[Chris McKeon]

OK the picture of the three Guys with their Gliders packed on their backs. Could something like this be done with My Predator?

[Chris McKeon]

I can see it in My Minds Eye. How while I was flying Cross Country, that I could Push The Distance of My Flight. knowing that I very well might be pushing the finale outcome of My XC Flight. You Guys all know what I am talking about here. We have all Been there. You want to cover as much distance as Possible while Flying Xc. Yet yor are quite Conscious of after You have Landed. How much of pain in the rear it will be to get Your Packed Glider to the Nearest road. So being able to Short-Pack My Predator, and to have a wheel on onw end boy would this be cool. That way I could end up with My Predator along side of a road waiting for My driver too show up. This could make getting My Predator to the road a whole lot easier.

[Bob Kuczewski]

We have all Been there. You want to cover as much distance as Possible while Flying Xc.

Not true. Not all hang gliding pilots are obsessed with distance. Some would prefer more time in the air over more distance traveled. Others would prefer a known safe landing area over the uncertain landing availability during a cross country flight.

[Chris McKeon]

This Whole landing Quandary:

I mean When Flying I like everyone else wants to make the Decision to Land. I want it to be that I have decided that I have Flown long enough, That "I" Have made the decision to land because I have been up in the Air Long enough, not Because through My ineptness I have Messed up in My decisions while Flying or Just plain have not the Skill to stay Air-Born. I come from the School of Thought. That if our Engine is up Shall so We will be up in the Sky. Bob talks about Flying just for the Love of Flying. Think about it Bob You have this great attributer that can, and does reward You with much Flying Time to enjoy. You have a successful, enjoyable time Flying. Yes Just "LOVING TO FLY" as Bob has said so often Well I like so many of You simply love to be in the Air. I saw use that asset of loving to be in the Air. Used that asset to expand Your Flying . I mean think about ridge running up and down same Ridge, up and back over over and over Constantly. Day in and day out, Month in and Month out. Year in, and year out. Anyone would like a Change of scenery. I mean that once One had finally had figured out how to detect Wind direction from the Air. Heck You might be Flying a twenty nine foot Whether Vane, Use it! One would think that a case of raw Boredom would develop upon having flown the same ridge, up and down, back and forth. Day after Day, Month after Month.

Flying XC for Me is not about Flying further than another Pilot. No Flying XC for Me is to merely push myself to use My gifts to be able to stay in the Air. I also always wanted to Fly out to where I could have a change of scenery.

One More Thing: Remember XC is not a Four letter Cuss Word. fu**ing is not just a Cuss word it is also a Town in Austria.

[Bob Kuczewski]

I mean think about ridge running up and down same Ridge, up and back over over and over Constantly. Day in and day out, Month in and Month out. Year in, and year out. Anyone would like a Change of scenery.

James Taylor wrote and sung a very great song that might help:

https://youtu.be/sW7Z1VttPKk

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
Any fool can do it, there ain't nothing to it.
Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill.
But since we're on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.

The secret of love is in opening up your heart.
It's okay to feel afraid, but don't let that stand in your way.
'Cause anyone knows that love is the only road.
And since we're only here for a while,
Might as well show some style.
Give us a smile.

Isn't it a lovely ride? Sliding down, gliding down,
Try not to try too hard, it's just a lovely ride.

Now the thing about time is that time isn't really real.
It's just your point of view, how does it feel for you?
Einstein said he could never understand it all.
Planets spinning through space, the smile upon your face,
Welcome to the human race.

Some kind of lovely ride. I'll be sliding down, I'll be gliding down.
Try not to try too hard, it's just a lovely ride.

Isn't it a lovely ride? See me sliding down, gliding down,
Try not to try too hard, it's just a lovely ride.

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.

Chris, you've said that your first return to flight at Dockweiler (or anywhere else) will be one of your greatest flights ... and I'm sure it will be. But would you have said that before your injury? What's the difference? How could a little 10 second sled ride be a great thing now, but not have been worth your time a dozen years ago?

The difference is perspective. If you can enjoy and cherish that little 10 second flight now, why couldn't you have enjoyed and cherished it just as much 12 years ago? The difference really is perspective, and perspective is something that YOU control.

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.

[Frank Colver]

Very well said Bob!

Close in ridge soaring was my favorite form of hang gliding. Maybe it was because of years of ridge soaring R/C model gliders and wishing I could be in them. I got my fill of XC in a foot launched balloon.

Chris, different strokes for different folks! It would er boring if we all liked the same things.

Frank

[Craig Muhonen]

Thanks Joe, I like it, you take things step by step and do thought experiments which lead to logical conclusions. My dad taught me to fly our Cessna, and took me step by step. He would tell me what he was going to do with the airplane, and put it in some crazy configurations, and tell me to recover it wings level. At first I way overcorrected, but I finally got my muscle memory. My brain was telling me too much and PIO caused allot of yaw/roll, wasted energy, especially doing pattern work. The airplane actually knows how to fly, so let it.
This leads to PIO in a Hang Glider, and it seems to me, from watching videos and reading, ( but I feel like an accomplished HG pilot because of being a HO solid with USHAWKS, thank you very much) that overcorrecting is a problem because C/G, and the harness and the hands on the control bar are always in motion, and connected, but once muscle memory is refined, balance and trim become second nature. This adjustable rib idea, sorta like birds feathers, allows the wing to be adjusted in real time. I talked to Frank awhile back and he noticed that the birds that he sometimes flew with were able to adjust their wingtips to make flat turns going up or down. That's what "programable" ribs in the outer wing could do for king posted gliders with a little billow in the sails. More ridged wings are on their own, and in my mind not for the first years and years of training.
Now, for the challenge of how to build these ribs and control them, AND make them affordable and adaptable to the average Hang Glider wing, and your five foot packed.
Could a rib be made to deflect upwards and spoil a bit of air when needed? Why not, like you showed, it could be simple with a line connected to the control bar, or "wireless" from the helmet. Here is a picture I took in 1981 of a glider, with what looks like "twist grips", to a control surface.

hang glider Zane 22.jpg (10.43 KiB) Viewed 919 times

(that's my son Zane in the foreground)

Talk about paragliders being sued, what about a Hang Glider wing which would be
much easier to insure because of it's real control authority, apart and separate from the collapse foreign wings.

Longwinded
craig



.

[Chris McKeon]

You know Guys words such as; Amazed, intrigued, fascinated, were all words that Went through My Mind Before I Pounded. Just as currently those same words go through My Mind right now. Yes I am amazed at how my Body and my Brain have been able to have regained so much after my crash, I should say the day of My impact. Last week I was Talking to a Friend of mine, well Mike M said to Me; so Chris, You really did have Brain injury? You know I can not tell. You seem to be the same old Jerk that You used to be.

Hearing comments such as Mike M's are so cool, I love it. I've gone through a life changing event, that I knew nothing of. I also know of none who has gone as far as I have regarding injuring one's self. But the real "Hat Trick" is not to only survive , But to regain a sense of normalcy. Granted My normal is everyone else's Abnormal. But it is all Mine.

[Chris McKeon]

Obsessed with Distance Me? I have not really have never been obsessed with Flying XC. As a Pilot once Said; "I just love to Fly". Well so do I. Being that I flew the Predator One Fifty Eight , the Greatest King-Posted Glider ever Made regarding Performance. When I Flew my Predator. It Just seemed so natural to Head out XC. i mean it just seemed like the thing to Do regarding heading out on an Cross Country Adventure. Ok Here is something I really do not understand. If a Piolet s to land at the Home Liz where he or She is flying. what makes that LZ on that Given Day any more, or less safe than an LZ. that is ten, Thirty, Fifty, or a Hundred Miles away from where You took off from? Same Day, same conditions, same Pilot, same Glider. safer; what do you mean by safe, the only Variables that I know of are the area that you are going to land in. and Wind direction. We all do the similar rituals Look down at the Topography, Look at the Terrain. Look at indicators of the Prevailing wind direction. Then as you get lower I night s=do a 360 or two, just to get the Wind Direct on, then confirm My appraisal of wind direction via looking at Leaves on Trees blowing. od look at water in a body of wind. Also if I am indeed at a Home site LZ. I will look at the Flag, to see if it confirms what I have already decided Myself. Neither CROSS, Nor COUNTRY, are a Four Letter Word. One last thought; Flying was radically Cool Thirty years ago. it is still radically Cool.

[Chris McKeon]

Bob talks wrongly about My Being obsessed with Flying SC. No that is not True! For Yes I have a deep obsession with Free-Flight, But My learning to Fly went like this; I flew down to New z=Zealand Back in During our Winter of 1990. Well our Winter is Their Summer. It was there that I did the Standard deal. I ran off Sand dunes, over and over until my Instructor Bruce I believe His name was felt good enough about My abilities to control the Glider, that We then Went to a Costal Cliff site, Kariotahi. Well it was at Kariotahai where I got My First Cliff Launches. I then Returned Home to the right here in Brentwood Northern California USA.

Well back Home I hooked up with an instructor Doug Prather and I continued My assentation to the Sky! Here is a funny little story regarding A talk I had with Doug a Year or so ago; I said to Doug: You know Doug when I asked You to call John and so You could get a Predator ordered up for Me. Well Doug responded by saying that He could not get an Advanced ratted Glider for a Non advanced ratted Pilot. I thought that You thought that I was a Dog, a Hack as a Pilot. Well Responded; I did not think that You were a Dog as a Pilot, i thought that You were a Smoking Hot Pilot. It was just that I could not get an advanced ratted Glider ordered for a Non Advanced ratted Pilot. I am glad that Doug straightened Me out on that Glider Deal. So what did I do,? I went around Doug an I called John directly, then the Rest is History. I had My Predator.

But Flying XC is not a Higher calling, no it is not that all. Flying Cross Country is a Call for sure. Flying Cross Country is what has allowed Me to excel in My Flying. I see enjoyment as spending a lot of time in the Air, as Much time in the Air as Possible. also very much enjoy the constantly changing Scenery that cover ground affords. FLYING XC for Me anyways, is using your attributes such as simply loving to be in the Air. Couples with a lust to see new Sites. And two more notable facts. Neither Cross, nor Country are Four letter Words.

Now that I have lost just over One Hundred Pounds. I believe that this 196 Pound Pilot, 196 and dropping by the way. My Goal is to get down to 185 Pounds. I believe that if this Six-Foot-Three and One Half inch Tall Predator Pilot Might just Be able to Soar even longer, and Fly FURTHER than before March 28th 2010.