Incident Details

Pilot Paul was taking off for a quick circuit flight. After wing came up overhead and appeared fine, a large cravat (approximately 1.5-2 feet of wing material bundled up) formed on the right side between wing inflation and full loading. The cravat combined with engine torque caused immediate sharp right turn at ground level. Pilot did not initially notice the issue and continued full throttle, turning nearly 180 degrees to fly almost completely downwind at extremely low altitude. He skimmed over trees and a road with no altitude gain despite full power. Only after gaining some distance did pilot look up and notice the cravat. Upon turning into wind, he gained altitude quickly. After assessing the situation and determining the cravat was too tight to clear in flight, pilot set up for landing approach, managing the wing with nearly full left brake to counteract the pull from the cravat. Landing was executed successfully with the cravat still present. The cravat was so tightly wrapped it required significant effort to remove on the ground.

Large cravat formed during takeoff phase after wing inflation but before full loading. The exact mechanism of formation is unclear to the pilot. The cravat caused loss of control during critical low altitude phase, combined with pilot's failure to immediately recognize the problem and abort takeoff.

A few scratches

Video description: 4,765 views Aug 17, 2018 This is my Paramotor Vlog where I'm documenting my paramotoring adventures. While popping up to test the air, I grew my first big cravat/line-over. Briefly I was a god, then I was face to face with a tree. The two 'biggest' mistakes here are ignoring the right-hand pull of the wing during my take-off run and not looking at my wing at all. I got away with it with a few scratches. Very lucky. I don't plan to rely on that much luck again. Transcript from video: it was at this point that Paul knew he'd [ __ ] up that's and alone neither the Tim should be flying back from the PMC mate down near Swindon get here about nine four plus nine maybe so Andy do a bit quite enough here maybe go for a flight it'd be nice to be up there those guys in the air when they okay I hate doing voiceovers but because the camera is pointing at the ground I'll talk us through what happened and then we'll go over what should have happened maybe okay right now my wing is up over my head Andy is giving me the thumbs up which is always a luxury but at some point between right now and here where my wing is fully loaded a giant cravat formed on the right side of my wing it just wasn't loaded it flopped down it got it got wrapped round and then as soon as it was loaded it pull the strings tight and B is frantically waving me down but I don't see him because you know I'm going fine and you can see that it's already pulling me to the right I mean we all correct for what our wing wants when we get up but this was quite far right and I just went with it although you know I didn't even think that the wind will import in that direction I just I just went with the wing okay so I get up immediately I mean a sharp white right bank the cravat is pulling me that way the engines torque is pulling me that way and it looks like I'm using a touch a right brake maybe just to feel like I mean controlling this basically I'm Tucker got here I've taken off I'm doing a massive sharp turn at ground level I feel great Handy's watching everything's good and none of its my doing what it's done is turned me almost 180 degrees and now I'm almost downwind but almost completely downwind and I'm full throttle I've got no lift I've hit the tree I've looked down I've seen the road right beneath me that I've just skated over at this point I'm thinking I might go down and I'm looking at all these gardens in front of me thinking that everything is very small everything's very hard everything's very sharp I'm still full thrall and I'm still not getting any higher on the ground all I want to do now is get some altitude finally finally after what seems like days I look up to her you know see if anything might be wrong with the wing and I see this cravat which to me is a cravat epic proportions it's it's a good foot and a half to two foot of my wing all bundled up at the end but I've still got some steering if I pull it really hard I can pull it round and as I turn into the wind suddenly I've got all the lifts I can eat it's just I'm hardly moving no ground speed and I am going straight up basically and finally have time to think which is something I've failed to do up to this point so I'll relax a little bit here I turn look at the cravat again I'd give it some quick tugs just to see if I can free it or something it's painfully obvious that those are not going to work just after 3:00 maybe I could have started fiddling with the tip steer in line but that that thing is hauling in really solid so give my legs a quick waggle to let handy know everything's okay and I set up tool and I've got the whole field ahead of me as soon as I'm over that hedge I'm out of the harness I've killed the engine I'm getting this thing round and I've just got luck out of steer right now and you can see it pulling me to the right and I'm fighting that with almost full left brake almost that left brake is right down I'm struggling to stay in to win all right it's actually one of my nicer landings ever you know cleanly gently down nice turn I've got the wing under control keep it up there for a little bit bit of a cravat there and this is the only time in this video and you actually see the graph which I'm really sorry about I wished I had my camera a good angle but it's fair to say it's tightly wrap tried to go over there and literally it wouldn't come out even with kaity animals funding papa bundle so what should I then I mean Andy was there waving me off so I could have been looking at Andy but Andy's a luxury we don't we haven't all got an Andy every time when I first thought about this I thought that I should have bought that right hand turn with the left brake we've carried on into wind getting out to shoot to give myself options but then I thought you know am I in danger with that much left brake going into a spin store which I don't know too much about I just know that you shouldn't fly the talk too hard when you take off I think probably as it started to taking me to the right across the ground I should have thought this is not right this is out of wind and bend it there it was definitely all in that first turn I should have fought that on the way out there so if you know why I should have done them answers in the comments I'd love to know if anyone's ever been in that situation I'm sure for you have you know Acrobat isn't something that is rare it was strange that it formed after the wing was up and then before it was fully loaded but maybe that's what they thought I don't know you know so let me know if you know