By Damian Gates

Old Bar, Mid-North Coast, NSW
At a recent Greater Taree Council Meeting, the Honorary Secretary of the Old Bar Heritage Airstrip Committee, Mr. Tony Ryan, was approached by a community group in request to help reduce the annoyance of low flying aircraft in the vicinity of the strip and Farquhar Park. The concerns revolve around low level orbits for extended periods in close proximity to the picnic area in the park and around residences in the area.
Mr. Ryan has requested and encourages all pilots (not just trikes) using the facility to be mindful of the expectations of others and to avoid flying low (500ft) over identified gathering areas unless taking off or landing. Once airborne, as with any facility or aerodrome, pilots should vacate the area to prevent any continuous noise becoming a concern to residents and others recreating in the area.
The committee fought for over six years to have this strip re-opened, and do not wish, as volunteer managers and maintainers, to give any small number of opponents ground on which to complain. All responsible members of any aviation discipline are more than welcome to use the facility.

Board Meeting
The next HGFA Board Meeting will be held over the weekend 17-18 April at the Tullamarine Motor Inn in Melbourne. All members are welcome to attend. At this meeting we will see the induction of the new with some of the current Board remaining for 2004-2006. They are:
Rohan Grant (TAS), Rohan Holtkamp (VIC), Mark Thompson (WA), Kathy Robinson (WA), Carla Pierce (VIC), Bill Moyes (NSW), Andrew Polidano (NSW), Hakim Mentes (VIC) and Stewart Dennis (ACT).
Any members with items they wish discussed at the meeting should correspond with the Board representatives so that they may add it to the agenda.

Parachute Repacks
Some points noted by Chris Fogg after attending one of Angelo Crapanzano's (Metamorphosi Chutes) Clinics are worth reproducing here:
1. Repacks should be conducted at three month intervals. Angelo indicated that a chute recently packed has a far greater deployment speed and reliability than one that has been stowed for longer than three months. Even if you do not do a full repack you should at the very least check the bands holding the lines. We witnessed perished rubber bands on almost all the chutes that were deployed during the clinic.
2. The preferred sequence of events during deployment is bag, bridle, lines, chute inflation. Many of the chutes we witnessed came out all at once. This super loads the chute during the inflation and causes significant shock loading to the system and presents greater chance of entanglement. Packing should be managed in a manner that avails the sequenced deployment of the bag followed by the bridle followed by the lines followed by the chute inflating. Angelo demonstrated techniques of folding the chute so that a single gore would pull open before the remainder of the chute, thereby pushing the chute open, rather than having it pulled open by the forces of air surrounding the chute during descent. (The forces of air around the chute are the main factor that makes the chute open - pulling it open which generates much more shock than pushing it open from within.)
3. Many of the chutes we saw (particularly for the paragliders) were attached to the harness bridle by threading the chute lines through the bridle loop. Angelo indicated that this may lead to material burn during inflation due to the friction created during the opening shock. We were advised by Angelo to use a metal shackle to make the join.
4. Positioning the parachute on the harness is a critical factor in accessing the chute for deployment, especially during a spin. Angelo noted that the side of the harness is his preference. Although this has the limitation of being accessible to one hand it is more likely that the hand in question will be able to reach and pull the handle than if the handle is positioned on the shoulder, back, bottom or front of the harness.
5. The thumb should be used to grip the handle, sliding it through the inside of the loop rather than tugging at it with the fingers. It is a smoother and more powerful action to push the thumb into the handle opening and push outward with the deployment bag than it is to grip with the fingers and tug at the handle.
6. The handle length is a critical feature to safety in deployment of the chute. The longer the handle straps the slower and greater the effort required to deploy the chute. There is also more potential for the handle to interfere with the successful deployment of the chute.
7. Velcro is a no-no. If possible find an alternative method to securing the closures of the chute other than with Velcro. Velcro can be abrasive to the lines and material. It can also stick in the wrong place while the chute is being deployed. At a minimum make sure that the Velcro on the handle is female (the fluff side) and that the male part is sewn to the harness.
8. A chute should be retired after three years. The material starts to weaken thereafter, even when stowed in the best possible manner. At the clinic we witnessed chutes that were sixteen years old!
9. Ultraviolet protection should be incorporated into the packing of the chute by placing foil around the deployment bag. Even when stowed into the harness, ultraviolet can penetrate through to the chute, lessening its overall lifespan.

UP Paraglider Safety Notice
Safety Notice 12/02/04
In the light of Peter 'Putte' Peterson's fatal accident (further info on the DHV Drachen-und Gleitschirmforum > Sicherheit) on a Gin Gliders Boomerang 3, we would like to urgently remind all UP Targa and Trango Race pilots to adhere to the given maintenance intervals. 'Putte's' tragic accident should be a reminder that pilots may too often fail to follow the prescribed maintenance instructions.

Line Material
Both the UP Targa and the UP Trango Race are equipped with Aramid(R) lines from Edelrid (series 7000 and 8000) with a diameter of 0.6, 0.9 and 1.1mm. These lines are all unsheathed and must therefore be treated with extra care and attention. Gliders equipped with these lines are in no way suited for acro flight! One year check interval, UP Targa and UP Trango Race. The UP Targa and the UP Trango Race must have the lines checked at least every year, or after 100 hours (whichever occurs first). This mandatory check can be done here by UP Europe. We are also ready to check your equipment at closer intervals should your particular usage of the equipment warrant it (flying in extra-abrasive environments, performing acro on the wing, etc).
For your own safety we highly recommend that you follow the prescribed service intervals and that you treat your equipment with the care and attention that it deserves!Team UP Europe

Operations Manual
By the time you read this, the HGFA Operation Manual will be available online at the HGFA website. It is in Adobe PDF format; you will need to download the Adobe reader or have adobe software.

Accident Reports
I must stress that all accident reports received and published here (and even those not published here) are not and have never been meant to apportion any blame or fault upon any person; they are reproduced only in the interests of safety and to ensure that we may all become better pilots and find more satisfaction, less grief and frustration in pursuit of our flying passions.

No 1.
Pilot: adv PG
Experience: 57 hrs total, 6 hrs last 90 days
Glider: DHV 2
Pilot Injury: fractured bones in left foot
Glider Damage: nil
Location: inland soaring site
Conditions: 6-8kt headwind, mod turbulence
Description: Pilot launched and after experiencing mainly sink headed for the LZ. When just below the tree line of the paddock, flying into a headwind, the wind dropped and ground speed increased. When at about 20ft agl the pilot encountered lift and rose to about 35ft and was now a fair way into the LZ paddock and unable to land straight ahead due to a gully and trees. The pilot did a 90 degree right hand turn and landed heavily after the flare on a sloping rock.
Comments:  Inland thermal flying at its nastiest; no doubt the decrease in headwind and possible tailwind was caused by thermal activity and perhaps some wind shadow or turbulence behind the trees. All landings in thermal conditions need to be treated with particular care and forethought. "Options" is the most important word in a soaring pilot's vocabulary. When you run out of options, an accident or incident is far more likely to occur. Landing in areas bounded by or behind trees needs extra care taken for wind shadows, mechanical turbulence and thermals triggering. Choose an area to land where these phenomena are less likely to occur. If that is not possible, then have some options should you find yourself with extra (or not enough) height. Inevitably, as thermal pilots, we will all sooner or later find ourselves landing tailwind into what should be the predominate wind direction. With options up your sleeve you are more likely to be able to reassess the whole approach as it proceeds, to make any safe changes available for a safe landing.

No 2
Pilot: int HG
Experience: 600 hrs total, 14 hrs last 90 days
Glider: adv HG
Pilot Injury: minor abrasions
Glider Damage: upright, LE, sail damage and glass tip
Location: coastal soaring site
Conditions: not provided
Description: Pilot was keen for a fly after not flying for a month or so and had inexperienced wire assistants with no other pilots available. When assistants advised they had no weight or input on the wires the pilot launched and the left wing immediately dropped. The glider turned and impacted rocks below launch downwind.
Comments: Poor communication and inexperience of assistants appear to be the main cause of this incident. Clear and concise instruction of what is required by any assistant should be given, and conduct of a 'dry run', especially with inexperienced persons, should always be undertaken. Use of clear and concise language ("CLEAR") and what is required when those instructions are given should be covered in any practice and briefing. On giving the "clear", the briefest of moments should be taken to ensure that the wings are in fact level with no input from assistants. (These comments reproduced from a similar incident reported in November '03 Soaring Australia.)

No 3
Pilot: restricted HG
Experience: 18 hrs total, 4 hrs last 90 days
Glider: int HG
Pilot Injury: sprained wrist
Glider Damage: uprights and basebar
Location: coastal soaring site
Conditions: not provided
Description: Pilot was first to take off and did so well. Pilot turned 180 degrees at end of first beat. Following close to the hill the pilot entered into a gully and misjudged downwind speed and failed to turn away from the terrain. Landed downwind in prone.
Comments: Lack of experience and recognition of airspeed vs. ground speeds left the pilot with no OPTIONS. Restricted pilots should always maintain a safe and conservative distance from terrain, commensurate with their skills, until such time as skills, ability, knowledge and experience lets them enter situations which they can handle with ease and confidence.

No 4
Pilot: restricted PG
Experience: 22 hrs total, 3 hrs last 90 days
Glider: PG DHV 2 paramotor specific
Pilot Injury: cracked vertebrae
Glider Damage: nil
Location: airstrip
Conditions: 3kt headwind, nil turbulence
Description: Pilot was attempting to launch with a home built trike base when the left rear wheel lifted and they did not counter with the brake. The trike base rolled around the cage at low speed and the pilot did not touch the ground. Pilot had previous spinal injuries, hence the use of the trike base.
Comments: 20 hours is not enough experience for paramotor flying, certainly not for use of trike bases. The engine may have been under powered for the job, with the added weight of the trike base. Also the wing was unfamiliar to the pilot. As the pilot had previous spinal injuries the vertebrae may have been weakened, and in such cases they may suffer from osteoporosis. There was surprise that such a slow, low/no impact incident as this caused any damage at all, but for the previous condition.

No 5
Pilot: FEI PG and passenger
Experience: 500 hrs total, 30 hrs last 90 days
Glider: tandem PG
Pilot Injury: nil
Passenger Injury: sore neck
Glider Damage: nil
Location: coastal soaring site
Conditions: headwind, nil turbulence
Description: Tandem pilot and passenger had landed after a successful tandem instructional flight. On deflating the wing the canopy pulled the pilot and passenger off balance and the passenger fell head first into sand.
Comments: Take care; the flight is not over until you are out of your harness. Be prepared, as the canopy will still require your attention even during deflation. Despite the lack of seriousness of the injury, the FEI insisted that the passenger remain calm and still while assistance was called in order to prevent any further injuries.