LAST FLIGHT

The 24th of September 2001 was sunny and beautiful and seemed like it could be a perfect day to be out paragliding, but I was feeling like I had way too much work that needed to be done. I was paying bills and making phone call and wishing I could be out flying. As often happens on beautiful days like this the phone started ringing with friends say let's go fly. I told them I would love to but I just had too much to do. Then Jen, my wife, said "Ken, it will all wait for you if you really want to go." It didn't take too much for her to talk me into going. I threw my glider into the car and sped off up the hill toward Jupiter Peak. As I got closer I could see 3 or 4 gliders already floating a thousand feet above the peak. Now I couldn't go fast enough.

I parked the car, grabbed my stuff and started jogging the 1 mile trail up to launch. As I huffed and buffed my way along the ridge I heard a crow like call and looked up to see my friend, Todd Bibler, gliding past just a few hundred feet over my head. I watched him fly over the high point of the peak, hit some lift and start turning. I watched him spiral up for a minute or so as I walk up but I also had to watch my feet on the rocky trail so I didn't see the start to his troubles but I watched all the rest. He was banked up in the turn with his body quite a bit outside the wing when suddenly the whole wing went slack and fell in on top of itself. His wing has a purple top and white bottom and from my view point on the ground I could only see maybe 2 square feet of white. He fell a long way to get back under his wing and when it reopened it sent him arcing across the sky in the other direction causing another collapse but not as impressive as the first. He lost a lot of altitude and he wasn't that high to begin with but he got it under control before he had to do something serious like throw his reserve. After this exciting maneuver he headed straight out over the LZ and landed.

Watching all this very nearly unnerved me and I was seriously questioning the flyability of the day. But Dale Covington, one of the local instructors, was standing on launch. He had missed most of Todd's acrobatics but he didn't think the flying was really all that bad. I called down to Todd on the radio to ask what he thought. He said he didn't know what had caused the freak collapse but in general it was pretty nice flying. He hadn't landed because it was getting bad.

By this time Todd Hoover, another friend, had showed up and we decided we would give it a try. I laid out my wing, waited for a cycle, pulled up and lifted into the air. After a few minutes of looking around I found a thermal with good lift and climbed above the peak. I was very careful to stay away from the area Todd had gotten his big collapse. I had a theory that his collapse was due to a merging of the east side air mass and the south side air mass coming together and causing turbulence. I told myself just don't go there and you will be fine.

Jupiter Peak is a relatively new site. Only Todd Bibler has flown it more then just a handful of times and he is still learning it. So I was experimenting with different areas to find lift and practicing my coring skills. In the next hour I climbed to around 14,000 feet and was having a great time. I was 3,000 feet above the highest mountain in the Wasatch Range so I could see into all the surrounding valley's and up past Strawberry Reservoir and far into the Uinta Mountains. The trees in the high country were in full fall color but as my eye moved into the valleys the trees changed from the bright yellows, golds and oranges to summer green. The air at 14,000 feet was chilly but I was dressed for it. I was feeling great. I thought about how long I had dreamed of being able to do this. There had been so many days of launching and going nowhere. I would watch the good pilots go up and up while I stood at the bottom trying to imaging what it would be like. This summer I had finally started getting big air and here I was once again riding the giant winds of the sky. The idea that there are these invisible, giant air masses climbing straight into the heavens and that, if you are experienced enough, you can ride them miles into the sky, is so amazing to me that I have trouble thinking about anything else. On this day I was with them, riding them, feeling them, becoming a part of the miracle. I was really doing it and it wasn't a fluke. I had been getting good flights almost regularly the last few months.

I got up around 14,600 feet and decided to go land in town. I had told Jen that I would watch the kids so she could go for a bike ride around 1:00. If I headed into town I could land at the soccer fields near our house and make it by 1:00 easily. I called Todd Hoover on the radio and said I was heading north. He was still quite low and seemed to be having trouble finding one of the giants going up. When I got over town I was at least 6,000 feet above the ground and the air was full of yellow aspen leaves. They were fluttering around like snowflakes. They seemed to be going someplace in a big hurry but that was only because I was flying by them at 20 mph. They didn't seem to be going up or down as we were all in the same air mass. I had become a giant yellow leaf floating around in the sky.

It took a long time to lose the 6,000 feet to the ground. By the time I got down to a 1,000 over I got a call from Todd saying he was at 15,000 feet right over my head. I looked up and could see the tiny yellow dot of his wing against the blue sky. He had found a giant and gotten a big lift. I told him it was a little bumpy down here and I couldn't talk until I got on the ground. I was hitting punchy little thermals and having a hard time getting lower. I flew over our house and yelled down at Jen and the kids but they were in the house and they couldn't hear me.

I went out over the grassy areas and the ponds of the golf course and found some sink. I thought about landing out in the golf course because there would be less thermal activity. But then I would have to walk a ways to get home so I went back to plan "A", landing in the soccer field across from our house. I have landed in the soccer field many times. Last summer I would climb the 500 feet to the top of the PC Hill and fly off into the soccer field 3 or 4 times a week. Even though I had never had any trouble landing there I knew it could be turbulent from having spent a lot of time kiting there.

I checked the flags for wind direction and speed. It seemed to be light and variable. I lined up on the soccer field to give myself the longest landing space possible in case I got bumped by a thermal. I had at least 300 yards of grass ahead of me. I stood up in my harness, feet down, so I would be ready to land if something unexpected happened.

All was looking good when suddenly I got a collapse on the left side of my wing. I didn't look up but my guess is 40 to 50 percent of my wing folded in. I wasn't overly worried. I knew I would just have to keep it straight and under control and fly it on in. Then the wing re-inflated and surged forward. It surprised me to have it surge as much as it did. I tried to dampen the surge but my attempt was probably a little late and not enough. It suddenly became apparent that I was going to swing under the wing but I would hit the ground before I got under it. It is unclear to me what exactly happened at this point. I can't remember actually hitting the ground. A bystander later told me that I hit the ground on my butt, feet out. I may have been trying to skid across the grass.  My back protection did a good job of protecting my hips and pelvis area but the force of impact folded my upper body over my front mounted reserve chute.

When I came to a stop I was curled up laying on my left side. I felt extreme pain in my back. I knew that I had broken my back. I also knew I shouldn't move but I couldn't breath. I couldn't relax my muscles enough to let air into my lungs. I felt like I was going to suffocate. I was yanking at my harness and helmet trying to get them off so I could breath. I had been on the ground less then 30 seconds when a dog and 3 people ran up to me. I finally managing to get enough air into my lungs to wheezing "get it off, get it off." They decided to forget the emergency first aid rule of not letting the victim move and gone straight to help him breath. They got my helmet off and half my harness then tried to keep me from moving. I was able to breath only with extreme effort. They called 911 and Jen. Jen got to me in 5 minutes and the ambulance was there in 12.

I had been on the ground for maybe half an hour by the time the EMT's were ready to load me into the ambulance. I was still in extreme pain and my breathing was very labored. They gave me oxygen which I guess insured I was getting enough air but it did little to relieve the anxiety I felt from such labored breathing. The EMT's decided to take an extra 10 minutes to put in an I.V. so they could give me a dose of morphine. Within minutes after receiving the morphine I felt I could breath. I was still in a lot of pain but just being able to breath made a lot of difference.

There was a lot more drama during the 4 day stay at the hospital and still more after we got home but the short story is I have a burst fracture of the T10 vertebrae and the T9 and T10's both have fractures of the transverse processes. The transverse processes are the little spines that stick out on the sides of each vertebrae. The main part of the T10 vertebrae was smashed by more than 50%. At this point there is no damage to the nervous system but there are some bone fragments in the spinal cavity. I have a custom fit plastic clamshell type brace that I have to wear all the time for 12 weeks. (It ended up being 7 month in the brace) During that time I can't lift anything more then 15 lbs and no activity more strenuous than walking. With any luck the insurance should pay most of the hospital bills but if we have to spend less then $5,000 for the deal I think we will be lucky.

If someone had told me that I would get to fly the giant winds of the sky, that I would get to experience the awesome feelings and thrills that I did while paragliding but that the cost would be this, would I have flown knowing I would pay? I don't think so. It is a very high price. So can I fly again? I don't think so. My interest in flying isn't in the safe ridge lift winds of the Point of the Mountain. My interest is in the giant winds of the sky that can take me to places unknown, to ride the unlimited power of mother nature at her greatest. I'm afraid I have too much to loose to continue to take the risk that is required to have that experience. I am so glad I got to experience what I did but I have so much more to experience in other areas of life. It is a bummer to be laid up for the winter but it would be hell to be bedridden the rest of my children's lives.

At the end of 6 months we had a scare when the doctor said he thought the bone had moved.  I ended up wearing the brace for another month. I continued to get stronger, more flexable and have less pain for 3 years.  Now, 16 years after the crash, I still have some residual effects from the crash but it hasn't slowed me down much.  I still like to take afternoon naps to help it recover, but I can still do all the active things I love to do.  It is now just one more great story we get to tell.

 

 

THE END

 

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