Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

Volume 7, Number 78
9 pm, Saturday, March 22 2003

https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

Will fly for subscriptions

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:00 pm GMT

Oz Report

Oz Report readers who have helped out on Saturday: Oops, no one today.  Oh, well.  I guess I didn’t rattle my tin cup hard enough.

You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription/donation to the Oz Report below.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Florida Report

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:01 pm GMT

weather

http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/questairweather.htm

BLIPMAP called for 300-500 fpm today.  We barely saw 200 fpm. It was lovely with a light west wind as we would climb out repeatedly to 2,700’. Great glider comparison flights today (more on that later).

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Comments I’ve heard about the Aeros Discus

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:02 pm GMT

Aeros Discus|Airborne Climax|Flight Design Ghostbuster|G.W. Meadows|Ghostbuster|Moyes Litesport|Quest Air|Wills Wing U2

It is designed to have high performance (for a kingposted glider), yet be easy to fly.  By easy, it is meant to be predictable.  Lots of gliders are easy in muscle actuation, but they are difficult for intermediate pilots – even dangerous.

This glider is meant to make it so intermediate pilots can have a higher performing glider earlier in their career and so hang 4’s can get on a very good performing glider and not worry about being rusty.

Design criteria:

1 Easy to tow
2 Neutral handling (meaning once in a thermal – no high siding)
3 Directionally stable (minimum wing walking – in yaw/roll coupling)
4 Easy to Land.
5 All of this while keeping low sink rate and as high a glide as possible – but don’t give up the first 4 to get better glide.

(editor’s note: From my two short test flights, I would say that it met all those criteria.  I expect to be able to take further flights.

I wondered about the prices that the Aeros Discus, Wills Wing U2, and Moyes Litesport (which Moyes markets to advanced, not intermediate, pilots) went for.  On the Wills Wing site www.willswing.com the U2 suggested price is $4495. The Litesport’s suggested retail price is $4995 at (http://www.moyesamerica.com http://www.moyesamerica.com/partlist.htm). I couldn’t find a suggested retail price for the Discus on www.justfly.com. I asked G.W. Meadows by e-mail and he wrote:

Discus is $4295 complete.

That includes aerofoil downtubes, speedbar and choice of custom colors.  Only other option is the ‘B’ model option, that breaks down to seven feet.  It flies exactly the same, weighs about two pounds more and cost $100 more.  One can break it down without any tools.

Looking at the product descriptions on the various web sites indicates that the Moyes Litesport is being marketed at the advanced pilot (it’s under their advanced section), who doesn’t want the hassles (if any) and expense of the topless glider.  (“The Litesport performs similarly to a non-kingposted glider, but handles like an intermediate glider, making it suitable for many pilots whether competitive or recreational.”) I must say that flying the Airborne Climax 2, I didn’t notice any hassles.

The U2 is billed, it seems to me, as an advanced intermediate glider (“The U2 is an all new, very high performance glider with handling characteristics suitable for pilots of intermediate and higher level skills and experience.  The U2 was conceived as a very light-weight glider with performance approaching that of the much heavier, more expensive, and more challenging competition class wings.”).

Aeros Discus (“A ‘high-end’ intermediate hang glider that will have ‘advanced’ pilots selling their topless gliders”) seems to be aimed more at the middle of the intermediate spectrum.  But then you can make your own interpretations of these marketing messages.

Late update: On Saturday I made three demo flights in three different gliders.  The longest flight, which took place in the middle of the day, was on the Aeros Discus in light thermal conditions.  The Discus performs pretty much as stated above.

As a rigid wing pilot I found it a bit stiff, but actually normal for a flex wing glider.  Stiff, in the sense of initiating a roll.  I’m use to just moving the bar from side to side and having the glider turn for me. In flex wing you have to move your body from side to side to get it to turn (in case you forgot).

With the VG on it was quite stiff, like all flex wings are with their VG’s on. It was very easy to launch, fly and land.  Very controllable.

I was flying with Nev on a Flight Design Ghostbuster, Mark P. on a Aeros Stalker2, and a slew of folks on various flex wings.  Nev, Mark and I all got in the same light thermal together with Mark and I at the same altitude and Nev 100 feet below.  For the next ten minutes Mark and I climbed slowly at the same rate.  Nev climbed slowly through us and got 50 feet over us.

After that Nev was always higher and further away than either Mark or I. When Mark and I went on glide, and I would follow Mark, he could go faster, and had a slightly better glide.  Nev was just too high and didn’t come down.

This went on for an hour and a half.  The Discus did a great job.  I only had one other glider climb up through me, a Icaro 2000 Laminar MRx.  And it did so very slowly.

It looks to me like the Discus is a high performance flex wing glider.

I do hope that I’m not renting these gliders, but just paying for the tows, so that I can afford to keep flying these other machines and reviewing them for you all.  With the Wills Wing days and the demo days at Quest Air coming up, it looks like I will have a lot more to write about.)

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to Table of Contentsto next topic BLIPMAP – where am I?

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:03 pm GMT

sites|Tom Pierce|weather

http://www.drjack.net/BLIPMAP

Tom Pierce «tommyp_25» writes:

This is map I made a while back, with several Washington sites.  I just superimposed Blipmap and my topo in Photoshop, and marked the launches.  The black contour lines on Blipmap stay constant, so it's easy to compare the current Blipmap to mine, and pinpoint the site you are interested in.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Davron instrument pod

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:04 pm GMT

harness|Ron Richardson|Will Greenwood

Will Greenwood «will.greenwood» writes:

Ron Richardson's Davron pod over comes the droop problem with clamps, the pod goes direct onto the speed bar, and a Velcro strap holds it in place.  The attachment point is curved at the back to hook over the speed bar so it will always rotate upwards if you have a bad landing.  The pod is rock steady on tow and in flight, it is also easy to read, 18" in total length.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Frontal pod web site

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:05 pm GMT

harness|site

http://soaringflight1.tripod.com/frontal_pod.htm

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Mark’s antenna

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:06 pm GMT

antenna|carbon fiber|Mark Poustinchian|radio

Mark Poustinchian «mpousti2000» has come up with an antenna that he claims is superior to my little dipole.  I haven’t had a chance to make a long range test yet.  He takes a hot rod and replaces the telescoping antenna with a glider wire.

He’s put a SWR meter between the radio and the antenna and tested the signal strength as he moves the carbon fiber flaps up and down.  The dipole antenna in the hang strap is adversely affected by the flaps.  This antenna which hangs down from your pod, is not affected.

The base of the antenna is screwed into a BNC female adapter and that is connected to a 6’ coaxial cable that runs to your radio.  I’m hoping that Mark will put up a web page with his instructions on how to make the antenna.

If you let it dangle behind you, it should make about a 45° angle with the ground.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Cargo cults

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:07 pm GMT

George Stebbins|storage

George Stebbins SHGA President «gstebbins» writes:

Here at the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association, we have two of the shipping containers that are used by the large cargo ships.  These are very similar to the truck trailers that were mentioned in the Oz Report.

We have taken a wooden lattice and attached it to the sides of the containers.  Then we planted some climbing plants on the ground below the lattice.  Not Kudzu!  ;-) It makes a difference in the appearance.  (Our LZ is actually in a neighborhood, so looks matter!)

We have also built a grid-like rack system, with tubes in each slot, so that all the pilot needs to do is slide the glider into the tube.  Then we built a set of locking doors for each slot.  As I said, we are in a neighborhood of the city, so we can't just leave them open.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Storage tubes

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:08 pm GMT

Brad Kushner|storage

www.hanggliding.com

Brad Kushner «Brad» writes:

I thought that your readers might be interested in seeing a different glider storage solution.  We store 45 gliders in 'deluxe glider condominiums' in a space that is 8' wide by 10' tall by 20' deep.  Each 12" tube is 20' long.

They are sloped so that the back end is an inch higher than the front end, so that anything in the tube will have more of a tendency to roll out instead of roll in. The back end caps are epoxied on, with a waterproof seal.  The front end is lockable with a novel double-pin-and-padlock arrangement.

In the 6 or 7 years that we've been using these, we've only had one instance of a glider getting wet due to a faulty seal on the back cap, otherwise, they've worked like a charm!  We've recently built a raised patio deck in front of our modest clubhouse, and we put 18 more of these tubes under the patio in a space that is 12' wide x 3' tall x 20' deep, with plenty of 'breathing room' above/below/around all of the tubes.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic We flew, too, or at least hopped

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:09 pm GMT

A.J. Murray|news

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3250418

AJ Murray «ajmmurray» sends:

Aviator's design stands test of time News - Much of the debate surrounding Richard Pearse centres on whether he beat the Wright brothers into the air to become…

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to Table of Contentsto next topic USHGA - writers contract

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:10 pm GMT

Dan Johnson|history|Jayne DePanfilis|magazine|technology|USHGA

Dan Johnson «CumulusMan» writes:

I wish to advise you of my own experience submitting to over a dozen aviation magazines (including Flying magazine from a New York publishing house with many mainstream titles). none of them requires me to invoice them nor do they require a contributor's agreement.  Admittedly, I write for these magazines on a regular basis and we have a history with one another.  And, I have obtained agreements allowing me to use their edited versions of my articles on my own Website.  But not one of the magazines to whom I submit makes me do what USHGA requires.

Have we as USHGA taken this too far?  Certainly, for a $46.55 payment, I don't see the point of refusing the digital documents.  I say, use the technology available.

Jayne, I know you are doing your best for the magazine and you have made some dramatic moves.  I admire risk-taking precisely because it isn't always successful.  Those who take risks tend also to modify their actions until they've truly innovated.  Never stop trying to make things better.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic USHGA – no PADI

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:11 pm GMT

cost|health|instruction|insurance|Mark Forbes|sport|students|USHGA

Mark G. Forbes «mgforbes» Region 1--OR/WA/AK writes:

Traditionally our national association (USHGA) has been a pilot organization, focused for the most part on pilot services.  Instruction is a part of that, but unlike PADI or NAUI (scuba groups) we've been first-and-foremost a pilot group.  PADI and NAUI are both *instructor* associations, with recreational divers a secondary consideration.

One of the philosophical points I'd like you to ponder is this:

For the long-term benefit of hang gliding as a sport, and pilots in general, is this really the right thing to do? Should we consider putting more of our effort and resources into instruction, even though the direct benefit may only go to a relatively small fraction of our members?  (i.e. instructors)

The specific example that I'm thinking of is instructor liability insurance.  Right now, our insurance covers recreational flying, but it makes an exemption for commercial general liability coverage.  Many instructors don't carry this coverage because it's expensive to get individually, and they don't do enough business each year to have a prayer of justifying it. Other folks decline to even consider instruction, because they've got houses, bank accounts, investments and the like which they're not willing to put at risk for the dubious honor of running up and down a sand dune all weekend.

One cure for this problem would be to purchase a group policy that covers commercial liability.  That would cost more (How much?  I don't know yet… let's just assume 'enough that it matters') but would provide coverage for anybody who wants to be an instructor.  But many pilots aren't planning to teach, so they'd be subsidizing those that do. On the other hand, if the pool of instructors and new students dries up, the long term health of the whole sport goes down the tubes.

Another option would be to just surcharge the instructors for the cost of the extra insurance, but given the relatively small number of instructors compared to overall pilot numbers, the cost is likely to still be too high for the vast majority to afford.

I'm not thinking of this as just USHGA-centric, though that's the specific context I'm asking about.  How do other countries handle this, and what's the perspective from there?

It's an issue that we'll have to consider and hopefully find a good solution for, and I'm curious about what you think is the right course of action.  Ponder this, and let me know of your opinion.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Once again aerial wedding

Sat, Mar 22 2003, 6:00:12 pm GMT

Roslyn Muir|TV

«research» www.yaletownentertainment.com

My name is Roslyn Muir and I am a researcher at Yaletown Entertainment, a documentary television production company based in Vancouver, BC. We are starting our second season of our unusual and unique wedding show, Weird Weddings, and wondered whether you had any upcoming weddings in your club or society.  We would love to air a segment based on a "soaring" wedding.

If you have any members who would like to have their wedding aired on national TV, then please forward my message and contact information to them.  Thanks so much!

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The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.

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