Two Disclocated Vertebrae in my Neck, Surgery Scheduled

I just got back from the neurosurgeon.  He says I have two dislocated vertebrae.  Where each vertebra aligns with the next one, there are two "facets" which are like the "hooks" to keep the vertebrae aligned.  Two vertebrae "jumped" forward  -- their hooks are now in the wrong place, and they are now stuck there.  To fix it, they will have to do surgery to relocate the vertebrae into their original positions and then they will use 13mm screws (permanent) to stabilize them.  That's the best I can understand/explain it now.  It seems to make sense, given that the force of the impact was probably down and forward on my head.  The reason for the pain in my right shoulder, and my inability to lift my right arm, is that the dislocated bones are putting pressure on my spinal cord, and it's messing with some nerves.

My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, August 19th at 7:30 Eastern Time at Bayfront Medical Center with Dr. Jobe.  Your prayers are appreciated.  In the meantime they put me in a brace as a precaution.  It keeps me from moving my neck very far, and also provides some protection in the case of a shock (such as a fender-bender).  

Estimate is 2 - 3 days in the hospital, 2 - 3 weeks recuperation at home, 6 - 9 months rehab.

This is the really cool t-shirt I got for flying this comp!

Explanation of my Crash (for non-hang glider pilots):
The photo below is of me at Henson's Gap, Tennessee, but I am using it as a reference photo to explain the parts of the glider.

• The keel is a single aluminum tube that runs from the nose to the tail (in the photo, you can only see it at the tail, because the keel is inside the sail, which has a top and bottom surface).
• The control frame is the triangular bar that is attached to the keel.
• The control frame is fixed perpendicular to the keel by the two nose wires and two tail wires; notice they are completely tensioned.
• My harness is attached to the keel at the suspension point.  This allows my body to swing forward and backward (and side-to-side) to control the glider by shifting my weight.

In the situation of my crash, I was skimming extremely low to the ground (a few inches at times) down a slope that was descending at the same angle of slope as my glider (that is, I was neither gaining nor losing altitude relative to the slope).  The ground was rocky, and at some point, the control frame hit a rock, which stopped it instantly.  The momentum of the glider was then pivoted forward so that the nose of the glider hit the ground next, also stopping instantly (and breaking the keel).  The momentum of my body rocked forward at the suspension point so that the top of my head struck the keel (or possibly the sail just to either side of the keel?), which also stopped my body instantly (and disclocating two neck bones).

Explanation of my Crash (for hang glider pilots):
I plan to submit an accident report to USHPA sometime after Nationals finishes up, with the complete unedited launch sequence photos.  But my memory of it is:

• After getting prone, I was flying really low (the photos show that my legs were dragging the ground, kicking up rocks, and my jeans were torn and I had abrasions on both legs; I didn't realize I was that low, I just knew I was in trouble.)
• I couldn't pull in for more speed, because I was so low.
• At one point I felt that the glider was about to stall, and I had maybe 2 feet of altitude, so I dropped my hands from the downtubes to the base tube and pulled in to gain speed.
• This un-stalled the glider, but now I could see that I was "diving" at the ground.  I remember thinking I needed to push out to avoid the ground, but from looking at the photos, I'm not sure whether it got past the thought to the action; it doesn't look like it, judging from the angle of attack, and there is now a bush in the foreground so that you can't see my arms.
• The next thing I remember was the impact, and then nothing until several minutes later when they were putting the collar on me.

Cause: as typical, 100% pilot error.

Contributing factors: 

1. No experience launching from a long rocky slope.
2. No mountain launch santioned comp experience.

Elaboration:

Even though I'm primarily an aerotow pilot, I have plenty of mountain launches, including several in the glider and harness I was using at the comp.  However, they were all ramp or cliff launches.  My only slope launches were the big training hill at Lookout Mountain Flight Park which actually starts out as a shallow slope, but you don't really get in the air until it drops off to a steep slope.  So I really had no experience running a long way down a shallow slope.

I've flown 5 mountain comps at Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge (which are not sanctioned but simulate the launch "pace and feel" of a sanctioned comp), and 4 sanctioned U.S. aerotow comps (in Sport Class with no start clock).  At Team Challenge there were always 4 launch assistants (two wing wiremen, one keel man, plus the pre-ramp hang check), and they provided guidance on the flags below launch and the sock above launch, as well as making sure no one launched with un-level wings or a bad nose angle.

The Sport Class at the comp I crashed at, was intermixed with the Open Class in the launch order, and using the same start clock.  There were two launch lines and pilots were launching in fairly rapid succession, as pretty much everybody decided to launch at about the same time.

Mental Mistakes:

1. When it was my turn, I felt the pressure to step up and launch quickly.
2. I did not check the wind flag.
3. I don't remember consciously checking the nose angle.
4. I didn't yell "clear" (no one did), but that has always been my mental cue to commit to the launch.

Physical Mistakes:

1. I launched in a bad cycle (see flag in third photo below).  From looking at several other launch sequence photos, almost everybody launched in a good headwind.  There were two that launched in a calm and they were both "scary low" but obviously not as bad as mine.
2. I didn't keep running long enough (or fast enough), and/or I didn't hold my correct position relative to the control bar.  The photos show me "falling behind" the control bar.

Here are a subset of the photos from the sequence.  One tricky part was that the camera was hand-held and the photographer naturally rotated the camera as he followed me unexpectedly downhill, so it's not possible to exactly judge the angle of the slope or the angle of attack of the glider.  On the latter photos, I used the cirrus clouds as a reference  to rotate them by 15 degrees.

Unfortunately the series didn't start early enough to check my transition
from having the downtubes on my shoulder to having the glider lift and
tension my hang strap, so this is what I have to start with.  I don't know
if my nose was this high before that, or not.

This is where I don't completely understand what's going wrong.
I seem to be falling behind / falling into the glider.

Probably the worst point.  Note the tail wind.
From the spectator and the flag pole, the camera appears level here.

Close-up of previous photo - I am still in grapevine grip.

THIS AND FOLLOWING PHOTOS ARE ROTATED 15 DEGREES.
Realizing I am stalling, and having a little altitude, I finally drop my
hands to the base tube...

and pull in...

a little too far?  It's not clear from this photo whether I over-rotated
the nose down (pulled in too far), or whether at this point, the control
bar has already hit the ground and started rotating the glider.

FYI - I have posted the full original (unedited) photo series at https://www.dropbox.com/s/nvxseanjbf18epo/Cliff%20Rice%20crash%20on%20launch%20Mt%20Arangoiti%202014-07-13.zip (27 MB).  I will be submitting the Accident Report to USHPA shortly.