Releases

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=34019
Very sad news

Eric Beckman - 2016/02/03 20:54:10 UTC

Another sad loss. The personal toll is always far worse than any statistical one.

Depends a lot on who the person is, Skyslime.

Hang gliding is dangerous, but it doesn't have to be this dangerous or deadly.

Your definition of hang gliding does.

The year has barely begun, and two fatal flights in just over a week.

Five days isn't just over a week.

I agree with JD on this, and wonder what we can each do to help ensure our own and our fellow fliers increased safety.

You can fuck off and go blight some other sport.

How do we turn this trend around to avoid any more fatalities (for a while at least)?

What? Doing the same things over and over and expecting better results isn't working out so well?

Better sleep?

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=21474
fatal accident in Israel

Fred Wilson - 2012/02/08 15:32:33 UTC

Start your day off right, with a good cup of coffee and a solid breakfast.

Starting your day off right, with a good cup of coffee and a solid breakfast works well for preventing unhooked launches.

Better training?

Better training than WHAT?

http://www.ushanggliding.com/
US Hang Gliding, Inc.

Welcome
to US Hang Gliding, Inc., the area's finest full-service hang gliding flight school. Where we can offer you a wide range of hang gliding instruction, as you learn the art of flying hang gliders. From solo lessons to tandem flight instruction, we can take care of it all. We are based out of southern New York near Ellenville, in the summer. As winter starts to set in New York, we pack things up and head down south to Marion County Airport in Dunnellon, Florida. We will head back up to New York sometime mid to late April, we don’t have a set date yet. Please check back often as the site gets updated.

The training doesn't get any better than that.

Better hydration? Better watching each other's backs?

http://sonomawingsbb.yuku.com/topic/5825/4144-Review
4144 Review

Eric Beckman - 2015/09/26 21:49

I do, however, find Tad Eareckson's rant disingenuous at best and in general utterly dishonest when looked at in the light of serious intellectual discussion. While aero-towing a hang glider has risks and skill requirements different from those associated with purely foot-launched flight, the actual record of aero-toewing contradicts one of his first premises in the following: "Flights are typically conducted in which the pilot has no reasonable expectation of being able to remain on tow or separate from it, as the situation may dictate, or maintain safe and effective control of the glider." This just doesn't pan out in the light of reality.

Releases within easier reach?

While there are no magic buttons to push here and no simple answers...

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...there must be something we can collectively do to create a safer flying environment.

Eric Beckman - 2015/10/18

I have never personally seen a "perfect" system that prevents any possibility of failure, which is why it's so important to have a "correctly sized" weak-link for each pilot and glider combination.

"Correctly sized" weak link for each pilot and glider combination - preferably something with a really long track record. A "correctly sized" weak link is the focal point of a safe towing system.

Thanks and fly safe!

Suck my dick, Eric.

[Steve Davy]

Predictably, NME awards Eric with a three thumbs up for his contribution to the thread. Big fuckin' surprise.

[Tad Eareckson]

2016/02/04 03:16:15 UTC - 3 thumbs up - NMERider

Super then.
- His message will be taken to heart.
- Sleep, training, hydration, watching of each other's backs will all get better.
- Crash rates will plummet.
- People of varying ages will flock to the sport.
- Insurance companies will be fighting each other for our business.

Top that off with...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31052
Poll on weaklinks

Jim Rooney - 2013/03/05 21:40:02 UTC

You're afraid of breaking off with a high AOA? Good... tow with a WEAKER weaklink... you won't be able to achieve a high AOA. Problem solved.

...safer weak links and the sky will be the limit.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14903
New Lookout Release--preliminary test

Jim Gaar - 2009/02/16 03:01:21 UTC

Tad free zone?...

I hail the new release. I see improvements over the competition. It's good to see progress in a sport rumored to be in it's golden years.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=34019
Very sad news

Doug Martens - 2016/02/04 02:35:46 UTC

Watching the news reports videos it looked very light winds, possibly a cloud street.

http://www.gainesville.com/article/20160202/articles/160209928?tc=ar
Man killed in hang glider crash in Dunnellon | Gainesville.com

Austin L. Miller - 2016/02/02 22:29 EST
Staff writer

Man killed in hang glider crash in Dunnellon

Officials said Marion County Fire Rescue received a call about a hang glider crashing to the ground at 6:11 p.m.

Sunset was about two minutes before that.

No one takes my safety engineering ideas seriously like a velcro shirt for Santa Barbara tandem paraglider incident, or a backup cam at the Nevada Lake.
zero-shock sells and rents padded air stunt bags (impact prevention system) for amusement parks etc. Each one of these ideas would have prevented each accident but it costs money. The Apollo 1 fire could have been prevented if we had access to the Russian space fire that happened earlier.

And nobody's taking your engineering ideas seriously? Fuck all those guys.

Again condolences to family and friends and those involved.

'Specially the friends and those involved who haven't posted a single syllable of light shedding text on this one since impact two evenings ago..

Matt Christensen - 2016/02/04 15:29:24 UTC

I am sorry, but your speculation about airbags and your other proposed safety ideas is misplaced here. You are way out of line to state that your idea "would" have made a difference here.

Hell yeah. If you keep using up ones and zeros to write about crap like that there won't be enough left over for people like Skyslime to speculate about better sleep, training, hydration, watching of each other's backs.

Dave Pendzick - 2016/02/04 16:12:46 UTC

Ill stick with parachutes & my brain as a means of impact prevention.

Aw crap. If I had a brain like yours I wouldn't bother with the parachute, wheels, helmet, streamers, radio, stomp test, wire crew, hook-in check, Happy Acres putting green.

Interesting ideas, but how much would stunt air bag system weigh?

I dunno. How much do our stunt landings cost us in rating and clinic fees, mangled equipment, emergency response fees, medical expenses, fatalities?

Here from Whitewater is a mildish version what happened at Dunnellon Tuesday evening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pkB7GIxTUU

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Upright to perfect his flare timing so's he'll be able to best protect his head and safely land in narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place.
Industry Standard release with a very long track record within extremely easy reach.
Infallible Weak Link / instant hands free release.
Driver who can fix whatever's going on by giving him the rope.
May not have had a hook knife at this stage of training.
Obviously sleep deprived, dehydrated, inadequate breakfast with little or no coffee, training not completed, insufficient number of people...

Six other members of the group were present, and Banevicius was the only student who was training.

...watching his back, FOCUSED PILOT wristband conspicuously absent...

Tyler McKean

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Loser.

Tomas Banevicius

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Ken Muscio

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[Dave Gills]

Officials said Tomas Banevicius of New York was killed during his third flight of the day. Reports didn't list his hometown but said he was about 35 feet in the air when the craft fell to the ground nose first.

Not a fan of using any weak link during scooter towing.
My guess is that it broke with a VERY high nose attitude in the kill zone.
The best release in the world wouldn't do squat.

(I'm guessing scooter towing with a 1 point, off the shoulders & under the control bar.)

We may never know the setup he was using.

[edit]
I do see a 2pt setup on the glider so maybe I'm wrong.

[<BS>]

A slightly different description.
http://www.wesh.com/news/man-dies-in-hanggliding-crash-at-dunnellon-airport/37794860

At the time of the crash, Banevicius was flying a hang glider with the help of a power tow line system. Witnesses said that shortly after take off, Banevicius' hang glider rotated right and then turned downward.

No mention of an inconvenience.

[Dave Gills]

No mention of an inconvenience.

In that case...

The 2 point looked like the hand brake variety.
If it was a lockout then it was a release issue.
(also maybe a tow operator for not decreasing tension sooner)

[<BS>]

Either way it seems a release issue to me. If the release is functional why would you want a weaker weak link?

[Dave Gills]

Either way it seems a release issue to me. If the release was functional why would you want a weaker weak link?

My skiing buddy used to crank his binding adjustment all the way down.
He used to say...

"The only way your skiis should come off is when the ski patrol removes them, before they load you on the helicopter."

I feel that way about weak links.
(I trust my life to my mouth release)

[Tad Eareckson]

My guess is that it broke with a VERY high nose attitude in the kill zone.

http://www.wesh.com/news/man-dies-in-hanggliding-crash-at-dunnellon-airport/37794860
Man dies in hang-gliding crash at Dunnellon Airport | Local News - WESH Home

Man dies in hang-gliding crash at Dunnellon Airport - 2016/02/03 11:02 EST

Witnesses said that shortly after take off, Banevicius' hang glider rotated right and then turned downward.

That's the best information we have and may ever get. That's a lockout. That glider never came off tow.

The best release in the world wouldn't do squat.

The best release in the world was, for all practical purposes, the one you've got. It was the ONLY thing that would've done squat - given whatever asshole(s) he had on the winch/scooter end. One still must engage one's brain to execute the decision and this guy may have been in too far over his head but there are zero accounts I'm aware of anybody armed with a release of this class suffering a lockout crash.

If Tyler McKean hadn't been using a release within easy reach he'd now be a pilot instead of a viral YouTube video.

Kill zone...

Three years and two days ago Zack Marzec demonstrated how there's really no ceiling on the kill zone for a pro toad with a standard aerotow weak link. For a two point muppet with a release that doesn't work because if it did everyone would be using it and a Tad-O-Link two hundred feet

Not a fan of using any weak link during scooter towing.

There's ALWAYS a weak link in ANY tow system. There's always SOMETHING that WILL break first in an overload situation. You have a choice to engineer the system to CHOOSE what and where that something will be.

What we need a weak link to do is prevent the release from being overloaded and...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22540
LMFP release dysfunction

Diev Hart - 2011/07/14 17:19:12 UTC

I have had issues with them releasing under load. So I don't try to release it under a lot of load now.

...rendered inoperable.

A one and a half to two (or up) G weak link (an overload protector versus a Voight/Rooney Instant Hands Free Release) is never gonna break in a halfway competent operation (meaning one that would never tolerate a Ryan Instant-Hands-Free-Release Voight or Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney within a hundred mile radius).

P.S. I see an edit and four posts got in while I was working on this response. That's a phenomenon the likes of which have never before been seen on Kite Strings and are highly unlikely to ever be seen again.