Incident Report - Not BASE
The following is about a paragliding incident that happened to me I know many will not read it because it is too long but I wanted to post this here as I know several of my BASE buddies are paragliders, and maybe those who are not can learn something from it as well. Near disaster report on 01-06-2008 my flying partner Dave and I are driving out to our favorite local paragliding launch as we casually play rock paper scissors to see who will fly first I win and a trail of bad events begin. San Diego has been experiencing some storms over the past 3 days and this is the first day with no rains but still good wind from the right direction and puffy clouds so we make the call to check out the conditions over at launch. We surveyed the conditions from launch for about 45 minutes to an hour much longer than usual, there were puffy and slightly dark cumulus clouds in front of launch and on the top of the mountain behind launch. Because these clouds were there we knew that lift would be good but how good was the question so we waited and watched, the clouds were scattered you could see blue in the sky between them they were neither growing nor dissipating. The winds were consistent at about 15 with a max of 20 wind conditions we regularly fly in on a sunny day.
Now came time for launch this place is not a beginners kiting spot there is barely enough room to lye out your glider and there is low lying dead and burnt trees everywhere waiting to impale your canopy if you mess things up. I set up the wing check my gear put on my sub zero snowboarding pants, jacket and balaclava throw on the harness check the conditions one last time pop the wing up and I am off.
Immediately after I popped the wing up and turned around I was about 100 feet over launch the beginning of a good flight or so I thought. I got on speed bar to get out front of launch and I quickly climb to 800 feet over launch inside of 1 minute quite fast from what we are used to but never the less that is what we are looking for right? Well now less than 2 minutes later I am at cloud base over 1000 feet above launch and the trouble begins I look out ahead and notice something strange clouds rolling in below me, I immediately recognize this as a problem as I am using the ground to navigate (GPS was left in the car) almost at the exact moment I try to begin my descent to beat the clouds to the ground I am sucked up in to the ones above. This was the last time I saw the ground or anything other than white for the next 2 hours and where my fun ended any my fight for survival begins. I reacted calmly to the situation and tried to make a gradual descent out of the cloud by pulling in the outside A lines of the wing causing the wingtips to collapse I held this for a minute and nothing my Vario still indicates a hefty climb so I decide to add some speed bar to aid the process risking a full frontal collapse but at this altitude I deemed it an acceptable risk but to no avail I am still going up. At this point I knew I was high enough to do more drastic maneuvers so I begin doing spirals and asymmetric spirals still going up and now things are worse my Vario is pinned indicating a climb rate of over 2500-3000 feet per minute and the cloud becomes so dense I cannot even see my wing anymore it begins to rain very heavily now I am really worried for my safety.
Meanwhile on the ground my friend Dave is getting panicked he saw me climb over 1000 feet inside of 2 minutes and has lost me in the clouds for over 20 minutes now thinking I must have made it down he hops in the car and rushes down the mountain to get out of the clouds he gets 1400 feet below launch and gets out of the clouds but I am nowhere to be seen and it is now that he realizes just how much trouble I am in. I am now flying somewhere in the 3000 foot tall mountains with 0 visibility and no navigation aide. Surface winds pick up to over 35 mph and it begins to rain very heavily then the rain stops and the hail starts he frantically drives back up to launch and begins to honk the horn in attempt to give me some type of bearing, honks I never heard I was long gone in to the massive clouds.
I have now been in total white out being rained on for over an hour I have been spiraling and taking collapses nonstop in attempt to get out by this time I had come to terms with the fact that if I crashed in to the mountain and broke a leg this would be an ok outcome for the circumstances I was so totally disoriented I had no idea what direction I was flying how fast I was moving I just wanted to see the ground. I got my wish for 1 split second I saw the ground but it was not what I was hoping for I was stunned by what I saw in that 1 second I recognized the fact that I was extremely high for the first time in over an hour I pulled out my wrist mounted altimeter and to my total shock I was over 8000 feet high and climbing still after an hour straight of trying to get down I was still going up. Temperatures were approaching freezing and I knew I was in very serious trouble and could possibly die if I did not get down now who knew how high this cloud would take me. This gave me the drive to keep fighting this cloud and after another hour of fighting to get down, utter exhaustion set in just as I broke through the clouds at 3000 feet.
I finally saw the ground but I kept telling myself it was not over yet I kept my pace until I was at 1000 feet slowed my descent looked around but could not recognize a thing there were no roads just dirt trails no houses no cars nothing but I did not care it was the ground and I was absolutely relieved and exhausted the second my feet touched the ground. I knew my friend would be panicked and looking for me so I quickly packed up but had no idea which way to start walking as I looked around to try and figure it out a truck came flying over a hill in the distance and I began to walk towards it. It was the US Border patrol they had seen me spiraling to the ground and came to investigate when they approached I explained what had happened and asked them to give me a ride to the Lake road and they looked very confused and asked me for confirmation of where I wanted to go. They laughed as they told me just how far away from there I was I had traveled over 20 – 27 miles from launch depending on how you measure it and landed ½ of a mile away from the US / Mexico border in Tecate. I literally almost crossed in to international airspace and landed in one of the most dangerous parts of Mexico.
After this event I felt like I dropped a hand grenade in to both my luck and skill buckets I am glad they were both full. In hindsight there are a few things that could have aided the situation first being the obvious not go flying. Mother nature as predictable as she is can throw you some serious curve balls and you have to accept that if you participate any sport that is controlled by her but you also have to be prepared for them as well. I should have had my GPS and I should have had my radio just because it is supposed to be a quick flight does not mean you can skim on the basics. I am glad I am safe and I am glad my friend did not completely lose it but we have both learned from the mistakes that were made that day and hope others can learn from this near catastrophe as well.
