http://www.singingbassist.com

1. There is a noticeable warp in the wings. I now know how to correct that using the turnbuckles. A warped wing-cell, when viewed from the wing-tip inwards, resembles a trapezoid. tightening the turnbuckles in the long diagonal of this trapezoid will remove warpage and irregularities which might cause flight instability.

2. Another essential improvement will be to replace that god-forsaken paper with ripstop nylon or silk. That paper is simply too fragile for reasonable handling conditions.
3. Thirdly, we see that the tail surfaces are way too small for the size of the wing box. These must be enhanced with actionable rudder, elevator and aileron surfaces.
4. Fourthly, we see that the tail-surfaces warp under the tension of the stabilizing cables. What does this say to this “seasoned vintage hang glider engineer” (hahahahahaha) ? That we must install counteracting wires to the warp in the tail surfaces to render them flat.

The flight day was started too late, the sun was setting, the wind was waning, but also, now that i notice it in the videos, the tail was supported a bit high. Supporting the tail lower might have increased the incidence angle which the wings “saw”, hence increasing their lift (and potentially putting the craft into stall at lift-off). How could we have seen this while trying in the dark?.
In any case, I call it a success for this year, despite the lack of true flight. The glider is now in storage, to be resurrected in 2010 with improved hardware and materials.

In this edition of multiplane glider news, we see the wings come together, along with some reference to the original plans.

At university while doing my master’s degree I found the time to build another biplane glider, with some other aerospace students, this time it was a replica of a glider built in the 1920’s in Germany.
	Replica of Pelzner’s Glider, 2002

We had the permission to build it in Penn State’s Sailplane Workshop, it was a lot of fun.
	Pelzner Replica, 2002

So, recently I started building another multiplane hang-glider. This time I had a carpenter select and saw the wood pieces as this step is sooo crucial. Nearly impossible to find knot-free unwarped lumber in the local lumber-yard.

Stay tuned, watch this space, as we are working to finish the glider before early July, when the workshop closes!!!!

In Germany and in Switzerland, drum-rods are expensive. The ones we found locally cost 23 Euros.

The manufactured drum-rods cost 25euros for a pair.

The original, manufactured drum-rods

The drummer decided long ago to spare himself from paying that ridiculously marked up price and started constructing his own.

Here is how.

He finds wooden dowels at the local do-it yourself superstore. The price isn’t “wow” but he’s still saving money over the manufactured drum-rods. These dowels are cut to the preferred size and sanded rounder at the tips to prevent unnecessary wear on the drum heads.

Wooden Dowel Selection at the Hardware Store

He bundles the cut and sanded wooden dowels as shown in the following picture

The grouping of dowels for a hand-crafted drum-rod

…..uses shrink tubing and black electric tape to bundle the dowels into his own drum-rods. For less than 10euros he has drum-rods

Unfortunately I have forgotten to photograph the finished product…..soon! in the comments…

As a chaser I subsequently watched the first half of a documentary about the Rolling Stones. They started their career about two years after the Beatles. I dig some of their songs, especially their work from the 1970s, about 10-15 years into their career. What really pissed me off in this documentary was the insistence of reporters to ask Mick Jagger or Keith Richards, “Do you think the Rolling Stones are better than the Beatles?”. And that in the year 1965. This isn’t comparing apples with oranges, this provocative journalism attempts to compare apples with rat-turds. Top this nugget of audacity witht the fact that the Stones only played cover songs for the first two years of their career, even playing covers on their first tour of America, and you find that the Stones were simply posers, trying to look scary and provocative on the stage but having no core, substance or character to back it up. I didn’t have the perserverance to watch further in their documentary, and although I am sure that it does get better, especially as soon as they start writing songs, it was too devastating watching befuddled “music journalists” compare apples with turds to continue.

I have once heard that Oasis have proclaimed themselves “better than the Beatles”. I don’t have the heart to look up that video or link, as I still enjoy some Oasis tunes.

Why were the Beatles able to focus so much career into so little time? Why were they already writing songs and pushing boundaries only two years into their career? I think my buddy Nick has hit the nail on the head with this post:
http://www.nickpagan.com/blog/124/the-beatles-time-secret/

Said day-job has been canned (with six-month resignation period). I will go to Bucharest for several months starting end of July, in order to learn Romanian and to catch up on some projects from which my day job currently consumes all my time. Such as a successor to my first album. Living costs in Buc are fabulously low, so it will be nice to be able to sleep in for a few months in a row in this “mini-retirement”.