Tolerance

LANGUAGES ARE living beings. It seems they rarely sit still long enough to be caught and killed. They're always on the move, and as we pass through this life we can witness their change. Sometimes daily.

Occasionally a word, that for many years you'd only heard now and again, pops into daily use for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's being used differently than how it was before, like.

There are many examples to choose from, especially in this modern, wired, mobile, tweet-a-face-friend world were hooked into; "hoody", "bling", "hater", "unfriend", "tolerance",  "tweet"...

Hang on... rewind... tolerance?

Ah, yes... "Tolerance"....


tol·er·ance  [tol-er-uh ns]
noun

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
2. concern for ideas, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
3. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance.
4. a permitted variation of a specified quantity, especially in the dimensions of a machine or part.
5. the power of enduring or resisting the action of a poison, drug, etc.

It struck this editor recently [as many things do - Ed] that many in the PG world might wish to peruse the various definitions of this word.

 - perhaps the wing manufacturers might wish to take note of 5).
 - it might be a good idea for pilots worldwide to take 1) & 2) on board.
 - maybe Air Turkey could revisit 4).
 - we're guessing that Blozone may wish to read 1), 2), 3), 4) & 5). (especially 3)

We very much wanted to add SIVL to the list but, although we're pretty confident they can write well, we're not sure they actually bother to read much. We also wanted to add a 6), but we bottled it at the last minute. It was something to do with half a metre. [or something like that - Ed]

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1972 "Robert Livingston Seagull patio door" accident

Blozone Warrants...

AN ANONYMOUS mail through the letterbox appears to have woken the editor...

Upon further investigation, it seems to be a Blozone Gonzo 2M EN certificate.
Make of it what you will...

(click to enlarge)

[Non-native English speakers should take note of the various ways "warrant" may be used - Ed]

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1972 "Robert Livingston Seagull patio door" accident

Mad fucker takes on comp scene

A MAD fucker is taking on the comp scene!

It would seem this is being done primarily because the fuckwits who organise the top level of this sport prefer golf and have been alone in dark rooms for way too long.

Common sense was last seen heading for the hills in 2009, clearly caught a monster thermal and hasn't been seen since.

Good luck Mad(s), et al !

[Err... that's it - Ed]

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1972 "Robert Livingston Seagull patio door" accident

It is with great sadness...

IT IS with great sadness and deep regret that we must report the death of competition paragliding.

Cat-1, as we all knew him, died of asphyxiation during the 2011/2012 season. After a long and troubling illness, he finally passed over on Saturday when finally succumbing to Dual Reservitis.

After years as a victim of various illnesses it is, to some extent, a relief that he will suffer no more.

Since 2010 he had suffered consistent bouts of "Manufacturer Over Enthusiasm", including "Chronic Carbonitis", as we all know, a crippling disease if not diagnosed during the early stages.

Following these "technological advances", during the summer of 2011, he went down with a near-terminal case of "Pilot-Over-Confidence" with devastating consequences. Ever since, he's suffered varying forms of chronic "Over-Regulation", a sad sight for sure. From these early signs I think many of us knew it was just a matter of time, and we made our peace.

Many of the nails in his coffin have been thanks to the slow and painful onslaught of further equipment demands as he was transformed into a twisted shadow of his former self. Bent double under the weight of the "new requirements" it has, as you well know, been painful to watch. This was not the man we knew and loved. This was not the free spirit that we remember reaching for the skies, with the wind in his hair, his fingers caressing the b-lines and leaning well back on full bar at 50m to snatch that €54.99 trophy.

The coroner is expected to investigate, but we all know what the predictable conclusions will be. It is, without doubt, a sad case of regulators failing to regulate with a "soft touch" and pilots failing to understand that they could have helped.

If only either group could have been sufficiently arsed to talk to each other more we might not be getting our black suits dry-cleaned and booking a half-day off work next Wednesday.

CAT, we will remember you for what you gave us. We will never forget. [well actually we will - Ed]

By request of the family, no flowers please.
Donations are kindly welcomed for the "Blozone Fucked It, You Bought It, The Bureaucrats Reacted, And Now You Pay The Price Research Foundation". [Easy tiger - Ed]

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1972 "Robert Livingston Seagull patio door" accident

SIVL Plenary - picturebook edition

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Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1908 "Louis Bleriot Tree-Landing" helmet cam video

Jack Black Reporting

TEAM B pilot and part-time WikiLeaks reporter Jack Black gives us the low-down on the latest wings flying (and falling out the sky) at the PWC Superfinal in Valle.

Pilots might be especially interested in his comments on Blozone's Gonzo, the IcePack-6 and the new Jin-X wings.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Quote:

-
Dear Big-Wide-World,

After a week of flying here in Valle de Bravo in full on racing conditions I can offer some perspective...plz remember this is my own.

Yesterday saw a few more events which helped solidify my feelings. Following several reserves/incidents in the preceding days, notable events I'm familiar with for yesterday (there were others) being 2 JinX's falling out of the sky with one ending under reserve and the other, an excellent pilot, cascading 800 meters with a clean glider but unable to restart the glider with normal inputs - it finally started flying again at the last possible moment.

With full on racing conditions we've had much of the time, the majority of gliding is being done on full bar and everyone has done everything they can to optimize their speed systems. You can imagine that pilots are trying various measures to eek out even the smallest additional speed. Yesterday they put the ESS directly in the afternoon lee/rotor of C Gordo with a 1k cylinder which wasn't the best call by the tc and many pilots got worked diving in there. Nik Papadopolopolis was full bar in there on his Gonzo and was trying something with his risers to get a bit more and blew up with a big cravat/spiral/full stall/cascade and unable to restart then reserve with strong downplane and scary high speed tall tree crash falling 30 feet shredding his glider. We were all quite relieved that he was ok and able to spin it humorously as only Nik can do.

Two days ago Lucky D'Nini, one of the planets most skilled and experienced pilots was ACRO deep stalling his Gonzo over the lake after making goal and ended up under reserve and in the trees up the hill a bit from the LZ, again, unable to get things sorted out and restarted

Both the Gonzo's and the IcePack-6's are gliding quite well and are rock solid on speed through all kinds of turbulence. The Jin pilots are really struggling because they don't glide as well at trim and are nowhere near as efficient while trying to speed through turbulence. They are constantly pitching and having to come off bar because it's difficult to effectively control the gliders with the risers. There was all kinds of hype when we got here about the Jin and how it turned so well it would easily climb right up through other gliders.. This of course ended up being total BS and of course it climbs nice but doesn't stand out. Several of the same pilots are now disappointed in the overall performance of the glider saying its not so good for racing but good only for recreational flying. The current results tend to support this but of course it's early in the comp and things may change.

The IcePack-6 has had some healthy factory quality control issues which showed up in several gliders after the first few warmup days. This was evidenced by dimples discovered by nearby pilots on the top surface in various locations. Some were temporarily sorted out by cutting and taping internal cross bracing... Another IcePack-6 took a full frontal (before the comp started) and broke some A lines then reserve. It was thought that they were possibly improperly looped at the riser attachment point and burned through at the first shock loading of the glider.

The Gonzo is an AreTen-Two with restricted speed and a small C cascade which seems to
make it launch easier. The B handles allow top efficiency while speeding on glide through all kinds of turbulence. Unlike the AreTen-Two and AreLeven, the Gonzo will spin (and apparently do a nice helicopter spin according to Joss yesterday) if pushed too hard while thermalling, but the spin authority is quite good and this has produced no problems that I'm aware of.

The IcePack-6 has very successfully incorporated much of the AreLeven's leading edge shark nose. It's flying very nicely and pilots are able to keep it coordinated while accelerated through turbulence. The certification was showing it quite a bit faster than the Gonzo and again many pilots were talking about how they were going to school us on glide..... Again, this never materialized and the gliders seem dead even IF you get every cm of speed out of your system. If you're half a turn behind someone when you leave the last thermal then you will hit the ESS 10k later the same distance behind them if you've both managed the glider equally through turbulence and stayed mostly pulley to pulley.

I guess what you can take from this is that any of these gliders may be difficult or impossible to restart if things go bad. Many Blozone pilots, myself included, are convinced that the best and safest all around racing glider is at home. While the risks of full speed blowouts are clear on the AreLeven/BoomBoom8, it appears that all 4 of the gliders we are flying here are also at risk of being unrecoverable if things go bad. Blozones website warning on the Gonzo is spot on and Jin and Nov-yuk should do the same. Why not fly the AreLeven which glides better, handles better, and is much less likely to break/stall/spin than the gliders we've been forced on to by the events of last summer?

It's been very typical Valle full on racing with great conditions, great pilots, and plenty of carnage with fortunately no serious injuries... The way things are going I'm sure there will be boat loads of data to summarize and sort through when this is finished....

J Black
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So there you have it folks. If it's dirt you want, we got it. And it's nice to know that, during these turbulent times, all is back to normal with the top-dogs. Yes, they're still falling out the sky on a regular basis...

The internet !
Once the Pope's out the bottle, he'll be shittin' in the woods till doomsday. [ WTF? - Ed ]

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 1908 "Louis Bleriot Tree-Landing" helmet cam video

An Interim Report

AS MOST of you will know a SIVL CompSafNet Defcon 5 Task Force was setup a few months ago and asked to sort out all the problems that have recently blighted the world of on-bar, lee-side thermalling, small silver trophies and skinny wings.

A few months ago they went off armed with pencils and have now returned to put pen to paper. Or key clicks to keyboards perhaps. They promised an interim report. So they wrote one.

The long awaited interim report has been anxiously awaited by many competition pilots as it will recommend to the powers that be what options they have to choose from when defining how competitions will run in the future. Not only the comps, of course, also the wings that may be flown, by whom, when, where and how. Although we are reliably informed that paragliders of a single tether set are off the table.

Well, it's been finished and it's been submitted, and almost on-time. [impressive - Ed]
And, of course, it's been leaked, presumably by the Ozzies.

What a choice of font! Stunning. Those boys know how to make a presentation all right. Not only does it set the professional tone of the document at the right level, it leaves the reader with [enough bullshit, get on with it - Ed]

So to the all important content. Those who have the time to read the document will have already done so, but there will be pilots out there who simply don't have the time to read and digest the entire tome. Enter Pie, with one of our enterprise class executive summaries.

The Pie executive summary:

"Everything, within the bounds of common sense, that you can possibly think to change about wing class definitions, harness safety, pilot training, accident reporting, task planning, wing testing, task scoring and anything else related to the competitive side of our sport that may help improve safety is on the table to solve this almighty balls up.

Over to you SIVL. Choose one please." 

Well, that clears that up then.

Pie in the Sky
Funnier than the 2001 "Bognor Regis Birdman" videos