Newsletter: November 2003 (Note: all external links open in a new window)
Next Meeting: Tuesday 3 February @ Valley Club, Lower Hutt, from 7:30pm
NEWS
Paragliding fatality
It is with deep sadness that I report Jill Borst's death in a paragliding accident in Australia on 18 January. A remembrance web site has been established for Jill. Article from the Christchurch Press about the accident. Discussion thread on Big Air about straps.
New Zealand Hang Gliding Nationals - article by Grant Tatham
Hawkes Bay Paragliding League
The HBHGPC is hosting a paragliding league over Waitangi Weekend. Contact Nathan McKenzie for more details
Wairarapa Paragliding League and Mt Victoria "Fly Off"
Mt Victoria "Fly Off" has been also been postposed till late March.
Fit and Proper person
As per the notice in the last Airborne, please also forward the FPP form when applying for a new rating. This is necessary to complete the application, regardless or whether its a learner, advanced, PG1, PG4 or tow rating.
Person interested in free flying
Brian Nelson is interested in getting into hang gliding and/or paragliding. He has previously done around 50 hours in sailplanes, and a one day intro to paragliding in Nelson a few years ago. If you are going out give Brian a call on 025 395 539 - he'd like to come along, watch and talk...
INTERESTING WEB SITES
Soundings - what are they?
This tool alows you to play around with different "what if it gets up to 30 degC today" type senarios and calculate what cloudbase would be, what temp is needed to trigger thermals to break the inversion/isothermal layer or get convection to 3000m, etc..
Once familiar with how to interpret them you can get a sounding for the Airport nearest you, get the forecast temp for the day and then get your own plots instantly. (Thanks to Richard Bungay and Kieron on EuroPG for this information!)
PARAGLIDING FLYING TIPS
Here is an excellent article on spins from Adrian Thomas on the EuroPG discussion forum:
Spin is caused by the pilot applying very large amounts of brake, with a slight asymmetry (in brake or weightshift) so that one wing stalls before the other. All gliders spin DHV0 upwards. If you think your
glider is spin/collapse/stall/ any other instability proof you are kidding yourself.
The vast majority of glider safety - at least 90 percent for inexperienced pilots, increasing with experience - is due to the pilot. The glider contributes a very small percentage in two ways. Gliders vary in their resistance to collapses. This is not reflected in any current test regime, competition wings - because they have to be able to fly at very high top speeds - are inherently resistant to collapse, being easy to collapse can be good for the other measured kind of stability: DHV and the other testing bodies measure the gliders ability to recover from specific deliberately induced collapses under the assumption that the pilot does nothing to the brakes and slumps to the low side during the collapse. If you do not behave in the passive way a DHV test pilot behaves following a collapse (i.e. like a sack of potatos) then your glider may not behave in the certified manner. Because the specified collapses are defined gliders are designed to behave in a way that passes the tests. Some 1-2 gliders, for example, are designed to get frontal or asymmetric collapses very very easily when the A risers are pulled down (look to the distributions of A and B line attachments to tell which ones). They therefore get very small collapses which pass tests easily. These collapses may not be what turbulence causes. All certified gliders are designed so that when they spin the pitch oscillation has a frequency that means that the glider has dived forwards at the specified point where the DHV test pilot releases the brakes. If you spin the glider through a greater or lesser angle it may not behave in the certified manner.
Paragliding is dangerous, on all paragliders. The main cause of safety problems is the pilot. A very good practice is to identify the spin point while ground handling. Find a spot where you won't fly off, in a reasonable breeze, reverse launch, turn, stand with the wing above your head, then see how much brake (both sides at the same time) you can apply before the wing spins - it almost always stalls on one wing first and spins rather than dropping back evenly. Once you have sorted out where the spin point is try just getting it to start to spin then letting your hands up to see how easily it recovers. Then start running to get a couple of feet up before searching for spin point- so you spin it at such low altitude you won't get hurt. Needs a benign flat grassy field without obstacles, or the rounded top of a soaring site.
Once you know where the spin point is, it is much easier to thermal hard without spinning the glider. Knowing how much tolerance your glider has to heavy-handed input, and what the signs of an imminent spin are provides a lot of confidence.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 3 February @ Valley Club, Lower Hutt, from 7:30pm
