Re: Stock release
Posted: 2011/09/07 17:48:44 UTC
I say that only because I have a feeling that Wills Wing is comfortable with CNC stuff.
A forum devoted to the scientific advancement of hang gliding
http://www.kitestrings.org/
I hate to say this but Wills Wing has got WAY too much blood on its hands in the towing theater to be able to decide what they are and aren't comfortable with in the way of the technology. There've been some very serious crashes for which they have been responsible and there've been some AT deaths which they - in concert with other HGMA participants - could've EASILY prevented.I say that only because I have a feeling that Wills Wing is comfortable with CNC stuff.
I mistook the tensioner for a bungee.What bungee?
Doug Hildreth - 1982/03
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1981/01/18 - Dan Cudney - 32 - Intermediate - 100 winch flights - Seahawk - Yarnall winch - head, chest, thigh - Spout Springs, North Carolina
Low-level lockout. Release was on downtube, difficulty in locating.
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1981/04/12 - Joel Lewis - 31 - Advanced - Seagull, 10 Meter - Atlantic Ultralight Mini-Hill winch - Columbia, South Carolina
Low-level lockout. Hands on downtubes, release on basetube, missed on first attempt. Hit head first.
Doug Hildreth - 1991/06
Good launch, but at about fifty feet the glider nosed up, stalled, and the pilot released by letting go of the basetube with right hand. Glider did a wingover to the left and crashed into a field next to the tow road.
This scenario has been reported numerous times. Obviously, the primary problem is the lack of pilot skill and experience in avoiding low-level, post-launch, nose-high stalls. The emphasis by countless reporters that the pilot lets go of the glider with his right hand to activate the release seems to indicate that we need a better hands-on way to release.
I know, I know, "If they would just do it right. Our current system is really okay." I'm just telling you what's going on in the real world. They are not doing it right and it's up to us to fix the problem.
Good freakin' luck.Luen Miller - 1996/10
I am strongly recommending formal review and analysis of releases and weak link designs for all methods of towing by the Towing Committee, and that recommendations on adoption or improvements be generated.
I believe that from preflight through release we should have more standardized procedures in towing.
They're damn near ALL like this and the controllers of this cult - who are even more like this - are heavily invested in making sure NOTHING positive EVER happens.I cannot understand how these people can be so dumb. How do they manage to feed and clothe themselves?
...deferring to professional pilots who fancy themselves applied physicists and engineers and devote all their spare time inventing lunatic justifications for the lunatic mistakes they or their predecessors made twenty or thirty years ago.Jim Rooney - 2011/08/25 04:55:25 UTC
It always amazes to hear know it all pilots arguing with the professional pilots.
I mean seriously, this is our job.
We do more tows in a day than they do in a month (year for most).
We *might* have an idea of how this stuff works.
They *might* do well to listen.
Not that they will, mind you... cuz they *know*.