It is horrible to watch someone get injured. Sadly, pilots get injured following asymmetrics all the time. Even more sadly, pilots are often injured by spiralling in and crashing following asymmetrics that should not even cause a course-change for a well trained pilot.
My sympathies to the pilot. The only possible good thing that could come out of this video is if someone else watches it and avoids a similar accident.
The most dangerous part of paragliding is flying higher than you are happy to fall, and lower than you can throw your reserve. Try to spend as little time as possible between 2m and 100m agl. If you are unable to get more than 100m altitude recognise that you have no second chances and treat such low flying with the caution it demands.
In the video the pilot suffered an asymmetric of a little over 50%. The glider turned 90 degrees and recovered. Ground impact occurred with a fully inflated glider as the pilot was swinging through - another 10m of height and he would have flown away.
Weightshift away from the collapse might have been sufficient to allow the pilot to hold a straight course. A little brake might have been required aswell.
Two lessons:
1. Low wingovers are dangerous. Get some height first (at least enough to allow you to use your reserve if you need to).
2. It is a really good idea to have practiced dealing with asymmetric collapses so much that you have hard-wired reflexive reactions to deal with them.
Cheers,
Adrian
from adrian thomas the man speeks so much sence
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gary stenhouse
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