Return to the incident list: Incident List Loss of lift on take-off, hard landing. PPG Type: Type of Injury:

Pilot Details

Age: 54 Weight: 200 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level:

Gear Details

Wing Brand: Model: Eden II-30, DHV 1/2 Size: Paramotor Frame: SkyCruiser with Simonini Mini-2+ with

Incident Details

May 29, 2006 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident:

First fligh at 9:30am was uneventful. Wind at launch W8mph. 45 minute duration flight along the California Aquaduct and adjacent mountain ridge. Moderate thermic activity. Rested for an hour while another pilot flew, then decided to practice some launches and landings before packing up to leave. Wind was variable in speed (0~5) and in direction (W to N to E). Reverse launched into a N5 wind, close to full throttle and 1/4 brake. At about 40′ lost lift and started to descend toward ground. I would have opted to run and try a re-launch but the problem was that at the point of landing there was a ditch with a burm on either side – trying to run over this probably would have resulted in a trip and fall. I opted to add some more brake in order to maintain level flight, or at a minimum to get beyond the ditch, at which point I started to decended quite rapidly from about 10~15 feet. I perhaps applied a little more than half brake which is usually not a problem with the Simonini. I landed on the bottom of the frame and the prop came through the net shredding it and hit one of the cage rods bending it and shattering the prop. The engine stopped, which was fortunate as the lines of my wing came down on the cage. I sustained an impact to the end of my little finger of my left hand, it was hard enought that I lost feeling in it and upon removing my glove I saw that the end was very swollen and purple, I even had to cut it to allow some blood from a blood blister out. Iced it and all was okay after a week. Upon inspection of the throttle cable it had been struck by the prop and the kill switch wire had been cut. I believe the cable was struck as a result of me putting my left hand back because I thought I was going to fall to my left. I further believe that when the prop hit the throttle cable it jerked my throttle control and hand down and my little finger took the brunt of an impact with maybe the cage rod, resulting in the minor injury. There were probably several factors that caused this incident. Premature launch with marginal take-off speed, wind dropping to zero combined with sinking air led to loss of altitude, the application of the extra brake input only served to make things worse and I may well have stalled or partially stalled the wing. As I don’t have eyes in the top of my head I am not sure of what the wing was doing at the time and the lack of altitude did not afford me the time to look up and observe it.

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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