If anyone has any information about Bob i would be grateful to speak to them. Trying to build up a picture of a member of the family who lives so far away is a difficult task, and any help would be grately appreciated.
Thanks very much
Phil
Bob England
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GuernseyPhil
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- Location: Guernsey, UK
Bob England
I'm trying to find out as much information about Bob England as I can. He was my Uncle. I hadn't seen him since i was 5 years old. Although I have tried finding out information about him, until I heard about this website, I had been unsuccessful. I was 12 when my mum (Bob's sister) received the news of his death. It is still a painful subject for her.
If anyone has any information about Bob i would be grateful to speak to them. Trying to build up a picture of a member of the family who lives so far away is a difficult task, and any help would be grately appreciated.
Thanks very much
Phil
If anyone has any information about Bob i would be grateful to speak to them. Trying to build up a picture of a member of the family who lives so far away is a difficult task, and any help would be grately appreciated.
Thanks very much
Phil
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Jaco Herbst
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Ames
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Re: Bob England
GuernseyPhil wrote:I'm trying to find out as much information about Bob England as I can. He was my Uncle. I hadn't seen him since i was 5 years old. Although I have tried finding out information about him, until I heard about this website, I had been unsuccessful. I was 12 when my mum (Bob's sister) received the news of his death. It is still a painful subject for her.
If anyone has any information about Bob i would be grateful to speak to them. Trying to build up a picture of a member of the family who lives so far away is a difficult task, and any help would be grately appreciated.
Thanks very much
Phil
Try
http://www.zenadsl2877.zen.co.uk/videog ... ndex2.html
Also PM sent
Nick
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Nick Palmer
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Everard
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Was this the same as the Gannet? I remember him flying a bowsprit wing of his own design on the Southern Club sites (including Mill Hill, Shoreham) in 1980. As I recall, it was yellow and, instead of the usual kind of keel pocket, it just had chords or thin strips of fabric. That demonstrated that the popular notion of the keel pocket acting like a fin was imaginary (if such a demonstration was necessary, given that it was such a poor aspect ratio and so close to the center of mass).On the paragliding forum, Sputnik1 wrote:...Super Griffin...
It seems likely to me that, when Waspair took on the manufacture of the Gannet, likely they renamed it Gryphon 2 because they manufactured the earlier Gryphon, designed by Miles Handley. (Can anyone confirm or deny this theory?)
I love the smell of napalm - in the morning.
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Nick Palmer
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morey000
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I knew him years ago, although not very well, when he flew at Kagel mountain (near los angeles). Nice guy, and outstanding paraglider pilot (and HG pilot previous to that).
I can still pretty vividly remember making turns with him- wingtip to wingtip, me in my Hang Glider then, and he in a paraglider.
<sniff>
On June 1st, the following was posted by Dino DiNasio on the OzReport-Blog http://ozreport.com/blog.php
Bob England: It was ten years ago.
Bob England
It was ten years ago.
Dino D DiNaso <dinoddd> writes:
A lot of people flew gliders that Bob created. Unfortunately there was no formal farewell done in any publication when he flew off into the great beyond.
Bob England died in a paragliding accident June 1, 1996 at Torrey Pines (10 years ago) He was flying an early model Apco Zen when he had his accident. Few people know that this was the same design that Willy Muller was flying when he died.
Bob was a hang glider designer that worked for Hiway, Delta Wing and Pacific Windcraft. He worked on projects such as the Super Griffin, The Demon, The Streak, The Mystic, The Dream, the Vision Eclipse and many others. He was an all around special person. Thanks for sharing your ideas and time with us Bob, we miss you.
I can still pretty vividly remember making turns with him- wingtip to wingtip, me in my Hang Glider then, and he in a paraglider.
<sniff>
On June 1st, the following was posted by Dino DiNasio on the OzReport-Blog http://ozreport.com/blog.php
Bob England: It was ten years ago.
Bob England
It was ten years ago.
Dino D DiNaso <dinoddd> writes:
A lot of people flew gliders that Bob created. Unfortunately there was no formal farewell done in any publication when he flew off into the great beyond.
Bob England died in a paragliding accident June 1, 1996 at Torrey Pines (10 years ago) He was flying an early model Apco Zen when he had his accident. Few people know that this was the same design that Willy Muller was flying when he died.
Bob was a hang glider designer that worked for Hiway, Delta Wing and Pacific Windcraft. He worked on projects such as the Super Griffin, The Demon, The Streak, The Mystic, The Dream, the Vision Eclipse and many others. He was an all around special person. Thanks for sharing your ideas and time with us Bob, we miss you.
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Bernard
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GuernseyPhil
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tonyw
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bob England
Bob was a regular contributor to the newsletter of the Avon Hang gliding Club. This was an article which he wrote in 1978 which I posted on the Avon HGC archive:
http://www.avonhgpg.co.uk/articles.php? ... ype=4&id=0
Date: 01/04/1978
Author: Bob England
Contributor: Tony Williams
Aarh, but we've a lot to learn about these elusive bubbles of hot air. Case in question: Bratten Camp, Friday 17tb. Wind slightly east at times but mostly very good 14 -18 m.p.b. Thermals patchy but often useful, everyone having reasonably comfortable flights and top landings. Occasionally a thermal would bump people up to 5-600 ft. and it was on one particularly good such occasion that Nigel Milnes on a Mariah (my Mariah in fact), and myself on John B's 8 managed to circle over the top towards the car park going rapidly up while our optimism soared to new heights in 1978. At around 850 ft. while sizing up the area behind Bratten and the cloud formations, the lift became less pronounced we had lost it. Although there was still lift around, it seemed the blob bad overtaken us, Nigel scooted back to the ridge then and there, while I persisted a bit longer before deciding 950 ft. and weaker lift were not good enough for a cross country. Case One.
It just so happened that the following day, with light South Westerly forecast - a day of stunning mediocrity at Mere, while driving such stoic flyers as Ray Willis home early at a really Welsh site _ turned out to be exceptionally good at"Merthy Tadpolel'. The Fack twins, Nigel and myself arrived to find the rest of the flyers dormant, "resting between flights", while a Moonraker soared 2-300 ft. in what appeared very bumpy conditions. Not unduly perturbed we commenced rigging. During this process I observed a strong smell. As there was no one particularly unsavoury upwind, and noticing the increase in temperature, I concluded it must be a strong Welsh thermal. Welsh, as the characteristic smell of steel works and the like, being sucked up from the valley below appears an experiencepeculiar to the valleys. The assumed thermal was confirmed by the Moonraker, now 8-900 ft. above the top, and our appetite had been wetted.
As it was late in the day this marked the end of the clearly defined thermals although some good height gains were made until early evening when cloud became thicker. Although it had been the best day's flying so far in this country I was left pondering on what I was doing wrong.
Conclusion: Rather than accept it was my poor flying that lost it for me, I can only conclude that it must be the ridge breaking up the thermal immediately downwind, and had I persisted, I would probably have been rewarded with its reformation, an apparently common occurrence supported by the experience of glider pilots. The moral must be 'Go with it, young man". If you find yourself with the comfortable height to clear any obvious rotor, with any possible forced landing presenting no difficulty then stick with it, for better or worse, the attraction is the frustration of missed opportunities, with the possible addition of an ignominious scrabble for base, and the loss of all that glorious height.
Contributor's Notes:
Bob England was an excellent pilot. He was a member of the UK team on several occasions. He also dabbled in glider design producing the cross-boomless Gannet and contributing to the design of the Hiway Demon. He moved to California in the 1980's. He was killed in a paragliding accident in the 90's at Torrey Pines.
Having read some of the other details on his career I think I may have rather undersold him whenI described him as "dabbling" in hang glider design
http://www.avonhgpg.co.uk/articles.php? ... ype=4&id=0
Date: 01/04/1978
Author: Bob England
Contributor: Tony Williams
Aarh, but we've a lot to learn about these elusive bubbles of hot air. Case in question: Bratten Camp, Friday 17tb. Wind slightly east at times but mostly very good 14 -18 m.p.b. Thermals patchy but often useful, everyone having reasonably comfortable flights and top landings. Occasionally a thermal would bump people up to 5-600 ft. and it was on one particularly good such occasion that Nigel Milnes on a Mariah (my Mariah in fact), and myself on John B's 8 managed to circle over the top towards the car park going rapidly up while our optimism soared to new heights in 1978. At around 850 ft. while sizing up the area behind Bratten and the cloud formations, the lift became less pronounced we had lost it. Although there was still lift around, it seemed the blob bad overtaken us, Nigel scooted back to the ridge then and there, while I persisted a bit longer before deciding 950 ft. and weaker lift were not good enough for a cross country. Case One.
It just so happened that the following day, with light South Westerly forecast - a day of stunning mediocrity at Mere, while driving such stoic flyers as Ray Willis home early at a really Welsh site _ turned out to be exceptionally good at"Merthy Tadpolel'. The Fack twins, Nigel and myself arrived to find the rest of the flyers dormant, "resting between flights", while a Moonraker soared 2-300 ft. in what appeared very bumpy conditions. Not unduly perturbed we commenced rigging. During this process I observed a strong smell. As there was no one particularly unsavoury upwind, and noticing the increase in temperature, I concluded it must be a strong Welsh thermal. Welsh, as the characteristic smell of steel works and the like, being sucked up from the valley below appears an experiencepeculiar to the valleys. The assumed thermal was confirmed by the Moonraker, now 8-900 ft. above the top, and our appetite had been wetted.
As it was late in the day this marked the end of the clearly defined thermals although some good height gains were made until early evening when cloud became thicker. Although it had been the best day's flying so far in this country I was left pondering on what I was doing wrong.
Conclusion: Rather than accept it was my poor flying that lost it for me, I can only conclude that it must be the ridge breaking up the thermal immediately downwind, and had I persisted, I would probably have been rewarded with its reformation, an apparently common occurrence supported by the experience of glider pilots. The moral must be 'Go with it, young man". If you find yourself with the comfortable height to clear any obvious rotor, with any possible forced landing presenting no difficulty then stick with it, for better or worse, the attraction is the frustration of missed opportunities, with the possible addition of an ignominious scrabble for base, and the loss of all that glorious height.
Contributor's Notes:
Bob England was an excellent pilot. He was a member of the UK team on several occasions. He also dabbled in glider design producing the cross-boomless Gannet and contributing to the design of the Hiway Demon. He moved to California in the 1980's. He was killed in a paragliding accident in the 90's at Torrey Pines.
Having read some of the other details on his career I think I may have rather undersold him whenI described him as "dabbling" in hang glider design