From: Matthew Key
To: apco
Sent: Tuesday , July 27, 2006 8:34 AM
Subject: mayday
Dear APCO Team,
I am sending you an incident report on my reserve deployment in North Cyprus in September 2004. I have done 80 flights, 59 of these from 750mt. On the day of deployment I had been thermalling for about 20 minutes in thermals that were a bit punchy. I started to desend and tried to sratch around for more thermals though there was a bit of turbalance. I was about 100mt from the mountain slope when I felt I wasn’t in control (I didn’t realise at the time but I was in deep stall) though the glider was still inflated. I pulled my reserve but didn’t throw it correctly.
It opened instantly, my main glider was still flying and didn’t pitch forward, while my reserve inflated above.
I came to land unhurt, still able to have some control of my main wing. I thankfully landed on my feet, even though I didn’t have the height or time to retrive my wing on desent. I realise now that I over reacted, I should have tried to correct the situation, though I now know how to open a reserve.
Thank You.
Matthew Key