Historical after-fact archived data:
- BlowOutFeb19Mondayof2018Dockweiler.jpg (125.17 KiB) Viewed 6184 times
Then next day for flying:
- DockweilerFeb20of2018WeatherUndergroundHistorical.JPG (79.32 KiB) Viewed 6184 times
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Sunday Dockweiler: Frank flight stand up and then to wheels because of stumble or letting wing just get ahead of him.
Josh helped a fast return.
Monday: 26 mph+ blow out, but great commardie in Frank's truck and with Angela's sent chips.
Eight kites were flown. One sweet experiment fulfilled: Loop tether control of arch with tumbling wing: Two spread pullies held the base part of the large loop tether. The lifting rotating wing was generally centered in the high aerial part of the arching loop tether. Let go of the loop tether and all was in balance. Any would arrive to the near-ground part of the loop tether and grag that part of the loop tether; then move a point of the loop tether to the left (looking at wing) and the the wing above would move to the right; move the point of the loop tether to the right and get the wing sliding to the left. To do: put a bull wheel in the lower line of the loop; then turning the bull wheel would give a direction natural to car driving or airplane flying; facing the wing: rotate the bull wheel counterclockwise and the wing would slide left; rotate clockwise to get wing sliding right. I envision school kids walking up to the lower line and moving the line left and right to see what change they bring in the wing's position.
8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. : MHG flights throughout the day
Wind force broke main left tether of a kiteboarding trainer parafoil.
Special "I'm a Bird" wing kited by Joe and then bob and then: rain on backs, super weather cell above, white caps, sun streaming into virga: gave rainbow frame to the kite's wing .... special weather and scene and great closing of the day.
Our FDGS prez is fast approaching his 83rd BD in March.
On Monday
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Bendetson Bob Bendetson showed at Frank's truck while BobK, JoeF, and FrankC were discussing many things. Bendetson answered two of my questions: he is now with over 18,000+ flights in a HG at Dockweiler; and his day-most record is 66 flights; that might be a world-record for self-returned hang glider flights in one day; he had been aiming for 100, but his legs gave out at 66. I mispoke on Bob Bendetson's involvement with The Simpsons; see the facts in the wiki on Bob B.
Tuesday:
Frank had 3 great flights; see his report above in this diary thread.
Frank's stringed pin
to keep nut in place at basebar ends (nice and easy, yet provides a hand-skin catch that might invite a change yet).
TO DO:
[ ] Make a checklist for Alpha assembly and disassembly. My tiredness in dark after sunset did not permit me to solve the frustrating kingpost not wanting to stay in its folded position during disassembly even after about 10 tries while the wind was howling and flapping the sail. While at the end of 8 hours of flying with over 30 flights, and while it is dark, and while the wind was over 15 mph, mistakes were made; reasoning ability suffered. Have a laminated card for reading during packing procedure. Step-by-step. Perhaps affix a copy on the main packing bag. I woke from sleep on day after with a clear vision of my error regarding the kingpost not staying in its down position: I forgot to unhook the set of reflex lines from the kingpost! The stayed hooking prevented proper storage of the sail. The time cost in the dark very-windy cold air was about 30 minutes extra for that unresolved error.
[ ] Alpha fell flat during a disassembly procedural error on Feb. 20, 2018; [ ] I must fully inspect spar and cross spar bolts; did the error bring damage? Manual: not flat assembly.
[ ] Repack the Alpha as it is now packed poorly as the reflex lines are still attached to the apex of the kingpost causing poor sail packing.
[ ] Epoxy a ring on the TCF bolt that holds the basebar; then to the ring have a string for non-loss of the bolt.
[ ] For the basebar nut: drill hole and place a string; accept string twist as the string will untwist once the nut is free.
[ ] Use a safety pin (softer on hands ... for the replacement of the circular wire. Anchor a string to the safety pin.
[ ] Permanently cord tie the rain cover on the passenger side along full length. Thus keep the rain cover immediately ready for pulling over the tope of the hang glider.
[ ] Loose tip bags, control-bar bag: these billow and roll away in heavy winds. How to handle these so the bags are available and unable to be lost or blow away? What if each were clipped to the main large packing bag? Unclip each untility bag exactly when the bag is wanted. Or perhaps clip the bags to my belt. And write on the bags the purpose.
Flights: Startng after rigging the wing at about 11:00 a.m: 10 flights non-stop on the Alpha 210. Then 5 more after a rest. Then 4 flights on Frank's Condor 330. Then easily 20 more. Total over 30 flights. Last flight was while the setting sun was half-disk at sunsetting time. The wind kept getting strong after Frank left at about 3:45 p.m.
Frank saw one long flight just before he left. After he left the wind grew strong and was turning north off of ideal. But some soaring was occurring; many full bluff runs with turn outs. One full figure 8 using full front west bluff. No crashes. Many touch-and-continue flights. Many hooked-in-walk-backwards up return slope with immediate kiting of the wing ready for free flight at any moment. Watch airspeed and near-slope wing tip! Communicate with sunset photographers, as they like the bluff.
See historical weather data clips in file shown above:
Source LAX:
https://www.wunderground.com/historyFeb. 20 Good day.
Feb. 19 blown out
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