Kite Strings

Sorry for the error
Version 7 uploaded.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Jan

No big deal. I think there's a high probability that no Wills Wing dealer has ever taught a customer to run that procedure and quite a few have told customers NOT to run it. And it's a no brainer that no Wills Wing partner, employee, or dealer has ever taken anything resembling a stand on compliance - let alone denounced assholes like Red Howard and their bullshit about causing damage to sound wires.

And welcome, twenty-second Kite Strings poster. Not a very long list but that's how it tends to go when the goal is quality.

A couple other points I'm meant to bring up on this issue...

Stomping on the second wire doesn't accomplish a damned thing that stomping on the first hasn't already. I always did it anyway though 'cause:
- that's what it says to do in the manual
- it's a really cool, extremely high value, virtually no cost preflight check
- what the hell, maybe you happen to stomp a little harder the second time and catch something

If you have a kingpost it's a good idea to plant a foot on the keel and pull back on the top tail wire to load the fore/aft stuff a bit. Granted, the fore/aft flying wires are paired and thus won't be feeling much pain individually - but they never feel much in the air either.

Also... I always made a point of running these tests before detensioning the glider prior to breakdown. If something's gonna pop it won't be at the beginning of a good flying day and if I get distracted and neglect to run the checks on the flying day I won't have missed them entirely.

BIG thanks for producing the video, Jan. Well done!

I have it on the Sylmar site: http://www.shga.com/forum/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=3

And Sonoma Wings: http://sonomawingsbb.yuku.com/forums/20/Safety#.Vf4609LBzGc

I could've had it on the Rocky Mountain Pigfuckers' site but those assholes booted me off.

I doubt it'll fly in Grebloville 'cause the check can't be performed while suspended in one's harness and doesn't start with a C.

It's just as well that you couldn't post to Rocky Mountain 'cause in Colorado critical tests performed BEFORE launch give one false senses of security.

We could post it on The Davis Show but it would increase the survival rate of Davis Show Dedicated Sycophants and thereby further degrade the gene pool.

Consider posting on The Bob Show. Guarantee of dozens of smilies and a Navier-Stokes equation graph illustrating the safety tradeoffs related to the sizes and densities of sharp rocks in the setup area.

Squeezing the front wires together is also a quick and easy test. This is something I've done since the days of bulldog clamps.
A friend watched me do this last year and made it part of his preflight.
Just in time it would seem as his rear wire failed at the keel while still on the ground instead of over a volcano in Lanzarote!

Yeah, you'd mentioned that before and I think about it a lot but it's been well over half a dozen years since I've been anywhere near a tensioned glider so I haven't tried it and had it properly burned into my brain.

Yeah, that should deliver a lot of tension, maybe something comparable to a 75 pound foot on a sidewire - and a greater percentage of the in-flight load it takes.

Probably not a great idea for the old PacAir gliders with the continuous nose wire bent through an elbow sleeve that was engaged by a locking catch at the nose but that hardware configuration was far from a great idea and cost one of our club guys his career when the wire failed at that point in a controlled landing crash (flew his Mark IV into the ground trying to spot land for his Three requirement).
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P.S. - 2015/09/20 23:30:00 UTC

Makes my point about it being pointless to stomp both sidewires. If you tension one element of the loop you tension all elements of the loop.

Tad Eareckson wrote:Stomping on the second wire doesn't accomplish a damned thing that stomping on the first hasn't already.

True for the kingposted, not the topless.

I disagree.

The flying wires have no way of knowing if top wires are involved in the test.

You're right. The reinforced crossbar on the topless transfers the load to the other side just as the kingpost and upper rigging would.

I was gonna say it like this before I noticed the other two new posts below the one I was seeing at the bottom of my window.

I'm gonna say no. The only thing bracing the control frame against lateral movement is the opposite sidewire so it and the basetube connecting the two have gotta be feeling the same tension.