Thermal Flyer: What discussions resulted from the initial report of your tumble April 15th at Merriam Crater?

Chad Koester: One of the first and most common discussions was regarding the sprog settings. This glider had formerly been a competition glider and it was commonly suggested that the sprogs were to low making the glider less stable. This was not the case as Wills Wing had returned everything to stock before hand. Consequently, this same situation would have happened regardless of what glider I was flying.

Another was the condition of my pitch adjuster prior to launch. Unfortunately, this is something that I don't really know. My preflight of my glider and harness is usually pretty thorough, but for some reason my procedure never included undoing the pitch adjuster line and looking at the part that resides inside the cleat. After the accident I did find obvious signs of the having been a small rock in the cleat, but I did not check this before this flight and is now what I consider the main cause of the accident.

Most wanted to know the equipment involved. The glider was a Wills Wing Fusion 150, Z-5 Harness and Charley Insider Helmet, and a High Energy Sports Quantum 330 parachute. I should take this opportunity to thank both High Energy and Wills Wing for the excellent quality products they produce. All of these products are direct reflections of the quality and integrity of the people producing them and they literally saved my life. Most people assume I thank Betty at High Energy, which is true, but don’t realize how much the Wills Wing equipment contributed in protecting me in the face my own mistake. If I had been in a weaker wing, it could have broken up much worse than it did and I could have been knocked unconscious or injured. Thanks to Betty and High Energy Sports for bringing me down gently, and thanks to everyone at Wills Wing for building strong wings.

Discussions also arose regarding doing 'radical maneuvers' in air like that. Those maneuvers are not what caused the accident. The pitch adjuster breaking during the moment I was heading into a vertical attitude caused this. If that line had maintained integrity, none of this would have happened. It is important for everyone to understand that this is not a case of the fabled 'I was just flying along and ...WHAM... I was tumbling!' What caused the tumble was effectively a failed maneuver resulting from a failed harness line resulting from a failed preflight!

How to get down in a convergence or over powering lift is the other major discussion that came about. Unfortunately, I had a set of circumstances that gave me the mind set that I needed to get down in the established lz (not that this mind set was right though). With a student waiting in the lz, not being dress appropriately and getting cold, not having water (which might have been a major part in the poor decision making - 2 hour flight in the desert dehydrates you quite a bit), getting repeatedly pushed to higher and higher altitudes each time I went back up, and not having a radio to tell anyone on the ground where I would go if flying a straight line until falling out of this effect were all concerns on my mind. The techniques needed to get me out of this situation were all things I knew and had used before, but a lack of patience and clear thinking due to all of the factors above cause some poor judgement.

A discussion that I raised for myself was what cause the structural failures in the wing. I knew that once you are in a tumble, all bets are off, but for my own piece of mind more in-depth understanding was needed. After the inspection what I found (and was helped to understand by Wills Wing and Rob McKenzie) was that the wing that broke did so in a strong negative 150 degree load. What this would essentially equate to is putting a glider on a tow truck and driving backwards down the road at high speed. The sprogs and outer leading edges were bent from the stresses, the right side just happened to be the one that broke first. With the type of forces exerted, I am surprised and glad that it did not break worse. I am however glad that it did break because I am pretty certain the wing breaking is what made the tumble stop and become a radical dive. The tumble was so disorienting that I could not find my chute handle even with my familiarity of deployments.

Thermal Flyer: It's been three months since your tumble and you just test flew the Fusion after repairing it. How has your perception changed about the tumble?

Chad Koester: When I wrote the initial report, I assumed that when the pitch adjuster broke I pulled in out of automatic reaction which would have been the wrong thing to do. Having wrote that while my mind was still pretty scattered, this became the story until I was in my training simulator showing someone else what happens when you lose a pitch adjuster. The moment I dumped my pitch adjuster and felt the sensation again of flipping over the bar so radically, I realized that I did not 'pull' in. When this line breaks, your head shoots forward through the control frame. Having a moment of shear terror, I wondered if I was about to be detached from everything, and the 'pulling in' of the bar was a product of my body rotation, not a reactive 'pull'. By the time I realized I was still attached it was already so quite it was scary from the apex of the vertical stall. My only thought was to hold on to the control bar as tightly as possible and try to come out of it, but the pitch-over was much too violent.

Thermal Flyer: What training did you receive concerning chute deployment?

Chad Koester: From the very beginning of my initial training, I have always been taught how to deploy. I learned to fly tandem and before I was ever allowed to fly solo, I had already done 2 hours of continual practice deployments. The first few times I took out a couple of toolboxes in my instructors’ shop. After a little practice, I could put my chute where I wanted even while being spun radically. Since then, I occasionally practice and have tried to get to every chute clinic I can. Even though I teach it to my students, every clinic provides something new because you can see not only how you react to the situation, but also how others react and you can learn from them. This is also why I have begun organizing chute clinics here in Arizona. Having the familiarity with the process is what allowed me to go immediately from step to step through the process without hesitation or the feeling of 'what do I do?!'

Thermal Flyer: As an instructor, what do you teach your students about how to handle situations where you cannot get down? About chute deployment?

Chad Koester: First and foremost, I suggest everyone fly with a drogue chute. Before this accident, I was somewhat hardcore about landings and not using drogues. I had the attitude of 'if you can't land there, you should not be flying there anyway'. Since this accident I have become quite the fan of drogue chutes for increasing sink rate to get down through lots of lift.

Beyond that, I tell my students to fly straight lines to try to leave lift, just as I SHOULD have done. I also require my students to be able to handle solid slipping turns, and mild wing-overs so they may be prepared for the air that we have in Arizona. Hang 1 ratings are not something I give students because a Hang 1 in Arizona is just enough to get you hurt. I also will not sign off Hang 2's just by the USHGA requirements, the physical skills need to be stronger and the written test must be %100. If the question is important enough to ask, you need to know the answer. If someone has problems with physical or theoretical skills, we simply keep working on it until they get it.

As for chute deployment, I go through the process extensively before I allow my students to go off of anything higher than 400 ft. I provide my students with a harness that has a parachute and will not allow them to fly in my program without both having the chute and the knowledge to use it. My training site is a few hours away from Phoenix in Flagstaff, so I carry a simulator with me and from time to time will use the rowdy middle part of the day for ground schooling at the campground. Among other things, parachute training is a topic taught during those sessions. Not only do we talk about how to use it, but when and why (some circumstances aren’t as obvious as you might think). Discussions of re-packing and how the deployment works is all part of it. I don’t want my students seeing their parachute as a bag of mystery on their chest that they hope to never understand.

Thermal Flyer: What has hind-sight taught you? What would you do differently if you could do it all over again?

Chad Koester: Mainly, I would have performed a better preflight on my harness. I cannot stress enough the importance of good preflight and my students will tell you, I constantly do things to make sure they are doing a good preflight as well. I am not sure why I did not check that line, but we live and learn.

Next I would have just spent a few minutes to relax and think my options out a little better. Even though I have been working to get down for 40 minutes, I still knew the right things to do, but did not do them because of frustration.

Also, I would be careful for what I wish for. I remember being on launch looking at the conditions thinking that this could be a sledder or just a short ride and wishing for a good long flight. Well, I got it. Since this time I have talked to many people who have been caught in big lift or convergence’s and they have all said the same thing. 'I have always dreamed of being in lift like that, but once I was there, it was an odd feeling of being out of control.' During the 40 minutes I also wished to be down...got that one too! (:o)

Thermal Flyer: Having gone through this situation, has there been any psychological affect on you? What innocence have you lost?

Chad Koester: In the weeks following, I was surprised at what my concerns became. I expected turbulence to scare me after having gone through such a violent tumble. Instead, what I found was that lift concerned me more. When getting in a thermal, I found myself diving out occasionally to confirm for myself that there was sink near by if I needed it. The next couple of flight were all thermally and a bit rowdy...but turned out to be exactly what I needed so that I could work through it all in my mind and rebuild my confidence in what I was doing.

As for losing innocence, that is not a way I had thought about it but suspect that might be pretty accurate. I have been trying to decide if it was confidence or arrogance that I lost, but innocence could very well be it as well. I no longer look at the air the same, every bump has new meaning and I have a completely different understanding than I previously had. Unfortunately, I don't think I can accurately describe it in words, it's just an intuitive feeling.

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