Return to the incident list: Incident List Wing Malfunction or Deflation, Harry Potter Kite R PPG Type: Type of Injury:

Pilot Details

Age: 0 Weight: 175 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level:

Gear Details

Wing Brand: Model: Silex Medium Black Size: Paramotor Frame: DK GT with

Incident Details

January 1, 2006 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident:

On Monday, June 2, 2003, I noticed that the weather for Savannah was E10-15mph and clear all day and decided to make the 4 hr. drive there to get some beach air. I arrived a the beach at 1:00 pm. and the winds were perfect – no other flyers visible which wasn’t unusual seeing that this is Brewster turf and no one else flies there much. I set up fairly fast and was airborne in 15 minutes. The first thing I noticed were 2 fairly large kites to my South and decided to fly North a bit to gain altitude and play away from the kites. After playing a while, I flew over the top of the kites and headed South where I noticed a man jumping up and down waving at me. On second glance, I noticed a yellow wing and red motor and realized that Brewster was here….awesome my wingman was here to play (bastard never called me to let me know, but neither did I!) I landed and we kissed each other “hello” and decided to fly South to see Laurie, his lovely lady. We took off and noticing the large # of kites and tourists decided to fly the shoreline at about 200 feet avoiding the onshore kite lines.

At the South end of the island we broke formation as Brewster wanted to fly over Laurie – he went right and I went left. There is a channel dividing the S island from a lesser island and at low tide the sand is visible and people wade out there to play. Brewster rejoined me at about 150 feet and as I banked right to follow him something went horribly wrong. I felt a fairly big bump and thought I had hit prop wash so just continued flying. Seconds later I felt a very fluffy right brake and started falling fast sort of turning right at first and then a sharp left spin. I tried to pull right brake and felt nothing much, at the same time started increasing throttle as a natural instinct to keep flying. I looked up to the right and saw what I thought was a stuff sack or a t-shirt flapping around but looked further and saw a big tear – by this time I was close to the ground and luckily was into the wind which was a good 10-12 mph. Full throttle and a bit of good luck and the wing behaved almost normally…perfect landing, turned around & dropped wing.

I unhooked and went over to the wing and noticed kite string and a kite tangled in the lines. 8 or 9 cells in from the right edge were completely ripped from leading to trailing edge. The kite was a little cheap plastic flyer with a Harry Potter face on it…grrrrrr. Brewster landed immediately afterwards and we were both in shock and awe at how a piece of kite line had almost plucked me from the sky. I never saw Harry and neither did Brewster but had it got me more in the center, the consequences may have been painful. Later we went to ground handle it in very high winds and Brewster snapped a few shots – one of which is at www.pbase.com/terrycohen.

Beware of kites and don’t underestimate the power of nylon kite string – I could not snap the string with my bare hands. There is a C line rip on the left side of the wing which is also new. The wing is trashed but luckily I have a spare new Black Silex – awesome wing – thanks Silex.

Flight Window: Wind Speed: Type: Phase of Flight: Type of Injury: Collateral Damage: Analysis of the incident (additional input by the incident investigation team): Photos (if available):

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