Flying possibilities

[Bill Cummings]

Robin's launch 11-23-15

Robin 11-23-15 Dry Canyon.PNG (888.7 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

From the LZ 11-29-15

11-29-15 clouds hide launch.PNG (637.15 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

Clouds below launch.

LZ tough to see.PNG (838.71 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

Clouds behind launch.

Clouds behind launch.PNG (612.68 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

Looking down to the left of launch at Dry Canyon Alamogordo NM

looking down from launch.PNG (838.82 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

Bill and Mike up with the help of Robin.

Mike BL Bill TR.PNG (206.65 KiB) Viewed 3394 times

[Bill Cummings]

Mike and Bill flew November 29, 2015 Dry Canyon Alamogordo New Mexico (USA). About an eight minute YouTube video edited from a 57 minute flight.
https://youtu.be/MGQgjwQuP8c

[RobinHastings]

Nice video, Bill! That was some good flying - and a good landing approach, despite the people there in Cox Field. They were all gone by the time I got down with the truck.

Conditions look good for flying on Friday!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

I should be free Friday for flying.
I worked on the BTTTT today. (Backup Teeter Tooter Transport Trainer -- Robin made a replacement for the part he coughed up for the TTTT.)
The acronym is growing so fast we better make an acronym for the acronym --like BT4 or something. (Anyone have any catchy ideas?)

I split some garden hose lengthwise and put it over the top edge of the toe-board of Dave C's, luggage rack. In case someone would step up on the toe board and slip off it shouldn't lay the skin bare to the bone from about mid-shin to just above where the kneecap used to be located.

I also drill/disk sanded all of the wood edges of the BT4 base-tube yokes. (No new pictures of that work yet).

I did find a picture I took of the BT4 with a glider mounted but today's work is not evident.

Glider mounted on BT4.PNG (680.43 KiB) Viewed 3383 times

EDIT ADDITION @ 20:54 MDT:
One thing still missing but really not needed, until the BT4 is later used for platform launching for the 8 to 10 second landing practice, is an anti-tail dragging hand hold.
This need would arise in the event a pilot decided to abort a PL liftoff, at launch speed, after the base bar safeties are both out, and the hot nose release has been tripped.
With the pilot hanging onto the base-tube, launching yoke, hand holds, while shifting body weight forward, the glider will stay in the base-tube yokes preventing a launch.
However with the launch aborting pilot on constant transmit commanding, "STOP, STOP, STOP," once the platform launching vehicle slows down eventually the airspeed will be too low to keep the tail of the glider from dropping and dragging on the ground. Thus the need for the anti-tail dragging hand hold.
The higher the hand hold the easier it will be to keep the glider's nose-wires against the nose over stop or the rear of the tow vehicle and not letting the tail of the glider drag on the road or runway.
Even though we will not have need of it yet the anti-tail dragging hand hold will be in place in a completely PL ready state and for the time being just a talking point.
Just like learning how to ride a bicycle helps immensely much later when the decision to operate a Harley motorcycle comes to mind.
Cramming and information overload in a short span of time makes for a poor learning experience.
I am not an instructor. I mentor by doing and answering questions of how I just did something.
I don't require anyone to wear blindfolds when I fly. I don't charge for what I know because I'm retired.
The USHPA has instructors for PL that you can pay for and for now they have insurance but I don't follow all of their SOP's when I PL tow.
One example would be instructors coaching to, "Go to cruise and accelerate."
As time goes by they may discover how many different things can go wrong following that school of thought.

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,

BT4 project, partial padding..PNG (930.58 KiB) Viewed 3377 times

Today after the "Honey Do's," I worked for a hour padding the BT4 luggage rack belonging to Dave C.
I had to unfasten the two bolts that holds down the wooden Backup Teeter Totter Transport Trainer (AKA = BT4)
After removing the wooden base-tube yoke I was able to install the split garden hose on the top edge of the luggage rack toe board.
After fastening the garden hose with small bolts through existing holes on the toe board of the luggage rack I over laid the hose with dense
foam insulation that is usually used for water pipe.
I still have three more sides to pad before that part is finished. I may fasten the foam with electrical wire ties.
I also removed the back windshield wiper before it gets broken with all the foreseen activity in that area.

Split garden hose overlaid with dense foam..PNG (779.99 KiB) Viewed 3377 times

[RobinHastings]

Good engineering, Bill! I guess that someone who lived in the arctic climate of Minnesota would just naturally learn to plan ahead for everything. I'll see you tomorrow for our flying expedition to Dry Canyon.
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

Thanks Robin,
I hope to be on time at your house tomorrow at 09:00. Mike is planning on meeting us in the LZ around 10:30 am.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Today I finished padding the other three sides of DC's luggage rack with split garden hose and dense pipe foam.
The say that shins are for finding thing in the dark but I've found that they work well during the daylight too.
Below is the finished BT4 (Backup Teeter Totter Transport Trainer).

A rubber hose for your shins..PNG (498.24 KiB) Viewed 3369 times

_______________________________________________________
Then the overlay of foam.

foam over hose..PNG (804.49 KiB) Viewed 3369 times

___________________________________________________
Next the end product but for the wood coating.

Ready but 4 the wood coating..PNG (325.72 KiB) Viewed 3369 times

____________________________________________
I still have to install the anti-tail dragging hand hold that will go on already hooked to the roof rack crossbar.
Each time the nose release is fastened with the two bolts on the roof rack that will include the hand hold for the anti-tail dragging.
(See earlier posts for "Anti-tail dragging hand hold," explanation.)

[Bill Cummings]

Robin got more airtime than any of us and was looking down on us his whole flight. Edited below.
https://youtu.be/bOXU5e_K1qw

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
Robin printed up several checklists for the BT4 for one of its applications which is Platform Launch - Landing Practice. (Oh dear -- we need another acronym.)
We also made the Anti-Tail Dragging Hand Hold. (On goody! Yet another acronym in its infancy.)
-------(Oh shoot! I just remembered --I was supposed to spray weed killer on the side yard while it was still above 60 degrees.)---
So except for the wood finishing the BT4 is ready to start testing.

Tomorrow we will have to see whether the weather will support us with testing conditions.
I better charge the GoPro battery.

[Bill Cummings]

Robin and I went BLM road hunting yesterday afternoon. We found a mile of dirt road that is so good 55 mph would a safe speed to drive.
The good part is that we would never need to go any faster than 35 mph for hang gliding and even slower for paragliding.
The road is outside city limits between Las Cruces, NM and Deming NM and is 24 miles from my place and 26 from Robin's .

This road (C001) would be good for only .6 mile of static tow right off of the I-10, Exit 116 interchange. (That's a short tow road.)
The directions are 308 & 128 degrees.
For platform launching (PL) landing practice without a tow line this place will shine.
The limits of the towing possibilities are the BLM boundaries are only a mile. Going beyond the boundary takes a pilot too close to power lines.
Also at each end are brush areas that knock off towline convenient usable road.
I'm a man that knows his limitations and they require for the 128 degree direction that 3/10 of a mile of road be ahead of the tow at the end.
Two fold is the reason.
First the car will have to stop where the brush area begins to drop the towline in the clear. The driver would pull slowly ahead to have the dropped end of the towline drawn back up onto the road. The line is 0.3 mile long. or about 1,600'.
The second reason (and that I'm alive today) is when the release at the glider end fails I have the tow vehicle floor it (in that 3/10 mile) and break my WEAK-link. I do this even before going to the redundant back up releases because I have more control if I do it that way.
Not to worry folks. When one of my WEAK-links breaks at any second I have enough energy to land before I let the glider take me up. It also will not cause a brake stall or half of a loop.
For static towing we never reuse a WEAK-link because it gets drug on the ground during line recovery. Many times near the end of the static tow we will, "milk the WEAK-link," until it breaks.
Nothing takes the fear out of a WEAK-link breaking than doing it on purpose almost every static tow flight that you do. You soon learn right when the WEAK-link is about to let go.

308-128, 0.62 mi. tow..PNG (379.98 KiB) Viewed 3348 times

Exit 116 on I-10 (NM) is in the bottom right of the, Snipping Tool, picture.
The red line is the usable tow (0.6 mile) out of the mile segment of the BLM land with county road.
But-- for today it looks like the Hospital training hill that faces north will be the place to test the transport rack to return the hang glider to the top of the hill. Now I have to call Robin.