Oz Report

Cu-nimbs, fuzzy, but not warm and fuzzy

One hurt and one dead paraglider pilot in Manilla (Mt Borah, Manilla) (25km SE of Bingara)

http://canadianparaglidingteam.blogspot.com/

Bad news from yesterday.  A Chinese pilot who had been missing was finally found by search and rescue, dead.  Apparently something happened to him yesterday, probably due to the cu-nimbs on course.  There is going to be a protest to get the day cancelled due to the unsafe flying conditions.  We’ll find out what happens tomorrow sometime.

But good news from Ewa Wisnierska.  She’s OK and is resting.  She did indeed get higher than Everest while inside the cu-nimb (9947 m, according to the tracklog), and lived to tell the tale.  But she's dealing with the aftermath, mostly being frozen.  +20 m/s up, and -30 m/s down.

We'd love to see the tracklog.  MSM story here.  Earlier story about a paraglider in cu-nimb here.

A CHINESE paraglider found dead in northern NSW may have crashed and died after being sucked into a storm cell, fellow paragliders believe.

The 40-year-old man went missing during a training flight yesterday.

His body was found by the Westpac Rescue helicopter 25km southeast of Bingara at about 2pm (AEDT) today.

The man, a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, was last seen about 3pm (AEDT) yesterday while taking part in a training flight prior to the Paragliding World Championships, which start next week in nearby Manilla.

The dead paraglider had 10 years experience, colleagues said.

Godfrey Wenness, from the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia, said he was one of 200 people taking part in a routine training flight yesterday afternoon.

Thunderstorms had moved in and the man could have been sucked into a strong storm cell that other pilots had avoided.

"We're not too sure about the exact circumstances yet but we know it has something to do with the storm cloud," Mr Wenness said.

"Everyone else gave it a wide berth...  Maybe he was trying to thread the needle between two cells, but we don't know."

More news.  See the description of our flying with cu-nimbs at Manilla here.

Discuss XC Open at the Oz Report forum

Flygirl's view of a bad day at Manilla

Well the other ones were doing it. (Mt Borah, Manilla)

http://flygirl.co.za/content/view/108/29/

Coming up to the big overdeveloping clouds I started getting nervous.  Pilots above me were disappearing and reappearing and I was very soon starting to mist out myself.  Took a heading on my GPS and dreaded the thought of sharing the grey room with this many pilots.  Suddenly was not enjoying myself anymore with the only respite from the big clouds being into the gentle SW wind or a hole to the East.

To the north, downwind, it was ugly and black and raining.  I had had enough.  Pulled bigears and speedbarred my way east, leaving the hotshots to run north along the ridge and do battle with the cloudsuck in their gaggles.  I felt trapped as I was still going up, although slowly and there was not much blue around.  I wanted to land.  Could not understand why no-one else was on big ears although they probably were on speedbar.  The difference between a good weather xc pilot and a comp xc pilot clearly.

Discuss Manilla at the Oz Report forum

Ewa Wisniersk

Wait a minute I know her (Mt Borah, Manilla)

http://www.skyfly.cz/zajimavo_e/ewa05_e.htm

http://www.advance.ch/Ewa_Wisnierska.214.0.html?&L=1

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=10608

Kari Castle writes:

It was an interesting day that day.  My instincts were right to land in Baraba.  I watched as all the rest continued to take climbs to cloud base and go on their merry way.  I wondered if they saw something that I didn’t.  Why was it so obvious to me we should all land, what a waste!!!

I talked with Ewa last night and got her story of being up between 8-10,000 meters for over 25 minutes passed out and survive, an amazing story!!!!

Discuss Ewa at the Oz Report forum

Manilla XC Open

(This topic is in: Feb.19 Feb.16 )

Just what kind of competition is this? (Mt Borah, Manilla)

I published an article last September about the upcoming Paragliding XC Open that is going on now in Manilla here: http://ozreport.com/10.182#0.  The Manilla XC Open is part of a series of three (and in the future five) open distance competitions.  See here: http://www.xcopen.org/cms/.  The idea is to allow pilots to fly their own course (and perhaps thereby stay away from cu-nimbs).  The site states:

The best safe flying areas on our planet The most consistent conditions to fly far and safe, not the time of the most radical thermals and strongest winds

Open distance tasks or open distance via a turn point – you will get the maximum out of your flying day – not the fastest pilots wins, but the one with the longest distance

The idea of the XC Open competitions is to fly with friends, have fun, fly far and beat your personal best distance in a safe XC area.  In the Manilla XC Open 2005 65% of all competitors flew their personal best distance - even many of the top pilots

Always keep in mind, that you fly at your own risk and are responsible for your safety and your retrieve, just like if you would be XC-flying by yourself.

The competition area is very large and it may not be possible to have radio contact with all pilots or to see what the weather is like in 100 km or more distance, however some of the event officials will be flying which will reduce this likelihood.  There will be task stopping by radio and an official radio frequency of the organisation.  If you feel the conditions are not safe anymore you should land regardless (you may not have heard the official call for example !).

So in a competition that doesn't send pilots on a prescribed course, pilots by themselves can get themselves in trouble without any help from a task committee.

Discuss XC Open at the Oz Report forum

CIVL Plenary - an official short report

(This topic is in: Feb.16 Mar.1'05 Feb.22'05 Feb.21'05 --> )

No hang gliding worlds (Talloires, France)

http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/node/518

No bids were received for the 2009 World Hang Gliding Championship, and the Plenary agreed that the CIVL Bureau would seek an organiser prepared to make a suitable bid.

So no one wants to put on a Worlds in 2008 or 2009 for hang gliding, whether rigid or flex wing.  I wonder why!  Could it be that the meets lose money for the organizers and that it is very painful dealing with CIVL?  Perhaps.

There will be a 2007 pre-Europeans (flex wing) in Greifenburg, and a Europeans there in 2008.  (http://events.fai.org/hgpg/civl-calendar.asp).  Wolfgang seems to do whatever CIVL officials tell him to do.

The CIVL Bureau met the day before the Plenary and their minutes can be found here: http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/meetings/bureau/2007_feb.  These are quite boring.

Cu-nimbs at Bright also

The sky was filling up as we drove out of town toward Melbourne and the flight home (Mystic Hill)

We left Bright on Wednesday a little after noon and the sky was already filling up.  On Thursday as we flew over there were high clouds that kept the cu's down, but it was a narrow band and there were plenty of cu's just a few miles away.

http://skypuppet.blogspot.com/

Thunderstorms were forecast again and sure enough they started over Mt Beauty, were we could see lightning as we raced, but the big one happened later over Mt Buffalo.  The task held up for 2:54 before it was stopped.

Discuss Cu-nimbs at the Oz Report forum

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