Disorganized, Dangerous, Negligent, Dishonest & Careless - I am going to do my best to capture what was an incredibly disappointing experience for you with Rio Hang Gliding. I was visiting Rio in July 2022 as a member of the USA delegation for a major gymnastics event. We had a day off and decided hang gliding would be fun. The problems began immediately. I will share with you the complete disorganization shown by Rio Hang Gliding. The disregard for dangerous conditions. The negligent actions of pilot Carlos. And the dishonest and careless behavior owner Konrad Heilmann exhibited toward a customer that experienced a near tragic event. There were so many things that went wrong on July 17, 2022. Part 1: DISORGANIZED Me and a friend purchased a 3:00pm hang gliding reservation. We arrived early at the designated pickup location, a Hortifrutti grocery store at the bottom of the mountain. We arrived early. Our ride to take us up the mountain did not arrive until 4:30pm. We attempted to communicate via text with no luck, a simple call to us would have helped. After being driven to their registration area where you provide your basic information and fill out waivers, we were both told that the hang gliding instructors were all gone for the day and we would have to para glide instead because no hang gliding instructors were available. This was not really presented as an option. Just this is what we are going to do. Ok ... even though the para gliding experience is cheaper, no reimbursement was offered. We get in another car to continue riding up the mountain. We get to the top and my friend is now told that he will be hang gliding but I will still be para gliding. They didn’t seem to have a clue what was going on. Part 2: DANGEROUS We were told once we arrived that wind conditions were not ideal that day and all the reservations were pushed back which is why everything was running late. Apparently, there were very small windows of time where the wind conditions were just right that allowed for successful flights. The staging area for the para gliding is just underneath a man made canopy that the hang gliders use as a runway to take off from. While waiting my turn and watching, I noticed one of the hang glider’s dangling feet were very close to hitting the edge of the mountain on their immediate descent. The very next hang glider actually kicked a small bush on their immediate descent. My immediate thought in both cases was “that was a little too close” and they were barely clearing the edge of the mountain on their jump but as a person who has never done this before it is difficult to know what is normal and what is not. Finally it was our time to go. We were given the signal. My pilot’s name was Carlos Antonio Ribeiro Da Silva. He knew no English so communication was difficult. This originally was not too much of a problem because one of the other instructors was able to provide instructions to me. The directions were to basically walk/waddle/run down the ramp until you are off the mountain. We did that and toward the bottom of the ramp, I felt some resistance and our motion forward was somewhat obstructed by something that was going on with the parachute. I could only see forward though so I had no idea what was happening with the parachute behind us. Instead of sailing away, we immediately dropped and started crashing into the bushes/brush along the mountain. There was about 3-4 very long seconds where I thought we would not live. Somehow someway, the parachute caught air and we sailed away. While crashing through the brush along the mountain, the long selfie stick with the GoPro camera provided by the company snapped/broke and the camera was gone. Just a few seconds after sailing away and after I realized I was alive, it was then that I realized my hand was a bloody mess. Carlos, the pilot, however, didn’t seem to care about my hand or the fact that we almost died. All he cared about was that the selfie stick broke and the camera was gone. I immedidately went from being scared about dying to being angry beyond belief that all he cared about was the camera. I was speechless the rest of the ride down and internally fuming. We finally made it to the bottom. I was unstrapped and unbuckleed and Carlos motioned for me to over and get my hand washed off near where the bathrooms were. He ran off I assume to talk to colleagues about what happened. The bathroom area I was told to go to had no running water. It was the end of the day and it was difficult to locate anybody that could help. Standing there with a blood soaked hand, about 5 minutes later Carlos came back to check on me and brought me to an area that had a hose. Once my hand was rinsed off, he brought me across the street where the person in charge for could be found that could speak English and provide me additional help. This was Klaus Koch. Klaus was in charge as the owner was not present. Klaus was the only good thing about this whole day. He was very responsive. He was very compassionate and was willing to try and help fix a very bad situation. I have nothing but gratitude for Klaus. Klaus immediately recognized this was a bad situation and he first recommended that we go to the pharmacy to get stitches. As an American, going to the pharmacy to get stitches was very confusing. But if this where you go to get stitches in Rio then lets go. A few minutes later, he then said maybe we should go to the hospital. To hold me over, though, I needed bandages and antiseptic to clean my wounds. Shockingly, they had no first-aid kit or materials on site. Klaus immediately got in his car and drove off to go get something to temporarily hold me over. While waiting for Klaus, Carlos asked me for my phone so that he could load pictures from the ride onto my phone from a secondary camera that was apparently snapping pictures in the air. I looked him in the eye and said very sternly, “I don’t give a _____ about your pictures. Just give me my ______ing money back!” I don’t think he understand what exactly I was saying. But it was clear that up until this point, he severely misrread the entire situation and my feelings about what had happened. If Carlos is still employed by Rio Hang Gliding, I would suggest you avoid him at all costs. I was eventually reimbursed the $169 I paid for the excursion. The suggestion was to take me to I believe, Hospital Municipal Miguel Couto (not 100% sure if this was the hospital). As a tourist, I had no opinion or knowledge about which hospital was best to go to. We arrived to this hospital and my immediate reaction was this was the dirtiest and most unsanitary medical building I have ever seen. This was not your typical hospital in the USA. The wait in the emergency room was shockingly short. Having Klaus there as a translator helped tremendously. My eyes were very wide the entire time I was there. Eventually, I saw a doctor who examined me and described the wound as superficial (not very deep). According to him, no stitches were needed. They bandaged me and “cleaned me up” and we were out the door within 60-90 minutes after we arrived. Part 3: Negligence, Dishonesty & Carelessness While waiting for treatment in the emergency room, I asked Klaus at one point what happened that caused the accident. I assumed that Carlos (the pilot) offered some kind of explanation that I was unable to get from him since he did not speak English. Klaus indicated that Carlos said everything was my fault. He said I was holding the selfie stick too low and it got stuck on the edge of the mountain which impeded our movement forward. THIS IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED! I explained to Klaus that upon getting off the mountain, we immediately dropped and began crashing through bushes and it was then that that the selfie stick may have been held too low causing it to break because I at that point I was worried about my life as we were crashing through things alongside the mountain. I explained the whole situation to Klaus and he very honestly said the thinks that Carlos “pushed it” for sure. I wasn’t sure what that meant. I asked and he said that Carlos went too soon and should have waited for proper wind conditions. We were the very last reservation of the day. A day in which they were backed up by almost 2 hours. I am pretty sure Carlos just wanted to get off the mountain and get home. I can think of no other reason for the careless behavior. So in addition to actually showing no compassion or remorse for the accident when it immediately happened, he then decided to later blame me for this situation after we landed. Unbelievable. Klaus graciously drove me and my friend back to our hotel which was about 45 minutes away. Again, Klaus was great! Upon arriving back at the hotel, I ran into several people from the USA delegation that were traveling with me. Fortunately, I was able to see the USA athletic training / medical staff back at the hotel. They did not like the look of the wound and more importantly, they could not believe the extremely poor job the hospital did of caring for the wound (cleaning and wrapping it). It was obvious that I hadn’t received great treatment but at the time I assumed it was adequate. Despite the hospital itself resembling a dungeon, I trusted that the doctors were knowledgable and qualified. The USA staff properly cleaned and wrapped me and while doing so, I found out one of the other delegation members had a wife at home that was a physician’s assistant and coincidentally was Brazillian. He texted her pictures and spoke with her. In her opinion, she said the doctor should have given me stitches. I described the hospital to her and she said “oh, you were at a public hospital. You need to get back out and get treatment at a private hospital.” At this point it was close to 5 hours after the injury and she said it was somewhat urgent because there is typically a 12 hour window in which stitches can be appropriately given. My phone had run out of battery during the whole ordeal. Eventually, I was able to speak with my wife, a nurse, and some of the doctors she works with and they confirmed that yes, I more than likely needed stitches and should go back to the hospital. So now it was time to find the nearest private hospital. So it was during this time that the realization set in that I had paid close to $20 when I signed up for hang gliding for the insurance they recommended in case of an accident. They are charging $20 for insurance only to take somebody to a public hospital that provides free healthcare to residents and foreigners! What a scam. They don’t care enough about their customers to provide them proper professional treatment at a private hospital for accidents they are responsible for. Why? Because it would cost them money! Part 4: Negligence, Dishonesty & Carelessness Konrad Heilmann is the owner of this company. From what you read online, he is apparently a very accomplished hang glider. This definitely does not make him a good person though that cares for his customers. As indicated above, I was advised by various knowledgable people within my circle that I needed to go back to a proper hospital and get my hand treated again and I needed to do it quickly. To get proper treatment at a private hospital, this of course, was going to cost money which was not a concern. Ultimately, the doctor I saw indicated that yes, I should have received stitches. However, he was not comfortable giving them to me because in his opinion there is a 6 hour window (not 12 hour as was indicated to me the USA people) in which he could do this with 100% certainty that it would be effective. He recommended no stitches as a result of the timing. Even though the USA medical staff already cleaned and wrapped the wound, they did so again and also provided me medication in case of infection. He was confident that even though I was not going to have stitches, that everything should heal fine. A couple weeks after I returned, I made contact with Konrad to seek reimbursement. Ultimately, I was seeking $507 that I paid out of pocket at the second hospital plus $17 I paid for the fake insurance. Initially, I sent Konrad all of the paperwork that I recieved from the hospital which included receipts. I did this on August 6th. On August 9th, Konrad said his insurance company needed a tax invoice that the hospital should have provided me. This was not given to me. However, finally by September 6th after much hassle, issues with language barrier and long distance phone charges, the hospital provided the tax invoice. Over a month later, on October 11th, Konrad indicated his insurance company needs a medical report. This was something that was not given me to me while in the hospital. I did eventually get connected with an ally at the Hospital that I communicated with at least once a week for 2 months through WhatsApp. She was very helpful and tried to help me get what I needed. Ultimately, her boss, for reasons that I am unaware of, was never able to follow through and get me the medical report that Konrad was asking of me. I don’t even know if a medical report ever even existed as I never received one. From the very beginning of my communication with Konrad, I was very honest with him that the money was not my biggest concern. The injury is healed. Financially, I am doing fine. However, due to Carlos’ negligent actions and behavior and due to Konrad’s company procedures (or lack of), I was hoping that he would do the right thing and reimburse me for the money I paid out of pocket for an injury that was the result of a near death experience on their watch. $507 + $17 is a small price to pay I think. Especially, considering that a single ride costs $169. There was also the $180 of long distance charges I paid to try and get the non-existent medical report from the hospital. This could have have and should have been a very easy thing for a morally responsible business owner to do. However, Konrad refused to bear any financial responsibility. Instead, he hid behind his insurance company. He claimed that he and his people took good care of me. This was certainly not true. I hope my story about Konrad Heilmann and his disfunctional and dangerous hang gliding business will help you make a better decision than I did in July 2022. After seeing how they operate and gaining an understanding of the man pulling all the strings, you should really think twice about gliding off of a mountain under the care of Konrad. I am lucky and thankful that I only sufferred a temporarily wounded hand. From what I gather, there is a lack of regulations and restrictions within the Brazilian tourism industry. One thing is for certain, there is no way that a business as haphazard as this would be allowed to function in the USA or anywhere else where any kind of legitimate oversight exists. Unfortunately, the lowest rating I can give is 1 star. They do not deserve a star. They should be shut down.