I saw a great design in Tracy's cart. I had built several designs
that worked well but his carts were very clever, simple, efficient and an
excellent material usage with minimal waste -- plus they worked very well. We
started buying his carts for the flight park while he was still selling them.
As I recall he was tired of commercially building the carts and did not find the
venture particularly profitable and he did not like the potential liability. I
think the deal is that as long as he had the students to build the kits it was
OK but without that resource the carts were too costly to build and ship. Many
people complained about the cost and wanted a cheaper solution, although I
thought that they were very inexpensive considering what the materials cost.
I asked for more carts to be built for Lookout with some modifications to make
the carts a bit tougher, Tracy did not want to build any more carts -- he either
suggested that I buy the design or I asked if he would -- I do not recall at any
rate I purchased the rights and plans and have made our changes. That is how I
recall the details.
While I do not want plans to be distributed on the carts that Tracy designed and
built I do not have a problem with Tracy providing bearing information. It is
fine with me if Tracy has the time and inclination to help others in any way
that he can. It can be very time consuming dealing with the do it yourselfer in
copying a design or a part of a design, in helping them figure out a solution.
We do not use bearings for the fork to pivot, we use bushings as Tracy did and
Tracy had these machined in his shop at school. You can't just buy them. You
have to have them made or buy a commercially available bushing.
The "secret" with the bearing or bushing is to use a 5/8thinch bolt for the
swivel and use a bronze bushing in the aluminum wheel fork block and have
saddles on the tubes with inserts in the tubes that are tight and super tough.
This insert acts as a bushing also and in conjunction with the saddles and
bronze fork bushings have held up with little or no sign of ware. They must be
correctly installed and everything must fit correctly. It is just as important
to have the correct angles on the front forks and have the runners positioned
correctly with the pilot weight in the correct position in relation to the
center of the front axle.
I have carts available or can build new ones -- the original design with
improvements in areas that were bending such as the size of the main swivel
bolts for the front caster wheel assemblies -- from 1/2 inch to 5/8ths -- they
would bend so we changed them. I also had the runners that the glider sits on
molded and made from a super tough plastic. We have all the machined parts C&C
machined and we use new anodized aluminum tubing with special plastic bushings
in the tubes. The carts are not profitable for us to build and support either
but they are excellent carts and a necessary or at least a welcomed addition for
aero towing.
Nothing will be inexpensive enough for the do it yourselfer so those individuals
should continue trying to create the better mouse trap or trying to copy an
already excellent proven design. If all the work, history and cost has little
value for folks they can choose to go through the process themselves.
Being able to buy a ready made cart that you can leave out in the weather that
is super tough with hardly any maintenance that works great and has proven
performance has value to some. So keep telling people where they can get them.
Perhaps if we build enough of them at a time we can get some of the cost down.
Just for clarification, the carts (A Model) Matt originally bought
from us had the smaller caster swivel bolts and rubber roller supports on the
cradle for supporting the hang glider keel. We only produced about 12 A Model
carts. The plans (and jigs and fixturing) that we sent to Matt were for our B
Model, which have 5/8" swivel bolts, and a cable/hose which act a sling on the
cradle for supporting the keel, and also make height adjustments much faster and
easier.
The B Model also has plastic cradles instead of wood cradles, and better PVC
pinch point fillers between the frame tubes than the A Model's plastic balls. We
produced about 30 B Model carts. It would not surprise me if Matt made the
caster swivel bolts in the A Model carts larger for his own use, before he
received the B Model plans, jigs, and fixtures from us. If Matt received the A
model plans from us instead of the B model plans, that would have been a huge
mistake on our part, and I would have to apologize profusely about that and
rectify the situation. However, the jigs and fixtures were for the B Model--for
sure--because they had 5/8" drill bushings for the placement and alignment of
the 5/8" caster swivel bolts holes in the frame tubes..
In any case, we continue to use the smaller swivel bolts on our old A Model
carts, and only have trouble with bending if people stand on the cart when being
pulled across the field, or if a pilot holds on too long and drops it from the
air. The larger swivel bolt on the B Model is much more robust. We have never
had any bending of the 5/8" swivel bolt on the B Model design, no matter how
much the cart is abused.
The hang gliding (and paragliding) on-line contest will start up
again October 12th. You can find out more about the contest
here. There is a help
page
here.
I am the US national evaluator. I am here to help US pilots with their flights
and getting them uploaded to the HOLC. This contest is very popular in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland (German speaking countries). It can get more popular
here.
Please contact me if you need help signing up. You can sign up
here.
The HOLC is a great place just to store your flight logs.
I would like to say that I am very happy to be this year's FlytecUSA Cross Country Championship winner. (I'm a Flytec user since 1993.) I tried
to break the East Coast flex wing open distance record again, but I wasn't as
lucky this year.
On this occasion I must say that I owe my success to my great friend Arlan,
who's tragic death was a blow to many people. Not only did he provide me (and
many more pilots) with great flying by Hang Glide Chicago, but also all of my
scoring flights began with a tow behind him. He always left me in the best
thermals. We will miss him greatly and never forget his wonderful personality.
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The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.
