I've a short story to tell about how paying better attention to changing conditions could have saved me much pain. I was buggying in the high desert od California, right at the base of Mount Whitney. I'm intimately familiar with conditions in the area, having flown hang gliders there for over 20 years. When thermalling, you're constantly circling and get visual weather updates every few seconds if you're paying attention. My trouble happened after we got shut down because of severe weather and I chose to buggy. I was cruising down a dirt road being followed by a friend in his truck in my flexyfoil wide axle, flying a 3.5 Rage. The wind dropped toabout 2 mph, so I jumped out and worked to keep the kite in the air. Where there aren't boulders, the surrounding area is covered with sagebrush, which really sucks to get your kite tangled in. In the space of less the thirty seconds the wind increased from two to over 40 mph! I hadn't been paying attention to what was going on upwind, and had missed the fact that a mile west of us it had begun to rain hard. When it rains so hard from such a high altitude, the falling rain pulls a LOT of air with it. When this air hits the ground, it blows out in all directions at high speed until the rain stops. The first attempt to drop the kite resulted in the fastest, longest scud of my kite flying career. It was actually a hoot, and had me laughing like a kid. This is just about where things began to go terribly wrong. I made three mistakes, probably more. #1 - I wasn't checking upwind in an area I knew conditions were likely to change severely. #2 - I chose to land the kite directly downwind in order to keep it out of the sagebrush. #3 - I didn't let go of the handles. The result of these oversights was I was immediately yanked darn near out of my shoes and flew at roughly shoulder height in the superman postion for 30 feet before landing on my face in thankfully, the softest pile of coarse sand in a hundred mile radius. I got severe whiplash as my feet flew over my head. I desroyed my brand new glasses and lay there in the desert wiggling my fingers and toes trying to make sure I hadn't also broken my neck. Two feet in any direction and I would have smacked head first into a boulder. With help, I removed four tablespoons of sand from between my lower lip and teeth. A trip to the emergency room and an hour of irrigation by a cute nurse named Wendy removed even more. Bottom line: Three stitches in the corner of my mouth, nasty cuts inside my mouth that should have been stitched, but were left open to let any more buried sand escape; three appointments so far with my chiropractor with many more to follow (Erik, I don't even know where to start!) and one with a massage therapist. I also recieved many cuts, scrapes and bruises over a good amount of my body. Hopefully, what I've learned can save others from a fate such as mine. So PAY ATTENTION! Even if the wind has been constant, If you're flying in an area known to have the occasional thundershower or severe weather is called for that day, conditions can change in literally an instant. Let's be safe out there.

Did ya get it on film?

That was the second thought I had! The first was "Am I okay? Am I okay?" Sadly, we didn't get it on film, it would have been great to relive it without all the blood.

2 to 40....Holy S$%t!!!

Glad you came out alive!

It always sucks when these things happen but when it does, it's good to post so we can all learn something and increase our awareness.

After reading your post, I'm definitely going to pay more attention to upwind conditions!!!

Have a fast and speedy recovery