paradangling, or 15 minutes in hell

[cortfly]

As most of you have probably already heard, I made a mistake yesterday which nearly ended my life. I launched Skyport with my harness completely unbuckled. Zero, nothing. I suddenly found myself over the middle of the canyon hanging by my arms hooked over the points where the carabiners attach to the harness. I searched for my stirrup, but couldn't get it. I tried several times to grab the carabiners and pull myself up but I couldn't quite get in and kept slipping back down By that time I was a thousand over and near the powerlines and I figured my best option was to hang on and try to fly it out. I still had the brakes and I could turn a little my bending my wrists.
Oddly, what I was afraid of more than falling was the thought of never seeing my children again, and I resolved that they were not going to get that phone call, that this was not going to end that way, period. That resolve filled my mind and pushed everything else out, and gave me strength.
But by the time I reached Parma, a few hundred over, hanging on had become difficult. I was breathing hard and shaking, and the pain was pretty intense. But failure was not an option, especially so close. I made a few slow turns to burn off altitude and just pointed at the LZ. Luck put me down right in the middle of it. I didn't have the strength to flare or run it out and slid in on my face. I went to get up and found that my arms didn't work, so I rolled on my side. I heard familiar voices around me asking if I was OK, but I couldn't answer. Someone took my gear off as I laid there. After a few minutes I managed to get up, and collapsed again. That's when the tears came, because of relief I was alive, but also because of the horror of what I had just nearly done.
How could this have happened ? I knew the sequence of events. I was geared up and was waiting in line to launch when I remembered something in my harness, and took it off to get to it. When I put it back on, the straps were hanging below my flight deck and hidden by it, and I failed to re-buckle, and didn't do a preflight check. How could I have done that ? I'd like to blame it on stupidity, but I know that's not the problem. Nor is a lack of experince. When I was talking to Lee, our resident commercial pilot, afterwards, he said that one of the biggest threats airline pilots have is complacency. Somewhere in my head I thought that after hundreds of flights, buckling in was so automatic that I couldn't forget to do it. What I learned yesterday is that I can forget, I did, and most important, given the chance, I will do it again I have to protect myself from myself. That means a full preflight check, every time I get into my equipment. And before I pull up, a final check that those buckles are done. Every time. I'm also going to start looking at the buckles of the other pilots on launch, especially those who should know better..
I want to thank everyone in the LZ for the support, compassion and understanding they gave me, and Robb for his calming and reassuring voice on the radio. I'm grateful to (still) be a part of our very special communitity.

[Randall]

First, let me say how relieved I am you made it through that experience okay. Reading your post just now is the first I have heard of it.

Second, I would like to add a bit of info that might be helpful to anyone who ever finds themselves in the same situation. I had read a while back that one way to get back into your harness is by swinging your legs up and over your head, then hooking them around the risers. At that point you simply slide back down into your seat and you are safe. This may sound easier said than done (and probably is) but I did practice it myself at the harness hook-up in the Marshall LZ a few years back, attaching my own harness and dangling from my armpits. It actually was not that hard to pull off and I was able to do it repeatedly and get back into the harness fairly easily. The sooner into your flight you can do it (before you get too tired), the better, of course.

I would highly recommend everyone try this and practice it repeatedly, so that it becomes as instinctual as possible. If you're out of shape or overweight, of course, it may not be practical. But give it a shot anyway.

Again, glad you're still with us!

Randall

[timobarker]

Thank you for sharing that Cort! I'm sure my introspection and feeling of fear while reading your post is no where near what you dealt and are dealing with. I for one read and heard your call for safety checks. When we climb and attach to each other on a rope, we double check our work. It's not a bad idea to do with fellow pilots. I'm in.

My only additional comment is that I hope everybody reads your post and thinks, "this could be me." To ignore the obvious "that accidents happen to us all" and "we are all susceptible to error" is to place yourself on a perilous pedestal from which to fall.

I read your post and realized that, it could have been me. I need to be more careful and I need to always double check both my gear and my mental state before committing to the air.

I'm grateful that you're okay Cort. I'm also grateful for this moment of reflection. As a community we dodged a bullet.

[Cormac]

Thanks for the recap Cort. I must admit the few of us left on launch watched in horror when we realized what was happening. Im so glad you are ok buddy!!! I totally agree like in other sports we should be double and triple checking each other as much as possible. Hopefully this will stick with us for a while as a close to home reminder...

[Aaron]

Cort! We love you mahn! thanks for being your usual bad ass self and hanging on!!!

[pengoquin]

I am just so grateful that this turned out as it did, with you writting about it and not some one else. Kudos to you for having the strength to persever, getting yourself down safely and to Rob for keeping your head in the game with his calm radio support.

[sbkiter]

Cort, thank you for posting this.
As others have already said, we are all so happy you made it down safely and are with us to talk about the experience. Happy we will fly again together my friend.
-Jon

[JimmyZ]

Wow Cort.... Unbelievable strength and endurance among potentially fatal circumstances. I am soooooo happy that you were able to persevere through what probably seemed like hours in the air thinking about life.

Thank you for sharing. A lesson learned by everyone reading this to keep the fundamentals regardless of experience. Glad you are alive and safe buddy....

[NMERider]

removed by author

[Ramey]

I'm curious about one thing.

Why didn't you bail into the postage stamp or some other local bushes ASAP rather than hanging on all the way to Parma?

Robert Ramey

[skyoutgirl]

This will be a topic of discussion in SB for a long time, and we get to gain so much from it.

Last preflight right before pulling up, watching out for each other and making sure that we not only block out distractions while we are doing our preflight, but also making sure we don't call someone's attention when they are in the middle of their procedure. Once we are laid out on launch, it's all business and no one should distract us from then on. It's okay to ignore your friends, they will understand!

We love you Cort, you are such a strong pinnacle in our community and we look forward for it being that way for many many years.

-michi

[sd]

Reminds me of one of my many blunder's. We had taken a Burban full of pilots up to Walt's Point in the Owens Valley. I was doing a line check for one of the students by building and wall and opted to pull up back from the edge. A cycle came through and lifted me off. Not strapped in, no helmet or jacket. I'm sure the students were wondering what to do at an intimidating site they had never flown after their instructor made an unintended departure, abandoning them without guidance.

No log entry, but I'm sure a few of the pilots can recall the incident. I think it was likely the weekend I flew Tandem with Ron Faoro up to the outskirts of Bishop. He had one of those new fangled 1.3 Mega Pixel Digital Cameras. I was so impressed at the quality of the photos and the ability to view them on a computer that I was inspired to purchase one.

And recollecting tales of the Spin Doctor's early years. His launch from the Nuthouse hooked in backwards would have been comical if it wasn't so uncontrollably scary that he had to deploy.

Randall's input sounds like worthy wisdom.

[cortfly]

Thanks everyone for all the supportive comments and suggestions. In response to some of the questions:

Why didn't I turn back into the hill or bail to the snakepit ? The terrain around and immediately below launch is extremely steep, all rocks, daggers and cliffs, and I had very limited ability to turn, much less pull off a crazy side hill, and immediately decided not to try. My initial thought was to try to get into my harness, which would have been the best solution by far. I tried finding my stirrup, pulling myself up into the seat, even flipping my legs up and hooking the risers. None of those were successful, and I was expending a lot of energy trying and my arms and upper body muscles were already starting to fatigue. I felt my best, and maybe only option, was to conserve my energy and try to fly it out and land anywhere ASAP. I was about over the powerlines at that point, a few minutes in. Unfortunately the day was unusually buoyant. Robb told me later that as I glided out I just kept going up. I was precariously suspended by my arms, a thousand feet over the pit , in the middle of the canyon, not close to anything. The clock was ticking, because I knew I couldn't do this too long. The problem was that I was just way high, and couldn't do anything like spiral or pull big ears to get down. St. Marys was closest, and I headed there first, flying down the middle of the canyon to avoid lift. I was descending, but slowly, and I was still a thousand over St. Marys as I got near. I had to keep flying , and headed to Parma. I was still a few hundred over even there. I successfully initiated a sort of spiral, but by then I was really, really tired and the increased G's almost made me lose my grip, so I quickly stopped doing that and just did slow turns to get down which, fortunately, worked.
As suggested, I plan to go hook into the simulator at Elings, unbuckled, and see if I can figure out how I could have gotten back in, or at least supported myself better. I think that would probably be a worthwhile exercise for every pilot, god forbid you ever find yourself in that situation. Obviously the best thing to do is a compulsive preflight check, so you never have to try any of that.