SAFA Skysailor Magazine

14 SKY SAILOR January | February 2020 I t happened at low speed, in what was otherwise a pretty unremarkable landing and there was no damage to the glider. I spent a bit of time harbouring the ‘just got a bit unlucky’ point of view, you know, ‘just put my leg down wrong’… But some further reflection set me off on a learning journey that has fundamentally changed my approach to flying. While recovering from surgery, I did a lot of thinking, reading and talking to fellow pilots. I went back through my logbooks and reviewed every landing I had ever done, trying to remember my thought processes and overall approach to setting up and executing a landing. I watched videos of myself and others. This reflection led me to the inevitable conclusion that a light wind landing in the double surface glider had flushed out a flaw in my flying skills that I had been ignoring for many years. I set myself a goal to correct the deficiency in my flare timing and execution. For reference, others may enjoy some of the articles that helped me: ➲ ➲ Dynamic Flight The three skills of a graceful landing [dynamicflight.com.au/2013/02/the- three-skills-of-a-graceful-landing] . Flying a correctly trimmed glider you must be willing and able to slow the hang glider to trim speed, raise the nose of the glider to full stall/ flare angle of attack and run a few steps so as to let the glider settle behind you when your feet touch the ground. ➲ ➲ Why Can’tWeGet AHandleOnThis Safety Thing? [willswing.com/why-cant-we-get-a-handle- on-this-safety-thing] . Pilots should identify those bad decisions that didn’t result in any bad result and ask not just, “Did I get hurt on that flight?” , but “Could I have gotten hurt?”, and to consciously avoid the trap of thinking that because there are no bad outcomes that means the flight was safe and decisions were good. ➲ ➲ Oz report thread on landing a hang glider [ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26379 ]. People trick themselves into believing that their landings are ‘good’ simply because they worked out. If your technique is good, however, it will work every time. Timing is the key. Peter Roberts from the Albany Hang Gliding Club was there when I had my accident. He had rung me on a number of occasions to check my progress, reflect on what happened and talk about getting back into the air. I mentioned that I felt I needed some one on one coaching on landing skills, and we both recounted fond memories learning and devel- oping our skills with Rohan Holtkamp at Dynamic Flight School over in Victoria. Peter wanted to try some mountain flying (we don’t have a lot of big hills in WA) and thought that those ideas together with social catch-ups with old friends would make the basis for a good road trip. We planned it well in advance – about four months out. Yet, as the trip approached, I became concerned. My knee wasn’t recovering as well as I thought it would, and to top it off, a week before our departure, Pete had a few too many sherbets to celebrate his 60th birthday, fell over and badly rolled his ankle. He couldn’t really walk, but could sort of hop along okay. So there we were… two old busted up hang glider pilots – Limpy and Hoppy – loading up Pete’s Hilux, ready to go. My Sting and Pete’s Litespeed RX were on the roof. We looked across at our Fun 190s set aside in the corner, and our commonsense kicked in: “I suppose we’d better take the floaters too, eh?” We drove off and spent the first 100k’s or so questioning the sense in our plan. After consider- ing turning around and going home a couple of Flaxmans Hill Photos: Tony Smith Back to Basics: Limpy and Hoppy’s hang gliding road-trip Take offs are optional, but landings are mandatory. A year ago, I tore the patellar tendon off my kneecap while landing my newly acquired intermediate glider, a Sting3-154… by Tony Smith