From: Bob Kuykendall
To: hp-glider@yahoogroups.comI have some doubts that the pod is Kevlar as it says. I know that Dick wrote about using Kevlar for what he called the HP-18A, but I didn't think that that project went anywhere. I know that the carbon fiber spar caps they made for the 18A eventually went to the HP-19. There are notations for special materials for at least one HP; specifically an RS-15 molded in epoxy instead of polyester. I'll check the file for #44 and see if there's anything there.
The Reno man who was killed in the F1 accident was Fred Wofford, whose notes appear in the 1976 Soaring articles. His old dome house in the south end of the Palomino valley is one of my favorite turnpoints at the Air Sailing contests. If you're high on a final glide, you can catch Air Sailing turn, zip out to Wofford's and back, and catch Air Sailing gate for a finish.
Thanks, and best regards to all
Bob K.P.S. I just checked the file for HP-18 S/N 44, and there's nothing in there about the pod being Kevlar. I think that the seller might have just read the introduction to the Articles, and from the part about the proposed HP-18A assumed that all pods would be Kevlar.
In actuality, all HP-18 pods that I know of (except one) are made from thick fiberglass cloth ("boat cloth" some call it) in polyester resin. The one exception I know of is the pod that Bob Leonard made for his LHP-18, which was done using finer cloth in epoxy. Bob made his pod from plaster splashes he pulled from a borrowed pod. A neat act of Builder Resourcefulness.