Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

[Mossy 757]

i have noticed damian rarely flys with a helmet that says a bit even our hotshot acro pilots wear helmets.

A gripe I share with most kiters as well. I always ride with a PFD and helmet. Call it gay or dumb or uncomfortable or whatever, but it's safety equipment designed to protect me. I wear not for the many times I don't need it, but for the rare times when I might.

The amount of kiters putting out video boosting over large solid objects or jumping off tall structures is amazing. Not a one of them wears anything more protective than an impact vest. I get that for the sponsored team guys they're trying to sell this freedom oriented lifestyle, but would it kill us as a community to insist everyone takes minimum precautions? You don't see riders in the tour de France riding without a helmet...

[deniska]

He mentioned that the PG was speeding up.. how fast can it go in this setup? 40-50mph?
Jumping from 100ft would get you 70+mph guaranteed before hitting the ground..

[Bille]

...

Mmmmhm. I see a couple potential safety issues here Is it OK in Florida to leave an uncontrolled flying lawnmower over a crowded beach? Is that the protocol you learn? Can't you switch an engine off in flight ?
...

Not fast enough to toss the reserve , without an optico kill switch, if your throttle linkage is broken.
The lawnmower thing :
That was the first question i had ; so i went to the USHPA to see if this scenario would affect the
insurance of our national club . They don't cover powered PG's ; so it won't affect me or my insurance
rates, (so end of story) on that one. Flying over crowds with power , is against FAA laws ; and if someone
decided to press the issue, (they could).



This is for any other PG pilots , that haven't thought-through some basic scenarios for emergencies
or unforeseen events :

First is how adrenaline affects the situational awareness. If you have an Exit plan when the adrenal
gland starts dumping chemicals in your body; good chance your metabolism will speed-up and you
will become so aware of what's happening around you, that time itself will appear to actually Slow-Down.
If Ya don't have a plan
Fear will set-in, and Time will appear to be like a video on fast forward, and you won't comprehend squat on
what's happening to you at that moment in time. OOPS !!

There are many other ways to affect the flight characteristics of your Bag-wing .
Lots of stuff to consider when $*it goes Bad ; a good advanced maneuvers clinic is the Best way to learn about how your glider will react to different input. Some of these instructors are Crap ; but
Chris Santacroce , (Superfly inc.) Provo Utah is the Best one that i personally know of, and well worth the time
and money. If Ya don't feel that you got your moneys worth from him ; i;ll bitch-slap him with one of my
fake legs !!

Bille

[alamos_kiter]

Bille, just trying to understand why a stable flying PG is so much of a problem that the pilot decides to jump off it. What would the proper action have been? I dunno much about PGs, so... steering lines twisted (?), can't you untwist them? can't you hold that thing in the air without steering line, by, say, grabbing a riser? Even bikes have electronic gear shift today, but you can't kill the engine of that thing if your throttle breaks, is that really true? You're allowed to fly a lawnmower you can't switch off if a piece of metal breaks? On a public beach? Kitesurfing looks like a pussy party in comparison

[njrider]

Kitesurfing looks like a pussy party in comparison

Now that's funny.....

[Kamikuza]

Bille, just trying to understand why a stable flying PG is so much of a problem that the pilot decides to jump off it. What would the proper action have been? I dunno much about PGs, so... steering lines twisted (?), can't you untwist them? can't you hold that thing in the air without steering line, by, say, grabbing a riser? Even bikes have electronic gear shift today, but you can't kill the engine of that thing if your throttle breaks, is that really true? You're allowed to fly a lawnmower you can't switch off if a piece of metal breaks? On a public beach? Kitesurfing looks like a pussy party in comparison

We quite regularly share the beach with the PPGs. The most unbelievable thing I've seen was the dude launching between the palm trees, down the steps and over our kites, messing it up and drifting back and across the beach towards the toilet block and the power lines, catching his wing on the light pole then resetting and do it over again. Asia, eh!

They do "familiarize yourself with the reserve" lessons by making the pilot stall then wing then throw the reserve and ride it in to splash down. Could this be a case of being self-taught catching up with the pilor?

[Bille]

...
On a public beach? Kitesurfing looks like a pussy party in comparison

I've said this before, that kitesurfing is the Most Fun a guy can have ; for the amount
of risk involved. When i look at how many really close calls i've had at flying PG and HG
in the past 3 years ; it makes me think i should give up the foot launched stuff, and stick
to sailplanes and Kite boarding for my Adrenaline-Rushes !! I haven't bin in the water a
bunch in 3 years ; i do land kiting a few times a month , in a park or on the dry-lake.

The moment you leave the water with your kite board, or snow kite ; the rules change
dramatically ; and it's the reason i get down on the snow kiters for saying there low glides
down the slope of a mountain are safe , (NO THEY ARE NOT) . I can't explain Why humans
get so addicted to that uncertainty thing ; why risk your life to a gamble , and i do it every
time i fly ?

I hope a few people got my explanation on how adrenaline and situational awareness works ;
alamos_kiter could tell us the mechanics behind that, since he is familiar with Martial Arts ?

Bille

[edt]

right on bille. you look at some of the most dangerous sports, many of them have a lot in common, traditional rock climbing (you can fall from a high place), wingsuit flying (same), paragliding, hang gliding (same). Snow kiters gliding down a mountain are obviously at a huge risk, they just haven't had the amount of fatalities that have plagued all the other sports where you "fall from a high place".

obviously Damien LeRoy fucked up and after he is healthy again and able to analyze his accident I'm sure he'll admit exactly what went wrong and where and I'm sure this will be a lesson not to paragliders, those guys know all about it, but more for kiteboarders who are just starting to get interested in paragliding. Damien can explain exactly why paraglider is a lot different from kiteboarding. But I can't be too hard on him, zero fatalities, no bystanders injured, he'll live and looks like he'll recover. Glad he survived and will be able to tell tales about it.

[streax]

His wing was nice and stable. All of the powered paragliders in here are going to agree what he did was not his best option. You only release from the harness if you are absolutely sure you are going to crash land in the water and only at a much lower height. He clearly was in a panic as he even forgot to kill the engine before bailing.

Bille, just trying to understand why a stable flying PG is so much of a problem that the pilot decides to jump off it. What would the proper action have been?

A major fire is about the only reason I would want to try to do something like this over flying the wing the best I could to the ground.

Proper procedure for a PPG in this scenario:
1. Climb to 2-4k+ feet to give yourself some space from the ground to assess the situation with the tangle in the brakes/risers (it is most likely he just had a brake line get wrapped/twisted - which is not a big deal)
2. If you can not get the brake lines untangled, DO NOT TRY TO USE THEM, they can get stuck in the down position, which is far worse than not being able to use them. His were not stuck in the down position.
3. Use the D (rear) risers to steer and flare for landing if you can't get your toggles worked out or one has gotten sucked through the prop. In almost every wing this is more than effective enough for landing where a bystander would not even know you had a situation.

I dunno much about PGs, so... steering lines twisted (?), can't you untwist them?

Yes, but it is very scary and ill advised to do if you don't have/give yourself enough altitude. He was thinking like a kitesurfer and not a pilot.

can't you hold that thing in the air without steering line, by, say, grabbing a riser? Even bikes have electronic gear shift today, but you can't kill the engine of that thing if your throttle breaks, is that really true? You're allowed to fly a lawnmower you can't switch off if a piece of metal breaks? On a public beach? Kitesurfing looks like a pussy party in comparison

All modern paramotors have a kill switch on the throttle. Most have a secondary kill somewhere on the frame. To kill the motor in the air if your multiple kill switches do not work: pull the plug wire, pinch a fuel line, or try to flood the motor with the primer bulb.

[alamos_kiter]

thanks, that's most informative.