I’ve never flown a hang glider, but I’m a (retired) fixed-wing pilot and instructor, so I’ll comment on skills common to both endeavors. You showed excellent command throughout, and never stopped flying the aircraft for even a moment. I was expecting to see a rough landing, but you set down so lightly that a horned toad underfoot would have hopped away unbruised. Well done!
@@bugrocks Luck? Yah, mebbe, but you're clearly not a novice pilot. You can take some credit for not getting injured or even breaking your kite in what could have seriously been dicey.
Crazy & scary... yes. Horrific? No, you kept flying the glider, touched down gently and immediately turned your attention to keeping the airframe grounded. Great job Sue.
@@bugrocks Pretty unpleasant situation...Peeeef. Turning downwind would have been call for accident. In strong wind situations I mostly land 2 hands on basebar or only one hand on upright to keep more controllability of the glider - no pushout in strong windy conditions is needed anyway. Also, if you are are in such situations, watch out for spins in turbulent conditions or stall due to major wind gradiend near ground. (pronounced by landing behind obstacles like trees.) Energy and a bit more speed = safety and controllability.
@@bugrocks the risk to get turned around was definitely there. Keep your shoulders low and both hands on the bar and fly it to the ground as Petr suggests. The only way to get safely through the lower layer, which might indeed have a strong wind gradient, is to fly fast. This will keep you much more in control. Kudos on remaining focused and active and not panicking. Wish you lots of nice flights!
@@bugrocks after watching the video I was thinking of saying exactly what Sue said but she beat me to it! Great effort mate and given the same conditions near the ground I very much doubt anyone else could have done a better job! And the added bonus that you get to fly another day! Cheers
Glad you survived to fly another day. Just a little tip you might want to consider,is to keep your feet crossed until you are just about ready to touch down. This will keep your control movements a bit more effective, without the inertial swings of your legs countering your inputs. I could almost feel your adrenalin pumping as I watched this . Thanks for posting so that others can learn from this. Stay safe and fly far.
We've all been in unplanned and hairy situations as free flyers, but you demonstrated excellent situational awareness, dynamic risk assessment and were clearly thinking all the way down to the ground. Your reasoning was clear to me in the conditions. No panic despite being afraid. Great job and good skills. Thanks for sharing a hairy situation with lots of valuable lessons, no the least being 'never stop problem solving'. Fly safe.
That was the scariest successful landing I have ever seen on YT. Great job to keep flying the glider all the way down though it worked you hard! Hope you can avoid such nasty conditions in the future.
You did well, I know how that feels. I started flying hang gliders in 1976 but haven't flown hang glider in years, my local go to flying site often had valley winds like that in the late afternoon or evening as the cooler mountain air from the shaded side of the mountains would spill into the valley and mix with the warmer valley air. This would create lifting air over the whole valley that was actually very hard to desend through if you wanted to land,,,,,, but you really didn't want to land because the air below 1,000 ft was strong and trashy, much like I'm seeing in this video. I still have nighmarish memories of watching below as the leaves and branches were being ripped off the trees by the wind next to the landing field where I was attempting to land. Fortunately I managed to survive every landing in much the same way you did by handling it all the way to the ground and keeping the glider pointed into the wind. 👍
Wow, that bought back some exceptionally fun hang gliding memories from the Ownens - thanks. Looks like you had a decent bit of valley wind which can be a bit of a saver for a dodgy landing.
Perfect landing. You kept control until grounded. But my only tip it's not about landing. The scariest about Owens or other flying places with strong thermal conditions it's to decide to land in the middle of the day. Bring plenty of water, energy drink, energy bars and Keep flying until almost sunset ! For me (not knowing) the reason the "error" was to decide landing clearly still in the middle of the day. For flying these type of places you should be mentally and physically be prepared for flying 4, 6..plus hours Cheers. and thanks for the video !
For those that don't understand the difference between ground speed and airspeed this video should clear things up. The wing doesn't care whether you're moving across the ground or not.
I've logged over 100 flights and haven't had this much chop near landing. The most challenging was a socked in bluff LZ about 50 yards from a freeway. I listened for traffic, counted 3 seconds to clear it, and got it down safe.
Nice job! Did not look like fun (understatement). You know the old saying, I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air than in the air wishing I was on the ground.
You flew really well in horrible conditions, so well done you have good aircraft control. I've had the same experience and the take away for me was not putting myself into that kind of air in the first place. There is always an element of luck combined with skill in pulling off a landing like that and you can't count on the luck which is why we see so many highly skilled and experienced pilots having accidents. You should watch this video and be proud of how you kept your cool and flew the aircraft, but I suspect you will also keep this in the back of your mind when you are studying the forecasts and deciding whether to fly or not. Fly Safe.
That was seriously turbulent my friend. Well done for keeping control. I had two flights similar to that over 10 years of flying, both times I was so relieved once I got my feet back on the ground. The weather can do some extraordinary things at times. Bit there is nothing that compares to flying a hang glider in life. Keep it up
Holy cow!! How many times did the glider actually fly backwards? Thanks for sharing your experiences. You are an excellent pilot for being able to handle such big air!
please, read the technical documentation of your hangglider. you will find out, that you shall not take off when the wind is over 12 m/s. in your case the wind is blowing way over that value, at least two to three times over 12 m/s. you landed perfectly in such circumstances. i know some people who survived such situations and also some who did not. cheers brother! am glad you are ok.
I'm a lady ☺️. We misread conditions before we launched. Wasn't windy at launch but there was rotor as wind on top of the mountain was blowing down and wind gusts picked up subsequently after
@@bugrocks I apologize for misinterpreting your personal characteristics. you fought the forces of nature decisively and admirably in the given situation. although unnecessarily ;)
Horrific? More like incredible. That is a hell of a pilot right there. Way to overcome a malfunction and land that glider like a stud! That was not that persons first flight. Excellent job.
@@bon3s994 Not really, I'm only a H2 rated pilot. 57 flights so far. But as a beginner, I can appreciate how tough it is to battle that high wind on the ground. It could have easily blown her over backwards but she did great.
I looked better, could it be the rotors and downwind turbulence generated by the mountain ahead? didn't you think of landing further from the mountain?
I believe most do better than 12 to 1, often 15 and some of the rigid wing hang gliders are up at 20+. When I learned on Rogallos a VERY long time ago, people talked about 5 or 6 to 1 and looked at any machine that could do 7 as the Holy Grail of gliding.
@travelbugse2829 15:1 is pretty impressive for this kind of ship. 20:1 is VERY impressive. I learned to soar in a "pregnant whale" Schweizer (2-22) with an L/D of 22:1. But it sure could climb. Ended up in a modified Libelle H301 (40:1 due to the L.E. re-profile).
@@pilot3016 Thanks for that! I believe latest gen conventional gliders with near-impossible aspect ratio wings (probably due to carbon fibre) are reaching nearly thee times L/D that of your Schweizer. It is amazing but takes the sport out of the financial reach of the average flier IMO. I did do a bit of gliding before my job took me elsewhere and made a few flights in a Slingsby T21. No idea what its data was but it thermalled very easily! I found h/gs much cheaper.
Nope, but glad you’re safe. Kept seeing some sort of blue insect human stunt foolishly gone wrong but then you pulled it off perfectly - obviously this is totally new to me - I’m amazed.
Looked pretty good to me. I landed my Mooney once at Mammoth were I had it almost to full power and landed almost like a helicopter. The winds were aligned with the runway. Had a few times with a crosswind there where I had to do everything to keep it on the ground and then a quick pull up to keep it from skidding off the runway. Good times.
Turbtastic 🙂!!!, my hands started sweating half way through the video 😞!!!, good landing given the conditions 🙂!!!, reminds me of the good old 80's when we didn't have weather forecasts so we would launch if it was launch-able and then only find out if it was soar-able, or even fly-able, once we were in the air. They say the La Nina of the last two years is over, maybe we'll have better flying weather in '23, if the snow ever melts !!!
That looked horrible. Well done though, that was some excellent handling skills. Didn't look like it got much easier when you got it on the ground either!
Looks like lots of turbulence from the hill in front m I’m guessing you wanted to land on the road and seems the wind direction was lined up with the road thus the hill in front was most likely creating turbulence.
La nube estaba avanzanfo subcionando hacia arriba fijate como al final ya estas debajo se ve la sombra avanzar ,el problema que yo veo no es el viento al frente sino la tremenda termica que te estaba tirando hacia arriba yo hubiero subido y me iria aterrizar a otro lado, de todas maneras a luchado como un campeon y la libraste colega
If I do remember cirrectly, this is the so called post stamp landing field. After surviving a landing there, it is called the fucking post stamp landing fiel d by every pilot ever tried. Ralf Mueller, Taratulas
I would suggest some forearm exercises to increase your grip strength. It appeared as though you were having difficulty maintaining grip (understandably) but loss of grip means loss of control. Experience is the sum of our mistakes. Congratulations on gaining more experience.
Great to see you were able to land safely. My third flight in OV in summer 1995 in my HP AT-158 winds and turbulence picked up after launch from Walt's Point. As I crossed from Tinamaha to the White Mountains every ten seconds would be five seconds tossed around followed by five seconds strugling for control. I found myself smack on top of Bishop Airport, pulling in hard and descending virtically right onto where the landing strips cross. I know exactly what you were thinking as you touched by the side of the road, how are you going to get control of this glider so it doesn't take off uncontrollably with or without you. I managed to muscle mine in behind a hangar and out of the wind, you must have had one hell of a fight getting that glider on the road and turned around.
lucky lucky ,nice job flying it all the way to the ground. I would have stayed prone longer and flown way faster than best glide in the last 100 feet. The less time you spend the lower probability you find the rotor. Never want to fly the Owens in wind after elevator landing like that in Montgomery pass at the casino back in '81. badly bent basebar trying to hold the glider down on rocks.
I've watched videos of a woman who flies smooth coastal winds and she always crosses her ankles. But this is some ROWDY winds, not sure if you could do that. But if you did cross ankles just before the last 50 feet of landing it might have stopped some of that side to side thrashing.
Wouldn't you have gone better as far downwind as possible, away from the mountain in front of you, before turning into final to eliminate as much as possible the turbulence that mountain was creating?
yes the other pilots did that. i was loosing altitude fast as i was still trying to catch a thermal and in the end i choose to land on a dirt road but couldn't control my direction very well. i didn't realize what was going on in time to get away from the mountain.
wow..good job getting your glider down..this is very dangerous air...the owens is noted for it..cant say this looked like fun..more like a nightmare..I donno....just wow
That ain’t nothing. You probably could have had a faster approach with a turbulent wind gradient like that. To do so drop a wing on a down wind leg to initiate a diving turn to build energy just above the wind gradient so you have adequate speed and momentum to cut through the rock and roll turbulence and actually be flying forward through that headwind and don’t change your hand position until your feet are on the ground. I once had a floater landing like yours among a cluster of boulders, on a rocky ridge during the King Mnt meet in Idaho. Wish I had a camera to capture it.
I was pulled in as much as possible but had a very hard time with direction control and didn't wanna risk turning down wind since I would have been swept away and may not be able to turn back around. I had a lot of fatigue set in
Despite what some dudes have said, I think you did great. Good hand positioning (one hand on the upright the other on the base bar) and you flew the glider all the way till touch down (and after) ;) Would have loved to see the video of you getting unclipped and the glider turned or laid down. 😅😉
![[POV Cockpit Landing] Boeing 737 at Amsterdam Schiphol | RNP Runway 18R | full audio | Vliegpiet](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/efmw3sFfJpk/mqdefault.jpg)
I’ve never flown a hang glider, but I’m a (retired) fixed-wing pilot and instructor, so I’ll comment on skills common to both endeavors. You showed excellent command throughout, and never stopped flying the aircraft for even a moment. I was expecting to see a rough landing, but you set down so lightly that a horned toad underfoot would have hopped away unbruised. Well done!
thank you! i feel luck had a lot to do with the touchdown as the air was cycling up and down a lot due to the rotor over the Sierras
Ditto
@@bugrocks Luck? Yah, mebbe, but you're clearly not a novice pilot. You can take some credit for not getting injured or even breaking your kite in what could have seriously been dicey.
Crazy & scary... yes. Horrific? No, you kept flying the glider, touched down gently and immediately turned your attention to keeping the airframe grounded. Great job Sue.
thanks! but it was scary in that i could have been turned downwind close to the ground from turbulence
@@bugrocks Pretty unpleasant situation...Peeeef.
Turning downwind would have been call for accident. In strong wind situations I mostly land 2 hands on basebar or only one hand on upright to keep more controllability of the glider - no pushout in strong windy conditions is needed anyway.
Also, if you are are in such situations, watch out for spins in turbulent conditions or stall due to major wind gradiend near ground. (pronounced by landing behind obstacles like trees.) Energy and a bit more speed = safety and controllability.
@@bugrocks the risk to get turned around was definitely there. Keep your shoulders low and both hands on the bar and fly it to the ground as Petr suggests. The only way to get safely through the lower layer, which might indeed have a strong wind gradient, is to fly fast. This will keep you much more in control. Kudos on remaining focused and active and not panicking. Wish you lots of nice flights!
@@bugrocks after watching the video I was thinking of saying exactly what Sue said but she beat me to it! Great effort mate and given the same conditions near the ground I very much doubt anyone else could have done a better job! And the added bonus that you get to fly another day! Cheers
I don't know... Some of those plants look pretty spiky!😮
Glad you survived to fly another day. Just a little tip you might want to consider,is to keep your feet crossed until you are just about ready to touch down. This will keep your control
movements a bit more effective, without the inertial swings of your legs countering your inputs.
I could almost feel your adrenalin pumping as I watched this . Thanks for posting so that others can learn from this. Stay safe and fly far.
thank you!
I think I'd have been kissing the ground after that one. You definitely have some skills. Glad you pulled it off.
Thank you! 👍
We've all been in unplanned and hairy situations as free flyers, but you demonstrated excellent situational awareness, dynamic risk assessment and were clearly thinking all the way down to the ground. Your reasoning was clear to me in the conditions. No panic despite being afraid. Great job and good skills. Thanks for sharing a hairy situation with lots of valuable lessons, no the least being 'never stop problem solving'. Fly safe.
thank you very much!
That was the scariest successful landing I have ever seen on YT. Great job to keep flying the glider all the way down though it worked you hard! Hope you can avoid such nasty conditions in the future.
after landing it was even scarier.
Brings to mind the old saying, "It's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than vice-versa..."
You did well, I know how that feels. I started flying hang gliders in 1976 but haven't flown hang glider in years, my local go to flying site often had valley winds like that in the late afternoon or evening as the cooler mountain air from the shaded side of the mountains would spill into the valley and mix with the warmer valley air. This would create lifting air over the whole valley that was actually very hard to desend through if you wanted to land,,,,,, but you really didn't want to land because the air below 1,000 ft was strong and trashy, much like I'm seeing in this video. I still have nighmarish memories of watching below as the leaves and branches were being ripped off the trees by the wind next to the landing field where I was attempting to land. Fortunately I managed to survive every landing in much the same way you did by handling it all the way to the ground and keeping the glider pointed into the wind. 👍
Not horrific. Click bait title so I skipped to the end. Definitely a brown trouser job though. Pilot did extremely well in those conditions.
Wow, that bought back some exceptionally fun hang gliding memories from the Ownens - thanks. Looks like you had a decent bit of valley wind which can be a bit of a saver for a dodgy landing.
Probably got on the uprights a little early but in the end you saved it. Bet you needed a cold drink after that.
Wow, glad you're ok, and thanks for reminding me why I stopped flying The Owens
Perfect landing. You kept control until grounded. But my only tip it's not about landing. The scariest about Owens or other flying places with strong thermal conditions it's to decide to land in the middle of the day. Bring plenty of water, energy drink, energy bars and Keep flying until almost sunset ! For me (not knowing) the reason the "error" was to decide landing clearly still in the middle of the day. For flying these type of places you should be mentally and physically be prepared for flying 4, 6..plus hours Cheers. and thanks for the video !
Well done! It's hard to appreciate from us watching the video how scary that must have been.
Thank you! Yes it was definitely a do or die situation and i was getting super tired.
For those that don't understand the difference between ground speed and airspeed this video should clear things up.
The wing doesn't care whether you're moving across the ground or not.
I've logged over 100 flights and haven't had this much chop near landing. The most challenging was a socked in bluff LZ about 50 yards from a freeway. I listened for traffic, counted 3 seconds to clear it, and got it down safe.
Nice job! Did not look like fun (understatement). You know the old saying, I'd rather be on the ground wishing I was in the air than in the air wishing I was on the ground.
Thank you!! That was totally that situation
You flew really well in horrible conditions, so well done you have good aircraft control. I've had the same experience and the take away for me was not putting myself into that kind of air in the first place. There is always an element of luck combined with skill in pulling off a landing like that and you can't count on the luck which is why we see so many highly skilled and experienced pilots having accidents. You should watch this video and be proud of how you kept your cool and flew the aircraft, but I suspect you will also keep this in the back of your mind when you are studying the forecasts and deciding whether to fly or not. Fly Safe.
thanks! it was a bad day to go flying . we made a mistake
That was seriously turbulent my friend. Well done for keeping control. I had two flights similar to that over 10 years of flying, both times I was so relieved once I got my feet back on the ground. The weather can do some extraordinary things at times. Bit there is nothing that compares to flying a hang glider in life. Keep it up
Wow that was quite the BATTLE ! Good thing you stayed pointed straight to the flow. I had to check my shorts after seeing this !
haha thank you!
Holy cow!! How many times did the glider actually fly backwards? Thanks for sharing your experiences. You are an excellent pilot for being able to handle such big air!
thanks! i've made my fair share of mistakes. i was cycling going backwards and forwards and dropping and lifting again. crazy wind!
please, read the technical documentation of your hangglider. you will find out, that you shall not take off when the wind is over 12 m/s. in your case the wind is blowing way over that value, at least two to three times over 12 m/s. you landed perfectly in such circumstances. i know some people who survived such situations and also some who did not. cheers brother! am glad you are ok.
I'm a lady ☺️. We misread conditions before we launched. Wasn't windy at launch but there was rotor as wind on top of the mountain was blowing down and wind gusts picked up subsequently after
@@bugrocks I apologize for misinterpreting your personal characteristics. you fought the forces of nature decisively and admirably in the given situation. although unnecessarily ;)
The word horrific borders on click bait, however, I didn't appreciate how much effort goes into flying one of those.
Good job! When it looks scary on video it's horrible in real life!
thanks! yes it was horrible. i was getting really fatigued but had to keep fighting the turbulence
I can't tell you how proud and glad I am about this landing, Sue. You handled it perfectly! Well done 👍
Thank you very much! It was the most horrific landing i've ever had. Respect the Owens comes to mind! haha
As someone who doesnt have any experience or knowledge about hang gliding, this didnt look bad at all. Can someone explain it to me?
Horrific? More like incredible. That is a hell of a pilot right there. Way to overcome a malfunction and land that glider like a stud! That was not that persons first flight. Excellent job.
Amazing landing! Great ground control! All kinds of LZ opportunities though. Not a HUGE deal at all compared to most. Keep up the great practices.
Thank you! It definitely wasn't my first choice for landing but I got stuck in a heavy, turbulent wind flow.
You sound like you have alot of experience in aviation....
@@bon3s994 Not really, I'm only a H2 rated pilot. 57 flights so far. But as a beginner, I can appreciate how tough it is to battle that high wind on the ground. It could have easily blown her over backwards but she did great.
That looked horrendous. Well done on making it down in one piece!
I few the Owens in 78-79 had many days like that . Brings back memories yikes!!!
I looked better, could it be the rotors and downwind turbulence generated by the mountain ahead? didn't you think of landing further from the mountain?
Wow. That was crazy! So how do you anchor it to the ground once you land?
it was very difficult. i had to hold onto the nose for awhile.
Dayum!!! Way to hang in there and make it happen. - Tracy
thank you!! i was getting really tired!
Always wondered.. what is the "typical" best L/D (Glide ratio) of several types of hang gliders?
I believe most do better than 12 to 1, often 15 and some of the rigid wing hang gliders are up at 20+. When I learned on Rogallos a VERY long time ago, people talked about 5 or 6 to 1 and looked at any machine that could do 7 as the Holy Grail of gliding.
@travelbugse2829 15:1 is pretty impressive for this kind of ship. 20:1 is VERY impressive. I learned to soar in a "pregnant whale" Schweizer (2-22) with an L/D of 22:1. But it sure could climb. Ended up in a modified Libelle H301 (40:1 due to the L.E. re-profile).
@@pilot3016 Thanks for that! I believe latest gen conventional gliders with near-impossible aspect ratio wings (probably due to carbon fibre) are reaching nearly thee times L/D that of your Schweizer. It is amazing but takes the sport out of the financial reach of the average flier IMO. I did do a bit of gliding before my job took me elsewhere and made a few flights in a Slingsby T21. No idea what its data was but it thermalled very easily! I found h/gs much cheaper.
What got to me is how difficult it was to lose altitude. You could have flown all day long. Was it cross winds at the bottom that was the problem?
it was blowing over the Sierras and causing dangerous rotors.
Nope, but glad you’re safe.
Kept seeing some sort of blue insect human stunt foolishly gone wrong but then you pulled it off perfectly - obviously this is totally new to me - I’m amazed.
thank you!
Wow, terrific job! I cannot imagine how scary that must have been. Very impressive.
I'll probably give this kind of thing a miss ... Great job by the pilot on dealing with a VERY challenging landing though.
Looked pretty good to me. I landed my Mooney once at Mammoth were I had it almost to full power and landed almost like a helicopter. The winds were aligned with the runway. Had a few times with a crosswind there where I had to do everything to keep it on the ground and then a quick pull up to keep it from skidding off the runway. Good times.
Man, my heart was in my mouth but I think you really did a great job .
You did a fantastic job, my stomach was churning all through the video. A perfect example of rather be on the ground looking up and wishing......
so true! thank you
The moment you realize you're not a bird. And that ain't bird poop in your pants.
Don't understand why the pilot continually removes right hand, jumping around a lot doesn't look safe way to hold on.
I was flying that with you and never even flew one! Looked like fun!
Not surprised you took a breather after that! Well done.
Very good control considering the terrible conditions.
That wasn't horrific. That was a skilled landing in some really tough conditions. I thought you were going to collapse into those rocks!
Sh1t the bed, that looked rough and scary, Sue! Well done.
Wind so fast turned his glider into parachute
Great job in exceptionally tricky conditions!
Turbtastic 🙂!!!, my hands started sweating half way through the video 😞!!!, good landing given the conditions 🙂!!!, reminds me of the good old 80's when we didn't have weather forecasts so we would launch if it was launch-able and then only find out if it was soar-able, or even fly-able, once we were in the air.
They say the La Nina of the last two years is over, maybe we'll have better flying weather in '23, if the snow ever melts !!!
i had nice snow flights this year :)
You had that well under control , should use that build your confidence and congratulate yourself and deservedly so . Well done fear is your friend .
Excellent job landing that glider! Great control, excellent landing!
thank you!
Great job BR7! How's your forehead doing after Sunday 's landing? I think we should both schedule an afternoon at the training hill.
that was a while ago but yes i've done a few training hill sessions since then.
@@bugrocks I'm overdue. I will call Tim and schedule it.
Wow, it was like you just hovered and put your foot out to stand on the ground. Well done!
Wow good job scary turbulence.
Glad my tandem flight from Walt's Point wasn't on that day.
That looks like quite a rodeo but you did great!!
When does the horrific kick in?
thats how i feel kayaking in 6 mph winds...
That was an awesome landing. Totally greased it even though you had to fly it all the way to the ground. Love your work
thank you!!
That looked horrible. Well done though, that was some excellent handling skills. Didn't look like it got much easier when you got it on the ground either!
All things considered, that was a great landing! I would’ve ground looped for sure!
thanks!
Looks like lots of turbulence from the hill in front m I’m guessing you wanted to land on the road and seems the wind direction was lined up with the road thus the hill in front was most likely creating turbulence.
La nube estaba avanzanfo subcionando hacia arriba fijate como al final ya estas debajo se ve la sombra avanzar ,el problema que yo veo no es el viento al frente sino la tremenda termica que te estaba tirando hacia arriba yo hubiero subido y me iria aterrizar a otro lado, de todas maneras a luchado como un campeon y la libraste colega
If I do remember cirrectly, this is the so called post stamp landing field. After surviving a landing there, it is called the fucking post stamp landing fiel d by every pilot ever tried. Ralf Mueller, Taratulas
I would suggest some forearm exercises to increase your grip strength. It appeared as though you were having difficulty maintaining grip (understandably) but loss of grip means loss of control.
Experience is the sum of our mistakes. Congratulations on gaining more experience.
Now comes the hard part - breaking down the glider in all that wind.
turning the glider around was difficult!
I'm just learning to hang glide, but that experience has made me think I might need to re-evaluate!
no! you should totally learn! that day was extreme conditions
Wow, just wow. Never a dull moment.
haha yea the Owen's valley can be treacherous or rewarding.
Wow... well I hope that if you ever have any more horrible landings, they're as gentle as that one was.
That landing made my butt cheeks cramp up. Great job staying cool and in control!
What happens if that string brakes? should be 2 I think
Great to see you were able to land safely. My third flight in OV in summer 1995 in my HP AT-158 winds and turbulence picked up after launch from Walt's Point. As I crossed from Tinamaha to the White Mountains every ten seconds would be five seconds tossed around followed by five seconds strugling for control. I found myself smack on top of Bishop Airport, pulling in hard and descending virtically right onto where the landing strips cross. I know exactly what you were thinking as you touched by the side of the road, how are you going to get control of this glider so it doesn't take off uncontrollably with or without you. I managed to muscle mine in behind a hangar and out of the wind, you must have had one hell of a fight getting that glider on the road and turned around.
wow! that's an amazing story! you still made it far with all that turbulence!
With that kind of wind, best land on base bar and only bring legs out last moments
lucky lucky ,nice job flying it all the way to the ground. I would have stayed prone longer and flown way faster than best glide in the last 100 feet. The less time you spend the lower probability you find the rotor. Never want to fly the Owens in wind after elevator landing like that in Montgomery pass at the casino back in '81. badly bent basebar trying to hold the glider down on rocks.
I've watched videos of a woman who flies smooth coastal winds and she always crosses her ankles. But this is some ROWDY winds, not sure if you could do that. But if you did cross ankles just before the last 50 feet of landing it might have stopped some of that side to side thrashing.
There are times when you wish you were on the ground and not want to be anywhere near the ground both at the same time.
haha so true!
Smart choice aiming to land in a shaded region
The fact that people even do this sport isnjust stupid.
Wait what? Launched in west rotor from Walt’s? Interesting decision. Mybe you will find better launch times? I hope
yes it was a bad decision
Bloody well done
Was twitching all the way through this …
thanks!
Wouldn't you have gone better as far downwind as possible, away from the mountain in front of you, before turning into final to eliminate as much as possible the turbulence that mountain was creating?
yes the other pilots did that. i was loosing altitude fast as i was still trying to catch a thermal and in the end i choose to land on a dirt road but couldn't control my direction very well. i didn't realize what was going on in time to get away from the mountain.
Not even hang gliding at that point - just literally hanging on.
wow..good job getting your glider down..this is very dangerous air...the owens is noted for it..cant say this looked like fun..more like a nightmare..I donno....just wow
The guy in the sleeping bag seems to be doing all the work.
I'd rather be the fellow in the back with the camera.
LOL
Bloody good job! Respect. I think I would have got off and walked lol.
That looked like fun..........NOT! well done, I bet you were glad to touch the ground.
Still a Smooth landing for these conditions.. well done
oh the relief ! Bloody well done keeping your head , UK flight instructor , ..
Nice landing in those extremely windy conditions! Well done!
Great landing! Skills A+!
bad conditions, fantastic performance. Thumb up.
That ain’t nothing. You probably could have had a faster approach with a turbulent wind gradient like that. To do so drop a wing on a down wind leg to initiate a diving turn to build energy just above the wind gradient so you have adequate speed and momentum to cut through the rock and roll turbulence and actually be flying forward through that headwind and don’t change your hand position until your feet are on the ground. I once had a floater landing like yours among a cluster of boulders, on a rocky ridge during the King Mnt meet in Idaho. Wish I had a camera to capture it.
I was pulled in as much as possible but had a very hard time with direction control and didn't wanna risk turning down wind since I would have been swept away and may not be able to turn back around. I had a lot of fatigue set in
Despite what some dudes have said, I think you did great. Good hand positioning (one hand on the upright the other on the base bar) and you flew the glider all the way till touch down (and after) ;) Would have loved to see the video of you getting unclipped and the glider turned or laid down. 😅😉
Thanks! I did the best I could. I do have that video. Was really hard to turn the glider around
No broken arm, not even a bent downtube.. very turbulent. But a gentle helicopter landing means not horrific.
wuaaoo!! 👍👍👍nice landing in strong wind!😍
Dang. I thought the landing looked ok. Everything else looked scary.
Great job Sue!
thanks Tavo!
That was gnarly!!! Good job getting it down.
thank you!! one of the scariest moments of my life
Is this called a tail drag-er ?