From: Bill Bailey
Activity_Date: 7/1/01
Remote Name: 12.44.115.28
Well I had the scariest flight that I have ever had yesterday at Pine. I thought I had it together as a pilot, but yesterday showed me what a babe in the woods I really am. I was the fourth one to launch in what were light cycles. It was coming over the back lightly from time to time. After launch I found little lift close to the launching site so tracked more or less straight out to collect the spine that runs down the mountain just to the right. If I could get over that, I probably could find lift, and get away. You have to fly quite a way west south west at that point as the spine is too high after launch to get over and on top of until you fly out some. I knew there was a little wind out of the west so I was a little cautious regarding rotor coming off that spine as I was on the leeward side.
I should have been more than just a little cautious. I got hit so hard. I had no warning, no bumps, nothing. I felt my canapé rock back. Then before a second had passed I had the most violent surge. Asymmetric I think, as I got rocked hard to one side. I could see the spine to the right in my periphery vision going up fast. I was falling. I couldn’t see anything else. I have heard that when people are at great risk they get tunnel vision. I don’t know if this was the case, but I really can’t remember seeing anything except the land to my right rising rapidly. I went for my reserve, but couldn’t see the handle, and suddenly, as fast as the first time, I got rocked and jerked really hard in the other direction. I thought I had run out of time. It was then I thought I'd had it. I thought I was going to impact even though I never looked down. I just kept seeing the spine to my right going up. I knew I was over the canyon but not the center part of it. My guess is that when all this started I had 200 to 300 ft agl. Then suddenly I was in a dive and the wing had become symmetric. I never looked up to see. I just kept looking ahead and flew.
It all happened so fast that I never even thought of looking up at my canapé. I think I applied a little break for the dive and kept going. I just wanted to be on the ground at that point. I was really scared. The first thing I thought of at that point was that I was glad Dylan wasn’t flying. Then I thought why do I do this? What about horse riding, what about golf? I knew the best thing was to keep flying that day. I remember when we were out at Crestline; Tom landed next to some poor guy that had crashed in some rather rough country, and assisted him until the chopper came, then carried the guy’s gear out as well as his own. Tom flew that same day again even thought he was tired, and it was getting late. He said flying after something like that takes the taste of tragedy out of his mouth. Sounded good to me. I thought about getting back on the horse after being bucked off. So I kept flying.
I worked that spine, got to 11,000 or so and flew for an hour. In that time I settled down but was still nervous as hell. The rest of the day was spent flying very cautiously. I landed on the north side of Pine without incident. Benson, Eddy, Crag, and a hangi landed in the same paddock shortly after. I was glad to get my feet on the ground. This took a little of the sass out of me. I’m going to be more cautious. I am also going to look at changing my reserve so that I can see the handle. I want it closer where I can see it with no worries. When it gets bad, it gets bad really fast. Hope this is useful.
Bill [bb_archive/_borders/disc1_aftr.htm]