Plummet said..
So I got to fly an 18m Chrono V1 today. It was a gusty 10-15 knots and I was close to buildings and trees. So it seems a like similar sounding conditions to this accident. In fact max gust from a nearby weather station lists 17 knot gust.
Anyway. I had this thing at the zenith skidded around doing a few landboard jumps and static jumps.
There's no way a 15 knot gust is going to loft an experienced guy like Johnno 25 feet in the air. No way at all.
Something far more significant must have happened. I don't know what that is. Maybe a 20 knot gust? maybe some crazy thermal updraft? Perhaps the paragliding guys can add some experiences?
I was out on the water upwind in the middle of the river around the same time of the accident or just prior.It was light, but there was clear little bullets of pressure you could see coming across the water. Id wait for these before doing tacks, i cant tack under-powered. The reason i cut my session short, rather than wait for the lads who id see getting ready on the beach a couple minutes earlier was it was getting gusty but still very light conditions in between further out on the water, and yes it was very light. But with gust that id nearly full depower for whilst traveling at speed. Id wait for the clear pockets of pressure coming across the water and use them to tack. i cant tack under powered and 10-12 knots on 15m i struggle to tack.
The last tack i did before i headed for home, as i came into the tack, on the foil board and 15m kite on 21m lines, fully sheeted out and only one hand on the bar... as the kite came past 12 and the gust really kicked in, I was lofted 3-4m straight up, and came straight down landing on my back next to my board. that's was final straw i called it quits and headed for beach. The gust were not wind lines wide across but very clear little bullets. That said these would not have been visible from the launch area. Had i had my 19m with me that day, standing on the beach I would have absolutely also put it up. Standing on the beach it would have been my 1st choice had i had my 19m on hand.
The BOM station at Dolphin point picked up 10-16knots around the time of the accident. But on a WSW that location is blocked by a extra land mass compare to Melville further down. It could certainly have been much higher than 16knot, id certainly agree with that theory.
