ST. PAUL, MINN. — In this summer edition of "PL," I want to add a few more places you can fly in what I view to be a subtly but surely changing landscape. Once you leave the big mountains and big air of the west, towing takes on more impact in delivering flight to hang glider pilots. However, towing is also moving west as trikes catch on as tugs and as ultralight sailplanes add dimension to areas formerly occupied only by flex wings. ••• This month, I’ll touch on five more sites where you can pursue towing. In the east but not in Florida or Texas (where towing is well established), we find two Midwest centers, one north, one south. • Well known to hang gliding pilots around the world is Matt Taber’s Lookout Mountain. Matt is well into his second decade running one of the largest and most developed sites in the country.
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Product Lines – July 1995
ST. PAUL, MINN. — The season is hot and the flying is sizzling… even here in Minnesota, where at the beginning of May Gerry Uchytil got nearly 100 miles in his quest for 200 in the state. About the feat fellow pilot Bruce Bolles says, "Oh, he’ll do it; he’s obsessed… and good." Way south, Wallaby Ranch reports many 50-mile flights and a 100-miler. I’ve got more news of active shops, but first some glider updates. ••• The Ram Air is gone and the XC is… back. Back!? Well, only in that the sail underside reads, "XC." Many of you can remember Bob Wills and his XC, a glider many of us flew quite successfully. Wills endured the last year as a "tough one for us all," and has now released their new bird, the Cross Country, complete with numerous enhancements. Their dealer bulletin also says, "This is the first time we have ever had a glider without a scoop that beat the Ram Air at gliding speeds." Certified with and without winglets — still being evaluated by master designer, Steve Pearson — Wills says the Cross Country had a measurable gliding advantage at 25 [mph], and a slight advantage the rest of the way through the speed range, all the way to 65 mph!" The new top-of-the-line Wills sells for $4,700.
Product Lines – February 1995
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Though winter is far from over here in the north country, spring is beginning to happen in more moderate climates. As I contemplate shoveling snow, it warms me to think of the soaring season soon approaching. ••• To help get their dealership network all tuned up for the new season, Pacific Airwave will host a national Dealer Meeting in early April (no foolin’). The company reports, "We will be introducing new products, new reference manuals, and new sales programs at this meeting." Good support for their dealers should translate to better service to end customers. ••• No doubt they’ll also promote their relativey new FLY2 tandem-purpose glider. Says the factory, "The sink rate performance has been proven to exceed that of the Double Vision while the handling characteristics and coordination make it an ideal instructional tool." However, they go on with an important addition regarding landing characteristics, "The flare window has been increased to provide the tandem instructor the highest probability of nailing their landings, everytime." Given the widespread apprehension over landing today’s gliders, this should be a welcome development for the increasing number of operations using tandem instruction as a premier method of training.
Product Lines – December 1994
ST. PAUL, MINN. — About now, the Holidays are demanding lots of time. To help, this "Product Lines" focuses on gifts. ••• At the board meeting in Lake Tahoe, directors got a preview of USHGA’s 1995 calendar. It’s a beaut’. Slightly wider than last year, a right column text area gives details about the photo, including camera equipment used. Learn from this and next year one of the stunning pictures of hang gliding/paragliding could be yours. See the color ad in this issue and order a few. We all know hang gliding "shows well," so you can buy these calendars for friends or family who don’t fly. ••• HG entrepreneur, GW Meadows and his Just Fly organization have a whole bunch of nifty Christmas notions. GW’s got something else, too: a promise to ship items as late as December 23rd (a Friday), so you can get them in time for Sunday gift opening.
Product Lines – September 1994
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Flyin’ high over Telluride. Early reports trumpeted spectacular flying at the mile-high site of the largest hang gliding event in the nation (world?). Reminded me of those altimeter ads from more than a decade ago when one advertiser teased pilots who had not yet equipped themselves. The ad featured a geeky-looking pilot saying, "I gained… er, …gobs of altitude." Remember? It was funny and meant to goad us into buying their wrist altimeter so we’d actually know the altitude we gained. Now, I compare that to modern reports of great flying days. No one wants to state any number of MSL feet above 17,999. Anyway, suffice it to say, Telluriders gained, er… gobs of altitude. Thanks to Gerry Charlebois. ••• Speaking of getting high, Moyes announced new prices for their gliders. Many businessmen would agree that when sales are good is the proper time to raise prices and indeed Moyes has said sales were never better.
Product Lines – August 1994
ST. PAUL, MINN. — The issue is growth in hang gliding (or the lack of same). This month’s edition of "Product Lines" looks at a few ideas that may affect the future of hang gliding. ••• In my April ’94 column, I referenced a Dennis Pagen report from FAI. That international aerosport organization sees a worldwide decline in hang gliding. Pagen was quick to add that America did not seem to be experiencing decline as was Europe. ••• Recently, however, new USHGA Executive Director, Phil Bachman, sent all directors a set of graphs depicting member trends over the last 15 months. Today’s USHGA serves a blend of hang gliding and paragliding members, a subject that a few years ago caused considerable anxiety among many HG members. Some predicted that PG pilots would overwhelm HG pilots in a couple years. That didn’t happen, but some interesting changes have occurred since that risky forecast was made.
Product Lines – April 1994
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Ahh… April, when the living gets easier up here in the long-frozen tundra. All over America, trees are sprouting leaves and the thermals are poppin’. Let’s see what’s news. ••• From the end of last year, Dennis Pagen — USHGA’s rep to the CIVL of FAI — reports that the international organization is concerned about the "decline of hang gliding." Dennis clarifies, "While the sport appears healthy [in America], such a statement [by CIVL] should not come as a surprise for it has been well reported that hang gliding is disappearing in many countries of Europe. Paragliding has superseded it because of the ease of access to airtime paragliders afford. Even if the same process does not occur in our country, the disappearance of hang gliding elsewhere will hurt our pilots as manufacturers sell less, fewer products become available and hang gliding receives less media attention." ••• Disturbing talk.
Product Lines – November 1993
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Even as fall colors dominate the landscape in much of America, hang gliding businesses are working hard on various new products. I’ve a few to pass along… ••• Bob Trampenau announced a novel concept for hang gliders, at least the flex wing, Class 1 variety. Though most rigid wing entries in production (Swift) or development (Apex, Stealth II) use controllable surfaces, they haven’t found acceptance on rag wings. True, other experiments have employed similar ideas before. Bob says his latest notion was tried by both Eric Raymond and Roy Haggard. Now, Trampenau has announced flaps for his Sensors. He says he’ll generate an article for the magazine on this subject so here you’ll merely get a sneak preview. Trampenau voiced his opinion that wing loadings will continue to increase on modern flex wings. After years of hovering around 1.5 lbs/ft2, he feels designs are now moving toward 2.0 lbs/ft2.
Product Lines – August 1993
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Unusually, we’ve got lots of glider news this month. Also, lots of action in rigid wings, with recent developments on the Tim Morley/Jeff Harlan acquisition of Don Mitchell’s final design, the Stealth II, plus certification work on Glider Sports’ Apex by Danny Howell. A few accessory items also remain in the news basket, but this month the focus is on gliders. ••• You probably read Dennis Pagen’s entertaining intro to his flight report on the Enterprise Desire. He certainly hit the bullseye in reckoning a barrage of glider releases has a direct connection to the Mother of All Meets (’93 Owens Valley Worlds). ••• Fascinating to see the emergence of new technologies. With two companies pursuing them, the most significant development is shear ribs (term compliments of Bob Trampenau; Wills calls them fabric ribs). A close second is the internal deflexor of the Desire. Behind that are more mundane evolutionary steps like greater use of 7075 tubing and new sizes of previous models.
Product Lines – February 1993
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Mail-order Mania… as two U.S. shops branch out into hang gliding mail order sales. The first one out is a slickly-produced booklet with color accents mailed recently by Tennessee’s Sequatchie Valley Soaring Supply (or more simply: SVS). Their 16-page catalog is professionally laid out and uses professionally-shot photos for a top-notch appearance. The catalog is full of accessory items from Thermitts and gloves to a broad helmet line to instruments plus many smaller accessories. The service does not duplicate your local shop in that some items are SVS-designed while others are exclusively imported by SVS. If you didn’t get a copy (their premier mailing was widely distributed), call their toll-free line and request one: 1-800/34-GLIDE (or 344-5433). It looks as good as a lot of those catalogs that fill your mailbox and has much more interesting stuff in it. ••• The second entry ironically came out just on the heels of the SVS catalog.
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