Oz Report

topic: Barry Bateman (24 articles)

Martin Henry on Cloudbase Mayhem

December 17, 2020, 9:31:49 pm EST

Martin Henry on Cloudbase Mayhem

Funny stories from a rigid wing pilot

https://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/episode-134-martin-henry-and-a-lifelong-pursuit

Need a good laugh? Kick back and listen to Martin Henry, a Canadian Hang glider and paraglider who has been chasing free flight for almost 50 years tell some really fun stories. Get on board as we travel around the world, learn how to thermal, fly triangles, retrieve your significant other, fly competitions, compete in the Worlds, compete in the Worlds with your wife!, figure it out, crash, tumble, bomb out, send it, learn, and drink a nice cold beer with your friends after yet another wonderful day at cloudbase. This episode is pure joy and filled with tons of great advice and great learning thrown in regardless of where you are in the sport and what you hope to achieve. This show is an educational, entertaining BLAST- enjoy!

Check out this 1975 era hang gliding footage that Martin put together (this was off a VHS folks, so give the sound a break!).

The issues in the beginning. “This product can, may, and will fail under any and all circumstances.”
“These gliders were VERY efficient at killing people”
How Mansfield, WA came into the picture
The wow factor of the Washington flats
Open distance on a rigid wing spells “divorce”
Flying triangles
The golden age of hang gliding
What got folks back in the day and “survivor bias”
What the early pilots brought from sailplane knowledge
Competition flying
Flying in the Alps
Maintaining control- don’t give up
Is paragliding heading the same way as hang gliding?
“Flying? You should maybe think about taking up heroin!”
The early days of comps
Chasing records
Hard lessons
Fear injuries and how to recover
How relaxed should we be? You have to feel the wing
How does our relationship with risk change as we age?
“I’m a mediocre pilot who tries to fly safely”. Don’t ignore your own skills, or the reality of the day.
Transferable skills between different aircraft
Don’t be a passenger
Stories of Larry Tudor (1:23:00)
Be wary of distraction- getting away with it until you don’t

Mentioned in the Show:

Malin Lobb, Bastienne Wentzel, Nik Hawks, Miguel Gutierrez, Larry Tudor, Stewart Midwinter, Charlie Baughman, Kari Castle, Willi Mueller, Chris Mueller, Alex Raymont, Wills Wing, Moyes, Aeros, Barry Bateman, Davis Straub, Brad Gunnuscio, Nicole McLearn, Joe Bostik, Manfred Ruhmer, Chrigel Maurer, Jeff Shapiro, Russ Ogden, Jeff Farrell, Randy Campadore, Chris Santacroce

14 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Charles "Charlie" Baughman, Cloudbase Mayhem, Davis Straub, Jeff Shapiro, Joe Bostik, Kari Castle, Larry Tudor, Manfred Ruhmer, Martin Henry, PG, record, sailplane, video

Fatality at the Canungra Classic

Mon, Oct 15 2007, 10:43:16 am EDT

Brian Braby

Barry's friend dies

(Canungra, QLD, Australia) (Mt Tamborine, Canungra, QLD, Australia)

Brian "Bumble" Braby|Barry Bateman|Canungra Classic 2007|fatality

http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2007/10/13/3755_gold-coast-news.html

Barry Bateman «flyxc» writes:

There was a fatality at Canungra last Friday. That was my friend Brian Braby, better know as Bumble by the local Byron Boys, who I stay with when I’m in Oz. His house is where I store my van when I’m out of the country. He was only 40 something, He leaves behind his wife and three children age from about 6 to 10 years old. I’m looking into a flight over there for his funeral if I can find out when it is and if I can make it in time.

He was a very experienced pilot and flew at the Bogong Cup and at Manilla for the State Champs. It sounds like it was a freak accident with him falling out of a tree after turbulence after launch and landing chest first on a tree stump. I’m still in shock. I, as will many others, will miss him very much.

Discuss "Fatality at the Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum link»

4 topics in this article: Brian "Bumble" Braby, Barry Bateman, Canungra Classic 2007, fatality

The final results from the NSW Titles

February 14, 2007, 7:03:07 EST

Results

Updated

(Mt Borah, Manilla)

Barry Bateman|Davis Straub|Raef Mackay

Barry Bateman|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Raef Mackay

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	DURAND Jonny	Moyes Litespeed RS3.5	5374
2	BADER Lucas	Moyes Litespeed RS 4	4659
3	STRAUB Davis	Moyes Litespeed RS 4	4045
4	WYNNE Bruce	Moyes Litespeed S4	3771
5	PATON Len	Moyes Litespeed RS 4	3770
6	TRIVELATO Alex	Moyes Litespeed RS 4	3768
7	TUNBRIDGE Cameron	Airborne C4-14	3765
8	GARCIA Pedro	Aeros Combat	3461
9	SIMONSEN Warren	Airborne C4-14	3272
10	BARRETT Scott	Airborne C4-13.5	3178
11	SCHRODER Phil	Airborne C4-13	3133
12	DANIEL Alan	Airborne C4-13	3089
13	GARDNER Don	Airborne C4-13V6	2997
14	BARTON Tony	Airborne C4-13.5	2914
15	BRABY Brian	Airborne C4-13.5	2888
16	DUNCAN Ian	Moyes Litespeed S4	2820
17	CARSWELL Andrew	Airborne C4-13	2554
18	HANSEN Dustan	Airborne Climax	2551
19	COLBEY Matt	Airborne C4-13	2230
20	HEFFER Dick	Moyes Litespeed 4	2081
21	HERMAN Gary	Airborne C4-13	1834
22	EBBELING Peter	Airborne C4-14	1796
23	THOMPSON Darren	Airborne C4-13.5	1792
24	GILES Al	Airborne C2-14	1745
25	BARRY Paul	Airborne C2-14	1705
26	WARD Geoffrey	Moyes Litespeed 4	1595
27	BATEMAN Barry	Moyes Litespeed 4	1561
28	BOND Alan	Moyes Litespeed S 5	1540
29	RAABE Peter	Moyes Litespeed 4	1469
30	BRAMWELL-DAVIS Alasdair	Airborne Sting	1233
31	CAMERON David	Moyes Litespeed S4	1216
32	BLAIN John	Airborne Sting	1144
33	CRAGO James	Airborne Sting	1065
34	MCCULLOCH Ray	Moyes Litespeed 5	1058
35	CLARKE Matt	Moyes Litesport 4	1045
36	HANISCH Markus	Seedwings Viagro	788
37	GILBERT Mark	Moyes Litesport 4	767
38	VAN DER WALLE Danny	Airborne Shark	734
39	EVANS Rick	Airborne Sting	595
40	SCHATZMANN Rolf	Airborne C4-13	584
41	MACKAY Raef	Moyes Litesport 4	515
42	LEEMING David	Airborne Climax	501

Discuss Results at the Oz Report forum

3 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Davis Straub, Raef Mackay

Bogong Cup - task 1 »

Tue, Jan 16 2007, 7:26:13 am AEDT

Bogong Cup

Best day at the Bogong Cup ever?

(Emu LP, Tawonga, VIC, Australia)

The flight/task.

The smoke begins to clear. Lukas Bader (safety committee member) and I are of the opinion that we could have run tasks on all three days (as we had 5 km visibility on each day), but today the smoke was a bit less. Still there seemed to be quite a bit of hesitancy on the part of some pilots as well as the leadership to get us going on this day.

We headed again over to Mystic Hill next to Bright with a forecast for north winds, which we associate with less smoke. To see why check out this satellite photo from January 11^th here. Mt. Beauty is in the upper right hand corner north east of the smoke plumes.

All of the Hungarians (other than Attila) left yesterday and the Austrians left today, not wanting to chance the smoke. Gerolf left without defending his wager of a Moyes Litespeed RS 4. Maybe he thinks that he can keep me from winning even if he doesn't fly on one day. He mentioned something about tweaking our wager before heading out to Sydney to drive the Austrians to the airport.

We could see across the Ovens valley almost to Mt. Porepunkah when we got up on Mystic Hill which was an improvement from the previous day. The forecast was for climbs to 10,000'. Brian Webb took off and reported from his paraglider that he was at 10,000' over Mt. Porepunkah and could see 20 kilometers. This finally got the operation in motion and the momentum shifted toward flying. Finally.

I was off early and got up while pilots right after me suffered with Scott Gravelle landing in the bail out LZ. Jeff O'Brien was just barely able to hang in there. The turbulence high near launch was pretty brutal, but at least we could stay up.

The first turnpoint was Ovens intersection 26 km out. Most of the field was still stuck on launch as we started getting higher. I had remembered that Steve Moyes flew early over to Pyramid ridge to the east when did a similar task last year, and I pushed on ahead ten minutes before the entry start circle opened at 3:15 PM. By heading perpendicular to the course line I was able to get up on the ridge and still not go into the start circle until the first start time.

What I forgot about Steve's performance on that day (he won the day) was the key point. He climbed up on the ridge line and at the last moment just went outside the entry start circle to get the second start time and give himself a fifteen minute advantage.

Jeff O'Brien and Lukas Bader has figured this out and they went with me perpendicular to the course line while others cut the corner and took the first start time by going further down the course line. We all started working lift on the ridge line to get back up again, but Jeff and Lukas held back a bit without me figuring what the story was. I was just inside the entry start circle:

pub/images/firstdaybogongcup.jpg

At five minutes before the second start clock. All I had to do was go join Lukas and Jeff just outside the start circle and wait around for about five minutes to get the later start time, but I was in a hurry to go, so that didn't cross my mind.

We raced down the ridge line toward Myrtleford hill and the Ovens intersection finding lift and climbing with ease. The turbulence was gone (although it would return on Myrtleford hill), so the powerful lift was appreciated. The air was clearing up and it looked a lot like a normal day in the Victorian Alps.

It was 900 fpm over Myrtleford hill and not really liking the turbulence I pulled out at 9,400' and tried to get ahead of the gaggle. A long glide of 13 km in big sink meant that I had to take lighter lift than I wanted at the end of Happy Valley, still 450 fpm was not bad.

This task was going much better than normal and I had no problem getting high enough to get to the Running Creek turnpoint in the middle of the Kiewa Valley and jump right over to the west facing hills. Again I had to take a little bit of a slower climb to get high enough to where I found 800+ fpm. This made it easy to get the turnpoint 13 km to the north at Gundowring and get back to the hillside. The idea was not to stop until I found 1000 fpm along the top of the ridge line.

I had to work a little bit of lift to get up on top of the ridge, but didn't stop until I found 1,200 fpm. This thermal 25 km out from goal got me back to 8,000' AGL, and with 4,000' extra altitude I headed out into the valley to get away from the lift so that I could pull in the bar without be tossed around as I zoomed to goal. I came in with 65 mph ground speeds with a 7 mph side wind at 600' AGL over the goal

A good sampling of pilots made goal quickly, but I don't have the results yet. Lukas in first, quickly followed by Jeff O'Brien.

This was an extraordinary day for the Bogong Cup and the Bright/Mt. Beauty area. Often we have to work weak lift to stay alive and continue flying. Today the task was to ignore as much of the lift as possible and only take the very strongest. If you weren't going up at 1,200 fpm you weren't keeping up with everyone else.

I hadn't been to 10,000' here for a few years. There was that one day when I had to pull out at 14,000' because I was way too cold, but that day didn't have the consistent lift that this one did.

The Hungarians, the Austrians, and the pilots who didn't fly today really blew it big time. The Bogong Cup is kicking butt.

The results (those who made goal):

Place	Name	Glider	Nation	Time	Total
1	Bader Lukas	Moyes Litespeed S4	Deu	01:47:42	963
2	Obrien Jeff	Wills Wing T2	Aus	01:47:45	962
3	Guiducci Davide		Aus	01:48:18	952
4	Durand Jon Jnr	Moyes Litespeed RS3.5	Aus	01:46:07	938
5	Olsson Andreas	Wills Wing T2	Swe	01:52:05	895
6	Jones Chris	Moyes Litespeed S4	Aus	01:53:04	882
7	Oppici Fillipo	Moyes Litespeed S4	Ita	01:53:53	872
8	Moyes Steve	Moyes Litespeed S4.5	Aus	01:55:46	849
9	Bondarchuk Oleg	Aeros Combat L	Ukr	01:51:46	842
10	Seib David	Moyes Litespeed S4.5	Aus	01:56:33	840
11	Bares Radek	Aeros Combat 2 15	Cze	02:02:59	835
12	Barthelmes Oliver	Moyes Litespeed S4	Deu	02:03:08	833
13	Coomber Kraig	Moyes Litespeed S4	Aus	01:56:19	792
14	Straub Davis	Moyes Litespeed RS4	Usa	02:10:09	759
15	Martini Federico		Aus	02:01:31	743
16	Blenkinsop Steve	Airborne C2 13	Aus	02:12:38	735
17	Bertok Attila	Moyes Litespeed S4.5	Hun	02:14:09	721
18	Bajewski Joerg	Moyes Litespeed S4.5	Deu	02:17:08	695
19	Rempel Jeff	Airborne C2 14	Can	02:17:13	694
20	Henden Nils Aage	Moyes Litespeed S4	Nor	02:13:05	683
21	Barret Scott	Airborne Climax 13	Aus	02:14:12	674
22	Schwiegershausen Corinna	Moyes Litespeed S3.5	Deu	02:30:05	594
23	Brown Trent	Moyes Sonic 165	Aus	02:30:38	562
24	Smith Chris		Aus	02:31:05	545
25	Bateman Barry	Moyes Litespeed S4	Can	02:31:52	541
26	Sallm Ilan	Moyes Litespeed S3.5	Isr	02:33:51	531
27	Paton Len	Moyes Litespeed S4	Aus	02:39:28	504
28	Matsumura Takahiro	Moyes Litespeed 4	Jpn	02:40:47	498
29	Flockhart Rod	Airborne Climax 14	Aus	02:49:48	474
30	Juichi Makoto		Aus	02:55:25	436
31	Petersen Neil			03:23:34	428
32	Simonsen Warren	Aeros Combat L14	Nzl	03:16:22	395
32	Hannaford Scott	Moyes Litespeed S4	Aus	03:24:14	395

Discuss "Bogong Cup - task 1" at the Oz Report forum link»

15 topics in this article: Attila Bertok, Barry Bateman, Bogong Cup 2007, Brian Webb, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Davide Guiducci, Davis Straub, Filippo Oppici, Jeff O'Brien, Kraig Coomber, Oleg Bondarchuk, Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes, PG, Scott Gravelle, Trent Brown

New South Wales State Titles

Sun, Feb 27 2005, 3:00:00 pm EST

Tied, once again.

Billo «william.olive» writes:

Round five was the final round. First place is a tie between Conrad Loten and Jon Jnr with Rick Duncan third. The conspiracy theorists may care to note that Dave Seib was the scorer, and Dave also scored Gulgong 2004 which also gave a tied result for Jnr.

B grade result is Cameron Tunbridge 1^st, Dustin Hansen second and Don Gardner third.

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	LOTEN Conrad	Moyes Litespeed S4	4000
2	DURAND JNR Jon	Moyes Litespeed S 4	4000
3	DUNCAN Rick	Airborne C2 14	3925
4	SEIB David	Moyes Litespeed S 4.5	3813
5	HOLTKAMP Rohan	Airborne C2 13	3674
6	STAVER Dave	Moyes Litespeed S 4	3347
7	BARRETT Scott	Airborne C2 13	3214
8	PRITCHARD Phil	Moyes Litespeed S 4	3100
9	BARTHELMES Ollie	Moyes Litespeed S 4	3093
10	JONES Chris	Moyes Litespeed S 4	3014
11	SCHRODER Phil	Airborne C2 13	2888
12	PARER Adam	Moyes Litespeed 4	2872
13	PATON Len	Moyes Litespeed S 4	2781
14	DURAND SNR Jon	Moyes Litespeed S 4.5	2776
15	TUNBRIDGE Cameron	Airborne C2 14	2633
16	DANIELS Al	Airborne C2 13	2569
17	WYNNE Bruce	Moyes Litespeed S 4	2549
18	HANSEN Dustin	Airborne Climax 14	2481
19	DUNCAN Shane	Airborne C2 13	2428
20	STEAD Rod	Moyes Litespeed 4	2422

(editor's note: It's great to see Ricky Duncan doing so well. He's been a long time competitor, but hasn't attended that many competitions over the last decade, just getting back into it with the Gulgong Classic as few years ago.

Also great to see Conrad Lotten do so well against the very strong Jonny Durand Jnr, the new Australian Red Bull athlete. I remember Conrad feeling bad about competitions, and maybe this will help him overcome those feelings.

Dave Seib continues his strong growth as a competition pilot as does Chris Jones. Great to see all the other competitors also, Both Airborne and Moyes were well represented in this almost all Australian competitions - Ollie is a half time Australian, as is Barry Bateman, almost.)

12 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Cameron Tunbridge, Conrad Loten, Dustin Martin, Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr, Jon Durand jnr, Jon Durand snr, Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes, Ricky Duncan, Rohan Holtkamp, Rohan Taylor, William "Billo" Olive

New South Wales State Titles

Tue, Feb 22 2005, 3:00:03 pm EST

The report from Manilla.

Billo writes:

The NSW HG state titles comp in Manilla got underway on Saturday. We have had two days off due to the trough hovering over our heads, which has brought strong winds. Task one was something of a struggle, but today we had the conditions for which Manilla is known, with every pilot getting some airtime and plenty of happy faces tonight.

BTW, we are using the WGS84 datum

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	SEIB David	Moyes Litespeed S 4,5	1348
2	LOTEN Conrad	Moyes Litespeed S4	1313
3	DUNCAN Rick	Airborne C2 14	1289
4	DURAND JNR Jon	Moyes Litespeed S 4	1260
5	HOLTKAMP Rohan	Airborne C2 13	1198
6	PATON Len	Moyes Litespeed S 4	1180
7	BARRETT Scott	Airborne C2 13	1047
8	BARTHELMES Ollie	Moyes Litespeed S 4	1028
9	PARER Adam	Moyes Litespeed 4	999
10	STAVERS Dave	Moyes Litespeed S 4	990
11	DURAND SNR Jon	Moyes Litespeed S 4,5	947
11	SCHRODER Phil	Airborne C2 13	947
13	JONES Chris	Moyes Litespeed S 4	922
14	DANIELS Al	Airborne C2 13	868
15	BATEMAN Barry	Moyes Litespeed 4	848
16	DUNCAN Shane	Airborne C2 13	846
17	DOCKING Harry	Airborne C2 13	801
18	KEE Trevor	Moyes Litespeed 5	795
19	HEFFER Dick	Moyes Litespeed 4	779
20	FLOCKHART Rod	Moyes Litespeed S 4	771

8 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Conrad Loten, Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr, Jon Durand snr, Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes, Rohan Holtkamp, Rohan Taylor, William "Billo" Olive

Friends of Bo

Tue, Aug 17 2004, 3:00:03 am EDT

Help through PayPal to keep our boy going.

I just got off the phone to Bubba Goodman and Beth as they were driving away from Nashville after visiting Bo and his parents. Steve Kroop at Flytec USA «flytec» writes:

Davis, thank you for keeping everyone up to date on Bo and thanks again for setting up Bo’s Paypal account so that your readers can help out too. The cumulative amount collected through the Paypal account is over $5000. On behalf of Bo thank you to the following individuals for their contribution. This is the second list of contributions (after June 5^th). It is interesting to note some of the names of people we haven’t heard from in a while and some that appear twice (before June 5^th and then again in this list)!

Lauren Tjaden, Elizabeth Hagewood, Michael Williams, Burke Ewing, Marc Fink, Daniel Broxterman, David W Mercaldi, sherry elchin, Joseph A Balbona, Alek Beynenson, Nancy Smith, Matthew Bower, Maurice Wilson, Gregory Knepp, John Simon, Henry Bittner, Harald Steen, Robert Lane, Vince Furrer, Davis Straub, Monica Barrett, Erica Elchin, Steven Pearson, Carol Sperry, Allen R Sparks, Barry Bateman, Kraig Coomber, Stephan Tarjanyi, Nelson Howe, Carter Diggs, Margaret Little, Lawrence Lehmann, Michael Christian.

The cost of the Worlds in Hay

Thu, May 13 2004, 1:00:04 pm EDT

It ain't cheap out there in the Outback, especially with the CIVL requirements.

Barry Bateman|CIVL|Rohan Taylor

Back in March I asked Rohan at Dynamic Flight «dynamic» about the costs of the Flex Wing Worlds in Hay in January 2005 at the behest of Barry Bateman, a Canadian pilot, who likes flying in Australia. Rohan has been working hard on the costs issue and here's how things stand at the moment:

Sorry for the delayed reply, but we are still working on the details and costs to comply with additional demands/requests from CIVL.

The CIVL decisions effect what it costs to run the meet. Additionally we must provide aero-tows, so CIVL demands/requests in this respect effect aero-tow costs. Car towing and retrieves are to be provided as options for pilots also. There has been some discussion about the sanctioning fee imposed by the CIVL, so this will also impact the entry fee costs.

We aim to minimise the costs for the competing pilots, whilst abiding by the demands and requests from the CIVL. The CIVL form direction based on input from each member country.

Sure we can provide everything the pilots want, it simply costs them what it costs us to provide it.

At this stage CIVL wants eight competitors per tug maximum. They want a spare tug to stand by. They want all aero-tow ropes to be provided. They want dolly fetcher/marshalls to be provided also.

Each tug and pilot wants $7000 dollars to tow for the comp including practice days. The aero-tow ropes will cost $500 for the comp. Six dolly fetchers cost $4800 for the comp. Assuming 80 pilots aero-tow, simple math determines it will cost each pilot $1028.75 ($700 USD, 600 Euros) to aero-tow for the whole meet, including practice days. Aero-tows are provided to a maximum of 1500ft in height.

Car tows can be provided for $400 per pilot for the meet including practice days. Pilots/teams can choose to have their own car tow system. Rope is limited to 600 meters in length. Tension meters and car releases are mandatory.

Retrieves if required, are additional to tow charges. Retrieves will cost around $500 per pilot for the meet. To use the retrieve service the pilot requires an Australian UHF radio. No communication, no retrieve.

These figures are Australian dollars.

The comp entry fee normally covers the administration costs and would be similar to last year, but this year we must add CIVL sanctioning fees and the costs of any additional requirements they have determined we need. I will get you the entry fee total when all CIVL requirements are to hand and factored in.

(editor's note: The cost for the combined Australian Open and Pre-Worlds was $380. Given the costs for the CIVL steward and jury, we're probably looking at $700 AUS for the entry fee - my guess.)

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

3 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, CIVL, Rohan Taylor

Florida flying and Wills Wing gliders

Tue, Mar 23 2004, 3:00:01 pm EST

Various.

Barry Bateman|Harry Martin|Mark Tulloch|PG|Quest Air

Barry Bateman, Mark Tulloch and a contingent of Vancouver area pilots are down here to fly at the Florida Ridge, Wallaby Ranch and Quest Air, getting into with demo gliders from Wills Wing. Barry was very generous and helped out the Oz Report as well as purchased Cloudsuck from me. I'll have a few copies here at Quest, as well as some Oz Report mugs and t-shirts with Harry Martin's great masthead design. Write to tell me if you want to pick up one of these items over the next couple of months here and I will be sure to order more.

As the spring funding raising drive winds down I ask one more time for your support of the Oz Report. All of us together putting time, money and energy into it can make it successfully serve the hang gliding (and paragliding) community world wide. Without the Oz Report report we are stuck with such alternates (as fun as they may be) as the HG list on Yahoo - now think about that. :-)

See below for how to support the Oz Report or purchase from the Oz Report store.

5 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Harry Martin, Mark Tulloch, PG, Quest Air

Drug Testing - we can't afford it in Canada »

Wed, Jan 28 2004, 2:00:01 pm EST

drug testing

Drug Testing - we can't afford it in Canada

Barry Bateman «flyxc» writes:

I've been reading the comments on drug testing and Government financial assistance with much interest and the fact that a Canadian has just won the Pre-Worlds got me a thinking.

Here in Canada we receive absolutely no financial assistance from the government at all. In fact the Canadian Government doesn't even recognize the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada (HPAC) because, (I quote from the Government in part), "how do we know you are the only group that represents hang gliding in Canada? There may be other interested groups so therefore we will not officially recognize the HPAC or any other HG body". Brilliant!

We have also at various times tried to receive funding from the Canadian Sports Council but we were told that we didn't qualify because, "You are not a muscle group sport". (Obviously they haven't taken a flight in the Owens Valley during the height of the flying season)! This ruling also applies to the sailplane association as well by the way.

So, any funding that Canadian "team" members have received comes from the HPAC, whose funds are generated from membership fees alone. And when you consider that we only have approx 750 members (in the Worlds largest country no less) then there ain't a whole bunch of money to go round.

The only other funding that 'may' be available comes from either the Provincial Associations (who also receive no funding), a "whip round" at the local clubs, or private obtained sponsorship. In fact, the standing Canadian joke (which has more truth than I care to admit) is that if you want to make it onto the Canadian team you only need to be able to afford the plane ticket and entry fee! Sad but true.

Now here we have Brett who has just won the Pre-Worlds. (Congratulations by the way). He got there (financially) by his own ingenuity and private sponsorship and almost no HPAC assistance. (I'm not knocking the HPAC here, it's just a fact of life). That's pretty damn impressive when you compare what he has achieved against many other "National Funded" pilots!

By contrast, my good friend Bo makes more money dressing up as a turkey and having paint balls shot at him to get to Oz than Brett receives from the Canadian National HG Association, the Provincial Associations and the local clubs combined.

Now. What happens when drug testing is a mandatory requirement at level 1 category meets, even if only for the winners? Let's take the present case of Brett winning the Pre-Worlds. Seeing as the HPAC can't afford the drug testing then the onus is going to be on Brett (in this case) to fund it. Great!

Or how about this? Maybe the top 3 pilots, when they get on the podium at the awards ceremony, can dress up as turkeys, and have the other competition pilots and spectators in attendance shoot paint balls at them so that they can generate the money for the drug test!

Or, more than likely, the winners will eventually end up being the highest placed pilots in the meet who have the National funding to pay for the drug test. Sorry Brett, you're the best pilot, but as your Association doesn't have any funding so you can't win!!!!

Robert D. Sterling «dsterling47» writes:

When I was living in the Tidewater Virginia, USA area there was testing of military pilots for drugs.

Well there was this pilot of fairly high rank who “Tested Positive” for drugs. Well he was Court Marshaled, jailed awaiting trial, family devastated, career ruined etc., only to find it was the poppy seeds on his morning Bagel that was where the “Positive Drug Test” came from.

I can see it now, “Hang Glider Jailed For Drug Use” better watch those morning Bagels at Starbucks. Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks!

Michael Dufty «mike» writes:

I've heard that caffeine may be removed from banned drugs lists because the of the current ridiculous situation, that it is only performance enhancing at legal levels, if you have enough in your blood to fail a drugs test it is actually detrimental to performance.

John Chambers «glider» writes:

I agree with you that free flight pilots in the USA should draw the line and stand firm against drug testing. No "unfunded paper program", no intrusions into our private lives. Just Say No to Drug Testing, period. The fact that in other countries the pilots are so addicted to government handouts that they are willing to abdicate their personal freedoms is a good argument for not seeking such government aid.

I believe that the USHGA should not be funding competition, either. Competition should be funded by those who benefit from it - the competitors, the manufacturers, and the sponsors. Logically then, those groups will be the only ones to decide whether to implement drug testing or anything else. You really can't have it both ways - the pathetic arguments from Europe make this clear.

As to the FAI and CIVL, who needs them anyway? You personally have the knowledge and experience to set up a world record sanctioning authority and do it in a far more user friendly and cost efficient manor than the present system provides. If you bring the Australians on board, you will have the two countries where world records are most likely to be set. (Is it just a coincidence that the people of these two countries also seem to more highly value their freedom?)

Scott Robinson «scotty» writes:

You put forward a very poor argument that there are no drugs that will enhance performance in hang gliding.

(editor's note: By far, the major determinant within the pilot in winning hang gliding competition is pilot judgment. There are no drugs that I am aware of that enhance pilot judgment. One of my correspondents has mentioned that Ritalin can be used to enhance focus of attention - after all that it was it is prescribed for. I didn't notice having any trouble focusing my attention when competing.

If there were drugs than enhanced pilot judgment or judgment in general would we have any reason to ban them? Perhaps they would have undesirable side effects on our sexual activity.:-))

In an earlier Oz Report during Hay you said that you had sore arms and shoulders from the grueling tasks.

(editor's note: I mentioned that my arms were sore. I didn't mention that my shoulders were sore, which they weren't, nor that the tasks were grueling, which they also weren't. I wrote at the time:

"Often, in spite of its many physical demands, hang gliding competition is for the most part a mental game. Flying a flex wing has reminded me about how physical it is (and by getting more experienced at it, it becomes less physical), but yesterday's task also brought the mental aspects to the foreground. We've been doing a lot of flying into the wind in this meet, and yesterday we really put ourselves to the test."

I did mention how happy Bo and I were that Kevin Carter was complaining how sore and hurting he was. The great thing as far as us old guys are concerned is that Kevin is a tri-athlete, young, and in very good condition. It is also quite ironic that he is also the only one of us who is actually subject to in contest and out of contest drug testing.)

Would you not put in a better performance if taking steroids to build up your upper body size and strength and endurance ?

(editor's note: I assume that if I was stronger I would be a marginally better pilot. I know that I would be a better pilot if I were smarter and had more experience flying flex wings. I personally wouldn't take any steroids to achieve the goal if being a stronger pilot as I know I would much more easily achieve the goal of being a better pilot through practice. I believe that the level of fitness that is optimal for pilots is easily achievable through moderate exercise.

All you have to do is look at the pilots' bodies to see that they are not winning because of excess muscle mass. Oleg Bondarchuck, who I sit in the back seat with every day going up to launch, is a perfect example. He is very skinny. It looks like he would have been lucky to have had more then two helpings of animal protein in his whole life. He comes from a very poor country where it would never have been possible for him to afford to take drugs. He is also the number two ranked pilot in the world and currently in the lead of the Bogong Cup.

Oleg is just one of many champion pilots who vividly illustrate that a well muscled physique is not a determinant in who is the best pilot. It is very clearly the case that small pilots win championships, not big ones.

But don't take the obvious evidence for this simple truth, take the word of the Canadian Sports Counsel above, "You are not a muscle group sport.")

Are there not drugs which fix more oxygen to the cells in the blood? Surely this would be an advantage to a pilot when thermaling at altitude.

(editor's note: Last time I checked you are not allowed to suck oxygen out of a bottle during the Tour de France. We have that privilege and I would suggest that this is a much more effective means of getting more oxygen than trying to take any drugs that enhance fixing oxygen in the blood. Well, then perhaps WADA will disallow oxygen as a drug. :-))

Sure, hang glider pilots are more likely to be taking recreational drugs which are performance reducing, but in a sport where only seconds separate the top place getters a small increase in physical performance could make a big difference.

(editor's note: It could, but there is no evidence that it does, nor that any drugs make any difference at all. In hang gliding competitions, unlike in "muscle group" competitions, no one is aware of any benefit to be derived from taking any particular drugs.

Remember there is a specific list of drugs that can't be taken, and it is because these drugs have been found to enhance performance of the specified tasks found in the specified competitions. There is no evidence that indicates that any of these specified drugs, and not some other set, enhance hang gliding competition performance. Until we have some evidence that a certain set of drugs does indeed enhance performance, we have what Scott is exhibiting here, mere speculation.

What is happening here is that the FAI is taking a set of rules from WADA that have been found applicable to "muscle group" sports and unthinkingly and under pressure from their government applying them to hang gliding. There is no evidence that these particular rules are in any way applicable to hang gliding.)

Olympic athletes have proved that they will stop at nothing to hide their drug cheating and gain any possible advantage over their fellow competitors.

(editor's note: The same can not be said for hang glider pilots.)

I would be pissed off if I was beaten by a pilot who used drugs to gain an unfair advantage over me.

(editor's note: I would be much more pissed off if I was hit while thermaling by a pilot who didn't have the courtesy or skill to clear their turns.

The major strategy here in the non funded countries seems to be to give lip service to the call for drug testing in hang gliding, in order to appease the Europeans, but to not fund it, as there are no funding sources, and to hope, against hope, that it never comes to actually happening.

The flaws in this strategy are that the Europeans will catch on to the fact that we aren't really going to follow through, and put pressure on us - say no world championships in Brazil, Australia, or the US any more.

We've been successful in giving lip service to the requirements for drug testing previously, and done nothing to implement it. Of course, the Europeans are aware of this so they may not be fooled again.

There is another reason why I don't like this strategy of keeping your mouth shut and pretending to go along with policies that you in fact object to. This distorts the truth and denies reason in the affairs of men. It becomes a game of not using your intelligence to seek the truth through full, fair and frank debate, but a game of using your intelligence to win through artifice and deception.

While those "in the know" can understand why people are acting in strange ways and not making any sense with their statements, those who just want to take on the issues, understand them, and see where reason leads are seen as idiots who aren't aware of how the real world works.

My job as an editor is to explicate. To inform. To shine light in dark places. That is, to disrupt the strategies of those who wish to hide their strategy for their strategic advantage. They are playing a game of power. I am playing a game of reason.

I hope that my readers through these discussions can think long and hard for themselves about the issues, and certainly not take my position, if their reasoning takes them else where. I just hate to see them giving into power, when reason doesn't have the power to resist.)

11 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, CIVL, drugs, HPAC, John Chambers, Kevin Carter, Oleg Bondarchuk, record, sailplane, Scott Robinson, USHGA

Flytec 5030 and IQ Compeo »

Sat, Jan 10 2004, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Barry Bateman|George Stebbins

Larry Huffman <lhuffman@nauticom.net> writes:

I place my Flytec 5030 on the left side of the base tube next to the corner. I turn it to 45* and it seems to keep satellites just fine. I don't have a lot of time with it but this method seems to work.

George Stebbins <stebbinz@pacbell.net> writes:

I have a Garmin GPS 12 MAP (two actually) and have never had a problem with them seeing the satellites even when the unit is on the downtube and not facing the sky. Sometimes I have to point it up when on the ground, but never in flight.

The few times I have had it on the basetube, it works fine when I pull in.

Heck, I even put my backup in the side pocked of my Rotor harness a few times as an experiment, and as long as I put the antenna end up and face it away from my body, it still works! (I let it acquire before putting it into the harness, that seems to help.)

Barry Bateman <flyxc@telus.net> writes:

I've been flying with my instruments in the middle of the base bar for years (I didn't follow the sheep) and I never had any problem with my GPS failing to receive a signal when I was pulled in. I fly with the Brauniger IQ Competition and both the Garmin 38 and presently the Garmin 12 never gave me any problem.

(editor's note: Yesterday I placed the Flytec 5030 on my base tube, but a slightly (4 inches) off to the left of center. I figured that way my body wouldn't completely cover it when I pulled in for the final glide. Especially given the fact that these final glides can be from 20 miles out, I really didn't want to lock my position data and all the displays that are updated by the data.

Fortunately this seemed to fix the problem. Fortunate, because the goal keepers didn't get my goal crossing time for some reason. So, while the 5030 and IQ-Compeo GPS receiver may (or may not) be as rock solid as the Garmin receiver, it seems to be quite adequate with a little consideration on the pilot's part.)

Discuss 5030 at the Oz Report forum

2 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, George Stebbins

Aero bar grips

Sat, Jun 21 2003, 2:03:04 pm EDT

Australia|Barry Bateman|internet

Barry Bateman <flyxc@telus.net> writes:

Saw the report on the aero base tube grips. The best by far that I've came across for use on the Moyes aluminum "Fast Bar" are "Cricket bat handle grips" that I purchased in Australia. These are made from a rubber based material, are relatively thin but give good insulation and have outstanding grip. They come in different colours (if that is important to you) are cheap to purchase and install per the soapy water/hairspray method. Mine have been on my glider for over two years and have never shown any signs of tearing or ripping.

Of course, cricket may not be that popular in uncivilized countries, but I'm sure they can be found if one looks hard enough. Say, on the internet.

Discuss getting a grip at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Aero bar grips" at the Oz Report forum link»

3 topics in this article: Australia, Barry Bateman, internet

Bogong Cup – day four »

Fri, Jan 10 2003, 9:00:01 am EST

http://www.cool-ether.net.au/australianopen

or likely up on the following site earlier (thanks to the scorer, Wesley Hill)

www.davisstraub.com/bogong

As we drove home on Thursday night coming back from the big task to Brown Brother’s Winery in Milawa, we could see the long line of flames on the hill sides of Emu, Mt. Bogong, and Mt. Buffalo. Apparently they are dropping water from helicopters on the flames, but that didn’t seem to have much effect. It looks like Emu launch will be a lot clearer soon.

The smoke is thick in the valley this morning and it is likely that we will be head north to the Ovens Valley to the Pines launch once again.

The pilots voted in a task committee that was committed to “long and hard.” Yesterday I was in the air for five and half hours. The air was thoroughly enjoyable, in spite of the inversion and the consequently difficult and slow climbs.

I’m wondering how the pilots feel about “long and hard” today. Yesterday wasn’t a race, except against the sun (after starting at 3:15). The pilots had to work with each other to find the lift the fastest as we trudged up wind. I was quite please how we all spread out and searched for lift. Very helpful.

I’m feeling great in the ATOS-C with the tail. In Texas without the tail I was continually reminded of my tuck (the tuck tape kept replaying). Here it is a pleasure to fly and I’m thinking about the flight (or on the first day about the fact that my whole body is shaking violently in the cold) instead of about the glider flipping over.

Barry Bateman brought me some Canadian “Tuck” brand tape and put a strip of this see through magenta colored tape on the back window of our car. He said, “The tuck tape is permanently behind you.”

Phil Shroder is doing the weather here and stated that the day was more stable than the day before and the wind would die down. It’s still out of the south or southwest, so it is still cold in the morning.

When we get to launch it is quite a bit warmer than the day before. It may be warmer up above, but it is warmer on the ground, so maybe the lapse rate won’t be that bad. The smoke is now off to the southwest and forms a giant wall covering the Alpine areas. The inversion caps it at about 6,000’.

Given the forecast for weak lift, I remove all my ballast (22 pounds). It is so much easier to handle the harness when it isn’t double its normal weight. The first pilots off in ordered launch get below launch so maybe this will be a weak day. The first pilots who were off earlier in the open launch got a good cycle and got up right away.

The lift is relatively weak above launch relative to the day before, but we are getting up with great difficulty, so there are no worries. I’m thinking maybe I should have kept the ballast.

We fly 10 kilometers down the ridge to the west to get to the start circle. Our task is to get the center of the start circle as our first way point, but our time doesn’t start until we cross the 5 km circle around the start point. The task today has a distance portion and a timed portion.

There are no clouds anywhere near us, and a wall of smoke 30 km to our southwest. Here the sun is shining and the winds are light so the air is pleasant enough. About thirty pilots gaggle up at the start circle and get ready to take the 2:45 start time about an hour after we launched.

Most of the pilots head out at 2:45, but the four ridges and a couple of flex wing pilots hang back. We are sitting is light lift near the top of the inversion and hoping to get pilots out on the course in front of us. As we approach 6,000’ the turbulence increases to where it is a bit uncomfortable. I’m trying to will the seconds to tick off until the 3 o’clock start time.

A number of the flex wing pilots (Gerolf, Oleg, Paris, Gordon, among others) who went out at 2:45 come back to the start circle to get ready to catch their friends who’ve been suckered into leaving a bit too early. Ron Gleason and I stay in the turbulence at 6,300’ a bit further along the course line, still in the start circle, than the gaggle that forms up just before 3.

We are released at 3 and for one I’m glad to be out of there. I’m sure that we won’t be getting that high during the race as the lift slows down substantially when you get over 5,000’. I’m more than happy to leave the top of the inversion behind.

It a 21 km run to the first turnpoint northeast of Wangaratta and we only stop for a little bit of poor lift. In the light winds we average 66 km/h getting there.

The 22 km second leg takes us smack dab over the middle of town to a MacDonalds on the southwest side of town. We can just follow the m5 freeway. By the time we get to Wangaratta, we’ve caught many if not most of the first gaggle.

The 3 o’clock gaggle is hanging together and we start working up from low on the north east side of town. It’s a bit of a struggle but as we move over the town the lift turns on and it looks like it will be a fast flight to Maccas.

I’m thinking that I’ve got a chance to sneak around Tony and Johann who are working good lift up off the course line a couple of kilometers. We’ve gotten up good over the town so I just head straight to the turnpoint left of Oleg and Paris while the two rigids drift back behind me.

The strategy depends on getting a good thermal first on the other side of the turnpoint and I’m watching for pilots up ahead from the earlier gaggle looking to see if they find something. They do seem to be turning, so maybe.

Unfortunately no one has got a good core by the time I get to Maccas and head toward the goal only 15 km away, so we have to spend 6 minutes around the turnpoint until someone hits it. This gives Tony and Johann the chance to catch up and as they are a bit higher and can d see who finds it first.

It averages 330 fpm to 4,000’ and we all go on glide thinking that we can make goal that is now only 14 km away. On the way into goal we hit 500 fpm and take it to 5,000’ as it climbs to 600 fpm. This is way plenty high, and as Oleg and Paris take off, I’m right behind them with Gordon Rigg just off to my right.

We pound it in as fast as we can and the empty air space at the Brown Brother’s Winery is suddenly alive with aircraft. After making goal I can’t get down and find nothing but lift. Finally I find some sink, but it takes 20 minutes to get down from 1,000’ AGL.

The average climb rate was 280 fpm over the course. We did the task in an hour and twenty minutes, quite a contrast to the day before which took four hours. With a lot less wind, and still pretty good lift, we had a much shorter task. We average 44 km/h around the 60 km task.

Attila on the task committee says it is a crap shoot to call a task because they don’t have a temperature trace or a good forecast for winds.

The fires have grown dramatically. 84 fires were started by the lightning storms on Tuesday and 45 are still burning out of control. They are closing the airspace in the Ovens and Kiewa Valleys down to Myrtleford, but we are flying further out of the valleys on the flats (for the last two days).

We’ve been given air space over Emu and down the range, but we can’t get up there due to the fires on Emu. We could go up Buffalo, but we don’t have clearance to fly there due to the multiple fires there.

If the winds are light tomorrow, which is the forecast so far, we might be able to fly from the Pines. The next three days after that are predicted to be northerly and the Pines is south facing. Maybe take off in lee side thermals (or rotors).

Day 3:

1	Raumauf, Toni, 29	Air Atos	Aut	15:00:00	16:18:52	01:18:52	931
2	Heinrichs, Gerolf, 71	Moyes Litespeed 4	Aut	15:00:00	16:19:09	01:19:09	917
3	Bondarchuk, Oleg, 32	Aeros Combat 2 13	Ukr	15:00:00	16:20:51	01:20:51	872
4	Hazlett, Brett, 60	Moyes Litespeed 4	Can	14:45:00	16:12:20	01:27:20	871
5	Williams, Paris, 81	Icaro Laminar ST14	Usa	15:00:00	16:20:56	01:20:56	868
6	Posch, Johann, 42	Atos C	Aut	15:00:00	16:20:59	01:20:59	866
6	Warren, Curt, 65	Moyes Litespeed 4	Usa	14:45:00	16:12:35	01:27:35	866
8	Bertok, Attila, 55	Moyes Litespeed 5	Hun	15:00:00	16:21:16	01:21:16	857
9	Straub, Davis, 36	Air Atos C 145	Usa	15:00:00	16:21:35	01:21:35	849
10	Rigg, Gordon, 48	Moyes Litespeed 4	Gbr	15:00:00	16:21:41	01:21:41	846

Total after 3 days:

1	Heinrichs, Gerolf, 71	Moyes Litespeed 4	Aut	2721
2	Raumauf, Toni, 29	Air Atos	Aut	2719
3	Coomber, Kraig, 77	Moyes Litespeed	Aus	2646
4	Posch, Johann, 42	Atos C	Aut	2551
5	Williams, Paris, 81	Icaro Laminar ST14	Usa	2520
6	Bondarchuk, Oleg, 32	Aeros Combat 2 13	Ukr	2515
7	Bertok, Attila, 55	Moyes Litespeed 5	Hun	2508
8	Rossignol, Jerz, 64	Icaro Laminar Mr 166	Usa	2451
9	Durand, Jon Jnr., 43	Moyes Litespeed 4	Aus	2444
10	Warren, Curt, 65	Moyes Litespeed 4	Usa	2417
11	Moyes, Steve, 59	Moyes Litespeed 5	Aus	2367
12	Caux, Raymond, 18	Moyes Litespeed 4	Fra	2320
13	Guillen, Bruno, 11	Moyes Litespeed 4	Fra	2290
14	Hazlett, Brett, 60	Moyes Litespeed 4	Can	2253
15	Rigg, Gordon, 48	Moyes Litespeed 4	Gbr	2216
16	Holtkamp, Rohan, 24	Airborne C2 14	Aus	2213
17	Straub, Davis, 36	Air Atos C 145	Usa	2164
18	Bader, Lucas, 22	Aeros Combat 2	Deu	2160
19	Castle, Kari, 69	Icaro MR700	Usa	2157
20	Gleason, Ron, 2	Air Atos	Usa	2089

Discuss "Bogong Cup – day four" at the Oz Report forum link»

7 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Bogong Cup 2003, Gordon Rigg, Rohan Taylor, Ron Gleason, weather, Wesley Hill

Sites in the hills around Byron Bay

Thu, Nov 7 2002, 1:00:03 pm EST

Barry Bateman

Barry Bateman «flyxc» writes:

Try getting a flight at Palmwoods or Boogarem, both face Northish and are on one of the spines that come from the rim of the ancient volcano. A good little hill soaring site is Montecullum which takes a NE and sort of joins up with Coorabell which faces more E/SE. Both sites are about 8km inland of the coast just to the north of Byron. (Take the road out of Byron to the Pacific highway and when you reach the highway go straight across it. That’ll take to the general area and the LZ’s.)

1 topic in this article: Barry Bateman

Tumbles

Sat, Aug 17 2002, 10:00:05 am GMT

Stewart Midwinter <stewart@midtoad.homelinux.org> writes:

Well, this is a stream of consciousness type of response to your well-written piece on tumbles. Some of us can remember way back to articles written in the old Ground Skimmer by people like Bob Ormiston and Paul MacCready about flying in turbulence. If I recall correctly, Paul felt that it was unsafe to fly tailless flying wings in the Owens Valley. And he was right!

I've flown flex wings for close to 30 years (well, 28 only), and I also flew rigid wings for a few years of record-hunting. I fly paragliders, and have been a sailplane pilot since about 1987. so this has given me a good variety of viewpoints about unpowered flight. (I also have ultralight and general aviation licences, but they don't help my understanding much, as far as this topic is concerned).

Over the years I've witnesses at least five parachute deployments and have been around when at least three tumbles happened. Three of these were flexwings, and strangely enough two of those cases involved my friend Martin Henry of Abbottsford, BC - though in completely different circumstances. And one involved Barry Bateman of Vancouver, flying near Golden, BC.

One of Martin's tumbles took place at the Canadian Nationals in, oh, about 1991. We were flying near Ashcroft, and the wind picked up to 30-50 km/h (20-30 mi/h), while the thermals were at 1000 ft/min (5 m/s) or more; meet director Barry Bateman eventually cancelled the task. The upper flow was over the tops of the rounded mountains, and I found the air to be very unpleasant. Martin got tumbled near peak-top height, out in the middle of the valley; this indicates that strong horizontal shears are to be avoided (though of course anyone that has flown in the lee of the Sierras knows that already).

The day that Barry went over, I was within a kilometre or two, flying a Swift on one of my world record attempts. He got tumbled near peak-top height in air that was uncomfortably violent and unpredictable even in my Swift. I gave thought to going to land but didn't want to abandon my task (as it was, I got shot down by a strong headwind on the return leg of my task).

The point I want to make is that even though the air was strongly turbulent and unpleasant, I never had the feeling that I would go over. I drew comfort from the fact that my weight would remain relatively fixed with respect to the centre of gravity, thus providing me with a fixed static margin of stability; also, I knew that no matter what my airspeed or attitude (even upside down), I would still retain full pitch and roll control of the aircraft, thanks to the side-stick controlling the elevons. On the other hand, I have had this feeling of impending doom from time to time while flying flexwings. With paragliders, tumbling isn't an issue due to their pendulum stability, but of course there are other issues with paragliders - like being blown backwards.

Similarly, in my years of sailplane flying there has never been a moment when I thought I was going over. It just isn't part of the picture, even when I have flown through gust fronts or have dropped into the rotor of the Rockies lee wave.

No one can continue to fly indefinitely if s/he is always flying with fear. We all have a certain limit of fear, and once we've reached that, one day we wake up and say to ourselves "I just don't want to do this any more". I've seen many friends reach this point over the years.

I think the conclusion we have to draw is that if we want to be around to celebrate 30 years of flying one day, we have to recognize that there are conditions that are statistically speaking not a good bet to fly in. If we don't want to use up our tolerance for big fear, we have to be selective about the days that we fly. If we hear that there is a 30% chance of thundershowers, maybe we should do something else that day. Sure, there might be a 70% chance of no thundershowers, or we might miss the storms that do develop, but why not limit the flying to the really perfect days and instead go climbing, or biking, or kayaking, or something else on those days that don't look quite right. More and more, this is the approach I find myself taking, and I don't regret it.

Discuss "Tumbles" at the Oz Report forum link»

6 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Martin Henry, Paul MacCready, Stewart Midwinter, tumble, Bob Ormiston

Trainer wheels

Mon, Mar 4 2002, 4:00:00 pm GMT

Barry Bateman|William Jonathan "Jon" Orders

Barry Bateman «flyxc» writes:

Aussie, Jon Orders who has been competing at the Oz comps and who presently resides here in Vancouver, BC has just sent me these pictures of Aussies in training in Western OZ. Maybe you can use them to enlighten your readers on "Alternate" training methods.

(editor’s note: Notice the wires holding the glider.)

2 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, William Jonathan "Jon" Orders

Time - virtual goals vs. goalies

Sat, Feb 3 2001, 1:00:01 am EST

Tim Cummings «tim» writes:

Here are the results of the survey I did comparing manually recorded goal times by goal officials vs. automatically calculated goal times from GPS track logs.

All values are in seconds, and represent manual time minus time calculated by the verification program from pilot's GPSes (gpscalc). Negative numbers indicate manual time is earlier than the gpscalc time and positive numbers indicate manual time is later than gpscalc time.

Name	RND2	RND3	RND4	RND5	RND6	Average
Ujhelyi Balazs	-65	-1	7		1	-14.5
Collin Patrick					-3	-3.0
Sturm Herbert		-6			1	-2.5
The Flying Fish Tish	-3	-5	1			-2.3
Boisselier Antoine		-3			-1	-2.0
Heinrichs Gerolf	-1	-7	-1	1	1	-1.4
Mocellin Francoise		-1			-1	-1.0
Durand Jon Snr		-2			1	-0.5
Hikobe Junko		+				0.0
Walbec Richard		0		+		0.0
Ohnuma Hiroshi		0				0.0
Dieuzeide Francoise		3		-2	0	0.3
Metz Bruno		1			0	0.5
Mathurin Didier		3		*	0	1.5
Dowsett Mark	2	1			+	1.5
Guillen Bruno		2			1	1.5
Sunama Takashi					2	2.0
Williams Michael					2	2.0
Tomihara Jun					2	2.0
Becan Victor		-8			13	2.5
Pritchard Philip		9			0	4.5
Ellefsen Oyvind					5	5.0
Schmitz Betinho	-3	13	1	2	14	5.4
Durand Jon Jnr	-3	1		22	+	6.7
Speight Daryl		12			4	8.0
Williams Paris		15			1	8.0
Marshall Gordon		8				8.0
Zupanc Michael		15	1		14	10.0
Gerard Jean-Francois		1		19		10.0
Itagaki Naoki			+	13	8	10.5
Sakai Takafumi		14			9	11.5
Ward Geoff		12	11		*	11.5
Moreno Fernandez Alberto		11			13	12.0
Osborn Tim		11			13	12.0
Davidson Miles		12			12	12.0
Bader Lukas		13			11	12.0
Rewolinski Steve		12				12.0
Holtkamp Rohan			+	12	13	12.5
Bertok Attila		11	13	14		12.7
Barber Mike	13	13	13	12	+	12.7
Straub Davis	10	14	14	14	12	12.8
Bateman Barry					13	13.0
Coomber Kraig		14		12	13	13.0
Rigg Gordon		15			11	13.0
Moyes Stephen	11	15			13	13.0
Loten Conrad	11		14	13	15	13.3
Weber Bernd	14	*	15	11	*	13.3
Weissenberger Tom	14		+	+	13	13.5
Heaney Grant	15	12				13.5
Salvenmoser Seppi		14		14	13	13.7
Balembois Jean-Charles		14		13	14	13.7
Ohlsson Andreas				14	*	14.0
Hirabayashi Kazuyuki		14			14	14.0
Ohta Shougo					14	14.0
Castle Kari	14				14	14.0
Bondarchuk Oleg	17	14	12		13	14.0
Mcloskey David		14				14.0
Hubbard Guy		14			14	14.0
Wohrle Roland					14	14.0
Hazlett Brett	15	12	15	14	15	14.2
Hagewood Robert	13	15	16		14	14.5
Barthelmes Oliver		13	*	11	21	15.0
Rees Ian		15			*	15.0
Zwahlen Bernie					15	15.0
Nichele Roberto		+			15	15.0
Takahashi Motoki					15	15.0
Heaney Tove		15				15.0
Sangster Trevor		15				15.0
Yasuhiro Noma		15				15.0
Thompson Mark		18			13	15.5
Gordon David		17			15	16.0
Macleod Glen	39					39.0
De Nicola Paolo					70	70.0

* No GPS Time + No Goalie Time - although Goalie confirmed line crossing.

CONCLUSIONS:

1. It looks like the time difference is related to the actual gps unit and is consistent throughout the competition. I was not expecting this. It could mean that at time of download, one has only to compare current time in GPS to a standard time and a fix could be applied to all times. (Such a fix would not apply to start times if they are being rounded, say, to nearest 15 minutes)

2. The turning off of selective availability has improved the accuracy of GPS times.

3. The goal officials at Forbes (Rob van der Klooster and Gen Rebbechi) did an exceptional job at recording accurate goal times.

DATA INCONSISTENCIES:

1. Some pilots (eg Betinho) showed changes in the time error during the week. They could have been using alternate GPS units on different days. I was not checking for this.

2. All differences greater than 17 seconds were checked and found to usually be due to difficult approaches by pilot making manual time inaccurate (eg too high, too wide, or at a congested time).

OTHER INFO:

1. All GPS times were calculated by first extrapolating the last two points before the goal line, and then interpolating the two points either side of the goal line and taking the best time. This allows for pilots who fly across the line then quickly turn back and land before the line, or who slow down significantly after crossing the line.

HINTS ON GPS USE:

1. Ensure GPS time is functioning. Three GPS units (including Mike Barber's backup) were showing the incorrect date and time on the System page. For these units no start or goal time could be calculated.

2. Ensure track log is turned on. Barry Bateman flew a wonderful flight to goal on the 228km day, but scored bomb out as no track log was recorded and the first turnpoint was quite close to the start.

If you are using your GPS for retrieves, then turn off track log recording after landing. On the same day, Jon Durand Snr (10km short) and Olli Barthelmes (goal) both had only 3 minutes of track log left before first turnpoint, because they had left GPS on after landing and the start of their track logs was being overwritten.

3. Do not use Garmin Etrex. These units cannot set a time interval for track log recording, and so will record too many data points in thermals thus filling the track log too early (less than an hour of flight).

4. Set track log time interval consistent with the days conditions. On short tasks, especially for out and returns when you will spend the least amount of time possible in the turnpoint sector, set time interval to 20 seconds. This gives about 5.5 hours on a Garmin 12. If your flight is going to be longer than this, especially for straight-line tasks, or slight dog legs when you will be flying in one side and out another side of turnpoint sector, you can set interval to 30 seconds. This gives 8.5 hours on a Garmin 12.

5. Set track log to wrap, not fill. Tom Weissenberger repeatedly missed getting a GPS goal time because his track log was full.

(editor's note: I checked whether the Garmin 12 XL gave a different GPS time than the 12 or 12 MAP. Nope. Note, that goalie was using a Garmin 12 XL as did Gerolf. Still, there may be a problem in reading the data stream from a 12 XL correctly, as Gerolf experienced problems with his Garmin 12 XL GPS when it was read by Tim's verification program.

The differences between the goalie's times and the verification programs determination of the goal time from the pilot's GPS were quite small when considered relative to the point differences they would actually account for. This is especially true considering that in most cases the difference in time discrepancy between pilots was on average less than 6 seconds. Also, other than in cases of difficulties experienced by the goalies, the range for all pilots' average discrepancy was +-9 seconds, which is almost negligible over the course of a contest.)

Discuss "Time - virtual goals vs. goalies" at the Oz Report forum link»

Bogong – a day for rest or practice

Tue, Jan 23 2001, 10:00:00 am EST

Many pilots have arrived here from Forbes, there are a total of seventy pilots entered in the Bogong Cup, so there is little desire for practice. Many, like I, wanted a quiet day of rest and relaxation in an Australian Alpine town with bobo food at the Mt. Beauty Bakery. Gerolf and I have a very pleasant and useful conversation over sangers, as I knew we would as soon as we got here.

Apparently there is a big need for peak power in Melbourne or Sydney because they have released lots of water into the Kiewa River. I've never seen it this high, and it has been very low for two months.

Betinho, Kari, Belinda, Mike Barber, Brett Hazlett, Barry Bateman, a few others and I took off late in the day on inner tubes from the Mt. Beauty Caravan Park. The river was cold and very fast. Lots of snags along the route to keep you on your toes. We pulled out at Tawonga – two hours later.

Tomorrow we start and the prospects for excellent weather are quite dim. There is a ridge of low pressure to the south of Australia and we are in or near the trough as there is a ridge of high pressure to the east in New South Wales. We've got ten days to have a valid competition.

Discuss "Bogong – a day for rest or practice" at the Oz Report forum link»

6 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Belinda Boulter, Bogong Cup 2001, Brett Hazlett, Mike Barber, weather

Forbes Flatlands – Task four »

Fri, Jan 19 2001, 3:00:00 pm GMT

At Hay this year a 265-kilometer task was called, but not made. Still, Rohan and I flew within 17 kilometers of goal, so those were the longest flight in a race to goal competition.

Today, even though there weren't but a very few of those little white puffy things, unlike the day before, the task committee decides to call a long task to the north, northwest – 228 kilometers. The wind is quite strong out of the east, so this will in addition, be a cross-wind task.

The wind is about 10 mph steady out of the east at the tow paddock, with gusts to 15 mph. You have to be careful, but it is not a problem to setup and launch in these conditions. Given this steady wind, I will foot launch and forget the dolly.

The towing order continues to get jumbled up, but the rigids get their own trike (actually it tows up every one else also, but gives our totally separate line priority). We have to set up in the corner of the paddock, while every one else now is setup in the middle. They (Stumpy, the meet director, and Bill, the towing director) just can't agree on how to do the towing.

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to report on harnesses or get pictures as many have asked, as we are so isolated. When Bogong starts, I'll have a chance.

With the strong winds, many people are flying back to the paddock and relaunching. The weaklink at the trike breaks on my first tow, and I drop the rope in the tow paddock. It takes the trike pilot a while to find it as he doesn't go far enough up wind to look.

On my second tow, he first takes me up wind, then downwind to the downwind edge of the paddock. I haven't hit a thermal and he waves me off at 1,500'. Next time I will bring the rope back to the launch spot. J

The thermals are smooth in the strong winds, but not so strong. It takes a group of us a while to drift down wind, with a slow thermal, head back to the paddock, get the next thermal, drift down wind with it, etc., etc. After a while we are able to climb to 7,000' and about 15 pilots make the 2:15 PM start gate.

The task is a turnpoint to the west, northwest, to keep us away from the airspace in Forbes, and then north, northwest, a 200-kilometer straight line. Since we all got the start gate high, we head right for the turnpoint spreading out to find lift. I get it and we climb enough to make the turnpoint and head up crosswind toward goal.

In the lead, I find a little patch of lift as we get a bit low under 3,000'. I decide to ignore the lift and follow a bird that is flying a lifting line to the north and see if he catches something worth turning in. My mates behind me(Tomas, Oleg, Betinho, etc.) get in the light lift that I left and start slowly climbing out.

The bird does me absolutely no good, and now I'm down to under 2,000' and starting to run down wind to find something. I will spend the next 10 kilometers under 1,500' chasing bits of lift, and trying to get back up, while almost all the guys behind me get up in the lift I left.

Mike Barber doesn’t get the start gate quite as high as the rest of us and he is soon in the same situation that I find myself after getting the turnpoint at 1,500'. He will drift downwind almost 30 kilometers not able to get over 2,500', while his buddies are climbing back up (all be it slowly) to 7,000'.

I finally find some steadier lift after assuming that I would be landing, and get up to over 2,000'. There is a dam just half a kilometer a way, and I've seen three dust devils form behind it. I slide over to it, and climb out at 600 fpm.

Feeling pretty good, but way behind my former good buddies, I make a stab at catching them. I run into big sink and run a short ridge line which produces even more sink. The flat paddocks and dams are producing the lift today, especially along the trigger points like tree lines.

I get hammered and end up less than 1,000' and right over Paris who also got hammered on the ridge and has landed at the north end of it. I make a 90° downwind turn and sprint across a dry, bare, flat paddock for the tree line at the western edge. I get there with 600 feet to find 50-100 fpm.

I'm immediately joined by four other pilots who've just gone through the sink street that I hit. It takes a while to get back up, and by the time I do, I've been caught by the 2:30 start gate guys, Berndt, Gerolf, Oleg, and others. Ooh, I want to get back to my original gaggle. I can't stay with these guys, as they will beat me.

I climb up to them, and then get in the lead often switching on and off with Gerolf. Berndt can't lead as there is too much bar pressure on his ATOS. Soon Gerolf and I are out in front of the gaggle, and then I'm able to shake off Gerolf as I run to the north to get in a thermal with three other pilots. I've caught some of my original gaggle – the slower ones.

I climb up, and leave them also trying to move ahead. I know that Betinho is just ahead of me about 10 kilometers and I want to catch him. I assume that he is the leading edge of the 2:15 PM gaggle.

Betinho gets very low before I get there, but I find Bo Hagewood, and another pilot and we stay high and move fast. We're 80 kilometers out from goal and it looks like we might have a chance to make it. Kari has already gone down 115 kilometers from goal. She got a late start in a bad towline. It will be five hours before we can get back to her.

I see Bo in a desperation move heading directly down wind at 90° to the course line. I'm staying above 5,500' and continuing along the course, so it doesn't look that bad to me. I've left behind all my help and I don't see anyone in front of me.

I keep catching lift from the paddocks to my right, up wind. If I drive up wind a bit, I can find the better cores. I'm working tree lines on the downwind side of the warm paddocks.

At fifty kilometers out and after six o'clock, I'm starting to work anything that I run into. I keep getting small climbs in 100 fpm or so always working the tree lines facing huge paddocks to the east of the course line.

At 6:30 PM I figure that the day is about done. I've been working light lift for half a hour and I am assuming that every thermal I take will be the last one. I don't see anyone around. I don't know if any one has made goal. All the people I passed are gone.

At 6:44 PM as I keep working down the tree line toward goal, and staying in the light lift, I hit 500 fpm. I'm totally amazed that this late in the day I can get such good lift. I'm only 25 kilometers from goal, so it looks like I have a chance to make it.

Unfortunately there are fifteen kilometers of trees in front of the goal. Up to now we've been working over paddocks, but we've gone so far north and west that we are in wild country where the farmers haven't gone.

At 20 kilometers from goal I climb out in 400 fpm to over 6,000' so that I know that I can make it to goal As I thermal I am also drifting toward goal, so I leave high from 16 kilometers out.

Belinda tells me that there are five pilots are goal. I will be the sixth pilot to make goal. The goal paddock is a sea of thistles, so I will land in a paddock just behind it.

Thirteen more pilots will make goal after me. The day lasts much longer than I originally assumed. Mike Barber, the last pilot to goal, will get in at 8:15 PM.

Attila, Betinho, Gerolf, Bo, Tomas, Seppi, Zupy, Barry Bateman (without turning on his GPS), Conrad, Tish, Grant, Tova, and numerous others will make the second longest made goal in Australia competition history. The task will take a bit less than five hours for the fastest pilots. Mike will be on the course eight minutes less than six hours.

We will all wind up at 11 PM at the only open take out place in Condoblin, the only town on the way back to Forbes. The scorers will have another late night.

After three tasks, Mike Barber was in second and Betinho in third. They will drop down a bit after this task as they were slow to goal. Betinho came in a half-hour after me at 7:39 PM.

Full results can be found at http://homepage.mac.com/chgcnews/forbes2001.

Discuss "Forbes Flatlands – Task four" at the Oz Report forum link»

12 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Belinda Boulter, Bo Hagewood, Davis Straub, dust devil, Forbes Flatlands, Michael "Zupy" Zupanc, Mike Barber, Oleg Bondarchuk, Rohan Taylor, Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan, USHGA

Australian Hang Gliding Nationals – Task 4

Sun, Jan 7 2001, 5:00:00 am GMT

Belinda said it was a Hay day today, and you just have to agree. We are driving home at sunset from Lake Cargilligo and the clouds in the west show wave and are colored red. Beneath them the plains are as flat as possible on a spherical earth. This is why we are here on this earth and especially here in the Australian bush.

We've got Waltzing Matilda on the CD player, and Mike Barber joins in in the sing along. We go through 25 Australian folk songs on our way home. We've got a booklet with all the lyrics.

The day started with the Jorgensens taking early morning tows with Tina trying out a Sonic They get to take a couple of gliders to Bright where they can hook up with Gilbert Griffith and fly Mystic and Buffalo. They were great help as the ground crew and now we will be a bit short handed. At least the pilots towing with Bill, Bobby and Rhett are a bit more organized now.

Attila Bertok takes up a trike and checks the temperatures and wind direction. He says that it looks like a good day with light winds above 2,000'. The winds have been remarkably light for Hay these last four days. It can really blow here. He recommends that we don't try to come back against the stronger lower winds.

A task is set 103 miles (166 kilometers) to the northeast (so far our favorite direction) to Lake Cargilligo. We'll have to fly over the lake on final glide.

At 1:30 PM small cu's start to form at about 7,000' and by 2:15 PM we are towing up under small but interesting clouds. The lift is strong right away and I climb out at 400 fpm.

While I'm one of the first (it is cooler in the air than on the ground), it looks like a good day to hang around the paddock and wait for the strong gaggle to form up and then go with them. I wait for Mike Barber, Gerolf, Gordon Rigg, Rohan and Attila to show up and we all take the 3:00 PM start circle. Start times are every 15 minutes today.

By three the little wispy cu's have turned into substantial clouds and we have a beautiful day for racing. It will turn into a very strong race with a light tail wind.

We all start at about 8,000' and Attila jumps out into the lead as we get the start gate at one minute after 3 PM. Most of us head to the right of course line toward the mid western highway to toward the clouds.

10 kilometers out, I've gone into the lead and find 300 fpm to start working. Paris Williams fades a bit further to the right and he has something better. I fade back to him and find myself in 950 fpm. Other than one other pilot, the rest of the twenty pilots in the gaggle seem to miss the fact that Paris and I are skying out. It looks like we will leave the main gaggle behind right from the get go.

Paris and I are racing and he is trying to stay with me. I've got too much of a performance advantage on him, even though he is flying the new Wills Wing prototype with the curved wing tips. He is loving the glider and it is the best glider that Wills has built as far as he is concerned. It doesn't appear to be quite as refined and as flat at high speeds as the Moyes Litespeed, but it is really getting there. Not bad for a first cut at a whole new glider.

Paris and I are cloud hoping and moving fast finding lift over 600 fpm. We haven't lost the rest of the gaggle as they go with us, but come in 1,000' to 2,000' below us. We aren't able to pinch them off.

Just past Gunbar at 60 kilometers out on the course, we start to catch the gaggle that started 15 minutes in front of us. We hit one good thermal and we've passed them.

Now there is a cloud street a bit to the right of the course line to Merriwagga and we are catching and passing stragglers from an even earlier start time. The street is working like a charm and I'm in full body shiver mode at 9,500'.

There are a few pilots from our original gaggle still visible as we move ahead, Paris always about 500' below me. I'm doing everything I can to go as fast as possible and try to leave them behind. Of course, they can see our every move and use us as a moving reference for the lift in front of them.

At Merriwagga, we need to jump a cloud street to get back on the course line. What a delightful position to be in. The clouds are lined up almost perfectly.

I've now got a couple of gliders just in front, and I can't tell if they were from my original gaggle and somehow got around on another line or were from an earlier gaggle. They are racing pretty hard so they appear to have caught me without me being aware of it. I can see Attila out in front, but way low and Paris love just behind me.

We race down the next cloud street only bothering to turn in very strong lift. We keep having to stay out of the clouds at the last minute.

Just before the actual lake at Lake Carrgilligo, the street runs out, but there is a short hop to a nice fat dark cu at the ridge on the west side of the lake. I'm now racing with Gordon Rigg (that's my best guess) and we lose quite a bit getting over to the ridge. None the less, the lift is good there.

The shocker comes after I make a few turns, and suddenly Gerolf Heinrichs in in my face. Where did he come from? And how did he catch me? Turns out the pilots behind have been keeping good track of their leader and when Gordon and I lost a bit of altitude on the run to the ridge, they went to the left and got a better line. Man, I was trying to leave these guys behind, and here comes Attila, and below him six other pilots.

Still, I'm high, and only Gerolf is this high. We move north a bit to get under the darkest part of the cloud and are rewarded with even stronger lift and as I get it first, Gerolf comes in a little under me with Attila right below him.

We are forty kilometers out from goal, but at 10,000' my vario is saying go to goal. I know that Gerolf can beat me in his little jet of a flex wing if it comes to a diving contest, so I need to get out in front of him right away and keep the speed up for 40 km. I head out and turn it up to over 50 mph.

I have to slow down in lift because the glider is getting hit hard whenever I hiot lift. I'm hoping for sink so that I can go faster. Gerolf is holding back a bit because he is a little worried about such a long glide. Besides, as far as he is concerned, he only has to beat Attila (they are tied for first). Gerolf has some kind of bet with Attila that he will win the meet. I've already told everyone that I will win all three meets.

40 kilometers at 50 mph is fast and far enough for me to stay out a head of Gerolf and come in much lower than he does. I win the day by 22 seconds over Gerolf with Attila coming in a few seconds later. 35 pilots make goal.

You can imagine that there are a lot of happy pilots at goal today. Hay has been good to us so far (especially the last two days), and people have been in a very good mood.

As we drive home watching for Kangaroos, we are surprised to find Oleg Bondarchuck 50 kilometers from Hay on the mod western highway. He's been standing there for over five hours.

We missed Oleg at goal and had heard that he went back to get a latter start gate time. Turns out that he got the same time as the rest of us, but took a course line after the start in the blue to the left and more on course line. He didn't find any lift and landed. We went out into the bush with him in the dark and found his glider and took him back to Hay.

Speed over the course – 67 km/hour or 41 mph. Given that there was only a light tail wind, this is very fast. Strong conditions and strong competition pushed pilots to fly at their best.

The results for day four aren't up as of the early Monday. They've even got web pages that include me in the scoring.

Bo Hagewood has been quite sick with the flu and hasn't been flying until yesterday. He made goal in good time, but he is still quite sick. Unfortunately, Barry Bateman, Bo, and Paris had neglected to give the co-ordinates of goal to their driver. She never found it. Paris was sent back in another vehicle and got in at 1 AM. Barry and Bo spent the night out in the goal paddock and got back hear at 7 AM.

We were running low on fuel on the way back and were pleased that the petrol station at Golgowi was open late on a Sunday night – pretty rare here in rural Australia. I told the guy to expect other pilots soon. Gordon Rigg's rig ran out of petrol 30 kilometers short of Golgowi. Fortunately a truck driver gave them a ride to Golgowi and back to their vehicle.

Results after three days:

1HEINRICHS, GerolfMoyesLitespeed 4AUT925 918 8332676
2BERTOK, AttilaMoyesLitespeed 5HUN883 927 8632673
3RIGG , GordonMoyesLitespeed 4GBR885 874 7752534
4BONDARCHUK, OlegAerosStealthUKR931 713 8562500
5WILLIAMS, ParisWills WingProtoUSA913 897 6902500
6STRAUB, DavisAirATOS 145USA855 702 8472404
7BARBER, MikeMoyesLitespeed 4USA906 681 8122399
8GERARD, Jean-FrancoisAerosStealth 14FRA844 657 8052306
9HEANEY, GrantMoyesLitespeed 4AUS700 806 7212227
10OLSSON, AndreasMoyesLitespeed 5SWE667 868 6822217

The full results can be found at: http://www.dynamicflight.com.au.

Discuss "Australian Hang Gliding Nationals – Task 4" at the Oz Report forum link»

15 topics in this article: Attila Bertok, Australian Hang Gliding Nationals 2001, Barry Bateman, Belinda Boulter, Bo Hagewood, Davis Straub, Gerolf Heinrichs, Gilbert Griffith, Gordon Rigg, Mike Barber, Oleg Bondarchuck, Paris Williams, Rohan Taylor, USHGA, Wills Wing

Chrissie at the Beach

Sun, Dec 24 2000, 10:00:00 am EST

It's "traditional" in Australia to spend Christmas at the beach (or at least get there by Boxing Day, the day after Christmas). We're at Shoal Bay, two and a half hours north of Sydney and expect Steve Moyes and family, along with the Jorgensens from the Pacific Northwest to come join us on Boxing Day.

It's been unseasonably hot here on the east coast of Australia with Sydney recording 38 degrees on the 22^nd, the hottest December 22^nd in 130 years. It's 9° Celsius above normal. The winds have been blowing out of the northwest, off shore, bringing with them the warm air from the interior. Of course, in the southern hemisphere, the northern winds are the warm winds.

There are already fires in the bush, which in addition to killing the wild animals also kill flocks of sheep. They crowd together and then are blackened by the fire. The herders have to go in later and put them out of their misery. Pretty pathetic.

The hot winds have done nothing to help out the flying at Stanwell, which requires a southeast wind. Speaking of pathetic, we've seen Barry Bateman, Canadian/British pilot with a new, unflown Litespeed hanging around the park at the bottom of Bald Hill. Oliver Straten, a German pilot, flew his paraglider in the brief rain at Stanwell, a few days ago. Kari Castle is here with a couple of paragliding clients. Everyone is at the beach. They should leave and go to Bright (Mystic Hill or Mt. Buffalo) for some good flying.

The hot north wind conditions made for rip conditions at the beach, and for the first time in a long time a number of beaches were closed due to strong rip tides. This on a very hot day. European tourists were getting themselves in trouble.

Vicki at Moyes says that 65 people have signed up for Forbes. Two years ago when she last ran this meet only ten had signed up before registration day when 55 signed up. Of course, she has stated that everyone had to be signed up by the end of November as aerotowing is provided and they needed to know how many tugs to bring. This meet is incredibly inexpensive with aerotowing included. The meet at Hay will cost $750 AUD with $500 for aerotowing (you can car tow). Molly Moyes says that 30 French pilots are coming to Forbes, but I find this hard to believe.

It is an incredible public service that the folks who put on the meets provide. Bill Moyes and Bobby Bailey are in Sydney now putting together the tugs necessary for Hay and Forbes. There will be additional trikes. Vicki has been organizing all spring. Rohan and Sandra have organized the Australian National at Hay. Zupy will be the meet director and score keeper. Tim Cummings has a new GPS program. We are all very grateful for their efforts.

There will be plenty of US pilots here attempting to gain a few extra points and get on the US National team, and make their way to the Worlds in Spain next year. Barry Bateman found himself a Toyota van and will hook up with Bo and Paris (and Revo?).

We've been finding superb food on this trip to Australia. But, then we aren't out in Hay or Forbes, just yet. Shoal Bay is quite an Aussie tourist destination (and they are all staying in country this year) and the Italian restaurant just down the street from the Caravan Park is equal to some we found in Florence.

There has been a year of little improvements to the Litespeeds 3,4,and 5. Gerolf Heinrichs is here in Australia doing the final fixes to the 3. Juan Corall is also here getting the HGMA certification packages finalized. Apparently all the truck testing is done.

The word is that all the little improvements have made quite a difference and the latest Litespeeds have better performance than last year's model. Attila's was the flattest flying glider at Wilcannia, with the best high speed glide. He apparently flattening the batten profile a bit (just a rumor). Tomas flew a new stock Litespeed.

8 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Bill Moyes, Gerolf Heinrichs, Kari Castle, PG, record, Rohan Taylor, Worlds

Radio mods

Fri, Dec 1 2000, 3:00:02 pm EST

Barry Bateman

Barry Bateman «flyxc» writes:

Just read about the Web site for Yaesu radio mods. Check out WWW.mods.dk. This site has mods for just about every radio and every mod. Not as detailed as the one you mentioned but covers a lot of radios and has links, including the site you mentioned. Mods are sent in by the subscribers.

1 topic in this article: Barry Bateman

Instrument pod⁣s »

Tue, Apr 4 2000, 3:30:02 pm EDT

Barry Bateman|Instrument pod|Manfred Ruhmer|Tyler Borradaile

Tyler Borradaile, «performanceadvantage», writes:

Barry Bateman and I are working together to produce fairings for instruments. The model instrument that we will be using is in fact the Flytec. At this time I can tell you that what we are working on is similar to what you have seen on Manfred's glider but has some subtle differences. We will be making ours in a two pieces (top and bottom shells) so that the consumer will not have to tape instruments in and to provide minimum hassle accessing the instrument. The shell of the case will be molded out of plastic and filled with high-density foam for protection. The use of plastic and foam will allow us to enclose a lot more of the GPS, as using carbon (for a case) blocks satellite signals if the antenna is at all covered.

To start we will be offering a case with the vario placed in front of the GPS. This is the opposite to what I have seen so far, we are doing this for a very simple reason, that is because it is more efficient. It seems to be much more pleasing to the eye to see the skinny GPS cutting through the breeze and then the larger variometer following in behind it. We will have the thicker wider vario in front and like any aerofoil taper it in, to the slimmer smaller GPS.

We are nearing completion of the prototype stage and are expecting to start production runs at the end of this week (April 7). I will send you the pictures and any other info that you may require then.

Discuss "Instrument pod⁣s" at the Oz Report forum link»

4 topics in this article: Barry Bateman, Instrument pod, Manfred Ruhmer, Tyler Borradaile

Dinosaur Meet – light and fun

Tue, Sep 7 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

While G.W. Meadows sent me an upbeat report after the second day of flying at Dinosaur, Colorado, at the Pre-All Americas Continental Championships, August 21-28, I didn't see any other reports about the rest of the meet, other than Dave Sharp's very slim message on the hang gliding mailing list. Now I've received the final scoring results and had an opportunity to speak with G.W. (on the phone, of all out-dated technologies), so that I can give a bit of a round up of what went on.

If you've flown in Dinosaur before, during the howling season, you'll be surprised to learn that conditions were mild to weak, with light winds. G.W. claimed that pilots said that the turbulence they experienced at Dinosaur was less than they experienced in Florida. I'm sure that Nancy Smith will be happy to hear this.

The major problems in the past with Dinosaur have been strong winds, winds over the back, over development on course, strong turbulence, and super strong conditions. While there appeared to be some concerns with over development at this meet (Monsoon season hanging on too long), it seems to have been nothing like previous years.

G.W. plans to hold a meet at Dinosaur next year, and is hoping that pilots will come once they hear that the prevailing conditions caused pilots to, for the most part, thoroughly enjoy the flying. The pilots who went to this meet are on a mission to tell other pilots about how great it was, so that more pilots will show up next year.

This year only 24 pilots came to Dinosaur, four of them rigid wing pilots. It is hard to justify putting on a major meet with 24 pilots. G.W. doesn't want to put on meets if pilots don't want to come to them.

My review of the results show that the tasks called at Dinosaur were often quite short, and involved flying out and return or triangle type tasks in front of the plateau (which indicate light winds). Here's a list of the tasks:

1. Task:.	Towers/Jenson/Dinosaur/Border 51.8 km.
2. Task:.	Towers/Massadona/Border 80.5 km.
3. Task:.	Tower/Dinosaur/Tower/Border 46.2 km.
4. Task:.	Start/Dinosaur/Massadona 47.4 km.
5. Task:.	Start/Dinosaur/Power/Border 72.4 km.
6. Task:.	Start/Maybell 90.5 km.

I have included the results below:

Rigids:

Name	Glider	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points
Sharp Dave	Air Atos	529	813	226	247	134	795	2744
Zeiset Jim	Guggenmos E7	616	560	66	112	52	337	1743
Yocum Jim	Flight Design Exxtacy	220	244	0	90	59	203	816
Austin Craig	Flight Design Exxtacy	107	0	0	82	63	375	627

Flexies:

	Name	Glider	1	2	3	4	5	6	Points
1	Lee Jim	Wills Wing Fusion	378	974	123	470	61	116	2122
2	Barber Mike	La Mouette Topless	311	725	74	417	45	176	1748
3	Martin Dustin	Moyes CSX	289	613	74	273	45	445	1739
4	Rewolinski Steve	Altair Predator	99	668	74	386	26	475	1728
5	Bateman Barry	Moyes CSX	134	649	39	300	44	556	1722
6	Sayer Wayne	Aeros Stealth	343	707	0	286	32	234	1602
7	Shipley Mitch	Aeros Stealth	165	780	28	398	36	139	1546
8	Williams Paris	Altair Predator	89	674	0	329	26	182	1300
9	Hagewood Bo	Icaro Laminar	156	396	61	0	30	456	1099
10	Kurth Simon	Altair Predator	167	433	0	224	45	192	1061
11	Rossignol Jersey	Aeros Stealth	352	116	75	159	44	255	1001
12	Giardina Chris	Aeros Stealth	113	151	0	234	26	402	926
13	Bittner Henry	Aeros Stealth	55	402	0	95	30	210	792
14	Schultz Eron	Moyes Xtralite	0	389	0	222	26	148	785
15	Sperry Carol	Aeros Stealth	113	350	0	75	26	80	644
16	Borradaile Tyler	Aeros Stealth	0	270	0	243	27	80	620
17	Hildebrand Judy	Aeros Stealth	55	192	0	57	26	163	493
18	Shiever Eric	Wills Wing Fusion	58	173	0	142	26	80	479
19	Meier Jamey	Aeros Stealth	0	158	0	100	26	139	423
20	Lindburg Jon	Icaro Laminar	0	66	0	95	26	93	280

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