USHGA Hang Gliding January 1979 by US Hang Gliding & Paragliding Association

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You are on our mind When we were the first to offer the hang glider pilot an emergency parachute with 20 lines and a T.S.O. (FAA approved), your safety was on our mind. We were also thinking of you when we designed our proven Positive Opening System and easy open chute containers with a wide variety of mounting options. Windhaven brought security and a second chance into the lives of many pilots. Now, after many lives have been saved by hang glider emergency chutes, and the concept accepted by pilots around the globe, surveys indicate there are at least 5,000 of you who still fly without! We are concerned for your safety and you are on our minds. Please fly with a parachute. Fly Windhaven! 24' TSO canopy, Positive Opening System, prone container 26' TSO canopy, Positive Opening System, prone container Container colors: red, black, blue, add $4.00 for custom color Add $5. 00 to substitute supine-fixed wing container for prone container Add $10.00 for optional deployment bag California residents add 6% Sales tax Prices quoted post paid to U.S. only.

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EOITOR· Gil Dodgen ASSISTANT EDITOR LAYOUT & DESIGN Jonie Dodgen STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS· WA Allen. Leroy Grannis, Bettino Gray Stephen McCorroll IUUSTRATIONS: Dove Lawrence CONTRIBUTING EASTERN EDITOR: Poul Burns

ISSUE NO. 72

OFFICE STAFF MANAGER Co,ot Velderro1n Janel Meyer [Advertising). Wendi futile (Membership). Kil Skrooskt [Renewals). Amy Gray (Hang Rohngs) Tino Gertsch

Hang Oliding

USHGA OFFICERS PRESIDENT Lloyd licher VICE PRESIDENT Dennis Pogen SECRETARY Jon Cose TREASURER: Alex Duncan EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Lloyd Llcher Alex Duncan Jon Cose USHGA REGIONAL DIRECTORS REGION 1 Joy Roser Mtchoel Pringle REGION 2 Jon Cose. Wallace Anderson REGION 3 lam Mllkte. John Lol<e. Michael Riggs REGION 4· Lucky Campbell, Ken Koerwitz, REGION 5· none Rf:GION 6: Jim Wilson. REGION 7 Thomas Holey Ron Christenson REGION 8 Don McCabe REGION 9 Dennis Pogen Bob Mortin REGION 10 Dick Heckman Jerold Welch REGION 11 David Broyles REGION 12 Craig Mavis. Horry SudwlScher DIRECTORS-AHARGE REGION 1 Alex Duncan REGION 2· Uovd Licher R!;GION 7 David Anderson REGION 10 John Horris HONORARY DIRECTOR Hugh Morton EX-OFFICIO DIRECTOR of USHGA os we ore o division of NAA Vic Powell CtVL DELEGATE Horry Robb The United States Hang Gtid1ng Assoc10tion. Inc . Is a division of lhe Nohonol Aeronautic Assoc1ollon (NM) which 1s the offic1ol U s. representative of the Federo hon Aeronoutlque lnternahonole (FAIi. the world governing body for sporl ov1ahon The NAA. which 1epresents the U.S at FAI meetings hos delegated lo the USHGA supervision of FA1·reloleo hong gliding ocllv1lles such os record attempts and con,pellhon sanctions. HANG GLIDING mogo1lne Is published for hong gilding sport enthusiasts to c,eote lutlher Interest 1n lhe sport. by o means of open commumcot1on end 10 advance hong ghd1ng merhoets Ond solely Contribultons ore welcome Jl.nyone ts 1nv1ted to cont11bute ortlcles. pholos, ond ,!Juslrollons concerning hang gilding activllres. It !he material I< 10 be returned, o stamped self-oddressea return envelope mus! be enclosed HANG GUDING magoz,ne reserves the nght 10 edit contriouhons wnere necessary The Assec,oloon and publlCQhon do not assume respons1b1b1y tor the motertal O! opir11onsor contributors HANG GLIDING magazine Is p11bllShed monthly by the United Stoles Hong Gliding Associoflon. Inc. whose n"Olhng address is PO Bo1 66306. Los Angeles. Coli! 9006¢ and whose ott,ces ore locoted ot 11312''1 Venice Blvd Los Angeles. Col,t 90066: 1e1ephone (213) 390-3065. Secoodcloss postage Is pold ot Los An1;ieles Com HANG GLIDING mogoz,ne Is pnnleo by S;nctoor P,1ntlr1g & Ulho. Alhombro, Coltf the USHGA IS o member· controlled educotrono1 and scienhlic orgonczo, hon dedicated lo exploring all rocels of u1trol1ghl f11ghr MembershlP 1s open to anyone lnleresled In this realm of flight DUB$ for full membe•sh1p ore S20 per year ($21 for fore1gn oddreS$es]' subscr1phon roies ore S1S for one yeot S2o for two years S36 for three years An 1ntrodUCIOfY slx·month tnol os ovolfoble 101 S7.S0 Changes of dddress should be S01lt s,x weeks In oe1vonce. Including name. USHGA membersn10 number. p1evrous ond new oddress. and a moiling label lrom o recent fssue.

JANUARY 1979

CONTENTS

FEATURES

THE LARRY HALL QUADRUPLANE

SANTA BARBARA PARACHUTE by John Bastian SEMINAR Photographs by Bob Wa ud PARACHUTE SURVEY Article a nd

by Larry Hall Photogra phs by Evan Hall

Photographs b y Chris Price

HOW A GLIDER REALLY TURNS

Part Ill 34 38

40 44

by Dennis Pagen

HOW TO LAUNCH A FLEX WING b y Mike Meier THE THIRD ANNUAL by Dr. John BIG BLACK FLY·IN Photog raphs by Reggi Risolio AN EXPERIMENTAL Article and Pho tographs COLLAPSABLE RIGID WING by R.H. Cole RECORD·BREAKING FLIGHT by George Worthington

DEPARTMENTS 4 4 10 12 37 48 54 56

ULTRALIGHT CONVERSATION INDEX TO ADVERTISERS NEWS AND NEW PRODUCTS USHGA CHAPTER NEWS BIRD'S EYE VIEW by Lauran Emerso n CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING STOLEN WINGS SAFETY FORUM by Susan Gray

COVER: Lorin Ellsworth soars his Ultimate HI Starship over the mist-filled volley at Big Block Mountain near Romona. CA Photograph by Michael Mammano CONSUMER ADVISORY: Ho ng G liding Magazine and USHGA. Inc.. do no t endorse or toke any responsib ility ror the p roducts advertised or mentioned edito ria lly within these pages. Unless speclfic alty expla ined, performance figures quoted In advertising are o nly estima tes. Persons considering the purc hase of o glider ore urged to study HGMA standards. Copyright ~ United State s Hong Gliding Association. Inc. 1978. All rights reserved to Hong Gliding Magazine and individ ual oontrtb utors.

Dear Editor:

\JLTRALIQMT CONVERJATION Thermaling Technique

I read the article in the last issue of Hang Gliding about the unfortunate name our sport carries. I agree completely with the author except on his selection of an alternate name. Instead of the term "Rogallo Gliding" which was suggested, 1 would recommend the term "Ultralight Gliding." This is an all inclusive title, and I feel would more fairly represent our sport.

Dear Editor, The basics of thermaling as explained by Rich Grigsby is a very useful approach to general thermal flying. I have found that most thermaling incorporates two methods, first being to use a low bank and very slow speed turn in the lift. This is most useful in wide 100-200 ft./min. lift, without a defined strong core. What we are trying to do is to stay with it until a good core can develop. So often these weak thermals, first picked up at low altitude, really begin to sprout strong cores as you rise with them. The second method is a higher bank tighter circle. I use it when encountering a good strong core. Once one wing starts to fly out of the strong core, speed up and turn tightly back into the core. Upon reentering the core, push out with the inside arm to slow down and reduce the bank slightly. Reset your bank to try and remain continually within the core. A successful return to the core will feel as though a portion of the wing was always kept in or very close to the core and the kite will shoot up again very shortly after slipping out. A preparedness to turn, core size interpretation and location evaluation, are all important variables to control in this more difficult method. On most days the thermals will require use of both methods, often in the same thermal, the art being to quickly read the thermal and respond with optimal performance. Don Chambers Redondo, Ca.

Hang Gliding Name Change Dear Editor, Thank you for the excellent essay by Jon Bastian. We, the pilots of Ecuador, support strongly the suggestion that the "hang" be taken out of gliding, even though in Spanish it is not used. We agree that in effect the word is negative and counter productive in getting public acceptance and support. Please let us know if we can do anything to help bring about the name change. Good flying to all. Anthony F. Gittes Quito, Ecuador 4

Mike Merickel Davenport, Iowa Dear Editor, I'd like to make a suggestion to Jon Bastian concerning his desire to drop "Hang" and add Rogallo to the name of our magical sport. Go buy a Wright-plane! Steve Baran Billings, Mont. Dear Editor, This is a response to Jon Bastian's essay on "hanging" (Hang Gliding, Nov. 1978). Jon, right-on! Your proposal to replace the word "hang" in hang gliding was a good reminder that now is the time to take positive action against this stigma on our sport. I perceive many of the better pilots already excluding this word from their flying-related vocabularies, perhaps in subconscious rebellion to its implications. One rarely hears pilots refer to "hang gliders." Instead, it's simply gliders, kites, wings, ships, etc. "Hang gliding" is usually called gliding, soaring, flying, etc. In fact, the only respectable references to "hanging" used anymore are organizational (including a few archaic or faddish commercial enterprises), for example, this publication, our USHGA and the HOMA. Only when these have become "Foot-Launch" magazine, the "USRGA" and the "ROMA" or things similarly less derogatory, will we have begun to effectively rid ourselves of this problem. Our task is clear. I'm willing to help. Are the rest of us?

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

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Aerial Perspectives Aerie T-Shirts .. Bennett Delta Wing Gliders ..

. ... IFC, 7, 28, 46

Chuck's Glider Supplies ..

. 60

Crystal Air Sports ..

. 44

Eco-Nautics Inc ..

. 46

Eipper ..

. ..... IBC

. .. 27, 29

Electra Flyer Corp ..

. ........... 46

Gianforte. Glider Rider. ..

. 59

Golden Sky Sails ..

. 28

Hall Wind Meter. .

. 48

Hang Glider Shop ..

. .. 8, 42

Hang Gliders of Cal ..

. 37

Kite Enterprises ..

. 45

Laminar Systems ..

. 28

. 46

Leading Edge Air Foils ..

...... 28

Litek. Manta Products ..

. 55

M Company ..

. 50

NAA ..

. 38

Pagen ..

.11

Paragon.

. 52

Poynter Books ..

. 43

. 47

Power Systems ..

. ..... 21

Rotec ..

. 12

Seedwings ..

Seagull Aircraft ..

. 33

Sky Ship ..

. 58

Sky Sports ..

.. .... 28

Aero-Innovations.

. 51

Steve Snyder Ent. Inc .. Sunbird ..

.. .... 16

The Hang Gliders Bible ..

. 48

Ultimate Hi ..

. 50 . 53

Ultralite Products ..

. ..... 9, 47, 49

USHGA ... Volmer Aircraft. .

Wills Wing, Inc ...

.13

Windhaven ..

Vince Scheidt San Diego and Los Angeles, CA

. 57

W.O.W. Products ..

Dear Editor, Hang gliding? Jon Bastian's essay advocating a name change made a lot of sense -the first part anyway. The word "hang" is an unpleasant description of our aesthetic sport. Certainly, we owe a lot to Francis Rogallo, and the majority of hang gliders in use are Rogallo types. However, as a rigid wing pilot, I believe the term "Rogallo

AD DEADLINES All ad copy, instructions, changes, additions and cancellations must be received in writing 11/2 months preceding the cover date, i.e. Feb. 15 for the April issue. HANG GLIDING

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gliding" would be outdated before its inception. Would a rigid wing pilot then be a Rogallo pilot? The question is not as insignificant as it may appear. lf the future trend is toward rigid wings, as is possible, considering the potential for the best performance, safety and control, another name change would soon be necessary. It is also important for a name to be appealing and meaningful to the public. Rogallo would be for the public, difficult to remember and devoid of connotation. Say Rogallo gliding ten times and you will see my other objection: it is too long. We need a positive, timeless name; a short, apt, descriptive name that rolls off the tongue and soars skyward, that caresses the soul and excites the imagination. Come on, pilots, let's put some thought into this while we wait for spring and send our ideas to the regional clubs. The clubs could select the best names and decide the new name by a nationwide ballot conducted again by each club. Let's think, pilots! Duncan Currie Lagrangeville, NY

to hook in before launching (Hang Gliding, Aug. 1978), although it is a fairly simple device, most pilots would not go to the trouble to rig it on their kites. Another method to be reminded to hook in is to print in large, block letters on your wind ribbon, the words hook in! I used a strip of orange sail cloth and printed the words on it with a waterproof marker. No matter how skillful a pilot you become, a wind ribbon in itself is a good safety device to have on your kite. I always make sure to get a static harness check anyway, but while setting up and preflighting, my gaze falls on that wind ribbon several times and I see those words. Then after hooking in and getting the static check, just before making the final decision to go or no go, my eyes are on that ribbon checking the wind direction and once again the words remind me to give a tug on my suspension to check that I am indeed ready to fly.

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David Dunning

Flying in South Texas

Dear Editor, I agree with Jon Bastian (Hang Gliding, Nov. 1978) concerning the pejorative connotation of the "hang" in hang gliding. Not to deny the tremendous accomplishments of Francis Rogallo, but I think the public might still be confused about ultralight flight with a name like Rogallo gliding. When I first heard of hang gliding in January 1974 it had the totally fascinating name of "Sky Sailing." May I suggest that this set of words can bring to the public mind a more aesthetic image of hang gliding, which gives more of an intimation of the pleasures and possibilities of ultralight flight. After all, even rigid wings are covered with a sail, and the similarities to boat sailing, in terms of purpose, technique and equipment give the uninitiated public some instant familiarity. I also think Sky Sailing captures the spirit of enchantment and excitement of the sport. Once again, Francis Rogallo is my hero, but perhaps the public is Jess than totally aware of his accomplishments. However, "Sailing into the Sky" might conjure enough beautiful images in the public mind to rid us of the hang problem. Smokey Dusterwald, No. 13851 Las Vegas, Nev.

Hooking In Dear Editor: Concerning the device to remind yourself 6

Dear Editor, Who says you can't fly South Texas? In the Corpus Christi area, there are currently two sites available. One is only about 20 feet high, but is a very good training site. It faces the prevalent wind direction and may be soarable in the spring when the winds pick up. The other site is approximately 40 feet high and is a 360 ° site, making it always flyable. I would recommend that novices practice take-offs and landings prior to flying this site. This is because the site is an old gas well blow-out. In 1939 it flared for six months before dying, leaving behind a cone-shaped mound about 40 feet high, with a pond in its crater. The heat from the flame was so intense that the sand was fused into glass. A crash on this hill would most certainly result in at least severe cuts, since the hill is composed of sand and gravelsized glass. The landing area is smooth and free of any debris. For this reason you really should be a Hang I to fly the site. Granted, these sites leave a lot to be desired, but it's all we've got here, and you've got to· start somewhere. If you would like more information on these sites you can reach me at: 5322 Saratoga #124, Corpus Christi, Texas 78413. I'd enjoy hearing from other flyers in South Texas. There is a third possible site, but the owners will want a number of flyers wanting to use the site prior to granting permission.

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They Can't Stop Me From Dreaming Dear Editor, At the moment I am incarcerated for a mistake on my behalf, so obviously I am unable to enjoy the high of flying. My sojourn here was a long enough one to obtain a year's subscription to your magazine, to keep up with the news of the hang gliding world. I'd like to thank you and the many pilots who donate their experiences, stories and coverage of meets. I've found them quite informative, exciting and quite often humorous. Thanks also must go to the excellent photography that just keeps getting better. Your magazine has made my existence under the thumb of the state much more bearable. They can't stop me from dreaming. I hope to put my added knowledge of flight to good use next year. Thank you again for existing and you can be sure that this is one subscriber that you'll have for years to come. Stuart Dawson California Mens Colony

HGMA Vote Dear Editor, At the August 18, 1978 meeting of the HGMA in Telluride, Colo., a motion was introduced by Wills Wing, Inc. to require, as a part of HGMA certification, that each manufacturer test fly each production glider before it is delivered or shipped out of the factory. Such test flying was to be performed by a factory pilot, with at least 25 hours on the design being tested, and the test flight was to be of at least four minutes duration, during which time the pilot would perform the following maneuvers: take-off, stall, dive, 45 ° to 45 ° roll reversal, hands off trim and landing. The voting on this motion was as follows:

In Favor

Wills Wing, Inc.

Against or Abstained Delta Wing Kites and Gliders, Inc. Electra Flyer Seagull Aircraft Highster Aircraft Eipper Formance, Inc. Sunbird Gliders Leading Edge Air Foils, Inc. Seed wings J&L Enterprises U.S. Moyes, Inc.

Comprehensive flight testing of every production glider has always been, and will continue to be standard policy at Wills Wing. We have tried on several occasions to incorporate such production test flying into the HGMA standards. It seems unlikely 8

that this will happen until the people that buy gliders make it clear to the manufacturers that they expect their gliders to be fully tested by the factory before delivery. Wills Wing, Inc.

A Fool's Advice Dear Editor: There is always the temptation to share a new hobby with your friends, and I'm no exception. First it was roller skating, skiing, unicycles, then hang gliding for me. But friends make poor instructors for two reasons; we aren't qualified and my friends tend not to listen to me. ("That's just Frank talking; he doesn't know what he's talking about. I know as much as he does.") Three good examples of this are: I) My two boys and I learned at the same time with no instructor. On the third day of flying I was soaring. The next day my youngest son, Mike, got tired of climbing up Cape Kiwanda and tried to soar, didn't pull out of the turn fast enough and nearly flew down the south side in a north wind. "Mike," I said, "You aren't ready for that yet. Take a few more days and practice your turns." The next day he tried the same thing and crashed. 2) This year I was teaching my best friend, Jens Boeholt, to hang glide. After two days of packing the glider he was ready to soar, he thought, and "expert instructor that I am," I let him try. On his second day, things were going well, when he wandered to the right. I yelled, "Left, pull left!" so loud everyone on the beach heard me, but. .. when Jens woke up in the hospital I asked him what he was thinking of. "Well," he said, "I started going right. I heard you yell left, but ("Frank doesn't know what he's talking about") thought I could continue right and make a 360." 3) A very good friend with whom I fly regularly, Mark West, was teaching his wife to fly. She was breezing along watching the scenery go by and crashed. ("My husband doesn't know what he's talking about"). So take a fool's advice, fellow flyers. I love the sport and all of you. If I didn't I wouldn't be writing this letter. Get your friend a qualified instructor. If you have ever held a friend or child in your arms and tried to get some life back into their battered and bleeding body you would know what I'm talking about. As a last note, Mark's wife's arm healed up okay, Mike's wrist is a bit weak but usable and Jens is recuperating from a broken thumb, a broken wrist, cracked vertebrae and a bruised lung. Remember: Old hang glider pilots never die, they just lose their flair.

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• Subscription to a complete magazine on the sport of hang gliding with important information on new products, sites, glider defects, accident reports, competition, new techniques and activities • Personal liability insurance • The support of a national organization which promotes and supports hang glider pilots in almost every activity • Watches over government regulation such as that of the FAA, U.S. Forest Service, national parks, etc, and represents hang glider pilots in these matters • Acts as the primary voice of hang glider pilots to the FAA, aircraft groups, other pilot organizations, etc • ls a representative of the National Aero Assn. as a member of the Federation Aeronautique International (FA/) to represent hang glider pilots in the World Aviation Organization • Sits on the C/VL subcommittee of the FA! D establish competition rules, record

and manufacturers in competition through promotion of the competition results and the promotion of individual meets • Coordinates and publishes dates of all competition to avoid conflicts • Represents the U.S. in competition with foreign teams • Provides insurance for site landowners and clubs • Investigates and provides information on all types of liability insurance • Acts as a negotiating body for the development of insurance policies and the reduction of premiums • Develops legal requirements for site landowner liability protection • Supports the Hang Glider Manufacturers Assn. through requirements for certified gliders at competition and through promotion of HGMA goals • Alerts the members to unsafe techniques or equipment • Promotes the technical advancement of the science of hang gliding through publications and seminars • Provides

procedures, safety codes and other regulations of the world body • Recognizes flight achievement through promulgation and publication of U.S. records • Recognizes and records state records • Publishes unofficial records and notable record attempts • Is the official body for presentation of records to the FA! for establishment of world records • Recognizes flight achievement through the Otto Lilienthal Awards for significant flight achievements • Gathers, analyses and publishes data on U.S. and world accidents to encourage safer techniques and equipment • Prevents accidents by encouraging pilots to match their skills with sites through the pilot proficiency rating system • Prevents loss of sites by providing site managers with the pilot proficiency system and its management • Allows pilots to fly foreign sites by providing them with a uniform and timely rating system, rating cards and lists of rated pilots • Provides the clerical support of the rating system, examiners, observers, exams and continual update of the system • Provides for rating of tow and motorized hang gliding • Prevents unethical or unsafe training through a national program of instructor certification and training • Supports hang gliding schools through the promotion and training of instructors in the certification orogram • Manages the instructor certification program through issuance of cards, publishing lists of certified instructors, beginner and advanced instructor certification clinics, appointments and removals, investigation of instructor c1ccidents and continual update of the system • Manages a national system of hang glider competition • Publishes a uniform and timely set of competition rules for general use • Manages a regional qualification competition system for ,election of top pilots to attend the national championships • Conducts the national championships to determine the top pilots in the U.S. • Selects and sponsors a team of U.S. pilots for competition in the World Championships • Provides support, defines rules and helps manage the World Championships through the CIVL Subcommittee of the FA! • Sanctions other competitions and supports the safety and well being of pilots participating • Promotes the pilots

interested persons information on motorized hang gliding and sources of equipment • Establishes a code of ethics for motorized hang glider manufacturers • Establishes a safety code for motorized hang gliding • Encourages and manages motorized hang gliding to prevent conflicts between hang gliders and motor gliders over sites, equipment standards, etc • Alerts the members to unethical or unsafe business practices among motor hang gliding manufacturers• Promotes the exchange of ideas and advancement in the sport through national fly-ins and competitions • Establishes a Jund for development and protection of hang gliding sites • Promotes local clubs through the USHGA Chapter Program, advertizes their existence to new members. - , promotes their news and coordinates activities • Sells most major • books on hang gliding and related subjects, log books, accessories and USHGA emblems, pins and decals • Promotes manufacturers. dealers and schools by acting as a point of contact for the press, interested public and new members, distributing lists of hang glider businesses • Conducts semiannual meetings of a National Board of Directors for the continual review and revision of all activities • Conducts elections, and publishes results for a democratic national body • Promotes the correct use and image of hang gliding in educational institutions • Rewards non-flight outstanding achievements in hang gliding through the Ed Gardia trophy • Makes recommendations to the NAA concerning award of special awards in aeronautics • ls constantly aware of the ever-changing status of hang gliding and is continually introducing programs where they are needed in the interest of hang glider pilots THE USHGA DOES NOT: Spend money on its president or directors. There are no salaries or expense accounts. Directors pay for all their own expenses. The only paid personnel are the office staff, the editor and assistant editor • Receive any government support • Maintain an expensive office • Spend money promoting competition • We depend on the help of our members and volunteers.

WHAT DO ES TH E USHGA DO...

;------------------------------~-----~ JOIN THE USHGA TODAY! : ; SUPPORT THE ORGANIZATION THAT SUPPORTS YOU

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PHONE

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;

ADDRESS

AGE

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THE UNITED STATES HANG GLIDING ASSOCIATION, INC.: Offers a $500,000 pilot liability insurance policy which NOW COVERS MOTORIZED HANG GLIDING, as a part of full membership.

• • Offers SITE INSURANCE to USHGA chapter clubs at low rates. Write for details. • Publishes HANG GLIDING magazine, the only publication of its kind. Beautiful color photo-

graphy. Our new SUBSCRIPTION ONLY CATEGORY allows you to receive just the magazine if you prefer. D I apply for membership in the United States Hang Gliding Association, Inc. as a full member with all benefits. (Renew/New, circle one)

D I would like to subscribe to Hang Gliding magazine only. (Renew/New, circle one) I include my check or money order as follows:

D $20 FULL MEMBER ($21 foreign) - As a full member you receive 12 issues of HANG GLIDING magazine, pilot liability insurance, and all USHGA membership benefits. D $15 SUBSCRIPTION ($16 foreign) for one year. D $26 SUBSCRIPTION ($28 foreign) for two years. D $36 SUBSCRIPTION ($39 foreign) for three years. D $7 .50 TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION ($8 foreign) for six months.

CITY

STATE

ZIP

Send check or money order to USHQA, Box 66306, Los Angeles, CA 90066.

I I I

NEWS AND NEW PRODUCTS ULTRALIGHT FORUM

FOOT-LAUNCHED AIR CYCLE ~

! -

"'£'

PARACHUTE CLINIC

§,

Chandelle San Francisco recently presented Northern California's first hang glider parachute clinic. In the past two years, since parachutes have been available, information on them has been sketchy and limited to the scope of each manufacturer's manual. The clinic was designed to remedy this situation by presenting a coherent program of information and training. The clinic, held Nov. 5, was directed by Chandelle's Ken Nead, a hang glider instructor and veteran sport parachutist. The essential aspects of the use of parachutes were discussed, including design, packing and maintenance and emergency deployment. Simulated deployments were practiced from a control bar hung in the shop. Characteristics of the different brands of chutes were briefly compared; however, manufacturers' representatives were not present to promote their products. Most of the clinic emphasis was on decision-making and care and use of chutes, with less discussion of the merits of particular brands. The clinic was well attended, an encouraging sign of the increasing awareness of this important aspect of hang gliding safety. For those who missed the first clinic, the course will he repeated soon. Contact Chandelle San Francisco for details (415-756-0650).

ii:

Striplin Aircraft Corporation announces the first flights of the FLAC (Foot Launched Air Cycle) Oct. 24, 1978, at El Mirage, CA. The testing program is progressing smoothly with all objectives being met. The FLAC is stable and easy to fly, according to 19-year-old test pilot Paul Striplin, who is a nine-hour total time student pilot. With the low-drag enclosed cockpit, a rigid cantilever wing and the laminar airfoil, the speed range is greatly increased over the standard gliders. The wing is swept back with a rectangular planform, using a special German airfoil, which produces high lift with low drag and pitch moments. The ease of flying is due to the full three axis controls which are operated exactly like conventional aircraft. Pitch and roll are controlled by a side stick which has a mixer to operate the same control surface as either an elevator or aileron.

The twin rudders mounted on the wingtips provide yaw control and are activated by cables on the foot pedals. They may be opened independently or together to provide airbrakes. The rudders also act as span-wise flow control fences, which increase lift and reduce drag. The pilot sits inside a fiberglass fuselage, on a hammock-type seat which allows freedom to foot launch through the bomb bay doors located in the bottom of the pod. Three-wheel landing gear with steerable nose wheel is available. Optional power is provided by a reduction unit that produces a climb rate of about 300 ft./min. SAC does not sell engines, but recommends a current engine manufacturer's package. The FLAC is available in an assembly kit and materials kit. For more information write: Striplin Aircraft Corp., P.O. Box 2001, Lancaster, CA 93534.

An ultralight aircraft forum conducted by Mike Grossberg will be held at the EAA Sun 'n Fun fly-in in Lakeland, Fla., Jan. 21-27, 1979. Everyone is invited.

FANTAIL DESIGN

GLIDER:

ASME AWARD Paul B. MacCready, President, AeroVironment Inc., recently received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Spirit of St. Louis Medal, given for meritorious service in the advancement of aeronautics and astronautics. MacCready was cited for his conception and direction of the design, construction and flight on August 23, 1977, of the Gossamer Condor, the first man-propelled aircraft to fly the 112 mile figure 8 course prescribed by the Royal Aeronautical Society. MacCready's career has focused upon services and research in atmospheric, aeronautical, environmental and energy science engineering. His work on systems engineering and systems in-

strumentation has led to five patents. He has also authored or co-authored more than 100 papers and reports. In 1976 MacCready headed a team which developed the Gossamer Condor, winning the Kremer Prize, the largest in history, for manpowered flight. MacCready is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He holds a B.S. in Physics from Yale University, an M.S. in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology.

Fantail (weight shift flex wing) F. Marshall 36 ft. 52 lbs. 9sq.fl.

DESIGNER: SPAN: WEIGHT: TAIL AREA: ASPECT RATIO: 8.75 CALCULATED GLIDE ANGLE: 10.49 at 40 KpH SINK RA TE: 2.2 ft.I sec. WASHOUT AT TIPS: 20 ANHEDRAL: 3 Vi ROOT CHORD: 4 ft. RECOMMENDED PILOT WEIGHT: 120-140 lbs. 18 KpH STALLING SPEED: SAIL AREA: 145 sq. ft. OTHER FACTS: No crossbar V tail Parachute capabilities good. 0

HANG GLIDING

THE ULTRALIGHT CHAIR

NEW FROM WILLS WING Wills Wing announces the addition of two new designs for the 1979 model year. The first will be a super floater, designed to optimize the lower speed range, and provide responsive handling at extremely low speeds. Prototypes are currently flying in two sizes. The other new design will be a high speed screamer, designed for sensitive handling and to optimize the upper speed range. Prototypes currently flying have demonstrated a broader speed range and better high speed glide than anything we've flown to date. No prices or release dates have yet been set for the new models.

Ultralite Products announces an intriguing new product that will be of interest to hang glider pilots, skydivers, sailplane pilots and other sky watchers. The "Ultralite Chair" was designed by Peter Brock for the UP team flyers to relax in while at competition events. The chair is now in production and is available in a myriad of colors. It comes in kit form with all holes drilled and

needs only two 7 I 16th wrenches for assembly. The structure is made of aircraft grade hardware, tubing and fittings. The UP chair can be folded flat for storage with the removal of a single wingnut. The price is $95. Contact UP Inc., P.O. Box 582-G, Rancho/Temecula, Ca. 92390.

Wills Wing announces the addition of a new larger size ALPHA, the ALPHA 245. The 245 was developed specifically for those pilots in the 190 to 250 pound weight range. With the addition of the 245, the ALPHA is now available in four sizes, covering pilot flying weights (including all instruments and accessories) from 110 pounds to 250 pounds. The new 1979 ALPHA's feature an expanded leading edge pocket, nearly indestructible foam/ fiberglass battens and a new velcro batten retaining system which is clean and efficient. The ALPHA comes with a long list of standard features, including a comprehensive factory flight test. Specifications: leading edge-21.5 ft., keel-14 ft., span-37 ft., area-245 ft.', payload190-250 lbs., nose angle-111 °, billow-.5 °, glider weight-55 lbs., control bar height-5 ft. 3 in.

PILOTS! LEARN TO FLYSAFER, HIGHER, FURTHER L'ji-T/)-nr1!1· !/111,trnlr'II !n//!Flllr1/iu11 (;1111m11/1·!'i/ Tu /111/iro,·!' J'1J111 F/yi11g. 11·1i//{'// lh .·/ ['Sf-1(; I / 11.,/111c/1J}.

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DETAILS ON: COMPETITION* MOTORIZING* EFFICIENTTURNING * POLARS - SPEEDS TO FLY* THERMAL TECHNIQUES - DISTANCE SOARING* PERFORMANCE TUNING* DESIGN CONCEPTS * INSTRUMENTS * ADVANCED EQUIPMENT - SPOT LANDING. $6.95 ~ 45c POSTAGE.

HANG GLIDING AND FLYING SKILLS - A COMPLETE TRAINING MANUAL - DETAILS ON: BEGINNING FLIGHT - INTERMEDIATE SKILLS - ADVANCED MANEUVERS * SIMPLE AND ADVANCED AERODYNAMICS GLIDER DESIGN* GLIDER REPAIR - SELECTING EQUIPMENT - THERMALLING * HANG GLIDING HISTORY - CROSS-COUNTRY* TANDEM FLYING TOWING AND MUCH MORE. $5.95 - 45c POSTAGE.

HANG GLIDING AND FLYING CONDITIONS - THE ROAD MAP TO THE SKY - DETAILS ON GENERAL WEATHER - TURBULENCE - ROTORS WIND SHADOW * SEABREEZES - WIND GRADIENT - SOARING CONDITIONS* THERMALS* WAVES* WINDS ALOFT - LOCAL WINDS - CLOUD TYPES * SITE READING AND MUCH MORE. $5.95 - 50c POSTAGE. $10.95 - 55c POSTAGE FOR ANY TWO $14.95 - 75c POSTAGE FOR ALL THREE. DENNIS PAGEN, 1184 ONEIDA ST.. STATE COLLEGE. PA 16801 DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

JANUARY 1979

Edited by John Ballantyne The Ridge Rider New England Hang Gliding Assn. P.O. Box 395 New Highlands, Ma. 02161

September issue - Lowell Instructor Flies Pants Off Student. Earlier this year, Roxanne Aree, a student in Bill Blood's "advanced" hang gliding class, introduced a new concept at Blanchard Hill. It seems that Roxanne managed to split both legs of her jeans all the way around during a short flight here. Bill Blood, who was on the scene, was quick to point out that it was not clothing failure, but instead was superior glider training and muscle toning which caused the costume mishap. The incident is reported to have started research in Wilton on more and different types of breakaway hang gliding clothes. October issue - University of Lowell Fly-in. The fly-in at Morningside over Columbus Day weekend was very successful, with more than 30 people out of those who registered showing up to fly. Several schools were represented, including a group from as far away as the University of Maryland. The weather cooperated to give good conditions on all of the three days, with Saturday being the best, the hill being crowded with gliders. The competition was arranged to allow participation at every level of flying skill, with at least one person never having flown before at all. Most of the flights were from the 80-100 ft. training hill, and at first it was quite difficult just to keep track of who was flying or had just flown, because of the long lists the scorers had to shufne through to find their name. It was kind of a duration event with points being given for takeoff and landing also, and it was usually these points which had the most to do with the final score. There were flying tasks as well, and they had been set up so that the flyers would be working towards their next rating while competing (those with Class I would be flying from higher up and doing 90° turns, etc.). Many ratings were earned during the weekend, and the whole event will be repeated at least once next year. Many thanks to Bill Blood and all the scorers and timers. October issue - NEHGA Meeting Notes. It was reported at the October meeting that Blanchard Hill has been closed for flying. Apparently there has been quite a bit of vandalism at the site (not necessarily by pilots), but with nobody there to keep track of things, the situation has gotten out of hand. The owner is selling the property, which is a ski area in the winter, and it looks like the only chance for flying is if the new owner is agreeable to such activity. A super site and a real loss to the flyers in this area. Torrey Pines Hang Gliding Assn. Chapter #46 9046 Flanders Dr. San Diego, Ca. 92126 November issue -The Torrey Pines Hang Gliding Association was formed by a group of 64 somewhat saddened pilots. Torrey Pines Cliffs

were illegal to fly. That was during the first part of the year. By May 28, 1978, pilots were legal again. But the same problems persisted. Everyone wants to fly but no one wants to work. November 16, 17, and 18, Barbara Graham and the TPHGA will try to raise some funds for the "Aero Space Museum Fund" and our first publication should be in the mail by the end of November. We still need a flight director. I think our present one is resigning.

$500 for allowing us to land on their property. Now the writers of the ordinance are wondering if they are in fact violating constitutional rights. Now the City Parks and Recreation Department is not sure they can ask that we obtain a permit. I thought these people were there to guide us! Are they really in the 'know'? Well, as it turns out, the city now knows we are capable of obtaining liability insurance (as a club) and has lifted the ordinance temporarily whilst the City Attorney investigates its validity.

International Sky Riders #32 35 De Ville Circle Williamsville, NY 14221

Santa Barbara Hang Gliding Assn. #26 P.O. Box 40114 Santa Barbara, Ca. 93103

October issue - Aug. and Sept. Meeting Notes. Harriat Holister (a New York site - ed) was closed because the gliders were "spoiling the scenic view." This site has been re-opened, but to fly there you must have a signed and notarized waiver. After signing and notarizing, give to Bob Russer, or mail to the Rochester Club. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first New York State Park opened to hang gliding, so let's not abuse the privilege! At the August meeting we had silent movies because the 'Purple Avenger' forgot to bring the sound projector. That's alright though-he more than made up for the lack of sound with his big mouth! These newsletters are typed by a non-flyer who happens to be married to a pilot. The membership voted to recognize our newsletter typist with a dinner out. My wife, Pat, and I thoroughly enjoyed our evening out-thank you! (Will this become a nationwide policy? - ed.) San Bernardino Hang Gliding Assn. #16 P.O. Box 1464 San Bernardino, Ca. 92410 (no date) The San Bernardino Hang Gliding Assn. (formerly the Inland Hang Gliding Assn.) is beginning to take hold. As of this date, we have approximately 125 official members from throughout the state who are showing great enthusiasm for the club. The city of San Bernardino came up with an ordinance against hang gliding and the city police were trying to enforce it. I have talked with the City Parks & Recreation Department, the City Attorney, the Assistant Police Chief and the Director of the Regional Little League Ball Park (owners of the landing area - ed) concerning a permit to fly over or into city-zoned property. But somewhere along the way, someone came up with the idea that what the ordinance was trying to forbid was in fact none of the city's business. The FAA controls air space. The city does not own the take-off point so they cannot stop us from flying. They (the police) even threatened land owners that they would be cited and fined

Cater Trash Cans. Because the cans at Cater (local site - ed) seem to be a popular dump site for every bit of junk within 100 yards, and since it seems that people won't dump their trash in the cans or on the ground if the cans are removed, it was decided to remove the cans and see what happens with the trash situation for the next 60 days. September issue - W.D. Trash Cans. It was reported that Bill Smith still has the key to the lock that holds one trash can in place. Oh, God, please return the key, Bill.

CZ::

Cl)

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HGMA MEMBER (full certification in process)

Cl) Sophisticated, yet Uncomplicated Tne New SENSOR 210. Best all around Sens yet. Affords very docile handling with an e cellent sink rate and LID. Aspect ratio 6.5, fl camber sail, available in 5 sizes. For the intE mediate. SENSOR 411 INTERNAL CROSS BAR. An el gant union of art and science. For soarir achievement and pleasure. Tireless thermalir with a fast and efficient cruise speed. Und development since Sept. 76. Patent pendir cross bar and new full round tips, 80% doub surface, aspect 8.5, available in 4 sizes. F the ultimate adventure. You owe it to yourse to find out more. Write today, info pack free. Kit or complete. r\~ . J . Dealers inquire on letterhead. \..JUtJCaHJl!lt Contest & Professional flyers w inquire. (805) 682-425 SW 1919 Castillo Santa Barbara Ca. 93101

HANG GLIDING

Finally someone has taken a professional approach to flight instrumentation. By consolidating three important instruments into one lightweight deck, our new CHAD AVTTM Flight Deck allows easier viewing, faster reference and better soaring performance.

Impact Resistant. The flight deck combines the latest Colver Variometer (SXC), the Thommen Altimeter and an optional digital elapsed time meter:'' All protected from impact in a resilient molded shell, finished with polyurethane enamel that yields a mar~resistant exterior. Colors include thermal red, turbine orange, and beta yellow. A black anodized aluminum panel front with a fine grain finish, trimmed with jet black neoprene ''Elapsed time meter is currently under development along with front panels to accommodate the Theotek variometers and the Altimaster III. Both will be available soon.

and complete the flight deck. Or purchase the entire unit complete from Wills Wing, Inc. or your local dealer. molding complements When factory installed, nicad the flight deck for a professional batteries can be recharged through appearance. battery jack on panel front. Four Lightweight Design. screws provide easy access for The flight deck weighs only 2y,( battery replacement or service. pounds - far less than the instru~ An aluminum tube mount ments in their original mountings extended from the flight deck - and its compounded curve fits any one inch outside diameter design reduces drag. control bar boom mount. Allows The flight deck may be pur~ infinite tilt, height and rotation chased three convenient ways. In adjustment to suit your needs. An kit form for self installation. Or for optional control bar boom mount a nominal $20 factory charge, we of black anodized aluminum is will install your current instruments available through Wills Wing. The CHAD AVT Flight Deck. Professional. Convenient. Performance like you've never experienced.

WlllS WING, IN~ 1208-H E. Walnut Street, Santa Ana, California 92701, (714) 547-1344

THE LARRY HALL QUADRUPLANE by Larry Hall with an Introduction by Richard Miller Photographs by Evan Hall "Sometime in the future, when the first hot rush of cliff-jumping has subsided, and accomplished hang glider pilots can be counted in the hundreds rather than by two's and three's, there may well be a pause for a look back at some of the gliders built 50 to 75 years ago." -- Richard Miller, Ground Skimmer, November, 1972. INTRODUCTION

For anyone interested in gliding and soaring flight, the early 1970's was a special time. The most obvious, or at least the most visible reason for this was the highperformance fiberglass sailplane, for by 14

that time all the innovations and developments that had been refined in the previous decades, most notably laminarflow airfoils and monocoque construction, came together in an aircraft of superb per! ormance and stunning beauty. Anyone who had participated in the long struggle that had begun a half century earlier on the Wasserkuppe, or who was able to appreciate the magnitude of the problems that had been overcome in those 50 years, could look at the end product with a sense of great satisfaction. But there was a shadow side to this bright picture. The fiberglass sailplane was both complex and expensive to manufacture,

and only the most exceptional individuals, of whom there were fewer than a handful, could muster the energy, the knowledge and the capital required to produce such an aircraft working alone, so the Job was transferred increasingly to factory workers. To the degree that this happened, the home builder-the individual with the desire to realize his own dream -found himself less able to get a toe-hold in the business of designing and building flying machines. The ultralight movement, the beginnings of which were the other noteworthy event of the early 1970's, changed all that. The sport of gliding and the allied sport of glider designing came down to earth with a HANG GLIDING

bang-or a plop. One measure of the size of the plunge it took could be seen in the LID figures, which dropped a whole order of magnitude. But now the sport was within reach and it was quickly grasped. Now, for the simple reason that the idea was established, it became possible to design, build and fly one's own glider, frequently at less expense than an RIC model would entail. It happened often enough that the result flew poorly, or not at all, but the investment gave a quick return in education that was worth the admission price; and in most cases it was possible to pick up the pieces and after a small spell for healing, try again. While the participants were enjoying themselves, there were also treats for the observer. Over the years, the fiberglass sailplanes seemed to converge in a single farm. A casual visitor to a National Soaring Championships could be forgiven for thinking that the rows of white gliders he saw had all come from the same mold. Now that mold was broken-shattered in fact. There was a new attitude toward performance, mixed with a kind of benign ignorance about aerodynamics that jolted the imagination and resulted in a great richness of design and innovation. Out of the workshops, sheds and garages came not just monoplanes and biplanes, but tandem monoplanes and tailless biplanes, arc wings, ring wings, canards and a good deal else not so readily classified. And Larry Hall's Quadruplane. Larry Hall is not the first person to have built and successfully flown a multiplane hang glider, that distinction going to Matthew Sellers sometime prior to 1908 (Ground Skimmer, November 1972, page 12 and May 1975, page 30). It is highly unlikely that Sellers made more than short, straight glides, however, while Larry soars his ship regularly, or irregularly, as the case may be, and finds it soars well. To me, Larry's quadruplane represents everything that's best about ultralight flight: careful design, based on the best available information, excellent craftsmanship and successful flight. But most of all, it expresses one individual's response to an inner prompting; a response that is personal and unique. Everyone who sees the quadruplane fly, or who sees pictures of it in flight, will have to make up his own mind whether man's romping in the sky is better or worse for having a glider with four wings amid the myriad forms. For my part, I think soaring would be considerably poorer without it. Upon seeing a quadruplane for the first time, one may well ask, "Why?" There are many reasons why I chose to build a JANUARY 1979

Left to right: Art Anderson, Terry Lobochefsky, Jed Hall, Larry Hall, Don Bench and Klaus Hill.

stepped multiplane, a few of which I shall try to relate. I wanted a machine that could turn more sharply, fly more slowly and soar in lighter lift than gliders presently available: something a little closer to the realm of bird flight or radio control model-glider flight. While watching model gliders fly, I have often thought how neat it would be to stay up in winds as light as they stay up in and turn as sharply as they turn. It would not be possible to come very close to that ideal with any existing hang glider, I thought, but if I could put a little bit of myself on each of several small gliders and fly them all in formation ... ? That is what got me started on the multiplane idea. A stepped multiplane like the one Matthew Sellers used, I feel, is the best choice. There is probably less interplane interference using the stepped configuration and by giving each successive wing, starting from the top, about V. degree less incidence, a positive pitch stabilizing force is set up, even though each individual wing might have a high-lift, unstable airfoil. By some theories, the quadruplane is easily capable of outperforming all competitors. Take tip drag for instance. Tip losses go up by the square of the chord, or in this case down by the square root. Take any monoplane and "quadruplane it" and the tip drag of all four wings added up will be exactly one fourth that of the original monoplane! Or you could build a multiplane with similar performance to a monoplane but with a much reduced span for a much better roll rate and decreased turning radius.

Although interplane interference, lower Reynolds numbers and external bracing take their toll on such optimistic thinking, I am definitely convinced that there is a net gain with a multiplane. I think a cantilevered quadruplane would be the next logical step to explore the potential further. There are other benefits to a quadruplane, like always having plenty of help. No one would turn down a chance to help launch a quadruplane. It could be the answer to crowded airspace; I mean who would want to fly close to something creating eight tip vortices? Or take the problem of stalling; if you stall one wing, you still have three to go! You have to put up with a little ribbing though. Someone is likely to say, "Ha, looks like you took off flying with a set of bleachers!" And there is always someone with the old flying venetian blind gag. Although I have just begun to explore the glider's potential, I can tell some things about its flight characteristics and performance. When the glider is held ready for take off, it is quite tail heavy and requires a tail runner, but the short span makes it easy to keep the wings level. Once airborne, the quadruplane gives a sensation unlike any other hang glider I have flown. In a turn, I feel almost as if I were swinging out like a pendulum until I reach the desired bank angle. I can feel the tip rudders causing the glider to roll as well as yaw, since the rudders are placed behind and below the center of gravity. Spectators on the ground have commented that the rolling motion seems to pivot around a point centered at the root of the top wing, which is ten feet above me. 15

This would explain the pendulum feeling. If lift is suddenly encountered, I get the feeling of going up in quite an efficient way. Sailing alone in smooth air, the glider feels steady, safe and at home in the air. During my first few flights, I was a little startled as I glanced out at the wings, and it seemed I could almost reach out and touch the wing tips. Coming in for a landing, the small amount of inertia of the wings can be felt by the immediate response to rudder corrections. It flairs easily and touch down is always light and almost at a standstill. If compared to a current generation highaspect ratio Rogallo, the glide angle seems somewhat less, but the sink rate so far appears to be as good. Let's compare it to a monoplane glider of the same span and wing area though, which is the only fair comparison. Such a glider would have a span of 20 feet and a chord of ten feet with a resulting aspect ratio of two. Compared to that, I think I can safely say that performance is very good. The type of construction I chose is similar to that of the Icarus II; aluminum tubing spars, wire-braced, styrofoam ribs with dope and fabric covering. The rudders are actuated by twist grips located on the

u~~m@J~B~lJ A n~s§' by SUNE31RC>

GL-IC>ERS

down tubes of the control bar. The control bar is not actually a structural member of the glider, as is the case with most hang gliders. It is merely something to hang on to while flying and helps support the glider on the ground. Other types of construction may lend themselves well to the multiplane idea. Foam and fiberglass may be ideal for a glider with so many small wings. I would definitely encourage anyone who is contemplating building a step glider or experimenting with other new and old ideas. It is a tremendous thrill and a great satisfaction to build and fly your own design . ...-

SPECIFICATIONS Spans from top - (No. 1) 20' 10"; 19' 10"; 18' 10"; 17' 10" Chord - 2' 6" Wing Area - 185 square feet Dihedral - 6 degrees Weight - Approx. 65 lbs. Stagger - 45 degrees Sweep - 10 degrees Airfoil - Similar to Icarus II without reflex Rudder Area - 2.36 square feet each Overall height - 10 feet.

s85•50 r:11=1Rn~s§' Ufl~MlPO~§~lJ s 99.50 by

SUNE31RC>

GL-IC>Ei=.?S

SOOY INCLINATION ADJUSTABLE 1N FLIGHT

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uNCOMPLICl:,,Tf:D Tt.K.E:OFFS UNSURP,O,SSEO $UP~ORT

AND COMFORT

WIU.NOf

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NO FOOT STIRRUP H4S$El...

ADJUSTABLE. CHtST STRAP

Includes padded knee hangers, carabiner, and piatley. • To order your harness or for more Jl'.lformatioo write or call:

SUNBIRD GLIDERS 12501 GI.AOSTOl\fE AVE., # A4 SYLMAlt CALIFORNIA 91342 . (213) 361-8651 • Please specify pilot ne,gm and weight when ordering by mail. • A minimum $20.00 deposit must accompany all mail orders. • ONLY $85.50 f.o.b. Svlmar. Californians add 6% sales tax. - DEALERS INQUIRIES INVITED -

Includes supine stirrup and carabiner. • To order your harness or for more information write or call:

SUNBIRD GLIDERS 12501 GLADSTONE AVE., # A4 SYLMAR, CALIFORNIA 91342 (213) 361-8651 • Please specify pilot height and weight when ordering by mail. • A minimum $20.00 deposit must accompany all mail orders. • ONLY $99.50 f.o.b. Sylmar. Californians add 6% sales tax. - DEALERS INQUIRIES INVITED -

HANG GLIDINC

T C UTE

E I

'High adrenaline deployments" put manufacturers' chutes to the test by Jon Bastian

Photographs by Bob Waud

Bob Trampenau, organizer of the seminar, talks with participants who practiced deployments. Seated is Russell Stewart, President of SBHGA.

You had to be there. Reading this is the closest thing to being there, maybe better. There we were, 100 pilots and enthusiasts and all the hang glider parachute manufacturers or their righthand representatives, at the first hang glider parachute seminar, and guest speaker Dan Poynter was staring us down and calling 60 percent of us dumb or something like that. Thirtyfive percent mumbled, "Not me, Dan," three percent had no opinion, while the remaining people stared wordlessly, speechless-dumbfounded. Maybe he had a point there, on two counts. One-we are definitely not playing with a full deck if we own a parachute and we fly a 100 -200 ft. soaring site without it. Two hundred feet is the manufacturer's suggested minimum deployment altitude under normal conditions. However, the 200 ft. minimum excludes ridge

JANUARY 1979

sites ranging from 50 ft. to 200 ft. with prevailing incoming winds of 15-30 mph which could open a canopy just as if you were falling 15 mph or 10 ft. per second because the air flows UP; thus a parachute serves as a wise backup precaution against an in-flight emergency, while flying a low altitude ridge site like California's Ft. Funston, Pt. Fermin or Torrey Pines, as well as Long Island's North Shwe or Massachusetts' Cape Cod, to name only a few. Two-for not wearing a parachute whenever we hang glide, period. The occasion of this scolding was "A Parachute Seminar," conceived and organized by Robert Trampenau, designer and manufacturer of Sensor gliders. The Santa Barbara Hang Gliding Association sponsored the event and provided additional person power. Trampenau saw the seminar as a practical, informative way to provide feedback between hang

glider parachute manufacturers and pilots, during which practical application of the parachutes could be examined with both the consumer and the manufacturer benefiting. He said that when he first made the transition from sailplanes to hang gliders in 1974, he was surprised to see that there were no safety parachutes in what was actually a field of experimental ultralight aircraft. With every flier almost performing the duties of a test pilot, he thought it dangerous to go up unprepared without a secondary safety system. When parachutes were available in 1976 he bought one, but when his last parachute went up in smoke along with his van, he found it necessary to buy another. It was a matter of sharing the information on a larger scale, he explained. With the help of the SBHGA, manufacturers and speakers were scheduled and parachute deployment stations were organized. The first, but hopefully not the last, parachute seminar became a reality. What better way to encourage more familiarity and application of parachutes to hang gliding? But who is this uppity Dan Poynter guy who's poking sticks into our bicycle spokes, anyway? Is he someone's brother-in-Jaw? Who the heck invited him? Could he be the same person who wrote the Frisbee-wrapped round-shaped Frisbee Players' Handbook with international champion Mark Danna? The answer is yes, but only to the last question. Poynter is the author-publisher of Hang Gliding, Kiting and the Hang Gliding Manual with Log. You may remember him as the spectator who attended the 1973 Annie Green Springs "First National" Hang Gliding Championships wearing the t-shirt that said, "Please Buy My Book." Chris Wills won the competition, but there's no report on book sales. Poynter has served as a two-term President of the International Commission of Hang Gliding (the French say Vol Libre) of the International Aeronautical Federation (FAI). Additionally, Poynter has written an authoritative 500-page illustrated manual, considered since publication in 1972, as "the Bible" to sport parachutists-The Parachute Manual: A Technical Treatise on the Parachute. He has also authored and self-published The Parachute Rigging Course, The Parachute Instructor/Examiner Course and The Parachuting Manual with Log. He has founded his own parachute rigging course in the east which has trained sport jumpers and two of hang gliding's parachute manufacturers. That's whereby he speaks, with

stick in hand. Only 35.5 percent of an estimated 15,500 active hang glider pilots own parachutes; that's only 4,350 parachutes that have been sold since they became available for hang gliders two years ago. Parachutes weigh only six to eight pounds, cost anywhere from $250 to $350 and can save your life. So why don't more pilots wear parachutes? According to Dan Johnson's Whole Air Catalog for November-December, the 8,500 respondents accounted for more than 1,000,000 flights per year, with 29.4 percent averaging 9-15 flights per month, the largest percentile group. In the broken bone category, 18.5 percent responded positively, with 11 percent having broken a bone twice out of that 18.5 percent. A future survey is in the making regarding parachute ownership, brand and emergency deployments. In the July 1978 issue of Hang Gliding magazine, R. V. Wills accounted for 225 worldwide hang gliding deaths since 1974, and he commented that there has been a leveling or flattening out of fatalities in the U.S. The parachute manufacturers have accounted for 40 successful deployments in which pilots were saved in the last two years. The weekend following the seminar saw two more "saves" added to the list. Manufacturers. attending the parachute seminar from California were Henry (Hank) Asciutto, Para Innovators, Perris; Gary Douris, representing himself and Jim Handbury, Advanced Air Sports Products, Inc. (formerly Free Flight Enterprises), Lake Elsinore; Dan Abbott, Guardian-FXC Corp., Santa Ana; and Bill Gargano, representing himself and Chuck Embury, Embury Sky Systems, Elsinore. Dave Aguilar, representing himself and Ed Vickery, came from New Hampshire to represent their Odyssey Sky Industries. Also participating in the seminar were Trip Mellinger, representing the Windhaven Emergency Parachute System; Bill Bennett, representing the Bennett Back Up System; and John Brant, from Ventura, and Jeff Foggleman, from Lake Elsinore, who were two pilots who successfully deployed their parachutes after inflight emergencies. Brant's glider tucked during competition at Palomar when he was flying about 400 ft. above the ridge in thermal conditions. "It changes your outlook," he said. "I went through five weeks of non-flying soul-searching after that. It happened so fast and without any warning." However, he regained his composure soon enough to stand on the edge of Moab Utah's breathtaking Dead Horse Point, with 1,500 straight-down empty feet of space below him and a new glider above him. He placed ninth overall in the competition and foremost on the cover of Hang Gliding magazine's November issue. Foggleman deployed his Mark I parachute last August when his glider pitched over and broke both leading edges at I, 700 ft. AGL. He landed without injury, but found deployment difficult because of the full strips of Velcro that sealed the container. He suggested the placement of masking tape along some of the Velcro to lessen its holding power. Bennett likened this system with devices that have safety locks to prevent acci-

Dave Aguilar of Odyssey Sky Systems pulls down the velcro strap on his parachute while Dan Poynter on his left, guest speaker, explains a procedure that parachute riggers use.

dental release and suggested that pilots peel the bottom flap just enough to allow quick opening but not haphazard release. Velcro is highly resistant to being pulled in a sheer fashion, but its proper use is by peeling the two surfaces away from each other. Prophetically, glider pilot and sport jumper Rich Piccirilli, one of the major forces behind the adaptation of sport parachutes to hang gliding, is a walking statistic to successful hang glider parachute deployments. His glider tucked the same day and in the same vicinity as Foggleman's last August in Elsinore. More than two years ago Piccirilli approached Bill Bennett and proposed a plan of researching and developing safety parachutes for hang gliders, so Bennett provided the financial sponsorship. Piccirilli developed a package and Bennett was the first to make it available. Soon, other manufacturers were making parachutes, but Bennett had the first back-up system. Conservative deployment statistics were reported as follows: 40 total saves, 28 documented and 12 undocumented. They are:

Windhaven EPS: 4 U.S. documented, 6 European documented. Advanced Air Sports Products, Inc.: I U.S. documented, 5 European documented. Bennett BUS: 8 U.S. documented, IO European undocumented. Guardian-FXC Corp.: 2 U.S. documented. Odyssey Sky Industries: 2 U.S. documented, 2 European undocumented. Reported deployments outside the U.S. are slower in reaching the manufacturers and distributors, so those counts may be low for the actual saves. Sport jumping and hang gliding parachutes are constructed with the same materials but with different deployment criteria, such as line strength and material porosity. The sport jumping parachutes are heavier because they must withstand heavier stress in high speed deployments that may exceed 120 mph. They are accordingly tested at speeds of 150 mph with loads up to 300 pounds, and 28 costly drop tests must be conducted to TSO a parachute. Some of the tests are combined into one drop to decrease the cost without affecting the credibility of the test. Presently, only sport jumping parachutes have

HANG GLIDING

a pilot chute and an ejection device operated by the rip cord. Hang glider parachutes are manually deployed in such a manner that the pilot must open his parachute container, grab a strap or handle on the parachute bag, envelope or tiestrap, and manually eject the parachute so that the force of the throw causes the bridle cord to extend and the canopy lines to pay out. Only then can the parachute canopy fill. Hang gliding parachutes are designed for low speed deployment. The pilot must try to make a good, clean throw away from the glider into the "clear blue" the first time. Of course, if this first throw fails to break clear of the glider, the pilot must be able to redefine the situation and determine whether he wants to pull the parachute back in, or wait and hope for canopy fill during the fall. If the glider is spinning, the pilot must throw the parachute into the direction of the spin to lessen the chance of entanglement of the bridle line with the glider parts. Abbott said that the number one priority is to expose the fill area as soon as possible, so a good throw is critical to extending the lines so that the canopy skirt can begin to open. A bagged parachute will have a cleaner deployment, he added. Asciutto commented that there is a growing trend to use holding straps rather than bags in an effort to simplify the deployment system and that it had been his company's findings that a bag may malfunction more frequently. A difference of opinion also appeared between the manufacturers over whether a pyrotechnic device is a reliable and consistent product. Aguilar remarked that Odyssey has been working with the anti-squid line system, which comprises two suspension lines that start at the connecting point between the suspension lines and the bridle cord and attach to either side of the apex (top opening) of the canopy. The purpose of the antisquid lines is to provide a faster opening canopy since it reduces the amount or volume of air necessary for opening. The anti-squid system makes the canopy more stable, it helps to spread the skirt to provide more drag for a given canopy diameter and it slows the rate of descent much sooner. Asciutto said that anti-squid systems have been around for a long time and that some systems operate effectively without it, although anti-squid lines can be installed on all parachutes. Malfunctions occur at the deployment sequence and usually not the fill sequence, they added. This is where the pilot fails to throw clear of the glider when he deploys his parachute. During the seminar, pilots deployed parachutes from a prone position for two hours from four wooden A-frame glider simulators without control bars. More than 60 "high adrenaline deployments" were made. At each station a manufacturer served as an observer-instructor. He was aided by a group captain or an assistant. On some of the deployments the group captain or assistant would spin the pilot to add the dimension of mild disorientation or movement to the deployment, and at some random moment the captain would simultaneously shout "go!" and slap the pilot on the shoulder as a signal to deploy and time theseJANUARY 1979

quence with a stop watch. The time was measured from the moment of the audible order to the moment the parachute left the hand of the pilot. The majority of the times averaged l.2 seconds, but there were a few invalidated times because of hangups or quick-drops. After the deployment exercises, John Brant commented that being spun around and flipped upside down would better simulate his actual experience of a glider tucking. He thought that the practice deployments were really good exercises in which a pilot might familiarize himself with the feel and function of his parachute, but it's not really the same. However, by just this practice alone, anyone who has experienced a controlled deployment would now have a picture in his mind of what to expect and a rehearsed pattern for his reactions to repeat automatically. He advised anyone who has not practiced a deployment to do so, whether it's in a shop or garage. Poynter related the experience of Aguilar when a customer brought his parachute and container into his shop for inspection. The customer was unfamiliar with his parachute, and although it was not one of Aguilar's, he wanted to have the parachute checked out. As Aguilar peeled the Velcro flaps off, the customer jumped up in complete surprise because he heard the ripping sound of the Velcro and thought that Aguilar had damaged his parachute. In the selling of parachutes, shop owners should provide time and space to allow customers the practice of several deployments to avoid any problems of unfamiliarity or misunderstanding. The location and method for installation of the parachute container on the harness is of prime importance. Pilots at the seminar found that parachutes located mid-chest were the easiest to reach. After sewing the container onto the harness, the pilot must remeasure the distance from his chest and harness to his control bar and be sure that there is still enough clearance between the container and the control bar to allow unrestricted movement across the bar. This may necessitate raising the harness by shortening the suspension lines, but it's just another important precautionary procedure for preflighting the system. Poynter said he did not suggest the use of zippers on parachute containers because it is too tempting to the pilot to remove the eight-pound load for a tuneup or other minor flight. "If you 're going to sew the container onto the harness so it won't come off, why have the option of making the container removable?," he asked. After the deployment exercises were concluded, group captains and pilots discussed the ease and circumstances involving their own practice deployments. All participants were unanimous on the question of locating the parachute container at mid-chest for prone deployment. Trampenau commented that after calculating the timed results and talking with the manufacturers and pilots, it became apparent that input is needed regarding the throw direction and pull force necessary to deploy the different brands. What is the poundage required, and at what rate in which direction is needed to open the containers? This relates to the actual problem, as indicated by deployment times, of the physically smaller, lighter pilots who attempted quick and

easy deployments. Here is where container design can prove to be an asset. If a smaller pilot has to reach down to the bottom of a container and pull upward and then throw the parachute in a different direction, this excess motion may have expended enough time and energy to consume precious altitude in which a safe deployment can become a hazardous deployment. Timewise, that may be seen as only a split second, but this is a sport of split seconds. If you're flying at 25 mph and you find that you must suddenly deploy your parachute, the hypothetical vertical descending speed within two seconds may be between 30 mph to 50 mph, or 45 fps to 75 fps, between the time of emergency and actual deployment. A hangup in deployment can cost you valuable altitude. Depending on the altered drag characteristics of the damaged glider, under canopy the glider may descend anywhere from 10 to 15 mph, or 15 to 21 fps. That aforementioned split second may make the difference between your parachute beating you to the ground and the reassuring opening tug of a successfully deployed parachute. A quick, easy opening container is a must, everyone concluded. No pilot envisions himself suddenly incapacitated or deprived of his full strength; however, hypoxia, fatigue, unexpected numbing from cold or high altitude, gloves, or the event of a disabling mid-air collision are all possibilities to consider. A parachute must be deployable in any one or combination of these conditions, and it was believed that the brands represented at the seminar all met these requirements. There is no questioning the need for a simplified, easy-to-grab and deploy system. The manufacturers have provided several alternatives as to how to achieve that result. When it comes to deployment, the least amount of motion that generates the best results is highly preferable. Thus, the manufacturers have responded by producing containers with quick-opening Velcro flaps that must be peeled away to reveal the parachute. Another approach is the "one-step" quick release latch system which allows the pilot to pull open the system and throw the parachute with one hand, all in one motion. Consider your total system, Poynter advised during his talk. A hang glider parachute is a safety device that must be worn and maintained in a clean, dry condition for it to serve its optimum potential. Don't use your parachute to sit on in the back of a truck that's taking you up a rough road, and don't ever sit on your harness and parachute while you 're waiting at take-off. Additionally, don't store your parachute or carelessly dump it in places where it may come in contact with oil, grease or battery acid, like in the trunk or back seat of a car. To clean off oil grease or any other oil-base stain, use lighter fluid and wash off afterward with warm water and soap. Do not use gasoline or kerosene, because although they won't damage the strength of the fabric, they tend to stain or yellow it. That's why lighter fluid or white gas is recommended; however, be sure that you work in a wellventilated room where no open flames are allowed. Wash off mold or other growing stains with warm water and soap. After washing and rinsing the parachute, sail or harness, hang it up as 19

Bill Poehler, Goleta, deploys a parachute during the seminar. Watching are Bill Gargano (L) of Embury Sky Systems and Ken Nead of Chandelle of San Francisco.

wrinkle free as possible in a cool, dry, light-free place. The most damaging invisible forces working on a parachute are the ultraviolet rays. These come from the sun, all flourescent lights to a lesser degree and those infamous psychedelic black lights for posters or indoor potted plants. If a parachute is exposed to UV for as much as one week, it may irreversibly lose up to 50 percent of its tensile strength; that makes a parachute half-safe and altogether unreliable. "You have a carrying bag to protect your glider, so why not for your harness and parachute? Your harness and parachute are the strongest they will ever be the day they leave the factory. From then on it's all downhill," said Poynter. Heat, like that from a car floorboard, rear trunk, or above the exhaust pipe or muffler, also may irreversibly damage the parachute. A momentary 350 °F overall will reduce the parachute's tensile strength by 50 percent, and another 80°F will fry the parachute. It is not surprising that insects can damage parachutes, too; not the synthetic kind of insect that can munch up a matching leisure suit in one sitting, but ants and grasshoppers that become inadvertently trapped among the folds of a parachute or harness. Ants secrete formic acid, while grasshoppers secrete a harmful "chewing tobacco" that is a distant cousin to baseball's

"chipmunk cheek chewing tobacco." Wash and repair your parachute if you find signs of damage from insects. Poynter also questioned the safety of two of the three available carabiners that are used for hooking into the suspension system. The recommended carabiner is the D-ring type with the locking gate and internal threads, because there is a good possibility that the regular type of carabiner will accidentally disconnect itself during canopy deployment. Additionally, the internal threads can't fray the riser straps. When nylon is under stress, it can be cut clean with the slightest pressure by any sharp instrument. Parachutes should be repacked every 90 to 180 days in general, but most importantly, one should follow the manufacturer's advice regarding repacking. Sport parachutes are repacked every 120 days. Parachutes will open faster the first 30 days after repacking, while from 30 to 180 days, the parachute's tendency to open as fast as the first 30 days levels off. A parachute is "fluffy" during those first 30 days, and because of this condition, it opens faster; but when it has been packed away for a longer time, like a suit left in a suitcase, it becomes flatter and more compact. Periodic repacking is wise insurance against time-related problems. Professional parachute riggers are recommended for any repacking that must be done.

Riggers also "A.LR." the parachute: Air, Inspect, Repack. They air or loft the parachute for a day to let it dry, unwrinkle and breathe, then they inspect the lines, skirt, apex, bridle cord and canopy for signs of wear, use or weakness. Owners may wish to observe the final repacking procedure, and most riggers are receptive to this idea because they share the owner's concern. If only a repacking is needed, then the owner should allow the rigger at least one day for the AIRing. Manufacturers supply repacking instructions with all parachutes. If an owner wants to repack his parachute, he must follow the individual instructions, and if an owner wants a professional rigger to repack the parachute, he should provide a copy of the manufacturer's instructions for the rigger. One point that all manufacturers are adamant on: never use a hang glider parachute for any type of non-emergency or sport jumping. The parachute can take the stress, but the thrill seeker may find himself quite surprised when his harness lets him go because the harness wasn't up to par for a free fall of 180 pounds at 100 mph. Additionally, careless or recreational use of a hang glider parachute may lead to the damaging of the system or injury to the pilot who lacks sport jumping experience. However, experienced sport jumpers should know better. Harnesses should be the next piece of equipment on which manufacturers should concentrate, advised Trampenau. Some prone harnesses lack back support systems, and without that support, it's possible that you could be left hanging by your ankles and wrists during a stand-up deployment. Continuous webbing around the waist, shoulders and entire torso is suggested for all harnesses. After all, what goes in may come out, at the wrong place or the wrong time. Said Poynter, quoting the inimitable Richard Loo, the arch-enemy of all Americans in those countless World War II movies, "Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link." To conclude his speech on the care and feeding of parachutes, Poynter said that parachutists have a saying: "When in doubt, whip it out." In followup discussions, the manufacturers remarked that they had gained valuable insights into the application and design of hang glider parachutes, while the pilots and spectators concluded that they had participated in a valuable educational experience. Improvements are to follow, hinted several manufacturers, but they withheld specifics in order to further research their proposals. In the wild and wooly free-wheeling days of batso gliders, flying clotheslines and standards, helmets and shoes were considered optional equipment unnecessary for the "Macho Man." However, it turned out that a helmet was a handy thing to have on when your head hit the keel. Initial opposition to safety parachutes took on the attitude that it was macho to fly without a parachute also. Presently, most competition meet organizers, if not all of them, now require safety parachutes for all entrants, but common sense dictates that parachutes should be worn whenever a pilot launches his glider. Be macho some other way. Eat Pancho Villa original recipe chili and leave out the ice cream, or argue against a glider brand in their factory, but don't risk HANG GLIDING

your own well being because of a chauvinistic attitude. "Hang gliders are the luxury, but parachutes are the necessity," added Trampenau. He summed up the importance of 'whether tis nobler to do without, or wiser to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous poverty:' ''You may need a parachute only once in your flying career, but if you don't have it at the right place and at the right time, you may never have another chance." The further organizing and updating of parachute seminars should become a sport tradition with both the pilots and manufacturers again meeting to exchange input. The manufacturers have expressed interest in participating in future seminars if distance isn't a hindrance, and they encourage all constructive suggestions. Additionally, lifesaving deployment reports should be mailed to the USHGA and the parachute distributor or the manufacturer, whoever is closer. The Santa Barbara Hang Gliding Association and Trampenau wish to thank all of the manufacturers, representatives and speakers who participated in the seminar. Contributing to the organization of the seminar were Trampenau, Poynter, Carol Morthole, assistant coordinator, David Low, Russell Stewart, Jack Harvey, Geoffrey Foster, Bob Smith, Wayne Yentis, Bill Poehler and Jon Bastian . .,..

Bill Bennett (L} of Delta Wing Kites and Gliders talks with Bob Malloy.

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Artie

Over the years I have had a number of friends killed flying hang gliders. A bout half of them would still be alive if they had had any of the parachutes discussed in this article. Pat Conniry and Lloyd Short, just to name two, had plenty of altitude when they knew that they were in trouble. But for them parachutes for hang gliders were not around. Dave Pierce died about a year ago. His glider went in from bctw1ccn 400 and 800 feet without spinning or tumbling. Since the chutes were on the market for about six months when he died, I can't think of a single good reason him not to have been flying with one. Can you think of a single good reason why you do not have a chute? Ir one had to drive from here to Kalamazoo to save his life, and did not own a car, which new car he bought would not make any difference. But it would make a huge difference to the salesman who sold the lifccar. In buying a reserve parachute for a hang glider, the decision to buy one is infinitely more important than the decision as to which chute to buy. If I thought that one chute was a lot better than the rest, I

1IANG GLIDING

OPPOSITE PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: The author attempts to deploy parachute in a crouched position, simulating a possible emergency situation. Measuring deployment forces with a fish scale. The two commonly used thicknesses of shroud line. Advanced Air Sport Products parachute about to reach tu// deployment behind the author's glider. ABOVE RIGHT: The two commonly used shroud line attachment methods. Left photo shows V-tab reinforcement.

would write an article on just that one chute. They all have saved lives and have worked just fine for me in my tests. Since I do fly with just one chute, and since I did look into the matter in depth, one would come to the conclusion that the chute with which I fly must be the best. Well, that would not be fair to all the parachute manufacturers who sent me chutes to test. Anyway, I have changed my parachute system four times. So if one was to go out and buy a system just because my name appeared in an ad, I might change systems the next day. There must be a better reason for choosing the brand one buys. Here are the priorities for buying a reserve for your hang glider: First; Availability. No brand is worth waiting one day for. Second; Familiarization with the system. After the parachute system is sewn on a harness the salesperson should spend at least one hour with the customer. They should go over the owner's manual. The customer should deploy the system at least six times hanging inside his control bar. He should see what his chute, or one just like it, looks like spread out, and see it packed. The salesperson who is willing to spend this time with a customer is the one who should JANUARY 1979

make the sale. This familiarization is a must so that when the day comes, there will be as few surprises as possible. Third; Price versus features. If the first two priorities are equal among brands, buy the one that looks like it might be the best for any reason. If one brand has an especially attractive price tag, buy that one. The purpose of this article is to introduce the hang gliding public to hang glider reserve parachutes. No one wants to buy something that they know nothing about. After reading this article a hang glider pilot should know enough to ask a few questions of a parachute salesman, and then buy one. After I attended the Santa Barbara parachute seminar and talked to Rob Kells at Wills Wing, who went around the country last summer selling my harnesses and Alphas, I realized that there is a great deal of skepticism and general ignorance among hang glider pilots. So I decided to give the readers as much information as I could about parachutes for hang gliders. I first called all the parachute manufacturers that were at the Santa Barbara seminar. I told them what I was up to and asked them to please send me their wares. Delta Wing, Advance Air Sport Products and Windhaven responded. Odyssey's Dave Aguilar said he would send me some chutes. They never came. I called him back and suggested that I could call one of his dealers or customers and borrow a chute. He said he would send me the chutes and not to bother calling anybody. I also asked him for a paragraph for the article that would explain what determines the drag coefficient of a parachute and its inflated diameter, as well as the name and phone number of one of the pilots who had deployed his chute in an emergency situation. I got nothing from him, unfortunately. I also talked to Dan Abbot, at Guardian Parachutes, who makes the Delta Wing tenliners. He said he was marketing his chutes but that they did not have the same container that Delta Wing uses. He did not

send me a chute. The three systems that I did test were so similar that I really do not think any one system would look better than the rest. Odyssey's is different than the rest. Before I would buy an Odyssey I would ask how much testing has been done. I would also ask if the modifications are really necessary (none that I tested had any), and if the anti-squid lines, that pull down the apex, have really been tested. I did not get any answers from Dave. Maybe someone else will. Once I received the chutes, I weighed, measured and tested the containers on the ground. I took pictures of the different deployment sequences, repacked them according to their owners manuals, sewed them on my harness, deployed them from my hang glider in flight, cut them away with a sailplane release after they opened and sent them back to the manufacturers. In weighing each chute, Jim Handbury, at Advanced Air Sport Products, points out that the weight of mil. spec. nylon can vary. Any one chute could vary by as much as Yi pound in weight. Measuring the size of the different parachutes in their containers, I discovered that the bigger ones seemed to be softer than the smaller ones. A chute that had just been repacked would tend to be thicker than before it had been unpacked. A chute will tend to swell up to fit any container that it is put into. The largest chute will fit in the smallest container when jammed in hard enough. Measuring the lines, gores etc. I found that nylon can be stretched, giving my measurements a degree of error. In my chart on all the chutes I list the diameter and area. I calculated these figures by multiplying the width of the gores at the skirt by the number of gores, which gives the circumference, from which I could figure the diameter and a maximum projected area. These are not true figures. The reason these figures are inaccurate, is that the shape of the cone the parachute forms,

when inflated, and the line length determine what the true inflated diameter is. More than just the inflated projected area determines the sink rate of a parachute. Size of the apex, shape of the cone and the porosity of the material also make huge differences. The Advanced Air Sports Products 24-foot chute seems to be the smallest. Underneath a complete glider with the bridle attached to the end of the keel, in a test situation, Jim Handbury has done a number of stand-up landings. He and other jumpers have jumped that size chute and have made stand-up landings without the extra drag of the glider. Hank Asciutto of Para-Innovators, which makes the Windhaven chutes, has jumped the Windhaven 24-foot chute and said it has a better sink rate than the sky diving reserve he manufactures and uses. Some reasons for buying the larger chutes would be that the pilot is heavy, the glider is extra heavy, the pilot plans on using a Soarmaster (which adds an extra 30 pounds) or the pilot flies mostly at high altitudes. Thin air will let one down faster. If a pilot has the extra money and wants to carry around the extra weight for the luxury of a soft landing someday, he should buy the big one. All the pilots I have interviewed, who had to use their hang glider reserves in an emergency situation, said they landed softly. The parachutes seem to be manufactured out of two different types of materials. One is a crinkly coated ripstop nylon that is as near-zero porosity as can be achieved. The other is a softer material that is a little more porous. I have listed whether the material is soft or coated, if it's zero or low-porosity, and then guessed on the weight of the material. I have listed only the material that was on the chutes sent to me. The manufacturers do vary the material. When I asked why, they said, "The lightweight near-zero porosity ripstop nylon that is suitable for parachutes has not been on the market very long. The hang glider market has effectively dried up the supply so we buy what we can when we can. If it meets the requirement for our chutes, we use it." I personally have gone over to one of the manufacturers and seen boxes of material sitting around when they were back ordered 200 hang glider reserves. The material looked fine to me. When I asked why they were not making hang glider reserves out of it, they replied that they had tested it and it did not meet their strength requirements, so they were sending it back. After I sewed the different containers to my harness I hooked a fish scale to their handles to read the various opening forces. I then sat up in my harness with my knees near my chin and tried to open the containers. Windhaven's container took the least 24

amount of force to open. It opened with an eight to ten pound force with or without the deployment bag. It relies on velcro to hold a pin in place. The pin holds the four flaps of the container closed. The handle for the pin is sewn on the bottom of the top flap. It is a tube of Yi-in. PVC pipe covered with parapak. The deployment bag handle, when used, hangs below this handle and is made out of one-in. tubular nylon sewn in half. Either the main container or the deployment bag handle has to be pulled straight up one's chest to open the container. When in the crouched position this container could be opened, but with great difficulty and about 15 different motions. Without the deployment bag the parachute had to be pulled out a little at a time. This container can be opened by the control bar. The Bennett container deployment bag system could be opened with 15 pounds of force on a loose harness and 20 pounds of force on a harness with a body hanging in it. The whole top of the container is held to the bottom part of the container with velcro along each side. Each corner has a grommet through it where a handle, handles, rope or anything could be attached. The deployment bag is sewn onto the inside of the top of the container. The container can be opened in any direction. I got the 15- and 20-pound forces by pulling straight away from the harness. It can also be opened

sideways, straight up, or straight down by wiggling the handle back and forth as you pull. In a crouched position with the harness container trapped between your thigh and stomach, keeping the velcro pressed together, it is nearly impossible to open. Once pressure is released on the velcro it opens right up. If this container is not sewn on the harness properly it could deploy the chute in flight accidentally. There are good instructions supplied with the chute. If a pilot sends his harness to Delta Wing they will sew the chute on free of charge, the right way. This container cannot be opened by the control bar. The Advanced Air Sport Products container has velcro along the top and sides holding it closed. The handle to the deployment bag, which is made of red, one-inch nylon webbing, hangs out of the top of the container. It opens most easily by pulling the handle straight away from the harness. It opened with a force of 20 pounds from a loose harness and 15 pounds from a tight harness. In a crouched position it felt like I was going to rip the handle off the deployment bag, but I could get it open with a series of quick jerks. It could not be opened with the control bar. If it is sewn on wrong it could be deployed accidentally in flight. If closed improperly it can be difficult to open. Proper instructions are supplied with the chute.

CLOCKWISE FROM UPPER LEFT: Manufacturer's panel on Windhaven system. Detail of containe showing opening system on Windhaven. Open container and free packed chute. Apex detail.

If not properly closed, any of the containers could be made to open more easily. I do not think that is necessary. Jim Handbury says the FAA requires a force of between five and 22 pounds for parachutes. All the containers meet this requirement. Before I say how the deployments went I want to make one thing perfectly clear: it was not a contest. The reason I describe each opening is that I tossed each one out differently and at different speeds, hoping they would open differently. They did. To buy a chute just because of this one test would be absurd. It would take a whole series of tests to decide which one opens more quickly. I do not think that one brand would win by a significant margin. I describe what happened so one can see what to expect if that day should come. One of the pilots that I have personally interviewed, whose reserve opened the most slowly, told me that it opened up in about six seconds. He said the glider was spinning and not falling that fast. Rumors from the people on the ground said he fell 1,500 feet before it opened. What can I say except that rumors tend to be negative. The first chute I deployed was the Windhaven 22 gore, without the deployment bag at about 22 mph. I reached down and pulled the handle straight up. I never touched the chute. It just fell away. After it reached the end of the bridle the lines came out of their rubber band. Then the rubber band, that holds the skirt folded over, released. The canopy strung out below me and tried to open but just flapped a bit. As the chute traveled downwind, back up behind my glider it opened fully, popping the rubber band off the apex. Then I cut it away. I did not deploy the Windhaven deployment bag because it was just like the Bennett System. With both the Advanced Air Sport Products and the Delta Wing chute sewn on my harness I deployed the Advanced Air. It was mounted below the Delta Wing. I had to reach way down and pull the bag out of the container. I then slowed my Condor 224 way down as slow as it would go, which is really slow. I threw the bag really hard out in front of me making sure it would tumble end over end. When the bag reached the end of the bridle the lines came off the bag, then the chute unfolded out of the bag. In a manner similar to that of the other chutes, Advanced Air's chute is folded in thirds and then in half before it is folded into the deployment bag. When the canopy was all stretched out straight below me, and was being blown back by the relative wind, the canopy just sort of hung there with the folded side of the canopy downwind. A second and a half after it had been blown JANUARY 1979

back up behind my glider, it rolled over and opened all at once. I cut it away. When I deployed the Delta Wing system I was cruising along more quickly than the other two. I pulled open the container and threw it all in one motion, making sure the deployment bag was spinning like a frisbee. The lines started coming out of their rubber bands immediately. It looked all tangled. When the deployment bag reached the end of the bridle and lines, the parachute came out and started to open immediately, slowing the glider. I turned to look for my release and the chute stopped slowing me down. I turned to see what it was doing and it opened all the way. I cut it away. They all opened up in less than four seconds. Even if I threw the bags carelessly they opened right up. None of the chutes wanted to open until the skirt and bridle were upwind of the apex. In other words, they did not want to open traveling sideways to the relative wind. There was no real opening shock. It felt as if someone had unexpectedly put on the brakes in a car. Delta Wing sells a ten-line chute. Hank Asciutto tells the story of the parachute with the fewest number of lines he had ever heard about. It had 13. It was used to break radios during WWII. Gary Douris of Advanced Air says he has never seen a ten-liner stay together when thrown out of an airplane, no matter how slowly they were flying. However, I have personally thrown a tenline chute out of Chris Wills' Datsun traveling 75 mph, into a headwind, with the bridle tied to the trailer hitch. The chute broke the bridle without any damage to itself. Hank guessed that the chute had to withstand a minimum of 1,400 pounds. Dick Boone at Delta Wing says that all the tenliners that have been used in emergency situations worked flawlessly. Ten-liners have saved lives. Dick says that a broken glider just can't fall fast enough to break a ten-line chute. He also says that he personally uses a ten-liner. "I just cannot see needing anything more," says Boone. Bill Bennett of Delta Wing puts it this way, "Let's say the pilot only has enough money for a ten-liner and a 20-line salesman tells him to save up his money for a 20-liner. But before he can get the money saved he gets killed flying his hang glider. What then mate?" A ten-line chute is a thousand times better than no chute at all. If in the distant future Dick is proved wrong, one could always have ten more lines sewn on. Windhaven sells the only hang glider reserve that can legally be packed as a sky diving reserve. Although Delta Wing's chutes have been tested and exceed the TSO requirements, they lack the stamp. Hank says the reason he had the chutes TSO'd is

LEFT COLUMN FROM TOP: Opening sequence on the Bennett Back Up System. RIGHT: Opening sequence on the Advanced Air Sport Products system.

In sport parachuting a pilot chute is used to stretch out the lines, open the bag and stretch the chute into a position where it can open without malfunctioning. In free fall at 120 mph a pilot chute pulls with one hundred pounds of force. In hang gliding, the manufacturers feel that a pilot chute would not pull hard enough at slow speeds to do much good. The pilot chute would just complicate matters, and could cause a bag lock and just get tangled up in the glider. Instead, the pilot's arm is supposed to supply the force needed for proper deployment. Without throwing it, the pilot is relying either on gravity or the relative wind. A parachute is a parachute. Any of the above chutes can be packed in any of the containers. No matter which one a pilot buys, if one deployment proves to be safer, with time, he can always switch containers. There have been a few times when chutes did not work. A description of these problems might help a pilot in an emergency. A pilot was on a 70-foot hill. Just as he went to take off a strong gust hit him and blew him nose high as he rose above take-off. He knew he was going to hit hard so he threw his chute out. It never even reached bridle stretch. A pilot's glider tucked 400 feet above the ground. His chute ended up in the rear flying wires. The bridle and lines

that the skydivers want a TSO'd reserve and he doesn't see any reason why the hang glider pilot should want anything less. He also says that he would rather make things way too strong than just strong enough. Jim Handbury has tested his 20-line chute to 2,200 pounds and it might withstand the 3,000 pound shock load for the TSO test. Jim says that for a human body to break his parachute in a hang gliding harness, he would have his rib cage crushed. Jim has also used his hang glider reserve without V-tabs in free fall. It worked fine. All the manufacturers agree that the general reputation of the manufacturer is more important than the TSO stamp. Should you use a bag or not? If a pilot thinks it will be a big enough task just to get the container open in an emergency situation, he should pack it loose. A loose chute can be thrown awkwardly. If a pilot wants one more thing to do to save his life he should buy a deployment bag. Bags work best when thrown to blue sky. Bags have worked when just dropped away in emergency situations. I have seen Hank and Trip Mellinger push a can full of cement out of an airplane with the bridle of their 22-line chute tied to the can, with the chute in a deployment bag sitting on the can. It opened right up.

played out. He never tried to redeploy the chute. At 70 feet a pilot's glider that had been assembled incorrectly fell apart in a wingover. The chute was thrown, but never got out of the bag. A chute accidentally deployed on a 400-foot cliff launch. A pilot crashed on take-off and the glider took off anyway, accidentally deploying the chute after the container opened on contact with the ground. A glider tucked right after takeoff and tumbled three times before hitting the ground 300 feet below take-off. The pilot was too busy trying to get the glider under control to go for the chute. A pilot was 300 feet above an 11,000-foot peak when his glider tucked. Rather than deploy his chute and risk drifting over a canyon, he decided to crash on top of the mountain. A couple of pilots could not get the containers open in time. Only two of the above pilots died. The other ones lucked out. I have personally interviewed six pilots that have used hang glider reserves in emergency situations: John Brant, Jack Carry, Kurt Zobel, Rich Grigsby, Jeff Foggleman and a German pilot. They represent all the chutes discussed in this article. Don't buy a parachute because I say to. I'm no expert. Buy one because they say to. They're the experts. -..

MODEL

DEL TA WING MKI

DEL TA WING MK IIA

DELTA WING MK IIB

ADVANCED AIR 24

ADVANCED AIR 26

WINDHAVEN 24

WINDHAVEN 26

WEIGHT (lbs.)

7.25

5.25

6.25

7.125

CONTAINER SIZE (inches)

11 X 11 X 4

11 X 11 1/, X 4

12 X 12 X 41h

12x8 1hx43/,

12x10x5

12x13x5*

12x13x5'

BRIDLE

W' x 30'

1" x 24W

1" X 25'

1" X 19'

1" X 19'10"

1" X 18'

LINES

10/15'7"/thin

20/15'9"/thin

22/15'6"/thin

20/14'11 "/thin

22/14'11 "/thin

20/15'8"/thick

22/15'8"/thick

GORES

20/41 "x11 '8"

20/37W'x10'11"

22/37W'x12'

20/33"x11 '11"

22/35"x11 '11"

20/35"x10'6"

22/37"x10'11"

DIAMETER (It.)

21.8

19.9

21 9

17.5

20.4

18.6

21.6 ~~~~--~

AREA (sq. ft.)

371

310

376

240

327

270

366

APEX DIAMETER (inches)

17.5

16.5

V-TABS

yes

MATERIAL

Uncoated .7 5 oz. zero-porosity

Uncoated .7 5 oz. zero porosity

Coated .5 oz . zero·porosity

Coated .5 oz. zero-porosity

Coated .75 oz zero-porosity

Uncoated 1 OZ. low-porosity

GENERAL

Continuous lines no reinforcing tape on seams

Taped seams, one concentric band near apex

Reinforcing tape on seams

Taped seams, three concentric bands near apex

Tape on seams, four concentric hands; two taped, two untaped

'Thickness does not include handle, which is w· thick 26

HANG GLIDING

VARIO FALLS 1500 FEET ... AND LIVES! Al Gibson encounters some turbulence after take off at Dog Mountain, WA, (above), loses his Hummingbird vario and watches i t plummet to the valley below. Expecting the worst, he sent his dented instrument in to us anyhow for an estimate. We 're glad he did since all we found was a broken wire which was promptly resoldered. We also straightened the case a bit and replaced the rear shell, The total repair bill? ,, .only 14.00 Thinking about a vario? Think about our little Hummingbird, We have them flying in a dozen countries already, At 145.00 and its increasing reputation, you cant go wrong. ,

GL1te~

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Look closely at the gliders flown by the better pilots in 1978--ln competition. in long distance flying. or just in ridge soaring better pilots are flying with an edge--They're flying with Flex-Fairings'". By adding Flex-Fairings'". most rogallo gliders can get an increase in max glide ratio of 15-25%' Couldn't you use a little increase in your glide? $49.25/set for crossbar and kingposl (add $3 shipping+ 6% tax in Calif.) Now available in White. Red. Blue. Black. and Gold. Send for free info. LAMINAR SYSTEMS 5645 Ave de Vinedos Anaheim. Calif. 92807

HANG GLIDING

,•

HOW A GLIDER REALLY TURNS

Part III ©Copyright by Dennis Pagen

Turning is a large part of the fun of flying a hang glider. Swooping and arcing through the sky or simply controlling your position in three-dimensional space is a feat that cannot be duplicated in any other sport in such an unfettered manner. Only the birds exhibit more freedom and economy of motion. To achieve this high level of spatial control, a pilot must feel his wing and react subconsciously. Practice and understanding are the two key elements to performing maneuvers in an automatic and continuous fashion. Practice means spending countless hours exploring the sky - not a bad passtime. Understanding can only be acquired by reading, observing, questioning and carefully thinking about the information received. This four-part series of articles on turns is intended to afford a pilot better insight into how and why his glider reacts to his control inputs. The first two parts dealt with aerodynamic effects on the glider in a turn, while this part deals with the pilot's contribution to a turn. In the final part we will look at different types of turns for different in-flight situations. THE TURN RECIPE Whether your glider is as responsive in roll as a darting dragonfly, or as hard to turn as a railroad diesel hustling through Nebraska on a midnight express run, you must complete essentially the same motions to create a coordinated turn. These motions are: move to the side a given amount, push out a certain amount, move back to center at a certain time, pull back in, then move to the opposite side to level out. Let's look at each of these ingredients of a proper turn individually. Moving to the side results in a rolling of the glider. A slight adverse yaw occurs, then the glider yaws in the same direction as the roll (see Part I for an explanation of this process). You can vary how fast your glider rolls (up to a certain point) by varying how fast and how far you move your body. As an example, imagine you want to execute a turn with a 45° bank angle. You can roll to

that bank angle quickly by moving to the side quickly, moving a long distance, or both. Conversely, if you are interested in performing a leisurely turn, you can move slowly or only displace your body to the side a little bit and wait until the glider gradually increases the bank angle to 45°. Once a glider begins rolling (say to the left for illustrative purposes), it begins slipping. We can see why by looking at figure 1. From the rear view of a glider in a left bank (la) we see that the weight of the pilot and glider (W) isn't directly opposed by the total upward forces (R) (lift and drag). In

( b)

the left, so the extra lift on the left is balanced out. However, the uneven drag distribution (greater on the left, less on the right) causes the left wing to retard and the right wing to advance. This is the necessary left yaw as shown by the arrow in figure I b. The inherent tendency for an aircraft to yaw when it is rolled is termed yaw/roll coupling. The ideal case is for the glider to yaw the exact amount needed for the size of the circle determined by the angle of bank (remember, the outside wing has to travel further, which means it flies faster which, in turn, means a constant yawing takes place). If the glider doesn't yaw enough, the pilot will find a turn very hard to coordinate. He will have to constantly adjust his speed and angle of bank as the glider steps around the turn. If the glider yaws too much, the fast moving outside wing will lift too much and overbanking will occur. In this case, the pilot will have to "high side" (move to the upper side of the control bar) to keep the bank from getting too steep. (Another cause of overbanking is too much anhedral in the wing. Again the pilot must move to the high side of the control bar as soon as the roll starts, to prevent the glider from banking past the intended angle.) The yaw /roll coupling properties of glider are determined by the amount of sweep, the camber shape of the tips and the anhedral/dihedral balance in the sail. The latter property can be altered by the pilot within a limited range by adjusting the deflexors.

VIEW

FIG-URc'.

fact, R is tipped to the left side which causes a side force F and thus a slip to the left. In 1b, we see a top view of the glider in a left bank. The air is meeting the glider a little from the left due to the left slip. This results in a higher angle of attack on the left compared to the angle of attack on the right as well as a greater apparent area meeting the air on the left (due to the sweep in the wings). Thus, the lift and drag is higher on the left than the right. The pilot is moved to

A DASH OF PUSH

We left our pilot in figure I in a left bank waiting for the glider to yaw around in a left turn. This isn't a very efficient way of turning as a large amount of slipping-and thus altitude loss-occurs while the glider gradually yaws around. Let's add a magic ingredient to our turn control: a push-out. Why do we need to push out in a turn? The fact of the matter is, when a glider slips, then yaws into the direction of the slip, the result is a net lowering of the angle of attack. This is one of the reasons for the large HANG GLIDING

·1

increase in speed when a glider slips. Consequently, we need to push out initially to keep the nose up as we start rolling. As the turn progresses, other factors come into play that require additional push on the bar. Once the glider is banked a little and you start pushing forward to raise the nose, you start to follow a curving flight path. Now we all know that when objects move in a circle an acceleration occurs that we call centrifugal force. This force is directed outward and tends to pull your body to the outside of the turn, or back to the center of the control bar. The addition of centrifugal force makes your body feel heavier so that the same amount of pushout as in level flight requires more force.

E:..QUALS- sUM

OF CANDV·J

FOR.C.....ES

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A PINCH OF PULL The next move after a push-out has already been mentioned. You must move toward the center of the control bar. If you do not, you will continue to increase the bank angle. A glider with a relatively large amount of dihedral will require you to stay somewhat to the downhill side of center to keep the glider from rolling out due to its inherent roll stability. Once you decide to end the turn, you pull in and move toward the high side of the bar - the amount depends on how fast you want to level the glider. Generally, a glider will roll out of a turn faster than it will roll in, so less movement is required. Be sure to pull in before moving to the side to prevent stalling. A coordinated rollout should exhibit no slipping or yawing tendencies. A smooth hand is the mark of a good pilot.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT

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nosing down (see figure 3). The steeper the turn, the more the outside tip loading increases, along with the loading of the inside tip, so even more push-out is needed. Note that a glider with more sweep or inefficient tips will require more push-out since the center of pressure travel will be greatest in these cases.

2...

Figure 2 shows the forces on a glider in a turn. Your apparent weight is the vector sum of your original weight and the centrifugal force. It should be clear that the steeper the turn, the more centrifugal force, and thus the harder the push-out. Now imagine yourself in a steep turn. Do you remember your arms being fully extended as you arc around the sky? What would happen if you kept your arms extended and leveled out? You'd be in a radical stall, of course (try this only in your imagination, please). Why then, does the glider not stall in a coordinated turn even though you're pushing out a considerable amount? The answer is, in a turn the inside tip loads up much more than it does in level

In figure 4, we see a diagram of the hand movements in a complete left turn. The pilot starts with the bar at point l, then pulls in for a little speed and moves the bar to the right to point 2 (the brief pull-in is necessary when flying near a stall for efficient turning). He then continues pushing to the right at the same time he begins to push out. At point 3 the glider is beginning

bar) as the glider levels. The first part of this pattern (the roll-in) is called the "hook" or "I-stroke". Instructors should have students practice this movement over and over in a flight simulator or with the hands alone when they're learning turns. This practice will hasten a pilot's achievement of automatic turn control. You can't do a perfect turn by following a cookbook recipe, but the steps are presented here separately to increase your understanding. In actual practice, you should follow a smooth, continuous path as in the diagram. Note that the steepness of the turn only varies the relative amount of pull-in, side-push and push-out required, not their order or necessity of performance. A pilot's input in a turn is a combination of judgment, control movements and careful assessment of the situation. An expert pilot will be constantly alert for varying air, obstructions or wind drift and judge his turn initiation and bank angle accordingly. He will be thinking at least two turns ahead of his present flying position and will leave plenty of room for contingencies. He will know how his glider handles in all situations. In the next part of this series we shall look at different types of turns that should be practiced in order to become an expert flyer. Only airtime can provide a pilot with the above flying skills. As you accumulate airtime, you will gain a feeling for the subtle reactions of your glider to your control inputs. Like a bird moving a few primary feathers for balance, you will be flying with finesse and grace. You may even be surprised by a curious hawk cruising in to take a closer look at your artful maneuvers.

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SKY SHIP This oxc:ltiny now delta wing is designer/ for /norodlhlo precision flying k

Aerial combat Ttag, loops, spins ,lorn1atian flying am/

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flight. This causes the center of pressure to move back. That is, the sum of the lift and drag forces is acting more to the rear of the glider, requiring the pilot to move back an equal amount to prevent his glider from JANUARY 1979

FIC,.URE

to turn left and the desired bank angle has been reached, so the pilot moves back towards the center of the control bar while he continues to push out until his hands reach point 4. At this point he pauses to let the turn continue as long as he wants. To roll out, he begins pulling in, then moving his hands to the left until the wings are almost level at point 5. He then continues adjusting his speed and returns his hands to point I, (the center of the control

WHITE MAL'RE0,E!LUE,GRHH FRIUT 'l'HLOW 1-1,\T_: RED PS!:EHT

7,1

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©Copyright by Mike Meier

The launch is probably the single most critical aspect of hang glider flight. During the first few seconds in the air, the pilot and glider are close to the ground, flying only slightly above stall speed, and are thus particularly vulnerable to a turbulence-induced loss of control. It is surprising, considering the importance of a clean take-off, how many "advanced" pilots demonstrate poor or marginal skills when launching. This is probably due to a number of factors. Most pilots consider the take-off to be a "beginner level skill" and to work on perfecting their take-off technique would thus be an admission that they are not as far advanced as they think they are. In addition, some instructors don't fully understand the complexities involved in teaching good launch

techniques, or are unwilling to spend the amount of time necessary to develop good technique in their students. In this article I hope to present a clear and detailed explanation of one particular launch technique, developed over four and one-half years of flying and two years of teaching others to fly. In no way do I mean to suggest that this is the only proper way, but I have found it to be the most successful for myself and my students. Most basic training manuals contain the traditional explanation of "proper" takeoff technique: 1) Hold the glider, nose into the wind, wings level, with the nose neutral to the wind so that the sail is neither filled from beneath nor from above.

Figure 1. The traditional one hand on the upright, one hand on the base tube method of holding the bar.

2) Lift the glider upwards until the harness straps are tight and begin to run down the hill, into the wind. 3) Accelerate quickly while smoothly pushing out on the control bar to raise the nose. 4) As you leave the ground, pull back slightly on the bar to gain airspeed. The problem with the method is that it doesn't work very well. In order to understand why it doesn't work, we need to examine some of the principles on which flex wings operate. 1) A glider which is not flying is heavy, awkward, unstable and generally, difficult to control. We all know what a pain it is to ground handle a glider. Some are worse than others, true, but all are bad.

Figure 2. The both hands on the base tube method.

HANG GLIDING

2) A glider which is flying is weightless, stable and responsive. 3) The only factors which determine the airspeed of a flying glider, (assuming a given glider and a given air density) are wing loading and angle of attack. A factor that has no effect at all on the airspeed of a flying glider is how fast the pilot who is attached to it is trying to run with it. A consideration of principles (1) and (2) leads us to the conclusion that it is to our advantage during take-off to get the glider flying as early in the process as possible. In fact, with any wind at all, on even a shallow slope, this can be accomplished within the first three steps of the take-off run, long before the pilot is in the air. A consideration of the above and principle (3) leads us to the conclusion that it makes no sense at all to tell the student to run fast, unless we first explain how he or she is to control the speed of the glider flying overhead. Consider the following take-off method and how it takes into account these considerations: 1) Pilot lifts the glider and holds it nose into the wind, wings level, with the nose elevated at a slight positive angle of attack. 2) Pilot initiates a smooth, but rapid acceleration, maintaining the wings level

balance and slight positive angle of attack. As the glider gains airspeed, the sail fills and forms an airfoil, begins to generate lift and the glider begins to carry its own weight. 3) As the glider's airspeed reaches six to eight mph, the glider is carrying its full weight and begins to rise until the pilot's harness straps go tight. Pilot feels a slight upward tug. All of this has happened within the first two or three steps of the run. 4) Pilot now leans forward aggressively into the run, grasping the uprights of the control bar and pulling down and back on the bar. This causes the glider to accelerate, both by loading the glider more heavily and by reducing the angle of attack (pulling forward through the control bar shifts the center of gravity forward, lowering the nose). 5) As the glider accelerates, the pilot accelerates his or her running speed, until maximum running speed is reached. The pilot then keeps running at top speed, while smoothly pushing out on the control bar, raising the nose and increasing the angle of attack. As the angle of attack is increased, the glider develops enough lift to fly itself and the pilot smoothly away from the slope. 6) As the pilot leaves the ground, he or

Lifting the glider in a slightly nose-heavy attitude.

JANUARY 1979

she stops pushing out and pulls in slightly to gain airspeed and retain maximum control. Let's take a look at what this method accomplishes in comparison to the traditional method. First, in the traditional method, a big deal is made about lifting the glider up high enough so that the harness straps are tight. This is often difficult with today's designs and is generally unnecessary. The reason that the traditional method calls for tight harness straps is that it has the pilot running down the hill at full speed with the glider at zero degrees angle of attack. This means that if you push out with the straps loose, all you accomplish is to push the glider out ahead of you, get the nose rotating down and produce a high speed nose-in. Only by pushing up and out against tight harness straps can you get the nose up and produce a take-off. But this means that you have to carry the full weight of the glider throughout the run, plus supply the necessary upward force to keep the straps tight, plus somehow control the glider in pitch to keep it from nosing up into a stall or down into a nose-in. Secondly, in the traditional method, you begin pushing the bar out almost as soon as you start running. This means that you're trying to accelerate at the same time you're raising the angle of attack! This just won't

Figure 4. Position immediately prior to take-off run.

Figure 5. Three steps into take-off run.

work. The increasing angle of attack will cause continually increasing drag, which will prevent you from gaining sufficient speed to fly. Unless you happen to time the push out just right, you'll either nose in or stall on take-off. With the alternative method, you need only support the weight of the glider during the first few steps of the take-off run. Thereafter, the glider supports its own weight, and furthermore, because it is fly. ing, it takes on all the inherent stability, both pendular and aerodynamic, that it has in the air, as well as assuming the same response characteristics it has in the air; both about the pitch and roll axes. This combination of stability and response allows the pilot to precisely control pitch and roll during the run and makes a stalled take-off or nose-in nearly impossible. This method also insures that the pilot does not leave the ground until maximum running speed has been attained, which insures that the pilot will always launch with the maximum possible forward momentum relative to the ground, and the maximum possible airspeed. This mm1m1zes the pilot's vulnerability to any loss of control im36

Figure 6. Alternate method for lifting glider.

mediately after take-off. Aside from pitch control during the takeoff run, the most important aspect of launch technique is how you hold the control bar. The best method for a given pilotglider combination depends on a number of factors; including the geometry of the control bar and the static balance of the glider. Reams have been written on this subject, a good deal of it worthless when applied to modern designs. Many of the basic training manuals still in use were written in the days of the now obsolete standards, with their much smaller control bars, and the methods discussed for holding the control bar reflect this. The trend in recent design has been wider control bars to provide greater roll authority in high-span designs. The traditional "one hand on the upright, one hand on the base tube" method of holding the control bar shown in figure one doesn't work very well with a wide control bar. The reason is that because of the lateral separation of the hands, it is impossible to induce a pitch response without inducing an unwanted rotation in yaw at the same time. The other traditional "both hands on the base tube"

method fails to provide any pitch control at all unless the harness straps are quite tight; a situation we have seen is neither necessary nor productive. There are two methods I have found which work very well for holding the bar. The first is to simply grasp the uprights, roughly in the middle or a little lower, from behind as if they were the rails of a ladder you intended to climb. Holding the glider at or near its static balance attitude, lift the glider in this manner. It is often helpful here to lift the glider in a slightly nose heavy attitude and allow the base tube to come back and rest against your thighs. In this position you have excellent leverage t9 raise the nose and to position the glider properly in a wings level attitude, nose into the wind. When everything else is set, you can raise the nose gently by pulling backward on the uprights, until a slight positive angle of attack is attained. Then commence with the launch as previously described. There are some situations for which the above method of holding the bar won't work: 1) If you are not strong enough to lift the glider in this manner. 2) If the glider is statically tail heavy to the point that you HANG GLIDING

can't hold it in this way at a positive angle of attack without it pitching nose up and resting on the tail. 3) If your glider is fitted with washout control tips, it may behave in a wind as if it were strongly statically tail heavy, rendering the above method unusable. If you are unable to use the above method of holding the bar, you can lift the glider initially and hold it in the following manner: Wedge your upper arms inside the uprights as shown, so that the bar rests on the upper arms, just outside the shoulders. Wrap your arms around the outside of the downtubes, and grasp the downtubes as shown. This method provides you with the easiest way to support the weight of the glider and gives you good control authority in pitch and roll. If you're a relatively short person launching with a tall control bar, this will leave the base tube of the bar fairly close to the ground. This shouldn't be a problem, however, because as you begin to run and the glider begins to fly and carry its own weight, it will rise up until the harness straps go tight, at which point the base tube

will be well off the ground. If you use this method of holding the bar to initiate your run, you should switch your hands to the position and grip discussed earlier (grasping the uprights from behind), as soon as the glider is carrying its own weight. This will allow you to maintain optimum control for the remainder of the launch sequence. (Note: There has been a lot written about how the two methods described above should never be used by a beginner because they will result in serious arm injury in the event of a nose-in. Actually, high speed nose-ins create the potential for many serious injuries, and the best way to avoid all of these is to avoid nose-ins. The above described take-off method is designed specifically to minimize the possibility of a nose-in. Any pilot who is at a stage of the learning process where there is any significant chance that a nose-in will occur should be working on a gentle training slope with a set of large, strong wheels on the control bar. A good set of wheels will prevent even a hard control bar landing from becoming a nose-in, and will offer excellent protection

Bird's Eye

up awhile, when the wind is right for Highwood Baldy or soarable at Belt Butte. But if we haven't flown for a week or two, we'll still brave a little cold and snow for a few minutes of air time. Snow. I remember a flight in the snow. I'm glad it wasn't mine. I wasn't even there, but I've heard about it enough to almost believe I saw it myself. It was in the spring a couple of years ago. Hugh and Dale Stoverud were out helping Mike Whitley try out his wings. He was just beginning, and had had a few seated hops off a little hill. This was one of his first flights at 300-ft. Truly Ridge, over on the Smith River. The snow had blown off the top and drifted into little ridges below take-off. The guys checked Whitley out. He put on his swing-

View Flights in the Snow by Lauran Emerson Our November blizzard has struck. The nercury reached a high of 24 degrees this norning, and now it's 4 degrees and falling. fhe chickens' water is frozen. The roads ire ice and drifted snow. I came back from :own this afternoon, rescued the lawnmower from a drift, and put it in the shop. The kites are hung in there, looking a little out of their element. Four years ago, Hugh would be trying to convince me to go flying in these conditions. "C'mon! It's a north wind, just right for Leepers ! " I may have gone, protesting loudly, wrapped in 17 layers of clothes, shoveling through the drifts up the 200-ft. hill. We would have set up our Sun Standards, freezing our fingers on frozen turnbuckles and dropping wingnuts in the snow. And it would have been worth it. A tensecond flight, maybe two, before we'd be too numb to do it again. Times have changed. We've gotten spoiled. We don't make five trips up and down our back hill every time a chinook wind blows in. We tend to fly when it's above freezing, when we'll be able to stay JANUARY 1979

to pilot and glider during the initial learning stages.) As a class, the pilots who seem to be at the greatest disadvantage in the launch situation, are women pilots of small stature flying high-performance designs with wide, tall control bars. It is these pilots who can benefit most, I believe, from the techniques described above. I currently have a woman student, 5'3" tall, 110 lbs., who is flying an ALPHA 155, with a control bar that is 4'8" tall and 5' wide. Using the methods described above, she makes nearly perfect launches every time, regardless of the wind speed or slope of the hill. She has yet to soar, or fly from some of the "advanced" sites, but her execution on take-off is a good deal better than that of many "expert" pilots I have occasion to observe.

(Note: The techniques discussed here apply to launches on sloping terrain in O to 20 mph winds. A future installment will deal with adapting these techniques to cliff launches and other situations.)

seat, hooked in and started his run. He was a good runner. He was really moving when he hit a drift and stumbled. The drift knocked his body into a 180, but his Cirrus III took off and flew straight out. Mike sat there, flying backwards,eyes bugging out as he watched his buddies watching him in disbelief. It all turned out OK, that flight in the snow. Whitley turned himself around after awhile and had a nice flight. He even landed frontwards. Later, I tried to persuade him to do a repeat performance for the movie camera. He said, "No dice," and shortly thereafter escaped his fame by moving to Cincinnati, Ohio. I'd better go out and thaw the chickens' water. Hang in there. __..

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nnu I T e hir I C Fly-In i by Dr. John On the weekend of October 21-22, the Ultralite Flyers' Organization of San Diego hosted the Third Annual Big Black Fly-in at Big Black Mountain in Ramona, Ca. Ray Foster, proprietor of the almond ranch which lies at the base of the mountain, once again kindly made available his property for targets, parking, eating and festivities, setting the stage for two days of friendly competition and fun flying. A spate of overcast weather with occasional sprinkles preceded the weekend, but a clearing trend was predicted. The morning of the 21st saw low, gray clouds obscuring the summit, but in the tradition of dependable Southern California weather - knock on wood! -these soon began to lift and by midmorning the mountain was clear. Flyers arrived early, at first in trickles and later in droves. Traffic overflowed from the parking area into the access roads. Despite relatively little advance publicity, 86 flyers signed up for the contest - 20 more than last year - and many more pilots showed up simply to fly in Big Black's renowned thermals. They hailed from as far away as Maine, Alaska and Brazil. A large contingent from Santa Barbara, many of them flying Antares, gave spectators a look at Eipper's unique no-crossbar design with the nose boom. Overheard frequently was the wry suggestion that it should be fitted with a bazooka! A wide variety of 38

Photographs by Reggi Risolio

multicolored kites, prototypes as well as the more common makes, mingled in the airspace. On Saturday, the day set aside for the official contest flying, the lift was excellent, and many pilots stayed up for one or even two hours soaring over Big Black's beautifully lush green and rocky ridges before heading out for the targets. The actual contest consisted of two tasks: a bomb drop and target landing. Each pilot received a small paper sack containing flour mixed with sand to drop on a bomb target, and could drop it on one of two flights. The better of two target landings would be counted toward the pilot's total score. Unlike last year's bombs, which usually disintegrated long before the flyer ever got to the target, this year's proved durable. Still, few pilots earned the bonus points available from a well-aimed bomb, while many scored up to 50 points for a clean bull's-eye landing. So at the end of the day, Tom Dailey, flying a Wills Wing X-C, was tied for first with Roy Haggard, flying an UP Condor 178, each with 60 points. Tied for third, but out of the running for the two trophies, were John Harvey from Maine on a Sensor 2 and Rick Lesh and John Levy, both with Antares. Tom and Roy agreed to a fly-off the following day, repeating the bomb drop and target landing. Saturday's otherwise safe flying was marred by three accidents, two involving

broken bones. One pilot broke his arm when he went through the uprights on a bad landing. Another made a low approach to the target and had to turn away from some intervening power lines. Unfortunately, he turned downwind and crashed into a van in the parking lot, suffering a concussion and broken collarbone. Both he and another flyer who did get tangled in telephone wires admitted to poor judgment resulting from fatigue after long flights. Perhaps the most exciting flight of the day was made by a neophyte flying tandem for just the second time; two of his three harness suspension lines broke on take-off, and he got to ride down the entire 2,900 feet dangling at chin level to the control bar. Undaunted, he was all set to go back up and fly again! Saturday evening, pilots and spectators gathered next to Ray Foster's and downed hamburgers prepared from a cow slaughtered for the occasion, as well as potato salad, beans and keg beer. Everyone was treated to the music of a Kentucky bluegrass group while sitting around the bonfire listening to the traditionally entertaining assortment of tall tales and dirty jokes. Many people slept in their campers, vans and trucks in the parking area so they could be on hand for Sunday's flying. Sunday morning began with Santa Ana conditions, and some pilots spent a couple HANG GLIDING

CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE PAGE LOWER LEFT: Pilot homes in on the bullseye. Don Chambers launches his Seagull 1 O Meter. Steve Pearson in a new Wills Wing prototype . Robert Middleton in Eipper 's new Antares. Winner Roy Haggard steps into stirrups in his 1 78 Condor. This Santa Barbara pilot chose to land in the parking lot to avoid hitting wires . Famous Japanese hang gliding photographer and assistant.

of hours at the launch waiting for the wind to switch from downhill. When it finally came up, the lift was weaker than Saturday's, and the early bird Oyers got sled rides to the worms in the landing area . But things finally warmed up, and the sky over Big Black filled with nearly 40 gliders at a time, circling in thermals in swarms, like moths over a naming candle . Roy Haggard and Tom Dailey landed early, Tom coming in first. He got 10 of a possible 30 for his bomb, but overshot the landing target. Roy swooped low over the bomb target and hurled his missile, which landed an unbelievable six inches from the center XI! He landed in the target, and although he dropped his bar due to turbulent air over the hot soil, his performance gave him clear title to the first place trophy, while Tom got second . Meanwhile, a shear passed from the north over the main ridge of Big Black which killed virtually all thermal activity, and all of a sudden all those 40 gliders were trying to land at once! Fortunately, there was plenty of room in the landing area, and all pilot s alertly managed to stay clear of each other as they landed. As the afternoon ended, everyone packed up gliders and gear and bade their farewells, bringing to a close the most successful Big Black Fly-in to date . The UFO looks forward to playing host for this fall classic for many years to come. ~ JANUARY 1979

An Experimental Collapsable Rigid Wing Design Article and photographs by R.H. Cole

To design a flying machine is nothing, to build it is not much, to test it is everything. Otto Lilienthal

The Design All of us have ideas for better hang g lid ers. We had an idea too, and went on to build and test it. This article is a step by step account of our reasoning, met hod and ultimate fai lure. Whether we were right, time alone will te ll . That there is a need for a better gl id er is an interesting point. The manufacturers would all agree there is; how else could they sell flyers a new kite every year! If better means higher gl id e angle and lower sink rate, then there is. The better the glid er the easier cross-coun try flight s become . The ultimate g lider of any so rt must be the conventional gl id er, smooth, slick, 50 to I glid e angle. But then who wants to spend $20,000 plu s ou tl ay and $30 per month hangerage , for a glider that requires very

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP .

The completed airframe .

Note torque tube behind leading edge . Airframe. Attempted foot -launch. Cockpit. Construction.

HANG GLIDING

special sites and a crew of thousands to launch? What is needed is a cross between the conventional glider and a hang glider. This was what we attempted to build. Our idea was conceived by Nick Nicholson, a gliding instructor turned hang glider pilot, and is based upon the "Princeton sailwing", a unique type of semi-flexible folding wing. The original idea could be very old. The Vamyre glider that won the 1920 Rhone competition appears to sport "Princeton sailwings" or something very similar. The sailwing was developed at the University of Princeton during the 1960's. The most useful of the many sources of information we could find was Robert A. Ormiston's article entitled "Theoretical and Experimental Aerodynamics of the Sailwing" published in Aircraft, Vol. 8, No. 2 - February 1971, which gives the definition of the wing as "a double surface flexible airfoil formed by a 'D' section leading edge and a wire trailing edge with dacron wrapped around the leading edge and attached to the trailing, forming the upper and lower sail surfaces. The airfoil is formed naturally by the billowing of the upper and lower surfaces of the wing." At high angles of attack a high lift, deeply cambered airfoil is formed; at low angles a low drag, gently cambered airfoil is formed-perfect. An added bonus, as discovered by the early aviators, is that a wire trailing edge has the same effect as a reflexed airfoil - a desirable feature in a flying wing. Don't ask me how that works, but apparently it does. For the hang glider this wing has many advantages. It's double surfaced for greater efficiency, no shaped ribs are required, and it can be as foldable as a Rogallo. The difficulty with the Princeton sailwing has always been in maintaining sufficient tension in the trailing edge wire. As an experiment we fitted a s;,;i. :.1g onto the cross-boom of an otherwise conventional Rogallo. The cross-boom itself formed the leading edge, the trailing edge being supported by a wire in two scallops to the keel. The wing had an average chord of only one foot. Although it streamlined the cross-boom as an airfoil, it was a washout (excuse the pun). The wing billowed upwards at its center span giving up to 30° of twist. lt just was not possible to get enough tension in the trailing edge. Markowski partially solved this problem in his Eagle hang glider (in about 1972) by restraining the trailing edge with wires to the tailplane. Modern "Rogallos" such as the Phoenix Mariah, partially doubled-surfaced, are effectively Princeton sailwings, the trailing edge wire being replaced by a trailing expanse of single surface wing, the whole wing being stiffened by battens, and very JANUARY 1979

good they are too. We solved the problem with internal ribs at 3-foot spacings, scalloping the trailing edge in the shape of a catenary between the ribs. Unlike conventional ribs they do not form the airfoil. The skin of the wing doesn't touch the ribs when the glider is in flight. The ribs fold outwards which means that as the wing is unfolded, the sail and trailing edge are automatically tensioned. We had an idea for the wings; all we wanted now was the rest of the glider.

Flight. Note under camber and washout in port wing.

The purpose of a fuselage in any airplane is to carry things and provide a long moment arm for the control surfaces. Hang gliders don't have to carry anything, a~d if weight shift is used for control then there is no need for control surfaces, so no need for a fuselage. Without it you're left with a flying wing, yet another idea that has been around aviation for quite awhile. The definitive work on flying wings must be a series of articles by A.R. Wey! in Aircraft Engineering, Jan. 1945 to Nov. 1945 entitled "Tailless Aircraft and Flying Wings; A study of their evolution and their problems." For those who do not have this journal at hand, there have been many successful flying wings from Northrop's 200-foot wing span bombers to hang gliding's very own Icarus. Anyway, we liked the idea of a flying wing; light, easy to fold, no tail to drag along the ground during take-off, and most important, really good to look at. The drawback of a flying wing is that you have to get it just right. With its shorter moment arm it is very sensitive in pitch and yaw. Just a little out with the C.G. and it just will not fly, unlike the conventional plane. We wanted the largest span possible - 40 feet - because that was the size of our workshop. Now a 40-foot span anything is difficult to control by weight shift, so we needed aerodynamic controls. We took a conventional tailplane, cut it in half and stuck an elevon and fin (operating only one way) on each wingtip. Not as silly as it seems, the pre-war Pterodactyl flying wing airplane was controlled successfully by these "fully floating" elevons. Although we did not have the moment arm of the conventional layout with a 20 ° swept wing,

the control surfaces are a good 3 feet behind the C.G. of the glider. Like everything else on the glider, the elevons served two functions. Operated together they control pitch. In opposition they control roll. The fins however, served four or five functions. Operated together they act as an airbrake. Independently they control yaw and turning. They reduced wingtip drag and increased the effective span, and by toeing them in they increased the directional stability. Finally a small skid under them acted as an undercarriage and protected the wingtip and elevons from damage. The disadvantages? Although we never proved it, we were always worried that in a sideslip the elevons would be masked by the fins. The fins were controlled by a cable operated from bicycle brake levers and elevons by a torque tube fixed along the 'D' box on nylon bearings. We originally envisaged the torque tubes having elevons bolted on one end and the pilot's hand on twist grips at the other end. Sadly, it was not that simple. The sense was all wrong. A downward twist makes the glider go up, so an intricate system of linkages at the tips was required. The whole elevon set-up was going to give us a lot of trouble! One far reaching effect of this layout was that since it is difficult to take a torque tube round a sharp bend, and since the pilot did not want to fly with his hands above his head, he had to sit up in the wing rather than hang under it. Not a bad thing, as he is more protected up there. With no 'A' frame, it is very difficult to have a wire braced glider - so it had to be cantilevered with the extra weight penalty, but improved performance, that it involves. Perhaps we were wrong. Paul MacCready's Gossamer Condor proved that a wire-braced airplane can be more efficient than a cantilevered one at a low speed - but then it's not as pretty! Construction

We had the design, a 40-foot span cantilevered wing with wingtip controls. All we had to do was build it. The name was the Skylark - don't blame me, that wasn't my idea either. It is interesting how easy it is to have ideas - and how difficult to convert them into reality! We had a basically very simple idea, only a little more complicated than a conventional hang glider, yet it took us a year to construct, with two of us working full-time for four months. The biggest problem was the biggest part of the glider -the leading edges. We wanted a 20-foot long tube able to support a man sitting in the middle. Something like a 20-lb. telegraph pole. We experimented with three materials - carbon fiber, timber and 41

aluminum, but finally decided on the latter for no better reason than that we were in a metal workshop and had a cheap supply of aluminum sheet. Once decided upon, the basic leading edge shape was cut out in expanded polystyrene, using eleven aluminum templates. This itself was tricky, as not only did the leading edge taper, it also had to twist to allow for washout. The polystyrene was then covered in aluminum sheet riveted and glued into place. Gluing thin aluminum sheet was a greater problem than we ever imagined. We did over 200 tests with various adhesives but nothing stuck well. We needed a 20-foot long oven for curing. In the end we relied upon the rivets, with the adhesive to prevent tearing. The first leading edge took three months to build and the second only one week. They were incredibly strong. If you punched one with your fist all you did was bruise your knuckles. Nick, who weighs 250 lbs., sat in the middle on one. Supported at each end it deflected less than V4 inch. We were justifiably proud of them. The rest of the construction was more mundane. The glider, when finished, was grossly overweight. We just could not get the right materials. For the undercarriage we had to make do with the tail wheels from two Second World War fighters - romantic but heavy. It should have weighed under 80 lbs. Ours weighed in at over 120 lbs. But it was still quite light for a 40-foot wingspan glider, and it looked very pretty - just like a real plane. The Testing Like real plane builders, we constructed a series of six-foot span models, starting with something very like the Fledge II and ending with a fully fledged Skylark. Tests seemed to indicate a glide angle of 15 - 20 to l, with good, all around stability and dive recovery. We ignored scale effect because the mathematics of it made our brains hurt. The first test of the real thing was a fiasco. It was a cold windy day on the side of a gentle hill. We had not made any provision for holding the glider up in the air. We should have provided a pair of braces because just like trousers, the glider kept falling down about our knees when we tried to run. We also learned the effect of wind shear near the ground. With the glider only at waist height in tall grass, there just wasn't any lift. With it held above our heads in the conventional hang glider position, four of us could just hold it down. The torque tube controls were a failure. They flexed too much - back to the drawing board! On the positive side, at one stage, the glider was caught in a crosswind and did a complete wingover without damage. At least it was strong enough.

For the next series of tests we replaced the torque tubes with cables, bolted wheels onto the undercarriage and towed it behind a car at the local airport. This time the glider flew after a fashion. To get the center of gravity far enough back, I (the pilot) finally had to lie prone on the seat, head down, legs trailing, and controls at full reach. After a half-mile run the glider rocketed into the air at 45 degrees. All I could see was a little square of runway disappearing rapidly. At about 40 feet the cable man in the car released the glider, though it still angled up at 45 degrees. The glider stalled (of course), recovered, stalled, recovered, stalled and sort of landed, mildly smearing the undercarriage. We were pleased as the most worrisome thing about flying wings is dive recovery. Ours had recovered twice in 40 feet with very little help from its pilot. At this writing it is obvious what was going to happen. Why could I not have seen it then? With an undercarriage reinforced by two motorbike shock absorbers, the next tests produced several 100-yard ground skimming flights, the center of gravity still not being right. The last series produced a quarter-mile flight well out of ground effect, and the glider seemed to control well with no bad habits. It would have been a longer flight but a sub-standard control cable snapped, causing the glider to crash, breaking both my legs and writing off the glider. This is what I wrote about the whole affair while in the hospital. There is a moral there somewhere. See if you can spot it: "A long time ago, two or perhaps three engineers got together to build a new type of airplane. Not a glider, not a hang glider, but a bit of both and some more besides. 'It'll take three months to build and cost us

$100 each, then we'll be millionaires; money, women, booze, all that will be ours.' They were, after all very young engineers. Much time was spent discussing what would happen when the almost inevitable crash occurred: The pilot would be protected by a two-foot thick block of polystyrene, but his seat must be positioned well forward, otherwise, if the undercarriage collapsed, the pilot's legs would surely be trapped and broken. Two years and $3,000 later the control cables were laid, only temporary cables mind you, until the pilot and center of gravity could be correctly located. Certainly the cables wouldn't be adequate for long flights but O.K. for the first few test flights. Anyway, it wasn't intended to rise more than a couple of feet, so it wouldn't matter if a cable failed would it? Six months later the glider was ready for its first flight, which it did, but reluctantly, the seat being just a little bit too far forward. Six months later the glider was ready for its first real flight. By this time the seat was now actually over the rear wheel. The shock absorber also had to be repositioned and placed at the tail, not the strongest point on the glider but the best available. It was only for one more flight just to be sure, and then the whole cockpit could be redesigned. The towing car accelerated and the glider bounded into the air, not reluctant anymore. A gentle twist of the joystick and the glider was on a straight and level flight skimming along the runway. What perfection, just as planned. How the crowd cheered as it floated past! It landed gently, then bounced back into the air again, perhaps climbing too steeply. A quick flick of the joystick and - crack HANG GLIDING

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one of the control cables snapped. The kite was rising too steeply to release the tow cable - nothing to do but to sit this one out up to 50 feet and then back down just like a big dipper. It almost levelled out like one too; almost, but not quite. The two feet of polystyrene took the impact perfectly, then the tail snapped, the undercarriage collapsed and neatly broke the pilot's legs, just like that, just as they thought it would." Forethought! Epitaph

The crash effectively finished our involvement in the glider; time, money, space and legs now being at a premium. Perhaps we will build a radio-controlled model this winter. I still believe that the idea was sound even if the workmanship was not. If I ever build a Mark II Skylark it would have several modifications to the original design. The wing ribs would be straight to give a flat under-surface to the airfoil, more in keeping with that of the Icarus V and the Gossamer Condor. These would also be easier to construct and reduce the tension in the trailing edge wire. The floating elevons would be replaced by more conventional trailing elevons, not because the originals did not work, but to aid foldability. Our complicated folding cockpit would be replaced by a rigid mini fuselage, like a bobsled, each wing folding back along it, rather like a bat. This has many advantages. It would allow the glider to fold simply by JANUARY 1979

S.AJLWING .

the removal of two bolts-less complicated than a conventional Rogallo. The glider could be "wheel barrowed" on a nose wheel when folded, to ease transportation problems. But best of all, since the wings are detachable, it would be possible to have interchangeable fuselages. Say one with parallel bars like the Icarus, a semi-enclosed one seater, a two seater and perhaps one with a pusher propeller. Why not? It would mainly be a matter of getting the center of gravity right. By having a series of attachment points on the fuselage for the drag struts, one could even change the sweep and washout without any other alterations to

the wings. That's the idea. The reality will certainly ~ be more challenging!

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DAN POYNTER, Box 4232-G,

Santa Barbara, CA 93103 43

LI E

LTIT

E by George Worthington

George Worthington moved up to his condominium in the High Sierras in early June of 1978 with one purpose: to extend the three official world distance records for hang gliders, which he now currently holds, and to regain his 1977 world record altitude gain. Jerry Katz took the altitude gain record away from Worthington in late summer of 1977. Gary Patmor made a new world altitude gain claim in June 1978, of 10,200 feet. The soaring in the White Mountains (Cerro Gordo) was very poor during all of June 1978. July, except for one day, had been the same, up until July 22, 1978. The trouble had been that the air was too stable and as a consequence had produced almost no cumulus clouds in the Cerro Gordo region. Even on July 22, there were no cumulus clouds within 50 miles of Cerro Gordo. But Worthington flew into the cloud area, after about three hours of serious effort, and the result was a climb to 17,500 feet and a new world record altitude gain claim. Worington is not subdued by the cloudlessness up to now. Here is the story of the record as George wrote it in his diary on the evening of the flight: July 22, 1978 Seagull 10 Meter-Cerro Gordo-When 44

we reached the top, we were pleasantly surprised to see three kites already set up. One was a girl Page. "Competition," my mind said. It's always more fun to have a bunch of gliders and learn later where they went. My fear, which had weighed heavy two days before, was down to an acceptable level at takeoff time today. I made a takeoff that didn't please me, but I got into my harness superbly. As I surveyed my situation, I was 100 feet below take-off level and wondered if I could get back up into the "bowl" and hang on in that area until a thermal came through. I usually can do this here at Cerro Gordo. My watch said 1:45 p.m. There were no CU's for 50 miles but at least there were CU's 50 miles away in several directions which seemed like food to a starving man. We'd had no CU's anywhere on our last two attempts from Cerro Gordo. It has been a cloudless summer: Don was about to launch. I felt a need not to "crowd" him and a need also to use the area in front of launch to get a bit higher. After several passes in the bowl I did get above take-off by 500 feet. I sensed a large area of general ridge/thermal lift and took a risk I don't usually take. I turned north along the spine. My altitude was 9,800 ft. I would "probe" and if I met with no further lift I

would return to the bowl. But I did get some lift help and kept going for 1/4 mile. I was at 10,300 ft. but was getting into an area where the distance to the safe valley floor, and the ruggedness of the area between me and the valley floor, were increasing to a point of alarm. So I turned 45° out to the valley. Halfway to the valley I hit a thermal. While I climbed I looked around. Don was really low in the mouth of a canyon only five miles North of take-off. Rich was circling a 114 mile closer to the valley than I. He was behind me (in the race that I had invented in my head) and below me. This was a psychological lift to me, because he had taken off 20 minutes before I did and could easily have had a five-mile head start by now. Was it possible that I was flying more efficiently? Yes, by gosh, I believe it was possible. The thermal I was in, took me away from worrying about the hills and canyons ahead (north) and out to the valley (west). I was now at 14,000 ft. and could temporarily overfly all the obstacles with impunity. And I did overfly that huge mass of jagged mountains and hills which thrust out a mile or two further into the valley than any other part of the mountain. Usually this area is more of a problem than today, and more time-consuming (like a city traffic HANG GLIDING

jam) to cross than it was right now. l forgot it, and turned my attention to the selection of the best course for me to take. With no CU's I had to be more conservative. I headed for the steep sides of the foothills which rose 2,000 ft. almost vertically from the valley floor. I was down to within 5,000 ft. of the valley floor when I reached them. I checked off the good fact that already, only one hour into the flight, I had covered 27 miles and had passed the spot where I had landed two days ago after laboring mightily for 80 minutes. It's always a race, and I race against anything l can think of; my past performances, other pilots, etc. As I circled in an unnoteworthy (but loved nonetheless) thermal I again suddenly spotted Rich's green Spyder circling 1,000 ft. below me. It is always surprising to fly 10 miles or so, see no one, and then suddenly see a friend who is also trying for a world distance record. Quite a coincidence. lt's such a huge mountain! Each man is getting such different lift. Surely he couldn't be trying to follow me? I don't think one kite can follow another, in this area, even if he tried. Or could he? When I reached the intersection of the dirt road and Mazurka Canyon road, I was low - 8,000 ft. My retrieve vehicle would come along this dirt road and at this intersection would turn out toward the main highway three miles away. If I kept going, it meant a two- to five-mile walk (depending on bridges and dirt roads at my point of landing). Eight thousand feet, with no lift would ensure a landing about three miles further on, and would ensure a three-mile walk. Such a walk, under the circumstances, would add from two to four hours of time to my retrieval. Even under the best of circumstances I don't get home until 7:30 p.m. after a 30-mile flight from Cerro Gordo. An extra few hours would be a considerable "drag" in my life style. Being me, I had to carefully consider it. I considered it and pushed on north. Two miles further I was very low - so low that I was picking out landing sites which were now only 800 ft. below me. A scraggly little thermal offered itself to me. My needs were such that I eagerly accepted. It was sporatic and frustrating. Two hundred up-100 down-300 up-zero. Suddenly, again, there was the green kite 300 ft. below and 200 yards south (behind). Really nice to have company. And my competitive drive swelled a bit. I couldn't let this kid beat me. I managed to get back up to 8,000 ft. (3,000 ft. above the valley floor). I was still over the foothills. I couldn't forever waste time grinding up at a rate of about 1,000 ft. every 10 minutes. I had already spent enough time in this marginal stuff. It was time, I thought, to be bold and strike out for something better. I had drifted up into

JANUARY 1979

the mountain range a bit further than expected. My concentration had been on the struggle to use the available lift and I had rather ignored the topography below. A bit panicky, I headed toward the valley hoping I had sufficient altitude to make it, and after a few minutes I saw that I was O.K. and would make it. Time after time in today's journey north, it seemed, I said, "If I can only make it to that point a mile ahead it will be near an east/west road." And so it went, mile after mile, for 20 miles. Then I got a strike. It was a small, but powerful thermal. I was 65 miles from Cerro Gordo. The thermal got better and bigger and I could sense that it might go up really high. As I passed through 14,000 ft. or so, I began figuring. I had been down to 5,600 ft. I already had a 8,400 ft. gain. The world record, which had been set about two weeks ago was 10,200 ft. I was getting close: 15,000 ft., 16,000 ft., now I had 10,400 ft. The old record had to be bettered by 300 ft. or was it 30Jo. I'd better get so much that it didn't matter: 17,000 ft., 17,500 ft., that seemed to be the top. I had, maybe, 11,500 ft. or so. I worried about hypoxia and was pleased to see the altimeter unwind to altitudes that didn't seem threatening. The climb had been made over the Silver Canyon jeep trail. I might even make Janies - 103 miles - for a new distance record as well as an altitude gain record. There was a cloud street paralleling the spine and a mile east of it. It was too far east to be of use to me, but clouds always signify lift and the sight of them increased the optimism. Well, I guess Rich must have had to land. I couldn't catch a glimpse of him during all those dozens of climbing circles which I had made, and during which I had had time to search for him. He'll be properly amazed when he learns how far I went today. With this 17,500 ft. I should get a minimum of about 12 more miles - 65 and 12 are 77. As I passed over Gunter at 16,000 ft. I again picked up my CB microphone and gave what I believed would again be a futile "blind" transmission. "I'm 16,000 ft. over Gunter." "O.K. George, I hear you, this is Bill." My gosh! I had actually gotten some use out of this heavy (l 1/2 lbs.) CB. The trouble of taping it onto the control bar had paid off. Retrieval should now be speeded by two hours or more. There were, surprisingly, no more thermals after the 17,500 footer. It was 5:45 pm, which isn't late, thermalwise. There were clouds overhead two or three miles east. But the 17,500 ft. did yield about 21 miles of distance. I landed in a calm wind alongside the main highway at 6: 15 pm. I had set a new altitude gain record, been in the air the longest time in my hang glider life (4\/i

hours) and set a record for the world's longest flight of 1978 thus far. After I landed, a hang glider pilot, who had flown today from Gunter and who was looking for his friends who had also flown, stopped by. He told me that Rich had landed 10 miles south of me for a 76-mile flight. He also said that Rich had said that "Worthington must have landed at Montgomery Pass. He was so low!" As I was disassembling the glider, I studied the cloud shadows which hadn't been visible to me while flying. My Gosh, they were moving west! They moved very slowly but it ivas to the west. This might explain the lack of thermals. The thermals had been peculiar all day there were fewer than usual. They were smaller and weaker than usual and yet a couple of them had been boomers. The clouds were back. This day's soaring had vindicated the general rules of soaring. When there are no clouds anywhere within sight, you don't go very far. You can't make a record on a cloudless day. But surprisingly, today, the ground speed over the cloudless first half was great (25-27 mph is great) while the second half, which was relatively near, to very near the cloud area, was very poor. The strongest part of the day is about 4 pm. I got my 17,500 ft. at 5: I 0, fairly much on target. For the first 15 minutes after take-off (1:45 to 2:00) I couldn't get above 10,500 ft. It was a relatively poor day. Persistence, patience and determination made 86 miles possible on a day with only 25 mile potential. Luck, as usual, also played a heavy hand. Eighty-six miles is the fourth longest rogallo flight in the history of hang gliding. I just know that the clouds are back to stay with us for the next four weeks. In four weeks the soaring season will end and it won't matter anymore. ~ This year, somewhere, a hang glider pilot 1s going to tow up, catch a thermal, and fly out of sighi. It may be you. Be prepared to

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WESTARK! Call or write the professionals. Parts, gliders, all major brands (new and used), flight schools, accessories. Catalogs available. Dealer inquiries invited. See Larry Edwards, 3109 Grand, Fort Smith, Ar. 72904. (501) 782-3456.

OLYMPUS 160. Looks and flys great. $700. (714) 991-4749. PHOENIX 8 Jr. New. Must sell. $850/offer. (213) 470-1329 or (213) 645-3891 . PHOENIX 8 - Reg. $525. best offer. Must sell. Moving on. (213) 368-5335. Call anytime. ~~~~~~~~~~~

CONSUMER ADVISORY: Used hang gliders always should be disassembled before flying for the first time and inspected carefully for fatigue - bent or dented tubes, ruined bushings, bent bolts (especially the heart bolt), re-used Nyloc nuts, loose thimbles, frayed or rusted cables, tangs with non-circular holes, and on Rogallos, sails badly torn or torn loose from their anchor points front and back on the keel and leading edges. If in doubt, many hang gliding businesses will be happy to give an objective opinion on the condition of equipment you bring them to inspect.

SEAGULL III-Z. 17 ft. Excellent condition. I hour flight time. $550. (213) 860-8278. SST-IOOC. With pulley, 5' bar, snap bag. Red on white. Flown by USHGA examiner for 8 months. Perfect condition. Never even landed hard. $750. Will ship anywhere in the USA. (805) 966-5534. Santa Barbara, Ca. SST 100 Mini. New condition. Pulley system, triple deflexors 100-170 lbs. Beautiful sail $650. Debbie (805) 684-2417. U.P. FIREFLY 174. Excellent condition. Prone and supine rigging, quick-cams, coated wires. Colors keel out; dk. blue, It. blue, red, orange, yellow, lime green. No flybox, no set-up hassle. $650 or best offer. Call Don. (714) 885-6102.

Rogallos ASG -21-AA. 130sq. ft. Latest white sail with light blue leading edge. Excellent condition. $700. (505) 294-4361. ASG -20-C!l New. White with blue leading edges. Used large Thermal Shark. Make offer on one or both. Michael Williams (915) 381-331 I. CAN WE HELP YOU GET INTO THE AIR? Do you want to fly, but arc short of funds? We will trade anything to help you fly. Contact Delta Wing Kites & Gliders, (213) 787-6600. CIRRUS 58. Excellent condition, due to meticulous care. A new kite at a used price. $750. Smokey, (702) 878-6422.

Rigid Wings FLEDGLING A. $700, Mint condition. Twist grips, supine harness. (405) 360-1792. FLEDGLING A. Excellent concl. Many extras. Will deliver anywhere. Price negotiable. Call Tom. (916) 345-2115. FLEDGLING II B. Supine dual controls. Solid blue with white rudders. $1300. Will pay shipping. FLEDGLING II B. Prone. Purple & gold with gold tips. 6 mos. old. $1300. Sandia Peak machine. Call Tripp or Neil at (505) 344-9215.

EASYRISER. Mc Culloch IOI with tach. and temp. aero float harness and CG plates. Fiberglass roof top box. Damaged lower wing and hang tubes. Moved aboard 41' sailboat and will be leaving For the Virgin Islands in eight weeks. Have lost interest in hang gliding. $550. Call or write Charles Foster. (813) 997-2111. P.O. Box 1750, Ft. Myers, Fla. 33902.

FLEDGE B. With Kasper wingtips. Prone, twist-grips. All bags. $850. Tom Lappas P .0. Box 42203, Las Vegas, Nv. 89104.

FLEX! II. Custom sail. $300. (714) 991-4749.

MANTA FLEDGE ll B. UP prone harness. Double T-grips. Bags and accessories. Mint condition. $1500. (801) 375-2200. 10-6.

HIGHSTER 164. 1977. $600. Call Dee Barnard. (805) 688-6205. THERMAL SHARK, (Large). Great trainer. Prone harness & bag included. Also has single deflcxor. Brand new. $900 or best offer. Must sell. (915) 366-2109. Odessa, Tx. LOOKING FOR A USED GLIDER? Trying to sell your old wing? FREE listing on our used glider board. Super Fly Sky-Sails, Inc., I 1383 Aldercrofl Hgts. Rd., Los Gatos, Ca. 95030.

ICARUS II. Excellent condition. Custom box, trailer, helmet, AS!, more. Beautiful buy. Must sell. $550 or best offer. (213) 540-9979.

Schools and Dealers ARIZONA THE BEST IN ULTRALIGHT SOARING EQUIPMENT AND INSTRUCTION. U.S. Hang Gliders, Inc., 10250 N. 19th Ave., Phoenix, Az. 85021. (602) 944-1655.

CALIFORNIA ARCADIA AIR SPORTS. Featuring Sunbird, Eipper, and Bennett (other brands available). Personalized instruction in small groups. Lesson programs based on the USHGA Pilot Proficiency Rating System. Certified experienced instruction at all levels. 159 E. Huntington Dr., No. 3, Arcadia, Ca. 91006 (213) 447-SOAR. CHANDELLE San Francisco - Featuring Seagull, Manta, Eipper, Delta, Electra Flyer, with all other brands available. We stock new gliders, as well as a complete line of parts and accessories, PLUS a full repair facility! USHGA certified instruction: basic, intermediate, and advanced lessons available. 20 years of combined experience qualifies us to do the best job for you. Top of the hill, overlooking Fort Funston, IO Hillside Blvd., Daly City, Ca. 94014. (415) 756-0650. ELSINORE VALLEY HANG GLIDING CENTER certified, experienced instruction, sales for all major manufacturers and repair facilities. Call (714) 678-2050 or stop in at 15870 Grand Ave., Lake Elsinore, Ca. FREE FLIGHT OF SAN DIEGO. Expert instruction utilizing modern, safe equipment. (714) 560-0888. HANG GLIDERS OF CALIFORNIA, INC. USHGA certified instruction from beginning to expert levels. All brands of gliders, a complete line of instruments & equipment are available! For information or catalog, write or call: Hang Gliders of California, Inc., 2410 Lincoln Blvd., Santa Monica, Ca. 90405. (213) 399-5315. HANG GLIDING SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSAL SPORT. Our specialty-hang gliding lessons. Sale of gliders (Seagull Aircraft) and glider repair. USHGA certified instructor John Szirony. P.O. Box 227 Yarrow, B.C. Canada. Tel. (604) 823-4273. HANG GLIDERS WEST-DILLON BEACH FLYING SCHOOL. We sell and service all major orands, parts, accessories. USHGA certified instructors, observers. Free lessons with purchase of a wing. After the sale, it's the SERVICE that counts. Hang Glides West, 1011 Lincoln Ave., San Rafael, Ca. 94901. (415) 453-7664. Hours 10:00 5:30. MONARCH SKY SAILS - New shop serving central California. Dealer For Seagull, Ultralite Products, Delta Wing, Electra Flyer, Eipperformance, Manta. With other major brands available. Complete service available and most hang glider accessories in stock. Complete lesson program from Beginning through Advanced. 1916 E. Home Ave., Fresno, Ca. 93703. (209) 264-6880. SOUTHERN CALIF. SCHOOL OF HANG GLIDING I Largest and most complete hang gliding center in Los Angeles. Featuring Bennett, Seagull, Electra Flyer, Sunbird, all other brands of gliders available. Corne demo. '78' model gliders today! Beginner to advanced instruction with USHGA Certified Instructors. MOTOR-GLIDING

THE HALL WIND METER A precision instrument for the serious pilot. Rugged, dependable and easy to read. $18.50 postpaid in U.S. Foreign add $1.00. Prone bracket $5.50. Seated bracket $4.50.

HALL BROTHERS Box 771-M, Morgan, Utah 84050 Dealer Inquiries Invited

C.O.D. Phone Orders Welcome (801) 829-3232

Prone 48

HANG GLIDING

USHGA MERCHANDIISE ORDER FORM

QUANTITY 8-1

B-2

B-3 B-4 B-5

8-6 B-7

B-8 8-9 B-10

B-6

8-11 8-i 2 8-13 8-14

8-15

8-16

PRICE

BOOKS

-------THE COMPLETE OUTFITTING ANO SOURCE BOOK FOR HANG GLIDING. by M1cliael Mendelson History. models. accessories. publ1cat1ons. organizations. sc/100/s. srtes ---------FLY. THE COMPLETE BOOK OF SKYSAILING. by R,ck Carrier Basic 1nformat1on on techniques and 1nstruct1on _____ .. HANG GLIDING ANO SOARING. by James Mrazek. Fligh: the or,, and meteorological data ------HANG FLIGHT. by Joe Adleson and 8111 Williams Third ed1t1on Flight instruction manual. 100 pages -----HANG GLIDING. by Dan Poynter Re•,,sed ed,t1on The basic handbook lor skysurting ----------MAN-POWERED FLIGHT. by Keith Sherw,n History and modern flying technology. design and cons1derat1on ----HANG GLIDING ANO FLYING CONDITIONS. by Dennis Pagen M,crometeorotogy for pilots 90 illus. by author NOT SHOWN ------HANG GLIDING ANO FLYING SKILLS by Dennis Pagen A complete 1nstruct1on manual for beginners to experts -----GUIDE TO ARIZONA. by Wilson Baker 50 pages Sites maps and conditions for fly,ng in Arnona ----GUIDE TO ROGALLO FLIGHT BASIC. by Bob Skinner ana Rich Finley A handbook for beginning pilots 30 pages - -----HANG GLIDING. THE FLYINGEST FL YING. by Don Oeder a Pictorial history. pilot comments Photos oy Stepnen Mccarroll _ _ ___ .. MANNED KITING. by Dan Poynter Handbook on tow-launcn flying

AMOUNT

S 7 95 S ; 65

S 7 65 S 3 50

S 6 50 S 6 50 -S 6 50

$ 6 5G

s 5 50 s 2 75

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----

---

$10 95

---

S 4 35

S 2 20

- --SIMPLIFIED PERFORMANCE TESTING. by Jack Park

___ ---HANG GLIDING LOG BOOK. 32 pages Designed espec ally tor pilots. 4' , .. X 7" S 3 2j _ ----HANG GLIDING MANUAL ANO LOG. by Dan Po;nter for beginners S 1 50 _ An asset to 1nstrcctors of hang gl1d1ng 4 ·· X 6 _ - - - · -.FAI SPORTING CODE FOR HANG GLIDING. Provides the reQuiremects for records. achievements badges. and World C11amp1onsn1ps S 1 00 - -

ITEMS 1-1

- - - - - - USKGA EMBLEM T-SHIRT. 100% cotlon. nrgh qualrty. orange 01111Men·s s,zes S. M L. X-L (please circle size) ------USHGA EMBLEM CAP One size ftts all. Baseball type w USHGA emblem NAVY or ORANGE (please circle color) _______ USHGA SEW-ON EMBLEM 3 diameter. lull color tred an,! orange on a yerrow-orange background w D!a:k print

1-2

t-3

1-1

·~·-

3,, .. diameter lull color

s 5 50 s 4 51) s 1 00 s 25

1-4

- - - - - - USHGA DECAL

1-5

______ USHGA EMBLEM PENDANT chain

1-6

- - -----USHGA BUTTON PIN 1'2 d,ameter. lull color

1-7

- -----LICENSE PLATE FRAME Blue and wl11te

S 4 00 - -

---

diameter Pewter 1'1 s,1,.,er

S 3 OJ 5D --

'i'd rather be hang gl1d1ng USHGA PUBLICATIONS

P-1

S 2 00 - - - -

- - - - - USHGA INSTRUCTORS CERTIFICATION MANUAL

MERCHANDISE SUB-TOPL

HANG GLIDING! GROUND SKIMMER BACK ISSUES

No tax on rnagaz1nes

SP2c1fy by circling ,ssue number

MAIL WITH CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO: USHGA, Box 66306, Los Angeles, CA 90066

PRINTED COPIES 19. 20. 21. 22. 23 (75 calendar, 24. 25 27 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34

NAME_ . __________________ USHGA # _ _ ADDRESS - - - - - - - - ~ CITY, STATE, Z I P - - ~ - - - - ______ - - ~ -

40 _ ---75 --

36 i'76 calendar! PRINTED COPIES 37 38. 39. 41 42 '3 4-1 45 46 -17 -181 77 calendar; 49 51 52. 53 5-1 56

S 1 00

57 58_ 59 60_ 61. 62 63 6.'.. through current issues

$ 1 50

·SUPPLY LIMITED

MAGAZINE SUB-TOTAL TOTAL NO CHARGE ITEMS

ORDERING INFORMATION: Enter quantity and price of each item ordered. Allow 3-4 weeks for delivery. Thank you for your order!

____ USHGA MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM \"41 . - - - ACCIDENT REPORT FORM 1° 15, ___ USHGA MERCHANDISE OROER FORM t= 141

- - - FILM REQUEST FORM tNo foreign orcers pleas:: SOURCES OF DEALERS SCHOOLS ETC 1

_____ USHGA LILIENTHAL AWARD FORM \• 12i

! "°81 Soec1fi,r SIJ.te

_ _ _ BASIC SAFETY REGULATIONS (PART 1001

ALL PRICES INCLUDE POSTAGE AND HANDLING. (Prices subject to change without notice.)

-- -

___ --- USHGA PILOT PROFICIENCY PROGRAl,1 \PART 1041 Consumer advisory Op1n1ons expressej by authors ot listed books do not necessardy reflect USHGA pol C\ nor does sale of merchandise constitute endorsement

---- -

- Sales, demos and power instruction available. 5219 Sepulveda Blvd., Van Nuys, Ca. 91411. (213) 789-0836. SUPER FLY SKY-SAfLS, INC. Dealer for Seagull, Eipper, Mantan Sun bird and Electra Flyer. With other major brands available. Fly before you buy. End blind loyalty. Demos available. Complete lesson program. USHGA certified instructors, observers. 21383 Aldercroft Hgts. Rd., Los Gatos, Ca. 95030. (408) 353-2926. THE HANG GLIDER SHOP - For the largest in stock inventory. USHGA certified Oying instruction and much, much more! Call (213) 943-1074. 1351 Beach Blvd., La Habra, Ca. 90631. THE HANG GLJDER SHOP - is now the region No. 3 distributor for the Stratus 5 built by J. L. Enterprises. We arc looking for a limited number of dealers - call: (213) 943-1074. WIND HA VEN HANG GLIDING SCHOOL, INC. Serving Southern California. Complete line of gliders, beginner to advanced instruction. USHGA certified instructors. Write or call, Windhavcn, 12437 San Fernando Rd., Sylmar, Ca. 91342 (213) 367-1819. W.0.W. (WINGS OR WHEELS) SANTA CRUZ. Distributor for WILLS WING gliders and accessories. Sales and sm~ce for all major makes. Demos always available for sale. Complete USHGA certified flight instructors and observers. Downtown Santa Cruz, Locust at Pacific Garden Mall, 95060. (408) 423-4442. COLORADO LEADING EDGE AIR FOILS, INC. USHGA Certified instructors. Distributors for Chuck's Glider Supplies and Delta Wing. Dealers for Manta, Electra Flyer, Wills Wing, UP Easyrisers and Mitchel\ Wing. Large inventory including COS Power Packs and Soarmaster. Write for our wholesale parts and tubing price list. IO"lo off on purchase of any glider, power pack or parachute with this ad! (303) 632-4959. 331 S. 14th St., Colorado Springs, Co. 80904. GOLDEN SKY SAILS, featuring Delta Wings, Electra flyer, J & L Enterprises, Leaf, Manta, Mitchell Wing, Peregrine Aviation, Seagull, Ultralite Flying Machines, Ultralite Products, and Wills Wing. Our well equipped shop specializes in expert repair and custom work. Huge inventory of parts and accessories, including Chandelle

and Sun replacement parts. Power packs are available. A complete harness line. Fast mail order service. We offer regula, advanced, high performance, and tow gliding lessons. All USHGA Certified Instructors. Mountain nights up to 5,300' vertical. Ratings available. We use the most modern techniques and gliders, as well as two-way radios between instructor and student. Located just west of Denver at the foot of Green Mountain. Call or write for free information. (303) 278-9566. 572 Orchard St., Golden, Co. 80401. CONNECTICUT

accessories, USHGA Certified Instructors. Call Jim, (913) 268-6254 or Rick, (816) 763-3129. 10301 W. 77th No. 109, Shawnee Mission, Ks. 66214. VOYAGUER'S. Distributors for J.L. Enterprises (dealer inquiries invited). Dealers for Eipper, Wills, Sky Sports, Sunbird, Moose, LEAF, Windhaven and Chuck's Glider Supplies. The only complete sales, training and repair facility in the greater Kansas City area. USHGA certified instructors and observers. 5935 Merriam Dr., Merriam, Ks. 66203. (913) 262-6611. MASSACHUSETTS

TEK FLIGHT Products, Inc. Featuring Electra Flyer and Sky Sports. Also a complete line of parts and accessories in stock. Personalized lessons by experienced USHGA certified instructors. Call: (203) 288-5430. TEK Flight Products, Inc., 2583 State St., Hamden, Ct. 06517. Or call Ben or Alegra in Winsted, (203) 379-1668. GEORGIA ATLANTA USHGA certified beginner and novice training using wheels and radios for your safety. Rentals, sales, service. UP - Bennett - Wills - Electra Flyer - UFM - Soarmaster - Seagull - Manta. AHG, P.O. Box 48163, Doraville, Ga. 30362. (404) 458-4584, 448-3516.

Try a FREE practice run at Aeolus Flight Training Center, Groton Hills Ski Area, Groton, MA. Aeolus instructors can teach you to Oy safely and easily, and are certified by USHGA. Open Saturdays and Sundays. Weekday instruction by appointment. To enroll, contact AEOLUS HANG GLIDER, INC., Box 184, Littleton, Ma. 01460 (617) 486-8278. MICHIGAN

WHIIT WINGS-Atlanta's MAJOR hang gliding school. USHGA Certified instructors and observers. Ratings I thru 4. Georgia distributor for C.G.S. and C.G.S. MoGlider power-pack, also UFM, Electra Flyer, Soarmaster, Bennett, Wills Wing, and Seagull, Call or write: D. Whittington, (404) 923-0531 or Jeff Rees, (404) 874-0718 - P.O. Box 13206, Atlanta, Ga. 30324. IOWA THE FOUR WINDS! New and used gliders. Power units and complete powered nex wings. Dealer for Bennett, Manta, Soarmaster (we take trade-ins). USHGA Certified instruction with night simulator Hang Ratings I-IV. Come see our showroom. It'll be love at first night! 2708 Mt. Vernon Rd. S.E., Cedar Rapids, IA 52403. (319) 365-6057, 366-3989. KANSAS MONARCH FL YING MACHINES-Your Kansas City area source for all major brand gliders, power packs, parts,

AERO FLOAT FLIGHTS. Motorized hang glider specialists. Dealers for UFM and the proven Moody power package. We are developers of the Safety-Pro harness and IO C.G. adjustment harness plates. IMMEDIATE DELIVERY ON EASY RISER! P.O. Box 1155, Battle Creek, Mi. 49016. (616) 965-6455. ECO-FLIGHT HANG GLIDERS - Distributor for Seagull's "Seahawk" and "lOm" in stock. Dealer for UFM "Easy Riser". Complete stock of parts, supplies, instruction using Seagull 's new ''Seahawk,'' sail repairs. USHGA certified instruction. 1168 Ross St., Plymouth, Mi. 48170. (313) 459-4545.

Mitch•II Wing THE HIGHEST PERFORMING TIME TESTED ULTRALIGHT GLIDER ON THE MARKET Now the most sophisticated powered ultralight glider. It is easily carried on the top of a car and assembled or disassembled in a few minutes.

34 FT WING SPAN .. WING ONLY .. . 70 LBS ENGINE AND PROP . 30 LBS TRI GEAR. ... 34 LBS .Ul~DER 25 M.P.H. LANDS 55 M.P.H. CRUISES. .. BETTER THAN 16-1 GLIDE RATIO

The B-10 is sold in kit form for $1495. 00 for the wing only - landing gear, power package and pod are sold seperately. Takes approximately 200 hours to build. ~ Send $5. 00 for information brochure

~] Send $7. 00 for overseas inquiries

Name _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

THE ULTIMATE HI BAR l!ARNESS ALLO'IIS THE PILOT TO SOAR IN COMFORT FOR HOURS BY DISTRIBUTING HEIGHT E'l8NLY THROUGHOUT THE HAMMOCK, THE:RE ARE NO PRESSURE POINTS IN THE HAMMOCK WHICH IS SUSPENDED FROM 2 BARS I ONE A.T EACH SIDE 01' THE HARNESS, THESE BARS ARE PREDRILLED AND BY MOVING 2 SUSPENSION BOLTS THE PILOT IS ABLE TO SELECT THE BALANCE HE PREFERS, THE BAR HARNESS LOCKS INTO PRONE POSITION WHEN THE PILOT STEPS INTO THE STIRRUP AND HE WILL REMAIN PRONE EVEN It/ TURBULANCE, TO LAND HE STEPS OUT OP THE STIRRUP AND SITS IN THE LEG STRAPS, THE PILOT CAN CHANGE !'ROM SEATED TO PRONE AND BACK AGAIN WRING FLIGHT,

* Comes complete w1th O-r1ng, knee hangers and st1rrup, * S1z s1zes1 standard, large and eztra-11,rge 1n regular length or long, * Avallablo 1n a ra1nbow or colors, * Custom features available.

Address _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ - - - -

City _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . _ _ _ State _ _ _ _ _ _ Z i p - - · · - - - - - - - _____ Phone _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

To ord.er,. aend your height, wo1ght and oolor oho1oo, C, 0, D, ACCEPTED

Sendro M-Company, 19CO S. Newcomb Porrerville, Ca. 93257. Tel 209-781-0778 outside Calif. call our toll free number 800-344-7280.

First place 1978 World Ultralight powered meet Anoka, Minn.

Grand Champion 1978 EAA meet San Diego, Cal. Best Design 1976 EAA meet San Diego, Cal. First Place 19n Hang Glider meet So. Cal. Nat. Champion 19n Hang Glider meet Heavner Ok. Holder of official World Distance record and Out and Back Distance record.

PRICE,

485, 00

14328 LOLtN LANE POWAY, CAL t fORN IA 92064 714·748·1739

- Over 400 Sold -

HANG GLIDING

Vr;1ifl[zjl)~~ f2.IX\ n nr2.R .../JtrUtEEi.·tt)LJutJ ~l.:::J~L::J . :;~Bi.AltimaSter Ill ·is a tfgtitweight , ·. accurate, Swis.~preclsi¢:njeweled mechanis .... · ·· ·· uilt for , . hor,)gg

Because it is built for rugged sky sports like hang gliding and skydiving, thisprecision lnstrum.ent has the necessary durability required by todays "sky surfers."

motorized ultralights. All brands of gliders and motor pacs. 3832 Guernsey, Memphis, Tn. 38122. (901) 324-8922.

MONTANA THE HANGAR - Certified instruction, competent repair service. Serving the northwest with a large stock of gliders, parts, accessories, and 5 years experience. (406) 542-2725. Rt. 2 Mullan Rd., Missoula, Mt. 59801. NEW YORK AERIAL TECHNIQUES - at Ellenville. The east coast's largest hang glider shop. USHGA Certified instruction, dealers for all manufacturers, most equipment in stock from our tremendous inventory. A.T. is where it's up ... Rt. 209 - in Ellenville, N.Y. 12428. (914) 647-3344 or 783-675 l. NORTH CAROLINA MID-WEST SCHOOL OF HANG GLIDING. Subsidiary of U.S. Moyes, Inc. USHGA Certified Instructors. All levels of instruction - foot launch, tow, and motorized. Located ~ mile from Warren Dunes. We are the oldest school and offer the most professional training in the mid-west. The owners placed 1st and 2nd in Open Class and 2nd in Class I at the '77 U.S. Nationals. We sell and service all brands of kites and motorized units. If you're thinking of moving up - check with us first. your used kite may be worth more than you think. Come fly before you buy. 11522 Red Arrow Hwy., Bridgman, Mi. 49106. (616) 426-3100. MINNESOTA NORTHERN SUN HANG GLIDERS, INC. Distributors for Electra Flyer, Wills Wing, Eipper, Manta, Mitchell Wing, and UFM Easy Riser. USHGA Certified instructions. Owner/managers of the Hang Gliding Preserve, soarable ridge with tramway lift. When in the north country stop by and test our line of gliders and enjoy the sites. 628 W. Larpenteur Ave., St. Paul, Mn. 55113. (612) 489-8300. MISSOURI MONARCH FL YING MACHINES - St. Louis' only answer to the serious hang glider enthusiast. We deal all major brands of powered and foot launched gliders, parts, accessories and repairs. Call Tim at (314) 962-5735. 3 Marblehead Dr., Brentwood, Mo. 63144.

COME FLY JOCKEY'S RIDGE! If you live east of the Mississippi and want to learn to fly a hang glider safely come to Kitty Hawk Kites. Wilbur and Orville came here to learn to fly. Gliding into the soft Atlantic breezes from Jockey's Ridge is an experience which will always be remembered. Thirteen stories high, it is the tallest sand dune on the East Coast. We have safely taught over 7,500 folks to fly - people of all ages. Hang gliding from the soft sand dune is a major factor in the outstanding safety record of Kitty Hawk Kites, the East Coast's largest and finest hang gliding school. We offer several lesson plans all the way to advanced training in the mountains. Ask about our Fly/Drive Package which includes airfare, car rental, motel, meals, etc. If you need a glider, select one while you're here from our large inventory. We carry the safest and best performing gliders on the market from beginning/intermediate to high performance. Send $2.00 for poster catalog. For a free brochure on the First Flight School call or write: Kitty Hawk Kites, Inc., P.O. Box 386, Nags Head, N.C. 27959. (919) 441-6247.

TEXAS ARMADILLO AVIATION. Motorized fixed wings (CA-15 now avaiilable). All brands- power units- accessories. Call or write for prices. "We have your wings". 703 North Henderson, Ft. Worth, Tx. 76107. (817) 332-4668. ELECTRA-FL YER DISTRIBUTORS. South MidWestern distributors for: Electra Flyer Corp., UFM Products, Sky Sports, Seagull Aircraft. Now accepting dealership inquiries. Call or write: LONE STAR HANG GLIDERS, 2200 "C" South Smithbarry Rd., Arlington, Tx 76013. Metro. (817) 469-9159. LONE STAR HANG GLIDERS - Electra Flyer, Sky Sports, Seagull, Manta, and UFM. Sales, repair, instruction. 2200 C. South Smithbarry, Arlington, Tx. 76013. (817) 469-9159. UTAH THE KITE SHOP AT NATURE'S WAY. Our ECO FLIGHT SCHOOL is Utah's oldest and most experienced, with USHGA Advanced certified instructors. Complete parts and service for Electra Flyer, Manta, and Eipper. Distributor for the new STRATUS 5. 898 So. 900 E., Salt Lake City, Ut. 84102. (801) 359-7913. WASATCH WINGS INC. - Salt Lake's Hang Gliding Center. Located minutes from the Point of the Mountain. Featuring a fully stocked repair shop, USHGA Instructors, 2-way radios, lessons beginning to advanced, new training gliders, pilot accessories, and glider sales and rentals. 892 East 12300 South, Draper, Ut. 84020. (801) 571-4044.

OKLAHOMA WESTARK! Call or write the professionals. Parts, gliders, all major brands (new and used), flight school, accessories. Catalogs available. Dealer inquiries invited. See Larry Edwards, 3109 Grand, St. Smith, Ar. 72904. (501) 782-3456. TENNESSEE TRUE FLIGHT -

GET ON TOPWe brought you a rugged, compact variometer that was billed as: Smaller, LJghter, Better & Cheaper

Mid-America headquarters for

Business Opportunities WESTARK! Let us get you off the ground and into your own Hang Glider business. Call Larry Edwards at Westark! 3109 Grand, Ft. Smith, Ar. 72904. (501) 782-3456.

You can customize your FUGHT PAC or we will mount Vario, Altimeter, Compass, Air Speed Indicator, Thermometer, Elapsed Time Meter, etc.

... our claims still hold. lt's4" x4". weighs 1.4 lbs. has re-chargeable ni-cad batteries including a charger and it's still only $155.

But hang gliding is getting more complex and a pilot on a cross-country flight needs more than a variometer. So . . . we have designed the

PARAGONVARIOMETER ..................... $155. MOUNTING BRACKET ........................... 11. FLIGHT PAC 14w/VARIO ...................... . 194. FLIGHTPAC9wVARIO ......................... 189. FLIGHTPAC14 ................................. 39. FLIGHTPAC9 ................................. . 34.

PARAGON FUGHT PAC that will do it all. It comes in two models, FUGHT PAC 14 and FUGHT PAC 9, including a variometer

Also Available:

and you can add all the instruments that you require for your kind of flying. The PAC 14 has a variometer and room for at least four other instruments. The PAC 9 has a variometer and room for three more instruments.

CALIFORNIANS ADD 6% SALES TAX

COMPASS, ALTIMETER, AIR SPEED INDICATOR THERMOMETER, ELAPSED TIME METER

THREE WEEK DELIVERY

WE PAY SHIPPING

DEALER INQUIRIES INVITED

RSV PARAGON 5360 125th Street, Suite 101 Hawthorne, California 90250 HANG GLIDING

Emergency Parachutes ODYSSEY'S EMERGENCY PARACHUTE SYSTEM. Light weight - tested and designed by Dave Aguilar. Master Parachute Rigger and Hang III pilot, and by Ed Vickery. Available through Odyssey Sail, P.O. Box 60, Wilton, N.H. 03086 or through Sky Sports. Send for free details today! THE HANG GLIDER SHOP - now distributes Free Flight Enterprises' reserve parachutes and harnesses. Dealer inquiries invited. (213) 943-1074. 1351 Beach Blvd., La Habra, Ca. 90631. Windhaven Emergency Parachute System meets rigid TSO testing. The best available! Easily adapted to your harness and glider. Write for free details. Windhaven Hang Gliding Schools, Inc., 12437 San Fernando Rd., Sylmar, Ca. 91342.

Parts & Accessories

HG, 963 Village Dr., Ormond Beach, Fl. 32074. (904) 673-0194.

sizes, S, M, L, XL. Orange only. USHGA, Box 66306, Los Angeles, CA 90066.

WIND HA VEN, the ultralight power center of California, has complete facilities and information on power packages and adaptations. We sell completed Easy Risers and Mitchell Wings too. Call or Write: 12437 San Fernando Rd., Sylmar, Ca. 91342. (213) 367-1819.

METAL LICENSE PLATE FRAMES "I'D RATHER BE HANG GLIDING". White lettering on a blue background. $4.00 including postage and handling. Californians add 6% tax. USHGA, Box 66306, Los Angeles, Ca. 90066.

Miscellaneous

USHGA has post cards again "SOARING FLIGHT" VJ-23, "LIGHT WIND SOARING" Cronkite. 1 for 10<1, 3 for 25<1, 12 for $1.00. USHGA, Box 66306, Los Angeles, Ca. 90066.

AN BOLT GAUGE - essential for every owner. Automatically gives size of bolt up to 8" in length. Also included is a fill-in-the-blanks reference sheet of your glider's specs. for your files. $1. We have your bolt at less than retail. CLOUDHOPPER SUPPLY CO., P.O. Box 7646, Roanoke, Va. 24019. (703) 345-7518. PATCHES & DECALS- USHGA sew-on emblems 3" dia. Full color - $1. Decals, 3 Vi" dia. Inside or outside application. 25<1 each. Include 13<1 for postage and handling with each order. Box 66306, Los Angeles, Ca. 90066. TEE-SHIRTS with USHGA emblem $5.50 including postage and handling. Californians add 6% tax. Men's

used baselube with vario bracket. CONTACT: Bruce Bardo P.O. Box 8543. Missoula. Mont. 59807 892-3094

HELMETS! Buco Flightmaster helmets. $24.95, retail. Excellent dealer discounts on IO or more. Westark! 3109 Grand, Ft. Smith, Ar 72904. (501) 782-3456.

TYPE: Pliable Moose Zipper. SAIL PATTERN: Red applred leading edge. white. with orange and gold hall panels blue bag CONTACT: Charles Warren. 842 N St. Joe #3. Has11ngs. N.E . 68901 (402) 463-4092

Instruments, propellers, engines, landing gear, helmets, fuel tanks, hardware, etc. Power Systems, Inc., Dept. H, 963 Village Dr., Ormond Beach, Fl. 32074. (904) 673-0194.

TYPE: Cumulus 10 WHEN: May 12 SAIL PATTERN: Center out. while. yellow. brown. Blue bag. CONTACT: Mrke Adams (805) 967-2448

Publications & Organizations

TYPE: Dragonfly Mk 118 WHERE ANO WHEN: Edmonton. Alberta Canada May 1 SAIL PATTERN: Dark blue leading eoge and. tips. Colors lrom tips· yellow. gold. orange. blue Red UP insert on right wing Serial number UPOB20125 CONTACT: J .0 Proudfoot Call collect 14031 326· 2304

SOARING - Monthly magazine of The Soaring Society of America Inc. Covers all aspects of soaring flight. Full membership $20. Info kit with sample copy $2.00. SSA, P.O. Box 66071, Los Angeles, Ca. 90066.

Ultralight Powered Flight A limited number of preproduction power systems using twin Homelite 450's is currently available to selected pilots on an "at cost basis" from Gemini International. Please inquire by mail. Gemini International, 655 Juniper Hill Rd., Reno, Nv. 89509. BIRDMAN TL-IA ULTRALIGHT. 75% completed. Should require less than three months of parttime effort to complete. Mac. IOI included $2000. Call (205) 631-6244. CGS POWER UNIT. (Brand new) For Riser Mac !OlD, CHT Gauge $800. Pteradactyl easy seat $40. Aluminum trailer for riser. Make offer. (213) 692-1610. GOSSAMER CONDOR human powered airplane. PLANS $75. 60 pages plus 12 detail drawings. Information document $2. California add 6%. Also T-shirts. Gossamer Condor, 406 S. Real Rd., Bakersfield, Ca. 93309. JOB WANTED. Working with Ultralight Powered Aircraft. A&P - Comm. pilot licenses. Dick Myers. Browning Road, Hyde Park, N.Y. 12538. McCULLOCH 101 B. New, with compression release and muffler, along with 44" prop. and lli" hub. $400. 50% down rest C.O.D. & shipping. Contact Tim Heckenluber RD No. I, Bigerville, Pa. 17307. MOODY POWER PACK. Direct drive w/Mac IOID only ran three hours. Two props. Assembled and complete only $545. Contact Windhaven, 12437 San Fernando Rd., Sylmar, Ca. 91342. (213) 367-1810. MOTORIZED HANG GLIDERS OF FLORIDA. Manta Fledgling dealer for North Florida and Georgia. Mitchell Wing. Largest stock of Power Riser kits and accessories in

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customers. Information, S4. Box 50961, Jacksonville Beach, 32250. (904) 246-2568. POWER SYSTEMS, INC. Gliders from Eipper, UP, Manta and UFM. Power packages, landing gear for Easy Riser and Quicksilver, instruments, helmets, and hardware. $1 info package. Power Systems, Inc., Dept

The rate for classified advertising is 30<1 per word (or group of characters). Minimum charge, $3.00. A fee of $5. is charged for each photograph. Art discount for display ads does not apply to classifieds. AD DEADLINES - All ad copy, instructions, changes, additions and cancellations must be received in writing IV, months preceding the cover date, i.e., Feb. 15 for the April issue. Please make checks payable to USHGA: Classified Advertising Dept. HANG GLJDING MAGAZINE Box 66306, Los Angeles, Ca. 90066

TYPE: Phoenix 8 reg. #161 SAIL PATTERN: Keel out. while. black. yellow. red. It. blue. dk. blue. bluish green bag DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: 7/8 in. straighlened down tubes. one knurled CONTACT: Ted Lipke (415) 589-3937. $50 reward. Box 246 Burlingame. CA 94010. TYPE: Two SoarmasJer power packs and one Moody motor package with Rotec prop and muffler SERIAL NUMBERS: Soarmasters: engine 21857. Soarmaster serial 78150eng,ne 24389. Soarmaster serial 78145 The Moody pack has redr1lled engrne mounts. CONTACT: Trtp Mell111ger al W1ndhaven. 12437 San Fernando Rd. Sylmar. Cal1lorn1a 91342 (213) 367-1819 TYPE: Sunbtrd Max, Strato 1163 SAIL PATTERN: keel out while. red. orange. gold. yellow. wtlh blue bag. DISTINGUISHING FEATURE: Dents al lop of control bar CONTACT: Dave Broyles. 1403 Austin S1reel. Irving. Texas 75061 (214) 438· 1623 $100 reward TYPE: Flex, II SAIL PATTERN: Purple cenler sec11on. red wing ltps WHERE & WHEN: Route 6 and Hamson. Gary Indiana. June. 1977 CONTACT: John Alan Frlew,ch. P 0 Box 144 Hobart. Ind. 46342. Phone collect (219) 887·3178 Reward' TYPE: Sky Sports Bobk1tten II (18X14) #3 SAlL PATTEf!N: keel out while. gold. light blue. red ~,te bag 'Ii orange. 1/1 blue. WHERE & WHEN: m,ss,ng from mrddle takeoff al Ellenvrlle. March 27. 1977 at 6 PM CONTACT: Steve Smith (201) 891-1836. or 271 ·4000 ext 322 TYPE: ASG·21A Prototype SAIL PATTERN: White sari. blue leadrng edges: red. gold. and blue tips DISTINGUISHING FEATURES: long stinger. alack coated caales. quick release on lop wires. faded greenish gray cover WHERE & WHEN: San Drego, on August 18. 1977 CONTACT: Gary Colston. 3845 - 46th St . San Diego. Ca 280-4307 TYPE: Wills Wing XC 185 #2250. IOENTIFYING FEATURES: No fixed lips. control bar is mismatched. new downlubes.

TYPE: Seagull 111 SAIL PATTERN: Sky BLUE WITH BLACK LEADING EDGES WHERE AND WHEN: Lill Eng,neer,ng ,n Carson City Nevada Th,,nksg,v,ng night CONTACT: Lill Eng1neer111g 2400 Arrowhead Or Carson C,tv. Nevada 1702) 883-0600 TYPE: Electra Flyer Cirrus Ill SAIL PATTERN: Keel out red. orange. gold. yellow red. red leading edge WHERE & WHEN: Outsrde a tavern ,n Phoenix. Arizona. September 15. 1977 $100 Reward CONTACT: Bill Harrrs. 3013 E. Moreland. Phoenix. Amona 85008 Phone (602) 833-6931. TYPE: Pliable Moose "Zipper" #A-1840 SAIL PATTERN: keel out: red. white. red. white. red leading edges DISTINGUISHING FEATURE: White arrows in the middle red panel on each wing WHERE & WHEN: Amarillo. Texas. June 22 CONTACT: James Raef. Rt 3. Box 459. Amarillo. Texas 79107. (806) 335-1059 TYPE: H1ghster-douale surface glider SAIL PATTERN: Orange and black TYPE: "U-2" designed by Dennrs Prmentel. WHERE & WHEN: Santa Rosa. Ca .. May 15 CONTACT: Highster (415) 527-1324. TYPE: Manta Fledgling. SAIL PATTERN: Red leading edge, yellow trailing edge Red bag and no tip rudders WHERE & WHEN: Lexington Reservoir. Los Gatos. Calif. rn April ·77 CONTACT: Super Fly Sky-Sails. 21383 Aldercroh Hgts. Rd . Los Gatos. CA 95030 (408) 353-2926. Reward - $100. TYP£: Cumulus 10. SAIL PATTERN: Yellow sail with alack leadrng edges TYPE: Olympus. SAIL PATTERN: All yellow on one side and gold. orange. red. purple. dark blue. light blue. white. white. on second side WHERE & WHEN: Both kites were stolen out of John Dunham's truck whrle in San Diego in early March. $100 reward ottered by Electra Flyer for the return of the Olympus CONTACT: E1pper-Formance. Electra Flyer. or John Dunham, Reno Hang Gilders. 960 Malley Lane. Reno. NV 89502. (702) 323-3456 As a service to the hang gliding community, HANG GLIDING Magazine is publ1shrng (free) rnformat1on on stolen gliders. If your glider is missing. send us a complete description along with your address and phone number to: USHGA. Box 66306. Los Angeles. CA 90066.

HANG GLIDING

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FORUM How Dangerous is it, Really? by Susan Gray Every hang glider pilot who flies in a public place accessible to spectators is the object of a seemingly endless stream of questions each time he or she sets up. When you think you've heard them all, someone inevitably comes up with a novel query like, "Aren't you afraid your earrings will fall off up there?", or (angrily,) "Does your husband know you 're doing this?" But occasional new variations notwithstanding, each of us could probably come up with nearly the same list of about 20 standard questions which are asked over and over and over. Traveling alone across the country with a hang glider, often staying where mine was certainly the only kite for hundreds of miles around, the roster of questions was remarkably similar from place to place: #1 - What is that?; #2 - Do you really do that?; #3 - How much do those things cost? and #4 - How dangerous is it, really?" Other questions followed those, in different orders in different sites and situations, but those four were invariably the first four to be asked, with always the heaviest emphasis on number four. Hang gliding still enjoys an especially sensationalist press and as any student of human nature can attest, the lure of thrills, danger and a possible crack-up are central components of public curiosity about hang gliding. The other questions are merely perfunctory, really, and, aesthetics aside, what people really react to and want to know about is what the odds are for survival in the world of foot-launched flight. How dangerous is it, really? How do we, as pilots, respond to this? Generally speaking, I think we talk a good line. I hear myself paraphrasing my teachers and saying things like, "Well, it's like anything else, really. It's as dangerous as you make it. There's a certain builtin risk, naturally, but accidents usually happen to crazy, "go-for-it" pilots who are doing things they shouldn't - flying in dangerous conditions, not properly checking equipment, exercising obviously poor judgment." It's a pat and simple, if not always thoroughly convincing reply which, since my trip this summer, I've begun to reexamine. Much has been written recently on the role of pilot responsibility in hang gliding safety, but what about those factors which shape the individual pilot's personal attitude toward his or her flying? The most basic key to safety in hang gliding is thorough and responsible pilot training;

theoretical as well as practical. My beginning flying was done under the protective wings of Chandelle of San Francisco and, like any provincial, I assumed that the level of competence and concern which they exhibited was the usual standard held in all hang gliding communities. And, like any good provincial when faced with the reality of the rest of the big wide world, I was genuinely surprised to find that that was simply not so. In two months of traveling I visited many flying sites all over the United States and, certainly not everywhere, but all too often, encountered hang gliding classes in which the instruction was haphazard, incomplete and sometimes downright dangerous. Particularly in areas where the total flying possibilities were represented by one 50-ft. training hill and one or two 1,000-ft. cliff launches, instruction often seemed perilously inadequate to safely sponsor a fledgling pilot to an abrupt 950-ft. altitude increase. In many areas considerable care was given to instruction in multiple day beginning lesson packages, but, because of site limitations or limited staffing and operating budgets, little or no follow-up instruction was offered and after a short course students were expediently packed off with a new kite, a Hang II and wishes for the best of luck. The days of, "get a kite, find a mountain and go for it!" were indeed not as dead as I had been led to believe. But the overall worst facet of instruction I observed (again, not everywhere, but all too often) during my travels was an instructor character-type I shall call Joe Cool - Ace Hang Glider Pilot. Joe was typically an arrogant Hang IV pilot, enormously impressed with himself and convinced that USHGA rules and guidelines applied only to the uninitiated bumblers who had not yet attained his astral peak of ability. He consistently treated his students as coldly and impatiently as was possible without losing their business. Then in an always devotion-inspiring show of largesse, he abruptly graduated his boringly unproficient students out of his classes, onto their own kites (purchased from Joe's shop, naturally) and sent them on their way. His students, typically, left with a kite they did not fully understand, a Hang II they did not merit and a contempt for flying rules and regulations which, they had inferred, were actually only thorns in the side of a "real pilot."

One such instructor in Utah who especially stands out in my mind, was not only "less than gracious" in his instruction, but also repeatedly exhibited singularly bad judgment while flying within view of beginning students. I watched him do 360's next to Point of the Mountain, way too close one day, in turbulent marginal winds, flying over three different groups of Hang I and Hang II pilots, all watching, all making mental note of what they could only assume to be an instructor's ideal form. With an official model like that, there was little question as to what type of pilots too many of those beginners were likely to become. Hang gliding shops on the west coast have the marked advantage of plentiful flying sites and almost year-round good flying weather. In shops in other parts of the country where business is often marginal at best, and flying sites and seasons limited, hang gliding instruction and services are bound to be less than comprehensive. But "business" or not, safety has to be the first and foremost commodity dealt in, in any hang gliding business, and more care needs to be taken to see that they are doing it with expertise and concern for the ongoing safety of their students. Much as all of us may resent and balk at "outside" controls and regulations, the only way we can consistently insure the perpetuation of safe flying methods is to fully support the USHGA instructor certification and hang rating programs, something which is not conscientiously happening yet in all or even a majority of flying communities around the country. People learn by example; safe examples need to be constantly developed, updated and standardized, and implementation of a developed system means organization and regulation. It's that simple. If we expect individuals to be responsible pilots, we have to insure that there is a reliable path to follow to that end. How dangerous is hang gliding, really? It is as dangerous as the level of indifference or incompetency we tolerate in the people we allow to teach it. Closely allied with the issue of pilot instruction in flying safety is the subject of site control. One of the most frightening incidents I witnessed this summer was a young woman's flight at Salt Lake's South Side. After a short soaring flight she swung in deep over the top of the ridge, back behind the power lines, and turned, expecting to glide up to the far front edge of the cliff. But because of the nearly horizontal winds screaming HANG GLIDING

over the top of the ridge penetration was virtually impossible. She flew only a few feet, rather than several yards, into that wind after her turn and landed inches short of the power lines. A classic case of poor pilot judgment causing another near-fatal accident? Yes, but what else was involved? There was a hand-out sheet about peculiarities of the site - landing on top among them which was passed out to non-local pilots as a means of site control. But the Fellow Feathers member who was responsible passed out only a few early in the morning and was then too busy giving lessons to continue. No other monitoring of any sort was done at take-off, no attempt made to check the hang ratings or experience of the out-of-state pilots who actually outnumbered the locals (not an uncommon occurrence on a summer weekend in Utah.) Even an expert pilot often needs the input of other pilots in evaluating a flying site or condition. Given that evaluation the expert is usually competent to gauge whether his or her skills are adequate for the challenge. But the beginning pilot has neither the expertise to safely judge new site conditons, nor the judgment to decide whether his or her skills are good enough to handle them. We could each go out there and learn to fly as the first pilots did - alone. But what then is the value of the community we have supposedly developed? That is the purpose of site control, to exercise that community, and it is in some ways more essential than good individual instruction, because a single instructor, no matter how good, simply cannot always be there to help. Good site control - clear, definite and sensible regulations, adequately and consistently enforced - is a measure of a flying community's commitment to its individual members' safety. Many flying sites I visited this summer practiced little if any site control. People came and went, ratings were never checked, traffic patterns were non-existent, take-off and landing sites were at the discretion of the individual pilot, peculiarities of the area were neither posted nor pointed out to obviously out-of-state pilots (who usually had a bad case of the "go-for-its" and were about to leap headlessly off the nearest promising-looking precipice). Some sites were controlled by a usage fee to an owner, sometimes a private party, sometimes a flyer or flying club. Even there, though, the fee was sometimes the "control," and hang rating requirements were often vague, unenforced or too low for the difficulty of the sites. It was encouraging that some previously uncontrolled sites which were growing in popularity were finally being forced into site control for their own sanity and survival. People always grumbled ("No one's going to tell me I have to have some dumb card to fly here!") but the communal feeling was always more positive and supportive where controls were enforced. While few pilots would dispute Joe Coal's right to break his fool neck by flying with his typically bad judgment, still fewer people would argue the validity of keeping a novice who doesn't know any better from flying when he or she shouldn't. Again "control" is abrasive to most people; we want to be our own guides. But unless we progress to the point of controlling all our flying sites in a

JANUARY 1979

reasonable way, we can't expect good judgment and safe flying from pilots who have no back-up system to teach them those skills. We are our brother's and sister's keepers; it is our communal responsibility. How dangerous is hang gliding, really? It is as dangerous as the level of uncontrolled freedom we allow to people not mature enough as pilots to handle it. All these things considered, hang gliding in the United States has a long way to go before it is truly as safe a sport as we contend that it is and can be. And even then, having solved all these remediable problems, there will still always remain the incalculable number of quirks and potentially dangerous variables involved in each and every flight which no amount of preparation or experience can entirely obviate. And loathe as we all are to admit it to the curious, somewhere deep down we all sense the basic reality that on each flight we are in fact flirting with disaster. How is it that we who fly deal with this knowledge? Many pilots envelop themselves in the naive protective cloak of "it-can 't-happen-to-me-itis." They don't entirely disbelieve that unforseeable "freak" accidents occur, just that they only happen to faceless names in the USHGA accident register. But usually even a few months in the sport begin to personally acquaint every pilot with enough serious scrapes, crashes, crack-ups, and perhaps even a local fatality to pound in the message that it can happen to real people, maybe even to them. If we all eventually do come to be convinced of this possibility, maybe hang glider pilots will prove to be the lunatic fringe which revels in getting its adrenalin pumped by defying danger and tempting fate - as many propose we are. Which is it? Do we fly because of the risks or in spite of them? As a strictly biased participant I would say in spite of, not because of, for the simple reason that, assuming most other pilots operate with similar motivations to my own, danger is indeed a part of what we have to live with as flyers, but the true motivation for hang gliding is the pure aesthetic joy of flight. As Jack London wrote in Cal! of the Wild:

I may have committed myself to an undertaking which might take my life was totally irrelevant. How dangerous is hang gliding, really? It's as dangerous as the degree to which we allow our souls to be intimidated by the fear of death over the joy of freedom. What I would hope to see develop in the future of our sport, would be a more thorough emphasis on the blending of these two approaches -the communal and the personal - to the dangers of hang gliding. The fantasy of flight realized is a joy indeed, but it is such an intoxicant to many that the consideration of the bureaucratic side of regulations and controls seems almost sacrilegious. Many pilots obviously feel, in a sport so personal, that organization, planning, and control, which go beyond the development of individual skill and a certain personal peacemaking with the infinite, are out of place and unnecessary. But sites which are better controlled are safer; instructors who are well-trained, demanding and thorough are better instructors; and pilots who are held unwaveringly to strict performance criteria before being awarded hang ratings are better and safer pilots. Hang gliding is very much an individualist's sport, but the kind of conscientious communal regulation programs of site control, rigorous instructor certification requirements, and official hang ratings as sponsored by the USHGA are the best means we have to give the individual that margin of safety which can make hang gliding a truly enjoyable sport, and not just a poorly calculated risk. How dangerous is hang gliding, really, in your flying community? ._..

"There is an ecstasy which marks the summit of life and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living: this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and yet comes as the complete forgetfulness that one is alive." That quote, one which I have carried around with me for at least 14 or 15 years, attests, I suppose, to a certain blind faith in the existence of joy. But I never had a personal experience to live up to it until this past February when I began to Ry. After a thoroughly unpretentious tandem flight of less than a minute's duration I came away knowing that my life had been profoundly changed. And London's words, that I had scribbled in letters, on notebooks, even in term papers, finally took on the glow of reality. The ecstasy was attainable! My feeling then, as now, about the danger of what I was doing was simple: all the moments of happiness in my life together never even approached the joy of those moments of first flight. And the fact that in pursuit of that

LAND LIKE A BIRD! You may have noticed that a bird, during his landing approach, avoids throwing a drag chute. The bird, instead. will cleverly drop and flair his tail. He can then spread and retract this device so as to control the amount of drag needed in order to land on that fence post. So why hasn't anyone yet thought to use the otherwise idle legs of the hang glider pilot for this purpose7 Many probably have,but tlie first on the market are FLAP CHAPS. FLAP CHAPS are easy to put on after your harness, Velcro tabs secure the waist band and side flaps. The knees are open behind for knee hangers. They will not interfere with your running, and will pop loose in case of a snag. The best of all is tliat they are cheap at $21.00 a pair from FLAP CHAPS, W.O.W. Products, P.O. Box 2118, Santa Cruz, California 95063.

0/PREY!

Specifications

175

Nose Angle . . . . . 110° SailBillow . . 1' Aspect Ratio ..... 5.2 Max.UD ......... 8to1 Min. Sink . 220 FPM Stall Speed . . . . . . 16·18 MPH Area. . . . 175 Pilot Weight 125·170 Lbs Glider Weight .... 48 Lbs Span . . . ...... 30 Ft Leading Edge ..... 18'6" Root Chord. . .. 11 Ft Breakdown . . . . . 10'6" Price . . . . . . .. $940

207 110° 1° 5.15 8to1 220 FPM 16·18 MPH 207 150·220 Lbs 50 Lbs 32.5 Fl 19'9" 12 Ft 10'6" $960

Take a flight with a true soaring bird. The new Ospre.Y by Sky Sports offers you a chance to return to expressive, free-form flight. You get high performance without sacrificing handling and control. You can explore the air like a hawk. The Osprey is the ultimate glider for the pilot that wants to look good and feel good in the sky. All the in-flight aesthetics didn't come from a roll of the dice. With careful engineering and years of design experience, we gradually developed the final version of this excellent glider. Precise wing shaping and billow control contribute to the Osprey's fine handling. The 25% double surface keeps the glide flat at the low end. This stylish wing is as affordable as it is versatile. Whether you IN EUROPE CONTACT: Para-Fun International are a novice or an advanced pilot, you perform Juan Garcia like a bird. Take a flight with an Osprey! Norrebrogade 148 2~00 Copenhagen N Denmark 01838586

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The Falcon 5112 is far and above, the most advanced high performance ship in today's hang gliding market. It offers the increased high performance needed for today's hang gliding yet retains the stability desired by all pilots. The Falcon 5 1,2 enjoys an incredibly wide speed range, having been clocked in excess of 50 mph to date, yet also maintains an excellent sink rate. The 5 1 2 made a speed run at Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tenn. to the point and back in 45 mi nut cs. (This time would have walked away with second place at the Great Race') Consider these facts when looking at your next (or first) high performance glider. Nose angle.. .108 degrees Stall speed. .. ..... 18-22 mph depending on wing load L/D ......... 9.5 plus Sink speed.. .. ........ 200 f.p.m. Maximum speed. 50 mph plus Sail Billow .............. 0 degrees

WORTHY

~ ~

The Falcon 5 1,, is the result of exhaustive studies on drag reduction. It's basic computer designed planform is similar to that of its predecessor, the Falcon 5, but that's where it ends. The Falcon 5Yi incorporates the easy handling characteristics you've come to expect from Chuck's gliders, plus greater speed range and control capabilities.

Since the introduction of our MoGlider power pack, response has been outstanding. Popular acclaim doesn't mean we're standing still though. For instance, we are now getting 85 to 95 lbs. thrust . . . and that's just the beginning. Other features that make the CGS MoGlider power pack unique include: • Easy Riser mounting (Rogallo mounting on the way) • Belt drive, gear reduction design • West Bend engine • Welded 4130 chrome moly steel engine mount • Large diameter 42" laminated, clear varnished prop • Four (4) bolt mounting • Eight rubber mounts to isolate engine vibration from airframe • Muffler is standard equipment • Faster takeoffs and climb rate due to more efficient, large slower turning prop • No wing amplification of sound • Weight of complete engine package is 23.5 lbs. There's more, but space won't allow us to tell everything. The complete price of the CGS Mo-Glider~ including engine, propeller and accessories is $920. When you take to the sky, don't settle for anything less than the best. The CGS Mo-Glider power pack is the thrustworthy engine you can count on in the air and on the ground.

As usual with Chuck's Gliders, the entire package, including the quality built Falcon 5Yz, baggie, Quikite setup and negative deflexers is priced at a low $1100. For more detailed information, call or write to Chuck's Glider Supplies. Find out for yourself that exceptional quality and performance do exist in one glider ... the CGS Falcon 5\iz.

For further details call or write Chuck's Glider Supplies. ®

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CHUC~') GLIDER )UPPLIES' 4252 PEARL RD.CLEVE., OH 44109 (216) 398-5272

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Cll1s5 -

Advanced Air Sports Products 990 East Lakeshore Dr. Lake Elsinore California 92033 Formerly Free Flight Enterprises.

(714) 674-1494