Paraglider injured on the CSR

Sorry people I pressed submit before spell check.

It was a lovely article, the lady who wrote it was so pleased with their trip, there was not one winge, just all praise for what they had seen. We want to do the Canning one day and it would be nice if it was green and the bushes and trees were flowering then, but we have to get away from here first! Cheers Toni

I can add some information on this.

We were camped on the edge of Lake Disappointment when the para glider took off and buzzed over the dry lake in front of our camp. He even gave us a wave. He then turned to try and go back up wind but was not making much headway. Another loop and the wind caught the parachute half collapsing it and we watched as he spiraled down and crashed heavily just behind a dune from us. We could hear him and friends talking on the UHF.

Clearly the support crew were watching for the next moment 3 landrovers came rushing down the Canning Stock Route past our camp to rescue him. Last we heard on the radio they had picked him up and given him some (maybe lots) of pain killers and he was 'resting comfortably' in the back while they made the torturous journey north to probably Cotton Creek. A few more radio communications we heard were about using a SAT phone to call ahead for medical treatment.

Not much more to tell other than look at the photos.

Cheers

Serendipity

I am a paraglider pilot. Technically he was flying a Powered Paraglider. This is with a motor and 'fan' on his back which allows him to take off from a flat area as apposed to running off a mountain and flying without the help of a motor, using only thermals (hot air) to rise.

About 5 kms north of Well 26 I heard about this accident from a couple who had assisted in communications. They had the SAT phone and drove with them to keep emergency communication open. According to the couple, two brothers were flying individual powered paragliders on this trip with their father as part of the support crew. They suspected at the time that he had broken the top of his thigh bone and suspected hip breaks as well due to pain. Details unconfirmed. A crushed vertebra as in the above report is typical damage for paragliding accidents. I damaged two in my own paragliding accident a year and a half ago.

Something to note. The couple mentioned that there was another large convoy in the area that was transmitting on the UHF continuously during this emergency and evacuation. Conversation that was unnecessary and mundane as often occurs between travelling vehicles. The convoy of emergency vehicles had difficulty getting a word in the radio traffic was so heavy and oblivious to the need for keeping the channel open. I was not there. Had I been on the radio I am sure I would have been able to communicate the importance of keeping the channel open or initiated a change in frequency. Just reporting what I heard.