For some years now Simon Hennessey has been dropping a pink pig by hang-glider from kites. This has amused me greatly and I have tried to get him to put the design in Roman Candle.I eventually gave up waiting and following a visit to the Festival of Free Flight I have come up with the following design. It is the usual hit and miss thing with the dimensions being the ones that worked for me. The bear I use was given to me by The BOF at Petworth and weighs 120 grams. He has been christened Simon in honour of the inventor of this silly game.
To get just the right glide you have to move the bear backwards or forwards until the best result is obtained. From experiment I have found that the spreader and support frame need to be a little forward of the center of gravity and the bear positioned to give a slightly nose down attitude in flight. Moving the bear to one side has the same effect as in the real thing and makes it descend in a curving path which can mean less distance to go for retrieval.
Usual methods have been employed to make the frame using bits of fuel pipe from B & Q so I have not detailed this in the plans. The sail was off cuts of ordinary rip-stop with hems to carry the leading edges and spine in the tubes thus made. If you make one of these please let me know how it flies and anything you did to improve it's performance. If it catches on we will arrange a Fauna Gliding meeting at some Festival.