How to suspend a glider?

On Oct 7, 9:11*am, Tim Taylor wrote:
On Oct 7, 8:30*am, Adam wrote:



On Oct 7, 1:28*am, wrote:

Hi all,
Has anyone out there ever suspended a glider in the air without
resorting to the conventional method of airflow over the wings? I have
an opportunity to hang both of my Grob 103's in two malls over the
holiday season. I am pushing for having a Santa in the back and a
Rudolf leaning forward in the front, scarf trailing. Both canopies
will be off. I will have a Glider Ride Gift Certificate booth [not
quite directly] underneath. Some of you may have seen my Mall
Experiment article in the June 2008 issue of Soaring. Well, I'm
experimenting some more!
My first thought, unencumbered by either engineering training or good
advice, is to fabricate a heavy duty, white canvas sling, maybe 2 feet
wide, that would go where the fuselage dolly goes, in front of the
wings and as far aft as possible. The CG hook mechanism could be used
to attach to it also to protect against slippage. The sling would be
sewn proffessionally, providing a pair of rip-free, foolproof,
attachment points on each side. The remaining 50 lbs on the tail could
be handled with a wire running from this central sling support cable
45 degrees down to the horizontal stab attachment bolt at the top of
the verticle stab. The wings could have wires running from the wing
tip skid/tie downs to this central sling support cable at about 45
degrees also.
Thoughts?
Clearly the mall engineers and their insurance underwriters are going
to have the last word, but if any of you have advice/experience/
thoughts, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you. Oh yeah, the 103
weighs in at 850 lbs.
Thanks in advance,
Don Ingrahamhttp://www.crosscountrysoaring.com

As Paul mentioned, the Stanton rig has been in use for many years - it
uses two straps about 6" wide, one in front and one behind the wing
and an I-beam frame above to tie it all together to the lift hoist. It
all looks very heavy duty.

I've been told there is a Std Cirrus suspended in a building somewhere
in downtown Minneapolis - you may want to check that out.

And there is a Std Cirrus mounted upside down on a steep angle to the
inside roof at Gwyn's High Alpine mid-mountain restaurant in Snowmass
- very cool!

Rather than engineer your own sling, there are plenty of industrial
lifting straps out there that are rated for whatever weight you want
to lift to many thousand of pounds. You can get custom straps made too
- a quick web search (no affiliation):

http://www.yellowslings.com/?mfss=go...gs&mfsa=nylons...

With regards to satisfying the mall insurance guy, my guess is he will
demand a P.E. sign-off on the entire mounting system.

I look forward to seeing the dramatic results!

/Adam
I've been told there is a Std Cirrus suspended in a building somewhere
in downtown Minneapolis - you may want to check that out.

If my memory is correct it was a Grob 102 and it was in Butler
Square. *It was there when I lived in Minneapolis around 1993. *There
was an image in Soaring during that period.

What you want for the straps are called "recovery straps". *You should
be able to buy a pair off the shelf for the strength and length you
need.

Thanks to google:

It was a Speed Astir

http://www.stevendahlman.com/pictorial/mpls07.htm

http://www.butlersquare.com/

go to photos (I can't get them to play but maybe someone can)