Hang-Gliding
by May and Bill
Hang
Gliding adventures, here
(near our home in Stuart, Florida) and all-about.
updated: Tuesday, 29th May, 2007: Got
an e-mail on Monday evening (28th) that my glider is in Groveland,
Florida at Quest Air... So - I drove-up here to Quest on Tuesday
morning and put it
together. Some pictures here - but too much wind to fly it today
- maybe fly it a quick one or two 'sled-runs' tomorrow (Wednesday,
30th) morning if there's not too much wind?
For 'details' (more
'engineering' pictures) - click here to go to a separate page.
Bill's new glider - a "Wills Wing" (manufacturer) Sport 2
(model) 155 (square feet (size)) - double-surface
Mr. Bob, Mr. Fender, and the Wills Wing bag (in the foreground).
Mr. Bob is working on the new 'control-bar-wheels'...
Mr. Bob, helping assemble the 'new' (correct length for Mr. Bill)
hang-strap.
Mr. Bill is underneath doing the bottom-part of the assembly...
updated:
Sunday, 20 May, 2007:
- I got three short flights in on Thursday morning 17th at Quest_Air in Groveland,
Florida. This is the hang-gliding park / air park where May
and I took our lessons and where we first took our solo
flights. Though we fly a 'bit' at The_Florida_Ridge, we still
like Quest_Air a lot.
I managed to not do any landings
'near perfectly' but I continued to insist that my knees are good
'skids' - which might be true except for the skin that seems to come
off them upon repeated 'knee-landings'...
I will attempt to overcome this problem, soon, I hope. (I
don't have a lot of skin left)
My new glider will have wheels (or larger) on it - so that will be
nice. In the meantime I'm told I have a good 'approach' and
'mostly' have
been able to achieve good speed and geometry on my landing
attempts. I just need to get my legs underneath me!
For those that are technically minded, or just interested because you
have nothing better to do, all 3 flight-track-logs into one
image here ( or larger
) - short-flight(s) so not much going-on, not a heck of a lot of lift
at 10:00 a.m. or so.
IF anyone is interested in the 3D view(s) of track-logs - just let me know, and I'll try to
make them available. Getting the 3D view(s) on the web is
an 'extra step' but it is do-able - I have seen it used
elsewhere. If
enough people are interested, I'll find out how to do it and make it
available here. I'll make it so you don't have to download some
driver / application, also, but can just use your 2D mouse to
'mouse-around' and rotate the view(s) in 3D.
On Saturday morning, I used the remaining red-vinyl-cloth to
make-up a 'sausage bag' (or larger) for my new hang glider.
This bag will protect the factory supplied bag from water and BUGS
(it's "Love Bug Season" around here right now!) while the glider is on
the roof of the mini-van.
I also made some new and re-made some old sand-screw
bags. (Sand screws are twisted into the sand-soil whenever wherever
we fly our hang-gliders to tie them down.) - larger image of sand-screw, bag, tool,
tie-down-strap and buckle
Videos:
Someone, (and I don't remember who), recently asked me for 'videos.
There are a number of videos, around, and I guess a LOT depends
on what you want to SEE in the video... I'm going to
'quote', here, for you, - a few videos - with links - some
are on this (Bill & May's) web-site, some are on Google-Video and
others you can find by going to "YouTube" - and just typing in 'hang
gliding' in the search box - many that are there 'rotate' - some are
newer than others, some are older....
May & Bill Videos:
click here:
(mountain-foot) launch: Bill's first mountain launch - Lookout Mountain
Flight Park, Georgia (2 megs / 20 seconds)
click here: (aero-tow)
launch: May's flight on 17 March, 2007 at Quest Air in Groveland,
Florida (2.7 megs / 10 seconds / ...avi
James (one of our friends, from
the UK) videos on Google-Video:
click
here: (aero-tow) launch at Quest Air, Groveland,
Florida (20 megs / 2 minutes)
click
here: (foot-landing) at Quest Air, Groveland, Florida (20
megs / 2 minutes)
National Championships - 2006:
click here: 2006 National championships
at Quest Air, Groveland, Florida (about 56 megabytes / about 10 minutes
/ ...wmv)
updated: Friday, 11 May 2007:
Spent quite some time researching
hang-glider-2-meter-radio-antenna
options today - some reading, some talking to radio-geeks & gurus
and gurettes, some e-mailing, and so-forth - the bottom-line is this:
1.) Almost any hand-held radio transceiver (HT) will work 'in the air'
(in the hang-glider) with (almost any) rubber-duckie antenna that comes
with the hand-held. The fact that you are airborne 'overwhelms'
the
opportunity for 'huge' antenna efficiency gains... The rubber-duckie
that comes with the HT could be attached to the hang-strap (to keep it
'mostly' vertical with some BNC or TNC connectors and a piece of RG 58A
/ U coax cable but even this creates a minimal increase in antenna
efficiency...
2.) HOWEVER, once you are on the ground - a 'vertical' rubber-duckie or
more 'efficient' vertical antenna helps significantly - the 'most
common' of these is a 'loaded' (coil-type on the base or in the middle)
telescoping antenna which can be carried in the harness..
updated: Thursday, 10 May 2007:
From some of Ms.
Aggie's cloth that I brought home from Hong Kong, I made a 'weatherproof'
bag (or bigger-image) for
Ms. May's hang-glider. This is a 'prototype' bag that will (we
hope) protect the really nice bag (and the hang-glider) from weather
wind, bugs, sun, and other such 'pests' when we car-top-carry our
hang-gliders
Still don't know where my new glider is -
Supposedly I'll get a call today and it'll be delivered to our Hang
Gliding place late this week or early next week...
Other Hang Gliding types - their
'access' and their written ramblings (via Google's "BlogSpot" web-site):
- Mr. Kevin Carter -
who was Ms. May's coach when she was learning - he's
also a very very good pilot, and now married with a daughter and a
'real' job working on gaming-software - so - basically a 'comp-u-jock'!
- Ms. Linda Salamone
- from Rochester, New York - she's one of the better pilots we know,
and we helped "" re-engineer "" her VG-line while helping-out at
the
Florida Ridge competition - I hope it is still holding up o.k.?
- Ms.
Judy Hildebrand - from "Rising Fawn, Georgia" (the real postal
address area for "Lookout Mountain Flight Park". Ms. Judy is also
a delivery skipper for sailboats and power boats...
- Ms. Jamie
Shelden - who has taken-on the organization of a couple of Hang
Gliding events - she's also a trrade-mark lawyer and a
hang-gliding pilot.
last updated: 16:47
p.m. on Wednesday, 30th May, 2007 revID:
1m (in Groveland, Florida, at "Quest Air" facility)
