Ultralight or Part 103 trikes
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Ultralight or Part 103 trikes
group is for discussion of part 103 trikes or flying part 103 trikes
Hang glider Launched Without Buckling into Harness - a hang gliding film by Greg Porter
Impressive video - made a mistake lives to tell about it, and learned from it - and better yet helping others learn from it. The check list is king! don't get complacent
Comments
That is a great video! Very big of pilot's to admit their mistake publicly to help everyone. When most people think of not hooking in, they think of not connecting the main hang strap (in this case the big black strap from the harness to the HG), but this is pretty serious as well.
I forgot my leg loops once for a very similar reason, but I had my chest strap and it wasn't that bad. Like him, I hook my harness into my glider before getting in. I now also always lift the glider all the way up until I feel the leg loops stretch tight, then do a hang check.
I think the Wills Wing harness has one leg loop permanently attached that you have to step through, the other one buckles-- so, if you put it on normally, you will have at least one leg loop attached.
I've also seen a safety system where you have a string with a "Hook In" message dangling from the nose. When you hook in, you connect the hook in sign back to the hang point. If it is not hanging in your face, then you likely did the procedure correctly.
Similar safety checks, and focus, and practices, checklists, etc can help trikers as well. Remember how easy it is to get distracted halfway through a process.
Wow xc i watched that many times but never could understand what the problem was(now i see) good advertisement for the zipper manufactuer. Just very very big of that hang glider pilot to put that up
Very direct without excuses .all pilots should be this way.
Brovo
Had this happen once to me on a tandem flight. I had a hang check but no one caught I had missed my leg loops. I was flying a WW flylight cocoon harness and being young and strong I hit the boot first try and soared for an hour before flying back over launch and making sure there was a truck headed to the LZ to help if it was needed. Did a keel stand with one foot in the harness for a perfect landing.
Normal launch in those days had you prone before the keel cleared the ramp so 2nd maybe 3 step you had a foot in the stirrup and transitioned to prone or it might have been ugly. Kept a huge smile the whole flight and until I sent her hubby down the hill to meet us in the lz none knew of my mistake.
Thanks for sharing Ken. Great video!