This discussion continues and presents stark contrasts. The HGFA towing manual hasn't been updated since 1999 and it does not match practice in Australia and the US. The manual was based on the practices found at the time, but not necessarily on the best practices as we "know" them now, and most often there is not sufficient evidence... mehr

From section 3.3.6 of the 1999 HGFA Towing Manual:
Bridles used for aerotowing hang gliders are either "one to one" as shown previously, or may be a shorter bridle which is connected to the pilots harness at the chest or shoulders.
When aerotowing intermediate hang gliders, a "one to one" bridle is essential.
When aerotowing... mehr

http://goflyxc.com/shortpacking
I used to hate the idea of flying (in a plane) to an event. I had some bad experiences in the past when trying to take my hang glider with me. I was young, naive, inexperienced but have since learned a thing or two.
Airlines don't like it, their first reaction is "we can't take that on the plane" but... mehr

Let's look at the top twenty:



Name
Glider
Span
Aspect Ratio


1
BERTOK, Attila
Moyes Litespeed S 5
10.4
7.4


2
REISINGER, Robert
Moyes Litespeed RS 4
10.4
7.7


3
HEINRICHS, Gerolf
Moyes Litespeed RS 4
10.4
7.7


4
ALONZI, Mario
Aeros Combat L




5
PLONER, Alessandro
Icaro... mehr

http://ozreport.com/12.78#2
From the HGFA accident report:
Inspection of the bridle system used by Mr. Zwahlen showed that he had employed some non standard equipment which included a single standard chain link used as the weak link tow ring. The bridle employed by Mr. Zwahlen was found to be water ski rope, the type that is a weaved braid... mehr

I've spoken with a number of pilots who mentioned how well Nene was going in Brazil on his Wills Wing T2C 144. His glider is still in Brazil and he is borrowing a Wills Wing T2C 144 for the competition here.
They said that last year Nene was not gliding well against another top Brazilian pilot who as flying a Wills Wing T2 154. Now he is doing... mehr

http://ozreport.com/12.075#4
Yes, it is that Nicole, the women who was recruited slowly into the hang gliding community. Dustin Martin just got back from Quest Air where they did 35 tandems on Saturday. They have never been busier. And apparently Nicole is a major cause of this excitement with her personal skills dealing with customers.
Locals... mehr

The flex wing preliminary results (there are half a dozen or more screwed up track log files).
The rigid wing results (similar problems here).
At 2:30 pm (mountain standard time) a bunch of us were at the edge of the start circle and as high as we had been for the last hour so off we went racing toward the first turnpoint to the east, the first... mehr

Vom 10. bis 18. Mai 2008 organisiert Nova Team Pilotin und Flugschulleiterin Kay Tauscher aus Boulder/Colorado USA http://www.peaktopeakparagliding.com ein Streckenflug-Camp in Greifenburg.

Unterstützt wird sie dabei vom Nova Pilots Team. Parallel zum Camp bieten die Nova Team Piloten ihr Wissen allen interessierten Streckenjäger an auch... mehr

Wenn mal kein Berg, kein UL und keine Winde zur Verfügung stehe kann man auch auf eine Motorcrossmaschine ausweichen. Bob Wills hat das ganze schon in den 70igern erfolgreich probiert. mehr

On Friday I had the opportunity to test fly a Wills Wing T2C 154 late in the afternoon. I hadn't flown a "large" Wills Wing glider in many years, since it was the Talon. I had flown it at a Wills Wing Party at Wallaby Ranch and it seemed too big to me (at least on the ground) and I had a little bit of trouble landing it.
I had flown... mehr

The test flight above on the Wills Wing T2C 154 was my first flight that would include a foot landing since I ruptured my posterior cruciate ligament, torn my medial collateral ligament, tore up my hamstrings (muscle and tendons), cracked my tibia, and did soft tissue damage to my ankle on February 29th. I was a bit apprehensive hoping that the... mehr

The thick clouds came in early and stayed most of the day, although there were still a few weak thermals. The winds were 10 to 20 mph out of the southwest which made it hard to stay local, which all the pilots wanted to do on this practice day.
About a dozen out of seventy pilots flew on the practice day with the rest of us feeling that we would... mehr

Aufgrund der hohen Nachfrage hier der Link zur aktuellen DWD Segelflugwettervorhersage. Ich habe ja heimlich auf den Sonntag in Höxter gehofft aber die Wetterfrösche haben Ihre Vorhersage schon wieder korregiert
Gefunden bei lu-glidz mehr

Vor einigen Wochen habe ich davon berichtet das Seppi Salvenmoser und Guido Gehrmann das diesjährige Hahnenkammrennen mit einer Showeinlage eröffneten - jetzt gibts das aktuelle Video viel Spass.
Gefunden bei Bjørn Hammer mehr

I've had a report that the link to the coroner's report mentioned in Friday's Oz Report isn't working. I was worried about this link as it is a cached link to a report that is a doc file that seems to be missing. I've got a link to the report on my web site. Check here. mehr

In this issue we continue our discussion of light weight non locking aluminum carabineers and whether they deserve to be banished by Australian aerotow operations. No doubt this will bring up a lot of feeling on both sides of the issue. We aim to get at the truth of the matter, at least as well as it can be found.
If you like this kind of... mehr

Here's where we found the polars and/or data that can be made into polars:
http://www.willswing.com/Articles/Article.asp?reqArticleName=PolarData
175 fpm at 24 mph and 530 fpm at 47 mph, 6% increase in V2 for comp harness (which would give us 49.82 mph).
Converted: Minimum sink speed is 38.6 km/h, minimum sink rate is 0.9 m/s,  80.2 km/h at... mehr

While I've been told that the HGFA has or will come out with new towing rules, I haven't seen them yet, but will publish them when I do get them. In the meantime let's look at the existing rules in the HGFA towing manual which you can find here.
Section 3.2 of the HGFA towing manual states:
Weak links built into the bridle which trigger the... mehr

http://home.att.net/~jdburch/polar.htm
After eighteen years administering FAA practical tests, I have concluded that a lot of glider pilots and flight instructors are not entirely comfortable with the relationship between performance airspeeds and polar curves. If graphs look like way too much math for you, maybe the following explanation will... mehr