Oz Report

Downloading and scoring

(Mt. Borah, Manilla, Australia)

CIVL|David Glover|Jamie Shelden|PG

CIVL|David Glover|Flytec 6030|Jamie Shelden|PG

As I am flying in the competitions as well as scoring some of them using my script program in SeeYou for OzGAP 2005, I am very interested in having some one else downloading the day's flights so that they can be read later by SeeYou.  The download program needs to create IGC files from the GPS download of each pilot's track log.

As a competition pilot I need the hours that it takes to download to rest, write the Oz Report, eat, and prepare my equipment for the next day.  I might want to take a quick nap after driving back from goal and then get to the scoring late in the evening (hopefully before midnight) or early the next morning.

I like very much the idea of dividing scoring into two main functions: Downloading GPSes and scoring based on the track logs.  Downloading is really two functions.  Downloading the GPS and displaying the flight relative to the task so that the pilot and the person downloading the flight can confirm at that time that the download is correct.

Also if you have a "loose" competition with say lots of "new" competition pilots who aren't well versed in the use of GPSes, the download person might be taking down landing coordinates (that can't be used automatically by the scoring system and must be used to manually score the flight) or not downloading some flights at all because the pilot doesn't have the GPS and/or they landed in the bomb out zone, so what's the point of the download?

I would hope that the person doing the downloading would not have to have a great deal of expertise when it comes to scoring, or downloading, or using computers for that matter.  This would broaden the field of possible candidates who could take on this task.  I would like to be able to give them a set of instructions, or a quick training session on the first night, and just let them go at it after that.

I would have setup the computer before hand to make sure that all the required software and drivers are there and tested it to make sure that it works (most likely under real world circumstances on the first night after a preliminary test with a few GPSes the day before). Hopefully it is all ready to go when the pilots start piling in.

I would have to setup the download computer with the task before the person started downloading if they are going to display the flight to the pilot to check it. It would be much quicker if they didn't have to carry out this task, as they could just download one flight after another.  But it is good to spot problems early.  A nice semi-solution is to have another computer networked to the first one and allow the pilot to sit at it and bring up his/her flight to review.  This requires training pilots on how to do this.

I've tried various methods to get this "system" to work.  It depends greatly on the level of expertise and understanding and general experience and education of the person doing the downloading so nothing is really systematic.  Also, nothing is automatic about the download software.  It works 90% of the time, but it is the 10% of the time that it doesn't work that causes the problems.

The first option is to use GPSDump, software made specifically to handle the job of downloading a whole set of GPSes used by hang glider and paraglider pilots.  GPSDump is a nifty little program that is integrated with FS, the CIVL backed scoring program.  While its default setting is to save tracklogs as KML files it is quite easy to save them at IGC files instead, which is what I need for my SeeYou scoring program.

At the NSW State Titles we started off using GPSDump (version 4.29) just as we had last year at the Santa Cruz Flats Race, the East Coast Championship and Big Spring Internationals (using earlier versions of GPSDump). Given the personnel (Jamie Shelden and then David Glover), that worked well.

When we got to the NSW State Titles it all fell apart.  GPSDump 4.29 had a few features and a few problems.  SeeYou version 3.91 had even more problems.  The combination was deadly.

GPSDump version 4.29 had a new feature that allows port numbers to be set without consulting the registry.  Maybe this was causing a problem.  We normally run four copies of GPSDump each one assigned to a different physical port, but the new version didn't seem to allow us to do this, and we couldn't tell which instance of GPSDump was assigned to which port and they kept changing.

Also somehow half a dozen of the GPSDump IGC files got their time stamp screwed up so that they didn't show up correctly in SeeYou.

Then there was the major bug with the new version of SeeYou (3.91) which wouldn't read IGC files taken from Garmin GPSes (and did a divide by zero).

Fortunately (thanks to Warren Simonsen) we were able to upload an earlier version of SeeYou which fixed the Garmin problem.  Also got a fixed beta version of 3.92 a day later from Andrej at Naviter which solved this problem.

With all these problems, we switched over to downloading with SeeYou on day three.  You might ask why we didn't do this before.  Well, GPSDump is a free program.  It allows you to do multiple downloads at once.  It previously had much better COM port control than SeeYou, which was always slow at finding the ports.  It was easier to put in the name of the IGC file (we named them the last name of the pilot + the task number and stored them in the Task# folder for each task, just to keep things straight as I had to take these files and associate them with a pilot and task in SeeYou).

Also (we found this out later) GPSDump allows you to combine bits and pieces of track logs from the GPS (this is a big issue with Garmins) to create one IGC file.  A lot of our pilots didn't seem to realize that they had to have fresh batteries in their Garmins, so we got a lot of track logs in three pieces that in the end required that I do some manual calculations to determine where these pilots went.

When we switched to SeeYou things got better.  It wasn't all that hard to change the name of the IGC file to the pilot's last name + task number.  It was reasonably easy to get the file to the right folder.  The earlier version of SeeYou could download Garmins without any problems.  Monica, who was doing the downloads, could display the flight and know right away if it was correct.  It couldn't lash various pieces of Garmins track logs together into a coherent file though.  So I got these in pieces.

Now it is possible to display flight downloaded with GPSDump in FS Flight, but only if you save them at KML files, which would be in addition to saving them as IGC files.  SeeYou displays the flights automatically when you download them.  I would have to install FS Flight and train the download person to use it also.  Also I would have to put up the task in both FS and SeeYou.  Also FS Flight does not display the flight nearly as nicely as SeeYou does.

Now you see that I've had to train Monica to use two different pieces of software just to do downloads, but it doesn't end there.  Soon Flytec 6030's started acting up with SeeYou.  This is an old problem, and it seems to keep coming back like from the dead.  Monica had to resort to bringing 6030's home at night for me to download with FlyChart.  I guess I could have taught her how to use that software also, but that would be three pieces that she needed training and a little help on.

The Flytec 6030 problems may have had something to do with the drivers and they may have started acting up with GSDump also (but by then we weren't using it). The drivers were fine at first.  I tried to download the first 6030  that showed the problem and it wouldn't download correctly with SeeYou on my computer, so I went to FlyChart.

In the end we got it all done with a little bit of headache from Monica and I. Software and hardware together just barely work, as far as I can tell, and it takes someone with some level of experience to hold the hold thing together with the equivalent of chewing gum and baling wire.

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The Moyes Litesport in comparison

(Mt. Borah, Manilla, Australia)

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

I had a few opportunities to glide next to other pilots while flying the Moyes Litesport 4 at the NSW State Titles.  I've taken the time to look closely at the flights and pick out times where there maybe a useful comparison.

On the first day I glided a couple of times with Jonas Blecher.  He was flying an Airborne C4-13.5. On the first glide of 2.67 miles, he had an L/D of 14.5 and I 12.9. He was going downwind at 56 mph (over the ground with a 12 mph tail wind) while I was going at 51 mph.

On the second glide of over 4.5 miles, I had a glide ratio of 8.5 while his was 9.3. He was flying at 53 mph over the ground and I at 51.

On the fifth day.  Blay, Jonny and I started off together, I slightly in front.  I lost about 1,500' for a glide ratio of 12.9 over not quite four miles.  Blay lost about 1,400' for a glide ratio of 14.3, and Jonny about 1,200' over a little more than four miles for a glide ratio of 17.9. We had a five mph tail wind, and Blay flew at 51 mph, Jonny at 48, and me at 45.

On the seventh day, we topped out in a thermal near each other then I went out in front and raced into a head wind a little over 2.5 miles to the turnpoint at four corners.  I lost a little more than 2000' and had a glide ratio of 6.9. Jonny lost 2,800' and glided at 5.4:1. Blay lost 2,900' and had a glide ratio of 5. I flew at 31 mph over the ground, Jonny 31 mph, and Blay 28 mph.

The flights can be found here.

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The Victorian Fires and Climate Change

(Kinglake, Australia)

record

Real Climate article

Maximum temperature:

This is the easiest factor to consider.  Melbourne and much of Victoria had record high maximum temperatures on 7 February (2). Melbourne set a new record maximum of 46.4°C, 0.8°C hotter than the previous all-time record on Black Friday 1939 and 3°C higher than the previous February record set on 8 February 1983 (the day of a dramatic dust storm in Melbourne), based on more than 100 years of observations.  But maybe the urban heat island in Melbourne has influenced these new records.

That may be true for Melbourne, but many other stations in Victoria set new all-time record maximum temperatures on 7 February, including the high-quality rural site of Laverton, near Melbourne, with a new record maximum temperature of 47.5°C, 2.5°C higher than its previous record in 1983.

The extreme heat wave on 7 February came after another record-setting heat wave 10 days earlier, with Melbourne experiencing three days in a row with maximum temperatures higher than 43°C during 28-30 January, unprecedented in 154 years of Melbourne observations.  A remarkable image of the surface temperature anomalies associated with this heat wave is available from the NASA Earth Observatory.

Increases of mean temperature and mean maximum temperature in Australia have been attributed to anthropogenic climate change, as reported in the IPCC Fourth Assessment, with a best estimate of the anthropogenic contribution to mean maximum temperature increases of about 0.6°C from 1950 to 1999 (Karoly and Braganza, 2005).

A recent analysis of observed and modeled extremes in Australia finds a trend to warming of temperature extremes and a significant increase in the duration of heat waves from 1957 to 1999 (Alexander and Arblaster, 2009). Hence, anthropogenic climate change is likely an important contributing factor in the unprecedented maximum temperatures on 7 February 2009.

We are often affected by fires in Victoria when we fly from Mt. Beauty and Bright at the Bogong Cup.

The whole article is fascinating, especially the discussion about the extreme fire conditions on those days.

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Jonny in Austria for the CIVL Plenary

(Hall,+Austria)

CIVL|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo

Jonny's photos.

No word on how the bid for the Worlds is going.  Jonny told me just before he went that there was no way that he was going to Austria, too cold.

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Extreme sports

(Solvang, CA)

bicycle|extreme sports|Francisco Mancebo

There have been quite a few serious injuries at the Tour of California, something that doesn't get much coverage.  Today the King of the Mountain leader and winner of the first day, Francisco Mancebo, was taken to the hospital after hitting a rock going downhill at 60 mph.  I don't want to be that close to the ground at 60 mph.

Injuries

Francisco Mancebo

While it is hard to get killed in bike racing there sure appear to be quite a few serious injuries.  Broken legs, broken collar bones, broken ribs, and more.  Maybe it is an extreme sport as is hang gliding and should be considered as such.

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CIVL Plenary

(Hall,+Austria)

CIVL|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Dennis Pagen|PG

http://corinnaflies.blogspot.com/

Today the second half of the long list of topics was discussed, with one hang gliding and one paragliding group.  Specially interesting the long topic in the end: sprog measurements.  Dennis Pagen mentioned two major problems experienced so far by the CIVL:

1. How to find standards for the measurements.

2. How to find enough people to do the measurements with all the gliders.

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Italy wins ⁢2011 Worlds⁣ site

(Sigillo, PG, Italy)

CIVL|Facebook|Worlds|Worlds 2011

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51524358866

By a vote of 16 to 13 Sigillo and Montecucco in Italy won the bid for the 2011 Class 1 Worlds over Forbes.

Italian bid Not much there.  No discussion (denies) of the actual airspace issues.  States that pilots can't use 2m radios, that's weird.

The mayor of Sigillo was at the CIVL meeting and promised 100,000 Euros to the meet.  The budget shows 40,000, so that must have gone up. No real indication if this is money or services, or a mix.  No indication of what this money will do for the pilots.  The entry fee is still high at 450 Euros.  No prize money.

Montecucco is a good site for the Worlds.  But, it is in Europe.  The Europeans already have a Category I competition every two years, the Europeans, which pilots from outside Europe are effectively denied entry into.  So having two Category I competitions in Europe is a bit much.

It appears to me from earlier indications that Montecucco got the Worlds because European pilots didn't want to have to pay the additional expense of flying to Australia.  Of course, we Americans still have to pay.  As do the South Americans, Australians, etc.

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Sprogs

(Laragne-Montéglin, France)

CIVL|Corinna Schwiegershausen|sprogs

http://corinnaflies.blogspot.com/

Motion to add the following to the local regulation for HG worlds at Laragne 2009.

All competing pilots’ gliders sprogs should be measured at registration, using the procedures established by the sprog settings working group, manufacturer and certification bodies that have certified the glider being measured.

If sprogs settings are found to be too low during the measurement, pilots are allowed to adjust the sprogs, and new measures are taken.  The pilot is not allowed to fly in the competition until the sprogs on the pilots glider are found to be within a measuring tolerance defined by the CIVL working group below the certified or manufacturers setting.

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