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topic: Allan Barnes (66 articles)

First 1,000 point flights in Australia – The Narromine Cup

Tue, Dec 4 2012, 8:32:40 am PST

Former hang glider pilot Allan Barnes

Adam Wooley|Allan Barnes|Pepe Gresa|triangle|XC

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/segelflugszene/cmsnews.html?month=112012#860

Last Sunday, four 1,000 point flights out of Narromine in New South Wales, Australia, topped the worldwide OLC scores. Allan Barnes had the biggest flight. He has been trying for 1,000km FAI triangles for many years and now succeeded. This flight is currently listed No.3 in the worldwide OLC champion scores.

“Here at Narromine we have every year a competition called the Narromine Cup, without formal tasks but concentrating on long distance flying and personal best flights. Sunday was a practice day for this competition.“ Allan’s beforehand declared task only just worked out.

“The forecast told me where to go, but the conditions did not start as early as expected and I had a long 2 hours below 1000m. The clouds started late, so it was very difficult to find climbs. After 2 hours into the flight I almost landed - dropped all my water and was less than 200m above ground when I found a weak thermal and managed to recover.”

Remember Allan's friend Adam Wooley who found himself stopping over on an Australian golf course?

Allan first headed southwards finding climbs over 10kt (5m/s) but then encountered some bad fracturing of thermals and broken clouds. The area around his first turnpoint was “very remote, with some good landing fields but maybe 20km to walk to the nearest building. I got down to just over 1000m and it felt very low as the cloudbase was now over 3000m.”

Running up the scrub line to his second turnpoint felt much better. Allan’s XC speed achieved just reached 100km/h but he still had about 400km to fly, not being confident.

On the 3rd leg there was a lot of overcast and spreadout which made him fly down again over some very bad countryside. After a slow climb out, he figured that continuing on track was impossible: ”A huge area without clouds and clearly no convection.” The only option was to fly north, 45 degrees off track and away from Narromine, to the last cloud within reach.

“I got there with enough height to find the climb, and finally reached the cloud base. From there the best way to go seemed to be on my original task line, but I still believed that the only possibility was an outlanding.” He then had a surprisingly good run to the final turnpoint where the difficulties started again.

Using weak thermals, Allan finally made his way back home: “A very difficult day for 1000km, it was only just possible with the LS8.

A big mix of emotions - frustration early on, exhilaration in the best part of the day, and great disappointment when I decided to abandon - followed by a growing sense that it might all still be possible if things worked out. I won't forget this day, that's for sure!”

The Spanish pilot Pepe Gresa took a different route. His triangle is ~80km shorter than Allan’s. But Pepe averaged at 25km/h more than the local pilot. The Spaniard enjoyed the “incredible” Sunday Down Under. Have a great rest of the week at Narromine!

Discuss "First 1,000 point flights in Australia – The Narromine Cup" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2005 Australian Nationals »

Wed, Dec 29 2004, 11:00:00 am EST

Many to goal after  big flights.

Allan Barnes|Australian Nationals 2005|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Dustin Martin|Grant Heaney|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/Denni/Denni.htm

The winds lightened up and members of the British team were out at the tow paddock at Canargo early for practice under the guidance of Allan Barnes. Still it was the first day of flying at the 2005 Australian Nationals and it took a while to get everything organized. The task wasn't called until 1:15 and the first launch time was 1:45 with the first start time at 2:45 and the last start time at 4 PM. Being use to Florida and Texas Comps I was thinking that 2:45 was the last start time. It took me a while to realize that this was not the case.

All the pilots who were aerotowing behind the three trikes set up in one area., the Moyes boys in another and the car towing guys next to the Moyes Dragonflies.  With everyone scattered about, the pilot briefings were held on UHF radios .

Earlier the sky was thick with thin cues but as we got organized and ready to go the cues were thinning out. Launching at 2 PM, third out of thirty, I found lift at 700 feet, pinned off and climbed out to over 5,000' under the clouds. Not having flown a high performance flex wing since April I was more than happy to be by myself and therefore less likely to hurt anyone accidentally. I was barely in control of the glider for the first few minutes after I got off tow.

Finally, I figured out that the first gaggle would not be going at 2:30, but rather after the first start time. I was able to stay high over the tow paddock in spite of the 20 km/h south winds watching the long lines of pilots below and wondering if they would ever get going.

Pilots started trickling up and around 3 PM I joined a good gaggle with Jonny Durand preparing for the 3:15 start time. I was a bit low at that start time, so went back for the next one. A number of pilots, including Jonny, got away at 3:15 high, almost 6,000'.

At 3:30 I left with Antoine, Mario Alonzi, Kevin Carter, Dustin Martin and about five other pilots. We figured we'd catch the stragglers from the earlier start time.

The first turnpoint was 46 km from the tow paddock, due north and down wind. The lift had been good averaging over 300 fpm before the start. During this run to the first turnpoint I found a couple of thermals averaging over 500 fpm.

We were averaging 41 mph heading for the first turnpoint. The clouds were thinning out though and they disappeared right after we got to the turnpoint.

After the turnpoint, we headed north northwest toward the One Tree turnpoint north of Hay. The lift was still strong and we got high. Unfortunately after a 17 km glide I was down to 2,400' and after struggling to get back to 2,900' lost the lift, found the sink and landed into the wind. Others, including some stragglers that we had corralled just above me, got up and kept going.

Dustin reported that about fifty pilots made it to the goal at Booligal, a 140 km task. Antoine and Mario landed just short of goal.  Dustin reported seeing Antoine dive it into ground effect a mile from the goal radius, then fence hop until the last minute when he had to turn and land sort of into the wind.

Craig Coomber made it even though he was throwing up along the way, as well as after he landed. Jonny and Steve Moyes were there also. Given the late start times, pilots were still landing as the sun set. There was a tavern next to the landing field.

Pilots started making it back around 11 PM. Scoring won't be done until very late.

Place Name Glider Nation Time Total
1 DURAND, John Jnr Moyes Litespeed S 4 AUS 02:31:19 1000
2 MARTIN, Dustin Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 USA 02:32:18 909
3 ITAGAKI, Naoki Moyes Litespeed S 4 JPN 02:43:04 873
4 BONDARCHUK, Oleg Aeros Combat 13 UKR 02:55:26 834
5 HAZLETT, Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 02:46:29 833
6 COOMBER, Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 02:47:33 821
7 LOVELACE, Richard Aeros Combat 13 GBR 02:57:59 819
8 KIEFIUGER, Hans Moyes Litespeed 4 DEU 02:58:41 809
9 DAVIDSON, Miles, Moyes Litespeed 4 GBR 02:59:36 802
10 WARREN, Curt Moyes Litespeed S 4 USA 02:50:31 800

Grant Heaney towing us at Canargo. Photo by Belinda Boulter. Notice the thin clouds.

While I would have been happier to make goal in a reasonable time, I was happy with my flight and I am getting use to the feel of the glider, the Moyes Lightspeed 4. It is quite a bit easier to handle than the bigger flex wings that I flew here last year (Lightspeed 4.5 and Climax 2 14). I'm flying without ballast.

I'm flying with boots so I'll have to adjust the harness as I didn't quite fit in it. I was amazed how much difference light boots made in the fit, compared to the water shoes I've used before.

I had forgotten how much further back one has to pull the bar on a flex wing glider in order to go fast. Following my analysis of Christian's and Alex's flights in the Worlds in Greifenburg, I was motivated to fly as fast as possible. This proved more difficult than I had imagined given  how far back I had to pull on the base tube and how susceptible the glider was to pilot induced oscillations when flying in this manner. I'll just have to practice and retrain my body. This will take a few days. I hope I didn't scare anyone. Thankfully no one was very close.

The 2005 Australian Nationals

Fri, Dec 24 2004, 2:00:00 pm EST

Are about to begin

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Kevin Carter|sailplane|Tom Lanning

We here in Deniliquin at the Golf Course Motel getting ready for the Australian Nationals which begin on Tuesday (Monday for most of you). The British Team has just arrived after a forty hour trip. Allan Barnes, former British competition pilot who now lives in Mt. Beauty (Australia) is here and is the British team leader (he no longer competes due to problems with his hip).

Belinda and I had a very pleasant dinner at the barbie with Allan (he's a vego) as he described his hang gliding in the Mt. Beauty area, including Upper Gundarung (which Mel Gibson has apparently sold for ($15 million), and Towonga Gap (which we haven't used in competition for a few years). Allan says you need to launch early there (and in competitions it always takes too long to get organized).

The road up to the Mt. Emu launch has has graded and they have cleared out six trees from across the road over the last year. There is a big over the road presently which will need some work before the Bogong Cup. Tawonga Gap only needs a weed whacker every now and then. Much less upkeep than Mt. Emu.

 Allan has been hang gliding quite a bit near his home in Mt. Beauty, and not flying sailplanes that much as the hang gliding is more convenient and cheaper.

Pilots flooded Deniliquin late last night and the Golf Course Motel is packed this morning. Headquarter will be here at the golf course, instead of the pub like previous years.

Kevin Carter apparently had troubles getting his glider on Qantas (too heavy) and is taking a later flight. Tom Lanning and Dean Funk are here and the Curt, and Dustin should show up later.

Yes, indeed the practice day on Monday was blown out.

Discuss Oz Nats at the Oz Report forum

Scammers

Fri, Oct 10 2003, 4:00:05 pm EDT

Allan Barnes

Barnes, Allan J «allan.barnes» writes:

Scams relating to internet for-sale pages are getting very common. I got the same scam when selling a trailer that I had advertised on the net. The scam works like this:

A reply arrives offering to buy your item, unseen. Payment is promised by a bank check or a company check for more than the agreed price. The payment is ostensibly from a 'client' who owes the buyer money. When you get the check, and deposit it into your bank account, you are asked to send the balance by Western Union money transfer.

The check is a forgery, but as long as the owner of the account (usually a respectable business) has sufficient funds, then it will be cleared and it will be possible to draw on the funds. This is because the clearing process has nothing to do with whether the check is genuine, just whether there are funds to support it. Eventually the victim company will notice the entry on their bank statement, query it, and the bank will instigate a search of the warehouse where the check has been stored. Once the check is located and found to be a forgery the bank will reclaim the money from you, the innocent party. By this time (possibly several weeks) you have sent the balance of the apparently genuine transaction to Nigeria where the scam originates. No-one ever comes to collect the item you have sold.

In the US I believe that banks can legitimately claw back any funds issued on a forged check. In the UK the bank legally has to take the loss, though they'll do their best to convince you otherwise.

Discuss scams at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

2003 Class 1 Worlds – no task »

Sat, Aug 30 2003, 4:00:04 am EDT

Allan Barnes|Class 1 Worlds 2003|Manfred Ruhmer|Moura Velloso|Tullio Gervasoni|weather|Worlds

http://www.brasilia2003.com/results/default.asp

http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/internat/brasil_2003.htm

http://www.dclaveno.com/Brasilia2003/Brasilia_2003.htm

http://www.dhv.de/deutsch/sport_termine/hg/aliga_hg/deutsch_03/main.htm.

José Luiz Moura Velloso «jose.luiz», scorekeeper at the Worlds, sends the following:

The weather is still bad here in Brasilia, and the task was canceled on Friday (29th).

Saskia sent:

Thursday 28 August 2003

The day seems to be bad; the sky is covered with clouds and does not promise any good. The organisation decides all the same to go to the take off and try to let the pilots fly as soon as it is possible. The task is 75km with a speed session of 71 and landing place at Formosa. The conditions reveal to be very poor and the pilots are having a hard time advancing their route.

None of the pilots arrives at goal and the one who succeeds to make the most kilometres is of course the one and only Manfred, who doesn’t stop amazing us! The task should not give many points, but in any case Manfred gains other points on his direct adversaries. Almost all the pilots land near the 1st turn point, Robert and Nenè included.

Also our Italian pilots Christian, Alex and Pippo land near the 1st turn point; Christian does not pass the 1st turn point. Federico, Tullio and Davide remain a bit more behind.

Ron Richardson makes a bad accident and suffers some fractures on his pelvis.

Tomorrow probably again rain.

Barnes, Allan J «allan.barnes» writes:

Ron's crashed into power cables. He's in hospital but I don't have any information about injuries. It's serious enough that his wife Val has flown out from the UK to be with him.

(editor’s note: Allan Barnes did something very similar a few years back, so it is a bit gruesome that he would send me this note.)

Discuss the Worlds at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

The Top Twenty »

Wed, Dec 11 2002, 12:00:05 pm EST

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather

(Zupy|Zupanc)|Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather|Zupanc)

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Paris Williams|weather|Zupanc)

Allan Barnes|Curt Warren|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|weather

Gordon Rigg «Rigg» writes:

Firstly this seeding puts all the top pilots at one start time. What possible incentive is there for any of the other pilots to start at a different time? The effect will be only to stop the top pilots from trying a different start. All the other pilots will then know that the best pilots are available to follow at this time too. The effect will be that in good conditions every pilot starts at the same time leading to dangerous overcrowding. If, to stop the overcrowding, the other pilots are excluded from the top 20 start then this is a bit like a "cut" - the pilot who is 21st is disadvantaged in that he has no choice but to make his own course. Of course there is nothing unfair about a cut provided it is published as a cut and everyone knows about it- but a cut occurs after several tasks - in a competition everyone starts equal!

(editor’s note: The proposal said nothing about restricting any of the other pilots from starting at any given time. The proposal was developed by the top pilots to encourage a race between them – any anyone else who wanted to join in?)

Secondly in poor conditions there is every possibility that sooner or later the top 20 start time will arrive with unusable conditions. There may be pilots outside of the top 20 already on their way as the top pilots land at the start gate where they will watch the other lower ranked pilots climb out and fly to goal an hour or so later! I have seen conditions where this could have happened many times at many competitions, Ager 95, Tre Pezzi Monte Cucco 1999, Valedares, Innsbruck...it doesn't matter how reliable conditions are supposed to be - its amazing how pilots choose not to recall these common poor conditions when they plan future competitions!

Thirdly the "who's won in the goal field" argument is spurious. Of course, we think we know who won when we see the pilots cross the line in a "straight race", but we don't actually know until the track log is checked. Ask Tom Weissenberger who recently spent prize money he didn't actually get before his track log was checked in Lanzarote! If the scoring computers are in the goal (like at Algodonales) then there could be a temporary score board with the fastest times displayed to the queuing pilots - why not?

Lastly, and most importantly, the tactics and skills tested in the competition are reduced: If a competition is going to use a single start and a straight race then that's fine. That competition will test pilots skills at a straight race when everyone can see everyone else at the start and fight it out from there. If a competition uses multiple start gates, so that the pilots can decide when to start that's another - that competition tests another tactical skill from the pilots. Also conditions are seldom consistent and pilots are free to read the weather and decide when to fly the course to best effect. Of course, there may be some straight races, and some elapsed time races with multiple starts in the same competition. The pilots get to know at the briefing and can plan their attack from there.

Unfortunately few pilots actually choose which start to take - many just look for someone who might know better and follow them, and start when they start. This goes further, even to the take off lane where people pretend to be hanging out and relaxing while really watching to see when some big names start to suit up and get ready to go. Maybe these guys should really be watching the conditions rather than another pilot, who are perhaps watching them and also not looking at the conditions?

There are pilots out there who have very little idea how to decide when to start, or how to judge if conditions are at their best - they are very good pilots, sometimes even famous. They can steer the glider very well and keep up with the others, perhaps even arrive first sometimes if their glider is good. However they have a whole section of skills missing. They will of course say that trying to test these judgment skills introduces a large element of luck. This is shown by the same "lucky" pilots choosing better start times, flying better routes that they have no chance to follow, and having such luck time and time again.

Of course there is another side which is the psychological pressure. Pilots leading a competition are trying to hang on to their position and feel the expectation upon them. Those further behind might try to win by taking an unpopular start time and flying on their own without any concern for the possibility of "losing". To become a champion the ability to handle this sort of pressure is one of the most important requirements.

In almost all sports there is a chance for some risky tactic to try to snatch victory from defeat, but making all the top pilots start together removes this chance to grab victory and places it further out of reach, reducing the number of possible winners as the competition reaches its end. The latter tasks could become a procession with the leaders on hand to cover the tactics of the challengers. Of course the pilots expecting to be in the lead toward the end of the competition think it's a great idea, in the same way that they feel cheated when someone does something different to beat him.

Worse still the pilots happy to come second or third and unwilling to risk challenging the leader, would find it easier to keep their places without needing to worry about clever (lucky) pilots overtaking them. Many pilots have used their skill in finding a faster time and faster route to overtake the lead gaggle - such pilots as Allan Barnes, Paris Williams, Manfed Ruhmer himself. Perhaps the master tactician in this is Oleg Bondarchuk. The fact that such things are possible is what makes competition exciting and one of the main reasons I enjoy it.

This idea hands the advantage to ranked pilots right at the beginning, and then keeps handing it back to them as long as they don't make a mistake. Well I say everyone should start equal and it is up to the pilots to seize victory from the others, not just hang on to an advantage and avoid loosing!

During the Europeans in Slovenia, my probably suspect tactics meant that until well over half way through the competition I had never taken the same start gate as the task winner. Sometimes starting early, sometimes late. I placed in the first few several times. The first day I flew with Manfred, and managed to get over the line before him (behind Oleg) He didn't even know who I was. Perhaps if more of the good pilots thought more about using the different start gates to advantage then there would be more than one task winning gaggle, and it would be a lot harder for one pilot to dominate. So if one pilot does dominate he would be all the more respected for it.

Gordon Rigg "I was robbed and now I feel sick as a parrot"

(editor’s note: Got a comment or opinion about the “race proposal?” Send it in and help out the debate.)

curt warren «secretagentcrack» writes:

Playing the start game...that's the beauty of it. What's next? -Prohibiting course-line deviation?

Michael Zupanc «zupy» writes:

At our Canungra meet, a new twist was successfully trialled. The task is called, and the window opens 15 minutes later (launch is open). Then for the next hour (or so) the start times are measured to the second, then at the appropriate time, the start time intervals kick in. That way the guns, who want to avoid the cat and mouse games, would leave after the "start time intervals" kick in, while the more causal pilots would simply climb up and go whenever they want (before the guns, hopefully).

That way pilots chose whether they want to partake in the cat and mouse games, or not. This makes it easier for more casual pilots to get going earlier

Tails for flying wings

Sat, Jan 26 2002, 10:00:02 pm EST

Allan Barnes|Dennis Pagen|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|John Vernon

Allan Barnes|cart|Dennis Pagen|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|John Vernon

John Vernon«johnv» writes:

'I was flying straight and level when it felt as if I had been kicked hard from behind. The glider went into a vertical dive, then suddenly the bar was ripped out of my hands. I hit the keel, which broke… I got the parachute out fast.' This was Ron Richardson's description of his tumble at St. André last August. Result: a badly damaged glider but no damage to Ron. A similar series of events happened to Allan Barnes in 1997. Result: a written-off glider and a badly damaged pilot. I could continue: Gary Wirdnam, Christoff Kratzner (flying a class 2), Gordon Rigg, etc, etc.

(editor's note: I spoke at some length with Ron Richardson today who was flying his topless Avian Cheetah at the time of this incident. He stated that he picked up a lot of speed when diving down at a negative angle of attack and that he was on the edge of going inverted long enough to make it seem as though the glider was trying to make up its mind about which way to go. Earlier that summer in the European Championships he had also tucked when flying into a rotor and was right below Gerolf. Gerolf got a good view of his undersurface. Luckily the glider decided to come out positively in this situation.

This did not happen the second time, and when he went over the bar was pulled from his hands with such force that is ripped the tendon which held his bicep to the bone. He then started tumbling. He was at 6,000' and even with his torn muscle (he didn't know this at the time) he very quickly got his chute out and was able to see it grab hold.

The chute was attached to his shoulders, not to the carabineer, and one of the wings was trying to kill him. He was able to gather up the entire glider, which was all broken up and sit on top of it. He called his wife on the radio and told her that he was coming down on a slow ride.)

In some of these cases the glider may have been set up for competition (i.e. the owners may have deliberately reduced their stability) but, to quote Dennis Pagen in Performance Flying: 'Any glider will tumble given the right type of ugly air, no matter how stable it is.' In almost every case a tumble results in serious, very costly damage to the glider and sometimes to the pilot.

The problem

The people mentioned above are not just any pilots; they are very experienced, skilful, strong and know all about the 'safety position', but in each case could do nothing when it happened - when 'the bar was ripped from my hands.' The all-important factor is keeping hold of the base bar, yet these pilots couldn't do so. Why?

Martin Jursa, former head of the DHV's Technical Department in Germany, advises that the 'bar ripped from my hands' scenario only arises after the glider has become aerodynamically unstable, when the pitching moment has become too high for the pilot to keep the bar in his hands. Pilot reports indicate that this occurs very rapidly, in tenths of a second, as the glider starts to rotate and it catches out even the highest calibre pilots (in the illustration below each frame represents a time increment of 0.2 sec).

Why a tailplane?

Martin supervised a DHV research project on the 'tumble' phenomenon. Various gliders (with simulated pilots) were dropped from a bridge, with zero airspeed and various nose-up initial positions. Some of the gliders were kingposted types, some were topless designs and some were fitted with tailplanes. From the practical evidence of the drop tests and exhaustive mathematical calculations from the difference in paths taken by the tailplaned and tailplane-less gliders, Martin concluded that:

1. The low centre of gravity (CG) of a hang glider + pilot is the reason why gliders are able to tumble.

2. Pulling in the bar properly is the best way of avoiding tucks and tumbles (the so-called 'safety position').

3. Adding a tailplane is a very efficient way of avoiding tumbles. Its essential effect is an increase in pitch damping, which reduces rotation speed and gives the glider time to acquire airspeed and build up a restoring pitch moment for recovery. It's much better than increasing pitch stability.

Pitch damping effects how rapidly the rate of rotation will increase when a glider is provoked into a tucking situation. The degree of pitch damping is expressed as a coefficient; its value depending mainly on wing sweep. Martin's calculations showed that this coefficient is nearly doubled when a tailplane is fitted.

The tailplane therefore acts as a damper, which reduces the rate at which the nose-down rotation builds up and thus allows the glider to gain straight-line speed rather than angular velocity. In addition, if set to create 'negative lift' at the rear of the keel when the glider has adequate airspeed, it contributes significantly to the build-up of positive pitch forces. Combined, these forces reduce the angular velocity of the glider as it pitches down, giving the pilot a better chance of retaining his grip on the bar and the glider a much greater chance of returning to stable flight.

Conventional hang glider pitch stability systems provide the required positive pitching moment through sprogs, tip rods and luff lines. These provide invaluable restorative forces when speed has built up, but don't increase the glider's pitch damping coefficient sufficiently to enable the pilot to keep hold of the base bar.

The critical factor is that if the pilot is not holding the base bar the glider will most likely tumble; if he manages to keep holding it positioned around neutral it will probably tumble; if he manages to keep hold with the bar pulled in - the 'safety position' - it probably won't tumble. But it is absolutely essential to slow down the rotation that leads to the bar being ripped from the pilot's hands which inevitably leads to a tumble, and that's what a tailplane does.

Having checked all the available sources of data, I can find no evidence of a modern tailplane-equipped hang glider that has tucked, tumbled and suffered structural failure, leaving the pilot to deploy an emergency parachute. The DHV film of the drop tests is also in the possession of BHPA Technical Manager Mark Dale, who agrees that tailplanes can dramatically improve the resistance of hang gliders to tucking and tumbling.

Why don't we use them?

If a tailplane is such a good idea, why haven't they been taken up by designers as added safety features for our aircraft? Martin Jursa: 'Pilots felt very safe when flying with a tailplane but, probably due to the large range of angle of attack (AoA) in which a hang glider is operated, competition pilots came to the conclusion that performance was affected, and that's why they stopped using it.' I guess as competition pilots stopped using the tailplane, less was seen in the press and so interest was lost. We must also take into account cost, complication, transport, and weight.

Performance

In competition, with pilots flying side-by-side from thermal to thermal, performance is about who loses the most height on the glides - assuming that the pilots are flying through similar air with similar abilities, gliders, etc, etc. For cross-country pilots performance is about how far or not they fly; for club pilots on a ridge it's about who was 'top of the stack'.

I've flown with a tailplane for nearly two years now, in conditions varying from the small, punchy thermals of an English spring to large early-autumn smoothies, and from strong, lee-side and convergence conditions in South Africa to Monte Cucco in all its variations. All the time I can say that I felt very safe, just like Martin Jursa said. When the going was rough and the tailplane was thumping against the keel stop it was very confidence-inspiring and this helped my flying - and my performance.

Thumping against the keel stop? Let me explain. Gerard Thevenot of La Mouette arranged the tailplane so it's pivoted above the keel at its leading edge. It rests on a stop, also mounted on the keel, so that at rest it takes up a slight negative or downward angle to the line of the keel. At speeds of up to say 40 - 45mph the tailplane 'floats' at an angle of attack sufficient to create enough lift to support its own weight, thus imparting a negligible downward load to the keel. If the glider suddenly adopts a very low angle of attack the tailplane hits the keel stop, and due to its negative angle relative to the keel (which represents approximately the chord line of the main wing) generates negative lift and creates a very powerful pitch-up righting force.

Now consider a glider and pilot of 120kg all-up weight, flying at 38mph with a glide of 14:1. If the glider is fitted with a properly designed and mounted tailplane (i.e. a thin-section, low-drag aerofoil), calculations based on published aerofoil data indicate that, because the tailplane is 'floating' and only creating enough lift to support its own weight, after a 10km glide the height difference between this glider and one without a tailplane will be about three metres (10ft), i.e. about 0.06 of a glide point. In fact the height-loss difference between a tailplane-equipped glider and one without remains constant whatever the glide ratio.

Nominal glide ratio

12:1

14:1

18:1

20:1

25mph

11.97

13.96

17.93

19.92

30mph

11.97

13.96

17.93

19.91

31mph

11.96

13.95

17.92

19.90

35mph

11.96

13.95

17.92

19.90

36mph

11.96

13.95

17.91

19.89

38mph

11.96

13.94

17.90

19.88

40mph

11.95

13.93

17.89

19.86

Glide ratio deterioration with tailplane

Nominal glide ratio

12:1

14:1

18:1

20:1

25mph

2.127

2.127

2.127

2.127

30mph

2.297

2.297

2.297

2.297

35mph

2.605

2.605

2.605

2.605

36mph

2.756

2.756

2.756

2.756

38mph

3.071

3.071

3.071

3.071

40mph

3.403

3.403

3.403

3.403

Increased height loss (m) due to tailplane after 10km glide

To confirm these calculations, Gerard Thevenot and Steve Cook (British Champion 1999 - with tailplane) flew side-by-side on otherwise identical Topless gliders, with and without tailplanes, in still evening air at the range of glide speeds shown in the above tables. They swapped gliders and repeated the tests several times. They concluded that there was no measurable difference in glide performance. In other words, the effect of a floating tailplane (correctly designed, etc, etc.) on glide performance is absolutely negligible at normal inter-thermal speeds.

The hassle factor

A tailplane is, undoubtedly, another piece of kit to cart around. However mine fits (in two halves) inside my backplate-type harness bag quite easily, and this also protects it from damage. It only weighs 500g so the weight is not significant in terms of carrying it around. It assembles to the keel in seconds - the only real rigging issue is making sure one doesn't kick or step on it when walking round the glider and chatting away to someone!

However having rigged the glider we've still got to ground handle it before we get airborne, so what about the static balance of the glider?

With a glider on your shoulders in nil wind, you use your hands around the front of the uprights to balance the wing. The pivot point is the shoulders and your hands lever the glider into the correct attitude by exerting a force on the leading edge of the uprights. The distance between shoulder and hands is about 0.5m. Now put a tailplane on the keel as far rearward as possible. The moment arm from the pilot's shoulders to the tailplane is about 2m, so if the tailplane weighs 1kg the pilot must exert an extra rearward force of 2kg on each upright to achieve balance. This is uncomfortable but manageable; a 500g tailplane reduces the force required to 1kg per upright, which is much easier to handle. In any breeze things improve as soon as the glider is turned into wind. At about 10mph the 500g tailplane will be completely floating and at around 14mph so will the 1kg one.

Turning into wind from a keel-down parked position can be a bit trickier because the wind is also blowing onto the face of the tailplane, creating even more force to be overcome on the uprights. However the tailplane is right next to the ground where the windspeed is lowest and I've found it easy to rotate the glider into wind on an A-frame corner.

So the effect on ground handling in nil/light wind is negative, but greatly alleviated by using a tailplane that is as light as possible. In any wind the problem disappears once facing into wind.

Cost

A tailplane costs less than a tenth of the price of a new topless glider. So for a relatively small price, the tailplane potentially saves huge repair and replacement costs - not to mention hospital bills, loss of earnings and funeral expenses!

Nothing new under the sun?

The idea of a tailplane on a hang glider isn't new. The Gulp, designed by Miles Hanley and successfully flown by Johnny Carr in 1976, was fitted with an adjustable non-floating one - and the Tweetie before that. In those days thermal flying was practically unheard of, but nowadays we seek out and fly in strong conditions when we are most at risk from tucking and tumbling, and experience these conditions with a wide range of flying ability and experience.

Conclusion

A floating tailplane will almost certainly prevent a glider from tucking (nothing is absolutely guaranteed!) and can thus be seen as a positive passive-safety device for today's flying. You wouldn't fly without an emergency parachute, would you? I hope I've also shown that if correctly designed, as in La Mouette case where it is integrated into the design of their Topless glider, a tailplane has an absolutely negligible adverse effect on glide performance - and a really positive effect on the performance of the pilot.

A final word of caution

A word of caution about designing tailplanes. Besides the aerodynamics, this also involves checking that a glider's keel is sufficiently strong to cope with the loads that a tailplane might put on it during a rapid pitch change event and, additionally, setting up the keel stop height. These are all matters for engineers and glider designers and would require approval of the certifying authority. This article is not an invitation to all pilots to have a go!

Thanks to the following people for their help and contributions: Dr. Martin Jursa, Mark Dale, Ron Richardson, Tony Lucchesi, Gerard Thevenot and the the DHV. Calculations in the text are my own from data in The Theory of Wing Sections [Abbott & Von Doenhoff], suggested to me by Dr Koten of Glasgow University.

© John Vernon 2001 («johnv»)

George spins his ATOS

Tue, Aug 29 2000, 2:00:01 pm GMT

ATOS|George Ferris|Harry Sudwischer|James "Jim" Zeiset|Mark Bennett|spin|Worlds 1999

George Ferris sent to the rigid wing list and to me a report on his spin and crash of his ATOS. I have included it here. I have also included some updates from George, responses to a few comments, and additional comments. George wrote:

I have over 200 hours on my Atos and previous to this incident I have never experienced a tendency for the Atos to spin. There was no warning, like previously stated by other pilots. I had just initiated a hard turn to the left, high bank, with a lot of speed when the glider began spinning to the left.

(editor's note: I ask George: "What exactly do you mean by a hard turn?" He responded: "Going from a neutral position (bar centered) then jamming the bar to one side and push out slightly."

Personally, I have only once jammed the bar to one side on my ATOS when I had little ground. One day in Italy at the 1999 Worlds, I tried to whip the ATOS around like I would a flex wing as I came into land, jamming the bar out to one side, and pushing out. The ATOS turned real quickly, it also slid (or appeared to) on the inside wing. I had to jam the bar in the other direction to get it straightened out and level over the lz. I landed on my wheels with my hands still on the base tube. I haven't tried this particular maneuver since at any altitude.

I will move the bar to one side quickly, but I really don't push out. I certainly don't move my weight to one side as I'm just trying to deploy the spoileron quickly and not add weight shifting to the mix. I have never had the problem that George discovered with his ATOS other than the one day in Italy.)

The glider spun twice in a nose down attitude then went into a vertical dive, which it quickly recovered from.

(editor's note: I asked George, "How high a bank?" George responded:

"I meant to do a 90°, but it went past 90 because the inside wing stalled. When I first initiated the turn I felt the outside wing rise faster than normal. I thought it had entered lifting air, which may have happened, but it kept accelerating because I was entering, or entered a spin immediately."

George had initiated a very high-banked turn. Personally, I have never tried to initiate or even continue banking up to 90° or anywhere near it. In the strongest, smallest thermals, I couldn't be over 60°. Therefore, I haven't had occasion to experience what George has.)

This all happened about 200 ft above the trees in front of the ridge I was flying. It happened so fast that I felt that I was just along for the ride.

Did my inputs help the glider to recover? I have no idea, they were all reflexes, there was no time to think about it. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

When I recovered from the dive I was facing into the ridge 20 feet over the trees tops with no air speed and no room to pull in for recovery. If I had another 50 ft to spare I would have been able to get the glider flying again but that wasn't the case.

The glider stalled and I plowed through the treetops ending up on the ground. The only injury I received was from my knee hitting a rock as I made contact with the ground.

I really have no explanation on why the glider entered the spin after I initiated the turn other than I may have pushed out more than I normally would but I'm not sure. The snap turn at high speed, that I meant to do, I had done many times before.

The only advice I can give is not to initiate any sudden inputs, particularly at high speeds( 40+ mph), when in close proximity to the ground. I consider myself lucky, even though my glider is destroyed, to come out of this with a swollen knee.

Well, has anyone got any spare D-tubes and ribs for sale?

Dennis, <catapult@bendnet.com>, writes into the rigid wing list:

"Aw c'mon Suds, don't do an "unbiased journalist" number on us. Your CBRW bashing is no more credible for than Davis's Mill bashing. I was among the ranters and ravers back when Davis was claiming it was impossible to spin or overspeed a CBRW but the facts are out there now so let's try to be objective."

Oz Report readers are free to go back and check the record. During the time that I was reporting on the spins of the Millennium, and for almost a year afterwards, there were no reports of any rigid wing hang gliders spinning. My personal experience with the Exxtacy was that I could not spin it. The only spins that have been reported recently on the Exxtacy (we didn't have Ghostbusters and ATOSes at the time) have been deliberate spins. It still appears to be very difficult to get an Exxtacy to spin.

At the time of my reports on the spinning Millenniums, it was clear to me that there was a very distinct dividing line between the Millennium and hang gliders. Part of that distinction was the fact that the Millennium was easy to spin, and hang gliders, by and large, were very difficult to spin. Therefore, hang glider pilots, unlike ultralight sailplane pilots, did not have to be concerned with spin and spin recovery. This was another sharp dividing line between two separate pilot communities.

Now, that is no longer the case. Because the control frames of the Ghostbuster and the ATOS have been moved back relative to the Exxtacy, these hang gliders can be spun by pushing out. Pilots who fly these hang gliders, need to know something that only sailplane pilots needed to know before.

Harry Sudwischer<skywild@mindspring.com> writes into the rigid wing list:

"Davis keeps harping on his dislike for rough or sharp edged thermals . His love of big smooth lift Florida Style comes through in a lot of his writing. His instinctive dislike and avoidance of rough air while flying his ATOS is right on the money. All you CBRW pilots should take heed and modify your flying habits accordingly. You could do worse than emulating the "barefoot one" .Remember nothing succeeds like success :-)"

I, of course, have often thought about this issue. Is my dislike of rough air a function of my glider? Am I just a wimp? Having tasted the fruits of great flat land flying does the rough air often present in the mountains just seem second rate by comparison? Or am I getting older and wiser?

This is a very emotional issue for long time hang glider pilots, so even if I try to present a rational perspective, it threatens many entrenched feelings, life style choices, etc., etc. Recently I had an opportunity to exchange a few e-mail messages with Mark Bennett. He wrote how he hadn't moved to Houston in part because of the lack of access to the mountains for flying. He thought it was quite ironic considering our world record encampment in Zapata, and then the Lone Star Meet in Hearne, right next to Houston, and how great the flying was there.

Today I was talking with Jim Zeiset, long time Colorado mountain pilot, who spoke about how great the flying was in Hearne. He then said that he cut short a possible cross-country flight in the mountains, that he would have taken if the other pilot had stayed up. After that pilot went down he felt that it wasn't worth the effort to fly in the trashy air even though he had a retrieval driver.

As I recall my most vivid memory of how much I enjoyed the smoother air, was in fact not at a time that I was contrasting a mountain site with a flat land site, but rather the contrast between two gliders. I was in Australia flying a 166 Moyes Xtralight that I bought from Moyes. The glider was really too big for me, but it sure was fun to fly. I loved how it felt in the air, and had my longest flight up to that point on it, on a day that the task at Hay was called at 142 miles.

By the time that we got to Forbes for the next meet, by Icaro Laminar ST showed up, and I got a chance to fly a little racecar of the glider. The contrast was stark, especially because it had been so soon after my Moyes glider. It scared me a bunch of times. It just wasn't as enjoyable to fly it, even though I could penetrate a lot better with it.

Later I took this glider to the King Mountain meet, and scared myself a bunch more. For example, I continued to fly there on the day that the US number 1 pilot refused to fly his Laminar ST.

After thousands of hang gliding flights, my preference is to fly in conditions that are enjoyable. Others are free to make their own choices. I "harp" about flying in fun conditions because I want pilots to be aware that it is OK to fly in enjoyable conditions. You don't have to prove your "manhood" ever time you take to the air. That's not the point, as far as I'm concerned.

So I leave it up to the reader to determine whether they think I "harp" on the fun air of Texas, Kansas, or Florida, because I fly an ATOS. Maybe, but not likely.

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Magic Wallaby

Tue, Apr 25 2000, 9:00:04 am GMT

Andre Wolf|Wallaby Open 1999

Andre Wolf writes:

I came here last year to fly the Wallaby Open expecting just another normal hang gliding competition. What I found was much more. The atmosphere of the Ranch amazed me. I simply felt as if I had found the best place on earth to be. The friendship and happiness were immediately contagious. My first thought was that I could never miss this meet from then on. I also remembered something I read about the Ranch: “You may never want to leave.”

This year these thoughts have even grown inside me. I feel that, in years to come, when I shall retire from competition I will still find myself a one-man comp and for sure it will be Wallaby. Even later, when I could not fly anymore, I would like to be here to help people feel all these emotions that I am feeling now.

At last I would like to address Malcolm a few words and I think I will be speaking on behalf of everybody here in this meet, especially all the Brazilian pilots and families. Malcolm, thank you for creating this little paradise and sharing it with us. Thank you, Malcolm, for all you have been doing for the sport of hang gliding. But above all, thank you Malcolm for being this nice and gentle host we all know that you are.

Discuss "Magic Wallaby" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WPRS - problems »

Thu, Apr 6 2000, 5:00:03 pm EDT

Allan Barnes|André Wolfe|Betinho Schmitz|CIVL|David Glover|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Sarah Fenwick, «cloud10», sent this out to the CIVL list:

The HG WPRS has been republished due to an error in the version published 2/4/00. There were two hang gliding competitions in Brasil at the end of March, but only one had category 2 sanctioning. Unfortunately the wrong results were entered into WPRS. This has now been corrected, the results of the non-sanctioned event (Governador Valadares International Open) have been deleted and the results of the Brasilian National Open Hang Glider Championships are now included, resulting in some changes amongst the top 10 places (from placings at 9/3/00). Brasilians Betinho Schmitz and Andre Wolf are in 1st and 2nd respectively with only one point separating them. Allan Barnes (GBR) is 25 points behind in third place with Oleg Bondarchuk (UKR) 4th. Richard.

I spoke with Betinho today. Apparently there are still problems and there is a petition to get them fixed coming from Gordon Rigg and others. (What, Sarah isn't paying attention to the British pilots?)

From what I gathered from Betinho (English is his second language), the petition is to get the Brazilian Internationals counted as a CIVL-sanctioned meet. I mean, it was an Internationals after all, and almost all the pilots were from outside Brazil. I may have this wrong re what Betinho was saying, but he says the ranking is wrong. He also says Manfred is number 1.

Yet, another black eye for CIVL and the WPRS ranking.

Staff photographer: David Glover

Big dogs at the Florida meets

Wed, Mar 15 2000, 3:00:03 pm EST

Allan Barnes|André Wolfe|Betinho Schmitz|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Richard Walbec|Robin Hamilton|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

The Florida meets have proven quite attractive to the top pilots. And since the two meets are only a day apart we expect pilots who attend the Wallaby Open, will most likely go up to the ACC meet also.

I've asked Malcolm and G.W for the names of the highest-ranking pilots who are coming to their meets. Here's what I've learned so far. The number following their name is their Word (WPRS) ranking.

The Wallaby Open:

In Class II:

Brian Porter (2), Johnny Carr (on a Ghostbuster and not a Swift) (4), Hansjoerg Truttman (ATOS) (5), Davis Straub (ATOS) (6), and Johann Posch (ATOS) (9). Also Jim Zeiset (18), Gibbo (Ghostbuster) (21), Campbell Bowen (Ghostbuster) (24), and Mark Poustinchian (Ghostbuster). Dave Sharp (ATOS) (1), according to Malcolm, is a strong maybe. I've heard that he won't be able to come.

In Class I:

Betinho Schmitz (1), Andre Wolf (3), Joel Rebechhi (4), Oleg Bondarchuck (5), Jim Lee (6), Manfred Ruhmer (8), Ron Richardson (11), Richard Walbec (13), Steve Cook (14), Sandy Dittmar (15) Robin Hamilton (20), Mike Barber (24), Chris Arai (28), Tony Marty (34), Pedro Matos (36), Luiz Niemeyer (40), Luis Rizo (41), and Gustavo Saldanha (50) have committed to the Wallaby Open. Joe Bostik, former US National Champion will also be there along with Paris Williams. Malcolm says that Allan Barnes (2), Steve Moyes (7), Gerard Thevenot (16), and Josef Zweckmayr (41) are strong maybes.

GW writes:

I've got over 40 people entered, but the top folks wait until the last minute - especially without the threat of the meet filling up. Quest is BIG and can handle lots of pilots. I expect a 60 –70 pilot show at this point. I've HEARD of ALOT of people coming – they just haven't told me for sure. Not unusual.

Hmmm, maybe folks should contact GW soon, as it looks like it is filling up.

At the ACC

In Class II:

Brian Porter (2), Davis Straub (ATOS) (6), and Johann Posch (ATOS) (9). Also Jim Zeiset (18), Gibbo (Ghostbuster) (21), Campbell Bowen (Ghostbuster) (24), and Mark Poustinchian (Ghostbuster). I'll bet some of the other rigid wing pilots that go to Wallaby will go to the ACC also.

In Class I:

Oleg Bondarchuck, Jerzy Rossignol, Joe Bostik, Tony Marty, Paris Williams, and I assume a bunch of others that make it to the Wallaby Open.

You can sign up for either or both meets. Just go to http://www.wallaby.com and http://www.justfly.com.

Gibbo spins his own tale

Fri, Mar 10 2000, 3:15:01 pm GMT

Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mary Ellen Fennessey|Mike Eberle|Russell "Russ" Brown|Sarah Bowman|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 1999

Mark Gibson, <GIBBOGEAR1@aol.com>, writes:

March 9, 2000, was the day the Georgia boarder was finally crossed!! Flying my spaceship (Ghostbuster) near cloud base looking down at the St. Mary's River was a very special moment for me.

(editor's note: Perhaps Gibbo is remembering ruefully another space ship that took away first place from him on the last day of competition at the 1999 Wallaby Open.)

I'm so busy now in my Trike shop that I'm only able to get out and fly on 100+ mile looking days and so many other pilots can shoot for it daily, luck would be on my side today though!

Mike Eberle arranged a small Ghostbuster get together at Quest Air and 4 of us showed up. I was of course a little late. Mark P, Campbell Bowman and Steve Kroop were already set up and preparing their harnesses. I begged them to wait so we could fly together, but they just laughed at me.

The day was looking so awesome by now that all of us thought we had an honest chance of making the border. Mike Eberle put his money where his mouth is and announced he would pay $1000 dollars to every GB that made the crossing today. Hmm, $1000. Steve Kroop (Flytec man) upped the pot with $300 or a new map GPS for the pilot who used a Flytec vario. Wow, lets go!!!

Quest Air has been getting a large share of the long flights this summer, because pilots are able to get on the unseasonably dry plains north of the flight park earlier, and thus can fly on the fastest part of the course line longer. We were taking off a little before noon and the clouds to the north look like 3:00 PM!

(editor's note: These plains are usually known as swamps.)

I launched last, but quickly caught the other GB's after getting released in a 800fpm boomer straight to cloud base. I pull in the flaps and go on 45mph glide…wow I'm already flying faster then best glide and its not even noon? Slow down Gibbo, I warn myself don't get to excited this early and bomb out!!!

Campbell and I break away a bit, he's in a bit of a racing mood too, so our S2F stays high. We make time to Ocala only getting to 1500 agl once and on more then a few occasions flying wing tip to wing tip in 800 fpm lift right to cloud base (Love the sound of my screaming Flytec!) On one climb we both whited out at the same time. My last view of Campbell he was letting off flaps and retracting them preparing for a dive to the NW. I was doing the same and diving for the NE.

(editor's note: Campbell and Gibbo are big boys, and have the ballast to outrun the other two featherweights.)

After Ocala, Campbell and I split up, he takes a route pretty much over I-75 slightly to the west. I choose to fly even more to the west under a nice line of clouds. When I get to them I'm a little late and they have spread out shadowing the ground. I end up making a real slow climb from 1200 agl back to cloud base.

(editor's note: In a southwest wind Gibbo has positioned himself for a downwind run to the Georgia border.)

I get some good air after this slow point and find myself SW of Gainesville at the beginning of a convergence line that is directly on course to the Georgia finger. For the next 60 miles I pretty much stay between 6100 and 4500 ft! As I'm cruising, I keep looking back to see if any other pilots are making it too, but the clouds are drying up behind me as fast as the are forming ahead. I'm finally fast enough to stay on the front edge of the convergence, unlike so many other attempts when I missed it and bombed out in the blue.

I ask my Dad, Albo, to get ahead of me and check out the LZ's across the state line because on the map it looks like only trees. He reports palmettos and slash piles for LZ's - not really desirable for a carbon space ship!

Luck would continue for me though and I would stay pretty high until St. George, Georgia, at this point I'm down to 2000 ft and its blued out every where. I start searching for a LZ. To the NW of town I spot a green field, awesome! When I get there, of course, there's a power line running right thru the middle of it, well beggars can't be choosey. I pull on the flaps and set up for landing gently touching down 140 miles form Quest and at the top of the Georgia finger!

Awesome!!! Getting the record now means I can work in peace while cloud streets are forming over my shop! ha-ah. I would like to thank all the guys that make my flying possible: Mike Eberle and the guys at Flight Designs for building and supplying me with the most advanced rigid wing on the market today (GhostBuster), Steve Kroop for the best and most reliable Vario/GPS combination and the coolest bracket (Flytec), and Russell Brown for the bitchin' 914 tug and awesome flight park (Quest).

Discuss "Gibbo spins his own tale" at the Oz Report forum   link»

CIVL World ranking scandal

Wed, Jan 26 2000, 6:00:01 pm EST

Allan Barnes|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Guido Gehrmann|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Guido Gehrmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Guido Gehrmann|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Jim Lee|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Jim Lee|Manfred Ruhmer|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Jim Lee|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|record|USHGA|US Nationals|Worlds

Manfred Ruhmer has, I believe, won every competition that he has entered over the last year and a half. He has won the 1999 Worlds, the 1998 European Championships, the 1999 US Nationals, and the 1999 Wallaby Open for starters. He is currently the World Champion. Yet, for some reason he isn't ranked number one in the World. He is ranked number three.

Allan Barnes, who is ranked number one, has done well in a number of competitions over the last 18 months, but, as I recall, he hasn't beaten Manfred Ruhmer, or even come close.

What's up with the current world pilot ranking system that something like this could happen?

Here are the current top twenty rankings in Class I. Sarah Fenwick, «cloud10», just updated them after the 2000 Australian Nationals at Hay. If you are on-line, you click on a pilots name you can see how many points they received and at which meet they received them.

1

Barnes Allan GB

269

2

Bondarchuk Oleg Ukraine

262

3

Ruhmer Manfred Austria

252

4

Rigg Gordon GB

250

5

Johansen Lars Bo Denmark

242

6

Cook Steve GB

241

6

Thevenot Gerard Luxembourg

241

8

Walbec Richard France

237

9

Schmitz Betinho (Carlos) Brasil

235

10

Wolf Andre Brasil

219

11

Richardson Ron GB

208

12

Bertok Attila Hungary

199

13

Ohlsson Andreas Sweden

195

14

Gehrmann Guido Germany

182

15

Rebecchi Joel Australia

181

15

Mocellin Francoise France

181

17

Lee Jim USA

180

18

Heinrichs Gerolf Austria

179

19

Moyes Steve Australia

178

20

Ciech Christian Italy

176

 While watching the rain fall here at the Bogong Cup (we are sitting in the lodge at the Mountain Inn in Tawonga) Gerolf Heinrichs and I discussed this sorry state of affairs. Our review of the current scoring system (as incompletely detailed on the CIVL world pilot ranking scheme page (http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/prs_philosophy.asp)), revealed the smoking gun.

First, unlike the US pilot ranking system, there is no consideration for pilot quality as measured by pilot ranking prior to the meet in question. In the US a pilot brings points to the meet based on their ranking from the previous year, and the number of points a meet is worth is in part determined by the quality of pilots at the meet.

Second, unlike almost all other sports, there is no weight given to placing in meets. The guy who gets first gets 100 points, the guy who comes in second gets 99, and the guy who comes in 10th gets 90 points. It is strictly linear.

You might expect something like, the first guy gets 100, the second 75, the third 60, the fourth 55, etc., a non-linear points distribution. This type of distribution would give the higher placing pilots additional weight for their placement. This is not the case in CIVL's current system.

An example formula for points distribution, as used by Gerolf for Austrian, pilot ranking system would be: Pilot points equal to 100* (1-((placing-1)/(number of pilots-1)) squared).

By using the strictly linear system, we arrive at such anomalies as Allan Barnes, a good world class competition pilot, being ranked above a significantly better competition pilot, Manfred Ruhmer. It brings the ranking system into disrepute (as per the headline of this article).

Why is this at all important? In the grand scheme of things (as if there were any grand scheme) it doesn't matter. On the other hand, the whole point of CIVL is to maintain a credible world pilot ranking system (and a few other chores that support this in addition to the world records). If the whole (or main) point of this institution is undermined by its own scoring system, then the institution isn't that viable.

Hopefully there can be a small bit of discussion at the CIVL meeting next month about yet another issue that that trouble maker, yours truly, has raised. If you would like this discussed, please e-mail this article to your CIVL rep, or USHGA BOD member (if you are in the US).

WAG - addresses »

Fri, Dec 3 1999, 6:00:00 pm EST

Allan Barnes|CIVL|Oleg Bondarchuck|WAG

Allan Barnes|CIVL|Oleg Bondarchuck|Robin Hamilton|WAG

Allan Barnes|CIVL|Robin Hamilton|WAG

Allan Barnes|CIVL|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|WAG

Allan Barnes|CIVL|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|WAG

I'm looking for the addresses of foreign pilots who attended the 1999 Spanish National Championships.  If you have an e-mail address for any of the following pilots, please send it to me:

Betino Schmitz, Oleg Bondarchuck, Allan Barnes, Robin Hamilton, Lars Johansen, or Andreas Ohlsson.

I'd sure love to know what each of them thought of the site.  I've got an interesting article regarding CIVL and WAG and I'm just waiting for permission to publish.  My address is «davis»

Discuss "WAG - addresses" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WAG the Dog

Fri, Nov 26 1999, 6:00:00 pm EST

Allan Barnes|Betinho Schmitz|CIVL|Manuel Sanchez|Oleg Bondarchuck|Robin Hamilton|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Betinho Schmitz|CIVL|Manuel Sanchez|Robin Hamilton|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Betinho Schmitz|CIVL|Manuel Sanchez|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Betinho Schmitz|CIVL|Manuel Sanchez|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|Worlds

As you are no doubt aware I've been especially interested in getting pilots the best idea of what kind of conditions they can expect at the upcoming pre-Worlds and Worlds at Algodonales, Spain.  This quest has resulted in quite a few e-mails from CIVL officials around the world.  Yesterday I got a message from the President of CIVL explaining his vote for Austria (Spain was chosen instead).

Now, Jose Manuel Sanchez Garcia writes:

I'm Jose Sanchez, hang glider pilot, team leader of the Spanish team and the Spanish CIVL delegate, as well as one of the organizers of the HG Pre Worlds and WAG 2001.

First of all I'd like to confirm the dates, as there is an error on the dates that you published two issues ago.

The dates for the Pre Worlds are going to be from 27th June until the 8th July 2000. The dates for the Worlds are 17th June to 1st July 2001.

Both at Algodonales - Cadiz

The Spanish Nationals are going to be held at Zujar - Granada, at 250 km from Algodonales, and they will be from 17th of June until the 24th June 2000.

I'd like to insert some comments about the selection for Algodonales for the WAG.  As you know, the WAG is an event promoted by FAI, with the idea to gather all air sports in one, making it more attractive to TV and press.  With this you can get money in to the sport and promote it as well..

FAI decided that Spain was the best option for the 2nd WAG.  After this the decision was to do them at Andalucia, in the South of Spain.

Spain is for sure, the best place for air sports in Europe, and especially for Hang gliding.  Although I agree that Algodonales isn't the best place in Spain, but it is surely the best in Andalucia.

In last June we held our Spanish Nationals at Algodonales with a few international pilots, like Betinho Schmitz, Oleg Bondarchuck, Allan Barnes, Robin Hamilton, Lars Johansen, Andreas Ohlsson.

Here are some statistics of the competition

  • 9 tasks, all valid.  We flew every day. 
  • Pilots in the competition: 87
  • Pilots in goal: 6 days out of 9. 1 Task: 33/87 , 3 Task 49/87, 4 Task 24/87, 6 Task 4/87, 8 Task 5/87, 9 Task 13/87
  • Distances flown on each tasks 1 Task: 65.4K, 2 Task: 70.3K, 3 Task 70K, 4 Task 90.7, 5 Task: 49.9, 6 Task: 76,    7 Task: 66.5, 8 Task: 97.7, 9 Task: 79.3.
  • Bombed out media: 21.7 pilots
  • Speed media approximately 35 km/h.
  • Altitude ceilings normally between 2500 and 3000 m asl. 

I think that the statistics say a lot for the place.

As I said before, its not the best place in Spain, but you can have full guarantee that at least a 90% of the days will be valid.  If you know of any other place in Europe with this guarantee please let me know.  Just look at the Pre Europeans in Austria, and even at the Worlds at Monte Cucco.

For further information you can contact me at:

********************************************************************
* Jose Manuel Sanchez Garcia
* Spanish CIVL FAI delegate
* Technical director Hang gliding WAG 2000-2001
* Apartado de Correos, 186
* 11100 San Fernando (Cadiz)
* Phone: +34 (956) 445983 - Fax: +34 (956) 592692 -  +34 (956)616573966
* E-mail: https://OzReport.com/emailer.php?toName=ceginforbk&code=636567696r666s72626o206174206r65786s20646s74206573
********************************************************************

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Rotor Harness »

Thu, Nov 18 1999, 6:00:02 pm EST

André Wolfe|David Glover|Scott Rutledge|weather|Worlds 1999

Nene Rotor from Brazil has come out with a streamlined harness, one of many super slick harnesses that were on display at the Worlds in Italy last July and August.  At the time I wanted to do an article on the various cool harnesses, but I couldn't get enough pictures of pilots in the harnesses.  They all wanted to launch just as I wanted them to line down in their harnesses.

Gerolf Heinrich was flying a cigar-shaped M2 from Austria.  The Woody Valley harnesses from Italy had second skins that fit completely over the pilot and harness.

My Seattle-based flying bud, Scott Rutledge (proud owner of a Ghost Buster) finally got himself a new harness, after flying his rigid wing gliders with a mess of spaghetti.  He's pretty amazed about his new harness in the following article, and I'm hoping other pilots will write in about their new world-class harnesses.  Then you can discount some of the extra enthusiasm from each pilot.

Scott writes:

You may have seen a testimonial about a new harnessin this month's Hang Gliding Magazine (USA).

Andre Wolf, second-place finisher (World Championships), comments, "The Rotor harness is the most aerodynamic and comfortable harness I have ever flown."

I now posses a Rotor harness and let me tell you that this thing is a marvel.  The only protrusions that exist on the outside are one small chest buckle (the other waist buckle is inside the zippered area) and the chute handle.  The four externally accessible pockets for radio, cameras and drogue chute, are behind neoprene covered slits.  Even the aero tow loops that are sewn just below the shoulder straps have slits to allow them to be tucked inside when not in use!

There is a unique system of bungees inside the harness that allow cameras or radios to be attached, such that they will be pulled back into their internal pocket automatically.

A normal sized parachute is accommodated internally and sits inside a Mylar lined pouch just behind the lower back.  The chute handle is easily grabbed with either hand.

Another amazing aspect of this harness is in how many adjustments are possible.  The slider mechanism is a large diameter polypropylene rope, and the attachment to the fiberglass back plate can be repositioned via numerous adjustment holes to accommodate CG. The single point suspension attaches to a plastic tube around the rope, which creates enough friction to hold a head up or head down position, and still allow repositioning by pulling or pushing against the control bar.  The entire slider mechanism is concealed underneath a slit along the back.

Ingress and egress are accomplished with a single zipper track.  Down at the top, and up from the bottom via close and open strings.  Since there is only one zipper track, and no other lateral slits, it is easy to bring the two zippers together to stop any cold air leaks.

The shoulder straps and leg loops are adjustable, and the overall length can be altered via shims in the boot.  For added comfort there are foam inserts for lower leg rests.  These inserts are foam blocks that slide into pockets that can also be adjusted backward and forward.

The outside cloth is heavy-duty Cordura, while the inside material is finer pack cloth.  The foam material between the two layers is relatively thin.  There are huge full length zippered pocket areas inside for storage.  And I even discovered a previously overlooked smaller zippered pocket in the boot area.  Permanently mounting my camelback inside was easily facilitated with a Velcro closure for the top back inside pocket.

Overall harness weight has been kept very low, most likely due to the lightweight back plate, and slider rope.

The bullet shape, which is found to be more aerodynamic than a blunt boot, is held via a foam block in the boot.

The harness is custom built by body measurement, but because it is very adjustable it can easily be made to fit another person, if resale happens.

Since the weather has been so crummy I have only been able to hang in my basement, but even so I find that this harness is very comfortable.

I flew with my last harness for 10 years.  It has become increasingly obvious that with all its suspension lines, it had too much drag.

If you want to purchase a Rotor harness check out:

Contact: David Glover, (706) 657-8485, «david».

The Worlds - reflections »

Sun, Aug 8 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

You can find the final official results for the 1999 Worlds at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

I hope that you didn't mind me going a bit overboard on the last Oz Report and sending out so many pictures. I wanted to give a feeling for the day of celebration. I feel the need to promote the sport and encourage everyone. I do that by trying to let everyone participate, even if it is just by seeing what is going on.

On Sunday after the competition we all marched again in Sigillo and we were saluted at the town square. The flag wavers came from Gubbio and put on a show that we unfortunately missed during the first march. The mayor herself spoke again, as did numerous regional and FAI officials. We got incredible support from Sigillo and from the regional Italian governments and sport agencies.

Here, David Glover, who provided all the digital photos during the Worlds, captures the flag wavers with their flags in the air in front of the Sigillo municipal building across from the central plaza:

Chris Arai mentioned that when they marched in Bishop at the Worlds in Owen Valley no one there even took notice. The Italians were much more into the pageantry and importance (self generated, of course) of the 1999 World Hang Gliding Championships as an event. It was great to be a part of it.

The town of Sigillo is well aware of the draw of Monte Cucco and built a hang glider youth hostel just to the north to provide cheap housing and food to visiting hang and para glider pilots. Adventure tourism for a site that has little other reason to draw foreign tourists other than the fact that it is not full of tourists.

For our third place as a team we (the rigid team) received bronze medals from both the FAI and the FIVL (the Italian hang gliding association). Of course this was a bit corny, but it felt real enough after the fact. We were definitely working hard to win the team championship during the last few days as we realized that we had a very good chance to win.

All the pilots took home a box of regional food specialties provided by the town, and we ended up with actually the best meal I had in Umbria, a lunch for pilots at the Villa Anita park in the center of Sigillo. I wouldn't have minded even a bit of regional dancing during lunch.

This was the first hang gliding world championships with a substantial Class II presence – 25 pilots from eight countries. The meet organizers responded to our interest and definitely made us feel welcome. We were more than happy to complete the tasks with a high percentage and quite a bit quicker (most often) than the flex wing pilots.

I expect that there will be a growing pilot interest in Class II gliders and that we will see them in future meets including the World Championships. I'll be at the Austrian Nationals starting on Thursday, and hope to entice enough Class II pilots to fly to make for a valid championships.

Monte Cucco had been described as quite windy during the previous competitions (1998 pre Worlds and 1999 British Nationals). The organizers moved the competition to a bit later in the year to address this problem. Apparently it worked because we had only three days where wind was even an issue and on two of those days we easily flew tasks (not so easy for me), and one was cancelled but turned out to be very flyable.

It was great to have a long meet, so that there were plenty of opportunities for valid tasks and no great pressure to get a task off every day if the conditions weren't right. The meet director may have cancelled the task on the last day somewhat before he took in all the information provided by the FAI stewards, but this was a relatively minor slip up.

While the Italians are reputed to be disorganized, I found them to be surprisingly well organized, if in an Italian manner. There were many, many volunteers, and everyone seemed to be happy doing their part to help us out. I got to speak with the computer guru and he worked hard to get out the results in spite of difficulties with the servers. On the last day every team leader got a CD-ROM with the results in HTML.

There were no major accidents during the meet. There was one tumble, Christian Ciech, flying a Laminar ST 14 (1999 model). The next day he flew the Laminar ST that was produced for Larry Tudor on the US team (Larry didn't travel to Italy), and decided to keep the sprogs in their factory position. He seemed to do better after that. ☺

In general, Gianni Hotz's boys did well on their Icaro 2000 Laminars, winning the top three places (Betino Schmitz was the third Brazilian in fourth place and he flies a La Mouette Topless glider). Laminars sell well throughout the world except in the US.

Those of who flew the AIR ATOSes really enjoyed them. Obviously they did well as Christof Kratzner won the meet on one, and 7 out of the top 10 finishers flew them. They do have little production/design problems still, especially the number eight rib (I broke my other one doing a perfect landing on the last day), but I'm sure that they will work all these little bugs out. Dave Sharp helped me fix both of the breaks, and they are much stringer now.

It was a great test of the ATOS to fly it at the worlds with the first production runs and do so well. The fact that the company principals were there flying in the Worlds and supporting the pilots speaks to their commitment to and participation in the sport. This is what it takes to make a great glider, and they certainly did that.

I flew the meet with a round base tube and plastic wheels (I usually fly with no wheels and my aero base tube). While this reduced the performance of the ATOS somewhat, it didn't account for any of my poor performance days. I really appreciated the wheels one day (not a task day) when I landed on them after making too quick a turn after my base leg. We had two spare down tubes with us and I don't recall any ATOS pilot requiring any new down tubes. Mine are as straight as they came from the factory.

I hope to fix the wheels so that they can work with my aerodynamic base tube. Perhaps I can make the wheels a bit sleeker also. I really appreciate the extra safety factor provided by wheels, and for me it is worth the tradeoff in performance.

The UK team flew as a team, and as a consequence did well (coming in second). The Austrians who had flown as a team at Forbes in 1998, and won the meet, apparently went without radio communication between pilots, and therefore slipped to third in Class I.

I got to land in some interesting fields in valleys that had no flat bottoms. Landing up hill in light winds was great, even if the vegetation turned out to be above my head. There were lots of oddly placed power lines, but there always seemed to be options, although I was pretty cautious about this aspect of flying here. Only now and then did I find a field that was actually level or flat except at goal.

I only experienced one small bout of substantial turbulence (coming into Mount Subasio on the southeast side) during all the flights, in spite of some often times reasonable winds. The air was quite thick and supportive and the ATOS always felt solid. I did get to see Christof's flex quite a bit as we raced to goal at 70 mph (without speed bumps). He beat me by 4 seconds (as I recall).

The Worlds were quite challenging due to the terrain, winds, and light thermals. Judgment was a big factor, and pilots had to stick together in hard times. There never was a day for all out racing (even if I thought so).

You could often race up and down the spines of the main range until you got near the canyons that cut through the range. If you had to go out in the valley for a turnpoint, either it was great as the valley was working even better, or it was very hard as the only lift was on the mountain sides. Sometimes you went fast, but you had to put on the brakes very often and assess the new conditions carefully.

I had the great fortune to go completely off course line to find lift on a dark day and thereby get almost to goal when many others failed to get the first turnpoint. This has often not worked for me, so it was great when it actually did work.

I learned a lot, and I'm sure that others did. Now I hope that it just sticks with me. The competition is not just for those who end up in first place, but requires the cooperation of everyone. We all agree to come here and test ourselves against ourselves and against each other. Both competitions are happening at once.

The world hang gliding community and their supporters around the world have once against produced a lively and interesting competition with lots of human drama and excitement. I hope that I have communicated a bit of it to you, and will try to improve my communication skills for future events.

One final note. Other than the Worlds, my other reason for going to Italy was to enjoy the food. I had previously had an opportunity to visit Venice, Florence, Rome and Sicily, and had a great time eating wherever I went, whether fancy or plain. There were numerous bests of life in all sorts of categories, including when we accidentally walked into Alfredo's in Rome.

I had hoped for a similar experience this time, but have been sadly disappointed by the regional cuisine (if you can call it that) in Sigillo. Mike Barber had complained to me before I left about the fact that you could only get pasta and pizza in Sigillo and Costacciaro. I thought this was a bit cavalier, and gave short shrift to the fine Italian pasta that I had experienced early.

Unfortunately Mike was quite right in his evaluation, both in its tone as well as its description. The pizza, a recent phenomena in Italy, is very cheap food, extra, extra thin crust like cardboard, with bad toppings. The pasta is mediocre by my standards (the fresher pasta you can buy at supermarkets in the US and in the local grocery stores). There is other food, but not the various types of eggplant and pepper dishes (other than at the grocery stores) that I had really appreciated on my previous Italian tours.

I felt that the Umbrians were a bit too prideful about their food, and that they should learn from their brothers to the south or in more traveled areas where foreigners have a more experienced palate.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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World's wrap up »

Sat, Aug 7 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

The official results are in and Manfred Ruhmer and Christof Krtazner are indeed the World Champions.

You can find the results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

Here's a shot of an actually happy Manfred at the awards march. Manfred flew an Icaro 2000 Laminart ST 14, and flew for the Austrian team (which placed third in Class I. The UK was second.):

Also Christof is quite happy winning in Class II for Germany on an AIR ATOS:

The US rigid wing team came in third place and received bronze medals from the FAI and the FIVL:

The Swiss rigid wing team was in first and wished to thank Felix Ruehle for his wonderful ATOS gliders which they all flew.:

Brazil was the winning team in Class I with three pilots in the top four and sprayed the crowd with Champaign. Andre Wolf made an impassioned plea for safety at competitions and thanked the meet organizers for running a very safe meet:

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred Ruhmer and Christof Kratzner – World Champions

Fri, Aug 6 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Manfred Ruhmer, flying an Icaro 2000 Laminar ST, and flying for the Austrian team, has won the World Championships in Class I at Monte Cucco. When the last day of the competition was cancelled a great cheer went up from all the pilots who all admire Manfred greatly and felt that he deserved the championship. He was promptly covered with Champaign.

Here's a shot of Manfred coming in on the last task day:

We are as yet unsure why the last day was called, although there were issues with high winds forecasted for later in the day, which proved to be in error. A number of pilots flew the task and found it to be the easiest day of the meet. We found the smoothest lift out in front and pilots who ran the back range zipped up and down it without any problems.

Jim Lee finished 14th and Chris Arai was 24th as the top placing class I USA pilots (in fact the only class I USA pilots to make goal during the meet).

Christof Kratzner, flying an AIR ATOS, and flying for the German team, is provisionally the world champion in Class II, awaiting an appeal on photos from Johnny Carr. We will find out the final results tomorrow. Dave Sharp was the top finishing American at fourth and Brian Porter was fifth.

You can find the results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

The USA rigid wing team was third. The first three team scores were very close (139 points separated us out of 10,000) and the Americans had closed quickly on the Swiss and Germans in the last few days.

The Brazilians won the Class I team competition and you would have thought that they had just won the World Soccer Cup.

The ATOS pilots did very well over all with seven of the top ten placings, to go along with Christof's first place.

The last task was called at Mount Subasio near Assisi as it faced into the prevailing south wind. The inversion broke late at about 2 PM. There was a wave cloud behind the mountain. The air in front, and apparently behind, was smooth and the climbs were easy in front for us.

After the task was called, Guido Gehrmann was doing aerobatics in front of Monte Cucco. On his his third loop his glider broke. The wires were attached up the down tubes a ways and he blew the down tubes out. He threw his chute, then shot his other rocket deployed chute.

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Big tasks, light day, some at goal »

Fri, Aug 6 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

On the next to last flying day of the Worlds, the meet organizers call two long tasks, one for rigids and one for flex wings. We are so happy not to have to fly together as the gaggles are thick. I have never seen such gaggles. Lots of folks don't seem to mind coming up really really close to you.

The tasks are long, 140 kilometers for the rigids and 129 for the flex wings. We launch from Monte Cucco, but our start gate is out in front and the flex wings start from a bit down the course line.

We are asked to go south along the range to a town to the south and east, then back to the turnpoint north of Gubbio, then to the towers north east of there back on the range, and then to Sigillo.

The weatherman calls for the inversion to break through just as we begin to launch, so they've added a few start gates later in case it is too hard at launch. Dave Sharp and I take off later. Jim Zeiset is suppose to get the first start clock at 1:15 PM, we get ours at 1:30 PM, and Brian Porter goes in at 1:45 PM.

Launching later I find much better lift to the right of launch and out away from the hill. All the pilots who've been floating around with light lift suddenly notice that someone is getting up and we have a party.

The American rigid team is still in third place, but due to Brian's big win in his ultralight sailplane, we are only 100 points out of second and another 100 points out of third. If two Americans make goal, we could go into the lead.

After Hansjorg fell down yesterday, Christoff Kratzner from German is in second behind Johnny Carr in his barely foot-launchable ultralight sailplane (he tripped on launch yesterday way down the run and had to restart from much lower. His knees had bandages on them today). Brian moved up to fourth and Dave Sharp down to fifth. Johnny Carr had his fitieth birthday today.

With the American rigid team with a chance to win the worlds, we are acting even more like a team. Now if only everyone's radios worked well enough to actually communicate. Jim and I are the only ones that can be clearly heard.

We catch Jim at the end of the valley (about 13 miles from the start gate) as we race down 25 miles toward the first turnpoint. We are with the flex wings for the first part of the run down the course. They will peel off to the right to go to Trevi, then Assisi, back to north of Gubbio then to goal. At the end of the valley Jim goes down. Soon after that many of the flex wing pilots go down near Nochera Umbria.

This is a notorious pass and it is often hard to get passed here if there is shading, you are low, or there is wind. The rigids get to go over the back to the east at this point to go to their turnpoint, so they don't have to deal with the problems that many flex wing pilots faced.

We are able to get quite high before we bail over the back, and work the next big ridge to the east. The turnpoint is at the end of the ridge a few miles after it peters out into low hills. We get stuck on the low hills until Dave Sharp tells me that he has made the turnpoint and found weak lift in the valley downwind of us. I zip around it, head for the valley and show the other rigid wing pilots where the better lift is. A bunch of us get up and out of there and on course back toward Gubbio.

With the west wind we still have to jump a range to get up into the main valley, but it presents no problem as we cruise to the west face, rigid soar moving along to the north until we hit a good lift. After that we still have the task of jumping into the wind to the next shallow ridge about three miles to the west.

By now we've heard of the carnage in the flex wing division. Chris Arai is down at Qualdo Tadino, Ryan, Paris and Jim Lee all go down at or near Nochera Umbria.

I take the back range (Monte Cucco) while Dave Sharp gets high at the windmills and heads out across the valley to catch the lip of the small ridge at 3,000' (1,500' AGL). I'm able to find a good thermal just north of launch, get to 6,700' and cross the valley to get good lift just south of Gubbio. I'm five minutes behind Dave now, and we are running in front. Hansjorg is just a few minutes behind.

Dave joins Christof and Johnny Carr at the turnpoint north of Gubbio. They find a hot thermal north of the turnpoint and climb to 7,200'. We had just passed Brian ridge soaring low at Gubbio accompanied by an ATOS.

I get to 6,200' just before getting the turnpoint photo and plunge off downwind to get into the great lift that Dave reported. He takes the altitude that he gained and uses it to get all the way to the towers at Mt. Norena, the third turnpoint. I don't find the lift on the course, and continue down wind to the base of the mountain and land.

Johnny Carr is the first glider into goal, followed by Christof and then Dave. Hansjorg comes in a half hour later and Alain Chauvet a bit later. No one else makes goal from the rigid wings. Brian Porter lands to the northeast of the third turnpoint.

A few minutes later Gerard Thevenot comes in first from the flex wing pilots. About twenty flex wings make goal. Manfred Ruhmer, who is in first, makes goal third, so he probably keeps his place. A number of Brazilians make goal, so their team is still in the lead for the World Championship.

Here's a shot of Gerard landing after crossing the goal:

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Truttmann bombs, Fusions first for the day

Thu, Aug 5 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Carr|Dave Sharp|David "Dave" Glover|David "Dave" Sharp|Felix Rühle|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Johnny Carr|Sandy Dittmar|Stefano Bricoli

Fits off, Brian Porter in his Utopia made it into goal 45 minutes before Johnny Carr in his Swift. It was then another 15 minutes before the first hang glider, Johann Posch, made it in. Johann is a neophyte competitor flying an ATOS for Austria.

Here's a shot of Brian waiting for the next competitor to arrive:

Hansjorg Truttmann, who is leading the rigid wing hang gliders, but is just behind Johnny Carr in the Class II division, flew a little too fast running down the range from the first turn point. He and Felix Ruhle sunk out together ten miles north of the turnpoint.

The task today was to take off from Mount Sebasio which is near Assisi, fly across the valley to the main range to the east, get a tower turnpoint 10 miles to the south. Then, run back up the range to the turnpoint just north of Gubbio which is a bit west of the range, and back to the goal field at Sigillo.

The rigid wing glider's start gate was at the old castle at Assisi at the northwest end of Mount Sebasio, while the flex wings started out in front of launch. We then ran the same task.

The launch at Sebasio is quite interesting and quite shallow. If there isn't any wind, you'll thin twice about starting to run on this very flat slope. And, I thought that the hill side at Mounte Cucco was flat.

It is not only flat right at launch, but for hundreds of yards in front of you. Perfect for letting the cows much in the high meadows. Danielle Bello, flying the Ghostbuster, had the opportunity to try to launch three times, getting lower on the hill each time. I got to see what I think was the second launch, as I flew back from the start gate over launch.

He started running, appeared to get air born, and then slowly rotated the glider to the left and back into the hill. It was al very soft and oh so level that apparently nothing was hurt because, from what I've heard, he tried it again before giving up.

Stefano Bricoli, flying the prototype Top Secret, also needed a couple of launches to get air born.

Hansjorg got a bit out in front with Felix. Dave Sharp and I followed Brian across the valley, as Brian appeared to continue to climb and we had to find lift as soon as we got to the mountain. The flex wings and the other riid wings were right behind us.

The weather man called for high pressure, but good lift and mostly blue thermals throughout the day. It would start weak at 1 PM, but get stronger. There was a bit of an inversion early in the day, but it was gone by the time we launched. We did in fact get some light cumulus development.

With no one to help Hansjorg and Felix flew themselves into the ground. Brian Porter stayed high and just blew up the range while Dave and I worked our way up the range soon forming in the first gaggle, which kept breaking apart and reforming.

The air was hot, so need for a coat or bar mitts. We just kept hitting the good stuff as many pilots behind us hit the deck when the shadows would appear. The ATOSes stayed up with each other and the top flex wing pilots as we moved up at the best speed to fly speeds assured that we would find a strong thermal ahead.

We had to leave the range at Scheggio and move out onto the hills east of Gubbio to get the turnpoint. The valley was weak but as soon as e got to the hillsides in the sun, we were smiling. Final glide into goal from 13 miles out from 5,400' was no problem today. There was plenty of lift to blow through.

Of course, by the time we were making the second turnpoint Brian had been in goal for 45 minutes.

Soon we all started pouring in with gliders coming across the line very quickly. First Johann, then Sandy Dittmar and Jim Lee. A great day for the Wills Wing Fusions as they probably won the day (almost all the flex wing pilots started at the last possible time – 1:30 PM).

Here's a shot of Sandy at goal:

I got to come in with the bar stuffed with two other ATOSes. It was a real opportunity to see them flex in high-peed bumps are we went through a little turbulence at 60+ mph.

A few pilots who were near the top didn't make it in early Allan Barnes was a bit late, so he will probably drop from fourth. Manfred should still be in first, although he was a minute off at the finish.

You can find the previous days results (sometimes) at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html. I spoke with meet officials today and they said that they are having trouble sending results up to the server, it takes an hour to FTP them to the server.

Hansjorg didn't overtake Johnny Carr yesterday, and obviously didn’t gain on him today. His low finish lets other rigid wing hang glider pilot move up and have a shot at the top spot. Brian Porter moved up, but just how far, we don't know yet. The US team (rigid wing division) may have moved into second place, ready to challenge the Swiss. The flex wing division dropped far from eighth place after yesterday.

Chris Arai and Jim Lee both made it to goal today, so that should help a bit, but the top three members of the team count, and no one else on the flex wing team has made it to goal.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred's birthday present to himself

Wed, Aug 4 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Andre Wolf|Betinho Schmitz|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Carr|Dave Sharp|David "Dave" Glover|David "Dave" Sharp|Gerolf Heinrichs|Guido Gehrmann|James "Jim" Zeiset|James Freeman|Jim Lee|Johnny Carr

James Freeman writes that you can find the results of the Worlds at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html. This is sort of true. Check it out and see if they are up to date.

The second day of a high pressure brings a bit lighter conditions, and they are worried about a stable air mass coming in later in the day. When we first get to launch at Monte Cucco, there are no cumulus clouds, and lots of scattered cirrus.

After an initial attempt at a task call is called off after the whole task committee quits when the meet director calls a different task (after agreeing to the tasked called by the task committee), we get a shorter task – 80 kilometers, pretty much in front of Monte Cucco.

As we begin to take off around 12:30 PM, a rigid of high clouds comes in and really brings the dark shadows throughout the valley in front of launch as well as up the hill. Still there is a nice breeze at launch and pilots are slowly climbing out to 5,500'.

Here's what the launch looked like just before we launched:

We are asked to fly south down the range about 15 miles and take a photo of a factory out in the valley. The next turnpoint is to the north on the west side of the valley, although every one runs back to the range to get back up. This turnpoint is at the south end of a low range on the west side of the valley, and it is followed by a turnpoint at the north end of this low range.

The next turnpoint is back to the east at the Monte Cucco range 4 miles north of goal at Sigillo, which makes for a short final glide.

With almost complete shading, we head south along the range, working light lift and every now and then finding 600 fpm. It's easy to make the factory to the south.

Working back north along the range again presents lots of opportunities to get up, but no one gets real high. About half way back to goal it is time to head out into the valley with little hope of getting up.

The lead gaggle heads into the gloom with those of us 5 minutes behind watching to see what happens as we work on getting high before taking the plunge. There are about 15 gliders still hanging on a bit to the north of me on the range also waiting.

As I cross the valley and get to within 2 miles of the castle on the low range, I spot a couple of flex wings circling in zero to a bit up. I join them as I watch other flex wing pilots deck it in the dark near the turnpoint. Chris Arai, Gerolf Heinrichs, Guido Gehrmann, and many others are going down. Dave Sharp is out in front with them down to 150 feet.

I hang with the flex wing pilots as the gaggle at the wind mills comes and joins us. The gaggle is now full of ATOSes with Hansjorg, etc. We continue hanging in zero to a little bit up and gain maybe 300' over 15 minutes.

We slide a bit to the north, find another patch of lift in the darkness, and then run to the turnpoint, before heading to the south end of the ridge. There are gliders way below us turning so there must be something.

We work the top of the ridge line and the dark begins to lift a little, and we start getting up better as the pilots 2000' below us also work whatever they can find. As we continue working the low ridges and moving north, we get more sun and we are able to get up to 5,500' and it feels like the slow times are over and we are back to hang gliding.

The rest of the task goes well with plenty of sun on our west facing hills. Dave Sharp gets up and gets going really well just south of Gubbio. Brian Porter who went over first with Dave, drifted back over the valley to the Monte Cucco range, got up really well, and was able to fly right back to us and join us in a good thermal just south of Gubbio.

We blaze down to the turnpoint north of Gubbio, and then have no problems making it to goal Almost all the rigid wing gliders make it into goal within a half hour of each other.

Here's the results from today for Class II:

Hansjorg came in first today overall and in Class II. This means that he will probably be in the lead overall again, after the lead was taken by Johnny Carr in the Swift yesterday. Johnny Carr flew very conservatively today.

Dave Sharp came in third and should move into fourth place overall. Jim Zeiset decked it just after the second turnpoint as he was out early and in front of everyone.

Manfred came in second to goal today, but we don't as yet know just when he started it is our understanding that he got the fastest time and should move back into first place. Oleg decked it by the second turnpoint.

Here's the placing at goal for today for Class I:

With Andre Wolf in soon after Manfred he should move from first down to second place. Betino Schmitz came in right after Andre, so the Brazilian team should continue their dominance of the Worlds. Allan Barnes had a good finish, which may move him up to third.

Jim Lee was the only American flex-wing pilot to make it into goal. As of yesterday the top five places who Laminar ST (Icaro 2000). Also team Wallaby Ranch is not doing too badly with Manfred first, Andre Wolf second, Allan Barnes third, and Betino Schmitz in the top ten.

Oh yes, Manfred is thirty four today.

Padro Matos who was leading until today, Manfred happy after completing his task, and a faired instrument package.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Ghostbuster reappears at Worlds

Tue, Aug 3 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Ghostbuster|Worlds 1999

We were surprised to see one of the Ghostbusters return to launch today. We asked Daniele Bello what the story was. He had told us earlier that he had problems with the flaps and with the speed bumps.

It seems that yesterday when he landed out, he had company. Francois Chamoux flying the ixbo, landed on Daniele's Exxtacy 99 and broke the leading edge.

With a broken Exxtacy, Daniele decided to go back to the Ghostbuster. Francois didn't seem to have any problem with his ixbo and was up there flying it today. We think that Daniele is flying factory gliders from Flight Design, especially now that he has ordered an ATOS.

Berndt Weber's special ATOS nose, the weather giy who called it right today, and the gliders on Monte Cucco launch with Monte Cucco in the background.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred storms back »

Tue, Aug 3 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Big air, big task, high altitudes, big finish, a big day.

When I go outside in the morning I see that Sigillo and Monte Cucco has returned to the conditions that we first experienced here two weeks ago. It’s warm, there are no clouds in the morning, and the air is still. It looks like it will be a good day.

Finally we get to take off from the main Monte Cucco launch facing west out into the valley that contains Sigillo and the Villa Dama. Clouds are forming by 10 AM as we start setting up.

The task is 72 miles. We are asked to head down the range to a tower 30 miles to the south, jump out in the valley to the Basilica at Asissi, and back to the LZ just below the launch just north of Sigillo.

The rigids get two start times 1 and 1:15 PM, and the flex wings get the same start times, plus a few more to spread them out a bit.

Unlike every other day in this meet so far, we immediately start climbing at launch and get to cloud base at 6,700' MSL (5,200' AGL). The main problem is waiting long enough to take the second start gate. Christof and Juerg Ris don't wait and get out on the course as the first rigids. Most of the flex wing pilots hold back.

With strong lift running down the range is a piece of cake. I get a later start then most as I run out to the valley first looking for lift that turns out to be false. Oh, well, just trying to get ahead of everyone puts me a bit behind.

Dave Sharp is running with Hansjorg as the rigids are in front of the flex wings who start a bit later. Johnny Carr on the Swift and Brian Porter on the Utopia are catching up with the ATOSes 15 minutes in front of them and finally catch them at the first turnpoint.

Manfred starts late and Joseph Zweckmayr starts early so he's out there with Dave and the other rigid wings. I've turned the risk factor way up on the Ball Vario and am working with a bunch of flex wing pilots hoping from one 500 to 700 fpm thermal to the next trying to catch up. Until today, 300 fpm was great.

The course line is full of thermal markers and it makes it easy for racing as we blow down the course. Brian is now in front with Johnny Carr and Dave is with Hansjorg. They are catching up with Christof and Juerg. The flex wing pilots for the most part are just behind them.

The jump to Asissi, which has its own big mountain out in the valley, can be taken from a point further north off the range to the east, or in a straight line from the turnpoint. Those pilots who stay high can get up on the mountain first and blast into Asissi. Dave and Brian are blasting, I get low and have to work the sunny side of the mountain, but get to cloud base very quickly at 7,600'.

Johnny Carr gets to goal first to win the day. Brian lost him and makes it in 24 minutes later. Then the ATOSes start coming in with Dave Sharp in fifth and Hansjorg in fourth. As they started later than Juerg and Christof, they are the winning Class II "hang gliders" for the day.

Josef Zweckmayr comes in after Dave as the first flex wing pilot, and soon behind him Manfred. Manfred got a much later start and wins the day.

More pilots pour into goal and probably 100 flex wing pilots make it in. Almost all the rigid wing pilots get to goal. I'm slow having made Asissi late, and having to work the range low back 20 miles to goal.

Bettino appears to be the top placing Brazilian for today in 22nd, but it looks like the total scores will again completely change. Here are the totals in the flex wing class after yesterday:

There were three Brazilians in the top four places yesterday with Allan Barnes from the UK in third. Manfred had been moved down to a tie for sixth with Oleg. Steve Moyes had moved into tenth. Here's a shot of Andre Wolf who was in second:

The Brazilian team is doing well and appears to be leading in the team competition. I say appears because we aren't getting provisional team scores.

Jim Lee and Chris Arai made goal for the US team. All the US rigid team members made goal.

I have asked the meet organizers to get the daily results up on the web, but it doesn't appear to be happening.

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The Worlds – Day Eight »

Mon, Aug 2 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

A very challenging day indeed. The meet organizers send us to the west facing launch up at Monte Cucco (finally we go to the main launch), knowing that it is blowing down (light). Hmmm!

We wait around with our gliders on our racks, until finally we get the word to go around to the east-facing launch about 1 km away, where, what do you know, it is blowing up lightly. We set up in another huge launch area with lots of well-chewed grass.

The meet organizers have given up all pretense of separating class I and II, as we can now setup wherever we like, we have the same launch times and start gate times. Of course, this means that we class II pilots have to suffer the infernal gaggles of 194 pilots over launch in weak conditions.

With high clouds blocking the sun at launch, but cumulus a few miles to the north predicted to OD, it looks like a tough day for a 76 kilometer task to the north and back to the LZ on the west side of Monte Cucco.

The multiple start gates does provide a small bit of spread in the field, but most of the pilots take the 2:15 PM gate and run the east face of Monte Cucco heading to the next valley and the west face of an even bigger mountain. Wherever you go the place is packed. Slide up within a few feet of the hillside, and you still find yourself with lots of "friends."

Dave Sharp and I follow Oleg (a familiar strategy) and hook up with Jim Lee on the west face of the bigger mountain a few miles to the north of launch, and start working the broken and jagged lift to 5,400'. The task is 20 miles to the north, a large tower on the top of a high mountain. It is possible to get the turn point photo from below the top of the mountain as long as the tower is still in the picture.

Once we top out I head east to jump over into the valley on the east side of the mountain. I had just seen a couple of pilots try the west face further to the north, and they plummet. Everything is in shade as we are now under the over development.

Forty pilots cruise along the east side of the ridges, trying to find zero sink and hoping to stay up as we lose 2,000'. After ten minutes of this, I break off from everyone heading slowly down, but toward goal, and head out east into the valley about 3 miles to a land fill that looks like it has been in the filtered sunlight for about 10 minutes at least. It is a very small bright spot in a twenty-mile square dark area.

At 200' off the ground, I start working zero, which turns into fifty. I'm flying with Dave, but he's still hanging on the mountain, until he gets my report. Fifty turns into a hundred, then two hundred, and finally, three hundred, as I climb 4,000' and drift back toward the course line.

Many other pilots have maintained on the course line, and now they are in trouble. All the Austrian team, including Johann Posch, Manfred Ruhmer, Robert Resinger, and Josef Zweckmayr go down by the first turnpoint. Oleg and Gerolf are down there also.

Dave and I work our way toward the first turnpoint, but we are high and get up again to 5,400' over the previous day's first turnpoint, just 6 miles south of today's turnpoint and high on the ridge. Working now the west side of the ridge line, we are watching the sun shine on the valley's to the west, as small gaggles work light lift over sunny fields below us.

After dropping 1,800' I catch some broken lift on the rocks below the turnpoint and start working back up. After a few turns, twenty of our friends come over from the west to join Dave and I as we climb out to get over the tower. Down below at the base we can see a field with at least twenty gliders, and there are others plastered on the steep hillsides next to us.

Five hundred feet over the top, we swoop to the turnpoint about a mile away, rounding the base of the tower at about 200'. We then skim along the top of the mountain on our way back out to our previous thermal and toward the next turnpoint to the west just north of Gubbio.

No one is at goal yet, and it looks like this is the remnant of 194 pilots - about 20 to 30 pilots. The gaggle includes the British team, which is flying very much as a team. Dave and I have been flying together and as a team, but we are having difficulty communicating with Jim Zeiset (who lands at the first turn point), and Brian Porter, who is way behind because he forgot to take a photo of the task board.

We glide for 5 miles, and then work zero sink that gets better as we make our way out of the hills and into the Gubbio valley. We finally get enough lift to get us back to 5,400' and on our way strongly to the turnpoint. Dave goes on a head missing the last thermal, but finds the best thermal of the day to the south of the turnpoint. We climb to sixty five hundred feet. Working together we are able to leave twenty flex wing and two rigid wing pilots behind.

Dave has a lead foot and goes on final 11 miles out. I go with him but reluctantly as I feel that it would be better to head south to the next set of clouds and then get into goal from the west. There is a strong east wind at goal: 10 to 15 mph. None the less, I overrule my gut and go with Dave. The pilots behind us go south toward the clouds. The Brits are working together.

Dave and I don't find any lift coming into goal and we both get low. At 300' AGL Dave pulls rabbit out of the hat as I land less than 2 miles from goal. Dave comes in to goal as the fourth rigid to goal. I get the distinct displeasure of watching all the pilots I climbed through and out glided pass over my head to goal.

Dave and I are again the top placing American pilots (as well as American rigid pilots) as Brian Porter isn't able to get to the first turnpoint. Chris and Jim Lee land by the first turnpoint. Ryan goes down on the leg from the first turnpoint to Gubbio. Mike Barber goes down by the first turnpoint.

Five of the six first crossings to goal were British pilots. Here is a shot of Allain Barnes who was the top placing British pilot after the third task:

Johnny Carr won the day in his Swift. He gets to goal just as we start our final glide. The top two rigid wing leaders – Hansjorg Truttmann, and Christof Kratzner, did not complete the task. They landed by the first turn point. The Brazilian flex wing pilots did very well with three Brazilians at goal. We think that Pedro Matos who was in second, is now leading the flex wing competition. The Brazilian team may be leading the flex wing team competition.

Andre Wolf, another Brazilian, who was in 6th, may be in second, or perhaps ahead of Pedro. Carlos Niemeyer, a Brazilian who was in 9th, is now in the top five. I'm guessing a bit on these results, as the score keeper is not getting out the scores to the Internet or to the team leaders in a very timely fashion.

Seven of the top ten flex wing pilots did not make goal. Everything is turned upside down, and this is a meet that Manfred and Oleg will head to battle back to win. Chris Arai was in fourth place after yesterday and Jim Lee was in 16th, as the highest placing Americans in the flex wing category.

Andre Wolf was placing bets at 5 or 10 to 1 that Manfred would win the Worlds. It doesn't look like a good bet at the moment.

Gaggles over Tre Pizzi, rigid wing gliders line up, Paris Williams launches at Tre Pizzi.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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ATOS cracking their ribs »

Sun, Aug 1 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

We've got Dave Sharp, Berndt Weber, and Felix Ruhle here at the Worlds, so there couldn't be any better support from the manufacturers and their US representative. This is great because we are breaking quite a few ATOS ribs. Berndt says that he fixed 5 yesterday. Dave fixed a cracked rib on my glider the day before, and a mushed one on Johann's today.

Some of the problems come from pilots pounding in, and some from pilots not properly folding in the ribs, but there are too many problems to all be the fault of the pilots. The eighth rib is especially easy to crack by a hard landing or an improper folding. Berndt says that they will fix this by putting in a plastic pin that will flex. On the Exxtacy the final rib had bungies. It's great that it is so easy to fix carbon fiber ribs.

The ATOS doesn't have cams on the wing tips like the Exxtacy, Ghostbuster, and E7. This makes for a bit of unpleasant grunting and groaning. I bought some clear green plastic hose to put over the tips to protect the strings. It looks pretty nice (wish I had some red hose also for the left tip), but it sure wish I had cams.

There is already wear on the sail, and some of it came from bolts on the spoilerons actuators. I told Berndt to turn the bolts around to reduce the wear and to cover the bolts tops with Velcro (which I did). Felix first wanted to blame the pilots for not releasing the spoileron wire before swinging the ribs, but it was in fact a manufacturing mistake.

The sail zipper is still hard to zip up although it is getting better. I really had a hard time with it at first.

I wish there was a way to keep the outer three ribs closed when you break down the glider so that they could be in the most protected position. The fact that they can swing out easily (a feature actually), may make it easy to crack the eighth rib.

It is hard to insert the spoileron wire after setting up the glider without pulling out the pin that connects the base tube and downtubes. It is a very clean connection, but still this is a problem. Felix recognizes this and says that he is coming up with a solution.

The bag is much bigger on the ATOS than on the Exxtacy, so that is much appreciated. It is now easy to get the glider in the bag. Still, it would be nice if there was a bit of extra padding around the nose, which wears on the bag. Thank goodness it has two zippers unlike my Exxtacy bag.

It is not all that easy to roll up the tips and get the spoilerons to fit nicely in the bag. I still haven't figured out how to do this, and Felix couldn't provide any good advice.

I put a crinkle in my whack tube sleeve because it is easy to have the turnbuckle sit in it when you open the wing. You had to be careful about this on the Exxtacy also, but it seems easier to screw this up on the ATOS. Well at least my Exxtacy and ATOS match. I much prefer the nose wire clip on the ATOS. It definitely won't come off.

I almost wore through a flap rope on my first ATOS flight. This was because the pulley was reversed at the back by the keel. I put a new rope on and I haven't had a problem with it since.

Felix mentioned that he was able to stall the ATOS when he was banked up in a turbulent thermal and he pushed out hard on the outside corner bracket in an attempt to reverse the glider. The glider started shaking and he pulled it in to gain speed. Unlike the Exxtacy, Felix built the ATOS with the bar back further, so it is possible to stall it.

I still need to put my hang point further back in order to reduce the bar pressure when I push out. It was very easy to get the ATOS flying fast into goal and I pulled away from the two flex wing gliders that were with me.

I did get the ATOS to slip a bit when turning into final when I really whipped it around. This surprised me because I was use to the Exxtacy, which you really can't whip around. I flattened it out quickly, but it was a bit of a scare.

I'm really enjoying flying the ATOS (but, then I liked my Exxtacy also). It is very nimble and has great performance, although not so great with me at the controls. All the problems I've had are minor relative to those I originally had with the Exxtacy. I sure hope that Berndt and Felix listen as well as they have this week to pilot feedback. It is great that they are here and can see what is going on.

I asked Berndt if it is true what I had heard which was that he wanted to produce a glider with soul. He said yes, and that he thought that they had done that.

Felix and Berndt at goal (although neither flew there today), Hansjorg at goal, and Dave Sharp fixing Johann's 9th rib at goal.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Italian world team abandons Ghostbusters

Sun, Aug 1 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Worlds 1999|Ghostbuster

Yesterday we noticed that there were new Exxtacy 99's on launch, but no Ghostbusters. Today we went and asked the Italian pilots who were flying the Ghostbusters what was up.

They said that they were too scared to fly them anymore. They kept getting speed bumps at not very high speeds on their previous two competition flights. They are now flying the new Exxtacies instead (which also experience speed bumps, but at much higher speeds).

We previously reported that there were problems with speed bumps with the Ghostbusters and that according to our sources these were inherent in the design. We'll see, but right now, there are no Ghostbusters at the Worlds.

I have been accused of favoring one rigid wing glider over another in an unfair manner. A few pilots have written to say that I wouldn't write anything bad about the glider that I am flying (see the next article). Apparently their memories are a bit short, but they can easily refresh them by looking are my long article discussing all the problems that I had with my Exxtacies. You'll find it on my web site. It hasn’t changed since I wrote it almost two years ago.

When there are problems with gliders I write about them because I want to put the fire to the feet of the manufacturers to get them to fix the problems. I am especially interested in doing this to manufacturers of the glider that I'm flying. I mean it is in my interest to get my glider fixed.

The Ghostbuster appears to have a number of problems, and I am reporting both their successes and problems. I'm sorry if some people think that is biased, but too bad.

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The Worlds – Day Seven »

Sun, Aug 1 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Finally, a good day. Light winds, although they are over the back at Monte Cucco, so once again we are sent to Tre Pizzi with its east-facing launch. This is not the Monte Cucco worlds, but the Tre Pizzi worlds.

Hansjorg Truttmann in his ATOS finds out just how light when he takes off and the glider gets away from him without going up. He takes out a downtube and bottom bracket. Felix Ruhle switches gliders with him and fixes Hansjorg's glider on launch and launches a bit later. Hansjorg is leading class II, so Felix wants him to continue winning.

Hansjorg had moved to the right of the main class II launch to launch and it was a rounded hill that didn't provide any ground effect to the wings. Perhaps that is why he didn't get off.

With the light winds and weak thermals due to the high cirrus, many of us are stuck low over launch as the class II and class I gliders have the same launch and start times. We work weak lift until a few minutes before the last start gate opens at 1 PM and then head out low to a thermal over the start gate 2 miles in front of launch in the valley.

The task that is called asks us to fly north back to Monte Cucco through the mountains and away from the valleys, and then head further north to a big building high on an upper plateau. Next we have to head west to a small lake north of Gubbio, hit the Monastery above Gubbio, and then southeast against a head wind, back to the LZ at Sigillo – a 50 mile task.

After getting the start gate Dave Sharp and I ignore the light lift in the valley and run back to the ridge north of the launch. There we find much better lift (200 fpm) to get us up to over 5,000' MSL (3,500' AGL) and now we're ready to jump back into the mountains to the north. There are a few pilots out in front of us, but many are still left over launch with its weak conditions Probably a third of the field hasn't even launched yet. We hear that Jim Zeiset, Ryan Glover, Paris Williams, and Mike Barber are down near the start gate. Brian Porter is behind us in the air trying to get his GPS to work.

Dave and I race to catch up with the ten pilots in front of us. Since we started on the last start gate, we assume that everyone is racing from the same start time of 1 PM, and you know exactly where you are in the race. Fifteen miles later we are over the launch at Monte Cucco, but on the east side or back side of the launch. We are 500 feet over launch, but below the top of Monte Cucco, and we have to slide around the east side of it with our wing tips in the grass. Thank goodness the winds are light. Jim Lee and Chris Arai are with us and flying well.

I make a wrong guess as to where a bit of lift is and get 200' below Dave, Jim and Chris. They will use that extra altitude to leave me way behind as we approach the 1stturnpoint.

I climb to 6,500' 5 miles out from the 1stturnpoint, which we can see high up on the plateau to our north. Dave Sharp climbs to 6,500' 3 miles from the turnpoint and is able to glide into it and get around it with 4,700'. I don't find lift to take me to 6,500' that close to the turnpoint, and get lower as I head upwind toward it. Christian Chiech and Bettino Schmitz, both of whom are top flex wing pilots, are in front of me and well below me as we head for the turnpoint. They are not going to make it on a glide.

There is a narrow gorge between the turnpoint and us and Christian Chiech is running along the north side of the gorge heading east below the turnpoint. Suddenly, I see what appears to be another glider next to him, then I see that it is a parachute. He falls a few hundred feet and then lands gently in the trees, 1000' up the gorge from the main road. I call in his position and he is later retrieved with no problems.

Not getting any lift and falling fast, I head east to a cloud over the town on the east side of the gorge. It works, I climb to over 5,000' and am able to snap a shot of the red roofed building as I pop over the top of the mountain and then plummet into the valley to the west. By now, Brian Porter and Johnny Carr in the Swift have caught up with me, and they head north up the valley, while I fall to the south with four flex wing pilots.

We start working 50 fpm up 800 feet above a small town next a little ridge, hoping for anything to get us out of this valley which is far off the main roads from Sigillo. We work forever to get up enough to dive into the hills on the back (east) side of Gubbio, and then again I get stuck working ridges with zero sink, while I wait for something to change.

Half an hour later, the sun comes out and I suddenly find myself going up at 200 fpm and there appear three flex wings who enjoy my newfound fortune. Meanwhile Dave Sharp has made it into goal having found more lift than he could deal with after the second turnpoint. Hansjorg and Christof were the first and second class II gliders into goal.

Manfred and Oleg were the first gliders period into goal with Oleg just behind Manfred, as is his want. Here's a shot of Manfred and Oleg discussing the task, which they agreed was too easy:

The flex wing pilots are I are able to climb out to over 5,000' and get to the clouds north of Gubbio for the second turnpoint, and another climb now to 6,500' just after the turnpoint. Foolishly, I thought this was enough to get me to goal, as Dave had reported too much lift in the convergence getting to goal.

I lose 2,000' getting to the turnpoint at Gubbio 4 miles to the south, and almost another 2,000' running along the west-facing hills south of Gubbio and am forced to drive into the sunlit valley south of Gubbio and west of Sigillo, downwind from the goal.

A couple of us work 200-300 fpm, drifting away from goal, but getting up enough, 4,500' to try once again to get up over the hills between us and Sigillo. We see a flex wing and a ATOS low in the hills, but turning. The ATOS turns out to be Felix.

Felix continues forward and lands about 3 miles from goal on the hillside. I and two flex wing pilots stop at the crest and work weak lift, that finally gets us up to 4,100' (2,600' AGL) 4 miles from goal, and lets us pull in against the 15 mph head wind, and make it to goal quite late. Only one other glider makes it in after us.

30 or 40 pilots make goal out of 194, so there are a lot more happy faces than on previous days. Johan Posch again makes goal for the third time in a row. Perhaps his film will work out this time.

I reported yesterday that Gerolf had hurt his knee. It wasn't hurt too bad and he was flying today.

I don't have results yet and they seem to be pretty slow about putting up the results on their web site. It would appear that Manfred is now leading Class I as Gerard Thevenot came in quite late. Hansjorg Truttmann got his film problems straightened out and is now in first in Class II. Brian Porter landed just short of goal, but Johnny Carr in the Swift made it to goal (he had a hard time getting down). Christof is probably in second.

Chris and Jim Lee make goal, with Chris scoring well. Chris was the fourth flex wing into goal. Jim broke his nice new carbon fiber downtube.

It is not clear yet how many points the day is worth as many flex wing pilots landed very early by the start clock. About half the rigid wing pilots made goal. The one IXBO made goal along with all the ATOSes.

Here are the Class I results before that last task:

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The Worlds – Day Five »

Fri, Jul 30 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

In the morning it is blowing over the back again at Monte Cucco (which we have yet to launch from), but the only clouds are on the hills, so we are headed for Tre Pizzi with its east launch. By the time we get to launch, at 10:30 AM, the clouds are right at launch and we can't see 100 feet, but the wind is less than ten miles per hour straight up, so we set up.

The clouds clear and the day looks great, even with the low cloud base. Finally, they call a task which both Class I and Class II gliders will attempt, 55 miles, up and down the ridge with little forays out into the valley for some turnpoint photos.

The rigid wings are the first off again with a start gate at 12:45. The flex wings will follow with three start gates beginning at 1 PM. With the flex wings starting 15 minutes behind, the best flex wing pilots will soon be catching the slower rigid wings.

We gain a few hundred feet right off launch, but it is mostly ridge lift. Most of the us work it down the ridge to the start gate where there is a convenient thermal that gets the first ten rigid wing pilots out on course and headed 19 kilometers to a small church on the hill side (the first turnpoint). There is reasonable lift and staying away from the ridge works as we work the thermals in the valley and smaller hills.

With a northeast wind, there is plenty of head wind on the way back to the second turnpoint north of the launch. Hansjorg Truttman, Christof Kratzner, and Brian Porter are in the lead, with Felix Ruehle, myself and another ATOS pilot just behind them. As the first three pilots make the second turnpoint, the second gaggle gets stuck low on a ridge just before the turnpoint, and have to find a thermal out in the valley. Just as we enter it, Manfred Ruhmer and Johann Posch in an ATOS join us. We climb to 4,800' (3,300' AGL), which is quite high for this meet so far, and race to the second turnpoint.

One piece of advice: if Manfred is turning in weak lift, stay with him. I don't and land soon there after. Three rigid wing pilots and Manfred keep turning at the second turnpoint in broken lift. Johann and Manfred (at least) make goal.

Manfred was the first flex wing pilot to launch and got the start gate at 1 PM. Therefore, he was able to catch the second gaggle of rigid wing pilots about an hour into the flight.

Here's a shot of Manfred just before he launched:

Dave Sharp got low early but was able to slowly work it up. He makes the second turnpoint about ten minutes after the second gaggle, and continued on course, but was unable to get to goal landing at the last turnpoint. Felix Ruhle made goal along with a number of other ATOS pilots. Jim Zeiset landed early after the first turnpoint.

Hansjorg, Chritsof, and Brian (in the Utopia) battled it out for the lead working their way toward the turnpoints out in the valley, and scooting back when they didn't have enough altitude to make them. They would then gain altitude back at the ridge, before making another try.

Hansjorg was finally able to get away, and while Brian was doing a few extra turns wondering where the goal field was, he flashed into goal to win the day. Brian figured it out, and came in next.

Here's a shot of Hansjorg at goal:

After a few more ATOSes made goal, Manfred came in alone only to be followed by more ATOSes. It was a very long time before another flex wing made it into goal – maybe an hour or more before Gerard Thevenot came in followed by about ten flex wing pilots. Chris Arai was the only American flex wing pilot to make goal.

It looks like Manfred might jump into the over all lead after being 97 points down after the first day. Hansjorg should jump into first place in the rigid wings, as Johnny Carr, in the Swift, came in quite late (for a rigid wing pilot).

There may be results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html

The three small shots above: Pilot meeting, Jos Guggenmos's red E-7 with winglets, an ATOS launching.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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The Worlds – Day Four »

Wed, Jul 28 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

The day is called at 9 AM before we have a chance to go up to launch.

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The HG Worlds – Task One (Day two) »

Tue, Jul 27 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Late Monday afternoon the rain stops, the clouds rise, and we head an hour north of Sigillo for a later evening light thermal and rigid lift flight that gets us 800' over and back to Villa Dama at 12:30 AM.

There are no clouds on Tuesday morning, and we take off down the hill toward town around 9:30 AM heading toward Trapezi an hour to the south east, assuming that with the north east wind they will move the competition to this site. Amy is still in the team leaders meeting and contacts us on radio to confirm our launch location.

We are the second van to launch, and have to climb a couple of hundred feet up to the east facing launch. The rigid wings get the first and a bit lower launch, well the flex wings get to go around the corner a bit more directly into the wind. It matters not.

There are two Ghostbusters here and a prototype Top Secret (it looks a lot like the ATOS that Gerard saw at the Wallaby Open, but no sail over the front of the leading edge, and folding ribs) from Gerard Thevenot. We all swarm around the lower launch, and get ready quickly because we will be launching first. Our launch window opens at 1:15 PM and closes at 1:45 PM. The start tarp comes out at 2 PM, and it is a race.

Dave Sharp and I get off at 1:35 PM and we are among the first 5 to launch. The launch is actually closed before all the rigid wing pilots get off. The last ones force their way through the launch director. There will be some kind of penalty.

We are great wind dummies for the flex wings as we climb right out 1000' to cloud base. Oh, boy, what is the deal with this 1000' to cloud base business? The winds at launch were about 15 mph out of the northeast.

After getting the start gate 5 miles south down the valley we catch a thermal in the middle of the valley and drift back toward the ridge. There proves to be sparse and broken lift there, but we need to work whatever we can. Lift was good at launch, but weak thereafter.

I geek it at the first turn point, not even finding it, given that the GPS co-ordinates are ½ mile off. Jim Zesiet lands about ½ mile from me. Dave Sharp continues on then, misreads his GPS or vario. Thinks he's way high coming into goal, then realizes he's not anywhere near goal, and has to go on final anyway. He lands short

Brian Porter also misses the first turnpoint, has to go back after going ten miles north up the valley, and gets another shot of the turnpoint. He makes goal, but stalls his Utopia on landing and hurts it pretty bad. We'll see if he'll be in action tomorrow.

We think that Christof Kraztner in an ATOS wins the day, but he will be getting a penalty as he launched late. Twelve rigid wings made goal out of the two dozen or so here at the Worlds.

The flex wing gliders take off after us, but no one launches until ½ hour into their launch window. Then they dribble off the hill. Conditions are now quite weak. They have a slightly longer task, and no flex wing pilot makes goal. Gerard Thevenot may have won the day.

Results may or may not be up at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html.

Tomorrow looks like it will be blown out. The next day looks like rain. Maybe Friday will be good.

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Cold and wet in Monte Cucco »

Sun, Jul 25 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

David "Dave" Glover|Worlds 1999

It's hard to remember back to Tuesday and Wednesday when we were bathed in lower ninety degree temperatures with plentiful cues and great flying. On the day before the start of the 1999 World Hang Gliding Championships, it rained here most of the afternoon. Today, the first day, has been called at 9 AM as the clouds are well below launch, with full coverage of high clouds above, and strong winds parallel to launch. At 11:45 AM it begins to rain. Five days in a row of non-flyable conditions here at Monte Cucco.

On Sunday night there was a pilot reception and parade through the center of town at Sigillo. We arrived back from Asissi at around 6 PM to find that the only through street in town had been blocked off in preparation for the festival and parade.

We didn't march until 10 PM, after the parishioners of a local church held their march. While the town is small, and our parade was short, we kept stopping and waiting. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and there were few, if any spectators.

Finally, we approached the central square, and I saw what the problem was. The whole town had come out to greet us and the parade route was squeezed down to single file. As we marched through the central plaza, the town's people, all cheering for each country, mobbed us. It was really moving.

There were speeches by the mayor of Sigillo, and the president of the local region. The Korean ambassador to Italy was there. Then a whole pageant began.

A woman dressed in white robes hung from a rope that came out the bell tower of the municipal building, and danced across the face of the building missing the pigeon spikes. Two women wearing masks and long hooped skirts stood 12 feet tall and moved through the crowd. Two fifteen foot diameter helium balloons painted to represent brother sun and sister moon, carried dancers above the crowd. A light show played on the municipal building's wall.

Photo credits for the last few Oz Reports go to Dave Glover at http://www.1800hangglide.com.

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Arriving at Sigillo »

Mon, Jul 19 1999, 10:00:04 pm GMT

Amy Whitfield|Belinda Boulter|Chris Arai|David "Dave" Sharp|James "Jim" Zeiset|Johann Posch|Paris Williams|Worlds 1999

After enjoying the camaraderie at the beer hall at the LZ of the Alpen Open, we get an hours drive toward Italy, and our eventual destination, Sigillo, a small resort town at the base of Monte Cucco, site of the 1999 Worlds. We heard from Jim Zeiset's report that it looked like a 200-kilometer day at Gnadenwald on Monday.

We finish the drive the next day at around 6 PM and check in at the American team's villa, the Villa Dama, situated across the 5 mile wide valley from Monte Cucco. The view from the pool takes in the length of the valley and gives the guest pilots a good idea of the coming tasks. Later in the evening Jim and Amy join Chris Arai, Dave Sharp, Johann Posch, Belinda, and I here. We expect Jim, Kathie, and Rachael Lee tomorrow. Paris Williams is already setup at the camp ground.

Monte Cucco towers about 3000' above this high valley, rounded and grass covered at the top. It appears that there are launch areas for hundreds of gliders. The wheat and hay fields below have been harvested and they sit golden brown and reassuring to any cross country pilot. The stories about the venturi and turbulence in the narrow valley to the south are true according to Chris, but from here it seems like just an extreme story. Perhaps when the winds kick up, it will be more of a concern.

Nikki Hamilton told us that 26 rigid wing glider pilots are signed up for the worlds.

Pictures will follow.

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British Nationals »

Fri, Jul 9 1999, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|Steve Elkin|Tullio Gervasoni|Worlds

Allan Barnes|Attila Bertok|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Tullio Gervasoni|Worlds

By Jim Bowyer

Day 6

Task set from Tre Pizzi but cancelled on safety grounds after some pilots had taken the first turnpoint.

Day 5 = Task 4

TASK 4

After last night's light show and the accompanying rain we looked forward to some good info from the metfax.  However, it arrived in the usual blurred state with little intelligible information; with the usual help from Tullio Gervasoni we gathered that the wind was going to be northwesterly (actuals were dead west) and that there would be a risk of isolated thunderstorms, which was self evident.  Clouds were punching high and dying back without exploding so a task was definitely on - though we updated frequency info in case a mid-task cancellation was needed.  And were definitely NOT going to go back into the mountains.

The shortest task of the comp was set as a 27 km run to Nocera Umbra in the South followed by 31 km back up to Gubbio and a 13.5 km run back to goal at Villa Scirca; a total of 73 km. The sky improved and the rapid vertical development of clouds became more isolated, it was looking more promising - but cloudbase was not high.  Pilots started launching earlier than usual, presumably to avoid the risk of overdevelopment later and started dribbling away to the south after half hour or so. Even the top pilots were away comparatively early.

Radio traffic soon indicated that crossing the Fabriano gap was not straightforward for everyone and it had its usual appetite for pilots who took chances with it. Others ran into difficulties down at the first turnpoint and there was some attrition there.

The run north to Gubbio presented pilots with a decision to make, whether to head out to the Branca-Gubbio range from the windmills before the gap or to cross the gap and stick with the ridge to Monte Cucco before heading out to the Gubbio range.  The first two pilots through, Gordon Rigg and Attila Bertok chose M. Cucco but got hammered.  They wound up scudding around about 300' above the goalfield before finding some scrappy lift.

After 5 minutes of this Gordon drifted north with his scraps and started to establish himself, Attila stuck closer to the hill and was unfortunate to wind up in the goalfield.  Gordon' scraps developed into 4, 5 and then 6-up and he eventually connected with the clouds in the middle of the valley, which allowed him a sigh of relief and a good run to Gubbio.

He did not hang about there but Allan Barnes was storming along behind and made up time on Gordon over this stretch, Gordon was first into the goalfield with Koji Daimon racing along behind, Allan third in. After a brief respite the goal marshals were busy and the next gaggle produced major disappointment for Jean-Francois Palmarini who took a chance and was unlucky with bad air; he had to abort his glide and land with 150m to go.

Pilots continued to arrive in gaggles of 3-4 or half a dozen and there were eventually 45 (mostly) happy faces in goal.  Even so, there were some unexpected casualties, the three Worlds team reserves, Gary Wirdnam, Steve Elkins and Shaun Kimberley all raced themselves into the deck - presumably trying to prove a point!

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British Nationals at Monte Cucco

Mon, Jul 5 1999, 6:00:02 pm EDT

Allan Barnes|André Wolfe|Betinho Schmitz|Blue Sky|British Nationals 1999|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|Jim Lee|Jim Page|Justin Needham|Kathleen Rigg|Mike Barber|Monte Cucco|Richard Walbec|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing|Worlds 1999

Jim Bowyer reports on the British Nationals:

A good entry - 95 pilots from GB, Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, Denmark,France,Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, the USA and Venezuela.

This will definitely be serious practice for the forthcoming World Championship with the entire French national squad here plus other world class pilots from national teams including Gerard Thevenot, Jim Lee and Mike Barber, Betinho Schmitz and Andre Wolf, Lars Bo Johansen amongst others.

BRITISH NATIONALS - Monte Cucco Day 1

Day 1 dawned with mainly clear skies but some signs of early cumulus over the mountains. After three practice days with the wind on the northeast side of the hill a light breeze from the southeast was very welcome and the task was set from the main Monte Cucco launch.

No met forecast was available but the day looked set to improve from a weak start and a 102 km task was set. The route started off 41 km south to the aerials at Pale di Foligno, 16 kms out west to Assisi and a difficult 32 kms north to Gubbio before the short run back into goal at Villa Scirca.

The sky always looked better well to the south but the launch area and first part of the course was under clear blue and pilots were in no rush to get started. Eventually a few launched and the climb out, although not looking easy initially, improved as the afternoon wore on. As they headed south a large cu-nimb could be seen developing down there; fortunately it was behind the main line of mountains and never really threatened the task. However, many found the conditions down towards the first turnpoint difficult and some failed to climb there to photograph it.

The struggle out to Assisi claimed a few more but the leg from Assisi to Gubbio was always going to be the difficult one and lack of time dictated that pilots had to take the direct route, rather than the longer but probably easier one back to the mountain chain. The lead gaggle developed into two and Justin Needham dropped out to land about 10 km short of Gubbio. The remaining mix of French, Brazilian and British pilots (plus Gerard) pressed on and eventually three could be seen approaching goal.

Allan Barnes was first across the line with Gerard Thevenot and Betinho close behind. A few minutes later a larger gaggle appeared, with a couple of stragglers behind and needing a little more height. Steve Cook and Jean Francois Palmarini led this group in with Steve Elkins, Richard Walbec and others following. Eventually the stragglers made it, Ron Richardson, Jean Francois Gerard and, some 15 minutes later Lars Bo Johansen. It was then 6:15 and the day had pretty much died off at this point leaving Gordon Rigg to land at Gubbio with a feeling of dejavue - he landed in the same field as he had towards the end of last year's pre-Worlds when the day closed down on him at Gubbio.

The start gate timing was by data back camera and provisional timings have shown that Betinho played his usual racing game from behind and made the fastest time, followed by Gerard and Steve Cook. With two Brazilians, four French and four British pilots among the 13 in goal the French team Envoi DuBois lead the team comp and Francoise Mocellin leads the ladies rankings from Kathleen Rigg.

The conditions had not developed quite as well as expected and made the task a challenge. However, with a good quality field to show what is possible a lot of good flying was done and some of the lower ranking British pilots took advantage of the possibilities to show up well in the task results.

Day 2 Report

No met again today so WYSIWYG for task setting. Light southerly wind on the main Monte Cucco launch and blue out front. No met means no info on possible cu-nimbs so stay in front of the ridge. The task was set as a 84 km elapsed time race starting with a 20 km run north to Mt Petrano then back 41 km south to the factory at Colle before racing back to goal at the Monte Cucco south landing.

Despite the blue sky and slow climb outs for the gliders early to launch most pilots soon found booming conditions along the course. There were some minor delays as they returned from the first turnpoint and topped up at Monte Cucco for the run south. Early pilots through were Andy Hollidge and Carl Wallbank who had taken advice to get around the course early and hope to follow the fast guys through some of the sections as they caught up.

However once they had joined up they raced each other and were surprised not to get caught until they were half way to the second turnpoint. Here Gordon and Kathleen Rigg overtook them after getting much better air across the Fabriano gap and arriving above them. Gordon eventually arrived in goal 17minutes before the next pilot - Carl.

From then on the goal marshals had their work cut out to keep track of the packs of gliders racing across the line. Goal was a happy place with well over 70 pilots getting in and results are going to be all about time points. Most of the top pilots had recognized this early on and climb and race was the order of the day.

Risks were taken and the most high profile casualty was Allan Barnes who took a dodgy final glide and decked it just short of goal. Happiest pilots were the lower ranking ones making goal with new league pilot Jim Page hugging his borrowed Laminar and Claudia Mejio last in but almost speechless with excitement at making it for the first time.

Results after 2 tasks

1 66 Richard WALBEC 1,846 Fusion
2 9 Steve COOK 1,775 Topless WC
3 100 Betinho SCHMITZ 1,749 Topless
4 62 Jean-F PALMARINI 1,733
5 89 Gerard THEVENOT 1,708 Topless
6 64 Jean-F GERARD 1,655 Laminar ST
7 7 Ron RICHARDSON 1,655 Cheetah
8 78 Andre WOLF 1,638 Laminar ST
9 2 Gordon RIGG 1,588 Laminar ST2
10 72 Lars Bo JOHANSEN 1,535 Laminar ST
11 56 Koji DAIMON 1,526 Topless
12 55 Jim LEE 1,525 Wills Wing Fusion
26 71 Mike BARBER 1,271 Topless

Full results can be found at;

http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/national/2ndleg.htm

The Worlds - behind the times »

Fri, Jun 25 1999, 4:00:00 am GMT

Manfred Ruhmer|Worlds 1999

I feel like I'm going to a third world country heading into the wilds of central Italy for the 1999 Hang Gliding World Championships at Monte Cucco.. Yes, I realize that that is part (or all) of the charm, but still I have grown so dependent on sophisticated communication technology, that I'm wary of what awaits me.

No only will it be difficult to connect back to the rest of the hang gliding community to report on what's happening, but it appears that the meet isn't up to date on the latest innovations in competition technology. In fact it is quite a bit behind the competitors.

The use of GPS turn point verification has been proven in at least three Australian meets and two US meets over the last 9 months. Competition pilots and meet organizers have raved about this innovation that makes everyone's life so much easier.

Unfortunately, CIVL, the governing body for the Worlds, decided at its last meeting to stick with photo turn point verification. This is really too bad, as those pilots who have been exposed to the new ways will find the old ways so creaky. Manfred Ruhmer in his rumors column mentioned how he would like to see GPS's used at the Worlds (for turn point verification).

Also, there appears to be a rule that may disallow the use of the Automated Pilot Tracking System and the netcast. Now it will be difficult to do the netcast at all, as we are not sure if there is a digipeater anywhere near the site. But to keep pilots from using this simple means of telling their drivers where they are would be most unfortunate.

The Worlds seem to have the least amount of flexibility and innovation of any of the many meets that I've attended. It would appear that the CIVL BOD mechanisms just aren't up to snuff. I truly hope that we can get around these problems and work with the stewards and the meet organizers. My experience in Australia doesn't leave me hopeful, but maybe that was just a case of an extraordinarily bad meet director.

I, of course, have exchanged numerous e-mail messages with CIVL BOD members as well as the organizers. I politely point out these issues and hope for the best. Perhaps if you are a World Team pilot for your country and want to be able to use GPS turn point verification, you can have your team leader bring up this issue. You might take a look at the rules as published on the World's web site (http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html) to see what I'm getting at.

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Manfred's rumors

Thu, Jun 10 1999, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Manfred's rumors

Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|PG|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Worlds 1999

Icaro 2000 has added as new magazine to their web site.  With kudos to the Oz Report, they've decided to take their destiny in their own hands, and get Manfred to give his own opinions about what's what.  You'll find it, as well as a contest to name their first paraglider at their web site http://www/icaro2000.com.

Saskia Cavotta, at Icaro 2000, asked me to put Manfred's first article in the Oz Report:

Introduction

I am about to introduce you to our new initiative, here at Icaro 2000; it consists of a periodically report written by Manfred Ruhmer, about his life and views.  As most of you know, he is presently the best ranked pilot and has been among the best in the world during the ‘90’s. He started flying in 1986 and entered his first international competition in 1989 –World Championships in Fiesch (Switzerland)– where he came in 44th. In 1990, he participated in the European Championships in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia), where he came in 2nd: ever since he has been in the top –during 9 consecutive years.  His perseverance and devotion are admirable.  During the ‘90’s, in the Europeans he has always placed among the first 5 and in the Worlds among the first 10, added to the innumerable competitions, national and international, that he has won.

Manfred is a naturally talented pilot and an incredible individual.

I often talk with him about several flying subjects, he has a lot of knowledge, experiences, opinions and information about hang gliding; therefore, I think it is great that this project intends to share it with you.  I will be collaborating with him and organizing the issues.  I hope you will find this web page appealing and am interested in knowing what you think about it; therefore, looking forward to receiving your suggestions in order to improve it. Since it is an experiment, it is very important to receive lots of feedback.  Besides, this project also gives you the opportunity to write directly to Manfred and ask him about the aspects of hang gliding that most interest you.  Your questions, and their respective answers, will be published because they may be what others would like to know.  It will also help us decide the topics to review.

The aim of this work is to present Manfred’s points of view in a clear way; these are Manfred’s ideas, as mentioned above, and does not mean they are always shared by Icaro 2000.

We will dedicate this first issue to Manfred’s recent trip to the U.S., where he flew 2 competitions and won both of them.

Claudia Lucía Mejía de la Pava

Icaro 2000 – Italy

The Wallaby Ranch Open & the U.S. Nationals 1999.

The Wallaby Ranch Open was held in Florida, from April 18th until April 24th. Many pilots have agreed that it was one of the best meets they have ever attended to, and I am among them.

The facilities were excellent for towing, landing and relaxing, the organization was superb and the weather great!  It was my first time flying in Florida and, even though these flatlands are not like the Australian ones, they are good enough to satisfy demanding pilots.  This competition was very close to being a perfect meet; it has set standards that will be very hard to beat and I am looking forward to the next year’s Open!  Even though I was satisfied and the outcome was totally positive (I even came in first!), there are a couple of comments that I would like to make, which may help improve the meets.

Something I lament from every U.S. meet I have attended to, is the fact that the Americans have been reluctant to adopting the GAP Scoring System.  This is the most suitable scoring system for hang gliding meets, any other system used will not satisfy the needs of the competition nor those of the pilots.  I noticed, for instance, that the lack of the Early Bird Bonus (extra points awarded to the pilots who start the task earlier in compensation for the risks implied by flying in front of the others) and of the Early Arrival Bonus(points awarded to the first pilots in goal), influenced the pilots’ choices.  Such bonuses encourage pilots to start early and try to finish first because you do not need to be the fastest one in order to get them; these extra points may help you climb positions, though.  Without this type of motivation, every pilot waited until the last minute to start; therefore the air was very crowded, increasing the hazard of a mid-air collision.  These are not the only advantages of the GAP system, maybe the most obvious ones, but it is certain that any respectable, mid-size competition must use it.

The organization provided GPS transmitters, which were placed inside the glider’s sail, in order to always know the path flown by the pilots.  This system is commonly used in sail plane competitions.  It was pretty nice to fly with them and, hopefully, they will be used in every decisive competition (i.e. Worlds, Europeans, Air Games…). Scoring may be done much faster since you do not need to wait for picture developing, -only if you want to have a back up camera but these will only be considered in case of problems with the transmitters.  It was even possible to make a live broadcast via internet, of the daily tasks, thanks to these gadgets!  The transmission interval can be set by each pilot, going from intervals of 5 up to 30 seconds, depending on your GPS model.  Intervals of 15-20 seconds are all right as you make the transitions (flying from one thermal to the next one); you must be careful, though, when you want to track your flight around the turnpoint, especially if you are a fast pilot who usually takes the pictures very close to the trunpoints.  It happened to me once that the line traced between the two points, showed by the transmitter, was very close to being out of sector.  I could have lost a lot of points even though I did fly around the turnpoint properly!  The solution to this is either setting the GPS to a 5sec.  interval (which will give you 2.8hrs of recording), or, marking your position as soon as you are in sector.  This is done by pressing "mark" and then "enter" –within 5 seconds–.

The organizers mentioned planning to set a rental service of these devices, it would be interesting to have them during the Worlds!

The WR Open counted with good prize money, which was great and encouraging.  Prize money is a big motivation for pilots and a step forward in getting the sport to be known; hang gliding needs to become a more commercial sport and organizers should be able to sell it as a product in order to get some real sponsorship.  If the WR Open organizers keep up their good work maybe they will be able to make of it a BIG event, with TV coverage, spectators and much more!

Unfortunately, for the U.S. Nationals organizers, this meet was held right after the WR Open (April 25th – May 1st) and, as I said before, the standards set by the WR was very hard to meet.  Anyway the good weather conditions –only 2 days cancelled–, the excellent flying facilities plus the effort of the organizers made it worth flying; the people at Quest Air (another flying ranch in Florida, place where the nationals were held) gave their best to make of the Nationals a good competition, and they succeeded!

I was never really 100% happy with the way the U.S. Nationals I have flown in (’96, ’98, ’99) were run (I was happy to win every time, though). I regret the lack of the GAP Scoring System, mentioned above, and the high costs this competition involves for the participants.  We all know that the United States is huge; therefore, it costs a lot to get to the different places where this competition is held.  The entry fee is extremely high, for a national competition (between 250-350$, while in Europe we pay between 50-150$), plus the films for the main cameras were not always included!  I have never really been thrilled by this competition, my decision to attend relied on marketing convenience and, like this year, how easy it was for me to be there: since I was already there for the WR Open it was quite simple to go to the nationals because Quest Air is very close to the Wallaby Ranch and it was one competition right after the other one.  I must admit it was a good strategy, knowing that a lot of pilots would go to the WR Open the organizers made it easier for them to attend to the nationals too!

I was definitely satisfied with this trip to the U.S., as I said, the only major drawback was the scoring system.  I also mentioned another couple of things which I retain would only help improve the meets.  During these 2½ weeks I spent there, I was able to fly a lot and get to know a new location: the Florida flatlands.  These are not as dry as the Australian ones (which I know well and use as reference); –Florida has lots of swamps, the famous ‘Everglades’–, has somewhat weaker conditions –thermals up to 6-7m/s– and do not offer the opportunity to fly extremely long distances (I doubt being able to break the world dist.  record there). Still these flatlands have good weather conditions, are excellent for x-country flying and for hosting great competitions; moreover, Florida offers the advantage of being flyable during February and March, months that in Europe do not offer conditions to fly good x-country making it even better because meets in Florida will not overlap with the European ones.

United Kingdom World Team

Fri, Jun 4 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|John Fennell|Justin Needham|Kathleen Rigg|Robin Hamilton|Ron Richardson|Steve Elkins|Tim Cook

Jim Bowyer writes:

The first round of the British Nationals was a complete washout, 5 days, no valid tasks and very little flying. But the competitions panel did sit and meditate over team selection for the Worlds - the result:

UK WORLDS TEAM
Allan Barnes
Glider: Laminar ST02
Home Club: Pennines

Born in New Zealand Allan's dedication to competing has seen him climb the British rankings to become British Champion in 1998. Despite his serious accident in St. Andre in 97 in which he broke his leg, Allan made a good enough recovery to fly the worlds in Australia that winter, and followed that with a remarkable performance in the British Championships taking the title by a comfortable margin. Allan is still troubled with his leg injury but even if he must fly with base bar wheels and choose his launch cycle for a bit more facing wind he's still likely to set a fast pace to goal!

Justin Needham
Glider: La Mouette Topless
Home Club: South East Wales

Justin's youthful appearance and attitude hide the fact that he has been around for a long time - a member of "the league" since 1985! That's a couple of years more than Gordon! Justin's turned the commitment up a few notches in the last couple of years and puts a lot of miles in each year driving to where he thinks the weather will be best in Britain, and almost as many on his Topless. Justin will be hoping to fill the space along side his team gold medal from the 1992 European Championships in Norway.

Ron Richardson
Home club: Southern
Glider: Avian Cheeta

After an indifferent performance at our League in Monte Cucco last year Ron slipped out of the top three selection places for the team. Since then Val's allowed him an overdraft on the Brownie points! Placing second highest Brit at the pre worlds was followed by good performances in Australia, Venezuela, and Bassano. He'll certainly be a familiar face to the other world's competitors, even if his wife has trouble recognizing him at the moment!

Robin Hamilton
Home club: either Aberdeen or New Orleans!
Glider: Laminar ST

Robin has racked up the air miles to come back to Europe for the foreign league meet ever since his job in oil exploration took him Stateside. He's the longest serving member of our world's team, and he's got the team medals to prove it. He was also the highest placed Brit in the last worlds in Australia. Robin's been doing some competitions in the Americas recently placing third in last years US nationals and winning a meeting in Mexico.

Steve Cook
Home Club: Southern
Glider: La Mouette Topless

"Cooky" was our highest placed pilot at last years Europeans in Slovakia. Despite a set back in last years League when he had a lucky escape after a mid air, Steve was right back on the pace just a few days later. After an extended winter trip to South Africa Steve has already put some miles in off the Dyke. Steve is the acknowledged low save kid and often gets back up from the sort of height where others are preparing to flare!

Gordon Rigg
Home club: Derbyshire
Glider: Laminar ST02

Thinking about it, it seems I've done 4 category one team comps now which makes me the longest serving team member not to have any medals! I'm looking to balance my side of the mantelpiece as Kathleen's got a truck load of gongs from Women's Worlds!

John Fennell Team Manager
Home Club: Thames valley
Glider: Xtralite

John was British Team Manager at the first ever Monte Cucco international competition. He's found time from his latest occupation (delivery driver of obscenely fast sports cars) to take some of the administration work load off our pilots. The team manager's job is an essential one - making sure we all have all the information from the briefings, checking we've not been diddled out of any points, opening the cold beers for us at goal etc!

Waiting in the wings…

1st reserve Shaun Kimberley
2nd reserve Gary Wirdnam
3rd reserve Steve Elkins
sorry!… I fully intend to stay in one piece this time lads…

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First combined FAI 1 + FAI 2 hang gliding competition in Europe

Fri, Jun 4 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

A.I.R.|Bernd Weber|Bob Baier|Christof Kratzner|Guido Gehrmann|Hans Bausenwein|Jos Guggenmos|Lukas Etz|Martin Henry|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Ralf Miederhoff|Rosi Brams|Worlds 1999

by Hans Bausenwein

The German Hang Gliding League meet from 22nd of May to 30thof May was the first real European competition, where flex wings and rigid wings flew against each other.

The first task was launched from Hochfelln, a mountain in the south-east of Germany, famous for it's XC-potential. The transport up to the top was by a two section cable car, that only had the capacity to transport 5 flex wings or two rigids at a time. This was the main reason, why the competition was moved to another site after just one task. The rigid wing pilots were just complaining too much about the lack of easy transport.

Task no. 1 was a 93 km flat triangle with only 5 pilots out of the 55 competitors at goal.

There were 8 rigid wings and 47 flex wings in the competition. The rigid wings were 3 ATOS, 2 Guggenmos E 7, 2 Exxtacy and 1 Ghostbuster. Among the 47 flex wing glider were only 3 king posted gliders. The task wasn't a very valid one since 17 of the pilots, which were on the course early, had to land after only 15 km, among them half of the rigid wing field. Christof Kratzner on his first thermal flight with the ATOS was winning the task for the rigids, with Bernd Weber, managing director of A.I.R., coming second on his ATOS. Bob Baier on his Laminar ST was the overall winner of the task and with 3:25 hrs. almost one hour faster than Christof.

In spite of the Bob's brilliant result it was obvious, that the flex wings had no chance to keep-up with the "stiffies". Therefore it was decided to run two separate scores for the "flexxies" and the "stiffies". This is why I cannot give you a combined results list.

We moved to Zell am See in Austria. Schmittenhöhe was our launch site for the next three tasks. And what amazing tasks these were going to be! Schmittenhöhe is 2000m asl, 1250m above the wide open valley floor with spectacular views to the main range of the eastern Alps, called "Hohe Tauern". Jo Bathmann has launched his 205 km World Record FAI-triangle from there. Transport for gliders was easy, but expensive in a big cable car with ⅓ of each glider sticking out of the window. Launching is possible to any direction. There is enough space to rig hundreds of gliders at a time.

The 2ndtask was a flat triangle with 70 km. The day was under called because it appeared to be too wet in the beginning because of the thunderstorms on the previous day. It was a race to goal with 34 "flexxies" and all 8 rigids in goal. Christof Kratzner was winning again with 48,6 km/h and Bob Baier in the flex wing class with 44,27 closely followed by Hans Bausenwein..Christof's and Hans' times showed a difference of 15%. Both pilots had very similar performances during the past years. Later tasks showed a similar difference between the ATOS and a well tuned Laminar ST, which can be understood as the performance difference of these two gliders. The E7's and Christian müller on an Exxtacy, that was Felix Rühle's private one (which tells me, that it certainly is very well tuned) showed similar performances, less than the ATOS. Christian müller is a paraglider competition pilot, who hasn't flown hang gliders for 6 years and just started to fly his Exxtacy.

Task no. 3 was the biggest closed circuit task ever set in a hang gliding competition, a 210 km flat triangle, set along the race course of the "Pinzgauer Spaziergang" (Pinzgau walk). Christof Kratzner was smoking (he really smokes in flight) down the course on his ATOS and again winning with an amazing 46,4 km/h average. 7 of the 8 rigid wing gliders made goal and 11 of the 47 "flexxies". Jobst Bäumer was winning the flex wing competition with an as well amazing average speed of 42,95 km/h.

Task no. 4, the last task of this competition, to me seems to be a valid task to look at the performance differences of rigid wings and flex wings again. The task was a 106 km FAI-triangle followed by an add-on part of 24 km, total task distance 130 km. Very consistent conditions over the whole task and flying time. The task was set to beat the existing speed over a 100km FAI triangle world record, set by Martin Henry from Canada on 22-07-98 with an average speed of 34,81 km/h (FAI 1).

Again all 8 rigid wings made goal again and 18 of the flex wings. Christof Kratzner on his ATOS (who else?) was winning again averaging 42,47 km/h, best flex wing pilot was Jobst Bäumer with 37,96 km/h closely followed by Oliver Barthelmes and Hans Bausenwein. Jobst's average over the course of the triangle was 35,62 km/h, so he claimed a new World Record, as well as Rosi Brams (29,22 km/h) in the feminine category. Christof and Hans did not have their barographs turned on.

The next day, after the comp was over, Hans went up again to beat Jobst's World Record of the previous day with all the documentation well prepared and an official ÖAeC observer at site he managed to fly the course all by himself averaging 36,43 km/h, a new World Record.

So let's look at performances again:

Christof Kratzner ATOS: 42,47 km/h
Hans Bausenwein Laminar ST: 37,46 km/h
Christian müller (Felix Rühles Exxtacy): 38,01 km/h (second fastest time of the day)
Kurt Schuhmann E 7: 37,55 km/h

The result shows a performance difference between Hans' and Christof's gliders

(Christof and I are convinced it is the gliders and not the pilots) of appr. 14%. If the Laminar has a glide ratio in between 14 and 15 than the glide ratio of the ATOS can be calculated to be in between 16 and 17. Many of my friends, who fly hang gliding competitions agree, that the performance of a good Laminar ST is in between 14 and 15. Flying next to Christof's ATOS even lets me believe the performance difference is bigger, than what I unscientifically calculated. The performance of the E 7 is similar to a very well tuned Exxtacy and somewhere in between the ATOS and the Laminar ST, but closer to the ATOS. This was also what I could see when I watched Bernd Weber on his ATOS and Kurt Schuhmann on his E 7 doing a long valley crossing together.

So what about the Ghostbuster? Lukas Etz did not seem to do too well with it. He only flew it in the first two of the 4 tasks. The glider suffered by some transport damage and Lukas did not dare to continue to fly it anymore. He changed to an Exxtacy. I also would not want to evaluate the performance of this Ghostbuster. It was the first one made, the one which was presented at the FREE FLIGHT exhibition mid of April in Garmisch and it looked pretty prototypish too me.

German Hang Gliding League 99 FAI 2 total scores

position pilot's name glider task 1 task 2 task 3 task 4 points
1 Kratzner Christof Atos 575 617 940 774 2906
2 Weber Bernd Atos 548 454 557 473 2032
3 Guggenmos Josef Guggenmos E 7 303 423 754 458 1938
4 Hoffmann-Guben Marcus Atos 107 433 681 605 1826
5 Schumann Kurt Guggenmos E 7 107 406 651 541 1705
6 Etz Lukas Ghostbuster 100 422 615 505 1642
7 müller Christian Exxtacy DNS 363 646 572 1581
8 müglich Dieter Exxtasy 107 114 229 463 913

The first four pilots of this list will be the German Hang Gliding National Team FAI 2 for the 1999 World Championships at Monte Cucco Italy.

German League 99 FAI 1 total scores

position name 1.task 2.task. 3.task 4.task 5.task 6.task points
1 Baier Bob 636 294 443 710 830 812 3725
2 Baeumer Jobst 828 197 374 128 941 932 3400
3 Barthelmes Oliver 591 195 118 553 826 910 3193
4 Bausenwein Hans 560 155 118 640 817 888 3178
5 Bolz Holger 616 195 DNS 631 895 674 3011
6 Woll Gerald 479 168 118 606 835 681 2887
7 Kausche Peter 502 160 251 527 794 437 2671
8 Miederhoff Ralf 497 146 353 425 584 593 2598
9 Rauch Thomas 417 154 202 498 566 756 2593
10 Hertling Steffen 458 109 199 451 702 666 2585

As by 30-05-99, the German National Team FAI 1 for the Hang Gliding World Championships 1999 at Monte Cucco in Italy will be:

1. Guido Gehrmann, La Mouette Topless

(the current World Champion, who could not fly the League this year, because he is trainee Lufthansa pilot)

2. Bob Baier, Icaro Laminar ST
3. Jobst Bäumer, Aeros Stealth
4. Hans Bausenwein, Icaro Laminar ST
5. Gerald Woll, Icaro Laminar ST
6. Oliver Barthelmes, Moyes CSX 5

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Worlds? »

Mon, May 3 1999, 3:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

I found the following at the World's web site:

We regret to inform you that as the World Championship tasks assignment has been delayed, we are not in a position to supply anyone with further information regarding registrations, invitations and references.

Therefore, we suggest all the teams, which intend to take part in the Championship, to contact Mr. Vittorio Zardo (Aeroclub d'Italia General Manager) fax no. ++39.06.519.57.034 phone no. ++39.06.519.59.760 in order to receive specific information.

We will inform you on our web-site, as soon as the AEROCLUB will decide about who will be concerned in the practical organization of the Championship, and who will be the people in charge for it.

We apologize for the inconvenience, which is due to the "well-known" bureaucracy of the Aeroclub d'Italia, the unique Italian Deputy by the FAI.

http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html

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Northern California aerotowing clinics

Mon, May 3 1999, 4:00:02 am GMT

Dragonfly|Moyes America|USHGA|Vicki Cain

Vicki at Moyes in Australia sent me the following notice:

Moyes America will be hosting a two weekend tow clinic June 4-14 to introduce aerotowing to the pilots of Northern California and to demonstrate the feasibility of the establishment of a Dragonfly Tow Club in the area. We have been invited to utilize the beautiful facilities of Jim and Connie Indredo, Crazy Creek Soaring, 3 miles North of Middletown California. 'Hungary' Joe Sazarli will be providing the Dragonfly and Aerotow seminar material.

All current USHGA member, hang 3 pilots are welcome to attend. The registration fee for the two day clinic is $250. Attending pilots receive two complete days of Aerotow instruction, 5 slow climb tows (to maximize tow time) to 2500', use of glider, all tow equipment, site use for two days one night, two soda-pop tickets and tons of fun.

Tow clinics are limited to six pilots. Each day start promptly at 7 AM with a mandatory Ground School. Clinics are scheduled for the following dates. June 4-5, June 6-7, June 8-9, June 10-11, and June 12-13. Dates subject to change with notification.

All pilots are welcome to drop in for a look and aerotow rated pilots are encouraged to tow up for a flight behind Hungary Joe's Dragonfly from the beautiful Crazy Creek Gliderport. First tow is 25$ (covers site use fee and tow to 1500') all subsequent tows are $15 to 1500', $20 to 2500'. Onsite camping is available for $10 per night, per car.

Send the $250 clinic registration fee to Moyes America 1795 40th Ave SF CA 94122. Include your name, address, phone #, email address, USHGA #, hang rating and desired clinic dates with second choice. A package of study info and local area info will be sent upon receipt of registration fee. Cancellations after May 31, 1999 will incur a $50cancelation fee.

A Dragonfly Tow Club Party will be hosted by Moyes America June 12. Pilots, friends and family are invited for an afternoon of flying, eating and late night BS sessions.

<flyamoyes@aol.com>

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The Oz Report at the Worlds

Mon, May 3 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Worlds 1999

It looks like the Oz Report will be going to the 1999 Worlds in Monte Cucco, Italy. They'll take place the end of July and the first week of August. We'll know for sure within a few weeks.

The US is sending a ten person team (6 Class I pilots, and 4 Class II pilots). We are still checking to be sure that there will be enough countries (4) at the Worlds to hold a valid World meet in Class II. Germany and the US are definitely committed to going. We are hoping for Switzerland and Austria at least. Please encourage your country to send at least one rigid wing pilot to the Worlds.

The Worlds last for three weeks, with one week for practice and two weeks of competition. This means I won't be able to cover the Canadian Nationals personally, but I hope to have a correspondent there.

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The sky opens up

Sat, May 1 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|James "Jim" Zeiset|Jim Lee|Mike Barber|William "Gary" Osoba jr.

Like the previous day, the clouds are low and the sky is dark The winds are out of the north at about ten mph and predicted to get stronger (up to 25 mph). On the other hand, Gary Osoba, up in Kansas, is reading the satellite temperature soundings for Orlando and is predicting that the normal post frontal high pressure progression could occur rapidly enough so that the clouds would clear in the afternoon. The satellite photos show thin clouds covering the state.

The lift is predicted to be moderate, but all the water in the ground should dampen it more than the forecast predicts. It seems like there won't be any lift at all as there is no sunshine. Allan Barnes, who lives in England, seems quite at home.

Most pilots assume that the meet is over, but based on Gary's prediction, the task committee calls a task and hopes for the best.

Slowly we assemble at the south end of the runway. A few wind dummies are sent aloft and they are able to stay up for a while under the complete cloud cover. Cloud base is about 2500'.

The last start time is 2:30 PM and as 2 PM approaches, a few pilots take off and are able to stay up. After I get off tow, I find that there are indeed light thermals, and in fact, the problem becomes staying out of the clouds at 2700'. There are no edges to run to if you get pulled up into them (actually pretty unlikely in the weak lift). Still, if you are not struggling to stay out of the clouds, you are struggling to stay up.

The task that has been called is a repeat of the previous task (people loved the landing zone). We are to go past the south start gate one and a half miles south of Quest Air, keep to the west of a turnpoint at the intersection I4 and 547, and land at Chalet Suzanne about 45 miles to the south.

As we drift climbing very slowly past the start gate, the sky begins to open up. Cloud base doesn't rise at first, but there are sunny spots under the clouds. I get a late start at 2:45 PM, so I'm a bit behind, but there are lots of thermal markers in front. There are also lots of non-thermal markers on the ground.

I soon hook up with four other Exxtacies and an E-7 (Jim Zeiset got it for the last day of the meet) and we help each other through the hard parts. The wind is blowing at about 17 mph out of the north-northwest. In spite of the winds, the thermals are smooth and coherent, if weak. We top out everything at cloud base and then move to the next cloud.

As on our previous run to Chalet Suzanne, the day improves as we get further into it. Cloud base rises to over 3500'. There are plenty of clouds, but they are much more widely spaced, so that there is plenty of sun on the ground. Getting to goal turns from a game of survival into a race.

Twenty-three pilots make goal. Everyone is very excited about the day as it started with such poor prospects and ended up so well. Flying in Florida can be pretty amazing.

The results for the meet changed a little from what I've already reported in the last Oz Report based on the results of the last day. Jim Lee edged out Mike Barber by 7 points (after being 102 points behind him) for National Class I Champion. The Europeans (including the Ukraine) and Brazilians kicked butt in Class I.

The final results should be up soon at http://www.justfly.com/natscore.htm.

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An idealist's lament

Thu, Apr 29 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

James Freeman|Oz Report

I've received quite a few e-mail messages over the last two weeks expressing support and appreciation for the Oz Report. I've responded to all my correspondents, telling everyone how much I appreciate their support, and how important it is to me.

That doesn't mean that everyone who writes in with appreciation agrees with me, often they don't, it's just that they appreciate getting the news (and opinion) that the Oz Report provides.

Being in the e-zine business is not the best way to win friends among those individuals and institutions about whom one writes critical material. All of us would like to hear good things about all the hard work that we do to help our sport and improve the lives of others. But, sometimes these efforts fall short.

Part of the mission of the Oz Report is to report on what is actually happening in hang gliding and at hang gliding competitions to a wider audience than just those in attendance. I have an obligation to everyone else to do my best to report the "truth" as best I can. Sometimes that "truth" doesn't feel good, or like the "truth" to others.

It is a part of human nature that people will make a better effort if they feel that a larger audience (in particular an audience that they wish to appeal to) is paying attention to their actions. The Oz Report plays a part in letting meet organizers and flight park operators know, that lots of potential customers are paying attention to just what is going on.

I've been reporting on a few problems that have occurred at Quest Air during the US Nationals and how they contrast with the lack of such problems at Wallaby Ranch during the Wallaby Open. I didn't make up the problems, they happened to me and lots of other folks. I'm quite sure that the proprietors at Quest Air would rather that I neglected to mention certain things.

This doesn't mean that I don't like being at Quest Air or being at the US Nationals. In fact, I'm loving it there and really like Quest Air. It's got a great big field. It's got powerful tugs. It's got lots of volunteers helping out. It's got a cool pilot meeting room in the shade with screened in walls. It's got a nice pool that is also screened in.

I'd much rather be flying the US Nationals at Quest Air than almost any other place in the US. They serve meals. They provide shows. They have a beautiful grassy field and a nice set up area. There are chairs to sit on during the pilot meetings. People seem pretty darn pleased all around. The Redwing restaurant, my favorite in Florida, is right down the road.

So I wanted to put my critical comments in perspective. Relative to almost any other place, Quest Air is very cool. I would suggest that pilots make their own weak links (which, btw, James Freeman suggested in the last Oz Report), that they make those weak links recognizing the more powerful tugs that they use at Quest, that they set up to launch into a head wind, and that they attach their weak links to their releases themselves.

I certainly hope that we do more competitions in Florida and at Quest Air. So far it's been great fun, even with the relatively poor weather (a bit above average for a competition). Flying in Florida provides a wonderful experience for competition pilots, and if competitions are going to be successful, that is what we need.

Florida is a place that can test pilot skills without scaring them half to death. There is always a place to land if the weather gets extreme (which it can). There are no mountains to cause the winds or the thermals to become excessively nasty. No one is going to tumble in tailless aircraft Florida.

Florida has a number of "flight parks." It is great that there is a bit of competition among them, because that makes it better for all of us pilots. We can go to the park that we feel most comfortable at. The parks are looking over their shoulders checking out just what the other ones are offering. Couldn't be better for us average pilots.

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Did I mention rain?

Tue, Apr 27 1999, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Quest Air|sailplane|weather

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Quest Air|sailplane|weather

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Quest Air|sailplane|weather

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Quest Air|Ryan Glover|sailplane|weather

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Quest Air|Ryan Glover|sailplane|weather

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Ryan Glover|sailplane|weather

Allan Barnes|Belinda Boulter|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Ryan Glover|sailplane|weather

With Gary Osoba's much needed help I again predicted the weather for the day.  Gary was warning me that there was a very high change of over development and rain.  Ooh, was that an understatement.  Here’s what he wrote after I told him what happened yesterday:

I wondered about those increasing WSW winds into the afternoon and what effect they would have.  I think the real killer is the highly humid lower air mass moved in and mixed with the very warm intrusion which became explosive.

I wondered about over development after taking a second look at things...I hesitated to mention it because I'm not experienced with weather matters down there and hadn't heard anything of the sort from the Wallaby Open reports.

Sounds like the thunderstorm feed really accelerated the winds and blanked you out.

Looks worse to me for today by far.  Convergence line setting up in lower winds, lots of humidity, unstable with low pressure parked there.  Low cloud base lowering in the areas where all the stuff starts happening.

The temperature sounding indicates that the lift will be quite strong.  The weather service forecast is for thunderstorms and a convergence line east of Lake Apopca (to the east of us) from the on-shore flow from the east.  There is lots of humidity in the air (fog and low clouds in the morning) and plenty of cumulus development.  There is a wind out of the west southwest at 10 mph

It sure looks like the day could explode.  The task committee calls a short out and return with an early last start time of 1:30 PM (instead of 2:30 PM, like the previous day). The task is 36 miles, south to 33 and Dean Still and back.

While we get ready to launch, the start gate time is set back a half hour because there is a nice blue hole over the field.  It looks for a moment that things won't quite be as bad as forecast.

I get ready to get going early (and then have to wait after the start gate is set back). Coincidentally, I'm in line behind Manfred and take off at 12:50 AM. Behind the turbo tug the climb is fast, but pretty uncomfortable as I'm pulling in all the time.  I guess I just don't get the appeal of these things.

There is a small gaggle going up right over the field, and we all climb out to cloud base which starts low at about 4,000', but we find other clouds to the west of the start gate with a bit higher cloud bases.

I follow Manfred around for a few minutes then head off further west up wind.  He pulls a fast one and gets the start gate with Johann Posch and another flex wing at 1:15 PM. The guy obviously thinks that the day will be cut short.  He went out early on the first day and paid for it with a slower time.  We'll see if he is able to make it a winning strategy today.

Thirty other pilots mill around the start gate in order to get the 1:30 start time.  If we take it, it will be the first time that the main gaggle has gone on course early.

At 1:30 we indeed do go on course with about twenty pilots.  I can see pilots out in front of us turning and we are getting good lift three miles south of the start gate.  We're packed tight and climbing.  At cloud base as we begin to mist out, we are off to the races.

The clouds split open and there is a big blue hole on course line, with dark clouds and a bit of rain to the west and south west – downwind.  Suddenly, half or more than half the field turns around 4 miles past the start gate and heads back to get a later start time.  I call Belinda and ask her if the day has been called off.  She has just reported the light rain ahead, and I just couldn't believe that everyone would turn around unless the day was called off.

I keep going and Belinda is unable to get through to G.W, on the meet frequency from the ground, so I assume that the other pilots are either nuts or they know something I don't.

Manfred's out ahead of everyone.  Johann is turning over Ryan Glover and another flex wing pilot just east of the intersection of 474 and 33. We get a slow climb out to 4,500', and head to the clouds to the west 5 miles south on 33. We're not seeing too many pilots out on course, and the one's we do see are low.

Ryan, Johann, and I climb out over a large sunny patch on the west side of the cloud street and I leave for the turnpoint early and first.  Ryan and Johann hold on and climb to cloud base, while I neglect to find any lift and get down to 850' just north of the turnpoint, before I find a tight core over a burned out area.  Ryan streaks toward the turnpoint while I climb out to cloud base with Johann.  We make the turnpoint just before Mike Barber.

Coming back we've got a tail wind, and it's sweet.  Five miles north of the turnpoint, we find a nice cloud that is populated with the 1:45 or 2 PM crowd heading toward the turnpoint.  We had passed Dave Sharp a bit early heading douth toward the turnpoint way below.  Manfred is still five miles ahead.

While we get some lift it turns out to be pretty weak and this further turns out to be our story for the ride back to Quest.  Johann and I go into search mode and creep along two miles west of 33 north of the sailplane port, looking for lift.  We work anything we can find just to stay in the air.  We see two flex wing pilots at 2,500', 500' over us to the west working up, but we have to stick with our zero and move north.  They will later make goal on a glidefrom where we spotted them.

The winds have increased and are now coming out of the south east.  We took a west course line in order to be upwind of the goal, and we are now downwind and low.  We hang on to zero or light sink until we come over the last field that we can safely land in before a broad area of trees just before goal.  We put in a mile west of 33 and 2 miles from goal.

Five flex wing pilots make goal.  Tony Marty and Oleg Bondarchuck come in last, but Tony wins the day because he started so late.  David Glover describes them coming in through a gray sheet of rain crabbing their way to goal, while three gliders on the ground are being flipped over and the tugs that are tied down are having their wing tips pushed to the ground.

In addition to Tony and Oleg, Allan Barnes comes in second, Manfred fourth (first to goal), Ryan Glover (I should have stayed with him), and Mike Barber (local boy makes good).

Johann and I win the day for Class II gliders, with Ramy, Jim Zeiset, Mark Mullhullond, and Dave Sharp finishing behind us. As soon as Johann and I land, the rain hits hard, or at least it seems pretty hard.  We hid under our gliders a mile behind a locked gate and wait for the storm to pass.

I walk out to take apart the gate and foolishly leave my vario and other electronic equipment, stuffed inside my harness, under the glider, which is resting on the ground.  As I get to the gate, the real rain begins.  We get over 3 ¼ inches in about an hour.  When I get back to my glider, all the electronic equipment is thoroughly soaked.  I'm not feeling too smart.

I don't have the full results because I left Quest Air for Wallaby before the final tally.  I hope to put up the results from the first three tasks on my web site tomorrow.  G.W. is without web access so they aren't up on his site, at least not yet.

The netcast seems to be working better, although there were a few problems with the choosing the right gif file.  The vector map is working.

The live Oz Report on the air and in the air may return by Friday.  I've had a volunteer.  Check the hang gliding mailing list.

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Dave Sharp's ATOS report

Tue, Apr 20 1999, 4:00:04 am GMT

ATOS|David "Dave" Sharp|Exxtacy|George Ferris|Peter Radman|Wallaby Open 1999

Dave Sharp is flying the ATOS in the Wallaby Open. He also works for Altair, the US distributor. He previously was the US factory pilot for the Exxtacy. He both flies the ATOS as a job and represents the ATOS throughout the US.

Here is his report on his experience so far:

So I've been holding off just a bit to tell everyone about this awesome new wing. I wanted to at least get some air time before hand. I can happily report that it should more than meet everyone's expectations.

We managed to get the Atos cleared from customs a day before the meet started. I was down in Miami at 10pm pried open the beefy wood box and found everything in tact with no damage with only one problem NO Sail ?.

I drove back to Quest to crash for the night, (2:30 am)

Saturday morning I met up with Peter Radman we both left for the Ranch right away hoping and praying Felix who arrived that night would have the sail. He did and we assembled the Atos at Quest in a hanger out of the pouring rain.

Felix test flew it, then I got to fly. Next George Ferris who drove 1200 miles just to check it out got to take her for a ride. I've been flying the Atos now for 3 days and have about 10 hours.

First the glider is really 73 pounds, The Carbon Fiber work is very slick. Felix uses a little different carbon fiber fabric on the D-tube the result is lighter and stronger and easier to work on.

The Atos is a foot or so shorter in pack down than similar wings. First you insert a foot long section of 7075 with a carbon fiber rib attached to it then you insert a fiberglass wand that plugs into a delron fitting.

The ribs swing out but stay internal and Felix has designed a very clever and simple pinky size cam that you can tension with the flick of a finger.

The spoilers and flaps attach directly to the sail with Velcro, no spoiler or flap sleeves. At first I did not like the idea of having to peel them on and off BUT you don't have to THEY STAY ON. You just fold over the sail and they lay on top of the glider, VERY NICE.

The sail work is very clean no proto type here !. The aspect ratios is incredible 12:1 and must be the sexiest hang glider out there.

Flying : off the cart it tracks very well with good pitch feed back. The control bar is several inches closer than what I was used to which I like as opposed to way out in front of my helmet. Bar Pressure is a little more than my last glider but I had no problem going 70 mph.Roll is slightly different , a sharp input will give a quicker roll when desired but normal type Exxtacy like handling can be expected.

Stall speed is a mile or two higher, and the glide is a little better with flaps on but still much less than a high performance hang glider. Flare feel is the same but is much lighter when you do the final push out. Glide is about what is claimed, I am consistently seeing a steady walk away from last years rigid wing models. Sink rate is the same but every day I'm getting more dialed into and finding my self on top more often.

In a few week I will be going up to Altair and we will be making an on line manual to show more details. Look for it on the Altair web page.

I have lots of photos of the ATOS , and will be publishing them soon. Even photographic evidence of the weight – 73 pounds.

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Wallaby Open results

Mon, Apr 19 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999

Class II

This is my guess as to the results of day two. The preliminary results given to me by the scorekeepers appear to have a number of errors.

Dave Sharp
Felix Ruhle
Mark Gibson
Davis Straub
Jim Zeiset

Cumulative:

Mark Gibson
Dave Sharp
Davis Straub
Felix Ruhle
Brian Porter

Class I:

Oleg Bondarchuck
Jim Lee
Andre Wolf
Manfred Ruhmer
Dustin Martin
Allan Barnes
Ryan Glover
Sandy Dittmar
Kari Castle
Mike Barber

Cumulative:

Manfred Ruhmer
Oleg Bondarchuck
Jim Lee
Dustin Martin
Kraig Coomber
Ryan Glover
Kari Castle
Mike Barber
Sandy Dittmar
Paris Williams

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Practice day for Wallaby Open rained out

Sat, Apr 17 1999, 4:00:00 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|weather

It has finally rained in central Florida after more than three months of drought. We have had only one day of rain since we arrived here in mid-January. Forest fires were breaking out over the last few weeks, some destroying homes. Sun 'n Fun, the big air show in Lakeland, FL, just 30 miles from here, was partially evacuated on Wednesday due to a fast moving fire that threatened them from the west.

It has rained here at Wallaby Ranch about 2 inches in the last hour, and we are on the southern edge of the rain clouds as shown below:

Over most of the United States the skies are clear, but when we get to Florida, the radar and satellite photos show a much different story:

Those of us who have been here for a while are celebrating the rains, and look forward to getting rid of the haze which built up a bit over the last week. We expect slower going the next few days with the wetter ground, but with light northwest winds, we should be flying toward the drier areas.

The rains stop in the afternoon and a number of test flights are taken before dusk.

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Watch the race at home or work

Fri, Apr 16 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

The Wallaby Open and the Nationals will be netcast live, so that you will be able to track the race (at least the top five pilots and maybe the top fifteen). While the web site won't be active until Sunday afternoon (Eastern Daylight Savings time, which is 4 hours ahead of Zulu time), you can check it out in advance. You'll find it at http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen.

We are hoping that all the glider manufacturers tune in on their computers to see how their boys (and girls) are doing. Of course, the race results will also be published every day at the same site.

Please tell other people about this live netcast and have them tune in to see what is going on. It won't be the be all and end all of live hang gliding competition coverage, but it will be a start.

Also enter the contest at http://www.1800hangglide.com to win a Flytec vario. If you have read previous issues of the Oz report, you should have a pretty good idea of who will place well in the Class I category.

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One slot left for the Wallaby Open

Tue, Apr 6 1999, 4:00:03 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999

There is only one slot left available for the Wallaby Open. Apparently the Nationals are just about completely full also. Here’s whose coming to the Wallaby Open:

1. Zweykmeyer, Josef
2. Wolfgang (Austria)
3. Alden, John
4. Arai, Chris
5. Barber, Mike
6. Bezenover, Jose
7. Bolt, Mark
8. Bowen, Campbell
9. Cameron, Patty
10. Castle, Kari
11. Coomber, Craig
12. Cutts, Buddy
13. Davis, Gary
14. de Silva, Francisco
15. Funk, Dean
16. Furrer, Vince
17. Gibson, Mark "Gibbo"
18. Glennon, Mike
19. Glover, Ryan
20. Goodman, Bubba
21. Gotez, Rudy
22. Hagewood, Bo
23. Hamilton, Robin
24. Hildebrand, Judy
25. Jaramillo, Nicolas
26. Kendall, Greg
27. Kennedy, Nick
28. Lee, Jim
29. Martin, Dusty
30. Mulholland, Mark
31. Pagen, Claire
32. Pagen, Dennis
33. Porter, Brian
34. Posche, Johann
35. Rhumer, Manfred
36. Rizo, Carlos
37. Rizo, Luis
38. Rogers, Tip
39. Rossignol, Jerz
40. Rowleski, Steve
41. Ruhle, Felix
42. Sayer, Wayne
43. Scarli, Reto
44. Schmit, Betinho
45. Sharp, Dave
46. Shipley, Mitch
47. Simmons, Jack
48. Smith, Nancy
49. Straub, Davis
50. Thevenot, Gerard
51. Volk, Glen
52. Welch, Peter
53. Williams, Paris
54. Wolf, Andre
55. Yocom, James
56. Zeiset, Jim
57. Meier, James
58. Warren, Steve
59. Bondarchuck, Oleg
60. Nenno

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Getting ready to come to ⁢Wallaby »

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|Patty Cameron|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|Patty Cameron|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

If you are coming to the Wallaby Open on April 18th, or just to the Ranch in general, you should be prepared to really enjoy your time here. The Ranch is a bit big and its great to have a bicycle to get around from the pole barn/kitchen to the hangers and over to your trailer or tent. If you have a bicycle, bring it with you.

One custom mod that will make life just that much better, is to equip your bicycle (for the time you are here) with comfort pedals. Comfort pedals let you bicycle in the nude (at least as far as your feet are concerned).

Here’s a shot of the feet on comfort pedals, and the pedals themselves. Just $6.95 a pair.

There is a full-scale kitchen and restaurant (pole barn) at the Ranch now. Currently two meals a day are served, but there will be three meals served each day during the Wallaby Open (hopefully pilots will miss lunch).

Jeremy, the Ranch chef, now has two assistants, in order to handle the big load coming up. Meals are by donation. It is hoped and expected that you will like the meals enough to pay $5.00 per person per meal. You can pay any time and will be asked when you check out what you think that you owe for meals.

This arrangement is extraordinary, and it relies on people appreciating the food (which is great, by the way) and pitching in to pay for it. The kitchen is handling up to 40 meals a day now and will be doing more soon. Jeremy goes out and buys food in $500 chunks.

I sometimes get the feeling that Malcolm is not running the Ranch as a business and that he just enjoys feeding people and making sure that they have a good time. Please help out if you want to eat here.

Those of us on site are practicing for the upcoming meets by flying proposed triangles and out and return tasks (unless it looks like a record day). Today Patty Cameron had her best flight ever, a 50 mile triangle from Wallaby to Clermont, Quest and back. Here’s a shot of Mike Barber up close as we head back for the Ranch after making it to Gator, Quest and back.

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Wallaby Open turnpoints – the list

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:05 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|waypoints

You can cut and paste the following lines (starting with Datum) into a text file on your computer and use Waypoint+ to open and read the file and then upload it into your Garmin.

Datum,WGS84,WGS84,0,0,0,0,0
WP,DM,LEEWAR, 29.050640108, -82.0193299942,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,COLEMA, 28.486730014, -82.0391101122,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,471-50, 28.333120054, -82.0328300215,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,17-92 , 28.063740003, -81.3868000746,03/21/1999,13:04:51,RYAN
WP,DM,27-192, 28.208361578, -81.4044029262,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:30
WP,DM,27-474, 28.222172809, -81.4103059318,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:39
WP,DM,27-544, 28.048497629, -81.3898224380,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:18
WP,DM,27-547, 28.094685268, -81.3840256479,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:46
WP,DM,27-I4 , 28.140158367, -81.3903921392,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:57
WP,DM,33-474, 28.225761604, -81.4940069463,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:55
WP,DM,33-DS , 28.155086470, -81.4949950721,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 19:54
WP,DM,471-98, 28.148938847, -82.0334356811,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 17:55
WP,DM,557-I4, 28.109400940, -81.4464867856,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 17:14
WP,DM,AVON , 27.354959893, -81.3165884759,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:4!
WP,DM,BOK , 27.561079978, -81.3467200264,03/21/1999,13:04:51,RYAN
WP,DM,CEDARK, 29.080698586, -83.0288120534,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 05:01
WP,DM,CHALET, 27.570429254, -81.3597795513,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30/DEC-97 04:40
WP,DM,CHERYL, 28.402861428, -82.0523098495,03/21/1999,13:04:51,29-DEC)97 23:26
WP,DM,CRYSTL, 28.520921540, -82.3445311572,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:56
WP,DM,DS-ROK, 28.155504894, -81.5751298215,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:17
WP,DM,DUNELN, 29.038028932, -82.2263583925,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:58
WP,DM,FANTA , 28.100665522, -81.4843799617,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:58
WP,DM,GATOR , 28.375461054, -81.4817986038,03/21/1999,13:04:51,18-MAR-98 00:52
WP,DM,INVERS, 28.485332918, -82.1878504541,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:59
WP,DM,OCALA , 29.102150893, -82.1335485961,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-18 03:22
WP,DM,PLACID, 27.151109862, -81.2479797151,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-98 03:12
WP,DM,QUEST , 28.321120572, -81.5076314952,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 19:23
WP,DM,RANCH , 28.151906443, -81.4108852889,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 16:45
WP,DM,RIVER , 27.462981033, -81.1153294589,03/21/1999,13:04:51,31-MAR-98 17:09
WP,DM,ROK-98, 28.115831804, -82.0006859090,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:26
WP,DM,WAUCLU, 27.308318424, -81.5292286422,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-98 03:10
WP,DM,WILARP, 29.212811327, -82.2836793449,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:35
WP,DM,WIMAMA, 27.395675826, -82.2622045066,03/21/1999,13:04:51,08-SEP-97 21:49
WP,DM,ZHILLA, 28.134559977, -82.0954499796,03/21/1999,13:07:04,MIKE
WP,DM,ZHILLC, 28.131619991, -82.0917100079,03/21/1999,13:08:41,MIKE
WP,DM,98-301, 28.194630009, -82.1125699833,03/21/1999,13:09:22,MIKE
WP,DM,75-50 , 28.314010019, -82.1423999865,03/21/1999,13:10:10,MIKE
WP,DM,TWOJJS, 28.271189994, -82.1246800061,03/21/1999,13:12:48,MIKE
WP,DM,SG4 , 28.170720010, -81.4039999913,03/21/1999,13:17:17,RYAN
WP,DM,SG3 , 28.155480000, -81.4585599951,03/21/1999,13:16:39,RYAN
WP,DM,SG2 , 28.130469977, -81.4337200072,03/21/1999,13:16:00,RYAN
WP,DM,SG1 , 28.155969989, -81.4338400025,03/21/1999,13:14:31,RYAN
WP,DM,UMATIL, 28.553909995, -81.3910199773,04/01/1999,14:39:14,RYAN
WP,DM,MIDFLA, 28.507880020, -81.3780599792,04/01/1999,14:39:53,RYAN
WP,DM,AGRO , 27.396320009, -82.1734999988,04/01/1999,14:40:25,RYAN

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Netcasting the Wallaby Open

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:04 am GMT

Duncan McBride|Kevin Frost|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Russell "Russ" Brown|Wallaby Open 1999

Over the last few days the Automated Pilot Tracking System (Oz Reports # 19 and #20) has been put to good use as Albo has been tracking right under us. Using one minute intervals works well, and now we’ll try two minutes. The system has been so successful that Albo is ready to buy one to track Mark (Gibson) at the Worlds in Italy

There is a small possibility that the Wallaby Open, and/or the Nationals will be Netcast with pilots using APTS to report their positions to a central computer at headquarters. We’ll see how far this effort gets.

Russ Brown has a few thoughts on these type of systems:

Maybe you guys will help me brainstorm a little thing that's been bopping around in my head. I mentioned it to Duncan McBride a couple months ago and now Ken Rosenberger has asked about it. We've got this capability in APRS to have our position picked up by any nearby digipeater that is "Igate" (internet gate) equipped. Then your icon is displayed on a US map atwww.aprs.net. If you zoom in on an area, thewww.aprs.netmaps are served from Mapblast.com. Other technical details onwww.aprs.netcan be found by searching the APRSSIG archives atwww.tapr.org.

Anyway, say we get our infrastructure all set up. Say every HG site in the country had an Igated digipeater (actually that would come in very handy if it were also hooked into the site's wind talker, but that's another subject) and everybody could log onto the internet on Sat night to view the log file of their favorite mailing list personality, sort of like what Davis has posted athttps://OzReport.com/Ozv3n17.htm.

To get fancy, you could use a product like Delorme 3D Explorer to deliver say, a real-time pilot's view of Pete Lawrence flying up the Owens Valley. Or you could see if Kevin Frost lands in the bomb range. You could go over the back of Frisco with David Taylor and second guess all his flight decisions. Hmm… I guess we'd need a cloud cover overlay from the weather service to second-guess all his flying decisions.

But now for the brainstorming part… If all these disparate, digitally-equipped pilots would want to compete against each other in a "Saturday Cyber League" of sorts, what would the handicap rules be? I was thinking maybe to get soundings from weather service sources nearest each competitor and then handicapping each flight as to thermal tops/cloudbase, tailwinds, strength of lift, etc. Also type of glider could be handicapped. These standings could be calculated instantly and the leader would have bragging rights for a week.

Whaddya think? I think Florida would be the ideal place to kick off a Cyber League since the state is already blanketed with Igated digipeaters and has at least one glider-mounted TH-D7A. The consistent topography in Florida would also make scoring easier, maybe start off with just a glider handicap. Maybe Kenwood could sponsor this and make it really cool.

And:

I plan on flying this Saturday but probably won't go XC since I haven't flown since Xmas (I re-injured a muscle below my scapula). I'll set my TH-D7A to 144.390 (call sign KB6LUD), set my SSID to "small aircraft" and set my path to RELAY,WIDE. I should easily hit one of the 2 IGated digipeaters in the LA Basin. Hey, I've got a 5000 foot antenna :-)

According tohttp://www.aprs.net/aprserve.dcc.htmlthe data is not purged for 12 hours so we should be able to race home and see our last position. The "Client connection" paragraph onhttp://www.aprs.net/aprserve.dcc.htmlprobably holds the key to gathering nationwide data that the Cyber League could use for scoring purposes. Know any programmers? Steve Dimse is a great guy, he would probably offer tech help.

Then, he reconsiders:

WARNING… Don't tune into 144.390 with your glider's GPS unless you want all your waypoints overwritten!! You can disable the NMEA input from the GPS to prevent this.

I think he means NMEA input to the GPS.

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Wallaby Open turnpoints

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:03 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|waypoints

I’ve put up the official list of Wallaby Open turnpoints/goals on my web site. You’ll find it at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/wallabyopenturnpoints.zip. Just click this link to download it to your computer.

You’ll need to unzip it (http://www.winzip.com). It is in Waypoint+ (http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/Waypoint/) format. If you download Waypoint+ (which is a terrific piece of freeware), you can upload the turnpoints into your Garmin 12 or III or whatever. You’ll need a Garmin/serial cable (http://www.blue-hills-innovations.com/products.htm#data).

I’ve also included a text version of the turnpoints below.

The turnpoint checking software to be used at the Wallaby Open and the Nationals will download your track log and your waypoints, including any that you created with Mark, and Enter during the flight. This is an example of what your flight will look like to the person viewing it on the computer:

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Short Takes »

Sun, Mar 28 1999, 5:00:01 am GMT

Alejandro Gonzalez|Avron Tal|Brian Porter|G.W. Meadows|Stewart Midwinter|Worlds 1999

Avron Tal sends in the web addresses for the 1999 Hang Gliding World Championships:http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html and the European championship ishttp://www.hanggliding.at/home.htm, July 10th - 18th 1999, just before the worlds at Mt. Cucco.

Alejandro. Gonzalez writes:

Davis, I know you are not exactly an Aeros fan, but perhaps it would be worth mentioning that the last day Oleg was 7 points from Manfred and had a camera problem.(This at the Brazilian Open).

Thanks Alejandro. I thought that I’ve been giving Aeros and G.W. lots of play here in the Oz Report, so I wonder if your statement is really fair. The record, as they say, speaks for itself, and, it is all available, on my web site (https://OzReport.com)

Bright Star has announced their new Utopia, a bigger and better Millenium (for more bucks). You’ll find out more about it at Stewart Midwinter’s Rigid Wing site at: http://www.globalserve.net/~midtoad/RigidWings/Millennium.html#Utopia.

We’ve heard that despite what it says here, that the span is 4 feet longer than the Millenium. The cage is quite a bit closer to the wing, than the Millenium (does that make it even harder to see around you?), and that there will be a fairing for the cage. We expect Brian Porter to show up here at Wallaby with one for the Wallaby Open. Will the ATOSes be able to match its performance?

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US Nationals »

Wed, Mar 17 1999, 5:00:02 am GMT

G.W. Meadows|Quest Air|Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

G.W. is going to be putting on quite a show up at Quest Air, right after the Wallaby Open. If you are thinking about flying in these meets, you had better sign up very soon. Because these are tow meets, there will definitely be a limit to the number of participants. Just because you sign up for one, doesn’t mean you will necessarily be able to go to the other.

You can sign up for the Nationals at http://www.justfly.com, and for the Wallaby Open, go to http://www.wallaby.com (there is no on-line sign up capability there).

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Current World Pilot Ranking

Thu, Mar 11 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Francois Isoard|Gerard Thevenot|Gerolf Heinrichs|Manfred Ruhmer|Mario Alonzi|Oleg Bondarchuk|Sergio Bernardi|Tim Cook|WPRS

Oleg Bondarchuk, factory pilot for Aeros, makers of the Stealth glider, did well in Australia this year. So well that he moved up to number one in the world ranking. Allan Barnes also did well in Australia and that moved him into the top ten.

You can find the current world ranking for hang glider and paraglider at the CIVL web site at http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/rankings.asp?id=1.

CIVL updates their pilot ranking after major competitions. We will be doing the same for US HG pilots on my web site, at least, and perhaps on the USHGA web site also. Previously only the pilot ranking as of the end of the previous year was available.

You can find the current pilot ranking for the 2000 US World team at http://www.davisstraub.com.


Place Name Points
1 Bondarchuk Oleg 495
2 Gehrmann Guido 486
3 Heinrichs Gerolf 388
4 Ruhmer Manfred 351
5 Cook Steve 313
6 Thevenot Gerard 312
7 Gerard Jean-Francois 304
8 Alonzi Mario 293
9 Barnes Allan 290
10 Bernardi Ignazio 286

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Class II at the Worlds

Mon, Mar 8 1999, 11:00:06 pm GMT

Hans Bausenwein|Worlds 1999

I wrote previously that it wasn't going to happen, but maybe they will prove me wrong. If there is enough of a movement in Europe by the rigid wing manufacturers, it could happen. I asked Hans Bausenwein about this and this is what he had to say:

It did not seem to me, that there will be great effort by the organizers to get many class II participants. But I expect that pilots and manufacturers will push to be there. Apart from a full team of 4 pilots from the US, where the move into rigid wing flying seems to be strongest, I expect strong interest by some good German, Swiss, Italian and French pilots. The class II glider manufacturers will certainly make additional effort to have the best possible pilots fly their wings at the worlds.

Will there be American rigid wing pilots willing to go to Europe with their wings not knowing if there will be enough participants to make a valid rigid wing world championships? We'll see. They could at least hope for a greater effort on the part of the meet organizers to keep them informed about the possibility of other countries coming to Italy with Exxtacies, Swifts, etc. I'm doing my best to keep everyone up to date.

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Is competition hang gliding out of control?

Sun, Mar 7 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Bob Baier|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows|Gerolf Heinrichs|Guido Gehrmann|Hans Bausenwein|Jos Guggenmos

Han Bausenwein, my European correspondent, has sent in a report on the CIVL meeting held over the weekend in Copenhagen. I also hope to be able to publish something soon from G.W. about his experiences at the meeting.

I have just come back from the 1999 CIVL meeting in Kopenhagen last night. The meeting was from 5.3.-7.3. I was there as the chairman of the Austrian/German working group on new technical standards for competition hang gliders. This working group was founded during the October 1998 League meeting and celebration party for our two World Champions Guido Gehrmann and Corinna Schwiegershausen.

Gerolf Heinrichs was at this League meeting as well and gave a speech, which had more or less the same contents as his article, that was published in Fly and Glide 12/98. This speech was the start of the Austrian/German working group on new standards for competition hang gliders.

At the CIVL meeting the proposal of the Austrian/German working group was welcomed unanimously and a CIVL working group was founded to refine and complete the proposal. The new standards will also be backed by manufacturers and with a bit of luck, if there is agreement from all sides, be even valid for the 1999 World Championships.

Another thing, that will be of interest for the competition orientated part of the hang gliding community and the readers of Oz Report is:

The local regulations for the 1999 Monte Cucco World Championships state, there will be a maximum of 10 participants from each country, out of which 6 can be class 1 and 4 class 2. The competition for class 2 will be held if there are at least 8 participants from at least 4 different countries.

To me it is obvious: If this news is spread wide enough and soon enough, we will have to celebrate a class 2 World Champion as well. As it stands at the moment I will be on the German team for class 1. It is possible, that Jos Guggenmos will compete on his new rigid wing. I have not yet deceided, if I will be flying my new Laminar in class 1 or on the ATOS in class 2. I still have not flown the ATOS yet, but hope, that I will receive one from Felix Rühle soon.

I am also planning to come over to the US (Bob Baier is coming as well) to compete in the US Nationals. Bob Baier only was flying a Bullet in the 1997/98 competitions in Australia including the Worlds. After that he started flying a Laminar and still flies for Icaro this year. In the 1998/99 Forbes Flatlands he flew on a CSX 5, that he borrowed from Moyes.

There is one change in Sporting Code Section 7, that has been made on the weekend, that might be also applied to paricipants of class two hang gliding in the 99 worlds.

It is: " if a pilot wants to enter a CIVL category 1 event, i.e. a World Championships or Continental Championships, this pilot does have to be placed within the top ⅔ of a CIVL category 2 event, i.e. National Championships or other, that have been open to international participation and that have been sanctioned by CIVL as category 2 events within the last 3 years".

If this rule is applied to class 2 hang gliders as well and used for the paticipation of pilots with a class 1 hang glider, not very many pilots are able to enter class 2 in the Worlds. You and I would be able.

Regards

Hans

Hans Bausenwein Thann 22 D-83098 Brannenburg
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email <hans@aerosport.de>
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GPS turn point verification at the competitions »

Tue, Feb 16 1999, 4:00:04 pm GMT

GPS|Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

We are working hard at setting up the Wallaby Open and the US Nationals for GPS use. GPS turnpoint verification will be the order of the day, but we want to make sure that it works for every one.

Previously pilots used their GPSs to tell them when they got close to the physical turnpoint. Now they will be using their eye sight (and their GPSs) to tell them when they get near the virtual turnpoint. The GPS indicated turnpoint is the turnpoint. Hopefully it will be very close to the physical turnpoint.

I suggest that pilots take every opportunity to practice making virtual turnpoints.

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Not really Class II in the Worlds this year in Italy »

Tue, Feb 16 1999, 4:00:03 pm GMT

Belinda Boulter|G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows|Worlds 1999

Basically it ain't going to happen. That's not what they are saying, but they are saying the same things that the meet organizers at the Worlds in Australia said (the standard CIVL line), and they didn't happen there.

Class II will perhaps be allowed and made official if 8 pilots from 4 countries show up (pretty much on their own). Could happen, but it isn't likely at the moment.

The problem is that meet organizers in Europe (or those connected with CIVL) are not encouraging the inclusion of Class II hang gliders in competitions. The only competitions that counted toward PIRS points in Class II were held in the US last year.

This sinks. CIVL is basically out to lunch on Class II, and the European meet organizers are in a fog. We can only hope that with the increase in the number of Class II manufacturers that we will see some action on this front.

G.W. Meadows has been a pioneer in this effort to let a number of different classes fly in the hang gliding meets, and why not. We need more people at the meets, not less. We want to be inclusive and let everyone enjoy the thrill of competition. G.W. has a single surface class this year, and Belinda's thinking about joining the Aeros Target team.

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Ozzie Nats

Tue, Jan 26 1999, 6:00:00 pm EST

Allan Barnes|Australian Nationals 1999|Conrad Loten|Grant Heaney|Joel Rebbechi|Kraig Coomber|Len Paton|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Oleg Bondarchuk|Rohan Holtkamp|Ron Richardson|Steve Elkins|Steve Moyes|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan

The report from Zupy:

http://www.ozemail.com.au/~zupy/nats/nats.html

26/1/99 At long last we have a round. The winds were quite mild, from the NE and a 181 km task to the south was called. About halfway down the task the pilots met a SE wind and no-one made the goal. DAY 1

27/1/99 The day was a bit windy, but quite flyable. Straight line task to Southern cross saw some smiles at the end of the day. DAY 2

28/1/99 This day had high overcast cloud, but with promise of good weather. We were not sure how good the weather might get, and in the end, the task had some light and scratchy flying, and some good flying. DAY 3

29/1/99 Blown out again. If we don't fly tomorrow, the whole comp is invalid.

After three rounds:

1 Steve Elkins 12 Avian Cheetah GBR 2536 2 Oleg Bondarchuk 116 Aeros Stealth UKR 2442 3 Ron Richardson 28 Avian Cheetah GBR 2417 4 Grant Heaney 31 Moyes CSX 5 AUS 2410 5 Allan Barnes 21 Icaro Laminar GBR 2388 6 Rohan Holtkamp 2 Moyes CSX 5 AUS 2383 7 Joel Rebbechi 98 Moyes CSX 4 AUS 2324 8 Kraig Coomber 10 Moyes CSX 4 AUS 2293 9 Steve Moyes 17 Moyes CSX 5 AUS 2140 10 Len Paton 48 La Mouette Topl AUS 1906 11 Conrad Loten 8 Moyes CSX 5 NZ 1839 12 Tascha McLellan 57 Moyes CSX 4 NZ 1774

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The Wallaby Open »

Sun, Jul 5 1998, 7:56:19 pm EDT

cost|Wallaby Open 1999|weather

The Wallaby Open dates are April 18th-24th. This is the week after Sun 'n Fun (April 10-17th). JC Brown is now the meet director. Malcolm is the meet organizer. The cost is $250. See www.wallaby.com for snail mail address. E-mail is «gloverdh».

BTW, there are money prizes at the Wallaby Open. $3000, $1500, $500 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in Class I. None for Class II, but I guess if you can afford a Class II glider, who needs money. :-) I asked Malcolm about the weather and he didn't want to talk about it because he didn't want to jinx it. It's been too good for a month now. Last year with El Nino, it rained every day in the Winter.

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