[JoeF]

Motivation

[Rick Masters]

His hang strap was too long, making it impossible to flare effectively.
One can actually get comfortable with a glider set up like this if he has always been landing in a ground wind of 10 mph or so.
Three things made me wince.
One, he is very wiggly in his Sport Keller harness. Not one with the glider at all. Sometimes we forget what's behind us when we concentrate on what's ahead. The harness is part of the aerodynamic control surface of the glider. When you become one with the glider, every motion is deliberate. No wiggles!
Two, despite having plenty of altitude, he did not perform a 360 to gauge drift at 200 feet or so. If you make a smooth, slow 360 and you can't read any drift, you know you will have to flare aggressively.
Three, his rotation was way too high. You give up a significant control when you rotate, so it is best to put it off - and when you do rotate, your hands should grip the downtubes at least at the midpoint, no lower.

[Rick Masters]

...and it kinda reminds me of this:

[KaiMartin]

...and it kinda reminds me of this:

IMHO, this shows a failure-to-hook-in on launch. See the missing hang loop and the suspiciously straight horizontal line that starts somewhere near the pilot and leaves the image to the left. The hands on the down tubes are just at the height you'd expect them during the run.

---<)kaimartin(>---

[Bill Cummings]

...and it kinda reminds me of this:

Tad's "Lift and Tug," before starting the tow would have kept the pilot from getting this far into the failed launch.
I hate to see a tow operation set up where the release can be out of reach at any time under any situation.
I hate to see a pilot in a training harness that also has the training wheels installed on the glider that is sitting idle.
I hate to see a pilot using a 1/1 tow bridle and not a 2/1 bridle for foot launching.
I hate to see the pilot end of the tow line with its bridle slip ring in line with the pilots face in the event of a weak link break.
I hate to see no weak link anywhere.
There are procedures to answer all that I can see going wrong here.
I know this wasn't a dolly launch because a dolly launch doesn't lend itself to launching unhooked.
I have to stop looking any more but thanks God it's on the beach sand and not a runway.

[Bill Cummings]

Motivation

At .25 speed you can see that the glider is drift in to its left indicating a right crosswind component.
When the glider comes to rest you can see the shadow of the left wheel not in contact with the left wheel.
This indicates to me that the landing was also downwind but only a light wind, only enough to keep the left wheel off of the ground.
To figure out what the wind is doing without GPS or tell-tales (flag) on the ground a pilot should:
With enough height pick out a spot on the ground and fly over it.
If on your way over the spot you had to crab (let's say) to the right (as this pilot would have had to do) to hold course to the spot, that means you have a right crosswind component.
NEXT, turn 90º to the right and then pick out another spot ahead and fly toward it. If on your way to the second spot you notice that you have to crab (as this pilot would have had to do) to the right again. At this point he would have known what fourth of the compass the wind was coming from. He would have eliminated 270º that the wind direction was not from and narrowed it down to 90º that the wind was coming from.
Next turn 45º to the right (in this pilots case) and pick out your landing spot. If on your way to the landing spot you have to crab either left or right to hold the spot that tells you within 22º what the direction is. Make that small correction straight into the wind. BINGO!

Crab to each spot to find the wind direction..JPG (13.16 KiB) Viewed 4981 times

[Frank Colver]

Or - As I got quite used to doing while ballooning, look for any tell tail signs while flying. I used smoke, dust from plows, cars on dirt roads, flags in front of buildings, ripples on water, etc., etc.

Knowing wind direction / speed, near and at ground level, in a potential landing area, is extremely important in the sport of ballooning. Probably even more so than in HG, although important in both sports.

A big factor in a balloon is estimating how fast you will be sliding along the ground, while waiting for the balloon to deflate, and is there enough downwind room before an obstacle. OMG! Sometimes it seems like forever for that envelope to deflate. Makes a really good spinnaker sail at about half deflation but one usually wants a different vehicle for land sailing.

Frank C.

[Bill Cummings]

Motivation

At .25 speed you can see that the glider is drift in to its left indicating a right crosswind component.
When the glider comes to rest you can see the shadow of the left wheel not in contact with the left wheel.
This indicates to me that the landing was also downwind but only a light wind, only enough to keep the left wheel off of the ground.
To figure out what the wind is doing without GPS or tell-tales (flag) on the ground a pilot should:
With enough height pick out a spot on the ground and fly over it.
If on your way over the spot you had to crab (let's say) to the right (as this pilot would have had to do) to hold course to the spot, that means you have a right crosswind component.
NEXT, turn 90º to the right and then pick out another spot ahead and fly toward it. If on your way to the second spot you notice that you have to crab (as this pilot would have had to do) to the right again. At this point he would have known what fourth of the compass the wind was coming from. He would have eliminated 270º that the wind direction was not from and narrowed it down to 90º that the wind was coming from.
Next turn 45º to the right (in this pilots case) and pick out your landing spot. If on your way to the landing spot you have to crab either left or right to hold the spot that tells you within 22º what the direction is. Make that small correction straight into the wind. BINGO!

The attachment Crab to each spot to find the wind direction..JPG is no longer available

Kinked cable.JPG (23.95 KiB) Viewed 4966 times

[JoeF]

Monarch gyrocopter doing stop and drop landings


Special geometry for safe splat.

[reluctantsparrow]

Motivation

At .25 speed you can see that the glider is drift in to its left indicating a right crosswind component.
When the glider comes to rest you can see the shadow of the left wheel not in contact with the left wheel.
This indicates to me that the landing was also downwind but only a light wind, only enough to keep the left wheel off of the ground.
To figure out what the wind is doing without GPS or tell-tales (flag) on the ground a pilot should:
With enough height pick out a spot on the ground and fly over it.
If on your way over the spot you had to crab (let's say) to the right (as this pilot would have had to do) to hold course to the spot, that means you have a right crosswind component.
NEXT, turn 90º to the right and then pick out another spot ahead and fly toward it. If on your way to the second spot you notice that you have to crab (as this pilot would have had to do) to the right again. At this point he would have known what fourth of the compass the wind was coming from. He would have eliminated 270º that the wind direction was not from and narrowed it down to 90º that the wind was coming from.
Next turn 45º to the right (in this pilots case) and pick out your landing spot. If on your way to the landing spot you have to crab either left or right to hold the spot that tells you within 22º what the direction is. Make that small correction straight into the wind. BINGO!

Crab to each spot to find the wind direction..JPG

Ultra great advice!
AS for me, I have spring Fever...all our site up north are slammed with snow.....so...bored....I made another suprone video....called.."Suprone Spring Fever"....of course
I am now on my third "FlyBar" prototype.
The first one (shown in this video) has a kind of "reverse belly bar" design that I now realize is not needed.
I only "reversed" the belly bar to keep the bar within easy reach to pull in from for speed...but...now I realize I am not using the "handle" at all. I am using my heel.
Heel works great and somewhere in making these vids I saw I was not even using the handle (reverse belly bar)
I was using my heel....so....that means I don't need that silly handle up front at all [youtube][/youtube]and I have made a new "FlyBar" that will allow me to pull in another 12 inches.....yes....a full foot more.
I expect to easily exceed 50 mph in the suprone position using the new design this spring....cant wait.