Mike Giles Memorial
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 10:38 pm
Hang Gliding Association with both National and Local Forums
https://ushawks.org:443/forum/
Dave Freeman
05/06/2005
The Highster was built in Oakland Ca. by Mike Giles. It was a a 90% double surface glider with triple deflexers (wing truss wires). These wires where adjusted with out turnbuckles. They where adjusted by turning over the outer tangs which would tighten the winding of one cable and lossen the other. For increased strenth, the cross bar was inner sleeved with out pop rivets. Later versions had a floating cross bar. Highster used Manta hardware and was considered the flex wing side of Manta when Manta swithched over to making the Fledge. Highster was named after a fork lift because it was a "Heavy Lifter". The most common size was 190 square feet. During peak demand for the Highster, some where manufactured in Sacramento, Ca. It was easy to set up, with all the nice Manta hardware, good static balance, but a bit stiff to fly. The floating cross bar helped the handling. Glide was poor for a 90% double surface glider due to the triple set of wires out in front of the leading edge. The glider could be easliy spun and this was an accepted thermalling practice when the pilot was tired.
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=18 ... permPage=1 wrote:Mike Giles, former designer of Highster hang gliders, landing his new (to him) T2C 144, his first flight on it, at Andy Jackson Airpark on Jan. 1, 2011. He was very pleased with the glider.
"back on the year and say he was able to walk me down the aisle and spend Christmas with his grandchildren"
Contract No. N00014-83-C-0764. The authors would like to thank Messrs.
Mike Giles, Paul Tacheron and Ken Theimer for their important contributions
during the design and construction of the EATS.
In particular, *A Mr. Giles, who built one of the first aerodynamic test systems for hang glider testing,
has been extremely helpful in sharing his invaluable experience with us.
LRN :: Low Reynolds Number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_numberDESCRIPTION OF THE EATS
The EATS is an improved version of an aerodynamic test system designed
for hang glider testing (Pregler et al. [7]). It consists of an
instrumented pickup truck with a boom furnishing a moving platform on
which to mount full-scale LRN wings. Figure 1 is a picture of the EATS.
We describe in this section the essential components of the EATS and the
first LRN wing to be tested on it.
b. January 29, 1946
Former CEO & Founder at Highster Aircraft
Went to Corona Del Mar High School '64
Michael's VA funeral and burial of ashes is scheduled for June 29th at 2:00 pm at the Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, Oregon. Friends and family are invited to attend.
Please share this with his hang glider friends.