What is it?
Butch Peachy - 2019/11/09 02:28:49 UTC
Mike Haley, I remember him from 1990s when he worked for UP in Utah. He OKed my sponsorship when Tony Barton and Dave Sharp were the other UP team pilots. We flew the all carbon TRX 160. I didn't know Mike Haley had anything to do with truck towing.
I did static towing in Michigan. That is a setup were a vehicle drives toward you with a long 2000 ft. line that goes through a spindle and out to the pilot. The vehicle has a pressure gauge to monitor line tension as they pull a foot launch pilot into the air.
I was showed how to tie my own weak link which broke as it should on my first ever tow launch attempt .
The second and third launches were successful.
The third tow was into a light rain squall. The vehicle pulled me up. I was kited up in 15-20 wind. The tow vehicle ended up backing up while they watch the pressure gauge. I didn't release off of the tow line as I got higher as they backed up giving me more payout line. After 15 mins on the kiting tow, I was just under the low 1800 ft agl raining cloud base. Again it was a 2000 ft. tow line
The next day my weak line broke at 1000 ft. but I turned downwind and climbed out from 200 ft or so. I flew from central Michigan to Canada 130 miles away.
The first comp I flew for UP was out of Hobbs, NM. The tow system was a truck driving down a runway with a payout winch.
As some of us know, the critical part is the pilot release off the bed of the truck. I hate the initial release. It is like a high wind 4 wire man launch off a cliff. I called it "shotgun launch".
"Ka Bam!"
There are so many things you have to pay attention to in truck towing besides keeping the wings level.
I was first to the 100 mile goal north to Texas. The next pilot landed 45 mins later. Because we were timed from when we got off tow, I was not the fastest to goal.
The only thing I hate more than payout winch towing is added maneuver of step towing. This is were the tow vehicle has to turn around while the pilot is on tow. The purpose is to get more height on a short runway.
You watch the tow vehicle make the 180 degree turn as the line starts to go slack. During the slack time the pilot on tow continues in the opposite direct of the vehicle to minimize the line slack. When the slack is starting to be taken up by the tow vehicle, the pilot now turns 180 degrees and in the new direction of the tow vehicle. Still there is a strong tug and off we go together.
John Heiney and I were contacted to demonstrate the air pressure ballistic rocket to deploy an emergency parachute for a TV show. We had to use step towing with 2-3 turns.
I also hate coming down under half open canopy with a flying glider driving downward way faster than the FAA minimum descent rate of 15 ft a second.
"Ka Slam!"
It goes through a fuckin' PULLEY.I did static towing in Michigan. That is a setup were a vehicle drives toward you with a long 2000 ft. line that goes through a spindle...
- Instead of doing things right with a platform payout rig....and out to the pilot.
- What pilot? A dope on a rope who only survives his first tow because his properly tied own weak link which broke as it should have?
- Great! So if the line "tension" (we call it pressure now) is right on the money we know the glider's doing fine.The vehicle has a pressure gauge to monitor line tension as they pull a foot launch pilot into the air.
Bullshit. This is Skyting Criteria total crap. "Constant Tension". How many hundreds of thousands of AT launches - in which no one had the slightest clue what was going on with tension (before I went up and measured it myself) and it could jump all over the place in thermal turbulence - did we need to do to discredit that rot?
Whenever you're looking at the fuckin' gauge you're NOT looking at the fuckin' glider. And we have that issue on tape from two camera angles for the 2012/10/03 Bob Buxton Perfect Storm event:
022-04610
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/13746340634_a74b33d285_o.png
Fatal - for all intents and purposes. This is analogous to staring at your speedometer to verify that you're driving safely. Pure unadulterated distraction. Legitimate use of gauges: prior to launch to get the pull in the right ballpark and after the glider's well up and out of the kill zone to optimize climb. Pity Sean Buckner put major resources into his goddam gauges and total zilch into a glider release that didn't stink on ice.
- Fuck...
10-525
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/435/19224482318_2da3f48afe_o.png
...foot launching.
- Obvious use of a Tad-O-Link in the above launch. Either that or it was tied improperly such that additional strength was imparted to the fishing line. Any comment anyone?
11-817
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/312/19224481858_905faabba0_o.png
12-907
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/295/19224474340_099a8130e1_o.png
The properly tied weak link knew that Robin would be able to salvage this one?
- GREAT!!! Outstanding success! Well done! On your very first effort! Just imagine what would've happened if it HADN'T broken as it should've.I was showed how to tie my own weak link which broke as it should on my first ever tow launch attempt .
- Any chance you could describe the manner in which you tied your own weak link to achieve such instantaneous and stellar results? 'Cause all the ways people have been tying them subsequently totally suck at performing this function.
- So the only reason you're still alive to tell the tale is because your properly tied weak link broke as it should on your first ever tow launch attempt. But this incident isn't worth your time to recount here. Much more important to tell us how successful your second and third launches were. Bullshit.
- As opposed to your ULTRA successful first one.The second and third launches were successful.
- Thanks for confirming for us that your first effort was a FAILURE and a FAILURE for only one reason. And if we look at your overall percentage you're at a bit under 67 seven percent. And back when I was in school seventy was the lowest you could go for a D minus.
What was the pressure gauge reading when your properly tied weak link broke as it should on your first ever tow launch attempt? And how come we never seem to have reports on these figures?The third tow was into a light rain squall. The vehicle pulled me up. I was kited up in 15-20 wind. The tow vehicle ended up backing up while they watch the pressure gauge.
If your truck had a pressure gauge then why did they tow you - a first-timer - all the way up to/through redline?
More PAYOUT line? Then how was this a static tow?I didn't release off of the tow line as I got higher as they backed up giving me more payout line.
So how come your weak link held as it should've through all of that action but broke as it should've on your first effort?After 15 mins on the kiting tow, I was just under the low 1800 ft agl raining cloud base. Again it was a 2000 ft. tow line
- As it should've? So why aren't you specifying this time? Can we take this to mean that it broke as it shouldn't have? And why would that have happened? You failed to tie it properly that time?The next day my weak line broke at 1000 ft...
- You're down to fifty percent now.
Wow. You can get up from two hundred feet and fly 130 flatland miles into another country. But you can't successfully complete a totally normal conditions tow at a rate better than fifty percent....but I turned downwind and climbed out from 200 ft or so. I flew from central Michigan to Canada 130 miles away.
How'd that work out for Eric Aasletten on 1990/07/05 - the first day of the first Hobbs comp - when his Birrenator...The first comp I flew for UP was out of Hobbs, NM. The tow system was a truck driving down a runway with a payout winch.
...kicked in to safely terminate the tow as he launched into a dust devil?
Oh good. As SOME of us know. A great many of us know that installing a second weak link on the other end of the bridle doubles the tow pressure required for blowing off. Name something in hang gliding that some of us DON'T know.As some of us know...
It wasn't for Eric....the critical part is the pilot release off the bed of the truck.
Fuckin' moron...I hate the initial release. It is like a high wind 4 wire man launch off a cliff.
- You get to pick the optimal instant to execute.
- The airflow is ALWAYS gonna be glassy smooth.
- If you feel like it you can keep the bar stuffed and lift off as gradually as you please.
- I never had the slightest problem with a high wind four wire man launch off a cliff. And it tends to be the light switchy stuff that gets people totaled in cliff, slope environments.
Is it anything like the...I called it "shotgun launch".
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14230
pro tow set-up
...Mach 5 takeoffs we used to have behind 914s before the Standard Aerotow Weak Link and Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney totally and permanently vanished from the sport?Jim Rooney - 2009/11/10 17:19:54 UTC
It doesn't sound like a problem at first... more speed is good right? As with all things, yes but .... "to a point". See what happens behind a 914 if you use 582 technique is this....
You accelerate very rapidly of course and gain a lot of speed. I call it leaving the cart at Mach 5.
Yeah... Sure..."Ka Bam!"
- There'd hafta be - seeing as how you accelerate to launch speed with your wings bolted down level.There are so many things you have to pay attention to in truck towing besides keeping the wings level.
- So how come you're not naming - or even hinting at - a single one of them?
You can't fly from Hobbs - or anywhere else in New Mexico - "NORTH" into Texas.I was first to the 100 mile goal north to Texas.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27415The next pilot landed 45 mines later. Because we were timed from when we got off tow, I was not the fastest to goal.
The only thing I hate more than payout winch towing is...
Friday the 19th with Hawks & Friends!
...LANDING on wheels? Stands to reason - given your sentiments about the other end of the flight.NMERider - 2012/10/24 21:47:05 UTC
I have to say that landing on the wheels is so much fun it's not funny.
That's why they invented aero....added maneuver of step towing. This is were the tow vehicle has to turn around while the pilot is on tow. The purpose is to get more height on a short runway.
I never did vehicle step. But I'd have more than welcomed the opportunity and experience.You watch the tow vehicle make the 180 degree turn as the line starts to go slack. During the slack time the pilot on tow continues in the opposite direct of the vehicle to minimize the line slack. When the slack is starting to be taken up by the tow vehicle, the pilot now turns 180 degrees and in the new direction of the tow vehicle.
Like a 914 Dragonfly? Discounting their chintzy tow mast anyway?Still there is a strong tug...
- Yeah, I can see how you'd really hate it....and off we go together.
- So I guess when you properly tie your weak link it knows that it's not supposed to break in these circumstances - just at the beginning of a foot launch when everything's going along fine.
- How is it possible to note a "STRONG TUG" at altitude in which the focal point of your safe towing system obviously holds just fine and argue for a weak link that will break before you can get into too much trouble / "as it should" on launch?
Ya know what I'd like to see any of you motherfuckers - 'specially the ones who really know towing - get contacted to demonstrate on video? An induced low level lockout in which the Standard Aerotow Weak Link succeeds AS IT SHOULD to keep someone from getting his fuckin' neck broken. Something from Davis Dead-On Straub, Ryan Instant-Hands-Free-Release Voight...John Heiney and I were contacted to demonstrate the air pressure ballistic rocket to deploy an emergency parachute for a TV show.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2871
speed link
...Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney.Jim Rooney - 2007/12/13 18:07:02 UTC
Pics or it didn't happen pal.
Wish I'd thought of that one a dozen years ago.The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc. - 2016/10/22
Standard Operating Procedure
12. Rating System
02. Pilot Proficiency System
11. Hang Gliding Special Skill Endorsements
-A. Special Skills attainable by Novice
05. Aerotow
-f. The candidate must also demonstrate the ability to properly react to a weak link/tow rope break simulation with a tandem rated pilot, initiated by the tandem pilot at altitude, but at a lower than normal release altitude. Such demonstrations should be made in smooth air.
Really amazing that your properly tied weak link permitted you to get up that high.We had to use step towing with 2-3 turns.
So the deployment went really great, huh?I also hate coming down under half open canopy...
But still well in compliance with respect to the FAA maximum descent rate of 45 feet per second....with a flying glider driving downward way faster than the FAA minimum descent rate of 15 ft a second.
Hope they got some quality footage so you didn't hafta do a second demo to document just how great this stuff functions in staged circumstances."Ka Slam!"
Fuckin' Infallible Weak Link scam is the biggest embarrassment these idiot sports - hang and para - have ever had to deal with. Looks like now to get a chance at hearing any reference to one ya gotta look at experiences from well over a quarter century back. Let's see just how long it takes for somebody to post anything else relevant. Willing to settle for a "line break".
