Contents |
http://www.danb.dircon.co.uk/hg/hg.htm
http://www.hangsim.com/mf/ (download page below)
http://www.qualitysimulations.com/mf/download.php ....the HangSim/ Microflight Demo (free) runs in 5-minute segments, with keyboard or joystick. Re-starting the demo lets you resume (continue) the same flight, if desired. Press [PageUP] fast and repeatedly, to gain altitude at first.
A Head Start to HG Flight Simulator training <-Click this line for the ALL-IMPORTANT full text for this drawing, seen below...
This is an example of an excellent full-featured simulator being used by the Torrey Hawks Hang Gliding Club at the 2009 Kick Gas Festival in San Diego. This simulator has a rigid frame which can be disassembled and carried on most hang glider roof racks. It features a fully articulated swivel (possibly from a trike?) that provides full pitch and roll control. The mounting harware will accept most any glider with round downtubes. This photo shows a "mini glider", but it will accept a full-sized glider as well.
Here's another design (see forum topic). I don't know if this is a new idea or if it's already been done (citations welcome).
The goal for this one is to be lightweight and portable so it could be easily carried a long distance by one person (including the glider and harness). The target application would be just a first introduction to hang gliding in high traffic areas like college campuses and outdoor (or even indoor) shopping malls. This simulator is not really designed to be an accurate replication of flight but rather to simply introduce the basics of hang gliding to members of the general public who might then follow up with an actual course of instruction.
The basic idea is to use a "rocking chair" type of roll control. Depending on the radius (and change of radius) along the "rocker" the handling could be tuned to be as realistic as possible. One extreme would be a flat rocker which provides no roll motion at all. The other extreme would be a very small radius far below the base tube which would take a lot of skill to keep balanced without falling over on one side or the other. Somewhere in between there should be some curvatures which will allow good roll control without allowing the glider to tip over.
The pitch control (in this design) is much more questionable. One extreme would be a rigid strut holding up the tail end of the keel (no pitch motion at all). The thought in this example is that a spring loaded strut (like those used on the rear hatch of many mini-vans) might provide a little pitch motion as the pilot moves fore and aft. This is not likely to be very realistic, but it would at least demonstrate how pitch can be controlled by weight shift. A more realistic feeling might come from having someone hold the nose or keel and respond appropriately to the fore and aft weight shifts while not letting the nose hit the ground. Note that the configuration (as drawn) could tip over in the forward direction if the pilot shifts too far forward. This could be eliminated by another strut on the nose, but that detracts from the pilot's "view" and might be best handled by someone actually holding the nose or tail.
One of the additional goals in this design is to allow the glider to be easily converted to "running" mode. In this case, just lifting the glider should make it available for running. If the rocker extension is short enough (and extends directly down from the base tubes) it might not interfere with running if left attached. Similarly, the tail strut is held up by a bungee so it might stay out of the way when the wing is mostly level. But both of those items (roll rocker and tail strut) should be easily removed so the glider is fully available for running demonstrations (simulated launching and landing).
This is just a first cut, and it hasn't been built yet (as far as I know). Any feedback or references to prior work would be appreciated.