Return to the incident list: Incident List Collision with Other Aircraft/Ultralight 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: Not Known Size: Paramotor Frame: Not Known with

Incident Details

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

About a year ago several pilots, both novice and advanced were flying at a levee along Galveston Bay with fairly strong winds straight out of the east. The pilot in flight, who was pretty much a newbie at the time, was coming in low over several vehicles parked end-to-end which were all perpendicular to the wind direction. As he approached the vehicles he hit a down rotor. Unfortunately, he was not only coming in over the parked vehicles (which most likely caused the rotor) but also directly above another pilot who was standing on the ground with his rig on, facing the pilot but with his head down and not looking forward. The airborne pilots reaction was to go full throttle in an attempt to recover. This didn’t work and he landed on top of the pilot on the ground with his motor at full rpm. The pilots prop struck the top of unit of the other pilot just behind his head sending both crashing to the ground. Neither was wearing a helmet. If I recall correctly, one pilots unit took about $1,000 in damage and the other much more than that. The impact was that hard. According to eye witnesses on the ground (I was in the air) the clearance between the head of the pilot on the ground and the in-flight prop turning at about 8000 rpm’s was a matter of inches. While neither suffered anything more that some bruising (and mangled machines) the incident could have ended tragically. The newbie pilot seeing the more advanced pilots landing in tight next to the vehicles felt that it was standard to make this type of approach. This incident served as a reminder that more experienced pilots need to be more aware and should give caution and advice to novice pilots as to the possible hazards they may encounter if emulating the flying style and habits of the more experienced pilot.

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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