Additional towing-related pages at the bottom of each page.
Flying-Related Links
and General Information
See page 2 - club and school listings by state and country
Welcome!
These are websites of, by and for the whole flying community. They're set up by category as much as possible. If you have links that are not included here or other suggestions, please send 'em to PeterB. If you find any that are no longer useful, let me know.
Weather
| Useful Stuff | Safety
People and Stories | Clubs
| Schools | Instructional
Museums and Historical | Associations
UL Sailplanes | HG Businesses/Harnesses/Etc.
| Radios/GPS
Astronomy | Miscellaneous
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from the Flatlands of the Great Midwest
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All towing all the time
Last updated: June 3, 2013
WEATHER
Great Lakes weather - Gives you the current readings and for the past 3 hours.
Dr Jack Glendenning's Thermal
Strength weather maps - BLIPMAP
SKEW-T weather
-interactive, Java-based plot
SKEW-T instructions - (on Sonoma
Wings site)
NOAA Cmet has
soundings, stability graphs and wind charts among other things.
USAIRNET
- forecasted winds aloft - EXCELLENT!
USAIRNET -
Launch Code weather... EXCELLENT! My favorite.
LANDINGS
WEATHER - Everything weather
Weatherimages.org - Excellent resource
rap.ucar.edu
- images from GOES-12 and GOES-10 satellites
weather.unisys.com
- weather archives back to 1996
weather.com
wunderground
- Champaign - change to your own state/city
aviationweather.com/BanAV030 - aviation weather resources
WEATHER EDUCATION
Visible Earth (NASA)
USA Today - Atmospheric science resources
The above have good basics (per Davis Straub and others)
www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/gravity6.htm- Gravity drive the tides
vortex.plymouth.edu/clouds
- Clouds
atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld - more clouds
Thermal profiles
in color - several simulations
RC-SOAR - Thermals
USEFUL STUFF
Red's
Advice Page - read all the way through, there's something for everyone.
Site Records - US sites
Animated knots - learn to tie them the easy way
On-Line BOOKS
MIT on-line free courses; this link is for Aeronautics and Astronautics, other courses available.
HP on-line learning center
On-line log books/search
www.jiffyloc.com/flightlog/
- fields for max lift and sink, Pie chart for wind direction, Graphs out
your years record, on and on. Lots of features.
Search GOOGLE - for Hang Gliding
photos, you'll be amazed
E-Mail lists
HANG GLIDING E-MAIL LIST
The International Towing List
Flying stuff for the disabled
- flying wheelchairs, etc. (UK-based)
USED GEAR ADS
Fort Funston to sell/wanted - listings good for 90 days
topA FLYERS ad page
The (Lift) Hunter by John Reynoldson
PHOTOS - from space, from gliders
FOTO-SEARCH – Hang-Gliding Photos at Foto Search
Offers over 900 thousand images in its extensive online archive, including
photography, clipart, illustrations, footage, and maps free of charge.
SPACE STATION - Zoom in anywhere
on Earth, download any of hundreds of photos taken from space. Views of
your next cross-country flight route, eh?
topOZONE - USGS DRG topographic
maps for the entire US, accessible by latitude/longitude or feature name,
are now available for free
NASA Photos - satellite pictures
of many places of the earth, and some special weather effects. Download
either low or high resolution
Aviation/airplane Insurance
Great SEWING info - from sailboat sailmakers
Sewing supplies
SPUD GUN - A super site with links to quite a few others. Some sell their stuff and others provide plans. Have a BLAST! (and this is useful?)
See page 2 - club and school listings by state and country
Safety
Safety-comes-first
- Read if you feel flying is Safe!
FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION
Betty Pfeiffer chute clinic video.
Other chute video links and PDF information at this page (on this site)
People and Stories
Hanggliding.org
Davis Straub - OZ Report
Red's advice for new pilots
Video of Miller Stroud foot-launching his ATOS
using 2 Linknife Releases with an over/under bridle.
KEN DE RUSSY - EXCELLENT stories
and news articles
Rik Baumeester's home
page (Wisconsin pilot)
Mark Poustinchian's
home page
The Vince Report - Flight narrative and photos from Vince Endter
AIRTIME2000 - Fly2K-Airwreck's
Site
CROSS COUNTRY MAG
ELLEFSON - Norwegian HG pilot -
news, photos, links, stories
Gill Couto's home site, screen
savers and HG calendar pages for your desktop
Aerobatics article by John Heiney
Terry from
Toronto - personal site with photos
Dave Kinlan's page
ATV
towing in a stadium (PG)
Cluster Balloons - Helium
balloons for personal "flight", down to a science
Midwest Clubs
Hang Glide Chicago - ENJOY
FIELD, west of Chebanse IL (south of Kankakee)
Whitewater WI - club site. Whitewater is the site of the highest flight in Region 7 – 9800'agl – set by Jeff Nielsen in 1997. Located some 60 miles west of Lake Michigan, it's not as influenced by the lake winds as Bong, but when the convergence sets up, there's no telling how high you'll get or how long you'll be up. The towing club is formed up and requires annual dues plus per-flight tow fees.
GREEN POINT FLYERS - Michigan - GREAT DUNES FLYING and even better parties!
Ohio Flyers
Wisconsin HG - Paul Olson
Gateway Air Park near St Louis MO
A simple search on the USHPA public website will turn up more nation-wide.
Instructional/Informational
"Red's"
advice for new pilots - MUST READ
Portal for pilot wannabe's - GoHangGliding.com
SECTIONALS
and airspace explained
Comment from Doug McCleary:
Sectionals are available on-line (and for free). I use SeeYou and download
the sectionals for it from www.seeyou.si.
In additional to the sectionals, SeeYou displays airspace in a vector format
which is quite a bit easier to use and is in three dimensions.
FAR103 explained - every
pilot MUST know this stuff
Becoming a Pilot - career path advice for students
All
the main tow manuals of the world are on the Towing List web page.
Join up!
Canadian Towing Manual
Basic How To Start HG article in India (in English)
Site
Records by state - by John Borton
LANDING animation - good side
view of how to and how not to land
LANDING - Greg DeWolf's 1986 article
"Returning to Earth" (follow links to Mag Articles)
legstrap
- Don't Forget Your Legstraps! Too funny!
AEROEXPERIMENTS - Steve Seibel
How Gliders Fly
The Parts of an Airplane and it's Soaring History
A Guide to Airplane Parts and Flight History (thanks Amy and Ms Ward's class)
More flying
theory
fearofflying.com/
airfraid.com/ (comfy
flight socks)
flyana.com/ (Diana's great
tips)
Museums and Historical
Sonoma
Wings journals from 1981 -Ralph Hyde's archival project
SEATTLE MUSEUM of FLIGHT
NATIONAL SOARING MUSEUM
AVIATION MUSEUM
LOCATOR
Glider
Bible - trying to "register" every glider made (French site,
the page is in English)
Glider
comparisons - CTHGA page site
First Hang Glider meet, May 23, 1971 (especially humorous when the
police showed up)
Interesting WWII facts about air warfare - link from Connor, 12yo
Flight-History
is dedicated to capturing aviation history; archives feature a growing
collection of photographs, stories and aircraft specifications. Site includes
aviation artwork of several artists.
Abandoned
airfields across the USA (very interesting)
Wright Brothers Airplane Company
Wright
Brothers Info - historical information
Gustav Whitehead
- helped the Wrights
Reinhold Platz - early Dutch aviator
(Dominique Jorand's site)
See page 2 - club and school listings by state and country
USHPA
- USHPA's main page
CANADA HPAC - main association for Canada
Experimental Aircraft Association - Associations
Section, these guys are key in FAA-NPRM Sport Pilot proposal!
Oshkosh
Oshkosh Airventure Museum
Sun-N-Fun - Lakeland FL
National Aeronautic Association
US Ultralight Association
DHV - German Association
AUSTRALIA - HG Fed of Australia
AeroSports Connection
Soaring Society of America
GLIDING MAGAZINE
FAI - everything you wanted to know
about the politics of aviation
FAI Hang Gliding pages
The Lighthawk - UL Class - under 155 pounds
The SparrowHawk - UL
Class
The APIS WR - Light Class
Marske - Flying Wings
The Bug and Goat - Mike Sandlin's Basic Ultralight Glider
HG Businesses
- TOWING -
LINKNIFE
TOW RELEASE - Your favorite webmaster highly recommends this release!
TowMeUp.com - Stuart Caruk builds
payout winches and boats for towing
Quantum Winches - one owner's photos here
Dave
Kinlan's payout winch - Netherlands
TOWING GEAR - winches for HG
and PG (TowSystems)
SPECTRA towline
- 12 companies on Thomas Register
JOHN POP - maker of the
T-Dolly
Tribal Flight WB-PY-H pay-out winch
Scooter
Towing (Dave Broyles) This page is his "Copzilla" variation
Learn Scooter Towing from WillsWing
Catch the Wind Kites - for
weaklink material. The RHGPA uses 130 pound test braided dacron kite string
tied with a grapevine knot for average-size pilots.
PG
TOWING AROUND THE WORLD
- Gliders and Gear -
MOJOS
GEAR - Catalog source for all sorts of HG and PG stuff
ANGLE OF ATTACK - Attack Tubes
- great downtubes only $37.50
Mountain High - O2 Systems
WINDSOK - Custom Aviation Windsocks
Glider
comparisons - CTHGA page site
Downtube clamp with longball-end tube from CA Power Systems
Sail repair kit, company in TX
NOTE: Please let me know if you find any links
that aren't working. Thanks. <email>
Gliders
Aeriane - Swift
Aeros
Airborne - Facebook
Airwave
Avian
Bautek
Ellipse
FexAmerica
Finsterwalder & Charly
Fliegerböhm
Flight Design
Helite
Icaro 2000
Icaro Wings
Ikarus
La Mouette
Metamorfosi - Italian chutes and gliders
Moyes - Facebook
Northwings - Facebook
Seedwings
ULteam
UP Gliders - Joe Spinney 619-933-2211
Wills Wing - Facebook
Glider store
Kitty Hawk Kites - hang gliders (new and used), glider accessories, and training manuals. All easy online ordering.
Varios
BRAUNIGER
FLYTEC - needs "Flash" to
see the page
TANGENT
MALLATTEC - Audio-only
Harnesses/Chutes
HiEnergy HARNESSES - Betty
Pfeiffer
QUANTUM Parachutes
Radio Stuff
MODS.DK - All kinds of radio modifications
QRZ Mods - more
radio mods
ANTENNAS: J-Pole plans
(pdf)
GPS
Latest info on GPS devices
FREE LIVE/real time GPS TRACKING
Garmin
The GPS Store
Test yourself to prepare for the exams
ARRL everything you need to
get started
Testing 1 - FAA and FCC practice tests
Testing 2 - Online training for the ham radio written exams ($)
Testing 3 - Online testing site
Testing 4 - Online testing site
On-line store for ham books and other radio stuff
RENEW your license
(ARRL)
Go to the "FCC ULS" link and from there, click on "online filing",
click on CORES, apply for an FRN number. Then return to the OLS filing page
to complete renewal. It's a bit of a pain, but once you have the number,
you're set for 10 years, and besides, they want everyone to register anyway.
Batteries America - 800/308-4805...
all types of batteries
Amateur Electronic Supply - on-line
catalog, overnight shipping
Eggler
Headset
Other hardware
BLUE
HILLS INNOVATIONS - Cables
GPS
Macintosh CompeGPS Software - http://gpsy.com/ http://www.macgpspro.com/
GPS-Software.htm
- Waypoint +, a software download for IBM
GARMIN.COM
Garmin plug
kit Do It Yourself
Astronomy
Objects in the Heavens - Peter Birren's deep-sky fieldbook and viewing list for small telescopes and binoculars, now on the 5th Edition. Good for use with computer-driven scopes, too.
Astronomy
Picture of the Day - worth visiting daily and following their links
to learn a whole lot, a little bit at a time. I highly recommend it.
View the universe
within 5 million light years
Astronomy.com - lots of stuff here
Solar System Simulator
Southwest
(Chicago) Astronomy Observers Group - 2-meter: 145.43 Thursdays @
8:30pm on the DuPage IL Repeater
NW Suburban
Astronomers - near Chicago
Lake
County IL Astronomical Society - great articles on all aspects of
astronomy. Lots of topics and a great start point for beginners.
Chicago Astronomical Society
- sponsors of AstroFest
"Cloudy Nights" discussion forums for all things astronomical
Telescope Reviews - read before buying a telescope; lots of good info to help you make an informed decision
Astromart - Used equipment/classifieds
Madison, Wisconsin Iceboat Club -
(this looks like a great time)
Harry Martin cartoons
HG EAGLE, OSCEOLA
Jim
Bynum's HG video and photos - 400MB of movies and 35MB of photos.
YOU TUBE - HG videos
Tim Conrardy - electronic tunes - new age, jazz and more.
Books, Toys, Miscellaneous
ByDanJohnson.com- Long-time contributor to HG Magazine with articles always on the back page.
WHAT!! A FLYING RABBIT?? Real nice kid's book about HG
BOB WANDER - Aviation Books
GIBBOGEAR.COM - Mark Gibson's operation in Winter Haven FL
POLYFIBER - for adhesives and other aircraft stuff
HG Models - 1/5 scale Radio Controlled HG models
ZING WINGS - Cool glider toy
BLOKART- a land sailer that folds
to fit in a car
Aviation Survival Gear (not to survive the flight but for outlandings)
Landing Streamer - from Ernie
Comacho
RE-PUBLISHED OLD BOOKS - from Mike Markowski, including Jack Lamb's book
See page 2 - club and school listings by state and country
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Site designed and produced by Peter Birren
Last update
June 3, 2013