Looking forward to one-of-those-days. It was a switch day, so we were expecting to fly high and far. The group decided to go to Marshall, instead of CL, expecting that the switch would happen there enough ahead of CL that it would be worth it to get into the air sooner. I already disliked MP with my ATOS as it’s much harder to set it up and keep it under control there due to the complete lack of vegetation and trees to block the wind. But that’s what the group wanted to do.

Might have been around 11:30 that the north wind seemed to settle down a bit, so we started setting up our gliders. I was able to set up at the one anchor still existing there. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a mistake. I left about 2 feet of slack in the rope and, maybe 15-20 minutes after I finished setting it up, a fairly strong gust from the northwest came up, picked up my glider’s wing and dropped it nose first onto the ground. At least the anchor and rope held, otherwise the glider might have flown a ways further down the east side or into the bushes. This left the sail with a few small punctures and abrasions. Otherwise, it still looked flight worthy so I righted it and waited some more.

Then, maybe another 15-20 minutes later, we got the first hint of a switch. Owen jumped on this. He got suited up and took his glider down to the ramp. Unfortunately, he was a bit premature and wound up waiting down there for a while for a south cycle to come through. Another 15 minutes or so later, he launched and it was game on. So one by one the other 5 of us suited up and walked down to the ramp. I was the last to go. Each pilot wound up having to wait a little bit for a south cycle, but the cycle came through and they were able to launch. Except for me.

The wind was still decently north as I walked down to the ramp. I set my glider down, stayed hooked in and ready to go. About 5 minutes later, a gust came from the west and picked up my right wing. I put all of my weight down through my harness and base tube and Jamie, who was standing nearby for launch assist, tried to find a way to hold onto the wing as well. But it wasn’t enough. I got flipped over to the left, ending up upside down in the bushes, east of the ramp. I quickly unhooked and got out of the way of the glider in case the wind would come up again. At this point, the wind seemed to be a bit squirrelly. But after a few minutes, it seemed to settle a bit, so we righted it again and I was trying to figure out how to get it back up the hill, wanting to bag it up and go home and do an inspection of everything.

But the switch wasn’t switching. The wind was still primarily north and squirrelly. Then, as I’m standing next to the wing, a dust devil forms just up the hill in the pg setup/launch area. It spins up, is stationary for maybe 30 seconds or so, then moves down the hill towards me a few feet then goes off to the east and dissipates. Then, a minute or two later, another one forms in the same spot. This one comes down towards me and then off to the west, blowing up a lot of brush and debris. Then another and another. Then another one forms. This one is really intense. I can see a very well defined vortex of swirling dirt and debris, maybe about 1.5ft in diameter. This devil then comes down the hill straight at me. It picks up my glider and ultimately throws it back on the ground, upside down, into the bushes west of the ramp.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, I didn’t personally feel much of an effect from the dust devil. I had to keep my eyes closed, so I couldn’t see anything in the moment. Also, it was a bit of sensory overload in the moment as well. I was very fortunate that it picked up the glider and spun it around without hitting me. I didn’t suffer even the slightest injury through all this.

When it was gone, I walked over to look at my glider. Now I see a wing that is bent and a tail fin that is broken. Then I recruited a pg pilot, Ryan, who was fairly new to our site, to help Jamie and I carry the glider back up to the top. But “bent” is not something that carbon fiber does. By the time we get it to the top, the stress of carrying it causes it to break completely. Eventually, I was able to stuff it back into its bags and haul it on the van back to the LZ.

So what are the lessons to take away from all this? I don’t know. All I can think of is that when luck turns against you, you’re screwed. When you look at the wind chart for the day, you can see that it started north, then switched to south, then went batshit crazy for a while. I happened to walk my glider down to the ramp right at the transition from south to batshit crazy. And once I was down there, I was trapped. There was no way out. (One side note: the most relevant chart is the Cloud Peak chart. But Cloud Peak is west of Marshall by a half mile or so and a couple hundred feet below. So it doesn’t necessarily give an accurate representation of the wind at Marshall)

But here I am, writing up this report. My glider is totaled but I am unharmed. I will fly another day. I have much to be thankful for.