First flight on Sport 2
This isn't somebody you really wanna be talking to, Jesse.Red Howard - 2012/09/29 01:10:25 UTC
Well, okay, you got away with it. Got a minute? We need to talk.
Stop guessing at stuff, Red. This is total bullshit. If the former owner hooked in at 250 and trimmed three miles per hour over stall and Jesse hooked in at 150 he would also be three miles per hour over stall. The only thing different would be that Jesse would stall at a lower speed.If the glider was not flying at a good trim speed, hands-off, I would guess that the former owner was not the same weight as you...
What was grounds for canceling that flight was failure to execute anything resembling a hook-in check and if you're not addressing that issue above anything and everything else you're just wasting bandwidth....or that the ribs do not match the rib pattern for that glider. Either possibility would be grounds for cancelling the mountain flight.
Bullshit.Mid-air is no place for guesswork and unfounded optimism.
- It's a certified glider.
- It didn't kill the previous owner on the previous flight at the same trim setting.
- The glider was supposed to have been preflighted before Jesse left the slope.
- He didn't have any problems really worth mentioning.
- Statistically what you're talking about is a total nonissue.
Here's what he says, red:You were experienced enough to realize the problem (bad trim speed), and deal with it, but a more serious version of such a problem may have gone very differently.
MAYBE it actually is trimmed too slow. Big fuckin' deal.Maybe it actually is trimmed too slow...
Yep. No question whatsoever. I got the worst injury - launch or landing - of my hang gliding career just off the left edge of that slot.Launching from a slot is about the most challenging launch that I know...
Short of NOTHING. As long as you and your crew know how to handle a cliff launch there's little you can do from foot that's much safer or easier....short of cliff launching.
Fuck that. It's a Hang Two with sponsor site, he's a Hang Three, and - aside from his omission of the hook-in check - there's nothing at all wrong with his launch. And much better that he omit the hook-in check at Woodstock than at Daniels, McConnellsburg, or High Rock.The choice of this launch site was NOT a good, conservative choice.
How very odd. I'm having a hard time remembering showing up at Woodstock in light sled conditions and feeling fortunate.Fortunately, the winds were light...
And what if he had? What indication has he given you that he wouldn't have been able to handle it? He's a goddam Hang Three and a goddam Hang Three is supposed to be able to handle moderate soaring conditions and 25 mile per hour winds. And 25 mile per hour winds are about as much as you want at Woodstock anyway. At 25 and over, flying at Woodstock tends to degenerate into an exercise in parking two thousand feet over the ridge....and you did not need to command a serious turn or heavy correction right after launch.
Bullshit. If the air is straight in any dork can get out of that slot no problem. And if it's cross and rolling into the slot it can get real exciting for the spectators no matter who's flying what.Please re-read the first sentence, here. In any winds, you would have been faced with a challenging launch on an unfamiliar glider.
Stuff it. THE deadly mistake that was made here was that he and everybody else on launch ASSUMED that he WAS clipped in at 0:08. The same deadly mistake that Bill Priday and everyone within sight of the Whitwell launch made on 2005/10/01 (seven years ago tomorrow). And I hold the guy under Jesse's right wing highly culpable for that one.This situation could have ended very badly, and no matter how badly it ended, the deadly mistake was made before you clipped in. A very poor decision was made there. All after that would be useless details.
- Define an "expert pilot".IF you had some expert pilot (who weighs exactly the same as you do) test-fly the glider, and pronounce it straight and trim, then maybe your choice was marginally acceptable, but only in the little or no winds that you had then.
- How much of an "expert pilot" does one hafta be to determine that a glider's flying straight and trim? Tell me why a good Hang One can't do this just as well as a Hang Five.
- Jesse's...
...plenty enough of an expert to pronounce it straight and...The glider tracks straight...
...he's OK on the trim.Maybe it actually is trimmed too slow...
- You're totally full of shit on this one. Shut up.
- A bit of a breeze would've made that launch one helluva lot easier and safer.A bit of a breeze would still have scrubbed the flight, if you had asked me.
- I did a no-winder out of there one time and had every weed top almost to the bottom of the slot ringing my basetube. I was ready to eat tree but at near the end developed the speed I needed to get out of there. But that was the last time I even thought about a no-winder at Woodstock.
- Nobody asked you.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176I realize, there are always the considerations of what sites are available, time and travel distances, convenience, etc. None of these details would mean much, though, had you come awake in a hospital bed.
Paragliding Collapses
Having his hands on the downtubes when his glider stopped was the thing that came appreciably close to putting him in a hospital bed. So why don't you talk about that?Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC
Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.
This guy is not your friend, Jesse. He's totally fuckin' clueless on threat prioritization.This is serious stuff, my friend.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=27141Mistakes can cost far more than the repair bills for the glider and your body.
an early end to my flying season
14-00725
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3859/14423696873_f1326e2320_o.png
When you thought Allen had torn his rotator cuff I didn't hear you making any suggestions on the best ways not to tear his rotator cuff - just on how best to get it fixed. Is that 'cause he's a Four and has been flying since the mid Seventies?
You wouldn't know what a REAL mistake was if it bit you in the ass. If you had that ability you'd have talked to Don Arsenault and told him not to trust Mike Robertson an inch's worth.This is the largest mistake I ever hope to see you make. Please do not repeat it.
- Name one.If you would take a bit of advice here, it would be great if you can hold off selling the Falcon for a while, and be a guy with two gliders. You will soon face conditions or sites that would be no challenge for your friendly Falcon, but an unknown level of risk on a glider that you have little airtime with.
- Can ya maybe think of any circumstances it which his friendly Falcon might be a whole lot more dangerous to fly than a double surface Sport 2 with a VG cord?
On 2007/04/29 USHGA Accident Review Committee Chairman Joe Gregor took his wife's Falcon 195 to Woodstock 'cause he was keeping his Talon at Ridgely. He launched in ten but after about twenty minutes found himself going backwards and had to lock his arms to creep back out.
At his creep rate his only option was the primary and a really nasty thermal arrived at it at the same time he did.
He ended up with two broken arms he wouldn't have had had he been on the fuckin' Sport 2.
He's very happy...I believe you would be very happy then to fly the Falcon...
Turns are fun! It's awesome how the glider just hangs in the banked turn without much effort.
...flying the Sport 2 right now.Boy it has a lot more glide!
Leave him the hell alone while he gets wired into it. And after five or ten minutes on a fair northwest day at Woodstock he'll be wired into it....and hold the new glider in reserve for the friendliest of sites, and the best of conditions.
If he gets fucked up it won't be because he was flying the Sport versus the Falcon. It'll be because he:When you have good experience on the new glider, then it will (or may) be time to sell the Falcon. For myself, I recently bought a Falcon 3, for those days (or sites) when my double-surfaced glider gives no worthwhile advantages.
- lost control of his glider moving his hands to and/or had his hands on the downtubes for a stupid standup landing
- blew the flare timing for a stupid standup landing
- had a standard aerotow weak link increase the safety of the towing operation at Ridgely or Manquin
Bullshit.If you need to make changes in the ribs to make them match the rib pattern, please do not test-fly the glider on any hill where you will be higher than you would care to fall.
- His glider's flying straight. If they're symmetrical and he matches them to the pattern his glider will still be flying straight.
- Nobody's ever crashed a glider due to a batten adjustment.
He's already been to as high a site as any in the area and didn't do much worse than most of the local bozos - and a lot better than some.Once the glider is set to specs, and you have good confidence in the results, then go to the higher sites.
Leave it at the best wishes. Can the advice.Best wishes.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=20991
coated vs uncoated wires
And don't even think about telling him to ignore the most important element of the preflight inspection specified in his owner's manual.Red Howard - 2011/02/22 06:50:21 UTC
I do not recommend "stepping" on a cable (I assume you mean in mid-span) as part of a preflight. If your foot hits the ground with the cable underneath, or sand or rocks are trapped in your shoe treads, you could damage the cable that you are testing.