[JoeF]

Global rounds
Global wheels
Global MonoWheel HG


Rough teasing sketch is to be improved. Several options: Fixed global roll. Or stable interior non-rolling while exterior rolls.
One global wheel. Or two global wheels. The frame of the global wheel could tie kingpost to nose to queenpost bottoms to tail are of keel.

[soar8hours]

As the hang gliding community gets older, safer ways to land should be explored.
Our bones are more brittle and I think we should be trying new ways to land more like a plane.
Landing on wheels and not allowing the nose to go over is a good way to start.
Even though I fly what I consider a mellow landing wing, a Wills Wing Falcon, I would like to
land everytime on wheels. I have always kept wheels on the base tube and think that an
arrangement such as the early Pteradactyl ultralight main wheels & nose gear to land on would be great.
Afterall it was a Manta Fledge IIB wing ( I converted mine to a hang cage with motor and eventually added
a canard ) to start with and could handle hard landing just fine with the bungee cord shock cords.
But like everything else, if the manufacturers don't push it, or it's for the comp crowd, it's going to be a flop.
This is why I am considering reverting back to my old supine days, sitting up in comfort & safer too.
I'd much rather have my legs out front instead of my head & neck! Big 26 inch wheels and land softly.
You'd not need a cart to tow from and no transfering upright and dealing with the critical flare timing.
And todays supine paraglider harness are perfect for the job. Especially the XC enclosed ones
2014 may the the year to entroduce my ideas into reality and enhance my chances of flying another 5 or 10 years!

TOMMY in NC > WW 195 Attack Falcon pilot
Flying HG's 42 years

[Bill Cummings]

I agree Tommy,
I’m coming up on 65 Feb, 9 and just visited the Medicare office today. Of course I had to wait for a hour for the young-ins to finish ahead of me.
I wouldn’t resist wheels on the base tube, nose plate, wing tips, extended keel, and just to have a spare along store it mounted for duty on top of the king post for those really bad landings.

[JoeF]

ARP and JpF and inviting others
to advance limit lines tech, and perhaps especially from the TCF or basebar to pilot mass.
Many details to consider.
http://energykitesystems.net/LimitLines/index.html
is a page that has some gathering.

[soar8hours]

We teach HG's students to fly upright on the training hills.
Then they are later taught to transition to the semi-prone or prone positions.
#1. I always wondered why they don't give the student a choice of seated or prone?
It's the way we drive our cars, fly our planes and ride our motorcycles basically.
I think a light weight set of tubes going forward and a tube from the front to the nose
would prevent the nose over sudden stop / whack? Then a bar of each side of the
downtubes going reaward for the main wheels? This is for prone / suprone pilots.
You could angle the rear wheels down at an angle for supine flyers.
No need for a cart for towing either. Northern tools has great 16 & 20 inch wheels too!
What is a little extra weight and alot more safety really worth?
Just doddle'n... I am not artist.

I always liked riding my snow sled better sitting up

[Bob Kuczewski]

ARP and JpF and inviting others to advance limit lines tech

Hi Joe,

Please feel free to include this diagram in your site:

anti_whack_restraining_lines_f1copy.gif (35.09 KiB) Viewed 6407 times

There are some problems with this idea ... in particular, since the mass of the pilot is generally much greater than the mass of the wing, the wing will not likely stay fixed as shown in the diagram (although aerodynamic forces help slow the wing's rotation much more than they slow pilot's rotation). But it might be another puzzle piece to trigger a better idea in someone else's brain.

[Bob Kuczewski]

We teach HG's students to fly upright on the training hills.

That's how I was taught by Joe Greblo and his instructors. But we also flew several of our first flights from the top of Kagel (about 10 to 15 minutes) entirely upright.

In fact, one of Joe's comments to me (one of many that I'll always remember) is that more advanced pilots don't spend enough time upright. He encourages pilots to spend a little time once in a while flying upright at altitude. If you've got lots of lift (which we often do at Torrey) go upright for about 5 or 10 minutes during your flight. Practice pulling on speed and turning while upright. Get used to the different perspective of being upright.

Joe also observed that many advanced pilots spend less than one minute out of a 4 hour flight in the upright position. How can you keep your upright skills sharp with such a limited amount of time actually practicing it?

[soar8hours]

Todays wheels are slightly out front or inline with the base tube.
This forces the tail down & you drag the harness boot unless there is a keel tailwheel.
Still does not address the nose over whack problems.

[soar8hours]

How about a forward gear with an axle across and a tube to the nose?
Seated pilots put feet on bar

[Bob Kuczewski]

I I like this one Tommy:

But then I learned on tricycle gear aircraft ... as opposed to tail-draggers!!     

Actually Joe, it might be fun to try something like this at Dockweiler some time (with the other Joe's permission of course).

The only problem I see with this design is that the aft gear brace will try to bend the downtubes. Since the downtubes are in compression, they're particularly vulnerable to being bent. There might be another way to brace them from the rear end of the keel or with a more rigid structure to the nose wheel which wouldn't put a transverse load on the down tubes.

Other than that, I'd like to give that one a try!!