Session #16

Date: June 17, 2018

Cummulative flights to date: 22

Site: Kiwanda

Conditions: WNW but switchy around 5mph when I started

Harness configuration: bare glider

Assistance: none

Launch: wind at 12-16, easy but less confident about directional control

Flights: 1 - really tired after only one trip up

Landing: easy

Photos/Video: none

The last flight I made was 1 year ago to the day.  I did not attempt to kick up, just flew it down hanging by my arms as usual for bare glider config.

Take aways:

1. I need to always assume the glider can blow away and find a way to tie it down so that it can never happen.

2. Picking the glider up off the ground in any wind at all is nearly impossible for me. This is due to the requirement that you must tip the glider onto it's nose by lifting the trailing edge and then lift it from forward of the CG point on the hang tubes up onto your thighs. This is the only way it will balance.   It is at this point I hook my shoulder strap carabiners to the glider hang tubes by two webbing loops so that I now have the glider resting from my shoulder straps.  When slope launching, I need to be able to pick up the glider in a sheltered location, carry the glider to the launch site and then launch without setting the glider down.  

Session #15

June 17, 2017

site: Cape Kiwanda, Oregon coast

One day in between south flow rains. Less than 5mph mostly west. Shirtsleeve weather with sun out by mid-morning. Joanna went on up with the GoPro. The very gentle breeze while we were there made it possible for me to climb up without a need to turn the glider around and climb facing west which I have to do when the wind is more than 5. I made one climb up and flew from the top hanging from the cage. Did not attempt to get feet up. Pitch felt a little touchy as could be expected but I was able to manage it. Landing was in almost no wind and I came in hot and ran it on. Bruised my feet. Next flight I successfully kicked up. Launching in nearly no wind was not giving me much margin and because of the west direction I had to begin a turn to line up with the beach about the same time I wanted to be kicking up into the cage. Joanna got my first flight but missed my second where I kicked up. I dropped both feet at the same time and had to shift forward to avoid a stall too high off the beach. Still no wind and ran it on but could not flare and ended up dropping the nose into the sand. The 3^rd flight Joanna got and I kicked up but you cannot see it on the footage because the GoPro lense is just too wide. The 4^th flight the flow dropped off to almost nothing between occasional cycles and you can see on the footage that I was close to a stall on takeoff and not running hard or far enough to really get flying solidly. Because it’s so steep where I was launching I got away with it but with no margin for error. You could see on the footage that I made a couple of attempts to get my feet up before realizing I need to turn right to get on a track for the beach. I had unintentionally slowed the glider down in my attempts to get up and it spun right immediately as I applied right rudder. You can see in the footage how the glider basically “falls out of the sky” when you stall in a turn (otherwise known as a spin). I was very lucky and only bruised my left armpit and bicep, bonked my right side rib cage and bruised my right hand which also sustained a couple of minor cuts. Also bruised or cracked the top of my right foot. It’s 9PM now and I’m still pretty sore. The glider will need to go back into the shop. The right wing that I had re-built looked fairly good given the severity of the crash. The only damage I could really see was the LE tip bracket on the lower wing was really bent and will need to be replaced. Also, the rudder cable tore a rip about 5 inches long toward the root. The left wing was in worse shape. I will need to replace the hang tube which I bent and also several of the brackets. I won’t know about the spars until I finish getting the right wing back to flying shape.

Lessons: Same thing that happened at Dog Mtn. Trying to get into the cage, then having to make a roll correction while trying to maintain adequate airspeed. Too many things at my skill level at this stage. I believe that I need more wind on take off so I don’t have to worry about launching and then I should not attempt to get my feet up until I’ve lined up on my final flight path to land. I think I better do this until I get very good at it before progressing.

Setting up the black tarp on top so that I could set the glider down made multiple flights much more doable. I could rest once I made the climb.

This is my first launch where I flew from a hanging position

The GoPro used is clearly unable to allow any more than the first couple seconds of the flight before the glider is out of sight.  I would be able to learn a lot more if I just attach it to an outboard strut.

This was my 3rd launch where I did get both feet into the cage right about where you can't really see me do it.  I managed it without much of any perturbation in pitch which is the goal.  Still, the GoPro is just not the camera to be doing this kind of filming with.  The lense is just way too wide angled.

This is the "grand finale" where I get a poor launch, attempt to swing first one leg up and fail followed by a classic spin with no attempt to recover (not sure I could have)

Session #14

June 5, 2016

Site: Dog Mtn

Time: approx noon

Conditions: SW breeze 5-12 with cycles where you could hear it in the trees at launch, 80-85F very warm day. Direction and velocity were cycling.

Cummulative flights to date: 20

Assistance at launch: left wing tip

Number of flights: 1 crash immediately after launch

Dave and Dianna Auman where at launch with a friend. Dianna and their friend launched and were having OK flights from what Dave could see. I decided to have Dave assist me while standing on the ramp to get a feel for the conditions to make a decision on whether to attempt a launch. I had Dave on my left wing tip. From what I recall, he was actively assisting me 80% of the time I stood on launch.  This should have been a clear indicator that I should reconsider attempting a launch.  The breeze did not feel consistent and even the best cycles did not come straight in. This also should have been all I needed to scrap the attempt and wait to see what the day would bring. I launched anyway. The launch on that short ramp had me intimidated but my run and take off felt OK with the wings reasonably level. Immediately after launching I got my right foot up and over the leading edge but I was unable to put enough pressure forward with my hands to keep the nose from pitching up significantly. About the same time I felt I was turning left and input right rudder to correct. I applied too much rudder and found myself in a sharp right turn at a high bank angle headed for the treeline on the right side of launch. With no room left I held things steady and slowed the ship down with the slim possibility that I would clear the tree line. I was 6-8ft short and impacted the only dead snag in the tree line. The glider hung up where it hit. I was easily able to disconnect from the sling attaching me to the glider and get out of the tree. The glider sustained significant damage. Very likely that I will need to rebuild the entire left wing panels which will take several months of shop time. My injuries were minor abrasion to my right elbow and major bruising to my rib cage on the left side.

What did I learn:

Cleaning sand out of the glider is a lot easier than a re-build. 20 consecutive successful launches and landings off a 70-80ft high dune might have been sufficient training to launch and land at this site if all of those flights had been in the bare glider or hammock sling seat configuration where I had mastered kicking up into the cage. This was a ramp launch, cycling breeze, slightly crosswind and lots more vertical to the LZ (read: intimidation factor)...my focus was getting up into the cage as quickly as possible having only done this once on the last session I had at the beach which was clearly insufficient.

What to do next:

I need to practice more at Kiwanda until kicking up into the cage becomes not only automatic but with as little perturbation in pitch as possible. Rudder control must also be much more automatic (part of what I experienced was over control into that right turn). I believe at least 20 more flights off the dune needs to happen where I kick up into the cage with very little pitch perturbation. This may take even more than 20 flights. The coastal dune site I have been using requires a right turn fairly soon after launch to avoid landing in the surf so my experience to date actually has given me some practice in making small roll changes without over control. The key here is that it was not enough training in the final flying configuration I will be flying the Easy Riser in. Recall from my previous training flight that it was the first time I kicked up both feet onto the leading edge and flew down in the cage. I had convinced myself that it was so easy to do I did not need to repeat it before going to the next step and launch from the Dog Mtn ramp. Needless to say I was wrong on that decision. Two things happening simultaneously I believe was key to my incident at Dog. Failing to execute the swing up into the cage without maintaining constant angle of attack and at the same time needing to make a roll correction to maintain a straight off flight path. Clearly I was unable to do both. Another part of this I did not get to explore was the landing which requires the pilot to drop both feet off the leading edge while holding pitch steady. I noticed this on the last flight off the dune. I dismissed it as something minor but feel it could cause a whip stall if one got in a hurry to drop while still well above the ground on approach. This glider is very easy to fly but will quickly spin in if stalled in a turn. The last flight I had at the beach I found it took a mental effort to let my feet come down out of the cage since it is such a secure and comfortable position. So I think dropping my feet early is not going to be a problem but I'd rather make darn sure through sufficient practice at the beach.

Unfortunately the impact very likely tweeked the entire frame so I will need to do a complete re-build involving at the very least, fabrication of the lower left leading edge spar which was completely broken on impact and then, of course re-covering and re-rigging. I am also guessing the internal root diagonal brace rib was also destroyed so I will need to create a form to reproduce that curved rib with new tubing. Because of the difficulty in covering I experienced with the first re-build, I plan to replace any of the frame tubing I need to in order to achieve a completely straight and true frame. I will likely document this in a continuation of my intitial re-build blog (easyriser1.blogspot.com).

Re: Pilot safety
I did not break ribs but I did bruise or crack a couple that took at least two months to heal.  I plan to buy a rib cage protector vest available for go cart racers next.  The pilot position totally exposes the rib cage to those 2 inch hang tubes so that any lateral force on impact is going to do some damage to your rib cage.  With this configuration I would judge this to be almost as important as wearing a helmet.

Session #13

Date: June 1, 2016

Cummulative flights to date: 19

Site: Kiwanda

Conditions: Shirt sleeve weather, gentle breeze, did not need to secure wing as I set up.

Harness configuration: bare glider

Assistance: none

Launch: steep sloping dune in approximately 12mph somewhat steady breeze

The flight: Walked tail to the breeze on the way over to the dune without too much difficulty. Forgot the bare root diagonals so had to use the faired ones making it difficult to keep from bumping the fairings with my helmet otherwise it presented no problem. I think I can reasonably fly with these in place as long as I'm not needing to carry the glider 300 yds and then climb a steep dune backwards.

I am guessing I had about a 12mph breeze at the top of the dune where I launched. I was launching for the first time with nothing but the shoulder harness to carry the glider. I kicked up right away with no trouble other than a fairly significant pitch up which I was able to correct quickly by moving both feet well over the leading edge. I felt I was flying plenty fast but also felt like I was getting a very good glide out of the path I chose. I will have to get some experience doing this to really develop some finess and get it so I minimize the pitch changes. All in all the glider seems very easy to control on launch, during launch, in flight and landing. I started to carry back to my tarp which I flew way past and then thought “mission accomplished”, no need to go do this again here so I just carried on out to my car and packed up.

Landing: I ended up staying in the feet up position until I was about 10ft off the ground and as soon as I dropped down the nose came up rather quickly and I think I counteracted it with pressure forward using my arms or just moving a bit forward in the cage. Ran it on a few steps to a stop.

Conclusions: After feeling like this had been so easy to do, I neglected to analyze my experience today more carefully. I am really wanting to be ready to go inland and launch off something that will give me some time in the air to really fly the glider. At this point I make the critical error of deciding that I can safely launch the glider from Dog Mtn which is a ramp launch with a huge, wide open LZ and about 1500ft vertical. It is about 3 hours north of where I live. I had already made one trip up there with the intent to fly and aborted the idea after driving all the way up there, setting up the glider at launch and then started thinking things through. I decided it was too big of a risk since my only experience at that point had been flying with the leg harness arrangement which I learned from session #12 that my arms wouldn't last all the way down to the LZ. I had rigged up the hammock harness arrangement and realized I was about to take a risk of doing two things I had not yet practiced; 1) fly using the hammock and 2) launch off a ramp. The conditions were also unstable so I expected to get some turbulence which was also something I had not yet experienced. I packed up and went home which was a good decision.

Session #12

Session #12

Date: Monday Feb 15, 2016

Cummulative flights to date: 18

Number of flights: 1

Site: Peterson's Butte lower launch, approximately 400 ft vertical to the LZ.

Conditions: Warm low 60's , partial overcast with scattered cums, SW at 15

Configuration: Using the leg harness attached to upper trailing edge (does not allow me to kick up into the cage, body position is vertical)

Assistance: Had a person on each wing tip to maneuver the glider to my launch point mainly to keep from hitting cars I had to maneuver around getting over to launch. I had little trouble maintaining control without assistance once in the clear.

Launch: Uneventful, got in maybe three steps before being pulled off in the lift.

The flight: Got concerned quickly about my clearance margin over the tree line west of launch. I turned right very soon after launch and experienced some turbulence. Felt I had my hands full maintaining the heading I needed for the shortest approach to the LZ. It became quickly apparent that using the leg harness for any duration at all is a real liability. It takes a fair effort applying enough forward pressure on the hang cage to keep the glider from slowing to a stall. This also gets in the way of actuating the rudders. By the time I got to the LZ my arms were exhausted and this was only a 400 ft hill. The photo shows me about halfway to the LZ. Notice the vertical body position this harness configuration puts me in. Great for takeoff but does not allow me to get into the cage.

Landing: This was the most maneuvering I have done setting up an approach. It required me to line up along a power line, crab along it and then drop into the field LZ. I felt in total control on approach and the flare was easy with only a couple steps to full stop in a 10mph SW breeze.

Conclusions: I need to get rid of the leg harness and start learning how to fly without it. I will need to go back to the coast where any mishaps will be done over sand.  At my current skill level the clearance over the trees right off launch is too marginal to be safe.  I should get to a point where I'm able to get to trim immediately after launch to maintain a safe margin.

Session #11

July 17, 2015

Site – Cape Kiwanda, Oregon coastal training hill approximately 150ft high.

Conditions – maybe 5 on the beach and 12-15 on top NNW, clear and warm
Cummulative flights to date: 18

Number of flights - 1

This glider is the culmination of the re-build on my own glider I built and crashed back in the early 80's.

Spent all day up until 11PM getting the final things done on the ER for it's maiden flight tomorrow AM. Left town around 7:30. Nice, sunny day with a slight drift from the south as I arrived. Began setting up and within an hour the north drift set in. By the time I was set up it was about 5mph from the NNW. Had to make several trips to the bottom of the hill. Still picking up but about perfect. I would guess about 10mph at the first false summit on the dune. I was so burned out from the week working long, hot hours getting the glider done I ran out of energy and decided to fly from the false summit rather than try and continue to the top. The extra weight didn't help.....16lbs more than the 50lb plan estimate. Ran a bit further than I planned but got off with no problems. I made very small directional corrections but mainly concentrated on airspeed....especially as I came in to land. The flight lasted only seconds but the glider felt just like Darrel's in the air and I am now confident taking it off of an inland trainer hill.....if I can only find one! Decided to pack up and head home. All in all the new glider got off very nicely relative to keeping the sand off of it. I'll wipe it down when I get home but it won't need much. Need to tighten the tip cables and replace all of the 1/16 cable with vinyl coated. I noticed that Darrel's had the 3/32 cable on the root negative wires. I may do that at some point. What an epic event! Finally, after all the struggling and hard work I finished it. I am now needing to apply the center closure and fabricate fairings, oh, and rig a chute mount plus set up the seat harness Darrel gave me. I'll do all this on his glider and use it for my transition to higher, inland launches. I did mount the GoPro and filmed this flight but I had to mount it close enough to turn it on without setting the glider down so the footage was worthless....way to close and the angle was terrible. I don't need a driver, I need a camera person.

Session #10

May 28, 2015

Site – Cape Kiwanda, Oregon coastal training hill approximately 150ft high.

Conditions – maybe 5 on the beach and 12-15 on top WNW. Heavy overcast with offshore fog.
Cummulative flights to date: 12

Number of flights - 6

This is the first trip with the Easy since my last flight session last fall.

All flights from the top.

First flight dealing with more west than north so had to think about a right turn on takeoff, cruise down the ridge, left turn as I approached the bottom No Vehicles signs and then “oh, crap, the gradient”. Found my self stalled in the left turn and augered in from about 15 ft. Nothing hurt, just a lot of sand all over the glider. A bystander caught the entire flight on his iPhone.

Unfortunately, the resolution was set very low and you can barely see what happened.
  The next 2 flights I concentrated on that gradient and did fine. The last 3 flights I tucked my legs up to get a feel for bringing my feet up into the cage. On #5 I actually got my right foot onto the leading edge and could have pulled up my left but felt I had too many things going on. Still getting used to maintaining airspeed while holding my flight path and dealing with that gradient. The last flight I easily landed 5-10 yds past my tarp and also worked on slowing the glider so I wasn't having to run it on so hard. On 4 & 5 I noticed I was having to run a bit too fast on touchdown....seems to be very little ground effect glide with the Easy....or maybe just me?  I'm feeling like this was the last beach session.  150 ft elevation is not high enough to do much more than launch and land.  Finding an intermediate hill is going to be a challenge.  About 400-500ft would be ideal.  Unfortunately there is nothing local.  I also need to think about rigging the LARA chute I bought last year for the Easy before tackling a higher launch.  Since I'm doing this all solo, it is not possible to get any video from the ground.  I have decided not to mess with the GoPro glider mounted since an on-board perspective not very useful (read: I'm just too lazy to set it up?).