The Oz Report hang gliding news

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.

Thu, Jul 2 2009, 11:16:50 pm RDT

Steve Morris (co-inventor of the Swift)

Steve Morris

Interviewed on Science Friday

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10224

Thanks to David Glover.

Discuss "Steve Morris" at the Oz Report forum link»

Thu, Jul 2 2009, 10:35:12 pm RDT

Tim Donovan

Medical problems? (Morningside Flight Park, NH, USA)

Jeff Nicolay at Morningside <<morningside>> writes:

Tim Donovan long time hang glider pilot and great supporter of all types of aviation died in a task at the Ephrata, Washington sailplane contest. Witness report a stall spin with no attempt at recovery. Possible medical problem may be determined from the autopsy. A very sad time for all of us here in New England!

Memorial Service to be held at Morningside at noon on July 11th

Discuss "Tim Donovan" at the Oz Report forum link»

Thu, Jul 2 2009, 10:34:58 pm RDT

Money prizes in Montecucco

The site for the next Worlds (Sigillo Perugia, Umbria, Italy)

http://www.deltaclublaveno.it/cucco09/registrazione.php

Discuss "Money prizes in Montecucco" at the Oz Report forum link»

Thu, Jul 2 2009, 10:31:05 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day eleven, task five

The Worlds

Finally a day not to hang my head in shame (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

We go back to Aspres, with a forecast for seven knots of northwest wind and stronger winds late in the afternoon. The lift looks to be 600 to 700 fpm, much better than the day before. Cloud base at 10,000'.

It's not coming up the south face when we get there and up above it is clearly strong from the west (we can see the shadows of the cu's racings across the launch area). But the meet organizers think that it will come up the south side so we set up there. There is just lots and lots of room there and it is easy to get everyone off the hill there.

The task committee sets up a 113 km task that goes down the valley, up the valley, across the valley, back across the valley, and then across the valley again:

Jeff Shapiro and I get down to the number one launch first just before it opens and take off in good lift. Jeff immediately blows out his zipper, but zips the upper zipper down to make for a partial fix at least to his hips.

While it is no problem getting up at launch we are not getting that high. We want to cross the valley and go to another ridge to the southwest to get a better start but the strong lift and high top of the lift is to the east and Shapiro finally convinces us to join him there as we climb out to 8,900'. It is still twenty five minutes to the first start time.

At fifteen minutes to the start time I state on our radio frequency that I am heading for the ridge to the south west, our preferred start area. Jeff O'Brien and then Jeff Shapiro and Zippy join me.

We are not in that great of lift over on this ridge. We should have run to the southeast end of it and by the first start time we are only 6,400'. I head out on the course but find much better lift at the edge of the start circle at the end of the ridge and finally we decide to wait for the second clock.

The second clock would be better except for the chance of over development. It hasn't happened yet in this flight, but it could happen later, so it is tricky deciding to take the second clock.

We climb to 9,300' in the thermal just inside the start circle. This is looking good. We get the second start time and we are high and racing with about ten guys around.

We race down the west side of the valley over the mountains, and to Chabre, which is of course the point. We figured that the west side was the hot side and it was. We had an eight mph tail wind and clouds ahead as well as mountain sides. We were cruising.

Topping out in 500 fpm average at 8,800' at Chabre we head straight into the valley toward the turnpoint which turns out to be a traffic circle off the main highway north of Sisteron. We don't find any lift in the valley and glide for 20 kilometers at 12 to 1 averaging 47 mph over the ground with bits of tail wind less than five mph.

After hitting the turnpoint we glide back into the foot hills toward the northeast and the guys just front of me find the lift on the hill side of the isolated hill at Hongrie. Jeff Shapiro has been nearby the whole time but Zippy got low gliding to Chabre and had fallen behind.

Jeff gets 600 fpm over Hongrie but I'm content with 330 fpm after coming in low to the hill side and not wanting to leave the lift that I am in.

One more much better thermal to the northeast to 8,000 ' at 400 fpm and it is a quick glide into the turning gliders at Malaup, a mountain on the east side of the gap. This turnpoint apparently has a resident thermal as it is right smack dab on the turnpoint and going up at 500 fpm. We climb to 8,500' and head northeast toward the next turnpoint.

We glide across the gap and up into the cliffs. There is a bit of turbulence there that makes it difficult to find a nice core, but I join in one at 500 fpm to get high enough at 8,400' to make sure that we could get up on the next ridge and find the good stuff.

We push forward and find on a smooth sunny slope with over 1000 fpm to over 10,000'. I'm really enjoying the flying and we are moving fast.

The turnpoint is only five kilometers away and then we will turn around and go southeast. As I approach the turnpoint 2.5 km out I spot pilots coming my way. Whoa they are only five kilometers ahead and we have fifteen minutes on them. Great!

We take the turnpoint with Jeff O'Brien just ahead but lower. Shapiro and Dustin are just ahead. Nine kilometers back I join them in a nice thermal at 400 fpm with O'Brien maybe 500' below and Shapiro a few hundred over my head.

The thermal takes us to 9,300'. I look at the 6030 as I go on glide and switch it to the final glide screen. I've got two turnpoints in front of me. The 6030 says I have goal by 2,500' at optimum speed to fly speed and 4,000' at best glide speed. It's a ten km glide to the turnpoint, then a 11 km glide to the southwest to the castle at Mison, than a 2.4 km glide to goal in the valley. The required glide ratio to make goal is 6.7 to 1.

The wind is 10 mph (at least) out of the west southwest. Jeff O'Brien says that the head wind was 13 to 18 mph and horribly rotory at Mison (the castle).

As I slow down to best glide my glide ratio goes below 6 to 1. There are maybe ten pilots in front of me, all of them lower and soon they are beginning to land. The height above Mison that I started with goes from 4,000' down to a few hundred. I need to get over this ridge and get the turnpoint to be able to glide into goal.

As I get closer the height above Mison gets smaller and smaller. Finally it is down to less than 100 feet. I can see the ridge line in front of me and I'm not going to make it. I get within 140 meters of the turnpoint and just twenty feet below the ridge line.

I hear from Jeff Shapiro. He has just landed just on the other side of the castle. Jeff O'Brien is just above him and takes two turns as he watches Jeff Shapiro turn upside down then get the glider back around and have a controlled crash downwind.

I can't cross the ridge or get any lift so I turn and dive into a big wheat field. It is like going down the toilet. Thank goodness the wheat field is soft as I land downwind also, spiraling in.

It turns out that the task had been stopped two minutes (after pushing the time back fifteen minutes) before I landed. Dustin made goal. Jeff made goal after the stop time. Zippy heard about the stop time and landed at the Camping LZ.

The farmer came out into the wheat field that I landed in and was not friendly and spoke not a word of English and the weirdest French I had ever heard. He finally demanded 100 Euros. I said 10 Euros. I don't know if he understood or not.

It became quite a confrontation with him as he grabbed my glider. I hadn't seen fear in a man's eyes in a long time so it was interesting to see it in his when I told him with my body and the tone of my voice to stay away from my stuff.

He came back later with his brother, but they didn't hang around for long. I kept telling them to call the Gendarmerie. I wanted the police to get the guy under control.

Later three Gendarmes did show up but they were looking for Carl Wallbank who had crashed and suffer some injuries, not major ones. I walked my glider out to the road.

As I waited for a ride from our driver, the Japanese team showed up and it turned out they were lost, but they found me. They were going the wrong direction and got deep into the Village Mison. Since I had had dinner there the last two nights I was able to quickly show them how to get out.

Carl was in the hospital in the evening. I heard a cut leg and a broken finger. All these could have easily happened to me or Jeff Shapiro.

Discuss "The Worlds" at the Oz Report forum link»

Wed, Jul 1 2009, 3:40:25 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day ten, task cancelled

The Worlds

Task stopped before the start window opens (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

The chance of thunderstorms was quite high today. With a XCSkies/GFS forecast of north northwest winds at seven knots the organizers send us to Aspres. When we get there it is coming right in on the south launch. The forecast for lift at 2 PM was 300 to 400 fpm indicating cloud cover.

The task committee calls a short, 89 km, task to try to get ahead of the rain. The launch window opens at ten minutes to one and the start window opens at 2:15 PM. Way way more time than we need to get everyone launched and up and ready at Aspres, which is an open launch and on this day has the wind coming right in (why do they do this?).

I'm off first and the whole US team is in line near or at the front of a couple of the lines. We decided as a team to get off early and get ready in the air.

There is plenty of lift and it is no problem to get quickly to cloud base. We have an exit circle of fifteen km and that puts the launch about twelve km away from the center of the exit circle. Once in the air we need to watch other pilots and figure out where to go to have the best run on the first leg.

After a while we drift back north of launch and to the east toward Pic de Bure, always staying near cloud base. As we get further east toward the edge of the start cylinder we see ten pilots on the last ridge next to Pic de Bure and they were clearly outside the start circle, but they could get back to it easily.

This far over to the east made for a better run into the mountains to get to the first turnpoint to the southeast. We would not have to cross much of a valley to get on course from this position.

We were just hanging at cloud base with about twenty minutes to go when all ten pilots from the further east ridge came back to join us as it gotten darker and darker where they were. Looking down it was also the case that the clouds that we were under and just avoiding were growing and moving to the south. The nice sunny cliffs that we were so high over were now in the shade.

As the lift slowed down pilots headed across the valley out of the start circle to get up on the sunny hill (with a cu over it) to the south. That would mean that they would have to come back and get inside the start circle (about 3 km) to get the start gate. I could see that it was raining back by Pic de Bure.

Then the meet organizer came on the radio and said that the task was cancelled and that we were to fly to the south to run away from the cu-nimb over us. Now I knew why the other pilots headed from the peak across the valley. They had already received the radio transmission and knew that the day was cancelled and that we were instructed to head south.

I headed south immediately and flew back to the Camping LZ. Almost all the other pilots did the same.

Thus the day ended.

It turns out that there was a bug or two in the latest version of the FS scoring program (another good reason to use my SeeYou based scoring program). They have worked it out and the scores have been fixed.

It is my understanding that at least GAP 2000 and OzGAP 2005 give only 918 and 900 points respectively to the winner of a day that the goal is not made. GAP2002 also gives 918 points for the winner on such a day, and that is now the score given.

Discuss "The Worlds" at the Oz Report forum link»

Wed, Jul 1 2009, 8:12:03 am RDT

HGFA democracy in action

The members move for a vote (Beechmont, QLD, Australia)

Alexc Jones <hgfa.sgm> writes:

Fellow HGFA members

Thank you for your support which has culminated in a (postal) Special General Meeting.

As Brian Webb has been removed from the Committee, Bill Moyes has complied with a request to resign and the Exec has appointed three new Committee members our path forward is not as clear as it was when we began this process.

Paul Coffey wrote in an email to me yesterday that scrutineering would be allowed which would satisfy the transparency requirement if all the postal votes were to be collected unopened, then opened in the presence of scrutineers after the poll has closed. He has not yet stated that this will be the process to be used, merely "scrutineering will be allowed". I will ask him to commit to the full transparent process.

Please feel free to comment on our "Future Vision" document. All the proposed interim Committee members have provided input and we believe it represents a way forward that most HGFA members would be happy with. That being said, we would like input from all members who would like to contribute. We realise it is impossible to satisfy all members but believe it is essential that the majority of the members agree with the policies and practices of the Committee and the role the HGFA.

Consensus is a much harder barrow to push than dictatorship but we are willing to try our hardest to make the consensus model function within the HGFA.

The background:

For the first time in the thirty year history of the HGFA there is to be a Special General Meeting (SGM) invoked by more than five percent of the membership signing a request. The motions on which the membership is to vote are to remove five members from the Committee (Board of Directors). We, the "yes" supporters, have taken this course of action because we believe the Committee has demonstrated a history of not acting in the best interests of the members since taking up their positions in April 2008.

From their first meeting the Committee has displayed an authoritarian policy attitude, making a number of decisions that have caused the membership much discontent. Two of the more contentious decisions were to increase the fees by 56% and to implement the SARSIG project, in which the thirty year practice of returning the state fee component of the membership fee back to the state associations was discontinued. Many and varied reasons have been given for the changes but no documentation to support these decisions has been released despite frequent requests from members. Almost universally, information requested by members' enquiries has not been provided by the HGFA. The opposite should be the case.

Our constitution guarantees members the right to examine and copy HGFA documents. The current Committee policy of refusing access to documents is contrary to the Rules in our Constitution and the spirit of our organisation. For thirty years, until fifteen months ago, the HGFA Committee's culture was one of servant to the members - being frugal, supportive, consultative, responsive, flexible, transparent and dynamic. For the past fifteen months the public face of the HGFA, through the main contact points of Chris Fogg, Javier Alvarez, and Paul Coffey, has become one of 'The Master' in a time when expenditure in many cost areas has increased - some by over 100%. The culture has been unsupportive, dictatorial, unresponsive, inflexible, secretive and stagnant.

We, the group of members who have invoked the SGM, believe the HGFA Management needs to return to policies and practices focused on service to members. This approach has proven effective over thirty years. The recent departure from it has produced dispute, conflict and loss of members. The following document, "Future Vision" contains our policies and a list of agenda items to be addressed. We believe most members support this vision and urge you to vote "Yes" to all the motions on the ballot paper being posted to your Soaring Australia address.

Future Vision Document:

HGFA Policy Review

· The Strategic Plan will be reviewed to change the focus of planned expenditure to that of a low cost provider of essential services.

· HGFA administration will be responsive, transparent and accountable.

· No HGFA document will be deemed to be confidential except notes kept by Committee members pertaining to unresolved issues.

· HGFA documents will be available to any member on request by email or hard copy.

· The confidentiality clause currently used by HGFA admin on their emails will be reviewed and changed to ensure members feel free to distribute the contents of emails to other HGFA members.

Action Plan

1. Budget Control and Annual Membership Fee Review

· All budget cost centres will be reviewed and each budgeted expense item will be examined to assess the necessity of the expenditure.

· The members will be consulted as to the whether or not they support discretionary items planned or budgeted for since April 2008.

· The Committee will roll back fees as soon as possible. The membership fee will be adjusted to a level which is commensurate with the reviewed budget and, if possible, the difference between $390 ($350) and the reviewed fee will be refunded to members who have renewed their membership since the fee increase.

· Budgeted items will be reviewed on a three monthly basis by the Committee to ensure budget control.

· The HGFA Public Liability Policy will be reviewed to ensure there is a balance between the benefits and the cost.

· All expenses attributed to the GM since July 1st 2008 will be reviewed.

· Restructuring will occur to minimise bank charges.

2. Management of the GM.

· The GM will be performance managed by the Committee.

· All operational decisions will be reviewed by the Committee on a monthly basis.

· All receipted expenses will be examined on a monthly basis before the GM is reimbursed for adequately justified expenses.

· All issues raised with the Committee by the members will be acknowledged, reviewed and ruled on.

· Members will be invited to have GM decisions made since April 2008 reviewed and ruled on by the Committee.

· The work load of the GM will be assessed and his job description modified to align with the Committee's assessment of appropriate duties.

3. SARSIG project/State Fees.

· Implementation of SARSIG Model 3 will cease.

· The issue regarding the HGFA collecting and returning State fees will be resolved.

If the State and Regional Associations can not agree on a common solution, the issue will be decided by a referendum of the membership.

4. Benchmarking of HGFA/Ops Manual Review

· The HGFA will be benchmarked against comparable organisations.

· Ops Manual review:

1. To reflect realities of modern flying and sites

2. GM discretionary powers

3. Compliance with NPRM Part 103

4. Compliance with industry standards

5. Project to Recover Lapsed Members.

· All ex-members who have let their membership lapse between January 1st 2006 and the date of the SGM will be offered an incentive to rejoin HGFA. These ex-members will be able to rejoin HGFA by paying a discounted membership fee of $100 for full membership which will expire on June 30th 2010. After membership renewal there will be a mandatory skills check before the Pilot Certificate is validated.

6. Committee Meetings

· Video conferencing will be the first preference for all Committee of Management meetings except the AGM.

7. Committee of Management Election System

· Members will be consulted regarding the system of electing the Committee of Management.

The Gliding Federation of Australia operates on a Federal Collegiate election and voting system with the Executive members exercising one vote each, seven in total at Board meetings. In their system, the Non-Executive Board Members, representing each State, have two votes each, 10 in total thereby ensuring an effective review of the Executive. If 75% of HGFA members want the present system changed to the GFA model a Special Resolution will be drafted and put to the membership.

8. All future work will be tendered to the membership first where possible.

Discuss "HGFA democracy in action" at the Oz Report forum link»

Wed, Jul 1 2009, 8:09:18 am RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day nine, task four

The Worlds

Task stopped, but scored (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

The XCKies/GFS forecast was for seven knots north northwest winds at Chabre, with 500-600 fpm lift at 2 PM and cloud base at 8 to 9,000'. Also there was a local forecast for over development. The organizers sent us to the south launch at Chabre.

The launches were quite sporadic given the launch conditions with the prevailing wind over the back. We had to wait for the breezes to trickle up the launches from the thermals hopefully coming up the south face. Of course, the real thermals were a few hundred meters to the right and there was very little coming up the launch. Only one pilot launched from our lane for the first half hour (or it seemed like a half hour).

I got off at twenty minutes until the first start window opened. I flew to the right, got in the house thermal and climbed quickly to 8,000' from 4,000'. With ten minutes left before the start window I then flew north five kilometers toward Beaumont hoping to get to the edge of the start circle were about sixty to eighty pilots were working their way up or hanging out at cloud base waiting for the start window to open.

I found good lift but it petered out after a while (not like the lift to the right of launch) and I wasn't about to climb to above 8,000' like others had in time for the first start time but had to be content with 7,300'. It certainly was better than I might have expected.

Numerous other pilots still hadn't launched with the start window opened. This was unfair to them as almost everyone in the air took the first start time. It would prove to be even more unfair later.

Curt Warren, Christian Ciech, Jeff O'Brien and another pilot or two were even further north at Beaumont which was just outside the exit start circle, which gave them a better run at the first turnpoint to the west northwest of launch. Our team plan was to start at Beaumont, but a bunch of us didn't have the time or opportunity to get there.

I started with at least sixty other pilots heading west northwest to the first turnpoint. We were in the valley south of Seres when our plan had to be on the ridge line to the north and there was a dark cloud ahead of us. When I got to it I found 500 fpm that quickly turned into 950 fpm. I knew from previous looks at it when I was near launch that it was a towering cu.

I pulled out of the lift at maybe 1000' below the cloud base. Pulled on the VG and stuffed the bar. I just made it to the edge of the cloud in time to stay out of it. I was going up at 200 fpm the whole way no matter how hard I stuffed it.

Next came a long glide toward the ridge line to the west northwest to get up on it and toward goal. Finally the lead guys found a thermal but I went to the side of them to get under three pilots that looked like they had better lift. This lift turned out to be weak.

Instead of going over to the guys slowly turning to my north, I decided to head toward the ridge line and get up on its south face. That turned out to be yet another bad judgment as I didn't find the lift that I needed there while other pilots got high enough in the previous lift to get up on the ridge and find the lift there.

Running down the south side of the ridge didn't work out either. I found some lift but it was quite turbulent and wasn't getting me up at all. I'd gain 200' in a turn and then lose 200' in the next turn.

I ran out into the valley to the south as I saw a couple of pilots turning and found very weak lift being pushed back from the turnpoint in strong wind (13 mph). The winds up high were apparently mellow.

I worked my way back up from 3,000' to over 5,000' in light lift and pushed forward under cu's, but couldn't find the lift under the next pilot and was forced down in a big uphill hay field with bales. Eventually almost a dozen pilots would land there.

Jeff Shapiro had been unable to launch before the first start clock and took the fourth start time. It looked very much like the task would be stopped because there were cu-nimbs developing out in the valley around Laragne and near Chabre.

The task was stopped. Launch had been very slow and a number of pilots were not allowed to launch until after the first start time. I understand that there is a written complaint to the meet director (or perhaps a protest now).

The new CIVL rules state that you are not supposed to eliminate a day just because there is a problem like this (not all pilots having a chance to get the first start clock). This problem only becomes acute when the task is stopped. So how they will make up for the fact that pilots had difficulty making the first start time is a mystery yet to be solved.

Despite the task being stopped, numerous pilots completed the course and landed back at the Camping LZ. Pilots were able to make 75 km before the task was stopped (minus twenty minutes). At the moment the scoring shows 1000 point day, but as I recall from implementing scoring, if no one makes goal it is a 900 point day at the maximum.

Discuss "The Worlds" at the Oz Report forum link»

Tue, Jun 30 2009, 7:09:34 pm RDT

Making repairs to your vario and pod

Jim Steel exchanges labor for dollars

The details with pictures: http://pccglobal.com/outdoors/HangGliding/FlyTecPod

Discuss "Making repairs to your vario and pod" at the Oz Report forum link»

Tue, Jun 30 2009, 8:34:45 am RDT

Aerobatic double deployment

Aerobatics

Better video (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

http://www.youtube.com/v/fOIB-PZTMDk&hl=en&fs=1

Discuss "Aerobatics" at the Oz Report forum link»

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:43:54 -0400

Steve Morris (co-inventor of the Swift)

Steve Morris

Interviewed on Science Friday

http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10224

Thanks to David Glover.

Discuss "Steve Morris" at the Oz Report forum link»

Mon, Jun 29 2009, 7:43:13 pm RDT

Quest Air under new management

Their local flight park (Quest Air, Groveland, Florida, USA)

Paul Tjaden writes:

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated: Quest Soaring Center is alive and kickin’ like a springtime thermal. Lauren and Paul Tjaden are the new managers of the renowned hang gliding operation, located just south of Groveland, Florida (about an hour west of Orlando), and are focused on catering to the needs of both new and experienced pilots.

Whether you want to learn to fly, learn to aerotow, brush up on your cross country skills or just get a taste of some soft, Sunshine State sky, make sure to check us out.

Quest also features camping, a clubhouse that is complete with kitchen, showers and several bedrooms, a lake where you can swim or canoe, a volleyball court, a swimming pool, horseshoes, and a picnic area with an available grill – so, you’ll have lots of activities to keep you occupied and happy even when you’re on the ground.

Here’s a link to the Quest Soaring Center website: http://questairforce.com. Feel free to email us at or call us at 352-429-0213.

Paul and Lauren live near Quest in Groveland and have been involved in running the flight park for a number of years. It is great that they have decided to step forward and take fuller charge of the operation.

If you appreciate a flight park with fluid operations and a sense of fun without dominating personalities, then Quest Air is the place for you.

There is lots of instruction going on at Quest with new local students learning from Dustin and Mitch.

Discuss "Quest Air under new management" at the Oz Report forum link»

Mon, Jun 29 2009, 7:42:28 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day eight

The Worlds

Wrong choice (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

The XCSkies/GFS forecast was for nine knots of wind at 4,000' out of the northwest at 2 PM. It looked like it was going to be straight in at launch. The early wind readings at launch showed 14 km/h gusting to 24 km/h.

None the less the organizers thought that the winds were turn west later in the day (although XCSkies didn't show this at 5 PM, in fact it showed north northwest at 12 knots then). So they sent us to Aspres which has a southwest facing launch, and the other day provided wind coming straight in on launch.

Well on this day the winds never stopped coming over the back from the north and on launch they were always blowing from the northwest, the right, when they were blowing at all and then when the winds stopped for a few seconds every couple of minutes (only on our launch to the far right of the three launches) they trickled in. The launch to the far left never had launchable conditions.

So launch conditions were sucky. Only a few pilots launched. Manfred first later Jonny and Jeff O'Brien. They closed the launch multiple times then stopped the task, which cancelled the day. Maybe ten pilots launched.

Jeff was able to fly back to Camping Montéglin after catching a weak thermal at 700' at the sailplane port east below Aspres and topping out in it at the "volcano," way to the southeast. Manfred and Jonny got high way down wind to the east from launch and then headed toward the start circle and first turnpoint at the center of the start circle twenty km to the west (into the wind).

Manfred made the turnpoint and then flew back to the Camping.

Cu-nimbs developed to the east in the Alps and came over Laragne after 7 PM.

The winds remained north at 29 km/h on Chabre all day. Perfect for a task there.

Correction: while the winds were perfect the two times I read them (morning and late afternoon), and while I received a report from a pilot who was listening to the wind talker that the winds were right on north at 29 km/h all day, the record shows otherwise. See here.

Discuss "The Worlds" at the Oz Report forum link»

Mon, Jun 29 2009, 8:25:21 am RDT

Launching from the south side of Chabre

A typical launch (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

http://ozreport.com/pub/images/LaunchonChabre/index.html

The wind at the top is actually blowing cross to the launch from the west, although it was basically showing straight in a few seconds earlier. The telltales down below are showing a light breeze coming in.

Earlier Nene Rotor launched by picking up his glider about a foot off the ground and as he picked it up he ran bending down and running horizontally. I run vertically. I pick up the glider, put in on my shoulders, make sure that I am standing straight, pull my shoulders back to get the glider as high as possible off the ground, pull in the bar and check is against my legs to see that the nose is in the proper position.

I wish I would lean through the control frame, but I don't. I could pull the nose in further for more pitch control, but even with the nose at the pitch that it is at I run the length of the carpet and then some. I keep my hands in the grapevine grip the whole way until well away from the hill.

I saw a pilot launch starting with the bottle grip and running that way the whole way. He did fine. I hope to have more launch examples soon.

Photos by Katie, our driver.

Discuss "Launching from the south side of Chabre" at the Oz Report forum link»

Sun, Jun 28 2009, 11:32:17 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day seven, task three

The Worlds

Mountain flying (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

The XCSkies/GFS forecast was for light winds and good thermals. I didn't check the height of cloud base. The French metrological forecast was for cloud base to rise to 11,000'. It is warming up with a forecast of 30 degrees at Laragne, 32 tomorrow, and 33 the next day.

The task committee sends us first 20 km west down the ridge at Chabre, then 56 km north to Bergerie De Roch Nr Obiou, way far north of Pic de Bure, the biggest mountain around. This turnpoint is a ski chalet high in the mountains next to a 10 to 15 km long rock wall. At the pilot meeting (which we were too late to attend fully as parking takes too long) it was said that this was a mountain so I didn't get the word that it was not the top of a mountain but a building lower down.

The next turnpoint was straight line through or over Pic de Bure to a hill side that I didn't go to on the first day of the contest east of Gap, Mont Colombis. Then back to Camping Montéglin. A big task, a big circle, in big mountains and small valleys, with few places to land and a no fly zone south of Gap to avoid.

The launch was the south face of Chabre, not my favorite but okay in the right conditions. With no winds, the thermals were bringing the air up the launch and sometimes over the back. But often enough it came up the south face to get 125 pilots off the hill. I don't think anyone crashed on launch today.

A free flyer went into one of the nice cu's above launch and came out on top of his sail with a broken leading edge. He didn't throw his chute during 2000' of the descent and then chucked it at 350' above the trees. They dragged him out later.

There were plenty of thick and black bottomed cu's above launch and it was easy to get up to cloud base at 7,500' in a few minutes, so everyone had a chance to take the first clock. The entry start circle was 18 km wide and a couple of km away. The difficult part was keeping out of the clouds as there often was sufficient cloud suck.

Some pilots had gone way down the ridge and then to the south to get on the south west side of the entry start cylinder, but many pilots just hung around west of launch waiting for the first start time. The winds were out of the south, so it would be a cross wind run to the center of the start circle.

When it was time to start I was at cloud base and near the edge of the start circle so I and about 60 to 80 other pilots headed out. Zippy was a little to the south and hit a good line. Most of us just ran the ridge line until we finally found the strong lift, and it was one thermal to the first turnpoint at the center of the start circle which was home at an 800 fpm thermal for me.

Because of the south wind the pilots who came the south direction got there first and ten pilots started out ahead of the rest of us toward the second turnpoint to the north. Jeff O'Brien stayed back for the second start time and Jeff Shapiro would wait for the third one.

I was next to Scott Barrett and he missed the thermal I found but he was racing along. We got together again as we came into Bonnet Rouge and found good lift. There were cu's every where and lots of dark bottoms.

It was peaks, ridges and thin valleys with a few fields all the way into the high mountains with strong lift and light winds. The thermals were a pleasure to fly in.

Fifteen kilometers from the turnpoint we got to 8,600', the highest I had been so far and again just below cloud base. I continually had to bail from thermals to avoid the clouds and I was always searching for the edges of clouds and the little holes at the edges.

Looking ahead toward the turnpoint I saw that cloud base ahead was 7,500'. I wasn't sure if the turnpoint was in the clouds or not. The clouds were clinging to the rock face which ran along our course line.

6 km out I saw the first guys coming back. Yikes, I was 12 km behind. Zippy was just behind them. Scott said he was 3 km behind them. There turned out to be very weak lift all along the rock face and I had to jump out 3 km from the turnpoint and find better lift.

The leaders were also running back along the second leg course line and not along the third leg which was almost ninety degrees to the second course line. There was a high ridge that was in the clouds in the way.

Scott made the turnpoint and kept going to go around the ridge and go on the back side toward Pic de Bure and over the much less landable area. The lead pilots were looking for a place to jump over the ridge line and head toward Pic de Bure and the next turnpoint.

I turned around and came back along the same course line as the leaders and things started falling apart. Nine km back I found good lift and climbed back to 6,800', but I should have stayed in that to cloud base, another 800', as that proved to be crucial.

For the next forty minutes I was stuck with a few other pilots in a hole unable to climb over the ridge despite trying to run through a gap in it twice. Of course, you couldn't see the other side to see if there were landable areas or not as I would have made the ridge line by a few feet.

The lift was weak to non existent. Jeff Shapiro who started at the third start time got caught in the shadows and weak lift and landed in the valley, not even making the turnpoint. Jeff O'Brien who started third and Blay also got caught and couldn't risk going over the ridge line, after they got high enough to see what was on the other side.

Finally I just forged ahead back down the second leg course line working other rock walls then jumping over lower ridges, going into valleys that I could finally see had landing areas and just going back toward Aspres and the main valley that would take me to Gap.

I passed up Blay and then came upon Jeff and we worked whatever we could find until we got back out to the sun where Jeff hit a boomer and finally we got out of the shade and out of the sink and could head toward the next turnpoint. Of course, as we were doing this a cu-nimb was raining just behind us.

We scooted over toward Gap finding good lift in the sunlit hills with plenty of well space cu's and got back on course. The Gap valley was blue as it seems to be and we headed for the hills on the other side of Gap.

I found 200 fpm which unfortunately I did not stay in long enough. Jeff wasn't finding any thing and kept moving toward the next set of hills before the last turnpoint. He found some ridge lift up on the hills sides which I didn't find and was finally able to get up. I landed near the turnpoint while he made it and part of the way back before getting too close to the no fly zone and had to land.

Zippy powered ahead and came in third for the day. Dustin came in late. About forty five at goal.

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Sat, Jun 27 2009, 4:10:33 pm RDT

Aerobatic double deployment

Aerobatics

A failed loop leads to two parachutes and a soft landing over Montéglin (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

Today there was a fest of Flight at the Camping Montéglin LZ. Around 3:15 PM Sam Duprae was doing loops for the visitors just to the south of the field and he broke a downtube at the top of the loop twisting and looping backwards. He deployed both his chutes and came down slowly. The wings were intact.

I've seen the video. I hope to link to it soon.

Not the video that shows what happened.

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Sat, Jun 27 2009, 1:30:30 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day six

The Worlds

Too gusty at Chabre so the day is called (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

The day is called as we stay in town. The wind/weather station on top was reporting 44 km/h. The contest limit is 37 km/h.

The wind forecast for tomorrow is for light winds.

By 1:30 PM the winds on top had died down to 35 km/h (gusts) with 14 km/h as the average speed.

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Fri, Jun 26 2009, 2:30:33 pm RDT

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, day five

The Worlds

Cumulus Congestus (Laragne-Montéglin, France)

Day called a little after noon. Cumulus Congestus. Cu-nimbs in the distance. Rain when we got down to Laragne. Rain on the pilots who launched when they landed at the Camping LZ.

Downpours later in the day. Cu-nimbs throughout the valley and on our course line.

From Jeff O'Brien's video on the first task (after he made goal first):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udXJzfl6zB4

1m52s - #52 crosses the line, sort of...

2m20s - Lucas scrapes but makes it.

3m02s - Jonny scraping across the goal line.

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