http://ozreport.com/19.063#5

Pablo Miller <<pozablo>> writes:

That I had never flown or towed with a Sport 2 is true. It is also
true (and horrifying to me) that I was out of control as a result of misjudging
my skill and the conditions. The stitches in my chin, the soreness in my neck,
and a broken down tube are irrefutable evidence. And true that I'd had only a
few solos in the last 20 years, the first was 18 months ago at Valle del Bravo
after a single check-out tandem with Rudy Gotes. Some months later I had about 3
tandem aerotows in Texas but didn’t solo due to strong winds. Last May I had
about 5 tandems at QuestAir with Spinner. Then 3 solo aerotows there.

But, please allow me to correct some misinformation/misunderstanding in your
report of my behavior.

I have racked my brain to figure out how anybody could say that I have ever been
anything but humble in my conversations with other pilots, or how anyone could
say that I had to be talked out of flying on Saturday.

Out of all the conversations with other more experience pilots, two come back to
me as possibilities.

The first conversation took place on Saturday. The winds were strong, about 15
mph at ground level as I recall, but right down the runway and did not seem
gusty. I was asking a couple pilots what made that dangerous. I repeatedly
stated that I was not arguing, or contesting their opinion. I just wanted to
fully understand. Of course, when they reminded me that A) if it did get gusty
while I was up, it would be really nasty, and B) the wind gradient could be
strong, and C) at altitude the Dragonfly probably wouldn’t even be able to pull
me upwind of the field.

Oh.

Right.

Duh!

How anybody could interpret that as “had to be talked out of flying” is beyond
me. I never even pulled my glider out of the container on Saturday.

In the other conversation, I had mentioned to another pilot that when I soloed
almost a year ago at QuestAir, the only glider they had for me was the Falcon
195. I related that I found it too large, and was not much fun to fly. I live in
Mexico, and purchased a Falcon 170 believing that after a long time away from
flying I needed something really easy. I told him it was very fun but, as you no
doubt know, flying at Valle del Bravo felt a bit unsafe with the low penetration
of the Falcon. Then he told me he was flying a Falcon, and I thought “way to go,
Pablo. Foot in mouth”. Maybe he interpreted it as arrogant.

By the way, the first thing I did after releasing on my first flight in the 195
was to practice getting upright and steering from there. It was very difficult,
and I chose to actually land on the wheels.

Before the next flight I asked several people about it. Spinner hung me from the
static set-up, and he adjusted my harness properly. The next two flights I made
very nice foot landings, with only a couple steps. After that, I did feel
confident that I could safely handle a slightly more advanced wing. My previous
glider, albeit years ago, was a heavy clunky Moyes GTR which I flew with the
original DragginFlyers before we lost the ranch in Wildwood, Florida.

I truly believe that it would not be possible to find anyone who knows or has
known me or even spoken briefly with me who would say that I am arrogant, or
that I think that I can "handle anything”. While many pilots protect their
confidence by saying, when somebody screws up, “that could never happen to me
because _____ and _____ and ____” . I assure you that whether it’s fuel
mismanagement, downwind stall, or CFIT, I have never ever even thought that,
much less said it.

The reason I didn’t get off in the morning yesterday was that I took a very long
time carefully setting up my glider. After preflighting, I asked two other more
experienced Sport 2 owners, plus Jim Prahl, to look it over to check whether I
had done so correctly. By that time, the wind had picked up indeed.

Before that flight yesterday, I expressed to at least four other pilots that I
was more nervous about this flight than any other flight in my life. Just before
the tow, the tug pilot did say that it was getting a bit rough, but absolutely
nobody I spoke with tried to dissuade me from launching. Please do not interpret
this as my blaming them, or saying they should have. As PIC, I absolutely accept
full absolute responsibility for my poor decision.

Per the manual, I had the VG at ½ on the cart, but on the tug-pilot’s advice
reduced it to about 1/3. Not long after leaving the cart, I realized I was a bit
high, and pulled in so as not to adversely affect the tug. I then felt a wing
pick up and bumped to that side to get level. The glider did not react as I
expected, and I bumped again. That was the beginning of the PIO. About 50-75’
above the trees, I pinned off. PIO continued, but seemed to be dampening, and
the last thing I remember was A) trying unsuccessfully to release the VG in
order to improve responsiveness, and B) thinking “damn, I gonna have to start
getting upright”.

I have no memory after that until seeing the EMTs. Perhaps I tried a wheel
-landing, but if you look at how the wheels on that glider are mounted, you can
see this would have been really stupid. So I'm truly puzzled.

Clearly I should have focussed on aviating rather than messing with the VG, but
I had tested it on hang-check and it didn’t seem to be a problem.

Davis, I ask you to think about how it would affect my family if I had died, and
the published was the only account of how it happened.