On my Hang Gliding course - 2nd high launch flight - had winds of 30-35 kph. Tried to turn right above a valley when a down wind dragged me into a down spiral, a total loss of control.
Luckily lodged into an olive tree, came out without minor ache in the back.
Taken from Insta360 One X2.
Edited to view front
Excuse me....but if this was your second flight and the condition was as you described, the fool is your instructor! Because letting a student to soar near the ridge with active air is totally crazy!!! First flights must be in easy and smooth conditions, you must be "radio controlled" like an RC model by your instructor that constantly see you and you have nothing else to do then flying like on the training hill but for a longer time, so to have the possibility to try turns and approaches for longer periods and wider spaces. Another possibility is that you left too soon the training hill.... but is always your instructor responsabity. Anyway.... the insta360 deformation doesn't help, but it seems to me that you are not in a good position inside your harness and you are a bit too far from the base bar (consequently you can have a lack of control). P.s. you are really lucky to be alive and with no broken back
All your mistakes can be forgiven since this was your 2nd only flight. But I doubt the wind was anything over 20km/h. The glider stood on launch facing into the wind with the keel on the ground. At 30km/h it would take off and not just sit there. This seems like your instructors fault. I don't think you were ready for a high glide because you looked like a passenger and not in charge. This is not a criticism directed at you but rather at your instructor who failed 1. to judge your skill level properly and 2. I didn't hear any radio instructions. With a little more experience you could have fixed this many times. This wasn't a flat spin but you were just letting the glider turn with the breeze. You could have fixed it by pulling in on the bar to increase your wind speed and bumping the glider into straight flight or counter the right hand turn. I didn't hear any instructions form your instructor who should have been supervising you on your second high glide. Also the glider was 'mushing' (flying too slow and on the point of stall) from the get go. Your instructor should have been telling you to pull on more speed. Even before you launched I was cringing. You don't turn a glider from the tail. If it is windy you can drop one wingtip and spin the glider forward on either the right or the left wheel or bar end if you don't have wheels. Assistance is given on the front wires since the glider can be held down and controlled from the front wires but not from the tail. This is a beautiful sport and very safe once properly trained. Maybe look for another instructor ;-)
Pulling more speed and countering/correcting the spin might have worked, no?
Hi Nadav. I've had had near misses starting when I was learning in the early 80's up through as recently as a few years ago. So you are in good company. It seems you were dealing with some choppy turbulence rolling your glider back and forth. Right at about 1:06 you input a right correction for a left turn. The glider responds, possibly even over responds a bit. But two big additional roll inputs follow. This creates the spiral turn. I'm guessing this is the steepest bank you have experience so far. It comes with high G's and high velocity. The best way to exit a spiral is to pull in the bar and roll out of it as you come around towards a safe heading. I think you may have actually pushed out at some point around 1:20 as a result of seeing the ground get close. This probably seems natural but it increases the bank angle, tightens the turn radius and increases the G's. Pulling in to exit steep banks is not often taught. Instructors try to steer students from getting into high banked attitudes in the first place which is right. They are probably also trying not to encourage you to slip your glider which can result in very high speeds and dramatic altitude loss. The thing to learn is when to do it. If a glider is moving fast and loaded up with high g's in a spiral it is aerodynamically very stable and pulling in won't result in slip and will allow you to easily exit the spiral. But if you do this when flying straight and level near trim speed, you will slip and I hope you have plenty of ground clearance. The slip will become more pronounced with more advanced wings. This might be a good thing to discuss with your instructor and possibly even practice with more gentle spirals when you have 1000 feet of air below you. But the best thing at this point in your flying would be to learn to keep the glider from ever getting banked up that high. Glad you are okay.
Thank you for sharing, and most of all I'm glad you are ok. You survived to fly another day! :)
You allowed yourself to turn downwind by failing to get on the left side of the bar. Flying in stronger winds requires aggressive counter controlling. The spiral wasn't wind induced, you just didn't commit to correcting it.
I agree with the comments that assay your instructor should not be launching you in strong winds. Your first flights should be straight, calm with a huge landing area and no obstacles. It your stage your whole flight should be planned out from take off to landing, and easy. You were very lucky to survive this.
Hello. I am glad that you are ok. Others gave good advices in the comment section so i will not repeat.. This kind of titles ( hanggliding crash, almost killed by hg, hg fail) are just anti-propaganda and we can loose new pilots or people interested in sport. Crashes can be much more serious and with all respect, this doesnt look near fatal But those titles are magnets for clicking and have many views Best regards.
You might upload a version of this that locks the viewpoint in the direction of flight. The 360 version is impossible to navigate in real-time.
360s are not a good idea for losing height for a new pilot or for anyone on approach to landing. Save 360s for when you are thousands of feet up and needing to lose height. Do S turns instead, always keeping your landing spot in sight. This way you can always turn in to your final at any point. Another thing to remember, in a floater you need to pull in momentarily immediately before you turn. The glider will respond quickly and easily in the turn. Ive seen many novice pilot trying to force the glider around, mushing the glider while losing way too much height. On your next flight, when you have some height compare turning without pulling in a little bit immediately before the turn vs turning with no pull-in. You will be amazed at the difference. This is why you fell out of the sky in "a spiral". Remember the glider will turn nicely if you give it some airspeed. You should not be fighting it! Don't do 360's. Talk to your instructor about a properly planned approach. If you are so high that you need 360s use the height to take your time getting to the right height at the right time slooowly ... And enjoy it!
Glad you are ok. Were you looking for lift 10 m off the ground? you should NEVER be downwind when that close to obstacles. at that altitude, you should just head into the wind and land. but when you are higher you want to do a figure 8, never having the wind at your back .
Clearly a newer pilot. Tentative in getting into the harness and in his control inputs. Many of us have had that oh shit moment and lived to learn from it thank goodness. Not sure if the pilot was under 'radio control' but if he was he should have been instructed to keep a much larger margin for error.
I'm with KCBS Radio in SF, can I interview you to discuss hang gliding safety? I"m on deadline for a story today!
Holly cow. The 360 view didn't make it easy to see what happened but that bank angle was sharp and you were pushed out way too much. Stalled the glider bad. I have a Malibu 2 as well. It's such a good wing though I fly my S3 a lot more now.
Best 360 footage ever. lol
Пилот слабо владеет техникой пилотирования.