Weaklinks and aerotowing (ONLY)
Hey Rohan Holtkamp ; Paris Williams...Steve Kroop - 2005/02/10 04:50:59 UTC
Cc: Rohan Holtkamp ; Paris Williams
Did either of you assholes have any comment on this load o' crap?
As, of course were, Dr. Trisa Tilletti's comments in the 2012/06 Higher Education magazine article - peer-reviewed and approved for publication by the USHPA Towing Committee.Davis,
Your weak link comments are dead on.
Tell us about some of the other discussions this critical to the safety of hang gliding operations you've read with quiet amusement.I have been reading the weak link discussion in the OR with quiet amusement.
In eight months minus a bit over a week from now Bill Priday's gonna run off the ramp at Whitwell with his carabiner dangling and there are gonna be huge discussions, a magazine article, a lawsuit, and a major organizational shake-up. Were you gonna sit on your fat stupid ass in front of the screen with all the answers to everything watching all that action in quiet amusement while not bothering to say anything?
Just like unhooked launches:Quiet, because weak links seem to be one of those hot button issues that brings out the argumentative nature of HG pilots and also invokes the "not designed here" mentality and I really did not want to get drawn into a debate.
- Always do a hang check so's you can run off the cliff totally confident that you're hooked in.
- Never get into your harness unless it's connected to your glider so's you can always run off the cliff totally confident that you're hooked in.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846Amusement, because I find it odd that there was so much ink devoted to reinventing the wheel.
Is this a joke ?
Six consecutive attempts to pull out of the driveway, six consecutive failures as a consequence of the tire falling off the rim. That's a totally awesome wheel you have - PIGFUCKER. What were the ancestors of you Questies doing when other folk were pinging in on round? Trying to carve arrowheads out of bananas?Davis Straub - 2011/08/26 14:04:52 UTC
We had six weaklink breaks in a row at Zapata this year.
Ooh look! There's Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) reinventing the wheel for a round of competition!Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) said go ahead and double up (four strands of Cortland Greenspot).
When he gets a chance that evening he's gonna check to see if he just got a bad batch of bananas.Davis Straub - 2011/08/28 15:26:28 UTC
We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.
What percentage of them...Collectively I would say that there have been well over a 100,000 tows in the various US flight parks using the same strength weak link with tens of thousands of these tows being in competition
http://ozreport.com/13.238
Adam Parer on his tuck and tumble
...got more than ten feet off the runway?Adam Parer - 2009/11/25
Due to the rough conditions weak links were breaking just about every other tow and the two tugs worked hard to eventually get everyone off the ground successfully.
- Who are "the best of the best"? Name some of them - motherfucker.Yes I know some of these have been with strong links but only the best of the best aerotow pilots are doing this.
-- You're very obviously talking third person plural. That means you consider neither yourself nor Davis Dead-On Straub...
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident2.jpg
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident3.jpg
...to be amongst the best of the best. And Davis...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31052
Poll on weaklinks
...totally fucking CONFIRMS for us that he's not amongst the best of the best. He apparently doesn't think it's a good idea for...Davis Straub - 2013/03/06 18:29:05 UTC
You know, after all this discussion I'm now convinced that it is a very good idea to treat the weaklink as a release, that that is exactly what we do when we have a weaklink on one side of a pro tow bridle. That is exactly what has happened to me in a number of situations and that the whole business about a weaklink only for the glider not breaking isn't really the case...
...ANYBODY to be......nor a good idea for hang gliding.
http://ozreport.com/12.081
Weaklinks - the HGFA rules
...amongst the best of the best - under ANY circumstances. Neither, for that matter...Davis Straub - 2008/04/22 14:47:00 UTCPilots must use weaklinks provided by the meet organizers and in a manner approved by the meet organizers. All weaklinks will be checked and use of inappropriate weaklinks will require the pilot to go to the end of the launch line to change the weaklink.
Weaklinks will consist of a single loop of Cortland 130 lb. Greenspot braided Dacron Tolling line and should be placed at one end of a shoulder bridle.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31052
Poll on weaklinks
...does Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney.Jim Rooney - 2013/03/04 19:31:36 UTC
The law of the land at comps was 130lb greenspot or you don't tow. Seriously. It was announced before the comp that this would be the policy. Some guys went and made their case to the safety committee and were shut down. So yeah, sorry... suck it up.
So are you quite sure you're qualified to be reading the weak link discussion in the OR with quiet amusement? Shouldn't that privilege be reserved for one of the best of the best?
- Do ALL of the best of the best use:
-- stronglinks or do some of the best of the best use Rooney Links to put other competitors off their guard?
-- the same stronglink or do the better of the best of the best use stronger stronglinks than the mediocre best of the best?
- How come there are no:
-- USHGA / Flight Park Mafia:
--- training films of the best of the best aerotow launching so's more of us muppets can more rapidly move up the ladder into the high octane world of stronglink launching?
--- Higher Education magazine articles; chapters in the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden; Mitch Shipley or Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt clinics on proper stronglinking techniques and skills?
--- Strong Link Special Skills signoffs - available to Hang Fours and up - so's that the best of the best can just flash their cards when they go to different flight parks and don't hafta waste all that valuable time convincing operators, cart monkeys, tug pilots that they're the best of the best?
--- extra safe weak links being mandated, used, recommended for the worst of the worst - and/or people flying homemade funky shit gear in midday conditions?
-- mentions whatsoever in any SOPs, regulations, recommendations anywhere in the world of weak link strength being proportional to anything other than flying weight - by the douchebags - and glider capacity - by the FAA and half dozen people in the sport who know what the fuck they're doing and talking about?
- Why would the best of the best want anything other than the wheel that's been refined over a hundred thousand US aerotows? Do they see some disadvantage to the Rooney Link and/or some advantage to the Tad-O-Link?
-- Do the best of the best:
--- use better launch dollies, parachutes, helmets than the muppets?
--- trade off safety for better performance like they do with their gliders and sprog settings? If so can you discuss cost/benefit ratios and sweet spots for us?
Hard to believe that Mike Barber isn't amongst the best of the best. And he's totally into...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1Z_BI5OXs
...knocking risks down to the one in a hundred thousand ballpark - doing faggot stuff like landing in the middles of huge putting greens on wheels. Is he flying a stronglink? If:
- so, why?
- not, why not?
- How the fuck do you know who is and isn't flying stronglinks - especially while you're watching the discussion in quiet amusement with your stupid head two feet up your ass? You get weekly reports from every aerotow operation on the planet detailing all the fishing line being used on all the launches and which pilots are recognized as the best of the best and what they're matched with?
Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney doesn't...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec
...even have a clue what they use in Australia. And he has a very keen intellect. And for all we know you could be a pedophile.Jim Rooney - 2013/02/15 06:48:18 UTC
AP flies in OZ
I have no clue what they're using over there.
- We hear INCESSANT bitching about allegedly under-qualified muppets hopping on topless competition bladewings - sometimes even from the muppets themselves as they decide to drop back down to Sport 2s. But ONLY the best of the best are flying fishing line that breaks less than six times in a row in light morning conditions? The aerotow operations are selling bladewings to underqualified muppets and/or happily pulling them up pro toad in Mike Haas and Zack Marzec conditions but nobody's getting on a cart with thicker fishing line? Surely that can't be true. Name some stupid criminally negligent bullshit that hang gliding hasn't yet thought of, implemented, killed someone with (Shane Smith comes to immediate mind), and reported on. So where are the reports on the dead stronglinkers? Failing that, how 'bout just a bruised one? A scared one maybe?
- I don't know if you've had time to read the USHGA / FAA regulations on hang glider aerotow weak links, Mister USHGA Towing Committee Chairman, what with all the time you've been engaged in reading the weak link discussion in the OR - which was kicked off by one of the best of the best, a national champion in fact, getting killed by some of Bobby Fucking-Genius Bailey's shit aerotow equipment at a world championship competition - with quiet amusement but under THE FUCKING *LAW*:
-- weak link strength is REQUIRED to be proportional to glider capacity
-- you Questie pigfuckers are supposed to have fuckin' clues what your BREAKING STRENGTHS are
And WHEN you're using the same Rooney Link you do on a 350 pound big dude glider that you do on a 200 pound little chick glider...
...the little chick is flying at seventy-five percent higher Gs. So that automatically puts her into the best of the best category whether she wants it to or not and even if she doesn't have a fuckin' clue about...
...setting the pitch on the launch dolly.
See if you can advance up to some one-arm pushups. It's easy.
.
to kick in. But of course we hafta make the sacrifice of an unbelievably long track record.
