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April 17, 2007
So much of what I love about the JART is tied up in the top view rather than the side view. Andy Ellison's gorgeous 70oz UK screamer illustrates this perfectly. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Julian Beckett painted this astonishing example of JARTossification based on Andy's suggestions...
April 16, 2007
A story by our new friend, Bruce:
"While putting one of my planes together the other day at one of our popular big air slopes I was approached by the local farmer. He said I was welcome to fly there so long as I didn't fly a JART & no JARTs were to be flown there at all. I was pretty stunned that he even knew what a JART was but I asked him why no JARTs. He said 1 small reason & another large far more damaging reason. He stated the small reason was Jarts have a habit of landing nose first making large divots in the ground & a few people flying JARTs do more ground damage than a heard of cattle hooves stampeding through boggy ground. I thought he was a bit over the top & was about to pass him off as some kind of psychopathic cowpoke when he told me his farm was just a hobby farm & he was a senior science lecturer at Monash university. He then gave me the more damaging reason. He said the JART's unique wing & fuse section damaged air when flown fast by separating the oxygen from the nitrogen & then dissipating the oxygen. He said he had proof that some of his cows had suffered from nitrogen narcosis after JARTs had been flown at his slope. He also said he had spoken to all the local farmers & had alerted them of the damage a group of JARTs could do. These farmers are now banding together to completely ban JARTs from flying anywhere. They have started to lobby local governments & councils & are planning a protest on the steps of parliment house. They want JART flying banned on all crown land & national parks as well as private property. I drove home thinking 2 things: Second hand Jarts will soon be sold for about a dime a dozen as JART owners & builders realise they're now nothing more than a mantle piece decoration, & that farmer is about as bent as this author."
There you have it, the story of how all JARTs came to be banned in Australia. Sad, but "true."
April 10, 2007
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T-shirt designs for JART
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We've been needing some cool new designs for JART t-shirts and now we have them. Photographs by Brian Laird (you may recognize this one!) and Dave Reese gave me great foundations on which to build these moody pieces. I wanted to portray the natural energy and personal emotion one experiences when standing at the edge of a cliff, launching a JART in good air. Must admit, I'm very happy with the results. Order yours at CafePress.com/jartplane.
April 6, 2007
After years of people telling me I should try it, F3F has finally captured my attention. My old VCR has been stuffed with the Viking '98 video for the last 2 days and I've decided to invest in a proper airframe for the task. I've always been a "soul sloper" and just couldn't get behind the time, expense, and nerves involved with competition. But watching these guys carve turns with those big planes, even in what was clearly mediocre air, got me thinking. It isn't hard to see that good F3F times don't just fall out of the pilot's ass. You're looking at prevailing conditions, specific conditions, wingloading, turn methods, climb-out tactics, course tactics, control surface set-up, and much more. Combine the flight challenge with all the manly chit-chat and you have the makings of a fun day at the slope. I may be hooked.
And remember that picture from the F3F race that I had up at the end of March? – you see a version of it above. Well, I couldn't help it, I had to make it into a t-shirt. You can order t-shirts and sweatshirts from CafePress. There will be more F3F-specific designs in the future, so I called the whole thing "sub40."
Steve Lange (Pro)Creates!
Our good buddy Steve Lange (aka surfimp) has two new creations to crow about. One is the long-awaited debut of www.slopeaerobatics.com a great new resource for those who love to test a slope plane's ability to stay in the air while doing the multi-dimensional mambo, and the other is the birth of his second son, Paulo Eugenio Esteban Lange. Mother Tessa and baby Paulo are doing fine. We assume older brother, Jose Luis, will eventually pound his younger brother into shape. That's what brothers are for, right?!
But really, Steve, take a break, you're making the rest of us look bad!
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