US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Have anchored a weathercocking landing barge at Torrey waters. Anchor firmly. Have the barge of low mass recycled items combined suitably. Have the landing surface be a nice texture, perhaps a hearty grass that could be groomed. I do not know the marine rules for parking a barge in the water. Liabilities would be a concern. Ownership? Multiple use, perhaps: Wave-energy production device? Solar-energy top surface? Home for hang glider guy who manages the barge .... bird watch and clean? Oft-times fishing barge.
Land HG on the barge. Launch from the barge by use of a sea-anchor pulley and return line and tow line; use wave-energy electricity to run the towing device. Tow up into sky. Glide over to the cliff lift. When done soaring, glide back to the barge for a landing. Sleep on the barge. Fish on the barge. Use solar energy to cook the fish. Grow some vegetables on the barge. Compost waste. Have water-distillation plant going. Swim. Paint. Converse. Study. Have Internet connection. Tow up again; soar; return.

The weathercocking barge will ever indicate the wind direction at landing.

Filler image from Nov-Dec issue of Ryan Reporter, 1962

Another filler image

http://energykitesystems.net/Ryan/RyanReporter/PartialImageMarApr1963RR.jpg
Date of event would be earlier than the publishing date, so sometime in '63 or '62 ???
Ryan Reporter in their March-April, 1963 issue.

Hey Joe, as I posted earlier I just about filled this bill with my Star Craft Capri 15’ tri-hull. Of course I was not anywhere near as “Green” as a solar powered, wave energy powered, barge idea even though the boat was white and green.
The boat license took care of being just about anywhere on the water except for the chewing out I got when my buddy dropped the towline across the navigation channel leaving Duluth Superior area on the western point of lake Superior.

I have actually done a pop-starts from an eighteen by twenty foot swimming raft at the public swimming beach at Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota. I once tried to land on the raft but had to jump off the far end due to over shooting by just a tad. ---Oops --sorry Bob.

Later we rigged for platform launch off of the moving boat. We had a High Perspective Winch, made by Sky Dog Bob of Canada that my friend Don Ray and I bought second hand from Jerry Uchytil now of Hudson Wisconsin.

It has three thousand and six hundred feet of rope but now sits in my garage since I sold the boat and moved from the “Land of ten thousand lakes, MN” to the desert of New Mexico.

We had all kinds of Geological Survey Maps of lakes that had hills or cliffs up against the edge of the lake and would head for which ever lake/cliff/hill the wind direction would favor. We were able to soar many hills and cliffs that had no available foot launch or even road to the top.

So now for Torrey water operations how about four pontoon boats all lashed together with all the hand rails off and an extended plywood platform covering all four pontoon boats. Then cover the giant landing platform with Astroturf. It would be one big landing platform and a staging area that the boat would pick up pilots and gliders, load onto the boat platform launch, and serve them up to soar. You would only need one boat license and one motor for the four pontoon boats. (You would need four trailers of course when you got back to shore to unhook them and haul them out.)
(Sounds like a lot of work and logistics. Huh?)
I can just imagine driving down to watch your club members try to lash each of the four pontoon boats together in rolling waves at the landing. I’ll take pictures from shore but I don’t think I’ll join the ---
“Torrey Towing Club.” (Hey--try saying that three times real fast)
(COME ON, TRY IT, IT WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!)

I have an idea for in flight refueling.

If you sink below the rim of Torrey a pilot could open up a plastic four way gaff hook on the end of a short rope from the pilots' waist area. (It would have a quick release at the pilot.)
Next fly back out to the boat that is holding position at idle speed in the wind while kiting a gliding chute, like you posted earlier, at the end of the towline.

Next the pilots flies over the kited chute and snags it with the unfolded dangling plastic gaff hook, that would also float if released. Then the boat can tow the pilot back up three to five thousand feet to release again without having to land and start over.

I bet that hasn’t been done yet! (Maybe it shouldn’t even be tried--- )
Just a thought------I ain’t sayin ---I’m just sayin.

But really just having a boat to launch from is simple and I know already that it would work at Torrey if I was out there and had a boat again.

(Yeah! Yeah! I know: If we had some bacon we could have bacon and eggs --if we had the eggs.)

I did a Google search on buying and or living on a barge and it looks good and bad.
One guy found an abandoned barge and claimed it under salvage laws so it was free at first.

Then the Colombia River Washington authorities set up all kinds of road blocks (river blocks --sorry.) and wouldn’t let the guy move it without some kind of pilot training and certification. (Which I thought was kind of odd since he probably had no intention of flying it.)

The guy just became a squatter and lived on the barge. The authorities wanted him to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back mooring fees. (Kill joys!)

Apparently the only place to get insurance for a barge is from Holland. They usually will not insure if it hasn’t had a recent dry dock inspection. This usually needs to be done every three to four years and get scraped and painted then as well.

So I’m thinking that if we had a millionaire Like John McAfee the Torrey Hawks might just be able to swing a barge LZ in front of launch.

McAfee spent 11 million on a trike airport at Amigos de Cielo Airport (NM90) just north of Rodeo, New Mexico but that has long since been auctioned off.

It’s not out of the question that some rich guy with money and also likes to fly hang gliders (well maybe that would be hard to find.) will buy the club a barge.

I like seeing brainstorming, out of the box, like this being done. It could lead to a fine tuned idea that would either answer logistical difficulties or to a solution from a parallel line of thought that would make something happen.

But what a concept! I can just imagine a barge in front of Torrey.

“Look at that. Joe just landed in the cabbage patch again----can’t he get any closer to the bulls eye?”

“Hey just be happy he didn’t miss the barge completely like Bob did last week.”

“Well, Bill seems to be able to hit the bulls eye ---what’s up with those two?”

“They just have to get out more.” “ Sam got way better with time as you remember or did you forget back when he landed and broke six solar panels?”

"Oh yeah, I remember that was a week after Bob got his paraglider tangled in the Wave Electrical Generator Impeller!”

"What a bunch of hacks." ----"They should all get a corner tore off of their rating cards."

Bill,
Wow! Both your posts are full of gems. This is my first moment reading your gifts here. I'll revisit and see to it that each gem gets fastened to some hang gliding history folders that I grow. And ... so enjoy how your frame the gems. Thanks! No doubt: there will be growth from your contributions; this is just the start of the water-based Torrey hang gliding flight realm.

Soon on this topic ..

Oooh! Oooh! How about several moored buoys each around two thousand feet from shore all equipped with solar powered navigation lights. Each buoy would have a pulley.

Next several pick up trucks each pulling a trailer with a Jet Ski.
In the pickup bed would be mounted a stationary winch.
The ski jet would string the towline to the pulley and then back to shore.
Do pulley tows from the beach in front of the Torrey Pines Launch!
Each tow would cost $20.00 with the stipulation that each pilot arriving at the rim would thumb their noses at the Torrey Pines Concessionaires.

You are on a roll, Bill.

==============================
There is a feasible way to use the wind to do the towing from your buoys. Line-speed multiplier and a kite system or drogue system doing the work. Then depower after tow and bring the worker back for another go. No use of the land that would again tension the concessionaire!

Is there any rule against running a truck on the beach in front of Torrey Pines Launch?

How long is the beach?

Inland lakes of three quarters to a mile across start to make small white caps at twelve miles per hour of wind speed.

While soaring at Torrey how far out do the waves start to break from just being rollers during soaring conditions?

Landing in rollers is survivable but landing in breakers almost never is.

Here is an idea that we could use to take energy from the waves for the Torrey Pines Barge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asbn_Z_OWvI

JoeF wrote:

Wannabe Hawk?

Wave-energy station as launch and LZ

Joe,
I woke up this morning thinking about the wave generator link that I think you had posted.

From the wave generator I got an idea that may be in play now so I may not have the original idea.

Hundreds of years ago windmills were invented to harness the horizontal wind energy and convert that energy vertically to pump water out of the ground with the use of a one way check valve.

This windmill analogy will be an inefficient one but may help to convey my thoughts.

What if someone were to use a windmill backwards and upside down?

Hooked to the bottom of a watercraft (upside down) so that the vertical wave motion drove the pumping part that turned the blades which are now being used as a water propeller.

I wouldn’t set out to actually hook a windmill, upside down, under a boat but would continue theoretical R&D toward a more efficient way of using a vertical wave generator to produce horizontal thrust for the watercraft. Possibly thrust like a jet boat.

Another propulsion device driven by waves might work like the fluke or tail of a whale.
Joe, your started all this so now what do you think?

Other ideas I’ve borrowed and been thinking about are harnessing the power of the moon to generate electricity.

The moon drives the tides so find a bottle necked bay and submerge an electrical generator to be turned as the tide went in and out of the bay.