Waltm
01-08-2006, 05:51 PM
On Christmas morning about 11:00am, I had finished dinner preparations enough to head out to the airport to do another "Santa run" in my powered parachute. The winds had been so strong the previous few days that I hadn't been able to go out like I had planned.
I dressed up in my Santa suit, grabbed a few bags of mints, and headed out to the airport to pull my powered parachute out of the hanger where it was patiently waiting next to my Starduster.
The winds were out of the north-northwest just off the runway about 7 mph. Not bad enough to stop me and definitely down the runway enough for me to get off safely - or so I thought.
The airport was closed on Christmas morning and I was the only one there. As I pulled the Santa suit on over my clothes, Bob Parks landed in his bonanza and put it away. Bob has a hanger just a few down from me and is a genuinely nice fellow. He laughed and chatted with me for a minute while I warmed up my machine and pulled on my red overcoat and beard. We said our goodbyes and I taxied out to the runway and set up about halfway up the hill. Bob pulled over in his truck to watch me take off. Everyone at the airport likes to watch me take off in my powered parachute.
I noticed that the wind was starting to change directions a little - sometimes it was blowing straight down the runway and sometimes was almost a direct crosswind. I sat on the ground and watched the windsock for a minute until I thought that it would be safe to depart. I powered up and the chute came up overhead. Almost immediately after it got overhead, a strong gust of wind came out of the west and pushed it over onto the side. I counteracted with my steering bar and brought it back up overhead again. When I thought that it had stabilized overhead safely again, I gave it full power and headed down the runway.
Just as the wheels left the ground, another strong gust from the west hit again and pulled the chute over again. I was travelling at about 35 mph by this time and was just lifting off when the right wheel came back down and hit the pavement with a lot of sideload. The wheel grabbed and the whole cart leaned over to the right and started to go over. I tried to steer left but had no purchase on the nose wheel because it wasn't loaded with enough weight to grab the runway. Another gust hit again at just the wrong moment and I lost control. The cart rolled and started tumbling rapidly. I was aware of everything and was trying to keep my head low to keep from hitting the ground. On the third tumble, I lost my game with the ground when the machine came down straight on top of my head and jammed me headfirst into the ground stunning me completely. It stopped on the fourth roll upside down on top of me.
Anyone who's played football probably knows what a "stinger" feels like. It's when you take a fall and land on your head - jamming your head onto your spinal column with enough force to temporarily paralyze you. That's what happened to me. I couldn't move. Fuel was spilling out of the tank onto me and I was hanging by my harness in the ppc. I was able to pull the release on the harness and fall to the ground but couldn't move enough to push the machine off of me. Somewhere in the rolling and tumbling, my head had hit the ground and had knocked my contact lens out of my eye so I was effectively blind and paralyzed with fuel pouring on me. One spark and it would have been all over.
Bob ran over and was barely able to pull the machine off of me. I crawled a few feet away and lay on the ground without moving. The pain in my neck and back was blinding. Unfortunately, my strong constitution (the one time that I'm gonna complain about it) kept me from going into shock so I was completely cognizant of the whole incident and the aftermath. I made a point of moving my feet, legs, arms and fingers to make sure that I wasn't paralyzed then pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and called my daughters who were at home fixing Christmas dinner.
While Bob worked on getting my damaged ppc off of the runway I lay there and tried to get my head together. After about 10 minutes, I was strong enough to sit up, get helped into his truck and lie there to rest. My daughters showed up a few minutes later and helped him bag the chute and pull my damaged machine to the t-hanger area and park it.
Strong-minded old me, I made my daughters take me home and got into bed. My left eye had turned completely black and had closed up so I was effectively blind. After about an hour of cajoling, they got me to agree to go to the emergency room and see a doctor.
It was probably a good thing. I needed the pain medication and muscle relaxer that the doctor (who was also a pilot) prescribed. Cracked rib, contused spine, chipped vertebrae in my neck and one hellova shiner. I made it through Christmas dinner and the opening of presents by sheer force of will after which I spent 4 days in bed unable to move.
My Destiny powered parachute must have taken one heck of a beating. The damage is easily repairable but I was going to get a new ppc in the Spring anyway - and now Destiny has closed up shop so it'll probably be difficult to get replacement parts. The two main upright support tubes sheared completely. They dropped the whole top of the rollbar 2-3" - just enough to where it didn't cover my head anymore and let it jam into the ground. The prop ring is trashed on one side and the prop is completely destroyed. The instrument pod will probably need to be replaced but might be repairable. The amazing thing is that it hit and rolled so hard that the two main tubes sheared away completely. I can't even contemplate how that might have happened.
I'm getting better. The shiner is almost gone. I went to my eye doctor and found out that I did no damage to my one remaining good eye. My back and neck are still giving me a little problem but I don't let it stop me. I can't sit up for very long without support or it starts to burn. I'm gonna give it another week or so before I go to a back specialist - gotta get the swelling down a bit.
At least I'm up and around and flying again. I didn't let it keep me down for long. I wasn't able to fly for long but I did make some small jaunts in my Comanche and my Starduster for the first three days of the year.
Been a long time since I had an accident that bad. I'm glad that the old body is still able to shrug it off but I'd much rather that it hadn't happened. Oh, well... on the bright side - I now have an engine for the Fokker DR-1 project that I'm building.
This was pilot error - simple as that. The wind was only about 7 mph but was starting to change directions fairly rapidly. I should have stayed on the ground. If I had pulled the throttle when it started to go over I probably wouldn't have rolled so violently. Steve Thomas and I are now in contention for the bonehead of the year award. :-)
Walt...
I dressed up in my Santa suit, grabbed a few bags of mints, and headed out to the airport to pull my powered parachute out of the hanger where it was patiently waiting next to my Starduster.
The winds were out of the north-northwest just off the runway about 7 mph. Not bad enough to stop me and definitely down the runway enough for me to get off safely - or so I thought.
The airport was closed on Christmas morning and I was the only one there. As I pulled the Santa suit on over my clothes, Bob Parks landed in his bonanza and put it away. Bob has a hanger just a few down from me and is a genuinely nice fellow. He laughed and chatted with me for a minute while I warmed up my machine and pulled on my red overcoat and beard. We said our goodbyes and I taxied out to the runway and set up about halfway up the hill. Bob pulled over in his truck to watch me take off. Everyone at the airport likes to watch me take off in my powered parachute.
I noticed that the wind was starting to change directions a little - sometimes it was blowing straight down the runway and sometimes was almost a direct crosswind. I sat on the ground and watched the windsock for a minute until I thought that it would be safe to depart. I powered up and the chute came up overhead. Almost immediately after it got overhead, a strong gust of wind came out of the west and pushed it over onto the side. I counteracted with my steering bar and brought it back up overhead again. When I thought that it had stabilized overhead safely again, I gave it full power and headed down the runway.
Just as the wheels left the ground, another strong gust from the west hit again and pulled the chute over again. I was travelling at about 35 mph by this time and was just lifting off when the right wheel came back down and hit the pavement with a lot of sideload. The wheel grabbed and the whole cart leaned over to the right and started to go over. I tried to steer left but had no purchase on the nose wheel because it wasn't loaded with enough weight to grab the runway. Another gust hit again at just the wrong moment and I lost control. The cart rolled and started tumbling rapidly. I was aware of everything and was trying to keep my head low to keep from hitting the ground. On the third tumble, I lost my game with the ground when the machine came down straight on top of my head and jammed me headfirst into the ground stunning me completely. It stopped on the fourth roll upside down on top of me.
Anyone who's played football probably knows what a "stinger" feels like. It's when you take a fall and land on your head - jamming your head onto your spinal column with enough force to temporarily paralyze you. That's what happened to me. I couldn't move. Fuel was spilling out of the tank onto me and I was hanging by my harness in the ppc. I was able to pull the release on the harness and fall to the ground but couldn't move enough to push the machine off of me. Somewhere in the rolling and tumbling, my head had hit the ground and had knocked my contact lens out of my eye so I was effectively blind and paralyzed with fuel pouring on me. One spark and it would have been all over.
Bob ran over and was barely able to pull the machine off of me. I crawled a few feet away and lay on the ground without moving. The pain in my neck and back was blinding. Unfortunately, my strong constitution (the one time that I'm gonna complain about it) kept me from going into shock so I was completely cognizant of the whole incident and the aftermath. I made a point of moving my feet, legs, arms and fingers to make sure that I wasn't paralyzed then pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and called my daughters who were at home fixing Christmas dinner.
While Bob worked on getting my damaged ppc off of the runway I lay there and tried to get my head together. After about 10 minutes, I was strong enough to sit up, get helped into his truck and lie there to rest. My daughters showed up a few minutes later and helped him bag the chute and pull my damaged machine to the t-hanger area and park it.
Strong-minded old me, I made my daughters take me home and got into bed. My left eye had turned completely black and had closed up so I was effectively blind. After about an hour of cajoling, they got me to agree to go to the emergency room and see a doctor.
It was probably a good thing. I needed the pain medication and muscle relaxer that the doctor (who was also a pilot) prescribed. Cracked rib, contused spine, chipped vertebrae in my neck and one hellova shiner. I made it through Christmas dinner and the opening of presents by sheer force of will after which I spent 4 days in bed unable to move.
My Destiny powered parachute must have taken one heck of a beating. The damage is easily repairable but I was going to get a new ppc in the Spring anyway - and now Destiny has closed up shop so it'll probably be difficult to get replacement parts. The two main upright support tubes sheared completely. They dropped the whole top of the rollbar 2-3" - just enough to where it didn't cover my head anymore and let it jam into the ground. The prop ring is trashed on one side and the prop is completely destroyed. The instrument pod will probably need to be replaced but might be repairable. The amazing thing is that it hit and rolled so hard that the two main tubes sheared away completely. I can't even contemplate how that might have happened.
I'm getting better. The shiner is almost gone. I went to my eye doctor and found out that I did no damage to my one remaining good eye. My back and neck are still giving me a little problem but I don't let it stop me. I can't sit up for very long without support or it starts to burn. I'm gonna give it another week or so before I go to a back specialist - gotta get the swelling down a bit.
At least I'm up and around and flying again. I didn't let it keep me down for long. I wasn't able to fly for long but I did make some small jaunts in my Comanche and my Starduster for the first three days of the year.
Been a long time since I had an accident that bad. I'm glad that the old body is still able to shrug it off but I'd much rather that it hadn't happened. Oh, well... on the bright side - I now have an engine for the Fokker DR-1 project that I'm building.
This was pilot error - simple as that. The wind was only about 7 mph but was starting to change directions fairly rapidly. I should have stayed on the ground. If I had pulled the throttle when it started to go over I probably wouldn't have rolled so violently. Steve Thomas and I are now in contention for the bonehead of the year award. :-)
Walt...