Oz Report

Thanks to the LA and Santa Barbara area pilots

They've made my stay in southern California so much better (Eliminator)

While the flying conditions due to Santa Anas have not been that great in December at Marshall (only a couple of flyable days), the closest launch to me when I'm in Cathedral City, I have had a great time flying at all the popular launches.  Thanks goes first to Wills Wing, Rob Kells, Steve Pearson, Mike and Linda Meier for the loan of their Falcon 3-170, and more recently their T2-144.  I very much enjoyed flying their gliders.

Thanks also to Rob and Diane McKenzie for their support of my flying at Marshall (and for donating their labor to the creation of my new straps) and to Joe Greblo for his very generous support of my flights at Kagel/Sylmar.  In addition, thanks to the great welcome from the Santa Barbara area pilots including John Greynald and Anne-Odile (Skippy) Thomas who also provided great support.

Discuss Thanks at the Oz Report forum

USHPA - behind the eight ball?

(This topic is in: <- Feb.22'07 Dec.26 Oct.27 Oct.24 Oct.10 --> )

Why can't the USHPA competition committee get it together to publish the latest NTSS ranking?

http://www.ushpa.aero/compresults.asp

http://www.ushpa.aero/competition/results/2007class1ntss.htm

Possible US National team members and possible US National team leader are expressing frustration with the USHPA, the executive committee, the competition committee, and Russ Locke, repeatedly asking when and if the latest NTSS ranking is going to be posted on the USHPA web site.  The team can't organize itself unless it knows who its members are and Chris Smith's position (on or off) the team.

The NTSS ranking hasn't been updated since Ron Gleason was last responsible for doing so last summer, and it doesn't include the results of the Gulgong Classic.  Chris Smith did very well at the Gulgong Classic and it could have easily moved from seventh place to sixth place and therefore on the team.

The final results of the NTSS ranking would normally (say, a year ago when it was my job to update the NTSS ranking) appear right after the Gulgong meet (in November).  But the potential team members have yet to see the latest NTSS ranking and they have expressed great concern to me and to the USHPA.

When can we see some resolution on this from the USHPA?

Discuss Eight Ball at the Oz Report forum

Is your FAI Sporting License at risk?

FAI can withdraw your FAI Sporting License if you enter a non sanctioned event.

According to the FAI Sporting Code General Section 3.3.1 the FAI:

The FAI and NACs shall only recognise sporting events that are held in accordance with FAI rules.  They are entitled to withhold or withdraw the Sporting Licence of any competitor entering a non-recognised event.

Non recognized events appear to be flying events that are not FAI/CIVL sanctioned.  Events like say, the Segelflugszene and DHV HOLC, or perhaps the spot landing contest held on the last day of the 2006 Big Spring pre-Worlds?  Many US competitions over the years have not been CIVL sanctioned and pilot received NTSS from the USHPA which got them on the US National team and allowed them to qualify to fly in the FAI/CIVL Worlds.

So the FAI/CIVL gives itself the power to withhold or withdraw its Sporting License if you enter a non sanctioned event.  When paragliding pilots first flew in the Paragliding World Cup they were threatened with withdrawal of their FAI Sporting License.

The top paraglider pilots threatened to not fly in the "FAI/CIVL World Championships" and after a few years the PWC was made an official FAI sanctioned event (see here: http://events.fai.org/paragliding/calendar.asp) .

I wonder under what circumstances FAI/CIVL would actually act on this provision.

http://www.fai.org/documents/sportingcode

Discuss Sporting License at the Oz Report forum

Sao Paulo Championship

The Wills Wing T2 comes in first and second (Sao Paulo)

http://www.willswing.com/news.asp?newsSeek=291

Leo Dabbur <leodabbur> writes:

Last weekend we finished our season of competitions with the state of Sao Paulo Championship which I won and Nene took 2nd place.  Both of us were flying Wills Wing T2's.

Discuss Sao Paulo at the Oz Report forum

Spy satellites follow us around

The spy satellite follow us around as we travel from flight park to flight park (Cloud Nine)

Check here (zoom in to the 3^rd closest step).  Tracy Tillman writes:

A Mapquest aerial view of the Cloud 9 Field.  Your trailer is shown in our back yard, and your ATOS VR is shown out in front.

See here: http://ozreport.com/10.185#1 for a satellite photo of us at Quest Air.

Discuss Spy satellites at the Oz Report forum

The programmable web

The Oz Report site guide is part of Web 2.0

http://www.programmableweb.com/api/GoogleMaps/mashups

Search for "hang gliding".

Discuss Web at the Oz Report forum

Old thermal studies

Looking for the invisible (Boulder Airport)

UltraSport <pedey1> sends:

The Soaring Society of Boulder (SSB) scientific study of 'thermal waves.'

http://www.ucar.edu/communications/quarterly/fall98/glider.html

Discuss Thermals at the Oz Report forum

My Christmas present to you

The day I wore my bicycle helmet (Plumley and Gerald Ford)

http://ozreport.com/data/kmz/Accidentspot.kmz

It wasn't until about two years ago that I started wearing a helmet when I rode my bicycle.  I grew up in a time where bicycle helmets were unknown and for fifty seven years I had not really seen a need for one.  I had never had an accident that would have necessitated a helmet to keep me from harm.

Still I had worried from time to time when I was in traffic or when drivers deliberately attempted to do me harm.  I just used my wit and quickness to avoid problems.

It wasn't until I was wandering through an REI store one day that I looked more closely at bike helmets and finally found one that fit my large ( 7 5/8") misshapen head and was actually adjustable.  It was over $100, but with Belinda's encouragement, I felt that it was a reasonable purchase.

That doesn't mean I started wearing it right away.  I had been doing just fine without one for so many years, ever since my dad got me that really little yellow bike and sent me on my way.  I didn't feel a great need for the helmet, after all I had survived numerous thousand mile rides through the western US and eastern Canada.

The helmet looked dorky, made me feel dorky, and was a bother.  At least this one fit and didn't weight much, and was generally reasonably comfortable, while not being quite as nice as letting the wind run unimpeded through my short hairs.

But, I did notice that I got a little more nervous when riding on my road bike down hills at over 35 mph, at times thinking about whether I would be able to handle all the problems that might occur at this speed and just what kind of shape I would be in if I had a problem.  Also I avoided heavy traffic due to unease about the other drivers.  So I started to wear the helmet a little more often and started to get used to it.

Then this summer while in Jackson Hole, I purchased a used rental road bike.  This bike was much faster than my twenty five year old Davidson or my Trek 4500 mountain bike.  I felt a lot more comfortable wearing my helmet while riding this bike.

I didn't mean to buy this bike.  I had ridden my Davidson in to Fitzgerald's to get the bottom bracket greased, and just needed another bike to ride around town while they worked on it.  Unfortunately, I really loved riding the bike on the wonderful bike paths found nearby, and it became a puppy dog sale for them.

Whenever I rode my Jamis Ventura I wore my helmet and when we got to Cathedral City here next to Palm Springs I wore it every day as I went for an hour or two of cross country riding along the main thoroughfares to Palm Desert and up highway 74 to the visitor center or Vista Point.

One day, a few weeks back, I was returning home on Gerald Ford and stopped at the light at Plumley.  I noticed that there was a narrow patch of water a hundred or so feet ahead of me  parallel to my path.

Now here in the desert you notice water and sand if you ride a bike with thin (23 mm) high pressure (120 pound) tires.  Thin sand on a turn can mean that you slide out.  Thick sand can bog you down and put the bike out of control.  Water, on a turn, can cause your tire to lose its grip and send you sliding.

Because this is a desert the only water that you see on the streets comes from the sprinklers that water the golf courses, lawns, and ornamentals that line the road side.  It is a drag seeing this precious water going to waste (of course, many feel that watering a golf course in the desert is a waste in and of itself).

I saw the patch of shallow water ahead and since I wasn't turning through it I wasn't too worried about it.  But, as soon as I came into the puddle, my bike went sideways and I hit the ground hard.  Especially my head, which had the furthest to fall.

I did not have time to react, take evasive maneuvers, recover or do anything but fall.  I didn't have enough notice to put out my hand, or protect my head.  I just went down sideways instantly, with my head banging against the pavement.

Fortunately, my head was surrounded by crushable foam that was placed there in my bike helmet just to deal with this kind of situation.  I could feel that I had hit hard, but I was up and thinking about it instead of having a concussion or worse and being in the back of an ambulance.

I have a small mirror that is connected on an adjustable plastic arm to a rotating plastic pivot on the side of my helmet.  It is plastic piece that hit first, put a dent in the foam and was torn off.  If that hadn't have been there, the impact would have spread more evenly on the side of the helmet.

I suffered a scratched and bleeding calf, bruised and bleeding hip, and bleeding shoulder.  My head was fine the next day.

Why did I fall so fast while going straight?  It turns out that particular location always has at least a thin puddle of water and over time a layer of slime has grown up under that puddle.  The pavement was very slick and the wheels had zero grip there.

So, I'm glad I had my helmet on on that day, and I wear it even more now.  If I look like a dork, when at least I've got an intact brain to make up for that.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Discuss Xmas at the Oz Report forum

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