A thing of beauty
Aug. 24th, 2006 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberCheck out this video. They showed me this in the "how to throw your parachute" class I took as a part of learning to hang glide. The guy is doing aerobatics in front of a Telluride festival, so he's got a smoke trail coming out of his glider. He flubs a wingover, one wing of the glider breaks, and it goes into a flat spin. He throws his chute, and it gets twisted up in the wreckage before it can get enough air into it to open. Because he's doing aerobatics (dangerous even today, much less in 1986) he's got a second chute, so he throws that. It also gets twisted up in the wreckage before it can open. He spirals into the mountainside, 1,500 feet below.
Dan Murphy, the pilot, walked away from that spectacular crash in 1986 with a few bruises. On Sunday, 20 years later, as he sat on his motorcycle chatting with a fellow pilot at Fort Funston, an insane asshole walked up and shot him in the face.
I've been following the story since minutes after it hit the web... According to the bulletin board of the people who fly Funston, he's not likely to recover. Though if you have vibes to send, couldn't hurt. It's touching to see people register so that the dogwalkers of Funston can give thanks and encouragement to the hang gliders of Funston. From a Google of the web, I'd guess that the bird-watchers of Funston would also have thanks and encouragement to give.
The latest Chronicle article fills in more about him: apparently he was one of the hang gliders so good that they're known as sky gods. For instance, there's this video of him landing a 30-year-old glider (ancient!) in a >30 mph wind--in a wheelbarrow. I've not been a hang glider pilot for years, but I know enough to know that's fucking impressive. I hear there are pilots at Funston who are so good they can fly by and take money that people on the observation deck hold up--I bet he was one of those pilots.
It's just fucked up that a guy with so much skill, who's living the life we all dream of when we look at birds, should get shot by some fucker. It's like there's some sort of balance, like a bunch of people got slightly better at something, so one brilliant guy had to go. I hope so, at least.
Anyway, Dan, best of wishes.
Dan Murphy, the pilot, walked away from that spectacular crash in 1986 with a few bruises. On Sunday, 20 years later, as he sat on his motorcycle chatting with a fellow pilot at Fort Funston, an insane asshole walked up and shot him in the face.
I've been following the story since minutes after it hit the web... According to the bulletin board of the people who fly Funston, he's not likely to recover. Though if you have vibes to send, couldn't hurt. It's touching to see people register so that the dogwalkers of Funston can give thanks and encouragement to the hang gliders of Funston. From a Google of the web, I'd guess that the bird-watchers of Funston would also have thanks and encouragement to give.
The latest Chronicle article fills in more about him: apparently he was one of the hang gliders so good that they're known as sky gods. For instance, there's this video of him landing a 30-year-old glider (ancient!) in a >30 mph wind--in a wheelbarrow. I've not been a hang glider pilot for years, but I know enough to know that's fucking impressive. I hear there are pilots at Funston who are so good they can fly by and take money that people on the observation deck hold up--I bet he was one of those pilots.
It's just fucked up that a guy with so much skill, who's living the life we all dream of when we look at birds, should get shot by some fucker. It's like there's some sort of balance, like a bunch of people got slightly better at something, so one brilliant guy had to go. I hope so, at least.
Anyway, Dan, best of wishes.