Flytec
Wills Wing

Oz Report

topic: A.I.R. Atos VR

167 articles, page:  1 

From Paraglider to ⁢ATOS VR »

Expanding

Wed, Sep 1 2021, 7:39:07 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|PG|video

https://youtu.be/aNAnWqwj8vc

Starrflügelmeisterschaft 2021 Bösingen - Final »

Felix Ruhle was flying in the competition also

Sun, Aug 1 2021, 10:19:30 am MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Conrad Loten|Starrflü

https://www.dhv.de/home-deutsch/piloteninfos/wettbewerb-sport/drachen-szene/live-berichte/starrfluegel-cup-deutsche-starrfluegelmeisterschaft-2021-boesingen/

Task 3: https://www.dhv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2021/07/Starrfluegelcup/SC2021-T3.html

One in goal.

Final results:

https://www.dhv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2021/07/Starrfluegelcup/SC2021-O.html

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Rafael Burri Atos Vx 822.8 152.2 521.2 1496
2 Jochen Zeyher Atos Vr 997.2 162.5 152.4 1312
3 Alfred Mayer Atos Vrq 966.4 94.0 247.1 1308
4 Lothar Braun Atos Vq Race 795.6 71.0 440.5 1307
5 Andreas Kimmich Atos Vr Plus 915.5 75.2 291.8 1283
6 Bernd Weist Atos Vx 759.9 83.2 389.1 1232
7 Toni Raumauf Atos Vr 760.7 166.5 284.0 1211
8 Diether Beck Atos Vr 857.0 71.0 238.6 1167
9 Peter Friedemann Atos Vr 765.6 71.0 321.4 1158
10 Felix Rühle Atos Vr Plus 589.4 71.0 493.4 1154

Starrflügelmeisterschaft 2021 Bösingen »

German rigid wing competition

July 30, 2021, 3:18:15 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Conrad Loten

https://www.dhv.de/home-deutsch/piloteninfos/wettbewerb-sport/drachen-szene/live-berichte/starrfluegel-cup-deutsche-starrfluegelmeisterschaft-2021-boesingen/

Task 1 (July 29th):

https://www.dhv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2021/07/Starrfluegelcup/SC2021-T1.html

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jochen Zeyher Atos VR 01:27:38 997.2
2 Alfred Mayer Atos VRQ 01:29:59 966.4
3 Andreas Kimmich Atos VR Plus 01:35:12 915.5
4 Dirk Ripkens Atos VRQ 01:38:51 883.8
5 Diether Beck Atos VR 01:42:06 857.0
6 Norbert Kirchner Atos VQ race 01:43:38 844.7
7 Rafael Burri Atos VX 01:46:26 822.8
8 Lothar Braun Atos VQ race 01:50:00 795.6
9 Peter Friedemann Atos VR 01:54:03 765.6
10 Toni Raumauf Atos VR 01:54:43 760.7

Task 2 (July 30th):

https://www.dhv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2021/07/Starrfluegelcup/SC2021-T2.html

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Richard Herzog Atos VR 64.22 185.7
2 Konrad Baumgartner Atos VRS Light 60.37 178.3
3 Toni Raumauf Atos VR 54.29 166.5
4 Jochen Zeyher Atos VR 52.17 162.5
5 Rafael Burri Atos VX 47.59 152.2
6 Jürgen Rüdinger Atos VR 29.56 123.4
7 Wolfgang Hauber Atos VQ 15.84 101.1
8 Rainer Thieringer Atos VQ race 14.31 98.2
9 Holger Hueneke Atos VR 13.79 96.9
10 Ralf Thieringer Atos VR 13.73 96.8

Cumulative:

https://www.dhv.de/fileadmin/user_upload/files/2021/07/Starrfluegelcup/SC2021-O.html

# Name Glider Total
1 Jochen Zeyher Atos VR 1160
2 Alfred Mayer Atos VRQ 1060
3 Andreas Kimmich Atos VR Plus 991
4 Rafael Burri Atos VX 975
5 Dirk Ripkens Atos VRQ 955
6 Diether Beck Atos VR 928
7 Toni Raumauf Atos VR 927
8 Norbert Kirchner Atos VQ race 916
9 Lothar Braun Atos VQ race 867
10 Rainer Thieringer Atos VQ race 84

Open Annecy 2021- French & Czech Championship

June 12-18, 2021

June 13, 2021, 1:14:28 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Christian Ciech|competition|Davide Guiducci|Open Annecy 2021|Wills Wing T3

https://airtribune.com/open-annecy-2021/results

Task 1: No idea why it wasn't published on the results page. Christian easily won the day.

Task 2: Results only for open class published

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Mario Alonzi Aeros Combat 12.7 C 02:30:14 1000.0
2 Manuel Revelli Icaro Laminar 02:31:01 975.4
3 Francois Isoard Aeros combat GT 12,7 02:31:29 961.5
4 Dan Vyhnalik Aeros Combat 12.7 C 02:31:54 957.9
5 Lorenzo De Grandis Icaro z9 02:34:47 939.6
6 Laurent Thevenot Aeros Combat gt 13.5 02:35:10 939.0
7 Gregoire David Icaro 2000 Laminar Z9 02:35:57 924.7
8 Davide Guiducci Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.2 02:45:11 878.5
9 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 02:56:46 827.8
10 Jean-Marc Rousselet Wills Wing T3 03:09:18 793.5

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Mario Alonzi Aeros Combat 12.7 C 877.9 1000.0 1878
2 Dan Vyhnalik Aeros Combat 12.7 C 901.8 957.9 1860
3 Manuel Revelli Icaro Laminar 879.4 975.4 1855
4 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 1000.0 827.8 1828
5 Francois Isoard Aeros combat GT 12,7 858.6 961.5 1820
6 Gregoire David Icaro 2000 Laminar Z9 872.9 924.7 1798
7 Lorenzo De Grandis Icaro z9 790.4 939.6 1730
8 Laurent Thevenot Aeros Combat gt 13.5 725.5 939.0 1665
9 Davide Guiducci Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.2 757.7 878.5 1636
10 Stanislav Trebeška A.I.R. Atos VR 746.5 400.4 1147

Discuss "Open Annecy 2021- FRENCH & CZECH Championship" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2019 – Nick Collins wins XC League with 8th September Triangle

Thu, Dec 17 2020, 1:30:55 am GMT

A story that was a little late from the UK

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Neville Almond|XC

Neville Almond writes:

Okay, so the write up is a bit late, but Nick really deserves a mention for this late season flight which gave him the 2019 XCL title. Long deserved; I've known Nick for 40 years and he has all the skills to fly at Worlds level but he's just a bit laid back. I always enjoy flying with Nick – not just the XC's we do, but the fast/low stuff that we probably shouldn't talk about here.

What was special is that the 8th Sept looked like the last good triangle day of 2019, and Nick and I were sitting at 2nd/1st positions both had around 1,200 XC league points, so whoever made the best of the day would win the annual title. Nick, of course, was blissfully unaware, but it would have been disingenuous to not point it out after which he looked a tad more serious.

Given how close we were, I suggested we shouldn't actually tell each other what we intend to do; that way we just go out and 'fly the day' independently and the winner takes all. Just to spice the day up, it was one of those 'slow start' days (not good until after midday), and signs of shutting down from 4:30pm (remember this point).

We set triangles in completely opposite directions, plus at launch (Malvern Aerotow) we were 2 launches apart so we had absolutely no idea visually (as well as tactically) where the other was. My triangle is the red trace, Nicks the yellow, both flown anticlockwise. Mine was slightly shorter to coincide with the day shutting down at 4:30.

By 4:15, I was gliding back to close the triangle at Malvern Aerotow, see the straight line (plan view) and descent (barogram). The sky was filling in with some OD, getting quite scaggy. Landing at 4:30 and scanning the sky, I felt quietly confident I'd judged the day right in a now very unappealing sky.

Nearing 5pm, there was quite of lot of interest in where Nick was; over 10 of us gathering, speculating, and using what I could see of the sky I explained to Jo (Nick's wife) the two areas that would be the only places he has half a chance of staying aloft. On pointing to one area, and quite a few miles away, amazingly we could actually see someone – probably Nick! This generated a flurry of excitement on the airfield, but it was also a desperate view – look at the low point on the barogram at 5pm, this is what I'm sure we saw, also annotated on the map. With Nick only just visible above the horizon at say 4~5 miles away, it didn't look good.

We then lost sight of Nick; anybody with a flying mentality could see that the prognosis was not good.

What a spectacle half an hour later when the shiny AIR Atos VR whistled across Croft Farm (Malvern aerotow); hats off, he'd made it back, and was a very worthy winner of the 2019 XC League. Just look at the last 1.5 hrs on that barogram, you can see the day falling away (just as forecast), yet with determination Nick squeezed everything out of it.

Sorry Nick, a long deserved mention and write up. Looking forward to more in 2021

Discuss "2019 – Nick Collins wins XC League with 8th September Triangle" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Towing Training

On an ATOS VR+

Towing Training

December 2, 2020, 8:10:08 EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Facebook|video

Steve Young writes:

https://www.facebook.com/ozreport/posts/10159098590271085

One tiny advantage of this lockdown and working from home is you get time to go through the GoPro films and edit them. Here is a video of my aero towing flying this year with my Atos VR+. I have used the video as a coaching video for flex wings and rigids. As everything applies to both.

It can be so much fun when it is difficult

It can be pretty exciting

It can be so much fun when it is difficult

March 18, 2020, 8:04:40 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|John Simon|Wilotree Park

We engaged in more social distancing on Tuesday.

The task was to go back and forth west and east to the north and then return. The forecast was for a 5 to 6 mph east wind.

I was off first and found weak lift low and hung on until Greg, who was towed up second, pointed out a twirl on the pond a little to the south. That produced almost 300 fpm to 4,000'.

The sky had been full of cu's for hours before we took off around 1 PM. There were plenty to the west and I followed Greg in that direction. Larry had come in under us, but was struggling back at the flight park.

The clouds were not well defined but very fuzzy. I was able to find 100 fpm in a thermal four kilometers to the west but only to 3,600'. The thermals were just not compact and strong enough and it was unclear it was possible to find good lift.

The next two circling episodes averaged negative amounts of lift. I headed for a better looking cloud at the eastern edge of the Green Swamp and was down to 1,700' with some possible landing areas nearby. Since I now really had to just stay up I took what was available and climbed at 125 fpm for 17 minutes to 4,000'. The 7 mph wind pushed me to the north.

Larry and Greg were out ahead of me about nine kilometers and John was not too far behind. I was happy just to still be in the air.

I headed west over highway 50. After four kilometers I was able to climb at 100 fpm to 3,300'. Everything was still very iffy. I was five kilometers away from the turnpoint at Terry Town, the lumber mill.

There was a big cu in that direction but as I came under it, it didn't produce any lift. I kept going toward the lumber yard. I was quickly down to 600' AGL.

There was no lift over the lumber yard as I came over it. I was checking out the two big fields just to the north of the highway, one with cattle that I had landed in before.

I spotted a vulture below circling very low over a sawdust pile. I went back east to get over him and got a little over zero sink. After a five minutes I gained about two hundred feet and then the birds left and headed a little west to where more birds were circling. I followed.

There was about 100 fpm there and I climbed up with the birds well below me.  I climbed to 1,350' before I lost the thermal. Searching around back to the east I found 265 fpm and was very happy to climb out of this sink hole getting to over 4,000'.  When you're low your options are so circumscribes and the horizon is very limited. As you rise up the possibilities become unlimited.

There was a good looking cloud to the east over the sand mine south of Center Hill. I got there at 2,200'. The lift averaged 240 fpm to 4,400'. A pilot flying what looked like a very new and special ATOS VR came in with me, thankfully below me.

From cloud base I headed toward the Grass Roots airfield. I heard that John, Larry and Greg were there getting up. When I was four kilometers from the turnpoint Larry said that he would heading back to Wilotree Park instead of to the next turnpoint at Cheryl to the west. There was a layer of cirrus clouds that blocked out the sun all around us.

We all agreed to head southeast back to Wilotree Park. For me there was a cloud street all the way back. I called out good lift and location to John Simon when I got near the chicken coops. He came in low as he had been on the third leg, but found sufficient lift even low near where I was. Later he would find 300 fpm near the coops.

I was ten kilometers out and it looked like I could make it back. I was at about 1,100' AGL almost two kilometers out and looking like I would make it, when I ran into lots of lift that just kept happening.

Now the problem was getting down. It took ten minutes to get down from 1,300' with multiple circles around the flight park finding areas of sink. Everyone made it back.

Open Internacional Vila d'Àger

Ager Open

Open Internacional Vila d'Àger

August 20, 2019, 6:15:04 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|competition|Facebook|Gerolf Heinrichs|Moyes Litespeed RX

https://airtribune.com/openager2019/results

Alexandra Serebrennikova writes:

The first day of Ager Open has begun with a 100% overcast and the cloud base of 1000 m which is about 350 m lower than the take of, however the long wait was then finally rewarded by a more or less classical zigizagi late task with a jump to the Tremp Lake. Gerolf was the first in goal.

Task 1:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 01:35:39 1000
2 Stephen Penfold GBR Moyes Rx 4 01:38:38 943
3 Frank Ruiz ESP Wills Wing T2C 144 C 01:58:17 815
4 Daniel Martin Mota ESP Wills Wing T2C 144 01:58:11 791
5 Ataulfo J Fernandez Montero ESP Wills Wing T2C 144 02:00:45 760
6 Tim King GBR AIR Atos VR18 02:00:57 650
7 Mike Armstrong GBR AIR ATOS VQ 02:16:39 589

Dutch Open 2019 »

Started on Sunday

Dutch Open 2019

June 17, 2019, 2:52:45 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR

http://www.avda.nl/NK2019/Kandel/

Task 1 Results:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Gijs Wanders Wills Wing T2C 01:28:33 685
1 Arne Tanzer Icaro Laminar 14.1 01:28:36 685
3 Mindaugas Morkunas Moyes RX4 01:44:52 561
4 Roland Wöhrle Moyes Moyes RX 3.5 01:57:12 523
5 Paul Engelen Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:03:06 468
6 Anne Conijn 02:34:05 377
7 Tim King ATOS VR18 02:03:23 342

Big Spring 2008 »

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

Big Spring 2008

June 10, 2019, 6:41:19 MDT

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

Task 2, 2008-08-03, flexible

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

Task 2, 2008-08-03, rigid

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

XXII Open de Canarias

Tiny flights

XXII Open de Canarias

December 6, 2018, 7:48:46 pm EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Christian Pollet|competition|Icaro 2000|Joseph Salvenmoser|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Thomas Weissenberger

Thursday, December 6th

https://airtribune.com/xxii-open-de-canarias/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 17.96 154
2 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 14.87 135
3 Carlos Punet AIR ATOS VQ Race 17.84 130
4 Wolfgang Brunner Moyes Litespeed RX 10.06 112
5 Phill Bloom Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 9.94 111
6 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat GT 12.7 9.66 110
7 Joseph Salvenmoser Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 9.39 108
8 Tormod Helgesen Moyes Litespeed RX 4 9.03 105
9 Manuel Garcia garcia Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 8.92 104
9 Benito Rodriguez Gonzalez Wills Wing T2C 144 8.99 104

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 0 3 611 135 749
2 Christian Pollet Aeros Combat C 0 3 585 72 660
3 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 0 4 472 154 630
4 Joseph Salvenmoser Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 0 3 511 108 622
5 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat GT 12.7 0 0 489 110 599
6 Manuel Garcia garcia Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 0 3 477 104 584
7 Gustavo Migliozzi Wills Wing T2C 144 0 3 481 72 556
8 Juan Antonio Molina Vera AIR Atos VR 0 3 368 94 465
9 Tormod Helgesen Moyes Litespeed RX 4 0 3 354 105 462

22nd Open de Canarias

Wed, Dec 5 2018, 12:36:50 am GMT

Two actual tasks

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Christian Pollet|competition|Icaro 2000|Joseph Salvenmoser|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Thomas Weissenberger

Tuesday, December 4th

https://airtribune.com/xxii-open-de-canarias/results

The 3rd task (actually the second):

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 01:08:08 31.90 611
2 Christian Pollet Aeros Combat C 01:12:27 31.90 585
3 Joseph Salvenmoser Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 31.26 511
4 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat GT 12.7 30.08 489
5 Gustavo Migliozzi Wills Wing T2C 144 29.37 481
6 Manuel Garcia garcia Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 29.46 477
7 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 27.98 472
8 Juan Antonio Molina Vera AIR Atos VR 19.50 368
9 Cyro Lopez Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 19.57 367
10 Joerg Bajewski Willls Wing T2C 154 18.53 356

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 0 3 611 614
2 Christian Pollet Aeros Combat C 0 3 585 588
3 Joseph Salvenmoser Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 0 3 511 514
4 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat GT 12.7 0 0 489 489
5 Gustavo Migliozzi Wills Wing T2C 144 0 3 481 484
6 Manuel Garcia garcia Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 0 3 477 480
7 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar Z09 0 4 472 476
8 Juan Antonio Molina Vera AIR Atos VR 0 3 368 371
9 Cyro Lopez Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Pro 0 3 367 370
10 Joerg Bajewski Willls Wing T2C 154 0 3 356 359

Discuss "22nd Open de Canarias" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Comparing the ATOS VR to the Aeros and Moyes gliders

Fred Kaemerer asks me to include his ATOS

Comparing the ATOS VR to the Aeros and Moyes gliders

October 5, 2018, 8:28:47 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|competition|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

https://ozreport.com/22.198#0

Three gliders come in close together on the third day.

https://ozreport.com/22.188

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Fred on his AIR ATOS VR is the red line.

Here's Fred's final glide:

He flies at 57 mph and gets a 14.1 glide.

Robin's final glide:

He flies at 54 mph and gets a 13.3 final glide.

Jonny's final glide

He flies at 50 mph and gets a 12.3 final glide.

Fred starts after Robin and Jonny and beats Jonny to goal.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day 3 Cumulative Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 19, 2018, 8:23:10 MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Ben Dunn|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Sara Weaver|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Open class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 789 891 937 2617
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 985 987 616 2588
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 806 996 527 2329
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 734 765 727 2226
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 512 839 777 2128
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 944 606 531 2081
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 919 228 931 2078
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 946 602 510 2058
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 823 585 542 1950
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 850 518 487 1855
11 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 726 576 538 1840
12 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 766 816 240 1822
13 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 708 235 860 1803
14 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 448 630 652 1730
15 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 752 585 390 1727

Sport Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Matt Pruett Wills Wing U2 145 1000 775 41 1816
2 David Aldrich Wills Wing Sport 3 135 458 757 66 1281
3 L.J. Omara Wills wing U2 160 458 500 60 1018
4 Ric Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 753 197 41 991
5 Jeff Parrott Wills Wing U2 145 624 310 49 983
6 Bill Snyder Wills Wing u2 440 456 41 937
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport3 135 618 230 41 889
8 Abhishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 643 179 57 879
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 427 405 41 873
10 Bill Comstock Wills Wing S3 458 170 41 669

ATOS Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Fred Kaemerer AIR ATOS VR 1000 1000 925 2925
2 Peter Cairns A.I.R ATOS VQ 676 380 411 1467
3 Rich Burton Icaro Stratos 594 325 78 997

Swift Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 991 964 990 2945
2 Greg Chastain Swift 773 1000 986 2759
3 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 951 682 0 1633
4 Stephen Morris Bright Star Swift 287 220 672 1179

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day 3 Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 18, 2018, 9:25:14 pm MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS Time Distance Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 14:00:00 02:18:17 81.04 937
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 14:00:00 02:19:01 81.04 931
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 14:20:00 02:20:29 81.04 860
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 14:00:00 02:42:56 81.04 777
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 14:20:00 02:51:07 81.04 727
6 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 14:20:00 03:24:30 81.04 652
7 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 14:00:00   72.00 616
8 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 14:00:00   69.79 571
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 14:00:00   65.00 542
10 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 14:00:00   65.00 538
11 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:20:00   64.97 531
12 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 14:20:00   63.86 527
13 Peter Suchanek Wills Wing T2C 136 14:00:00   62.76 512
14 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 14:20:00   63.45 510
15 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 14:00:00   59.07 487

Cumulative results haven't been posted yet. Kate, the scorekeeper, is likely fixing earlier results.

Fred Kaemerer, flying the latest tricked out version of the ATOS VR, won the day and it looks like he is leading over all.

The Swift results aren't final for the day as there is no score for Brian.

The Sport Class had a tough day with David Aldrich wining but only going 13.83 km.

Monte Cucco International Trophy 2018 »

I guess they are not flying tomorrow or until next year

Monte Cucco International Trophy 2018

August 13, 2018, 1:24:22 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Davide Guiducci|Facebook|Marco Laurenzi|photo|Thomas Weissenberger|Tullio Gervasoni

https://www.vololiberomontecucco.it/vlmc/index.php/it/competitions/classifiche-results

https://www.vololiberomontecucco.it/Cucco2018/results/OVERALL_class1.html

https://airtribune.com/hang-gliding-russian-cup-2018/blog

Class 1:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alex Ploner Icaro 2000 Laminar 2792
2 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000 Laminar 2759
3 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 2455
4 Karl Reichegger Icaro Laminar 2320
5 Tullio Gervasoni Wills Wing T2C 144 C 2260
6 Evgen Lysenko Aeros Combat 12.4C 2196
7 Davide Guiducci Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.2 2014
8 Guenther Pfanzelter Icaro 2000 Laminar 1718
9 Anton Moroder Icaro 2000 Laminar 13 1709
10 Valentino Bau Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 1705

https://www.vololiberomontecucco.it/Cucco2018/results/OVERALL_sport.html

Sport Class:

# Name Glider Total
1 Sergio Conte Icaro 2000 MasteR 1994
2 Luca Belli Icaro 2000 Orbiter 1782
3 Wierzbowski Pawel Bautek FIZZ SE 1283
4 Andrea Fusi Icaro 2000 Orbiter 937
5 Fabio Caresi Icaro 2000 MastR 896

https://www.vololiberomontecucco.it/Cucco2018/results/OVERALL_class5.html

Air ATOS class:

# Name Glider Total
1 Federico Baratto Air Atos vq race 2793
2 Daniele Bindi Air Atos VX 1840
3 Konrad Baumgartner Air Atos VQ 1293
4 Gorio Mandozzi Air Atos VR 591

Marco Laurenzi

Marco Laurenzi coming into goal on the last day. Looks like he got a new glider.

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

Results from day six, task 4

Fri, Apr 20 2018, 11:58:13 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Andrey Solomykin|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Richard Lovelace|Sara Weaver|Zac Majors

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

Task 4:

Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 13:30:00 16:09:48 02:39:48 877
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 14:10:00 16:34:49 02:24:49 860
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Ww T2C 144 13:50:00 16:34:55 02:44:55 729
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 13:50:00 16:35:06 02:45:06 729
5 Malcolm Brown Wills Wing T2C 144 13:50:00 16:36:11 02:46:11 720
6 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 13:50:00 16:41:14 02:51:14 694
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 13:30:00 16:34:49 03:04:49 687
8 Carl Wallbank Moyes RX 3.5 13:30:00 16:35:00 03:05:00 685
9 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.1 13:30:00 16:35:01 03:05:01 681
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 13:50:00 16:43:49 02:53:49 675
11 Krzysztof Grzyb Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 13:50:00 16:43:53 02:53:53 674
12 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 13:30:00 16:35:06 03:05:06 673
13 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 13:30:00 16:37:22 03:07:22 646
14 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 13:30:00 16:45:08 03:15:08 620
15 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T2C 144 Carbon 13:30:00 16:46:58 03:16:58 614

Sport Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 James Race Wills Wing U2 160 01:38:00 985
2 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 155 01:40:33 935
3 Makbule Baldik Le Fay Aeros Discus 13B 01:46:14 866
4 Andrey Solomykin Aeros Discus 14 01:50:45 822
5 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 01:53:08 801
6 Charles Cozean Wills Wing U2 145 01:55:33 781
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:56:02 777
8 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 01:58:43 756
9 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing U2 145 01:59:53 747
10 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 02:00:18 744
11 Ricardo Ricky Wills Wing T2C 01:37:41 700
12 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 02:18:14 622

Rigid task 4:

# Name Glider Sponsor Time Distance Total
1 Fred Kaemerer Air Atos Vr Air Usa 03:03:53 126.60 995
2 Patrick Ruber A-I-R Atos Vr A-I-R 03:04:08 126.60 992
3 James Yocom Air Atos Vr 10 My Beautiful Wife! 75.82 326

Rigid final results (they all left early Saturday morning):

# Name Glider Total
1 Patrick Ruber A-I-R Atos Vr 2509
2 Fred Kaemerer Air Atos Vr 2263
3 James Yocom Air Atos Vr 10 1875

Rigid 100 km triangle world record

Homologated

Rigid 100 km triangle world record

January 13, 2017, 8:17:35 EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

FAI Records <<record>> sends:

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 100 km
Course/location : Zapata, TX (USA)
Performance : 51.51 km/h
Pilot : Benjamin Herring (USA)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date : June 28th, 2016
Previous record : 46.3 km/h (10.01.2008 - Jean-François Violette, France)

A bunch of records

Hang glider and paraglider

A bunch of records

August 22, 2016, 9:29:59 MST -0600

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Anton Raumauf|PG|record

FAI sends:

FAI has ratified the following Class O (Hang Gliding and Paragliding) World records  :
================================================
Sub-class : O-5 / HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.
Category : General
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Gain of height
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia) - Helmeringhausen (Namibia)
Performance : 4359 m
Pilot : Anton Raumauf (Austria)
Aircraft : Atos / AIR
Date : 03.01.2016
Previous record : 3 820  m (05.08.1985 - Rainer M. Scholl, Germany)
================================================
and
================================================
Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Deniliquin, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 366.00 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 2 / Ozone
Date : 09.12.2015
Previous record : 301.00 km (02.11.2015 - Keiko Hiraki, Japan)
  ================================================
and
================================================
Claim number : 17780
Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Straight distance
Course/location : Deniliquin, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 402.00 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 2 / Ozone
Date : 09.12.2015
Previous record : 395.00 km (03.11.2015 - Nicole Fedele, Italy)
================================================
and
================================================
Claim number : 17782
Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Deniliquin, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 378.00 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 2 / Ozone
Date : 14.12.2015
Previous record : 255.7 km (05.11.2010 - Nicole Fedele, Italy)
================================================
and
================================================
Claim number : 17784
Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : General
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Deniliquin, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 476,5 km
Pilot : Charles Cazaux (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 2 / Ozone
Date : 16.12.2015
Previous record : 285.4 km (19.10.2012 )
================================================
and
================================================
Sub-class : O-5 / HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.
Category : General
Group : Not applicable
Type of record : Out-and-return distance
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 408.90 km
Pilot : Carlos Puñet Pellisé (Spain)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date : 18.12.2015
Previous record : 372 km (09.01.2012 )

2016 European Championships »

A short task

Wed, Jul 27 2016, 3:13:37 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Christopher Friedl|European Championships 2016|Facebook|Moyes Litespeed RX|Petr Polach|Suan Selenati

After two non flying days a short task is called with iffy conditions. Many at goal:

Task 7 (rigids):

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Christopher Friedl Aut A.I.R. Atos VR10 03:09:49 1000
2 Tim Grabowski Ger A-I-R Atos-VQ 03:11:55 949
3 Norbert Kirchner Ger Air VQ Race 03:12:35 939
4 Wolfgang Kothgasser Aut Air Atos Vqrace 03:15:57 911
5 Luca Comino Ita A.I.R. Atos VQ 03:17:42 850
6 Jochen Zeyher Ger A-I-R Atos Vqr 03:32:21 794
7 Dirk Ripkens Ger Air Atos Vqr 03:33:23 767
8 Arnold Nadlinger Aut Atos Vr 03:32:44 760
9 Paul Harvey Gbr Air Atos Vrs 03:32:25 748
10 Shogo Ota Jpn Air Atosvr 03:34:27 731

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Tim Grabowski Ger A-I-R Atos-VQ 5639
2 Wolfgang Kothgasser Aut Air Atos Vqrace 5524
3 Christopher Friedl Aut A.I.R. Atos VR10 5383
4 Naoki Itagaki Jpn Air Atos VQ Race 4823
5 Norbert Kirchner Ger Air VQ Race 4784
6 Walter Geppert Aut Atos VR10 4399
7 Carlos Punet Esp A.I.R. Atos Vrt 4284
7 Luca Comino Ita A.I.R. Atos VQ 4284
9 Dirk Ripkens Ger Air Atos Vqr 3567
10 Shogo Ota Jpn Air Atosvr 3554

Task 6 (60 in goal):

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Ita Icaro 2000 Laminar 01:57:20 1000
2 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes RX5 01:57:51 952
3 Olav Opsanger Nor Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 01:57:58 949
4 Petr Benes Cze Aeros Combat 14.2 09 01:58:03 941
5 Fredy Bircher Sui Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 01:58:41 933
6 Evgen Lysenko Ukr Aeros Combat GT 12.7 01:58:50 918
7 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat 13.5 01:59:31 912
8 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar Z9 02:01:01 909
9 Petr Polach Cze Aeros Combat GT 13.5 02:00:58 893
10 Anton Struganov Rus Moyes Litespeed RX 02:01:44 885

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 T 6 Total
1 Christian Ciech Ita Icaro 2000 Laminar 879 742 996 981 994 1000 5592
2 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar Z9 915 940 969 982 853 909 5568
3 Peter Neuenschwander Sui Aeros Combat C 953 923 953 966 948 818 5561
4 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes RX5 954 719 880 973 985 952 5463
5 Grant Crossingham Gbr Moyes RX3.5 960 889 874 943 971 797 5434
6 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes RX4 802 886 887 734 913 866 5088
7 Petr Benes Cze Aeros Combat 14.2 09 917 569 899 768 983 941 5077
8 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat 13.5 970 762 676 779 963 912 5062
9 Antoine Boisselier Fra Icaro 2000 Laminar 976 536 959 835 898 827 5031
9 Suan Selenati Ita Wills Wing T2C 772 961 798 787 855 858 5031

Zac came in eleventh.

2016 European Championships »

Day five, task four for open class, five for rigids

Sat, Jul 23 2016, 3:22:45 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Christopher Friedl|competition|European Championships 2016|Facebook|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo|Primoz Gricar|Suan Selenati

https://airtribune.com/hgeu2016/results

British Hang Gliding Team at Goal:

Class five results:

Task 5, day 5:

# Name Glider Time km/h Total
1 Tim Grabowski A-I-R Atos-VQ 02:41:53 54.3 1000
2 Wolfgang Kothgasser Air Atos Vqrace 02:46:34 52.8 926
3 Naoki Itagaki Air Atos VQ Race 02:50:52 51.4 882
4 Christopher Friedl A.I.R. Atos VR10 03:03:34 47.9 762
5 Walter Geppert Atos VR10 03:09:02 46.5 730
6 Norbert Kirchner Air VQ Race 03:09:48 46.3 717
7 Franco Laverdino A.I.R. Atos Vr 2016 03:09:51 46.3 711
8 Carlos Punet A.I.R. Atos Vrt 03:09:58 46.3 708
9 Patrick Chopard Lallier A-I-R Atos Vr 11 03:13:34 45.4 686
10 Paul Harvey Air Atos Vrs 03:25:01 42.9 615

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Wolfgang Kothgasser Aut Air Atos Vqrace 3871
2 Tim Grabowski Ger A-I-R Atos-VQ 3690
3 Naoki Itagaki Jpn Air Atos VQ Race 3676
4 Christopher Friedl Aut A.I.R. Atos VR10 3455
5 Norbert Kirchner Ger Air VQ Race 3153
6 Walter Geppert Aut Atos VR10 3056
7 Carlos Punet Esp A.I.R. Atos Vrt 3027
8 Patrick Chopard Lallier Fra A-I-R Atos Vr 11 2997
9 Luca Comino Ita A.I.R. Atos VQ 2781
10 Richard Herzog Aut Air VQ Race 2647

Class 1:

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar Z9 03:08:42 982
2 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 03:08:48 981
3 Attila Bertok Moyes RX5 03:08:59 973
4 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat C 03:10:28 966
5 Grant Crossingham Moyes RX3.5 03:11:02 943
6 Tom Weissenberger Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technoraspok 03:13:15 926
7 Doenhuber Gerd Moyes RX3.5 2015 03:16:42 900
8 Primoz Gricar Aeros Combat 13,5°C 03:26:29 844
9 Antoine Boisselier Icaro 2000 Laminar 03:25:31 835
10 Franc Peternel Wills Wing T2C 03:34:18 790

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar Z9 3806
2 Peter Neuenschwander Sui Aeros Combat C 3795
3 Grant Crossingham Gbr Moyes RX3.5 3666
4 Christian Ciech Ita Icaro 2000 Laminar 3598
5 Franc Peternel Slo Wills Wing T2C 3544
6 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes RX5 3526
7 Endre Kovacs Hun Aeros Combat GT 13,5 3413
8 Primoz Gricar Ger Aeros Combat 13,5°C 3391
9 Suan Selenati Ita Wills Wing T2C 3318
10 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes RX4 3309

Alex and Christian fly together and end up first and second. Finally the Moyes pilots remember what they are flying. Zac takes the third start time and doesn't go that far. Thirty seven pilots make goal.

2016 European Championships »

Day one, rigid results

Wed, Jul 20 2016, 6:56:57 am MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|competition|European Championships 2016|Neville Almond

https://airtribune.com/hgeu2016/results

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Patrick Chopard Lallier m Fra A-I-R Atos Vr 11 02:15:32 525
2 Carlos Punet m Esp A.I.R. Atos Vrt 02:16:26 506
3 Luca Comino m Ita A.I.R. Atos VQ 02:43:33 437
4 Markus Hanfstängl m Ger Air Atos Vr 02:44:12 434
5 Neville Almond m Gbr Air Atos Vr+ 02:52:05 396
6 Dirk Ripkens m Ger Air Atos Vqr 02:54:47 391

100 km rigid wing triangle record claim

In Zapata

100 km rigid wing triangle record claim

July 12, 2016, 7:44:22 MST -0600

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 100 km
Course/location : Zapata, TX (USA)
Performance : 53.00 km/h
Pilot : Benjamin Herring (USA)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR powered by
Date : 28.06.2016
Current record : 46.3 km/h (10.01.2008 - Jean-François Violette, France)

Both World and North American

The IGC file here.

2016 Flatter than the Flatlands »

Day 4, I can't believe that they didn't handicap the ATOS

Flatter than the Flatlands

March 28, 2016, 8:53:40 EST -0400

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Flatter than the Flatlands 2016|Grant Heaney|Peter Lissenburg|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney writes:

Birchip flatter than the flatlands comp day 4. Made goal. Neale and Grant smoked it in. Felt great after yesterday's bomb out. Only a 38km task because of bad forecast and very overcast sky. Conditions was much better than expected. Super fun flight. 9 people made it. Scores will be tight in the top spot after Johannes coming first in the Atos ridged wing. Dalby next!

Final results:

http://www.sacra.biz/fttf/

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Johannnes Straub Atos VR 1000 628 945 562 3135
2 Peter Lissenburg Combat 917 428 887 600 2832
3 Neale Halsall RX 4 870 505 784 663 2822
4 Grant Heaney LS 3.5 927 501 760 617 2805
5 Andy Phillips Aeros 9T 07 889 219 432 529 2069
6 Tove Heaney RX 3 857 538 106 539 2040
7 Andy Schmidt C4 307 555 467 639 1968
8 Col Jackson Sting 3 168 427 428 626 456 1937
9 Stephen Norman Atos 464 446 305 553 1768
10 Mike Grimes Litespeed 564 447 502 226 1739

Namibia ATOS record claims

Two together

Namibia ATOS record claims

December 25, 2015, 8:20:44 EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

FAI sends:

Sub-class :O-5 (HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.)
Category: General
Type of record : Out-and-return distance
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 410.00 km
Pilot : Ralf Miederhoff (Germany)
Aircraft : Atos VQ / AIR
Date :18.12.2015
Current record : 372 km (09.01.2012 - Patrick Chopard Lallier, France / Carlos Puñet Pellisé, Spain)

and

Sub-class :O-5 (HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.)
Category: General
Type of record : Out-and-return distance
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 410.00 km
Pilot : Carlos Puñet Pellisé (Spain)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date :18.12.2015
Current record : 372 km (09.01.2012 - Patrick Chopard Lallier, France / Carlos Puñet Pellisé, Spain)

Fish Cams

Coming loose

Fish Cams

October 1, 2015, 8:35:15 MST -0600

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bill Arras

Bill Arras <<billarras>> writes:

On a recent flight in my EGO Trike, flying under a 2007 ATOS VR with air brakes, on approach to landing the air brakes did not function. Upon inspection after landing, what I discovered on my left wing was the fish cam on the same rib the air brake mechanism is attached to had released in the air. The result was that rib folded partially, rendering the air brakes inoperable.

Later I did a web search to see if there were any reports of fish cams releasing during flight, but I found nothing on the internet. Then I asked a local ATOS pilot and he said it had happened to him and to at least two other ATOS pilot friends of his. The fish cams that released on these pilots was on less critical ribs, not on the ones that have the spoileron mechanism attached to it. In-air release of a fish cam on a spoileron rib could be deadly.

Upon inspection of the rib and the mechanism, I found nothing unusual that might have caused the release of the fish cam. There was turbulence during the flight, but nothing unusual. The fish cam that released has the same positive locking pressure on average as on the other ribs, i.e. it was not loose. The most likely reason it released might be because the line that activates the air brakes is on the outboard side of the rib, putting at least some force in the direction that could cause the fish cam to release and the rib to fold. The greater distance between the pulley and the mechanism on the air brakes vs. the distance between the pulley and the mechanism on the spoilerons, coupled with the more abrupt and probably greater force applied to the brakes than to the spoilerons, might explain why my fish cam released.

Because I want to be certain the fish cams on the 4 most important ribs (with the spoileron and air brake mechanisms) cannot release unintentionally, I will not fly the glider without the fish cams on these 4 ribs securely locked in place. For now, they are wired like this:

Installing safety wire is easy for me, because my glider and trike normally stay assembled, in a hangar. For other pilots who don't leave their gliders set up, and for when I travel, it would be more practical to have an easier way to lock the fish cams in place. There are any number of ways to do this, but I'm wondering if anyone else has devised a simple way to lock the fish cams.

It's been over two weeks since I notified A.I.R. of the problem. I asked what they suggest (short of buying a new glider) but so far I haven't had any response from them.

Records »

A few

Fri, Jul 3 2015, 10:28:59 am MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Christopher Friedl|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|record

FAI records «FAI records» writes:

Category : Female
Type of record : Speed over an out-and-return course of 200 km
Course/location : Badajoz (Spain)
Performance : 28,67 km/h
Pilot : Françoise Dieuzeide - Banet (France)
Hang Glider : Litespeed / Moyes Delta Gliders
Date : 15.07.2014

Category : Female
Type of record : Out-and-return distance
Course/location : Badajoz (Spain)
Performance : 202.5 km
Pilot : Françoise Dieuzeide - Banet (France)
Hang Glider : Litespeed / Moyes Delta Gliders
Date : 15.07.2014
Previous record : 152.0 km (23.06.2007 - Françoise Dieuzeide-Banet, France)

Sub-class : O-5 (HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.)
Category : General
Type of record : Free out-and-return distance
Course/location : Bischling / Wefenweng - Ladis /Schönjöchl - Bischling / Wefenweng (Austria)
Performance : 407.9 km
Pilot : Christopher Friedl (Austria)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date : 07.06.2014

Sub-class : O-5 (HG with a rigid primary structure / movable control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.)
Category : General
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Bischling - Ladis - Säuleck - Pendleseck / Donnersbach (Austria)
Performance : 495,6 km
Pilot : Christopher Friedl (Austria)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date : 07.06.2014

EGO trike

Combine with an ATOS.

EGO trike

June 30, 2015, 8:15:51 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bill Arras|photo|video

Bill Arras <<billarras>> writes:

The EGO Trike is designed and built in the Czech Republic by Miloslav Novotný of Ultralight Design. Last year I saw a video of the electric version of the trike, did some research and found the electric version doesn't yet have adequate duration capabilities for my interests. In September I went to the Czech Republic and test flew the trike, then bought a slightly used ATOS VR with EGO Trike from an Austrian pilot who did not have a hangar. I had A.I.R. install air brakes on the glider. The trike and wing finally arrived in the US in May. I took delivery in Colorado and brought it home to Bend, Oregon.

A friend in Boulder, David Levin, bought the trike I test flew and it was delivered the same time as mine. We are the first two US customers of the EGO Trike, plus the trike the distributors have. David Levin is also a former Hot Air Balloon World Champion and has been my co-pilot in three World Championships, but until recently he was not a hang glider pilot. In preparation for flying the trike, he took lots of lessons at Wallaby earlier this year and soloed a bunch of times, as well as doing trike lessons now in a conventional 'flying pig'. He may do his first flights in the EGO Trike this coming week.

Last Monday, I set up my trike in its new hangar at Bend Airport. On Tuesday, I began flying. In the first three days I got about 8 hours of airtime, including making some turns in thermals. The trike will take a little getting used to. Not only is the seated position new for me, but so is the rigid wing. The good news is the EGO Trike is a delight to fly, very easy, although I haven't yet been out in any rowdy rock n roll. It's soon to come, as I edge into the more active part of the day.

Here are links to photos and info about about two days of flying the trike:

http://balloonbill.smugmug.com/Other/Power-To-The-People-June-23-15/50220197_hjJ3bs#!i=4162763324&k=xPJpHbn

http://balloonbill.smugmug.com/Other/Rising-With-the-Sun-June-25/50189655_KmQVLN#!i=4159542772&k=N996PPn

And below are links to Ultralight Design and videos of the electric and gas versions of the trike:

http://www.ultralightdesign.cz/trikolka-atos/technicke-parametry/?lang=en

https://youtu.be/sIjhgXWMb2g

https://youtu.be/mqsgwRnu2vg

https://youtu.be/LkTAwSwrfyQ

Also, at the main page for my photos (http://balloonbill.smugmug.com/) there are many galleries of hang gliding at Pine Mountain. The newest galleries are at the bottom of the page.

Bounced around in cold air

British Hangies, Wave In The Peaks

Bounced around in cold air

February 11, 2015, 7:34:12 EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Facebook|Gordon Rigg|video

Nick Chitty writes:

So we are having a revolution in the UK and we are spreading the word through Facebook. Called British Hangies last weekend we went and stayed with Kathleen and Gordon Rigg looking for a wave flight. This is young gun Luke Nicol flying an Atos VR.

http://youtu.be/85SV5nEUF7Q

Nick Chitty writes:

We waiting for the wave started. Nil wind most of the day. As a light breeze started Luke got up into it. Within minutes Ollie and others tried to follow but all got drilled in strengthening wind. Within an hour it was so windy pilots needed help carrying derigged gliders down. And as you can imagine. It became bloody cold.

http://youtu.be/ORLO79DaDNU

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day two

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 15, 2014, 6:26:02 pm MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Chris Arai|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mike Glennon|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

Jonny Durand writes:

Day 2 100km triangle with about twenty pilots making goal! Kraig wins the day ahead of Robin with Chris Arai in 3rd just in front of me. Five Moyes Boys in the top six today.

The task for open class and Swifts and Jim Yocom on an ATOS VR:

In the morning it looks like we'll get to over 8,000', with light or no winds, and no cu's. We up the task length and call for an earlier start to give us more time to complete the task before every thing closes down around 5 PM. The task committee sends the pilots along the freeway, but first to Casa Grande mountain, to the range just north of I 10. Then back to the flats for the weak lift before heading over town and back to the hotel.

The sport class pilots have an out and return also, going to Meyer, which we will also fly over, and over and back over Casa Grande mountain, which should help out.

My forecast said that there would not be a strong inversion and pilots get up right away starting at 12:30 PM. Launch goes very quickly and with no wind and a two kilometer start cylinder pilots stay pretty close and work the good lift to first 6,500', then 7,000', then 8,300' just before the first start window at 1:50 PM.

Most of us are high and we head out to Casa Grande mountain. There is a bit of lift before the hills, and when we get there the lift is not great but pilots seem to want to hang in it. I spot a small cu' high overhead on the south end of the range and decide to go for it. After a bit of a search I hook into 900 fpm. I quickly become an attractive nuisance and the guys now below me race to the south. There are a few above me who came in high to the mountain and watched what happened below.

I leave at 8,700' following four or five pilots who are higher and head along I 10 shading to the north to get back on the course line. The guys ahead find 600 fpm in the flats and we all get high again. It looks like an easy day.

Way to the south we can see cu-nimbs making a line from west to east, the edge of the hurricane. There are also high clouds spreading out to the north from the development to our south.

Another strong climb with the lead gaggle just over my head and then it's time to head into the mountain range to our east. The edge of the 10 km turnpoint cylinder is just on the south end of the range. There are bits of lift going into the mountain and I don't spend too much time working them as there are cu's over the range. I find a little over 300 fpm (it was much better out on the flats not under cu's) to back over 8,000' as I work the range with a few other pilots just overhead. I think I'm with Chris Arai.

We head off to the northwest to the next turnpoint at LaPalma out in the flats. It's a sixteen kilometer glide without any lift to the turnpoint and I'm down to 3,600' before I find the weak lift just past the turnpoint. Half a dozen pilots are higher and working this weak stuff as well as similar stuff in the neighborhood. The shading from the overdevelopment from the south is suppressing the lift.

I think I'm low but then Larry Bunner and another pilot come in at 2,000' just below us. They are able to find weak lift and dig their way out of there.

I move from weak thermal to weak thermal between 4,000' and 5,500' until I finally find a consistent core at 250-300 fpm. There is a bird down low turning and three more come in under me. As I climb up Mike Glennon comes back to join me in the better lift and we climb to 7,400' which is plenty to get into goal.

Plenty of pilots at goal. Most are breaking down as there may be wind tonight.

Sport class pilots make it back to goal also.

A new tail on the ATOS VR

Fin reduces the sweep and twist

Tue, Sep 2 2014, 8:34:53 am MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH

http://www.a-i-r.de/ger/air_02.php?kat=118&par=0&gp=2

Since the World Cup 2014 our new keel has been a success. The pilots are excited about the flying and the optimized coupling of the flap and V - tail.

With the new keel with small fin, it was possible to reduce the sweep and twist.

Similarly, there is no up and down pitch when flying in thermals more non or low swept gliders as well.

The lift distribution is optimal with the new geometry over a larger speed range.

The external wing geometry has changed. The VRS external wing has brought a significantly lower minimum sink rate, together with good maneuverability.

The circling flight characteristics are still stable and simple.

In practice, this means:

- lower stall speed, this allows easier launching and landing

- Smoother flight in thermals and at high speed

- lower minimum sink

- higher performance gliding in slow and fast flight

- no weight change compared to the ATOS VR by optimization of the materials used

Side by side flights have confirmed the improvement in handling and also the performance difference

Available in the next few weeks. Attention: Should be in time for pilots who would like to start next year with the VR.

Any VR VQ is convertible.

FAI triangle record ratified

Namibia

FAI triangle record ratified

August 20, 2014, 8:24:08 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

Sub-class : Rigids
Type of record : Distance over a triangular course
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 406 km
Pilot : Jochen Zeyer (Germany)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date :31.12.2013
Previous record : 402.8 km (12.05.2008 - Walter Geppert, Austria)

The ATOS VRS

The small light rigid wing glider for lighter pilots

Wed, Aug 20 2014, 8:23:20 am MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|photo

http://www.a-i-r.de/ger/air_04.php?kat=115&gp=4&stl=ATOS-VRS

The inspiration for the development of the ATOS VRS 135 was the ATOS VR10. The aim was to construct a rigid wing comparable in performance to the VR10, but due to its lower wing span (12 m) and lower weight (37 kg) having significant advantages in handling and therefore particularly suited to light pilots. The ATOS VRS 135 has been designed for pilots up to 80 kg. It's maximum a hook-in weight of 135 kg allows also motorized flying with light trikes or systems like the S-lift or the Mosquito.

Despite the rather small span of 12 m, the ATOS VRS 135 has good-natured slow flight characteristics. Takeoff and landing are easy even in still air. In the flight the ATOS VRS 135 has high performance and high speed potential. The ATOS VNE is 100 km/h.

The glider rolls fast, which benefits the pilots in tight circles in the thermals or over the hillsides. The ATOS VRS 135 handles turbulent conditions well. It combines the agility of a flex wing glider with the performance of a rigid wing. At about 4 meters in length the packed up glider is easy to carry around and can be stored in almost any garage.

The 2014 Worlds - updated scoring

Problems fixed

The 2014 Worlds - updated scoring

July 2, 2014, 1:44:11 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|Chisato Nojiri|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Julia Kucherenko|Moyes Litespeed RX|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing|Worlds 2014|Yoko Isomoto

http://dca.ffvl.fr/hg2014/index.php/en/page-results-2014/pageukclass5result

ATOS cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 4358
2 Kirchner GER Atos VR 4261
3 Friedl AUT Atos VR10 4127
4 Mayer AUT Atos VR 4039
5 Selenati ITA Atos VR 3837
6 Parcellier FRA Atos VR 3828
7 Geppert AUT Atos VR 3827
8 Meissl AUT Atos VR 3683
9 Kosaka JPN Atos VRS 3579
10 Hollidge GBR Atos VR 10T 3463

Women cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Isomoto JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3765
2 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Moyes Llitespeed RX3 3755
3 Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Llitespeed RX3 3700
4 Kucherenko RUS Aeros Combat 3558
5 Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 3428
6 Petrova RUS Aeros Combat 12,8 GT 3364
7 Serebrennikova RUS Moyes Litespeed S3 2995
8 La Nube COL Wills WingT2C 2951
9 Walbec FRA Wills Wing T2 136 2930
10 Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2308

The 2014 Worlds - day eight

Only the Swift/Archaeopteryx make it to goal

The 2014 Worlds - day eight

July 1, 2014, 4:46:08 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Pollet|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Julia Kucherenko|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing|Worlds 2014|Yoko Isomoto

Women Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Llitespeed RX3 56,07 647
2 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Moyes Llitespeed RX3 54,63 637
3 Serebrennikova RUS Moyes Litespeed S3 49,72 588
4 Petrova RUS Aeros Combat 12,8 GT 49,15 581
5 Walbec FRA Wills Wing T2 136 46,73 551
6 Kucherenko RUS Aeros Combat 46,38 546
7 La Nube COL Wills WingT2C 46,27 543
8 Isomoto JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 39,56 447
9 Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 36,60 416
10 Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 29,66 350

http://corinnaflies.blogspot.de/2014/07/task-5-semnoz-85km-around-3-turnpoints.html

A tough, stable day today with a base barely higher than 1800m gave us a late launch and a hard time in the air. We could take off at 3pm, and the race started at 3.30,...

It won't be a high scoring day though because nobody made goal today. Rain tomorrow, but a good day on Thursday hopefully.

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Isomoto JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3765
2 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Moyes Llitespeed RX3 3755
3 Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Llitespeed RX3 3700
4 Kucherenko RUS Aeros Combat 3558
5 Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 3428

Sport Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Kovacs HUN Aeros Discus C 15 35,96 321
2 Alonzi FRA Aeros Discus C 15 32,26 299
3 Mathurin FRA Moyes Litesport 4 29,73 283
3 Pollet FRA Moyes Litesport 29,81 283
5 Masalimov RUS Aeros Discus C 29,21 277
5 Ujhelyi HUN Aeros Discus C 14 29,08 277
7 Zin FRA Icaro Mast'r 28,87 274
8 Honings NED Icaro Orbiter styl-plus 26,73 248
9 Fernandez Montero ESP Wills Wing Sport 2 155 26,41 245
10 Doeland NED Seedwings Spyder 26,18 240

No cumulative yet.

ATOS Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Kirchner GER Atos VR 112,64 918
2 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 110,79 906
3 Friedl AUT Atos VR10 109,26 896
3 Mayer AUT Atos VR 109,39 896
5 Parcellier FRA Atos VR 106,56 870
6 Selenati ITA Atos VR 106,14 865
7 Yamamoto JPN Atos VR10 106,10 862
8 Meissl AUT Atos VR 105,63 858
9 Hollidge GBR Atos VR 10T 101,26 791
10 Raumauf AUT Atos VR10 100,82 784

No cumulative yet.

Swift/Archaeopteryx Task 6:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Aeriane Swift Light 02:48:11 1000
2 Hediger ARG Ruppert Archaeopteryx 02:55:33 888
3 Bott FRA Aeriane Swift Light 02:56:21 860
4 Cox SUI Bright Star Swift 03:00:20 828
5 Maag SUI Aeriane Swift Light 03:20:16 697
6 Porter USA Aeriane Swift 03:29:55 665
7 Ruppert E SUI Ruppert Archaeopteryx 03:40:18 582

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Aeriane Swift Light 5661
2 Cox SUI Bright Star Swift 4784
3 Bott FRA Aeriane Swift Light 4680
4 Hediger ARG Ruppert Archaeopteryx 4519
5 Ruppert E SUI Ruppert Archaeopteryx 4165
6 Porter USA Aeriane Swift 3307

The 2014 Worlds - day four

A new Japanese top women pilot?

The 2014 Worlds - day four

June 27, 2014, 8:44:30 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Pollet|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Julia Kucherenko|Manfred Ruhmer|Suan Selenati|Worlds 2014|Yoko Isomoto

http://dca.ffvl.fr/hg2014/index.php/en/page-results-2014

Women Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Isomoto JPN Litespeed RX3.5 02:18:41 967
2 Walbec FRA T2 136 02:19:54 958
3 La Nube COL T2C 02:29:39 847
4 Petrova RUS Combat 12,8 GT 02:33:48 802
5 Kucherenko RUS Combat 02:38:14 787
5 Nojiri JPN Combat 09 02:35:02 787
7 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Llitespeed RX3 02:48:07 732
8 Schwiegershausen GER Litespeed 02:49:42 722
9 Serebrennikova RUS Litespeed S3 02:48:08 709
10 Yakoh JPN Z9 03:53:33 455

Cumulative:

  Name Nat Glider Total
1 Isomoto JPN Litespeed RX3.5 2518
2 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Llitespeed RX3 2269
3 Schwiegershausen GER Litespeed 2236
4 Nojiri JPN Combat 09 2230
5 La Nube COL T2C 2140

Sport Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Zin FRA Icaro Mast'r 01:35:56 861
2 Alonzi FRA Discus C 15 01:36:10 844
3 Ujhelyi HUN Discus 01:54:29 691
4 Woehrle GER Litesport 02:04:29 633
5 Mathurin FRA Litesport 02:06:14 618
6 Salvenmoser AUT Skyrunner XR 02:06:17 617
7 Pollet FRA Skyrunner 02:24:34 524
8 Preininger AUT Skyrunner XR 02:27:33 510
9 Mainente FRA Sport 2 02:49:13 436
10 Cuisset FRA   02:50:57 424
11 Fernandez Montero ESP Sport 2 155 02:53:37 421
12 Okada JPN Mast'R 02:53:37 418
12 Giammichele AUS Lite Sport 02:51:16 418

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Zin FRA Icaro Mast'r 2248
2 Alonzi FRA Discus C 15 2224
3 Ujhelyi HUN Discus 1971
4 Mathurin FRA Litesport 1709
5 Kovacs HUN Discus C 15 1604

ATOS Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Selenati ITA Atos VR 02:10:46 1000
2 Kirchner GER Atos VR 02:11:38 967
3 Friedl AUT Atos VR10 02:13:33 926
4 Geppert AUT Atos VR 02:14:13 903
5 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 02:13:46 902

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 2506
2 Kirchner GER Atos VR 2486
3 Mayer AUT Atos VR 2392
4 Chopard FRA Atos VR 11 2362
5 Geppert AUT Atos VR 2322

Swift/Archaeopteryx Task 4:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Swift Light 03:05:07 1000
2 Cox SUI Swift 03:09:27 911
3 Bott FRA Swift Light 03:14:42 859
4 Hediger ARG Archaeopteryx 03:18:41 815
5 Porter USA Swift 03:27:49 758

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Swift Light 3844
2 Cox SUI Swift 3160
3 Bott FRA Swift Light 3106
4 Hediger ARG Archaeopteryx 2937
5 Ruppert E SUI Archaeopteryx 2583

The 2014 Worlds - day three

Results from all classes

The 2014 Worlds - day three

June 26, 2014, 4:24:59 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Pollet|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Julia Kucherenko|Manfred Ruhmer|Worlds 2014|Yoko Isomoto

http://dca.ffvl.fr/hg2014/index.php/en/page-results-2014

Rigid Task 2:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 04:13:42 995
2 Hanfstaengl GER Atos VR 04:15:37 958
3 Mayer AUT Atos VR 04:16:25 929
4 Kirchner GER Atos VR 04:22:51 905
5 Chopard FRA Atos VR 11 04:27:17 857
6 Laverdino ITA Atos VR 04:28:58 855
7 Nicol GBR Atos VR 04:28:55 839
8 Yamamoto JPN Atos VR10 04:29:54 826
9 Kosaka JPN Atos VRS 04:29:51 817
10 Friedemann GER Atos VR 04:30:17 806

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Grabowski GER Atos VR 14 1846
2 Mayer AUT Atos VR 1723
3 Kirchner GER Atos VR 1717
4 Chopard FRA Atos VR 11 1656
5 Geppert AUT Atos VR 1573

Sport Task 2:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Alonzi FRA Discus C 15 02:25:45 1000
2 Kovacs HUN Discus C 15 02:26:59 964
3 Ujhelyi HUN Discus 02:30:45 924
4 Zin FRA Icaro Mast'r 02:33:48 889
5 Pollet FRA Skyrunner 03:14:56 712
6 Preininger AUT Skyrunner XR 03:13:09 709
6 Mathurin FRA Litesport 03:17:36 709
8 Fernandez Montero ESP Sport 2 155 03:49:53 599
9 Williams USA U2 04:04:15 562

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Zin FRA Icaro Mast'r 1385
2 Alonzi FRA Discus C 15 1380
3 Ujhelyi HUN Discus 1278
4 Kovacs HUN Discus C 15 1277
5 Mathurin FRA Litesport 1086

Women Task  2:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Isomoto JPN Litespeed RX3.5 02:44:16 981
2 Schwiegershausen GER Litespeed 02:44:47 958
3 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Llitespeed RX3 02:45:36 944
4 Nojiri JPN Combat 09 02:52:56 885
5 La Nube COL T2C 03:12:40 744
6 Kucherenko RUS Combat 03:21:37 694
7 Petrova RUS Combat 12,8 GT 03:26:59 673
8 Salamone USA RX3 03:45:21 569
9 Yakoh JPN Z9 04:07:00 486
10 Rigg GBR Litespeed RX 3.5 04:12:35 476

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Isomoto JPN Litespeed RX3.5 1558
2 Dieuzeide-Banet FRA Llitespeed RX3 1543
3 Schwiegershausen GER Litespeed 1520
4 Nojiri JPN Combat 09 1449
5 La Nube COL T2C 1299

Swift/Archaeopteryx Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Swift Light 05:38:44 980

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Ruhmer AUT Swift Light 2844
2 Cox SUI Swift 2249
3 Bott FRA Swift Light 2247
4 Hediger ARG Archaeopteryx 2122
5 Ruppert E SUI Archaeopteryx 2043

Thermik 2014

ATOS spoilers fully deployed

Thermik 2014

March 12, 2014, 9:25:23 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Mark Arnold

Mark Arnold <<mark>> writes:

The lower ATOS VR with an E lift harness, has spoilers (didn't know A.I.R. was doing this) fully deployed. Combined with the flaps wonder what the descent rate is. More and more like a sail plane.

Fingers

Keep away

Fingers

January 23, 2014, 9:17:53 pm GMT+0900

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Quest Air|video

Pat O'Mara <<nypatandgeorge>> writes:

A short video of landing an Atos VR at Quest Air on wheels made by AIR . The pneumatic wheels keeper fell off, then the wheel came off the rim. The air stem with a stainless steel cap hit my finger and broke 1/3rd of the bone away. It's not too graphic but it was very bad. I spent two days in the hospital so far.

http://youtu.be/5uaUhkxTAPo

I feel we should warn owners of these wheels of the danger. Gloves should be worn and hands kept away from the danger area.

New ATOS records

Set in Namibia

New ATOS records

Thu, Jan 9 2014, 5:08:57 pm EST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

From the FAI:

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 300 km
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 48.3 km/h
Pilot : Jochen Zeyer (Germany)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date :31.12.2013
Current record : 45.8 km/h (12.05.2008 - Walter Geppert, Austria)

Type of record : Distance over a triangular course
Course/location : Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance : 406 km
Pilot : Jochen Zeyer (Germany)
Aircraft : Atos VR / AIR
Date :31.12.2013
Current record : 402.8 km (12.05.2008 - Walter Geppert, Austria)

Stan's still the man

Flying when not cruising

Stan's still the man

August 27, 2013, 8:14:54 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Dustin Martin|PG

Stan Roberts <<airhogstan>> writes:

I haven't written about any of my flights to you in years, since I lived in Ellenville, NY. Now I'm stuck living in Blythe, CA; a million miles from all good flying sites.

I'm flying an ATOS VR-QT now: a 2009 model. I noticed a good flight from Dustin Martin in Arizona from Casa Grande. So this inspired me to make contact. I had two big flights this year in May. Would of had many more, but living in Blythe,  well. Anyway, oh, and working for Princess Cruises, I'm gone half the year, usually.

One from Black Peak, in Parker, AZ to Sheba Crater. The Parker, AZ locals call this volcano: P Mountain. Google Earth Calls it Black Peak. This flight was 185.2 Miles, or 298 Kilometers. And as all flights, this has a long story, too long to write. This flight: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/759399.

And another flight over the back from Crestline, CA, (very unusual to do since the general opinion is that Crestline is not an cross country site), to Jean, NV, turn point, edge of Las Vegas Airspace, then turn around and go land here: http://www.primmvalleygolf.com/

The flight from Crestline, CA: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/753725

Cross country distance for this "over the back" from Crestline flight: 289.2 Kilometers.

2012 German Open⁣ ends early »

Sun, May 20 2012, 9:33:34 am EDT

The foehn arrives and stops the competition

A.I.R. ATOS VR|André Djamarani|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Dieter Kamml|Dieter müglich|German Open 2012|Roland Wöhrle|Tim Grabowski

German Open here.

Primoz wins the last/second day.

Overall:

# Name Glider Total
1 Wöhrle, Roland Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 1257
2 Djamarani, André Aeros Combat 14 09 GT 1234
3 Schwiegershausen, Corinna Moyes Litespeed 3.5 S 1112

Rigid:

# Name Glider Total
1 Grabowski, Tim A-I-R ATOS-VR10 1794
2 Kamml, Dieter A-I-R Atos Vr 1598
3 müglich, Dieter A-I-R Atos Vx 1385

Discuss "2012 German Open⁣ ends early" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Thermal Wave Glory

At Pine Mountain

Thermal Wave Glory

February 1, 2012, 11:47:54 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Gary Osoba|Patrick Kruse|PG|record|sailplane|William "Billo" Olive

charles baughman <<big-bird>> writes:

The view was breathtaking. I was high, way above the clouds in very smooth, serene air and all alone. I was really glad I had a camera and hoped the shots were good. I saw Patrick climbing up to 8700' and I radioed to him, "Get your butt up here, this is incredible air." He responded, "I'm trying, I'm trying!” During the flight I had radioed to my flying friends several times how wonderful the conditions were and apparently sounded like an exuberant little kid at Christmas. The return reply could have easily been, “Shut up, I am busy.”

The forecast on Saturday, Oct 22, for Pine Mt. Oregon was for lift to 8000' and a 10 to 15 mph west wind which is straight in at launch. Pine Mt. is over forty miles east of the Cascade Range and the westerly winds put it in a lee side condition, which is very dry with very few trees. This is Central Oregon, categorized as a high desert area. These conditions make for good flying and cross country potential. There are many days of thermal flying in the summer with cloud base ranging from 10000‘ to 14000‘ and occasionally higher. Landing areas are plentiful at about 4300’ where the terrain is mostly flat and treeless but usually has sagebrush ranging from two to five feet tall. Pine Mt. is a big rocky volcanic mountain with several long ridges. There are four main upper launches of which the west launch, at 6100’, is the favorite launch for hang gliding. The paragliders use the four upper launches and very often use the convenient lower launches on the northwest facing ridge which are very close to a parking area.

I launched at 2:00 PM and found conditions to be good, especially for this late in the year. Five hang gliders and seven paragliders launched that day. Paragliders Steve Roti and Scott Maclowry said they got up to 7700’, where they found the wind to be at their maximum, so they flew out and down. I got high in good lift with light turbulence. The cumulus were dry and wispy at 10000'. I worked the lift back to the Antelope Launch area. I would have continued east but I saw no appetizing cumulus and decided to head back upwind to the ridge. I was able to make it back to the top of the ridge because of the superior performance of the Atos type glider.

My glider is an Atos VR11. It is classified as a rigid wing hang glider and has a very wide span, flaps, spoilerons, winglets, and a horizontal stabilizer. The flaps and stabilizer are coupled together and the setting can be changed in the air with a pull cord. Pitch and roll are controlled by weight shift movement. It has an excellent glide ratio, and that allows me to--- go places.

After I flew back to the launch area, I scratched for lift with Scott Michalek and Tim Reynolds and later circled up to Patrick Kruse. After some searching, I entered a strong smooth thermal with my climb averaging 700 fpm. I love fast climbs, especially when they are smooth. As I climbed higher and higher, I looked up for a cloud, which I could not find, and I topped out at 12100' and 2000' above the clouds. The entire climb was cloudless. As I was cruising around in the smooth upper layer, I noticed a glory on a cloud. The glory is an optical phenomena that falls into the "Water Droplet Arc" category similar to rainstorm rainbows. The physics of the glory are not fully understood but a basic explanation is that glories are rainbow-colored rings produced by backscattering, surface wave effects, and diffraction from small, uniformly sized water droplets such as those in clouds and fog. The colored rings are seen around the “anti solar” point, directly opposite the sun along a line running through the observer’s location. Droplet characteristics are important in the type of glory formation. Smaller droplets produce larger glories. Uniform droplets have more rings, and they are more distinct as well. The glory’s angular size depends only on the diameters of the cloud droplets. The distance from the cloud has no effect on how large it looks. All of the glories in my pictures look to be the same angular size even though I was at different distances from the clouds. The shadow itself can change size depending on the distance from the cloud. The glider shadow in my pictures is small and off center in the glory. The camera is not centered on the glider. it is on the left wingtip aimed to the right and forward and it “sees” its part of the shadow in the center of the glory.

The glory sighting was mesmerizing. I had seen these before, but this time I was able to stay up at cloud height for an extended period of time while taking pictures. Most of the clouds I used to make the glory shots were elongated and wedge shaped from west to east and the cloud top billows appeared to be rising and showing a wind increase. I flew along the sunny south side of the cloud to get multiple shots. There was continuous 300 to 500 fpm lift near the cloud in clear air. I had to dive to stay low enough to get the glory shots. It was as if I was making speedy ridge runs, except I was flying upwind taking shots, and downwind to line up for another shooting run. After I made multiple cloud passes, the conditions started to deteriorate as the clouds were dissipating. The magical air had lasted about 45 minutes. I flew back to the ridge and as I watched my altimeter unwind my thoughts turned to the camera. I really wanted the shots to be there when I uploaded, because no one would believe or could imagine and enjoy this story without pictures.

I have had discussions about this soaring condition with Gary Osoba, a hang glider designer back in the 70‘s when new designs were coming out monthly. Gary also had some very innovative designs and currently holds many sailplane records and makes attempts to break soaring records every year. Gary had an explanation for my soaring condition: “The condition that allowed you to climb to altitudes above the clouds and then fly along in front of them, as you might do in ridge lift, are rather uncommon. First, there appeared to be a convergence of two air masses with markedly differing moisture levels. Secondly, the winds aloft were such that once you climbed to a position in front of existing clouds, you could “surf” them in a thermal induced wave. As such, the clouds line up in a manner that results in the upper winds to flow over them, creating mild wave lift and sink in a pattern.” I would like to add to this that the elongated wedge shape of the clouds was very interesting, possibly indicating that a drier, colder, faster moving air mass was converging, and riding up the cloud top, which increased the instability and helped to form and pull the cloud into a wedge shape.

After many years of flying, this flight is a strong reminder that the potential for new experience and discovery is always there, just waiting to be realized. In my early days of flying I discovered, for myself, that even a primitive standard hang glider could go up in a thermal using the circling method. We have come a long way since then. Through the years advancements in equipment, improvements in technique, and overall knowledge have enhanced our enjoyment in all aspects of flying. This flight had some phenomenal firsts for me: I have never gained anywhere near 2000' above the lower thermal formed clouds. I have never flown next to a small cloud in clear air and consistently gained 500 fpm. I have never had such a euphoric glory experience. The pleasure of this adventure was magnified by the unbelievable smoothness and buoyancy of the upper layer.

Later that night, I expressed to my flying buddies, “I feel like a 1000 watts. You could plug a toaster into me.”

Out and return record claims

Those ones in Namibia

Out and return record claims

January 20, 2012, 5:06:23 pm

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

FAI-Records <<record>> sends:

Course/location: Burgsdorf (Namibia)
Performance: 374 km
Pilot: Carlos Pellise Punet (Spain)
Aircraft: Atos VR / AIR
Date: 09.01.2012
Current record: 354.4 km (11.01.2010 - Carlos Puñet Pellisé, Spain)

Performance: 374 km
Pilot: Patrick Chopard Lallier (France)
Aircraft: Atos VR / AIR

Self launching an ATOS VR

These things just fly themselves

Self launching an ATOS VR

December 21, 2011, 9:20:40 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6urDFu4jFWk

Pine Mountain »

On an ATOS

Pine Mountain

October 14, 2011, 10:39:00 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Charles "Charlie" Baughman

Charlie Baughman writes:

Go Pro shot for 'Shot of the Day'. Shot by Charlie Baughman at Pine Mt, OR on an ATOS VR11.

Sparrowhawk »

Demo flight and review

Sparrowhawk

July 12, 2011, 8:02:02 CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bill Thar|Greg Cole|Jacques Bott

Jacques Bott <<jacques.bott>> writes:

Thanks to Bill Thar, I had the opportunity to make an almost 3hr demo flight of the Sparrowhawk in Wurstboro airfield 80 miles northwest of New York July the first.

The Sparrowhawk is an 11m wingspan, 70kg empty weight glider whose airframe is made of carbon fiber by Windward in Bend (Oregon).

http://www.windward-performance.com/sparrowhawk.php

It meets the US ultralight glider requirements whose difference with the French (European?) rules is that it is not required to be foot launchable. This allows to design a wing with a small area and for the Sparrowhawk with an 11 meter wingspan and a short wing cord we have an aspect ratio similar to the 15m glider and a speed range similar to the "normal" gliders.

Unlike other exotic gliders, the Sparrowhawk looks like a very nice conventional modern glider, plus when you look at its short wings, you cannot stand thinking at a "fighter" aircraft.

The cockpit is surprisingly roomy and, thanks to the BRS, you are not lying on your personal parachute, thus it is very comfortable.

Though I was briefed about the sensitivity of the flight controls, I slightly over controlled during the take off but adapted myself quickly to the extreme handling. In my 18.000 airtime I never flew an aircraft with such light control forces, and about the roll rate, the only better one I flew was the Giles aerobatic carbon plane with its 500°/sec. You can fly the Sparrowhawk with 2 fingers and your tiptoes; a small side stick would have been largely enough instead of its normal stick.

This, plus the lightweight, allowed me to out climb all the other gliders in the weak and elusive thermal of the day. I thermalled at around 75km/h, up to 90 when banking a lot to stay into the small cores.

Checking the stall speed after slowing down progressively I was stick full aft at 63km/h with little buffeting but the nose didn't pitch down and I could keep control of the bank with the feet. I then picked up speed and put the nose at a 20° high attitude: the glider stalled at 63km/h and this time pitched down, the recovery was uneventful.

As I spent most of the time trying to stay in the air due to the weakness of the thermals I didn't have the opportunity to check the high speed range (VNE 215km/h). I glided mainly at around 100km/h and in some long week positive vario area as low as 70km/h.

I also did some ridge soaring, noting that the turn radius was significantly wider than with the ultralight gliders I'm used to fly (Swiftlight, Atos VR), but the quick response of the Sparrowhawk to my controls inputs is something I'd really appreciate when flying very near the rocky faces of the Alps mountains (or else) in turbulent conditions.

Approach speed was 90km/h, landing was uneventful, the roll was shorter than for the "normal" gliders though I didn't use the brake, but significantly longer than with the Swiftlight.

The Sparrowhawk is for sure the best ultralight glider. It can be easily aerotowed by an inexpensive ultralight trike for half a gallon a tow. It is easy to fly. It is the glider every glider club should own in order to allow youngster to fly.

Would the European ultralight glider rules be the same as in the USA, for sure I'd sell my Swiftlight and buy a Sparrowhawk.

My philosophy about gliding is lightweight. I think the glider community took the wrong way after the first composite gliders appeared (Libelle, ASW15, Cirrus, LS1): they enter into the race for better gliding ratio by increasing the wingspan, resulting in bigger and bigger gliders, therefore heavier and heavier thus more and more expensive, needing longer fields for out landings. So I imagine the stress of a glider pilot at the controls of a 200.000€ glider when he is low. The result is the majority of the glider sold today by the German factories are powered glider who are even more expensive. Are the owners of those powered gliders still glider pilots? They have to start their relight procedure at 400m above ground in order to do it with good safety margins.

Ultralight glider pilots are used to manage low points, I can remember drifting for 20km in a zero vario at 100m above ground until the air mass encounters a trigger: a lake, or a forest, or a hill or shadow. I almost always recover from my low points with the Swiftlight.

During one of my last cross country flight with my Swiftlight in the Alps, after departing from Serres airfield with the first thermal of the day, crossing the Durance valley, picking up improving thermals, passing over La Motte du Caire and Vaumeilh glider airfields, I was 40km away entering in the higher mountains area in a first good thermal at 2000m, my happiness and quitness was suddenly disturbed by the a fast approaching terrible chain saw noise: one of those 200.000+ Euro big motorized glider was arriving 100m below me. Those guys are really doing another sport.

So I completely agree with Greg Cole who is designing lighter carbon gliders, which have for the same wingspan than "normal" gliders a better aspect ratio, thus a better gliding ratio.

His 15m Duckhawk to come should have the performances of the 18m "normal" gliders and should climb better. I hope he makes a 13.5m wing for the Sparrowhawk to enter in the new FAI class and that there will be a solution to fly it in Europe. There is a real market for this new class and the Silent is selling very well.

Had the FAI chosen the Sparrowhawk instead the ugly PW5 for sure the "World class" would have succeeded.

The World Record Encampment - Friday

Great cu's in light winds

The World Record Encampment

June 24, 2011, 1:07:53 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Barber|Pete Lehmann|record|weather|World Record Encampment 2011

BJ Herring goes for a 260 mile (418 km) triangle in his ATOS VR. He started at around 11:30 AM with a sky full of beautiful cu's.

This shot is taken looking east from near the hangar at around 10:40 AM.

Pete Lehmann was going to fly south launching a little after noon. Mike Barber was going to try out a Moyes Litespeed RS. He normally flies a Litespeed S. The Brazilians were just showing up around noon.

http://ozreport.com/txweather.php

B.J. was going very slowly. Pete popped a weaklink at ten feet and landed on his belly on the payment, gouging his knee. He went to the emergency room for that. Three Brazilians (Eduardo, Paulo, and Alex) towed up between 2 PM and 2:30 PM into great lift and a cu filled sky. They might try a 100 KM triangle. Mike flew his test fight and came in and landed on his wheels on the pavement.

B.J. flew an out and return to the north. He was getting 600 to 800 fpm lift later in the afternoon.

Toruk Lucarelli

An enclosed ATOS.

Toruk Lucarelli

May 4, 2011, 9:31:50 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Enrico Lucarelli|video

Enrico Lucarelli <<enrico.lucarelli>> writes:

I finally had the opportunity to perform the maiden flight of something I have been working on for little more than a year. As I used to joke about, “I don't know if it's ever going to flight, but just the fun of inventing it is already more than worth it”. Well, now it´s even flying, and the thrill of the first test flight can hardly be described. You can see the maiden flight (very first and second take-off/landing) here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZHODwzBrRw  (or just search in YouTube for “toruk lucarelli”).

Basically the “thing” is a modification on the ATOS VR, similar in concept to Felix Ruhle´s Cage. I made it with a stable and steerable landing gear, and added a motor. It's a 160 cc rotary (wankel) motor, 25 hp, which allows for a very nice push. The wings remain unmodified, so I can go back to fly my original hang glider any time.

The position is very comfortable and allows for a spectacular view. Handling is very nice, although I must admit, with only the two flights performed (those that can be seen in the mentioned YouTube link), my immediate priority right now is to learn to fly it, and until then I won't be able to give many more details about things like handling quality and so.

There is still a lot that can be improved in this preliminary version. Now that it has proven to fly, I can start working on a making the landing gear retractable, the propeller foldable, improving the fairing, etc.

The best lookin' day of the season (so far)

We're tired, but Jochen isn't

The best lookin' day of the season (so far)

April 24, 2011, 4:43:44 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Quest Air

At 9 AM the cu's appear, but this time it's different, they're thick. By 9:30 they not only have some vertical development, unlike the wispies from the day before, but there are filling up the sky to the north.

The average boundary layer winds were supposed to be fourteen knots out of the east down here at 2 PM, but curling around to the southeast but not until you got near Georgia. But the fact was the winds were southeast right from the get go. Yesterday we had a similar forecast and the winds were similarly southeast.

Now the idea is to be ready for such a day, but we had flown far yesterday, even if ninety miles isn't that far, and got back after 9 PM. I didn't have time to setup my glider in advance of the day (I like to have everything laid out well in advance if possible), if we have a chance to go early. But I was tired and the forecast was for the wrong wind direction (should have discounted that).

The idea would have been to go at 9:30 AM but I just had my glider set up by then and wasn't ready to get back on the horse just yet. Jochen wanted to go but didn't come to me until a bit later. The only reason to go would have been to go early, as far as I'm concerned.

In addition, the Monday and Tuesday forecasts look great. Especially Monday. I was already ready to go for it on Monday. But forecasts can be wrong.

The half past noon shot:

You can see the east component, which actually gets more evident as the day progresses. Perhaps a good day to fly west through the panhandle.

Jochen is still out there. No one else is flying after yesterday, and Dave Hopkins, an ATOS VR pilot from the northeast, is supposed to go chasing him.

The front approaches, we head north

Monday, yet again, was a good day to fly far

The front approaches, we head north

April 12, 2011, 9:28:54 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Flytec 6030|Jamie Shelden|Quest Air|record

The flight.

http://flyingjochen.blogspot.com/

As was the case last Monday, there was a cold front approaching from the northwest (see here for the previous Monday's forecast). It looked like a good day to go north although the winds were forecasted to be south southwest. It didn't look like it would be a record day, but a good day to fly with friends. The convergence was forecasted to be right on the east coast, which is off limits to us due to airspace issues.

We all watch the soaring forecasts here at Quest Air, so at least nine pilots were ready on this Monday morning to saddle up and head out on the northern range. We were just waiting for the cu's to appear.

A little before noon the cu's began to appear nearby and a few overhead. I launched first at 12:20 and Paul drug me through some horrendous sink which makes the glider feel like it doesn't want to fly. Finally he hit some good stuff and I pinned off high at 2,000' in lift that only averaged 60 fpm. I needed to run away to find something better to the east over a small backyard rubbish fire. The rough thermal smelled of smoke but it worked.

Jamie was pulled over to me and Jochen came over as we climbed out. The wind was out of the south at 5 mph. I was thinking with such a light wind, maybe we should do a triangle.

Jamie missed the thermal over Groveland and I headed northwest at 4,000' to get on the west side of highway 33 in order to set up the run through the Villages way to the north. Jamie came over low but found the lift where I was just hanging out waiting for her to climb up. Jochen was to our east not having flown here before and not aware of the protocol for going up highway 301.

I dove again off to the northwest to get away from the approaching Leesburg. I had to come back to the east a bit to get under the wispies and climb out at 200 fpm just south of the Turnpike. Jamie had done well and joined me.  When we topped out at 4,300' we headed north northwest to a cu that looked like it was building west of the Baron airfield north of the Turnpike.

Indeed the cu was building and the thermal was 300 fpm, the best so far. Jochen (a Belgian pilot) was off to our east trying to find us and waiting for us to show up. He finally saw us and joined us. We climbed to 4,900'. It was nice and cool and hot on the ground.

The Villages were laid out before us but I decided to head northwest to the north end of Wildwood to get to highway 301 and under the best looking clouds. Jochen went over the Villages but joined back up with Jamie and I as we climbed out under good clouds.

The cu's were wisps but we could continue to find some lift as we drifted further north, but Jamie was a bit below us. We were in no hurray so we hung around in less than spectacular lift trying to stay together. As we approached Summerfield Jamie came in low below us. As we climbed up we went back south to her to keep her with us. Jochen could hear what we were saying on the radio, but we couldn't hear him.

At 5,500' we headed out with Jamie high, but not as high as us. We found 250 fpm north of the Leeward Airpark but Jamie came in low below us and our lift wasn't there for her. She got lower and lower as we drifted north east and climbed. Jochen stayed behind and climbed up waiting for Jamie. I went a short distance north and climbed back to 5,000' approaching the forested area.

Jamie almost landed and had her feet out of the harness when she found lift and climbed back to 5,000'. Jochen and I were ahead of her to the north. I found bits of lift getting back to 3,800' three times as I crossed the forested area and went north of Silver Springs. Jochen stayed high and kept heading north behind me.

After my last climb over the forested area I headed north northwest over agricultural lands and found 1,000 fpm down until I down to 1,100'. There was a little lift down there at 60 fpm and I worked it in an 11 mph southwest wind. As I slowly, every so slowly, climbed out I was quickly running out of agricultural land and heading for the Ocala National Forest. At 1,550' I had to leave the light lift and head cross wind to find something else with a backstop of agricultural land that would last long enough for me to get up and improve my options.

Down to 800' next to a radio tower I found 150 fpm and stayed with it to 4,100'. Jamie was landing. Mitch had come over my head as I twirled up and commented that it looked like I would make it out of my hole. I was drifting over the swamps and forests but plenty high. I could see Orange Lake to the northwest and highway 301 near the lake. There were bale out fields in reach.

Starting that high the lift under the plentiful cu's was well, plentiful, if not particular strong. The air was so moist it was hard to tell where the bottoms of the cu's began and the open air ended. It was easy again to head north and find lift.

Approaching Hawthorne I saw Mitch down low and struggling to get back up. I found 300 fpm to his east and climbed to 5,700'. The lift had been irritatingly bumpy since the start of the flight, until I had to climb out from 800'. The thermals seemed to have smoothed out since then so I was enjoying the flight much more than when it started.

Mitch climbed up so I went over to him and waited for him to get high. Dave on an ATOS VR was also with him. We headed out toward the goal at Keystone airfield. We were only twenty five kilometers away.

The three of us worked a couple of thermals together then Dave headed northwest toward highway 301 (found big sink and landed away from the highway). Mitch and I headed north toward the goal. Mitch didn't have it in his 6030 so he had to follow me. There was a big lake between us and the goal. There were nice cu's over the lake. We were plenty high. As I approached the south edge of the lake the lift turned on to 460 fpm. Another lake thermal here in Florida.

We were already plenty high enough to make the goal, but the lift was nice so I stayed for a few turns. Mitch stayed to cloud base. I headed out leaving him behind and pulling in the bar to get to the goal. Mitch was too high to get down at goal so he kept going and landed 106 miles out from Quest. Jochen was at the goal and Campbell made it a little bit later. We were sorry that Jamie wasn't there.

Sunday was the best day yet

Light winds, cu's form, a bit late, but high, gorgeous sunset

Sunday was the best day yet

April 10, 2011, 9:38:46 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Jamie Shelden|Quest Air

The flight.

On Sunday we got back to great tasking conditions. Very light winds, and good looking cu's forming a little after one o'clock. Light lift east of Quest Air but it improved and soon we were high enough to head south toward the first turnpoint at Dean Still and highway 33 on our 80 kilometer triangle, an easy task. Mark P. was pulled up just after me, but out climbed me in his ATOS VR.

There were big spaces but plenty of cu's heading south along highway 33 toward the glider port. Mark P. disappeared after the third thermal after chasing me and so I was on my own. Jamie was eating lunch when I launched so I didn't get her company in the air. I lost track of Olaf as Mark and I were in a better thermal.

South of the glider port I found the good lift and climbed to over 5,000'. Bare hands and just a light shirt under the speed sleeves, but it was very pleasant. With lots of cu's ahead and a west flow it was no problem making the turnpoint and heading toward Wallaby.

Big fat cu's near Wallaby with plenty of lift. I had already come across four of their pilots out near 33, and there were seven more over the Ranch. We had about fifteen in the air at Quest. It was easy to climb in the best looking cu's there and get the turnpoint before heading back to the north.

The clouds said to head west toward 33 upwind but under the clouds. That was easy. Then the task was to choose which clouds to fly to after they thinned out just east of 33. I made the wrong choice heading further west and then had to back up a little to find lift over the Van Fleet Bike Trail in the Green Swamp. Fortunately the medium sized cu that I went under at 2,000' AGL was growing and got much bigger as I got into 400 fpm.

I was a few kilometers southwest of the glider port well into the Green Swamp but topped out at over 5,000'. It was almost just a glide back to Quest with just a couple of extra turns for a safety margin.

Jamie didn't do the task. Mark P. did ahead of me. Olaf must have come along later.

We look at the approaching cold front to our northwest and hope that tomorrow brings a good day to head north or northeast. Many are going for it.

Bertling 2010 Kalahari - Big Sky Challenge

Coming again in 2011

Bertling 2010 Kalahari - Big Sky Challenge

March 18, 2011, 9:19:12 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|calendar|Kalahari Big Sky Challenge 2010|Oscar Plange|Pauli Raggl|record|Reinhard Pöppl|Toni Rumauf|Walter Geppert|weather

Oscar Plange <<oscar>> writes:

Over 13,000km were flown at this big sky event in December, including a 561km flight by Reinhard Poppl. I'm the organizer. It has always been my opinion that South Africa has the natural talent to be competitive internationally but lacks the exposure necessary. Having taken delivery of an AIR Atos VR last year and garnered a solid friendship with Europeans Toni Rumauf, Walter Geppert, Pauli Raggl and Reinhard Pöppl, I had come to realise that these guys had exactly the attitude I thought we needed in South African hang gliding to further the sport. Through Toni and I the Kalahari Big Sky Challenge was born.

Our goal was clear: to create a serious international flying event, giving us the opportunity to learn, helping the local environment, partnering with businesses through sponsorship for mutual benefit, at a first class family holiday location from where world records were possible.

THE MAGIC ‘TROUGH LINE’

The major weather engine for the southern African region is a strong high-pressure system over the Atlantic Ocean, which periodically sweeps around the country to link up with a high-pressure system over the Indian Ocean. The outstanding and, for soaring, most important feature in this concert of air masses is the formation of a heat low over the interior of southern Africa during the summer months. Due to its elongated shape this is frequently referred to as the ‘trough line’. Warm moist air from the east where the inversion is predominantly weak or non-existent, frequently leads to thunderstorms. Hence, the interior of South Africa is referred to as the summer rainfall region. Having lost most of its moisture, the subsiding air to the west of the trough line, together with a strong high-pressure system in the upper air, produces cumulus clouds with the characteristically high cloud bases for which South Africa and Namibia are well known.

As the prevailing winds in the central regions are northwesterly the ideal location is as far northwest as possible - flights from this direction are often stopped by the sea breeze 200km from the coast. The small town of Vanzylsrus in the far northwest of the Kuraman region, just 25km from the border with Botswana, meets with all the criteria. In theory, a 1,000km flight is possible from here. Logistical constraints meant that we could only accept fifteen pilots and a maximum of twelve at once. The South Africans were: Kobus Laubscher, Egmont van Dijk, Roelof Brits, Andre Dippenaar, Niel Koopman and Oscar Plange. The Europeans were: Toni Raumauf, Timi Gabrowski, Paul Raggl, Ralph Miederhoff, Josef Schaffer, Hubert Kaufmann, Marcus Riezler and Reinhard Pöppl. These European participants included multiple world champions, world record holders, and currently four of the top ten ranked FAI Class 5 pilots.

Weather conditions were only conducive to long distance flying for the first ten days, yet still in excess of 13,000km was flown. The outstanding flights were Toni’s 441km, to attempt a new world record declared goal of 500km, and Reinhard’s 561 km open distance, bringing overall SA distance record back to hang gliding. Aerotowing was extremely rough, the only consolation was that it was even worse for the trike towing us. Neil, the Skygods from Europe thought you were amazing! The best tug pilot they have ever been towed by!

GIVING BACK

The Kalahari Big Sky Challenge wasn’t just about the amazing flying though, it was also about giving something back to the local area. A plasma-screen TV, educational film and DVD player were donated to the school. A hangar was built, the locals introduced to hang gliding and trike flying and trained as ground crew, security staff and general assistants opportunity to attract further aviation-related income and employment, which it should be able to do. Vanzylsrus is a fantastic venue for an action filled holiday in the middle of the Kalahari. The facilities are first class. Close by are game reserves, the Meerkat Manor, local shebeen, dune braais, quad rides and trails on horseback.

THANK YOU!

Our sponsors deserve a special thank you for supporting this event which we intend to make an annual event on the international hang gliding calendar. Financial support came from: SAMAA, National Lottery, Gordon Verhoef and Krause, Aeroclub of South Africa, Kruger Stoltz Accountants, Martin Anzenhofer, Betts Townsend, Victor and Partners Attorneys. Services came from: Bertling Global Logistics, Vanzylsrus Hotel, Knittex, Cape Gate, Sat4Rent, Integricon Construction, AVIS, Action Cameras, Boltons GPS Warehouse, Tracks4Africa, Freshman Graphics and Kathisa Promotions.

www.kalaharibigskychallenge.co.za

<oscar>

The 2010 US Nationals at Big Spring

Another tough day with a triangle task

The 2010 US Nationals at Big Spring

August 18, 2010, 10:13:09 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Campbell Bowen|Jim Yocom|US Nationals

http://soaringspot.com/2010bsn/

The task committee goes through lots of different tasks as we contemplate the front moving away to the east. The winds forecast is for light winds, so we want to come back. There is a sky full of scud left over from yesterday, and it is blocking all the heating in the vicinity of Big Spring and to the south.

Finally they decide on a 86 km triangle task to the northwest and back, into the area of the sky that looks like it hasn't blocked the solar heating and where we can see a few scattered cu's. As the late launch window approaches at 2 PM I have them look again at the sky. To the south, not that far away, we can see the cu-nimbs, maybe twenty miles away. They feel that the cu-nimbs won't reach Big Spring. I'm more concerned with their tops exploding and blocking the sun light at Big Spring.

We start the launch and the task late hoping for more solar heating to provide for cu's and better lift. I'm off first again and there are no cu's near the airfield. I find 140 fpm at the south end of the runway and climb to 6,200'. I move north to get into a better position for the 3 PM start, the first start. and climb to 7,200' a little northwest of the runway.

To the south the cu-nimbs have exploded and the shading is just a few kilometers south of the runway. It is building and looking ominous. I want to be sure to go as quickly as possible.

I've still got to wait 17 minutes for the start window to open and I'm at cloud base. There are a couple of good looking cu's just to the north and I can tell that they are still in the start cylinder, but barely. In addition ,there are more cu's down the course line to the west northwest, but too far out for hanging out in before the start time. But they do look inviting for a good run after the start.

I talk to Zippy on the radio. He is getting a late launch and doesn't know if he will be able to take the first start time. My job is to hang out under the clouds, the winds are light, and be ready at cloud base for the start. I think about leaving early as I watch the shading to the south. It is not moving too fast so there appears to be time to wait. I wonder what it will be like coming back into this. Not good I suppose.

Zippy gets up and is just to my right when the window opens. Jim Yocom in the ATOS VRQ is there also as are a few other pilots nearby. The cu's look good ahead and we are off to the races.

There is a cloud street over us, not exactly lined up on the course line, but good enough. I have my VG full on and the bar stuffed. I'm trying to keep up with Zac. I'm 100 yards behind him and Jim is behind me. We race under the clouds at way more than best speed to fly (my needle is pegged) until Zac finds 500+ fpm. We both join him and again get to cloud base quickly, before tearing off and leaving everyone else behind. We are the only ones willing to go really fast. This is one of the reasons Zac does so well in competition, he flies fast when the conditions are good. Zac and Jim are just ahead of me and the VRQ doesn't seem to have any advantage over Zac on the T2 C 144.

About fifteen kilometers out from the turnpoint we leave the cloud street and there is nothing but blue ahead, no cu's. We slow down a little, but not that much. 1.5 km from the turnpoint down to 1,500' AGL, Zac and Jim turn in something that isn't enough to stay in when I come in under them. I keep going and find 40 fpm in the turnpoint cylinder.

Jim comes in under me. Zac comes over, gets the turnpoint, but after getting the word from me on the lift turns and goes toward the next turnpoint. He is low. I am holding on as the average lift increases to 100+ fpm. Jim and I are circling together.

I climb a thousand feet as the slow guys behind us catch up. I don't like that at all. What was the point of all that speed?

I hear from Zac that he has found lift at 400 fpm four kilometers toward the next turnpoint. I decide to leave and go get that lift. I head northeast and very quickly lose that thousand feet that I had gained at such pain. I find 200 fpm, but it quickly disappears. I press on then spend seven minutes circling at 200'-300' AGL before landing.

Zac finds good lift and gets back up and then has an easy time making it to goal. Only Campbell Bowen in the rigid wing class is able to match that feat.

AIR ATOS V10

In North England

Sat, Jun 19 2010, 9:07:27 am CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH

Lorenzo Labrador «Lorenzo Labrador» writes:

On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 July, Felix Ruhle was in Bradwell north England, home of Avian, the UK's AIR dealer, for a two-day demo days of the new ATOS, including the VR10. Felix, along with Andreas, drove the AIR van with six ATOSes of different kinds, all the way from Karlsruhe, Germany to North England to deliver a couple of ATOSes to customers and to allow pilots from the UK to try their hand at the new machines.

Flying on Saturday took place from the Lord's Seat, a north-facing site in the Peak District, some thirty miles east of Manchester. The idea was that pilots would fly the ATOSes and top-land, so that other pilots could fly as well. The condition were tricky though, and not everybody could top land. Still, a few pilots flew the new wings. On Sunday, the weak conditions dictated going south for some aero-towing, but a rather grey and then rainy day prevented any flying. Below is a picture of the new ATOS VR10-T (the "T" is for Technora, the new sail used in this glider).

As for myself, I am just getting back into flying so, as rusty as I am, I did not feel like trying an ATOS and I flew a king-posted flexy instead.

Atlantique Delta Race - the results

The weather was right

Atlantique Delta Race

November 16, 2009, 11:33:33

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Atlantique Delta Race 2009|Bouchet Blaise|Brice Deloye|Christian Pollet|Delage Jean Pierre|Fabien Zadora|photo|Pollet Christian|Scott Sigal|weather

http://hikkaduwa.free.fr/

Laurent Pironneau <contact>  writes:

Topless and rigid :

1st : Scott Sigal
2d : Delage Jean pierre (Opal) - Atos VR
3d : Fabien Zadora

Double surface with king post :

1st : Pollet Christian
2d : Brice Deloye
3d : Bouchet Blaise

Photos : http://www.laurentpironneau.com/_photo/_091114_Delta_race/index.html

2009 Team Challenge

Day One

2009 Team Challenge

September 27, 2009, 9:25:49 pm MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bill Watters|Dave Hopkins|Dennis Pagen|Jim Lamb|Mark Stump|Mike Barber|Oliver Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2009|Tom Lanning|video

oliver gregory <<olliettt1955>> writes:

The morning was beautiful with the valley filled with clouds. The view from the ramp is always so beautiful here.

The forecast was for ridge soaring conditions and good lift to cloud base at 5000' msl. We were concerned that it might be rough. By the time the launch window opened, we had nice west northwest winds and a sky streeted with cumulus clouds.

Since this was our first day, the task committee chose a simple task to Dr Dales for C pilots, Dr Dales and back to Henson's for B's and Dr Dales, Henson's and back to Dr Dales for the A's. It was not a gimme task for any of us since the task went cross wind to the cloud streets and there was enough sink between the streets to make the ridge lift fade out. We had lots of pilots into their goals, so everyone seemed pleased.

We have 40 pilots and 8 teams from all over. More on this later. We are waiting for some of the TTTers at Santa Cruz Flats Race in AZ to join us and take advantage of Mike Barber's coaching for the rest of the week.

It was a fun day with none of the rough stuff until time to land when the wind was switchy and made for some interesting landings. After we loaded up and returned to Henson's Gap, hungry pilots enjoyed fabulous hearty soup made by Wanda DeBerger and Dick Heckman. We did our debriefing and heard a great talk from Mark Stump on how we choose to fly.

Provisional scores are: In first place Team Area 51 lead by Jim Lamb on the Atos VRQ. In second place is Kinghts in White Dacron with Dave Hopkins on an ancient Atos. In third place is Team Acrosnats, lead by Tom Lanning on his Litespeed RS. In forth is Team Ooooos lead by yours truly on my VR. In fifth Team Xplorers Xc Xceptional lead by Dennis Pagen on his Lightspeed, but one of his pilots hasn't pinned in yet, so they may jump to first place when that happens. Team Tow Heads are lead by Miller Stroud on a VQ. Team 4Fs is lead by Bill Watters, and finally, Team Tree Topplers is lead by Jeff Laughrey and Steve Larson.

Our team of Cliff Rice, Leigh Sheridan, Jerry Keller, Barry Klein and myself had radio problems so only Jerry was talking to me. Mike Barber was helping out as a free flier today and did a good job with the only Ooooo, besides me, to have a working radio. We are all ham operators! Why would our radios let us down? As my buddy Mark Stump says, "Ya got radios, ya got radio problems." Anyway all the C's with radio problems made goal. I couldn't get out of there and landed with them. It was a fun day. Our team was very happy as 2 of our pilots had their first XC today!

We start video for the launch clinic tomorrow and will have that clinic going soon. High winds are predicted, but we had much lighter winds than predicted today. We have a blogspot for our scores http://hickarus.blogspot.com

Going fast in an ATOS

Wed, Sep 2 2009, 8:05:26 am MDT

Fast

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Mark Taggart|video

Mark Taggart «flystandre» writes:

Scroll down half a page: http://www.flystandre.com/news.html . Those ATOS VR's go like stink.

Hangliding Saint Andre Les Alpes from Mark Taggart on Vimeo.

Discuss "Going fast in an ATOS" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

200 km FAI triangle

In the flat lands

200 km FAI triangle

August 7, 2009, 8:27:00 CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Martin Henry

Martin Henry <<gliding>> writes:

Sometimes, it's not always the huge monster cross countries that need to be appreciated. I spotted this on the DHV OLC yesterday and it is what I believe to be a pretty amazing flight:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=100170

The pilot is Dirk Ripkens, and he did a stellar job of putting together a 200 km FAI triangle on the German/Dutch borders on an ATOS VR. It is not exactly known as "the place to be" when it comes to epic Cross Country!  In Dirk's own words "Super Tag"!....

World Record Encampment »

Monday, blue, windy, but we go anyway.

World Record Encampment

August 3, 2009, 7:18:21 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|record|Robin Hamilton|Wills Wing T2C

We head off at 10 to 10:30 AM. BJ on an AIR ATOS VR is first then Zippy on a Wills Wing T2C- 144, then me on a Wills Wing U2-160. Right after me Robin Hamilton in his Swift and later Pete Lehmann on a Wills Wing T2-144.

The sky was blue, it was hot, and the wind was out of the south southeast, so it was dry having come over hundreds of miles of Mexico. We got left off at 3,200' AGL and headed north getting down to 1,900' before finding lift.

There was good lift and we could get back to 2,800', so it looked like a good day, even without the clouds to mark the streets.

I got down to about 600' AGL a few miles south of the San Ignacio road but lucked out and found a good core. After I got up Robin came over and joined me and we climbed out of there together. It was slow going as we let the wind take us north.

Crossing the San Ignacio road we flew smack dab over Zippy who had landed a few miles (maybe four) to the north of the road. His driver was new and it would be a while before they hooked up. I relayed the road pattern that they needed to follow to get to him, but he was behind two locked gates.

BJ was further west not in a good place to get around Laredo while Robin and I were well placed. After climbing out again we headed north with Robin higher and in the lead. We came over the clear ranch area and I failed to connect with any lift. Robin found some broken 100 fpm low a mile to my north, but I could get to him. I landed near a ranch house, 22 miles out.

Pete Lehmann came along a little later and landed a few miles away to my north east. Robin, seeing that it wasn't a record day, as he couldn't see too many cu's, headed northeast up I35 instead of north up highway 83.

BJ was going slow to get around Laredo at about half the rate of my 407 mile ATOS flight, but he was still plugging away. He got around Laredo and headed north getting higher and higher.

He kept going but came down (don't know if it was on purpose or not) at 200 miles out at Camp Wood, north west of Uvalde.

CIVL/FAI Record Claims

Triangles in Zapata

CIVL/FAI Record Claims

July 24, 2009, 5:46:13 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|CIVL|Davis Straub|PG|record

Record FAI <<record>> sends:

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 25 km
Course/location : Zapata, TX (USA)
Performance : 55 km/h
Pilot : Benjamin HERRING (USA)
Paraglider : AIR Atos VR
Date :18.07.2009
Current record : 50.40 km/h (20.05.2001 - Davis STRAUB, USA)

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 50 km
Course/location : Zapata, TX (USA)
Performance : 50 km/h
Pilot : Benjamin HERRING (USA)
Paraglider : AIR Atos VR
Date :19.07.2009
Current record : 40.80 km/h (17.05.2001 - Davis STRAUB, USA)

World Record Encampment »

No cu's

World Record Encampment

July 20, 2009, 2:42:34 pm CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|David Glover|Davis Straub|record|Robin Hamilton|sailplane

On Sunday:

It appears that BJ Herring has the new 50 km FAI triangle (Class 2 and Class 5) record in an AIR ATOS VR. He completed the 50.4 km task in a little over an hour. The previous fastest times were 44.55 km/h in Class 5 (Davis Straub) and 45.46 km/h (Robin Hamilton in a Swift).

Gary unofficially beat the ultralight sailplane 100 km FAI triangle speed record by 23%.

Strong southeast winds today with a few cu's by 2:30 PM. Doesn't look like there will be much flying for records today, BJ and Gary might try for the 100 km triangle record.

Getting ready for the ⁢2009 Worlds »

Plenty of lift today, but bumpy, record setting weather conditions tomorrow and the next day.

Tue, Jun 16 2009, 5:26:17 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Belinda Boulter|CIVL|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Shapiro|record|weather|Worlds 2009

The GFS/XCSkies forecasted good lift and a few scattered clouds at 9,000' with a 10 knot north northwest wind at 4,000 (about launch height) for Tuesday. It looked like I might have a chance to launch off the upper north side unlike last year. I didn't want to follow in Mart's path and crash on that side when the wind was actually west.

I went up in one of the vans/shuttles at 11 AM while others took their time and came up later. The wind was coming in at a nice rate from the north northwest straight into launch so I set up at the highest point which I knew was the best north launch.

Only ten or so of us were setting up as the rest of the pilots stopped at the launch down below and set up there assuming that the north wind would over power any thermals coming up the south side.

The winds on top started switching around to west but they would always come back to north northwest, so you just had to wait less than a minute for a good cycle of north wind. I let a few pilots launch in front of me before I was willing to try my first foot launch in six months.

I had seen Jean Paul in his AIR ATOS VR take a nice smooth thermal out away from the cliff to our right about fifteen minutes earlier so I went to where he went and found that same nice lift. It was a smooth thermal to over 8,000' and cloud base. I could see another twenty pilots setting up down below at the north launch.

I headed out toward Apres, 25 km to the north with Warren in tow. The idea was to do an out and return, but I didn't really have much for retrieval, as Belinda was relaxing. It was a glide over to Beaumont where I found some ratty lift that I stayed in a bit too long. Warren kept going but I wasn't that excited about going to Apres, so headed back flying around the valleys and find just as strong lift, but not nearly as ratty. I'll have to remember that.

Curt and Louise are here as are Conrad and Anousha. Curt had a little zipper accident a few days ago. You can read about it in Steve's blog. Curt is on his honeymoon with Louise.

Gerolf is here and feisty as ever re the sprogs issue. Apparently the CIVL Bureau went off and on its own after the CIVL Sprogs Workgroup, which was actually tasked with the job by the Plenary, came back with a general agreement on how to proceed, that the Bureau thought should/could be improved. That's why you see it (the Bureau's version) being walked back now (see article above).

We should see more sprog action in the coming days. I'm enjoying the controversy as always. I was the first one to get my sprogs measured by Dennis and, of course, everything is right on stock (within the error measurement, which appears to be quite large). Some pilots are being told to adjust their sprogs up to match the manufacturer's recommendations (or certified configurations).

There is controversy about how to make the measurements (with or without opening the zippers), where to make the measurements (for or aft on the sprogs), how much the lateral angle needs to be controlled, how these measurements relate to the measurements that are made by the manufacturers and at certification testing, how to deal with the Certification Statements and the prototype statements (it is acknowledged that there are indeed problems with the Sporting Code).

But we are having a great time and I haven't seen anyone lose it yet over this issue.

Friday at Quest Air

The wind backs off and we fly under cu's

Friday at Quest Air

April 10, 2009, 11:57:24 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Blue Sky|Campbell Bowen|Mark Poustinchian|Quest Air|Steve Bellerby

The sky looked terrible (stormy) early in the morning and then there was the wind, which wasn't unsafe at a little over 10 mph, but looked like it would be rough getting out of the field. Mark Poustinchian showed up driving in from New Orleans. He hadn't flown his ATOS VR in eighteen months.

By 10 AM the clouds had cleared up, and the blue sky looked inviting with a few cu's forming, still there was that wind. Campbell Bowen showed up to fly with Mark on his ATOS VX, but he was going to wait also.

Finally, around 4 PM I decided that the south southwest wind had died down enough and there were enough lulls that I would go for it. We were in a thermal as soon as we left the ground and I pinned off at 700' AGL before we got out of the field. I climbed to 5,000'.

There were thick and beautifully well formed cumulus clouds all about and especially to the southwest. My goal for the day was to work my way upwind and see how I could feel out the lift. The wind was varying from 9 mph down low to 13 mph over 5,000'. I was looking for streeting in the lift.

The lift was much friendlier that the last two blue days, with mellow edges under the cu's. The temperatures had increased substantially also, so being in the air was pleasant.

Mark got towed up to 3,000' but he has forgotten how to fly and didn't find any lift. Campbell went up later for a good flight.

I flew up to the Green Swamp and then turned around. I gained 200' flying straight back at 4,200'. I had to go find sink by Mascote to get down. Steve Bellerby stayed up until late (I was bicycling) and climbed to 7,200'. The clouds were still there after sunset.

Steve Bellerby captures this picture of me cranking it up over Quest on Friday:

Texas-Sized World Records

Ah, the World Class flying at Big Spring, Texas

Texas Sized World Records

December 22, 2008, 5:45:22 pm PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|David Glover|Marcus Hoffmann|record|Robin Hamilton

FAI Office «record» sends:

Sub-class:  Class 2
Course/location: Big Spring, TX (USA)
Pilot: Robin HAMILTON (UK)
Hang Glider: Aeriane Swift Light
Date: August 9th, 2008
Type of record: Speed over a triangular course of 300 km
Performance: 49.52 km/h
Previous record:  no record set yet

Type of record: Distance over a triangular course
Performance: 301.7 km
Previous record: 258.9 km (15.08.2000 - Marcus HOFFMANN-GUBEN, Germany)

Sub-class: Class 5
Type of record: Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location: Big Spring, TX (USA) - Pampa,TX (USA)
Performance: 378.9 km
Pilot: Benjamin HERRING (USA)
Aircraft: AIR Atos VR
Date: August 10th, 2008
Current record: 354.6 km (28.07.2001 - David GLOVER, USA)

These records were set during the Big Spring International held in August at the Big Spring airfield. David Glover was the organizer and meet director of that meet.

The US National Champion, a history

Lots of Champions

The National Champion, a history

October 31, 2008, 8:40:32 PDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bo Hagewood|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Arai|Curt Warren|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Eric Raymond|Gerry Uchytil|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Larry Tudor|Mike Meier|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Rich Burton|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Mike Meier «Mike» writes:

This is a "complete" list of US National Hang Gliding Champions, as best I can compile it - with one exception - it contains no women champions. There were not that many years that a women's national champion was named, and I did not try to compile a list of those.

The list is complete, except for the glider that Mike Daily flew in 1986, which I could not find, and it is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability to research it. I made only one assumption - that Campbell Bowen flew the same glider in the 2007 Nationals as he did in the Quest Air comp that immediately followed the Nationals. All of the other data listed is documented somewhere, Hang Gliding Magazine, the Oz Report, manufacturer web sites, etc. That does not guarantee that all the data is accurate, but it is all documented. Anyone who has conflicting information should, of course, comment on anything they think is not accurate.

The history of the title US National Champion in hang gliding is not, perhaps, as simple or as clean as one might prefer. As I mentioned above, there was a period (1983 - 1987) where the rules called for a single national champion, to be determined by CPS points, and during this period the winners of the U.S. Nationals competitions, in various classes, were supposed to have been designated as "Nationals Champions" (i.e. Champions of the Nationals), but that convention was not followed, in almost all cases, when the meets were reported in the media, so in those years we had additional "National Champions" beyond what the rules provided for.

Another source of possible confusion or complication is that the term US National Champion has been reserved for a US pilot, so in many cases, after the meet became international in its participation, the National Champion did not necessarily finish in first place in his class in the meet. In the list, I've added a column where I've listed the National Champion's finishing place in the meet, where I was able to determine that, when it was not a first place finish.
 

Year Pilot Site Class Glider (Place in meet)
2008 Zac Majors Lakeview, Oregon Flexwing Wills Wing T2C 144
2007 Campbell Bowen Florida Ridge, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VX
2007 Tom Lanning Florida Ridge, Florida Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S 4 5th
2007 Rodger Furrey Florida Ridge, Florida Sport Class Wills Wing U2 160 2nd
2006 Campbell Bowen Florida Ridge, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VX <1st
2006 Curt Warren Florida Ridge, Florida Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S 3rd
2005 Bruce Barmakian Quest Air, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VR
2005 Paris Williams Quest Air, Florida Flexwing Aeros Combat L 3rd
2004 Davis Straub Big Spring, Texas Rigid Wing Air Atos VX
2004 Curt Warren Big Spring, Texas Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S
2003 Bruce Barmakian Big Spring, Texas Rigid Wing Air Atos C
2003 Paris Williams Big Spring, Texas Flexwing Aeros Combat 2
2002 Bruce Barmakian Wallaby Ranch, Florida Rigid Wing (Class 5) Aeros Stalker 4th
2002 Brian Porter Wallaby Ranch, Florida Rigid Wing (Class 2) Bright Star Swift
2002 Paris Williams Wallaby Ranch, Florida Flexwing Icaro Laminar 3rd
2001 Brian Porter Hearne, Texas Rigid Wing Bright Star Swift 2nd
2001 Paris Williams Hearne, Texas Flexwing Icaro Laminar
2000 Brian Porter Lakeview, Oregon Rigid Wing Bright Star Swift
2000 Bo Hagewood Lakeview, Oregon Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion
1999 Brian Porter Quest Air, Florida Rigid Wing Utopia
1999 Jim Lee Quest Air, Florida Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion 5th
1998 Dave Sharp Dinosaur, Colorado Rigid Wing Flight Designs Exxtacy
1998 Chris Arai Dinosaur, Colorado Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion 3rd
1997 Chris Arai Lakeview, Oregon One Class Wills Wing Fusion
1996 Larry Tudor Dinosaur, CO One Class Wills Wing XC 3rd
1995 Chris Arai Chelan, WA One Class Wills Wing XC 2nd
1994 Chris Arai Mount Princeton, Colorado One Class Wills Wing RamAir
1993 Jim Lee Lakeview, Oregon One Class Wills Wing RamAir
1992 Brad Koji Telluride, Colorado One Class Wills Wing HP AT
1991 Tony Barton Owens Valley, California One Class UP TRX
1990 Bruce Case Dinosaur, Colorado One Class Wills Wing HP AT 2nd
1989 Brian Porter Dunlap, California One Class Odyssey
1988 Joe Bostik Chattanooga, Tennessee One Class Wills Wing Sport
1987 Joe Bostik Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP II
1987 Howard Osterlund Owens Valley, California Meet Winner Airwave Magic IV
1986 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP
1986 Rick Rawlings Chelan, Washington World Wills Wing HP
1986 Mike Daily Chelan, Washington Sporting
1985 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP
1985 Rick Rawlings Chelan, Washington World Wills Wing HP
1985 Gerry Uchytil Chelan, Washington Sporting Airwave Magic
1984 Stew Smith Crestline, California Overall (on CPS points) Seedwings Sensor 510
1984 Rich Pfeiffer Crestline, California World Seedwings Sensor 510
1984 Terry Wilkins Crestline, California Sporting Wills Wing Duck
1983 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing Duck
1983 Chris Bulger Dunlap, California World Bennett Delta Wing Streak
1983 Lee Fisher Dunlap, California Sporting Seedwings Sensor 510
1982 Rich Burton Crestline, California Open UP Comet
1982 Rich Pfeiffer Crestline, California Flexwing Wills Wing Duck
1981 Fred Hutchinson Slide Mountain, Nevada Open Manta Fledgling IIB
1981 Rich Pfeiffer Slide Mountain, Nevada Flexwing Seedwings Sensor 510
1980 Rex Miller Ellenville, New York Open Manta Fledgling IIB
1980 Tom Haddon Ellenville, New York Flexwing UP Comet
1979 Eric Raymond Crestline, California One Class Manta Fledgling IIB
1978 Dennis Pagen Hyner View, Pennsylvania One Class Sky Sports Sirocco II
1976 Rob Reed Dog Mountain, Washington Standard Bennett Delta Wing 19/13
1976 Keith Nichols Dog Mountain, Washington Open ASG 21
1976 Ken Koklenski Dog Mountain, Washington Unlimited Manta Fledgling
1975 Dave Muehl Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Overall Eipper 19 x 17
1975 Chris Price Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Open Price Special
1975 Chris Wills Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Advanced Standard Wills Wing Swallowtail
1975 Dave Muehl Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Standard Eipper 19 x 17
1974 Bob Wills Escape Country, CA Flexwing Wills Wing Swallowtail
1974 Jack Schroeder Escape Country, CA Rigid Wing Eipper Quicksilver
1973 Chris Wills Sylmar, CA One Class Wills Wing

Martin's Mansfield record goes down

Fast flying in Namibia

Martin's

July 10, 2008, 8:26:03 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Martin Henry|record

FAI writes:

Type of record : Speed over a triangular course of 100 km
Course/location : Moreson Farm - Malta Hohe (Namibia)
Performance : 46.3 km/h
Pilot : Jean-François VIOLETTE (France) AIR Atos VR
Date :10.01.2008
Previous record : 42 km/h (10.07.2004 - Martin HENRY, Canada)

Yes, I did indeed have the record prior to Martin. I also beat Martin's record at 44.28 km/h (http://ozreport.com/toc.php?9.101#0) . Now even that unofficial record has been eclipsed.

Col de Bleine

Going far in rigids at the great cross country site to the south

Col de Bleine

July 5, 2008, 8:07:24 +0200

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Fred Pignet|Gil Souviron|photo|Tisseau Vianney

Tisseau Vianney «vianney» writes:

While the pre-Worlds were starting, I drove down to Col de Bleine to meet up with ATOS VR pilots Gil Souviron, Bruno Capelle and Fred Pignet, and local flex wing pilot Jean Charles Balembois. We flew 245 km on the 25th (triangle Bleine-Briançon-Dormillouse-Bleine - http://vianneyphoto3.free.fr/Bleine25/ ) and 280 km on the 26th (Out and return Bleine-Coiro-Bleine - http://vianneyphoto3.free.fr/Bleine26/). I posted a link with photos and story for my friends (sorry I wrote the whole thing in French since it was mostly for local pilots), but I'll give one an idea of our flights.

I'll be reporting from the Worlds in Monte Cucco for the Oz Report.

The track logs show basically big out and return flights just to our east in the higher Alps. Here and here.

Walter, go faster

Walter wants a second world record

Walter

May 29, 2008, 8:33:09 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|record

FAI sends:

Sub-class :5
Type of record: Speed over a triangular course of 300 km
Course/location: Emberger Alm (Austria)
Performance: 44.86 km/h
Pilot: Walter GEPPERT (Austria)
Hang Glider: AIR Atos VR
Date: 2008-5-12
Current record:  no record set yet

Walter to apply for World record

A new type of World Record attempt

Walter

May 19, 2008, 8:33:59 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|CIVL|Gil Souviron|Marcus Hoffmann|record|Stéphane Malbos

http://ozreport.com/12.096#3

Gil Souviron «gil.souviron» writes:

On my recommendation, Stephane Malbos asked the French league and then to CIVL and FAI to allow for the validation of free circuit in out and return and triangle flights a new type of record where you have not to declare the turn point before take off and do not have to takeoff at the end point or turnpoint.

FAI and CIVL has approved this new type of record starting the 1st May 2008. This type of record is the same as the records approved for sail planes.

Walter will apply for a world record with CIVL.

Here it is:

Claim number : 15054
Sub-class :O-5 (Hang Gliders with a rigid primary structure / movable
control surface(s) without pilot surrounding structures and fairings.)
Category: General
Type of record : Distance over a triangular course
Course/location : Emberger Alm (Austria)
Performance : 404 km
Pilot : Walter GEPPERT (Austria)
Hang Glider : AIR Atos VR
Date :12.05.2008
Current record : 258.9 km (15.08.2000 - Marcus HOFFMANN-GUBEN, Germany)

Walter Geppert's 400 km FAI triangle

A big triangle with an ATOS VR from Greifenburg

Geppert

May 13, 2008, 9:18:52 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Chris Hofer

Chris Hofer «hochri» writes:

Walter Geppert just did a 400 km FAI Triangle in Greifenburg flying his Atos VR!  The big flight.

Have a look at his other big flights during the last week.

Anger

So flex wings or rigid wings, which are better?

Tue, Mar 25 2008, 5:57:03 am PDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Gerolf Heinrichs|PG|Vicki Cain

https://OzReport.com/12.037#0

Gerolf Heinrichs «gerolfontour» writes:

I’m pretty sure you’re not gonna print this one again, however, I think it’s quite interesting.

As you know, at the annual Anger winter glide comparison event they have hang gliders of different classes perform a task that is basically to take off from one side of the valley, cross it and land above a certain line (goal line) on the slope on the other side – your score is the time you need from take off on one side to passing the goal line on the other. The altitude difference is 300m, the glide distance 3km, so the task really is to perform a 10:1 glide as fast as you can. Since, there are no more rules (e.g. wing loading unfortunately is not regulated, and wing span is never considered an issue), you often see a lot of guys trying to pull off the impossible and smash hard into the other side of the hill :-(

On the A.I.R website (www.a-i-r.de) we find a graph comparing the average speeds of different classes over the past years. Of course – surprise - they make it not look too good for the Flexis :-)

This season we find the Atos VR winning @ 93kmh, while Seppi on his small Aeros got it @77kmh (e.g Tom Weissenberger did 81kmh on his RS-4 last year). The difference may look quite significant, however, you need to see the span advantage the Atos-VR has over the flexies: about 33-40%. And the wing loadings in this event usually compare like 11kg/m² against 9kg/m², a 20% difference.

Right now, as we speak the competition in Bassano, Italy is going on. On the first day the Flexwings and the Rigids flew the same task (110km), there may have been a difference in start radius of 2km, but: The flexies won this comparison by miles.

Michi on his Moyes Litespeed RS-3.5 finished in 1:55 (four minutes ahead of the next flex wing). Walter Geppert on his Atos VR in 2:07 (eight minutes ahead of the next rigid wing). What do we conclude now?

That the Flexies can use their nominal performance more efficiently then Rigids? That they get back some, if not all, their glide handicap @ 10:1, from better climb and better maneuverability near the ridge? Or simply that machine performance is overrated and it all still comes down to which machine is steered by the better pilot?

If so, we then would still always have to answer the pressing question: Why do top hang glider pilots still prefer to hang under a flexible wing, when given the chance? ;-)

First, I always love it when Gerolf argues that the flex wings are better than the rigid wings. As I won the Australian National Championships twice flying an ATOS, beating Gerolf and all the other flex wings (as well as the few other rigid wings), I like to think that Gerolf knows that I'm the better pilot and that's why I won. :-)

Second, I don't know if the question, which glider type is better, is site and conditions specific, but it may be.

Third, top hang glider pilots may prefer the higher level of competition among the flex wings that comes with most competitions where few rigid wings are flying. I know that that very much influences me.

Fourth, I prefer to hang under a flex wing because I haven't had one tuck and tumble on me. But that was before the tail. Still it is my personal history. Maybe other pilots prefer the "feel" of the flex wing glider to that of the rigid wing.

Fifth, vast prices differences may affect this decision (see a follow up article coming soon).

Sixth, most top pilots actually prefer to fly paragliders, so maybe performance is not the primary issue.

I think that Gerolf raises some interesting questions, but muddies the water a bit (as do I) with his final question. Perhaps Oz Report readers have some real answers for him to his serious questions.

I would say that on average the VR climbs better than any flex wing, but there may be circumstances where the flex wing has an advantage. I don't think that on average the flex wings have an overall performance advantage, quite the contrary.

I believe the results of this one day in one contest indicate that Michi was the better pilot. Pilot skills are widely divergent. They can easily overwhelm differences in glider performance. That's why manufacturers want the best pilots flying their gliders.

There was only one valid day at Bassano apparently. The results can be found here: http://www.aeroclubmontegrappa.it/flex-task-1.html and here: http://www.aeroclubmontegrappa.it/rigid-task-1.html. There were eighty seven flex wing pilots and only twelve rigid wing pilots. Thanks to Vicki Cain.

Seppi and Felix win the Angerer Open 2008 gliding contest

Primoz two seconds behind

Angerer Open

February 21, 2008, 8:26:13 GMT+1100

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Primoz Gricar|record

http://www.dhv.de/typo/Angerer_Open_2008_-.4748.0.html

This (the article at the above URL) is Regina Glas's article on the Open.

This was the thirteenth time that DCB Ruhpolding had held the Angerer Open, the traditional hang gliding glide angle flying competition. Around 100 pilots, competitive and amateur pilots from Germany and abroad, made their way to Anger in the beautiful Berchtesgaden region to see who can achieve the best glide angle. Bright sunshine, blue skies with little cumulus clouds, headwind and record numbers of participants – you really could not ask for more!

http://www.dcb-ruhpolding.de/

Primoz writes:

It was a perfect day. Sunny, a little cold, but the urge to fly was stronger. Angerer Open has in the last few years won a reputation of well organised, relaxed competition, where many pilots from all three classes compete (Kingposted, Kingpostless, Rigid). This time over 100 participants registered.

The wives of local Club have provided home made cakes and drinks. The assignment at this com. is to fly the 3000m distance starting at 300m height difference as fast as possible.

For me the decision, with which glider I would fly was relatively easy. Since my rigid and flex from the last season were gone and new ones were in process of production, the only possibility left was the Combat 12L from my dear friend Regina. She did not resist. :) The glider, with its 12,8 sq m, is quite small, but built very strong, so I knew that my battle weight would not decrease its performance. We have set the glider quite high, outboard sprogs over 8,5 degrees. So I said lets see what this machine can do.

The launching conditions were just perfect, the gliding conditions at approximately 80kph air speed a little bumpy but the sweet handling and good load on the glider made me hold my course with no effort. Later I saw many people go up to 60 degrees off course due to the turbulence.

I flew over the goal line uphill at 1,5m height, and flared 50 meters later. Seppi with his Combat 12L has showed us, how to do it. He flew into ground effect much sooner and flared almost exactly on the goal line. A perfect run. The attractive price giving ceremony was conducted in the Gasthaus on the takeoff.

RangFlugzeitVorname NachnameGerätKg
12:00Felix RühleAIR Atos VR157
22:13Toni RaumaufAIR Atos VR150
32:15Tim GrabowskiAIR Atos VR128
RangFlugzeitVorname NachnameGerätKg
12:24Seppi SalvenmoserAeros Combat 12L12,8109
22:26Primoz GricarAeros Combat 12L12,8125
22:26Wolfgang SiessWillsWing T2 15414,5143

New rigid wing out and return World record distances

Gil reports

Records

January 15, 2008, 3:30:52 GMT+1100

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Blue Sky|Gil Souviron|Jacques Bott|photo|record

Gil Souviron «gsouviro» writes:

Namibia is probably not the world best place in the world for free distance. But if you want to take a fresh beer with your friend at the farm bar, after just finishing the best out and return distance you have ever dreamed of, don't look elsewhere. This is the spot

Of course, you must come with Aerotow. Walter Geppert and his friend flew from Pokweni glider airfield, but they attempted ten times to succeed to get a thermal with altitude and temperature and it was impossible to get above 250 meters.

9 Jan.

Here we are! At the farm with the two essential things: Beers and Airfield.

Where the surprises start is when we arrive after a 450 km drive from Wallis at the farm. Andre Rossouw, the owner, opens a door and we discover a nice bar next to our bedroom.

The surprises continued in the morning when we went to the runway. Previously there was one runway, two km away from the farm. Thomas Sterzing talked with Andre about the possibility of having another runway. We discovered four runways, oriented in star at 500 meters from the farm!!!

They installed our windshear, 3 meter antenna radio, create a taxi way to not damage the runway, and top of the top, bring the flex wings with their quad from the hangar to the runway

In the evening the meal is different (No chance if you don't like meat). It is excellent.

Ok 7 AM, I awake and I go to the http://www.arl.noaa.gov/  meteo website (The only one working everywhere in the world). Simple, efficient, reliable, and using low bandwidth, which is key.

NOAA forecast ceiling of 4500 meters at 14h00, and 3200 meter at 11h00. At 11h00 ? I don't believe it. The sunset at 19h45 and night is at 20h00. So we have more than 10 hours on a good day.

10H00 First day briefing. The rule is simple, same as in Wilcania ,Australia. You have a small village every 100 km with just 5 houses. One or two car is passing every day. So:

1. Only one axe of circuit is chosen for every pilot

2. Nobody fly alone

3. All pilot follow the road (I mean can reach the road at any altitude).

This day will be taken for a discovery flight for all pilots, with an 200km done in circuit for 5 or 6.

10 January

Today the Emagrams says ceiling at 4500m with 3500 mètres at 11h00, Blue Sky.

Finally we are five ready to start the circuit between 12h10 and 12:30.

Objective: Break World FAI Out and Return FAI with 350 km (330 my previous).

Thermal are strong, large and calm. I open the " ballroom" with Carlos Punet, Patrick and Pascal 5 minutes behind me and my brother 15 minutes behind.

No cloud on our circuit, but some are present in our east. Ok it will be blue sky for us today.

We progress quickly in homogen mass, Wa just make a low point with Carlos as we progess along a small reef arriving on the turning point south of Bethanie. The return was really no problem and finally we touch the cloud at 19h00.

Carlos Punet Pascal Lanser, Patrick Chopard did it: 3 350 km same circuit! 4 pilots in the same day, 4 World record broken..

Carlos did with Atos VQ!!!

Comparative test shows that the VQ performance are very good, still around 1.5 less glide than our at 70km/h.

And my brother Jean did 330 km in OR as well, and being the last to take off. He will finish few minutes after us at 20h00 in the dark. Very impressive with a Lite Speed 4 RS

To summarize

Patrick Chopard Atos VR 350km World record Out and Return, Pascal Lanser Atos VR 350km World record Out and Return, Carlos Pnet Atos VQ 350km World record Out and Return, Gil Souviron Atos VR 350km World record Out and Return

Jean Souviron Lite speed 4 RS 330km World best OR 2007-08

11 Janvier

Forecast today 3800m, 1/8 of cumulus at 11h00 !!! Where we are here! I still not believe it and I announce only 3000meter in blue sky.

We save time again and I arrive to take off at 11:08, The cumulus are there and I take +3m/s up to 2800 meters. The cloud are largely above me. Ok, 1H 30 minutes too late again.

We are not afraid and we prepare a FAI triangle of 400km, but the Noth-East wind is present (20km/h), so we decide with Patrick to do and Out and Return (OR) with cross wind of 400km.

Pascal Lanser a bit tired takes a break. I have take some photos under the cumulus at 4600 meters, of the day for his long soirées of winter or when he will try to climb in the Vosges mountain in France this spring with +0.5.

With Patrick we fly fast. The thermals are more nervous and narrow.

Under a western sky we fly between 35500 and 4500 meters. Our turn point at 11km is made at the middle of nowhere at 20km of the track., but we stay stuck to the cloud base.

On our last leg after a turn at 92km and more than 200km from the first turn point, the head wind is present, the sky is organized in large clouds, which has the "good" idea to put us in their shadow. We take a glide from 4400 meter to 2200 meter but finally we found a thermal after our recovery of the sun light on the ground.

At tropical latitude the sun falls so quickly that the plain has no time to cool. So we climb even when it is sunset.

With Patrick and Carlos we cooperate closely, this the last glide, the sunset and I loss my radio (battery dead), Patrick and Carlos have disappeared. I turn smoothly in 2meter/s with he sun falling down in the desert in my west.

All the plain is in the dark from the cumulus line in my west. What a sensation, 4400 meters I am sure I will do it, I glide a the calm air, ohh! I see Patrick and Carlos a bit short climbing below me at 1 km from the goal.

We did it 400km in OR in 7 hours 48 minutes (8h20 of fly). What flight, what a country!!! The biggest circuit ever made in Delta.

400Km in OR finally! After two years of trying.

Jacques Bott is really sick with fever (probably something taken in Brasil...). Don't worry Jack, apparently the tariff here is 4500 meter with few wind. As soon as you are ok we will prepare together something interesting with a departure at 10h.

In the evening with Jean under the tent, after having looking at the South cross, and Clouds of Magellan, I believe we asleep during a glide in the high, between two thermal or may be it was when we took a +5 above the " plateau ".

Tomorrow.

The next two days says 400 meter but with storm and cirrus. Good idea to take some rest and visit this very inviting country.

Promise we will tell more, " Stay Tuned "

New rigid wing out and return World record distance

The second day flying in Namibia

Record

January 12, 2008, 5:00:10 GMT+1100

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Dave Kinlan|Gil Souviron|record

Current record: http://records.fai.org/hang_gliding/current.asp?id1=o-5&id2=1

Out-and-return distance : 338.2 km
Date of flight: 08/12/2006 Pilot: Gil SOUVIRON (France)
Course/place: Wilcannia, NSW (Australia)
Hang glider: AIR Atos VR

http://ozreport.com/11.204#0

http://delajoie.blogspot.com/

Giles writes:

Only the second day and five of us, Patrick, Pascal, Carlos, my brother Jean and myself broke the rigid world record. The new record holder will probably be Patrick as he was not only was the fastest, but also first to goal

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1706351685
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1734861012 
http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1706665428

Thanks to Dave Kinlan.

2007 Ouachita Mountains Hang Gliding and Paragliding Series

Low hanging fruit

Quachita

January 11, 2008, 6:50:25 pm GMT+1100

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Mark Stump|Mike Kelsey|Ouachita Mts Series 2007|PG|Roy Mahoney

Mike Kelsey «kelsey.mike» writes:

This was the third annual running of the Ouachita Mountain Hang Gliding and Paragliding Series. (http://www.ouachitahanggliding.com/Series/series.html). The 2007 series provided even more tasks available to the participants with the addition of the Triangle Tasks. Most of the launch sites had up to two Triangle Tasks available for which points were awarded.

23 pilots were able to garner some points in the Ouachita Mountains Series.

Mark Stump of Dardenelle, Arkansas (Atos V, H4), came in first place for the second year in a row with a total of 2358 points. He concentrated on the Triangle Tasks and other XC Tasks that were available at the launches near his home (conveniently located in the Mt. Nebo LZ).

Coming in Second Place with 2350 points was Roy Mahoney of Monroe, Oklahoma (Atos VR, H3) missing taking first place by only 9 points. Roy garnered a number of Maximum Altitude Gains at several sites as well as several Personal Max Durations at a number of sites and an Open Distance, Roy also accumulated the most Work Day Points, by spending a large number of hours improving the road access to the Heavener Launch.

Third Place with 2044 points was Warren Flatt of Fort Smith, Arkansas (Wills Wing, Talon 150, H5). Warren got out early in the season to grab some low hanging fruit, the First Flight points of a couple different launches, several max duration points, as well as a best altitude above launch at one site. Warren rounded out the year with some great XC flights gaining points in Open Distance, Out and Return, Pre-defined Goal, and two triangle tasks completed.

Fourth Place went to Jason Gray of Greenwood, Arkansas (Wills Wing Sport, H3) with 1799 points. Jason enjoys flying lots of sites and he did well in accumulating a large number of Personal Max Duration Points at a number of sites. Jason also got the Max Altitude Points at Short Mountain and points for 8 hours of Work Day Points. Jason also won 1st place Hang 3 Pilot.

Fifth Place went to John Jenkins of Dardanelle, Arkansas (Wills Wing Sport, H3) with 1339 points. John grabbed some First Flight points off Short Mountain early in the season, and collected a number of Personal Max Durations as well as two Open Distance flights.

Sixth Place went to Mike Kelsey of Mena, Arkansas (Wills Wing Talon 160, H4). Mike collected a number of Personal Max Durations and completed two Triangle Tasks.

For complete view of the 2007 results, go to http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8qZX4r52Ie-_WDc6yWXcKg.

For 2007 we had established a Handicapping System for many of the tasks with handicapping according to either Hang Rating or to type of wing flown. 2007 also saw a significant growth in the number of Paragliders coming to the Ouachita Mountains to fly. Britton Shaw of Fort Smith, Arkansas came in 9th place overall, and also won the "Most Improved Paraglider Pilot" award and the First Place for Paraglider Pilot. We also have a number of new H1 and H2 pilots and Tim Carls of Mena, Arkansas won First Place for the Hang Two pilots. The Triangle Tasks proved to be very popular. You can see the Established Triangle Tasks at http://www.ouachitahanggliding.com/Series/Triangles/triangles.html.

We wrapped up the season with an Awards Banquet, on January 5th 2008 and we had 37 pilots show up. A big thanks to all the pilots that participated and to our sponsors, Wills Wing, Moyes USA, Flytec, Mojos Gear who have supported us through the past three years in this grass roots activity.

The Ouachita Mountains Hang Gliding Series is open to any pilot that has appropriate rating for particular launches in the Ouachita Mountains. There is no fee to participate in the Ouachita Mountains Hang Gliding and Paragliding Series.

For more information about flying in the Ouachita Mountains, go to www.ouachitahanggliding.com.

January Record Encampment in Namibia

Summer's coming on, winter's almost gone

Encampments

October 16, 2007, 11:21:30 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Blue Sky|Davis Straub|Gil Souviron|Jacques Bott|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|photo|record|sailplane|weather

gil souviron «gil.souviron» writes:

Really, something will occur in the "deep south" this winter.

[IMAGE]

For sure it is a one of the first year that so many Record Encampments are organized on all flyable continents of the southern hemisphere.

Major Encampments are set in the Queensland Australia (one very best place according Jean my brother and Jean-Charles), Xceara in Brasil, and Tony Raumauf who will fly with his group in South Africa. All with the firm intention to make historical distances.

On our side, sometimes a figure is far better than a long talk:

[IMAGE]

Namibia - Ceiling (in meter) by day. Winter 2006 - 2007

It is the analysis which I made starting from the sailplanes traces, recorded on the OLC web site, where flights has been made in Bitterwasser and Pokweni - Namibia.

The story began this summer when I was in Spain as I spoke about my project to fly aero towing in Patagonia - Argentina. There, I met Michael Schweitzer a German guy flying an Atos VR and Glider pilot who told me:

- "You know Gil, you should come to Namibia. You have all the world top best pilot flying all over the world. They have flown on all places everywhere, and they conclude that best thermal are Namibia". He added.

- "The main difference with Spain is that instead of 80% of blue sky, 80% of the days are with cumulus, and instead to have constant wind like in South Africa, most of the time there is weak or no-wind".

There, I started to be very interested. I like free distance, but to break a record with what Davis Straub did seven years ago in finding the best spot in the world, and with the distance made at 700+ km by Manfred Rhumer and Mike Barber it will be very challenging to do better. I love too, in the free distance it's part of "total" involvement and the discovery of new territory, new frontiers and his dimensions of "no limit".

But in fact I prefer close circuit, for several reason, the first is if you miss the record you don't loose the following day to be retrieved as you are down at 450km or more. Then I love to take a few beers with friends after a big task of 8+ hours flying and fly again the following day. And I consider that Out and Return and mostly FAI triangle is the "state of the art" in distance of our sport and in fact every "no engine" flying sport.

As I just pronounce the word Namibia on our Spanish encampment, saw the eyes of the pilots shining, they love desert and they love unknown country, but over all they love Africa Land. The project "Flying in Namibia" is a big success regarding the size team. 18 pilots, have answered YES. These guys are all top gun pilot in an international group especially with Jacques Bott, Patrick Chopard, Pascal Lanser, Carlos Punet from the French national and Spanish team, my brother Jean and all rest of the group.

Well, we don't ask a lot, just ask to have this year the same weather statistics! For weather forecast we will use the excellent website http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html

Location: Maltahohe Date: 7 to 28 of January

The team: AeroTow Pilot Le Boulicaut Serge

The German: Thomas Sterzing " El Doctor "

The Spanish: Punet Carlos Atos VQ Medem Roberto Atos VR Lucarelli Enrico Atos VR

The French: Jacques Bott Atos VR Patrick Choppard Atos VR Pascal Lanser Atos VR Michel Hussennois Lite speed Delage Jean-Pierre (Opal) Atos VR Dupenne Roger Atos C Cazes Jeff Atos C Violette Jean-François Atos VR Mesnier Louis Lite Speed Troussard Jean-Marc Atos VQ Haenel Marc Aeros Combat 13L Cossard Christophe Atos C Souviron Jean Lite speed 4 RS Souviron Gil Atos VR

The Austrian Geppert Walter's group will start by mid December using winch tow. Tony Raumauf's group will fly in South Africa not far from us (just 1000 km….)

Carlos and Jean-Marc will fly with an Atos VQ, we expect to make fully detailed and comparative test.

Our youngest pilot (69!) Roger Dupenne is joining us after Wilcannia trip last year where he did 200+ km flying faster than many "kids". He has more experience in Africa and desert than the total rest of the group. The organization is quite tuff, we have to find a farm for 20 people and bring all the goods with Ultra light plane and pilot to Aero Tow, hang glider, oxygen all by container in the middle of the deser. A big thanks to Thomas Sterzing who is experienced in Namibia over the last three years and is key in our organization: Found a farm, cars ….

With all these Top Gun, flying everywhere in so many different Encapment, I don't know where, but I bet $20 that records will fall this winter.

To see so many pilots coming from so many different countries, so motivated in going to an expedition at the four corners of the southern hemisphere, is a true happiness. This shows the vitality and excitement, that all these deep pilots and through them the passion and vitality, that creates our sport. The sacred flame is there flowing in our veins of "young men" that we are. Stay tuned on "Namibia news" on the blog of Opal: The dream begins… http://delajoie.blogspot.com/

[IMAGE]

[IMAGE]

Gil Photos: Thomas Sterzing

AIR ATOS VQ

He wants one.

VQ

October 15, 2007, 10:44:04 EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Jim Lamb|Mark Stump|Tennessee Tree Toppers|weather

Mark Stump «mark489» writes:

Jim Lamb came down to the TTT Team Challenge and spent all week supporting the Atos pilots and anyone else that needed help. He brought the Atos VR and the new VQ. I have been looking forward to seeing what the latest wing out of Felix's brain would be.

Jim flew the VQ and stayed specked out all week. He let me fly it the last day of the meet which was the best weather with 500fpm up and sweet clouds at 6000+ AGL.

The VQ weighs 85 lbs, same as my V. Nice! On Jim's 7th time of setting it up he had it together in 10min and that's while answering a lot of questions.

The sail slides down the D-spars about 3' allowing the first 6 ribs to stay attached and you never need to open the sail in this area. It's super clean at this sail/flap junction.

You open up the trailing edge at the second to last rib opening and slide the tip tubes in. They have two ribs attached to them just like the VR. Plug in the tip wand that stays attached to the trailing edge. (super clean no opening for tip wand levers. Not needed.)

Go to the root and pull the sail toward the root with a long cord and pulley system. Simple, clean, quick.

Once it's together you place the root rings on the pins and cam one side in. Then zip it closed.

As you pull the sail to the root all the ribs swing into place along with the tip wand loading up. Too Cool!

The back half of the keel is now a carbon tube with the tail stand molded into it also. It's black and white and reminds me of a slick killer whale.

The static balance is neutral with the bags in the nose. Launch is easy.

The double spoilers like the VR are very far out. The roll rate is quicker and lighter than my V.

It's super stable in a wider range of bank angles. In a steep bank it stays put, not requiring any spoiler input to stay banked up or to keep it from steeping up.

It flies / thermals at least 5 mph slower than my V. I climbed turn for turn with Jim in his VR when we were together at the start. I did not see Jim again until we were at goal so I can't comment on the glide vs the VR. We went diving down to help our teammates. Huge FUN!

It glides good at 45mph with the flaps off. The flaps are the same width as the D-spar which makes them about half as wide as the ones on my V or the VR. They seemed to work just as good as the wide ones.

It lands really nice with a lower stall speed than my V and a wider flair window. It reminded me of landing the 2000 Atos, sweet, just walk it in.

I sort of wish I had not flown it because now, I want one really bad. It's the most "FUN" glider I have ever flown. Send Donations to: Mark Stump.

We've heard rumors of an AIR ATOS VQ accident in Germany within the last week, which the factory is checking out. If you know more about this please contact me at davis@davisstraub.com.

Question to US Aeros Phantom owners

How many new Phantoms in the last year or two in the US

Phantom

August 30, 2007, 8:59:46 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Russell "Russ" Brown

The word is that James Stinnet has decided to quit beating up his Aeros Phantom (when he attempts to land it) and now has Russell Brown's old ATOS VR. Is his Phantom the only one that was a recent purchase in the US? I'm trying to find out what's up with rigids in the US.

New Oregon rigid wing record

Charlie Baughman goes 196 miles (where is that magic 200 miles for the Northwest?)

Oregon

August 7, 2007, 7:18:05 CDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Blue Sky|Carolyn Baughman|Charles "Charlie" Baughman|record

Carolyn Baughman «OregonVulture» writes:

On August 3 Charlie Baughman flew about 196 miles from Pine Mt to Ontario Oregon on a blue sky day. Highest altitude was only 13,400 feet. Flight lasted 6.5 hours and the landing was after 8:00 which meant that some of the fold up was in the dark. He had a tailwind of 10 to 20 mph. Glider flown was an ATOS VR. He made the flight with no driver and no radio contact for the last three quarters of the flight.

Wheels »

Wed, Jul 11 2007, 4:51:09 pm EDT

Get 'em

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Mark Taggart

Mark Taggart «mark» writes:

WHEELS – IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE YOU WILL WISH YOU HAD FLOWN WITH THEM – DON’T RISK IT!

Getting hold of a set of high quality wheels for your HG is dead easy. I got these all within a week of placing an email order. One set for my meaty ATOS VR and the other for the older Tsunami. The cash cost is low compared to writing off a wing.

(IMAGE)(IMAGE)(IMAGE)

I am now four weeks into my rehab, with another eight weeks to go. I am wishing like crazy that I had flown with a set of wheels. As it will be around the 12th Sept barring no further setbacks before I can get into the air again, go mountain biking, swimming, canoeing, etc., not to mention the seventeen sessions of physical therapy.

Life is too short and way too much fun to go through this sort of aggravation because I was too lazy to buy a set of wheels is crazy! Contact your dealer today. Chances are you will have them ready for the weekend. It’s only going to be time before you start shouting at yourself for being a Muppet.

Discuss "Wheels" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Ollie hurt at Whitwell

Stalled his AIR ATOS VR and smacked his knee up good

Ollie

June 18, 2007, 3:48:41 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Ollie Gregory

http://ozreport.com/otherblogs.php#ifly4funn.blogspot.com

On a more somber note, Ollie Gregory, pilot and all around great guy, stalled his rigid today off of Whitwell. He blasted his knee terribly, and has to have surgery this evening. Jackie, his wife, said he was going to be immobile for a long time, but he was in great spirits.

AIR ATOS VR for sale

My AIR ATOS VR is for sale

VR

Thu, Apr 26 2007, 10:07:03 am EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|AIR ATOS VR|Quest Air

My AIR ATOS VR is for sale. It is in excellent shape and comes with a brand new 2007 non porous form fitting sail from AIR. It comes with the thick water resistant travel bag from AIR and numerous other goodies and spare parts. Contact «me». $13,500. Compare at $18,500 for a brand new ATOS VR.

Discuss "AIR ATOS VR for sale" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Flytec Championships 2007, Day Seven »

It ain't over, till it's over

Flytec

Sat, Apr 21 2007, 9:38:34 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|cart|Flytec Championships 2007|Jacques Bott|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton

The flight

The task was to go southwest 32 km to the Dean Still and Rockridge intersection, then west 10 km over the swamp to the intersection of highways 98 and 471, then northwest 50 km to the very small grass airstrip at Chin north of Brooksville. The forecast was for a 14 knot east northeast wind rising to 20 knots at 5 PM, so we wanted to go as far west as we could to get into the area where the on shore flow would reduce the general wind velocity. Things didn't quite turn out as forecast.

The winds were quite strong in the morning out of the east, strong enough where it looked like we wouldn't necessarily even launch. Drew declared it unsafe at that point. The sky started off blue but then we started to get middle level clouds, the kinds of clouds that don't show up in forecasting models. The local forecast was for a 10% chance of rain with gusts to 20 mph on the ground.

We called the task and left it to the safety committee to deal with any launch related issues. The sky got darker and darker with cu's underneath the mid level clouds that were causing the shading (but only to our north and south, not over the field). And with the reduced sunlight the gusts and wind died down as the lift disappeared. Hmmm!

We pushed back launch a half hour to see if we could get some sunshine, some blue holes, some chance of staying up. Then we sent up the rigid wings. They sort of stuck, but not completely. They hung around in the gray for quite a while but many came back to join us on the ground.

After watching those guys sort of hang in there, a few of us tested the water (air actually) twenty minutes after the opening of the launch for flex wings (already set back a half hour). I was able to eek out a 25 minute flight in 14 mph winds and gain a total of 200 feet overall. Almost every one (if not everyone) who tried landed back at Quest. Maybe ten pilots took this option.

I got a cart and waited a few pilots back in the very short launch line. No one wanted to go, with Primoz at the front of the line. A few flex wing pilots launched in the other line, but it took a while for those pilots in our line to finally get going. It was six minutes before the last start clock when I took off as 70 pilots were still on the ground, having been unwilling to launch.

There was a little sunshine now and although Neal hauled me up to the northeast I saw two pilots down low turning south of the park over the nursery. I headed straight to them after Neal waved me off and when I got to them I found 115 fpm. This was strong lift for today.

More pilots came over and soon we had about a dozen going up in a nice little thermal. The rest of the pilots were on the ground. It wasn't that long before this thermal starting showing 500 fpm on my 20 second averager. How sweet. So smooth. We were all flying well together and we climbed to 4,500'. We were the first pilots to gaggle up and get away from the launch. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.

There was a dark cloud over us and we had to leave having drifted in the 15 mph east northeast wind back toward the Green Swamp. We headed straight for the next dark cu and I climbed right back to 4,600' just staying out of the cloud while the two guys higher than me got into it a bit.

We then turned and raced east toward highway 33 and to the next clouds which again were working for us with the ground almost completely shaded, thick mid level clouds, and the thinnest of cu's.

Meanwhile back at Quest Air some pilots seemed to think that the contest should have been over after the previous grand and glorious day. But they didn't seem to be able to come up with a good reason. The launching conditions were safe. The task conditions were safe. The task was difficult, but you let the scoring system handle that issue. If not a lot of pilots went very far, then the day gets devalued.

Some pilots just weren't ready to accept the fact that some pilots were now launching and sticking, and flying the course. They had had their chance. Heck I was on my second flight. The conditions were wonderful. The air was super and the thermals were smooth. Let's run a task.

Everything had changed. We started the day thinking that it was unsafe because of the winds (Wallaby was shut down), but the winds backed off right away when it came time to launch, so any emotional attachment you had to that scary thought had to be dismissed. Now you just had to think about how you were going to stay up.

After getting up to 4,500' just west of highway 33, and just outside the 8 km start circle, a half hour after the last start time, the ten of us went on glide toward the Lake Seminole glider port. We'd seen some gliders in the air so I was hoping we would find one circling in the dark and over the shaded ground by the air strip.

It looked like it was raining over at Wallaby way to our southeast, but it was only dark and shaded here. There was little chance of cu-nimb development given the capping mid level clouds.

There were a couple of pilots (who had missed out climb to the east) turning over the Green swamp southwest of Seminole and we were heading for them, but there were also some cu's just west of Seminole that I was shading toward.

Just as I got to the west of the air strip I found a little broken lift that averaged 50 fpm. I took a couple of turns as I watched the gliders out in front of me to see how they were doing. There were about six gliders turning out there now. I was on top over in my little thermal with Jeff O'Brien coming in under and working with me.

The lure of the gaggle further up the course line proved to much for my emotional brain. I left the lift that I was on top of to head for the gaggle where I would come in lower than the top guys. Bad move. I would find zero sink there for a while before I lost it. Even worse it was out over the Green Swamp with few landable areas, so I was getting squeezed as the wind pushed me further into the swamp.

Didier and two other pilots below me baled out and headed up wind west to get to a landable area. Finally, I had to bale also working scattered bit of lift upwind in the dark hoping to find something as I watched the two or three pilots who stayed in the thermal that I had found by the airstrip climb out.

Now Primoz was just above me and heading out with me with the guys just above him. At the eastern edge of the swamp they stopped and worked something that I didn't find below them. I landed in the same field as Didier. Primoz and the other pilot were able to get up and continue on course toward Dean Still another 13 km, before Primoz had to land after not getting high enough to cross the next swamp.

Jonny Durand had a very short flight. Gerolf didn't get out of the flight park. Kraig Coomber was able to almost make it to goal. No flex wing pilot made it to goal. Jacques Bott on the AIR ATOS VR was the only one to make goal. He had been in second place 60 points behind Larry Bunner.

Kraig reported that when he got over to the west to head northwest toward goal he ran into the sea breeze which was clearing out the clouds but also clearing out the lift. In our concern about the strong east northeast winds, and our desire to go west to both go downwind and to get into lighter wind regimes, we, the task committee, had neglected to remember about the sea breeze killing the lift, even though we were counting on that very same sea breeze to reduce the winds. Of course, we originally (at 10 AM) assumed that we would be getting strong lift to 5,000' as per the forecast. And that we would have run the task before the sea breeze came in.

Before this last day Jonny Durand was in first place and Gerolf in second, with Robin Hamilton in third. Now as I write this everything is up in the air. At this point (before all the scores are in). Bruno, Robin and Hakan all have a chance to go into first place.

See results here.

Discuss "Flytec Championships 2007, Day Seven" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Flytec Championships 2007, Day Four »

It's dark, it's fully shaded, the clouds look spooky, let's fly.

Flytec

Wed, Apr 18 2007, 9:07:35 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|André Wolfe|Dave Carr|Flytec Championships 2007|Glen Volk|Jim Rooney|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Quest Air|Ron Gleason

The forecast was for almost no lift: 250 fpm (before your sink rate). This was half the forecasted lift that we had yesterday when the lift was so weak. The wind was supposed to be moderate again (12 - 15 knots) out of the west south west which would send us into the lake area north of Lake Apopka.

The sky was full of mid level clouds and the satellite showed a cloudy sky north of the I4 corridor to our south. Would we be able to fly at all?

The task committee called a 72 km dogleg course to the northeast, hopefully down wind so that we could drift in the weak lift. We had to get around the Orlando airspace and be sure not to land in the lakes, swamps, or urban areas found on the course line.

Kevin Carter took off as a wind dummy under skies that were thick with midlevel clouds, sculpted out and waving underneath. He reported good lift as did his tug pilot Jim Rooney. The task was on.

Jim Yocom and Ollie were up next in their ATOS VR's and they stuck under the ever darker skies. We got going. About ten flex pilots launched 20 to 25 minutes after the launch window opened and we all spread out looking for lift. Down to 1,000' we worked zero sink for the next ten minutes.

Twenty minutes after I launched and at 1,300' I found 200+ fpm and took it up to 4,400' drifting down the course line. There was another gaggle a bit higher upwind a mile or so but when the lift gave out I headed off behind Jim Yocom and a much higher ATOS VR toward the continuing darkness and shade to the north followed by five to ten other gliders that were with me in the last thermal.

Down to 2,200' and with their help we found 66 fpm over the Florida Turnpike, then thermals of 88 and 37 fpm just north of the Turnpike as we skirted Lake Harris to the east and got back up to 2,700'.

Down to 1,100' just south of Lake Dora, we drifted in the 11 mph west southwest wind climbing at 135 fpm back to 2,700' at the lake's edge. There was a landable golf course on an island in the middle of the lake if things looked bad, but few visible landing areas to the north toward our turnpoint as we headed for the town of Mount Dora. We weren't high enough to just float over the countryside.

Numerous pilots didn't get high enough before Lake Dora to make it over safely and landed on its south and east flanks.

I joined up up with a small gaggle of pilots over Mount Dora as we drifted to the east of our turnpoint to the north climbing at 134 fpm to 2,600'. I was keeping a close eye on the possible landing zones as we drifted over the town. Then the rain began.

I'm in a Mylar glider so the rain was a big concern for me. I pushed north northwest toward the turnpoint with the hope of getting out of the rain or baring that landing in a safe area.

I made the turnpoint at 1,200' and headed downwind to a gaggle of five to ten pilots circling over a nursery. Arriving at 900' I didn't find the lift. As I came into the gaggle I saw Jonny Carr landing in the field next to the nursery.

I still didn't find the lift as I looked downwind to see what the possible landing fields were. It was hard to tell if there are any useful ones from 900'. There were a bunch of trees and urban areas.

I decided to go land in the field next to the nursery having not found the lift. I would learn later from Jonny Durand that he was 20 feet over my head at this point and that the gaggle would continue at this elevation for the next fifteen kilometers heading toward goal before they got up and made goal. About ten pilots joined me in the field including Andre Wolf, Glen Volk, Jonny Carr, Dave Matthews, and Bruce Kavanaugh (a regular British contingent).

About fifteen flex wing pilots made goal and three rigid wings. There is a link to the scores here: http://flytec.com/Events/2007/Flytec_Championship/Index.htm that will have the actual results.

It was pretty amazing that we had a task at all and that so many pilots made goal.

Ron Gleason sends this satellite shot from 3:17 PM:

Discuss "Flytec Championships 2007, Day Four" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The 2007 US Nationals, Day Three

A hard slog upwind on the first leg.

US Nats

April 9, 2007, 9:50:46 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Campbell Bowen|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Jim Yocom|Kevin Carter|Paris Williams|Richard Lovelace|US Nationals|US Nationals 2007|weather|Zac Majors

The flight.

The task was longer than the flight above. Campbell Bowen was the only one to make the task.

With weather forecasts that were all over the map, we threw our hands up in the air and just called a task as though we didn't have a forecast. It was a 63 mile FAI triangle to the south west then to the north, and then with a kink to keep us closer to the sparse roads back to the Florida Ridge.

The winds were forecasted to be light south southeast by the FSL RUC2, except above the inversion where they are supposed to be strong southeast. Dr. Jack's RUC display is calling for 15 knot north winds at 2 PM..

We launched to the northeast and encountered 19 mph winds out of the south southwest. But the lift is strong and we are able to climb to 5,500'.

Our start circle is 8 km and we head south southwest to get to the edge of it. I launched early so I'm moving as quickly as I can to the south southwest, but I'm wondering if I'm going to make the last start clock, the winds are so strong and the progress slow.

I'm with Bruce Kavanaugh, Paris Williams, and James Stinnet as we work our way south. The lift (as I said) is strong and there are thin cu's every where but a thin upper level layer of clouds is shading the ground.

We get two miles outside (south of) the start circle below 3,000' and finally find something knowing that it is going to drift us back into the start circle

Paris, Bruce and I climb to cloud base and basically are forced to leave at about six minutes after the 2:30 window (second to last) opens as we are about to white out.

Paris takes a line off to the right, Bruce in the middle and I am on the left more on the course line. Paris gets the best lift, Bruce next and me the worst. Oh, well.

I can keep Bruce close by and we work our way upwind toward the turnpoint, finding good lift, and working upwind. A number of the folks behind us have caught us so they are helpful.

I watch Paris, Jim Yocom on the AIR ATOS VR, and Bruce head toward the turnpoint and I follow. I see Richard Lovelace, who was leading the meet (until today) on the ground at the turnpoint. Bruce doesn't get any lift after the turnpoint so I stop after getting a bump or two with a few birds and Paul, James, and I climb up strong as four or five others ignore us and dive into the gloom to the north where Bruce is working some weak lift very low.

The sky is dark and full of clouds to the north northwest (where our course will later take us). No rain and no lightening. We watch it carefully.

We join the guys working the weak lift and then move forward and really don't find much lift in the gloom. I land about 9 miles later at the La Belle airport. Paul will land five miles further north after scratching up at the airport.

Some pilots are able to make it to the turnpoint to the north (it is a twenty mile leg, and back toward Florida Ridge. Only Campbell who started very late was able to make it around.

You can find the results (in Race output format) here: http://ozreport.com/2007usnats.php.

Zac Majors, Kevin Carter's first instructor, won the day.

A good cross country day in the UK

Flying to the coast.

XC UK

March 27, 2007, 11:27:08 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Neville Almond

neville almond «n_almond» sends:

The shot was taken by Geoff Adams aboard his Atos VR on March 21st, on the south coast of England, looking out across Weymouth and Portland Island. I was there too, it was cold (minus 7 deg Celsius still air temp at base) but stunning!

[IMAGE]

Click on above for higher resolution version. The photo was taken here (Google Earth KMZ).

Out and return distance record

Sun, Mar 11 2007, 6:18:05 pm EDT

The rigid wing record is homologated

Out and return

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Gil Souviron|record

Type of record : Out-and-return distance
Course/location : Wilcannia, NSW (Australia)
Performance : 338.2 km
Pilot : Gil SOUVIRON (France)
AIR Atos VR

Discuss "Out and return distance record" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Angerer Open

The Swift Light, VR, and RS4

Angerer

February 21, 2007, 9:20:33 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer

http://www.dcb-ruhpolding.de/

Slide show: http://anger2007.dcb-ruhpolding.de/

80.7 km/h for topless flex wings (Tom Weissenberger - Moyes Litespeed RS4)

92.9 km/h for rigids (Felix Rühle - AIR ATOS VR)

117.3 km/h for the Swift (Manfred Ruhmer! - Swift Light)

Thanks to Hansjörg Truttmann.

Flying Gerolf's Moyes Litespeed RS 4

It got a lot better when I got lower.

Litespeed

January 13, 2007, 7:19:40 AEDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber

On January 3rd, the first day of the competition, I got my first flight on Gerolf's (the glider he flew at the pre-Worlds in August) Moyes Litespeed RS 4 (or so it is listed in the results). The competition was on and I was towing up in mid day in what was a perfectly fine and easy tow with as it turned out way too little VG on (I had to stuff the bar the whole time). The glider was stable as I would like it to be even under these conditions and with me not having towed a high performance flex wing in about a year.

Since I had been flying the Wills Wing T2 - 144 previously that was my first mental comparison. The glider felt bigger, stiffer, harder to control, and it wrapped in a lot more requiring more high siding if I wanted to flat turn it. But it felt perfectly safe in the air with respect to turbulence, although I didn't feel that much in control of it in thermals so I felt that the pilots near me were quite brave or unaware (Lukas says he noticed). I would often dive sideways as the glider wanted to wrap up. This, of course, is a standard feature of most high performance hang gliders and they are tuned to do this.

Of course, I also didn't know the ins and outs of how to handle this glider, as I hadn't been on one in a while. I had flown the Moyes Litespeed S 4 two years ago in Australia in the competitions and really enjoyed it a lot. So I figured that I had to get used to it also.

I was battling way too much with the glider always high sliding it and not being able to keep it straight with the VG three fifth's to four fifth's on. I also didn't know how much cord to pull to get to full VG. With the VG on, the bar pressure reduced significantly, as it is supposed to do and the was nice. Still I couldn't get going faster than 41 mph (which was due in  most part to my harness setup and partly to my lack of familiarity with the glider and lack of skills handling high speeds).

On the third task I was setting up next to Kraig Coomber and Steve Moyes and they pointed out to me as I was doing a hang check to check over my new harness setup that I was hanging too high. I had just made the assumption that there was only one hand strap length made by Moyes for DHV length main risers. Not true. Gerolf had placed a 35 cm hang strap on the glider for me (without a direct connect harness), when a 42 cm one would have been the ticket. With help from Steve Moyes we quickly replaced the hang strap and I was now in a much better position.

I got Bobby to tow me up when I went into line and with a three fifth's VG on I was able to stay a lot lower behind the tug, a much better position. Once I let off, the glider was much easier to fly. In fact after a couple of hours, and deciding to let the glider do the talking, it began to feel like what I remembered the Litespeed S 4 felt like two years ago.

I've completed the Forbes Flatlands and really enjoyed flying the Moyes Litespeed RS 4. The RS 4 model is different than the S 4 model in that is has 39 cm more span (I believe that this is the same span at the S 4.5 and S 5) and its surface area is (as I recall Michael Fieschenbichler told me) 14.2 sq. meters (although he may have said 14.4). If it is 14.2 it would be half way between the S 4 and the S 5. This would mean that the RS 4 as a greater aspect ratio than the S 4. Jonny was flying an RS 3.5. (http://www.moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?id=104&pg=2&cat=)

Once I got my harness working right I was able to get the glider up to 55 mph. I'm sure that I could have gone considerably faster but I don't have the recent experience on the glider to keep it flying straight at high speeds. This is a big difference between rigid wings and flex wings. I have no problem going well over 60 mph on the AIR ATOS VR, but it is built for stability.

I now know why Gerolf is often circling inside of other pilots and not just following the keel of the pilot in front of him in gaggles. The (or is it his) glider wants to tighten up in the core. If you just relax it was turn very tight. In the last two days of the competition at Forbes I turned inside more pilots in gaggles than I have done cumulatively throughout the rest of my twenty two year flying career (and I climbed through a lot of them also). The glider was a monster climber.

The VG is very aggressive. The bar position moves way forward and way back when you pull throughout its range. Frankly, I was not able to pull completely through its range, going to about nine tenth's at most, a very few times. I often just flew straight at fourth fifth's (which as I recall Gerolf said would be fine).

I liked the low bar pressure when the VG was four fifth's on (or even three fifth's on). It was quite low. But it was hard to continually use the VG cord. A lot of work for me to pull it on (and I silicon sprayed everything possible). I'm so used to the easy flaps cord of the ATOS.

My right arm got very tired and some times I would have to pull with the left arm or pull in little spurts. I'm sure that there are better techniques than the crude ones that I applied to this problem.

One thing about this glider (and the other flex wings that I have been flying lately) is that I don't get a bit scared in the air no matter how turbulent it is. This is an incredible relief to me. The AIR ATOS VR must just re stimulate me to scare me when it goes bump. In the flex wings, I just have no scared reactions. Doesn't seem to matter what happens, I'm happy and secure that the glider will keep flying. Probably irrational but it appears as though something is wired into my brain by my tuck and tumble in my ATOS C and there is not much that I can do about it.

The glider is easy to land. Setup and breakdown is a snap. The glider bags fit in my harness with the nice lightweight bag that Gerolf or Vicki provided. I couldn't be happier with the glider. I still have a lot to learn to be able to fly it well though, although that is no excuse for not winning the Forbes Flatlands. :-)

Gerolf's glider is the all carbon fiber version with the full carbon fiber leading edges and carbon fiber inserts. It sure seemed light enough.

Fixes to my Skyline harness setup

Put the bags in the right place.

Skyline

January 11, 2007, 0:45:19 AEDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Dustin Martin|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|PG

When I started flying in the Forbes Flatlands I was putting my gliders bags in the wrong place. This was causing me to be unable to get the slider all the way back and to work the butt plate on my Skyline harness. Previously I have flown with all my bags in the d-cells of the ATOS VR, so I wasn't familiar with where I should place my bags in the Skyline harness. Also on my Moyes Matrix harness, which I also have here and which I have recently fixed after it was incorrectly re-assembled at the factory, I could place the bags all along the back plate without causing a problem. This is not true of harnesses with butt plates (the Matrix uses a different system).

Vicki at Moyes supplied me with really light weight cross country bag for Gerolf's glider, so I figured that it would be possible to put it behind my back over the butt plate and have the butt plate work. Not true. I worked with Olli Barthelmes when we all went over our harnesses after Andreas Orgler's death, and he showed me that I had to put my bags in the bottom third of the harness below/behind the chute pouch.

This did not leave enough room for the glider bag and the other bags that come with the glider. But, I could stuff the glider bag in the boot around the bullet shaped foam piece that I push on to straighten the harness and pull the slider back. Adding the glider bag to the foam solved another problem.

I put food grade silicon spray on the slider so that it would slide as easily as possible. I also shortened the paraglider type lines that go from the slider to a sewn in tab near the boot that pulls the slider back when I push on the foam piece. The glider bag around the foam piece and these other changes, allowed me to push on the harness, straightening it out. It also allowed me to get the slider all the way back.

With the slider all the way back and with positive access to the butt plate I was now able to get my head down and the harness looking streamlined.

Dustin Martin made my foam foot rest for my Moyes Matrix harness (when it was his). I put it in the Skyline harness as the normal foot piece for that harness was way too soft to be useful. I've seen that recent versions of the Skyline Race harness use a fiberglass boot that allows for room to pack you bags and is stiff, so you can push on it and get the harness straight.

The Forbes Flatlands - Task 2

234 km task with 51 pilots at goal, and a pilot separates from his glider and dies

Forbes Day 2

January 5, 2007, 9:18:57 AEDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Belinda Boulter|Forbes Flatlands 2007|Jeff O'Brien|record|Steve Kroop|weather

The flight/task .You can view the flight in Google Earth also from this URL.

The results: http://www.moyes.com.au/Forbes2007/Results.aspx.

The competition organization improved a thousand percent as first the three lines were cut back to two lines, concentrating ground resources, secondly setup areas  were designated (I kept pushing hard for that and somebody else must have agreed), third, the staging lines and launch lines were very clearly marked with rope and cones, fourth there were launch personnel acting in launch marshal capacity to get everyone in the staging line correctly. It was great to see such a turn around in just one day. Congratulations to Vicki, Drew, Lee and others who were using their thinking caps!

The launch system worked as it was supposed to with those pilots wishing to launch right away getting into the launch line when the horn blew twice, and we were immediately off to the races. It is such a good idea to separate staging from launching. This gives the priority pilots (those who do well cumulatively) the opportunity to get to the front of the staging line without having to actually be in the launch line and then waiting around holding everyone else up. Bravo to Steve Kroop and others for coming up with this systems years ago. It is so great to see it being adopted here.

The task committee called a 234 km task with one minor turnpoint, just 18 km short of the record for competition task distance set in Texas and South Australia. It turned out that that distance would have been very easy to break.

The sky was filled with perfect looking cu's starting at 11 AM. The weather forecast called for lift to 9000' AGL. There was a moderate breeze out of the northeast which turned more northerly as the day progresses. It looked like a perfect day for racing hang gliders.

Photo by Belinda Boulter showing the cu's.

It was a race start for the top thirty pilots at 2:15 PM. I pinned off at 900' AGL in light lift as the tug was barely climbing (except when it hit this lift) and I climbed out to 7,000' AGL. Then it was time to hang out at cloud base and waited for the start clock.

I lost a couple of thousand feet after hanging out for a while but then climbed back to cloud base now at 7,300' AGL just before the start clock opened. Twenty or thirty of my closest hang gliding friends were there with me just under the wispy curls of the clouds as we waited the final ten minutes before the start time.

That was when Jeff O'Brien got on the radio and told us that a pilot has just separated from a glider near him. Jeff saw the pilot falling, pulling his chute, the chute opening, the chute yanking the pilot around, then the chute separating from the harness and the pilot falling to the ground from 5,000'. This did not start things off well for Jeff. Later it was learned that the pilot's main had been cut, perhaps by the flying wires after he ticked and tumbled (not witnessed by Jeff). When I know more about the cause of the pilot's death and what we can learn from it I will report on that. At the moment I don't have the pilot's name.

At 2:15 the race was on. I'm not quite up to speed on how to get the glider to go fast, only able to get it to 41 mph. I'll be working on that today. Got to do some adjustments to my harness also to make sure it rocks down right. The guys who didn't have this problem raced out ahead.

The lift proved to be quite strong and cloud base rose during the day so that we were able to get to 9,000' AGL under lift that was clearly marked by emerging clouds. I had a great time, even if I couldn't go as fast on glide as I was used to in my AIR ATOS VR. (I'll be writing an article on my impressions of my Moyes Litespeed soon.)

51 pilots made goal at Lockhart to the southwest of Forbes between Wagga Wagga and Narandara. Obviously too short a task if over half the field made it there.

Wilcannia

Wed, Jan 3 2007, 7:40:20 am AEDT

How it went for the French

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bill Moyes|Gil Souviron|record|weather

Gil Souviron «Gil.Souviron» writes:

We went with twelve pilots, six in rigid and six in flex, and the expedition was a remarkable experiment, where we discovered an exceptional hang gliding site, and exceptional people, Bill Moyes and his family. I would say that in Spain, the conditions are very similar and we also have there a formidable hang gliding play-ground that requires but one day drive by car from France. But during the northern hemisphere winter, Wilcannia is much better, of course.

Considering the performance of rigid and flexible today there is no doubt that the out and return and FAI triangle distance records will fall soon, especially as these distances are seriously titillated our Australian friends and Team Moyes. With Micky, Gerolf, I expect my record to fall soon.

What is important is that records are made to be beaten and I am pleased (finally) to have made a larger triangle than Thomas Suchaneck, to show the performance of the new rigid wing hang gliders. With Jean-Charles Ballembois and Jean my brother, we will now polish some interesting “small triangle on our premises” in the south of the French Alps.

If you want to find the best conditions in winter and discover a very attractive country, there is only one place: Australia, and for the logistics, support and everything else one man Bill Moyes and his Moyes team.

Personally, I went to Australia with two main goals: to discover the country and to break the FAI records for longest out and return and FAI triangle. I did the first one officially and the second one not officially. Even if it is not a piece of cake, the 400km out and return and 400 km triangle is quite achievable with the performance of the gliders today.

I can confirm the Atos VR is better than any flex (I flew with Micki for 180km), but I would say about 5-10km/h more speed at same glide (I weight only 66kg and no Ballast just 5 liters of water).

World thermal analysis:

I will be interested to find, like the surfer, where the best hang gliding spot in the world is. As I am sure we know most of them, I don’t think all, and also it will be very interesting to have the statistics on all the spots we know.

On all the trip we have done I have been very surprised by the accuracy of the forecast done by this NOAA site: http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready.html. At least for Spain and Australia it works fine with an accuracy of 90% forecasting two days out. Quite surprisingly this NOAA site have archives for weather since 1997.

I am thinking (or dreaming), that if we can find a student or group of students (I mean clever students) who can make an exhaustive analysis and statistics on 10 years worth of weather data.

Let say, by analyzing a sounding every 100km x 100km over all the Earth where we are sure the conditions are good (reasonably 30% of the earth emerged = 50 Million km²), so we will have to take 5,000 Sounding. Making this for half a year (“winter” in each hemisphere is not good for flying) so 200 days means about 1,000,000 sounding analysis per year or 10 Millions for ten years. As the result of one sounding is given in a few seconds, it will be quite low time computing.

Now we need to have software to automate the analysis and make statistics, to get: Ceiling (absolute and differential), nebulosity (0 to 8/8) and wind (Ground, 1500 meters, 3000 meters and 4500 meters) and even convection duration. Then with this result we can statistically tell which is the best spot in the world, what the average good day is at each and every spot (with very accurate data: days with ceiling above, wind average, etc.)

NOAA is part of the American government. It would be nice to talk with them to discuss if this idea can work or is stupid. But the result could be extremely useful for all pilots flying thermals (or waves).

Discuss "Wilcannia" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Spy satellites follow us around

The spy satellite follow us around as we travel from flight park to flight park

Spy satellites

December 23, 2006, 5:23:22 pm PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Quest Air|Tracy Tillman

Check here (zoom in to the 3rd closest step). Tracy Tillman writes:

A Mapquest aerial view of the Cloud 9 Field. Your trailer is shown in our back yard, and your ATOS VR is shown out in front.

See here: http://ozreport.com/10.185#1 for a satellite photo of us at Quest Air.

Off Topic - the craving »

The environment of desire.

The Craving

November 29, 2006, 8:28:50 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|off topic

We've just spent six days in Los Angeles over the Thanksgiving holidays and received a big hit of urban madness from a real world class metropolitan area. While waiting for the trailers to run at the movie theater at Century City in Beverly Hills I saw a commercial that really summed it up (and in the most appropriate place). It was an ad for http://crave.honda.com. You can read about their ad campaign here and here. The second site states:

The crave-themed campaign celebrates the essence of consumer desires.

Of course, the whole point of advertising is to create those desires, or to build hard wired desires into more specific and monetarily useful desires. LA is a cauldron of desire, especially for cars, but for houses, and the stuff that goes in houses, and clothes, and just stuff and more stuff.

The assault is relentless and pitiless. You must constantly maintain your vigilance against this desire producing machine just to stay on an even keel. Just to be happy with the super abundance that you already have you have to deny and ignore the pleas of so much of the LA environment that says that there is so much more that you need. It wants you running just to keep in one place.

I go to LA to visit my brother and my mother and I certainly enjoyed the wonderful flying at Kagel (and hope to do more there). I have to really fight hard in my head against these evil influences, that want to stick noxious memes into the machinery. Not always successfully.

Human beings (all of us) are driven so strongly by their desire for the good opinion of their fellow beings. The status that all these goods provide is inordinately seductive, as well as a false god, of course.

I fight hard to convince folks that flying a Wills Wing Falcon 3 - 170 is as cool as flying a Wills Wing T2 or an AIR ATOS VR.

More (Correction) about the ATOS's

The new sail material and the lighter version of the VR, not the V is reported incorrectly yesterday.

ATOS VR

Wed, Nov 22 2006, 7:59:55 am PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH

www.a-i-r.de

http://www.a-i-r.de/pages-d/ATOS-VR (2007).htm.

Felix writes:

The new sail material has been in production since September 2006. Its much nicer to rig. The effect from different condition like hot and dry which cause sail shrink or wet and cold with the effect of less tension is much smaller.

Atos light:

Yes, we currently testing a lighter ATOS VR. The strength should be 30% less and just enough to match the certification request for an average pilot weight. The current VR has the lay up like it was designed for the tandem VX.

I’m quite happy with this heavier lay up in the case the pilot inadvertently exceeds the VNE of 90 km/h (55 mph) like it happens sometimes. There will be less room for error with the lighter version of the VR.

Right now we are checking the possibility to save weight and the possibility to reduce the strength of the VR. It’s not clear yet, if enough (light/slow) pilots like this new design to start production. As soon we have the data of weight and strength reduction we will publish it. We expect to get this data by the 9th of December and publish it at the Thermik exhibition in Sindelfingen which happens not far from the A-I-R factory.

Discuss "More (Correction) about the ATOS's" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

New ATOS VR 07

New sail cloth and fixed outer rib

ATOS VR

Tue, Nov 21 2006, 8:40:19 am PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Conrad Loten|weather

www.a-i-r.de

http://www.a-i-r.de/pages-d/ATOS-VR (2007).htm.

New particularly sail material of advantages developed for the ATOS: * distinguished small air permeability * clearly smaller shrink, by influences of the weather * dirt-deflecting one, smooth surface for the Pliloten means this: * even sail tension, thus necessarily * longer durability * improved achievement by optimal seat fixed ribs at the wing external pipe less retrim * strengthened outerwings - larger flight peace at high speeds * new fitting - of fewer individual parts and with it faster up dismantling permission test with short keel final Kiel for Mosquito enterprise successfully finally.

So the VR has a new sail cloth and the fixed outer rib which was shown at the Worlds in May is now standard.

Discuss "New ATOS VR 07" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Flying the Wills Wing T2 - 144

What a sweet glider

T2

Mon, Nov 20 2006, 8:27:16 am PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Dustin Martin|PG|record|Rob McKenzie|Wills Wing T2

http://www.willswing.com/news.asp?newsSeek=286

http://www.willswing.com/news.asp?newsSeek=279

On Friday I took the opportunity to test out the latest version of the Wills Wing T2 - 144. It had the new Mylar material leading edge, and a Dacron sail cloth (not Mylar). Dustin took the all Mylar version that was being flown in Santa Barbara to Ecuador and won the meet down there.

I had flown a T2 144 earlier at the Wills Wing Demo Days at Wallaby Ranch and really liked how responsive it was. Now I had the first opportunity to fly it in light southern California conditions. I will be flying it over the next four or five weeks, so I should be able to provide some in depth reporting.

As you may be aware I've been flying the Wills Wing Falcon 3 - 170 a lot lately and that has been fun and so easy to fly, so that's the latest thing I have in mind when I think about how the T2 -144 flies.

It's great to have these flex wing gliders to fly. Normally I just have my AIR ATOS VR with me when I come to Sothern California in November and December and previously I hadn't contemplated flying here then. But this year with the Falcon 3, still on loan to me from Wills after my record setting 205 mile flight in Zapata, I figured that I should really check out what California has to offer for fall flying.

I see my VR as a cross country machine and I just couldn't feel the attraction of taking it to the hillsides and scratching around. Maybe I just lack imagination. Somehow the fact that I had this little easy to fly flex wing got me interested in really giving California a chance. And now with the T2, I was ready to give it another chance.

Rob McKenzie was ready with the shuttle on Friday at 12:30 PM at the Andy Jackson Flight Park in San Bernardino and it was easy to get the T2 up on his Suburban. It really didn't weigh all that much more than the Falcon. I also didn't require any help getting it off the Suburban when I got to the top, which would not have been the case with the VR at 105 pounds. Really the T2 and the Flacon seemed similar and closer together than the VR and T2 would be.

Setup was a snap. It was so easy. I had put the new Wills Wing skids on the base tube (see article tomorrow on these) and I wrapped the handle areas of the base tube with bicycle handle bar tape just to increase the grip, as I fly most often bare handed, and I don't like it when my hands sweat and get the bar wet.

I put the T2 up on its control frame and pulled out the wings. I jiggled the wings a little which pulled the cross bar back a bit and kept the wing tips up and off the ground. I could have pulled back the haul back at this point, but I decided to wait until after I put in the first three battens on each side.

After putting these battens in, I went to the front of glider, opened up the under surface zipper and pushed back the cross bars. Then when I went around back and pulled on the haul back. It was easy to get the clasp connected.

I then set the glider up on its kick stand, the stinger. The stinger has a smaller diameter than the keel and two Delrin spacers/rings near its end that allow it to fit snuggly inside the keel. The end ring also protects the ends of the stinger and keel when the keel rests on the stinger when it acts as a kick stand. Very nice.

It was easy to put in the many battens with the T2 hiked up on it kick stand, a pleasure instead of work. Speaking of pleasant, the tip wands were just as easy to put in (and take out later). Just stand facing the leading edge, after putting the tip wand the hole at the end of the outboard tube, and slide the cam over the end of the shaft. Closing the tip lever didn't require any undue strength. I then put in the rest of the battens, with their flip tips that fit without any adjustments or effort.

The sprogs just fit into their assigned location with a simple swing and all it took was zipping up their zippers to lock them in place. What could be simpler?

After the pleasure of setting up the T2, I looked forward to getting it off safely. Getting down to the hang glider launch spot, which is a bit of a walk at Marshall, was just about as easy with the heavier T2 as the light weight Falcon. I hardly noticed the difference.

I had hoped for a little bit more of up slope winds than I had experienced the last few times at Marshall, but I got less. Maybe 1 mph. It had been a few months since I had foot launched a topless so I was a bit apprehensive, but it turned out to be no problem.

Normally I start my foot launches with a couple of slow steps then accelerate. The T2 came off my shoulders right after the second step just like the Falcon 3. The whole launch run was almost exactly the same as my previous runs with the Falcon and the T2 launched without any dramas.

In the air, the T2 was definitely a different glider than the Falcon. It reminded me right away that if I wanted to turn I just couldn't yank on the control bar around, that I had to remember that I was a weight at the end of a pendulum and I needed to use the control bar to shift my weight from side to side.

I got into the bad habit of cross controlling on the AIR ATOS VR, because all you do is move the control frame. You don't really weight shift to turn. The Falcon was so easy to turn, that it didn't mind much if you cross controlled some. It still turned. The T2 wanted me to shift my weight, which I quickly started doing.

Next I had to remember to push out to get the glider to turn after I shifted my weight. I hardly ever push out on the VR, and it turned just fine, so it took a while to remember that, yes, shift your weight and push out to turn the glider. I spent the rest of the hour and a half flight re-teaching my body and subconscious how to coordinate turns on a high performance flex wing. It was easy and fun.

The lift was light, as it had been for the past few times for me at Marshall, and I glided over to the spot where I had found lift previously a few hundred feet below launch, but, of course, with the T2 I got there faster and higher, than with the Falcon 3. I found the 40 fpm thermal over the rocks facing the southwest sun light.

It seemed that I climbed out at about the same rate as I had with the Falcon 3 170, even on this "small" 144 T2. Of course, square footage isn't everything when determining sink rate, efficiency counts a great deal. The Wills Wing polars show the Falcon with a 40 fpm greater minimum sink rate than the T2, but I didn't notice the difference (http://www.willswing.com/Articles/Article.asp?reqArticleName=PolarData).

I did notice that the inside wing of the T2 wants to get more into the turn than the inside wing of the Falcon did. This was a bit disconcerting at first, even though I "knew" what was going on. The T2 is tuned so that the pilot has to do a bit of high siding to keep the T2 in a constant radius circle. This makes it easier for the pilot to wind up the T2 into a tight core and climb faster.

I had been used to flying the Falcon 3 around in circle as a fat, dumb, and happy pilot. Now I had to work a little bit to keep in these light little cores on the sides of Marshall. After a few minutes it became natural as the memories in the darker recesses of my minds came to the fore and got my body lined up again. Nice to be able to do this before I head for competitions in Australia in late December. That's one lesson I won't have to relearn on the first day of the Forbes meet.

I climbed out to 600' over launch and then got to fly straight for a while, which is a treat here at Marshall. The T2 was a lot better at gliding than the Falcon, so I got to float around checking things out quite a bit more before I had to go back to work and get up again, working the weak stuff down low.

While there aren't many bumps in November at Marshall, I did notice that the T2 transmitted the shocks of "turbulence" to the pilot more than the Falcon 3 did. When one wing would get pushed up I'd feel the jolt, while on the Falcon 3, it wasn't a jolt, but a mellow push. I assume that the T2 is stiffer than that the Falcon 3 which can just twist and flex a bit more and absorb the shocks and turns them into marshmallows. Want to really feel the jolts, fly a rigid wing?

After an hour and a half with all the other gliders down on the LZ, and just a few paragliders who launched an hour after me still in the air, I decided to land so that I could get on the I-10 before all the Friday traffic and make it back to Cathedral City east of Palm Springs before I got stuck. There was still plenty of lift in the familiar places, so I raced up on down the ridge for a while to get down.

I have really been enjoying my Falcon 3 landings so I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed landing the T2. I had very much enjoyed it when I flew it at Wallaby Ranch, so I figured if I just made a few adjustments for the increased speed and glide, I'd have a pleasant experience.

The Andy Jackson Flight Park is a huge landing field, especially when you're flying a Falcon, and I wanted to make sure that it was just as big when I came in with the T2. There are some small green circles here the uphill/upwind side of the LZ, and I had made it my practice to keep my eye on nearest circle.

I didn't know how much faster I would be landing the T2 compared to the Falcon. I knew it would be faster, and I didn't want to over speed the glider coming in. With the Falcon 3 I could just pull it as hard as I could and it would come in straight and true down as fast as possible. That didn't seem like a good idea with the T2.

I took a extra long down wind and base leg, really stretching it out to get myself down as far as I could. I came skimming in just over the ground to the east of the designated lz, trying to get myself as close to the slightly uphill end of the field as possible.

The approach was fine and I reached up to grab one of the down tubes holding the base tube with my right hand. The other hand came up and I floated twenty feet past the circle as the glider settled and I flared and ran it out. It was a faster landing than my Falcon 3 no flare landings but only a few steps. Well over 3,000 landings and they are always a thrill.

I look forward to a number of other flights with the Wills Wing T2 144 over the next four or five weeks. It is a sweet glider.

Discuss "Flying the Wills Wing T2 - 144" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

ATOS in the USA

Jim Lamb brings us up to date.

ATOS

November 14, 2006, 8:40:44 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|James Lamb|Jim Lamb|Paul Tjaden

James Lamb «jlamb» writes:

I sold a used ATOS VX in New York at Marty B’s (Paul Tjaden's) and have at least  three guys around the US who would like to have used VX’s. I also have Russell’s used ATOS VR and your’s for sale. The used VR’s I’ve sold have been in the $12-13,000 range. My inventory includes a new VR and a new VX so that we can deliver gliders with no wait! There are various people around considering rigids, but I suspect it will be spring before we see much activity.

Matt Tabor has committed to becoming a dealer and having a VX demo available, as has Malcolm. I went to Tennessee for Matt’s 30 year celebration. It was very well attended and he was wonderfully gracious. His new radial ramp is a tremendous addition to the park.

My recovery is complete with just a little remaining stiffness in my neck that is slowly working out. You might not even notice.

Phillips launch in Jackson Hole

A great short time flying in the mountains

Phillips

September 11, 2006, 6:08:42 pm MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Blue Sky|Christopher Moody|insurance|PG

On Sunday, Bart, Walt, and I went up to the south southeast facing Phillips launch right above Wilson, Wyoming, in Jackson Hole, five miles west of downtown Jackson. It's on the leeward side of the Tetons and you go there when you want to foot launch, it's unstable, and the winds from the west haven't come down to be over the back.

The valley was fog filled until noon. A good sign of light winds. When the fog cleared there were a few cu's that promised lift. We headed up before noon, going up the road that is a 10% grade over the Teton pass. We took the dirt road turn off 3/4 of the way up and followed it the the launch which was reasonably well maintained. The paragliders had their separate launch right next to the hang glider launch.

The cu's had thickened up, the lift was coming up the launch, and there was no over the back action, although we could see the cu's coming from the west. By the time we were ready, it was shaded and there was no rustling of the leaves on the trees around us. We had to wait for a break in the clouds to get enough sun to get a little wind in our faces.

I took off (in my borrowed Wills Wing Falcon 3 -170, the same glider I flew on Saturday at Alpine) right after Bart (in his earlier version of the Falcon 195) and the next dark cloud came right over us as we scratched along the hillside. I was able to hang in there in light lift having a great time flying in the mountains, but wasn't able to hang out long enough for the sun to return. I landed about five minutes after Bart at the Fish Creek LZ, near Bart and Tiki's home.

Walt waited for another hour (hoping it wouldn't go over the back) and was rewarded with a couple of low saves and then scary strong lift east of Wilson as he headed out in the valley to go to the east side and the hills over Jackson. He didn't quite make it as he kept running from lift.

We heard from one of the local paraglider pilots who had been at Sun Valley when I was running the Nationals there, that paraglider pilots had been getting to 20,000' over the Grand Teton the Sunday and Monday before (as we arrived in Jackson). No oxygen used, as this altitude is rare, except in late August and early September.

We'll be towing again on Wednesday. It was in the eighties here today, with a clear blue sky.

I prefer flying the Falcon in this mountain air and with the skinny launches at 8,500'. in light winds. It's great to have a 50 pound glider, instead of using my 105 pound ATOS VR. Hopefully we will get up over the Grand Teton, but not land in the park. Bart says that if we do land in the park, land on a road, as we are using a vehicle, and might get off because of that clause.