U.S. Hang Gliding Pilots

Mike Orr claims the Hiway Explorer "had pitch problems when wire flipped at low angles of attack..."
http://www.delta-club-82.com/bible/381-hang-glider-explorer.htm

That is exactly what I was talking about.
It does not instill much confidence in BHGA testing.
(By coincidence, I think I was a BHGA member that year: 1983-1984)

see https://www.flickr.com/photos/8330061@N03/sets/72157625997617270/
and this video https://www.flickr.com/photos/donliddard/5536389135

Joe Faust's discussion of the Hiway Explorer.
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/2010/2010novLIFTpage4.html

I don't think one can make a meaningful comparison between Eddie's Whitney Port-A-Wing and the Hiway Explorer.
The fact that Hiway discontinued the Explorer and that it may have been the last model they produced in meaningful numbers leads me to ask Tony:

Was the Explorer regarded with suspicion by British pilots?
Was there an accident record that seemed in any way peculiar?
I assume decreased sales of the Explorer played a role in Hiway's demise - correct?

I ask because I ran across this quote "from a book" on Facebook - no source:
https://www.facebook.com/191430910892099/photos/a.191432997558557.37627.191430910892099/977905875577928/?type=3&theater

"Hiway having made the initial great leap to power, it seemed the company heart had returned to soaring , the marketing and detail development of the skytrike, were neglected and the Hiway resources concentrated on a radical new hang glider called the "Explorer" when this was received less than rapturously by the hang gliding world , it spelt the end of the company. Hiway is now in liquidation"

Of course, years later, one of Hiway's greatest hang glider designers, Bob England, was killed right there at Torrey Pines on a paraglider.

Rick,

I never flew the Explorer so have no first hand experience of it. What I understand is that the cable leading edge had to move through pulleys and that the wear caused slackness to develop in the system that would, if left unchecked, eventually cause the cable to jump the runner. The recommended maintenance time was very short and consequently it fell out of favour. As with side wires they have a life expectancy and should be changed when due. If that time is short and the cost in time and labour is high then inevitably pilots lose interest. As far as I know none of the test rigs have any way of gauging wear and tear so can only give test results based on the glider in the condition it is presented in by the manufacturer. Had the manufacture redesigned the system to prevent the wear or had redundancy built in then the Explorer would have been a winner. HG manufacturing requires confidence of its customers and once lost it is difficult to make a come back.

Ad from early 70s for Porta-Wing

_________________
Join a National Hang Gliding Organization: US Hawks at ushawks.org

View pilots' hang gliding rating at: US Hang Gliding Rating System

With special personal awe:
Eddie Paul has passed to Next Thermal. d. July 11, 2016. Some sources had put July 12. Date is yet to be confirmed.

USHGRS

_________________
Join a National Hang Gliding Organization: US Hawks at ushawks.org

View pilots' hang gliding rating at: US Hang Gliding Rating System

Philip Mann of London flying a Whitney Portawing in England in 1974:

Eddie Paul at the Northrop Institute of Technology ultralight flight seminar in January 1974. Photo by Clara Allen in Ground Skimmer, July-September 1974.

Incidentally, the photo in the preceding post of Philip Mann flying a Portawing is also from Ground Skimmer. (These are not my photos.)

_________________
Join a National Hang Gliding Organization: US Hawks at ushawks.org

View pilots' hang gliding rating at: US Hang Gliding Rating System