Too Close to Utter and Total Carnage
Oh Golden! You never cease to provide excitement.
Yesterday was my first time flying out here in around a year and it’s good to be back. I love Golden not only because of the flying but also because it’s a chance to catch up with fellow pilots who you end up seeing only once a year and only out here.
The forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon but that’s typically not surprising out here with such a big valley system. I ended up flying around Mt. Seven for a little while after heading south towards Pegliarrow (the next mountain over). Climbs were pretty strong and choppy at times but nothing unmanageable. After getting to Pegliarrow and getting higher than I had previously been, I could see that the wind had an easterly component to it which meant we had been flying in the lee around Mt.Seven. I climbed to about 9000 ft or so and started heading towards the next mountain past Pegliarrow when my vario started croaking and I started going down at 4 mp/s then 5 mp/s, then 6 mp/s and thought “shit, I’m in rotor here somehow” even though I was directly above the ridge (clearly not enough east however with so much wind). Sure enough WHACK! I got a bit collapse.
I’ve had collapses before (duh), but this was by far my most spectacular. I can’t even recount exactly what happened but it was like a slow motion SIV course where I controlled a big surge, saw my wing below me off to the side, went weightless, fought additional collapses, etc. (not in that order of course!) Anyway, this lasted for maybe 5 or 6 seconds where I basically shat my pants and decided I didn’t want to play paragliding anymore, so I ran away from the mountain as quickly as I could.
I crossed the valley to the other side, flew just past Sanders Lake, tried to fly back to launch to attempt a mini FAI triangle and landed. Total distance: 23 k’s. Total time crapping myself: probably 1/3 of the flight after my SIV show.
Throughout my flight there was a cu-nim sitting around 50 k’s downrange or so to the south. I saw it, everyone saw it. Some people flew towards it (but not toooo close), turned round and came back. A couple other pilots saw it after launching and decided not to head towards it at all. I thought it was OK during my time flying towards it but then again, I never got especially close at all.
I landed at the main landing zone, took a shower, came back and noticed that the cell was much closer and the sky turned milky. The pilots in the air were being sent to the moon! They were going up everywhere without turning and almost everyone had big ears on. Some people got down just in time, before the wind really started to pick up. First to 30 kmph, then 40, then gusts to around 55 kmph!
Some hangliders managed to squeeze in some landings, and they were not pretty. I never EVER want to see something like that again - people fucking pounding into the ground like rag dolls. Amazingly, the hangglider pilots managed to walk away and were fine.
The paraglider pilots who were still in the air were getting collapses closer to the ground and most still tried to push upwind. They were getting blown back obviously and we’d just see them disappear behind the trees towards the town of Golden. Long story short, one guy landed in a school yard, another in the swamp, another at the airport, and another in a railyard, etc. And you know what? They are all fine. Other than some cuts and scrapes and one guy with a tailbone injury, everyone was OK.
It blows my mind that nobody got seriously injured. It was absolutely horrifying seeing people fly in that sort of air and reaffirms my respect for flying in Golden. Big cloud development is not a funny thing here and you have to respect what comes along with it - gust fronts from far away. I’m not being preachy as it could have happened to me too, but hell, if I start seeing wind in the valley or clouds growing, you bet I keep an eye on it and if I get scared, I land asap. If it means I fly less distance than everyone else, so be it.
A paraglider pilot out in Revelstoke didn’t get so lucky as the pilots here in Golden as he also got caught in a gust front yesterday. A broken knee, a broken wrist, a broken arm, a broken leg (all on different limbs!!!), and an injury to his L4 – fuck, how terrible would that be?
Anyway, it’s not my place to lecture anyone about safe flying – pilots make their own decisions and hell, some of the pilots who got caught in the shit yesterday were a lot more experienced than I am. I’m just happy that nobody died, everyone will heal, and that everyone learned something so that it hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, never happens again.
Yesterday was my first time flying out here in around a year and it’s good to be back. I love Golden not only because of the flying but also because it’s a chance to catch up with fellow pilots who you end up seeing only once a year and only out here.
The forecast called for thunderstorms in the afternoon but that’s typically not surprising out here with such a big valley system. I ended up flying around Mt. Seven for a little while after heading south towards Pegliarrow (the next mountain over). Climbs were pretty strong and choppy at times but nothing unmanageable. After getting to Pegliarrow and getting higher than I had previously been, I could see that the wind had an easterly component to it which meant we had been flying in the lee around Mt.Seven. I climbed to about 9000 ft or so and started heading towards the next mountain past Pegliarrow when my vario started croaking and I started going down at 4 mp/s then 5 mp/s, then 6 mp/s and thought “shit, I’m in rotor here somehow” even though I was directly above the ridge (clearly not enough east however with so much wind). Sure enough WHACK! I got a bit collapse.
I’ve had collapses before (duh), but this was by far my most spectacular. I can’t even recount exactly what happened but it was like a slow motion SIV course where I controlled a big surge, saw my wing below me off to the side, went weightless, fought additional collapses, etc. (not in that order of course!) Anyway, this lasted for maybe 5 or 6 seconds where I basically shat my pants and decided I didn’t want to play paragliding anymore, so I ran away from the mountain as quickly as I could.
I crossed the valley to the other side, flew just past Sanders Lake, tried to fly back to launch to attempt a mini FAI triangle and landed. Total distance: 23 k’s. Total time crapping myself: probably 1/3 of the flight after my SIV show.
Throughout my flight there was a cu-nim sitting around 50 k’s downrange or so to the south. I saw it, everyone saw it. Some people flew towards it (but not toooo close), turned round and came back. A couple other pilots saw it after launching and decided not to head towards it at all. I thought it was OK during my time flying towards it but then again, I never got especially close at all.
I landed at the main landing zone, took a shower, came back and noticed that the cell was much closer and the sky turned milky. The pilots in the air were being sent to the moon! They were going up everywhere without turning and almost everyone had big ears on. Some people got down just in time, before the wind really started to pick up. First to 30 kmph, then 40, then gusts to around 55 kmph!
Some hangliders managed to squeeze in some landings, and they were not pretty. I never EVER want to see something like that again - people fucking pounding into the ground like rag dolls. Amazingly, the hangglider pilots managed to walk away and were fine.
The paraglider pilots who were still in the air were getting collapses closer to the ground and most still tried to push upwind. They were getting blown back obviously and we’d just see them disappear behind the trees towards the town of Golden. Long story short, one guy landed in a school yard, another in the swamp, another at the airport, and another in a railyard, etc. And you know what? They are all fine. Other than some cuts and scrapes and one guy with a tailbone injury, everyone was OK.
It blows my mind that nobody got seriously injured. It was absolutely horrifying seeing people fly in that sort of air and reaffirms my respect for flying in Golden. Big cloud development is not a funny thing here and you have to respect what comes along with it - gust fronts from far away. I’m not being preachy as it could have happened to me too, but hell, if I start seeing wind in the valley or clouds growing, you bet I keep an eye on it and if I get scared, I land asap. If it means I fly less distance than everyone else, so be it.
A paraglider pilot out in Revelstoke didn’t get so lucky as the pilots here in Golden as he also got caught in a gust front yesterday. A broken knee, a broken wrist, a broken arm, a broken leg (all on different limbs!!!), and an injury to his L4 – fuck, how terrible would that be?
Anyway, it’s not my place to lecture anyone about safe flying – pilots make their own decisions and hell, some of the pilots who got caught in the shit yesterday were a lot more experienced than I am. I’m just happy that nobody died, everyone will heal, and that everyone learned something so that it hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, never happens again.
posted by Veronica at 8:30 PM
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