High-flying LOHAN fan raises ale-filled tankard We like to take the opportunity this fine May morning to once again thank all of those who backed our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Kickstarter campaign, and in particular the discerning backers who opted for a tankard as a reward. As many of them will attest, we've had a few issues getting intact glassware into …
LOHAN, like PARIS, is a bit of fun - that I fully get and endorse. But LOHAN has been bumbling on for 4 years now: http://www.theregister.co.uk/science/lohan/earlier/4/ Any interest is well past it and these "articles" clog up El Reg with a topic that I and others lost interest on years ago after a lack of progress. Time to put it to bed as a well intentioned, but vapourware reminiscent, project and either start something new (with shorter timescales!) to get excited about or abandon these "projects" altogether IMO.
"Time to put it to bed as a well intentioned, but vapourware reminiscent, project "
You have a point, but vapourware is a little harsh I feel.
Sure, by the time the FAA gets its thumb out of its bum we might have hover boards and cars that don't need roads, but I don't imagine we'll be going on skiing holidays in hell, which is what we'll be doing by the time 'Half-Life 2: Episode Three' finally gets released...
I don't know what your definition of vapourware is but there's a fully designed, built, sim flight tested 3D printer spaceplane with fully tested, completely custom launch rig, ignition mechanism, failsafe cutdown, avionics and, most importantly, backronyms courtesy of an awful lot of people who are very much behind this incredibly complex, ambitious and first of its kind endeavour. They even have a spaceport ready for use, FFS.
Yes it's turned out to be a lot more complicated than anyone could have imagined at the beginning but the team have been fully flight ready for a considerable amount of time. As soon as the FAA issue the papers the world will witness the firepower of this fully armed* and operational spaceplane.
If you're bored with it already then quit being such a bloody wet blanket and read some of the many non-LOHAN articles on this website instead.
* BRASTRAP, natch.
Fair rebuttals on the whole, particularly regarding my "vapourware" flippancy and I'll always take an accusation of being young! Judging by the up/down votes at the moment (6 up, 7 down) I think it is more split on supporters vs those of us a little bored by it, than the comments suggest. Perhaps just feed this back into any future SPB endeavours :)
Oooh, count me in on a whisky (note correct spelling... none of this "whiskey" imitation of the proper thing) tumbler.
Not sure if this is the right place to raise a complaint though, but I appear not to have got one of the ale-filled tankards - mine arrived completely empty. Perhaps I'm holding it wrong though...
LOHAN Pewter tankard or bust.
Best have a glass/perspex window in the bottom, mind. Finding the shilling in the bottom, post-chug, would be an awful shock.
The old man used to have a number of good examples of said vessel from various squadrons. No glass bottom though as the daft bugger had already signed up.
The pilot in the glider cockpit (Martin) is holding the joystick with his left hand. Martin in the picture is holding the tankard in his right hand but..it's a left-handed tankard!
This confuses me so I would be grateful to El Reg and friends to correct or explain this om nom nom anomaly please.
The pilot is holding the stick with his left because he's using the right hand to hold the camera he's using to take the photo. Martin is holding his right handed tankard with his right hand as normal.
The left handed tankard is a one-off mutant variety created for El Reg's Drew Cullen.
Ooh six minutes until I can hoist a tankard of ale. Wonderful.
I swapped hands to take the snap because on small cameras, whether 35mm film or digital, the position of the shutter release forces you to use your right hand when shooting single-handed. This photo was taken with a Ricoh GR1.
All gliders are set up for right-handers but in practise you use both hands: right on the stick and left for the trimmer, air brakes and twiddling knobs on the panel. Many gliders, including the Standard Libelle, have the undercarriage retract lever on the right, so flying left handed is no big deal for their pilots. I do that twice every flight, raising the main wheel after release and, somewhat later, lowering it before joining the circuit for landing.
The Glasflugel Libelle is IMHO one of the most elegant gliders ever built. That thing just looks stunning from every angle. The only downside is that it's too sleek and compact for me to fit comfortably.
One of my fellow clubmembers (a slightly elderly pipe smoking gentleman who rarely flies nowadays) has an early Libelle he lovingly restored himself. That thing is a beauty. He would always get on the horn to the winch himself to talk to the winch driver about how he needed to be started slow and careful. After 2 or 3 starts with me driving he never called again if he knew I was on the throttle. He simply refused to be towed by any plane/pilot he didn't know.
The Glasflugel Libelle is IMHO one of the most elegant gliders ever built. That thing just looks stunning from every angle. Absolutely - I thought that as soon as I set eyes on one. Not only that but, with the exception of weak airbrakes, they handle as well as they look and slip really well.
The only downside is that it's too sleek and compact for me to fit comfortably. Bad luck, but there's still hope for you. One of our instructors has an H.205 Club Libelle, which he likes a lot. The cockpit is a lot roomier, the canopy is hinged, it has powerful trailing-edge brakes and they cost about half the price of a Standard Libelle and look a bit like a Schumanised H.301 with a T-tail. The only downside is a fixed main wheel, but from what he says, the effect on XC performance is minimal. If you want to know more, you can find my e-mail address on my website (linked from Lester's article).
It's an option I've looked into, but right now I still need to do my first XC flight. Not quite ready to buy my own wings yet.
The club libelle is also just not as sleek looking as the standard. That sleek bubble canopy really sets it apart from a lot of other ships.
As a definitively kay-neived cuddy-wifter (or Mollie Dooker for our southern hemisphere cousins) I am more than happy to gaze upon the glorious LOHAN logo whilst consuming a tasty beverage form its solid structure! I can also confirm, possibly sacrilegiously, that it serves very well as a vessel for conveying an adequate quantity of Yorkshire Gold tea-based goodness to my work-addled brain.
It only seems fair that I get to enjoy the image as I was the one wot coughed the requisite for it!
(icon is a lefty can-chaser - it almost seems too appropriate!)
The title says it all, really. Just want to mope and feel sad for myself, wishing that I could toast even the most meagre of advances in the LOHAN project with my favoured brew - but that brew belongs in a fine china mug more that it does even the best of tankards. And after I was the one to suggest to Lester that he creates the perfect KS tier to provide said vessel and suitable rainment: http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2282444
I shall now retreat and plan to spend an evening playing Jeff Minter games with some suitably bleak and mug-less music playing via WinAmp (old-school moping).
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