SAFA Skysailor Magazine

29 November | December 2020 SKY SAILOR out then I’ll have time to bring the wing back down. The wind talker says it’s only 25km/h. If it’s right (is it?) then I’ll be perfectly fine. Someone else said it seemed fine. A different someone else said they’d see how I went before trying themselves.” The take-away from this is that it is okay to not fly if you are not happy with the conditions or you have concerns about your decision-making. Now we turn our attention to three reports from Mystic (VIC). Our first report comes from a very experienced pilot who makes the point that this one involves ‘High-Hours Syndrome’, as opposed to ‘Intermediate Syndrome’. Just as an aside, in a recent episode of the Cloudbase Mayhem podcast , Dr Matt Wilkes described some of the findings of his analysis of the BHPA’s accident data. Instead of finding a steady decline in reports as pilots go up the ratings or have more flight hours, he found a U-curve – more reports involving low- and high-hours pilots. In my report to the Board last year, I found something similar. This year’s report will be interesting to compare. Back to the report. Our PG pilot has had a couple of unsatisfactory flights due to a forgotten pair of gloves and then batteries running flat in the vario. They have accepted a rushed ride back up to launch, crammed with their gear in the backseat of the vehicle. Because of the rush to launch again, their concentration has been interrupted and their normal pre-flight checks not completed. After a sleddie the pilot landed and had the reserve deploy during touch down. The broken missing step from the disrupted pre-flight check was the crucial check of the reserve handle-pins. The message here is don’t allow yourself to get rushed. If you experience that happening, stop! Take a step back and reset yourself. Clear your head and start your check routine from scratch. Mid-air collisions are not unknown in our disciplines, and in February this year, we had two visiting pilots from NZ on a tour clinic meet in the air. Both pilots had relatively low inland-flying hours and were thermalling in opposite directions at 3300ft asl over Emily Spur when they collided. The wing of one became entangled in the harness of the other and the wing tore and was disabled when it broke free. That pilot threw their reserve successfully and landed without injury, but the wing was destroyed, and the reserve was punctured. The other pilot landed without injury and only minor damage to the harness. There are a few recommendations here. When pilots come together to improve their inland skills, their decision whether or not to fly might best be shaped by: 1. A comprehensive pre-flight briefing, including conditions awareness, turn direction and traffic awareness (including prioritising collision avoidance); 2. an appreciation of respective skills levels and whether current conditions are appropriate to those skill levels; and 3. an awareness of general workload levels that the combination of pilot numbers and flying conditions may impose on an instructor. In June, a local Bright pilot was thermalling in a right-hand turn over Emily Spur, close to launch, when the left wing experienced an asymmetric collapse which then developed into a cravat. The pilot was flying a RAST equipped Swing wing. This system utilises one-way valves in each cell to keep the rear of the canopy inflated by positive pressure in the event of a collapse. Because of past behaviour the pilot was not too concerned and maintained the right-hand turn. I’ll let the pilot take over here: “After a few more seconds. the wing still didn’t feel right – it felt sluggish, so I looked at it and was completely taken by surprise to see a cravat in the left-hand wingtip. It wasn’t huge, I’d say about 1/8 of my wing. There was definitely air pooling in some of the caught bits of fabric. As I watched, my first reaction was to do what we are taught, which is to weightshift away from the cravatted side. As I contemplated reaching out for the stabilo line to fix the cravat (mindful that I didn’t have a lot of height to play with), I felt the wing start to spin to the right. I immediately let up the brakes on the right-hand side which then caused the wing to exit the spin into a tight right-hand turn resulting in further loss of height. Never having experienced a spin before, it was violent enough for me to think ‘WTF!’ At this stage I considered throwing my reserve and as I looked down, I could see the trees just below my feet so there was no point. The tree landing itself was slow and benign, except for the branch that caused a puncture wound to my face. Human Factors Air (the environment) -Man (I’m safe) -Ship (the aircraft) I’M SAFE Illness? Do I have an illness or any symptoms of an illness or disorder? Medication and other drugs? Have I been taking or mixing prescription, over-the-counter or recreational drugs? Stress? Am I under psychological pressure from my job or personal circumstances? Am I worried about financial matters, health problems or family matter? Alcohol? Have I been consuming alcohol within the previous eight hours? Is my blood alcohol level less than 0.02? Would my average alcohol consumption be greater than ‘very low risk’? Fatigue? Am I tired or inadequately rested? Eating and Drinking? Am I adequately nourished and hydrated?