US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Here is one of the videos, on Youtube, from the recent BHPFC meeting at Sywell, UK:- Betterfly attempts triangular course at BHPFC Sywell 2016 Competition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38V9B_By7Eg

I'm marshalling on the first turn point.

In 2018 ARP is a chief marshal and shares some important UK news:

Hi Joe, thought you might be interested in seeing video of the first UK figure of 8 at this year's Icarus HPA competition. Although not competing myself I was close to the action as chief marshal:-Niall Paterson flies the Jacobson figure-of- 8 course at the BHPFC Sywell Icarus Cup competition.


Also in attendance was a young HPA designer /builder (Jesse Van Kuijk) who has built 3 HPAs starting the first whilst still at school. He was allowed by the Aerocycle team to fly their aircraft which he did making a good flight in the darkening evening:- 21.07.2018 Jesse Van Kuijk flies Aerocycle 3 BHPFC 2018 Sywell Aerodrome

Cheers,
Tony [ARP]

for UK and Niall Patersion

I think this is amazing stuff. I was able to attend a lecture by Dr. Paul MacCready in Elmira, NY sponsored by the Harris Hill Soaring Association. I was even able to talk to him for a few minutes after the lecture. I feel privileged to have been able to speak to the man who, with a great team to help him, produced the first very efficient human powered aircraft.

I would love to meet the "new age" people associated with HPF. Perhaps The Harris Hill sailplane folks will invite them to speak at some point in time.

wingspan33 wrote:I think this is amazing stuff. I was able to attend a lecture by Dr. Paul MacCready in Elmira, NY sponsored by the Harris Hill Soaring Association. I was even able to talk to him for a few minutes after the lecture. I feel privileged to have been able to speak to the man who, with a great team to help him, produced the first very efficient human powered aircraft.

I would love to meet the "new age" people associated with HPF. Perhaps The Harris Hill sailplane folks will invite them to speak at some point in time.

Alec Proudfoot is flying the DASH HPA in the USA. He does a good lecture so if you want to contact him I'm sure he will oblige. alec.proudfoot@gmail.com You can see him chasing after the Aerocycle during the figure of 8 shown in the video.

Tony

Paul MacCready was a good friend. I always enjoyed our conversations when ever we would meet. However, once I had to repair a salt water soaked "Colver vario" for him. I wonder if that vario is still in his family?

One time he took a pedal powered trike I had built on a tour of a parking lot at one of the junior colleges. It was pedal powered but I had also added a little 4 stroke engine assist to it. I felt that I needed to apologize to paul for presence of the engine assist. I never forgot his reply. He said: "They always have me working on electric powered things but it's hard to beat the energy stored in a pint of gasoline".

I wish I had a photo of him pedalling the trike around the lot. It was an interesting sight. Another time I wish I had taken a photo of Paul was when he caught the old scale model of my Skysail when I launched it off the hill at Dockweiler during the HG reunion organized by Joe Greblo, in September 2000. It flew straight at him and, surprised by the sudden approach of the 5 foot model, he reached out and caught it.

I also remember when he spotted the John Lake "Sailfeather" attached to my old Eipper FlexiFloater, at that same meet, he said it was the best thing ever added to a Rogallo.

When I went out to the Shafter County Airport to watch the last flight of the Gossamer Condor before it was packed and shipped to the Smithsonian, Paul apologized for not offering to let me fly it. I laughed and said: "I understand and no need to apologize, I wouldn't be able to get it off the ground anyway" (even though I was a lot thinner then and doing a lot of mtn biking).

Many good memories of Paul,
Frank C

Frank Colver wrote:Paul MacCready was a good friend. I always enjoyed our conversations when ever we would meet. However, once I had to repair a salt water soaked "Colver vario" for him. I wonder if that vario is still in his family?

One time he took a pedal powered trike I had built on a tour of a parking lot at one of the junior colleges. It was pedal powered but I had also added a little 4 stroke engine assist to it. I felt that I needed to apologize to paul for presence of the engine assist. I never forgot his reply. He said: "They always have me working on electric powered things but it's hard to beat the energy stored in a pint of gasoline".

I wish I had a photo of him pedalling the trike around the lot. It was an interesting sight. Another time I wish I had taken a photo of Paul was when he caught the old scale model of my Skysail when I launched it off the hill at Dockweiler during the HG reunion organized by Joe Greblo, in September 2000. It flew straight at him and, surprised by the sudden approach of the 5 foot model, he reached out and caught it.

I also remember when he spotted the John Lake "Sailfeather" attached to my old Eipper FlexiFloater, at that same meet, he said it was the best thing ever added to a Rogallo.

When I went out to the Shafter County Airport to watch the last flight of the Gossamer Condor before it was packed and shipped to the Smithsonian, Paul apologized for not offering to let me fly it. I laughed and said: "I understand and no need to apologize, I wouldn't be able to get it off the ground anyway" (even though I was a lot thinner then and doing a lot of mtn biking).

Many good memories of Paul,
Frank C

After Bryan Allan's crossing of the English channel I met Paul Macready and asked him if he would let me fly the Gossamer Albatross to attempt the British record that still stood at the time. Again Paul was apologetic that he could not do so as both machines were destined for museums.

Further to my previous post Alec Proudfoot is located Santa Clara, CA :- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DaSH_PA

Page 58, Popular Science, January, 1978 wrote:""MacCready's keen interest in hang gliding is directly responsible for his creation of the Gossamer Condor."

We have in USHawks forum a topic on Bryan Allen.
Also, wikipedia on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Allen_(hang_glider)

Yeah. Paul liked to hire hang glider pilots because they were enthusiastic and would work for cheap.
    Roy Haggard was the pilot for the Kremer Prize attempt on the Bionic Bat in Shafter in 1983.
    The Bionic Bat was a closed loop system where the battery was charged to a certain level during the time allowed in the Kremer Prize rules, then the pilot made the course attempt with electric assist. At the end of the run, the battery would be tested to show that it had not been drained below the original state of charge. It turned out to be a brain fart generator for the Kremer committee, although they later reversed their negative ruling.
    Anyway, I filmed it and Paul bought me lunch - so here's another Hawk who spent time with him.

The Bionic Bat was developed in 1983 to explore new human-powered flight technologies and to compete in the speed competition developed by the Man-Powered-Aircraft-Group of the RAeS and Henry Kremer. The Bionic Bat won two of the Kremer World Speed prizes by completing the designated 1500-meter (0.93 mile) triangular speed course in less than three minutes. Unlike previous human-powered flight competitions, energy generated and stored by the pilot during the ten minutes immediately preceding the flight could be used to assist the pilot. The Bionic Bat utilized aerodynamic and structural technology previously developed for the Gossamer Condor, Albatross, Penguin and Solar Challenger aircraft.    --    Aerovironment