Crash and Burn

For those that haven't already heard, I had a little 'incident' on Wednesday, May 25. I crashed my hang glider while flying the South Side of Point of the Mountain. I am fine, not a scratch on me... Below are the details surrounding the incident...

For the past two years or so, I have had some shoulder trouble with my left shoulder dislocating. I can go months with it being fine, but then I move the wrong way and out it goes. It always goes right back in, but once I've done it recently, it can be pretty sensitive... and usually pops out many more times. Over the years of dealing with this, I would say it has deteriorated a bit, becoming easier to trigger, even after several months without incident. Certain activities seem to be worse than others, skiing for example tends to be bad. Flying, though, has never been an issue. It has only popped out when I have my arm lifted up over my head, or extended way out to the side almost to the point of being behind me. Not movements used often in hang gliding, so like I said it's been fine...

There were a lot of shenanigans going on at the South Side on Wednesday. Paragliders kiting in the hang glider launch/landing area. Hang gliders crashing into these kiting paragliders. Shouting matches between hangs and paras. A little worse than 'the usual'... There has been some speculation that my accident was, in part or in full, due to flying angry. To be completely clear, yes I was fucking pissed... but being pissed does not make a shoulder dislocate, which is what caused the crash... so my mental state is pretty much irrelevant.

After all the shenanigans mentioned above, I launched and did a couple passes on the ridge. I found a nice thermal and began doing 360's and climbing up. I'm always amazed by the low sink rate and high climb rate of my T2... it does a good job of making me appear to know what I'm doing...

As I'm doing 360's in front of the hang glider launch, I see a paraglider kiting there. I can see that this is a local, a regular at the Point, and someone that should know better. There are now several hangs in the air at various heights, any of whom could be landing within seconds. I decide I'm going to do a fast fly-through of the hang glider area, and pass to the right of the kiting pilot. I check the pattern, and when it's clear I do a slipping turn over the parking lot and cruise through the hang glider area in ground effect. As I near the edge of the ridge I look left and right, and decide to go left when I hit the end of the ridge (there were gliders to my right). I roll left and begin to let my speed turn into altitude. As I am nearing parallel with the ridge, I shift my weight to the right to level out... and I feel a very familiar stabbing pain in my shoulder. I know exactly what it is, and what is going to happen next. I'm banked left, and basically trying to fly with one arm... and it's not working. The glider is rolling steeper into the turn... into the hill. I distinctly remember looking left as the glider is beginning to slip the left turn towards the hill, and seeing that if I do nothing, I'm going to impact the side of the hill, down wind, hitting the ground at about a perfect 90 degree angle. Well, needless to say, that would hurt! As I'm thinking this I see that, if I push out a little, I could get myself onto the top of the launch, and come in at an angle similar to ground. That seems like a much better option, so I push out with my right arm.

As fast as everything happened, I felt like I had plenty of time to think, evaluate, and react. Unfortunately NOT enough time to unroll and avoid the hill altogether... but enough time to make the best of a bad situation. Pushing out with one arm, I remember seeing the ground rushing by as I made it up over the lip and onto the flat top of the South Side. I let go of the glider, and pretty much went limp. I don't remember feeling when I was on the ground, it was so gentle... but I remember sliding across the gravel, as if I were sliding into home plate. I even remember thinking to keep my head up, as I just had my helmet painted, and I didn't want to scratch it!

I slid to a stop and the glider was laying on top of me. Both downtubes had blown out right in the middle, allowing the glider to lay flat and pin me down. The glider began to lift, and I almost thought it was blowing over, but then I saw very concerned faces and realized it was just people who came over to help. Everyone was amazed that I was ok... probably none more so than me.

People have been asking what was my initial feeling after the crash... and honestly... I felt like yelling 'Whooo! Did you see THAT!?'... but that wouldn't have been appropriate, so I didn't. I briefly examined the damage to my glider, packed up, and went home with my tail between my legs.

The aftermath of the incident has been amusing at times, and heartbreaking at times. Hearing the way the story gets twisted and contorted as the word spreads is pretty funny. Not as funny, is the repair bill for the glider. But it is a material possession, completely repairable... or replaceable if it weren't repairable (but it is easily repairable). The toughest part of the aftermath is facing the now obvious fact that my shoulder has deteriorated to the point that now it CAN pop out while flying... which obviously is a huge problem. Even if I only fly Falcons and take it easy, if it were to pop on launch or landing, I might not be so lucky next time.

I'm coming to terms with how different my summer is going to be than I had envisioned. I was picturing a hang gliding summer with cross country and frivolous looping and spinning until I didn't know which way was up. I was also planning on entering in my first aerobatic competition this year, something I've been waiting my whole life to be ready for. Now I'm looking at only flying falcons and floating around... if I decide to risk flying at all. Or maybe I'm looking at getting the surgery done ASAP (rather than wait until fall)... which means I'll be moping around with my arm in a sling for months. Very different than I had envisioned...

But I'm alive, just as healthy as I was before I decided to joust with the ground. My parents and wife-to-be have been very supportive, as have many of the local pilots (not many of the paraglider pilots, ha!)... things could be a whoooole lot worse.

VEE & E

Not that I would ever endorse this... but I set a new high score at the North Side tonight...

Read the last line of the Flytec's flight report and you'll understand :-)


This is on an aluminum Wills Wing T2 (IE not the 'C' model), which is 100% stock. The sprogs are not lowered whatsoever, it is straight-out-of-the-factory sweet. What an amazing flying machine Wills has created for us to enjoy this wonderful sport... thanks guys!!!

"Dangerous" Dave Gibson

"Dangerous" Dave Gibson at Randolph, UT from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.

Last summer "Dangerous Dave" and I went to Randolph. It was looking like a strong but exceptionally smooth day, so I put my GoPro on Dave's glider and sent him off to do his thang...

I finally got a chance to edit the footage together... so... Here's Dave, goin' at it!

Season Opener at Inspo

Inspiration Point is OPEN!

First real mountain flight of the 2010 season...

Inspo Season Opener from Ryan Voight on Vimeo.