Releases

[Tad Eareckson]

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http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=34646
Are you satisfied with flex wing handling qualities?

Takeo Eda - 2016/08/23 05:27:17 UTC
Silicon Valley

I guess this is a good time to bring this out.

When WOULDN'T it have been a good time to bring this out? DURING the Bloodbath period?

As many know I did all of my time from Hang-1 through Hang-3 doing surface tow.

Read Mission.

Most of my moments consisted of broken weak links and inadvertent releases...

- Birrenator.
- Both equally good things.

...but I did have one occasion where I almost locked out on tow.

- Generally worse than almost locking out off tow.
- Damn. Where are those weak links and inadvertent releases when you really need them.

The decision about when to release / when not to came from an odd source:

I've been a RC modeller my entire life, and most of my experience with sailplanes are with elastic Hi-Starts. What happens when something goes wrong on a hi-start? Your lovingly built Gentle Lady reduces itself to a pile of sticks.

No pilot hanging under the wing to absorb impact. Pity.

Most of the time no amount of control input will save the situation.

Bullshit. You're just trying to save a bad situation rather than releasing before there is a problem.

Therefore in my mind I knew that if on tow I got past a certain angle from "on course" I was going to release.

That's a total bullshit way to look at the issue. You can be:

- past your certain angle from "on course" and totally dependent upon your rope to stay alive and healthy - à la Nuno Fontes (just before his idiot fuckin' driver fixed whatever was going on back there)

- dead fuckin' center in Dr. Trisa Tilletti's Cone of Safety with everything going great and seconds from a fatal tumble - à la Zack Marzec

Anybody who's got any business on a towline knows that there's a whole shitload of factors going into in-flight decisions - airspeed, tension, vertical and lateral alignment, altitude, obstructions, crosswind, turbulence, thermal activity, bridle configuration, driver competence... And the person who resembles that remark is ALWAYS gonna have a good feel for what's going on and idea about what to do about it and a better feel and idea than the asshole on the other end of the string.

And if you're not equipped to execute your decisions while maintaining full available control of your aircraft you're just another dope on a rope and have no business being on it.

I remember making the decision to release, and I also remember reaching for the rope, but I don't remember missing it as the video shows.

I don't know if this has happened to anyone else...

Let's say it happened to Nancy. How would anyone outside of the silent circle of eyewitnesses know?

...but it's clear that speed is of the essence...

- Good that you found that out in an incident. Saved Mission from having to get the point across to you.

- Any comment on the speed with which Mission can zero the tension from their end...

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...in response to a tow emergency?

...and there definitely could be some technological progress in this area...

- How? We've had over 35 years of towing through the pilot to develop safe - read SIMPLE - release systems. If technological advancement over Missions state-of-the-art equipment were possible don't you think the collective intelligence of the sport of hang gliding would've achieved it already?

- So what is it that you find unacceptable with?:

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Aside from it not being state-of-the-art I mean.

...(maybe an instructor release option, some cases stopping the tow tension may not be enough?).

- What do you mean "STOPPING" the tow tension? Freewheeling the winch doesn't necessarily stop the tow tension enough to keep the guy on the glider alive. We saw the video of Lin Lyons and that was obviously also the case with Nancy Tachibana.

- What? Like a...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifQk5L3Ux7U


...guillotine? Sorry, that doesn't fall under the Mission definition of state-of-the-art.

The annotated video was done for me by Mitch Shipley and he showed me some things that I didn't notice before.

Good ol' Mitch. You can always count on Mitch to show you things that you didn't notice before - all the shit he's so good at not revealing in his fatality reports.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG5HnREcr_M

I'm using the original posted 2014/10/22 video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWWZbbP-33I
Release tow line!

Crap quality, despite 1080 resolution. If digital works like film I'd say wide aperture (lousy depth of field) / slow shutter speed. Amending the comments where they appear in the Shipleyed version.

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- 01 - chronological order
- 00 - seconds
- 18 - frame (24 fps)

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OK, lookin' good. Now stomp your foot to signal to your driver that you're hooked in, have your leg loops, and are good to go.

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Note empty cart in background. Only for the advanced tow pilot who don't need the simplicity and safety of balancing and trimming the glider on his shoulders, running up to launch speed, flying upright with hands on the control tubes at shoulder or ear height for optimal control authority...

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Hook-in check...

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Yep, you were right.
~~~
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Good. Fully airborne. Now make sure you don't prone out and start flying your glider. Stay upright and keep your hands on the control tubes to make it easier to practice your stunt landing.

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Autorelease goes tight on high nose angle
2.2 sec after liftoff

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Yep, that's when you really want your Birrenator kicking in - when you're pitching up into a near stall / good climb attitude. (Wonder why it's not increasing the safety of the towing operation for ya. You should talk to Peter - he's got an NAA Safety Award so you really can't go wrong.)

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Uh-oh, bridle's getting pretty close to that port wheel. You should pull in, get some roll control authority, relieve some tension, get your glider straightened out a bit.

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Bridle contacts left wheel
4.3 sec after liftoff

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Oh. You ARE already pulled in as much as possible. Sorry, please carry on with whatever it is you're doing up there.

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OK, time to make the easy reach to your state-of-the-art release lanyard while you fly the glider with the other hand on the other control tube at shoulder height where you can't control the glider with both hands on the control tubes. (Don't worry about the lockout. There's absolutely no control compromise involved in taking a hand off a control tube to abort a lockout with an easily reachable state-of-the-art release.)

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Decision to first release attempt - 0.5 sec
Decision 4.5 sec after liftoff

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Not working? Guess your driver must've cut back on the tension to the point that there's not enough resistance to blow your state-of-the-art release. (Lightbulb - This is what happened when Nancy pulled her state-of-the-art release prior to turning back towards her designated traffic cone.)

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2nd successful release - 1.6 sec post decision
6.4 sec post liftoff

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(Enough successful releases and you'll eventually get yourself into free flight mode. If first you succeed just keep succeeding until you're actually clear or hit the ground - whichever comes first.)

Well, ya got it, Takeo77. Good job. Time to resume flying the fucking glider...

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Or whatever facsimile of flying you're able to manage in stunt landing configuration.

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Must say... Your state-of-the-art equipment almost looks even more elegant after you've extracted yourself from climb/lockout mode.

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Nice job nailing that traffic cone. Keep up the good work. Some day your life will depend upon your ability to nail a traffic cone with a degree of accuracy comparable to that. Just ask Nancy Tachibana if you don't believe me.

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Full rez close-ups of the easy reach sequence:

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Smoking gun classic.

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[<BS>]

It looks like the release lanyard is attached beyond a bend produced by the auto-release line. Wouldn't that create extra tension on and travel for the lanyard in order to release? It also appears to be wrapped around the bridle.

[Tad Eareckson]

I dunno...

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Really tough for a hopeless Rube Goldbergian such as myself to make heads or tails of what's actually going on when looking at simple state-of-the-art equipment during an emergency release actuation situation. 'Specially when Pat won't publish any photos, diagrams, descriptions of his simple state-of-the-art for fear that other foot launch towing operations will then also be able to start using simple state-of-the-art equipment.

[Steve Davy]

http://www.kitestrings.org/post9619.html#p9619

You can offer an apology, or get banned from this forum by me, NMERider.

[NMERider]

http://www.kitestrings.org/post9619.html#p9619

You can offer an apology, or get banned from this forum by me, NMERider.

Go back to the post rating and take another look. Here's a screen shot for reference:
http://photos.imageevent.com/aero92/kitestrings/hanggliding.orgviewtopic.phpp_327659num327659.jpg
Hopefully this remedies the situation. This will take you directly to the rating: http://www.hanggliding.org/rating.php?p=327659
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[<BS>]

Didn't know you could change a rating. I'd thought about the possibility of a post being edited after it was rated and wanting to though. Good to know.

[NMERider]

Didn't know you could change a rating. I'd thought about the possibility of a post being edited after it was rated and wanting to though. Good to know.

I didn't know this until I tried it after reading Steven's post. There is a time limit on how long before you cannot edit a post and you can only delete your last post.
It's been a long time since I have seen such hatred and vitriol online. Is it something in the water?
Are subliminal messages being clandestinely transmitted as part of an experiment in mind manipulation?
Does anyone recall the episode of X-Files where the message screen says, "Kill Em All"?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3kow5h Pardon the weird speed compression.

[Steve Davy]

Thanks a bunch, NMERider! That really means a lot to me. That goes to you too Brian.

[NMERider]

Thanks a bunch, NMERider! That really means a lot to me. That goes to you too Brian.

You got it pardner! Any time.

[Tad Eareckson]

Wow...

2013/07/11 12:40:02 UTC - 3 thumbs up - Paul Hurless
2013/07/11 04:10:08 UTC - Sink This! -- michael170
2016/09/25 01:26:19 UTC - Sink This! -- NMERider
2016/09/25 02:31:57 UTC - Sink This! -- Brian Scharp

Flipped it from green to red. Much appreciated. Pendulum's moving a bit in the other direction.