FOOTLAUNCH

FOOTLAUNCH^JUNE

Watch out!

Thank goodness May is out of the way. What a soggy month that turned out to be. June seems to be behaving itself and even throwing a few easterlies at us. The 13^th is guaranteed to be a beautiful day because it is time for the club barbeque at the Shail’s place. Ken didn’t mention or even utter under his breath that the field next to his house may be suitable for a footlaunched powered aircraft to take off from and land onto during the evening’s proceedings.

Next club meeting; on Wed 13^th June at Ken and Jackie’s house. On the left a few hundred yards south of the Three Counties showground crossroads on the B $”)* (that’s in code so only clever people can find it). Why not bring along the other half for an evening of cold carbonised meat and warm flat beer… What fun! Do come along!

Once again, thanks to Simon for his indisputable and genuine article: the ridgie didge Oz report – Beaut! More insights to follow I hope. Also thanks to TC for bringing up the rear.

Safe flying, Richard

SAFETY MATTERS and other stuff

Safety Rant

I’m sure by now everyone will have heard about the midair on Sunday 10th between a paraglider and hang glider over Kettlesings which happily left two pilots shaken but relatively OK bar cuts and bruises. It was busy at times, and flying in crowded conditions means you must keep a good lookout all the time, constantly scanning for other wings. There’s nothing more scary than seeing another wing turning towards you with the pilot looking the other way, fixated on something else, either a mate close by or something on the ground. Don’t get distracted – LOOK AND LOOK AGAIN. Or pilots in the throng who hit a thermal and immediately put in a hard 360 assuming everyone else will get out of the way. Please, you must CLEAR YOUR TURNS at all times. If you don’t feel confident in your ability to complete a 360 without clearing other gliders close by then don’t assume they have the ability to avoid you.

Wisdom Corner

Taking off is optional. Coming down is compulsory.

Flying is perfectly safe. Crashing is dangerous.

When in doubt don’t take off. Nobody ever crashed sitting around waiting.

A good flight is one you walk away from. A great flight is when you can use the glider again.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You won’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

Never let your glider take you somewhere your brain didn’t go 3 seconds earlier.

There are two simple rules for taking off and landing safely in strong turbulent conditions. Unfortunately no-one knows what they are.

You start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.

In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminium and/or nylon going at 50mph and the ground going at zero mph, the ground has yet to lose.

Good judgement comes from experience. Unfortunately experience usually comes from bad judgement.

Keep looking around, there’s always something you haven’t noticed.

Gravity isn’t just a good idea, it’s a law and can’t be subject to appeal.

The two most useless things are altitude above you, and 3 seconds ago.

And for power pilots: the only time you can have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.

Comps and meetings

Club BBQ

Wed 13 Jun 20:00 - 23:00 (3 hrs)
(London)
Veeda Glenta, Blackmore Park Rd, Malvern, WR13 6NN (map)

BBQ at Ken & Jacky's. Bring your own meat and drink and footlaunch powered aircraft please.

Dear Doreen,

Do you have a problem? I bet you do! Remember - a problem shared is still a problem but it can be entertaining to others. Ask me anything – yes anything!

Dear Doreen,

I have noticed a dropping in my powers as the club weather guru. I recently decided for myself that, even though other lesser (much lesser in some cases!) gurus thought it would be a good flying day on the Malverns, I should stay at home and cut the hedge – and people flew! And then they took the Mickey! I don’t know what to do. It’s not like I’ve changed my breakfast cereal, haven’t altered my political leanings or even taken up golf or paragliding. How can this be? I am reminded of those words so true of Albert Camus: “It's no use reminding yourself daily that you are mortal: it will be brought home to you soon enough.” Am I beyond help?

Yours, Nick Ross

Dear Nick

Don’t worry. You will find that people are only to eager to point out another’s failings. I’m one of them: As a weather guru you are rubbish.

I hope this helps, Doreen.

Dear Doreen,

Ever noticed how people throw away their T bags without a second thought? I think we should collect them together and make an artificial hill. A national campaign could see us collecting around 100,000,000 a week. My Uncle Dave has a transit van so he could help out quite a bit. Each T bag is around a hundredth of a litre so in a week we could have a hill of a million litres. Surely soarable? After a couple of years we could have something approaching Everest proportions. What do you reckon? I think it’s a brill idea!

Ever yours, Roland Butter

Dear Roland

As a coffee I drinker I really can’t comment. Though maybe you should try drinking decaffeinated tea.

I hope this helps, Doreen.

Dear Maureen,

Batten pockets! The bane of my life! Some of them on my hang glider have worn through which makes inserting battens a tricky job. I’ve tried darning them but the wool I’m using just snags the battens. Any ideas?

Stainforth Harrington

Dear Stainforth

Cut up some old hosepipe to the correct length and insert that into the pockets. Liberally coat the batten with Vaseline and insert. Works a treat!

I hope this helps, DOREEN.

Dear Doreen,

I thought “having a foot in both camps” meant flying both a hang glider and a paraglider, but now I hear that to fly a rigid wing you have to adopt a girls name and that really puts the willys up me! Should I be worried?

Yours coyly, Crispin Welfryed

Dear Crispy

In these confusing days of gender blending it is better to follow the lead of “The pilot formerly known as Bert who is now known as Y”. Make up your own squiggle and feel free to fly whatever you want – so long as it has your squiggle there is no need to worry. As an added bonus, you can also use either toilet at the pub.

I hope this helps, W

Dear Doreen,

I write to you in a last desperate attempt to discharge my enormous responsibilities. As a Government Health and Safety Adviser it has come to my attention that members of your club are recklessly endangering themselves whilst engaging in the sport of Hangparaflying. After studying the accident statistics for your club I am pleased to announce that I intend to serve an emergency order on your club to reduce your accident rate to zero – that is to serve a grounding notice on a Mr Brian Hinder. As he is responsible for 100% of your accidents this simple measure will ensure the rest of your club will remain completely safe for the remainder of the season. Could you please pass on this information on my behalf? I attempted to approach a member of your club on the hill this weekend who I observed was about to hurl himself into the ether without carrying out even a rudimentary risk assessment; when I offered to assist him in filling out the correct forms (in triplicate) he replied “stick it oop yerarse!” in a most aggressive fashion before disappearing skywards. I decided against pursuing other pilots in the distance, due to the dangers presented by several sharp looking stones and some prickly grass between them and myself.

Yours faithfully, Reginald Jobsworthy

Dear Reginald

Stick it oop yerarse.

I hope this helps, Doreen

News – It’s more just a glimpse of how local media see us that is the interesting bit.

USA May 30, 2007 6:00 AM

A Massachusetts man suffered an arm injury after tipping his hang glider while landing on Long Sands Beach, according to police. In a news release, Sgt. Thomas Baran reported Thomas Lanning, 48, of Milton, Mass., was transported to York Hospital with an upper arm injury at 5:38 p.m. Friday.

"Lanning, along with two other hang gliders, had left Mount Ascutney in Windsor, Vt., at 1 p.m.," Baran wrote. "The other two hang gliders landed successfully on the same beach. They reported the upper winds were favorable and it brought them over to the York area."

York Beach Fire and Rescue, York Ambulance and the York Police Department responded.

South Africa

Paragliders have offered a R5 000 reward for information on fellow glider Neil Calitz, 40, from Kleinmond, who went missing over the dense Alexandria forest four days ago.

Sunday's weather was benign and hopes had been high that helicopters, mountain club members, farmers, farmworkers, police officers and others would find his neon yellow and grey chute.

But the authorities announced on Sunday that the police, army and air force would be scaling down the search.

But Calitz's family said other paragliders and friends from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Richards Bay would join the search on Monday.

Calitz was carrying a three-day emergency ration pack and water when he disappeared on Wednesday night. He had been flying from Sundays River to Cannon Rocks.

Canberra Calling

I have rather enjoyed reading about the flying exploits of Malvern pilots recently as you have revelled in fine spring conditions at the start of 'the season.' I'm sitting here in the Southern hemisphere, where it's dark at 5pm and occasionally very chilly (Expecting -4 tonight and they don't build Australian houses with a lot of insulation!) I briefly think that I ought to be a bit jealous, however the last few weekends have reminded me how good the off season conditions can be, so I think on balance I'm doing pretty well here.

The local club has invested in a set of wind-talkers that broadcast hilltop conditions via CB radio so I am in the joyous position of being able to get a live readout of what's happening on the hills and an indication of how many pilots are thinking about flying without having to resort to anything extreme like getting out of bed.

The standard nice flying day starts cold, possibly foggy and or frosty with very little wind and wall-to-wall sunshine, just like the nicest English high pressure winter days. The keen paraglider pilot craving airtime can get to the hill and fit in a couple of sled rides alongside the students from the local school before the flying proper begins at around coffee time. At this point the high level westerly has descended to the hill top and it makes for an hour or more of easy PG ridge soaring before the increasing windspeed puts the prudent pilot back on the ground. (There are power lines behind the ridge to collect the imprudent)

As lunchtime beckons, the increasing wind draws the smug bi-wingwal pilots away from the delights of the sausages sizzling on the barbie or the massed decamp to the local café and back to the top of the hill to rig a hang glider. Most of the local hot shot XC pilots regard ridge soaring as too tame and have put their wings away until around October when the “leave your lunch behind” thermals will kick in again. Nevertheless there is a hard core of around a dozen hang gliders who don't mind the cold who get in plenty of hours in the much more benign winter conditions.

The last three weekends have provided at least one day of nice flying (the other days being a bit too light or a bit too strong but still lovely days to go out for a walk) The merry band of the usual suspects from Canberra have been out enjoying the conditions and the local wildlife has been there to greet us. The kangaroos are a regular sight, normally hanging around in groups of half a dozen but last weekend there must have been a party on as there were over fifty on the slope below take-off. Makes a bit of a change to sheep! Perhaps even more spectacular is the local bird life, recently a pair of wedge tailed eagles have been seen around “our” hill.

The Australian wedgies can sometimes be a pain to free flyers when they get a bit territorial. You will recall Nicky “Eagle Slayer” Moss making the front page of most newspapers around the world a few months ago when a pair attacked her near Manilla. Closer to home, there is a particularly grumpy character who inhabits our summer ridge run site. Passing pilots regularly get attacked. Often it is just a close pass with a lot of squawking but one of my mates collected an impressive set of claw marks and a 2 foot tear in the top surface of his sail after an encounter last year. Thankfully the pair at our winter soaring site seem rather more chilled out. They don't seem to do much apart from soaring the ridge and thermals, but several of us have had spectacular close encounters. Last Saturday I received a call on the radio alerting me to the fact that I had one following me around the sky. It was flying a couple of feet behind the end of my keel and a little higher than me which was why I hadn't noticed it. I can only surmise that my wake was providing a bit of turbulence for the surf-dude to play in. Whatever it's reason, it was fantastic to see such a big bird close up in it's natural environment. The only trouble was that while I was busy watching the bird over my shoulder, my flying went to pieces and I quickly found myself scratching to avoid a bomb out. My friendly eagle obviously decided that I was too incompetent to fly with and went off elsewhere. Leaving me wishing that I had a camera with me.

I reckon that's a not too shabby way to spend a day even if the probability of cross country miles is somewhere near zero.

Simon Dillworth

Low Air Time Malvern Members At Kettle Sings

At the committee it was raised how we often do not get to see new low airtime members. And consequently they do not get involved with the Club. A problem that arises because of the 15 hr minimum limit that applies to Kettle Sings. So just when they could do with some help, we leave them to their own devices at not a particularly easy site, Castle Morton.

So we have decided that on selected days, under certain conditions, they can fly from KS. Apart from a couple of reasons; spine back and houses underneath, a much better site. It has a much better take off, a reasonable top to bottom, and huge bottom landing.

How will the days be selected? Well this will pretty much be up to you. If you want to fly, even mid week, give me a call.

01684 572723

But I will also flag up days that I think will be good on the mail list.

If you need any more information, or are not sure about something, give me a call.

Conditions:

1 A Malvern club coach must be on site.

2 You must be a full member.

3 You should have some airtime achieved recently, say 5 or 6 hrs

4 You should have a working 2 meter radio.

5 A reasonably modern glider, good glide angle, with speed system.

6 And on the day you must report to the coach before flying.

See you there, Bryan.

Oiyitsmytubesobuggeroff

(Editor’s selections from Youtube – Send in your own choices)

Interesting Coastal footage with added carnage…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVkYYEWdP8w

Yawn…more totallyawsomedude flying with naff Kenny Loggins Top Gun rock - but there is an interesting bit around halfway through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pif0Vh6CX8

I only found this because I was looking for something for Oiyitsmytubesobuggeroff . But a Lancaster Bomber over Huntingdon! What are the chances of that? Pretty good as it happens - RAF Coningsby is only about 60 miles to the north.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCg1SpEan5k

Thirsty?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKr0xG4OeMw

READ THIS AND DON’T anything of monetary value but get the promise of eternal glory in spades.

Entries to Tim Crow to be in within one month of the flight.

Rules

1.    UK flights only.
2.    No infringement of airspace.
3.    Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on the day.
4.    Flights between 01/12/06 to 30/11/07.
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.

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.

And Finally…

Okay, Anyone with grey hair recognise this glider? State of the art circa 1979 and a rough copy of a famous French Groundbreaking glider (in the figurative sense that is). Answers to Doreen who will donate a prize of (up to and including) 5 lines of free advise.