04/08/2013

Two asymmetric collapses

Today I got my first unintentional asymmetric collapse, it swiftly was followed by my second.

Having checked the weather the night before I wasn't hopeful to get flying. Some rain was forecast at each of the flying sites that looked hopeful. This morning I checked my email to see no messages so I assumed that none of the other club members thought it was worth chancing the rain. An hour or so later I checked my email again to find that there was one guy heading to the Mourne Mountains and another group of guys heading to Dungiven. A quick phone call later I had decided on Dungiven as there was a nasty looking cloud sat on top of Slieve Binian in the Mournes.

I arrived to find no-one flying but a couple of pilots in cars at the car park. Conditions seemed to come and go so after a bit of a chat I lugged my kit onto the hill and spent a long time watching other more experienced pilots take of and go up and down. One minute everyone had great height then the next everyone was scratching about struggling to stay up.

I stood and did a lot of watching with a some other low air time pilots. It was a first for me to witness three tandem paragliders in the air at the same time. Eventually the conditions seemed to calm a little and I made the decision that if I take off and land at the bottom then so be it. No-one likes landing in the bottom landing field because someone needs to drive down to collect you or it's a half hour walk up.



I took off into a thermal, as you can see from the video I go almost directly up. I struggle to move forward so with my controls up at the keepers I head of to the right to see what the conditions are like over there. It is a little bumpy so I decide against using my speed bar (which is a rarely used part of my kit anyway). I then experience an asymmetric collapse on the right side. After I realised what is happening I add a little brake on the left and weight shift to the left and the wing recovers. I remember thinking to myself "Well that is my first asymmetric collapse out of the way without incident." Then I get a second collapse on the left side which is about 50% of the wing (the camera doesn't catch this but I certainly did). At this point a fellow pilot Tony gets on the radio to advise me to fly away from the hill but I am still unable to penetrate. At this point I have been pushed back away from the ridge and am in sink so am committed to landing into a flat field only moving backwards very slightly so I go with it.

My mind was full of what ifs while I walked back to take off. I immediately found Tony and thanked him for getting on the radio, I was appreciative of his advice (even though I couldn't follow it).

After about an hour of intently watching everyone's flights I managed to get a pleasant and uneventful flight in of about half an hour. This was only ended when the wind switched to the north and I was treated to a visit to the bottom landing field. Jim was kind enough to come and fetch me and save me having to do the half hour walk up.

What have I learned:

  • Always have a little bit of pressure on the controls, especially if it is a bit rough.
  • If I am failing to penetrate make myself more aerodynamic by streamlining my body as best I can by tucking in elbows, point feet, etc. (advice given by the wise old owl Bertie)
  • Care should be taken over the rocks to the right at Dingiven when you are low and the sun is shining (more advice from the owl).