Replacing the MKIV yaw string - tips

On Saturday, December 1, 2012 5:54:16 PM UTC-8, bumper wrote:
On Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:29:59 PM UTC-8, Mike Mike Ground wrote:

The MKIV is clearly the pinnacle of yaw string technology. Meticulously crafted, it looks great on my glider. However, it suffers from the same problem I have noticed on all yaw strings I have flown. In flight, it constantly swings off the centerline 10, 20, sometimes even 30 degrees, particularly while thermalling. What’s up with that?







MM



Mike-Mike,



Each MKIV "high tech" yaw string leaves our shop eager to learn, but obviously young and impressionable - - they do have a tendancy towards having a short attention span and will often display a wild tendancy to go whichever way the wind blows.



After installation, especially during early training it's important to treat your young MKIV gently, they are sensitive. Never sweat at it, unless it's obviously heading entirely the wrong way. It's okay to firmly tell it to "straighten up and fly right".



We are working on providing better pre-shipment training on our end. Until then, if you have a really bad one, you can tape the end down straight before flight to show it what you expect of it. Don't do this often though as you risk breaking it's spirit. Not good.



all the best,



bumper

Tape that bothersome loose end down. Why didn’t I think of that! Thanks, Bumper. In addition to great products, your customer support is unequalled. I also appreciate learning it’s okay to tell the MKIV to “straighten up and fly right”. Silly me. I thought that’s what it was telling me. Anyway, with that cleared up, now I can concentrate on why my flights are always so much slower that everybody else’s.

Michael


On Saturday, December 1, 2012 5:54:16 PM UTC-8, bumper wrote:
On Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:29:59 PM UTC-8, Mike Mike Ground wrote:

The MKIV is clearly the pinnacle of yaw string technology. Meticulously crafted, it looks great on my glider. However, it suffers from the same problem I have noticed on all yaw strings I have flown. In flight, it constantly swings off the centerline 10, 20, sometimes even 30 degrees, particularly while thermalling. What’s up with that?







MM



Mike-Mike,



Each MKIV "high tech" yaw string leaves our shop eager to learn, but obviously young and impressionable - - they do have a tendancy towards having a short attention span and will often display a wild tendancy to go whichever way the wind blows.



After installation, especially during early training it's important to treat your young MKIV gently, they are sensitive. Never sweat at it, unless it's obviously heading entirely the wrong way. It's okay to firmly tell it to "straighten up and fly right".



We are working on providing better pre-shipment training on our end. Until then, if you have a really bad one, you can tape the end down straight before flight to show it what you expect of it. Don't do this often though as you risk breaking it's spirit. Not good.



all the best,



bumper

On Saturday, December 1, 2012 5:54:16 PM UTC-8, bumper wrote:
On Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:29:59 PM UTC-8, Mike Mike Ground wrote:

The MKIV is clearly the pinnacle of yaw string technology. Meticulously crafted, it looks great on my glider. However, it suffers from the same problem I have noticed on all yaw strings I have flown. In flight, it constantly swings off the centerline 10, 20, sometimes even 30 degrees, particularly while thermalling. What’s up with that?







MM



Mike-Mike,



Each MKIV "high tech" yaw string leaves our shop eager to learn, but obviously young and impressionable - - they do have a tendancy towards having a short attention span and will often display a wild tendancy to go whichever way the wind blows.



After installation, especially during early training it's important to treat your young MKIV gently, they are sensitive. Never sweat at it, unless it's obviously heading entirely the wrong way. It's okay to firmly tell it to "straighten up and fly right".



We are working on providing better pre-shipment training on our end. Until then, if you have a really bad one, you can tape the end down straight before flight to show it what you expect of it. Don't do this often though as you risk breaking it's spirit. Not good.



all the best,



bumper

Tape that bothersome loose end down. Why didn’t I think of that! Thanks, Bumper. In addition to great products, your customer support is unequalled. I also appreciate learning it’s okay to tell the MKIV to “straighten up and fly right”. Silly me. I thought that’s what it was telling me. Anyway, with that cleared up, now I can concentrate on why my flights are always so much slower that everybody else’s.

Michael

On Sunday, December 2, 2012 2:27:28 PM UTC-5, Mike Mike Ground wrote:
On Saturday, December 1, 2012 5:54:16 PM UTC-8, bumper wrote:

On Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:29:59 PM UTC-8, Mike Mike Ground wrote:



The MKIV is clearly the pinnacle of yaw string technology. Meticulously crafted, it looks great on my glider. However, it suffers from the same problem I have noticed on all yaw strings I have flown. In flight, it constantly swings off the centerline 10, 20, sometimes even 30 degrees, particularly while thermalling. What’s up with that?















MM







Mike-Mike,







Each MKIV "high tech" yaw string leaves our shop eager to learn, but obviously young and impressionable - - they do have a tendancy towards having a short attention span and will often display a wild tendancy to go whichever way the wind blows.







After installation, especially during early training it's important to treat your young MKIV gently, they are sensitive. Never sweat at it, unless it's obviously heading entirely the wrong way. It's okay to firmly tell it to "straighten up and fly right".







We are working on providing better pre-shipment training on our end. Until then, if you have a really bad one, you can tape the end down straight before flight to show it what you expect of it. Don't do this often though as you risk breaking it's spirit. Not good.







all the best,







bumper



Tape that bothersome loose end down. Why didn’t I think of that! Thanks, Bumper. In addition to great products, your customer support is unequalled. I also appreciate learning it’s okay to tell the MKIV to “straighten up and fly right”. Silly me. I thought that’s what it was telling me. Anyway, with that cleared up, now I can concentrate on why my flights are always so much slower that everybody else’s.



Michael

Seriously now, any tips on how to fly without a yaw string should our beloved MKIV high tech devise fail?

On Sunday, December 2, 2012 5:36:16 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Sunday, December 2, 2012 2:27:28 PM UTC-5, Mike Mike Ground wrote:

On Saturday, December 1, 2012 5:54:16 PM UTC-8, bumper wrote:



On Saturday, December 1, 2012 2:29:59 PM UTC-8, Mike Mike Ground wrote:







The MKIV is clearly the pinnacle of yaw string technology. Meticulously crafted, it looks great on my glider. However, it suffers from the same problem I have noticed on all yaw strings I have flown. In flight, it constantly swings off the centerline 10, 20, sometimes even 30 degrees, particularly while thermalling. What’s up with that?































MM















Mike-Mike,















Each MKIV "high tech" yaw string leaves our shop eager to learn, but obviously young and impressionable - - they do have a tendancy towards having a short attention span and will often display a wild tendancy to go whichever way the wind blows.















After installation, especially during early training it's important to treat your young MKIV gently, they are sensitive. Never sweat at it, unless it's obviously heading entirely the wrong way. It's okay to firmly tell it to "straighten up and fly right".















We are working on providing better pre-shipment training on our end. Until then, if you have a really bad one, you can tape the end down straight before flight to show it what you expect of it. Don't do this often though as you risk breaking it's spirit. Not good.















all the best,















bumper







Tape that bothersome loose end down. Why didn’t I think of that! Thanks, Bumper. In addition to great products, your customer support is unequalled. I also appreciate learning it’s okay to tell the MKIV to “straighten up and fly right”. Silly me. I thought that’s what it was telling me. Anyway, with that cleared up, now I can concentrate on why my flights are always so much slower that everybody else’s.







Michael



Seriously now, any tips on how to fly without a yaw string should our beloved MKIV high tech devise fail?

Correction...device, lets not make this confusing...

On 12/2/2012 3:36 PM, wrote:
Snip...
Tape that bothersome loose end down. Why didn’t I think of that!
Thanks, Bumper. In addition to great products, your customer support is
unequalled. I also appreciate learning it’s okay to tell the MKIV to
“straighten up and fly right”. Silly me. I thought that’s what it
was telling me. Anyway, with that cleared up, now I can concentrate on
why my flights are always so much slower that everybody else’s.



Michael

Seriously now, any tips on how to fly without a yaw string should our
beloved MKIV high tech device fail?


Hmmm... Assuming this is a serious question, in the days before even the MKI
was available, I experienced total yaw string failure. More than once,
actually, on ships ranging from 1-26 (captured by canopy rail) to 15-meter
glass (adhesive failure...and the tape was hardly even 10 years old!).

Being a cheap (rhymes with "dastard"), I continued soaring, coordinating by
feel and sound. Easy if you have a noisy ship. (Sorry if this costs you future
sales, Bumper!)

Bob - I plead "winter", Yr'onner! - W.

The first time I saw one advertised, I thought it was an April Fool's joke. But I was intrigued. Months later I ordered one. Could this be real? Have I been duped? I received it in the mail and have yet to install it but looking at the package I'm still not sure. Then, I read posts like the one that started this thread and I'm still feeling like someone is going to jump out and say, "gotcha!"

On Saturday, December 1, 2012 4:05:25 PM UTC-8, wrote:
The first time I saw one advertised, I thought it was an April Fool's joke. But I was intrigued. Months later I ordered one. Could this be real? Have I been duped? I received it in the mail and have yet to install it but looking at the package I'm still not sure. Then, I read posts like the one that started this thread and I'm still feeling like someone is going to jump out and say, "gotcha!"

Gotcha!

A bit of history . . . ever since I saw gliders for the first time in "Popular Mechanics" in the late 50's, I believed they were the prettiest, most sensuous thing man had created to fly.

While getting my glider add-on, I flew in gliders that had tape over tape and old adhesive residue doing an ugly job of holding on a bit of string or yarn. Didn't seem right that something so innately beautiful should be graced by a kluged-on yaw string. Shortly after buying my first glider in '98, a S10-VT, the "MKI" was born and sold only to other Stemme owners.

It was named "MKI" in honor of the Supermarine Spitfire suffix, my English heritage, and my father's 30 years in the RAF. The MKIV yaw string has been refined and improved over the past 13 years, many more times than its MKIV designation would suggest. Only a big change, or a bunch of little ones, warrants a new Mark numper! I believe the current MKIV is about as good as it's possible for me to make, requiring almost 30 steps and numerous special tools and fixtures to craft each by hand.

No joke or gotcha, honest. There are thousands of MK## yaw strings gracing beautiful gliders all over the world. Might sound silly, but I'm kind'a proud of that!

If you buy a MKIV and are disappointed, within a year of purchase return it to me and I'll refund your money plus a dollar for your trouble. I hope no one ever takes me up on that offer.

bumper

In the past my yaw strings were made of everything from boars hair to alfalfa stalks and held onto the can-o-pee with rivets and bailing wire. Now having flown with the Bumper MKminus3 on up to the MKIV I have since never landed out, have earned a quadruple diamond with gold oak leaf clusters and have used my glider for a Flight-For-Life mission (which, let me tell you, was a little crowded with the stretcher on board). Zounds! What an advance for mankind! Is there a Nobel prize for glider particle astrophysics?

What are the possibilities of a tour of the factory? I'd be intreeged to see the manufacturing process.

On Friday, 30 November 2012 15:36:29 UTC-5, bumper wrote:

These instructions are for use if you're happy with the current position of the MK## yaw string. If not, please refer to the new installation instructions available at http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/bumper.htm or http://www..williamssoaring.com/cata...ane-parts.html or from me via email.

How can I calibrate it to warn about air pockets? There're everywhere!