Oz Report

Why did it suck so bad on Airtribune?

Crestline XC Classic 2021|Jamie Shelden

«Jamie Shelden» asked Brett at Airtribune:

I wonder if you were able to look into the trackers we were using last weekend? We had a lot of issues with them, but they were strange ones. On each of the three days of the event, Airtribune showed incorrect and inconsistent information. For example, on day one, for the entire task all pilots were listed as “landed”, despite the “distance to goal” decreasing as they flew.

On day three, the two leading pilots showed at the bottom of the leader board as if they hadn’t left the start for the entire task. However, when you clicked on the track for either of those pilots, you could see that they were flying the course. By the time I thought to actually check their tracks, it showed their breadcrumb trails for the entire course, hitting all the waypoints, etc., but at the same time, it still showed them in last place on the leader board. So, while the trackers seemed to work ok for scoring purposes, they were kind of useless for spectator or monitoring purposes. Any thoughts on what went wrong or how we can fix this? We’re hoping to run the same event again in September, but I want to be sure the trackers will work properly before we commit to using them again.

Brett responds:

I just watched the replay, and it all looks correct to me. Zac and Bruce are showing as in goal.

The fact that the trackers worked for the scoring shows that there is nothing wrong with the trackers. The problem is with Airtribune, and how a leader board is created.

Leader boards are only an indication. They will never be accurate. Ever. You need to understand how the technology works to see why.

Firstly, the trackers are just mobile phones. They only work when they have phone signal. At cloudbase they rarely work. To help with this, Flymaster add a 4 minute delay before releasing the data, to give the trackers a chance to forward the data, if the pilot re-acquires signal in the meantime. Airtribune then adds a further 2 minutes, for a similar issue, but also related to data being taken from multiple sources and needing mixing. So everything is delayed by 6 minutes. (Unless you use XCguide, where things are live. But that is for organisers to run safety, not for spectators.)

Next you have the issue of scoring formulas. Airtribune cannot hope to replicate all the formulas. And the very first one it falls foul of is the tolerance. What tolerance did the scoring software have? 0.5%? So maybe those two pilots jumped the gun. Scoring would allow this if it is within the tolerance, Airtribune would not as it has no tolerencing. You could teach Airtribune this by altering the cylinder sizes, but that requires maths. But in this instance, I don't think it was that. But there are numerous other reasons why it could have failed in the moment. Maybe Airtribune received data that indicated they had taken off, then landed, then taken off again. Maybe the trackers were still obtaining GPS lock. Hard to say without some detailed research. But the data is not available to me to do that any more because after the scoring was done, the scorer, rightly, uploaded the Scored tracklogs to Airtribune, as created by the Scoring software (FScomp?). This is the correct thing to do because the Scoring software cleans up the tracks, and clips them to only the relevant lengths, ie from SSS to LandByTime/Goal/Landing. When these are uploaded to Airtribune, post task, then Airtribune removes the live data and puts the scored data in its place and recreates the replay. In this case, it seems to have resolved whatever the issue is/was.

Next year we plan on integrating the new Live Scoring system, Airscore or similar, so this will become a whole lot better. For the moment, I can't hope to invest the time that it takes to make Airtribune a live scoring system. This is why for my own events I rely on the PWC's Leader board, as Ulric created an excellent output from the scoring system to create a live leader board that is truly live (it even uses a back door to the Flymaster server to bypass the 6 minute data delays). But this isn't something we can recommend as it also needs a lot of management.

So for the moment, all I can say is the Trackers appear to have worked perfect. Airtribune handled it as best it could, and the uploading of the tracks after the task created the correct replay.

What you can do, to help reduce the clutter from multiple servers trying to process and display live data is give a link to the Flymaster leaderboard instead of the Airtribune one. It often does a little better as it works exclusively from the trackers, whereas Airtribune also refers to iOS, Android, Spots etc, and mixes that data in. It helps in some places, but can cause problems in other areas.

I hope there is something in that to help.

My response:

Do not use Airtribune for Live Tracking. The problem here is that Jamie wasn't able to connect the FlyMaster trackers with the FlyMaster Live Tracking web site. I am unaware of what the problem was for her, but have again pointed out that this is the solution.

Use Airtribune for replay (Not Live Tracking) as the FlyMaster tracking web site is terrible for replay.

Jamie has an iPhone, so she is not familiar with XCGuide. XCGuide is by far the best app to use if you are the meet director and want to keep track of your pilots during the task.

We never use the Leader Board for the reasons that Brett points out.

Setting up Live Tracking for a competition is not a trivial exercise and I'm sure that it was not clear to Jamie that Airtribune is not to be used for Live Tracking, but using Airtribune to set the trackers to each pilot is an immense help in scoring.

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Had a great time

Jamie Shelden|Crestline XC Classic 2021

https://OzReport.com/1622565472

«Jamie Shelden» writes:

Well, I’m really sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy the Crestline XC Classic. Those of us who were actually there, very much did enjoy it, so much so that we will likely do it again in September. With the tremendous support and sponsorship of the Crestline Soaring Society, Cross Country Ranch and Hangar 24 Brewery, we all thought it was a great time…great enough to do again soon. Of course, conditions were not as good as any of us would have hoped for, but as you know, we can’t control the weather and we can’t even always count on an incredibly consistent flying site to deliver perfect weather. We could only work with what we were given and what we were given was challenging conditions that tested different flying skills than you are probably accustomed to.

As for the trackers, I’m trying to find out from Airtribune what went wrong with them. I know the cell coverage in that area isn’t fantastic, but that doesn’t account for the strange inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the Leader board and other aspects of the tracking interface we all saw on Airtribune.

Just for your amusement, I’ve attached a really cool photo of Rob & Diane McKenzie.Rob was the launch director at the Crestline XC Classic. This is a fun shot of them doing a tandem above the “Regionals” launch. The reason they call is “Regionals” is because for years they held regional competitions there - that’s where we got the Crestline XC Classic name from.

Finally, I have been on the fence about organizing the Santa Cruz Flats Race again this year. No one knows better than you what a huge and time consuming job it is to organize hang gliding competitions that are not just unremunerated, but often end up costing me money. As for your comment “maybe this is why we don’t have competitions in the west anymore”, I have to say that the lack of competitions in the west and elsewhere is not the result of a weekend of less than ideal weather conditions at Crestline. It could more likely be the result of stories like the one you just published. With respect to the Santa Cruz Flats Race, you may have just tipped the scales for me.

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A fishbowl of frustration

competition|Crestline XC Classic 2021

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/results

First, the live tracking was anything but live. It not only barely worked but also gave a distorted picture of what was actually happening. The trackers have been fantastic in other competitions and perhaps they gave the scorekeeper the results that allowed them to score so quickly. That seems to be the case.

It is not at all clear why the trackers behaved so poorly in San Bernardino. It make have something to do with the phone system. It may be the mountains. The trackers only work on a G3 system, not G2, nor G4.

Second, the conditions absolutely sucked. I don't recall if the pilots ever got above the Crestline launch altitude. No one at goal on the last two days and only a few on the first day. This despite the statement in the web site blog, "It’s looking like a classic Crestline day - really nice conditions for racing…." Well if that is a classic Crestline day, there is no good reason to go there.

I felt that the conditions in Florida for the competition this year were poor, but nothing like this.

Maybe this is why we don't have competitions in the West any more, except in Casa Grande.

It was great to see a few pilots like Zac, Bruce, and Owen, hang in there when the lift was so very poor. But like a baseball game that is a no hitter, it is only a pleasure for those who like that sort of thing.

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Launching from Crestline

Butch Peachy|competition|Crestline XC Classic 2021|Gary Anderson|Jason Boehm|Jeff Chipman|Moyes Litespeed RX|Owen Morse|Sara Weaver|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/play/5075/2d

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/blog__day_3

Looks to be a good day with a 73 km task.

Results:

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/results

Task 3:

Final:

Like day one

Butch Peachy|competition|Crestline XC Classic 2021|Gary Anderson|Jason Boehm|Jeff Chipman|Jeff Galvin|Moyes Litespeed RX|Owen Morse|PG|Sara Weaver|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/blog__day_2

Very weak conditions. Terrible GPS tracking. Don't know what is with the trackers.

Zac won the day but he was not too far ahead of Gavin Fridlund, flying a paraglider in second place. Given that Zac was averaging about 13 mph, this is a perfect competition for a paraglider pilot.

Results:

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Were there previous Classics?

competition|Crestline XC Classic 2021|Gary Anderson|Owen Morse|PG|Sara Weaver|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/info/details

https://airtribune.com/play/5068/2d

Three at goal:

https://airtribune.com/crestline-xc-classic/results/task5068/day/class-1-open

Kingposted and paraglider in the mix at goal.

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Spectacular Results

Kitty Hawk

Douglas Haber

Douglas Haber|John Simon

Douglas Haber|John Simon|Sara Weaver

Douglas Haber|John Simon|Sara Weaver

Hitting the bullseye

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FOMO

Glen Volk|Go Long In Texas 2021|Greg Chastain|Jim Yocom|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver

https://cuhanggliding.com/golongintexas/

How can it be a classic if it is the first one?

CIVL|Crestline XC Classic 2021|USHPA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

https://crestlinesoaring.org/topic/crestline-xc-classic-hang-gliding-competition/

Come join us for this first USHPA sanctioned race-to-goal hang gliding competition at Crestline, California! This will be a CIVL category 2 competition with both WPRS and NTSS points. We’re planning for three days of racing at this legendary Southern California site on Saturday, Sunday and Monday May 29-31, 2021.

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7

Cancelled

The southwest wind was too strong. If the wind direction had been south, southeast, south southeast, west, east, northeast, northwest, or north, the speed would have been fine. The results at the end of day 6 are the final results.

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Results

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Blue Sky|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Wallaby Ranch

You know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy but there's just one thing
You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough

The forecast:

NWS:

Today

A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. West wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Hourly in the afternoon: 6 mph west wind at 1 pm increasing to 8 mph west northwest by 4 PM, cloud cover 64%. Hourly and daily forecast do not agree on high temperature with hourly displaying 78 degrees.

RAP

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 8 mph , 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 5,100'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 600 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4,000'

B/S at 1 PM: 8.0

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 10 mph, 2,000' 14 mh, 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 6,100'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 620 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 5,100'

B/S at 4 PM: 7.0

This is what it looks like most of the day:

Every once in a while it will open up and there will be sunshine on the ground., Cu's form under the high level clouds and there are spots of rain here and there.

We've got a hell of a task:

Wilotree Park to Gore and then back to Wallaby Ranch.

There is some reluctance to launch given how dark the sky looks at times. They delay the launch by 40 minutes so it's not until 1:20 that pilots start launching. Kasey pulls me up at 1:40 above everyone else but two pilots at 2,100' (2,000' AGL). I'm right under those two pilots that are off by themselves and under a weak looking cu. Everything looks weak under the high level clouds.

I climb to 2,800' but fifteen minutes after I pinned off I'm back down to where I started. Despite unrelenting circling and joisting with one pilot after another, half an hour after I launched I'm down to 800' AGL at the south end of the field. I climb at 6.6 fpm until I find 160 fpm west of Wilotree Park and climb to 2,200'. I was previously very concerned about how all of us would land at the same time at the park, which it looked like we were going to do. There were many relights.

After a few different thermals and lift at around 130 fpm I'm able to climb to 3,200'. I'm only 2.5 kilometers from Wilotree, but hanging with four or five other pilots downwind to the east.

I follow the pilots I'm near to the southeast to where just outside the 5 km start cylinder they find 144 fpm and I join in. Pilots are landing every where behind us.

It is all dark and shaded to the south along our course line. We get to 2,900' and then the six of us head south into the darkness. For over 6 km we glide and it looks like we are going to land (as two pilots already did) just north of the mines. Down to 900' AGL I spot Zac below us just north of the mines and to our east when he begins to turn. We come over him and start turning in lift that averages 134 fpm. I'm on top of him for at least 5 minutes when I lose my focus for a second and suddenly I'm on the bottom and out of contact. I see the five pilots I was with climb up faster and get away from me.

I head southeast to get under where they have stopped for lift but it takes me nine minutes to get back up to 3,000' and I can no longer see the other pilots.

I'm just east of the mines but in an area where retrieval will not be easy unless I drop straight down. I've got to go south following where they went to get south of highway 474. I head for the best looking patch of cumulus cloud but there is no lift there. I'm down to 1,400' at 474.

South of this east west road there are very limited access possibilities for quite a ways. I feel that I need 3,000' to chance going out south of the highway. I can see to the south that there is blue sky and lots of cumulus clouds that look so much better than anything that we have been flying in., but they are too far away for a pilot who is as low as I am.

I search around near the highway but not finding any lift land in a field just to the north of the road.

The pilots I was with are able to make it to the cu's and then complete the task.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/16.4.2021/17:40

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2763323

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 5

Very windy and overcast

Bobby Bailey|competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Replay: https://airtribune.com/play/5009/2d

Forecast:

There is a large mass of clouds moving from west to east in the northern Gulf. We saw a bit of this on Wednesday in the morning before the clouds to the north and west disappeared.

NWS:

Thursday

Increasing clouds, with a high near 87. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Hourly in the afternoon: 11 mph southwest wind at noon increasing to 15 mph by 5 PM and turning west, cloud cover going from 19% to 50% then 71% at 5 PM

HRRR

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 14 mph, 2000' 21 mph, 4000' 22 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,800'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 500 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4600'

B/S at 1 PM: 4.3

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 13 mph, 4,000' 21 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 3,900'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 400 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 0'

B/S at 4 PM: 1.4

So we expect a windy and gusty day with the upper level clouds coming completely over us, but letting in filter sunlight. With the southwest direction we first look at a task to the northeast but conclude that with the high winds the safety factor finding landable areas would be very narrow. I propose a cross wind task to the north hoping that we will get lighter winds and it will be soarable.

Results: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 4: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/day/open-class

Cumulative: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/comp/open-class

There was no Sport Class task today given the high winds forecasted.

The winds at launch were within our pre assigned parameters (20 mph south and 10 mph west - so 15 mph southwest). The safety and meet director were monitoring the winds at launch and their criteria was 10 - 15 mph with no gusts over 5 mph. That's what they got.

The high level clouds from the north came near us but there were plenty of cu's underneath them. When I got pulled up after not choosing to go in the first round I pinned off in lift at 1,500' behind Bobby Bailey. I quickly climbed to 5,200' at 335 fpm despite all the upper level clouds. I was drifting at 12 mph out of the west southwest. I wanted to get to the west side of the 5 km start cylinder, which was not all that easy to do.

Heading west and then climbing back to 5,000' it was time to go to get the first start clock.

After the task opened we all raced to the northwest and found lift west of Groveland again back to 5,000'. I followed three pilots ahead and over me and found 350 fpm to 4,500' behind them and they had to come back to me.

As we went further north under the upper level clouds, but still toward cumulus clouds, the lift deteriorated. As we came over Grass Root airfield at a little less than 3,000' we spotted Zac Majors circling low on the north side. We climbed at 140 fpm to 3,300'. Zac headed off to the northwest low and we all lost track of him, except maybe Austin.

I'm only able to climb to 2,800' in the next thermal at 124 fpm. Others get higher. We are all being pushed to the east northeast and there is a small gaggle northeast of the Turnpike. I don't find any lift under them at 2,600' and head west toward the open fields on the south side of the Turnpike and near highway33. I note that the wind is 22 mph out of the west.

Making very slow progress against the head wind, down to 1,200', and not being able to make it to my preferred field to the west I turn east to be able to land near highway 27. There is a huge field there and I come in at 500' and stay prone and on the base tube all the way to the ground not wanting to get turned. My ground speed is less than 5 mph when I land in a nice soft field. It is very turbulent.

Kevin Carter measures 30 mph when he is coming in to land, hits 1,500 fpm low, and just keeps heading into the wind and landing. J.D. gets out ahead of everyone and wins the day.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.4.2021/17:34

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2762660

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 4

Task 3, more blue then a few cu's

Attila Plasch|competition|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

The forecast:

NWS:

Wednesday

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light southeast wind becoming south southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly in the afternoon: 7 mph south southeast wind , 38% decreasing to 23% cloud cover

RAP

1 PM:

South surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 7 mph, 4000' south southeast 6 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,400'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 580 fpm

CB at 1 PM: none (with south southeast there is almost always cu's)

B/S at 1 PM: 9.7

4 PM:

South surface wind at 4 PM: 6 mph, 6,000' 6 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 7,700'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 720 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 7,500'

B/S at 4 PM: 10.0

The Task:

Quest 3 km
Turn33 3 km (Intersection of the Florida Turnpike and highway 33)
T33D 3 km (Intersection of Dean Still Road and highway 33)
Quest 400 m

Results for Open and Sport classes: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 3 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5007/day/open-class

Cumulative:

Sport Cumulative:

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 3

Task 2, in the blue

competition|Filippo Oppici|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Live and Replay Open task: https://airtribune.com/play/5004/2d

Results for Open and Sport classes:

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 2 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5004/day/open-class

A blue day with a north wind and a mixed forecast that made us unsure if we would have a lot of lift or just a little. Later the day turned out very well with climbs to 6,000' and sustained 500 fpm.

The forecast was an utter failure

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

We were confronted with a forecast that said we were going to get to only 3,000' and have really light lift. None of that was true but it made life difficult for the task committee. None the less with Larry Bunner's guidance we called a great task that took advantage of the superb conditions and got most of us back to Wilotree Park.

Now we have to be concerned about why the forecast was so wrong and how to deal with the fact that the forecast for Tuesday is similar. Likely we'll just grab another forecast from our set of models and also go with whatever Skew-T brews up for us.

Given our great uncertainty about the forecast we called for an elapsed task with no leading or arrival points. We were concerned that it would be difficult for pilots to hang around for an hour in poor conditions. As it turned out there was no reason for that.

I was about the third pilot to get hauled up as a few pilots in front of me backed out and went to the end. Phill Bloom was first off and I was hauled up right under him. We climbed right to cloud base at 4,100' and then sampled nearby clouds wondering who would go first. Raul left early.

Larry and I left a gaggle of about half a dozen of the top pilots to go to the next cloud just outside the start cylinder and got up back to cloud base. When they came to join us in the lift we headed back and got a later start time by about three minutes. We then caught back up with them.

The task was a bit complex:

There were cu's around and we just hopped from cu to cu, which is why we didn't follow straight along the course lines:

There was plenty of lift under most of the cu's and at one point it averaged 500 fpm for 3,500'.

The results can be found here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5003/day/open-class

Sport Class results here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5002/day/sport-class

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.4.2021/17:08

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

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2761334

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2021/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20210405&gliderclass=hg1

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1

We have crushed the drought

Belinda Boulter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|video

It's hard to believe that it will only be from one to two inches of rain today (Sunday).

We have not had anything like this in the five months that Belinda and I have been here:

Those folks staying in tents will be most unhappy. Looks like a warm day tomorrow, sunny, with a north wind.

The Sandhill Cranes can eat and drink at the same time:

https://vimeo.com/535653182 by Randee Azzar.

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Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10^th

$100 per competition

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info/details__info

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We almost lost it

COVID|Facebook|Oz Report|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Wilotree Park|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

You might have noticed that it's been a tough year for most of us. Hang gliding continued without many competitions which would have lead to gatherings which were either frowned upon or completely forbidden by the authorities. Here in Florida we continued life outside where it is is 19 times safer (https://bestlifeonline.com/coronavirus-indoors/). Due to travel restrictions we canceled the Sport Class, Rigid Wing and Women's Worlds as well as all the Nationals competitions. Same for Big Spring.

Now a year later we are planning for the 2021 Paradise Airsports and Wilotree Park Nationals in April to be run under COVID protocols with continued international travel restrictions: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info and https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info.

During the year of crises mode we also decided to move to a new web server to reduce our costs. This transition has not been without numerous glitches as the Oz Report is a complex web site. For example, yesterday the host automatically updated PHP which caused all sorts of problems for Scare. Hopefully over time the situation will stabilize.

At one point we considered just going strictly on Facebook which would relieve us of all the web hosting issues (the high cost being the primary concern). We also were getting most of our content via Facebook posts, so it made sense to go to our Facebook version of the Oz Report.

This would mean that we would drop our email push of Oz Report issues. Also, those who find Facebook objectionable would no longer get to see our content. After a few disappointing experiments we decided to leave well enough alone. There is a Facebook version of the Oz Report and a stand-alone version. Sometimes content from the Facebook version comes over to the stand-alone version.

You can just go to the Oz Report on Facebook and ignore your news feed: https://www.facebook.com/ozreport

We don't know where things stand with our readers. We've decided not to publish every weekday unless there is news every weekday. Before it was publish or perish five days a week for 24 years. Now we are taking a bit more relaxed attitude and publishing when something interesting is happening, and hopefully with a new year and good changes to our pandemic situation coming, there will be more interesting things happening.

Thanks to all the Oz Report readers for their support over the years.

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The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions

They are happening

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

April 10^th through the 17^th.

Competition flying 11^th through the 17^th.

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info/details__info

April 18^th through the 25^th.

Competition flying April 19^th through the 25^th.

There will be plenty of social distancing and everything will take place outside.

Discuss "The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

A Message from our USHPA President

Time for a change

Paul Voight|Risk Retention Group|Rob McKenzie|Sara Weaver|Steven "Steve" Pearson|USHPA

Steven Pearson <director02> writes:

Thanks for that endorsement. I would add that Tiki, Paul Voight, Sara Weaver and Kimberly Phinney also deserve recognition for their support. With the last election, the governance restructuring is now complete—the executive committee is completely dissolved and every director has much more opportunity to participate and contribute to changes on behalf of the membership who they represent.

At the beginning of 2020, shortly after I as elected to the board, I wrote the following to the RRRG (in part) but never received a reply:

................

I supported the insurance initiative and have been unequivocally appreciative of the work that that the RRRG has done to make it work. That said, I think there are some problems with the risk assessment administration and leadership. I am encouraged with some of the proposed changes that are going in the right direction but more needs to be done.

The system is so complicated and nuanced that no member can be reasonably expected to understand it. Just last week (February 2020) I asked some simple questions about ACE events to both Martin and Randy and neither knew the answer. If the Executive Director, an RRRG director and liaison, and a USHPA director can’t answer a simple question, how can we possibly expect the membership to understand and have confidence in our system?

We’re never going to get the engagement and participation we need to make significant advances in safety by telling people what to do. There’s a limit to how much you can effectively push from the top when the change is required at the local level. From my perspective and many others in our community, the USHPA/RRRG often doesn’t listen and respond appropriately to feedback. I see little or no improvement at the sites I’m familiar with as a result of all the new rules and procedures—certainly zero in the two most significant incidents that resulted in a fatality and claim. Safety starts and is sustained in the local community, both in understanding the risks and behavior that are jeopardizing safety and affecting change. No one in the USHPA/RRRG knows better how to improve safety at Crestline, POM, Lookout, Wallaby, and Cowboy UP than locals like Rob McKenzie, Chris Santacroce, Matt Taber, Malcolm, and Tiki.

The alternative to expecting compliance with a long list of rules is to incentivize the behavior and outcomes we want. And we should celebrate and reward/award individuals and communities who have made contributions to safety. The USHPA Safe Pilot Award was a start but surely we can do more. Everyone should aspire to be a safe pilot.

I also don’t understanding how exclusions and riders for events like fly-ins and chute packing clinics are helping. Two big claims are associated with incidents that are explicitly excluded by the waiver and we’re piling on requirement for events that have no loss history and foster safety in our community. We should be incentivizing these activities rather than changing for them. Charging and regulating activities that have a huge benefit to our communities with very little cost (risk) to us is a mistake. The administrative cost alone for some low risk events exceeds the insurance cost.

......................

I am hoping that we can make progress on these issues and more with strong consensus and support from the board. I would add that it’s not helpful to vilify anyone in the RRRG leadership. I trust and believe that they’ve worked long and hard to preserve the sites and schools in our community.

The bottom line is that we need both growth and safety but these two objectives are naturally oppositional. If you constrain every activity associated with risk then growth will be a casualty. There is risk associated with everything in our lives but no one should participate in HG/PG without understanding and acknowledging the increased risk associated with these activities. We need to find a way to include community supporting events like chute-packing clinics and fly-ins without additional administrative burden and expense, and to more fairly assess the cost of insuring competition.

Finally, I’m appealing to every member to contribute. Ten directors cannot solve these problems alone—we are only here to facilitate and support the will of the community. Please do you part to support safety and growth on social media, in your local club and at the flying site. One of our biggest problems and opportunities is attrition--reach out to members who have drifted away or are new to your area. Also, please recognize and support your local schools and instructors who are the foundation of everything we do and the source of all new members.

The Florida Competitions in 2021

The new meet organizer

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|COVID|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Risk Retention Group|USHPA|Wilotree Park

Stephan Mentler <team> writes:

To my fellow competition pilots, the Florida based hang gliding competitions - in April of next year - are moving forward pending official USHPA re-sanctioning.  This includes the Paradise Airports Nationals, Wilotree Park Nationals, and the 2^nd FAI Sport Class World Championship.  The respective competition dates along with registration process is provided on the Airtribune sites.  

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info

https://airtribune.com/2021-sport-world-championships/info

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info

The competition organization understands that there will remain many unknowns regarding COVID-19, even with the development and distribution of a vaccine.  Pilots who sign-up for a competition and submit payment will be entitled to a full refund of entry fees minus $3.00 (three dollars) or the foreign equivalent if they are unable to attend due to impacts of COVID-19.  This includes government-imposed travel restrictions, government-imposed restrictions on sporting events, surges in cases, pilot illness, pilot family member illness, etc.  The $3.00 (three dollars) is retained to pay for anticipated non-refundable Organizer competition expenses.
 
There are a couple of changes - other than the impacts of COVID-19 – from previous years of Florida hang gliding competitions.  The first and most impactful is the retirement of Davis and Belinda from official Organizing and Meet Directing duties.  As competition pilots, we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their personal sacrifice and doing what can be a thankless job.  Without their commitment to organizing the Spring Florida competitions from the Green Swamp Klassic to the Nationals series, I suspect that the Florida and Big Spring competitions would have died-out a long time ago.  Thankfully, they have volunteered to help the new organization team, as needed to get things going for next year.  
 
This gets us to our second change.  In my role as the primary Organizer for next year’s Florida competitions and also considering the long-term prospects for U.S. based race-to-goal competitions – I along with two other competition pilots founded a hang gliding competition specific non-profit organization - the Hang Glider Racing Association Corp (HGRAC), a registered Florida non-profit corporation.  This was done upon the advice of past and potentially future organizers and several attorneys.  
 
A little background - some of the requirements enacted by the Risk Retention Group (RRG), for a competition to be insured, transfers a substantial level of risk to competition organizers.  This includes the potential for the RRG to refuse coverage for incidents that would be beyond the control of the organizer.  Without the creation of a competition specific organization as an additional protection for organizers, it is unlikely that anyone would have stepped in to organize another hang gliding race-to-goal competition in the U.S.  To be fair, the RRG has been made aware of the concerns and their leadership is working to resolve them – but in the interim - the HGRAC will be the entity under which I along with one or two other potential hang gliding competition organizers will organize U.S. based race-to-goal hang gliding competitions.
 
The HGRAC is currently composed of a president and two Directors.  The two Directors are Ben Dunn and Cory Barnwell.  Ben is a former multi-year Open Class U.S. National Team member and Cory is an experienced Open and Sport Class competition pilot.  We will be looking to appoint additional Directors if and as the HGRAC evolves.   

The comp organization email address is <team>.

Discuss "The Florida Competitions in 2021" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Region, wing, age, gender

Jugdeep Aggarwal|Sara Weaver|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Tiki Mashy|USHPA

Steve writes:

I would characterize James' response to Tiki as somewhat misleading by suggesting that "in a combined last priority, at gender and age" are not a significant factor. As I recall, Tiki had the second highest number of votes and was eliminated by the age requirement. Can anyone tell me why age is an essential diversity requirement and while race is not? My personal opinion is that the diversity algorithm should be limited region and wing type.

James also questions Tiki's ability to work effectively with others, "A board of directors is a collaborative effort at leadership. Tiki describes herself as “battling”, “being like a dog with a bone”, “rarely backing down”, and “the most vocal person in the room”. Having watched her on the old USHPA board for six years I agree with those characterizations. None of them is a collaboration skill that leads to working effectively with other human beings." I would just say that I've known and worked with Tiki for 40 years and I have absolutely no reservations about working with her regardless of whether I agree with her on any particular issue. As I've said before, we need her on the BOD.

With respect to growth, James says, "It didn’t work, membership growth didn’t increase and no one involved in USHPA felt like they knew what they were supposed to do to make it happen. It wouldn’t work any better now. Growth has to be a side effect of doing other things well. Member numbers are one metric to look at in the question of how we’re doing, but they shouldn’t be the first or only one."

I beg to differ. I don't see why growth is fundamentally different from profit or any other business sustainability metric. Imagine if you are business that hasn't been profitable for many years--what should you do (Apple lost money for 12 years)? Should you resign yourself to the inevitable collapse or correct your mistakes and focus more urgently on opportunities?

As a review of the last election results:

Diversity algorithm process

The aim of the diversity algorithm is to ensure a diverse board by filling each of the following categories out of the national election: at least 1 director from each region, at least 3 of each wing type (hang gliding or paragliding), at least 3 under age 40 and 3 age 40 or older, and at least 2 women and 2 men. The categories are filled based on the number of votes received by each candidate, meaning that the results are determined purely by the algorithm and cannot be altered.

The algorithm first looks at the sitting board to determine which categories are lacking. For this election, we needed 1 director from Region 2, 2 more directors under age 40, and 1 more female director to meet our diversity goals.

Candidates were ranked by the number of votes they received and then the diversity algorithm was applied. For the first priority, region, we needed 1 director from Region 2. The candidate from Region 2 with the highest number of votes was Jugdeep Aggarwal, making him the first new director.

Because our wing type goal was already filled by the sitting board, we moved on to our final priorities, age and gender. These two goals are weighted equally, so the category that’s further from its goal number is prioritized. In this case we needed 2 more directors in the age category and just 1 more in the gender category, so age became the first criteria. Sara Weaver had the highest number of votes of the candidates under age 40, so she became the second new director. Since we needed two directors in this category, the candidate under age 40 with the next-highest number of votes, Kimberly Phinney, became the third new director.

Sara Weaver’s selection also satisfied the final priority, gender, which needed one more female director. Since all the diversity goals were met, the final seat went to the candidate with the most overall votes, Steven Pearson.

For more details on the election and the diversity selection process, please click here.

Thank you once again to everyone who voted, and congratulations to our new USHPA directors

Mark Forbes
Elections Committee Chair

El Peñon Classic Race 2020 Results

Friday

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Erick Salgado|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/el-penon-classic-race-2020/results

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Team in Valle

Used to high altitudes

Facebook|photo

Facebook|photo|Sara Weaver

Facebook|photo|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney

Sara Weaver writes:

Team Colorado! Tavo Gutierrez, me, and Tim Delaney here in Valle representing the high altitude tribe here for the El Peñon Classic.

The Day 4 task was to the volcano and back to Penitas with some turnpoints in the middle, but only Wolfy made goal. The rest of us had a lot of fun and frustration working the low cloud base near the volcano turnpoint and landing in a town full of little kiddos who were fascinated by the bird people who were falling out of the sky. Yesterday was a really fun day.

Discuss "Team in Valle" at the Oz Report forum   link»

El Peñon Classic Race 2020 Results

Thursday

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Erick Salgado|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/el-penon-classic-race-2020/results

Task 4:

Cumulative:

El Peñon Classic Race 2020 Results

Tuesday

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Erick Salgado|Facebook|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney|video|Willy Dydo

https://www.facebook.com/sweaverflies/videos/1243176742738649/

Waiting for the start gate during Day 2 of the El Peñon Classic. Yesterday was a lot more turbulent, and the thermals were farther apart, so I'm super happy to have made goal again! Higher winds predicted today, so I think we're in for an even greater challenge!

https://airtribune.com/el-penon-classic-race-2020/results

There are now two classes, overall and sport class.

Task 2 overall:

Task 2 sport class:

Waiting for results (see below)

Cumulative overall:

Cumulative Sport Class:

2020 US Nationals Beginning to Fill Up

Paradise Airports and Wilotree Nationals

US Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2020|Wilotree Park

We've already had 69 pilots sign up for the 2020 World Championships being held in April and that means it's going to be a successful competition with this number of pilots. We say the maximum that we can handle is 125, but we've never expected that many to show up. Pilots need to sign up by January 19^th (you don't have to be on a National team to be in the Worlds) so the window is closing quickly on who are going to be coming to the Worlds.

https://airtribune.com/2020-world-championships/info/details__info

We're also putting on two Class 1 Open competitions in April at Wilotree Parks, one the week before the Worlds and one during it. (The Worlds are the combined Women's Worlds, Sport Class, Class 2 and Class 5 Worlds).

Once again last year these Spring open class competitions at Wilotree Park were very popular. Pilots love coming to fly in Florida in April enjoying the marvelous lifting thermals in pleasant air with mild temperatures, puffy little clouds, light winds and open fields. Pilots are signing up now for these competitions, despite the fact that they are not under the same tight time constraints that pilots who are signing up for the Worlds.

We are always under resource constraints (mainly the number of tugs that we can round up to get every one in the air), so it is always a good idea to register as early as possible and become confirmed as early as possible so that you can be assured that you are in the competition. There will be additional resource constraints during the Worlds for the Wilotree Nationals dictated by the fact they the Worlds ahs first claim on the resources and we can fit in open class pilots only after their needs are taken into account. The World's pilots launch first, for example.

At the moment, we can handle all six competitions and we'll see what the future holds. We hope to be able to accommodate open class pilots in both the Paradise Airsports Nationals and the Wilotree Nationals. For sure there is no issue with the Paradise Airsports. It is a bit iffier for the Wilotree Nationals, so you might want to sign up early to reserve your spot (need to be confirmed). We'll keep you informed.

https://airtribune.com/2020-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

https://airtribune.com/2020-wilotree-nationals/info/details__info

2019 XC Contest - USA

A repeat winner

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|XC Contest 2019

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|XC Contest 2019

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|XC Contest 2019

https://www.xcontest.org/2019/usa/ranking-hg-open/

Davis Straub 1153.11
Kevin Carter 1108.96
Tyson Taylor 769.40
Cory Barnwell 753.79
Mike Bomstad 381.37
Erik Grabowski 306.32
Jon Irlbeck 242.16
Tavo Gutierrez 234.99
Nathan Wreyford 207.35
Sara Weaver 193.14
Leo Siqueira 87.58
Ric Caylor 70.60

Discuss "2019 XC Contest - USA" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Results of the USHPA Election

Tiki out

Jugdeep Aggarwal|Paul Voight|Sara Weaver|Steven "Steve" Pearson|USHPA

https://www.ushpa.org/page/director-election-results

The election closed on October 28 at 5 pm MT. Thank you to everyone who voted in the board of directors election to fulfill the 10% quorum requirement. In total, 18% of members voted and the results are posted here. These directors will take office January 1, 2020, and serve through the end of 2021.

2019 Election Results

Jugdeep Aggarwal
Steve Pearson
Kimberly Phinney
Sara Weaver

Congratulations to our new directors, and thank you to all the candidates that ran for the board! We'd also like to sincerely thank our outgoing directors for all their time and work on the board. We encourage anyone interested in working with USHPA to volunteer on committees and to run for the board again.

The full 2020 board will consist of the following directors, plus an additional 2 directors that will be appointed by the new board per the bylaws at their first meeting in January:

Jugdeep Aggarwal
Ken Andrews
Alan Crouse
Mark Forbes
Kate Griffin
Mike Holmes
Doyle Johnson
Daniel Lukaszewicz
Steven Pearson
Kimberly Phinney
Randall Shane
Paul Voight
Sara Weaver

Personal bests

cart|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|US Nationals 2019

"Eduardo Fonseca" «fonseca414» writes:

Here is a quick summary of the comp after my last goal on task 3:

Task 4: Did not fly, too gusty for my comfort level
Task 5: Good tow, but didn’t get to leave the start cylinder
Task 6: Could have been a better tow, got just outside the start cylinder
Task 7: Great tow, great climbs, made goal.

Now, here are the details:

Task 4:
It was gusty, beyond my comfort level. I decided not to fly that day. Perhaps a good decision given that the treachery of the wind that day cause pilots to have two broken downtubes and a carbon speedbar. Most people didn’t make goal, and I feel I made the right decision.

Task 5:
Had the best tow to date. After so much mentoring and feedback I wanted to stick in the cart longer. As Mitch Shipley had mentioned, during Big Spring air pilots need to stick to the cart longer. There is the tendency to leave the cart once we are “lifted” by the prop wash, but there is not enough airspeed at that time to properly maneuver the glider. Thus, pilots need to ride out the prop wash, and then hold on to the hoses to the point that the keel of the glider lifts off the cart. So I did, and the takeoff was so much better. Mick had also given recommendation on how to move the body, relax the knees, and control the glider. This tow was so great thanks to being able to apply all the teachings we had received during the comp. During flight it was not easy to find lift and ended short of leaving the start cylinder. Great approach and landing, which seem to come more naturally now. However, I cannot let my guard down (stay tuned for task 7).

Task 6:
It is important to be consistent, which I did not fully apply on takeoff. After the prop wash I left too early, with just enough airspeed to leave the cart. However, I felt the harness graze the cart. Thus, not the best takeoff and need to stay in the cart even longer. The task was a 110 km flight, but just like the prior day, could not find good lift. This flight taught me the importance of always looking for a landing field, and how easy one can end up getting in trouble. Trying to find lift kept me moving towards a not-so-easy-to-land area and going to an open field was out of the question due to distance. There were two options, freak out or stay calm and deal with the situation. Thankfully, I have experience dealing with stressful and difficult situations that require quick action, so the same methodology from work was applied to the landing strategy. Given the wind direction and landing limitations, I was able to land the glider on a pipeline path that was in very similar direction as the wind. Good landing and not very difficult drive for the retrieval team.

Task 7:
Last day of the competition. 38 km NE downwind. I kept telling myself that just being able to fly is great. But how great it would be to make goal once again. We just have to wait and feel the air.

Another great tow, this time staying as long as I could on the cart. Plenty of speed for control and contingencies. Being towed by Mick, I just felt so confident staying in line and dealing with the bumpy air. Just a great tow.

Waved off in nice smooth lift. I was not sure if it just was weak lift or I lacked thermaling skills, but I could see Mynor from Guatemala just a few miles upwind going up like a rocket. I could try to fly that direction, or stay where I was. I decided to stay with my current little climb (at least I was going up). The only way I could even possibly make goal in my opinion was to capitalize on any lift I could find. Thus, I kept working the lift. I took the time to refine my thermaling skills. As I circled, I thought of the direction of the wind, the path of the glider, and how to adjust the turning radius upwind and downwind to make the climb as efficient as possible.

After 6500 ft MSL I did not look at the vario at all, I just managed the turns and listened to the beeps. After a while, I looked again and for the first time in my life I was above 10,000 ft. It didn’t really feel like it, but there I was. “I might have a chance,” I thought. I did not care if I arrived last, I just wanted to get there.

I got as high as 10,900 ft, and when I could not climb anymore, I set the VG full and went on course. Getting lower again at 6000 ft, I reduced speed and little VG in case another thermal showed up. And there it was.

Climbing once again, I prepared myself for the final stretch, taking note of distance to goal, required glide ratio (compared with current glide ratio), as well as time left on the task. It was 5:15 pm and the task would be stopped at 6:00 pm. Thus, it was time to leave the climb, set full VG, stretch my body and tuck my arms in to minimize pressure drag, and stuff the bar in.

After a couple of minutes, I was at goal. I got to goal at around 6000 ft. So happy to make goal once again.

I felt I could have gone for another 60 km, but the day had to end early due to clos9ng ceremonies. So it was time to land. Thankfully at 6000 ft there are so many options, and I picked a field in which two other pilots had landed (Pete and Max).

What’s funny about this moment for me is that as I tried to go down, lift was happening… where have you been all my life. So I stuffed the bar in, and eventually got low enough to make the final approach. Max and Pete gave me the wind direction. As I went down, I could see Max gesturing to add speed, and I was trying (he would later tell me to just keep a hand of the upright and another on the speedbar). Essentially, need to increase my airspeed, period.

Ground effect coming in, and then time to flare. There was more wind than what I had experienced the other days of the comp, so when time to flare came, up the glider went. Not so much, but it is one of those moments in which some people might think of pulling in, but instead I stretched my arms even more and waited for physics to happen. Landed on my feet, safe on the ground and with a great smile.

This was a great way to end an amazing week of hang gliding. I had dreamed of flying in Big Spring since the the Oz Report started talking about it back in 2002. Now, I have become a part of it.

As Mick has mentioned in prior occasions, the experience gained in competition flying substantially surpasses recreational flying. Not for the competitiveness, but for the learning potential. Here are some of my statistics to show you how valuable competitions can be for pilot development:

- Number of flights: 7
- Max altitude: 10,900 ft
- Max thermal climb: 5055 ft
- Number of tasks flown: 6 out of 7
- Number of tasks completed (reached goal): 2 out of 6
- Total flight time: 7 hours 14 minutes
- Longest flight: 2 hours 18 minutes
- Total distance: 131.6 km
- Max distance in a single flight: 41.8 km

Being in Big Spring has been a tremendous learning experience that far exceeded my expectations and made me a better pilot. Of course there is room for improvement, and I hope that the 2020 Big Spring comp is just as exciting and educational.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The podiums

competition|Facebook|photo|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Open Class:

Sport Class:

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Seven days, seven tasks

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Facebook|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mike Degtoff|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

The pilots made it clear that they wanted the awards ceremony and meal on Saturday night, the last day of the competition and not on Sunday morning at brunch. That meant we had to have a shorter task or a task that brought us back to Big Spring on Saturday. With a 12 mph forecasted southwest wind, that meant a small triangle for the open class and a short downwind task for the sport class.

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 7:

Final Results:

Sport Class:

Erick R. Lopez won the last task with Ric Caylor second and Anibal Lemus third. Eight pilots made goal with the winner there in 33 minutes (it was a short task).

Jose Sandoval only went eight kilometers, but that didn't stop him from winning overall. Four Guatemalans in the top five.

Swift Class:

Chris won the task again by three minutes and won the meet overall.

The sky was still blue at 1 PM. The temperatures here were about 10 degrees warmer than what we have experienced in the past (104 Vs. 95). The sky has been blue instead of full of cu's reliably appearing at 1 PM. We've also not had good lift conditions until around 2 PM. There has been at least a slight inversion at 1 PM this year.

Three pilots launched at about 1:15 PM and two stayed up but didn't get high. I launched right after we saw them thermaling, and climbed to 5,200' but no higher and then lost the thermal and landed as did Willie Dydo, one of the three The wind was seventeen mph out of the south.

After a new bottle of water I went again at about 2:20 PM and now the lift was there and sustained. I went right up after the Swifts and circled with them over the airport. I circled up to about 8,000' drifting just outside the start cylinder and then went back and tagged it for the fourth start time at 2:45 PM. I was averaging a little over 200 fpm.

I almost took the 2:30 PM clock but decided to stay near or inside the start cylinder by heading back upwind against the seventeen mph wind, to just get the fourth start clock. The Swifts went with me. About six minutes later Erick and Bruce left the start cylinder late, but I was basically on my own. Rudy would take the 3 PM clock.

Five kilometers out I found almost 500 fpm to 8,300' which told me that the day was truly on. There were no cu's in the vicinity though. This can also be a sign that you'd better be careful if you think that all the lift is going to be this good.

That thermal got me to the turnpoint at a little over 7,000' Turning to the southwest, my tail wind turned into a cross head wind of ten mph. I flew almost six kilometers before I found lift down at 4,200'.

I was low and the lift was weak at 220 fpm and I could only climb to 5,800' losing distance all along drifting to the north. I pushed to the south directly into the wind getting south of the course line before once again starting from 4,200' I climbed at 300 fpm to 7,900' but north and east (downwind of the course line and back up the course line) so I had to cover the same ground again.

Heading southwest then south passing under the first cu's, which when they did not have any lift that, I continued to another cu to the south where I found 150 fpm and was heading backwards once again. I moved east a kilometer from 5,400' and worked slightly better lift until I was seeing 1000 fpm on the twenty second averager. I climbed at 400 fpm on average to 9,700'.

There was a large area of uncultivated flat lands to my southwest and toward the second turnpoint. The wind was between eleven and eighteen mph out of the south. A cu formed over me as I climbed and there were now scattered cu's out in front. I was high enough to get over the less friendly area and flew thirteen kilometers to get to the next lift three kilometers from the turnpoint. As I flew toward the turnpoint, I kept seeing wisps of cu's forming to my southwest but they disappeared before I could get to them.

When I found that thermal it took me to 8,000' at over 400 fpm. It was easy to get the turnpoint despite the 13 mph south wind.

Turning east south east twenty two kilometers from goal it looked like there were cu's ahead. Then I spotted Eric and Rudy turning and flew the four kilometers past the turnpoint to them getting down to 4,500'.

The lift was very strong, sometimes at 700 fpm and averaged 540 fpm. Though Erick and Rudy started out about 3,000' over my head I quickly gain most of that altitude up to them flying in the same thermal which was much stronger down below them. I climbed to 9,500' which gave me a 10:1 glide ratio to goal. Rudy and Erick took off about 500' above me and I went with them.

There was a ten mph cross wind going to goal. At first I was all going well and I wasn't losing much altitude, then things changed and I was losing consistently 800 fpm. My required glide was down to 7.5:1 but I was getting 6.5:1. I stopped for a dust devil and a cu above it at seven kilometers out to be sure that I had enough altitude to make it. I came in five minutes behind Rudy and Erick.

It was an incredible competition with great conditions, just what we expect from Big Spring. We held it a week later than normal, and they had rain after four months of no rain. Next year we go back to the first week of August. The only reason we held it when we did was because we wanted to have two weeks between the Worlds and our meet. That was a useless gesture which we won't ever repeat.

The task and safety committees performed brilliantly and made the competitions with their great calls. Mitch was the best CIVL meet steward we have ever experienced, by far. Belinda was a fantastic meet director and very much in charge and worked well with Mitch. Kate Griffin was a fantastic scorekeeper and tracker wrangler. She is very experienced now (Brett Janaway keeps updating the procedures so it is a task just to know what is going on.) Thor was a very calming presence as the launch director and Mike Degtoff was a great second in command at the launch. The tug pilots, Mick, Bobby, and Jim were spot on and their little cooperative of tug pilots is working great.

Thanks so much for all the help from the Big Spring Community. We could not pull this off without their tremendous support - water and free ice cream included. Thanks to all the sponsors for their prizes.

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Another incredible call from the Safety Committee

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Big Spring to Lamesa to Town, 145 kilometers.

Task 6:

Cumulative:

Open class:

The open class task was stopped at 5:46 PM and scored stopped at 5:31 PM. Seven pilots had already made goal. (Tom McGowan also made goal right after me but was scored incorrectly.)

Sport class:

Stopped at 5:40 PM and scored at 5:25 PM, Jose Sandoval was in the lead when the task was stopped. No one made goal. There was over-development to the west which got close to or came over the course line.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman won the day.

With a forecast for strong lift, cu's, cloud base at 13,500' and 10-13 mph southwest winds we called cross wind tasks to the north. But when we launched at 1 PM it was not happening at all and almost everyone landed and went for a reflight.

When I relaunched at about 2 PM things were much different and I climbed up to 8,500'. I've been adding more layers each day after only two layers on Wednesday (which was very comfortable) with four moderate layers today with the forecast for 37 degrees at 13,500' cloud base later in the day. I don't recall us ever getting that high here before.

There were plenty of cu's after 2 PM as there had been none at 1 PM. I took the last start clock at 2:30 PM, which was the popular start time as almost everyone had to launch late for the second time.

I headed for a fat cu to the north northwest fourteen kilometers and found little lift there. It was all blue ahead so I wanted to get up from 2,200' AGL and I left 160 fpm at 6,000' heading into the blue after a disappointing climb.

Of course, there was good lift right out in the blue and I found 300 fpm to 7,900' and then 400 fpm to 8,900'. It wasn't 13,500' but it was getting up there. The wind had started out at 10 mph out of the south southeast and was now 10 mph out of the south.

I had enough altitude to find the next bit of reasonable lift at twenty two kilometers to the north northwest. I was heading for the ten kilometer cylinder around Lamesa. I headed for an isolated small cu over the canyon area that looked like it was feeding off the gullies. The sink increased dramatically as I approached the spot that I thought looked like the origin of the thermal, and that assured me that there was a good thermal there. I took 250 fpm to 7,200' from 4,500'.

With more cu's ahead I was able to climb to 8,200' at 430 fpm just before the turnpoint cylinder edge. I pushed to the west to get the cylinder and get myself lined up for a cloud street to the north. The wind was averaging thirteen mph out of the south southeast.

The cloud street was working and I was able to climb at 300 fpm and then 330 fpm and then flying straight and climbing to 9,200'. I still had not climbed high and felt the icy cold winds. Speaking of winds, the winds were now eighteen mph out of the south southwest.

For the first time I noticed the over-development and shading from the west. There was rain about fifteen miles away. I wanted to go fast to get north of the rain if possible.

Twenty seven kilometers north of the turnpoint at Lamesa I found a strong thermal at 7,600' It averaged over 500 fpm and I took it to 12,400'. It was cool up there. I was forty three kilometers from goal and had goal at 14:1 with a seventeen mph tail wind. I went on final glide.

During the final glide it showed I had about 2,300' above best glide. That value changed very little no matter how fast I flew nor how much sink or lift I encountered. I was racing the storm to the west which was producing more rain but wasn't effecting goal as yet. Mitch Shipley was at goal and he was saying it was level 1. Tom McGowan and I on the Safety Committee were flying near each other and agreed.

As I got within five kilometers of goal I no longer was losing any altitude even with the bar stuffed.

When I go to goal it was shaded as was the last five kilometers and I found nothing but lift. I had to fly to the east five kilometers to finally find some sink and get down. I assume that it was being affected by the over-development to the west.

The over-development affected the Sport Class goal much more strongly as it built to the south of our goal. Their task was stopped a few minutes earlier than ours was.

The task committee had originally set a task to Levelland to the west of the Town goal. That would have put us right through the over-development. The safety committee moved the task based on the forecast.

So far three days in a row affected by thunderstorms. The task and safety committees have been brilliant in task calling, keeping us safe but with fun tasks. The conditions here have been excellent as well as exciting. All the pilots are enjoying themselves immensely. It was great getting so high today. It was great flying the last forty three kilometers in less than half an hour.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Setting the best task that the weather forecast allows

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Flytec 6030|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Sport Class:

Five pilots made it back to Big Spring with Peter Wall winning the day. Jose Sandoval is in the lead over all.

Swift Class:

They made a task to the south. Chris Zimmerman won the day and leads overall.

The weather forecast was for over development in all directions after 4 PM. So we decided on short tasks with early starts.

There were cu's to the west and east of the airport very early and there were too many cu's to the north with cu-nimbs to the west and north at Lamesa which almost stopped the task at 12:30PM (we launched at 12:15). Mitch was on the radio to the safety committee and we said level 2 and 2.5. We were south of the airfield and in good conditions climbing to 7,400', so we said it was level 1 where we were. We were just concerned about the conditions to the north.

As we were six or seven kilometers from the top of the five kilometer start cylinder I flew up to the north at four minutes before the first start time but found weak lift down to 4,500'. I hung in it with a couple of other pilots trying just to stay up.

We stayed in the poor lift for almost half an hour until, just before the last (third) start time, the lift we were in finally turned on and we were able to climb up to 6,000' before going on glide and finding a good thermal to 7.400', nine kilometers to the north. There were no cu's near us.

The winds were light which is why we called a triangle task for the open class and an out and return task for the sport class. The towering cu's to the north dissipated and there was plenty of sun shine on the ground. It no longer was a level 2.

I was leading out in front of the other two pilots which seemed easy to do. We found 200 - 300 fpm average climbs and hooked up with Rudy for a few climbs south the the first turnpoint. The lift was improving as the day went on. We had taken the last clock at 1:45 PM.

I found a nice dust devil just before the first turnpoint where I had seen Rudy turning a bit earlier under a cu and I climbed to 7,700'. There was a much bigger dusty to the east by the second turnpoint which Rudy got into. Before I got to that dust devil I found a thermal under a small cu that averaged 425 fpm so I took it to almost 9,000'.

As I headed south on my own I could see the over development further to the west. The rest of the sky was inviting. I found a forming cu out in the blue and climbed at 380 fpm average to 9,300'. The 6030 said I had goal but it was 12:1 to get there from twenty five kilometers out so I didn't exactly believe that.

The outflow from the top of the over development was partially shading the ground between me and goal. I could see a nice little cu about half way to goal, but off the course line a couple of kilometers. I felt that there was a good chance of finding lift just going down the course line in spite of the partially shaded ground.

At thirteen kilometers from goal I found 440 fpm and took it to 7,500' with an 8:1 required glide.

I came into goal with 600' AGL and landed. The wind was light out of the west toward the over development.

The over development continued to grow and come toward us but all the pilots who made goal made it in with incident. It was just shaded and there were no thunderstorms near us.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

East northeast wind with low top of lift

competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 4:

Cumulative:

Sport Class:

Jose Sandoval Sandoval was the only one to make goal at 48T. He continues to lead the sport class.

Swift Class:

Didn't fly.

The forecast was for an east northeast wind, lighter than the previous day. With a huge downpour and flash flooding around Big Spring on Tuesday night we figured the lift around the airport to be very poor. That proved to be the case.

The wind was sixteen mph northeast just south west of the airport so that made things even worse. Our task was to the west northwest given the forecast for lighter and east northeast winds.

I was circling with Bruce and Kevin as we climbed at 170 fpm. That thermal got us to the edge of the start cylinder just in time for the first clock at 3 PM. We joined up with Roger Irby and Rudy Gotes and climbed to 6,800' just outside the start cylinder.

After a short weak climb we headed north northwest to try to get on the upwind side of some shallow lakes. Roger Irby landed and Bruce and Kevin thermaled downwind of the lakes. I pushed further up wind and found better lift at 345 fpm and after a while they came and joined me. We lost track of Rudy.

We climbed back to 6,800' and headed again to the north northwest cross wind in order to go toward the turnpoint at 48T. We stayed above 5,600' climbing to almost 6,000' and hooked up with Rudy. I was able to find lift by pushing up wind to the northeast when after I felt any lift.

The lift gave out for a while and down to 800' I found lift near a very strong gas flare. Rudy came back to join me and Kevin landed. Bruce was behind us and climbing. We were only able to get to 5,600'.

There were now little cu's popping along our cross wind course line so we could fly to them. I found the next thermal and Rudy joined me but it was only 100 fpm. We had lost Bruce who was high and behind us. We only climbed to 5,700'.

Rudy stayed back as I raced to get under the next thin cu, but got low and had to work it back up to 5,300'. The lift was broken up near the top so I went for a cu just forming up wind of us. It didn't work and I soon landed.

Rudy and Bruce were able to make it around to goal with Erick coming later.

I should have been more conservative and not tried to chase cu's. The lift down low was broken and ratty.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Dealing with the forecast for no lift later to the south

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

Today's forecast for lift at 5 PM:

The task committee set a task with a eighteen kilometer radius around the airfield at Rankin so that we didn't have to go over a territory full of pump jacks (oil wells) to get to the airfield. It also helped that it kept us away from the likely over development.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 3:

Cumulative:

Sport Class:

Six pilots in goal with Jose Sandoval winning the day. Jose is now back in first place overall.

Swift Class:

Greg Chastain landed short and now Chris Zimmerman is in first place after making it back to the airport.

With an unusual north northeast wind at launch we launched from the south part of the taxi way. There were no cu's around at first at 1:30 PM. There was good lift just southwest of the airport and I was able to get to 7,400' with half a dozen other pilots. When that lift ran out twenty three minutes before the start window opened I headed back toward the airport and then north to a cu when I didn't see anyone climbing near the airport.

The cu quickly disappeared and I chased a remnant of a dust devil further west to hook up with what remained of it after it disappeared also. That set me up alone north of the course line at a little less than 7,000' for the 2:30 PM start.

To the south the area of forecasted zero lift was already filling up with cu's. There were a few wispies along our course line. The forecast said that we wouldn't get too high, maybe to 8,000'.

I found a couple of good climbs but twenty kilometers out from the edge of the twelve kilometer start cylinder I was down to about 1,000' AGL. I was able to work 250 fpm back to over 6,000'.

There had started to be a few scattered good looking cu's about so it was easier to find the lift. Lots of cu's starting and disappearing quickly.

I kept an eye on the vast area to the south where the thick cu's were forming. They were far enough away that I couldn't see their shadows. They did not look dangerous. There seemed to be a limit on how high they went.

I found a nice set of cu's and was able to climb to 9,200' under the dark bottoms. They were still pretty small. I continued to stay northwest of the course line.

The wind changed from lighter northeast to stronger east northeast. This pushed me further to the west of the course line. I also was following the cu's which were more to the west of the line.

There was a mix of possible landing areas and lots of areas with not such great landing opportunities below. I had already been low so I didn't want to do that again.

Twenty kilometers out from the goal cylinder I chased after some little forming cu's and when those didn't work I flew to the area where I had seen a dust devil when I was a few kilometers to the north. Down to 900' AGL I found that there was good lift under some forming cu's that got me back to 6,000' which was enough to get over a large patch of unlandable area and to goal over a super big cultivated field.

I landed with the areas in shade further to the south but plenty of sunshine where I was. It looks like the task committee called a good task given the conditions.

The thunderstorm did hit Big Spring around 8:30 PM with flash flooding.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Air sick

Bobby Bailey|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019

We take a bit later launch than originally planned as the pilot meeting drags on a bit so the launch is at 1:30 PM (half an hour before Sunday) and the start window at 2:30 PM. After all the relights on Sunday pilots are a bit reluctant to go right away, but we see the first few sticking so the open class pilots are all off in half an hour.

The cu's do start late with a few at 1:30 but more at 2 PM. Bobby Bailey tows me up and before we get to the end of the taxi way to the south he's bank up and I hang on as best I can. I  go around with him twice and then pin off at 1,700' AGL. I work that thermal with lots of pilots coming over to join me to over 10,000'.

It's still a few minutes before the start window so we mush around in light sink before heading out at 2:30 PM at about 9,400'. The wind is averaging 7 mph out of the south west. Our turnpoint is to the northeast. There is a big turnpoint radius around Fish at eighteen kilometers and then the course goes north to Jayton airfield.

About eight of us start off together high and head up the highway toward Snyder to the east north east. The optimized course line will take us right over town and right over the sport class goal. We climb to 10,600' nineteen kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder at almost 600 fpm.

After that I struggle with weak lift and not getting high for the next fifty kilometers as the wind turns from southwest to south at 16 - 18 mph.. Down to 5,000' I get too hot (too much clothing) and get nauseous. I check to see if it is heat stroke or air sickness, but I'm still sweating so it's air sickness. I keep flying as it is not overwhelming as it has been two other times.

I climb to 9,400' just before Snyder over the airfield that is the sport class goal. East of Snyder the land mass changes from open fields to canyon lands. I have to go cross wind to get to the turnpoint eighteen kilometers from Fish. I find another thermal twenty two kilometers out from Snyder at 400 fpm to 8,500' but then it all gets worse as I continue to fight with the air sickness.

I'm six kilometers north of the optimized course line and  work my way south southeast to get back toward the optimized waypoint on the eighteen kilometer radius turnpoint. I'm soon down to 2,000' AGL working weak lift and drifting to the north away from the optimized turnpoint. I go back south and back up the course line to try again and it doesn't get  any better. I'm over the canyon lands low with a few landing options that present difficult retrieves.

I was three kilometers from the turnpoint but low and not willing to go cross wind across unlandable area to go further east to get the cylinder. Taking lift I climb to over 6,000', still relatively low but now six kilometers from the turnpoint and it's upwind. All the lift I find under the fast moving cu's is weak.

I push again upwind to get under the best looking cu and there is nothing there. I'm drifting away from the turnpoint. There is no reason to continue and I'm ready to land as I feel pretty ill.

I land near a paved road and fortunately I can contact Tom McGowan who has landed near Snyder and is in the retrieve vehicle not far away. I curl up on the ground under my glider not having moved it since I landed and go to sleep. I can't stand up. Tom and Dave Proctor break down the glider for me as I rest in the air conditioned truck.

The field is full of stickers and our shoes are covered with them.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Down and cross wind almost 100 miles

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Sport Class:

Twelve out of fourteen made goal at 75.6 km with Max Conde winning the day.

Max Conde is in the lead overall with Jose Sandoval in second. Two Guatemalans.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman and Greg Chastain. They are doing out and return tasks as they don't have a driver.

Greg has won both days.

Sport Class to La Mesa

competition|US Nationals 2019

Four out of fourteen pilots made it in Sport Class seventy kilometers to the goal at the La Mesa airfield.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Jose Sandoval, Ric Caylor, Max Conde, and John Irlbeck.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

We glide on up to Brownfield

Blue Sky|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results/task4325/day/open-class

Task 1:

14 to 18 mph south southeast wind. A few cu's. The dry line was clearly visible to the west. Top of lift/cloudbase around 11,000'. A 2 PM launch and 3 PM start to get the better part of the day.

Mick Howard towed me three kilometers south toward the nearest cu due south of the taxi way. The area to the west of launch has proven to be a poor area for lift so I was happy to avoid it. The cu's had been popping since about 1:30 PM (half an hour before launch) on our east side, but we are restricted from going there because it crosses the main runway.

After I pinned off it was a continuous climb from about 4,000' (1,700' AGL) to almost 9,000' drifting seven kilometers to the north northwest in a 15 mph south southeast wind. The start cylinder had a six kilometer radius so given that Mick had towed me way to the south I had no issues staying inside it for the second start time.

North of the airport the cu's were mostly off to the east of the course line about ten kilometers and the first turnpoint was at the La Mesa airfield to the north northwest. While it was all blue ahead I headed in the direction of the turnpoint about five kilometers east of the optimized course line. The start cylinder is centered on a point five kilometers west of the Big Spring airport.

Despite the blue sky there was lift where there were no cu's. I even took a thermal over a gas flare of which there are many (not like years ago north of Big Spring). I was able to hook up with a sweet dust devil north of Ackerly averaging 460 fpm and called Dave Proctor over to join me.

There were towering cu's off to the west quite far aways, but just little wisps along our route. There were some haze domes north of La Mesa which marked 400 fpm lift and I could see ahead a large area of green cotton fields that indicated weaker lift.

I had to search around just south of the cotton fields to find 270 fpm. Bruce, Erick, and Dave came in under me as we all had the idea to get high here before venturing out into the less promising area. I couldn't get any one to go so I headed off by myself (which had been ture for all the flight so far) and it was thirteen kilometers before I found 200 fpm at less than 2,000' AGL (the land elevation was rising).

Kevin and Erick came in under me and we climbed back to 8,000' (5,000' AGL). Kevin had taken the clock after me and Erick the one before me. I couldn't get Kevin to leave so again I headed out on my own as we drifted close to the turnpoint at T-Bar.

There were cu's to the northwest which I had decided to go to before the turnpoint. It was all blue and cross wind to the goal to the west northwest at Brownfield airfield.

I misjudged the distance to the cu's and that took me north and downwind of the course line. Then, when I got to the cu's, they didn't work so I had to go hunting for lift in the blue anyway. I ended up twelve kilometers downwind of the course line working lift to get as high as possible to give me a chance to beat back upwind.

I worked to over 9,600' at 280 fpm and headed southwest knowing that it would take a bit more lift to make it in. Fortunately it was there eight kilometers out and I was able to make it in with plenty of altitude despite the 18 mph head wind.

Kevin went into the blue after the T-bar turnpoint and found lift along the course line going into goal. Willy Dydo took the first clock and grabbed all the extra points getting to goal twenty three minutes before Kevin.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The Welcome Dinner

Gary Osoba|US Nationals 2019

Photo by Gary Osoba.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

It begins this weekend

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/blog

https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/

https://lt.flymaster.net/

Get ready for following the 2019 Big Spring Nationals.

We'll put up the link to Flymaster Live Tracking this weekend when we set things up.

X Flight

Colorado

Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter|Sara Weaver

Kevin Carter|Robin Hamilton|Sara Weaver

Robin Hamilton writes:

We moved west Wednesday to launch from Lamar in SE Colorado with the plan to fly up the eastern corridor of the state. We were happy to be joined by Colorado pilots Sara Weaver and Kevin Carter for this leg.

We had a good forecast of high cloudbase, moderate tailwinds and strong climbs and put in extra effort to double up on extra clothing, gloves etc. after the ice box experience with the New Mexico flight fresh in our memory. Great preparation but Murphy's law intervened and we found ourselves after launch low and working hard to get altitude to confidently progress. We were all rather toasty in our Michelin man suits - Sara even packed her O2 system.

Conditions were blue with generally light to moderate lift and we were initially climbing to 7,000-8,000' (~3,000-4,000' above ground). Early winds were light and quartering. We initially had a gaggle of 5 (Sara, Larry, Glen, Pete and I) and it helped to find lift in the blue. In the distance we could see a good sky with clouds, maybe some 20-30 miles to the NE.

And then there were three - we lost Larry and Sara after some 30 miles, leaving Pete, Glen and I to slowly progress up the course towards the bespoke clouds in the distance. We covered some 50 miles with this low level routine in the first 2.5 hours but around 5:30pm had to spread out to find lift in what felt like the end of the soaring day.

I ended up gliding down to 400-500' over the dirt fields and joined what I thought was a single hawk in a low level low save. It was initially weak and rowdy, but after a few minutes I started to gain altitude and it formed into a reasonable piece of 300-400 fpm lift. Meanwhile the single hawk was joined by another fifty+ of his friends and family. I have only been in such a raptor gathering in a single thermal in Texas in the fall when they are migrating south for the winter. It was super busy in the thermal. I was seriously concerned I might have a collision with one.

With the height from that thermal I glided towards the remnants of the siren clouds that had called us the whole way from take off and was finally rewarded by a moderate climb up to 10,000', a height I had not seen all day. And it was by then 6pm. Suddenly the forecast tailwinds also turned up and I was quickly being whisked along under the cloud street remnants by a 24-26 mph breeze. I had ground speeds of over 65 mph after having groveled along all afternoon till then. I worked and drifted in the late lift finally landing some 120 miles out from take off at around 7:30pm. After spending around 3 hrs to cover 50 miles, I had added an additional 70 miles in less than 2 hours.

A question I had was why were the conditions so challenging in the early stage vs. the late and can only conclude that the surface conditions are very important. Lamar sits in the Arkansas river valley and is surrounded by heavily irrigated agriculture, suppressing the thermal activity. At one point in flight I looked back up the course line and just saw a broad expanse of dark green around Lamar and it clicked as what our issue might have been. Nevertheless it was a fun flight, flying initially with my buddies in tough conditions, the hawk posse and then the express train that picked me up for the last couple of hours. Cross country hang gliding is wonderfully surprising and today just offered a few more memorable experiences in a trip that has already given many. And we are 120 miles closer to Canada!

Discuss "X Flight" at the Oz Report forum   link»

We've got enough pilots to keep the loses under control

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|US Nationals 2019

The tee-shirts are going to be donated. Belinda has come up with trophies. The CIVL costs will not be as high as we thought. We still will suffer substantial losses.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots

We look forward to having a great competition in Big Spring.

Press day today

Facebook|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|Sara Weaver|X Flight 2019

Sara Weaver writes:

This is the face of a pilot's dream coming true.

(Larry gave up his prized yellow for the fight against breast cancer.)

Larry Bunner and Robin Hamilton have committed to fly about 1600 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border while partnering with the @susan_b_komen_foundation. It's a task never before conceived, much less executed. They're inviting every single pilot who wants to join to come along. I'm looking forward to a crazy exhausting long flying weekend boxed by 34 hours of driving. Nothing compared to the weeks and weeks of cross country these guys are about to undertake. Grateful to be able to pop in and fly some of this massive expedition with some of the world's best cross country pilots!!

All the good comes with some real talk too. After years of painstaking planning and training, Larry is starting his ultimate expedition with the flu. Seems like he's feeling pretty darn good after today though. Nothing like flying for a few weeks straight to cure a guy though, right?

Today, we flew from West Houston Airport to some nearby fields after the guys enjoyed a kickoff celebration. The wind was strong and lifty, but the airspace was just too close to go far. But it was a fantastic start to this unbelievable journey. Make sure to go follow X Flight: Gulf to Canada on Facebook to be a part of this crazy ride.

Discuss "X Flight: Gulf of Mexico to Canada" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Get confirmed by July 1^st

Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park

I wrote to pilots:

We are very much looking forward to the Big Spring Nationals in August. We trust that you are also. It’s great that this year it will also be the test competition for the 2020 Pan-American Championships.

As you know we have to bring everything to Big Spring to run a championship. This includes the Dragonflies from Wilotree Park. Gregg Ludwig will already have his trike in Texas, even though he now lives in Florida.

As you can no doubt see from the aerotow fee, this is an expensive proposition and we need to know well in advance of the competition how many pilots are coming this year. As we have informed almost all of you previously, your status in the pilot registration needs to be marked “confirmed” in order for you to reserve a spot in the competition. The number of pilots with “confirmed” status will determine the number of tugs that we will have at Big Spring.

For example, if we have 50 “confirmed” pilots we will have a total of 5 tugs at Big Spring. We currently have 53 pilots registered and 13 “confirmed” pilots. You can see the pilot list here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots.

The number of spots reserved on July 1^st will determine how many tugs we will have at Big Spring. If we have only 13 pilots “confirmed,” as is the case now, Gregg might be the only tug pilot there.

So to make this competition a success we need your cooperation. If you are coming to the 2019 Big Spring Nationals you need to take the steps necessary to become “confirmed.” They are as follows, and as found here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info:

1) Pay $250 entry fee here: http://ozreport.com/2019BigSpringpay.php

2) Sign waivers and medical information form: http://ozreport.com/onlinewaivers.php or: http://ozreport.com/waivers.php

Pilots not confirmed by July 1^st will be so noted and only if there are spots available will they be allowed to enter the competition. Again, the number of spots available will be determined by the number of tugs that we have available at Big Spring and therefore by the number of pilots “confirmed” on July 1^st..

If you are registered, but not coming to Big Spring we would very much appreciate hearing from you also so that we can delete your entry from the pilot list. In this case please email Davis at <davis> saying that you won’t be coming.

If everything goes to hell in a hand basket (i.e. the meet is canceled), you will receive a 100% refund.

Again, looking forward to having a great time as always in Big Spring. Hope to see you there.

Beach fun

Hang gliding can be a day at the beach

Facebook

Facebook|Sara Weaver

Facebook|Sara Weaver

The Kitty Hawk Kites Spectacular continues after the champions day.

Photo by Sara Weaver.

Discuss "Beach fun" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Replay is now working.

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/play/3982/2d

https://OzReport.com/23.94#0

The cloud street is to the left (west) of the course line. Andrew Hollidge has found a wisp along the course line marking lift and keeping him on track to make the last turnpoint.

Carter and Gotes also stay along the course line and get high enough to make it into goal.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/blog__day_5

Get ready for the big fat air

Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info

This is a unique opportunity. This is the test event for the first Pan-American Championships (Class 1 open class). We are looking for pilots from Central and South American to join us and get a taste of that Big Spring air.

2019 Nationals

Some of those who came to help run the competition

Facebook|US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 7, task 6

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 6:

Final:

Sport Task 6:

Final:

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The last day

Jeff Chipman|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 85. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Surface winds 8 mph decreasing to 5 mph east northeast.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 8 mph, east northeast
B/S: 9.8
Surface winds 5 mph east northeast
Cu’s unlikely.

The task:

A 15 kilometer exit circle around Center Hill.

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/27.4.2019/17:30

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2257915

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190428&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

The idea is that we would fly west to get away from the lake effect with the northeast wind to the 3 km turnpoint around the Gross airfield. Then back east to Center Hill against the east wind. There is a 15 km exit cylinder around Center Hill so you have to get anywhere outside it to get this next waypoint, then back to Center Hill before heading back to Wilotree Park.

Again pilots were reluctant to launch until they saw a few pilots in the air, and some of the pilots did launch in their original order. When the launch organizer when around again calling upon us to launch, we all launched in our order.

The lift was indeed suppressed by the lake effect and I didn't find anything at first. Then I drifted down wind to the Mickey Mouse lake and with the help of the "locals" skimming over the lake, I found 200 fpm that took me to over 4,300'. And then after every one joined me we went over and found another thermal to 4,300', but this was 8 minutes before the start window opened and with a 7 mph east southeast wind.

Unfortunately I lost a bunch of altitude when this thermal gave out and was down to 2,800' at the start which put me in a bit of a deficit. Others had managed to stay near 4,000'.

Managed to find 200 fpm over Mascotte and was soon back to 4,200'. I could see the lead gaggle ahead and we found reasonable lift going west toward the Gross airfield, at one point averaging over 300 fpm, and getting to over 4,000' so even though I was behind things looked good.

Three kilometers from the Gross turnpoint I came over the lead gaggle. I found the better lift and they all came in under me. I was back in the game.

As I was on top I lead out to the turnpoint, but instead of heading to the east north east headed back toward where we were previously climbing. This turned out to be an error as the guys that were below me were now above me climbing up over a small fire that was now to my north. I quickly got over there but now I was on the bottom instead of on the top. It took a while to center the smoke thermal from 1,800' but I was finally in the 300 fpm core to 3,900'.

South of Bushnell I climbed to 3,800' but only at a little over 200 fpm. I hadn't caught up with the lead guys yet. I saw a few pilots further north higher and turning but didn't go to them thinking that I would find lift to the east toward Center Hill That was my second mistake.

The lift along the east/west highway going to Center Hill was very weak. The first three thermals: 140 fpm, then 50 fpm, then minus 22 fpm. Leaving the last non-lift at 1,600' I thought for sure that we were going down. At 600' AGL as I looked at fields to the north for landing opportunities as we were over intensively farmed nurseries, we found 225 fpm that took us to 3,800' drifting back at 5 mph.

This made it possible to find lift to 3,100' at 284 fpm just before Center Hill. I headed northeast and found 100 fpm then 180 fpm over a very small fire which got me to 3,600' over the forested area on its southeast corner. A kilometer further north Jeff Chipman and I had the help of two bald eagles as we climbed to 4,300' at 250 fpm.

I went further north past the Florida Turnpike to get past the edge of the 15 kilometer exit cylinder. The wind was 5 mph due east. Coming back from outside the cylinder around Center Hill I started at 2,400'.

Down to 1,700' I found 240 fpm just east of the prison. As I drifted over the prison I climbed to 3,900'. I hoped that they didn't think that I was going to drop anything.

Heading south directly across the center of the forest I found a couple of thermals to get me to the south side, north of Center Hill. There I found 190 fpm to 3,900' at 5:49 PM. After that it was a 12:1 glide for 11 kilometers into a 6 mph head wind to one of the most beautiful and friendly landing fields near us, but 4 kilometers short of the chicken coops where I hoped to get back up.

Raul would land at goal about 5 minutes after as the last one to make goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Rain day, winds later

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We don't go down wind

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 10 mph, south southwest
B/S: 10
Surface winds 3 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

The task:

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.4.2019/17:27

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255949

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190426&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

There are no cu's in the nearby area so the first pilots (including me at number 3) naturally decline to launch and go to the end of the queue. About half the pilots do this, so we quickly start the second round. We find plenty of lift and climb out slowly while drifting to the north toward the first turnpoint at Gator field.

Our drift in the 12 mph south wind and climb rate (weak) are perfectly timed so that we reach the edge of the start cylinder at our highest altitude (4,500') just as the window opens for the first start at 2PM. Jonny and Jon Simon start with us, but go back later. Kevin Dutt is with us. Nine pilots take the first clock.

Gator field is a short distance away so we quickly get there then head northwest up the Florida Turnpike. I get south of the Turnpike to get to the wispy cu's and climb out at over 200 fpm to 4,800'. I saw Kevin, Patrick and Konstantin higher and in front of me further down wind to the north (the wind is now 13 mph out of the south), but I feel that I can catch them by getting to the cu's and climbing faster.

I keep finding good lift under the cu's along the turnpike and sure enough I run into those pilots ahead of me at the turnpoint at Baron and we climb out fast to cloudbase at 5,800'. We let Chippy and Kevin go out in front.

I wanted to get as high as possible because the next leg looks difficult. It's a straight cross wind leg. It's unclear where we are going to find the lift despite the presence of cu's. Sure enough I get down to 1,900' before I find a little something west of the prisons.

Patrick goes a bit further west and finds better lift. I come over him and climb out to 4,300' while he loses the lift for a while. He fortunately comes back down wind to find it again but I leave him low by the turnpike. The 7 mph wind out of the south southwest pushes us way to the north.

The pilots who took the second clock have almost caught up with us and they are further upwind having found lift near the prisons, which we did not find.

It's an up and back struggle to take the next turnpoint at the grass air strip southwest of Lake Panasofkee and to get away from it to head south southwest to the turnpoint at Kokee. There are plenty of cu's ahead and as soon as I get away from the lake I find strong lift, at one point averaging almost 500 fpm to 5,000'.

That height gets me to 2,500' 3 kilometers north northeast of he turnpoint. I circle there a few times with Jonny in negative 110 and then leave as I can't figure out why we are doing this. I head for the turnpoint while Glen turns back upwind to get up at Bushnell.

I get lucky. Down to 1,100' AGL I tag the turnpoint and then find a thermal which at 250 fpm takes me to 4,400'. This puts me ahead of all the nearby pilots. I head out with Larry Bunner, who took the second clock, nearby.

After an 8 kilometer glide and down to 2,100' I decide to turn back to get under a better looking cu. Larry comes in under me. I climb to 3,800' at almost 200 fpm with Larry right below me. Five or six pilots who were just behind us come in under us as we climb up.

We lead out and find three more thermals for the following pilots, being their guiding lights ahead. The last one just south of the nursery on highway 50 takes me to 3,600'with a 9.5 kilometer glide to goal. With a 4 mph cross wind it is an easy final glide as I lead them all into goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Preliminary Results for day 5, task 5 (Kevin Dutt not scored yet)

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Sport task:

Sport cumulative:

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 4, task 4

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 4:

Cumulative:

Sport task 4:

Sport Cumulative:

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Counter clockwise around the Green Swamp

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|PG|Steven "Steve" Pearson|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park|Zac Majors

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 6 mph, east
B/S: 10
Surface winds 2 mph south
A chance of cu’s.

The task:

The replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696#

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255169

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/24.4.2019/17:39

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

The narrative:

Steve Pearson, Zac Majors and Wolfgang Seiss let me borrow the Wills Wing TIII that is here at Wilotree Park and in Wills inventory. So I'm back on the TIII.

After the pilot meeting I go over across the runway to setup the glider. This keeps me from hearing that the task has changed slightly. A waypoint is added at Famish. The meet director, Belinda, forgets to call another pilot meeting at the launch site, forgets to tell the volunteers working the line to mention the task change to pilots, and doesn't have the safety committee review the task change that was made because of pilot input for safety reasons (which were bogus).

She does call a pilot meeting at the normal location but at least three of us are far away near launch and don't hear the whistle. She brings over the amended task board to the launch, but we don't see it. She doesn't even mention it to me. The small blank task board is not used to highlight the task change in the line.

Many of the pilots skip their launch spot given what happened the day before with so many relaunches. There are no cu's in the sky, but Larry thinks that they will show up (he's right).

We go through the list again and with evidence of good lift we all get pulled up. Numerous gaggles form with the lift working and soon a bunch of us head to the edge of the start cylinder as it's only a few minutes before the first start time. We hang in weak lift near the top of the lift at 4,000'.

Ten or so of us head out but don't go very far before turning in more weak lift. I can tell right away that this group is going to turn back and take the next start gate. We come back from 2 km out with 5 minutes to spare and take the 2:20 PM clock.

We're racing west along the north edge of the Green Swamp. The lift varies from 85 fpm to 300 fpm. Mostly it is less than 200 fpm. Pilots are jumping from gaggle to gaggle.

We've got a 3 km turnpoint cylinder at the northwestern edge of the Green Swamp. After finding 300 fpm on the northeastern edge we again find 300 fpm on the northwestern side and climb to 4,400'. It's after 3 PM. We find the first cu's, which then populate the western edge of the Green Swamp.

The lift gets good. We head south and find 300 fpm, 300 fpm, 400 fpm, 300 fpm and 450 fpm in the next thermals to over 5,500', not quite cloudbase. Larry Bunner and I are working with each other to make sure that we find the best lift.

Larry and I head south to the cu's west of the turnpoint at the bottom of the Green Swamp. Those pilots who took the more direct route are down below us as we get nearer the turnpoint at 471 and 98.

Larry and I climb out at 350 fpm to 5,400' under the sweet looking cu's that we come to expect when we do the Green Swamp task. There are more in front of us and we are able to take advantage of them.

I'm cruising along at 5,500' over the Green Swamp when Larry comes back at me from the south and asks if I got the turnpoint at Famish. This is the first I've hear of it. He had just gone to the south to get the turnpoint. I'm quickly fiddling with my instruments to see how far away the two kilometer cylinder around Famish is. I get within less than a kilometer of Famish itself before turning back to parallel the course line.

I head out over the pasture lands, not the forest land toward little wisps. Down to 2,600' I work 190 fpm to 4,400' and then scoot back over the forest to get to 5,000' under some wisps. Based on the latest transmission from Larry who is near the turnpoint 8 kilometers away I should be able to find lift there and can leave at 5,000' to get to it.

Sure enough there is plenty of lift just north the 474 to 5,000' and that makes the glide into goal easy.

Controversy erupts when Belinda comes up with a way to score the day with a bonus for those pilots who made the Famish turnpoint. Only Bruce Barmakian and Kevin Dutt didn't.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

A funny shaped task at 90 km

Flytec 6030|PG|Rob Clarkson|US Nationals 2019|Volirium P1|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Tuesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 – 8 mph, east

HRRR 3, 2 PM:
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northeast
B/S: 7.2
Surface winds 5 mph east
A slight chance of cu’s.

The task:

The Replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2254486

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.4.2019/19:09

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

The narrative:

The wind is out of the east and we're back in the slot at the west end. There are no cu's and with the brisk enough we are probably getting some suppression of the lift from Lake Apopka. But we are not aware of it at first.

I'm 17^th to launch and we've already had one pilot land. Tim takes me to the south of the field and I find strong lift, 400 fpm to 4,300'. When it peters out I head north east then east looking for the next thermal.  I don't find anything even in the smoke from the fire to the east. Kevin Dutt is right below me and he turns to go back to Wilotree Park for a landing just as I do.

Unfortunately I take out a down tube on landing, but fortunately David Lopez and Alex Skyride operate as a pit crew and get me back in line for another tow. It's probably been three years since I took out a down tube.

I get back in line but it's time for the sport class launch. Everyone has to wait for them. There is a fifteen minute interval after the end of the open class launch for relights, then pilots have to wait for the sport class to launch. The top three pilots have to wait as they all had to relaunch. There were many relaunches.

It's a long wait, but when we get up we find good lift to the southwest away from Wilotree Park. I climb to 3,800' at 240 fpm and take the fourth clock (out of four) at 3:24 PM (last clock is at 3:15 PM), more than an hour after the first clock. No one is able to take the first clock at 2:15 PM.

I glide 8 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder down to 900' AGL just north of the Seminole Glider Port where I spot hang glider pilots turning. I climb out at 240 fpm to 4,900'. This makes it easy to get the first turnpoint at the intersection of highway 474 and highway 33.

There are a few pilots around and it is five thermals to get to the Wallaby 5 km turnpoint to the southeast. The first thermal is reasonable strong at 340 fpm to 4,300', but the rest of them are weak, under 300 fpm.

I turn around at the turnpoint to head west to the intersection of Dean Still and Rockridge and find 364 fpm to 4,300' drifting to the west. I can see pilots climbing in the distance and after a 10 kilometer glide get under them and it's 250 fpm to 3,500'.  A little over a kilometer further west I find 280 fpm to 4,500'.

I've got two flight instruments the Flytec 6030 and the Volirium P1. I'm noticing a significant different in the indicated distance to the turnpoint. Finally I figure out that I've put the turnpoint at the intersection of Rockridge and highway 98 in the 6030, but the P1 has DSROK. I know that that is the right  turnpoint and this hasn't caused any delays in my flight. I take the turnpoint at DSROK and manually select the next turnpoint on the 6030.

As I make the turnpoint I head into the headwind. The first thermal averages minus 35 fpm. After eight minutes of waiting to see if it will turn on I head out toward public roads to the east so that I can land with a manageable retrieve.

Down to 600' AGL I spot a pilot turning at just above my altitude a short distance to the north. I come in under him and climb out at 134 fpm drifting back to the west. I top out at 2,400'.

I spot Peter Kelley and Rob Clarkson to my north over edge of the Green Swamp. I race toward them and find lift before I get there. It's 180 fpm to 3,200'. They join me.

We move to the east a couple of kilometers to find 190 fpm to 4,400'. Leaving this lift it's a nine kilometer glide to the turnpoint at 474 and 33. My 6030 user fields go blank so I can't see my glide ratio over the ground among other bits information. It states that the wind direction is south west which is a bit confusing. The actual wind is about 5 mph out of the east.

There was a forecast for a sea breeze from the west late and it is definitely late, eight minutes after 6 PM. The user fields return as I get to the turnpoint. They show a north wind component of 3 mph.

I'm down to 1,400' at the turnpoint and head north along highway 33. There are plenty of open field to land in if needed and it appears to be needed. Peter and Rob are just behind me.

I pick out a huge field that I am familiar with just east of the Seminole glider port. I look around and there appears to be no wind in the field. I come in low at the north end assuming a southwest wind, but I am mistaken. It is in fact north east if light. Suddenly I realize that I'm going to eat up the whole field.

Just before I smack into the fence at the southwest corner I turn but hit the fence on the western side. I'm unhurt but there is enough damage to the glider that I won't be flying that one on Wednesday. First time in over 5,000 flights that I've hit a fence.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 3, task 3

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konstantin Lukyanov|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Roger Irby|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 3:

Cumulative:

Sport Task 3:

Sport Cumulative:

2019 Nationals (week 2)

100 km, FAI triangle

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

Sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 mph, northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 9 mph, north
B/S: 10
Surface winds 6 mph east
No cu’s.

The task:

The Replay:

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2253551

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190423&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/22.4.2019/17:56

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

The narrative:

We move the launch from the northeast facing direction to an east facing direction further west in the east/west slot runway and delay the task half an hour to start at 2:30 PM. There are no cu's as forecast. The wind is light out of the east.

I launch 24^th and find light lift to the south of Wilotree and climb slowly to 3,600' with a couple of other pilots. Pilots who left this thermal early before getting as high as we did and head to the northwest have to land back at Wilotree Park.

We head northwest toward the first turnpoint, a ten kilometer cylinder around the Chinese airfield. It's still six minutes before the first start gate. We find 200 fpm and then 300 fpm. I leave the start cylinder four minutes after the window opens as I climb to 4,400'. There are about eight guys higher and in front of a few of us behind.

We are doing a bit better behind finding better lift and keeping an eye on the gaggle in front. The lift is poor, less than 200 fpm, and the lead gaggle is getting lower and lower with each thermal.

I veer off to the south a bit just northwest of the lumber yard and south of some greenhouses to find much better lift at 300 fpm and climb to 4,700'. The lead gaggle is far below and soon out of site to the north.

I take over the lead as the lead gaggle struggles and head out on my own toward the turnpoint. I've been out here before so I have some idea of what to look for in order to get back up as I come down from my commanding height.

It's a nine kilometer glide before I find 170 fpm by the Kokee turnpoint and I can climb back to 3,000'. A six kilometer glide and I come over apparently from the smell, some chicken coops just east of a prison (so many of them in Florida). I'm down to 1,400' and looking at a possible landing field just past the prison, but I find little bits of lift and hang with them.

I average a little over 100 fpm to 2,000' which gets me past the prison and the field next to it. I'm familiar with the fields ahead having climbed out of them on a previous flight. They are the last fields before the river which is surrounded by trees. Our optimized turnpoint is just on the other side of the river. I'm too low to cross it.

I see a small bit of smoke in the trees next to an open field and get to it at 600' AGL. I take the 254 fpm to 4,500' where we all get together at the turnpoint. I relinquish my lead at this point.

Now it's sixteen guys racing toward the three kilometer cylinder around the Baron turnpoint to the east northeast with seven guys in front. We race ahead and stop for 200 to 300 fpm about every five kilometers. Five or so guys at the top of each thermal.

As we pass south of the prisons, Phil Bloom goes out in front, with Pedro, Nene and me just behind him getting higher. I lead out to get over Phil who has lost a lot of altitude as we approach the turnpoint. I lead out again with Raul and Bruno just behind racing for the turnpoint. We get the turnpoint and head south.

Those behind us see us plummeting and take a line further to the east also heading south. Bruno moves to the south east to get in the lead with Jonny and Kevin Dutt behind him as they work weak lift from low. Bruno lands.

Raul and I work 25 fpm for twelve minutes to climb from 2,200 to 2,700' as we drift in an eight mph north wind toward Wilotree Park and goal. I lead out as I'm familiar with the area. We work 100 fpm and 55 fpm climbing to 2,800' and drifting south.

I come over the nursery on the north side of highway 50 west of Mascotte but I don't find much. Raul spots a vulture climbing and climbs with him when I turn east to head for the chicken coops and possible landing area. Down to 600' AGL I find a little bit of zero sink and start working and searching for the better core.

The guys to our east are finding better lift. Kevin Dutt gets out ahead and continues on a long glide into goal. The pilots who took the second clock are able to come in fifteen minutes later and score well despite poor leading and arrival points.

It's almost 6 PM. I find the area of better lift over the possible landing field and slowly climb out drifting slowly to the south. I climb at 120 fpm to 3,700' topping out at 6:22 PM with a 6:1 glide to goal. I'm not in the mood for landing short. It's an easy seven kilometer glide into goal for the last guy to make it to goal at 6:28.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 2, task 2

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Fabiano Nahoum|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3

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

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Sport task 2:

Sport Cumulative:

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We stick together

John Simon|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696#

The forecast:

http://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 78. Light northwest wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 8 mph, northwest

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northwest
B/S: 8.8
Surface winds 10 mph northwest
Chance of cu’s.

There is a strong inversion and no chance of cu's.

The task:

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2252178

At one o'clock, there are no cu's and a pretty brisk wind out of the west. I'm scheduled to launch ninth, but will all the help I'm giving to the meet director I'm not ready, so opt to launch at the end of the line. John Simon has already told me that he is launching last so as to not have to wait around for an hour in the start cylinder, so that helps me make my decision to wait.

The pilots that we pulled up before us stick and we get towed up at 40 minutes after the launch window opens and twenty minutes before the start window opens. At almost 300 fpm we climb to 5,000' a few minutes before the start window opens and take it high at 4,800'. I'm not the highest pilot but high enough to not be disadvantaged by launching so late. Almost everyone takes the first start clock.

With no cu's everyone relies on everyone else. We jump from group to group and climb up in a friendly fashion not cutting each other off. We climb to 5,600' before the Fantasy of Flight our first turnpoint with lift averaging 300 and 400 fpm in the last thermals before we cross interstate 4.

We've got twenty to thirty pilots sticking together and using each other to find lift as we move over Winter Haven. The distance between thermals is less than 5 km. We are flying over built up areas with just a few landing areas but with plenty of lift we don't consider the ground below.

Lots of lakes below, of course, but not many indicators of lift with the light winds. Just south of Winter Haven we climb at 300 fpm to 5,100'. I'm near the top of the gaggle now after playing catch up the whole flight. I head off with Bruno Sandoli and one other pilot. We are soon in the lead overall.

There are mostly open fields ahead and we are 23 kilometers from the edge of the 22 km turnpoint cylinder around Avon Park to the south. We expect to find lift quickly and perhaps get away from the rest of the gaggle.

This doesn't work out. We glide for twelve kilometers without finding a bump. I see Sandoli turning to the west and down to 1,600' I go under him, but find only sink. I head further south as I don't see him head north and start rising and down to 800' AGL find 50 fpm to 1,600'. I stick with this for 15 minutes then it improves to almost 300 fpm climbing for the next ten minutes to 4,300' over possible landing areas.

I go from being in front to being behind. But it is quite exciting to be so close to landing and being able to climb in weak lift for so long.

There are a couple of gaggles just ahead hovering around the turnpoint at the cylinder edge. I'll have to work some lift to be able to get high enough to come in to goal behind them.

Thirty pilots in goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|John Simon|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 1:

Sport Task 1:

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Too windy on Saturday

US Nationals 2019|weather

At Leesburg Airport to our north:

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

The day was cancelled by the Safety Committee and Director.

The second week starts on Sunday. The forecast is for good weather with light winds.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Rain day, Friday

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Georgia

Bobby Bailey|Christian Ciech|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|PG|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|weather

The flight:

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/18.4.2019/16:37

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2247267

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190419&gliderclass=hg1

The Thursday forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 89. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface wind 10 mph, south southeast

RAP 13, noon:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Wind TOUL: 19 mph, south southeast
B/S: 3.8
Surface winds 9 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, south
B/S: 5.3
Surface winds 10 mph south
A good chance of cu’s.
Strong upper level winds. Convergence over highway 301 to Vidalia, Georgia

The earlier winds make for a few timid pilots at first. David Fynn, the Safety Director measures 7 - 11 gusting to 14 mph. The report from the Leesburg Airport to the north is consistent with that with the wind decreasing from 14 mph to 10 mph by 1 PM.

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

Despite the earlier whining, the pilots get in line and start to launch. It is a little rough coming out of the field, but I've launched here to the south southeast in 22 mph winds and it was fine.

Bobby Bailey takes me south to 2,000' AGL in a 14 mph south wind. He drops me in lift and I climb at 160 fpm to 4,100' and cloud base. We climbed again to cloud base just to the northwest of Groveland within the 10 kilometer start cylinder. As we get near cloudbase we head out. It's Tullio, Larry Bunner, Andrew Hollidge, Guilherme Sandoli, and I. Larry gets low by Grass Roots trying to get his radio working.

Andrew and I do a bunch of the pulling as we head northwest along the Turnpike toward the 5km turnpoint cylinder around Coleman. I keep leaving when the lift gets weak. None of the thermals average over 200 fpm until we get north of the Turnpike next to the turnpoint where we climb back to cloud base.

Northeast of Wildwood I find 300 fpm to 4,800'. Always leaving well below cloud base as the lift peters out. Tullio gets out in front and leads us up highway 301 to the north toward the next turnpoint at the state prison northwest of Starke.

I can't spot Tullio as he is too low on the west side of the Villages quite a ways east of highway 301. I leave Guilherme and Andrew and lead out on my own. I can see them, turning 5 km behind me. The lift is between 200 and 300 fpm.

I pass Tullio and head for a dark cu southeast of Leeward airfield. The thermal is almost 300 fpm as is the next one at the Leeward airfield. I climb to 4,600'. Tullio is back out in front along 301 over east Ocala, a tricky spot with few landing options. We've left everyone else behind.

Tullio gets too low in this poor area and lands.

I fly over the Ocala National Forest and the Silver Springs Conservation area east of 301 toward good looking cu's. I keep heading north northeast off the course line to stay under cu's. I've never gone this far east before on this course. I'm nine kilometers to the east of the course line but it's blue a long the course line.

Suan, Kevin Carter, and Rudy are about 10 km to 20 km behind as I come up east of Orange Lake and far from the paved highway.

Southeast of Hawthorne and ten kilometers east of Lochloosa Lake and at 5,200' I change direction heading north west toward more cu's that are now conveniently closer to the course line. I need to get around the west side of Keystone airfield to stay out of restricted airspace to the north of it.

Northeast of Hawthorne I find a thermal at almost 300 fpm and leave that at 4,800' still climbing but slowly. Southwest of Lake Santa Fe I find over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan has caught me from behind and is just over me. He heads out in front and I follow.

He marks strong lift 12 kilometers south of Stark next to 301. We are well west of the restricted airspace. I climb at a little over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan is way out in front but goes down by the turnpoint at the prison just before a huge expanse of forested lands. I work the cu's northwest of Starke and climb to 5,500' before turning north northwest toward the 2 km turnpoint cylinder around the prison.

Guilherne and Andrew are about 5 km behind near Starke. Kevin Carter, Rudy, Richard Lovelace and Christian Ciech are just behind them another 5 to 10 km.

I make the turnpoint and find 240 fpm right away to 4,800'. It's 4:45 pm. Every where I look to the north northeast I see forested lands, with patches of clear cuts and sand roads. The cu's are to the west of the course line and I head for them. There is only lift under the cu's and it is blue to the northeast. I have every desire to stay up and not land out in the middle of nowhere with bad road access.

I climb at 210 fpm southwest of Macclenney over open fields three kilometers west of the course line. To get under the next cu's I have to turn further to the north northwest to climb at 180 fpm to 4,700'. I'm now 6 km west of the course line. Guilherme comes in 2,000' below me.

Andrew has made a turn to go to the east to get back on the course line and is flying over the Saint Mary river heading north toward the turnpoint at Saint George while I follow the clouds. I wonder if he found a cu out there.

Rudy and Kevin are west of Macclenny and turning to the northeast to get toward the course line. Guilherme and I have crossed the river and are well into into Georgia and he is flying low over clear cuts and forests. I'm staying as high as possible.

I climb to 5,300' drifting a bit with the 16 mph south southwest wind, somewhat closer to the course line. Reasonable landing fields are 12 kilometers to the east. I can't really see them even when I'm at 5,300'. The only other options to my east are rough cut clear cuts.

As I get down to 2,500' I head toward pasture lands to the northwest just in case and find 200 fpm to 4,800' Guilherme is low under me and over the clear cuts. I turn northeast to leave the cu's behind but head toward the turnpoint as I'm about to be blown past it. It seems to me that I will not find any lift in that direction. I see Guilherme land in a clear cut by highway 94.

Behind me Rudy and Kevin with Jonny Durand behind them have made the leap to the northeast. I can see cu's in that direction but they seem far too far away. Maybe not. Andrew has landed after ticking the turnpoint at Saint George. I don't like the landing prospects on highway 94 (that's a mistake) and head for what looks like a farm to the east northeast.

It turns out to be nothing and I, like Guilherme, have to land in a clear cut off a sand road just slightly northwest of the turnpoint a little after 6 PM. My driver does a heroic job as we communicate over the phone navigating six miles in over slippery sand roads.

Nene, Jonny and Olav land a little to the south of me. Rudy and Kevin find lift and able able to make it into goal on a final glide from about 20 kilometers out. They are the only ones to make it.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2672#

Task 4:

Cumulative:

Sport Task 4:

Sport Cumulative:

Warnings:

Penalties:

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, preliminary results

Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

Task 4:

Cumulative:

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

The milk run to Williston

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/17.4.2019/17:09

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2246689

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

The sky is full, really full of dark cu's. Such a great promise for the day. We are excited to go to Williston, 110 kilometers to the northwest. The forecast is for an east wind at 14 mph, so it will be a cross wind task.

I'm pulled up early and pin off at 1,800' in 300+ fpm to cloud base at 4,600'. Unlike on Tuesday when we all crowded together there is lift every where and no need to get in each others way. It's perfectly pleasant to fly around and stick at cloudbase. And that's just what we all do.

The wind is blowing at least 12 if not 18 mph out of the east, so we keep tracking back up wind to not get blown out of the start cylinder. Six minutes before the 2 PM start window a bunch of us head to the northeast east of Groveland over highway 50 thinking we'll be in a good position for a start, up wind of the course line.

Only a few pilots take the 2 pm start time, not doubt one of them being Suan. The rest of us wait for the second start time at 2:20 PM and take it downwind of the course line, just east of Mascotte. Oh, well.

There are plenty of pilots, but no crowding. Finding the first lift is a bit of a core and some pilots find great lift, while many of us work 200 fpm west of Grass Roots. The field splits up. Finally Larry and I find 300 fpm to 5,000' northeast of Center Hill and race to the next thermal.

It's only 200 fpm and there are a good number of pilots out in front of us and leave with 4,300'. I'm out in front of Larry but there are half a dozen pilot heading for the 5 km turnpoint around Baron ahead of me.

Larry sees me falling fast goes left and finds 400 fpm behind me. I don't go back to him. I take the turnpoint at 2,600' and continue falling heading to the northwest along the Turnpike. I'm down to 1,100' AGL before I find the weak lift (155 fpm) over a new housing development. The wind is 13 mph from the east southeast and I'm drifting with the thermal for four kilometers getting to only 3,200'.

With lots of cu's around I head north but it's 6 kilometers before I find lift at 1,400' AGL. Again it's weak at 155 fpm on average, and I climb with a few other pilots to 3,200' once again before leaving.

I head out to the north northeast to get under some fast moving cu's over sun lit fields then spot pilots turning to my west. I join them and we go up at almost 400 fpm to 5,000'.

I head out over Marion Oaks but I'm down to 1,600' on the west side before big open fields to the west. I want to grab a thermal on the east side of the open fields as I would rather drift over them than over the treed area to the north and west. The wind is still blowing east southeast at 13 mph.

I find 300+ fpm and climb back to 5,000', cloud base. This gets me over the Florida Greenway and the populated areas to the northwest and to another nice thermal averaging 400 fpm to 5,400' again cloudbase. I'm just southeast of the optimized point on the 7 km turnpoint cylinder around the Dunnellon airfield and southwest of the Ocala airspace.

After taking the turnpoint I head north toward the next cu's and climb to 4,200', 21 km from goal. It looks like I might be able to make it. I get a 20 to 1 glide but 10 km from goal I'm down to 2,200' and it looks like it might be iffy. There is a dark cloud ahead but it is shading all the ground under and to the east of it along my course line. I'm thinking that maybe I won't find any lifting air there.

I turn upwind to the east to get over sunlit fields and find 100 fpm from 1,400' back to 2,500'. That's all I can get so I go on glide to find a nice tail wind and a 14:1 glide to goal.

Many happy pilots at goal. It was great how Suan took most of the available non distance points. Zac and Jonny tied. Mick Howard, who towed pilots up on his trike, launched his hang glider after the Sport Class launch and made it within 16 kilometers of goal.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 4, task 3, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mark Dowsett|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

What a day. Suan starts early (first clock) and smokes the fields taking huge chunks of the speed, leading and arrival time points.

Task 3:

Cumulative:

All three women made goal. Sara made goal on her Sport 3.

Task 3 sport: