Do you have a crystal ball?
When one hundred percent of the time 99 percent of glider divers fail to adhere to critical written and/or obvious common sense procedures you don't need a crystal ball - just a little patience.
I think Red's advice is spot on.
Red deserves to be stood up against a wall. Or, failing that, a rating suspension.
Indiscriminately stomping on a wire in the dirt or on rocks has the potential to damage the wire.
So does smacking an inboard leading edge section with a hammer to check for weak spots. How does either of those procedures even remotely relate to the discussion?
It would prudent to learn the proper way to do it first.
- Anybody too fucking stupid to follow - without benefit of a USHGA instructor's guidance - any and all of the preflight procedures described in any Wills Wing owner's manual - from a Falcon 3 to a T2 - has no goddam business within 75 yards of a setup area, launch, LZ, or breakdown area.
- The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc.:
Standard Operating Procedure
12. Rating System
02. Pilot Proficiency System
06. Beginner Hang Gliding Rating (H-1)
-B. Beginner Rating - Required Witnessed Tasks
01. Set up and preflight of glider and harness, to include familiarity with owner's manual(s).
- This is - yet again - ten year old kid common sense stuff.
We don't have any big sharp rocks at Funston so I have to bring my own. Once I have the big and very sharp rocks in place I proceed to grind my flying wires into them using a jumping and twisting motion. Should I not do this?
CEASE AND DESIST *IMMEDIATELY*!!! You're confusing the trailing edge abrasion resistance test with the sidewire load capacity test.
Wills Wing's manuals explicitly state to push up on the leading edge when doing the test. Doing so keeps your foot and the wires well above the ground. I do this test with every preflight and my wires have never touched the ground in the process.
You don't understand. The problems associated with the sidewire load test are similar to the problems associated with the lift and tug hook-in check. They only manifest themselves with people who never even consider doing them.
I never asked him but I would place the odds at 99.99:1 that he's never done this.
I think he's about 0.01 percent low on his estimate.
There is nothing in the statement or implied by the statement relating to Wills's or any of the other maker's procedures.
I don't give a rat's ass what anybody else's owner's manuals say or don't. If you're not doing this test as part of your preflight you're not a responsible pilot. Step and push for the glider is the lift and tug for its pilot. Step and push assures that the glider won't disintegrate in the air to nearly the same extent that lift and tug assures that the pilot won't disintegrate on the rocks below the ramp.
If you do NOTHING ELSE before running off the ramp step and push and lift and tug. And I would prioritize those even over learning to fly. And I'm totally serious on those points.
And, of course, what are the two pre-launch procedures least likely to be taught or practiced?
And once you define 'it', what is the 'proper way' to do it?
I'm guessing not indiscriminately stomping on a wire in the dirt or on rocks. I'm guessing that the reason that Wills Wing doesn't talk about IMPROPER ways to do sidewire load tests is because they are unable to envision anyone stupid enough to do an improper sidewire load test isn't doing the gene pool a whole lot of good anyway. I'm guessing this is also why they don't have any cautions about launching with the pointy end aft. I'm guessing that the reason that Wills Wing doesn't talk about IMPROPER ways to do sidewire load tests is the same reason I don't show people how to engage a barrel release in order to get it to lock onto a weak link.
That's a lot of force on the thin wall leading edge spars...
I don't think you could hurt that tubing in the course of a load test with a gun to your head. In the fall of '89 I straightened a Comet outboard leading edge spar by padding it and levering it between a couple of closely spaced tree trunks. That's when I lost virtually all fear of an in flight structural failure precipitated by any tubing other than a straightened downtube. The required torque was un freaking believable. Granted, it was 6061 versus 7075 but still...
...I'm just trying to determine what you're talking about, as I seriously have no idea.
I could do with a bit of clarification myself.
P.S. Sorry to have just messed up our total posts count (1234).