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Tues 1st flight landing video.


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There was a few of us at Membury airfield trading last Tuesday and one was of us did their first flight. I'm not sure what his/your name is, and I didn't want to just post the video of your landing, but you were unfortunate to catch a change of direction of wind as you landed and came down with a bit of a thud! I literally only got the landing but I did capture it and felt I should let you know in case you didn't get in on another phone.

[was going to post in the PMC Membury Airfield Club section but there wasn't an option to create a post!]

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Well - you seemed to be walking about normally afterwards, so thats always a good thing :)

The clip is litterally all I got... funny how it ends with you flat on your face and looks like your not moving! Bet it was great getting up there tho, well done.

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No damage to the cage, prop or wallet? Lucky! :D

Only conclusion I can make from the few seconds is that you flared too late. Just one second earlier and it would be a stylish swoop. A little steady brake the last meters gives a lot more control as the speed drops, but still leaves you with lots of brake authority left for a powerful flare.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well the obvious one would be to flare a lot earlier and more. But given what happened I was a little shocked and did not react fast enough.

Nothing to do with the instructor, had my reactions been better there would not have been an issue, the weather/ wind on the day had been good for a long time before I went up but unfortunately changed just as I came in. Plus I'm a big boy and can except responsibility for my mistakes, the way I see it is if your going to do a sport like this although it should not happen every now and then extenuating circumstances will happen and most of it was my error/reaction time.

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I actually do hold my hand up to being at fault here. 

Be it, a bad call on the weather or a bad call on the flair. This I think is why the vast majority of pilots do not want to teach people I guess. 

I have re-calibrated again and extended the safety window further. It is tricky though when we had 15-20 mins of the wind soc pointing the same way only to change 180 on landing (at one end of the airfield) 

I have been teaching now full time for well over 10 years 7 of them at Membury this was a very unusual weather occurrence for the site on a day when the wind direction was firm and steady. I would have put my wife, parents or any other family member up on the same day at the same time. (which is how I always look at it)

All is well that ends well, but make no mistake I am very aware that we are both lucky in this instance. 

SW :D

 

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23 hours ago, andyy said:

Well the obvious one would be to flare a lot earlier and more. But given what happened I was a little shocked and did not react fast enough.

Nothing to do with the instructor, had my reactions been better there would not have been an issue, the weather/ wind on the day had been good for a long time before I went up but unfortunately changed just as I came in. Plus I'm a big boy and can except responsibility for my mistakes, the way I see it is if your going to do a sport like this although it should not happen every now and then extenuating circumstances will happen and most of it was my error/reaction time.

Hi Andyy

Glad to hear you're ok. Just one thing about being nervous after a shi*y incident. On my third flight *attempt* I sat down too early and broke the prop, pride and my confidence. I literally drove home and thought sod this, maybe it's not for me. And yes I was nervous on the next take off, not going to lie. However as soon as my feet lifted, I forgot about nerves and remembered why I love this sport. I've come down on my ar*e a few times since, only lately getting the flare/timing right. So I just wanted to say I think nerves after something like this is normal, it won't be like that everytime and this still will put a massive smile on your face when you nail it.

Good luck on your next flight

Danny

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I wish I had a video of my unintentional landing yesterday. I was practicing touch and goes for the first time. All going well until number 5 when I must have been getting a bit over-confident. The field had very long grass in big clumps. Touched down, started running, caught toe on tuft and face planted. :( 

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If that was your first landing ever, i dont think you should be too concerned. It was just a steep descent followed by a late flare...as one other commentator mentioned, ground a few feet lower would have resulted in a perfect landing. 

Speaking mostly for myself, I have made that mistake...well after having completed many landings let alone my first one. It is one of the downsides of a non powered approach with trimmers closed. Paragliders simply dont have enough forward energy and airspeed variation in that configuration to convert the steep non powered descent into a flare that low to the ground. Its a fine line between perfect and heavy touch down as you found out. I am only now (After flying motors for 2 years) deciding to let the trimmers out a little and come in faster with a flatter approach.

Looking back i think the lesser of the two evils is a difficult one to judge...slow and potentially heavy, or fast and go ass over head at lightspeed :D

 

 

 

Edited by adamjedgar
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My Roadster 2 is very forgiving and I can't tell any difference between trimmers in or out at landing with regards to flare. Both scenarios have easily enough flare ability to stop on a spot.

Trimmers in has a slower rate of descent and a slower forward speed. Trimmers out has higher speed, because of its higher rate of descent!

Hence, the wings ability to flare is the same in either case.  The difference between the 2 is the speed at which you pull the brakes to flare. Trimmers in (slow) requires the flare from hands up to full brake much quicker than with trimmers out. With trimmers out the flare takes longer as you have more speed to scrub off and pull the brakes more slowly, aiming to keep your feet just above the ground until you have slowed down.

If you have a clutched machine, engine on and at idle makes no difference.

Using power while landing is something to be done with great care. If you power off before you actually touch down then you swing back and accelerate towards the ground! Hence you need to power off high enough up that the swing back, then swing forward can stabilise before you reach the ground.

 

 

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