http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=16265
weaklinks
Kinsley Sykes - 2010/03/18 19:42:19 UTC
In the old threads there was a lot of info from a guy named Tad. Tad had a very strong opinion on weak link strength and it was a lot higher than most folks care for. I'd focus carefully on what folks who tow a lot have to say. Or Jim Rooney who is an excellent tug pilot. I tow with the "park provided" weak links. I think they are 130 pound Greenspot.
Yeah Kinsley, focus carefully on what folks who tow a lot have to say. Go to the website of any/every aerotow operation you can think of and/or find and focus very carefully on what's being said about the focal point of the safe towing system.
Go to Highland Aerosports -
http://aerosports.net/ That's where...
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22660
What can be learned from this "scooter" towing accident?
Mitch Shipley - 2011/01/31 15:22:59 UTC
Enjoy your posts, as always, and find your comments solid, based on hundreds of hours / tows of experience and backed up by a keen intellect/knowledge of the issues when it comes to most things in general and hang gliding AT/Towing in particular. Wanted to go on record in case anyone reading wanted to know one persons comments they should give weight to.
...Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney was spawned. Or to Blue Sky -
http://www.blueskyhg.com/ - Steve Wendt's operation. He's exceptionally knowledgeable...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=17404
Aerotow barrel release - straight or curved pin?
Jim Rooney - 2010/05/31 01:53:13 UTC
BTW, Steve Wendt is exceptionally knowledgeable. Hell, he's the one that signed off my instructor rating.
Hell, he's the one who signed off Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's instructor rating.
What are these places posting on weak link:
- purposes
- strength
- material
- installation
- towline tension conversion
- G rating
- relationship to:
-- glider:
--- capacity
--- flying weight
-- pilot:
--- skill level
--- bench press capability
If you can find ANY operation ANYWHERE on the fuckin' planet saying ANYTHING about ANY of those issues - anything that makes the slightest degree of sense anyway - then please let me know 'cause I sure can't.
Or Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney - who is an excellent tug pilot. We used to hear volumes of what even the most clueless reader was able to clearly see as nothing but ignorance, stupidity, incompetence, lies, evasions, contradictions, abuse. Focus carefully on what the lying son of a bitch is saying *NOW* - STONE COLD SILENT.
Compare the idiot fucking BHPA weak link regulations to what's on the books in the US - the former is, for all intents and purposes, off the bottom of the range of the latter.
If this were NOT the third of a century long scam that it is then everybody would be on exactly the same page, saying exactly the same thing, and all of us muppets would be able to understand it even better than we do glider certification standards - positive and negative loading, hook-in weight and speed ranges, stability, roll reversal time.
You go back to the old threads where there was a lot of info from a guy named Tad you'll find that he's been pretty fuckin' consistent with what he's been saying ever since he figured out that the guys running Ridgely and all their colleagues throughout the known aerotow universe were total douchebags. At first he was saying flying weight times 1.4, the middle of the range the FAA was specifying for max certified operating weight. Then, after his brain finished kicking in and he totally got that the purpose of the weak link was ONLY to protect from overload, he was saying a bit up from the middle of max certified operating weight, 1.5, on up to the top of the legal range, 2.0, as long as your releases could handle it.
The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Inc. - 2013/01/23
12. Standard Operating Procedure
10. Towing/Aerotowing Administration
09. Aerotow Pilot Appointment (ATP)
-B. Aerotow Equipment Guidelines
The USHPA recommends that a nominal 1G (combined operating weight of the glider and pilot) weak link be used, when placed at one end of a hang glider pilot's V-bridle; or about 1.5-2G if placed at the apex of the tow bridle or directly in-line with the tow rope.
Lo and behold. When you strip out all the Dr. Trisa Tilletti mumbo-jumbo bullshit, the USHGA SOPs - protested by NO ONE - are saying EXACTLY what Tad had been saying years before.
What folks who TOW a lot have to say was NOT what you should've been carefully focusing on...
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2467
weak links
Jim Rooney - 2007/07/22 22:30:28 UTC
Hahahahahahahahaha
Oh that's just rich!
Riiiiiight... it's my attention span at issue here....
and I'm the one that's arrogant!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA
No, I'm not being nice. No, I do not feel the need to be nice. You're trying to convince people to be less safe. I don't want to be on the other end of the rope when someone listening to this drivel smashes in.
I've heard it a million times before from comp pilots insisting on towing with even doubled up weaklinks (some want no weaklink). I tell them the same thing I'm telling you... suck it up. You're not the only one on the line. I didn't ask to be a test pilot. I can live with your inconvenience.
Please tell me again what's wrong with the wheel? Why you keep trying to reinvent it?
Yes, please fall back on the "I'm just saying they could be stronger" bull when you've made it quite clear that anything lower than cable (1200lb) is acceptable.
The simple fact is that you're not improving the system.
You're trying to make it more convenient and trying to convince yourself that you should be towing with a stronger weaklink.
Enjoy your delusion.
http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3600
Weak link question
Jim Rooney - 2008/11/24 05:18:15 UTC
Well, I'm assuming there was some guff about the tug pilot's right of refusal?
Gee, didn't think we'd have to delve into "pilot in command"... I figured that one's pretty well understood in a flying community.
It's quite simple.
The tug is a certified aircraft... the glider is an unpowered ultralight vehicle. The tug pilot is the pilot in command. You are a passenger. You have the same rights and responsibilities as a skydiver.
It's a bitter pill I'm sure, but there you have it.
BTW, if you think I'm just spouting theory here, I've personally refused to tow a flight park owner over this very issue. I didn't want to clash, but I wasn't towing him. Yup, he wanted to tow with a doubled up weaklink. He eventually towed (behind me) with a single and sorry to disappoint any drama mongers, we're still friends. And lone gun crazy Rooney? Ten other tow pilots turned him down that day for the same reason.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?
Jim Rooney - 2011/08/28 19:39:17 UTC
Weak links break for all kinds of reasons.
Some obvious, some not.
The general consensus is the age old adage... "err on the side of caution".
The frustration of a weaklink break is just that, frustration.
And it can be very frustrating for sure. Especially on a good day, which they tend to be. It seems to be a Murphy favorite. You'll be in a long tug line on a stellar day just itching to fly. The stars are all lining up when *bam*, out of nowhere your trip to happy XC land goes up in a flash. Now you've got to hike it all the way back to the back of the line and wait as the "perfect" window drifts on by.
I get it.
It can be a pisser.
But the "other side"... the not cautions one... is not one of frustration, it's one of very real danger.
Better to be frustrated than in a hospital, or worse.
No exaggeration... this is the fire that the "other side" is made of. Best not to play with it.
They don't have THEIR flying days, downtubes, gliders, faces, lives destroyed by being dumped into stalls when the fishing line pops. You should've been focusing carefully on what folks who...
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31717
Weak link?
Davis Straub - 2014/08/20 19:48:26 UTC
Many of us are now using 200 lb test line from Cortland.
http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=31747
Lockout
Davis Straub - 2014/09/01 15:22:41 UTC
I can tell you that I fly with a 200lb weaklink on one side of my 750lb pro tow bridle. I am happy with it.
...ARE TOWED a lot have to say - and, more importantly, ARE DOING.