Today was a horrible shock. Exactly the kind of thing I'd had bad imaginations and nightmares about when I first made the bold decision to learn how to fly. I think I'd gotten to a point in my experiences where the thought of simply falling out of the sky was not something I'd ever expect to actually happen. And there it happened, played out in clear reality, right in front of my eyes :( I'll tell you first that it's an image that I'll probably never forget. I just expected the wing to open back up, but it never did.
I didn't notice any initial oscillations that others apparently saw. What I did see was very simple and straightforward. I saw him raise the wing once and let it down before launching, then raise it again for a perfect takeoff. I did notice how much more quickly he was moving forward through the wind then Marty (I was impressed and thought to myself that I should really look more into reflex designs...). The wind was strong (15-20mph), and nothing about how he climbed out looked unusual for the strength of the conditions. Then the wing just instantly collapsed and folded over - almost entirely, maybe 90%. It was an assymetric collapse on his left side, with a complete front tuck, and complete loss of inflation. He told me that he was not yet in reflex mode at that point because he was still climbing out, and had only about 1" of trim out (Kevin later marked them at 1.25 - 1.5 inches). During the whole fall, he turned maybe 90 degrees - and if I remember correctly, it was not an even turn, but with some back and forth movement as he tried to recover the wing (maybe that's what others saw as the oscillation). He had virtually none of the wing inflated, but there was definitely some drag, since he and the wing were changing directions. I think he was about 75-80 feet above the ground when the wing collapsed, and I just kept expecting it to open. But it just simply never re-inflated. The wing was above his head the whole time, but not catching air in a way that allowed it to reinflate - sort of as if the air over the top of the wing was pushing down. I thought it looked like the wing was beginning to open back up several times, and I think it actually did begin to do so maybe 5-10 feet above the ground, but then the impact occured instantly. It was loud, and obviously destructive. He rolled a bit after hitting the ground. When I reached him, he was clearly in pain and injured. He wanted to be removed from the harness and machine. I undid the buckles, and then Helena arrived and warned of moving his back and head. I'm very glad she and others were there with some knowledge of how to handle him :) I was in a bit of real shock after seeing the collapse, the fall, the impact, and then talking to him and trying to help. I've rarely felt so helpless in my life...
I just got a call from Kevin, letting me know that the lumbar part of his spine is in pieces, but apparently he can still move. I'm so grateful that others were there to help keep him totally still. I'm not sure if I'd have done the right thing - he really wanted to shift position to get more comfortable.
The cage took an enormous hit, with pieces of metal broken in half and totally crumpled. Ryan said that he accidentally gave more throttle while he was trying to turn off the engine. I think this may have helped to save him a bit, first because it may have pushed him into a position where the cage took more of the impact, and second because it may have helped the wing to catch just a bit more air to slow the descent a bit. I have no clue if either of those thoughts are true, but I do know that if he'd landed more forward with the engine above him, things would have been much worse.
Marty also got into a very dangerous situation trying to land nearby and help. He was immediately blown back and pulled over into a position where his neck could've been broken. I didn't see any of that, but he says that Maury and another person saved his life by getting him turned over quickly.
I can't stop the memory of the whole event from replaying over and over in my head. This was a perspective shattering event, mixed with feelings of worry about how he's going to be, and about how dangerous PPG can potentially be. That could have happened to any one of us on the hill. I was tied in and ready to take another free flight right when it happened. I'd never expected that a wing could just fall that far out of the sky with no recovery. I haven't ever even seen something like that in any video anywhere, and I can't believe that it happened so quickly and so helplessly right in front of us. I'm definitely going to choose the air I fly in more carefully, and the image of that fall is going to be playing in my head every time I take off, for a very long time :( It was a horrible feeling to witness so much pain come from such a quick and helpless event, and I hope he recovers completely!