Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

Volume 11, Number 84
Monday, April 30 2007
Quest Air, Sheets airfield, Groveland, Florida, USA
https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

to Table of Contentsto next topic Blue Sky Wills Wing Scooter Tow Clinics

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 8:59:45 am EDT
Scooter tow
Low and slow.

Blue Sky|Rick Brown|scooter tow|scooter towing|weather

Rick Brown «gliderpilot@mail2world.com» writes:

Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, we were unable to get the whole clinic, but we were able to tow each other first using Falcons then the next morning on the Condors.

The low and slow aspect of scooter towing using the Condors is the part that I see as most useful to augment our current training program.  We are a club and our school is run by volunteers, our training hill is 120' high and flyable on the east, north and west sides.  The training season is only from May 1st till July 1st (due to farm crops planted at the base of the hill) so we alternate days and train every flyable day.

To be able to bring a new student out and tow them to a few feet off the ground and hold them there would be a great boost to the confidence the students have in the gliders and themselves.  Showing them that the glider will fly, at trim, with little or no input from them can only encourage them to trust the glider in their first attempts at running down the hill.

Do I see it replacing our foot launch program?  No. With the available foot launch sites in our area it is essential to keep the program running.  Will it replace our local flight park?  No.

What I see is the convenience of moving our training facility around, going to air shows and colleges and demonstrating our sport, and offering the seasoned pilot a way to dust off the cobwebs or test out a glider without the grueling trudge up the training hill.

Finding landowners who will let us tow on their property will be difficult, convincing our members to invest in the equipment will be a challenge, but there is enough interest existing in our club to make it happen.

Steve was great to work with, knowledgeable, precise in his direction and obviously very enthusiastic about the program.  Thanks to him, Wills Wing and also to yourself for recognizing an asset to our sport and encouraging it with your efforts.  Hats off to you all.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Not so long in South Africa?

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 9:00:58 am EDT
Records?
So what happened to the homologation?

CIVL|PG|record|Will Gadd

The FAI writes:

FAI has canceled the following paraglider joint record claims :

Paragliders
Straight distance
Vosburg (South Africa) - End tba (South Africa)
423.5 km
2006-12-07
423.4 km (2002-06-21 - William GADD, Canada)
Reason for cancellation: Does not outperform with minimum margin set by the CIVL Sporting Code (1 km)
Aljaz VALIC (Slovenia) Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 6
Urban VALIC (Slovenia) Paraglider : Mac Para Magus 2S

So Will Gadd's record from Zapata, Texas still stands.  Interesting

The original claim was for 426.8 kilometers.  The question is what happened to the 3.3 km? The original distance could have been easily taken right from the GPS, with it doing all the calculations (correctly) for you.  Why was this value not validated by the FAI?

I have asked.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic DHV Cross Country On-line contest

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 9:01:23 am EDT
DHV
Using GSPDump to make invalid IGC files, valid (sort of).

Marc Fink|record

Marc Fink «marcfink» writes:

For the first time, I had a problem with an igc upload to the DHV OLC site (http://www.xccomp.org/) --when I downloaded the flight from my Compeo through Flychart.  Flychart flagged the file as invalid and ran a message saying the deck needed to be opened and reset!  Similarly, SeeYou, while it succeeded in downloading the track, still left "gaps" in the track--which I think may have been a result of the very turbulent thermals (the decked flopped down on my basetube so it was pointing at the ground and satellite reception may have been lost at times), and upon upload to the DHV site it was flagged as invalid.

I sent an e-mail to Marcin Kostur about the problem and he said this is a rather common problem with downloaded security records--he suggested doing the downloads through GPSDump (http://www.gethome.no/stein.sorensen/body_gpsdump.htm) which has the ability to "rebuild and correct" the G record.  Sure enough, this worked and the subsequent upload was accepted as valid.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Jonny and Dustin's flights

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 9:11:08 am EDT
Records in Florida
They flew together

Dustin Martin|Quest Air|record

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air|record

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air|record

Spoke with Dustin this morning.  He said that they flew almost the whole way together.  That even when they would take separate lines they would very soon be back right next to each other.  That they were take different thermals and climb a few hundred yards apart at the same rate.

The conditions got better and better as they fully stuffed their control bars as the sea breeze destroyed the clouds behind them.  There is a big fire in Georgia in the Okefenokee Swamp.  They encountered the smoke at 100 miles out and it was still with them when they landed at 283. As it got blue near the end from the sea breeze they flew the convergence line displayed by the smoke.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Jonny's track log

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 9:46:43 am EDT
Track log
Moving west to get around the Jacksonville airspace

Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Jonny's track log: http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=34215

Steve Kroop writes:

I thought you were not going to write about it unless they went over 300 ;-) But I am glad you did!  I particularly like the way you wrote about this spectacular flight (sequence of updates). Congratulations to Dusty and Jonny!! You guys Rock!

As your readers know, Dusty is on the US world team and can use some help.  Send him some cash “ataboy” at: http://flytec.com/worldteam/. Since both of these guys are Team Flytec (and personal friends :-) Flytec USA is kicking in an extra $250 to the US national team (and, of course, Jonny too). Wills, Moyes?

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Distance has its rewards

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 12:42:01 pm EDT
Distance
Dustin goes long and gets a big reward from Wills Wing

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air|Steven "Steve" Pearson

Steven Pearson «Steve» writes:

Dustin emailed me when he got back to Quest last night, and I replied, "I was watching as Davis posted your progress.  Well done!  Considering you missed the cash in the Race of Champions but hit the jackpot with this flight, we'll put together a consolation prize."

Wills Wing sent Dustin a check for $500, which I'm sure will come in quite handy with his US National team expenses at the Worlds in Big Spring.

Dustin had troubles with his vario and GPS near the end of the flight as he hadn't charged them up after the previous day.  He therefore couldn't send me a tracklog that showed his whole flight.  Perhaps he will be able to send me something later.  He and Jonny said that basically they flew right next to each other almost the whole way.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Moyes USA

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 12:42:39 pm EDT
Moyes
Kraig Coomber is out in the field providing service

Curt Warren|Dustin Martin|Kraig Coomber|Kurt Warren|Quest Air

http://www.moyesusa.com/

Kraig Coomber is out here for the competitions and I spoke with him for a few minutes about a little fitting problem (I had a hard time zipping it up) that I was having with my Moyes Matrix harness (a hand me down from Kurt Warren through Dustin Martin). Well, it turned out that he just happened to have another Curt Warren cast off that came by way of Dustin Martin and that I should see if that helps solve the fitting problem.

It did and he and I "swapped" harnesses.  Marylin is putting in a new zipper as I write.  I also have a new Matrix race on order.

Thanks to Kraig for his very generous help and support.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic David Glover interviews Jonny and Dustin

Fri, Apr 27 2007, 6:45:58 pm EDT
Interview
David Glover gets their story

David Glover|Dustin Martin|Quest Air

David Glover|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air

David Glover|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air

Dustin/Jonny talk about the flight

(Or better yet, listen to the interview while you watch a replay of Jonny's flight at the forum link below!)

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to Table of Contentsto next topic 2007 Austrian Nationals

Sun, Apr 29 2007, 7:39:06 am EDT
Aus Nats
217 km task on day 1

Austrian Nationals 2007|Gerolf Heinrichs

http://www.black-attack.at/airnews.php

1. Elio Cataldi
2. Tom Weissenberger
3. Michi Friesenbichler

4. -10. Dietmar Tschabrun, Walter Mayer, Seppi Salvenmoser, Günther Tschurnig, Firedl Peschel, Gerolf Heinrichs, Kurt Irländer

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to Table of Contentsto next topic 2007 Austrian Nationals, Day 2

Sun, Apr 29 2007, 5:14:13 pm EDT
Aus Nats, Day 2
116 km flat lands task - a bit too big

Austrian Nationals 2007|Markus Harpf

http://www.black-attack.at/airnews.php

Mag.  Markus Harpf «harpf» writes:

Gerolf is in the comp, but he has a big problem with his arm, so he did not fly the 2nd Task.  The overall result after two days is online also the result of day two.  We had a sensational cloudbase of 3.200m, but wind in the flatland and clouds spreading out and making too much shadow for a task of 116 km. Four rigid wings in goal, but no flex wings.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Follow up on the Austrian Nationals

Mon, Apr 30 2007, 12:18:10 am EDT
Follow Up
Gerolf was hurt in Florida

Markus Harpf|Quest Air

Mag.  Markus Harpf «harpf» writes:

Gerolf hurt himself in Florida.  He extended the joint of his right arm, and was not able to pull the VG any longer before he made the second turnpoint.  So he had to no chance against the north wind.  His personal test was in the morning of the second task to try to comb his hair.  He was not able to do it, as we could affirm.  :-)

This would explain why Gerolf didn't fly in the Race of Champions.  He broke his release while on tow at about 200-400' on the last day of the Flytec Championship and didn't attempt to relaunch after landing at Quest Air.  Perhaps he hurt himself right then.

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The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.

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