Wills Wing Easy Flyer

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGueoCKsVk


Under development at Wills Wing (USA) since January of this year, the EASY FLYER is a light-weight tricycle gear frame mated to a hang glider, with the pilot suspended from the glider in a seated / supine harness. Unlike a conventional "trike" configuration, the Easy Flyer carriage is fixed to the glider, and the pilot swings fore and aft and side to side above the carriage for pitch and roll control. As a result of this configuration, launching is greatly simplified, as the wings level attitude of the glider, and the proper pitch attitude and angle of attack for launch and landing are fixed by the attachment of the glider to the carriage.

Rolling launches from a slope, or from level ground with an aero tow assist, are almost trivially easy, with no need to lift and balance the glider, and no need to run. Landings are equally easy - just round out after approach, let the glider go to trim, and allow it to touch down and roll out on the wheels. In the air, soaring performance is excellent, and control requires less effort, and is more intuitive than when flying prone; control forces are lighter and, unlike when flying prone, there is no need to control any tendency of the pilot's body to yaw. The flying position is very comfortable, with no strain on the neck or back.

The first pre-production units will be going out to a few select flight schools over the next few months. Production units should be available for sale by early in 2018.

More Pictures

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_8.jpg

Ken Howells demonstrates no-hands while test flying the Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_7-768x512.jpg

Ken Howells looking for thermals wile test flying the Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_6.jpg

Mike Meier lands the Easy Flyer at Andy Jackson Airpark
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_5.jpg

Mike Meier launches the Easy Flyer from the training hill at Andy Jackson Airpark
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_4.jpg

The Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_3.jpg

Malcolm Jones preparing to land Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_1.jpg

Steve Pearson aero-towing the Easy Flyer version 0.1 for the first flight
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_2.jpg

Malcolm Jones aero-towing the Easy Flyer

FAQ

Can the Easy Flyer be configured to fit other gliders?
Not at this time. The Easy Flyer will only work with Falcon 4 195s and Alpha 210s that have been configured for the Easy Flyer carriage. The configuration changes include different downtubes, front-rear and side wires, and a modified keel. In the future it may be possible to adapt the concept to work with other models but that is not a project we have in the road map at this time.

Can I use my Alpha 210 or Falcon 195?
Not at this time. In its current form, the Easy Flyer will only ship with a new, specially configured Alpha 210 or Falcon 4 195.

When will it be available?
The first pre-production models will ship to select school starting in September. After those ship we will develop a version for recreational pilots that we hope to release in early 2018.

Is the harness included?
Yes, the harness is part of the package.

Will a paraglider harness work?
Not without some level of modification. Any harness with back or butt padding will interfere with the Easy Flyer carriage structure.

How much will it cost?
We have not yet assigned pricing.

How much does it weigh?
The current pre-production version adds 30 lbs to the stock glider.

Will the additional weight change how the glider flies?
The additional weight has a minimal effect on the flight characteristics. In general, a glider with 30 lbs. additional payload will be slightly more damped and stable feeling inflight with a roughly 1 mph higher stall speed.

Can it be scooter towed?
Not at this time. We are concerned about potential interference between the front of the carriage and the tow line. We intend to evaluate scooter towing and hopefully to address this issue.

I'd taken a quick glance at this thing at:

http://ozreport.com/21.180
Easy Flyer
2017/10/08 14:58:44 UTC

Training tool, I'm a performance freak, OK but not much interested. But then...

http://www.kitestrings.org/post10604.html#p10604

Holy shit. Great catch, Steve. Thanks bigtime. This has major implications for the bulk of Kite Strings issues and topics - launching, control tubes, landing, spot landing, towing, bridles, unhooked launch, releases, weak links, Blue Sky Scooter Towing...

This is a watershed moment in the history of hang gliding - akin to:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24846
Is this a joke ?

Davis Straub - 2011/08/26 14:04:52 UTC

We had six weaklink breaks in a row at Zapata this year. Russell Brown (tug pilot, tug owner, Quest Air owner) said go ahead and double up (four strands of Cortland Greenspot). He knows I used his Zapata weaklink in Big Spring (pilots were asked to tell the tug pilot if they were doing that).

They finally had to throw in the towel, decades behind schedule and looking at extinction on the horizon.

This thing is an evolutionary descendent and fusion of the powered trike and AT launch dolly and will totally topple damn near all of hang gliding's conventional "wisdom", "thinking", assumptions of "training" protocols IF the rest of the Industry permits it to get into substantial circulation.

Downsides...

- Lotsa crap in the airflow. Obviously will never be tolerated on advanced gliders and is currently only compatible with a couple entry level gliders.

- You can only get your Falcon 4 up to about thirty miles per hour and its Vne is 48. Wouldn't take all that much wind to make it go backwards.

Stay tuned.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

Under development at Wills Wing (USA) since January of this year, the EASY FLYER is a light-weight tricycle gear frame mated to a hang glider, with the pilot suspended from the glider in a seated / supine harness. Unlike a conventional "trike" configuration, the Easy Flyer carriage is fixed to the glider, and the pilot swings fore and aft and side to side above the carriage for pitch and roll control.

FULL pitch and roll control? Do you still have an HGMA certified glider with this thing clamped on? I'm guessing not 'cause you're saying you do.

As a result of this configuration, launching is greatly simplified, as the wings level attitude of the glider...

That doesn't make sense.

...and the proper pitch attitude and angle of attack for launch and landing are fixed by the attachment of the glider to the carriage.

And here I was thinking that THIS:

16-3713
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5151/14082589410_dde239dffb_o.png


was the proper pitch attitude and angle of attack for landing. That's what your Ellenville dealership is telling us anyway. And it's consistent with what you have:



in your Falcon and Alpha owners manuals.

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_6.jpg

Mike Meier lands the Easy Flyer at Andy Jackson Airpark

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=28835
Why I don't paraglide

Tom Emery - 2013/04/17 14:29:12 UTC

Been flying Crestline about a year now. I've seen more bent aluminum than twisted risers. Every time another hang pounds in, Steven, the resident PG master, just rolls his eyes and says something like, "And you guys think hang gliding is safer."

http://www.ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2095
Should we try a different way? Designwise....

Steve Corbin - 2015/09/02 22:26:04 UTC

Any un-biased observer should be able to see why wanna-be pilots find PG more attractive than HG. Standing around in the Andy Jackson Memorial International Airpark at a busy fly-in shows that a PG landing is a total non-event, while everyone stands up to watch HG's, piloted by "experts", come in to land. A good landing by a HG is greeted by cheers, an acknowledgement that landing one successfully is a demonstration not just of skill, but good luck as well.

Doesn't what you describe and illustrate in all your manuals violate the fuck out of...

Flight operation of the Falcon should be limited to non aerobatic maneuvers; those in which the pitch angle will not exceed 30 degrees nose up or nose down from the horizon...

...the Placarded Operating Limitations you have for all of your gliders? Ever wonder how many people you've crashed, mangled, killed out of the sport by specifying those stupid dangerous stunt landings, never advising wheel or skid landings except for:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27086
Steve Pearson on landings

Steve Pearson - 2012/03/28 23:26:05 UTC

I can't control the glider in strong air with my hands at shoulder or ear height and I'd rather land on my belly with my hands on the basetube than get turned downwind.

and never making skiddable harnesses available?

Operating the Falcon outside of the above limitations may result in injury and death.

No...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=22176
Paragliding Collapses

Jim Rooney - 2011/06/12 13:57:58 UTC

Most common HG injury... spiral fracture of the humerus.

...shit.

Rolling launches from a slope...

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_5.jpg

Mike Meier launches the Easy Flyer from the training hill at Andy Jackson Airpark

...or from level ground with an aero tow assist...

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_1.jpg

Steve Pearson aero-towing the Easy Flyer version 0.1 for the first flight

...are almost trivially easy, with no need to lift and balance the glider, and no need to run.

Oh really. And here I was thinking that:

The Falcon 3's and Falcon 4's have been designed for foot launched soaring flight. They have not been designed to be motorized, tethered, or towed.

Sounds to me like they're a lot more designed for rolling and towed launched than foot launched flight.

No, wait. You said "with an aero tow ASSIST". So it's not really being towed. It's just being ASSISTED into the air...

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_2.jpg

Malcolm Jones aero-towing the Easy Flyer

...by the Dragonfly tug. The pilot could get into the air from level ground without an aero tow assist but it would just be more of a pain in the ass. (A lot safer though of course, due to the greatly reduced complexity of the launch.)

Landings are equally easy - just round out after approach, let the glider go to trim, and allow it to touch down and roll out on the wheels.

- You mean like every other fixed wing aircraft in the history of aviation? The definition of a hang glider has just changed. It's now recognized for what it really is - a foldable weightshift controlled sailplane.

- Any chance you'll permit us to do that on standard glider configurations...

23-10629
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28-11505
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4231/34683464104_88bfcfd2b1_o.png

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http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4240/35357509952_95cf38f7cf_o.png


...just staying prone and rolling in on the wheels? Just kidding.

In the air, soaring performance is excellent...

Yeah. IMPROVES on the lift-to-drag ratios of gliders flown with traditional prone harnesses - 'specially pods.

...and control requires less effort...

Seeing as how you only have the upper half of your pitch attitude range available.

...and is more intuitive than when flying prone...

Yeah, the guys who've been flying prone for decades will really appreciate that.

...control forces are lighter...

Of course they are. The shorter the lever arm the more mechanical advantage you have. Give me a lever short enough and a place to stand and I can move the world.

...and unlike when flying prone, there is no need to control any tendency of the pilot's body to yaw.

Seeing as how no u$hPa instructors actually teach any students...

24-41612
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http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3842/14633550919_57af1df255_o.png
32-42004

...how to FLY hang gliders.

The flying position is very comfortable, with no strain on the neck or back.

No argument there.

The first pre-production units will be going out to a few select flight schools over the next few months.

Get as many as possible to Grebloville...

16-031309
http://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4348/37169463766_6f13e0b9fe_o.png


...and Lockout...

08-43827
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5120/14188732974_08536f5037_o.png


...so we won't hafta watch as many of those sickening upright flights.

Production units should be available for sale by early in 2018.

And I wonder how many more broken arms we'll see while we wait.

[Tad Eareckson]

Tad Eareckson - 2017/10/16 14:26:30 UTC

That doesn't make sense.

Well, it sorta does...

As a result of this configuration, launching is greatly simplified, as the wings level attitude of the glider, and the proper pitch attitude and angle of attack for launch and landing are fixed by the attachment of the glider to the carriage.

But it's a very poorly written, verbose, inaccurate, deliberately misleading sentence.

- The wings level attitude of the glider?
-- "Wings level" needed a hyphen.
-- Of the glider? As opposed to the wings-level attitude of what else?

- The wings aren't level unless the surfaces on which you're launching and landing are.

- You don't know what the angles of attack are gonna be if the air isn't cooperating.

- The carriage doesn't do shit for the pitch and roll attitudes for landing until the point at which you've pretty much stopped flying and it won't do you a lot of good on if you're stopping on a substantially sloped surface.

It'll be an advantage for light air, good surface, reasonably steep slope launches. In stronger stuff in which a wire assist is advisable it'll be useless or worse.

For approach and landing you'll be in worse shape than anybody flying and staying prone and rolling in on the wheels or skids.

Summary at this point...

This carriage will make:

- non challenging, benign environment and condition launches a lot more idiot resistant. But if you're training you're not learning shit about foot launching and foot launching - as opposed to foot LANDING - IS a legitimate skill that should be developed for anyone gearing up for mountain flying.

- flying more comfortable - unless you deliberately fly in or get into uncomfortable conditions which require a lot of airspeed and/or control authority. Then you're gonna be extremely Uncomfortable. But at least it won't substantially retard development of flying skills - the way the upright bullshit does, lethally.

Foot launch towing is off the table - which is mostly a really good thing. (And if you can't wheel launch in a towing environment you can't wheel land either.)

Worse than useless for approach and landing - 'specially RLF. Deprives you of a lot of maneuvering speed, "slipping" turn-to-final capability. But on the other hand it will make any asshole who insists that his student spot land look as stupid as he is 'cause it can't land on a spot. it requires a strip - just like all other fixed wing aircraft in SANE branches of aviation.

And the "Instruction" Industry will still put anyone who feels like graduating to prone flying through upright, perfect flare timing, spot landing hell for an extra forty airtime hours.

There's a MAJOR tumble risk here.

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_7-768x512.jpg

Ken Howells looking for thermals wile test flying the Easy Flyer

Thermals are - by definition - unpredictable and can and do kick us on our asses with no warnings whatsoever. If you need to stuff the bar you can't. This is NOT a certified or certifiable hang glider configuration.

20-03313
http://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1566/25661595340_b645e8bd6d_o.png


Can't do that with a carriage. Can't even do that with a pod. Just ask Ryan Instant-Hands-Free-Release Voight. And there HAVE BEEN pod tumbles that wouldn't have happened with a cocoon - Adam Parer's catastrophic and near fatal one comes to mind. Watch what happens if you get lotsa monkeys looking for thermals wile test flying these Easy Flyer typewriters.

wile - noun - devious or cunning stratagems employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants.

And ALL flying will be test flying 'cause this isn't and can't be a certified glider.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

As a result of this configuration, launching is greatly simplified, as the wings level attitude of the glider, and the proper pitch attitude and angle of attack for launch and landing are fixed by the attachment of the glider to the carriage.

Rolling launches from a slope, or from level ground with an aero tow assist, are almost trivially easy, with no need to lift and balance the glider, and no need to run. Landings are equally easy - just round out after approach, let the glider go to trim, and allow it to touch down and roll out on the wheels.

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_6.jpg

Mike Meier lands the Easy Flyer at Andy Jackson Airpark

So what happens when the student misses the primary and needs to land in a narrow dry riverbed with large rocks strewn all over the place - almost always before or by the third flight of the second lesson? He's totally fucked, right? Zero percent chance of surviving with any desirable level of quality of life, right?

What's your Plan B look like? Throw your chute? If you had the altitude to do that might you also likely have the altitude to make it back to your primary Happy Acres putting green?

Or is this just a totally fake issue? I'm guessing you'd hafta say yes in order to move any of your Easy Flyers. And if it is why are you only offering THIS:



as a landing option for any of your training and entry level gliders?

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

Rolling launches from a slope, or from level ground with an aero tow assist, are almost trivially easy, with no need to lift and balance the glider, and no need to run.

What about after you've been ASSISTED through launch and are being ASSISTED up through the kill zone?
- Is that also almost trivially easy?
- What's the FAA have to say about aero tow assisted launches?
- Does one need a u$hPa Aero Tow Assist Special Skill signoff?
- Is tandem aero tow assist training available?

The terms under which u$hPa obtained its aerotow exemption required that the glider be HGMA or equivalent Certified. If you were gonna actually aerotow a carriage configuration...

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_1.jpg

Steve Pearson aero-towing the Easy Flyer version 0.1 for the first flight
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_2.jpg

Malcolm Jones aero-towing the Easy Flyer

...would you be in compliance?

Should we still be using an appropriate weak link with a finished length of 1.5 inches or less? If so can you give us some guidance on what an appropriate weak link would be for an aero tow assisted launch and how likely it would be to meet with our expectations - whatever the fuck they are these days?

How 'bout a release? Anything you'd endorse or steer us away from? Will this:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14230
pro tow set-up

Ryan Voight - 2009/11/03 05:24:31 UTC

It works best in a lockout situation... if you're banked away from the tug and have the bar back by your belly button... let it out. Glider will pitch up, break weaklink, and you fly away.

During a "normal" tow you could always turn away from the tug and push out to break the weaklink... but why would you?

Have you never pondered what you would do in a situation where you CAN'T LET GO to release? I'd purposefully break the weaklink, as described above. Instant hands free release

be OK? Does the belly button position remain equivalent?

Can we fly pro toad and be required to actually do something?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9230
Departing the launch cart

Jim Rooney - 2007/08/24 12:20:06 UTC

In three point towing, 1/2 the energy is transmitted to the glider, 1/2 to you. In pro towing, you're it.
...
Bad habit #1, not flying the glider... just letting the tug drag you around by the nose, combines with the fact that pro towing REQUIRES the pilot to do something (not let that bar move). So instead of holding the bar where it is, bad habit pilot just lets the tug pull him.

Or do we hafta settle for three point - one half the tow assist pressure going to the glider, the other two halves going to the pilot - and just be drug around by our noses (which doesn't sound like much fun)?

Note that the title shot for their "Easy Flyer Promo" video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGueoCKsVk
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGueoCKsVk[/video]
is THIS:

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_3.jpg

Malcolm Jones preparing to land Easy Flyer

still from Wallaby after Malcolm's been aero tow assisted to a couple thousand feet and appears nowhere in the video itself.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec

Jim Rooney - 2013/02/16 05:05:41 UTC

My general rule is "no funky shit". I don't like people reinventing the wheel and I don't like test pilots. Have I towed a few test pilots? Yup. Have I towed them in anything but very controlled conditions? Nope. It's a damn high bar. I've told more to piss off than I've told yes. I'll give you an example... I towed a guy with the early version of the new Lookout release. But the Tad-o-link? Nope.

So I hope that sheds some light on the situation.
But again, every tuggie's different and every situation is different.
What doesn't change however is that it's my call, not yours.
And it's my job to be the "bad guy" sometimes.
Sorry. It's just the way it is.

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_8.jpg

Ken Howells demonstrates no-hands while test flying the Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_7-768x512.jpg

Ken Howells looking for thermals wile test flying the Easy Flyer
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_1.jpg

Steve Pearson aero-towing the Easy Flyer version 0.1 for the first flight
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_2.jpg

Malcolm Jones aero-towing the Easy Flyer

And here I was thinking it was all about track record length.

08-19
http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5277/30076449505_1f6ed2f804_o.png

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

Can it be scooter towed?
Not at this time. We are concerned about potential interference between the front of the carriage and the tow line. We intend to evaluate scooter towing and hopefully to address this issue.

Yeah?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7597/16975005972_c450d2cdda_o.png


Were you concerned about potential interference between your outboard wheel extensions and the tow line?

https://ushpa.aero/member_file.asp?id=587
USHPA - Members Only File Download

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8857/18290284792_24ac8847ee_o.png

Figure 3: Annotated Google Earth plot of glider track and estimated tow vehicle track.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8819/18267685796_64156e9c91_o.png

Figure 4: Google Earth side view of glider descent path looking NW.

http://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5788/23461251751_e98b9c7500_o.png


Have you put out an advisory on the off chance that one of your similarly configured gliders might be being operated somewhere on the planet by someone who wasn't a u$hPa member at the end of May in 2015?

THIS:



happened at one of your dealerships four years and a couple/three weeks ago with experienced assholes on both ends of the string while using magic fishing line which keeps gliders from getting into too much trouble - 'specially at Wallaby.

But you're not concerned about potential interference between the front of the carriage and the tow line for aero tow assisted launches because you only evaluate your equipment for tow assisted launches for scenarios in which everything's going right?

We intend to evaluate scooter towing and hopefully to address this issue.

Bullshit.

- You didn't evaluate shit and address any issues for aero.

- Just how much of a fuckin' rocket scientist do ya gotta be to just LOOK AT something and determine whether or not there's a snag potential?

- EVERYTHING you dickheads and your dealers use for towing has snag potential.

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=14230
pro tow set-up

Jim Rooney - 2009/11/02 18:58:13 UTC

Oh it happens.
I have, all the guys I work with have.
(Our average is 1 in 1,000 tows)

Oh yeah... an other fun fact for ya... ya know when it's far more likely to happen? During a lockout. When we're doing lockout training, the odds go from 1 in 1,000 to over 50/50.

You go out of your way to build it in.



Here's the core mechanism for the Wallaby Release you're using in your promo video:





And whenever you kill somebody with it you just ban it for two or three days at the relevant venue then go on like nothing ever happened.

We intend to evaluate scooter towing and hopefully to address this issue.

How? By test flying until you get a snag and weld the glider to the towline?

Why not just run a Kaluzhin Release to a bridle apex that stays out of range of the carriage?

- You Wills Wing guys don't have the collective brain power to come up with a no brainer solution like that?

- Or is the problem that if you implemented a bulletproof no brainer tow assist solution you'd open yourselves up to huge liability issues for being negligent for not having started doing shit like this decades ago while using your disclaimer that your gliders have been designed for foot launched soaring flight and have not been designed to be motorized, tethered, or towed and selling zillions of them in Texas and Florida?

That's what's going on here people of varying ages. They know they've gotta get these things flying at scooter training operations but they haven't yet figured out how to do it without getting another Nancy Tachibana in short order or doing the job right and see above.

And of course they've never ever heard of T** at K*** S******, Joe Street, Aleksey Vilkov.

[Tad Eareckson]

http://www.willswing.com/wills-wing-easy-flyer/
The Wills Wing Easy Flyer - Wills Wing

The Wills Wing Easy Flyer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGueoCKsVk


01:23
It's an excellent "first experience" training glider.

That's what it's being primarily marketed as. BUT it can't be:
- flown tandem (thank gawd)
- scooter towed but CAN be aerotowed (bummer)

You don't AEROTOW somebody's who's learning to fly. Aerotowing is the most demanding and dangerous flavor of towing and you only aerotow somebody who already knows how to fly and just needs a little wiring in for his AT Special Skill.

Somebody you're teaching to fly you scooter tow - which when done right is the safest flavor of towing for someone who has no clue how to fly.

And Wills Wing is saying:

Can it be scooter towed?
Not at this time. We are concerned about potential interference between the front of the carriage and the tow line. We intend to evaluate scooter towing and hopefully to address this issue.

So totally backwards.

But if you just rig the carriage for aero and keep the tow angle low it's IDENTICAL to aero 'cept way safer 'cause you can instantly, smoothly adjust tension/speed to anything you feel like and give your undivided attention to the glider 'cause you're not busy flying your own plane while trying to keep track of the glider going like a bat outta hell 250 feet behind you in a convex mirror in which objects are much closer than they appear.

And furthermore they're using a downtube mounted Wallaby Release which is fuckin' USELESS for foot launch and prone aero but pretty much IDEAL for the seated carriage thing - aero or scooter.

And so obviously they don't even trust their dealer/instructors to do that much (little) - "AT THIS TIME".

[Tad Eareckson]

You guys are the world's foremost experts on not being experts on towing. You've sold five times as many gliders not designed to be towed as your runner-up. All of them ship with backup loops - which you openly state are useless and which in practice are much worse than useless.

- None of your gliders ship with tow configuration options and you've never endorsed any third party equipment.

- Whenever there's a controversial tow splattering on one of your - or anybody else's - gliders you stay deafeningly silent.

- You tell us all to always use an appropriate weak link with a finished length of 1.5 inches or less but refuse to tell us what an appropriate weak link is and what it's supposed to do for us.

But you slipped up on that last issue.

http://vimeo.com/116997302

Steven Pearson - 2015/01/16 20:08 UTC

Copyright 2007 by Sport Kites, Inc.
doing business as
Wills Wing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Steve Wendt

But with the towline we use a standard weak link like we would for aerotow.... and that in this particular case it's 130... Uh... This... In this particular case it's 130 greenline, 130 pound test.

And that's never been refuted or revised in the decade plus since. So we know that that's the appropriate weak link with a finished length of 1.5 inches or less you're always using on your Falcon 4 195 with its Max Certified Operating Weight of 328 pounds which translates to 225 pounds towline which translates to south of 0.7 Gs which translates to over a tenth of a G south of legal and about fifty percent of sane.

So now you're telling us that you've determined that we're good to go for aerotow on a seriously decertified glider using an illegally light weak link. So how did you make that determination? Ran a half dozen smooth air sleds at Wallaby one evening and nobody got killed?

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30971
Zach Marzec

Swift - 2013/02/27 14:22:49 UTC

Zack wasn't "sitting on the couch" when a cheap piece of string made the decision to dump him at the worst possible time.

William Olive - 2013/02/27 20:55:06 UTC

Like the rest of us, you have no idea what really happened on that tow.

We probably never will know.

Jim Rooney - 2013/02/28 01:17:55 UTC

Well said Billo
I'm a bit sick of all the armchair experts telling me how my friend died.

Ah but hg'ers get so uppity when you tell them not to speculate.

Nobody on the planet has the slightest fucking clue about the slightest fucking issue on that one. Nobody's even sure how to spell his name. So how do we know ANYTHING's safe to aerotow in ANY conditions and/or configuration?

And Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney...

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22660
What can be learned from this "scooter" towing accident?

Mitch Shipley - 2011/01/31 15:22:59 UTC

Enjoy your posts, as always, and find your comments solid, based on hundreds of hours / tows of experience and backed up by a keen intellect/knowledge of the issues when it comes to most things in general and hang gliding AT/Towing in particular. Wanted to go on record in case anyone reading wanted to know one persons comments they should give weight to.

World's top expert on everything - 'specially aerotow.

And Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt...

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=17404
Aerotow barrel release - straight or curved pin?

Jim Rooney - 2010/05/31 01:53:13 UTC

BTW, Steve Wendt is exceptionally knowledgeable. Hell, he's the one that signed off my instructor rating.

Exceptionally knowledgeable. Hell, he's the one that signed off Jim Keen-Intellect Rooney's instructor rating.

And you're doing your field testing at Wallaby:

http://www.wallaby.com/aerotow_primer.php
Aerotow Primer for Experienced Pilots

The Wallaby Ranch Aerotowing Primer for Experienced Pilots - 2017/10/16

Welcome to Wallaby Ranch, the first and largest Aerotow Hang Gliding Flight Park in the World! We're the aerotowing (or "AT") professionals; no-one knows AT like we do; it's all we do, and we do it everyday, year-round.
...
If you fail to maintain the correct tow position (centered, with the wheels of the tug on the horizon), the weak link will break before you can get into too much trouble.

Great. We don't even hafta know anything about what the weak link actually is or whether or not it's an appropriate one. Just call what ever you want to the weak link and you're bulletproof on tow. And always much safer coming and being off of it.

Fuck all you guys.

It's RIDICULOUS to aerotow this thing.
- It's not safe to use to teach anybody how to fly 'cause one needs to know how to fly already before he gets on the cart.
- If one knows how to fly:
-- one can't and won't use it for aerotow in thermal/soaring conditions
-- and aerotows in safe/stable/sled conditions the comfort advantage is zilch 'cause he's gonna be back on the ground in twelve minutes

http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_6.jpg

Mike Meier lands the Easy Flyer at Andy Jackson Airpark
http://www.willswing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1000x667_easy_flyer_news_5.jpg

Mike Meier launches the Easy Flyer from the training hill at Andy Jackson Airpark

Founder and first President of the Hang Glider Manufacturers Association. And now when you want a safe aircraft to fly you just get Mike Meier, Steve Pearson, Ken Howells, Malcolm Jones to declare it to be.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skysailingtowing/message/4049
Towing errata

Bill Bryden - 2004/04/01 16:20:18 UTC

Some aerotow releases, including a few models from prominent schools, have had problems releasing under high tensions. You must VERIFY through tests that a release will work for the tensions that could possibly be encountered. You better figure at least three hundred pounds to be modestly confident.

Maybe eight to ten years ago I got several comments from people saying a popular aerotow release (with a bicycle type brake lever) would fail to release at higher tensions. I called and talked to the producer sharing the people's experiences and concerns. I inquired to what tension their releases were tested but he refused to say, just aggressively stated they never had any problems with their releases, they were fine, goodbye, click. Another person tested one and found it started getting really hard to actuate in the range of only eighty to a hundred pounds as I vaguely recall. I noticed they did modify their design but I don't know if they ever really did any engineering tests on it. You should test the release yourself or have someone you trust do it. There is only one aerotow release manufacturer whose product I'd have reasonable confidence in without verifying it myself, the Wallaby release is not it.

Sound familiar?

[Steve Davy]

This has major implications for the bulk of Kite Strings issues and topics - launching, control tubes, landing, spot landing, towing, bridles, unhooked launch, releases, weak links, Blue Sky Scooter Towing...

This is a watershed moment in the history of hang gliding - akin to...

I'm guessing that's why we don't see anything about it on Jack-poison to THIS sport-Asshole's "worlds-no apostrophe-largest hang gliding community".

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=12682
Landing on your feet (for AEROTOW)- So Dangerous

Jack Axaopoulos - 2009/06/29 14:26:26 UTC

OMG!!! You dont even have wheels!!?!?!?!?
YOURE GONNA DIE FOR SUUUUREE!!!!

I have a brilliant idea. People who cant land for sh*t.... LEARN TO LAND That way when a weak link breaks on you, ITS A NON-ISSUE. Genius huh???