Ummm ... maybe we'd like students to stay upright longer ... so they can survive their valuable air time enough time long enough to actually benefit from it. Sheesh!
Is there somebody out there who can make sense of that and get back to me?
Joe Greblo sends his students off in mild enough conditions where they can fly their whole 10 minute flight in the upright position.
And to think of all the fun I missed on MY first dune soaring, tow, and mountain flights. Oh well, I guess there's no turning back the clock.
I've done that many times at Torrey Pines where I do imaginary landing approaches several hundred feet above the terrain.
That would be wasted on me. I always stay prone into ground effect.
Flying upright is not something to be feared.
I don't fear it - unless I'm near the ground. I just hate it.
It's something to be mastered.
1. Like standup landings. Problem is it seems to be a whole lot easier to find pilots with broken arms than it is pilots who've mastered standup landings.
2. Nobody's ever mastered it enough to fly the glider through its full certification range.
Also, as has been pointed out, the upright position gives very good roll control because there's very little chance of cross-controlling.
Great. The problem I have is that my chance of "cross controlling" has always been zero. And I've always found that to be adequate.
...Just pull yourself in the direction you want to go and your weight will be right there when you need it.
What do I just do if I come into the LZ and the adequate speed allowed by upright isn't adequate enough, the bottom drops out, I freefall down to five feet, and the glider still isn't flying?
Let me quote you again...
Let me quote Shane Nestle again...
Being that John was still very new to flying in the prone position, I believe that he was likely not shifting his weight, but simply turning his body in the direction he wanted to turn. Because his altitude was nearly eye level for me, it's difficult to judge what his body was doing in the turn. And because the turn was smooth throughout, it would make sense that he was cross controlling the turn. It was also supported by Dan's observations.
I think staying upright long enough to safely clear the terrain is a pretty simple and basic idea. It might sacrifice 10 to 30 seconds of that "valuable airtime", but I think the survival rate is worth that sacrifice.
1. At the training hill where John should've been learning how to fly a glider the way he'd need it to fly at Packsaddle by the time you've sacrificed ten seconds you've landed.
Christian Thoreson - 2004/10
Flight School Director - 1990-2004
Lookout Mountain Flight Park
Thus wheel landings, the safest and easiest way to consistently land a hang glider...
Jayne DePanfilis - 2004/11
One of the benefits of tandem aerotow training is the opportunity to launch and land on wheels, every flight.
By the time I was cleared to solo aerotow, I was very proficient at rolling in. In fact, for nearly all my landings since that first solo I've rolled in on twelve inch (training) wheels. Yes, I've been to the training hills and invested time in learning how to land on my feet, but only after I already knew how to fly. Still, I trust the technique I learned first: landing on wheels.
For me, rolling in is the right thing to do. It is the safest way for me to end every flight.
Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12
Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.
2. We have not yet established that flying upright has a positive effect on survival rates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la7Ym4O38SA3. I count about four seconds from "Clear" to prone. How much more safely clear of the terrain does anyone need to be before going into deadly prone mode?
It might sacrifice 10 to 30 seconds of that "valuable airtime", but I think the survival rate is worth that sacrifice.
Did you run that thought past John Seward's family?
Once the pilot is clear of the terrain (and can fly an unintentional 360 without hitting anything!!) that might be a good time to prone out and experiment with cross-controlling.
1. I'm thinking that just about all people who fly unintentional 360s should find other recreational activities (preferably ones that don't involve much in the way of motion) - whether or not they hit anything in the process.
2. Yeah, if you haven't yet learned cross-controlling... Always remember - it's never too late to start!
But be careful about listening to everything he says because some of it is just plain wrong...
1. If Zack was the sort of person who just listens to everything somebody says he wouldn't be listening to me - he'd be a card carrying Rooney Follower or Harmonizer.
2. And he's quite capable of figuring out what's just plain wrong or right when I or anybody else walks him through any fine points of the relevant physics. He knows how the check the math.
3. And in any case he knows he's better off with off with me than he was with the 130 pound Greenspot, pin bending zombies who were rotting his brain out before.
In Tad's dream world everyone will aerotow. They will launch in the prone position with wheels and a tight hang strap (because they're already dangling in the prone position). They'll fly their entire flight in the prone position and they'll land on their wheels - in the prone position.
This, of course, is all perfectly true - but you might wanna back it up with an actual quote every now and then so your other readers don't think you're just making stuff up as you go along.
Ooops. There's one more thing to know about Tad. If he ever feels you've disrespected him, he'll take pot shots at you and snipe at you whenever he can for the rest of his life. He'll be forever unable to recognize anything good that you might do because the only thing he remembers is how he thinks you've disrespected him.
Yeah, everyone needs a hobby. I wouldn't recommend this one for everyone but it's always worked great for me.
Oh yeah, that reminds me...
Sam,
I'm guessing that at your high school they had serious shortages of pens and pencils but a huge surplus of yellow crayons?
Home
