Oz Report

Day Four

Ben Dunn|Danny Jones|Fred Kaemerer|Jim Yocum|Ken Millard|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Nathan "Nate" Wreyford|Rich Reinauer|Tiki Mashy

(regional airport, Wharton, TX, USA)

Larry Bunner writes:

Texas Go Long is full on with drought conditions making for some good flights. A lot of personal bests and many 100+ milers. Pete L and I teamed up and on day 1 flew ~130 miles to Madisonville, day 2 Robin, Mick and Rich Reinauer did the same to Madisonville, day 3 we set 300km to the NE and Pete and I made 290km on a mostly blue last 70 miles. Mick, Rich and Ken Millard also got close.

Tiki Mashy writes:

Go Long in Texas day 4 another great day!!
Robin 181 miles Palestine Tx
Ben Dunn Palestine Tx
Danny Jones Centerville, Tx
Jim Yocum 176 miles
Still Flying (still in the air) near Palestine,Tx:
-Nate Wreyford
-Fred Kaemerer

https://cuhanggliding.com/golongintexas/

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The Florida Competitions in 2021

The new meet organizer

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

Stephan Mentler <team> writes:

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

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

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

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

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

The comp organization email address is <team>.

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Supporting the Oz Report

Once again thanking those who have been especially generous

Ben Dunn|Glen Volk|Oz Report|Paul Voight|Scott Weiner

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Thanks to these special contributors: Paul Voight, Michael Duffy, Robin Hamilton, Luis Fernando Arias Restrepo, Glen Volk, Scott Weiner, Gregory Angsten, Koos De Keijzer, Ben Dunn, and Mick Howard.

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As you know, all we are asking for is a subscription payment of $20/year.

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Please, help us out.  Support something that you find useful so that it can continue to be there for you.

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Zac Majors is the 2018 US National Champion

This is my calculation and I don't think that it is official

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|Ian Snowball|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|Wayne Michelsen|Zac Majors

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race results:

The Pos column is the results of the race. The score column is the pilot's score the 2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race. The points columns is the NTSS points from the competition.

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results/task3767/comp/open-class

Partial results from the 2018 Big Spring Nationals:

https://airtribune.com/2018-big-spring-national-series/results/task3576/comp/open-class

Results from the 2018 Quest Air Nationals.

https://ozreport.com/22.127#0

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/results/task3172/comp/open-class

The top five finishers for the 2018 US National Championship:

Zac = 551 + 568 = 1,119

Robin = 386 + 660 = 1,046

Davis Straub = 387 + 466 = 853

Phil Bloom = 355 + 495 = 850

John Simon = 437 + 361 = 798

The procedure for determining the US National Champion:

A pilot's National Champion ranking is based on his/her total NTSS points accumulated in their best two US “National Championship Event” competitions for the current year.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The lift returns along with the high top of lift. No cu's, of course

Ben Dunn|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wayne Michelsen|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

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

I wrote in a review of the 2018 Big Spring Nationals that luck is an important part of a hang gliding competition. Today really illustrated that truth. Larry Bunner launched early and climbed up to 6,400'.

I launched in the tenth position with Gregg Ludwig pulling me behind his trike upwind and took me to a thermal where I pinned off at 1,600'. That thermal averaged 270 fpm and it got me to 5,700' (the first piece of luck). I had just a couple of other pilots with me in the thermal (none at my altitude) so it was no problem staying in the best part of the lift.

Four or five of us headed northeast against the 11 mph east wind and down to 3,100' (1,600' AGL) I found a nice thermal that averaged 450 fpm (second bit of luck). Robin came in under me and Zac, Dustin, Tyler and Mitch came over me. We all climbed to 8,000' with me ending up just slightly on the bottom. As I was climbing up I heard from Larry and he was landing back at the tow field having not found any more lift.

This was our task for the day. The forecast was for a strong east wind:

After topping out at 8,000' we headed northwest three minutes late for the second clock just the six of us with no one else around. This seemed like a good group to go with (third bit of luck) and I doubted that we would get any higher in the start cylinder.

I followed just behind and just below the other five pilots. I would do that all day. It was a 16 kilometer downwind glide to 300+ fpm to 6,700' before the turnpoint at Maricopa. A bit of nothing didn't work out after the turnpoint, but further south we found 280 fpm in a 15 mph east wind to 5,500'. We lost contact with Mitch at this point as he didn't connect well with this thermal.

At the second turnpoint we found 225 fpm climbing to 5,700' in a 17 mph east wind. I had now caught up with Zac, Tyler, Robin and Dustin, finding my spot about 100 feet below them. I would spot the best core just below them and they would use me as a sniffer dog to keep climbing at the best rate.

Heading north toward the three kilometer cylinder around Mobile and down to 3,200' I found a thermal that averaged 290 fpm and the four other pilots joined me as we climbed to 7,300' yet again in a 17 mph east wind. I had hoped to climb to 8,000' but Zac headed out and we all went with him.

After a 10 kilometer glide I was down to 3,600' (2,200' AGL) 4.5 kilometers from the edge of the goal cylinder at Estrella. The Flytec 6030 was showing a required L/D of 7:1 and I was getting 5:1 going into the 17 mph head wind. I felt a little lift and felt around going a bit to the north.

I found 460 fpm and took it way too high at 6,000'. That got me to goal in fifth position at 4,500'. The four guys in front of me found lift from four kilometers out and were able to stuff the bar in on the rest of the final glide.

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

Task 6:

Final Results:

None of the ATOS Class gliders made it around the task, but Peter Cairns from Australia won the day (his first win here) getting almost to the last turnpoint. Fred Kaemerer won over all.

Greg Chastain won the day in Swift Class and the competition ahead of Chris Zimmerman, Brian Porter and Stephen Morris.

Dave Aldrich won the last day and Matt Pruett won overall in Sport Class with David in second and L.J. Omara in third.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The weakness after the rain storm

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Greg Kendall|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

After I wrote about how good conditions were here (https://ozreport.com/22.189#3), they have turned to very weak after a deluge on Wednesday.

The pilot meeting was delayed for a late launch. The start window wasn't set to open until 2:30 PM with a short day forecasted. The task committee set a small task of 63 km:

The forecast for soaring indicated very poor soaring conditions. Pilots were not ready to launch at 1:15 PM. We stood around waiting for some sign that we should get going. Kevin Carter and Bill Bennett flew around but they weren't too inspiring.

Finally an hour later at 2:15 PM a few of us got dressed and that moved the crowd to get out of the shade and get to their gliders. I took off at 2:17 PM.

Jonny Thompson pulled me up and I didn't pin off until 2,000' AGL. There was very little lift. I joined up with Felix and Luke and we just hung in -30 fpm. Zac Majors came and joined us.

Luke drifted a little further east and found better lift and Zac and I joined him. We got up at 90 fpm.

We kept drifting further east at 9 mph and climbing to 4,100'. I noticed that we were right at the edge of the 5 kilometer start circle coincidentally it was about to be the second start time, 2:45 PM. One turn and all three of us got it.

Four or five pilots who had climbed up over launch came flying toward us as we headed out to the southeast. I followed Zac and Luke. Then veering off the course line to the south I found 35 fpm and that turned out to be the hot spot.

After a few turns to the south of me Zac came in under.  The other pilots trickled in. I climbed to 3,300', but something wasn't working. Zac was able to climb up through me even though I was right over him and lost 300' of altitude. I couldn't figure out what was going on.

I finally had to leave and head southeast to the Casa Grande mountains. Nothing there for me and I was soon on the ground.

Eleven pilots were able to continue in the air past the second turnpoint at Arizona City at 25.5 km out.

Task 4:

The scorekeeper needs to add 5 km to each of these distances.

Cumulative:

The ATOS and Swift class pilots passed on flying today, with only Rich Burton on an ATOS flying.

Only two Sport Class pilots got outside the start cylinder.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 4 prospects

Ben Dunn|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018

The big picture at 9:30 AM:

Satellite visible coverage:

Radar:

A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 90. West southwest wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south southeast in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Task cancelled at 9:54 AM.

At 11:45 AM the gust front hit:

Thanks to Ben Dunn for the photo at 11 AM.

At 1 PM from our balcony.

Discuss "2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Day 3 Cumulative Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

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

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

Open class:

Sport Class:

ATOS Class:

Swift Class:

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 2 results

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

You'll find all the results for all the four classes at the link below:

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

Task 2:

Cumulative:

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June 24, 2017, 4:42:40 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2017

Final Results

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Mike Degtoff|Wayne Michelsen|Zac Majors

North wind, with poor launch conditions. Only Christian launched. Last day (Saturday) cancelled.

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

I'd say an excellent competition, with four good launchable, landable, and flyable days. Certainly the best conditions I've seen during a competition at Dinosaur ever. No days where you got so high you absolutely needed the oxygen. No days where the cu-nimbs swallowed pilots. Racing conditions for the most part.

Zac at his landing spot yesterday. Photo by Majo.

June 23, 2017, 10:06:31 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2017

Results

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kevin Carter|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Degtoff|Pete Lehmann|Wayne Michelsen|Zac Majors

Jonny being teleported over launch. Photo by Mike Degtoff.

Christian was 400' to 500' below launch before he got up.

Chitty at goal:

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2017/results

Task 4:

Cumulative:

June 20, 2017, 8:13:49 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2017

Results:

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kevin Carter|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Wayne Michelsen

Ben Dunn landed a little short of goal:

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2017/results

Very preliminary results with many corrections yet to come

Task 3:

Zac made goal (NYP). Jonny Durand made goal (perhaps he missed the turnpoint). Ben Dunn landed near the goal. Kevin Carter landed a lot closer to the goal than the minimum distance.

Replay: https://airtribune.com/play/2595/2d

June 19, 2017, 7:31:24 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2017

Day 2 results

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Niki Longshore|Pete Lehmann|Wayne Michelsen|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2017/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers

A pilot had qualms

Dinosaur 2015|Terry Reynolds|weather

https://www.rockymountainglider.com/locale.html

WEATHER

(1) While no one would be so foolish as to guarantee the weather for any hang gliding contest, the period scheduled for this meet should yield seven straight days of outstanding flying conditions. The desert area around Dinosaur is not affected by the high mountain weather which makes many mountain sites inconsistent. (2) While a high mountain site could have a solid week of virtually unflyable conditions, it is unlikely that there will be even a single day at Dinosaur on which a safe, valid task cannot be called. (3) During the post-monsoon period of this meet, pilots can expect a weather pattern dominated by high pressure, with light westerly winds aloft and blue thermals/small cumulus. Climbs above 17,000'msl are normal.

The numbers in parentheses and emphasis added.

The pilot writes:

Terry Reynolds and Crew, Jim and Amy Zeiset, and all those vested deeply in Dinosaur 2015 should be applauded and recognized for their enthusiastic and significant effort in putting on such a comp from scratch. Events such as this are a labor of love and demonstrate both a philanthropic and historical support for the sport of hang gliding. They are by nature cash negative.

However, when will event organizers properly recognize the importance of meteorological assessments and strategies? Pursuits which rely upon harvesting energy from atmospheric discontinuities which is both reliable and safe must fully understand the scope and impact of these parameters.

Reading the paragraph about the weather from the Dinosaur 2015 website in advance (see above), and being somewhat familiar with the area, meteorological patterns, and time of year for this event, I bit my lip, sublimated the skepticism, and hoped for the best.

The good (1) and the bad (2), bad (3). Unfortunately my concerns about the conditions proved to be only too well founded. Congratulations to Zippie on another top performance and extending something of a real roll! Congratulations to the organizers for putting on a very special event at a special site. It's unfortunate that the weather didn't run against historic patterns, but it didn't, and that's like crying over spilt milk.

The message: Make sure events, sites, and meet practice synch with meteorological realities. Time is precious, as are the best and well-meaning efforts and lives themselves.

Discuss "Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dinosaur day 7 cancelled

Gail force winds force the end of the meet after three days of flying.

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Final:

Sport class final:

Kelley

Jim Yocom was the first of two ATOS pilots.

Dinosaur day 6 cancelled

Forecast for unpleasant conditions

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Discuss "Dinosaur day 6 cancelled" at the Oz Report forum   link»

30 mph gusts again forecast

Dinosaur 2015

Forecast here:

Isolated showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Breezy, with a southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS AFTERNOON…WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FORMING OVER THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE AREA. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

Forecast for Saturday:

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 5 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

Forecast by Rich Jesuroga. Tomorrow looks worse.

Discuss "Dinosaur - today's forecast" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Dinosaur day 5 cancelled

Windy with gusts to 30 mph

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

This Afternoon: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Glen sends:

And reports 30 mph gusts just as forecast. I wonder if there is anything to do in Dinosaur, Colorado.

From the cancelled day:

Discuss "Dinosaur day 5 cancelled" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Thunderstorms for the Yampa

Dinosaur 2015

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS MORNING AND SPREAD SLOWLY NORTH DURING THE DAY BEFORE DIMINISHING THIS EVENING. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

Discuss "Dinosaur - Hazardous weather forecasted" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

So few open class pilots

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/pilots

There are only eighteen open class pilots flying in the Dinosaur competition. But, fortunately there are eleven sport class pilots and two rigid wing pilots. This with a competition that promised in advance $15,000 in prize money and had lower costs because there was no need for towing.

Without the sport class this would be a very poorly attended competition. It is also a warning flag to future meet organizers that they should be careful about how many pilots might want to come to their competition and how carefully they should encourage sport class pilots.

It wasn't that long ago that there weren't any sport class competitions in the US. We have worked hard to turn that around despite lots of discouragement from old fart pilots who felt that this was a travesty. It has turned out to be very favorable to competitions and has been a whole lot of fun.

It's great to see such enthusiasm from these newer pilots and the fast learning that is taking place.

Discuss "Dinosaur - Thank goodness for the Sport Class" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The results

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 3:

I'm quite certain that Christian was happier to get his leading points than not.

Cumulative (well here's a little different outcome):

Only the best two scores are used. Clearly, so far, Zac and Glen are disadvantaged by this elimination of the worst day (perhaps they'll have bad days later), while everyone else was advantaged, especially Christian.

Four sport class pilots made goal. Kelly Myrkle is in the overall lead.

Zac tasks wins task 3

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook

https://airtribune.com/play/995/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_4

Zac in first, Glen second, Christian lands 9 km short. No one else in goal.

Dave Gibson makes it in later in third:

Nice looking sky. Thanks to Glen for his on the spot (goal) reports.

Discuss "Dinosaur - day 4" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Just like the good old days

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo

Jonny Durand «Jonny Durand» writes:

If you want to know why I was not in goal today it was because I was in front and at the last turnpoint I went to land because there was lightning and rain on course. Glen reports he flew through hail to make goal and win the day. I did the safe thing and turned around and landed away from the storm.

Every day of the 1990 Nationals at Dinosaur was like this. We didn't know any better then.

Good for Jonny making the safe decision. There is a reason I'm not flying at Dinosaur.

Photo from the first task.

Discuss "Dinosaur - day 3" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The results

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Rob DeGroot was the only sport class pilot to make goal on a Moyes Gecko.

Brian Morris on a North Wing Freedom 170 (single surface) is in first place over all with Kelley Myrkle on an Aeros Discus right behind him. There is a handicap.

Rudy second, Zac third, Christian, fourth, only seven in goal

Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

Jonny Durand, not in goal.

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Glen wins task 2

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Watch live tracking

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Christian 40 seconds ahead

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 1:

Notice that Arrival Position and Time points (the difference between the values given) are way more important than Leading points (where the differences are very small among the top five pilots).

Sport class: Most pilots not scored yet.

Zac and Glen first into goal

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/play/975/2d

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Over development - just like in the old days there.

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_1

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Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Dinosaur 2015 (see http://rockymountainglider.com) is a maximum NTSS points (600) meet (+$10,000 prize money). Also, at least fourteen Sport Class ($5000 prize money) pilots have signed up and more to come. Entry fee goes up August 1. Pilots registering and paying before then get an embroidered fleece jacket instead of a t-shirt. So far all entrants are foot launching, so too bad we built Dinosaur International.

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Dinosaur 2015

150 million years of soaring

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 ( http://rockymountainglider.com ) goes up to $425 August 1.

As anyone who has been part of organizing a hang gliding comp could tell you, it would be much easier and better for all concerned if competitors were able to plan ahead and pay the earlier, lower prices ($300 for Dinosaur.) For pilots registered and paid before August 1, the “T-Shirt Size” requested on the pilot registration form is actually for a nice fleece jacket (or vest, as shown) with “Dinosaur 2015; 150 Million Years of Soaring” embroidered around a pterodactyl and hang glider. Entrants paid after that date - we have to place the order - will get a t-shirt. Extra jackets for family, crew, etc. can be ordered by paid up pilots, before August 1, for $55.

The event is non-profit and any money left over will go to the Cloudbase Foundation.

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June 25, 2015, 5:15:33 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up July 1 to $400.

The comp was conceived last year to boost hang gliding through competition by providing a major foot launch meet in a proven location. (Although designed primarily as a footlaunch event, we built a runway just for this comp for those who prefer to aerotow.) While aerotow contests have evolved and been refined to a fine art, particularly through the work of Davis Straub and Jamie Shelden, large footlaunch comps in the U.S. seem to be a thing of the past.

Dinosaur 2015 aims to:

1) To attract the world’s top pilots - the World Champion and the U.S. Champion are coming;
2) To bring back former regular competitors - “The Jeffs,” among others, are coming;
3) To build on the well thought out efforts to encourage the Sport Class.

Most of the Sport Class pilots signed up thus far have never flown in either class of a major comp. Nothing changes the fact that only the individual pilot can determine what is safe or not for that individual pilot. That said, we are making special efforts to encourage and cater to Sport Class:

1) Ryan Voight, USHPA Instructor of the Year and experienced big air pilot, will teach a free clinic, including video critique of launches, onsite Friday and Saturday before the contest starts Sunday;
2) Sport Class competitors will drop their two low score days - bomb out or choose not to fly and you’re still in the comp!;
3) Jim Zeiset has pledged $5,000 prize money (split $3K, $1500, $500) to the class.

To register, and to see the answers to more questions than you thought to ask, please go to http://rockymountainglider.com.

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Dinosaur 2015

Entry fee rises soon

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Reminder, the entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up June 1. Please see http://rockymountainglider.com for more information and to register. Contact us at <rockymountainglider> with any questions, to volunteer, etc.

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Dinosaur fees to rise

March 31^st.

Dinosaur 2015

Terry writes:

March 31 is the last day for the Dinosaur 2015 early entry fee. Go to http://www.rockymountainglider.com/registration-fees.html to fill out your Pilot Entry Form and pay before the entry fee goes up!

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2015 Dinosaur

Registration is open

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Registration is now open for Dinosaur 2015. Open ($10,000 First Prize), Sport ($5,000 prize money) and rigid classes. August 30 - September 5. Dinosaur, Colorado. Please see http://RockyMountainGlider.com for complete information.

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Dinosaur 2015

Terry is up and going for it

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Tim Collard, longtime Colorado tow pilot, stood in for me with the Mayor of Dinosaur and a local rancher/county road grader artist building the new hang glider towing runway (1800' x 75') just east of town. While Dinosaur 2015 is being organized primarily as a foot launch contest, we want to provide an alternative for pilots who prefer to tow. The runway is within the same 10k start circle as the foot launches and a 2000' tow puts the pilot at the same altitude.

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/

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Dinosaur 2015

No longer restricted to kingpost only

Dinosaur 2015

http://www.rockymountainglider.com

August 30 - September 5, 2015

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Dinosaur 2015

$5,000 prize money for sport class

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

Terry<<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Jim Zeiset just kicked in another $5,000, designated for Sports Class prize money. This will be escrowed as will the $10,000 from us.

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Dinosaur 2015

King posted only - open and sport

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

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Linda Salamone holds one of her US Nationals trophies

The big picture

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Ben Dunn|Linda Salamone|US Nationals

Photo by Ben Dunn

2013 US Nationals

Matt at the hangar

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Ben Dunn|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|US Nationals 2013

SPOT Tracker for the meet here.

The results and SPOTS and teams will be up here: http://ozreport.com/2013USNationals.php

Matt Barker at the Big Spring airport on Tuesday afternoon.

Photo by Ben Dunn.

Relaxing before the flight in the air conditioned pilot lounge. Photo by Jonny Durand.

2013 US Nationals

The dry line, trough from the west, day 3, task 3, August 6h

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Pete Lehmann|US Nationals 2013|video

SPOT Tracker for the meet here.

The results and SPOTS and teams will be up here: http://ozreport.com/2013USNationals.php

Today's flight here.

Jonny's video coming soon.

With lighter winds in the forecast (11 knots south west) the task committee called a zig zag task:

The Sport Class task skips the zag off to the northeast to Tbar.

Larry was seeing the likelihood of clouds off to the west so he wanted us to go in that direction. Turned out he didn't see the forecast that showed a trough over there.

Pete Lehmann noted during the pilot meeting that the dry line to our west was already beginning to over develop. He had him go talk to the task committee. They didn't change the task.

As we prepared to fly, there were a line of cu's twenty miles or maybe more to our west. They were already over developing. The local cu's were just beginning to pop at 1:30 PM.

We are all being towed to the west of the airfield to keep away from the main runway and any traffic that might be there.

I pinned off at 1,800' in weak lift not near any cu's and just tried to stay up and slowly climb as I waited for conditions to improve. I was keeping an eye on the cu's getting thicker and thicker to the west and northwest.

It was a slow climb but I was happy to have it. I drifted north with a dozen other pilots but then three pilots peeled off and headed south including Mike Bilyk and Ben Dunn. I started to go with them then said to myself that that is nuts as we had only only twenty minutes to go before the first start time and with the chance of the task being stopped I wanted to take the first start time.

I headed north a few kilometers but still well inside the start cylinder to get under some nice forming clouds and Mitch Shipley went with me. The lift was still weak even under these cu's, so after a few turns we headed out to the better looking cu's at the edge of the start cylinder.

Mitch headed due north and tended from my perspective to be heading a bit east of the clouds. The cloud shadows were moving quickly from the west like the line of cu's to the west were coming toward us, but the winds at our level five thousand feet below the clouds were out of the south.

I went further west and found 200+ fpm, which was the best so far, half a kilometer inside the ten kilometer radius start cylinder. Mitch was turning in very slightly better lift a kilometer outside the start cylinder so I knew that he would have to come back to me. Jonny Durand had been hanging out under these clouds for a while and was a bit higher than us.

We hit the edge of the start cylinder at the 14:40 start time still climbing at 7,500' with cloud base at ten to eleven thousand feet, and then after a bit more climbing headed  northwest, west of the course line, toward the thicker cu's and the developing over development. We found 400+ fpm to 8,600' as Jonny held back.

We headed out again with Mitch a bit below me and again he headed more northerly while I wanted to get on the "upwind" side of the cu's forming west of us an he went to their northern end. I kept pushing to get under a westerly cu and then when I was far enough away from Mitch to not want to go back he found good lift.

I didn't find the lift under the cloud but there were plenty of wispies developing ahead to the northwest and thick cu's beyond the wispies so I plowed ahead getting under one after another and not finding any lift. I must have gone under half a dozen wispies.

Finally I was down to five hundred feet and no longer looking up but just feeling for lift over sun baked fields. I headed west southwest just feeling out something and found a broken 180 fpm. I was following the wind as it was being sucked into the lift and was southeast at 12 mph. It just carried me to the lift. The wind had gone from southwest to southeast the further I moved to the west and the lower I got.

I climbed out all alone after screwing myself, moved over further west to find 250 fpm then further north under thicker cu's to find 450 fpm to 9,800'. I could see rain to my west, just pockets of it and the massive shading to the northwest right along the course line from the cu-nimb west of La Mesa. The sky was full of fluffy cu's to the east of La Mesa and I was just southwest of Ackerly.

I headed northwest again along the course line toward La Mesa but I was getting nervous about all the development nearby. Before long I was getting rained on, but not hard. I was on the radio with Belinda to have her check with the drivers for the safety committee members to see if they were aware of the situation with the cu-nimb on the course line.

Finally I decided to head around La Mesa to the northeast to get over to the non shaded area and under the sky full of puffy cu's away from the cu-nimb. I kept watching the cu-nimb and talking with Belinda who could not raise any of the safety committee member's drivers on the phone. At 3:56 as I watched the gust front form about ten miles to my west lightning flashed right next to me. I told Belinda to stop the task.

Immediately after I did so Belinda was deluged by phone calls from other drivers with messages from their pilots that they were scared and wanted the task stopped. She told them that it already was. I headed further east and landed just a few miles east of La Mesa in the sun shine and as far away from the gust front as I could manage.

The task lasted 1:17, long enough to count slightly. The task scored time was 57 minutes reducing the task time by one start window interval (20 minutes). Pilots were scored manually by their distance at 3:37 PM. The day is worth a little more than 100 points.

Flying at Chris'

The video

(Chris`)

Ben Dunn|Facebook|video

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Facebook|video

http://youtu.be/HEVha84VWKM

A short video illustrating aerotowing, landing and circling north of Austin, Texas.

Chris Zimmerman landing video here by Ben Dunn (on Sunday).

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Didn't fly Sunday

Getting ready for Monday

(Chris')

Ben Dunn|record|video

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|record|video

Ben Dunn's here and Ricker Goldsborough. Apparently they are here because here is where it is happening. They could be down in Luling with Joel Froehlch, but they want to be where the action is.

Looking at the cumulus cloud forecast I decided that Monday was a better day to try for the record, so just went over to Chris Zimmerman's to help out. Chris, Ben and Ricker were going to fly their high performance gliders.

Ben got bumped off at 600' AGL, came in 300' over Chris' house and then climbed out only to land a few kilometers to the north in Weir. Ricker let go at 1,100' after suffering on tow and not too much later landed back at Chris'.

Chris had a decent tow and was high when we left to take Ben's truck to him. He might have had a chance to fly again.

The cloud base forecast for Monday looks good. The cu's here were much longer lasting than on Saturday but there was a lot of cirrus just on our southern edge that appeared to be killing the lift in that direction (not that we could go that way).  There were plenty of cloud streets and cu's to our north, but I was concerned that it would last.

Looks like it didn't:

What the cloud street looked like this morning: http://youtu.be/P5WR1Uf6f-4

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Blued out

The Saturday morning launch time was set for 10 AM

(Chris')

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|record|weather

This is what the sky looked like at 9:14 am:

The flight here.

SPOT here.

Live Tracker here.

We set a 10 AM launch time and I was ready at the end of the runway a little after 10 AM. Mike wasn't quite ready with the trike so I didn't launch until 10:20. Like the last two launches Mike suddenly dropped, I pulled the pin and landed on the runway. Fifteen minutes later I launched first again and this time Mike didn't drop and the tow was especially nice given how much work they are.

The cu's had thinned out greatly by the time I was towing, but Mike was able to take me to a cu and I pinned off at  1,200' in 67 fpm. The wind was 12 mph out of the south. I climbed to 1,800' drifting just past the airfield, then came back to it at 1,000' to get under a cu at 300 fpm.  At 11:07 cloud base was 4,300' and the wind was 17 mph.

Chris towed up behind me and I waited for him to join me so that we could fly for the record together. It wasn't long before he came in underneath me and we went searching for more lift. There were cu's forming and dying in the area, although it was sparse. I flew over the Walburg Mercantile Restaurant and Bier Garden, where Belinda and I were dancing the night before.

Chris and I worked a few thermals together then spread out south of Salado to go to the next cloud. There was a bit of miscommunication and then the cloud in front of us died, and I headed to the northeast to get under the cloud street and to avoid the forest that was to our north. I really wanted to go around Salado to the east and the cloud street was the perfect enticement.

There was a lot of sink on the way and I arrived over the open fields at 700' under the first cu's. It was 100 fpm. Chris was now behind me and lower and came in at 300' right below me. I got to see him dig his way out of a hole.

It was pretty incredible as I could see his dark shadow as he crossed over trees and a house always circling and very slowly climbing. After eighteen minutes and at 3,300' I decided to head to some cu's to the northeast. Chris, 1000' below me, followed as the lift was dying where we were. He ran into 900 to 1000 fpm down.

Chris couldn't make it up from 300' again and landed west of Belton. I found good lift above him and climbed back to 4,000'. Later Ricker would land next to Chris and Ben Dunn would come and pick them up as his glider had a little problem.

I was able to climb up to 4,800' and made the guide point at the Temple airport high. I was able to keep from getting low climbing slowly west of Moody while Belinda took a well deserved nap. The cu's were getting even sparser along the course line, but there were plenty to the east. I was concerned about going in that direction as in the end I would end up in either Waco or Dallas airspace.

I went north east for the last cu near the course line and it was smoother than the previous ones, which was a nice break. I even managed to miss the previous airspace at Crawford around George Bush's ranch. But as soon as I left the cu it was 700 fpm down almost all the way to the ground.

I landed just past the town of Valley Mills. So about a third of the distance needed for the record. The flight showed that we could launch at 10:30 AM and that the cloud base was high then and the lift was adequate to good.

I hope to go with Chris again soon. Maybe tomorrow.

It looks like we'll need to have cu's all the way on the course line. I'll be looking for that in the weather forecast.

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The winds of Texas

They set up and we fly

(Chris')

Ben Dunn|record

The flight here.

SPOT here.

A few days out it looked like Thursday (the day before the Solstice) would be the start of a whole bunch of good days with the high pressure centered in the Gulf of Mexico and the wind rotating clockwise around it. Like this (this morning):

The forecast for the afternoon looked like this:

Ooh, this is as good as it gets in Texas for long distance flights, still I was nervous about the forecast. Would we have cu's and cloud streets?

The over running was already here at dawn, just like in Zapata. There sure were clouds. But would they be there later?

The t-skew said that we had an inversion here in Georgetown and that it would continue until 1 PM. Would the cloud streets I saw in the morning dry up as the cloud base rose?

I was worried that the lift at 11 AM wouldn't be enough to keep us up, so called for a postponement of the launch until 1 PM.

Ben Dunn showed up along with his boss, Andy, and took the other Falcon 4 195 while Chris opted for a flight on his T2C.

I was first off and stayed on tow for five and a half minutes before I pinned off at 850 feet AGL. The thermal was only 140 fpm, but it was going up, it was wide, and I did not want to be on tow any longer.

The wind was 18 mph out of the south but the air and the lift was smooth. I stayed in what I had as I was concerned that with such a strong wind it would be hard to find the lift down low.

Meanwhile Ben Dunn had broken a weaklink down low but was climbing behind me. Andy decided after watching our tows to not risk it.

This towing with a weak trike in windy conditions on big Falcons is not for the weak of heart or inexperienced pilots. It is not fun. The bar is stuffed and you are fighting the glider that wants to go a lot slower.

The cu's had thinned out considerably but it was possible to see some cloud streets. I wanted to stay as far east as I could to keep away from the lakes and Fort Hood. The idea was to stay east of I35 until past Belton, where I35 turns further east toward Waco.

Ben got low and further west so I told him that it was still okay to go up the west side of I35. I headed east to the south east of Belton going for a big dark cloud. Unfortunately, it didn't work even though I tried it twice so I headed out east past the shadow and finally felt a little something at 750'.

Ben found lift behind me while I struggled to keep from landing as I drifted past Belton.  I had to go back up wind against a 17 mph in a Falcon 4 195 to find the better lift under a forming cloud and that got me up and high and away from civilization. Too many small fields.

The next stop was the Temple airfield. Ben was low at the airfield ready to land. I was high coming in west of him and east of the lakes. Ben ran into 700 fpm and climbed to 6,000'.

There was a nice cloud street out of Temple and I was just floating along high and going down wind with an indicated 20+ mph tail wind. The Falcon 4 195 looks awfully good when you're doing that.

The next waypoint on our route through and around the airspaces was McGregor another thirty kilometers to the north. There was a nice sparse cloud street to it which I was under but Ben was further east thinking that we had to stay near I35. He hadn't downloaded the waypoints correctly.

The cu's died past McGregor and Ben got low just before it and landed on the south side. I was high past the town but decided to go land with him. It was easier said than done against the wind. I flew back across part of the town creeping very slowly forward. When I got above the field that Ben had landed in and circled around and then went to the downwind side ready to come in but suddenly I couldn't move forward and was coming straight down toward some power lines. For a few seconds it got scary but finally I was able to move forward and land without incident (these are Falcons after all) in the field.

Looks like we'll try for the record on Saturday (Mike can't tow us early on Friday). The forecasts are incredible. There was a lot of rain from Waco north yesterday and that may have been why there were no cu's north of McGregor. There were still plenty of them by Georgetown when we got back at 7 PM.

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Flying around the Austin airspace

Flying late from Luling to Chris Zimmerman's

(Chris')

Ben Dunn

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman

On Sunday, Ben Dunn had a very late flight from Luling, south of Austin, to Chris Zimmerman's in Georgetown, north of Austin. The difficult part of the flight is making sure that you stay east of the Austin airspace.

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/2013/06/luling-to-chriss.html

Unfortunately we missed Ben as Chris had gone to Austin and we were back at our trailer just north of Georgetown.

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At Chris Zimmerman's

Ben Dunn towing on the Wills Wing Falcon 4 195

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Mike Degtoff|photo|tow|towing|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Falcon 4

(Chris')

Master tow pilot, Mike Degtoff.

Photos by Ricker Goldsborough

Lock Out

Ben Dunn

(Carter Memorial Airfield, Luling,+Texas)

Ben Dunn

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-couple-of-weeks-ago-i-had-experience.html

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GAP 2000, GAP 2002, and OzGAP 2005 and the 2012 Rob Kells Meet

(Florida Ridge, Florida, USA)

Ben Dunn|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|Claudia Mejia|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Greg Dinauer|Jamie Shelden|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Rob Kells|Zac Majors

It is possible to compare these three scoring programs applied to an existing competition after the fact. I originally used my scoring program in SeeYou using the OzGAP 2005 scoring equations, but I used FS to compare the three versions of GAP, as I am just in the process of developing a "leading" points version of my scoring program (to calm the overblown concerns of some pilots, and because I think I can).

Now the first objection to doing such a comparison, is that the pilots knew which scoring system was being used to score the competition so that they would adjust their behavior to optimize it for that scoring system. While I'm sure that they would attempt to do this, it is unclear to me if there would be any actual changes in their behavior based on what they assumed the scoring system would be rewarding. It was still get to goal as fast as possible as early as possible no matter which scoring system was being used.

The point of any points other than speed and distance is to get pilots going as early as possible and not reward as much the pilots who wait back in the start cylinder and then use the pilots in front of them to get to goal faster and safer. For the vast majority of cases the pilots who made goal started within one time interval of each other. Most often they started together.

So are the results different depending on which scoring system is used? Not for the first five pilots and only minor changes for the rest of the pilots.

The competition scored with GAP 2000 (departure and arrival position points) is seen here.

The competition scored with GAP 2002 ('leading' and arrival position points) is seen here.

There is no change in the order of pilots until the twenty third pilot out of twenty seven when Jamie Shelden and Gennadily swapped places.

The competition scored with OzGAP 2005 (arrival time points) is seen here.

The first swap occurs at the sixth pilot as Joe Bostik gets swapped with Chris Zimmerman. The second swap occurs at the tenth slot with Rick and Wolfgang swapping. Jamie and Gennadily go back to their original positions.

I would suggest that these changes are minor and that it really doesn't matter much which scoring system you use. That any of the three scoring systems are reasonable and close enough to point to the top pilots.

Discuss "Scoring a real competition" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The US National Champion won't be going to the Worlds

Because the US National Championship doesn't count

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Tom Lanning|US Nationals|Zac Majors

Here is what I think is likely the order in which pilots have been and are being chosen to be on the five or six member US National team to go to the Worlds in 2013 at Forbes, Australia:

In addition, Linda Salamone and Jamie Shelden will go as the female pilots. (Because of the severe restrictions on the number of pilots allowed to fly in the 2013 Worlds, women pilots will in fact take up slots that would have otherwise gone to national team pilots. It is not their personal fault that this is the situation.)

Above is the US ranking prior to the 2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Here are the results of the US Nationals that don't count for the US National team:

I believe that neither Ben, nor Chris, nor Greg, nor Dustin, nor Glen would go to Forbes any way. I could be wrong on that.

This is the US ranking after the Santa Cruz Flats Race:

Jeff O'Brien wouldn't go to Forbes.

41 Linda Salamone
67 Jamie Shelden.

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The task committee calls a short enough task

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Flytec 6030|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|weather

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results here.

Some members of the task committee were not pleased with my comments about them overcalling the tasks in the article above. But I pressed them somewhat harder today to have a task that brings more pilots back to goal. I was shooting for a 70 km triangle, but we compromised on a 79 km triangle.

I think in general that the task committee was calling too long tasks (except the second day) given the length of the day here in September in Casa Grande. We don't start the task until 1:40 PM (or 2 PM or 2:20), which would be 2:40 PM in an state with daylight savings time. The lift dies around 5 PM, so two hour tasks are appropriate here. All the tasks, other than day two have been much longer (in time and distance). Hopefully the next task committee here will remember that they just can't expand the task to meet their idea of what a proper task is, but will confine the tasks to race tasks that last two hours.

I'm just support for the task committee, and the task committee makes its own decisions, but I do have a voice and I'm sorry that I just wasn't pushing harder for shorter tasks.

The weather forecast was pretty similar to what we've seen here every day but the second day, with no cumulus humilis clouds, very light winds (we've had them every day). The lift would again be weak to begin with around noon and get much better around 2 PM. The XCSkies models (NAM and RAP) are completely incorrect when it comes to calculating the lift (1,100' to 1,200 fpm) every day, so I've given up on them and just use the FSL t-skew (RUC2 model) to get a idea of where the lower inversion will be and when it will lessen. I also get the winds from FSL.

When the extra sunlight and heat (104 degrees, five degrees warmer than normal) on the ground we still have pretty decent lift, and it gets a lot better over a little higher ground.

There were cumulus mediocris in the area shading some parts of our course line, but we weren't worrying about the lift.

I took off at 1:15. The first clock was 1:20 and the last one at 2:40 PM. We added a few extra start times to allow for the fact that one of the tugs was down. Obviously I was not going to make the first clock.

I pinned off at 1,100' AGL in light lift with a few pilots around. It was nice to see that there wasn't just one thermal. The lift was weak as normal but it was no hassle to climb to 4,400'. When the lift slowed down I headed east toward four or five pilots turning about 4 kilometers east of the launch area.

The lift was weak there also but I was at the bottom of the thermal with no one to bother me. The wind was 2 MPH, so it was easy to stay inside the start circle, so I just hung in there. The rest of the pilots left except for Matt Barker and we just stayed in the lift by ourselves and in the perfect position to start when ever we wanted.

As we climbed up over 4,500' many of the pilots who were circling well to the west of us came in under us. The lift was pleasant and without any interference I could thermal as tight as I wanted. As 2 PM approached I saw Rich and Nils go for it. I figured I was on top of the thermal with two other pilots out in front of me, so why not take this clock and let the others follow.

We worked some weak lift on the way to the Casa Grande Hills on our way to the first turnpoint at Arizona City. I was thinking of going back, but the others continued so I went with them.

I found 300 fpm at the south end of the hills and Nils and Rich joined me along with Miller in an ATOS. That was the lift that really got us going as it took us to 6,000'. The turnpoint was to the southeast.

It was nice to find 300 fpm right at the turnpoint, very convenient. Rich headed off to the east of the course line, which I couldn't figure out. Nils stayed behind as I glided toward the black rough low hills before the next turnpoint at Baker to the south west. Rich came in under me as I turned in lift before I got to the hills, but he was now much lower.

I glided over to the hot rocks and found 250 fpm from 3,500'. Rich was really low behind me and I think that I saw him land. Nils came in under me, Miller was way behind. I climbed to 4,500' and then pushed further into the hills to get better lift. But what I got was 900 fpm down.

Finally I had to run away from the high ground to get out closer to the flats in case I didn't find anything. Fortunately down to 2,800' there was 250 fpm that got me to 5,400'. Miller came and joined me. I lost track of Nils and Rich.

I raced over to get the 3 kilometer radius turnpoint and came back to the lift. I lost Miller and climbed back to 5,000' before heading to the no mans land back on the hills to the north. I was ready to run back to the landable and roaded areas to the east if I got flushed again, but on the sunny (west ) side I found 400 fpm to 8,100'. This was the last leg and the numbers were positive for goal thirty kilometers to the north back at the Francisco Grande.

There were still some little  black hills ten kilometers further to the north that I wanted to hit before I went on final glide. The lift there was only 200 fpm, but it got me back to 7,700' twenty kilometers from the goal. I was alone and had been for a while.

I went on best glide, not willing to pull in the bar unless I was in sink. The 6030 said I had it by 2,000', but that kept dropping as I continued on. There was no lift worth turning in, so I just kept the glider at best glide continually watching the vario screen.

I came in with 580' and got to swoop over the hotel to the entertainment of the spectators including Belinda. I was second in right after Pedro. It sure was nice to have a day off yesterday.

The sky was filling up with high thin clouds, and more cumulus mediocris. It got darker and darker as pilots from the later clocks started coming in. Zac had landed before the Baker turnpoint. Dustin landed a few kilometers short. Jeff O'Brien made it in as did Robin Hamilton.  Matt Barker, in third place, landed just short, to his annoyance. Nils landed a little after I did.

The last task:

Total

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2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Ben Dunn and Dangerous Dave make goal, I take a rest day

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Paul Voight|Robin Hamilton|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|Zac Majors

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results here.

The forecast was for better conditions than the day before, but still weak until 2 PM, but no mid or high level clouds to reduce the radiation. A five knot wind out of the northwest.

Jonny Thompson towed me right up a little before 1 PM and dropped me in a nice thermal that turned on and allowed us to climb to 4,400' seeing 20 second average rates of over 500 fpm. It looked like the day was going to be much better earlier than forecast.

But than that stopped. I went on a six kilometer glide searching for the next bit of lift before finding 35 fpm. Then 100 fpm which soon turned into 45 fpm to 4,000'.

It was one big ugly gaggle in weak lift. I tried to stay down just to keep away from other pilots. Finally I decided to run away from the stress and head back to the launch area as this thermal was already taking us out of the start cylinder and not getting us very high, and there were way too many pilots in it.

Gliding back I was 2.5 kilometers from the launch area and at 2,700', in 50 fpm. But the best part was that I was by myself. Dangerous Dave followed me, probably not liking the gaggle all that much, but hit a little bump and got a bit higher, so he wasn't bothering me as we had the area to ourselves.

The others were slowly climbing outside the start circle and few if any were in a position to take the 1:40 PM start clock as conditions were still weak. There was a nine mph northwest wind and I was climbing so slowly that I was almost back out at edge of the start cylinder at barely over 3,000'.

I headed back toward the launch area, but now with a thousand feet less than my first attempt to get there. I had been hoping to go back and relaunch. Now I was down to 600 feet AGL, 1.8 km from the launch, and 1.4 km from the area where I needed to get to to relaunch. I found 13 fpm and hung on.

Unfortunately I again drifted away gaining very little and wasn't able to get back for a relaunch, landing short.

Meanwhile the race was on for the stupidly long 124 km task (why the task committee insisted on a long task, in spite of Zac telling them that pilots wanted a shorter task, I do not know). The first turnpoint was 40 kilometers to the southeast to Eds. Pilots would fly over the Casa Grande hills and as forecasted get to 11,000'. This was a great altitude for just nearby small hills.

The second leg was up the mountains further east giving pilots the chance to get up better there. O'Brien said that it was rough 300 fpm and the same gaggle was there as had been the case from the beginning of the flight.

Once pilots got the second turnpoint at Cactus they were to head twelve kilometers to Valley turnpoint in a effort to put them in the dry areas north of Casa Grande for the leg back to the Francisco Grande. By then the short day was getting late. Soon Zac and Filippo were on the ground. Zippy was tweeting.

Dustin, Jeff an a few other pilots shaded to the north of the course line to get over the hills. That strategy didn't work out for them. I assume that Ben and Dave went straight along the course line back.

Jeff landed fifteen minutes before sundown and I was out there to get him having rested in the afternoon.

Task 6:

Total:

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2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The high level clouds, that weren't in the forecast, call for some uncertainty in the task

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Gulgong Classic 2012|Jeff O'Brien|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|Zac Majors

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results here .

We saw the clouds early in the morning. There was a disturbance to our south in Mexico where the forecast called for rain and thunderstorms. The local forecast and soaring forecasts don't take these clouds into account, so we have to be a bit careful in choosing a task.

It looked like there would be some good lift, although quite weak and low early, before 2 PM, due to the lower inversion that would gradually lessen. There would not be any cu's in the area, but if the clouds that we saw in the morning didn't block the sun too much, it would get to 102 and that hot plate on the ground would let us get high.

The task committee called a 81 kilometer triangle in the hopes of getting most of us back to the Francisco Grande, irrespective of the uncertainty in the forecast. We'd head south over dry ground to Sunland, then north northeast to a spot on Interstate 10, then northwest back to a spot six kilometers beyond the hotel and then back to the hotel.

Right after the Swifts and ATOSes launched we could tell that the day was weak and low. They were only getting at most 2,000' over launch. This slowed everything down as no one wanted to launch. It took another half hour before pilots basically had to start launching.

When we got into the air it was still weak. For the first twenty minutes after I was pulled up I slowly lost altitude until I was down to 1,700'. Then I and almost everyone else finally found a thermal that was slightly better than 100 fpm. The problem was indeed the middle level clouds that were shading the ground right along our course line and near launch. They were the thickest clouds in the sky and really cut into the lift.

But as we hung on in light lift the clouds were dissipating and moving to the west opening up our course line to direct sun light and giving us a little boost. We found a thermal at 117 fpm that drifted us slowly out of the start cylinder after 2 PM. We left at 5,200' and  raced back at 2:20 to get the last start time and then raced back to our thermal and climbed back to 5,300' before gliding out on our first leg.

I went out early following Fillipo and Ricker toward the hills south of Casa Grande. Ricker and I and I think Robin or Kraig didn't find anything until we got to the south end of the hills and then worked 165 fpm in broken lift back to 4,800'. Dustin, Jeff, Greg, Filippo and others came in under us after working poor lift east of the hills.

Ricker, Robin, Kraig and I found a 175 fpm thermal that was drifting at eight mph toward the south just to the west of the turnpoint. We started at 3,200' and I left the thermal at 5,200' to go back and get the turnpoint, which was only about half a kilometer away. I then headed out in front northeast toward the next turnpoint cross wind to the nine mph northwest wind.

Out in front I found the best thermal of the day so far, 400 fpm at 3:15 PM, fifty five minutes into the task. I climbed to 6,200' and at about the top of the thermal Robin, Kraig, and Filippo came and joined me at my altitude. Dustin and Jeff were stuck back at the turnpoint. Zac was out ahead having taken the second clock.

The four of us headed for the next turnpoint which by then was only eight kilometers away. We stopped for a 180 fpm thermal, and then proceeded to the turnpoint. We were all together at the same altitude and working together. It this point I made a slight error that cost me dearly.

I saw Rich Cizauskas, who started earlier, turning higher a quarter kilometer up the course line and went to him, but he immediately stopped and pressed forward. I went back to my buddies, but they were now 200' over my head. This made all the difference later.

We all pressed ahead after a few turns and with Rich found a strong thermal two and a half kilometers up the course line. It was 300 fpm and it got me to nine thousand feet as it drifted us back downwind of the turnpoint. Lots of other pilots came in way low below us, including Jeff and Dustin.

When I was at 8,500' Kraig, Robin and Filippo left heading up the course line. I had the opportunity to follow them below them, but as I did I found more lift and hung around for another 500'. I lost track of them and was on my own as I headed out. I should have just waited for the pilots below me to catch up. It was getting late as I left the thermal at almost 4 PM and the day shuts down early here on real sun time.

It was a tough slog against the ten mph headwind. I found 300 fpm south east of the hills south of Casa Grande to get to 8,300' but that wasn't enough to get me back around the course. Robin, Kraig and Filippo made it around together to finish first, third and fourth, with Zac at second.

Task 5:

Robin Hamilton moves decisively into the lead.

Totals:

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2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

We went back to the mountain

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Flytec 6030|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jeff O'Brien|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results will be here later.

O'Brien's photo of Dustin over the mountains northwest of Casa Grande, north of the Estrella airfield from Tuesday. Phoenix is in the background,

Matt Barker landing out on Tuesday not long before sunset.

Glen Volk on task committee was anxious to get us back on the mountains again after we got the good lift there yesterday, so the task committee came up with a out and return task to the mountains and back without all the extra turnpoints that kept us away from home base at the Francisco Grande yesterday.

The forecast was similar to the day before, with no clouds in the forecast for the flats, but some likely over the mountains, light winds and it looked like better lift later in the day than Tuesday. We could get to 12,000' if we went to the mountains.

We moved the launch open earlier to give everyone a chance to get the first start clock, but as predicted the lift was light and low at first (the FSL t-skew showed that it would improve later). But everyone stayed up, although the tows were a bit longer, and those of us who got to launch later found slightly better conditions.

The lift was only 150 fpm for the longest time. I launched a little after 1 PM and it wasn't until 2 PM that we finally found a decent climb. At that rate we were again forced to take the last start clock at 2:20 PM. But we had climbed to 9,400'. The glide to the 5 km entry start cylinder brought us down to 7,600' and we glided 20 kilometers before we found the first thermal, just east of Maricopa.

The lift was weak and low as were transited Maricopa and made our way to the mountain. Dustin and Jeff were just ahead. I was hanging with Fillipo, and Zac had started earlier and was struggling on his own.

I pushed ahead toward the mountain range at 4,000', a little higher than the day before over the area with only  few dirt roads abutting the mountain side. As I got close I found strong lift and Fillipo joined me. I heard from Jeff that there wasn't much lift along the range, so we stayed in our strong, 500 fpm, lift to 7,400', which put us high over the mountains.

As we raced down the range, Fillipo and I could see Jeff, Greg Dinauer, and a few other pilots far below struggling to get back up on the sunny side below the tops. We took the turnpoint and came back to join them in strong lift that put us just below them, with Zippy three or four thousand feet below us.

We all (other than Zippy) stayed in that thermal until it got us to 12,300'. The 6030 was telling me that we had goal made from there, by over a thousand feet at best glide, but it was 45 kilometers away. The winds were light at 2 mph out of the northwest, a slight tail wind.

When the lift finally got weak and broken I took off behind Fillipo. Jeff and Dinauer were still a hundred feet or so over my head. As I went on glide my ground speed went from 40 mph to 24 mph, with my air speed at 39 mph. Up at the top of the inversion there was a head wind of 14 mph, as forecasted. The FSL t-skew called for a strong east south east wind right at the inversion and only there. And we hit it directly as we headed west southwest.

My 6030 went bananas as my height above goal went from over 1000' to minus 6000'. It was relying on the current wind measurement (which you can override manually) to calculate my L/D to goal (about 6). I couldn't figure it out for a while then I remembered the forecast and Dustin came on the radio saying that he saw a 20 mph head wind.

The head wind stopped as I got below 10,000', but that head wind really made life difficult. It was a long way to goal and we weren't sure that we would get any lift on the way back. I had told pilots that I thought that they could make it back from the mountain to goal if they left with 12,000'. Now it looked a lot more difficult.

Things improved out on the flats, but it was still a twenty two kilometer glide until we found the first lift. Fillipo had been out in front and getting low. I had lost track of him. But I suddenly saw him to my left climbing over the Wal-Mart on the southeast corner of Maricopa. I and all my friends joined him as we climbed up from 5,000' to 6,200' at 130 fpm. The 6030 was saying that I could get to goal, just barely, and we had a 4 mph tail wind.

Matt Barker was just next to me and my altitude. Jeff and Greg just 200 feet above me. Ricker in front and lower. Fillipo a little higher. We went on glide to goal with it showing 15 to 1 to make it and a positive number for best glide.

Jeff, Greg, and Fillipo made it in. Jeff just barely. Then really barely Ricker and Matt crashed it in at the radius of the cylinder. I landed 1.2 km short of the cylinder radius, but had a nice landing. Matt turtled the glider and Ricker came in sideways.

A fun day, a little disappointing on the final glide. Great to get out to the good lift and great to have some of it in the valley and before we got the mountains. Dustin landed short as I believe Zac did also.

Task 4:

Total:

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day three, task three, Tuesday

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

http://www.livetrack24.com/tracks/username/davisstraub

SPOT Tracks: http://tinyurl.com/scfr2012

Results will be here later.

Mike Bilyk's photo of Jeff O'Brien, followed by Joe Bostik and Matt Barker on Monday.

I looked at the XCSkies and Dr. Jack forecasts and to me no matter what they say about 1,100 fpm to 1,200 fpm lift it looked like a weak day much like the first day, and not at all like the second day. I accepted the forecast for light winds (which matched what we were seeing from our balcony). I didn't see much of a chance for cu's in the valley, but possible over the mountain.

The main issue would be the low inversion that would be quite definite at noon at 5,200' and would gradually become less drastic during the day but would be enough to keep us from getting high, again out in the valley around Casa Grade. It just did not look like we would get up to the higher inversion unless we went to the mountains.

In spite of my sour news the task committee called a task a little longer than the first day, and as you recall no flex wing made it in to goal on that first day. The nice aspect of the task was that it took us to the mountain range north of the Estrella glider port, which got us to 15,000' last year and allowed pilots to get back to goal without any lift in the valley on the way home. Today it looked like we could get to 11,000' or maybe 12,000' on the range.

As I had forecasted (looking at the FSL t-skew) the lift was capped at less than 6,000' and the climbs were quite weak around the launch area and to the north toward the 5 km entry start cylinder at Bon, an intersection just before the Phoenix Regional airfield, which, btw, isn't near Phoenix. We were searching or gaggling up, or bouncing around waiting for something good to come along. It didn't.

It really did us no good to try to wait out the poor lift because it never got any better.  Most of us left at the last start clock at 2:20. It would have been better to be on the course at 1:40 so that we would have had a chance to complete the task before the lift gave out as the sun headed south (actually west).

We all started off low, less than 5,000' and headed up the highway to the northwest toward Maricopa. We found weak lift and slow climbs to less than 5,000', just as we had ever since we launched. The lift was smooth enough to be pleasant, but we just were not getting up.

After a 150 fpm climb over Maricopa I headed west from 4,200' along the highway toward the Estrella airfield. Seven kilometers later I was down in 1,900', 700' AGL. I was trashing about not able to keep up with the lead pilots, who weren't doing all that well either just in front of me.

I felt a little tiny piece of lift over a field north of the highway that had already captured one pilot and would soon be home to a couple more. With Alex McColluh just a few feet over my head I started turning in light sink searching around for something more useful. After ten minutes I was down to 400' AGL before I actually was able to connect to something positive and I slowly worked it as it improved (or actually as I found the better portions of it) and after a total of twenty five minutes of just holding on to give myself a chance I was able to drift away from the field at 3,600'.

The field was next to the east/west highway, but my  task turnpoint was to the north past the mountain range rising up quickly behind me. I was still low going toward the range and was in full search mode trying to find a little something that would get me a bit higher on the flanks of the rocky ridges before I left the fast rising desert floor. I had a plan to land back on the floor if I got low, but it would have been down hill in little to no wind and as I approached the hill sides I noticed that they were full of large standing cactus which would have proved interesting. Of course, there was only a rough dirt road any where nearby.

I found a little bit of lift and drifted further toward the rocky outcroppings and then finally committed to going in close to them at 900' AGL. Fortunately, there was indeed lift where there was supposed to be on the sunlit rocks and I started climbing at 200 fpm. Starting at 2,500' I was low on the sides of the mountain and it took a while to get over the ridge line at 4,000'. I scooted further north below ridge height to find better lift and was rewarded with again 200 fpm, but a better shot at the ridge top.

Once on top of the ridge the lift kept increasing and it wasn't long before I was in a 600 fpm smooth core to 9,700' slowly drifting north a mere kilometer away from the 45 kilometer radius turnpoint cylinder. I went and tagged it, came back and climbed under a very nice cu to 10,900'. I knew that there would be little to no lift back out in the valley after 4:30 PM, so the point was to get as high as possible as this would be the last thermal for the day. It was a lot cooler up there.

I went on a straight glide toward the turnpoint into light winds gliding at best L/D. My hope was the no one would make goal so that fact that I was way behind them would not matter. It was a 40 kilometer glide to the last turnpoint and I could see that I I needed a little more than an extra 3000' if I wanted to make goal. It was done last year from 15,000', but I knew that I couldn't make it from 11,000'.

Fifteen kilometers out from the turnpoint I noticed O'Brien, Matt Barker, Greg Dinaur, and Robin Hamilton way to the east of me on a parallel glide just slightly above me also heading for the turnpoint. I was shocked to see them as I felt I had gotten way behind. Eight kilometers from the turnpoint at Interstate 8 and Stanfield exit, I came in a couple of hundred feet under them. They were turning in zero sink.

I didn't find much and went on glide getting to within five kilometers of the turnpoint. Robin and O'Brien, and I assume Matt landed near the turnpoint getting the furthest for the day. Other pilots had tried to use the small hills to the right of the course line for additional lift, and as was the case last year they didn't find any.

Brian Porter made it in in his Swift. Bruce Barmekian was about a mile short. Brian left the mountains at 9,000' with his instrument telling him he could make it to goal. Bruce left with 10,500', but like some other misguided pilots didn't take the direct route to the turnpoint, but shaded to the left to search for lift in the hills.

Day three:

Totals:

The Santa Cruz Flats Race doesn't count

Who doesn't want the SCFR to count for the 2012 US National Team?

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paris Williams|USHPA|US Nationals|Zac Majors

It has been asserted by a USHPA board member that of these ten hang gliding pilots:

Four of the top ten would like SFCR to count for the National Team selection. Three voted to not allow SFCR to count for the National Team selection. Three would have voted yes if there was no opposition, but choose to vote no since there was opposition. Therefore the majority are saying do not allow it.

If this is true, this would indicate disgusting behavior on the part of six of these pilots. But it is not necessarily true.

The US hang gliding competition program is a fragile construction. It relies on interested pilots, competition meet organizers, meet directors, tug owners, tug pilots, scorekeepers, volunteers, the town of Big Spring, and last and least on the USHPA Competition Committee. If we don’t support meet organizers we won’t have a competition program. Both Jamie and David have spoken recently about not continuing to run their three competitions. The fourth main competition relies on Jamie’s Race and Rally to be viable.

We all need to support Jamie and to support her 2012 US Nationals competition at the Francisco Grande. If we are selfish and do not look out for all our fellow competitors we will not have any competitions to fly in.

It would not leave a good taste in our mouths if any pilot (much less six) made life difficult for Jamie, and therefore for all of us.

Every year all the sanctioned hang gliding competitions count for the National Team selection. Only because of a glitch in the rules (that no one other than Zac Majors caught) would it be the case that the SCFR doesn't does this year.

It was reported to me last night that the USHPA Competition Committee voted to not allow the SCFR to be used to selecting the US National team for the 2013 Worlds. This totally sucks.

2012 Chelan Cross Country Classic

After Thursday's results

(Chelan Butte, WA, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chelan XC Classic 2012

Ben Dunn flying a Northwing Liberty 148.

Ben Dunn <<ben.a.dunn>> sends:

2012 Chelan Cross Country Classic

Wednesday's results

(Chelan Butte, WA, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chelan XC Classic 2012

Ben Dunn <<ben.a.dunn>> writes:

Pilot blew a launch yesterday and was airlifted out. We wish him well with his recovery.

http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/jul/04/hang-glider-injured-today-chelan-butte/

2012 Chelan Cross Country Classic

Monday's results

(Chelan Butte, WA, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chelan XC Classic 2012

Too windy on Tuesday to fly (thanks to Ben Dunn):

>

Pictures here.

After Rob Kells

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|David "Dave" Wheeler|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Greg Dinauer|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Rob Kells|USHPA|Zac Majors

(Florida Ridge, Florida, USA)

Thanks to Dave Wheeler

USHPA ranking after the Rob Kells meet: http://www.ushpa.aero/competition/ntss1/index.php

Joel and Ben

Hang Gliding Instruction in Texas

(Luling,+Texas)

Ben Dunn

http://www.thermalridersllc.com/

USHPA ranking for 2012

Only your best two meets from 2011 count

(USHPA headquarters)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|CIVL|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Rob Kells|USHPA|US Nationals|Zac Majors

The ranking will be as of January 1^st, 2012:

http://ushpa.aero/compresults.asp

Notice that the Rob Kells Meet, the Santa Cruz Flats Race, the Big Spring US Nationals, and the Flytec Race and Rally are the meets that counted in 2011 (you can click on the many links above). No non US meets brought any points to this ranking despite their high value (600 NTSS points). There is always a trade off of high value versus tough competition. These domestic meets should also be important in 2012. The Santa Cruz Flats Race and the US Nationals in Big Spring attract high valued US pilots without bringing in high valued international pilots who reduce one's chances to grab 660 points as Jeff O'Brien did this year at the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

The Florida meets are always high valued as international pilots attend (it's cheap to fly from Europe and the Americas and there aren't conflicts with meets near them). The Santa Cruz Flats Race attracts California pilots as it takes place seven driving hours from Los Angeles, so you can expect good pilots there. Big Spring has the best, strongest, and most consistent conditions with substantial community support, so it is also attractive to many US pilots.

Dustin won the Brazilian Nationals (one of the three meets that count for the Nationals) in August, but likely because of continuing political conflicts in Brazil with respect to CIVL/FAI payments, the Brazilian pilots (and Jonny Durand) didn't bring enough NTSS points to the competition (500) to give Dustin enough points (550) to surpass his 587 points from the Santa Cruz Flats Race. The Forbes Flatlands was not counted at all despite being worth 600 points (due to the high level of the competition).

Will it be worth it for US pilots to go to Forbes for the pre-Worlds at the Forbes Flatlands if they are going there basically for the NTSS points? The US has three competitions worth 600 points and in 2012 we could easily have four. It is much less costly to go to these competitions then to go overseas. It is more difficult to get the highest number of points at an international competition due to the competition from other high level pilots.

Of course, there are other good reasons to go to Forbes for the 2012 pre-Worlds including practicing flying there in anticipation of flying there during the Worlds in January, 2013.

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The results

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Alex McCulloch|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Gary Solomon|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Greg Kendall|James Stinnett|Jeff Chipman|John Hesch|Jonathan Dietch|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The results

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kraig Coomber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The results from the fourth task, top ten.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26822852/SCF2011/Results/T5/Flex_T5.html

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A low scoring day

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Brett Hazlett|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Upwind and back to the west

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Chris Zimmerman|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The task and flight here.

http://www.livetrack24.com/

http://www.livetrack24.com/live_show_track.php?user=davisstraub&2d=1

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

The forecast for the third day, Tuesday, was similar to the first two days, but for the wind being light but steady out of the west northwest at six or seven knots. In actuality, it was never that strong and did vary in direction, so that the day did turn out to be similar to the previous days.

The task committee (Kraig, Larry, and Dustin) called an out and return task, one we've done before as you can see above. We normally go to Bon first to keep us out of the green cultivated fields to the south of the highway.

We started launching half an hour later at 12:30 after the weak conditions on Monday. I wasn't able to launch until almost one o'clock and the lift was good then. Dustin called O'Brien and I on the radio and said that there was better lift to the north of the start cylinder near the open pit mine, so we joined him and climbed up to over 8,000' just in time to take the first start clock at 1:45 PM. O'Brien, Dustin, Glen, Mitch and I were all together high and it appeared as though everyone else was much lower and not ready to start.

I headed out first again as the others kept holding back and I get impatient to go. But I flew as slowly as I could at best glide only so that they would catch up to me. But they were all very tricky and flew slowly also. Damn.

We kept on gliding and Dustin said that there was a rigid wing ahead circling. They had a start time half an hour before ours. We glided to the feedlot where the ATOS was turning but the lift was weak. We took a few turns and then pushed ahead toward a dust devil that quickly disappeared. So we had to continue pressing ahead and getting low.

Dustin said that someone was turning over Maricopa and down to 1,000' Dustin and O'Brien over me found the lift, our first real thermal since we left the start cylinder twenty two kilometers back. We climbed back up to 7,200' before heading for the feedlot to the south of the sailplane port at Estrella where another ATOS was circling.

O'Brien and Dustin found better lift earlier and I lost physical contact with them. Glen was  just behind me climbing a little better and Mitch was with me. Mitch went back to Glen, but I thinking that I could find some better lift and catch up with Dustin and O'Brien, didn't go back to join up with Glen and Mitch. That was a bad mistake.

Heading out at 6,800' well below Dustin and O'Brien at 8,000' I kept leaving okay lift looking for better (Dustin mentioned 700 fpm) but not finding it. This put me lower and lower and by the time I got near Mobile, the outer turnpoint, I was having to stay in 30 fpm to stay in the air.

It was touch and go for quite a while as I drifted away from the turnpoint without getting it, low and in very weak lift. Finally I had to go back and get the turnpoint and there I found 200 fpm which got me up and out. I circled up with a buzzard side by side the whole way. We had a great time together in the mellow air.

After getting up I headed back to the little hills south of Estrella to find more lift. As I got to the hills I saw three gliders on the hill side right next to each other. It looked like they had landed between the cacti. It was Joe Bostik, Kraig Coomber, and Robin Hamilton. They had left Estrella coming out to the further turnpoint, barely made it over the hills and not finding any lift landed on the west side, looking for all the world like they had come from the west and just were stopped by the hills. They weren't near any road.

Once I got up on the hills I headed south along the range in order to find some lift and get up and then go north to get Estrella. There wasn't any lift for the next three kilometers to the south. I found out later that the lift was in the slot to the north where I had much earlier seen Jim Yocom turning very low. I should have gone toward Estrella and just a little north of where I came into the hills to get up. Who knew?

Not finding anything but the weakest lift all along the hills I went out into the flats to follow a bird that was turning but the lift was too weak and I landed at an abandoned air strip.

O'Brien and Dustin got high thirty kilometers out from goal, and at 13:1 with a slight tail wind went on final glide. Three kilometers out they were still at 13:1 but a little too low, and this was the first lift that they had found at 100 fpm. They took a couple of turns and got in, Dustin first. Glen came in a little later from the north having taken a route that put him on the hills north of Bon. Ben Dunn and Chris Zimmerman were the only other pilots at goal. Mitch landed ten miles out.

The Gaggle test worked fine today and Belinda was able to sit in the hotel room and follow my progress before she had to leave to get Jochen and then me. Many pilots just made the first turnpoint at Bon. Bill Soderquist had three tows and never left the start cylinder.

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2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Landing out hurts

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

Ben Dunn|Bill Soderquist|Brett Hazlett|Chris Zimmerman|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

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Quite valid

(Big Spring, TX, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Tom Lanning|USHPA|US Nationals|US Nationals 2011|Zac Majors

http://ushpa.aero/competition/ntss1/index.php

Going to the 2011 Worlds at Montecucco, Italy

The last pilot chosen (so far)

(Sigillo,+Italy)

Ben Dunn|Glen Volk|Larry Bunner

I was informed (by Flavio and Claudia) on Friday, June 17^th that I was eligible to go to the 2011 Worlds and was now on the pilot list. I was the eighth US pilot made eligible to attend the Worlds. I was ranked ten in the US at the end of 2010. Two pilots ranked higher than me (Glen Volk and Ben Dunn) decided not to attend the 2011 Worlds, most likely for reasons of time and expense.

I immediately accepted the invitation and within a few hours paid the full bill (the sum of the deposit and the balance, plus 5% for PayPal) and registered and confirmed my registration.

http://www.cucco2011.org/

The original additional slots were made available when not enough pilots signed up for the Worlds with the national teams limited to six pilots each. The overall limit was 152 pilots. The first round for additional pilots allowed Larry Bunner to join the US team. A second round occurred last week when the Guatemalans withdrew (and perhaps another pilot or two). I made it in as the last pilot to be selected to fly in the Worlds (so far).

Because I'm heading to the Worlds I'll be able to report on it in the Oz Report. I'll also link to all the pilot blogs that I am aware of.

Over subscribed, six over the fifty pilot limit

(Florida Ridge, Florida, USA)

Allen Stanish|André Wolfe|Ben Dunn|Brett Hazlett|Campbell Bowen|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Erick Vils|Filippo Oppici|Flytec Race and rally 2011|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Jack Simmons|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|John Chambers|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Julia Kucherenko|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Lauren Tjaden|Mike Glennon|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Nick Purcell|Ollie Gregory|Patrick Kruse|Raul Guerra|Roberto Nichele|Robin Hamilton|Tom Lanning|Zac Majors

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

Tom Lanning
Jochen Zeischka
Curt Warren
Dave May
Dustin Martin
Filippo Oppici
Kraig Coomber
Jonny Durand
Roberto Nichele
Dean Funk
Mark Frutiger
Alex Cuddy
Larry (Killa Bee) Bunner
Ricker Goldsborough
Mitch Shipley
Davis Straub
Mike Glennon
Joe Bostik
Ollie Gregory
Patrick Kruse
Jeff Shapiro
Greg Dinaur
Allen Stanish
Charles Allen
Bill Reynold
Kathryn O’Riordan
Zac Majors
Glen Volk
Carl Wallbank
Lauren Tjaden
Brett Hazlett
Andre Wolf
Derreck Turner
Jim Prahl
Linda Salamone
Jim Ramsden
Chris Zimmerman
Ben Dunn
James Stinnett
Kris Grzyb
Erick Vils
Cedrick Vils
Greg Chastain
Kevin Carter
Raul Guerra
Francesco Rinaldo
Campbell Bowen
Nick Purcell
Jonathan Kinred
Robin Hamilton
John Chambers
Julia Kucherenko
Francois Veronneau
George Adams
Jack Simmons
Eduardo Oliveira

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USA team in Montecucco

Thanks to Flavio Tebaldi

(Sigillo,+Italy)

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Flavio Tebaldi|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Zac Majors

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Flavio Tebaldi|Jack Simmons|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Zac Majors

Taken in the square in the center of town right after the awards ceremony:

Jeff Shapiro, Dustin Martin, Jeff O'Brien, Zac Majors, Ben Dunn
Jack Simmons, Davis Straub, Derrick Turner.

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2010 pre-Worlds at Montecucco

Final results

(Sigillo,+Italy)

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Pre-Worlds 2010|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

The US Team final results:

Manfred, Jonny, and Mario, first, second, and third.

Italian, Austrian, and French teams, first, second and third. US tenth.

US team members won two out of four days.

2010 pre-Worlds at Montecucco

Fly or Die

(Sigillo, Italy)

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Ben Dunn|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davide Guiducci|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Francesco "Franco" Rinaldi|Franco Rinaldi|Icaro 2000|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Pre-Worlds 2010|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://www.cucco2011.org/
Wills Wing pilots' blog
Jamie Shelden blog /task tweets here
Jamie's tweets
Jonny Durand's blog here.
Corinna's Sky here
Rod Flockhart

The flight and task.

Cloud base was below launch as it had been most of the day as we drove up. The temperature dropped to 16 degree Celsius by the time we got to launch. It looked like a leisurely setup was in process.

I set up and then went around talking to various folks. Heather scowled at me from a distance. Most everyone was in a buoyant mood after two days of not flying and it looked like we would be flying. We just had to wait for the cloud base to lift.

The pilot briefing was postponed twice to 1 PM. The task and safety committee meeting was dragging on. As the cloud base lifted a cu-nimb formed behind launch. Would the cloud base be too low or would the lift be too powerful?

The task committee called an 81 km task up and down the range, with the last turnpoint out where I had recommended, after  a few days previously they put the northern turnpoint back over unlandable territory. It was great to see that after thirty pilots claiming that that turnpoint placement was unsafe, the meet director, Franco Rinaldi, insisted that they not use it for this task.

I decided to launch early. We had an hour and a half before the start gate. I went up to the front of the line but let a couple of pilots get in front of me. When Alex Ploner decided to go in front, I decided to launch after him. I got to miss all the later hassles at launch.

The wind was from the north northwest, but it was coming up the south west face very lightly. You could see the cloud shadows racing crosswise to the launch from clouds only two thousand over launch. I went further down the hill to launch, and had a nice long run and a sweet launch into light lift. There were already pilots turning out in front of me.

I worked my way south as we had thirteen to fourteen kilometers to go to get to the edge of the five kilometer start cylinder. There was lift all along the way to cloud base, and I had to pull in hard at one spot to be sure to stay under 6,000'. When we got south far enough along the ridge we were away from the air space so we could relax and not worry about it.

Pilots were flying on the ridge within the five kilometer start cylinder then coming back to six or seven kilometers out and getting back to cloud base at about 6,500'. We were just waiting around, but to our north there was a cu-nimb and rain was dropping 10 km north of launch. It would later rain on launch. We had a turnpoint back at launch.

The cu-nimb built as we waited just outside the start cylinder. Soon we were on the last cu's on the edge of the cu-nimb. It had suppressed all the other cu's closer to it. The minutes were ticking down as we waited to head south which was free of cu-nimb activity. Another cu-nimb formed east of launch and it was dropping rain also.

The safety committee was busy on the radio discussing stopping the task. It was very close. It could have gone either way. But the south looked good and the cu-nimb was still to our north. Lots of pilots were very concerned that they would soon be sucked up by the approaching cu-nimb.

I headed back into the hills two kilometers outside the start cylinder to get back to cloud base but at about eight minutes before the start window opened I noticed that a couple of pilots were getting up upwind further out into the valley and a bit closer to the start cylinder. I pushed out up wind, got into the lift and began to climb in a perfect location, right at the edge of the start circle. In fact a quarter of each circle that I did was in the start cylinder.

My timing could not have been more perfect. I was right on the start cylinder climbing at an average of 500 fpm and just as I got to cloud base at 6,800', the start window opened. I was just outside the start cylinder and went in sixteen seconds after the start window opened at cloud base.

As I raced ahead I saw Jonny just to my left and Manfred just to my right. We had all just been at cloud base.

We found a little bit of lift with Dustin at nine kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder after getting the first turnpoint at the center of the five kilometer start cylinder and then further down the course toward a mountain side five kilometers. Jonny was finding a slightly better line than me and out gliding me and everyone else. Jonny, Dustin and Manfred with me just below them came into the hill side and found 400 fpm. Everyone else was behind and below.

We showed everyone the lift and climbed up above the hillside and were working our way to cloud base. The two Jeff's with a dozen other pilots had stopped behind us, but I told them what was ahead. They came over and found 800 fpm 400 feet south of our 400 fpm and we flew over to the top of them.

At cloud base at 7,500' it was a quick run a few kilometers to the south to get the second turnpoint and then head north. I had lost a few spots but was running well in the top ten. We came back near to the spot where we got up previously, but I didn't see any good lift so kept going. There were plenty of markers coming the other way out ahead.

I could see out in front of me that the whole valley was dark, shaded by the cloud cover. The cu-nimb by launch was gone or would soon be. There was now rain on the west side of the valley to my left. It didn't look like there would be much lift along the western facing flanks of the eastern hillsides of the valley, with all the shading.

I headed a couple of kilometers further west than most of the leading pilots going for a dark isolated cu that I saw a pilot who was heading south turning under. This looked like the last cu before the uniform dark sky and shaded ground. I figured that getting high under that cloud might be a good idea because we might not make it to goal.

I climbed to 7,000' and then headed up the range. There were lots of pilots below me as I passed them and just kept gliding looking for some lift. I figured with it so dark I would have to take much weaker climbs. My next climb averaged 150 fpm.

The lift was weak along the ridge line in the dark, but I did find spots of 150-200 fpm. I worked my way north finding lift here and there and gliding in zero sink when I didn't find lift. I had gliders around to help spot the lift.

The sun came out near the launch and the lift got much better. The next turnpoint was the launch and I found 300 fpm by the towers just before launch and climbed to 5700'. I was just outside airspace. I could see on my 6030 that I had goal made but just barely through the next turnpoint. I went on glide along the ridge tops toward the cemetery just out in the valley. As I got close to the turnpoint I could see the pilots in the lead gaggle a ways below on final glide.

I hit the turnpoint, when back to the ridge line, now below the top and hugged the hillside most of the way going back to goal at the standard LZ in Sigillo. It was great to finally make it into goal at this contest. 98 pilots joined me.

After the second and furthest south turnpoint Dustin flew straight for over thirty kilometers hoping to find one good thermal to get him to goal. He landed at goal without making the last turnpoint.

Jeff O'Brien outraced Manfred and Christian to win the day. That makes two days out of four that Americans won the day. Jeff Shapiro was in sixteenth.

USA TEAM on the last day:

Last day:

2010 pre-Worlds at Montecucco

The first and second task

(Sigillo,+Italy)

André Wolfe|Ben Dunn|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Icaro 2000|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Julia Kucherenko|Manfred Ruhmer|Pre-Worlds 2010|Primoz Gricar|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://www.cucco2011.org/
Jamie Shelden blog /task tweets here
Jamie's tweets
Jonny Durand's blog here.
Corinna's Sky here

Results:

Day one:

USA results, day one:

Another great task up and down the range with a little kicker that has been deemed unsafe as there were few if any good landing areas near the second turnpoint. The forecast was for southwest winds at six knots at 4,000' with moderate lift to 6,000' to 7,000'. There were supposed to be some cu's and there were a few scattered here and there, but not as many as the day before, when the forecast was for none.

We launched from the main Montecucco launch facing southwest. The launch conditions were again superb and there was lift out front right away so it was easy to get up a little ways at least and then go searching for better. I was quickly able to climb to 5,800' and then head south to get to the edge of the start cylinder which was twelve kilometers from the launch.

Getting there was a bit difficult and getting in place in time was a chore. None of us (US team) were ready by the 2 PM first start clock which turned out to be a mistake as the first eighteen pilots in took the first start clock. We should have launched earlier and not waited for half an hour before suiting up and then launching with only a half hour before the first start time.

Going south down the ridge was a piece of cake. When we got to the end we raced out into the valley to get the turnpoint thirty eight kilometers south of launch, then raced back to the ridge to find the lift. Like yesterday it was weak once again at the hill side on the return and we had to hang on in light lift for a pretty long time to get back up. Once up it was racing back to the north to try to get within striking distance of the fast guys.

Julia came in under me after the turnpoint and I flew with her the rest of the way almost back to the launch, thirty six kilometers. She is easy to spot with little outlined rabbits on the top of her sail.

Dustin got on the radio and said that the turnpoint was in an unlandable canyon so get high before going over to it. Later Shapiro got on the radio and said that he was low in front of a ridge west of the turnpoint. I was back at launch and working my way up Montecucco itself. It had good lift but I was worried about being under airspace (I 'wasn't). I pulled out at 5,850' and headed north toward the turnpoint. Shapirio said that he was up and going for the turnpoint.

I headed north keeping the valley on my left side and hoping that I wouldn't lose too much height before jumping over to the turnpoint to the northeast. I didn't get any lift and was not willing to go back to the turnpoint with no landing areas beneath me. I went to the same ridge that Shapiro climbed up at but it was fifteen minutes later and the lift had died.

Numerous pilots complained that the task was unsafe due to the call for the turnpoint in unlandable area. Of course, if you found lift on the mountain side which was the turnpoint, then it was no problem.

Manfred won again with Alex second and Elio third. See the results for the second task at the official web site.

pre-pre-Worlds on Montecucco (Cucco Mountain)

We fly a task on the ridge line

(Sigillo,+Italy)

Ben Dunn|Derrick Turner|Mike Glennon|Pre-Pre-Worlds 2010|weather

We had ourselves a real flight on Wednesday. We being the Jeff's, Raul, Derrick Turner, Ben Dunn and his dad, Tim, Mike Glennon, Wolfi, and numerous others. The forecast for 4,000' had been for light northerly winds turning to light westerlies by 2 PM. There were plenty of cu's but the lift seemed sparse around noon as we got to launch. Plenty of pilots had set up but only a few were launching.

The winds were actually quite strong on launch, but not so strong that we couldn't setup on the west side of the road. Other pilots set up behind the road in the more protected area. Wolfi launched and did a series of low passes over the almost flat launch so it looked like it was time to launch around 1:30 PM.

The hill side is quite dry and almost flat. But with the breeze coming into the hill side you just wander off into the wind and it picks you up and you float away in smooth air. A bit disconcerting because you spend so much time next to the hill at first.

We headed south right after launch to find the thermals. They were weak at first but then I spotted Tim climbing below us back north toward launch. Once I got over him the lift rose to a smooth and fully packed 800 fpm and I called over Shapiro and others. We quickly climbed to cloud base at 7,800'.

Having found the good lift earliest I headed out south with Raul just behind. I had set a 107 kilometer task, with a thirty kilometer leg to the south, then a fifty kilometer one to the north then back to the Sigillo landing field. The sky held plenty of cus' and we were high on the north/south ridge line.

The lift had been very pleasant over launch but as we headed south the lift became less so. There were plenty of thermals on the west face but they weren't as smooth as one would like. There was quite a bit more wind than had been forecasted.

Twenty six kilometers south the valley narrows. The turnpoint that I had chosen from the maps was ten kilometers to our east, downwind away from the valley. The winds had picked up to seventeen mph and the turbulence was not a bit pleasant. Heading upwind to get more out in the flats away from the hillside did nothing to ease the turbulence at the end of the valley. We were talking on the radio about what to do next, as no one wanted to go downwind to the turnpoint.

I decided to head back north toward the launch and Derrick and the Jeff's also turned around running away from the worse of the turbulence.

It was easy flying the face of the ridgeline and sometimes there was even pleasant lift to thermal in as we headed back. The Jeff's hugged the hill side flying fast and low and only stopping now and then to thermal up a bit. I kept further out in front of the hill and climbed up at the wind mills ten kilometers south of launch. I wanted to be west of the venturi that I had experienced on the way down south just north of the wind mills.

Shapiro and I decided to head for the LZ and O'Brien headed back to launch. I went out into the valley but the turbulence was still the same. It didn't matter if you were in the" flats" or on the ridge. It was the winds mixed with the strong thermals.

Raul decided to head west to Gubbio as we came over the LZ. I watched as Shaprio got down. I had trouble getting down as I found lift all over the valley. I was right over the LZ as Jeff landed. I could feel the thermal that he was in as he tried to land. He said that he felt as though he could have turned at twenty five feet and gone back up again. He mentioned how rough the LZ was.

I was looking at other areas to land, maybe next to where we are staying at the Alba Rosa. But I was really hoping for a wind sock as the winds kept switching.

Finally the lift slacked off a bit and I was able to make a reasonable approach with a west wind. Unlike when Jeff landed it was coming straight down the LZ runway. I came in and it was smooth as could be. In fact, starting with my landing and thereafter the LZ was smooth and friendly to the landing pilots.

The pilots who flew north first instead of south as we did reported significantly less turbulence. They flew to the northern edge of the ridge line, about twenty kilometers. I had set a turnpoint a bit further north than that for our task. Eduardo from Brazil, had gone eighteen kilometers downwind wind to the east and was contemplating going to the coast which is about eighty kilometers away. There are not any airspace issues if you go due east from launch. He was able to get high and fly back against the winds to the Sigillo LZ.

On Thursday the Jeff's went up to launch around 8 AM knowing that the day would be blown out. They flew one glider (O'Brien's) taking turns, then O'Brien flew down after Shapiro top landed a few times and drove the car down. There was plenty of wind up top (45 km/h) but none next to the Alba Rosa as O'Brien landed next to our Agriturismo.

Local weather.

Texas Single Surface Shootout

Six days in a row of taskable and flyable weather

(Carter Memorial Airfield, Luling, Texas)

Ben Dunn|Dragonfly|Joe Evens|Kamron Blevins|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|sailplane|Steve Burns|Texas Single Surface Shootout 2010|video|weather

http://soaringspot.com/2010tsss/

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

We missed one day because we didn't believe. It got good between two thirty and three PM on that day, when we thought it was going to rain. I looked at the satellite photo on Monday night (last day of the Memorial Day weekend) for 12:30 PM and sure enough there were cu's over Luling.

Texas is undoubtedly the best place to fly competitions in the northern hemisphere summer as it has the most consistent conditions, has wide open areas for flatland flying, has friendly thermals, high cloud bases, consistent cumulus development, can be flown in high wind conditions easily and safely (and aerotowed in such conditions), is open in all directions, has plenty of open airspace, millions of friendly and safe landing areas, and fine Bar-B-Que when you get home. The thermal resources there are being way under utilized. There is nothing in the world that compares to Texas when it comes to hang gliding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45DFVyriVI0

I very much appreciate the good work and strong vision that Joel Froehlich showed as the meet organizer and local instructor. I look forward to big things coming from him. It was great to see Steve Burns down there having a great time flying the Dragonfly. Rodger from Lookout Mountain also. Thanks to all the Texas pilots (even Ris, who was out at Luling helping and towing and flying his hang glider) for their support of this competition.

Luling got a nice economic hit from the pilots, but we've got to get the City Market to serve us dinner. This fabulous Bar-B-Que place closes at 6 PM (takeout?). The local HEB had cherries and grapes for me. The town is full of fruit stands which are fantastic and there are melons galore. We brought one out to the field one day and everyone got to have a nice chunk of it.

For the most part the farmers and ranchers were nice to us when we landed out. We had some spectacular flying, flying over 1,400 km on single surface gliders. I didn't feel a bit handicapped by the "lower performance" gliders. One day I was able to complete a task at 22.3 mph, which is in the range of topless gliders.

Here is a different view of the Carter Memorial Airfield and the surrounding countryside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTM3a_gVXME

You can watch this in HD.

I was lucky enough to make the fewest mistakes during the competition and because I was having such a great time and enjoying the air conditions so much I just didn't want to come down until I had gone as far as possible as fast as possible. I had a great time team flying with Ben Dunn and Joe Evens and they really helped out, especially the second to last day.

I got quite fortunate to have good positions in the start circle and benefitted greatly from having a superior glider. Thanks to Kamron Blevins, the owner and designer at Northwing (see the ad) for the use of his glider in trade for the ad. Kamron wants to make the highest performance single surface glider and it would appear that he does indeed do that. I assume that other manufacturers say why not just take the next step and make an easy to launch, land and fly double surface glider like the Wills Wing Sport 2. No wonder Kamron sponsored a single surface competition where you can't fly your Sport 2.

I hope that this idea of single surface (and Sport Class) competitions (and portions of competitions) really catches on because it is great fun and reduces the barriers to entry (new pilots can get in on the fun without years of training). Competition is the key to the health of the hang gliding community because it builds community and skills and is so much darn fun.

The Texas Single Surface Shootout is featured here.

One innovation (the sailplane pilots have been doing this for years) that worked out quite well at the competition is getting pilots to download their instruments and have the software (GPSDump or FlyChart) create their IGC files for them. They then emailed me their IGC files. This was a great hit with the pilots because it meant that they didn't have to come in to "pin in." They called in so that Joel knew that they were safe and retrieved, but they could send in their file at their leisure from their location and not have to be someplace at some time. Most got their files in by 10 PM.

We will be going to this system for all the upcoming hang gliding competitions in the US. I will be teaching pilots how to do it (bring you laptops, netbooks, cables, and software) at all the competitions until everyone is up to speed. We will be further automating the scoring and internet reporting system as soon as we can get pilots doing everything correctly.

So tell me, why are pilots going to World Class competitions in areas where the weather usually sucks?

Discuss "Texas Single Surface Shootout - reflections" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Lots of cu's but very light lift

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Dan Bereczki|Davis Straub|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Jeff Hunt|Joe Evens|Kent Robinson|Texas Single Surface Shootout 2010

(Carter Memorial Airfield, Luling, Texas)

http://soaringspot.com/2010tsss/

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

It looked from the forecast that it would be another day like Friday with a higher cloud base, maybe up to 8,000', very light winds, 97° on the ground, and plenty of lift. As this was the last day of the meet the task committee decided to call a double out and return task of twenty six miles, with the first turnpoint out to the northeast, then back to the airfield, then another turnpoint out to the west northwest, and then back to the airfield. No one would be too far away.

The cu's started late like they had the day before with high bases. We again waited until 2 PM to open the launch window.

I was first in line again as others were not rushing to get going. The wind was light out of the south. I was hauled up by Rodger in the more powerful tug this time to the field to the north and I pinned off at 1,900' AGL in good lift. The lift averaged over 300 fpm and I climbed out quickly to 5,800'. It looked like it would be another strong lift day.

My plan was to wait around up at cloud base for everyone else to get going and see who I would fly with. I was hoping for Joe and Ben to help out with the day. I was trying to move them up to second and third place. That was our goal for the day. I was so far ahead that I would really have to fall down hard to drop out of first place.

Joe got let off below me and was climbing well but his radio wasn't letting him transmit. Ben pulled the pin at 800' AGL under me but the lift wasn't there and he had to go back and get in at the end of the launch line. He would be the last person to launch.

Planes kept flying into the airfield which disrupted the launching a bit, although we were off to the side of the runway. I was waiting for Ben and couldn't see Joe any more. I would find maybe 40 fpm, maybe 80 fpm under the nearby cu's over the airfield, just to keep me near cloud base, but no one else was getting up at all. Only Kent was beginning to get up as I watched Chris not climb up and everyone else was low.

Finally around 3 PM, after an hour of hanging around at cloudbase Kent finally made it up to my level. No one else was nearby, Ben finally got his second tow up. Kent headed out toward the first turnpoint so I decided to go with him as there was no one else around. I would have much rather gone with Joe and Ben.

We headed out at 5,400' and two miles out Kent found some light lift under a cu. The lift was less than 100 fpm and we got back up to 4,400'. Kent headed toward the turnpoint and got lower but I saw a nice cu to the southeast and decided to give that a try just to be safe. I found 74 fpm under it on average and only got back to 4,200'. I then saw Kent turning just before the turnpoint and going up fast. I raced toward him and the turnpoint.

It was only a mile and a half to the turnpoint but I was down to 2,000' AGL when I got the turnpoint and then went under Kent. The lift averaged 140 fpm but I was only able to get back to 3,600' before I lost it as it broke up. There were little bits of forming cu's down the course line and I was drifting further and further to the north away from Carter in the five mph southwesterly wind.

I headed for the haze dome looking cu's but didn't find any lift and landed a third of the way back to the airfield. Kent had gotten up well and was working in the general area that I had flown to, but I didn't see him.

Ben was on the radio and near me. I saw him, Joe, Chris and another pilots off a few miles to the northeast low but turning. Joe and Ben got up but Chris and the other pilot did not. Ben told me that Chris, who was in second place, had landed, having gone a shorter distance than I. It was obvious that the day was difficult.

Ben and Joe got up a bit and flew south coming to right over the field that I was breaking down in. Joe and Ben circling up over that field four or five times each time being blown back to the northeast as they climbed up. They were over that field for half an hour.

Finally they both got to 4,500' and headed southwest and were able to climb in the next thermal to 5,600'. They then went on glide getting the airfield turnpoint and then gliding for a total of eight miles without finding any more lift. They made it two thirds of the way to the next turnpoint. Joe was able to win the day by a tenth of a mile over Ben, so that five different pilots were able to be day winners. Kent made it back to the airfield and a little beyond.

Given the difficulty of the day and they fact they no one made it very far, even with our low GAP parameters ( 40 km), the day was devalued to a little less than 400 points. Still there were enough points to allow Ben who was fifty points behind Chris in second place and Joe who was a hundred, to move up one spot each.