[Nobody]

A forum devoted to the scientific advancement of hang gliding.

http://kitestrings.prophpbb.com/forum2.html

[Bob Kuczewski]

A forum devoted to the scientific advancement of hang gliding.

http://kitestrings.prophpbb.com/forum2.html

Actually, I'd say it's a forum devoted to proving that Tad is right and that everyone else is wrong. Tad's made no bones about saying he'll kick off people like Jim Rooney if they even showed up on that forum.

I don't recall the word "censorship" anywhere in the scientific method.

[Nobody]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method


http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrel ... hotostream

[SamKellner]

I don't recall the word "censorship" anywhere in the scientific method.

[TadEareckson]

Kite Strings is - primarily - a science classroom.

Real world science classrooms do not allow whatever bozo who so chooses to walk in off the street and say whatever pops into or floats through his deranged little mind.

Public school science classrooms in the United States ARE censored. Jehovah's Witnesses are prohibited under federal law from teaching intelligent design "theory" in lieu of or in addition to evolution because it's a clear violation of US Constitutional freedoms and protections - and, in any case, the goal of education is not to make the student more stupid than he was when he came in.

To be allowed through the doors of legitimate science classrooms - as a teacher or student - one must virtually always have demonstrated a minimal level of competency to earn the privilege. And when someone fails to maintain a minimal level of competency one can expect to be involuntarily removed - in handcuffs if necessary - to make way for somebody who ISN'T a waste of or negative influence on the space.

Zack C - 2010/11/23

In September of 2010, hang gliding safety activist Tad Eareckson entered a discussion on the Houston Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association's discussion group that would result in his being banned from the group within two months. But despite the controversy over Tad's 'arrogance' and 'condescending tone,' I was impressed by his knowledge, logic, and respect for science, which included a great deal of his own research and experimentation. My attempts to carry out a rational discussion with him were continually sabotaged and eventually aborted by other group members, many with little interest in or comprehension of the discussion.

I wished to continue the discussion, and I knew others in the group were interested in it as well. But Tad had been banned from every group he entered to date, so we needed a place of our own where knowledge was prized over personality. And thus the idea for Kite Strings was born.

The purpose of Kite Strings is to foster serious discussion regarding the practices and technologies of modern hang gliding. This is a forum ruled by science, truth, facts, reason, and logic. Anyone with a respect for these principles and a willingness to learn and engage in rational discussion is welcome to participate.

The forum is still in its infancy, so we don't have much in the way of structure or posting rules. Until we're large enough to have a need for more, all topics will be under a single forum. As for rules, just keep it civil, stay on topic, keep topics in line with the forum purpose, and don't lie or misrepresent others' statements.

Jim Rooney is terminally stupid rotten little s*** any way you wanna do the math, has no respect whatsoever for science, truth, facts, reason, and/or logic and wouldn't recognize any of them if it were eighteen feet long, swam up behind him, and bit his a** off, and has a long well documented history of lying and misrepresenting others' statements at every opportunity.

Not that he'd have any interest in subjecting himself to a discussion in which he wasn't protected at all times by Davis with his delete, lock, and ban buttons and his friends, followers, harmonizers, and other cult members - but he has permanently forfeited the privilege of participating in any conversation over which I have control.

But I'm absolutely certain he'll be welcomed with open arms at SouthWest Texas.

P.S. Is anybody else more than a little bewildered by Sam's post - given the:

Banned Posts from SWTHG Forum

topic down in the "Free Speech" Zone?

[Bob Kuczewski]

Kite Strings is - primarily - a science classroom.

Yes, where you're the head master / dictator who has complete control over who can raise their hands and who can even be in the classroom.

"Come here little boy and let me take you into Tad's Cult of the Sacred Release. Don't listen to what anyone else tells you because only Tad knows the truth. In Tad's Cult of the Sacred Release, anyone who disagrees with Tad is permanently and forever banned because we don't want them poisoning your mind in our 'classroom'."

     

[TadEareckson]

1. That's not what goes on at Kite Strings - and if you bothered to follow it you'd know that.

2. That's more what goes on at the SouthWest Texas chapter of US Hawks - and you DO know all about that, but it doesn't seem to matter.

3. Nobody to date has been declined admission to Kite Strings.

4. Nobody - save for spammers - has been restricted from saying anything or pressured not to say anything on Kite Strings. That's far from the case here.

5. There's a lot of advancement happening there.

6. Hear any complaints from any participants?

"Come here little boy and let me take you into Tad's Cult of the Sacred Release. Don't listen to what anyone else tells you because only Tad knows the truth. In Tad's Cult of the Sacred Release, anyone who disagrees with Tad is permanently and forever banned because we don't want them poisoning your mind in our 'classroom'."

7. Can you find a single quote to justify that characterization? Just kidding, I know you never worry too much about documenting anything.

8. I guess when you never do anything yourself to advance the technology of the sport - or even bring it back to some of the better places it used to be - you have a whole lot of time left over to denigrate other people's efforts.

9. And yeah, just about any institution of higher learning you wanna name will have people, rules, and standards determining who's allowed to be in the classroom.

[Bob Kuczewski]

And yeah, just about any institution of higher learning you wanna name will have people, rules, and standards determining who's allowed to be in the classroom.

Actually, any institution of higher learning will have rules and standards for who's allowed to pontificate in the classroom. What are your credentials to be the headmaster / dictator at KiteStrings?

As for banning people, you've said many times who's not welcome there and that you would ban them. The fact that they haven't stumbled upon your site (or have chosen to ignore it) doesn't mean that you don't have a dictatorial agenda. But that's what all cult leaders do. They isolate their "flock" from anyone who might "lead them astray".

[TadEareckson]

Actually, any institution of higher learning will have rules and standards for who's allowed to pontificate in the classroom.

I don't pontificate. I show people how to apply the math and science they learned before they got out of twelfth grade to what's going on in the air.

Most glider divers never got the math and science down well enough to get out of third grade by any means other than social promotion. That's why God gave them the Davis, Jack, and Sam Shows.

What are your credentials to be the headmaster / dictator at KiteStrings.

1. People keep getting the same output when they run the numbers. That keeps them happy. And everywhere else they go they can't find anybody who's ever even heard of numbers - just experts and professionals with hundreds of thousands of tows worth of experience and huge track records.

2. And I've got my own edit, delete, lock, and ban buttons - but so does Zack and I think his trump mine. (And so far I've just used the edit button to fix typos.)

3. Nobody's forced to be there. (And, no, I don't mean the person with that screen name.)

As for banning people, you've said many times who's not welcome there and that you would ban them. The fact that they haven't stumbled upon your site (or have chosen to ignore it) doesn't mean that you don't have a dictatorial agenda.

1. Idiots don't really like messing with me when they don't have anybody like Davis or Jack helping them to cheat their ways out of the corners they invariably paint themselves into after about two or three posts.

2. I'm not the dictator. Sir Isaac is the dictator and he's a major serial killer. The smart glider people know that 'cause a lot of them have been roughed up pretty bad and seen some of their buddies snuffed. I'm just some guy who's good at showing people some of the best ways to understand and get along with Sir Isaac.

But that's what all cult leaders do. They isolate their "flock" from anyone who might "lead them astray".

Right Bob. I've got the Kite Strings people ISOLATED on my WORLD WIDE WEB site.

(God I love it when people write stuff like this - it always comes in so handy at the commitment hearings.)

[JoeF]

Consider chemically-timed releases when growing releases for towing hang gliders

FallLeavesPG.jpg (59.87 KiB) Viewed 7038 times

Fall season provides a special "kite string" in fall leaves. Timing is important for the realease mechanism. The tree's chemistry works a special release arrangement at the branch. A clean separation occurs that gives a stub end to a kite string that goes up to the leaf. The leaf has somewhat dried and is ready for free-flight in its special gliding-kite (paraglider) mode. The leaf and its stem had been growing on the tow-branch of the tree for many months and maturing since spring. Now it is time for release. The release works wonderfully well; the falling leaf does its glide thing depending on the species of tree. Some species have very long kite lines to from the stub resistive element up to the leaf wing. Other species have very short kite strings from the release to the leaf wing. The glide patterns are sometimes full of rotations and helical paths that keep the leaf near the base of the tree. Other glide patterns and winds end with the fall paraglider hang glider soaring very far from the main mother tree. This matter may be discussed here as well as at ParaglingUnlimited at message"
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Para ... message/23 with replies, illustrations, notes.
The fall leaf release mechanism is chemically/structurally based; timing is important. I am grateful for fall leaves. When landing, the leaves provide homes for winged insects, food for microbes, and eventual new soil to grow more future winged things and future fall paragliders (gliding kites). The hang glider world seems blessed by fall leaves. Some fall leaves are highly gliding kites; others are highly gliders. Each species has its gliding character.

====================================
Another session on the topic:
Fall is a time when nature gives us another paraglider of #t=1 and monoplane wing and a special resistive set. The fall season's falling leaves have a special resistive set that is designed to sharply and cleanly separate from branches; the thickened resistive set provides extra mass at the bottom end of the tether to the wing. As the resistive set dislocates from the branch, the half-dried leaf interacts with the wind in a gliding manner; the whole arrangement is anotther gliding kite (paraglider) that nature presents. Some leaf paraglider fall with very low L/D in the gross sense, but may have a rotation path that exhibits higher local L/D. Other leaf paragliders even in calm obtain some fairly effective distance in their glides. These fall paragliders are frequently not seed carriers, but the next morph of the paraglider here is to fertilize the soil for future plants; and during the decay of the paraglider, many insects are given nutrients that support the winged world. I have gratitude for fall-leaf paragliders (gliding kites: r, t, w: resistive set, tether set, wing set; the leaf is the wing, the long leaf stem is the tether; the stub separation item is the falling resistive set (actually the tether provides a second role of substantial mass for the resistive set). The fall leaf: nature's seasonal paraglider of #t=1.
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http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/ornithopters.html Leonardo da Vinci studied falling leaves.

Recommended: a robust study of what Tad generates. Reach for robust release information, test results, design implicaitons.