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.: The Finsterwalder Snap-Lock System

Finsterwalder gliders consist of 7 related construction groups which can be easily fitted together without teh use of tools, thanks to the self-securing connections. Insertion connections are color-coded. Incorrect rigging is technically impossible. The Snap-Lock System has proven itself over the last 15 years in over 1000 gliders and has been continously developed and improved. Protruding parts that would otherwise have to be padded, have been eliminated from the construction. Construction groups: 1.) Nose plate with front leading edge tubes, front keel tube, A-frame and lower rigging wires 2.) Rear keel tube 3.) Middle leading edge tubes and outer cross bar tubes 4.) Middle cross bar 5.) Rear leading edge tubes and wash-out-rods 6.) King-post, pilot hang-in strap and upper rigging wires 7.) Sail and sail battens Nose plate The curved nose plate made from flexible perunal makes the Fexes damage resistant. The sail is attached to the middle underside of the plate by means of a special bracket. As the nose plate is relatively wide, the leading edges of the sail are powerfully tightened when the wings are spread apart. In combination with the mylar inserts this results in a clear taut airfoil. ¬ A special snap fastening wih automatic locking for the lower rigging is integrated on the underside. ¬ Specially produced nuts and bolts are designed to keep sail abrasion to a minimum. A-frame attachment The forged aircraft aluminium of these connection parts is hard and tough. In combination with the joint contruction, a high level of damage resistance has been achieved. This means more safety and keeps repair costs low. The multiple joint makes it possible to fold up the A-frame without having to dismantle it. Control bar corner The control bar corners are also suitably robust. Rigging wire linkage is integrated (aerodynamically advantageous). The uprights can be exchanged without the use of tools and without dismantling the rigging wires. The Aerosafe®/Aerofoil® uprights have a 6° inner tilt so that they are hit head on by the air flow. The uprights (an important replacement part) can be used on the left and right hand sides. The Speedbar can be removed with one handhold by means of a self securing fastening integrated in the control bar corners. Mounting of wheels is thus simplified. The Speedbar is secured by an internal cable. Aerosafe® A-frame uprights The patented uprights with the rubber trailing edge, which were designed by Finsterwalder, are light-weight (520 g/m), aerodynamically excellent and improve glider control when launching. They can be gripped well when wearing gloves, are non-slip and comfortable for the shoulders. Above all however, they greatly reduce the risk of upper arm breakage that occurs regularly with airfoil uprights by crash landings. The AS airfoils are constructed from tough aluminium alloy and allow slightly bent tubes to be straightened. If required, the airfoil uprights can be strengthened by inserting reinforcing tubes. The relatively inexpensive AEROSAFE® and AEROFOIL® substitute uprights are also available for a multitude of gliders from other manufacturers. Adapter pieces for various gliders are also available. Article € Tr22M1 Funfex S, Airfex S 46,00 Tr22M2 Funfex, Perfex, Lightfex 49,00 Tr22M3 Speedfex 55,00 King-post The pilot hang-in strap on the king-post can be swoopped without the use of tools by means of secured rapid lock. Various sizes are available. The king-post hang-in reduces the amount of energy required when turning and eases landing. The aerodynamic king-post airfoil manufactured specially for Finsterwalder is characterised by it's especially low weight of 417 g/m. In the bottom of the king-post a rubber joint has been intgrated which maintains the king-post in an upright position whilst mounting. The king-post can be inserted into the keel tube giving 3 different trim positions. The aerodynamically shaped king-post head plug has been manufactured in such a way that creases or bends in the rigging wires are avoided, and the upper wires can be easily exchanged. Detent button locking for front and side upper rigging By means of the specially developed Snap-Lock System, the rigging wires can be attached to the airframe in a matter of seconds. They are reliably secured to prevent twisting around and inadvertent release. To unhook, a button must be pressed. (Left images below) Detent button locking for rear upper and lower rigging Upper and lower rigging are hooked into the reel and secured by means of a peg. (Right image above) Bayonet fastening for the lower side rigging wires A detent button prevents unlocking and twisting around of the fastening for as long as the rigging wires remain loose. Sail battens The super light-weight sail batten tubes made from perradur have been finished especially for Finsterwalder. They are shaped by a bending process developed by our company. They are characterised by high non-deformability. Corrective bending is not usually necessary. The outer battens are spring-mounted. Some of the battens are separable to allow for packing the glider down to 2 metres. On the left: Flexible intermediate pieces made from fibreglass provide for a better adaption of the airfoil to speed changes and improve steering characteristics. Sail The sail with mylar leading edge reinforcement has been constructed so as to be removable from the airframe without the use of tools in a matter of minutes and hence for the 2 m short pack measurement and for repairs. The sail is folded over the leading edge according to the sketch. The mylar inserts ensure that the airfoil shape is maintained and prevents creases and bends even after years of usage. The top sail is generally made from white Finsterwalder AIRCLOTH Dacron 110 g/m². This is a hangglider sailcloth specially manufactured for Finsterwalder which maintains it's shape thanks to a particularly fine weaving method and not due to impregnating or tempering. Manufacturing this cloth is quite time consuming, but one achieves a sailcloth that is extremely crease resistant, pliable, light-weight and long-lasting. 160g/m² dacron surf and sail cloth is used for optional reasons for the lower sail and leading edge, available in the colors shown on our color sail card. You can piece together your dream sail free of extra charges (delivering time 4-8 weeks) or ask about the sail we have on stock. For the Speedfex we use high-strength and light-weight Dimension Polyant Racing Square quality. The leading edge is made from Polyant Profile Square Mylar material.

Microsoft Suck, Windows Sucks

I'm in a bad mood so I'll waste a few seconds of my time and recycle a few electrons. I made a small hardware change to my XP laptop and sure enough on the next boot it asks me to re-validate windows. When you click yes it crashes and then reboots back to the same spot. As it happens I can boot into linux and fix the windows registry from there so no real problem, but any average computer user would end up with an inaccessible brick. Way to go Microsoft you idiots, please keep making buggy software with overly restrictive licensing conditions, Oh and whilst you are at it why don't you engage in downright evil behavior too, Oh wait you already do. Now that I can still run windows for those times when I can't avoid it on a new Macbook I can't wait for my exisiting laptop to die so I can get one and leave the hell that is Microsoft.

FLPHG Planned Flight in UK

I am planning to fly down to see my sister in Kent and then fly back home again, of course I will wait for a day with favorable winds and weather and at the moment this is my first attempt at navigating around UK airspace so it may change if I have made a mistake somewhere.
There are 2 proposed routes shown on this photo of the current UK airspace map, represented by the colored dots.

I am based near Thurrock in Essex and the LTMA airspace means I need to stay below 2500ft until I leave that airspace and enter LTMA where I need to stay below 3500ft for the remainder of the flight to charing, this would be the outbound leg indicated by the red dots. I estimate it to be around 70kms and so should be easy on one tank of fuel.

The return leg would allow me up to 3500ft until approx along side maidstone when I would have to drop below 2500ft again.

As far as I can tell I would remain clear of MBZs and TAs and restricted airspace with this plan.

My intent would be to use uncommon altitudes by never flying at anything than ends in x500 or 000, so for example 1250ft rather than 1500 and 1750 rather than 2000 and 2250 rather than 2500 etc.

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An Evening Fly

As  with the previous post the Video is from Mirek a fellow FLPG enthusiast and all round nice guy based in Western Australia. Here you see me flying my fun 160 with Aussie Explorer Power Harness and also Shaun flying his Airborne Trike and Matty flying his top loading mossie together with his very rare Peagasus Rigid wing hang glider. This is from Saturday 2 weekends ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJucqQD3WRc

I'm in the UK at the moment and hanging out for a fly ;-)

Last Weekend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iooKXdAuHoA

Up in the clouds....

After some sad news from Switzerland I decided to fly my heart out and burnt 20lt of fuel over the last 2 days.
I got some nice footage and photos too with my new camera.
You can watch a video from yesterday and today here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyZGmwlp2F4

I'm off to Europe for a funeral next week, but may have time for a coastal run first....

Cott Again!

Another great day at Cott, it was off to the south all afternoon, but the morning was great. Shaun and Sunny flew too, Sunny flew my Fun 160 like a champ and found out what all the fuss is about!

I love Cott!

Yesterday it was rough and strong and off to the North. I flew first on the fun and it was hard work in the rough air. Matty bravely flew his Climax and had no problems but had to work even harder. We had a few hours worth of flying in between the squalls but it was still a nice day at Cott. Today when we arrived this morning it was perfect W and 18knots. We flew for hours, all day long, even Rick Williams was there! We packed up in the dark and it was still on. Hopefully my new camera arrives soon and I can start recording again.... The forecast is for another 3 days of westerlies so we will be down at Cott all week!

Wylie & Power

We had an excellent day on Saturday out at Wylie, we had 3 power harnesses up in the air at the same time, me on the fun 160, Matty on his Peagsus and Gary on his Climax. We all did a heap of low level stuff and Mirek got some great footage. The forecast is for 4 days of Westerlies so we are off to Cott!

Camera

Sadly my Canon camera will cost over $350 to fix, so for $250 I bought a new waterproof pentax 7mp that will hopefully last longer. So its RIP the canon that did capture some 4000 shots over the last year before sand killed it.

Wylie Again

Had a great day of Power fun. Cain and Matty were up at the same time and we had a good flight. Cain has engine problems... Matty has his trike passenger carrying now...

Wylie

I am out in Wyalkatchem again, Matty is training new students with the school all week. Assuming the weather improves, we have a Cu Nimb over head at the moment and the forecast is similar for the next few days. I had a great flight on my power harness yesterday and the new legs with wheels work really well, taxi is much easier now.

Awesome day at Shellies

We had a great Shellie's day, light so you had to work but with the potential to get high at the same time. Matty did 7 top landings, i did a few too and had a great day. The day started with a swim in the ocean and we flew all day long.

Shellies

Its cold and wet and windy here at the moment. Almost everyone has gone. We had a good day here a few days ago, but since it has been very windy. The wind is starting to drop now and possibly this afternoon will be flyable here. Failing that tomorrow looks promising at the moment. Its about 18'C here at the moment and too cold for me. My canon camera died the other day, I think it is a few weeks past the warranty, I will find out in perth.

Sandpatch

  This morning the wind was light and Northerly, but it swung around to the West and by 3pm we were all flying Sandpatch. It stayed on all afternoon with everybody packing up at dusk. Matty flew about half a dozen tandems, including one with me! I flew the Climax and had a blast throwing her around and then put her back in the same spot I set up. Matty had a go of my C4 too and was impressed. There were about 10 other pilots around and conditions were an idea 12-14knots SW all afternoon. Hopefully tomorrow morning Shellies will be on and we can have a breakfast fly.

Albany

Matty & I are in Albany since Weds night. The weather has been great for camping and lousy for flying, although it looks about to change and we are about to head off to Sandpatch for a fly. Not many HG are down here and only on PG, I guess the weather is responsible for that.

Mosman Park Today

Awesome day at Mossie

Matty and I flew Mossie again today, I got nearly 1000ft over launch again and Matty top landed in a westerly direction under the trees in behind the bowl. I went tail and landed on my favourite beach down the river past the golf course. Got some nice photos....

Stanwell

Mosman

I had the best fly at Mosman Park today, up for hours to 800ft+ and went tail down the river and landed on a beach around the corner. Matty flew too and top landed.

Wylie

I've spent the last week out at wylie, mostly watching but occasionally helping Shaun and Matty train some new HG students. Matty had his first solo on the trike and yesterday he flew the trike in the morning and then we thermalled in funs at lunchtime and we flew Cott at sunset, good day.
 We were hoping for bakewell today but it is blown out, maybe dougies later this evening..

Back in Perth

I left Newcastle on Friday evening, stopping in Dubbo and sleeping in the car. The next day I got as far as Iron Knob near Whyalla and again slept in the car. The 3rd day got me to a motel in Norseman, and I just arrived in Perth now at 4pm on Monday. It was an easy drive, thanks to my friend caffeine.

Dougies

Matty and I had a great flight at Dougies yesterday. We landed and packed up after the sun set. It was a bit rough at times with the fun feeling like the climax at times in  the rough air. Its great to be back and looking down on Perth again. We should be heading out to Wylie for the state comps tomorrow.

Off to WA

The forecast is not looking good for the coastal sites here in Newcastle. Today in desperation I drove up to North Brother, but conditions were no good there either. If I can't fly I may as well drive, I have allot of driving to get out of the way and I would rather be into it than waiting here. I am loading up the car now and will probably head off in the morning, next stop Victoria, then SA, then WA, hopefully in Perth on Tuesday if all goes well. I am planning to return to Newcastle in about 3 weeks with Matty. We will fly the Bight on the way back over, together with anything else that is on along the way.

Update

At last an update (if it works this time)..

I am back in WA. I attended the WA comps and flew my power harness but the weather and then my health got in the way of any good flying. I've flown dougies with matty on the fun and we just returned from some Bakewell magic. I'd love to fly Cott on the Climax, or Mossie for that matter.

Strezi

I had a great day. Got some new Pirelli boots for the car, its all 100% now. Flew Strezi on the Climax and landed in the park. My first flight in clean air and I loved it. I need to work on my technique, it took me a while to get the hang of keeping her straight with the rope on. It is still hard to turn, but there is a right way and a wrong way and I think I have been flying the fun too much lately and lost all my topless technique. Its coming back fast though. I am 100% confident about landing the climax now and that means I am enjoying every second of the flight. I went for a swim at Redhead after I flew and enjoyed the 25'C water and strong rip.

WA State Comps

I've decided to drive back to WA with just my car and leave the caravan in Newcastle. It is 3 days of driving 15hrs a day and is  similar in cost to an airline ticket, but I can take much more gear. I am planning to stay for the comps and then see if I can talk Matty into coming back to Newcastle for a while with me.

Back to Newcastle

I'm heading back this afternoon. I flew from the East launch today, but bombed. It's a nice hill and a great place to do some XC flying. I have to come back when I have got my act together. Jonny won of course, Bruce took the state title and Alistair took the floater class.  My car is missing on one cylinder, it appears that one of the spark plug leads has burnt through and is letting the spark go to earth, hope it lasts the way home.

No Fly Days

Yesterday we had strong winds in the morning and then it overdeveloped leading to a rest day. Today about half the field launched before it overdeveloped above launch and started raining. Its been raining very heavily around Manilla. The weather forecast has been pretty useless all week as the low is almost centred on us and possibly being fed by the tropical cyclone up north.

I flew the climax again today, I dithered expertly and managed to be one of the last off the hill. Just after a pilot who failed to attach his harness riser to his glider, he survived, just a damaged leg I think.
The glider flew nicely today, it was still Big Air 1600ft+ sustained climbs to 11,800ft and I got thrown around allot, but it was more stable now that I have wound the inner rings all the way down. I got to cloud base and spent an hour just getting to the know the new glider and then landed at Godfrey's again. I am quite happy with the glider now and am starting to feel confident about my ability to handle it again. Tomorrow I am looking forward to actually going down the course line.

Manilla day 2

I flew the climax again. It was not too bad climbing out over launch but was very rough as I broke through the inversions. In rough air I was having trouble controlling the glider. After 30 mins my arms were aching and I landed fine. I am thinking I might try winding the inner sprogs up a turn to see if that calms her down a bit.

Manilla Day 1

I set-up as soon as I got up on the hill today. There were gentle cycles and it was hot with a gentle breeze. As we hit the temp for the thermals to break through the inversion into the 30knot winds at 5000ft things started to get rowdy. Again I found myself not finding the conditions ideal for my first flight, but  I have never packed up my glider and driven down twice on a row, and also everyone else was going.... So after Alby bombed out and came back for a re fly I decided that was my chance, follow the bird. The take-off felt fine, I got into smooth lift and started turning, I was climbing out over launch  and the glider was turning nicely, easy to centre with just a little high siding, then whamo and I start getting really rough air, I was averaging a climb but it was hard work and the side wires were slapping, it was not particularly fun. I got about 1000ft over launch and then saw Alby circling in weak lift downwind, I pulled on the VG and went on glide to him hoping to join his thermal, about half way there he lost it and I changed course to fly back to the bomb out at Godfrey's. I watched Alby land and then set-up to land on the airstrip just downwind from the windsock. The landing was fine the glider has quite strong pitch pressures with the VG off and I needed one hand on the basebar to retain pitch authority in the final stages of rounding out, the stall/flare was gentle and the glider felt tail heavy as it stalled, aiding the flare. Whatever, it was gorgeous to fly and I enjoyed it, I can't wait for a smoother day when I can go further.

Manilla Practice Day

Noone could ever accuse me of being a particularly neat or tidy person, and usually I don't put that much care into the packing up of my gliders. But today when I packed up the climax I did the best job I could, its a beautiful sail and worth looking after. The setting up and packing up went swingingly, since the refurb the climax is like new, all oiled and free, easy to set-up and break apart again. In fact the only problem I had with the packing up was that I was still on the hill. After setting up straight away I had a chance to look at the conditions. There seemed to be a front advancing and the Cu's had lennis over them suggesting  high winds. The wind was crossing the Westerly launch and whilst there was definitely plenty of lift the radio reports were saying it was rough. I was thinking it might not be the best chance to bond with the glider if I am getting my arse kicked. After deliberating for a while I decided to launch but as I was getting my glider I watched a guy with a green under surface get absolutely hammered on take-off and then almost flip upside down and then with the bar to his knees went up like a rocket and gained a few hundred feet as he drifted back over launch. I started packing up the glider. There is a strange psychological thing coming into play in my flying, after fearlessly flying the climax for a couple of years I suddenly lost my confidence in my ability to fly it and need to make friends again.

Manilla

Made it here fine, nice drive and the car survived. Some of the Canungra boys are here. Seems like a nice caravan park and a friendly town. Great food at the pub for dinner. Really looking forward to my first fly on the C4 tomorrow.

Dixon Park

Had a great afternoon at Dixon park. The wind varied between scratchy and honking and slowly swung around to the east as the day wore on. I flew with Harry when it was quite crossed to the east and it was a fun into wind crawl and then a blast on the downwind leg. I'm off to Manilla...

Stanwell

On Weds Shane and I drove down to Stanwell. It took nearly 2.5hrs to get there. On arrival we rigged and took off in mostly overcast conditions. The wind was strong and there was lift everywhere. I flew my fun and wished for the performance of my climax as I watched Johnny and Ky racing from one end of the site to the other and back. I couldn't even keep up with Shane on his sting xc2 who also went everywhere. I got up into cloud and then as the cloud thickened we all landed and packed up. Just as we were leaving the cloud dropped lower and it started to rain. The fly/drive ratio was pretty good at about 1:2 and I'm going back with the Climax the first chance I get. I'm off to see Airborne now to see if my C4 is ready.

Denman

I arrived in Denman on Friday evening. It was calm and would have been nice for a blat with the power harness, not having been run since Gulgong the power harness had other ideas though. In the end I had to strip the carby and clean it all and then set it up from scratch and then it ran like a champ again. I have fitted the new motor I got from Doggy and used a pressure switch from a spa together with an automotive relay to replicate the NRG style "blow in the tube to start" and it works great.
I also don't have  a prop brake setup on the new motor, but don't really need one, you just climb a hundred feet higher and push the bar out to stall the glider and as you plummet with no forward airspeed you hear the blades fold up after a couple of seconds. Saturday was a howling westerly to be replaced by a howling easterly when the seabreeze came in late in the afternoon. On Sunday morning I took the power harness up in a light westerly and it was moderately turbulent but not unpleasant. Scott took off and then as the westerly increased on the ground decided to fly home to Readhead rather than risk landing in the rotor from the hills.

Today (Monday) I flew Merryweather and then got flushed with a bunch of other pilots when it dropped and swung around to the east, again i got some great exercise carrying the glider up the face.

On Weds I'm heading down to Sydney to fly Stanwell as its forecast to be on...

Sydney

Today I drove to Sydney to get my gearbox looked at by the guys that rebuilt it. It turns out the guys in Innisfail used a very thin oil and that overheated and hardened the drive shaft seals, hence the oil leak. The guys at Metro were very professional they obviously live and breathe Subaru and their customer service is polished, if you need any Subaru work done go see them at 1052 Forest Road, Lugano Tel:0295840379

After a fantastic love affair with my climax 2 over the last couple of years  the relationship soured and its been on the rocks for the last month. Today I  made a new friend in the form of a C4, a very special one indeed. I can't wait to take to the skies and see where she takes me...

Back in Newcastle

The drive back was uneventful except for a minor detour to avoid a bush fire on the outskirts of Sydney. Today I caught up on the domestic stuff I managed to ignore for the last few weeks. It could have been on if the wind had been less fickle at Merryweather, for once I made the right decision not to fly as there were allot of surprised pilots on the beach. I'm hanging out for a nice relaxing soar on the coast somewhere... My gearbox is losing oil from the drive shafts, but I have spoken to the place in Sydney that rebuilt it and they say hopefully its a minor warranty  covered adjustment, on Weds I will head down there to get it fixed..

Bogong Over

Sadly events have conspired against the organisers this year, smoke, storms, rain and high winds have all come at once and resulted in only one valid task in 8 days. If you only go to one comp a year you could do much worse than Bogong, the event is the best organised I have been to, heaps of other activities planned and more prizes and sponsors than anywhere else. Mt Beauty is a lovely little HQ filled with interesting and entertaining people and if you were looking for a place to hang out for a week you would be pushed to find a nicer spot. Everyone's heart goes out to Heather and Carol for having put in so much effort to once again put on such a wonderful show and then get cheated by the weather at the last minute. Presentation and dinner/dance is today and in the morning I head back to Newcastle and some better flying conditions hopefully....

Bogong Update

It has been a tough week for those wanting to fly. First the smoke stopped play and now a front is keeping a solid layer of cloud over our heads. Yesterday we saw some magnificent flying during the spot landing contest, some of the legends showed just how amazing their judgement and control was given the switchy light winds and relatively small area surrounded by obstacles. Yesterday was another wait up on Mystic with the spot landing a way to get people into the air for at least a couple of minutes. Today we wait for the rain or a break in the solid cloud cover and hope for a late task from Emu, the briefing starts in 10 mins, so I am off now.

Smoke

The smoke was really thick today, this evening visibility is down to a couple of hundred meters and my eyes are burning from the smoke. I really hope we get a wind change soon so that the local area becomes flyable again.

Bogong Day1

The morning brought alot of smoke. After the morning briefing we headed up to Emu1 where they called an 80km task. At the time it was just about possible to make out the shadow from the mountains on the far side of the valley, but it was always very heavy smoke. The rules say 5kms vis is required and there were mixed opinions when the field started to launch. After about half the field had launched pilots started to radio back with reports of very limited visibility on course and the day was canned. BBQ tonite and hopefully better conditions tomorrow.

Bogong

I flew at Corryong on Thursday, got 3000ft above launch and then only just made the bombout. Got to Mt Beauty this afternoon. It was 36'c on the drive here, quite gusty and with patches of smoke in places. We had a great briefing this evening, the show here is every bit as good as last year. My back is still giving me grief so I am flying the fun and really enjoying it.

Awesome Day

Flew for over 2 hrs on the fun, went everywhere, landed downwind and got away with it, i love my fun. Got to 9.500ft and found insane lift 1200fps+ sustained through thousands of feet. Great fun, got some neat photos, see flikr ...

Corryong Day 1 & 2

Both days were called, day 1 was blowing over the back and day 2 brought thick smoke. The smoke does look like it is starting to clear as the Northerly change sets in so Day 3 is looking promising.....

Corryong

Just arrived safely after struggling over the blue mountains with the caravan. Looking forward to a cold beer and a shower and meeting the other pilots that are starting to trickle in.. Howling Northerlies at the moment.