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topic: Phil Schroder (59 articles)

2022 Swift/Archaeopteryx World Championships »

Thu, Aug 4 2022, 6:11:48 pm GMT

Task 7, Thursday

Aériane E Swift Lite|Aériane Swift Lite|Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx|Swift/Archaeopteryx Worlds 2022

Blog: https://civlcomps.org/event/21st-fai-world-hang-gliding-class-2-championship/blog

Well, the day turned out a little different from forecast. Rapid and very strong over-development right across the task area and isolated showers appearing almost anywhere has meant that the task has had to be stopped.

Results here: https://civlcomps.org/event/hgclass2worlds2022/results

Live tracking here: https://lt.flymaster.net/?grp=4616

Task 7:

# Name Nat Glider Distance Altitude
(m)
Adj. Distance Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Aériane Swift Lite 134.31 +1722 142.9 415.8
2 Jacques Bott FRA Aériane Swift Lite 128.72 +1598 136.7 403.1
3 Franz Pacheiner AUT Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 128.99 +1145 134.7 398.0
4 Günther Tschurnig AUT Aériane Swift Lite 114.65 +1914 124.1 367.0
5 Pascal Lanser FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 112.28 +1730 120.8 356.2
6 Philippe Harignordoquy FRA Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 111.52 +1379 118.4 346.8
7 Rob Van Der Poel LUX Aériane E Swift Lite 109.86 +1588 117.8 344.0
8 Brian Porter USA Aériane E Swift Lite 105.58 +1915 115.2 331.6
9 Patrick Chopard FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 106.30 +1484 113.5 322.6
10 Phil Schroder AUS Aériane Swift Lite 101.55 +1643 109.8 300.9
11 Michel Pate FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 40.58 0 40.6 78.7

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Aériane Swift Lite 6015.0
2 Franz Pacheiner AUT Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 5530.0
3 Jacques Bott FRA Aériane Swift Lite 5490.0
4 Patrick Chopard FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 5159.0
5 Brian Porter USA Aériane E Swift Lite 4800.0
6 Philippe Harignordoquy FRA Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 4391.0
7 Rob Van Der Poel LUX Aériane E Swift Lite 4371.0
8 Pascal Lanser FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 4083.0
9 Günther Tschurnig AUT Aériane Swift Lite 3469.0
10 Phil Schroder AUS Aériane Swift Lite 3396.0
11 Philippe Bernard CHE Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 1870.0
12 Michel Pate FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 1731.0

Discuss "2022 Swift/Archaeopteryx World Championships" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2022 Swift/Archaeopteryx World Championships »

Wed, Aug 3 2022, 8:39:24 pm GMT

Task 6, Wednesday, a shorter task

Aériane E Swift Lite|Aériane Swift Lite|Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx|Swift/Archaeopteryx Worlds 2022

Blog: https://civlcomps.org/event/21st-fai-world-hang-gliding-class-2-championship/blog

Results here: https://civlcomps.org/event/hgclass2worlds2022/results

Live tracking here: https://lt.flymaster.net/?grp=4616

Only 250+ km. Nine in goal. Manfred in a little over three hours. They started launching at 11:15 am.

Brian Porter, Swift 3.

Task 6:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Aériane Swift Lite 03:11:16 251.7 986.0
2 Jacques Bott FRA Aériane Swift Lite 03:27:23 251.7 859.7
3 Franz Pacheiner AUT Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 03:36:06 251.7 808.1
4 Brian Porter USA Aériane E Swift Lite 03:45:59 251.7 729.8
5 Patrick Chopard FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 03:48:49 251.7 713.6
6 Philippe Harignordoquy FRA Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 03:54:38 251.7 685.8
7 Günther Tschurnig AUT Aériane Swift Lite 03:59:46 251.7 655.3
8 Phil Schroder AUS Aériane Swift Lite 04:25:10 251.7 519.5
9 Rob Van Der Poel LUX Aériane E Swift Lite 04:33:43 249.4 482.3
10 Michel Pate FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 185.5 294.2
11 Pascal Lanser FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 90.0 158.

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Aériane Swift Lite 5599.0
2 Franz Pacheiner AUT Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 5132.0
3 Jacques Bott FRA Aériane Swift Lite 5087.0
4 Patrick Chopard FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 4836.0
5 Brian Porter USA Aériane E Swift Lite 4469.0
6 Philippe Harignordoquy FRA Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 4044.0
7 Rob Van Der Poel LUX Aériane E Swift Lite 4027.0
8 Pascal Lanser FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 3727.0
9 Günther Tschurnig AUT Aériane Swift Lite 3102.0
10 Phil Schroder AUS Aériane Swift Lite 3095.0
11 Philippe Bernard CHE Ruppert Composite Archaeopteryx 1870.0
12 Michel Pate FRA Aériane E Swift Lite 1652.0

Discuss "2022 Swift/Archaeopteryx World Championships" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2022 Swift World Championships »

Mon, Jul 25 2022, 9:05:31 pm GMT

Starts tomorrow, Jul 23 - Aug 6, 2022

Swift/Archaeopteryx Worlds 2022

Results here: https://civlcomps.org/event/hgclass2worlds2022

Live tracking here: https://lt.flymaster.net/?grp=4616

Discuss "2022 Swift World Championships" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Junko Flying at Mt. Beauty

January 27, 2020, 9:22:31 EST

Junko Flying at Mt. Beauty

Phil Schroder bumps into her

Facebook|Phil Schroder

Discuss "Junko Flying at Mt. Beauty" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Top Hat Soaring

May 29, 2017, 6:49:38 CST -0500

Top Hat Soaring

Phil and Damien discuss

Damien Gates|Facebook|Phil Schroder|sailplane|weather

https://www.facebook.com/TopHatSoaring/?hc_location=ufi

http://www.tophatsoaring.org/

Phil Schroder writes about a photo from inside the cockpit of a Dupo Discus sailplane:

I see an Oudie in the front but a Samsung mobile running Top Hat or XCSoar in the back. Do most glider pilots use TH or XCS on phones?

Damien Gates responds:

Well spotted. I use Top Hat Soaring. The Oudie is like XP windows in my opinion, functional and solid but outdated, then way too expensive. UI, mapping and price (nothing) for XC Soar or TH is a testament to those who make open source work. I use a Note 4 on a 6000mah after market battery (good for two days inc internet, weather; notes; SMS: phone calls etc but still have my primary phone) Velcro that to an Oudie case with no internals so it uses the same mount. Just use Top Hat Phil.

Discuss "Top Hat Soaring" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2016 Forbes Flatlands, day 6 »

Thu, Jan 7 2016, 7:50:16 pm EST

The results.

Øyvind Ellefsen|Forbes Flatlands 2016|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Wills Wing T2C

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

Task 4:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 13:09:46 18:51:20 05:41:34 1000
2 Rohan Taylor Moyes Rs 4 13:07:52 18:55:18 05:47:26 935
3 Michael Jackson Moyes RX 5 13:07:09 18:55:47 05:48:38 926
4 Len Paton Moyes RX 4 12:42:20 18:35:43 05:53:23 896
5 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 13:08:14 19:03:39 05:55:25 884
6 Phil Schroder Wills Wing T2C 144 13:10:09 19:05:43 05:55:34 883
7 Simon Braithwaite Moyes RX 3.5 13:08:09 19:03:57 05:55:48 882
8 Tony Armstrong Moyes RX 3.5 13:07:02 19:03:43 05:56:41 877
9 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 13:50:58 19:48:35 05:57:37 872
10 Gerolf Heinrichs Moyes RX 3.5 13:08:10 19:06:09 05:57:59 870

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 33 1000 949 1000 2982
2 Michael Jackson Moyes RX 5 28 909 889 924 2750
3 Simon Braithwaite Moyes RX 3.5 26 903 816 879 2624
4 Tony Armstrong Moyes RX 3.5 34 840 804 874 2552
5 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 18 712 911 882 2523
6 Lukas Bader Moyes Rs 4 16 801 850 845 2512
7 Fredy Bircher Moyes RX 3.5 25 887 780 747 2439
8 Jason Kath Wills Wing T2C 144 16 746 764 843 2369
9 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 20 759 824 757 2360
10 Len Paton Moyes RX 4 26 680 755 893 2354

Twenty six in goal. Oyvind 0.19 km short.

2016 Forbes Flatlands, day 2 results »

January 3, 2016, 7:54:27 EST

2016 Forbes Flatlands, day 2 results

Elapsed time task

Forbes Flatlands 2016|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Steve Blenkinsop|Wills Wing T2C

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

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 13:33:45 15:30:36 01:56:51 1000
2 Michael Jackson Moyes RX 5 13:37:46 15:39:09 02:01:23 909
3 Simon Braithwaite Moyes RX 3.5 14:14:33 16:16:23 02:01:50 903
4 Fredy Bircher Moyes RX 3.5 13:32:40 15:35:51 02:03:11 886
5 Gerolf Heinrichs Moyes RX 3.5 13:20:52 15:25:29 02:04:37 869
6 Tony Armstrong Moyes RX 3.5 13:36:27 15:43:53 02:07:26 840
7 Gavin Myers Moyes RX 5 13:36:10 15:44:24 02:08:14 832
8 Phil Schroder Wills Wing T2C 144 14:27:19 16:37:39 02:10:20 811
9 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 14:03:08 16:14:14 02:11:06 804
10 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 4 14:03:29 16:15:06 02:11:37 800

No leading points used on this day. No start times. No start intervals. The day apparently looked so weak that they didn't bother with forcing a set of start times. And didn't see a reason for leading points.

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 7 »

April 18, 2015, 8:13:52 EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day

And the winner is...

Conrad Loten|Dalby Big Air 2015|Facebook|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Nick Purcell|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor

http://williamolive.com/dalby/comp results 2015.html

Task 7:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 01:11:26 927
2 Chris Lawry   01:12:24 907
3 Tony Armstrong Moyes RX 3.5 01:13:00 883
4 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 01:13:37 875
5 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 01:14:57 864
6 Harrison Rowntree Moyes RX 3.5 01:14:00 860
7 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS 4 01:16:53 814
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 01:19:48 781
9 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 01:21:34 764
10 Jason Kath   01:22:56 738

At goal. Photo by Nick Purcell.

Photo by Phil Schroder

Totals:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 5683
2 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 5539
3 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 5414
4 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 5210
5 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 5108
6 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 5044
7 Hagen Bruggemann Moyes RS 4 4869
8 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 4821
9 Jason Kath   4813
10 John Smith Moyes RX 5 4803

Old guys rule.

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 6 »

April 17, 2015, 8:21:20 pm EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day 6

Fifteen at goal 170 km away.

Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2015|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Phil Schroder

http://williamolive.com/dalby/comp results 2015.html

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 John Smith Moyes RX 5 03:17:01 990
2 Len Paton Moyes RX 4 03:19:26 965
3 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 03:21:32 932
4 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 03:21:26 925
5 Chris Lawry   03:23:04 907
6 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 03:28:08 863
7 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 03:30:01 852
8 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 03:29:06 848
9 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 03:33:26 829
10 Tony Giammichele Moyes RX 3.5 03:42:37 778
10 Hagen Bruggemann Moyes RS 4 03:42:43 778
12 Rory Duncan Wills Wing T2 03:48:55 756
13 Viv Clements   03:46:50 746
14 Neale Halsall Airborne Rev 13.5 03:57:36 722
15 Chris Czajkowski Moyes RX 5 04:35:51 600

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 4949
2 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 4775
3 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 4517
4 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 4487
5 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 4461
6 John Smith Moyes RX 5 4439
7 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 4415
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 4263
9 Hagen Bruggemann Moyes RS 4 4136
10 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 4098

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 5 »

April 16, 2015, 7:44:04 EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day 5

One pilot at goal and no one else nearby

Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Phil Schroder|William "Billo" Olive

http://williamolive.com/dalby/comp results 2015.html

Photo by Billo

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Dist. Total
1 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 03:22:50 98,32 997
2 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5   63,02 719
3 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4   47,38 640
4 Brodrick Osborne Moyes RS 4   45,65 623
5 Len Paton Moyes RX 4   44,25 614
6 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat-L   42,93 605
7 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4   41,57 591
8 Guy Williams Moyes RX 3.5   41,60 588
9 Mark Russell Moyes RS 4   40,68 578
10 Hagen Bruggemann Moyes RS 4   39,71 564

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 4314
2 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 4176
3 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 4109
4 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 3770
5 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 3714
6 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 3690
7 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 3659
8 Jason Kath   3635
9 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 3560
10 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 3498

Photo by Phil Schroder.

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 4 »

April 15, 2015, 8:16:18 EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day

Curt Warren wins again

Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Nick Purcell|Phil Schroder

open class

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/open comp_result.html

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/task_result_2015-04-15_%2820150415-1802%29.html

sports class

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/sports%20task_result_2015-04-15_%2820150415-1828%29.html

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/sports comp_result.html

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 03:13:26 1000
2 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 03:17:32 952
3 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 03:23:08 911
4 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 03:23:14 905
5 Jason Kath   03:24:22 888
6 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 03:29:23 861
7 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 03:29:58 856
8 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 03:37:32 806
9 Mark Russell Moyes RS 4 03:40:23 800
10 Vic Hare Wills Wing T2 03:44:37 782
11 Trevor Purcell Moyes LS 5 03:42:43 781
12 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 03:48:37 779
13 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 03:49:11 767
14 Hagen Bruggemann Moyes RS 4 04:10:10 703

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 3698
2 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX 4 3469
3 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 3360
4 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 3314
5 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 3313
6 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 3121
7 Jason Kath   3111
8 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 3108
9 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 3039
10 Vic Hare Wills Wing T2 3016

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 3 »

April 14, 2015, 7:25:22 EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day 3

Curt Warren wins again

Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2015|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phil Schroder

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/open comp_result.html

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/task_result_2015-04-14_%2820150414-1720%29.html

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Curt Warren AUS Moyes RX 4 02:51:46 988
2 Geoffrey Robertson AUS Moyes RX 3.5 02:52:26 966
3 Jon snr Durand AUS Moyes RX4 02:53:18 962
4 Jason Kath AUS   02:55:20 924
5 Guy Hubbard AUS Moyes RS 4 02:55:35 918
6 Nils Vesk AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 03:02:40 875
7 John Smith NZL Moyes RX 3.5 03:03:10 854
8 Len Paton AUS Moyes RX 4 03:03:32 847
9 Dave May AUS Moyes RX 3.5 03:06:48 819
10 Rod Flockhart AUS Moyes RX 3.5 03:07:39 815

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 2919
2 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 2566
3 John Smith Moyes RX 3.5 2551
4 Dave May Moyes RX 3.5 2545
5 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 2509
6 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 2497
7 Jon snr Durand Moyes RX4 2468
8 Nils Vesk Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2457
9 Geoffrey Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 2296
10 Vic Hare Wills Wing T2 2233

Photo by Phil Schroder.

2015 Dalby Big Air - Day 2 »

April 13, 2015, 8:03:57 EDT

Dalby Big Air - Day 2

Most at goal

Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2015|Enda Murphy|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phil Schroder

At least 29 in goal. Enda Murphy injury.

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/task_result_2015-04-13_(20150413-1913).html

http://williamolive.com/dalby/2015/

# Name Glider Time Total
1 John Smith Moyes Litespeed RS 4 02:17:54 998
2 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:18:19 961
3 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed RX4 02:18:22 957
4 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RX 4 02:20:11 925
5 Tony Armstrong   02:20:58 908
6 Dave May Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:25:10 871
7 Jason Kath   02:28:19 849
8 Josh Woods   02:28:23 846
9 Geoffrey Robertson   02:28:29 839
10 Phil Schroder   02:28:22 830

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 20, 2015, 9:59:52 pm EST

New South Wales State Titles

Only five tasks as the cyclone came ashore.

Cameron Tunbridge|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|video|Wills Wing T2C

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Final:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 4563
2 Bruce Wynne Moyes LX3.5 4035
3 Adam Stevens rex 4018
4 Len Paton LS RX4 3948
5 Phil Schroder rAirborne REV 3881

Phil Schroder writes:

It was not so much the cyclone but the trough to our west that finally decided to come over and say "Hello, your comp is over."

https://vimeo.com/120125666

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 19, 2015, 8:18:46 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Eight at goal

Cameron Tunbridge|Facebook|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 5:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=711

Place Pilot Glider SS Total
1 Len Paton LS RX4 2:36:13 967
2 Adam Stevens rex 2:40:46 909
3 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2:40:48 898
4 Bruce Wynne Moyes RX3.5  3:01:13 798
5 Dustan Hansen Airborne Rev 14 3:06:33 770

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 4563
2 Bruce Wynne Moyes RX3.5 4035
3 Adam Stevens rex 4018
4 Len Paton LS RX4 3948
5 Phil Schroder Airborne REV 3881

https://www.facebook.com/groups/220246668163600/350941158427483/?notif_t=group_activity

Cameron Tunbridge writes:

126k task borahw boggabri tanbar springs.. pumping conditions 6-8 in goal maybe a few more on the way.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 18, 2015, 7:56:04 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Cameron wins once again

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 4:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=710

Place Pilot Glider Time Total
1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2:29:03 816
2 Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 2:30:32 784
3 Adam Stevens rev13.5 2:31:15 768
4 Bruce Wynne RX 3.5 Technora Zoom 2:32:41 743
5 Conrad Loten rs3.5 2:43:18 688

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 3586
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 3274
3 Bruce Wynne Rogallo 3203
4 Phil Schroder rev 3084
5 Adam Stevens rex 3037

Cameron Tunbridge writes:

Today's task 107k out to Brezat and return to Manila Sky Ranch. Almost bombed at take off but made goal and flew to the lake for a swim.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 17, 2015, 8:32:17 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Only four at goal

Cameron Tunbridge|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 3:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=709

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 (open) 3:29:28 987
2 Len Paton LS RX4 (open) 3:46:56 858
3 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora (open) 4:10:21 855
4 Phil Schroder rev13.5 (open) 4:30:28 806

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2795
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 2617
3 Len Paton   2537
4 Phil Schroder rev 2418
5 Adam Stevens rex 2285

Phil Schroder writes:

Only four of us in goal today. 136km triangle with a stiff headwind on the final leg for good measure. Five hours airtime.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 16, 2015, 8:43:54 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Cameron leads after two days

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 2 results: http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 1809 1103 706
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 1766 971 795
3 Len Paton 1743 1021 722
4 Adam Stevens rex 1713 1036 677
5 Phil Schroder rev 1669 957 712
6 Conrad Loten rs3.5 1620 952 668
7 Bruce Wynne Rogallo 1568 944 624
8 Dick Heffer Moyes RX 3.5 1502 942 560
9 Gary Herman Litespeed S3.5 1445 933 512
10 Dustan Hansen Rev 14 1397 855 542

Single surface glider at goal.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 15, 2015, 9:49:51 pm EST

New South Wales State Titles

No Jonny this year

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=147

Cameron wins the first day on his Wills Wing T2C 154. Adam Stevens is second on a rex. Phil Schroder third on a rev.

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 998
2 Adam Stevens rex 995
3 Phil Schroder rev 963
4 Len Paton 919
5 Conrad Loten rs3.5 877
6 Dustan Hansen Rev 14 861
7 Gary Herman Litespeed S3.5 855
8 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 850
9 Paul Bissett-Amess Litespeed 835
10 Dick Heffer Moyes RX 3.5 828
Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 828

2015 Forbes Flatlands »

January 6, 2015, 6:26:24 pm EST

2015 Forbes Flatlands

Task 4, Zac still in first, along with Jonny he is tied for first place

Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2015|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

http://www.flytrace.com/tracker/map.aspx?group=280

http://flyingjochen.blogspot.com/

Task 4:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 04:31:03 975
2 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes RS 3.5 04:44:50 905
3 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes RX 3.5 04:42:26 870
4 Olav Olsen NOR Moyes RX 3.5 04:43:15 862
5 Glen Mcfarlane AUS Wills Wing T2C 04:51:32 858
6 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros 04:47:25 829
6 Phil Schroder AUS Airborne Rev 04:47:25 829
8 Gijs Wanders NED Icaro 05:01:48 789
8 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes RX 3.5 04:53:33 789
10 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 04:54:32 784

Attila drops from first to fifteenth landing early on task 4.

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3459
1 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes RX 3.5 3459
3 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes RX 3.5 3369
4 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes RS 3.5 3318
5 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes RX 3.5 3288
6 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros 3226
7 Olav Olsen NOR Moyes RX 3.5 3208
8 Jochen Zeischka BEL Moyes RX 4 3193
9 Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes RX 3.5 3177
10 Trent Brown AUS Moyes RX 3.5 3149

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/forbes-flatlands-task-4.html

Looooong task and a long day overall. They called a 258km task out to the west (toward Hay). The drive along course line takes you through almost nothing, just lots of Australian outback. Drivers were warned at the briefing to fuel up anyplace we saw an open station. It's not unheard of for teams to sleep in their cars after a late retrieve waiting for the gas station to open up in the morning. That may have been the fate of the team of Christian/Blenky/Glen as their driver arrived at goal with 1/3 a tank of fuel - which wouldn't have been enough to make it back to the nearest fuel at West Waylong (haven't heard yet this morning though).

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Phil Schroder takes a break from the heavy lifting of flying a Swift in Annecy

June 28, 2014, 6:57:36 pm MDT

Phil Schroder takes a break from the heavy lifting of flying a Swift in Annecy

On a day that you can actually enjoy yourself

Facebook|Phil Schroder

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Forbes Flatlands, by the numbers »

Thu, Jan 2 2014, 2:56:21 pm EST

Forbes Flatlands, by the numbers

Something seems to be missing from the latest results

Akiko Suzuki|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Enda Murphy|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2014|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kathryn O'Riordan|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

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

# Name Glider
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5
2 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 13.2
3 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144
6 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5
7 Jeff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5
8 Christian Voiblet Wills Wing T2C 144
9 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5
10 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5
11 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.75
11 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4
13 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5
14 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154
15 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS
16 Anton Struganov Moyes RX
17 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat
18 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5
19 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5
20 Lukas Bader Moyes RS
20 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4
22 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5
23 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5
24 Andrew Luton Airborne C4
25 Ryosuke Hattori Aeros Combat
26 Olav Olsen Moyes RS
27 Mark Russell Moyes RS4
28 Kathryn O'Riordan Moyes RX 3
29 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev
30 Victor Hare Moyes RX 3.5
31 Peter Lamont Moyes S 5
32 Len Paton Moyes RS 4
33 Maximilian Respondek Moyes RS
34 Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 144
35 Jon snr Durand Moyes RS 3.5
36 Gavin Myers Moyes S5
36 Enda Murphy Moyes RX 3.5
38 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5
39 Dean Hervatin Airborne Rev
40 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5
41 Adam Jones Moyes S
42 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5
43 Akiko Suzuki Icaro Laminar
44 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4
45 Michael Tomlinson  
46 Patrick Collin Moyes RS
47 Tony Masters Moyes RX 3.5
48 Mikhail Karmazin Aeros Combat
49 Jamie Shelden Wills Wing T2C 136
50 Phil Seeley Airborne C4
51 Ai Fukutomi Moyes RX 3
52 Hadewych van Kempen Moyes Litesport
52 Hanspeter Schütz Moyes RX 3.5

Forbes Flatlands, Task 4, day 4 »

Tue, Dec 31 2013, 8:14:20 am EST

Forbes Flatlands, Task 4, day 4

A cross wind leg in the middle of the task

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2013|Glen McFarland|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Conrad Loten, Glen McFarland and Trent Brown were the task committee today. I've been asking various pilots to be on the task committee one day at a time so as not to over burden any three pilots for the whole meet. Many pilots will not serve on the task committee (it is a lot of work and you get little or no reward). So it comes down to having the same people calling the same type of tasks, which may or may not be appropriate for the long term success of the competition. Also I noted that some pilots were concerned that certain tasks were called by certain pilots to match their skills as opposed to what was best for the competition. I'm sure that they had good reasons for this.

My input to the task committee consists of the weather. I have little or no influence on the actual task, other than to find skilled and opinioned pilots who are willing to be on the task committee. On the second day I proposed a possible task as I had a few minutes extra before the task committee meets (I get there to the bowling club an hour early to go over the weather), and it was rejected immediately. I didn't propose any before and have not since.

The forecast was for 15 knot southwestern wind, lift to 9,000' to 10,000' and better lift than the day before. A good day it appeared. No cu's, of course.

The task committee called a task to the northeast given the winds, but there are limited options (waypoints) in that direction. One possibility was to go straight line 200 kilometers to Dunedoo, but that seemed too easy and a long ways back, especially on New Years night. Glen or Conrad (I don't remember which) proposed a zig zag in the middle of the course to make it more difficult and sent us back to Wellington airfield.

The task guidelines are to set the most difficult part of the task as the last leg, not the second or middle leg, but as I said they felt that there were limited options in that direction. We could have gone straight to Gulgong airfield, as another possibility which was discussed by the task committee.

Here is that task they decided on:

As you can see it goes right through Parkes airspace, which we can do with our VHF AM (airband) radios. The first turnpoint at Yeoval and the second at Cumnoc have five kilometer radii to reduce the cross wind leg. The task is 158 kilometers long.

The wind was out of the southeast when we got to Bill's tow paddock next to the airfield. This would have made it quite difficult to accomplish the task. But just as we started launching it swung around.

I was twelfth in the right line and pinned off at 1,000' AGL in light lift. I finally found the core and the lift was as forecast. I was soon over 7,000' and cold because I didn't listen to my own weather forecast calling for eight degrees Celsius at the top of lift and hadn't worn enough clothes.

Almost all pilots headed northwest toward the edge of the ten kilometer start circle like we did yesterday, but I didn't think that that was a great idea. The first leg of the task today was much further to the east and I wanted to leave the start cylinder closer to the course line. I got near the northeast extent of the start cylinder but didn't find any good lift along the way so had to drift three kilometers outside it before I got up, back over 7,000'. I then headed back inside the start cylinder into a 21 mph head wind to take the second clock, not high (5,200'), but high enough.

Running down the course line I found some nice lift and looking ahead saw Paris was five other gliders very low racing way down below and just in front of me. I checked their progress until I saw Paris turning and then went over to them to find strong lift to 7,000'. Instead of leaving them when I was high above, I waited until they caught up so that I could fly with them. Paris, Conrad and I took off together toward the town of Parkes.

Sixteen kilometers later we were down to below 3,500'. I kept shading to the east (right) toward the airfield (no commercial jets would be landing on this day). They got lower and lower again as I found good lift and watched half a dozen pilots work their way back up again. When they found a good core I joined up with them high.

The next thermal was much better and a dozen of us climbed to 7,800' before the range that we needed to cross to head toward Yeoval. We were just six kilometers south of the Parkes dish (radio antenna).

 I didn't think much of the lift just on the west edge of the range so went to the left of Jonny out in front to see what was on the other side. I found 400+ and then 500 fpm in much better thermals. I was freezing now and shivering at 8,800'.

Getting the turnpoint at Yeoval was easy and then the big turn into the 17 mph direct cross wind went well as I stayed high and found 450+ fpm to 8,100'. I could see Conrad way below.

Racing out of that thermal Rod Flockhart caught me and flying at 55 mph he pulled ahead (I was doing 45 mph) as we quickly made the Cumnoc turnpoint and headed to the northeast.

There was a 350 fpm thermal waiting for us and a bunch of us got up right away to 7,900'. It was beginning to feel warm. There was a range right along our course line just ahead and I went for it. The wind would be flowing along the ridge line.

I glided for sixteen kilometers right over the ridge and didn't find any lift. I had to turn out to the valley to the west as Jonas Lobitz came scooting by and Paris Williams came 500' over us. With the sixteen mph tail wind Jonas was going fast but getting awfully low as was I. Finally at 1,100' AGL he found something and I joined him. We were in survival mode and drifting very quickly down the course line.

We worked 100 to 200 fpm for eight kilometers climbing 2,500' in seventeen minutes. This saved us but really slowed us down. We then found 600 fpm eighteen kilometers from goal and that got us in.

Task 4:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 14:35:00 17:02:39 02:27:39 975
2 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 14:35:00 17:03:42 02:28:42 949
3 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 14:35:00 17:04:30 02:29:30 936
4 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 14:35:00 17:07:03 02:32:03 902
5 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 14:15:00 16:57:04 02:42:04 878
6 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 16:58:46 02:43:46 860
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:11:41 02:36:41 852
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.75 14:35:00 17:11:45 02:36:45 851
8 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:11:43 02:36:43 851
10 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 14:35:00 17:12:35 02:37:35 843
11 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:12:42 02:37:42 842
12 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:02:06 02:47:06 828
13 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:03:41 02:48:41 813
14 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:03:51 02:48:51 812
15 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 14:15:00 17:04:28 02:49:28 806
16 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 14:35:00 17:18:55 02:43:55 787
17 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 14:35:00 17:19:02 02:44:02 786
18 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:20:24 02:45:24 775
19 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat 14:15:00 17:08:47 02:53:47 769
20 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 14:15:00 17:11:22 02:56:22 749
21 Carl Wallbank   14:15:00 17:11:34 02:56:34 747
22 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:11:40 02:56:40 746
23 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 14:15:00 17:13:03 02:58:03 736
24 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 14:15:00 17:15:16 03:00:16 719
25 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:25:01 03:10:01 653
26 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5 14:15:00 17:26:26 03:11:26 644
27 Dean Hervatin Airborne Rev 14:35:00 18:40:45 04:05:45 430

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 3638
2 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 3606
3 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 3593
4 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 3500
5 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 3476
5 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 3476
7 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 3463
8 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 3348
9 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 3314
10 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 3270
11 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 3067
12 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 3030
13 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 2920
14 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 2846
15 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 2750
16 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 2717
17 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 2693
18 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 2652
19 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 2636
20 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 2455

Forbes Flatlands, Task 3, day 3 »

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 8:03:21 am EST

Forbes Flatlands, Task 1, day 1

Attila suggests a change that makes the task easier

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Enda Murphy|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2013|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kathryn O'Riordan|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

The forecast was for lift better than the day before but not quite as good as the first day. We would be able to get to 8,000'. The winds would start light but build to 11 knots south west. Again no cu's.

The task committee called a dogleg to Tomingley (with a eleven kilometer cylinder) just to keep us on the mountain range and then to Yeoval, but there was some kind of hubbub about that so after a discussion with the Task Committee and input from Attila, they changed the goal to Wellington airfield. The course line would have taken us through Parkes airspace which is okay with our air band radios. (The Sport Class goal was straight o Yeoval right smack dab through the Parkes airspace and one pilot made it.)

Unlike day 2 there was plenty of lift right away and I climbed to 5,000' and a little later to almost 6,000'. The winds varied between four and twelve mph out of the south west.

We moved quickly to the northwest to get upwind of the course line and to the edge of the ten kilometer start cylinder. There were plenty of pilots around. The wind pushed us back toward the course line and Jonny, Attila, and Jon Snr took the 2:30 PM first start clock (which turned out not to do them any good at all). The rest of us waited for the 2:50 clock and a big gaggle took off then.

The lift varied between 400 and 500 fpm on average. Good cores that allowed one to put the glider up on a tip if there wasn't any interference from other gliders. There was a eleven mph tail wind, so the going was easy.

I was a bit lower than the top guys in the lead gaggle. Paris, Steve Blenkisop, Jonas and another pilot jumped ahead of the gaggle. Later I took off from lower down the gaggle following one higher pilot while the rest stayed behind. This got me into better lift quicker and when the gaggle caught me I was now relatively much higher.

We came to the ridge south of the Tomingley turnpoint plenty high and found good lift. Paris, etc. were high above us but we were climbing fast. We found good lift going over the ridge to the east and on the other side. Paris, Steve, and Jonas got flushed on the other side and watched us as we flew other them as they dug their way out of a small valley.

We continued to find good lift going east although I had to stop for 250 fpm before I went further into the next set of hills to get 500 fpm to 7,500'. There were pilots all around in various thermals getting up.

It was a nineteen kilometer glide to the ridge west of Wellington and the last obstacle before goal at the airfield. We were down to 1,700' AGL before four of us got into 200 fpm which was the last thermal needed to get to goal thirteen kilometers away. We had no problem making it in.

Plenty of pilots at goal, thirty five to be exact.

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

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 14:50:00 17:30:09 02:40:09 952
2 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 14:50:00 17:30:12 02:40:12 949
3 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:30:58 02:40:58 930
4 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 14:50:00 17:31:00 02:41:00 929
5 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:31:09 02:41:09 926
6 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 14:50:00 17:31:32 02:41:32 919
7 Christian Voiblet Wills Wing T2C 14:50:00 17:31:50 02:41:50 914
8 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:32:02 02:42:02 911
9 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 14:30:00 17:19:43 02:49:43 901
10 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:19:54 02:49:54 899
11 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 14:50:00 17:35:13 02:45:13 868
12 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:35:40 02:45:40 863
13 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:36:21 02:46:21 855
14 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:39:17 02:49:17 823
15 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:28:01 02:58:01 811
16 Enda Murphy Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:41:06 02:51:06 805
17 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 14:30:00 17:29:25 02:59:25 798
18 Jon snr Durand Moyes RS 3.5 14:30:00 17:31:07 03:01:07 781
19 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5 14:50:00 17:45:04 02:55:04 769
19 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 14:30:00 17:32:29 03:02:29 769
21 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 14:30:00 17:33:26 03:03:26 761
21 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:33:26 03:03:26 761
23 Olav Olsen Moyes RS 14:30:00 17:34:53 03:04:53 748
24 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS 14:30:00 17:35:57 03:05:57 739
25 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 14:30:00 17:39:41 03:09:41 708
26 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:54:41 03:04:41 695
27 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 14:50:00 17:55:05 03:05:05 692
28 Victor Hare Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:42:43 03:12:43 685
29 Mark Russell moyes RS4 14:30:00 17:43:52 03:13:52 677
30 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 14:50:00 17:57:39 03:07:39 675
31 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:48:54 03:18:54 642
32 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat 14:50:00 18:12:47 03:22:47 588
33 Kathryn O'Riordan Moyes RX 3 14:30:00 18:05:04 03:35:04 547
34 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 18:12:56 03:42:56 509
35 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 14:30:00 18:26:04 03:56:04 454

Cumulative:

1 Michael Bilyk USA Moyes RX 3.5 2825
2 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 2763
3 Conrad Loten NZL Moyes RX 3.5 2727
4 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes RX 4 2714
5 Anton Struganov RUS Moyes RX 2690
6 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2651
7 Glen Mcfarlane AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2648
8 Trent Brown AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2625
9 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 2618
10 Adam Stevens AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2506
11 Yasuhiro Noma JPN Moyes RX 3.5 2410
12 Guy Hubbard AUS Moyes RS 4 2378
13 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2068
14 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 2001
15 Rohan Taylor AUS Moyes RS 1971
16 Christian Voiblet SUI Wills Wing T2C 1970
17 Gavin Myers AUS Moyes S5 1944
18 Tony Giammichele AUS Moyes RS 3.5 1930
19 Geoff Robertson AUS Moyes RX 3.5 1890
20 Davis Straub USA Moyes RX 3.5 1877
21 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes RX 5 1815

No Australians among the top five.

Results from Task 2

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 2:40:25 pm EST

Results from Task 2

Mike Bylik and Paris tied for first place

Attila Bertok|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2013|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

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

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:20 1000
2 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 02:29:23 998
3 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:24 997
4 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 02:29:44 990
5 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:55 986
6 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 02:29:59 985
7 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 02:31:41 963
8 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 02:32:29 954
9 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 02:44:27 900
10 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 02:46:21 885
11 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 02:42:51 865
12 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 02:49:13 864
13 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 02:53:42 832
14 Ryosuke Hattori Aeros Combat 03:02:39 776

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 1895
1 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 1895
3 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 1815
4 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 1795
5 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 1785
5 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 1785
7 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 1744
8 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 1737
9 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 1699
10 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 1669
11 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 1598
12 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 1579
13 Ryosuke Hattori Aeros Combat 1454
14 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 1244
15 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 1234
16 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS 1228
17 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 1181
18 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 1166
19 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 1079
20 Christian Voiblet Wills Wing T2C 1053
21 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 1051
22 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.75 999
23 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 970
24 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 936
25 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 911

2013 Gulgong Classic »

November 25, 2013, 8:52:38 PST

2013 Gulgong Classic

Task two:

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Enda Murphy|Gulgong Classic 2013|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|William "Billo" Olive

Billo's photo of the Gulgong airfield:

His refurbished trike.

Task two:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok moyes LS 5 02:15:22 939
2 Jonas Lobitz moyes LS RX 3.5 02:08:38 937
3 Paris Williams   02:18:31 901
4 Jon Durand Jnr moyes LS RX 3.5 02:22:17 870
5 Enda Murphy moyes LS RX 3.5 02:36:33 793
6 Adam Parer moyes LS RX 3.5 02:36:50 773
7 Rod Flockhart   02:39:46 762
8 Andrew Luton   02:45:59 733
9 Phil Schroder airborne REV 02:53:53 705
10 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:04:44 638
11 Jamie Oorschot   03:17:21 584

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok moyes LS 5 1920
2 Jon Durand Jnr moyes LS RX 3.5 1840
3 Jonas Lobitz moyes LS RX 3.5 1819
4 Paris Williams   1785
5 Adam Parer moyes LS RX 3.5 1596
6 Rod Flockhart   1569
7 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS4 1467
8 Phil Schroder airborne REV 1396
9 Conrad Loten moyes LS RX 3.5 1368
10 Konrad Heilmann moyes LS RX 3.5 1338

http://www.williamolive.com/gulgong classic/2013 competition/

Discuss "2013 Gulgong Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2013 Gulgong Classic »

November 23, 2013, 6:34:38 pm PST

2013 Gulgong Classic

Task for the first day

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Gulgong Classic 2013|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder

Jonny's picture from the first day:

Task is 143 km to the north.

http://www.gulgongclassic.com/

Jonny writes:

Day 1 turned out good with climbs to over 9,000ft and mostly blue. We had a 25 kph cross wind most of the 140 Kms but conditions allowed about 15 pilots to make goal. Atilla won the day in under 3 hrs with me hot on heels then Paris about 10 minutes later. Today is looking good as is most of the week!

Task 1 Results:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok moyes LS 5 02:54:14 980
2 Jon Durand Jnr moyes LS RX 3.5 02:54:43 969
3 Paris Williams 03:04:01 880
4 Jonas Lobitz moyes LS RX 3.5 03:04:01 878
5 Konrad Heilmann moyes LS RX 3.5 03:06:08 849
6 Nick Purcell Moyes LS RS 4 03:09:41 829
7 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:10:01 824
8 Adam Parer moyes LS RX 3.5 03:11:53 817
9 Rod Flockhart 03:12:50 801
10 Conrad Loten moyes LS RX 3.5 03:15:30 786
11 Rory Duncan airborne sting III 03:25:11 724
12 Geoffrey Robertson 03:36:26 685
13 Phil Schroder airborne REV 03:36:17 682

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Forbes Flatlands - task four results »

January 10, 2012, 0:18:47 AEDT

Forbes Flatlands - task four

So many at goal

Airborne Rev|Attila Bertok|Forbes Flatlands|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Grant Heaney|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C

Happy pilots in goal: http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/2012/01/smiles.html

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

Task 4:

# Name Nat Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Wolfgang Siess AUT Wills Wing T2C 14:45:39 16:50:52 02:05:13 946
2 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 14:32:59 16:43:35 02:10:36 942
3 Jon snr Durand AUS Moyes RS 4 14:45:00 16:56:26 02:11:26 871
4 Jean Souviron FRA Moyes RS 3.5 14:33:36 16:52:42 02:19:06 867
5 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes RX 3 14:43:29 16:55:54 02:12:25 865
6 Christian Baertschi SUI Aeros Combat 13.5 14:44:14 16:56:55 02:12:41 856
7 Phil Schroder AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 14:42:15 16:57:42 02:15:27 836
8 Grant Heaney AUS Moyes RS 3.5 14:42:03 16:59:10 02:17:07 827
9 Artur Dzamikhov RUS Moyes RS3.5 14:44:14 17:01:07 02:16:53 823
10 Guy Hubbard AUS Moyes RS 4 14:48:06 17:03:54 02:15:48 815

Totals:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 3131
2 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 4 2947
3 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 2913
4 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 2893
5 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 2848
6 Grant Heaney AUS Moyes RS 3.5 2810
7 Adam Stevens AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 2726
8 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes RS 3.5 2710
9 Jean Souviron FRA Moyes RS 3.5 2700
10 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes RS 3.5 2681

Flying an Airborne REV 13.5

Tue, Jul 26 2011, 12:57:10 pm EDT

Flying an Airborne REV 13.5

Thanks to Franco Rinaldi I didn't have to risk bringing a glider with me

Dustin Martin|Francesco "Franco" Rinaldi|Franco Rinaldi|Phil Schroder|weather|Wills Wing T2C

Franco sells and supports both Wills Wing and Airborne gliders in Italy. I was lucky enough to be able to fly Dustin Martin's former Wills Wing T2C earlier (for one flight down) this summer and the Airborne REV 13.5 with the new sail, that Phil Schroder had been flying earlier in Europe (with some better success with the weather than I), here. I had my first chance to fly it on the first task of the Worlds last Thursday.

The launch at Subasio is very shallow but with a bit of a breeze up the well rounded hill it was a light trot off the hill and in a few steps I was up and away without the slightest consideration. The glider felt immediately comfortable, very much like the T2C. The VG line was very manageable with no excessive effort required to pull it on tight.

Thermaling the REV was familiar with a bit of bumping required to get the glider to respond. The base tube is a tiny bit thinner than the T2C base tube so I had to wrap a couple of glider numbers around the left side to make for a snugger fit for my instrument pod (made by Dustin) with the Wills Wing connector.

I had a few opportunities to glide with top pilots. The REV did just as well as anyone else in glide. I was close to but lower than Primoz after the first thermal on the course. After leaving the thermal we glided for 7.6 km and 7.7 km respectively (Primoz and I). My glide ratio was 10.9. His was 10.8. His average speed was approximately 49 mph, mine was 46.

The REV had right turn with VG off. I noticed that I was not that happy to be turning right, and perfectly happy when turning left. The glider flew straight with the VG on. The right inner sprog (as I vaguely recall) was one degree higher than the left one. Tuned by Phil to make it fly straight.

Landing in a ten to fifteen mph wind was without any drama.

2011 Alpen Open »

June 2, 2011, 12:16:14 pm GMT+0200

2011 Alpen Open

Waiting for the cloud base to raise to 1800 meters

Alpen Open 2011|Manfred Ruhmer|Phil Schroder

Here.

There should be live tracking of all the pilots at the web site linked to below.

The clouds come and go and Franco, Nuccia, and Phil Schroder and I are sitting next to the LZ next to the food preparation tent seeing if they will send us to launch. Many pilots here including Manfred, Gerolf, Joerg, and others.

Live Tracking.

They don't send us up the hill.

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200 km triangle world record at Forbes

February 2, 2010, 8:20:11 AEDT

200 km triangle world record at Forbes

Armand sets the Class 2 record

Phil Schroder|record|Robin Hamilton

Armand <xcswift> writes:

I just completed a 200km triangle of 52.13 km/h. It beats the old record of 45.5 km/h.

Phil Schroder must have been flying the Swift a few days earlier out at Forbes as the FAI sends:

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 200 km
Course/location : Forbes, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 46.19 km/h
Pilot : Phil SCHRODER (Australia)
Hang Glider : Swift / Aeriane
Date :26.01.2010
Current record : 45.50 km/h (29.09.2002 - Robin HAMILTON, UK)

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Bogong Cup Update

Wed, Jan 6 2010, 12:37:04 am AEDT

Only seven slots left

Bogong Cup 2010|Phil Schroder

Phil Schroder «Phil Schroder» writes:

The comp is filling fast with only 7 places left. I’m limiting the number of comp pilots to 70 this year.

If you’re aware of pilots that are coming but haven’t registered, let them know. They will miss out. Only those that have paid are guaranteed a place in the comp. Pass the word around.

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Bogong Cup »

December 16, 2009, 9:27:16 PST

Bogong Cup

An update

Phil Schroder

Phil Schroder <philschroder> writes:

Fifty four pilots entered in the competition.

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Adam Parer on his tuck and tumble

Fri, Nov 27 2009, 5:31:16 am PST

Wow! Take a deep breath before you read this

Adam Parer|Chris Jones|Conrad Loten|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Phil Schroder|video|weather

Adam Parer «Adam Parer» writes:

I got out of hospital 3 days ago and tried to put something together about the accident last night. It’s a scary incident but the outcome has nothing but positive implications for all of us. We can survive a parachute deployment at terminal velocity after separating from our glider. Best to avoid such an event but if it does happen it need not be a death sentence. I am very lucky to be alive, and extremely grateful to still be here. Hoping what follows covers all questions but have also attached a more formal report too.

Adam's Formal Report.

It was the 2nd task of the Gulgong Classic and just like the day before the wind gusts and turbulence in the tow paddock were moderate to heavy. It was about 30-35 degrees Celsius at ground level and the conditions seemed stable although the weather report had predicted good instability. Due to the rough conditions weak links were breaking just about every other tow and the two tugs worked hard to eventually get everyone off the ground successfully. The task was 209km, north, to Manilla Airstrip.

I towed out of the airstrip around 1:30pm and went to release height behind Pete Marhiene. During the first thermal I noticed several light inversion layers. Eventually I drifted downwind and met up with Chris Jones, Phil Schroder, Oliver Barthelmes and Dave May and we topped out at 6500' before heading NW in a cross-tail direction to get on the upwind side of the course line.

Chris was ahead by 200m and after a 5km glide I watched him complete two turns in what looked like solid lift. Eventually Dave, Oli and Phil would also head for Chris. Before I got there he had already straightened up and was back into a search pattern. This was typical of the conditions for the day; very short lived 'bubble' climbs, mild to moderate turbulence and generally a stable type of feel to the weather. Way off to the north great looking clouds filled the sky along the Liverpool Range and beyond, we needed to get there but for now we continued to hunt for a core that may be lurking around in the stable conditions of Gulgong.

While Chris, Oli, Phil and Dave tended to search upwind I turned downwind for about 100m and noticed the air felt much better there, still bumpy and stable but at least it was more buoyant I fully expected to only gain a few turns out of any climb I may find before it too petered out. Soon I felt some lift ahead and more to the left so I began a shallow turn in that direction and the vario started to chirp at about 200-300'/min. VG was off except for about 1 arms length of rope. I was flying at about 50kph with a bar position faster than best glide speed.

As I climbed for about a ¼ of the first turn the 'G' began to lighten and the nose started to ease over. For that first split second I expected a 'wire slapper' to precede a return into normal flight. This did not happen. The 'G' went to zero and the nose continued over. I braced onto the basebar and attempted to pull in and maintain hang position. This however could not be maintained. The 'G' went negative and the nose went over. I maintained some grip on the basebar and kept the torso as close to it as possible but the leg/boot end of the harness could not and continued to move toward the undersurface and my upper body would eventually follow. The nose-over motion accelerated and then I lost contact with the basebar.

As I fell weightless through the air the glider proceeded to tumble and I clear the wing without making contact as it passed underneath inverted. Just as the glider came around upright I bottomed out with a thud when the hang strap went tight and for a split second I thought the glider may stabilize however it had more than enough momentum to enter the 2nd tumble. Again I don't recall hitting any part of the glider as it went over a second time. Once again I fell with another thud when the hang straps went tight but this time the tension lasted for a much shorter period of time. I went weightless as if falling straight down for several meters before feeling the beginning of a rotation/spin in the horizontal plane (like a sycamore seed). We suspect the side wire had broken at this point and the wings began to fold together.

The first spin finished quickly but I entered the 2nd spin with much more speed. I tried to go for the parachute handle but the 'G' force had already built up significantly. Soon my arms (and eventually my head) were forced and held out away from the center of rotation preventing me from reaching the parachute handle. I realized I was in a bad way but my life depended on getting to the parachute. Hard as I tried and with all of my strength my arms remained straight pointing away from the harness.

What followed is something I could never have imagined, a force developed by these rotations, an incredible rapid acceleration in speed and the rapidly increasing 'G'. I have watched video of similar motion when a glider folds its wings but on those occasions the rotation seems to reach a maximum after a number of rotations. Not in this case. The 'G' force continued to increase and was transverse to my prone position, pooling blood ventrally in the front half of my body. The eyes sustained advanced hematoma from this force. By the 5th and 6th rotation the load was so severe I knew the equipment would have to fail soon and hopefully before I sustained serious injury. Then in a split second the 'G' force went to zero and I was being thrown through space. At least I could move my arms and hold my head up. I reached for the parachute handle.

I was aware of moving horizontally with a lot of velocity and could also hear the airspeed accelerating very quickly. Motion through the air was like a projectile but soon turned into a freefall. I realized then I had definitely separated from the glider. I located the parachute handle and pulled with my right hand but it didn't budge, and after a few more heaves I was convinced the parachute was going to need a lot more persuasion to come out. (We would discover the back plate had failed catastrophically and the opening of the parachute port was deformed as a result).

As I fought to remove the parachute I was aware of free-falling straight down in a boot-first/head-up/'pencil' position. This would later be confirmed by eye witnesses. Over the next 5 seconds while I continued to struggle with the parachute the sound of the airflow achieved a maximum and I realized I was at terminal velocity.

One arm was not enough so I reached down with the left and with both hands heaved on the handle. After another couple of seconds I felt the parachute finally come loose. I threw it sideways, let go and waited.

What came next was the most painful and violent impact I have ever felt in my life, like I had been torn in half. Extreme pain instantly filled the body with the worst of it concentrated in chest and upper back. I knew I had sustained serious injury and immediately suspected my back was broken. I looked up just enough to see one of the most beautiful things, a clean circular shape of the front 1/3 of the parachute, taut, inflated and in tact. The airflow was quiet now and the earth was no longer hurtling towards me. In less than 15 seconds I had fallen 4000', the parachute and harness survived the deployment and so had I but not without injury, and the pain suggested I was in a real bad way.

The thought of paralysis filled my mind and I needed to know. I tried to wriggle my fingers and they moved. I thought with some dread, 'My legs?' I wriggled my feet and they moved too. Relief mixed with the pain but concern remained that my back was probably broken despite the spinal cord being intact. I needed a soft landing to protect what wasn't damaged. I looked down and the remaining 2000' came up very slowly. I could only just breathe. I needed to get down as soon as possible and get help.

After a minute of trying to get more air into my lungs my color vision started to fade, I was graying out. I remained conscious but gradually blacked out and feared I may have sustained fatal internal injuries.

My thoughts immediately went to my wife who passed away earlier this year. I hoped that if this was what was happening to me then I would be with her soon and I felt content for the first time in 4 months. My soul mate, taken away so early in our life with whom I had shared so much… Pain was no longer on my mind and I felt calm. A few moments passed before awareness came over me, I was not dying, I would survive, and this was not my time. The peace gave way to the pain which returned with a vengeance. Shock set-in and I passed out.

When I came too I was on my back looking up at the sky. I looked around and suddenly the realization of what had just happened came back all at once. I said out loud in astonishment and relief, "I survived!" Then I started to get dragged backwards at a waking pace for a few feet before coming to a stop. I looked over my shoulder and there was that beautiful red colored parachute again, right behind me on the ground and still inflated. A gust came through and again I slowly got dragged along the ground a few more feet.

The pain was worse than ever now and I had to get out of the harness. I rechecked arm and leg movement and all were still working. I unclipped the leg loops and the waist belt. As I struggled in vain to undo the chest buckle I heard a voice from behind, a farmer who had seen my parachute from a distance sitting inflated on the ground drove over to check it out. "Can I give you a hand son?" He asked as he walked into my field of view where I lay on my back. "Yes, undo this buckle and call an ambulance", was my reply.

He too struggled with the chest strap and I thought it may be jammed from the deployment. I had one more go and it released. I rolled out of the harness, stood up, walked over to the shade of a nearby tree and carefully crouched in the least painful position. There I stayed for the next 90minutes until I could be evacuated.

Three things I saw that day will stay with me for the rest of my life. First, a glimpse of that High Energy parachute sitting high above and taking me safely to earth after the wildest and most painful ride of my life. And again as I lay unconscious in that field then waking up, looking over my shoulder to see it there once again, that big red parachute on the ground and still inflated as if it continued to watch over me.

Second was the sight of Oli, Dave, Phil and Chris all coming into land only meters away from where I crouched in absolute searing pain. I watched them get out of their harnesses one by one and I felt much better straight away. They rallied around me in relative silence but their concern was obvious. It took 45 minutes for the ambulance to arrive but the pilots urged the paramedics on and tried to hurry them to do what ever was necessary to get me out of there and into hospital. I heard Oli pleading with the Ambulance Officer, "You need to get the helicopter, just send the helicopter right now". "Dave sat next to me and relayed my answers as I could hardly speak. I can't describe how good it was to have them there.

Photo by Tim Ettridge

Then the red and yellow Westpac helicopter arrived! The crew was on the ball and once airborne I finally realised I was safe. We lifted off and headed straight for The John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle.

As I was wheeled in through the hospital doors a familiar face in a green medical gown stood there waiting, Conrad Loten, fellow hang glider pilot and head of the Emergency Department took over my treatment and directed his staff calmly but with obvious authority and competence. After the CAT scan Conrad came over to my bed and confirmed the damage; 6 broken ribs, a collapsed lung, broken sternum and a flail fracture of the chest. "What about my back?" I asked. With the slight smile he assured me the back was in perfect condition, no damage to the spine whatsoever.

Quietly but with apparent concern Conrad kept in touch of my progress and treatment over the next week. I was very lucky indeed to have him looking after me. Friends visited everyday and thankfully I made a quick recovery in that first week. My family came with real food to spare me and my recovering body what wasn't offered on the hospital 'menu'. While the prognosis is still uncertain it seems as though I could expect to make something close to a full recovery. Everyday I am feeling much stronger.

I was very lucky to have survived this accident and many things were in my favor including a lot of luck. The specialists believe health and fitness gave me a big advantage not only aiding in the healing but also preventing more serious injury. Since my wife passed away some months ago I have lost a bit of weight and I suspect the less momentum I had when the parachute inflated the better. She always looked out for me in the most unusual and often in the least obvious of ways and it feels she continues to.

In hindsight I began preparation for this accident 18 months ago. At Forbes in 2007 I watched Austrian pilot, Andreas Orgler, experience an almost identical accident. While his incident did not involve the violent sycamore rotation he did tumble twice and then separated from his glider. His pilotless wing then descended straight at me, head-on, and only just cleared mine with a closing speed that would have certainly brought me down too. Meanwhile Andreas quickly deployed his parachute during his freefall and well before achieving terminal velocity. Despite his much lower speed the inflation was explosively and the parachute failed. He continued to freefall right before my eyes.

Witnessing such a traumatic event left me deeply affected for a long time but it was the motivation to understand why it happened and then reequip with the most advanced skyline harness and a new High Energy parachute. This equipment that could and did survive this rare and 'unlikely' event where pilot and glider are separated in flight. The accident in Forbes helped prepare me to survive mine at Gulgong. This may be small consolation to those who have never met me and knew Andreas, but the fact is there are many people here now who are very relieved and very happy because I am alive. He helped save my life.

I am very happy to be alive.

My understanding of flying has not changed in any way and I am not left with any doubt about the safety and risks of hang gliding. I hope to fly again but that depends on the ribs, and if I get to fly for another 15yrs I would be surprised if I ever come across the same air that lead to my accident last Monday. Nothing I could have done and no sort of equipment would have behaved differently. The air was tipping me over no matter what.

The Rev is the most stable and beautiful glider I have flown in and when I eventually reequip it will be with the same gear.

Check your equipment and update to the best, the extra few $100 is worth it!

Adam has a lot more to say here.

Pictures of the damage here.

Fourteen thousand feet in Australia?

November 24, 2009, 8:10:21 PST

Fourteen thousand feet in Australia?

Will we be able to get high legally?

Phil Schroder|Vicki Cain

www.moyes.com.au/Forbes2010

Vicki Cain is in contact with CASA attempting to get our legal height limit set to 14,000' for the Forbes Flatlands. Phil Schroder is also in the hunt for the Bogong Cup.

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2009 Canungra Classic »

Fri, Oct 9 2009, 8:08:13 am PDT

Ricky Duncan in first place overall

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2009|Conrad Loten|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Nick Purcell|Phil Schroder|Ricky Duncan|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tim Osborn|Trent Brown

It looks like a lot of pilots got penalties of 100%. I assume for airspace violations.

Task 5:

# Id Name Glider Time Total
1 4 Jon Durand Snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:34:14 845
2 20 Regan Kowald Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:35:37 829
3 25 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 01:36:31 818
4 16 Keiran Brown Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 01:39:15 787
5 11 Bruce Wynne Moyes Litespeed 5 01:49:50 681
6 22 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 01:52:55 654
7 10 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 01:56:37 589
8 54 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 02:02:53 574
9 40 Andrew Carswell 02:01:45 540
10 17 Dave May 02:09:02 531

Penalties:
Note: % penalty is used to calc penalty as a % of total score. Both types can be combined. None affect the scoring of other pilots.

Id Name Penalty Reason
45 Peter Smart 100% W4500
46 Adam Stevens 100% N7500
42 Daniel Shaw 100% N7500 W4500
29 Tim Hannah 100% N7500
48 David Leeming 100% No Altitude
51 Tim Osborn 100% E6500
55 Bodie Heyward 100% E6500 N7500
49 Mark Gilbert 100% E6500
57 Scott Ireland 100% E6500
3 Cameron Tunbridge 100% E6500 W4500
18 Neil Petersen 100% N7500 W4500
14 Andrew Barnes 100% N7500
21 Tony Giammichele 100% N7500 W4500
15 Rohan Holtkamp 100% W4500
13 Trent Brown 100% N7500
6 Phil Schroder 100% E6500
19 Conrad Loten 100% E6500 N7500
23 Andy Schmidt 100% E6500 W4500
9 Nick Purcell 100% N7500
36 Joel Mckay 100% E6500 N7500 W4500 8500
8 Warren Simonsen 100% E6500 N7500 W4500 W2500
38 John Blain 100% E6500 N7500 8500
26 Sam Prest 100% W4500
24 Derek Wagner 100% W4500
35 Glen Mcfarlane 100% W4500
7 Trevor Purcell 100% N7500

Overall:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 3779
2 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 3609
3 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 3308
4 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 3247
5 Jon Durand Snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 3187
6 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 3137
7 Bruce Wynne Moyes Litespeed 5 2940
8 Keiran Brown Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2839
9 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 2663
10 Regan Kowald Moyes Litespeed S 5 2660

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2009 Canungra Classic »

Tue, Oct 6 2009, 8:13:55 am PDT

Jonny goes early by himself

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2009|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tim Osborn|Trent Brown

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 02:00:22 1000
2 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 02:10:43 801
3 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 02:15:44 767
4 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 02:16:14 764
5 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 02:18:01 753
6 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 02:19:47 743
7 Tim Osborn Aeros Combat L 14 02:20:42 738
8 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 02:20:54 736
9 Adam Stevens Airborne Climax C4 13.5 02:23:04 724
10 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat L13 02:38:02 677

Total:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 2854
2 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 2601
3 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 2586
4 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 2250
5 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 2129
6 Tony Giammichele Moyes Litespeed S 4 1998
7 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 13.5 1912
8 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 1902
9 Trevor Purcell Moyes Litespeed 5 1890
10 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 1833

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Bogong Cup - B Grade also »

Wed, Aug 26 2009, 8:21:20 am MDT

Not just a meet for international pilots

Bogong Cup 2010|Phil Schroder

Phil Schroder «philschroder» writes:

The Bogong Cup will cater for traditional Cat2 AAA (Open) type pilots but also the ones below that level. It's these pilots that I think we should encourage to “step up” from the A and B sanction comps they fly now. As an incentive, I’ve offered ½ the total prize money to B Grade and the other ½ to Open. I’ve also offered free entry to the comp for the most improved pilot in the 2010 Corryong Cup. Sure, B Grade is a crappy name but if the bucks are there for the taking, who cares what it's called!

The bottom line is that I see a decline in pilot numbers competing at the highest level in Australia and I want to do something to reverse that.

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The Fires

February 9, 2009, 10:46:52 AEDT

The Fires

The story near Bright

Phil Schroder|record|weather

The main fires that have killed so many people are in the hills just north east of Melbourne. There is a separate fire near Beechworth. Phil Schroder «philschroder» reports:

Saturday the 7th was the hottest day on record in Victoria. It reached 45 degrees in Wangaratta and 47 in the west of the state. After the end of the Bogong Cup on the 22nd of January, there was only one day with a maximum less than 30 degrees and 8 days above 40 degrees. Combined with the heat were strong northerly winds of up to 70 kph in low lying areas like Wangaratta and Albury and more than 100 kph at Mt. Hotham.

Some days earlier, there were some smaller bushfires in southern part of the state which began but flared into monsters on the 7th. Now there are over 40 fires statewide with 600+ houses destroyed and over 100 dead. I’m one of the lucky ones. A fire started 4 km south of the town of Beechworth (the town I live in) on Saturday but the hot northerlies blew it away from us. Since then, it has burnt Happy Valley, the Pinnacles, Kancoona and its spotting on the east side of the Kiewa Valley. To the south, it's heading towards Myrtleford threatening the plantation on the hill above town. It's now over 100,000 acres in size. See the attached fire map.

It's 18 degrees now and its blowing from the south and there’s smoke everywhere. A temporary relief for some but a new threat to others as the fire changes direction. There were some thunderstorms this morning which possibly started more fires in the mountains; I hope not.

Overview of fires in Victoria.

The weather outlook looks good for the next week in northeastern Victoria with a southern breeze and cool conditions. See here.

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Forbes, day six, task five »

Fri, Jan 9 2009, 10:39:18 am AEDT

We call a long task on a weak day

Attila Bertok|Chris Jones|Davis Straub|dust devil|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Scott Barrett|Steve Elliot|weather

The results.

The flight and task.

On day five (Wednesday) the winds died off in the afternoon but there were thick clouds all day with intermittent rain. It was a good call not to go out to the tow paddock. Pilots seemed to enjoy a day off. It rained steady in the evening.

On Wednesday the pilots voted for a "rest" day on Friday o that pilots and officials could attend Steve Elliot's funeral in Sydney (some were flying out from Orange). We expected to do a long task on Thursday as we had a rest day on Friday.

On Thursday morning the task committee looked at the weather and saw a dismal picture. With a strong inversion the lift wasn't supposed to go over 6,000' until about 200 km to the north. The lift looked reasonable at 550 fpm and the winds were supposed to be moderately strong (14-16 knots) out of the south. It would be a totally blue day until well north of Narromine.

I proposed Narromine at 129 km, but Gerolf thought I was out of my mind as the task was too short. I was never sure just what task Gerolf wanted, but I know he wanted a difficult task. The problem has been that the days have been so good that it was hard to make a difficult task if we needed to go down wind (and we went with quartering tail winds) because of the high wind velocity.

Attila though a long task would bring in a too large factor of luck. But still he proposed a 267 km task north northeast to Coonamble, under the assumption that we would not make it. The lift was supposed to drop off around 6 PM to 350 fpm (minus 200 fpm for your glider's sink rate) and the task would take about four hours for the fast guys.

Gerolf was not happy about something and left the task committee meeting.

We started the day a half hour earlier hoping to get more time for better conditions on the long task. We were worried that with all the rain the night before and the forecast for light lift early that it might be weak at first. The first launch time was noon and the first start clock at 1:30 PM.

The launch lines were orderly given the extra half hour for launching and I got off at 12:17. There were a few gliders in the air not very high and not climbing very fast. I joined them and we dribbled to the north northeast a couple of kilometers.

The forecast turned out to be wildly optimistic. We could climb to 4,900' (maybe the bottom of the hard inversion) and the lift was really weak, 220 fpm at most. We had to keep coming back to the airport as we drifted quickly away from it, in order to stay inside the start circle. Scott Barrett got low drifting out and had to go back and relaunch. Another pilot got even lower and didn't make it back having to walk his glider a good ways to get back in the launch line.

The sport and club class pilots waited until 2 PM to start their launch seeing the poor conditions that we were in. Their task was 74 km to Peak Hill. We sent the goalie to Peak Hill as we felt we might have beat him to the long goal if we hadn't.

After going back and forth a few times and not getting very high there were a few gaggles working slowly toward the edge of the start circle and just concentrating on staying in the air. I joined up and did my best to climb up, but was not all that successful getting as high as the top guys.

We drifted and drifted watching the minutes count down and the distance to the edge shrink. We went past the start circle at five minutes to go but we had to stay up so we stayed with the thermal. We saw a few pilots turning back by the edge of the start circle and made our way back to them in time to get the first start window in the start circle. We were still not high.

We headed out on a long (8 km) glide and pilots were fortunately spread out as I saw the pilot to my right catch some lift. The guy to my left in front and low landed. Numerous pilots were in another gaggle further to my right and others had gone ahead. I was just trying to survive.

We hooked up with the bigger gaggle but I was on the bottom. I just ignored the fact that it was too low to follow anyone out on course when they left and just stayed thermaling in broken, small, and weak lift. What choice did I have?

There were enough pilots around that you did have a few thermal markers around to help out. I hooked up with Julia and Warren and a few others and we worked our way slowly to the north not ever finding a real solid core of lift. Pilots were spread out and very hard to see when they were more than a few miles away. The winds were about 16 mph.

After half a dozen thermal (which are more closely situated when the top of lift is low) I lead out with Kenji in an Aeros Combat just above me and right behind me. He wasn't spreading out at all.

Down to 1,000' AGL 105 kilometers from the start I was searching every where for lift and Kenji was right next to me also looking. Finally down to 700' AGL six minutes later we found a consistent core, but now he was 50' below me. We started turning, me right above him and just working that thing as hard as we could.

Ever so slowly I started pulling away from him. Then I started climbing faster and faster in reasonable lift (it averaged over 300 fpm for 12 minutes). He didn't and soon landed. The lift had finally improved a bit.

I headed toward some more pilots that I saw thermaling ahead and found myself in a general area of lift southwest of Narromine with three different small gaggles. It was nice to have the company.

Heading out I ran into 1000 fpm down. I took a 90° left turn and was rewarded with less and less sink until I got into the lift line just south of Michael Williams who I had seen just land. This lift got me up to over 5,800', that was highest I would get all day.

My radio battery had died right away while I was in the start circle so I was really concentrating on getting to goal so that I would have an easy retrieve. We were out far away from paved roads so I didn't want to go down.

I was able to fly with a pilot or two now and then and flew to a couple of small dust devils providing good lift. The lift was consistent although I was often down to 2,500' AGL. The winds had picked up and were now 20 to 24 mph out of the south southwest.

Fifty kilometers out I saw Peter Dall and Dave May very low behind me searching back and forth. I was happy to see a paved road ahead and knew at least that I was safe for a fast retrieval. I went on glide and I got down to 1,100' AGL by the highway. There was a glider next to the road 30 kilometers out.

I headed for the edge of the forest hoping that it would be kicking off lift in the strong winds. It was, very weak lift (averaged 77 fpm), but enough to keep me up and drifting quickly toward the goal. I just stuck with it even when it was zero.

At 2,800' AGL I headed down wind just happy to be within 23 km of goal. I found another patch of weak lift and worked it to let the thermal drift me toward goal. As my required glide ratio to goal got down to below 20:1 I worked weak lift to get high enough to make it. At fifteen kilometers out I had enough altitude and went on final glide getting there with plenty of altitude.

I arrived at the airport to find two glider coming in with me just a couple of minutes head. I had not seen these pilots, Tony and Phil. There were no gliders on the ground, and no cars at the airport. It looked like we were the first three in.

In fact, Jonny had come in earlier and and landed away from the airport as it was surrounded by a fence. Blay and Maxim also came in before us and landed off the airport. Four other pilots ( Peter, Dave, Warren and Chris) landed later at the goal with Chris Jones last. Chris had a reflight and was the last pilot to tow and leave the airfield.

Everyone else went down before the goal. Robert, Gerolf, Attila, Fredrico, Scott, Curt, the whole gang. This should have a big effect on the overall results.

Task five:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Aus Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 04:30:45 997
2 Maxim Usachev Rus Aeros Combat L 04:33:35 970
3 Blay Olmos Esp Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 04:43:26 914
4 Phil Schroder Aus Airborne C4 13.5 04:52:34 874
5 Tony Lowrey Aus Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 04:54:43 866
6 Davis Straub Usa Moyes Litesport S 4 04:55:14 864
7 Dave May Aus Airborne C4 13.5 05:00:43 845
8 Warren Simonsen Nzl Airborne 05:02:24 840
9 Chris Jones Aus Moyes Litespeed S 4 04:59:52 834
10 Peter Dall Aus Atos D 669

Totals:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Blay Olmos m Esp Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 4496
2 Jon Durand Jnr m Aus Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 4452
3 Attila Bertok m Hun Moyes Litespeed S 5 3995
4 Michael Friesenbichler m Aut Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 3836
5 Gerolf Heinrichs m Aut Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 3810
6 Lukas Bader m Deu Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 3772
7 Chris Jones m Aus Moyes Litespeed S 4 3762
8 Pedro Luis Garicia Morelli m Esp Aeros Combat L 13.7 3473
9 Davis Straub m Usa Moyes Litesport S 4 3421
10 Maxim Usachev m Rus Aeros Combat L 3362

The father and son team of Tim and Keith Howells were the only pilots to make goal in the sport and club class. A few days earlier they both made goal for the first time for each of them.

Friday is the funeral/rest day. It looks flyable but we are all happy for the rest after the long drive.

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Dalby Big Air - day 7

Sat, Mar 15 2008, 9:00:45 am MDT

Dalby day 7

The meet's final day

Cameron Tunbridge|Dalby Big Air 2008|Phil Schroder

The results are here: http://www.soaringspot.com/2008dba/.

We had a nice feed the other night at the Dalby Commercial Hotel, one of our sponsors. Out in the beer garden I set up and took downloads when the pilots came in for their repast. It's great to have the town behind us and behind other sportive events.

The cu's were thick and friendly early in the morning with the winds again (as they have been every day) out of the east (as easterly as yesterday) and even stronger (18-20 knots). So there is only one way to go, but it will be hard to stay on the main highway with goes northwest. There are forests to the west and to get around them you need to go a little north first.

Around noon the cu's filled into the east and there was a cell off to the north east. With the strong wind we postponed launch until the cell passed, the scud went away and the cu's started popping again near us. The task was changed given the later hour and it was once again a straight 77 km shot to Chinchilla to the northwest. Unfortunately for me the wind was out of the east north east (70 degrees), so it looked like I would not have the pleasant time I had a few days earlier when the wind was almost straight down the highway.

None the less I launched first and found some lift after about five minutes of searching around under the cu's. There were two Litespeed pilots just a few feet below me and I used them to help me center the lift and see the stronger bits. Soon I was high above them as they did some less fruitful searching while I stayed in the core, such as it was at 160 fpm.

I climbed to 2,900' AGL as I drifted at almost 90 degrees to the course line. There were plenty of cu's a popping, but the best clouds were even further away from the course. I saw some ragged looking but reasonable cu's back by the course line and headed under them to try to stay on track.

Argh! They didn't work and I had to scrape it off the deck at 500' AGL out in the blue and just go where the lift took me, again way off the course line.

The lift was reasonable at 250 fpm to 3,400' AGL, but now I was west of the next highway. Dave Seib and Cameron Tunbridge were with me as we eked out the last little bit of lift near the top of the thermal less than 10 km from the start point. Dave went on glide and I followed, but of course he got further and further ahead of me. I couldn't get to the little bits of lift that he showed me, and he actually got down to 500' on that glide back to the highway.

I had to stop and find lift in cu's that he bypassed. With the wind going the wrong direction and not getting high I was not doing well.

I continued working light lift and drifting away from the course line until I got to the point where I was about to go into the forest to the west of Dalby. Not that high, my last lunge to the north not working out I found a nice paddock for a safe landing 26 km out

Looking up a saw Phil Schroder not too high. It didn't look good for him either as he was now also blocked by the forest. He landed soon after me.

Cameron got below Dave and I when he went out a bit to search out for the next lift. He came back in under us and then didn't find much. He worked his way back toward the course line but soon landed behind me.

Cameron was ahead by over 650 points on this last day, but now he had landed way short of goal. Trevor Purcell who was in second place, started the task on the fourth start gate (3 PM). He flew down the course line going on long glides, never getting low, finding strong lift and getting high. He made goal in an hour and ten minutes and won the day, thereby winning the meet on the last day.

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2008 Bogong Cup, reflections »

January 20, 2008, 2:58:43 pm GMT+1100

Bogong, reflections

A well run contest in a nice place with lots of socializing and fun when not flying

Bogong Cup 2008|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Oleg Bondarchuk|Phil Schroder|weather

Bogong Cup 2008|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Phil Schroder|weather

Bogong Cup 2008|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Phil Schroder|weather

Despite the fact that we had only four days of task flying out of eight and that one of those days was cut short due to rain, we still had some excellent conditions flying here and great fun flying. I can't remember a contest that we've flown in this area where the lift was so consistent. I remember lots of times in previous years struggling with weak conditions and having to be very careful not to land out. This year the vast majority of pilots made goal on all the days but the last one. You had to be fast, not just safe.

On the last day of the meet, I reported earlier that I went over to Mt. Porepunkah with Lukas Bader. We were the first pilots to get away from the launch and went by ourselves over to this area. Lukas reported that after we got the first lift near the lookout there was no more lift there and he was surprised that I went way deep into the forested area looking for lift as it looked like there was no way out if I didn't get some. I didn't find any lift, but was quite able to get back over the lookout and continue searching.

When I searched on the hill sides leading up to the lookout, Lukas spotted a cu five kilometers on the course line. I was closer to the hill side and looking more for signs of lift below. Lukas a few hundred feet above me was looking up and saw this cu and went for it. Now we were just inside the start circle and it was half an hour to the start gate time, but it was possible in the rules to start on the task before the start gate opened, although Lukas had forgotten about this. I knew this, but went back to get a new later start time, which would give me a better time over all (if I made goal). This focus kept me from looking down the ridgeline to see the cu on course.

Lukas glided down to the cu, found light lift and stayed up while I slowly descended on the hillside. Balasz came over and Lukas came back three kilometers to join up with him in really light lift. Lukas still thought that he had to go back into the start circle. When Balasz headed down the course line without going inside the start circle, Lukas figured that Balsz knew what he was doing and went with him. He and Balasz flew thirty kilometers together before landing.

We had three very enjoyable days of flying here and when they weren't flying pilots were still enjoying themselves. On the first day most of the pilots appreciated having a rest day. On the second day, the task was cancelled before we went up the hill. I believe that this was a mistake on Heather's part overvaluing "local" knowledge. She was not familiar enough with the RASP model that I was using (not as the official weather guy at the Bogong Cup, but also as the default weather guys at Forbes) to use it to contradict the recommendations from Ollie and Phil Schroder and at least go up Mt. Emu (as we did later) to check out the actual conditions. Hopefully everyone learned a good lesson from that.

First task day at Emu launch.

Carol and Heather and their helpers in Mt. Beauty (especially the president of the Chamber of Commerce) really get a lot of support from the local businesses, with many many free vouchers' for food, drink, and lodging for the winners.  This brings folks back for the next year. This meet has more local support in actual freebies for pilots than any other meet that I am aware of.

This meet is in some ways more difficult to than the Forbes Flatlands, for example, because you have to make a decision in the morning about where to launch. In Forbes you just point the tugs into the wind. As I was calling the wind direction every morning for later in the day using the RASP, it was no problem. Here, while I was calling the winds right every time, it still required a bit of judgment to know where to go given the little bit of uncertainty in the wind speed and direction.

I would bet that there is no chance of fires in the Victorian Alps this year. It has rained and rained and rained for the past three days. The mountains are not in anything like the conditions that they had been in over the last few years. It has rained all morning today. Cloud base is ground level at 2:30 PM.

We had an excellent prize giving last night with Jonny winning the two "big" Australian meets (and Canungra also). So far the World Champion is just behind him. He has won Bogong three times now, like Thomas and Oleg. He and a few other pilots are off to New Zealand for a few local meets before the NSW State Titles in Manilla. I'll be in Manilla also.

Corrinna won the Women's title once again. She always gets a free room here at the Alpenhorn for winning the title, so she always wants to come back to the Bogong Cup and loves flying here. Julia, the Russian girl who was a driver at Forbes (but flew there also, and did well, even if not in the contest), was hot on her tail. Corinna had better watch out.

There was a fine musician playing at the Settler's Tavern after the prize giving. Many of the pilots went there after dinner and had a great time dancing. There seemed to be a lot more women around this meet than is normal for a hang gliding meet. A number of them were pilots. Let's hope that this continues.

I have already discussed with Heather and Carol possible dates for next year for the Bogong Cup and for the Forbes Flatlands (they need to coordinate their schedules and work around the Parkes Elvis festival on January 10th, 2009), We all had a pleasant after meet brunch at the Annapurna Winery on Sunday morning.

More reflections on racing and winning later.

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2008 Bogong Cup, day five, task two »

January 16, 2008, 11:55:25 pm GMT+1100

Bogong, five

The Victorian RASP forecast saves the day

Attila Bertok|Belinda Boulter|Bogong Cup 2008|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Steve Blenkinsop

The task and flight.

The results.

The RASP graphs were very complicated today with a "front" passing through and significant wind changes in the offing (but you're never exactly sure when it is going to happen). The wind forecasts (there are three for each hour, surface, boundary layer average, and top of the boundary layer) show west winds with south wind nearby until 5 PM when the south winds come on strong and would make it very difficult to make it back to Mt. Beauty. This forecast for strong southerly winds at 5 PM and even more later, cause the task committee to call a task with a goal to the north northeast.

The forecast for west winds gets us to the Emu launch, which was the first difficult choice. The winds at Mt. Hotham to our south are out of the north (which RASP doesn't get right) and they continue to be north westerly until 2:30 PM when they suddenly switch to the south. Of course by then we have already made all of the decisions and they are based on the winds being west and then turning south late in the day.

On launch at Emu there is a northwesterly flow, which means from the right and not straight up the launch. This causes delays and concerns that it is not safe to launch. To the south we see high lenticular clouds and roll clouds with cu's underneath coming our way. It looks unsafe in the air and the safety committee puts the task on hold.

The high clouds come over us and the launch conditions settle down a bit. We put off three free flyers and talk with Steve Gayle, one of the free flyers. He tells us that the winds are 15 mph out of the northwest and the lift is rough. But later he informs us the the lift has smoothed out and he is climbing to 10,000'. One of the other wind techs has landed and reports southerly winds on the ground.

We decided that the task is doable and set a start gate open time of 3:30 PM. The task is to go 41 km to the north (against a north westerly cross wind), come back 20 km to a turnpoint, then go back to the first turnpoint, before heading to the east northeast to goal, 108 kilometers. We are just starting at hour later than we had planned to.

I'm the eleventh pilot to launch after coming in eighth on the first task. The launch itself was fine but I get turned ninety degrees just as I got out of the slot and was headed for the trees. I banked the glider to the left and got out in the clean air.

There was just zero sink near launch after I launched so I headed north to the next spur. Oops, nothing there neither. I headed out toward the valley following another pilot. After losing 1,200' he hit something and I joined him. This thermal would take us at 400 fpm to almost 10,000'.

The wind was coming out of the northwest at 10 to 17 mph so we three pilots (including Joerg) were drifting back away from the launch and away from the edge of the start circle that was toward the first turnpoint. All the other pilots looked to be struggling and way getting low (relative to us). It looked like we the kings of the world as everyone else struggled.

Still we were eight kilometers from the edge of the start circle. I headed up wind toward the edge of the start circle but I had misjudged how fast I could get there. I still had 2.5 km to go when the start window opened. But the real kicker was the guys that had looked so low had found good thermals and were now super high. I was at 8,100', but they were much higher than that. It looked to me like they weren't going to take the first start time as they were still circling and it was getting late. I was hoping that they would all wait for the second start time and give me a chance to get high again. Of course, 8,100' is plenty high unless everyone else is higher.

Finally five minutes after the window opened they all left and I decided to go with them even though I was relatively low. Only later did I find out how really high some of them were. I should have waited and gone with Balasz, Attila and Jonny.

The race down the ridge to the north was racy enough with me following the leaders from about 4,000' below them. I found a few good thermals, but there was plenty of little stuff along the ridge line. Whenever you found a good thermal you drifted back to the east of the ridge line and had to battle back to get over it and into the good air.

I made the turnpoint with all the high guys, but I was down to 3,000' AGL. I ran the ridgeline back to the second turnpoint, but had to stop when I was 900' AGL and worked 200 fpm which turned into 700 fpm and got me back to almost 8,000'. Attila, Jonny and Balasz had started the second start time and were already catching up.

Getting back to the third turnpoint (which was the same as the first one), had me coming in low. Scott Barrett was 6 km ahead. Information from him and Belinda at the turnpoint got me to the turnpoint and then to a thermal to the east. This one was 25 km from goal and was strong enough that it got me high enough to go on final glide.

Forty three pilots made goal. The final glide was downwind. Mine averaged 48 mph.

1. Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed S5 02:10:07 939
2. Mario Alonzi Aeros Combat L 02:16:40 917
3. Lukas Bader Moyes Litespeed RS4 02:11:31 904
4. Balazs Ujhelyi   02:15:08 851
5. Jon Jnr Durand Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 02:16:54 830
6. Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed S3.5 02:18:58 807
7. Rohan Holtkamp Airborne C4 13 02:19:34 800
8. Phil Schroder   02:19:43 799
9. Oliver Barthelmes   02:29:14 771
10. Artur Dzamikhov Aeros Combat L13 02:22:33 770

The RASP model really made our day today. It is competing with the "local knowledge and experience" guys (who use correlations and statistical averages, sort of) for predictions about the day. It just has some much more to say, that it overwhelms them.

2007 Gulgong Classic - Day 3 »

November 20, 2007, 9:00:29 pm GMT+1100

Gulgong

Weak lift at first keeps pilots on the ground

Gulgong Classic 2007|Phil Schroder|Scott Barrett

The latest scores will be up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

On Tuesday there were plenty of clouds left over from the cu-nimbs the night before. It was clear out to the west, but the clouds were suppressing the lift around the Gulgong glider strip.

The task was a down winder 108 km to Yeoval. The chance of over development was high.

Phil Schroder took off first and was towed to 4,000' without finding any lift. I went after him at noon and got off at 1,300' AGL in light lift, but it was not enough to sustain me. Every where was shaded near the airport.

I and a few more pilots launched around 12:30 but only Miklhail, Cris and I were able to stay up. Everyone else had landed or soon would. A few kept trying but they didn't stick with it.

Mikhail drifted off down wind about 1 PM, the first start time. But as none of us were getting over 2,500' AGL, I saw no reason to leave yet, especially without much help. Cris and I kept going back over the airport and then drifting away in the wind.

Down below pilots had abandoned their gliders. No one was launching. The tug pilots were telling them it was no good, despite the fact that Cris and I were continually soaring over their heads for an hour and a half. Finally at 15 minutes to the opening of the last start time Scott Barrett took off and found lift where Cris and I weren't looking, down wind to the west of the tow paddock.

I was working my way down to 500' AGL at 2 PM right over the launch line that had now finally formed up again. Still pilots who had just launched were landing.

I went to open up my zipper and it malfunctioned. Now I really had to stay up and get it fixed before I landed. Just when I really needed it  I found the best thermal so far, 200 fpm. This got me high enough so I could consider my possible landing options and what to do about the zipper.

Scott was already on his way alone north of the course line which headed off to the west, somewhat away from the cu-nimbs building to the southwest. There were six or seven of us in the gaggle and lots of folks still in the launch line fifteen minutes after the last start time and we still had a ways to go to get to the edge of the start circle.

I worked with Phil Schroder and Cameron as we worked our way along south of the course line. There were very few cu's around, and ahead a massive shaded area 25 km wide. The cu-nimb to our south was spraying out clouds and overcast. Scott was well ahead of us (15 km) and approaching the shaded area but far to our north.

My friends found some good lift just before the shaded area and I went back to join them in it. The shade extended many miles to the south and north as well as to the turnpoint 25 km to our west. The idea was to get as high as possible before going into the shade, hoping to make it across and to the sunlit areas.

The cloud bottoms were dark and there were no breaks in the clouds. I could see spots of rain coming down. With no breaks in the clouds, I wasn't too interested in getting too close to them, so that was the trade off, get as high as possible but not too high.

At 5,000' AGL I went on glide through the dark area. At the same time Scott twenty km in front was finding a bit of lift 5 km before the turnpoint and 5 km before the sun lit areas just passed the turnpoint. He waited in lift that averaged 67 fpm for the sunlit areas to heat up.

I glided to the turnpoint without finding any lift and landed. It was a very smooth 25 km glide. Scott just ahead found lift a quarter of a kilometer past the turnpoint in the sun and got up.

We hadn't seen Scott the whole time so none of us knew he was out in front of us. All of us in what we thought was the lead gaggle had to go through the shaded area. I saw one pilot land just beyond the turnpoint right after I landed. A few others landed nearby.

Scott carried on and was the only one to make it to goal. Other pilots who were slower or launched later didn't have the shaded area to deal with as it cleared up soon after I landed.

The results should be up fairly soon. The scorekeeper is flying in the meet.

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2007 Gulgong Classic - Day 2 »

November 19, 2007, 10:18:34 pm GMT+1100

Gulgong

108 km out and return with a gust front at the end for the late guys

Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Don Cramer|Gulgong Classic 2007|Phil Schroder|Scott Barrett

The task committee called an out and return along the highways to the west given the predict of a northeast wind. The winds turned out to be out of the west. The idea was to get the guys with Stings and Sonics out on the course going downwind on the first leg, but it didn't turn out that way.

We started towing up at noon and the cu's were just beginning to form. I found a little thermal over the tow paddock, Scott Barrett joined me and we climbed up to 5,500' AGL. It looked like a good day, but it was clear that we would be heading into a head wind.

The sky quickly filled up and ten of us found ourselves at the edge of the start circle where we finally got some strong lift to 6,800' AGL just before the first start time at one o'clock. Scott and I had already decided to go at the first start clock and it looked like we would have a lot of company.

We headed out splitting the group up into two sets right away, one headed for a thick cu to the left of the course line and the other toward the wispy cu's along the course line. Not much was working that great so we pushed further up the course line into the wind to find better lift. Chris Jones was out leading the way with Scott behind. Cameron Tunbridge and I were further behind. There was no lead gaggle to speak of.

It was slow going given the wind and the difficulty finding strong thermals. Everyone was spread out and few pilots knew where the other pilots were so they had no gauge to tell them how well they were doing.

Down to 1,300' AGL 5 km from the first turnpoint, I found 700 fpm to 5,500' AGL and was joined by a friendly Wedgie and a couple of pilots. It was getting to be a better day. Out in front by the turnpoint Phil Schroder was about to land. I got to see him do so as I came over the turnpoint. Scott Barrett was struggling low just to the north of the turnpoint and Chris Jones was struggling a little bit to the west.

I flew passed the turnpoint and found 550 fpm to over 8,000' AGL. Scott was working his way up slowly, Chris was out in front with Cameron not far behind. Chris was out in front most of the time but we rarely saw him.

Chris got the second turnpoint first and I came in two minutes after him. It was a fifteen km glide after a strong thermal before the turnpoint, around it and back to the lift again. But we had plenty of altitude from the last thermal.

There were big areas of shade ahead. Also there was a cu-nimb off to the east in the mountains clearing out an area in front of any cu's that might help us get to goal. It looked like we could get home but the guys behind us might have a problem.

Just past the third turnpoint Chris was low and found a strong thermal. Cameron, Scott and I raced ahead not seeing Chris ahead of us, and low still. Cameron is the highest at 7,000' AGL. We all headed for the clouds just passed the turnpoint and the obvious lift.

I just missed it and had to search a bit. Cameron got it higher than Chris or Scott and soon headed for goal. He was way too high. Scott followed Chris but from above and was able to over take him going to goal as Chris had to stop for a bit of lift. I stayed in the thermal until I got high enough and then glided the 20 km into goal.

The gust front didn't hit until later and one pilot, Don Cramer, did come in and land at the airport as it hit.

Scores for both days are up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

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Even longer flight from Mystic Hill the day before

November 11, 2007, 8:11:37 GMT+1100

Mystic Hill

Paraglider pilot flies 220 km last Wednesday to outside Deniliquin

PG|Phil Schroder|record

Last Friday I reported that Phil Schroder had flown his Airborne C4-13.5 200 km to Narrandera to likely set the site record. The very pregnant Carole Binder (two weeks to go) drove retrieve and picked up Olli who was trying a triangle as he didn't think that the drift was that strong in the Kiewa valley before she went out and got Phil.

Well it turns out that the day before (Wednesday November 7th) when apparently there was a bit of wind, Fred Gungl «agungl» of www.activeflight.com.au was flying his paraglider 220 km to the out skirts of Deniliquin setting at least the paragliding distance record for Mystic if not the overall record.

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Phil Schroder flies 200 km from Mystic Hill

November 9, 2007, 10:22:39 pm GMT+1100

Phil

Going north to Narrandera

Phil Schroder

On Thursday Phil Schroder launched from the north facing Mystic Hill next to Bright, Victoria, Australia, and caught the thermals hitting the layer of south east winds coming over the back at a few hundred feet over launch level. He didn't come down until he got tired at , 140 miles / 225 kilometers away.

Carole Binder chased him and they got back at 1 AM.

I wonder if this is the longest flight from Mystic Hill.

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Sportavia - the last day »

Sat, Jan 28 2006, 7:22:24 pm AEDT

Sportavia

An early report

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Phil Schroder|sailplane|Sportavia International Open 2006|weather

The flight via HOLC.

The flight via Google Earth.

The weather cast was for cu-nimbs and very good chance for rain. While it was clear to the north in the morning there was a thick layer of clouds to the south by the ranges, the Victorian Alps. The soundings (temperature trace taken at the airport here), the models and the local forecasts all called for towering cu's as soon as it got warm enough to start showers. The sailplane pilots were restricted to the local area with no cross country allowed.

The winds were light on the ground and it was already hot and muggy with the humidity here and in all the surrounding areas very high, like yesterday. There was a trough just next to us, say thirty miles away just to make things more interesting.

The safety committee kept holding us back, I guess waiting until it was too late, then letting us fly. I don't quite get that. Finally at one o'clock we got to set up. They sky was blue to the north, west and east, but small cu's were just starting up. Many pilots were waiting to see what would happen and not setting up.

The sky to the north, west and east began to fill up with towering cu's. I was the first to setup and the first to get to launch at 1:50. The task has been set to the south, a triangle that got us back in time to end the meet with some dignity.

At 1,000' AGL I pinned off in the strong thermal which turned into 1,000 fpm up to 7,000'. There was a large black cloud now right above me and right over the air field. I pulled out of the thermal 1,000' below the cloud just because the threat of cu-nimbs seemed too great and I wanted to be able to stay near the edge of the cloud.

My high risk strategy was to go as early as possible and count on the fact that the task would be stopped while I was on course. It was clear that there were heavy cu-nimbs by the first and second turnpoint. I figured that if I got going early I could be furthest out on the course when the task was stopped.

I headed over for the start circle to the southwest where there were plenty of black clouds. To the south of the start circle it was cloudless and blue. To the southeast, shaded for 20 kilometers by thick cu's.

Flying under the black clouds did not produce much lift in the start circle, and I had to go back north to find 200 fpm under other black clouds over the shaded earth to get back to almost 7,000, still a good ways from cloud base. With a couple of minutes to go before the first start clock I decided to head south to get on course and see what I could find before the cu-nimbs near me took over and the rain started falling.

As soon as the lift quit I was falling like a rock under dark clouds and over shaded ground. The sun-lit ground was 10 kilometers away and I wouldn't make it at 600 fpm down. I made a sharp turn to the south east to head for some sun-light over Cobram, but it didn't produce any lift. The clouds had shaded the ground and stopped the lift.

I kept gliding for sunny areas but didn't find any lift and landed in soft conditons in a nice green open large field with an open gate.

Chris Smith got up like I did near the air field to 7,000', and headed for the start circle. He didn't find any lift there either. With pilots landing right and left in the start circle and the wind changing around to the south and blowing hard, he decided to come back to the air field and land.

Dave Seib said he almost killed himself on landing coming in in a gust front. He got high at the air field went over to the start circle and didn't get high again. Dave stated that Jonny had a hard landing by the first turnpoint and that the wind switched from 15-20 km/h out of the southwest to 15-20 km/h out of the east in five minutes there.

Kraig Coomber made goal. Phil Schroder said that after he made the first turnpoint, there was a cu-nimb in front of him (as we could all see from near the start point).

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2006 Bogong Cup - day 3 »

January 9, 2006, 7:26:09 pm AEDT

Bogong

The 15 mph head wind and thick cirrus add to the fun.

Bogong Cup 2006|Phil Schroder|weather

My pitiful little flight

At the 9 AM pilot meeting in Mt. Beauty at the Country Club, Phil Schroder, the local weather guy, like me, an amateur, is downcast and you can hardly hear what he has to say. It looks like he thinks that the north winds will be too fast as a storm approaches from the west. It is already raining in Melbourne.

It's clear that Heather doesn't even want to send us up the hill as she figures that the winds will present dangerous conditions, but a few of us vote to go, so it's up the Mystic Hill with much grumbling on Jonnie Jnr's part. The cirrus clouds are already covering much of the sky. It was not looking good.

We set up on Mystic Hill ignoring the good chance that the task will be called before we get to launch. The sky is seventy percent covered with cirrus. There is no wind on the ground, so it is hard to believe that the forecast for high winds out of the north.

The last winds forecast just before launch is set to open apparently wasn't so bad that it would force a task closure, so the question turns to whether it will be possible to soar over launch given the dark sky.

This turns out to be a breeze and off thirtieth I quickly climb to 7,200' at 400 fpm. Now I make a fatal mistake. Instead of taking off three minutes behind the first start time and wait around for the second start time losing altitude. This is a time that it doesn't pay to look at the clock. Just go when you are high.

I sink lower and lower as the sky gets darker and darker, and have to save myself a few times to get even the meager fifteen kilometers. We'll see later what the results are as I didn't have a good view of how things went on the course.

In all my years of flying only on my one night flight was the sky darker than it was today. Still pilots were able to find thermals and get up.

Discuss Bogong at the Oz Report forum

Replaying the Bogong Cup

Sun, Jan 8 2006, 8:05:48 pm AEDT

Replay

View the pilots as they fly at the Bogong Cup

Andreas Olsson|Ashley Wilmott|Attila Bertok|Cameron McNeill|Chris Jones|Conrad Loten|Corinna Schwiegershausen|David Seib|Davis Straub|Ferenc Gruber|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jack Simmons|Jon Durand snr|Kevin Carter|Mart Bosman|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Paul Allen|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Rolf Schatzmann|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Gerry writes:

You can set how many seconds apart your screen will be refreshed. If it can't keep up it just does it as often as it can. Default=5. You can set how many times real time you want the replay played at with the " speed="parameter. Default=20 but I may up that, it's pretty slow. You can list the names of the pilot(s) you want to display, capitalized like in the list (Andreas Olsson, Andy Schmidt, Ashley Wilmott, Atsushi Hasegawa, Attila Bertok, Balazs Ujhelyi, Birgit Svens, Cameron Mcneill, Cameron Turnbridge, Carole Tobler, Chris Jones, Chris Smith, Conrad Loten, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Craig Dorich, David Seib, Davis Straub, Dick Heffer, Eduardo Oliveira, Ferenc Gruber, Fumihiro Sato, Gabor Sipos, Geoff Ward, Gerolf Heinrichs, Gunther Tschurnig, Guy Hubbard, Imre Balko, Jack Simmons, Jim Prahl, Joerg Bajewski, John Blain, Jon Gjerde, Jon Jnr Durand, Jon Snr Durand, Karl Ruckriegel, Kevin Carter, Len Paton, Lisa Miller, Lukas Bader, Mark Stokoe, Mart Bosman, Michael Friesenbichler, Nic Pallett, nozumu, Oliver Barthelmes, Paul Allen, Peter Aitken, Peter Leach, Phil Pritchard, Phil Schroder, Regan Kowald, Richard Breyley, Richard Olbrich, Rohan Holtkamp, Rolf Schatzmann, Sam Prest, Scott Barret, Shigeto Ishizaka, Siggi Schitzler, Steve Blenkinsop, Steve Moyes, Stuart Coad, Tony Kenney, Trent Brown, Warren Simonsen, Wesley Hill), with"+" signs instead of spaces, separated by commas.

https://OzReport.com/KML_track.php?data=2006+Bogong+Cup+day+1&names=Davis+Straub,Kevin+Carter&refresh=1&speed=80

Leave off the "names=…" and it'll display ALL of the tracks.

You can also start at a particular time (in GMT since that's what the track logs are in). Otherwise the replay starts at the time of the first listed person's track log, probably a while before they even get their butt off the ground.

You can get rid of the displayed names by adding "label=0". Default=displayed.

https://OzReport.com/KML_track.php?data=2006+Bogong+Cup+day+1&refresh=1&speed=50&label=0&time=2006-01-07+02:00:00

It would take too long to refresh the tracks each time, so if you want to see the tracks during the replay just have them loaded & displayed first. Yeah, all the gliders just point north, making them point sort of in the average direction they had been traveling in will happen later. And yeah, they're all the same color.

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Canungra Classic »

Wed, Sep 28 2005, 4:00:00 pm EDT

After five days.

Attila Bertok|Chris Jones|David Seib|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|weather

Michael Zupanc «mike» sends:

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/2005/results.htm

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

Fifth day:

Bad weather.

Overall:

Place Name Glider Total
1 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed S 5 2734
2 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed S 4 2650
3 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 2527
4 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 13 2423
5 Steve MOYES Moyes Litespeed S 4 2129
6 Phil SCHRODER Airborne Climax C2 14 2092
7 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2059
8 Katrinka Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2010
9 Scott BARRETT     1930
10 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 1926

Canungra Classic »

Tue, Sep 27 2005, 3:00:00 pm EDT

After four days.

Attila Bertok|Chris Jones|David Seib|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett

Michael Zupanc «mike» sends:

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/2005/results.htm

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

Fourth day:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 SEIB, David Moyes Litespeed S 5 02:15:18 992
2 HOLTKAMP, Rohan Airborne Climax C4 13 02:41:47 886
3 MOYES, Steve Moyes Litespeed S 4 02:58:26 856
4 Katrinka Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 03:01:41 847
5 BARRETT, Scott     03:09:38 815

Overall:

Place Name Glider Total
1 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed S 5 2734
2 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed S 4 2650
3 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 2527
4 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 13 2423
5 Steve MOYES Moyes Litespeed S 4 2129
6 Phil SCHRODER Airborne Climax C2 14 2092
7 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2059
8 Katrinka Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2010
9 Scott BARRETT     1930
10 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 1926

Canungra Classic »

Mon, Sep 26 2005, 2:00:00 pm EDT

After three days.

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Chris Jones|David Seib|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor

Michael Zupanc «mike» sends:

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/2005/results.htm

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

1 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed 5 2046
2 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed 4 2018
3 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 14 1681
4 Phil SCHRODER Airborne Climax C2 14 1612
5 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 1610
6 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 1577
7 John STRICKLAND Moyes Litespeed 5 1476
8 Adam PARER Airborne Climax C2 14 1467
9 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 1435
10 Glen MACLEOD Moyes Litespeed S 4 1387

Canugra Classic »

Fri, Sep 23 2005, 5:00:00 pm EDT

The Durand's backyard

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Chris Jones|David Seib|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor

Michael Zupanc «mike» sends:

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/2005/results.htm

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

Place Name Glider Total
1 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed 5 1977
2 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed 4 1934
3 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 14 1639
4 Phil SCHRODER Airborne Climax C2 14 1584
5 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 1535
6 John STRICKLAND Moyes Litespeed 5 1449
7 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 1420
8 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 1399
9 Adam PARER Airborne Climax C2 14 1386
10 Glen MACLEOD Moyes Litespeed S 4 1370

Dalby, and the new Airborne C4

Mon, May 2 2005, 5:00:01 pm EDT

Filling in the gaps.

Adam Parer|Dragonfly|Phil Schroder|record|Ricky Duncan|weather

Ricky Duncan «Ricky» writes:

I have just returned from our last comp of the season at Dalby in Queensland. This area is exceptional and the local club is a really well organised outfit.

The Dalby comp was AirBorne's first with the new C4 and the flying we had confirmed that the glider is right on the mark from a performance point of view. Adam Parer has made a return to competition and was flying exceptionally well. We received a lot of positive comments from the look of the new glider. A notable performance improvement over our last glider the C2 was also obvious to the other pilots.

We will be releasing the glider next month following certification testing with Wills Wing this week. Following is a summary of an exceptional week of flying.

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding Competition

Day 1

With a steady ESE breeze and a stunning array of cloud streets it came as no surprise when the task committee called an open distance course that included one TP. This flight would cover the same ground Jon Jnr used recently to set the new Oz distance record of 497km.

In the air it was surprising to find the lift not what the magnificent looking clouds suggested. The 77km to the TP was a fast leg but from there on it slowed. While base stayed at 8000ft the clouds thinned and were less frequent and pilots were soon working the haze domes before it was totally ‘blue’ flying conditions. Many pilots touched down at sunset and packed up under the light of a spectacular full moon.

Results

1. Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed 257.1km
2. Adam Parer Airborne C4 242.7km
3. Al Daniels Airborne C2 203.3km
4. Pete Ebling Airborne C2 183.0km
5. Phil Schroder Airborne C4 181.4km

Day 2

With very similar conditions to day 1 the task was a 180km course that included three TP’s with goal opposite the town pub. Again the task started out fast along some great looking Cu’s with 600-800ft/min climbs but once passed the first led of 44.2km it started to blue-up.

The glides became longer between thermals and successive climb rates got less and less. The odd 500ft/min climb was still to be had and with the 20km ESE tailwind the task was still possible.

Dave Seib set a blistering pace to win the day with Adam Parer and Rick Duncan the other two competitors to make goal.

Results

1. Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed 03:10:49
2. Adam Parer Airborne C4 04:13:33
3. Rick Duncan Airborne C4 04:07:32
4. Phil Shroder Airborne C4
5. Trevor Kee Moyes Litespeed

Day 3

Today a 95.9km triangle is called. The clouds look superb and promised great climbs that should set a fast pace even with the 30km headwind on the last leg. The clouds lived up to expectations and some 1000ft/min climbs were enjoyed on the 1st and early in the 2nd leg. Many Cu’s cycled through to overdevelop and square km’s of shade had pilots diving for sunny ground way off course.

As competitors progressed through the course the ESE drift picked up and it was obvious the last leg to Dalby Airport was not going to be easy. Here the last TP claimed some big names such as Al Daniel, Peter Aitken, Rick Duncan and eventually Dave Seib.

Adam drifted km’s downwind at a few hundred feet to eventually climb back to cloud base in 600 up. He finally made goal against a 40km headwind.

Dalby HG Club President Daron Hodder used local knowledge and left ahead of the first start to get around before the final headwind picked up. Adam and Daron were to be the only ones in goal and got to leave their gliders set up in Dalby’s carpet lined hangar.

Results

1. Adam Parer Airborne C4 03:19:51
2. Daron Hodder Airborne C2 03:42:01
3. Gabor Sippos Moyes Litespeed
4. Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed
5. Rick Duncan Airborne C4

Day 4

Does the weather ever change here in Dalby? ESE wind, by 10am a deck of phenomenal looking cloud streets lined up from horizon to horizon and this is one month before winter!

The task is called, a 121km dogleg that seems too easy as we watch the clouds going off, and it’s only 10:30. We are all keen to get in the air as we wait for the trike and dragonfly to fire up.

Once on course the clouds cycle to over develop and proceed to dump rain. It is now a flight of avoiding the rain cells and working the shower fronts or the small patches of sun light. Many competitors succumb to this early leg of the course.

Dave Seib gets very low with Dalby Snr Safety Officer Rod Fockhart and they spend the first 30 odd km’s under 2000ft, drifting in the strong quartering tailwind. Eventually they will start to push harder as they move away from the rain and into much better air. Unfortunately they land 25km short of goal with Rick Duncan only 3km short.

18km out Adam and Phil Schroder begin their race into goal after climbing in their last thermal with a huge wedge tailed eagle. They cross the goal to see one other glider landing. They will be the ones who make goal.

Results

1. Phil Schroder Airborne C4 02:07:35
2. Adam Parer Airborne C4 02:10:38
3. Peter Aitken Airborne C2 02:15:08
4. Rick Duncan Airborne C4
5. Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed

Day 5

Ground hog day, ESE, Cu’s streeting…… The task committee wants more competitors in goal and calls a shorter 77km straight line to goal at Chinchilla airstrip.

The clouds don’t get any better than this and it becomes a mad zigzag flight crossing to upwind streets that provide many competitors with up to 2000ft/min averages. Columns of crop waste from the wheat fields 8000ft below paint the thermals much to the appreciation of the pilots.

Rick, Rod and Dave fly the whole course together while Adam and Al Daniel set a fast pace starting at the first clock. Unfortunately for Al he accepts Adams decision to take one more upwind street before a screaming charge into goal. Alas they wallow in light lift, low, 23km out until they drift close enough to make it in.

Dave needs a very good score to reign-in Adams 300 point lead and accordingly he sets a blistering pace.

Results

1. Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed 1:00:46
2. Trevor Kee Moyes Litespeed 1:15:40
3. Rick Duncan Airborne C4 1:02:51
4. Adam Parer Airborne C4 1:19:39
5. Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed 1:03:46

Day 6

Last day and a triangle will almost certainly be called to take advantage of the very light drift. A 92.9km triangle should have us home in time for the presentation dinner.

Dave is less than 300 points from winning the lead back from Adam which means the Newcastle Airborne pilot probably has to land out.

Dave is off early as is Rick, Al, Phil, Rod and Adam. The climbs are few and far between and Adam and Phil land for a re-light and watch the others position themselves for the valuable first start. Adam gets away late and Phil will take a third tow after a weak link break. The day turns on and climbs of 800-1200ft/min are found everywhere on the first and second leg. Dave, Rick and Al are smoking around the course while Adam flies by himself and gets low after the 1st TP.

Adam finds a boomer and screams back to cloud base then catches Dave halfway along the 2nd leg where they glide neck and neck for 3km. The next TP has claimed many during the week and Adam hangs back as Dave barrels out along course. Rick is already in goal when Dave crosses the line. Even though Dave is into goal 5min earlier Adam flies at 45.71 kph to win the day and the competition.

Results day 6

1. Adam Parer Airborne C4 02:01:57
2. Rick Duncan Airborne C4 02:08:36
3. Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed 02:15:00
4. Daron Hodder Airborne C2 02:23:22
5. Phil Schroder Airborne C4 02:29:59

Overall Results

1st Adam Parer Airborne C4 4858
2nd Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed 4493
3rd Rick Duncan Airborne C4 3832
4th Pete Aitkin Airborne C2 3346
5th Trevor Kee Moyes Litespeed 3295

(editor's note: Just when was the last time that an Airborne glider won in an Australian competition? Looks like the new C4 is doing well. It's great to see another competition in Australia. First Gulgong, now Dalby as the latest new competitions. That's six or seven big time competitions there.)

Dalby

Thu, Apr 28 2005, 3:00:01 pm EDT

OD.

David Seib|Phil Schroder

David Seib «david» writes:

Task four of the Dalby Big Air Carnival set us on a 121km task basically straight downwind. The day overdeveloped early, the lift was light and navigating around the localised downpours made the task very exciting. I spent the first fifty odd kilometres below 650m agl and had some great flying with Rod Flockhart.

Phil Schroder won the day after bombing out the previous day.

For full result details go to http://www.hgfa.asn.au/~dhgc/.

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 SCHRODER, Phil Airborne C2 13 02:07:35 710
2 PARER, Adam Airborne C2 13 02:10:38 677
3 AITKEN, Peter Airborne C2 13 02:15:08 655
4 DUNCAN, Rick Airborne C2 13 118.6 488
5 FLOCKHART, Rod Moyes Litespeed S 4 98.2 429

Cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 PARER, Adam Airborne C2 13 3349
2 SEIB, David Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 2997
3 DUNCAN, Rick Airborne C2 13 2325
4 AITKEN, Peter Airborne C2 13 2297
5 DANIELS, Al Airborne C2 13 2172
6 SCHRODER, Phil Airborne C2 13 2164
7 KEE, Trevor Moyes Litespeed 5 2026
8 BROWN, Keiren Moyes Litespeed 4,5 1882
9 FLOCKHART, Rod  Moyes Litespeed S 4 1827
10 SIPPOS, Gabor Moyes Litespeed 4 1693

Discuss Dalby at the Oz Report forum

NSW State Titles »

Wed, Feb 18 2004, 1:00:01 pm EST

The first five rounds and the ever changing URL for the results.

Phil Schroder

http://gemini.mesopia.com/~bolive/nswhgstatetitles/index.html

Who's that Tony Barton guy?

Bill writes:

Tony Barton cracked a smile when I passed on your message, he says good day to you.

Round 5 and totals are up. Web page seems to be available at www.nswhgstatetitles.com again.

Yesterday started out pretty average, but ended up being quite a good day. Although the task was fairly short, it was challenging and fun. Many smiles around the pub last night. Al Daniels and Phil Schroder are both having a great comp, hope they finish in the places with three rounds to go. Surprise so far is Rolf being on top of Jnr, but the young fella made up a lot of ground on him yesterday to be within close striking distance.

Discuss competition at the Oz Report forum

Oz Comps

Wed, Nov 5 2003, 3:00:03 pm EST

Phil Schroder|photo|record

Phil Schroder|photo|record|Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Australian Open, Deniliquin.

I been out west and down south to get the comp organisation on the way. As you've seen from the photos from Hay the grass is very tall, dense and lush. The fire danger will be extreme this year!

Be prepared for no smoking and no driving off the slashed strips, in the paddock. These are same rules as always, but will be even more important this year.

The colours out west were spectacular. I took some photos, have a look. A lot of Canola crops (yellow flowers) were still blooming, but the Patterson's curse was in its peak. Enormous fields bright purple.

 

Patterson's curse is a noxious weed in Australia, and is poisonous to livestock especially horses and pigs.

In Canberra 20 horses had to be put down last week after eating these weeds.

Task setting: All pilots that have entered and ticked the "preferred task option" are preferring: closed courses (triangles and out and returns). Entered pilots also seem keen on one long task on that pumping (windy) day. So that's what we are aiming for at this stage. Still they can have their say when we are choosing the task committee.

We are going to have the HQ at the golf club this year. This is a 20 meter walk from the Deni golf and leisure resort motel where a lot of pilots were staying last year. Please look at our website http://australianopen.dustydemons.com for more info.

Bogong Cup, Mt. Beauty.

After being out west, the big impression was that the grass actually gets shorter as we approached the mountains. Driving through the mountains it looked as beautiful as always. If you didn't know, you wouldn't have noticed where the bushfires had been through. Locals in Mt. Beauty are very happy, due to a record bumper ski season.

Phil Schroder one of the local HG pilots in the area, is as always doing a bit of the groundwork for this competition. He's advising us that the road up Mt. Emu is 4WD only at the moment as a result of damage from the bushfires we had there last summer.

Research into getting work done to the road before the comp starts is underway, but no one can guarantee that this will happen before the comp starts. If the road up Emu is still 4WD during the competition, local 4WD operators should be available to give pilots a ride up the hill. This will be for an extra charge and the comp organiser will have nothing to do with this service. Pilots organising their own 4WD for this competition will be the absolute best solution. Car pooling is the way to go.

Please look at our website http://bogongcup.dustydemons.com for updates regarding this issue, or contact the comp organiser for more detail/updates.

Two comps in one: Pilots that have entered Bogong so far seems to be happy flying in the main comp. So unless we have an increased demand for the less stress/alternative/easier comp option, will be going with one group, one launch. Max number of pilots will be 70.

Bogong looks like it will be popular as always. Please enter to reserve your spot. It doesn't matter if you are ranked no one in Australia or in the world, after 16th December, "first in first served" policy on entries.

If only one launch used, strictly maximum seventy pilots.

Discuss Oz Comps at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Bogong Cup – finally Mt. Buffalo »

Mon, Jan 31 2000, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Bogong Cup 2000

After days of ridge racing (or ridge surviving, like yesterday) we get out of the Kiewa Valley, through Bright, and over to Mt. Buffalo, an east-facing launch. The winds are predicted to light be out of the northeast at launch altitude, and northwest higher. It's blue, with a few cu's beginning to form.

Not to say that we are complaining here at the Mountain Creek Lodge where all the pilots are staying. Everyone seems to be having a great time. We are getting excellent food from the proprietors – Phil and Anita. Phil is also flying his hang glider as well as cooking the breakfasts and dinners.

We've had slide shows – Ollie's slides of Hay, Go-Kart races, a night out at the local Workman's Club, dinners together here. It's been great all living in the same spot, sort of like the Olympics. There is in fact a lodge so it's easy to get together and talk and have great dinners.

With the predicted excellent lapse rate, a longer task is called than on previous days. We are asked to go west behind (and a bit north) of Mt. Buffalo, to a road intersection two valley's over. We are then supposed to come back to the east, grab a turnpoint at Gundowring Upper, a bit south of the previous Gundowring turnpoints in the Kiewa Valley, and then back to the Mt. Beauty airport. A total of 102 kilometers.

A breeze is coming right up launch and we setup in a hurray. It is supposed to be the hottest day so far, with temperature on the ground in the upper 30's. There are a few light cu's over launch.

We're packed on the rocks behind launch setting up our gliders, but amazingly everyone is getting along and we all help each other make things right. We start bailing off the cliff launch (with a small ramp) at 1 PM.

While a few pilots take the 1:30 PM start gate, 15 or so wait till 1:40 PM to go on course. We are getting quite high around the start gate, so might as well go.

Joel and Attila fool around at the start gate, and go back after going out a ways on course. They won't start flying on the course until an hour later. They are willing to forgo the start and arrival points to have lots of thermal markers out in front of them.

There turns out to be quite a head wind going to the first turnpoint to the west. There is also a lot of sink in the general area. Some pilots get too low there not working (or not finding) the thermals that they needed on the ridge before the turnpoint. Ollie and Grant land at the turnpoint.

Gerolf and I are in the lead of the 1:40 PM gaggle, and we get plenty high before taking the turnpoint. It's not a problem running back to the ridge to get high in the very same place that we got a strong thermal on the way out.

The second turnpoint is a bit to the north and way to the east of launch, but the course line goes across Happy Valley, and not along any ridge lines. With light winds the thermals on the ridgelines are quite civilized, as well as presumably stronger than what you would find in the middle of a valley, even a happy valley.

Some pilots will choose the northern route going to Myrtleford hill. Gerolf and I choose the southern route, climbing back over the ranges toward Mt. Porpunka. There is a nice set of clouds just in from Porpunka, so that helps with the decision making.

I'm able to climb to 9200' in 500 fpm at the west end of the Kankoona valley. There is a nice low ridgeline from there to the Pinnacles, which are the high point next to the turnpoint. With Dustin, Lukas and a Japanese pilot scratching low at the Pinnacles, I don't hang around for long, but get the turnpoint and head for the east side of the Kiewa Valley, and back to the ridge that we've been racing on this week. Gerolf is quite a bit ahead, having climbed out earlier at Mount Porpunka.

There is good lift on the Mt. Emu side of the valley and it is possible to get back to 8400' just to the north of Coral Bank and only about 12 kilometers from goal. It's a 10 to 1 to goal, but I want to be sure I'm going to make it.

Driving along the ridgeline toward goal, and the sink is happening big time. I'm not getting 10/1, and I end up 1000' below the Mt. Emu launch at 3500' afraid to run straight to the Mt. Beauty airport given all the sink I've had. I waste a bunch of time circling in nothing and finally leave. Of course, there is now plenty of lift to get me to goal. Gerolf and two other pilots are already there.

The gaggle just behind me including Dustin and Lukas works it's way in, and soon we have a goodly number of pilots at goal. We haven't heard from Attila all day (Attila, Lukas, Gerolf and I are on the same team), but not that long after I land (maybe half an hour), first Joel and then Attila speed across the goal line. Looks like a winning strategy.

Forty percent of the pilots make goal (it's a day of speed points) on the longest task called so far (not that we have long task here. No wonder we're all happy happy here.

The first twenty pilots make goal:

1 Rebbechi Joel Moyes Litespeed AUS 854
2 Bertok Attila Moyes Litespeed Hungary 797
3 Heinrichs Gerolf Moyes Litespeed AUT 773
4 Ohlsson Andreas Moyes Litespeed Sweden 767
5 Schroder Phil Moyes Csx AUS 688
6 Jackson Michael Aeros Stealth AUS 665
7 Straub Davis Atos USA 645
8 Martin Dustin Moyes Litespeed USA 606
9 Sakai Takafumi Moyes Litespeed JAP 576
10 Onuma Hiroshi Topless 13.5 JAP 575
11 Bader Lukas Aeros Stealth GER 571
12 Kambas George Moyes Xtralite AUS 550
13 Durand Jon Junior Moyes Litespeed AUS 542
14 Freeman James Moyes Litespeed AUS 528
15 Hirabayashi Kazuyuki Moyes Litespeed JAP 518
16 Pennicuik Lloyd Moyes Xtralite AUS 504
17 Zwahlen Bernie Bautek Twister AUS 485
18 Nakagami Katsuhiko Topless 13 JAP 431
19 Itagaki Naoki Moyes Litespeed JAP 401
20 Davie Gary Airborne Shark AUS 398

Totals after six days:

1 Rebbechi Joel Moyes Litespeed AUS 4992
2 Heinrichs Gerolf Moyes Litespeed AUT 4711
3 Bertok Attila Moyes Litespeed Hungary 4680
4 Straub Davis Atos USA 4193
5 Bader Lukas Aeros Stealth GER 4000
6 Martin Dustin Moyes Litespeed USA 3874
7 Durand Jon Junior Moyes Litespeed AUS 3851
8 Jackson Michael Aeros Stealth AUS 3831
9 Heaney Grant Moyes Litespeed AUS 3330
10 Itagaki Naoki Moyes Litespeed JAP 3295

The full day six results can be found at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/bogongdaysix.htm. The totals can be found at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/bogongtotals.htm.

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