Oz Report

2005 Worlds

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Tom Lanning|Worlds 2005

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The flight

The paddock dries quickly after the rain on Monday.  It only amounted to a quarter of an inch.  The winds are still strong, will they ever stop, and it's twenty mph out of the south when we get to the tow paddock and we are instructed by the safety committee not to set up.

The wind speed maybe moderates a tiny bit, but if we are going to have a task we have to start setting up at 2 PM. We are instructed to set up. Then twenty minutes before 3 PM we are given the obvious task - Booligal and Ivanhoe.

I finally get to launch a bit later than second and with plenty of lift at the tow paddock it is easy to stay up and go up wind to get over 5,000'. Everything is looking good when forty of us head upwind one more time over the tow paddock to stay away from the fifty kilometer start circle.

I shade a little bit to the east to spread out the pack and check out the area.  This little mistake proves to be crucial as I miss the lift to the west and can't make it to the rest of the gaggle as they find it. I then plummet wondering just what great sin I had committed after finding plenty of lift earlier over the tow paddock on my own.

It's a fall down to 1,200' AGL as I join five other pilots who have also been assigned to Hell or Purgatory, at least.  We grovel and drift toward the start circle just trying to stay alive and ignore all the pilots four thousand feet over our heads, having the time of their task.

Fortune of a sort does smile on us and we find a good thermal to take the first start clock six minutes late, but at least we are back up with the more talented pilots, who didn't have to suffer so grievously.

Now the race is on as I fly quickly to catch up with the lead gaggle.  Most of the pilots have taken the first start time at 4:15 because we have a 182 kilometer task and it will be late by the time we get near goal.

The lift is much better than on the previous days in the sense that it is more coherent and more comfortable to fly in. Even with the strong winds, the air is pleasant.

The task is a sky full of hang gliders racing each other and using the lift found by others.  The climbs are fast as are the gliding speeds for the first 100 kilometers as we hurry to get to Ivanhoe before it is too late.  We cover this distance is a little less than an hour and a half (67 kph).

Seventy kilometers out from Ivanhoe it is almost six o'clock, and the lift turns off like a light switch as we work our way to the north northwest in a twenty mph south wind.  Instead of 4,600' we are getting to 3,600'. Instead of some climbs averaging 600 fpm, we get less than 100 fpm.

Pilots begin to drop out and low saves become the order of the day.  Thirty kilometers out I'm groveling again and drifting away from the course line as I follow the lift lines to the north, while the goal gets further and further to the west.

Trying to jump back to the west proves too difficult and I land well off the highway 20 kilometers from goal.  Curt is landing at about the same time  (7 PM) ten kilometers ahead of me. Tom Lanning who has been trailing behind me, stops in an area that I was working lift and works back into the wind to keep working it when I chased a couple of thermaling pilots and didn't find their lift.  Tom will get up there to 4,500' and almost have enough to make goal straight away, but will have to stop for a little lift when he sees many pilots landing just short of goal.  Dustin will make goal ahead of him.

Kevin will stay in the lift lines, and land at about 8 PM well past goal but 13 kilometers to the east of it. At about the same time Dean Funk will come and land just short of my location.

As I come into land I spot a ute heading for a dam.  They see my shadow on the dam and come back to check me out.  It turns out to be the owner and his family.  They've been shearing sheep all day.  They are excited to see so many hang gliders landing nearby and give me a lift to the highway.

A big gaggle over the tow paddock from Jonny Durand Jnr.

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Making Weaklinks

Brent Harsh|Peter Birren

Brent Harsh «bharsh» writes:

A few years back Peter Birren shared his club's method for cutting tons of weaklinks with the CCTTSC:

Use a paper cutter with a ruler as the knife edge to ensure uniformity of size and improve the speed.  Set two sticks or poles in the ground or a jig however far apart you want cut, plus an inch or so extra and start wrapping weak link material around them.  When you have a pile that looks like the max the cutter could get through, lift it off - now you have a thick oval of weak link material a bit longer than the correct length.  Stick one end's U under the blade of the paper cutter, pull tight, and hack it off.  Now, holding the other U, reverse the bunch, stretch and pull the ends tight (down to the measurement on the cutting board) you want the links to be and cut off the other end of the U. I think I have easily cut a hundred or so at once.

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Google News - hang gliders

Cragin Shelton|Google News

Cragin Shelton «Cragin_Sh» sends:

Keep this as a link and use it regularly.  I have it as one of my side bar links on my flight log.

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