Kite Strings

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Got a series of 107 stills, the first seven of which are covered here, synced with the narration for this video - another critical document in the history of the collapse of hang gliding. I wanna have the relevant posts as a continuous block, preferably all on one page, so I may / will almost certainly be juggling things around / playing musical entries before the project is finished. But don't hesitate to post on this topic if you have something to say - not a big deal to manipulate stuff and I'll record and display the original time stamps.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM

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0:00

This is a story about hang gliding instruction. What is the instructor looking at? What clues tell the teacher to move on or hold up?

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0:09

What skills are we trying to develop...

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0:11

...and how are we getting our students there?

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This is a story about hang gliding instruction.

Has hang gliding instruction always looked like this?

What is the instructor looking at?

Does what he's looking at bear any semblance to how ACTUAL pilots...

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...ACTUALLY fly? Is there some other flavor of aviation in which the student pilot is so dorked up, compromised, incapacitated that we can't recognize him as a member of a species similar to that of his instructor?

What clues tell the teacher to move on or hold up?

How competent is the teacher? Who qualified him?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25321
Stop the Stupids at the USHPA BOD meeting

Mark G. Forbes - 2011/09/29 02:26:23 UTC

We can establish rules which we think will improve pilot safety, but our attorney is right. USHPA is not in the business of keeping pilots "safe" and it can't be. Stepping into that morass is a recipe for extinction of our association. I wish it were not so, but it is. We don't sell equipment, we don't offer instruction, and we don't assure pilots that they'll be safe.

What's the mission statement of the authorizing organization?

What skills are we trying to develop...

What skills are advisable to develop? I flew hang gliders for over a quarter century and found that doing so was up/down/left/right "skill", which didn't require the slightest degree of skill, plus judgment - which was all THEORY based - preflight procedures, glider control dynamics, tow force implications, speeds to fly, wind gradient and shadow, ground effect, ridge lift, thermal activity... None of this was really the least bit skill based.

I never went (much?) beyond ninety in aerobatics but what I did had total shit to do with SKILL. And here's you looping:

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Show me where the SKILL is involved. You're pulling a bar way the fuck back, balling up, easing the bar continually forward as the glider goes around in glassy smooth air, pulling back in after you're clear. You've worked your way up to that getting the feel for the energy required and how to manage it through the maneuver.. But that's all JUDGMENT and you're maintaining huge fuckin' safety margins.

Name somebody who's lasted in hang gliding more than a week who would EVER consider doing ANYTHING that could result in an unpleasant outcome if his skill was a bit wanting or off that afternoon. If an NBA player could be penalized with a broken arm or dislocated shoulder if he failed to sink a foul shot would he take the foul shot?

Here's what your guy is doing as you reference SKILLS:

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Yeah, he can do that show-off bullshit in the Ellenville Happy Acres putting green on a Condor in a training harness with a glassy smooth gentle breeze in his face all fuckin' afternoon. Meanwhile, out in the REAL world...

Gil Dodgen - 1995/01

All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."

That's what the manufacturer of that glider is saying in an unguarded moment. And...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2095
Should we try a different way? Designwise....

Steve Corbin - 2015/09/02 22:26:04 UTC

Standing around in the Andy Jackson Memorial International Airpark at a busy fly-in shows that a PG landing is a total non-event, while everyone stands up to watch HG's, piloted by "experts", come in to land. A good landing by a HG is greeted by cheers, an acknowledgement that landing one successfully is a demonstration not just of skill, but good luck as well.

So tell me that pushing a SKILL agenda isn't synonymous with pushing a LUCK agenda. And pushing a skill/luck agenda WILL result in:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses

Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC

Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.

And show me ANYTHING else in your film that can possibly be construed as a SKILL. And show me ONE video clip of THIS "skill" being of any practical value - preferably for someone shy of a Four with under eight years of substantial experience.

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In focusing on whatever SKILLS you are, is there some possibility that you're neglecting more essential areas, possibly critical ones? Do we have a good accident database to reference in order to identify areas we need to start seriously addressing ten or fifteen years ago?

Are we complying with the most basic and fundamental of u$hPa safety regulations as specified in he Pilot Proficiency Program SOPs?

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Are we treating our students with respect, alerting them to the issues that kill flyers with years and decades of experience, making them parts of the process?

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Are we tracking our students after they graduate from our training hills to see how well they are and/or aren't doing? Are we maintaining presences on public forums to help our own students and other students and their instructors? Are we encouraging feedback from other instructors and pilots to help get people and the sport on right pages?

...and how are we getting our students there?

Interesting position your instructor's taking there, Ryan...

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Is that so's he can torque the wing up or down back to level if necessary? Is that really necessary or advisable? Wouldn't it be a better learning experience for the student to simply keep running straight towards his target, pulling the glider with his harness, thus steering it through weight shift?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

0:15

This is not intended to represent everything that happens in an introductory lesson.

Nah, 'specially not all that boring THEORY crap on basic aerodynamics and how a glider responds to external forces and control inputs.

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But I DO like the way you've got that student looking inside the sail to make sure everything's CONNECTED properly. It could be a real bitch if you were missing a safety ring...

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...or sumpin'...

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0:20

Safety precautions, learning and teaching styles, ec cetera have been purposefully...

"Ec" cetera and "purposefully" need work.

0:23

...omitted due to various constraints.

So you're gonna make more videos to cover this other stuff we're not seeing when the constraints aren't quite as various? Lots of us are dying to see you or one of your instructors or students...

If you teach them how to pull the glider with the harness they'll learn to steer the glider through weight shift simply by running toward their target.

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...simply keeping running straight towards his target, pulling the glider with his harness, thus steering it through weight shift.

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The coolest thing in this video is this little Cowbird which keeps shadowing the trainer...

Dean Jordan

So, do you guys have a pet bird? That bird is in every shot!

Ryan Voight
He just showed up one day... and stuck around for a few weeks (until the weather turned cold). He would get really close, and eat the bugs that we stirred up while walking in the grass. We named him Jerry.

...and I've biased a lot of shots to show him at best advantage. But he's a lot more easily tracked in the video sequences in which his motion is obvious. In the following two frames... In front of the instructor's belt and halfway between the student's knee and the wheels in the first two following frames.

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0:27

This is meant to be an introductory snapshot into flight instruction and will hopefully provoke greater study and understanding of the subject.

By whom? I know it's certainly provoked a lot of greater study by a lot of us muppets regarding your claim of no hands roll control. Also a lot of understanding of the subject of what's going on with mainstream instruction by a top notch revered and acclaimed u$hPa operation.

Speaking of which... In the shot below your guy is pretty obviously illustrating roll control input with his feet on the ground, his hands tightly gripping the air control tubes, exercising a strong lateral torque effort...

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Any comment on that? Looks like the student's catching on a bit.

While below in these next two shots with our student so fully actually suspended that he's just brushing the grass a bit we see him operating himself as a PENDULUM propelling himself side to side with light alternating torque inputs exerted with his fingertips.

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Guess that's all the roll control authority he'll ever need until a good bit after...



...this stage of training. (A bit odd that we're seeing so much air oomph delivered to the air control tubes but total zilch on the real deals, dontchya think?)

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Jerry has come in from the far right and a bit below launch and appears between the instructor and the glider's port wing.

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0:37

The feelings and sensations in hang gliding will be unfamiliar and perhaps counterintuitive to the person who has never flown before.

Ya think, MOTHERFUCKER?

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You've got him in a dorky forced upright hazing harness with his hands two thirds of the way up the control tubes which totally decertifies the aircraft and is a really awesome way to get yourself killed right after launch, on approach, anytime near any surface or in any air that's doing anything... And you think that there MIGHT BE a few counterintutivity issues going on.

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Our closest look at Jerry:

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Put a gun to Jonathan's head and force him to go from Kagel to the primary like that and get some feedback. If you forced me to have THAT abortion of aviation in general and hang gliding in particular as MY first flight a year later I would hunt you down, cut out your liver, and force you to eat a few chunks before slitting your throat.

0:46

Our job is to incrementally build skills and confidence.

And the best way to do our job is to train and equip our student to guarantee a humiliating one to one sledder ending in ground looping butt slide. It can only get better from that point on but we make sure progress henceforth is microscopically incremental to keep his self confidence at a minimum sustainable level and drag out the instruction and dependency period for eons.

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Great job, Ryan. Now we've got the fundamentals for flying straight out from launch and landing safely in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place. We'll work on flying prone on the basetube and turning after we've had ten or fifteen hours subsequent to our Two.

P.S. Note the double frame codes on Stills 21 through 26. That's 'cause this training hill sequence is repeated later in the video.

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Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

0:55

Our story starts with familiarizing the student with moving around with the glider on flat ground.

I like that idea. That's what I did in my lessons down on he dunes. Ran the glider into the wind across the plateau S-curving the hell all over the place. Single biggest bang for the buck learning experience I ever had. And it was on MY initiative - not my instructor's.

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What's your instructor doing here:

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Ryan? Showing the student how to torque the wing back level while standing in place at launch?

1:01

People are very familiar with moving on flat ground and learning something new is much easier if you can relate it to something you already know.

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1:11

When picking up a glider it's easy to say "balance the glider on your shoulders".

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BALANCE the glider on your shoulders? So if the nose were high or low you'd torque the control frame around a lateral access to achieve proper pitch? And if a wing were low or high you'd torque the control frame around a longitudinal axis to level your wing?

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Would you need to be doing anything with your feet? In the next frame it appears that your instructor is just talkin' arms, making no reference to moving feet or "weight shift".

1:16

But giving more specific cues like "the downtubes should contact the outside of your arm where it meets your shoulder" will greatly enhance your student's learning experience.

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How great an idea is it to be teaching hang gliding to somebody who can't figure that out on his own?

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Note the relationship between the carabiner and the hang strap. Is there any possibility that he'll ever be standing on a ramp like McConnellsburg or Whitwell in THAT configuration believing that he's actually in THIS:

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configuration? Wouldn't it be a good idea to teach him a quick check...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31781
Another hang check lesson

Alan Deikman - 2014/09/23 19:47:06 UTC

For my part I will just refer you to the classic Tad Eareckson essay which I call "the gun is always loaded" which is a bit overworked but probably all you will ever need to read regarding FTHI. A lot of people will find it gores their particular sacred Ox, but I have never seen anyone point out a flaw in his logic.

...to do JUST PRIOR TO EVERY LAUNCH? Maybe something along the line's of:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=18876
Hang glider Crash

Allen Sparks - 2010/09/07 01:03:18 UTC

Oscar, I'm very happy you weren't injured. Helen, Thanks for the Tad 'lift and tug' reminder.

I have launched unhooked and experienced the horror of hanging by my fingers over jagged rocks ... and the surreal result - i.e. not being significantly injured.

I am a firm believer in 'lift and tug' and the mindset of assuming I am not hooked in. It is motivated by the recurring memory of my own experience ... and the tragic deaths and life-altering injuries of good friends.

Shouldn't something like this be a component of the launch sequence? Why bother making sure your wings are level if you're sure you're hooked in. What issue is likely to fuck up your afternoon worse?

P.S. I notice your guy there is using a nonlocking aluminum carabiner. About how many times a season do you have someone fall on his face from a carabiner opening up or breaking?

P.P.S. I also notice you've got two hang loops coming off the keel, the fore one a wee bit longer than the aft one. Guess the fore one's a backup. So about how many times a season does the primary break?

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Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

1:28

To start running with the glider, students must learn to accelerate while maintaining the proper angle of attack.

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1. So do ya use your hands for that? Push forward with your shoulders on the upper part of the control frame, pull back with your hands on the lower, torque the nose down for a low pitch attitude to allow for a high ground/airspeed?

2. Just the PROPER ANGLE OF ATTACK. Nothing about keeping wings level / roll control 'cause roll control doesn't exist in Fly High hang gliding.

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Then keep pulling back with your hands once the wing lifts off and your towing it by its hang strap? Or can ya just let go with your hands when the strap's pulling forward with your weight shifted under the nose just like in full free flight?

1:35

Teaching students to walk, jog, run helps smooth the acceleration and therefore makes it easier to control pitch.

But just PITCH. ROLL never enters into any equations.

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What if you're not hooked in? Can ya still control the pitch pretty good when the wing lifts?

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Is there anything u$hPa says we're supposed to do JUST PRIOR TO when...

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...the student starts walking, jogging running, smoothly accelerating, easily controlling pitch?

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1:42

Starting our run with a falling forward step and leading with our shoulders is also an excellent way to get the glider and pilot accelerating together.

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1:52

As the glider's airspeed increases, students should allow it to lift up so their harness lines become tight.

Assuming...



...they CAN become tight.

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1:59

As with all hang gliding, it's important to encourage a light touch.

Well sure...

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The strap's pulling forward so's the weight's shifted under the nose so all your hands are doing is pushing out a little to keep the glider from outpacing you.

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And it's not like you need your hands for roll control 'cause you're running straight down the runway and if the wing starts turning the automatic weight shift effect will bring it right back. Very light touch...

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Just can't emphasize that enough.

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I like the way he stopped that glider. That was pretty cool. I could use something like that to land in narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place - one of my earliest childhood dreams, the whole reason I got into hang gliding. How long does it usually take to perfect a skill like that?

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Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

2:03

If you're teaching students to pick up the glider with the grapevine grip, you'll need to teach them how to smoothly transition their grip without compromising pitch control.

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1. Oh. So what you're saying is that we need our hands, both of them, on the control frame at all times at a critical phase of flight like launch in order to control the glider and, on top of that, it's critical how our hands are gripping the tubes and that we allow no compromises during any shifting of the grips.

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Are you really sure?

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Doesn't really look like it to me. Or do we as pilots ever encounter air out there that's less benign than this glassy smooth evening Happy Acres putting green kiddie stuff in which all these stunts can be safely executed?

2. But just PITCH control. AGAIN.

3. How 'bout towing? If it's that fuckin' critical to teach students how to smoothly transition their grips without compromising pitch control during a goddam normal foot launch how 'bout when they're locking out - à la Nancy three and a half weeks ago - when her state-of-the-art three-yank two-string release is within easy reach? And funny we didn't hear anything from you about how she should've just pitched out abruptly to actuate her instant hands free release.

2:14

Once the glider has lifted its own weight and the harness lines go tight, you must continue accelerating.

What if the glider's lifted it's own weight but the harness lines HAVEN'T gone tight?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7570/15661252749_7fcfe6445a_o.jpg


Must we still continue accelerating?

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What's your student doing here, Ryan?

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Looks like the starboard wing is up and billowed and he's effecting a control frame input similar to what it appears was being instructed here:

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How come we keep seeing this stuff in your instructional video but never seem to hear any descriptions or explanations from you?

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2:20

An excellent cue is to try to pull the glider through the air with the harness.

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Would that be much different from what's going on here:

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Student is running which pulls the harness which pulls the glider versus Dragonfly is running which pulls the harness which pulls the pilot and glider? Would we or the glider be inputting, reacting any differently from one scenario to the other?

2:25

This is also an excellent time to teach them to let the glider support some of their weight while taking long strides...

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Could the glider be totally airborne, supporting all of our weight between some of these longer strides? Do we need to adopt different roll control inputs as we alternate between fully airborne and significant force contact with the runway through our thrusting actions?

...much like pushing a scooter or skateboard.

Speaking of scooters and skateboards... If we were towed up by a scooter, winch, truck, tug, whatever from a paved runway could we just take off from a skateboard and totally forgo all the walk, jog, run bullshit? Or, even better, could we just use a launch dolly? Is there some reason you don't incorporate a scooter tow winch and launch dolly at your training operation?

The idea is to prep your students for real world hang gliding, right? You're doing a totally awesome job of teaching them how to safely stop in the narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place they'll be encountering within a few weeks of you signing their Ones, but would it kill you to give them some tow launch experience on the off chance that they'll be going up on a rope ten or fifteen years down the road? If you've qualified them for dolly launch with a scooter they'll hardly notice the difference doing the same thing with a tug 250 feet ahead of them. And they'll be great at staying within the Cone of Safety in which nothing bad can ever happen.

2:35

As students are running with the glider we give them a target to aim for in the distance.

I guess giving them a target to aim for ten feet in front of launch position would be of more limited utility.

This helps get their head up for situational awareness...

Situational awareness for WHAT? So far we really haven't heard that any bad things can happen in this sport.

...and keeps them running a straight line.

See that, Mother Nature! I can aim for my target in the distance, maintain situational awareness, keep running in a straight line - and there's not a goddam thing you can do about it. Bitch.

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2:46

If you teach them how to pull the glider with the harness they'll learn to steer the glider through weight shift simply by running toward their target.

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And for steering the glider the hands are of no importance WHATSOEVER. Hands are only important for...

1:28

To start running with the glider, students must learn to accelerate while maintaining the proper angle of attack.

1:35

Teaching students to walk, jog, run helps smooth the acceleration and therefore makes it easier to control pitch.

2:03

If you're teaching students to pick up the glider with the grapevine grip, you'll need to teach them how to smoothly transition their grip without compromising pitch control.

...PITCH control.

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See?

Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9348.html#p9348

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9350.html#p9350

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

2:55

Once students are proficient at picking up and running with the glider while controlling pitch...

...which, happily, they all were before they showed up and got outta the car since hang gliders are pitch stable...

3:00

...it's time to introduce the flare.

Oh good! That's the part to which I was SO looking forward. And I was totally sick of all that steering the glider by simply keeping running straight towards my target, pulling the glider with my harness, thus steering it through weight shift. That was SO *BORING*. I realize how important it is to learn how to not turn an aircraft but, frankly, I'd had my fill of not turning drills by the middle of Day Two. So let's get on with that flare introduction so's I'll be able to land safely in narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place at the ends of long straight flights.

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3:03

We help with the timing, but with the students' hands at shoulder level...

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http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

3:07

...they should be pushing the downtubes forward and up until their arms are fully extended with their hands over their heads.

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4:44

Remember to train your students only in appropriate conditions...

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3:14

Having them do this with open palms insures a loose grip.

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Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9349.html#p9349

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9351.html#p9351

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Ryan Voight - 2015/02/22

3:23

With our students well prepared...

SUPERBLY prepared. Like this guy:

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had been. You just can't get any more well prepared than that.

Zero mention in the entire film of hook-in check, "control bar", "basetube", prone, pulling in, "turn", roll control, correction, "wheels"... THIS:

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the last clear frame before this segment, is the closest a hand ever gets to a basetube. Down from:

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where it was when we were "flying".

3:23

...it's time to take them to the slope and give them a taste of flight.

Whoopee. Aren't we lucky.

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3:28

This is the part that really puts the smile on their face and the make or break moment for hooking someone into the sport of hang gliding.

I've always been of the persuasion that anyone who belongs in the sport was hooked before age ten and the only thing that an "instructor" is capable of doing is turning him off by hitting him with the kinda total crap assholes like you do.

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3:36

If they're feeling safe...

...they're delusional and shouldn't be flying.

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3:38

...having a great time learning to fly...

The assumption being that the crap you're throwing at him is teaching him to fly. It's not. You're teaching him to be a mostly inert blob attached to a wing which is flying OK - as long as he doesn't do anything - until the moment when you shout the whipstall command.

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3:41

...and can see this is something they can do...

I can spend the next twenty years flying from the control tubes working on getting my flare timing perfected.

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3:43

...they'll be back for sure.

How's that working out? The sport is tanking and when you came onto the Jack Show spewing your rot about running straight to keep the wing autocorrecting roll in response to weight shift not a single one of your graduates from your decade and a half or whatever of teaching came to your defense.

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3:49

By following the flat ground progression...

THE flat ground progression being running in an arrow straight line in light smooth air with either a light touch or hands off while the glider does whatever autocorrection it sees fit and shoving the bar up to straight over your head. No turning, roll control practice allowed.

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3:51

...we were able to teach the skills necessary to launch, fly, and land a hang glider...

Oh good. Got the skills necessary to launch, fly, and land a hang glider. Cross that off the bucket list with enough of the afternoon left over to learn to launch, fly, and land a helicopter.

3:56

...with minimal risk to the student because their feet never left the ground.

And as long as they keep having their feet never leaving the ground (which they did...

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...actually) there will be continued minimal risk to the student. It's not until he gets off of real mountains in real air and gets turned back into one - 'cause nobody's taught him anything about control - that there's a problem potential.

Jerry's back. In front of starboard wheel.

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4:01

These tasks set the foundation that all following flight skills build upon.

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Jerry - just off of port wingtip shadow.

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What if we decided to go nuts and alter heading after launch? Or roll in a landing - in preparation for obtaining tandem qualification?

4:06

So it's important to spend time coaching students on each task until we witness several satisfactory executions.

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Say I'm standing on the edge of a cliff and am not 100.00 percent positive that I'm connected to my glider. Is there some skill I can learn such that I'm able to verify my connection without having to set the glider down and turn around and look?

4:14

A successful hang gliding instructor embraces the fundamentals of instruction by creating and maintaining a comfortable learning environment...

Jerry - southeast of starboard wheel.

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Define a successful instructor.

- Is Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt a successful instructor 'cause he got an Instructor of the Year Award for 2004 and not a total crap instructor 'cause one of his new Threes ran off a cliff without his glider the next year after always having been taught to never do a hook-in check?

- Do you know you're a successful instructor? How do you know that one or more of your graduates didn't break an arm five years down the road as a consequence of your having conditioned him to consider no landing option other than a whipstalled no stepper?

4:22

...by relating new tasks to their students' existing life experiences, and by following a progression for each new task built upon the previous one.

Are we one hundred percent positive we've established all the foundations necessary for advancement?

4:33

Giving accurate demonstrations and using simple yet precise teaching cues that appeal to your student's learning style will have them excelling in no time.

Excelling. Doing better than all the others. All the children are above average. Got any data to support that claim?

4:44

Remember to train your students only in appropriate conditions...

And never teach them anything that will be of any utility in the inappropriate conditions in which they'll need to fly in order have flights more rewarding than arrow straight upright sleds into Happy Acres putting green off of marginal training hills.

4:47

...and don't forget the priorities of a hang gliding instructor: safety...

Christian Thoreson - 2004/10

Thus wheel landings, the safest and easiest way to consistently land a hang glider...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28835
Why I don't paraglide

Tom Emery - 2013/04/17 14:29:12 UTC

Been flying Crestline about a year now. I've seen more bent aluminum than twisted risers. Every time another hang pounds in, Steven, the resident PG master, just rolls his eyes and says something like, "And you guys think hang gliding is safer."

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses

Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC

Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.

4:51

...fun...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27415
Friday the 19th with Hawks & Friends!

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.

4:52

...and learning...

2:46

If you teach them how to pull the glider with the harness they'll learn to steer the glider through weight shift simply by running toward their target.

4:53

...in that order.

A Simple Progression
for teaching hang gliding

Fundamentals of Instruction
- Safe and comfortable learning environment
- Relate new tasks to existing experiences
- Teach using a progression
- Give accurate demonstrations
- Simple, precise teaching cues

Train in appropriate conditions
Prioritize safety, fun, and learning

---
Edit - 2016/04/29 15:00:00 UTC

The post previously occupying this slot has been moved back to the bottom of the previous page at:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9343.html#p9343
See edit note regarding the shuffle.
---
Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post9350.html#p9350

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Frames representing the three sequences in the film in which wheels do NOT appear:

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But they're fuckin' obviously still below or above what we can see.

Here are all the examples of every and the only thing Fly High instruction is geared to teach:

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Eleven perfectly timed flares (including one rerun), zero to two steppers, most with some significant smooth air coming in. And no, you can't claim to be teaching foot launching or flying if you're not teaching roll control.

This is all Fly High wheels are used for:

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Pushing trainers back to takeoff position and mitigating the embarrassing flight terminations of below average dorks.

Meanwhile, out in the real world...

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That would have almost certainly ended up very unpleasantly were it not for the eight inch Finsterwalders. And don't tell me that a Fly High graduate would've never gotten into a situation like that in the first place.

Perfectly timed flares are used for showing off at the old Frisbee in the middle of the primary in benign conditions. In emergency situations experienced flyers are not gonna multiply the risk with perfectly timed flares. They’re gonna roll, skid, belly in still prone.

Nancy started and ended her career upright with her hands on the control tubes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Yesterday Brian picked up on some video details that I'd missed - as is very often the case - and suggested that the star of this show, THIS:

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guy, whom a less careful viewer such as myself would assume was a Fly High student with a pretty good aptitude for these things, is, in fact, Ryan Instant-Hands-Free-Release Voight himself. Brian noted that his clothing is the same as that of the camera drone pilot:

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whom I hadn't noticed or looked for before. And right down to the...

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...shoes ('specially if you use the URL for the full rez version in the head-on drone shot). And if ya go to Ryan's "Over the Top" aerobatics video:

http://vimeo.com/26210217
http://vimeo.com/26210217

we've got a good match for the face.

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Best supporting actor:

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That's Ninja Matt Hickerson - 16 percent of the film in-control-frame versus Ryan's 31.

And virtually certainly a one day shoot.

So:

- three instructors Ryan, Matt, and:

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who looks like he may have a bit o' difficulty getting himself airborne in the absence of a stiff breeze.

- two students:

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At Kitty Hawk it was one instructor to five "students". Well, call it two and a half to one 'cause Ryan's busy with the cameras.

So we know that - with all this intensive ground school and flats-running training and preparation that Ryan's advertising - the first actual training hill flight(s) was (were) no better than:

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for a minimum of half their students. This:

016-03115
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1464/26615010786_cfe9c05fd6_o.png


is as close to flying as we ever see Student Two getting. Only sequence in which he's actually hooked into a glider.

THIS:

3:23

With our students well prepared, it's time to take them to the slope and give them a taste of flight. This is the part that really puts the smile on their face and the make or break moment for hooking someone into the sport of hang gliding. If they're feeling safe, having a great time learning to fly, and can see this is something they can do, they'll be back for sure.

088-33018
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1613/26368273890_4ed3a4de9e_o.png

is misleading and disingenuous. It clearly implies that we're seeing one of their well prepared Day One students getting his first taste of flight, feeling safe, having a great time learning to fly, seeing that this is something that he can do - rather than a four and a half year Hang Five professional who's been heavily immersed in hang gliding since he was in diapers and has more time upside down than most Fours have right-side up.

But I digress...

The main point of this post is that Yours Truly - who has tons of time getting one-experience-only Outer Banks tourists successfully airborne and landed after no more prep than the twenty minute movie back at the shop and five minutes of in-the-field instruction at the top of the first-timer dune - PERCEIVED Ryan as nothing more than a student in great physical shape with good aptitude and two or three lessons under his belt.

There's no SKILL involved in anything Ryan's doing and demonstrating. I once had one or two class members take issue with me when I stressed how EASY this was. "Yeah. EASY for someone who does it all five days a week all day and summer long." I explained that all we're doing was running straight down a hill and letting the wing do what it wanted to - save for a little pulling in and easing out.

My dream student back then was a fifteen year old boy. They were always in good shape before the advent of video games, too stupid to be afraid of anything, and would follow instructions. I'd frequently comment after a second flight that I couldn't have done any better myself with a gun to my head.

That's how it should be. I'm pretty sure an observer on the ground isn't gonna be able to tell whether it's the new student or old instructor doing the control when a Cessna's getting airborne.

P.S. And I never once told a student how the glider could be weight shifted back from a roll by continuing to run a straight line and pulling with the harness or uttered a single word about the critical importance of maintaining a light touch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvhzoVC1UqM
Simple Progression for Teaching Hang Gliding

Thanks to Brian, we have now IDed the last of the players...

029-05622
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1461/26323478532_835cc44e51_o.png


...too:

http://www.facebook.com/ushginc/photos/pb.449355528608526.-2207520000.1461959691./455653844645361/?type=3&theater
(1) Had our first paid tandems today. Both really... - US Hang Gliding, Inc.

http://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/1426506_455653844645361_2819279225342632946_n.jpg?oh=82f6aed56193d3fd1c11627ae45a53c3&oe=57B5B786

http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1478/26451898100_bc8fff24a5_o.jpg

In uniform: William Estes - Bryon Estes - Alisa Almeyda - Matt MrNinja Hickerson - seventeen days prior to US Hang Gliding, Inc. making a good decision in the interest of the safety of Tomas Banevicius and welding a lid over the information flow.

http://flyhighhg.com/about-us/
About us | Fly High Hang Gliding

Paul Voight
Founder, Advanced Skills Instructor
- Advanced Instructor
- Tandem Instructor
- Towing Instructor
- Master rated pilot
- Wills Wing Specialist
- Observer
- Examiner
- Paragliding Instructor
- USHPA Regional Director
- Instructor Program Administrator
- Tandem Program Administrator
- Towing Program Administrator/supervisor


Ryan Voight
Owner, Flight School Manager, Intro and Advanced Instructor
- Certified Advanced Instructor
- Tandem Instructor
- Master Rated Pilot (youngest ever!)
- Wills Wing Specialist
- Observer
- Examiner
- Instructor Program Administrator


Matt Hickerson
Instructor, Ninja
(bio coming soon)

All save Matt, u$hPa Hang Gliding Instructors of Years: Paul - 2007, Bryon - 2010, Boychick - 2014. Maybe Matt - 2015. His bio's should be coming any day now. Stay tuned. Everybody's seen the video and are thus either totally on board with Boychick's claim that Matt can let go of the control tubes at this:

069-25104
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1572/26142964830_289bc3f2cb_o.png


point and the glider will continue rolling back level at an unimpeded rate in response to weight shift or totally OK with seeing deadly mis/dis-information being circulated from the highest authorities...

u$hPa Best Promotional Film Award, 2005 - Ryan Voight

...and saying and doing NOTHING. Controversy doesn't start erupting until after Boychick's 2016/04/13 16:12:11 UTC post in response to:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=34243
Fatal HG crash in Tres Pinos CA 4-3-2016

as the solution, getting a big:

2016/04/13 16:35:55 UTC - 3 thumbs up

from Christopher. And it's not any u$hPa players who call and press him on this rot to the point that he abruptly removes himself from public view and scrutiny.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=29984
What happened to the org?

Mike Lake - 2013/09/26 18:59:57 UTC

On the other hand there are plenty of people who fly lots but still manage to spew out the most incredible and dangerous garbage to others.

This includes some of the "professional" people who work in the industry and are therefore able to regard themselves as such.
They really believe they have a monopoly on knowledge and when finding themselves on the losing side of a debate resort to the old standby "This is what we do so fuck off you weekender".

I say good riddance to those nauseating, know it all, self indulgent "professionals" who have banished themselves from this site.