then 5 seconds in control. Ended up decending vertically right onto where the two landing strips of Bishop Airport crosses and then musceling my glider (WW HP AT158) to behind a hangar and out of the wind.
Happy that you managed to solve the situation, too!
Brings back similar memory for me around same time in Owens Valley. Could not land for 2 hours and clouds overhead were getting darker and darker, a couple of times I was suddenly flipped so that my wing was close to 90 degrees with the ground.
When I finally started to come down vertically and last few meters I look directly down and see some type of a deer 🦌 oblivious that I am just about to land on him. He notices me at the last moment and bolts off.
I never appreciated life more after that.
Looks thrilling!!
;)
Thanks for the ride.
Welcome, thank you! :)
Born without wings + gravity = I'll stay on the ground
Not my approach :D
I have a question, yesterday morning i was looking at my flight traker . I was looking for airforce activity over south eastern England. I noticed at least 50 to 75 gliders in the air spread out over a few hundred miles. Then as i scrolled up north i seen the same , more and more gliders. My question is, is this a big thing in the UK ? Or was it a special event.? Ive never seen that many in the air before. The whole lower half of England was just covered in gliders.
Sorry i have no idea about this. Did you find out in the end?
That was a nice ride!!
But I'll keep two on the tarmack thank you!!!
Not bad either ;)
schöner Ritt auf dem Bullen.
Just a few days ago a friend of mine was killed while hang gliding. He was only 21. The devastation of his partner and family is heart-rending. We all need adventure in our lives, but for goodness sakes, be defensive and minimise the risks. Pushing the boundaries like this can end badly...
don't worry 1 or 2 weeks go by, its like they were never here happens all the time
@@robertcampbell5485 What a truly horrible statement. Everyone involved is devastated, as you'd expect. Have you nothing more constructive to do with your life?
I've had plenty of people I know die. I've found it to be the best way to look at it. No point to be devastated, one day soon your own life will come to an end. That's life @@tullochgorum6323
I am very sorry for your friend, all his friends and family. My deepest sympathy!
Werner Herzog goes hangliding.
Should invite him...
This friend sounds like a good buddy, not a good flying partner... No batteries, insufficient weather knowledge, next thing on this list could get you killed.
You are right, in future i will never skip the weather check because someone else says it's perfect... ;)
Having experienced high wind destroying ridge lift, I was also lucky to penetrate.... I always wondered about just going down wind from the top and landing kilometres away? A high speed dive and 180 to land?
Good idea. I didn't trust the terrain and felt it would be safer to fly away from the ridge.
@@flyguy-hanggliding Does anyone recommend doing this anymore? I stopped flying MANY years ago... thanks for the video, it should help people a lot. My friend hung on grimly for 1/2 hr then managed to land at the foot of the hill, upon unhooking, the glider disappeared and got smashed on a WasteTech bin. Wind 80kmp/h... was 20 - 30 when he took off..
Sooooo. the Earth is round, flat and concave! LOL - we are living on a plain.....fish eye is the only curve visible.
:)
Wind is our enemy while we endure its allegiance.
Depends mainly on the level of "gustiness"...
If the wind had increased in strength is there any option for flying along the ridge and off the end of it - and out of the lift?
Yes you could have flown along the ridge to leave the lift or with the wind as well. Since it was my first flight at that site i didn't know the area very well, especially when flying with the wind. I was expecting relaxed soaring and preferred to fly straight out. (btw i always had enough reserve to increase speed if needed.)
@@flyguy-hanggliding - I was wondering about the reserve speed. I don’t hang glide myself but I’d love to try when I get more time/money. In the meantime I enjoy videos like these.
The glider can come close to 100 km/h so there was some reserve left
Thrilling indeed
Even more when it is live ;)
Thank you for *not* playing horrible techno-music in the background.
I will do that next time... ;D
Screw flying in a giant sock with a thin piece of knicker elastic holding you up.
:D
Damn man, both you guys did awesome work with that flight.
Thank you Paul. Would have been better to not take off in the first instance... 😉
@@flyguy-hangglidingYour welcome, and I guess you know the saying, 'hind sight is 20-20' Lesson learned I imagine. I know I'm a little smarter now thanks to you guys.
@@paulyoe6624 it's actually the good thing about this kind of experience: you (hopefully) learn a lot from it 😜
we used to have a lot of hang gliders here in the owens valley off the sierras--too many of them filled their pants with poo with the changing winds
happens faster then one thinks... ;P
Balls of steel
Well... definitely not
You must have had arms like popeye after that mate. Well done. I was up there with you shiiting myself lol
Wouldn't have been a problem for popeye... ;P
ty for sharing
Thanks for your feedback
Good job getting it down!
Thank you, it was for my own best ;)
My wife tells me that after I take Viagra.
@@NPCHSN 😜
Wind gradient
It is the rate of increase of wind strength with unit increase in height above ground level.
Right! And importance shouldn't be underestimated
What was the wind direction on that day??
It's also not the "venturie" effect, but the "compression zone"!!!!
The wind direction was SW.
Catastrophic Uncontrollable Altitude Gain. That’s what would happen if you aren’t strong enough.
Right
Sünde? Looks more like Himmel. Thanks for posting!
Ah, i see you know the important vocabulary... :)
Wow this is some two week old refrigerator pie 🥧🥧
Really...? Sorry...
Ralf, auf welcher Website kann ich denn den Windgradient einsehen und prüfen? - Danke. lg.
Das bedeutet eigentlich nur, dass Du den vorhergesagten Wind in verschiedenen Höhen prüfst und wie schnell der Wind über die Höhe zunimmt. Und natürlich, dass Du Dir überlegst, wie viel Wind Du ertragen kannst... Die Bezahllösungen (wovon ich keine benutze) sind da noch etwas feingranularer als z.B. Windy.
Ich hab super Erfahrungen mit Meteo Parapente gemacht. Das ist meiner Meinung nach für GS&HG Flieger derzeit das Beste (bin selbst Gleitschirm Flieger)
You can almost hear the stall warning alert
Yes you are right xD
It looks like that farm out front is causing a lot of the turbulence. Is that hill even 200 meters high?
Height difference between takeoff and landing is only 100 meters.
@@flyguy-hanggliding Welp, that MIGHT explain the turbulence lol.
I'm only here because I thought a killer whale was hang gliding in the thumbnail. 😂
I've flown in conditions that were too rough to land in, and had to stay up another hour or so to wait it out. Not fun.
I don't envy you - this was enough for me already... ;)
Werner Herzog does hanggliding
Maybe this will be my new nickname...? ;)
Reminds me of why I don't miss hangliding any more.
So what do you do instead?
@@flyguy-hanggliding Run my business, enjoy my kids, try to stay in shape. This video reminded me of all the long drives only to find insufficient wind, or too much, or from not quite the right direction. Then when it was soarable conditions, ridge soaring in bumpy cold chop. Gets old after a while. But there are a few days, a few glorious days, where I was in the right place at the right time to soar the thermals to a mile above the Rocky Mountains. Those flights are the pictures on my wall and I remember those days fondly. Your video is just a reminder of all the other days. A reminder of the people I knew who died, or I watched crash and get paralyized. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did it, I'm glad you are doing it. Was it worth it? Definetely, but only because I got lucky. Hopefully you will continue to get lucky as well. Thanks for the videos.
@@martinair329 Thanks for your reply. You are right, it is a small window of weather conditions that will mean good or even great flights. Sometimes very frustrating indeed. People have to be rather dedicated to stay in hanggliding for a long time. I wonder how long i will continue to but that much time and effort in it before my focus switches to all the other valuable things/activities you mentioned… Thanks for your view, stay safe and all the best for you, Ralf
What was the wind and gust spread at launch?
I cannot tell but 10km/h max i guess
Skills!!!!
:)
I don't fly (yet), trying to learn things. It's right to think terrain was causing most of the turbulence there? Can I assume going higher would probably smooth out turbulence/gusts? Thanks Sir for this report.
Thanks a lot for your comment. I am not so experienced myself. Generally I'd say yes and no. Usually going higher would smooth out the turbulences caused by the terrain. But on that specific day the wind was so much increasing with the height that flying higher seemed to make it worse in some way (also refer to the recording of my friend referred to in the video description). Best Ralf
Wow.
Thanks
Man has always dreamt of flight. This guy can't wait to stop.
This day: yes... ;) (Usually no)
I think if you were in a dive position you'd lose altitude more faster, but no one can design properly in difficult times.
Thought this was a sequel to Free Willy for a second..
;)
Wave rotor? No obvious lenticular in the sky but fairly likely
Thanks for your comment! Actually i lack the experience of judging it but it may well have been.
I'm having PTSD from my pilot wings 64 days!😮
:o
RIP. So sad.
?
Didn’t know Werner Herzog liked to glide
He's a big fan ;) Still!
Kinda sounds like y'all made a bunch of little mistakes that day. Glad everyone is safe and more educated.
So are we! ;)
Difficulty descending in stronger wind conditions? That sounds terrible. Is that how they're designed?
What if you turned downwind, would it have been easier to descend?
Usually with strong wind you descend fast (when you are away from the hill that is redirecting the air upwards). You are right about the option of going downwind. I just didn't like the terrain there (many trees) and you might end up in a rotor (air that is first deflected upwards by the hill and then is falling, i.e. "rolling" behind the bump in the terrain)
It's fascinating to hear of the many factors to be considered....Thanks for taking the time. Happy flying!@@flyguy-hanggliding
The feet does stuff to my face
oops ;)
is there a reason he doesn't turn around and go with the wind?
Yes, there might be a rotor behind the ridge. Also i don't know the terrain back there very well (mostly trees back there)
HG pilots are the best weathermen I know, for obvious reasons.
Well i learned something the hard way here...
I would literally rather slit my wrists than hang on to that in those conditions :(
Don't do that. There was still a chance of surviving... ;)
Motherfluckin fabtastical!!
Well put! ;)
I thought it was a penguin paragliding at first 😂😂
Please don't hurt my feelings XD
@@flyguy-hanggliding 😂took me a while to work out it was a person.
Hi great control... well done... please what would happen if your body support harness snaps? are you able to hold your self up with the wind underneath you or would you hang like monkey bars?? Thanks...
Thanks for your comment! You wouldn’t be able to hold on for long. Moreover it would be very hard to control the glider. If you are still in the harness but no longer connected to the glider you could use your emergency parachute (it is inside/connected to the harness). In czcams.com/video/dLBJA8SlH2w/video.html it happened that the passenger of a tandem flight wasn’t connected to the glider (passenger doesn’t have his own parachute)… 😱
I don't know nothing about gliders ... but the landing looked great to me :D
That was a bad day? I have to see the good ones.
Landing in strong wind is easy as long as there are no gusts
My man, dump that wing and get down on the deck. You gain ground speed. All you're doing is kiting. A great job, though. You made it.
Thanks for your comment!
Hell!? Naaa bro this is living! Lol
Yes it is....but not the kind i'd like to have every day... ;)
I'm assuming that the reason you didn't turn around and go with the wind is because you would have no lift, and would be unable to glide to the ground, but fall?
Going with the wind would have been possible but there might be wind rotors behind the ridge and i don't know the area well. That's the reason i flew against the wind.
I can guarantee that I will never make this mistake.
Yes, please!