Videos
from: November and December, 2007: - click here: <<==
Videos (separate) web-page / index / etc. Hang-Gliding
'weather forecasting' basics:
- a separate web-page
<<== HOWdo we decide to go - what / where / etc.
Videos
from: Saturday, 10 November, 2007: - see link above for separate
videos web-page
Videos
taken on: Tuesday, 06 November, 2007: - see link above for
separate videos web-page Today
is Sunday, 16th (September)... - today's flights (at
Florida Ridge) were NOT exciting or rewarding, but they were hot (in
the sun!) - I won't go into great detail - other than to say
there WAS LIFT, but it was Spotty (at best) and very very light (at
worst) - only about 100-200 fpm -
Though there was one place on tow
(which was generally ROUGH!) that I wrapped-up the Vario - (meaning
over 1,000 fpm) but it didn't last long, only a couple of
seconds... - Unlike other days at
Florida Ridge, the LIFT seemed much better NORTH of State Road 80 -
which seems very unusual (compared to other flights / times / days at
Florida Ridge) - where the bulk of the lift always seemed SOUTH of the
air-park? - anyway - UGH UGH - not a great day... here's
a link
to the Flightlog page for these flight(s)...
I MAY go tomorrow - but there was a question as to whether or not they
would have a tug-pilot. I need to pick-up some more citrus
tree-trimmings for Ms. May, though (to make pottery-glaze-from)... - so
- I might go anyway...
Today
is Friday, 7th (September)...
BUT Mr. Bill got a chance to fly on Tuesday, 4th at
Groveland (Quest Air) - two short flights - one 15 minutes and 35
minutes - the 35 minute flight was VERY NICE - learned a lot - got off
tow at about 2,900 feet and went up to
about 4,100 feet... a good day - here's a link
to the Flightlog page for these flight(s)...
Yesterday
was Friday, 31st August:
Mr. Bill had a pretty good flight at Florida Ridge.
He got towed up once, but the tow-rope broke at about 150 feet of
altitude - so - well - back to the field (good Tug (tow-plane) pilot
Mr. "Bent" always concerned with the hang-glider-pilot he had given me
a great 'bail-out' area to turn to and I had the whole field to land
in. Mr. Dennis (owned by Ms. Big Red the Barking Squirrel) repaired
the rope and I finally got started up about 14:28 p.m..
Then I proceeded to 'mostly' 100 - 200 feet per minute lift, though one
'instantaneous' (5 second) reading was 863 feet per minute).
My whole flight lasted a bit short of an hour (about 52 minutes).
Over all an EXCELLENT DAY - I was 'late' getting towed-up but
the reality was that it was good (if small) lift - and I did a couple
of 'experiments' - still attempting to get used to my new glider. For a
while I flew it near 50 mph of air-speed (that's VERY FAST when you're
hanging-out there in the slip-stream!). ALSO managed
to get in a 1,600 feet rise / 11 minute thermal that was VERY NICE.
IF I could have one or two days like this every week I would be
exceedingly happy!
anyway - track-log overlaid on top of a Google Earth aerial image (view
in both of these track-log-images is from the south-east - looking
northwest across the Florida Ridge field (sorry that the
track-log-files / images get a bit 'confused' for a 52 minute flight -
they are a bit 'busy'): ( small (72 k-bytes)
---- LARGE
(352 k-bytes) )
and/or you can view things from FlightLog.Org
<=== click on the link to view Bill's Page on Flight-Log... - IF you
want to see the above flight - you'll find it displayed at or near the
top of the list - by date... To see interesting data and graphs, click
on the little tiny 'squiggle' mark next to the yellow-hang-glider (on
blue-background) icon to the left of the date...
then when you're on that 'detail' page for that flight - scroll to the
bottom and (this is pretty slick) click on 'Tracklog statistics' and
you may be impressed (on the other hand you may not be impressed?
I must thank the 'STAFF' at Florida
Ridge - and the OWNER, Mr. James Tindle, for helping out - I am a
'customer' and they are a 'business' but they also take good care of
the customer... -
ALSO I am really really enjoying my new Wills Wing glider. I have a
"Sport 2" in the 155 size and it is really a great pick for me, and if
you want to see pictures then you can scroll-down on this page and see
them.
Today is Sunday, 12th of August -
yes - I've been away from
things for a while - a two week trip to visit Ms. May's parents, then a
couple of days in Jacksonville visiting my Mom, etc. etc. etc.
BUT I did fly (briefly) at Quest Air on the 5th of August; and today I
flew at Florida Ridge (again, briefly)...
Unfortunately, at this time of year - it is not only HOT HOT HOT _ in
the field getting ready but there is not much lift (other than 10 July
when I got GREAT LIFT at Quest for about 48 minutes.)
ANYWAY: - here's some links - if you're interested - which I well
understand you may not be?
for the Flight Log file(s) - you can go to: this link to the
FlightLog web-site - the Bill Schell section and click on the
little yellow icon to get some information for that flight...
A (digital-movie) video of Mr. Bill taking-off like he should NOT be
(too high-angle-of-attack / too 'aggressively' going up (there are
reasons that I was SUPPOSED to do this, though I won't go into
detail here))
I 'tried' to get a ...wmv file for those of you on Windows - but
it would not do this - sorry - something about multiple audio sample
rates - it would not convert the file?
Today is Saturday, 14th, but
YESTERDAY was what some would call 'un-lucky' (Friday the 13th), but
not for me.
James Tindle (owner of Florida Ridge) and his daughter (but my
navigator Mr. Panda Bear!)
- I had a couple of short but fun & educational (first time
I'd used the VG (yes it's AWESOME)) and enjoyable flights at Florida Ridge (I got there
early (about 10:15 a.m.)). - I really enjoyed my morning
flight(s) with Mr. "Bent" as tow-pilot - and both flights were good
though the second was better - if rainy (yes - again - there IS LIFT in
RAIN - something I'd never expected) - but eventually the rain
grounded me...
- These two flights proved the summer-theory in that that the
cloud-base is typically LOW (like 2,600-2,900 feet) and there is NO
LIFT above cloud-base.
- The other thing that I'm 'just learning' - and this has been a long
learning process (and it's likely to continue) is that it is ROUGH when
you have LIFT - and ROUGH can be scary... - On the other hand LIFT is
FUN - so - how can you be SCARED and having FUN at the same time
? I guess this is what motivates people to do hang-gliding!
SCARY & FUN at the SAME TIME!
Track-log (of second flight) overlain onto Google Earth image ( small / large ) - not much
else to 'look-at' today?
- you can click on the yellow / blue glider icon
next to any flight to get more details. If you want to view the
'Track Log' (flight information and statistics downloaded from the GPS
and further 'tweaked / analyzed / processed by computer software) -
then
you can scroll to the bottom of that flight's information-statistics
page and click on 'Tracklog statistics" link (in blue). That link
will take you to some flight-information graphs that are fairly
self-explanatory...
No other pictures at or of Florida Ridge - it rained - and I came home
to work on hurricane-proofing the house - so - well - it's still early,
here (04:20 a.m.) , on Saturday Morning - I might go fly again
today - but I think I'll just work on the house - maybe fly on
Sunday morning?
Well - I didn't fly today (Sunday) because I was doing 'hurricane
proofing' but I did do something I'd been wanting to do for about a
year... - I pulled out my parachute, and WOW it's COMPLEX and it's
BIG... I'm sending my harness back to the manufacturer for some
remedial work, and for re-packing of my parachute. (this
is
a recommended thing on a once-a-year basis)
The company that built both May's harness and mine is ' High Energy Sports ', and
for our harness type (cocoon) - they are supposedly one of the best at
this type of (back-loading / non-competition) harness. The
Parachute(s) are actually built by someone else.
The lady that owns the (harness) company suggested that I take this
opportunity
to pull the parachute out and look it over, and so-forth and I'm really
glad I did...
Now it's all packaged up for Fed-Ex for tomorrow morning - I'll drop it
off to ship on my way to the airport... Well - today is Tuesday (10th
July) - and the 'best recent flight' was
had, today,
at Quest - launched
(towed-up (by Mr. Paul)) at about 13:00 p.m. - came back about
13:50 or so - 48 minute flight -
4,200 feet (towed-up-to) sucked-up-into a
cloud - but that's just the begining - good lift - not HUGE _ 100-300
fpm - it was good but not stupendiferous...
On the other hand -
this is the longest flight in my new glider by at least 2x (time-wise)
which is a 'key indicator' - and during a summer-day one should not
have this good a flight, so the 'experts' say. I have
(because
this was so exciting for me (and because I'm now more 'attuned' to my
users / viewers needs / wants AND because I've now gotten more fancy
software working) - there is / are more goodies and things for you to
look at and play-with:
track-log overlay on Google-Earth image here (
4"= small / 8"= large )
(Flight-details (summary (Log-Book)) stored on a Norway based
server) at this link: http://www.flightlog.org
Several things are of interest here (but first click on the yellow
hang-glider-icon for " 2007-07-10
12:55 " )
scroll part-way down the page until you see this / these
phrases and / or you can click on them:
View flight in Google Map
- it will then open Google Map(s) on your behalf in your browser and
show you the 'track-log' - but you must use a 'modern' browser (I.E. 7
or Safari or Firefox 2)
Tracklog in Google Earth
format (only if you have Google Earth)
scroll to the bottom of this page and click on the (blue)
link ' Tracklog statistics ' -
or if you're
too lame to click on that link you can view the tracklog statistics as a ...jpeg file by clicking here
Today I did some more flying on
Monday 9th July, 2007: - Would have
flown on Sunday, 8th, but I seemed to have been ill...
Today's (9th July) track-log file overlain on top of a Google Earth
image - small ...
nothing spectacular
- more on this - later when I get more awake. A
couple of pictures of my glider - (a 'Portrait' of Bill's Glider ( small
/ large )
by the way - it is STILL HOT HOT HOT when you are 'out standing in your
field' - rigging, un-rigging your glider, walking it around the field,
etc. etc. - the 'Heat Index' today was about 105 degrees
F...
I drink considerably more water while on the ground doing this
HOT HOT HOT thing - I think I went through about 2 1/2 gallons of
water, today, between the CamelBak and other liquids!
When you're flying you are only working your shoulders (hard) and
you are in the shade (both underneath the glider and (in many cases)
also underneath a cloud
- However, you definitely work your shoulders HARD - in
lower-performance gliders they are easier to fly but as I've now moved
'up' one-step in complexity / performace the glider takes more 'muscle'
- especially in the shoulders. - I could 'relieve' some of this
by 'mucking-around' with the "VG" control but for now I've chosen not
to complicate my life...
HOWEVER, today I did experience a lot of cramping in my thighs (for the
first time) - one has to 'go-vertical' (basically sit-up-right in your
harness) and dangle your feet-out (of the harness) and
shake-rattle-and-roll to get the blood flowing again. This, of
course, creates a lot more 'drag' and you can't fly as fast or as high
but it definitely eliminates the cramps...
Mr. Bill has yet another
'adventure' at Florida Ridge on Saturday, 7
July, 2007: (But not nearly as WET as the prior adventure)... Actually
I was just about as wet - sweat - sweat - sweat - it was HOT HOT HOT -
and I drank about 9 bottles of water (amongst other things) - but - the
bottom-line is that this was a VERY PRODUCTIVE day - I had two good
roll-in landings - I had definitely the best flight on my new glider -
( track log (over-lay on top of Google Earth) here: smallLARGE )
Tomorrow (Sunday) - will - I hope - be even better. Maybe
tomorrow I'll hit that 'elusive' hour-long flight - but - then again -
maybe not? - The weather (LIFT) today was good but not terrific -
sometimes it takes "Terrific" LIFT to get one a long flight - but today
I was able to do some 'cloud hopping' (which - of course - you can't
see in the track-log because the clouds are not there.
Also it did not RAIN on me (while I was flying (which seems to have
happened to me a LOT lately) but it was a GOOD DAY!
One of the things that one does not 'understand' (as well as one
should) is that when one gets a new glider that one must 'start all
over again' - and start - again - with 10-20 minute flights - before
one can 'move-up'. I 'failed to recognize' this issue when I got
my new glider - however, I'm resigned to the issue, now - and am
getting well over 30 minutes - on the way to hour long flights...
IF the LIFT holds out tomorrow - I might get an hour flight in.
IF / WHEN one wants to 'go cross country' which is the competitive
paradigm in this sport - then one has to be able to 'regularly' get
hour long flights - it's sort of a minimum - though there are a lot of
cross-country flights that are shorter than 1 hour, rarely do the
'experts' (some of whom have been doing this 10-20-30 years) do
cross-country flights shorter than an hour.
Local, State, National and World records are almost all in the 3-10
hour range - that's a LONG TIME in the air... I'd be VERY
HAPPY these days for an hour flight, though...
Mr. Bill has an 'adventure' at
Florida Ridge on Sunday, 1 July, 2007:
-- I flew in the rain for the third time - and yes - there is LIFT when
it rains (but you got to know where to go to find it) and my NEW GLIDER
got Wet Wet Wet both flying and on the ground (I folded the
control-frame underneath it so it would lay-flat on the ground after
watching two other gliders break, then break-loose from their tie-downs
and go tumbling down the field in 20-30 knots of wind! (long after I
landed)... it rained 2 1/2 inches in 3 hours or so - and the field was
FULL of Puddles - which would have to dry-up so there was no more
flying this afternooon...
some pictures of this Sunday's adventure!
After my first flight, before my second (wet!) flight:
new (self-repairing) landing-gear (the duct-tape modification didn't
work so well) - I MUST quit landing on this landing-gear it has very
little "life" left and it won't take this abuse without permanent
damage.... But I AM Learning I AM getting better but - well - I
still have some things to learn about foot-landing!
Cleaning-up my glider from having left it laying flat on the ground
while the 2-hour plus storm passed... mostly vacuuming the dirt (and
wet-grass, etc.) out of the sewing-seams, and mopping-up dripping
water off the floor!
Track-Logs: - sorry - no track-logs for these flights - I
mis-configured the GPS again... UGH UGH got an altitude record, but no
horizontal record...
This link to FlightLog.org
will take you to Mr. Bill's page on a server in Norway where all my
flights are logged and statistics compiled...
Mr. Bill finally gets one short
(22 minutes) flight in his new glider
on 22 June, 2007. Ms. May documented this momentous event with a few
pictures:
Mr. Bill discussing the weather, the clouds and the upcoming flight
Mr. Bill's ready, now, to get towed up to 2,500 feet altitude - or as
near there as we can get. Ms. Lisa is flying the towing - 'tug'
plane (off to the right of this picture - about 200 feet) - and Ms.
Lisa is VERY GOOD at this... We (Bob and Lisa and I) waited
a long time for a 'hole' in the clouds and after about an hour of
waiting we finally got what we wanted - and from the time Lisa said
"lets go" until the time she took-off (towing me) was considerably less
than 10 minutes... We were all three PRIMED and READY!
For those technically minded typies: Garmin-GPS-track-log files (
overall - small
- large ) - and over the
mini-lake doing thermalling - detail ( small - large )
Another (Ms. May Wong) picture of a key-un-expected
item more on this un-expected item on Ms. May's blog-site - you can
get to
that ' here '.
AND - finally - the company that made my glider ( WillsWing ) issued a
'technical service bulletin' about the same day they shipped my glider
- so today (Saturday (in the HOT SUN, mind you) I complied with said
technical bulletin and re-tied this knot - picture here - (this is the VG
(Variable Geometry)) system inside the wing...
Mr. Bill was able to 'model' (to some extent) his new glider in a CAD
tool called "Rhino3D" - by McNeel (in Seattle). Rhino3D is now in
it's 4th version and it is an excellent tool for 'organic curves'
(curves in two dimensions) - and it has some plug-ins that make it good
for boat-designs, amongst other things...
Updated:
Thursday, 14 June, 2007:
- No - repeat NO - I have NOT, Yet,
Flown my brandy-new glider, BUT - I have been busy (when the
weather doesn't cooperate) I fix things, repair broken things, make new
things and otherwise keep busy!.
Here's some pictures of what I've been doing to keep myself busy,
lately:
sun cover for the new glider ( small
/ large ) cloth is "Sunbrella" ($300 worth ) and about
5-6 hours of labour!)
axle-adapters & wheels - Left: ( small / large)
Right: ( small / large )- a way to get (landing) wheels on
this glider - since Wills Wing advertises axle
adapters on their web-site but does not make
(landing-wheel-adapters) nor sell them - as I perceived (silly
me) when I ordered the glider)
- 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.
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 click here: (aero-tow) launch:
May's (second I think) flight on 17 March, 2007 at Quest Air in
Groveland, Florida (1.4 megs / 14 seconds / ...m4v)
James (one of our friends, from
the UK) videos on Google-Video:
click here: 2006 National Championships
at Quest Air, Groveland, Florida (about 56 megabytes to download /
about 10 minutes of viewing time
/ ...wmv (Windows Media Viewer - should work just fine on Microsoft
Windows Operating Systems)
though this is a fairly large file (at 56 megabytes) it takes only
about 10 minutes to view - and for the 'un-initiated' who are
un-familiar with Hang Gliding as a sport or as a past-time - this video
has a LOT to offer. it has both in-the-air videoing as well as
footage from on the ground. It has three separate 'sections' -
which are also very educational. The first is national and world
recognized glider pilot Ms. Kari Kastle, taking off - towing up, flying
and landing. The second section is how you launch 100 gliders in
less than an hour for the start of a competition. Ms. May and Mr.
Bill have helped with this a lot. The third section is views of
people landing hang-gliders on their feet - one of the two 'main'
methods of landing. 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...
last updated: 11:10
a.m.
on Tuesday, 15 January, 2008rga
revID: 2n (in
Stuart, Florida)
