Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

topic: Kraig Coomber

303 articles, page:  1   2   3 

Investigating and Reporting

October 1, 2019, 9:55:41 MDT

Investigating and Reporting

It started innocently enough.

Belinda Boulter|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Elena Filonova|Facebook|Flytec 6030|Gordon Rigg|Greg Kendall|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber

https://ozreport.com/23.190.2

I do not recall how I found out about this issue. Jamie Shelden, the meet director and organizer probably told me about it. I received what I thought was Jonny Durand's Flymaster tracker track log in the morning on Friday the 20th for the task on Wednesday the 18th. I didn't look at the file using Notepad but rather displayed it on SeeYou and subsequently published the screen captures showing the difference between it and his 6030 the track log. If I had looked at the IGC file from what I thought was the Flymaster tracker using Notepad I would have seen that it was actually a "copy" of that file taken from the Airtribune web site.

I had already heard that there was no Live Tracking on the Flymaster Live Tracking web site for the Santa Cruz Flats Race. I also knew (but didn't connect) the fact that Belinda could follow the race on XCGuide with the group number that would normally be used on the Flymaster Live Tracking web site.

Daniel Velez, the remote scorekeeper, then informed me that there was another case of a missed turnpoint from the Wednesday task that needed to be corrected with the pilot's flight instrument. The track log that Daniel had showed him missing the last turnpoint so Daniel got Jamie to have Greg Kendall send in his track log from his 5030.

On Saturday the 21st, the last task after two days of not flying when there were high winds, we got two bogus track logs that required track logs from pilot's flight instruments be sent to Daniel, mine and Kraig Coomber's.

https://ozreport.com/23.193

Both Daniel and I were still referring to the track logs that he was downloading from the Airtribune web site as Flymaster tracker track logs, when in fact they were "copies" of the track logs from the Flymaster web site, and it would appear later not very good copies.

Not only were there missing track log points there was also the weird altitude values from the Airtribune tracklog points which got further above the track log points from the pilots' flight instruments the higher the pilot got. That still doesn't make any sense.

With this height discrepancy really bothering me (and apparently no one else except the always perceptive Gordon Rigg) I decided to look further into it. 

https://ozreport.com/1569588107

I was beginning to suspect that something was wrong with the Flymaster trackers.

That's when I checked out my Flymaster track logs from the 2019 Big Spring Nationals against my 6030 track logs. I checked three flights. They were all identical. Whoa.

Finally I decided to look at the track log files using Notepad. Whoa again. The Flymaster tracks were certainly producing different designators for the trackers in the track logs from the SCFR. I still didn't get it but I was getting warmer.

After thinking about what was right in front of my face I thought to ask whether the track logs for the SCFR were coming from the Airtribune site and not the Flymaster web site. I was just hard for me to believe that this would actually be the case. I asked Daniel.

By the time he replied that they were indeed taking the track logs from the Airtribune web site I had already concluded that was the case.

I followed the data and kept looking and looking again and despite not just figuring it out when perhaps it should have been obvious I finally found enough clues to take me in the right direction and away from my preliminary and incorrect assumptions.

So I was left with the task of getting access to the Flymaster Live Tracking web site to download the actual Flymaster tracker track log files for the SCFR. So far that's not going very well. I've reached out to Jamie, Daniel, Brett, and even Kate who was our scorekeeper at the Big Spring Nationals and obviously did it right. I just want to confirm the theory that the actual Flymaster tracker's track logs don't have the drop out problem. Kate has told me that she didn't experience any dropouts during the Big Spring Nationals.

Finally on Monday morning I was able to get access to the Flymaster track logs on the Flymaster server for the Santa Cruz Flats Race. Crisiano at Flymaster was the one who gave me the final clue that I needed to be able to login to the correct account. After that it was trivial to download the files and check out the Flymaster tracker track logs against the Airtribune track logs.

The Flymaster tracker track log did not have the dropouts that the Airtribune tracks had. I had remembered that Brett had told me and others not to use the Airtribune track logs for scoring purposes only for Live Tracking. The problem was not placement of the trackers in the harnesses. Even Kraig Coomber's tracker worked just fine even though it was placed underneath his carbon back plate.

Elena Filonova wrote to me to say:

When you download the track log from Airtribune it is reprocessed by it and filters out baro data.

That explains the different altitude values displayed in the previous articles. Here is an example of the baro track from Jonny Durand's flight from the Flymaster tracker vs. the baro (now GPS) track from the Airtribune web site:

The blue line is the GPS altitude. Since you as the pilot are making decisions about how high you can go if you are flying under airspace based on your baro altitude, you might want to be sure that the scorekeeper is using your baro altitude and not GPS altitude to determine if you infringe on airspace or not.

When I get ready to launch I set my baro altitude at the GPS altitude of the launch site. This is easy to do with the Flytec 6030.

All this is traced on these two Facebook threads:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118763844883239/permalink/2421537051272562/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118763844883239/permalink/2414056872020580/

Too high

September 27, 2019, 6:41:47 MDT

Too high

The discrepancy is proportional to altitude gain

competition|Davis Straub|Facebook|Flytec 6030|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Volirium P1

Jonny Durand's track Log:

This is a display using SeeYou and the "altitude" chart which is supposed to display barometric altitude. When I use SeeYou to display "GPS altitude" both instruments give the same values.

The red line is the Flymaster tracker. The blue line is his Flytec 6030. I've already shown that my Flytec 6030 and my Volirium P1 give the same results.

https://ozreport.com/23.193

I've also shown the the Flymaster tracker's track log shows a higher value than Greg Kendall's Flytec 5030.

https://ozreport.com/23.193#2

This is Kraig Coomber's track log:

The blue line in this case is the Flymaster tracker. The red line is his Flytec 6030.

I have track logs from four pilots. Two from the third task and two from the last task. Some of the IGC file can be found here: https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results. Also there is an on-going discussion here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118763844883239/permalink/2414056872020580/

I reviewed some of my other flights at the SCFR and saw the same pattern.

I then checked out some of my flights in Big Spring.

The Flymaster Trackers and the Flytec 6030 produced the same values. Here is an example:

So why are the Flymaster trackers working correctly in Big Spring but not at the SCFR?

My Flymaster tracker in Big Spring:

AXFMSFP Flymaster Live, V1.0, S/N 226405
HFFXA010
HFPLTPILOT:Davis Straub
HFGTYGLIDERTYPE:
HFGIDGLIDERID:
HFDTM100GPSDATUM:WGS-1984
HFCIDCOMPETITIONID:101
HFCCLCOMPETITIONCLASS:
HOSITSITE:Big Springs-US
HFGPS:UBLOXNEO6
HFPRSPRESSALTSENSOR:NA
HFRFWFIRMWAREVERSION:202g
HFRHWHARDWAREVERSION:1.0R2
HFFTYFRTYPE:FLYMASTER,LIVE

My Flymaster tracker at SCFR:

AXYYAAA
HFDTE210919
HFFXA500
HFPLTPILOTINCHARGE:Davis Straub
HFGTYGLIDERTYPE:
HFGIDGLIDERID:
HFDTM100GPSDATUM:WGS-1984
HFRFWFIRMWAREVERSION:0.4
HFRHWHARDWAREVERSION:
HFFTYFRTYPE:Airtribune Logger
HFGPSAirtribune
HFPRSPRESSALTSENSOR:
HFCIDCOMPETITIONID:101

Greg's Flymaster tracker at SCFR:

AXYYAAA
HFDTE210919
HFFXA500
HFPLTPILOTINCHARGE:Greg Kendall
HFGTYGLIDERTYPE:
HFGIDGLIDERID:
HFDTM100GPSDATUM:WGS-1984
HFRFWFIRMWAREVERSION:0.4
HFRHWHARDWAREVERSION:
HFFTYFRTYPE:Airtribune Logger
HFGPSAirtribune
HFPRSPRESSALTSENSOR:
HFCIDCOMPETITIONID:222

Jonny's Flymaster tracker at SCFR:

AXYYAAA
HFDTE180919
HFFXA500
HFPLTPILOTINCHARGE:Jonny Durand
HFGTYGLIDERTYPE:
HFGIDGLIDERID:
HFDTM100GPSDATUM:WGS-1984
HFRFWFIRMWAREVERSION:0.4
HFRHWHARDWAREVERSION:
HFFTYFRTYPE:Airtribune Logger
HFGPSAirtribune
HFPRSPRESSALTSENSOR:
HFCIDCOMPETITIONID:21

Is the score keeper taking the data from the Airtribune web site for the SCFR and not from the Flymaster web site? Does this also explain the drop outs? We know that the source of the data for the Airtribune web site is the Flymaster web site and we know that there are problems getting the data from one web site to another.

We also know that the meet organizers were unable to get the Flymaster Live Tracking working for the SCFR.

Congratulations to the Moyes Boys

September 26, 2019, 10:42:34 MDT

Congratulations to the Moyes Boys

On their sweep of the podium and beyond at the SCFR

Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Tyler Borradaile|Vicki Cain

Vicki Cain <<Vicki>> writes:

SCFR 2019 is a wrap with a clean sweep for Moyes taking out the top five places.

Once again for 2019 the competition was decided on the final day with a complete switch around of the podium.

Tyler Borradaile takes the win on his Moyes RX3.5Pro Skylite.

Jonny Durand takes 2nd place just a single point behind flying the Moyes RX4Pro Skylite.

Olav Opsanger rounds out the podium flying his Moyes RX3.5Pro.

A very close competition with only 27 points separating the first three positions.

Kraig Coomber 4th Moyes RX 3.5 Pro Skylite

Phil Bloom 5th Moyes RX 3.5 Pro Skylite

Congratulations and thanks to Jamie Shelden and the crew for hosting another great comp.

More drops

September 25, 2019, 7:30:27 pm MDT

More drops

Kraig on the last day

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Flytec 6030|Kraig Coomber|record|Volirium P1

At the first turnpoint, a 5 km cylinder around Signal Peak. Kraig's Flytec 6030 is set to record a track point every ten second. The blue line is the Flymaster Tracker:

Daniel Velez, the scorekeeper, writes:

On last day (Day 7) of the 2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race, in Open Class, we had an issue with Kraig Coomber's Flymaster track. His tracker went out a little more than 1 minute just on the first turnpoint. So his backup was used to validate his track.

But, this turned out to be also bad, as his backup tracker showed him crossing the goal second instead of first, by 3 seconds. So we wanted to score goal with Flymaster trackers for both Tyler and Kraig as the time interval between data points was much smaller than 10 seconds giving us a more precise time at goal and the goal times then agreed with what the pilot's felt was the case. But we wanted to validate the turnpoint.

So what I ended up doing was "manually" inserting the missing minute into the Flymaster IGC file, and scored the task with that track.

You now have original IGC filefrom the tracker, the original IGC file from the backup flight instrument, and the "mixed" IGC file from both that was used for scoring.  In the "mixed" IGC file you can easy see the "inserted" data, if you scroll down the file in a text editor, as the lines are "longer" so they are noticeable.

I also compare the "altitude" values in SeeYou for the Flymaster track log and the one from his 6030. The Flymaster displays an altitude up to 500' higher than the 6030:

I also compared the "altitude" values for my flight for the Flymaster Tracker, the Flytec 6030, and the Volirium P1:

The altitude values for the 6030 and the P1 are identical. The Flymaster tracker is quite a bit higher.

I also compared the "GPS altitude" values for all three instruments and they are identical:

Discuss "More drops" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2019, 6:21:32 MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A win by one point

Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Facebook|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|photo|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

Tyler Borradaile wins the 2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Fourth task:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:45 74.63 925
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:46 74.63 912
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:56:00 74.63 896
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 01:56:49 74.63 876
5 Bill Soderquist ? ? 02:08:42 74.63 861
6 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T3 144 01:57:23 74.63 860
7 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:46 74.63 822
8 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:02:49 74.63 794
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:18:45 74.63 733
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:19:07 74.63 708
11 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 72.35 502
12 Greg Kendall Moyes RX 3.5 67.07 489
13 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 69.56 488
14 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 66.48 445
15 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 71.81 441

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3364
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3363
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3337
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3268
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3146
6 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 2992
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2904
8 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2526
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2476
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 2373

Sport Class:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:14:07 45.19 1000
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 01:15:01 45.19 977
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 01:56:46 45.19 703
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 43.56 589
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 35.98 518

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 3187
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 2447
3 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 2142
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 2027
5 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 1962

Swift Class:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 01:51:21 1000
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 02:07:01 778
3 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 02:13:27 726

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 3070
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 3047
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 2858
4 Stephen Morris Bright Star Millennium 1316
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 1131

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2019, 6:50:03 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A too short task - the results

Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Greg Chastain|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 00:59:06 864
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 00:59:57 835
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 01:08:21 721
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:09:21 704
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:13:57 657
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 01:16:04 632
7 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 01:17:48 622
8 Greg Kendall Moyes RX 3.5 01:18:33 599
9 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T3 144 01:21:51 577
10 Willy Dydo Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:19:17 570

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 2547
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2487
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2452
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2441
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2352
6 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2343
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2171
8 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 2167
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2035
10 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1704

Sport Class:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Rick Warner Wills Wing Sport 2 155 00:30:35 729
2 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 00:33:29 657
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 00:41:03 560
4 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 00:44:33 525
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 00:49:01 483

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2187
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1624
3 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 1479
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 1401
5 Rick Warner Wills Wing Sport 2 155 1314

Swifts:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 01:55:19 998
2 greg chastain Swift 01:55:17 993
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 01:55:48 974

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 greg chastain Swift 2344
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 2269
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 1858
4 Stephen Morris Swift 1015
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 903

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2019, 8:59:49 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Task Two Results

Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Greg Chastain|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 01:47:15 67.83 1000
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 01:52:59 67.83 862
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:37 67.83 828
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:58:21 67.83 797
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:10:28 67.83 762
6 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:05:02 67.83 755
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:07:21 67.83 734
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:31:54 67.83 629
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   66.16 497
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5   57.06 445

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 1826
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1785
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1737
4 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1695
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 1665
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1652
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 1613
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1588
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1403
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 1116

Sport Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 653 877 1530
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 356 872 1228
3 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 328 815 1143
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 141 1000 1141
5 Bill Snyder Wills Wing U2 145 209 525 734

Swifts:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 1000 351 1351
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 464 807 1271
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 716 168 884
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 415 347 762
5 Stephen Morris Bright Star Millennium 361 275 636

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 15, 2019, 10:07:09 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Results from the first day

Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 02:11:32 963
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes Rx Pro 3.5 02:11:25 959
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX3.5 Pro 02:11:15 958
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes LSRX3.5 PRO 02:11:39 938
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 02:11:43 931
6 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:11:45 929
7 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:13:10 914
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:12:48 904
9 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 02:13:21 881
10 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:17:31 859
11 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 02:29:10 767
12 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:52:44 660
13 Cory Barnwell ? ? 02:55:11 599

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 15, 2019, 8:46:40 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 1

Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Flytec 6030|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Flytec 6030|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Volirium P1

The task committee called a very appropriate task for a post frontal day with a forecast for very light winds, a top of lift at 6,000' (we got higher), blue all day, and light lift. The funny part was a thirteen kilometer goal cylinder around a turnpoint to the west of the Francisco Grande making it so you made goal when you got to the east side of the hotel.

The wind was light but a little sideways at launch which kept things going slowly. Kraig Coomber launched in early bird just before me in the number one position. The lift was light with a five mph east wind, but we were able to climb to 6,400' MSL (5,000' AGL) just west of the launch area on the west side of the hotel.

As we topped out it was still fourteen minutes before the start window opened and we needed to get further east to get near the edge of the start cylinder. The lift proved poor in that direction and there were just two of us high enough to make a start at the first start window at 2:20 PM. I decided that I didn't want to go out on my own (if the other guy went back) and hung back to circle with those pilots who were a couple of thousand feet lower.

Everyone hung back climbing when the second window opened so we didn't start until a few minutes after 2:40 PM. We all headed southeast pretty much along the course line to the turnpoint at Sunland finding lift averaging 300 fpm.

I found a nice thermal out in front that proved to be pretty attractive and we climbed to 6,600'. That gave us the altitude to make it to the turnpoint at Sunland ten kilometers away and then back four kilometers to the north to join up with others at 200 fpm. No one was running away from the gaggle.

Just south of Arizona City we climbed to 5,400' MSL from 2,000' AGL and that got us to Casa Grade Mountain (hill) where we found 400 fpm to 5,500'.  The hills are 2.5 km west of the course line which heads due north to Signal Peak, but the detour was well worth it.

Not much was happening to the north on the east side of Casa Grande. Down to 1,500' AGL twelve kilometers north of Casa Grande Mountain we stopped for 240 fpm to 4,800'. The three kilometer turnpoint cylinder around Signal Peak was only six kilometers away.

We found 190 fpm just before the turnpoint and then worked the weak lift with ten or so first gaggle guys climbing as a pack slowly and thinking about the final glide to the thirteen kilometer radius goal cylinder off to the southwest. I was at the bottom of the top five or six glider and finally decided this lift was just not happening.

I pushed out in front to the southwest, found much better lift just 1.5 kilometers up the course line and we all climbed up at 225 fpm to 6,000'.  A Moyes pilot at my altitude headed out just in front of me and I went with him on final glide. This was where I wonder what my instruments were telling me. Remember we had the unusual circumstances of a thirteen kilometer goal cylinder.

Both my Flytec 6030 and my Volirium P1 said the goal was 30 kilometers away. I knew that the last leg was only 17 kilometers long. The P1 normally gives the optimized distance but I learned later that P1 defaults the goal to the goal line, so I had put at 13 km long line in for goal on that instrument instead of a thirteen kilometer radius goal. I learned how to correct that after the flight.

My Flytec 6030 was saying that I had goal at -1,000' (that was altitude above best glide to goal). The reported Altitude above WP (the goal) was +1,000'. The L/D required to get to goal was 48:1. I was getting a good L/D but not 48:1. I assumed that it meant to the center of the goal cylinder.

Well, I went with the Altitude above waypoint but was a bit too careful to make sure that I made it back in to the Francisco Grande. I'll know better next time we do this.

I had a slider on a landing in no wind. My first in a long time. Great packed down field at goal. At the moment the Airtribune web site is down so I don't know the results for the day.

Discuss "2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Big Spring 2008 »

At the time the longest task in the World called and made

Big Spring 2008

June 10, 2019, 6:41:19 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Jeff O'Brien|Jim Yocom|Kent Robinson|Kraig Coomber|Zac Majors

Task 2, 2008-08-03, flexible

1 140 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 13:45:00 18:49:38 5:04:38 68.08 km/h 345.67 km 871.716
2 115 Jeff O'Brien Wills Wing T2C 154 13:45:00 18:49:56 5:04:56 68.02 km/h 345.67 km 866.393
3 121 Glen Volk Moyes Litespeed RS4 13:45:00 18:50:10 5:05:10 67.96 km/h 345.67 km 863.622
4 101 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 13:45:00 18:54:49 5:09:49 66.94 km/h 345.67 km 827.303
5 126 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS 13:45:00 19:01:36 5:16:36 65.51 km/h 345.67 km 788.358
6 122 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 13:55:55 290.45 km 475.445
7 111 Mick Howard Moyes LiteSpeed 4S 14:07:01 287.83 km 472.662
8 116 Mark Frutiger Wills Wing T2C 144 14:02:13 243.37 km 412.361
9 106 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed S5 13:58:08 223.99 km 380.565
10 108 Kent Robinson Wills Wing U2 - 160 14:08:57 221.20 km 376.378

Task 2, 2008-08-03, rigid

1 3 118 James Stinnett Aeros Phantom 13:30:00 18:29:49 4:59:49 69.18 km/h 345.67 km 500.25
2 1 135 Benjamin Herring AIR Atos VR 13:26:15 290.27 km 267.649
3 110 Jim Yocom AIR Atos VR 13:26:08 109.83 km 131.325
4 1 119 Campbell Bowen Air Atos VX 14:00:25 34.11 km 48.813

Way over subscribed

February 4, 2019, 8:37:37 EST

Way over subscribed

132 pilots registered for 120 spots

Kraig Coomber

Kraig Coomber just made it 133 pilots registered. We will only accommodate 120 pilots. 60 pilots are confirmed. 20 countries are represented.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/info/details__info

For the second week it's, 84 pilots registered, 24 confirmed, 13 countries represented.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/info/details__info

We are so sorry to hear that hang gliding is dying.

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2018 Quest Air Nationals Series

Mon, Nov 27 2017, 7:14:35 am PST

The meet is over-subscribed

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|André Wolfe|André Wolfe|Attila Bertok|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Davide Guiducci|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Marco Laurenzi|Pete Lehmann|Primoz Gricar|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Robin Hamilton|Steve Blenkinsop|Thomas Weissenberger|USHPA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

The meet filled up in three days. We have 82 pilots registered. We are currently looking at expanding the number of pilots who can attend. Frankly we had no idea that this would happen so quickly. We have to follow the following USHPA rule:

All competitors should be registered on a first-come, first-served basis except during the first 30 days of registration, where 30% of the available places may be held for the top 20 NTSS and top 30 WPRS ranked pilots.

We'll use NTSS and WPRS rankings as of November 1st, 2017.

Pos Name
1 Zac Majors
2 Robin Hamilton
3 Bruce Barmakian
4 John Simon
5 Kraig Coomber
6 Dustin Martin
7 Larry Bunner
8 Derrick Turner
9 James Stinnet
10 Jd Guillemette
11 Davis Straub
12 Bill Soderquist
13 Kevin Carter
14 Patrick Pannese
15 David Gibson
16 Glen Volk
17 Kevin Dutt
18 Mick Howard
19 Krzysztof Grzyb
20 Pete Lehmann

WPRS

Rank Name CIVL ID
1 JONNY Durand 2231
2 ALESSANDRO Ploner 5724
3 FILIPPO Oppici 6295
4 THOMAS Weissenberger 7819
5 CHRISTIAN Ciech 6034
6 ALVARO Figueiredo Sandoli 5760
7 MARIO Alonzi 7043
8 ANDRE Wolf 5783
9 PETR Benes 9764
10 DAVIDE Guiducci 6142
11 MARCO Laurenzi 25161
12 DAN Vyhnalik 6089
13 DAVID Brito Filho 13846
14 CARLOS Niemeyer 6001
15 PETER Neuenschwander 398
16 GLEN Mcfarlane 17641
17 VALENTINO Bau 7889
18 GRANT Crossingham 6440
19 STEVE Blenkinsop 7701
20 PRIMOZ Gricar 7437
21 BALAZS Ujhelyi 5893
22 ATTILA Bertok 5885
23 ROLAND Wöhrle 7547
24 JOSH Woods 42097
25 RODOLFO Gotes 12376
26 ANTON Moroder 5842
27 TAKASHI Sunama 7755
28 ROBIN Hamilton 7536
29 GUY Hubbard 6467
30 OLAV Opsanger 7271

To secure a higher place in the order that pilots are chosen to participate in the competition, we need pilots to be confirmed. To be confirmed you need to register, fill out on-line and send in your correct waivers and medical form (use Adobe Acrobat DC - the free version, https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/faq.html), and pay the entry fee. See:

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/info/details__info

https://OzReport.com/waivers.php

https://OzReport.com/2018QuestAirpay.php

We will keep track of the order in which pilots are confirmed (everything is time and date stamped), check any forms for errors, and notify pilots if they are allowed entry into the meet.

Discuss "2018 Quest Air Nationals Series" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Hang Gliding Competition - it is emotional

September 22, 2016, 10:21:57 MST -0600

Hang Gliding Competition - it is emotional

Dealing with failure

competition|dust devil|Dustin Martin|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner

This is a difficult article to write because it deals with failures and readers don't take well to failure. Apparently it is considered contagious. But to start off a bit of humor.

I remember the time a few years ago in Australia that I had a short bike race with Kraig Coomber. He came in second and as I recall he was pretty shocked that this old guy could best him. After a too short a time period Lukas Bader challenged me and he was first. I'm quite certain that I could best them both now.

After each day's task at a hang gliding competition I have a lot of feelings. This is especially true after I do relatively poorly. These feelings hang on and on and even a good day can't eliminate them from my short term memory. I involuntarily obsess over my poor decisions and their outcome.

I had a reasonably good day on the first task at the SCFR. https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1931/day/class-1

I liked the fact that I was able to recover from chasing a dust devil (after ignoring a bump) that didn't work and got me lower than the lead gaggle. I felt good catching excellent lift after the first turnpoint and getting out in front with Dangerous Dave. Later I appreciated staying in strong lift over Picacho Peak and not leaving it when Jonny left. I was happy that I turned to the south seeing another pilot thermaling on the last leg and climbing to 7,000' as John Simon continued out along the line that we were following and landed.

I felt good about shading way off to the west when we all left the lift following Jonny trying to find a better line against the head wind. The fact that I was able to come back to where Jonny found light lift and get in it and stay up for a couple of more thermals seemed like a victory. I finished in the middle of the pack, but there was satisfaction in much of the flight.

Afterwards I wished I had turned in that bump before the dust devil chase, wished I had stayed in that thermal at Picacho to 10,500' like Larry Bunner instead of 8,800'. I really regretted not having gone to that single only cu of the day to the west over no man's land after the second turnpoint instead of hanging with everyone else. This was the only cu any where near the course line all day. It was small but very thick. It wasn't in the right direction, but it was close enough that it appeared to be the case that if I found the thermal under it I would still be high enough and if I didn't I could make it to a landable area. The only real issue was if I did indeed find the lift, the others would come over to me and what would be my advantage, but getting in the lift first.  Further I wished I had worked harder to stay up in light lift at the end of the day. Regrets.

On the second day there were cu-nimbs to deal with and because the day was canceled later it wasn't scored. The tension revolved around how to avoid the shading from the cu-nimb, avoiding the cu-nimb itself and staying up. Since the cu-nimb was heading in our direction as we flew cross wind to the south eastern turnpoint it was a difficult balancing act.

I liked the fact that I could climb up over shaded areas and make the second turnpoint while others were behind. I would have loved to have spent more time getting high near the first turnpoint to make it easier to get around the second, but the approaching cu-nimb cut off that possibility.

The fourth day and the second scored task was a complete embarrassment:  https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1936/day/class-1.

I could not have done worse. After uneventfully climbing up to 6,200' but drifting just outside the start cylinder everything started to slowly fall apart. Each climb was worse. Half an hour after I launched I was above half the field but after that slowly got lower and lower with each climb being weaker and the top of each climb lower.

It was so frustrating seeing pilots above me but not being able to climb up to them. And they were not all that high either. Add to that the feeling that I had been in a much better situation a little earlier and it was just getting worse and worse. What was really weird was that Zac and Jonny were down there with me. What was up with that?

An hour and twenty minutes after I had launched I was now down to 1,000' AGL, three kilometers from the launch and over unfriendly terrain. Zac and I had gone northwest to get under some lift that we just saw Jonny catch. We had been climbing in 70 fpm to 1,800' AGL when we headed to a spot a little over a kilometer to our northwest where a couple of pilots showed lift including Jonny.

We didn't find it and Zac was now much lower than I and there I was low at 1,000' AGL. Panic mode set in. As I saw Zac head north over shaded country with poor retrieve options, I headed south to fly over sunny areas closer to the launch field. I hit little tiny patches of very weak lift but did not turn in them. I was more focused on checking landing options than staying up in weak lift again.

Zac and Jonny got up. I landed. Just too many unhelpful feelings after first getting up.

On the fifth day it was all different: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1940/day/class-1. Almost all of the pilots were able to climb to 8,500' on the east side of the start cylinder. This gave me the opportunity to feel very comfortable about my chances to fly far and find lift. No more desperately hanging on to anything available.

When Jonny headed south southwest and I headed southwest with Zippy and Larry I felt great as I knew that we were going to an area that had in the past been a great source of lift and it proved to be the case.

When half a dozen pilots came in under us as we climbed up quickly back to 8,500' just before the window opened I could not have been happier or more confident. Everything was well timed and well positioned. We were going to go south to the hills where I have always had great lift and good luck. We were going to fly over the driest areas where the lift can be expected to be great.

We got even higher as we raced to the southern turnpoint. I sometimes hit lift at over 800 fpm. There were a good number of pilots nearby and in the same thermal. We were all racing hard and pulled in.

As I got to within one kilometer of the edge of the turnpoint cylinder I saw Zippy coming back under me. Oh, oh. How did he get two kilometers ahead? That's about two minutes.

Turning around I raced back to the remnants of the second gaggle that broke up just as we got there. There were now eight pilots just in front of me. I don't know how they were able to get that extra distance on me. I had glided into turnpoint cylinder neck and neck with about five pilots matching their glide foot for foot and I turned very quickly at the turnpoint, so who knows how I got a little behind these pilots.

Heading back to the Francisco Grande I shaded to the left quite a ways to head for the last hill before the flats going to goal. I don't know why Zippy and his followers were avoiding the peak going to the right. I had always found lift on this hill and earlier Jonny and others climbed up over it on the way out, although they were way below us.

I didn't find the lift I had hoped for and had to join the others in first some 200 fpm and then a little later much stronger lift that got all of us into goal. Three minutes behind Zac but eight minutes in front of Jonny.

Racing felt good but not enough to erase the feelings from the day before.

On the sixth day here: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1944/day/class-1 we headed for the mountain range to the northwest. Again we got over 8,500' in the start cylinder and got a good start although not as high as the previous day hoping to stay north of the cultivate fields and make it to the mountain to get even much much higher. I had dressed up warmly hoping to see 14,000'.

With eight guys again ahead of me (must have found better lift to our north) I raced along behind trying to catch up. It was a long glide down to 3,500' before those of us around me and I found the next thermal at 300+ to get back to 7,000' Bruce and Dustin and one other pilot were above me as headed for the northwest corner of Maricopa.

There we saw the pilots in the leading gaggle at least three thousand feet below us, very low and climbing at only 100 fpm. I was positively giddy. I had been chasing these guys wondering if it was the right move and noticing that they weren't getting up or finding any thermals, so it affirmed my choice to stay back and climb with the pilots who had been just behind me.

The lift was weak over these guys and the alluvial fan from the mountain range beckoned ahead. With Dustin and Bruce heading out just over me I went for it. I had always found good lift in this area and even though it is only accessible on a small dirt road and there are lots of tall saguaro cactus up the fan, it was still landable.

I had hoped to find strong lift as I approached the mountain side but only found 120 fpm. I knew I was out in front of the other pilots with only three pilots with me. I also knew that I had previously found good lift right at the mountain side. I kept turning but wanted more.

I saw Dustin head in and hit some good lift right at the mountain side. I chased after him. I should have waited because he only took a few turns before heading further northwest around to the west side. Bruce had followed him also. I was about two hundred feet lower than they were.

When I came to the mountain side I didn't find much lift. I saw them turning on the west side and getting up. I proceeded west low and didn't hit anything that would get me up. It was just down down down until I landed three miles down a jeep track.

A little patience was in order. I really need to keep working the 120 fpm to get high enough to have a better chance at finding lift on the mountain side. I needed to not jump at the first sign of lift when Dustin turned in it. I needed to stay away from the west side with its limited landing options until I was sure I could stay up or have other options. I needed just to calm down and wait for some others to join me and help out and not just follow from below.

On the last day my troubles continued: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1947/day/class-1. It started when I declined my opportunity to launch early because I had been able to climb up well on the previous day even with a later launch. Now scrambling to climb up with the earlier launchers in order I thought to take the first start clock I made one bad decision after another as I was in a hurry.

I got up quickly to 5,200' but that wasn't enough for me. I "needed" to find really strong lift really quickly to get up to those pilots that were very high above me. I went looking in all the wrong places, not waiting to find good lift. I headed east to get on the right side of the start cylinder but there was nothing there. I went over the mine to find what is usually good lift there to find 900 fpm down.

It was a trap and I was quickly on the ground. Again a mindset that was sure to produce bad results. I didn't focus during the pilot meeting on what would be the best strategy for launching but took into account other considerations that were not pertinent. Once I went down that rat hole I found it hard to do a reset.

All the articles on the 2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race here.

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2016, 10:51:35 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Final results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:56:34 990
2 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:56:53 980
3 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 01:56:55 970
4 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:57:15 944
5 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:57:42 930
6 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:05:38 850
7 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 02:10:30 801
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 02:04:28 782
9 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 02:18:20 767
10 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:05:43 761

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4187
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3872
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 3774
4 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 3597
5 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 3579
6 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 3550
7 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3419
8 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 3364
9 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 3288
10 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3257

Sport task 6:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 00:54:12 829
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 01:25:08 485

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 4500
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 3331

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2016, 6:22:05 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Saturday, the last day

Bill Soderquist|cart|dust devil|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016

With a forecast like Friday, with light winds and good lift predicted the task committee sent us down interstate 10 to the Eds turnpoint just before Picacho Peak. There were dust devils and east winds in the launch zone.

I had a chance to launch early but passed it up too early and then couldn't get it back. That turned out to be a crucial mistake.

Launch opened at 12:30 for a 2 PM start window including the sport class pilots first, fifteen minutes less than the previous day. Then Bobby took out a tire showing off. We had to replace it with a cart tire. This slowed things down quite a bit.

Glen Volk, Bill Soderquist and I got pulled up 25 minutes before the 2 PM window and there was good lift to the northwest. But it didn't look like we would make it up in time to get the first clock.

Got up to 5,200' but the pilots who launched before were much higher. Glen headed northwest at 12 minutes before the start, realized that the course was off to the southeast and turned around to follow me. Unfortunately I hit nothing but sink, some at 800 to 900 fpm down as I headed for the pilots circling over the mine at the edge of the start cylinder. Glen went over the hotel and found lift to take the second clock (and made goal) as I landed.

Looks like thirteen pilots made goal. Robin Hamilton apparently won the day. Don't know yet if Jonny was able to get to goal sooner than Kraig Coomber.

The results and party won't be available for another two or three hours.

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2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2016, 10:36:58 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Friday's task with very preliminary results

Belinda Boulter|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Facebook|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

The forecast was for very light winds, no cu's, of course, and good lift, hopefully as good as Thursday. I encouraged the task committee to keep us out of the cultivated areas and for the most part they did.

I was near the back of the staging line a few pilots in front of Zac and that turned out to be a great thing for all of us as we didn't have spend an hour and forty five minutes in the start cylinder. Just forty minutes, thanks very much.

The lift was good right at launch and I pinned off at 1,000' after being pulled up by Bobby for the third day in a row. He stated to the folks on the ground that no one deserved a second tow as the lift was so plentiful.

The lift in the first thermal to 5,500' averaged over 400 fpm. Then the lift slowed down but soon almost everyone was up over 8,500'. We had to hang out for another twenty minutes but still were able to take the first start window at 7,000' and then quickly find a 300+ fpm to over 8,000'.

The course was to the northwest to Montezuma Peak, south to the off ramp for highway 84 at I8 and then back east to the Francisco Grande hotel. It was possible to stay north of the course line on the first leg to stay out of the cultivated fields out of Maricopa.

I raced following about eight pilots, four of who I could see, toward the north side of Maricopa. It took fifteen kilometers before those of us behind found 300+ fpm to get back up from 3,500' just on the dry east side of Maricopa.

I climbed back up to 7,000' with Bruce and Dustin and another pilot a little higher. We headed northwest again and just over the northwest corner of Maricopa we came in over eight pilots struggling at least three thousand feet below us. We had just flown over the lead gaggle.

The lift was a little over 100 fpm above these guys so Dustin, Bruce and I headed toward the big mountain and over the alluvial fan that spreads out from it to the south and east. I have been over this area a number of times and always found good lift before getting to the mountain side itself.

The lift before the hill side was only 100+ fpm and after gaining 500' I followed Bruce and Dustin in to the mountain face. I had seen one of them start climbing well so I went for it at about 4,000'. We were in the lead by far.

Getting to the hill side I didn't find any lift. Bruce and Dustin continued after the brief episode of lift to the west side I followed but didn't find any thing and had to land way back off road to the west of the mountain and on Indian land. Fortunately I found a nice open area to land without having to negotiate too many saguaro cactus.

Walked out about three miles on a jeep track just in time to find Belinda driving up a dirt road that connected to the jeep track. We drove back in to pick up the gear and glider.

A great romantic adventure for our anniversary.

Other more patient pilots got up on the mountain but not as high as we have been before, merely to about 9,000' and then they headed south along the low north-south range finding little if any lift. Dustin mentioned that he faced an 18 kmh east wind as he got to the second turnpoint and after working an hour to get to 6,000' being pushed to the west still landed at the turnpoint. The winds were forecast to be very very light today.

Preliminary results:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 94.48 917
2 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed RX 4 89.76 881
3 JD Guillemette Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 89.14 880
4 Bill Soderquist Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 88.79 876
5 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 87.49 864
6 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 87.61 861
7 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 86.69 852
8 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 86.56 846
9 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 86.05 840
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 85.94 835

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3258
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3022
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 2992
4 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2871
5 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 2827
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 2635
7 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2626
8 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 2487
9 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2439
10 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed RX 4 2405

We also had an unfortunate incident where a pilot clipped a tree on landing out. He was unconscious and was helicoptered to the hospital. Larry Bunner was on the scene quickly and stated later that the pilot and John Simon got themselves in a situation where they did not have good landing options.

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2016, 10:14:44 MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Rescored with proper track logs

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

Task 4 from Thursday redone:

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:19:24 979
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 01:19:31 956
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:19:36 946
4 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:19:48 931
5 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 01:20:22 923
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:23 912
7 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:27 903
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:22:02 879
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:22:48 867
10 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 01:28:11 805

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 2409
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2341
3 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2161
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 2160
5 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2157
6 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 2049
7 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2043
8 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 1981
9 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 1808
10 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 1771

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 15, 2016, 9:00:04 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 5, preliminary results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time km/h Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:19:24 52.2 979
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:19:36 52.1 952
3 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:19:48 51.9 937
4 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 01:20:22 51.6 928
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:23 51.5 916
6 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:27 51.5 906
7 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:22:02 50.5 882
8 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:22:48 50.0 869
9 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 01:28:11 47.0 806
10 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:30:47 45.6 769

Not Yet Processed: Glen and Kevin Carter

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2347
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2162
3 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 2161
4 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2160
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 2049
6 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2045
7 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 1986
8 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 1808
9 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 1777
10 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 1732

Task 4 sport:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 01:07:35 1000
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 01:42:07 579
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 01:58:53 452
4 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko   334

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 2671
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 1869
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 928
4 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 503

Kelly and the cart

September 15, 2016, 8:36:38 pm MST

Kelly and the cart

Kelly took the cart with him

cart|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber

We watched Kelly Myrkle launch today as he was two pilots in front of me. As he rose up the cart was attached to the left corner of his base tube. He had a wireless push to talk on his base tube which has a cable on it and it attached to one of the hose handles.

Kelly released the tow line at a height about equal to the size of a cart and came right down with the cart to the side.

Severely bent, not kinked, down tube. Sail, small rip. Could be other issues but the glider looked good. He was quickly offered another Gecko from Jonny and Kraig Coomber and with a lot of assistance was quickly back in the air to win the day in sport class.

Discuss "Kelly and the cart" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 14, 2016, 10:25:58 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 4

Results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Day 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 67.62 640
1 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 67.55 640
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 67.24 637
4 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 41.98 483
5 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 40.84 480
6 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 41.41 479
7 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 40.80 474
8 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 39.67 467
9 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 39.97 465
10 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 38.75 448

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 1448
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1390
3 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1388
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 1377
5 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 1350
6 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 1339
7 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1332
8 Phill Bloom Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1326
9 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 1300
10 Glen Volk Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1268

Sport Day 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 01:58:43 34.72 775
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko   25.34 390
3 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko   7.54 169
4 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2   5.00 123

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 1671
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 1290
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 476
4 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 169

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 11, 2016, 10:07:59 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 1

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016

Too long a task and against the wind. I knew right away that we would not make it back unless the lift was really much better than usual and we started getting to 11,000' as forecast right away. That didn't happen.

The task was a triangle to the east then south then back to the Francisco Grande Hotel, 130 km. Quite a task for days that end around 5 PM and the tasks start at 2 PM.

We started launching a little after 12:45 PM and there was plenty of lift. Launching eleventh I was able to climb right up to 7,500'. The wind was west northwest at about 8 mph so a bunch of us were soon on the south eastern edge of the start cylinder.

We pushed back up wind getting down to 6,000'; but were able to get back up to 7.400' in time for the first start time. Zac went out in front by far. Larry Bunner next, then me and I was followed by the rest of the pilots. Pilots bunched up and we found 200 to 300 fpm over Casa Grande, getting back over 6,500' and continued east. I chased a dust devil that gave out before I got to it and ended up 500' to 1,000' below my gaggle.

There was a reasonable amount of lift out on the flats and I went chasing the gaggle to see if I could find some. A couple of hundred foot per minute got me close and the lift was spread out and there were not consistent cores. Even closer by the time I got to the first turnpoint out over no man's land 7 km from the Cactus airport.

We headed south for the hills which were small bumps as we approached them from the north. But the bumps were hot and at almost 400 fpm and back to 7,300' it was time to race down the ridge line. Another 380 fpm north of Newman Peak and back to 7,300' before heading across the gap to Picacho Peak and what looked like it might be the last good lift of the day as we would soon be on the return leg into the wind over the flats and irrigated areas,.

Took the 400 fpm to 8,800' which was the highest so far. Jonny left early below a few of us. Later Larry with Kevin Carter below him would get to 10,500' staying at Picacho until he couldn't get any higher. Smart move. He had forecasted the 11,000' so he needed to get high to show that he was correct.

We thought we were pretty smart to let Jonny go out in front low and stay in the lift that much longer, but Larry was smarter.

Catching the edge of the 15 km cylinder around the next turnpoint John Simon and I headed northwest over a small range. It didn't work. About half way through it I saw a pilot turning to the south over more no man's land. I headed right for him. Jonny was working up slowly low on the small range.

The lift averaged less than 150 fpm and we were drifting back in the 5 mph head wind. But it was easy flying and the lift  had been very comfortable all day. John Simon headed out without climbing much with us and we saw him later on the ground not too far down the course line.

There was a cu to the west and I dearly wanted to go to it but no one else seemed to be inclined to do so. It was over the no mans land but we were high enough to make it as it died out. It was off the course line a bit but the only nearby cu we had seen all day.

Jonny headed out and we all followed along the course line all spread out. I was way to the west hoping the there would be lift toward where that cu had been. Jonny out in front finally found some light lift and I came in under him (I had been over him since the first turnpoint although he took a later clock) at 900' AGL to find 80 fpm and a head wind. I climbed 900' back to 3,500' and as I watched the four or five guys over head head north west I headed also in that direction.

Again back down to 900' AGL I found 175 fpm to 3,900' but that was it. I went on glide to land about 33 km short. Jonny geot to within 15 km. Larry within 17 km. No one made goal.

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.91 916
2 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.72 912
3 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.29 909
4 Phill Bloom Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 119.95 906
5 Glen Volk Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 119.54 905
6 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 116.52 875
7 Kevin Dutt   115.18 859
8 Alex Cuddy   112.48 825
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 112.47 820
10 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 107.09 737
11 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 103.81 700
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 102.94 687
13 Sergey Kataev Wills Wing T2C 99.30 641
14 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 95.26 604
15 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 95.04 598

Task 1 sport:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 39.00 900
2 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 38.72 896
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 13.36 353

2016 Funston Air Races »

August 10, 2016, 8:53:13 CST -0500

2016 Funston Air Races

If a tree falls in the forest

Facebook|Funston Air Races 2016|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Zac Majors

I heard the results but where was the PR before the event? This was it: http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?p=390003

The results were:

Topless:

1st Jonny Durand Jr.
2nd Kraig Coomber
3rd Zac Majors

King posted:

1st Zac Majors
2nd Jonny Durand.
3rd Kraig Coomber

Pictures from the race: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10210598482102372&set=pcb.10210598510343078&type=3&theater

Discuss "2016 Funston Air Races" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The proud grandparents

October 19, 2015, 8:44:19 MST -0600

The proud grandparents

Bill and Molly at Andy Jackson with Kraig Coomber and their baby

Facebook|Kraig Coomber

Discuss "The proud grandparents" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 7 »

September 19, 2015, 10:42:30 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 7

Pedro doesn't make goal

Chris Zimmerman|competition|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

Task 7 (those at goal):

  Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:27:52 1000
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:29:23 960
3 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 02:29:23 959
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:33:59 882
5 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:47:12 858
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 03:03:15 803

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 5765
2 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 5692
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 5599
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 4985
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 4908
6 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 4780
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4597
8 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 4562
9 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 4508
10 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 4097

In a surprise victory Jonny Durand won the competition after Pedro led it all week. Pedro was three kilometers short.

Fred Kaemerer won the day and overall in the ATOS class.

Floyd Fronius won the Goat/Superfloater class overall.

In a surprise victory Chris Zimmerman won the day in the Swift class and overall (by 17 points out of 5847), and is the Swift Class National Champion. For the first time in like forever the class was very competitive.

John Maloney won the last day which was worth almost nothing. Zachary Hazen is the overall winner in sport class.

Zac Majors is the Class 1 open national champion.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 6 »

September 18, 2015, 10:33:50 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 6

Guess who got the most leading points for the day.

competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

Task 6 (those at goal):

# Name Glider SS ES Time Dist.
Pts
Lead.
Pts
Time
Pts
Arr.
Pos.
Pts
Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 14:30:00 16:52:29 02:22:29 656.3 45.9 240.6 43.0 986
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 14:30:00 16:52:34 02:22:34 656.3 45.2 238.3 29.5 969
3 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 14:30:00 16:52:54 02:22:54 656.3 41.4 234.0 20.2 952
4 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 14:30:00 16:53:22 02:23:22 656.3 47.2 229.8 14.2 948
5 Tony Armstrong Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 14:15:00 16:56:32 02:41:32 656.3 56.9 156.7 10.8 881
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 14:15:00 17:00:27 02:45:27 656.3 60.1 145.5 9.1 871

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 5022
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 4805
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 4780
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4717
5 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3953
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 3934
7 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 3908
8 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 3821
9 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 3705
10 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 3686

Fred made goal in the ATOS class and flew with the finishing class 1 pilots. He leads over all.

Floyd was the only pilot to fly in the Goat/Super floater class today.

Chris and Bruce made goal in the Swift class. So that means that the overall in Swift is very tight. Brian hasn't reported yet but should still be in the lead.

No one made goal in the sport class. Zach was the furthest out. He leads the class.

Boise state played four quarterbacks today as they won 52 to 0.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 6 »

September 18, 2015, 9:49:45 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 6

A beautiful day

Filippo Oppici|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Mike Degtoff|PG|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-476979632

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/18.9.2015/20:34

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1266834

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/blog__day_6

https://airtribune.com/play/1053/2d

We were down to three Dragonflies and no trikes so they opened up the launch to an hour and a half between the first ordered launch and the first start gate. I launched near last so it was great to have plenty of time in the air to get ready. Didn't really need it as there was good lift to 6,900'.

Mike Degtoff gets a shot of me taking off.

Apparently I had the best lift around because it wasn't long before I had a lot of friends. The winds were light and the sky was blue except for all the high clouds, i.e. no cu's, so it was good to find friends.

Forty five minutes in the air in the start cylinder, and I took the first start time four minutes late with half a dozen other pilots. I was not too worried about this putting me at a disadvantage after the previous day where I lead out three times and the third time put me on the dirt.

We worked 300 fpm before the Casa Grande Mountain and then found almost 300 fpm over the south end of the mountain. When the lift petered out I headed east out in front and by myself. 10 km on glide I went over a land fill. Down to 1,400' AGL I found 250+ fpm which gets me back to 5,000'. All the other pilots who were with me at Casa Grande Mountain had rejoined me.

A couple of kilometers down the course line a few of the pilots from the second start time joined us, which should be helpful. I left 200 fpm with 5,700 following after Ryan and a couple of other pilots. Filippo was not far below and I followed him but we didn't get much and then we saw Ryan climbing at the turnpoint and came in under him and another pilot.

It was less than 200 fpm to 5,000' at the turnpoint. There were plenty of pilots around as most of the pilots from the second start were now nearby. As we headed west into a 6 mph quartering head wind it didn't look like we had an easy leg. Lots of green fields, we were going slow and not getting too high.

There was a couple of pilots low out in front of about a dozen of us so we had a few spotters. We worked 200 fpm to 5,400'. I got tired of the weak lift and when none of the pilots over my head would go I headed out on my own.

Six kilometers later there was a wind change to 10 mph out of the north as we headed west. We climbed to 5,200' at 200+ fpm. There was nothing on the ground other than bare fields and green fields and it was not clear exactly where to go. Again I got tired of the weak lift with the pilots above not willing to take the lead, so I headed out again.

We were getting close to the 10 km cylinder at the Baker turnpoint. I found 150 fpm and climbed to 4,400' There were about a half a dozen pilots nearby. Inside the Baker turnpoint cylinder are some very reliable hills out on the reservation. You don't want to land on the reservation, as they might confiscate your glider.

From 4,400' I lead out once again and headed into the reservation and toward the hills sides. I was on my own. Down to 2,900' I got to the hills and facing northwest I found 140 fpm over hot rocks. I wanted to stay up and didn't want to have to glide out to the flats and away from the saguaro cactus so I hung in the weak lift. For about five minutes I was alone but then Filippo, Pedro, Jonny and a couple of other pilots joined me.

Jonny went out in front and while I was climbing at 300 fpm, he found 600 fpm. I joined him and soon three of us were at 6,300' and Pedro and Filippo were at least 1,500' below us. The three of us headed northwest along the ridge line and toward the next set of small hills.

We stopped for 300 fpm and then saw Pedro and Filippo. They must have hit a boomer as they were right up with us. We joined them back a bit for 300 fpm to 7,200'.

We raced to the north most set of small hills and when we got there there was again 300 fpm. We climbed up with me on the bottom now and Pedro and Fillipo left first. I think maybe the other pilot was Kraig Coomber. Jonny hung around for a few more minutes of turning. I could not figure out why. Did he want to stay in second place? I don't think so.

There was a giant shadow from the thick high clouds on the way to goal but we were so high that it didn't matter. Six pilots made goal. A nineteen kilometer final glide.

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2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 5 »

September 17, 2015, 9:52:53 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 5

The results

Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

Task 5:

  Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:26:25 942
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 02:35:15 917
3 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 02:36:14 899
4 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 02:46:04 817
5 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:46:11 813
6 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:52:01 786
7 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 02:51:27 784
8 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 03:05:32 764
9 JD Guillemette Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 03:10:19 755
10 Jim Weitman Will Wing T2C 144 03:06:52 749

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 4074
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 3867
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 3816
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3738
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 3556
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 3548
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3425
8 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 3310
9 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 3306
10 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 3136

Four of five sport class pilots made goal with John Maloney winning the day. Zach Hazen is in first overall.

Chris Zimmerman won in the Swift Class for the first time. Brian Porter is in the lead overall. Only two of the Swifts out of four made it back to goal.

Peter Cairns was the one ATOS to make it back to goal (out of two). Fred Kaemerer leads overall by a few points.

No results from the Goat/Super floater class. I saw them in the start cylinder having trouble climbing.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 5 »

Thu, Sep 17 2015, 8:45:44 pm MDT

Cory's story

Øyvind Ellefsen|Davis Straub|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Zac Majors

Day 5: Long flight today. I landed after 5 hours in the air. The task was an out and return with an extra turnpoint. I took the early launch and got in the main gaggle…for a little while anyway. We all topped out in the start and went on a long glide upwind to get repositioned before the first start clock but we didn't hit any lift for a long time. I ended up near the bottom of the stack in 200fpm and when the others went on glide I was still too low to feel like chasing them. I ended up taking the second start from around 5000'with Davis Straub and Greg L Dinauer. We glided out over Casa Grande and hit a climb that wasn't too great and Davis left shortly after. I stayed and climbed with JD and Greg. This was slow and it allowed the guys from the 3rd clock to catch up.

I joined a gaggle that had Jeff Bohl and Alfredo Grey in it and we flew together for a long time. I headed for the Casa Grande mountain and was sinking like a stone until I saw Kraig Coomber climbing just ahead of me. That climb eventually got us over 7k. We tagged the first turnpoint and were on our way to the second when we joined another group that included Ryan Voight and Zac Majors (who had taken the 4th start). I kept coming in low after every glide (maybe something to do with my harness lol) So I had to climb as fast as I could and then leave early if I wanted to keep up with the group.

After I tagged the second turnpoint and turned around to come back I saw Jim Weitman and Jonny Durand and went over to join them. Jonny left soon after and Jim and I followed. I don't remember what happened after that but I ended up flying with Jeff and Greg and Oyvind. We tagged the third turnpoint and headed for the Casa Grande mountain but we were low. I spotted Olav climbing before the mountain and was able to get there and climb enough to get to the mountain. I couldn't find a good climb from the mountain and left on glide at 4400'. I glided to the deck and landed 6km short of goal. A very enjoyable flight.

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2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 4 »

September 17, 2015, 7:05:28 MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 4

The results

Brian Porter|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Fred Kaemerer|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time km/h Distance Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 01:51:19 42.7 81.41 986
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:51:23 42.7 81.41 969
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:51:24 42.6 81.41 960
4 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:51:37 42.6 81.41 948
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 01:52:33 42.2 81.41 925
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:53:21 41.9 81.41 912
7 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 01:53:17 41.9 81.41 911
8 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:05 42.0 81.41 906
9 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:28 41.9 81.41 895
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144     81.01 622
11 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5     80.74 604
12 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011)     76.80 578
13 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 03:09:48 25.0 81.41 564

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 3175
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 3081
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2925
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 2899
5 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2869
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 2764
7 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2711
8 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 2701
9 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2614
10 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 2546

Fred Kaemerer leads Peter Cairns in the ATOS class. Brian Porter has the overall lead in the Swift class. Floyd in the Goat leads in the Goat/Super floater class. The Sport class is not fully scored yet.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 3 »

September 15, 2015, 11:01:48 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 3

Results

competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Patrick Kruse|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time km/h Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:05:12 32.7 75.75 889
2 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 03:00:17 22.7 75.75 805
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144     71.06 726
4 Patrick Kruse Wills Wing T2C 144     69.84 718
5 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154     58.93 640
6 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144     55.39 623
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144     54.39 616
8 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154     54.31 612
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144     53.07 596
10 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144     52.51 578

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 2191
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 2135
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1993
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 1975
5 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1957
6 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1910
7 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 1854
8 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 1817
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 1792
10 Patrick Kruse Wills Wing T2C 144 1747
11 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 1741
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 1718
13 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1688
14 Robert deGroot Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1660
15 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 1642
16 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 1617
17 Jeffery Bohl Wills Wing T2C 144 1575
18 Tony Armstrong Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1549
19 Steven Pearson Wills Wing T2C 144 1545
20 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 1534

Brian won the Swift class and leads overall. The Goat/ Super floater class didn't fly. John Maloney who just got here today made goal in the Sport Class and leads overall.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 2 »

September 15, 2015, 7:19:51 MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 2

Results - Steve Pearson wins the day

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Kendall|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

https://airtribune.com/2015-santa-cruz-flats-and-mark-knight-memorial/results/task1038/day/class-1

Task 2:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Steven Pearson Wills Wing T2C 144 50.73 538
2 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 48.61 533
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 45.54 497
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 43.62 480
5 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 38.43 440
6 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 37.96 437
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37.92 436
8 Robert deGroot Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 36.15 418
9 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat Carbon 12.7 35.10 405
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 34.50 396

Cumulative:

1 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 1381
2 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 1373
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1371
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1328
5 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 1274
6 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1256
7 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 1235
8 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 1234
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 1141
10 Steven Pearson Wills Wing T2C 144 1127
11 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1120
12 Robert deGroot Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1119
13 Tony Armstrong Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1118
14 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 1110
15 JD Guillemette Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1081
16 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1044
17 Kenneth Andrews Wills Wing T2C 144 1031
18 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 1029
19 Jeffery Bohl Wills Wing T2C 144 1021
20 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 996

Steve Pearson and Ryan Voight were by far the last pilots to go out on the course. Larry Bunner was early and almost went down at the second turnpoint but found 1,500 fpm over a power station.

Bruce Barmakian won the day in the Swift category. All the Swifts made it into goal with their triangle task. Bruce is in the lead overall.

Most of the Sport Class didn't fly given the launch conditions with nearby virga earlier.

It's not clear what's up with the Goat/Super floater class.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 2 »

September 14, 2015, 9:26:25 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 2

Iffy at launch and then a blue hole

Jamie Shelden|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015

Greg Dinauer|Jamie Shelden|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015

Greg Dinauer|Jamie Shelden|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/2015/09/day-2.html

Photo by Jamie Shelden.

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/blog__day_2

Setting a task proved to be quite difficult with a forecast of southwest winds at 17 knots up near cloud base at 8,000'.

Then at launch the Swift and Super floater pilots didn't get ready in time and that stacked up every one behind them. In addition there was a little squall to the south with some virga and there were other threatening clouds nearby. There was a little spit of rain and the launch kept being suspended. The winds at launch were very light and there was no sign of the forecasted higher winds up above.

Launching continued to be slow. Only the open class pilots in the ordered launch were ready and prepared to launch. Everyone else was taking their own sweet time.

Pedro was the first pilot in the early bird window which cause a bit of controversy because pilots thought that pilots in the top ten (and Pedro was in first) couldn't launch in early bird (besides all the early bird launch time had been eaten up by the Swifts, etc.)

With time running out for pilots to get the first launch time the order launch started moving just as Mitch broke a prop on one of the two trikes clipping a bush on launch.

Finally we got going, but by the time I launched Larry Bunner, who was in early bird, was getting the first start clock. Fortunately I quickly found strong lift at 400 fpm and climbed with Dangerous Dave Gibson to 8,000'. We raced to the edge of the 10 KM start cylinder for the third start a half hour after I launched and were only a few minutes behind the window opening.

At 90 to 100 km/h we raced to the cu's near the hills northeast of Casa Grande. The winds were 11 to 12 mph out of the southwest, much lighter than forecast. There were wispies near the mountain and fuller clouds further south of the course line. Dave behind me headed further south as I went for the wispies, hoping that they were growing. Dave found good lift.

The wispies were working and I found 200 fpm then 250 fpm near the optimized turnpoint of the 24 km radius point. The wind was down to 7 mph now out of the west northwest heading back toward the next turnpoint at the Sarita airfield. It was a big blue hole ahead.

There were wispies at the edge of the blue hole further south and I headed for them from 4,800'. But even though I kept going from wispies to wispies, I found no lift. Soon I had to land just west of the Sarita airfield. Apparently Dave landed nearby.

Other pilots who started earlier were north of us in weak lift having not ventured toward the turnpoint.

No results yet. Heard that Olav Opsanger was 1.5 km for goal. No one at goal. Kraig Coomber about 5 km from goal.

Jim Weitman, Greg Dinauer, David Straub. Photo by Starr.

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2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 1 »

Mon, Sep 14 2015, 8:57:00 am MDT

Results

Øyvind Ellefsen|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Gerry Pesavento|Greg Dinauer|Greg Kendall|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Patrick Kruse|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

There is a glitch on the Airtribune server, so the results aren't on-line yet.

Class 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 01:35:40 1000
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:55 911
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 01:41:09 900
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:41:36 891
5 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:42:26 873
6 Tony Armstrong Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:42:37 864
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:42:34 860
8 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:43:30 855
9 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 01:44:48 840
10 Oyvind Ellefsen Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 01:43:44 837
11 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 01:44:56 832
12 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:47:37 803
13 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 01:47:40 799
14 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:48:37 795
15 Kenneth Andrews Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:11 755
16 Jd Guillemette Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:56:48 729
17 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 01:58:52 718
18 Patrick Kruse Wills Wing T2C 144 01:56:33 717
19 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:57:48 712
20 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat 12.7 C 02:01:42 699
21 Grant Emary Wills Wing T2C 02:07:05 668
22 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:05:40 649
23 Gerry Pesavento Wills Wing T2C 144 02:07:52 646
24 Jeffery Bohl Wills Wing T2C 144 02:07:16 645
25 Steven Pearson Wills Wing T2C 144 02:21:54 587
26 Jim Weitman Will Wing T2C 144 430
27 Cory Barnwell Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 394
28 Robert Degroot Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 388
29 Jay Devorak Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 344
30 Alfredo Grey Wills Wing T2C 329
31 Michael Williams Wills Wing Sport 2 152
32 Mike Jefferson Wills Wing T2 144 21

Scoring issues with Sport class, no Class 4 reports yet, ATOS class not fully reported, some missing from open class.

Technical Advisory: Malibu bottom upright fitting wire wear issue »

August 26, 2015, 8:11:37 MDT

Technical Advisory: Malibu bottom upright fitting wire wear issue

Replace the fitting

Kraig Coomber|technical advisory

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> sends:

Applies from: 17th August, 2015

Applies to: Any Moyes glider using round uprights.

Inspection: Whenever an upright is broken or bent it may cause damage to the top and bottom upright fittings, these parts should be inspected closely and replaced at any sign of wear or damage.

Service Requirement: Replace bottom upright fitting after 300 hours or if wire slot widens to greater than 4.8 mm.

It has been bought to our attention of a potential problem of the bottom upright fitting on gliders with round uprights. The wear has occurred on the slot where the ball swage fits into.

The photo shows a fitting from a glider with 600+ hours airtime where the slot has been worn and widened.

The photo shows a broken fitting from a training glider.

It is now mandatory to replace the fitting when the opening exceeds 4.8mm or after 300 hours airtime.

Hang gliders coming from California to Florida

April 27, 2015, 7:56:46 PDT

Hang gliders coming from California to Florida

Get your glider from LA to Groveland

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Kraig Coomber|Quest Air

Konrad Heilmann writes:

We're doing the hang glider carrying trailer thing from LA to Quest again this year. So if someone wants to ship a glider from the west coast to the Quest Air Open National Championships and the Flytec Race and Rally (and back) they should contact Jonny Durand or Kraig (Jonny Durand <<jonnyjnr80>>, Kraig Coomber <<kraig>>). Gliders need to be at Kraig's in LA not later than May 4th and I plan to start the trip on May 5th. Planned arrival is Thursday the 7th.

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Instant VG improvement

October 20, 2014, 8:24:16 MDT

Instant VG improvement

The pulley needs replacement

Jonathan Dietch|Kraig Coomber|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wills Wing

Jonathan Dietch <<nmerider>> writes:

A few days ago, the VG on my T2C 144 started going all clunky after about the 10th pull on the rope. It got progressively worse with each iteration but only when I'd pull on tension and not when I'd back off. I had no clue what was causing this and after I landed I assumed it was the cover bag tied in front of the X-bar joint impinging on the floating VG pulley. However, this seemed less than believable since I have done hundreds of such flights with no incidents. My T2C airframe was built in 2009, and I am well into the 380-hour range of the second after retiring the first sail with 500 hours on it.

I decided it was time to replace the rear VG rope and inspect the right-hand control bar leg for possible snags or twists. When I removed the stainless bushing from the corner bracket I got a surprise. The little ball bearing had all of the balls on one side of the race which explained the eccentric action when I'd pull tension. It then fell apart and I took the photo with my cell phone. I replaced the bearing with a spare that had 200 hours on it from another glider and the next flight yielded lower VG friction than at any time in the past 400 hours.

I ran into Steve Pearson at Andy Jackson and mentioned all of this. He told me something to the effect that he replaces his every few hundred hours and that these are stock bearings that can be purchased in small quantities as low as $2 per bearing. Longer lasting ceramic versions can be picked up for a lot more money. After some researching it appears the standard designation is something like R1810ZZ which produces the same size bearing that Wills Wing lists as 20P-1270 in its price list. I bought four on FleaBay for $6.56 ppd. These are also commonly used in R/C helicopters and may be found at some hobby retailers.

Meanwhile, an inspection of all the Delrin ball bearing pulleys revealed that most of these had around 4X the amount of play as a new pulley. I will be replacing 7 more pulleys shortly. My T2C 144 airframe has roughly 890 hours and most of the VG pulleys are the originals. It works great with the newer corner bracket pulley but the last thing I want is another jam in flight.

No way I'm spending $50 on boutique pulley when I can buy steel versions for $1.75 each then just swap 'em every few hundred hours. I need to get off my ass and do more frequent and thorough periodic maintenance anyway. Pearson's running joke with me is that I'm about the only Wills Wing customer who replaces equipment before it goes obsolete because I wear it out first.

I have scary stories about pilots who didn't inspect and replace critical parts and knew better. I don't want to have any stories like these to tell. I prefer a boring life however I have had more potentially great X/C flights blown because of some teeny tiny maintenance failure on my part. I had good flights but lost great flights at least two dozen times due to this typical slacking.

I just found a good deal on ceramic hybrid bearings for the corner bracket:

http://www.bocabearings.com/bearing-inventory/Radial-Bearings/6771/0-3125x0-5000x0-1562-YCWK18102YSNB2

These are fully sealed for dirty environments and so I bought a set of 4 for $17.89 including postage.

And they make a low-friction version for the more finicky pilot: http://www.bocabearings.com/bearing-inventory/Radial-Bearings/15667/xx-SW1810COS7AF2

The latter kit includes two grease-filled and two oil-filled bearings. I feel safer with grease even though the quantity of oil is probably miniscule, I just don't want oil near my glider or harness.

The grease needs to be broken in but that's for R/C race cars and I doubt the drag from the grease will even be noticed by a pilot whether it's been broken in or not. After I test my new Boca ceramic hybrid bearing I will report back.

Meanwhile I have all new pulley to install for the rest of the VG system. It will be fun to see if I even notice any difference or not. My friend left his Lightspeed with Kraig Coomber for a VG system pulley overhaul and I am anxious to hear how he likes the result of that transformation.

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Sun, Sep 21 2014, 4:55:00 pm MDT

Ends with a bit of a whimper

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/flex/daily/day5.html

Last day with no one at goal:

1. Michael Bilyk Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 44.0km 589.69
2. Oyvind Ellefsen Nor Moyes Rs 3.5 42.9km 579.69
3. Larry Bunner Usa Will Wing T2C 144 42.4km 574.96
4. Joe Bostik Cze Wills Wing T2C144 42.4km 574.69
5. Bill Soderquist Usa Moyes Rs 3.5 41.7km 564.73
6. Rudy Gotés Mex Moyes RX 3.5 41.6km 562.70
7. Mitch Shipley Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 40.7km 546.35
8. Chris Arai Usa Wills Wing T2C 154 39.8km 528.52
9. Kraig Coomber Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 39.2km 516.29
10. Robin Hamilton Usa Moyes RX 3.5 37.9km 490.73

Overdevelopment (as forecast) puts shading all over and a bit of rain to the south of the course line. The day ends up shaded and weak.

The final results:

1. Kraig Coomber Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 4371.35
2. Robin Hamilton Usa Moyes RX 3.5 4320.71
3. Michael Bilyk Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 4235.36
4. Jon Durand Aus Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 3961.66
5. Olav Opsanger Nor Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 3885.14
6. Zac Majors Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 3697.50
7. Bruce Barmakian Usa Wills Wing T2C 136 3691.22
8. Rudy Gotés Mex Moyes RX 3.5 3573.95
9. Chris Arai Usa Wills Wing T2C 154 3275.58
10. James Stinnett Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 3138.43

The Moyes men clean up.

Cory Barnwell wins sport class with a bit of strategy starting early in the open launch and getting out on the course before it gets shut down.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/daily/day5.html

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/day-by-day.html

Brian Porter hangs on to win the Swift class after a scare from Chris Zimmerman.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/open/total/day5.html

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2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2014, 9:31:33 pm MST

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 3, cu's galore

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Flytec 6030|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

The remnants of the hurricane left the area leaving behind enough moisture that we had good looking cu's starting around 9:30 am and lasting all day. The forecast is for the moisture to hang around for a few more days so perhaps we'll have more cu's on Friday and Saturday.

With light to no winds in the forecast, cu's, cloud base maybe up to 7,000' and moderately good lift we called a task back and forth for 60 miles:

The sport class had a smaller version of this task.

We started launching at 12:30 PM with the first start window at 1:50 PM. The lift was light at first but as we got higher it improved until we were all above 6,000' just staying out of the cu's. We would find 200 to 300 fpm near cloud base, nothing to suck us up into the cloud.

Not much of a start at 1:50 as we got low, so almost everyone came back and found much better lift and took the 2:10 start time. There were cu's every where on the course.

I was high next to Zac and we raced as fast as possible to the Casa Grande mountain but the lift there was piss poor. We were working junk when my vario died. Turns out I had created the perfect storm to cause the battery to be flat.

I had installed a 16 GB SD card that also serves as a wifi server in my Flytec 6030 (allowing me to transmit track logs to my phone where they can be emailed to the scorekeeper). The server portion turns off after 5 minutes to keep the battery from being drained if it doesn't hook up with a client. But, I had placed my phone in my boot and turned it on to run the Livetracker24 app with the phone plugged into an add on battery. Previously I had used a dedicated tracker24 but Belinda was complaining that it would die after an hour.

But I had mistakenly left the wifi setting turned on on the phone so that the phone and the wifi server on the SD card in the 6030 were communicating and keeping the wifi server running and running down the battery.

With the 6030 dead I headed back toward the Francisco Grande hoping to get there high enough to land and leave my glider set up. I landed about a kilometer short and hiked the glider back.

Meanwhile pilots who weren't fooling around with wifi servers in their 6030's were out on the course and doing well. We got to see Kraig, then Bruce, then Robin all come in far ahead of the other pilots.

All and all a great flying day after two days of not flying.

# Pilot Team Glider Total
 
1. Kraig Coomber USA Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 2874.23
2. Robin Hamilton USA Moyes RX 3.5 2853.87
3. Michael Bilyk USA Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 2669.18
4. Rudy Gotés MEX Moyes RX 3.5 2524.98
5. Jon Durand AUS Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 2494.27
6. Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 2431.27
7. Bruce Barmakian USA Wills Wing T2C 136 2388.53
8. Matt Barker USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2309.79
9. Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2308.08
10. Chris Arai USA Wills Wing T2C 154 2267.69

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2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2014, 2:24:24 pm MST

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race

After two days

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Chris Arai|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

1. Robin Hamilton Moyes RX 3.5 1875.36
2. Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 1874.23
3. Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 1839.52
4. Jon Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 1701.51
5. Rudy Gotés Moyes RX 3.5 1684.46
6. Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 1644.77
7. Chris Arai Wills Wing T2C 154 1581.40
8. Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1538.76
9. Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 1492.31
10. James Stinnett Wills Wing T2C 144 1480.66

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Moyes customer support?

August 22, 2014, 7:57:54 MDT

Moyes customer support?

Discounts on replacement sails?

Belinda Boulter|Facebook|Kraig Coomber|Wills Wing

Belinda Boulter|Facebook|Kraig Coomber|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Belinda Boulter|Facebook|Kraig Coomber|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

I believe that it has been amply established that Moyes had a problem with some of their sail material: http://ozreport.com/18.138#0. I have seen a number of examples. It turns out that Belinda saw a pilot at the 2014 Big Spring Nationals gluing fiber strands back to his Moyes sail. I asked him about this. Eduardo Panuco wrote:

My sail is the Code Zero from Moyes. The carbon fibers are exposed and coming out. I asked Moyes about this problem and they told me to glue them back with Loctyte glue, the flexible version.

Belinda says that Eduardo told her that he couldn't afford to buy a new sail.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/118763844883239/permalink/680731618686456/

Jerry Furnell: Thanks for posting Davis. I too read the Moyes blurb and thought... really? What a weird way to announce it. As an Australian I'd prefer to support Moyes, but I have recently ordered a new Wills Wing T2C instead of an RX simply because all the older Moyes/Airborne sails in my club are delaminating and Queensland sunshine demands UV protection.

My question is, don't these pilots deserve new sails from Moyes at no cost? The first article linked to above states that Kraig Coomber said there was a manufacturing defect. Shouldn't there be a recall and a cost free replacement?

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Code Zero

July 16, 2014, 6:55:40 MDT

Code Zero

Spinnaker cloth

Facebook|Kraig Coomber|Mike Barber|Raul Guerra

Code Zero is a class of cloth from Dimension-Polyant GmbH (and other manufacturers) and advertised for use in Spinnakers. See here: http://www.dimension-polyant.com/en/Spinnaker_2_6_1.php.  Moyes advertises a version of Code Zero as an option to PX 05. http://moyes.com.au/products/hang-gliders/litespeed-rs.

http://www.bainbridgeint.com/Item.aspx?Item=PRD-900020&PartNo=F6006Z00M

http://www.dimension-polyant.com/en/pdf/DP_Code_Zero_E.pdf

It has been reported that there are delamination problems with some Moyes sails. For example, as I published earlier:

Raul Guerra writes on Facebook:

I don't know about Technora, but I only hope this doesn't happen with the new sail material:

I bought a Litespeed RS 3,5 and this happened. Later I bought a Litespeed RX 3,5 and the same thing happened. I spoke with Mike Barber and he showed me that it happened at Wallaby, too. When I asked Kraig Coomber he told me with my RS it was a manufacturing defect in the fabric and that it would not happen with my new RX, but it did. Anyway, I love my Moyes RS and RX, my Matrix harness and I want this new sail material, also.

Glen McFarlane wrote:

The bottom line Gerolf is that the code zero and I can only say from my experience from having it on a glider is that it did not last long before delaminating very quickly. Technora is over twice the price per m2 of code zero and its great to see that you are now the last manufacturer developing it into their high performance gliders. The bar just keeps rising.

I saw other examples of delamination of Steve Blenkisop's sail, and on other Moyes RS sails. I don't know if the material was PX 05 or Code Zero.

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Moyes moves to Mylar/Technora sails

July 3, 2014, 6:07:29 MDT

Moyes moves to Mylar/Technora sails

You saw Tom's sail earlier and his review

Facebook|Kraig Coomber|Mike Barber|Raul Guerra

http://ozreport.com/18.124#0

Fly Moyes posts on Facebook:

RX Technora ..... Vrrooomm!!!

Raul Guerra writes on Facebook:

I don't know about Technora, but I only hope this doesn't happen with the new sail material:

I bought a Litespeed RS 3,5 and this happened. Later I bought a Litespeed RX 3,5 and the same thing happened. I spoke with Mike Barber and he showed me that it happened at Wallaby, too. When I asked Kraig Coomber he told me with my RS it was a manufacturing defect in the fabric and that it would not happen with my new RX, but it did. Anyway, I love my Moyes RS and RX, my Matrix harness and I want this new sail material, also.

General Motors has recalled 28 million cars this year.

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Glider rides to Americus

May 5, 2014, 7:17:00 EDT

Glider rides to Americus

From California

Kraig Coomber

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> writes:

We are sending a truck and trailer out to Georgia again this year. We still have room on the trailer (and in the truck) if anyone needs something sent out. The truck is leaving California on May 14th with the plan being for it to arrive in time for a practice day on the 17th. We currently have two drivers but would welcome a third. Please contact Kraig at <fly> to make arrangements.

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2014 US National Sport Class Team »

Fri, Jan 17 2014, 7:35:09 am EST

2014 US National Sport Class Team

Fund raiser for the Worlds

CIVL|Flytec 6030|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Steve Kroop|USHPA|US National Sport Class Team 2014

Stephan Mentler <<stephmet>> writes:

I wanted to let everyone know that we have started fund raising for the first ever U.S. National Sport Class Hang Gliding Team. Because of a generous contribution from Steve Kroop at Flytec and support from Kraig Coomber at Moyes U.S.A. anyone who donates $25 will be entered in a raffle. Prizes include a Flytec sweatshirt, Moyes Speed Sleeves, a Flytec Sonic, and the grand prize – a Flytec 6030. We anticipate having some other items as well. All proceeds will be used to help all members of the U.S. National Sport Class Team pay for costs associated with competing in the very first FAI Sport Class Hang Gliding World Championship, in Annecy France.

The final team composition is yet to be determined as the invitation letters were sent out to the top ten ranked sport class pilots last week and invitees have to opt in. Pilots were ranked based upon a national Sport Class pilot ranking system similar to the one used to select Open Class pilots for the U.S. Open Class national team, with the added requirement that they meet the qualifications specified by CIVL. The top ten ranked pilots, in order of their ranking are:

1. Kip Stone
2. Matt Christensen
3. Stephan Mentler
4. Jonny Thompson
5. Dan Jones
6. David Williams
7. Michelle Haag
8. Orian Price
9. Patrick Halfhill
10. Grant Emary

USHPA anticipates as many as six slots. This your chance to help the team and maybe get a Flytec 6030 for $25. Sport Class Team members are not eligible for the raffle. To support the U.S. Sport Class Team and be entered in the raffle, a PayPal link is provided below.

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=XLLF3CTEMSTSC

The raffle drawing will take April 1st.

Ecuador cross country record

September 19, 2013, 6:39:05 MST

Ecuador cross country record

Something to sink your teeth into

Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Mike Glennon|Raul Guerra|record|video

Raul Guerra <<dr.raulguerra>> writes:

Here is the history and video link at national TV interviews of cross country Ecuador.

http://youtu.be/jU2QTDYIhmI

After extensive work in the smile of our friend Jonny Durand, we went to fly at Bototillo Ecuador, my place of flight. Jonny with his experience realizes the convergence line and we went together for this new route with few landing places. Jonny flies 90.8 Km breaking the record for distance in Ecuador.

Jonny departed to Arizona USA to the SCFR, and I kept the memories of this magnificent flight, eager for more. So I decided to try to break Jonny's record, just nine days after we flew. For this purpose I prepared and decided to travel the route by car one day before my flight.

I discover a new pavement road that takes me to find amazing LZ with old trees and beautiful scenarios, this encourages me to tell myself “tomorrow I will land between these centenary trees as the place is magical”.

That's how the day Saturday September 14th, I decided my goal is to land at this WP “The Trees” and it's like after 3 hours of flight I pass by the place where Jonny landed, area very uneven and hilly with few or no places to land.

Since I had already recognized this area the day before I knew I had to go up a bit more to cross the next ridge into the next valley.

At this moment my GPS indicated me that I could reach at WP The Trees, but to go to this WP I had to cross a hill that was in the middle of my way.

Once I crossed that hill I discovered the last thermal smooth, that gave me the height enough to reach my Goal.

Thanks to all my friends and pilots who have flown this route with me since 2004, helping and showing me a better way to do it: Betinho Smith, Dustin Martin, Kraig Coomber, Mike Glennon, 2 Jeff's, Davis Straub, Jonny Durand, are some of my cross country friends who have flown in the area.

Discuss "Ecuador cross country record" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2013 World Record Encampment »

July 17, 2013, 10:30:38 CDT

2013 World Record Encampment

Attila

Attila Bertok|Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Barber|Pete Lehmann|record|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment 2013

Gary Osoba<<wosoba>> writes:

WRE 2013- Who's Flying What?

When the World Championships were held at Big Spring, TX, USA in 2007, Attila Bertok proved to be the very best Flex Wing pilot in crankin' Texas conditions. He'll be picking up the latest Moyes racer from Kraig Coomber and traveling directly to the WRE. Word is he'll also be carrying a second hotly tuned racer for Glen Volk, former US National Champion. Glen flew very impressively at last year's WRE and is an outstanding distance pilot. Will he or Attila be the first to shatter the 500 mile barrier? Another Moyes pilot, current US National Champion Robin Hamilton plans to join the effort during key days. Robin's healing up from a recent shoulder surgery and it's not known yet whether he'll be flying in his Moyes or will bring his Swift.

Former World Record holders for Distance to Goal out of Zapata, Pete Lehmann and Mike Barber, both fly Wills Wing Talons. Of course, Dustin Martin raised the bar last year when he flew the new World Record distance of 475 miles in his T2C. Pete will be swinging for the fence after graciously coaching Jonny Durand on FAI record filings last year, helping him to submit the paperwork detailing the eclipse of his own long-standing record. Mike is trying to make this year's WRE but has had a tight schedule since recently returning from the UK. Up and coming comp pilot Mike Bilyk (11th at the recent Flytec Americus meet) will also be on a T2C for his first WRE. Engineer and pilot OK Price is another Wills pilot, coming fresh off flying trips to the Owens and southern Utah. He'll be "flying for personal bests", but who knows? Records are made to broken and with WRE conditions, anything is possible.

We're especially happy to see current World Record holder BJ Herring, US AIR importer, returning to the WRE to fly In the Rigid Class. He'll be joined by his mentor and current US National Champion, Jim Yokom. We understand that BJ and Jim will be flying the hottest Atos's, in BJ's case the high performance big one that's fast and flat- whether solo or tandem.

A couple of the pilots have asked what I'll be flying this year? I'm on the road and will pick up a fascinating new electrically powered sailplane- the Silent 2 Electro- tomorrow. Then trailer it to the WRE for a Friday arrival.

This auxiliary powered sailplane is the first of it's kind and the first in the US. After electric launch, the motor is switched off and flight as a pure glider begins, Specially approved loggers monitor any further motor use to preclude record filings. Of course in the case of poor pilot judgment and task abandonment, the convenience of a flip switch and the resultant "save" or cruise back home is a real luxury.

What makes the Electro unique is the integral folding prop, which is designed for max simplicity and reliability. It's cleverly engineered so as to contribute negligible drag to the high performing Silent 2 platform.

The original Silent 2 WR was built specially to meet the mass criteria and set World Records in the FAI DU light sailplane category. The prototype was debuted at a prior WRE, after Alisport engineers worked diligently to meet mass requirements including my flying weight- even employing special titanium fittings to trim the final few pounds. It was a great privilege to conduct the flight test program on this glider, then coach US importer Leo Benneti-Lhongini to his first World Records- flown in the prototype from the WRE. This platform has flown very impressively, as noted from the manufacturer's website:

We have an opening for one more pilot at this year's WRE. We keep it small and focused so that participants can max out their effort. Contact me if you'd like to come fly personal best distances, rub shoulders with some of the top pilots in the world, or attempt your own World Record: <wosoba>. There's still time.

Discuss "2013 World Record Encampment" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Kraig Coomber says that he isn't coming to the 2013 US Nationals

July 2, 2013, 7:59:18 CDT

Kraig Coomber says he isn't coming to the 2013 US Nationals

He has a new job at home

Kraig Coomber|US Nationals 2013

The new 2013 US Nationals web site: http://ozreport.com/2013USNationals.php

Pilot list here.

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> writes:

Great to hear you guys are running Big Spring and thanks very much for the invitation. With the arrival of our baby boy last month - Jacob James on 5/20/13, I plan to stay close to home for a while. Thanks again for the invite and best of luck with the comp. I’m sure it will go extremely well.

Flytec Race of Champions

March 11, 2013, 8:43:20 EDT

Flytec Race of Champions

After the Flytec Americus Cup

CIVL|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Quest Air

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/race-of-champions/

Anyone that has been around since the good ole’ days of the Flytec Championship at Quest Air will remember our first Race of Champions in 2007. Back then we invited the top 30 pilots from the Flytec Championship to compete in a 3-day elimination race. Day 1 we eliminated the bottom 10, leaving just 20. Day 2 we eliminated the bottom ten again and of course, the final day it was just the top ten best of the best! We had great fun and thanks to Flytec USA awarded $10,000 in prize money.

Every year since then we’ve wanted to do it again but because we’ve been Rallying, it just wasn’t possible.

Well, now that we’re hanging out in one place this year, we’re really excited to do another 3-day Flytec Race of Champions following the regular 7 day competition at Americus!! Things will be a little different than last time, but at least as much fun. We will invite 30 top pilots from around the world to compete for another very big dollar prize. We don’t have the exact figure yet. We’re working on, and shooting for $10,000 again, but Flytec USA is committed with us to have at least $7,500. If we don’t fill the Race with invited pilots, any remaining spots will be offered to the top 30 pilots at the Flytec Championship – so bring your competitive spirit to that comp to get yourself a spot if you haven’t already been invited.

This year, the Race will be a team event (teams of 2 pilots). But, unlike CIVL Cat 1 comps, YOU get to choose your teammate. You don’t have to pair up with some dork just because he happens to come from the same country – you can team up with your best buddy from the other side of the planet (think Jonny Durand and Kraig Coomber), your fellow factory pilot (Dustin & Zippy) or your bromance (the Jeffs!). The important thing to remember is that, like certain cycling competitions, only the slowest pilot on the team is scored. This will encourage everyone to stick with their teammates – to help dig them out of a hole or just drag their asses along the course. We got this idea from the Brasilians at the last Race of Champions who decided amongst themselves that they would help each other out and split the winnings – on the final day, two of them crossed the finish line wingtip to wingtip and it made for a great show for the spectators.

Discuss "Flytec Race of Champions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Stopped tasks and more

February 6, 2013, 8:32:38 PST

Stopped tasks and more

If you don't like what happens to the scoring when tasks are stopped

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Proposals for scoring stopped tasks here and lots more proposed scoring software changes.

Does it matter? Let's do a little comparison.

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Top twenty all days counting:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 9010
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8871
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 8560
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 8531
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 8249
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8242
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 8131
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 8131
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8128
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8069
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 8031
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7888
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7878
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7854
16 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7842
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 7734
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
19 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7631
20 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7584


Not counting day 5, the day that Pedro protested:

# Name Nat Glider Totals without T5
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 8101
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7963
3 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7812
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 7694
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7654
6 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7553
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 7546
8 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7394
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 7351
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7324
11 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 7296
12 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 7265
13 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 7215
14 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7181
15 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7120
16 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6996
17 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6951
18 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6946
19 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 6924
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 6777


You can see my earlier comparison here.

Discuss "Stopped tasks and more" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2013 Worlds »

January 17, 2013, 7:08:13 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Chasing Roos

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Carol Binder|Filippo Oppici|Flytec 6030|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

I get out to the goal line finish at the airfield at 5 PM. Will competitors make it around the 180+ km course (starting at the edge of the start cylinder) in three hours. The cu's were good at noon but they are gone near the goal and a good ways to the north at 5 PM and there is a head wind.

We hang out under the Red Bull tent until Vicki among forty people spots a glider on the horizon. I run out to the goal line with my lawn chair and set myself up right in the middle. Whoosh, and it is Lukas Bader across all by himself. A minute or so later it's Joergi, a one two finish for the German team like the one two finish yesterday for the Italians. Then right away it's Zac Majors, the first American in.

I go and talk to Zac as slowly a few other pilots come in one at a time sometimes two including Scott Barrett. Zac says that Christian left the thermal that Zac was in high, then later Alex Ploner left and then the thermal turned on to 1,100 fm and they circled up to 12,500'. Later Joergi told me that they had to be sure to stay below 14,000', the best conditions of the competition, even without the cu's.

Zav said that they went on final glide north of the Bogan turnpoint, which is 26 km out. We threw that turnpoint in to keep pilots out of the Parkes CTAF which was closed to us between 16:55 and 18:55 as there is a regional plane landing or taking off there at 17:55.

Zac said at two times he thought that he wasn't going to make it with his 6030 showing that he was making 3.4:1. And he just did make it.

Then Paris and Robin Hamilton come in together. I think Filippo comes in just before them or just after. Three Americans and one Italian in goal. The Americans needing 134 points per pilot to get first place. It looks like Filippo will take third place.

Robin says that he saw Manfred chasing Roos north up the course line. Kraig Coomber was way ahead of everyone, maybe 10 km ahead but pushed too hard and landed just north of Bogan turnpoint.

We keep waiting and then it's Manfred coming in with no on else around. We wait some more and I leave the goal line for the Red Bull tent, shade, and some Red Bull Cranberry favored to help write this article. Finally an Icaro glider is spotted in the distance. And soon Christian and Alex cross the line.

So Manfred has won the Worlds again. Alex likely second. The Americans and the Italians in a tight race for the first team place, with the British (with all their male pilots at goal) in third most likely. Attila was in but I didn't see Jonny.

Top Australian pilot - likely to be Scott Barrett.

The new World Champion (photo by Carol Binder):

2013 Worlds »

January 17, 2013, 7:05:39 AEDT

2013 Worlds

A very tight competition

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

Task 9:

1 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 05:16:07 1000
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 05:23:15 956
3 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 05:36:06 905
4 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:36:58 901
5 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:37:22 898
5 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 05:37:31 898
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 05:39:36 885
8 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 05:40:37 879
9 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 05:39:42 875
10 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:47:33 863
11 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:46:09 862
11 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:46:10 862
13 Lukas Bader GER Moyes Litespeed RS4 05:47:04 860
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 05:48:37 856
15 Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:48:58 854
16 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 05:53:30 849
17 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:50:28 848

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 8163
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8148
3 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7820
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 7775
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7705
6 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 7496
7 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7385
8 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7324
9 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7277
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 7228
11 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 7227
12 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7185
13 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 7183
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 7168
15 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7166
16 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7040
17 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7020
18 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7006
19 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 6977
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 6918

Team:

# Name Total
1 ITA 23874
2 USA 23464
3 AUS 22611
4 GBR 22577
5 AUT 22347

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5509
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4048
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3696
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 3316
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2919
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2198
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1179
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1123

2013 Worlds »

January 15, 2013, 11:11:55 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Task 8:

1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:53:56 997
2 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:54:19 983
3 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 03:54:21 979
4 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:54:23 975
5 Peter Neuenschwander SUI Aeros Combat 13.5 03:55:22 962
5 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:55:25 962
7 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:55:28 960
7 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 03:55:28 960
9 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:55:31 947
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:55:34 946
11 Walter Mayer AUT Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:55:39 945
12 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:56:17 938
13 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 03:55:59 934
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:56:36 931
15 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 03:56:42 930
15 Matjaz Klemencic SLO Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:56:25 930
15 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:56:58 930
18 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:57:12 919
19 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:57:33 916
20 Joerg Bajewski GER Wills Wing T2C 154 03:57:34 912

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 7464
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7192
3 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6922
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 6900
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 6856
6 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 6710
7 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 6676
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 6611
9 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6537
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 6491
11 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6490
12 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6462
13 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6381
14 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6369
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6336
16 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 6322
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6317
18 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 6312
19 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 6303
20 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6265

Teams:

  Name Total
1 ITA 21068
2 USA 21033
3 AUT 20372
4 AUS 20301
5 GBR 20148

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5074
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3616
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3451
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2968
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2568
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1954
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1035
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1014

2013 Worlds »

January 10, 2013, 11:06:33 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

The third task, results

Akiko Suzuki|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Results Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:27:33 970
2 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 02:27:50 956
3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:28:13 948
4 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 02:28:15 941
5 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 02:28:51 933
6 Peter Neuenschwander SUI Aeros Combat 13.5 02:29:19 923
7 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 02:29:32 915
8 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 02:29:58 912
9 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 02:30:00 906
9 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 02:30:06 906
11 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:30:35 898

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 2801
2 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 2724
3 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 2713
4 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 2708
5 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 2689
6 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 2685
6 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 2685
8 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 2680
9 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 2672
10 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2548
11 Yuji Suzuki JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2541
12 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 2503
13 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2492
14 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 2483
15 Suan Selenati ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 2466
16 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2452
17 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 2405
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 2373
19 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2348
20 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 2343

Teams:

1 USA 7954
2 ITA 7848
3 SUI 7700
4 AUS 7605
5 GBR 7231
6 AUT 7219
7 FRA 7177
8 GER 7123
9 JPN 6771
10 CZE 6765

2013 Worlds »

January 9, 2013, 7:22:31 AEDT

2013 Worlds

Stories

Chisato Nojiri|Conrad Loten|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Facebook|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jamie Shelden|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo|video|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.dhv.de/web/piloteninfos/wettbewerb-sport/drachen-szene/live-berichte/weltmeisterschaften-2013-in-australien/

In English here.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4245926707662&set=a.4245902707062.2151191.1270494070&type=1&theater

https://picasaweb.google.com/107932196518838943087/ForbesFlatlandsWorldComp

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151626099224689.609230.752154688&type=3

Opening ceremony: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaaU-DCOwYw

First, Jamie Shelden has a Moyes Litespeed RX 3. Because she is a big girl she wanted a custom version with the big control frame. She's the only one apparently. She has a history with Gerolf Heinrichs and he has not been helpful to here (according to her). She is getting great help from Kraig Coomber, but still there is too much bar pressure. As far as I'm concerned, gliders are always a custom deal.

Second, Wolfgang Siess has a little bit of a crumbling up problem with his outboard carbon leading edge with at the outboard sprog on his Wills Wing T2C. It appears as though the heat here was a bit too much for this leading edge and it wrinkled and cracked and he noticed only after he landed on the first day. He noticed that the leading edge was soft.

He has a new outboard carbon leading edge in now and is getting Swiss Nick's glider shipped here for parts. This is the first time that this has been reported on a Wills Wing carbon leading edge.

Third, Chisato Nojiri from Japan was in in the 52 position at goal on the first day two places ahead of Corinna, to win the day for the women's competition (the Women's Worlds). Kathleen Rigg was in third, the last person to make goal. She had turtled earlier in the launch paddock.

Forbes on the practice day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx_BfnfVQ5c

Prime 7 News here.

The local paper:

http://www.forbesadvocate.com.au/story/1218701/town-welcomes-worlds-best/?cs=719

http://www.forbesadvocate.com.au/story/1219324/gliding-takes-off/?cs=719

http://www.forbesadvocate.com.au/story/1222773/wind-delays-world-titles/?cs=717

http://www.forbesadvocate.com.au/story/1219583/learning-to-fly/?cs=719

Hot Weather, here.

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/298967_4972037346425_1249139164_n.jpg

The team in the lead after the first day:

Low top of lift over the tow paddock on the first day:

Will the USHPA Competition Committee follow their own rules or not?

October 8, 2012, 9:01:03 MDT

Will the Competition Committee follow the rules or not?

Who will be the sixth "man" on the US National team going to the Worlds?

Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paris Williams|PG|Robin Hamilton|USHPA|Zac Majors

You can find the background on the issue of choosing the US National Team for the 2013 Worlds here:

http://ozreport.com/16.154#0

http://ozreport.com/16.161#1

http://ozreport.com/16.161#3

http://ozreport.com/16.165#0

http://ozreport.com/16.167#0

http://ozreport.com/16.168#3

http://ozreport.com/16.168#4

http://ozreport.com/16.192#0

If you waded through the material above you'll see that my argument was that the rules were in error and the SCFR should count for choosing the US National team. The Competition Committee members (and Paris Williams, at least partially) originally made the argument that they should stick to the rules. Now if the Competition Committee follows the inclination of their chairman they are about to go back on the stick-to-the-rules argument and go with the convenient and arbitrary choice, using the interim rankings prior to the SCFR.

Robin Hamilton has challenged the Competition Committee to make the decision about who is on the team based actually on the rules. He has shown that he was not correctly credited with points from the 2010 SCFR and has argued that the rules mean that the 2010 competitions should be counted. If so he would be on the US National team (in the fourth spot).

Criteria (from the rules) for selecting team members are as follows:

1. For international team competitions that begin between April 1st and September 30th, the ranking used shall be the annual race-to-goal rankings as of January 1st in the year that the competition takes place, unless specified otherwise by the CC.

2. For international team competitions that begin between October 1st and March 31st, the ranking for selecting the team shall be the annual race-to-goal rankings adding in the results from sanctioned competitions that occur between January 1st and 4 months prior to the start of the international team competition.

Item 2 is clear in the context of item 1. Any confusion that remains would pertain to the definition of "Pilot rankings" so if we look at that section from the rules:

Pilot Ranking

The USHPA maintains a pilot ranking for each class of Race-to-Goal competition based on objective measurement of a pilot's proven ability to compete against other pilots of proven competitive ability. The purpose of these rankings is to:

· Select pilots for U.S. National teams that will fly in international competitions such as the FAI World Championships.

· Determine the validity of the year’s Race-to-Goal competitions (see Participant Validity section)

· Encourage U.S. hang glider and paraglider pilots to participate in competitions and earn points through their participation.

Rankings are calculated once each year on January 1st, for classes 1 through 5 and each pilot will retain their ranking through the end of the year. A pilot's ranking is based on his total points accumulated in his best four meets from the two years immediately previous to the ranking year. No more than two meet results may be considered from the first year in the two-year cycle. No more than 2 foreign meets may be used in the 2-year cycle. All pilots who compete in sanctioned meets will receive competition points, except invitational meets will not count towards U.S. competition points.

Simplified: The World meet is in January 2013 so 2012 annual rankings are used (meets from 2010 and 2011) adding in results from Jan 2012 through Aug 2012.

In a six person team and excluding the pilots that have declined their spot, the five pilots that have already been notified would be the ones making up the team. If Robin is added then the six person team is according to the rule as written.

Dustin Martin595 (Rob2011)587 (SCF2011)586 (Kel2010)587 (FRR2012)2355
(1)Kraig Coomber660 (BSC2012)588 (FRR2012)515 (FRR2011)506 (SCF2011)2269
(2)Zac Majors582 (Rob2011)572 (Spr2011)560 (For2010)547 (FRR2012)2261
(3)Paris Williams598 (FRR2012)580 (RKM2012)539 (FRR2011)445 (Rob2011)2162
Jeff O'Brien660 (SCF2011)556 (Kel2010)382 (MCu2010)560 (BSC2012)2158
(4)Robin Hamilton502 (SCF2011)532 (BSC2012)546 (FRR2012)512 (SCF2010)2092
(5)James Stinnet506 (SCF2011)459 (FRR2010)449 (San2010)583 (FRR2012)1997
Jeff Shapiro542 (Kel2010)520 (San2010)471 (Rob2011)458 (FRR2011)1991
(6)Mitchell Shipley525 (SCF2011)433 (Spr2011)490 (For2012)488 (BSC2012)1936
Larry Bunner474 (FRR2011)449 (San2010)445 (Spr2011)533 (BSC2012)1901
Josef Bostik507 (FRR2011)445 (SCF2011)423 (FRR2010)469 (BSC2012)1844
Glen Volk492 (SCF2011)477 (Spr2011)439 (FRR2010)433 (BSC2012)1841
Davis Straub515 (Spr2011)455 (Rob2011)415 (FRR2011)399 (SCF2011)1784

The Competition Committee will meet by conference call today (Monday) to determine who is on the team. At least three Competition Committee members are committed to sticking with the actual rules. The rest, who knows?

The US National Champion won't be going to the Worlds

September 25, 2012, 8:35:19 MDT

The US National Champion won't be going to the Worlds

Because the US National Championship doesn't count

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Tom Lanning|US Nationals|Zac Majors

Here is what I think is likely the order in which pilots have been and are being chosen to be on the five or six member US National team to go to the Worlds in 2013 at Forbes, Australia:

Pos Name
1 Kraig Coomber
2 Zac Majors
3 Paris Williams
4 Mitchell Shipley
5 James Stinnet
6 Larry Bunner
7 Josef Bostik
8 Dustin Martin
9 Chris Zimmerman
10 Ben Dunn
11 Robin Hamilton
12 Greg Dinauer
13 Tom Lanning
14 Glen Volk
15 Ricker Goldsboro
16 Davis Straub

In addition, Linda Salamone and Jamie Shelden will go as the female pilots. (Because of the severe restrictions on the number of pilots allowed to fly in the 2013 Worlds, women pilots will in fact take up slots that would have otherwise gone to national team pilots. It is not their personal fault that this is the situation.)

Above is the US ranking prior to the 2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Here are the results of the US Nationals that don't count for the US National team:

# Name
1 Robin Hamilton
3 Ben Dunn
7 Greg Dinauer
10 Chris Zimmerman
11 Dustin Martin
12 Zac Majors
13 James Stinnett
15 Kraig Coomber
16 Glen Volk
19 Davis Straub
20 Mitch Shipley
24 Ricker Goldsborough
28 Larry Bunner
33 Josef Bostik
37 Linda Salomone

I believe that neither Ben, nor Chris, nor Greg, nor Dustin, nor Glen would go to Forbes any way. I could be wrong on that.

This is the US ranking after the Santa Cruz Flats Race:

Pos Name
1 Kraig Coomber
2 Robin Hamilton
3 Zac Majors
4 Dustin Martin
5 Paris Williams
6 Mitchell Shipley
7 James Stinnet
8 Chris Zimmerman
9 Glen Volk
10 Larry Bunner
11 Josef Bostik
12 Jeff O'Brien
13 Greg Dinauer
14 Ben Dunn
15 Davis Straub

Jeff O'Brien wouldn't go to Forbes.

41 Linda Salamone
67 Jamie Shelden.

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2012, 7:23:37 pm MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The task committee calls a short enough task

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Flytec 6030|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results here.

Some members of the task committee were not pleased with my comments about them overcalling the tasks in the article above. But I pressed them somewhat harder today to have a task that brings more pilots back to goal. I was shooting for a 70 km triangle, but we compromised on a 79 km triangle.

I think in general that the task committee was calling too long tasks (except the second day) given the length of the day here in September in Casa Grande. We don't start the task until 1:40 PM (or 2 PM or 2:20), which would be 2:40 PM in an state with daylight savings time. The lift dies around 5 PM, so two hour tasks are appropriate here. All the tasks, other than day two have been much longer (in time and distance). Hopefully the next task committee here will remember that they just can't expand the task to meet their idea of what a proper task is, but will confine the tasks to race tasks that last two hours.

I'm just support for the task committee, and the task committee makes its own decisions, but I do have a voice and I'm sorry that I just wasn't pushing harder for shorter tasks.

The weather forecast was pretty similar to what we've seen here every day but the second day, with no cumulus humilis clouds, very light winds (we've had them every day). The lift would again be weak to begin with around noon and get much better around 2 PM. The XCSkies models (NAM and RAP) are completely incorrect when it comes to calculating the lift (1,100' to 1,200 fpm) every day, so I've given up on them and just use the FSL t-skew (RUC2 model) to get a idea of where the lower inversion will be and when it will lessen. I also get the winds from FSL.

When the extra sunlight and heat (104 degrees, five degrees warmer than normal) on the ground we still have pretty decent lift, and it gets a lot better over a little higher ground.

There were cumulus mediocris in the area shading some parts of our course line, but we weren't worrying about the lift.

I took off at 1:15. The first clock was 1:20 and the last one at 2:40 PM. We added a few extra start times to allow for the fact that one of the tugs was down. Obviously I was not going to make the first clock.

I pinned off at 1,100' AGL in light lift with a few pilots around. It was nice to see that there wasn't just one thermal. The lift was weak as normal but it was no hassle to climb to 4,400'. When the lift slowed down I headed east toward four or five pilots turning about 4 kilometers east of the launch area.

The lift was weak there also but I was at the bottom of the thermal with no one to bother me. The wind was 2 MPH, so it was easy to stay inside the start circle, so I just hung in there. The rest of the pilots left except for Matt Barker and we just stayed in the lift by ourselves and in the perfect position to start when ever we wanted.

As we climbed up over 4,500' many of the pilots who were circling well to the west of us came in under us. The lift was pleasant and without any interference I could thermal as tight as I wanted. As 2 PM approached I saw Rich and Nils go for it. I figured I was on top of the thermal with two other pilots out in front of me, so why not take this clock and let the others follow.

We worked some weak lift on the way to the Casa Grande Hills on our way to the first turnpoint at Arizona City. I was thinking of going back, but the others continued so I went with them.

I found 300 fpm at the south end of the hills and Nils and Rich joined me along with Miller in an ATOS. That was the lift that really got us going as it took us to 6,000'. The turnpoint was to the southeast.

It was nice to find 300 fpm right at the turnpoint, very convenient. Rich headed off to the east of the course line, which I couldn't figure out. Nils stayed behind as I glided toward the black rough low hills before the next turnpoint at Baker to the south west. Rich came in under me as I turned in lift before I got to the hills, but he was now much lower.

I glided over to the hot rocks and found 250 fpm from 3,500'. Rich was really low behind me and I think that I saw him land. Nils came in under me, Miller was way behind. I climbed to 4,500' and then pushed further into the hills to get better lift. But what I got was 900 fpm down.

Finally I had to run away from the high ground to get out closer to the flats in case I didn't find anything. Fortunately down to 2,800' there was 250 fpm that got me to 5,400'. Miller came and joined me. I lost track of Nils and Rich.

I raced over to get the 3 kilometer radius turnpoint and came back to the lift. I lost Miller and climbed back to 5,000' before heading to the no mans land back on the hills to the north. I was ready to run back to the landable and roaded areas to the east if I got flushed again, but on the sunny (west ) side I found 400 fpm to 8,100'. This was the last leg and the numbers were positive for goal thirty kilometers to the north back at the Francisco Grande.

There were still some little  black hills ten kilometers further to the north that I wanted to hit before I went on final glide. The lift there was only 200 fpm, but it got me back to 7,700' twenty kilometers from the goal. I was alone and had been for a while.

I went on best glide, not willing to pull in the bar unless I was in sink. The 6030 said I had it by 2,000', but that kept dropping as I continued on. There was no lift worth turning in, so I just kept the glider at best glide continually watching the vario screen.

I came in with 580' and got to swoop over the hotel to the entertainment of the spectators including Belinda. I was second in right after Pedro. It sure was nice to have a day off yesterday.

The sky was filling up with high thin clouds, and more cumulus mediocris. It got darker and darker as pilots from the later clocks started coming in. Zac had landed before the Baker turnpoint. Dustin landed a few kilometers short. Jeff O'Brien made it in as did Robin Hamilton.  Matt Barker, in third place, landed just short, to his annoyance. Nils landed a little after I did.

The last task:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Chris Zimmerman WW T2C 144 01:37:39 868
2 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 01:44:31 857
3 Robin Hamilton Moyes 01:44:19 781
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 01:44:58 770
5 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 02:08:11 756
6 Michael Bylik WW T2C 02:03:17 707
7 Ryan Voight WW T2C 144 02:03:36 702
8 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS 3.5 02:03:53 697
9 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 02:04:56 686
10 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 02:05:35 679

Total

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes 6023
2 Jeff O'Brien WW T2C 144 5631
3 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 5275
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 5242
5 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 5171
6 Filippo Oppici WW T2C 144 5031
7 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 4929
8 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS 3.5 4778
9 Ryan Voight WW T2C 144 4753
10 Chris Zimmerman WW T2C 144 4721

Discuss "2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 20, 2012, 8:13:27 pm MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The high level clouds, that weren't in the forecast, call for some uncertainty in the task

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Gulgong Classic 2012|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|Zac Majors

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results here .

We saw the clouds early in the morning. There was a disturbance to our south in Mexico where the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms. The local forecast and soaring forecasts don't take these clouds into account, so we have to be a bit careful in choosing a task.

It looked like there would be some good lift, although quite weak and low early, before 2 PM, due to the lower inversion that would gradually lessen. There would not be any cu's in the area, but if the clouds that we saw in the morning didn't block the sun too much, it would get to 102 and that hot plate on the ground would let us get high.

The task committee called a 81 kilometer triangle in the hopes of getting most of us back to the Francisco Grande, irrespective of the uncertainty in the forecast. We'd head south over dry ground to Sunland, then north northeast to a spot on Interstate 10, then northwest back to a spot six kilometers beyond the hotel and then back to the hotel.

Right after the Swifts and ATOSes launched we could tell that the day was weak and low. They were only getting at most 2,000' over launch. This slowed everything down as no one wanted to launch. It took another half hour before pilots basically had to start launching.

When we got into the air it was still weak. For the first twenty minutes after I was pulled up I slowly lost altitude until I was down to 1,700'. Then I and almost everyone else finally found a thermal that was slightly better than 100 fpm. The problem was indeed the middle level clouds that were shading the ground right along our course line and near launch. They were the thickest clouds in the sky and really cut into the lift.

But as we hung on in light lift the clouds were dissipating and moving to the west opening up our course line to direct sun light and giving us a little boost. We found a thermal at 117 fpm that drifted us slowly out of the start cylinder after 2 PM. We left at 5,200' and  raced back at 2:20 to get the last start time and then raced back to our thermal and climbed back to 5,300' before gliding out on our first leg.

I went out early following Fillipo and Ricker toward the hills south of Casa Grande. Ricker and I and I think Robin or Kraig didn't find anything until we got to the south end of the hills and then worked 165 fpm in broken lift back to 4,800'. Dustin, Jeff, Greg, Filippo and others came in under us after working poor lift east of the hills.

Ricker, Robin, Kraig and I found a 175 fpm thermal that was drifting at eight mph toward the south just to the west of the turnpoint. We started at 3,200' and I left the thermal at 5,200' to go back and get the turnpoint, which was only about half a kilometer away. I then headed out in front northeast toward the next turnpoint cross wind to the nine mph northwest wind.

Out in front I found the best thermal of the day so far, 400 fpm at 3:15 PM, fifty five minutes into the task. I climbed to 6,200' and at about the top of the thermal Robin, Kraig, and Filippo came and joined me at my altitude. Dustin and Jeff were stuck back at the turnpoint. Zac was out ahead having taken the second clock.

The four of us headed for the next turnpoint which by then was only eight kilometers away. We stopped for a 180 fpm thermal, and then proceeded to the turnpoint. We were all together at the same altitude and working together. It this point I made a slight error that cost me dearly.

I saw Rich Cizauskas, who started earlier, turning higher a quarter kilometer up the course line and went to him, but he immediately stopped and pressed forward. I went back to my buddies, but they were now 200' over my head. This made all the difference later.

We all pressed ahead after a few turns and with Rich found a strong thermal two and a half kilometers up the course line. It was 300 fpm and it got me to nine thousand feet as it drifted us back downwind of the turnpoint. Lots of other pilots came in way low below us, including Jeff and Dustin.

When I was at 8,500' Kraig, Robin and Filippo left heading up the course line. I had the opportunity to follow them below them, but as I did I found more lift and hung around for another 500'. I lost track of them and was on my own as I headed out. I should have just waited for the pilots below me to catch up. It was getting late as I left the thermal at almost 4 PM and the day shuts down early here on real sun time.

It was a tough slog against the ten mph headwind. I found 300 fpm south east of the hills south of Casa Grande to get to 8,300' but that wasn't enough to get me back around the course. Robin, Kraig and Filippo made it around together to finish first, third and fourth, with Zac at second.

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes 02:24:28 914
2 Zac Majors WW T2C 144 02:36:05 894
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 02:26:16 880
4 Filippo Oppici WW T2C 144 02:26:58 865
5 Glen Volk Moyes RS 3.5 02:38:13 833
6 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS 3.5 02:57:14 703
7 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 02:52:29 678
8 Rich Cizauskas Aeros Combat L 15 03:00:52 673
9 Jeff O'Brien WW T2C 144 02:52:31 671
10 Dangerous Dave WW T2C 144 02:54:37 666

Robin Hamilton moves decisively into the lead.

Totals:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes 4400
2 Jeff O'Brien WW T2C 144 4167
3 Filippo Oppici WW T2C 144 3922
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 3914
5 Zac Majors WW T2C 144 3892
6 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 3814
7 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 3671
8 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 3613
9 Dustin Martin WW T2C 144 3421
10 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 3388

Discuss "2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2012, 9:24:17 pm MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day three, task three, Tuesday

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results will be here later.

Mike Bilyk's photo of Jeff O'Brien, followed by Joe Bostik and Matt Barker on Monday.

I looked at the XCSkies and Dr. Jack forecasts and to me no matter what they say about 1,100 fpm to 1,200 fpm lift it looked like a weak day much like the first day, and not at all like the second day. I accepted the forecast for light winds (which matched what we were seeing from our balcony). I didn't see much of a chance for cu's in the valley, but possible over the mountain.

The main issue would be the low inversion that would be quite definite at noon at 5,200' and would gradually become less drastic during the day but would be enough to keep us from getting high, again out in the valley around Casa Grade. It just did not look like we would get up to the higher inversion unless we went to the mountains.

In spite of my sour news the task committee called a task a little longer than the first day, and as you recall no flex wing made it in to goal on that first day. The nice aspect of the task was that it took us to the mountain range north of the Estrella glider port, which got us to 15,000' last year and allowed pilots to get back to goal without any lift in the valley on the way home. Today it looked like we could get to 11,000' or maybe 12,000' on the range.

As I had forecasted (looking at the FSL t-skew) the lift was capped at less than 6,000' and the climbs were quite weak around the launch area and to the north toward the 5 km entry start cylinder at Bon, an intersection just before the Phoenix Regional airfield, which, btw, isn't near Phoenix. We were searching or gaggling up, or bouncing around waiting for something good to come along. It didn't.

It really did us no good to try to wait out the poor lift because it never got any better.  Most of us left at the last start clock at 2:20. It would have been better to be on the course at 1:40 so that we would have had a chance to complete the task before the lift gave out as the sun headed south (actually west).

We all started off low, less than 5,000' and headed up the highway to the northwest toward Maricopa. We found weak lift and slow climbs to less than 5,000', just as we had ever since we launched. The lift was smooth enough to be pleasant, but we just were not getting up.

After a 150 fpm climb over Maricopa I headed west from 4,200' along the highway toward the Estrella airfield. Seven kilometers later I was down in 1,900', 700' AGL. I was trashing about not able to keep up with the lead pilots, who weren't doing all that well either just in front of me.

I felt a little tiny piece of lift over a field north of the highway that had already captured one pilot and would soon be home to a couple more. With Alex McColluh just a few feet over my head I started turning in light sink searching around for something more useful. After ten minutes I was down to 400' AGL before I actually was able to connect to something positive and I slowly worked it as it improved (or actually as I found the better portions of it) and after a total of twenty five minutes of just holding on to give myself a chance I was able to drift away from the field at 3,600'.

The field was next to the east/west highway, but my  task turnpoint was to the north past the mountain range rising up quickly behind me. I was still low going toward the range and was in full search mode trying to find a little something that would get me a bit higher on the flanks of the rocky ridges before I left the fast rising desert floor. I had a plan to land back on the floor if I got low, but it would have been down hill in little to no wind and as I approached the hill sides I noticed that they were full of large standing cactus which would have proved interesting. Of course, there was only a rough dirt road any where nearby.

I found a little bit of lift and drifted further toward the rocky outcroppings and then finally committed to going in close to them at 900' AGL. Fortunately, there was indeed lift where there was supposed to be on the sunlit rocks and I started climbing at 200 fpm. Starting at 2,500' I was low on the sides of the mountain and it took a while to get over the ridge line at 4,000'. I scooted further north below ridge height to find better lift and was rewarded with again 200 fpm, but a better shot at the ridge top.

Once on top of the ridge the lift kept increasing and it wasn't long before I was in a 600 fpm smooth core to 9,700' slowly drifting north a mere kilometer away from the 45 kilometer radius turnpoint cylinder. I went and tagged it, came back and climbed under a very nice cu to 10,900'. I knew that there would be little to no lift back out in the valley after 4:30 PM, so the point was to get as high as possible as this would be the last thermal for the day. It was a lot cooler up there.

I went on a straight glide toward the turnpoint into light winds gliding at best L/D. My hope was the no one would make goal so that fact that I was way behind them would not matter. It was a 40 kilometer glide to the last turnpoint and I could see that I I needed a little more than an extra 3000' if I wanted to make goal. It was done last year from 15,000', but I knew that I couldn't make it from 11,000'.

Fifteen kilometers out from the turnpoint I noticed O'Brien, Matt Barker, Greg Dinaur, and Robin Hamilton way to the east of me on a parallel glide just slightly above me also heading for the turnpoint. I was shocked to see them as I felt I had gotten way behind. Eight kilometers from the turnpoint at Interstate 8 and Stanfield exit, I came in a couple of hundred feet under them. They were turning in zero sink.

I didn't find much and went on glide getting to within five kilometers of the turnpoint. Robin and O'Brien, and I assume Matt landed near the turnpoint getting the furthest for the day. Other pilots had tried to use the small hills to the right of the course line for additional lift, and as was the case last year they didn't find any.

Brian Porter made it in in his Swift. Bruce Barmekian was about a mile short. Brian left the mountains at 9,000' with his instrument telling him he could make it to goal. Bruce left with 10,500', but like some other misguided pilots didn't take the direct route to the turnpoint, but shaded to the left to search for lift in the hills.

Day three:

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes 85,88 916
2 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 85,61 913
3 Obi WW T2C 144 85,31 911
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 83,65 892
4 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 84,04 892
6 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 82,64 881
7 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS 3.5 81,37 860
8 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 81,28 853
9 Michael Bylik WW T2C 79,69 829
10 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 79,62 826

Totals:

# Name Glider Total
1 Obi WW T2C 144 2674
2 Robin Hamilton Moyes 2638
3 Mitch Shipley WW T2C 144 2497
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 2494
5 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 2475
6 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 2442
7 Zippy WW T2C 144 2404
8 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 2384
9 Dustin WW T2C 144 2354
10 Chris Zimmerman WW T2C 144 2329

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2012, 6:28:36 MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The morning of day three, task three, Tuesday

Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Patrick Kruse|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|Zac Majors

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results will be here later.

There are nice fuzzy creatures out here in Arizona, not just in Texas:

Photo by Patrick Kruse.

Jeff O'Brien is in the lead, followed by Joe Bostik and Zac Majors. Kraig Coomber wasn't able to get here for the first day. Alex McCulloh started early on Monday and was penalized 151 points.

Discuss "2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Upgrading to a Moyes RX

August 23, 2012, 9:01:18 MDT

Upgrading to a Moyes RX

Kraig Coomber says how

Brad Gryder|Kraig Coomber

Brad Gryder <<foothillsflight>> writes:

Some pilots have asked what is required to convert an older Litespeed into the latest RX. Kraig has made a list of the necessary components, with itemized pricing for easy reference.

At this stage the RX is available in two sizes - RX3 and RX3.5. The RX3 is compatible with the Litespeed 3 frame and the RX3.5 is compatible with the Litespeed 4 (or S3.5) frame.

Here is what is needed:

RX code zero sail $4495.00

Mylar inserts $259.00

Carbon dive strut set $545.00 (Trade basis - original carbon dive struts are kept)

Carbon back section (pair) $485.00 (Trade basis - original carbon back sections are kept)

Batten set (aluminum) $813.50 (carbon/aluminum batten set + $741.00 )

Transversal batten set $30.00

Side wires $124.50

Crossbar restrainer wire $46.75

Pullback (if applicable) $155.50

Keel strap (if applicable) $52.00

Glider bag (optional) $269.50

Labor $750.00 (sail removal/rebuild, frame assembly, stability set up, test flight and tune)

Discuss "Upgrading to a Moyes RX" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Paris Williams responds to Honor is only found on the battlefield

August 22, 2012, 9:08:00 MDT

Paris Williams responds to Honor is only found on the battlefield

They retract their recommendation to the competition committee

James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paris Williams|USHPA|Zac Majors

James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|USHPA|Zac Majors

James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|USHPA|Zac Majors

Paris Williams <<parisflies>> writes:

Here are the group of five pilots who are currently ranked as 1-5 according to the interim rankings and who have been requested to offer our input in the rule change and the rule interpretation:

Kraig Coomber, Zac Majors, Paris Williams, Mitch Shipley, James Stinnett

Just to clarify, for those who aren't informed, there are two separate issues here:

(1) there has been a request to add one more meet into the scoring after the cutoff date as written in the rules. The competition committee has already decided not to change the rules last minute and therefore not to allow this meet to be scored in the current cycle. We (the group listed above) were asked for our opinion on the matter, since we are the ones who could potentially be most adversely impacted by this rule change.

(2) there is some ambiguity in the rules regarding the beginning of the team selection cycle, and we were asked to also offer input on this.

Davis has completely represented our response. We have readily acknowledged that we are unable to be impartial in this decision, given that all the scores have already been tallied, as are any other pilots who may be affected by any rule changes or rule clarifications (including Davis). In spite of Davis's assertion, we believe that we have done the "honorable" thing and deferred all responsibility for making these decisions back into the hands of the competition committee, as we feel they represent the most impartial group in this regard. Our initial response (sent out Monday) reflected this. As requested of us, this response did include our suggestion with regard to the best interpretation of the beginning of the team selection cycle--that the beginning stands as January 1, 2011--what has been reflected on the USHPA website's interim rankings for the entire duration of the team selection cycle. However, after continued discussion, we all agreed that we felt uncomfortable offering even this suggestion, and so we retracted our suggestion in this regard. The main gist of our response hasn't changed at all, however--we have already requested a deferment of all responsibility for these decisions to the competition committee, and we continue to hold this stance.

Following is our final response that we have sent to the CC:

1) Regarding the cutoff date for the team selection, we support the CC's decision--which means keeping it as it clearly stands in the rule book and not counting SCFR for the 2013 team. We feel that the CC represents the most impartial group in this regard, we want to acknowledge that they have been elected to make these kinds of decisions, and we want to support that process.

2) Regarding the beginning of the team selection cycle, we would also like to defer the entire responsibility of making this decision to the relative impartiality of the CC. Should they choose to seek input for this decision from any of the competition pilots, we recommend that they seek input from a broader range of pilots than just our group, since this decision will impact a broader range of pilots that just us, and since we are not in the position to offer impartial input in this regard.

Just to be clear, neither I nor Paris would be affected by any of the clarifications.

Discuss "Paris Williams responds to Honor is only found on the battlefield" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Santa Cruz Flats Race doesn't count

August 13, 2012, 7:39:05 MDT

The Santa Cruz Flats Race doesn't count

Who doesn't want the SCFR to count for the 2012 US National Team?

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paris Williams|USHPA|US Nationals|Zac Majors

It has been asserted by a USHPA board member that of these ten hang gliding pilots:

Kraig Coomber
Zac Majors
Paris Williams
Mitchell Shipley
James Stinnet
Larry Bunner
Josef Bostik
Dustin Martin
Chris Zimmerman
Ben Dunn

Four of the top ten would like SFCR to count for the National Team selection. Three voted to not allow SFCR to count for the National Team selection. Three would have voted yes if there was no opposition, but choose to vote no since there was opposition. Therefore the majority are saying do not allow it.

If this is true, this would indicate disgusting behavior on the part of six of these pilots. But it is not necessarily true.

The US hang gliding competition program is a fragile construction. It relies on interested pilots, competition meet organizers, meet directors, tug owners, tug pilots, scorekeepers, volunteers, the town of Big Spring, and last and least on the USHPA Competition Committee. If we don’t support meet organizers we won’t have a competition program. Both Jamie and David have spoken recently about not continuing to run their three competitions. The fourth main competition relies on Jamie’s Race and Rally to be viable.

We all need to support Jamie and to support her 2012 US Nationals competition at the Francisco Grande. If we are selfish and do not look out for all our fellow competitors we will not have any competitions to fly in.

It would not leave a good taste in our mouths if any pilot (much less six) made life difficult for Jamie, and therefore for all of us.

Every year all the sanctioned hang gliding competitions count for the National Team selection. Only because of a glitch in the rules (that no one other than Zac Majors caught) would it be the case that the SCFR doesn't does this year.

It was reported to me last night that the USHPA Competition Committee voted to not allow the SCFR to be used to selecting the US National team for the 2013 Worlds. This totally sucks.

2012 Big Spring Championships »

July 31, 2012, 9:17:43 CDT

2012 Big Spring Championships

Kraig Coomber wins the competition

Big Spring Championships 2012|Chris Zimmerman|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Robin Hamilton|Vicki Cain|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Vicki Cain <<moyes>> writes:

Kraig Coomber from Moyes USA, and flying a Moyes RX3.5 won the 2012 Big Spring Championships.

His consistent flying enabled him to take the title with a comfortable 277 point lead.

Kraig’s writes: At 83 kilos I've been really happy with my RX3.5. I was planning on getting an RX4 at first but now that I've flown the 3.5 in Florida and here in Texas, I'm 100% content with it. It climbs as good if not better than anything out there and glides as well as you would expect. The big bonus is that it handles like a toy!

Full results can be seen here: http://soaringspot.com/2012bsc/results/flex/day-by-day.html

1. Kraig Coomber USA Moyes RX 3.5 4182.11
2. Jeff O'Brien USA Wills Wing T2C 3904.93
3. Larry Bunner USA Will Wing T2C 144 3714.42
4. Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 3709.75
5. Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3572.61
6. Chris Zimmerman USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3491.06
7. Mitch Shipley USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3399.53
8. Eduardo Oliveira BRA Wills Wing T2C 154 3346.38
9. Krzysztof Grzyb USA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 3280.16
10. Josef Bostik USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3267.79

2012 Big Spring Championships »

July 25, 2012, 11:16:21 pm CDT

2012 Big Spring Championships

Day Four

Big Spring Championships 2012|Derrick Turner|dust devil|Greg Chastain|James Stinnett|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/2012bsc/

http://tinyurl.com/bigspringspot

Pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/HGChicago/USNationalsDay1
https://picasaweb.google.com/HGChicago/USNationalsDay2
https://picasaweb.google.com/HGChicago/USNationalsDay3

The winds were stronger this morning than yesterday but it looked like there might be a chance that they would die down, or that at least we would go fly anyway. So the task committee at Larry Bunner's urging called a late task right from the beginning:

Here are the winds in mph during the relevant periods on the 25th (today) and on the 24th (yesterday):

25 15:15 SE 10 G 18
25 14:55 SE 15 G 21
25 14:35 S 15 G 18
25 14:15 S 10 G 21
25 13:55 S 10
25 13:35 S 6 G 21
25 13:15 S 15 G 20
25 12:55 S 10 G 18
24 15:15 S 16 G 23
24 14:35 SE 13 G 23
24 13:55 S 17 G 24
24 13:35 SE 17 G 22
24 13:15 SE 17 G 21
24 12:55 S 14 G 21
24 12:35 SE 16 G 21
24 12:15 SE 18 G 24
24 11:35 S 16 G 24

The wind did back off and we had no problems carrying/flying the gliders down to the south end of the hangars to our regular launch spot. We left the hangar around 1:15.

The launch window opened at 2:15, an hour and fifteen minutes later than normal. This was great because the cu's showed up about an hour later than normal, so the pilots were happy. Also we got all the pilots together to clear out the hangar and that made for an atmosphere of "we can do this."

We are doing ordered launch just like at the Race and Rally (and pre-Worlds). The lines were swapped today so 21 through 44 went first and 1 through 20 next.

Because we were starting later in the day the lift was already super good at the airfield and pilots were pinning off low making for a faster launch altogether. I pinned off at 800' AGL and was in great lift, taking that thermal to 7,700' after launching tenth.

There were five pilots in the thermal with me as we drifted to the northeast in a 14 mph southwest wind. The task was to the northwest to a turnpoint at Lamesa and then to the airfield at Thoka, total of 118 kilometers. The late task start called for a shorter task, but the task committee wanted a cross wind task, and as the forecast was for southwest winds, this filled the bill.

Matt Barker and I stayed with the thermal while the rest of the pilots, including Dave Gibson, headed back to the airfield. I couldn't figure out the point of doing that and we found another thermal nearby that got us to 9,600'.

I was hoping to get started early but I realized that heading west might be a good option. I had been looking for cu's in that direction and when little ones started popping I headed due west to get under them. Matt followed and we found light lift, but we were high and we could wait for a few start gates. They were ten minutes apart starting at 3:10 PM.

As I moved west I could see Derrick Turner and James Stinnett circling under a dark cu north of the some shallow lakes about 14 kilometers west of the airport. The start circle was 15 kilometer wide to help us deal with the winds, which were forecasted to be up to 22 knots southwest at 8,000'.

I raced over to them and finally found the good stuff, 900 fpm, but half way up the thermal the 3:30 PM window opened and Derreck and James headed out. I wanted to go with them, so I climbed up to over 10,500' and headed out behind them. They were heading west northwest toward the good looking clouds, so I was willing to head off with them. Lamesa was still to our northwest and the wind was from the southwest.

After a couple of thermals I could see a small rain shower between me and the turnpoint. But unlike on the first day there was no lightning and the cloud was much smaller with lots of cu's all around it. It certainly looked like it was possible to go around the rain, but I wanted to go upwind of it so that I wouldn't get caught by the rain as it pushed downwind. This meant more pushing upwind to the west.

As I approached the south end of the area that was shaded by the rain cloud I saw either Derreck or James head straight north for it seeing a big dust devil just on the east side of the shade. I decided to continue northwest and get under the cu's on the upwind side of the rain cloud. The rain was very isolated and stopped and started a few times.

Finally I found good lift under some cu's over shaded ground just to the southwest of the rain. That allowed me to get high enough to plow through the sunlit areas west of the rain (although I did hit a little bit of rain and watched a rainbow to my east and below me), toward more cu's to the northwest of the rain.

I found 400 fpm under those cu's southwest of Lamesa and had been on a great arc around the rain cloud and upwind and now drifted in the thermal right toward the turnpoint. As I looked at the turnpoint from my vantage point twenty kilometers away it did not look like an area of good lift. No decent looking cu's nearby.

After I got up I headed for some more cu's to the west of Lamesa with the idea that I would get high before going to the turnpoint. Forcing myself to go upwind a bit in a 21 mph head wind was not pleasant, but I found 300 fpm, which while weak, was needed to fulfill my criteria to getting high enough to get around the turnpoint without endangering myself.

At 9,600' I headed cross wind to the east to get the turnpoint and sure enough there was nothing near the turnpoint. I headed north from there seeing five pilot way below me (I was at 8,000') and a couple circling ahead. I went to their thermal, but it was worthless (at least at my elevation), so I kept going after a turn and went to the next cu's. I could see a dust devil ahead, but a little too far away to be a good candidate.

I scooted under a cu and after a bit of a search found a little over 300 fpm, again, not great but adequate. This thermal was enough to get me to goal. I pulled the bar in from 25 km and flew at 50 mph.

Kraig Coomber came in just before me, but started half an hour later. He took the direct route along the course line, got low past the turnpoint, but got up very quickly, found better lift than I on the last thermal and raced to goal.

Greg Chastain was the first pilot in, and the only pilot to have started at the first start time at 3:10 PM. He will take a lot of the arrival points. James and Derreck were in before me. Derrick and James, I believe, were almost as fast as Kraig following the round about route that I also took. They got there twenty six minutes earlier and will have arrival points over Kraig.

The leader after two days, Robin Hamilton and Jonny Durand went down near the turnpoint as did Zac Majors. That will shake up the standings, putting Kraig in first and Jeff O'Brien in second.

Jeff came in just before me, but started ten minutes later. He took the direct route finding strong lift to 12,000' before Lamesa and not getting low after that.

Big Spring competition pilots

Mon, May 21 2012, 8:42:30 am EDT

Who has signed up so far?

Big Spring 2012|David Glover|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Tom McGowan

David Glover «David Glover» sends a list of he registered pilots so far::

Markus Venturini, Dave Proctor, Tom McGowan, Randy Brown, Michael Bilyk, Ricker Goldsborough, Eduardo Panuco, Peter Kane, Greg Kendall, Mario Andre Felske, Glen Volk, Jay Devorak, Miguel Molina, Derreck Turner, Kraig Coomber, Jonny Durand, Eduardo Oliveira, Glauco Pinto, Davis Straub.

Robin Hamilton and Jeff O'Brien will be signing up. We expect many others who haven't signed up yet.

Flytec 6030 Vs. 4030

Flytec 6030 Vs. 4030

The 6030 is not the same, and you like how it was previously with your 4030

Kraig Coomber|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Flytec 6030|Kraig Coomber|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Flytec 4030|Flytec 6030|Kraig Coomber|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

The Flytec 4030 (Brauniger IQ) didn't have total energy compensation. The 6030 (and 5030 and Compeo+ and Compeo) come defaulted at 65% total energy compensated. This will produce a different feel (and different set and timing of beeps), for where the thermal is. If you want to go back to your previous (now brain wired) way of doing it, turn off the total energy compensation on the 6030 (etc.). (Menu>Settings>Speed>TEC Total energy comp.>0) You might just reduce it to say 40% and see how that feels, to still get some of the proffered benefits of total energy compensation.

If you feel that there is too much delay in the vario acoustic on the 6030 in providing feedback as to when you have entered a thermal? Turn the vario response delay down from its default at the longest delay (0) to its fastest (4) or perhaps a bit longer. (Menu>Settings>Vario>Vario response delay)

The 6030 (etc.) Does not sound like the 4030. However, you have a lot more control over what sound it does produce but you can't get it to sound just like the 4030. Sorry. Reducing the Modulation and Pitch will also help the 6030 to sound like the 4030. (Menu>Settings>Acoustic vario>Customize sound>)

Of course, the 6030 is a much more sophisticated instrument than the 4030, but our brains are many orders of magnitude even more sophisticated (if not as reliable). You’ve got to use your brain to interpret the functioning of the newer instrument so that you can have a better match between brain and instrument, affording yourself of its greater capabilities.

Kraig Coomber turned off total energy (and flies with both a 4030 and a 6030) after speaking with Steve Kroop at the Flytec Race and Rally. He writes:

Total Energy is all the way off. Delay value changed to 3. Sound: ascent 600, sink 450, damp 4, pitch 4. I’m still experimenting with the sound. I would like to get it as close as I can to the 4030.

Discuss "Flytec 6030 Vs. 4030" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Flytec Race and Rally

May 7, 2012, 10:25:45 EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

Crossing the lake

Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Quest Air|video|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

On the last day of the Flytec Race and Rally a group of pilots were working broken zero on the east side of the lake at about 2,000' just trying to stay up. They had made the turnpoint and were getting close to goal to the west at the Americus airport.

As they flounder about Carl Wallbank notices that suddenly Pedro and Paris (perhaps others) head across the lake low and then James Stinnett chases after them on this low glide. Just as James leaves the junk air that the rest of the gaggle is in, it turns into 400 fpm up.

Carl is near the top of the cumulative results and thinks to himself, well they just handed him the race. The guys in front of him and above him in the results have just gone on a death glide.

As they get to the other side of the lake and down to less than 1000', he notices that they are turning just past the tree line. He wonders if they are really going up. Another turn and he's sure that they are going up fast. He races to join them, but by the time he gets there he is well below Pedro and Paris.

Therefore the results:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Pedro L. Garcia ESP Wills Wings T2C 144 02:45:25 998
2 Paris Williams USA Paris Combat GT 13.2 02:46:49 971
3 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:48:23 944
4 James Stinnett USA Wills Wings T2C 144 02:48:52 933
5 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:50:00 917
6 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:52:23 899
7 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wings T2C 144 02:57:37 863
8 Eduardo Oliveira BRA Wills Wings T2C 154 02:59:32 839
9 Zac Majors USA Wills Wings T2C 144 02:59:29 834
10 Konrad Heilman BRA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 03:02:37 827

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4XUF6ohRpI

Thanks to Raul.

The Flytec Race and Rally

April 29, 2012, 8:07:19 EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

Pedro wins the Flytec Race and Rally

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Wills Wing T2C

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

Pedro Garcia from Spain flying for the first time a Wills Wing T2C won the Flytec Race and Rally. Paris Williams flying an Aeros Combat GT 13.2 was a few points behind at second, and Kraig Coomber, Moyes USA, flying a Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 was third.

Pedro came in first on the last day with Paris right behind him.

The task committee set a dog leg task with two obstacles, a small section of forest two thirds of the way up the first leg and a thin lake on the last leg. Everyone started together on the first window but soon the gaggle broke up with one forming ten kilometers to the left of the other but both keeping up with each other down the course line.

As they approached the woods the gaggle on the right went around the woods and the left gaggle quickly over them.  Dustin was with Zac and Jonny on the left and felt that he was doing great with the fastest guys helping him get to goal.

Then disaster struck as Jonny flew to the ground with Dustin 4,500' over his head. And the right gaggle was now hitting much better climbs and getting ahead.

Kraig and other pilots flew over the lake low on a glide that looked like a death glide barely over the trees but hit a huge boomer just on the other side and climbed out very fast leaving other pilots who weren't willing to take the risk far behind.

Paris and Pedro out in front went on final glide with the numbers showing goal at -200'. They kept gliding anyway and as they approached goal hit a slight bit of lift. Pedro kept going and Paris made one turn. That turn was worth $1,300 as Paris came in just behind Pedro and what turned out to be second place overall, and second place for the day.

The Flytec Race and Rally

The Flytec Race and Rally

We head north from Moultrie

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davide Guiducci|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Gerolf Heinrichs|James Stinnett|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors


http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com/

SPOTS:

Wolfi here
Ben here
Konrad here
Jonny here
Alex Cuddy here
David Aldrich here

The gnats are bothering everyone and a great plague on the east coast.

The task is north to the small town of Cordelle, just west of Interstate 75, then cross wind to the west 40 km to the Americus airfield.

The totals before the last task:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Dustin Martin USA Wills Wings T2C 154 930 901 892 910 3633
2 Paris Williams USA Paris Combat GT 13.2 897 876 906 845 3524
3 Pedro L. Garcia ESP Wills Wings T2C 144 820 888 898 908 3514
4 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 855 825 912 911 3503
5 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 931 846 855 869 3501
6 James Stinnett USA Wills Wings T2C 144 899 895 882 772 3448
7 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 959 741 905 766 3371
8 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 838 737 860 933 3368
9 Eduardo Oliveira BRA Wills Wings T2C 154 934 820 916 665 3335
10 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 953 900 716 739 3308
11 Zac Majors USA Wills Wings T2C 144 558 908 896 919 3281
12 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wings T2C 144 - "Circa" 831 817 913 615 3176
13 Glen McFarlane AUS Moyes Litespeed RS 4 441 861 887 907 3096
14 Wolfgang Siess AUT Wills Wings T2C 154 849 739 697 779 3064
15 Edoardo Giudiceandrea ITA Wills Wings T2C 154 818 860 695 680 3053

Gerolf Heinrichs writes (but not to me):

"Jonny,

you got to help us out here. The Rallye is just not happening online these days. Davis is light years behind the action on his float, Jamie's twitters are stuck with task1, her linked-to articles are from 2009. And the scoring sucks ass being like a day or two late - who by the way is in charge there? Girls, only girls now? - oh boy.

I didn't think I would ever have to say that, but you and some more top pilots on bloody FACEBOOK are the best source of information we can get hold on these days - this is really depressing.

I mean, how hard can it be in hitec-infested America to have some goalie send one bloody twitter text with the names of the pilots as they arrive in goal. It could be done in the ozzy outback with no problem.

We can't wait and rely on the freaking bloggers to tell the news, because they are seemingly all only concerned about selling us their personal up-and-down stories.

I wonder, is there one, just one person left with an intact journalistic attitude? One person, who can sum up the story of the day without mingling in his/her personal POV?

Gerrrrrrolf

Jeez, looking at the preliminary results, I would think that Gerolf would be happy that we've fallen down on the job and not met his high standards.

The Flytec Race and Rally

April 26, 2012, 10:38:56 pm EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

A blue day again with light southwest winds

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davide Guiducci|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|video|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com/

SPOTS:

Wolfi here
Ben here
Konrad here
Jonny here
Alex Cuddy here
David Aldrich here

The third task:

The first leg was north northwest from Quest Air to the Greystone airfield where John Travolta keep his 737 east of Ocala, then cross/upwind to the field next to the Williston airfield. No pilots made it, the leaders landing twenty kilometers from the goal.

After two days:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 953 900 1853
2 Dustin Martin USA Wills Wings T2C 154 930 901 1831
3 James Stinnett USA Wills Wings T2C 144 899 895 1794
4 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 931 846 1777
5 Paris Williams USA Paris Combat GT 13.2 897 876 1773
6 Eduardo Oliveira BRA Wills Wings T2C 154 934 820 1754
7 Pedro L. Garcia ESP Wills Wings T2C 144 820 888 1708
8 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 959 741 1700
9 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 855 825 1680
10 Edoardo Giudiceandrea ITA Wills Wings T2C 154 818 860 1678
11 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wings T2C 144 831 817 1648
12 Wolfgang Siess AUT Wills Wings T2C 154 849 739 1588
13 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 838 737 1575
14 Richard Lovelace GBR Wills Wings T2C144 918 576 1494
15 Zac Majors USA Wills Wings T2C 144 558 908 1466

The results from task 3 will mix all this up.

Flying the Falcon is a humbling experience where there are great lessons to be learned. I just wish the classes were a bit longer. I started out in front about thirty second before the clock started and did find lift, but went over to even better lift that others found behind me. With a Falcon basically you just have to stay in the lift and forget about gliding to get any where.

So I don't get to report on how the race was run. I understand that after the turnpoint it was very difficult going into the wind. I wonder if Jonny is happy about that choice of a leg now.  Earlier we had the second leg going further to the north to Keystone airfield.

Another run out landing: http://youtu.be/lb4k_E0wzd4.

On Friday we launch at the Live Oak airfield and head north, cross wind.

The Flytec Race and Rally

April 25, 2012, 4:57:30 pm EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

David Guidicci first to goal flying the glider I flew last year

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davide Guiducci|Dustin Martin|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|video

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26822852/R%26R/Flex3.html

Results from the first task:

# Name Nat Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RS 4 14:30:00 17:42:04 03:12:04 959
2 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wings T2C144 14:15:00 17:33:45 03:18:45 953
3 Eduardo Oliveira USA/Mex Wills Wings T2C 154 14:15:00 17:33:52 03:18:52 934
4 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:34:01 03:19:01 931
5 Dustin Martin USA Wills Wings T2C 154 14:30:00 17:45:15 03:15:15 930
6 Richard Lovelace GBR Wills Wings T2C144 14:15:00 17:34:31 03:19:31 918
7 James Stinnett USA Wills Wings T2C 144 14:30:00 17:48:14 03:18:14 899
8 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.2 14:30:00 17:48:06 03:18:06 897
9 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:47:58 03:32:58 855
10 Wolfgang Siess AUT Wills Wings T2C 154 14:15:00 17:48:15 03:33:15 849
11 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 14:15:00 17:50:40 03:35:40 838
12 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wings T2C 144 14:30:00 18:01:10 03:31:10 831
13 Greg Dinauer USA Aeros Combat L13.2 14:30:00 18:03:41 03:33:41 828
14 Pedro L. Garcia ESP Wills Wings T2C 144 14:30:00 18:04:15 03:34:15 820
15 Edoardo Giudiceandrea ITA Wills Wings T2C 154 14:15:00 17:54:22 03:39:22 818

Task two is centered at Quest Air with light winds.


The first leg was to highway 474, 17 km to the south, then north to Center Hill, then to the Florida Turnpike 5 km south of the airfield at Baron, then back to Quest Air.

David Guidicci was first into goal again today, and he had never flown a Wills Wing glider until this week when he started flying with my glider. He says that he likes it.

Four pilots were just behind him, then a few minutes later more started coming in. David and the pilots just behind all started with the first start clock.

I took off early in the Wills Wing Falcon 3 170 and left the start cylinder on my own hoping to get out in front and let the faster glider catch me later.

Things were going well, until ten kilometers out I spent ten minutes averaging 18 fpm. I should have stayed in that area because as soon as I left it it was 500 fpm to the ground.

Looking back to what the competition looks like: http://youtu.be/cfmkaWaLQlU.

Truck disappears in Texas

April 10, 2012, 8:27:19 EDT

Truck disappears in Texas

Along with a Moyes RS 3.5 in transport

Kraig Coomber

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> writes:

I just wanted to put the word out that I had a shipment stolen on its way to Florida on 4/1/2012. It was in transit from Los Angeles to Orlando when the truck apparently went missing in Texas. The shipping company has provided minimal information and it is still missing as of 4/9/2012.

The shipment contained a full carbon Litespeed RS3.5 and an additional RS3.5 sail. The glider was fitted with a code zero (Gray) mainsail and undersurface colors were Charcoal/Black/Fluorescent Red. The additional sail also had a code zero main with a Red/Black/Red undersurface. Both sails were brand new never flown.

Are things that dangerous in Texas?

Discuss "Truck disappears in Texas" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Begging and Bribing

March 23, 2012, 9:31:37 EDT

Tin Cup

This is where the tough get going

Belinda Boulter|Blue Sky|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dragonfly|Jim Yocom|Kraig Coomber|Oliver Gregory|Orlando Stephenson|Quest Air|Quinn Cornwell|Steve Wendt|weather

He's looking for your help, as are we.

We are now well into our month long fund raising drive. Right in the middle of begging for money our web site went down for a few days as we moved to our new virtual server. And just before we started our site was down when our web host updated our server's operating system (which gave us a good reason to move to a virtual server). To deal with these issues I have relaxed and let Scare take his course (on the weekends after work) as he patched up the permissions for our various files (who invented that god awful system?) and moved databases.

This is where we have to press our readers just little bit harder to remind them that we are running as fast as we can to get this publication up and running for the upcoming season of competition and free flying. We're here to lift your spirits and remind you that this in all in fun.

Belinda and I are smiling and just so happy to be around so many new hang gliding students learning as fast as they can from Mitch and Mark here at Quest Air. What great weather. What a cool environment.

We really do need your financial (and other) support. Scare does this on his spare time and has a real job. The income we get from the Oz Report is very minor, but any helps. Please think about supporting us.

We wanted to especially thank Lisa Cain who used to be our neighbor and Moyes Dragonfly tug pilot here at Quest Air and who now lives up in Virginia and occasionally flies tug for Steve Wendt at Blue Sky and who sent us a dollar a day for a year (in one fell swoop). A good number of you have sent in $100+ or $200. Thanks so much to these very generous individuals, Fred Bickford, Kraig Coomber, Jeffrey Curtis, Jim Yocom, Larry Smith, Mike Duffy, Quinn Cornwell, Gary D. McIntire, Oliver Gregory, Thomas C Ide, Orlando Stephenson, and C David Gibson. Jeez, I hope I didn't forget someone.

We have a boat load of premiums to encourage you to support Scare and I as we keep the Oz Report delivering the latest hang gliding news. See all the premiums available to you here: http://ozreport.com/premiums.php. Given that we are providing all these premiums, it would be great if subscribers went a little bit beyond the minimum $20 donation/subscription, as many of you have, and we are very grateful for that.

At the end of March I'll set up a random number generator to choose who get the premiums from the list of 2012 Oz Report subscribers. There will be an order to that list and those subscribers chosen will get to send in an ordered list of their preferred premiums and they will be awarded based on the order of subscribers chosen to receive premiums.

If you are sending in a check do it quickly so that I will have it in time to put you on the list to possibly receive a premium.

Please, help us out. Support something that you find useful so that it can continue to be there for you.

You can send $20 or $30 or more for a yearly subscription/donation. To pay for your subscription with your credit card or PayPal account:

If you’d rather just send a check for $20  or $30 (US Dollars, only please) or more, please feel free to do so. The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I’m at.

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These are our supporters (if you are not on the list and have donated to the Oz Report, email me and I'll make sure that you are recognized): http://ozreport.com/supporters.php. Some of you who I've missed in the past did write to me and made sure I knew just how important the Oz Report was to them. If I've missed you, please do tell me.

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USHPA ranking for 2012

October 3, 2011, 8:37:17 MDT

USHPA ranking for 2012

Only your best two meets from 2011 count

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|CIVL|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Rob Kells|USHPA|US Nationals|Zac Majors

The ranking will be as of January 1st, 2012:

1 Dustin Martin 1182 595 (Rob2011) 587 (SCF2011)
2 Zac Majors 1154 582 (Rob2011) 572 (Spr2011)
3 Kraig Coomber 1021 515 (FRR2011) 506 (SCF2011)
4 Paris Williams 984 539 (FRR2011) 445 (Rob2011)
5 Davis Straub 970 515 (Spr2011) 455 (Rob2011)
6 Glen Volk 969 492 (SCF2011) 477 (Spr2011)
7 Mitchell Shipley 958 525 (SCF2011) 433 (Spr2011)
8 Josef Bostik 952 507 (FRR2011) 445 (SCF2011)
9 Jeff Shapiro 929 471 (Rob2011) 458 (FRR2011)
10 Larry Bunner 919 474 (FRR2011) 445 (Spr2011)
11 James Stinnet 879 506 (SCF2011) 373 (FRR2011)
12 Chris Zimmerman 871 436 (SCF2011) 435 (Spr2011)
13 Ben Dunn 811 431 (FRR2011) 380 (SCF2011)
14 Greg Dinauer 706 489 (FRR2011) 217 (Rob2011)
15 Jeff O'Brien 660 660 (SCF2011)
16 Robin Hamilton 502 502 (SCF2011)
17 Derrick Turner 431 344 (Rob2011) 87 (FRR2011)

http://ushpa.aero/compresults.asp

Notice that the Rob Kells Meet, the Santa Cruz Flats Race, the Big Spring US Nationals, and the Flytec Race and Rally are the meets that counted in 2011 (you can click on the many links above). No non US meets brought any points to this ranking despite their high value (600 NTSS points). There is always a trade off of high value versus tough competition. These domestic meets should also be important in 2012. The Santa Cruz Flats Race and the US Nationals in Big Spring attract high valued US pilots without bringing in high valued international pilots who reduce one's chances to grab 660 points as Jeff O'Brien did this year at the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

The Florida meets are always high valued as international pilots attend (it's cheap to fly from Europe and the Americas and there aren't conflicts with meets near them). The Santa Cruz Flats Race attracts California pilots as it takes place seven driving hours from Los Angeles, so you can expect good pilots there. Big Spring has the best, strongest, and most consistent conditions with substantial community support, so it is also attractive to many US pilots.

Dustin won the Brazilian Nationals (one of the three meets that count for the Nationals) in August, but likely because of continuing political conflicts in Brazil with respect to CIVL/FAI payments, the Brazilian pilots (and Jonny Durand) didn't bring enough NTSS points to the competition (500) to give Dustin enough points (550) to surpass his 587 points from the Santa Cruz Flats Race. The Forbes Flatlands was not counted at all despite being worth 600 points (due to the high level of the competition).

Will it be worth it for US pilots to go to Forbes for the pre-Worlds at the Forbes Flatlands if they are going there basically for the NTSS points? The US has three competitions worth 600 points and in 2012 we could easily have four. It is much less costly to go to these competitions then to go overseas. It is more difficult to get the highest number of points at an international competition due to the competition from other high level pilots.

Of course, there are other good reasons to go to Forbes for the 2012 pre-Worlds including practicing flying there in anticipation of flying there during the Worlds in January, 2013.

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - final results »

Mon, Sep 26 2011, 8:32:16 am MDT

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The results

Alex McCulloch|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Gary Solomon|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Greg Kendall|James Stinnett|Jeff Chipman|John Hesch|Jonathan Dietch|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

# Name Glider Total
1 Jeff Obrien Ww T2C 144 4247
2 Dustin Martin Ww T2C144 4158
3 Mitch Shipley Ww T2C 144 3713
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 3584
5 James Stinnett Ww T2C 144 3579
6 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RS4 3552
7 Glen Volk Moyes RS3.5 3484
8 Brett Hazlett Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 3204
9 Josef Bostik Ww T2C 154 3151
10 Chris Zimmerman Ww T2C 154 3089
11 Larry Bunner Ww T2C144 2872
12 David Gibson Ww T2C 144 2855
13 Davis Straub Ww T2C 144 2825
14 Ben Dunn Moyes RS3.5 2688
15 Matt Barker Ww T2C 144 2536
16 Patrick Kruse Ww T2C 144 2395
17 Bill Soderquist Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 2389
18 Rudy Gotes Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2035
19 Bob Filipchuk Aeros Combat L 15 1966
20 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed S4 1942
21 Olav Olsen Ww T2C 144 1925
22 Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 1908
23 Ricker Goldsborough Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 1865
24 Konrad Heilman Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 1854
25 John Hesch Moyes RS4 1555
26 Jochen Zeischka Moyes Litespeed S4 1539
27 Alex Mcculloch Ww T2C 153 1506
28 Jd Guillemette Moyes Litespeed 4S 1465
29 Jeff Chipman Moyes Litespeed 4S 1446
30 Mike Branger Ww T2 155 1348
31 Jonathan Dietch Ww T2C 144 1239
32 Markus Venturini Ww T2 150 1090
33 Jay Devorak Moyes Litespeed 4S 986
34 Efren Fierro Ww T2C 144 693
35 Bill Reynolds Aeros Combat L 13 652
36 Rodrigo Russek Moyes Litespeed S4.5 638
37 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L-13 445
38 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed RS4 411
39 Matt Dittman Moyes Litespeed S4 65
39 Gary Solomon Icaro Laminar MR700 14.1 65

Discuss "2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - final results" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day five, task four »

September 23, 2011, 7:29:06 MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The results

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The results from the fourth task, top ten.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26822852/SCF2011/Results/T5/Flex_T5.html

# Name Glider SS ES Total
1 Josef Bostik WW T2C 144 13:45:00 16:48:38 898
2 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RS4 13:30:00 16:45:03 853
3 Dustin Martin WW T2C144 13:30:00 16:46:18 830
4 Jeff Obrien WW T2C 144 13:30:00 16:46:37 823
5 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 13:30:00 16:46:43 815
6 Bill Soderquist Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 13:30:00 16:46:47 809
7 Mitch Shipley WW T2C 144 13:30:00 16:46:56 806
8 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 13:15:00 16:45:08 793
9 Glen Volk Moyes RS3.5 13:30:00 16:48:26 791
10 Ben Dunn Moyes RS3.5 13:30:00 16:49:33 776

Discuss "2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - results for day three »

Wed, Sep 21 2011, 8:37:34 am MDT

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A low scoring day

Ben Dunn|Brett Hazlett|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Dustin Martin Ww T2C144 02:38:17 684
2 Jeff Obrien Ww T2C 144 02:39:47 663
3 Glen Volk Moyes RS3.5 02:46:03 635
4 Chris Zimmerman Ww T2C 154 03:18:28 554
5 Ben Dunn Moyes RS3.5 03:21:30 550
6 Larry Bunner Ww T2C144 462
7 Mitch Shipley Ww T2C 144 453
8 Ricker Goldsborough Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 411
9 Jd Guillemette Moyes Litespeed 4S 398
10 Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 362
11 David Gibson Ww T2C 144 355
12 Davis Straub Ww T2C 144 346
13 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RS4 291
13 Josef Bostik Ww T2C 144 291
15 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 290
16 James Stinnett Ww T2C 144 288
17 Brett Hazlett Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 231
18 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed S4 229
19 Bob Filipchuk Aeros Combat L 15 222
20 Rodrigo Russek Moyes Litespeed S4.5 198

Discuss "2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - results for day three" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day three, task three »

September 20, 2011, 9:20:54 pm MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Upwind and back to the west

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The task and flight here.

http://www.livetrack24.com/

http://www.livetrack24.com/live_show_track.php?user=davisstraub&2d=1

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

The forecast for the third day, Tuesday, was similar to the first two days, but for the wind being light but steady out of the west northwest at six or seven knots. In actuality, it was never that strong and did vary in direction, so that the day did turn out to be similar to the previous days.

The task committee (Kraig, Larry, and Dustin) called an out and return task, one we've done before as you can see above. We normally go to Bon first to keep us out of the green cultivated fields to the south of the highway.

We started launching half an hour later at 12:30 after the weak conditions on Monday. I wasn't able to launch until almost one o'clock and the lift was good then. Dustin called O'Brien and I on the radio and said that there was better lift to the north of the start cylinder near the open pit mine, so we joined him and climbed up to over 8,000' just in time to take the first start clock at 1:45 PM. O'Brien, Dustin, Glen, Mitch and I were all together high and it appeared as though everyone else was much lower and not ready to start.

I headed out first again as the others kept holding back and I get impatient to go. But I flew as slowly as I could at best glide only so that they would catch up to me. But they were all very tricky and flew slowly also. Damn.

We kept on gliding and Dustin said that there was a rigid wing ahead circling. They had a start time half an hour before ours. We glided to the feedlot where the ATOS was turning but the lift was weak. We took a few turns and then pushed ahead toward a dust devil that quickly disappeared. So we had to continue pressing ahead and getting low.

Dustin said that someone was turning over Maricopa and down to 1,000' Dustin and O'Brien over me found the lift, our first real thermal since we left the start cylinder twenty two kilometers back. We climbed back up to 7,200' before heading for the feedlot to the south of the sailplane port at Estrella where another ATOS was circling.

O'Brien and Dustin found better lift earlier and I lost physical contact with them. Glen was  just behind me climbing a little better and Mitch was with me. Mitch went back to Glen, but I thinking that I could find some better lift and catch up with Dustin and O'Brien, didn't go back to join up with Glen and Mitch. That was a bad mistake.

Heading out at 6,800' well below Dustin and O'Brien at 8,000' I kept leaving okay lift looking for better (Dustin mentioned 700 fpm) but not finding it. This put me lower and lower and by the time I got near Mobile, the outer turnpoint, I was having to stay in 30 fpm to stay in the air.

It was touch and go for quite a while as I drifted away from the turnpoint without getting it, low and in very weak lift. Finally I had to go back and get the turnpoint and there I found 200 fpm which got me up and out. I circled up with a buzzard side by side the whole way. We had a great time together in the mellow air.

After getting up I headed back to the little hills south of Estrella to find more lift. As I got to the hills I saw three gliders on the hill side right next to each other. It looked like they had landed between the cacti. It was Joe Bostik, Kraig Coomber, and Robin Hamilton. They had left Estrella coming out to the further turnpoint, barely made it over the hills and not finding any lift landed on the west side, looking for all the world like they had come from the west and just were stopped by the hills. They weren't near any road.

Once I got up on the hills I headed south along the range in order to find some lift and get up and then go north to get Estrella. There wasn't any lift for the next three kilometers to the south. I found out later that the lift was in the slot to the north where I had much earlier seen Jim Yocom turning very low. I should have gone toward Estrella and just a little north of where I came into the hills to get up. Who knew?

Not finding anything but the weakest lift all along the hills I went out into the flats to follow a bird that was turning but the lift was too weak and I landed at an abandoned air strip.

O'Brien and Dustin got high thirty kilometers out from goal, and at 13:1 with a slight tail wind went on final glide. Three kilometers out they were still at 13:1 but a little too low, and this was the first lift that they had found at 100 fpm. They took a couple of turns and got in, Dustin first. Glen came in a little later from the north having taken a route that put him on the hills north of Bon. Ben Dunn and Chris Zimmerman were the only other pilots at goal. Mitch landed ten miles out.

The Gaggle test worked fine today and Belinda was able to sit in the hotel room and follow my progress before she had to leave to get Jochen and then me. Many pilots just made the first turnpoint at Bon. Bill Soderquist had three tows and never left the start cylinder.

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - totals after two days »

September 20, 2011, 9:29:32 MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Landing out hurts

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

# Name Glider Total
1 Jeff Obrien WW T2C 144 1797
2 Dustin Martin WW T2C144 1730
3 James Stinnett WW T2C 144 1667
4 Brett Hazlett Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 1631
5 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 1593
6 Josef Bostik WW T2C 144 1551
7 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RS4 1478
8 Mitch Shipley WW T2C 144 1459
9 Larry Bunner WW T2C144 1375
10 Ben Dunn Moyes RS3.5 1263
11 Chris Zimmerman WW T2C 154 1257
12 Glen Volk Moyes RS3.5 1158
13 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 1124
14 David Gibson WW T2C 144 1089
15 Rudy Gotes Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 1065
16 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 957
17 Patrick Kruse WW T2C 144 923
18 Olav Olsen WW T2C 144 897
19 Bill Soderquist Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 836
20 Ricker Goldsborough Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 779

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day two, task two »

September 19, 2011, 6:38:42 pm MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Weak lift away from the launch (and early in the launch)

Brett Hazlett|Dustin Martin|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The task:

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

With a forecast similar to Sunday the task committee called a task that they knew would allow pilots to avoid the green areas that proved to be so soft on Sunday. They also wanted to get pilots up on the mountains north of Picacho Peak and let them run the range to the second turnpoint making it easier to get back to the Francisco Grande.

Pilots weren't as lackadaisical today getting ready to launch. In fact there was a long line before the launch opened. We forced the ATOSes and Swifts to launch early and the flex wings were lined up behind them. The rigids starting launching at 11:45.

Unfortunately the lift was quite weak at noon and it was a struggle to stay up. Nothing like when I launched 56 minutes after noon on Sunday and immediately found good lift and climbed to over 7,000'. Everyone was huddled together and not venturing out to find if there was better lift some place else, because we were all too low.

As the hour and fifteen minutes elapsed toward the first start time the lift began turning on slowly. At first we were able to get almost 200 fpm around 1 PM. Then we found a little over 200 fpm and by the time the third start time cam around we were able to climb to 8,000' where as we had been stuck below 3,000'for the first half hour.

A good sized bunch of us took the 1;45 clock and headed for the little range south of Casa Grande. I got out in front as usual and found a strong thermal, 400 fpm on average, to over 9,200', before we got to the range. We then picked up the pace and came into the hills to join Dustin and Bunner.

Dustin and I headed out after a couple of turns but I was soon out ahead again flying fast. It is lonely out in front and I need to slow down a bit here in Casa Grande to stay with others. After a seventeen kilometer glide down to 3,000' AGL I hooked another 400 fpm thermal that took me back to 7,500'. As it broke up I headed out toward the turnpoint looking for O'Brien who was now working weak lift just in front of me.

Unfortunately I didn't see him and kept going not finding lift for 16 kilometers. I went under two circling gliders that had started half an hour earlier but there was nothing but sink below them and I landed.

Jeff worked the weak lift and got up slowly over my head with the two gliders that I had gone to. Dustin behind also worked his way up. Pilots were working very weak lift where I went down for a long time.

Once they got high they headed for the range, were able to get up and then make it back to Francisco Grande.

Brett Hazlett flying a Moyes Litespeed was able to nip Joe Bostik for the win today. Kraig Coomber was third, with Dustin then O'Brien. Then a long wait for the rest of the goal finishers. Bunner made it by 20 meters.

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - top twenty results from day one »

September 19, 2011, 8:07:53 MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Eight pilots in goal

Brett Hazlett|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jeff Chipman|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26822852/SCF2011/Results/T1/Flex_T1.html

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 James Stinnett USA WW T2C 144 998
2 Davis Straub USA WW T2C 144 902
3 Jeff Obrien USA WW T2C 144 899
4 Mitch Shipley USA WW T2C 144 865
5 Dustin Martin USA WW T2C144 822
5 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RS4 822
7 David Gibson USA WW T2C 144 800
8 Larry Bunner USA WW T2C144 769
9 Chris Zimmerman USA WW T2C 154 645
10 Brett Hazlett CAN Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 640
11 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 627
12 Olav Olsen NOR WW T2C 144 596
13 Josef Bostik USA WW T2C 144 582
14 Glen Volk USA Moyes RS3.5 551
15 Rudy Gotes MEX Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 530
16 Bob Filipchuk USA Aeros Combat L 15 485
17 Ricker Goldsborough USA Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 468
18 Jeff Chipman USA Moyes Litespeed 4S 461
19 Greg Dinauer USA Aeros Combat L-13 450
20 Patrick Kruse USA WW T2C 144 432

This is really hard to take

May 25, 2011, 11:08:02 pm CDT

This is really hard to take

Overheard at the Coffee Shop at the Monday morning late registration

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber

Ricker Goldsborough speaking to Jonny Durand before he left the Texas Single Surface Shootout: "If I were your agent I wouldn't let you fly in this competition as you have too much to lose." In addition, he stated that Kraig Coomber hadn't done the leg work to get Jonny a competitive glider, as though a Moyes Malibu 188 with a zoom frame wasn't competitive with Jonny on it.

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The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally - fifth task

May 14, 2011, 8:11:51 EDT

The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally

A very tricky task

Bobby Bailey|Curt Warren|Filippo Oppici|Flytec Race and Rally 2011|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|video

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com

http://skyout.blogspot.com

http://flyingjochen.blogspot.com

http://kathrynoriordan.com

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/jonnydurand

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com

Vidalia, Georgia was very welcoming with the Yumion coming out to the airport to greet us. We've had great press response wherever we have flown to. The Cloudbase Foundation, which has raised $3,000 from the pilots at the competition, gave two grants of $1,000 each to young cancer and accident victims in Vidalia.

The airport as very welcoming and we again were able to launch from pavement, this time one of the runways. The winds were forecasted to be out of the west southwest. The forecast was also for 6,000' to 7,000' cloud base and 500 to 600 fpm lift.

The task committee struggled to try to get us a way to fly to the beach, but it was too difficult to get around Savannah airspace and land at the south end of Hilton Head. They then chose a 181 kilometer task to Walterboro, South Carolina from Vidalia, Georgia. I made one more look at the prognosis and brought up the point that the sea breeze would be kicking in and by five o'clock it would be making it very difficult to get to Walterboro. We needed a goal a little further inland. Walterboro was fifty kilometers from the coast.

We had a goal field at Allendale and it was eighty six kilometers from the coast. It was also likely to be affected by the sea breeze and the convergence, but perhaps less so and later than Walterboro. It was 136 kilometer task.

The cu's were a little late showing up so even though I launched with the first ten pilot I wasn't off the ground until 1:12 for a two o'clock start window. I was behind Bobby Bailey so I pinned off early at 1,300' and found only 100 fpm.  The lift was weak all around the airport as pilots struggled to stay up. It wasn't until seventeen minutes after I launched that I joined a few pilots in a thermal that was going up at almost 500 fpm.

We found good lift after that and about twenty of us were able to make the first start clock at 6,500'. There were plenty of nice cu's ahead so the race was on.

I hooked up with Kraig Coomber, Carl Wallbank, Filippo Oppici, and Alex Trivelato. Carl was high and often unseen by the rest of us, but that meant he was often in the lead. We would all spread out and pilots definitely used each other to find the lift and then to find better cores.

The lift was strong and the cu's well spaced. Carl told me later that he felt that we missed the best cores, but I was thinking that we were going fast, finding good lift, and getting high.

I started out on top except for Karl but three quarters of the way into our fast eighty kilometer run together I got a bit lower and behind. The four of them found some lift in front of me and I noticed that it was weak. I went in under them and kept going as I knew I had to find better lift to catch up. I found 600+ average through the thermal to 7,600'. The others quickly joined me and we all came back closer together.

After hitting core after core and racing at 60 mph over the ground, we went on a nineteen kilometer glide without finding lift. As we approached the town of Sylvania it was clear that the sea breeze had come in ahead. You could see the increased moisture (water vapor) in the air. The cu's were dying on our right (to the south).

Carl pushed ahead into the almost cloudless sky with the others behind and below. Just before the town I turned left and headed north for the much better clouds to the left of the course line. We had been up to five kilometers south of the line. I would get up to fifteen kilometers north of the course line going to the better clouds.

There were cirrus clouds covering the course line and suppressing the lift. The sky was blue to the north up above the cumulus clouds. I searched around over forested areas and down to 2,500' found the lift and climbed to 5,500' at almost 300 fpm. Good lift, but half of what we experienced on most of the course.

I noticed that the convergence was to the north as forecasted earlier. Also the wind shifted from west to south. There were dark bottomed cu's ahead while to the south there weren't any clouds.

Carl, Kraig, Filippo and Alex didn't go down as I had feared, but they struggled in the weak lift along  the course line as I headed north away from it. Joe Bostik and Pete Lehmann were just behind me and north of the course line also, but not as far north as I. Joe said that he was down to 1,300' forty kilometers out. I was working weak lift thirty four kilometers out and down to 1,600'. Joe found good lift and climbed to 7,000' to go on final glide.

I was working over a large cleared area that was becoming shaded from towering cu's just to my west.  The Georgia/South Carolina border was approaching with a river and ten kilometers of forest. I was too low to see if there were any landing areas within the forest. Moving northwest along the edge of the forest I found 250 fpm and climbed to 5,600'. The was enough to make it to the next landing areas if needed.

I glided sixteen kilometers to the other side where I headed for the highway where Pete told me he had found lift. I found broken 100 fpm at 1,800'. I kept getting dumped out of the thermal. There were a few buzzards nearby and I used them to find a core, but that didn't seem to work.

Finally, I felt that I had enough height to make it to the goal from six kilometers out. As soon as I went on glide I found 400 to 500 fpm lift. Why couldn't the birds have showed me this earlier?

Only a few pilots made it to goal with Joe, Pete and I communicating well for the first time during the competition. Curt Warren was the fastest into goal arriving first after taking the second clock. But his vario snapped off fifty kilometers from goal and he had to rely on assistance from Jonny Durand to find lift and make it in. He doesn't have a track log because he lost his instrument.

Carl, Kraig, and Fillippo made it in squeaking into the goal at 16:1. Paris made it in an hour late without a working VG on his Combat. He had been told about the problem and didn't fix it, so he suffered his own fate. Reminds me of the time in Zapata when his VG didn't work when he was flying with Manfred on the day of the World Record and he could fly "only" 300 miles.

Thursday's flight here.

Friday's flight here.

2011 Flytec Race and rally »

Tue, Dec 21 2010, 10:10:19 am PST

Over subscribed, six over the fifty pilot limit

Allen Stanish|André Wolfe|Ben Dunn|Brett Hazlett|Campbell Bowen|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Erick Vils|Filippo Oppici|Flytec Race and rally 2011|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Jack Simmons|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|John Chambers|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Julia Kucherenko|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Lauren Tjaden|Mike Glennon|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Nick Purcell|Ollie Gregory|Patrick Kruse|Raul Guerra|Roberto Nichele|Robin Hamilton|Tom Lanning|Zac Majors

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

Tom Lanning
Jochen Zeischka
Curt Warren
Dave May
Dustin Martin
Filippo Oppici
Kraig Coomber
Jonny Durand
Roberto Nichele
Dean Funk
Mark Frutiger
Alex Cuddy
Larry (Killa Bee) Bunner
Ricker Goldsborough
Mitch Shipley
Davis Straub
Mike Glennon
Joe Bostik
Ollie Gregory
Patrick Kruse
Jeff Shapiro
Greg Dinaur
Allen Stanish
Charles Allen
Bill Reynold
Kathryn O’Riordan
Zac Majors
Glen Volk
Carl Wallbank
Lauren Tjaden
Brett Hazlett
Andre Wolf
Derreck Turner
Jim Prahl
Linda Salamone
Jim Ramsden
Chris Zimmerman
Ben Dunn
James Stinnett
Kris Grzyb
Erick Vils
Cedrick Vils
Greg Chastain
Kevin Carter
Raul Guerra
Francesco Rinaldo
Campbell Bowen
Nick Purcell
Jonathan Kinred
Robin Hamilton
John Chambers
Julia Kucherenko
Francois Veronneau
George Adams
Jack Simmons
Eduardo Oliveira

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2011 Flytec Race and Rally »

Sun, Dec 12 2010, 4:53:59 pm PST

Top pilots coming from Australia

Allen Stanish|calendar|Charles Allen|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Flytec Race and Rally 2011|Glen Volk|James Tindle|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Lauren Tjaden|Mike Glennon|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Ollie Gregory|Patrick Kruse|Roberto Nichele|Rob Kells|Tom Lanning|Zac Majors

https://OzReport.com/calendar.php

https://OzReport.com/uscompetitiondates.php

http://FlytecRaceAndRally.wordpress.com/

Jamie Shelden «Jamie Shelden» sends the names of pilots signed up for the Flytec Race and Rally:

Tom Lanning, Jochen Zeischka, Curt Warren, Dave May, Dustin Martin, Filippo Oppici, Kraig Coomber, Jonny Durand, Roberto Nichele, Dean Funk, Mark Frutiger, Alex Cuddy, Larry (Killa Bee) Bunner, Ricker Goldsborough, Mitch Shipley, Davis Straub, Mike Glennon, Joe Bostik, Ollie Gregory, Patrick Kruse, Jeff Shapiro, Greg Dinaur, Allen Stanish, Charles Allen, Bill Reynold, Kathryn O’Riordan, Zac Majors, Glen Volk, Carl Wallbank, Lauren Tjaden

Registration for the Rob Kells meet that was supposed to open on the 10th still apparently isn't open. Maybe you pilots who fly regularly at the Ridge could get James Tindle into first gear. I get very tired of having to call him each year, when I can email everyone else and actually get a response.

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 19, 2010, 0:09:09 MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Kraig Coomber wins, Jonny second, Carl third (then Jeff Shapiro as the first "American")

David Glover|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

This has been an incredible competition. Again seven days of outstanding flying and great conditions especially the last five days. Strong thermals, we get to over 10,000', very light winds so we can come back to the hotel, smooth thermals, easy to core and get your tips up, lots of friendly pilots to fly with, great organization, very smooth scoring (easy for me), wonderful support from the tug pilots and tug owners, great runway - no dust, great support from the local club, outstanding meet director - David Glover, great organizer - Jamie Shelden, a great dinner at the new Mexican restaurant on the last evening, huge support for the Cloudbase Foundation (even more from Russell and Lori), so cool to have a pool to jump in before the flight) and afterwards also, green grass for setup and breakdown (on the last day), and basically just spectacular flying and a good time (was had by all).

We need to come back to fly here as often as we can. This is a great site (or at least it was this week). It is so much fun to be in the air here.

With a forecast for 700-800 fpm, top of useable lift at 10,000', and very light winds (the lightest of the week), the task committee (Dustin, Jonny, and Ben) call a triangle task out to the northwest, first a short distance (12 km) to the intersection at Bon, then out to the antenna at Mobile (35 km) west of the foothills, then back 11 km to the sailplane port at Estrella, then 37 km into goal at the Francisco Grande. It's a 94 kilometer task, but we know that we have to get it done early as the lift stops at 5 PM (or at least it did the day before and the forecast shows that also).

I get into line a little earlier than the previous day just to be sure that I have time to get high and get yanked up at 12:45. It is still an hour and thirty five minutes until the last start time at 2:20 PM, but I'm hoping that I can get pilots to go at 2 PM.

Instead of a tee-shirt and the thick Moyes speed sleeves, I decided to fly with a tee-shirt and these tiny thin just upper speed sleeves, that just turn my short sleeve tee-shirt into a long sleeve version. Much more comfortable in the air, and still nice and cool at 10,000'. No worries.

There apparently isn't much lift around as the few pilots who took off in front of me are south of the launch scratching with Dustin (and a few have landed). The first turnpoint is to the northwest so pilots would not normally head to the south in the start circle when this is true. I come over to Dustin and experience the poor lift that gets us up and down to 3,700' and back to 3,200', repeated a few times.

After half an hour of this, and not getting up I leave the other pilots behind and head north to see if I can find better. Sure enough in the first thermal I climb to 4,400'. Quite an improvement over 3,700'. I then head further north (and the other pilots are still sitting in that weak lift to the south), and climb to 5,000'.

Now the pilots that I left behind are ready and willing to come to me and the few other pilots that started out here to the north. Now the tug pilots are bringing pilots our way instead of to the south.

An hour after I launched I find a nice thermal and climb out to 7,500' just in time for the second to last start time. I'm ready to go and now there are quite a few pilots around although only a couple as high, but no one else is ready to head out. We wait around for the last start time at 2:20, taking the start at 6,700'.

Carl, Stinnett, Derrick, and Ricker head a couple of kilometers outside the start cylinder before the last start window and find very strong lift that gets them to 9,400' while we have to start 3,000' below them. No wonder I see these guys high over my head.

The rest of us (the whole lot) head for the first turnpoint at Bon, just seven kilometers away from the edge of the start cylinder.  I'm following one pilot and there are a bunch of others just beside me. The lead pilot heads north from the turnpoint away from the course line but out into the rougher and drier areas.

Three and a half kilometers out he finds a little bit of lift and as we are down to 2,100' AGL, we all turn in it also. It averages 50 fpm. Jonny heads a kilometer and a half further north after he spots some birds going up and Joe and I join him. Soon the others come over and we climb at 300 fpm to 8,100'.

We are five kilometers north of the course line but once we top out we head west toward the turnpoint at Mobile. In three kilometers we find 360 fpm to 9,000'.

It is a fourteen kilometer glide to Maricopa where we find almost 400 fpm to 8,200'. This gives us enough altitude for a thirteen kilometer glide to the foothills before Mobile. It's 400 fpm up to 7,800'. Plenty of altitude and good lift.

It's an eight kilometer glide to the tower at Mobile out in the desert with not much to recommend it, then coming back four kilometers we run into Jon Senior coming out to the turnpoint. The thermal that he is in is 500 fpm and we take it to 10,700'. Jeff Shapiro is just below me, but there are a bunch of guys over me head, I can't get up to them.

I follow the guys above me to the turnpoint at Estrella, a glide of seven kilometers and arrive at the waypoint at 9,000'. I turn and head for goal, thirty seven kilometers away. Now this is a mistake.

Jeff is beside me and heading along the highway just north of me. The three guys that I can see in front of me are also heading in that direction. I know, because I told the pilots at the pilot briefing that going straight along the course line may be tough as the lift could be very weak out there in the cultivated areas. I do have positive numbers on my 6030 for making goal, maybe 1000' above best glide.

Jeff and everyone else (other than a couple of pilots) continue along the highway as we head cross country. When they get to Maricopa they find 200 fpm. Jeff takes it to 8,000' and then is able to make goal, fourth in.

Meanwhile I'm struggling not finding any lift even over the dry fields. I'm able to find -15 fpm and then -35 fpm, but obviously that doesn't cut it especially in the light winds that aren't blowing me home so I land twelve kilometers short.

Jonny wins the day, but Kraig is close behind him and the point spread is small for the first guys in, so Jonny can't make up the points he lost by not making goal on the sixth day. Robin Hamilton who was in second landed early as did Larry Bunner. This allowed Jeff to move into fourth place.

This was a very well attended meet and a meet that was a lot of fun. When I was circling low over the cultivate areas  trying to get to goal. I was also appreciating how much fun I was having getting the opportunity to fly in this beautiful air, so low, but still staying up. A buzzard spotted some of the lift for me and I joined him hoping that he was a magic buzzard and would show me the way out of this predicament.

Then another buzzard came along, and I thought, well, great two birds think that this is the place to be. So I kept circling with them. But finally they were able to get above me and the lift was not getting any better and after twenty three minutes of just hanging on and hoping I had to land.

But the competition gave me the opportunity to have this wonderful experience, something that I wouldn't have done without a competition to motivate me to get out there and find myself slowly drifting over farm lands.

 I hope that many of you can come to the Santa Cruz Flats Race next year and experience this joy of flying in wonderful conditions. Congratulations to Jamie for putting on an outstanding competition. Congratulations to all the pilots who got to come here and experienced this with me. I've never had a more enjoyable time at Casa Grande then this year.

To all the pilots with GPS troubles, it's time to upgrade to a Flytec 6030 or Brauniger Compeo +.

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 14, 2010, 11:17:57 pm MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Finally we get to goal

Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Mark Bolt|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

After the forecast yesterday which called for strong lift to maybe 9,000', and we come up with weak lift and we don't get high, I'm a little gun shy about believing the models for this area even when the RUC and the NAM agree. The forecast is for strong lift and a high top of the lift, but we discount this in the task committee meeting and assume that the lift will be like the previous day.

The forecast does call for 7 to 10 knot northwest winds, which we take as probably reliable. These models do seem to get the wind value pretty much right. Given the wind, and the feeling that the lift will be weaker than forecast and the top of the lift less than we had hoped for, the task committee calls a downwind task to the RC field west of Tucson with a turnpoint at Picacho to supposedly keep us over cultivated fields and not in no man's land.

We push back the start time to 1:20 (launch opens at noon) for the first start giving us eighty minutes to get everyone up in the air if they want to take the first start clock. Of course, this just means that pilots will wait around even longer (be realistic about human behavior and don't wait for the "new" man). Three pilots do take off soon after the window opens, but everyone else is content to watch them from the shade of the RedBull tent that shows up this morning and is placed next to the launch. This makes it much more comfortable to be on the ground (and therefore pilots aren't as eager to get into the air).

Dustin is the second or third pilot to launch and we all wonder why. He doesn't get up and after a while lands. He reports that the lift is weak which we can see as he and the other pilots climb very slowly. No one is at all ready to go after the first three or four pilots, waiting around for others to go or for better conditions. Dustin launches again and then we have a forty five minute lull.

Dustin and the other pilots stay up if not get high so finally around 1 PM, one hour after the launch window opened and one hour before the last start time (and twenty minutes before the first start time) pilots begin in line up. I'm usually among the first to launch, but I'm sixth or so in this second line up for launch. I'm hoping to have some markers out in front if me.

I get hauled up to 2,400' without much lift, but better than the no lift launch on the second day. I am hauled to the northwest into the wind, but I can see Dustin turning two kilometers downwind of the launch. I can't see any of the five "markers" that were pulled up before me, except Jim Yocom, very low by launch.

As soon as I pin off I head downwind toward the tower and toward Dustin and don't find lift until I am down to 1,000' AGL and two kilometers downwind (7 mph) of the launch. The lift averages zero for about three minutes until I find a bit better core and climb up to 4,400' with Dustin and Zippy, getting within a kilometer of the edge of the start cylinder.

I have to go back upwind to stay within the start cylinder and get the timing right for the 2 PM (last) start window. This puts me back down to 1,400' AGL but it is possible to find more lift and I climb slowly back up again to 3,500', just 2,100' AGL, but every one else is at about this altitude also when it is time to take the last clock.

A bunch of us head out, maybe fifteen pilots and find better lift, 183 fpm, just outside the start cylinder. As this is a race start so no one is ahead (maybe there is a pilot or two down the course line that we don't know about) and because we are low and need some altitude, we all huddle together and climb up to almost 5,000'. We are climbing and drifting downwind down the course line so we are relaxed.

It is an eight kilometer glide to the next thermal which is an improvement at 320 fpm. It is at the south end of a very small range of hills southeast of Casa Grande, usually a good thermal location. We are pretty much all together and I'm continually cutting off Kraig Coomber as he relaxes in the thermals. I can see Jonny with his arms just draped across the base tube.

We climb to 6,000' in the good lift and then head out together. It's a nine kilometer glide to the next thermal and with so many pilots spread out and flying as a team to optimize the search, we have no problem finding the next thermal. It's less than 100 fpm, but who cares? Well, we do leave it after a few turns, go another couple of kilometers and find 200 fpm than gets us back to 5,000'.

Six more kilometers of gliding and we find a strong thermal, 340 fpm on average that gets us to over 7,000'. When it starts to get weak I'm ready to leave, but no one is leaving. I'm not at the very top, although plenty high in the stack, but finally Shapiro leaves and I go with him, 300' below him.

The turnpoint is only eight kilometers away and we get to it at 5,000' (or at least that is my altitude). I'm even with Jeff now but 500' below him. Everyone else is just behind us.

The turnpoint marks the edge of cultivation. Further down the course line is wild territory with Saguaro cactus, a dirt road or two (no telling if they are behind locked gates) rocky outcroppings, and a long retrieve. Still we are high. I head for the first rocky outcropping and don't find anything. I then turn east follow a low ridge line over more black rocks, still nothing, I then head into the gut of no man's land going for a pilot circling low over a rocky hillside, eight kilometers past the turnpoint. I'm now down to 2,000' AGL over bad landing areas.

Jeff and Craig and a couple of other pilots are heading deeper in the territory that they don't wish to land in. I stop before the pilot and take 100 fpm up just to assess the situation. It is still possible to scoot out to a semi cultivated area if things get worse. I'm climbing near a hill side, so it's okay for now.

Jeff and Kraig search a couple of kilometers further in and finally find strong lift which keeps them happy and in the air. I'm working weak stuff further back on the course line. This is the first time I get separated from the main gaggle.

Chris Zimmerman, Robin Hamilton, and Glen Volk are near me and heading back toward the cultivated areas. I leave my thermal, join up with them, and work weaker lift (77 fpm) for twenty minutes off another more comfortable hill side further along the course line but closer to cultivated areas. Jeff, Craig and others are working much better lift just out of sight ahead of us.

I finally get back to a comfortable altitude at 4,800' and head down wind along the course line as I watch Mark Bolt scoot along the ground below me very low and heading for an isolated air field out in the middle of this waste land. Jim Yocom has landed just east of the airfield.

Mark gets down to 200' but finds a thermal and Chris and I watch him as we circle up in the next thermal. I go over Mark, find some lift at 89 fpm, but figure that there is better ahead. At 5,000', even though the ground elevation has gone up 1,000' since we started, I'm feeling secure.

The wind has picked up significantly since I came over Mark and is now seventeen mph, a ten mph increase. My glide ratio is much higher. I climb to 2,400' AGL ten kilometers from goal and go on final glide. I'm the tenth pilot in. You can see the results on the scoring server at the URL above.

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The 2009 Canoa Open

November 3, 2009, 7:16:52 pm GMT-0500

The 2009 Canoa Open

The final press release

Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fausto Arcos|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber|Rafael Arcos|Raul Guerra|record

Jorge Andant <<jorgeandant>> writes:

(Switch to Spanish.)

DELTA WINGS

BIRD MEN IN CANOA

A delirious spectacle of acrobatics, speed and intense emotion took place in Canoa, Manabi, with the development of the International Championship of ALAS DELTA "Birdmen 2009", organized by the Delta Wing Club de Guayaquil, "Monkey's Ranch Club."

The excitement was focused on pure speed racing, run in a circuit of 53 km between the cities of Canoa and San Vicente, where some of the best pilots in the developed world, were racing at high speed, flying "wingtip to wingtip." The audience followed the action from "LZ" or the landing zone at the beach at the Hotel Wonderland, while the organization amplified by reporting the radio reports of a pilot air reporter who followed closely throughout the course of the race.

After the races, the pilots came to land at the beach, where an excited crowd waiting with an ovation, and they returned the applause with acrobatic shows. Loops (turns vertical) double, wing overs and plunges. During the low-flying, organizers cut the music so that the public can hear the whistle sounds of impressive hang gliding, flying at almost 130 km per hour, just two meters above the beach, like real arrows.

The best of the pilots returned from previous years including professional star Dustin Martin, U.S., who has been winning races at Canoa for four years running.

The best landing was by Nicholas Montoya Glennon, who made a perfect approach to land softly on the small landing target, receiving a standing ovation. This pilot is only 17 years old.

Also the pilot Melania Larenas, from Quito, made history by becoming the first Ecuadorian woman to fly a hang glider (taking her first solo flight on Thursday), flying five hours total during the program of Birdmen 2009. During the awards, she received her baptism from pilots Dustin Martin and Raul Guerra, who was assigned her the symbolic name of "roadrunner". Then, following a tradition of pilots, they smeared her with honey filled with feathers.

The program concluded with a group playing local music, the awards ceremony, and then fireworks as "kite crazy." In the end, a reggae band closed out the program of the "bird men" who ended their participation this year (the fifth row in Ecuador) with complete success.

OFFICIAL RESULTS "Birdman 09" GUAYAQUIL, 27th October MODE: "CROSS COUNTRY" distance)
1. Dustin Martin (USA) (*)
1. Kraig Coomber (AUS) (*)
3. Davis Straub (USA)
(*) Draw in the first place. New Ecuadorian free flight record: 81 km, between Guayaquil and Cascol.

CANOA 1 Y 2 NOV MODE: "SPEED RACE" (Motor speed) circuit of 53 km between San Vicente and Canoeing.

SPORT CLASS
1. Jamie Shelden (USA)
2. Luis Eduardo Cajas (ECU)
3. Kent Haarman (EU)

OPEN CLASS
1. Dustin Martin (USA)
2. Jeff Shapiro (USA)
3. Jeff O'Brien (USA)

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS OFFICIAL RESULTS

2009 Sport CLASS DELTA WINGS
1. EDUARDO BOXES (Guay)
2. COLUMBO MICHAEL (Guay)
3. DANIEL MURILLO (Pichincha)

OPEN CLASS
1. RAUL GUERRA (Guay)
2. FAUSTO ARCS (PICHINCHA)
3. RAFAEL ARCS (PICHINCHA)

More information: ozreport.com

Or contact:
Jorge "Manino" Andant, <manino>, 09-964-3000 Cel swap

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Ecuadorian Records

November 3, 2009, 8:29:14 GMT-0500

Ecuadorian Records

The previous record was actually 71 km

Dustin Martin|Fausto Arcos|Kraig Coomber|Rarcos Ingenieria|record

I reported the other day that Dustin and Kraig Coomber had set the new Ecuadorian cross country distance record and that the old record was 40 km. Well, the old record was the Guayaquil record, the previous Ecuadorian cross country record was as follows:

Rafael and Fausto Arcos at Rarcos Ingenieria <<rarcos>> write:

The standing cross country record until a few days ago was 71KM. This flight occurred in 1987. The pilot was Collin King from Atlanta, Georgia flying a Moyes GTR. The flight originated in Quito and finished close to the base of Cotopaxi Volcano in the region of Lasso. The flight in Guayaquil yesterday broke the local low lands 40km record and became the longest flight in Ecuador to date.

It's great to have a memory of an early record flight, from an American, of all people.

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The 2009 Canoa Open

November 2, 2009, 9:06:00 pm GMT-0500

The 2009 Canoa Open

Day two and final results

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fausto Arcos|Jack Simmons|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

Final results for Open Class (the top ten out of twenty):

# Pilot Glider Day 1 Time Day 2 Time Total Time
1 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C-144 0:37:01 0:39:22 1:16:23
2 Jeff Shapiro Wills Wing T2C-144 0:37:28 0:39:42 1:17:10
3 Jeff O'Brien Wills Wing T2C 144 0:38:28 0:39:36 1:18:04
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed 0:38:38 0:39:33 1:18:11
5 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C-144 0:41:21 0:42:21 1:23:42
6 Fausto Arcos Wills Wing T2C-154 0:43:32 0:44:24 1:27:56
7 Raul Guerra Moyes Litespeed 0:44:05 0:45:28 1:29:33
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2 - 144 0:44:08 0:46:18 1:30:26
9 Jack Simmons Wills Wing T2 0:44:19 0:48:07 1:32:26
10 Rafel Arcos Wills Wing T2C-154 0:45:16 0:47:21 1:32:37

Final results for Sport Class (the top six out of eleven - total time for two days):

# Pilot Glider Handicapped
Time
1 Jamie Shelden Moyes Litesport 3 0:36:40
2 Eduardo Cajas Wills Wing U2 0:43:13
3 Kent Harman Wills WIng U2 0:44:01
4 Michael Columbo Wills Wing U2 160 0:48:09
5 Juan Ochoa Wills Wing US 0:48:21
6 David Morillo Wills Wing Sport 2 0:48:29

The 2009 Canoa Open

November 2, 2009, 8:06:52 pm GMT-0500

The 2009 Canoa Open

Day two preliminary results

Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber

Day Two:

  1. Dustin Martin
  2. Kraig Coomber
  3. Jeff O'Brien
  4. Jeff Shapiro

Overall:

  1. Dustin
  2. Shapiro
  3. O'Brien
  4. Kraig

Sport:

  • Jamie Shelden by a long shot on the Moyes Litesport.

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The 2009 Canoa Open

November 1, 2009, 9:52:31 pm GMT-0500

The 2009 Canoa Open

Day one - strong winds and a good race day

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fausto Arcos|Jack Simmons|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|John Hesch|Kraig Coomber|Mike Glennon|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

The day started with sunshine and an off shore flow. The race didn't start until 4:30 PM, so there was plenty of time for the winds to turn around. By the time we got up to launch at 2:30 PM (after a day at the beach) we were surprised to find quite strong winds which made us think a moment about launch conditions.

After that moment, we got about the business of getting off the hill and getting ready for the race. The sun had been gone for a long time hidden behind thick grey clouds, with a cloud base of 1,200'. We could see the wind lines on the ocean shift from west to west southwest, straight in. It looked good. I placed the ten pounds of lead that I borrowed from Raul in my harness pocket.

The launches turned out to be a piece of cake and it took only a few minutes to get to cloud base. But the point was to stay low and practice the course for the next hour and a half. With the strong winds it was easy to complete the course.

The sketchy part was the leg over town. The main ridge gives way about a kilometer south of town. The task requires going over the middle of town and then back to that ridge. There is a small ridge where the lower takeoff is located and you do go over that going to town and coming back.

I checked out the altitude required leaving the ridge going over town and getting back to the ridge. It looked like 700' would be a safe bet, getting back with 300' after a four kilometer glide.

As the start time approached I headed back to the launch area and the highest cliffs which were producing the best lift. The pilots started to huddle together getting ready for the start, trying to get as high as possible. The cliffs were about 1.5 km from the edge of the exit start cylinder and our first leg was to the south.

In the last two minutes we headed to the edge of the start cylinder away from the lift and lost a little. Dustin and Jeff O'Brien stayed high at or slightly above cloud base. The rest of us were a bit lower, maybe 100' to 200' below cloud base. Some of us headed out toward the ocean to get a bit of a down wind run.

Dustin and O'Brien got the best start. I was 300 meters behind the edge of the start circle when the clock started, which is way too much. Shapiro was in third. Kraig peeled off not content to start 300' below Dustin and he went back for the second clock (there is no penalty for starting later as time is the only consideration.

We dove across the big gap to the next ridge and got down to 500' heading south. The pilots were spread out and racing hard. We stayed between 400' and 600'.

Coming back to the north I left the ridge south of Canoa at 580', less than the 700' that I felt comfortable with, but there were other pilots nearby, even if they were a bit higher. As I approached the soccer field in the center of town I started to turn, but turned 70 meters too early. I had to turn back around the other way to get the cylinder. Four pilots caught up with me on that maneuver.

Coming back to the small ridge at the lower takeoff I came in at 160' much lower than on any of the practice runs, but this was the real thing, so I put the wing close to the cliff and rode the lift up along the small hills and kept going. I was back down to 190' when I got back to the main ridge and the race began in earnest again.

Jeff Shapiro had passed Jeff O'Brien and was going after Dustin who was far ahead. We had a lap and a half to go for the 53 km race.

The winds were just right and the lift was good so there was no need to do anything except stay within the lift band and keep from getting too high. Some pilots were very fast (and some landed out):

# Pilot Glider Time
1 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C-144 0:37:01
2 Jeff Shapiro Wills Wing T2C-144 0:37:28
3 Jeff O'Brien Wills Wing T2C 144 0:38:28
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed 0:38:38
5 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed 0:39:27
6 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C-144 0:41:21
7 Mike Glennon Moyes Litespeed S5 0:42:41
8 John Hesch Moyes Litespeed 0:43:14
9 Fausto Arcos Wills Wing T2C-154 0:43:32
10 Raul Guerra Moyes Litespeed 0:44:05
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2 - 144 0:44:08
12 Pato Cathme 0:44:16
13 Jack Simmons Wills Wing T2 0:44:19
14 Rafel Arcos Wills Wing T2C-154 0:45:16

There is a sport class here also, and they had a bit smaller race. The results are as follows for those who made the full course:

# Pilot Glider Time Handicapped
Time
1 Jamie Shelden Moyes Litesport 3 0:18:35 0:18:35
2 Eduardo Cajas Wills Wing U2 0:21:21 0:21:21
3 Kent Harman Wills WIng U2 0:22:03 0:22:03
4 Juan Ochoa Wills Wing US 0:25:36 0:23:18
5 Michael Columbo Wills Wing U2 160 0:23:32 0:23:32
6 David Morillo Wills Wing Sport 2 0:25:45 0:24:28
7 Nicolas Glennon Wills Wing Falcon 170 0:41:09 0:31:41

The 2009 Canoa Open

October 29, 2009, 10:40:27 pm GMT-0500

The 2009 Canoa Open

The first practice day

Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber

It is good that we have two practice days here as the new pilots need to get accustomed to the site. Dustin is already aware of just how to fly here but Jeff Shapiro and Kraig Coomber and others (like me) need a refresher course in flying at the beach, especially this particular site.

Around 1 PM we went to the launch (there are two) nearest to Canoa, maybe a few hundred yards outside of town to the south up a dirt road. The launch is a little less than 300' above the beach/town area. There is a new small hotel (three stories) being built just behind the launch.

The launch is a rounded slope behind a steep face which drops down to the road into town. Plenty of room for all of us to set up. Some of the pilots went to the other higher launch about five kilometers south of town.

We will be racing on the hills that face the ocean. The hills are quite steep on the ocean side no doubt due to sloughing.  The hill heights range from about 300' to maybe 1000'. They are quite a ways back from the ocean itself, varying between maybe a quarter kilometer in most places to almost a kilometer twelve kilometers south of Canoa at the southern turnpoint.

The area between the hills and the water is dead flat with a wide sandy beach area right next to the water and the rest of the area in grass or scrub. There is plenty of room to land in the unlikely case that that becomes an issue.

The race course is from Canoa south almost to San Vincente. There are three gaps in the hills along the course line, the longest about a kilometer. You lose maybe up to 300' crossing the longest gap, and 100' on the shortest.

The hills sometimes have cliff faces although often they are rounded and covered in brush and trees. It is the near the end of the dry season now and everything looks brown and dead. There is a lot of variation in the height of the hills as you run the course, and one set of high tension lines that you've got to be sure to be above.

There is a big gap (maybe two kilometers) to the north of our low launch on the south side of Canoa for the river and delta area that make up Canoa itself. There are cliffs to the north and I had no problem getting to them from about 500' at launch. Unlike our course area, there is little to no beach area below the cliffs to the north of Canoa, just pounding surf.

The lift was good there and it was easy just to let the bar out and continually climb to 1,450' as I flew along the cliff line to nine kilometers north, getting up into the cu's forming just in front of the cliffs. This reminded me of flying at Redhead in Australia.

The Jeff's, Dustin and Kraig were flying very fast today. There may have been others going as fast but those were the ones that I was trying to keep up with, not successfully. Tomorrow, lead (I didn't bring mine), VG adjustment, hang height adjustment, and maybe a few other things. I'm flying with just my bicycle helmet, so no head pulley. We have one more practice day and then it begins for real. But first, social responsibility at the school, and then flying.

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The 2009 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 28, 2009, 4:32:41 pm MST

The 2009 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A few quick thoughts

Alex McCulloch|Ben Dunn|David Glover|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Kraig Coomber|Lucas Ridley|Robin Hamilton|Russell "Russ" Brown|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2009|Terry Reynolds|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Kraig Coomber, flying a Moyes Litespeed, won three days. Dustin Martin and Zac Majors each won one day, each flying Wills Wing T2C-144's.

Kraig Coomber, Robin Hamilton, and Derreck Turner, all flying Moyes Litespeeds placed retrospectively first, second and third.

Team flying was a big deal at this competition, with a group of southern California pilots flying together. Of course, the US National team (minus Jeff Shapiro) flew in radio contact and often together.

There was only one bad landing, Terry Reynolds, who broke his keel on the first day coming early off tow and trying to land back close to the launch, instead of just landing safely. No injuries, and no other problems. A very safe meet, as all the tow/flatland meets have been all year.

The US airspace data file from SeeYou/Naviter doesn't reflect changes in the definition of controlled airspace around Phoenix, which are less restrictive than previously. The new values can be found at http://skyvector.com. The data files from SeeYou/Naviter are based on the files in the OpenAir data format, see http://www.justsoar.com.

Lots of pilots who are new to competition showed up and really enjoyed themselves. This meet is seen as very friendly to pilots new to competition, with easy retrieves, great air conditions, large open landing areas, and amenities for the wife.

We all paid for a new asphalt runway. The organizers didn't earn any money from the meet. Meet organizers are earning little to nothing from these competitions.

We have another launch site nearby if there are east winds. We'll be ready to use it next year.

Pilots want to come back to the Francisco Grande next year. I'll have more details on this soon.

The 2009 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 24, 2009, 10:09:39 pm MST

The 2009 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day Five

Alex McCulloch|Ben Dunn|David Glover|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Flytec 6030|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Lucas Ridley|Russell "Russ" Brown|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2009

With an east-northeast surface wind like the last two days but this time not too strong (and forecasted to last two more days) we headed up to the small GA airfield seven miles to the north west of the Francisco Grande Hotel to find a spot away from the trees and not in the rotor. The field was wide open and there was a nice packed dirt runway next to the main paved runway, so it was easy to launch there.

We don't have many waypoints to the west as that direction goes away from the nice cultivated fields around Casa Grande and puts us into the Saguaro cactus country (Sonora Desert). We had a few waypoints along the highway and one at the Gila Bend airfield. So we sent pilots on a short downwind task (70 km) thinking that the head wind would be 9 knots if we came back to the hotel.

Jeff and I were off early and climbed out west of the launch area. The task had a twenty nine kilometer entry start circle around the first waypoint, a radio tower out in the desert, and we started working our way north with Zippy. Larry Bunner joined up up with us.

The wind was about seven mph out of the northeast, so it was a slog going north and finding lift. But was had started early so we had plenty of time to get going. We wanted to get east-northeast of the first waypoint so that we could have a good downwind run to it. There were just the four of us together.

We decided to take the first start time as we were as high as we had been (7,000'), all of us together (we figured Larry would go with us), and we had a chance to grab the early arrival points. With four of us flying together we figured we had a good shot at helping each other find lift.

It turned out that Jeff O'Brien could hear us but didn't know that we couldn't hear him on the radio. Bunner was on another frequency. Zippy said that he was going at the first start time, I said that I would go with him, and all four of us started then.

We went on a sixteen kilometer glide without finding any lift. We stayed to the north of the obvious green areas and away from the cultivated fields to try to stay in the driest areas. Neither asphalt nor gravel pits worked out for us, and we turned south to check out the cultivated areas finally finding 200 fpm at 1,500' AGL.

This was a disaster. The whole point of leaving early was to get away from everyone else and get to goal first to get the extra points. Now we were low and in light lift in our first thermal on the course. Five minutes into it Zippy radioed that there was a dust devil upwind two kilometers to our southeast. We all headed for it. Of course, Larry didn't hear the news so was late getting to the party.

The dust devil wasn't that great but got us back to 5,300' at 300 fpm. The three of us together headed west over the small mountain range hoping to find lift on it. We left Larry groveling low in multiple dust devils.

We didn't find any lift on the hills, but again found 200 fpm beyond them as we got down to 2,300' AGL. Now were were in big trouble. Two weak thermals, not much out of a dust devil, not very high. We were having a hard time racing.

We were all climbing together, after Jeff came back to get in what I had. Back to 6,000' Zippy called on us to go ahead. We all did and quickly found better lift. I was 50 feet below them. After a few turns Jeff and Zippy go ahead but Zippy forgot to call me on the radio to tell me that they were heading out.

I climbed another 600', then went forward after I asked Zippy where they were and run into 600 fpm. This got me to 8,200'. I left this good lift to chase after Zippy and Jeff.

We were still out in front with no sign of pilots catching us from behind. We heard from Dustin that he had pushed too hard and was down just behind us. We were thinking that maybe things were bad behind us.

I came in under Jeff and Zippy but couldn't quite catch them even though I had had a good run behind them, and had climbed higher than they did. Climbing in a thermal just before the next set of mountains I saw Kraig Coomber and five buddies come in a few thousand feet below me. They had obviously started later. I was anxious to go.

I could have flown over to Kraig and just stayed above him, but I wanted to race ahead and get to goal first. Not a great idea. My 6030 did say that I had goal made, but it was still over twenty kilometers away, so that L/D business is pretty unreliable.

Jeff and Zippy were just ahead and I figured I could use them to spot thermals, but that didn't work out so well. Down to 1,500' twenty kilometers out, I stayed in whatever lift I could find until I could find the better core. It took a while to catch it as Jeff and then Zippy made it into goal. I finally got back up enough to go on final glide at up to 70 mph over the ground.

Kraig and his buddies (half a dozen of them it seemed) who had worked well together got in before me. Lots and lots of pilots made goal later.

Larry Bunner did get up in the third dust devil that he went to. He then went to the hills to the west and found 1000 fpm up, which got him quickly to goal.

Moyes at Funston

June 15, 2009, 1:36:27 pm EDT

Moyes at Funston

Demo days

Kraig Coomber

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> writes:

Moyes USA will be at Fort Funston for the last weekend of June - 27th and 28th. We will have the following gliders available for demo: Malibu 188, Sonic 190, Litesport 4, Litespeed RS3.5, Litespeed RS4.

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Torrey Pines Air Races

May 15, 2009, 8:20:19 EDT

Torrey Pines Air Races

Jonny Durand will be there

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber

See here and here. May 19th through 24th.

Kraig Coomber <<kraig>> writes:

Moyes USA will be attending the Torrey Pines Flight Fest May 19th-24th. Several gliders will be available during the week for demo. We will have a Malibu 188, Litesport 4, Litespeed RS3.5 and Litespeed RS4. Pilots interested in flying something should see Jonny Durand or Kraig Coomber.

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Moyes USA coming to the comps in Florida

April 24, 2009, 8:25:57 EDT

Moyes USA coming to the comps in Florida

A trailer full of gliders

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Rob Kells

Kraig Coomber «kraig» writes:

The Moyes USA truck and trailer departed Los Angeles Monday on its way east for the Florida competitions. A total of sixteen gliders and a load of spare parts are in transit. Several demo gliders (Litespeed RS3.5 or 4, Litesport 4, Malibu 188) are on the truck and will be available for pilots to test fly during the Rob Kells Memorial. Interested pilots should see Jonny Durand.

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The Moyes Matrix Race Harness

April 21, 2009, 8:25:45 EDT

The Moyes Matrix Race Harness

Kraig Coomber's and Gerolf's harness

Kraig Coomber|Quest Air

I have already written extensively about the Moyes Matrix Race harness. You'll find those article here:

http://ozreport.com/12.022#4

http://ozreport.com/12.032#0

http://picasaweb.google.com/moyesusa/MatrixAirScoop#

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11192

http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w74/andylong_images/Matrix Race/

http://www.moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?ID=47&Cat=Harnesses

http://ozreport.com/12.092#2

Unlike the Rotor and the Zero Drag FR, the Matrix Race doesn't use a kick ass system to change the pitch angle. You just lift your shoulders up (back) and adjust your pitch angle (pulling down or pushing up on the control bar) and then relax your shoulders to set your angle. This allows you to use all the space behind your back for storage if you need it. I have never used that space.

In the pictures above I don't have the harness bags or the stuffing bags in the side pockets which would have smoothed them out. The harness features are as follows:

1) zippered pockets for the aerotow tabs with small handles on the sliders;

2) I added Pitcher's toe to the boot to protect it;

3) there is substantial storage spaces, although the boot is a solid piece of Styrofoam, so no storage there. You can cut it though to get the right fit and angle, which Kraig did for me. I put my cross country bag just above my calves. That location didn't cause any problems with my legs fitting into the harness;

4) the side pockets are large and allow room for the cross country harness bag (a nice feature itself) and the other glider bags;

5) the parachute is side mounted and there was room for a Lara Gold 250;

6) there is a long longitudinal accessible-in-the-air pocket for your radio on the left side. It might be possible to include a camera in that pocket along with your radio and there are two bungies cords in the pocket. I had to add my own holes to route the cables;

7) there is another couple of pockets on the left side that would be difficult to get to in flight, but can be used for items that you want on the ground;

8) there is a half inside, half outside chest buckle/strap and an inside stomach buckle/straps connected to your leg loops;

9) there is a separate zippered drogue chute pocket.

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