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Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

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Hpr
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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Hpr » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:57 pm

Water landings often result in a fatality, in fact they are the highest cause of fatalities in PPG, so PPGers are naturally apprehensive of them. You need to get your straps unclipped so that you are ready to swim away from the PPG the moment you hit the water. Even then you might get tangled in the mess and drown. But you never jump from a PPG (in a water landing you could 'jump' when your feet touch the water, but that's not really jumping). It is clear that he had line/riser twists (probably from maneuvering the wing aggressively coupled with engine torque) and he probably didn't want to land in the water uncontrolled while attached to the PPG, so he decided to jump. Bad call over water or land.

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby CaptainArgh » Tue Aug 02, 2016 3:10 pm

A short interview and some GoPro video of the accident.
http://abcnews.go.com/News/paraglider-f ... d=41056676

So, what is the textbook PPG method to avoid this situation and get out of it when it occurs?

Had to be a lot of adrenaline, panic, and quick decisions to be made. Easy to play armchair quarterback, but from his vantage point it was jump or an uncontrolled crash into a harder surface than where he landed. Very glad this super positive guy is doing well, telling his tale, and will continue to help others and share stoke on our sports. Thanks, Damien. Get well, soon! :thumb:

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Hpr » Tue Aug 02, 2016 6:53 pm

No, jumping was the wrong call. His plan was to jump into the water, that didnt work out so it is pure luck that he ended where he did. Had he stayed with his PPG, he would have had a much better chance of walking away completely uninjured. As he says, it's a miracle he is alive after that jump. I call it very very very lucky.
BS reporting as usual. No engine failure or 'spluttering'. Engine was idling when he jumped. Unfortunately they cut the part where he gets into line twists, I still think it was due to aggressive maneuvering.

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Mossy 757 » Tue Aug 02, 2016 7:44 pm

So his lines were clearly twisted and he seems to be going fast and out of control, but not unrecoverably so.

What would you have done differently? Assuming that the engine had stopped providing thrust, what are the emergency procedures for a malfunction of this sort?

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby waynepjh » Wed Aug 03, 2016 3:24 pm

You can try and reach above the twists to stear the wing. Its taught to pilots when learning to fly. Glad he is going to be ok!!!

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Bille » Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:06 pm

waynepjh wrote:You can try and reach above the twists to stear the wing.
Its taught to pilots when learning to fly.
Glad he is going to be ok!!!
Hope he gets more training !! :thumb:
You can also steer the PG with your hips , or A-symmetric Big-ears, or pulling
the c-risers independently , or pressing forward on one A-riser , or ... (it just
keeps on going ; if your willing to learn).

The key to ALL these tricks, is to learn them Before Ya need them . It's no different
with kite boarding and pulling the QR ; practice pulling it before you need it !!

Bille

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Robsw6 » Wed Aug 03, 2016 7:32 pm

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but he lived and no one else was hurt.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery !

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Bushflyr » Thu Aug 04, 2016 6:55 am

His wing was flying straight. He did not have a a collapse or tip through his lines. I have flown out of a couple dozen worse situations than what he had in the video. Billie is correct, he was an idiot. I have posted this before and Toby deleted it.

Choosing to jump from a perfectly flying wing is idiotic in the extreme. He endangered people on the ground by putting his "perceived" safety before theirs. He jumped to try to save himself (which was a stupid move in the first place) and sent his still running weed whacker to off to crash into whatever people happened to be in front of it. That's simply not what a professional does. Period. End of story.

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Re: Damien LeRoy Injured in Paraglider Crash

Postby Hpr » Thu Aug 04, 2016 9:43 am

Mossy 757 wrote:So his lines were clearly twisted and he seems to be going fast and out of control, but not unrecoverably so.

What would you have done differently? Assuming that the engine had stopped providing thrust, what are the emergency procedures for a malfunction of this sort?
It looks like he is out of control from the gopro footage, because he is spinning under the wing with line twists (and maybe he thought the paraglider was spinning too - it can be disorientating spinning like that). But the wing is flying stable with a only slow turn. Not many options really. I think reaching up and steering above the twists would be very difficult, even if you manage to reach that high it would be difficult to identify which lines are the brake or rear riser lines. Steering below the twists is a no-no as the twists might keep the brake line pulled down leading to a spin. Same goes for weight shift steering and even if physically possible, doing it while spinning under the wing? I dont think so. I cannot see whether he had a reserve but that might have been an option as he might have had enough altitude at the start of the twists for the reserve to open. But then you're still faced with a water landing in the PPG - so not really any better than landing with the stable paraglider. So again, really not many options. I would have just ridden it out, try to clear the twists in the limited time available and hope not to land in power lines or on a busy highway or into a wall. Staying with the wing he would have probably landed in those same trees and walked away. The PPG cage, frame and harness does offer lots of protection. But jumping is definitely not an option. Any material above your head to slow you down is better than a freefall.


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