01/7/08 - Chelan Classic - fly day 3

Weather
Forecast
Unstable, 70% chance of CuNim, light wind
Actual
Very unstable, blue then developed and overdeveloped, CuNim with thunderstorms
4,000m+
2-12 ms
CuNims already very active to the south east before we launched

Task 3

Chelan Classic, free choice
Butte
Sims
Gust front

Comments
Launched at a good time, climbed out immediately
Topped to 2600m then crossed with gaggle
Climbed easily on the rim, clouds building on the flats – strong climbs
Pushed on to Mansfield then on to Sims

Sky developed quickly but very visibly. Tried to push back to Mansfield for multiplier points.

En route got caught in widespread convergence from surrounding Cu Nims which stopped us from getting down in time to avoid the a gust front from the Cu Nims.

Wind picked up to 75kmh+. Picked a big dust paddock and landed backwards. Got the glider down under control after a fast 10m plough through the paddock.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=107481

Lessons
Could easily see the development either side of Mansfield but pushed on with a glide towards Mansfield that was in a blue hole, it would score better.
Totally misjudged convergence from the CuNims on either side which slowed me getting down onto the deck. The convergent lift was widespread and strong, some times more than 9/10ms.

Started spiralling to lose height but oft times was actually climbing.

Descent techniques - Most of the time extended spirals were not losing height but they were beginning to impact on me physically, increasing nausea through the spinning. Used speed bar and big ears to search for less lifty air where spirals could become more effective. During the searching was climbing at up to 5/7ms.

Essential to make a height decision point (2500m) where it would be necessary to escalate to alternate height loss manoeuvres - possibly sustained full stall s

The day was way big, should have been on the deck at Sims or carried on east into clearer sky.

Fixated on task, stuff the ego and get on the ground

Following is a posting by Matt Senior

"Everyone who lives dies, yet not everyone who dies has lived. We take these risks not to escape life, but to prevent life escaping us."

This is a quote I heard of about 6 months ago and wrote it down on a small piece of paper and put it into the window of my wallet. It reminds me of why I enjoy paragliding so much and is a reflection of how I like to look at life.

On Tuesday I (we) almost died flying on the flats by getting sucked into the convergence of two Cumulus Nimbus developments. I wanted to write about my(our) experience so others can learn from our very foolish mistakes. It was the third day of the Chelan Classic, with a forecast of 99 degrees, light winds with a 20% chance of thunderstorms, the day was shaping up to be identical to the day before. We had a small contingent of paraglider pilots at the comp and had all been working together, flying together as much as possible and sharing information. The day before we all managed to fly around the edge of some pretty large developments with great success all managing some pretty nice flights.

Tuesday shaped up to be very similar to the day before as we watched the clouds begin to build. Climb rates were strong (1500fpm+) and cloud base was around 12,000feet. As we moved out onto the flats at around 2:30 the developments were big but there was plenty of blue around them and no immediate threat.

As we moved east over Mansfield things started to look much better to the east with 95% of the sky totally blue there were only a few small Q's to be seen ahead of us. Our self appointed task for the day was Sims corner and back to the soccer field about 100km and very achievable considering the conditions. There were 5 of us working as a group Brian Webb, Conrad Kreick, Brett Yeates, Kyndel Banister and myself. As we pushed on to our turnpoint at Simms Corner the small Q's ahead of us began to build but no bigger than the day before. We were all very aware of the conditions radioing back and forward to one another of our observations, thoughts and concerns. East still looked good but behind us there was a large cell growing fast over Waterville indicated by an increasing amount of shadowing on the ground below it. There was also another Q'nim forming fast toward Brewster with its anvil head blasting tens of thousand feet in the sky.

As we took the turn point and headed back towards Mansfield there was a nice blue street separating these two developments with some small Q's forming in the middle of it. At that point we all were aware the day was drawing to a close and getting back to the soccer field was going to be impossible. We talked amongst ourselves agreeing we should just fly back to Mansfield and land. Brian was out front by a mile or so and radioed through that he was in some serious lift, spiraling and going up and suggested it was time to land. Brian is a very experienced pilot and it took me all of 1 second to follow his advice and begin spiraling myself.

From 7000feet I began to wind my Boom 5 up tighter than I have ever spiraled before. With its long lines it only took about 20-30 seconds before I couldn't handle the G's any more so exited and looked at my instruments again to notice I was now at 7100feet. This is when I began to realize the seriousness of the situation I was in and needed to get down fast. I went straight back into a hard spiral holding it for twice as long, pulling massive G's and descending at over 2000feet per minute. Eventually I had to stop to avoid blacking out, I noticed my altitude was now 7400 feet. I couldn't keep doing spiral after spiral so smashed my speed bar pulling big, big ears trying to fly away from our blue corridor that had suddenly turned black as the two cells took over the sky. Conrad had luckily landed just before Sims and wasn't in danger, Kyndel was still pushing on to Mansfield tracking to the south of me and Brian was still in a similar predicament as me only closer to the eminent gust front. Brett and a hang pilot were several thousand feet below me spiraling hard as well.

My goal now was to fly around until I could find some air that wasn't going up at 1500fpm+ and spiral in that and try to get on the ground as quick as I could. I was lucky and found a very small patch of 200-300fpm up and spiraled my brains out trying to focus on pegging away at 1000 feet at a time. I was thinking I really need to focus now on being careful not to black out, taking quick 10-15 second breaks in between sets to ease the G's and give the stomach muscles a break. Below I saw Brett land by the road as I continued to track the sink north over his head spiraling hard. Less than 2-3 miles away the gust front was approaching and the wind on the ground was getting bad. Although the wind was a concern I just wanted to get down and if it meant getting dragged through some flat fields I was OK with that so long as I wasn't in the air. I continued my spirals to 100feet above the ground then pulled my ears in and radioed through to the group that I was OK and going to be on the ground soon. I landed on a road going forward, immediately detaching myself from the wing, put my hand on my knees and began to dry reach from the G's I had endured.

I was alive, safe and very very lucky. Within 1 minute of being on the ground the wind picked up from 20mph to 40mph+.

Brian however wasn't so lucky he got caught by the gust front coming into land several miles west. With his comp glider on full speed he was flying backwards fast. At the same time Conrad was on the ground nearby and observed the winds to be at least 30-40 mph. Brian landed going backwards and was dragged face first through a dry dusty field. Blinded and choking on the dust as he got dragged, he managed to pull on one brake until he had one wing tip in his hand disabling the glider. Kyndel got lucky and found a good line of sinking air on his way west and landed safely seconds before the gust front.

Here is a list of the mistakes we made and lessons we learned from our very narrow escape.

• We flew back towards a developing sky because there was a blue corridor.
• We were fixated on two tasks, first flying back towards the soccer field, then once that began to be unachievable back to Mansfield.
• We were fixated on the task(s) rather than safety.
• We should have landed sooner or flown away from the development.
• We ignored signs on the ground of strong vertical development – dusties converging.•Always try to fly out of the strong lift to spiral down.
• Hopefully no one will ever been in a similar situation but if you are turn the volume of your radio on full so you can hear updates from fellow pilots while your spiraling and make sure your sink alarm is on so you can audibly hear your descents. (There is nothing worse than spiraling hard with your leading edge horizontal to the horizon and your vario beeping that you're climbing.)
• Don't push full speed bar then pull bug ears on a comp wing.
• Make sure you don't blackout because of the G forces created by high descent rate spirals.
• •If in doubt land.