How Fast Can You Spin a Hang Glider

This Fast...

M Coupe, Berthoud Pass and Clear Creek Canyon

I thought it was time for a non-cycling post, well kind of... I've been hesitant to hang glide much this year because my it hurts my back for a couple weeks afterwards and I don't want to interfere with my racing. I'm going to get my airtime in the fall when racing season is over and Colorado's late-summer monsoonal flow has diminished. Stay tuned for some exciting flying posts this fall. If your craving some hang gliding action check out Jeff's blog (Here). He's been doing a enough flying for all of us this year and is competing in the Big Springs meet right now.

Jo and I drove the M Coupe to Winter Park a couple races ago (Here). I mounted my point and shoot camera before it died on the roof rack as we rallied through Clear Creek Canyon and over Berthoud Pass to shoot some video. In the winter I entertain myself during my long hours riding the trainer with a compilation of videos like these. Imagine one long The Naked Gun intro scene, if anyone remembers that movie. I altered the speed slightly to reduce the time and avoid any incrimination! You'll have to excuse the cheesy spin class music.

Clear Creek Canyon





Berthoud Pass





At the Phoenix Multisport fundraiser I met up with Chris who also has an M Coupe. His is the only other one around with a bike rack. After the fundraiser we posed our cars in front of the St. Julian for some pictures.







I also got Jo (somewhat reluctantly) to pose as I dropped her off. She is going to be so mad when she see I pulished this - Ha!

Training Update 7-14-08 - It's all about the Bearings

Last week was a taper week for the Triple Bypass. It's a good thing I wasn't trying to ride because all 3 of my bikes were down for some type of maintenance. It took me 3 days to get them all caught up. I test rode the Superfly Friday up the Link Trail followed by 2 short laps around Betasso for a total time of 1:30. Saturday I rode 125 miles in 8:49 riding time on the Triple Bypass. Even though I only rode 2 days, I think I got a weeks worth of riding in! I should have the post done soon, sorry for the delay.

Of all the bike maintenance I did last week the road bike needed the most. It got a complete tear down and cleaning, rear wheel free hub body overhaul, the chain and cassette got a dip in de-greaser, new brake pads, new tires, new bar tape, and a rear derailer adjustment.



As I was rebuilding the bike I couldn't help but notice how smooth my bottom bracket bearings and rear wheel bearings were. In human powered sports, it really is all about efficiency and bearings are a huge part of that. The crankset is an old Shimano Dura Ace with a ton of miles on it, I wouldn't be surprised if it has over 5000. The bearings are still smooth as glass, check out the video below.




The rear wheel is a Mavic Cosmic Carbone SL. It's one of Mavic's highest end wheel sets and ridden by a few different teams on the Tour De France. How did I end up with such a nice wheel set you ask? Craigslist! I got them for 1/4 of the retail price - Brand New! They came off a professional triathlete's bike because he was sponsored by different wheel company. He hooked me up with an amazing deal.

Here the wheel is just spinning on the axle along with the cassette, there is no drag from the hub paws. It is a true representation of good bearings. It spun for 2 minutes and 32 seconds off a light pull.




Here it is spinning with the cassette being held by the chain so the hub paws are creating some drag, but it still spun for 1 minute and 28 seconds.

It was all ready for the Triple Bypass, too bad I rode the Superfly!

Super Walker Video Log

As promised yesterday, here is my video log of the Super Walker ride. It's too long, too choppy, very boring, of poor quality and will probably make you vomit. Watch at your own risk. The descent footage (about 2:12 in) is interesting before the nausea sets in. If you've ever wondered what a day in the like of my front fork is like then this video is for you! One last warning, hit the mute button or turn the volume way down...

Boeing 747 Videos

Among other things, to work in the secure area of an airport you have to take a security badge class. It usually involves an hour long computer video course followed by test questions. A couple years ago the administrative assistant who filled out my paper work accidentally signed me up to take an extra class that gave me driving privileges on the ramp areas. I protested to the badging officer that I didn't need those privileges and didn't want to take the extra class. He would hear none of it and made me take the driving class to get my badge. One of the videos in the class was a demonstration of what would happen if you drove behind a jet engine at power. They used an old operations truck at San Francisco International Airport behind an unidentified United Airlines Jet (not a 747) . The video was so cool I purposely got the test question wrong a couple times so I could see the video over and over. I stumbled across it on You Tube today -here it is:



I found my way the above video after watching a Top Gear episode where they do the same thing with a Virgin 747.



Which led me to this video of a steep banking South African Airways 747 at an airshow.



Which led me to this super shortfield 747 takeoff video in Bournemouth Airport, UK.



Which led me to this video of a KLM 747 landing at St. Martins. The beach on St. Martins runway end is known for low flying aircraft!



Which led me to this video of flight deck footage from another KLM landing at St. Martins.



The author / pilot of the above video had a very informative description of how a 747 approach should be flown:

On an approach on instruments a B747 should cross the runway threshold (= the piano keys) with the main wheels at ± 35 ft above threshold. The 747 is so big that at that point the altitude of the cockpit is 35 ft higher, so the cockpit is at ± 70 ft when main wheels cross the threshold.
On a visual approach, as is the case here at St.Maarten, we have to have some more margin. Normally the pilot aims to see the runway threshold disappear under the nose at 80 ft (mind you, the main wheels are at that moment still NOT above the threshold) to have sufficient main wheel clearance.
If you look at the video and notice the altitude callouts, you see the threshold disappear under the nose at the call 50, so actually I am a bit too low in stead of too high. (Actually I am only too low for a visual approach. If you look at my landing at JFK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4YoXy... you will see that I cross the threshold also at 50 ft, which is normal on an instrument approach. Note: the automatic altitude callouts you hear on this video are Radio Altimeter altitudes. The Radio Alt is zero when the gear is on the ground with struts extended.)
Now, there are quite some viewers who think we landed too far on the runway. What follows from earlier explanation is this:
We approach a runway at a three degrees approach angle. If main wheels cross the threshold at the correct altitude, the main wheels will hit the runway at approx 900ft (300m) behind the threshold, that is, if you don't flare the airplane. If you look again at the video and wait till you hear 50,40,30,20,10 and see the solid white markers, they are at 900ft behind the threshold and the plane touches down right behind them, because I did flare the airplane. (Passengers seem to hate hard landings!!)
THIS IS THE NORMAL TOUCHDOWN POINT FOR A B747.
The FCTM(=Flight Crew Training Manual) from Boeing says: flare distance is approx 300 to 600mtr (=900 to 1800ft) beyond the threshold.

The final video is a bone-chilling aborted takeoff gone wrong. I know no details of this accident other than it was a cargo plane not a passenger plane.

The Ariel Atom

I have a new next car. It's the Ariel Atom. This Top Gear Clip and Jeremy Clarkson's wind blown face (about 3:00 min in) says it all.

Tormenting Molly

The holidays were good on the Lee-Side this year. Jo and I traveled the country East and West and she got to meet some of the many elements of my family. Throughout the season good times and high calorie meals were plentiful, wonderful gifts were given and received. The old adage holds true - It's the thought that counts! Andrew unknowingly picked the Buttmaster at Chinese Christmas and promptly gave it to me for the fleece blanket I had picked.

The best thing about the Buttmaster is the way Susanne Summers, looking back at us in her 1980's era one-piece leotard, just made people smile. I eventually traded out of the Buttmaster and lost a heated dispute for a wobble clock. I left Chinese Christmas with a stealthy beeping device called an annoy-a-tron that I have been waiting for the right moment to put into action! Back in Colorado I got The Office sitcom on DVD and Air Hog miniature RC helicopters that shoot lasers at each other, they compliment each other perfectly. I've spent hours neglecting my chores, responsibilities, and training for the 2008 mountain bike racing season by watching episodes of The Office and having helicopter battles between them. The cold weather hasn't helped my motivation, but alas, I'm almost through season 3. The Office is a hilarious, yet painful comedy, I liken it to the new Seinfeld. If you've seen the series you know who Dwight is. We all know a Dwight Schrute, although I seem to know a disproportional amount of them from Maryland. Ha!

By far the most hilarious thing about my sedentary lifestyle lately is when Jo and I torment Molly with the RC helicopters. Molly has always neurotically chased laser pointers, which is not healthy in my opinion. The helicopters are different. She goes after them with the same enthusiasm she goes after prairie dogs and bunny rabbits with, excited but not neurotic. It is hilarious!

M Coupe Street Racing Video

I'm working on a few good posts to kick off the new year, but they aren't quite finished yet. In the mean time here's a video I found on youtube of an M Coupe racing through the streets of Sweden. Although I don't condone reckless driving on public roads it is a good opportunity to see the M Coupe attributes. The driver is very good and takes full advantage of the M Coupe's tendency to oversteer in relation to throttle lift. There are quite a few times when he intentionally gets sideways.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from me, Mark Jenson, and Will Ferrell.

Bob Wills on YouTube

This was on the Oz Report today and I had to post it for the benefit on my non-hang gliding blog readers. Bob Wills and his brother Chris started Wills Wing, the largest manufacturer of hang gliders in the country. Both were pioneers in the sport, here's a video of Bob jumping a motorcycle with a small hang glider mounted above him to extend his jump to 300 feet.

The White Rim - Past Trips

I'm still editing some of the 300 pictures Donnie and I took from the 2007 White Rim trip so I thought I might keep the blog going by resurrecting past White Rim adventures. Last year's trip with Jo was just hang gliding due to my knee injury and can be seen in my 29 pictures in 29 days posts in my blog archives from November and December 2006. Here's the story of the 2005 trip which was the first of a tradition of late year biking and hang gliding Moab trips.

Back in 2005 Ramine and I were invited to ride the 103 mile White Rim Trail in one day with some "old balls" mountaineers including Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer, main character Neal Beidleman, and crew. It turned out the day they picked to ride was one of the coldest days of the year and they all bailed! I guess all those cold high altitude nights on Mt. Everest had thinned their blood, so it would just be Ramine and I for the ride.

Ramine, Donnie, Dave, and I left Boulder Friday and picked up a French climber named Niko under a bouldering rock in Big Bend. After the ride, we planned to meet up with Jeff (OB) and Adam (Batman) from the Salt Lake area. Saturday, Ramine and I froze our asses off riding the White Rim trail while Donnie, Dave, and Niko climbed Fisher Tower. They managed to get a rope stuck on the way down the last pitch. Meanwhile, after about 9 hours and 90 miles of riding on the coldest day of the year I suffered one of the most colossal bonks (= dearth of energy) of my cycling career. It was cold, I was out of food and everything hurt. Luckily, I happened to run into Jeff and Adam on Mineral Bottom Road. Adam came to the rescue with some homemade Chocolate Cake - Priceless!!

The next day Jeff, Adam, and I truck towed hang gliders and filmed the last segment of the Horse Thief Canyon movie which featured aerial footage of my solo launch off the 1000' foot cliff. After spectacular sunset flights we had the last of the cake and parted ways East and West.

Niko and Dave had gone back to Fisher Tower to rescue the rope. I mentioned that I could go home that way if they wanted to hang out a climb some more after Ramine and Donnie left, but we never finalized details or a time. After a successful rope rescue mission they climbed for a little while and then spent 8 hours standing on the side of Rt. 128 waiting for me. Can you imagine the uncertainty, anguish, and turmoil of waiting 8 hours on the side of a 2 lane road in the middle of the desert wondering if your pseudo ride is ever going to come or worse yet already came. If that wasn't enough, about 4 of those hours were in engulfed in the ink black blanked of the desert night. When I finally came over the hill to Fisher Tower Road at 10:00pm I saw two people in the middle of the road frantically trying to flag me down. They were delirious and emaciated. Niko's joy filled melody of broken English was hilarious. Dave told me it got so cold they took turns sprinting in the dark to fend off hypothermia. It was an epic end to an epic trip.

Some Spike Jonze Music Videos

When I lived with "MaryJames" (my favorite nickname for them), James used to pass down good Netflix movies to me. When I was recovering from my knee surgery last winter he gave me a DVD of director Spike Jonze's work including some music videos. It was awesome. Shawn reminded me of one last week, so I decided to post some of my favorites via YouTube.


Fatboy Slim, "Weapon of Choice" featuring Christopher Walken, one of the best music videos of all time. A little known fact - Christopher Walken was trained as a dancer before he became an actor, most of the moves in the video are his own.





Beastie Boys, "Sabotage", another all time favorite. There are a lot of cop show themes in the video, but Steve Mcqueen in Bullet stands out the most to me. Also, if you've seen my movie, a great soundtrack to crash hang gliders to!





FatLip, "What's up Fat Lip?" This is hilarious!! Not for kids though due to strong language.





Fatboy Slim, "Praise You". This is another hilarious music video that stands out because it is so different from the norm. The main character is Spike Jonze pretending to be the leader of the Torrance Dance group. I could see myself doing this! The looks on people's faces waiting in line to go into the movie are hysterical.

Giant Padded Sumo Suits

What could be more fun than giant padded Sumo Suits?

Jodi and Neal decided to include a pair along with a padded ring at their wedding reception in Monterrey. As I ate and mingled my way through the evening, I was eyeing the sumo suits, waiting for the right moment to give them a go. When that moment came hilarity ensued.

My first opponent was Darin. He beat me with surgical precision in a 2 to 3 bout in less than five minutes. His technique was perfect. He said it was the first time he had ever donned a giant padded sumo suit, but I have my suspicions. After Darin, I tried to find an easy opponent to redeem myself with a victory. Anthony, who came all the way from Australia, was jet lagged and moderately intoxicated, a sure win I thought - Not so! He proceeded kick my ass, 2 out of 3 again. Here are two videos Darin took with his cell phone. Sorry for the poor quality, but they are hilarious.

Allow me to narrate. In the video above, notice how Anthony dodged my attack perfectly with a 180 degree roll and then followed with a full body slam including another 180 degree roll. Well done sir, well done... In the next video I tried changing my technique to short burst attacks. Anthony skillfully rebuked my attacks as he insidiously drew me to the edge of the ring for the take down. The video doesn't show it but he followed with another lung crushing body slam.

Also, notice the heroic father snatching his daughter out of harm's way at the last minute in the lower right hand side of the screen. She would have faced certain death, being crushed by my giant-padded-sumo-suit-laden body hurdling towards her.

I learned a lot from my giant padded sumo suit experience. Overconfidence and arrogance were my down fall, yet another disturbing parallel to the Bush Administration (see this post). I underestimated my skilled and intoxicated opponents and was humiliated as a result. I've been running hourly searches of Craigslist all over the country in hopes of finding a cheap pair. If I find a pair, I'll buy them and practice for hours everyday in hopes of one day redeeming my honor...

Oh and by the way, CONGRATULATIONS Jodi and Neal! I wish you the best in your future together.

Warbird Lands on Highway

I was flying into Chicago yesterday when I heard about this over the radio. What looks like a T6 Texan, a World War II era trainer, had engine problems on the way to the EAA Airventure airshow and landed on highway 41 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A state trooper caught it on his dash mounted camera.

Santa Cruz Flats Comp

Jeff Obrien has been kicking ass in the Hang Gliding Competition scene the past 2 years. His most recent comp was the Santa Cruz Flats Comp in Casa Grande, AZ. You can read all about Jeff's exploits at the comp on his blog here. Konrad Hellman posted an awesome video on the Oz Report today that I think captured the hang gliding comp scene accurately. For the non-hang gliding readers of my blog here is the YouTube version.

Flying Dogs

I start my 3rd week of training tomorrow with a very important test. My training so far has been hectic, but I've started to adapt to being in a classroom setting again. The occasional short mountain bike ride after class has been huge in keeipng my sanity. I managed about 20 hours in Colorado this weekend with Jo and feel like my batteries have been recharged. Lee sent me this video of a paragliding dog which I felt was Blog-worthy.

Tumble

Looping my hang glider is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've been told by both previous owners that to loop my Fusion 150 I just need to get as vertical as possible, hold it for 7 seconds, and simply ease the bar out into the loop. It's critical to make sure to maintain positive bar pressure through the loop. But then I think about how one of those owners balled up a brand new comp glider and see videos like this one Lee sent me and I'm content to stick to wing overs.



It looks like the pilot went negative on the top side of the loop and fell into the keel causing it to rip through the upper surface of the glider. It's hard to be certain though with grainy YouTube video.

Expressing myself through Family Guy

"Stop acting like the first dog in your pictures. Where are some more pictures or posts?"

Posted by "Anonymous"

Sorry Anonymous for my recent dirth of posts. Blogger.com forced me to open a Google account to be able to use it, which angered me to no end. I rebelled against Google by not posting any new Blog entries, but realized that this only hurts you and I. So I let it go, and I'm back to posting again.

I've spent the past couple weeks allowing my knee to heal from surgery and counting the days until I drive my new car back from Maryland. I would write more, but I thought these Family Guy clips would better express the past 2 weeks!

Knee Pain

New Car



Sadly, my new car even looks like Peter's...

Russian SL-4 Rocket

It happened as I was driving home from Jo's house in the pre-dawn hours Thursday morning. I was planning on taking the morning to nurse my newly acquired cold. My morning drowsiness didn't stop me from noticing how pretty the huge full moon was as it set behind the snow covered Flat Irons. Molly seemed to notice too and was resting her head on the seatback. Just as I turned out of Jo's neighborhood I noticed a firework off to the right. Logically it couldn't be a firework, who would be shooting fireworks at this hour? It was moving too slow to be a shooting star, I could only guess it was some type of meteorite in the lower atmosphere. It took almost 30 seconds to move across my view of the front range and stood out brightly against the backdrop of a full moon and snow lit mountains. I could easily see it breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces. It reminded me of footage of the space shuttle Columbia as it broke apart on re-entry in 2003. As I got home my cold overcame the excitement of the moment and I was asleep within 10 minutes. When I woke up I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that it wasn't a meteorite, it was moving too slowly. In the news clip below a Fox News meteorologist reports it was a meteorite, but it later was reported as a Russian SL-4 Rocket body re-entering the atmosphere.



The Russian rocket had carried a French astronomy satellite into space on December 27, 2006. NORAD also picked up the debris and scrambled fighters. A large piece of the rocket was found near Highway 28 in Riverton, WY. The piece that I saw continued as far south as Kirtland, NM. For the news story click Here.

Jet-man

I saw this first on the OZ Report and then Daryl forwarded me a link to the Jet-man's website. Yves Rossy, a Swiss aviation rockstar, is the Jet-man. He has experience in hang gliders, paragliders, skydiving, aerobatics, Swiss military fighter aircraft, and is a 747 captain for Swiss Air.



To become the Jet-man Yves straps a small wing to his back that has 4 small jet engines designed to power remote control airplanes. The wing gives the Jet-man an endurance of 5 minutes, climb rate of 1000 feet per minute, and cruising speed of 100 knots. A second generation wing is the works that will allow take-offs, aerobatics, and longer endurance.



Here's a video of one of the Jet-man's flights I found on You-Tube.



To learn more about the Jet-man click Here