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topic: Dean Funk

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A few comments on JD's analysis

Fri, May 20 2022, 6:42:47 pm MDT

Why did he take the time to look at this issue?

cloud flying|Daniel Vélez Bravo|FAI Sporting Code|J.D. Guillemette|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

JD writes:

The thing is I first reviewed the track logs from day one to see if my perception was correct. Turned out, I was wrong.

So then I looked at day 3 expecting to see Velez way above everyone by 1200' and cloud flying, that was the rumor. Instead, I saw him just a bit higher than others and presumably by himself in the blue. After reviewing the replay it changed my mind of what happened and felt I needed to point it out and squash the rumors.

Like JD I also looked at the pilot's track logs. I used SeeYou, which normalized the data, so that all the pilots altitudes were comparable. I was the pilot A in JD's map. I found cloud base to be 5,100'. I found that at his highest Daniel was at 5,236'. I also found that Daniel was over 4,000' to the east of pilots C/D, away from the cloud.

Should the 200 point penalty that Daniel received be rescinded and he be given the 10 point penalty as per CIVIL Section 7A rules?

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Cloud Flying »

Fri, May 20 2022, 6:40:21 pm MDT

A careful look at the data

cloud flying|Daniel Vélez Bravo|FAI Sporting Code|FS|J.D. Guillemette|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

JD Guillemette writes:

My take on the Daniel Velez incident on Task 3 of the Wilotree National.

Daniel Velez was penalized 200 point on Task 3 for cloud flying and/or being too high above cloud base. Some estimates were that he had taken 1200ft unfair altitude advantage and he had an unfair advantage all the way to the 1st turn point.

I want to first say that I do not condone cloud flying, it’s dangerous, in violation of Federal Aviation Regulations and unsportsmanlike.

I have reviewed the replay of the pilot's track log IGC files from Airtribune and all the altitudes are the raw data as reported by the trackers and was the data used for scoring. Because the altitudes are not normalize , i.e. every pilot's launch altitude it not set to the actual GPS altitude which was the same for all pilots, there will be discrepancy if the same data is normalized with SeeYou, FS, or other programs due to altitude correction at launch.

To start the analysis we need to estimate cloud base. There were two clouds of interest that pilots were thermaling under. One cloud was near the edge of the start cylinder with Pilots A and B (among other) and another cloud to the Northwest with Pilots C and D (among others), please refer to the location map.

It’s difficult to determine the actual lateral boundaries of the clouds, but the center to center distance between the two thermaling groups is about 2.6km. Between time –00:08:04 (8 minutes before the start gate at 2 PM) and –00:06:28 pilot’s A and B maximum altitude was 1591m (5220’) and 1587m (5207’), we will assume that they were not cloud flying and this is the approximation of cloud A/B base. Between time –00:04:37 and –00:03:50 pilot’s C and D maximum altitude was 1535m (5036’) and 1543m (5062’), again assuming they were not cloud flying, we can assume this is the base of cloud C/D. There is already some degree of uncertainty of the cloud bases as they varied, but for sake of argument cloud base is between 1535m (5036’) and 1591m (5220’).

At time -00:01:25, Velez reached a max altitude of 1669m (5476’) at the location show on the map. He was right about equidistant between the two thermaling groups, and by his own admission higher than cloud base and not in the cloud with the cloud wall to his West. But how far to his West? Without knowledge of the actual lateral boundaries of the two clouds we don’t know for sure, but assuming a cloud diameters of 1km centered over the two thermaling groups, it’s mathematically possible that Velez was at least 2000’ laterally from either cloud. If so he may not have violated the Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) of 500’ under and 2000’ to side of a cloud.

At time -00:01:00 Velez stopped circling and proceeded to the edge of the start cylinder about 1km away. He crossed the start cylinder at Time +00:00:05 at 1595m (5233’) altitude. If we use the higher estimate of cloud A/B base (which was the cloud closer to the start cylinder) of 1591m (5220’), Velez started the race at 5 seconds past the first start gate at cloud base altitude, a near perfect start!

Between times +00:01:02 and +00:01:32 a large gaggle of pilots including pilots from cloud C/D crossed the start cylinder at altitudes ranging from 1231m (4039’) to 1325m (4347’). Velez was 900’ to 1200’ higher crossing the start cylinder than the following gaggle. This was the perceived “unfair advantage” Velez had taken.

However, Velez had an excellent start, right at the assumed cloud base altitude and 5 seconds after the 1st start gate, this was not an unfair start and any other pilot could have fairly started from the same position. The following gaggle had a bad start, headed for the start line from over 2km within the start circle, over a minute late, and giving up as much as 300m (984’) from their previous altitude. It wasn’t that Velez was too high, it was that they were low! If any pilots in that gaggle felt they had a poor start, they could have returned for the second start gate and tried for a better start. After all, isn’t that why there are more than one start gate, to try to get the best start you can?

It was also said that Velez took an unfair advantage prior to start by climbing to 1669m (5476’) which was between 134m and 78m (439’ to 256’) above the two cloud bases. But from the altitudes reported by pilots A/B and C/D trackers there was a variation in cloud bases and these two locations were over 1.3km from Velez’s position. Who is to say which cloud base altitude he was to reference? What if there a third developing cloud right above his location and he was under that base, would he now be below cloud base? Furthermore, the race starts at the start line, at the start time, Velez had timed it perfect and had no unfair altitude advantage since he was at cloud base altitude when he crossed the start line.

With regards to having an unfair advantage all the way to 1st turn point, at about time +00:23:53 and about half way to the 1st turn point Velez was with other pilots in a gaggle and no higher than anyone else. The author (Guillemette) and Velez left this climb at cloud base together at about the same altitude and were not the front runners. Additionally Velez was 3rd to reach the 1st turn point and at an altitude less than the two pilots in front of him and the two other pilots that made the turn point the same time he did. So any perceived unfair advantage he had to the 1st turn was a false claim.

FAI Sporting Code, Section 7A - 1st May 2022 (see 6.3) was also cited as the reason for the penalty. The key element cited from the rule is:

“Since it is against the law to climb up the side of a cloud above the transition level, this may not be an acceptable excuse for being higher than other pilots in the case of a complaint”.

But just what is the interpretation of this new rule? If we as pilots were crossing a “blue hole” and the nearest cloud is 10km away, is it saying we can not climb above the base of that cloud? Certainly not! What if the nearest cloud was 5km away or 1km (3000’)?

The text of the rule is “…climb up the side of a cloud…”, this implies that the pilot is in close proximity of the side of the cloud. If we look at the FAR, climbing up the side of a cloud would also be a violation. But what if the pilot is more than 2000’ from the side of the cloud as required by FAR? IMO, this new rule is moot in the USA since the FAR will not allow us to be more than 2000’ from the side of the cloud. We don’t know for sure since we don’t know the lateral boundaries of the cloud at that time, but Velez says he was 800m from the side of the cloud. As mentioned before, based upon the location of the two thermaling groups relative to Velez’s position, this supports Velez’s claim.

Furthermore, the cloud flying 1st offence penalty is 10 points (no warning). Although 10 points seems too small, keep in mind there is no warning, IMO the points are assigned to remove all doubt the pilot had a 1st offence. 2nd and 3rd offences are much stricter to strongly discourage cloud flying.

My point is there is very little hard evidence Velez did anything wrong or deliberately took an unfair advantage and in my opinion the 200 point penalty was excessive and could not be supported by fact or rule.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 12 2022, 9:00:34 pm MDT

Daniel Velez Bravo's analysis

Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davis Straub|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com/

Translated into English:

https://danielvelezbravo-wordpress-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Until the start of the championship and until the night I was sanctioned, we were aware that flying in a cloud consisted of completely disappearing inside a cloud, from the view of another pilot who was just below. Strictly speaking, it is what pilots call “white out” and it is that everything turns white in all directions, so there is no relationship with the ground or the sky. Under this criteria, I take it very seriously when I am in championships, to never fly in the clouds, and always make sure I am below or next to them, obviously getting as close as possible to gain the greatest advantage without losing sight of the ground or of the horizon. On day 3, 8 minutes before the start, I got much closer than expected to the base in a strong ascent and I had to retreat 800 meters to the side of the cloud, to make sure you don't get caught inside it. And just before the start, where I took the highest altitude and the best position, I was flying with the wall of a cloud to my west, but with more than 180° of open sky, down, up and east completely open and clear.

However, that night of the sanction, reviewing the rules of section 7 that regulates international sports aviation, we found an addendum of May 1, 2022 (that is, it began to be applied one day before the start of the championship) that it had a single strange mention that "climbing on the side of the cloud is illegal", and that mention was tied to the fact that this might not be considered an argument to be higher than the other pilots.

With this mention then, the evaluation committee reviews my situation and analyzes if I broke the rule by climbing higher than the base of the cloud, as I accepted in my interview, and they conclude that indeed, under the criteria of the FAI standard of the May 1, 2022, I did something wrong.

Now then the other part of the story appears: What is the sanction for this type of fault.

It turns out that the local regulations of the event did not have anything written about flying in clouds, so as Davis Straub noted, this gap must be filled with what section 7 says about it .

So, since I was indeed accused of flying in clouds, and I accepted that I used the side of the cloud to justify my additional height but that statement was not received, the director applied the sanction of flying in cloud, but unbelievably, and despite the fact that Davis Straub warned him, the sanction they applied of 20% of the points, which was not in the local regulations, nor was it supported by the international regulations, exceeded by 190 points the sanction for the first offense of flying in clouds, which is, as we copied above, only 10 points!

You don't have to be an expert then to see that my difference of 55 points with the first official place in the championship is nothing more than an improperly applied sanction, from a director who doesn't listen to reason or bother to sit down and talk with me, and that I was probably influenced by those who filed the cloud flight complaint(s) against me.

In summary: They applied a sanction 20 times more serious than the sanction defined for flying in clouds, and they did it without mentioning who reported me, nor being able to review or refute their reports, and despite the fact that the technical report with which they sanctioned me I was completely out of context. It was enough to have taken the time to review the animation in Ayvri, and see that I was not "thermalizing" inside the clouds as usually happens when there is really malicious flight in clouds (you see the pilot who continues to thermal in the same ascent as the others. And even if after that they wanted to insist on sanctioning me to make sure I stayed not just out of the clouds, but out of them.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Sat, May 7 2022, 11:29:32 am MDT

Day six, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

Morning Soaring Forecast for Saturday, May 7th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 87°F. Windy, with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

The sky is clear at sunrise with the clouds having gone further south.

Hourly morning and afternoon forecast: southwest wind at 7 am, 9 mph (actually there is no wind), 14 mph west-southwest at 10 am with gusting to 18 mph, at 1 pm, 17 mph west gusting to 23 mph, at 4 pm, west 18 mph gusting to 25 mph, afternoon cloud cover 29% decreasing to 13%, afternoon chance of rain 17% decreasing to 10%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 17 mph (24 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 520 fpm
TOL: 5,900'
CB: none
B/S: 3.4

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: west-southwest 16 mph (22 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 380 fpm
TOL: 4,300'
CB: none
B/S: 1.9

CAPE shows high chance of over development in the morning (9 am to 10 am) decreasing in the afternoon. This is contradicted by the clear sky that we see this morning.

What the sky looked like near noon:

We are north of the big cloud. There were plenty of cu's. The wind was strong out of the west. The task was the same as the day before (see above).

The winds recorded at Leesburg airfield at 10 are 13 mph gusting to 22 mph, and at 11 are 10 mpg gusting to 23 mph.

The final results are found here:

https://OzReport.com/26.68#1

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Fri, May 6 2022, 3:28:09 pm MDT

Day five, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast for strong gusts, tight landing areas, no cu's were causes for canceling the task.

Morning Soaring Forecast for Friday, May 6th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Sunny, with a high near 93°F. Light west-southwest wind increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: southwest wind 13 mph increasing to 17 mph gusting to 24 mph, cloud cover 17%, no chance of rain.

RAP, Noon:

Surface wind: southwest 11 mph (14 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 4,400'
CB: none
B/S: 4.1

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: southwest 13 mph (21 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,400'
CB: none
B/S: 4.2

CAPE shows very little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but likely on the coasts.

SkewT shows slight chance of cu-nimb here.

58°F at CB.

The task:

Wilotree 10 km
Midflo 3 km
Zimmrr 400 m.

71 km

This is what the sky looked like this afternoon:

The winds at Leesburg Airfield:

06 15:53 SW 14 G 21
06 14:53 S 14 G 22
06 13:53 S 12

The task would have taken us over areas with few landing fields and lots of housing, trees, and wet lands. All the models showed 20-26 mph gusts along the course line with steady winds 13-15 mph all day long. If the winds had been out of the south, southeast, or north, that would likely have been doable.

Very Preliminary Soaring Forecast for Saturday, May 7th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS:

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 2pm. Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 87°F. Windy, with a west wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Hourly morning and afternoon forecast: west-southwest wind at 10 am, 15 mph gusting to 21 mph, at 1 pm, 18 mph gusting to 25 mph, at 4 pm, 20 mph gusting to 28 mph, afternoon cloud cover 19% decreasing to 9%, afternoon chance of rain 15%.

HRRR, 1 pm (surface temperature forecasted is 2°F lower than NWS forecast at 1 pm):

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 14 mph (25 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 0 fpm
TOL: 0'
CB: none
B/S: 0.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 17 mph (29 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 0 fpm
TOL: 0'
CB: none
B/S: 0.0

CAPE shows high chance of over development (2,300 J/kg).

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 5 2022, 8:11:23 pm MDT

Day four, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 02:05:08 910.3
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 01:52:14 905.8
3 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:52:24 898.2
4 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 02:11:44 849.8
5 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:11:54 818.0
6 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 02:21:51 678.7
7 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 02:40:26 669.6
8 Fabiano Nahoum BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:39:52 659.9
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T3C 02:47:48 616.9
10 JD Guillemette USA Tbd Tbd 02:52:38 594.2

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 651.3 884.0 905.8 3264
2 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 574.8 800.0 849.8 3209
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 534.8 872.1 818.0 3082
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 603.5 686.8 898.2 2954
5 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 369.1 785.3 253.3 2250
6 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 650.0 643.6 229.6 2234
7 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 558.4 152.3 837.4 669.6 2218
8 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 672.7 509.0 333.8 678.7 2194
9 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Technora 782.4 50.8 375.2 910.3 2119
10 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 408.9 469.1 827.0 409.4 2114

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 02:36:14 929.3
1 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 02:49:30 929.3
3 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 03:41:30 653.0
4 Jon Irlbeck M USA Wills Wing U2 160 03:51:59 609.0

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 933.1 48.8 377.7 929.3 2289
2 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 704.3 30.2 879.2 653.0 2267
3 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 550.2 59.1 559.9 929.3 2099
4 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 996.9 59.2 634.3 272.6 1963
5 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 831.4 30.1 559.1 215.4 1636

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 5 2022, 8:10:20 pm MDT

Day four, light winds and cu's

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

Morning Soaring Forecast for Thursday, May 8th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 94°F. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: northwest wind 2 mph, cloud cover 19% increasing to 27% by 4 pm, 20% chance of rain after 5 pm

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: west-southwest 3 mph (3 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 6,200'
CB: 5,700'
B/S: 10.0 (all models shows 10.0)

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: 4 mph west-southwest (5 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 6,400'
CB: none (all the other models show cu's)
B/S: 10.0 (all models shows 10.0)

CAPE shows little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood.

SkewT show reduced chance of cu-nimb here.

53°F at CB.

The task:

Wilotree 8 km
Cheryl 1 km
Panolk 3 km
Cheryl 5 km
Baron 8 km
Wilotree 400m

78.7 km

We launched at 1 PM and I was off fourth behind a 583 powered tug with April at the controls. We are launching from the southeast corner with a west wind at about 3 to 5 mph. The first part of the launch went well and I came off the cart at the right speed and get right behind her without any issues. Then as we passed the slot for the east west runway I was thrown hard and up to the right. I was now way high on her as I got the hang glider back level. Thankfully she didn't release me and I was able to let her climbed up to me. The rest of the tow was without incident.

I was able to climb to 5,100' at cloud base before heading to the northwest with a dozen other pilots. I like being able to go over to Mascotte and stay inside the start cylinder, which gives us plenty of area to find lift. None the less we crowded up right against the edge of the start cylinder.

Pedro and I took off first from a light thermal just outside the start cylinder and headed into the blue hole going to the west-northwest toward Center Hill. Just north of the northwest corner of the nursery I found 15 fpm and Pedro joined me along with a few others that caught up with us for a few turns.

Finding this thermal to be ridiculous I made the decision to head for the cu to the southwest, west of the nursery. At almost the same time Pedro decided to head west. I don't know what he saw over there, but it looked blue to me.

I entered the thermal at 2,700' and climbed at an average of 99 fpm. I saw the pilots who instead of heading west-northwest headed west and they were about 2,000' over me just under the cu. Konrado, who would win the day, was among them. Plateauing at 3,200' I lost patience and headed north toward some small cu's.

Pedro was still gliding and soon was down to 700' AGL when he found a 245 fpm climb to 3,200' before heading on to the next thermal.

I came in under cu after cu but did not find enough lift to sustain a climb throughout a single turn. There were a couple of better looking cu's a bit to my west that I likely should have tried, but they were over a treed area and I was down to 2,000'. Finally I had to land just east of Center Hill.

I thought that I made the rational choice to head for the cu but it didn't work out. Pedro found the good lift from low.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Wed, May 4 2022, 7:53:40 pm MDT

Day three, looks like a much better day

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91°F. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east wind 3 mph at 1 pm turning to 5 mph northeast at 3 pm, cloud cover 30% increasing to 39% by 4 pm, chance of rain, 7% before 2 pm, then 33% until 4 pm, then 39%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: north 2 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 6,700'
CB: 5,900'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: north 6 mph (7 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 7,900'
CB: 7,700'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows some chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but very likely on the coasts.

SkewT doesn't show cu-nimbs

47°F at CB.

We didn't get any rain during the day, but a few exploded cu-mimbs on the west coast brought a bit of shade.

The task:

Wilotree 5 km
Fantsy 5km
DSROK 5 km
T47433 2 km
Wilotree 400 m

77 km

We launched at 1:10 PM after the Sport Class launch and started at 2 PM.

I asked everyone who saw it about my launch from the previous day and other than folks being amazed that I didn't kill myself I didn't get much help about what to do to avoid the problem. Then just before launch Mick Howard said that my back cradle was too low. He had tried "my" cart and disliked it. He wanted me to get on a different cart with a higher back cradle and therefore a shallower angle of attack.

I have been using this cart in this position (it's fixed) for two years, but it is only this year that I've run into this problem of the left wing dipping. It is clearly the case that the left wing is stalled or not flying while the right wing rises up. The issue was why, when this didn't happen before and now only with the 583 powered tugs, like Bobby's.

I towed behind Jim Prahl in a 914 powered tug today with the back cradle up. It all went smoothly like it is supposed to. I think what is going on is that I slightly changed my launched procedure this year. Instead of pulling in over the base bar with one tube held in my left arm and getting the protow release in front of the base bar, and then grabbing the other tube with my right hand, I have been grabbing both tubes and rocking up to get the release above the base tube. I likely haven't been pulling enough forward to get the stinger out of the cradle and launch angle reduced to where it would be if I had the higher back cradle.

So tomorrow I will go ahead and tow behind whoever comes to tow me with the adjusted cart with the higher back cradle.

I was the first to tow in the open class after one early bird and I quickly found 300 fpm to cloud base at 4,500' right over Wilotree Park. So the game of keeping out of the cloud commenced. I happily flew to a cu to the southeast to get up to 5,000' and just stay on the edge of the cu. at the edge of start cylinder.

I lost a few hundred feet getting the start time by getting back into the start cylinder and then getting to the first cu down the course line put me down to 3,400' south of Lake Erie and in a weak thermal up to 4,100'. Heading south I found 500 fpm to 4,800', now things were looking good, but half a dozen pilots were out in front and couldn't be seen. I was already just east of the Seminole Lake Glider Port and had a 5 mph north tail wind.

The next thermal was south of 474 and 33 and averaged 430 fpm to 5,100.' Derrick Turner and I were scorching the task hitting strong lift after the initial weak stuff. We flew over the sport class pilots who were bunched up low south of 474. The as we approached Dean Still there were half a dozen pilot low well below us heading south toward the Fantasy of Flight turnpoint. Whoa, we were high above the leading guys.

The lift over them was a weak 150 fpm, but there was no need to rush ahead. We climbed to 4,100' then I headed out with Daniel Velez to get the turnpoint. We turned around and headed back north to get under the next cu, but it was only 170 fpm to 4,100'. Daniel left but I didn't see him go. I headed on my own west to a cu but it was only 130 fpm to 3,300'.

Again on my own I headed north back toward Dean Still road and toward the 5 km turnpoint cylinder around Dean Still and Rockridge. I found 200 fpm just south of Dean Still, but still was only able to climb to 3,300'.

Inside the turnpoint cylinder heading toward cu's over the Famish turnpoint I was down to 1,600'. I worked 76 fpm to 2,000' and then went looking for better lift. I went searching all over looking for lift under cu's. I was in the cylinder for twenty minutes and down to 1,100' AGL over the Green Swamp I found 233 fpm that got me to 4,000' and on my way again.

It was almost 4 PM.

I headed into the Green Swamp to get under a good locking cu and got up at 230 fpm to 4,600'. Heading east-southeast to the next cu got me 250 fpm to 5,000'. These cu's were over sunlit fields. There was now shade to the north caused by the outpouring from a cu-nimb far to the west.

Fortunately there were cu's over the shaded ground as the cloud above wasn't that thick and I climbed to 4,600' after tagging the turnpoint at 474 and 33. There were plenty of cu's ahead and the shading was disappearing. I stopped for 200 fpm lift 11 km out from goal and came in with plenty of altitude.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Wed, May 4 2022, 7:52:24 pm MDT

Day three, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 02:21:50 884.0
2 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:22:59 872.1
3 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 02:20:14 837.4
4 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 02:34:23 827.0
5 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 02:09:31 800.0
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 02:22:45 785.3
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:53:42 715.7
8 Miguel Molina PRI Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:56:16 697.4
9 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:00:23 686.8
10 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 03:10:00 643.6

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 574.8 800.0 2359
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 651.3 884.0 2358
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 534.8 872.1 2264
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 603.5 686.8 2056
5 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 650.0 643.6 2004
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 369.1 785.3 1996
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 628.3 529.1 715.7 1873
8 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 393.2 806.0 642.1 1841
9 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 408.9 469.1 827.0 1705
10 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 558.4 152.3 837.4 1548

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Tue, May 3 2022, 6:20:26 pm MDT

Day two, would we be able to have a task at all?

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 89°F. Southeast wind around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: southeast wind 7 mph, cloud cover 50% increasing to 60% by 4 pm, chance of rain 4% before 2 pm, then 34% until 4 pm, then 51%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: southeast 7 mph (8 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 6,100'
CB: 5,300'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east-southeast 4 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 580 fpm
TOL: 6,600'
CB: 6,100'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows some chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but very likely on the coasts.

SkewT shows cu-nimbs don't develop if the high is 86°F.

50°F at CB.

There was a forecast for rain at Wilotree at 6 PM (didn't happen)

We woke up to a completely covered sky, thick gray clouds every where. It didn't look like that there would be any lift any where later.

The NWS hourly forecast (see above) showed at least 50% cloud cover all day and it was already 100%.

None the less the task committee came up with a task, the reverse of the Monday task with a few modifications to the size of the turnpoint cylinders.

Wilotree 8 km
Baron 4 km
Kokee 2 km
Wilotree 400 m

82 km

This task allowed us to stay in the area where there would be the least likelihood of over development and rain.

But there was a lot of doubt about whether that could happen. The Sport Class launched first at 12:40 pm and for the most part they were able to stick, but the conditions still looked very weak as the ground was completely shaded. We postponed the open launch for half an hour to 1:30 PM.

At ten minutes before the open launch the task committee decided to remove Baron from the turnpoints in the task, so it would be to Kokee and back, a 58 km task.

A bunch of open class pilots chose to launch later in the line so I was off early. Almost killed again towing behind Bobby Bailey. The glider went off to the left very hard right away. I held on even harder to the cart as I thought I was going to crash hard, but then realized that the cart was underneath me. The glider whipped around and I dropped the cart when I realized that I was flying. I'm so glad that I've trained myself to hold onto that cart no matter what.

I'm going behind Jim Prahl or Kacey from now on. I don't need to be this brave. The left wing never dips behind the powerful tugs.

There was a thermal right over the launch and of course Bobby wound his tug up tight, which is always a thrill, yet another one apparently, but I held on on the outside and despite the fact that we were in lift I wasn't going to let go until 2,000' AGL, the tow height limit for the competition.

Since we were already turning tight in a thermal I just continued climbing to cloud base at 3,800' and started playing the keep out of the mists game with Pedro Garcia and a few other pilots for about ten minutes with almost half an hour to go until the start window opened. As the lift died we chose to go to the northwest near the edge of the 8 km start cylinder. It it so much nicer to have this additional room when you've got to find the sparse lift.

The lift over Mascotte was weak and soon gave out. I headed for a brown field that had been cleared for development to the east. Other pilots went to the fire over a cleared area to the southeast. Raul followed me to the east.

The lift was great and we were soon back at cloud base. Later Maria would come in under us. The pilots at the fire did well, but their lift stopped at about 5 minutes before the start gate.

Raul and I stayed high (3,800'-4,000') at cloud base as we drifted slowly toward the edge of the start cylinder. We had such a poor start on Monday, it was super great to have a superior start on Tuesday.

I headed west north of the nursery while Raul headed west a bit to my south over the nursery. It looked really dark on the ground in that direction from all the shade from the cu's further to the south. I was heading for more sunlit areas spotted with cu's.

I found some weak lift back to 3,600' and then headed west without seeing Raul again. Down to 1,100' AGL after a 7 km glide over open and sunlit pastures I found 400 fpm that averaged 330 fpm to the top at 3,900'. I saw the pilots from the fire coming toward the two of us turning in a very tight thermal with our wing tips way up. One pilot came in at my altitude and I just said to myself that he had better be prepared to put it up on a wing tip. Fortunately he was and we climbed together rapidly drifting at 9 mph to the west.

It was ten kilometers to the turnpoint and I didn't find much lift under the cu's on the way there. Just before I nicked the turnpoint I felt a little bit of lift that I flew through, but then went back to. I could have easily been the first one to make it to the turnpoint. The pilot I had circled up with came a bit later then Daniel, and then later half a dozen other pilots as the lift continued to be very weak. There were patches of sunlit ground around but mostly the ground was shaded.

It took almost twenty minutes to dig my way out of this area drifting further west to I75 and climbing to 4,100'. The six or eight pilots headed east toward Webster looking for the cu's over sunlit ground. They showed me 340 fpm and I climbed to 3,900', but I should have just kept climbing, but I didn't know that this far out from Wilotree we would be climbing in our last thermal. Other pilots climbed to over 4,000' and went in search of the next thermal, but would not be there.

I flew east until down to 1,400' at the edge of a small treed area with the mine just on the other side I decided to turn back and check out possible lift back to the west. Nothing there so I landed in a nice big field.

Pedro and Maria landed within half a kilometer of my furthest east point.

Rob Cooper, flying in his second competition (after his first at the Paradise Airsports Nationals), didn't follow the crowd and made it to goal.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Tue, May 3 2022, 5:44:53 pm MDT

Day two, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 02:02:54 56.49 750.4
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 49.39 604.9
3 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 48.38 603.7
4 JD Guillemette USA TBD 48.84 600.6
5 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 45.23 559.9
6 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 42.89 532.8
7 Miguel Molina PRI Aeros Combat C 13.5 42.84 526.7
8 Ric Caylor USA Moyes RX 5 Pro 41.90 511.0
9 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 40.35 493.3
10 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 40.09 488.0

Cumulative

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 532.8 1517
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 604.9 1428
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 493.3 1351
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 559.9 1326
5 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 603.7 1314
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 355.1 1197
7 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 393.2 750.4 1144
8 Derreck Turner USA Moyes RX 4 869.9 266.2 1136
9 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 628.3 488.0 1116
10 JD Guillemette USA TBD 467.5 600.6 1068

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Distance Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz COL Aeros Discus 10.54 59.2
2 Dean Funk USA Moyes Gecko Pro 10.50 59.1
3 Tim Delaney USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 8.24 48.8
4 Attila Plasch USA Wills Wing U2 7.62 45.7
5 Douglas Hale USA ? Gecko 155 6.35 39.1

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 996.9 59.2 1056
2 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 933.1 48.8 982
3 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 831.4 30.1 862
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 704.3 30.2 735
5 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 550.2 59.1 609

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Mon, May 2 2022, 7:17:37 pm MDT

Day one, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 01:48:24 984.3
2 Derreck Turner USA Moyes RX 4 02:00:14 869.9
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:56 857.4
4 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 02:03:10 841.8
5 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 01:55:10 823.1
6 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 02:10:05 782.4
7 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:03:05 765.7
8 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 02:08:59 710.5
9 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 02:24:16 672.7
10 Fabiano Nahoum BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:18:23 644.9

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 01:18:57 996.8
2 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:23:38 931.7
3 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 01:33:32 830.2
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 01:40:35 704.6
5 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 02:03:14 553.1

Sport Class, seven of ten made goal, Open Class, twenty three of twenty nine made goal.

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Mon, May 2 2022, 6:56:16 pm MDT

Day one, trying for 30% in goal

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Monday, May 2nd, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today

A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Sunny, with a high near 89°F. East wind around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east-southeast wind 6 increasing to 8 mph mph, cloud cover 21% increasing to 33%, chance of rain. 10% at 2 pm, 18% at 5 pm.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east-southeast 4 mph (5 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 6,100'
CB: 5,700'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: southeast 2 mph (3 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 8,500'
CB: 7,200'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood.

47°F at CB.

Task:

Wilotree 5 km
Kokee 4 km
Baron 5 km
Wilotree 400m

77 km FAI triangle.

Kacey pulls me upwind to the east but not as far as the forming cu. I continue flying toward it 3 km east of Wilotree Park, but don't find anything and have to come back downwind to find another cu much closer to Wilotree and at 1,200' start turning. This thermal averages almost 300 fpm to 4,100'.

There are lots of good looking cu's a bit to the west by the Mickey Mouse lake and pretty soon we are playing around with each other to stay out of the cloud at 5,000' to 5,400'. This lasts for twenty three minutes until eight minutes before the start gate opens.

As the lift begins to die I make a crucial error and head back a kilometer to get under a cu north of Mickey Mouse while other pilots will stick with the dying cu. This will put me 1000' below everyone else at the edge of the start cylinder at the start time.

We all head west-northwest toward the eastern edge of the Green Swamp south of highway 50 and west-southwest of the nursery. There is a nice looking cu there and it has been a good spot of lift before but I'm also looking at the cu on the southeast corner of the nursery, almost always an area of strong lift. I decide, unfortunately, to continue west just south of that cu.

When we get under the cu to the west it's weak, really weak. The pilots that are high continue onward to the west. At first it's 77 fpm, then moving over it's 150 fpm to 3,800'. I've soon had enough flying with Raul and head northwest to find 200+ fpm to 5,400'. It sure would have been nice to find stronger lift.

I take the turnpoint with a few pilots behind as I left my gaggle and then flying to cu's to the northeast I get down to 1,400' before I find 340 fpm back to near cloud base at 5,000'. I'm at the southwest corner of the forested area and heading out over it I find again weak lift at less than 200 fpm. It's a slow climb to 5,200'. I'm hearing from Pedro, but he is always 6 km ahead and finding better lift.

This lack of strong lift continues as I go from cu to cu to the northeast to the turnpoint at Baron. Finally I find 350 fpm in the blue and then head southeast along the Florida Turnpike to the next good looking cu. It's not bad at 240 fpm, but I leave early at 4,400' for better looking ones further south and find 340 fpm to 5,200'.

It's 11:1 to goal, but I figure that at 15 km out I will likely not glide at 11:1 so that I might have to take some lift at the chicken coops north of Mascotte. I come over to them take a couple of turns and then see three pilots just to the north of me climbing fast. I go over to them and it's 700+ fpm . Where was this stuff much earlier in the flight. Now the point is to climb as high and as fast as possible so that I can flying into goal at 55 mph.

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Sun, May 1 2022, 6:26:15 pm MDT

The podium

Fabiano Nahoum|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

#1 Larry Bunner (center), #2 John Simon (left), #3 Fabiano Nahoum (right)

Larry, middle; John, on his right; Fabiano on his left.

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Sun, May 1 2022, 6:07:28 pm MDT

A bit of a disappointment

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Not everyone was disappointed, of course.

The forecast for the day:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Saturday, April 30th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 2pm and 5pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 85°F. East wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east wind 9-11 mph, cloud cover 66% increasing to 70%, chance of rain 23% increasing to 56% at 2 pm

RAP 13, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east-southeast 8 mph (11 mph 2,000') gust 10 mph
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 5,600'
Cu: 3,100'
B/S: 8.7

RAP 13, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east 8 mph (11 mph 2,000') gust 11 mph
Updraft velocity: 540 fpm
TOL: 5,700'
Cu: 5,400''
B/S: 7.8

CAPE shows little chance of over development here and to our north and northwest, but good chance to our south and southwest.

Area of no lift north of Williston.

SkewT shows no cu-nimb development here as the high temperature is only 80°F.

It turned out that we did get thunder storms and rain, but only after 7:30 pm. Some pilots experienced a few rain drops while on course.

We were back down at the west end for a launch into the east wind yet again. The sky didn't look all that great, more like the previous day when we had very disappointing lift. None the less there were in fact better conditions.

Bobby Bailey towed me up again, so far every time. The lift was weak but definitely there at about 120 fpm, much better than the day before. Slowly climbing drifting to the west at 9 mph I found 250 fpm and got up to cloud base between 4,000' and 4,300'. I played keep out of the cloud for 15 minutes as we drifted to the edge of the 5 km start cylinder (why didn't we set it to 8 km?).

Unfortunately, we still had 15 minutes to wait for the first clock. Larry suggested flying to a cu to the northeast inside the start cylinder. I followed him a ways to his east as we headed for the cu. Down from 4,300' to 3,100' I found 160 fpm and Larry came over under me. I was able to only climb to 3,700' before it stopped. We still had seven minutes and were at the edge of the start cylinder.

I headed west back toward the launch. The lift on the southeast corner of Wilotree Park didn't work well enough and I was forced to land and relaunch.

Jim Prahl towed me to the north and after pinning off I headed straight downwind to landable patch of cleared area where I found 200 fpm at 1,300' AGL. Larry came in about 100' over me and then as we got up Konrado came in under us. We were able to climb to 3,000' and take the second clock.

I found 100 fpm over the southeast corner of the nursery and then 225 fpm over the southwest corner to 3,900' where I joined up with four or more pilots flying the Sport Class task.

I heard from Larry that he was getting up at 300 fpm by Center Hill 7 km to the north and despite not being that high went for the good looking clouds in that direction. Down to 1,300' AGL I found almost 300 fpm to 3,900' drifting at 10 mph to the west south of Center Hill.

On the west side of Center Hill there were Thaise and Leonardo turning at my level and I climbed up to 4,100' with one turn before heading for the first turnpoint at Cheryl.

The ground was almost completely shaded from west of Center Hill to well past the turnpoint. I got the turnpoint at 2,000' and headed north to get under a dark cloud. I then saw Konrado turning just a little higher than me. I went under him but found 4 fpm. There were two fires just to the west. I should have stayed with Konrado as he got up and so did Thaise who later came under him also.

I tried the fires and they didn't work, so I tried other fields with no luck.

Larry got up at the turnpoint and headed east, but for him and Konrado it was just a long glide to landing east of the forested area that is north of Center Hill.

It was a crucial error to leave Konrado and not work further under the dark cu and to go for the fires. If I had stayed with Konrado I would have had a great opportunity to stay in third place.

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Sun, May 1 2022, 8:30:57 am MDT

The big picture

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Larry Bunner won the 2022 Paradise Airports Nationals (one of a series of three competitions that determine the 2022 National Championship) by a very significant margin. He could not be happier (except maybe when attending one of many graduation ceremonies for his grandchildren, which he'll be doing this week).

How did it go?

On the first day we had a long out task (186 kilometers) to the north-northwest in an east-southeast wind. Larry, John Simon, and I were the last pilots still in the air and the furthest out at 6:30 pm. Larry chose to head for the last cu in the semi convergence to the north on the west side of High Springs. Getting that last cu allowed him to go just a bit further than John or I.

On the second day, the giant task around the Green Swamp, John Simon won the day, but Larry was close to goal (a little less than 7 km short) in fourth and now behind John by 164 points.

Larry won the task on day 3, a triangle to the northwest, by making up for a low altitude start (thereby staying out of a lead gaggle), taking a different route after the first turnpoint at Kokee getting north of the spreading cu that put the leading gaggle, including John Simon, on the ground just after the first turnpoint. That put him over 300 point ahead of John.

On day five, after a cancelled day, we had an extremely weak day. Larry chose to launch at the end of the staging line instead of ninth. There were numerous relights and a number of them after 4 PM (including John Simon). Larry asked his tug pilot to take him almost straight south past the spread out cu that was shading Wilotree. He found 300 fpm west of Pine Island Lake to cloud base at 4,500', while everyone else struggled and more likely landed.

Pedro Garcia was able to fly the longest distance, but jumped the gun as he launched near the front and was blown out of the 8 km cylinder. Larry was able to find good lift going to the first turnpoint and made three turnpoints to get first for the day on a day worth only 200 points, and only about 125 points than those you didn't get out side the 5 km minimum distance cylinder. He was now a little less than 400 points in front of John, which is a fairly comfortable amount.

On day five it was unclear if we would have safe flying conditions given the high chance for rain, and we called a local triangle in the area with the least chance of rain according to a couple of the models. Larry was way down at 12th for that day, but John Simon was close by ending up 9th. Pedro won the day after a relight.

So with three wins and a fourth he was able to end up a little over 300 points ahead of John. Being in position to catch John after the first two days, his decision to take an alternative route around the shaded area on day three (and be forced by circumstances to start way behind the lead gaggle) was the key to victory. He gains a few more points on the 200 point day, so that going into the last day meant not necessarily winning the day, but not losing the competition to John.

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Sun, May 1 2022, 7:35:11 am MDT

Results from the last day, day six, task five

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Results:

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 56.12 691.8
2 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 51.94 652.1
3 Ric Caylor Moyes RX 5 Pro 48.48 624.5
4 Raul Guerra Icaro Moyes RX 45.21 591.4
5 Rob Cooper Wills Wing T4 45.45 590.2
6 JD Guillemette TBD 42.53 555.9
7 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T3C 42.16 551.2
8 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 41.40 538.5
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 41.71 536.6
10 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 40.86 527.4

Final

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Larry Bunner USA Wills Wing T3 144 Team 3323
2 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 2986
3 Fabiano Nahoum BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 2749
4 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 2728
5 Luke Waters USA Moyes RX 3.5 2681
6 Giovani Tagliari BRA Aeros Combat C 13.5 2603
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 2546
8 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T3C 2534
9 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 2389
10 Marcello Pereira BRA Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 2174

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Attila Plasch M USA Wills Wing U2 01:19:42 39.24 991.3
2 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 01:18:58 39.24 853.6
3 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 01:26:16 39.24 809.7
4 Douglas Hale M USA ? Gecko 155 20.42 372.7
5 Richard Milla M USA Wills Wing U2 145 18.10 323.2

Final:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 991.8 859.3 801.1 331.7 809.7 3794
2 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 388.9 857.8 282.7 232.2 853.6 2615
3 Richard Milla M USA Wills Wing U2 145 756.7 717.0 716.5 98.2 323.2 2612
4 Attila Plasch M USA Wills Wing U2 115.3 325.9 270.3 218.9 991.3 1922
5 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 566.4 905.9 430.2 0.0 0.0 1903

https://fb.watch/cL6leG3tdx/

https://fb.watch/cL6D847gFM/

https://fb.watch/cL6GHm4uLa/

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Fri, Apr 29 2022, 9:43:30 pm MDT

A strange day five

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Friday, April 29th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 85°F. East wind 5 to 15 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east wind 11-14 mph with gusts to 18 mph not starting until 4 pm, cloud cover 36% increasing to 46%, no chance of rain.

Model surface wind and gust forecasts for 1 PM:

GFS 10 mph, east slightly northeast
ICON 9 mph east, 25 mph
NAM 12 12 mph east
NAM 3 13 mph east, 14 mph
RAP 10 mph east, 13 mph
HRRR 10 mph east-northeast, 13 mph
NWS 13 mph east, none

The forecasted surface winds and gusts are somewhat lower than those forecasted for Thursday. Surface wind at Leesburg airport is 9 mph at 8 am, yesterday it was 13 mph.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east-northeast 10 mph (13 mph 2,000') gust 13 mph
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 6,400'
Cu: 6,200'
B/S: 8.1

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east-northeast 11 mph (13 mph 2,000') gust 14 mph
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 6.900'
Cu: 6,900''
B/S: 9.1

The Sport Class chose to go first at 12:40 PM. Nobody stuck. They tried again, a few stuck and some came back for a third try then a few would later try a fourth or fifth time.

Finally the open class pilots got their chance, some stuck, most didn't. I waited at the end of the launch line instead of launching 7th, so got a late start, which was fine. After suffering a broken weak link behind Jim Prahl, I had Bobby Bailey tow me up again and it was fine. I just made sure that I didn't let my left wing dip, as many of the pilots before me did.

There were spread out cu's shading the ground all around. I saw JD circling to the south and heard from Larry that he was thermaling at 300 fpm a few kilometers even further south. I pinned off and went toward JD. For the next ten minutes JD and I circled around with one other pilot gaining 200 feet and losing 200 feet.

Perhaps tired of getting nowhere fast as we drifted in a 14 mph east wind, JD headed off east and the other pilot disappeared. I headed toward some small cu's out over the sunshine instead of the shade that I had been over since launch and found nothing landing just outside the 5 km minimum distance cylinder.

Larry had got up in extremely weak lift and Pedro had been blown out of the 8 km start cylinder and was on his way out ahead of anyone who was still in the air (Raul, Larry and Pedro).

When I got back to Wilotree Park around 4 PM a few of those who had landed back at the park instead of heading out in weak lift, were launching again. John Simon, JD, Ric Caylor, Mick Howard, and Ian Snowball. They were able to make a few kilometers. Eighteen pilots got the minimum distance.

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Fri, Apr 29 2022, 8:38:39 pm MDT

Results, day five, task four

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Results:

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 62.52 200.9
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 77.61 166.0
3 JD Guillemette TBD 38.69 158.8
4 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 32.01 144.7
5 Mick Howard Moyes RX 3.5 30.64 140.9
6 Raul Guerra Icaro Moyes RX 20.06 115.1
7 Ian Snowball Moyes RS 4.5 14.37 103.1
8 Ric Caylor Moyes RX 5 Pro 11.51 95.3
9 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Technora 7.58 84.4
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 5.37 77.2

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 917.5 767.3 955.2 200.9 2841
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 886.5 962.8 455.0 144.7 2449
3 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 876.3 759.5 557.4 77.2 2270
4 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 690.9 737.3 675.6 76.0 2180
5 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 835.3 621.8 563.4 76.0 2097
6 Marcello Pereira Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 553.0 873.0 568.5 76.0 2071
7 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 769.5 751.6 467.4 76.0 2065
8 Mike Glennon Moyes SX 5 540.1 953.8 467.3 76.0 2037
9 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 833.0 555.3 481.5 166.0 2036
10 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T3C 726.1 420.9 759.4 76.0 1982

Sport task:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 24.25 331.7
2 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 14.49 232.2
3 Attila Plasch Wills Wing U2 13.28 218.9
4 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 11.39 195.6
5 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 5.00 98.2

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 991.8 859.3 801.1 331.7 2984
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 756.7 717.0 716.5 98.2 2288
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 566.4 905.9 430.2 0.0 1903
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 388.9 857.8 282.7 232.2 1762
5 Artiom Markelov Wills Wing Sport 3 155 206.6 100.4 1000.0 98.2 1405

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Thu, Apr 28 2022, 3:12:33 pm MDT

Day four canceled, too windy

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Morning Soaring Forecast for Thursday, April 28th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 86°F. East-northeast wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Currently at 8 AM blowing NE 13 mph with no gusts at Leesburg airfield.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east slightly northeast wind 13-14 mph with gusts to 18 mph, cloud cover 35% to 40%, no chance of rain.

Model surface wind and gust forecasts for 1 PM:

GFS 11 mph
ICON 9 mph, 24 mph
NAM 12 15 mph, 10 mph (That's weird)
NAM 3 17 mph, 21 mph
RAP 8 mph, 11 mph
HRRR 13 mph, 18 mph
NWS 13 mph, none

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east-northeast 13 mph (18 mph 2,000') gust 18 mph
Updraft velocity: 500 fpm
TOL: 4,800'
Cu: 4,600'
B/S: 3.9

HRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east-northeast 16 mph (23 mph 2,000') gust 22 mph
Updraft velocity: 440 fpm
TOL: 4,900'
Cu: 0'
B/S: 2.8

The winds were forecasted to be stronger to our north and much lighter to our south and we in the middle. But the winds were just at the edge of acceptable here at Wilotree Park, so the safety committee called the day.

At Leesburg Airport to our north:

Time Wind
(EDT) (mph)
15:53 NE 15 G 22
14:53 E 17 G 24
13:53 NE 14 G 22
12:53 E 13 G 24
11:53 NE 15 G 24
10:53 NE 16 G 21
9:53 NE 15 G 22
8:53 NE 16 G 23
7:53 NE 13

At Kissimee to our south east:

Time Wind
(EDT) (mph)
15:56 NE 15
14:56 E 17
13:56 E 17 G 21
12:56 NE 15 G 18
11:56 E 14
10:56 NE 13
9:56 NE 10
8:56 NE 13
7:56 NE 6

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Thu, Apr 28 2022, 3:10:26 pm MDT

Flying day three

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

The task to the northwest:

Wilotree 5 km
Kokee 2 km
Baron 3 km
Wilotree 400 m

83.8 km FAI triangle

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Wednesday, April 27th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 89°F. Calm wind becoming west-northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Hourly afternoon forecast: west-northwest wind 6 mph increasing to 7 mph and turning northwest, cloud cover 66%, 20% chance of rain increasing to 31% at 5 pm.

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: west slightly northwest 5 mph (6 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 6,200'
Cu: 5,400'
B/S: 10.0

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: northwest 7 mph (9 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 7,100'
Cu: 6,700'
B/S: 10.0

Temperature at CB at 2 PM: 48°F (6,700')

CAPE shows no chance of over development

Noon conditions: Lift: 520 fpm, TOL: 4,100', Cu: 0', surface winds west 5 mph

A front is coming through before 2 pm

Got pulled up behind Bobby's tug again. I'm gonna get killed doing this. No more. Tight circle kept me at the higher speed as I moved out to get outside the spinning.

There were plenty of cu's nearby in the 5 km start cylinder and with the northwest wind pushing us back toward Wilotree I was able to climb to 4,800' at 300+ fpm just before the start window opened. I was 3 km from the edge of the start cylinder but Larry had radioed earlier that he was down to 2,700' at the edge of the cylinder so I wanted to stay with the good clouds and lift. This made me a bit late for the start along with a dozen other pilots.

Climbed back to 4,800' south of Mascotte just outside the start cylinder and headed for south of the nursery south of highway 50 and turned in some 125 fpm before heading west again for a nice cu just south of the intersection of 469 and 50 where I found 385 fpm to 4,500'. I was calling all the lift to Larry who was low and following.

Gliding along south of 50 to the west into a 5 mph head wind I was down to 2,400' just east of the lumber mill at highway 471 when I felt that there was good lift in the sunshine to the south of the cloud I came under. Sure enough I was soon hitting bits of 700 to 800 fpm on the 20 second averager. I called it out to Larry and he came in under at 1,200'.

I left at cloud base at 4,300' and headed for a long northwest to southeast black bottom cloud with sunshine on the southern side. Seemed like a big cu like that would be producing. Six kilometers from the turnpoint at Kokee I found lift that averaged 650 fpm all the way to cloud base with a few pilots coming in underneath me.

Nicked the Kokee turnpoint and headed north east and down to 2,500' before I found 300 fpm to 4,200' drifting east at 8 mph. Larry was still a ways behind me, but I kept up the reports as he worked with a dozen other pilots to head toward the Kokee turnpoint.

Heading east-southeast to get on the sunny southern side of an elongated east to west cu I found lift just north of the town of Webster. It was only about 200 fpm but it got me to 4,600' right near the bottom of the long cu. The pilot above me headed north. I headed under the cu to the east with Fabiano just behind me.

I didn't know it at that point but all the leading gaggle had gone down just to the north of me. Maria radioed that she was climbing to my north a few kilometers under the black cloud while I was just on the southern edge of it.

I didn't find any lift under the cu as I headed for Center Hill. There was more cu's ahead and an open sky away from this cu in a few kilometers just past Center Hill. I came in under a cu but there was no lift. I headed for the next one, but there was also nothing there. I was getting low and Maria radioed that she was landing 15 km from the second turnpoint at Baron.

I was down to 1,200' heading northeast up highway 48 just seeing if my good luck from the first three days would hold out, but it didn't look promising. Larry had heard that Maria had landed and that I was low and he had already made the decision to go a different route than the pilots that he was flying with and went north from Kokee toward Bushnell instead of east toward Webster and the black cu. He wanted to get away from the cu and knew that we had to go north at some point so it might as well be as soon as he got Kokee.

I floated along for quite a while but then down to 300' AGL I needed to make a turn and land on the little dirt road in the field. It was a short walk to the gate. Fabiano landed next to me.

Larry was able to get up at Bushnell while almost everyone else was going down. He now had a sky full of little cu's that he used to get himself to Baron and then south back to Wilotree to win the day.

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Wed, Apr 27 2022, 7:35:52 pm MDT

Results, day three

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Results:

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

The lead gaggle, nine pilots, all went down within 3 km of each other just after the first turnpoint. Larry, following the gaggle that was following me, decided to not follow them or me and turned north south of Bushnell instead of going toward Webster and the black cloud ahead and was able to find nice cu's in the unshaded ground north of that cloud, the cloud that rained on Claudia.

Open task 3:

# Name Glider ES Time Distance Total
1 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 16:19:36 02:49:36 83.41 951.3
2 Rob Cooper Wills Wing T4 17:03:40 03:13:40 83.41 855.0
3 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T3C 17:46:09 04:16:09 83.41 756.3
4 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 64.13 672.9
5 Marcello Pereira Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 47.59 566.2
6 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 46.90 561.1
7 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 46.12 555.1
8 Claudia Mejia Wills Wing T3 136 42.67 520.2
9 Ric Caylor Moyes RX 5 Pro 42.56 512.6
10 Ian Snowball Moyes RS 4.5 42.31 511.5

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 917.5 767.3 951.3 2636
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 886.5 962.8 453.1 2302
3 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 876.3 759.5 555.1 2191
4 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 690.9 737.3 672.9 2101
5 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 835.3 621.8 561.1 2018
6 Marcello Pereira Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 553.0 873.0 566.2 1992
7 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 769.5 751.6 465.4 1987
8 Mike Glennon Moyes SX 5 540.1 953.8 465.5 1959
9 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T3C 726.1 420.9 756.3 1903
10 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 833.0 555.3 479.5 1868

Sport task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Artiom Markelov Wills Wing Sport 3 155 01:56:09 49.38 1000.0
2 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 02:20:31 49.38 801.1
3 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 02:36:28 49.38 716.5
4 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 26.12 430.2
5 Douglas Hale ? Gecko 155 23.63 384.8

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 991.8 859.3 801.1 2652
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 756.7 717.0 716.5 2190
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 566.4 905.9 430.2 1903
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 388.9 857.8 282.7 1529
5 Artiom Markelov Wills Wing Sport 3 155 206.6 100.4 1000.0 1307

https://fb.watch/cG18_kqR9-/

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Wed, Apr 27 2022, 7:35:09 pm MDT

The flight, day two, Tuesday

Bobby Bailey|John Simon|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022|XC

The task committee chooses to go around the Green Swamp the long way:

Wilotree 5 km
Panolk 3 km
Clinton 3 km
Fantsy 5 km
Wilotree 400 m

153 km

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Tuesday, April 26th, 2022 at Wilotree Park

NWS, Today:

Sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming north-northeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Hourly afternoon forecast: south-southeast 3 mph or less until 11 am then east surface wind 3 mph at noon turning to east-northeast at 1 pm at 3 mph and 5 mph north-northeast at 2 pm, cloud cover 4% increasing to 31%, no chance of rain. If we launch at noon it should be light southeast.

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: north 3 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 6,400'
Cu: 4,800'
B/S: 10.0

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: north slightly northwest 3 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 8,000'
Cu: 5,100'
B/S: 10.0

Temperature at CB at 2 PM: 44°F

The launch time got moved back again, but this time because pilots weren't just organized to be ready in time. Launch opened at 12:50 pm with a forty minute window and the start gate opened at 1:30 PM.

Bobby Bailey towed me up, but seriously his plane just does not go fast enough. I need 36 to 40 mph to keep from wandering all over the place. Only when Bobby starts doing tight circles can I push myself to the outside to speed up enough to get the glider under control. Thankfully he is very happy to do tight circles but that doesn't help right after coming off the cart. From now on I'll try to tow behind the tugs with more powerful engines.

The average lift varied between 250 fpm and 325 fpm in the start cylinder and I was able to stick around cloud base at 5,100' before quickly heading out to take the first start time. Once again there was 500+ fpm southeast of the nursery and I was soon at 5,200'.

I headed west-northwest to get under the cu's south of Center Hill. The three pilots in front of me headed north-northwest to cu's straight to the north. When I go under the cu's there was Pedro and the lift was weak. A few turns and we headed north to just south of the mines on the west side of Center Hill where we climbed at almost 500 fpm to 5,400'. I had found the lift first so I was quite a bit higher than Pedro or Larry and had to leave the thermal as I got into the mists. I was in touch with both of them on the radio.

Two strong thermals on the way to Lake Panasoftkee and I was with Pedro and Larry but again quite a bit above them and leaving at cloud base. At 5,600' and 5 km from the turnpoint I went with an Aeros pilot to get the turnpoint with the idea of coming back to the strong lift that we just climbed up in.

When I got back I missed the lift not going far enough east and continued on to the south I found lift on the northeast corner of Bushnell and climbed to 5,900', but Pedro and Larry did find the lift when they came back to the thermal before the first turnpoint and got to cloud base much quicker and got out ahead of me.

It was the sixteen kilometer glide to the north end of the mines where I was limited to 140 fpm to 4,100'. I dove for a black cloud to the south-southwest and got punched out of the sky at 700 fpm down. I chose that direction to avoid the shaded area due south and now I was headed for the sunshine to the southwest of the dark cloud.

Down to 1,800' and way way west of the course line I took 350 fpm to 4,700' and then scooted to the southeast to another good looking cloud at the western edge of the Green Swamp. John Simon, who started 20 minutes later, joined me as we climbed to 4,300'.

Heading into the Green Swamp the cu's didn't work so I bailed for the land fill to the south to find 300 fpm to 5,000'. A little further south-southwest I found 240 fpm to 5,300' just before the turnpoint at the intersection of highway 98 and 471.

260 fpm got me back to 4,200' to the south east toward Rockridge Road and highway 98 intersection. I didn't find anything as I searched around and kept track of where there were landing areas to the east toward the turnpoint at Flights of Fantasy.

Down to 1,100' AGL over a big open area with no roads I noted that there were houses to the south and I could hop the fence to get to one of the roads in the subdivision. I also tried my luck right at the border of the open space and the trees mixed in with the houses.

I found 160 fpm as I noted that there were little wisps forming over me and also to me east a bit. Climbing to 3,100' I moved over to the east a bit to get under the better looking cu's and found 370 fpm that took me to almost 7,000'. I was 10 km out from the turnpoint so went straight for it.

There was a field that was burning right at the northern edge of the 5 km turnpoint at Fantsy and then I noticed that a small high cu was forming upwind (to the east) of the smoke. I was able to get under the cu and climb to 5,500', but not back to 7,000' which would have been very nice.

It was now almost 5:30 pm as I headed north toward the little cu's forming in that direction. There was a dark mass of clouds a bit further to the west and maybe that was convergence as we expected a sea breeze.

I worked some light thermals and then over a forested area by Green Pond road while keeping an eye on possible bail out fields I worked two thermals, one after another, from about the same place, climbing to 6,200' at a little over 200 fpm. Finally at 6:11 pm I headed north toward a set of dark cu's hoping to find just enough to get me into goal.

It was a long glide to just west of the Seminole Lake Gliderport and I was down to 2,500' working 43 fpm. Leaving at 2,700', when I knew it would take about 4,000' to make it to goal, I headed for a fire to the north-northwest as well as to the sunny western side of the dark clouds to the north. Neither worked and I glided until 5 km from goal.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/26.4.2022/16:57

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3065118

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2022/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

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Tue, Apr 26 2022, 9:29:38 pm MDT

The flight, day one

John Simon|Konrad Heilmann|Larry Bunner|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022|Pedro Garcia|Rich Reinauer|XC

The original task was an out and back up and down highway 33 which is the north/south road next to Wilotree Park. We did this because of the RAP forecast for east winds.

Morning Soaring Forecast for Monday, April 25th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Sunny, with a high near 87. East wind 5 to 10 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east surface wind 9 mph increasing to 11 mph, cloud cover 21% increasing to 30%, no chance of rain

RAP, 1 PM

Surface wind: east 7 mph (10 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 6,10'
Cu: 5,100'
B/S: 9.1

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east 7 mph (10 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 7,400'
Cu: 6,700'
B/S: 10.0

Temperature at CB at 2 PM - 46°

Suggested Task:

Task committee meeting 9 AM
Pilot briefing 10 AM

Noon conditions: Lift: 580 fpm, TOL: 4,800', Cu: 4,100', surface winds east 7 mph

Launch 12:30 PM

Launch spot west launch area

Task start 1:30 PM

Wilotree 5 km
Fantsy 5 km
Baron 5 km
Wilotree 400 m

125 km

But the launch crew had us setup to launch from the northwest corner because of the surface winds were southeast, then five minutes before the launch opened they moved us south to the west launch area for the forecasted east winds. I had previously viewed a satellite photo showing southeast clouds to the northwest so the task committee had changed the task to send us to the north-northwest first to Dunnellon and then to a small airfield south of Lake City.

We didn't get to launch until 1:20 PM instead of 12:30 PM because of all the moving around. This would make it very difficult to make goal 186 km away given that the start gate would open at 2:20 PM.

I was third to launch and got off tow at 1,300' when my vario showed 1,200 fpm. I climbed to cloud base at 4,600' eighteen minutes after I started my tow and was ready to get on with the task. I would have to wait around for over half an hour before the start gate opened. It seemed like every pilot was in the air including the sport class pilots within half an hour.

After hanging around at cloud base for what seemed like forever I headed to the west to Mascotte, took a few turns in less than 200 fpm drawing in a number of pilots who would stay with that climb and moved to the west to the southeast corner of the nursery to find 500 fpm on average to cloudbase. Rich Reinauer and Konrad were with me. Larry Bunner was nearby.

Heading northwest toward Center Hill I found 500 fpm to cloudbase at 4,800' again after a 7 km glide. It looks like the day would be very strong. After gliding to the northeast of Center Hill and another strong thermal to 5,100'. Leaving at 5,100' the three of us headed for the cu over the cement plant to the west of the prison. We would normally be quite a bit further to the east but the east wind has pushed us west. There was a cu over the prison but it was further away.

It was a twelve kilometer glide and at first the thermal did not work. I was the lowest of the three and was down to 1,100' AGL before I found some lift at 170 fpm. This got me to 2,200' where I could feel a bit safer and I headed west to find better lift as I saw Rich turning. I was able to climb at 200 fpm to 3,800' drifting over highway 301 and almost to I75. Larry Bunner was nearby, but his radio didn't work so I missed the strong thermal that he had that got him up and over the swamp to the east of Lake Panasoftkee.

Way west of our normal route I found 200+ fpm at Coleman to 3,400' and kept creeping north not getting above 4,000' until I got west of I75 north of the intersection with the Florida Turnpike and I75. 400+ fpm got me back to cloud base at 5,400'. Marion Oaks lay ahead.

Southeast of Marion Oaks I climbed again at 400+ fpm to 6,100'. There were lots of thick black-bottomed clouds to the northwest on the southern edge of Marion Oaks, I flew under them but only found 250 fpm for a few turns.

At 5,000' I headed for more cu's to the northwest, but I didn't find anything. I could see pilots high turning in them but when I got to the northwest corner of the big open field west of Marion Oaks, there was no lift and I was down to 2,400'. I headed into the sunshine and the blue to the east then to the south over the open field assuming that I would have to land.

Down to 900' AGL I found lift at the edge of a treed area next to where I had assumed that I would be landing. At 350 fpm I climbed out to 5,500'. This was enough to get me over the trees and houses to the northwest where I spotted some pilots going up fast. Again an average of 500 fpm got me to 6,100' just south of the optimized turnpoint at Dunnell airfield.

There were scattered cu's to the north and it was a 13 km glide to get to the next thermal that averaged 400+ fpm northwest of the Ocala Airport (way high above it and outside the airspace).

I could see that there were a whole lot of lakes/water to the north near the course line and the cu's were to the west (downwind) of the course line, so I went to the northwest to stay under the cu's. Turned out this would have been our normal route anyway.

It was after 5 PM by the time I got to Williston but found 300 fpm average there to 4,900'. The lift to the north was mostly weak. I was surprised to see Pedro coming at me from the north south of Archer. He and John Simon and others had been further east in the blue and they had not been doing well so Pedro and John came west to get under the cu's.

Pedro and I worked together some miserable light lift northwest of Archer and then he got a bit higher and went north. I found some 367 fpm lift a little further to the northwest and climbed back up finally to 5,600'. Pedro was soon landing. John was a ways behind.

A little northwest of Newberry I found a thermal that averaged a little less then 200 fpm. It was getting quite late after 6:30 pm (sundown is at 7:56 pm). I looked up and there was Larry about 100' over me. We climbed to 4,000'.

I headed out first going to the north to the next little wisp, but didn't find anything. There was another cu further north that I didn't go to as it looked like a lot of trees in that direction. Actually it's not that bad.

Larry went to the next cu and got up well. I went to the northeast to land near High Springs. Larry was able to get high enough to cross the river and land north west of High Springs 10 km north west of me.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.4.2022/17:25

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/3065117

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2022/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

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Tue, Apr 26 2022, 9:08:00 pm MDT

Results, day two

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Results:

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Day Two Open:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 04:29:22 148.34 962.0
2 Mike Glennon Moyes SX 5 04:49:14 148.34 951.5
3 Marcello Pereira Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 05:12:37 148.34 867.0
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 141.50 753.9
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 143.26 746.1
6 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 139.70 738.6
7 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 141.69 724.1
8 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 139.70 699.8
9 JD Guillemette TBD TBD 127.47 632.5
10 Mick Howard Moyes RX 3.5 127.63 625.3

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 886.5 962.0 1849
2 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 917.5 753.9 1671
3 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 876.3 746.1 1622
4 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 769.5 738.6 1508
5 Mike Glennon Moyes SX 5 540.1 951.5 1492
6 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 835.3 612.2 1448
7 Marcello Pereira Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.7 553.0 867.0 1420
8 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 690.9 724.1 1415
9 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 833.0 538.2 1371
10 Mick Howard Moyes RX 3.5 681.8 625.3 1307

Day Two Sport:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 85.15 906.7
2 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 77.55 859.3
3 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 78.72 858.7
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 66.32 717.9
5 Dean Funk Moyes Gecko Pro 59.19 619.7

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 991.8 859.3 1851
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 756.7 717.9 1475
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 566.4 906.7 1473
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 388.9 858.7 1248
5 Dean Funk Moyes Gecko Pro 376.8 619.7 997

https://fb.watch/cH88jSU1mV/

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Tue, Apr 26 2022, 6:45:57 pm MDT

Locals rule, day one

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

Results:

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5668/day/open-class

Open class:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 168.34 917.5
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 160.27 886.2
3 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 158.32 875.8
4 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 151.12 834.0
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 150.31 831.6
6 Giovani Tagliari Aeros Combat C 13.5 140.66 763.9
7 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T3C 132.35 717.5
8 Luke Waters Moyes RX 3.5 125.78 679.8
9 Mick Howard Moyes RX 3.5 124.68 671.1
10 Claudia Mejia Wills Wing T3 136 114.84 614.3

Six locals out of the top ten.

Sport:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Aeros Discus 01:41:59 56.91 991.8
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 02:09:50 56.91 756.7
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 49.76 566.4
4 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 02:31:20 56.91 511.0
5 Thaise Caroline Galvan Moyes Gecko 32.91 388.9

https://fb.watch/cH8J6xd-dJ/

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2022 Paradise Airsports Nationals »

Sun, Apr 24 2022, 6:23:45 pm MDT

Lighter east winds than forecast

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022

After four days of strong east winds, with the skies also full of cu's, we finally have a day with a forecast for lighter east winds, and a reality of even lighter winds, with a sky full of cu's and strong lift. Here's the Sunday, the day before the competition starts, forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Sunday, April 24th, 2022 at Wilotree Park

NWS, Today:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 85. East wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east surface wind 14 mph increasing to 16 mph, gusting to 18 mph increasing to 22 mph, cloud cover 30% decreasing to 25%, no chance of rain

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east 9 mph (14 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,400'
Cu: 4,600'
B/S: 6.0

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east 12 mph (18 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 5,700'
Cu: 5,600'
B/S: 5.7

Suggested Task:

Wilotree 3 km
Dunnell 8 km
Williston 1 km

109 km

or

Wilotree 3 km
Turn33 1 km
Wilotree 400 m

40 km

Leesburg Airport (to our north) is reporting variables winds 6 mph at 1 PM. We've got even lighter winds from the east at 2 PM.

Here's what the sky looks like:

We'll see which task pilots attempt.

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Registration Open for Florida Spring Competitions

Thu, Nov 25 2021, 9:47:52 am MST

Finally Airtribune responds

Airtribune|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022|Stephan Mentler|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

You can now register for the Florida competitions being run by Stephan Mentler.

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/pilots

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/pilots

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One Sky Project »

Tue, Dec 15 2015, 7:42:52 am EST

Deeper explanation

Brian Morris|Dean Funk|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|PG|video|weather|Zachary "Zack" Marzec

Brian Morris writes:

I would like to take this opportunity to clear up any concerns about the One Sky Project that anyone has, and open up this discussion! As I feel I am personally representing Hang Gliding in this project, I really value your feedback and suggestions on how to make this more than what it has already become! This project's reach is going to be tremendous, and therefore it is important that we all understand exactly what our mission is.
Let me first start by introducing myself and sharing the inception of how the One Sky Project came to be.

My name is Brian Morris. I am a hang glider pilot that was born in South Africa during Apartheid, to parents that were working in the US Embassy in Lesotho. I left as a young child, and grew up in the states to later serve in the US Air Force and obtain a degree in Entrepreneurship with a focus on Marketing from Radford University. My last year of college was spent serving as a Presidential Scholar and Global Ambassador, aboard a study abroad program called Semester at Sea, leading a philanthropic community project, engaging students with local communities overseas. We visited 21 different countries, and started a program called Operation Global Swap, which encouraged students to donate items that meant something to them to children in the various countries, and then share the pictures and stories with our shipboard community of 800 people. This went viral almost immediately, and it encouraged students to engage with more locals, in simple and happy ways that made a difference in someone’s day! These joyful interactions with children and local families are the memories that have made an un-doubtable impact in my life, and in the lives of many others. We way too often overlook the impact that a smile can have on someone’s day, and we certainly take for granted how good we have it in this country.

Semester at Sea was a life-changing event for me, and it has given me the longing for the past few years to go back to Africa, and to immerse myself in the cultures of those in need. From my collective years of experience, the best way to give back is to share your best skills with other people to help make their lives better. To share any knowledge you may have to help give people the tools they need to increase the success of their visions! On a more humble note, I believe it to be impossible to show up in an unknown place and expect to save lives and change the world.

There are organizations on the ground in all of the places we are visiting that we have researched heavily, and frankly, we have fell in love with their dedication to what they are doing. These organizations are lead by giving and caring people that have devoted their lives to helping their respective communities. They have gauged the support, the tools needed, and the fundraising needed in order for them to be successful in their missions. Whether that success is in the sustainable orphan care of HIV/Aids recipients, the building of schools and communities to support the children, or the teaching of skills to marginalized female refugees that have come from war ridden countries, to no family or way to put money on the table to survive. You can find more about them here: (http://www.oneskyproject.com/partners/)

Shortly after I finished my tour with the Air Force, I saw a Youtube video of a hang glider pilot flying off of Table Mountain in South Africa, arguably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. This 3-minute video sparked something inside of me that changed my life. I set out to see how I could accomplish this amazing feat, in a homecoming to my birth country. The next day, I travelled to Kitty Hawk Kites, and met an amazing person named Zachary Marzec. He was just getting off of work, teaching on the dunes, and offered to spend his free evening to take me out on the sand dunes, a complete stranger, and introduce me to free flight. He encouraged me to chase my dream of Table Mountain, and to learn more about this sport. He even spent the entire next day (his day off) teaching me to fly and running next to me down a 65 foot dune in 100* weather. He inspired me to dive into this, and to want to share this amazing thing with as many people as possible. I think we can all agree that this is necessary for the continual growth of our sport. I am forever grateful for this act of kindness, and this has made one of the biggest impacts on my life.

I learned how to fly with Kitty Hawk Kites, and soon moved to Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding, the largest hang gliding school in the world, to lead their marketing program. I was creating content through high quality media, to share with the world how amazing this sport is, and to encourage people to become a part of it. My marketing experience, my college experience with documentary film making and story telling, and my undeniable passion for this sport enabled me to encourage more people to learn to fly and join our amazing community here. This has furthered my confidence, that the sharing of this sport is what I want to dedicate my life to.

So, here are my take-aways:

• A compelling image, or an amazing video, can inspire and change someone’s life. (The funds we are looking to raise will pay for the creation of videos that have the potential to be seen by a million people. The potential is much larger than a $21,000 project. If everyone viewer donated $1 to the organization in need, well do the math, and imagine the impact)

• Flying has changed my life in so many ways and I want to share that with as many people as possible that may never have the opportunity.

• The best way to help a community in a place you have never been is to go there, immerse yourself in the culture, to learn and to listen. Listen to those that know what needs to be done for their mission to succeed, and then to help share that with the rest of the world.

The One Sky Project, for me, is a collaboration of my dream of giving back to the land where I was created, my dream of sharing free flight with as many people as possible, my dream of flying off of Table Mountain (a promise I have made to 2 fallen brothers in our sport) and my dream of using this project to inspire more people to consider taking their free time (referred to some as “vacation”) and altering it to make an impact on the lives of the people that you interact with. I have left my family business, am moving into my car, and have devoted the last 3 months (more than 60 hours a week) to making this project happen. Our entire team has put their lives and families on hold for the winter, purchased plane tickets, visas, and have spent well over $12,000 of our own money, before the kickstarter, to ensure that we get there and make sure this happens, because we strongly believe that what we are doing will make a difference. This could have been a tremendous “flying trip,” months ago, with half of that money, and energy.

We are trying to raise the rest of the funds we need to travel to support these organizations (http://www.oneskyproject.com/partners/) which I want you to check out and consider joining us in supporting. Their stories are incredible, and it is the transformation of those stories into compelling media that will capture the attention of donors, and that has inspired us to make this model happen, and help them out in any way we can. Our budget is outlined clearly on our kickstarter, but I am more than willing to answer any specific questions about where our funds are going.

Instead of just Marc Radloff and I going, we have created an incredible team ( http://www.oneskyproject.com/team/ ) to make sure this is done professionally, with the highest quality available, to then in turn, make the biggest impact we can. We have added a producer, Suzy Beck, (non pilot) that has produced for Master Chef and The Amazing Race. We have a documentary cinematographer, Jonathan Fambrough, ( https://vimeo.com/75817314 ) that has travelled to over 25 countries, sharing stories of non profit organizations, devoting his time to travel with us. We have a media production company in Miami run by Federico Wood Behrens, coming with us to assist in high quality video production. In effect, we have the perfect team to make this happen and The One Sky Project is growing to be a sustainable organization that will undergo annual projects that will make a difference, in conjunction with sharing free flight.

The One Sky Project has the support of the Cloudbase Foundation, one of the best hang gliding companies in the world (Moyes) one of the best paragliding companies in the world (Ozone), the largest hang gliding school in the world (Lookout Mountain Hang Gliding) one of the best instrument companies in the world (Flytec), and one of the best portable solar power companies in the world (Goal Zero). Our flying community has donated over $10,000 and a significant amount of materials to ensure that this project happens. D|Focus Systems, Inc., TCPrint Solutions, Kip Stone and his printing company Art Forms, Hawk Air Sports, Dean Funk, Tracks4Africa, and Grace K. Stansbery's media talent have helped us tremendously. We are extremely humbled by the amount of support and help we have received, but would still love to have yours.

Please continue to learn more about our project and it would mean the world to me to have your support:

You can contribute here on kickstarter to help us raise the further logistical funds to make this trip happen.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/oneskyproject/one-sky-project

You can donate here to The Cloudbase Foundation and have your pledge be tax deductible under 501C3 status
http://thecloudbasefoundation.org/site/one-sky-project/

You can donate here now, directly to our organizations that we will partner with:

You can donate here to support Amani ya Juu (Peace from Above)
http://www.amaniafrica.org/…/donations-give-the-gift-of-pe…/

You can donate here to support IKhaya le themba Project
http://www.ikhayalethemba.org.za/make-a-donation-2/

You can donate here to support No Danger Diaries
http://www.nodangerdiaries.com

You can donate here to support Child Welfare South Africa http://www.childwelfaresa.org.zaz

Dean Funk at Morningside

September 11, 2014, 9:07:06 MDT

Dean Funk at Morningside

Tandem pilot

Dean Funk

http://www.wcax.com/story/26460193/destination-recreation-hang-gliding

CHARLESTOWN, N.H. -

Dean Funk remembers the first time he saw hang-gliders. He was hooked.

"I'm driving down a mountain road and something swooped overhead. I thought it was a giant bird carrying a man and I couldn't believe it," he says.

Now, he's an instructor at Morningside Flight Park, soaring over the Connecticut River Valley. While many hang-gliders learn to fly solo and take off from hills or mountains, beginners who want to forgo the lessons can opt for the tandem flight, where an airplane brings them and the instructor up together. That's the journey we're going on today.

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Quest Air camping spots improved

April 18, 2014, 9:42:43 EDT

Quest Air camping spots improved

Beautiful locations available under spreading trees

Dean Funk|Quest Air

We've opened up additional camping and RV spots at Quest Air on the eastern edge. Here is Dean's tent in South Park:

Photo by Dean Funk.

Also more coming by the lake. In addition, there are new trails and more open areas in the main camping areas on the west side for camping and RV's. This is a huge flight park/airfield with almost unlimited growth potential.

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Finally, it's on in Florida

April 10, 2014, 10:23:45 pm EDT

Finally, it's on in Florida

With partners to make it a group task (just like in competition).

Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Quest Air|sailplane|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C

The forecast was for light winds and the cu's started forming early. Dean Funk, Tom Lanning, Greg Dinauer and I were ready to have a joint task - the square around the Green Swamp. We set a launch time of 1:30 and a start time about 2 PM. I got up first in light lift and watched as the others got pulled up. Then I went out to find better lift, didn't find it and can back in low under the other three.

But then I did find better lift and we all climbed up to a little over 5,000' and headed out together.

I pulled on the VG and pulled in the bar and headed out at 44 to 45 mph to get to the next good looking cloud. I was rewarded with 600 fpm and it was quite a while before the others came in way below, under me. We are all flying Wills Wing T2C's, and at least three of us have the tips on.

This is the third time I've flown with the tips and they make the glider feel stiff (at least to me) in climb. I'm giving them a few tries to see if I can learn to like them.

I headed out when the lift got weak going for the clouds ahead but didn't find the lift until I was down to 1000'. I had to work weak lift with now everyone else over me and Greg just a little over me.

I had to work weak lift from low for a long time while the others were high or got high. Except for Dean who soon landed at the Seminole sailplane port. I was low just west of it but finally found better lift and got high enough to head out over the Green Swamp with a good chance to catch Greg and Tom.

I found weak lift just under a high flat cloud that was drifting me over more trees to the west and didn't take it as I was back below 2,000'. Everything else was shaded and smooth to a big field just before the intersection of Rockridge and Dean Still, our turnpoint.

Greg and Tom continued on getting to 6,500'. Greg was able to make it back to Quest (104 km task) while Tom landed short. A great way to kick off the cross country season in Florida.

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Sunday at Quest Air

April 6, 2014, 11:10:57 pm EDT

Sunday at Quest Air

And yet again before the front comes on Monday afternoon

Dean Funk|Quest Air|record|Robin Hamilton|weather

The cu's showed up again, just like the last two days and that called for another day of flying. Armand (Canadian Swift pilot and electrician) got to try for the 100 kmh Swift record (Robin Hamilton holds it). The place was packed as usual with new and old pilots flying as much as possible. We were getting to over 5,000'.

Dean Funk took this shot also. He is having trouble with the pollen so not flying.

I took a late flight (4 PM) so as to experience the mellowest of conditions and for sure got them. Still a southwest wind, but going upwind was again in order for a nice out and return.

So we flew all week starting on Tuesday after the bust the week of the Wills Wing Demo Days (I always have to add weather wise as somehow they are able to entertain themselves otherwise)

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Friday at Quest Air

April 4, 2014, 10:51:52 pm EDT

Friday at Quest Air

Bruce Kavanaugh was here to share it with us

Dean Funk|Mark Stump|Quest Air

Dean Funk took this photo:

We didn't take off until late in the afternoon and Mark Stump flew for ever as it was his last day here. Nice to have the cu's back after a week inversions and blue skies (with nice light winds). The winds were a bit stronger at 9 MPH out of the west.

I flew to the southwest corner of the cultivated lands and then out into the Green Swamp to get under a nice cu. Bruce and Stumpy were there by chance also.

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Spring has sprung here

April 4, 2014, 7:52:10 EDT

Spring has sprung here

And love is in the air

Dean Funk|photo|Quest Air

Photos by Dean Funk

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The week at Quest Air

April 4, 2014, 7:51:42 EDT

The week at Quest Air

Just a full week

Bobby Bailey|Dean Funk|Dragonfly|photo|Quest Air

Kim <<info>> writes:

Quest Air is enjoying the sound of the Dragonfly as the success of the newest operation in flight takes off!! For the first time ever, we welcome our three new students buzzing through the air learning to fly in the open air cockpit of Bobby Bailey’s baby, the Purple Haze. Congratulations Jeff Walker, for your Dragonfly Solo today!

Quest welcomes U.S. National Champion and #1 US ranking hang gliding pilot in the country, Zac "Zippie" Majors, here to do an cross country clinic for members of the U.S. Sport Class Team! Zac brings high energy and excitement to the clinic format! His knowledge is widely sought after and his infectious passion for the sport is a great addition to Quest as an established resource of advanced training.

Flying has been great at Quest this week! We have experienced pilots from East to West training for the World's! From National Champions to aspiring novices, Quest has launched an average of forty tows per day this week! Favorite quote of the day was heard from Mike Pattishall from Kitty Hawk Kites "I have a lunch date with two bald eagles" ~followed by~ "This blue hole is going to turn into a street of clouds when I launch my lucky charms!"

Photos by Dean Funk

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Landing at Quest Air

April 1, 2014, 9:22:43 pm EDT

Landing at Quest Air

Smooth flying

Dean Funk|photo|Quest Air|Zac Majors

Dean Funk takes a few photos:

I get ready to come in.

I go monkey and greatly increase the drag on the last part of my final and have a lot more ability to pull in by wrapping my toes around the base tube (compared to pulling in with my arms on the down tubes). The only problem is the transition earlier going from horizontal to monkey where it takes a few seconds to get my feet up on the base tube. There is less control at that moment.

The nice thing about having your feet on the base tube when you get within a foot or two of the ground is that you can push out with your legs and adjust the trim as you slow down. You don't have to actually put your legs down until the last minute. Of course, using this method has the added feature of always having your feet down and your head up.

Now, another way to land:

This is Zac Majors who has just swooped the landing zone and is turning around in preparation to landing going the other direction.

This is Zac a bit earlier:

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Quest Air's Final Glide Contest

January 22, 2014, 10:09:34 pm GMT+0900

Quest Air's Final Glide Contest

Stay above 300' AGL

Dean Funk|Joe Schmucker|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air

Mark Frutiger <<info>> writes:

It's in the books, the first Final Glide competition at Quest is over, (almost). Eleven pilots flew twenty one one on one match races over two days. Scoring and rules for the comp were simple, two tugs towed two gilders to the same altitude and position upwind of the first turnpoint and released them at same time. The first glider to complete the course with at least 300' of altitude received the win, time did not matter. 1st, 2nd and 3rd for each pool was determined by the number of match wins. The top two from each pool advanced to the single elimination "Best of Show" round.

High winds on Saturday kept us from getting the final flight for Best of Show and 3rd place in the kingposted pool done before dark, so we'll fly those at another time.

The course consisted of a downwind run to a turnpoint, then a push to another turnpoint 4 km northwest of Quest which was used as the handicapping tool. The higher performance the glider, the smaller the diameter around this turnpoint. The finish was a 400 meter cylinder around Quest with a 300' hard deck for safety. Completing the course below 300' counted as a loss.

There were some great match ups and close racing. The closest race was between John Hope and Eric Meibos. They crossed the finish within seconds of each other but John was just below the 300' minimum, so Eric got the win.

Just for fun and to see how well tandem gliders really fly, Dean Funk flew a Northwing tandem with a different passenger each round. He scored three wins in four attempts, with his only loss coming in a round where both gliders failed to make the course. We'll handicap the tandem and single surface gliders less in the next event.

The Litesport 4 piloted by Stephan Mentler was very impressive on glide and he racked up 5 wins in 5 rounds. He'll fly against Dean on the tandem for top honors. With the current handicapping, Stephan will have to fly very fast to make up the extra distance.

The final results were;

Kingposted (single surface and Sport 2's)

1st Tony " Super" Mercado, Falcon 170

2nd Dean Funk, Northwing T2 tandem

Open (High performance kingposted and topless)

1st Stephan Mentler, Litesport 4

2nd John Hope, U2 145

3rd TBD Joe Schmucker or Kim Braswell or Cliff Rice

Best of Show

TBD Stephan Mentler or Dean Funk

3rd Jonny Thompson, Litesport 4

I think there was enough fun had by all to make this a regular event. We'll schedule another one for some time in the spring.

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Hombres Pájaro 2104 Colombia⁣ Roldanillo

Mon, Sep 23 2013, 7:22:40 am MDT

South America

Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2104|James Stinnett|Mike Glennon|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|PG|Rafael Arcos|Raul Guerra

Mike Glennon «Mike Glennon» writes:

We will be holding the 5th Annual Hombres Pajaro Hang Gliding Competition in Roldanillo, Colombia on Jan 18 - 25 , 2014 in memory of Luis Rizo. This will be a Cat 2 FAI Competition. We have obtained some sponsors which allow us to offer the following prize money: 1st Place US$5,000, 2nd Place US$2,500, 3rd Place US$1,000.

The Hombres Pajaro Competition has had a number of international Pilots attend over these last 4 years, such as, David Brito from Brazil, Davis Straub, James Stinnett , Mitch Shipley, Dustin Martin, Dean Funk from the USA, Raul Guerra, Jelko Loor, Fausto and Rafael Arcos from Ecuador, Luis Rizo from France/Colombia. At the 2013 Hombres Pajaro we had the great pleasure and honor to have Luis Rizo come back to Colombia and compete with us, where he won flying in Roldanillo where he learned to fly cross country and compete in his early days in the sport. Although his passing has hit us extremely hard, we will be glad to honor him at this competition this January.

Many of you may not know that Roldanillo has become a very important flying site for the International paragliding community. After holding a PWC competition there a couple of years ago, all the pilots insisted the next PWC Final be held there. This happened last year and again all the pilots insisted we obtain the Paragliding Worlds here. This was also confirmed this year and the Paragliding Worlds will be held in Roldanillo in January of 2015. The Preworlds will be held in Roldanillo this year at the beginning of January. We have excellent flying conditions in January. This year (Jan 2013) we had 5 out of 7 tasks, all over 100 kms long and all with pilots in goal. The practice day we also flew a task over 100 kms and made goal.

Roldanillo is a small town in the interior of Colombia and is not an expensive place to stay. Hotels are about US$20 a night, you can cover the three meals a day with US$10 easily, and international pilots will be adopted by local pilots so there is no need to rent cars here.

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Wet Lookout

July 12, 2013, 7:49:54 CDT

Wet Lookout

Wet outlook?

Dean Funk|Facebook|Lookout Mountain Flight Park

Dean Funk writes:

Lookout under water, worst season ever.

He appears to be in a funk.

Foundation for Free Flight Site preservation photos

June 11, 2013, 8:43:03 EDT

Foundation for Free Flight Site preservation photos

They need yours

Dean Funk|Foundation for Free Flight|photo

David R. Leggett <<ias>> writes:

The Foundation for Free Flight is in need of high resolution photos of sites that have received site preservation grants from the Foundation for Free Flight. National Team photos are welcome as well. We are planning a new advertising campaign and would like images from around the country. Please send to Dean Funk: deanfunk@mindspring.com

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Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013 »

June 4, 2013, 8:59:44 EDT

Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013

Registration reminded

Dean Funk|Tennessee Tree Toppers|video

James Dean <<kreebog>> writes:

This is a reminder to all that the TTT Team Challenge 2013 Registration is still open! Head on over to the TC2013 registration page ( http://www.tennesseetreetoppers.org/tc2013/TC13Home.asp ) to reserve your place in this amazing competition. If you’re interested in learning about the sport of cross-country hang gliding, or if you're looking for a safe, gentle introduction to hang gliding competition, then you don’t want to miss this event!

The competition is open to H3+ pilots only, though H2 pilots are more than welcome to attend and will be able to participate in the seminars and festivities, and to enjoy the great free-flying opportunities to be had in the beautiful Sequatchie valley. You’ll learn a lot, meet a ton of great people, and have a blast!

Wondering what to expect? Read my blog covering my very first Team Challenge back in 2010: http://kreeblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/getting-ready-for-team-challenge.html  (navigation on the right, read from the bottom up) for a first-hand account of a newbie's first competition and cross-country experiences.

Never flow the Sequatchie Valley? Check out this amazing video by Dean Funk to see what you've been missing: http://vimeo.com/52526556 .

If you're interested, read the following article and go sign up! If you have any questions just send me an email (<kreebog> ) and I’ll be happy to answer them!

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2013 Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge »

November 26, 2012, 9:50:35 PST

2013 Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge

New dates and new rules

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jim Rooney|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Ollie Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013|video|weather

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jim Rooney|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Ollie Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013|video|weather

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jim Rooney|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Ollie Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013|video|weather

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30081

On the heels of Jamie Shelden’s great review of the Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2012 (http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/tennessee-tree-toppers-team-challenge.html), we’d like to make a few announcements regarding the upcoming 2013 Team Challenge!

Team Challenge Format:

Teams of five pilots consisting of various skill and cross-country experience levels ranging from A (pro, very experienced) to C (H3 pilot new to cross flying) work together to earn points by flying tasks in the beautiful Sequatchie Valley. What makes this competition unique is that it focuses on safety and learning first, competition second! The A pilots are tasked with teaching the B and C pilots on their team how to safely make cross-country flights. The team is scored as a whole with shorter tasks given to the less experienced members of the team. The more experienced pilots have the chance to earn bonus points for helping their B and C pilots along the course.

New Dates:

The Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2013 is being moved to September 1st through September 7th. The last few Team Challenges haven’t had the best weather, so our hope is that moving the event forward a month will give us better soaring conditions, less rain, and more time in the air! This also includes the Labor Day holiday weekend, which may make it easier for some folks who need to take time off of work to attend. And guess what else? If you attended the 2012 Team Challenge, check to see if your year-long Tennessee Tree Toppers membership covers the TC 2013! If it does, you’ll only have to cover the entry fee to participate. The Team Challenge entry fee is $160. A Tennessee Tree Toppers membership, if you need it, is $100.

2013 Rules and Scoring Changes:

For 2013, the scoring rules are being updated by experienced Team Challenge “A” pilot Eric Carden and the Tennessee Tree Toppers Competition Chairman, Ollie Gregory. The new rules will be more clearly written and posted online for all to see well in advance of the next competition. Some minor changes are being made to eliminate sandbagging, encourage pre-meet team building, improve fairness, and reduce subjectivity. Additionally, Eric Carden has created an electronic scoring system that will reduce scoring errors, speed up the scoring process, and reduce paperwork!

Improved Whitwell Launch:

A great site just got better! The Tree Toppers, led by undauntable Dustin Blewett, worked tirelessly last summer to improve the Whitwell launch site by changing it from a sheer-cliff launch to a steep-slope launch. The “New Whitwell” launch is a large, carefully shaped grass mound that encourages strong, fast launch runs. While this site is now less intimidating to those without a lot of cliff launch experience, pilots launching from Whitwell still need excellent mountain launching skills! Please note that Whitwell remains an H3 site due to the glide requirement to make the primary landing zone.

The improved Whitwell launch (as well as the world famous Radial Ramp at Henson Gap!) Can be seen in Dean Funk’s fabulous video, “Welcome to Magicland,” in which he launches and soars both sites (one is NW, the other SE) on the same day. Check it out: http://vimeo.com/52526556.

Southern Para Pilots Team Challenge:

Our friends at SPP (http://www.southernparapilots.org) have reviewed the Team Challenge format and are planning a TC style cross-country event of their own. If we’re lucky, they will be able to hold their event while we are holding ours, and we’ll find ourselves sharing the air with these fine pilots! The SPP have their own launch sites in the Sequatchie, and there is plenty of room for everyone!

Weather:

The Team Challenge is becoming famous for “Weather-Proofing” the competition. We do this by providing numerous seminars, clinics, and activities on the days that aren’t flyable, so no matter what Mother Nature throws at us, the participants walk away with new skills, knowledge, and memories. For 2013, we hope to have all of the great teachers and leaders of 2012 back for more seminars, discussions, and classes, including Dennis Pagen, Mike Barber, Jim Rooney, Mitch Shipley, and more! Ollie Gregory will be there, as always, along with a host of other local talent to round out the roster. You can expect seminars on things like weather, thermaling, competition/race soaring, landing, launching, towing, soaring simulators, radios, varios, equipment… and on and on and on!

Food:

Food will be catered and available to all participants for a nominal fee, just as it was in 2012. Exact prices are to be determined. We are open to suggestions for food! If you have any ideas, please PM them to me and I'll forward them to the Tree Toppers.

Seminar Suggestions / Volunteers:

If you have any suggestions for seminars or, even better, would like to volunteer to lead a seminar, just PM it to me and I'll forward it to the right party.

More to come! Watch The Oz Report and keep any eye on the Tennessee Tree Toppers web site (http://www.tennesseetreetoppers.org) for updates. See you in September!

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Soaring as Sandy approaches

October 31, 2012, 6:37:54 MST

Soaring as Sandy approaches

Dean in Sequatchie

Dean Funk|video

Dean Funk <<deanfunk>> writes:

http://vimeo.com/deanfunk/magicland

This is a short video I put together of two flights I was able to do last Friday, Oct 26. Things got exciting in the Sequatchie before Superstorm Sandy. I was able to soar both sides of the valley in one day. My first launch of the day was at Whitwell, where I climbed to base with 900+ fpm on my averager. I landed after about one hour due to over development and rain. I later flew Henson's Gap for about 45 minutes in fun ridge conditions with light thermals. Peak fall colors and a super awesome sunset made for a perfect flying day in the Sequatchie.

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Launch near Lookout for sale

July 2, 2012, 8:10:04 CDT

Launch near Lookout for sale

You own private launch

Dean Funk|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|Marc Fink|PG|photo|record|video

David Giles <<davidg>> writes:

Well folks, I really hate to do it, but business conditions dictate that I must sell my beloved launch-site on the eastern brow of Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia (about 17 miles due south of LMFP). It is 4 acres with 400' of brow frontage that overlooks the historic McLemore Cove, and offers what is arguably the most beautiful view on Lookout Mountain. The Cove below is largely protected from future development and a significant portion of it is owned by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. And the site faces Pigeon Mountain (5 miles across the valley) which is also completely owned by the G.D.N.R. and will never be developed, so the view will always be as pristine and beautiful as it is now. This is a relatively isolated piece of land with no houses in site on top of the mountain (the closest house on top is a quarter mile away). And just to the north is the Zahnd Wildlife Management Area which will forever prevent any development in that direction.

Rachel and I had a 20'x10' storage building custom-built on the site in 2008, and then added a 10'x10' bedroom onto one side and a shower onto the other, to create a cozy little cabin (the site has no power or water, but we use a generator for power and a propane shower for maximum comfort). The little cabin is perfect for long weekend flying trips and will stay with the land. There is no other structure on the land, but the site has a high-point where a 2-story house with a roof-deck would have a spectacular view of the sunrise over Pigeon Mountain and the sunset over Lookout and Sand Mountain.

The launch is 1150' AGL, faces due east, and the Google Earth coordinates are: 34.646585 -85.469187. When we bought the land, I had several dump truck loads of dirt brought in and built a perfectly sculpted launch mound that looks like a natural part of the landscape. And we cut a lot of trees below launch to make for a very easy, forgiving launch with plenty of clearance below and to the sides. Downwind cross country flights are relatively easy as you first cross over Lookout Mt. with several bailout fields in reach from any reasonable altitude, then cross the flats on Sand Mountain (huge agricultural fields everywhere) before crossing the river at Scottsboro. The only downwind thing to worry about is the Huntsville airport, but you only have to vector a few degrees north or south to miss the airspace. Several pilots including myself have flown 50+ miles, and Greg Heckman has the site record at 91 miles (on a Sport 2!)

There is one tree right behind launch that would make launching a paraglider pretty sketchy at this point (according to bi-wingual pilot Marc Fink) I never wanted to cut the tree down because it is beautiful, provides shade for setup, and doesn't interfere with hang glider launches. But if a paraglider pilot buys the site, it would be very easy to make it safe for paragliders.

The designated LZ is a 5:1 glide from launch (Google Earth coordinates: 34. 658426 -85.452470) and is owned by a landowner in the valley who is very friendly towards hang gliding and with whom we've had a great relationship for several years. The LZ slopes gently uphill towards the long barn/chicken house that you can see on Google Earth, so landing is easy. Some pilots are intimidated by the smallish size of the field and the trees around the west-southwest edge of the field, but it's plenty big enough for any foot-launched aircraft.

For pilots who prefer a massive LZ, there is plenty of room in the south end of the cove, including an old airstrip, at a 7:1 glide from launch (approximate Google Earth coordinates: 34.632138 -85.447987)

You can see photos of the launch here: http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd58/davgiles

Here's a video of the first flights made from the site in 2008 (video quality isn't great): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZMOZ8LusU0

And Dean Funk made a nice video a couple of years ago (unfortunately in sledder conditions): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkmCRgt8hco

Keep in mind that quite a few trees have been cut below launch since those videos were made, so launch clearance is even better.

The price is $225,000. Serious inquiries only please!! And I'm really hoping that someone in the hang gliding/paragliding community can purchase it to keep it "in the family", so I'm only advertising to pilots at first.

If you have questions, please contact me at <davidg>

Dean at Whale Harbor

May 28, 2012, 7:48:24 EDT

Dean at Whale Harbor

Paradise Hang Gliding in the Keys for the long weekend

Dean Funk|video

Dean Funk was the tandem pilot during the Memorial day weekend down at Islamorada, in the Key in Florida.  Towing off the beach a long ways away from Beryl.

http://igg.me/p/101598?a=582719

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrqJnSF54uc

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New Flytec web site »

April 5, 2012, 8:29:15 EDT

New Flytec web site

Web work by Dean Funk

Dean Funk|Quest Air|video

http://flytec.com

Electric motors for flying: http://flytec.com/edrive.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HFyJ0GN_m8

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8600' cloud base yesterday at Quest Air

April 4, 2012, 9:55:22 EDT

8600' cloud base yesterday at Quest Air

That's almost 8600' AGL

Belinda Boulter|Dean Funk|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|Russell "Russ" Brown|weather

Pilots got plenty high in the light wind conditions with scatter cu's yesterday. Today two women students are doing early morning tandems for instruction with Mitch Shipley and Dean Funk.

Mark Frutiger has added an invigorating new element to the management here at Quest Air joining Paul Tjaden and Mitch in providing services to an ever increasing flow of pilots from up north and was hauling up the students and their instructors this morning. Mark has a perfect background to be a hands on manager here and has a great attitude. We are happy to see his well tanned face after years of pasty white from his time living in western New York and teaching hang gliding for the Rochester Area Flyers.

Quest Air at times appears to be a Yoga Spa with a hang gliding problem as Delores Mordasini gets her student loosened up every morning at 8:30 AM (I think she is soon going to start earlier as things heat up here) next to the pool. Belinda is a very experienced student.

Russell Brown comes by about every day as he works on the planes and the tractors. The professional tractor mechanic just showed up next to the Oz Report World headquarters to get the PTO working. I think that he is going to spilt the tractor to get at the PTO clutch. The tractors are used for mowing the runways and have 10' and 15' mowing decks respectively.

The weather forecast calls for continued good weather for the next week at least. The conditions are marvelous and pilots are wearing themselves out flying.

Come on down and enjoy central Florida flying weather.

Bunner in the air

March 26, 2012, 2:02:02 pm EDT

Bunner in the air

Four months after his rotator cuff surgery

Dean Funk|Larry Bunner|Quest Air

Larry Bunner launched about half an hour ago with the goal being the Florida Ridge, 125 miles to the south of Quest Air. Mark Frutiger should be launching soon, if a bit late, with the same goal. Dean Funk is in the air also.

Larry hasn't flown since his surgery and he is about two months ahead of me.

The sky is full of high cu's, a few hundred feet thick. The winds are lined up nice for a run down the middle of the state.

His radio went out soon after he took off, so he flew south and then came back after a few hours. We haven't heard from Dean or Mark.

Dean landed near Wallaby. Mark flew a Falcon 1, 195 almost 100 km south to Lake Wales.

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175 kilometers from Quest Air yesterday

March 21, 2012, 9:10:42 EDT

175 kilometers from Quest Air yesterday

Dean Funk goes the furthest in a cross wind

Campbell Bowen|Dean Funk|Quest Air

Another nice day at Quest Air here in central Florida yesterday (after more than a week of them) with a pretty decent east southeast wind. Pilots took their time getting going after the cu's started forming at 9 AM. They planned a route to the northwest being sure to stay west of the Ocala airspace (which is a recent addition for us).

With the east wind component the story is that Dean went way west of Lake Panasoffkee. This is amazing as that is so rarely done, but the winds were strongly out of the east and Dean kept jumping cloud streets to the north to go north. Often we just go up interstate 75. He landed by Newberry to the northwest of Gainesville about a mile away from a barbeque joint where all the pilots enjoyed a great repast after a long day of retrievals. This was a cross wind flight all the way.

Dean over the swamp feeding Lake Panasoffkee.

Campbell Bowen landed about eighty miles out. The story there was that he apparently got bored. The pilot with the driver wrote down Olav's coordinates incorrectly (decimal degree, not degree decimal minutes) and with the wrong coordinate format and a foreign phone so Olav presented a retrieval problem. The retrieval truck went out without a cooler full of drinks which didn't help the parched pilots.

Old lesson learned anew.

Florida is cooking.

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Roldanillo

Roldanillo

Piedechinche

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Jack Simmons|James Stinnett|Jamie Shelden|Mike Glennon|Raul Guerra|video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ww-Burv8U

Mike Glennon <<mikeglennon>> writes:

Foreign pilots confirmed: Dustin, Jack Simmons, James Stinnett, Dean Funk, Luis Rizo, Raul Guerra, Jelko Loor.

On the fence: Jamie Shelden, Ricker Goldsborough.

http://ozreport.com/15.240#0

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Treetoppers Board Members Purchase US National Team Shirts

April 18, 2011, 8:36:57 EDT

Treetoppers Board Members Purchase US National Team Shirts

Buy a crumby little tee-shirt, for god's sake

Dean Funk|Ollie Gregory|weather

cloudbaseracer <<cloudbaseracer>> writes:

I took the opportunity to drop in on the Tennessee Treetoppers monthly board meeting to offer some US National Team shirts. The weather was bad and although there were only a few attendees, I was able to get some support for the team. A couple of days later, I arrived back at Henson to fly from the famous radial ramp and connected with another eager US National Team supporter. The new dri-fit version of these shirts has been well received so far and I would like to individually thank Tennessee Treetoppers members Ollie Gregory, Dean Funk and Miller Stroud for the contribution and favorable words.

http://ozreport.com/15.072#0

http://flytec.com/worldteam/index.html

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Tennessee Tree Toppers 2011 Team Challenge is changing

February 13, 2011, 6:43:48 pm PST

Tennessee Tree Toppers 2011 Team Challenge is changing

New role for competition pilots

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Mike Barber|Ollie Gregory|video|weather

Ollie Gregory <<olliettt1955>> writes:

Don’t be afraid! It is all for the better! The Tennessee Tree Toppers have hosted the most effective teaching competition in the US for many years and wouldn’t do anything to risk the success of this wonderful meet! However, for 2011, we’re throwing in a twist to make it even more appealing for advancing cross country pilots! Team Challenge is for the "C" pilots who confidently thermal soar their local sites, but yearn to leave the LZ bubble and go somewhere, "B" pilots who have solid soaring experience and want to hone emerging cross country skills, and experienced "A" pilots willing to mentor budding cross country pilots.

Of course we’ll continue the effective team teaching formats with A pilots mentoring and leading a small team of their less experienced comrades on cross country tasks. We’ll continue the nightly seminars lead by some of the best teachers in hang gliding like Dennis Pagen and Mike Barber, including instrument clinics, video launch and landing clinics and thermal soaring clinics. Teams will fly fun tasks that encourage budding cross country pilots to discover how much fun it is to make cross country goals, while the A level pilots will fly extended tasks that are sure to challenge even the big time cross country hounds! All pilots are encouraged to participate in every aspect of this fun cross country meet from the daily weather workup and setting of the day’s tasks, to the nightly group debriefing and discussion after the days flights are done. Team Challenge is the best hang gliding learning experience available and a blast to experience! Take a look at Dean Funk's video from day one Team Challenge 2010!

http://vimeo.com/19864650

The Tree Toppers hold this meet in the fall during the driest time of the year for the maximum number of flyable days and outstanding, yet friendly thermal soaring conditions. Last year pilots got to over 8,000 feet MSL and flew some impressive tasks. The fall camping is fun and free for Tennessee Tree Toppers members (full annual membership is included in the Team Challenge entrance fee) with the campground located at the Henson Gap Radial Ramp. The campground has everything you’ll need for a fun week. Affordable on site breakfasts and dinners will allow you to relax, hang out and maximize the time spent learning about cross country flying! For those wanting a hotel, several are available in Dunlap just 10 minutes away from launch.

OK! Those in the know understand that Tennessee Tree Toppers has been doing all this for years. That’s how Team Challenge became the incredible experience everyone in hang gliding has heard about. So what’s new? About half way through the meet, when pilots are getting into the swing of flying the local cross country tasks, we’re gonna turn ‘em loose on the best days to chase the longest flights possible. That’s right C and B pilots, your A team leaders will be given assignments to help you fly as far as you can! For many these tasks will be their first chance to do some hefty cross country miles! Yep, pilots will leave Team Challenge 2011 with lots of fond memories, new friends, new flying skills and, for many, their longest flights ever!

Open distance in the Sequatchie valley is so much fun! Many pilots at Team Challenge 2011 will bag the longest flight of their career and never leave the valley, but some will run out the ends of the Sequatchie and get 50 mile or longer flights. Team Challenge is an excellent to learn as much as possible about safe and fun cross country flying. Now you’ll also get a shot at a really big flight in an cross country friendly locale. Tennessee Tree Toppers will provide loads of logistical support to help this dream come true. If you don't have a driver or a team, don't worry, we will place you on a team and we always have plenty of helpful drivers to go around.

Team Challenge 2011 will start Sunday September 25th and run through Saturday October 1st when we’ll have our Oktoberfest party and the awards ceremonies! It is always a blast. The Tree Toppers invite everyone to come to the party to help us celebrate the gift of flight and cheer our Team Challenge pilots who will be giddy after a fantastic week of flying cross country! Registration is open for Team Challenge 2011 at our website so, register now!

http://tennesseetreetoppers.org and go to the Team Challenge links.

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2011 Flytec Race and rally »

Tue, Dec 21 2010, 10:10:19 am PST

Over subscribed, six over the fifty pilot limit

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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USHPA president's personal thoughts on the Chapter SOP

December 21, 2010, 9:49:37 PST

USHPA president's personal thoughts on the Chapter SOP

How this issue can be resolved

Dean Funk|Rich Hass|USHPA

http://ozreport.com/docs/SOP-06-01_attachment_5.doc

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22269

Rich Hass <<richhass>> writes to David Beerman who first brought this issue to the attention of Dave Wills and the chapter officers:

As this discussion is forwarded to the Chapter Support Committee for further consideration, I wanted to get back to you and let you know I read all your comments and suggestions for further amendment of SOP 06-01. I don't agree with all of them but I do agree with many. Here are some of my personal thoughts on the SOP (and not necessarily the opinion of the EC or BoD):

06-01.04 (C)—USHPA shouldn't require an open door policy in terms of requiring chapters to include both wing types. There are reasons why we have HG and PG-only clubs just like there are reasons why we have combined HG/PG clubs. That said, there are chapters with 'closed' memberships where the chapters seem to exist for the sole purpose of getting the insurance benefit from USHPA for their private club. Aside from the wing type issue, some pilots with identical or higher ratings aren't welcomed. I don't think this is right, but how do we draw the line? Should USHPA allow chapters to discriminate against groups of pilots or individuals?

06-01.04 (F)—For me, this is easy. I'd just strike it and move on. If chapter or their officers have a beef with USHPA, so be it. They still need to have a high percentage of USHPA members to keep their chapter status so I guess I don’t see the issue here. If chapters behave poorly, they will lose members—exactly the same principle applies to USHPA.

06-01.04 (G)—One of USHPA's primary goals is to open sites and keep them open. Allowing chapters to operate as private clubs and discriminate against pilots who would otherwise be entitled to fly at their site seems counter to what USHPA is all about. For example, what if a site has been available to both HG and PG pilots for years but all of a sudden, the PG club signs a lease with the landowner and the site is now closed to HG pilots? I would think most HG members would want USHPA to step up and represent their interests. For a similar reason, USHPA does not provide insurance for sites controlled by a school or operator where there is no open-door policy to allow all USHPA members—including instructors—to use the site. If a group of pilots want to form their own private club and control a site, they can. At issue is whether or not USHPA should be an enabler.

06-01.05 (B)(1)—I am opposed to any effort where USHPA would require the use of helmet stickers and my opposition is well-know amongst the proponents of this provision. The helmet sticker program, as it is presently envisioned, will enable members to forgo the need to show their card by having their sticker visible. If chapters want to require use of the stickers, that will be up to them. For the ones who already use stickers, I suspect they will appreciate USHPA providing them. Other pilots (like me) see this as a slippery slope where USHPA is somehow encouraging chapters to require their use. The stickers aren't a big cost item and I've been assured pilots may opt-in or out as they see fit. The one advantage I see to using stickers is that it enables everyone to take ownership of the site monitoring responsibility and not burden club officers with the task of doing card checks.

David, I will encourage the Chapter Support Committee (and all committees) to reach out with new proposals to see how they fit with our diverse flying community well before our BoD meetings. When USHPA comes up short (as I think it did recently) it is often because we thought we knew what our members want (or need). There's a much simpler way—just ask. There are other circumstances where some third party like the FAA requires something. In these cases, USHPA can improve by laying out the context for the required change. When members know what is going on, they feel better about changes. I hope I can help USHPA improve on this score.

On a final note, I want to mention that, to my knowledge, not one single RD has complained about your bringing this matter to everyone's attention. On the contrary, several mentioned they appreciated it. I'm in that camp.

If Dean Funk and or Dave Wills had contacted the chapter officers in advance (as David Beerman did after the fact) then they would have seen that there was a problem before the USHPA passed this SOP change (which has been suspended). It is not at all clear that Dean Funk was involved in any of this.

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Great to have better communication

December 17, 2010, 9:37:27 PST

Great to have better communication

Thanks to Dave Wills for commenting on my coverage of the fallout from the chapter requirements SOP

Dave Wills|Dean Funk|Rich Hass|USHPA

It is always great to receive a thoughtful and considerate response to a critique of the actions of the USHPA BOD and committee from a chairmen of the very committee that was critiqued. If more committee chairmen would avail themselves of this opportunity, it would be one way that we could very much improve communication between the USHPA BOD and the membership. Of course, I also include the great response from Rich Hass, the USHPA President, as linked to earlier in the Oz Report (see here).

Just to be clear, in case you didn't read it in the Oz Report forum here, the USHPA (Rich, the EC, the BOD) has suspended implementation of the new SOP.

Dave's response highlights a continuing problem with communication between the membership and the USHPA BOD (and officers). What members mean when they want better communication with the USHPA, is that they want the USHPA BOD members to listen to them before they make changes, not after the fact. Now in this case Rich responded very quickly when the problem was pointed out by David Beerman (and later others who responded to David's alarm), and this is both great and new. This greatly improves the membership's view of the competence of the BOD.

But in the past the USHPA BOD (and EC) has stood fast when the critiques came in and it often took extreme efforts on the part of the membership to get the USHPA BOD back on the right course. The voting down of the proposal for a new national team code of conduct is an example of this. This example is confined to the USHPA Competition Committee, not the whole BOD or EC.

It is unclear from Dave's response above who should take responsibility for the new provisions of the Chapters SOP, but I get the idea that Dave is taking responsibility and not putting it on the shoulders of Dean Funk, the chairmen of the Chapter Support Committee.

I have read all the proposed changes to the SOPs that were brought to the Fall USHPA meeting. Only this proposal raised significant issues. It is clear to me that Dave should have taken a deep breath and sent this out to the chapters before he went ahead with it. Perhaps if he had seen an easy way to do that (David Beerman harvested the chapter email addresses from the USHPA web site), he might have availed himself of that opportunity.

Perhaps Dave should have also had an involved discussion with Dean Funk before he proceeded. Maybe Dean should have taken the steps of contacting a sample of chapter officers.  It is unclear from Dave's response above just how much he was communicating with Dean, if at all.

Thanks again to Dave for be willing to write to me and for the respect that he has shown for the only hang gliding press.

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2011 Flytec Race and Rally »

Sun, Dec 12 2010, 4:53:59 pm PST

Top pilots coming from Australia

Allen Stanish|calendar|Charles Allen|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Flytec Race and Rally 2011|Glen Volk|James Tindle|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Lauren Tjaden|Mike Glennon|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Ollie Gregory|Patrick Kruse|Roberto Nichele|Rob Kells|Tom Lanning|Zac Majors

https://OzReport.com/calendar.php

https://OzReport.com/uscompetitiondates.php

http://FlytecRaceAndRally.wordpress.com/

Jamie Shelden «Jamie Shelden» sends the names of pilots signed up for the Flytec Race and Rally:

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

Registration for the Rob Kells meet that was supposed to open on the 10th still apparently isn't open. Maybe you pilots who fly regularly at the Ridge could get James Tindle into first gear. I get very tired of having to call him each year, when I can email everyone else and actually get a response.

Discuss "2011 Flytec Race and Rally" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Tennessee Tree Toppers Board of Directors Ballot Correction

November 21, 2010, 9:47:06 PST

Tennessee Tree Toppers Board of Directors Ballot Correction

Dan Shell's name is on the ballot

Dan Shell|Dean Funk|Michael Bradford|Ollie Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers

Buddy Cutts|Dan Shell|Dean Funk|Michael Bradford|Ollie Gregory|Tennessee Tree Toppers

Buddy Cutts|Dan Shell|Dean Funk|Michael Bradford|Ollie Gregory|Steve Lee|Tennessee Tree Toppers

Ollie Gregory <<olliettt1955>> writes:

I was in charge of getting the mail out ballot for TTT Board of Directors for 2011. I let it loose before catching a mistake. I mistakenly left Dan Shell's name of the list of nominees. Dan has served on the TTT board of directors for many years. Dan has been active in all TTT projects and has lead the important By Laws committee.

For many years Dan lead the very challenging membership committee. Dan is local to the club so has been a regular for all TTT projects.

To help correct my mistake, we have undertaken an emailing to all active TTT members to point out this mistake.

We have a big board. Members should circle fifteen names on the ballot for BOD 2011. The ballot also has a list of nominees for Tennessee Tree Topper of the year. There is no doubt in my mind who should win this, but all TTTers should take a look and decide for themselves who should receive this honor.

Below is the corrected list of TTT members who were nominated and accepted their nomination to run for TTT BOD 2011! Again, I left Dan Shell off the mail out ballot. Active members may vote online at www.tennesseetreetopper.org Inactive members may join online and vote once their membership is confirmed. The online version will have the corrected list of Board of Director nominees. Also please vote for the Tennessee Tree Topper Of The Year 2010 and RSVP for the Xmas Party at the Blue Orchid Bistro in Dunlap TN to be held Saturday December 11th at 6pm EST, 5pm CST.

Corrected list of (17) BOD nominees:

Dan Shell, Rick Jacob, Steve Lee, Kathy Lee, James Anderson, Buddy Cutts, Jeff Nibler, Barry Klein, Dean Funk, Rob Dallas, Miller Stroud, Michael Bradford, Kenny Sandifer, Trevor Childress, John Cory, Ollie Gregory, Clark Harlow

Please use this list to choose your fifteen BOD members.

Tennessee Tree Topper of the Year Nominees (8) for 2010:

Ricker Goldsborough, Michael Bradford, Jeff Nibler, Steve Lee, James Anderson, Marco Weber, Roger Sherrod, David Sweiggert.

Thanks for you participation!

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2010 Team Challenge

September 24, 2010, 3:10:43 MDT

2010 Team Challenge

Great conditions

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Mike Barber|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2010|video|weather

Dean Funk <<deanfunk>> writes:

Tennessee Tree Toppers 2010 Team Challenge kicked off with two epic days in the Sequatchie Valley. We had great conditions with climbs to over 8,000 feet and many C, B and A Pilots in goal. We have a great turn out this year with 5 teams. Lot's of learning going on with lectures from Mike Barber, Dennis Pagen and Terry Presley on the finer aspects of XC flying and weather. Lot's of happy pilots here for sure.

Here's a video of the start gaggle from day 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZRwyJV-XxI

USHPA Fall 2010 BOD meeting

September 10, 2010, 8:56:55 MDT

USHPA Fall 2010 BOD meeting

The schedule

Bill Bolosky|Dave Broyles|David Glover|Dean Funk|Foundation for Free Flight|Leo Bynum|Lisa Tate|Mike Haley|Paul Voight|Rich Hass|Rod Clark|Tracy Tillman|USHPA

Bill Bolosky|Dave Broyles|David Glover|Dean Funk|Foundation for Free Flight|Jon James|Leo Bynum|Lisa Tate|Mike Haley|Paul Voight|Rich Hass|Rod Clark|Tracy Tillman|USHPA

Thursday, October 21, 2010

8:00 -12:00 EC Meeting
9:00-12:00 Ad Hoc ED Hiring Committee Meeting (Tracy Tillman)
1:30- 5:30 Director Training (All Directors)


6:00-9:00 Ice Breaker Reception –
McMenamins- Rambler Room-700 N.W. Bond Street 541-330-8567
http://www.mcmenamins.com/537-old-st-francis-school-event-spaces

Friday, October 22, 2010

8:30- 9:45 Committee Meetings

Site Committee Jon James
Elections Mark Forbes
Membership & Development Leo Bynum/ Rod Clark

10:00 -11:30 Committee Meetings

National Coordinating Dick Heckman
Safety and Training Dave Broyles & Dave Wills
Chapter Support Dean Funk
Towing Committee Felipe Amunategui

1:00 -2:45 Committee Meetings

Publications Urs Kellenberger
Insurance / Finance Committee Mark Forbes / Rich Hass
Awards Brad Hall
Tandem Committee Paul Voight

3:00 -5:00 Competition Committee Mike Haley

5:00 – 6:00 Bylaws Dave Wills

Saturday, October 23, 2010

8:30-12:00 General Session

Call to order (Lisa Tate)
Roll Call (Rich Hass)
Approval of minutes (Lisa Tate)
Executive Committee Report (Rich Hass)
President’s Report (Lisa Tate)
Treasurers Report (Mark Forbes)
Old Business

Strategic Planning Group Report (Riss Estes / Lisa Tate)

Report by the Foundation for Free Flight (Bill Bolosky)

Committee Reports:

Site Committee (Jon James)
Elections (Mark Forbes)
Membership & Development (Leo Bynum)
National Coordinating (Dick Heckman)
Safety and Training (Dave Broyles & Dave Wills)
Chapter Support (Dean funk)
Awards (Brad Hall)


1:30-2:45 General Session

Committee Reports:
Publications (Urs Kellenberger)
Insurance (Mark Forbes)
Finance (Rich Hass)
Towing Committee (Felipe Amunategui)
Tandem Committee (Paul Voight)
Competition Committee (Mike Haley)
Bylaws (Dave Wills)

3:00- 6:00 General Session

Location of Fall 2011 BOD Meeting (Lisa Tate to present proposals received)

New Business

1. Torrey Pines Funding Request (Brad Hall)
2. Proposal to eliminate or reduce funding to the Foundation For Free Flight (David Glover)

Elections
Directors At Large
Corporate Officers
Adjourn

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Tennessee Spring Flying

April 19, 2010, 10:41:14 EDT

Tennessee Spring Flying

Whitwell

Dean Funk|video

Dean Funk <<deanfunk>> writes:

We have been enjoying exceptional spring conditions in Tennessee the last couple weeks. Here is a photo of our Whitwell launch, taken during my flight last Sunday during the Tree Topper Weekend Series. It was the beginning of a 35 mile XC flight. We had two amazing days of club competition.

Here is a link to the HD video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxyPVEJRjmY

Two minutes.

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East Coast Aerobatic Championships

April 12, 2010, 8:32:00 EDT

East Coast Aerobatic Championships

During the East Coast Championships

Dean Funk|Highland Aerosports Flight Park

http://www.usaero.org/

The first ever East Coast aerobatic hang gliding meet will take place June 10th through June 13th at Highland Aerosports in Ridgely MD in conjunction with the East Coast Championships race to goal competition.

"Sport Class" or Limited Difficulty entrants are encouraged to attend to help define a working set of rules for this new class of aerobatic competition. Every sport class flight will be carefully watched and critiqued by an open class pilot to provide immediate feedback, and advice to help safely grow the sport of aerobatic hang gliding.

They are using the Oz Report competition registration template, which is awfully nice. Meet Organizer's Assistance Package. Dean Funk, as a web developer, doesn't need to use the non web developers web site package which was one part of the meet organizer's assistance package, nor does he need the Race to Goal and Open distance scoring package, which is not useful for aerobatics meets.

Register for the East Coast Race to Goal Championship here.

Tennessee Tree Toppers »

January 30, 2010, 9:34:45 AEDT

Tennessee Tree Toppers

The upcoming year - thirty one days of competition

Dean Funk|Ollie Gregory

Ollie Gregory <olliettt1955> writes:

The Tree Toppers have an ambitious year of events planned. We intend to host a great year of hang gliding competitions. We have events for pilots of all skill levels and are trying out some innovative competition formats. Take a look at our new competition website designed by Dean Funk! It is worth a visit for the slide show alone! Click on the various events to see a description.

We have thirty one days of scheduled competitions in 2010! Yep that's thirty one days of organized competitions with formats for pilots interested in Race To Goal , Open Distance and friendly educational flying for fun events. Check out the website! Ollie

http://www.sequatchiecompetition.com/index.html

We hope everyone will support our push to offer more to the hang gliding community! Come to the Volunteer State and join in the fun! Come on Springtime!

Discuss "Tennessee Tree Toppers" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Using Google Docs for tracking weekend competitions

December 22, 2009, 7:07:36 PST

Using Google Docs for tracking weekend competitions

They are using it in Arkansas

Dean Funk

Check our their spread sheet for scoring here. They'll be using Google Docs for pilot registration and scoring at the Tree Topper's Team Challenge. Thanks to Dean Funk.

Discuss "Using Google Docs for tracking weekend competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Tree Toppers - USHPA web site of the year

December 18, 2009, 8:16:39 PST

Tree Toppers - USHPA web site of the year

Getting some help lately.

Buddy Cutts|Dean Funk|Facebook|Tennessee Tree Toppers|USHPA

Buddy Cutts writes:

I received a letter in the mail today from USHPA stating that our web site (Tennessee Tree Toppers) has won the Web Site of the Year award for 2009. I have been invited to attend the spring BOD meeting to accept the award. I will do my best to make it there. I am very honored that our website was selected.

Thanks to whomever nominated it and thanks to everyone for all the help and suggestions along the way!

Jeff Nibler has been a tremendous help and does a lot of work in the background, Dean Funk is back and is going to use his expertise to make the site even better. I look forward to another great year of volunteerism with the TTT!

We just put up a new Tennessee Tree Toppers Facebook fan page.

Thanks to Dean Funk

Updated Quest Air web site

December 2, 2009, 8:35:21 PST

Updated Quest Air web site

New content, cleaner design

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Lauren Tjaden|photo|Quest Air|video

Lauren Tjaden <tjadenhors> writes:

Lots of new photos and staff pictures, Dustin's page, picture of the day, a link to our Facebook page, new copy throughout, a media gallery with some new videos, and a link to "visit Florida and Lauren's blog on the "local attractions page. Other cool things are planned. Dean Funk has done a great job for us.

http://www.questairforce.com/

Dustin is pilot in command in this video of a tandem flight at Quest. The person taking the Discovery Flight is a twelve year old girl named Hafsa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbXIrjaKP3k

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Let me know more about lawsuits

September 10, 2007, 9:27:00 MDT

Lawsuits

The secrecy keeps us (BOD, members) from really seeing the big picture.

Dean Funk|USHPA

Why can't Mark (and others) talk about lawsuits? Because they might be deposed and they would have to tell the plaintiff's lawyers about everyone they talked to about the lawsuit and what they said to them. This could then be used against them in court. Mark would have to get a lawyer to advise him, maybe he already has one. His lawyer would advise him not to say anything.

While the USHPA may be being sued by a number of lawyers or its officers may be being deposed by lawyers to determine if and when the USHPA will be sued, I have had it confirmed that there is a $10 million law suit against Dean Funk (former meet director), the Tennessee Treetoppers, and the USHPA. My informants have told me that this lawsuit has been discussed in open meetings of the Tennessee Treetoppers BOD (at least two of them).

This lawsuit is being brought by the relatives of the pilot who did not hook in. I reported extensively on this accident and you can find the material starting here: http://ozreport.com/9.201#6

I am also told that a number of officers have been deposed in conjunction with this lawsuit.

I would like to know more about the legal atmosphere that the USHPA, Tennessee Treetopers, and meet directors (like Dean Funk) operate in. I know that I was quite exposed running the 2007 Worlds, but I jumped in with both feet. Were my hands actually tied behind my back, without me knowing it? Has the secrecy surrounding the current legal situation kept potential meet organizers and director unaware of their actual exposure?

What can you tell me (anonymously, if you like) about what the current lawsuit situation is? Is it rarely an issue or is it so bad that our organizations are crippled (yes, I know that anyone can be sued at any time for anything)? Do you know about specific law suits that are threatening the USHPA or other clubs?

Now as to John's article on the CIVL web site

March 7, 2006, 7:19:42 pm EST

CIVL article

The favor he has done me.

CIVL|Dean Funk|Guido Gehrmann|USHGA

http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/node/363

I took a copy of the article as I just wasn't sure that it would actually stay up on the CIVL web site. It is so uncivil and so unCIVL like. I sure hope it stays there.

First, as I made clear in my original article, the article was my responsibility as editor and publisher of the Oz Report and not as USHGA Competition Committee Chairman. That my statements are not official USHGA policy in any way and the USHGA is not a party to the article. To identify me as the USHGA Competition Committee Chairman in the first paragraph serves to confuse the reader as to whether he is referring to official USHGA policy or not. I don't think that John did this carelessly, or unknowingly, but on purpose.

John accuses me of being anti-CIVL. Well apparently he hasn't heard from those who really are anti-CIVL and would advocate that CIVL be destroyed and that the USHGA leave CIVL. I have never argued for these actions and have vigorously defended CIVL against such attacks. John mistakes criticism of CIVL policy and actions with a jihad against CIVL itself.

Let me make myself very clear. I disagree with some (maybe many) CIVL policies and actions. It is my perfect right to do so. It's called democracy. And freedom of the press. I'm exercising that freedom.

When CIVL does something right, you hear about it from me. When they screw up, you also hear about it from me (that is the editor and publisher of the Oz Report).

John apparently doesn't understand what the "royal we" stands for: "Me, myself, and I."

John accuses me of being certain that my views are superior to the "collective views and decisions of CIVL." Well, that's easy, you are damn right I do. Sometimes I'm even right about that.

CIVL is a once a year meeting of the delegates for two days to make a whole series of decisions with little background. They've got to get it wrong most of the time. CIVL is structurally designed for failure and it shows.

Now I know how this work as I go to the USHGA BOD meetings (twice a year for two and half days) and I can see much of the same dynamics. I've seen the results from CIVL Plenary's and CIVL Bureau meetings. Frankly, the work is not of the highest caliber. But then it is being done by volunteers and they don't get much support, so it is understandable.

I've already discussed the FAI Sporting License issue and meet organizer fees.

John is absolutely right when he says that I mistakenly sent Dean Funk to the Worlds in Oz, not realizing that he had not qualified in the top 2/3rd's of a CIVL Category 2 sanctioned meet. It was purely a mistake as I really didn't even think that that could possibly happen as I had seen Dean at the Flytec meets. I got that wrong. It happens. I believe that I apologized profusely at the time and thanked John for his consideration.

I very much appreciate the fact that John and the other countries at the 2005 Worlds agreed to allow Dean to fly in the Worlds (which he did quite safely, by the way, which some other "qualified" pilots did not).

Well, there really isn't that much else that's new in his on-line screed. John seems to think that I have some hope that CIVL will realize that they screwed up when they invalidated the FAUX meet. Oh please, give it up. I wouldn't have written the original article if I had thought that there was any hope of that. Hello, anyone out there?

No, I don't expect CIVL to realize that they made a big error and chose to screw two pilots who didn't deserve their condemnation and who are perfectly qualified to fly in the Worlds, no matter the pieties from CIVL and John.

I do put one challenge before them though. Judge these pilots not on the basis of whatever residual bad and vindictive feeling you may have about the editor and publisher of the Oz Report, but on their own performance.

Finally, it is my considered opinion again as editor and publisher of the Oz Report, that CIVL's actions are killing hang gliding. I saw this again when Guido Gehrmann (look him up, guys) said at the last Worlds that he would never come to a Worlds again. Until I see CIVL stop putting up barrier and start to tear them down, I'll keep this position.

Unhooked »

Fri, Sep 30 2005, 6:00:06 pm GMT

Off a cliff launch

Tragedy at Team Challenge

Dean Funk|fatality|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2005|William "Bill" Priday

https://OzReport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=924

Dean Funk «deanfunk» writes:

Bill Priday, a pilot from Richmond, launched unhooked yesterday (Saturday) from the Whitwell site here in Tennessee. Whitwell is a cliff launch with a mixture of trees below, extremely steep terrain, and multiple cliff bands. The pilot separated from the glider at tree level and did not survive the fall.

This terrible accident happened on the first day of our Team Challenge.

We delayed sending this information until we had notified his family. The accident and circumstances are being reviewed and the folks most emotionally devastated by this ask for the respect and understanding of their pilot community. A full accident report is pending.

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Team Challenge

Fri, Aug 19 2005, 5:00:01 am EDT

The Tennessee Tree Toppers Big Event of the Year! 

Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Ollie Gregory|Steve Lee|Tennessee Tree Toppers|video

http://www.treetoppers.net/

Dean Funk writes:

Oct. 1 - 8, 2005

It's that time of year again, the 2005 Team Challenge is about 6 weeks away. There has been a lot of excitement since my announcement earlier this year about the "New" Team Challenge. I have been hearing from pilots all across the country, there is a BUZZ in the air. This will be the premier hang gliding event of the year for the advancing Hang Glider Pilot. Rules and additional info at our website.

Many are planning on returning. I have heard from pilots and teams forming from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, New England, Arkansas and out west. We have had over 60 pilots in the meet in past years. I have also heard from H3s seeking sponsorships, we will be sponsoring a small group of H3 pilots with free entry, please contact me for more information at «deanfunk»

The Sequatchie Valley is a perfect place to do your first mountain XC flights, 40 miles of ridge line, lots of great landing fields, friendly land owners, easy retrieves and TWO of the best mountain sites on the east coast. If you haven't flown at Henson's Gap or Whitwell before, please come early. Windy cliff launch skills are important, some of our best days require a "wire" crew. Launching at either TTT site is extremely easy. Almost all Florida tow pilots come to Henson's Gap to get their mountain skills, this is a great place to learn and advance your skills.

The themes of this event will be safety, learning and teaching. We have nightly speakers lined up to cover subjects including: cross country skills, thermaling techniques, medical emergencies, equipment & GPS, woman in the sport, mental aspects, local land owner issues, out landing skills, local HG history and hang gliding photography. Be prepared to learn from local experts on how to fly well in the Sequatchie Valley. Dennis Pagen, Ollie Gregory, Kathy Lee, Jean Carmichael, Steve Lee, Mike Nash, Claire Vassort and myself are just some of the speakers we have lined up to lead our nightly discussions.

Also in the name of safety all aerobatics, reckless flying, hot dogging and ramp diving will not be permitted during the event. We will not tolerate risky behavior that might spoil the event. With that being said, we will be acknowledging pilots with the best and worst launches in our daily pilots meetings, this sport is all about safety and we plan on showcasing it!

We have had a wet summer here in the south east but the long range forecast is calling for a dry October. If you have never done this event before you will be in for a real treat. Mountain top camping at Henson's Gap is very nice in October, and we should have early fall color and just enough of a slight chill in the air for campfires. There is plenty of camping available. We normally have a great fall season with excellent flying. Http://treetoppers.net/qT2.html - This is a short video I did of a flight last October. This is the only place to be this fall!

We will also have non-comp flying events for H2's at Henson's including: duration and spot landing. The launch will be open after the comp window for free flying. And all free flyers are invited to the nightly talks.

The Video Project: I will be producing a DVD of the event that will include Video and Photography. I am also encouraging everyone with a Mini-DV camcorder to bring it (bring your cables). Each team should equip their drivers with DV camcorders and digital cameras - we will have nightly videos of the days flying and everything will be complied on DVD afterwards. We will have a video presentation on the final night, everybody will be included. If I can swing it, it might even be in High-Definition video. Http://treetoppers.net/qT1.html - this is a short video I did of the team challenge a couple of years ago.

Please come to learn, teach, fly and have fun with us!

For more information check out the website at: www.treetoppers.net contact me at «deanfunk» 1-770-314-0198

Discuss Tree Toppers at the Oz Report forum

New Team Challenge

Wed, Apr 6 2005, 4:00:06 pm EDT

Back to its original purpose.

Dean Funk|Tennessee Tree Toppers|video

Dean Funk «deanfunk» writes:

The New Team Challenge, October 1-8, 2005 Dean Funk, 2005 Meet Director

We tried a great experiment over the last two seasons by sanctioning the “Team Challenge” as a national points meet and attracted top ranked US pilots to fly as individuals. Even though we had successful events in 2004 and 2003, we (The TTT BOD) feel that we have lost the original focus of what the event is about; we had less participation by H3’s, less club membership, less enthusiasm by local pilots, less fun and learning.

With that thought I would like to outline our new Team Challenge Mission Statement:

The Tennessee Tree Toppers’ Team Challenge is an event focused on providing Hang 3 pilots a fun learning experience in safe cross-country flying and beginning competition skills.

The concept of this event is for teams comprised of experienced “A” pilots to guide, coach and mentor their less experience “B” and “C” pilots in the disciplines and skills of cross country flying. And to provide additional learning with nightly “lectures” given by local and national experts on cross country flying.

The primary purpose of this event is to help encourage, teach, and expose the advancing Hang 3 pilots to the challenge of flying their hang gliders cross country in the Sequatchie Valley, one of the best cross country sites in the world.

We are putting the focus of the event on the Hang 3 Pilots. The new rules are designed to give these pilots all the advantages and to encourage their participation. What we would like to see is the winning team be comprised of mostly “C” and “B” pilots flying intermediate king posted flex wings, with only one or two “A” pilot per team.

We also want to encourage Hang 2 pilots to attend this event as free flying will be open at the Hensons launch and all TTT members will be welcome at all pilot meetings, nightly flying lectures and social activities.

Sponsorship The Tree Toppers will also “Sponsor” selected young pilots with free entry. We know it can be very expensive to participate in a weeklong event. Please contact Dean at « deanfunk» for more information about sponsorship.

The Tennessee Tree Toppers Challenges Every Club In The World! Attention all clubs, put together your best team as outlined, and make plans to spend the best week of your life flying in the 2005 Team Challenge. Let’s bring this classic event back and make it even better than ever. We need you!

Registration, more information, pictures and videos at http://www.treetoppers.net/

Team Challenge 2005 – New Rules

Over the years, we have learned much about running the team challenge. These rule changes reflect the new direction and the new focus of encouraging Hang 3 pilots. These rules are also devised to discourage “stacked” teams comprised of all “A” pilots or teams with multiple rigid wings. “Teams” will be comprised of 5 pilots.

1. No NTSS Points

2. Pilots will be scored by mileage flown – all flights will be pinned on the club house task map. GPS optional.

3. New Pilot Rankings: ”A” Pilot – Hang 4 & 5s and ALL Rigids – score 75% of mileage flown. ”B” Pilot – All other Hang 3s – score 150% of mileage flown ”C” Pilot – Hang 3s with NO XC Experience – score 200% of mileage flown

All Pilot rankings will be reviewed in the first pilots meeting.

4. “A” pilot-scoring rule and bonus.

A. “A” pilot scores an additional 25% by escorting “B” and “C” team pilots into goal, giving the “A” pilot 100% of total mileage. Only one bonus will be given per “B” or “C” pilot making goal.

B. No more than 3 “A” pilots per team

5. Awards will be given for top 5 finishing teams, Top Sportsman’s Award and Best New Competitor.

Come fly with us!

Discuss Team Challenge at the Oz Report forum

2005 Bogong Cup »

Fri, Jan 21 2005, 1:00:00 am EST

Dry with a few cu's and a lot of cirrus.

Belinda Boulter|Bogong Cup 2005|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|sailplane|Tom Lanning

Results

The Flight

We have all happily settled in at Mt Beauty. Oleg, Laura, Tom Lanning, Dean Funk, Belinda and I are the Alpenhorn. The rest of the fifty five pilots spread out at the Caravan Park by the river, and throughout the town. We are all very happy to be out of the hot, dry, dusty flatlands and in the cool, moist hills and mountains with fields that actually have grass in them.

Everyone is in a much better mood and we are having a great time at the local gourmet restaurants of which there are many very fine establishments, or cooking on our own barbeques. They have many very fine wines in the neighborhood and we'll have a lot of them for prizes.

The meet organization is outstanding. Heather and Carol have done an amazing job getting sponsorship with the help of the local chamber of commerce president (the Caravan Park owner). We are many vouchers and substantial prize money and gifts from many of the fine restaurants and local businesses. This is the most I've seen in local help and support for a Bogong Cup or for any meet for that matter.

We got two bags of goods at registration and t-shirts (unlike at the much more expensive Worlds). Of course the Worlds cost a lot more to put on, but really, is it worth it? Are there tangible benefits that justify those costs?

Red Bull is here. In fact they drove their VW bug up the Emu road to launch today, hitting a rock and putting a hole in the oil pan. Our driver (the local taxi driver who we hired to drive us up in his four wheel driver Toyota Land Cruiser) immediately spotted the rock and the dripping oil and said that we'd very soon  be seeing a broken down car.

Sure enough with four trucks behind it there was the RedBull car. We pushed it off the road, got the Red Bull crew in a truck and hauled them and their stash to the top. Later we saw a big truck taking the RB car north to an appropriate garage.

So we've been getting free Red Bulls and cheap water from the Kancoona Springs at the headquarters and on launch. Sure is nice to see this support.

It is great hiring the Mt. Beauty taxis service to get three Americans to the top of Emu. We can make it on our own to the other launches, but you need that extra clearance for Emu and Belinda gets to stay at the Alpenhorn and contact us later on the radio.

The task committee was faced with a cross wind or wind up the back and plenty of cirrus clouds today when they called a task. We were hoping for thermals up the southwest facing launch area, to overcome the generally west, northwest flow. It started happening.

The task was to fly thirty kilometers north along the ridge to Gundorwring North (an intersection out in the Kiewa valley), using a twenty kilometer entry start circle, then fifteen kilometers northwest to Kancoona Junction, and then a final leg north north east to the Mt Beauty airstrip where they are having a sailplane fly in.

The cirrus made the valley look quite shaded before we launched and we weren't sure that we were going to be able to get up at all.  But the shade passed for a few moments and the first pilots got overhead and we were ready to go. The conditions on launch were iffy and switchy as they always seem to be here at Emu, but pilots were cooperative and got off quickly when the cycles were on.

The only good thermals were right at launch or nearby, and it was actually pretty marginal there at first. I launched in the middle of the pack, not wanting to go first this day (although that would have been a pretty good idea) and it took about forty five minutes to find good enough lift to get to 7,000' (2,500' over the 4,500' launch). The valley floor is 1,100'.

Having launched thirty five minutes before the first start window, it was surely the case that I wouldn't be taking the first start window, especially since the twenty kilometer entry start circle was 11 kilometers away. We were not able to get as high as we did at launch again throughout the task.

Still thinking that we could get back to at least 7,000' I was at 5,700' a few minutes before the third start time (3:45) and a few kilometers to the south of the start circle trying to get higher and deciding to wait there for the 4 PM start time. This strategy didn't work as I had to start my glide for the fourth start time at 5,100' and was down to 4,600', about ridge height, at the start time.

The start circle was of course strategically placed over Coral Bank, a big cut in the ridge line where is it usually more difficult to stay up. This time as I passed through this cut, the sink wasn't too bad, and by the time I got to the ridge line at the other side, I was only down to 3,400' and finding zero sink along the hill side.

The ground was shaded from the cirrus, but there was really light lift and you could run just right over the trees and catch it. When it got over 50 fpm, you could turn and begin enjoying a really wonderful flight.

Everything changed when I went across Coral Bank to the hill side and realized that I was going to be flying in very light lift for the rest of the day (given the sky conditions) and that any tensions that arose earlier due to the fact that I didn't get higher after being near launch, and taking too long to get high at launch were to be released. The day was going to be low and slow and that's just the way it was. I had to work light wonderful, smooth, easy lift until I got high enough to continue. Racing was no longer an issue. It was doubtful anyone would make goal.

So many times I've been on these very same hill sides below the ridge line and been flushed quickly to the valley below. Now with everything in super mellow mode it was a gas just playing with the lift and feeling out the air, flying right on top of the trees. There were plenty of pilots around to help spot the lift, and the lift was there no matter how dark the ground, so I kept turning and moving ahead when I got up to the ridge line.

The first turnpoint is out in the valley, but you can take a little spur to get out to it. Eight kilometers from it Jonny and Kevin joined us in a little thermal. They had taken the 3:45 clock and were sixteen kilometers ahead. Pushing out on the spur I found zero to light lift almost all the way to the turnpoint so I was flying at best glide speed and monitoring that very closely. I came back to the hillside at 2,500', and again started working little bits of lift as that was all there was.

The next turnpoint was across the valley and up another small valley. Almost everyone went back to the original ridge line as our flight instruments showed a ten mph wind out of the west, from the other side of the valley. As we moved south we would at some point have to cross the valley and go up the intersecting valley directly into a head wind for eleven kilometers.

I found some 300 fpm to over 5,000' and headed west up to Kancoona Junction. There was no lift as the sun was behind some thick cirrus now. Down to 500' I crossed the turnpoint, but turned back along the east west road instead of thinking about turning south ninety degrees to get an extra two kilometers to the south toward goal.

Jonny and Kevin had landed about two kilometers before the second turnpoint. There were pilots scattered all around in this area. .

Day one:

Place Name Glider Nation km Total
1 BIRCHER Fredy Moyes Litespeed S4 CHE 52.6 900
2 BARTHELMES Oliver Moyes Litespeed S4 DEU 51.2 884
3 PATON Len Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 50.0 866
4 BADER Lucas Moyes Litespeed S4 DEU 49.8 863
5 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 2 15 CZE 49.0 848
5 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat L UKR 49.0 848
7 SCHWIEGERSHAUSEN Corinna Moyes Litespeed DEU 48.6 839
8 JONES Chris Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 48.5 836
8 STRAUB Davis Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 48.5 836
10 KEE Trevor       48.3 830
10 NAGAMITSU Hideaki Moyes Litespeed S4 JPN 48.3 830



American team in Hay. Cracky on the left expects high water. Photo by Ollie.

2005 Worlds »

Mon, Jan 17 2005, 11:00:00 am EST

A late task as the sun goes down.

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Tom Lanning|Worlds 2005

Results

The flight

The paddock dries quickly after the rain on Monday. It only amounted to a quarter of an inch. The winds are still strong, will they ever stop, and it's twenty mph out of the south when we get to the tow paddock and we are instructed by the safety committee not to set up.

The wind speed maybe moderates a tiny bit, but if we are going to have a task we have to start setting up at 2 PM. We are instructed to set up. Then twenty minutes before 3 PM we are given the obvious task - Booligal and Ivanhoe.

I finally get to launch a bit later than second and with plenty of lift at the tow paddock it is easy to stay up and go up wind to get over 5,000'. Everything is looking good when forty of us head upwind one more time over the tow paddock to stay away from the fifty kilometer start circle.

I shade a little bit to the east to spread out the pack and check out the area. This little mistake proves to be crucial as I miss the lift to the west and can't make it to the rest of the gaggle as they find it. I then plummet wondering just what great sin I had committed after finding plenty of lift earlier over the tow paddock on my own.

It's a fall down to 1,200' AGL as I join five other pilots who have also been assigned to Hell or Purgatory, at least.  We grovel and drift toward the start circle just trying to stay alive and ignore all the pilots four thousand feet over our heads, having the time of their task.

Fortune of a sort does smile on us and we find a good thermal to take the first start clock six minutes late, but at least we are back up with the more talented pilots, who didn't have to suffer so grievously.

Now the race is on as I fly quickly to catch up with the lead gaggle. Most of the pilots have taken the first start time at 4:15 because we have a 182 kilometer task and it will be late by the time we get near goal.

The lift is much better than on the previous days in the sense that it is more coherent and more comfortable to fly in. Even with the strong winds, the air is pleasant.

The task is a sky full of hang gliders racing each other and using the lift found by others. The climbs are fast as are the gliding speeds for the first 100 kilometers as we hurry to get to Ivanhoe before it is too late. We cover this distance is a little less than an hour and a half (67 kph).

Seventy kilometers out from Ivanhoe it is almost six o'clock, and the lift turns off like a light switch as we work our way to the north northwest in a twenty mph south wind. Instead of 4,600' we are getting to 3,600'. Instead of some climbs averaging 600 fpm, we get less than 100 fpm.

Pilots begin to drop out and low saves become the order of the day. Thirty kilometers out I'm groveling again and drifting away from the course line as I follow the lift lines to the north, while the goal gets further and further to the west.

Trying to jump back to the west proves too difficult and I land well off the highway 20 kilometers from goal. Curt is landing at about the same time  (7 PM) ten kilometers ahead of me. Tom Lanning who has been trailing behind me, stops in an area that I was working lift and works back into the wind to keep working it when I chased a couple of thermaling pilots and didn't find their lift. Tom will get up there to 4,500' and almost have enough to make goal straight away, but will have to stop for a little lift when he sees many pilots landing just short of goal. Dustin will make goal ahead of him.

Kevin will stay in the lift lines, and land at about 8 PM well past goal but 13 kilometers to the east of it. At about the same time Dean Funk will come and land just short of my location.

As I come into land I spot a ute heading for a dam. They see my shadow on the dam and come back to check me out. It turns out to be the owner and his family. They've been shearing sheep all day. They are excited to see so many hang gliders landing nearby and give me a lift to the highway.


A big gaggle over the tow paddock from Jonny Durand Jnr.

2005 Worlds »

Wed, Jan 12 2005, 10:00:00 am EST

Things improve and the weaklinks are proven to be weak.

Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Tom Lanning|weather|Worlds 2005

Results

The flight

There are massive bush fires in South Australia which broke out Tuesday. On Wednesday we can see the affects of those fires as the air is full of smoke. With a low inversion, the inversion is quite pronounced.

The cold front has come through without much change in the temperature, maybe a few degrees cooler to 38 Celsius as a high for the day. Thursday it is forecast to be 41. The winds are now out of the west at about 15 mph up above.

With the cooler temperature the forecasted top of the lift is 4,500' which is quite a bit less than the earlier forecast for 10,000'. Len Paton, the hang glider weatherman like myself, is equivocal on just how hot and how high we are going to get. I put on extra clothes, which turns out to be a big mistake.

I'm off second and get waved off by the trike pilot at 900'. This guy is good as there is in fact a thermal just behind me. I've been very careful as they went back to 80 kg weaklinks (four strands), after complaints from the tug pilots about 115 kg (six strands) being too high. I actually get to use three strands on one end of my bridle which reduces the force by half.

The thermal is there and I climb out alone to 3,400' which for the next three hours will be about as high was we get. I spend two hours over the tow paddock going between 1,500' and 3,300' on ratty air with lots of pilots in the same thermal.

Given the west winds it doesn't look like we'll be able to make it back to goal. The last leg is a 25 km leg straight into the wind. I make sure that the drivers know that it is unlikely that we will see them at goal.

I'm having a bit of a drama with harness as I stupidly did not bring my thin soled water shoes. Flying with boots changes everything about the fit of the harness and I'm having trouble zipping it up and getting my feet comfortable. Basically I'm in agony the whole time. I'm almost ready to go barefoot even in this extreme environment. My shoulders are just too painful.

The sprint to the first turnpoint east northeast at Gunbar, is actually a lot of circling in light lift to stay up between 1,100' AGL and 3,100' AGL. There are pilots all spread out and most have taken the 3:15 or perhaps 3 o'clock start time, not that too many think it will matter much.

After I cross Gunbar, the first turnpoint, at 1,600' AGL I spot Craig Coomber circling at about 900' AGL over the vineyards to the east. I join him and we slowly search around in marginal lift until a pilot just north of us finds real lift and suddenly we find the best thermal of the day.

As we climb up and out of there Jon Durand Jnr will come in underneath us. We'll get to 5,000', but Jonny will slide off to the side, find even better lift and core up to 6,300' as we head for the lead gaggle just in front of us just before the turnpoint.

At this point I'm having a hard time concentrating because of the pain in my shoulder. I'm been flying with the harness open to allow my knees to come out and take the pressure off, but it's just too painful. I head for the turnpoint without stopping in the obvious lift and land three kilometers north of town.

We've caught the lead gaggle, but Jonny is higher than anyone and gets lift all the way to the turnpoint. Once we turn at the turnpoint it is an upwind and crosswind leg to the third turnpoint before it becomes straight upwind toward goal.

Brett Hazlett is able to make it within four or five kilometers of goal. Others are spread out between the second and third turnpoint at Merriwagga, and between Merriwagga and goal.

Dean Funk didn't get out of the start circle. Tom Lanning had four launches, and two broken weaklinks and a broken base tube. He made it just outside the  start circle. Kevin landed 2.7 kilometers past the third turnpoint and Dustin and Curt got 10 kilometers along the final leg.


The Kookaburras are fed by the family that we are staying with. Photo by Belinda Boulter.

2005 Worlds »

Fri, Jan 7 2005, 11:00:00 am EST

180 kilometers very quickly.

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Worlds 2005

Results

The flight

This is a very well organized competition. We have four aerotow lines and twelve tugs (eight pilots per tug). There is plenty of room for the tugs to land between the lines and pull to the front to take up the next pilot. In an hour every one got into the air at least once. We have an hour and a half before the first start time.

There was a moderate to strong wind out of the south southeast (15-20 mph), a low inversion that was forecast to be 4,500', but was in fact 6,000'. It was cold on the ground, less than 25 degrees Celsius and there were no clouds. The high has been in the mid seventies Fahrenheit here for the last three days with the strong south winds coming off the Bass Strait.

I was off early, about fourth in my line, and really had to work against the wind to stay close to the tow paddock in light lift until I finally found 400 fpm. Pilots were scattered all about and all working hard to get south and then southwest upwind and also over the main highway to Booligal (the first turnpoint) which is to the west of the tow paddock. The goal was in Ivanhoe 180 kilometers away.

Dustin mentioned alter that he was scared after releasing from tow, feeling that he could tumble at any minute. My feeling was that the air was the roughest that we've had so far here in Oz this year, but not particularly bad. I'll just bet that his glider (Curt's previous glider) is a bit pitchy.

Driving southwest while outside the entry start circle caused a lot of us to get low and we had to work it back up to a reasonable altitude. At 2:40 PM, five minutes before the first start window opened I was at 5,600' and three kilometers before the start circle and should have gone for it, but trudged off to the southwest again to join Craig Coomber and Steve Moyes for a poor start seven minutes late from 4,500' at 3 PM.

I didn't find much lift after that as I went on a long glide to catch up with the previous gaggle, but didn't make it.  Others did much better. Dean Funk landed twenty kilometers past Booligal, every one else on the US team made it to goal with at least seventy other guys. Dustin was the eighth pilot in to goal. He started at 3 PM at 2,000'.

The results didn't get up on the web site as I write this. Oleg was first, with Gerolf second. Pilots who took the 3 PM start time did best.

Olli Barthelmes took this shot of the teams at the 2005 Worlds. Click on it to see a bigger horizontal version.

The 2005 Australian Nationals

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

Are about to begin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss Oz Nats at the Oz Report forum

Ben's

Sat, Nov 13 2004, 8:00:00 am EST

Towing and flying near Atlanta.

Dean Funk|record

https://ozreport.com/toc.php?7.252#1

Dean Funk «deanfunk» writes:

"Ben's West Georgia Big Air Aerotowing Club", A group photo from last weekend, and a recent flying picture.

Ben's Airfield is located about fifty miles west of Atlanta, Georgia. Less than a one hour drive from downtown Atlanta and less than thirty minutes from my home. We have been having a lot of fun flying here lately.

Ben's site is a great option on those northeast and southerly days, when it's not good at our local mountain sites. We really feel that the next Georgia State and possibly the East Coast record flights could be launched from Ben's airfield. There are great cross country options in all directions ,except due east towards Atlanta airspace. This part of Georgia is mostly pastures and farmland with small rolling hills.

Ben has been flying hang gliders on this site since his ground skimming days in the 1970's. He welcomes all experienced pilots.

We are also planning a cross country comp for the summer of 2005. Not sure what format our comp will take on yet, possibly a combination of task flying and open cross country, with a winner take all jack pot. We will keep you and the readers posted.

Contact:
Ben deGaris
1290 Ringer Rd
Carrollton, Ga.
30116
770 854 8850

Discuss Ben's at the Oz Report forum

Missing Oz Reports

Mon, Sep 27 2004, 3:00:00 pm EDT

It is all my fault.

CIVL|Dean Funk|Quest Air|USHGA

Trying to deal with SPAM I made it so the Oz Report was not being mailing out after issue 8.192. Hopefully you will receive this one.

Instead of sending them out again, let me give you an easy way to see them on the web.

https://ozreport.com/8.193

Suprone Flyer Harness   Dean Funk on Going to the Worlds   Do you want
wireless access with those fries?   Launching with tape on the handle bars
Three D

https://ozreport.com/8.194

Gulgong Classic The other US Hang Glider manufacturer Keeping the neighbors happier CIVL - continental championships and juries Free US sectionals War Chalking Steve Smith in Las Vegas Photo/Caption contest

https://ozreport.com/8.195

USHGA - Regional Directors Wills Wing Tandem Is aerotowing an inherently commercial activity? CIVL - Europe for the Europeans Photo/Caption contest

https://ozreport.com/8.196

Canugra Classic - the old man wins day one Cowboy Up Hang Gliding Launching - the relationship between grip, shoulders and control Pocket Air Powered harnesses Vietnam - flying at the very very long beach Hurricane Jeanne and Quest Air CIVL Plenary USHGA - Sport Pilot Rule (Part 1)

Dean Funk on Going to the Worlds

Tue, Sep 21 2004, 1:00:01 pm EDT

Jayne sends out Dean's message,

Dean Funk

Dean Funk writes:

It's true - as a child I always dreamed of flying over my house like superman and when I went 100 miles over the back at Lookout (it was my 3rd year in the sport) and actually flew over my home in Atlanta - that was my first real dream to come true. And now getting a chance to be on the US team - traveling half way around the world to a place I've never been to before - to compete with the best in the world, wow.

From the first time I discovered hang gliding at Lookout through to this point in my life (my first full season of hang gliding was 1997 - I've only been at this for 7 years) - I am just amazed that through hang gliding, my dreams that I once thought of as fantasies have all come true.

Yes, I have worked really hard - but it has been a passion for me - as you know, I live for this stuff. I love this sport, there is a big part of me that lives in the sky, I dream about flying my hang glider every night.

I have contacted a number of friends at Lookout this morning and there is a huge amount of excitement about this - I am pretty sure I am the first pilot trained at Lookout to go to the worlds. I am really going to focus on working hard the next three months - I need to be in top shape - I will not waste this chance to do my best ever.

Nats Video

Wed, Aug 25 2004, 2:00:06 am EDT

Bringing a server to its knees?

Dean Funk|video

Dean Funk «deanfunk» writes:

http://www.hangglide.tv/

The power of the Oz Report, WOW.

So far I have transferred over 20 GB of the gaggle movie. I have totally overloaded my server. I think that is all in one day. I haven't been able to log into my stats to see the detail yet - but that is the biggest single day I have ever had, awesome.

Discuss gaggles at the Oz Report forum

The lift is light and the pilots are together

Sat, Aug 21 2004, 2:00:04 pm EDT

Video from the last day of the US Nationals.

Dean Funk|US Nationals|video

Dean Funk «deanfunk» writes:

Check out - http://www.hangglide.tv/ "Live from inside the gaggle" - Day 7 of the 2004 US National Competition. August 7, 2004 - Big Spring, Texas. Cool helmet cam action of my last day in Texas.

Discuss gaggles at the Oz Report forum

NTSS »

Mon, Aug 9 2004, 5:00:00 pm EDT

After the Nationals and before the Worlds in Australia.

Bo Hagewood|Bruce Barmakian|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Dustin Martin|George Stebbins|Glen Volk|Jack Simmons|James Lamb|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Oliver Gregory|Paris Williams|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|Steve Rewolinski|USHGA

The rigid wing ranking:

Rank Pilot Total
1 Yocom Jim 1549
2 Straub Davis 1464
3 GLEASON Ron 1417
4 BARMAKIAN Bruce 1369
5 ENDTER Vincent 1319
6 POUSTICHIAN Mark 1237
7 Bowen Campbell 1186
8 LAMB James 1070
9 Brown Russell 1029
10 GREGORY Oliver 981

The flex wing ranking:

Rank Pilot Total
1 Warren Curt 2116
2 Hagewood Bo 1650
3 Williams Paris 1623
4 PRESLEY Terry 1607
5 Barber Mike 1524
6 ZIMMERMAN Chris 1513
7 CARTER Kevin 1506
8 Rossignol Jerz 1449
9 Castle Kari 1386
10 Goodman Bubba 1374
11 Martin Dustin 1371
12 Volk Glen 1332
13 VASSORT Claire 1170
14 Bunner Larry 1131
15 Stebbins George 1044
16 BLOOM Phil 1036
17 Pagen Dennis 1034
18 Lee Jim 1014
19 Bessa Carlos 994
20 Simmons Jack 951
21 LANNING Tom 945
22 SAUER Richard 886
23 ANGEL Scott 862
24 Funk Dean 831
25 SLOCUM Jack 799
26 GRZYB Krzysztof 783
27 BURICK Carl 768
28 Straub Davis 733
29 Bolt Mark 719
30 Rewolinski Steve 629

See the full ranking at https://ozreport.com.

In my capacity as USHGA Competition Chairman, I will be sending an e-mail to the top thirty flex wing pilots regarding the 2005 Worlds in Hay, Australia. If you don't receive this e-mail, or are pretty sure that I (or the USHGA) don't have your e-mail address, please contact me ((davis@davisstraub.com).

South Florida Championships - the final day »

Mon, May 3 2004, 2:00:00 am EDT

The best weather of the meet.

Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|record|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|South Florida Championships 2004|Steve Kroop|weather

The flight and the task:

http://olc.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=5546&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=88ba6cda4e1fd2363b2dd89ddbb9d133

The forecast.

I'm now use to Dr. Jack's forecasts for South Florida. He predicts 345 fpm to 2,600' at 11 AM, 323 fpm lift (subtract your sink rate) to 2,200' at 2 PM, and 80 fpm to 1,600' at 5 PM. He predicts the winds at 18 knots of out the south. Just because the predicted lift looks weak doesn't mean we can't have a great time.

The FSL chart isn't working, The Windcast isn't working, The marine forecast is for 10 knot winds out of the southeast. The ADD winds aloft shows south southwest at 10 knots at 3,000'. The local NWS forecast is for drier conditions than the last two days. The showers are supposed to be scattered with a 30% chance of rain.

I'm looking up at the sky full of cu's and and it is looking good to me even though some of them are towering. I've seen that come to nothing over the last few days, so it's not a worry.

There is a front just north Florida, and it flooded at Quest to Saturday. The front is forecast to send rain and clouds south into central Florida. late in the day.

The task.

With the change in the wind direction to south after two days of southeast, I'm thinking that the perfect task would be a downwind dash 127 miles to Quest to set a new record for the longest task called in Florida. The problem is that most folks have to come back to the Ridge to collect there stuff. I'm having Belinda drive the truck and trailer north to Quest, so it would be a fine task with me.

The pilots vote to fly 60 miles to the Avon Park airport north of Sebring. The task will take us right up highway 27. This should be a fast task given the tail wind.

We could go a cross wind leg, but the problem is we have to stay with the roads to make retrieval reasonable, so this limits our options. There is no need to throw in a hard leg on this last day. Besides I'm also looking for  a task that will get some of the less experienced pilots to goal. I want to see a bunch of the Puerto Rican team at goal, not just Oleg, Kraig, Kurt, Brett, and Radek.

The start.

The start cylinder is five miles wide, and with the strong wind I figure that the best mode is to launch late to get the last start time at 12:30. Bo is obviously thinking something different, as he launches before the launch window is open, (Bo says he wasn't told that it was too early) and gets a zero for the day.

Bo will cross the start circle circumference at 11:04 and land four hours later at Quest, having gone over the goal at Avon Park an hour and 36 minutes later, but to no avail. He'll win $100 for the longest flight from the Florida Ridge ever. All he had to do was wait ten minutes to launch at 11.

I'll be almost the last to launch at a couple of minutes after noon. There are working cu's everywhere and within fifteen minutes I'll be at cloud base at 4,000' (see forecast above) pretty much the same altitude that we've seen for the last two day off of launch.

It is quite possible to stay away from the start circle circumference even in the 14 mph winds that I record aloft without having to drive upwind. The cu's seem top be moving north at a slower rate than the wind. And cu's are forming in front of us to the south so we can just left them drift over us and we can stay up and in the start circle.

I've got Oleg, Brett, Kevin, Junko, Dustin and a few others nearby with all of us waiting for the 12:30 start time. Kraig and Kurt have taken the 12:15 clock and are out of site downwind.

Russell has taken the 12 o'clock start clock. Ron Gleason has come back to join us but is about 300 feet below us at the 12:30 start time. At 12:30 we all leave together and head due north to end up four miles to the east of highway 27.

The task.

I've got my eye on Oleg, figuring that I can fly with him and have a fast flight. Still I'm above him and Brett gets a good climb and glide to the east about a mile. I split the difference between Oleg and Brett with each one of them one mile off to the side as we glide for nine miles before Oleg finds the lift first on the west side, as Brett and I chase him down.

We are heading now to the north north west as we contemplate the fact that there are a large number of good sized lakes to the north of us on both sides of highway. Oleg is out leading with Junko is tow, and the rest of us behind. We stop for worse lift as Oleg gets low.

I've noticed that Oleg does a lot of searching about as he flies, going from side to side looking for lift. He doesn't just fly straight hoping to run into it.

We climb up to 4,200' and cloud base just south of Placid Lakes (the town) and the lakes and we head north over the built up areas. There are trees and groves and houses everywhere and I'm checking out the available landing areas.

We're down to 3,200' over all this urban area and looking for lift next to one of the lakes. Junko, Brett and Oleg are higher and I'm trying to find the core. Finally I find the best core and in three minutes I'm up to 4,700' and not so concerned about landing areas.

 It's now just Oleg and I as we head north on a ten mile glide over built up areas where we are getting about 30 to one. We're spread out and Oleg finds the lift first again and we climb up at 400 fpm to 4,700 once again.

We are now only 16 miles out and it's 20 to 1 to goal. Oleg and I go on a 12 mile glide averaging 24 to 1. I'm watching the required L/D decrease on my 5030, but we're down to 1,800' four miles from goal before I find something strong along a line of zero sink.

I spend two minutes climbing 1,000'. Oleg spends one minute climbing 500'. I decide not to chase him as I'm not racing him. I just need to make goal to win the meet and now we are only three and a half miles away.

Of course there is lift all the way into goal so it is hard to get down.

It has been great flying with Oleg during this meet. Since we threw the rigids and the flexies in together I had plenty of opportunities to fly with them, just like I do in Australia. It's a great learning experience seeing how pilots fly up close.

Ron Gleason had a terrible meet after doing so well at the Flytec Championship. He landed out again along highway 27. Maybe he got off on the wrong foot not making goal the first day. I bet he was feeling as bad as I did at the last meet.

Kraig and Kurt made it into goal fast and were the first ones there along with Russell who started earlier after their early start. Junko made goal early also, but didn't turn in her GPS by the time she was scored.

Rigid results:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 STRAUB Davis Air ATOS VX 01:28:55 799
2 BROWN Russell Air ATOS B 01:44:03 741
3 GREGORY Ollie Air ATOS C 01:54:21 640
4 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxess 01:55:36 567
5 LARSON Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 02:28:37 408
6 GLEASON Ron Air ATOS C 23.9 233
7 NAKAMURA Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 0.0 0

Rigid cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 STRAUB Davis Air ATOS VX 3422
2 BROWN Russell Air ATOS B 3056
3 NAKAMURA Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 2248
4 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxess 1778
5 GREGORY Ollie Air ATOS C 1628
6 GLEASON Ron Air ATOS C 1197
7 LARSON Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 854

Flex results:

Place Name Glider Nation Time Total
1 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 01:27:55 858
2 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Aeros Combat L UKR 01:27:40 810
3 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 01:30:21 802
4 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 CAN 01:30:09 756
5 MARTIN Dustin Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 01:35:13 701
6 BARES Radek Aeros Combat CZE 01:36:54 684
7 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 PRI 02:15:20 490
8 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon PRI 02:26:35 426
9 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L USA 46.8 314
10 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 USA 35.6 268
11 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 33.7 257
12 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar BRA 20.8 169
13 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 5 PRI 11.3 93
14 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 0.0 0
14 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 USA 0.0 0
14 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed S4.5 USA 0.0 0
14 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 USA 0.0 0
14 NEUBAUER Lois Aeros Combat L BRA 0.0 0
14 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 USA 0.0 0
14 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR PRI 0.0 0
14 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 USA 0.0 0
14 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 'two' USA 0.0 0

Flex cumulative:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Aeros Combat L UKR 3055
2 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 2976
3 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 CAN 2908
4 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 2653
5 MARTIN Dustin Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 2235
6 BARES Radek Aeros Combat CZE 2218
7 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L USA 1717
8 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 PRI 1202
9 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 'two' USA 1197
10 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 1077
11 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon PRI 857
12 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar BRA 850
13 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 USA 759
14 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 USA 661
15 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 USA 624
16 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 5 PRI 567
17 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 USA 550
18 NEUBAUER Lois Aeros Combat L BRA 323
19 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed S4.5 USA 230
20 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 USA 137
21 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 USA 119
22 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR PRI 0

South Florida - task 4

Sun, May 2 2004, 2:00:00 am EDT

The sky is again filled with cu's.

Bobby Bailey|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Kurt Warren|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|Steve Kroop|weather

The task and the flight:

http://olc.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=5454&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=d541cda3b5bfd158c1613bcacda1b61e

Forecast.

The forecast changes dramatically over the course of the morning starting at 8 AM and ending at 10 AM. Both the FSL from the RUC and Dr. Jack also from the RUC model fluctuate enough to make it difficult to call a task until the last minute.

We continue to be concerned about the possibility of over development. Cu's start forming at 8:16 over the Ridge field at 800' and this adds to our concern. Dr. Jack in his earlier forecast is calling for over development by at least 5 PM. We feel that it is important to get a task off early, start launching at 11 AM, to hopefully avoid the forecasted showers and thunderstorms.

The 10 AM FSL comes in with just a hint of an inversion, perhaps enough to keep the over development from developing too early. The cu's are thick, but the cloud base is rising. The cloud tops are only getting to about 5 or 6 thousand feet in line with the FSL charts.

Looking at Dr. Jack, he's calling for 300 fpm lift (subtract your minimum sink rate) through 2 PM then going to 150 fpm at 5 PM on the BLIP SPOT for the Florida Ridge. Cloudbase is predicted to be 2300' at 2 PM, 1800' at 5 PM. This is disheartening.

Looking at the BLIPMAP indicates that cloud base will be between 1000' and 2000' out on the course line for the task that we have tentatively chosen. The lift is projected to be between 100 and 300 fpm (subtract your sink rate).

The FSL chart is giving me a little more hope with the hint of the inversion and a cloud base at 3,500' to 4,000' at 2 PM. At 10 AM the sky is looking pretty darn good, better than the forecasts. Based on the stronger conditions predicted at 8 AM, we chose an 80 mile task to Wachula to the northwest, but given the uncertainty we scale back to the same task as the day before to Arcadia, without the turnpoint at the center of the start circle. This will add an interesting complication.

The Start.

We chose not to go back to the turnpoint at the center of the start point 12 miles to the northwest of the Ridge, because so many pilots went down there the day before when there was a cell over it, and I figured why not make it a bit easier to get on course? This still gets us over near the east west highway (our second leg), but lets you stay south of the road in the projected 10 to 15 mph southeast winds.

We open the start window at 11:30, half hour after the launch window opens. We want to have lots of flexibility given that we are unsure of the weather. If pilots want to leave early if the day starts to look bad, then they have that option.

Bo gets  going early as usual, and has to work a bit to get up over the field in the stiff wind. The rest of us hang around on the ground and keep an eye on each other. Finally at 11:45 there is a rush to launch and we all get hauled up in a hurry. There is a small number of competitors here, so it goes very quickly. Also there are a bunch of tugs, with great pilots, and the staff/volunteers here are very efficient and helpful.

Oleg is next to me in the right line and a tug comes in to pick him up. A few seconds later I've got Bobby Bailey pulling me up right behind him. I want to keep track of Oleg because I figure that if I fly with him, I can go fast.

I've also got to keep track of Russell Brown in second place. All I need to do is cover him today and tomorrow to win, so I need to be aware of what he is up to. He and Ron Gleason have launched just before me.

Bobby is a magician and takes me left cross/up wind to the east to make it easier to get the start point and right to a cloud with some pilots turning under it. Oleg's tug pilot heads off to the right instead and Oleg doesn't get nearly the tow that I get.

Bobby let's me off in lift and I start climbing at 200 fpm to 3,500'. Ron and Russell come in under me and me drift downwind and circle near cloud base, sort of biding our time waiting for the 12:30 last start time. Oleg comes in way below us with five other flex wing pilots and they slowly climb in the weak lift.

Ron gets a little low, heads north as I drift northwest, and gets really low almost landing before he finds good lift. Russell is just north of him circling in zero near cloudbase. Oleg doesn't get high, but heads northwest, while all the other flex wings have headed north and are low near Ron.

I hang in zero and watch to see what happens as Oleg heads out over the swamp. I also keep an eye on Russell a mile in the other direction. I'm torn between who to hook up with. Finally Oleg low out over the swamp starts turning and I go for him, coming in over him at 2,500' and finding the weak lift that he is turning in.

The start time is about to go to 12:15 and we are just inside the entry start cylinder. At 2,900' I run back half a mile to get the 12:15 start clock at 5 miles out from the start point but Oleg a few hundred feet below me doesn't follow. I wonder why he isn't interested in getting the latest start time.

I race back to Oleg, come in under him and and we continue to climb slowly out at less than 100 fpm. I move over a bit to the north to better lift shown by another flex wing pilot, and Russell and Ron come and join me. I see that Russell and Ron have taken the 12:15 start time, so it looks like we are all together for the task.

I climb up to cloud base at 3,600' and head out first to find lift under a dark cloud to the southwest. Ron and Russell follow and Ron calls me back when he finds the lift first to my right. It is at this point that I realize that it is possible to get the 12:30 start time by reentering the start circle on the down wind side. Now I understand why Oleg didn't go with me back to get the 12:15 start time. Oleg is just to our south working upwind.

I continue to circle up with Ron and Russell in a torn up thermal as it drifts us toward the start cylinder circumference. At 12:41 I circle outside the start cylinder long enough to make sure that I'm more than 5 miles away from the start point, then circle back in in lift to get the new entry start time at 12:30. Oleg will do likewise to our south at 12:45.

Ron and Russell will not have figured out this little trick, but Russell will almost make the turn outside the start cylinder and back, and miss it only by ten feet, before he heads straight on course. One more turn might have done it. Now I figure I've got Russell and Ron by fifteen minutes.

There are a few flex wing pilots who also have figured out this trick besides Oleg. Dustin has been thermaling with Ron, Russell and I and I think he comes close to getting it by accident.

Kurt Warren has started early at 12:15, and it looks like from his track log that he had a chance to do this trick, but didn't figure it out. He has a very fast run, but would have really gone gang busters if he had just taken the 12:30 start time.

The Task.

We have a twenty seven mile westward leg to the turnpoint at highway 31. We have to continually push up wind to the south to make up for the drift in the thermals and make sure that we can get the turnpoint to our west. There are plenty of clouds and I stay between 2,500' and 4,000'. Ron and Russell are below me and they have to make some low saves. I'm going out front scouting out the lift and reporting back.

We hook up with three flex wings six miles before the turnpoint and it continues to look good with plenty of clouds and now markers ahead. I get down to 2,100' just before the turnpoint but climb out slowly with Ron and Russell coming in under me. I spy Junko in the Swift high and turning and Campbell Bowen in the Axxess turning just north of the turnpoint. He started at noon and was low at the turnpoint and is now climbing well.

I'll climb to 4,200' with Campbell as Ron and Russell come into the turnpoint low. I can see Oleg, Brett, Kraig, and Radek just a mile or so in front of us going on glide. Ron and Russell start climbing under us.

We are now headed downwind to the goal at the Arcadia airport and the lift is scattered all along the course line. It's twenty to one to goal, and I'll glide for 8 miles at 34 to 1 before I hit lift strong enough to turn in.

This lift is just an extra safety margin as I'm well ahead of the guys that I'm racing with. Goal is easily made. Russell will come in a few minutes later. Ron lands 8 miles from goal.

The Rigid results:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 STRAUB, Davis Air ATOS VX 01:41:32 893
2 BROWN, Russell Air ATOS B 02:05:46 666
3 BOWEN, Campbell Flight Design Axxess 02:13:26 661
4 GLEASON, Ron Air ATOS C 49.5 382
5 GREGORY, Ollie Air ATOS C 12.9 142
6 LARSON, Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 5.9 79
7 NAKAMURA, Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 0.0 0

Rigid Cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 STRAUB, Davis Air ATOS VX 2767
2 BROWN, Russell Air ATOS B 2391
3 NAKAMURA, Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 1380
4 BOWEN, Campbell Flight Design Axxess 1298
5 GLEASON, Ron Air ATOS C 995
6 GREGORY, Ollie Air ATOS C 985
7 LARSON, Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 454

Flex:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 01:34:28 834
2 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 01:36:39 823
3 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Aeros Combat L 01:34:35 817
3 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 01:34:35 817
5 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 01:36:40 771
6 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L 01:42:47 712
7 MARTIN Dustin Moyes Litespeed S4 01:57:45 633
8 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 'two' 02:38:18 477
9 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 35.0 331
10 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 29.1 302
11 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 28.9 301
12 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar 24.9 269
13 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 24.0 261
14 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 19.2 211
15 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon 16.5 179
16 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 14.2 152
17 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 5 3.8 58
18 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 0.0 0
18 NEUBAUER Lois Aeros Combat L 0.0 0
18 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR 0.0 0
18 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed S4.5 0.0 0
18 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 0.0 0

Flex cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 BONDARCHUCK, Oleg Aeros Combat L 2245
2 HAZLETT, Brett, 11 Moyes Litespeed S4 2152
3 COOMBER, Kraig, 6 Moyes Litespeed S4 2118
4 WARREN, Curt, 21 Moyes Litespeed S4 1851
5 MARTIN, Dustin, 16 Moyes Litespeed S4 1534
6 BARES, Radek, 2 Aeros Combat 1534
7 CARTER, Kevin, 5 Aeros Combat L 1403
8 HAGEWOOD, Bo, 10 Aeros Combat 'two' 1197
9 LANNING, Tom, 14 Moyes Litespeed 4 820
10 FRANQUIZ, Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 712
11 VIEIRA, Flavia, 20 Icaro Laminar 681
12 FRUTIGER, Mark, 8 Moyes Litesport 4 661
13 SALAMONE, Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 624
14 KROOP, Steve, 12 Icaro Laminar 07 550
15 FUNK, Dean, 9 Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 491
16 MOLINA, Miguel, 17 Moyes Litespeed 5 474
17 FONTANEZ, Edwin Wills Wing Talon 431
18 NEUBAUER, Lois Aeros Combat L 323
19 ALDRICH, Erik, 1 Moyes Litespeed S4.5 230
20 LANE, Bob, 13 Icaro Laminar 07 137
21 BURICK, Carl, 4 Moyes Litespeed S4 119
22 LOPEZ-URBINA, Carlos Icaro Laminar MR 0

The last day is Sunday. If there is a strong wind out of the south south east, we may try for goal at Quest, 127 miles. At the moment the forecast for Lake Okeechobee is 15 to 20 knots southeast. It's been almost due southeast the last two days.

While we don't have wireless internet access at the Florida Ridge, they do have four phone lines so it was easy to get internet access through Earthlink with a local number in Clewiston.

We've all loved being at the Ridge and flying in the contest. They have treated us great, the facilities are superb, the people are enthusiastic, and it is a great place to fly.

South Florida - task three

Sat, May 1 2004, 2:04:00 pm EDT

It's a beautiful day under a sky full of cu's.

Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Oleg Bondarchuk|Ollie Gregory|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|Steve Kroop

Task and flight:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=5422&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=d541cda3b5bfd158c1613bcacda1b61e

This morning we were going stir crazy here in the really rural areas of south Florida after three days of not flying. Yesterday Belinda and I visited the Thomas Edison house in Fort Myers. It was getting that bad.

The Forecast.

When I looked at the forecast it did not provide much relief. Dr. Jack was predicting 200 fpm and a 1,600' cloud base at 2 PM and 5 PM. Thankfully the winds were much lighter than the last three days and it was beautifully clear at 8 AM. The cu's started forming at 9 o'clock at less than 800'. It was starting to look like Zapata,.

Another key encouraging factor was that the winds were out of the southeast and the pressure was dropping. The southeast winds meant that the winds weren't coming across the lake, and would be the warm winds bringing moisture from the Atlantic. We love southeast winds here in Florida.

Given the poor forecast for the afternoon, the light winds, the cu's forming already, the better forecast for lift at 11 AM, we decided to do a task early and start launching at 11 AM. The lift was still forecast to be weak at 11, but it was better than what is forecast to come later.

Launching and the start.

We could see big development to the northeast, and cirrus also in that direction. The cu's over us were beginning to get a little thicker and street up as we launched at 11:20. I got off at 2,100' under a cloud street coming out of the southeast, and climbed out at 100 fpm drifting quickly downwind staying under the cloud. We were all pretending that we are in Zapata, hanging in the early morning lift and staying under the cloud street.

The start point was a bit to the north of northwest, so we have to jump a street to be able to get lined up for getting the first start point. Russell Brown, Ron Gleason and I were all drifting and circling together as well as being in radio contact.

The three of us had started early and it looked like we would drift across the five mile entry start circle early before noon (the official start time, but we can go earlier if we like) also. The idea was to stay up and get on course irrespective of the time. Cloud base was 3,200'. It took us half an hour circling almost the whole time until we went the seven miles needed to cross the start line.

We crept north and got the start point where cloud base was down to 2,500'. The lift was weak and we continued to creep along to the west, crossing against a southeast wind. Ron had been low before the start point but had climbed out to about 500' below Russell and I.

From five miles west of the start point we looked back to see rain over the start point and numerous pilots landing out. Earlier we had seen Bo Hagewood low over the swamp before the start point. He would get up, but landed near the start point when he went back to try to get it under the rain.

Ron didn't get up with Russell and I and went down seven miles past the start point. Russell and I were out in front working together to stay up in the light lift. Ron is having a meet, so far, like I had last week at the Flytec Championship.

Meanwhile back at the start circle Oleg, Ollie Gregory, and another flex wing pilot had worked their way northeast of the start circle and were getting ready to take the 12:30 start time. Kraig Coomber and Brett Hazlett crossed the start circle between 12 and 12:15. They were drifting downwind much as we had been, and more concerned about staying up than  getting the best start time.

The Task.

There was no reason to be in a hurry as it seemed Russell and I are in the lead and it was best to work with each other to stay up. About three quarters of the way to the second turnpoint, 27 miles to the west, Kraig caught up with us and the three of us would fly the rest of the task together.

We drifted downwind into the turnpoint at highway 31 and then had a 18 mile leg to to the north to the airport at Arcadia. The lift had been improving as we had run away from the Ridge and away from Lake Okeechobee. Brett and Junko in the Swift came in underneath as we head north.

With better lift we got higher and made better time. It was no problem getting into goal with Kraig just behind Russell and I.

The airport was very welcoming, as we'd called them in advance. We broke down on the lawn and waited for first Brett, then Oleg, and finally Radek.

There were no Oleg klingons today as Oleg took the last start time on his own.

Rigid Results:

/TABLE>
Place Name Glider Time Total
1 BROWN Russell Air ATOS B 02:05:08 1000
2 STRAUB Davis Air ATOS VX 02:05:24 954
3 NAKAMURA Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 02:06:58 912
4 GLEASON Ron Air ATOS C 20.9 311
5 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxess 11.1 222
6 GREGORY Ollie Air ATOS C 7.1 167
7 LARSON Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 5.3 151

Cumulative Rigid:

Place Name Glider Total
1 STRAUB Davis Air ATOS VX 1874
2 BROWN Russell Air ATOS B 1725
3 NAKAMURA Junko Aeriane Swift Lite 1380
4 GREGORY Ollie Air ATOS C 843
5 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxess 637
6 GLEASON Ron Air ATOS C 613
7 LARSON Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 375

Flex:

Place Name Glider Start Finish Total
1 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 12:00:00 13:54:38 605
2 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Advance Combat L 12:30:00 14:18:40 589
3 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 12:00:00 14:17:40 516
4 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 12:00:00 14:22:23 493
5 MARTINI Dustino Moyes Litespeed S4 20.3   260
6 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 17.1   245
7 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L 16.7   243
8 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 16.0   237
9 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar 13.4   214
10 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 'two' 11.7   196
11 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 11.1   189
12 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 10.4   179
13 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 5 9.8   170
14 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon 7.0   126
15 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 5.7   114
15 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed S4.5 4.9   114
15 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 4.4   114
18 NEUBAUER Lois Aeros Combat L 0.0   0
18 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 0.0   0
18 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR 0.0   0
18 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 0.0   0
18 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 0.0   0

Cumulative flex:

Place Name Glider Total
1 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Advance Combat L 1449
2 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 1334
3 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 1323
4 MARTINI Dustino Moyes Litespeed S4 905
5 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 838
6 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 778
7 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 'two' 722
8 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L 695
9 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 492
10 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 5 418
11 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar 415
12 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 414
13 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 2000 411
14 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 401
15 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 364
16 NEUBAUER Lois Aeros Combat L 323
17 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon 254
18 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed S4.5 233
18 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 233
20 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 137
21 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 119
22 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR 0

South Florida Championship - day one »

Sun, Apr 25 2004, 1:00:01 pm EDT

It's flat, its smooth, and its beautiful.

The task and the flight:

http://olc.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=5059&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=9f0cef87932bb0fd4431083159ed582f

The forecast is for light southerly winds, clouds, strong lift, and a front coming through tomorrow. It is warm and moist, like Florida is supposed to be. It feels like we are in the Keys. The southern Florida fly boys, like Steve Kroop, say that they would normally launch at 9:30 on southeast days, like today, and head north around Lake Okeechobee under fleecy clouds.

Some folks want to fly back to Quest, but it doesn't look like it is so strong (maybe 9 mph) that we have to go down wind. In addition, we are concerned about landing behind locked gates, in swamps, and in wildlife areas.

Ron Gleason and I form the task committee and decide on a box task that keeps us close to the paved roads. We call for pilots to head twelve miles to the west to the airport at La Belle, south ten miles up wind to an intersection, east seventeen miles to an other intersection, north back to highway 80, then six miles into goal at The Florida Ridge, a total of about 60 miles.

The clouds do start early and there is a strong east wind so it is confusing thinking about how to handle the task. But as the morning progresses the winds die down and it looks like the task is possible.

We've got a seven mile entry start circle around the airport at La Belle, which gives us five miles to get to the edge of the start circle. With the south winds we are blown north of the Caloosahatchee River (channel) going right over the RV Park where we are camped. The clouds are thick and dark and we get up to over 4,000'.

You never get to see what is going on around here becasue it is so flat, unless you get up in the air. I've flown over this area a few times flying from Wallaby Ranch, and I remember how pretty it was. There are plenty of open cattle pastures, orange groves, and swamps. The swamps in southern Florida don't have trees so they look like open invitations to land there.

We work our way west, trying to punch up wind as much as possible, but the lift is to the north of highway 80 so it is difficult to get up into the wind. I've reached deeply into my savings and purchased the AIR ATOS VX that Alex Ploner flew in the Flytec Championship, and it is feeling especially good. I climb up through Bo.

The rigids and the flexies are flying together as there are so few rigid wings down here at the meet. David is scoring Junko and her Swift with us rigids also, as otherwise she would be on her own. Mark Mullholland went off internet dating at the last minute instead of flying in this meet.

While we get high before the start circle, a bunch of us are back down at 2,500' at 7.5 miles out and working 100 fpm. Bob Lane from Quest Air gets antsy, heads out in front and goes down. This is something I was doing last week.

I'm playing well with others, hanging in light lift with friends and knowing that I can afford to be patient. Oliver Gregory on an AIR ATOS - C gets disoriented and takes a 1:44 start time instead of 1:45, penalizing himself 14 minutes. Ron Gleason is high above us and gets the start circle at 4,700' at 2 PM. Those of us below Ron climb for a few minutes more before we head out under the clouds toward the airport.

Ron and I are on the radio with Russell Brown from Quest Air who is flying the AIR ATOS that Jamie Shelden flew last week. He's a little behind us and Ollie is way out front.

We find lift about half way to the start point at the airport and climb back at 600 fpm to cloud base. We have to be careful because we keep getting close to the clouds without realizing it.

Ron is about one mile ahead and I point out to him that there is a flex wing thermaling south of his course line and that he should join him. He declines saying that he'll come back for the thermal after getting the turnpoint. I've got less of an angle to make to get to this guy so I and those with me join him and climb well as we drift back toward the turnpoint. Ron will have to run back to the southeast quite a bit below us to get back into this lift. Campbell Bowen from Quest Air is out in front of us by himself to the southwest. He will soon by down to 500'

After grabbing the turnpoint at the airport and getting back up over Ron, Kraig Coomber, Brett Hazlett and I will head southwest toward Ollie Gregory who is turning low about three miles away. He doesn't look to be going up all that fast. Later he tells us he was at 500 feet over a sewage treatment plant and used the smell to get up.

We find 600 fpm just under him and climb up again to cloud base. Kraig, Olli and I are the first ones back out on the course and spread way out to lead the pack behind us. Kraig is running right down the highway at a higher speed than Oli or I who are preserving our altitude and finds bits of lift as we go along. Ron is behind and a little below us.

Four miles out from the turnpoint Olli finds the lift first a mile to my east, and I turn left to join him. The guys behind are also heading his way. Kraig is low out in front and has to come back to join us. Brett, Kurt and Oleg are high with Olli and I as we again climb back to cloud base and head for the turnpoint. It will take Kraig a while to climb back up.

Finding no lift at the turnpoint, we turn and head southeast, south of the highway, upwind toward the swamp that is to our south and east. Ron Gleason reports that he finds 400 fpm at the turnpoint when he gets there behind us, and we are diving into the swamp getting sink and then zero lift down to 2,500' a few miles away from him. It looks like he's in a much better position.

We find 100 fpm, and Cracky heads out further southeast looking for better lift as we slowly climb up behind him. There is swamp every where. As we slowly climb I get a report back from Ron that he is getting low along the east west highway as his lift at the turnpoint quickly gave out.

Cracky finally hits it and within half a turn Oleg is headed his way. Brett and I chase after him and we center up in a strong thermal to cloud base. Ron is low to our north and getting worried, working light lift. Dustin is even lower way north of the highway over the swamps. Ron is reporting seeing alligators, snakes, and gar fish under him at 800' as he struggles to stay up. He wonders how Dustin will get back to the road if he doesn't make it up.

Oleg and his three little klingon's (Kurt, Brett and I) head east and stay high. Even when I go into the lead I've got my eye on Oleg just to make sure I'm following his moves. At one point I keep going straight as he punches up wind to find lift and have to run over to him as Brett and Kurt do. We all climb again in strong lift to cloudbase. We are basically not going on glide until we are forced to by the clouds.

Olie Gregory is following us but from about 1,000' below. Still it's good for him to have some help out here even if he can't quite keep up. He originally got behind us when he declined to join us when we pushed strongly south over the swamps.

After catching the southeast turnpoint, Oleg guides us to the northwest even though our next turnpoint is to the north, in order to go up wind and to get under the clouds in that direction. I figure I'm in the lead gaggle, all the rigid wings are behind me. Ron Gleason, who was the top placing American rigid wing pilot last week, has gone down, and there is no reason to hurry. Besides if I left this gaggle of four I would be totally out on my own, and I'm thinking that Oleg is making much better decisions than I would.

The race after all is the race against the other pilots, not the race to race yourself into the ground taking lots of unnecessary chances. Of course, that hasn't stopped me before, but with the VX, I'm feeling that I have the performance to stay up with anybody in the competition, so there is no need to get desperate.

We do find some minor lift under the clouds and make for the last turnpoint to the northeast drifting down wind into it. We haven't climbed that high because we didn't find all that great of lift, but when I round the turnpoint I see that I've got a 9.3 glide into goal.

We take a few turns and then go on final glide to the goal six miles away. All four of us have stuck together for each others help (well the three of us for Kurt's and Oleg's help) and now it is time to race.

We make goal easily with the following finish times:

Oleg      16:13:25
Kurt       16:13:41
Davis      16:13:46
Brett      16:14:21

Starting at 2 PM, the task will take a little over two hours.

Many of the pilots who work at Quest Air are here flying in the meet, helping out on the line or flying the tugs. Steve Kroop and Bob Lane have entered the competition, and it is great to see them having a good time. Flavia and Lois are in the competition. Russell and Campbell also. As well as Bo.

There are six Dragonflies here and five of them came down from Quest Air. Quest is very very generous with it's tugs. Bobby Bailey is here flying one of the tugs. It is great to see how generous Quest is with its tugs, and its great to see them here helping out like they have done in the past in Zapata and at the Nationals in Big Spring. They are a huge asset to the sport.

David Glover is the meet director and score keeper. He spent the last week learning from the master, Tim Meaney, how to make CompeGPS work as well as it can. So far David is doing great with getting the results out in this smaller meet.

Rigid results:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 STRAUB Davis Air ATOS VX 02:13:46 920
2 BROWN Russell Air ATOS B 02:31:14 725
3 GREGORY Ollie Air ATOS C 02:51:37 676
4 NAKAMURA Junko Airean Swift 03:29:11 468
5 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Axxess 03:53:15 415
6 GLEASON Ron Air ATOS C   302
7 LARSON Steve Flight Design Exxtacy 224

Flex results:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Advance Combat L 02:13:25 864
2 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed S4 02:13:41 841
3 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 02:14:21 821
4 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4 02:29:53 717
5 MARTINI Dustino Moyes Litespeed 4 02:47:51 642
6 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat L 03:26:45 519
7 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L 53.3 444
8 KROOP Steve Icaro Laminar 07 19.6 290
9 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 19.4 288
10 LANNING Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 16.0 264
11 MOLINA Miguel Moyes Litespeed 4 15.4 258
12 SALAMONE Linda Moyes Litespeed 3 14.3 247
13 FRANQUIZ Nelson Icaro Laminar 13.3 233
14 VIEIRA Flavia Icaro Laminar 11.7 212
15 LANE Bob Icaro Laminar 07 7.5 146
16 FONTANEZ Edwin Wills Wing Talon 6.9 135
17 FUNK Dean Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 6.1 126
17 ALDRICH Erik Moyes Litespeed 4 5.6 126
17 FRUTIGER Mark Moyes Litesport 4 5.3 126
17 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed 4 4.1 126
21 NEUBAUER Lois Wills Wing Talon 0.0 0
21 LOPEZ-URBINA Carlos Icaro Laminar MR 0.0 0


Lois landed along the highway by the swamp, and didn't get picked up until much later, so he didn't get scored yet. Flavia and Dustin went out and found him. Steve Kroop is flying a stock Laminar and Bob is flying with a cocoon harness. Linda Salmone, a fellow Blind Squirrel, is in her first competition outside of the Team Challenge and flying Clare's Lightspeed. She had her first cross wind flight last week.

I'll have a lot more to say about the AIR ATOS-VX as the week goes on. Obviously, I am very very happy with it. I really enjoyed flying with it and that is the main thing. Obviously part of that is its performance, but that s not the only reason I'm so pleased. Of course, my finish today is due in very very large part to the VX.

Discuss competition at the Oz Report forum

South Florida Championships »

Fri, Feb 13 2004, 9:00:04 pm EST

Dean Funk|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|record|weather

The Florida Ridge <Fly@TheFloridaRidge.com> writes:

We are happy to announce:

Weather forecasting for the meet will be run by Davis “Lucky Guess” Straub with the assistance of the Ridge’s BLIPSPOT – the new site-specific soaring forecast created by meteorologist “Dr. Jack”.

The daily pilot buffet will feature world-famous Honey-baked Ham, Turkey, Veggies, side-dishes, and all the Gatorade you can drink.

Renowned hang-gliding photographer/pilot Dean Funk will be recording the Championship for posterity - and HG/PG Magazine.

The Glades, a new full-service riverfront RV Campground across the street from the Ridge is now open accommodate meet participants with RV’s and campers.

More than 20 “Friends of the Ridge” have already volunteered to assist comp pilots and officials with running the Championship, and more are signing up every day.

On Sunday evening he writes:

Twenty seven signed up so far as of 6 pm. Eighteen spots left.

Discuss competition at the Oz Report forum

The race for the Worlds in Oz

Sat, Feb 14 2004, 2:00:01 am GMT

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|calendar|Carlos Bessa|Chelan XC Classic 2004|Chris Zimmerman|Claire Vassort|competition|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Flytec Championships 2004|George Stebbins|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|Paris Williams|Phil Bloom|Richard Sauer|Scott Angel|South Florida Championships 2004|Steve Rewolinski|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2004|Terry Presley|USHGA|US Nationals 2004|Worlds 2004

The points from the Australian meets add up as we look at the NTSS standings for US flex wing pilots and how they effect who's going to the Worlds in Hay in 2005.

https://OzReport.com/compPilotRankings.php

The race to be on the flex wing national teams is on. Pilots were in Australia flying to gain points on their country's team so that they can go to the Worlds in Australia next January. In the US, the pilots are chosen on the basis of their four best competitions results. They can use their two best flights from 2003, and their best flights from 2004. One new rule is that only two flights from competitions outside the United States count. Here's how things stand today:

1 Hagewood Bo 1498
2 Williams Paris 1150
3 Warren Curt 1059
4 Lee Jim 1014
5 Bessa Carlos 994
6 Rossignol Jerz 975
7 Castle Kari 965
8 Zimmerman Chris 898
9 Sauer Richard 886
10 Presley Terry 827
11 Carter Kevin 811
12 Goodman Bubba 806
13 Straub Davis 733
14 Pagen Dennis 719
14 Bolt Mark 719
16 Bloom Phil 662
17 Vassort Claire 657
18 Grzyb Krzysztof 635
19 Angel Scott 632
20 Rewolinski Steve 629
21 Barber Mike 628
22 Bunner Larry 557
23 Volk Glen 516
24 Stebbins George 512
25 Funk Dean 476

Of course the pilots who went to Australia got a head start. Bo has four meets that count now and Kevin has three meets. Other pilots have only two meets that count. Both Bo and Kevin have meets with low points that can be overcome with better results in 2004.

It takes about 1,900 NTSS points to gain a place on the US National flex wing team. That means you've got to average about 475 points per meet to make it. Placing first in a fully valid, well attended meet gives you 660 points.

There are five USHGA sanctioned meets in the US in 2004 - Flytec, South Florida, Team Challenge, CXCC, US Nats. All these meets are worth at least 330 points to the flex wing winner (with a minimal number of days flying). The rest of the pilots get a percentage of the winner's points.

See https://OzReport.com/calendar.php for a list of the competition in 2004.

2003 Team Challenge »

Fri, Sep 26 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing

Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing

Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Aeros Combat|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Kevin Carter|Marc Fink|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Kevin Carter|Marc Fink|Steve Rewolinski|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Aeros Combat|Bo Hagewood|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dr. Jack|Dragonfly|Kevin Carter|Marc Fink|Steve Rewolinski|Team Challenge 2003|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

A front was supposed to come through during the day, but the wind direction never changes. It was out of the south all day, maybe a bit south west right up the valley. Terry Presley says you stay home and mow your lawn on southwest days here.

The forecast was for 5 miles per hour out of the west with an inversion, but 5,000’ cloud base, cu’s. Dr. Jack is calling for 500 to 600 fpm lift. Not much of this comes about except the inversion and the clouds.

We do see the cu’s starting early in the morning but they are not forming over the valley – surprise, surprise. They are over the plateaus to the east and west. Too far away to get to.

We hang around in the field at Dr. Dale’s field and hang around some more watching the clouds that are too far away to get to.

Claire launches as a wind dummy and Bo tows her all the way under the clouds up on the east ridge line. She doesn’t find any lift, flies back and lands.

I tow up right after her and pin off low as Brad Gryder puts his Dragonfly in a tight turn right over the tow field in order to climb in light lift. After a while I tire of this get off only to find no lift and also land.

Joe gets away but all the rest of the pilots who try land back at the tow field also. Finally Terry Presley sticks, not high, but he sticks. Brad makes up for his spiraling climb and takes me high to the south looking for lift under some disappearing haze domes. Nope.

I fly north to come in over Terry Presley and we slowly stay even at about 2,500’ AGL. Bo and Brad tow up other pilots to join us, including Revo, Carl Burrick, Jack Slocum, and Dean Funk.

There is a 10 mph wind out of the south so we just stay in the very light lift and drift toward goal. We are still in the five mile start circle, so there is no hurry.

At the edge of the start circle we find a better thermal and climb 700 feet to 3,000’ over, then Revo, Terry and I run back to get a later start time, coming back to the same thermal and climbing to 3,500’ AGL with the other three pilots.

We all go on glide as the lift gives out and for everyone but Terry it is a final glide. I lose track of Terry but apparently he finds some lift and continues on to win the day. No one makes goal.

Task 4:

 

Name

Glider

miles

Total

1

PRESLEY, Terry

Moyes Litespeed

19.4

565

2

STRAUB, Davis

Air ATOS C

16.7

513

3

REWOLINSKI, Steve

Icaro WRE700

14.9

478

4

BURRICK, Carl, 13

Airborne Climax

14.7

473

5

SLOCUM, Jack, 20

Icaro Laminar

14.5

468

5

FUNK, Dean, 7

Icaro WRE700

14.5

468

7

GREGORY, Ollie

Air ATOS C

14

450

8

HUNTER, Brian, 22

Aeros Stealth

11.1

361

8

LEONARD, Scott

Wills Wing Talon

11.1

361

10

SALAMONE, Linda

Wills Wing Fusion

10.2

340

Cumulative:

 

Name

Glider

Total

1

REWOLINSKI, Steve

Icaro WRE700

1658

2

STRAUB, Davis, 24

Air ATOS C

1586

3

PRESLEY, Terry

Moyes Litespeed

1525

4

HAGEWOOD, Bo

Aeros Combat 2

1471

5

HUNTER, Brian, 22

Aeros Stealth

1154

6

SLOCUM, Jack, 20

Icaro Laminar

1139

7

GREGORY, Ollie

Air ATOS C

1086

8

HAYWOOD, John

Wills Wing Talon

1045

9

JOHNSTON, Joe

Wills Wing Talon

1014

10

SALAMONE, Linda

Wills Wing Fusion

997

Teams:

Team

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Total

BUBBLE BOYS

350

188

101

639

BLIND SQUIRRELS

365

88

181

634

BELOW ME

345

164

120

629

TRAVEL GUYS

278

155

133

565

SMOKING CHICKENS

204

136

179

519

Marc Fink «marcfink» writes:

I’d like to mention to your readers that Kevin Carter, presently (yesterday) in 7th at the team challenge (his first ever comp) has only in the past year started actively flying as a novice and beyond.

Kevin is unusually modest for his young age--he is already a world-class triathelete and has incredible dedication and endurance. I wouldn’t be surprised, if these energies were diverted to exclusively hang gliding, Kevin could become a major player in the international comp scene.

Discuss the Team Challenge at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

My nose

Thu, May 8 2003, 8:00:05 pm GMT

"Awesome" Bob|accident|Andrew "Drew" Harris|Bo Hagewood|competition|crash|Dean Funk|Florida|harness|helmet|injury|Joseph Salvenmoser|Kate Diamond|Kathleen Rigg|Mike Barber|Quest Air|safety|Sepp "Seppi" Himberger

Kathleen Rigg <Kathleen.Rigg@btinternet.com> writes:

First of all I'd like to thank everyone in Florida who helped and encouraged me after my nasty nose accident at Quest Air in early April. In particular I'd like to thank "Awesome" Bob, Frank, Drew and Dave Prentice for the excellent first aid and immediate call to the emergency services. I wasn't a pretty sight and they made all the difference to make me feel more comfortable and to speed my trip to the hospital. I'd also like to thank Dean Funk, Bo Hagewood & Kate Diamond for rescuing me from the hospital afterwards and especially Frank and May (owners of the airport at Quest) who very kindly provided full use of their air-conditioned home after the accident.

Following my accident and a few others in Florida this spring there was a lot of talk about coated VS uncoated nose wires amongst the pilots including a poll held at the Wallaby competition to determine the pilot's point of view on the subject. There was a lot of emotional discussion about "banning" uncoated wires following both my accident and Mike Barber's.

However, on further examination of the crash evidence on my glider I can only reach one conclusion about the cause of my serious nose injuries. At first, I thought I had swung across the nose wires with the glider still in a right turn and caught my nose on the 1x19 uncoated wires. But there was major damage to both sides of my nose with much worse damage on the left hand side. On reflection something didn't seem right about the crash analysis.

Then when short packing my glider to come home to the UK, I noticed a serious dent on the underside of the left hand leading edge inches from the nose plates. This had obviously been caused by my helmet hitting the leading edge. Therefore I had actually swung parallel to the nose wires and not across them. I must be the unluckiest person really because I caused the damage to my nose by violently pushing my nose into the apex of the 2 nose wires right up by the swages and the nose catch. A few inches to either side would have probably saved me a lot of trouble.

This is confirmed by the fact that I can only find blood actually on this part of the nose wires and also that I remember feeling my nose hit a solid piece of metal at the time of the crash and actually remember thinking that I had hit the nose plates with my nose (which is of course impossible). This scenario explains the extensive damage which occurred simultaneously down both sides of my nose which I do not believe could have been caused by a single wire cut.

The issue of coated or uncoated really was not relevant to my crash. In fact the swages at the apex of the nose wires are coated in plastic which made no difference to my injuries. I also suspect having a harness with a single suspension point and no rope front to rear did not help as this lack of a restraining rope on my shoulders allowed my head to more easily rotate and slide underneath the leading edge and the nose of the glider. Perhaps with a restraining shoulder rope I would have rotated my head in a more upwards motion towards the keel and missed the wires at the nose of the glider.

I hope the above helps pilots to make a more reasoned decision about the coated/uncoated wire issues. It is also highly possible that Mike Barber's sliced knee accident was caused by the rear of his carbon base bar and not any uncoated wires as an identical injury happened to Seppi Salvenmoser recently. It is important to understand the true causes of accidents and analyse them by considering all the evidence before jumping to conclusions and taking the incorrect decisions about future safety issues. In future I will be flying with a full face helmet with a visor and I now have a really good excuse to have any shape nose I want

Discuss "My nose" at the Oz Report forum   link»

USHGA – competition committee minutes »

Mon, Mar 17 2003, 6:00:01 pm GMT

Aaron Swepston|Brad Kushner|Chris Santacroce|Competition Committee|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Jan Johnson|Jim Zeiset|John Greynald|Ken Hudonjorgensen|Liz Sharp|Natalie Hinsley|Nick Kennedy|Ron Gleason|Russ Locke|Scott MacLowry

Ron Gleason <xcflying@earthlink.net> writes:

Competition Committee Meeting March 7, 2003 Colorado Springs, CO

Attending: Ron Gleason, Chair*, Dennis Pagen**, John Greynald*, Liz Sharp, Russ Locke, Aaron Sweptson*, Natalie Hinsley Jim Zeiset**, Jan Johnson**, Chris Santacroce (voting members*) (voting Directors**).

Dean Funk has been appointed as Speed Gliding Subcommittee chairman by Comp Committee Chair.

No sanctioning was granted for the Torrey Pines Ridge Race as a Speed Gliding meet.

Davis Straub has been appointed as Rulebook Subcommittee Chairman by Comp Committee Chair.

(editor’s note: The subcommittee chairman completed his proposed changes to the 2004 Competition Rulebook prior to this BOD meeting and circulated them with the other subcommittee members. He awaits their feedback.

He has also marked all the places with the Competition Rulebook that required examination and clarification of time schedules for the sanctioning process. This portion of the work to be carried out by Jim Zeiset and Ron Gleason.)

Comp Committee decided to not process requests from Quest & Wallaby to host for 2004 Rigid/Women's Worlds. These requests came after the close of the Fall 02 Board Meeting.

(editor’s note: Apparently some bodies in the US will be trying for the 2006 Rigid/Women’s worlds.)

Big Springs meet is withdrawing paragliding portion of this meet.

(editor’s note: This was supposed to be the five class nationals. The paraglider pilots would have their own meet director. They were worried about towing. They were worried about being a side show for the hang glider pilots. I guess they would rather fly in Telluride than in the big flatlands of Texas. I guess they missed this opportunity to get together for a combined meet, like the combined magazine. Another missed opportunity.)

No paperwork yet from Lookout Mountain to host a Speed Gliding Meet, Ron Gleason to follow up.

Two Requests for Sanctioning of Paragliding Nationals, Telluride by Scott MacLowry and Salt Lake City by Ken Hudonjorgensen.

Committee discussed issues concerning the Salt Lake Bid. Those issues concerned a small landing area, weather conditions and the ability to safely fly triangles.

The Telluride concerns discussed centered around enough vehicles to get pilots up to launch, retrieval issues for tasks outside of the main valley and some extra charges for travel to launch.

(editor’s note: Telluride should be a great place to fly if the weather’s right and the wind isn’t blowing. Let’s see, the last time they held the PG nationals in Colorado mountains they got exactly zero rounds flown.)

Chris polled the top pilots and vote was in favor of Telluride

Committee voted 6-0 with 1 abstention for the Telluride Meet as our PG Nationals.

Committee voted unanimous to approve the Utah meet, as a Class A Sanction meet should Ken chose to run the meet. Ron Gleason to contact Ken and discuss this possibility.

Committee received a request from Brad Kushner to hold a Class B Sanctioned meet. Committee approved this request.

Dennis Pagen has resigned as CIVL Delegate. The Committee recommends that the USHGA President appoint Jim Zeiset as his replacement and appoint Dennis Pagen as the Alternate Delegate.

Several different requests were received from Davis Straub via Chair Ron Gleason to make changes to the international rules on the uses of GPS. Those changes are currently being worked on by the CIVL.

Request from Davis Straub to get the WPR data up on the CIVL website. That situation is also being worked on.

(editor’s note: The minutes actually said WPRS, but it should have said WPR. I sure would like to see a little more useful work done on this. Zupy was reporting that FAI still wasn’t making the database available. It sure would be nice to know more about this than, yes we are working on it. Like in what century are we walking about?)

Request from Davis Straub to eliminate the 25% and 50% bonus for European Championships. The CIVL is making efforts to make it easier to hold continental championships, thereby making better access for this important meets for all pilots.

(editor’s note: Smoke and mirrors time here. Last year I wrote up a detailed proposal to make it easier for other continents to have continental championships. That proposal was ignored by the CIVL Bureau and the CIVL Plenary. It became clear to me that many CIVL European delegates have no interest in losing their monopoly on a high points continental championship (irrespective of the forthcoming Asian paragliding meet).

I find it hard to believe that our CIVL delegates (well, I don’t really find it hard to believe) would be so willing to screw our national team members and US competition pilots in general by going along with the perpetuation of this unfair system. The 50% bonus points should be dropped from international competitions.

The Brazilians have wised up to this con. When are the Americans going to learn?)

Request from Davis Straub to clarify the advertisement rules. Those rules have been clarified at this most recent CIVL meeting.

(editor’s note: I wonder if they are all that clear. Did anyone really ask Dennis what the story was here. I’ve published the new rules in the Oz Report, but there seems to me to be much that can be learned about these new rules. Are they just for hang gliding, for example? What about their conflict with FAI rules? What happens if a pilot says no? What are the penalties? Local rules only for penalties, or a more general guideline? Do we really want to do this? Now long are these rules valid? I’ve got more questions about the size and style of the pilot numbers and the sponsorship logo size.

Was everyone asleep at the cc meeting? Were they just listening to the blandishments of the CIVL reps and not paying attention? Why doesn’t anyone who knows something stand up and ask the tough questions?)

Request from Davis Straub to disseminate to US Pilots the specific rules of the Brazilian Worlds. Those rules have been recently approved and will shortly be available on the Brazilian Worlds Web site.

(editor’s note: Their web site hasn’t been updated since 2002.)

Request from Davis Straub to report on the recent failed US bid to hold the World Championships in the US. A report from CIVL Delegate was presented.

(editor’s note: published earlier in the Oz Report.)

Dennis Pagen & Jim Zeiset have just received notice from the CIVL that drug testing (IOC standards) will be in effect immediately for any category one meets (specifically this summer!).

(editor’s note: No more Red Bulls for Betinho! I already written about what a travesty this is. With CIVL it is one ridiculous thing after another. Somebody I know is not going to be sharing a little dooby in the corner before launch.)

Ron Gleason and Jim Zeiset accepted an action item to clarify the registration process for USHGA sanctioned meets.

(editor’s note: This is a can of worms. I have highlighted all the areas of the competition rule book that are affected by the desire to get all the dates straightened out.)

Ron Gleason accepted an action item to create a structure for the relationship between the Comp Committee and our Vendors as regards to submitting bids for world championships from the US.

(editor’s note: Some people are not too happy that the USHGA took over the process of putting together the US bid for the worlds. Some people think that wasn’t their role. Some people think that’s why we lost.)

Sport Class proposal from Nick Kennedy is approved providing that the process doesn't cause problems with the pilot ranking for CIVL Category One meets. Ron Gleason to notify Meet Organizers and encourage them to participate in this effort.

(editor’s note: The original proposal was that NTSS points in Sporting Class = ⅔ NTSS points.)

Discuss this article on the Oz Report hang gliding forum: Click OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2/

Discuss "USHGA – competition committee minutes" at the Oz Report forum   link»

USHGA - Sport Class »

Sun, Mar 9 2003, 11:00:08 pm GMT

Buddy Cutts|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Dean Funk|Nick Kennedy|Ron Gleason|Tove Heaney|USHGA BOD

Nick Kennedy <nkavalancheranch@yahoo.com> sends in the proposal that was passed at the USHGA BOD:

I would like to thank Ron Gleason, Dean Funk, Buddy Cutts, Jim Youcom, and David Glover for contributing to this project. We've been working on this for several months and I'm stoked that it got accepted!

Currently we have a competition system that is geared towards training and producing a high quality US Hang Gliding team, capable of competing with the worlds’ best, through a series of 4 sanctioned NTSS points contests, that result in a ranking for 3 classes, Flex Wing, Rigid Wing and Swift Class. The US Team is selected through this process.

To obtain this lofty goal of creating a good US Team, long, difficult tasks must be called to train the Team for World Meet level competition.

The result of this is at least two things: The US Team and its aspiring group of wanna bees gets better and better through tough long tasks.

The second thing that occurs is that a very large group (the ones that make up the bulk of the field and the ones that provide a large percentage of the money to fund these contests), never get to complete the task and land at goal, simply because the task is always too hard for the average recreational XC contest pilot in the system today. With a planned completion rate of some low number to begin with, we factor in unforeseen weather and we currently have contests where 70-80 % of the entire field will not make the task ever. This is a fact.

If this keeps up for much longer, contests outside of Florida will cease to exist because meets like Texas 2002 with very low entry numbers simply cannot continue to operate due to lack of the needed monies to pay the bills.

Why Sports Class? Sports Class is an alternative for just about everyone who wants to compete on a new, smaller scale level. Both Flex and Rigid Wing Pilots are welcome with just about anything that flies, i.e. KP and SS gliders, older Exxtacy Rigids etc. The only restrictions are: no top 20 Flex wing pilots and no top 7 rigid wing pilots.

We plan on a high percentage task completion, even if this means a very short task in difficult conditions. If we have a short task, time wise, we hope to let the pilots continue flying after they finish, if they desire.

Quite a few pilots are getting really burned out by going to a contest, run by and run for the World Team, paying out the nose, burning all our vacation time and never having a chance to make goal, simply because we are forced, due to no alternative, to flying a World Meet task everyday. Our voices do not count in the task selection. Sports Class is that alternative…It worked for our Sailplane Brothers in the late 80's; They were in the exact same boat as we are. Now the Sailplane Sports Class Contests are full.

Take the whole US field in the last 4 years in the Florida contests. Take out the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 in Rigid. What you have on that remaining list is a big group of really frustrated pilots. One task for everyone, this has to change, it just does not work anymore. And that can be accomplished with this new Sports Class.

When the Rigids came on the scene how long did it take to create a whole new class for them? Not long.

When the Swift came along. Same story and whole new class for a micro group!!

We need a new Class for the masses who want a choice and can really have a say in their task.

Sports Class

Run this new class right along side the current 3 other classes at the current 4 NTSS meets that support the designated task format.

Have 2 sub classes; Flex wing Sports and Rigid Wing Sports

Use the same start window and start circle or line

Try, when possible, to use the same goal.

Score it right along with the other classes using GAP or whatever is used

Do not use a early or separate start time.

Let Sports Class have there own task committee.

Plan tasks for a 70% completion rate

At the end of the year have a Sports Class Champion and Sports Class ranking.

Let any one compete in Sports Class WITH THE EXCEPTION of Pilots in the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 Rigids.

(editor’s note: The reader is free to go back and look at the discussion that preceded this proposal for the Sport Class. The original articles in the Oz Report were inspired by Tove Heaney’s Australian Open which included floater, kingposted and race classes. From there three proposals were developed. You can read about them starting at OzReport.com/Ozv6n188.shtml and going through OzReport.com/Ozv6n196.shtml.

Discuss "USHGA - Sport Class" at the Oz Report forum   link»

US Speed Gliding Nationals »

Mon, Sep 16 2002, 9:00:00 am GMT

Bo Hagewood|Bob Lane|Chris "Hawkeye" Giardina|Dean Funk|Henry Bittner|Jen Richards|Jim Prahl|John Borton|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Mark Bolt|Matt Taber|Rob Kells|Robert "Bob" Lane|Russell "Russ" Brown|Scot Huber|Scot Trueblood|Scott Angel|Scott Trueblood|speed gliding|Steve Kroop|US Speed Gliding Nationals 2002

Scot Trueblood <Hang4av8r@aol.com> writes:

The U.S. National Speedgliding Championships, at beautiful Lookout Mountain,GA came to a conclusion Sunday with a bang rather than the expected weather-induced whimper.

Name Glider Total
Scott Angel Talon 143 5946
Bo Hagewood Combat 145 5907
Ken Brown Litespeed4 5833
Henry Bittner Litespeed4 5625
Chris Giardina Laminar 13 5204
Jim Prahl Litespeed4 5165
Bob Lane Laminar 14 5050
Gauthier De Levizac Climax 14 4761
Dean Funk Talon 150 4444
Luiz Neubauer Laminar 13 4183
Pete Welch Talon 143 4149
Mike Thieke Talon 143 3289
Thad Miller Litespeed 5 3019
Mark Bolt Stealth 151 1692

After good practice flying Wednesday and 3 very good valid rounds Thursday, the weather closed in for the next 2 days due to the effects of hurricane Hanna moving inland. Winds over the back and considerable rainfall squelched even the possibility of aerotowing, and Sunday started out looking much the same. However, patience proved to be a virtue as we kept the pilots and volunteer course officials on hold, hoping for even a brief window and the possibility of one more round. What happened was beyond our wildest expectations.

Winds were calm in the LZ and the ceiling was lifting, so I decided to check conditions from the top. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rain had stopped, the winds over the back were very light, and the visibility was improving. We mobilized the forces and in less than an hour were ready to begin.

As winds were still persisting over the back, we elected to run the alternate course, which involves a start above the normal low-fly start gate and sends the fliers away from the ridge to a turnpoint over the flag in the Lookout LZ, thereby avoiding any potential rotor encounters. The pilots already had some practice on this course as well as 2 timed runs on it, so the round went off without a hitch. This course is not as technically demanding as the "A" course, but allows safe speedgliding in slightly textured air. It is not quite as steep either, and presents a whole new set of challenges as speed management and efficiency become paramount. The final turn into finish is quite exciting with proper turnpoint and gate clearance being essential to getting a good score. To nobody's surprise, Scott Angel won the round, followed by Ken Brown, Chris Giardina, and Bo Hagewood.

After a brief intermission, the conditions had improved even more and it was decided to fly the "A" course for the next round. This is what we all came for, and the excitement level was starting to build as the fliers prepared to sink their teeth into a big filet of perfect racing air. The round was again taken by Scott Angel with a time of 1:07.6, which translates into an average speed of 65.6 mph. This was Scott's fourth run in a row with a time of1:07, once again displaying the type of robotic consistency he is known for. He was closely followed by Ken Brown at 1:08.2 and a hard-charging Bo Hagewood at 1:09.5.

The next round saw identical conditions but Bo pulled a rabbit out of his hat and turned the tables on Scott by occupying the 1:07.4 time slot with Scott slipping up to a time of 1:08.3 and Kenny missing his start gate. This left the number 3 slot open to Henry Bittner and his now world famous start-gate dives, resulting in a time of 1:10.6. Henry amazed everybody watching at launch with his 70° dives from 300 feet above, definitely even a notch better than John Borton's screaming launch dives which helped win him the Championship last year. The idea of the low-fly start gate is to get everybody into the course at the same altitude and position, and a high speed dive puts you there with a lot of energy stored. Chris "Halkeye" Giardina had a slightly faster raw time of 1:09.7, but a partial miss of the turn 2 pylon cost him a 5 second penalty and put him in a respectable 4th place for the round.

The conditions kept improving and I decided to keep them racing until they begged me to stop, which proved to be the case. Round 4 saw some interesting developments with the fast time being torn off by the fangs of Kenny "Wolfdog" Brown at 1:07.3. It was a squeaker with Bo also wanting a taste of the glory at 1:07.7. Henry was getting more than just his launch dives working right and nailed it at 1:08.2, his fastest run of the contest. Scott had a relatively poor run of 1:09.4, his worst of the meet which was still considerably faster than 10 other fliers’ best. After this round, they had all started to become crybabies about the fact that everybody's arms had turned to rubber and they were hungry, so it was decided to take a one hour break for everybody to refuel and hit the restroom. The course officials needed it just as bad as the pilots.

The overcast had worked in our favor all day by keeping a lid on any thermal development, and when the tugs fired up again at about3:15 the flying conditions were still smooth and calm. Amazingly, this turned out to be the fastest round of the entire meet. This was Bo's turn to howl as he rocketed through the course with a 1:05.4, with Kenny nipping at his heels at 1:05.9. Scott's Talon was ripping up the leftovers with a 1:06.8, and Henry wasn't exactly dragging his feet at 1:08.3.

By this time it was late and we knew it was time to start scoring the day or the awards ceremony would be atmidnight, and the pilots were on strike, this time parking their gliders at their respective camps rather than staging at the tow paddock. It had been a long & very successful day of speedgliding and everybody involved was pretty well whupped but deliriously happy for the unexpected extra rounds.

When the dust settled there were 8 rounds of speedgliding on the books, allowing us to drop the low score and high score for each flier. The suspense for your dutiful meet director and his assistant Jen Richards was almost unbearable. When the scores were finalized, it was Scott Angel once again being the victor along with the spoils, which included a beautiful traveling trophy already engraved with the name of last year's champion, John Borton. We didn't want him to travel home with a light load, so we also heaped on a very niceFirst Place plaque and a fairly hefty paycheck in the amount of $1000.00 due to the generosity of Matt Taber. Mike Theeke, a fellow competitor, had also donated a very nice stained glass biplane which is actually a kaleidoscope and I'm sure will occupy a very special place in Scott's growing collection of prize booty. He has flying in his blood, being the third generation of the Angel clan to take to the skies, the first being his grandfather for whomAngelFalls is named.

The second place trophy and check for $500 went to Bo Hagewood who was trailing by a mere 39 points out of almost 6000. I knew going in that Bo would be a serious contender but frankly a little shocked by his audacious display of speed & finesse.

Third place also included a plaque and a $300 paycheck for Ken Brown, seeing Kenny flying fast and winning rounds doesn't surprise anybody. Only 74 points behind Bo, one more round of flying could have easily altered these top 3 standings in anybody's favor.

4th place was well deserved by Henry Bittner and won him a Flytec Windwatch handheld weather station, courtesy of our friend Steve Kroop of Flytec USA, as was the Altimeter Swiss Army Knife won by Chris Giardina for his 5th place showing. Thanks again to Steve & Flytec for his continued support of Speedgliding in theUS.

Lots of good swag was also donated by Rob Kells and crew from Wills Wing, Kenny Brown of MoyesAmerica, and numerous other contributors in the local community in the form of gift certificates and such. Much of it was given away in drawings which included pilots as well as the hard-working volunteers. There was something for just about everyone, and in the end, we all had a very fun time. Many thanks go to the tug pilots for keeping gliders in the air and on course with almost military precision. Eric Graper, Joel Finley, and Jim Richardson drove the LMFP Dragonflies, and a very generous Russell Brown donated his tug and services, which really kept the action moving.

In typicalLookoutMountain style, the camaraderie was great, the cookouts delicious, and the parties almost excessively fun. I can hardly wait for next year…!!!

Discuss "US Speed Gliding Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

US Speed Gliding Nationals »

Fri, Sep 13 2002, 9:00:00 am GMT

Bo Hagewood|Chris "Hawkeye" Giardina|Dean Funk|Henry Bittner|Scott Angel|US Speed Gliding Nationals 2002

Dean Funk <deanfunk@mindspring.com> writes:

The 2002 Speed Nats Kicked off Thursday with great weather and fast speed gliding. After 3 rounds Scott Angel is leading and speed gliding upstart Bo Hagewood is just 34 points behind.

The flying has been fun and everybody seems to be having a great time. We have 14 pilots competing, so there won't be any prize money, just pride and bragging rights. There has been a great deal of fellowship among the competitors.

The Current Standings after 3 sessions

Pilot Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3 Total
Scott Angel 1000 984 999 2983
Bo Hagewood 958 958 1000 2949
Ken Brown 912 995 1000 2907
Henry Bittner 943 990 876 2809
Bob Lane 857 829 884 2570
Mark Bolt 874 825 867 2566
Chris Giardina 690 918 896 2504
Pete Welch 794 850 795 2439
Thad Miller 577 574 675 1885
Jim Pharl 889 0 882 1781
Dean Funk 844 877 0 1721
Gauthier De Levizac 826 567 0 1474
Mike Thieke 748 0 606 1354
Luiz Neubauer 0 0 973 973

note: after 4 rounds pilots will drop their respective low scores after 5 rounds we drop the high score - so things will be mixing up.

Friday morning came with strong winds over the back and we canceled the morning sessions, we hope to be able to fly tonight if conditions improve. We have sessions planed for Saturday and Sunday.

Discuss "US Speed Gliding Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Speed glide for money

Sat, Aug 24 2002, 11:00:06 am GMT

Dean Funk|speed gliding|US National Speed Gliding Championship 2002

http://www.hanglide.com/2002nats.html

Dean Funk <deanfunk@mindspring.com> writes:

The 2002 US National Speed Gliding Championship is ON! And we have added a $5000.00 prize purse if we get 25 competitors. So if you are waiting for the official word this is it, get off your butt, sign up on-line, make your plans, buy your airline tickets, show up and get ready to race!

The dates areSeptember 12-15, 2002, with practice starting September 9th. Our focus this year is to provide as much flying as possible - Along with the Speed Gliding Championship, we will also be running timed ridge racing and aerobatics as separate events (conditions permitting).

We will be running a different scoring format this year making it possible to run the event with a little wind and/or textured air. Scoring will not be based on just the fastest single run, but on the fastest run in each session, our desire is to fly everyday.

The Lookout Mountain Speed Gliding course while being a challenging, very fast and exciting course, is not especially difficult for first time speed gliding pilots, if you ever thought about speed gliding this is your chance to get out and mix it up with the big boys. With pilots being able to practice a lot and getting "dialed" into the course, it's going to take consistent flying in slightly variable conditions to win the Championship.

We have also designed a second speed gliding course that will allow landings in either wind direction, which should also help open the window to more speed gliding. Aerotowing is the key, and Lookout will have 5 aerotow tugs, providing short turn arounds, last year we flew over 70 racing flights in one session.

Why do this competition? Do it because it's fun and challenging, do it because you will have a great time, do it because you could win some decent prize money and do it because we need your support if we are going to keep speed gliding alive in the US.

LookoutMountain is located 10 mins fromChattanooga,Tennessee, we are close (10 min.) to a major airport and 4 major highways, and we are easy to get to. September is a great time to visit, we have on-site accommodations, camping and amenities found at no other flight park. If you come to this event you will not leave dissatisfied. If you need help with arrangements or have any questions contactLookoutMountain at 1 (800) 688-5637, email: <fly@hanglide.com> and visit our website at http://www.hanglide.com for the on-line application.

Discuss "Speed glide for money" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Team Competition

Tue, Jun 11 2002, 3:00:06 pm EDT

Dean Funk|record|Steve Kroop

Dean Funk|record|Steve Kroop|World Record Encampment

Dean Funk|record|Steve Kroop|World Record Encampment

www.flytec.com

Steve Kroop «USAFlytec» writes:

The Team Flytec Competition website is up and running. Pilots wanting more information or to register should go to www.flytec.com and click on the "Competition and WRE" link. Space is limited to 25 competitors so if you are interested in participating you should register now.

Dean Funk has just redesigned the Flytec site - new Flash movie intro and a new navigation system. Also, while you are there click on the WRE link for updates on the World Record Encampment sponsored by FlytecUSA

A competition with training wheels

Mon, Jun 3 2002, 5:00:00 am EDT

Bo Hagewood|CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dean Funk|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather

Bo Hagewood|Campbell Bowen|CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dean Funk|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather

Bo Hagewood|Campbell Bowen|CIVL|Curt Warren|David Glover|Dean Funk|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|Steve Rewolinski|USHGA|weather

Steve Kroop «USAFlytec» writes:

After the Flytec Championship this year Team Flytec Pilot Curt Warren approached David Glover with the idea: "How about a learning competition where some of the best competition pilots in theUS would help new competitors in all aspects of flying.”

Through Curt's diligence a new format has been born and we will host the first annual Team Flytec Competition in October of this year. Team Flytec Pilots Paris Williams, Bo Hagewood, Curt Warren, Steve Rewolinski, and Campbell Bowen will provide 4 days of instruction in competition flying. This competition is designed for pilots wanting to improve their soaring, XC, and competition skills.

These five instructors will team up in the mornings to explain the task selection and provide detailed strategy sessions. Each instructor will also give in flight radio assistance to his daily team of 5 student pilots. Additional daily discussion topics will include: GPS use, task planning, racing, reading the sky, reducing your drag, etc. The meet will be run like a real USHGA/CIVL sanctioned points meet, with meet director David Glover and score keeper Tim Meaney.

The Quest Air and Flytec crew wants to help the first time or newer competitor improve their flying. In depth seminars will be given by these top pilots in the event of weather days.

Currently, Dean Funk (who also pushed this concept) is putting together the registration page on the Flytec Website (www.flytec.com). The dates of the event areOctober 10-13, 2002. Registration will be limited to 25 pilots so sign up early - we will provide registration details to the Oz Report soon. The cost will be $299 and includes up to 7 tows.

Michael Champlin Cross-Country results

Thu, Feb 8 2001, 7:00:00 am EST

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lori Allen|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Grubbs|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Armand Acchione|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Grubbs|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Armand Acchione|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Grubbs|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Nancy Smith|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

Armand Acchione|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Greg Dinauer|Harry Sudwischer|John Greynald|John Scott|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Lori Allen|Mark Grubbs|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|Mike Ziaskas|Nancy Smith|Pete Lehmann|Peter Birren|Ramy Yanetz|record|Russ Brown|Scott Smith|Vincent Endter|Wayne Michelsen

John Scott «brettonwoods» sends in the results of the yearlong cross-country challenge. Remember, you get the most points by beating site records for straight line distance, out and return or triangles:

 

2000

 

 

Place

Pilot

Wing

Score

 

 

 

 

1

Ric Niehaus

FW

5213.72

2

Mark Poustinchian

FW-RW

5004.19

*

Pete Lehmann

Single Surface

4969.24

3

Davis Straub

RW

4675.42

4

Dave Sharp

RW

4631.12

5

Greg Dinauer

RW

4367

6

Kevin Frost

RW

4119

7

John Greynald

FW

3537

8

Armand Acchione

FW

3207

9

Bill Belcourt

PG

3194.58

10

Tom Nejame

RW

3049.5

11

Tom Truax

PG

2987.83

12

Ken Kenzie

FW

2942

13

Kurt Ziegler

FW

2846.14

14

Dean Williams

RW

2809.76

15

Russ Brown

RW

2366.64

16

Mike Degtoff

FW

2211.8

17

Ramy Yanetz

SP

2200

18

Mark Grubbs

RW

1932

19

John Scott

FW

1780.4

20

Mike Ziaskas

FW-RW

1752

21

Dean Funk

FW

1578

22

Steve Rudy

RW

1438.61

23

Rita Edris

RW

1055

24

Vincent Endter

FW

559

25

Harry Sudwischer

RW

527.92

26

Tim McIntyre

FW

361

27

Erich S.L. Richey

FW

353.32

28

Peter Birren

FW

336

29

Wayne Michelsen

FW

326

30

Scott Smith

FW

291.93

31

Mike Christian

FW

276

32

Lori Allen

FW

209.4

33

Nancy Smith

FW

160

34

Larry Snyder

FW

142

35

Michael Miller

FW

60

36

James Asher

FW

50

* Pete Lehmann's Single Surface score is not official.

You can check out the Michael Champlin Cross-Country Challenge by clicking on the icon at the bottom of the page on the right.

New Flytec software

Wed, Aug 23 2000, 3:00:03 pm EDT

Dean Funk|Owen Morse|Steve Kroop

Steve Kroop, «USAFlytec», writes

Thought your readers would like to know that we have released FlyChart 4.32.

This new version of FlyChart has been thoroughly beta tested for over 8 months and runs quite nicely. FlyChart 4.32 is a true 32-bit application and therefore it is compatible and quite speedy with Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000. Some of the new features include:

* Re-designed and easier to use main application screen.

* The ability to display barograms with decent rates in excess of 12000 ft/min. This feature was developed for the space program to study supper high altitude parachute deployments and is currently being used by NASA and 3 aerospace contractors.

* Improved database sorting capability

* The ability to display barograms over up to 140 hours. This feature was developed for gas ballooning; their races sometimes go that long!

* Improved import and export functionality, including the ability to import flights from PC Graph.

* The ability to customize logbook of flights screen

* Easier to use installer

* Easy to use on screen help with hyper-text linking

* Continuous display of total number of flights, average and maximum values for duration, distance, altitude gain

FlyChart version 4.32 will be available for download at no cost to Flytec customers. Currently our web site is being totally redesigned by super webmaster and Flytec team pilot Dean Funk. Both should be available before the end of August.

Flytec customers who prefer the Macintosh platform are encouraged to contact us concerning options for using FlyChart on a Macintosh. Flytec pilot Owen Morse is to be credited with investigating and coming up with a solution for running FlyChart on the newer serial-port-less Macs (iMac, G3, G4, etc.). Utilizing Virtual PC by Connectix and Keyspan's USB PDA Adapter, Mac users can run FlyChart as fast and as smooth as on a PC.