Altercation with paraglider

[Steve Houghton 1]

Well I had my meeting today with the safety officer of the South East Wales Paragliding Club.

We both now have a better understanding of each others requirements and issues regarding our respective sports/hobbies and as a consequence we both will be talking to our respective groups and he will be putting a piece in his next news letter which goes out to all their members.

I also explained that we are not members of a club as there are usually only about 6 of us regularly flying the local slopes but they may come across other fliers, either individuals or from powered flying clubs, that we have no contact with.

He was surprised however to discover that we were not required to have a full knowledge of air law. I explained that we are mostly exempt from the ANO although there were a few clauses that we did have to comply with. So, when he asked me the question about the law regarding a collision situation, particularly when traversing along a slope at low altitude on the slope, I couldn't answer him. I could only say that I would take evasive action, whatever I deemed the safest action to be in that particular instance and based upon my flying situation at the time, i.e. height, speed and other air traffic. But lets say that we are both below ridge level. Neither of us can turn towards the slope so the obvious answer is to turn away from the slope, but if you both do that, then you are both still in a collision situation. The correct answer, apparently is for the flier flying from left to right to carry straight on, and the flier travelling right to left to turn right.

So he now thinks that if he tells his paraglider members that we do not know air law, that will be more incentive for them to keep clear of us.

He also said that they have some tandem paragliders and that they could give us a flight so that we have a better understanding of what they do so, I guess we could also do the same with them, offering to give them control of an RC slope soarer.

So all in all it was a good and constructive meeting and in future there will be dialogue between our respective groups on the slope to determine our respective take off, landing and flying zones.

Steve

A470Soaring.blogspot.co.uk

Edited By Steve Houghton 1 on 26/04/2014 19:30:03

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Good stuff Steve

Talks better than conflict, keep your eye on those nutters with models if you have a go tandem

[Shaunie]

"He was surprised however to discover that we were not required to have a full knowledge of air law."

Seems to me the paraglider didn't have a very good knowledge of it either, nor did he appear to have read the joint BMFA/BHPA document.

So once again it falls to us to build the bridges. Why does it not occur to them that they are the new kids on the block and should work with us rather than the other way round.

Shaunie.

[GrahamWh]

Well done Steve - brought something good out of a mess! Not many could achieve that.

[Steve Houghton 1]

Shaunie - he said he was aware of the document but hadn't seen it in a very long time.

In his report, the guy who I had the collision with said that he saw the model flying from right to left and then when it turned to fly from left to right, that was when he launched because aircraft flying from right to left have priority and so they tend to look to the right before launching. This is because, if I had been a paraglider traversing from left to right, it would have been my responsibility to avoid him. But in fact, the plane he was looking at wasn't mine. Mine was coming in low and slow from his left, almost to the point of stalling as the wings were beginning to waggle so, even if I had hit hard left aileron, probably not much would have happened as there was so little air flow over the elevons.

But surely the pilot should have looked both ways to make sure the air space was clear? On the roads, traffic coming from the right has priority at a junction, but you wouldn't make a right turn without looking to see what was coming from your left as well!

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

I'd that any pilot taking off has an absolute responsibility to ensure that it's safe to do so. That claim seems to be a very poor excuse for poor lookout and airmanship on his behalf. Was he really claiming that he would have launched directly into the path of a flying parascender forcing him to make an avoidance turn? At least two lives could rely on the fact that the other pilot would actually be looking at him at that moment and realise that he was going to take off right into his path!

Unbelievable.

[andy harrold]

Did you mention the verbal greetings that you were treated to when you spoke to the Jellyfish Safety officer?

[Steve Houghton 1]

Yes I did. I was told that was just the way the guy is. He called him a bit of a "character".