Friday, October 3, 2008

Ok, her I am. Gonna tell you what happened two days ago. Landed hard on my butt, still hurting, taking aspirine as a pain killer. Ellen passenger is still sore and stiff. Luckily only these discomforts. Dificult to sit !

We were having a super day at Palomaret. Brilliant climb, easy flying. I was doing tandems. Lots of pilots in the air. When I was approaching to topland I saw an austrian pilot with Sigma5 approaching as well to topland. Twice I shouted in my best german to be careful not to get in each other way.
Each time (two times) I got the right height to soar towards the toplanding area, he was cutting in in front of me. Each time I turned away, safety first. No worries.
Third time I had the way clear, so I flew parallel to the ridge edge towards the landing area, to make a 90 degree turn into wind. As it should be done always in Palomaret. (Before I actually saw my friend local pilot Kike landing, winds were straight on the hill, perfect landing.)
The moment I approached the cars where to turn right into wind, I saw the same pilot from before again cutting in in front of me. I shouted, this time louder, as I was on a point of no return, to get out of the way. He looked backwards, saw me, ignored it, and I saw him trying to land in front of me. His breaks down, slowing down his glider, instead of moving away and giving me room to land. I could do two things, one : make that 90 degree turn and most possible fly into him. Two : try to make the best and land in the rotor zone behind him (for those who have been here, in the back of the take off, where cars are parked). Seconds later rotor pushed my passenger and me down and we hitting the deck hard. Damn. I was allright, I knew my bum was gonna hurt, but Ellen my passenger was not so good. We called for an ambulance to make sure all was gonna be allright.
I could not believe the guy, when he told me just after, that he never saw me. Minutes later, he changed his opinion, and said that I had to get out of his way. I know one thing, I am never ever, never ever gonna fly near to that pilot again. He is a visitor and came on his own. I cannot imagine (of course not) he did it on purpose. But I can well imagine that he is not used to fly in these conditions, and doesn't have the knowlege about the special toplanding technique involved in Palomaret. Nobody briefed him adequate, There is rotor area, and you cannot, may not, force anybody to fly in it, imagine forcing somebody to land in it. (I think that shouldn't even be mentioned) As locals we never come in to topland simultaneously, as we know the possible danger of that.
To me, the guy didn't show any respect to other pilots, endangering them. Pilots who were at the spot saw it all. When guardia civil came, spontaneously three pilots volunteered to witness. Even my passenger said while waiting for the ambulance, that she couldn't understand the guy was constantly trying to fly right in front of me. She is unknown to the sport, but sensed stupidity as well.
Afterwards I heard the pilot is an austrian pilot, with instructor license. Doesn't matter.

I have been awake at night, hurting. But all could have been worse, one meter higher fall and we could have had a nightmare scene. It is not worth it. What I learned is next. I will never trust a pilot flying near that I don't know.
Alicante is put on the map for paragliding. More and more foreign pilots do visit the area. And I do speak in the name of the local pilots. Please be careful, and don't just come and 'consume'. Have respect for the sites, the rules, the priorities, the locals. This is not your home site, fly it as a visitor being welcomed by us.
You can fly with the local schools, Kasana or http://parapentealicante.com/paginainicio.htm . Or fly with a guide.
Now I have to translate this in Spanish for our local forum, because everybody is interested in what happened of course.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Nick! Sorry to hear about your bottom - hope it's getting better. Can't believe the Austrian pilot - what a muppet!

We hope to come fly with you again at some point, but now have another baby to bring along!

Best wishes to you, Kath and Paco

Helen, Ziggy, Gabriel and Leona xxx

raveydv said...

Sounds like a buffoon - you both had a lucky escape! Just a thought; from the way you describe it, would you have been better to have made the turn and risk the collision? Probably less painfull than colliding with the ground and anyway, he MAY have seen you, taken the hint and got out of the way!

Just a thought, I know it wasn't your fault, just wondered what your thoughts were!

Dave