[Bill Cummings]

There is also a SSA in Albuquerque, NM. The Sandia Soaring Association. Some of which will be down for the Memorial Day Weekend In Alamogordo, NM.
Where were we now? Oh yes, Safe Splatting.

[reluctantsparrow]

Getting back on topic.....Kim Smith, a local paragliding Guru donated the line needed for a zipline to start testing safe splat devices.
I have no idea what speed the glider frame will reach.....any guesses? Hopefully fast enough to simulate a bad HG crash.
A harness is going to be loaded with 200 pounds of sand strapped to a board.
A short 2 by 4 will be fastened to the board across the shoulders area running through the shoulder straps.
I am going to tack on something to simulate the pilots neck and probably tape a balloon where the pilots head would normally be. I am going to draw a face on the Balloon and draw a helmet for the pilot to wear and then write Joe Faust on the helmet.
Joe Started this safe splat thread so I figure he should go first....

[Frank Colver]

WAY COOL, RS!!!

FC

[Bill Cummings]

Hey RS, I know a Steve Danialson (sp?) from Wisconsin. I think Gerry U. was his mentor. Didn't Steve have the trailer with the climbing wall?
I think I had him out at the Farmer tow site showing him how I did Skyting Towing in about 2004.
I was just listening to my Black Box Radio Recorder tonight and I was at Chelan when Steve had his best XC flight that year.
I made a retrieve run to pick him up on the flats one day.

[reluctantsparrow]

yep, climbing wall Steve. Steve dropped off his old wills wing super sport 163 frame at my place last summer to use in any manner I so choose.....so.....I am going to crash the heck out of it!!!!

[reluctantsparrow]

I have a compact, high poundage, fish scale to splice into the lines of each device to measure poundage of force absorbed by each method. I will also keep a journal of each test until test vehicle is destroyed. I fully expect the bermuda triangle system to cause rear flying wires failure so I will test the stinger piston device first as I do not expect that test to cause any damage to the test vehicle.
I wish I had the resources to build the hinging stinger device that lowers into position but does not fully engage until the pilot swings beyond reach of the basetube.....built right, that would the most effective device I think but I guess we are going to find out.
I will probably not test any of the idea that do not utilize the pilots harness fully as a safety system. I am convinced the splat arrest needs to come from behind the pilot, pulling back on the harness to spread out G forces to the pilots body.

[reluctantsparrow]

Kim Smith (same person who gave me the rope for a zip line) flew overhead my place yesterday on his paraglider and saw me working on the safe splat test vehicle so after he landed he rode his quad over, saw whats going on, and came up with a couple great ideas of his own....first idea is similar to Bobs break-away velcro but simpler still. Kim first idea is a simple fall restraint line to soak up the shock. I like it. simple, cheap, already in production. Now why didnt i think of that?

[JoeF]

TCFgouge.JPG (65.97 KiB) Viewed 4330 times

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Unknown pilot.

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I want to mea culpa regarding Otto#45 Meet conduct.
Fully I de-recommend what I did with the Antares and the small Seahawk 140.
I failed to attach large sand-good wheels or sand-good skis or other Safe-Splat solution.
There was no good backup had my legs failed, etc. ... then nasty life-changing whack
could occur. Sorry, World. Looking to get a solution that I can quickly attach to any hang glider.
Joe Greblo was concerned about the flight. But I recall that I had not reviewed in myself about Safe-Splat for the flight;
I was just high on the chance to fly a Seahawk 140 overweighted. Do better than such example.


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[Frank Colver]

I seem to be trying to be the wheel landing champion at Dockweiler through no deliberate effort on my part. All have been smooth and without incident due to the big wheels. Those wheels are already on the two Windsports Condors and I have a set on my Alpha. I've utilized both.

I'm sold on those wheels for Dockweiler so I've been thinking of how we could have a "universal" set of big wheels available that could quickly be attached to any guest glider. Since most control base tubes would not be ready to slip the wheels on so it would have to be an outboard set with an axle tube clamped on the guest glider base tube. The biggest problem, as i see it, is that the wheels would have to be fairly far outboard of the base of the control triangle in order to clear the side wires. I'm concerned about how those wheels would affect handling in the air.

For most LZ's, as opposed to the beach LZ, the ground is hard so the wheels could be narrower and would be less of a problem. For gliders visiting Docweiler their inland LZ narrow wheels are not adequate for soft sand. They could assemble the control bar without them and then attach this temp guest wheel assembly for their flights there,

Drawing gives the basic idea so others can comment and suggest ideas.

Frank

SCAN0001.JPG (74.47 KiB) Viewed 4327 times

[brianscharp]

Unknown pilot.

Mel Torres
Flair timing is crucial
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29701
landing
http://www.kitestrings.org/post6048.html#p6048