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.
She was just following the rules (which Davis wrote) for the 2009 Forbes Flatlands. And...
Davis Straub - 2009/01/05 21:58:07 UTC
Forbes Airfield
Julia, who that Russian team almost didn't let fly last year, is leading all the Russians.
...she's definitely a smart kid. So she probably sneaks another single loop of Cortland 130 lb Greenspot braided Dacron Tolling line on the other end of her shoulder bridle to cut the load on the first one in half after she clears the Launch Safety Marshal.
Good catch, I'd quit looking and missed that one in the shadow after I'd noted the one between the tow ring and Kaluzhin Release.
(Hover on her name on the scoring list in that post (like I did inadvertently) for the source of the photo.)
Got me again. Hard to go wrong starting with a zero IQ assumption and looking for the stuff that DOESN'T fit the profile.
So when the Davis Link increases the safety of the towing operation the:
- port bridle end with its eye-splice has gotta burn through the guide through the Kaluzhin Release
- deadman switch gets ripped out of her teeth
- release disengages from the tow ring, plummets back to Earth, hopefully goes through a windshield or kills a dog to facilitate recovery
And Lockout Mountain Flight Park doesn't warrant this gear as suitable for towing anything! Most impressive.
Got high and stayed up for almost two hours. Dedicating this flight and vid. to Mark Henline: mentor and friend to many and who now who has unlimited access to the sky, cosmos and beyond.
Must've been an excellent mentor and friend. Keep at it and perhaps you too will soon have unlimited access to the sky, cosmos, and beyond. Not to mention Mark Henline - mentor and friend to many. I'll sure be pulling for ya, anyway.
Bill Cummings
Love your music selection.
And her EQUIPMENT selection too, Bill!
I see that I'm me again with this comment.
You've always been you, Bill. Since at least the early Eighties.
Will we see you this weekend? Maybe you will be able to reclaim your identity giveaway.
Ann Dunlap
Hey Bill! I wish I had the time. It's only a two day weekend for me. May be able to go somewhere the WE before T-giving and Christmastime if winter storms and winds aren't a problem.
And not a punctuation mark's worth of reference to this total piece o' shit she had velcroed onto her downtube and kept her connected until she was half locked out in a non emergency release at altitude from Emperor Bob's hang glider towing Living Treasure.
It's hard to remember the era of the sport when it was a universal BIG FUCKING DEAL when a release jammed or hung up after one had executed the easy reach. Huge thanks to the US Aerotow Industry for lowering the bar to the point at which if something opens upon two out of three efforts in optimal circumstances it's universally regarded as high quality merchandise.
You can bet the Farm that she has a weak link that will break before she gets into too much trouble.
Also good to see that she is filming her flights "Definitely something we all can learn from" and "This kind of review is invaluable to learning and progressing".
I don't know how u guys do things, but I fly with a 6015. I have the main LZ waypoint selected for the majority of my flights. Sometimes I decide to leave and go XC. When I do so, sometimes I need to select a new waypoint. I find that having to let go of the bar & fly one handed often leads to me spiraling out of control. Its astonishing to me the amount of buttons I have to push to get to the waypoint menu & find the one i want & finally select it. Does anyone have any tricks to mitigate this problem, ei instrument placement or one handed flying techniques?
There's also a way to swing your body way outside the control frame so it stays up there while you reach out with one hand and release. Come on - do some pushups this winter. See if you can advance up to some one-arm pushups.
My conventional-style release from Lookout allows me to release while keeping both hands on the bar. During the entire tow I have the release strap around two of my fingers with a little slack. I slide that hand about three inches inboard on the bar and I'm off tow. The downside is the mechanism is wrapped around the basebar and in the way for the rest of the flight. It would be nice if I could run the cable through the downtube like a VG cord. The other downside is the actual release blowing around in flight ruining my videos and scratching my helmet on the ground. Maybe I should try a bungee to pull it tight to the keel while not under load.
Another day of Scooter Towing at Wes/Mar. It was sunny but with winds 6-10 mph. I made an effort to land on the same spot every time but only made it within 10 feet 4 times out of the 7 attempts. I also had a line break on the first tow and made some meager efforts to find lift. Overall it was a good training session and a good exercise in ground Handling.
Victim of John Alden's operation, Darbyville Ohio, nineteen miles SSW of Columbus, 39°42'09.42" N 083°08'03.92" W, 2012/02/26. Rocket launching (and landing) SSE / 145 degrees into the wind. Cheap bent pin shit Bailey "releases", he eats up nearly six seconds figuring out how to pry the starboard open on the second flight / first effort. And a nice look at how these things "work" in routine surface tow circumstances.
Lighting gets progressively worse over the course of the seven flights as the late winter sun drops nearly to the horizon up-camera by the final flight.
No tow ring! Shane Smith, 2011/01/15, Phoenix comes to mind. (Lucky to get that shot. This first launch is he only time in the video that we can see the entire bridle and the connection to the tow rig.)
Not that a towline break can ever be an actual problem. It's a mere inconvenience that increases the safety of the towing operation. (Nice job stuffing the bar in response to the increase in the safety of the towing operation by the way.)
Just how well do you think that inconvenience would've gone if the increase in the safety of the towing operation had occurred just after leaving the cart?
Are you sure your bridle is long and thin enough? The longer and thinner stuff is the less likely it is to weld itself to a tow ring - or, in your case, loop - as half of it feeds through upon release.
... go upright to the control tubes. (Joe Greblo would've had you launch by standing on the cart frame and you wouldn't have been allowed to touch the basetube until midway into your third season - assuming average Grebloville student progress.)
Hey Scott... You own the bridle and everything behind and above it. John owns the towline and everything upwind of its downwind end - and he's your instructor. Shouldn't he have had at least SOME responsibility for ensuring the airworthiness of the equipment he owns and on which your life may depend in less forgiving circumstances? And if he's this negligent and incompetent regarding the relevant issue here shouldn't you be thinking hard about other areas in which balls may be getting dropped?
-----
Flight 2
I thought this issue you had getting separated for the tow under routine conditions was important enough not to have its onset chopped completely and partially obscured by the fade-out from the previous sequence.
Koch two stage had been around the better part of three decades prior to this bullshit. But at least with these you're in very little danger of getting your chest crushed. (As long as you don't hit the ground anyway - the way Zack and Jeff did.)
Got that, people of varying ages? Slide your left hand to center, look down at the starboard barrel, reach behind the control bar with your right hand, establish a firm grasp, pull straight up/back, return to flying configuration, pull back in.
Double loop of 130 pound Greenspot. It's what Davis decided he was happy with after he'd decided he was no longer happy with a single loop of 130 pound Greenspot. And we all play by the same rules or we don't play at all. Just ask Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney - if you can find him anywhere.
It stays on for the remainder of the day's flights. And good luck blowing one of those bent pin pieces o' crap under the four hundred pounds towline tension it allows.
P.S.:
- Think ya made it long enough?
- So you think having port and starboard bent pin barrel releases is a good idea 'cause you'll be able to deal with a wrap - or would be if you'd used something that had any load capacity. But you're gonna be fine if you get a wrap as a consequence of a weak link blow - which is when you're most likely to get one - prying your starboard barrel open with nothing limiting the load between you and the winch.
Note bridle and weak link lengths. Why is it that 99.9 percent of participants in this idiot sport never seem to question any of the ways anything's being done? Even when they KNOW the assholes in whom they're trusting their lives are running in shoddy mode?
I think that what we're seeing in the hangar is Dragonfly N667DF that's gonna end up upside down on the runway after a power inconvenience precipitated by Frank Murphy trying to tow a glider minus an engine warm-up. The glider was also likely using a Tad-O-Link which would've rendered the releases on both ends and the tug's tow mast breakaway protector inoperative.
See if you can advance up to some one-arm pushups.
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