I've owned and flown extensively a:I've never used a single suspension harness...
- stirrup (second to nothing for dune flying)
- Robertson cocoon
- High Energy Racer pod (single suspension)
Also flown:
- prone training harnesses (stirrups without the stirrups)
- knee hangers
- spaghetti
(Not fond of the latter two 'cause if you bend at the waist during a launch run your feet come off the ground.)
Never had a problem lifting and tugging or launching tight with anything on lotsa different gliders.
No experience with the current racing pods.
I'm pretty confident, however, that without adding any weight worth mentioning (leechline, bungee, velcro) or putting anything additional in the airflow I could engineer a solution for any harness for any individual to be able to feel leg loops tension as a consequence of being connected to his glider.
And, of course, while launching tight has its advantages, all that's important with respect to the hook-in issue is that there is a brief tensioning close enough to commitment - several seconds prior - that distraction/disruption, reliance on memory issues are taken out of the equation.
When there are two people available on launch EVERYBODY can can confirm with a lift and tug.Even when it's smooth and straight in (or not) it's the guys in the race type harnesses that seem to struggle most on launch.
Discounting people using cameras...
- Launch 02 is an unknown.
- Launches 01, 03, 04, 05, 06, 09, 10, and 11 have two or more people available.
When there's one person available on launch EVERYBODY can get a status report within two seconds of launch.
And, again discounting people using cameras, Launches 07, 08, 12, 13, 14, and 15 have one person available.
And it looks enough like there was enough smooth steady wind coming in for anyone who'd wanted to float his glider to have been easily able to.
We'll credit Launch 13 with a lift and tug and throw him out.
EVERYONE ELSE has the ability to comply with the USHGA regulation concerning hook-in checks but NOBODY- with the possible but highly unlikely exception of Launches 02 and 03 - is making the slightest effort to do it - or promote / insist upon compliance.
Twelve guys definitely got killed - for the purpose of the exercise - in the course of three minutes and nineteen seconds of relevant video.
He's not. He's preflighting their suspension in the staging area.As for the video above, IF Andy is checking that those guys are hooked in just prior to launch...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25550The first thing I do is see if they are hooked in.
Failure to hook in.
Steve Davy - 2011/10/24 10:27:04 UTC
OK- how many times does he need confirm that he is hooked in? And when would be the best time to make that confirmation?
Brian McMahon - 2011/10/24 21:04:17 UTC
Once, just prior to launch.
"OK, I've just seen that he's hooked in. Thank God. Big load off my mind."Christian Williams - 2011/10/25 03:59:58 UTC
I agree with that statement.
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.
Andy's just started making things more dangerous.
That's the LAST thing you do - not the first.The first thing I do is see if they are hooked in.
Being hooked in in the staging area INCREASES the probability of an unhooked launch.
At Barr Mountain, Chandler Mountain, Chelan, Dockweiler, Hearne, High Point (West Virginia), Mingus, McConnellsburg, Mont Saint Pierre, Plowshare, Talcott Mountain, Towers (Sylmar), Whitwell, and Woodside approaching launch hooked in is the norm and there have been unhooked launch incidents at all of the above.
At Glacier and Makapu'u Points approaching launch hooked in is dangerous and forbidden and there have been no unhooked launch incidents at either of those sites.
Stated another way...
At sites and in cultures where the assumption is that people approaching launch ARE hooked in the fatality rates go up and at sites and in cultures where the assumption is that people approaching launch ARE NOT hooked in the fatality rates go down. (Big surprise.)
Fuck the hang check.Next, I ask them if they want a hang check.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1153
Hooking In
It's more the problem than the solution. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. Anybody who teaches, does, requires, requests, asks about, offers assistance with, looks for hang checks is setting things up.Steve Kinsley - 2005/10/02 02:45:48 UTC
When Bob Gillisse got hurt I suggested that our local institution of the hang check is more the problem than the solution. I still believe that. It subverts the pilot's responsibility to perform a hook-in check. I often do not see pilots doing a hook-in check. Why should they? They just did a hang check and they are surrounded by friends who will make sure this box is checked.
The ONLY thing a hang check is good for is to check bar clearance.
- No one ever needs to check bar clearance more than once per glider/harness combo.
- Nobody's ever been scratched ever been scratched 'cause his bar clearance was a little or way off one way or the other.
- People HAVE been killed 'cause they haven't done sidewire load tests.
- Most people never do sidewire load tests.
- If Launch Safety Director Andy wants to do something useful behind the ramp he should be requiring and observing sidewire load tests.
OK, we've got our leg loops. We can cross that one off the list. No need for any confirmation on the ramp.I also ask if they are in their leg loops.
Yep, everybody can now be assumed to be safely hooked in at this point so let's start discussing the weather.Then I give them an update as to what the conditions have been doing as I guide them up the ramp, holding on to a side wire.
It's a no brainer that the last thing on the mind of everybody who ever started noticing the basetube coming up a bit higher than usual on a launch run had been the weather.
No fuckin' way. It subverts it....does that not satisfy USHPA's hook in check requirement?
"Hey, I don't really need to do a good job preflighting my gear 'cause if I miss something somebody else will catch it."
"OK, preflight is over, everything is good to go, I'm hooked in and have my leg loops, time to move up to the ramp, get this baby in the air, and nail that cloud everyone's rocketing up to."
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=26933
Video: St. John Fly-In Launches On Saturday
Andy,michael170 - 2012/08/22 00:43:42 UTC
Andy,
Would it be safe for me to assume that as launch safety director you checked that each pilot was hooked in prior to launch?
I saw twelve out of thirteen gliders launch in clear violation of USHGA's and foot launch hang gliding's most critical and fundamental standard operating procedure. Shouldn't there have been a launch safety director appointed for the fly-in to make sure stupid shit like that didn't happen?