Today is a work day for us, since there’s no sun. I don’t usually use this blog to comment on things, rather as a diary and a way of describing and analysing our flying and flying decisions. However, we’ve started the accident season again and I have been contacted by various people for information and reassurance.

For those worried when they hear about accidents, I think it is worth pointing out that in my opinion, there is no such thing as a random flying accident. These days, paragliders are designed not to randomly collapse. And they don’t. They might collapse in very thermic conditions or when in rotor, but that’s not a design or equipment issue, that’s the pilot choosing to fly in conditions where a collapse can potentially happen. In nearly 15 years of flying hang gliders and paragliders, I know of NO accidents where the pilot wasn’t at fault (and I’ve seen/know of hundreds). It’s always the result of a decision (however small or innocuous) that a pilot made which lead to the resulting accident. Very often, that decision is preceded by hundreds of smaller decisions which compounded the problem or lead to over-confidence, or a feeling of invincibility in the pilot.

If someone tells you ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, it just happened’, then they either don’t know the cause or don’t want to admit to any fallibility on their part. Not knowing is very understandable … mostly accidents near the ground happen very fast, and, especially if it is serious, memories are often affected. However, being unwilling to analyse the cause of an accident I think is really dangerous. In a sport where attitude is everything, ignoring such vital safety information for your own flying and believing that random accidents can happen, is doing a disservice to yourself and other pilots.

I know why all my accidents happened: the first was due to complacency in not learning to land properly. I also thought that I was invincible and that I would keep getting away with it. My attitude was terrible. I was an accident waiting to happen. So I know what I did wrong and worked on that. My second accident could easily been written off as unlucky, wrong place for the wrong 30 seconds. But I was flying in Castejon de Sos, in August, with big CBs around. It doesn’t take a lot of wit to work out that in those conditions there would be a chance that the wind would be switchy in the landing field. But I chose to fly, accepting the risks. (The risks, of course, vary according to your experiences and skills – what is a more than acceptable risk for a highly experienced pilot, should be unacceptable for an inexperienced pilot).

In my view, accidents are most easily avoided by doing the following:

  • Check your equipment every time you fly. Equipment failure, things getting snagged and twisted, caught, pulled out, etc. is down to poor pre-flight checking. We’ve all been there and most of us have got away with it too many times.
  • Don’t take off in silly conditions. A paraglider may be able to fly in ‘peachy’ 25mph, but you are reducing your safety margins enormously. Similarly, fly a site in the right wind direction – otherwise there may well be rotor.
  • Think! If it’s thermic then that throws a whole different set of conditions into the day. Gullies will work differently, the terrain will kick off in different ways but it’s predictable, and can be coped with, if you know what you’re doing.
  • And finally, monitor your own actions all the time. I have had a few 360s recently when I have been a bit close to the hill; have flown to quarries where I got a kicking and should have known in advance it was a risky decision; not checked my equipment properly. I’m in a phase in my flying where it’s all going well, but I am at risk of a bit of over-confidence and complacency. A state to be guarded against at all times!

But remember it’s the pilot who is dangerous, not the gliders (in the same way that it is the motorcyle rider who causes the crashes, not the bike). There are always risks in flying, always will be. The risks will never be eliminated. Every pilot makes misjudgments at some point – both I and Geoff certainly have, and still do. But staying safe, and minimising the risk is a question of attitude, and we can all do something about that!

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