CARABINERS(the answer that I have been waiting for...)

I've been in the buis. of making carabiners for more than a decade. Modern

carabiners don't fatigue or get "micro cracks". I'm not sure if that is info

from the olden days, or folk legend. We once tested some biners that had

taken a 3000 ft. ride on a haul bag from the top of El cap. They were fine

even though there were obvious gouges and dents. The only time we ever see a

carabiner break in a climbing situation is when the gate is stuck open and

can't engage to take load. When properly closed and locked a carabiner from

a reputable Mfg. will hold until your glider is a shreaded hunk of crap.

Most of those locking biners are good to 5000 to 6000 lbs. Gliders are rated

to 10 G's. ( around 3500 lbs. for a tandem)We have also cycled biners tens

of thousands of times to more than half their rated failure load and not

seen fatigue.

So buy gear from reputable companies, keep it clean, keep the gates working,

and check that the gates are closed and stop worrying about metallurgy.

-From Chuck Brainerd(Thanks a million Chuck!)

CARABINERS (more folk legend?)

I heard a horror story of a biner breaking on a tandem flight in the air

from Matt ? , a local in Jackson Hole.

-From Lou Capelli(We'd love to hear about it)

ON RESERVES

I've even done some half-baked research on the two solo emergency 'chute

(cluster) idea.

-From a Smoke Jumper on our list(we can't wait to hear more)

ON LINE SECTIONALS

http://www.maptech.com/mapserver/index.cfm?lat=40.59167&lon=-111.88&scale=24000&type=2&size=S&zoom=50

TANDEM TRIKE ACCIDENT

Monday Nov 27th// Yesterday late in the afternoon, we lost two of our best.

In a terribly tragic powered hang gliding (trike) accident Keith Lamb and

Doug Domokos, both of Elsinore were killed while flying tandem at Bear Creek

airport just south of Elsinore. A hang glider and ultralight pilot who

witnessed this scene has told me of aggressive flying just before equipment

failure at 500' agl or lower. The maneuvers that led to the accident were a

spiral diving (slipping?) left turn to likely in excess of 50 mph followed

by a reversal to a spiral right turn. Excessive G loading during this

reversal and pull up is likely what led to a failure of the sail with it

splitting from the trailing edge chordwise forward on the right wing midspan

. There were several witnesses to the accident, including his wife and 2

year old child. Keith and Doug did not suffer long as both were unconscious,

no breathing or pulse and to keep it short, and it was apparently obvious

that CPR would not be effective.

I have known both pilots for 15 or more years. Though Doug has had fame in

the motorcycle world, my respect is just as great for Keith Lamb in creating

a life in a new land (coming from England) and developing a successful

skylight business in Elsinore. Keith's dream of living on an oceangoing

catamaran (this is one monster of a boat too) was just about completed with

this vessel scheduled to be launched in the spring.

-Rob Mc Kenzie

COUPLE OF STORIES

Here are a couple of tandem stories for you.

On two occasions, avid, professional tandem pilots, preparing to fly in wind, have

hooked into the glider while facing it and ended up hooking in backwards(i.e. facing

the glider). In fact, they ended up launching like this and did the whole flight with

passenger and pilot facing backwards. The good news is that everything worked out just

fine. One pilot landed in some wind and found it quite easy(understandibly) to walk toward

the glider. The other landed in a lower wind area and still had an o.k. landing. So, I hope

that we can imagine how this could easily happen to us on the wrong day. If it is any help,

one of the pilots was among the most accomplished pg pilots that this country has ever produced.

The other was less experienced and even made the comment that he thought that the glider wasn't

properly. I would suggest that the glider won't know the difference and that that is the good news

about making this error.

An avid tandem pilot preparing to fly in strong thermal conditions, was hooked in with passenger attached

and with the glider balled up. He decided to launch, layed out the glider and upon doing so, had half of the

glider roll up and tangle in itself. A moment later, the open side of the glider inflated, came above head and

began to lift pilot and passenger off the ground. A strong thermal release(aka dust devil) continued to lift

pilot and passenger into the air with the glider circling quickly, one side tangled, the other side helicoptering

around, the risers became increasingly twisted. As they climbed through a hundred feet, the pilot threw the reserve

and the pilot and passenger landed safely in the lee side of the hill.

Potential lessons that we can learn from these stories;

-when we hook in and how we hook in are both very important

-strong conditions are the most challenging and demand the most attention to detail

-attaching pilot and passenger together with spreaders and then reserving the decision to hook onto the glider until the last minute may be valuable

-a professional tandem pilot who keeps his cool in the face of adversity can save the day, sometimes...

TANDEM Y-BRIDLES

While we have some tandem y-bridles in stock that are sufficient to allow pilot to attach the reserve to the spreader bars, Thin Red Line(Max) told me that he is equipped to make custom length, very thin, but very strong tandem y-bridles. This, in my opinion, is quite a nice option. www.thin-red-line.com

ONE ITEM OF NOTE

During a trip this Summer I had opportunity to spend some time with another Tandem Administrator. He and I observed the tandem activity in the area and saw some video including a plethora of ugly, aborted tandem launches, etc. After observing the activity over a period of days, the senior tandem administrator made an interesting comment. He said that "an administrator ought to spend some time in the area and identify some of the pilots who were given tandem ratings inappropriately and who had substandard skills" he continued by saying that said pilots "ought to have their ratings revoked for a period of time." The only reason that I mention this is so that we, as a community realize that there's not just a system of "ratings and revocations" that is "in place," there's also a tandem community that is critical of judgment and technique and that will, in time of need, take action. For me, hearing the senior Tandem Administrator make said comments and observations was very insightful and I thought that I would take a moment to share the experience. The community will only become safer if we come to feel pressure from our peers to perform with a minimum number of fumbles. Thanks...