The leading edge pockets of the sail were stitched closed at the ends (the tips) and plastic caps fitted over for protection. …in those days the sails weren’t fixed as securely as now and the sail on my had become detached from the end of the leading edge after being knocked about on the chair lift. Such events colour a pilot’s perceptions in flight… The test pilot was lucky to survive with just a badly broken leg.
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However, on his third weekend out flying just a year or two earlier, Brian witnessed a Wasp test pilot suffer a side wire failure (it had not been swaged or clamped correctly) that caused the cross-tube to break. A possible third outcome, complete structural failure, is extremely unlikely given the strength of these gliders. In this instance - and against all probability - both those outcomes applied, the latter only temporarily but fortuitously, which is how Brian emerged from the experience uninjured. The aircraft encounters turbulence that, by extreme good fortune, corrects the problem that caused the locked turn.The aircraft strikes the ground, with dire consequences to those aboard unless they are extremely lucky, or….It continues in the turn, which usually steepens into a spiral dive, until one of two things happens:
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The over-used and abused term spiraling out of control refers to a flight condition in which, because of damage or a malfunction, an aircraft is locked into a turn and the pilot is unable to level it. Top British pilot Brian Wood and his Waspair team-mate Australian Eric Short planned a coordinated display, both flying black CB-240s, at the World Championship competition at Kössen, Austria, in 1975… Wasp CB240 semi-cylindrical Rogallo hang glider of 1974-5 It could have been much worse.Home (contents) → Chronology → Hang gliding 1975 part 1 → Spiraling out of control Spiraling out of controlīrian Wood’s crash at the world hang gliding championship, Kössen, Austria, in 1975 "On the one hand, it's tragic and then, on the other hand, they were lucky. The president of the Swiss Hang Gliding Association has since described the tale as "horrifying." "This is such a basic mistake," Christian Boppart told Swiss news site The Local. He also tore his left bicep tendon from holding on as long as he did, he said.Īnd even though his first hang gliding trip was terrifying, he will hang glide again since he did not get to enjoy his first flight. He received a titanium plate and seven screws and was released from the hospital the next day, he said. He needed surgery on his wrist afterward. He's now getting interview requests from all over the world. In just a day, it's amassed more than a million views YouTube. Gursky posted the video of his ordeal on his YouTube channel, with the title "Swiss Mishap," when he got home. "When my feet hit I don't think I could've made it another five or six seconds. "I did look down and my first thought was, 'This beautiful and I'm gonna die," he continued. At one point I looked down and I said, 'I'm going to fall to my death. "Time stood still I was in survival mode.
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Gursky said time seemed to stop and all he could focus on was "not letting go." At one point, he's seen holding on by only one hand as the pilot holds onto Gursky's harness. Thousands of feet off the ground, he had to hold on for dear life. "My left hand gripped on to that bar and I wasn't letting go." Just before takeoff, Gursky is getting ready for takeoff and the pilot is heard saying, "Are you ready? Three-two-one-go! Run run run run run!" But within seconds, Gursky realizes the pilot never hooked his safety harness to the hang glider and begins holding onto the glider - and the pilot - for dear life as the pair soars 4,000 feet over the mountainside in Interlaken. But when it was Chris's turn, he said the pilot somehow forgot to strap him in. She went first and everything went as planned.