Darth,
Would be flying right now if I could get my glider back...
No, I'm afraid I have no idea whatsoever who - or what's going on. But I wish you luck. (And really hope you're talking about Jim Gaar.)
Courts are the only real weapons we have to make things happen in this sport and I've missed my last two good opportunities:
2005/09/03 - Jeremiah Thompson
2005/10/01 - Bill Priday
I'm not gonna miss the next one.
...I am sure he is still flying...
Possibly. But he'd be 83 now and was a chain smoker. And some other glider buddies and we went to the funeral of one of the local glider crowd about his vintage who continued smoking after his first lung was removed.
One time he was about to take a hop on my glider off a hundred foot training hill but after extending the suspension to give him proper clearance it wasn't backed up. I was unable to deter him from a hike down to the car and back to remedy the "problem" - even after pointing out that his carabiner and harness suspension weren't backed up either. (The only reason backup suspension exists is because pilots are idiots.) Frank was always scared shitless of a lot of things that weren't dangerous and scared very little of a few things he should've been. And people need to be really scared of being on tow with releases that take a couple of seconds to fire.
It is good that you took the time to teach him right...
Guess I actually didn't. I taught him a lot of stuff but was critically deficient in the "Don't go towing with Santos" department. And in this sport getting things 99.9 percent right can EASILY be a life-in-a-wheelchair or death sentence.
Also shoulda told him to keep landing on his wheels - he was breaking fewer downtubes than I was.
...there is a right way and a wrong way...
I would say for any given situation there is virtually ONE right or best way and a whole lot of wrong ones.
...there is no room for mistakes in this sport...
Actually, there's almost always PLENTY of room for mistakes. And people got away with potentially deadly ones such high percentages of the times that they're adopted as safe practices and standard operating procedures.
Ones that come to mind right now...
- Doing a hang check at the back of the ramp so you can assume you're hooked in at the front of the ramp.
- Doing a standup landing on short grass in very light air.
- Using a light weak link which will break before you can get into too much trouble.
...if you learn fast you may pay for it in the long run and you learn slow you may live to tell about it.
Or vice versa. Speed - or lack thereof - isn't the issue. The issue is that the concepts and/or skills must be solidly established before people go into situations in which they may be required.
I got a way with it those 2 times there may not be a next time, I decided to take a few steps backwards and learn the right way cause s*** happens fast, thermals can bank your glider realy bad, where the oh s*** alam comes on and wakes your a** up fast/// Me back out?
In the summer of 1984 I was VERY nearly killed after being overwhelmed by a thermal blast while soaring the South Bowl of the big dune at Jockeys Ridge. Got turned downwind, spit out the back, and dumped a hundred feet. Recovered airspeed with the wall of the spine right in front of me, rocketed up the slope, and shot over the top with five feet worth of clearance.
There was no skill, muscle, reaction time that would've taken that incident out of luck mode. Yeah, I backed out after that. I never flew there in similar conditions again. I always waited until the sun got lower and the sand was no longer about ten degrees short of fusing into glass.
...let the pros go first...
A pro is anybody who gets paid for doing something. Do not EVER assume that somebody who's been raking in dough for decades teaching, doing tandem instruction, flying tugs, running tow rigs, certifying instructors, and/or writing and selling books is competent - it's actually a real good assumption that he isn't.
I'll stay on the books...
What books? I'm currently doing a dissection of the highly acclaimed Towing Aloft. It's total crap. I would recommend it to my worst enemy only if I could be sure that he wouldn't pass on any of its wisdom to an innocent bystander.
...and training hill...
People get hurt, crippled, and killed on training hills too.
Generally speaking, they're good places to practice launches and, if you must, foot landings (which cause a hundred times more injuries than they prevent.) But if you REALLY wanna get a lot of bang for your buck...
I know this is heresy, but work your way up to really aggressive low turns. Nudge your comfort level a little EVERY flight. That ability is one of the most important arrows you can carry in your safety quiver. People who can do them don't miss landing fields.
I have been up and have seen how fast s*** happens...
Wanna see shitt REALLY happen fast? Try aerotow lockouts (assuming you haven't already).
...and almost paid for it twice, it was not fun.
Much as most people in this sport like to pretend otherwise, it never is. And I get real tired of hearing about people who died doing what they loved. I one hundred percent guarantee you that that's NEVER been the case.
I still have pain on my right foot...
Me too. (Ground loop on slot launch in evening air that had just gone catabatic. Failed to check ribbons. Just ASSUMED...) Nothing's worth it. Bille Floyd would probably tell you otherwise but I don't think he's such a great role model.
I just want to learn the right way...
How are you gonna do that? Who in hang gliding do you trust to define "the right way"?
Bob,
USHPA doesn't need to be destroyed. It just needs competition.
OK, then let's just destroy it enough to even things up at the starting gate.
If the US Hawks can do a better job, then USHPA will either change its ways or fold. That's capitalism.
A better job of WHAT?
Stalin did a better job than Hitler. Germany folded.
China does a better job than Tibet. It folded.
That's communism - or at least what communism always becomes after a half hour or so.
USHGA is vulnerable to getting sued out of existence because it's got a regulation which states:
A release must be placed at the hang glider end of the tow line within easy reach of the pilot. This release shall be operational with zero tow line force up to twice the rated breaking strength of the weak link.
and tolerates the operations which function under its auspices to use crap like:
I've had it once where the pin had bent inside the barrel from excessive tow force. My weaklink was still intact. The tug pilot's weaklink broke so I had the rope. I had to use two hands to get the pin out of the barrel.
Hawks could eliminate the legal threat by adopting this regulation:
A weak link must be placed between the tow line and the release at both ends of the tow line with the forward link ten percent stronger than the rearward weak link. The weak link must have a breaking strength less than 85% the weight of the hang glider and pilot combination, not to exceed 200 pounds.
which, unbelievably, WAS on USHGA's books for a while in 1985 and beyond - and accepted by the FAA.
Cowboy Up and all the other crap operations in this country (and they're ALL crap operations) would, if they were smart (but they're not), FLOCK to Hawks because they all LOVE shoddy and nonexistent standards and regulations and would bring untold hordes of students with them.
Is that how we wanna win the battle? By offering everybody legal and cheaper crystal meth with higher mercury allowances?
Or do we wanna be a little more nanny state than that and thus lose a tremendous chunk of capitalist market share?
But the fundamental underlying assumption behind capitalism is the existence of competition.
And what do we have out in the real world - that we don't have here - that occasionally gives a little validity to that assumption?
That's the fundamental flaw in hang gliding.
That's A fundamental flaw. But if I had to pick THE fundamental flaw I'd hafta go with incompetence - no contest. And that knows no national boundaries.
USHPA has a monopoly, and it's the monopoly (and not USHPA) that needs to be destroyed.
And doing BOTH would be a bad idea because...?
If the USHPA monopoly were broken, then USHPA would respond to the needs of its members over the desires of its directors.
No. It might respond to the DESIRES of its members - but I've got ZERO interest in participating in or sending my nephew into pilot controlled aviation because what they DESIRE and what they NEED are often polar opposites.
Most importantly, let's stop complaining and do something.
We ARE doing something. Complaining is something. And, speaking for myself, I'm documenting incompetence, negligence, and corruption and educating pilots and engineers and providing educational resources. And those are amongst my best hopes for gutting USHGA.
That's the solution that will end up giving us TWO better associations.
1. And we're positive it won't end up giving us two WORSE associations because...?
2. "Better" doesn't come anywhere near doing it for me. A glider that folds up at two Gs is BETTER than one that folds up at one and a half - but that doesn't mean you should be any more eager to be standing on a ramp with it.
Safety is a reality, but a rating is just an opinion. A rating is only as good as the person giving it.
Yes, no.
We have minimum strength, stability, performance standards for gliders. They either pass them or they don't and there's nothing gray or subjective about the issues.
We've also got educational, competence, performance, and experience standards for pilots. Yeah, some of that stuff is a bit more subjective - but it shouldn't be all that much. We should be able to watch a bit of video and determine whether or not a pilot is at or beyond Hang Two level as far as physical flying skills are concerned.
And if people are GIVING ratings to people who don't meet the standards there need to be consequences. John Seward didn't die primarily as a consequence of stalling back into the slope - he died primarily as a consequence of a signature on a card.
Having said that, I do believe there are a lot of good instructors who have good opinions.
Are they just OPINIONS? Are scuba divers and Cessna, airline, carrier pilots trained on the basis of opinions? Aviation is physics - and physics has never been based upon opinions.
Finding a good instructor is an important step to staying out of that "pit of hell".
01. Two Hang Fours at the airport. Little Chick flies one point at 200 pounds, Big Dude flies two point at 350.
02. Both use 130 pound Greenspot single loops at their bridle ends.
03. Little Chick will tell you that that weak link puts her at 1.0 Gs.
04. Big Dude will tell you that that weak link puts HIM at 1.0 Gs.
05. Both of them will also tell you that that weak link also puts the other pilot at 1.0 Gs.
06. They will do this because that's what Adam Elchin and Jim Rooney told them on Day One and you can spend the next ten years trying to show them that that is mathematically impossible AND IT WON'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE.
07. So how do you expect someone who doesn't know how the fly to be able to pick out a good instructor from amongst the bevy of a**holes from which he has to choose?
08. And this is assuming there's such a thing as a good instructor in hang gliding and I'm far from convinced that such an animal actually exists.
09. The quality of a hang gliding instructor is almost always determined by how well and quickly he communicates and imbues people with deadly misinformation.
10. Telling someone to find a good instructor is a little like telling him never to launch unhooked.
Zack C - 2010/12/13
I had a very different mindset too back then and trusted the people that made my equipment. Since then I've realized (largely due to this discussion) that while I can certainly consider the advice of others, I can't trust anyone in this sport but myself (and maybe the people at Wills Wing).
That, unfortunately, is your best ticket to survival, Darth - and do not, by any means, give Wills Wing carte blanche either.
Take your time, and fly within your limits.
Don't take too much time and don't stay too deeply within your limits. You wanna have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving if/when you unexpectedly find yourself - probably through some fault of your own - outside of your limits.
As you learn always nudge your comfort zone. 'Cause if you're not nudging your comfort zone you're not learning. And not learning can occasionally be an even better way to kill yourself than straying from your limits.
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