[reluctantsparrow]

Good ideas Bill. i went to bed with all gears cranking last night. I am so Glad my girlfriend is not jeaolous of all this activity....Susan actually thinks all this brainstorming is very cool....Woke up and drew up my entire device before I drank my third cup of coffee....cant wait to build it....wish I had some dough but thats never stopped me before.....I built the entire catapult (which worked awesome) from a boeing surplus store, broken hang gliders, and old Garage door springs....imagine the possibilities of a wind assisted self tow...Gives me goosebumps all over.
I guess this will be the last year I am going to have to pay for a key to drive up Dog Mountain. This is the last year I am going to have be a part of USHPA to fly Dog. the lz is a beach along a lake that is open to the public but not ultralights...they do not allow ultralights to land or take off there....only hang gliders......Is this an ultralight? I will have to go re-read the definition of an ultralight. Does the definition of ultralight include a human and wind powered vehicle?
I dont really care if it does or not.......this has got to be done....oh yes.

[eagle]

Human Powered Aircraft Research: Speed With Guy Martin - S01E03
See Video: https://youtu.be/O74jj4IytK8

~ More Power ~

Power Up.jpg (17.26 KiB) Viewed 4564 times

[reluctantsparrow]

love what the one guy said in the video....Failure? I love failure, failure is the path to success....

[Frank Colver]

Gee, I feel like a loser - I didn't try to build my first jet engine until I was 16. That guy was only 10. Ah, but he said he was unsuccessful. I built one that ran but still needed some air directed toward the input if it was stationary. I considered it partially successful.

BTW - The neighbors hated it!

I also like the statement about failure. Remember Edison, after successfully producing a workable electric light. He said he now knew 1000 things that didn't work.

FC

[JoeF]

Here are instructions for a primitive taste of the realm:
1. Have a 3 m length of rubber band (loop many smaller bands together to make up a 3 m length.
2. Wear goggles.
3. Make two very-alike small model hang gliders (rough it by paperfold wings); tape a tail to each of the two wings, if needed).
4. Form an anchoring with a quick release at two places 15 m apart. Have a string connected to both releases; have the string be 30 m to allow slack aside while forming on the ground an equilateral triangle with the stretched rubber band as the base of such triangle; the aside vertex of said triangle will be the pilot-control place where operator will be pulling in order to simultaneously release the two wings from their temporary anchors.
5. Set the first wing in its anchoring- release.
6. Set the second wing in its anchoring-release.
7. Connect one end of the rubber band 3 m part to one wing.
8. Stretch the 3 m rubber ban and connect its free end to the the other wing.
9. Go to the control point arranged in step 4. above.
10. Jerk the side sline to release both wing simultaneously.
11. Observe the two wings move toward each othr and observe climbing from the kiting. If the wings and bridling are well done for stable kiting flight, then the cliimbing will occur for both wings.

Alternatives:
1.Fancy alternative: R-C radio-electric releases.
2. Slight compromise (giving up free-flight to explore simultaneous kiting of HGs): No pre-tension, no R-C, no rubber band, no firm anchoring, but have wings sit with correct attitude in a jig or even little dollies. Instead of rubber band, use string; have the strings from each wing go to a fairlead at the center of the 5 m separation; have the string long enough to go through the fairlead and to a large-drum that is arranged for manual reeling. Have the fairlead tethered with a long line away from the reel. Have the wings attached to the ends of line at the 15 m or more separated points.
Then begin reeling the line onto the drum; observe the wings being kited; observe the fairlead rising up away from the ground. Keep up the airspeed.
Use longer lines for the fairlead line, connecting line, and line for reeling the main connecting line. Observe; make notes; adjust wings for improved flights.

The alternative #2 is given now a graphic:

PPKexperiment001.png (9.71 KiB) Viewed 4526 times

[Frank Colver]

Isn't this asking for a head on collision?

[JoeF]

Yes and No.
Yes, if reeling continues ! [[ See fun short: http://www.retroland.com/click-clacks-c ... erbangers/ ]]

Should have noted: Slack before head-on colliding! Such technique was rehearsed in the introduction posts, but not said again in the post on the primitive experiment.

Thanks, Frank.

[[[Exploratory note: dancing kites, twin kites, Goldstein fan-belting: http://tinyurl.com/SummaryGoldsteinFanBelts Notice the value of lock-outing when pulling to central point during some types of polygonal flight.]]]

by Frank Colver » Tue Jun 14, 2016 6:24 pm
Isn't this asking for a head on collision?