Barograph Blues

Sounds like a thread in the making. How about some
of the best and biggest oops's. Or a few very near
oops's. Here are a few.

Barograph on the ground in a tent after the diamond
goal /gold distance flight. Big rains that night.
Barograph under water in the moring. Barograph was
the old smoked foil type. Luckily, the trace did not
wash off, but there was a high water mark well above
max flight altitude.

Barograph wound and put in but not turned on. Diamond
Distance flight completed, with a simple up and down
scribe by the needle.

Barogprah installed but the needle wasn't moved to
the drum side of the 'off' post. Trace began when
the plane got high enough to raise the arm above the
post. This was on a home made, smoked foil barograph.
Launch point then jokingly labeled as 'Bungee launch
from Pike's Peak'.

Ready to apply the clear lacquer to the smoked foil
after the flight. Grabbed the wrong can and sprayed
it with carburator cleaner. Bye-bye trace.

Smoking the foil was the most fun. We used rubber
cement to glue the foil to the drum. Camphor to put
the soot on the foil. Hold the drum with vice grips,
as it get rather exciting when the rubber cement ignites.
After a while you get use to it. Just blow it out,
and put it back in the soot right at the top of the
flame.

As for the paper types, I have seen a few flights lost
by pinching the top down against the drum and keeping
it from turning.

Hang in there, Tony. A tip that you may not be aware
of. The obvious, make sure you wrap the paper so the
stylus won't catch it and pull it off. The not so
obvious, put a rubber band around the drum well above
the max altitude you expect to see. This way, if your
tape lets the paper loose, the rubber band will hold
it in place.

What kind of barograph ar eyou using? Winter with
paper and ink? Replogle? Other? Old Smoky?

Steve Leonard
Wichita KS

Replogle barographs were what ive killed. great stories!!!

It's not just mechanical barographs...

Me going for Silver height shortly after soloing - put in club's Model
D, made sure little light is flashing, fly. Download trace in evening
- corrupt. Club computer "whiz" had tried to upgrade ("flash"?) the
internal software but had ballsed it up and not told anyone. The
club's other Model D had a sticker on the side saying "broken" - when
we tested it, it worked fine. Harrumph.

Shortly after, on another flight, the battery ran out. I realised
there was no system for ensuring that the logger had a good battery in
it, so fitted a new (dated) Duracell battery and simply put a sticker
on the side noting the date. Next week... sticker has been scratched
off and a cheap supermarket battery of unknown age inserted. Great.

I now know to check the barograph on the computer *before* flight (it
gives the battery voltage, among other things).


Dan

wrote:

Replogle barographs were what ive killed. great stories!!!

Don't forget the Replogle equivalent of, "Hey, guys, watch THIS!!!"
Years ago we had a guy try and show some point on the barogram of his
Silver Distance flight to his O.O. in the back of the retrieve car he
was riding shotgun in on an Interstate heading for home. It got sucked
out the window, never again to be seen by any other glider pilot. A few
beers, hours, and uncounted instances of helpless, raucous laghter from
everyone he told his tale of woe to, even HE could began to see humor in
the situation!

Bob - fun is where you find it - W.