Take a look at: http://www.TowMeUp.com
and peruse the weaklink page on how to tie a weaklink. Sewing is by far the most accurate method, but tying the link in a consistent fashion produces a very reliable linek.
Yeah. Every bit as reliable as your spelling of it.
But if you really wanna get accurate hitting the number Stu pulled out of his ass - stick with sewing. DEFINITELY.
So Stuart... How come you're not telling us that with tied weak links you're getting plus or minus ten percent and with sewn your doing five? You HAVE actually test this - right?
Don't skimp on the line length.
Paying attention here, Lauren?
A weaklink tied from line that produces a breaking strength of 250 pounds will break at 250 pounds whether it is 2" long, 6" long, or a foot long. It SHOULD ALWAYS break at the knot if tied consistently (at the end of the stitching if sewn). Your weaklink will elongate substanitally before it breaks, and the longer link will stretch quite a bit before it blows. If your tow system doesn't wind in or pay out really smoothly, and tends to jerk, use a longer weaklink line.
Get fucked.
It has quite a bit more give before it blows (it works more line a slow blow fuse in an electrical circuit, where longer length equals longer time before reaching the overload that blows the fuse).
Get fucked.
The idea that a few inches of stretch in a GLIDER TOWING CONFIGURATION is gonna have a detectable effect of any kind is total bullshit.
Randomly tied weak link lengths produce sometime erratic results in the real world.
- What the fuck would YOU KNOW about the REAL WORLD?
- Exactly how did you determine that "randomly tied weak link lengths" produce sometime erratic results in the real world? Where's your data on this phenomenon?
- As opposed to the nice predictable results you get with your precisely tied Stewie Link lengths - always break to prevent a greater catastrophe, never break to precipitate a catastrophe.
- Put it back in your ass, Stewie.
To get consistent lengths, pound a couple nails in a board. Wrap your line around the nails and run a magic marker down the nail and cut the line with a heat gun between the nails. Use the marks to start the overlap and snug them up the same and your links will be remarkably consistent.
WOW!!! I'll bet that makes them remarkably suitable for your individual weak link needs.
Having links the same length allows you to stack links for greater strengths.
Why would ANYONE in his right mind want weak links of GREATER strengths?
They stretch the same amount so you will get consistent results this way.
Totally clueless bullshit.
- All lengthening an elastic weak link does is add elasticity to the system.
- You want as little elasticity in the system...
Stu Caruk - 2005/06/30 09:44:56 UTC
...we don't wan't anything to do with stretchy spongy springy towlines...
...as possible.
- Shocks in towing are totally imaginary "problems".
-- Low stretch towlines stretch - especially when you've got a thousand feet of it between the glider and what's pulling it.
-- Towlines sag due under gravity and bow with the wind.
-- Tension spikes from the upwind end are greatly dampened by reductions in sag and bow.
-- Gliders flex.
-- The air in which gliders are suspended is nothing BUT elastic.
-- If you hit the towline with a short spike in tension it responds with a short increase in climb rate.
- Slow blow fuse my ass. You hafta have the IQ of mildew to believe that crap.
- Make up your idiot mind, Stewie. Do you want the goddam thing to blow or not? If you do then make it short. If you don't then triple the fucking strength - and leave it short.
- Out in the REAL world in REAL aviation - asshole - sailplanes tow with Spectra towlines and sailplane specific Tost weak links about twice the rating you pulled outta your ass. And:
-- the Tost metal inserts have remarkably little in the way of slow blow fuse characteristics.
-- they don't:
--- use weak links to prevent greater catastrophes.
--- hafta baby their takeoffs to protect their Stewie Links from undue stress.
--- sit around in forums listening to semiliterate shitheaded self-appointed experts blathering on about issues WAY above their pay grades.
DON"T wrap several loops, or double them up because you will tend to get inconsistent results.
Instead of the nice reliable whipstalls you're getting with your Stewie Links.
If the link breaks consistently at other than the knot, you need to figure out why this is occurring. Almost always you will find a sharp edge on the quicklink you attach your weaklink to. If you are using a cheap plated quicklink, toss it away. The plating wears and creates a very sharp edge that will sever a link. Switch to a stainless steel quicklink.
And should somebody too stupid to figure that out on his own REALLY be towing anyway?
If you tow at the beach or around a salt environment look closely at your tow bridle. The closing loop has likely swollen to way more than it's normal size (suck on it if you want to check and don't believe me).
- Exactly how does sucking on it verify that it's swollen to way more than its normal size?
- No. I don't believe you. I've spent a lot of time on sailboats in salt water and I don't recall a lot of issues with changes in line diameter.
- And I'm wondering just how you concluded that this - if it had any validity - wouldn't be an equal issue in fresh water.
The salt water gets into the bridle, making the closing loops swell.
Yeah. Sure it does. It also makes the towline wind in to a lot larger diameter on your drum.
It also saws away at the weaklink during the tow, causing random breaking to occur.
- So in that case it's not failing at the knot or end of the stitching. It's failing where it's engaged by the release.
- Bullshit.
- And of course you otherwise never have your Stewie Links break randomly. They always and only break to prevent a greater catastrophe.
Sand causes a similar problem only it's not as bad.
Can you express that as a percentage?
If you bought a TowMeUp bridal, you are in luck.
Of course we are. We can barely contain our joy.
We designed ours...
Who's "we", Stuart? How big of an engineering team do you need to DESIGN a three-string release and tow bridle?
...with all stainless steel hardware near the release end so you can just soak it overnight in a bucket of water and rinse it out the next morning.
You need to soak it overnight to:
- rinse sand out of it?
- dissolve salt out of it?
This also makes the closing loops more subtle...
You mean like nuanced?
...like they were when new so your bridla still releases easily with light or no tow force applied to the line.
I thought that was the function of your Stewie Link.
If your weaklinks break at a consistent altitude, consider the possibility of either a shifting wind aloft, or a line dig on a Payout system.
Yeah, those are GREAT suggestions. The tow's going fine, you're not having any problems or feeling anything wrong, and the Stewie Link keeps blowing.
So check for shifting winds aloft and stay on the ground until they're safely dispersed - and avoid thermals like the plague 'cause they can cause high rates of climbs which threaten to precipitate the catastrophe of a Stewie Link failure.
And check with your winch guy to see if the line keeps digging in at the same point in the payout each time.
Once again the reason for weaklinks breaks can ONLY be from to much tension in the tow system.
Get fucked.
What we...
Who's "WE"? Can I get a list of names so I can tell people to avoid them - along with you - like the plague?
...need to do to improve towing safety is ensure that we can maintain a reasonable tension in the tow system and I guarantee you will see your random weak link breaks go away.
Get fucked. All we really need are assholes like you to go away.
If the weaklink breaks on launch, take a long hard look at the conditions.
Get fucked.
I'll bet you that it is almost always during light or no wind launches, and with tension applied before the pilot begins their inflation.
And I'll bet ten thousand bucks you're using a Stewie Link.
And I don't necessarily want the tow aborted on the call of a piece of string because everything isn't going perfectly. If I want to abort the fuckin' tow I'll abort the fuckin' tow myself.
And if my Stewie Link blows over something that minor it's a no brainer that it'll drop me like a brick if I get gusted at thirty feet.
All it takes now is a pilot who doesn't continue the inflation agressively enough to ensure the glider comes cleanly overhead, and a tech who adds a bit to much tension, too quickly to help out the pilot.
AND a Stewie Link.
The glider will launch, but not come overhead, the tow force increases to try to get a reasonable climb rate, the tow force becomes excessive and POW goes the weaklink.
- THANK GOD!!!
- We can't have tow techs increasing tension according their assessment to help pilots get reasonable climb rates. That would violate the mandate for safe towing that you pulled out of your ass which states that one use no more tension than is required to allow the pilot to climb to a safe altitude.
- Good thing we had that Stewie Link to keep us in (and get us off) line!
- 'Cause if people don't respect stuff you pull out of your ass it's virtually inevitable that they'll stop respecting your ass itself. And we all know what the next step in that progression will be.
- What happens immediately after the Stewie Link blows?
- What would happen if there were no weak link at all to make decisions for people in this scenario?
- Shithead.
It's consistent, predictable and more importantly it's PREVENTABLE.
Yeah, I know a good way to prevent it - asshole.
There's just no good reason to continue a towing practise that allows weaklinks to break on launch unless something really unforseen happens (pilot trips, line snags on log, etc).
Yeah.
- Pilots tripping on launch, lines snagging on logs, etc., are totally unforeseeable events.
- And the people on the ends of the line are totally incapable of dealing with pilots tripping on launch, lines snagging on logs, etc. without a Stewie Link in the system.
- And a Stewie Link is always a great bet to ensure happy outcomes in cases of pilots tripping on launch, lines snagging on logs, etc.
The technology exists to prevent needless problems, aand make towing safer, easier and more fun.
The technology - which, in this case, is to use a heavy enough piece of string to get the job done without breaking - has existed dating back at least as far as the appearance of Australopithecus. Unfortunately the intelligence to recognize and employ it was pretty much eliminated from the gene pool about a third of a century ago and things are rapidly accelerating to the south.
We just need to embrace it.
We just need to shut you up and get as many as possible of the people who are still capable of thinking to do it.
(O/K so that might be asking to much... how about we need to at least try it?)
Good idea. What else you got up your ass for us to weld to the pedestal?
A good method of quickly getting your CG forward once the dolly is released is to bend the knees and pull the legs forward. This keeps the base bar in a better position, avoiding having to fully stuff the bar one hundred percent right out of the gate.
If you need to stuff the bar one hundred percent right out of the gate you should probably...
- move the trim point a lot farther forward on your Condor's keel
- consider just how good an idea it is to tow your particular glider one point
- check to make sure you hooked up to the aircraft you intended to hook up to
- get a driver less of a total asshole than Rooney
Hopefully it goes without saying that the weak link needs to be stronger when the conditions are rough.
DEFINITELY. It becomes so much less necessary to protect yourself from lockouts, stalls, and structural failure in rough conditions.
We had six weaklink breaks in a row at Zapata this year.
I didn't hear this asshole using his usual excuses - rough conditions, incompetent pilots - for these Davis Links blowing six times in a row this time.
We couldn't figure out why we had so many breaks so quickly. Maybe just coincidence.
Probably coincidence was the big factor this time.
This "stronger weak link" idea is only a suggestion...
- STRONGER THAN *WHAT*? The one you just saw VAPORIZE on this motherfucker six inches off the cart?!?!?! DO YA THINK?
- I wouldn't worry about anybody getting hurt as a result of your SUGGESTION any time soon.
...assuming the pilot would like to shift the peak probability of weak link failure back toward levels at which he is more accustomed.
Yes.
Donnell Hewett - 1980/12
Now I've heard the argument that "Weak links always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation," and that "More people have been injured because of a weak link than saved by one."
Let's keep them so that they always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation - right at the precise level at which we're most accustomed.
It's easier to fly than attempt to write a "how to" manual - Much more fun too.
Especially when, after you've spent years writing the fuckin' manual, getting the theory solid, and triple checking ever goddam punctuation mark, everybody just totally ignores it or pisses all over it without bothering to read it, and keeps using standard aerotow weak links no matter how much carnage they see them 'causing decade after decade after decade because we've got a proven system that works.
Maybe keeping a pilot from wallowing in the mud in front of a dolly some day is worth our feeble attempts, as we bore the once 'exciting bits' audience to death.
Perhaps if you laid out the case re the tradeoffs involving weaklinks, we could make a better decision about them. For a couple of years I have flown with a doubled weaklink because, flying with a rigid wing glider, I have found that there is little reason to expect trouble on tow, except from a weaklink break. Am I wrong in this?
Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) said go ahead and double up (four strands of Cortland Greenspot).
But he's also figured out that he'd hafta admit that he and all his douchebag Quest, Ridgely, and Manquin friends are morons and everything Tad's been saying for the past zillion years has been spot on.
Jim Gaar - 2012/04/27 03:34:28 UTC
Sure it can bite you...
You can bite me - asshole.
Oh bullshit! The conditions and equipment change with each tow.
Yeah. Davis couldn't get more than six inches off the cart because the conditions and his Falcon and Lockout spinnaker shackle release suddenly changed.
We adapt and fly on, lesson learned each time.
Weak-links break! They are supposed to...we are ready for that. It's what we do.
One of the most dumbfoundingly stupid statements I've ever heard - even in hang gliding.
Do you ever fly? I'm sure you don't tow.
Why would anybody want to fly badly enough to associate with despicable malignant vegetables like you and Davis in order to be able to do it?
And while I think of it - Dennis Pagen... You can rot in hell for all eternity for enabling these bastards and destroying any hope of achieving what this sport could have been. Fuckin' useless goddam quack.
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.
It's astounding that he has that place so effectively intellectually castrated that he can post that video:
- with only one person ('sides Ridgerodent) posting a quarter way intelligent remark about the Sacred Davis Link; and
- get away with deleting posts critical of the use of the Sacred Davis Link.
Gawd I hope I live long enough to see a video of him snapping his fucking neck when one of those things blows under circumstances somewhat less ideal than that. Guess I'd settle for a broken arm if that's the best I could do though.
Probably the most important item in any tow system.
ABSOLUTELY, Stuart. Especially in the tow systems run by halfwitted incompetent douchebags who spend all their free time writing about the importance of weak links instead of developing releases that don't scare people shitless and can actually be operated in emergency situations.
Weak links are crucial tools for slimeball operators to use in convincing their customers that they'll be safe towing because anything bad that can happen on tow will be arrested before it can get started by a piece of fishing line which has been precisely calibrated to blow at some number the operator has pulled out of his ass.
A weak link acts like a fuse, in that it responds instantaneously to an overload condition in the tow system.
Or, if your operator is some shithead like Stuart Caruk, to the load required to keep the glider flying and not kill him as a result of a whipstall.
There are many things that can produce extreme and unplanned loads on the tow pilot.
Especially when you're flying at an operation run by assholes who don't know what the hell they're doing or talking about.
Some of the overloads we have seen include an overzealous tow operator, line dig or jamming of the towline, vehicles and boats running over the towline and dragging it away - with the pilot still attached, pilot entering a very strong thermal on tow.
Suggestions...
- Don't put overzealous assholes in positions in which they have the capability to kill competent pilots. Use people who are trained, qualified, competent, responsible, halfway intelligent, and sober.
- Control your operation enough that you don't have vehicles, boats, and stray buffalo running over the towline and dragging it away.
- If you CAN'T control your operation enough that you don't have vehicles, boats, and stray buffalo running over the towline and dragging it away abort the fucking tow BEFORE the towline gets hooked and dragged with some poor clown on the end with one of your shit releases praying for the weak link to blow - or hold.
- Decide whether a pilot entering a very strong thermal is a bad thing or a good thing. If it's a:
-- bad thing then don't tow in thermal conditions.
-- good thing then use equipment solid enough to allow the pilot to climb in it without dumping and killing him.
- If you get a line dig or jam slow the boat down and give the glider a chance to recover from the tail stand he's gonna be in.
Typically a weak link that breaks at 75% of your inflight load is desired.
- By whom?
- Why?
- Define "typically".
- What weak link is desired atypically?
- You're full of shit, Stuart - and I DO know blathering when I hear it.
(ie. If you, your gear, and glider weigh 300 pounds; you should use a weak link with a 225 pound breaking strength).
Thanks for doing the math for those of us who never made it through fourth grade.
Weak links are essential to prevent overloading your glider, as they limit the maximum force that can be exerted on it to 75% over your normal inflight load.
- Yeah shithead? So what do you have to limit the maximum force that can be exerted on your bagwing after the tow?
- So we're all good with seventy-five now are we? How come, motherfucker?
- If these goddam chintzy pieces of fishing line are so goddam essential to preventing overloading your glider...
Our operator reported doing three to five thousand tows per year for the last ten or so. He is not using weak links at all since year 2005 and says that the amount of accidents decreased a lot since then.
Ake Larsson - 2010/02/13 16:31:31 UTC
In the my part of the world (flatland Sweden) where you have to tow to get some airtime no one uses weaklinks, I believe it is the same in Finland. Even most of the beginner training is done on tow in Sweden and without a weaklink. Play the percentages, a weaklink might save you one serious accident in a hundred years but will give you a lot of smaller accidents when it breaks.
...how come in countries less choked with brain dead fundamentalist shitheads aren't even using two G weak links and are somehow able to get through entire weekends every now and then without ripping any gliders to shreds?
Some pilots feel towing causes severe stress or damage to their gliders.
- WHICH "pilots"?
- Do they CHECK their gliders for signs of severe stress or damage? Or do they just FEEL they've been severely stressed or damaged?
Our experience has shown that towing causes little noticeable wear...
What is it that's WEARING noticeably? For what should we be more carefully looking on our hang gliders and sailplanes?
...and frankly our gliders are exposed to 100% over their normal inflight load when we do a simple 60 degree banked turn.
So, frankly, how the hell are any of you bozos able to attribute ANYTHING to towing if you're only using three quarter G weak links and avoiding high banked turns on tow?
If it is unsafe for the glider to perform steep turns, you probably wouldn't want to be flying it anyway.
Fuckin' gliders are certified to half a dozen Gs. So why don't you at least double what you typically desire?
We are big fans of testing...
Too bad you're not big fans of THINKING. Then you'd have a clue what it is you're testing FOR.
...and virtually all of the products on this site are tested to failure to ensure they perform as designed.
- Except, of course, the gliders themselves - which we're assuming will disintegrate at two and a half Gs.
- And we've already established beyond any shadow of a doubt that...
Typically a weak link that breaks at 75% of your inflight load is desired.
...typically a weak link that breaks at 75% of your inflight load is desired so we know EXACTLY what performance we're looking for.
We do a combination of computer modeling using a finite element analysis program to predict loads in areas of stress, and destructive testing using load cells and strain gauge testers.
Just think of all the advances that could be made if someone WITH a functional brain had access to that stuff.
A weak link is useless...
Think of all the sentences which could be formed with that as a beginning. Works pretty well as a standalone, for that matter.
...if you don't know what strength it breaks at in a predictable manner.
How predictable is the response of the glider when a weak link blows at precisely 0.75 Gs - asshole?
We use only Dacron or Polyester weaklink line specially manufactured for us to our specifications and each batch of line is tested to verify its actual breaking strength.
Shouldn't you be using nylon to get a better slow blow fuse effect?
We are big fans of sewn weak links, since they break in a very predictable manner at the rated strength of the line used to make the link.
You're also a big fan of 0.75 G weak links - so who gives a rat's ass about anything else of which you're big fans? Why don't you list some of the stuff you DON'T like so we can give it some serious thought?
Sewn weak links are offered in a wide range of breaking strengths.
So regardless of your flying weight you should be able to get within five percent of the three quarter G weak link which is typically desired.
These are the ultimate in ease of use since they don't require any fiddling to tie...
Right. It's just so much easier to stitch a weak link that it is to make a loop by tying a Fisherman's Knot.
...and you know exactly what load they will break at.
So, obviously, you can predict EXACTLY what the glider will do after it blows.
We also carry a wide range of Calibrated weak link line with instructions to tie them so they break in a predictable fashion at a predetermined load.
Yeah. Use a Grapevine Knot - instead of the Fisherman's everybody uses in hang gliding - because the predictability is so much better and they're way less likely to come undone.
We have even added a page to show you how to build your own Weaklink tester to calibrate the breaking strength of your own links for around $100 from readily available materials.
Why don't you carry a wide range of components for assembling and calibrating hand grenades of a range of explosive powers with instructions on how to put them together so the pin comes out with a light, predictable pull and tell people that they're used to keep them safe in any situation they may encounter?
'Cause you're doing a milder version of the same thing. But it's not so mild that you can't - and haven't - killed people reading and believing this crap just as dead as you could with the do-it-yourself grenades.
Weak links are one of the most important safety features that can be applied to tow launched flight.
Get fucked.
There are arguments for and against their use...
Yeah.
Donnell Hewett - 1980/12
Now I've heard the argument that "Weak links always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation," and that "More people have been injured because of a weak link than saved by one."
But we'll just ignore the ones against 'cause we've already established that:
- Weak links are one of the most important safety features that can be applied to tow launched flight.
- Typically a weak link that breaks at 75% of your inflight load is desired.
...but the most compelling arguments are for their obvious safety benefit.
In The Netherlands only static winches are used. Every now and then the cable breaks. This is no problem when you're fifty meters high, but below that a cable or weak link break can be disastrous. The worst we had was somebody breaking his neck after a cable failure at twenty meters.
This summer I had another cable break at fifteen meters when I was up with passenger on the tandem. Catching the surge on a tandem is hard work and seeing the ground coming at you with a passenger isn't very nice.
Right.
A weaklink acts primarily as a safety fuse to prevent overloads from being applied to the towed pilot.
Yeah, we sure wouldn't want the pilot to have his arms or legs ripped off from all that tow tension.
Under ideal circumstances, the tow operator could foresee every possible development that could occur and react instantaneously to prevent any type of overload from occurring.
- Any type of overload having been defined as 1.75 Gs - the equivalent of a 55 degree coordinated turn. Idiot.
- Fuck the tow operator. How long should it take the goddam pilot to react to something that you assholes can't manage to FORESEE? How much trouble is it to do the engineering to put something in the pilot's hand or teeth that he can use to blow tow in a heartbeat?
And lemme tell ya sumpin' else, motherfucker...
- In good soaring conditions - which are the WORST IMAGINABLE towing circumstances - competent operators and pilots HAVE foreseen every possible development that could occur.
- And they've equipped, trained, and practiced so they can prevent them when possible and react to them in a heartbeat when not and not hafta slam something in waiting for the fucking weak link to blow the way you weak-link-is-the-focal-point-of-a-safe-towing-system shitheads are always talking about.
- And the single most dangerous possible development that could occur...
Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
...is some asshole putting a three quarter G piece of fishing line between the towline and the glider.
The real world doesn't work that way.
Certainly not your real world, Stuart. Something of which I want absolutely no part.
Lines jam, skip off pulleys, get run over by other vehicles or animals, tension control systems fail, operators and pilots alike make mistakes, and meteorological conditions conspire to occasionally overload the system.
Yeah, you said all that crap before, Stewie. Seems like this shit is par for the course at ToMeUp.com. Got any good videos or Darwin Award nominees?
A properly designed weaklink will blow out before any excessive forces can be transmitted to the pilot or their glider.
- Right. The tension is being transmitted to the pilot OR "their" glider - never both. Or all three.
- It actually WILL, Stewie. The problems are that the pilot may be dead:
-- by the time it does; or
-- because it does.
Most reliable sources believe that a weaklink should be sized so that it breaks at 75% to 100% of the inflight load.
MOST reliable sources BELIEVE that a weak link should be sized so that it breaks at 75 to 100 percent of the inflight load?
- Meaning that you, yourself, are NOT a reliable source. Thank you SO VERY MUCH for clarifying that issue, Stewie.
- Define "MOST". Fifty-one percent? Are the other forty-nine worth listening to? Or should we just ignore what they have to say because we're operating in democratic opinion based aviation?
- What qualifies a source to be defined as reliable?
- If he believes that a weak link should be sized so that it breaks at 75 to 100 percent of the inflight load does that make him a reliable source?
- Are there any reliable sources who believe that the weak link should be:
-- under three quarters of a G?
-- over one G?
I tow a Nova Triton. When I wrote to Nova to ask their advice, their research team told me to use two hundred kilograms to protect myself from accidental breaks.
- Is a glider manufacturer who tells you to use a one and three quarter G weak link to protect the GLIDER from OVERLOADING *AND* the PILOT from a potentially lethal LOSS OF TOW TENSION a more reliable source than some fucking moron who believes that a weak link should be sized so that it breaks at 75 to 100 percent of the inflight load?
I would like to add, however, that at least my reading of accident reports suggest that a fatal glider accident is more likely when the towline fails prematurely. For that reason, I like to stay near the stronger end of the FAR 80 to 200 percent range.
Actually, reading the Pilot's Operating Handbook for several German gliders, I note the weak link for aerotow is specified as an exact figure. For example, the weak link for both aero tow and winch for my Nimbus 2C is specified as 600 KG (1323 Lbs) or a blue Tost weak link. The tolerance is plus or minus 10 percent. The US Airworthiness Certificate specifies that the Nimbus 2C is to be flown as specified in the POH. Considering the possible flying weights, this ranges between 95 and 160 percent which is a narrower range than specified in the FARs.
Makes me wonder if we should be using Tost weak links instead of old bits of rope.
- Is a sailplane manufacturer who typically desires a weak link twice what most reliable sources typically desire a reliable source?
- Upon what is the BELIEF system of a reliable source based?
- What do these reliable sources believe about evolution, global warming, Newtonian physics, and the Holocaust?
- Who are some of these reliable sources? Shouldn't we be hearing directly from them telling us about their belief systems instead of listening to some third party shithead in Ridgefield, Washington who can't figure out how to keep his lines from skipping off pulleys, getting run over by other vehicles or animals, train competent operators and pilots, and safely assess meteorological conditions before throwing people into them?
- What's the highest value a reliable sources believes that a weak link should be sized?
Our operator reported doing three to five thousand tows per year for the last ten or so. He is not using weak links at all since year 2005 and says that the amount of accidents decreased a lot since then.
Reliable or unreliable sources?
Light pilots need weaklinks that break with a lower force than heavy solo or tandem pilots.
Good pilots and operations don't NEED weak links at all, Stewie. They have them but they don't use them - EVER.
Wrapping a shoelace and tying a knot is perhaps better than nothing...
Yeah. Just as long as you have SOMETHING in the system that breaks...
Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
...you're gonna be way ahead of the game.
...but very few pilots actually have any idea at what force their links will break.
But they're all pretty much on the same page with...
Donnell Hewett - 1980/12
Now I've heard the argument that "Weak links always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation," and that "More people have been injured because of a weak link than saved by one."
My issue with weak links is that they typically fail at the worst possible moment. I don't tow with a lot of pressure down low, but on tow you are anchored to a system with some inertia (not the same as free flying). It is not that hard to be pitched up relatively steeply by a sharp gust.
Cragin Shelton - 2001/08/08
NEVER TRUST A WEAK LINK!
Expect two things from your weak link:
(1) It will break unexpectedly at the most inopportune time, with no warning adn no indicaiton of a flight problem.
(2) It will hold strong and fast whenever you move into a lockout.
My father reports a weak link failure at thirty feet that had him surge into the ground from exactly the most dangerous altitude possible for his glider's surge tendencies. Only his timely brake input and perfectly executed forward tumble prevented serious injury. His tow was proceeding perfectly until the weak link failure nearly caused significant injury.
...WHEN their links will break.
Tying a weaklink has always been the way most people get by.
Get by WHAT, Stuart?
Most reliable sources believe that a weaklink should be sized so that it breaks at 75% to 100% of the inflight load.
The desire for a weak link that typically breaks at 75% of your inflight load?
Pilots 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.
The flock of total shitheads controlling the operation and trying to use weak links to compensate for the shit tow equipment they're using?
But when you take some 200 pound test line and tie a knot, at what force does the link break? Different knots, how the knot is tied, and even the length of the line used to tie the knot greatly affect how the link will break.
Who gives a rat's ass?
Donnell Hewett - 1980/12
Now I've heard the argument that "Weak links always break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation," and that "More people have been injured because of a weak link than saved by one."
- It's gonna break at the worst possible time, when the glider is climbing hard in a near stall situation.
Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
- And things are gonna be ugly for a while after it does.
So you better make goddam sure that you don't:
- use a weak link that blows before your glider starts getting stressed; and
- get into or allow some asshole to put you into a situation in which your glider starts getting stressed unless you're high enough to recover from what happens next or get a parachute open.
