Hi all

First of all, a huge thank you to all my wonderful flying buddies who have visited, phoned, emailed and sent texts and cards to me or Lisa. Quite honestly, the support and encouragement you all gave me played a definite role in my recovery

I consider that I have been extremely lucky and I’m making incredible progress, albeit slowly and painfully! Had it not been for Tim King’s knowledge and experience, I might not have been able to write this.

My spine has now been "re-built" with titanium around L1 vertebrae and my chest and lungs are recovering.

Fortunately prior to the accident I was very fit for my age which obviously aided my recovery

I shall now undertake a more advanced first aid course, as I have found the whole experience very humbling and life changing

I have learnt from my now 2 serious paragliding incidents and would like to pass on any information that may prevent a similar accident happening to another pilot

I will obviously prepare a report for the BHPA which combined with the reliable opinions of the witnesses, some of whom are exceedingly experienced pilots, Chief Coaches or Senior Instructor (CFI), will hopefully, prevent a similar accident

I now feel the need to give my views of the cause of the accident, to make some of the guys with less airtime aware of the possible cause/causes and I also feel that we are all responsible to each other to help out and further our knowledge in any way we can

Firstly I would like it known that I am a club coach, having completed the course to further my own knowledge and that although I have in excess of 800 flying hours during my 12 years paragliding as well as 200 hours paramotoring and 50 hours fixed wing microlight, I am very much a “floating around the sky” leisure pilot and not versed in more advanced manoeuvres

• 1) I have sent my wing to be checked for any line shrinkage to see if that was a contributing factor – I will revert with the findings. I know my chest strap was the correct width for the glider size and I fly midway of the weight range
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• 2) I am of the opinion at present that pilot error was likely to have been a major factor in this accident due to heavy handedness on brakes
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• 3) There is a possibility that with it being strong on top and light on the beach, there would have been some area of wind shear affecting airspeed which I should have been prepared for
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• 4) My decision to land after at least 1 hour of enjoyable flying was taken as it had turned south easterly and the air was then ‘lumpy and bumpy’ on front of the fort and over the harbour arm. I turned downwind westerly and needed to hook a turn rapidly into wind to land. Unfortunately I think I misread loss of airspeed entering collapse, for dead air. It would seem that I was flying too slowly for this manoeuvre and should have allowed the glider a bit more speed
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• 5) This was the first time I’d flown since having both cataracts removed and although I was impressed with my clear distance vision and found no problem with judgment both flying and on my motorcycle, there is of course, a possibility that I may have thought I was lower than I actually was. I will refer to my consultant and will revert with the result

Terry Clark