Oz Report

Jonny Durand in Oz in July

Upside down Down Under (Beechmont, Australia)

http://jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

Jonny Durand skypes me this photo:

Click on above.

Discuss Durand at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

The staggering cost of airtime

Each hour of air time is precious (West Chester, PA)

Bill Buffam <<ozzie>> writes:

I'm a retired hang glider pilot.  I miss it, but there are many reasons why I cannot get back into it, which I won't bore you with here.  Anyway, it occurred to me that it might be mildly interesting to compute my average cost of an hang gliding airtime hour.  For me that's a relatively straightforward exercise, because when it comes to record keeping--of both airtime and pennies spent--I'm an out-and-out anal-retentive geek.

In looking over the analysis that follows, there are several factors you should bear in mind, because your mileage will vary.  These factors are:

1.  I always kept a record of miles driven to fly, and I charged myself (against the hang glider account) a mileage rate equal to what my employer would reimburse me for company-expense mileage.  (See?  I told you I was an anal-retentive geek.) Thus, vehicle depreciation, maintenance, etc.  are figured into my hang glider expenses as I go along.

2.  As hang glider pilots go, I'm one of the clumsier ones.  I had more crashes than the average bear, and did more damage.  I bought an awful lot of down tubes.

3.  I was a slow learner.  I was 47 years old on my first day with the glider, and it took me 179 training-hill flights before I got to do a high flight.  (But hey, on my first high flight I ridge soared for an hour, so I can do some things right.) Of course, being a slow learner translates to a big tab for instruction.

4.  I love gadgets.  Also, I have more money than sense.  No, let me correct that: I had more money than sense.  I spent over $1000 on state-of-the-art varios on two separate occasions.

5.  After getting my H4, I moved up to a WW Talon.  I found it too challenging and much less fun than my Ultra Sport, so I sold it (after less than 3 hours of airtime) at a thumping loss and carried on with the Ultra Sport.

6.  Net equipment costs are included.  I sold my glider, but still have harness, vario, GPSes, etc.  All old and probably not worth a hell of a lot by now.  And I'm going to keep them for sentimental reasons anyway.

7.  I did not charge any medical expenses to hang glider.  Ideally I should have (but it would have been more accounting hassle than it would have been worth), because my chiropractor put me back together numerous times after my crashes and less-serious mishaps.  Also at least one knee operation properly belongs in the hang glider account.  Oh, and the broken wrist.

8.  Towing costs (106 out of 452 flights) are lumped in with flying fees, as is instruction.  Flying fees also include club membership, USHGA membership, etc.

9.  The "trips" category includes mileage, tolls, and overnight lodging where applicable, as well as any meals out.  My nearest flying site is two hours' drive away, which makes for an expensive average trip.

Having said all that, I caution you about knocking too many of my listed expenses off your own hang glider-expense estimates.  Having spent a lengthy period as club treasurer, I'm well familiar with how much whining and moaning a $10 annual dues increase provokes, which is peanuts next to the $45 it realistically costs many of us to run our vehicles to one flight day.  But if you don't track your mileage expenses, how would you know?  So don't underestimate them.

So here are the numbers, spanning my entire career, August 1995 to July 2005, 117 hours of airtime.

Equipment (net) $13369
Repairs $2187
Flying fees $4605
Trips $11836
Fundraiser contributions $314
Site maintenance $99
TOTAL $32410

That works out to $277 per hour of airtime.

And to round things off, here's an interesting comparison.  I can go sightseeing from my local airport (10 minutes away) in a Robinson P-22 helicopter for $225 per hour.  Yeah, I know riding in a helicopter is no match for soaring as free as a bird, but still.

Still only $70/flight.

Discuss Costs at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

Many thermals per gallon

Getting there by yourself in the flats (Waunakee, Wisconsin)

Paul Olson <<polson>> writes:

My fellow powered harness pilot Rik Bouwmeester of Waunakee, Wisconsin is really getting his money's worth at about 50 cents a flight, in fact he has yet to fill the tank.  Plus at this rate the Mosquito engine will never wear out!

Discuss Gallons at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

Mike Hailey - new USHPA Competition Committee Chairman

After almost two years the USHPA President finds a Competition Committee Chairman (Sugar Hill west launch)

http://mphsports.com/

Lisa Tate, USHPA President, has appointed meet organizer and long time hang glider and paraglider pilot Mike Hailey to be the new Competition Committee Chairman for the USHPA.  Mike is the organizer of three USHPA sanctioned competitions this year (see the URL above) and has been the long time organizer of the Rat Race Paragliding competition at Woodrat in south east Oregon.

Mike showed up for what seemed like his first USHPA BOD meeting in a long time last fall in the Bay Area where the competition committee approved his application for two paraglider meets and David Glover and I encouraged him to put on a hang gliding meet in Lakeview.  Later Mike and Gail agreed to put on that meet and it is now the Hang On meet which was just moved to Woodrat given the fire/close airspace situation near Lakeview.  Again see the URL above.

It is great to see a person who is primarily focused on paragliding as the USHPA Competition Committee Chairman.  This is a first.  Of course, suddenly this year paragliding competitions have finally taken off and have been well attended, while hang gliding competitions (other than the always well received Flytec Championships) have not been as well attended as in the past.

David and I worked hard to get Mike's Lakeview meet designated as the US National Championship in order to encourage more pilots to attend.  That was turned down by Liz Sharp at the Competition Committee.  Now, of course, the Hang On meet has low projected attendance.  Might have been the case with the Nationals moniker any way.

One small issue that has come up, the movement of a competition from one venue to another requires the approval of the Competition Committee Chairman.  Since it was Mike that wanted (for very good reasons) to move his competition, Mike really needed to have the USHPA President (with input from whoever is on the Competition Committee) make that approval.  According to Mark Forbes, Lisa was consulted by Mike on this move.  Lisa approved the change and continued the sanctioning.

The big job of the Competition Committee is approving/sanctioning/encouraging competitions.  I assume that Mike will recuse himself from all votes on sanctioning his own competitions when they come before his committee next fall.

Congratulations Mike, and good luck.

Discuss Mike at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

New Michigan, Cloud 9, and Sport 2 Record

While we await the results from Kris Grzyb's first flight from Cloud 9 (Cloud 9, Iosco, Michigan) (just south of Cable, Ohio)

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-417339503

170.0 miles from Cloud 9 to just south of Cable, Ohio.

I already knew it would most likely be a very special day.  A front had come through on Thursday afternoon knocking down trees and power lines in the vicinity.  The local NWS forecast was for north northwest winds, the direction that you want if you are going to go far.  The more north, the better.  The stronger the better (but not too strong).

Dr.  Jack's NAM forecast (http://ozreport.com/wisweather.php) on Thursday night showed strong northern winds (up to 18 knots at 6,000' MSL according the the FSL charts), good lift, cloud base at almost 6,000' MSL (5,100' AGL) with cu's about 1,000' thick (and no chance of overdevelopment).  The winds were forecast to continue out of the north deep into Ohio slowing down a little.

When I got up in the morning Dr.  Jack's RUC graphs were showing what you see above.  The red arrow shows the approximate location of Cloud 9 in Iosco, Michigan.  My Wills Wing Sport 2 - 155 was already set up and ready to go.  All I had to do is wait for the day to develop.

Unlike in Zapata (more on that in a later issue of the Oz Report) and sometimes in Florida (see earlier flights this year, especially the 283 mile flights of Jonny and Dustin) it is hard to get going in the morning here.  The cloud base is usually low and the cu's are often missing until after noon on days that are special, for our purposes.  The local pilots are just used to flying after 2 PM.

The FSL charts showed a mild inversion and the blue sky in the morning confirmed it.  The inversion was forecast to break before noon, so there was hope of cu's soon.  Little bits and pieces of rapidly tumbling cu's appeared before 11 AM.

To confirm that this was a very special day was the sudden appearance of Kris Grzyb, Chicago area pilot who had never been to Cloud 9 before, but having seen Dr.  Jack graphs had headed east forsaking his usual haunts at Enjoy field southwest of Chicago and Whitewater, Wisconsin.  A look at the chart above tells you why.

Kris has been taking long flights and setting records in the Midwest for a number of years (as you can find out by searching the Oz Report).

The north winds were indeed brisk on Friday morning, there were bits of cu's and we were weighing the risks of going early against the promise of the good winds to get us far no matter when we started.  It is so frustrating to go down early on a day that looks so promising, but the early you go the further you can go.

I talk to Kris to clue him in on the airspace issues.  I tell him that we have to stay west of highway 52 to get around the class C airspace at Toledo seventy miles out and then stay south southeast of Cloud 9 to go between airspaces at Springfield and Dayton on the west and Columbus on the east 180 miles out.  I offered to download my waypoints for Cloud 9 which consist mostly of the centers for airspace so that you can be sure to avoid them.  I had a waypoint of London which guides you between Springfield and Columbus, and that was my "goal" for the day.  Chris never got around to downloading the waypoints, even though he had plenty of time.

The cu's got more numerous and a bit more than wisps after noon and I started to head to the south end of the field as they started to show the streets around 12:30.  Our plan was to start around 1 PM.  The clouds were beginning to look like they would provide enough guidance to stay up in the strong winds.  It wasn't at all clear if there would be a lot of turbulence up high or not.

I was off first just before 1 PM and as expected it was very turbulent right near the ground but I was prepared for it and held on tight until it smoothed out at 1,000' AGL.  The lift on tow was weak, so I waited until 2,200' AGL before getting off near a cloud that was still a bit upwind.

The lift was moderate at 200 fpm and I just kept circling and drifting in the 20 mph winds out of the north northwest.  My goals for the first part of the flight were to stay up and to stay out of airspace.  Going far would come later after I had managed to stay up.

The cu's were moderately thick where we were, but it was obvious that they stopped thirty miles to the south.  It looked like there might be some more to the south southeast, but that would put me close to the Toledo airspace, so that was the risk.  I knew where I had to be to stay out of the airspace so would the cu's cooperate?

I spent most of my time thermaling and staying high until about thrity miles out when I ran into lift that I didn't want to stay in.  I kept going flying through more ratty lift, until I was now in desperate straits down to 1,200' AGL but following the swirls in the corn down below lead me to the next bit of lift.  No matter how ratty it would turn out to be I had to go with it now.

I'd have to say that not staying in unpleasant lift is probably the most likely cause of me going down early, right next to bad decisions.

The lift down low is pleasant enough and there are wisps of cu's over my head and I'm lucky enough to be able to climb out and get back into the game.  I'm in the blue area now, but little wisps are popping up here and there and they are close enough to provide enough guidance to get to the next patch of lift if I stay high.  I'm taking my time, making sure I can get through this rough patch and deal with the 15 mph winds that were pushing me a little closer to Toledo airspace.  I make a few jumps to the west to keep west of highway 52.  These are possible as I'm patient and get high.  Racing will come later (I hope).

As I approach the western edge of the Toledo airspace the air is clear enough to see the airport to the east.  I know that soon I will be passed the western extent of the circular airspace and I can soon drift a bit to the east.  The cu's are staying just to the west of highway 52 but now the next cu is to the east a bit and perhaps in airspace.  I'm just a mile outside it.  I now have to go on a six mile glide to get around the airspace and get to the cu's further to the south.  It looks like I can just make it.

Down to 2,000' I find 80 fpm and hold on but that doesn't work out.  I have to glide another two miles to 1,500' AGL where I find 300 fpm under a big dark cloud.  I'm one and a half miles outside the airspace and drifting south away from the airspace.  This cloud is the end of the area with just a few wispies and there are now thick cu's and cloud streets heading south.

I climb to cloud base at 70 miles out two hours and forty minutes since the start.  Slow but I'm still in the air and now the racing can begin.  I haven't seen Kris since he took off just below me as I drifted back over the flight park.  He's on the same radio frequency but my volume is down and he's speaking in Polish to his driver.

With the improved lift and the plentiful cu's I'm starting to glide six or more miles at a time getting L/D's up to 20 to one on the Sport 2.  There are dramatic cloud streets and cu's with dark bottoms even with minimal vertical development.  It is easy to get from one to the next without getting too low.  I'm able to stay in the convergence lines and fly straight under bits and pieces of the streets.

But I'm looking ahead 100 miles to see what I have to do to get around the airspace at Springfield.  It is due south of me and the wind is out of the north at 11 mph.  I know it is early, but I don't want to be trapped just when I've got a chance to go 200 miles.  I'm looking at the cloud street that I'm in, which is the best looking one, and seeing if I can get to the east a bit, maybe later.  I'm got my 5030 set to point at London, between the two airspaces, and it shows a bearing of 164 degrees, so I've got to head 16 degrees east of south if I want to get there.

Now I know that London is say 10 miles to the east of the airspace at Springfield, so I've got room to get around the Springfield airspace without actually going over London.  I'm weighing these various parameters as I continue south.  I'm also checking that I don't come too close to the class D airspace to the south east at Findlay, but it looks like I shouldn't have a problem with that.

At 125 miles out I come over Ohio Northern University as I can tell from the ONU in the bleachers section of the football field.  It is in the small town of Ada and is about a quarter the size of the whole town.  I've been on the radio to Belinda the whole flight and finally had a chance to turn up the volume enough to where I can hear her clearly.  It is now after 5 PM and the thermals are starting to feel great.  The cloud streets and dark clouds and hanging in there and I'm just concerned about getting further to the east to get around Springfield.  Otherwise I would just stay under my present cloud street and head south.

At 132 miles out I finally get in contact with Chris.  He's at 140 miles out on his Moyes Litespeed S4.  I didn't get to see him pass me so I wonder just where he is.  I make sure again that he knows that he has to head south southeast from Cloud 9 to stay out of the airspace at Springfield, Dayton and the class B airspace at Cincinnati.  I tell him that the airspace is coming up in about forty to fifty miles and be sure to stay clear.  The cloud street I'm under is aimed right at Springfield (as I can tell on my 5030 by looking at the nearest waypoint on the Goto screen).

At 140 miles out I finally get a path of cu's to the south southeast.  It looks to me like I can make it far enough east to stay out of the airspace ahead.  My first jump gets me down to 2,000' but I find a good cloud and climb back to cloud base.

The next jump is six miles and I can see that it is going to be dicey.  There are a few wisps and dark clouds further on.  I'm hoping to find something under the wisps because I don't think I can make the dark clouds.

Unfortunately I don't find anything under the wisps and turn due east to the dark clouds down to 1,400' AGL.  As I head east I see a hawk about two hundred feet over my head heading in the same direction.  A good sign I assume.

I glide for about a mile and am down to 1,000' AGL following the hawk.  He heads up wind to where there are some nice dark clouds.  I hate this, having to go upwind when I'm low and not over a good landing area.  I follow for a bit and do find almost zero sink.

I search around in the general area over a field with high tension power line running across it and across my projected landing approach.  There was a cleared field to the south which I could make, but I'd have to leave soon.  Most of the open fields around were planted in six foot high corn.  I was over the trees.

I kept feeling bits of lift as I slowly lost altitude.  I was just hoping something would start happening in this area and after three minutes I found a lift bit of lift that lasted for a full turn.  I hung onto it.  It was 6:20 PM.  I was just happy to not be falling.  It averaged 40 fpm and I was a happy camper.

In a few minutes it decided to turn on as I saw the vario start to average 300 fpm.  Now I really was a happy camper.  I was off the line to the airspace.  I was climbing in a nice thermal.  There were cu's ahead to the south.  I figured that I could just head south from here and miss the airspace.

Now I was being careful again as the late hour and the thinning cu's meant to me that the lift would not always be as good as that last thermal.  Also the sun was getting low and that meant shading from the good line of cu's to the west, the ones that headed to the airspace.  I sure was wishing I could be in them, but I knew better.

I worked weak lift, not get back to cloud base, but able to continue flying for another 18 miles and get 170.0 miles in all.  I went to the last cloud and to various wisps on the way, but they didn't provide me with a way up.  I spotted a couple of fields ahead and finally figured out that the best looking one was indeed a corn field, but the one next to it was soy beans.

I made a turn at the south end of the field at about 7:15 noticing that the wind was almost zero out of the north.  It had slowed down considerably as I went further into Ohio.  The soy beans were about eighteen inches high and made for a nice field to land in.  I walked a few feet over to the nicely trimmed road side and broke down.

In a few minutes the neighbors who saw me come in came over and we had a great time on the group W bench with all the families.  They helped me break down the glider as Belinda showed up having driven for almost six and a half hours.  She was ten miles behind me most of the way.

After landing I again looked a little to the west to see the cloud streets heading to Springfield and the good clouds that had been shading mine.  The cu's lasted until after dark (at least).  Belinda heard from Kris.  He was still in the air to my west at 8 PM.

We didn't get back to Cloud 9 until after midnight.

It looks like a nice day here lots of cu's high before noon.  The winds are supposed to be light out of the northeast.

Discuss Record at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

Columbia Nationals

Bad weather (the launch near Roldanillo, Valle del Cauca Colombia)

Daniel Vélez <aavv> writes:

The 5th day looked like the best day so far.  From 6:00 am a nice shinny sun was heating up the ground and our hopes.  Every one started the run on the cars to the take off place.  My car was second on the way up, so we decided to start the competition on the way up.

We made four barricades on the dirt road up to the hill, to slow down the other pilots that were on their way...

Sadly a big cirrus cloud came along on the worse moment so the valley floor couldn't heat up enough to keep the tail wind back and we needed to call the day.

Today is the last Day and the weather doesn't look that promising.  We will see...

Yesterday the task people called a mountain task to the south but then they changed the task to a small 43 Km dogleg to the north over the valley.

I took the first start with the leading gaggle and Mike Glennon, but the valley was too cold so I went back for a late start.  Finally only Mike and me made it around the course (I was like 32-33 minutes faster) but we called the day because of a local rule.  We have two take off sites almost 1km apart and the local rule says that we must have at least one minute of take off wind conditions on each take off site for each pilot in order to validate the task.

Unfortunately yesterday we did not get not even three minutes of safe conditions on one of the take off sites so the task was invalidated.

Today we are all at the best but smallest take off site.

Discuss Columbia at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

Hang On in Woorat

Thirty pilots showed up. (Woodrat) (Ruch, Oregon)

You can find coverage of the Hang On competition here: http://hang6.blogspot.com/.

Discuss Hang On at the Oz Report forum         del.icio.us

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