http://www.xccanhavk.org/

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2016

http://paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=40725

http://paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=40725&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=66

As many of you know, I crashed into trees in task three (my fault:
I was over-confident flying low into a turbulent gully to try to tag a
turnpoint). By an incredible stroke of luck, I was unharmed and able to free
myself, although my glider was stuck in a tree.

It took the organisation over four and a half hours to reach me, despite:

- me relaying a message by radio to the organisation immediately upon crashing
via pilots flying nearby

- me texting in my coordinates within two minutes of crashing

- my live tracker giving my coordinates directly to the organisation

- my location being 400m easy downhill walk through light woodland from a track,
1.2km from the first turnpoint

- me regularly calling the organisation (once per hour) to find out where the
rescue team was

- me being well-prepared to make the search as easy as possible with regular
calls on the safety frequency (no response) and blowing a whistle to guide
rescuers in the vicinity to my area. In short, it could not have been easier to
find me.

...

Seeing Luc pile in on his own glider was a shock for all of us. It has certainly
changed my viewpoint on the inherent safety of these gliders. Previously I was a
staunch advocate of Open Class, now I'm not so sure.

Don't put the X-Alps on a pedestal. From memory, in 2009 at least five pilots
out of thirty had accidents (Carter (crashed), Muller (shattered ankle),
Sprungli (back injury), Coconea (reserve) and Gleijsen (broken ankle)). This
year it was at least two (Springli hit cables and Pethigal crashed). The X-Alps
accident rate is not great.