A forum devoted to the scientific advancement of hang gliding
http://www.kitestrings.org/
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/Manifesto01.htmlJoe Faust - 2014/03/07 15:58:01 UTC
Couple of items
Hi Tad,
[[A blind carbon copy of this email note is being sent to the person's who's quote is below, so that you do not have her or his email address or identity, as permissions were not extended. A few others are included in the blind sending.]]
Hope this finds you well.
1. Have you had recent actions with FAA (12 months?).
2. Are you continuing to develop your HG essays?
3. Are your ideas being openly discussed carefully in any forum recently?
My response to the below new email to me:
1. Open sharing and examination of ideas without prejudice with respect to extraneous matters.
2. Non-burial of sincere HG thought.
3. Equal opportunity for people to examine and share their positions.
4. Keeping Tad's documents available for examination and the documents of others for study and critical analysis by anyone is a cornerstone to the free-flight movement. Such respect was exercised in Low & Slow magazine and in Hang Glider Magazine. Unfortunately, some contemporary forums have deep commercial interests and have installed such things as "ignore" buttons, severe "banning" practices, and a trend of using off-topic personal attacks to substitute for careful critical thinking; such practices kill the integrity of those that think they are playing in "free-flight" while actually flying into small caved corners without fresh airs.
5. Our kite site now has over 5000 pages and is ready to serve the ideas of even more people and deepen the text and discussion for the ideas already presented.
6. The "pulpit" is open for anyone to voice on topic. The pulpit is a continuation of the first USHGA, not the second or third.
7. Free-flight in kite hang gliding is served by open discussions regarding matters of safety and equipment. Keeping our free-flight alive will be served by ever improving our safety, respect for ideas, and a refusal to simply censor ideas.
8. The FAA is open to receive notes from anyone about anything. The FAA has a job to do to have airspace available and safe for the good of the people up to the mandates by congress.
9. Separation of ideas from personal attacks is fundamentally important in order to safeguard extension of safety ideas.
10. It is possible to remove ideas, but the effort is in the other direction; that is, we wish more ideas could be served for all to study; space for response is available.
11. From the earliest of days we have been discussing things with the FAA. FAA tried to stop our first play exhibited in the early Otto Meet. We gave FAA ideas. FAA worked with ideas and continue to work with ideas.
12. If an activity is dangerous, then that would be reason to give high focus on the activity.
13. Every human communication is open to improvement. We are to make progress despite our imperfections of letter or person. Efforts to improve intelligibility, readability, communication effectiveness are ever invited.
14. What in Tad's essays is with merit? What is to be countered? What is to be advanced and extended? What options are there?
15. Younger or newer entrants to kite hang gliding who intend to be towed to free-flight kite hang gliding are advised generally to sort through all the issues involved. We do not want even one more injury or death from kiting kite hang gliders.
16. We do intend to advance publishing factual and critical observations about kite hang gliding flight; however, we will do so with recognition that there are many perspectives in our community and that "fact" is ever a challenging matters up for discussion openly in the hang gliding community and beyond. When a statement of importance needs to be examined more carefully by the community, then hopefully there will be server space available for such process. Support of servers that stay open to varied perspectives is a choice. Thank you for any support you send to Hang Glider Magazine. http://www.energykitesystems.net/subscribe
Below I quote without giving name, as I do not have permission to identify the person yet:
START OF QUOTE:END OF QUOTE.Is it possible to remove Tad Eareckson's postulation from your server? He is a generally discounted crackpot whom doesn't advance much of anything.
He threatened to advise the FAA about our dangerous activities. After much discouragement from the USHPA, he still sent it in. His ill-lettered advice was unintelligible and disregarded by the FAA. His ASCII colored text is still found on your server. As a younger person trying to keep free flight alive, I request you stop publishing Eareckson's letters.
I hope you publish all factual and critical observations about our flight. I want to advance safer free flight. I don't want weirdos having an artificial pulpit.
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/index.html
Best of Lift to you and yours,
Thanks to the person sending the triggering note quoted,
~ JoeF
Manifesto
March 7, 2014:~Author-permission-not-yet-granted (APNYG), March 7, 2014JoeF,
You have ultimate editorial power for your hosted content. Read anything he has written in the last five years and decide if you want to be associated with it.
http://www.kitestrings.org/topic7.html
The guy openly mocks the families of dead-and-injured pilots. Doesn't offer much toward safety or education. I have reason to believe he is not an engineer; as his designs are unsafe, untested, and his method is against our purpose of safe free flight.
Your site is interesting. Among many things you have assembled valuable history about hang gliding and those whom try to re-author it. Keep up your good work.
This isn't an ex parte time-critical issue. I think I can convince you from hosting his content.
Next week, when I have time, I will address all of your enumerated points. You have good questions and I feel I can address them all.
Some replies
APNYG,
The historical documents will remain available for researchers, thinkers, safety students, leaders, hang glider pilots, tow pilots, historians, etc. Various perspectives over statements in the documents are welcome to be presented for equitable study. Getting specific may become important.
Hosting competing content would be a laudable goal. Please take the time that the matter deserves. It is great that you are working for safety in our favored kite hang gliding activity. I trust you will stay on the ideas and not interweave personal attacks for non-sequitor arguing; thanks. We put a notice about this discussion in KiteStrings and HangGliding.org today.
We seek sincere clarity about what Tad and others think on related kite hang gliding issues.
~ JoeF March 7, 2014.
Hi Joe.Joe Faust - 2014/03/07 15:58:01 UTC
Hi Tad,
This is not - and never will be - a PERSON. This is - and always will be - a cowardly scummy little parasite who deserves no quarter.[[A blind carbon copy of this email note is being sent to the person's who's quote is below...
...or its......so that you do not have her or his...
That's OK. IT'S very obviously Orion Price and I already have ITS email address. I choose not to use it because there is absolutely nothing I have or ever will have to say to it in a private conversation....email address or identity, as permissions were not extended.
Not bad. I always get a little boost when one of Bobby Bailey's pieces of junk spits an enemy combatant out of the sky and undermines his credibility and that of the scum that backs him.Hope this finds you well.
Fuck the FAA. They're nothing more than enablers and co-conspirators of the serial killers running USHGA and US hang gliding.1. Have you had recent actions with FAA (12 months?).
Have you been giving Kite Strings occasional skims?2. Are you continuing to develop your HG essays?
"My" ideas are pretty much all Newtonian physics and that's about the last thing that any hang or para gliding forum wants openly discussed. But... Following the Zack Marzec fatality early last year it was virtually impossible not to discuss "my" ideas and things got pretty interesting over on The Davis Show until the Davis Sycophant Team was so blood soaked and reeling that its fearless leader was reduced to the choice of throwing in the towel or declaring victory, threatening opposition team members with banning, and locking all the relevant threads down.3. Are your ideas being openly discussed carefully in any forum recently?
And/Or the positions which have been spoon fed to them because they're incapable of thinking things through well enough to establish positions of their own.My response to the below new email to me:
1. Open sharing and examination of ideas without prejudice with respect to extraneous matters.
2. Non-burial of sincere HG thought.
3. Equal opportunity for people to examine and share their positions.
Hang Gliding magazine was mostly finished devolving into the pure Industry infomercial it is today a decade ago.4. Keeping Tad's documents available for examination and the documents of others for study and critical analysis by anyone is a cornerstone to the free-flight movement. Such respect was exercised in Low & Slow magazine and in Hang Glider Magazine. Unfortunately, some contemporary forums have deep commercial interests and have installed such things as "ignore" buttons, severe "banning" practices, and a trend of using off-topic personal attacks to substitute for careful critical thinking; such practices kill the integrity of those that think they are playing in "free-flight" while actually flying into small caved corners without fresh airs.
And what percentage of those ideas are making it into the air?5. Our kite site now has over 5000 pages and is ready to serve the ideas of even more people and deepen the text and discussion for the ideas already presented.
The first USHGA represented an era of innovation created by regular participants in the sport. It was pretty much over by the time I first clipped into a glider on the dunes on 1980/04/02.6. The "pulpit" is open for anyone to voice on topic. The pulpit is a continuation of the first USHGA, not the second or third.
It's also served by identifying, ostracizing, punishing, eliminating the liars, saboteurs, murderers, serial killers who've conspired to do as much damage to hang gliding as possible.7. Free-flight in kite hang gliding is served by open discussions regarding matters of safety and equipment. Keeping our free-flight alive will be served by ever improving our safety, respect for ideas, and a refusal to simply censor ideas.
And even more open to ignoring notes from everyone about everything.8. The FAA is open to receive notes from anyone about anything.
Which it has effected with a level of gross incompetence and criminal negligence which makes what Jon Orders did on the afternoon of 2012/04/28 a microscopic speck by comparison.The FAA has a job to do to have airspace available and safe for the good of the people up to the mandates by congress.
However - since hang gliding culture has been working overtime for virtually all of its existence to eliminate responsibility, accountability, checks and balances, efforts at reform and promote personal attacks on reformers and whistleblowers - personal attack has replaced physics as the name of the game.9. Separation of ideas from personal attacks is fundamentally important in order to safeguard extension of safety ideas.
Hang gliding, for all intents and purposes, has zero need of more/new ideas. Performance has hit a design plateau it will NEVER significantly exceed, the people with the functional brains have known how to do things right - just like in conventional aviation - for most of its history, and all that holds us back is commercial power and corruption. Damn near every single fix that's needed has been up and flying in some form on a limited scale for decades. Anything that hasn't been can be done for a relatively small investment in time, effort, and money using simple existing technology.10. It is possible to remove ideas, but the effort is in the other direction; that is, we wish more ideas could be served for all to study; space for response is available.
No they don't. Not once in the history of Dragonfly towing has a tandem gone up without flagrantly violating existing aerotowing regulations and even when those violations result in the deaths of both people on the glider THEY DO *NOTHING*.11. From the earliest of days we have been discussing things with the FAA. FAA tried to stop our first play exhibited in the early Otto Meet. We gave FAA ideas. FAA worked with ideas and continue to work with ideas.
None of our dangerous activities need high focus to fix. There's not a goddam thing being done that can't be adequately addressed by a moderate dose of ten year old kid common sense.12. If an activity is dangerous, then that would be reason to give high focus on the activity.
- Never more so than those originating from mainstream hang gliding.13. Every human communication is open to improvement.
Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"A bad flyer won't hurt a pin man but a bad pin man can kill a flyer." - Bill Bennett
"Never take your hands off the bar." - Tom Peghiny
"The greatest dangers are a rope break or a premature release." - Richard Johnson
Not by sleazy saboteurs like Davis Straub, Jack Axaopoulos, Bob K, and OP.We are to make progress despite our imperfections of letter or person. Efforts to improve intelligibility, readability, communication effectiveness are ever invited.
Best focus on the second question first. If nothing legitimate can be documented there will be no need to go on to the other. And as people who are GENUINELY concerned with reforming and advancing hang gliding - like most of the participants on Kite Strings - have already done that, found mistakes, and brought them to my attention for revision, it's probably gonna be a REAL BITCH to come up with anything.14. What in Tad's essays is with merit? What is to be countered?
Virtually nothing. Get the existing easy fixes in place and then try to tweak things however you can.What is to be advanced and extended? What options are there?
Given the hopelessly corrupt system we have, we, unfortunately, NEED *MANY* more injuries and deaths to get the problems fixed and reduce the numbers of injuries and deaths in the long run. If, on successive weekends following the Zack Marzec fatality, Davis Straub, Adam Elchin, Jim Rooney, Steve Kroop, Mitch Shipley, Dennis Pagen, Dr. Trisa Tilletti, Paulen Tjaden, Martin Henry, Steve Wendt, Cragin Shelton, Dan Tomlinson had been killed by their standard aerotow weak links in similar circumstances just imagine what a wonderful sport we would have. Unfortunately, things so very rarely line up just right for Mother Nature to be able to mete out appropriate punishment - especially to the individuals most deserving of it.15. Younger or newer entrants to kite hang gliding who intend to be towed to free-flight kite hang gliding are advised generally to sort through all the issues involved. We do not want even one more injury or death from kiting kite hang gliders.
The more total fucking idiots we have in "our community" the more perspectives there are gonna be.16. We do intend to advance publishing factual and critical observations about kite hang gliding flight; however, we will do so with recognition that there are many perspectives in our community...
As you keep removing the crap off the left side of the IQ bell curve you're gonna start reducing the number of perspectives. When you get to the top one percent there's only gonna be ONE perspective - the RIGHT ONE....and that "fact" is ever a challenging matters up for discussion openly in the hang gliding community and beyond.
Totally fuck the "community". The "community" has been genetically engineered for incompetence over the course of decades. The "community" has had its shot and failed miserably and the only thing we see changing is a fast slide to total insanity.When a statement of importance needs to be examined more carefully by the community, then hopefully there will be server space available for such process.
Nope. The varied perspectives based upon two plus two equals whatever Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's saying it does today need to be either eliminated from discussions on responsible servers or clearly identified as and condemned for being the rot that it is. "Grand Canyon: A Different View" has zero place in the National Park Service's visitor center bookstore. We don't need to and can't afford to be tolerating, enabling, encouraging, rewarding naked stupidity.Support of servers that stay open to varied perspectives is a choice.
That's OK, Joe. Like I said, I have him covered.Joe Faust - 2014/03/07 15:58:01 UTC
Below I quote without giving name, as I do not have permission to identify the person yet:
START OF QUOTE:
No OP. It's physically impossible. The fabric of the universe would be irreparably torn and everything in it would immediately perish.Is it possible to remove Tad Eareckson's postulation from your server?
So...He is a generally discounted crackpot...
Donnell Hewett is a dangerous crackpot and THE most successful serial killer in the history of aviation.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."
Who....whom...
OH! Someone who's a generally discounted crackpot who doesn't advance much of anything. Meaning someone who's a generally discounted crackpot who DOES *ADVANCE* SOMETHING - and, by implication, doesn't degrade/reverse existing/established advancements....doesn't advance much of anything.
...as a crackpot back in the day when everyone was running the bottom of the tow bridle to the bottom of the control frame (the way I was configured for my first tow) instead of to the pilot? Donnell was - and is - in fact a dangerous crackpot. But does that mean he couldn't have been right - or at least partially right - about ANYTHING and that his work should've been removed from public view and not analyzed and discussed?Gil Dodgen - 1983/05
Editorial
A NOTE ON TOWING
The early days of hang gliding were marred by numerous towing accidents. During this period this aspect of our sport established a hopelessly bad reputation. And, indeed, last year, as you may have noted in Doug Hildreth's recent accident review, there was a towing fatality by a totally inexperienced Texas pilot.
Some time ago I received a series of four articles on a new towing system from Texas experimenter and inventor Donnell Hewitt. I ran the first in the series of four articles. Editors learn from experience and if I could roll back the calendar I would run all four at once in condensed form. In fact, what happened was that the first article - which made seemingly outrageous claims without outlining the actual technique or hardware - inflamed the then towing establishment. It seems that today's innovators become tomorrow's conservatives so I was bombarded with calls, some from the USHGA Board, telling me that this Mr. Hewitt was totally inexperienced, that he didn't know what he was talking about, and that I was contributing to the possible injury and death of unknown multitudes of innocent hang glider pilots.
I am not a tow pilot, and although Donnell's system made sense to me I was forced to discontinue the series. The essence of his system was a double bridle that connected to the glider and to the pilot. This system would thus pull the pilot back on line in the event that the glider was inadvertently turned off course from behind the vehicle. This would produce a self-correcting system avoiding the infamous "lockout" the factor which seemed to make towing so dangerous.
Well, it appears that Mr. Hewitt's system not only works but, as I've been told by pilots who have made literally thousands of land tows with it, it works beyond all the most optimistic expectations. One pilot told me, "It is virtually impossible to lock out even if one tries."
The possibilities are obviously incredible if a safe, standardized towing technique can be established. The sport of hang gliding at this point is essentially limited by the availability of flying sites. With land tow the entire country is opened up, and as we have seen by Willi Muller and Bruce Case's world class cross country flights over flat land, the potential is unlimited. In fact, there are certain safety advantages to flying over flat land. The turbulence created by jagged terrain is avoided and the dreaded downwind turn into the hill is eliminated.
In upcoming issues we will try to supply as much information as possible on this new aspect of the sport. Those with experience are invited to contact us about possible articles.
However, any new technique or equipment always produces unforeseen problems. Towing must be approached with the most thoughtful and conservative attitude. As Garry Whitman pointed out to me recently, the only problem he has had has been with experienced pilots who won't listen to his instructions. And please remember, the equipment and methods described in this publication are based on the experience of the authors only and are not endorsed or recommended by the USHGA or Hang Gliding magazine.
With the kind permission of Donnell Hewitt we will publish the remaining three installments of his []Skyting[/i] series in upcoming issues.
HOLY SHIT!!!He threatened to advise the FAA about our dangerous activities.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3391Lauren Tjaden - 2008/03/23 22:20:15 UTC
When Jim got me locked out to the right, I couldn't keep the pitch of the glider with one hand for more than a second (the pressure was a zillion pounds, more or less), but the F'ing release slid around when I tried to hit it. The barrel release wouldn't work because we had too much pressure on it.
- Flying releases:Paul Tjaden - 2008/07/22 04:32:22 UTC
I have never had a lockout situation happen so quickly and dramatically and had no chance to release as I have always thought I could do.
- Killing students, recreational pilots, instructors on illegal junk equipment behind incompetent and unrated tug drivers?Davis Straub - 2006/07/01 21:42:08 UTC
The USHPA brings the hammer down on a flight park that wasn't playing by the rules and was jeopardizing our FAA tandem and towing exemptions.
Under its previous owner, Arlan Birkett, Hang Glide Chicago had three fatal accidents over the last two years, including Arlan and his student's death while being towed up tandem behind an inexperienced and unrated tug pilot. The previous death occurred on tow on June 26th, 2004 . The experienced pilot was flying a glider new to him, a Moyes Litesport, in the middle of the day, without a fin. The pilot "locked out," and dove into the ground.
Hang Glide Chicago's instructors as of last week were not USHPA certified for tandem (one is a T-1 and the other has no tandem rating) or instruction (as a review of the USHPA database can quickly tell you), contrary to the above statements from Hang Glide Chicago's web site and in violation of the USHPA's exemption from the FAA. In addition, their tug pilot was not USHPA ATP-rated as required by our FAA exemption. This situation obviously jeopardized the USHPA's relationship with the FAA. In addition, it raises concerns about the level of safety practiced at Hang Glide Chicago, given its history. You've also got to wonder how its students get USHPA rated.
- Whoa! Much discouragement from the USHPA! Who'da thunk. Lemme tell ya sumpin', pigfucker...After much discouragement from the USHPA, he still sent it in.
You might wanna be REAL careful about highlighting friction between USHGA and T** at K*** S******. Ya just never know how many people you're gonna nudge over a bit towards T**'s corner.Comet - 2014/02/27 05:56:27 UTC
Gil was fired by USHPA after about a quarter century of loyal service. It was a despicable and cowardly act by the association. I had a long conversation with him after his termination and he was quite bitter. The association wanted to get rid of the old-line HG emphasis and get with the new jazzy PG stuff and Gil, as a staunch HG guy, stood in the way of progress. They shafted Gil, and in the process they shafted hang gliding.
- See? All that worry about a guy who is a generally discounted crackpot advising the FAA on your dangerous activities for nothing. You were able to go on maiming and killing people with your dangerous activities at an unabated rate and with even less fear of the FAA limiting or interfering them. Five days after Zack Marzec was splattered by his Rooney Link you were able to eliminate all of the aerotow equipment regulations under which USHGA was able to gain its aerotowing exemption without the slightest murmur from the FAA.His ill-lettered advice was unintelligible and disregarded by the FAA.
You're trying to keep free flight alive by removing the threat to your dangerous activities. OK... So given the numbers of new people coming into the sport what percentage of participants permanently leaving the sport because of the injuries and deaths resulting from your dangerous activities do you think you can sustain without effectively killing the sport?His ASCII colored text is still found on your server. As a younger person trying to keep free flight alive, I request you stop publishing Eareckson's letters.
- ALL factual and critical observations about "our" flight? I've got a few flight park professionals flying equipment I've developed, dude. So how's he gonna publish factual and CRITICAL observations about "our" flight if he deletes all references to the dangerous junk I've developed which is more in need of factual and CRITICAL observations than anything else out there?I hope you publish all factual and critical observations about our flight.
- By fighting to the death to protect your dangerous activities from people who are generally discounted crackpots? Sure dude, whatever you say.I want to advance safer free flight.
- How did I get to be a weirdo so fast just eight sentences after just being a generally discounted crackpot who doesn't advance much of anything?I don't want weirdos having an artificial pulpit.
Not any more. That little shit could never wait to be God's Gift to Aviation and Top Authority on Everything immediately after anything blew a landing, went down in flames, or ran into the air with a dangling carabiner. Here are his first responses after Zack Marzec last year:Mitch Shipley - 2011/01/31 15:22:59 UTC
Enjoy your posts, as always, and find your comments solid, based on hundreds of hours / tows of experience and backed up by a keen intellect/knowledge of the issues when it comes to most things in general and hang gliding AT/Towing in particular. Wanted to go on record in case anyone reading wanted to know one persons comments they should give weight to.
Jim Rooney - 2013/02/03 10:57:17 UTC
I hate getting "that" phone call. I got it this morning.
I'm considering becoming an asshole. With all the nice people dying, it just seems safer. So kiss my ass.
I met Zach up at Morningside.
Zach was hard not to like... and hard not to like instantly.
He will be sorely missed.
Jim Rooney - 2013/02/08 18:40:12 UTC
aaaaaaaand... here we go again.
Jim Rooney - 2013/02/09 18:30:26 UTC
Because it's one of those crusty old debates that HGs love to go round and round with.
It's like uttering the word "wheels"... the conversation instantly turns into the great wheel debate.
Sorry for the interruption.
Please continue with the speculation.
I'll be over here, doing something productive.
Jim Rooney - 2013/02/11 09:13:01 UTC
Hey Deltaman.
Get fucked.
Tons of two hundred pound weak links have been going up the past couple years with ZERO percent of the carnage he's been promising for a decade we'd be having. His credibility is TOTALLY SHOT.Jim Rooney - 2013/02/11 19:22:18 UTC
Of course not... it's Asshole-ese.
Sorry, I'm sick and tired of all these soap box bullshit assheads that feel the need to spout their shit at funerals. I just buried my friend and you're seizing the moment to preach your bullshit? GO FUCK YOURSELF!!!!!!!!
I can barely stand these pompus asswipes on a normal day.
Ditto for everyone else running a forum or blog.Orion Price - 2014/03/07
You have ultimate editorial power for your hosted content.
- Why just the last five years? The curve of my learning and hatred for most of the assholes in this sport has been pretty linear since I started in the early Eighties.Read anything he has written in the last five years and decide if you want to be associated with it.
http://www.kitestrings.org/topic7.html
- But I have a soft spot for the families of dead-and-uninjured pilots.The guy openly mocks the families of dead-and-injured pilots.
- Oh. But I offer SOMETHING toward safety or education - presumably something that nobody else is offering or I'd just be duplicating or plagiarizing. So can you identify what it is so's I can redouble my efforts in those areas?Doesn't offer much toward safety or education.
- Do you have reason to believe I'm not an astronaut - despite my many claims of being an astronaut - Sherlock?I have reason to believe he is not an engineer...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=30828Jim Rooney - 2010/12/18 20:12:54 UTC
I love innovation. However, this isn't the type of thing that's "puzzled out" on the internet. AKA, you're not going to figure it out here. This is real world engineering stuff. Five minutes with Bobby Bailey is worth more than anything you're going to achieve here. Pick your engineer of choice, Bobby's just a very good example.
Think we could find out why Keavy Nenninger and Mark Knight slammed in by spending five minutes with Bobby?Larry Howe - 2014/02/25 05:32:53 UTC
I could be wrong, but the amount of fatals involving Dragonflies per Dragonfly flying would have grounded any certified aircraft. Maybe we need to spend a little more time analyzing is this just a bad design aircraft. Or will we continue to look the other way because it's one of the few games in town for towing HG. How long do you think they'd put up with Super Cubs and Pawnees crashing and killing sailplane tow pilots if they had this rate of fatals?
- YOU are a LYING SACK OF SHIT....as his designs are unsafe, untested...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8317889807/Orion Price - 2013/03/16 00:31:26 UTC
I've seen your guy's testing contraptions.
...and where can we find the performance certification data?Bill Bryden - 2004/04/01 16:20:18 UTC
Some aerotow releases, including a few models from prominent schools, have had problems releasing under high tensions. You must VERIFY through tests that a release will work for the tensions that could possibly be encountered. You better figure at least three hundred pounds to be modestly confident.
Maybe eight to ten years ago I got several comments from people saying a popular aerotow release (with a bicycle type brake lever) would fail to release at higher tensions. I called and talked to the producer sharing the people's experiences and concerns. I inquired to what tension their releases were tested but he refused to say, just aggressively stated they never had any problems with their releases, they were fine, goodbye, click. Another person tested one and found it started getting really hard to actuate in the range of only eighty to a hundred pounds as I vaguely recall. I noticed they did modify their design but I don't know if they ever really did any engineering tests on it. You should test the release yourself or have someone you trust do it. There is only one aerotow release manufacturer whose product I'd have reasonable confidence in without verifying it myself, the Wallaby release is not it.
...not in agreement with you? If so, shouldn't you be working hard to have them generally discounted as crackpots?John Fritsche - 2008/12/12 05:38:02 UTC
Lompoc, California
Do people still use those (IMO, stupid) releases that involve bicycle brakes?
- List the people who authorized you to speak on their behalf....and his method is against our purpose of safe free flight.
...compare to Dr. Trisa Tilletti's method?Dr. Trisa Tilletti - 2012/06
We could get into details of lab testing weak links and bridles, but this article is already getting long. That would be a good topic for an article in the future. Besides, with our backgrounds in formal research, you and I both know that lab tests may produce results with good internal validity, but are often weak in regard to external validity--meaning lab conditions cannot completely include all the factors and variability that exists in the big, real world.
Really? How do you know one of my unsafe designs won't kill somebody just as dead as:This isn't an ex parte time-critical issue.
If my designs are dangerous why are you so interested in getting Joe to stop hosting my content? Shouldn't he be giving it prominence in order to alert as many of my victims as possible before it's too late? In the excellent book, Towing Aloft, by Dennis Pagen and Bill Bryden, for example, one finds illustrations and descriptions of three-string release configurations which HAVE locked and HAVE killed people. They only suppress information on lethally flawed equipment if it's:I think I can convince you from hosting his content.
Good. If you do then I'll be able to tear you to shreds. And if you don't I'll be able to tear you to shreds.Next week, when I have time, I will address all of your enumerated points. You have good questions and I feel I can address them all.
Joe...This column is open for serving essays that discuss Tad's ideas sans personal attacks.
Stay on the ideas. Thank you.
Send your essays to editor@HangGliderHistory.com
- So what's your source on that, OP? I sure never got so much as a postcard's worth of acknowledgement of receipt from the motherfuckers. Does the FAA have a web page up somewhere at which they post private letters from private citizens and state their reasons for disregarding them? Or did they just share that information with you because they really admire the size of your testicles?Orion Price - 2014/03/10
He threatened to advise the FAA about our dangerous activities. After much discouragement from the USHPA, he still sent it in. His ill-lettered advice was unintelligible and disregarded by the FAA.
...on the unintelligibility of my writing? Their concern appeared to be that it was EXTREMELY intelligible.Bob Kuczewski - 2011/02/12 06:56:36 UTC
Without naming names (I'm curious to see if they'll own up to it first), on May 10, 2009, one Director wrote:That same day, another Director responded:We need to consider getting an injunction against this guy communicating with the FAA on this subject.For those who don't know, Tim Herr is ... USHPA's lawyer!!I forwarded the letter to Tim Herr yesterday asking about this.
A third Director (who I'll call "Mr. X") chimed in that same day with this:
Mr. X wrote:That's an example of USHPA's typical tactics: Call up the lawyer, then Attack, Attack, Attack. I responded to this last message by focussing on the only positive quote I could find in there:Perhaps a strongly worded letter from Tim will do the trick. We can't force Tad to work within the USHPA framework but we can make it unpleasant and expensive for him if he chooses to makes derogatory and false statements about USHPA to the FAA he can't back up.
If I understand the previous comments, his sending USHPA a draft letter is an indication of willingness to engage in some dialogue before going to the FAA.
Good luck with this guy!
Bob Kuczewski wrote:
cI agree with that sentiment, and I think it would be wise for USHPA to ask Mr. Eareckson what it is specifically that he is seeking. I don't think trying to silence him with an injunction is a good start.
Also, I have almost no background in towing, so I've asked a close friend to review his concerns for my own enlightenment. If anyone else on the Board with towing expertise would like to offer comments on Mr. Eareckson's points for similar enlightenment that would be appreciated by us gravity launch pilots.
before, OP?Tost Flugzeuggerätebau
Weak links protect your aircraft against overloading.
or any similar babblings from Lauren Eminently-Qualified-Tandem-Pilot Tjaden.Weak Link
The strength of the weak link is crucial to a safe tow. It should be weak enough so that it will break before the pressure of the towline reaches a level that compromises the handling of the glider but strong enough so that it doesn't break every time you fly into a bit of rough air. A good rule of thumb for the optimum strength is one G, or in other words, equal to the total wing load of the glider. Most flight parks use 130 lb. braided Dacron line, so that one loop (which is the equivalent to two strands) is about 260 lb. strong - about the average wing load of a single pilot on a typical glider. For tandems, either two loops (four strands) of the same line or one loop of a stronger line is usually used to compensate for nearly twice the wing loading. When attaching the weak link to the bridle, position the knot so that it's hidden from the main tension in the link and excluded altogether from the equation.
IMPORTANT - It should never be assumed that the weak link will break in a lockout.
ALWAYS RELEASE THE TOWLINE before there is a problem.
Orion Price - 2013/03/11 15:12:28 UTC
Final bit of troll food, I read about Tad's reputation this morning.
Tad Eareckson is a generally discounted crackpot and internet troll. He doesn't fly and has been perma-banned from most everywhere: .org, oz report and all the local club websites with discussion forums like ours.
His situation reminds me of a tragedy of a family friend. As began to loose his edge, he proportionality wanted to write people weirder and weirder letters. Newspaper editors, distant relatives, and especially the government would receive long rants pointing out his intelligence and schadenfreuding over their failures. Eventually his internet usage had to be monitored, and his snail-mail letters "mailed" by someone else. The failure mode exhibited here is nearly identical.
Orion Price - 2013/03/12 05:12:33 UTC
Normally I'd say that is a low blow Mike. However, this time it's not. I don't want to re-post it. But the senile guy has read our entire forum history and make detailed comments about our activities. He waxes on with glee about our fatalities.
Orion Price - 2013/03/13 05:52:48 UTC
Tad really has no testicles. He says he had one surgically removed. However we all know they took both out.
Imagine living most of your life with no testicles.
Mr: "I'm a genius, no one listens to me, the world will burn" decides to write the FAA a letter about how unsafe we are:
http://www.energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/TadEareckson/4144review.pdf
Imagine you work for the FAA in DC and you get an 80 something page letter divided into 12 sections. It refers to other documents he's written of similar length. Ramblings of a mad man. It's not so much what he's written anything damning. It's more they have to receive letters from weirdos whom used to fly, but still associate with our sport.
Orion Price - 2013/03/14 02:30:05 UTC
Yea, someone else pointed that out to me. That's some weird stuff. A window into the mind of a madman. In 80+ page colored ASCII texts he starts calling other designs and people "insane." I noticed on his tow treatise he keeps mentioning the word "strength." And referred to the "G" rating of weak links and ropes.
Might of has well mention the number in inches of water in of gallon, or how many volts are in a pound. A clear demonstration of ignorance involving simple concepts.
Some times, in life, you get left with the short end of the stick. And sometimes, in Tad Earecson's case, holding an empty sack. Literally. The man has no testicles.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28581Orion Price - 2013/03/16 17:56:25 UTC
The crack pot has been banned from most every arena of discourse on hang gliding. Now he is also known to our group as an incredible idiot on the subject of hang gliding.
Orion Price - 2013/03/12 15:20:37 UTC
Wow, that was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. 71 pages of .... well you can see what it is. The ignorant building an obelisk to the unknown. Weird world out there.
As you can plainly see from the schematic below:
Why? Who would spend the time to make this shit.
Orion Price - 2013/03/12 15:59:24 UTC
That's what he has done to me. That's why I'm here on the .org.
I don't know him. Never flown with him. I believe him to be a crack pot.
Imagine turning his paper in at University. Imagine trying to submit it to a journal. It's the ramble and rants of a mad man.
Lessee...Orion Price - 2013/04/29 21:09:43 UTC
kitestrings.org = Tad Eareckson has a conversation with himself.
Just a year later you're scared shitless that this ONE SINGLE INDIVIDUAL has the potential to kill the sport of hang gliding.Orion Price - 2014/03/07
As a younger person trying to keep free flight alive, I request you stop publishing Eareckson's letters.
And twenty hours, thirty-one minutes, seventeen seconds later:Orion Price - 2013/03/10 05:57:24 UTC
(Today I learned) There is a guy who reads our forum every and does detailed analysis on all our comments. This guy has Rafferty amounts of extra time to just be an idiot and not fly/work/live.
In place of adding to our discourse he bought a website in which he makes comments about our comments. That's just weird. Apparently we are all we are all suicidal idiots and destroying the sport. Also he apparently really doesn't like NME_RIDER/LA Glide. JD to him is apparently Satan with a glider and a youtube account.
Look at this shit. He literaly goes through every comment and makes his own comment on his own webside: http://www.kitestrings.org/topic10-310.html
I know that haters' gonna hate. But what is with weird antisocial behavior? Who has the time to not go flying, but to sit around and organize and edit weird videos (rafferty)? Who has the time to register websites and make their own PHPBB dedicated to every comment on the SHGA? Weirdos, Y U NO JUST FLY?
I ain't even mad. This is just FYI
So what kind of disengenuous, conniving, sick little sleazebag would do something like that? The first post is total rot, beyond even the limits of what scum like Davis, Jack, Rooney, Bob would do... But then to come over here and feign sincerity and a desire for help?Orion Price - 2013/03/11 02:28:41 UTC
Wow, you have a lot of time on your hands. Keep on crusading! The truth is out there my friend. Stay hungry.
I recently make a camera boom from some carbon fiber tubing. Do you have any ideas to get a good angle?
Arg, I can't post the link because I'm new. Google: "Carbon rod gopro"
Can you fuckin' READ, shithead? (Rhetorical question.)Orion Price - 2014/03/07
As a younger person trying to keep free flight alive, I request you stop publishing Eareckson's letters.
He - like you - is terrified of me making derogatory and false statements about USHPA to the FAA that he - along with every single other USHGA BOD shit - bloody well knows I CAN back up. All you USHGA shits know perfectly well that the majority of my derogatory and false statements are quotes from the Hang Gliding magazine archives.Bob Kuczewski - 2011/02/12 06:56:36 UTC
A third Director (who I'll call "Mr. X") chimed in that same day with this:
Mr. X wrote:
Perhaps a strongly worded letter from Tim will do the trick. We can't force Tad to work within the USHPA framework but we can make it unpleasant and expensive for him if he chooses to makes derogatory and false statements about USHPA to the FAA he can't back up.
And here's the response to that document from one of your Greblo-/McKenzie-ville douchebag buddies:With each flight, demonstrates a method of establishing that the pilot is hooked in just prior to launch.
I see no evidence whatsoever that he's been subsequently alerted to the fact that a hook-in check should NEVER be done because it gives a false sense of security. How has this guy managed to stay alive over the course of the last sixteen and a half months?Mike Blankenhorn - 2012/10/26 02:39:07 UTC
Wow, I never saw it put quite like that before. Great write up!
...you couldn't get a SINGLE comrade-in-arms or endorser for this latest noble crusade? Looks to me like...Orion Price - 2013/03/11 15:12:28 UTC
Final bit of troll food, I read about Tad's reputation this morning.
Tad Eareckson is a generally discounted crackpot and internet troll. He doesn't fly and has been perma-banned from most everywhere: .org, oz report and all the local club websites with discussion forums like ours.
...Baby Oh Pee's Hole In The Ground isn't even as big as Tad's Hole In The Ground.Jim Rooney - 2013/03/07 18:24:58 UTC
Go back to Tad's hole in the ground.
While you're there, ask him why he was banned from every east coast flying site.
Grebloville, Page 04, twenty-third from the bottom, last of thirty posts, 4784 hits:Orion Price - 2013/03/16 00:31:26 UTC
I have a 10kN (2,200lbf) tensile tester at my disposal. Mail me your links, and I will test them.
The * after the "free" is a stipulation. Disclose all relevant information about the link, and let me publish the data for everyone to enjoy. That's it. All it costs you is a envelope. Want to try a different knot? What to try a new material? What happens when you use two links? What about old links? You will know. Tensile tests like this are much more telling than just a material's failure or ultimate point.
I'm a west coast foot launch guy, but I've got about 20 tows at enjoy field and whitewater combined. I've seen your guy's testing contraptions. I've also glossed over Tad's color ASCII text batshit insane manifesto. But I got turned off when it was clear he doesn't know the difference between acceleration, mass, and what forces are. Maybe my machine can paint a better picture for the tow world. Also in the background of that pic is a SEM, it will be interesting to see the failure up close.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress%E2%80%93strain_curve
Send them to:
OP C/O
SHGA
P.O. Box 922303
Sylmar, CA 91392
Also allow several weeks for processing. Label your links clearly.
- How's that going, OP? As a younger person trying to keep free flight alive, how's your method working for your purpose of safe free flight?Orion Price - 2013/03/16 17:56:25 UTC
In place of debunking the scientifically illiterate and religiously motivated Tad. I've started a free weak link testing endeavor. Send me your links and i will test them free of charge.
shouldn't you, at this point, have the decency to concur that weak link strength is only an issue in fatalities when its higher than whatever the standard aerotow weak link and withdraw your offer of free testing and results publication?2-8-2013 - Zack Marzec
Zack Marzec (27), an H-4 Pilot with Aero Tow and Tandem Aero Tow proficiency as well as Advanced Instructor and Tandem Instructor appointments, and a USHPA member since 2009, suffered fatal injuries when when his glider tumbled during an aero tow launch. During the launch, at an altitude of 150 AGL, the pilot encountered an invisible bullet thermal which pitched the nose up, causing the weak link to break. Upon the breakage of the weak link, the glider whip stalled and then tumbled twice. The pilot and glider's leading edge hit the ground simultaneously. The pilot was utilizing his own pro-tow style tow harness, this own high performance glider with VG on, and was not wearing a full face helmet.
...with our backgrounds in formal research, you and I both know that lab tests may produce results with good internal validity, but are often weak in regard to external validity - meaning lab conditions cannot completely include all the factors and variability that exists in the big, real world?Dr. Trisa Tilletti - 2012/06
We could get into details of lab testing weak links and bridles, but this article is already getting long. That would be a good topic for an article in the future. Besides, with our backgrounds in formal research, you and I both know that lab tests may produce results with good internal validity, but are often weak in regard to external validity--meaning lab conditions cannot completely include all the factors and variability that exists in the big, real world.
