http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=8833Graeme Henderson - 2012/09/05 00:12:17 UTC
An aircraft capable of being safely foot-launched and landed, without assistance, in nil wind, using only the power of the pilot's body.
Helen McKerral - 2008/10/08 22:57:17 UTC
For me, a topless is out (too scary to land...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=25536Gerolf Heinrichs - 2004/06/24
Bad news from the Europeans in Millau - and it's not just about the weather!
This is the major hang gliding event of the season and was expected to be the highlight of the European competition flying. Due to a most competent organising team around meet director Richard Walbec everybody expected only the very best from it.
Now, one task into the meet we are all hanging our heads as we just get confirmation about the fatal accident of Croatian team pilot Ljubomir Tomaskovic. He apparently encountered some strong turbulences on his landing approach. He got pitched up and turned around from a strong gust at low altitude, then impacted tailwind into some treetops from where he fell hard onto the ground.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086NMERider - 2012/03/14 15:17:14 UTC
I refuse to come in with both hands on the downtubes ever again. I have had some very powerful thermals and gusts kick off and lost control of the glider due to hands on the downtubes. I prefer both hands on the control bar all the way until trim and ground effect. I have been lifted right off the deck in the desert and carried over 150 yards.
Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC
I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.
This is all about hang gliding culture pushing an extremely dangerous landing technique on the insane pretense that it's a necessary skill for XC flying. Rewind the tapes, jam the zippers of both pods shut, duct tape both hands of both pilots to their basetubes, both of them are gonna land without injury or damage to their gliders.Despite instant attempts at the landing field, Ljubomir Tomaskovic died very soon after from his severe head and internal injuries. The organizers have just informed us that at a request of the Croatian team we will not have a task on Wednesday - nobody objects.
The Dutch team had more bad news. One of their pilots, Frank GroenVander attempted to land in a very high grass field when his base bar apparently got caught in the grass while he was still going at a significant speed. Despite cracking one or two vertebra, he apparently got away without signs of paralysis and will hopefully be okay soon again.
Organizers, CIVL officials and pilots are all shocked by this shocking news. But, to make it clear, this is all not about some organizers pushing a dangerous task through or us pilots just pushing our luck - we were simply very unfortunate on this first competition day. So, if we like it or not, once more we have to acknowledge that in a sport like ours we don't need to get things very wrong to still heavily pay for it.
AND we're gonna pretend that we can safely and sanely foot land in narrow dry riverbeds with large rocks strewn all over the place and in tall grass.Gil Dodgen - 1995/01
All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."
Steve and Mike are saying, in unguarded moments, EXACTLY the same thing - and EXACTLY what I and a few other people with measurable levels of common sense are. But that's not what the sonsabitches are writing in their owners' manuals.He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with wheels), and then said, "If we landed hang gliders the way other aircraft were, landings would be brain dead easy and we'd have five times more people flying hang gliders a hundred times more safely."
...the more we stay on the fuckin' basetube the better our outcomes are likely to be.Manned Kiting
The Basic Handbook of Tow Launched Hang Gliding
by Daniel F. Poynter
1974
"Never take your hands off the bar." - Tom Peghiny
johannes - 2012/09/14 11:22:37 UTC
germany-bayern-südost
back again...
at my seventh height flight when landing broke my right elbow, hospital ...
next year will show, whether to try again - metal out, no immobility left in the elbow ... ? - or to give up, i will have to wait.
Which removes any small doubt we might have harbored before about where your hands weren't when you were coming in.Johannes - 2012/09/15 14:24:04 UTC
What happened? I don't know exactly up to now - late Oktober, when I am again allowed to drive, I will ask my landing instructor, what he had seen. May be at last I came in too slow and the old construction stalled suddenly. Fact, it came down suddenly into the ground and I hit the right upright with my right elbow and although it had a rubber edge, I broke it.
Like going with an idiot instructor who was way more interested in teaching you stupid, useless, dangerous, stunt landings than in teaching you how to fly a hang glider.Sure, I made mistakes...
Yeah, get a Falcon.But on the other side, if I ever try again next year, it would definitely be a more modern construction, just like the Icaro RX 2, which one other of us flew - it looked very beginner friendly...
Piece o' cake to foot land. Right Allen?Gil Dodgen - 1995/01
All of this reminds me of a comment Mike Meier made when he was learning to fly sailplanes. He mentioned how easy it was to land a sailplane (with spoilers for glide-path control and wheels), and then said, "If other aircraft were as difficult to land as hang gliders no one would fly them."
Well then...Mine seemed not to be good at higher speed - extreme sink - and also at lower speed - less control then.
...maybe you shouldn't put your hands in a position which butchers your already limited control authority.Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC
I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe3YmdIQTMNow I am, sure: there were great developments in the last circa ten years on hg, just look at your brand new WW Falcon 4.
which started on 2012/09/03 and was, for the purposes of Kite Strings, totally irrelevant. So I didn't take any notice of:An Early End To My Season
until I went into The Jack Show's grossly underused "Incident Reports" subforum buried down the page at Number 7 and got suspicious 'cause I knew Allen wasn't the founding author of the decoy thread.an early end to my flying season
No. It wasn't a terrible landing. You titled the video "Whack" but you didn't even come anywhere CLOSE to whacking. It was a so-so landing with your hands in a terrible position for control and survivability. You wanna maximize your chances of walking away uninjured, keep your hands on the basetube. You wanna minimize them, move them to the downtubes.Allen Sparks - 2012/09/15
A terrible landing...
Again....resulting in a shoulder injury.
I won't either at the moment 'cause I'm pressed for time, but fear not...I will not elaborate on all the mistakes.
Bullshit. The primary error was to try to pull off another stunt landing. However...The primary error was to believe that I might be able to land within five feet of the spot.
The only thing stupider than trying to pull off stunt landings is trying to pull off spot stunt landings. I'll bet you could cut the crash and injury rate at the Lookout LZ in half just by taking that stupid fucking traffic cone out of the field.Doug Doerfler - 2011/03/02 05:24:44 UTC
Nothing creates carnage like declaring a spot landing contest.
In this instance wheels didn't make any difference. Kinda like in a lot of ugly traffic "accidents" brake pedals don't make any difference - 'cause people don't make any effort to use them before it's too late.Allen Sparks - 2008/04/19 01:38:55 UTC
I broke my humerus (badly) in 1989, with nerve damage. In that instance, wheels would not have made a difference.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176Allen Sparks - 2011/04/25 00:55:02 UTC
I broke my humerus (spiral fracture) in a downwind landing at Slide Mountain in 1989. I still have the plates and screws. I was lucky to have partially recovered from the radial nerve damage. It really messed up my guitar playing.
1. Your hands were on the downtubes. If they hadn't been you'd have been OK. Correct me if I'm wrong.Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC
Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2dlthPUHpkAllen Sparks - 2011/04/26 17:52:49 UTC
once I'm healed, i plan to invest a few days with our local instructor Mark Windsheimer and his scooter tow system, working to improve my hand transition and body position technique.
Allen Sparks - 2012/05/13
I needed some practice, so I spent an afternoon scooter towing with Mark at:
http://www.airtimeabove.com/
I started with Mark's Falcon 195 and then transitioned to my U2 160. By the end of the day, I had made ten flights. Scooter tow is an excellent way to practice and improve take-off, landing approaches, hand transition, and flare timing skills.
Get your money back from Mark and use it for lessons with Christian.Christian Thoreson - 2004/10
Thus wheel landings, the safest and easiest way to consistently land a hang glider...