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FTHI
Greg Kendall - 2015/11/25 18:39:36 UTC
I thought I'd share what I do for hook-in verification just in case it might be useful to someone. My system has been working for me for about twenty years now. If you're a new pilot, talk to your instructor before following any advice that I might give.
The theme here is redundancy through doing multiple different checks. Redundancy is the only way to get high reliability from a system of not-so-reliable components. In this case a component is a human trying to remember to do a check.
I hook in where I set up. I don't ever move a glider toward launch without first hooking into it. If you see me doing that, please stop me because it means that I'm having a major brain fart. I recognize that there is a tradeoff between the danger of getting flipped over while walking to launch and the danger of launching unhooked. I think that the former is far less likely to result in disaster.
I also define an imaginary boundary around any launch that cannot be crossed without stopping to check everything. My checks don't take long, but the boundary should be far enough (thirty feet or so) from launch to allow room for anyone who's in a hurry to go around.
The main check I do at the boundary involves kneeling down until my hang strap and my leg loops are tight. The advantages of this check over the traditional hang check are: you can do it by yourself, you get a leg loop check in the process, you can more easily see your carabiner, and it's quicker. I don't do a traditional hang check unless I've changed something (glider, harness, hang strap, biner, etc.) that might affect hang height.
Once within the boundary, I stay hooked in. If I back off launch, I go back outside the boundary before unhooking. After that, everything starts over (or I start pulling battens).
Once on launch, I set the glider down and reach back and tug on my hang strap before lifting the glider. I've tried to make this an unconscious habit that will still happen even if my brain is shut off. I often do it several times per launch. By the way, when I pack up my harness, I don't hook my biner to anything. I don't want it to feel like it's hooked into a glider when it's not.
Finally, let's try to get into the habit of checking the hook-in status of anyone that we see on or near launch with a glider, whether we're currently helping them or not.
I thought I'd share what I do for hook-in verification just in case it might be useful to someone.
1. Of course it will. You're the one person in the entire history of hang gliding who's come up with a bulletproof strategy for preventing unhooked launches.
2. Someone who follows the Grebloville rag. It's good, just not good enough to put on one of the international forums or submit to u$hPa for approval for a magazine article and SOP.
3. What the fuck do you mean "USEFUL"? Hook-in is a life or death issue and you're either hooked in when you start your run or you're not. Is it "USEFUL" to keep the wings level and nose down for an AWCL? Or CRITICAL?
My system has been working for me for about twenty years now.
Wow. Twenty years. A whole 1.0 individuals. What a track record. I say let's go for it.
- And strangely not one:
-- other individual has adopted it
-- instructor is teaching it
-- description of it has previously appeared in print
Must be pretty groundbreaking stuff. Pray continue.
- For the past thirty years I've been driving without using a seatbelt and have yet to be scratched. And tens of thousands of people per year are killed buckled in securely. Do the math.
- Oh. It's been "working" for you. Once or twice a month it saves you from launching unhooked. Bull fucking shit. You've never once been in a position in which you were approaching or at launch thinking you were hooked in and intending to launch and had your stupid ass saved by your stupid ass "system". If you're gonna credit it for "working" to prevent unhooked launches you hafta credit it equally for preventing you from getting pancreatic cancer.
I'm one of the dozen or so people on the planet who actually complies with u$hPa's hook-in check regulation. Lift and tug has never "WORKED" for me or anyone else I know of to prevent an unhooked launch. What I CAN say is:
-- people who practice lift and tug don't forget to do hook-in checks
-- nobody who practices lift and tug ever has or will launched unhooked
- Reminds me of the standard aerotow weak link. Worked for quite literally HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of tows for numerous aerotow operators across the county.
If you're a new pilot, talk to your instructor before following any advice that I might give.
1. But not if you've been flying a year or two. Then you don't need to talk to your instructor before following any advice that I might give.
2. Yeah, talk to John Alden, George Stebbins, Steve Parson, Jon Orders, Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney, Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt. Make sure that whatever you say meets with their approval.
3. Why?
- If your advice is valid and the instructor:
-- isn't a total douchebag wouldn't he already be teaching all the procedures you're advising?
-- hasn't been teaching your procedures do you think he's gonna say, "Damn! Greg's advice is BRILLIANT! What a TOTAL ASS I've been for not teaching these procedures all these years!"?
4. Why does it hafta be HIS instructor? If it's not OK with HIS instructor but a dozen other instructors with more years and ranges of experience and superior ratings are totally behind it is there some u$hPa SOP that forces him to fly under the dictates of some least common denominator who oozed through one of the hundreds of mile wide breaches in u$hPa's quality control defenses?
5. Who is "HIS" instructor? Did he just have one instructor to get him through to his One or Two? If he's had multiple instructors how does he determine which one gets to make the call? Or should it be put to a vote with, if necessary, his Regional Director serving as tiebreaker?
6. Since a single instructor is entitled to nix your proposal for one or more of his students what's the logic in allowing ANY u$hPa rated pilot to adopt it? Shouldn't we ALL defer to the least common denominator in the interest of safety?
7. Oh. So...
- you're a fuckin'...
Greg Kendall - 55236 - H4 - 1992/11/01 - Matt Spinelli - AT AWCL FSL RLF TUR XC
...23 year Four with lotsa merit badges but some new Hang Three twat working for a ride factory like Kitty Hawk gets to veto anything of yours he feels like. Or maybe some Florida product who's never once in his flying career taken off from anything higher than an aerotow launch dolly.
- you have this system that you really believe can save somebody's life but you're totally cool with letting somebody die 'cause some u$hPa approved twat nixed it for whatever reason he may have felt like - including the desire not to look like some u$hPa approved twat 'cause he hadn't thought of and been teaching it.
8. Wouldn't any COMPETENT RESPONSIBLE instructor be staying current on these discussions and engaging you regarding points of agreement and disagreement? Can you point to any FTHI discussions in which something like this has actually happened?
9. Fuck anybody who:
- has an issue he truly believes in and is willing to permit some least common denominator u$hPa twat to impede its implementation
- promotes a system he doesn't believe in enough to go head to head with least common denominator u$hPa twats
The theme here is redundancy through doing multiple different checks.
Yeah...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.
Steve Davy - 2011/10/24 10:27:04 UTC
OK- how many times does he need confirm that he is hooked in? And when would be the best time to make that confirmation?
Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24 21:04:17 UTC
Once, just prior to launch.
Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC
I agree with that statement.
What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.
Great idea.
Redundancy is the only way to get high reliability from a system of not-so-reliable components.
Of course. You've just stated something so, obviously...
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153
Hooking In
Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC
I already see where the anger and grief take us. We need to do hang checks, double hang checks. And who was on Bill's wire crew? How could they let that happen?
When Bob Gillisse got hurt I suggested that our local institution of the hang check is more the problem than the solution. I still believe that. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. I often do not see pilots doing a hook-in check. Why should they? They just did a hang check and they are surrounded by friends who will make sure this box is checked.
...it must be true.
And obviously you've analyzed all the unhooked launch incidents to verify the validity of your statement.
Me?
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1167
The way it outa be
Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 UTC
One last attempt.
We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, et cetera. Bob Gillisse redux.
A hang check is part of preflighting your equipment. You do it in the setup area - not on the launch or the ramp. When you get in line you are hooked in and ready to go. No going down for a hang check cum hook in check.
I prefer to do ONE solid preflight and ONE top quality hook-in check the instant before I start to move my foot. And that "worked for me" for a span of a quarter century. Also has always worked for everyone else I know who resembles that remark - asshole.
In this case a component is a human trying to remember to do a check.
Fuck any human trying to remember to do a check. The more of these assholes we eliminate from the gene pool the better. We only want the people with enough brains to ALWAYS be afraid of launching unhooked. The functional brains and resultant fear takes the memory crap totally out of the equation. We don't want people flying these things who need to REMEMBER to come into a field with speed. We want people who instinctively/reflexively pull in 'cause they know what the consequences can or will be if they don't.
I hook in where I set up.
Oh. So you don't - and CAN'T - fly Glacier or Makapu'u.
I don't ever move a glider toward launch without first hooking into it.
http://http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21868
Don't Forget your Hang Check!
Eric Hinrichs - 2011/05/13 21:31:06 UTC
I went to Chelan for the Nationals in '95 as a free flyer. They were requiring everyone to use the Australian method, and you were also not allowed to carry a glider without being hooked in.
This was different for me, I hook in and do a full hang check just behind launch right before I go. I was also taught to do a hooked in check right before starting my run, lifting or letting the wind lift the glider to feel the tug of the leg loops.
So I used their method and I'm hooked in, carrying my glider to launch and someone yells "Dust devil!" Everyone around runs for their gliders (most of which are tied down) and I'm left standing alone in the middle of the butte with a huge monster wandering around. I heard later that it was well over three hundred feet tall, and some saw lightning at the top.
Good.
If you see me doing that, please stop me because it means that I'm having a major brain fart.
1. Get used to it. You ARE a major brain fart.
2. Sounds like you're not all that confident in your procedure. Sounding a lot like...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4247
Hook in failure in New Zealand
Jim Rooney - 2006/09/24 21:19:29 UTC
Enough about what doesn't work though... what does?
Since we don't have a plug that only fits one way, we fall on lesser methods, but some are better than others...
In particular... Third Party Verification.
You won't save you, but your friends might.
Not always, but they're more reliable than you.
Why do you think that airline checklists (yes our lovely checklists) are check-verified by pilot AND copilot?
That's all I got for ya.
The other topics have been beat to death here.
If there was an answer, we'd all already be doing it.
...Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney - another one of the world's greatest authorities on unhooked launch prevention.
He'd be a pretty good instructor to have not objecting to your package, by the way. His position is that there's absolutely nothing anyone can do to decrease his likelihood of launching unhooked (if it happened to HIM it can happen to ANYONE - obviously), that one's only hope is having someone else catch you. Thus he'd be perfectly fine with you recommending sloppy assembly and skipped preflight as well as hook-in checks to protect against unhooked launches.
3. If I see you doing ANYTHING stupid and deliberate I'm not gonna say shit 'cause assholes like you are of the greatest benefit to the sport when serving as data points. If I see you finalling into some powerlines I'll do my best to wave you off. If I see you at the centerpoint of your imaginary boundary circle at the edge of the ramp with your glider on your shoulders and your carabiner dangling waiting for a good cycle I'm gonna wish you a great flight and get my GoPro running. "Damn! What a terrible tragedy! Just assumed he was hooked in - and would do a hook-in check just prior to launch anyway. Oh well, at least he died doing what he loved."
4. Ya know what one hundred percent of unhooked launch disasters have in common? NOT ONE INDIVIDUAL at and/or within sight of launch noticed that...
2-112
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7600/28811055456_925c8abb66_o.png
...the would-be pilot's carabiner was dangling. And damn near all of those were closely observed and many were assisted. And you think that somebody's gonna stop you from moving from the setup area to launch unhooked.
By the way...
10-05707
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3914/14557534537_684991ece8_o.png
See anything wrong with THAT picture?
I recognize that there is a tradeoff between the danger of getting flipped over while walking to launch and the danger of launching unhooked.
Really?
57-01527
I think that the former is far less likely to result in disaster.
1. Yeah. It's a no brainer that that's also what Craig Pirazzi was thinking three months ago a few seconds before he got swept off the cliff by the rotor. And, seriously folks, it's a pretty good bet that he was clipped in approaching launch because his mindset on this FTHI issue was very similar to this total douchebag's. Should be interesting to see what u$hPa says regarding this when we get the final report at the conclusion of the Accident Committee's comprehensive investigation.
2. Oh. You "THINK" that. But you're not capable of thinking enough to modify and vary your behavior in accordance with what's going on with the conditions and environment. In an Eric Hinrichs or Craig Pirazzi situation you're gonna hook in before leaving the setup area because you can't think of any other way to safely guard against an unhooked launch. Like holding a glove in your teeth and making a temporary rule not to spit it out until you've reconnected.
But of course if you were smart enough to think of doing something like that you'd also be smart enough have read some of Steve D's fourteen posts on the previous page and figured out what the fuck a hook-in check is.
3. Doesn't seem to bother the idiot fucking Aussie Methodists any.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=13359
Today was a bad day!
Mike Bomstad - 2009/08/26 04:21:15 UTC
The harness is part of the aircraft... end of story.
(Just because it's easy to remove, does not mean it should be. Dont choose the path of least resistance)
Attach it to the wing, completing the aircraft.... then preflight the completed aircraft.
Buckle yourself into the cockpit and then your ready.
Not a single one of any of those dickheads will acknowledge that there can be any danger at any site in any conditions associated with only entering and exiting a harness when it's part of the aircraft or any practical and safety advantages to hooking in and unclipping suited up. And all you're doing is a watered down version of the Aussie Method.
4. 99.9 percent of the assholes who fly hang gliders "THINK" that the risk of dying in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place because of unperfected flare timing and technique is 100.0 percent and that the risk of practicing 100.0 percent of their landings for perfected flare timing and technique is 0.000 percent. (Whenever anyone breaks an arm in the primary Happy Acres putting green it's because he was unworthy.) They're totally incapable of assessing situations in which a standup landing will be highly advisable or necessary versus those in which a standup landing attempt will be near or certain suicide. Gotta be ALL or land like a girl. No such thing as varying behavior to adjust to varying and actual situations and threats.
"Holy shit! I figure it's fifty/fifty as to whether or not I get sucked off the cliff by the rotor. But if I move the glider towards launch without first hooking into it, on my nose wires like the last twenty guys who just launched, I might forget to hook in when I get back under the glider!
Better play it safe and take my chances with the rotor! Really not all that concerned with dying in that fashion anyway."
Dickhead.
I also define an imaginary boundary around any launch...
Oh good. An imaginary boundary to match your imaginary solution for the unhooked launch issue.
...that cannot be crossed...
Well of course you can't cross it. It's an imaginary boundary ferchrisake. And there are universally recognized and extremely strict rules prohibiting the crossing of imaginary boundaries.
...without stopping to check everything.
And make sure you check EVERYTHING. Redo the entire textbook preflight. Detension your wing and pull the battens to check for port/starboard symmetry.
My checks don't take long, but the boundary should be far enough (thirty feet or so) from launch...
1. Well yeah, thirty feet or so is the universally recognized radius inside of which it's physically impossible for any critical alterations of the configuration to occur - regardless of the length of time spent within that radius. If you do thorough checks just outside of that radius you're fuckin' golden.
2. What's the maximum permissible imaginary boundary? Would forty feet be OK? Fifty? A hundred? Two hundred? Would it be OK to extend the radius out to just short of wherever you're setting up your glider such that when you finish preflight you're ready to launch?
Or are you saying that there's some advantage to performing critical verifications closer to the time and position of commitment. And, if so, can you think of any catastrophic unhooked launches precipitated by individuals within the radius of your imaginary boundary?
3. Wanna see MY imaginary boundary, motherfucker?
06-04213
http://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7449/13891111960_87d494095e_o.png
My imaginary boundary is AT launch and four feet back from the edge of the fuckin' cliff. And I don't ever cross it unless I've verified that I'm connected to my fuckin' glider within the previous two seconds 'cause:
- I'm an extremely UNFOCUSED PILOT
- my:
-- short term memory totally sucks and I frequently have no freakin' clue as to what happened five seconds ago
-- long term memory's pretty good and I can never forget what happened at that launch ten years and three days shy of two months ago
- the rocks below launch look like this:
10-05124
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2933/14074543322_a183cc3a23_o.png
and are a long way down - but not far enough down to allow me to get a parachute open (lose/lose)
- it's a real bitch trying to abort a launch here a quarter second after I've started moving forward
09-05019
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2928/13891086719_3ba7e65d38_o.png
...to allow room for anyone who's in a hurry to go around.
You mean like REAL pilots who have their shit together before approaching launch and don't feel like wasting critical soaring time waiting for incompetent assholes like you to make extra attempts to get their shit together? Why do you feel entitled to block or impede these other gliders to allow you to implement your imaginary system for preventing unhooked launches?
The main check I do at the boundary involves kneeling down until my hang strap and my leg loops are tight.
What's stopping you from lifting the glider up at the boundary until your hang strap and leg loops are tight? Oh, right. Kneeling down until your hang strap and leg loops are tight doesn't give you the false sense of security that lifting the glider up until your hang strap and leg loops are tight does. Plus any false sense of security you might get from kneeling down until your hang strap and leg loops are tight is greatly diminished when executed outside the designated imaginary boundary.
The advantages of this check over the traditional hang check...
Is the traditional hang check anything like the traditional aerotow weak link? Who started this tradition and, if it's such a great tradition, how come it's never been included in any of the u$hPa SOPs?
...are: you can do it by yourself...
Which fits right in with your every-man-for-himself approach to this issue. Reminds me of Craig Pirazzi who liked to approach Assisted Windy Cliff Launches by himself in Assisted Windy Cliff Launch conditions.
...you get a leg loop check in the process, you can more easily see your carabiner...
You couldn't see your carabiner clearly enough when you were clipping it into your suspension?
...and it's quicker.
1. Is it as quick as:
11-03110
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3697/13700915564_87a2a336b0_o.png
12-03129
http://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2912/13700562685_86575e9220_o.png
Crouch to snatch completion in 0.73 seconds.
2. Oh, but Eric can't SEE his carabiner doing that and therefore might not catch any cracking or corrosion which might have occurred since hooking in and locking.
3. Another HUGE advantage that you don't mention is that this procedure absolves you from any and all responsibility to comply with u$hPa's thirty-four and a half year old regulation to...
With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
...always perform a hook-in check just prior to launch. Unwritten fundamental law of hang gliding: Avoid any check which might be construed as "just prior to launch" like the fuckin' plague because all individual pilots have better ideas for preventing unhooked launches incompatible with the hook-in check.
I don't do a traditional hang check unless I've changed something (glider, harness, hang strap, biner, etc.) that might affect hang height.
Oh. So when you just said:
I also define an imaginary boundary around any launch that cannot be crossed without stopping to check everything.
you were lying. You DON'T check everything. You just ASSUME that you haven't changed anything and you'll be hanging at proper bar clearance when you get airborne. So can you specify what needs to be checked and rechecked and what doesn't and give us the justifications?
Once within the boundary, I stay hooked in.
Well duh. It's not like you're gonna unhook to adjust, fix, access, retrieve anything like all those other assholes who've run off ramps without their gliders after establishing that they were safely connected before crossing their imaginary boundaries. Only stupid people do shit like that...
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7570/15661252749_7fcfe6445a_o.jpg
...inside their imaginary boundaries. And you're obviously not posting this for the benefit of any stupid people. We have way too many of them around as things are.
If I back off launch, I go back outside the boundary before unhooking.
And ain't it great that you're never in any reverse Craig Pirazzi situations in which it would be moronic at best and lethal at worst to back off to your imaginary boundary and through a rotor while hooked in. And ain't it also great that none of the assholes listening to your moronic advice will ever be in a reverse Craig Pirazzi or any other situation in which being hooked in behind launch would be massively inadvisable.
After that, everything starts over (or I start pulling battens).
1. But you're pulling them anyway to recheck for port/starboard symmetry, right?
2. What do you do when you're airborne and commit an action that falls short of your sterling personal standards? Decide not to land and immediately throw your parachute?
3. So how many times have you actually started pulling battens because you judged yourself unworthy? What a total load o' crap.
4. And this is supposed to be making you a better, safer pilot in the long run. You PUNISH yourself for your oversights, for not being the one hundred percent perfect pilot you know yourself to truly be, by throwing away soaring time and launch and landing practice and going home to play checkers. What a mega-ass. I punish myself by forcing myself to continue flying until I get things right consistently.
5. Do you punish yourself in a similar manner when you miss your exit on the interstate? Pull off on the shoulder, call a tow truck, take a cab home, ground yourself for a week while you address the issue and become a one hundred percent perfect driver?
I just realized how much contempt I have for these self-flagellating holier-than-thou assholes incapable of making a mistake, learning from it, adjusting, getting on with being a better pilot. I scared the crap outta myself not finding that I'd done THIS:
until after I'd cleared my crew, launched, made a few high wind passes over the dune, landed, and turned around to unhook. But I didn't punish myself with a grounding. I said, "Holy shit! That's one mistake I must not and will not ever make again." And I sure wasn't worried about making it again before next weekend. If I were gonna ground myself the best time to do it would've been fifteen years from then when a bit of the shock might've starting wearing off a bit.
Here's Mike End-Of-Story Bomstad's stupid ass lucking itself out:
02-A01522
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8835/28852423432_4b2a38fb3c_o.png
11-A12819
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8339/28924980016_2ba1d20ef7_o.png
13-A14319
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8253/28924975726_0d24a615c2_o.png
Doesn't punish himself by turning around and pulling battens...
39-B14607
http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8126/28852425302_d70604f440_o.png
So can you tell me how you'd become a better safer pilot than he did if you'd punished yourself for the similar but lesser infraction?
Once on launch, I set the glider down and reach back and tug on my hang strap before lifting the glider.
1. Good idea. That will let you know that your hang strap will likely withstand the force in flight with which you're tugging. Don't see what benefit it would be in establishing that you're connected to your glider though.
2. So tell be 'bout all the shit you've caught in the course of your couple decades of setting the glider down at launch and reaching back and tugging or your hang strap before lifting the glider. NOTHING? Really? Maybe if you're doing checks that aren't revealing any issues, like the idiot hang check you don't do, the checks really aren't worth doing. 'Specially if nobody else is finding anything doing the same idiot checks.
I've tried to make this an unconscious habit...
Keep trying to make this an unconscious habit. I'm sure that any year now you'll succeed in making this an unconscious habit.
...that will still happen even if my brain is shut off.
How is an asshole such as yourself able to determine whether or not his brain's shut off and what possible difference could it make?
I often do it several times per launch.
And you still haven't had any success in making it an unconscious habit. Go figure.
You hafta set the glider down, move forward, grab the nose wires, turn halfway around, grab and tug the hang strap, move back, squat down, position your shoulders between the control tubes, lift the glider, and trim it back for takeoff. And you often do this several times per launch.
And you don't seem to be able to make this an unconscious habit.
And any ACTUAL PILOTS in line behind you have nothing better to do than watch this moronic bullshit. Hope this catches on with everybody so we can convert the entire launch line to a preflight line that takes an hour and a half to navigate.
BULLSHIT. No way in hell are you or anyone else doing this crap. You may be doing this crap several times BEFORE you pick up the glider but once it's up you're not repeating it unless you have some other reason to put the glider back down. And it will NEVER become an unconscious "habit" - the way pulling in in response to a stall and lift and tug at the beginning of the launch sequence does.
By the way, when I pack up my harness, I don't hook my biner to anything. I don't want it to feel like it's hooked into a glider when it's not.
Well good for you. So tell me how hooking your carabiner to a shoulder strap is gonna make it feel like it's hooked into a glider at launch time. And then tell me how taking an actual extra risk of misrouting your suspension isn't more of an actual issue than the imaginary issue of having your harness feel like it's hooked into a glider when it's not. Cite me one account from the history of hang gliding of an incident precipitated by a carabiner being hooked to something on the harness making it feel like it's hooked into the glider when it wasn't.
Fuckin' sport has to be in a class by itself for dipshits coming up with dangerous solutions to nonexistent problems - backup loop, locking carabiner, hang check, spot no-stepper, Infallible Weak Link, Dragonfly tow mast breakaway protector, truck tow observer, tandem instruction, Christopher LeFay Five Second Rule...
Finally, let's try to get into the habit of checking the hook-in status of anyone that we see on or near launch with a glider, whether we're currently helping them or not.
No. Let's not. Let's keep on asking people if they've had hang checks and assuming they're hooked in once they've made it onto the ramp or inside the imaginary boundary thirty feet or so from the front of the ramp.
So have you tried to get into the habit of checking the hook-in status of anyone that you see on or near launch with a glider, whether you're currently helping them or not? Obviously fucking not 'cause you're:
- saying "let US TRY to get into the HABIT of checking"
- too fucking busy with all your uselessly redundant bullshit procedures you're using as justification for not doing a hook-in check to have the time and energy left to give a flying fuck about anyone else
I notice when you say:
My checks don't take long, but the boundary should be far enough (thirty feet or so) from launch to allow room for anyone who's in a hurry to go around.
you don't say anything about checking anyone who's in a hurry to go around. Aren't people in hurries to go around generally considered to be at higher risk for launching unhooked?
Me? I ACTUALLY DO THIS. And, more importantly, I ALWAYS look to see if people on the ramp comply with u$hPa's hook-in check regulation. And I pretty much never see them doing it - save for when the suspension's tight anyway 'cause the idiot let his wing float up into the turbulent jet stream for better control authority and cleaner launches.
I thought I’d share what I do for hook-in verification just in case it might be useful to someone.
And not a word on what's right or wrong with what anybody else is doing for hook-in verification because...
My system has been working for me for about twenty years now.
...you haven't launched unhooked in about twenty years at any of the half dozen wimp California sites you've flown. Betchya also have a top notch, state-of-the-art aerotow release 'cause you've never been killed in a low level lockout before either.
And...
If you're a new pilot, talk to your instructor before following any advice that I might give.
After over five days not one peep of dissent from Joe Four-Or-Five-Cs Greblo so if you're totally cool with an icon such as he...
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Edit - 2015/12/01 17:10:00 UTC
After that, everything starts over (or I start pulling battens).
That doesn't mean he's claiming to punish himself for failing to adhere to his personal standards. That means he start's pulling battens if the reason he backed off was that it blew out or started coming in over the back. Relevant abuse withdrawn with respect to Greg. But you DO hear crap like this from assholes who claim they'll abort flying if they do something that indicates to them that their heads aren't adequately in the game. And while their heads aren't in the game adequately for flying they're always in the game adequately for navigating around scores of semis and hundreds of family vehicles at seventy miles per hour back out on the highway on the way home.
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