Weak link?
Is the release certified...Gordon Rigg - 2014/08/20 13:40:25 UTC
UK
The hang glider has a release.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8331326948/
...to handle load? Are there any totally fuckin' obvious ways...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8318769461/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aerotowrelease/8318781297/
...for it to hang up and kill somebody - again?
Yeah...The tug has a release.
We know. He can fix whatever's going on back there by giving us the rope.Bill Bryden - 1999/06
Rob Richardson, a dedicated instructor, died in an aerotowing accident at his flight park in Arizona. He was conducting an instructional tandem aerotow flight and was in the process of launching from a ground launch vehicle when the accident occurred.
Rob had started to launch once but a premature towline release terminated this effort after only a few meters into the launch roll-out. It is suspected the cart was rolled backwards a bit and the towline was reattached to begin the launch process again. During the tug's roll-out for the second launch attempt, the tug pilot observed the glider clear the runway dust and then begin a left bank with no immediate correction. At that point he noticed that the launch cart was hanging below the glider and immediately released his end of the 240 ft. towline. The tug never left the ground and tug pilot watched the glider continue a hard bank to the left achieving an altitude of approximately 25 feet. Impact was on the left wing and then the nose of the glider. Rob was killed immediately from severe neck and head trauma.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7509/15659143120_a9aae8f7bd_o.jpg
- Boy...There is a weak link at the glider end that means the tow rope cannot pull enough to break the glider.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYe3YmdIQTM
...does it.
- So is there anything the weak link at the glider needs to be...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bRrpHNa68iY/UQ6Pv9gRZyI/AAAAAAAAjTg/Hc22bx5122Q/s2048/20943781_BG1.jpg
...STRONG enough to prevent happening? Or is it just the case that the weaker it is the less risk of breaking the glider and thus the safer you are?
Really?There is a weak link at the tug end that means the tow rope cannot possibly break the tug (for example if the rope catches when its landing).
Are you absolutely sure about that?Towing Aloft - 1998/01
I witnessed a tug pilot descend low over trees. His towline hit the trees and caught. His weak link broke but the bridle whipped around the towline and held it fast. The pilot was saved by the fact that the towline broke!
- How strong does it NEED to be, motherfucker? I seem to have missed the part where anybody defined a need for STRENGTH and gave us some kind of number we could use. Or are you just fine with the universal Davis Link that breaks six times in a row in light morning conditions by coincidence?With repeated uses a string weak link will get weaker until it breaks a quite a low load. So if yours has lasted 100 tows it probably started stronger than it needs to be.
- Tost recommends replacing inserts after two hundred launches. T** at K*** S****** advises that his Tad-O-Links never need to be replaced. If a string weak link degrades that fast is it really such a great weak link?
Well yeah, but most of them are either dead, in the hospital, or permanently scared out of hang gliding.Many people tow with very strong weak links.
And perish the thought that the human under the glider should be able to supersede the decision of a mandated loop of fishing line.this might let you save a tow that gets further out of line vertically or horizontally...
And I'm absolutely positive that if the late Zack Marzec were able to speak to us from beyond the grave he'd totally agree with you. He was getting out of line vertically but he was using fishing line with a longer track record than he'd have been able accrue in the course of ten thousand 27 year lifespans working on trying to save a bad thing 'cause he didn't wanna start over and it sometime broke when he'd rather it didn't. Just imagine how much worse the stall would've been if he'd been able to stay on an extra two or three seconds....however I personally believe it best to use a weaker link and have it break sometimes when I'd rather it didn't.
Fuck your fifteen hundred tows of various flavors and your PERSONAL BELIEFS based upon them. Only total fucking morons base their threat assessments and decisions on their piddling personal experiences. "Well, I've been making the drives between home and work for three years and have never come remotely close to having a need for a seat belt or airbag. Thus it's a no brainer that these devices are totally useless."I also believe, after many winch tows, hundreds of car static line car tows and many hundreds of aerotows, that you should always be able to keep the glider at an attitude where you can successfully land after a weak link break.
So that's obviously what Zack Marzec was doing. So that would be ENTIRELY a consequence of what Mark Frutiger was doing. So how come we haven't heard a single hint of criticism of what Mark Frutiger was doing?If you winch/car tow too steep then you could be relying on the pull to get you through a situation where you are too steep to recover.
- Is there any possible way Mother Nature can throw anything into the equation that totally fucks up your glassy smooth evening air model and assumptions?You might get higher quicker but its not worth the risk.
- And getting HIGHER QUICKER?! The very IDEA scares the crap out of me. I so do love nice slow climbs through the kill zone when there are likely to be thermals breaking off.
http://ozreport.com/13.238
Adam Parer on his tuck and tumble
Two or three times per successful tow if necessary.Adam Parer - 2009/11/25
Due to the rough conditions weak links were breaking just about every other tow and the two tugs worked hard to eventually get everyone off the ground successfully.
- Totally fuckin' inevitable. This WILL happen sooner or later. No question about it.Sooner or later something will break right when your are too steep too close to the ground - car/winch/rope/release if not the weak link.
- So answer me this, douchebag...
Sailplanes use manufacturer specified weak links proportionally around twice the strength of mandated hang glider Davis Links. Their weak links NEVER break and, strangely, this bullshit you're predicting NEVER happens.
- Ya know what a WEAK LINK is, asshole? A WEAK LINK is a LINK that breaks before anything else in the system. If something else breaks before YOUR WEAK LINK then YOUR WEAK LINK wasn't a WEAK LINK.
And chopping several hundred pounds of thrust totally, instantly, and irrevocably in most dangerous tow situations is...The way out of most dangerous tow situations is to release before it gets too bad...
...a really great way to kill yourself.Wills Wing / Blue Sky / Steve Wendt / Ryan Voight Productions - 2007/03
NEVER CUT THE POWER...
Reduce Gradually
Increase Gradually
Well duh. Why do you think that here in the US we have a mandate that all releases be mounted within easy reach?The easier your release system is to operate the better.
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident2.jpg
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident3.jpg
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Idiot.