[Birren]

Nope, NOBODY foot launches or uses 2:1 bridles. Nobody, that is, except those in the US, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Uruguay, Canada, England, France, Russia, Turkey and wherever else foot-launch static line towing is being done.

EVERYBODY knows people who compare apples and oranges are willfully blind fools. And EVERYBODY knows one shouldn't argue with an idiot: When you argue with an idiot people cannot tell the two apart. So after your having denigrated for the last time my good friends Don Hewett and Rob Richardson, twisting the words and experiences of both to suit your own agenda, and the impossibility of carrying on a rational discussion with you, I'm done.

[Free]

test.. test.. is this thing on?

[TadEareckson]

Nope, NOBODY foot launches or uses 2:1 bridles.

That was in the context of aerotowing.

Nobody, that is, except those in the US, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Uruguay, Canada, England, France, Russia, Turkey and wherever else foot-launch static line towing is being done.

1. Not in England. Static line towing hang gliders is illegal in the UK.

2. So what? Wallaby and bent pin barrel releases and 130 pound Greenspot weak links are pretty much the global standard in aerotowing. People the world over launch on the assumption that they're hooked in based upon procedures they remember or think they remember having done five or ten minutes ago. All gliders have backup loops in case the doubled six thousand pound primary webbing breaks.

3. What percentage of towing in the US do you think is foot launch static?

4. What percentage of European surface towing is being done with a two to one bridle versus a Koch two stage?

5. Where's all the carnage that I keep hearing these Kochs are supposed to be causing?

EVERYBODY knows people who compare apples and oranges are willfully blind fools.

1. Not sure I'm following you here.

2. How 'bout people people who compare apples to horse excrement?

And EVERYBODY knows one shouldn't argue with an idiot: When you argue with an idiot people cannot tell the two apart.

Yep. That IS a problem, Peter. And when an evolutionary biologist argues with an intelligent design theorist in Texas the first guy is always gonna be the idiot.

So after your having denigrated for the last time my good friends Don Hewett and Rob Richardson...

Sorry, I missed the parts where I denigrated either of your good friends. Can you quote me something?

I'm not denigrating Donnell - just sayin' he majorly screwed the pooch. He got the assumptions and the physics wrong and IF you could understand high school physics you would be capable of understanding that.

Donnell Hewett - 1982/07

By the way, in your evaluations, please do not withhold criticism for fear of offending me- the lives of future pilots are more important than the feelings of an individual. If something is wrong with our system, it needs to be corrected, and if anything is suspicious, it needs to be investigated. Thank you for your interest and involvement in the effort of improving towing safety.

But it's too late now. Center of mass towing, readily accessible releases, and weak links which will infallibly and automatically release the glider from tow whenever the towline tension exceeds the limit for safe operation are now foundations of the religious cult of hang gliding and carved into official and unofficial regulatory granite. And the ONLY thing that will put a dent in that crap is a physics literate suicide bomber such as myself.

If you REALLY were a good friend to Donnell you'd understand what he got wrong and try to fix it - but that's WAY above your pay grade. All you've got is "It must be OK 'cause he's a physics professor and lotsa people are doing it that way."

Denigrated Rob Richardson? You don't have the reading comprehension level of a below average fourth grader.

I'll try again. See if you can get whatever your using for a brain working well and long enough to follow this...

Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
by Daniel F. Poynter
1974

"Never take your hands off the bar." - Tom Peghiny

"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson

"A bad flyer won't hurt a pin man but a bad pin man can kill a flyer." - Bill Bennett

Then in 1981 Donnell comes along and starts convincing everybody that...

Sometimes I am asked if a more conventional release mechanism would be preferred. Specifically one wonders whether it would be wiser to have a release lever right there by the pilot's hand rather than located on his abdomen. Well, yes, it is true that a conventional hand release would be quicker to release than a body release, but in a typical emergency situation, the pilot's hand release is seldom located at the right spot on the control bar to effectively initiate the release, and in a truly panic situation, it is much easier for a person to find a release on his own body than at some specific location on the control bar.

...it really doesn't matter where you put the release actuator...

Now I've heard the argument that "Weak links always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation," and that "More people have been injured because of a weak link than saved by one." Well, I for one have been saved by a weak link and would not even consider towing without one.

...a rope break or a premature release is actually a GOOD thing, and...

REGARDLESS OF WHO IS REALLY AT FAULT, NATURE HOLDS THE *PILOT* RESPONSIBLE FOR A HANG GLIDING ACCIDENT. (Look who got hurt.) Skyting is designed to give the pilot more control over his flight than any other member of the flight crew. Even if the ground crew "goofs up", the pilot has the means to get himself out of danger if he only does the right thing.

...a bad pin man really can't hurt or kill a flyer.

And then a little over a year before Rob is needlessly killed two stupid EVIL BASTARDS publish a stupid EVIL book called "Towing Aloft"...

Peter Birren

The excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden...

...full of crap like THIS:

Pro Tip: Always thank the tug pilot for intentionally releasing you, even if you feel you could have ridden it out. He should be given a vote of confidence that he made a good decision in the interest of your safety.

So then when your GOOD FRIEND Rob accidentally hooks the launch dolly with his two point bridle he can't abort the tow when, while still on the ground, he first realizes something's wrong 'cause his hands are on the basetube and the release lever is on the downtube 'cause people like Donnell, Dennis, Bill, and YOU have been telling him that that's OK.

So then he gets airborne and while he's trying to get enough airspeed to be able to ride the situation out, Corey makes a good decision in his favor, does a manual Pitch and Lockout Limiter number on him, kills his thrust, stalls the crap out of him, and breaks his neck.

Any of that make any sense to you? Nah, just kidding.

...twisting the words and experiences of both to suit your own agenda...

Uh, yeah. So exactly what is my agenda? I keep forgetting.

...and the impossibility of carrying on a rational discussion with you...

Yeah, I'd say that it IS impossible for you to carry on a rational discussion with me.

...I'm done.

1. Hell, you were done fifteen years ago five minutes after you put two X-Acto knife blades in a plastic tube and declared all hang glider towing problems history.

2. OK. But you might wanna keep watching your six - 'CAUSE I'M NOT. And you've given me A LOT of really great material to work with.

[TadEareckson]

bobk - 2011/11/24

Peter posted a very candid explanation of what happened to him.

Good. It was about time. When we slam in and/or get slammed in like that and are still able to move our fingers reasonably well we - in our friendly little altruistic self regulated hang gliding community - owe it to our fellow pilots to tell them what went wrong to decrease the chances of the same thing happen to other people, without allowing the report to first get filtered by Herr Tim.

1. I don't know when this incident happened but I first heard Peter's mention of it over three years ago.

2. A factor he cited was a problematic design of the basetube brackets.

3. And by not publicizing that issue until now, Mister USHGA Safety Award deprived other AT pilots of information which might have kept other larynxes and ribs from being broken.

He thanked people for the kind compliments on the Linknife...

You'd think he'd be a bit tired of doing that by now.

...and added that the barrel release is also an excellent device.

1. I didn't invent the barrel release - Bobby did. I just invented the non stupid version of the barrel release that doesn't lock up and destroy itself under normal tow tension.

2. He wasn't saying that it was ALSO an excellent device. He was steering people away from it because under two and a half or three Gs worth of tow tension someone might hafta exert the force equivalent to lifting a grocery bag to make it work.

3. While he was thanking everyone for the kind compliments he also wasn't saying anything about this post:

Butch Pritchard - 2010/04/02

Tad that turd is getting back in the punch bowl.

from one of the stupid useless dregs from his cozy little Skysailingtowing cult or the fact that Davis immediately deprived of my ability to post after standing up to the sonuvabitch.

Your response should have been something like: "Thanks for the kind compliments on the barrel release. The Linknife has been an excellent innovation in towing, and I appreciate that its inventor would offer kind compliments on any of my own work."

Wow! That was GOOD! Maybe you should write all my posts for me.

But instead, you go on and on trying to prove that your barrel release is superior to the Linknife and to belittle Peter for his candid explanation of his mistake - on the 2nd aerotow of his life!!

1. I don't belittle people for making mistakes or candid explanations of them. I save that for when they make dangerous recommendations about how to address nonexistent issues.

"I almost got my head ripped off right after I picked up the Grizzly cub. Everybody who goes hiking in Yellowstone should carry an assault rifle and a few hand grenades."

2. You seem to think that we should really expect people to break a few larynxes and ribs until they've got a dozen or so dolly launched aerotows under their belts.

3. My barrel release IS superior to the Linknife in aerotowing applications. You don't need to check it for wheat stubble before every flight.

Tad, can you see the hostility in your response?

Yeah, so? What's your point?

Because if you can't even see it, then there's no hope of correcting it.

Jeez. You talk about hostility to Peter like it's a BAD thing. CORRECTING
it? Wouldn't that make it MORE - not less - difficult to disembowel him?

[TadEareckson]

Hey Bob,

You're a pretty good amateur head shrinker - you've been really super at diagnosing ALL of MY many psychiatric disorders (except for alcoholism - and, what the hell, Sam was quick to pick up on that one). Maybe Peter could also benefit from your assessment and recommendations.

Take a look at this statement here:

Peter Birren - 2011/12/01

So after your having denigrated for the last time my good friends Don Hewett and Rob Richardson, twisting the words and experiences of both to suit your own agenda, and the impossibility of carrying on a rational discussion with you, I'm done.

My ONLY references to Rob have been in the context of his being a victim of USHGA's idiotic and murderous "when in doubt, cut 'em loose, we'll handle the coverup" towing policy.

My only RECENT references to Rob have been to include his name in victims lists and THIS:

Bill Bryden - 1999/06

During the tug's roll-out for the second launch attempt, the tug pilot observed the glider clear the runway dust and then begin a left bank with no immediate correction. At that point he noticed the launch cart was hanging below the glider and immediately released his end of the 240 foot towline. The tug never left the ground and tug pilot watched the glider continue a hard bank to the left achieving an altitude of approximately 25 feet. Impact was on the left wing and then the nose of the glider. Rob was killed immediately from severe neck and head trauma.

1999/06 uncommented on QUOTE from one of the halfwit authors of...

Peter Birren

The excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden...

...the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden.

So maybe you could compile a list of antipsychotic medications Peter should start - or stop - taking IMMEDIATELY so he doesn't go completely and irretrievably over the edge and wind up a totally incoherent babbling vegetable like Sam.

[TadEareckson]

Peter Birren - 2011/11/29

The weaklink and airbag are there to save your life.

Tost Flugzeuggeratebau

Weak links protect your aircraft against overloading.

Steve Kroop - 2005/02/09

A weak link is there to protect the equipment - not the pilot. Anyone who believes otherwise is setting himself up for disaster.

Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974

"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson

Dave Broyles - 1990/11

In the opinion of the great majority of our club members, a light weak link break is as likely to endanger the pilot as to help him.

I talked to a lot of pilots at Hobbs, and the consensus was that in the course of Eric Aasletten's accident, had a weak link break occurred instead of the manual or auto release that apparently did occur, the outcome would have been the same.

The weak link breaking strength should be between 100% and 150% of the combined weight of the glider and pilot (the gross load) being towed...

Bill Daniels - 2006/09/18

I would like to add, however, that at least my reading of accident reports suggest that a fatal glider accident is more likely when the towline fails prematurely. For that reason, I like to stay near the stronger end of the FAR 80 to 200 percent range.

Peter Birren - 2011/11/29

I can see an occasional benefit of having a heavier weaklink, but those situations are as rare as a full-blown lockout.

Jim Rooney - 2011/08/26

The "purpose" of a weaklink is to increase the safety of the towing operation. PERIOD.

Wikipedia

An Airbag is a vehicle safety device. It is an occupant restraint consisting of a flexible envelope designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision, to prevent occupants from striking interior objects such as the steering wheel or a window.

Airbags can injure or kill vehicle occupants. To provide crash protection for occupants not wearing seat belts, U.S. airbag designs trigger much more forcefully than airbags designed to the international ECE standards used in most other countries.

From 1990 to 2000, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration identified 175 fatalities caused by air bags. Most of these (104) have been children, while the rest are adults. About 3.3 million air bag deployments have occurred and the agency estimates more than 6,377 lives saved and countless injuries prevented.

01. The weak link is NOT there to save your life. It is there ONLY to keep the glider from breaking up under positive loading in the air and ONLY *AFTER* the "pilot" has lost control of a situation.

02. Its purpose is NOT "to increase the safety of the towing operation." Its purpose is ONLY to keep the glider from breaking up after some bozo has shot the safety of the towing operation to hell and if the safety of the towing operation has been shot to hell with the glider at a low altitude the odds are very high that right after the weak link has performed it's purpose purpose there will be a very serious crash involving BOTH the glider and pilot.

03. Light weak links are DANGEROUS. There is absolutely no question whatsoever that ever since the early Eighties when Donnell INSANELY totally eliminated the purpose of the weak link as keeping the glider from being overloaded and redefined it as preventing the glider from getting out of control and INSANELY determined that a rating of one G or under would accomplish that goal that the OVERWHELMING 'cause of tow crashes has been understrength weak link failure.

04. In a dangerous out of control situation almost always precipitated by incompetent piloting, shoddy equipment, or, most commonly, a combination of the two, on relatively rare occasions a dangerously understrength weak link WILL blow and result in a positive outcome - just as a drunk driver with defective brakes may benefit from having worn out tires on the verge of blowing out. But that doesn't make flying on understrength weak links and driving on worn out tires great ideas.

05. The purpose of the airbag IS to save the life of the driver, not to protect your vehicle from overloading, 'cause by the time the airbag kicks in the vehicle is pretty much toast.

06. The airbag DOES save the life of the driver a zillion times more effectively than the weak link saves the life of the pilot 'cause the airbag is DESIGNED to protect ONLY the driver and the weak link is DESIGNED to protect ONLY the glider.

07. But the purpose of the airbag is NOT to increase the safety of the drive to the airport. That's the job of the driver, steering wheel, and gas and brake pedals. The airbag ONLY functions AFTER the safety of the drive to the airport has been shot to hell - almost always by the driver.

08. It's ALMOST ALWAYS a GOOD thing for a weak link or airbag to blow AFTER the pilot or driver has lost control of his glider or vehicle.

09. It's ALWAYS a BAD thing for a weak link or airbag to blow BEFORE the pilot or driver has lost control of his glider or vehicle.

10. Weak link and airbag blows are DANGEROUS. Whether or not control of the glider or vehicle has been lost both weak link and airbag blows WILL KILL a certain percentage of the pilots and drivers who experience them.

11. If you dumb down weak links in an attempt to protect irresponsible "pilots" who use releases which stink on ice and increase the explosive power of airbags in an attempt to protect irresponsible drivers who don't use seat belts you WILL KILL more responsible pilots and drivers and you WILL KILL more pilots of all flavors.

12. Jim Rooney is a total moron.

[TadEareckson]

Peter Birren - 2011/11/26

Warren,

The last part about you signing up to one of my lists is merely a little white lie because you were signed onto the Towing List until I kicked you off due to your very personal rants with Jim Garr... you just couldn't behave yourself.

Jim Gaar is a total moron and that's the NICEST thing that can be said about him. Whatever attacks he got on your list wouldn't have scratched the surface.

Yup, I put him on "always moderate" because he was drowning out all the others. Funny thing, Tad didn't send any further posts. He's still on the list's membership roll.

Peter Birren - 2009/05/17

Re: [Tow] Group (Tad)
To: skysailingtowing@yahoogroups.com
cc: Butch Pritchett, Miller Stroud

Tad,

You're pissing off too many long-time members with your evangelical and contentious pursuit of pilot regulation. As far as I can tell, it's about your vision of pilot safety, a personal need to be heard, and a desire to ultimately force a change in equipment and procedures for aerotowing... have I got that about right?

What's not helping your case at all is your presentation. It sucks. Your email is tough to read and follow, and your web photos are confusing. The length of your diatribes in which you kinda make your points can best be described as bloviating.

And this audience, while quite knowledgeable of towing, is a small part of just USHPA members -- 700 v/s 9500 -- but we span the globe.

If you have a legitimate concern and legitimate solution -- and so far not many here have bought into your extended explanations -- write an article for the magazine and XC mag, make it to the BOD meetings (more than one), develop your presentation to make a convincing case before those responsible for making the rules, and let the process take hold. There are thousands of aerotow pilots you have to convince, not those just on this list.

That said, as group moderator (actually it's "owner"), I'm putting you on a short leash. One more outburst -- variously defined as pointless diarrhea of the keyboard or anything I consider confrontational -- and you'll be "moderated," put on probation. I have the final say here. Maybe I'll read all your notes, maybe not... maybe I'll even edit out stuff that doesn't make sense to me before (if) sending it to the group. Maybe I'll eventually ban you from the group if you cause me too much work.

Tad Eareckson

Miller,

You STILL here? Thought you were gone. Damn.

Peter,

You're pissing off too many long-time members...

Really? How many?

Funny none of your long time members seem to be pissed off by stuff like this:

Carlos Weill - 2008/11/30

On June of 2008 during a fast tow, I noticed I was getting out of alignment, but I was able to come back to it. The second time it happen I saw the tug line 45 degrees off to the left and was not able to align the glider again I tried to release but my body was off centered and could not reach the release. I kept trying and was close to 90 degrees. All these happen very quickly, as anyone that has experienced a lockout would tell you. I heard a snap, and then just like the sound of a WWII plane just shut down hurdling to the ground, only the ball of fire was missing. The tug weak link broke off at 1000 feet, in less than a second the glider was at 500. At that point I realized I had the rope, so I drop it in the parking lot.

but go nuts when someone tries to keep it from happening again at 400 feet.

...with your evangelical and contentious pursuit of pilot regulation.

All I'm asking for at this point is that we give the SOPs and Guidelines a much needed revision to try to prevent that sorta crap from happening at 400 feet the next time. I'm not currently pursuing any more "regulation" than we have now - which is pretty much zero which I believe is a big problem. We don't even have to enforce our own rules but I don't want this to happen to someone who is complying with them.

As far as I can tell, it's about your vision of pilot safety...

It's about ANYONE's rational vision of pilot safety - largely modeled on the way sailplanes fly.

...a personal need to be heard...

Hell no. I wish we could just agree that the wheel shouldn't be square. I'd much rather be spending my time improving equipment instead of trying to do the job folk's grade school teachers failed at.

...and a desire to ultimately force a change in equipment and procedures for aerotowing...

Yeah. A change. Not the kind that continually take us backwards from the fundamentals but a change which actually improves the situation for everyone.

...and your web photos are confusing.

My web photos really have nothing to do with this issue - except illustrate better ways of doing things. But again - everything we need to do to clean things up could be accomplished with the cheap 1991 Bailey-Moyes panic snap release, one of your Linknives, and a bit of string.

If you have a legitimate concern and legitimate solution -- and so far not many here have bought into your extended explanations...

1. Hell, hardly anyone has bought into the existing Standard Operating Procedures. What's your point?

2. Donnell's bought into one very key element of one of my extended explanations. And one of him is worth a whole lot more than entire swarms of thirty year tow and commercial pilots as far as I'm concerned.

...write an article for the magazine and XC mag, make it to the BOD meetings (more than one)...

I responded to Gregg's invitation to do a presentation at last fall's meeting in Chattanooga and was ignored. I wrote revisions upon request from Gregg which were to be presented at the spring meeting in Colorado Springs but they were totally ignored - before, during, and after the event. Committee members hadn't even heard of them as of 05/09. The towing situation is unacceptable now and I've had it with delays, insults, and attempts at humiliation.

That said, as group moderator (actually it's "owner"), I'm putting you on a short leash. One more outburst -- variously defined as pointless diarrhea of the keyboard or anything I consider confrontational -- and you'll be "moderated," put on probation. I have the final say here. Maybe I'll read all your notes, maybe not... maybe I'll even edit out stuff that doesn't make sense to me before (if) sending it to the group. Maybe I'll eventually ban you from the group if you cause me too much work.

You so much as change one of my commas to a semicolon you and everybody else might not like what'll likely happen soon thereafter.

You wanna moderate something? Moderate some of the incitements for physical violence against me that seem to be popping up with increasing frequency lately.

I'm giving everyone a chance to have a rational internal discussion and start making changes within our culture at a rate that won't put an appreciable burden on anyone. But right now I'm still not seeing anything happening.

Wanna start something happening?

Read my revisions and tell me why just one of them isn't an improvement over what we have now. After three months nobody's yet done that.

Peter Birren

Really? How many?

6 at last count. Now you're on probation.

Stuart Caruk

I'd have left a long time ago, but my delete key functions just fine. I say use the delete key. Tad reminds me of the saying " A wise man keeps his mouth shut and let's people wonder if he's an idiot. A foolish man opens his mouth and removes all doubt.

Tad, you have some valid arguments, but the "If I don't get my way I'm going to go crying to my momma" isn't helping you out any.

I'll stop tossing fire on your flames and hope you run out of fuel.

Peter Birren

For the most part, his fuel line's been cut.

About that time I made a post which never appeared (and I lost the original 'cause my computer crashed before I saved it). I didn't screw around with The Peter Show after that until a couple of months ago when I successfully posted a link.

But I don't give a rat's a** whether my fuel line was fully, mostly, or partially cut. You don't mess with my fuel line, change any of my commas to semicolons without my authorization, interfere with the timing of my posts, or change my citizenship status from first to second class without expecting to find yourself in a state of war. And if you're hampered - as you are - by a brain half the size of a walnut you can expect to lose - as you have.

Yup, I put him on "always moderate" because he was drowning out all the others.

bulls***.

You and all of your cult members have delete keys on your boards and if you're too stupid to figure out how to use them - as just about all you save for Stuart seem to be - then you'll just hafta go blind reading everything that comes across the wire and that ain't my problem.

And before you start trying to explain how I choked up the bandwidth so severely that nobody else was able to get any posts through to get retrieval chute questions answered I'd still be very interested to know why the stories people told you about the Jeremiah Thompson fatality didn't sync with what was in the OFFICIAL report.

[Bill Cummings]

“Tad,--
2. How 'bout people people who compare apples to horse excrement?”

BC here:
I once heard of people compared to cow excrement!

It was stated in a socially and politically incorrect way that I will only repeat here on our private Hawks board:

How is a blond like a cow pie?
Answer-- The older they get, the more wrinkly they get, and the easier they are to pick up.

I consider that just terrible. Just the fact that nobody is smiling proves my point!
Now where were we?

[TadEareckson]

Tad Eareckson - 2011/11/13

On Page 5 of the 1982/09 edition of his Skyting newsletter...

In addition to the above mentioned roll and yaw tendencies, there is some sideways force on the pilot due to the body line. This is illustrated below:

PILOT WEIGHT SHIFT
Back View

As can be seen, this sideways force tends to pull the pilot over to the correct side to make the glider turn naturally in the proper direction.

Zack's reaction:

Zack C - 2011/11/14

Wow. I can't believe he said that.

Tad Eareckson - 2011/11/29

c) recognize that those guys knew what the hell they were talking about - despite Donnell's creative reworking of Newtonian physics and near total disregard for common sense.

Peter's reaction:

Peter Birren - 2011/11/29

Yup, Don's 12 points are as good today as they were when he wrote 'em... and you're benefiting from his being the first to establish towing guidelines and considerations.

Tad Eareckson - 2011/11/29

Yeah, I believed that for decades. Then I learned some brutally suppressed European history and started checking his math. It's crap - any halfway intelligent high school physics student can blow it apart. The guy's the most successful unintentional serial killer in the history of aviation and made a lot of my own towing career hell.

Peter Birren - 2011/11/29

So why haven't you re-written them, correcting the physics professors obvious errors?

Tad Eareckson - 2011/11/30

I have.

Peter Birren - 2011/12/01

So after your having denigrated for the last time my good friends Don Hewett and Rob Richardson, twisting the words and experiences of both to suit your own agenda, and the impossibility of carrying on a rational discussion with you, I'm done.

And not a ghost of a hint of any curiosity, critical thinking, or desire to get things right and move them forward.

I got news for ya, Peter. If you base your equipment and procedures on a theoretical model which has the Hewett Bridle equipped plane rolling in the direction opposite to what it does in reality you WILL kill people - no matter how light a pull it takes to blow your release.

---

Yeah Bill, I thought that was pretty tasteless. I'll get back to you on the reactions of my blonde sister and her blonde daughter after I run it by them.

[TadEareckson]

In the same breath, it's also impossible for your system to fail, regardless of how the pilot screws things up, right? Yours is absolutely fool-proof in all situations... have I got that right?

I didn't fully answer that question before so lemme do the rest.

...regardless of how the pilot screws things up, right?

The modern glider itself is a pretty sophisticated and complex piece of equipment. But pretty much everything - 'cept for a zillion battens - is BUILT IN. And the setup is pretty fast and pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to screw up. Assuming there aren't any battens left on the ground the glider's either together or it isn't. And it very OBVIOUSLY is or isn't.

1. Reports of modern gliders falling out of the sky due to assembly errors are nonexistent. People who skip hook-in checks do fairly often but not the gliders themselves.

2. If you wanted to sabotage a glider to cause somebody harm you'd have a REAL DIFFICULT task on your hands.

My release is BUILT IN. It's constructed and operated very much like the VG system on the other side. And at setup you aren't screwing around with all the cable and velcro crap you get from Wallaby or Lockout. And you don't ever hear about VG systems failing.

And it's IMPOSSIBLE for the pilot to screw it up. It's either armed and ready or it's not. And if it's not he won't be going anywhere when the tug does so the only thing he'll be able to die of is boredom.

And it doesn't need string replacement or babying every launch the way yours does and it's not afraid of wheat stubble the way yours is.

And I've never had a malfunction of any kind of my system - not so much as a bridle wrap, secondary release actuation, or weak link failure.

So you pull whatever release you have but the one hand still on the basetube isn't enough to hold the nose down and you pop up and over into an unplanned semi-loop.

Put all the lipstick you want on that one, Peter. THAT was a FATAL release system DEFECT and CRASH. And you if you don't recognize it as such you're delusional, in major denial mode, and/or suffering from terminal optimism syndrome - and same goes for anybody else who thinks it was no BFD. And that's one out of sixty-five tows.

Yours is absolutely fool-proof in all situations... have I got that right?

For all intents purposes... YEAH. You've got that right. I don't worry about it any more than I do the brakes on my bicycle 'cause I did the ENGINEERING.

JohnG - 2009/04/13

Rick,

Not being constructive? There is one person who has put more thought and time into releases than anyone. That person is Tad. He explains the pros and cons to every release out there. I gave you the link to more release information than the average person could ever digest, and I didn't get a thank you. Just you bitching that we aren't being constructive. What more could you want? He has created something that is a solution, but no one is using it... apparently you aren't interested either. So what gives??? What do you want us to tell you? Your concerns echo Tad's concerns, so why not use his system? Every other system out there has known flaws.

Patrick Halfhill - 2009/06/21

We spent 45 minutes or more together going over your system. I saw it first hand. I was quite impressed with the quality of engineering and the time you spent on it.

Dan Tomlinson - 2005/05/30

Tad's post is difficult to read but I've seen his work. His release mechanism is elegant in its simplicity and effectiveness.

Hugh McElrath - 2005/03/05

Thanks, Tad. I was too green to fully appreciate your system when you showed it to me a couple of years ago.

Janni Papakrivos - 2008/06/30

Tad showed me the release system he installed in Hugh's glider. I was amazed at the quality and complexity of the system.

It's freakin' head and shoulders above anything a hack like you is ever gonna be able to even IMAGINE.