Reserve Deployment at Castle Rock - a lucky escape

Graham Kendall
Aug 7, 2016
3 min read

Chris's account in that month's safety report is available here.

Took off around midday (no one else there) and flew to Browncove Crag at which point it turned from W to WSW/SW so top landed as the lift died.

Waited until some good thermal cycles came through and took off again. The wind was also top end Made my way back to Castle Rock where I estimate I was about 200-300 foot above the top It was fairly rough but manageable Then had a big blow out (a frontal collapse I think) the wing reopened asymmetrically and cascaded entering a steep dive (wing below me) which I countered, but with a large asymmetric collapse, then it entered a rapid spiral dive in the opposite direction at about 150 foot I didn’t have time to sort this out so decided to throw the reserve I watched it deploy and willed it to open as the bag flew away It quickly deployed but oscillated as the paraglider uncontrollably banged into the reserve (and it spun me around the reserve) I tried to collapse it pulling on the A’s but it reinflated so I grabbed the brakes and pulled the lines and it eventually collapsed just before I hit the ground. As I approached the ground I saw some big boulders that I was heading for as I was being drifted into the hillside I knew then I had to get my legs out of the pod and into a PLF ready for a big impact Amazingly I hit the ground without any great impact or pain I was expecting a really hard landing and to have some bad injuries from this but as soon as I hit the ground the reserve stayed inflated and dragged me down into Mill Gill (see photos) I tried to grab the grass and anything I could to stop me from falling down into the rocky gorge but my rate of descent seemed to increase as I was dragged onto the wing and reserve accelerating my speed down into the steep hillside toward the stream about 40-50 foot below I managed to get my feet away from the wing and into contact with the ground and came to a stop before the last 10-15 foot drop into the rocky stream bed How lucky was I !! (Phew another close miss of a number I’ve experienced over the years whilst indulging in other periods of obsession from skydiving, climbing, scuba diving etc I think I’m lucky to still be here at times!) My second close call, paragliding this year.

I take the blame for this one not gaining enough height before reaching Castle Crag I could have topped up but was trying to get to Clough Head to meet up with a new pilot who was flying the site for the first time I was also flying on speedbar for most of the time in strong wind and thermals I was below ridge height and ended up in turbulent air coming over the top of St Johns in the Vale and Castle Crag in a WSW-W direction.

Addendum

I think over confidence played a big part in this incident This wing (Cayenne 5) feels very stable, and safe in comparison to the last two wings I've flown (less feedback, lower aspect ratio, lower classification etc) I haven't had any collapses what so ever whilst flying it and I'd regained the confidence I'd lost following my last incident!

I think its worth highlighting that what ever category of wing, they can still collapse, and that pilots should not rely on their wing to keep them safe !!