Are you satisfied with flex wing handling qualities?
And then...Ryan Voight - 2016/08/22 20:14:50 UTC
The reason this is a trick question, is the same reason it should be irrelevant that the Lookout release has less mechanical advantage, and may be difficult to use during the high tension of a lock-out. There are other releases (no so common anymore, thankfully) that could become full-on inoperable when the tension increased...
So... are you willing and able to manually release when you believe you are entering an unrecoverable lockout? Hint- if you are *entering* an unrecoverable lockout... you should have already A) steered yourself back where you belong, and if you were unable to do A then do B) release before before BEFORE entering an unrecoverable lockout situation.
Failing to fly the glider where you want it to fly is a serious situation... a lockout is an even more serious situation, but it is a symptom that follows that first problem. Failing to recognize the first problem, and remedy or escape *BEFORE* the following lockout ensues... THAT is what people seem not to get here.
Davis wrote pretty extensively about this when the comp-fatality happened, and even shared how the comp rules were written to ENCOURAGE "when in doubt, just get out". Frankly, a lockout should never happen... it's not a single failure, and it's not a problem with the equipment or with the mechanics or physics of what is being attempted... a lockout can only happen as the result of operator error(S)... plural.
...Jonathan, there's the REAL world...2016/08/22 20:27:46 UTC - 3 thumbs up - NMERider
2016/08/22 20:29:02 UTC - 3 thumbs up - Don Arsenault
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25536
Whoops! Snapped another tip wand :-O
NMERider - 2012/03/14 15:17:14 UTC
Landing clinics don't help in real world XC flying. I have had the wind do 180 degree 15 mph switches during my final legs. What landing clinic have you ever attended that's going to help? I saved that one by running like a motherfukker. And BTW - It was on large rocks on an ungroomed surface.
When I come in on many of these flights with sloppy landings, I am often physically and mentally exhausted. That means fatigued to the max. Many times I can't even lift my glider and harness, I'm so pooped.
This is the price of flying real XC. I have seen many great pilots come in and land on record-setting flights and they literally just fly into the ground and pound in. I kid you not.
None of this is any excuse mind you. There has to be a methodology for preparing to land safely and cleanly while exhausted. This is NOT something I have worked on.
Jim Rooney threw a big tantrum and stopped posting here.
His one-technique-fits-all attitude espoused on the Oz Report Forum has become tiresome to read. It does not work in the fucked-up world of XC landings and weary pilots.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086NMERider - 2012/03/14 15:43:09 UTC
I refuse to come in with both hands on the downtubes ever again. I have had some very powerful thermals and gusts kick off and lost control of the glider due to hands on the downtubes. I prefer both hands on the control bar all the way until trim and ground effect. I have been lifted right off the deck in the desert and carried over 150 yards.
I like what Steve Pearson does when he comes in and may adapt something like that.
Steve Pearson on landings
...in which the air actually MOVES.Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC
I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Ek9_lFeSII/UZ4KuB0MUSI/AAAAAAAAGyU/eWfhGo4QeqY/s1024/GOPR5278.JPGBill Bryden - 2000/02
Dennis Pagen informed me several years ago about an aerotow lockout that he experienced. One moment he was correcting a bit of alignment with the tug and the next moment he was nearly upside down. He was stunned at the rapidity. I have heard similar stories from two other aerotow pilots.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xh_NfnOcUns/UZ4Lm0HvXnI/AAAAAAAAGyk/0PlgrHfc__M/s1024/GOPR5279.JPG
So Jonathan... Please tell us why you recognize that having a hand off the basetube on a landing approach can precipitate a lethal loss of control yet is a total nonissue on...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48425
Oregon flying on the edge
...a pro toad aerotow launch. Davis Dead-On Straub's take is that being so configured for a fraction of a second can be a death sentence for a Hang Four comp airline pilot in glass - even one who's been promised a trip back to the head of the launch line as an extra incentive for safe decision making.Davis Straub - 2016/07/12 19:25:33 UTC
I am thinking that perhaps the conditions had little to nothing to do with this accident. I'm thinking that the pilot made a mistake, letting go of the bar with one hand. and the pitch became far too great far too fast.
So people of varying ages... Y'all catch this?
Not one of these Jack Show motherfuckers has ever challenged Jonathan's assessment that with both hands on the downtubes on final one can instantly and irrevocably become a passenger along for a long ride with an uncertain conclusion. Ditto with respect to Steve Pearson's totally unambiguous similar and even more definitive statement.
But if you're a pro toad behind a Dragonfly at the same twenty feet at the same Boychick World runway there can be neither a significant conditions induced control compromise nor any control penalty for actuating an easily reachable Industry Standard bent pin release (the kind Bart Weghorst needs two hands to pull apart after it's welded itself shut under normal range tow tension).
You are, for all practical purposes, perfectly safe flying with one hand on the basetube at twenty feet in violent thermal turbulence on tow behind a Dragonfly but the instant you enter free flight mode - as a consequence of either releasing, being released, or having your Rooney Link increase the safety of the towing operation - you immediately need both hands on the basetube to keep or get the glider turned upwind for a safe return to terra firma.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467
weak links
Very interesting corner these motherfuckers have painted themselves into.Jim Rooney - 2007/08/01 19:49:30 UTC
It's more of this crappy argument that being on tow is somehow safer than being off tow.
