Paraglider Dead Man's Curve emergency reserve: suicide pistol
  Reverberations of Mythology 2012                        Rick Masters  

  • May 5 - I have come to the conclusion that the future of individuals to practice free-flight is being threatened in a very big way by commercial tandem operators. A report comes today that a tandem PG pilot launched with a passenger when he was not secured by his leg loops. Fortunately, he executed a quick 360 turn and safely landed at takeoff. Last week in Canada, a commercial HG pilot launching from Woodside killed his passenger when she fell from 300m, apparently due to not being correctly hooked in. Upon landing, no doubt distraught, he pulled the video card from his camera and swallowed it, capturing the rapt attention of the mainstream press. On April 1, both pilot and passenger were killed on a paraglider in the French Antilles. Little information has been released about this accident, although the pilot was the FFVL representative to the Antilles. This terrible tragedy follows on the heels of the death of another young woman in Brazil, also on a paraglider, who slipped from her harness and fell to her death just south of Rio de Janeiro. In this case, just like the Woodside incident, the video evidence disappeared. As if this wasn't enough, a power paraglider pilot gave a ride to a skydiver in Oregon on the same day as the Woodside accident. Against FAA regulations, and during a time of intense condemnation of skydiving from tandem flights by the USHPA, the pilots executed a skydive from a tandem PG and the skydiver was killed when he deployed too low. Incredibly, the video camera evidence also disappeared in this accident. Due to the apparently willful decisions of the free-flight segment to destroy themselves and their sport, I have pulled Mythology of the Airframe from the Internet to avoid being caught up in the sad result. But I have to ask one thing. What the hell is wrong with these professional pilots who are killing their passengers? They should not be sanctioned -- even under the widespread ruse of "training". In my opinion, no tandem pilots should be sanctioned for hire ever again.
     


  • Apr 24     - Justice is swift in France. And it looks like Corsica is wide open for some new paragliding businesses now that the famous Leonetti brothers have been thrown behind bars for criminal armed assault on a competitor. On April 17, Stephane Leonetti (right), manager of Calvi Altore Adventure Sports Corsica, and his brother Oliver (left), manager of St. Florent Altore Adventure Sports Corsica, paid a visit to a fellow paraglider pilot who had started a new tandem operation nearby, according to Corse-Matin. Accompanied by two cohorts and brandishing a pistol, the XC paragliding record-holders for Corsica beat their fellow sportsman bloody and fled. Arrested soon thereafter, Stephene Leonetti was sentenced on Monday to 2 years in prison and Oliver, who had achieved the longest XC flight by a Frenchman since 2006 - a 380 kilometer adventure in Brazil - received 18 months. Perhaps we now know why Altore has been the only flight school in Corsica since 1993.
     

  • Apr 16 - Paraglider pilots seem to become upset when I describe paragliding as "the world's most irresponsible sport." Footlaunch pilots like to think that their skill in the sky makes them as responsible as pedestrians might be on the ground. Unfortunately, the survival of the global paragliding craze seems to depend on an overly-compassionate public footing the bill for helicopters and rescuers worldwide. Without helicopter rescues, for instance, the fatality rate in paragliding would surely double. It wasn't like this with hang gliding. We NEVER thought of trees as a safe landing alternative.  More than any other sport, paraglider pilots depend on the likelihood of a state-financed helicopter rescue as a necessary element in their flight decisions to cross dangerous terrain. Now complaints are rising across the globe from search and rescue organizations outraged at the failure of paraglider pilots to take responsibility for their actions when outlanding. It seems that, while paraglider pilots expect - and even demand - a rescue when injured or stuck in a tree, if they walk away they don't even feel an obligation to let search and rescue know they are okay. Today word comes from Britain that a PG pilot who experienced a low-level collapse and crashed in the Brecon Hills on April 15th, sparking a 6-hour search and rescue effort from 50 volunteers and an RAF helicopter, was only discovered to be safe when rescuers conducted an Internet search and found that he had told his friends he was fine -  on Facebook! Don't think this is an uncommon occurrence. THIS IS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE - especially now that in many areas pilots are required to reimburse agencies for their expenses. Paradoxically, in this age of cell phones, the new dodge is to run like hell from the rescuers and hope they don't find you! Mark my words, my friends, the blowback will be on hang glider pilots. When the public has had enough, hang glider pilots will be grouped with paraglider pilots and will suffer severely in their ability to continue flying and obtaining site insurance.Why? Because they have willingly allowed themselves to be joined at the hip with the less responsible element of freeflight rather than rebelling, demanding separation and forcefully explaining to the public the dramatic difference between the two unique sports. 
     

  • Apr 3 - The ramp at San Conrado, which was closed to hang gliding after a woman fell to her death from a tandem paraglider, has reopened after 9 days. Hang glider pilots must now complete a check list before they launch. 
     

  • Mar 30 - Italy's new law in the province of Veneto requiring reimbursement for rescue services was used for the first time today. A pilot flew into trees and was suspended at 30m. Although the pilot did not need a rescue, he failed to set off the green smoke bomb required to report a safe outlanding, resulting in a helicopter being sent. The pilot was charged 550 euros (US$734), a significant discount from the actual cost because the pilot was Italian. Meanwhile in Brazil,police raided both the Sao Conrado Free Flight Club and tandem instructor Allan Figueiredo's home in a fruitless search for the missing camera that recorded the fall of Priscilla Boliveira. Figueiredo did not appear at court today for his arraignment. His mommy called and said he was sick.
     

  • Mar 29 - For the past 3 years, speed-flying has been classified by Suva, the Swiss national insurer, as "an absolute risk." All cash payments have subsequently been reduced by 50-percent. No mention is made in regard to burial expenses.
     

  • Mar 28 - Cast into a panic that the Boliveira incident could threaten lucrative commercial instruction on the beaches south of Rio de Janeiro, the Sao Conrado Free Flight Club has thrown their hitherto stellar instructor Allan Figueiredo to the wolves, so to speak, by finding his actions negligent in the high-profile death of Pricilla Boliveira and kicking Figueiredo out of the club. "The fault was solely his," said a club spokesman, no doubt in hopes the action would ward off accusations of fraud from critics who claim that the fiction of tandem paraglider "training" is nothing but a way for local paragliders to make money off tourists. One bullet the club has dodged is the legal expense of defending Figueiredo, who is crying all the time according to his sister. By kicking him out of the club, they have denied him the desperately-needed services of the club's lawyer. The club has also promised to check hang gliders more carefully. Just in case.
     

  • Mar 26 - The specter of incompetence in professional paragliding rears its ugly head once again, this time in Brazil, with the high-profile death of Priscilla Boliveira, sister to national television and movie star Fabricio Boliveira. Tragically, it was Fabricio who purchased the flight for Priscilla, and he was nearby when she fell from her harness to her death on a beach south of Rio de Janeiro on Sunday afternoon. The professional instructor, Allan Figueiredo, told the police her leg buckles had popped loose in flight, but a witness has presented a video to the police that reportedly shows the woman launching with dangling leg straps. The video also is said to show that the flight was recorded by an onboard video camera operated by the pilot. However, in his deposition, Figueiredo made no mention of the camera, which appears to have disappeared. Now the police have charged Figueiredo with manslaughter by negligence and they demand he provide the camera. Formal charges will be presented in court on May 30. The uproar by the Brazilian press is also causing governmental scrutiny of the widespread commercial tandem flights sold for $250 at popular venues. These tandem rides, as is common throughout the world, are provided ostensibly for training purposes. But everyone knows they are primarily a way for instructors to rake in easy money from tourists. Not only is the money easy, frequently resulting in income of upwards of $1000 per day, but the financial web of paragliding "instruction" appears to exert undue influence on national free-flight association policies throughout the world.
     

  • Mar 20 - In response to the spiraling numbers of extreme sport rescues, the Directorate General of Security and Emergency of the Government of the Canary Islands has announced his intention to model reimbursement of expenses after legislation now in place in much of Spain. Paraglider pilots crashing in remote natural areas have proven to be some of the costliest rescues to date. The new fees levy rates of 2000 euros per hour for helicopters, 36 euros per hour for each rescuer, 300 euros per hour for a command vehicle and 40 euros per hour for all other vehicles. Pilots who are killed will be exempted.
     

  • Mar 18 - Word comes that a paraglider pilot has been cited after leaving his canopy stuck in trees in a launch attempt from a hill near New Haven, CT. "...police spokesman David Hartman said there is a law against scaling East Rock because of the danger and expense of associated rescues..." Hang glider pilots can only expect more of their precious launch sites to be closed as paraglider trespass, crashes, injuries and deaths become a nuisance.
     

  • Mar 14 - It now looks like the irresponsibility of paragliders in Wales has caused the local hang glider pilots to lose the Preseli Hills launch sitesthey've treasured for over 30 years. Landowners have unanimously agreed to close their lands to all freeflight activities due to increased concerns over liability from horses and livestock being spooked by low-flying paragliders and environmental degradation from paraglider outlandings. I saw this coming when I read a report of a powered paraglider buzzing livestock in Scotland, causing a horse to be injured when it bolted. This is happening all over Europe. Historically, the public had access to these lands as "walkers." Hikers stayed on trails and caused little concern. When hang gliding came along in the late 1970s, there was little additional impact because they used designated landing areas. But today paragliders have expanded into previously untouched properties and airspace to the point where the increased activity has become intolerable for landowners. For more, see Anger over ‘dangerous’ paraglider
     

  • Murat YeşilbaçarMar 7 - Word comes from Turkey that professional Fethiye tandem paraglider pilotCaner and Milray Gular Murat Yeşilbaçar has been found guilty of negligence in the death of automotive engineer Caner Guler, who fell 2700 feet to his death from Yeşilbaçar's paraglider on September 2, 2011. Although the prosecutor pressed for 9 years of incarceration, Yeşilbaçar was sentenced to 4 years and 2 months in prison. In his defense, Yeşilbaçar had claimed that Guler had unfastened his harness during the flight. However, photographs were presented showing that Yeşilbaçar had launched without properly securing Guler's harness. During the trial, Guler's widow Miray expressed outrage at Yeşilbaçar's "lies" of properly securing the harness and she continually pressed the prosecution for a stiffer sentence. In the end, his prison time appears to have been reduced because Yeşilbaçar's family will experience great hardship without him. 
     

  • Mar 4 - I received 3 fatality reports yesterday from France, Austria and Brazil.. This ties the horrific  March death rate of 2010 and almost doubles the rate of 2011. The unprecedented early warm temperatures in North America promise an early flying season, so I will not be surprised if 2012 reverses the declining trend of paragliding fatalities - especially if Europe warms early as well..
     

  • Mar 1  - February was the busiest month yet for Mythology of the Airframe with nearly 4,000 pages served. Files served for 2011 broke through one million in December. And this quarter is looking to blow all previous quarters out of the water. The past 6 months have generated a lot of questions on footlaunch forums from the Ukraine to France to California asking if the numbers presented on Mythology of the Airframe are accurate. It is clear that nobody suspected the numbers were so large. To their credit, many Ukrainian and European paraglider pilots are engaging in intelligent discourse about the very evident problems with the paraglider when exposed to this web site. But curiously, most English-speaking paraglider pilots continue to deny the validity -- or even the existence -- of Mythology of the Airframe or the Paragliding Dead Man's Curve. 
     

  • Feb 21 - Looking at the deaths so far this year, it saddens me that nothing seems to have changed. The yearly average number of deaths over the past decade to Feb 21st is 5.7 and this year stands at 6, so far. 
     

  • Feb 6 - A friend contacted me to inform that there have been even more emergency reserve parachute saves at the Mexico PWC than I had been aware of. The Director General of this Superfinal is the brilliant hang glider pilot Miguel Gutiérrez, who at seventeen won Don Partridge's 1981 Owens Valley XC Qualifier and placed 2nd in the XC Classic. Some paraglider pilots like to paint a false picture that I hate paragliding. But I actually admire it as a competitive sport. I just don't feel paragliding should be promoted as commercial recreation until they fix the death rate problem.

    •     To me, paragliding is a stunt that is best performed by an expert. Paragliding competitions are not so different than competitions by bull riders, Indy Car or NASCAR drivers. These are all dangerous pursuits and they provide the public with entertainment and the participants with a big adrenaline fix. People have a right to participate and I don't like seeing too many rules in these competitions. I want to see the biggest, baddest bulls, the fastest and most powerful race cars, and the fastest paragliders. When someone gets killed, it's not really anyone else's responsibility and it shows the public why it's not a good idea for just anybody to ride a bull, drive a racecar or flya dangerous pseudo-aircraft, which is what a paraglider is. 
          The only people who bear the responsibility for death or injury are the participants. A lot of bull riders recently started wearing helmets.NASCAR drivers accepted the Hans Device after Dale Earnhardt, Sr. got killed at Daytona. Indy drivers haven't done much of anything, asthey demonstrated at Las Vegas last year. And paraglider racers keep falling out of the sky like they do every single year. It tells us something. They do what they can but sometimes they can't do enough. You don't see people riding bulls to work. You don't see NASCARs on city streets. You don't see Indy cars at the grocery store. And paragliders have hit the evolutionary wall. They still collapse in turbulence. They still break their pilots backs. They still kill their pilots. Why? They don't have an airframe. Airframes are important. Without an airframe, you cannot prevent a collapse. Am I wrong? Show me. That's what competitions are for.
           I'm watching. Paragliders collapse in turbulence. I understand what this means. But a whole lot of other people don't seem to understand the implications.
          Today you see paragliders everywhere. People are trying to sell them to your kids. Kids are buying them. And parents are burying their kids every summer. It needs to be understood that, until paragliders stop falling out of the sky when they encounter normal atmospheric turbulence, paragliding is a nothing but a stunt. A dangerous stunt (as I defined with my definition of the Paraglider Dead Man's Curve). Paragliding competitions help demonstrate this. Sails collapse in turbulence. Pilots try to throw their chutes. Sometimes they live. Sometimes they die. I wish they'd televise this.
       

  • Feb 5 - California's Sacramento Bee and Illinois' Belleville News-Democrat have published Jack Dolan's article verbatim under the heading "Cruising the Skies, Cursing Each Other". While sensational titles are often the work of clueless editors, the most significant point remains that nearly 900 unreported paragliding deaths since 2002 are presented in Dolan's article for the first time in a newspaper.
     

  • Feb 3 - To my surprise, crime writer Jack Dolan got his superb article "Riding the Wings of Change" on the front page of California's Los Angeles Times. For the first time in a newspaper, the true fatality numbers are given for paragliding:

"If I thought there was any chance my aircraft was going to spontaneously stop being an aircraft in flight, I would not get on it," said Rick Masters, a onetime hang glider who, after watching two paragliders plummet to their deaths, created a website devoted to the study of fatal paragliding accidents. Combing the Web for news accounts, he's up to 873 since 2002."

A typical response to my quote comes from Paragliding Forum: "Amazing, did a paraglider pilot perhaps take away Rick Masters girl or something in the past? A little extreme to have that much hate towards paragliders. Do people really need to badmouth such sports in the press... really. Its not helping anyone." This comment follows the deletion of another pilot's question asking if the reported fatality number is accurate.

  • Feb 28 - British paragliding guru Adrian Thomas reports that there have been more collapses in turbulence at the on-going Paragliding World Championships in Mexico than in all the previous superfinals. I have repeatedly stated that championship paragliding has a rightful place in the world of sports, if only to demonstrate how incredibly dangerous these marginal aircraft really are. Unlike hang gliding competitions which consistently sort out the most skillful pilots, paragliding competitions often tend only to identify the luckiest gambler in the crowd. 
     

  • Jan 7 - A French criminal court in Bonneville. Haute-Savoie has sentenced a paragliding instructor for launching tandem into clouds and subsequently crashing. The female passenger received multiple fractures and hovered near death for several days. The pilot was given a suspended sentence of four months and fined $500 Euros.