From: Jeffrey Hillman
To: apco@apcoaviation.com through Carlos Rafael
Sent: Tuesday , Nov 18, 2006 15:52
Subject: Reserve deployment
Hi Carlos, Just to let you know that my purchase of a Mayday 18 earlier this year turned out to be a good idea. I flew into a dusty at the De Aar fun comp at about 70m and suffered two major assymetrics; the second one being on the side that I had weight shifted to in order to counter the first collapse and so the glider (Aspen2)then went into a very strong spiral dive. I realised in a somewhat detached fashion that I did not have the height to recover so I threw my rag. I was amazed at how quickly I felt the reassuring “jerk” and even more so at how soon I landed afterwards, fortunately out of my harness and in a good PLF
position. I suffered no injury in spite of landing on the side of a road embankment and having no time to collapse the glider. Witnesses on launch about 400m away reckon that the chute deployed sideways (because of the g force that I was experiencing) and that as it swung above me, I landed! Height of deployment was less than 50m so there is always a last chance! Do I now get a low save T-Shirt!!!!
Kind regards, Jeff
Professor Jeffrey C Hillman
School of Mechanical, Industrial & Aeronautical Engineering University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg