Hope you all enjoy
Probably already here but I didn't see it.
Enjoy, I did.
GT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58L3m0dqVDY

Smoke & mirrors.

Glidergeek wrote:Smoke & mirrors.

I don't think you can do that with smoke and mirrors . . . or photoshop either. Besides, coming from Red Bull gives it a lot more credence.

Don't think it was "smoke and mirrors". Having flown formation acro, acro in gliders including the Blanik, had skydivers crawl all over the jump plane (not at the same time of course)... yeah, I think it was real. Remember, back in the barnstormer era people did transfers between aircraft quite frequently. It may have taken several tries to get it right but certainly possible. Great video!

Smoke on the wingtips & top of the wings on the Blaniks were polished. Smoke & mirrors.

For you disbelievers, I have more proof it's real . . .

Consider, if you will, that with high performance gliders like my ASH26E (glide ratio 50 to 1), that bugs on the wing significantly degrade performance, as much as 30% or more. Ordering "bug wipers" is an option - - they wipe the leading edge using wind power one way and reel back in with a cable into a "garage" cut-out in the fuselage. This contraption does come with a drag penalty, so it's much more popular in Europe (where I can only guess bugs are more a problem) than here in the USA. In any case, I didn't order them with my glider.

So, on one flight, with leading edges nastily bug splattered, and since I was already wearing a safety chute, I decided to deal with the issue myself (being a single place ship, there was no co-pilot to delegate chores to). I propped open the canopy, leaned way out onto the right wing. This weight shift caused the glider to roll to the right, so I kicked the stick to the left and managed to hook the seat belt over it with my toe to hold it over that way. Then it was a simple matter to sit on the wing and shimmy out to the wing tip. Even though I'm embarrassed to say, in the interest of complete honesty and full disclosure, I'll confess that somewhere in this process I peed my pants so my wet Levi's did a great job of bug removal. I reversed the proceedure for the other wing . . . by then my pants were sopping wet.

Proof you ask? Well, this was before all the little cameras became available, so that's why there's no video. I still have the pee and bug stained Levi's I'll gladly show to any of you doubters. Also check Snopes on this searching <bumper wing cleaner> and I guarantee you'll not find it mentioned as being false.

Glidergeek wrote:Smoke on the wingtips & top of the wings on the Blaniks were polished. Smoke & mirrors.

Got me there!

Cowboy wrote:

Glidergeek wrote:Smoke on the wingtips & top of the wings on the Blaniks were polished. Smoke & mirrors.

Got me there!

Ya my whole thing bout smoke & mirrors was in jest, very ballsy maneuver, like those wing suit fliers.

Now if they were going to be real cool they should have. Skydiver climbs out and onto wing of Blanik1, he holds on to handles and Blanik1 rolls inverted. Now he is hanging from the top of the wing of Blanik1 and Blanik2 comes in for the pickup. Blanik1 has to fly lead inverted with a Skydiver hanging from the wing. That would impress me.

Or, doing the whole gig with NO parachute...now THAT would be ballsy.

Or, suicidal.

MTV