I got notification from a friend who follows the police/fire radio traffic about 3:00 pm, of a hang glider accident. Details are sketchy, but it could be a serious non-fatal accident. Rock Knocker was up here, and we were listening for the helicopter which had been dispatched, but hadn’t heard it. I asked him to call if he saw or heard anything as he made his way down my road.
He saw the helicopter from down near the bottom of Plaskett, and got out his field glasses so he could more accurately report what was happening. he watched the helicopter hover about 1000 ft above Pacific Valley Center for several minutes, at about 4:34, saw three trucks by the South Forty of Pacific Valley Center, one a USFS truck, probably Engine 17, then watched the helicopter take off with a litter hanging below. It landed across the highway from the Pacific Valley Ranger Station at 4:40 pm. The injury reported over the airwaves was serious. I will report more if I hear more. We don’t know if the glider is local or not. I have been informed, but cannot confirm, that it was not a local hang glider.
Peter Rosen and myself were both not flying our Hang Gliders today Kate. I hope the pilot is ok. Seemed like a very calm wind day.
Trey Kropp
I hope all involved will be okay. It must feel like flying, hang-gliding, it IS flying, and should be all not just part joy. Such an amazing on-scene report from you and RK then Trey’s local assurance. You do fine work, Kate. You bring us so much.
Jesus Kate,have you heard anything more about the hang glider crash? Hang gliding in Big Sir is so beautiful , its sad to hear about people who get hurt following their bliss…..I hope to come visit you this spring and enjoy the majestic beauty that hang gliding in Big Sir has to offer. I hope the pilot who crashed is ok ,love you,
Teddy Mack
The Hang Gliding Wind Gypsy
http://www.windgypsy.biz
No additional info, Teddy. Might get more from your wind gypsy contacts. Hugs, k
bigsurkate, on a mountain top in Big Sur
Glad you were so on top of reporting in Trey, that was my first thought, please have it not be Trey and Peter. Hope he/she is okay.
I,echo Pam’s comment. Harry assured me it was not a local glider … But hearing from you made it official. Trey, Do you know that status of the glider?
bigsurkate, on a mountain top in Big Sur
I was hiking prewitt when this went down. His buddy told me amputated leg but other than that he’s ok. They were from Santa Cruz area. Forest service and fire brigade did a good job
First off, I wasn’t hanggliding, I was speedflying. I did suffer some pretty serious damage to my right leg, basically amputated my foot which thankfully Stanford was able to save.
I’m a pretty competent canopy pilot who just made a very grave mistake. My friends and I had flown off Harry’s many times before, we pretty much judged our trips by how well our poison oak was healing.
Sometime around noon on 1-31-13 we launched, just after I made the fateful 270 back into a proximity run, where I misjudged by approx 5-10ft, anymore and it would have killed me, I hit going about 50mph, no joke. My right leg suffered a compound fracture tib/fib, broke my left tib and heel which was not as serious, compression fractures to my L2-5 in the lumbar spine and broke numerous ribs.
At this moment I’m actually at a hotel (6-13-13) down the street from Stanford awaiting for (hopefully) the last surgery, the rebuilding of my deltoid ligament that is going down tomorrow morning at 7:15, gotta be there at 5:30am
We all know how beautiful the Big Sur coast is and to be able to fly it makes it that much more exciting and gorgeous. Also, like swimming, use the buddy system when getting your feet off the ground, either by flying with friends or informing your loved ones of when you plan on returning. We always fly with radios but of course this flight we didn’t because the batteries died, oooops.
To the individual first on the scene, are you a beer drinker? He lives in the house with all the poppies in front across the street from the speedwing LZ, NOT Stonehouse. I have to throw huge thanks to everyone involved in saving my ass, yes I screwed up and I’m paying for it, take from my experience what you can and keep yourself safe. I should hopefully be back to flying by next season. feel free to check out my blog about the experience so far, earthhurts.blogspot.com. I’ll probably be back down to hang out in a couple weeks to enjoy a sunset or two. Keep it safe and fly high…Kaj
any questions feel free to ask