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topic: Gary Wirdnam (52 articles)

2022 British Hang Gliding Nationals

Thu, Jan 13 2022, 12:25:34 am GMT

Combined with the 2022 Chabre Open

Airtribune|British HG Championships 2022 & Chabre Open 2022|competition

https://airtribune.com/british-hang-gliding-championships-and-chabre-open/info

The Hang Gliding Competitions Panel is pleased to announce that all required permissions have now been granted, and the arrangements for the 2022 British Hang Gliding Nationals are confirmed. The competition will run in parallel with the 2022 Chabre Open. Details for the combined event are as follows:

Dates: 7th - 13th August 2022
Location: Laragne, France
Competition base: Camping de Montéglin, 26 Av. de Montéglin, 05300 Laragne-Montéglin

Entry fees can be paid by PayPal via Airtribune.

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British Hang Gliding Competition Panel Meeting

Mon, Nov 22 2021, 3:31:56 pm GMT

2022 Competition Season

Andrew "Andy" Hollidge|British HG Championships 2022 & Chabre Open 2022|British Open Series 2022|Carl Wallbank|competition|Darren Brown|Dave Matthews|French Nationals 2022|Gordon Rigg|Grant Crossingham|Jon Sacre|Kev Gay|Malcolm Brown|Ollie Moffatt|Simon White|Stephen "Steve" Penfold|Steven "Steve" Blackler

Darren Brown writes:

This weekend we held the annual British Hang-gliding Competition Panel meeting. This is where decisions are made regarding the next year's competitions, team selection etc.

The panel has several official positions, which have now been filled as follows:

- Chair: Darren Brown
- Vice Chair: Kev Gay
- Secretary: Simon White
- Treasurer: Steve Penfold

The British team for the 2022 European Championships was also selected:

- Grant Crossingham
- Gordon Rigg
- Andy Hollidge
- Carl Wallbank
- Dave Matthews
- Steve Penfold

Reserves:

- Darren Brown
- Steve Blackler
- Malcolm Brown

Additionally we decided what competitions we intend to hold in 2022 and set dates / locations. Please note all this information is PROVISIONAL and is based upon obtaining the relevant permissions and ensuring the necessary organisation is available and in place. I am posting this in order to keep you informed but be aware some of this information (including dates) could change. The panel are now working on putting everything in place in order that we can officially finalise and publish the dates and locations.

British National Championships:

- Local Organiser: Ollie Moffatt
- Location: Laragne, France
- Dates: Sunday 7th August to Saturday 13th August 2022
- The competition is aimed at backing directly onto the French Nationals, which will be held in Aspres, France from 31st July to 6th August 2021 (2022?). This will give pilots the opportunity to enter both competitions.

British Open Series Round 1:

- Local Organiser: Kev Gay
- Location: Yorkshire Dales
- Dates: Sunday 29th May to Saturday 4th June 2022.

British Open Series Round 2:

- Local Organiser: Jon Sacre
- Location: Builth Wells, Wales
- Dates: Sunday 4th September to Saturday 10th September 2022.

As new chair, I would like to thank all the panel members for their support and efforts over this weekend and in particular to the new panel members, Gordon, Ollie and Nick, who injected new ideas and enthusiasm.

We will keep you informed of any new developments and confirm dates/locations for the competitions as soon as we are able.

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Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2020

Tue, Nov 26 2019, 7:28:57 am PST

25 Apr, 2020 - 01 May, 2020, Travesio/Meduno, Italy

Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|weather

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2020/info/details__info

The Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy, at its 4th edition, is a FAI 2 competition (Hang Gliding class 1, class 5, Sport class) which takes place in a flight zone well known by European pilots. It is also part of the big flying area which have hosted the XXII Hang Gliding World Championship.

The flight area is mainly in the foothill but, depending on weather conditions, it is possible to fly also in the Alps and in the flatland. There are different takeoffs; two of them are in Slovenia and can be chosen in case of changeable weather.

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2019 Worlds »

July 26, 2019, 12:13:01 pm MDT

2019 Worlds

Results from the last task on Friday

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|competition|Facebook|Filippo Oppici|Flavio Tebaldi|Gary Wirdnam|John Simon|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Suan Selenati|weather|Wills Wing T3|Worlds 2019

Live broadcasts: https://www.facebook.com/hangglidingworldchamp2019/

Live tracking and replays: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2941

Also live tracking: https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/split/2941

Results: http://www.italy2019.com/news/

Results: https://airtribune.com/22nd-fai-world-hg-championship/results

Last task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Primoz Gricar GER 02:55:12 925
2 Peter Neuenschwander SUI 02:50:17 911
3 Christian Ciech ITA 02:52:04 883
4 Gerd Doenhuber GER 03:05:26 866
5 Gary Wirdnam GBR 03:10:29 833
6 Manfred Ruhmer AUT 03:16:45 785
7 Filippo Oppici ITA 03:16:03 781
8 Glauco Pinto BRA 03:16:40 775
9 Alessandro Ploner ITA 03:16:58 771
10 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli BRA 03:17:13 765

Final Results:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Alessandro Ploner ITA 8156
2 Christian Ciech ITA 8073
3 Primoz Gricar GER 7951
4 Peter Neuenschwander SUI 7635
5 Mario Alonzi FRA 7586
6 Manfred Ruhmer AUT 7463
7 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli BRA 7351
8 Grant Crossingham GBR 7219
9 Filippo Oppici ITA 7150
10 Gerd Doenhuber GER 7134

http://www.italy2019.com/2019/07/26/trionfo-azzurro-ai-mondiali-di-deltaplano-doppietta-nellindividuale-con-ploner-e-ciech-vittoria-nella-classifica-a-squadre-la-sesta-consecutiva/

The last task of the XXII Hang Gliding World Championships, which saw the triumph of the Azzurra expedition led by team leader Flavio Tebaldi both in the individual and team rankings, has just ended.

On the eve of the last task, Italy came from a "control" day, as explained by Tebaldi himself: "We are excited about the result achieved, it was not at all easy to place this one-two - it was our team leader. National - The first few days went just fine and we confiscated important points in view of the final rush that we knew to be dangerous because the opponents would have become familiar with the skies of Friuli Venezia Giulia and consequently they would have given us a hard time. With the advantage accumulated, on Wednesday we preferred to stay in the group in order not to risk, considering also the weather conditions and so we managed to impose ourselves with Ploner and Ciech in general, while in the fundamental team ranking was the contribution of everyone, including the boys that did not bring points but gave us an immense hand in terms of communication: victory is also due to them. I allow myself to make the media aware, because this is an amazing team, perhaps the most medal in the Italian scene, with ten world titles and six consecutive teams, eight individuals (if we count the four earned in the rigid wings) and five Europeans: I believe that these numbers and these guys deserve more respect and consideration".

Today's last scheduled task saw the riders travel 101 km, launching from Mount Cuarnan and then landing at the San Mauro airfield in Premariacco, a town near the enchanting Cividale del Friuli. For statistics lovers, the organizers in this world have succeeded in proposing three different take-offs and landings, thus being able to prepare days of competition with the highest competitiveness, with a weather that has almost always kissed Friuli Venezia Giulia and with a virtually unanimous consensus regarding the quality of the work performed.

Considering the serious risk of thunderstorms that were spreading from Cadore towards Carnia with possible involvement of the high Friuli plain even before evening (among other things with winds coming from different directions), the day's buoys were placed towards Spilimbergo, Cividale del Friuli and Osoppo, with a final landing as mentioned in Premariacco. Immediately after the start, a group of pilots preferred to go into the mountains to avoid being in trouble then; a second one instead, has taken the shortest and fastest way on the plain, going however in difficulty after a few kilometers. Finally, a handful of deltaplanists have decided to take advantage of the second start gate and we talk about the Italians Selenati and Ciech, Majors (USA) and Oliveira (BRA): risky decision considering the day but by real bold, hoping to be able to repeat what happened in task 5 with the victory of John Simon (USA), which took place using this tactic.

After just over 30' of the race, the task immediately made it clear to everyone that it would not be a final catwalk, with several pilots closing their world prematurely and among them also the Colombian fort Velez, landed while he was in sixth position. The leaders of the day, flying at a very good altitude above 1600m on average, was formed among others by Smith, Ruhmer, Peter Neuenschwander, Doenhuber and Gricar (with Germany therefore in full fight for the podium), with the Swiss who in short he managed to amplify his advantage over his pursuers proceeding at a rapid pace. Ruhmer found himself in difficulty at an altitude of 400m, finding a thermal not easy to turn and being thus forced to a rather long stop. For Italy, Ciech and Ploner preferred the risk share in the early stages, unlike Kato who found himself in great difficulty. Good race also for Brazil with Rocha, Sandoli and Pinto, present in the top ten and decided to take home the silver in the team standings.

With more than thirty drivers out of goal, the remainder took the leap to shift their trajectory from the plains to the mountains and someone has even trespassed into Slovenia desperately searching for thermals near the buoy near Cividale: Throssell and Mckay have so quickly climbed over all the drivers further south of them, proceeding more than 70km/h towards Osoppo, with the leading group led by Neuenschwander (in front practically throughout the race), Gricar, Doenhuber and Wirdnam. In the meantime, our Ciech and Ploner have come to light and especially for the Folgaria athlete (among his other victories we remember eight times Italian champion), the possibility of climbing over to General Ploner, having exploited the second start window.

At 20km from the finish, Neuenschwander stopped to regain altitude, aware of the fact that a stop would probably have allowed him to close the goal in first position and quickly gaining altitude and speed; Gricar tried to close the gap, thus re-proposing the challenge already experienced at the end of task 9, but finding Doenhuber with breath on his neck. At 5km from the goal, the Swiss had to beat around having too low a altitude, with Gricar at his heels with more than 800m of difference, ready to anticipate him right on top. Neuenschwander continued undaunted but lowered to 150m at 1.8km from San Mauro, hitting the last cylinder but landing incredibly: it was the first big error in the evaluation of the champion that didn't stop him from finishing second anyway. The task was won by the German Gricar, delayed by a few kilometers, who succeeded in bringing home heavy points for Germany together with his teammate Doenhuber. Third is our Ciech, who, starting with the second window, flew very well, but was unable to overtake his fellow countryman Alessandro Ploner, who thus took home the third individual world title after those of 2009 and 2011, with Italy manages to place also the strong Filippo Oppici in the top ten.

The Italian team:

Trofeo Valerio Albrizio

Fri, Jun 7 2019, 8:16:20 am MDT

They flew one more day

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Christian Pollet|competition|Davide Guiducci|Gary Wirdnam|Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|Marco Laurenzi|Moyes Litespeed RX|Petr Polach|Suan Selenati|Trofeo Valerio Albrizio 2019|Tullio Gervasoni|Ubaldo Romano|Wills Wing T3

32nd Trofeo Valerio Albrizio

https://airtribune.com/xxxii-valerio-albrizio-trophy/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Lead.
Points
Total
1 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar Z9 02:22:23 103.4 989
2 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 02:22:22 89.9 987
3 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 02:22:48 97.7 964
4 Petr Polach Moyes Litespeed RX 4 Pro 02:36:28 93.8 846
5 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar 02:40:24 92.8 811
6 Christian Pollet Aeros Combat C 02:41:40 90.4 794
7 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 02:39:32 57.9 787
8 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 02:40:58 74.8 786
9 Tullio Gervasoni Wills Wing T3C 144 C 02:52:46 67.9 717
10 Ubaldo Romano Aeros Combat 12.7 C 02:52:51 67.7 714

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar Z9 2978
2 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 2915
3 Manfred Ruhmer Icaro 2000 Laminar 2604
4 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 2548
5 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 2440
6 Christian Pollet Aeros Combat C 2261
7 Tullio Gervasoni Wills Wing T3C 144 C 2143
8 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 2139
9 Petr Polach Moyes Litespeed RX 4 Pro 2055
10 Davide Guiducci Icaro 2000 Laminar 13.2 2018

Thanks to Tullio for this correction.

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Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019

Wed, May 1 2019, 8:28:52 pm EDT

Results for the final day

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|competition|Filippo Oppici|Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|Marco Laurenzi|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing T3

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 03:02:25 995
2 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar 03:02:34 988
3 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat 03:03:17 951
4 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 03:08:05 936
5 Benedikt Braun Aeros Combat 03:19:13 853
6 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 03:20:58 839
7 Arturo Dal Mas Wills Wing T2C 03:23:02 829
8 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed 03:27:16 810
9 Roland Woehrle Moyes Litespeed 03:39:21 769
10 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T2C 03:42:04 757

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 1982
2 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar 1925
3 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat 1920
4 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 1841
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 1767
6 Arturo Dal Mas Wills Wing T2C 1556
7 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 1506
8 Roland Woehrle Moyes Litespeed 1465
9 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat 1428
10 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed 1416

Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019

Wed, May 1 2019, 8:29:58 am EDT

The weather turns

competition|Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|weather

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/blog__day_5

Pilots are already on takeoff. Weather seems perfect today, so we expect to go in the air early in the afternoon for a consistent task.

Because pilots weren't assigned Flymaster trackers through Airtribune, live tracking on Airtribune doesn't work for this competition. Follow the pilots on the Flymaster web site.

The task has started: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2636

You can see the Replay from yesterday here: https://airtribune.com/play/4032/2d at the two times faster speed (compared to the Flymaster web site). The Airtribune replay uses the IGC files found here: https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/results. The Airtribune Replay user interface is vastly superior to the Flymaster Playback user interface. It does have a problem with screen clutter on cell phones.

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Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 1:39:46 pm EDT

Results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|competition|Filippo Oppici|Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|Marco Laurenzi|Primoz Gricar|Suan Selenati

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/results

Task 2 (a 40 kilometer task starting at almost 4 PM):

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Primoz Gricar Aeros Combat 01:11:30 389
2 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:13:12 370
3 Anton Moroder Icaro Laminar 01:13:40 367
4 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T2C 01:16:06 362
5 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar 01:16:17 352
6 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 01:16:27 350
7 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 01:19:07 342
8 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat 01:24:04 328
9 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat 01:27:09 317
10 Joost Eertman Icaro Laminar 01:27:58 315

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 982
2 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat 965
3 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar 932
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 923
5 Anton Moroder Icaro Laminar 920
6 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T2C 900
7 Marco Laurenzi Icaro Laminar 853
8 Francois Isoard Aeros Combat 817
9 Joost Eertman Icaro Laminar 786
10 Matjaz Klemencic Moyes Litespeed 770

Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019

Tue, Apr 30 2019, 9:33:12 am EDT

Mostly canceled tasks

Facebook|Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|video|weather

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/blog__day_4

Wednesday is a possible recovery day due to all the bad weather.

Pilots are on the takeoff, we had rain during the morning but we plan a late task in the afternoon, when weather should improve enough for a go.

Pilots will have a briefing at 13:00

The first flying day: https://youtu.be/VPP3_Cdnou0

The task has started: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2636

Task has started for all classes. It's a 40 km task for class 1 and 5, and 15 km for Sport class.

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Spring Meeting - Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019

Sun, Apr 28 2019, 5:12:48 pm EDT

One task so far

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|Friuli Venezia Giulia Trophy 2019|Suan Selenati

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/blog__day_2

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Peter Neuenschwander Aeros Combat 01:22:01 637
2 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:23:18 612
3 Alessandro Ploner Icaro Laminar 01:27:53 580
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 01:28:20 573
5 Matjaz Klemencic Moyes Litespeed 01:28:29 569
6 Davide Guiducci Icaro Laminar 01:29:21 565
7 Anton Moroder Icaro Laminar 01:31:12 553
8 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T2C 01:32:22 546
9 Arturo Dal Mas Wills Wing T2C 01:34:44 539
10 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T2C 01:33:55 538

2018 British Nationals »

August 30, 2018, 7:15:42 pm MDT

2018 British Nationals

Task 4

British Nationals 2018|Flemming Lauridsen|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Icaro 2000|Kathleen Rigg|Moyes Litespeed RX|Thomas Weissenberger

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/content/2018-results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Wayne Thompson Moyes Litespeed RX4 56.81 720
2 Igor Zhukovin Aeros Combat L 56.55 718
3 Manuel Revelli Icaro Laminar 54.31 698
4 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 54.17 697
5 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 54.12 696
6 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000, Laminar 14.1 54.18 692
7 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 53.91 691
8 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 53.84 690
9 Brad Porter Moyes Rx3 pro 53.78 689
10 Kathleen Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5T 53.76 688

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 2873
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 2714
3 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 2632
4 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 2534
5 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO 2488
6 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT 2430
7 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2289
8 Evgen Lysenko Aeros Combat L12 2270
9 Valentino Bau Laminar 14.1 2073
10 Flemming Lauridsen Litespeed S 4,5 2037

2018 British Nationals »

August 29, 2018, 3:30:15 pm MDT

2018 British Nationals

Task 3

British Nationals 2018|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Moyes Litespeed RX

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/content/2018-results

Task 3 (a short one):

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 01:53:58 56.57 644
2 Antoine Saraf Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:09:05 56.57 608
3 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 02:31:14 56.57 564
4 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 02:32:11 56.57 555
5 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro   51.28 501
6 Johnny Carr Moyes Litespeed RX4   52.74 500
7 Joachim Waibel Moyes   52.08 487
8 Alexander Barvinskiy Aeros Combat GT   50.16 475
9 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT   47.31 446
10 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO   39.20 405

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 2177
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 2017
3 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 1942
4 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 1852
5 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO 1823
6 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT 1745
7 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 1598
8 Evgen Lysenko Aeros Combat L12 1592
9 Johnny Carr Moyes Litespeed RX4 1401
10 Valentino Bau Laminar 14.1 1396

Tom's track log from yesterday? Why did he get zero leading points? Seems as though there were various GPS problems and when you have to construct a track log from various different devices manually (by measuring distances and getting times), you lose track of your leading points.

2018 British Nationals »

August 28, 2018, 4:01:57 pm MDT

2018 British Nationals

Task 2

British Nationals 2018|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Icaro 2000|Moyes Litespeed RX|Thomas Weissenberger

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/content/2018-results

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/sites/default/files/Class 1  Task 2.html

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 02:24:43 1000
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 02:25:35 974
3 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 02:39:03 877
4 Evgen Lysenko Aeros Combat L12 02:51:39 814
5 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 02:49:56 809
6 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000, Laminar 14.1 02:40:00 805
7 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 02:53:50 803
8 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT 02:53:33 785
9 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO 02:56:30 780
10 Johnny Carr Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:09:28 724

How did Tom manage to get scored with zero leading points?

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 1676
2 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO 1408
3 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000, Laminar 14.1 1391
4 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 1383
5 Oliver Chitty Moyes RX5 Pro 1372
6 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT 1288
7 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 1278
8 Dave Matthews Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 1227
9 Evgen Lysenko Aeros Combat L12 1224
10 Jochen Zeischka Moyes Litespeed RX5 Pro 1138

The third place guy today:

2018 British Nationals »

August 28, 2018, 8:47:09 MDT

2018 British Nationals

Despite a miscalled task

British Nationals 2018|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Icaro 2000|Moyes Litespeed RX|Thomas Weissenberger

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/content/2018-results

http://www.nats.bhgcomps.uk/content/task-1

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Grant Crossingham Moyer, RX3.5 pro 02:21:15 676
2 Gordon Rigg Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 PRO 02:32:20 628
3 Jochen Zeischka Moyes Litespeed RX5 Pro 02:32:34 626
4 Thomas Weissenberger Icaro 2000, Laminar 14.1 02:38:25 586
5 Valentino Bau Laminar 14.1 03:09:12 522
6 Manuel Revelli Icaro Laminar 03:15:54 508
7 Darren Brown Wills Wing T2C-154 03:17:12 506
8 Yevgen Bublyk Aeros Combat GT 03:17:23 503
9 Gary Wirdnam Icaro Laminar 03:40:10 475

Scoring the Worlds

February 26, 2013, 8:45:28 EST

Scoring the Worlds

Does it matter what scoring system we use there?

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rob Kells|Scott Barrett|Wesley "Wes" Hill

I can choose among a wide variety of scoring formulas in FS to score a given competition. At the Worlds in 2013 Wesley Hill used the GAP 2002 version of GAP 2011 which provides for 'leading' points and arrival position points and well as speed and distance points. Presumably the pilots were fooled into thinking that leading actually gave them valuable points seeing that GAP 2002 was being used as the scoring system. This is in contrast to the previous case (2012 Rob Kells) where I chose a competition that was originally scored using arrival time points.

Here are the results:

GAP 2002 OzGAP 2005 GAP 2000
1 Manfred Ruhmer 9010 Manfred Ruhmer 8939 Manfred Ruhmer 8911
2 Alessandro Ploner 8871 Alessandro Ploner 8840 Alessandro Ploner 8792
3 Filippo Oppici 8560 Filippo Oppici 8611 Filippo Oppici 8508
4 Attila Bertok 8531 Attila Bertok 8545 Attila Bertok 8479
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli 8249 Grant Crossingham 8374 Grant Crossingham 8213
6 Grant Crossingham 8242 Primoz Gricar 8240 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli 8191
7 Primoz Gricar 8171 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli 8234 Primoz Gricar 8151
8 Balazs Ujhelyi 8131 Balazs Ujhelyi 8195 Scott Barrett 8076
8 Scott Barrett 8131 Scott Barrett 8152 Antoine Boisselier 8063
10 Antoine Boisselier 8128 Antoine Boisselier 8140 Balazs Ujhelyi 8050
11 Jonny Durand 8069 Robin Hamilton 8044 Jonny Durand 7960
12 Robin Hamilton 8031 Jonny Durand 8018 Robin Hamilton 7916
13 Gerd Dönhuber 7888 Michael Friesenbichler 7884 Gerd Dönhuber 7801
14 Michael Friesenbichler 7878 Paris Williams 7883 Michael Friesenbichler 7762
15 Gordon Rigg 7854 Gerd Dönhuber 7820 Paris Williams 7745
16 Paris Williams 7842 Gordon Rigg 7778 Gordon Rigg 7714
17 Gary Wirdnam 7734 Gary Wirdnam 7718 Gary Wirdnam 7658
18 Christian Ciech 7641 Mario Alonzi 7683 Christian Ciech 7533
19 Carl Wallbank 7631 Christian Ciech 7614 Carl Wallbank 7516
20 Mario Alonzi 7584 Carl Wallbank 7611 Mario Alonzi 7516

The first four positions are the same and then we get into some swapping.

The full results are found here, here and here.

Setting the nominal distance, part 3. »

February 15, 2013, 8:04:06 PST

Setting the nominal distance

Going big

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|scoring|Scott Barrett

If you expect to set tasks at about 200 km, what should you set the Nominal Distance at?

Given the Dmax = 200 km, Dmin = 5 km, Gnom = 20 the line above gives the relationship between the meet director's choice of nominal distance and the average distance required for full validity.

Given the Dmax = 200 km, Dmin = 5 km, Dnom = 120 km, the chart below gives the relationship between the meet director's choice of percentage of pilots at goal and the required average distance flown for full validity:

Full Distance Validity also depends on what percentage of the pilots fly further than the minimum distance. Given the Dmax = 200 km, Dmin = 5 km, Dnom = 120 km, and Gnom = 20, we get the following relationship:

Looking at the 2013 Worlds:

If the nominal distance had instead of being set to 80 km had been set to 120 km, the Distance Validity would have still been at least equal to 1 each day, despite the fact that day five and six were stopped. So nether of us would have set the Nominal Distance long enough to differentiate between days where we went below average and those where we were above average.

If we had set the nominal distance to 180 km, we would have had an average flown distance of those flying further than the minimum distance of 130 km for the Distance validity to equal 1. We would have noted before the first task that we were probably setting the first task (and task 2, 3, and 5) at too short a distance. In addition, the second, third, fifth and sixth days would have been devalued. The fifth and sixth days because the task was stopped. The second and third because the tasks were called too short.

It was only after the fifth task that we started calling tasks long enough to get pilots to fly far enough to be completely valid assuming that pilots could in fact on average fly 180 km on an average day.

If we had set the nominal distance value equal to 180 km then these would be the Distance Validity values for each of the days:

The two days that were stopped are devalued the most, which is what we would hope for.

This would have been the results if we had chosen that 180 km as the Nominal Distance:

# Name
1 Manfred Ruhmer 8505
2 Alessandro Ploner 8389
3 Filippo Oppici 8090
4 Attila Bertok 8073
5 Primoz Gricar 7867
6 Grant Crossingham 7819
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli 7785
8 Balazs Ujhelyi 7696
9 Scott Barrett 7694
10 Antoine Boisselier 7666
11 Jonny Durand 7615
12 Robin Hamilton 7604
13 Paris Williams 7515
14 Gerd Dönhuber 7456
15 Michael Friesenbichler 7440
16 Gordon Rigg 7402
17 Christian Ciech 7375
18 Gary Wirdnam 7306
19 Carl Wallbank 7172
20 Rohan Holtkamp 7169

You can find the actual results here or here.

Stopped tasks and more

February 6, 2013, 8:32:38 PST

Stopped tasks and more

If you don't like what happens to the scoring when tasks are stopped

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Proposals for scoring stopped tasks here and lots more proposed scoring software changes.

Does it matter? Let's do a little comparison.

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Top twenty all days counting:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 9010
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8871
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 8560
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 8531
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 8249
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8242
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 8131
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 8131
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8128
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8069
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 8031
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7888
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7878
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7854
16 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7842
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 7734
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
19 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7631
20 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7584


Not counting day 5, the day that Pedro protested:

# Name Nat Glider Totals without T5
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 8101
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7963
3 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7812
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 7694
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7654
6 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7553
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 7546
8 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7394
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 7351
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7324
11 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 7296
12 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 7265
13 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 7215
14 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7181
15 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7120
16 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6996
17 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6951
18 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6946
19 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 6924
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 6777


You can see my earlier comparison here.

Discuss "Stopped tasks and more" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The 2013 Worlds imagined

January 23, 2013, 11:32:35 AEDT

The 2013 Worlds imagined

Without the stopped days and CTAF violations

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Top twenty all days counting:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 9010
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8871
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 8560
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 8531
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 8249
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8242
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 8131
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 8131
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8128
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8069
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 8031
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7888
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7878
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7854
16 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7842
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 7734
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
19 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7631
20 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7584


What if we didn't count Task 6 which was stopped due to high winds and where CTAF violations occurred:

# Name Nat Glider Totals without T6
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 8175
2 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8066
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 7835
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7791
6 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 7418
8 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7400
9 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7365
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 7361
11 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7320
12 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 7280
13 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 7220
14 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7154
15 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7111
16 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7093
17 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7050
18 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7003
19 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 6993
20 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6976


Without Task 5 and Task 6 (both of which were stopped):

# Name Nat Glider Totals without T5 and T6
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 7266
2 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 7265
3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7158
4 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7076
5 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 6998
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6970
7 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 6885
8 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 6735
9 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 6715
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 6581
11 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6516
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 6485
13 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6479
14 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 6420
15 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6386
16 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 6364
17 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6292
18 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6238
19 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 6200
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 6167


Primoz was a complete gentleman in all my interactions with him and I told him repeatedly how much I appreciated it. Obviously he suffered greatly from any errors that I made as the meet director calling tasks on days that later became too windy. Paris also would have done well without those days counting. Ironically, Pedro, who filed a complaint about Task 5, faired better when all the days were counted.

2013 Worlds »

January 18, 2013, 11:58:09 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Final results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Total:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 9010
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8871
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 8560
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 8531
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 8249
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8242
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 8131
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 8131
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8128
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8069
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 8031
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7888
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7878
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7854
16 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7842
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 7734
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
19 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7631
20 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7584

Teams:

# Name Total
1 ITA 26212
2 USA 26140
3 GBR 25215
4 AUS 24849
5 GER 24754

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5930
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4414
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3849

2013 Worlds »

January 18, 2013, 7:05:15 AEDT

2013 Worlds

Results from the last day

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

The last day:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Lukas Bader GER Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:54:53 1000
2 Joerg Bajewski GER Wills Wing T2C 154 03:57:03 946
2 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:57:16 946
4 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:58:03 942
5 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:57:27 941
6 Matjaz Klemencic SLO Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:58:56 939
7 Anton Struganov RUS Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:57:58 926
8 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:59:07 915
9 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:59:39 911
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 04:01:52 896
11 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:05:18 885
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 04:10:10 859
13 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 04:10:12 858
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:08:07 851
14 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 04:08:39 851
16 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 04:14:49 841
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 04:12:40 825
18 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:16:16 807
19 Dave Matthews GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:16:25 801
20 Jochen Zeischka BEL Aeros Combat GT 13.5 04:18:23 796
21 Gijs Wanders NED Wills Wing T2C 154 04:20:39 783
22 Anthony Stephens GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:22:17 780
23 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 04:32:08 753
24 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 04:32:37 751
25 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 04:32:25 750
26 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 04:36:03 731
27 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 04:42:03 722
28 Péter Szász HUN Moyes Litespeed S3.5 04:42:19 710
29 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:46:19 696
30 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 04:45:31 692
31 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:54:46 680
32 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:53:14 676
33 Nils Aage Henden NOR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:51:26 671
34 Olav Lien Olsen NOR Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 04:54:16 667
35 Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:52:52 665
35 Mitch Shipley USA Wills Wing T2C 144 04:48:18 665
37 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 05:07:57 646
38 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 04:55:58 636
39 Trent Brown AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 05:05:52 609
40 Glauco Pinto BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 05:21:30 567
41 Francis Gafner SUI Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 05:25:27 556
42 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:38:30 541

2013 Worlds »

January 15, 2013, 11:11:55 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Task 8:

1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:53:56 997
2 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:54:19 983
3 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 03:54:21 979
4 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:54:23 975
5 Peter Neuenschwander SUI Aeros Combat 13.5 03:55:22 962
5 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:55:25 962
7 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:55:28 960
7 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 03:55:28 960
9 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:55:31 947
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:55:34 946
11 Walter Mayer AUT Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:55:39 945
12 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:56:17 938
13 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 03:55:59 934
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:56:36 931
15 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 03:56:42 930
15 Matjaz Klemencic SLO Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:56:25 930
15 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:56:58 930
18 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:57:12 919
19 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:57:33 916
20 Joerg Bajewski GER Wills Wing T2C 154 03:57:34 912

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 7464
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7192
3 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6922
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 6900
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 6856
6 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 6710
7 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 6676
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 6611
9 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6537
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 6491
11 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6490
12 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6462
13 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6381
14 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6369
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6336
16 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 6322
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6317
18 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 6312
19 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 6303
20 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6265

Teams:

  Name Total
1 ITA 21068
2 USA 21033
3 AUT 20372
4 AUS 20301
5 GBR 20148

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5074
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3616
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3451
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2968
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2568
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1954
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1035
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1014

2013 Worlds »

January 15, 2013, 2:04:02 AEDT

2013 Worlds

The results from the seventh task

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Suan Selenati|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Paris and Manfred tie for first place.

Task  7:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:10:01 968
1 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:10:01 968
3 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:10:06 959
4 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 03:10:52 940
5 Christian Bartschi SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:10:54 936
6 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:10:56 933
7 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:12:17 915
8 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:12:51 906
9 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:14:09 893
10 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 03:14:10 891
11 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:14:47 880
12 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:14:49 877
13 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 03:15:07 872
14 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:16:58 856
15 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:18:34 837
15 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:30:20 837
17 Suan Selenati ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:28 827
18 Miroslav Cap CZE Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:22 826
19 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 03:32:33 825
20 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:20:34 818

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 6467
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 6229
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 5947
4 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5944
5 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 5934
6 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 5920
7 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 5787
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 5724
9 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5696
10 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5612
11 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5570
12 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 5543
13 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5463
14 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 5462
15 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5461
16 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 5460
17 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5445
18 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 5377
19 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 5376
20 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 5372

Teams:

# Id Name Total
1   ITA 18230
2   USA 18184
3   AUS 17662
4   AUT 17505
5   GBR 17418

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 4224
2 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3058
3 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2951
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2726
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2266
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1782
7 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1000
8 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 772

2013 Worlds »

January 12, 2013, 4:57:05 AEDT

2013 Worlds

Results

Akiko Suzuki|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Suan Selenati|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Task 4 results:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:11:56 954
2 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:12:22 947
3 Christian Zehetmair GER Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:12:24 942
4 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:12:54 936
5 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:13:32 930
6 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 03:13:22 928
7 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:13:35 924
8 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 03:13:39 920
9 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:13:51 917
10 Christian Bartschi SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:13:55 916
11 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:14:00 911
12 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 03:14:12 910
13 Shogo Ota JPN Aeros Combat 09GT 13.5 03:14:51 900
14 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:15:00 898
15 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:15:02 897
16 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:15:04 894
17 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:15:10 893
18 Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:08:19 892
19 Olav Lien Olsen NOR Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 03:15:22 889
20 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:15:37 887

Cumulative:

# Name   Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 3755
2 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 3638
3 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 3634
4 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 3633
5 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 3609
6 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 3556
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 3472
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 3463
9 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3441
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3439
11 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 3400
12 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 3394
13 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 3333
14 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3312
15 Yuji Suzuki JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3310
16 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3273
17 Suan Selenati ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 3255
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 3158
19 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 3140
20 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 3133

Teams:

# Name Total
1 ITA 10581
2 USA 10549
3 SUI 10303
4 AUS 10290
5 GER 9918

Hang Gliding Theme for Firefox

May 12, 2010, 9:07:31 EDT

Hang Gliding Theme for Firefox

With a Moyes Litespeed

Gary Wirdnam|Quest Air

Gary Wirdnam sends:

http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/

Hang Gliding theme

Discuss "Hang Gliding Theme for Firefox" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Pay up for the⁢ 2011 pre-Worlds »

Tue, Jan 12 2010, 5:43:01 pm AEDT

Just a few more days to send in the money

Flavio Tebaldi|Pre-Worlds 2011

Flavio Tebaldi «Flavio Tebaldi» writes:

I would like to remind you that in order to confirm your place please pay and send the organisation the payment receipt no later than the17th January. Confirmed pilots whose receipt of payment does not reach the organizers by 17th January, will be moved to the bottom of the waiting list. All other pilots accepted afterwards, will have 10 days to pay the registration fee before their place is reallocated to another pilot.

pre-Worlds - update »

Sun, Jan 3 2010, 8:49:03 am AEDT

150 out of 250

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Pre-Worlds 2011|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

The preliminary pilot list has been updated with the latest WPRS rankings. You'll find it here: http://www.cucco2011.org. Click Pilot Info, then Pilots List. If your name is on the list you have until January 17th to pay your entry fees in order to hold your place on the list.

As of Sunday night there are 150 pilots listed: 145 male, 5 female. Gliders: 58 Moyes, 38 Aeros, 23 Wills Wing, 21 Icaro, 5 Airborne, 3 Laminar, 1 Aeros, 1 unspecified.

  • ARG: Marcelo Chaves
  • AUS: Jonny Durand, Steve Blenkinsop, Cameron Tunbridge, Rod Flockhart, Bruce Wynne, Trent Brown, Neil Petersen, Tony Lowrey, Richard Heffer
  • AUT: Manfred Ruhmer, Thomas Weissenberger, Robert Reisinger, Michael Friesenbichler, Manfred Trimmel, Wolfgang Siess, Günther Tschurnig, Christl Elmar, Christian Tiefenbacher
  • BEL: Michel Bodart
  • BRA: Michel Louzada, Alvaro Sandoli (Nene Rotor), Jose Lessa, Konrad Heilmann, Eduardo Oliveira, Alexandre Trivelato
  • CAN: Brett Hazlett
  • COL: Mike Glennon, Eitan Koren
  • CZE: Radek Bares
  • DEN: Nils Dalby, Bo Klint, Johnny Christiansen, Jens Henrik Badsberg
  • ECU: Raul Guerra, Rafael Arcos
  • ESP: Blay Jr Olmos Quesada, Pedro Garcia Morelli, Daniel Martin Mota, Jose Antonio Abollado, Lucio Nelli
  • FRA: Mario Alonzi, Gianpietro Zin, Luis Rizo-Salom, Antoine Boisselier, Laurent Thevenot, Eric Mathurin, Eric Wyss, Fabien Agenes
  • GBR: Carl Wallbank, Gordon Rigg, Bruce Kavanagh, David Shields, Richard Lovelace, Dave Matthews, Anthony Stephens, Gary Wirdnam, Graham Phipps, Nigel Bray
  • GER: Gerd Doenhuber, Lukas Bader, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Tim Grabowski, André Djamarani, Markus Ebenfeld, Roland Wöhrle, Stefan Boller, Christian Zehetmair, Joerg Bajewski, Hans Kiefinger, Konrad Schwab, Monique Werner
  • GUA: Giovanni Vitola, Jose Herrarte, Dieter Meyer, Rolando Mansilla, Mario Leon
  • HUN: Attila Bertok, Endre Kovács, Attila Kis, Zsolt Balogh
  • IRL: Shaun O'Neill, Geoffrey McMahon, Philip Lardner, Justin Beplate, Kenneth Hickey
  • ISR: Amir Shalom, Ron Wiener, Yaron Levin
  • ITA: Alex Ploner, Christian Ciech, Elio Cataldi, Davide Guiducci, Tullio Gervasoni, Anton Moroder, Arturo Dal Mas, Filippo Oppici, Paolo Rosichetti, Fabrizio Giustranti, Sergio Bernardi, Suan Selenati, Edoardo Giudiceandrea, Vanni Accattoli
  • JPN: Koji Daimon, Hiroshi Suzuki, Takahiro Matsumura, Shogo Ota, Keita Kokaji
  • LTU: Justinas Pleikys
  • NED: Mart Bosman, Martin Van Helden, André Disselhorst, Joost Eertman, Erik Van Keulen
  • NOR: Vegar Hansen, Petter Peikli
  • POL: Dariusz Perenc, Sebastian Olifiruk
  • RUS: Vladimir Leuskov, Artur Dzamikhov, Anton Struganov, Natalia Petrova, Julia Kucherenko, Maxim Usachev, Oleg Andreev
  • SLO: Primoz Gricar, Stanislav Galovec, Iztok Jarc
  • SUI: Roberto Nichele, Christian Voiblet, Francis Gafner, Chrigel Kuepfer, Carole Tobler, Beat Howald
  • SWE: Hakan Andersson, Joakim Hindemith
  • TUR: Tugrul Yilmaz, Halil Caner Atilgan, Kamil Demirkan
  • UKR: Dmitriy Rusov, Pavel Yakimchuk, Sergey Semenov, Dmytro Teteretnyk
  • USA: Zac Majors, Dustin Martin, Jeff O'Brien, Davis Straub, Jeff Shapiro, Derreck Turner, Ben Dunn

pre-Worlds - who's going? »

Sat, Jan 2 2010, 6:58:31 pm AEDT

150 out of 250

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Pre-Worlds 2011|Ubaldo Romano|Wills Wing T2C|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds 2023|Zac Majors

The best guess so far: http://www.cucco2011.org/test_romano/ Click Pilot Info, then Pilots List. Based on December 2, 2009, WPRS ranking, will change when January ranking is available. US pilots chosen to go to the pre-Worlds, so far:

Zac Majors, Wills Wing T2C-144
Dustin Martin, Wills Wing T2C-144
Jeff O'Brien, Wills Wing T2C (144 or 154)
Davis Straub, Icaro Laminar MR1000
Jeff Shapiro, Wills Wing T2C-144
Derreck Turner, Moyes Litespeed S5
Ben Dunn, Moyes Litespeed

Each nation gets up to five pilots independent of WPRS ranking. If more than five pilots from one country apply for the pre-Worlds, then the top five in that nation as per their January 2010 WPRS ranking are allowed in. When all those nations' slots are taken (some nations won't have five slots because less than five pilots pre-registered from that nation, for example, Turkey), then the remaining slots are available by WPRS ranking to the pilots who pre-registered.

Turns out a lot of pilots from Italy pre-registered and they have a lot of good WPRS rankings, and so fifteen pilots are coming from Italy. Derreck Turner and Ben Dunn got in with their WPRS rankings. Many US pilots did not.

Everyone has to get their entry fee in with ten days (January 17th) or they go to the end of the line. Starting on the 17th, pilots are chosen for the now empty slots by pre-registration date.

The actual five man teams will be decided at the competition.

Update: The January WPRS ranking it up and the pilot list will be updated soon.

Over 200 pilots sign up for⁢ 2011 pre-Worlds »

Fri, Nov 6 2009, 8:58:57 am PST

The limit is 150

Pre-Worlds 2011|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds

http://www.cucco2011.org/

Apparently hang gliding is not dying at the level of World competitions (or at least pre-Worlds) The Italian based pre-Worlds is over subscribed already, just a few days after opening the registration to the waiting list. The local regulations state:

Registration will open on 2nd November 2009. Priority will be given to national teams of up to 5 pilots per country.

Places will be allocated starting from 7th January 2010 to pilots on the waiting list.

Allocation will be based on WPRS ranking on 1st January 2010 followed by order of registration for any unranked pilots.

As from 7th January, all confirmed pilots will have ten days time in which to pay the registration fee, in order not to lose their priority position in the pilot list.

Therefore, confirmed pilots whose receipt of payment does not reach the organizers by 17th January, will be moved to the bottom of the waiting list.

All other pilots accepted afterwards, will have 10 days to pay the registration fee before their place is reallocated to another pilot.

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, comparison

The Worlds

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Bruce Kavanagh|Christian Ciech|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Icaro 2000|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Julia Kucherenko|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robert Reisinger|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Thomas Weissenberger|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2009|Zac Majors


"Comparison is the source of all unhappiness." ~Soren Kierkegaard.

The 2008 pre-Worlds:

#NameNatGliderTotal
10Jeff O'BrienUSAWills Wing T2 1542883
17Davis StraubUSAWills Wing T2 - 1442623
21Gordon RiggGBRMoyes Litespeed S42492
23Attila BertokHUNMoyes Litespeed 52422
48Jeff ShapiroUSAWills Wing T2 1441955
51Zac MajorsUSAWills Wing T2C 1441916
88Derreck TurnerUSAMoyes Litespeed S51231

I built a lot of expectation into my head having accomplished this result compared to 117 other pilots flying in the pre-Worlds. I felt good about flying in Laragne and was quite happy with my result (sixteenth in the line of losers). Scott Barrett won the pre-Worlds and was obviously elated.

Gordon Rigg felt that the earth was some how kicked off its axis that I had finished ahead of him at the pre-Worlds. He was completely incensed and let me know about it. Attila, the World Champion fell down when he should have stayed up.

The 2009 Worlds:

#NameNatGliderTotal
1Alessandro PlonerITAIcaro 2000 Z95046
2Jon DurandAUSMoyes Litespeed RS 3.54935
3Thomas WeissenbergerAUTMoyes Litespeed RS 44695
4Zac MajorsUSAWills Wing T2C 1444594
5Gordon RiggGBRMoyes Litespeed S 44581
6Antoine BoisselierFRAMoyes Litespeed RS 44568
7Dustin MartinUSAWills Wing T2C 1444558
8Nene RotorBRAWills Wing T2 C -1444556
9Dan VyhnalikCZEAeros Combat L 144547
10Manfred RuhmerAUTIcaro 2000 Laminar Z94535
11Christian CiechITAIcaro 2000 Laminar 14 Z94534
15Carl WallbankGBRMoyes Litespeed RS 3.54294
20Mario AlonziFRAAeros Combat L 13.54213
23Attila BertókHUNMoyes Litespeed S 54165
26Bruce KavanaghGBRWills Wing T2C4040
28Jeff O'BrienUSAWills Wing Tee Two See3946
28Gerolf HeinrichsAUTMoyes Litespeed RS 43946
38Robert ReisingerAUTMoyes Litespeed RS 43620
46Scott BarrettAUSAirborne C4 13.53334
50Christian VoibletSUIAeros Combat 12L3282
56Blay Jr OlmosESPMoyes Litespeed S 3.53022
67Gary WirdnamGBRWills Wing T2C2684
74Jeff ShapiroUSAWills Wing T-2C 1442389
80Julia KucherenkoRUSAeros Combat-L2261
82Davis StraubUSAWills Wing T2C - 1442140
89Oleg BondarchukUKRAeros Combat1847

Jonny was very close to Alex and won a day. Zac could have easily come in third and I feel partially responsible for him losing a hundred points on the second to last day. When we were all together (with Jonny also) on the ridge southwest of Aspres climbing slowly five minutes before the second start window almost at cloud base, I mentioned on the radio that if we ran out of time and lift before the start we should go west to the clouds and mountain over there. This suggestion was perhaps too influential because that is what Zippy did right after I made the suggestion. It really wasn't time to make this move, and he lost 500' to 1000' on us at the start which was a handicap that kept him behind the whole way.

Zac, who was added to the team as the fifth member when registration was again opened, turned in the best performance by an American only missing goal on the two days when the task was stopped.

Gordon Rigg was restored to his rightful place and the world got back on its axis. You might remember that Gordon was denied a place on the British team then got back on with Robin Hamilton couldn't make it to the Worlds. He then out performed all his teammates as well as being on the task committee. I'm sure that he feels quite vindicated.

Dustin Martin flew well and consistently and was rewarded with a seventh place finish. Two Americans in the top ten, which hasn't happened since the Worlds at the Owens Valley. The US team had its best finish since then also.

Manfred was so far ahead in points to most of the field that when he bombed out on the last day, he only dropped to tenth.

Christian Ciech was at one point in the lead having captured the lead from Manfred. Then he made a crucial error going back to restart on a day that was stopped before the task was ended. This cost him big time. He was likewise not near goal on the second to last day when the task was stopped. He looked quite crestfallen after these events but tried to be supportive in his actions if not his expression for his former student and friend Alex Ploner, and for the whole Italian team.

Carl Wallbank, after a poor landing near me on the second to last day when we were all just trying to make it over the ridge at Mison, had forty stitches in his leg and a broken pinky. He then flew the last day and made goal. He was able to launch off the steep north side. He before and later said that he likely wouldn't have launched at all from the shallow south side.

Mario Alonzi was ranked number one quite a few times in the last year, but in his home country against the best in the World he was twentieth.

Attila Bertok landed short a few times, and was unable to defend his crown as World Champion, to the disappointment of the Hungarian team. He finished about like he did last year.

Bruce Kavanaugh placed third on the British team after being added as the fifth pilot. The British team won the last World Championship in Big Spring, Texas but finished behind the US here in France.

Jeff O'Brien won the first day and was the early leader, but didn't keep up the pace and dropped back after taking later start times on days that he should have gone with the big gaggle, then hitting the no fly zone, and not making it to goal on the last day. He also just missed getting to goal on the previous day to be in ahead of the stop time.

Gerolf Heinrichs and Robert Reisinger, perpetual top finishers (but not quite right at the top) were way down below their and our expectations. Gerolf got not too far on the last two days, but finished well on others, except for getting stuck on one day and coming to goal fortieth.

Scott Barrett finished well off the pace of his previous year's efforts, in spite of using smart tactics (going around the turnpoint when we went west of Pic de Bure) which won him the pre-Worlds.

Christian Voiblet finished second on one day behind Christian Ciech when he took the lead from Manfred, but didn't get far on other days and landed short on the final day.

Blay, inspite of doing very well in Australia and often doing better than Jonny apparently didn't fly one day (I don't know the reason) and in general did not do as well as expected after beating Jonny in the Spanish nationals.

Gary Wirdham landed early at Camping Montéglin on the last day after feeling that the air conditions were too rough.

Jeff Shapiro did not do as well as he expected getting some poor late starts and dropping out in weak conditions on a couple of days and being held up on launch one day. He didn't improve his relative performance over his efforts at the pre-Worlds. I'm quite sure that he feels he has no one to blame but himself.

Julia was the top placing women. She destroyed her first glider and then flew another one. She could use help with landing technique, although it may also be associated with the problem of being relatively short and light in hang gliders that are not made for such people if they wish to pass the DHV certification.

Me, I dropped like a stone, essentially due to very poor decision making related to strong emotions that nudge me in the wrong direction. The emotions overcome any of my limited abilities to cogitate in stressful situations. Deep breathing might help. I might go into more details later if I think that they will be of any use to the reader in dealing with their own situations. We'll see.

Oleg Bondarchuck was suffering from back problems.

The pre-Worlds, day nine

Fri, Jul 4 2008, 11:47:25 pm MDT

Pre-Worlds - nine

Scott Barrett wins the pre-Worlds

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Andreas Olsson|Attila Bertok|Bruce Kavanagh|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Pre-Worlds 2008|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|weather|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Results

The official pre-Worlds blog

Jeff O'Brien's blog

Jamie Shelden's blog

Friday, July 4th

The task and the flight.

Despite coming in 21st on the last day Scott Barrett held onto his lead and won the pre-Worlds. The last day had very little spread in points between 5th and 25th. These were all guys that made goal quickly, so they all got about the same points.

Scott headed out in the first gaggle at the first start window. They all had a relatively bad start having to go back 1.6 km to get inside the exit start cylinder. Those of us who took the second clock only had to go back 1 km and we came back right into the lift and got up quickly, losing no height overall. Then we found very strong lift just before the first turnpoint, west down the Laragne-Chabre ridge line at COL SAINT JEAN.

Most of the first start gaggle headed east back down Chabre, while a number of us in the second start time jumped to the ridge to the south, more on the course line, at SOMMET DE LA PLA, and found strong lift to 7,400'. We could see four of the pilots with the earlier start just above us.

Next was a 16 km glide across the valley to LA GACHE. The glide was reasonable, but the lift was a bit weak at the hill side under the cliffs after we got across the valley. The lead gaggle was just over our heads, maybe two hundred feet. They had already taken the turnpoint 3.5 km to the east.

We finally got some good lift and were able to head to the turnpoint as the lead gaggle headed toward Sisteron. We worked weak lift coming back from the turnpoint and then just had to head off toward Sisteron also without getting high. We could see the lead gaggle turning in weak lift just past the town. We flew right over the citadel.

The lead gaggle was slow, very slow. Scott would later mention how even with Andreas and Mario Alonzi, they just weren't taking any chances and he had resolved to stay with the gaggle. Balazs (who was in second place) had caught up with them starting at the second start time.

We started turning on the north side of a valley on the lee side of a small ridge (the wind was 5 mph out of the northwest) here the lead gaggle had just been wasting their time. The lift was poor yet again. After gaining a mere 400' we moved over to the south side of the valley on the north facing hill sides. I saw a Gryphon vulture (gray back), circling in the valley near the hill side, but he was way below me and I felt that the hillside would be a better and kept going.

The Gryphon came over under me as I climbed up, and I changed the direction of my turns to match the Gryphon's, and we climbed out together. After climbing 1000' the Gryphon moved over a small ridge line to another face. The lift stopped so I went over and joined him for another thousand foot climb. He was right under my wing.

I was up high enough now to move over on top of the ridge line to get to the turnpoint. There were earlier starting pilots just ahead under clouds just beyond the turnpoint, the one and only cu's that we would see during the task, I jumped over to clouds called Zac and the Jeff's to come over and we climbed out fast to 7,400'.

It was a twelve kilometer glide to Malijai, a village before the plateaus that we were about to get up on on the way to goal. We came over the town and then up on the treed hillsides before the plateau. It was a search for lift on the hill sides and we didn't get that high. In front of us were two large plateaus covered with lavender fields. The mountain flying competition had turned into a flatland competition.

There were about half a dozen of us together and we worked the weak thermals to get across the plateau and jump to the next one. We could see Bruce Kavanaugh keeping up with us, but two thousand feet below. Jeff Shapiro had been above me but missed the lift on the hillside of the plateau and was soon working low with Bruce.

We climbed to 5,600' and jumped across the creek to the second plateau, found weak lift and climbed to 4,900', not enough to get to goal, but plenty to make the turnpoint east of Valensole. I found lift at the turnpoint which encouraged the others and just drifted in it toward the goal field, a sailplane port past Puimoisson. Climbing to 5,000' (2,500' AGL) it was an easy downwind glide in to a very nice air field high up on the plateau.

Attila Bertok started third and was very fast winning the day. Scott Barrett started on final glide with 600 meters below the glide line and Balazs went with him. Scott almost put Balazs on the ground 4 km from goal.

Jeff Shapiro got low in the valley between the first and last plateau and worked with ten other pilots including Robin Hamilton and Bruce to try to get up. Only he and one other pilot were able to make it out of that hole and make goal.

Jeff O'Brien was sixth in overall time to goal. He moved into tenth place overall. I was twenty fourth, three after Scott, and moved up to 17th place. Zac also made goal just ahead of me.

The US team was very cooperative and very often flew together. I think that this may be a first for the US team. The two Jeff's, Zac and I were very close to each other for most of the flight on this last day and flew together on many days.

The organization of the meet was excellent. There were twenty people helping with launches. The scorekeeping was very efficient with little waiting around to download your GPS even with 117 pilots and the scores were published almost immediately on the web.

The downsides include poor launch conditions under some wind conditions and the difficulty of calling tasks when cu-nimbs were forecasted for the mountains. The dodgy weather was unexpected.

Laragne is a great place to fly. Very open with lots of variety and challenges as well as many large fields to land in if necessary. The town is romantic and charming and has a great market day on Thursday. There is a lot of history to take in in the area, great cycling, mountain climbing, rock climbing (see Jeff's pictures), and swimming in the creeks. The wife and family will enjoy themselves here much more so than some other places that we go to where the flying is great.

Last day at goal:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes Litespeed 5 02:21:41 904
2 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 02:34:30 864
3 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 02:50:09 839
4 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 02:37:02 824
5 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 02:40:58 798
6 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 02:55:00 793
6 Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2 154 02:41:47 793
8 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 02:41:59 791
9 Christian Zehetmair Deu Aeros Combat L14 02:55:05 790
10 Hakan Andersson Swe Moyes Litespeed Rs 3,5 02:42:01 789
11 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 02:55:11 784
11 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 02:55:10 784
13 Richard Lovelace Gbr Aeros Combat L 02:43:27 782
14 Jesper Hassing Dnk Aeros Combat L12 02:36:00 781
15 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Moyes Litespeed S 02:55:20 780
16 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 02:55:22 779
17 Francis Gafner Che Aeros Combat L13 02:44:28 774
18 Anton Struganov Rus Aeros Combat L 02:55:28 773
19 Raimund Kaiser Aut Icaro Laminar Z9 02:55:25 772
20 Anton Minskiy Rus Aeros Combat L 02:44:50 771
21 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 02:56:31 765
22 Koos De Keijzer Nld Icaro Laminar Zero 7 02:58:59 748
22 Zac Majors Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 02:49:19 748
24 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 02:49:37 745
24 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 02:50:02 745
26 Gordon Rigg Gbr Moyes Litespeed S4 02:49:44 742
27 Blay Olmos Quesada Esp Icaro Z8 02:50:10 738
28 Gianpietro Zin Fra Wills Wing T2 - 144 02:51:12 731
29 Artur Dzamikhov Rus Aeros Combat L 03:03:18 725
30 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 03:04:46 716
31 Laurent Thevenot Fra Aeros Combat L 03:10:35 693
32 Vladimir Leuskov Rus Aeros Combat L 03:10:12 692
33 Francois Isoard Fra Aeros Combat L13 03:10:14 689
34 Malcolm Brown Gbr Aeros Combat L 03:08:58 685
35 Joakim Hindemith Swe Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:13:29 671
36 Endre Kovacs Hun Aeros Combat L 03:18:14 658
37 Eric Mathurin Fra Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 03:29:29 600
38 Uli Eysel Deu Moyes Litespeed S-4 03:40:15 598
38 Jeff Shapiro Usa Wills Wing T2 144 03:29:42 598


Overall:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 3482
2 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 3363
3 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 3311
4 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 3302
5 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 3141
6 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 3078
7 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 3004
8 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 2895
9 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 2885
10 Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2 154 2883
11 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 2832
12 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L12 2818
13 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Moyes Litespeed S 2783
14 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 2774
15 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 2640
16 Francois Isoard Fra Aeros Combat L13 2635
17 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 2623
18 David Matthews Gbr Moyes Litespeed S3.5 2571
19 Bruce Kavanagh Gbr Wills Wing T2 2531
20 Hakan Andersson Swe Moyes Litespeed Rs 3,5 2497

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The pre-Worlds, day seven

Wed, Jul 2 2008, 2:27:12 pm MDT

Pre-Worlds - seven

Scott Barrett wins again on an Airborne C4 13.5.

Andreas Olsson|Bruce Kavanagh|Davis Straub|Flytec 6030|Gary Wirdnam|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Mart Bosman|PG|Pre-Worlds 2008|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni

Results

The official pre-Worlds blog

Jeff O'Brien's blog

Jamie Shelden's blog

Wednesday, July 2nd

The task and the flight.

Notice the emphasis in the tag line above. Why do I start off with Scott Barrett winning the day? Because it is news! It is news because it is against type, against expectations (general expectations, anyway). It shakes up our view of the world. It isn't supposed to be happening, but it is. This is a guy who has never flown here, for example. He's flying on a glider from the smaller and less celebrated of the two Australian hang gliding companies. He's a designer at that company (and stands in stark contrast to the designer at the other company).

So it's news and that's why it is the lead.

The forecast was for a windy day. Not as windy as the day that was called off, but a good 14 knot south wind at 4,000' and 18 knots at 8,000'. But the organizers have a different forecast that says that the winds aren't as strong. Of course, south winds make for easy launches.

There was not supposed to be any over development over the valley, just over the mountains, and it looked like it would be a bit more stable that the last three days. There were no cu-nimbs at 10 AM, for example, in fact few cu's at all then. Lift should be a bit lighter also.

The launch opened at 12:30. There had been wind dummies and paragliders in the air for an hour but they were just ridge soaring, so this was not encouraging, but the forecast said as soon as a certain temperature was reached things should be good. I could see one hang glider wind dummy getting up under cu's five kilometers to the west, so I was willing to launch and did so about fourth in our line. There was a steady light thermal at the house thermal spot and a bunch of us just took our time and circled up as the day built.

Soon there were cu's every where over launch and out toward the the turnpoint to the northeast, so it seemed like the day would go well. It was easy to get to 8,400' and get prepped for the fast glide to the first turnpoint at SAVOURNON CARREF.

At least a hundred pilots took the first start time (there were only two). The two Jeff's, Zippy, and Scott held back with Balasz and Attila, among others waited for the second one while the rest of us tried to avoid each other.

We raced from just north of Orpierre, and some of us found lift just on the west side of the volcano. Those of us who stayed with this lift got to see half the field dive into the ridge line to the north past the turnpoint and away from the next turnpoint to the south, ANTENNE DU ROCHE.

Three of us got high enough that we were able to jump south to the south side of the volcano without having to go back to the north to get up. Now we had to do the valley crossing, while those behind us would use the ridge line to get up, go east, jump over to the lower hills on the east side of the valley and then work their way south.

We found good lift over a cement plant in the middle of the valley and this was enough to get us up on the small hills on the east side of the valley. We were heading into a 10 mph head wind.

The hills really worked and we found strong lift that allowed us to plow forward against the wind. The folks behind us got high and caught up with us but we were pretty close to the lead, maybe a minute behind.

We got really high and made the tower turnpoint. As soon as we turned around we were blown downwind at a rapid pace. I didn't find any lift that was better than 200 fpm so I just kept on going searching for better, not finding any on the hillsides that everyone got up on, on the way out. I jumped over the gap to the west side of the valley next to the turnpoint at CRIGNE. I didn't know exactly what the landmark was that was the turnpoint, so I went past it up the ridgeline looking for lift. I found some weak stuff and thermalled back to it.

Scott was high over this turnpoint as I was 100' over it. I decided to continue heading west, ninety degrees to the course line in order to get up and to get under the clouds on the west side of the valley. Scott and Balasz headed east back to the course line and back to where we just flew to the second turnpoint. There were no cu's there.

I worked the ridgeline behind the volcano and did everything I could to stay upwind of the ridge and away from the volcano. I could go over it only if a got high enough, and I wasn't getting super high. There were a couple of pilots with me.

I worked southwest to a cloud out in the valley behind the volcano and it was rough but I got up. I was now on the western edge of the volcano where it is lower and there was a cloud street over that area. I got over 7,000' and pressed upwind toward the cloud street in the lee side of the volcano. The air was rough.

I pressed ahead and as I came to the black cloud the vario was screaming, but I was too scared to turn. It was too rough, the glider was going sideways. There was plenty of clouds ahead, I had a tight grip on the bar and I was pulled in.

Finally I got to let the bar out a bit as I hit more lift, but the strong stuff was gone. There were broken cu's ahead toward Laragne and Laragne-Chabre. I slowed down, went into search mode and mellow flying mode, going slow in the weak sink and weak lift, under small clouds, looking all around.

There were a few pilots around and we found light lift as we pushed toward Laragne-Chabre. Finally we were able to make it over the ridge line and we found 700 fpm to 8,100'. The 6030 said I had goal by over 2,000', but it was a long ways away at this point, twenty kilometers, fourteen of them upwind.

I headed out over the valley toward the turnpoint. I could see the goal field, with four gliders in it. I had to fly seven kilometers past the goal and then come back down wind. The 6030 kept saying that I had it no problem.

Scott and Balasz were in goal first with Scott just barely ahead of Balasz.

Two kilometers from the turnpoint, I stumbled into 400 fpm up. I gained 500' and the 6030 kept saying I had goal, no problem. After four turns I said okay, I'm heading out. But I also said to myself, you'll regret this.

In the next five minutes I lost 2,500' going to the turnpoint and coming back. The glider was falling not flying. The turnpoint was tucked in behind a south facing hill side and I was in the rotor, although I didn't have time to assess that.

I was about to splat into the ground and I was looking at landing in a field or in the river bed a few hundred feet lower. I raced along the edge of the river bed and suddenly there was lift, where I had seen Mario turning a few minutes before, when I was plenty high.

I grabbed a hold and held on as this thermal went skating to the north. I just prayed that this was enough to get me to a safe place to land and maybe to goal.

Six turns and I lost it but the 6030 said I had goal by 700'. I was five kilometers away but running away from the south facing hillside and toward the north/south running hill side. My luck held and I made it across the line into goal with a few hundred feet to spare.

Numerous pilots landed just short. The meet officials have been told that the task committee doesn't need to call a waypoint in the leeside of a mountain, especially one where you are likely to be low.

Attila landed in a river bed. He had his brother drive the car down and it got stuck. Last we heard they were trying to arrange for a crane to lift it out.

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 02:17:03 963
2 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 02:17:06 958
3 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 02:32:26 909
4 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 02:31:53 906
5 Endre Kovacs Hun Aeros Combat L 02:32:37 889
6 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 02:45:18 833
7 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 02:37:55 825
8 Jesper Hassing Dnk Aeros Combat L12 02:49:21 814
9 Hakan Andersson Swe Moyes Litespeed Rs 3,5 02:53:31 783
10 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L12 02:57:56 770
11 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 02:59:57 769
12 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 03:03:00 758
13 Vladimir Leuskov Rus Aeros Combat L 03:04:21 751
14 David Matthews Gbr Moyes Litespeed S3.5 02:58:05 747
15 Gianpietro Zin Fra Wills Wing T2 - 144 03:07:20 735
16 Bruce Kavanagh Gbr Wills Wing T2 03:18:11 703
17 Fabien Zadora Fra Moyes Litespeed Rs 03:19:44 669
18 Laurent Thevenot Fra Aeros Combat L 03:19:50 668
19 Tanno Rutten Nld Wills Wing T2 154 03:21:10 666
20 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 03:36:07 662
21 Joakim Hindemith Swe Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:34:41 658
22 Francesc Vinas Esp Icaro Laminar Z8 03:36:32 644
23 Mart Bosman Nld Moyes Litespeed 03:31:53 641
24 Pedro Alejandro Montes Gentner Mex Icaro Laminar Z8 03:36:26 640
25 Nils Ole Dalby Dnk Icaro Laminar Z8 03:38:22 638
26 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 632
27 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 03:45:35 618

Overall:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 2717
2 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 2539
3 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 2513
4 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 2463
5 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L12 2374
6 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 2362
7 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 2285
8 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 2213
9 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 2179
10 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 2101
11 Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2 154 2090
12 David Matthews Gbr Moyes Litespeed S3.5 2080
13 Bruce Kavanagh Gbr Wills Wing T2 2064
14 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 2048
15 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 2029
16 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Moyes Litespeed S 2003
17 Anton Moroder Ita Icaro Laminar Z9 1992
18 Francois Isoard Fra Aeros Combat L13 1946
19 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 1878
20 Robin Hamilton Gbr Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 1848

In spite of not making goal, Jeff O'Brien moved up two places to eleventh. I moved into the top twenty, after starting in 74th (after the first day). The US team has moved up into 7th place, just behind the UK B team.

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The pre-Worlds, day three

Sat, Jun 28 2008, 3:09:54 pm MDT

Pre-Worlds - three

Patience, wait for the day

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Andreas Olsson|Attila Bertok|Bruce Kavanagh|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Pre-Worlds 2008|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|video

Results

The official pre-Worlds blog.

Jeff O'Brien's blog

Jamie Shelden's blog

Saturday, June 28th.

Tricky call today for a task and for a launch site. The organizers are trying to deal with the fact that they've got to get 120 pilots off the hill reasonably safely. The wind forecast for 2 PM is for four knots northwest at Laragne-Chabre, but the readings from the wind meter on top show 25 km/h in the morning at 8:30 AM. They are concerned that the wind will turn west, as it appears to do with light northerly winds, in the afternoon and that we've got to wait until the afternoon in order to launch the south side, as it is too hard to get up (although supposedly easy to launch) on the north side.

If we setup on the lower north launch, as we experienced the brisk north winds in the earlier afternoon and late morning, when the south "breeze" from the thermals cancelled out the north wind, just when we would want to start launching, then we wouldn't be able to launch from the lower north launch as there is no south launch area down there.

If we went to the top of Laragne-Chabre and waited for the south face thermals to start coming up, there wouldn't be enough time of safe launch conditions to get everyone off the hill. So despite that fact that Aspres wind readings were showing even stronger north winds there than Laragne-Chabre, the organizers sent us off to Aspres for a late launch, maybe on the west side (assuming that the winds would turn west and the sun would heat up the west face combining the thermals with the wind).

We got to the southwest facing launch at Aspres and it was blowing pretty strongly northeast, nothing like the day before at Laragne-Chabre, but too strong to consider launching. I was told that we will be waiting until 3 PM before launching.

Long before 3 PM they sent us up the road to the west launch, basically a long steep ridge line that would allow all of us to launch at once. We all setup not sure that we would be launching at all.

The first launch was scheduled for 3 PM with the start window open at 4:15 PM. The task was kept short, 77 km, about, so that we could finish before the 8 PM drop dead time. At 3 PM it was still not coming up the face, but the wind from the north or northeast had slowed down considerably. They delayed launch twice to 3:30, then it looked like it might be possible to get off. We all jumped into line. Suddenly the meet organizers looked very smart!

The wind was coming cross across the face from the right hand side most of the time, but every once in a while the wind would be overcome with thermals coming up the face and it was possible to launch. I waited a long time as Heather kept calling out cross wind. When it finally straightened up I and a bunch of pilots behind me were off the hill.

The lift had looked weak in front of launch with pilots climbing slowly, but I found lift right away and climbed right out to 7,400'. The American team had discussed strategy and were together. Our idea was to go across the valley in front of launch and get up on the other side under the thicker cu's, but still outside the eighteen km entry start circle. I saw a few pilots circling over there and headed over. I joined up with Zippy, the two Jeff's, and Scott as well as a number of other pilots working completely broken lift as the minutes ticked off, and as we tried to get up again to over 7,000'. The forecast had been for cloud base between 7,000'-8,000' and so far that had proven to be correct.

Finally, after twenty minutes of not getting up, we found some lift and climbed out to 7,500' just in time for the first start window to open. It was very late in the day, 4:45 PM, there were cu-nimbs way to our west which might spit out some high blocking clouds. It would be a good idea to take the first start time.

I headed off right next to Scott Barrett. He pulled out his camera and took a few shots;

More of Scott's shots from the day here.

There were plenty of cu's ahead. Scott and I were near or in the lead and I was running east down the ridge line that we had been working for the last thirty minutes. There the lift was at the end of the ridge and twenty or so pilots joined us in it as we climbed back to 7,500'. The first turnpoint was on the "volcano" to our southeast.

There was a comb of a hill between the "volcano" and us and sure enough there was lift right over it as we got there and plenty just beyond it. That was enough to quickly get us back to 7,500' and over to the "volcano" and the turnpoint. Scott and I raced together down the south ridge line of the "volcano," and again we found the lift in front of everyone nearby. We quickly climbed out to 8,200'. The two Jeff's were just a few hundred feet below us, but we heard later that Zippy flew back to take the next start time.

Scott found a little bit better lift and got above me a bit to the north. I came over to him, but lost track of him there but he was keeping track of me from above. We headed east to the next ridge line with Jeff O'Brien even though the second turnpoint was off to the southeast. This was part of our original strategy to stay on the high ground and east of the course line unless there were cu's along the course line. Jeff Shapiro headed straight down the course line.

There was a big black cu south of us on the course line so after we got up we headed south to get under it. I saw pilots turning to the southwest, but it was such a big cu and so black, that I thought that I would find better lift before I got to these guys. Indeed that worked out and I climbed at 500 fpm to 8,500' getting over these guys.

It was a quick glide to the turnpoint high on the hillside to the southeast and I could see pilots turning to the north of the turnpoint. I joined the two Jeff's, but didn't see Scott. The lift was scary and broken at the bottom, so it took a while for me to get into the core and I got just below the two Jeff's.

It was only 300 fpm on average, so it took a while to get to 8,200'. I headed out just behind Jeff Shapiro toward the turnpoint to the northwest across the river from Laragne. There was a cloud street to our west and I headed for it. Jeff Shapiro headed for the hill side further to the north and the sunshine. Jeff O'Brien was just ahead of us and higher, having found better lift in the last thermal.

We both found over 300 fpm after 6 PM and it was time to go to goal when we climbed above 7,500'. It was less than 10:1 to goal and a fast glide in.

There was a patch of rain coming down further to the south of goal, maybe five kilometers away. I had seen the rain when I was going from the second to the third turnpoint but it didn't cause me any concern. As I headed toward it toward goal from the third turnpoint I watched the rain and saw that it wouldn't cause a problem.

A good while after I landed Heather came up and said that the task had been stopped at 6:42 PM. And that the stop time was 6:27 PM. I came across goal at 6:26:02.

I told her that she had just made my job on the protest committee very difficult. She had no sympathy. I figured at least fifty to sixty pilots would be protesting. The idea was that the safety committee (all of whom were in goal) and the safety director and the meet director could tell that the rain was "approaching" the second turnpoint. I wondered how they were able to do this. They didn't have anyone in the air that they were talking to who could give them a bird's eye view.

Well, we'll see what the protests are and I'll see what is fair and do what is fair.

Jeff O'Brien took a video of my landing at goal here.

Task two:

1 Andreas Olsson Swe Wills Wing T2 01:26:42 825
2 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes Litespeed 5 01:20:27 809
3 Robin Hamilton Gbr Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 01:27:10 806
4 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 01:27:20 802
5 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L 01:21:08 795
6 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 01:21:25 791
7 Hans Kiefinger Deu Aeros Combat L13 01:27:40 788
8 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 01:29:44 780
9 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 01:29:34 777
10 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 01:30:04 771
11 Fredy Bircher Che Wills Wing T2 01:30:41 767
12 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Moyes Litespeed S 01:30:23 765
13 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 01:30:27 763
14 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 01:31:48 754
15 Christian Zehetmair Deu Aeros Combat L14 01:32:12 750
16 Francois Isoard Fra Aeros Combat L13 01:32:21 749
17 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 01:34:28 732
17 Fabien Agenes Fra Aeros Combat L13 01:35:09 732
19 Chrigel Küpfer Che Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 01:35:41 727
20 Artur Dzamikhov Rus Aeros Combat L 01:35:40 725
21 Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2 154 01:35:52 724
22 André Disselhorst Nld Aeros Combat L13 01:37:51 712
23 Jeff Shapiro Usa Wills Wing T2 144 01:38:03 710
24 Bruce Kavanagh Gbr Wills Wing T2 01:37:43 708
25 David Matthews Gbr Moyes Litespeed S3.5 01:38:11 707
26 Anton Minskiy Rus Aeros Combat L 01:40:24 702
27 Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2 - 144 01:41:02 700
28 Elmar Christl Aut Moyes Litespeed S4,5 01:41:17 696

Overall:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Scott Barrett Aus Airborne C4 - 13.5 991 763 1754
2 Gary Wirdnam Gbr Aeros Combat L 943 802 1745
3 Dan Vyhnalik Cze Aeros Combat L14 910 771 1681
4 Christian Voiblet Che Aeros Combat L 810 795 1605
5 Balazs Ujhelyi Hun Moyes Litespeed S 4,5 802 780 1582
6 Luis Rizo Salom Fra Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 804 777 1581
7 Alessandro Ploner Ita Icaro Laminar 787 791 1578
8 Carl Wallbank Gbr Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 801 754 1555
9 Robin Hamilton Gbr Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 744 806 1550
10 Mario Alonzi Fra Aeros Combat L12 806 732 1538

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Span and aspect ratio distribution at the 2007 Worlds

April 21, 2008, 6:47:28 PDT

Span and aspect ratio

Is there any correlation between these values and the results of the Worlds?

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton

Let's look at the top twenty:

Name Glider Span Aspect Ratio
1 BERTOK, Attila Moyes Litespeed S 5 10.4 7.4
2 REISINGER, Robert Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
3 HEINRICHS, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
4 ALONZI, Mario Aeros Combat L
5 PLONER, Alessandro Icaro Zero 8
6 WIRDNAM, Gary Aeros Combat L 13 10.4 7.9
7 COOMBER, Kraig Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 10.3 7.7
8 WALLBANK, Carl Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 10.3 7.7
9 BADER, Lucas Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
10 VYHNALIK, Dan Aeros Combat L 15 10.7 7.8
11 CATALDI, Elio Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 10.3 7.7
12 OPSANGER, Olav Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
13 BOISSELIER, Antoine Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
14 DURAND, Jonny Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 10.3 7.7
15 SCHWIEGERSHAUSEN, Corinna Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 10 7.5
16 MATTHEWS, Dave Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 10 7.5
17 HAMILTON, Robin Moyes Litespeed RS 4 10.4 7.7
18 RIZO SALOM, Luis Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 10.3 7.7
19 ROTOR, Nene Wills Wing T2 144 9.8 7.3
20 VOLK, Glen Moyes Litespeed S4 10 7.3

Spans: http://ozreport.com/12.75#1

Aspect ratio: http://ozreport.com/12.76#2

2007 Worlds - the ranking Vs. the finish »

August 22, 2007, 0:22:52 MDT

Worlds finish

Does their ranking predict their finish?

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Kraig Coomber|Quinn Cornwell|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds 2007

Name2007 WorldsWPRSGliderNation
BERTOK, Attila117Moyes Litespeed S 5HUN
REISINGER, Robert21Moyes Litespeed RS 4AUT
HEINRICHS, Gerolf32Moyes Litespeed RS 4AUT
ALONZI, Mario48Aeros Combat LFRA
PLONER, Alessandro535Icaro Zero 8ITA
WIRDNAM, Gary6N/RAeros Combat L 13GBR
COOMBER, Kraig722Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5AUS
WALLBANK, Carl883Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5GBR
BADER, Lucas919Moyes Litespeed RS 4DEU
VYHNALIK, Dan1083Aeros Combat L 15CZE

Thanks to Quinn Cornwell «smiguy02». N/R equals not ranked in the WPRS system. The full list is here.

The European Championship - Day 8/Task 7 Results

Sat, Jun 24 2006, 11:16:38 pm EDT

Europeans

Finally a long task

European Championships 2006|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Oleg Bondarchuk

http://www.homo-volans.hr/

Day Seven:

1 Heinrichs, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed 4,5 S Aut 03:20:09 1000
2 Bondarchuk, Oleg Aeros Combat L Ukr 03:20:21 986
3 Weissenberger, Thomas Moyes Litespeed 4,5 S Aut 03:20:22 981
4 Friesenbichler, Michael Moyes Litespeed 3.5 S Aut 03:20:23 976
5 Ujhelyi, Balazs Moyes Litespeed S5 Hun 03:20:49 967
6 Gricar, Primoz Aeros Combat L13 Svn 03:20:50 961
7 Guilllen, Bruno Moyes Litespeed 4.5 Fra 03:20:56 956
8 Meier, Richard Aeros Combat L Che 03:21:31 948
9 Vyhnalik, Dan Aeros Combat L 15 Cze 03:21:50 940
10 Wirdnam, Gary Aeros Combat L Gbr 03:22:01 938

Totals:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 Friesenbichler, Michael Moyes Litespeed 3.5 S Aut 5164
2 Bondarchuk, Oleg Aeros Combat L Ukr 5112
3 Gricar, Primoz Aeros Combat L13 Svn 4995
4 Weissenberger, Thomas Moyes Litespeed 4,5 S Aut 4910
5 Salvenmoser, Joseph Moyes Litespeed 3,5 Aut 4787
6 Olsson, Andreas Wills Wing T2 Swe 4679
7 Wallbank, Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 Gbr 4660
8 Vyhnalik, Dan Aeros Combat L 15 Cze 4653
9 Guilllen, Bruno Moyes Litespeed 4.5 Fra 4572
10 Boisselier, Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4S Fra 4546

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UK Nats and Arangoiti Open

Fri, Aug 19 2005, 4:00:03 pm EDT

The UK pilots fly their Nationals in Spain

Gary Wirdnam|Justin Needham|Richard Lovelace

Rich L «dickndoris» writes:

The 2005 UK National Hang Gliding Championships (incorporating the FAI
Category 2 Arangoiti Open) took place at Lumbier, Spain - 7-13 August 2005.

The results were:-

2005 UK National Hang Gliding Championships - Lumbier, Spain 7 - 13 August 2005
http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/national/lumbier/nats.htm

1st - Richard Lovelace - Aeros Combat L - 3455 points
2nd - Justin Needham - Moyes Litespeed - 3396 points
3rd - Gary Wirdnam - Aeros Combat L - 3295 points

FAI Category 2 Arangoiti Open - Lumbier, Spain 7 - 13 August 2005
http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/national/lumbier/overall.htm

1st - Jean Francois Palmarini - FRA - Aeros Combat L - 3749 points
2nd - Dave Seib - AUS - Moyes Litespeed S - 3504 points
3rd - Richard Lovelace - GBR - Aeros Combat L - 3455 points

Discuss UK Nats at the Oz Report forum

Bridle pictures

Thu, Feb 10 2005, 11:00:04 am EST

Send in your pictures of your bridle types.

bridles

bridle|Gary Wirdnam|photo

Gary Wirdnam «gwirdnam» writes:

Lots of talk about different types of tow release, which are good etc., but no pictures. I don't know what a "Pro-tow" release looks like. More to the point, many readers won't have a clue what type of release Robin was using and may still be using one themselves. A 'rogues gallery' would help.

So please send Davis digital photos of various bridle types to help me and other's out.

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Flytec Championship – tighten up »

Fri, Apr 26 2002, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|cart|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Flytec Championships 2002|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Johann Posch|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Bolt|Mark Dowsett|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|Steve Rewolinski|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|Tyler Borradaile|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Finally we have an “interesting” task here in Florida. We’ve had so many races (at least while I was still in the air), and it’s just been climb and go, climb and go, final glide, finish. Today we had time to stop and smell the roses. Or was it the cow manure? Whatever it was it was really close by.

Not that it started off that way at all. With Garycalling for over development and rain possibly, we were concerned about whether we could get back to Quest without running into unsafe conditions. We have two proposed tasks, an 88-mile out and return, and a 68-mile run down to Avon Park airport to the southeast that should get us away from any over development.

We move all the start times up to 1, 1:15and 1:30to get everyone going before the chances of OD get too high. The windcast shows the convergence zone (where you would expect the OD) right down the middle of the state (north or south). The BLIP forecast shows the highest CAPEindex to our north, so if we run south we’ll have the best chance of avoiding the OD.

The winds are light (as they would be in the convergence area), so it is even difficult to tell which runway to launch from, but then does it really matter? We are expecting good lift and a cloud base at 4,600’.

After blowing the second day, I’m down in the pack so I do have to run my glider out to the staging area. This time at least I have a cart. Bubba Goodman and I have a sprint first across the runway to get a cart (but it is all in fun as we know there are two carts). Great exercise before the actual competition.

The task committee is meeting on the flight line to decide which task to choose. If there is no sign of over development at 12, then we will choose the out and return task. There are only a few small cu’s around at noonso we say, let’s come back.

Fortunately no competitors launch for the next fifteen minutes, and in that time a number of cu-nimbs form out over highway 27 to our east. We quickly reconvene the task committee and change the task to a straight run to AvonPark.

By 12:30the cu’s are thick around us and over us with lots of vertical development. I’m wishing that we didn’t push the start clock back 15 minutes, as it would be great to leave at 1 PMinstead of the 1:15 PMfirst start time. Heck, it would be great to leave at 12:45, as it took but a couple of minutes under a black bottomed cu’s to get right up to cloud base at 4,000’ right over Quest Air.

The tugs are pulling pilots out of the air park at an astounding rate. It seems like everyone is in the air in way less than 30 minutes. Yesterday they were launching folks at a rate of one every 15 seconds. The pilots are being especially helpful by being ready to go when they get in the launch line.

A plane is landing or taking off every 8 seconds (not including the hang gliders) whenever there is a launch line, so this makes the Sheets airport the busiest airport in the world for about half an hour. Same can be said of the Wallaby Ranch during the Wallaby Open.

Many parks have provided multiple tugs for the event and there are more Dragonflies assembled at the Flytec Championship than have ever been in one place at the same time (pictures later). Wallaby has provided two tugs, for which everyone is quite grateful, and two highly skilled (and experienced) pilots. It’s great to have tug pilots who’ve been at this a long time.

With the task decided at the last minute it is a big scramble on the ground and in the air, but everyone is taking it in stride. We on the task committee are just trying to do our best for the pilots, and apparently they are really appreciative. We hear nothing but praise from everyone.

Johann and I have agreed to take the first start time no matter what. I’m not high at the time, but I don’t care. I leave anyway and head out toward the gaggle of flex wings at the 5 mile point. A few miles beyond that Johann and I hook up with the first gaggle of flex wings on the course. These guys have taken the first start time also, and they found something good over highway 33.

Johann is much higher than I and there are plenty of flex wings over my head as we climb up but only to 3,400’, 800’ below cloud base, when the thermal stops and we all spread out. I keep leaving low as I want to get as far away as possible from the guys who are going to take the next start time. I don’t want them to see our thermals.

Getting out in front is a tough assignment because you’ve got to find the thermals and race without knowing what is in front of you. Much easier to follow. We go early because we think that maybe the over development will shut down the guys behind.

We’re with a dozen flex wings and we are all spread out moving quickly down 33, finding bits of lift, climbing for a minute or two then moving quickly on to keep up with the guys in front. Everyone is helping everyone else as we search in front here. We need all the noses we can get if we want to go fast.

We aren’t finding much when a glider in front of me and to my right runs into good lift just south of 474. This baby is 700 fpm to cloud base and 4,700’. I get on top with Brett Hazlett and a few other of the fast flex wing boys and so I’m now the lead guy.

My leading sucks, and I have to go east and west to finally find an average 150 fpm at 1,600’ just northeast of PolkCity. Oh the shame of it all. Thankfully we do get up enough to be able to join another small gaggle to our southeast over Old Grade Roadjust north of I4. This thermal is quite a bit better averaging 350 fpm to almost 4,000’.

We are entering the go fast part of the race, although other than slow climbs we haven’t exactly been dawdling. I’m kind of surprised at the direction that the guys, including Johann, who are now out in front are taking, more south-southwest toward the east side of Winter Haven. The notoriously weak area around the Winter Havenairport is coming up, but the clouds are saying come along.

I get great climb rates of between 450 fpm average to 550 fpm average in a couple of the thermals, climbing to over 5,000’. There are flex wings every where and one rigid catches us for a moment before we leave him behind. Johann and I are running scared thinking that Alex Ploner and Christian Ciech are just behind us.

As we get southeast of Winter Haven taking care to be out of the airspace from the Bartow airport way off to our southwest, we can see the high top of a cu-nimb to our southeast and right on the course line. It’s well shadowed underneath and looks like there may be some virga around it.

I have gone into the lead again as I cut the corner and ignored some lift. It is always good to just bypass the gaggle when you are high and there looks to be lift ahead. I’m thinking that there may be too much lift ahead. I’m happy that there are a couple of flex wings near me way below that are diving toward the cloud also. I hoping that they are not as nervous as me.

I’ve put my hang point on ATOS ¼” more forward. Maybe it is the air, and maybe it is the hang point, but the glider seems to be having a much better time of it. It’s not bucking around quite so much and I’m enjoying the Floridaair.

While I stay on the right sunny side of the cloud, some pilots go right underneath it. Doesn’t seem to be a problem, but I do notice that we get a bit of rain. I want to put this cloud behind me and get to the next ones.

As we get a couple of miles south of Lake Wales, and a mile west of highway 27, Curt Warren, Johann and I head for a cloud a little bit to our right that seems to be working. We’re spread out and make a thorough search of the area, but we can’t find anything like what we’ve had until now. I’ll drop from 2,500’ to 550’ AGL as all three of us go round and round trying to find the lift.

Johann and I are in radio communication so he brings me back one more time to get under Curt and him just next to a small lake. I’m way low and way below them, but we climb up enough and when Curt goes over to the east and finds a better core, they climb to 3,000’, while I’ll get up to 2,500’. We’re alive.

Johann and a bunch of gliders are out in front now on a long glide. I’m going carefully and slowly as possible. There are no clouds nearby, as the rain cloud has wiped when all out. The air is very smooth and I hear this also from Johann ahead of me.

Alex Ploner gets on the radio and says that he and Christian Ciech have landed 7 miles from goal in Frostproof. They took the start time 15 minutes after us and raced through the gaggles to get past us as we groveled on the deck. Now they are on the ground and we are almost on the ground.

At 12.5 miles out from goal I tell Belinda that I am at 1,000’ and will probably land at 10 miles from goal. I’m checking out just how far I can glide over the trees to get to a landable field.

Then Johann gets on the radio and says that they have lift at 10 miles out. I’m gliding toward him and wondering which fields I can land in. At 450’ I come in over a tractor working in some burnt off area a mile short of Johann’s thermal. There’s a beep on the vario and I start searching it out.

There are plenty of gliders around, all above me, and numerous gliders with Johann, so there is plenty of encouragement to stay up in whatever is available. There are no clouds, and the landing fields are scarce. Time to hang in there and be patient as the day is much different now that the first two place guys are on the ground.

I work this thermal to 2,900’ and actually leave it too early. Numerous gliders above me have gone out in front and are way ahead so that we can’t see them. I go to where the flex wings are working the lift that Johann has left, but just get zero for 3 minutes at 2,500’. Finally I’ve had enough of this head out now in the lead of the fifteen or so pilots in the neighborhood.

At 7 miles out from goal and at 1,700’ I know that I’ve got to find something, anything to make it in. I feel the barest hint of some lift nearby and start turning looking for anything. There are plenty of orange groves below and I prefer them as thermal generators to green pastures.

For four minutes I don’t gain any altitude, but I also don’t lose any. Then things get a bit better as the little gaggle joins me. This thermal will average 175 fpm and take me to 3,100’. Glen Volk will be just above me the whole time.

It stops at 3,100’ and although I wanted to go to 3,500’ before I went on final glide, I’ll take what I can get. There is a large patch of trees and houses before the airport, so I’m worried about the final glide in addition to the distance.

The air is completely smooth, and my sink rate averages only 200 fpm. I try to keep the air speed at about 32 mph, for best L/D but I seem to have averaged 37 mph over the ground. I don’t think that there was any wind. 3,500’ would have given me goal at 10:1. I’m hoping for 15:1 and I’ll get 16:1.

Glen will comment later how much better I’m gliding at these lower speeds than him as he sees me rise up above him as we cross over the unlandable areas. In the last field before the houses and trees I spot three flex wings. Then at the very end of the field, washed up as though by the sea, I will spot a dozen gliders and three rigids. I’m sure that they are cursing me as I fly over their heads at about 1,400’ two and half miles from goal.

I spot the goal and one glider. It seems to be the Swift, but in fact it is Johann. The Swifts have been moved to a spot near the hangars. Johann will be the first hang glider into goal, I’ll be second, quite a few minutes behind him. Glen Volk will be the first flex wing into goal.

All the top five pilots in each class (other than Johann) will not make goal. This means that the scores will be quite tight for the final day. Anyone could win the meet (and probably will).

Class 5 today:

1 Posch, Johann, 112 Air Atos Aut 13:15:00 16:08:06 02:53:06 994
2 Straub, Davis, 50 Air Atos C Usa 13:15:00 16:35:04 03:20:04 803
3 Dinauer, Greg, 32 Air Atos Usa 13:30:00 16:45:17 03:15:17 786
4 Biesel, Heiner, 101 Air Atos Usa 13:45:00 16:58:26 03:13:26 764
5 Ferris, George, 59 Air Atos Usa 13:30:00 16:53:53 03:23:53 744
6 Almond, Neville, 116 Flight Designs Ghostbuster Gbr 13:15:00 17:09:54 03:54:54 645
7 Campanella, Mario, 186 Flight Designs Ghostbuster Bra 13:30:00 17:39:03 04:09:03 591

Class 5 cumulative (going into the last day):

1 Ciech, Christian, 47 Icaro Stratos Ita 4758
2 Posch, Johann, 112 Air Atos Aut 4693
3 Straub, Davis, 50 Air Atos C Usa 4240
4 Gleason, Ron, 300 Air Atos Usa 4200
5 Campanella, Mario, 186 Flight Designs Gb Bra 4170
6 Ploner, Alex, 65 Air Atos C Ita 4141
7 Barmakian, Bruce, 17 Air Atos Usa 3978
8 Biesel, Heiner, 101 Air Atos Usa 3936
9 Hollidge, Andy, 26 La Mouette Top Secret Gbr 3727
10 Bowen, Campbell, 49 Flight Designs Axxess + Usa 3287

Class 1 today:

1 Volk, Glen, 5 Moyes Litespeed Usa 13:30:00 16:36:43 03:06:43 970
2 Dowsett, Mark, 29 Moyes Litespeed Can 13:30:00 16:44:06 03:14:06 904
3 Bolt, Mark, 143 Aeros Stealth Usa 13:30:00 16:44:17 03:14:17 899
4 Mclellan, Tish, 11 Moyes Litespeed Aus 13:30:00 16:45:23 03:15:23 886
4 Sauer, Richard, 7 Icaro MR700WRE Usa 13:15:00 16:43:01 03:28:01 886
6 Shipley, Mitchell, 99 Aeros Combat 2 Usa 13:15:00 16:43:40 03:28:40 878
7 Bajewski, Joerg, 34 Aeros Combat Deu 13:15:00 16:45:05 03:30:05 860
8 Borradaile, Tyler , 109 Aeros Combat 2 Can 13:15:00 16:45:13 03:30:13 857
9 Pagen, Dennis, 51 Moyes Litespeed Usa 13:30:00 16:59:20 03:29:20 837
10 Agulhon, Dorival, 94 Icaro Mrx Bra 13:15:00 17:04:19 03:49:19 796
11 Grzyb, Krzysztof, 35 Icaro MR700 Pol 13:15:00 17:08:39 03:53:39 784
12 Rewolinski, Steve, 96 Icaro MRX2001 Usa 13:45:00 17:40:43 03:55:43 759
13 Woodruff, Jon, 28 Airborne Climax Usa 13:15:00 17:22:34 04:07:34 749

Cumulative Class 1:

1 Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 5049
2 Williams, Paris , 1 Icaro MR700WRE Usa 4860
3 Volk, Glen, 5 Moyes Litespeed Usa 4804
4 Hamilton, Robin, 30 Icaro MR700WRE Gbr 4752
5 Hazlett, Brett, 90 Moyes Litespeed Can 4665
6 Wolf, Andre, 117 Moyes Litespeed Bra 4611
7 Warren, Curt, 73 Moyes Litespeed Usa 4602
8 Olsson, Andreas, 27 Moyes Litespeed Swe 4594
9 Rotor, Nene, 77 Wills Wing Talon Bra 4574
10 Wirdnam, Gary , 39 Aeros Combat 2 Gbr 4538

Robin Hamilton is flying Manfred’s glider. He says that he didn’t know that Oleg had landed. If he had, he would have stayed one more minute in the last thermal and made goal.

Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.

Discuss "Flytec Championship – tighten up" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flytec Championship – pilot’s choice »

Thu, Apr 25 2002, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2002|Gary Wirdnam|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|video|weather|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

While the meet is on I’m a little strapped for time, so I just get out what I can. I’ve got a few other articles that I’ll get to when the meet is over.

Yesterday I wrote:

Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site. Dave Glover had them up by about 10:30 PM. This is the fastest I can recall the results going up on the web in a major competition.

Dave wrote back:

While I appreciate the compliment I need to redirect the credit. Tim Meany, Scorekeeper Extraordinare for the Flytec Championship 2002 is the reason why the scoring and web updates are so correct and timely. GW (by himself) routinely was able to finish scoring by 9pm almost every night at his meets.

Tim and Dave (who are working together as a team) got the scores up on the web by 7:45 PMtonight. They also have an intranet setup to display the scores (Flytec goes high tech) on a separate computer (in this case a Mac). Pilots don’t have to wait until the wood chipper (otherwise known as a printer) prints out the latest updates of the preliminary scores. They can go right “on-line” and see the scores and all the latest pictures from the meet, right at headquarters upstairs at Quest.

I was interviewed by one of the three local newspapers that are covering the Flytec Championships today. They wanted to know from me how we did the weather. There was also a camera crew from the Orlando CBS affiliate here all day getting great shots of pilots launching and coming into goal. The video may go nationwide, so if you see it, please write in.

Gary’s forecast was for winds at 14 mph out of the south, but the windcast said more westerly than southerly. We decided to go with Gary’s forecast with the winds at Quest in the morning were strong out of the south.

The task committee decided to let the pilots help make the choice between a 91-miler straight out to the north to our favorite airport at Keystone, and a 53 miler triangle, up to Coleman, down to the north end of the GreenSwampand then back. Of course, the straw poll from the pilots spilt about down the middle, so our fallback was for the triangle.

Turned out that once we got in the air, the winds at altitude were out of the west instead of the south, so it was fine to have a triangle task, although in this case it would bring us home with a tail wind. Garyhad been worried about the possibility of over development, and we did get some shadowed areas and vertical clouds, but no rain on the course.

Most pilots waited around for the 2:15 PMstart time. This is just a waste of time, and reflects the fact that we aren’t using OzGAP or maybe GAP 2002 (although no one was quite sure what to make of GAP 2002 after the debacle of scoring at the Wallaby Open). All the rigids were at cloud base for almost half an hour just hanging out until forced to go. Even then they didn’t really want to go so I cursed them and headed out on my own at 2:15 PM.

That got me a bit low being the guy in front with no one to watch, so I came into the first thermal low, which can be good as the lift is often better down below, before it tapers off, and you’ve got guys out in front that you can now follow. In this case, it wasn’t so hot (unlike yesterday).

All the rigids are sticking together and we haven’t caught the flexies who start out 2 miles in front of us. There are thick clouds every where, but long patches of blue and sink also, so we’re hoping not to run into a shadowed area with no lift as we head toward the prisons. Christian, Felix, and Johann are together in front and on top.

There is a lot of darkness on the ground and in the air as we approach Coleman. Some of us run to the west by the prisons just to be sure that we get some sunlight mixed with the clouds and get upwind a bit of the clouds so that we can get up before the turnpoint. Even with all the shadowed ground there is lift by the Coleman turnpoint, and we are able to get high.

By this time (one hour into the flight) we’ve caught the flex wings and it’s all a big jumble of gliders spread out over a mile, as there are lots of bits of lift. We head south toward the GreenSwampto get the next turnpoint.

After a five mile glide (long for the day), I find myself with Oleg working 90 fpm at 2,500’. We’ve gone out in front of the gaggle a bit, although there are rigid wings ahead of us. This lift is pretty piss poor after 400 fpm average in the last thermal, and finally we see that Andy Hollidge out in front of us in his Top Secret has found a much stronger thermal down low.

This thermal will average 500 fpm, get us over 4,000’, and make it easy to get to the next turnpoint and on toward goal. All the fast flex wings are in this gaggle, but Alex and Christian are way ahead. Alex will come into goal after making the course in an hour and 46 minutes. Christian is four minutes behind. Belinda has already told me the news on the radio.

A few miles past the turnpoint, we all stop for a thermal that averages 150 fpm. After climbing to 3,000’ with Oleg, I decide that I can find something better than this on the way to goal.

In fact I do find much better lift on the way to goal, but I get down to 1,200’ before I get it. Oleg says that the lift picked up after I left and this enables the gaggle to come over my head and get to goal 2 minutes before me.

Class 5:

1 PLONER, Alex, 65 AIR Atos C ITA 14:15:00 16:01:14 01:46:14 901
2 CIECH, Christian, 47 Icaro Stratos ITA 14:15:00 16:05:16 01:50:16 831
3 POSCH, Johann, 112 AIR Atos AUT 14:15:00 16:22:36 02:07:36 699
4 BARMAKIAN, Bruce, 17 AIR Atos USA 14:15:00 16:24:59 02:09:59 678
5 GLEASON, Ron, 300 AIR Atos USA 14:15:00 16:26:25 02:11:25 658
6 STRAUB, Davis, 50 AIR Atos C USA 14:15:00 16:27:15 02:12:15 649

Class 1:

BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 107 Aeros Combat 2 13 UKR 14:15:00 16:24:51 02:09:51 918
2 WARREN, Curt, 73 Moyes Litespeed USA 14:15:00 16:25:07 02:10:07 905
3 ROTOR, Nene, 77 Wills Wing Talon COL 14:15:00 16:25:21 02:10:21 896
3 BERTOK, Attila, 64 Moyes Litespeed HUN 13:45:00 16:02:58 02:17:58 896
5 BESSA, Carlos, 155 Moyes Litespeed BRA 14:15:00 16:25:28 02:10:28 890
6 WIRDNAM, Gary , 39 Aeros Combat 2 GBR 14:15:00 16:25:44 02:10:44 873
7 VOLK, Glen, 5 Moyes Litespeed USA 14:15:00 16:28:00 02:13:00 838
8 ARAI, Chris, 57 Wills Wing Talon USA 14:15:00 16:28:43 02:13:43 829
9 BAJEWSKI, Joerg, 34 Aeros Combat DEU 14:15:00 16:30:14 02:15:14 812
10 WILLIAMS, Paris , 1 Icaro MR700WRE USA 14:15:00 16:31:00 02:16:00 804

Cumulative in Class 1:

1

BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 107

Aeros Combat 2 13

UKR

4416

2

WILLIAMS,Paris, 1

Icaro MR700WRE

USA

4247

3

WARREN, Curt, 73

Moyes Litespeed

USA

4143

4

HAMILTON, Robin, 30

Icaro Laminar

GBR

4109

5

WIRDNAM,Gary, 39

Aeros Combat 2

GBR

4069

6

HAZLETT, Brett, 90

Moyes Litespeed

CAN

4035

7

WOLF, Andre, 117

Moyes Litespeed

BRA

3978

8

OLSSON, Andreas, 27

Moyes Litespeed

SWE

3964

9

ROTOR, Nene, 77

Wills Wing Talon

COL

3939

10

VOLK, Glen, 5

Moyes Litespeed

USA

3831

Curt Warren (new pilot of the meet last year) is doing very well as is Parisjust behind Oleg. They don’t have Manfred to fly with (he won the day again in Class 2), and maybe Oleg would have challenged Manfred in this meet, after sneaking by him in the Wallaby Open.

It is great to see all the top competition gliders doing well against each other. There doesn’t seem to be a clear advantage to any flex wing, but Oleg is always blaming his glider for his good performance. This is a much different story than the one I reported last year at this time.

Jim Lee has returned to New Mexicoafter having problems with his neck, that’s why you don’t see him in the results. Robin Hamilton returned to his Laminar after flying his Swift in the Wallaby Open and is doing very well also.

Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.

Discuss "Flytec Championship – pilot’s choice" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Wallaby Open

Thu, Apr 18 2002, 12:00:00 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Florida|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Malcolm reports that Quest Air sent down two tugs and one pilot, not three tugs as reported in the Oz Report. He seems to want to stick it to Quest Air and thereby squelch this notion of cooperation between the Floridaflight parks, which many of us hope for. Otherwise why would he point out so forcefully to me that he thinks that they didn’t live up to their commitment?

The forecast calls for the day to be the best so far with cloud base at 5,500’, light to moderate east winds, and maximum lift at 500 fpm. I want a reasonably long out and return task and push for Coleman and back – 89.1 miles. After a bit of discussion we go for it.

Coleman is off to the northwest, so it is going to be a bit of a struggle getting back against the east winds. At ninety miles, the task should last at least 3 ½ hours if not four for the fastest pilots.

We continue to be worried about over development and rain. With such a big task we think that it is possible for the pilots to work around any local cells and continue the task. Still, we want to get pilots going early so we set start times at 12:15-12:45.

With the launch starting at 11:15 AMpilots are ready to go right away and the field clears quickly. The priority pilots relax and wait for almost every one else to launch. First time I’ve seen this happen.

Cloud base is already up at 3,500’ right after the tow, so we are playing near the clouds pretty quickly. The flex wing guys have gone off to their circle at 5 miles out and we rigid guys are hanging back at 3 miles waiting for the 12:45clock.

The question is, should we wait and chance over development. The later start time lets us use the guys out in front, but if every one waits then there’s no one there anyway. We wait.

Here is a 3-D reconstruction of my track log in the start circle (the big red circle) showing the east wind blowing us to the west as we thermal up (east is at the top of the graphic). The black lines on the ground are the “shadows” of the 3-D track log.

The sky is full of cu’s so it is obvious where to go. With the 10 mph east wind you can watch yourself drift to the west as you head north. We are in full race mode and only stop for good lift. It takes a little less than an hour and forty minutes to get to Coleman, so we average about 28 mph with average lift at a little over 300 fpm.

As we approach Coleman there is a ten mile wide blue hole on the course line. Some pilots head right through it as a cloud forms in the middle, others, like myself follow a cloud street on the south and then dive into the blue at the last minute to get the turnpoint.

I catch a 600 fpm thermal 2 miles south of the Coleman turnpoint, and the pilots who started earlier and have made the turnpoint are happy to come back and join me in it as we climb to 4,700’.

Christian Ciech in the Stratos (started at 12:45) comes in over me and Andy Howell in the Top Secret (started at 12:15) is there also. I’m wishing I was going back from the turnpoint, because four miles can seem like an eternity.

Of course, as soon as we get the turnpoint, we turn into a strong head wind and our ground speed on glide drops from 45 mph to 35 mph. I push east as much as possible on each glide trying to get upwind. Every time I have to climb in a weak thermal, I’m drifting back strongly to the west.

I’m stuck seven miles southeast of Coleman working in light lift. I can see Brian Porter on the ground and a few rigids and flex wings scattered about below me, also on the ground. Gerolf, Johann Posch, Alex Ploner, and a few other flex wing pilots join me as we work our way out of the hole that surrounds the turnpoint. When we get high enough to again charge into the wind, I take a more easterly route while the rest of the gaggle goes southeast over Center Hill toward the GreenSwamp.

I race to get under a good cloud, get down to 1,200’ before I find the thermal that starts at 400 fpm and builds to 600 fpm as I climb out to 5,600’ leaving the previous gaggle to my west far below. Bruce Barmakian joins me in the climb.

Bruce is in second overall and I’m a couple of points behind him in third. Alex Ploner, the world champion, is in first. Bruce and I stay high under the clouds and head toward Quest. We go on a nine mile glide into the wind under lots of clouds and don’t find anything as we pass over Quest and head east.

At this point Bruce turns south and heads down 33 looking for lift in sunny places. He’ll not find anything and land 18 miles from Wallaby. At that point we were in the lead (for the rigids which generally started 30 minutes behind many of the flex wings), other than for Christian Ciech who got away from the turnpoint by leaving light lift and going on a long glide to find better lift.

I turn 90 degrees to go way to the northeast to get under a newly forming cloud and over a dry field of pine trees. At 1,300’ I find 100 fpm that portends additional lift. Soon I’m in 400 fpm going to 5,000’.

I’ve been pressing up wind on each leg and now I’m near the lakes on the west side of highway 27. My former gaggle is much further to the right way downwind. I’m high and looking good.

Up a head it doesn’t look so good. There is a cell just to the north of the Ranch right on the course line and it is dropping a bit, not a lot, but a bit of rain. This is the only rain in the sky. I’m trying to figure out how to get around or through this rain. The cu-nimb above it is easy to see and is not all that high. There is plenty of shading all around it.

I work southeast to get south of Lake Louisehoping to be able to climb back to 5,000’ near highway 27. There are plenty of clouds over at this side as well as sun, so I’m hoping that the cell hasn’t destroyed all the lift on its up wind side.

I’m watching all the sky and I notice a small cell forming up highway 192 toward Disney, a couple of miles east of 27. As I approach 192 rain from the cell gets much stronger, and now I’m running between two cells, with the one north of the Ranch over the swamp dissipating. There is still plenty of shade from this cell so I’m nervous about heading over the swamp to get under it.

I notice that as I head south along 27 that the clouds that were there are disappearing due to the influence of the cell to the east. Heading from the sunlit areas is doing me no good as the cell is drawing all the lift toward it.

At five miles out from the Ranch I’m down to 1,400’ and in the rain from the cell that I thought I had been able to sneak past. I getting tiny bits of lift off warm fields, but all the lift is being disturbed by the nearby cell. I land off the highway in a small field amongst the neglected orange groves.

My former gaggle continues on the west side and makes its way through the shade to goal. Christian Ciech is able to beat Manfred into goal even though he started 30 minutes behind him. Johann is the second rigid into goal with Alex just behind him.

The flex wing pilots who started early were rewarded with better conditions as they approached Wallaby Ranch. It was a day to start early. The rain squall that put me down rapidly spread, included a bunch of lightening and stopped most of the rest of the field behind me.

Gary Osoba writes:

It’s unbelievable...just had a look at the regional radar and the worst OD in the entire state moved right into your location! You guys just aren't getting any breaks.

When Gerolf came into land he stayed prone and just pushed out when he got to the ground and whacked in pretty hard. They he just lay there. People thought that he had been knocked out, but there was something even worse.

At some point during the flight Gerolf had unzipped to take a leak, when he zipped back up he caught something very important in his zipper. It hurt. He had to continue flying in a bit of pain to say the least.

When he landed it took him a while as he told everyone to go away and leave him alone, to get that part of his anatomy extracted from the zipper.

More excitement at the goal. Gary Wirdnam, an Aeros pilot from Great Britain, decided to clip the wind sock on top of the pole at the bay head in the middle of the field. This caused his glider to loop from thirty feet. Instead of Garybeing killed the other wing of the glider absorbed all the impact, and killed itself.

The glider flipped over and the top of the glider hit the ground. Garycame down on top of the bottom surface of the glider and the back of his helmet (Charlie Insider – meets the EN966 standard) crushed the cross tube and was in turn crushed. Garywas dazed.

Provisional results (quick format to cut down on typing):

Cumulative in Class I:

Manfred
Oleg
Nene
Andre
Gerolf
Barber
Bessa
Paris
Sandy
Arai

The latest scores may be available at: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2002/Wallaby.htm

The scoring system continues to have major problems. The marriage of GAP 2002, Race, and Compe-GPS appears not to have been consummated. GAP2002 is getting a very bad black eye with the pilots (seems to work fine in Class 5 though).

Tails for flying wings

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

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

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

John Vernon«johnv» writes:

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

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

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

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

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

The problem

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

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

Why a tailplane?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why don't we use them?

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

Performance

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

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

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

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

Nominal glide ratio

12:1

14:1

18:1

20:1

25mph

11.97

13.96

17.93

19.92

30mph

11.97

13.96

17.93

19.91

31mph

11.96

13.95

17.92

19.90

35mph

11.96

13.95

17.92

19.90

36mph

11.96

13.95

17.91

19.89

38mph

11.96

13.94

17.90

19.88

40mph

11.95

13.93

17.89

19.86

Glide ratio deterioration with tailplane

Nominal glide ratio

12:1

14:1

18:1

20:1

25mph

2.127

2.127

2.127

2.127

30mph

2.297

2.297

2.297

2.297

35mph

2.605

2.605

2.605

2.605

36mph

2.756

2.756

2.756

2.756

38mph

3.071

3.071

3.071

3.071

40mph

3.403

3.403

3.403

3.403

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

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

The hassle factor

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

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

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

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

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

Cost

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

Nothing new under the sun?

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

Conclusion

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

A final word of caution

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

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

© John Vernon 2001 («johnv»)

1000+ Hang Gliding Pictures - $20

Tue, Oct 23 2001, 5:00:09 pm EDT

David Glover|Flytec Championships 2001|picture|record|tandem|US Speed Gliding Nationals 2001|World Championships 1999|World Record Encampment|World Record Encampment 2001|World Speed Gliding Championships 2000

David Glover «dhglover» writes:

A thousand pictures are worth… - Enjoy the people, places and things of:

The World Championships in Italy 1999
First World Speed Gliding Championship in Greece 2000
Flytec Championships at Quest and Wallaby comps 2001
Zapata/Flytec-World Record Encampment 2001
US Speed Gliding Nationals 2001 (includes a QuickTime Movie)

All on CD-ROM. See what it's all about, re-live the experience, use as a screen saver. $20 for US residents (outside the US only $25) prices include shipping.

Bonus Pictures: How to get a "Free" tandem in Florida.

Send credit card info, US$ check or money order to: David Glover, 416 E. Dale St., CO Springs, CO, USA 80903-2925, 719. 630.3698, fax# 413.460.5708, «david»

Discuss "1000+ Hang Gliding Pictures - $20" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Flytec Championship money distribution

Sun, May 13 2001, 3:00:01 pm EDT

Curt Warren|David Glover|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|David Glover|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|record|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing

Curt Warren|David Glover|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

Curt Warren|David Glover|Flytec 4030|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Poustinchian|record|Wills Wing

David Glover «david» writes:

Kroop/Flytec/Quest run the first $10,000+ meet in the USA. The money was well spread around to 15 competitors. It was extremely well run meet, especially for the largest meet in the US this year (more registered, more competitors). 

Class 1 
Place Competitor Glider Nation Total Prize $ 

1 RUHMER, Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 3326 2000 
2 HEINRICHS, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed AUT 3229 1000 
3 SCHMITZ, Betinho Moyes Litespeed BRA 3136 900 
4 WILLIAMS, Paris Wills Wing Talon USA 2913 800 
5 ZWECKMAYR, Josef Icaro Laminar MR AUT 2718 700 
6 SUCHANEK, Thomas Moyes Litespeed CZE 2682 600 
7 HAZLETT, Brett Moyes Litespeed CAN 2633 500 
8 LEE, Jim Wills Wing Talon USA 2563 400 
9 WIRDNAM, Gary Aeros Combat GBR 2451 
10 CASTLE, Kari Moyes Litespeed USA 2428 

Class 2 
Place Competitor Glider Nation Total Prize $ 
1 PORTER, Brian Bright Star Swift USA 3828 700 
2 ELKINS, Steve AIR Atos GBR 3198 600 
3 STRAUB, Davis AIR Atos USA 3185 500 
4 POSCH, Johann AIR Atos AUT 2725 400 
5 BOWEN, Campbell Ghostbuster USA 2637 300 
6 HUPPERT, Michael AIR Atos CHE 2635 
7 CAMPANELLA, Mario Ghostbuster BRA 2606 
8 JURG, Ris AIR Atos CHE 2600 
9 SHARP, David AIR Atos USA 2575 
10 YOCOM, Jim AIR Atos USA 2481 

In addition to the above prize money, Curt Warren was awarded the "Best New Competitor" and $300. Chris Zimerman was awarded the "Most Improved Competitor" and $300. Mark Poustinchian was awarded a brand new Flytec 4030 GPS Access flight computer complete with instrument pod and $225 (a dollar for each mile) for breaking the East Coast Hang Gliding record. This puts the cash prizes at $10,225 and total prizes at $12, 965 for the 2001 Flytec Championship.

Florida meets - post partem depression

Sun, Apr 29 2001, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkins|Tomas Suchanek|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Florida meets - post partem depression

Actually it isn't that bad. We've been on a high from flying ten of the last fourteen days in a very intense competition. Many (if not most) of the world's best pilots have been here in Florida. It has been like a Worlds at a place with superior conditions and flying.

Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch turned into little Olympic villages with so many pilots coming from Europe and South America. It was great to hear all these different languages in dinner. Pilots and friends really love this hang gliding community.

There were quite a few British pilots here (they are not able to fly in their own country these days). Johnny Carr reminded me that lots of British pilots read the Oz Report and he wanted me to mention what a great guy he is. At least he realized that foot landing the Swift was a special event.

We are now slowly packing and cleaning up after ourselves. Repairs are the order of the day. The strong east winds with high and low clouds have stopped any possible flying, so we are entertaining ourselves in other ways. Soon even the holder overs will be gone and the Ranch will seem far too quiet.

There is nothing more fun than a friendly little hang gliding competition. It was great to have Tomas Suchanek back and flying well. It was great to see Paris Williams do so well, after doing so poorly on his last glider at the 1999 Worlds in Italy. It's great that Manfred still dominates, but that others are pressing him hard. Gerolf came in second and came close.

Lots of ATOSes were sold here after the competitions. Seven so far and one is still available, having been brand new, flown only once, before the pilot brought it here. The pilot chose not to fly on a number of windy days, also. Shipping is still quite a barrier, so it is nice to be able to sell your glider after coming to the United States.

I'll be checking on the web site logs to see how many clicks I'm getting on yesterday's special naked hang gliding issue. Too bad I can't identify who clicks on the pictures and downloads them to their special folders.

On the sixth day of the Wallaby Open the Dragon fly pilots flew a special formation in the morning. This is what it looked like and these are the tug pilots:

With this many Dragonflies and a good number of trikes it is possible to hold a major competition at an adequately sized flight park for probably 150 pilots and still get everyone off in time. The Wallaby Ranch is a little small and the new extensions will help quite a bit.

Even Quest Air is a bit small, but adequate for these numbers. You have to be right on top of the organization and do a lot of planning in advance. Getting pilots to launch earlier is crucial.

Both the Wallaby Open and the Flytec Championship could use better organization. The pilot meetings were held too late at the Wallaby Open. They need to be moved up an hour. On the two days that we didn't fly, we probably could have if we had been out at the flight line earlier and had adequate time to launch in reasonable conditions.

The Wallaby Open organizers should have been more cognizant of the launch time validity rule that invalidates a day if there is not adequate time to launch everyone. Starting earlier and applying this rule (like they did at the Flytec Championships) would have reduced the amount of emotional decision making.

Both organizers did not rely on their committees as much as they should have. They tended to take them as advisory, when I find it best to let the pilot task, safety, and protest committees make the decisions. The organizers can then just implement the decisions. This worked spectacularly well at the last Bogong Cup.

The task committee at the Wallaby Open was a bit more emotional than the one at the Flytec Championship. One member in particular had quite a few feelings about which task should be run. Other than the 95-mile square, most of the tasks were under called at the Wallaby Open.

Scoring at both meets was not quite up to the high standards set in Australia. It is nice to have the author of the Garmin checking program as your score keeper at the Forbes meet. In the end the scores did get figured out, and with more experience on all their parts, things will get better.

Overall the emotional content of the launch or not launch decision has to be considerable reduced. The emotions rule both the pilots and the organizers. I believe that we need to plan ways to keep these emotions in check so that our best thinking can be in charge.

Reporting the weather in certain ways feeds into this emotional atmosphere, and after a few days, I tried to watch my words carefully for their emotional content.

Final Results Class I:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

4499

2

HEINRICHS, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

4345

3

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

4193

4

WILLIAMS, Paris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

4179

5

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

4056

6

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

3960

7

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

3958

8

ARAI, Chris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

3881

9

WIRDNAM, Gary

AEROS Combat

GBR

3664

10

ZWECKMAYR, Josef

Icaro Laminar ST14

AUT

3601

Final results Class II:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

3633

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

3400

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

3020

4

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

2871

5

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

2797

Malcolm Jones feels that the prize money should basically go to the top guy in his competitions. This philosophy is quite a bit different than what we saw at the Flytec Championship, where there was a wider and deeper distribution of prizes:

Class I:

First Place Manfred Ruhmer $4000.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Gerolf Heinrichs $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Tomas Suchanek $500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Fourth Place Paris Williams Brauniger IQ Comp Vario (retail value: $1000.00+)

Class II:

First Place Brian Porter $1111.11 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Hansjoerg Truttmann
Third Place Dave Sharp

Unfaired Rigid Wings only:

First Place Hansjoerg Truttmann $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Dave Sharp $300.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Davis Straub Rotor Kickass Harness (Retail value: $1000.00+)

Total Value of Prizes Awarded: $10,911.11

First Place Class II $1111.11 provided by Super 8 Motel
Third Place Class II Rotor Harness provided by Nene Rotor
Fourth Place Class I Brauniger IQ Comp provided by Wills Wing

Malcolm wanted to separate the faired from the unfaired rigids given the stark difference in their performance potential. Therefore the top three unfaired rigids received prizes. My prize wasn't actually a prize, as Nene and Carlos had already asked me to try one of their harnesses. I agreed to do so, under the condition that it stay their harness and that at a later point I would give it back to them or make other arrangements. Still it was nice to be in third after Brian was pulled from the rigids' scoring.

Full results at www.wallaby.com.

Wallaby Open – an east wind

Fri, Apr 27 2001, 1:00:00 pm EDT

Dave Sharp|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Dave Sharp|Gary Wirdnam|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

The winds slowed down a bit and clock more to the east, so it looked like we had a chance to get a task. They are reported on the buoys to the east to be about 12 knots instead of 21 knots like yesterday.

A task is called downwind to the west to highway 98, then cross wind twenty seven miles to the north to the intersection at the top of the Green Swamp of Interstate 75 and highway 50, and back cross wind to the south to the Zephyr Hills airport. The total task distance of 66 miles.

With cool air behind the front from two days ago heating on the ground was forecast to provide for moderate to strong lift. Cloud base was forecast to be 5,000' rising later in the day.

The start times were fifteen-minute intervals starting at 1 PM and going to 2:30 PM. Quite a wide start window. As we were all launching around 1 PM, this meant that we would all have a long time in the air before that last start time. This would prove to be our undoing.

Everyone is spread out and it is hard to find out who is where, whether they've started yet and just what is going on. Hansjoerg launched early so the thought is he may have left early as he is no where to be found.

Dave Sharp gets off late and climbs slowly. A few of the rigid wing pilots hang back with Manfred and a few of the other top flex wing pilots just inside the start circle. The Swift is no where to be found – where is he hiding?

The impatient and the learners are out on the course at 1:30 or 1:45. I'm concerned about not knowing where the competition is hiding. It makes our strategic decision difficult.

At 2 PM, we are screaming up toward cloud base. I run to get away from the cloud, cross the circumference of the 5 mile start circle just after 2PM, and decide that I might as well go. If Manfred and a bunch of pilots come with me, then I won't go back to wait any more.

They do follow and Dave Sharp comes with me also. This is a good strategy for the flex wings as the best pilots are going together. It is not so clear that this is a good strategy for the rigid wings. We are going with fast pilots, but are they fast enough?

It is full on race and we get right to the first turnpoint where we meet up with another gaggle. It is unclear if they are 1:45 PM pilots or 2 PM pilots who started to the north of us and were unseen.

It is a hole diving into the first turnpoint at the Intersection of highway 98 and Rock Ridge (800 fpm down), but we can see that there is a screamer just beyond the turnpoint (just the opposite of the sink going into it).

We are destined to stay high on this short racing flight. We head north straight up the gut of the Green Swamp (wasn't the task committee supposed to design tasks that kept us out of the Green Swamp).

We head north or north-northeast on glide and drift west in the thermals. There is still plenty of wind out of the northeast. Still the lift is so strong that we can ignore the quartering head wind.

We are catching up with more and more of the earlier pilots and they are providing great thermal indicators. Still I find a strong one just after the second turnpoint without any help and we climb to 6,200'. The fastest three or four flex wing pilots are still keeping up with Dave and I as we continue to push things and go as fast as we can.

Heading toward goal toward the south I spot the Swift to the east. Brian is with about 5 other pilots on their way to the second turnpoint. They mark a perfectly placed thermal and we get high there. Hansjoerg shows up just as we enter the thermal – where did he come from?

We don't wait to get to the top as Hansjoerg and I leave early thinking that we can get to goal from 14 miles out. Hansjoerg takes a more westerly and it seems to me downwind line. I push up wind a bit to get a better line going into goal.

It turns out that Hansjoerg picks a better line as he find lift before I do. Still there is a flex wing pilot in front of me who has just started turning in a nice thermal and I join him followed by Betinho, Gerolf, and Manfred.

This thermal takes us to 4,500' at nine miles out before we leave. There is still plenty of lift, but it is a race to goal. Gerolf and Manfred are just out in front of me.

I don't pull in all that much as it is still a ways to goal, but Gerolf and Manfred do. They get lower and lower. Two miles out from goal Bruce Barmakian (flying a Stalker), who started earlier, pulls up next to me. I decide not to try to race him into goal as I'm already thirty minutes ahead of him. I'll just follow a few yards behind.

We are flying near 60 mph and have caught up with Gerolf and Manfred who have quit racing and are now just trying to make it into goal. 300 hundred yards out they go into ground effect. The people at goal are wondering if they will make it. Bruce and I have ring side seats.

Gerolf and Manfred are right next to each other and both very low to the ground. They could easily hit each other. Everyone on the ground is tense.

At the last moment they make it over the goal line turn their gliders and land within a few feet. Bruce and then I cross the line right after them.

Over sixty pilots make goal.

Hansjoerg who started at 2:15 PM gets in at 4:04 PM for the fastest time of the day. Brian, who started at 2:30 PM, crosses the line at 4:28. I cross the line at 4:08. Dave Sharp is a few minutes behind me. He didn't wear his lead vest. Steve Elkins and Johann started earlier.

The top rigid wings were faster than the top flex wing today. It was a strong day. A good day for gliding fast.

Class II, Round 4:

1

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

01:49:19

773

2

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

02:05:53

679

3

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

01:58:16

644

4

POSCH, Johann

A-I-R Atos 140

AUT

02:20:39

624

5

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

02:08:07

619

Cumulative:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

2913

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

2864

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

2557

4

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

2466

5

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

2425

Class I, 4th round:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

02:07:57

870

2

HEINRICHS, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

02:07:58

865

3

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

02:09:06

840

4

WILLIAMS, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

02:17:45

824

5

ROSSIGNOL, Jerz

AEROS Stealth Combat 154

USA

02:18:35

814

6

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

02:12:07

801

7

ARAI, Chris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

02:12:08

798

8

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

02:12:14

795

9

ZWECKMAYR, Josef

Icaro Laminar ST14

AUT

02:15:17

767

10

VOLK, Glenn

MOYES Litespeed 5

USA

02:26:54

717

Cumulative:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

3642

2

HEINRICHS, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

3554

3

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

3393

4

WILLIAMS, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

3218

5

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

3198

6

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

3133

7

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

3129

8

ARAI, Chris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

3060

9

BONDERCHUK, Oleg

AEROS Stealth Combat 14

UKR

2920

10

WIRDNAM, Gary

Aeros Combat

GBR

2852

Full results at www.wallaby.com.

Discuss "Wallaby Open – an east wind" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Wallaby Open – no task today.

Wed, Apr 25 2001, 4:00:00 pm EDT

Chris Arai|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

Chris Arai|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing

The front is here. The sky is completely overcast, but the sun is bright in the background and the sky is milky white and bright.

While there is no flying today, Peter Gray can fix the problems the scorekeeping and get out the results.

Class I:

Third day results:

1

HEINRICH, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

03:34:33

1000

2

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

03:43:20

925

3

WILLIAMS, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

03:45:09

911

4

ZWECKMAYR, Josef

Icaro Laminar ST14

AUT

03:46:38

899

5

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

03:46:51

894

6

WOLF, Andre

Icaro Laminar

BRA

03:47:10

889

7

ROTOR, Nene

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

03:54:04

828

8

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

03:54:08

825

9

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

04:02:42

824

10

ARAI, Chris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

04:05:30

811

Cumulative:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

2772

2

HEINRICH, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

2692

3

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

2595

4

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

2451

5

WILLIAMS, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

2394

6

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

2347

7

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

2334

8

ARAI, Chris

Wills Wing Talon

USA

2262

9

BONDERCHUK, Oleg

AEROS Stealth Combat 14

UKR

2216

10

WIRDNAM, Gary

Aeros Combat

GBR

2183

Notice how well Paris is doing on the new Wills Wing Talon. Chris Arai is doing well also. Will Gerolf have a chance to over take Manfred. He was forced by circumstances to take a different path than Manfred and Tomas yesterday. He raced faster when he thought he was behind after he got low, only to slow down when he found out that he was ahead.

Looks like Oleg is doing well. There seem to be quite a variety of top topless gliders in this meet and all are performing well.

Class II:

Day 3 results:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

03:12:58

981

2

Straub, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

03:44:20

785

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

03:45:15

771

4

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

03:56:22

721

5

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

04:25:02

653

Cumulative:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

2269

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

2091

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

1959

4

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

1847

5

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

1746

ATOSes currently hold positions 2 through 11. The first rigid wing hang glider other than an ATOS is Diego Bussinger (the world"><spans Class II number one ranked pilot) in at Ghostbuster in fifteenth.

Full results (when available) at www.wallaby.com.

Discuss "Wallaby Open – no task today." at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Wallaby Open – we circle the square

Tue, Apr 24 2001, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Belinda Boulter|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|J.C. Brown|Jim Yocum|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch

Today we played in the Green Swamp. A ninety-five mile task with three turnpoints that were supposed to keep us out of the worst parts of the Green Swamp. Still, that is where we go to have our fun.

The first day at Wallaby Ranch.

The flex wing pilots have been complaining about the rigid wing pilots. The meet director is setting the start times for the rigid wings first with the last start time shared with the flex wings. The flex wing pilots are complaining that Manfred just goes first and uses the rigid wings to go fast when they glide and then sits on top of them in thermals. The other flex wing pilots want to make it so Manfred can't keep using the rigid wings.

The meet director, JC Brown, decides to spilt the classes, with the rigid wing pilots doing the task counter clockwise and the flex wings clockwise. The task is Wallaby Ranch, to Quest Air to Cheryl airstrip to the Intersection of 98 and 301 and back to the Ranch. The reverse for the flex wings.

The forecast for the day looks great. Here is what Gary Osoba reports:

Probably the best day I've seen unless the moisture transport from the Atlantic is more saturated than what is shown. Good looking sounding, good looking wind stack with honest southeast winds feeding into a convergence line which should form through the middle of the state and extend into southeastern Georgia. Moisture profiles in the boundary layer show lots of latent heat adding to the lift. Thermals should be very strong but not violent. Well organized, powerful climbs. Lots of clouds. A real day for racing.

The start window opens at 1:15 and closes at 2:15 for both groups. It looks like an early start might be the ticket given the length of the task. Pilots are still a bit reluctant to get into position to launch, so pilots are still launching after the second start time.

The hot pilots in the flex wing category take the 1:15 start time. A few rigid wing pilots, including the Swift, take the 1:30 clock. Hansjoerg, Dave Sharp, Jim Yocum, Diego Bussinger, and I take the 1:45 start. We are half an hour behind the flex wing guys, but going the opposite direction.

The sky is full of cumulus clouds and there is plenty of vertical development. The sounding shows that it won't go high enough to over develop except in isolated cases. The six of us are gliding together and starting from cloud base. After three miles Diego in a Ghostbuster is quite a bit below the ATOS pilots (the rest of us).

While it is a cakewalk to Quest Air for Dave, Hansjoerg and I, I hear that 1/3rd of the rigid wing pilots go down on this first leg. We are lucky to get the timing right. We scrape off Diego and Jim and pick up an ATOS pilot from the earlier gaggle at Quest.

It is a 15-mile leg to Cheryl to the northwest. Six miles out from Cheryl we spot Brian flying straight to the turnpoint just over us, but quite a bit higher. Maybe we'll catch him.

We approach the turnpoint down below 3,000' and I scoot under a cloud street just before the turnpoint that turns out to be barely working. Hansjoerg is lower and not getting up. Dave and I are barely climbing.

Hansjoerg is trying the ATOS winglets on today. They seem to negatively effect his performance. We have no trouble gliding with him.

Suddenly we lose GPS coverage. We won’t be able to get the turnpoint if it doesn't return soon. Heck, we can't even find the turnpoint as we don't have an arrow to follow.

After a few minutes of weak climb, the GPS coverage returns and Dave and I can get to the turnpoint. We should have gone there first as there was a thermal there out in the sunlight and not under the clouds. We've scraped off Hansjoerg.

As we climb out at the turnpoint the flex wings start diving at us coming in from the south. Looks like there has been good lift along their flight path. Dave and I head out and find good lift all the way to the next turnpoint 25 miles to the south. We are on our own high over the Green Swamp.

Making the turnpoint south of Dade City and getting up at the west side of the Green Swamp, we are sitting pretty at over 6,000' and at cloud base. We now have to cross the Green Swamp going east for ten miles. It turns out to be one long glide with no lift over the Swamp.

We get so low that Dave drains the ballast from his ballast tanks. He's down below 1,500'just as we get to the east edge of the swamp.

I've been watching a cloud just to the north of our line and I find a little bit of lift under it and call Dave over. We climb out to cloud base 17 miles from Wallaby.

There is pretty much of a cloud street back to Wallaby and we just take it home.

We've been getting reports all along from Belinda at goal. The flex wing pilots who started much earlier are coming into goal (Of course, Brian is there long before anyone. This will completely screw up the scoring for rigid wing hang gliders by devaluing their times to goal and not putting much differentiating between other rigid wing pilots.)

Gerolf will win the day by 9 minutes. I remember seeing him launch early. He was on a mission.

Paris Williams will blast around the trees to come in low and fast for third for the day.

Having jettisoned his ballast Dave comes in a little behind me. Much later Steve Elkins makes it, then much later Hansjoerg, and finally just as goal closes Michael Hubert comes in. Another all ATOS finish at goal.

A total of 27 pilots make goal (much better on the goal crew after 73 yesterday).

Here are the preliminary results (I pull these off the goal keepers time sheets, so I'm unsure of the pilot's start time):

Class I:

Gerolf – Litespeed
Manfred – Laminar
Paris – Talon
Zwecky – Laminar
Tomas – Litespeed
Andre – Laminar
Chris Arai – Talon
Nene – Litespeed
Betinho – Litespeed
Reisinger – Laminar

Class II:

Brian – Swift
Davis – ATOS
Dave Sharp – ATOS
Elkins – ATOS
Hansjoerg – ATOS

Second day results:

Class I:

1

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

01:46:22

887

2

RAEMY, Kilian

MOYES Litespeed 4

CHE

01:44:00

863

3

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

01:49:46

843

4

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

01:49:47

841

5

HEINRICH, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

01:49:58

836

6

WIRDNAM, Gary

Aeros Combat

GBR

01:45:20

830

7

ROTOR, Nene

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

01:50:44

826

7

WOLF, Andre

Icaro Laminar

BRA

01:50:44

826

9

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

01:51:24

814

10

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

01:52:06

805

Class II:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

01:26:56

756

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

01:45:39

590

3

MEIER, Richard

A-I-R Atos

CHE

01:49:58

532

4

YOCOM, Jim

A-I-R Atos

USA

01:51:38

521

5

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

02:01:14

514

5

POSCH, Johann

A-I-R Atos 140

AUT

02:01:14

514

Full results (when available) at www.wallaby.com.

Flytec Championships 2001 - Results »

Sun, Apr 22 2001, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Flytec Championships 2001

Flytec Championships 2001|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr

Overall in Class II:

1 Porter, Brian Bright Star Swift Usa
2 Elkins, Steve Air Atos Gbr
3 Straub, Davis Air Atos Usa
4 Posch, Johann Air Atos Aut
5 Bowen, Campbell Flight Design Ghostbuster Usa

Class I:

1 Ruhmer, Manfred Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 3326
2 Heinrichs, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed Aut 3229
3 Schmitz, Betinho Moyes Litespeed Bra 3136
4 Williams, Paris Wills Wing Talon Usa 2913
5 Zweckmayr, Josef Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 2718
6 Suchanek, Thomas Moyes Litespeed Cze 2682
7 Hazlett, Brett Moyes Litespeed Can 2633
8 Lee, Jim Wills Wing Talon Usa 2563
9 Wirdnam, Gary Aeros Combat Gbr 2451
10 Castle, Kari Moyes Litespeed Usa 2428

Complete (but not updated, yet) results at flytec.com.

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Flytec Championships – Round Four »

Fri, Apr 20 2001, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Bobby Bailey|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Icaro Laminar MR|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Martin Harri|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Tip Rogers

Tomas sneaks around the lead gaggle to win the day!

We have a conundrum during the task committee. There are two different forecasts for the winds. One says winds at 20 mph out of the east and the other says 10 mph. The task committee can't decide what to do. We look outside and the winds look light out of the southeast.

We send Bobby Bailey up in a tug and he reports 8-10 mph out of the southeast with the cloud base at 4,500'. There are cu's every where (except on the forecasts).

We decide on a 92 mile task due north, so we'll have a cross wind most of the way.

The launch window opens at 1 PM with the first start time at 1:30 so things start happening really quick. The last start time is 2:15, so they only have an hour and fifteen minutes to get everyone in the air and high enough (cloud base) to get the last start gate (which most people want anyway).

Bo gets launched first and takes the first start time. The ground crew and the tug pilots get going right away and the field goes bananas as everyone realizes that they need to go right now. Quiet one minute, the next the place is blasting with engine noise.

Just before 2:15 there are almost a hundred pilots at cloud base or in cloud base 4 miles north of Quest. It is hard making sure that you are high but not too high at the start time and at the start circle circumference. We are near 6,000'.

At 2:15 it is a race straight north as we head toward Leesburg and the lakes to the northeast. We turn to go up wind a bit, but it looks like there won't be any clouds or action down wind of the lakes to our north.

I'm a bit behind today so I get to see the action. Manfred and Betinho are on the left side of the spread of pilots. Tomas and Martin Harri are pushing more up wind to the right and east. I'm following them.

I watch Betinho and Tip Rogers in an ESC. Tip started earlier and is taking a thermal and drifting to the west. I focus my attention on Betinho as he begins to search an area and as he hits something I go toward him. Tomas and Martin will find something in a minute and I see them going up also. But, we are in lift and there are cu's every where around us.

I'm thinking that we had better head a bit to the west because the wind off the lakes is cutting the lift to our east. I'm also thinking that we probably want to be on the west side of the Ocala National Forest so that we should fly to the north west.. It's no fun going down in the forest.

I drive west to the next cloud as soon as we get up and the rest of the pilots seem to think that this is a good idea. We are rewarding with strong lift to cloud base. Now we've got a bit of a blue hole to the north, but lots of open areas that look like thermal producers below.

I lose track of Martin and Tomas, although I do spot some pilots further to our east heading up the west, and downwind side of the lakes. They look low.

We pass over some rigid wing pilots who've gone down earlier west of Leesburg, and it is slow getting up to Bellview. Still we don't get below 2,000' and the gaggle is hanging tight.

Once we get north of the lakes, we get into better lift and start getting back above 5,000'.

I'm not able to stay in front like I did on the previous day, so I have to do a bit of following from below. Still it is possible to stay up with the lead gaggle, and even get in front a few times to lead. I seem to like to be in the lead even if sometimes it is a bit costly in strategic points.

We get strong lift all along the Ocala National Forest and are ripping up the sky. The lift has been strong and often quite a bit too strong and turbulent. I think that courage is the word for the day. I have to keep calling up my courage to get back into rough thermals, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. I just don't want to hit anyone.

At thirty miles out I'm out in front with Betinho and Manfred but a few hundred feet below them. I can't see them so I miss it when they start working something. We are in a big blue hole and I have to keep running to the clouds to the northeast. I find 800 fpm in a smooth thermal at 1,600' over a clear-cut area. The clouds now fill in to the north all the way toward goal (or it looks that way from here).

The lead guys get away from me as I make the low save even as I climb out to 7,400' in strong lift. Dave Sharp and Johann Posch take the lead and get high twenty miles out. Manfred, Reisinger, Zwecky, Gerolf, and Betinho are now a bit behind them to the east.

Dave and Johann head toward goal at Keystone airport thinking that they will find something within the next twenty miles. Brian Porter goes with them. Thirteen miles out they are down to 1,500' with Brian 500' over their heads. He picked the wrong folks to pimp off of.

Manfred and crew are doing much better just a couple of minutes in front of me. I can now follow them from back and below.

We find good lift all along the way unlike Dave and Johann who get stuck. Brian is able to get away from them and get to goal.

Sixty pilots make goal. Glen Volk and Chris Arai head for goal when the Tangent tells them to go, but the air doesn't cooperate and produce no net negative lift. They land 3 miles from goal.

Bo makes it into goal first with the first start time. His speeds are a bit slow, so he doesn't get a lot of bonus points, but he does get enough to put him in third place.

Tomas and Martin make it fast to goal beating the rest of us by almost 20 minutes. They flew on their own and must have found some better lift lines out over the National Forest.

Steve Elkins on an ATOS left 15 minutes earlier, had a good run and got the early bonus points to place first for the day in Class II. Brian and Mark have ballasted up their gliders so that they wouldn't be able to foot launch or land them, and they used the high weights to their advantage on this strong day.

Here are the results:

Day 4:

Class I:

1

Suchanek, Thomas

Moyes Litespeed

Cze

02:30:56

897

2

Harri, Martin

Moyes Litespeed

Che

02:33:06

866

3

Hagewood, Bo

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

02:57:54

792

4

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:49:36

763

5

Heinrichs, Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed

Aut

02:49:40

760

6

Schmitz, Betinho

Moyes Litespeed

Bra

02:49:42

758

7

Zweckmayr, Josef

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:50:34

752

8

Reisinger, Robert

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:50:49

749

9

Hazlett, Brett

Moyes Litespeed

Can

02:52:10

742

10

Bondarchuk, Oleg

Aeros Combat

Ukr

02:54:28

730

Class II:

1

Elkins, Steve

Air Atos

Gbr

02:49:54

937

2

Porter, Brian

Bright Star Swift

Usa

02:49:08

928

3

Mulholland, Mark

Bright Star Millennium

Usa

02:49:28

914

4

Yocom, Jim

Air Atos

Usa

02:49:54

906

5

Straub, Davis

Air Atos

Usa

02:51:24

892

 Overall:
Class I:

1

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

2691

2

Heinrichs, Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed

Aut

2554

3

Schmitz, Betinho

Moyes Litespeed

Bra

2506

4

Zweckmayr, Josef

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

2470

5

Suchanek, Thomas

Moyes Litespeed

Cze

2453

6

Hazlett, Brett

Moyes Litespeed

Can

2441

7

Lee, Jim

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

2396

8

Williams, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

2369

9

Wolf, Andre

Icaro Laminar

Bra

2319

10

Castle, Kari

Moyes Litespeed

Usa

2275

Class II:

1

Porter, Brian

Bright Star Swift

Usa

2844

2

Straub, Davis

Air Atos

Usa

2682

3

Sharp, David

Air Atos

Usa

2568

4

Elkins, Steve

Air Atos

Gbr

2529

5

Posch, Johann

Air Atos

Aut

2473

Complete results at www.flytec.com.

Flytec Championships – Day 1 »

Sat, Apr 14 2001, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Mike Barber|USHGA

The forecast called for winds 10-15 mph out of the west. The sounding showed moderate thermal strength with consistent winds (in strength and direction) all the way to above cloud base at 12-15 mph out of the west. The task committee went bananas (I'm on the committee so I can critique it), and called a 62 mile task.

First, there is a leg to the north, northwest 21 miles at 325°. Unfortunately that's 12 miles into the wind. Next comes a leg to the northwest, which includes 10 miles downwind. Finally and then a return leg with a few miles downwind.

The idea was to do basically an out and return at 90° to the west wind (can't go east here unless you want to go into Orlando airspace). The leg to the west was thrown in without sufficient thought regarding the strength of the winds and the moderate nature of the thermals.

Flying, we basically take two steps forward and then two steps back. Here's a look at a track log near the first turnpoint, showing the drift.

Later, I asked Mike Barber what he was showing for winds. He said that earlier in the flight he was measuring 14 mph out of the west. Later, around 3 PM, his Tangent showed 20 mph. My Brauniger was showing 12 mph at 240.

Not only did we have a hard time getting any where, because of the strong head winds going to the first turnpoint, but we also couldn't get very high, 3,800' was the highest, and we didn't climb very quickly, with maximum climb rates averaging between 300 to 400 fpm.

Here's a chart of altitude gains going to the first turnpoint.

With all this wind you would have thought that the air would have been very turbulent, but this was not the case. Perhaps do to the light lift, there didn't seem to be any sharp edges to the thermals. It wasn't always easy coring up, but it was possible even from low even in the strong winds.

Many flex wing pilots were only able to make the minimum distance or less with 40 out of 70 pilots given the minimum distance. Six of the twenty-nine rigid wing pilots got the minimum distance.

I was flying with Dave Sharp and I first heard from him on the radio 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. I was 18 miles out. Half an hour later both he and I were 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. Gives you an idea of the degree of difficulty the task presented.

As we got closer to the first turnpoint, the proportion of rigid wings increased. Many flex wing pilots had gone down before the first thermal on the course. Brian Porter in the Swift, Mark Mullholland in the canopied Millennium and Greg Dinnauer in the faired Millennium were all together 12 miles out.

Manfred, Dave Sharp and Gerolf made the first turnpoint. Gerolf lands a mile and a half beyond it, Dave lands 5 miles below it, and Manfred is able to make the second turnpoint and get some of the way back.

Given that flex wing most pilots didn't make in the minimum distance, the day was very devalued. Rigid wing pilots got a few more points, but not many, as no one made it half the distance of the task.

The charts below show distance and points in the last two columns.

Class II:

1 Sharp, David Air Atos Usa 27.9 211
2 Porter, Brian Bright Star Swift Usa 23.2 189
3 Straub, Davis Air Atos Usa 22.3 185
4 Yocom, Jim Air Atos Usa 20.0 171
5 Mulholland, Mark Bright Star Millennium Usa 17.7 158
5 Meier, Richard Air Atos Ita 17.7 158
5 Dinaur, Greg Bright Star Millennium Usa 17.7 158

Class I:

1 Ruhmer, Manfred Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 43.8 131
2 Heinrichs, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed Aut 24.8 102
3 Zweckmayr, Josef Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Ita 19.4 93
4 Wirdnam, Gary Aeros Combat Gbr 18.6 91
4 Cook, Steve La Mouette Topless Gbr 18.6 91
6 Walbec, Richard Wills Wing Talon Fra 17.9 89
6 Lee, Jim Wills Wing Talon Usa 17.7 89
6 Hollidge, Andy La Mouette Topless Gbr 17.7 89
9 Arai, Chris Wills Wing Talon Usa 17.6 88
10 Raemy, Kilian Moyes Litespeed Che 17.4 87
10 Barber, Mike Moyes Litespeed Usa 17.4 87
10 Volk, Glen Moyes Litespeed Usa 17.3 87

Complete results at www.flytec.com.

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British Nationals »

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

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

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

By Jim Bowyer

Day 6

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

Day 5 = Task 4

TASK 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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United Kingdom World Team

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

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

Jim Bowyer writes:

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

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

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

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

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

Ron Richardson
Home club: Southern
Glider: Avian Cheeta

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

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

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

Steve Cook
Home Club: Southern
Glider: La Mouette Topless

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

Gordon Rigg
Home club: Derbyshire
Glider: Laminar ST02

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

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

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

Waiting in the wings…

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

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