"Hardware store"

Finally I've been able to get some xrays onto my laptop; it looks, as if I could have cleared out the hardware supply at the hospital in 'Chur' :-)

lumbar vertebrae 1-5

lumbar vertebrae 1-5

pelvis / left thigh

left shoulder joint

7.3.12. 'Rescue sequence' (detailed account by 'Oli')

Sorry, for the time being only in German...

"Nach meiner Landung sah ich Dich etwa 300- 400m über Maran am Kreisen in der Thermik.
Danach schnallte ich mich los und begann den Schirm zusammenzupacken.
Als ich ein Zischen in der Luft hörte, drehte ich mich um und sah Dich in einer Spirale rund 30m über dem See. Ich schätzte die Spirale auf rund 20m/s. Optisch war sofort klar, dass es sich nicht um einen Piloten handelte, der mit einer Bodenspirale landen wollte. Dafür war der ROD (rate of descent) zu hoch und die Kappe zu stark gegen den Boden gerichtet.

Nach dem Aufschlag habe ich Dich am Himmel über Maran gesucht und erst da wurde mir klar, dass es sich um Dich handelte. Ich habe die Rettung angerufen, die aber schon verständigt worden ist und bin um den See gerannt.

Deine Position war etwa 50m vom Ufer weg, in der Nähe des Parkplatzes beim Bahnhof. Ich kam zu Dir auf den See raus und Maik und der Swiss F/A waren schon bei Dir.
Du warst bei Bewusstsein, konntest die Beine bewegen und die linke, eingeklemmte Schulter verursachte starke Schmerzen.
Auf dem Schnee konnte man den Abdruck sehen, den die Eintrittskante beim Aufschlag verursacht hatte.
Wir haben dann einfach versucht, Dich mit Reden bei Bewusstsein zu halten. Deine wiederholte Bitte, Dich auf den Rücken zu drehen und die Schulter so zu entlasten habe ich abgelehnt.
Das Risiko bezügl. Rücken war mir zu gross und Deine Lage auf der linken Seite wäre auch bei Bewusstlosigkeit fast ideal gewesen.

Nach einiger Zeit, ich schätze etwa 10min, kam das Krankenauto. Die beiden Retter entschlossen sich aber gegen eine Rettung, da ihnen das Risiko im Eis einzubrechen zu gross schien.
Ich lief zu Ihnen raus, um damit zu zeigen, dass das Eis hält und um Schwimmwesten oder Seil zu bekommen. Sie hatten aber nichts dabei und wollten nicht raus.
Beim um den See joggen hatte ich aber gehört, dass die Rega unterwegs ist und kam wieder zu Euch raus.

Kurz darauf hörten wir den Heli (Basis Samedan) und ich nahm den Schirm zusammen.
Der Helikopter landete auf dem Parkplatz und der Rettungssanitäter kam mit dem Arzt zu uns auf den See. Sie brachten allen Schwimmwesten mit und leisteten Dir erste Hilfe. Ich schnitt Dich vom Gurtzeug/ Schirm los und zusammen drehten wir Dich auf die Seite und hoben Dich auf die Vakuummatratze/ Bahre.
Die Regacrew entschied sich für eine Rettung mit der Winde und lud Dich danach auf dem Parkplatz in den Heli.

Ich brachte darauf Deine Ausrüstung ans Ufer, wo die Polizei bereit stand und sie beschlagnahmte.
Später musste ich auf den Posten, wo ich als Auskunftsperson befragt wurde und ein
Protokoll aufgenommen wurde.
Zuvor hatte ich noch Ruth per Telefon verständigt."

>> Vielen Dank Oli für die detaillierte Zusammenfassung!

Bemerkung meinerseits:
Vermutlich war es sogar gut, dass sich die 'Aroser' nicht aufs Eis gewagt haben und die Bergung der REGA überlassen haben; haben die REGA-Leute doch (vermutlich) die wesentlich grössere Erfahrung mit solch komplizierten Unfällen; auch hätte ein Trsp zu Fuss mit der Bahre ans Ufer (ausser Risiken) auch nicht wirklich etwas gebracht und von dort hätte mich die REGA dann ja eh übernehmen müssen, denn ein Trsp mit dem Sanitätsauto nach Chur dürfte wohl kaum zur Diskussion gestanden haben...

Résumé (so far)

The only thing I can say: I have been EXTREMELY fortunate!
Fortunate in EVERY aspect:
- that I'm not dead/ paralyzed/ drowned in the lake where I crashed (I 'was landed' on the partly frozen lake);
- that I crashed on snow and not on something harder;
- that the accident happened in Switzerland and not anywhere else: extremely experienced Medevac crew (Doctor, assistant, pilot);
- that Medevac arrived within 15minutes; only 12 minutes flight to the
hospital;
- that in that hospital they have a very experienced specialist for
vertebrae 'problems';
- that only my left side (arm/ leg) is affected (apart from my back), so
I can use my 'untouched' right side without restrictions in order to
help me move etc;
- that a very good friend of ours, himself a doctor, lives just 5
minutes from the hospital, so he visited almost every second evening and
was also able to help me understand what was going on ('medically
speaking') and help me take some decisions regarding where to go for
rehab etc
- lucky also that I was in 'Chur', so some of my friends from high
school have been able to visit;
- Rehab now is only a 40 minutes drive from home for Ruth;

Your big question most probably is: what happened?
I have to say that honestly I don't know!
Of course there is some speculation on my part as to what happened, but
it is only speculation!
I wanted to fly an (easy) spiral (3 or 4 turns) above the lake before
landing on the side of the lake.
During this spiral - I assume - I must have lost consciousness;
I didn't (re)act at all: no trying of getting out of the spiral, no
thought of throwing my reserve, no nothing...
And that is also the reason that most probably I'll stop flying -
because I don't have any explanation and therefore the same thing could
happen on my 'next' flight and I'd be none the wiser...
Further more (as I mentioned above) my guardian angel has been working
overtime and I have no intention to get him into the same situation any
time soon.

So I'll be here in rehab at least until April, 27th, then I don't know yet.
I'm hoping that by then I'll be able to handle 'normal lives chores' by
myself/ with only a minimum of assistance and can return home.

Wald

looking out of my room/ balcony

Between days with snow/ rain, a beautiful spring day here in Wald...
Yesterday (tuesday) therapies have started in earnest; best of all is the daily visit to the pool for 30 minutes - here my body can really relax freed of any weight!

Happy Easter!!

G Force Trainer

G-Force Trainer

In view of the most probable reason for my accident (black-out during spiral) I can only recommend to all PG pilots a training with the G Force Trainer in Malans...

Rehab

Chur; Blick auf den Calanda

FR, 6th, April I'll be transferred to 'Wald' for 3 weeks of rehab...

Arosa (7.3.2012) - last / final (?) flight

This is the "result" of my last PG-flight...

For reasons unknown/ unexplicable to me I entered a stable spirale dive and crashed onto the 'Obersee' with an estimated 10-20m/sec

I had to medevaced by REGA to 'Chur' (Kantonsspital) where in the following week 4 (!) emergency procedures had been necessary to fix all the broken bones, ribs and vertebraes.
Now, after > 3 weeks I'm still in the hospital, but I in a very stable state, much better than could have been expected by the initial multiple traumas...

What was broken/ damaged:
broken ribs left 2-10/ right 1
broken left arm/ leg
broken sternum (?)
broken: LWK 1-4 (instable)

I'm looking forward to Rehab and as a motivation for myself, I did not cancel/ postpone the planned houseboat trip in CDN with Ruth starting June 20th...

Arosa (again)

After almost one month without flying, finally a few days here in Arosa.
Especially Wednesday was quite good: seldom the conditions on top of the 'Weisshorn' are so good for launching: steady winds from NE, with almost no variation in speed and direction... Also nice thermals up to almost 2700m. Today (Thursday) the atmosphere was much more stable: tops at 2300m max.

ZA'12: Fazit

Besides the travel days I was able to fly on every single day!
11 days: 12 flights in 9 different sites (thereof 8 new ones): total airtime: 19.25hrs, that makes an average flight time of 1h36min; longest flight just over 6hrs and 130kms.
Taking hundreds of pictures and meeting some old and many new friends...

Rain and travel

Today we got lots of liquid sunshine...
Markus's group will use the day as a travel day back to CPT, hoping to be able to make a flight along the way.
I will leave them at George (GRJ) in order to catch my flight to JNB and then LX to ZRH.
I have to admit that I'm not really looking forward to the subzero temperatures there...

Be it as it is.
It has been a great holiday, first with Andy and then with Markus.
Of course we wouldn't have flown nearly as much without the expertise of Barry. Many thanks also to Candice for organizing everything so perfectly!

Gericke's Point (> Paradise Ridge)

Gericke's Point - Paradise ridge (on left)

Today we've encountered much better conditions at Gericke's Point than 2 days ago: much better and higher climbs, less people flying and being able to cross over to Paradise ridge.
Unfortunately rain cut the soaring on Paradise ridge short :-((

Wilderness Beach Hotel (aka Holiday Inn)

Unfortunately the wind was too strong until late afternoon.
Therefore we went to Knysna Elefant Park first.
Then Barry got the message that it had become flyable, so we drove back to Sedgville to pick up our gear and then on to Wilderness.
Nice little site with an interesting TO between the buildings. At times quite a large number of pilots in the air, but luckily (with very few exeptions) all stuck to the ridge rules.

looking South

looking North (Paradise ridge in the background)

Gericke's Point (Sedgeville)

Another great day here in the Wilderness area.
We left (a little) early for Gericke. But we had to wait a while before the wind became strong enough, so that we could stay up.

launch

looking SW towards launch

Finally the wind became just strong enough, so all uf us (and some others as well) could easily launch. Unluckily the wind remaind weak and out of the East, so that a crossing over to 'Paradise Ridge' was impossible.

Paradise ridge

After all had sunk out we drove over to 'Major Dad' on Paradise Ridge, but the winds were too much cross, so no launching from this rampe here.

Major Dad -ramp

looking South along Paradise ridge

But Candice and Barry prepared an excellent 'Braai' for us.

Map of Africa (Wilderness)

Map of Africa (launch)

First day with the new group from "FS Jura" (Markus Surenmann).
Early wake-up call (0500) and departure (0600) for George/ Wilderness - it was a 6.5hr drive (with a stop for breakfast at Heidelberg and a wheel change as well).
At Wilderness already quite a number af PG's were soaring 'Map of Africa', so that's where we went.
After a quick briefing by Barry and Markus we laid out in the nice SSE brise (a little cross from the left). Almost everybody got at least an hour of soaring.

launch

Indian Ocean

Later we checked-in at "Birdmen's place" in Sedgeville.

Macassar: "if"

... "if"
- we'd left at 1100 as planned,
- there hadn't been a traffic jam,
we could have flown 1 hour more before the wind became to strong...

Macassar launch

Taggi

Marcel

Today Andy's group is leaving and Markus' group will be coming.
I'll see them early in the morning (around 0600), as we'll leave for Wilderness.

Porterville: if the going gets tough, the tough get going ;-)

Daytrip to Porterville:
we left shortly after 0800 and by 1120 the last one (me...) was airborne.
The day was blue, only late in the afternoon a few 'puffs' showed up. But thermals have been great and not too turbulent.

Pampoenfontein launch

In the beginning I headed South along the ridge , trailing the others - but I didn't venture as far South as them, because it was my first flight in this direction. After about 22km I turned and together with Albert we flew North.

heading North

I turned a little earlier than Albert South again. From the place I landed on my first flight (23.1.12) I tried to fly back to launch, bt it was a continous battle against the wind, half of the time I had to use my speed-bar in order to keep the GS at least above 20kmh... All the others had landed in the meantime, as they didn't much like the upwind battle.

back at launch

Exactly after 6 hours I was back above launch. A few minutes after landing - I had already started packing my glider - the wind speed increased even further to > 35kmh.
Great day in cool company!

Dinner again at the 'Cattle Baron'; for all the others it's their last evening here in ZA.

Paarl Rock: the early bird catches the worm ;-)

After an excellent dinner at the "Cattle Baron" in Table View (300gr Chateaubriand for 155ZAR (=15EUR =20CHF) we left at 0800 for Paarl.

Barry soaring

Barry and Dominik laid out quickly and departed - that would later prove to have been a wise move.
They got to about 600m over. After a short wihle the wind increased and for times TO became impossible, later Paarl Rock was blown out completely.

Dominik

We then went to the "Delheim" winery for wine tasting and lunch (Oystrich bobotie: very nice!); in the afternoon some decicded to go downtown for sightseeing and shopping, the rest returned to Barry's place in Table View.

the view from the restaurant at the "Delheim" winery (in the background: Cape Town)

the 'gang' having lunch/ wine tasting

Porterville

We stayed for the night in Eendekuil at the Eendekuil hotel: nice, clean. In the morning we drove again to the 'Pampoenfontein'-launch.

Pampoenfontain launch

The day was almost 'blue'.

Dasklip pass road

I was looking for thermals above the foothills, but everybody who did that sank out - close to the mountain and above the ridge would have been the place...

(very) sporty: Porterville

Leaving CPT shortly after 0800 and arriving on the upper launch at Porterville/ Dasklippass at 1100; airborne by 1140.

upper launch at Dasklip

Already quite a number of pilots from another group were flying, so there was no shortage of winddummies - but none the less I had 2 low saves.As the day wore on , conditions became stronger: really great climbs!


But the wind speed also increased and prohibited me from flying back to Porterville. I had to outland with vitrually no forward speed anymore...
Everybody got to the ground safely - I was the last to land.