Extreme turbulence in flight, glider almost flipped over!

[@hubbatubey]

That was nuts! Glad you had room to recover. Thanks for posting. 😳

[@oneskydog4401]

I was flying near Ceader City in 1989 and hit turbulence that broke my glider, then my parachute (hand deployed) was fouled by the spinning glider before it opened. Crashed into trees on the side of the mountain. Trees and glider took most of the impact and I got up and walked away. If the glider is not weighted you have no control of what it will do.

[@IWLDELJ]

Scary shit, seemingly well handled. Glad it wasn't any worse!

[@designbydave]

Holy F brother! This is like 95% of what happened to Wolfi! Glad you were able to recover. Parachutes repacked lately? Practiced deploying them? Do you have two parachutes?

[@sohamhanggliding]

Dave, funny you say 95% because SteveP said 60%. Either way, in the moment it didn't feel as bad as it looks, because it happened in two seconds. Chute repack will be soon, as my new harness is on the way. Will practice deployment before the repack. Two chutes doesn't seem to be worth it since I don't fly comps or rowdy desert conditions as often.

[@webrambler88]

What happened to him? I haven't heard about him lately. I hope he is fine.

[@biblebeliever1085]

That hanglider models nice! What is the name of your model hangglider, equipments, and do you know any websites that sell Hangliders? Been saving up for one so that I can try it out. Thanks.

[@mermaid10x]

Back in the eighties used to fly a up condor and a comet in some pretty turbulent lift so I can totally identify with your experience. Sail inversions are no fun and being booted out of a thermal so violently that the glider free falls for a second really hammers home how insignificant we are compared to the forces of nature. Ridiculous as it seems the higher up I was the worse the turbulence felt. Lol. I rode my motorcycle through the lake abert area two summers ago and was really eyeballing the hills around there as potential hang gliding sites. Crazy 60 k crosswinds as we rode the desert to the next town. That lake and scenery looks like a different planet. I think Oregon is a very interesting and diverse state with lots of motorcycling opportunities not to mention flying.

[@PhilippeLarcher]

"Ridiculous as it seems the higher up I was the worse the turbulence felt." Thermals need height to catch up speed, and turbulence increase with height; at least that's what I've been teached

[@malibu188]

Most manufacturers recommend against inverted flight. Glad to see it worked out OK.

[@ericoschmitt]

But still the gliders are made to hold at least 3G negative loading with maximum clip in weight, so it takes a lot more to break a kingposted glider. The pilot would loose grip before, thats the worst possibility.

[@malibu188]

Érico Schmitt Yes the gliders are designed and certified to take high inverted flight loads also the wings built in dive recover should be capable of recovering the correct flight attitude with sufficient altitude. The wings flight recovery can be complicated if the pilot looses control of the base tube (falls onto the wing) with a massive movement of the centre gravity to the back of the keel while still inverted. Generally if this situation occurs the pilot will be in the process of deploying an emergency parachute.

[@jamesbrummett9530]

Very interesting camera! It almost appears to be flying in formation in its own hang glider:)

[@penguinista]

I think it is a chase camera hanging on a string. They can be built with a gopro on the front of a cone of foam.

[@farnswow]

Looks like you could have flown a little faster, but one hell of a recovery !! I got turned into the hill scratching for lift due to a strong mid day thermal. Knew I could not turn away due to the inside wing being fully stalled. Pulled in hard and made a down wind approach to the hill, regained lift for the inside wing just in time to do a strong flare which pancaked the glider. Landed hard, broke a downtube and dislocated a shoulder. Was sore for a week, and was glad to be mostly unhurt. Always fly the glider and learn from your mistakes. The guys in Europe do downwind landings all the time at launch due to a lack of good LZ opportunities. I just read an article about it. Glad I had the presence of mind to try the maneuver which probably saved my life. And the others are right. I think you were too low for even a BRS to save you. Windy, an Aerospace engineer. I have flown powered aircraft, but nothing comes close to the experience of hang gliding ! Talk to Dave Gibson !!

[@sohamhanggliding]

That’s quite a story, thanks for sharing! I definitely fly faster in turbulence after this incident.

[@winddriven]

Life’s a box of chocolates but someone slipped in some s#*t into your box for sure! Thanks for sharing and well done.

[@stefanmargraf7878]

I like kingpost gliders. I trust them more. That kind of turbulence is common in strong thermals, especially in lee. Your body seem to dangling a bit around. In case of flip it is important to hold the grip firm on the base tubing. What comes around will come around.

[@Elbribon1]

The more fast topless gliders are better at putting up with turbulence.

[@1flyndoc]

I'm glad you are ok! That must have been a heart pounder! The footage is awesome! It shows the stability functions of the glider engaging and keeping the nose from pitching down further. Banking probably also helped keep your sunny side up! Safe landings, Felipe

[@sohamhanggliding]

Thanks Felipe!

[@mitchking8088]

In 1979 I was in 3rd place in the Owens Valley Classic on the last competition day. I flew a rigid wing Fledgling 3 and was over 18,000’ msl and everyone had oxygen. I hit the worst turbulence ever and it was so strong my nose pitched up quickly and I did a positive g loop without even trying. It really shook me up but I knew I was in 2nd place in that days task was to fly 30 miles to Janies so I kept trying to stay with that thermal. I had never been scared before flying hang gliders and I had hundreds of flight hours but I psyched out and flew out of that thermal. The sink was so strong and lasted a long time I never finished that task with junky 19 miles to go. No joke I went to shower that day and noticed my white underpants was all yellow so I must have had an involuntary ruination out of fear. Must have been so scared I owed in my pants. True story 😆

[@sohamhanggliding]

Sounds scary but part of the hang-gliding lifestyle.

[@rodrigonh]

Just speculating/guessing but it was like being pushed by downwards returning path of a unique very well defined huge massive montain rotor. Topography below talks a lot imo. Thanks for sharing.

[@Rowganlife]

woo hoo! ive had that happen before at Sylmar..great ride!

[@bake162]

Been there, done that….. being mostly chicken when the turbulence beat me up I would usually leave that area. My brain has too much “what if”

[@fly1327]

So fun when way past vertical, your back and feet bouncing off the bottom surface, struggling to get back to a dive keeping from a tuck. And that flying in 'light' (300-500 fpm) lift conditions here in SoCal. Those nasty tumbling curls. Yeah, they do exist.

[@tontar]

Don't fly so slowly in trashy conditions, or high lift conditions where the "gust differential" will be significant enough to turn your min sink angle of attack into significant stall angle of attack, and coupled with high siding, a deeply stalled wing on the opposite side. A way too deep incipient spin. In rougher thermals, keep a bit more speed. It'll put your angle of attack lower, which gives you a fair bit more room between your coring angle of attack and stall angle of attack, so when you DO get a chunky gust differential, the glider would be that much further from stalling. You don't have to thermal really slow to get a powerful climb. Consider that our polars are flatter on the faster side of min sink, so flying a bit faster won't hurt your sink rate (and thus climb rate) noticeably but will be significantly safer. Stalls are what make our gliders pitch down and even roll down and over most often, so to stay out of stalls in rough air, fly a bit faster. It really helps.

[@spitglider]

Spot on

[@sohamhanggliding]

I wasn't flying slowly by any means when this happened. I was experiencing turbulence right after launching, so I was keeping extra speed. I have flown over 100 hours in summer mountain thermic conditions so I have practice in managing speed and AoA in turbulent conditions. Speed wouldn't have helped in this situation because the flip happened so suddenly that there was no time to react. This only happens in rare rotor/thermal mix situations that I wasn't familiar with.

[@tontar]

@@sohamhanggliding yeah okay, your flop your call. I stopped counting hours at 2,000 so I can’t really compete with your 100. And I wish I was as confident with my 43 years as you are with yours. I will say that it has served me quite well to listen with humility to other people who just might have a different and sometimes better perspective than my own. Even when I am certain of my own position. Good luck, have fun, and fly safe.

[@symcardnel1741]

For anyone who struggled to understand 'tontars' terminology, as I did, here's a dumbed-down version: Se ke oa fofa butle maemong a litšila, kapa maemo a phahameng haholo moo "phapang e kholo" e tla ba bohlokoa ho lekana ho sotha metsotso ea hau ea tlhaselo hore e be lehlakoreng le leholo la setera sa tlhaselo, 'me hammoho le mahlakore a phahameng, lepheo le tiisitsoeng haholo lehlakore le fapaneng. Tsela ea ho kena e tebileng haholo. Ho li-thermals tse matla, boloka lebelo le feta. E tla beha tlhaselo ea hau tlase, e tla u fa sebaka se lekaneng pakeng tsa sebaka sa hau sa tlhaselo le sebaka sa tlhaselo ea tlhaselo, kahoo ha u fumana phapang e pharalletseng, sefofane se tla ba hole haholo le ho emisa. Ha ua tlameha ho chesa haholo hore u tsebe ho nyoloha ka matla. Nahana hore polars ea rona e boreleli ka lehlakoreng le potlakileng la ho teba ha min, kahoo ho fofa kapele ho ke ke ha utloisa sekhahla sa hau sa teba (mme ka hona ho nyoloha) ka mokhoa o hlakileng empa ho tla bolokeha haholo. Litafole ke tsona tse etsang hore li-glider tsa rona li theohe fatshe esita le ho thella le ho feta khafetsa, hore o tle o lule kantle ho litala moeeng o fofang, o fofa kapele. E hlile ea thusa.

[@wrcummings]

@@symcardnel1741 We could be losing a bit in translation. Sounds technical and I’ve never let myself be so encumbered. Even peddling a bike 🚴 I’ve never bothered with the gear ratio between the drive pedal sprocket ⚙️ and the driven wheel sprocket.

[@Paintbrushpilot]

a little low for that reserve to be of any use. Be careful bro!

[@onthemoney7237]

You got Bas that for sure

[@whisperingeagle]

That was pretty good hit for sure. Been thrown into an upright hard . Iam pretty choosy with my flying conditions now.

[@NoTengoIlusiones]

With topless full vg same recovery ?

[@TheCameronEvans]

That is insane! Handled it great though, i would have been swearing my head off and heart beating like crazy haha Also great video angle 👌

[@sohamhanggliding]

It really didn’t feel that bad in the moment. I left that area but continued flying for 3 hours.

[@TheCameronEvans]

@@sohamhanggliding nice! A great amount of time in the air 👌

[@HG-Pilot]

Glad everything worked out well. I can't imagine being on a paraglider in such condition.

[@Rowganlife]

hang gliders FTW!

[@daveachuk]

A paraglider would collapse and then re-inflate and keep going on its way, and assuming the pilot is at an intermediate level and done some maneuvers training it'd be a relative non-event. The pilot wouldn't have been thrown upside down or into an undesired turn. Dustin Martin (HG distance record holder) flies paragliders now too and I overheard him say he prefers paragliders over hang gliders in turbulent conditions for this reason -- the glider absorbs all the energy of the turbulence and the pilot just bobs below relatively unaffected.

[@evgeniianufriev279]

@@daveachukor it can cascade collapse to the ground

[@arnateri]

please take care.

[@Hovermaster]

When that happens you start thinking about getting down. I got caught in a sheer while flying my trike. I knew I was going to land just didn’t know if it was going to be on my terms.

[@itsjustme4026]

Plot twist: he does it everyday just because he's bored

[@garrykennedy5484]

If that happened to me, my harness would be a bit tail heavy afterwords. Glad you're OK,,,, Could have easily been worse.

[@johnwighton]

That is what we call a vertical gust.

[@russellwilson5246]

that was more serious than most will know... rolled a dice and needed a 6 and got a 6 ...you got a hang glider out of a tuck trying to be a tumble.

[@arnateri]

OH MY GOD... It could be Too Much Dangerous.

[@ChancetheCanine]

Question, how did you get this video?????!!!!

[@safurian]

my guess: follow-up cam

[@safurian]

example www.para-zone.de/skybean-chase-xc-universal-935

[@sohamhanggliding]

It’s a different type of follow cam. A GoPro 360 camera attached to a 3 ft rigid boom that connects to the keel at a 45 degree tilt.

[@peboblank437]

@@sohamhanggliding What was the wind strength/ other weather conditions/ terrain influence on the day?

[@sohamhanggliding]

@@peboblank437 The wind was about 10-15 mph slightly gusty and very thermic (hot summer day), but the main factor that caused the turbulence was lee-side rotor from a spine in front of launch. At launch the wind was coming in straight, but it was actually wrapping around the spine and funneling in. Lesson learned, keep an eye out for rotor sources and talk to local pilots!

[@skyridersean]

I love xperienced turbuoence like this unfortunately I was at 20ft AGL and on finals top landing my home site. I had good airspeed and was tracking straight. My left wing suddenly dropped til I was in about 40 degree bank and diving at ground my hands were in One Uo One Down position unfortunately ( In Hindsight maybe I could have just belly landed ) What happened was that somehow I managed to level glider out to f dive without hitting ground but I was very freaked out and panic happened because I thought I was gonna hit ground head first . Muscle memory kicked in to get upright so I stupidly released the hand on base bar to get onto upright .... As I had so much energy from the dive - releasing base-bar allowed glider to snap into climb that left wing was still stalled ... so it climbed fast and into wing over . I thought I was dead as I knew I was gonna hit so hard . I let go and balled up .left tip and leading edge hit first I got swung outside of control frame fell through rear wire , upright & base bar broke ....edge of harness back plate frame

[@skyridersean]

Didn’t die but broke scapula with edge of harness back plate

[@ecoturismovalle1570]

Glad you are ok. Scary s**t isnt it? Wolfgang Seiss has a video where he tumbled completely.....greetings from MEXICO

[@Kreuzass]

didn´t find it, do you have a link?

[@maxonthetrack]

wheres the link!?

[@ecoturismovalle1570]

@@maxonthetrack kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHSmh3V5a6yYoLc

[@ecoturismovalle1570]

@@Kreuzass kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHSmh3V5a6yYoLc

[@Flightstar]

You just hit the edge of a bullet thermal, Go back and see if you can center it.

[@ariffbasri]

That's what I thought

[@georgecormier601]

Wow, well now I just have to land and clean up this mess in my pants.

[@sqeakgeek]

I call this the Wofie thing now GREAT recovery when I saw his video I never knew could even happen was just talking to my instructors on sat. About this very thing & they said that was a fluke? Hmmmm

[@markprange4386]

Flukes are inevitable if you fly plenty. They are expected and planned for.

[@mikemarcott4888]

A good place to get tumbled is onion Valley Sierras LOL

[@marceloneves117]

Agora é do trocar as cuecas e vida que segue. Domínio perfeito da vela.

[@justhangin7186]

Yee hah keel slapper👌🇦🇺🍻

[@kengineer09]

Serious pucker factor.

[@zolen3046]

Glide you are ok!

[@gappleton8255]

That'll re-arrange your lunch a little!

[@Elbribon1]

Do somebody know the brand and model of this glider?

[@SVSky]

Wills Wing U2-145

[@natural9743]

Just a bit of wind that's all smh!!!

[@renatomoreira5806]

😁😁😁😁😁

[@SkywalkerPaul]

Wow

[@foodini]

I'd like to see it with the footage level with the ground, rather than axis-locked with the glider. =]

[@sohamhanggliding]

I have an unlisted video showing exactly that. In retrospect I should have combined the two videos kzbin.info/www/bejne/j5jNk2WQmbJpfbs

[@mikebreen2890]

Nasty!

[@cloudstreets1396]

Yay for sprogs!

[@user-uv2cm6qj3m]

☝☝👍👍

[@comandodelta6105]

Resistência a turbulência.....

[@boringsoaring]

Another reason not to fly with a camera, do you really want to see how far you got rocked up?

[@jackfrost2146]

If it was a paraglider video, it would have been much shorter.....

[@evgeniianufriev279]

Whats the location?

[@sohamhanggliding]

Tague's Butter about 17 miles north of Lakeview, Oregon.

[@cevdetgz4126]

Now imagine this being a paraglider.

[@cloudsculptor1]

God bless a king post

[@lokivato]

That's what you get for buying Chinese

[@sqeakgeek]

We were just talking about this because of this kzbin.info/www/bejne/fHSmh3V5a6yYoLc

[@sqeakgeek]

Wolfie went all the way over then DOWN!!!

[@teddyruxpin3811]

That's why you shouldn't fly a rigid wing aircraft