Oz Report

NTSS

(This topic is in: <- Mar.24'08 May 23'06 May 12'06 Aug.15 Aug.3 Aug.15 Aug.11'04 --> )

The US pilot ranking after the Big Spring Open

The women:

13	VASSORT Claire	1013
19	Castle Kari	823
25	SALAMONE Linda	694
50	PERMENTER Raean	269
61	VERZELLA Lisa	164
66	TJADEN Lauren	141
78	HILDEBRAND Judy	85

The first six women pilots (there are seven in the table above) form the US Women's National Team and get to fly in the Worlds in May at Quest Air.  The draft rules allow a women's team of six with six additional individual pilots.

The rigid wing pilots:

1	Straub Davis	1552
2	ENDTER Vincent	1307
3	GLEASON Ron	1246
4	LAMB James	1149
5	Brown Russell	1138
6	Yocom Jim	1091
7	Bowen Campbell	1087
8	BARMAKIAN Bruce	855
9	GREGORY Oliver	713
10	TJADEN Paul	624
11	STUMP Mark	597
12	BUNNER Larry	536

The first six pilots form the US rigid wing team for the Worlds at Quest Air in May.  The second six can fly in the Worlds as individuals (according to the draft rules).

The flex wing pilots:

1	Barber Mike	1925
2	Martin Dustin	1922
3	CARTER Kevin	1863
4	Volk Glen	1831
5	BLOOM Phill	1766
6	Warren Curt	1741
7	Williams Paris	1721
8	ZIMMERMAN Chris	1524
9	LANNING Tom	1394
10	Goodman Bubba	1321
11	PRESLEY Terry	1098
12	BURICK Carl	1089
13	VASSORT Claire	1013
14	KENDALL Greg	958
15	Stebbins George	949
16	Williams Michael	924
17	Pagen Dennis	861
18	ZABO Shawn	855
19	Castle Kari	823
20	Hagewood Bo	822

The flex wing pilots will not have a Worlds until 2007 (in Big Spring) and so their ranking this year doesn't matter so much.  They get to use their best two flights from this year when determining their ranking at the end of 2006.

http://davisstraub.com/Glide/2006class1ntss.htm

http://davisstraub.com/Glide/2006class5ntss.htm

Discuss NTSS at the Oz Report forum

Google Earth

(This topic is in: <- Nov.18 Sep.7 Aug.15 Jul.24 Jul.22 Jul.12 --> )

Turning IGC files into kml and kmz files for Google Earth.

http://www.keyhole.com/kml/kml_tut.html

http://www.keyhole.com/kml/kml_doc.html

You can easily turn your IGC track logs into KML or KMZ files used by Google Earth to display your flights over the Google Earth globe.  Here's how:

1.  Open your IGC track log file with G7ToWin (http://www.gpsinformation.org/ronh/).

2.  Click File, Save As and save your track log in CSV format.

3.  Open the CSV file in Microsoft Excel.

4.  Delete all columns other than longitude, latitude, and altitude.  Delete all rows that don't contain the longitude, latitude, and altitude values.

5.  Move the Longitude column to the left most column.  Save the file as a CSV file.

6.  Open a new text file in Notepad or a similar text only editor.

7.  Copy this into the file:

<kml xmlns="http://earth.google.com/kml/2.0">
<Placemark>
<name>Your Flight Name</name>
<styleUrl>root://styles#default+icon=0x307</styleUrl>
<LineString>
<tessellate>1</tessellate>
<altitudeMode>absolute</altitudeMode>
<coordinates>

8.  Open the CSV file in Notepad or similar text editor.

9.  Copy it into the new text file at the bottom.

10.  Place this text at the bottom of the file:

 </coordinates>
</LineString>
</Placemark>
</kml>

11.  Change "Your Flight Name" above to the name you want to give to your track log.

12.  Save the file you have just created to a file name with the .kml extension.

13.  You can then click on the kml file in your Explorer and open it up in Google Earth.

14.  Right click your file name in the Google Earth in the Places section.  Click Save As.  Save as a kmz file with the same file name.

The only problem that I have found is that the altitude start seems to be off and I don't know why.



http://ozreportradio.com/misc/150.kml

Discuss track logs and Google Earth at the Oz Report forum

USHGA

(This topic is in: <-- Sep.1 Aug.18 Aug.16 Aug.15 Aug.11 Jul.21 Jul.13 --> )

On track to oblivion

Geoffrey Rutledge <geoff> writes:

USHGA has put together a committee to consider the vision and values of the USHGA.  As part of this effort, one of the members of the committee, Martin Beresford, invested a great deal of effort to analyze the current state of the sport and to consider the operational issues and opportunities facing USHGA.  Martin has an incredible skill set in business, finance, and marketing (he is a successful consultant, financial whiz, and now retired executive.)

I am publishing some of the 146 slides in Martin's presentation to the board in three smaller presentations:

(1) State of the sport:



(2) State of USHGA

(3) Recommendations

The first part includes some interesting facts and statistics about the current state and future trends in our sport.  The second part includes a discussion of operational and strategic issues faced by USHGA and raises several issues that were big news to me (including USHGA's recent decision to purchase real estate at the height of the market, the huge Hang Gliding Foundation funds transfer, and the size of the USHGA database expenditures).  The final section lists recommendations for action by USHGA, which Martin assembled in consultation with other members of the committee.

Martin asked me to review the presentation, and then agreed to let me publish it online in this format.  The USHGA board members have seen the entire 146 slide presentation.

Martin can be reached at < beresford>.

Beware that the background photo on the first page of each presentation takes a while to load on slow connections.

Discuss USHGA at the Oz Report forum

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Davis Straub
<davis>
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