US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

No “User Vicious,” software at this site.
I’ve talked with Bob Kuczewski and Hadley Robinson about getting the RGSA forum moved here.
His offer to give us control of our own portion of the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association forum for free sounds really good to me.
I (Bill C.) have been a member of the US hawks for some time now and I think that with each RGSA member that registers here they will find that they will really like this site and return regularly just like I do.

The ease of putting our pictures and embedded videos up is head and shoulders above the yahoo groups user vicious software. Here it is finally USER FRIENDLY.

Now that you are here click around and check out oodles and oodles and gobs and gobs of links to posts, history, pictures, and videos.

Below is an embedded video of flying at Dry Canyon.

Nice video Bill!!!     

During some of the 360's I kept seeing a white patch on the horizon. Was that White Sands? I lived in Las Cruces a few decades ago and worked at the base. I was only there for a summer job, but I loved it.

Regarding the forum, I hope the RGSA will try it out. My vision for the US Hawks is to bring local and national forums together in one place so we can work better together for the benefit of flying everywhere. There are many cases where pilots in one region have information that can help pilots in another region. Bringing our club forums together in one place helps us share that information and resources to benefit everyone.

Yes Bob White Sands.

Here is more from Dry Canyon taken early April 2013.

Great video Bill. Someone did a nice job of coordinating those launch sequences with whoever was filming from the air. I think it was the second launch (seen from the air) that had me holding my breath because it looked like they'd launched in a turn.

Very cool videos Bill. Now I have to dig up the one with you on the tractor.     

Hey Bob,
Glenn Tupper videoed the launches with a quadchopter. If I remember correctly he had a GoPro camera mounted on it that was sending pictures to his cell phone so that he could see what the camera was seeing.
You were right about the breathtaking launch in a right turn. This is the one things about this launch site that everyone needs to be aware of and that is 99% of the pilots that blow a launch crashes to the right.
I have my own opinion about why this happens.
Terrain to the left is up hill and terrain to the right of launch is down hill.
Even with a wind straight in from the southwest and because the wind can find an easier path switching to go over and around the rim toward the lower right side of the launch we are faced with a sudden intermittent cross left situation. The wind will switch from straight in to cross left so a pilot must be constantly aware as to whether or not the left wing is going up even the slightest when the first step is taken for launching.
I many times will launch when it is slightly left cross by lowering the left wingtip a little and nosing slightly to the left to balance the wing on my shoulders. The consternation vocalized by my launch crew at times makes me grin. They say. “BILL! YOUR WING ISN'T LEVEL!” I answer with, “I know but the wing is balanced!” --- “CLEAR!!”

The way I see things is fudging a crash to the left diminishes the odds of crashing to the right like everyone in the past. Not really, but I do believe that balancing the wing above me if done in moderation will continue to get me into the air safely. So far at age 64 doing what needs to be done has been working. (If we don't count Turttling my glider to the left of launch a little while ago --but that wasn't a launch )

Oops! In my earlier post I said the wind is straight in from the south east hitting our launch That was wrong it is coming in from the southwest when it is coming straight in at the launch ramp.
There is, I think, one hour after posting that we can go back and edit our mistakes then the edit option drops out and it is immortalized for ever and ever.
I like to first compose my posts in works word then copy paste to the forum. That way if it doesn't get posted I still have a copy to do it over.

billcummings wrote:Oops! In my earlier post I said the wind is straight in from the south east hitting our launch That was wrong it is coming in from the southwest when it is coming straight in at the launch ramp.
There is, I think, one hour after posting that we can go back and edit our mistakes then the edit option drops out and it is immortalized for ever and ever.
I like to first compose my posts in works word then copy paste to the forum. That way if it doesn't get posted I still have a copy to do it over.

The forum moderator can make these kinds of changes for minor mistakes. The purpose of the 1 hour limit is to keep people from going back and "revising" the history of what they actually said.

Revising of mistakes is the kind of policy decision that would normally be made by your club's leadership or your club's forum moderator. For now (since the RGSA hasn't adopted the forum yet) I'll follow my own policy of changing minor mistakes for the purpose of clarity and truth. In this case, I've changed "southeast" to "southwest" according to your request. I typically like to document these kinds of change requests in the forum (as we just have), but again, that's up to your club's leadership in your forum.

Thanks Bob for the correction.

Here is what I tried to spread around by email but I'm having trouble with my yahoo email contacts. So RGSA if you get here please help me spread around the message below to the emails of our members. I would like for them to have a look at this demonstration forum but I'm having a whale of a time with yahoo email.

RGSA,

Can you help email this around I'm having trouble finding all my email addresses with yahoo.

We are trying to find a user-friendly forum since yahoo groups has been acting like some yahoo with a user-vicious programmer at the switch.

I’ve asked Bob Kuczewski (H4/P4) from the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association if he would put up a demo board that we can see without the need, for now, to put in a user name and password. I have also selected and asked for a different forum style that doesn’t look like all the generic styles that we see on the internet. Bob is helping me get a look at several different styles, so don't be surprised if it looks different every time you visit. Whatever style we want will be up to us, and Bob's been very helpful and willing to experiment with these.

If we want to move our Chapter forum to the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association, the RGSA could then decide if we want to stick with my style choice or go with something else. The RGSA would be in the driver's seat when it comes to the RGSA Chapter forum within the US Hawks National Association. We would be moving into our own "wing" so to speak.

This is real nice to be able to try it out to see if we like it. The US Hawks is trying to build a national association of hang gliding clubs, and so we'd be getting in on the "ground floor". Membership is free for both chapters and individuals, so it's hard to pass up on that deal!

Anyone from any club can sign up for the US Hawks. Just go to the site and think up a name and password. You'll have to answer a pretty simple question, and then you can post immediately to the “New Users Forum.” Eventually, you'll get an email message asking you to verify that you're a real person with a real interest in flying, and then you'll be approved to post everywhere on the forum (including the RGSA forum and other Chapters within the US Hawks). Chapters can decide if they want non-chapter members to post on their sites. So far, all chapters are open to anyone posting and there's been no problems (In two years I haven’t been asked to leave any group within the US Hawks Hang Gliding Association --knock on wood.)

Bob has agreed to give it a go and he's already put up a demo board for us to check out or join.

So click on the link below that Bob sent for me to pass along to everyone in the RGSA and try on a user friendly forum. I’ve been on it for a little over two years and I like it. You can join the US Hawks (also for free) whether the RGSA decides to use their forum or not. In that regard, it's similar to Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and Yahoo and YouNameIt ... you can be a member whether the RGSA has a presence there or not. I'm just thinking that it's worth trying out to see if the club likes it.

Bill Cummings

RGSA Demo site: http://ushawks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=28
US Hawks main site: http://ushawks.org/forum

Here is yet another example of a different pilot facing the same issue with the shifting left crosswind at launch. This pilot handled it well so as to not find himself in the impact zone to the right of launch on top.



Most blown launches (In all there are not many) end up on top. Some will drag their right wingtip over the rock cliff’s edge and ground loop just over the edge but still just up from the second vertical ledge a little further down.

So again this is not a regular event when launching at Dry Canyon. If you know what to look out for and are expecting it the launch will go like the last two pilots that turned to the right too soon. They did not do that turn on purpose.

Once a pilot yells CLEAR!! They should not hesitate. If the left tip isn’t starting to rise then launch. All will be fine.

If a pilot hesitates and the left wing starts to rise, unnoticed, slowly, about 6 inches and then the pilot starts to launch just turn your camera to the right, focus your camera at the impact zone on top and press the video start button. The short upload to Youtube will be action packed.

If I had to pick between the three impact zones I would have to say that the crash on top to the right is the most desirable.

The crash just over the first ledge is not as desirable.

The crash over the second vertical ledge even lower can no longer be measured as desirable.

On a different post I mentioned that when the wind crosses left at the Dry Canyon, Alamogordo, New Mexico launch that I will compensate by nosing my glider to the left a little and raise the right tip slightly to balance the wing on my shoulders. This video shows exactly that happening. Watch the right tip as I pick up the glider to feel the wind. You will see me move the right tip forward and hold it higher than the left wingtip. If you turn the volume up you might even hear me when I tell the wire crew that I’m moving the nose to the left. Now that I have the glider neutral above me and not straining to hold the glider and my wire crew is neutral I yell clear and launch.

One other thing I should make clear. I do not let the nose pop at the end of the ramp.

I’m in an ancient spaghetti harness. Anyone that has launched in one knows that when the glider starts to pick the pilot up the foot arch straps go tight and the pilot is being lifted by those straps. That tightens the harness in front of both knees and restricts running.

A pilot launching in one of these harnesses will hold the nose lower than every non spaghetti harnessed pilot does so that binding at the knees will not occur.

What looks like a nose pop at the end of the ramp is me letting the nose up to where everybody else has their nose angle when they launch at that position on the ramp. I’m still holding it in against the very strong lifting air. While on the ramp I’m keeping the weight on my feet. I could have launched on the first step. It was that strong of a day.
Just a heads up from me so that you will not be called stupid by a spaghetti pilot when you comment, “Dude! You popped the nose.”

Why don’t I fly with a pod harness? Because any pilot that says that they never had a problem with their pod zipper either doesn’t get out much or they are lying.