Successful recovery but some advice for everyone....

[Teth-Air]

Body or wrist, don't matter really, one-off bad ch!t can happen with it attached to either but 99% of the time, if its atttached, it will do its job. There's always gonna be the one time that it gets wrapped on the bars and sends the sled into the trees, or its attached to the hip and the guy can't reach it. Biggest thing is that you wear it and you will likely be golden for your whole sledding life. Got lucky when I was younger and almost lost a sled from a big climb into some thick lumber, didn't wear my tether back then and the sled rolled, got out of reach and just ran slowly enough away that I couldn't grab it before it lurched over the edge. It tagged the only 3" tree in 100 yards and then broke and spun the ski spindle backwards which caused the ski to stick in and stop it.

Wore it a lot after that, and always on climbs but not always all the other times, until 1 day a couple years later, we stopped on the trail heading down at the end of the day and my uncle had a full mod chassis with a Cat motor in it. It was a deep day and he was having trouble with the magnetic throttle safety switch where he got some ice in the cable and it froze. He had a tether on it but it was not connected to him and he was standing beside it to pull it over (had very high compression and it usually didnt light first pull), he yanked the cord and the thing fired and was stuck at WFO, it took off immediately down the trail, hit the snowbank and went around a shallow corner about 250 yards out, launched off the trail and hit a fir tree square between the skis. Hit so hard it compressed the skid rails into a loose "S" shape. Insurance adjuster figured it was north of 100 mph when it hit. If there had been someone coming around that corner, it would have been fatal for them no doubt. Pretty much wore it religiously after that for others safety as much as my own. Saw it again many times at races as well, they make them mandatory in the pits for a reason, seen way too many run away sleds.

Biggest thing is to wear it.

Rampager - hope you feel better soon.

How do you think things would have turned out if your uncle started that sled in a trailer or on a truck deck when the throttle was stuck and he had the corded tether on? Likely that sled would be going so fast before the cord stretched to 3ft long that nearly as much damage would have resulted.

The Laser Phantom Teth-Air will shut down the motor with no delay on start up, as soon as track movement is detected. No waiting for that cord to stretch out and full speed. The time delay only gets introduced after the first accelleration.

 

[Modman]

How do you think things would have turned out if your uncle started that sled in a trailer or on a truck deck when the throttle was stuck and he had the corded tether on? Likely that sled would be going so fast before the cord stretched to 3ft long that nearly as much damage would have resulted.

The Laser Phantom Teth-Air will shut down the motor with no delay on start up, as soon as track movement is detected. No waiting for that cord to stretch out and full speed. The time delay only gets introduced after the first accelleration.

If it was on a truck deck or trailer yeah for sure, it would have done some serious damage. I didnt know that about your system that she don't move, thats a really nice feature though. It would have saved it Chris, too bad this was like 20 yrs ago. LOL If he had his tether on, it might have been a little better off as well because it just launched right out of his hand and left him standing there and might have only gone down the bank close to where he was standing.

I have pics somewhere from one time when a friend of a friend of a friend's throttle stuck in the Boulder parking lot, did just what you describe and took off right on my trailer, jumped the ramp, riccocheted off the tail gate of my truck and went flying across the parking lot and smashed into Swenson's trailer. Really lucky no one got hurt and only damage was a small dent under the plastic whale fin (broken) of the tailgate, and a marker light on the other trailer, and of course almost a totalled sled but he got really lucky and somehow didnt bend anything structural (but did need to replace a ton of parts). Again, a tether would have saved the sled before it hit Swenson's trailer but not the dent in my tailgate, and sounds like your system would have saved it all cause it wouldn't have moved. but that was also back in 2005 or 6?

 

[snopro]

All the massive chutes Fuji has slain in his career and almost bites it in the Boulder parking lot from a rogue sled.

 

[imdoo'n]

While 1 or 2 seconds seemed like a lifetime id have taken that over waiting for my saviour to struggle through the 30-40 feet of deep snow to get to me which likely took 6-7 or more. Also at least knowing the stuck throttle issue wouldnt have been longer than 1-2 seconds would have been some nice peice of mind at the time. I was really in sensory overload dealing with both controlling my breathing with the weight, the pain of the leg being twisted as well as track and exhaust. Shy of being hacked up i think i pretty much had about the worst case scenario possible. I have discovered a bunch of other bruises and bumps since and my one forearm is all kinds of different colours, im wondeing if i did get a bit of track when the throttle first stuck as that was the arm closest.

the air system looks very interesting and ill be checking that out for sure.

Tibia and Fibula are fractured in a somewhat unusual way, according to Drs(not what you want to hear lol), but they are going to wait a week to decide to operate or not, might be a minor plus to avoid that at least.

Lots of reflection the past few days but hey sometimes we pay a bit to "live" life right??? Unfortunately I dont have too many "safe" hobbies to fall back on....(flying season done before it even starts unfortunately)

Stay safe

i used to hang glide back in 75-78, used the basic set-up, down a few ski hills, was definitely a thrill!

 

[RGM]

How do you think things would have turned out if your uncle started that sled in a trailer or on a truck deck when the throttle was stuck and he had the corded tether on? Likely that sled would be going so fast before the cord stretched to 3ft long that nearly as much damage would have resulted.

The Laser Phantom Teth-Air will shut down the motor with no delay on start up, as soon as track movement is detected. No waiting for that cord to stretch out and full speed. The time delay only gets introduced after the first accelleration.

If a throttle on a doo is stuck open when starting it won't rev over 3000rpm

 

[Teth-Air]

If a throttle on a doo is stuck open when starting it won't rev over 3000rpm

Yes that is good but it does not stop it from staying stuck full throttle once you push the flipper.

 

[Modman]

All the massive chutes Fuji has slain in his career and almost bites it in the Boulder parking lot from a rogue sled.

HAHA they were gone already, I had to get his # from Rob Alford and leave him a voicemail. That same sled had eaten the starter at the end of the day before, so we had to stop at the Sledshed and get a new one and install, so it was like 11 am when this happened. I think the starter was OK after the crash, so he didn't have to replace it......again.....LOL

 

[Pistonbroke]

All the massive chutes Fuji has slain in his career and almost bites it in the Boulder parking lot from a rogue sled.

I swear to God man I have seen more chaos in parking lots than in the back country. LOL

 

[snopro]

I swear to God man I have seen more chaos in parking lots than in the back country. LOL

Oh I agree! Everybody has the lifted trucks now and a ramp pointed at the moon. It’s like.. set up a lawn chair and a cooler of beer and watch the carnage! Lol

 

[rampager]

i used to hang glide back in 75-78, used the basic set-up, down a few ski hills, was definitely a thrill!

In a way that's what's most disappointing about this it's been two pretty smokey poor flying seasons and I was really stoked hoping it may be better this year, but my hg seasons over before it began .... vicarious video for me this year I guess

 

[puddle]

That’s pretty cool. Thanks for posting

 

[imdoo'n]

In a way that's what's most disappointing about this it's been two pretty smokey poor flying seasons and I was really stoked hoping it may be better this year, but my hg seasons over before it began .... vicarious video for me this year I guess

that's way above what I have done, we used a wedge type glider, running off the top of ski hills , maybe 75 ft height. was a lot of fun, but i didn't see life longevity in my future! ha. very cool video!