What, you didn't think that thread was long enough as it is? =)
I figured that one three hundred post Kite Strings releases thread that goes somewhere is better than ten thirty post Jack and/or Davis Show releases threads that don't.
If you're running a cable vertically down a downtube and your pulling it horizontally on the basetube, it's going to have to bend.
Yeah, I meant the acute angle turn you hafta make if you follow the control frame corner and run the housing all the way to the basetube. Joe eliminated enough of it to make me happy.
One thing I noticed in making this video is that my hand moves pretty far just taking up slack in the cable before the cable pulls on the release.
So - like you're about to say - take up the slack before you need to.
- Engage the bridle via the weak link and have somebody pull forward to tighten the line between the quick link and the pin eye.
- Gradually slide your trigger hand inboard until your buddy tells you the barrel just starts to retract.
- Adjust things below - free cable end length, cable clamping position, and Monkey's Fist lanyard line length - so that it takes an inch - or whatever makes you happy - of inboard movement from normal hand position to blow you off.
- Don't go too hair trigger or you're gonna have a short flight.
...but I'm not following that...
If whatever's clamping the cable to the downtube is narrow enough to allow the housing above to bend outwards while the housing below is being pulled inwards the bend will get softened a little bit - otherwise I'm not seeing that extending the housing is doing anything and I think, even if it is, that ten centimeters is excessive. I'd be inclined to experiment with one centimeter - but this is Joe's baby and you're the one flying it.
...and the only reason it's not sharper is I'm pulling it across the angled portion of the speed bar.
And only a portion of your hand movement is being translated to bar movement.
Another biggie is that the housing isn't clamped tightly enough to the downtube and you're not just pulling cable - you're pulling housing. And that's knocking the crap out of your efficiency.
You can get a stainless steel hose clamp from the hardware store and form it to your faired tubing. It ain't elegant but it'll do the job.
I thought maybe a better way to do this would be to run the cable on the outer side of the port downtube and run the lanyard around a VG bearing, but after looking at it I think the lanyard would contact the bottom of the downtube.
- There is no VG bearing on that side - just a spacer. But it's easy enough to swap one in.
- A better way to do this is to drill a hole in the top of your downtube and run a lanyard inside down to a VG bearing and inboard to your hand. You can't beat the efficiency in terms of hand movement and force transmission.
You will see that the cable itself can and does work smoothly when the flexible housing is terminated before the small diameter turn is introduced.
I think Steve's right on this and I'm not worried about Joe's release Tabering on you. The release will work and - even if you hafta move your hand a bit - you don't hafta execute the USHGA "easy reach" and go looking for something while your glider's rolling upside down. You'll be able to maintain bar pressure which is almost certainly gonna be back. (This might be confusing to some of the students who've survived Ryan's Instant Hands Free Release - which requires forward pressure.)
...as we are all quite obsessive here you just have to install a pulley on the corner downtube/basebar and you will pull the cable straight..
That would be the best way to configure this release. BUT...
- This is supposed to be a slap-on release.
- We've already got it semipermanent because it needs a solid, fairly critical connection to the downtube.
- Now we're talking about a permanent and critical pulley installation so you can run a line lanyard around the bend and up to a clamped-on cable lanyard which runs the rest of the way up the outside of the downtube to the release mechanism.
- And MY stuff gets called Rube Goldberg.
- But nobody calls Wills Wing's VG system - which is pretty much the same thing - Rube Goldberg.
- And there are no threads - here or on the moronic Jack, Davis, and Bob Shows - discussing how to make VG systems more efficient, reliable, better.
- It's just so much easier and safer to do this job right once and forget about it.
- And we're having this discussion here 'cause the fuckin' glider manufactures haven't done their fuckin' jobs and spend their time stitching backup suspension and designing curved tips instead.
