SAFA Skysailor Magazine

40 SKY SAILOR March | April 2022 The New Year has started off pretty well on the flying front for yours truly. A few after-work sessions at Winton early on and a couple of nice days at the Neck have seen the year’s required hours reached quite quickly from a handful of flights. My favourite site for after-work activities cops the sea- breeze pretty hard, so it’s a case of watch the observations and wait down the bottom for the blast wave to die down to sensible levels. Of course, the HG folk are able to exploit the breeze, provided it’s not a BBSD (Big Blue-Sky Day) – we all sit watching it blow until 10pm then. We usually end up getting regular 90- minute flights before the gazetted sunset time. Eaglehawk Neck is another matter entirely. The winds are so difficult to predict there, and I have the reputation of being a known jinx. Best forecast direction is N of E and >8kt. There is a shallow bowl to the right of the lower launch which works really well when the wind is direct-on. If the prevailing wind is more north, it tends to enter Pirates Bay, curl around the topography inside and present as SE, which just does not work well for us on floppies/jellies. Don’t bother with a forecast south of east in my books. There are a couple of patches of lift in the bowl under those con- ditions, but they are small, and the airspace is then restricted to two to three pilots at a time. With good conditions you can cross the road and climb the hill to the upper launch. Just be wary of the wedgie up top! Now, to this issue’s offerings, and we’ll lead off with one from me. AIRS #1563 – Hit by rotor off launch I had set up on launch at Kempton, observed conditions and launched into the start of a cycle. As my feet left the ground, I was sucked into the seated position of the harness. The wing lost lift, I touched down, continued to run and launched again, and was again sucked into the seated position by the harness on take off. The wing again lost lift, but this time when my feet touched down, I was pitched forward. With the wing still flying I found myself skimming the ground and knees brushed through vegetation before getting sharp lift and flying clear of terrain. I landed without further incident and decided that was enough for the day. Our AIRS Manager, Luke Denniss, concluded harness adjustment played a part; pilots should be in control of when they transition from take off position to a seated flying position. I fly a Supair Delight 3 and I cannot find leg strap adjustment points; neither can the importer. The problem of being sucked back into the harness once the legs leave the ground can be an issue with harnesses that use a T-bar – combined leg and chest straps. I had the same issue with my Gin Genie 4, but not with my Genie 3 (from memory). The logical adjustment would be to lengthen the leg straps to increase the included angle between the back and seat pan, but this appears impossible on the D3. Another issue is my reduced ankle flexibility from previous (mid-2000s) bingles, and I cannot easily lean forward through my joints. Amplifying that are the Crispi boots I wear. This is really a situation where retraining muscle memory is required to find a technique and body attitude to allow a true hang position to be maintained until ready to move to seated. AIRS Safety Wrap-up – February 2021 by Iain Clarke – SAFA Safety Management Officer