Jonathan is an excellent pilot.
Yeah. I was pretty upset when he broke his neck in that LZ incident 'cause flying prone for any duration can put a lot of stress on one's neck even if one starts off with a perfectly good one and I didn't think he'd ever be able to come back the way he has.
Most of his videos are great learning tools. Both regarding camera placement, as you point out...
Yeah, top notch. Can't go wrong plagiarizing what he's doing. Some videos I work with give me headaches 'cause they show too much of one aspect at the cost of not enough of another.
...but also his narrative.
Yeah, but I don't deal much (at all maybe) with top level flying 'cause there's no controversy about how to do it, what should be done - once the glider's cleared launch or gotten off tow. Thermalling comp pilots on videos are all gonna look like clones of each other - minus the colors - and they're all gonna make goal within 45 seconds of each other. And nobody's ever gotten a skinned knee from falling out of a thermal - unless one has first pushed his luck too far over hostile terrain.
But not sure that I have much to offer when it comes to teaching anyone how to fly.
I LOVE that approach that I recently went half blind pulling those 165 stills from. It violates the crap outta all the ironclad rules our asshole instructors have been carving into granite since the beginning of time and it was THE way to get into that field with mile wide safety margins.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30722
What happened to JD?
Tom Lyon - 2014/02/04 07:55:19 UTC
That's what I was referring to when I commented on turns near the ground elsewhere. I see so many landings where a low turn from base to final is just standard. And almost all of us have either seen, or know of someone who caught a wingtip or otherwise landed while in a turn. It's so dangerous.
In learning to fly the sailplanes, I had it drilled into me that below 200 feet, my options did not include anything more than maybe a very slight turn to avoid hitting an obstacle. Like 30 degrees from my heading may. A slight bank.
I see hang gliders make 90 degree turns from base to final at maybe 50' - 75' AGL fairly often. And I always cringe. Turns down low definitely appear to be something (from my very limited experience) that our sport needs to take more seriously in terms of avoidance.
068-20101-B
http://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48425382501_aaaaaa5dd3_o.png
Low, fully prone, both hands on the CONTROL bar, banked hard, tightish LZ almost directly behind you, narrow final approach path... That may be the real money shot from this approach. (Gimbal's a nice touch too.) Suck it, Tom. Ditto for your dickheaded sailplane and hang glider instructors. Somebody let me know if there's a single one anywhere who teaches legitimate RLF approach and landing technique.
My two biggest fears when I started flying were the unhooked launch and the runway overshoot. Hell, I had the runway overshoot before I started flying.
More the other way around, don't fly like this arse...
I'm wondering how much thermal action you Norway guys get. Just about all of my Mid Atlantic flying was with sustainable ridge lift. It wasn't until the Ridgely AT operation (total flatlands) opened up that I became a fairly competent thermal pilot.
My flying is very limited. My main goal is to promote hang gliding in general...
My main goal now is to kill it - in this neck of the woods anyway. It doesn't deserve to and shouldn't survive. But I'll always be a hundred percent with any effort anywhere to promote it being done right.
...and scenic Norway in particular, and specially my local sites.
Yeah, I've told you I was drooling the whole time I was there.
Put a HG in a beautiful scenery and it will probably catch interest from both flyers and non flyers.
And so many have been permanently eliminated from the sport through crap SOPs and instruction.
Thanks for all the effort analysing people's videos.
Thanks for providing them.
At best it's almost like the detailed analyses from the NTSB. Really interesting.
These stills projects are SO exhausting. They just about always kill at least a day and leave me half blind. But lotsa times you pick up major issues that you'd totally miss watching the live action.
NTSB... u$hPa got to and swallowed the card for the 2015/03/27 Jean Lake crash but our work on that one was about the best and most exhaustive, important, devastating that we've ever done.
42-05206
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8893/17987798463_e86ce323ef_o.png
The radio's strapped to his shoulder but not wired onto his finger and into his helmet so he can actually use it when he really needs to - like when two lives are hanging on the balance. Nah, u$hPa, why would that issue be of the least interest to anyone? I don't think I realized what was going on until I was pulling stills.
Another suggestion...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27415
Friday the 19th with Hawks & Friends!
NMERider - 2012/10/24 21:47:05 UTC
I have to say that landing on the wheels is so much fun it's not funny.
If I had my career to do over again I'd have my harness fully skid-plated and never foot land unless I were coming almost straight down in smooth beach quality wind. I never got hurt due to an imperfectly timed flare but I sure ended a lot of really great flights with embarrassing light air bonks and bowed, bent, snapped aluminum. And even when I got away with it I traded a lot of control, safety margin, fun for a lot of stress and anxiety. You also get more airtime letting the glider land when it wants to.
P.S. This morning - speaking of vision - got my driver's liceense renewed for another eight years. (And haven't had any detached retina flashes since last night.)