[Bob Kuczewski]

Rick, your research is really amazing!!

[Rick Masters]

Paragliding humor

    The amazing thing is that soaring parachutists continue to create these stories which are gobbled up and sensationalized by the press and delivered to the world population. Without them constantly providing this material, I wouldn't have much to say.
    For instance, if they would stop landing in trees, this blog would be empty.
    I guess when you fly a bag instead of an aircraft, it's hard not to land in trees. Or is that crash into trees? Or drop into trees? Or is it easy to land in trees? I don't know. I'm a hang glider pilot from the desert. I haven't landed in a tree, yet. I did push a sapling out of the way, once. Does that count?
    We do prepare ourselves to land in trees. On purpose. But we can almost always find a better place to land than in a tree. We have what's called glide ratio and penetration.

[Rick Masters]

October 26, 2015




The Magirus Ladder truck by Iveco entered production in Germany in 1963. Its stainless steel ladder extends to an impressive 45 meters. The sloped nose pan allows it to approach through thick brush.

[Rick Masters]

April 27, 2015

[Rick Masters]

May 11, 2015

[Rick Masters]

April 29, 2016

[Rick Masters]

April 30, 2016

"At work of the volunteers' Alpago and men with the ladder truck arrived from Belluno. The young South Tyrolean told, strangely unmoved by what had happened, he found himself in trouble for thermal currents that drove him and that he had lost control of the paraglider."
[Al lavoro i volontari dell' Alpago e gli uomini con l'autoscala arrivata da Belluno. Il giovane altoatesino ha raccontato, stranamente impassibile da quanto accaduto, di essersi trovato in difficoltà per correnti termiche che lo hanno spinto e di aver perso il controllo del parapendio. Altri particolari sul Gazzettino del 1. maggio]

[Bob Kuczewski]

... he found himself in trouble for thermal currents that drove him and that he had lost control of the paraglider.

Lost control of the paraglider?    Maybe the word "collapse" didn't survive the translation?

[Rick Masters]

Worldwide, they always blame the pilot for "losing control."
After all, if there was something substantially wrong with the design of the paraglider, there would be hell to pay.

[Rick Masters]

Utility workers remove a nesting Ozone Warbler from a light pole with an ladder truck.
"Sometimes we wish they'd nest in trees like other birds."