Oz Report

Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

USHGA Tandem Administrator

Malcolm Jones|Paul Voight|record|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

Paul Voight «flyhigh» USHGA Tandem committee chairman writes:

I strongly feel I need to set the record straight about Malcolm Jones.  The discussion in published in the Oz Report concerning his appointment as a Tandem administrator at the BOD meeting unfairly came across as though he is a complete rebel/non-participant regarding the USHGA programs.  I realize this is was inadvertent on Davis's part and that he was just doing blow by blow reporting for the most part.  But sometimes things don't read like they should.

First off, readers should know that at this meeting the BOD awarded Malcolm/Wallaby Ranch the NAA safety award this year, for their exemplary safety conscious administration of their flight programs.

Secondly, it was at my suggestion that Malcolm's name was added to the Tandem administrator list.  My plan is (was) to have an administrator at each of the major tandem training centers.  There are administrators at Lookout, Quest, Miami, Raven, Hearn Texas, etc.  Pilots seeking Tandem appointments should be able to go to any of these fine places and pursue them.  I had Tiki Mashi as an Administrator at Wallaby, but she has relocated.

Malcolm and the Wallaby Ranch crew have been crossing all their t's and dotting all their i's for several seasons now, regarding tandem operations.  I have been monitoring this as a result of some old instances of allegations of some non-compliance (not unique to the Wallaby ranch I must add).

I also have had the occasion to witness the progression of a couple of students from first flight through high solo and can vouch that a student rated at Wallaby is in possession of skills far in excess of the minimum for the rating.

Over the years Malcolm has had "philosophical differences" with some pilots here and there, some of whom attend board meetings.  Here is where things go sour.  At this particular meeting, some of his detractors brought up old stuff, doggedly, until enough doubt was caused in the minds of those less informed on the saga to get the appointment scratched.  I personally am very disappointed in the Board for letting this happen.

The BOD acted in the same manner as a small club of who got caught up in mudslinging and allowing old baggage to be re-introduced with no requirement for accuracy.  Oddly enough, Malcolm is not so put off by this as you might expect.  He has become used to hitting walls and just keeps plugging along.

When I told him (and apologized for) how this all happened he only asked two things: 1) Couldn't the BOD see that the doubts introduced were old and supplied by folks not particularly enamored with Malcolm?, and 2) What does it take to get in to the good graces of the BOD?  I couldn't provide a good answer to either question.  That is sad.  Really sad.

So I feel bad that I instigated a process that got Malcolm some bad press.  I feel bad that the BOD doesn't have enough faith in the Tandem committee to adopt our recommendations.

I am 100% confident that any pilot that Malcolm would sign off as a Tandem instructor would be ridiculously qualified to hold the rating.  I am 100% sure that all the paper work would be done properly.  Those are my main concerns in the administration of the program: that only the very qualified (safe) pilots ever obtain the Tandem Instructor rating.

Currently, Wallaby is the only major Tandem training center that can not sign a qualified pilot off for a Tandem instructor rating.  It is the arguably safest flight park in the world.  Setting personalities aside, this appointment should have been a no-brainer.

(editor’s note: The reader may have received the incorrect impression from one of my earlier reports about the BOD meeting (https://ozreport.com/pub/7.260) that Malcolm was in attendance at the two general sessions where his proposed tandem administrator appointment was discussed and voted on. He was not.  He stated to me to the phone on Wednesday as we drove through Indiana that if he had known that this would have been a contentious issue he would have withdrawn his nomination.  According to him and Paul, it was completely Paul’s idea and Paul assured Malcolm that it would pass in general session without a problem.

Also I used the word “evidence.” I should have used the words “statements made by two BOD members.” Paul above rebuts the contention that Malcolm has not followed the tandem rules over the last few years, and I’ll certainly accept what Paul says.)

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Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:02 am EDT

USHGA – rules for holding a foreign competition in the USA

CIVL|David Glover|PG|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

CIVL|David Glover|PG|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

The competition committee was given the last spot to present its committee report to the general session of the USHGA BOD.  There were a number of amendments to the report which changed the results of the committee’s work (there is a legal requirement because as non BOD members can vote in committees, the voting members of the USHGA have to make the final decisions in general session).

One proposed amendment (which was itself amended a couple of times) was to make a requirement that any competition held in the USA that was sanctioned by a foreign hang gliding association also be required to be sanctioned by the USHGA.  Holding competitions in foreign countries is a common practice as at least the Netherlands and Britain hold their nationals in France.  We suspected that the reason that David Glover brought this up is that he felt that Malcolm might be trying to get around the USHGA sanctioning requirements by sanctioning some future meet at Wallaby Ranch with the Brazilian Hang Gliding Association.

It was felt that Malcolm did attempt in the past to get sanctioning for his meet from the Brazilian hang gliding association to avoid having to deal with the USHGA, so there was some logic with respect to David’s position.  The problem is that it is perceived that David has a pathological hatred (dislike?  distrust?) for Malcolm.  This is seen to be the motivation for his proposed amendment and no matter the logic of the proposal (if any) it is severely tainted by this perception of his motivation.

The proposal was amended twice, once to make it so that the USHGA CCC (and CC) could decide on whatever basis whether it was okay to have a CIVL sanctioned foreign meet on US soil, and secondly, by me to make it so the USHGA CCC would need to apply the “applicable” rules re sanctioning.  It was then passed.

It is most unfortunate that these deep personal emotions interfere with the BOD’s ability to thoughtfully consider the major issues.  This meeting was remarkably free of most of this relative to previous meetings, but it did come up again around Malcolm’s appointment as a tandem administrator and on this issue.

In the vast majority of the cases that I saw the USHGA BOD stayed the course motivated by the desire to do what is best for the hang gliding and paragliding community in the US.

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Flex wing spoilerons

Thu, Oct 9 2003, 8:00:03 am GMT

David "Dave" Swanson|Gordon Rigg|John Coyne|Richard Glassock|Steven Ford

Richard Glassock «ricglas» writes:

I believe that the side wires on modern topless gliders are largely redundant in terms of structure except that they locate the A-frame.  The spar structure is sufficient for normal flight loads as it has to be for negative loads anyway.  I guess the side wires allow greater maximum positive G loads but they could still do that if they were normally connected to control surfaces.

Steven R. Ford «stford» writes:

Ask John Coyne (Denver metro area) about spoilerons on a flex wing.  His last several Sensors (including his last one, a 610F king posted model) were factory modified to pilot specs to include spoilerons that were activated by sliders on the basetube.  Note John was a Fledge pilot many years ago.

These spoilers were effective enough to allow the pilot to initiate turns with the glider in full VG mode.  'pretty slick.  I always enjoyed watching John fly these things.

Gordon Rigg «rigg» writes:

Anyone else remember the Hiway Explorer?  This was a semi-rigid king posted wing from 1980 with exactly the spoileron control used on the current crop of rigid wings.  The control frame moved from side to side operating the spoilers in exactly the same way, but a structural side wire passed over pulleys at the control frame corners allowing it to move as per ATOS.  This glider blew the Comets of the time away.

Problems included the side wire coming off the pulleys and jamming, and short side wire life (revised from 100 down to 20 hours!). Also serious spin issues when the wire supported leading edge twisted in mid span - cured with a retro fit but not until sales potential was ruined and Hiway ceased trading.

I saw two of these things to which German pilots had fitted home made topless cantilever carbon frames in the early 90's at Gourdon over Christmas - they really did look much like the Exxtacy!

I believe there might be a market for a "roll up" semi rigid with a more flex wing like structure at a flex wing price.

red «read» writes:

Just can the stupid competition rules.  Build me the HG wing that performs with power steering and I'm a happy camper.  Weight shift is fine, until I go weightless.  At the most extreme part of the flight, I have no control?!

I will admit to blissful ignorance, twenty (mumble) years ago, when I signed on for that!  Two decades on Fledglings or a Voyager have somewhat spoiled me. Now that I fly a flex wing, about all that I can do in wild air is to hang on, and yell my defiance.  :-)

"Can't" is a very relative word.  You can put controls on a flex wing.  As soon as somebody shows up for a competition with aerodynamic control on their flex wing, I would bet those rules will change, and fast!

Personally, I'd like to see two independent basetube slider-grips on a flex wing.  To turn, pull one slider to raise the washout tubes or sprogs on the inside wing only, so no adverse yaw could exist.  This is simple, direct, handy, and neatly avoids any control "mixing" problems.

Pulling both sliders together would increase washout so much that some serious glide-path control might result, by the inefficiency of slowly "diving" a very pitch-positive glider with the bar stuffed.  Maybe that would be a nice alternative to a drogue 'chute, on approach, too.

I always had such sliders on my Fledglings and Voyager, and routinely pulled them both, any time I got weightless or pitched nose down.  It was so much a habit with me it was almost a reflex response.

I also had twist grips on the downtubes, for launch and landings.  These were not mere hand-span grips, either; most of the downtube was covered by the twist grip.  A foot-long arm extended from the top of each twister, pointed at the control surface.  Rotate this twist grip 90° in either direction to get full control deployment.  When you needed controls on launch or landings, you did not want to be subtle.

During launch, if one of my hands would slip when twisting a grip, I just tightened my grip and cranked the opposite way - no need to return to a starting hand position first, when split-seconds really counted.  Streamline tubes over the structural downtubes would only be better, as twist grips.

Separate the RWs from flex wings only by selling price, for competition.  Please, let's stop pretending that the owner of the fattest wallet is really the best HG pilot.

David Swanson «DavidRSw» writes:

A question was asked:

Wouldn't it be possible to make a stiffer, higher aspect ratio, topless flex wing with aerodynamic controls to provide the power assist for turning?

Yes, it would be possible.  A designer needs something to hang the aerodynamic controls off of. Structurally we need a solid rib or two to attach the aerodynamic controls to the leading edge.

Oh, that very small leading edge tube needs to be made larger to prevent twisting and horrible flutter.

Oh wait, now we have more tip mass, so we need to make the mid and root sections of the leading edge tubes larger to carry the additional load.  And don't forget to do the same with the spars.  Sort of begins to sound like we're designing a rigid wing, doesn't it? ;-))

On the other hand, maybe we should try wing warping like the Wrights, but if we do that, then we are no longer using just weight shift for control.

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Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:04 am EDT

Speed gliding (is it dead?)

Gordon Rigg|Speed gliding

Gordon Rigg «rigg» writes:

I've competed in just a few speed gliding events.  It is a big problem to get spectators and media interested if the whole thing is over by 9.00 am! This is the only time that it seems to be possible to get good enough foot launch conditions and smooth enough low to zero lift air.  At the end of the day you often get the right calm zero lift conditions, but you don't get launch conditions - it often goes quite suddenly just tail enough to stop launches.  I've never seen anyone manage to run a speed glide in the evening.

However, I think if you could run an aerotow launched speed glide you could run the rounds in the evening.  You could also do several runs without breaking down the gliders (the worst thing for the competitors is building and breaking down the glider for a few minutes flight). Thus perhaps you could run the event when people want to watch and do it with few entrants (by running each pilot more than once) and it would also be at the end of a good flying day (so there are at least a few pilots there to watch). I can imagine you could do this all very nicely at Lookout (one of the few places I've flown in the USA) - assuming they are still aerotowing (what happened about that?).

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Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:05 am EDT

Oz Report nominated for CIVL’s diploma

CIVL|USHGA

I, but really the Oz Report, was nominated by the USHGA BOD Awards Committee to CIVL for CIVL’s diploma.  The diploma:

“… established by the FAI in 1979, may be awarded every year to an individual who is considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the development of hang gliding by his or her initiative, work or leadership in flight achievement.”

You can see who’s received it before at: http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/awards/index.asp?id=21.

I believe I was nominated for my efforts and success in enhancing international communication re hang gliding.  Seems reasonable to me and much appreciated to be nominated.

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Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:06 am EDT

Scamming

calendar|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|record

dustin martin «flydustin» sends in this example of an internet scam that came from his ad in the Oz Report classified ads:

I received several of these messages from another scammer going by the name Brian Mercy.  The messages are so similar it's obvious this is the same guy.  I'm sure this all stems from an ad I put on your classified page.  The other messages aren't quite so obvious as this one but they all sound similar.  Not sure what he hopes to accomplish here, but I'm sure it's not the clean purchase of a glider.

“My name is MAHMUD from UK i'm interested in buying your Nice flying glider which i saw for sale.  I'm moved by the advert which is o.k for me to buy.  I will want you to mail me if it is still for sale so as to make plans for it in buying it. So i will be expecting your reply on it for i am serious about it. Thanks hope to here from you soon.  Regards”

“thanks for your reply to my request i will want you to send to me the pics of the moyes litespeed 146 so that i can be able to view the moyes litespeed 146 properly and also i will need your name,address and phone# as soon as possible to send you a cheque for the payment of the moyes litespeed 146 and also i will be sending my shipper down to your place for the pickup of the moyes litespeed 146 as soon as you recieve the cheque for the payment so also the payment will be send to you via a client of mine in the U.S. that is owing me the total sum of ($7,500) so as soon as you have recieve the cheque for the payment you will have to send the balance of the money straight to my shipper via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER so reply me back with your fullname & address as soon as possible if this is ok with you so that the cheque can be send to you as soon as possible ok./ so hope to hear from you soon.  Regards “

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