On Sunday, while Mark Bolt and I were out flying to the south, there was a landing mishap here in the huge open soft green landing field at Cloud 9. An ATOS V pilot (no need to name him) was coming in on approach at 30+ mph when at about twenty five feet the glider nosed over and dove straight into the ground.

The pilot survived with his chin guard broken off and his front mounted parachute container ripped off his harness. He was up and walking around soon after smacking in.

The ATOS carbon fiber control frame was destroyed as were some ribs and perhaps other damage to the d-cells. The tail was split.

Tracy Tillman reported that the conditions got nastier and nastier during the day as cold dry northern air came into the area, producing turbulence and lots of "bullet" thermals. He feels that the pilot just went "over the falls" at twenty five feet and there was no time for recovery.

Tracy mentioned that he and Lisa have both had experiences coming into land (not necessarily here) at 30+ mph and instantly found themselves on the ground from ten feet above it.

Perhaps you have experiences like this or have an idea of what would have caused this.

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