[JoeF]

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Rig ... 1641141662
ATOS Carbon Skid
with rollers

[Frank Colver]

I always remember Chris Price's solution to hard landings, that he told us at one of the SCHGA meetings at the Gas Co., in LA. His sage advice: "Always land standing up, into the wind".

I always attempted to follow his advice. I also told myself a few times: "to ere is human".

fcolver

[JoeF]

Undercarriage Arts

UndercarriageLandingGear.jpg (49.23 KiB) Viewed 6360 times

And some history of low-safe-splat arrangement:

http://martinriches.de/fly.html

[JoeF]

Grass skiing may inform HG Safe-Splat:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_skiing

Images: http://tiny.cc/grassskiis

[Frank Colver]

HEY SKIER, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

HEY SKIER, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

Spoken like the "Grandpa Simpson" of hang gliding.   

Frank, thanks so much for gracing the U.S. Hawks with your presence and your humor.

[Frank Colver]

In reading Gustav Lilienthal's introduction to his brother's book he mentions that Otto had a shock absorption system that saved him from serious injury in crashes. One crash described involved the breakup of the glider in the air with only minor injury to Otto! Unfortunately, on the crash due to turbulence, that killed him, Otto had not installed the system on that glider.

So, Otto was the first to use a "Safe-Splat" system on an aircraft!

I'm hoping that when I get further into the book he will describe his "shock absorption" (Safe-Splat) system.

fcolver

[JoeF]

DockweilerHandy.png (13.01 KiB) Viewed 6291 times

Dockweiler Handy
High hat for pitch stability.
Safe-Splat for sand at Dockweiler. Sand skis are integrated with down tubes. Control basebar is shown in red.
Wing is in lime green.
The down tubes extended upward form two king posts for rigging as needed. The two queenpost are off normal to provide for foundation of the high hat horizontal stabilizer for pitch controlling. Down tubes provide queen posting for flight-rigging base.
The wing couples with the wing spar.
The ribs for double-surface wing are stackable . Perhaps CF truss hold of CF veneer strips.
:arrow :The skin of the wing consists of two bags; the bags are tensed by elastic joiners while compressing the wing spar. The ribs are righted to give final tensioning to the bag skin.
Spar: Telescopic CF tubes. Collapses to two tubes for bussable. Store gear inside the two meta tubes.
Tip rudders.
For busable travel: perhaps wrap wing skin bag around body. Alternative is to invaginate the bag twice and have bag available to hold the two collapsed spar tubes along with the gear inside those two tube. Tote is reasonable and safe for bus passenger. Pilot-carriable tote.
ASSEMBLY:
== Attach Safe-Splat to downtubes.
== Connect the two downtubes.
== Connect the two kingposts to the downtubes.
== Connect the horizontal stabilizer to the two king posts.
== Connect the basebar to the two down tubes.
== Expand the spar; set the spar length
== Mount the tip-rudder control lines
== Join the heart assembly to the spar.
== Mount hang loop
== Place the ribs onto the spar at their stations.
== Dress the wing with the skin bags.
== Mount the skin join elastics
== Mount the tip rudders.

WING CHECK
Check the full assembly.
Check the tip-rudder function.
Check the horizontal stabilizer. For versions that have variable set: check setting.
Check heart assembly.
Check hang loop
Check rib set
Check skin tension

FLYING PREP
== Helmet
== Harness, leg loops,
== Hang lines
== Carabineer or hook or alternative (depending on plans)
--- Weather and wind check
-- Self check
-- Environment check
-- LZ check
-- People check
== Hook-in
== Wing run to a slight tug on hang line
== Check hook in
== Check for clear surroundings
== You are not hooked in. Hook-in and check
== Launch
== Fly
== Setup for landing
== Land
== Unhook
== Carry wing back to launch area or elsewhere
-- Gratitude prayer

PACK UP
Reverse assembly. Pack all into wing skin bag.
Tote to bus.
Pay senior bus fare.
Arrive at home. Eat. Sleep.

[Rick Masters]

I like the idea of a ski or skid rather than wheels, but using two will result in a ground loop when the wings are not level at landing. The early sailplanes, such as those built by Hawley Bowlus, equipped with one skid, could come to a stop in amazingly short distances - 20 feet or less! Also, a serious problem overlooked in applying the concept to weight shift aircraft is potential injury to the pilot from the rear end of a ski in a bad landing. Any design has to account for this - perhaps by making the skis more hoop-like - which necessarily adds more material and more drag. But why build on a bad idea? The concept of a snowmobile-like track, which must incorporate at least a wheel, HMP bar and support structure, is fun to think about but entirely unneeded. Probably our attention should be focused on enhancing the flare to stop the glider altogether when it reaches the ground. Modern electronics could assist in this but no one has ever tried. Of course, an enhanced flare doesn't do much good when you are going downwind...

[Bob Kuczewski]

Hi Joe,

This is why I'm late today ...

safe_splat1s.gif (48.77 KiB) Viewed 6269 times