FOOTLAUNCHOctnovdecoberember
HANG GLIDING edition.
I’d like to, on
behalf of the club, extend a warm welcome to Donald Mackenzie. Donald has
recently moved from
Due to the
recent concerns over the lack of HANG GLIDING
coverage in the mainstream free flying press I have decided to devote this
month’s issue to HANG GLIDING.
Thanks
to Chris Hopkins for the HGF article (sorry about the photo censorship) To Tim
C for something or other and John B for pointing me in the right direction for
some timely council.
Forthcoming
events
Next club
meeting; on Wed 13th December The
Pheasant,
SAFETY MATTERS and other stuff
If
you still have your teeth, and you don't owe anybody any money...
...it was a good landing.
If you fly Much Marcle ridge PLEASE MAKE SURE to pay the farmer. It’s
only £2.
Historical hang gliding Photos
From
JB’s archives. Castlemorton, 1977 -
glory days. Is it me or can anyone else see the almost Dickensian (as
it’s nearly Christmas) ghost of flying’s future
looming out of the ether? Whatever it is, at least it looks to have a better
glide.
Dear Doreen,
Are we entering a new age of peace and
understanding? Looking at my postbag I would say not. Ask me anything – yes anything!
Dear Doreen,
It has come to my attention that we have recently allowed into our club a member who I can only describe as Scottish. In fact Scottish is not the right word as it suggests inclination rather than commitment. Let’s say that he is VERYSCOTS. To the point Axel to the point! Well, I am sick and tired of the way this country lets any old Johnny foreigner infiltrate our borders, ravish our women and take our jobs. I suppose the one saving grace is that he doesn’t fly a P********r. But the advice I’d like from you is how to greet him – as I’m bound to sooner or later – without appearing over-welcoming or too friendly. Because I’m such a nice guy he’ll probably take a shine to me and I can’t be doing with that.
Yours truly,
Axel Despot
Dear Axel
I think probably the best way to greet him is to slap him
warmly on the back and say, “Hi Jock.
I’m Axel Despot. Hoots Mon! Caa me what ye like, but dinna caa
me ower. Keep yer braith tae cool yer parritch. Och aye! Dinna lift me afore I faa” and
then smile, shut your eyes and wait a few seconds to see what happens.
I hope this
helps, Doreen
Firstly, let me just say that I have noticed that, in our increasingly crowded skies, it is becoming more and more difficult to avoid mid-air collisions. I had 5 last year and it’s beginning to make me nervous. In view of this I have come up with a new design that I feel should be incorporated into every new HANG GLIDER and p********r. Flashing Xenon bulbs are to be installed on the tips of the glider and these will activate in much the same way as car indicators (I’m calling them the Wallcabinet Wingicators) every time the pilot thinks about turning one way or the other by means of my revolutionary thought transference helmet (I’m calling it the Wallcabinet Wishdome). I did try activating it by means of head movement as the pilot turns to look where they are going but despite evaluating this much simpler system myself for several months I couldn’t get it to work and still ended up colliding with 3 other gliders during this period. Anyhow, I’m way off topic here so enough of my ramblings. My question to you is as follows:
Dear Doreen,
I seem to be getting a lot of headaches recently. Do you think I should get my eyes checked?
Yours,
Kieran Wallcabinet
Dear Kieran,
Yes.
I hope this helps, Doreen.
News HomeGrown Festival - Or 3 go to
Despite weeks of talking about it a complete mistrust of the
weather had resulted in a total lack of planning beyond just looking at the
forecast the day before and going if it looked OK. I mean, there is no way they
are going to sell out, who on earth would want to risk a wet weekend camping in
Thursday night saw Tim, Den and myself checking forecasts: Easterly and flyable! So the decision was made to take Friday off and for once forsake Malvern and head for Pandy. Of course by now the Home Grown website had been reporting that it was all sold out with no camping available. At Pandy we found the Joint Services guys in the middle of a comp and as luck would have it an old friend with spare camping tickets for sale - sorted! It was even flyable. This was all going far too well.
After flying for an hour or so I decided to take a last run north up the ridge just as Tim & Den landed back at take off ready to leave. Of course conditions changed and I ended up landing out at the foot of the ridge. This seems to be a bit of a habit with me but at least this time I wasn’t met by a farmer with a shotgun and no aluminium was sacrificed in the process (yes you guessed I’m another ex HANG GLIDER pilot). Packing quickly and disappearing into the tree line avoided attracting attention but all the paths back up the ridge seemed overgrown, so I ended up walking down to the road where I met Tim and Den, just in time to see Tim getting a good telling off by a local farmers wife for having the cheek to park in the gateway to one of her fields (and no, before you ask, she wasn’t trying to get into it at the time). Luckily she hadn’t spotted me walking down the farm track back to the road or we would never have heard the end of it. Anyway, we finally escaped and headed off to the Home Grown Festival.
Friday night saw the place overflowing with pilots and their
families and a good party atmosphere, but boy did it turn cold as the night
wore on. The evening’s entertainment in the main tent consisted of videos and talks
on flying, giving way later to a band followed by a disco, which ran on until
the early hours. However, long before
this the 3 grumpy old men were tucked up in their sleeping bags muttering about
blooming modern dance music sounding all the same and, do they have to play it
so loud etc (I know sad isn’t it). Tim had bought earplugs, forward planning, sign of a good XC pilot I suppose.
The Band was Smoke like a Fish (Seven Piece Skapunk band) and the Disco, Sam Moffett and to be fair both were pretty good.
Saturday dawned bright and fresh with a briefing for the day suggesting Bache Hill (SE 8-15mph) as the place to go. What a site and what a day. Wall-to-wall gliders with estimates of up to 70 in the air at times, but working over such a large area I never heard of anyone having a problem. Increasing winds stopped play eventually for the p*********s but flying resumed again late in the day for those that waited it out. Back at the show ground there was plenty of gear for sale and rumour has it some really good deals to be had. There was also a pretty impressive wet weather program lined up which was almost a shame to miss, with talks by Jocky Sanderson, John Silvestor, and Bob Drury on various topics including XC flying and Sea Breeze fronts. Anyway the P***motor boys were out giving a pretty good display over the landing field as the light faded and the rest of Saturday evening followed a similar pattern to Friday now with two bands and a disco and again carrying on into the wee small hours. Bands included Martin Blake & the Whiskey River Zydeco and The Mighty Fuod with the Disco, Dirty Harry to finish.
Sunday morning started early with a hot air balloon lifting off in the next field at some ungodly hour and much later with another briefing which again suggested Bache Hill with slightly lighter winds forecast. Unfortunately I had to get back but rumour has it the day was even better than the Saturday. We did however stay long enough to watch the acro display with a pilot D Bagging from tandem P***motor and according to Jocky performed the following manoeuvres, Rhythmic SAT full stall out, another Rhythmic SAT progressive exit glide and spiral dive to land.
Overall a cracking weekend with a friendly if somewhat full campsite in the form of the Fforest Ffields camp site, and magnificent weather, not to mention some pretty impressive organisation, its hard to imagine how it could get much better (OK then some decent rock music and Real Ale) oops showing me age again. Lets hope next year is as good.
Chris Hopkins
Chris’s photos from the HGF. Looks like it was all Hangies can’t see any p********s.
World News
A
On Wednesday,
The victim,
in his forties, was transferred there on Tuesday from
Tasman hang-gliding and para-gliding club member Dave Worthington said the man was a close friend of his and had about nine years' hang gliding experience.
Mr Worthington had previously crashed on the same hills adjacent to the Kohatu-Tapawera road but was unhurt. He described his friend's crash as a "freak accident".
The crash
would have happened during take-off as did most hang-gliding crashes. He could
have been lifted back over the ridge he was taking off from and into a downward
vortex of wind, he said.
P********r pilot Angus Tapper’s wing envy turns him bitter and twisted:
A Queenstown pilot defending a charge of carelessly operating a hang-glider last year was jubilant when the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) case against him was dismissed by the judge due to lack of evidence.
John Roderick
Smith, 36, a former pilot of the Queenstown company
Extreme Air, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of operating a hang-glider in a
careless manner on April 13, 2005 at the
In the
Queenstown District Court yesterday, Judge Dominic Flatley said after hearing
part of the prosecution case led by
"You need to prove the definition of careless in this case and you haven't and I don't believe you can."
Earlier, complainant Angus Jules Tapper, a tandem p*******r operator, had told the court he was standing on the Flight Path paddock packing up his glider when he saw a hang-glider coming into land. Mr Tapper said the pilot Smith was "dive-bombing" the hang-glider into a landing.
"He skimmed across the grass really low. When I realised he was converging on me and was very speedy at the bottom of his dive, I quickly stepped backwards.
His wing-tip was at head height and if I hadn't stepped back he would have have hit me," he said. (Big deal! Ed.)
Mr Tapper said his passenger on a tandem flight had videoed the hang-glider's landing. Mr Tapper sent a copy to the CAA and laid a complaint against Smith.
Mr Tapper told the court there had been tension between him and Smith for years and that they had always had problems. Smith's lawyer Sonia Vidal said Smith had landed exactly where he should have landed and that Mr Tapper should have moved away because he "was standing on the landing strip".
Outside the
court Smith said it had been a long, stressful, year. "...I just want to
fly again and hope my licence can be sorted very soon."
Brazil
Hang-gliding tour of Rio
Here's a link to a nice video clip
(goes on a bit) of a 19 minute hang-gliding tour of
WISE WORDS
Snippets of wisdom (or not) from HANG GLIDER pilots
"pull
in, you’re going to die!"
“How hard can it be?”
“There are three types of pilot.
The first has 500 hours and thinks he knows everything; the second has 1000hrs
and knows he knows everything; the third has 1500 hrs and knows he'll never
know everything!”
“Crashing is by far the best sort of experience a hang glider pilot can have”
“I was discouraged at not being
able to take-off from
“When you are contemplating a turn
back toward the mountain while scratching, remember these two letters; T. C. -
Terrain Clearance or Trauma Centre”
“It is better to be on the ground
wishing you were in the air than being in the air wishing you were on the
ground”
“Keep your eyes where you wanna go, not on what you wanna miss”
“But the beauty of life is: you
are free to live in your own reality, and are entitled to believe that reality,
if it works for you”
“Maintain Thine Airspeed,
Lest The Ground Rise Up And Smite Thee!”
“Want long flights? Just get yourself
a glider you're terrified to land!”
“In our sport, a smug feeling is a clue that a humility lesson is coming”
“The more you wrestle with a turd,
the shittier things get”
Go4IT
OLD NEWS. READ THIS AND
In order to encourage more
entries into the ‘Go for it’ League it was decided that on entering (free
entry) a flight for the league the pilot will automatically enter a raffle for
a £50 cash prize.
I think Bryan, Nigel or Tim will be odds on for the cash prize. Just a hunch…
Pilots will get a Raffle ticket for each entry into the League, but the maximum number of tickets to be held by any one person is to be THREE.
The Raffle will be drawn at the Christmas Meal.
Entries
to Tim Crow to be in within one month of the flight.
Rules
1.
2. No infringement of airspace.
3. Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on
the day.
4. Flights between 01/12/04 to 30/11/05.
5. Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance
from point to point in Km as a
check. Flights
will be scored to nearest 100m.
6. Defined flights (BHPA rules, see below) Coordinates for
turn points in addition. Bonus
distance
awarded provided 60% of flight outside ridge lift.
7. Stone’s throw award for smallest flight submitted (or
known about) provided
distance 5km or greater.
Please read small print. Go4IT Flight Types
Open Distance (score = distance)
Open
Distance flights do not have any turnpoints. Open distance flights will score
the straight-line distance from the start point to the end point.
Dog-Leg (DL) score = distance
Dog-Leg
flights are open distance flights with a single turnpoint. The turnpoint does
not need to be declared beforehand. The turnpoint is permitted when pilots are
forced to make a substantial change in direction.
Out and Return (OR) score = distance x 2
when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
Out
and Return flights commence at a start point, go round a single turnpoint, and
return to the original start point. The coordinates of the start point and
finish point are therefore identical. The start/finish point may be different
to the actual launch/landing points but the flight distance is only measured
from the start, to the turnpoint and back.
FAI Triangle (T) score = distance x 3
when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
An
FAI Triangle is one which satisfies the FAI’s 28% Rule (shortest side must be
greater than, or equal to, 28% of the distance flown). To fly a triangle you must
round three turnpoints, and return to the original start point. The coordinates
of the start point and goal are therefore identical and for declared triangles
and local records, must be one of the turnpoints. The start/goal point may be
different to the actual launch/landing points.
Special Rule to encourage pilots to
attempt triangle flights
Note
that for non-declared triangles, using GPS verification, you can fly a loop and
you will be scored the best triangle which can be fitted inside it. Your track
log points must cross to complete the loop. This means you don’t have to start
and finish at a turnpoint but may start midway along a leg. This is to
encourage pilots to try triangle flights.
Flat Triangle (FT) score = distance x 2
A
Flat Triangle is a triangular flight as above, except that it does not conform
to the FAI 28% rule. Completed Flat Triangle flights score the distance
multiplied by 2 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
Failed Triangle (score = distance)
A
Failed Triangle is an attempt at a triangular flight in which the pilot fails
to make it back to the start point. Failed Triangles score the total distance
from the start, around up to two turnpoints and back towards the finish point.
ADVERTS
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