Do you smell hair burning?

I spent some time last weekend trying to test out my gasifier. It didn't take much work to get it fired up and running but it was not running all that well. I had a major tar issue and not enough vacuum from the furnace inducer motor I tried. After fifteen minutes or so the temperature spiked and the flame went out. I knew it was bridged up but wasn't too sure how to go about breaking it. I turned off the motor and opened the top. With a three foot stick I started to jab at the wood. About the fourth jab she let loose with a mushroom cloud of flame and I had my arm and face right in there.
It's not the the first time I've had things blow up in my face but it has been a long time since the last time. I thought I was getting smarter but I guess it was just luck. "play with fire and you'll get burned" is what my mother would say when I came home with no eye brows/hair. After contemplating what I had done and a little thinking I lit it back up and had a flare for an hour but found I needed to do some more work before I could test it some more.



The flame should be almost invisible during the day, not orange like this. I'm producing too much tar do the fire not being hot enough. I'll need to find a better fan and make a couple modifications before another test. I'll do my best to keep the rest of my hair.

wood gasifier

For the last month I have been building a wood gasifier for my truck. The technology has been around for over a hundred years. With gasoline prices going through the roof, I figured I could build one in my spare time, out of junk and drive for next to free if it all works out. So far it is almost ready for a test fire but I have yet to build the secondary fine filter. Wood gasification was enhanced during the second world war when the fuel embargos/shortages were in Europe. Thousands of vehicles were switched over and the design is generally the same as today. There are very few people running wood in north america.

The process is simple. Control the air to a hot fire, pipe the incomplete combustion gasses to the motor and control the air mixture as it enters. The gasses produced for the purpose of combustion are hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some methane. The power of the motor is cut to 75% or so do to the lower btu content compared to gasoline but the price is right. Its all experimental build your own at this point. My gasifier should be able to burn any biomass with some modifications but the design is for small wood chunks/chips.

If your interested in the design/concept. Google "woodgas" "holzgas" or "gengas" and check it out. There is a large group of experimenters on Yahoo groups they post trials and tribulations of thier work.

You will see more posting of my work on this as the flying season ends.

Towing again

Went out on Sunday and got some more tow practice. Jason was first up and got a great tow but couldn't stay up. I suited up and was soon pointed for the sun. The tow was going well when all of a sudden I went from a 1500 fpm up to a down in the blink of an eye. First time I've gone negative on tow. It was a little unnerving but after flying Golden, a non issue. The thermals were big and slow but between thermals was rough. I hadn't planned on going anywhere and after an hour was bored of fighting the wind and not getting too high. On my way down I did few high wing overs and told Jason I was aiming for the road as a spot. Into ground effect I didn't think I would make it, but soon it was time to flare and the road was right under me. Dead on spot landing in my books. Jason was soon on the line and it was his turn to go cross country. His first one. He did well and I picked him up 15 K down the road.

Home!

I made it home, holidays over, grass is cut and watered, back to work. The willi was a wet one, again (the wet willi is catching on). I didn't get any distance on any of the days of the willi comp. I managed first place in the intermediate king post division though, I was the only contestant in that class! This was only because the week before, I flew a great distance and jumped a class. I told the organizers to keep the prize money, but I wanted the trophy. My first first place in hang gliding but I feel like I stole it. I took a little footage of the two weeks I spent in Golden and will post it as soon as I get around to editing it. Edit, done and posted

When the forecast went to the crapper I went to Creston for some visiting and flying. I finally got to fly down to just about the border on Mount Thompson and got some wonderful views of "home". I would post them but my camera died midpic and I got squat. Trust me though, it was awesome!

July 25

Task was an out and return at 100km. I had no plans to make goal so I launched first and planned to leave as soon as I got up. I scratched along the ridge and the bowl till I hooked into a great thermal near the top. It was smooth lift at 600fpm and gained strength with every turn. At 1200 fpm I was making huge turns and thinking “something’s wrong. This is never this easy.” Then it clued in I was in cloud suck. I was 500’ below the cloud and racing for the edge. I was at 11000 feet and headed for Paglearo. I found little sink and was in a great position. Just as I was happy with my situation I hit a hole in the air. I was slammed back into my harness and my heart raced. A few seconds later it happened again with more force. Now I was having second thoughts about continuing this flight. A few seconds after that I was swung into a wing over ninety degrees. Now I have had enough and headed back to land. I was the first to land. No one else felt the violent air that I dealt with.

July 26

Task was called off do to impending storms. I was all set up and flew down between them. The Willi also starts today so I got my flying and landing points.

nats

July 23

Day called off do to weather

July 24

Task: parsons and back, twice, 123 Km! I was in a good position to take the last start time of four o’clock. Wasn’t too high but this was racing. I flew the course to the first turn point very fast never topping ten thousand feet. I passed a few people along the way and was very impressed. After tagging my turn point(first time ever) I fought my way back upwind. It was a long time to get back. I stayed low but had to stop more often to find lift. After reaching the second turn point (Mt 7) I struggled to tag it as I was too low. My goal was to tag it and land as I was exhausted. But it never happened. I mad it to within 800 m but the cylinder was 400. I flew for 2.5 hours. The toplesses finished in 3.5 hours or so and the only kingpost to finish (Dave) took over 5 hours.

Nats

July 21

Windy in the Lz prompted us to delay pilot meetings a few times and then call one late up on the mountain. It was no better there and the day was called. A few diehards flew and I wanted to get Cal his first thermal flight. We waited till the wind died and soon he was in the air. I quickly got suited up and followed to try and guide him. To my surprise he was thermaling up the spine and higher than launch when I launched. I climbed up over the peak to see him, Tim, Leaf, and Rob all sharing the sky at the top of the mountain. Your first high flight is great but there’s nothing like your first thermaling flight. I flew for an hour and landed early to catch his landing on video. He flew for an hour and a half and was ecstatic when he arrived on the ground.

July 22

The day was forecasted to blow in ugly stuff from the north so we called a task to Invermere. While setting up we could see the dark clouds advancing and were all trying to get off fast but the pilots in the air were not finding any lift. I was all suited up and jockeying for position when I heard over the radio that the LZ was very windy and turbulent. The gust front had arrived and with no lift it was likely to land there. I bagged it and drove down. We got hit by thunder storms soon after.

Nationals start

July 19

Practice day

I broke a few personal bests on Saturday. I flew just about Edgwater, and 2.75 hrs in the air. It was a very rough day but as soon as you were above the peaks the thermals smoothed off and became coherent. I had no problems the entire way. Doug and John made it to Invermere and rob was a few Km farther than me.

July 19

Nats start

It was rough. Didn’t matter where you were in the sky. The task was to Brisco and back. Lots of people bombed out early. I struggled in a gaggle over launch, not getting very high, till I got tired and ventured to the spine. I was rewarded with a good climb and was soon over the mountain with enough height to cross the gap. I was fighting a head wind and knew I would not make the peak, luckily I found a good strong thermal half way through the gap and just when I thought it was good smooth lift I went negative by a foot and was slammed back down. I screamed like a school girl and then looked around to make sure no one heard me. I was alone. Made the next peak easy but nobody was following me. I wasn’t feeling too good from the night before and long flight, so I turned around and headed for the landing field. Flew for an hour and a half. Scott won the day with John just behind. Everyone landed at the LZ either making goal or bombing out.

weekend warrior

I've been getting out every weekend (except 2) since the miles in may. The weekend of the fifth I got Terry, a coworker to come out and tow Jason and I up. He learned quick but it was to no avail for me. I got four tows and could not make any stick. Last weekend was windy but I still managed a short flight to the other side of rattle snake lake. Slow drifting lift was the order of the day. I'm pleased with my flying and practice so far and now I'm getting excited to go to the Nationals next weekend. The Willi is the weekend following so it will be two full weeks of flying. I'll try to post here as much as possible.

Also stay tuned for my next project in the making.... I'm going to convert my truck to run on wood! I'll start on this when I get back hopefully.

finaly linked thermals and went somewhere

The wind was forecasted to be light out of a southerly direction, with great lift to 9000' and a blue sky. Jason and I headed to the north south road and set up. Jason got 3 uneventful tows but couldn't stick. Said it was all sink. I suited up and gave it a try. My first tow I found nothing but heavy sink all the way back to the launch. An 8 minute flight. I loaded back up on the trailer and went for try number two. Right off the truck I was going up like a rocket. I was much to low to try it out so I stayed on. sink most of the rest of the tow till the very end when I stumbled into something good. Pinned off and started turning. I was going up fast. (for the prairies) Averaging 800 fpm till I hit 6500' then it went to 100 up with some down and was rough till 7500' where I was bouncing off the top of the haze. I didn't pack anything with me as I was just checking the air so I boated around the road for a half hour and came down and landed. Jason loaded up and and found little to play in. Soon he was on the ground again. I talked him into another tow. he was planning on packing it in but I stated the obvious, he was all suited up and ready. Soon he was in the air again but this time he pinned off early. He found something and spun it up to 6500'. Played for a half hour and came in to land. I had my wing loaded on the trailer and suited up. This time I was packed and ready to go somewhere. I pinned off into light lift and drifted with it till I was over rattle snake lake. I decided to make retrieve quick and easy and not cross the river. But I didn't expect to have such an easy flight. There was lift everywhere although light. So I headed for Medicine Hat. There airport there has airspace that I'm not supposed to go into. It can get busy on a nice day so I was keeping a look out when I thought I saw something quite close and near my level. Slightly anxious I scanned the sky till I saw it again. It was a Pelican circling in what must have been a thermal right next to mine. I moved over to his thermal and tried to get my camera out. By the time I did I couldn't find him anymore. So I snapped a few shots and moved on.

This is a shot of the campground from around 5000'I was getting to the point I had to either land or cross the river. Jason radioed me and said he was on the road. I let him know where I was and where I would be landing. I got into one more thermal and crossed the river and came back and landed. I'm sure I could have gone a lot farther but as soon as you cross the river you add quite a bit to the retrieve. My flights are posted here

This is a shot of Medicine Hat with the airport in clear view

Fathers Day is a day to do what father want

Jason and I headed out for another day of towing on this fathers day. The forecast all looked good but wind was forcasted to be every direction depending on the model you looked at but light. It very light when we got there so we set up at the east side. We flipped a quarter to see who would go first and I won. I loaded up and was soon towed up. I flew through some light lift but nothing worth releasing for. On the way back to launch I found a good little thermal and took it up. I have no idea how far because I forgot my gps at home. The picture below is of rattle snake lake from I'm guessing 6 to 7000'

I flew around for a while then thought I'd give Jason a chance at the good flying. With the wind so twitchy I wanted a good look at the sock before committing to my approach. I delayed much to long and did a turn much to low and slow. As I picked up speed on final I was not level and too low. This is the picture entering final.

Between worried about that and watching the sock I misjudged the hight I had and grazed the dirt with a wheel at a high rate of speed. This is a picture of impact.

I quickly gained some hight but that had my heart beating. We call it intermediate syndrome when you think you are better than you actually are. I'm right in the middle of it and these little lessons humble me and bring me back to reality.


Jason got a really good thermal flight and had a blast. Took two tows do to the wind switching out of the east and he got a downwind low tow. With his second tow he released at 1000' over in good lift. He made it to just shy of 6000' and was up a half hour or so. Here he is showing the safe approach...



I got a second tow downwind and couldn't make it stick. Landed at teh other end of the road and got another tow into teh wind. I thought I was in a boomer and released. I was low and it was not a boomer. I drifted in 50 up untill I figured I could make it bach to launch. I was short by 100' but a much better landing. All in all a great day.

One thermal wonder

Check out this sky!!

Jason and I went towing today. My plan was to tow him till he was sick of of towing/flying and then I would go cross country. His first tow he pinned off early into a thermal but couldn't hold onto it and groveled around in broken lift till he landed. I set him up and towed again. This tow the line broke. There are a few weak spots in the line do to the loose wrapping we did on the first tows and they are showing up now and again. I fixed the line and loaded him up and towed again. He released and found nothing but sink right to the ground. After loading him up a fourth time I noticed as we staged that he was missing his tip batten. After looking where he landed and along the road we called his day done.

I set up my wing and Jason tore down. Got my wing on the winch, and soon I was flying. I went through a couple small thermals to low to release into and then into some good sink. I was still going up but very slow. Then at 1500 I started to find some real rough air that knocked me around on tow. Then my vario started to sing wildly. Quick glance at my gps and I was going up at 1500 fpm. Time to release. Circled into a great thermal that took me to just over 9000'. I have dumb luck finding great thermals right off tow. But I have yet to find a second thermal. With Jason below on retrieve I went east. The sky looked awesome. I've never flown in such easy looking conditions. I was going to break my record xc easy. On glide I was hitting 800 feet down at times. I knew there would be a thermal in that somewhere...But I never found it. Landed 20 kilometers from where I released. I was a little disappointed but happy to have flown. Posted the flight HERE

Made the paper

Here's an article the local newspaper did on James and I. Click to read it. They got some facts wrong, I made it 30K, not 30K from goal. I think James made it 30K from goal though. Too bad about his GPS. Mabey they just mixed up the people. Oh well, it wasn't focusing on the accident. They said they wanted to do a shoot next time we go out flying. A little positive exposure would do some good.

Miles in May

Another Miles in May competition has come and gone. And I didn't take one picture. The weather was less than perfect the entire week, and finally with the long range looking bad and pouring rain today with a driving north wind we called it done. I was the weather guy and had to drive around town looking for open access to the net from unsuspecting homeowners. The Vulcan country club (used to have free access for us) is growing not to fond of our business I guess.


Practice Day
Rounded up my winch mates and got everyones stuff sorted out and got to test out the winch. Soon as I got to the tow road I noticed a liquid dripping under my winch. A rock had been kicked up by the trailer and poked a hole on the brake line. Off to town I went to get parts to fix it. the driver towed the rope in and never shut it off soon enough and broke the swivel from the push rod to the pressure needle. After a few head scratches and parts scrambling we fixed that too. I got a tow late in the day when the wind had switched to a light downwind and on our short road I got a tow to only 800'. I found nothing and didn't quite make it back to the launch. not a very good day but we got everyone ready for the comp.

Day one
Task: Vulcan to Vauxall, 100K or so. Driver showed up and I spent the day teaching him to tow. I knew I wasn't going to get off too early. While loading a pilot on the winch I heard screams and yells and looked up to see everyone running my way. Then I heard an awful sound of a glider hitting the ground. I knew what happened and I turned to see a glider folded up on the field. He had locked out on tow. I quickly unloaded the glider and drove up to deliver a first aid kit and help. The pilot was in very bad shape. Very quickly the fire trucks arrived and I retreated. Soon after that the ambulance came to take him away. I found out later that his injuries were extensive but nothing life threatening. He suffered two broken tibia, three fractured vertebra 10 broken ribs with a punctured lung, and a broken shoulder. A few of the guys bagged their wings soon after due to the bad ju ju and nerves.

I launched soon after and got a tow to 2000' I tracked back along the road for only a few hundred hards when I found a light thermal. It soon turned on to 600 fpm and I was soon at cloud base. I went on glide towards the goal and found very little to turn in all the way to the ground. I called my driver and packed up my wing. When I looked up I saw another glider on the ground a kilometer away. After a long hike I found it was Ralph. I felt goon knowing he only made it 1k more than me. Ross made goal. Most others were spread out along the course line.

Day two
Task: Vulcan to Bassano. The weather was crappy but there was forecast to be lift and south wind. I got the first tow but found no lift to speak of. Got a few wing overs and landed. After launching everyone else the cloud cover became overcast and I packed it in. Ross made it just short of goal.

Day three
Task: Vulcan to Bassano, again. Again the day was only forcast to open up for a small window of opportunity. Just when it was my turn to go, my driver radioed there was a problem. The line was missing. After an hour of searching we found it. An hour later it was back on the winch and raining. packed up and left.

Rain and gale force wind was the greeting for the morning of day four. The meet was over. the next four days looked the same. Turned out I got fourth place in the king posted class and seventh place overall. Pretty good for a not very good flight on one day. but lots of other didn't even get that. I was soooo looking forward to this comp but mother nature wasn't going to cooperate. Better luck next year.

Windy

Went out hang waiting today. We sat around watching the wind pick up all afternoon. I wasn't too worried about launch because there were lulls in the wind that were safe to launch in. It was the landing I was concerned with. It would lull down to 15 km for a minute then gust as high as 40 at times. After pondering it for a couple hours I made the realization that if I was at the ridge I would not hesitate to fly. And we land in top side rotor there. I set up and James followed. Jason played it safe and left his bagged. Launch and tow up was a non issue. Actually relatively smooth. At the end of the road I pinned off at 5000' and was soon turning in lift. It was a hurricane at altitude and 10 turns later I was at 6000 and right over launch. I was making it into the headwind but at 5km/h. I looked downwind and figured I could make the river easy from the height I had. But I chickened out and stayed put. Retrieve from that side of the river is a 45 minute drive and I didn't want to put anyone out. I watched James launch and tow past me. The drift was amazing and at 1000' over the ground I committed to landing. I took on a ton of speed and still was just barely moving in ground speed. A little rough from 50 feet to ground effect. Got the bar on the ground and waited out the gust till I could move. Like I figured it wasn't teh issue that I made it out to be in my head. I wasn't fond of the broken lift and major drift and gave up on towing again. It just wasn't that fun. James did the same. We packed up and went home. Lesson learned.

Airtime at last

Jason ready to go

With most of the bugs worked out of the winch it was now time to get some practice flying. Jason and I headed out to the local tow road expecting a great day of flying. I checked various weather reports and for the most part the wind was to be westerly but light. We set up on the east end of the road expecting some westerly wind but it never showed. It was light east until later when it turned north. The good thing about payout winching is the light wind makes no difference. I towed Jason up in a light down wind. He didn't do to well the day was still early. Not thinking he went and landed at the same end of the road where I towed him up again, downwind. Again he landed but this time on the west end of the road where I relit him again. A little over half way through the tow the line broke. I found my new pulley had overheated do to my slopy machine work causing it to rub. I had another pulley that was much truer that we put on for my turn.

Me getting ready, Notice the color coordination.

My first tow was down wind and so I did not get very high. The tow felt great, I'm still impressed. I passed through a good thermal but I was low and decided to hold out for better. There was nothing but 700 fpm down at the other end of the road and I was soon on the ground. I got back on at the other end of the road and went for tow number two. About half way up I went from 700 fpm to 1400 and decided to pin off. It wasn't a great thermal but I was going up. I climbed a slow climb till the clouds shut out my sun and soon after, my elevator. I headed for a sunny spot and was rewarded with a rodeo ride up. At 5000' it smoothed out to an even 300 up and I held onto it till 6600' I was 1000' below the clouds but getting a ways from home and I didn't want to head cross country. I boated around looking for more but the 700 fpm down finally got the better of me and I landed after an hour of airtime.

This is a neat picture Jason took while I was high, click for a bigger one

On final approach and fast

Here is my solution to the bronze bushing issue. I like the pulley so much that I wanted to use the same pulley, that and the winch was already made to fit it. The pulley is found in most stores. I picked this one up at Peavy mart but I've seen them in Princess Auto and the first one I got from the local welding shop. I did a little internet research and found a bearing used for roller blades and skate boards that's a fad of some sort. They are very small and tough. 608 is the number, 16 mm OD 8mm ID and 5mm wide. Tough to find unless you go to a sport/skate shop. I found them at Sport Check for $3 a piece. I bored out the center to 5/8" (close enough to 16 mm) and pressed in 3 bearings with a vice. This should make this little problem go away and make room for the next one. We had a blizzard last week so towing will have to wait for better weather. In a week it's looking better.

Yard maintenance

When I moved into this house 2 years ago the massive poplar tree in the back yard made me shudder. I could just imagine the boat load of leaves in the fall. That turned out to be not much of an issue as the wind here on the prairies blows the leaves in the neighbors yards. But in the spring the little brown sticky bud covers all fall off and litter the ground in a tar mat that ends up in the house. It had to go, and this year it was going. After my eyes settled back in my head from the quotes to remove it I selected a contractor and had it removed. I'm no stranger to tree removal but one of the three trunks leaned over the house which would have involved a crane. Counting up the hours of crane work and loads to the dump and time it was actually cheaper to hire someone.
The contractor was mad he under bid this job. It took 4 hours to get the tree down and just about 8 hours to grind the stump. It was a massive stump with roots all over the yard. My yard just grew exponentially.

Ok not that great

I under engineered something. Not the first time and definitely not the last. I heard on some list or something that bronze bushings wear out in the dusty hight stress payout winch environment. But a cheap pulley that lent itself to my application was sitting on the local welding shops' shelf. So I figured I'd get two for when the bushing failed, I could then just replace it when it got loose. Don't be sucked into this mentality. They "wear out" with a catastrophic failure! Wednesday, Jason and I went out after work for some flying. I was doing a whip tow which involves paying out the line as fast as you can comfortably drive and when you run out of line you slow the truck and up the pressure till the line quits paying out and switch to a static tow. Unbeknown to me, the bushing had disintegrated and was wearing on the bolt holding it. The pulley heated to very hot state and upon stopping the drum, melted the line, causing 5000' of spectra to be dragged across hells half acre. End of the towing that day. These little things are the things that drive me nuts but as soon as they are all taken care of, it should be bullet proof.

works great

I found a sale on beach umbrellas at a local furniture store and picked one up for 10 bucks. I spent two evenings at the sewing machine and made it into a drogue chute. Today Jason and I tied it onto the line and rolled out 500' and tested it out. It wound the spool uber tight. We then pulled just about all the line off and wound it tight. Jason was first up and had a premature release right off the truck. We figured the chute bridle wound up on the link knife and cut him off early. Extended the chute bridle and tried again. This time the tow went awesome. The line tension gage was dead steady and easy to change. No guessing the tow tension. I hit the end of the road and he pinned off into a thermal and got his first good payout tow and fist good thermaling flight all at once. He stayed up for a half hour and came down to tow me up. We loaded up my wing and up I went. This has to be one of the smoothest tow rigs I've ever been on. About half way into my tow I got into a great thermal and intended to tow through it but as I corrected from a right wing up I felt the tug on my left wrist and like that I was auto released. I stayed in that thermal and topped it out and returned to the ground for another go. I added a little length to my release pull string and went again. This tow was too slow a driver and I was straight over the truck for the duration and not climbing too much. After wondering if I would make it back to launch I released and headed for it. Caught a small ratty thermal on the way to get enough hight to make it there and landed.

I am very impressed with the quality of tow this winch provides. There is no guessing what's going on on the line and rewind is quick. This will lead to quick turn around and easy to operate.

I snapped a few pictures.

The rig all ready to go

Jason landing

Testing one two....

Rounded up the guys and went and tested out the winch Friday. A few problems sprang up right away. Teflon makes a crappy line guide. It ate into the side of it and when it hit metal it started to chew up the side clamping the line in the guide. That led to over pressure and the pressure gage needle spun right around so I couldn't see it anymore. James didn't feel any of the problems and got the first tow to 2000' . I ran out of road but not line. Jason was set to arrive when he got off work so I called him and asked him to make up a new line guide when he came out. We waited for him to arrive, the wind shifted 180 degrees so we packed up and moved to the other end of the road. We set up his wing and put the new line guide on and tossed him on the winch. When James towed up it was slightly down wind which caused the line to be wrapped somewhat loose. When Jason hit 400' I heard a tell tale snap. I assumed it was a week link but I didn't see the pressure climb so I was somewhat puzzled. when I went to rewind the line there was none. The line had broken. My best guess is it got bound under a loop of loose line and rubbed itself through. I had to now try and find the broken end that was buried in the spool. It actually wasn't that hard to find. Today I found the end and spliced the line and got it all wrapped back on. I picked up a roller fair lead and mounted that instead of the teflon one. The other problem I need to address is I need more drag on rewind to get the line to wrap tighter. I'm thinking another round drogue chute attached to the parafoil should do it.

truck view

Here's the view you would see from the truck. Should easily see the gage, spinning reel, and how much line is left. The gage will get a painting after testing.

Finished!

Spent the day redoing the line tension system. I put it all together and hooked the trailer up to the truck to drag it home and found out that the gage I had made was too high to see out the rear view mirror. Slight over sight. Here are some pictures finally.
Here's the brake disc mounted to a sprocket and painted

This is the heart of the line tension system. It pivots on the right. A rod extends up to the gage on the back side of the pulley. The springs try and hold it down. The cable is there for a positive stop if a spring breaks.
The disc and caliper mounted on the winch.

Here's the motor, belted from a centrifugal clutch to a 10" pulley on a jack shaft. then from a 4" pulley up to a 16" on the reel.

Here's a shot from the back showing the teflon fair lead.

Painted

Tore the winch all down yesterday, and painted it. When the paint was (mostly) dry I put it all back together, and put the line on. Had a friend hold the spool of spectra while I ran the motor. I got cocky and wound the motor up, which spun the spool very fast. When I let off on the motor the spool didn't slow down, over spun itself and turned into a rats nest. Word of caution here, don't do this! It takes hours of unneeded untangling, causing you to drink excessive amounts of beer and have a serious case of drag ass in the morning. When I get around to it I'll mount it on the trailer and take lots of pictures and post them here. That, calibrating the line tension, and hooking up the brake is all I have left to do before testing it out. It looks awesome.

Line Tension

Well I forgot the camera, but I did get the springs and line tension linkage done. It's going to be a foot round mechanically driven gage that you should be able to easily see from the rear view of the truck. It runs off the first pulley and has some push rods and linkages all running a giant line tension gage. The idea is to always know what the pilot is feeling at the end of the line.

I didn't get to the motor mounting yet but that is on the agenda for today. I'm running a small gas motor(2.5 hp) with a centrifugal clutch, belt driven to a 10' pulley on a jack shaft. On the shaft is a 4" pulley belt driven to the reel with a 16" pulley. This should keep the reel from spinning too fast and still have the motor wound up to fully engage the clutch, to combat over heating the clutch.

more work on the winch

spent allot of time on the winch today. started the day off with adding all the supports to the stand. After that I did the mock up to start on the brake caliper. It has to be dead on. I built the caliper support out of 1/2 inch plate and threaded the holes to hold the caliper. The plate is welded to the support arm. I'm very impressed with myself how straight and true everything is. The "wobble" in the reel when spinning is under 2 mm and in the brake it's under 1 mm. I have the pulleys just about mounted where they need to go and put on the line guide. I'm using a piece of teflon for the line guide but I'm guessing it won't last long. I'll likely go to rollers soon. The reel has been radiused to get rid of the sharp edges. I'm going to work on it tomorrow and will try and remember a camera. I had planned to take step by step pictures but it never worked out that way. My project for tomorrow is to get the motor and jack shaft mounted and belts on it.

I received my spectra yesterday. I was very impressed by the light weight of it. It was packaged very well and I tried out the fids already too. I would gladly send any one to Towmeup. they are first class.

hubs

I welded the hubs that attach the hubs to the drum today, and got one bolted to the drum. I have to pick up a keyed shaft to bolt the other side on so I can line up the key ways straight. The "hubs" are a weld together chain gear and weld in hub that I drilled 4 holes in. The price is right compared to getting one spun on a lathe. I also picked up the brake rotor. On my original winch I went with the same rotor and caliper that I had on my truck (91 chev) just for the heck of it. I've heard of people having heating problems so I figured bigger wouldn't hurt. Because that winch was a wide drum with small diameter it took very little pressure to work. Now with going to a larger diameter the bigger brake will need more pressure to brake the same. I still will have more than enough brake. It worked well on the old winch so I'll give it a go on this one. Everything is going better than expected. I don't have much time to work on it but I squeeze a few minutes every day.

Drilled aluminum

Did a little more work on the winch today. Drilled out the 24 holes in the drum sides. Welded the stand tube to the base and started to guess work on the line sensing pulley. I found a spring that expands to 8" from 4" at 50 lbs. I'll mount it to the arm the pulley is on so at 200 lbs line tension the spring will be extended just about fully. There's a little guess work involved because I have an idea of what I want in the end, and a bunch of steel and a welder laying on the floor waiting to be assembled. The stand tube is 2.5" heavy wall square tubbing and 5'6" tall. At the top will be the nose release. I would like to use a fixed release point and make all gliders that want to use my winch set a nose rope length suitable to their preferred angle of attack, But it makes set up a time consuming process. I'll likely just use the standard three string with a rope pull, it's easy.

winch

Living on the prairie, hangglider's need to tow to get into the air. There are many different forms of towing but I prefer the payout winch. I built a quick one for last year but it was tough to run and didn't work too well. I'm in the process of building another. I will post pictures here and blog my progress. It will be a skinny drum, friction brake, gas motor rewind, and mounted on a trailer. I have ordered the line from towmeup, the line chute from here, and the rest of the parts I'll make out of whatever I can find/buy locally or on ebay. I'm hoping to have it done in a month for it's first testing. The weather here is getting good to fly and to get regular airtime without driving 1000 km round trip this is the only way. Commercially bought, a good winch will run >$3000 to $7000. I plan to spend $2000 or less. The majority of the cost is the line.

I have already had the 1/4" aluminum drum sides cut for me on a cnc plasma cutter. They are 30" round. The inner diameter will be at 16" and the spacing between the sides will be at 1 3/4". I chose this spacing because 3/8 reddi rod couplings (really long 3/8 nuts) are this long. There will be 24 of them spaced evenly at the 16" diameter. These dimensions should hold plenty more line than I need.

Here's the trailer I'll mount it on, half disassembled. It was my old 4 wheeler trailer

The 1/4" aluminum drum sides ready for drilling

I'm lazy

I've decided to make my life easier and start a "normal" blog so I can post easier on the fly. You can find my old blog here. It has a complete history of my flying up till now. I'm no computer whiz so I was dreading posting to my old site as I couldn't remember how to do some things. This will make life easier, and I'll post more often.