(Someone) wrote:
T8 wrote:
On Dec 29, 9:24 am, Andy wrote:
On Dec 29, 6:55 am, Bruno wrote:

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday with a very
experienced pilot (older) who has spent a lot of time in some amazing
aircraft starting with the P51 Mustang and going up to jets including
the SR-71 blackbird and as we were looking over my glider we started
talking about the yaw string on the canopy.
He then mentioned that way back in the early days of flying they would
simply tape a string hanging from the ceiling to act as an artificial
horizon. I've never heard this one before! Next person who reads
this who goes up tape a string hanging from the inside of the canopy
and tell us how it works. Now you have another reason to take off
work and go soaring.
Bruno -B4http://www.youtube.com/user/bviv
It's not April 1 already is it?
Just put a mark on your canopy and spit at it. If spit flies left of
target, you are turning right and vice versa.

-T8

Just slighly more accurate than spit, Bruce Miller taught me as a 13
year old at Black Forest to tie a string to the release knob (or
anywhere in your field of vision) with a light little weight on the
end)

Looks stupid and mainly created questions till one day I was stupid
enough to allow myself to be towed up through a hole in the stratus
layer by a dumber tow pilot.

Snip...

Went out the next day and bought a GPS. The string is still there. New
personal rule about cloud proximity.

Bruce and Cindy are two of my heros.

Michael

Thanks for sharing that...but be prepared to be flayed by others in
hobnailed boots (rightly) pointing out a bob-weight in the cockpit
doesn't 'merely' react only to gravitational forces. IMVHO, the
'takeaway' point I suspect you're hoping others extract from your
sharing is that it was Cindy's and Bruce's *combined* tips that gave you
a fighting chance once above your sucker hole.

For those unfamiliar w. the general geography near Black Forest (in the
western/'pretty dry' U.S.), the 'real hills' (i.e. the wave-generating
ones) begin some miles west/upwind of the gliderport, so if a person can
descend while remaining below wing-pulling-off speeds to cloud base,
s/he's unlikely to die by hitting the ground beforehand. Youthful
ignorance aside, everybody raise their hands who'd rather have been
VFR-on-top in the above-mentioned conditions withOUT the two pieces of
information that worked in this instance...let's talk afterwards!

Bob - forces matter - W.