http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30048
I launched with my harness UNBUCKLED
Greg Porter - 2013/10/04 15:11:07 UTC
You will find that when you set the nose cone initially (I do it with full VG during pre-flight) that you will have to drape the card's string so that when you stow the card just before launching you don't have to un-velcro the nose cone to cleanly get all the string back into the cone. You'll see what I mean when you do it the first time. The goal is to NOT un-velcro the nose cone itself once it was set in the right position for full VG.
If I did it again, I wouldn't use the hard plastic card. It's pretty thick. Just laminating cheap printed out paper with clear packing tape on both sides would do the same... add the self stick velcro and you are good to go - it's cheaper, easier to update, thinner, and therefore slides even more easily under the nose cone.
Really good point about the aerotowing angle. I will have to think about that. If you come up with something please post it here. Am towing tomorrow so will chew on it a bit. Thanks!
A few points on this bullshit...
There are THREE THINGS valuable in preventing unsecured launches:
- preflight - carabiner closed over loop, leg loops
- fear / assumption of not being hooked in and secure
- hook-in check as the initial action in the launch sequence
Make that four things. Add:
- a competent pilot community that understands the issue and ensures that proper procedures are adhered to
Fuck, make it three. That last one - thanks entirely to Industry social engineering and total idiots such as yourself - will NEVER HAPPEN.
Anything less, other, more WILL increase the frequency of unsecured launches.
- hang checks
- Aussie Methodism
- checklists
- gadgets
Competent pilots don't use checklists for anything that matters on hang glider systems 'cause:
- hang gliders are too simple to require checklists
- it's easier, faster, more efficient, more effective, safer to just look at and check the fuckin' glider than it is to look at a checklist and then reference the designated issues
- sometimes you can get an issue like the Aeros Combat carbon crossbar that dwarfs all others and can't be detected during a preflight inspection - with or without a printed checklist
Here's your setup area preflight checklist from your video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3UbztgTtsc
I Launched Without Buckling into my Harness - a hang gliding film by Greg Porter
Preflight Checklist
Not attached to anything
Laminated (clear packing tape works good)
Column 1
Wing Camera
Hang Cord dangling
- Extra Battery ON
- Batt Cable connected
- Remote Cable connected
- Remote Start/Stop Test
Down Tube Camera
Glider:
- Lower Battens
- Sprog zippers
- Full VG
-- Nose Cone
-- Guy wire connections
-- Leading Edge check
-- Tip Velcros flat
-- Battens locked
- Center main sail zipper closed
Vario and PITOT tube
Streamer
Bar Mitts
I-Phone pocket
Wallet
Vehicle Prep
- Magnetic Antenna
- Car Radio
- Hand Mic/Spkr
- Correct channel
- Keypad Locked
Portable Radio
- Correct Channel
- Keypad locked
Truck key hidden
Column 2
Harness Prep
- O2
-- Tank ON
-- Test O2 system
-- Computer 10K
Smoke Bomb
Water
Protein bar
GPS
Power Bank
- I-Phone charging cable
Red recharger
Extra Radio battery
Android Phone
Chute pins
Drogue chute ready
Storage bags stowed
Hat stowed
Radio ON
Sunglasses
Towing
- Wheels
- Harness
-- Bridle attached
-- Weak link on right (release left)
-- Weak link check/replace
Here it is edited down to shit that actually matters and isn't blindly obvious:
Preflight Checklist
Guy wire connections
Leading Edge check
Chute pins
Replace the parachute pins with short thick cord sections which stay put and you're down to:
Preflight Checklist
Guy wire connections
Leading Edge check
Out in the real world - we don't have non aerobatic leading edge failures.
Preflight Checklist
Guy wire connections
Here's the most important critical preflight check you can run on ANY glider:
While pushing up on the leading edge between the nose and the crossbar junction, step on the bottom side wire with about 75 (50 for topless) pounds of force. This is a rough field test of the structural security of the side wire loop, the control bar and the crossbar, and may reveal a major structural defect that could cause an in-flight failure in normal operation.
It's in ALL of the Wills Wing owner's manuals, all you fly is Wills Wing gliders, and it's not on your checklist and you don't do it - probably 'cause if you did do it you might not have enough time left over for the "Remote Start/Stop Test" for your starboard wing camera.
And I one hundred percent guarantee you that, given enough monkeys, typewriters, time...
You will find that when you set the nose cone initially (I do it with full VG during pre-flight) that you will have to drape the card's string so that when you stow the card just before launching you don't have to un-velcro the nose cone to cleanly get all the string back into the cone. You'll see what I mean when you do it the first time. The goal is to NOT un-velcro the nose cone itself once it was set in the right position for full VG.
That fuckin' card of yours will be left or fall out of the nose cone, the "pilot" will unhook - either on approach to or at launch - to secure it and...
Steve Kinsley - 1998/05/01 01:16
So Marc thinks the Australian method will forever ban human error and stupidity. I suspect that 80% of the flying community would have unhooked to fix the radio problem instead of getting out of the harness entirely. It is easier. And there you are back in the soup.
"With EACH flight, demonstrates method of establishing that pilot is hooked in JUST PRIOR to launch." Emphasis in original.-- USHGA novice through advanced requirement.
I know of only three people that actually do this. I am one of them. I am sure there are more but not a lot more. Instead we appear to favor ever more complex (and irrelevant) hang checks or schemes like Marc advocates that possibly increase rather than decrease the risk of hook in failure.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1167
The way it outa be
Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/04 14:04:25 UTC
One last attempt.
We have now rounded up all the usual suspects and promised renewed vigilance, nine page checklists, hang checks every six feet, et cetera. Bob Gillisse redux.
Glad it helped.
