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Pilot Details

Age: 54 Weight: 173 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level:

Gear Details

Wing Brand: Model: Sting Powerplay, 160, DHV 1 Size: Paramotor Frame: Adventure, Solo 210 with

Incident Details

October 13, 2008 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident:

This was flight 10 for me. I was flying from a grass airstrip where I have done half of my flights (South Shore of Long Island). I tend to be very conservative and have driven in the past an hour to the site on three occasions and was uncomfortable with the wind and chose not to fly. This particular day the wind was between 2 to 5 mph on the ground. The grass air strip is surrounded by 15 foot high scrub trees and rotor often makes take offs difficult. The online weather reports were for clear weather and 4 to 7 mph winds. I was with my flying mentor, Freddy, who gets me into the air. I took off and immediately began a circular pattern to wait for Freddy to join me. By the time I was on my second pattern, I was at around 500′. Now the wind seemed very strong. I made another loop but this time, as I was heading into the wind, I was making very little headway (my motor is tuned and is pushing, I’d guess, 18 to 20 hp). The rotor was so bad at this point, as Freddy later told me, that he couldn’t get up (he is an exceptional flyer and if he can’t get his wing square, conditions really are bad!). By my third loop I decided that I need to get down. I headed toward my take off area and just couldn’t get there due to the strength of the wind. There was a very large field relatively close to the take off area but… I couldn’t get to that either. At this point, I must have been at 1000 feet and not really having a nice time. I was para-parked and realized that I was in a very compromised place. About this time, I was pushed 10 plus feet sideways! I was officially uncomfortable. The wing was surging somewhat and due to my limited time in the air, that made me even more uncomfortable, though, my fear of a frontal collapse was, I think, probably unfounded (I have probably read too many incident reports!). I was able to control the wing and it never really came more than directly over head. A minor concern was that the Atlantic Ocean was now less than a quarter of a mile behind me and the wind was blowing in that direction. Fortunately, I was not being blown backwards, more to my left. I had a number of fields to land in (this area is populated by small farms) but I just couldn’t get to them due to the wind. I am going to guess it was blowing at 20 mph, I certainly could be wrong though. I kept my heading into the wind and just traveled east with the wind (to my right), figuring I’d be blown to a landing site eventually… and I was. I found a field that I figured I could make, cut power and prepared for a landing. I normally shut down the engine for a power off landing, but due to the complicated conditions, I decided to keep it on until the last moment in case I need to get out of there. Forward progress was very slow, but it was progress. I took a moment to orient myself so I could get back to my take off field. Once I dropped below around 80 feet, I must have dropped below the strong winds and began a fast sled ride down. I flared about 3 feet above what I had thought were two feet of weeds, but they were 8 feet of old corn stalks, and then had the softest landing I’ve had as the stalks gently eased me to the ground. It took twenty minutes to get my rig out of the stalks, drag the whole thing a quarter mile to the road and then run five miles back to my completely panicked partner (he called his wife and asked her to pray for me as he was trying to find a small plane to begin a search!). This mess I got myself into was obviously my fault, however, I’m still not sure how I could have found out what the wind conditions were at plus 100 feet (I am thinking about getting a small bottle of helium and some balloons to launch before my next flight). As it turns out, I was informed after landing by Freddy, that I could have let out my trimmers (being new, I have not wanted to mess with them) to drop my angle of attack and maybe have been able to power though this strong wind.

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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