70 kg 31:1 glider is here to stay?

On the other hand, traditional soaring is dying all over the world
while hang/paragliding are booming.

Full flying membership of the BGA (source Sailplane and Gliding)

1974 9899
1993 9409
1994 9522
1995 9757
1996 9409
1997 9225
1998 9153
1999 8802
2000 8975
2001 8848
2002 9166

That works out roughly a 7% reduction in 25 years. Nothing to get comlacent
about but not as drastic as some of the doom mongers would have us believe.
There has even been an upturn over the last few years

In article ,
"Wayne Paul" wrote:

If you think that looks scary, take a look at the fuselage skin of this
A-3D.
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/donatedp...%20Cat%203.jpg

And it didn't actually start the cat shot yet?

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O----------

"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Wayne Paul" wrote:

If you think that looks scary, take a look at the fuselage skin of this
A-3D.
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/donatedp...%20Cat%203.jpg

And it didn't actually start the cat shot yet?

Yes, the cat shot is in progress. Here is another picture showing the
fuselage stress of a launch.
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/pg17photos/Adams01.jpg

Wayne

"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Wayne Paul" wrote:

If you think that looks scary, take a look at the fuselage skin of this
A-3D.
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/donatedp...%20Cat%203.jpg

And it didn't actually start the cat shot yet?

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O---------
The loads in the skin are from full engine thrust being reacted by the hold
back bar on the belly.

"Michael McNulty" wrote in message
news:hRGod.156802$G15.14357@fed1read03...

"Bruce Hoult" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Wayne Paul" wrote:

If you think that looks scary, take a look at the fuselage skin of this
A-3D.
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/donatedp...%20Cat%203.jpg

And it didn't actually start the cat shot yet?

--
Bruce | 41.1670S | \ spoken | -+-
Hoult | 174.8263E | /\ here. | ----------O---------
The loads in the skin are from full engine thrust being reacted by the
hold
back bar on the belly.


I guess you have never seen one of those bridle hooks pull out during a
72,000 lb cat shot and watched your friend go into the drink.

In this picture the hold back bar had already broken. The hold back bar on
the A-3 is connected near the tail hook. The two aft straps that you see in
the picture are there to keep the bridle from going into the ocean. The
stress is caused from the force on the bridle attempting to compress the
nose gear.

Here is my Whidbey Island next door neighbor's story:
http://www.a3skywarrior.com/whaletal...33/142633.html

Ian Johnston wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 18:11:04 UTC, "Robert Ehrlich"
wrote:

: ----------
: Dans l'article
: , "Ian
: Johnston" a ,crit :
:
: ...
: On the other hand, if I want to fly a paraglider in
: the UK I have to
:
: a) take a training course over a few weekends
:
: b) climb up a convenient hll
:
: c) jump off.
: ...`
:
: You forgot:
:
: a1) buy a paraglider;

That is very true. But then, I left out "Buy a glider" as well...in
some cases flying a club glider will be fine, but that tends to make
the wait longer and the flight shorter ...

Where I am flying, there is also a para-gliding club operating on
a slope on the border of the airfield when sailplanes are not flying.
Most flights in club sailplanes are much longer than paraglider flights.

: c1) have somebody who takes me back from my landing place to
: the place where I started and left my car, or make the way
: with my feet.

If I land out. Same goes for a glider.

As far as I can see here, any hang-glider flight that doesn't remain
over the slope ends by a landout. During the last flying seasons my
number of field landings in a sailplane varied from 1 to 3 per season,
for 4000 to 8000 cross-country flight. Anyway this was to object to
the argument that hang or para gliding don't rely on the assistance
of somebody else. If I fly a sailplane in a club, the assistance for
an outlanding is easy to find, any pilot in the club would do it as I
am willing to do it for him if the inverse happen. If I go alone on the
next hill to jump with a paraglider, I have to make specific provision
for that.


: a) may be also much longer than the drive to the next glider
: field if you are in very flat land and the next convenient hill
: is far away.

Or much closer. My gliding club is 100 miles away, and there are good
hills - should I ever choose to risk life and limb in one of those
dratted things - within a few miles of me.

Ian

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:24:28 UTC, Robert Ehrlich
wrote:

: Ian Johnston wrote:

: That is very true. But then, I left out "Buy a glider" as well...in
: some cases flying a club glider will be fine, but that tends to make
: the wait longer and the flight shorter ...
:
: Where I am flying, there is also a para-gliding club operating on
: a slope on the border of the airfield when sailplanes are not flying.
: Most flights in club sailplanes are much longer than paraglider flights.

That is true. It is, of course, no reason to sneer at paraglider
pilots, who seem to enjoy their sport, and it's even more reason to
get frustrated about the typically short flight time limits on club
gliders ...

Ian

----------
Dans l'article
, "Ian
Johnston" a écrit :

That is true. It is, of course, no reason to sneer at paraglider
pilots, who seem to enjoy their sport, and it's even more reason to
get frustrated about the typically short flight time limits on club
gliders ...


I have no reason to sneer at paraglider pilots, as I have frequent
friendly discussions with these people who are flying here, some of
then are also sailplane pilots. But from these discussions, my conclusion
is that the common opinion that hanggliding is cheaper and easier than
sailplane flying is mainly an illusion that most facts contradict. Several
hangglider pilots agree with me on that. This doesn't mean they all are
going to switch to sailplanes, as one thing remains for su it is much
easier and cheaper to continue in the way you have started, invested and
gained some experience than to switch to another one and restart from
scratch.

In a well managed club, there is no reason that flights should be short
and people get frustrated about that. It is not the case in my club. In
France most clubs encourage long flights by having the flight time after
the 2 or 3 first hours for free, or by proposing unlimited flight time
in the year for a fixed amount payed at the beginning of the season. In
my club there are a very few day in the year when 2 or more pilots have to
share a club glider and so the time of their flight is limited, although
no time limit is imposed and all relies on mutual agrement between the
pilots sharing the glider. But this is rare. In the past, more than 10
years ao, when I was not already member, there was some periods of growth
when shortage of available gliders happened, but the growth in income
generated by the growth in membership allowed in this case the club to
buy new modern gliders (a LS4b and a Discus) to correct for that. All others
glider owned by the club where bought as used gliders and some of them
refinished in the club. Now we are in a phase of declining membership, as
almost everywhere, and the fleet follows, as the number of our gliders
decreased from 25 10 years ago to 19 now, but as there is some hysteresis
between the 2 decreases, most of the time we have more gliders available
than pilots, this is the only good side of a bad thing.