I fly my PG in morning and evening air, relatively light winds or at coastal sites with consistent, smooth air. If it's getting thermic, or particularly, thermic with wind, then I don't want to be up there. Mid-day, I pretty much don't fly in summer; I do this for fun, and I prefer the milder morning and evening conditions. Others have a higher tolerance for turbulence and risk, and skills beyond mine.
Rob McKenzie wrote:BTW an interesting way to go from slack line to back on tow is flying 90 degree heading off towline direction and wings level. As the truck moves and takes up the slack, the line tension causes the glider to do what almost feels like a magical turn toward the truck and towline. It comes from going from a scenario of glider flying straight because it has wings level and only driven by gravity. Then as the line tensions, the vector sum of gravity and towline means the glider, while level with the horizon, is actually in a turn relative to the resultant load direction. I see the very subtle right bank yet turning left as what would be expected by a glider flying away from me and being brought back on tow from a line pulling the glider from the left.
Weaklinks need to be strong enough to not break in circumstances where they would put the pilot in trouble, but weak enough to break to help get the pilot out of worse trouble.
How strong should aerotow weaklinks be?
The lowest figure I've seen is that they should break at 85 kg (187 pounds) of tension. The range discussed at the Worlds was 85-115 kg (187 lbs to 253 lbs).
Donnell Howell mentions (using hookin weight of 100 kg and glider weight of 36 kg):
0.5 G - inexperienced pilot: 68 kg (150 lbs)
1.0 G - experienced pilot: 136 kg (300 lbs)
2.0 G - very experienced aerobatic pilot: 270 kg (600 lbs)
The investigators determined that a bent separation contact sensor pin, damaged during the assembly of the strap-on boosters, prevented a nozzle lid from opening and separating one of the boosters.
Because Feynman did not balk at blaming NASA for the disaster, he clashed with the politically savvy commission chairman William Rogers, a former Secretary of State. During a break in one hearing, Rogers told commission member Neil Armstrong, "Feynman is becoming a pain in the ass."
