Now THAT'S My Kinda Parachute! | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-09.15.25

AirborneNextGen-
09.09.25

Airborne-Unlimited-09.10.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-09.11.25

AirborneUnlimited-09.12.25

Mon, Jul 07, 2003

Now THAT'S My Kinda Parachute!

'Chute Saves Pilot's Life, Even Thought It Malfunctions

An Australian hang-glider pilot will actually live to get a refund on his malfunctioning emergency parachute. The Queensland Courier-Mail reports the 39-year old man was part of a group hang-gliding from Widgee Mountain, about 12 miles west of Gympie, Queensland.

One witness told the Courier-Mail that, soon after he launched from the east side of the mountain, the main spar on his glider collapsed. One man who saw the whole thing says "he fell virtually straight down" toward the ground, almost 400 feet below.

The pilot activated his glider's emergency chute. It only partially deployed.

And yet...

Just 35 feet above the ground, the chute snagged a tree limb. The pilot's fall was broken just before he hit the ground.

"He's dead lucky," said Energex Community Emergency Rescue helicopter pilot Creagh Meacham. "There's a lot of open spaces out there."

The pilot suffered a broken arm and a broken leg in the fall. Meacham said "He had very nasty injuries, but he'd probably be dead if he hadn't deployed the parachute."

FMI: www.hgfa.asn.au

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Final Report: Evektor-Aerotechnik A S Harmony LSA

Improper Installation Of The Fuel Line That Connected The Fuel Pump To The Four-Way Distributor Analysis: The airplane was on the final leg of a flight to reposition it to its home>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (09.15.25): Decision Altitude (DA)

Decision Altitude (DA) A specified altitude (mean sea level (MSL)) on an instrument approach procedure (ILS, GLS, vertically guided RNAV) at which the pilot must decide whether to >[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (09.15.25)

“With the arrival of the second B-21 Raider, our flight test campaign gains substantial momentum. We can now expedite critical evaluations of mission systems and weapons capa>[...]

Airborne 09.12.25: Bristell Cert, Jetson ONE Delivery, GAMA Sales Report

Also: Potential Mars Biosignature, Boeing August Deliveries, JetBlue Retires Final E190, Av Safety Awareness Czech plane maker Bristell was awarded its first FAA Type Certification>[...]

Airborne 09.10.25: 1000 Hr B29 Pilot, Airplane Pile-Up, Haitian Restrictions

Also: Commercial A/C Certification, GMR Adds More Bell 429s, Helo Denial, John “Lucky” Luckadoo Flies West CAF’s Col. Mark Novak has accumulated more than 1,000 f>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC