SparrowHawk owners, lets hear from you!

"Mark James Boyd" wrote in message
news:409c7a04$1@darkstar...
Doug Taylor wrote:

very low “hassle factor” of the SparrowHawk combined with

Well, I'm glad to see that "hassle factor" has become a
sales point and catch phrase in gliding. As a soaring consumer,
it's wonderful to see someone else talking about this rather than
the less-important-to-me performance...

Yeah, I know, but what about the trailer? :P Gotta have
a good trailer, right? :P
--

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Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA

Now, I'm not saying this is smart for the investment you'd have in a
Sparrowhawk, but I'll bet you could cartop it on a van or SUV:

Wings, @ 40 lbs each, strapped upright into something like the foam brackets
used for kayaks.
(or horizontal, one on top of the other, with foam shucks in between)
Fuselage, @ 75 lbs, inverted with the cockpit rails and boom on padded rack,
rudder hanging down in the back.

You'd probably want two people to load the fuselage.
Canopy would have to go inside, though.
We used to carry 4 or 5 80-lb hang gliders this way, going XC, so I know the
cars can take it.

Tim Ward

Can you post any pictures, or a link to your pictures, or perhaps send =
some pictures directly to me.

Thank you.

DG

Tim,

You wouldn't believe the number of hang glider pilots that say this.
Well, yeah, you would ;-)

Hope someone tries it. I would leave the canopy on though. It is
Big. 7+ feet long. 2 feet wide and a foot and a half high. Make a
simple bracket to grab the wing root by the lift pin bushings with a
stand to grab the roof rack. Put it upright or inverted. The tail
only sticks up about 8 inches above the top of the canopy when it is
sitting on the ground so the extra height won't make too much
difference. Depends if you've got one of those giant 4WD vans. You
wouldn't make it through the drive through with the 13' clearance in
either case with one of them. I think the car to use would be an old
'70's station wagon. A 21 and a half foot fuselage might fit on one
of them! Might need to put the air suspension on the wagon to jack it
up so you can get up to some roll-off launch sights. What fun!

Doug Taylor



Now, I'm not saying this is smart for the investment you'd have in a
Sparrowhawk, but I'll bet you could cartop it on a van or SUV:

Wings, @ 40 lbs each, strapped upright into something like the foam brackets
used for kayaks.
(or horizontal, one on top of the other, with foam shucks in between)
Fuselage, @ 75 lbs, inverted with the cockpit rails and boom on padded rack,
rudder hanging down in the back.

You'd probably want two people to load the fuselage.
Canopy would have to go inside, though.
We used to carry 4 or 5 80-lb hang gliders this way, going XC, so I know the
cars can take it.

Tim Ward

The Windward Performance website is: www.windward-performance.com.
The Oz Report has also had some articles and pictures of the
SparrowHawk. It is: www.OzReport.com.
There have also been a few articles in Soaring, KITPLANES, and High
Performance Composites.

If you have any specific requests for types of pictures (detail shots,
air to air, etc.), let me know.

Best regards,
Doug Taylor

David wrote in message ...
Can you post any pictures, or a link to your pictures, or perhaps send =
some pictures directly to me.

Thank you.

DG