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GROUND SKIMMER PUBLISHED BY THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA HANG GLIDER ASSOCIATION AS A SERVICE TO HANG GLIDING ENTHUSIASTS EVERYWHERE. EDITOR: LLOYD LICHER
No. 12, July, 1973
CONTENTS The 3rd Annual John J. Montgomery Memorial Hang Glider Championships, a Photographic Essay. Photos by W. A. Allen What's Up!, column by W. A. Allen. • • ••..••.•• Tactile Flight Meet, by Tom Peghiny. • ••••.•.• Cantilever Monoplane vs. Strut-Braced Wing, by Richard Miller. • . .•. . • A Lesson From the Past?, by Stan Hall •••...••..•••. Starkville· 72, by B. H. Carmichael . . • . . • • . • . • • • • • 1st Annual National Gliding & Soaring Festival, Frankfort, Mich., on July 5, 1973, by Dean Luedders . • • • . ••• Ultralight Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . .
2
6 . 10 • 14 • 16 • 17
• 18
. . . . • 20
Classified Advertising • • • . . • . • . . • • • . • • . . • . • 24 Chris Wills Wins Annie Green Springs Nationals . • . • . • • • . • • • . • . . 24 New Members, If 's 849-952 • • • . • • • . • . • . • • • • . . 25 Calendar of Even ts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • 28 Book Review -- Shape and Flow, the Fluid Dynamics of Drag. 28
SCHGA OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS President: Lloyd Licher, 12536 Woodbine St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90066, (213) Vice-Pres.: Frank Colver, 3076 Roanoke Lane, Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, (714) Secretary: Carol Velderrain, Sr., 4237 W. 160th St., Lawndale, Calif. 90260, Treasurer: Charles Kocsis, Jr., 12328 Otsego St., North Hollywood, Ca. 91607, Flight Director: "Kaz" De Lisse, 1138 N. Gordon St., Los Angeles, Ca. 90038,
397-4848 546-9647 542-4153 762-4774 467-7620
GROUND SKIMMER is published monthly by the Southern California Hang Glider Association whose office is at 12536 Woodbine St., Los Angeles, Calif. 90066 (mailing address: P.O. Box 66306, Los Angeles, Calif, 90066). Telephone (213) 397-4848. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Los Angeles, Calif. Subscription available only as part of membership in SCHGA, a nonprofit, member-controlled educational and scientific organization dedicated to exploring all facets of fuel-less, self-launched ultralight aircraft. Membership is open to anyone interested in this realm of flight. Dues are $5.00 ($6.00 for foreign addresses) and include a subscription to GROUND SKIMMER (12 issues), beginning with the current issue. Back issues are available at 50¢ each. Make checks payable to SCHGA. Items in GROUND SKIMMER may be reproduced (unless it is noted as copyrighted or all rights reserved), provided credit is given to GROUND SKIMMER and the author or photographer, if noted. Advertising rat.e card with mechanical requirements and conditions available upon request. Basic rates are as follows: full page, $5@·; ~-page, $27; and \-page, $16. Circulation of this issue, published in early November, 1973, was 4110.
GS, 7-73
1
3RD ANNUAL JOHN J. MONTGOMERY MEMORIAL HANG
IDER CHAMPIONSHI
A
W, A. Allen
ic
Mark Smith of Escondido for which he was trailer, Pico Park, a Calif, It istered to
two-control certificate for the The Meet was held and UFO and over 2000
9, miles southeast of area club, 5Lf were attracted to the paces his shato one of the 4 area.s, contained a Dan Martin was awarded a for the most (3), The on the deck
A
dow
scat·tered cat es ances in awarded to Russ rain for duration sec,) and Dave Muehl for distance, 2
7-73
Norm Ward of El Centro in his Montgomery and the Saron from Kaz De Lisse left Meet Director, for the best in uch plica (168 ft.). There were two other on hand one o which made some short addition the Meet
Some wit labelled the hill with this s HILL," which Jim Honorary Meet Chairman and announcer called to the attention of the spectators. hearted Warmoth the hill 12 times to earn a certificate for the most
At the waits his Awards in to Ron Richard for :44. in a and Volmer Jensen for distance th his
73
3) Ii ia compani If you are new to
ng monoplane
minimum
ii
If you
WHAT'S UPi
umn by \IJ.A.A11en Zy
a:r>e not
pub
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I
also done became the first to And very hit a boulder Alone, and dered away from the scene. he taken his own life. Rich had
He was not
a mountain road and the accident, Rich wanhours, by time
on his own terms The.re was a Tues from among news announcement 'sashes were to be strewn the Cone Peak area near Sur, California He had done a lot of and was the first in a group of four to jump off of ,000-ft, Cone Peak almost the accident After that , Rich was :tn the 10-72
a
700 Bona that 16 Drew Gertain were the
to
into thE:. air
from
d
6
73
II
However
me themselves w:nl this
D'
II
who know down
This dedication is more their first the standard
All my the person in the future will be close pos ible to characteristics of the areas about what small but sufficient hills in Florida for the artificial dune at
to be found in
not the
time some non-standard For those to auto tow like Colorado will be
to should work. California which at as 18
' the VJ-23 would recommend whole lot less
a
off the flats to some-
are
as
Steve Wilson met Pearl chased
of Torrance , she stood up her back with the bikini the to find has not obtained similar results who tarted
and human dead, red crabs have the and
crews laxative effect on to use his Flexi Beach
away, Historians for 1971 e note found out. while a
Steve may And he
crabs are not
SKIMMER or to Calif 8
7-73
SIM
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By has one
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Hal B oun of CB new Broun d d an llent story on h following Saturday night, which included pictures from Kitty Hawk and Torrance Beach, California AP reporter Jurate Kazickas and reporter friend Wynant Vanderpool covered the meet and were impressed enough to take lessons on Cape Cod recently The Canadian contingent brought a lowaspect ratio Rogallo (about 1) and cylindrical high aspect which did not f The flying continued all day until about 8:30 PM when the mosquitos ampag d and prevent d n ght fly Wilbur and Orvill almost quit be ause of these mo guito whi hon can unde tand aft r perienc her numb rand had 1 ft and many mo e were leaving By Mon y morn flyer left fo th Fr o t met The Eipper Formanc and aft r eing th Wright Memo al. Chuck Slus r yk had mov d th CG back on his Super Swooper mad long low fl ght from the top and landed in a large bush at the bottom of the hill Mr Powell had h first Rogallo flight on that Monday and did quit well. All in all, the Tactile Fli t Met was a good time and I'm sure all participant ha Vic Powell fo o uring the whole thing and old man rank who owne th land we amped on If there had only been wind • Oh well , th Ave. Auburndale, Mass. 02166
For c Powell' SKIMMER
r
art on t
Tat le Meet,
THE MAGAZINE OF HANG GLIDING
PO. BOX 375
12
ee t
June,
l97
GROUND
AND MAN-POWERED AIRCRAFT
01
GS
7-73
u
L
HE
ROGUE
(
novJ
CANT I
MONOPLANE
WING
BY RICHARD N, MI
to mention stand to save Even more important Whenever we handle the or , we mu:st glider they could, up some erence between Our
1972
7-73
U.
GL
L
NOW
PL/\NS
wei
D R
. No.
A LE SON
FROM THE p
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tan Ha 11 ead the pag s 0 and vis t th hang glid A I arly days of soa ing in the u. s'. sites and contests I am eminded of and th rienced in the process of g owtrials and t :r bulations we up r of similarities It occu s tom that ther i what we 1 a ned in in what we did then and what we' he maturing of hang glid those days migh b useful in speedin up more, higher performan e gliders, By "maturing" I mean mo e people 1 r acceptanc by the public with more saf ty and liabil ty and whom we must deal In the arly 1930' (I wa und then) we built and flew all manner of gliders we didn't know much about aerodynamic and All structures (and r ) some of u had som very bad accidents we wanted to do wa and the dev 1 take the hindmost Inf ct, we had o many fata t e that the D p tment of Commerc (the FAA of the pe iod) eventually stepped in d losed us down Nobody the United States could f y an ai c aft that didn't have full Typ Certifi cation which, of course, grounded essentially eve o in our age group The public turned against us becaus , as "menaces to soc:i.ety" the insu ranee rates went up on whomever's property we flew from. People said, "no" before we had a chanc to pr ent our cas • Those wer bad years. As frustration boiled within we began to e where th eal problem lay and we took eps to it, We drove ourselves to study books on enginee We alked t engin ers We began o learn some thing about aerodynam cs and structu s and we actually oyed it' We applied our developing knowl dg o th constru tion of new gl ders flew them when nobody wa watching. A we flew, crashed, redes ned rebuilt and flew again we found that year by y ar web came smarter and mo e confident in ou selves and in our machines. Some of us eventually became pat of that same officialdom that ground d us in the first place and by dint of applying ourselves to safety, safety and still mor safety we eventually managed to convince th publ and the law that we we not freaks at a 1 but mature individual abl to fly without hu~t e the ours lv And we were ac cepted But it took 5 years to do I can see many of the ame things happening in today that I saw occurring 11 those yea go in "regular" glid and I am fearful that what happened to us th can happen aga I don't want hang glid o be shut down for 1 minutes let alone 15 yeas I ecognize tha ac that th FAA ha stated that it i not inte I ested :i.n us becau e w don' "consume :tr space u But, bewar will won't be long until hang glider ast pilot-launched glid r be soar os oun ry and watch th FAA reve ts lf We an tay on he good si e o the FAA by tart right now to learn all we an abou rodynamic ru tu pat ularly struc I ure Wene d also o map out elations program and execut it in an organiz d and collectiv I think oo that we ought to discourage the daredev ls among us who for the sake of immediate per sonal fulfil ent public ty and att tion 1 jeopa die our ov rall and ong term image with he publi and the law to th point that in their view we re oddba 1 who n ed b topped Parentheti a ly we had
16
7-73
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19 1
1 t t\NNUAL NATIONAL GLIDING &
RING FESTIVAL
RANI< 0
MI H GAN
ON JULY
D
u dd r
19 3
First let me repo t ht CHGA was the cub winner of th "Best Club" t rop for ult ral igh t f 1 ight pert ise d e.monstra ted a the 1st Annual Na ional Gliding & Soaring Fe tival at F ankfor I M ch on July 5. Steve Wilson should perhaps have the trop p rsonally although we altered the rul s to limit 1tEest Indiv dual Performanc II to the flat lander who per orm d only from the 100' level that Pt Brock' demon t a t d en was warmly Fo matter ongratulation y due o all the a people who demonstrated obviou 11, capab 1 ty p rienc in th par . We f LL d SU tabl 0 for Pt Bok' y Ch pt a pent mo st of h s im Smi. th over-Dave Cronk made into three feet shot the very small of Lake wate.r Organizational Soar Festival at Frankfort for next year ar lready under way. In that connec 11 tion, w' sued that bluf acil tie will b mad he mo bl h d 1 ok orward ga 0 mot g cc u t
7 LN
M ch gan ~81 0
top an and launched
from
Dan
18
and a Califto the hill there.
1
1
ULTRALIGHT MAIL Dear Mr. Licher, Enclosed are 7
photo at at Bakers Beach in San Francisco. lotti. sorry we couldn't Meet. Paul Kirchhoff #167'7,
Lambie The flew Flown by Ted Budown to the Otto
Saturn St. , San Francisco, CA 9lio14
Hi Lloyd, 10/10/73 I just to you of my cond:ition It looks like I will be unable to for 10 months to a year. The of the made my car over 5 times and me inside. The firemen had to cut me out I would from you and the other guys that Bean, St.,
73 a little over a of the small hill
I
in have started a small des etc. been doin the. and to date fluid flow a to I have around airfoils and other just kit for the I have had much up here, in numerous newspapers, television several times, and Bob from the Univers commercial
on me a possibilities " tTeff Dillon Island View Pl
C
Anacortes
WA 7
Dear overheard
Classic
watch
the
are Keith Nichols
Dear
' Most weekends are
Southwestern
20
1 7 about 6 to 10 kites at Warr<'on DunE:,s Park in • • No one has done any endurance f1 around this area
IN
IN
N&
V
N & , V DERRAIN &
N& ,-TESTED SOARING
VERY RESPONSIVE
Under$ 00.00 with Po
cne
1.
VELDl~RRJ\IN & CO, 1946-,G
90028 (
N&
V
V
54 ,c4l M. "Red" Mi 1
De
IN &
N&
IN &
LEAlrn TO FLY OR IN A VOLMER
Bu:Lld the world
()(),()(),
The who :is a the more comfortable I believe be worn able so husband and Grant th
:ts now but continues and how it is to carry up the hill likes it. It in one so that balance and control also have. helmet which much has many ai..r ve.nts and helmets Cali.fornia more helmets would available in , • , Also ustcover the and does
Now that we~ 1 ve been seems lik,.,. we' re on the the first time 300+ hour commercial licensed mechanic, Since I decide.cl to ten If what I've
pursue out of hang Enclosed is a first a will b(0:
nowhere else. ) of my It
-heavier than I built rather lots of:
takeoff to be able to send you a
Dear Mr,
10/15/73 turned me on to the SCHGA am I am 12 years old. But someI have never flown that soar Hke a but still have my face
up I
in
B, McRae
Seashore Dr,
Beach, CA
25/
Dear SCHGA,
on thE! super meet you last weekend! tremendous boost the entire sure you all must be very What As is ccmc<:1,r11ed a of our Colorado Gordie flew off Pike's Peak ( Gibas who m:Lnutes off Mt Eva.us not to be"! out done hiked up Mt. Elbert from the What next? We were sorry to hear that have closed Salt Creek to at least for the time The Sheriffs and Life Guards we can take the there sometime Beach, CA W, Coast , Kim Dawson, Chandelle West,
.
7-7
I ING for
$1.00 per
(NOTE:
to all 73,
HANG
EIPPER drill press ext. 420, Mon.-Fri., 8-4, or FOR SALE: Well balanced, Ideal for Sailforms-made Dacron lbs easy enthusiastic young Contact Pete Brock Ultralite Products, 137 St , El phone 13) 322-7171. 1 FOR SALE: Kite, on knuckle Flown and soared at altitude. 18' prone. John White ff 600, FOR SALE All brand new sail. Includes
1,
trade for Dacron Call
l
FOR SALE :
All L,
or trade (714)
00.
Sean Bresler, 140 N Hamilton,
Hills, CA,
for
18' and 00
1 1 sails, $140 00
, 12 1 Call 14) Includes card Write
NORTH CAROLINA HANG GLIDER SOCIETY, t. News
Lewisville, NC WILL TRADE
250 cc
never raced or ridden in the woods. Bill Henson, Rt Azle TX FOUND
clean for Icarus
3600 actual miles, ilver.
17)
Rockie Products one of pres Contact SCHGA Box
NGS NA TI ONALS Chris Wills
declared the winner of the Annie held at ., near Los sanctioned and conducted SCHGA for Entries were limitc,,d to 30 the pilots. was on the bas of the number of execution of maneuvers accuracy and duration handiAdverse weather of the elimination heats. from the heat to determi. ne the Chris earned l 77L1 A comp will the ember sue o:f SKIMMER.
24
7
3
26
73
LE
UN
$ '
p
.
,
i
t.
CALENDAR , Carol
Nov. 13 Tues., 7:30 P.M., SCHGA Directors' Velderrain 7 W. 160th St. 7:30 N. Nov. 24-25 , to be 50 mi. SE of Los O'Nei.11 Park SCHGA Directors' Dec be
& Power Audiat Gate 6. Trabuco Toro Rd. go to be announced. Lewisville
6.
St. seminar on Contact Prof. 90045, 13) Annual Francis M. by SCHGA, will include Mr. more. Jan Winter Box 14L+
to FestivHi.es and Canada
Labat ts Columbia Canada. location to be announced.
Monroe
NC 27023.
Bill
)
As L
As October School and other Calif. 92707,
into the same
has at 17815-A
Park Blvd.
Irvine 7-73
hO\IJCVC'Y',
i
i pp(;lr-r"ornv)r;ce dur· r11ay hovt' noU nqs llorrs's the loL 0Jve Cronk nt [>l11yR t:hout control , 11,ivc out r i vc rl"i
wri
loxi Flier fever has officially slruck Chi
A
h11S
U,c
also has had ·It in MPli 1<1inJ, Construcl.io,,
in or the Qui
be have
t:von ·1 n Uoicis
Iver.
c/o SCHGA, Inc. P.O. ANGELES, CALIF. 90066
FOB INFORMATIVE ICARUS II
to mail at second-class pos rates at Los