You are NEVER hooked in.

General discussion about the sport of hang gliding
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
Tormod Helgesen - 2015/06/29 19:31:05 UTC

Hei Heli1: Kutt den linken til Tad er du snill, fyren er splitter pine gal.
Yeah Jan, get rid of that Tad-O-Linken and linken to a good solid Mike Robertson, Pete Lehmann, Joe Greblo, Bob Kuczewski, Joe Gregor, Jack Axaopoulos, Mark G. Forbes, Davis Dead-On Straub, Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt, Cragin Shelton, Paul Ryan Voight, Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney, Quinn Cornwell, Martin Apopot, Martin Henry, Tormod Helgesen article un the unhooked launch issue.
NMERider - 2015/06/29 19:45:14 UTC

Jan,

There is nothing wrong with your English. You and I plus a handful of others all understand the importance of treating our gliders like we are unhooked.
Quote me somebody ever saying anything like that before I did:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13132
Unhooked Death Again - Change our Methods Now?
2008/10/11 22:16:23 UTC
When pilots get too far into their habits and rituals...
On Day One in any training program you wanna name.
...they become accustomed to treating their gliders as though they are hooked-in.
Just as they're taught.
By telling ourselves we are unhooked any time we lift our gliders then by nature we are going to do something about it before we commit to flight. But inevitably there will be interference to the sequence of events between the time we connect our bodies to our gliders and the moment that we launch.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
If we do a simple hook-in check right before we commit to launch...
Or, what the fuck, WHILE we're committing to it. Contrary to popular belief launching with a tight strap in light air is survivable at least three out of five times and in strong air everybody does it anyway.
...then the likelihood of falling free or crashing while holding on to the base-bar is minimized.
If you've done an adequate preflight - maybe three seconds worth on the relevant issues - it's totally eliminated. Cite a contradictory incident.
The most effective hook-in technique I know of is the simple lift and tug. It tells us that our harness is connected and our legs are in our leg loops all in one simple action.
Or no action if you just let the glider float up in adequate air.
By telling ourselves we are always unhooked it is like telling ourselves that the gun we are handling is always loaded. This way we avoid pointing a loaded gun at ourselves or another accidentally. If we verify that the chamber is in fact empty immediately before handling that is a different story.
You verify that the chamber is empty by aiming at the ground and pulling the trigger. If you haven't done that within the past two seconds you don't aim it at your head and pull the trigger.
If we verify we are in fact connected to our glider and leg loops immediately before launching that puts all...
...previous...
...interference and distraction behind us.

The reason I connect my harness to my glider before getting in is so that I can visually inspect the lines and risers for crosses, tangles, twists and other anomalies. I don't do it to insure I'm hooked in before I launch. I use the Rob Kells lift and tug hook-in check...
Neither Rob nor T** at K*** S****** deserve to have that check connected with his name.
...for that within a few seconds of the moment I commit.

You did a great job with your PSA video and I hope pilots share it among themselves so that others may benefit.
The fuckin' Aussie Methodist fanatics have vigilante enforcement gangs to force everybody to fall in line with their particular concept of Allah - and that's not even on anyone's books. What's stopping hook-in checkers to do something similar? Something that's been on the US books since 1981/08?

The aerotow industry thugs forced pretty much everyone on the planet to incorporate a totally deadly safety device as the focal point of their safe towing systems - commonly in violation of FAA regulations - for DECADES. How come there are ZERO footlaunch flying sites on the planet at which hook-in checks are absolutely mandatory with really nasty consequences for the assholes who ARE hooked in as well as the normal nasty consequences for the one's who aren't?

"I didn't wanna raise my wing into the turbulent jet stream!"
"Tough shit. Six month suspension, five hundred dollar contribution to the Pilot Education Fund... NEXT."
If it prevents just one injury accident or fatality in the span of ten years it was worth all the effort that went into it.
And why would anybody who had a friend he gave half a flying fuck about tolerate him skipping hook-in checks? How are you gonna feel watching Bill Priday's Sport 2 reappear above launch without him knowing that you hadn't gone to the hilt getting him compliant?

This can't just be a suggestion that individual flyers decide to accept or ignore if it's gonna have any measurable impact.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Jan - 2015/06/29 19:48:18 UTC

Hei Tormod.
Linken er ikke til Tad, selv om han har skrevet innholdet.
Jeg bryr meg ikke om hvem som har formulert det, det kan redde liv,og det blir nok værende.
Ha en fin dag Image
Jan

(Short: The link is not to Tad's site, even if he wrote it.It can save lives, and will not be removed
Have a nice day
Jan)
C'mon Tormod. Try harder. This is your big chance to finally make an actual positive contribution to the sport.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
Jason Boehm - 2015/06/29 19:52:29 UTC

The lift and tug was taught to me as a H1 back in 2000 or so, and has served me well for 15 years.......it just becomes habit....its easy

Neither of these are "staged demonstrations"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9PbkiqWCNs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3zBgJWHNPc


if its blowing hard enough I'll take a knee and its very noticeable whether I'm hooked in or not,
The lift and tug was taught to me...
By whom? Pretty safe bet that it wasn't a u$hPa instructor 'cause we don't have one shred of evidence that a u$hPa instructor has ever taught this as a hook-in check.

How come you're not naming him? Where's he been during the unhooked launch postmortem discussions and giving covering fire during the regularly scheduled Tad bashings?
...as a H1...
Oh. You got taught this as a Hang One. Like at a rifle range where they start teaching you that the gun is always loaded after you start getting reasonably good and consistent target groupings. What the fuck, you'd already been taught how to use the hang check to prevent unhooked launches before you were ever allowed to start running the trainer down the hill.
...back in 2000 or so, and has served me well for 15 years...
Really? How many times have you lifted the glider and not felt a tug at all or on your leg loops?

ANYBODY who hasn't failed to hook in or missed his leg loops in the course of his career to date can claim that ANY procedure or practice has "served him well". Davis has had HUNDREDS of flights in which the bent pin crap he passes off for a release system has served him well.
...it just becomes habit...
Yeah. It does. I've never needed it to though, 'cause I've never stopped being afraid of launching unhooked.
...its easy
Almost as easy as spelling "it's". So how do you deal with the false sense of security Tom Galvin assures us it gives?
Neither of these are "staged demonstrations"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9PbkiqWCNs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3zBgJWHNPc


if its blowing hard enough I'll take a knee and its very noticeable whether I'm hooked in or not,
Must give you a lot of piece of mind to know that you're hooked in and have your leg loops at that point.

Nice post. Nothing to add about what an insane sociopathic pervert T** at K*** S****** is?
2015/06/29 20:13 UTC - 3 thumbs up - NMERider
I'd just give him two. Didn't say anything about what an insane sociopathic pervert T** at K*** S****** is.
NMERider - 2015/06/29 20:13:58 UTC

This would be a good time to revisit this recent thread:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31781
Another hang check lesson
When ISN'T it a good time to revisit that thread?

Pity the author of the classic essay which Alan Deikman calls "the gun is always loaded" and one of the major contributors - the last one in fact - are both banned. But... They broke the clearly stated Jack Show rules so Jack really had no other choice.
Bill Jennings - 2015/06/29 20:16:15 UTC

Excellent thread, I've been doing both a hang check and hook in check before flight...
No you haven't. Anything you do prior to a couple seconds prior to launch is a preflight check.
...but had never heard of lift and tug.
Doesn't Lockout Mountain Flight Park do a GREAT JOB getting its students properly checked out for the three main launches - Lockout, Henson, Whitwell - in that neck of the woods?
I will be adding it to my routine just before I launch. Three checks better than two.
Yeah...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550
Failure to hook in.
Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC

What's more, I believe that all hooked-in checks prior to the last one before takeoff are a waste of time, not to say dangerous, because they build a sense of security which should not be built more than one instant before commitment to flight.
Right.

Oh well, hopefully you've got enough in the way of brains to start getting this concept after few launches on a couple of your local escarpments.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
Brian Scharp - 2015/07/01 16:20:59 UTC
spark wrote:a hook-in check, and a wheel landing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiguowRGw9I
Guess we can't say WHERE spark wrote that if we don't wanna get banned.

http://www.kitestrings.org/post7674.html#p7674
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33072
A thread to chronicle my training.
Robert Kesselring - 2015/07/09 03:09:47 UTC
West Virginia

Day 12
Did my first high altitude solo flight today, so I'm pretty excited about that. Image

Showed up at launch about 7:30, it was pretty windy. Texted the instructor and told him it did not look flyable but he said he'd come up anyway since it may calm down. We hung out until 10 or so and it wasn't looking any better so we decided to try again in the evening air.

Came back up to launch about 5, still windy. Came back at 6, still windy, but maybe not quite so bad. By 7 it was definitely calmer and we decided we were going to launch. 2 other people and I were all setting up gliders. 1 of them was also a newb like me, getting ready for his first mountain flight, the other was an experienced pilot. I was set to go first and got up on the launch ramp and at that moment things got extremely real. I knew that once I got into the air I would be fine, but the slope of the launch is very different from the slope of the training hill.
Yep, once you've gotten the glider moving a bit...

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...there ain't no going back.
I did not have a clear mental picture of how I was going to get down the launch ramp and into the air.
Just think it through.

- You've done your hang check at the back of the ramp. At that moment you can banish all concern about launching unhooked. You've taken care of it. It's done. It's out of your mind.

- You've moved to launch position and the glider's on your shoulders, balanced, trim.

- One last check of the streamers and traffic.

- Don't think about the jagged rocks below the escarpment - that'll mess with your head.

- Yell "Clear!"

- Get the glider moving then lay into it.

- The wing will float up and stop at the limit of your suspension and you'll start having a really solid control link.

- In another couple steps you'll be airborne and through that critical phase of the flight.

- The rest is child's play. Not much can go wrong in those conditions.
I'd watched people do it before, but with different gliders, and in different conditions.
All with the exact same tried and true Lockout Mountain Flight Park procedures.
I was afraid that if things did not go as I expected that I would freak out and blow the launch just because my mind shut down...
That's ridiculous. There's just not much that can go seriously wrong at that point. Preflighted, hang checked, negligible air, no traffic... What's the worst that could possibly happen.
...so I stepped back off the launch and let the experienced pilot launch while I watched. The other student launched next and had an uneventful flight to the LZ.
And they were fine, right?
Watching them launch gave me a better mental picture of what was going to happen on the ramp, which gave me a little more confidence.
And that's really all you need at your stage of training...
Rob Kells - 2005/12

Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method, but rather the fear of launching unhooked that makes us diligent to be sure we are hooked in every time before starting the launch run.
CONFIDENCE. Sure served me well throughout my career.
So I stood up there for a couple of minutes waiting for a calm cycle of the wind and thinking...

"So I've already spent a bunch of money on a glider, harness, training, etc. If I don't do this I'll have wasted most of it, so I know I'm gonna do it. just need to lock in my mind that after the first step, I'm committed... Ok, that's locked in.
And so's your carabiner. Checked that sucker a few minutes ago. No fuckin' way it's NOT locked in.
Now I just have to take 1 step.
You've got it, dude!
Breath in deep, breath out, breath in, breath out.
Might wanna check your spelling of "breathe" here. Sometimes it's the little stuff that can bite you.
Wind is calm. Streamers at the edge of the ramp aren't moving. Wings are level and balanced. Nose angle is good. No reason not to launch at this moment...
No reason WHAT SO...

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...EVER!
Step
Run
Glider is flying off of shoulders, that's a good sign.
And now you're feeling the tension on your harness and leg loops! (It would be a really bad sign if you weren't.)
Ramp falls away beneath me and I'm flying
Cool!
Huge sigh of relief.
Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
Damn straight! GREAT feeling!
I didn't crash on launch!
And you didn't plummet to your death while your Horizon went on to fly away and land without you - the way Bill Priday did at Whitwell a wee bit shy of decade ago!

Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image

Ya want my opinion? I think it was your fear of crashing on launch that ensured you didn't crash on launch. Really hard to go wrong thinking about worst case scenarios before you commit to various courses of action.
The rest of the flight was calm. Boxed the landing field.
Did you have a track log recording so's you could total your XC mileage?
Started my downwind leg probably a little high but realized it pretty quick so I went all the way to the end of the field and then all the way across it on base. Still higher then I would have liked on final so I pulled in for all I was worth to try to get down. LMFP has a BIG LZ, and I used just about all of it, but did get down before I ran out of field...
Well what would be the point in HAVING a field half the size of Nebraska...

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...if you didn't USE 95 percent of it?
...and even managed a foot landing...
Might as well have, you were bolted upright in your training harness the whole flight anyway, right? And wheels are for fuckin' girls.

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though it was just a little sloppy.
What the fuck. You got it, in a few more flights you'll have your flare timing perfected, and now you'll be able to land in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place when you need to.
So that's the story of my first high altitude solo flight.
Will do another in the morning, weather permitting.
Keep doing the same things over and over again and you'll build a long track record. Don't mess with success.
Sorry no go-pro video. Had the camera rolling when I stepped up the first time and then put it out of my mind in order to think about flying. After landing I discovered the battery had died while the other 2 pilots had done their flights. After landing I discovered the battery had died while the other 2 pilots had done their flights.
After you get a few flights under your belt, get comfortable with your procedures, take the fear out of the equation...
Doug Hildreth - 1991/04

Werner Graf, a Long Beach, California pilot was vacationing in Switzerland in October 1990. He prepared to launch, but unhooked to adjust his camera. He then proceeded to launch without hooking back in.

Since this pilot was killed outside the United States he will not be counted as a U.S. fatality. But it should be noted that he is just as dead as he would be had it happened in the U.S., and we report it here to once again try to get everyone's attention about this extremely basic, but terribly serious mistake. You MUST ensure that you ARE hooked in within 15 seconds of launch--EVERY TIME.
...you'll be able to afford to deal with some of these peripheral issues with a lot more confidence.
2015/07/09 04:00:33 UTC - 3 thumbs up - Paul Hurless
2015/07/09 12:08:43 UTC - 3 thumbs up - Bill Jennings
Image Image Image
Paul Hurless - 2015/07/09 04:02:27 UTC

Congratulations! If you weren't hooked before, you are now. It will just keep getting better and better.
Yeah Paul, he can grow up to be just like you if he keeps playing all his cards right. "If you weren't hooked before, you are now."

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Words to live by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mX2HNwVr9g
Hang Gliding Fail
andyh0p - 2011/04/24 - dead
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Jonathan...

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http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
NMERider - 2015/06/28 19:17:52 UTC

I think Jan should be commended on producing an excellent PSA video on NOT launching unhooked. Please pass this around. Image

http://vimeo.com/124963665
If you REALLY wanna do something effective on this issue then come down on that motherfucker and the Lockout assholes controlling his training like a goddam ton of bricks. That'll UNDOUBTEDLY cost you some popularity at least in the short term but you'll go way up on the integrity scale. And the sanity of doing hook-in checks is currently gaining a little momentum.

Going up against the Rooney Link cost me my flying career and got me pissed all over by all kinds of total douchebags for about half a dozen years. And then...

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And now total fucking douchebags like Davis, Rooney, Voight, Trisa, Fink, Kroop, Paul and Lauren, Sykes, Gryder, Birren, Caruk, Martin Henry, Jack, Hurless, Seibel, Hassan have been totally and permanently silenced and they're scared SHITLESS of me. Good feeling.

Find somebody breathing a WORD about what they're using for weak links nowadays and what their expectations of them are. Find a Post Marzec Era reference to 130 pound Greenspot. Every now and then there's a small payoff for integrity - even in this shit-heap of a sport.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
NMERider - 2015/06/28 21:47:08 UTC

The Lift and Tug hook-in check was developed or at least promoted by the late, Rob Kells.
Bullshit. Here's what Rob says:

http://www.kitestrings.org/post1854.html#p1854
Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method...
Here's what you say in your NEXT SENTENCE:
It's the most effective and reliable method I know of for launching while fully connected.
Flat contradiction of what Rob just said. There bloody goddam well IS a particular method to most effectively address this issue. And LESS EFFECTIVE translates to MORE DEATHS after you've run enough monkeys and typewriters.

Rob cites three individuals - Mike Meier, Ken Howells, Peter Swanson - and tells us ONLY what they DON'T do to protect against launching unhooked. So it's a no brainer that they're NOT doing lift and tug.

Ken Howells works for Rob MeKenzie. As does Dan DeWeese - award winning inventor of those totally fucking useless "Hook In!" bricks...

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...that people frequently walk over with their carabiners dangling on their ways to wake-up calls.
Ken Howells - California - 42597
- H5 - 1996/11/20 - Joe Greblo - AT FL AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC - TAND INST
- P2 - 1994/05/15 - Rob McKenzie
All these guys are assholes who are big parts of the problem.

Here's Ken a few months back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7zjejPlunM


doing the usual NOTHING "just prior to launch".

Peter Swanson...
Peter Swanson - California - 44907
- H4 - 1989/04/16 - L. Metzgar - FL PA VA AWCL CL FSL RLF TUR XC
- P4 - 1998/11/03 - Lars Linde - FL PA VA FSL HA PS RLF RS TUR XC
Fuckin' nonentity. Ever hear him lend his voice to a discussion after somebody's bought it again?

And here's Mike:

Leg loops...

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Walk-through...

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Good to go...

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Going...

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Hook-in check...

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No problem...

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Again.

Rob says:
Each of us agrees that it is not a particular method, but rather the fear of launching unhooked that makes us diligent to be sure we are hooked in every time before starting the launch run.
He's LYING. IF you have a fear of launching unhooked you DO a hook-in check JUST PRIOR TO LAUNCH - fuckin' PERIOD. Everybody BESIDES Rob that he mentions does SOMETHING to ELIMINATE the fear well before launching.

McKenzie's an asshole hang checker who figures that the chance of him simultaneously arriving at launch unhooked AND forgetting to do his idiot hang check is one and five million and only a total moron would worry the least bit with odds like those going for him.

Rob gives us a description of idiot McKenzie's idiot unassisted hang check technique after telling us that hang checks don't work and then says:
The Best Insurance Is To Believe It Can Happen To You!
Well, McKenzie DOES think it can happen to him - WILL, in fact. But his strategy is so good that it won't happen for another fifty thousand years. No fuckin' way the distraction which precipitates his failure to hook in will be the same one which neutralizes his hang check strategy.
This is the technique Steve Pearson uses if he is not absolutely sure he is hooked in on launch...
Steve's ABSOLUTELY SURE he's hooked in on launch 95 percent of the time. And when he's not he does another preflight so he can be ONE HUNDRED PERCENT sure. No fuckin' way this gun's loaded now. What's to be afraid of?
Mission's Pat Denevan teaches a hook-in check, which is the "lift the glider to feel the leg loops go tight" method I outlined above. He adds that he teaches his students to repeat it if they do not launch within fifteen seconds.
Fuck, I'm not scared of launching unhooked. Just checked fifteen seconds ago ferchrisake. I should do ANOTHER check just prior to launch? :roll:

PROMOTED by the late Rob Kells? He can't list ONE PERSON - other than himself - in his article who's doing this thing RIGHT. And this includes ALL of his Wills Wing partners and test pilot employees. If he can't promote lift and tug with a single one of those motherfuckers then just how much success do you think he's had with all the douchebags coming out of the asses of Steve Wendt, Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney, Matt Taber, the Voight Twins, Greg Black, Tom Galvin, Mike Robertson, Mark Dowsett, Pat Denevan, Rob McKenzie, Joe Greblo?

I think I've got a pretty good case that ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the flyers WORLDWIDE who've incorporated lift and tug or some other ACTUAL hook-in check procedure post Kunio Yoshimura have done so as a consequence of MY efforts - yourself being a case in point. If you've got any evidence to the contrary then let's hear it.

Rob was a really great guy who was a friend to every pilot he met. I'm a universally despised sociopathic unrepentant child molester who hates the fuckin' guts of 99 percent of the people who play with these wings. That's how come Rob was totally fuckin' useless in getting this thing rolling and....

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31781
Another hang check lesson
Alan Deikman - 2014/09/23 19:47:06 UTC

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.
...I'm pretty goddam effective. Pretty mind-blowing when you compare the resources, platforms, political capital Rob had available to him to T** at K*** S****** and this little keyboard he's punching.
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Tad Eareckson
Posts: 9161
Joined: 2010/11/25 03:48:55 UTC

Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
NMERider - 2015/06/28 21:47:08 UTC

The Lift and Tug hook-in check was developed or at least promoted by the late, Rob Kells.
Rob started flying hang gliders in 1973 and working for Wills Wing in 1977. I started flying in 1980 and got tuned into lift and tug by a Kitty Hawk instructor colleague in the fall of that year. So it's a no brainer that Rob was tuned in AT LEAST by the time I was.

Between then and Rob's 2005 article there were probably tens of thousands of unhooked launch incidents - the vast majority of them inconsequential (training hill, shallow slope, caught by crew), some expensive, some serious, a healthy dose fatal. Not a word from Rob anywhere.

Meanwhile Doug Hildreth was going nuts with the message for the fourteen year duration of his reign as Accident Review Committee Chairman and I myself at least had a letter to the editor in the 1992/09 magazine.

Something I just figured out subsequent to my last post...

We had a sport in which we had some real people making honest efforts to fix real problems and now we've got one controlled by a lawyer and his pet sociopaths geared up to make sure the real problems don't even get identified, let alone fixed.

This article represents a devolutionary stage in the transition. People were worried about getting their asses sued off after Bill Priday’s 2005/10/01 spectacular and highly visible demise and u$hPa needed to give the impression that it actually gave a flying fuck about the unhooked launch issue while making sure it never got actually addressed. Enter Rob.

Puts the unhooked launch on the same plane with the missing safety ring, says here's what I do but whatever the fuck anybody feels like doing is OK as long as one's worried about launching unhooked, studiously avoids any reference to USHGA's 1981/05 hook-in check regulation. Note that Bill was killed running off a cliff without his new Wills Wing glider and had gotten all of his training and ratings and new glider from a Wills Wing dealer whose take on the issue was:

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1166
Thoughts on responsibility...
Scott Wilkinson - 2005/10/05 14:10:56 UTC

We visited Steve Wendt yesterday, who was visibly choked up over Bill's death. For Steve, it all comes down to one thing: you've got to hook in. Period.
This was a total ass covering exercise. Prequel to THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW8qZESnFvQ


total load o' crap. Note the same dilution/obfuscation with all the trivial preflight bullshit.
The Lift and Tug hook-in check was developed or at least promoted by the late, Rob Kells.
Yeah Jonathan? Check out these links:

http://www.willswing.com/category/articles/
Articles Archives

http://www.willswing.com/safety/
Safety

http://www.willswing.com/history/robs-page/
Rob's Page

Find Rob's article or one fuckin' word on the unhooked launch issue. The only reason anybody's ever heard of Rob's article is 'cause T** at K*** S****** transcribed it off of a magazine scan on a disc, quoted it in his forum battles, and archived it on Kite Strings. Also the only reason anybody's ever heard anything of Rob's take on the issue.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

Jump to next post:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post8110.html#p8110

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiSd3KgzAu4


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Mike Meier walking around in his harness because it looks cool.

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Actually... Aussie Methodist assholes are effectively banned from Glacier Point 'cause people aren't permitted to move to launch position connected to their gliders - for reasons which should be fairly obvious. Ditto for Makapu'u. If the sport really got it's shit together they'd be banned from everywhere and get their ratings permanently revoked.

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Mike Meier - 2005/08/~18

If the main is properly maintained, and periodically replaced, it is never going to fail anyway, so the backup is sort of pointless. Years ago we didn't even put backup hang loops on our gliders (there's no other component on your glider that is backed up, and there are plenty of other components that are more likely to fail, and where the failure would be just as serious), but for some reason the whole backup hang loop thing is a big psychological need for most pilots.
But make sure you hook into your backup loop anyway, Mike. Also don't put anything in your manuals about the backup loop being total bullshit and/or giving your customers the option of not getting one.

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Also make sure you don't give me any covering fire when I'm dealing with...

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2809
hook-in failures
Jim Rooney - 2007/10/31 13:31:04 UTC

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
YOU ARE ON CRACK!

I've yet to meet the pilot dumb enough or arrogant enough to fly without a backup loop. Perhaps you'll be the first then?

Thanks, I needed a laugh
...one of the vile little pieces o' shit at one of your dealerships.

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And make sure that sucker's locked. Don't wanna be falling out of your glider three thousand feet above the valley floor.

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Leg loops...

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Walk through...

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Joe Gregor - 2007/05

Lesson learned: HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK, HANG CHECK! Your life will most often depend on it.
Not gonna do a hang chuck, Mike? Your life will most often depend on it. How are you gonna know if your bar clearance is OK?

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Not gonna do a hook-in check? Oh, right. Forgot you already checked your leg loops one did a walk-through. What would be the point?

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Besides... You've got that turbulent jet stream going just above your wing.

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Suspension should be tight in another step or so...

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There ya go! Looking' good.

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Beautiful, Mike. Real tribute to Rob. And a big help to those of us muppets struggling to follow in his footsteps and further promote the message of the lift and tug technique he developed and worked so tirelessly to instill in the culture.

Jump to top:
http://www.kitestrings.org/post8093.html#p8093
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33081
Spooky third flight
Bill Jennings - 2015/07/13 13:23:07 UTC
Chattanooga

Been busy with commitments but had my 4th mountain flight yesterday morning. A nice steady breeze was blowing at the top and I loved the launch! Two steps and I was flying!
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33076
'Lift and Tug Before You Get Off' - PSA video from Heli1
Bill Jennings - 2015/06/29 20:16:15 UTC

Excellent thread, I've been doing both a hang check and hook in check before flight but had never heard of lift and tug. I will be adding it to my routine just before I launch. Three checks better than two.
I don't think you're really getting the concept here, Bill. Maybe watching one of your buddies launch unhooked at Lockout, Henson, or Whitwell will help get the mindset to kick in properly. This is not something you do or don't add to your routine.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33196
Another fatality
Dontsink - 2015/07/26 10:27:14 UTC
Spain

Javier Yunquera was found dead and separated from his wing at the Ager Spanish HG Championships.
Details are still vague but it was far away from takeoff so he did hook in.
You can hook in like this:

Image

and fly around indefinitely. (Ask me how I know.)
Rest in peace, my condolences to family and friends.
What a terrible year.
pablog - 2015/07/26 11:22:18 UTC
Madrid

Dontsink, thanks for posting the so painful news.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28290
Report about fatal accident at Quest Air Hang Gliding
SkyTribe - 2013/09/11 22:00:20 UTC

What the hell is with you Michael170. You seem obsessed with accidents?
Javi was a very good friend and hang gliding mate. He was a highly motivated and experienced pilot, but he never put flight before his family or friends. In spite of being at the Nationals he was not a competitive pilot, just one eager to learn, to have fun and to enjoy the after-flight by sharing the experience with friends and, sure, with a cold beer in hand.

Last Thursday he was flying Task 7 with his recent T2C. As far as we know, after 1 hour and 15 minutes flying, the hang-strap of his harness (Woody Valley Tenax) ripped apart and Javi went free fall. He had time to throw the emergency parachute, a brand new LARA...
The extra safe one that opens really fast?
...but the main chute strap (the yellow one)...
Kevlar? The astronomically strong stuff with no stretch or UV resistance?
...tore up on deployment.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16384
Tow Release Malfunction
bisleybob - 2010/03/26 19:08:27 UTC

now imagine a release that can never in no way jam up
Jim Rooney - 2010/03/26 20:54:43 UTC

Dude, quit bogarting that stuff ;)
How's it go? Never say never.
Bent pin releases are indeed very very reliable. But 100%? Nope. It's exceptionally rare, but they jam. All mechanical things do.
If they were perfection, everyone would be using them. They're not. As with all things, they are a tradeoff.
It's a mechanical thing. All mechanical things fail from time to time.
Details are yet unknown.
Well, we know this much... The harness suspension did a great job of keeping the glider from being overloaded. A weak link - focal point of a safe flying system. Functioned just as well as a standard aerotow weak link. Think Zack Marzec. Both pilot and glider just fine at the point of actuation.
We are waiting to recover the harness and Javi's GoPro, which are currently in Court being inspected by the local authorities.
They should get in touch with u$hPa so they can properly understand what's typical.
This accident...
No.
...comes about a year after another dramatic loss, Juanito, possibly the most experienced pilot of Pedro Bernardo flying site, in the central region of Spain. The Spanish hang gliding community is deeply touched by these two losses. Hardly recovered from Juanito's death, we'll try to overcome this new terrible loss by remembering the positive attitude Javi had towards friends and family. His open smile and friendly heart will be in ours forever.

While Spain is far from the US (and we are somehow stowaways in this forum), I cannot resist to leave you a picture of him from a year ago (he is the one on the right with a white T-shirt, I'm in the middle) and a link to his last video, 100 km over the Castilian flats.

Image

Javi leaves behind wife and two daughters, aged 12 and 15. Our broken hearts are with them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrqPKHLv6SU

Javier Sanchez - 2015/06/11
And here I was thinking that a hang check was critically important 'cause it loads up your harness and suspension and reveals any serious structural issues. (Launch is at about 41°04'32.02" N 003°42'36.50" W.)

Good job, hang gliding industry. Keep up the great work.
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Tad Eareckson
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Re: You are NEVER hooked in.

Post by Tad Eareckson »

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2019
Hook-In Alarm
Harry Martin - 2015/07/21 22:41:15 UTC

Back in 1992, I wrote an article for Hang Gliding Magazine about my hook-In alarm that I created for myself.
This post/topic doesn't really belong in:
Technology Forum
Experimental forum for "Technology" discussions (computers, cameras, etc).
I'm happy to report that it still works.
Works to what? How many times have you been on track to launch unhooked and how many times has this device prevented you from doing so?
After all these years, it finally gave out when the Lithium battery finally wore out. Which reminds me, I need to replace the battery before I go flying again.
I've got a device that runs off of electricity in which I have a tremendous degree of confidence to prevent me from launching unhooked. And by the time it becomes too unreliable to do that job flawlessly there will have already been scores of other reasons I shouldn't be flying.
For those interested in how it works, it consists of a level sensor, metal contacts sewn into the hang strap, a 9V lithium battery, buzzer, and an arming pin. It attaches to the keel and remains on the glider when put away.

When armed, if the glider is lifted up without the pilot being hooked in, the alarm emits an obnoxious sound.
Oh good. Just what every hang glider foot launch area really needs.
As soon as the carabiner is detected in the strap...
You mean like this?:

Image
...the alarm is disabled.

The alarm was not accepted by the hang gliding community.
What's "the hang gliding community"?
I actually met another pilot who managed to invent his own and spent thousands of dollars getting it patented. It never made it to market.

I'm probably the only pilot in the world with this gadget. Image
---
Harry Martin
Fear is not boring
And it can be a really useful tool at the right time and place. But fuck, you've got your gadget so...
Joe Faust - 2015/07/22 03:56:12 UTC

https://www.google.com/patents/US4776530
Stephen M. Mansfield
and
https://www.google.com/patents/US4688022
John R. Gray
and
https://www.google.com/patents/US4272039
Thomas C. Hollingsworth

and we are honored to have present the apparent only user of such alarm ... right here in U.S. Hawks !
'Specially now that T** at K*** S****** is no longer present.
There must be a cartoon concept in this story, I bet.
More monkeys and typewriters. I one hundred percent guarantee you that we'd get some astronomically amusing material.
Harry Martin - 2015/07/22 18:46:03 UTC

John Gray is the fellow I ran into so many years ago. He contacted me after reading my article. His design was flawed by the fact that the sensor was very dependent upon gravity. Vibration and dirt would trouble the pilot with false alarms. The other two inventions are overly complicated and difficult to maintain. I don't know if they were invented by pilots or not.
Overly complicated and difficult to maintain? Yes.
My alarm system was designed to be maintenance free. Other than having to swap out the battery every 5 to 10 years, it has performed flawlessly. Over the years, there was only one incident where I failed to hook into the main strap, but the alarm alerted me to hook into the backup strap, where the sensor is located.
Maybe you can come up with a Version 1.1 that will alert you to hook into the main strap when you fail to hook into the main strap.

Funny we're not hearing anything from Bob...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=17603
Some [maybe old] thoughts about Failure to Hook In
Bob Kuczewski - 2010/06/09 21:24:48 UTC

Lots of good thoughts. I suspect you may be a newer pilot because that's the perspective that asks the simplest question: "Why not?". Image

It's also a coincidence because I've had some similar thoughts. I gave some serious thinking to a simple battery/LED circuit that would go through a jumper that could only be shorted by a little tiny connector attached to your harness. So the only way to complete that circuit (and light the LED) was to have that connector attached. The launch rule is very simple. You don't launch unless the LED is lit. In the simplest configuration, the LED just stays on throughout the flight, but if battery drain is an issue, you could have a way to disconnect the jumper after launch. For a few pennies more you could even have it on an electronic timer (555 or similar) so it goes out after 10 minutes. The basic system would cost less than $5 and just be an LED, resistor, batteries, wire, jumper, jumper pins, and tape. The timer system might cost another $5 at most. There are lots of variations that include a switch on the harness or some other means to turn it on and off.
...Sam...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=822
US Hawks Hook-In Verification Poll
Sam Kellner - 2011/11/07 03:31:00 UTC

For everyone who obsesses over being hooked in or not, get a flippin rear view mirror and attach it under the nose plate,
simple enough. Image Image Image
Bob Kuczewski - 2011/11/07 05:42:59 UTC

Sam, you are quite a genius!!
...or Rick...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=802
AL's Second flight at Packsaddle how it went
Rick Masters - 2011/10/19 22:47:17 UTC

At that moment, I would banish all concern about launching unhooked. I had taken care of it. It was done. It was out of my mind.
http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=811
FTHI
Rick Masters - 2011/10/26 23:07:48 UTC

My sincere thanks to Carlos Miralles and Bill Dodson for teaching me the ONLY way.
NOTHING substitutes for a hang check immediately before take off. I know. I'm still here.
...on this important topic.

And what? No Aussie Methodists on The Bob Show?
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