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By jlatorre
#401876
A friend of mine named Ed Stubbs sent me this picture. It put a smile on my face, and it may put one on yours, too.
Image

It's a cartoon I drew of Ed and me trying to figure out the CG of a Chandelle Comp that we'd fitted new crossbars and wires to, in order to convert it into what was known then as a "standard Rogallo."

When Ed attempted to test-fly it, he found that the glider wanted to nose-up horribly in-flight, although it balanced perfectly on the ground. So he decided to hang a weight ... a jug of water ... off the nose plate to keep the nose down. This, of course, meant that it became horribly nose-heavy on the ground. That's why Im in the picture. I'm holding the tail down as a counterweight. while trying to keep up with him as he ran down the hill. We deemed the experiment a success, mainly in that we survived more or less unscathed.

Yes, this was often the state of research back in the 70s, when we were just a little shop on the east coast, trying to figure out this hang-glider thang without the benefit of anybody who really knew anything about it. So the next time you launch, remember the pioneers who came before you and made all the mistakes you didn't have to make.

Red, do you remember meeting Ed? I think he came on the Econ-O-Flight scene about a year after you left, but you may have run into him at Oregon Ridge at some time earlier. Tall galoot, drove a VW bus a little younger than mine.
By Roadrunner71
#401877
Does anyone remember the Cartoon from our Magazine oh about twenty five years ago. Where there is this Hang Glider Pilot shown scolding his Dog? The Pilot is shown yelling at his Dog who just drove the retrieval Rig down to the L-Z The Pilot is shown yelling at his Dog: "You forgot to bring the Glider Bag" I want to say to all of you. That kind of humor is priceless!
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By red
#401878
jlatorre wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:02 pm A friend of mine named Ed Stubbs sent me this picture. It put a smile on my face, and it may put one on yours, too.
http://midtown.net/dragonwing/images/cg%20fun.jpeg

Red, do you remember meeting Ed? I think he came on the Econ-O-Flight scene about a year after you left, but you may have run into him at Oregon Ridge at some time earlier. Tall galoot, drove a VW bus a little younger than mine.
jlatorre,

Never met Ed, but soon after I went west, I bought a Seagull IV. To get it to fly at a good cruising speed hand-off, I added metal plates to move the hang point back several inches. Nobody knew why my glider was "so different" than the other Seagull IVs, but it flew very well after my "mod." The rigid wing that I built from plans there turned out to be divergent, and only the big M&M wheels saved my bacon then (HG parachutes were not"invented" yet). Witnesses said I hit in a steep glide, and going 'way too fast. Some said "at freeway speeds." Impact was on the hillside going downslope, so the impact angle was not so bad as it would have been on flat ground. I rolled a long way on those wheels . . . Sprained one ankle slightly, but literally walked away.

Ah yes, the bad old days of HG . . . May they never return. :lol:
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By NMERider
#401882
jlatorre wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:02 pm....Chandelle Comp....
I remember that death trap quite well. How many pilots were killed flying those before the entire factory staff walked out on the job and refused to return until they took it out of production? And they claimed it had an 8:1 glide ratio too. Really great cartoon, BTW. Even shows the swept crossbar hinge bracket.
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By remmoore
#401883
Roadrunner71 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:04 pm Does anyone remember the Cartoon from our Magazine oh about twenty five years ago. Where there is this Hang Glider Pilot shown scolding his Dog? The Pilot is shown yelling at his Dog who just drove the retrieval Rig down to the L-Z The Pilot is shown yelling at his Dog: "You forgot to bring the Glider Bag" I want to say to all of you. That kind of humor is priceless!
Yeah, that's one of my favorites, too.
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By Ken.de.Russy
#401887
Is the artist/author of the cartoon a hang glider pilot? It is hard to imagine anyone outside of the hang gliding community appreciating the humor in this. Did it see general release? It is a great cartoon.
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By remmoore
#401888
It was in our HG magazine some years ago. Seems like I Google image searched it to get the e-version. It's one of those single panels which assumes the reader already understands the set-up. Funny stuff.

RM
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By dbotos
#401890
On that first cartoon, I thought it was a jug of moonshine hanging from the nose of the glider as a motivator for a strong launch run. Like when they dangle a carrot on a string from a stick in front of a donkey to get it to go. :lol:

The style of the second cartoon reminds me of The Far Side.
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By jlatorre
#401905
NMERider wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:39 am
jlatorre wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:02 pm. Really great cartoon, BTW. Even shows the swept crossbar hinge bracket.
Thanks! And as for the crossbar bracket, well spotted! I doubt that one viewer in five hundred would have noticed it.
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By NMERider
#401908
jlatorre wrote: Mon Jan 08, 2018 7:44 pm
NMERider wrote: Sun Jan 07, 2018 2:39 am Really great cartoon, BTW. Even shows the swept crossbar hinge bracket.
And as for the crossbar bracket, well spotted! I doubt that one viewer in five hundred would have noticed it.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed my observation. I've been around since 1973 but first got interested in 1964 and have seem a fair amount but only a fraction of everything.