Oz Report

Bad carbon base bar

Using a beat up base bar (Quest Air)

Dave Seib writes up the recent accident at Quest Air with Guga whose Moyes carbon fiber Zoom base base cracked at the corner bracket: http://www.moyes.com.au/articledetail.asp?ID=297.

1.  The base bar has suffered previous damage and had been poorly repaired.

2.  It is most likely the base bar had been damaged again since its last repair.

3.  During the last repair, the base bar fitting had not been properly adhered to the base bar, thereby reducing the structural strength of the unit.

4.  During the last repair, the repairs to the carbon base bar shell were inadequate.  Signs of splitting along the shell were evident.

5.  The weight of having the fully loaded glider with pilot in the dolly stressed the already weakened join.

Gerolf is here, and he had an extensive look at the glider.  I saw it in pieces all laid out.  Gerolf says that the people who did these repairs didn't have any idea of what they were doing.

Discuss Base bar at the Oz Report forum

AIR ATOS VR for sale

My AIR ATOS VR is for sale (Quest Air)

My AIR ATOS VR is for sale.  It is in excellent shape and comes with a brand new 2007 non porous form fitting sail from AIR.  It comes with the thick water resistant travel bag from AIR and numerous other goodies and spare parts.  Contact <me>.  $13,500.  Compare at $18,500 for a brand new ATOS VR.

Discuss VR at the Oz Report forum

Wing Morphing and glide performance

What the little birds can do.

Gakuta Toba <<gtoba>> sends:

Summary of the original article: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7139/abs/nature05733.html

An article in Independent: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/wildlife/article2486628.ece

At night during sleep, swifts have their wings outstretched so that they fly at slower speeds of between 8 and 10 metres per second.  At these speeds, swifts fly with maximum efficiency, with more gliding and less flapping to maintain altitude, Dr Lentink said.

Discuss Morphing at the Oz Report forum

Instructor/students review the Blue Sky Wills Wing Scooter Tow Clinics

I've asked those who attended these clinics to tell us how it went (Blue Sky, Virginia)

Dean Slocum <dslocum> writes:

I attended the Scooter Tow Clinic at Wallaby Ranch, and in a word it was outstanding!  Steve Wendt is a truly gifted instructor, and his enthusiasm for scooter towing is contagious.  As you know, the winds in Florida last week were very strong, but Steve was raring to go each morning at 7 AM in order to beat the wind.  We also towed each evening, only shutting down the scooter when it became too dark to tow safely.  Steve certainly put in some long hours!

Steve had the participants in the clinic take turns flying the gliders and towing each other.  We started doing low tows with a WW Condor, and progressed to higher tows with a WW Falcon, just like students would do in an actual training program.  We towed with both a 50cc 2 stroke and 150cc 4 stroke scooter.  It was a bit easier to control tow height with the smaller scooter, and it still had plenty of power for the higher tows.

Steve worked with each participant to help them refine their tow operator technique.  With just a little practice, it is easy to gently launch students into the air and maintain them at any desired altitude between two and fifty feet.  We practiced gently lowering students back to the ground when things didn't look right, or for landing (Steve does not have his students release from the line on their first low flights).

Several folks who had never flown a hang glider approached Steve during the clinic and asked to give it a try.  Steve eagerly seized the opportunity to demonstrate the scooter tow teaching technique on "real students".  The results were impressive, with every student making nice long 3 ft high flights on the first or second try.  The smiles on their faces said it all: they were having a blast!

The many advantages of scooter towing as a training technique became apparent over the course of the clinic.  A few are obvious, like the lack of need for a training hill, and the ability to train in any wind direction.  Less obvious advantages include more control of the student in flight (you control their height and can land them at any time) as well as a less intimidating learning experience (students start from flat ground and are not "leaping" off a hill).

I am not in the business of instructing hang gliding myself, but I can see that scooter towing would be a great way to go.  Steve talked at length about how his own business has improved since switching to scooter towing.  His students learn quicker, have more fun, and as a consequence return for more lessons.

I think it's fantastic that Wills Wing has thrown their support behind scooter towing.  Both Mike Meier and Steve Pearson participated in the clinic at Wallaby, and Steve's daughter even took a few scooter tow flights on her dad's masterfully designed Condor.  Wills Wing has also posted an excellent Scooter Tow Manual and Video on their web site: http://www.willswing.com/learn/scooterTow/ .

I would like to thank Steve Wendt, and the outstanding folks at Wills Wing for putting on such a great clinic.  It was the most fun that I have had with hang gliding in years!

Steve Wendt mentioned several times that you were key in inspiring him to promote his scooter tow training method to the rest of the world.  So you certainly deserve a pat on the back as well for helping to make this all happen.

Steve Wendt flies the Wills Wing Condor.  Click for a higher resolution version.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=34128 for more pictures.

Discuss Scooter at the Oz Report forum

My failed record attempt yesterday

Jonny and Dustin go for it today. (Quest Air) (LZ)

The flight.

It looks even better today.  Windy, but thick clouds at 10 AM.

I usually don't feel badly after long flights (thanks to the head bungee).  My arms are worn out after yesterday.  The air conditions were just too rough for an enjoyable flight.

I also made a major mistake by not going north northeast along highway 301.  The wind was south southwest.  I went north northwest along Interstate 75 because early in the flight the cu's looked darker and thicker in that direction.  Once over there I had to find a way around Payne's Prairie and the Gainesville airspace which went I had to go a bit further west.

I had the opportunity to go northeast along a highway northwest of Gainesville, but didn't take advantage of this opportunity.  At that point I just wasn't in the mood.

Jonny Durand took off at 11:15 AM and Dustin at 11:25 to try to break the Florida state and east coast record.  The winds are 220 degrees again today and I've told them how to go over highway 301.  We'll see if the winds aren't too westerly.

Discuss Record attempt at the Oz Report forum

Hard to get new pilots

The AOPA is shrinking also

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/fashion/26pilot.html

Once, nearly every boy had the idea that he would slip the surly bonds of earth and dance the skies on laughter-silvered wings, as John Gillespie Magee Jr., a pilot in the Canadian Air Force, wrote in 1941.  Plenty of people still go to school hoping for a job at the airlines flying the big jets, but experts fear that the hobbyist, who flies as an alternative to golf or boating, or perhaps to take the family 100 miles to a beach or maybe just an obscure restaurant, is disappearing.

The number of student pilots is down by about a third since 1990, from 129,000 to 88,000.  The number of private pilots is down from 299,000 to 236,000, according to statistics kept by the Federal Aviation Administration.  And they are aging.

Discuss New pilots at the Oz Report forum

Acro with Paragliding

Cross Country has a DVD

Hugh Miller <advertising> writes:

Out Now: Broken Toe Acro DVD!

Enleau O'Connor is the USA's most respected SIV and Acro pilot.  Broken Toe Acro is his comprehensive guide on all the SIV and acro maneuvers, produced in conjunction with Don't Play Dead Productions.

We're sure this is set to become a definitive Acro and SIV DVD.  Every maneuver and situation is broken down and explained in a mixture of dual-screen vision and personal explanation.

The action is fast and immediate, with a variety of on-board camera angles giving you a pilot's eye view of what's going on, backed up with a third person angle for greater clarity.  The information is in-depth and presented in a comprehendible face-to-face manner that imprint the details of each situation indelibly into your mind.

The DVD runs for over 2 hours 30 minutes and and is split into two halves.  The SIV section breaks down full frontal deflations, asymmetric deflations B-lines and decent techniques, pitch oscillations, riser twists and full stalls.  The Acro section gives blow-by-blow descriptions of spiral dives asymmetric spirals, wingovers, reversals, SAT's, spins and helicopters.

View the trailer at You Tube and www.xcshop.com.

Broken Toe Acro is available now priced $44.95 / Euro 34.95 / £23.95 from all good shops and distributed worldwide by Cross Country, tel: +44 (0) 1273 673000, www.xcshop.com, <office>.

Discuss Acro at the Oz Report forum

Jonny and Dustin flying fast

They are on their way (Melrose, Florida)

The report from Chris Smith, who is chasing them, is that around 1:45 they were 100 miles out.  Chris is reporting difficulty keeping up with them. 

I gave Jonny and Dustin, both of whom have not tried this flight before, a detailed run down of where to go, how to avoid airspace, where the roads were and where the swamps and forests were.  Hard for them to remember all that I'm sure.

The report is that they are near highway 315 which puts them too far to the east and they need to move to the north northwest to get around the airspace at Jacksonville.  They just crossed Melrose, Florida.

Discuss Jonny at the Oz Report forum

Update on Jonny and Dustin

Moved west (Quest Air)

Jonny and Dustin have moved northwest to get over Stark and are following highway 301 two miles to the west of it to stay out of class D airspace which is 26 miles further up the road.  This strategy will also keep them out of the Jacksonville Class C airspace 136 miles out from Quest which has a 4,000' upper limit in the outer ring.

Once highway 301 turns and goes north northwest they are planning to jump over the swamp around the St.  Mary's river (if they are high) and hook up with highway 17 or interstate 95 heading north toward South Carolina.

Chris Smith says that he is going 70 mph and can't keep up with them.  They've got all the airspace information relayed through Chris Smith to them from here.  I can guide them around Savannah, Georgia if need be (240 miles out).

Discuss Update at the Oz Report forum

Next Update on Jonny and Dustin

200 miles out at 4:45 PM (Quest Air)

They stayed over highway 301 a long ways away from Savannah airspace.  The restricted airspaces nearby are not active today so that they can fly through them if needed, but they should be west of them.

They are in the convergence that was predicted in the forecast which heads north into South Carolina.  They are over the town of Jessup right now.  Cloud base looks to be 7,000' and the cloud street/convergence they are under goes on to the horizon.



They are getting 25 to 1 glides and the convergence is obvious according to Chris Smith who is trying to catch them.

Discuss Next Update at the Oz Report forum

Satellite Image at 4:30

Sea Breeze on the coast. (Quest Air)

It was a smart move to keep inland away from the sea breeze and in the convergence.

Discuss Satellite at the Oz Report forum

They just broke the East Coast flex wing record

At 5:15 they broke the east coast record of 218 miles (as well as the 208 mile Florida flex wing record) (Quest Air)

Just got a call from Chris Smith.  Jonny was talking to him on the radio as he called.  They have broken the flex wing records and are now going for the rigid wing record of 234 miles.  Chris Smith told them I wouldn't put anything in the Oz Report unless they went 300 miles, which looks feasible at this point.  There are minor air space issues at Augusta, 325 miles to the north.  Easy to get around or over.  Class D 2,600'.

Discuss Records broken at the Oz Report forum

They just broke the East Coast rigid wing record

At 5:45 they broke the east coast rigid wing record of 234 miles. (Quest Air)

David Glover just spoke with Jonny.  He and Dustin are at 7,000'.  Dustin's vario and GPS batteries are almost out.  They have a 25 mph tail wind.  They've gone beyond 235 miles.

Discuss More Records broken at the Oz Report forum

283 miles - landed in the same field

Jonny and Dustin landed as it grew dark and shaded to the north (Sylvania, Georgia)

They landed long before sundown as they approached the front to the north.  It got dark ahead and the lift stopped.  They landed near Sylvania, not to far from the South Carolina border.

They landed in the same field.

Discuss 283 at the Oz Report forum

On their way home

They have to get back in order to fly home (Quest Air)

Chris Smith, Jonny Durand Jr, and Dustin Martin are racing to escape from possible tornados in Georgia and heading back to Quest Air tonight.  Jonny flew his Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 and Dustin his Wills Wing T2 - 144 to the next east coast and Florida state hang gliding record of 283 miles.

Discuss The record breakers at the Oz Report forum

Oz Report web site resources

How to subscribe to (support) the Oz Report

You can send $20 or more for a yearly subscription/donation.  To pay for your subscription with your credit card or PayPal account:



If you’d rather just send a check for $20 (US Dollars, only please) or more, please feel free to do so.  The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I’m at.

Payable to:

Davis Straub (Not to the Oz Report)
PMB 1889 PO Box 2430
Pensacola, FL 32513

Thanks for your support by subscribing to the Oz Report.

Oz Report Hang Gliding Discussion group

Want to discuss hang gliding?  You can join the Oz Report hang gliding forum.  Click Oz Report Hang Gliding Discussion Group.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing to the e-mail version of the Oz Report

You are in charge of your e-mail subscription to the Oz Report.  If you wish to unsubscribe or subscribe, click: Subscribe.

Credits

Gerry makes the Oz Report portal much smarter.  He is a web consultant and a PHP expert.  He's the brains behind the Oz Report web site, so contact him for PHP programming services.

To view the Oz Report on the web click Oz Report.

If you want to send in an article to be published in the Oz Report, send it to me at this email.

Davis Straub
Oz Report