US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

        Moderator Comment: Some of the following posts were moved here from the "Hello US Hawks!!" topic.
        Bill's original question (directly below) raised an important issue about how non-members of the Writing Team can
        post comments and contributions to the Training Manual. So this topic was created and Bill's question (and the
        subsequent discussions) were move here leaving a copy in the original topic for historical clarity.
                         - Bob Kuczewski January 7, 2012

So how come there is no reply to a post in the training manual section?

Very astute observation Bill, and if Bob will place 'Post a reply' icon in the 'Training Manual' topic, I'd like to add a few things that have helped the S.W. Texas chapter. Also several of my own posts in Hang gliding General, as well as 'Forming the Hawks' could be transferded into the 'manual' topic, but only after editing out the objectional TROLL comments! I hope you are watching Bob, or I've wasted another 15min. Thanks again, Terry

billcummings wrote:So how come there is no reply to a post in the training manual section?

Hi Bill and Terry,

I've limited that forum to just the people who want to sincerely work on building a good training manual so we don't get derailed. If either of you guys would like to participate, you'd be welcome ... as well as most other members of the forum. Are either of you interested? Just post your interest or send me a PM and I'll be happy to add you to the writing/contributing "staff".

To amplify my thinking, the work that will take place on that topic isn't best suited to a forum. It's more suited to some kind of collaboration software between people who want to work toward that common goal. But since a forum is the only "groupware" that we've got right now, I'll adapt it to that purpose. When all you've got is a hammer ... everything looks like a nail.

So that's why the forum is readable to everyone, but will only be writable by the group that's going to actually write the manual.

Is everyone OK with that?

P.S. Bill, I've been working on your pilot profile and it's coming along great. I'll be sending you a preview soon, and I apologize (publicly) that it's taken me so long.

I was thinking that I could share some pointers about water towing. Maybe they could be of use in the training manual.

Maybe the person actually typing up the training manual might see something worth passing along to pilots that haven’t yet had the opportunity to blunder down the wrong path yet like I had years ago.

Things like: Once a glider has upset in the lake and is only showing it’s floats above the surface there is only one way to right the glider when a wind is blowing.

Another thing: While waiting for the boat to return to the glider after it has landed in the lake, and while being blown backwards, the pilot must move him/herself toward the low wing to raise it. Sounds just backwards or like I just made a typo doesn’t it? But there is a good reason for this that once explained will (hopefully) make sense.
Bill C.

Going against the grain here, but someone has to point out that the probable best candidate to write a training manual has been banned from this site.

Bob's not looking for the best candidate , he's looking for the most agreeable candidate's.

Wow! How neet, 'nobody' is 'free' of criticism on 'The Hawks' , but; I'd like to see '5' take a more active role in the 'Manual' section. Wonder what sort of critic this little comment will generate?

Free wrote:Going against the grain here, but someone has to point out that the probable best candidate to write a training manual has been banned from this site.

Tad has been asked repeatedly to help with building the US Hawks and he's pretty much refused to participate. If you see something he's written that's particularly helpful, please post it. I have no problem giving attribution to Tad or his work. You can communicate with him through his forum at http://kitestrings.prophpbb.com/. I'm not trying to "erase" Tad, but I am trying to protect the US Hawks from the destructive aspects of his personality.

Nobody wrote:Bob's not looking for the best candidate , he's looking for the most agreeable candidate's.

I'm looking for people who can work together to build an on-line training manual for hang gliding. Yes, that does require a certain amount of agreeability and willingness to compromise. The only Training Manual that Tad can build is the one where he has 100% control. I hope he does that at http://kitestrings.prophpbb.com/, and we'll be happy to reference his work.

Also note that I've created the Training Manual Forum as a place for working on the Training Manual. This could have been done outside of the US Hawks forum by personal collaboration or email or by many other means. But I wanted lots of people to be able to see what we're doing and offer comments, so I decided to make it a public part of the US Hawks Forum.

On the other hand, working on a training manual will require a coordinated effort by several dedicated people. The actual writing process is not helped by allowing people to derail the discussions. So that's why the Training Manual Forum is limited to posting by people who've explicitly stated they want to work cooperatively on that project.

With that thought in mind, it would be good to have a topic where anyone can comment or contribute without being a member of the Training Manual Team. This topic is specifically for that purpose. Please feel free to post your own (or even someone else's) comments or contributions to this forum any time.

Thanks.

billcummings wrote:I was thinking that I could share some pointers about water towing. Maybe they could be of use in the training manual.

That would be excellent Bill!!

I've added you to the Training Manual group which gives you the ability to post in that forum. Please start a topic on water towing and start writing!!

billcummings wrote:Maybe the person actually typing up the training manual might see something worth passing along to pilots that haven’t yet had the opportunity to blunder down the wrong path yet like I had years ago.

I've created this topic in the general forum so people can post Comments and Contributions without actually being part of the writing team. So if anyone has anything they'd like to contribute without actually being a member of the authoring team, then this is a good place to put it.

Thanks!!