Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 2: February 2014 | Page 16

No big deal; third time’s the charm, I thought. But here’s where the s##t hit the fan. Seconds later: I lightly pull down on my right brake to distance myself from the LZ, so when I start my final left turn approach, I’ll be at the right height. I hear a ripple sound emanating from my upper right wing and look up. It’s not firm; but it isn’t fully inflated. I look down and to my left to check my approach and pull down on my left brake. The air is a bit turbulent. Boom! Something has happened! In front of me, my lines are twisted, maybe one or two times, just as they would be on a playground swing. Chris Santacroce of Superfly, under whose guidance I flew at Valle De Bravo, commented on my predicament: “This had to be a spin event. You must have been heavy on brake and shy on weight shift as you made the last few turns. At some stage, you over-braked one side and it spun. Naturally, you let off, but that’s the formula that acro-pilots use to make a helicopter. In the future, you need to use more weight shift and less brake (except to defend against deflations).” I’m dropping fast; I say to myself: “Oh s*&#t. This is not good.” As I think about tossing my reserve, I notice that I’m heading for the trees. The left wing is inflated, the right wing is flapping, and I’m accelerating. I do not try to throw my reserve, because I think I am too low; it will never open in time. I remember saying to myself, hands up, as my instructor Terry Bono at Pennsylvania Paragliding had pounded into our heads as a tactic to use if we were not sure what to do. For a moment my kite looked as if it was trying to re-inflate. I’m crashing through the trees and can see and hear the branches snapping. I can also see my wing 16 HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE catching part of the tree on the right, which slows me down a little, but not enough. The kite lets go completely, as I free-fall and hit the ground, square on my butt. In the future, I might try standing up sooner in my harness. I remember getting ready to do so, but when all hell broke loose, I must have been preoccupied, forgot or didn’t have time. Never losing consciousness, I hit the ground and felt an excruciating pain in the base of my spine that is hard to describe, so perhaps it’s easier to leave that up to your imagination. I rolled over on my side and this time I moaned, “Oh s*#*t. This is not good!” I hope what I learned can help a fellow pilot. You will recall I considered tossing my chute but thought it was too late. We have all heard that if you throw your reserve at a certain height, it will open. But if you’re too close, it won’t. When I reviewed that decision afterwards, it became clear to me that if I had thrown my reserve when I was just above the treetops, it might not have opened fully, but it might have fallen on the other side of the tree, caught hold and reduced my fall. The reserve does not have to open to save your life when