This report was submitted by Bill Hanson, who flies his Pégase 101 out of Randall Airport, NY. It belongs to those stories that make you think “Oh boy”. Thanks to Bill for sharing his experience and contributing to our mission for more safety in gliding! “Here is what happened to me last weekend: I use…
On Saturday June 1, 2013 I crashed my Ventus 2bx glider into trees on a mountainside near Moriarty, NM. Miraculously I walked away (literally, as I had to hike more than a mile to the nearest road) with only very minor scratches and a bruise or two, but the plane was very heavily damaged.
I felt the cold clammy hand of fear on the last Friday of April 2013. It wasn’t an irrational fear, like “oooh there is something under the bed” or a nervous fear like standing up to give a presentation; it was from the grim realisation that I had flown myself into a hole with no way out. I know my last article started by alluding that we should do one thing everyday that scares us, as some motivational way to grow and become a better person but I think, on this occasion, I might have taken that notion a bit too literally.
Rafting is a popular activity in the hills of eastern Tennessee, and the Hiwassee is reckoned to be a good river for this. But a raft made by Schempp-Hirth is probably a poor choice.
