We all met Oleg at Kiev airport recently. Of course, it was quite
an event for us. And there were a lot of people from Aeros and friends in the
airport.
During all this time that has passed after the HG Worlds we have received
correspondence in quantities with congratulations and kind compliments to Oleg
and to Aeros. We are much obliged to all and promise always to do our best to
embody human dreams about flying possibilities.
New final glide screen
Windspeed display
Airspeed display without external vane wheel sensor
Distance to goal and Alt a BG to goal
Bug fix in UTC offset
Improved estimation of battery life time (Including NiMH)
Windspeed in the simulation mode
Speed calculation in 1km/h steps instead of 2km/h.
When the 5020 is set to feet Alt1 has a small bug when displaying altitudes
above 9999'. This will be fixed in the next revision.
CIVL uses the internet extensively and we are using it more every
year. As I am a Vice President and heavily involved in the workings of the
Bureau, I am overwhelmed with response requiring email.
I am also on Dennis' Hang Gliding Subcommittee and we made a lot of good
decisions, some of which you've been bitching about for some time. We
recommended that the Plenary remove altogether the 20% discount taken from WPRS
scores for Cat 2 Events. This is based on the fact that only Europeans have been
holding Cat 1 Events and therefore our pilots are effectively penalized for not
living in Europe. The Plenary still has to vote on it tomorrow but it looks
good.
A ballast measure was passed that I could support as it set max load on a glider
at the maximum Certification Specifications of the glider, which was what the
USHGA mandated yet still limiting the amount of disposable ballast to 25 Kg.
This is 55 lbs (very high) and I felt only limited extremely light pilots on
large gliders and VX pilots. No vote was recorded as a decision was taken based
on the consensus of the committee. It also must be approved by the Plenary. It
was.
We are making great changes to the FAI Gold Badge Program. Most of this work is
being done by Scott Torkelson of Denmark and Stewart Midwinter of Canada with
help from Oyvind Elefsen and Henry Martin. Data is coming from the OLC in
Denmark and Badges are being made attainable. The OLC is seen as a path for
verification greatly simplifying the process for pilots.
Paragliding Accuracy is growing in popularity world wide and World Championships
are being scheduled. This is seen as a great venue for the general population of
pilots. They can get involved in a low stress level fun competition which may be
expanded to Hang Gliding.
World Aerobatics is also growing in popularity and an exciting venue will be
presented by Vertico in Switzerland later this year and next. This program has
attracted 35,000 spectators in the past.
These are just some of the highlights of several hundred issues on the agenda
and I will prepare a detailed report and a brief synopsis of one page after the
close of these meetings.
Things are happening at CIVL and you can jump in and help or get out of the way.
If you have any specific questions I would love to respond.
(editor's note: I'll have a more fully considered response to
Jim's report later. First, let me say how great it is that CIVL is dumping the
20% devaluater for Category II meets. It is my understand from looking at the
WPRS ranking, that from now on Category II meets and Category I meets will be on
the same footing and that pilots will receive WPRS ranking points based only on
the quality and number of pilots who they are competing against in these meets.
There will no longer be an artificial inflator for the Worlds and the Europeans.
These meets will likely to be worth more, just because high quality pilots
attend the meets.
This is really really great news. The Europeans can have their European
Championships and no one has to feel that somehow the Europeans are cheating.
Pilots can attend the high quality Flytec Championships and know that they are
getting all the points that they are earning. I'm sure that the Brazilians and
Americans will be greatly pleased. The WPRS can once again be a respected
measure of pilot skill and there is now a good reason for non European pilots to
sanction their meets as CIVL Category II meets.
Thanks to Jim for being the USHGA delegate and for doing a good job down there
in Guatemala.)
Rohan Holtkamp at Dynamic Flight <dynamic>
writes:
I have no preference for the type of rope but rather for its
qualities;
The ropes we provided were exactly 90 meters long. Bill's were around 60
meters. There is more time to release in an emergency with a 90 meter long rope
as opposed to a 60 meter one.
Poly stretches more than 5%. Spectra less than 1%. A little stretch is better
than none to preserve weaklinks. Have you tried towing a car with steel cable?
Would you rather use a webbing strap?
Poly is twisted, spectra woven. Poly twists under load when new, spectra does
not. If your release system does not cater to twist, is it a fault in the rope
or the release? We use a swivel at each end when car towing to prevent any
drama.
I definitely didn’t have a problem with long ropes. Even using
them the first time it seemed fine to me. Seems like it has great potential with
spectra.
Bill told me that they used the blue ploy rope way back in the early days of the
Dragonfly. It was inexpensive so why not give it a go?
The three strand construction causes the rope to try and untwist under tension
and that tangles up the release bridle on a Dragon Fly. Maybe all of Rohan’s
experience with the blue rope is behind trikes?
The release on a trike is not affected by the twisting in the same way.
I’m not a towing rocket scientist but Bill’s reasoning against the long three
strand lines seemed logical and justifiable to me.
Maybe a better option is braided poly rope, not the three strand twisted stuff.
The stretch was nice behind the trike. Learning to manage my energy with that
set up/experiment the first time was a little stressful, but not a big deal.
(editor's note: I've car towed a bunch. As I recall now we always
did have a problem with the rope twisting and we sometimes had problems with
getting the three ring circus released.)
Robin's spinnaker shackle was hooked directly to the tow line. I'm
thinking that in this case the weaklink twisted at the end of the tow line
(woven spectra, by the way, with Bobby Bailey at the other end on a Moyes-Bailey
Dragonfly), and that caused the weaklink to bind around the leg of the spinnaker release.
My one bad experience with the spinnaker release and subsequent
recommendation to use a ring was related to connection directly to the actual
end of the tow line as in "Pro-tow" applications.
I would suggest that the evidence indicates that the spinnaker
release should not be directly hooked to a weaklink coming off a tow line as
this has a reasonable chance of twisting the weaklink and making it hard is not
impossible to release.
I would also suggest that aerotow flight operation not tow pilots who have
spinnaker releases hooked to the weaklinks at the end of the tow line.
At the Florida flight parks and at Lookout Mountain (and other flight parks) the spinnaker
shackle is tied to the
keel and the weak link is not tied to the tow rope but to the V-bridle, a long
piece of thin spectra, whose other end is a loop hooked to a protow-type
arrangement, now operating as the secondary release.
Bill pointed out in the previous issue that putting a small ring on the end of
the V-bridle to connect to the spinnaker would cause a problem. The small ring
on bridle would make it more difficult for the spectra to slide through the
larger ring or carabineer at the end of the tow rope.
Still even in this setup it is clear there there is the potential for the
weaklink to twist and for the pilot to be unable to release the V-bridle without
using the secondary.
There is an additional problem with this secondary, it requires that the spectra
line attached to the pilot's chest slide through a spectra loop to release. It
is quite a bit harder for spectra to do this cleanly than it is to slide through
a metal ring or carabineer (or plastic tubing). I've had this arrangement fail (on the protow when
there was only a spectra loop at the end of the tow line). Luckily I had a barrel release
on each end of the protowd.
Here and
here. This is a very simple looking release. Click Produkte, Schleppzubehör,
Schleppklinken. It works by either pulling or pushing the barrel. Click
Betriebsanleitung for a manual, it's in German, but also has a drawing that sort
of explains it. Another PDF drawing under Funktion.
I have not seen this thing, but it looks good. I like it that you can pull or
push; if the line is slack pushing may be better.
They also sell metal weaklinks, and a fiberglass cover (to protect the weaklink
from bending). Click Schleppzubehör. Weaklinks 80, 100, 120, 150 daN.
Just before the worlds the Czech pilot Lubin Gencur went missing
here in Australia near Ayres rock. I haven't heard anything after the Worlds. Do
you know something about it ?
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