Home › Forums › Safety › PG Landed Out – June 7, 2020

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  • June 8, 2020 at 9:26 AM #8986
    David Webb
    General Member

    Don’t think this qualifies as an incident, but maybe we can learn from it anyway.

    Was over Cloud yesterday when I saw a PG getting really low in the canyon directly behind the venturi area between Cloud and Marshall. I jumped on the radio (on the club frequency) to give others a heads up about it and continued to watch the pilot. A minute or two later, heard a visiting pilot jump on to try to reach the pilot as well. No response from the pilot, but a few more attempts were made and another general call for others to keep an eye out. Another voice also came up on the frequency and they were asked to try to reach the pilot on other commonly-used frequencies (I know many use the 925 Soboba frequency). Still no response.

    With safety discussions, we only tend to focus on the bad or dangerous stuff, but I wanted to call out this exchange with big thumbs up. It shows a few things:

    • That we’re looking out for one another
    • That there were some of us using the club frequency, which made the whole “incident” no more or less severe than it needed to be as communications between people with verifiable information could happen (since 2 of us had eyes on the pilot)
    • Emergency services were not called, but we could have made that happen quickly if necessary

    Pilot landed out near the hairpin turn in the highway up to Crestline (which you can see directly behind Marshall); I think they landed in the big dirt clearing next to the road.

    A few attempts were made to reach pilots that were flying the Crestline ridge (they would have been in an excellent position to fly over to verify the pilot’s condition), but no response on any of the frequencies that were tried.

    The visiting pilot (still over Marshall) was able to see that the pilot had packed up his wing (another thumbs up to them for doing that as quickly as possible) and radioed that back so we could all get back to boating around.

    Seems like a strong case (again) for more of us to use the club frequency (not for chit chat, but it allows us all to respond a lot faster in case of emergency).

    June 8, 2020 at 3:13 PM #9003
    Jana Pivkova
    Board Member

    The Crestline guys often land out by Hwy. 18 on a round dirt patch that’s behind a chain link fence when they get too low to land elsewhere. Not sure if we’re talking about the same area, but late afternoon yesterday I was headed down Hwy. 18 and saw a PG pilot with his wing bunched up, getting ready to go over the fence. I stopped on the turn-out, would have offered him a ride back up, but I was heading down the hill first. I asked him if he had a ride, and he seemed like he was going to find a way back up, so I left.

    June 9, 2020 at 9:09 AM #9017
    Albert Sharp
    General Member

    I had previously searched the forums for a list of Radio Frequencies and who used them.  Club frequency, emergency frequency, instructor frequencies, etc. but I couldn’t find them.

    Is there any reason these shouldn’t be compiled and kept on a Sticky in a member only area of the forums?

    It might encourage radio use.

    June 9, 2020 at 9:25 AM #9018
    David Webb
    General Member

    Hi Albert,

    When we redid the website, I made sure to plaster that frequency ALL OVER every site briefing (the General Site Guidelines, every launch, and AJX), our Emergency Action Plan, and a few other places around the site. If you’re in the air over AJX, you’ll also notice that it’s painted on the roof.

    Sticking it in the forums is fine, but the forums are more for discussion – important club information that needs to stay up and visible is better given its own real estate or page on the site. It’s been made clear that almost no one reads the site guidelines or briefings, which kinda sucks – I ask any new visitor I meet to check them out, but I can’t force anyone. I encourage everyone (even those of us that have been flying here for many years) to give them a thorough once-over just to get familiar.

    Just for sake of repetition, our club frequency is: 145.555

    June 10, 2020 at 4:03 PM #9030
    Albert Sharp
    General Member

    Thanks David.  I listed the club frequency in my response above, but I have that one.  I was hoping for a more central complete list of others.

    I did see the other post you made and all information is appreciated.

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