AeroTow Manual from New Zealand

[miguel]

Courtesy of Red (2012/05/23 15:25:34 UTC) at hg.org

Campers,

The Hang Gliding Paragliding Association of Canada has posted the New Zealand aerotowing manual. I do not tow, but I welcome tow pilots here to comment.

http://www.hpac.ca/pub/doc/NZaerotowManual.pdf

Aerotowing is great, but the start-up costs are astronomical, except maybe as a full-time business venture. There is an alternative, though. I believe that payout winch towing will be what makes this sport real and available to all those would-be HG pilots who live on flat terrain. I'd really like to see a simple and complete payout winch tow manual, available on-line, maybe posted in the WIKI here.

Personally, I have had two tow pilots (and I would have called them friends, previously) laughing out loud in my face, rather than answer the simplest of questions about towing. Neither of them had a tow operation, or even the equipment now, so my questions were not hurting anybody's wallet.

The "trade secrets" approach on towing might make some money for a few people now, but I think it will kill the sport, in the long run.

All IMHO.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26178
Aerotowing manual

[Tad Eareckson]

Thanks for the notification.

Quick review...

It's rubbish. Stay the hell away from it.

[miguel]

Thanks for the notification.

Quick review...

It's rubbish. Stay the hell away from it.

But if you're gonna stake out positions I'd really appreciate it if you'd back up what you're saying with solid evidence.

Good for the goose but not good for the gander?

[Tad Eareckson]

You went over to Jack's pigfucker asylum - at which my name is not allowed to be mentioned - and with virtually no effort and literally no comment copied and pasted a post which included a link to a sixteen year old document compiled by total fucking morons from materials written by other total fucking morons.

I downloaded it and gave it enough of a skim to confirm what I knew I would find.

I did my civic duty and pronounced it clueless, dangerous, crap and told people to stay the hell away from it.

Total fucking morons in this sport outnumber people who can and do think by a ratio of at least ten thousand to one and they can and do excrete material like this at least a hundred thousand times faster than the rest of us can contain it.

Here at Kite Strings there are currently two dozen threads - not counting this one - which contain careful explanations of why materials such as the New Zealand Aerotow Manual are dangerous crap.

It's perfectly OK for you to view Kite Strings as internet entertainment but:

Zack C - 2010/11/23 05:23:34 UTC

The purpose of Kite Strings is to foster serious discussion regarding the practices and technologies of modern hang gliding.

and my job here is not to keep you entertained.

If you have any ACTUAL interest in this issue - which you've recently stated you don't...

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=929
Training Manual Comments / Contribution

Bill Cummings - 2012/01/10 14:04:59 UTC

Tad's procedures for aerotowing should become part of any training manual. Tad must have put hour upon hour of gathering together his written procedure.

...Tad's procedures for aerotowing - combined with the FAA's Glider Flying Handbook if you really wanna get into things - is the best you're gonna do.

'Cept maybe for Antoine's French version 'cause he picked up on and fixed a few minor issues.

Here's a quote from the New Zealand manual:

The weak link should have a breaking load of approximately 1g.

That IMMEDIATELY tells you that the authors are totally clueless, don't understand the difference between a weak link and a release, and use and will illustrate in the text dangerous shitrigged equipment.

You wanna defend it then you're more than welcome to make your case.

[Zack C]

That IMMEDIATELY tells you that the authors are totally clueless, don't understand the difference between a weak link and a release, and use and will illustrate in the text dangerous shitrigged equipment.

And then to make it even better, they follow that with

Any rope used to connect the towing and towed aircraft during aerotow operations
shall:

• Contain a weak link at each end with the forward link being 10% stronger
  than the rearward link. The forward link shall have a maximum breaking strain
  of 100kg or 85% of the towed Hang Glider and pilot weight, which ever is
  lesser.

OK...100% of the pilot/glider weight on the glider end, 85% on the tug end...oh, but the tug end also has to be stronger than the glider end...I'm confused.

Zack

[Tad Eareckson]

USHGA Safety and Training Committee - 1985/07

USHGA Aerotow Guidelines

A weak link must be placed between the tow line and the release at both ends of the tow line with the forward link ten percent stronger than the rearward weak link. The weak link must have a breaking strength less than 85% the weight of the hang glider and pilot combination, not to exceed 200 pounds.

[miguel]

Why so harsh? I copied and pasted because I wanted your opinion.

Thanks for the reply.

[Tad Eareckson]

I don't mean to be harsh with YOU but my hang gliding career got ended because I fought to get us out from under the thumb of the kind of idiot crap which is the foundation of this document.

I appreciate you wanting my opinion but this forum is about as anti OPINION - mine or anyone else's - as you can get. This document is crap, not because of my FEELINGS about it, but because it's based upon the proposition that two plus two equals three or whatever anyone else feels like calling it - as Zack has pointed out. This crap should never have been allowed to pass through a fifth grade science, math, or English class because it makes no sense whatsoever.

And...

Weak links built into the bridle system are not to be used.

One of my coolest inventions is a combination bridle / weak link which I dubbed a "Bridle Link" so that line pisses me off a bit.

And this...

The weak link should have a breaking load of approximately 1g. This is normally around 90 to 100kgs dependent on the pilot weight.

Yeah, normal flying weights - pilot, harness, parachute, instruments, glider - are 200 to 220 pounds because our heaviest pilots can weigh as much as twenty pounds more than our lightest.

Do ya really need anyone's OPINION on this?

You can't just read it yourself and go over to:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26178
Aerotowing manual

and point out to those idiots that this document was written and compiled by total morons?