Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

topic: Florida

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A quiet two weeks

Sun, Mar 20 2022, 8:18:44 am MDT

After so much good flying weather

Florida|weather

The weather turned wet and windy in Florida after great flying conditions in January, Febuary, and early March. It hasn't improved much, but it should later this week. That's why no flying stories.

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Thanks for your support

Thu, Mar 10 2022, 8:01:40 pm MST

We have received many encouraging comments

donations|Facebook|Florida|Oz Report|travel

Along with donations many of you have written comments thanking us for continuing the Oz Report. At one time it looked like that wouldn't happen. Two years of pandemic. Lots of cancelled competitions. Lots of restrictions on travel. Reductions in postings from pilots except on Facebook.

With three competitions coming up very soon in Florida, we're looking forward to many new stories that will encourage you to get out there and enjoy yourselves in the air.

Thanks again.

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Don't get too bothered by the forecast

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 7:27:39 pm MST

The winds stay calm and there is no sea breeze from the west

Derrick Turner|Florida|TV|weather|Wilotree Park|XC|XContest.org

Here is the forecast which proves to be incorrect about the wind direction and speed;

Morning Soaring Forecast for Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at Wilotree Park

NWS, Today:

Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Light and variable wind becoming west northwest 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon.
Hourly forecast: west southwest wind 3 mph at noon rising to 8 mph west northwest by 4 PM, cloud cover 20%, no chance of rain.

RAP, noon

Surface wind: south southwest 6 mph (8 mph, 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 4,800'
CU: 4,100'
B/S: 8.5

RAP, 3 PM:

Surface wind: west 7 mph (11 mph, 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 7,100'
Cu: 5,900'
B/S: 10.0
Temperature at CB: 50°F

Task:

Quest 3 km
Baron 3 km
Quest 400 m

56 km
Launch at noon

West winds increase all afternoon with surface winds west at 11 mph at 4 pm according to RAP. NWS and RAP disagree on the direction of the winds at noon.

Because of the forecast for stronger west winds in the afternoon we avoided both going around the Green Swamp as well as shortening the task as we wanted to land before the sea breeze came in. The TV weather said that the sea breeze would stop to our west at I75, but RAP showed it getting to us.

Instead the winds stayed calm until almost sundown.

I launched right after Larry at 12:20 PM. Wilotree Park had over a dozen hang glider pilots ready to get into the air. Derrick Turner and Thasio were just behind me, so that four of us would be doing the task.

The sky started filling up with cu's as I launched after Larry. It took about 20 minutes in the 3 km start cylinder before I climbed up to cloud base at 4,400' and headed north.

With plenty of cu's I was following Larry to some extent getting 100 - 250 fpm average lift until I got just past the Florida Turnpike. Down to 2,400' I ran smack dab into 700 fpm and it was not a friendly 700 fpm. I put the glider up on a tip in order to try to stay inside the tiny core, still there were plenty of opportunities to find the edges. I was only 2 km from the edge of the turnpoint cylinder.

I could see Larry, Derrick and Thasio nearby so it looked like we could fly together on the way south. The task was just back to Wilotree, but there was an alternate turnpoint about 16 km further south if you wanted to extend the flight.

Heading south there were plenty of cu's and I found 300 fpm and 500 fpm to 5,200'. Down to 2,200' just east of the chicken coops in Mascotte I saw either Derrick or Thasio climbing nearby and we all joined up with Larry further west. 300 fpm to 5,400'.

When Derrick and Thasio headed south I found 500 fpm at the edge of the cu so I stopped and climbed to cloud base as they dove south and got lost to me against the visual ground clutter.

Larry was headed south toward the turnpoint at the intersection of highway 33 and 474 and was just ahead of us. I stopped for 200 fpm over some pilots flying near Wilotree Park while Derrick raced ahead to get under Larry 2 km further south. Thasio slowed up as both he and Derrick had missed the lift that I was climbing in.

Derrick got down to 1,200' under Larry but couldn't climb up much and was forced to go land about 5 km south of Wilotree Park.

I flew over to where Larry had climbed out, but didn't find anything. Thasio was watching and when he saw me turn north to go back to Wilotree he followed. The lift was light but steady all the way back and with a light north wind it was easy to land back at the LZ.

Larry continued on another 11 km, made the turnpoint, took a cloud street to the west and then came back in to the Park.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/27.2.2022/17:19

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3016722

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2022/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

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Local Groveland News

Mon, Nov 22 2021, 6:21:10 pm MST

Florida|news|Wilotree Park

Wilotree Park is on the south edge of Groveland

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/us/groveland-four-exonerated-florida.html

Four Black Men Wrongly Charged With Rape Are Exonerated 72 Years Later

The men, known as the Groveland Four, were cleared on Monday after a Florida prosecutor said “a complete breakdown of the criminal justice system” led to the charges in 1949.

Four Black men wrongly charged with raping a white woman more than 70 years ago in Florida were exonerated on Monday, bringing an end to a saga that has shadowed their families for decades.

The accused — Charles Greenlee, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd and Ernest Thomas, known as the Groveland Four — died before Florida officials re-examined the case, which a prosecutor said lacked due process and would not be tried today.

It all began on July 16, 1949, when a 17-year-old white woman and her estranged husband told the police that after their car broke down in Lake County, Fla., the four men had stopped to provide help, then took the woman from the car and raped her.

The accusation left a trail of destruction. Mr. Thomas was killed by a mob after fleeing Lake County. Mr. Irvin and Mr. Shepherd, both of whom were World War II veterans, were shot by Willis McCall, the Lake County Sheriff, while they were being taken to a pretrial hearing before their cases were retried in 1951. The sheriff claimed that the men, who were in handcuffs, had tried to escape.

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2021 Florida Nationals Series Comps

Wed, Nov 17 2021, 11:37:57 pm MST

airspace|Airtribune|Florida|food|sport|Sport Class|Stephan Mentler|tow|weather|Wilotree Park

Trying to get them published on Airtribune

Stephan Mentler ‹team@Icaro2000usa.com›> writes:

While we are working to get things going on the registration side, here are some details for both comps.

The entry fee is $375 (includes Wilotree Park Fee, $475 after March 10th). NOTE that entry fees do not include tow fees. Aerotowing fee is $375 - this includes a tow on check-in day. Some of the things that we will have:

• Daily Prizes
• Event T-shirt
• Food and beverages the night of check-in (I plan to get he same ice-cream truck for us)
• Prizes for the first three places in the Open and Sport Class
• Awards ceremony dinner
• On-line Turn point Coordinates
• On-line airspace files
• Weather Briefing on Pilots’ Phones via WhatsApp
• Task Sent to Pilots’ Phones via WhatsApp
• Wilotree Park (includes free WIFI, access to clubhouse and amenities [swimming pool, kitchen, pool table, etc.

Our cancellation policy is as follows - receive full refund minus $12 (USD) for withdrawal up to March 1st 2022. Receive 50% refund for withdrawal after March 2nd till April 1st. Refunds for withdrawals after April 1st are at the discretion of the Organizer and Wilotree Park, but not likely as we will have secured aircraft, the grounds, and other tangibles.

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Florida »

December 10, 2013, 8:56:47 PST

Florida

Why there are three hang gliding flight parks in Florida

Quest Air

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World Record Encampment »

Fri, Jul 9 2004, 1:00:00 pm EDT

Two new world records.

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|sailplane

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|sailplane

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Quest Air|record|sailplane

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|sailplane|World Record Encampment

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|Russell Brown|sailplane|World Record Encampment

CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|Russell Brown|sailplane|World Record Encampment

World Record Encampment

Friday:

My Friday flight on the HOLC

Leo's flight on the OLC

Leonardo Benetti-Longhini set two world records for light (DU) sailplanes today. The first for distance to declared goal and the second for straight distance (386 miles). Gary Osoba previously held the record in his Woodstock. Taking off about an hour after Pete Lehmann and I you could hear that it was slow going for Leo in the Silent 2 DU. I launched at 9:46 AM with cu's at 2,600' (2,200' AGL) but no cloud streets. The wind was sixteen to twenty miles out of the southeast.

I pinned off at 3,600' (3,200' AGL - a little less than 1 kilometer as per the CIVL rule) and headed due north to get around the Laredo airspace and to make it quickly toward the first public highway. With a thousand above cloud base it is much more likely that you will make the highway if you don't find lift, so it is much smarter to tow to this altitude.

I found the early going fairly easy even with the light lift. I was surprised to find 500 fpm at 10:25 (that I spotted a bird climbing in), but it was an anomaly. Pete was about six miles behind and we had no problem skirting way to the east of the Laredo airspace.

The cu's were wispy, very thin, few, and every one of them was working at least a little bit. It was quite possible to fly from cu to cu and every now and then they would actually line up for a mile or so.

There was a strong low inversion and we can't get over 3,600' for the first two hours. The thin clouds were mere dots at the inversion.

As we passed Laredo thirty five miles out we heard that Leonardo was in the air and chasing after us. With the twenty mph tail wind we were making good time even without good lift and with the low cloud base.

The cut off for me is 100 miles by 1 PM. The dream is to be able to do 100 miles by noon, but no one has done that yet. At 1 PM I was 113 miles out, so the day was looking very good for records. The cloud base was only 4,300' though, much much lower than we normally get but 1 PM. Leo was twenty miles behind near Pete and catching up with me.

But we were approaching the wet spot, the area that shows up on the FSL maps as having lots of soil moisture from all the rain in May and June. I had never seen this area so green, not just where they were irrigating (if they are irrigating at all this year). We all had to slow down.

All of south Texas is absolutely lush which explains the low cloud base and the light lift, but the lift got very soft as the sky filled up with gorgeous looking cu's that rarely had any lift under them. The rivers were full and so were the creeks. Every field was bright green.

In the next hour and ten minutes I made only 34 miles, never getting over 3,200' AGL. The lift was averaging 200 fpm. Leo was finally able to catch me at around 2:20 PM as he also wended his way through this area. We were thinking that the lift was much better to the north.

Pete decided to land and a few minutes later I decided to also given how slow it had been since 1 PM, how east the wind was at this point, how light the lift was, and how low the cloud base was.  The sky was full of beautiful cu's so it was a hard choice, but it is best to go back and try again on the next day if it looks like you won't set the record. Hopefully this area will have a chance to dry out a little more.

Leo continued on as this was his last day. He brought the Silent 2 down here for Gary to fly world records, but Gary had to leave for a week, so Leo was the one with the opportunity and he was able to get through this area which put Gary on the ground a few days ago.

Leo landed around 7 PM at the Sweetwater, Texas airport, 386 miles out from Zapata and west of Adeline. His distance to goal record was 560 km (329 miles) set for the Winters airport between San Angelo and Abilene. David Glover was driving with the trailer underneath him the whole way. Gary and David will return on Sunday or Monday with the Silent for more record attempts.

Pete and I are setup in the hangar the the Zapata County airport and we are ready to fly tomorrow. Given that Leo was only able to fly 385 miles in a 40:1 ship on this day, even landing early, indicates to me that it was a good idea to stop and try again on another day.

Saturday:

Zapata blows up.

I normally don't expect to see inversions here in Zapata, but I've seen them here this year. Today was the first day since we came ten days ago, without an inversion showing up on the FSL charts. Of course, that means with enough moisture in the upper atmosphere, that means the chance of thunderstorms and over development.

Pete and I were at the airport early and there for the first time since we arrived was the evidence of a cloud street. Unfortunately it didn't last long, still there were lots of lovely clouds that quickly disappeared as I launched at 9:29. Pete was off shortly thereafter.

It was almost a ten mile glide until I got under the clouds, but the lift was light and I was down to 1,400' AGL as I crossed the Ignacio road. I repeatedly climbed up over a field there going back into the wind to find thermals, but never got to cloud base at 2,600' and I was therefore reluctant to head over the locked gate territory to the north. Pete had similar experiences and decided to land with me at the same field at the last public road for twenty three miles.

The clouds reformed and looked really good not too long after we landed, and the thought was that we went too early (before the thermal got strong enough to keep us going downwind) or was it too late (as the clouds were better earlier).

In the early afternoon the cu-nims developed, but there was no rain here, just off to our east and north. Looked more like a summer storm than a good soaking. Hopefully it will continue to dry out here, although it may blow up again on Sunday.

Russell Brown flew back to Florida and Quest Air yesterday after rebuilding the engine to one of the planes. Curt Warren is here as the new capable tow pilot flying the Flytec Dragonfly. Rod Brown is with him and that team will be heading for the National Fly-In on the 22nd in Leakey. Russell will be back then to put the motor on the plane and hopefully fly it north.

Thanks to Russell, Quest Air, and Flytec.

Sunday:

After the cu-nimbs yesterday Zapata didn't return to it's pattern of windy mornings with low cu's whipping by. The clouds and the winds return at 10 AM but with high overcast coming later in the day shutting down the chances of flying. Looks good for tomorrow (don't I say that every day?).

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Cloudsuck Review

Mon, Jan 12 2004, 5:00:02 pm GMT

Cloudsuck

Cloudsuck

Frank Ransdell writes:

Just wanted to drop you a line and tell you how much I enjoyed reading "Cloudsuck" and how it has effected me! It struck a fire under my ass, as a new hang three pilot I have been happy to hang around my home fields, but not anymore, I got the bug.

The book went beyond excellent and will be stored in my harness to read again and again as I wait for a retrieval driver in my new passion :). I will never break any records, but after reading about the experiences of the pilots going cross country I am itching to leave my nest. My first goal is Labelle airport, just 12 miles from my flight park (Florida Ridge). It sure it sounds pretty lame compared to the book but its a start and I'm excited :)

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New US competition - right after Flytec Championship »

Sun, Jan 11 2004, 5:00:02 pm GMT

calendar|CIVL|Dan Critchett|David Glover|Florida|New US competition|Quest Air|USHGA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

www.TheFloridaRidge.com/pages/events.php

Dan Critchett <Fly@TheFloridaRidge.com> writes:

The Florida Ridge announces the First Annual South Florida Championship, a 6-day USHGA sanctioned meet for 45 pilots, April 26-May 2, right after the Flytec Championship (which ends the 24th). The Quest air crew and tugs will join the staff of the Florida Ridge and meet director David Glover to host this first-time event for pilots from around the world.

Three hundred and sixty degrees of runway, catering by Hooters Bar & Restaurant, massage, music, and other special events and services. Prize money provided by a grant from the Hendry County Tourist Development Board. For more details see the URL above.

(editor's note: This is a wonderful place to fly with wide open rural areas. It's great to have this enthusiasm for a second meet in Florida this year. I'm so happy that they decided to put in on right after the Flytec Championship. I'm sure looking forward to going to this meet.

David Glover mentions that the pilot friendly Flytec local rules will be used for the meet and that this makes for five USHGA sanctioned hang gliding meets in the US this year (see the Oz Report calendar).

They haven't decided on CIVL sanctioning or not, so if WPRS points are of interest to you, you might send them an e-mail. I say screw the WPRS system. )

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New Year's Flying

Sat, Jan 3 2004, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Florida flying

Florida|Ron Gleason

Ron Gleason <xcflying@earthlink.net> writes:

The flying has been fantastic here at Quest the last few days; 2003 ended with good soaring and 2004 has presented tremendous soaring for this time of year. There are many folks here including new students and people working on getting their aero tow ratings. The tugs have been working non-stop.

On Thursday January 1, 2004 many of us had multi-hour flights and toured 20+ miles of central Florida country side at 3,500 to 4,000 MSL.

On Friday January 2, 2004 the conditions improved with cloud bases raising to 4,500+ MSL and people flying to Wallaby and back and all over the place. Temperatures on the ground have been around 80° and cloud base being around 60°.

The forecast indicates these conditions will stay with us through Monday January 5th with the winds clocking around to the South and south-east. The soaring window is around 4 hours a day, typically between 12 noon and 4 pm.

I would encourage any Oz Report reader who can get to Florida do so and take advantage of these conditions.

Life is GOOD!

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Full timing

Thu, Dec 11 2003, 6:00:04 pm EST

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Jack Kreinheder|Quest Air|Raven Sky Sports|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Jack Kreinheder «jack77» writes:

I would be interested in an Oz Report article on the full-time RV/flying lifestyle. I'm looking at semi-retiring in two or three years and am planning on full-timing in an RV and visiting flying sites (along with lots of skiing, foreign travel, etc) for at least a few years or as long as I'm still enjoying it.

I imagine there are a number of other HG and PG pilots approaching retirement/semi-retirement age who would be interested in your experiences in this area, such as your favorite spots to camp and fly, average over nighting costs, pros and cons of shorter vs. longer RVs for comfort vs. access to LZ/campsites, etc.

I'm happy to oblige.

Originally Belinda and I purchased a small, twenty three foot trailer, and hauled it down to Wallaby Ranch in Florida so that we could comfortably hang out there for a few months. We kept our rooms back in our collective household in Seattle, as we weren't sure just what we were going to end up doing.

After a couple of years we saw that we were spending so much time doing just what you envision in your message, that we moved out of our home in Seattle (me after 32 years) and went full time. I have never regretted it, but Belinda does miss Seattle a little.

We live in a 33 foot travel trailer, it is our only home, and it is just adequate for our basic needs as long as the weather is nice outside. We have a storage unit at the Big Spring airport for heirlooms from Belinda's Grandmother, and we keep about 1000 pound worth of stuff in our trailer (which keeps it well under the Gross Vehicle Weight limit.) You learn to travel with only what you need.

We pulled the dinette set, couch, chair, and TV from the model that we bought off the showroom floor (and pulled all the froo froo out that we could), putting in two small computer desks, my short couch, and a high end electronic piano. I was never able to get all the glue off the walls that held on the wallpaper decorative border. Perhaps someone has some good advice for me - lacquer thinner is too strong.

We purchased the Trailer Life Guide to RV Parks and use it to find RV Parks when we travel around the US. In Australia we stay in Caravan Parks in trailer like accommodations, as they are cheap , you can cook in them, and they have air conditioning.

We almost always stay where we can get electrical, water and sewage hookups, and where there is at least a central modem hookup. With Flying J now providing wireless access, I'm taking advantage of that and sometimes don't need a phone line for modem access. Some parks have wireless access. I think things will improve in this area in the coming years.

I love staying at Quest Air in Groveland, Florida in the spring time and hope to spend more time there. They are very friendly and you get a great view of the lake. Wallaby Ranch also has good accommodations and it is always great to be there. There are other flight parks in Florida, and they would be fun to stay at also.

Last spring we also stayed at Raven Sky Sports in Wisconsin which was a load of fun. Wireless at all three of these Flight Parks, with Quest Air having the fastest access. We also enjoyed driving and flying throughout the North East in the fall of this year staying at Ellenville, Morningside, and Finger Lakes Flight Park. Not to be missed.

I would definitely stay at flight parks even if they don't have full hook ups, as they are the most fun and you can always work around the lack of camping resources. There are many flying sites and parks throughout the US, so it  makes sense to just travel from one to the next, keeping the weather regimes in mind.

Seeing our example, the Posch family (with two teenage boys) and Ron and Elsa Gleason also took to the road in their RV's. These are diesel powered relatively expensive behemoths which means you don't have to haul a relatively heavy trailer, but a light weight truck or van as a dingy. I still prefer the trailer.

I use a special (expensive) hitch that eliminates fish tailing. 5th wheel trailers are much more popular (and more expensive) but they eliminate the place for a rack (which carries the glider) and canopy (which acts as our garage and storage area). RV Parks can handle all the bigger rigs, but US Forest Service camping areas usually only work for small trailers with out slide outs (we have one, and it is essential).

I love being part of a world wide community of hang glider pilots and feel welcome wherever I go. I don't need to have a fixed location to be part of a vibrant community (but then Belinda sees this as a drawback for her). I love having only a small house to take care of, and letting other people deal with the rest of the world (although I really love mowing the 200 acre lawn at Quest Air, and it helps pay the rent while there.)

If you can give up whatever it is that you find good about living in one place, learn to make new friends, and have a taste of adventure, I say go for it.

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Cloudsuck - Now in hard copy »

Thu, Nov 27 2003, 8:00:01 pm GMT

Australia|blog|book|Christmas|Cloudsuck|death|Florida|Hang Gliding|Mexico|Oz Report|Oz Report forum|record|weather

http://www.cafeshops.com/ozreport.8615244?zoom=yes#zoom

Cloudsuck, the Life and Death Struggle for the Hang Gliding Word Recordis now available as a hard copy book. Just in time for Christmas. Make sure that that wuffo friend of yours understands the point of hang gliding.



Cloudsuck tells the story of the dramatic 10-year race to fly farther than anyone has ever gone in a hang glider. From the historic 1990 flight that first broke the 300-mile barrier, through ten years of adventure and challenge, this is a first-hand account of the driven individuals who struggled against each other and against nature to set the next hang gliding world distance record. We follow them from the northwest Colorado wilderness and across the rugged New Mexico desert to the plains of Australia and the Florida swamps.

We feel the thrill of racing against the worlds best, and the shock of loss in tragic accidents. Ultimately the trail leads to south Texas, where painstaking analysis of weather patterns finally pays off for a small group of pioneering pilots and the story begins again. Cloudsuck will appeal to anyone with a love of adventure, and everyone who has ever dreamed of flying.

The ebook version has been out for a little while now, and we've finally been able to get Cloudsuck printed. You can purchase it on-line at the URL above.

You can find the ebook at https://OzReport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can freely download a small portion of the book (Preface, TOC, first chapter) at https://OzReport.com/cloudsuck/cloudsucksmall.pdf. Right click this link then click Save As.

Discuss "Cloudsuck" at the Oz Report forum

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ASTM Meeting in Florida

Mon, Nov 24 2003, 3:00:01 pm GMT

ASTM|Bill Bryden|Dan Johnson|David Glover|Florida|Mike Meier|USHGA

Glover, David «dhglover» writes:

I went to the last day of the ASTM meetings in Tampa. I sat in on the Tandem Hang Gliding work group. Dan Johnson, Jeff Goin (PPG), Sue Gardner (FAA) were among the dozen participants. Bill Bryden (chaired the committee) and Mike Meier (volunteered to do much of the remaining work) are putting in much time and effort on the USHGA's behalf on this topic and aerotowing.

The work they are doing, and that done by Jayne DePanfilis, USHGA executive director, goes way beyond the call of duty. They don't only attend the meetings but have done and continue to do a great deal of drafting and teleconferencing on the standards the FAA will ultimately adopt for tandem hang gliding and aero-towing.

With the 100's of hang gliding opinions I see floating in the ether of the internet - It is refreshing to see two pilots put in real work to make a difference for us all.

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Paraglider accident report from Dave Prentice

Fri, Nov 21 2003, 8:00:06 pm GMT

accident report

David Prentice|Florida|PG|Quest Air|USHGA

David Prentice «earthcog» writes:

I feel the reason for accident reports is so that others may learn from mistakes and possibly save future accidents from happening. For this reason people need to hear the facts not just hear say from second- hand accounts. I do not feel accident reports should be used as justification that one sport is safer than another. There is no way to have all the accident reports submitted, and it might make people want to hide accidents.

The only reason this accident report did not get submitted earlier is because I was the only witness and due to my relationship to the pilot I had been spending all my spare time in the hospital or testing the bi plane aerotow. I probably would not have submitted this report for another few days, when it was convenient for me. However, I do not want to be part of some argument that one sport is safer that another or that one sport is not reporting accidents. We all have crashes and accidents should reflect on pilot safety not relative safety of one sport over another!

Rasa has been flying for the past five years incident free. She had just graduated from the Southwest College of naturopathic medicine as a naturopathic doctor. This had prevented her from flying as much as she wanted. She was here in Florida to further her flying skills, and this accident was a tragic event in her flying career. As you know it takes lots of student loans for most people to become a doctor. Like me and countless others, she was not able to afford health insurance.

In the months prior, we had talked about the possibility of developing some catastrophic medical insurance coverage that would be included in our USHGA membership dues that would cover this kind of accident. We are not certain of the total cost of her surgery and one week hospitalization. If pilots would like to help Rasa financially she can be contacted @ «Rasalila».

Accident/Incident Report Form Information Follows:

HG_or_PG: unknown
Reporter_Name: David Prentice
Reporter_StreetAddress: 7485 prairie rd n.e.
Reporter_City: Albuquerque
Reporter_State: n.m.
Reporter_ZipCode: 87109
Reporter_Country: usa
Reporter_HomePhone: 505-417-6593
Reporter_Email: «earthcog»
Pilot_Name: Rasa Lila
Pilot_StreetAddress: 2130 wildermuth ave
Pilot_City: Tempe,
Pilot_State: az
Pilot_ZipCode: 85281
Pilot_Country: usa
Pilot_HomePhone: 480-650-3847
Pilot_DateOfBirth: 10-28-75
Pilot_Sex: Female
Pilot_Height: 5'8"
Pilot_Weight: 120 lb
Pilot_USHGA_Member: YES
Pilot_Member_No: 73773
Pilot_Rating: P/2-p/3
Pilot_Experience_No_Flights: 400
Pilot_Experience_Hours_of_Airtime: 60hours
Pilot_Years_of_Experience: 5 years
Accident_Date: 11,10,03
Accident_Time: 3:30 p.m.
Accident_Site: Quest air
Accident_Nearest_Town: groveland
Accident_Launch_Alt: 120ft msl
Accident_LZ_Alt: same
Accident_Radio_Supervision: NO
Accident_Instructors_Name: David Prentice
Accident_Tandem_Flight: NO
Launch_Foot_Launched_Tow: Yes
Launch_Tension_Control_Device: Stationary Winch
Glider_Manufacturer: firebird
Glider_Model: g-sport
Glider_Size_Color: medium/puple
Glider_AFNOR_ACPUL_DHV_level: dhv 1-2
Harness_Model: nsd
Harness_Cross_bracing: no
Harness_chest_strap_setting: perfect
Helmet_model: standard foam inside, shell exterior
Helmet_Face_protection: no
Reserve_make_model_size: n/a
Reserve_date_of_manufacture: n/a
Reserve_Deployed: NO
Causes_No_Brake_Flare: Yes
Causes_Other: Yes
Causes_Other_Description: lock-out
Injuries_Shoulder: Yes
Injuries_Pelvis: Yes
Hospital_Overnight: YES
FATAL: NO

Accident_Description:

Rasa was in Florida to attend a maneuvers clinic. On the day prior to the clinic, I was giving her some practice tows on a stationary winch. These were her first tows on a stationary winch, and so I was only towing her to about 50 feet!

Previously, she had done about six solo tows and fifteen tandem tows with me. Her last tow was approximately three months before!

Her first tow was good and she showed good pilot skill while under tow. On the second tow, Rasa had a good launch but her canopy was slightly off to the left. She ran under the wing and corrected, so I began the tow and she lifted into the air. The glider again went to her left, and as she neared a tree I stopped her tow by releasing the throttle. She made a quick weight shift to the right and the glider responded properly.

As she came back toward center, I began the tow again. The glider continued off to the right, and when she did not turn onto the tow line, I stopped the tow once again.

The glider was now getting off far enough to warrant a full release of the tow force. I placed the tow rig in neutral "free spooled". The glider quickly turned to the lock out position. She was about 15 feet above the ground at this point.

She later stated that she saw the ground rushing up, she closed her eyes and braced for the impact! She impacted on her right side and all the associated injuries were all on her right side!

Some factors that affected the pilot were the unique aspects of the stationary tow. It is common for a student to oscillate from one side to another. With the stationary winch the tow force can be easily stopped or applied, so when a student gets off line the tow force is stopped till the pilot corrects.

Of course the glider reacts differently under tow then it does without tow forces, so when Rasa was off line and the tow force stopped, she felt a certain brake pressure to complete a correction turn. Later when she needed to correct again but was under tow force she felt the same pressure, but that was partially the tow force. So she felt she was pulling enough brake to make the glider turn but in fact it was not enough brake.

The glider went into lock out and was then out in front of her, with only 15ft of altitude.

As the operator I had only one more option, to cut the line. But at that point it would have released her into a pendulum swing possible head first into the ground!

The pilot could have flared on landing which may have helped. But under the circumstances with the ground rushing up, the pilot may have panicked as it was her first experience in an inevitable crash situation. The pilot did not have a lot of experience under tow.

It's important to explain to a student that no matter what forces or pressure they may feel at times, they need to pay attention to the wing and do what ever it takes to get the glider to respond properly. Also to never give up. Always be aware of the ground and be ready to flare near the ground, and be ready to PLF.

However all the explaining in the world cannot fully prepare someone for those last seconds before impact, when some people lock-up. Only experience itself can really prepare one for this moment.

Discuss "Paraglider accident report from Dave Prentice" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Paragliding towing accident

Wed, Nov 19 2003, 5:00:02 pm GMT

paraglider towing accidents

David Glover|David Prentice|Florida|Jerry Dalen|PG|Quest Air|Rasa Lila

Speaking of paraglider accidents, and towing paragliders I received a report from Jerry Dalen «jdalen» about a paraglider towing accident the first week of November in Florida. Hmmm?! Hadn’t heard a word from all my informants in Florida. He writes:

One of our local pilots (AZ) was injured severely.

I asked him some more questions and also contacted David Glover at Quest Air. Jerry wrote:

Dave Prentice was towing with a local AZ PG pilot, Rasa Lila. She locked out somehow and fell about 30 ft. to the ground. I don't think it was over water due to the severe injuries she suffered. Shoulder and hip.

David Glover wrote later after seeing this report:

David Prentice's girlfriend. He was towing her and she oscillated back and forth. Dave said instead of flying out of it she gave up and closed her eyes.

She is recovering. I think it was the top of her arm that was broken. And something around her midsection of her body, which was not as important as the arm break.

See what you have to do to get an accident report and then it is dismissed.

Discuss "Paragliding towing accident" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Aerotowing paragliders

Tue, Nov 18 2003, 11:00:05 am EST

Andrew "Drew" Harris|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|PG|photo|Quest Air|Rhett Radford

Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bobby Bailey|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|PG|photo|Quest Air|Rhett Radford

Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bobby Bailey|Campbell Bowen|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|PG|photo|Quest Air|Rhett Radford

Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bobby Bailey|Campbell Bowen|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|PG|photo|Quest Air|Rhett Radford|Russell Brown

Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bobby Bailey|Campbell Bowen|David Glover|Dragonfly|Florida|PG|photo|Quest Air|Rhett Radford|Russell Brown

David Glover « david» writes:

Paragliding history was made at Quest Air 10:37am, Monday November 17th, 2003. Bobby Bailey - Tug Pilot, Dave Prentice - Paraglider Pilot. Dave aerotowed up an Ozone Vulcan Paraglider behind the Bailey Moyes Dragonfly (bi-plane)

Rhett Radford, Campbell Bowen and Russell Brown assisted as ground crew and provided important insights that made for the final three successful tows. About five earlier short attempts were made before three successful high tows occurred. Much was learned. The stunt and expert factor is starting to disappear.

The chances of a Florida Paraglider tow competition just increased

 

 

Photos by David Glover and Andrew Harris

Discuss paraglider towing at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Photo/Caption contest »

Fri, Nov 14 2003, 2:00:07 pm EST

Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bo Hagewood|calendar|Curt Warren|David Prentice|Davis Straub|Florida|John Corry|PG|photo|Quest Air|record

andrew harris « randrew999» writes:

Curt Warren and David Prentice held a small maneuvers clinic here in Florida this past week. They mainly boat towed on Little Lake Harris and Lake Minneola (both within 20 minutes of Quest Air). This picture is Bo Hagewood launching with Dave in the foreground and Curt driving the boat while Jethro "Superstud" operates the winch. It was all great to watch and there's no reason that paragliding cannot take off around here!!

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Standard Class

Wed, Nov 5 2003, 3:00:04 pm EST

Florida|George Longshore|Manfred Ruhmer|Niki Longshore

Florida|George Longshore|Manfred Ruhmer|Niki Longshore|Oleg Bondarchuk

Florida|George Longshore|Manfred Ruhmer|Niki Longshore|Oleg Bondarchuk

George Longshore «longshore» writes:

Every aspiring xc pilot wants to go as good as the big boys. The cost to have a competitive glider is higher than most of us can afford. Let’s say that a competitive glider runs you $7000. Now you have a glider that will keep up with the factory guys. For the first 20 hours that is.

The Mylar sail that you paid the premium price for has shrunk over the last 20 hours and no longer fits your airframe like it did when it was brand new. The glider starts showing traits that were not there last time you flew it. All of a sudden it becomes harder to stay with the hot guys in a thermal because you are starting to have to high side more.

Your handling has started to degenerate and you are having trouble holding bank angles. The hotshots are long gone. Glide has turned into a wrestling match to keep the beast on track.

The experts look at your wing and do some "fixes" so you don't have that nasty turn. It even works for awhile. Sail shrinks again and the whole scenario starts all over again. Sound familiar? This is life on a Mylar wing. You will only be able to keep up with the rich and famous if you too can afford to fly[ or are given to fly] a brand new Mylar wing every few competitions.

Gerolf’s competition glider will never perform for someone the way it did for Gerolf in its first competition. The degradation in handling and performance will prevent it from performing even for Gerolf. How can an average Joe follow this scene and have a good time? The machines for all out racing are only as good as their sail. Since we normal not rich mortals cannot afford to plunk down 7 g's every season for a new ship, we need a new class to compete in against similar gliders.

I am proposing a "Standard Class" glider. This class would be open to any competition hang glider that had more than 30 hrs of airtime. Dacron sails would be encouraged to enter in this class as well as the shrunken sailed toplesses. There are more non competitive Mylar sails out there then new ones. New shiny gliders would be prized only by the factory guys and we could get back to having fun and competing on a level field again.

This class would probably not be all that well accepted by the manufacturers, it would cut into their new glider sales, but hey, they priced them this way. If the comp pilot could stay with a wing for 3, 4 or even 5 years there would be a much larger competition scene then there is now.

With the expected actual competitive life of a wing measured in months instead of years, most competition bound pilots fade into the woodwork with their glider in direct relation to the sail age. If the pilot had only to compete against other shrunken headers I am sure that they would continue to compete.

When was the last time that Gerolf, Curt, Paris, Bo, Kari, Oleg, Tomas, Manfred, or any one of a handful of the top pilots won on a glider that was anything but brand new? Or even flew anything but brand new. Not blaming them for it, just pointing out that they know this Mylar shrinkage thing is true and that an older glider is always inferior to the new ones.

This does not seem to be a concern for the stiffies. Carbon fibre covered with Dacron doesn't shrink and deform like Mylar does. Where would be a good place to start? Florida? Texas? Oz? Who else feels this way?

(editor’s note: As I recall Oleg doesn’t change he glider that often. I know Bo and Paris have their gliders for sale after getting them in the spring. It is great to fly a rigid wing which seems to be pretty stable, sail-wise.)

Discuss standard class at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

It’s just the Ranch

Tue, Nov 4 2003, 3:00:07 pm EST

Florida|Marc Vinarub|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mike Barber|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Marc Vinarub. «mvin1031» writes:

I have been following articles about clubs in your e-zine and find them very interesting. Thankfully my hang gliding experience currently couldn't really get much better. I live in south Florida and have been flying at Wallaby Ranch for the past six months.

I had a short/bad hang gliding experience in 1980 in Colorado, and waited till this year to pursue it again. I started out doing tandems (10), and soloed a Wills Wing Falcon. I am currently flying a U2 and plan on buying one shortly.

The people who work and I meet at the ranch are nothing less than awesome! Everyone who works and fly's there will go out of their way to help. The best of the best are always available to help.

I took a ground school with Mike Barber, which was great, and am planning on flying with him after I get a little more time on the U2. Gibbo has been here and helped not only answer my questions, but is extremely motivating for me to fly out of the "Ranch Suck" and go XC.

The article in November’s USHGA magazine by Bob Reed is "Dead On"!!! So while people across the country work to enhance their clubs, a vacation to the Ranch to see what about the closest thing to Ideal is, is just a short plane flight away.

I really don't think there is a club or anything so formal there, it is just the Ranch!

Discuss the Ranch at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Wills Wing Anniversary Party

Sat, Nov 1 2003, 3:00:03 am EST

calendar|Florida|Rob Kells|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

Wills Wing Annual Demo Days and Anniversary Party, Wallaby Ranch, Florida - March 23rd through 28th, 2004. Mark your calendars! We'd like to try for the biggest fly-in in the history of hang gliding. We will be developing some fun new events for next year. Please email your ideas to «rob».

(editor’s note: The weather was quite good this year and we all had a great time. It is wonderful that Wills Wing can put on this huge event and let us fly all their great gliders. I had so much fun this year.

I’d like to see a spot landing contest and a bomb drop built into the events. May cause too many aluminum problems, though.)

Discuss the fly-in at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

$10,000 prize to go far in Florida

Fri, Oct 24 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Dan Critchett|Florida|record

A few weeks back I asked Dan to send me a synopsis of the latest changes at the Florida Ridge. Dan Critchett «Dan» writes:

The Florida Ridge is pleased to announce it will be open for the season this Saturday, October 25, under new management.

In addition to offering $10,000 for a limited time to any pilot who breaks the Florida Distance Record from the Ridge – no, we’re not joking - here are just some of the changes and improvements pilots can expect.

Ø    No cross-wind launches & acres of bail-out on the largest airfield in Florida

Ø    Brand new hangar, two cabins, shade canopies, landscaping, and a new pro-shop/office

Ø    Office assistants to handle phone calls, transactions, and other pilot services

Ø    Two tugs, two pilots, less waiting

Ø     All-new take-off carts with large laminated launch checklists

Ø    Hop-in-and-Fly® Glider Rentals featuring brand new Falcons and U-2’s, Lightspeeds and Fusions

Ø     Expanded set-up area with seating and benches for glider bags and harnesses

Ø    Two North Wing Tandem Gliders with custom-designed front-entry harnesses for easier training

Ø    New Volleyball Court, Outdoor Table Tennis, Shade Trees

Ø     Clinics, special events, and continuing education for beginner and intermediate pilots

Ø     Themed tandem flights for friends & family:  the Screamer, the Co-Pilot, the Ultimate Mile High Sky Ride

Finishing touches are still in progress and will be ready by our Grand Opening Fly-in November 7-9, featuring lots of cash prizes and other fun. For details, pilots can go to our brand new web site www.TheFloridaRidge.com. We look forward to seeing both old and new friends alike this year at the Ridge.

(editor’s note: I saw on their web site that it’s $200 just to beat the 50 mile or 2.5 hour site record.)

Discuss the Ridge at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Bo goes

Sat, Oct 18 2003, 6:00:02 am EDT

finally, big flights in Florida

Bo Hagewood|Curt Warren|Florida

Curt Warren «fly» writes:

Bo's over at my house now, sittin' poolside, beer in hand, after a 107 mile flight from Quest to my hang gliding school, here on the gulf of Mexico, in Venice (FL).

At about 5 pm, I was wondering how much shrimp to pull out of the fridge…"hmmm, who's coming over for dinner tonight? -oh ya, Bo said he's gonna' try and fly over", then I walked out to check the sky…and there he was at about 1500 feet! - Whoa.

He reported an incredible day, with plentiful 600 fpm lift. Ten mph NE wind, and a 5000' cloudbase greased (SKY jelly?) the way the here. We're guessing the next few days will be cooking as well:)

Discuss "Bo goes" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

East coast tumbling

Fri, Oct 17 2003, 6:00:05 am EDT

Adam Palmer|Florida|Rob Jacobs

Well there is no way that you can get away from it. I had a suspicion that I had published something about this. Williams, Deane «deane.williams» points out:

I guess Adam Palmer isn't much of an avid Oz Report reader. On May 25th of this year in Oz report #141, there is a rather big article about a tumble that occurred to Tim Locke. https://ozreport.com/toc.php?7.141

Rob Jacobs writes:

Tumbling does indeed happen on the east coast - or at least in New England. I concur with Adam's thoughts that it's usually "big air" sites which see a share of tumbles. Our most recent was had by our own regional director (Gary Trudeau) flying his Litespeed from a site we call Mohawk Trail in Massachusetts, this happened back in 2000 - he obviously recovered from the incident unscathed, and without a deployment, but was rather shaken for several weeks/months following the incident.

Springtime here in the northeast US can be an exciting ride - we get nasty big air here for a couple months each spring, and tumble is certainly possible, and has happened to be sure.

(editor’s note: Does that leave Florida unscathed?)

Discuss tucks and tumbles at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Tumbling – does it happen on the US east coast? »

Thu, Oct 16 2003, 5:00:03 am EDT

Adam Palmer|Florida|Tumbling

I sure can’t remember if this has happened, or whether I’ve ever reported on it but Adam Palmer «apalmer» asks:

I have read many accounts of tumbling gliders in the Oz Report, including your own frightening account. Assuming one has not adjusted ones glider/sprogs beyond the manufacturer's recommended limits, it would appear that there is little a pilot can do to prevent a tumble, save for avoiding conditions which might result in a tumble in the first place.

However, it does seem (at least from common sense and from anecdotal stories published by you) that tumbles are occurring almost exclusively at mountain, desert or other "big air" sites. Accordingly, it would be interesting to know whether any gliders have tumbled here in Florida, or even the entire eastern half of the United States for that matter. It might be interesting to pole your readership concerning there knowledge of any such incidents here in the East. As a hang glider pilot since 1995, I know that I am unable to recall even a single report of tumbling here in Florida.

Discuss tumbling at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Flytec Championship »

Wed, Oct 15 2003, 5:00:01 am EDT

CIVL|David Glover|Florida|Quest Air|Russ Brown|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

David Glover «david» writes:

2004 Flytec Championship at Quest Air

The Flytec Championship meet purpose is to have a safe, fun and fair competition. Our focus is to have a relaxing and affordable meet that is a great time for everyone involved.

Registration Begins December 15, 2003, 9:00am East Coast Time . Register early, last year the meet filled up in just a few days! May limit size to just 90 pilots.

Date: April 16 (Friday) - 24 (Saturday), 2004. At the end SunNFun Air Expo.

Sanction: USHGA Class A and applying for CIVL/WPRS points meet. Flex, Rigid and Swift class.

Location: Quest Air Soaring Center, 6548 Groveland Airport Road, Groveland, Florida, 34736.

Registration: online at www.flytec.com - for help phone (352) 429-0213 - Fax line (352) 429-4846

Fees: Only $375 - (add $100 within 30 days of meet). Tow fee separate.

Meet Organizer: Steve Kroop and the Quest Air Family Meet Director: David Glover Safety Director: Russ Brown Score Keeper: Tim Meaney

Awards and Prizes: Yes, fairly distributed.

Mandatory Pilot Briefing: 7pm - Thursday, April 15, 2003. No Rain, weather or other contingency plans at this time.

Other info: Pilots must have flown in a USHGA aerotow competition previously or have written prior meet director or safety director approval. Pilots must have successfully aerotowed the glider model in competition conditions at least 10 times. USHGA intermediate rating and membership with aerotow sign-off required minimum 7 days prior to start of meet. Pilots must have specific Garmin or approved GPS units. Meet format is cross-country race to goal with or without turn points. 2004 USHGA rulebook along with local meet specific rules will be used. Scoring Race - GAP/GAP modified. See online registration form for requirements and restrictions.

Discuss Flytec Championship at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Kitty Hawk Kites »

Tue, Oct 7 2003, 4:00:02 am EDT

Florida|USHGA|Wright Brothers

John Harris and Kitty Hawk Kites were very welcoming of the USHGA BOD meeting (even though the finger food ran out after five minutes at their reception). While we were running the Wright Brothers glider up and down the hill, John said be sure to mention “Kitty Hawk Kites, teaching gliding since 1902.”

Kitty Hawk Kites now has eleven locations (a new one in Panama City, Florida), with one a beach shack where they teach kite boarding. He offered us all free lessons. Don’t know if anyone made it down there. All the clothes at KHK were on sale (40% off) as this is the end of the season in the resort area. I hadn’t been to such a great sale since we were in Moab, Utah in late October.

All the voting members of the USHGA BOD (I’m not on the BOD in any capacity) got a goody bag of kits, and other party favors. I bought five new pairs of shorts and some Teva’s.

Discuss KHK at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA BOD – it was live »

Sat, Oct 4 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Bill Bolosky|calendar|CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Jackson Hole|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|record|Tiki Mashy|USHGA|USHGA BOD|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

I’m writing this Sunday evening, and the USHGA BOD meeting is over for the fall of 2003. There will be another one in the spring before the flying season outside of Florida, Arizona, and southern California begins. It will be held in Colorado Spring, CO in March. I hope to be able to attend it.

The next fall USHGA BOD meeting will be held in late September or early October near Rochester, NY (near Finger Lakes Aerosports Flight Park). They hope to hold it in conjunction with one of the two 2004 national fly-ins, the one obviously at the flight park. The BOD voted to hold the meeting at Rochester, but I really assume that means in the neighborhood thereof, as personally I would like to be out in the country side once again, and near the flight park.

Why near Rochester? Dennis Pagen, I and others got excited about being at the Finger Lakes area at Marty’s party. The goodwill that Marty generated just spontaneously got people excited about going there again. It is a perfect time to go there too with harvests coming in.

There were a bunch of nominees including San Diego, the Bay Area (SF), Seattle, Minden, Nevada (my vote), Boston, Hannaford, NH, and others. Lots of good reasons to go to various ones.

Participating in (I’m not a USHGA BOD member) and at the same time covering the USHGA BOD meeting was actually quite a chore, especially covering it often in real time. I often had to both push my positions on various issues as well as report how the meetings were going at that very moment. I had few chances to actually look people in the eye as I kept my eyes glued to the screen and was typing as fast as people were talking.

A few BOD members were apprehensive about my coming to the executive committee meeting (Bill Bolosky responding positively when I asked), and reporting in real time with draft reports on the committee meetings and general sessions (thanks to Liz Sharp who shared e-versions of all the committee notes she received with me). They wrote Bill to tell him so.

At the end of the meeting I got a round of applause for how well the Oz Report forum/blog worked out. Almost everyone felt that the reporting was fair and impartial (I didn’t have time to rant and rave J).

I’m sure that there are a good number of errors in what I and others wrote and I will try to clean up things over the next few weeks. The BOD meeting is way too short to be able to allow for considered judgment of the many issues that the BOD is faced with so there will always be a lot of loose ends at the end of the meeting.

There were three separate independent movements to tighten up the completion of action items that are assigned at the BOD meetings. This was likely in reaction to the screw ups around the membership vote that brought such disrepute on the BOD. There was still a lot of confusion on my part just how this will all be worked out, but a lot of progress was made. There will be a web based calendar for the BOD which will put out automatic reminders re the action items, for example.

Some members have complained that the USHGA does little to market and build the sport of hang gliding. This is not for the lack of effort by many members of the BOD I can assure you. These same complaints were echoed by a number of BOD members.

There looks like there will in fact be a major restructuring of the USHGA administration to take on the task of marketing both sports. The goal is to promote growth in the number of participants in both sports.

It was also pointed out that a number of local chapters are not at all interested in growth when it comes to increasing the number of pilots who would be using their local sites. This makes it counter productive to look to a good number of chapters when it comes to promoting hang gliding. The USHGA will be taking these issues into consideration when looking at a marketing plan.

Some USHGA members have complained that the USHGA BOD is filled with representatives of commercial interests that are driving the board’s goal and programs. Yah, some of that is there. Matt Tabor is a strong voice for interests that coincide with his own. But, that said, they are also positions that are often in line with the general good of the USHGA and the hang gliding community (unless you are one of those who oppose growth).

If you look at the new executive committee (Bill Bolosky, Mark Forbes, Liz Sharp, Randy Leggett), none of these people have any commercial interest in the sport. In general I found the commercial interests to be very muted and in general way under represented at the BOD.

Over the last year I’ve had some conflicts and disagreements with a few of USHGA BOD members (Dennis Pagen, Jim Zeiset, for example). The fact that we have disagreed did not in any way seem to detract from our ability to work together, even when we continued to be on opposite sides of issues. Dennis Pagen and I very much disagreed on the CIVL representative qualifications (mine, for example), but it never got personal (or at least not uncivil).

Dennis made a move to diminish the power of the USHGA president to choose the CIVL delegate and alternate and put some of the power in his committee. I was able to argue against that move in the general session and add an amendment that left the decision up to the president (of course, Dennis can still bully him if he likes). Dennis got his CIVL delegate qualification guidelines passed, but only after I and others got them amended to be more to our liking.

One of the big news items was that Malcolm Jones was not going to put on a USHGA sanctioned meet in 2004. Malcolm feels burned by the USHGA BOD (well, actually mostly by Dennis Pagen and Jim Zeiset) re the 2005 Worlds bid (and I think he has a real point there – see my earlier articles on this), and he also feels that it isn’t any fun to run the meets partly because of his various conflicts with the USHGA BOD over the years.

Malcolm really presented a sad figure at the meeting, and many of us felt sorry for him, and sure didn’t want him to be feeling so burnt out. Unfortunately, many of the problems that Malcolm suffers from are of his own making. By his actions he has burnt so many bridges with his former supporters on the BOD, that he has now too few loyal ones.

He was nominated to be tandem administrator to take Tiki Mashy’s place at Wallaby Ranch (she’s now in Jackson Hole, Wyoming). His nomination was approved in the tandem committee, but rejected in general session. The reason? According to the evidence presented his poor record of supporting the USHGA tandem program procedures.

I sure would hope that Malcolm could make amends for his past actions and transgressions, ask for forgiveness, state that he would rigorously follow the procedures in the future and build a record of accomplishment in this area (sometimes just thought of as the paper work). The BOD really appreciates his accomplishments and his enviable record of safety and want Malcolm to continue to succeed and would love to be able to work with him in a more constructive fashion.

Pilot and instructor rating revocations was a hot topic at the Safety and Training meeting. The issues before the committee were quickly dealt with, but the whole process was overhauled to make it completely transparent and to make sure it had the appearance of fairness to go along with its actual fairness. Paul Sussman’s rating were reinstated in the Bay Area as the proper procedures (well, at the very least) were not followed by Tim West, the regional director.

CIVL is rewriting the Sporting Code Section 7. Dennis Pagen, Jim Zeiset, and I have formed a subcommittee of the National Coordinating Committee to review the Sporting Code and perhaps to provide input on other CIVL issues.

The Competition Committee approved a bunch of new meets. The big changes were first the ten day Flytec Championship in the Spring after Sun ‘n Fun at Quest Air (perhaps using the best seven out of ten days) instead of two meets in the spring in Florida. The Team Challenge is moved to the spring in mid May at the request of the Tennessee Treetoppers.

It was almost totally by accident that on the first day of the BOD meeting that I sat down next to Liz Sharp. Liz is responsible for taking the notes, getting the committee reports, putting together the minutes, and straightening out the action items. She would immediately share with me the committee reports as they came in from the chairman in general session and therefore I could get them out on the forum as or before they were being presented to the BOD. Thanks to Liz Oz report forum readers are much more aware of what goes on at the BOD meeting.

As things settle down over the next few weeks and I have a chance to review more of what actually happened, I’ll write some more about the changes coming to the USHGA.

You’ll find my scribblings and those from others at: https://ozreport.com/forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6

Discuss the USHGA at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Burning Man

Thu, Oct 2 2003, 4:00:08 am EDT

Florida|record|Wallaby Ranch

Ralf at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

A large organized group of Florida aficionados of the famous ‘Burning Man’ festival in Nevada (www.burningman.com) is joining Wallaby Ranch to put a different spin on our 10th annual Halloween party. From Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, join the ‘burners’ and Wallaby regulars and enjoy kooky art, crazy costumes, huge bonfires, and the famously unique atmosphere of the Ranch (live music Saturday night). We’ve had some crazy parties before, but this one might set new records.

To cap off our busiest summer ever, our core group of locals and regulars DONATED a ‘real’ reinforced concrete swimming pool (25,000 gallons, 7 foot deep) to replace our aging vinyl liner pool – quite a gesture, and we can’t thank them enough!

Discuss flight parks at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

2003 US PG Nationals - Roundup »

Sun, Sep 28 2003, 9:00:04 am GMT

Florida|Joerg Ewald|PG|US PG Nationals 2003

Jeff (who needs hang gliding… I decided to Bag it) Huey «HueyJL» writes:

This is a photo taken during the last task at the 2003 U.S. Paragliding National Championships.

The task had us doing a lap in the Gold Hill launch area, crossing the Telluride Valley to a turnpoint on Dallas Peak and then over the back of the range to the Ridgeway Reservoir via a turnpoint on Mt. Baldy, Southeast of Ridgeway. 32.6 miles total.

Pilots reported getting to 17K msl over Mt. Sneffels.

I’ve posted more pictures on Webshots.com at: http://community.webshots.com/album/92212568RlOjqa

For a good daily description of each task, check out Joerg Ewalds site at:

http://www.yourstruly.ch/paragliding/content/usnats2003/

Flying contests in Florida is cool and all but Telluride is a really great place to fly and compete. Tim Meaney does as great of a job scoring paragliding contests as he does hang gliding comps.

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West Georgia Aerotow Club

Thu, Sep 25 2003, 4:00:02 am EDT

Florida|record

These things are popping up like mushrooms. Ben «dskydawg» writes:

I would like to invite you and any one else to come and fly with us. Anyone who is headed back from Chattanooga to Florida might want to stop by. The flying has been great the last couple of weeks and there have been cloud streets forming over the power plant next to us. Anyone who breaks the club record of 20 miles tows for free.

From Chattanooga take highway 75 south to Calhoun, GA and take exit 312. Then a right on Hwy 53 and go south to Rome, GA. Pick up Hwy 27south there and take it all the way to Carrollton, GA about an hour from Rome.

Continue on 27 south 4 miles south of Carrollton and take a left on Ringer Rd for 2 miles I'm on the right side at 1290 Ringer Rd, a cream vinyl siding house with a gravel driveway. 200 yards on down is an old barn that’s falling in this the gate where the airfield is.

Ben deGaris, 1290 Ringer Rd, Carrollton, Ga. 30116, 770 854 8850

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Cloudsuck, the book »

Fri, Sep 12 2003, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Cloudsuck|Dave Sharp|Florida|Kari Castle|Larry Tudor|PG|record|Tiki Mashy|US Nationals

On and off over the last three years I have been writing a book about the quest to break Larry Tudor’s 300+ mile hang gliding world record. That book is now available as an ebook in PDF format that can be easily read on your computer with the free Adobe Acrobat reader.

It is a real book and looks that way when you view it on your computer.

Cloudsuck is a story, although not necessarily the only story, about how the record was broken, first by Dave Sharp, then by me in 2000. It starts with Larry Tudor’s record breaking flights in the Owens Valley, Hobbs, and Rock Springs and continues through the efforts of other pilots to break his then long standing record.

I tell the story of the 1989 Manufacturer’s League Meet in Pine Mountain, Oregon, the 1990 US Nationals in Dinosaur, Colorado, and flying in Hay, Australia. We meet Michael Champlin flying in Florida and Hobbs, New Mexico, as well as world record holders Kari Castle and Tiki Mashy.

From the first chapter:

In early July, 1988, Utah pilot Larry Tudor was setting up in the morning at Walt’s Point high above the small wilderness adventure-oriented town of Lone Pine on the eastern flanks of the Sierra Nevada’s. The morning sun was strong on the hillsides, promising thermals. He wanted to get off by 9:30, though the lift could be fickle so early in the day. But he needed to get going soon if he wanted to have a chance to set the world record.

On their dry eastern side, the Sierra Nevadas consist of boulders and rubble strewn below the sharp cliffs and cuts of granite. Harsh and barren, it is only near the top that pine trees mellow out the mountain’s forbidding nature. But it’s the east face that gives the possibility of both early lift and strong conditions from the hot desert floor of the Owens Valley far below.

Southern California hang glider pilots came here to get the big (and therefore also bad) air. The promise of long flights at high elevations was the lure that pulled them away from their coastal hillsides. It was airtime and hang time unlike anywhere else.

Larry was a wiry bird-like pilot out of Draper, Utah, weighing in at less than 150 pounds. Draper is a small burg south of Salt Lake City and north of Point of the Mountain, a popular place for recreational pilots to just hang out in the air. At “The Point” new pilots, including Larry, learned to fly before they moved up to the challenges of the nearby Wasatch Mountains.

Cloudsuck is an adventure story for the audience that loves a good tale of high adventure on the extremes of human possibilities. It chronicles how one can be drawn into taking on the most extreme challenges in the face of death.

I know that the story will appeal to hang glider and paraglider pilots alike, and I hope that it will find a larger audience of those who wish to feel the thrill of free flight. Part of my motivation in writing this story is to reach out to all those who love human adventure and the human spirit. Perhaps they will take a hang gliding tandem flight or lesson to get a taste of free flight for themselves.

You can find the book at https://OzReport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can freely download a small portion of the book (Preface, TOC, first chapter) at https://OzReport.com/cloudsuck/cloudsucksmall.pdf. Right click this link then click Save As.

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Ellenville - Flying in Fantasy land »

Sat, Sep 6 2003, 3:00:01 am EDT

Belinda Boulter|Ellenville, NY|Florida

The nights are cool, maybe in the forties tonight, with the highs tomorrow in the high seventies or maybe eighty.

After days of rain and clouds all day on Thursday, the sun came out early on Friday morning. We’re camped in the huge landing zone at the Ellenville Flight Park next to the gurgling Sandburg Creek, which is swollen from the recent rains.

We’re here in southwest New York as part of our tour of northeast US flying sites on our way to the party at Finger Lakes Aerosport Park later in September. Only seventy miles from New York City we are in the foot hills of the Catskills surrounded by tree covered hills and valleys.

The cu’s started forming early, but then a shelf of clouds came in from the northwest and the satellite showed that this was just the precursor of a much larger bank. It sure didn’t look that good to me.

But Tony Covelli, proprietor of the Ellenville (foot-launched) Flight Park, was enthusiastic and said that folks would be showing up later in the afternoon, perhaps some getting off from work early. No one was at launch when Belinda and I walked up the short length of road behind the locked gate off highway 52 at 1 PM, but when we went back at 3 PM, the place was packed and more pilots kept streaming in.

It was great to see so many enthusiastic pilots driving in from as long away as Long Island, NY two and a half hours to the east and from Scranton, PA two hours to the west. JJ, a well known local pilot, had already been flying his ATOS for about forty minutes but had landed by the time I started setting up when he discovered that he hadn’t put on the fish cams on the outer two ribs on both sides.

The Ellenville launch is on the hillside just to the southeast of the landing zone and 1000’ over it. It’s a short drive up the road from the Ellenville making for painless access and vehicle retrieval.

It was coming up light straight in, and I was the third pilot off. I just listened to my vario, did what it told me to do, and soon I was circling up and away from everyone else as they continued to ridge soar.

The lift was light and thoroughly pleasant as I climbed to 2,000’ AGL from the launch at 1,000’ AGL. Heading north east along the ridge line I found continual light lift and was just staying about even as I flew past the Ellenville airport and found some sunlight and stronger lift.

The first pilot off had been soaring at about ridge level, so I neglected to put on much clothing, therefore as I approached 4,000’ MSL (the valley floor is 340’ MSL) at 300 fpm, I was starting to shake. This is not Florida or Texas so it’s cold, but oh the lift is superb.

It was no trick to fly all over the ten to fifteen mile long upper plateau with light lift pretty much wherever you went, but I had to get back down closer to the trees to get warm again. The birds were out and I just kept getting closer to the trees like they were, wishing I could fly even closer to them.

Much later, after just bobbing around the sky in the most pleasant of conditions with pilots scattered all up and down the long ridge line, I forced myself to come in for a landing in the huge, grassy, soft, and a bit wet lz. Flying should always be this easy.

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Foreign travel – not necessarily so good for you? »

Fri, Sep 5 2003, 4:00:04 am EDT

Florida|Foreign travel|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Mike Barber|record|Worlds

Florida|Foreign travel|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|record|Worlds

Florida|Foreign travel|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|record|Worlds

Florida|Foreign travel|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|record|Worlds

Glen Volk wrote back to check with me on whether my statement that it really didn’t make any difference in the composition of the US National team if foreign meets were counted or not. I went back to double checked to see what would have been the composition of the team at the recent Worlds in Brazil, if I eliminated foreign competitions from their records.

This is the ranking that was used including the foreign competitions.

1

Williams Paris

2413

2

Barber Mike

2263

3

Warren Curt

2120

4

Rossignol Jerz

2046

5

Bessa Carlos

2035

6

Castle Kari

1922

7

Lee Jim

1921

This is what the ranking would have been without foreign competitions, including the previous Worlds, a meet in Brazil, and the Australian meets:

1

Williams Paris

2413

2

Warren Curt

2120

3

Barber Mike

2091

4

Rossignol Jerz

2046

5

Bessa Carlos

2035

6

Castle Kari

1922

7

Jim Lee

1911

It’s pretty clear that US pilots are getting more US NTTS points from US meets than they are from foreign meets. The exception was Mike Barber who did very well a year and a half ago in Australia. Jim Lee had a few extra points from the Worlds. Only the top six went to the Worlds in Brazil.

Glen writes:

If it was not for how well the international community receives Florida as a competition venue the American meets would not be nearly as well attended by foreign pilots. So, I guess that as long as Malcolm and Steve continue to put on these meets you probably have a pretty valid argument that the American Meets will be very competitive. But if they ever stop I have a hard time believing that we would get the foreign participation we are now getting.

(editor’s note: It was the Lone Star Championship that really got a number of these pilots their big points.)

I continue to believe that competing abroad, especially in Europe and Brazil will prove invaluable to building a winning team in the future. I don't think we can count on the flight parks in Florida to continue hosting meets forever, even though it seems like they will.

(editor’s note: I think it is a great idea for pilots to travel abroad and to fly against foreign competition.)

As far as the Brazilians kicking our collective asses, that could have something to do with the fact that they do quite a bit of competing abroad out of their own country. I haven't the time to verify this but I would bet that a significant majority of the pilots currently doing well in the Worlds do travel abroad to other countries. It would be interesting to look at their competition schedule over the course of a year.

(editor’s note: Indeed Nene, Betinho, and a few others do travel and compete abroad, but they still choose their National team from Brazilian meets only. The point is to give all Brazilian pilots a chance to be on the national team. That is the point I am making about how we choose the US National team.)

So, although I would be stoked if the National Team was picked from three or four American meets per year I really think we would hurt ourselves over the long run by not motivating our pilots to travel abroad (as much of a pain that it is to us).

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Classified ads »

Thu, Sep 4 2003, 4:00:03 am EDT

Bo Hagewood|Florida|Manfred Ruhmer

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Florida|Manfred Ruhmer

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Florida|Manfred Ruhmer

Bo Hagewood «bokodi» sends in his request to have me highlight his and Paris’ Aeros Combats that are for sale. He hasn’t got the word yet that the Oz Report now has a free classified ad section (https://ozreport.com/freeClassifieds.php). I gently remind him, and use the opportunity to remind you all also.

The two most winning Gliders in the US.

 

I've got two great late summer deals on Aeros Combats. My glider has been flown in the two Spring Florida comps (besting Manfred and winning two days in a row), the Midwest regionals (won one day) and the US Nats (won one day). This glider is Full Race and is in excellent condition - $4000.

Paris' glider has only the Midwest regionals (with 3 wins) and the US Nats (another 3 wins). This glider is also Full Race and it is in perfect condition - $4700.

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2003 Team Flytec Training meet

Sat, Aug 30 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Bo Hagewood|Curt Warren|Florida|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Warren Windsports

Curt Warren at Warren Windsports «fly» writes:

Three time US National champion Paris Williams, World team member Curt Warren and 2000 US National champion Bo Hagewood will be holding the second annual Team Flytec Training Competition at Quest Air "Home of the Champions" in Groveland Florida this fall.

This is a competition/clinic that is focused on improving all of the skills necessary for XC flying and racing, including thermaling, lines to fly, GPS use, start gates, restricted landing field approaches and more. Teams of 3-4 competitors will rotate to a new team leader each day, with whom they will first cover task strategy, and then fly with on the team radio frequency.

This clinic is focused on learning what it takes to go far and fast. Questions will be answered, theories will register and techniques will click. Each day will start with morning coffee and pro tips. Also, get a chance demo some of the very latest high performance gear.

Last years event was very successful with the participants substantially improving their performance with many personal bests. The dates are October 1-4. Space is limited so reserve your space now. The cost for this clinic is $200 (+ tows). Please email Quest Air at «questair».

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Florida Report

Mon, Aug 25 2003, 2:00:04 pm EDT

Florida

This cloud rolled in a few days ago here.

 

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Dwindling numbers

Sat, Aug 23 2003, 2:00:03 pm EDT

Ben Davidson|Florida|Paul Voight|Richard Nikoley|Wayne Ripley

Richard Nikoley «rn» writes:

I think that in addition to those you delineate, there is also the general atmosphere that if you're not flying a Super-Hy-Per wing, or very nearly on your way, you're less of a pilot.

I too succumbed to such nonsense. I was perfectly happy on my Pulse 10m, new to the sport and having lot's of fun about 6-7 years ago now. It wasn't just encouragement from the local shop, but the fact that all my peers were moving up to new, intermediate wings (at the time, the WW Ultra Sport, which I never did like, and it tremendously diminished the fun I had been having). Then, it was the ATOS, which I still have and fly, but to state the truth, it is often just not fun, all things considered.

I recently purchased a WW Eagle, well, ordered it anyway. WW is backed up on orders for months. Won't get it until Oct. In the meantime, the local shop lent me a Pulse 11m. I took it to Lakeview for the 4th of July and had some fun, though it was a bit tough getting used to after not flying a flexy for some time.

Then, spent a long weekend in Hat Creek and had an absolute blast. No stress, just fun.

I don't have the luxury of doing a lot of flying. Two dozen flights in a year is a decent year. The last thing I want to be doing is stressing out. I want to be having FUN!

I understand perfectly the economics of the sport and the need for local shops to have new blood, and to sell them lessons and a first, 2nd, and hopefully third set of equipment, and so on. That's a reality we just have to deal with.

But, I think it would help if other pilots would not be so assuming of a pilot's proficiency or seriousness based on the wing he flies. In Lakeview, I recall getting a lot of comments. "Why not something with higher performance," etc. These don't bother me, of course, as I'm in full circle mode. But, I can understand how such attitudes would affect newcomers and make them feel excluded and unwelcome.

A final note. Every old buddy I saw at Lakeview and got reacquainted with (about 6 of them), TO A MAN, were the guys who had shitty, 2nd-hand equipment on the training hill and kept it forever before moving on to higher-performance equipement. They are now ALL much more skilled pilots than I.

Ben Davidson at Tek Flight Products «tek» writes:

The other day one of our new pilots was cheered by those in the Ellenville l.z. as he landed after his first mountain flight. I have not yet seen the "unwelcome" thing as any but an occasional thing at a very few sites in other states. Of course in our local NY, CT and even some MA sites, there is instructor/observer supervision of new pilots which is quite stringent in the first ten or so flights to insure that a new pilot isn't getting simply dumped out there to become a threat to site and self.

The Ellenville rule is that a H-2 has to be launched by "their" instructor for their first ten flights. Neat. It gets the new pilot introduced to the rest of the frequent fliers while they are getting radio controlled for good flights and good, safe growth. It beats the hell out of the days when we used to get somebody off once or twice and say "Ok, fly onward and be smart" which left the rest of the world to help them grow safely.

In Connecticut, there are a bunch of pilots who like nothing better than to help new pilots at the primary site. They are made more than welcome. Of course the key here if you missed it, is that the new pilot has gotten a good introduction to their advanced flying at the major sites by their instructor(s). New pilots are welcome.

Want to hear tales of Paul Voight, Scott Jewell and and and ----- being just about to launch when a H-2 (maybe one of ours) shows up needing instructor/observer to be launched? They park glider, wait until the pilot sets up, launches them and then after that blown half hour, again get to go to launch. Unwelcome? If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere.

Skinner/Mt. Holyoke in MA, Talcott in CT, The Mowhawk Trail in MA (privately owned but any qualified pilot welcome) - I have Matt Carr and Mark Droy in MA who tell me to send them pilots to fly with them.

Wayne Ripley and a few other CT pilots who say "Yeah, if they're ready, have them call us" for CT. No charge, no fee, no "Join the club first". How much more friendly can you get? The only thing is, the pilot had better be good. By "good" I mean that they are really ready for what the site offers/threatens. That's my responsibility.

(editor’s note: Ben brings up a good point that I didn’t have an opportunity to get to in my short article. There are indeed sites and places that are very welcoming to new students and pilots new to the area. In Florida it is the flight parks that are in the business of teaching new students and welcoming strangers. They have a strong incentive to be welcoming.

Obviously, from Ben’s description, it is the “flight parks” associated with the schools and hang gliding businesses in the northeast that have developed a welcoming culture and encourage new pilots and hopefully pilots from outside their area to come and enjoy the flying. Also other sites have been worked into the system that includes assurances from the local instructor that the new pilot isn’t a threat to the site.

Now, just for giggles, let’s count up how many of these “flight parks” there are in the US, how many students we expect them to produce each year, and then compare that number with the number of retiring hang glider pilots that we’ve got to replace each year just to stay even. It’s a negative number.

We are short on schools, on flight parks, on welcoming sites and on welcoming pilots.)

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2003 Southern California Paragliding Open

Sat, Aug 23 2003, 2:00:01 pm EDT

Florida|PG

http://www.socalpgopen.org/2003/results.html

Funny, they are flying 20 mile tasks off Elsinore and Marshall, while we were setting up 40 mile tasks for them here in Florida. What gives in California?

Four were at goal yesterday.

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USHGA - 111 pilots at the Worlds »

Wed, Aug 20 2003, 2:00:05 pm EDT

CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|James Freeman|USHGA|Worlds

I would think that it is an attractive proposition to be able to go to the Worlds in August in Brazil. I know from the stories about what went on last year in Brazil that there is a lot to attract pilots to the country, in addition to the chance to fly in the World Championships.

A major World Championship with pilots from twenty four countries attending, and the meet organizers only need to handle 111 pilots. The 2003 pre-Europeans had 109 pilots.

Why do I bring up this number? Well, back when the USHGA competition committee was considering two World bid proposals from the two large Florida flight parks, Dennis Pagen made an argument that neither of the parks could handle the Worlds. That you needed to be able to handle 150 to 200 pilots and that the resources available and size of the flight parks made this impossible from them to do it alone, and that therefore they had to do it together.

That their bids had to be rejected by the USHGA and the USHGA BOD had to cobble together a bid to CIVL that somehow combined the bids of both flight parks. In addition, the USHGA BOD had to figure out a way to split up the competition into two rounds so that there was at the end of one week a B competition and an A competition. Those in the B competition would be out of the running completely.

Dennis’ positions were later proven to be flat wrong. First, one of the main disadvantages of the USHGA proposal was that it split the competition into two sites with an elimination (essentially) round. This was not welcomed at the CIVL meeting and this one bad feature played a large part in the defeat of the proposal.

Two, it was quite clear at that time that Malcolm Jones had no desire what so ever to be part of a joint USHGA bid for the Worlds. That Jim Zeiset and Dennis Pagen thought that they could put back together the two Florida flight parks that had gone through a very messy divorce was pie in the sky and that was obvious from the get go.

Three, it is clear that a Worlds held in the western hemisphere could be accommodated by either of the two Florida flight parks. There were 110 pilots at the Flytec Championship this year, for example. Pilots were launched and in the air in less than an hour.

What exactly were Jim and Dennis thinking?

The two flight parks came to the USHGA with competing proposals for the USHGA bid for the Worlds. Instead of allowing the members of the Competition Committee to recommend a bid, and letting the USHGA BOD members vote on that recommendation, Jim and Dennis concocted a plan that subverted the bids, and ultimately lost at the CIVL meeting.

Jim Zeiset put together the USHGA proposal at the very last minute. I had pleaded with the two organizations putting together proposals to share them on the internet so that pilots could tell their CIVL representatives in advance which proposal they favored. Australia did that, Jim Zeiset did not.

Michael Zupanic, who was supposed to present the Australian proposal was not allowed to enter Romania where CIVL was meeting, because he had neglected to get a VISA (a recent requirement), and James Freeman had to hustle in as a last minute replacement. The Australian proposal called for a World meet in Hay, NSW, a place where nearly half the contestants at the previous Australian Nationals said they would never return, including many pilots who would be flying in the Worlds.

Jim Zeiset had a proposal for a Worlds that would take place in creature comfort Florida, before the flying season would begin in Europe. In addition it would be cheaper to get to Florida from Europe than to fly to Australia.

Still, the USHGA lost (by one vote) the Worlds bid. The USHGA had a very good opportunity to get the Worlds and have it at one of the flight parks in Florida, and through repeated errors in judgment, lack of foresight, and unwillingness to do the required work, they lost the vote.

And so what is the outcome for the two individuals most responsible for this debacle? Jim Zeiset was appointed the USHGA CIVL representative and Dennis Pagen became his back up. Once again the USHGA has rewarded failure.

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Florida report

Sat, Aug 16 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|David Glover|Florida|Quest Air|US Nationals|weather

Beautiful day in Florida today. You might have noticed from the masthead above that we’ve been in Florida since a few days after the US Nationals. Came here for the wireless DSL internet connection at Quest Air (and the nice flying, of course).

The weather has basically been great here with temperatures in the eighties on most days, showers in the afternoon sometimes, but sometimes not. Today looked especially good and Bo encouraged me, through his actions, to grab David Glover’s Falcon 195 (for sale at https://ozreport.com/freeClassifieds.php) to try to win the $1,000 (just an excuse to XC).

Belinda is visiting the ruins in Cancun this week so Bo and I were on our own for finding a way back.

The cu’s started over our heads around noon, although we could see them to our east and west earlier. The winds were light out of the south, southwest, so why not go for it.

The lift was 200 to 400 fpm over the Quest Air Flight Park to 3,000 (cloud base, about) but pretty light out to the north over the swamp that is Florida. The rainfall has been average in the Orlando area since January according to the Florida Department of Forestry, but last year there was a lot of rain at the end of the year for a total for the year of 66 inches Vs. normal at 50 inches. The rainfall was well below normal for three years, so this normal looks extravagant.

The thing I notice right away is now quiet it is flying a Falcon at 20 to 25 mph. It is so much more quite than the AIR ATOS at 40 to 60 mph. The wind noise, of course, is a function of the square of the wind speed.

The air is so nice with weak thermals that and the quiet that it is extremely pleasant boating around heading north and drifting with the light winds. Unfortunately without Belinda following below my motivation to go 100 miles is lacking. With the light lift I push it to find better lift to motivate me a bit, and drop out 10 miles out. Bo will go about twenty miles.

Still a heck of a lot of fun. Late in the day the clouds do get a big vertical and near sunset we get a little bit of rain:

 

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Flex wing Vs. Rigid wing

Thu, Aug 7 2003, 2:00:04 pm EDT

Florida|Jim Yocom

Jim Yocom «jim» writes:

With the recent competition success of pilots like Dave Seaburg and Michael Tryon switching from flex wings to rigids, I thought it might be interesting to compare the relative performance of pilots flying Class 5 rigids to pilots flying Class 1 flex wings at the three major US competitions this year.

The nationals at Big Spring had 7 days of flying, Wallaby had 5,and Quest had 7 for a total of 19 competition days. I looked at the percentage of competing pilots who finished each day. Here are the results:

Nationals:

%Flex

%Rigid

Day1

49

80

Day2

65

93

Day3

6

27

Day4

3

33

Day5

59

93

Day6

41

92

Day7

68

100

 

 

 

Wallaby:

%Flex

%Rigid

Day1

45

82

Day2

20

71

Day3

16

53

Day4

45

71

Day5

47

82

 

 

 

Quest:

%Flex

%Rigid

Day1

6

36

Day2

60

96

Day3

55

54

Day4

10

14

Day5

31

50

Day6

49

65

Day7

81

96

 

 

 

Overall

40

68

The numbers indicate that on an average competition day, 2 out of 3 Class 5 rigid wing pilots can expect to make goal, while only slightly more than 1 out of 3 Class 1 flex wing pilots can expect to cross the goal line.

This simple comparison raises a number of issues. The most obvious is of course whether the rigid pilots are as a group are that much better than the flex pilots, or does the rigid wing give pilots that much of an advantage in performance? Are task committees calling too easy tasks for rigids or too difficult tasks for flexes? Should flexes and rigids be flying the same tasks? We all flew the same tasks in Texas, but often had slightly different turnpoints in Florida.

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Helmet Pulley »

Wed, Aug 6 2003, 3:00:04 am EDT

Florida|Jim Lee

It was last year that Jim Lee came to fly in Big Spring with a non optional extra, a head pulley to help hold his head and helmet up and relieve the pressure on his neck. He had had to withdraw from the Florida competitions in the spring due to neck pain, and now needed the head pulley keep the pain from coming back.

This year I noticed right away that Jim wasn’t using his pulley and I asked him what the story was. He said that the neck pain had subsided and that he had been able to fly without the pulley.

But it was only a few days later that the pain flared up again and Jim was once more using the pulley. He was just fitting grommet to the under surface of his WW Talon which allowed him to place the pulley inside his sail, thereby reducing drag, and running the string going to his helmet through the grommet hole. This also gives a better position for the pulley allowing the helmet to be pulled up and not back so much as is the case with placing the pulley on the carabineer.

Of course, I use a helmet pulley, although sometimes I fly without it. I really liked Jim’s updates of the idea, reducing the drag by placing it inside the sail, and putting it more above the pilot’s head. I often have trouble with the helmet pulling back on me.

Search for pulley’s in the Oz Report to see previous articles on them.

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Big Spring – the tugs »

Sun, Aug 3 2003, 6:00:02 pm EDT

Bobby Bailey|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Dragonfly|dust devil|equipment|Florida|George Longshore|North Wing|Quest Air|Rhett Radford|Russell "Russ" Brown|sport|supporters|tow|towing|trike|tug|US Nationals

The US Nationals in Big Spring is an expensive meet to run because it is a meet that is remote from all the resources needed to run it. Still it was the least expensive tow meet of the year for the pilots. This was done to encourage them to come out to Texas and fly.

Quest Air and Flytec from Florida sent out three Dragonflies and one trike. They, by far, were the most generous supporters of the US Nationals and without their help from Florida we couldn’t have the US Nationals in Texas. What they do for the sport is crazy. There is no money to be made sending your tug and a tug pilot out to the Nationals. The compensation is very minimal and you are putting very expensive equipment in harms way. It’s a ridiculous business decision and we thanks them so much for it.

The tug owners are the ones responsible to repair their tugs (and pay for the repairs) if they get broken. The meet isn’t generating the kind of income necessary to compensate them whatever happens to the tugs.

Quest Air and Flytec are doing more to sponsor the towing competitions in the US than any other entity, by far. They take all the risks. They send out the best tug pilots (Rhett Radford and Bobby Bailey). They are incredibly supportive of the competition and hang gliding community and we very much appreciate all that they have done for us. I don’t think that there is any other entity out there that comes anywhere near doing what they are doing to help the sport (at least the competition side of the sport) near in the US.

They weren’t the only ones to put it all on the line at the US Nationals either. Kurt Graham flew in 100% of his Dragonflies from Hobbs and was the tug pilot for his tug. Jim Yokum brought his four stroke tug, and had to suffer a broken wing when his tug pilot hit the fence with it while in a dust devil. Rod Brown came out and flew the Russell Brown’s North Wing trike (which is for sale). George Longshore’s tug was a working Dragonfly until they started parting it out after Jim’s wrecked the wing. Chris Zimmerman brought his trike as a spare if needed. Lisa came from Maryland to fly a Quest Air Dragonfly.

Without the very generous support of tug owners and pilots in Florida, New Mexico, and Colorado (and Chris’ spare – but unused - trike from Texas) there wouldn’t have been a US Nationals in Texas this year. It’s great to see all these non-Texans providing so much for all the pilots who’ve come to Texas to fly in the Nationals. I’m sure the Texans are very happy to see this level of outside support.

Hope I mentioned everyone.

Discuss "Big Spring – the tugs" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2003 US Nationals – a test of courage and skill »

Sun, Jul 27 2003, 5:00:01 pm EDT

Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Mark Bolt|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Mark Bolt|Paris Williams|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|US Nationals|US Nationals 2003|Wills Wing

http://www.flytec.com/usnats03/scores.html

We start off with a bang. The winds are predicted (by some) to lighten up a little. Dr Jack calls for winds of 5 to 10 knots. FSL shows me 10-12 knots. Gary calls 15 mph. And 15 mph it is.

The FSL T-skew also says the upper winds will be clocking from south on the ground to 140 degrees up above. Gary says no to that, and the winds actually don’t clock quite as much as called for by the model. It’s maybe 160 instead of 140 degrees.

Given the forecast for lighter winds than on the previous two days, we call a shorter triangle. I’ve actually surveyed all the pilots for the length of tasks, and other parameters and on average they want two two hour tasks, three three hour tasks, and two four hour tasks. With the uncertainly in the speed of the winds, the triangle is shorter assuming that it will take quite a bit longer to get back on the last leg.

The first leg is 17.5 miles downwind and we figure the competitors will do it in less than half an hour. My time (the only one I have) is 27 minutes. The next leg is 13.5 miles, and again we figure less than half an hour for this cross wind leg. My time is twenty two minutes.

The last leg is 24.5 miles into what we think is a tem mph head wind, and turns out to be a 15 mph head. We allocate an hour and a half for that. I land three miles short and take an hour and 21 minutes. Looks like we had a pretty good idea of what it would take to do the task. The winners will do the task in just under two hours.

The launch window opens at 1 PM for a 2:30 PM start window, but only two pilots launch before 1:45 PM. That’s going to leave a lot of pilots on the ground cranky as they didn’t get ready in time to get up and out of the airport.

 

The first day triangle task.

I launch just in front of Jim Lee at 1:54 PM and we climb out to 9,600’ MSL at cloud base. The cu’s started around noon, and the sky is full of them to the north (where are task is) and over the airport. We’ll spend the next hour bobbing up and down between 8,500’ and 10,000’ (cloud base) waiting for the last start clock at 3 PM. Might as well turn this into a race.

The lift is not sweet. It’s there, it’s reasonable strong (500 fpm average with bits of 800 fpm), and its got lots of turbulence and edgy edges. This is not Zapata, Wisconsin, or Florida. I’m holding on tight. Campbell Bowen will later say the air was fine, except the one time where he got rolled over. That’s the hard way to go over.

There are a bunch of us at the 5 mile circumference at 3 PM for the race start. We’re high, 9,800’ so it a good start. Paris, Jim Lee, Ron Gleason are a few of the folks nearby.

We use the clouds as a Swift heads off into the blue directly toward the turnpoint. We head a bit north under the clouds waiting to jump over to the east later after the blue hole. This strategy works and becomes the designated strategy for the day. Stay with the clouds.

We’re spread out and just before the first turnpoint Ron Gleason hits the lift on my left. Jim and I join him and Paris heads on with a bunch of other to our right getting lower and lower. That thermal gets me the highest I’ll get all day at 10,500’ and we get the turnpoint quickly and head for the clouds a little south of the course line toward the turnpoint to the west. This is a cross wind task so it’s a good idea to get a bit on the upwind side so you can thermal back toward the course line. Paris and his friends do find good lift under the cloud at the tuernpoint.

We are staying high hitting lift and the clouds pretty frequently. We all know that the hard leg is coming.

 

Notice that we stay high on the first two legs. The top horizontal line is 10,000’ MSL. The other horizontal lines are 1,000’ increments.

We don’t come in high into the second turnpoint as the clouds aren’t there for us. This gets us lower, 3,500’ AGL as we power upwind to find the next thermal. Given that we have to punch upwind to find thermal on this leg, we’ll get lower than on the first two legs and have to climb longer in the thermal to get back up near cloud base. There are plenty of clouds.

We fly to the left of course line to get under what looks like a broken cloud street. Little puffs here and there, but it slows down the sink until Paris and I hit a boomer and get back up high. That’s the ticket, check out the little broken up things that might be streets in the strong wind and go up them.

Fifteen miles out from goal I’m climbing at 500 fpm in the thermal one quarter of a mile behind Campbell and Paris. It’s looking good as I get to almost 10,000’. The clouds are lining up and with a little shift here and there it looks like an autobahn back to the goal even with the 15 mph headwinds.

I don’t see it but this is the thermal where Campbell does the barrel roll. He’s about even with Paris, then the next thing Paris knows, he sees Campbell 300’ below him heading toward him to get in the part of the thermal that Paris is in. He apparently went completely upside down.

Eight miles out after a seven mile glide I’m back down to 3,000’ AGL and I can’t see Campbell or Paris. I’m climbing at 500 fpm as I watch a Swift land below me. That last glide averaged 7:1, but I saw a lot of 6 and 5 to 1 during it. I’m thinking I’d better get within 6 to 1 of the airport before I go for it.

Paris and Campbell are in a street to my right apparently. They can’t hold the bar in hard enough because of the turbulence, but the lift is so strong that they want to go as fast as they can.

I can see four or five rigids a few miles back thermaling up at my level and a couple higher. I’m getting antsy to beat them into goal (this is always a mistake, btw). I pull out at with a glide ratio required of 8 to 1 to make it to goal while still climbing at 400 fpm. Big mistake.

Jim Yokum and Ron Gleason are back there. Ron will climb out to 9,500’ at fourteen miles out and not be able to get the glider down, crossing the goal line at 8,500’. Jim Yokum 1/8th of a mile to his left will start at the same altitude and come in with 400’ AGL (3,000’ MSL).

Passing my 8 mile to goal mark (after drifting back 1.5 miles) I find 500 fpm, slow down, but don’t take it up. Next big mistake. I’ve still got an 8 to 1 glide to goal required. I’m under the clouds. Looks like I’m on a good line, but I hit a bunch of 700 to 900 fpm down, the worst sink of the flight and land 3 miles short. Campbell and Paris make it in a few minutes before I land. All the rigid guys behind me make it in also as they take their time and get high.

Still, a great day. My biggest joy was surviving through the extremely turbulent parts of the flight with my good humor intact. I never left the thermal because I thought it was too rough, which feels like a pretty nice victory for me. The last thermal I was in was the nicest of the day. I guess I figured it was too nice.

Flex wings:

Place

Name

Glider

Start

Finish

Time

Total

1

WILLIAMS Paris

Aeros Combat 3

15:00:00

16:59:40

1:59:40

894

2

KOOMBER Krage

Moyes Litespeed

14:45:00

16:51:21

2:06:21

867

3

SAUER Rich

Icaro MRX

14:45:00

16:58:03

2:13:03

795

4

HAGEWOOD Robert

Aeros Combat 2

14:30:00

16:53:38

2:23:38

774

5

HAMILTON Robin

Moyes Litespeed 4

15:00:00

17:12:16

2:12:16

769

6

WARREN Curt

Moyes Litespeed 4

15:00:00

17:14:07

2:14:07

753

7

BOLT Mark

Aeros Stealth III

14:30:00

16:56:56

2:26:56

747

8

BLOOM Phill

Wills Wing Talon

15:00:00

17:16:29

2:16:29

735

9

LEE Jim

Wills Wing Talon

15:00:00

17:19:03

2:19:03

717

10

ZIMMERMAN Chris

Wills Wing Talon 150

15:00:00

17:21:23

2:21:23

702

Rigid wings:

Place

Name

Glider

Start

Finish

Total

1

BARMAKIAN Bruce

AIR Atos C

15:00:00

16:56:07

913

2

BOWEN Campbell

Flight Design Access

15:00:00

17:03:31

795

3

BROWN Russ

Ghostbuster

14:30:00

16:58:02

693

4

GLEASON Ron

AIR Atos C

15:00:00

17:17:17

692

5

YOCOM James

AIR Atos C

15:00:00

17:17:36

682

Discuss the Nats at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

State Competitions

Thu, Jul 17 2003, 3:00:06 pm EDT

aerotow|Brad Gryder|competition|Florida|power|powered|site|sport|USHGA

Brad Gryder <foothillsflight@hotmail.com> writes:

Regarding the discussion of having regional competitions, I believe that some of the USHGA regions are currently too big, and/or the pilot and flying conditions concentrations are non-uniform within that region. Take Region 10, for example. This region includes Florida and the remaining southeastern states. No southeastern states are known for their superb soaring conditions, with the exception of Florida.

If USHGA Region 10 had a regional competition, where would one expect the winner(s) to reside? Florida, of course. This is where the best pilots migrate to in order to find the good air above that hyper-energetic solar powered peninsula. How can a relatively low time pilot from North Carolina, for example, be expected to compete with the higher time pilots in Florida?

If a NC pilot and a FL pilot both solo on the same date, just imagine how many more thermals the FL pilot will encounter during that 1st year of flying. Unless we change the format, the HG pilot populations will tend to concentrate in only a few specific areas of the US and the other flight parks and mountains sites may eventually die off. We've already lost a good mountain site here in NC in the past year. If we would have had a larger local pilot base and more power, we may have been able to have bought property and saved it.

Because some of the regions have many miles of latitude between the northern and southern borders, and because some areas within regions have special features (such as the Florida peninsula), I believe that mini-comps should be used to qualify pilots for their regional competitions. Perhaps a number of competition slots could be reserved for pilots from each state, with that number being dependent upon the pilot population of that state. Florida, for example, would have more competitors in the Region 10 competition than North or South Carolina, but each state would still be represented.

I believe this type of format would encourage the growth of the sport through on-going mini competitions on a local level. Each pilot would then feel that he/she had a chance of at least competing with equals at some level, without having to move 600 miles from home and practice every day with the hot-shot pilots.

I'd gladly promote a NC state comp or perhaps a two-state comp (NC and SC) if the USHGA would support this effort. The format could vary greatly, from a year-long contest similar to Region 9's, to an aerotow meet similar to the Florida comps. The advantage of the latter would be in preparing the younger pilots for the bigger more expensive meets.

(editor’s note: What kind of support from the USHGA would you like?)

Discuss "State Competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

No CIVL sanctioning for the US Nationals

Sun, Jul 13 2003, 2:00:04 pm EDT

CIVL|Florida|scoring|US Nationals

So no sooner do I propose that we drop all CIVL sanctioning for US meets, and then I learn that the US Nationals are not CIVL sanctioned. No need to send that $300 to CIVL. Mid summer flat land competitions in mid Texas are not designed to attract European pilots, so there really is little benefit in providing CIVL sanctioning.

What do we lose? Well I and other rigid wing pilots lose out on the opportunity to get WPRS points. Flex wing pilots also lose that opportunity, but as their WPRS scoring is decidedly more Eurocentric than the rigid wings, they lose out on a less fair system.

The one point in favor of CIVL sanctioning is that it may attract foreign pilots to US meets. There are numerous benefits to having foreign pilots here for our meets, besides getting our butts kicked. Still it isn’t clear that WPRS points attract them.

I understand that Oleg comes for the money (that’s how he earns his living after all). Forty percent of the foreign pilots that go to the Florida meets are Brazilians, and they hate the WPRS as much as I do. I’d guess that Manfred comes for the money. Perhaps others also.

Discuss CIVL sanctioning at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "No CIVL sanctioning for the US Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Spanish ATOS “incident”

Mon, Jul 7 2003, 6:00:05 pm GMT

accident|aerotow|airline|airspace|altitude|Angelo Crapanzano|bridle|Carlos Avila|certification|cloud|control frame|DHV|environment|equipment|Felix Ruehle|Florida|foot launch|general aviation|GPS|harness|injury|job|landing|military|Moyes Xtralite|parachute|Ron Richardson|safety|site|spin|Swift|tail|technique|tow|towing|tumble|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|winch

David Cross <d.cross@chello.nl> writes:

I have recently had the unfortunate experience of departing controlled flight in an ATOS rigid wing hang glider. I have written this report to share the experience with my fellow aviators so that any lessons learnt may be shared and the accident assessed by those with a better insight in this field than I.

Description of Flight Conditions

I had launched in the mid afternoon with an aero tow from Aerotow.com's facilities near the town of Avila in central Spain. I was planning to fly some cross country under the tuition of the highly experienced Ron Richardson. It was my second flight of the day. On the previous flight I had found the conditions to be weak with the thermals broken and the climbs poor and I had not been able to stay up for long. The afternoon however improved with the cloud base lifting to about 7000' altitude (average ground elevation of 3000'), with promising cumulus development downwind to the east and no sign of the previous day's overdevelopment.

The second aero tow was bumpy but easy to handle on the ATOS with its excellent control harmony between pitch and roll. I was waved off in some lift over a small ridgeline to the south east of the field. I again found the lift to be broken and the climb weak. Ron was at this stage further to the east overhead the town and was calling a 300'/min climb on the averager. As I was at this stage too low to get over to him I focused on what I had in order to build more altitude. I scratched up to 4800' altitude and then ran for a good looking cumulus on the way to Ron's position.

Loss of Control

Entering the Thermal

I rolled right hand into the lift under the cumulus and worked hard to centre it. The conditions were choppy but not rough and smoothed out somewhat above 5000' altitude to a steady 300 fpm up. The conditions downwind were now looking really good and through each turn I was scanning to pick up Ron's Avian Cheetah on the horizon, and I could hear Darren Blackman heading in towards us on his Swift. Things were at last coming together after a week of poor conditions. I was relaxed, thoroughly enjoying the ATOS and looking forward to the afternoons flying.

Turn Reversal

I had in the last turn noticed a slight increase in lift in the southern sector of my circle. I glanced down to see if there were any birds marking the core and was presented with a magnificent stork circling left hand counter flow to me with slightly intersecting circles. After one more turn I saw that (as always) he was doing a better job than I and so I planned a turn reversal into his circle.

The reversal worked out well. As the stork slid under my nose I experienced a moderate pitch up from the stronger lift and eased the bar in to lower the nose and accelerate while rolling out of the right hand turn into a left hand circle. Due to the fair conditions I had been thermalling at 40-45 km/h (25-28 mph) indicated airspeed (IAS) with 20-25° of bank and had felt very comfortable at this speed.

(editor’s note: Unless the thermal is absolutely light (50-100 fpm) and full with no turbulence, I’m flying at 34-38 mph. The speeds indicated above are much too slow for the conditions described.)

As I had now accelerated into the stronger lift I estimate that the IAS was approximately 48-50 km/h (30 mph) as I started the reversal. The flap was set at 8-10°. The reversal was initiated with moderate spoiler application - I estimate ⅓ to ½ deflection. The altitude was now 6000' (about 2500' AGL due to the ridge below).

Departing Controlled Flight

As the left hand turn was established I felt a light short period aerodynamic buffet on the control frame and almost simultaneously experienced a very rapid nose down pitch rotation through approximately 90° of pitch. I estimate the pitch rotation rate to be 50 -60°/sec. There was also some left hand roll rotation, although this was less than the amount of pitch rotation. I was not aware of any significant yaw.

As the departure started my assessment was that the glider was auto-rotating and that I was in the incipient stage of a spin. I had been thermalling with the bar in the upper chest to lower chin position. As the nose down pitch started I rapidly moved the bar in to the mid chest position in an attempt to reduce the angle of attack, un-stall the wing and stop the autorotation. This appeared to stop the left roll rotation rate but had little effect on the rate of nose down pitch. During the latter part of the initial nose down rotation I estimate that the g loading on my body was 0 - 0.5 g (I felt almost weightless).

The glider then appeared to stabilize very briefly in the vertical nose down position before rotating extremely rapidly in pitch to the inverted position. This second rotation was violent and uncontrollable. As it happened I felt a powerful rearward pull from my hang strap and the control bar was pulled from my grip. I was thrown hard into the undersurface of the glider which was now inverted, next to the A frame. I estimate that this pitch down rate was well in excess of 90°/sec.

The glider now stabilized in the inverted position while descending in what appeared to be a relatively gentle oscillatory spiral. I was somewhat disorientated at this point and so may not be too accurate about the motion of the glider. I do however recall some spiral motion and some oscillation above and below the horizon.

I was lying on the undersurface of the wing to the left of and outside the A frame. I immediately checked the leading edges and tips and observed no apparent structural damage. I assessed that I had sufficient altitude and attempted to right the glider and reached for the A frame to do this. When I grasped the left down tube to attempt to right the glider, the glider entered a very disorientating oscillatory rotation but remained inverted. I assume this was caused by spoiler deflection when I moved the A frame.

After two rapid rotations it did not appear to be recovering. At this stage I was losing situational awareness with respect to the height remaining for recovery. In addition the gliders unstable motion had me concerned about the possibility of being knocked unconscious.

Parachute Deployment

I thus looked for clear air and deployed my emergency parachute hard in the direction of rotation half way between the right hand wingtip and the keel. The parachute deployed immediately and then appeared to semi collapse as the glider was rotated by the parachute deployment into the upright position, swinging me hard to hang to the outside of the A frame. The parachute then reopened immediately.

The system of parachute, glider and pilot now became extremely unstable with the parachute and the glider appearing to work in opposition. The glider appeared to accelerate and pitch nose up, causing the chute to collapse and then re-open before the cycle was repeated by the glider. From my vantage point the parachute was describing a sine curve-like path across the horizon while collapsing partially and re-opening in sequence with the pitch motion of the glider.

The glider and parachute appeared to be rotating rapidly about each other with the centre of this rotation somewhere between the glider and the parachute. At no stage was the parachute positioned above the glider. The centripetal acceleration of this system rapidly became very high. I estimate the g loading to be approximately 3 g and I was swung out helplessly under the wing clear of the A frame unable to control the system at all.

Stabilizing the System

I now broadcast a Mayday call, and informed Ron that I had deployed the parachute and was going down. I described my status and informed him that it did not look promising. At this stage the rate of descent and particularly the angular rotation appeared to me to be very high and I was sure that ground impact in this configuration would have severe consequences.

After several high g rotations I managed to grab the hang strap behind my neck and pull myself toward the A frame and grasp a down tube. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. I then pulled myself into the A frame. This had an immediate positive effect. The parachute stabilized above the glider, the angular velocity reduced and the g loading reduced. I was now descending through about 500' AGL with a moderate oscillation but no angular rotation at all. I now called Ron to inform him that the situation was under control and proceeded to describe my probable touchdown position to him.

Touchdown

I descended onto the slope of a rocky tree covered ridge. Before impact I positioned myself as high into the A frame as possible as I was not sure what the rate of descent was and I wished to protect myself from any impact on what appeared to be very rocky terrain. I kept my legs bent to absorb as much shock as possible.

I was fortunate to impact into the crown of a moderately sized tree. The A frame took much of the initial impact of the branches. The glider was then swung out of the top of the tree throwing me out of the A frame. As I fell to the ground the glider hooked onto a branch and my fall was arrested with my feet 12cm off the ground. I was completely uninjured. I transmitted to Ron that I was down and safe and that he should cancel any ambulance.

The only apparent damage to the glider was a broken main spar and associated sail damage approximately ⅓ in from the right wingtip. This occurred on ground impact and not in flight. My assessment was that the glider was completely undamaged until ground contact.

Discussion

As with any aviation accident there are several lessons to be learnt. Most accidents are not caused by a single event but by a combination of factors. Often an accident could have been prevented if just one of these factors, however minor it may have seemed at the time, could have been identified and stopped. I will now discuss my background, what I think may have been the contributing factors to this accident and the lessons learnt from it. This is obviously my subjective opinion and I welcome any discussion on these points that may offer a more informed insight.

Flying Experience and Background

I am a USHGA intermediate rated pilot who has been flying for three years. I did my initial training in the French Alps mountain launching and completed my training at Wallaby Ranch where I also obtained an aero tow rating. I did a further foot launching course at Lookout Mountain where I obtained cliff launch, flat slope launch and assisted windy cliff launch ratings. My flying has taken place mostly in Florida and the Alps and has always been under the supervision of more experienced pilots. I currently fly a Moyes Xtralite. One month prior to the accident I had flown under the supervision of Chris Dawes in the UK where I did some winch foot launch training and some aero towing as an early season refresher. Prior to this I had last flown the previous late summer in the Alps.

I am a current airline pilot flying Boeing 747's and a current Air Force reserve pilot on fighter type aircraft. I hold a Glider Pilot's License although I am not at present current on sailplanes. I have some experience flying paragliders although I have not yet completed my license. My total flying experience is 8000 hours.

I have mentioned the military experience as I feel it is relevant with respect to my experience in spinning three axis control aircraft. My air force background has provided me with extensive spin training. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity of spinning a variety of aircraft, from military trainers and fighters to general aviation aircraft, aerobatic aircraft and sailplanes.

Two weeks prior to this accident I carried out a maintenance test flight on a military trainer that included several multi turn full spins and recoveries. I thus feel that I may be considered current as far as spin identification, entry and recovery on three axis aircraft is concerned. This has relevance as there has been much discussion about the advantages of doing spin training on three axis aircraft before flying rigid wing hang gliders.

ATOS Experience

I had come to Spain specifically for the opportunity of flying the ATOS. At the time of the accident I had flown 11 flights on the ATOS for a total of 5.00 flying hours. All flight had been under the supervision of Felix Ruehle and I had been extensively and professionally briefed by him on all aspects of the glider.

Although this was my first experience on a rigid wing hang glider I had felt comfortable and confident on the ATOS from the first flight. I had on the second flight in smooth evening conditions flown the glider to the stall and found the recovery to be simple. I had confidence thermalling the glider in the moderate conditions I had experienced and at no stage had any reservations about the handling of the glider. I found the control harmony particularly pleasant and aero towing simple.

(editor’s note: An inexperienced hang glider pilot, new to an ATOS, was flying it too slow in a thermal.)

Equipment

The glider was a standard ATOS. I had for most of the week prior to the accident been flying another standard ATOS. The hang point for the accident glider (as on the previous glider) had been adjusted towards the forward centre of gravity (C of G) limit, appropriate to my hook in weight. On the accident glider my hang position was slightly higher than that of the glider I had flown previously in the week and the trim speed was slightly lower. Both the hang position and the trim speed were well within safe limits. The glider was fitted with an A.I.R. horizontal stabilizer.

I was using a Woody Valley Tenax harness with the parachute mounted on the right chest. The harness was fitted with a Metamorfosi Conar 18 Gore parachute, which was just over one year old and had recently been repacked by myself. No swivel was fitted to the bridle. My weight is 72 kg making a hook in weight of 87kg.

Airspeed information was provided by a Brauniger Galileo set to indicated airspeed (IAS) mode and a mechanical pitot system fitted by Felix. I used the mechanical system for airspeed reference as I had not yet calibrated the Galileo and was not sure of the reliability of the airspeed display.

Departure from Controlled Flight

I feel that the departure from controlled flight had two distinct phases, a non divergent autorotation phase, and a divergent pitch instability phase.

Autorotation Phase

The autorotation phase I would describe as a gust induced stall in the turn followed by an autorotation and an incipient spin (the incipient stage of the spin being where the aerodynamic and gyroscopic effects of the spin are still influenced by the initial flight path of the glider - in this case a left hand turn). Although the nose down rotation of this phase was rapid it did not feel to me to be divergent. I thus do not feel that the gust had at this stage placed the wing at an AOA/hang point loading combination that had exceeded any static stability margins.

I was surprised by the limited aerodynamic stall warning and the rate of the initial nose down rotation. For these reasons I think the gust onset was significant and rapid. All my previous spinning experience in aircraft had led me to expect an initial rotation rate in roll and yaw that equaled or exceeded any initial nose down pitch rotation. As the initial nose down rotation started I had reduced the AOA aggressively. This seemed to stop any further roll or yaw rotation but had little effect on the rate of nose down pitch rotation. At no stage did the glider enter a stabilized spin.

I feel that there are several factors that could have contributed to the initial autorotation.

Firstly the glider was trimmed slightly slower than that to which I had been used to on the previous ATOS I had flown. As stated this was well within safe limits but may have caused a tendency towards slightly slower flight if I was distracted.

Secondly, I was using flap to thermal. This would move the bar position slightly back and I would, if focused primarily on bar position, have the tendency to move the bar further forward than required.

Thirdly, I had completed a turn reversal prior to the autorotation and the spoiler deflection would have caused some nose up pitching moment. If not corrected this would cause an obvious reduction in IAS and place the glider closer to the stall.

All the above factors are conducive to slower flight. However I am accustomed to flying aircraft that require accurate speed control and feel that I was very aware of the IAS while thermalling. I was also aware that the spin behavior of rigid wing gliders can be unpredictable and had no desire to explore that environment. My thermalling speed of 42-45 km/h (26 mph) felt comfortable for the conditions I was experiencing. I have since been informed that it was perhaps on the low side but not unsafe.

(editor’s note: Pilot is unaware that he is flying too slow.)

I had thermalled at similar speeds in equivalent conditions for most of the week without ever approaching any stall margins. The accuracy of the airspeed reference must also be considered. As mentioned previously my primary reference was the mechanical pitot system as I felt it was more accurate than my as yet un-calibrated electronic reference.

Some points with respect to the turn reversal technique. I normally unload the wing (thus reducing the AOA) before initiating any reversal in order to improve the roll rate. This obviously also results in an increase in IAS. Whether my technique was sufficient to counter any pitch up due to spoiler deflection may be debated. I did not notice any significant pitch up during this particular reversal. My limited experience on the ATOS could of course preclude this.

In addition I had experienced acceleration on entering the increased lift prior to the reversal. I had countered the nose up pitch that this had caused and so feel that my IAS margins on entry to the turn reversal were probably sufficient for normal conditions. I had as well been briefed on the "rule of thumb" safe range for forward and rearward bar positions and at all times flew within this range.

I thus think there must have been some significant gust effect present. Simply approaching the stall in a turn should not result in the almost immediate and rapid rotation experienced with minimal stall warning. I have described the conditions as moderate. I was experiencing an average climb of 300 fpm with maximum instantaneous readings of 1000 fpm.

However, Ron Richardson reported some strong turbulence while descending through the airspace I had been flying in, shortly after I deployed the parachute. My assessment is that a gust rapidly exceeded the critical AOA of the wing. As I was not yet fully established in a stable turn, there would have been some asymmetric loading on the wing, possibly resulting in the auto-rotation. I feel that this is supported by the fact that my rapid reduction in the AOA had no appreciable effect on the pitch rotation rate.

Pitch Instability Phase

I will now discuss what I consider to be the second phase of the departure. During the initial auto-rotation I had not experienced any reduction in g loading on my body - the hang point still felt loaded. Although the initial nose down rotation was high, I still felt that I had some control input and that the glider would recover. However, as the glider passed through about 60° nose down I experienced a reduction in g loading and felt almost weightless.

From this point I felt I no longer had control of the glider and I was unable to hold the bar in any longer. This is when the rapid rotation to the inverted position occurred and I lost my grip on the control bar. Perhaps the excessive AOA of the wing combined with the unloading of the hang point caused the static stability margins of the wing to be exceeded, causing a divergent rotation in pitch. The first auto-rotation phase initially felt controllable. The second phase of pitch instability was definitely not controllable.

Lessons Learnt

Thermalling at higher speed, steeper bank angles and higher g loadings, while not necessarily providing an increase in stall margin, will improve the damping in pitch and make a departure less likely.

It would be of value to calculate the exact stall speeds for the actual wing loading at various appropriate bank angles. With an accurate IAS reference sufficient margins could be applied to these calculated stall speeds for safer thermalling. An accurate IAS reference is obviously necessary. Of even more value would be a vane type AOA reference (Here's hoping!).

I found the ATOS easy and a pleasure to fly. However, in retrospect I feel that more time spent exploring the performance of the glider in smooth air would have been of benefit. I think in particular, the effect of flap on trim speeds and bar position, spoiler effect on pitch in turn reversals and approaches to the stall in wings level and turning flight should have been more fully explored before flying in more challenging conditions.

I think that my initial reaction to the auto-rotation phase was correct. Moving the bar in reduces the AOA and places the centre of gravity in the best possible position for dive recovery. Should this happen again I will do the same while attempting to hold on tighter. I do however feel that it was impossible to maintain grip on the control bar during the rotation to the inverted position.

Some comments on pilot experience. I was very excited to be offered the opportunity to fly the ATOS by Felix, as I consider myself a low time hang glider pilot. His briefing was comprehensive and gave me confidence in the glider while making me aware of how it differed from other gliders I had flown. I flew the glider conservatively and felt very confident with the general handling.

The afternoon following the accident I flew another standard ATOS in moderate thermic conditions for a 1 ½ hour flight. While understandably nervous at first the pleasant handling of the glider allowed me to settle down and soon regain my confidence. In summary I experienced nothing in the handling of the ATOS that should exceed the abilities of an intermediate pilot. In most respects I found the ATOS easier to fly than an intermediate flex wing hang glider.

Some discussion on three axis spin training for rigid wing pilots. I feel the main benefit of this would be spin entry recognition and reduced disorientation. The spin entry techniques and recovery procedures for a three axis aircraft are different to that of a rigid wing hang glider and themselves can vary dependant on the design of the aircraft. Practicing these procedures would I feel have limited benefit for rigid wing pilots and may even reinforce incorrect techniques. In this accident the main benefit to me of my spin training was recognition of the initial situation and orientation in the unusual attitudes experienced.

Some points on the parachute deployment. It has been suggested, considering the glider was undamaged while inverted, that I could have tried harder to right the glider before deploying the parachute. In retrospect I am glad I did not. I lost a lot of height trying to stabilize the spinning parachute/glider combination. Had I deployed the parachute any later I might have impacted before stabilizing the system. At the time I did not feel that this would have been survivable.

I have discussed this with Angelo Crapanzano from Metamorfosi. He commented that although I was experiencing high g loadings, because the centre of gravity of the pilot/glider/parachute system would have been very close to the pilot/glider combination, my rotational speed would actually have been quite low. In addition he said that my descent rate would perhaps have been even less than when I had stabilized the system. He thus feels that even when the system was not stabilized, it was survivable. The perception from the pilot's point of view remains unpleasant.

In addition it is not certain how the glider may have reacted in the attempt to right it and there is a strong possibility of pilot injury in attempting this. This may then preclude parachute deployment. I thus feel strongly that if one is fortunate to survive a loss of control situation uninjured, the priority is to get the parachute deployed immediately. Considering the instability after parachute deployment, I feel the priority should be to get ones mass as close as possible to the hang point.

Angelo Crapanzano recommends that one gets as close as possible to the nose of the glider, or at least in front of the hang point. This can however be difficult and the A frame is a familiar refuge when under stress and can provide impact protection. It would have helped if I had held onto some part of the A frame before deploying the parachute, as this might have prevented me from being flung away from the A frame as the parachute deployed and righted the glider.

Had I been able to remain closer to the A frame the spiral motion might not have developed. I also feel that some thought should be given to the option of releasing from the glider prior to parachute deployment. All my complications were due to the fact that I was still attached to the glider.

I am very pleased that I had the Conar HG18 parachute. The rate of descent once stabilized was acceptable and the opening time impressively fast. It worked as advertised.

Some discussion on communications and search and rescue procedures. I was able to transmit a Mayday to Ron Richardson seconds after deploying the parachute as I had a transmit button fixed to my thumb. Ron demonstrated professionalism and true airmanship. He acknowledged my call, was overhead my position within minutes, plotted GPS co-ordinates and arranged a rescue. He then landed in a difficult location and was at the accident site within 30 minutes.

Had I been seriously injured Ron's actions would have been potentially life saving. The lessons here are to always fly with someone, be able to communicate effectively with them, even under duress, and always be prepared to assist effectively in an emergency. I had water in my harness but no first aid kit or emergency rations. This has been rectified.

Conclusion

In summary, I suggest that this accident was a result of a gust exceeding the critical angle of attack of the wing by a large margin. This resulted in auto-rotation with a rapid nose down pitch and unloading of the hang point. The static stability margin of the wing was exceeded and the wing experienced a divergent rotation to the inverted position.

Contributory factors were the relatively low indicated airspeed while thermalling, the effect of flap on the control bar position, pilot technique in the turn reversal and the pitch up effect of spoiler deflection.

Flex Ruehle’s Comments

I have attached an email from Felix Ruehle with his comments on the report and the incident.

You report is excellent however I think it's hard to see how quickly or slowly everything happened because my experience is that reports from stress situations follow a different clock.

Since hang gliding was born turbulence can be a problem for safe flying. However different developments improved the safety. One of the latest developments is the fixed V-tail with a lifting airfoil from A-I-R. How does it work? The glider is designed to have the same pitch up moment with tail like the standard ATOS with 0° flap.

With thermal, take off and landing flap setting the pitch up moment is significantly higher with the V-tail. Additionally the V-tail increases pitch damping very significantly with all flap settings. Of course instead of a tail the sweep angle can be increased too to get the same pitch damping effect. However this didn't work out as well for the ATOS, because higher sweep in combination with wing bending would cause dynamic problems.

With the V-tail the glider flies significantly more comfortable. In opposite to the opinion of some pilots, that a positive pitch up moment only protects a glider from tumbling, this is not the case. It is a result of several flight incidents with all types of hang gliders and as well with the hang glider drop test made by the DHV a few years ago that even with a certified hang glider it is possible to tumble.

According to my opinion the main parameters are: Pitch damping which can be increased by higher speed and by the wing area distribution in flight direction. For example a higher sweep angle or a tail, increase pitch damping as well as a forward pilot position. Pitch up moment. This is the moment which must be above a certain value for certification. Small distance from aerodynamic centre to CG.

For example a short A-frame is positive. High airspeed in relation to the turbulence is positive too.

The incident

The air was not very smooth this day and there was over development with rain shortly after the incident at this spot. Ron who landed close to help Dave (thanks Ron) hit some strong turbulence too. However, the day wasn't that rough that pilots usually would stop flying.

According to my opinion the tumbling from Dave was caused due to low airspeed in relation to the turbulence. The thermal speed under this condition was already little slow. The reversal turn reduced the speed probably further. This for example is a very good practice in smooth condition, doing reversal with constant speed. Take care: If you don't pull in during the reversal the speed drops.

I flew to the same spot the next day and felt comfortable with about 55km/h (34 mph) as min. thermal speed. This day looked smoother to me as the previous day.

Does the tail improve the safety? At the online contest (olc) 2002 the ATOS is the glider which has flown the most km before any other wing (including flex wing) and the ATOS flew much more km than other rigids, too. Many pilots have flown sometimes under extremely hard conditions and have reported the good behavior under turbulent condition.

It looks to me like active flying is getting more and more important. With the fast gliders the pilots have the possibility to fly with extra speed or high bank angle without losing too much of performance and it looks too me like the ATOS with the new V-tail is a step to improve pilots safety to a very high level even with the incident of Dave.

Under strong condition the glider gets extra stability with high bank angle and higher speed. While doing a reversal you can easily lose speed and the pilot has no extra g loading. I think this can be an interesting discussion how different pilots handle turbulent air.

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NTSS points going into the US Nationals

Sat, Jul 5 2003, 2:00:01 pm EDT

Australia|Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|US Nationals|Worlds|Worlds 2003

Here’s now things stack up with the NTSS points this year going into the US Nationals in Big Spring at the end of the month. This 2004 NTSS ranking isn’t the one that is used for the 2003 Worlds in Brazil, but is the current NTSS points accumulation for 2002 and 2003.

Mike Barber didn’t go to Australia and cut his knee at the Wallaby Open so he doesn’t have a fourth high points meet. Kari, Jerz, and Curt where at the meets in Australia and got points there.

Claire is doing very well moving up. Dennis Pagen also. A lot could change at the Nationals. The Nationals is a very important meet this year as far as NTSS points are concerned. There are just three big points meets this year in the US – the Florida meets and the Nationals. The CXCC and the MidWest Regionals had fewer points.

Flex wings:

OzReport.com/Glide/2004class1ntss.htm

1 Williams Paris 2263
2 Warren Curt 2120
3 Bessa Carlos 2035
4 Rossignol Jerz 1992
5 Castle Kari 1920
6 Barber Mike 1766
7 Lee Jim 1738
8 ZIMMERMAN Chris 1728
9 Hagewood Bo 1609
10 PRESLEY Terry 1596
11 Pagen Dennis 1451
12 SAUER Richard 1355
13 Goodman Bubba 1338
14 VASSORT Claire 1327
15 Bolt Mark 1222

Rigid wings:

OzReport.com/Glide/2004class5ntss.htm

1 BARMAKIAN Bruce 1825
2 Straub Davis 1578
3 Yocom Jim 1439
4 GLEASON Ron 1432
5 BIESEL Heiner 1396
6 Bowen Campbell 1350
7 ENDTER Vincent 1316
8 POUSTICHIAN Mark 1032
9 LAMB James 883
10 DEGTOFF Mike 837

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Flytec/Quest Air WRE – rain keeps falling on my head

Sat, Jul 5 2003, 2:00:00 pm EDT

cloud|Florida|Quest Air|weather

Torrential downpours last night have continued to soak the desert here in south Texas.

This chart underestimates the amount of moisture in the upper surface of the soil. North Texas is dry and south Texas is approaching Florida type conditions.

All day today the sky was completely filled with low lying fast moving clouds.

At 5 PM a gust front came through accompanied by mammary clouds and the hint that a tornado might be nearby. One came through near here within the last two months. Then the rain for a short burst.

The ADDS wind aloft forecast shows the correct setup for the winds with good speeds on Monday.

I wonder if there will be any lift or whether cloud base will rise above a 1000’. The Marine forecast still calls for a lot of moisture through Wednesday.

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Florida Ridge Alumni Fly-In

Tue, Jul 1 2003, 5:00:05 pm EDT

camping|Dan Critchett|flight park|Florida|Florida Ridge|harness|tandem|tug|weather

Marco Oliveira <marco@boston-tech.com> writes:

The Florida Ridge Alumni invite you to join us Saturday, July 12th for an all-day fly-in. As you know, the Ridge is closed for the summer, but the Alumni have rented the flight park on the 12th -- and want you to join us!

We'll have two tug pilots, a ground crewperson, and a flight park manager to provide us with all the flying service we'll need, plus a $10 catered lunch, plenty of shade, and experienced pilots on hand to assist if need any set-up help or flight tips. (No official lessons, though, sorry.)

What's more, we encourage you to bring your friends because we'll be offering 2500-ft tandems for just $75. And mile-high tandems for only $150. You'll never get a chance to introduce your friends and buddies to hang gliding for less! (Conditions permitting, of course. Come early - by 8am - or be prepared to stay late - up until 7pm - for optimal tandem conditions.)

Solo tows are $10 all day, camping is free, and glider and harness rental are available at their usual prices (courtesy of the Ridge). Weather and demand permitting, we may extend the fly-in through the next day, Sunday.

If you have any questions, please contact Marco Oliveira (<Marco@boston-tech.com>) or Dan Critchett (<Dan@Critchett.net>). And be sure to check your email late Friday evening in case we have to call the event for weather.

(The Florida Ridge Alumni are a dozen eager pilots who are underwriting our own weekend flying this summer while the Ridge is closed. On occasion - like July 12th - we invite other pilots to join us. If you are interested in joining the Alumni, contact Marco or Dan.)

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Eastern Cougar Network

Mon, Jun 30 2003, 6:00:06 pm EDT

Florida|radio|Wallaby Ranch

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/Conclusions.htm

Two years ago a cougar (mountain lion, Florida panther) was spotted at Wallaby Ranch. Check out the confirmed and probable sightings on the map above.

Was it cougar number 62?

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/seast-desc/panther62-00.htm

He definitely was very very close by a year earlier. The radio collar on him indicated that he was near Baseball City in 2000.

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2003 King Mountain Meet

Sat, Jun 28 2003, 6:00:02 pm EDT

altitude|Bill Soderquist|cloud|death|Florida|Glen Salmon|glide ratio|Idris Birch|John Woiwode|Kevin Frost|Lisa Tate|picture|record|Shannon Allen|site|Tim King|weather|XC

Jon Woiwode <Woiwodejon@cs.com> writes:

King Mt is on, the conditions are cooking, and over 80 pilots are signed up for this annual event. The contest has an unusual format: open distance XC, with a point for each mile. Gliders are handicapped, with king post gliders the base receiving the 1.0 miles per miles flown, rigids receiving a penalty of 0.81 and topless receive a penalty of 0.89 times the miles flown. Single surface receive a bonus of 1.25 times miles. Best three out of five days are scored, most points wins.

The contest has been held since 1986, and for the past six years has been capably run by Lisa Tate and Terry Edington. They continue to evolve a contest that attracts a huge following from all over the country. We all come here to fly the big air and distances that King has become known for. To get a picture view of the awesome terrain that we fly at King Mt, have a look at the Sonoma Wings website at sononmawings.com.

The XC is flown on one of three corridors, "Route 1, Route 2 or Route 3". Route 1 follows the immense Lost River Range for 70 miles, then doglegs right to and along the 30 mile long Salmon River Canyon, which from altitude looks like a giant open mouth 9000' deep that wants to eat you, to arrive at the town of Salmon, 100 miles, snuggled deep into the canyon.

Route 2 is by far the most intimidating, the most difficult and least flown (I only recall two times in all the years of the contest). It angles over the Lost Rivers, across the Howe Valley to the Lemhi Mountains, across those lofty peaks to the Birch Creek Valley then over the Bitterroot Mountains, which is the Continental Divide. It gets worse, and you've only gone 40 miles at this point. This is the formidable route that I flew for the site and state record in Year 2000; I am convinced that, though difficult, this is the best route for more distance off King, given the right conditions.

Route 3 goes straight over the back of the Lost Rivers to the Lemhis, over these craggy peaks to the base of the Bitterroots, then follows the south side of the Continental Divide to eventually reach Henry's Lake, 115 miles. The task committee calls one of these at the pilots meeting based on the latest weather information and winds aloft.

I missed the first two days, so I'll report the conditions, routes and top pilots:

Day 1 was stormy, rain cells dumping near launch and downwind, north winds aloft. The task committee called Route 3, the best call they could do; venerable pilot Joe Evans dodged rain cells to get 74.4 miles on his rigid. A few pilots made the Dubois airport, 59.6 miles, and received the "bonus" miles. There are select fields en route designated as "bonus"; the advantages to the bonus fields are free points; the disadvantages are that it provides a random injection of points into the open distance XC format.

Day two dawned clear, but still had the NW push from the frontal system. Forecasted winds aloft were 330, so Route 3 was again appropriately called. Zach Majors and Bill Soderquist got out to the Kilgore Store, 89.3 miles, and secured the specious bonus points associated with that field for the day’s best flights. They crossed street after street, punching crosswind to pull off the fine flights. Altitudes of 14000' were common.

Day 3 came in clear and beautiful, with 260-280 forecasted aloft. That is a classic Route 3 direction, and had Henry's Lake 100+ milers written all over it. But for some unknown reason the task committee called Route 1.

For background, 210-230 aloft favors Route 1, 230-250 favor Route 2, and 260-280 favor Route 3. With the day's forecasted winds aloft, there was no question that on Route 1 we would be flying up the Lost Rivers in a howling headwind!! King Mountain and its surrounding terrain are well known for turbulence; we didn't have to seek more by flying the mechanical turbulence of a headwind along the range.

I quickly pointed this obvious fact out at the pilots’ meeting, and was reprimanded with "once the task is called, it is called". I started to ask one of the task committee members, Kevin Frost, what he was thinking, to be told by the meet director that no one is allowed to talk to the task committee!! Holy smokes, ignorance surrounded by stupidity.

The westerliers made for difficult launches. The SSW upper launch was especially treacherous with dust devils ripping up the road and across the face. Launch cycles were scarce. I was one of the first off upper launch, at 1500. I crank into a beauty, pull out at 10,500', and moved as fast as I could across Rams Horn Canyon to Sunset Mt.

Mr. Nasty, on the shoulder of Rams Horn, had gone leeside and was death defying so I slid across the face of Sunset Ridge and after much broken lift between 8500 and 9500 I hooked a magnificent rocket that held my averager at 1800 fpm and put me out of the hole and near cloud base at 14000'.

This set me up to make the long crossing over Pass Creek, a large pass in the range that is always difficult to cross, and vicious in a head wind. I fortunately hold altitude to get past the massive venturi, but by the time I get to Invisible Mt, now in a lee, trouble brews as a leeside thermal.

I milk altitude through this rock and roll to the front of Invisible, climb on the windward points of the canyons to 11000', and measure winds aloft: 22 mph along the range, a direct headwind. Higher altitudes are smoother, as one would predict, but have higher headwind velocities. Lets see: vicious turbulence along the face of the peaks or pound into howling headwinds; I guess I could get a sharp stick and poke it in my eye.

Many pilots below me, some skating above at altitude punching along the range. I was hoping that I could get to Corner Mt, an obvious and huge dogleg to the right in the range, where the winds would hit the face and life would smooth out. I got there with reasonable altitude, 10500', turned the corner, and was dismayed to find the winds now NNE, a 70° cross for the face I was hoping would be windward. Down to 9000' along this face, I hooked a beauty and took it to 12000', only to find my drift had placed me around the peak and back to the edge of the rotor!

There are better things to do than this, so I flew out and landed in front of Corner. Distance of 38 miles, 2 hours, 20 minutes. Let’s see, that's a whopping 16.5 mph, even on my speedy Aeros 14 Meter Topless, moving as fast as I could. Joe Evans, in his rigid (!), described it as "exceeding my highest bump tolerances". Yup.

Zach Majors, Shannon Raby and Bill Soderquist pounded it out at high altitude against the headwinds for between four to five hours to get 65.5 miles, the longest flights for the day. They also landed at the "bonus" field of the May airport, securing those not so random points.

In epilogue, the day was a beautiful Route 3, with cloud streets setting up all the way to Henry's Lake. I heard numerous complaints and great disappointment by pilots who had come here to attain their personal best, would could have readily hit 100+ miles, and were forced to pound into the wind, not to mention further the outright danger of the severe mechanical turbulence along the range.

The single surface gliders had it especially bad: Frank Gillette, former record holder at King Mt, slugged it out in his Falcon, the longest single surface for 14 miles. So much for the validity of the "handicap", as these factors were based on glide ratio downwind. King Mt has a rap for turbulent air; but if flown properly and intelligently, it is a great big air site. I can only hope the task committee wakes up from their stupor.

(editor’s note: At the green circle meets in Florida, Texas, and Wisconsin, the task committee listens to the pilot’s concerns and acts on them. How obvious.)

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Rob Sporer, paraglider instructor to the stars

Sun, Jun 22 2003, 9:00:02 pm EDT

Barbara Flynn|Florida|site|USHGA|video

Rob came to our paragliding meet in Florida. Last year he was the USHGA paragliding instructor of the year. You’ll find him in Santa Barbara at Eagle Paragliding.

Check out his web site at: http://www.eagleparagliding.com/. Click the View Video button at the top right side

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Jon Durand Jr. on final glide

Sun, Jun 22 2003, 2:03:03 pm EDT

altitude|Florida|Flytec 4005|Flytec USA|Jon Durand snr|Kraig Coomber|Paris Williams

Jon Durand writes:

Well after nearly 1000 hours of flying with the Flytec 4005, I was told I needed to get the 4030 as well as an airspeed indicator so I could use speeds to fly and have a final glide computer. I did this, however I found it to hard to operate in the air and never had confidence in the final glide as many others would land short and say ‘well my instruments told me that I could make it but I guess they were wrong’. I eventually broke my airspeed indicator about one year later and never thought it was worth replacing, as my results kept getting better. I figured I could fly just as well without all that information.

Over the last two years Kraig Coomber has been trying really hard to get me using these functions again. It was not until the Australian comps last season, when Paris, Kraig and Curt were using the new 4030 Race and kept beating me on the finals, that I thought I should upgrade to the new 4030Race. I thought I would let them figure out the little problems and see if any of them would land short of goal by using this new instrument. At the end of the season I was very impressed with the accuracy of the instrument.

Now after 2000 hours I finally got hooked up with the new 4030Race after the Quest air meet in Florida. My first flight with this instrument was on day one of the Wallaby meet. I liked knowing, when I was gliding, whether it was tailwind or headwind and how strong it was and I was also using the final glide part for turnpoints as well. This way I could see how high I would arrive at the turnpoint.

Before I knew it I was 15kms out from goal and climbing with Manfred watching my numbers to see when they got to the positive height. As soon as it reached 0 height for goal Manfred did one more circle and left, I was not convinced as this was my first ever attempt at using the new final glide computer, I thought that I had better just make sure I got there. I ended up leaving when it said I could make it with 300 feet.

As I was on final, I watched the numbers and they were very solid telling me I could make it and never once saying that I couldn’t. Though in my mind, I was looking as I would normally do, thinking oohh I'm not sure but the vario kept me confident and I arrived at goal with the exact altitude it told me I would. I was very impressed not only to place 2nd for the day behind Manfred but to know that we finally could all have a instrument so accurate for this important part of every flight.

I would like to thank the pilots that helped Flytec USA design this instrument as I believe it is the best on offer these days.

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Parachutes at the clinic

Sat, Jun 21 2003, 2:03:06 pm EDT

competition|Florida|parachute|release|video

Mark Windsheimer <AirtimeHG@aol.com> writes:

In May of this year I ran a small parachute clinic for some pilots that had attended the Comps in Florida. This Clinic was held in Golden Colorado.

In the Clinic we had a couple of Metamorfosi chutes and many others. One of the Metamorfosi had a factory pack on it. When the pilot tried to deploy it he ended up with the lines and Diaper tied in a knot about 3 feet from the skirt of the canopy. This clearly happens as the pilot is about to release the diaper into the air, from a spinning situation. Since we were filming each throw we could look back and clearly see what happened. The canopy size would have been seriously compromised by this knot.

(editor’s note: Perhaps you can share this video with Angelo as he has been so nice to share his with us. By the way, Angelo is off at a competition and won’t be answering e-mail for another week.)

The other Metamorfosi opened cleanly as the staged diaper should have. All of the bag systems (even those with the handle on the bottom of the bag) had no problems. I attribute this to the pilots getting their chutes repacked at least once a year, with fresh rubber bands, or stows.

I have been working with parachutes in Colorado since they first arrived on the Hang Gliding scene. I owned the first reserve for Hang Gliders in Colorado. I have seen both diaper and bag failures. But in most cases from what I have experienced, the bag system seems to give the pilot a better chance to get the chute into clean air in violent situations.

One of the keys to a proper working system is proper maintenance. The Metamorfosi that failed was only a year old. But the Canopy decided to come out before the lines were fully staged. The Diaper defiantly allowed this to happen easier.

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Flytec 5030/Brauninger IQ-Compeo – another look

Sat, Jun 14 2003, 2:03:02 pm EDT

certification|competition|FAI|Florida|Flytec 4030|Flytec 5030|GPS|IGC|Oz Report|record|SeeYou|software|track log|waypoints|world record|XC

www.brauniger.com

The last part of a multi-part review.

The IQ-Compeo helps you find the best track to goal (or waypoint) direction taking into account the wind speed and direction. With a reasonable wind component coming at an angle to your glide direction to the next waypoint, you need to aim your glider a bit to one side or the other (crab) to fly in the optimum direction. The display adds a few small arrows to your compass to show you that you are headed in the right direction.

When you create a Route on the IQ-Compeo a name is asked for. When you create a route on your GPS, the route name is automatically created from the names of the waypoints. Because it is somewhat difficult to type in a route name on the IQ-Compeo, I’d rather dispense with this requirement all together.

As it stands now, the easiest way for the user to deal with this typing problem is to just leave the default name (“xxxx”) for your single route. If you need to put in multiple routes, I can see them being named Xxxx, Yxxx, Zxxx.

Putting in the waypoints in a route is a bit more difficult than with the Garmin. On the IQ-Compeo, the waypoints are listed by distance from your current (or at least they were here) location. Because they are not listed alphabetically, it takes more time to scroll through the list and it is harder find the one you are going to.

On a Garmin you can scroll through the waypoints backwards and forwards to establish a route. You can only scroll in one direction (forward) through the list of waypoints on the IQ-Compeo.

Otherwise, the route function works quite well. You create your route in the Route menu, one of the many sub menus of the main setup menu. To display the route you hold down the Route button, use the up/down arrow keys to choose your route and the first waypoint is then displayed at the bottom of the display.

You can use the soft function keys to move back and forth between waypoints. There is much less button pushing than with a separate GPS.

The route doesn’t automatically and prematurely roll over to the next waypoint. The IQ-Compeo documentation states:

It is guaranteed that several track log points within the cylinder are stored in one second intervals in the memory of the Galileo, totally independent of what recording interval is saved during a standard flight.

While this appears to apply to the FAI route (a special route for FAI tasks), it appeared to me that additional track log points would be recorded every second when you were within a cylinder or near the circumference of the start circle. This appears not to be the case at all. The track log points inside the cylinders were recorded at the same 10 second interval as the standard setting for outside the cylinder. This is quite unfortunate.

Again the documentation about this point and the documentation about the FAI route is very confusing. It is also very disappointing that the IQ-Compeo doesn’t record points at one second intervals when near the edge of the start circle and when in the turnpoint point cylinders.

It appears as though the IQ-Compeo is not yet IGC-certified. The list of updates seems to indicate that it has been changed to allow for IGC-certification. We don’t have an indication if this is proceeding and when we might expect it.

It would be great if the IQ-Compeo were IGC-certified so that one could have a very compact datalogger/vario/GPS/flight computer for world record purposes. It definitely has a lot of promise.

You can’t enter the pilot’s name, glider type, glider class, and glider ID through SeeYou. You can painfully enter the pilot’s name, glider type and glider ID directly into the IQ-Compeo. It appears as thought you can use SeeYou to declare an FAI task, although I didn’t get that to work for me yet.

When I took the IQ-Compeo out for my first test flight I noticed that the tones emitted by the vario seemed to be less “urgent” then those expressed by the IQ/Comp. Perhaps the day was just filled with weak lift, but it seemed no weaker than the normally weak lift we get here in Florida.

The IQ-Compeo tones just seemed to be less excited about the day then I would normally have expected. I guess if I want it to get excited about a day that averaged 230 fpm, I should cranked it up a bit, if I could figure out just what that means.

The unit knows about start circles, waypoint radii, and allows you to set separate radii for each waypoint. There is also apparently a count down function that shows you when you are going to reach the circumference of the start circle. I haven’t tried this. This countdown function only works with start circles that you exit, not enter, apparently.

I can’t figure out how to get this to work. The manual has not been updated in English for the new functionality of version 2.12, and now that each waypoint can have its own radii, there is no field for the start time.

I adjusted my airspeed multiplier to 125%. It seemed a little slow when it was set to 100%. I guess it does depend on how well you place the unit into the air stream. I have put it back to 100% as the values it displayed seemed too fast. I’ll have to make further test to determine the correct setting. I tried 110% today and that seems reasonable. I’ll have to do a real test soon.

I haven’t discussed every feature of the IQ-Galileo. For example, the distance to last thermal feature that helps you find where that thermal you were in went to. I’ve just discussed the ones of most interest to me as a competition and XC pilot.

I like very much the fact that I can now use sophisticated software to download my 3-D tracklog from the IQ-Compeo. Hopefully in the future it will be an IGC-certified tracklog.

Overall I am very impressed with the IQ-Compeo. The manual could use a through rewrite, reorganization, and editing to make the English understandable, but who reads the manual anyway? I used as a reference it to answer (sometimes) specific questions.

Of course, we would all love to see the final glide calculations used by the Flytec 4030 Race incorporated into the IQ-Compeo. And it looks like they soon will be.

If you have any responses to the series of articles or wish to give Oz Report readers your take on this flight computer, please put together an article and send it to me at <davis@davisstraub.com>.

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Brazilian follies »

Fri, Jun 13 2003, 2:03:01 pm EDT

Carlos Bessa|CIVL|competition|Curt Warren|FAI|Florida|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Ron Gleason|USHGA|USHGF

USHGA Competition committee chairman Ron Gleason <xcflying@earthlink.net> writes:

The Florida meets were the final meets used to select the Class 1 team. The members of the team are:

Paris Williams
Mike Barber
Curt Warren
Jerz Rossignol
Carlos Bessa
Kari Castle

With Jim Lee being only 1 point behind Kari for the 7th position.

Jim is prepared to attend the worlds as an alternate for the team. Pete Lehman will be the team leader. The USHGF contributed $2,400 to cover the entry fee of each pilot.

As with most national teams, there is controversy. Carlos Bessa may qualify for the Brazilian team, the final competition will occur two weeks prior to the start of the worlds. Carlos has indicated that he will fly for the Brazilians if he qualifies. This can only occur if the FAI rules for switching FAI Sporting Licenses allow this. There are many details regarding this, many grey areas with FAI and CIVL rules. Email me privately if you are interested in the exact details and what has been done to ensure that Carlos and the US team are not surprised

(editor’s note: Well if Jim Lee is ready to go at a moment’s notice, then when Carlos switches teams (99% likelihood), then it should come as no surprise and Jim will be on the plane. Seems to solve that problem if everyone is in agreement.)

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Who flies what?

Sun, Jun 8 2003, 2:03:02 pm EDT

Bubba Goodman|competition|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Kenny Brown|Terry Presley|Wayne Sayer

Kenny Brown <FlyaMoyes@aol.com> writes regarding the glider list for the Midwest Regionals:

After the Florida meets two pilots switched over to Moyes Litespeeds. Bubba Goodman is now on a Litespeed 4. Terry Presley is now on a Litespeed 4.

Wayne Sayer is on a Litespeed 3 and Dennis Pagen is on a Litespeed 4. Andreas is now flying a Litespeed 4 not a 5.

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Drought – track it »

Wed, Jun 4 2003, 2:03:06 pm EDT

Florida|Robert Sweeney|Zapata

http://drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

Robert Sweeney <soarxc@earthlink.net> writes:

It sure was for Florida the last few years. This year returning to more normal conditions. Wonder what this holds for Zapata?

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Whitewater Rocks

Wed, Jun 4 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

Brad Kushner|Campbell Bowen|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Florida|Ghostbuster|Quest Air|Raven Sky Sports|Russell "Russ" Brown|site

It was a beautiful afternoon and evening here at Raven Sky Sports in Whitewater, Wisconsin, site of the upcoming Midwest Regionals. The morning sucked with a dull overcast and forecasts for 100 fpm lift at 1 PM (on the BLIPMAP). As we headed off to lunch with Brad Kushner, Russell Brown and Campbell Bowen from Quest Air showed up having flown into Minneapolis in the morning.

They set up their gliders while we talked hang gliding at Randy’s restaurant convinced that nothing was going to be happening today. By the time we got back to the airfield Campbell was ready to go and Russell had called David Glover to ask him to bring his Ghostbuster tips tomorrow.

The cu’s were popping and getting vertical around 2:30 PM. Campbell gets hauled up, climbs to 6,000’ , 1,000’ below the clouds in 900 fpm thermals and is freezing his face off. He must have thought he was still in Florida. He comes down, dresses warmer and goes back up.

The cu’s only get better until after 6 PM. He climbs to 7,000’.

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Superflytec PG Championships

Sat, May 31 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

cloud|competition|Florida|Josh Cohn|PG|tow

The winds were forecast to be a little bit higher than they were yesterday, when the pilots called the day, late in the day, ostensibly because of the winds. That didn’t stop us from going out to the northwest to our open field five miles south of the Okahumpka service plaza on the Florida turnpike.

The forecast was for southwest winds at 10 knots on the ground and 14 knots at 6,000’ at cloud base. The cu’s started early, and it looked like while there would be some vertical development, it wouldn’t be so extensive as to shade out anything.

The winds at launch were brisk, but no worse than yesterday. When pilots started getting up pilots’ attitude perked up and somehow the stronger winds just weren’t that much of a problem, or at least not as insurmountable as they were the day before.

Still it was a struggle getting out of the tow paddock and we had to keep hauling some of these guys up a few times. The cu’s were flowing like gang busters over their heads and the more experienced pilots hooked into something and got out of there.

The task was 41 miles straight down wind to a friend’s private airport near Deland. The tricky part of the task was the portion of the task a few miles down of the start circle that consisted of a 5 mile track over the widest part of Lake Harris.

This little bump in the track made sure that pilots thought about what direction they could actually do and whether they were willing to head straight over the lake. They had better make sure they were high enough before they headed across a rather formidable obstacle.

Some pilots went to the south side of the lake (easy enough to do), and found that they lost the lift. Some were too low to even make it over the narrow little Lake Harris on the south side. Some headed right up the narrow portion over the bridge and continued a ways up highway 19 toward goal.

Pilots were, in some cases, able to get to 5,200’ which was cloud base. Seems like at least one kept going up a little bit. There were a few miles of forest before the goal and this proved to be another obstacle that made a few pilots decide that they were rather not land in the middle of a forest.

Only one pilot made goal, once again, and again it was Josh Cohn. A few pilots were able to get close.

Seventh day:

Place Name mph miles Total
1 COHN Josh 26.25 41.4 945
2 HOFFMAN Doug 38.6 706
3 BROCK Gary 37.6 694
4 PRENTICE Dave 37 684
5 HOISINGTON Zach 33.3 614
6 SZAFARYN Len 27.9 498
7 HUEY Jeff 25 439
8 SPORER Rob 18.4 327
9 FARRELL Jeff 17.8 317
10 SWAIN Gavin 12.4 218
11 KEARNEY Bill 8.5 144
12 MOOK Tom 1.7 34

The final results:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 4007
2 HUEY Jeff 2887
3 BROCK Gary 2760
4 PRENTICE Dave 2647
5 HOISINGTON Zach 2621
6 FARRELL Jeff 2541
7 SWAIN Gavin 1814
8 HOFFMAN Doug 1803
9 SZAFARYN Len 1543
10 SPORER Rob 1490
11 MOOK Tom 1183
12 KEARNEY Bill 548

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Photo/caption contest »

Thu, May 29 2003, 6:03:02 pm GMT

Florida|Ken Seligman|photo

Ken Seligman <thermalr@msn.com> sends in this “doctored” photo:

Why people in Florida lock their doors.

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Superflytec PG Championships

Thu, May 29 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

airspace|altitude|cloud|competition|Florida|Orlando Stephenson|PG|power|tail|tow|weather

Apparently the weather this last month or so in the mid Atlantic states has been miserable with clouds and rain almost every day and nary a peek of the sun. There seems to be a persistent low pressure over the mid Atlantic states that is responsible for this sorry state of affairs.

Thursday’s conditions.

Down here in Florida the spring has been dominated by west winds, and that has been no different this week, even though the summer wet season conditions have gone away, thankfully. The west winds were stronger than predicted today, so it was quite a good idea that we headed north again to tow paragliders from an open field three miles south of the turnpike.

We called a 44 mile task, the longest of the meet, in light of the predicted high cloud base, moderate lift, and good tail winds. Unfortunately, in order to keep the paragliders out of the Orlando airspace, we needed to give them a somewhat cross wind leg.

We sent them down wind at 80° 21 miles then made them turn to a heading of 30° for 15 miles, before an 8 mile leg at 60° going into goal. It was on this second leg that a number of pilots would go down unable to keep from being blown down wind of the turnpoint.

The red area is the Orlando airspace with a 6,000’ MSL floor.

The winds were predicted to be 5 mph rising to 10 mph at the start of the inversion at 4,500’ out of the west-northwest. Above the start of the inversion they would be stronger up to 25 mph out of the west-southwest. With mixing the winds all the way down were supposed to switch to west-southwest by 3 PM. Apparently they stayed west-northwest all day, making the second leg that much harder.

Most pilots experienced good lift at the tow paddock as soon as they found a thermal, which often meant finding one from down low. In one case low and just in front of the high tension power lines down wind of launch. Some pilots reported 500 fpm as they climbed out to over 5,000’.

Out on the course they were able to get into a convergence zone before the first turnpoint and find 1,100 fpm to 1,400 fpm to almost 6,000’. But it was at the first turnpoint where the helpful winds turned into a hindrance. Pilots were down to 3,000’ at the turnpoint and didn’t have enough altitude to make it cross wind to the next turnpoint.

Pilots who just took the western edge of the turnpoint and immediately turned north were the only ones with an opportunity to make the fifteen miles to the second turnpoint. Others found themselves in the unfortunate position of fighting a 20 mph head wind as they tried to get back on the course line. Many landed nearby the turnpoint.

Three pilots mention that they’ve never seen faster ground speeds on their GPSes. One pilot says that after he landed winds of about 30 mph came through for 20 minutes.

Two pilots made goal. Day Five:

Place Name mph miles Total
1 COHN Josh 29.19 44.6 933
2 HOISINGTON Zach 22.81 44.6 763
3 HUEY Jeff 34.7 553
4 SWAIN Gavin 33.5 542
5 PRENTICE Dave 33.1 537
6 HOFFMAN Doug 28.3 463
7 SPORER Rob 28.2 461
8 BROCK Gary 28.1 459
9 FARRELL Jeff 26.4 418
10 SZAFARYN Len 14.5 158
11 MOOK Tom 3.8 50
12 KEARNEY Bill 2.1 28

After five days:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 3062
2 HUEY Jeff 2448
3 FARRELL Jeff 2224
4 BROCK Gary 2066
5 HOISINGTON Zach 2007
6 PRENTICE Dave 1963
7 SWAIN Gavin 1596
8 SPORER Rob 1163
9 MOOK Tom 1149
10 HOFFMAN Doug 1097
11 SZAFARYN Len 1045
12 KEARNEY Bill 404

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Superflytec PG Championships

Wed, May 28 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

competition|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Florida|gaggle|Jeff Huey|Josh Cohn|landing|PG|picture|Quest Air|radio|tow|towing|Wallaby Ranch

A cold front slowly moved through central Florida today changing the wind direction somewhat from west to west-northwest. The winds basically died down to light and variable.

With a raft of high level clouds accompanying the front the day looked dismal as we contemplated a task at 10:30 AM. The green dot is Groveland.

The BLIPSPOT predicted lift continuing along in the same vain as the previous days , 450 fpm, but it sure didn’t look like we would get any convergence and therefore help with increasing lift. We wondered if we were going to get any cumulus development at all.

We held the launch window back to 1:30 hoping to get enough filtered sunlight to heat up the ground and produce some lift. The cu’s started forming under the thinning cirrus, so it didn’t look completely hopeless, just almost completely hopeless.

We had had so many tows under beautiful cu filled skies, that the tow crew was not looking forward to hundreds of tows under skies that promised very light lift if any. Josh volunteered to wind dummy if he could get his place back and we let him go over shaded ground to see if there was anything out there. He didn’t get up.

Still that didn’t stop folks who decided to start towing anyway as Josh slowly came down. There was a break in the cirrus and a cu formed over the middle of the field. A few pilots got up and started to stick. Suddenly everyone wanted to go.

Fourteen tows later for twelve pilots and everyone was sticking and gaggling in the same thermal in the middle of the Quest Air tow field. They were climbing slowly but they were together and there is a strong incentive to stay with everyone else and not come back to the field on your own.

So on the worst looking day we have the easiest tow operation and get everyone out of the tow field in less than an hour. One pilot comes back after landing within the two mile reflight zone, but after two tows, decides to go on retrieval and pick up his flying buddies.

The task committee called a 23 mile task from Quest, fifteen miles southeast to the intersection of highway 27 and 474, and then south-southwest 8 miles to Wallaby Ranch. The idea was to keep pilots away from the difficult to retrieve areas and over landable areas on the final glide into goal.

Three pilots including Dave Prentice got high and left together. The next eight had to wait longer and get higher within the two mile start circle before they could head out after the lead gaggle.

The lead gaggle didn’t make it to goal and landed further from goal than the later gaggle. I heard Jeff Huey in the air on the radio early on saying it looked like every one would make goal. Looks like he landed a mile short. Josh Cohn was the only one to make it to Wallaby.

Wednesday:

Place Name mph miles Total
1 COHN Josh 18.09 23.3 855
2 HUEY Jeff 22.4 648
3 BROCK Gary 21.7 635
4 FARRELL Jeff 20.8 614
5 HOISINGTON Zach 18.5 546
6 SWAIN Gavin 15.4 443
7 HOFFMAN Doug 15.4 441
8 MOOK Tom 8.6 261
9 PRENTICE Dave 6.6 223
10 SZAFARYN Len 6.4 219
11 SPORER Rob 5.9 204
12 KEARNEY Bill 2.4 83

After four days:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 2129
2 HUEY Jeff 1895
3 FARRELL Jeff 1806
4 BROCK Gary 1607
5 PRENTICE Dave 1426
6 HOISINGTON Zach 1244
7 MOOK Tom 1099
8 SWAIN Gavin 1054
9 SZAFARYN Len 887
10 SPORER Rob 702
11 HOFFMAN Doug 634
12 KEARNEY Bill 376

David Glover writes:

Picture by: Sir Geoffrey Farrell of http://www.4superfly.com Quest can be seen in the middle far right of the picture - spring fed pond on the east side of the field.

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Tumbling my Topless Sensor

Tue, May 27 2003, 2:03:01 pm EDT

Bob Trampenau|bridle|dust devil|Florida|landing|parachute|safety|Seedwings|tuck|tumble

Tim Locke <tlocke@optonline.net> writes:

I am the pilot with the dubious distinction of tumbling May 18th at Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts. I have been hang gliding for 29 years and have had my fair share of turbulence and getting dumped. It was a rude awakening without warning to be pitched over and under in a series of 3 tumbles. They were so rapid that I had no recollection of doing them.

Ended up at the trailing edge/keel in a surreal moment of watching my Sensor 142 topless glide along upside down with me trailing like swimmer on the transom of a boat. Just previous I had climbed 2000 feet in two minutes after hooking a powerful thermal coming off the spine of this 3000ft mountain.

I had cored it without any hint of serious thermal shear in my short lived flight of eight minutes. Closing in on Tom Nejame overhead I started scanning to catch a glimpse of him. As I reduced my left hand bank angle to shift my circle I was pitched violently over.

From Tom's description of my right wing going down as I went ass over teakettle, it would appear as if I had found the edge of a nasty swirl of air. His next description of me is seeing my undersurface with arms extended. I have known for years about keeping your weight forward, but in spite of his criticism I had no time for even a knee jerk reaction like pushing out. Thank you Davis for confirming that in your experience.

I had been climbing at up to 980 fpm and my vario registered 1920 fpm sink. That would be a 30 mph. differential at the interface of the thermal. Maximum registered air speed was only 34mph. If I had just reduced the bank angle just as the right tip found the shear it could have lead to the pitch over.

(editor’s note: I have invariably found that max values shown on vario logbooks are much higher than what I actually experience as there seems to be no dampening of the values by choosing a reasonable time period, like one second, over which to find an average value.)

It is perplexing as not all pilots complained of extraordinary turbulence. But some pilots did. A pilot on a cross country flight from Mt. Ascutney said he was petrified of going into the sail at any moment.

At Greylock there were some partial paraglider collapses and some other paragliders going on nice x-c's. There was a large sighted dust devil and a barn in Maine damaged by a dust devil. There was also height gains over 12,000ft that day. But apparently we have to rule out the atmospherics, as a recent post has leveled the finger at Seedwings for the incident.

I am not ruling all possibilities, but let’s not jump to conclusions until all the facts are in. I admit I am biased because I have owned 4 Sensors. I recently put a new sail on that has more double surface, shear rib length and tip chord than its predecessor. Yes, it was not factory flown and I accepted that.

I put hours on it in Florida, found that the center of gravity had not changed to any degree and it had pitch pressure at speed (not only valid consideration). I cannot say if the sail change had anything to do with it. I will say that I believe that is up to the manufacturer to deliver a proven glider and will asking for that now for assurance. Bob Trampenau is very safety conscious and to rule out every thing he is checking the glider out and will be performing pitch tests.

The glider is built solid and survived the tumbles with no damage to the airframe or sail. The violence of the tumbles beat the washout system up and he thinks the negative g tests for all gliders is too low in light of what happened. I use the same cable braced washout tube configuration as others, and get this.

I bent a 1"tube to 45°, snapped a washout tube brace wire, and snapped both outboard heim joints in a downward motion. This was not done on landing as I had a very soft landing in the flexible droopy limbs of a hemlock tree. He has already e-mailed 5 modifications that he going to do as soon as he receives the glider.

I appreciate that he sews Kevlar in the trailing edge as the parachute bridle did not cut into it. Seedwings takes a lot of heat for a small company that engineers a nice wing. Have not tumbles occurred on other popular wings. Much doubt could be dispelled by providing the test rig documentation. Let the facts speak and let’s continue addressing tumble/tuck issues.

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Superflytec PG Championships

Tue, May 27 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

competition|Florida|Jeff Huey|Josh Cohn|landing|Orlando Stephenson|PG|power|tow|towing|winch

We head northwest to the wide open areas of central Florida south of the Florida turnpike in order to use a larger field to accommodate the continual western winds. Going northwest we can also more easily get the paraglider pilots away from Orlando and downwind to some small airports north of Lake Apopka.

The task today was a 20 mile down wind leg straight east to Bob White airport and then a 30 mile slightly off downwind leg to the Orlando County Airport. After landing at a private airport yesterday, we wanted to land at a public airport today.

The forecast was for winds of 5 to 10 mph out of the west with 400 fpm lift to 5,200’ in the last afternoon. If the winds came up we didn’t want to force the paraglider pilots to go cross wind in light lift (400 fpm lift – 200 fpm sink rate).

We convoy out to the field off sand roads and setup under some high tension power lines while the winch tows get taken down to the western end of the field as we hold onto the wires at our end. We can’t quite see the winches beyond the rolling hills, but they can see the paragliders when we kite them. There is enough wind to make this easy to do.

We spend the next four hours towing up twelve pilots on four tow rigs until finally every one gets away. We tell the last pilots that they have to turn and go downwind because the sea breeze has wiped out all the lift (if there ever was any) over the field, and they need to run to the clouds in the convergence zone to the east. Otherwise, they won’t get up. They follow our advice and most do get up.

We are able to tow pilots quite high in the prevailing winds and those that are clever stay with any lift that they can find hanging on for dear life. It only gets better as they quickly drift away toward the convergence zone. Jeff Huey reports 500 fpm climb to 5,500’ in his last thermal.

Pilots at goal reported watching Josh Cohn head off in the wrong direction after the first turnpoint. He finally figured out where he was supposed to go, turned around and didn’t make it back enough to make goal. Turns out he was watching the arrow on his Garmin eTrex and it was not pointing toward the GoTo point.

The first pilot to make goal left the start circle at 1:30 and made goal before all but one other pilot who made goal left the start circle. The last pilot to leave the start circle was the last pilot to launch and left at 4:20, almost three hours later.

Seven pilots make goal and everyone leaves the field.

Place Name mph miles Total
1 BROCK Gary 23.55 23.4 612
2 HUEY Jeff 23.14 23.4 603
3 PRENTICE Dave 21.46 23.4 541
4 MOOK Tom 20.69 23.4 516
5 HOISINGTON Zach 19.48 23.4 493
6 FARRELL Jeff 15.91 23.4 482
7 SZAFARYN Len 15.52 23.4 401
8 COHN Josh 22.9 279
9 SPORER Rob 16.3 212
10 SWAIN Gavin 2.2 40
11 HOFFMAN Doug 1.6 38
11 KEARNEY Bill 0.6 38

After three days:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 1274
2 HUEY Jeff 1247
3 PRENTICE Dave 1203
4 FARRELL Jeff 1192
5 BROCK Gary 972
6 MOOK Tom 838
7 HOISINGTON Zach 698
8 SZAFARYN Len 668
9 SWAIN Gavin 611
10 SPORER Rob 498
11 KEARNEY Bill 293
12 HOFFMAN Doug 193

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Florida Ridge »

Fri, May 23 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

flight park|Florida|Florida Ridge|James Tindle|tandem|tug

Marco Oliveira <marco@boston-tech.com> writes:

The Florida Ridge Flight Park is current looking for TUG/Tandem/Instructor/Manager pilots to fill a position vacant with the departure of Berry to Canada. The right candidate will have strong management skills and excellent customer service attitude to deal with many personalities. Call James Tindle at 305-2858978. Check our website at www.thefloridaridge.com

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Florida⁣ Report »

Sun, May 18 2003, 1:00:01 pm EDT

XC

David Prentice|Florida|PG

Campbell Bowen|David Prentice|Florida|PG

http://www-frd.fsl.noaa.gov/mab/soundings/java/plot_soundings.cgi?
airport=28.32,-81.51&start=latest&n_hrs=36&startSecs=1046638800&
endSecs=1046768400&data_source=MAPS

Both David Prentice on a paraglider and starting later and Campbell Bowen on a single surface tandem glider went 50 miles to the north before being force down by the obvious overdevelopment.

The summer regime, the wet tropical season, has come early yet again to Florida. Last year it stopped the drought.

It’s easy to tell when over development is likely. You just look at the FSL chart (SkewT) and notice that the line which plots the temperature of the rising air parcels (magenta line) stays to the right of the air temperature line.

Of course, the fact that the dew point temperature (blue line) is very close to the red line (air temperature) line is also a big clue that the air is almost saturated with moisture and that as it rises the water vapor will condense and form clouds.

Given the likelihood of the overdevelopment and the stress on my right arm from flying flex wing gliders of late, I decided to forego the adventure. Campbell just chomped down a dozen extra SAM-e’s and headed out.

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Thanks from Highland Aerosports

Thu, May 15 2003, 3:00:08 pm EDT

donations|flight park|Florida|G.W. Meadows|Quest Air|Russell "Russ" Brown|tug

http://www.aerosports.net/page95.html

Highland Aerosports writes:

We at Highland Aerosports just wanted to extend our most heartfelt thanks to all those who have written in about Chad, all the people who have been going out of their way to lend a hand, and all the extremely generous folks who have made donations. We are blown away by the incredible support that the community has given, and continues to give us.

As G.W. put it, 'we are among great people'. Never in our lives have we seen such generosity.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been catching up, and most of all, learning. Chad did eighty percent of the work load by managing the business end of things, and the tug maintenance, as well as doing tandems, and flying the tug. We will have some very large shoes to fill.

Business aside, Chad always inspired us with his talents. Whatever aircraft he was flying, he owned it. Whatever goal he came up with (as we shook our heads and said "Okay, that's all you man"), he looked at point A, then point B, and always figured out the best course to connect them and fulfill his goal. It was these methodical, and analytical thought processes that got Chad where he was.

Seeing all the people who have donated to Chad's fund, people from all over the world, it is obvious that being a member of the hang gliding community is to be a member to the best club in the world. In the past couple weeks, if ever the question of continuing the flight park came up, all we had to do was think of all the amazing people out there and realize that we matter to our community. There is no way to describe how wonderfully that has affected us.

There are way too many people that added their support to list here. We are sorry that we can't. But we want to thank G.W. for setting up the fund. Thank you Russell Brown for coming up from Florida with parts to repair the engine block we recently cracked. Thank you everyone at Quest Air for all your support, and holding the beautiful ceremony down there. There will be a difficult road ahead for us, but with all your support and donations, we are inspired to do our best and maintain the quality that Chad held as a standard in all the work that is done. Again, thank you everyone for everything.

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Using the Flytec 4030 Race

Thu, May 15 2003, 3:00:06 pm EDT

altitude|Florida|Flytec 4030|landing|Steve Kroop

I had a number of pilots come up to me and say how much they liked the new final glider calculator in the improved 4030 (now the Race version). I asked Steve Kroop to send me any e-mail he got from pilots about their experiences with the 4030 Race in Florida and the spring competitions. Jim Yokum wrote:

The 4030 Race worked perfectly during the Florida comps. Never have I had an instrument that so reliably predicted my goal altitude. I left a thermal one day at 12 miles out at about 4000 ft. Campbell and Johann were a little above me. The instrument was saying I had goal with 600 ft. I still had it by 500 ft at about 3 miles out so I pulled some extra speed and made it with about 300 ft.

After landing, Campbell said he watched me leave the thermal and thought I would never make it. After a few more turns he decided if I was going he would go since he was a little higher. He was real happy my 4030 Race was right.

Johann walked up and said "you must have a good flight computer." I told him what the 4030 Race told me and he commented that he had failed to enter all the necessary data into his Galileo, so his go to goal function was not enabled. So, thanks for helping me beat both of those guys on a day they were above me in the last thermal!

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Florida Report

Thu, May 15 2003, 7:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Target|Florida|Ghostbuster|Jamie Shelden|Quest Air|Ron Gleason|Scot Huber|Vincent "Vince" Endter|XC

Vince Endter writes:

Scot Huber flew 102 miles from Mt. Diablo (Northern California) on May 10th. I have not heard of anyone in the USA going more than 100 miles earlier this year. Has anyone?

Jim Nev flew 100 miles to the south from Quest Air in April in Campbell’s Ghostbuster,

It has been a great flying season in Florida but not a great cross country season, not even a good one. I guess the flight parks that put up the big bucks won’t be paying out any time soon. It’s great to have that challenge still up there.

On Wednesday I had the XC flight of the day with a 27 mile effort in the Aeros Target. The other contender Bo has gone to Kitty Hawk. Jamie has also left for there.

The route to the north-northwest.

Ron Gleason went down early in the AIR ATOS. Johann and Mark P. couldn’t make it back on an out and return to Coleman when the cu’s to the west exploded. Dave Prentice in a paraglider went down at 15 miles out near Leesburg.

I made a low save 10 miles out then went down in a blue hole to the north of the Florida Turnpike between Wildwood and Leesburg. With the wind out of the southwest, I need to be more careful heading toward Wildwood. With lift averaging 200 fpm, it was great to be able to go cross wind in a single surface glider, which I needed to do to get around the upcoming Ocala National Forest.

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Help with weather forecasting

Tue, May 13 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Florida|Oz Report|site|weather

I’ve upgraded the weather links at the Oz Report web site https://OzReport.com/weather.php. You can get Florida, Texas, Washington, or Wisconsin weather info and forecasts there. In addition, national weather forecasts, upper level winds, BLIPMAPS, windcasts, and much more.

You can also download Flyaware weather resource sets for Florida from the same page. You’ll find Flyaware and thousands of weather resources at http://www.adeptool.com/flyaware.

I rely on these resources and these web sites to provide the weather forecasts for all the US hang gliding competitions.

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Dune goons

Mon, May 12 2003, 5:00:07 pm EDT

Dragonfly|dune gooning|Florida|photo|Tim Travers|TV

https://OzReport.com/media.php

DD writes:

The photo's of Tim Travers in Oz were great and brought back some fun memories of flying in S.E. Florida in the late 70's. We flew a 10' ridge in screaming winds at a place known as Twin Roads.

One day a big semi truck, Mayflower moving van I think, pulled over to watch. We were able to soar the truck giving us another 25'. I still laugh as I was in a UP Dragonfly (m2), which at the time was a very fast, sexy machine while others would occasionally get blown back in their standards into the Sea Grapes.

We eventually moved onto soaring the condominiums down the dune, many times using large bungee cords for assistance. Great flights and many hours above the 15-story building except for the old hag on the 9th floor who complained we were interfering with her TV reception. I'll try and find some old photo's as they are quite fun. DD

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Florida Report

Mon, May 12 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Florida

Winds west 10-15 mph. Beautiful cumulus clouds and quite hot. Looks like we might get north winds and then southeast over the next two days.

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Florida Report

Sun, May 11 2003, 5:00:01 pm EDT

Florida

The front is coming.

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Florida Report

Sat, May 10 2003, 5:00:01 pm EDT

cloud|Florida

Yet another truly gorgeous day in central Florida with the cu’s popping at around 10:30 AM. Light winds out of the south west. No overdevelopment and good strong cu’s all day. Plenty of flying was to be had.

Here is a forecasted temperature trace for a few days ago, a typical day in this string of good days.

Notice that there is an inversion (where the red temperature line curves over to the right) at about 5,000’ and cloud base (the short black horizontal line) at about 6,500’. Notice also that the line that represents the dry adiabatic is to the left of the temperature line above cloud base indicating that there will not be a lot of vertical development in the cumulus clouds and no overdevelopment.

Well, there is some vertical development in the cu’s, but not so much as to cause extensive shading or overdevelopment. Every day the FSL charts have been very accurate.

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Static tow rigs

Fri, May 9 2003, 2:00:06 pm EDT

competition|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Florida|tow|towing

David Glover <david@davidglover.com> writes:

I would like to get some of these static tow rigs as a back up to the winches for the late May 2003 Florida paragliding competition. I will buy or rent. Anyone who knows where to get these, let me know. Anyone who can make of a couple, please contact me.

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XMAX »

Fri, May 9 2003, 2:00:02 pm EDT

Angelo Crapanzano|Christian Ciech|CIVL|competition|Cristian Deacu|Davide Guiducci|Flavio Tebaldi|Florida|GAP|Giovanni Vitola|Manfred Ruhmer|Mino Bricoli|Olivier Burghelle|scoring|triangle|Tullio Gervasoni|weather

Angelo Crapanzano <angelo@metamorfosi.com> writes:

The X-MAX ended a few days ago. Despite quite a bad meteorological forecast we flew three days out of four.

First day:

1) Davide Guiducci (Litespeed 4) 80 km closed triangle

2) Mino Bricoli (Topless 3) 87 km 4 km short of goal out and return

3) Giovanni Martinuzzi (Talon) 63 km closed out and return

Second day:

1) Manfred Ruhmer (Laminar MR14) 113 km closed out and return

2) Angelo Crapanzano (Litespeed 4) 87 km closed out and return

3) Flavio Tebaldi (Laminar MR 4.2) 75 km closed out and return

Third day:

1) Christian Ciech (Laminar MR14) 180 km closed triangle

2) Manfred Ruhmer (Laminar MR14) 170 km closed triangle

3) Tullio Gervasoni (Litespeed 4) 164 km closed triangle

Manfred didn't fly on the first day because of the jet-lag coming back from Florida (and Christian flew quite badly probably for the same reason), but it was enough for him to win the X-MAX trophy (which only considers the best two flights).

With some of our problems with the Italian AeroClub resolved, this year the competition was also valid as second category event (all days valid) and the final results are:

1) Davide Guiducci (Litespeed 4) 2432

2) Angelo Crapanzano (Litespeed 4) 2067

3) Maurizio Bignami (Laminar MR 4.2) 1941

4) Mino Bricoli (Topless 4) 1874

5) Cristian Ciech (Laminar MR14) 1788

The CIVL president, Olivier Burguelle, was at the competition… and did help as driver too :-) He was very interested in the X-MAX competition format and quite satisfied with the results (practically without any need of organization we got long distances for the weather, no gaggles, no pressure on takeoff, pilots pushed to use their heads, almost no retrievals and everybody happy) and would like to push the idea in the Paragliding World Cup too.

Because of this interest, I've found a way to score the X-MAX format with GAP (or any other classic scoring program) and, very soon, it would be possible to score an X-MAX task within a standard competition using an X-MAX slightly improved formula, to consider flying areas different from Laveno. We'll live test everything at the end of May in an Italian League competition (again in Laveno).

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Florida Report

Fri, May 9 2003, 2:00:01 pm EDT

altitude|Florida|golf|Ron Gleason|triangle

I have this Florida Report section, because I assume something grand will happen sooner or later this spring in Florida re big distance flights. So far nothing.

We’ve had a whole series of days with a high pressure set up out to our east which gives us southerly winds, but somehow we haven’t been able to take good advantage of those light winds to go far.

Mark P. and Ron Gleason flew in their AIR ATOSes a little over 30 miles today to the north before they hit big sink and landed out while trying for a triangle or out and return. A few pilots flew to the north-northeast to Deland about 40 miles away. Nice flights, but still no big flights.

Bo and I tried to fly 100 miles in our Aeros Targets and it made for an interesting day.

We got off first and early (11:20 AM) as the day looked good for climb rates and the clouds formed early. I found my first light thermal at 1,100’ AGL at 11:30 but only gained 700 feet. I followed Bo over to Groveland a few miles north of Quest where I found a light thermal at 600’ AGL right over the town.

It took 15 minutes to climb to 3,000’ AGL with Bo just below me. We went on glide to find the next soft thermal of the day two miles further north. We weren’t exactly making great time, but it was early and we were staying up.

Bo didn’t get as high as I did in the thermal and soon landed at the golf course eight miles out from Quest. I came in low under Mark and Ron thermaling their rigid wings and found some lift at 260’ AGL over a horse coral with some semi-open fields nearby. It sure is nice to have an easy to land glider when you are low.

I spent the next five minutes not gaining any altitude, but not losing any either. Then I slowly began to climb, while Bo was pointing me out to the foursomes that played through where he landed.

In the next half hour I was able to climb to 1,600’ AGL and drift 1.5 miles to the northeast. It was great fun flying in such light lift, but I wasn’t getting any where fast.

The light winds were coming out of the southwest, and it was difficult to get around the large lake and swamp coming up on me to the north. I went down half an hour later trying to go around them to the northwest. This is just not possible in a single surface glider. You have to go downwind no matter where it takes you.

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My nose

Thu, May 8 2003, 8:00:05 pm GMT

"Awesome" Bob|accident|Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bo Hagewood|competition|crash|Dean Funk|Florida|harness|helmet|injury|Joseph Salvenmoser|Kate Diamond|Kathleen Rigg|Mike Barber|Quest Air|safety|Sepp "Seppi" Himberger

Kathleen Rigg <Kathleen.Rigg@btinternet.com> writes:

First of all I'd like to thank everyone in Florida who helped and encouraged me after my nasty nose accident at Quest Air in early April. In particular I'd like to thank "Awesome" Bob, Frank, Drew and Dave Prentice for the excellent first aid and immediate call to the emergency services. I wasn't a pretty sight and they made all the difference to make me feel more comfortable and to speed my trip to the hospital. I'd also like to thank Dean Funk, Bo Hagewood & Kate Diamond for rescuing me from the hospital afterwards and especially Frank and May (owners of the airport at Quest) who very kindly provided full use of their air-conditioned home after the accident.

Following my accident and a few others in Florida this spring there was a lot of talk about coated VS uncoated nose wires amongst the pilots including a poll held at the Wallaby competition to determine the pilot's point of view on the subject. There was a lot of emotional discussion about "banning" uncoated wires following both my accident and Mike Barber's.

However, on further examination of the crash evidence on my glider I can only reach one conclusion about the cause of my serious nose injuries. At first, I thought I had swung across the nose wires with the glider still in a right turn and caught my nose on the 1x19 uncoated wires. But there was major damage to both sides of my nose with much worse damage on the left hand side. On reflection something didn't seem right about the crash analysis.

Then when short packing my glider to come home to the UK, I noticed a serious dent on the underside of the left hand leading edge inches from the nose plates. This had obviously been caused by my helmet hitting the leading edge. Therefore I had actually swung parallel to the nose wires and not across them. I must be the unluckiest person really because I caused the damage to my nose by violently pushing my nose into the apex of the 2 nose wires right up by the swages and the nose catch. A few inches to either side would have probably saved me a lot of trouble.

This is confirmed by the fact that I can only find blood actually on this part of the nose wires and also that I remember feeling my nose hit a solid piece of metal at the time of the crash and actually remember thinking that I had hit the nose plates with my nose (which is of course impossible). This scenario explains the extensive damage which occurred simultaneously down both sides of my nose which I do not believe could have been caused by a single wire cut.

The issue of coated or uncoated really was not relevant to my crash. In fact the swages at the apex of the nose wires are coated in plastic which made no difference to my injuries. I also suspect having a harness with a single suspension point and no rope front to rear did not help as this lack of a restraining rope on my shoulders allowed my head to more easily rotate and slide underneath the leading edge and the nose of the glider. Perhaps with a restraining shoulder rope I would have rotated my head in a more upwards motion towards the keel and missed the wires at the nose of the glider.

I hope the above helps pilots to make a more reasoned decision about the coated/uncoated wire issues. It is also highly possible that Mike Barber's sliced knee accident was caused by the rear of his carbon base bar and not any uncoated wires as an identical injury happened to Seppi Salvenmoser recently. It is important to understand the true causes of accidents and analyse them by considering all the evidence before jumping to conclusions and taking the incorrect decisions about future safety issues. In future I will be flying with a full face helmet with a visor and I now have a really good excuse to have any shape nose I want

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AIR ATOS’s tail as stall alarm

Wed, May 7 2003, 7:00:06 pm GMT

Christof Kratzner|Florida|Ron Gleason|tail

Ron Gleason reports that his new AIR ATOS v-tail makes an excellent incipient stall alarm with quite a bit of shuddering when it first starts to stall (before the main wing does).

Felix also recommends that pilots be sure to put on a significant amount of flaps while thermaling to slow down the ATOS. He recommends this especially with the tail. We’ve found that it is quite important to put the flaps on in thermals to slow down the ATOS and get a better climb.

Thanks again to Felix for sending out a great ATOS-C for me to fly (not that well, I’m afraid) and to Christof from the AIR factory for coming to Florida and updating lots of ATOSes and making sure that they were tuned correctly.

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Florida Report

Wed, May 7 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Florida

Bo goes 36 miles. I go 18. Others go down about 10-15 miles out.

The lift finally gets better. Instead of averaging 70 fpm, today it was 270 fpm. The high pressure is centered in the Atlantic off the Florida coast through the weekend and there is a high pressure ridge over the state through the weekend.

The cu’s dry out around 3 PM and then reform again later.

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USHGA NTSS Ranking

Tue, May 6 2003, 3:00:04 pm EDT

Florida|NTSS|Oz Report|site|USHGA

https://OzReport.com/compPilotRankings.php

You’ll find the latest NTSS rankings for Class 1 and Class 5 on the Oz Report web site. They have been updated to include the results of the latest Florida meets. I’ve probably missed a few new pilots who came to these meets in the ranking. If you aren’t there and care, e-mail me (<davis@davisstraub.com>) and I’ll make sure to include in a later update (soon).

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Florida Report

Tue, May 6 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Florida|landing|Ron Gleason

Thick low clouds streaming out of the south-southeast in the morning. Forecast is for 15-20 mph winds.

Bo makes three efforts to go far. I give it two tries. On my second try (starting at 1:30 PM) the average rate of climb is 70 fpm. The best thermal I get averages 148 fpm. I fly 17 miles before landing up in the lakes area to the northeast.

Ron Gleason on an ATOS lands at about 60 miles out hitting overdevelopment at Citra.

I’m beginning to wonder what the problem is and whether it is possible to go 100 miles on a single surface glider in Florida this year.

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Civil with CIVL?

Mon, May 5 2003, 6:00:03 pm GMT

CIVL|cost|FAI|FAI Sporting Code|FAI Sporting License|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|Hay|Heather Mull|Mart Bosman|NAA|Oz Report|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Mart <hmmb@xs4all.nl> writes:

I noticed that sometimes you are a bit negative about CIVL. I would like to say something about that. As with all democratic organisations some people will not be happy with some decisions made by CIVL but it is just impossible to please everybody. I for one don't agree with the high number of points awarded to the European Championships but to change the rules about that you will have to ask your national representative to put it on the agenda and than they will vote about that at the meetings.

(editor’s note: Please be aware that I have done this in the past. I have also personally contacted every one of the non-European CIVL delegates about this issue. I raise this issue in the Oz Report to make other pilots aware of the unfairness of the 50% bonus for the European Championships, so that they can contact their CIVL representatives and get them to propose and vote for dropping it.)

I know one thing for sure; most work for CIVL is done voluntarily by people. Heather for instance has been a steward at a number of big comps and had to do a lot of work, as stewards have to check everything. I have seen her get up very early and work until late the whole comp' for no pay at all and after the comp is over she will write a lengthy report (like 10 pages) on how it went with recommendations for future comps.

I have also seen the points she has made in the past to CIVL to make the future organisation rules better. These are discussed at the CIVL meetings and they have led to some changes in the rules. The points made to help comp' organisors are often not or only partly followed which has led to problems. I want to emphasize here that CIVL is an organisation where a lot of people do a lot of work for no money at all to make hang gliding better for all of us.

(editor’s note: Let me say that Heather and I are on the same wave length on this. Many people that I deal with think that CIVL should be destroyed or ignored. I feel, like Heather, that there should be reforms in its rules and regulations.

I, like Heather, point out what changes could be made to the current rules to make things better for both CIVL and for the world’s pilots.

I appreciate that CIVL is a volunteer organization. I have never attacked individuals at CIVL and only bring up issues that need to be fixed in order to make CIVL work better. I’m sure that everyone wants that. ☺)

The ranking system is another problem but by throwing out the licensing system and CIVL with it just to create a fairer system you will throw out years of experience and will very likely make a big mess where the person with the biggest mouth wins.

(editor’s note: I certainly haven’t advocated that. I have only advocated that CIVL implement its own WPR system, which they have already and was developed by CIVL.

I haven’t advocated that they throw out the licensing system, but go back to the nonenforcement policy of the past. I suggest that meet organizers will not apply for category 2 sanctioning if they are facing double fees.)

Paula wrote that the FAI licenses are for free so the best thing is to harass your own organisation to give them for free to or ask your rep' to put it on the agenda for the next meeting. If your rep' doesn't want to do that vote him out and get one who will.

(editor’s note: Let me take you through this one step at a time, once again. The USHGA (the US hang gliding organization) doesn’t give out FAI Sporting Code licenses. I wish they did, maybe they can, but they don’t. I am working with them to see if they can.

The NAC in the US is the NAA. Here it is in charge of the FAI (not CIVL, notice) Sporting License. You have to pay them $35/year for the FAI Sporting License. This is ⅗th’s of the cost of the yearly dues to the USHGA.

Can you imagine how many US competitions pilots are going to be interested in buying an FAI Sporting License for $35 to attend the Flytec Championship, the Wallaby Open, and the Us Nationals? I suggest zero.

Now, how do I get the NAA to give up the income from the FAI Sorting License and let the USHGA provide them at minimal cost? Have you got a solution for me? I’m working on it, but frankly this is not a big issue for most of the USHGA members (just the very small minority that would be affected).

I’m sitting here with the organizer of the upcoming US Nationals. He wants to know what CIVL is going to do if one person doesn’t have an FAI Sporting License. Are they are going to double the fee next year?

What happens to the other pilots’ WPRS ranking points (assuming that they have FAI Sporting Licenses) if one pilot doesn’t have a Sporting License? Are they counted or not?

Should the meet organizer tell the one pilot to leave because he messes up everyone else re WPRS points? What’s the story?

I would also like to write about the next Worlds. The majority voted for Hay. Maybe in America the guy that loses the election becomes the boss ;-) but not everywhere.

(editor’s note: Florida was, of course, heavily involved in this decision. ☺)

Apparently the reasons that Florida lost the bid were; a poor presentation (maybe they thought it was an easy victory), a much higher entry fee, problems which could not be explained about the 2 flight parks 37 km. apart and because of that there was going to be a cut. A lot of people do not like a cut.

You pay a high entry fee, fly a few days (at the Europeans in Laragne for instance 2 poor days) and you are out. You don't have to have a degree in physics to know that you are not going to win a bid when there is a cut, everybody who thinks he might not make it will vote against that possibility. (By the way; I asked my rep' to vote for Florida.)

(editor’s note: It is my understanding that the $20,000 prize money offered by the US bid organizers was subtracted from the pilot’s entry fees by the CIVL subcommittee, the pilots entry fees were very similar.

I agree that there were numerous problems with the US bid. What we have all found interesting is that so many pilots have said that they want to go to Florida and not to Hay (this irrespective of the problems with the bids). Manfred and Oleg even hinted that they wouldn’t go to Hay for the Worlds.)

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Florida Report

Mon, May 5 2003, 2:00:01 pm EDT

cloud|Florida|glide ratio

Oh the pain of looking up into the sky this afternoon. Here’s what the 1 PM windcast looked like:

We were ready to go for the 100 mile flights on single surface gliders and got off as the cu’s started forming over Quest at 11:20 AM. The lift was light. Really light (averaged 118 fpm) and we just had to hold on under the cu’s to get up. Cloud base was 3,500’.

An hour later Bo and I came down by Leesburg with beautiful cloud streets all around us. The lift was just too light. Even though I could get a 10+ glide ratio crossing cloud streets to the west to hopefully get around the lakes to the north, and a 22 L/D when going down wind, the lift is just too light to stay up.

Here’s what the windcast looks like for tomorrow:

We’ll give it a try again tomorrow.

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Florida Report

Sun, May 4 2003, 1:00:01 pm EDT

Aeros Target|Dragonfly|Florida|harness|Quest Air|record

Bo went south to try for the record today. Lois went with him in the Dragonfly at far as the Seminole Lake glider port, showing him the thermals. Bo was high 15 miles out. The cu’s are drying up and the winds are quite light.

The windcast said light winds in no particular direction today (although it looks real good for the next four days).

Bo just arrived back at Quest Air at 2:30 PM having gone out fifteen miles and found that without wind he was averaging 10 mph. Also his new harness (the one Oleg use to fly) doesn’t work with a carabineer and he had no way to attach it to his Aeros Target, so he had to fly with a cocoon harness and found out that he couldn’t take a piss.

Tomorrow looks very good as do the next three days after Monday. We are all getting ready to go.

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Will fly for subscriptions »

Sun, May 4 2003, 5:00:00 pm GMT

donations|Florida|news|Oz Report

Oz Report readers who helped out on Sunday: A lonely voice in the comforts of Florida reports on the hang gliding world’s news.

The Oz Report is freely available to all subscribers and relies on yearly subscription/donations for support.

You can see how to send in $10 (or more) for a yearly subscription/donation to the Oz Report below.

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Florida Report

Sat, May 3 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Florida

The start of next week is looking like it has a long distance promise in it. Maybe even Sunday.

Has anyone noticed that the way the windcast lines are drawn seems to have changed? The wind speed colors have also changed a bit.

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Florida Report

Fri, May 2 2003, 12:00:02 pm EDT

cloud|Florida|triangle

Now that the competitions are over we bring back this timely feature. Today the winds were out of the west at 5-10 mph. Cloud base at 2 PM was 3,500’ rising to almost 5,000’ by 5 PM. The puffy cu’s started very early in the day and stayed all day.

The task today was an approximately 50 mile triangle:

The average climb over the task was 230 fpm. Climbs were rarely over 400 fpm.

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Total immersion

Tue, Apr 29 2003, 12:00:05 pm EDT

Florida|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Just how fast is the 1.5 Mbit DSL line and wireless access at Quest Air:

It is also great to have satellite/wireless access at Wallaby Ranch. Wallaby is out in the Green Swamp so that it isn’t close enough to any central station with DSL capability.

It is amazing to me that we can get this kind of speed out here in the old Florida swamp town of Groveland.

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Let me come home again!

Tue, Apr 29 2003, 12:00:02 pm EDT

Australia|CIVL|Florida|Gee Mathews|Hay|Jerz Rossignol|job|weather|Worlds

Jerz Rossignol <jerzflies@yahoo.com> writes:

I wanted to drop a note to publicly thank Quest and Wallaby for putting on such fantastic high level comps. As a competitor I feel so lucky to have been a part of these two fantastic events. Everything about these meets where so superior to any I have ever attended. The staff and volunteers did such a great job and poured there hearts and souls into the events.

The weather was great and the task committee did a great job with task calling. Quest and Wallaby have yet again created another highlight in my life, both with my flying as well as with the comradeship of all my friends. I suggest to anyone that's into flying that you need to go to these places to check them out for yourself. You'll have the time of your life.

On another note, I can't believe the Worlds will be in Hay, Australia for 2005. I have been to four comps in Hay and have sworn this last year to never go back. The Hay comps where run well but that can't balance out the fact that Hay has little to offer. Mildly stated, Hay is bleak.

I do not know enough about CIVL but wish we could somehow overrule their decision to run a Worlds at such a hell whole. Florida is such a far superior place to run the Worlds!!!

I have talked with many top pilots about the decision of CIVL to run the worlds in Hay and many have said that they will not go and the rest just can't believe it or are really disappointed. Personally, I think it will be quite hard to pull off a Worlds in Hay.

I don't know what CIVL is thinking. I do know that they are not thinking about us pilots in their decision making. Wouldn't it be great if the top 100 pilots could vote on the next Worlds instead of some CIVL delegates that have never been to Florida or Hay? CIVL just may have shot themselves in the foot on this one.

Lastly, I want to thank Icaro for the use of the MR glider over the last six months. I have decided, however, to go back to Aeros for the upcoming meets in the US and this year’s Worlds. Aeros has a great team this year as well as a great going glider. I've been with Aeros for four years and this is the glider that has gotten me on the US World Team so I am sticking with them! Thanks for having me back Gee Dub.

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Young DraachenStein

Sun, Apr 27 2003, 2:00:03 pm EDT

aerotow|cart|cartoon|cloud|Cloud 9|competition|cost|David Maule|donations|Dragonfly|equipment|FAA|flight park|Florida|Flytec USA|food|foot launch|game|glide ratio|government|harness|instruction|landing|Maureen Grant|Moyes America|Moyes USA|parachute|photo|record|release|Rick Agudelo|Rob Kells|safety|site|sport|Sport Aviation|Spot|spot landing|storage|students|tandem|tow|towing|Tracy Tillman|training hill|transport|travel|tug|USHGA|weather|Wills Wing

aka the Dragonfly Cup - a new comp with a tall attitude and monster-size prizes.

by Tracy Tillman and Lisa Colletti

(from Reality Check cartoon series)

While working in the laboratory late one night, we created a new hang gliding competition for 2003, the Dragonfly Cup. The comp will take place at Cloud 9 Field in Michigan, home of the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club. The value of prizes to be awarded is over $6000. Major sponsors include Wills Wing, Moyes USA, Flytec USA, High Energy Sports, AV8/Icaro, and Cloud 9 Sport Aviation.

Hot Comps

Many of the most successful meets taking place across the world use aerotowing as the primary means of launch. At a good site, it allows launching into any wind direction, and enables a large number of pilots to launch in a short period of time (provided that there are enough tugs and tug pilots available). The large cross-country meets that have been hosted by our friends in Florida and Texas over the last five years are a great example of the popularity and success of aerotowing as a launch format. The mass launches are an awesome site to behold, and participation in those comps is an experience that one will never forget. By all means, one should try to get to one or both of the Florida meets, as a participant, tug pilot, volunteer helper, or spectator.

The good flying conditions and high-level of competition at these meets bring together some of the best pilots in the world. These are relatively complex, work-intensive, and expensive comps to run, which results in entry fees being near $400, not including tow fees. With travel, food, lodging, and support crew costs added, the overall cost for a pilot to participate in one or both of the Florida meets is significant. Never-the-less, registration for both of these meets fills up almost immediately after opening.

Despite the popularity of these meets, it has been difficult for some clubs to run a successful meet in other parts of the county. Here in the Great Lakes/Great Plains region of the country, poor weather and low pilot turnout has resulted in the cancellation of meets more often than not. We can experience great soaring conditions across the summer flying season in this part of the country, but the weather patterns are not as consistent as in Florida or Texas. Also, many average Jo/Joe hang glider pilots who live in this part of the country are more interested in participating in a lower-cost, fun-type comp, rather than in a higher-cost, intensely competitive cross-country competition; and, it may be difficult for some pilots to take many vacation days away from work to attend a meet.

The Dragonfly Cup

With these issues in mind, and after some discussions with Rob Kells of Wills Wing, we created the Dragonfly Cup hang gliding competition for the summer of 2003. Aerotow and hill slope will be the primary means of launch. The comp will be hosted by the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club (DFSC) at Cloud 9 Field in Michigan. It is a low-cost comp to benefit the DFSC, with large prizes sponsored by major hang gliding companies.

(A good summer day at Cloud 9. Photo by Rick Agudelo)

To avoid weather cancellation issues, the Dragonfly Cup is running season-long, from May 15 through September 1 (Labor Day), 2003. To avoid weather-related cross-country task problems, there are five different task categories: Race, Distance, Duration, Spot Landing, and Glide Ratio. To avoid retrieve problems, all task landings are at Cloud 9 Field. To reduce expenses, the cost is only $10 or $20 per comp flight, depending upon the task(s) declared by the competitor, plus the cost of the tow for that flight. A pilot can enter and declare a flight as a comp flight as many times as he/she likes across the season. To enable any level of pilot to win, a handicap system will enable lower-performance gliders to release from tow at higher altitudes. Pilots will foot launch from the newly-constructed training hill at Cloud 9 Field for the glide ratio task, which will enable non-towing student pilots, and even paraglider pilots, to compete in the meet. (Note: It is not a large hill; using a light, slow, high-lift wing may offer an advantage for this task.)

Results will be recorded across the season. Those who finish at the top of each category will be eligible to win one or more of the major prizes available. So far, the prize list and sponsors include: (a) Falcon 2 hang glider, sponsored by Wills Wing and Cloud 9 Sport Aviation ($3075 value); (b) Contour Harness sponsored by Moyes America ($950 value); (c) 4030XL variometer sponsored by Flytec USA ($899 value); (d) Quantum 330 reserve parachute sponsored by High Energy Sports ($650 value); and (e) PVC storage/transport tubes sponsored by AV8/Icaro ($500 value).

The cost for declaring a hill flight as a glide ratio comp flight is just $10, which means that for as little as a $10 entry fee, a pilot could win a brand new Falcon 2 glider worth over $3000. The cost for declaring an aerotow flight as a comp flight is $20 (plus tow fee), but the pilot can choose two of the four aerotow task categories for that flight: (a) Race, which is the fastest out and back 16 mile round trip time to the neighboring Sandhill Soaring Club field; (b) Distance, which is the most out and back round trips to the Sandhill Soaring Club field; (c) Duration, which is the longest time aloft; and (d) Spot Landing, which is landing (by foot or wheel) within a prescribed circle. All landings must be on Cloud 9 field; out-landing flights will be disqualified. For the aerotowing tasks, the tow height limit is1500 feet AGL for rigid wings, 2500 feet for topless flex wings, 3500 feet for kingposted double-surface flex wings, and 4500 feet for kingposted single-surface flex wings.

(Lisa, Tracy, and DFSC club members. Artwork by Bob and Maureen Grant)

The DSFC will host comp parties on Memorial Day weekend, July 4 weekend, and the first weekend in August, to encourage pilots from other clubs to schedule a trip en masse to fly here with us. The grand finale party will be held on Labor Day weekend, with final results determined and prizes awarded on Labor Day.

The winners of each task category will have an equal chance at winning the major prizes. A drawing of the task winners' names will be held on Labor Day to determine who gets which prize.

We feel that events like the Dragonfly Cup can help the sport to grow, as do several major manufacturers and distributors. Wills Wing, Moyes, Flytec, High Energy Sports, AV8/Icaro, and Cloud 9 Sport Aviation are offering significant donations in support of the 2003 Dragonfly Cup. These companies are dedicated to supporting our sport with their excellent products and services, please support them in return.

Cloud 9 Field and the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club

If you have not flown with us before, please be aware that we have a specific operations formula that may be somewhat different from what you have experienced at other aerotowing sites. Because we have a nice site with a very active club, some pilots mistakenly think of our DFSC club site as a commercial flight park-it is not.

Cloud 9 Field is our sod farm, private airfield, and home. We purchased the land specifically with the intent of building a house, hanger, and private airfield, and to create a home base for the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club. We are on the executive board of the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club, and are the owners of Cloud 9 Sport Aviation, which is a supplementary mail order hang glider equipment business that serves Michigan and the Great Lakes region. We are also the owners of Cloud 9 Field, Inc. sod farm.

We allow DFSC club members and guest members to camp on our property (temporarily, not permanently) at no charge, and bathrooms and showers are available in our hanger for members and guests to use. The hanger has a second-floor club house/game room/kitchenette and observation deck overlooking the field. Our airfield is flat and open, and allows smooth cart launches and foot or wheel landings in any wind direction on mowed and rolled sod grass. Last year, we also built a 30 foot training hill on the edge of the field with the help of several club members (thanks Rick, Mark, and Jim!).

(Cloud 9 Field hanger and DFSC club house.)

The DFSC has been active since 1997, and has been flying from Cloud 9 Field since 1998. Even though we gained prior approval from the local, state, and federal government for the establishment of our private airfield for aircraft, ultralight, and hang glider operations, the local township government reacted to complaints from a neighbor about our towing operations, and sued us to prevent us from flying. As a result, we purposely kept a low public profile (but did not stop flying) while battling the lawsuit over several years.

Since that time we have learned how common it is, all across the country, for legal action to be initiated against people who own or establish airstrips and conduct flying activities. We also discovered that it is very important to find attorneys who are well versed in the appropriate areas of law, and who really care about your case. At a significant cost to us, we settled the lawsuit last year. In addition to having a great pair of attorneys working for us, one of which is a hang glider pilot and now a DFSC club member, we also had to do a great deal of work to help them develop an understanding of the case and to build a solid legal argument for the court. We learned a lot, but it was very time-consuming, stressful, and expensive.

During this process, we were inspected twice by the FAA. Their visits and reports supported our legal argument by helping to verify that we are not a commercial flight park operation, that we are operating properly within FAA regulations and exemptions, and that we are operating safely and relatively quietly. After getting to know us and the nature of our operations, the FAA asked Tracy to serve as an Aviation Safety Counselor for the FAA Detroit FSDO region, which also had a positive impact for us in court.

We are both ultralight basic flight instructors, and airplane private pilots. Lisa is the main tug pilot, and Tracy is the tandem hang gliding instructor for the club. We have two Dragonfly tugs, one with a Rotax 914 engine, and one with a Rotax 912 engine. We also own a Maule STOL airplane, painted in the same colors as our Dragonfly tugs.

In consideration of our neighbors, we have been successful in significantly reducing the engine/prop noise generation levels on both of our tugs. We use quieter and more reliable 4-stroke engines, custom-designed Prince propellers that provide increased thrust and reduced noise, after-muffler silencers with exhaust stacks that direct the noise upward, and towing/flying techniques that minimize noise levels on the ground.

(Tracy and Lisa with one of their Dragonfly Tugs)

Our operations formula has been refined over time to best meet FAA, IRS, USHGA, USUA, and other federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations. As such, all of our hang gliding instruction and flying operations take place via the Draachen Fliegen Soaring Club, Inc., which is a not-for-profit, mutual benefit organization to promote safe hang gliding and instruction. Club members share in the cost of our operations for their mutual benefit, such as site preservation and maintenance, tow operations, and instruction. All flights conducted by the DFSC are considered instructional flights. Instruction is free, but the club collects membership dues and fees from each member to cover their own specific towing expenses (non-member pilots can fly with us a few times a year as guests of the club without paying membership dues, but club members pay less for tows).

Our field is a private airfield for non-commercial use, not a public flight park for commercial use; therefore, all pilots, students, and visitors must contact us prior to coming out to our field to fly---on each and every visit. We try to be available for flying on most good days, but will be away from the field on occasion, so call before you come. Our season runs from May 1 through October 31. We are available to tow after 10:30 AM six days a week (not on Tuesdays), and on weekends only after Labor Day (when Tracy has to resume his faculty duties for the fall semester at Eastern Michigan University). We conduct tandem instructional flights in the evening, in conditions that are appropriate for students.

Everyone who flies with us must be a DFSC club member or guest member, a member of USHGA, sign our club waiver, and follow all club rules and procedures. We are very safety and instruction oriented, and expect pilots to do what we ask of them. Anyone who does not, will be reminded that they are at our home and on our field as our guest, and will be asked to leave. We would hope that pilots understand that there are many complex factors and issues involved in the establishment and operation of a successful aerotow hang gliding club, which mandates that we do things in certain ways. So far, our approach seems to work--we have an excellent safety record, a great group of pilots, a lot of fun, and a good reputation among students, pilots, and FAA officials who know us.

In spite of the cost and effort (on top of our regular professions) that it has taken for us to create and maintain the field and buildings, equipment, and club operations for the club, we support the club and its members because we love hang gliding and flying. We have had good success in bringing new pilots into the sport and we have helped to improve the flying skills of our club members.

Now that we have settled our township-related problems, we can be more open about our club's flying activities. We are hoping that more pilots will come to learn and fly with us in 2003, and we are very much looking forward to hosting the Dragonfly Cup this year.

Instruction and continuous improvement of flying skills and safety are the prime directives of our club. We take that very seriously. Accidents and injuries are not fun-safe flying is more fun for everybody. We will continue to focus on helping all of our club pilots improve their flying skills throughout the year, and we think that the Dragonfly Cup is a great way to help make that happen.

We are looking forward to having a great flying season ahead. Come fly with us, and enter the Dragonfly Cup - you've got a good chance at winning big!

For more information about the DFSC and the 2003 Dragonfly Cup, visit our website at http://members.aol.com/DFSCinc, email us at <DFSCinc@aol.com>, or call us at 517.223.8683. Fly safe, Lisa and Tracy.

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Save Cypress Gardens

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 1:00:08 pm EDT

Charles "Charlie" Baughman|Florida|news|site

This is where very early Florida hang gliding got its exposure and support. Charlie Wilson <cwilson8@tampabay.rr.com> writes:

The host site of many hang gliding comps over the years FL's Cypress Gardens closed its doors two weeks ago. The Gardens included hang gliding as part of their water ski shows for years with sponsorship from Moyes. Many Florida pilots’ roots to hang gliding were made via the ski shows. I believe both Wallaby and Quest helped out with sponsorship at HG comps held there in recent years.

Hank Amos going for the bonus points:

"The Save the Gardens effort has established an informational website coordinated by the Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce. Visitors to the site will find such information as our purpose, people, news, frequently asked questions, photographs and contact information".

www.savethegardens.com

So I would encourage any interested Pilots/Parties to sign up for their green thumb duties at the site.

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Hay or central Florida

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 1:00:07 pm EDT

Australia|Bob Baier|CIVL|Florida|Guido Gehrmann|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Hans Kiefinger|Hay|Herbert Klaushofer|Lukas Bader|Lukas Etz|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Swiss Nic

Lukas Etz <Lukas.Etz@gmx.de> (from Germany) writes:

This is the result of a voting I made before the CIVL decision (worlds 2005). “?” means – no answer:

Bob Baier: ?
Guido Gehrmann: Hay
Hans Kiefinger: Hay
Herbert Sturm: ?
Jörg Bajewski: Florida
Lukas Bader: Hay
Lukas Etz: Florida
Olli Barthelmes: Hay
Roland Wöhrle: Hay

Hansjoerg already has stated that the Swiss pilots wanted to go to Australia.

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Paris on the Aeros Combat 2

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 1:00:03 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|competition|Florida|gaggle|Gerolf Heinrichs|injury|landing|Paris Williams|sprogs|Wills Wing|XC

Paris Williams <parisflies@hotmail.com> writes:

It seems that Robert Handmart and his friends have been having fun drawing a lot of false conclusions about Oleg and the Combat 2, so I feel compelled to try to set a few things straight:

"While Manfred and Oleg seem busy to make their own one-off gliders perform good, that Litespeed makes everyone happy!"

I can't speak for Manfred and his glider, but I distinctly remember one occasion when Gerolf told the audience upon receiving a first-place trophy that "he was holding a little something back." Perhaps just his way of a joke, who knows?

As for Oleg, there's no question in my mind that Oleg's not hiding anything from us other competitors or the public about his personal glider. Oleg and I have become really good friends in the past few years, and what's probably impressed me most about the man is his pure-hearted honesty and genuine humility. Typical human nature does not make it easy for one to climb to the top of the ladder and still treat others with genuine equality, and yet Oleg always seems to find the time for anyone.

Here's a story that shredded any remaining doubt in my mind that he might be trying to hide some secret advantage over his fellow Aeros competitors: Last year, when the new gliders arrived for the Florida Comps, Oleg and a fellow competitor were standing over two new Combats, and Oleg asked him which one he wanted--the fellow competitor picked one, Oleg took the other and then proceeded to kick everyone's butt at both meets.

This year, the only difference between the competitors' Combats from the previous stock combats are new lighter leading edges. Aeros wanted the competitors to try these out before introducing them to the market, in hopes that the handling would be improved while not harming performance. We've definitely found this to be true (the handling was lightened significantly while performance didn't suffer), and now these new leading edges come stock on the latest Combat 2's (and can be installed in older models). The only other thing we did to tune our gliders differently than stock Combats was to lower the sprogs a bit. Of course anyone can drop their sprogs if they like, if they're willing to take the risk of flying a glider with reduced pitch moment.

So I can personally verify that the only difference between Oleg's Combat, my Combat, and the Combats sold to the public, are the positions of the sprogs.

"We saw from your report that Paris Williams left Icaro now to try Aeros - with only little success so far!"

So why were my latest results a bit lower than average? (9th place at Flytec, and Incomplete at Wallaby due to an injury on launch) Well, for one, I don't claim to have the experience level of pilots like Manfred and Oleg who've been competing steadily for over 17 years (this is only my 5th year competing), and two, there's always a "dialing in" period for any new glider (it's always been realistically about 20 hours for me).

My very first thermaling flight on the Combat 2 was day one of the competition! Not ordinarily a wise choice to fly a new wing at a big meet, but I definitely don't regret it. Considering that, I'm pretty happy to get into the top ten. I was actually feeling more dialed after two days than I'd ever felt on the Laminar, but since my first two days weren't so good, I took a lot of big risks in my strategy during the remaining days to try to make up, and unfortunately the big risks didn't always pan out.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with the glider--I didn't give up any performance at all (in glide nor, surprisingly, in climb, nor in ease of landing) going from the Laminar to the Combat, but I've gained a lot more handling and quick maneuverability which has helped me to work through my "gaggle aversion" and wrestle it out with the thick gaggles a lot better (something that has always been a weakness of mine).

"To us it looks like lately only Moyes cares for the ordinary XC and competition pilots. The Florida results/reports show this also quite clear."

OK, let's look at the top ten results at Flytec: Out of the 68 full time (no absences) competitors, there were 27 Litespeeds, 11 Laminars, and 9 Combat 2s. In the top 10, there were 6 Litespeeds, 1 Laminar (Manfred), and 3 Combat 2s.

33% of the Combat 2’s made the top 10; 22% of the Litespeeds made the top 10; 9% of the Laminars made the top 10 (though winning the meet).

And if you want to talk about taking care of ordinary pilots, why not take a look at the prices?

(editor’s note: For the Wallaby Open, the numbers are: 22% Combat 2, 23% Litespeed, 12.5% Laminar, 0% Wills Wing, Avian, La Mouette, Airborne)

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Going to Hay (and avoiding Florida)

Fri, Apr 25 2003, 4:00:06 pm EDT

Australia|competition|Florida|Hay|site|towing|Worlds|Worlds 2005

There continues to be a lot of discussion here among the top pilots about the choice of Hay as the site of the 2004 pre-Worlds and 2005 Worlds. They continue to see Florida as a preferable location. With two flight parks (in central Florida) that provide ready-made services to the pilots they continue to wonder why they have to go out to the desolate outback and make their own arrangements for towing, etc.

I have set up a poll for the top competition pilots to vote on whether they want to go to Hay, NSW, Australia or to Florida (either of the two flight parks in central Florida) at https://OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=283#283

If you are a top flex wing pilot likely to make your national team for this time period, you might want to go there and vote for the site that you want.

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Terry Spencer dies

Fri, Apr 25 2003, 8:00:05 pm GMT

accident|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|Joseph Andrew "Terry" Spencer|Mike Barber|Paris Williams

During the Flytec Championship I wrote a story about a pilot who augured in and then bounced hard. That pilot was Terry Spencer and it was announced today on the hang gliding mailing list that he has died.

I’ve spoken with a few pilots about what happened, and there doesn’t seem to be any good idea of why Terry flew in the manner that he did that caused the accident. It occurred right behind the take off and staging line on the north south runway at Quest. We don’t know if he was trying to avoid something or whether he encountered some anomalous air conditions, or whether there is some other explanation.

I must say that there has been an inordinate number of flying accidents in the last few weeks here in Florida. Paris has his arm in a sling and Mike Barber is walking around on crutches, and they are the least of the accidents.

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Forecasting – in Florida it’s the windcast

Fri, Apr 25 2003, 4:00:04 pm EDT

altitude|Florida|weather

When I thought that the windcast was down during the Flytec meet, I felt like I was forecasting the weather in the dark. Sure there were plenty of other tools to come up with a forecast, but it is the windcast that really tells you the story. It is the primary indicator of the conditions (as they are all related), and once you have the windcast, then you can tell what every thing else means.

First of all the wind direction. Often the wind direction on the ground is the same or very close to the wind direction at altitude, so we have a very good idea of where you are going to have to fly the task.

Wind direction also tells you a lot about the general whether conditions. South east winds usually mean moisture and cu’s. Northwest winds bring blue days. Northeast could be some cu’s. Frontal passage and the cycle between front passages are all related to wind direction.

Second, wind speed. The wind speed is less on the ground over land than over the water or at altitude, still it gives you a very good idea of whether you can call a task to come back to your launch location or not. Speed and direction tell you about the first leg of your task, and whether you can send pilots into the wind for the last leg of the task, where that leg should be and how long.

Third, wind speed variation over location and time. Will there be on shore flows at the coasts to set up a convergence area where the wind speed dies down? Look at the 2 PM and 8 PM windcasts to see if the convergence sets up. If it does, and your FSL chart shows little or no chance of over development, then you want to fly in the convergence zone.

If I had only one tool to let me predict the weather and call the task, it would be the windcast.

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Fri, Apr 25 2003, 8:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Australia|Betinho Schmitz|competition|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|game|harness|Icaro Laminar MR|Jim Lee|Jon Durand snr|Kari Castle|maps|Moyes Litespeed|Nene Rotor|Paris Williams|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon|Worlds

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

The FSL MAPS modeled data for Kissimmee:

Shows winds predicted to be up to 29 mph at 3,000’. The top of the lift is forecast to be 3,200’, with the lift predicted to be 400 fpm (subtract your sink rate). By five o’clock the top of the lift is forecast to be 2,600’ with the lift at 200 fpm.

There is a warm front to the northwest in Panama City in the Florida panhandle where there are presently (around noon) thunderstorms. With the strong winds we would have to call a task to the northwest toward the area of likely thunderstorms this afternoon.

Malcolm calls the day at the 10:30 AM pilot meeting, based on wind strength in the field itself. The forecasted wind conditions for tomorrow are for similar strengths with more of a west component.

Results so far:

Rigids who made goal on day five:

Place Name Glider Nation Time Total
1 PLONER Alex Air Atos C ITA 2:06:49 988
2 CIECH Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 2:06:51 973
3 CHAUMET David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 2:09:17 915
4 BARMAKIAN Bruce Air Atos USA 2:13:00 863
5 POSCH Johann Air Atos C AUT 2:13:49 848
6 POUSTINCHIAN Mark Air Atos C USA 2:14:16 837
7 STRAUB Davis Air Atos C USA 2:14:48 827
8 GLEASON Ron Air Atos USA 2:15:03 821
9 YOCOM Jim Air Atos C USA 2:15:26 814
10 ENDTER Vince Icaro Stratos USA 2:17:41 792
11 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxes USA 2:25:03 733
12 PAQUETTE Eric Air Atos CAN 2:29:04 704
13 LAMB Jim Air Atos C USA 3:06:31 497
14 VAYDA Tom Air Atos USA 3:13:23 464

We averaged 27 mph, which is pretty slow, given the fact that we averaged 36 mph on the last and longest leg.

Rigids after five days (and likely the final results):

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 PLONER Alex Air Atos C ITA 4515
2 CHAUMET David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 4144
3 CIECH Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 3988
4 POSCH Johann Air Atos C AUT 3424
5 BARMAKIAN Bruce Air Atos USA 3391

As at the 2002 Worlds, Alex, Christian, and David are in a separate class from the rest of us duffers. Christian just missed goal one day or he would be in a tight contest with his friend Alex for first place.

Flex wings:

On day five:

Place Name Glider Nation Time Total
1 RUHMER Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 2:14:44 947
2 BOISSELIER Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 2:12:09 939
3 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 2:16:48 920
4 WOLF Andre Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 2:17:16 911
5 SCHMIDT Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 2:13:17 907
6 ROTOR Nene Wills Wing Talon BRA 2:13:18 903
7 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 2:13:19 900
8 WALBEC Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 2:13:36 893
9 BESSA Carlos Wills Wing Talon USA 2:15:35 862
10 LEE Jim Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 2:15:51 857

The pilots that started at 2:15 PM were the quickest into goal, not being held back by the lollygagging rigid wing pilots, but Manfred was first to goal, so that counted for something.

Yesterday, before the task, Manfred was in twelfth. Today after winning the fifth (and likely last) task:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 4159
2 BOISSELIER Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3898
3 RUHMER Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 3765
4 DURAND Jon Jr. Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 3754
5 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 3684
6 BESSA Carlos Wills Wing Talon USA 3620
7 SCHMIDT Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 3554
8 ALONZI Mario Aeros Combat 2 FRA 3548
9 WALBEC Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3488
10 OHLSSON Andreas Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 3468

Oleg benefited immensely when Manfred didn’t make goal two days in a row and he then kept the competition far away from him. Oleg ended up only 100 points behind Manfred at the Flytec Championships and when Manfred didn’t make goal at the Wallaby Open the first time, Oleg jumped ahead of him by enough points to make it very difficult for Manfred to catch him. Perhaps that was his consideration when he raced to goal and landed 1 mile short of Wauchula on day four.

Antoine, after not even registering on the applause-o-meter in Australia (but doing well enough to come in at 11th at the Flytec Championship), did very well at Wallaby. He was able to gain a few extra points on the fifth day by racing ahead and getting a minute on everyone else at goal. Funny how things change so rapidly.

After Paris and Mikey took themselves out of the competition, Curt flew well and was the first American. He was 10th at the Flytec Championship just behind Paris and ahead of Mike, so he definitely improved. Too bad he landed after gliding with me on the third day or he could easily have been in second place at the Wallaby Open. All he had to do was keep gliding over the Bok Tower. I would have appreciated his help at that point.

Carlos has yet to decide whether to fly for the Brazilians or on the American National team (if he makes it). He beat his fellow Brazilian Betinho after finishing at 16th at the Flytec Championship behind Betinho at 11th there.

Jon Durand Jr. finished very well again doing a little better overall in this competition than the last one where he was sixth. Jon is a strong pilot who is willing to take risks, and came out the top Australian in the Wallaby Open.

There were two Aeros Combats in the top ten at the Wallaby Open with Paris out and three at the Flytec Championship. This is certainly a jump in their top numbers.

Only Manfred is representing the Icaro 2000 Laminar in the top ten. Kari Castle on the Laminar did very well at the Flytec Championship to come in 14th (and perhaps hold her place on the US National team). At the Wallaby Open she dropped down a little to 16th, behind Jim Lee at 14th. She is still looking for a harness that works for her and doesn’t cause such pain in her chest (maybe I can get her to try my harness).

Moyes continues to win the numbers game with six Litespeeds in the top ten. Lots of pilots fly the Litespeed and many of them do well (right after Manfred and Oleg). Wills Wing had Carlos on the Talon, so that rounds out the top ten pilots.

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