Pre-flight: Sport 3

[@GlideLA]

Be certain to fully open the center zipper and stick your head inside and inspect all visible spars for denting, damage and corrosion. Also check that the VG pulleys are clear and the VG rope is not snagged. Also check the rope that holds the crossbar hinge from rising up to high and damaging the center battens and batten pockets. Also, the backup loop quick link needs to be inspected to be certain that the nut has not opened up. Additionally, the backup loop needs to be on top of the VG rope in the event the keel breaks in flight. Good job on opening the elastic on the king post so that the nut is inspected. Those jam nuts must never be used more than one time. They cost about a quarter each in bulk and should be thrown away every time they are removed. Myself and several others I know have had our hang straps come off on one side in flight when the nut backed off. Keep up the good work!

[@bustedkeel]

All good ideas!

[@GlideLA]

@@bustedkeel We're all in this together, thanks.

[@whiskytango17]

Thank you so much for posting this. If you’re ever taking requests could you do a “how to put your glider back in the bag” for the sport 3? There’s nothing solid out there on KZbin.

[@bustedkeel]

Maybe. I could also show you sometime when you're breaking down. Main thing is to protect the sail everywhere.

[@christophergagliano2051]

Well that was a pretty good preflight, one thing I would have checked was the VG system up in the sail and if the glider is so equipped the swinging crossbar. I failed the check that on a pre-flight in the swinging cross bar was not swinging. Meaning I had a major turn right after lunch and it put me back in the hill hard, so hard it broke the base tube on a huge rock. Thank God my parachute cushion the blow to my chest. Also cracked my helmet on another rock. You might want to mention that you should do an annual inspection and seriously look at every connection.

[@bustedkeel]

So if I understand, the floating crossbar wasn't moving side to side? What caused that?

[@christophergagliano2051]

@@bustedkeel this was an older Moyes glider with a mechanical swinging (floating) crossbar that was attached to the keel. One small part of the assembly was slightly bent and there are some grit / sand in the assembly. The turn after takeoff was so bad I did a 540° circle before I hit the hill. My buddies thought I was showing off right up to impact 😆

[@charliemotakpochop]

dont have a S3 but I'm usually checking also the bolt/nut holding downtubes up by the keel

[@bustedkeel]

Right, I actually thought about mentioning it but skipped it because I rarely look at it because it isn't possible for that nut to come off with the way you have to disconnect the downtube and turn the whole fitting to turn the nut. It's a neat safety design. It will be pretty noticeable if that somehow wasn't done. On some gliders like the Falcon 1 and others where the nut isn't wedged into the fitting it's more important to check it.

[@charliemotakpochop]

Didn't know. Thanks for info.

[@ถวิลแก้วบุญเพิ่ม]

How much