http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=33069
Fatality @ Slide Mountain Nevada
Davis Straub - 2015/06/29 23:03:03 UTC
Let me explain my years of working to improve the safety of hang gliding.
Nah, you don't need to go to THAT kinda trouble. Just list your all your successes.
For 19 years I have published the Oz Report which include accident reports and articles about safety.
Well fuck, u$hPa does that:
http://www.ushpa.aero/safety.asp
USHPA - Safety Articles
Fatality Reports
2013/02/02 - Zack Marzec
Zack Marzec (27), an H-4 Pilot with Aero Tow and Tandem Aero Tow proficiency as well as Advanced Instructor and Tandem Instructor appointments, and a USHPA member since 2009, suffered fatal injuries when when his glider tumbled during an aero tow launch. During the launch, at an altitude of 150 AGL, the pilot encountered an invisible bullet thermal which pitched the nose up, causing the weak link to break. Upon the breakage of the weak link, the glider whip stalled and then tumbled twice. The pilot and glider's leading edge hit the ground simultaneously. The pilot was utilizing his own pro-tow style tow harness, this own high performance glider with VG on, and was not wearing a full face helmet.
What of any substance did we learn from the Davis Show stuff that was missing or different from this version?
For example, I have recently reported on and linked to the accident in Nevada.
Damn. Just think of all the people we'd still have scratching low in thermal turbulence if it weren't for that effort.
You can also find my very extensive articles on the problem with pre-ATOSes.
Where? It's too much trouble for you to post a link or two to this seminal work?
Because of my articles all ATOS now have tails.
- Also because of your articles all barrel releases have bent pins.
- Wow! ALL of them! Not just SOME of them.
- For what is "ATOS" an acronym? It's
Atos, Davis. Interesting that you've singlehandedly had such a profound influence on an aircraft you can't even spell properly.
- Did you actually recommend the design be supplemented with a tail?
- How many:
-- of these tails did you design, test, certify?
-- people died needlessly because their pre-Atosses lacked tails?
- When can we expect your very extensive articles on the problems with the Dragonfly tail being deliberately designed to break at below u$hPa recommended solo glider weak link tensions? Need some fatalities to get you motivated? Start with William Woloshyniuk / Victor Cox - 2002/08/17.
- Awesome. What percentage of the gliders at the comps you run now have:
-- wheels or skids?
-- releases which comply with u$hPa AT SOPs?
There are many other articles in the Oz Report on hang gliding safety.
I'm sure. But please don't bother telling us about any of them and the problems that have been fixed because of them. We're all still much too blown away by your part in the Atos modification.
The move to aerotowing hang glider competitions in flatlands.
And all of your extrajudicial equipment mandates:
- the 130 pound Greenspot standard aerotow weak link that had the longest track record in the history of hang gliding infallible safety devices
- the new mystery fishing line tied with the new mystery knot to make it more likely to break at its rated breaking strength
- bent pin pro toad bridles with bent pin backup releases
to make the competitions EXTRA safe.
I have been promoting these competitions which have become the the dominant form of US competition for over a decade.
Oh. They moved to the flatlands and have become the dominant the the dominant form of US competition. And you've been promoting them for over a decade. Really impressive when you start to think about all of the the people who would've died in mountain competitions if it weren't for you promoting the the flatland competitions. Really disgusting that u$hPa hasn't recognized you with an appropriate award like it did your buddies Peter Birren, for his easily reachable X-Acto Knife on a string, and Steve Exceptionally-Knowledgeable Wendt, for not starting to mangle and kill people with his easily reachable pro toad releases and You've-Got-To-Hook-In-PERIOD unhooked launch prevention training program until right after he got the award.
In fact the Oz Report started with hang gliding competition in Australia - in Hay, the very very flat lands.
- You mean the venue in which the best competition pilot in Norway was killed using the best aerotow equipment ever developed behind Bobby Fucking-Genius Bailey, the best tug pilot in the business, when the best front end weak link ever developed didn't break when it was supposed to?
- Ya know what, Davis... I'd have been a lot more impressed if the hang gliding competition in Australia - in Hay, the very very flat lands - had, in fact, started with the Oz Report.
I have extensive articles on wheels...
Davis Straub, inventor of the wheel. The surprises never cease. So what's your favorite style? I've always been a big fan of the round ones. But what do I know? I don't have any extensive articles on them. (By the way... How's your shoulder been doing lately?)
http://ozreport.com/rules.php
2015 Big Spring Nationals at Big Spring, Texas
So what wheel standards are you mandating? Couldn't find anything at that link. Or does anybody who wants to fly with wheels just get automatically penalized by the drag?
...on bridles...
Yeah, that's where I learned what long thin ones with lumps at the ends are the way to go if you wanna eliminate any possibility of a wrap. Polar opposite of what I'da thunk.
...and releases.
And you've kept us as safe as possible by refusing to let us fly with anything you don't sell. And you only sell the best...
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident2.jpg
http://ozreport.com/pub/images/fingerlakesaccident3.jpg
...so...
On instruction, especially on scooter towing as a way to safely and quickly learn to hang glide.
32-03504
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3923/15064015812_fde0f7ec1a_o.png
34-03715
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5594/14877659539_4d1333c6a3_o.png
36-04005
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3845/15061342651_ecc43c3f4f_o.png
It goes on and on.
You're not gonna say anything about the focal point of the safe towing system? The progression from the safest weak link in the history of aviation to the slightly stronger one you decided you were happy with very shortly after the Zack Marzec inconvenience fatality?
The point of my very short...
...misleading and substanceless...
...post was very simple.
That very simple is very safe? To stay well clear of the homemade Rube Goldberg contraptions that spring from Tad's warped, fevered, perverted mind?
It is much safer to go hang gliding using aerotowing and flying in the flatlands, whether that be in Texas...
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Ek9_lFeSII/UZ4KuB0MUSI/AAAAAAAAGyU/eWfhGo4QeqY/s1024/GOPR5278.JPG
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Xh_NfnOcUns/UZ4Lm0HvXnI/AAAAAAAAGyk/0PlgrHfc__M/s1024/GOPR5279.JPG
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7462005802_bbc0ac66ac_o.jpg
...or Florida...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bRrpHNa68iY/UQ6Pv9gRZyI/AAAAAAAAjTg/Hc22bx5122Q/s2048/20943781_BG1.jpg
...Georgia...
http://i.imgur.com/tt379.jpg
...Maryland...
...or Arizona.
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22660
What can be learned from this "scooter" towing accident?
Well yeah, Davis. Obviously. Despite the fact that in none of your babbling do you provide the slightest shred of data or anecdotal evidence to support that claim. But don't worry... You're just talking to Jack Show twats so it's highly unlikely that anyone will notice.
Of course, those who disagree with me are free to feel otherwise.
And the ones who haven't been banned by Jack and you are also free to challenge you directly on all your disingenuous crap.
You can find out more at the Oz Report or read extensively in Cloudsuck.
Cloudsuck my dick, Davis. You're a total cancer on the sport and the pursuit of safety/competence in it.
Aerotowing, as it is under the control of the total douchebags who've hijacked it from us, is ten times safer than mountain flying because the terrain at which aerotowing is possible is a thousand times safer than the mountain environments and there's just so much that you total douchebags can do to neutralize that advantage.
I dreamed of aerotowing a couple years before the technology to make it viable existed. Knowing what I do now about the effect it would inevitably have on the sport I'd have taken my magic wand and killed it before it ever got off the ground and learned to make do with platform towing.
Come to think of it... If the aerotow industry hadn't been around to kill it then Guido Piccca's radio controlled flying launch dolly would've stood a chance of getting into circulation and that would've been unsurpassable. Cheap, fast, doable by little grassroots operations, all dangers associated with hang glider towing eliminated, no tug pilot life to risk.
My first little sled down the dune on a trainer 1980/04/02 was an incredible experience because I was solo and Pilot In Command of MY aircraft. That was an experience I never once was able repeat and enjoy in my years of aerotowing. Always had aerotow industry fishing line as the ultimate authority over my flights and existence and the constant threat of some idiot head-up-the-ass gas junkie making a good decision in the interest of my safety.
