Product Lines – January 04

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Happy New Year, glider fans. Once again a new year brings wintertime
chills, at least for us northerners. So, this month I have some warm-up ideas
to get you in the mood for a new soaring season.
Mexican Flying Tours are in full swing for HGs and PGs. Cold weather flyers take
note of temperatures in the 80s with plentiful thermals and authentic Mexican food.
One outfit calls the experience a “Mextravaganza.”
Super Fly Paragliding Mexico Tours 2004 treks to the famous Valle de Bravo
site in central Mexico. At it for eight years, Super Fly takes you to fly three sites
in seven days during January and February. PG gurus Jeffrey Farrell and Chris
Santacroce are leading two tours in January and one in early February for pilots
with P2 ratings or better and a minimum of 50 flight hours.
They’ll handle the language, pickup and delivery from Mexico City airport, offer
5-star lodging in “a new, secure, classy, and clean hotel,” local club memberships,
XC retreival in air conditioned vehicles, and in-flight coaching by radio. FMI:
info@4superfly.com or 801-255-9595
For winter 03/04 FlyMexico has new features to firm their success from previous
years. Their hotel, Meson del Viento celebrated its first anniversary last June telling
you the property is new. They’ve also got new windsocks, new transport vehicles,
and now they offer tours to Veracruz and Oaxaca.
Basic winter packages in and out of Mexico City are priced at $895 for PG
pilots and $1,095 for HG pilots including a wing to fly with many choices
available. A non-flying companion can be added for $295. Returning customers can
take another 5% discount. FlyMexico offers lodging, ground transportation, guiding,
retrieval, plus radios if needed for coaching and other gear you may need. FMI:
jeff@flymexico.com or 800-861-7198
HGMA has a new website. Look for yourself, but one aspect of the site that
truly amazed me was a pull-down list for all the glider models ever certified
by HGMA. You scroll for a LONG time before hitting bottom. Reviewing glider
names is a trip through HG history; most designs are no longer in production.
HGMA president Mike Meier told me the list currently represents some 428
certification packages and about 280 glider models. (Note: some packages submitted
were for changes to previously-certified designs.) Certifying all these gliders and
someone reviewing their documentation represents literally decades of work. A highly
efficient Wills Wing, for example, says it can certify a glider in about 75 man-hours.
This includes vehicle testing — for certification only, not development work
while designing the glider — and preparing the documentation. They’ve done it many
times so they’ve become very fast. Let’s assume an average of only 100 hours per
package (probably not enough), the body of work is the same as four full-time
employees working non-stop for five years or one full-timer on the job for 20
years! Whew! Another alphabet-soup organization (ASTM)
is working on standards for the new Light Sport Aircraft that FAA has proposed. One
unit of this group is dealing with HG/PG tandem flying and aerotowing tugs that will
fall under the new certification system. As people observe the work of this large
organization, many including myself marvel at how efficiently a much-smaller HGMA
has performed a similar task over the years. The success of the program is highly
respected by FAA. FMI: www.hgma.net
Most hang glider pilots and magazine readers know Gerry Charlebois. His photos
have graced these pages, and he’s worked with videographer Paul Hamilton on motion-picture
productions. Now the iconic pilot from Hawaii’s beautiful Kauai has outdone himself
with a face-paced and fascinating look at extreme sports on the paradise island.
HG&PG readers will focus on the many spectacular flying scenes in “Extreme
Kauai” but I was equally drawn with some superb white-water kayaking, petting
of sharks, aerobatic kite surfing, and big-wave sailboarding. No question, this video
is a heart pumper, a defibrillator attached to your TV.
As “Extreme Kauai” is a DVD, extra scenes are available and many of
these are about flying, for example, a powered hang glider over Hawaiian waterfalls.
I watched the whole thing for more than an hour’s worth of entertainment with good
production values. My guess is you and your flying group will thoroughly enjoy it.
But its real value may be that it presents hang gliding (and trike flying)
in a good light along with other thrilling sports. I imagine lots of non-pilots watching
this, during which they’ll be exposed to a healthy dose of the reasons why we pilots
like doing it in the air. FMI: birds@birdsinparadise.com
It is much mellower than “Extreme Kauai”, but the Tennessee Tree Topper DVD produced
by club president Dan Shell should prove popular during cold winter months. “A Hang
Gliding Cross Country Guide to the Sequatchie Valley” employs a Cessna
to give a tour of sample cross county flights from sites owned by the famous southeastern
flying club. The DVD provides topo maps, GPS coordinates,
specific legs of XC flights in addition to aerial views of the countryside
while flying cross country. Pilots with less experience in going a distance may genuinely
appreciate this preview. Shell’s is available for a modest $20 and will help new
and experienced XC pilots get ready for the next TTT event. FMI: danshell@bledsoe.net
or 423-9494-6912.
In closing, here’s an update on a subject that I’ll continue to cover: Alan Chuculate’s
Paratug. Aided by North Wing Design, he reports that vehicle testing of
the big glider derived from Wills Wing’s Condor “was successful without destruction.”
Pitch stability with washout tubes came out good. Load testing also went well. “The
airframe was loaded to nearly 2,000 pounds at 45 mph,” says Alan. Later, the wing
was bolted to one of North Wing’s light trikes and proprietor Kamron Blevins took
a first flight under power. Alan wants to give credit to Floyd Fronius for
help in fabricating the airframe and during vehicle testing. FMI: alanc@san.rr.com
So, got
news or opinions? Send ’em to: 8 Dorset, St. Paul MN 55118. Messages or fax to 651-450-0930.
E-mail to News@ByDanJohnson.com or CumulusMan@aol.com. THANKS!