- Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:02 pm
#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.
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.
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.
"It is far better to be on the ground, wishing you were in the air, than to be in the air, wishing you were on the ground."
-- old aviation proverb (and it's true, it's true).
-- old aviation proverb (and it's true, it's true).