instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
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Tad Eareckson
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Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=35666
OzReport : 403 Forbidden Error
Rodger Hoyt - 2020/07/19 07:17:19 UTC

I'll contact Davis and ask what's up.
- Since now on Day 3 Davis can't be bothered to tell us what the fuck's up.

- Ditto for the OTHER Administrator - Gerry Grossnegger.

Note that...

-- Many of us have PAID to support that vile rag. And that, sadly and stupidly, includes Yours Truly. I sent the motherfucker twenty bucks when I registered and started posting. Pagen, Davis, Bob... I was seeing what they wanted me to see and dismissing the stuff that smelled a bit funny.

-- The people one really wants in this sport - the ONLY people one really wants in this sport - are the ones who've posted publicly, frequently, accurately, persistently, extensively. At least until they've realized how futile their efforts are and hopeless the long term outlook is.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=592
Linknife
Sam Kellner - 2010/03/28 21:41:19 UTC

:lol: Yeah, I don't even read all of those long winded "explanations". :lol: :roll:
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1081
Platform towing /risk mitigation / accident
Sam Kellner - 2012/07/03 02:25:58 UTC

No, you don't get an accident report.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/10/23 16:29:29 UTC

As for Nobody's request for me to read a document, I haven't found the time yet. I'm sorry, but I don't have time to read everything that everyone asks me to read.
These people have spent untold zillions of hours researching issues, reporting on and documenting issues, composing posts, providing photographic and video illustrations, engaging in discussions, discrediting opposition. And they've had an expectation that their work wouldn't be suddenly and totally vaporized. And they can't be really happy about what's going on now. (I sure know I'm not.)

Note the dead smiley links in Pigfucker Sam's Davis Show post. They should be coming up as :lol: :lol: :roll:. Reminds me that any and all Davis Show origin images, photos embedded here and anywhere else are - or should be - currently toast. But here's Davis getting a much needed and deserved face rearrangement at Finger Lakes:

Image
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident2.jpg
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident3.jpg
Image

Why are these still coming up? Are they lingering in a cache somewhere else?

The Jack and Davis Shows are u$hPa's official unofficial damage control outlets. They're the venues on which Mark G. Forbes will emerge when u$hPa's forced to pretend to be responsibly dealing with an Arys Moorhead situation. Half of them are currently gone. What are the implications?

Those who don't know their history are destined to repeat it, right? These motherfuckers don't want people knowing that the safest permissible post Marzec solo aerotow weak link...

http://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info
http://airtribune.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/contest/files/2019/07/GTxd6mT4AIn8.pdf
2019 Big Spring Nationals - 2019/07

Weaklinks of 140 and 200 (280 and 400 towline) pounds will be available and provided by the organizers. Weaklinks provided by the organizers must be used by the competitors.
...is eight percent more dangerous than the most dangerous permissible pre Marzec solo aerotow weak link.

What's happened? Has there been some recently emerged legal threat to prompt this action? Has Tim Herr been doing the same research I have and realized that a preemptive action needed taking?

Jack abruptly erasing his entire posting history after deciding that he no longer had any personal connection to hang gliding, that he's just a local coffee shop owner where hang gliding people were permitted to hang out and have friendly discussions about their recent flying activities? Davis taking his entire newsletter archive and forum down minus a word to anyone? Anybody think these are just happenstance coincidences?
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Watch this history. ('Cause they REALLY don't want you to.)

http://ozreport.com/5.126
Flytec Dragonfly
USAFlytec - 2001/07/14

Steve Kroop - Russell Brown - Bob Lane - Jim Prahl - Campbell Bowen

The tail section of the Dragonfly is designed so that it can accept in-line as well as lateral loads. Furthermore the mast extension, which is part of the tow system, is designed to break away in the event of excessive in-line or lateral loads. The force required to cause a breakaway is roughly equivalent to the force required to break the double weaklink used on the tail bridle. More simply put, the mast would break away long before any structural damage to the aircraft would occur.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skysailingtowing/message/4606
Weaklinks and aerotowing (ONLY)
Davis Straub - 2005/02/09 06:13:39 UTC

Weaklinks are a big issue. The problem is that pilots "learn" to make stronger and stronger weaklinks because they do not want to have a weaklink break when it is dangerous (they are low and out of control) and they are penalized by the meet rules which put them to the back of the launch line after they land. Bill Moyes lost eleven spectra ropes in the first two days of the Worlds because the pilot's weaklink was stronger than the plane's weaklink. I had heard that the plane's weaklink was 115-135 pounds. The ones on the Dragonfly were on V-bridles at the end of the V-bridle, and the ones on trikes were on three ring circuses.

End result: A very wide range of possible weak link values here depending on pilot skills and weight.

Competition:

Pilots need to be able to go to the front of the line (if they are ready to launch) if they have a weaklink break. Otherwise you'll have "strong links."
http://ozreport.com/9.011
2005 Worlds
Davis Straub - 2005/01/13

Tom Lanning had four launches, and two broken weaklinks and a broken base tube. He made it just outside the start circle.
http://ozreport.com/12.081
Weaklinks - the HGFA rules
Davis Straub - 2008/04/22 14:47:00 UTC

Here is the requirement from the 2007 Worlds local rules (which I wrote) for weaklinks:
Pilots must use weaklinks provided by the meet organizers and in a manner approved by the meet organizers. All weaklinks will be checked and use of inappropriate weaklinks will require the pilot to go to the end of the launch line to change the weaklink.

Weaklinks will consist of a single loop of Cortland 130 lb Greenspot braided Dacron Tolling line and should be placed at one end of a shoulder bridle.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3600
Weak link question
Jim Rooney - 2008/11/24 05:18:15 UTC

Well, I'm assuming there was some guff about the tug pilot's right of refusal?
Gee, didn't think we'd have to delve into "pilot in command"... I figured that one's pretty well understood in a flying community.

It's quite simple.
The tug is a certified aircraft... the glider is an unpowered ultralight vehicle. The tug pilot is the pilot in command. You are a passenger. You have the same rights and responsibilities as a skydiver.
It's a bitter pill I'm sure, but there you have it.
Jim Rooney - 2008/11/24 18:54:27 UTC

I'm confused. I never said the tug's ass was endangered. That's why we use 3strand at the tug's end. Using 4 strand can rip things off (it's happened). When forces are achieved that do break a 3 strand, your tail gets yanked around very hard, which does have implications as to the flight characteristics and flightpath. AKA, I have no desire to allow you to have the ability to have that effect on me when I tow you... esp near the ground.
Jim Rooney - 2011/08/28 10:40:24 UTC

Hi Tormod.
Oh, not at all.
I think what you're picking up on is my lack of willingness to discuss this with people that have already made up their minds.
Sorry for that, but it's just the nature of the beast.

I have no issue with discussing this with people that don't have an agenda.
I get very short with people that do however.

Am I "certain" about anything?
Nope.
However, some things get real obvious when you're doing them all the time. One is that weaklinks do in fact save people's asses.
You're 100% onto it... relying on the skill of the pilot is a numbers game that you'll lose at some point.

I find that so many people do not appreciate how fast and furious lockouts can happen.
They're exponential in nature.
Twice the time doesn't equate to twice the "bad"... it's four times the "bad"... then 16... it gets dramatic fast.

Is a weaklink going to save your ass? Who knows? But it's nice to stack the deck in your favour.

Now flip the argument and you start to see the devil.
A glider can take a whole shitload more force than a weaklink can.
So, if you're of the "sole purpose" cult, then you see no issue with a LOT stronger weaklink.

Well, it won't take long with that system before we've got a lot more dead pilots out there.
So they can stuff their philosophical purity bs... cuz I have no desire to tow someone to their death, no matter how willing they may be.

I'm not playing with this stuff in my head and just dismissing it. There's been a lot that's gone into this system.

I've seen too many people walk the "strong link" road only to find out the reality of things.
Fortunately, they've been unscathed, but there have been a lot of soiled underpants in the process.

I'm happy to discuss this stuff.
But I'm sick to death of arguing about it.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15716
weak links
Davis Straub - 2009/04/26 22:05:31 UTC

Tad doesn't agree, but the rest of us no doubt do, that we are in a partnership with the tug pilot, and that he needs to be protected also, and therefore our weaklink has to be less than his.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?
Jim Rooney - 2011/08/31 09:25:57 UTC

Oh how many times I have to hear this stuff.
I've had these exact same arguments for years and years and years.
Nothing about them changes except the new faces spouting them.

It's the same as arguing with the rookie suffering from intermediate syndrome.
They've already made up their mind and only hear that which supports their opinion.

Only later, when we're visiting them in the hospital can they begin to hear what we've told them all along.

Nobody's talking about 130lb weaklinks? (oh please)
Many reasons.
Couple of 'em for ya... they're manufactured, cheap and identifiable.

See, you don't get to hook up to my plane with whatever you please. Not only am I on the other end of that rope... and you have zero say in my safety margins... I have no desire what so ever to have a pilot smashing himself into the earth on my watch. So yeah, if you show up with some non-standard gear, I won't be towing you. Love it or leave it. I don't care.
http://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info
2019 Big Spring Nationals (pre-Pan-Americans)
http://airtribune.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/contest/files/2019/07/GTxd6mT4AIn8.pdf
Local Rules
15 - Launch

Weaklinks of 140 and 200 pounds will be available and provided by the organizers. Weaklinks provided by the organizers must be used by the competitors.
...
Pilots who have a premature release below 1000' will be slotted back into the launch cue as soon as possible.
http://airtribune.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com/media/contest/files/2018/10/31F9RzGy00DU.pdf
Aerotow Check List
Appendix D - Hang Glider Pilot Aerotow Checklist

01. Check that the glider has been pre-flighted.
02. Check cart integrity; adequate air pressure in tires, keel support at proper height,
glider hold down mechanism adjusted properly and wheels are straight.
03. Check that glider is properly seated in cart saddles with wheels on the outside (if applicable) and keel is centered on the support.
04. Perform a hang check.
- a. Check that harness is connected to the glider main and backup hang loops and the carabiner is locked. If using a direct connect harness, check that harness is hooked in to direct connect system inside the sail.
- b. Check proper height above bar.
- c. Check that harness lines are straight, leg loops are connected, chest buckle is connected and parachute pins are in place.
- d. Check that lines are fully retracted especially the pod harness line at the harness boot.
- e. Check that helmet is buckled.
05. Check that the bridle is free of all restrictions and is routed above the basetube.
- a. Check bridle connection to release closure mechanism.
- b. Check bridle line for knots.
- c. Check weak link(s) and replace if necessary.
06. Check glider VG line is set for anticipated tow speed and desired bar pressure and is properly stowed.
07. Check instruments are properly attached to base/downtubes and turned on.
08. Check that all electronics (radio, phone, camera) are on and working properly.
09. Connect tow rope to bridle. Check tow rope clip for proper closure.
10. Signal for "take up slack".
11. Check final line tight configuration of release, bridle, tow rope and clip for routing, knots and assembly/closure.
12. Check tow rope is clear and no knots are visible. 13.Check that wind conditions are suitable for launch. 14.Check for air traffic.
15. Mentally prepare for tow and emergency actions.
16. Say "Go go go!" to start the launch.

REMEMBER, as the pilot of a Hang Glider, YOU are responsible for checking everything! A crew person is only an assistant, and a second pair of eyes. Attention to detail is paramount. Should there be any problem that you did not catch, you must take responsibility for your own safety! Releasing is the only way to abort a tow!
We start out using a double looper on the Dragonfly so it, the tandem glider, and the tow mast all blow at the same time.

At Forbes the Dragonflies are using something a bit LIGHTER than you'd have on a two point solo glider. Still plenty enough towline pressure to pile drive Robin Strid back into the runway ('cause - as we all very well know - the glider Tad-O-Link automatically overrides whatever the tug's using).

But still the PILOTS aren't happy 'cause they don't want their weak links increasing the safety of the towing operation when it's dangerous (they are low and out of control). Go figure.

Then they make the back end weak links so safe that they can't get anybody airborne and keep shuffling their relighters to the front of the line. And if you're caught trying to hook up with a Tad-O-Link you're sent to the back of the line to refit and contemplate how close your selfish action came to killing the tug.

Then we're just passengers behind the motorized Pilots In Command and we need to use weak links to protect the tug's new, improved, unannounced weak link - unless we're tandems. If we're tandems everything's OK. (As long as you're not slope launching and flying - hang or para - with Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney.)

Now...

- We just choose whether we want to fly at 108 or 154 percent of the previous astoundingly long track record max - regardless of glider flavor, flying weight, experience, skill, conditions, what the hell the tug's using. Pick one - 140 or 200. Nothing in the middle. (Which is what we'd do if we were choosing glider square footage.)

- If we pop off we go to the back of the line. (So you'd hafta have a low single digit IQ to go with 140 - on that issue alone.) No bearing on either u$hPa SOPs or FAA AT regs whatsoever.

- WE are the Pilots In Command of OUR gliders. The fuckin' tug driver doesn't have shit to say about our hook-up. (And if the fuckin' tug driver is flying legally he's gotta stay over four hundred pounds on his end.) And we don't hafta tell the fuckin' tug driver shit about our hook-up (so he can properly evaluate and adjust to the equation).

- RELEASING is the only way to abort a tow? Our Infallible Weak Link won't keep us from getting into too much trouble, increase the safety of the towing operation, ensure a safe recovery, help us stack the deck in our favour? We can't just pitch out abruptly and pop our two hundred pound instant hands free release?

That last chunk is absolutely tectonic. It's a virtual total refutation of nearly four decades of Hewett based and Pagen advanced aeronautical snake oil. This has been the biggest scam in aviation history. The Ponzi scheme became toast on the afternoon of 2013/02/02 at Quest and I think that either Davis was paid off to run his newsletter/forum through the shredder or he did it on his own initiative - or maybe a mix.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=32673
This is terrible
Dave Pendzick - 2015/03/30 17:42:41 UTC

This is not going to end well for us...
It didn't. And it wouldn't have after 2005/09/03 Arlan Birkett / Jeremiah Thompson if the family had pursued the legal action they'd started and I'd known and understood then what I know and understand now. The Jack and Davis Shows would've been total gold mines for good attorneys after 2015/03/27 Jean Lake and I'd have been only too happy to guide them through any rough spots.

Still no public reaction outside of Kite Strings and two Jack Show posts.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=35666
OzReport : 403 Forbidden Error
Ken de Russy - 2020/07/21 06:12:22 UTC

Any word yet? I still can't get in.
---
USHGA Dual Division Life/Charter Member #5114
Hang Gliding Museum Collector Guy
Anacortes, WA
Museum Photo Album
http://tinyurl.com/zs4qto6
Historic Movies - Be sure to expand comments by clicking on "More from this user".
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=weflyuniv
Museum Studies Thesis - Ken de Russy's Hang Gliding Museum
http://tinyurl.com/89c2n6s
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HangGlidingMuseum/ Owner
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NanolightTrikers/ Owner
Rodger Hoyt - 2020/07/21 08:14:42 UTC

I couldn't reach him. Even his personal email is bouncing.
How very odd. (Gerry too undoubtedly.) What CAN be happening?
KTMPilot - 2020/07/21 14:50:25 UTC

Davis posted at facebook......he is working on it.
- How nice of Davis to have posted something at Facebook. And how nice it is to have this information get out to hang gliding - via the worlds largest hang gliding community - four days after the crash.

- Yeah?

http://www.facebook.com/davis.straub
Davis Straub | Facebook

Where?

And nobody seems to have noticed - as T** at K*** S****** pointed out 2020/06/29 16:53:46 UTC - that your local coffee shop owner has deleted every post he's ever written? Not to mention every thread he didn't want garnering attention and Basemented and taking the Incident Reports subforum out of public view?

The motherfuckers who control this sport are criminal drug traffickers. And the historical records - theirs in particular - are major threats to them.

Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney was The Industry's worst nightmare - as slow as they were to realize it and reverse his standing. Post Zack Marzec every time that asshole opened his mouth Team Kite Strings was there within seconds with half a dozen of his quotes flatly contradicting his current pretense of a position. Think Trump/Colbert.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=36806
"Hall Brock" Safety Award
John LaTorre - 2020/07/11 23:29:54 UTC

On reading some of the early, early literature of our sport (circa 1975), I came across a reference to the "Hall Brock Safety Award." From the context, I gathered that it might have been created to commemorate Hall Brock, who was one of the early casualties of the sport. (He was Pete's son.)

I've never been able to fine another reference to it. Does anybody have any information on it?
Frank Colver - 2020/07/19 23:13:41 UTC

I searched all of the Ground Skimmer / Hang gliding magazines from 1975 through 1977 and couldn't find any reference to the award. I did find the accident report about Hall's fatal accident which I've copied below. It is issue # 8 of the 1975 Ground Skimmer.

I will search after 1977 when I get a chance but I would have assumed that the award would be created not long after his death.

I'm searching using the "US Hang Gliding Association Complete Magazine Collection 1971- present" DVD's. Present in this case is 2003.
R.V. Wills - 1975/08

Accident Summaries

Accidents continue to hurt us all. They hurt the flier, his family, his friends, and the sport. Some are probably inevitable. Most are avoidable--IF the flier respects the forces of nature and his own limitations...

Since the last issue we have some tragic fatalities and a sizable number of serious injuries. We can only summarize a few each month, out of the many dozens throughout the world. The choice is tough, because there are too many accidents that have lessons to teach, some old, some new.

1975/07/18 - Hall Brock - 12 - Brock Standard Rogallo, flying prone - Welch's Gulch, Aspen, Colorado
Fatal. Probable broken neck. Only visible injury a thigh wound. Breathed only 10 seconds.
Maneuver: Low altitude 360, steep bank into a dive from 600'.
Apparent or Probable Cause: Inexperience in doing 360's and failure to heed advice to push out more and avoid a diving spiral. Hall had done very few 360's before this and was getting into diving spirals on the second half.
once&future - 2020/07/19 23:36:07 UTC

Imagine that: description and analysis of fatal accidents in the national magazine. When USHGA stopped doing this was around when I started losing interest in the magazine.
Yeah. I started in the era of R.V. Wills and Doug Hildreth. I LIVED for the reports on the fatals and other serious shit 'cause I didn't wanna make the same mistakes. That's what all REAL pilots do. The only thing that registered on the scale of scaring me off was the unhooked launch. I estimated that if I seriously pursued the sport an unhooked launch would kill me within two years. But that fear was a major factor in me NOT killing myself on an unhooked launch.

(The vast majority of people who seriously pursue the sport however have low double digit IQs and are universally taught by their even stupider instructors to use some idiot procedure to guarantee that they won't launch unhooked. So they're not scared off to begin with, not scared of launching unhooked thus almost invariably DO launch unhooked but usually aren't too seriously injured and resolve to become more Focused Pilots. So - long story short - not a factor.)

But The Industry can't make much money on real pilots. That all comes from tandem thrill riders and they don't want them knowing that crashes occur - let alone WHY crashes occur.

Doug Hildreth gave it up at half past 1994, things went a bit south with Luen Miller (who soon ceased to exist anywhere) and then took a steep dive. And over a decade ago:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16439
Some day we will learn
Steve Morris - 2010/03/31 23:58:54 UTC

In 2009 there were several serious hang gliding accidents involving pilots on the HG forum (or who had close friends on the forum that reported that these accidents had occurred). In each case there was an immediate outcry from forum members not to discuss these accidents, usually referring to the feelings of the pilots' families as a reason to not do so. In each case it was claimed that the facts would eventually come out and a detailed report would be presented and waiting for this to happen would result in a better informed pilot population and reduce the amount of possibly harmful speculation.

In each of these cases I have never seen a final detailed accident report presented in this forum. So far as I can tell, the accident reporting system that has been assumed to exist here doesn't exist at all, the only reports I've seen are those published in the USHPA magazine. They are so stripped down, devoid of contextual information and important facts that in many cases I have not been able to match the magazine accident report with those mentioned in this forum.

The end result has been that effective accident reporting is no longer taking place in the USHPA magazine or in this forum. Am I the only one who feels this way?
So if everything gets routed to Tim Herr for attorney-client privileged shredding then how is u$hPa able to define requirements and standards for ratings, instruction, instructors. When they require a Helmet to be worn by one participating in the sport how do they know that the Helmet isn't doing more harm than good? (As is often the case out in the real world.)

Take a look at the current version of:

http://www.hanggliding.org/rules/
Rules - Hang Gliding Org

Show me where it says you're encouraged or even permitted to discuss flights or efforts at flights with less than stellar outcomes.
* When posting, think about non-HG pilots who come to visit the site every day. Please put your best foot forward and showcase the fun adventurous atmosphere we experience every day in the landing zone after a great flight. The majority of website traffic is NEW traffic, and very likely non-pilots. This website has very broad world wide reach. Over 3 MILLION people have visited this website.
Show me where Jack identifies himself as:
- a hang glider pilot or even someone with a personal interest in hang gliding
- anyone with a name beyond "SG"
- anything other than a local coffee shop owner who permits hang glider pilots to:
-- hang out and discuss their great flights
-- generate advertising revenue for himself and himself alone

Somebody dig up some documentation of Jack ever accomplishing anything noteworthy in the sport beyond jumping through the hoops for u$hPa ratings - none of which require anything particularly demanding.

At least with Davis you had someone who could evaluate and forecast soaring conditions, set up and fly tasks pretty effectively, actually flew hang gliders all the fuckin' time.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=35666
OzReport : 403 Forbidden Error
KTMPilot - 2020/07/21 14:50:25 UTC

Davis posted at facebook...
Yes. Davis HAS posted at Facebook. Same stuff everybody on the planet is talking about but absolutely nothing relevant to the topic. What's your point?
...he is working on it.
Working on WHAT? Facebook? Hard to argue otherwise.
Rodger Hoyt - 2020/07/22 06:45:35 UTC

Oz Report
1d ·
The Oz Report web site http://ozreport.com has been locked down by our web host for erroneous concerns about malicious software using one of our scripts. We have been attempting to get them to open it up again.

The web site and the forum are all not working.
And certaianly don't trouble yourself by formatting this as a quote and/or providing a link so we can have a chance of understanding anything that's going on.

http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=127443546084&story_fbid=10158726527286085
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

It's back up.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

And in addition to the shock of finding The Davis Show back up (still no mention on The Jack Show) I was also stunned to see that the most recent post was from Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney. Time stamp 2020/07/17 15:24:00 UTC - probably very shortly prior to the crash.

Then I look for any of his activity that I might have missed.

https://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62672
Trim at Landing
Jim Rooney - 2020/04/30 01:55:38 UTC

Oh, I never had any trouble with a racing harness.

Something to keep in mind is that I'm just demonstrating how things work here. I'm not advocating people taking their hands of the downtubes for example.

You'll also find that as your timing improves, things like you position and hand position are far less important than people believe. They become important when your timing is off.

It's surprisingly easy for example to land from the basebar with the right timing.

It's all about knowing when to flare.
Not guessing when to.
There is zero evidence of:

- this asshole ever accomplishing anything of any note on an aircraft of any kind - unless you count having needed to be choppered off of the same slope twice after unsuccessful efforts at aviation on two different flavors of tandem thrill rides in nothing air

- the world's greatest authority on hang glider landing ever having foot landed in anything more challenging than a half mile wide pancake flat Happy Acres putting green and/or in glassy smooth air

You couldn't hook up behind him solo on either of today's only two permitted weak links because you had no say in his safety margins.

And...
...far less important than people believe.
That's trademark Rooney. Foremost authority on everything. He and he alone has mastered all these facets of our brand of aviation. Far less important than PEOPLE believe. Also knows what everybody else in the sport believes, thinks, has wrong. Even after the benefit of a decade and a half of his in-the-field and online instruction and essays. Another way of saying that all of his teaching and influence have been totally ineffective.

About a half hour after Rooney scored his Three he went into tugs, tandem thrill rides, and tandem PG. That way he was never in any danger of getting his ass kicked by a Joe hang glider pilot - 'specially one like Yours Truly.

When I did the '82 season I was under two total douchebags. Mark Airey was the manager and I was slightly under Dan Skadal. It wasn't too long before I could kick Mark's ass but Dan had started and always stayed a little bit ahead of me as we advanced.

Dan was competing in that year's Spectacular 1982/05/07-09 - Friday afternoon through Sunday morning. (I wasn't. I was running support.) Dan was doing pretty good but with Glen Hockett, Tom Haddon... Dan was a really devout Christian and wouldn't even consider not keeping the Sabbath morning Holy.

On 1982/06/26 at High Top (Virginia Blue Ridge) with its horrible little postage stamp excuse for an LZ Mark was supposed to be teaching a batch of us Two rated instructors how to fly mountains. I followed his totally fucked up approach instructions, consequently overshot the field (Comet 165), stopped a bit off the ground into the far end trees. Glider was a bit damaged but I was totally OK.

Unhooked, dropped down, started walking back to the grass. The vines hobbled my ankles, I fell forward, a pyramid shaped rock concealed in the vegetation centerpunched my right knee and took me out of action until 07/05.

It was during this downtime that Dan set the Jockey's Ridge (and Dare County) duration record. 5:22 - South Bowl. Doug Rice had been the previous. I'm sure that record still stands and - because the dune has been irreversibly degraded - almost certainly always will.

When it was soarable and we were off instruction...

Dan would always come out with a glider and a girl - same glider, different girl each time. He'd make a few passes with the girl then show her (and everybody else) what he could do solo.

1982/08/26 something kicked in and I was red hot. Nobody was gonna touch me and everybody and his dog knew it. Dan comes out with girl, takes a few tandem passes, goes back to the shop.

Early afternoon of 1982/09/01 I shot up from launch at the South Bowl and PARKED at two hundred over. Somebody commented to Dan that his record might easily be toppled. "Nah, he's gotta come down to teach." I had to come down to teach.

But the tandem get-out-of-jail-free card - even when one has some actual abilities - was the point of all that.

And now that I think of it... Dan Skadal was the Eighties God's Gift who solved all of our landing problems for us.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26379
Landings
Jim Rooney - 2012/01/19 19:56:33 UTC

Yup
That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

I'll see about putting up some specific "landing techniques" later... It's not blown out here just yet.
Like,
The moonwalk or "greblo"
The two step
Trim+1
The crescendo
The zen

All begin with coming in faster than trim.
Period.
The "crescendo" landing was Dan's baby. Pretty sure there was a magazine article. (Rooney wouldn't know that 'cause it was worked out before he arrived.)

And if Dan ever accomplished anything outside of dune flying - XC, aerobatics - I never heard about it. Ceased to exist sometime in the late Eighties. SoCal.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Bill Bennett - of Bill Bennett / Mike Del Signore - wasn't my favorite cup o' tea but he wasn't a Dan Skadal / Jim Rooney.

In the LZ I mentioned kicking his butt thermalling at Hyner - while he was flying tandem and I wasn't. Delivered and received as tongue-in-cheek.

But shortly thereafter I very definitively kicked his (and everyone else's) butt in light thermal - at the same fly-in probably - while we were both solo. Didn't say anything or need to. A cowardly little shit like Rooney would never in a zillion years expose himself to a situation like that. Never did. I'll bet he wet his pants with joy and relief after he got his tug and tandem tickets. (All tug pilots are totally excellent 'cause it's physically impossible for them to compete with each other and all tandems are flying excuses. (As long as you don't launch them unhooked or crash them back into the slope anyway.))

And whenever he'd get his ass kicked online he'd play the civility card - use the ignore button, rely on Industry operative monitors to lock threads and ban the opposition.

But...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?
Davis Straub - 2011/08/28 15:26:28 UTC

Then again, Russell Brown had us double up behind him after six breaks in a row at Zapata. We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.
That was a warning shot that he was too stupid and arrogant to heed. And after the Quest 2013/02/02 pro toad inconvenience fatality...
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

I've been closely watching Bob not post - or do anything else to indicate that he still has a pulse - since 2020/07/18 02:24:36 UTC.

Last night - 2020/07/29 03:29:17 UTC - Steve, who'd also been noticing Bob's present condition, alerted me to the fact that the owner of the worlds largest local coffee shop has been exhibiting identical signs of life for quite some time. Last active 2020/07/15 22:52:35 UTC.

Absolutely stunning - both cases.

In Jack's Videos subforum:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=36811
Buy fake Portugal passport online, Fake Portuguese documents, Buy original passport Portugal, Get real Portugues passpor
TottenF - 2020/07/25 04:57:28 UTC
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http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14230
pro tow set-up
Jack Axaopoulos - 2009/11/12 14:49:58 UTC

gasdive,

One of the stated goals of this site is to promote HG. MOST views on this site are NOT from members but from visitors, they have no ignore button.

Having Tad run around every day giving the impression that there is a massive weekly slaughter of pilots at tow parks due to their horribly dangerous devices surely doesnt promote HG. Especially when the safety records are quite excellent.

Like Jim said, theyve gone a decade with no fatalities at their tow park. Pretty damn good I say.

Yet listening to Tad, you would think guys were dying all over the place
He's been nothing but misleading and negative and ignored multiple warnings from me. So He's GONE
Not a tiny fraction of the extent to which you are, Jack. T** at K*** S****** still has 249 posts up at your dump - not to mention (with this one) 8867 here, 451 on Bob, 225 on Davis, 56 on Bags, 304 on what's left of Capitol.

The total first hand record of your existence in the sport:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=36802
Difficulties logging in
Jack Axaopoulos - 2020/06/28 15:40:38 UTC

Log in here

https://www.hanggliding.org/login/
Jack Axaopoulos - 2020/07/01 12:00:25 UTC

Added the the classifieds pulldown menu.
If you follow the link, and it forwards anyway, its because you are already logged in.
And nobody anywhere to date has given the slightest indication of giving the least flying fuck.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Jack's active 2020/07/30 13:54:15 UTC, spam's gone. Bob's still out.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: instructors and other qualified pilot fiends

Post by Tad Eareckson »

And I checked The Bob Show a little after 2020/08/01 04:00:00 UTC - August for Greenwich and Daylight Eastern and Central - and it's down.
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And when it was still up several hours ago when it was definitely still July throughout the US there were recent posts at reasonable levels minus any input from Bob subsequent to the aforementioned 2020/07/18 02:24:36 UTC.

And nobody on The Bob Show had noted anything about his very abrupt disappearance.

I wonder if a second SoCal based one time Kite Strings member has had a serious medical complications issue.
---
2020/08/01 22:00:00 UTC

Last Bob Show post prior to the temporary crash:
2020/07/30 22:46:48 UTC - Bill Cummings

Remains the last post at the time of this amendment.
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