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topic: Joe Bostik (91 articles)

Jim Lee and Joe Bostik

May 15, 2021, 8:07:34 pm MDT

Jim Lee and Joe Bostik

Big Flights

Jim Lee|Joe Bostik

Jim Lee: https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=8329762

The day could have had a better wind angle and lasted longer. Other than that it was very good.

Skysight combined with rotor clouds and lenticulars gave a clear route to be followed. My first wave flight without any drama.

Took a high tow to get started early without fighting in the rotor. Flew north to Reno to go through the 750k O&R start gate. Ran an easy course to the turnpoint near Olancha where the wave disappeared resulting in a turn and a slow descent and time lost to get back into the wave, but did not fall into the rotor.

Back to Reno was straightforward with plenty of clouds as markers. Crossed the finish gate at 149mph.

Climbed back up and restarted, going faster with the experience and tracks of the first attempt. Less clouds as it was drying up and the wind strength was dropping, but the wave was still strong and in virtually the same place. Did not get stuck at the turnpoint. Figured out the Wheeler Crest problem. Crossed the Reno finish gate with 159mph. Ran mostly at 110-120kts indicated with ground speeds as high as 200mph when southbound.

Attempted a third lap south but it looked like I would not be able to return to Minden. Total distance was 2035 km but the last leg didn't count on OLC. Thanks to Soaring NV, Anders, and Dan Flynn for the tow and Stewart Tattersal as observer.

Joe Bostik: https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-3.0/gliding/flightinfo.html?dsId=8366348

It was supposed to be just a short practice task, i didn't check the weather since I didn't plan on going long. Once in the air I realised I couldn't leave this delightful day go to waste. No food and no long underwear made the flight physically challenging. It was perhaps 1500km day.

Nice long energy lines with plenty of lift to return to 18k with cloudbase above, when needed. The only challenge came in the end when I had to use microburst to get back up for the last 100kms to land at sunset. I didn't use the first 3 hrs of lift. Richfield is the place!

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Martin Henry on Cloudbase Mayhem

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

Martin Henry on Cloudbase Mayhem

Funny stories from a rigid wing pilot

Barry Bateman|Charles "Charlie" Baughman|Cloudbase Mayhem|Davis Straub|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Kari Castle|Larry Tudor|Manfred Ruhmer|Martin Henry|PG|record|sailplane|video

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

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

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

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

Mentioned in the Show:

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

2017 Senior Soaring Championship »

March 14, 2017, 8:48:50 EST -0400

2017 Senior Soaring Championship

Sailplanes just south of us

Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Ron Gleason|sailplane|Senior Soaring Championship 2017|weather

http://www.ssa.org/Contests?cid=2356&display=results

Jim Lee won the practice day last Friday. Joe Bostik and Steve Arndt are also there. If you read the two reports I posted about our flying and the flying at the Florida Ridge on Saturday, you'll find this of interest:

Mar 11 Report

“If you liked yesterday (we didn’t), you’ll love today.” That was the introduction to today’s weather report from ace weatherman Fernando Silva. His point was that we’d have much the same airmass (so weak, blue thermals) with less wind (meaning those weak thermals might actually allow semi-decent progress). It seemed likely the day would die early – perhaps by 4:30. In the face of this, a fairly wimpy task was set.

It didn’t work out as the forecast predicted – and (for once) in a good way. An area of cumulus clouds, predicted to stay tantalizingly out of reach to the northeast, instead developed nicely and overran the gliderport, giving good pre-start climbs to over 5000 feet. Task areas to the south stayed blue, but gave some pilots good lift to 6000 feet and above. Heading north, pilots connected with the clouds for (mostly) problem-free flying. Lift was available at least until 5 pm. In sharp contrast to yesterday, all pilots landed at home.

Fernando has talents that extend beyond weather prediction. In this case he grasped the real weather better than any other pilot and flew 133 miles at a speed over 72 mph, good for first place. A total of 7 pilots had raw speeds above 70 mph, on a day when before launch most would probably have settled for 50.

After two days of unflyable weather, we have a blue day with 20 mph west winds (at 2,000') forecasted, but strong lift. Quite cold with a predicted high of 67 and top of lift at 4,000' to 5,000' dropping later in the day. Right now it is completely overcast at 8:47 AM.

Thanks to Ron Gleason.

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Quest Air Cross Country

February 29, 2016, 8:55:20 EST

Quest Air Cross Country

A triangle to the north

Joe Bostik|Ken Kinzie|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|sailplane

Joe Bostik|John Simon|Ken Kinzie|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|sailplane

Joe Bostik|John Simon|Ken Kinzie|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|sailplane

Sunday:

https://airtribune.com/questxc/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/play/1234/2d

With the forecast for moderate east winds, no cu's and moderate lift, John Simon, Larry Bunner, and Ken Kinzie take on the 100 km triangle task. Ken has to reluanch after not getting up and he has to go to the end of the line, so he doesn't attempt the task just going out part way on the first leg..

Larry and John go down on the last leg.

Conditions are much improved for the next two days. Joe Bostik lands his sailplane here after not getting high enough to make Seminole Lake Glider Port. Jim and Kathy Lee come with a trailer for him.

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2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Sun, Sep 21 2014, 4:55:00 pm MDT

Ends with a bit of a whimper

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/flex/daily/day5.html

Last day with no one at goal:

1. Michael Bilyk Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 44.0km 589.69
2. Oyvind Ellefsen Nor Moyes Rs 3.5 42.9km 579.69
3. Larry Bunner Usa Will Wing T2C 144 42.4km 574.96
4. Joe Bostik Cze Wills Wing T2C144 42.4km 574.69
5. Bill Soderquist Usa Moyes Rs 3.5 41.7km 564.73
6. Rudy Gotés Mex Moyes RX 3.5 41.6km 562.70
7. Mitch Shipley Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 40.7km 546.35
8. Chris Arai Usa Wills Wing T2C 154 39.8km 528.52
9. Kraig Coomber Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 39.2km 516.29
10. Robin Hamilton Usa Moyes RX 3.5 37.9km 490.73

Overdevelopment (as forecast) puts shading all over and a bit of rain to the south of the course line. The day ends up shaded and weak.

The final results:

1. Kraig Coomber Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 4371.35
2. Robin Hamilton Usa Moyes RX 3.5 4320.71
3. Michael Bilyk Usa Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 4235.36
4. Jon Durand Aus Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 3961.66
5. Olav Opsanger Nor Moyes RX 3.5 Technora 3885.14
6. Zac Majors Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 3697.50
7. Bruce Barmakian Usa Wills Wing T2C 136 3691.22
8. Rudy Gotés Mex Moyes RX 3.5 3573.95
9. Chris Arai Usa Wills Wing T2C 154 3275.58
10. James Stinnett Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 3138.43

The Moyes men clean up.

Cory Barnwell wins sport class with a bit of strategy starting early in the open launch and getting out on the course before it gets shut down.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/daily/day5.html

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/day-by-day.html

Brian Porter hangs on to win the Swift class after a scare from Chris Zimmerman.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/open/total/day5.html

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Cloudbase Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of Casa Grande

September 18, 2014, 7:09:34 MST

Cloudbase Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of Casa Grande

We raised three thousand dollars then got $2,000 in matching funds

Glen Volk|Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner

We have raised over $5000 for the Casa Grande Boys and Girls club for scholarships as it costs kids $45/month to go for about three hours each day to the club. They have about 400 kids there every school day.

Joe Bostik made a $1,000 matching pledge. The Cloudbase Foundation made a $1,000 matching pledge. Glen Volk donated $500. We basically raised over $4,000 to make it more than 4 to 1 for the CBF matching grant.

Larry Bunner (Cloudbase Foundation board member) and I hustled for the money at the opening pilot meeting, one on one.

They really appreciate the funding here in Casa Grande. Larry met with the Boys and Girls Club director on Tuesday and is trying to interest the mayor's office. We had dinner Tuesday night at the restaurant owned by the president of the Boys and Girls Club.

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Joe Bostik Vs. the slackline

August 14, 2014, 7:22:00 MDT

Joe Bostik Vs. the slackline

At the Santa Cruz Flats Race

Joe Bostik|video

Video here.

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

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The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup »

May 20, 2014, 11:07:30 pm EDT

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

Too much excitement

Greg Chastain|Jamie Shelden|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

Greg Chastain had an exciting flight getting sucked up into one of the cumulus clouds that are filling our skies here in Georgia:

Photo by Jamie Shelden.

Greg was sucked up into a cloud. Spent a good deal of time there. Finally tumbled and broke up the glider. Came down with a piece of keel and two small portions of down tubes. Landed in the forest (on the way to the first turnpoint). Broke small bone in his foot. Don't know where the glider is.

Had to crawl out of the forest - the hardest part he said.

Joe Bostik trimmed a tree on landing in a tight field with small power lines in the middle. Bruised shoulder. Looks like he's out of the competition also. Terry Reynolds says that he pounded in harder than at any time that he didn't break or bend something.

Me, I landed without incident just past the first turnpoint in a huge field after declining to head into poor landing areas low. Got low because my feelings wouldn't let me go join the guys circling just a little off the course line before the turnpoint. Feelings aren't smart nor strategic.

Speaking of which, Mike Bilyk said that yesterday he was with Zippy and Jonny and they had to cross a blue hole. At one point with cu's ahead Jonny took off to the right then back. Mike asked him why and he said that the chances looked better there going back. Mike and Zippy headed further down the course line and landed. Jonny made goal.

We had a long task today which pilots almost completed, but not quite:

It was also over forested areas which added to the difficulty.

The cu's formed early and we opened the start window at 2:40 PM. I got to cloud base right away and stayed there just below the wispies, until a few minutes before the start when I got down 800'. I was not happy about that and it seemed just like the luck of the draw to be in the wrong place under dark clouds that covered quite a few square miles.

Fortunately the vast bulk of us headed out together and even though I was low I was able to center on a 700 fpm thermal to get back to cloud base. Still the higher guys were way out in front having stayed high.

There were dark clouds and shading every where but we cruised under the darkest clouds finally finding strong lift and climbing back to cloud base. I made sure to stay out of the clouds.

I just skipped a climb going for a cloud nearer the turnpoint but it didn't work and I got too low to continue.

Pilots found the second leg to be much lighter and difficult and their course work was a lot slower. Those who made it around the second turnpoint at Butler had even worse conditions as the day was later and the shading more complete. A number of pilots got within 10 KM of goal.

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The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup »

May 19, 2014, 9:48:06 pm EDT

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

Day two to goal

Greg Dinauer|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Tullio Gervasoni

http://soaringspot.com/facsp/

The forecast was very mixed so it was hard to tell what would happen. We had a northeast wind but a little light. There were thin cirrus clouds that covered all the sky. There was a scattered cu or two, ragged and thin and small and not inviting.

We delayed launch until 1:30 with a 3 PM first start window. As launch started conditions began to improve with the cirrus thinning even more and a few more cu's forming. I launched late at 29th, but still forty five minutes before the first start window opened. The sky was now full of beautiful cu's and I pinned off under a nice one. I would stay there the whole time in the start cylinder with the light winds.

The launching went really quick, so efficient. Hang glider pilots not being exactly ready was the only delay. Russell and the Quest Air crew are magnificent.

I was pulled to a nice thick cloud with some other pilots turning under it. I just started turning and climbed up to 4,200' cloud base at 160 fpm. After that it was stay under the cloud as the time ticked down for the start window. Usually you can't do this for long because the wind blows the cloud out of the start cylinder or it dries up and you have to do it all over again. But not today. The cloud stayed there and there continued to be lift right under it. You had to go to the side to keep from getting in the cloud.

At five minutes to the start window a cloud canyon opened up near the edge of the start cylinder. I went for it and climbed to 4,600', which was above the cloud base around us. There were guys even higher and when we started the task at 3 PM Joe Bostik and Matt Barker were 50 to 100' over my head. I was still quite high relative to others.

Unfortunately it was a long glide to the next spot of lift, nine kilometers away. I was the low man on the totem poll at 1,500' AGL when I found it and got stuck there while the guys just barely over me were able to climb out. Jim Yokum on an ATOS landed below me.

It took twenty minutes to gain 700' and only then did I feel comfortable enough to go to the nearby turnpoint and find much much better lift there. That got me back to 4,600'. Matt, Joe and a few others were now 8 kilometers ahead and doing well together.

I headed out with Tullio and another pilot in tow and found 300 fpm another nine kilometers down the course line and four of us got up to 4,700'.

We headed in the direction of a little fire stopped for a little lift before that but then continued to the smoke and didn't find anything. I found some weak just passed the fire lift that didn't turn on so after a few turns Tulio headed back to the fire where the four of us got up at only 230 fpm, but to 4,500' and enough to keep going.

It was now a fourteen kilometer glide with Tulio and another pilot out in front and me pulling up the rear as I didn't see the other pilot. Half way there I saw a pilot turning in lift off to my left but I kept following Tulio and the other pilot. At the edge of a field we found 300 fpm at 1,400' AGL and it took us to 4,300' I was able to climb up to Tulio and the other pilot. The pilots just a kilometer or two in front of us who was turning landed.

It was a twelve kilometer glide to the next reasonable looking cloud and again down to less than 1,600' AGL, we climbed in 140 fpm to 3300' then headed down a cloud street cross track to find 330 fpm to 4,600' a mere thirteen kilometers from goal. It was an easy glide in from there.

A few people at goal including Oleg, Christian, Davide, Greg Dinauer, Jonny (who took the second clock), Tulio, and a few others. Not Zac and not Mike Bylik. Scoring should be available later tonight or in the morning.

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The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup »

May 18, 2014, 8:48:08 pm EDT

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

A completely bogus forecast

Joe Bostik|Terry Reynolds

The forecast called for good lift to 6,000' with strong west winds. I never got above 3,600', and the winds varied from north at 7 mph to west at 6 mph. We actually launched into the east. The stig called a monster task based on the forecast and it was not possible to fly to Vidalia after all.

I was fourteenth off which was a nice place, with a few pilots up and spotting thermals nearby. There was one pilot going up well right near launch so I pinned off and joined him despite the fact that the top ten pilots before me were gaggling to the south. They came over and joined us a bit later.

We climbed to almost 3,600' in 240 fpm and then went around searching for more lift, better clouds, some additional altitude. It didn't work for me wherever I went so after a few short climbs I headed back to the launch area over the airport.

Down to 700' AGL I hooked up with some buzzards and maintained until I saw a pilot doing well right over the launch. That thermal was a whopping 160 fpm, but it did get me back up to 3,000',

That didn't last long and the first start time at 2:30 PM was approaching. I worked some zero sink heading out to the edge of the 10 KM start cylinder but getting there slowly.  High level clouds kept coming over and shading the ground and the cu's were thin and far between.

I had thought that I had lost contact with the majority of the pilots when I went back on my own over the launch area, but it turned out that they were close by and pilots were actually coming back low trying to find anything to stay up. It was just so weak. I kept finding gaggles but we would barely climb.

At five minutes before the start time a bunch of us headed east toward the edge of the cylinder. We still had 6 KM to go and we needed to find better lift than zero. I watched the four pilots above and ahead of me and followed in their general direction hoping that they would find something that I could get to. No such luck.

Down to 1,100' I turned right to the south east toward some reasonable looking bare fields in bright sunlight. No shading. I found 122 fpm and was the guiding light to the dozen pilots behind me and to those four that turned around and came back to join us in air that was going up at least.

We were able to climb back to 2,600' and then I lead out again, to find three more thermals in the 140 fpm range. Pretty puny, but they were under clouds and they kept us up. I climbed back to 3,200' in the third thermal and the pilots with me were happy as clams.

Unfortunately, I decided to leave these guys once again and head for the next cloud. What I didn't see until it was too late was that the we were coming up on the river and a thick band of trees. When I missed the lift on this try I made the decision to not go over the treed area low and came back to land in a bare field. I was not far outside the start cylinder that we had worked so hard to stay up in and get out of.

Pilots were struggling every where. Terry Reynolds was already down back near the airport. Matt Barker and Joe Bostik waited for the second clock and then made it over the river, but Joe just by a few kilometers. Matt got a bit further.

We heard the Christen won the day going a total of 60 km.

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A good sport in sport class

Wed, Apr 2 2014, 1:07:27 pm GMT

The 1989 Manufacturer's League Meet at Pine Mountain in Oregon

Chris Arai|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Josef "Joe" "Hangczech" Bostik|Kari Castle|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson

It was the summer of 1989 and I had just flown my second cross country flight ever. I had purchased a used Wills Wing Euro Sport and flown twenty nine miles from Chelan Butte past Mansfield. (My previous cross country flight was on a Pacific Airwaves Vision 20, twelve miles north from Chelan, a year earlier.)

I headed south with my driver to Oregon from Seattle and hooked up with the Wills Wing pilots because I had a truck and a driver and they didn't.

Obviously we all had king posted gliders because there weren't any topless gliders then. I had an intermediate glider but Joe Bostik had won the Nationals previously flying a Sport (it's a long story).

There were seventy five pilots at this high end competition including Mark Newland from Australia (who would eventually win the competition), Mark Gibson, Kari Castle, Jim Lee, Chris Arai, Randy Haney, Larry Tudor, Kenny Brown, and numerous other top pilots. This was one of the big competitions held in the US and I went to it just because it was nearby. All the top pilots from the Pacific Northwest were also there.

Now as a neophyte I was in a competition with experienced pilots but we were flying similar gliders even if mine was not the top end king posted glider. I had Joe's example to refer to. It was possible then to fly in a open class competition with equipment that was similar to that used by the best pilots. I didn't feel that I was greatly disadvantaged by my equipment.

On the first day the goal was seventy five miles to the east. I was the last one to make goal. I had about tripled my longest distance. I continued to do relatively well on the following days, and when the goal was a little over hundred miles to the south almost to Lakeview, I landed just short after climbing to by far my highest point by then, 15,000'. Ken Brown spent the night out next to an alkali lake as we had traveled far over areas that were not that accessible.

I ended up in twenty fifth place out of seventy five surpassing all my "flying buddies" from Washington state.

Things have changed since then. That's why we have Sport Class now. The idea is to have competitions that allow for equipment that isn't the top of the line and promote access to competitions for pilots who have less experience and don't fly on the open class circuit.

It is the fact that things have changed that requires that we support Sport Class and the competition venue it provides to pilots who have less resources and time to devote to competition.

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2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2013, 8:47:11 pm MST

2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day seven

Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2013|Steven "Steve" Pearson

Steve Pearson, the fastest pilot to goal on the last day. He gets within the 1 km goal cylinder by 2 meters.

The forecast on Saturday morning was better than the previous day where we had an extreme inversion. On this day the inversion was there but not nearly as strong. It still didn't look like there would be much in the way of cumulus clouds like there were on the first three days.

The winds were supposed to be light so we could come back to the Francisco Grande. The task committee wanted a little longer task than the day before:

I was off third a few minutes after 1:30 PM and the lift was somewhat weak but not as bad as the day before, very much in line with the forecast. By 2:10 I was at 6,100' over the hotel with Joe Bostik, Bruce Barmakian, Jonny Durand, Krzysztof Grzyb, and Kip Stone. We all headed south up against the 8 mph wind to get to the southern edge of the 5 kilometer start cylinder.

This really didn't work out that well. We couldn't get up over 5,300' and there were just the five of us out there as Jonny got low and had to head back. Finally at 4,600' Joe headed east toward the gravel pit, the same pit that let me down on the previous day.

Down to 2,900' (1,600') Joe and I found the 100 fpm and started working it. Six minute later I spotted Steve Pearson climbing at 600 fpm just to my north. I joined him and climbed fast. By three minutes before the third clock at 3:10 there were half a dozen of us at 8,300'. A number of pilots who were over us when we started to climb out, including Steve and Jonny, had already taken the 2:50 clock and were already out on the course line.

We took the 3:10 clock and I was on top, which felt great. Joe was off to the left. We found 200+ fpm 13 km down the course line and we all took advantage of it to get back to 7,800'. This made it easy to get another bit of lift and make the first turnpoint at 5,500', hit a nice thermal to get us back to 6,100', and then head northwest back toward I 10 and the Highway 87 intersection.

As we flew along the course line we went over the guys from the previous start clock. Unfortunately, they weren't marking much lift. I found 50 fpm and 14 fpm over them and continued on to the turnpoint.

Down to 3,200' at the turnpoint I spent 6 minutes searching around in zero sink watching three guys below me land. Heading north I finally spotted guys circling to the south west and headed for them. Down to 1000' AGL I found 200+ fpm at the edge of an orchard and before I got to where I saw the other pilots. I saw Jonny just over me and hung on to the best looking lift around.

I was able to climb up and back to 5,700' and was debating when to leave to go up the course line. I spotted three pilots, including Jonny, circling ahead and went for them. The sun was low in the sky and there were clouds moving in causing a large shadow on the course line. When I got to the pilots they were leaving and there wasn't any lift.

I headed to the northwest to get around the shadow but there was still no lift and I found a nice open field to land in next to a road.

Only Zac, Steve and Joe made it in. Zac won the competition with Chris Zimmerman next and Joe third.

Results here: http://soaringspot.com/2013scfr.

2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 19, 2013, 8:24:15 pm MST

2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day five

Brian Porter|Joe Bostik|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2013

The bow tie task:

The forecast was for a little lighter lift, top of lift around 9,000', no cu's, winds out of the southwest around 6 to 8 mph.

It turned out that we had a strong inversion and it was quite difficult to get above 7,000'. The lift below 5,000' was good, but above that it was very weak. This made for a difficult task, especially coming back into a head wind. Only Brian Porter on the Swift made it back in.

The launching went very quickly as pilots were sticking right away and many got off early as I did in good lift. The lift was consistent but not that strong with bits of 300 and 400 fpm. Not nearly as strong as the previous four days and we didn't get above 6,000'for an hour.

Given the height limit and the weak lift the gaggle sucked. We were just going round and round in zero to 50 fpm.

Maybe a couple of pilots took the first clock. I was at 4,500' so saw no good reason to do that. Most pilots took the second clock but four minutes before it opened I headed west back to the south of the Francisco Grande to wait for the next clock. Joe Bostik, Larry Bunner, Krzysztof Grzyb, and Robin Hamilton went with me and we were able to get a bit higher than previously to 6,400' before heading out.

We spread out and worked together. I found the first thermal that got us to 6,200' over Casa Grade and Joe found the next one that got us to 6,800', much lower than the first four days here.

Then we went for a 15 kilometer glide. Joe and either Kris or Robin were in front. I was following Joe. He started turning and I came in under him at 1,500' AGL. There was lift there but it kept disappearing after one turn. Larry found 300 fpm and then it disappeared.

I searched all over and could not find a core. Joe and others, including pilots from the second clock that we came under were doing well enough to get up.

Larry and I did not do well and did not get up and soon landed.

Joe was able to make it past the first turnpoint. Zac and Tyler made it back to near the third turnpoint. Pilots were scattered along the course line.

Results will be here: http://soaringspot.com/2013scfr/results/flex/daily/day5.html

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2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2013, 9:36:36 pm MST

2013 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day four

Brian Porter|Flytec 6030|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2013

The task:

The forecast was for a 15 knot southwest wind and no cumulus clouds. Top of the lift 10,000'. Same lift as every day here, strong in places, weak else where. The task committee always wants to bring us back, but with that much wind they had to send us out. But then made the last leg difficult.

We also have to get around Phoenix (Sky Harbor) Class B airspace (Zippy sent out a Notam). The goal was under airspace, which had a bottom of 7,000'. Doubtful anyone would break airspace going into goal. We also had to stay away from the restricted areas to the east. Turned out that there was a lot of general aviation activity around the edge of the 5 km cylinder around the second turnpoint, out in the middle of no where.

The task committee set a 10 km start cylinder to allow us to stay inside the cylinder in the strong winds. It wasn't that hard as they were about 13 mph out of the south southwest. We expected a quartering head wind on the last leg of about 15 knots.

The upwind last leg was projected to take us over a area of very few dirt roads. It turned out that there was very nice one right on the course line that got you back to civilization.

The wind was quite strong west on launch and it took a while to set up the pilots and get them going. I was in lift right away and kept dragging the gaggle of half a dozen pilots with me as I continuously found the better cores. They seemed to fall asleep turning in circles and were not searching at all.

Kevin Dutt, Brian Porter, James Stinnett and a few others were out with me to the northwestern edge of the 10 km start cylinder which put us 5 km north of the optimum course line, but that really wasn't a concern. We climbed to 8,700' and I left four and a half minutes after the first start time. James came three minutes later but never saw me again. Brian in the Swift took off in front and I never saw him again.

I raced to the hills half way up the first leg under the airspace and got lift right before the ridge line. I was able to climb in broken lift to only 7,400'. Joe Bostik later would come in nearby and climb to 10,000'. I found sink on the leeward side.

Getting away from the hills I found a bit of a thermal but only got to 6,800' just before the 5 KM radius of the first turnpoint at Valley.

I was down to 3,500' (2,200' AGL) north of the turnpoint before I pushed upwind in scattered lift to find 100+ fpm. The lift was slow going as I drifted and worked my way to the north just trying to not land and and get back up into better conditions. As I recovered Zac and Tyler plus three other pilots came in below me down maybe 2,000'. Zac, at least, had taken the second start clock.

The idea was to get high before the next turnpoint as it was going to be hard to go upwind but I could only get to 7,200' in 200 fpm. I headed off toward the turnpoint thinking that I could at least find something better in the next thirteen kilometers. It was not to be.

After getting the turnpoint I headed west upwind to a mine. I could see that here at least there was a good gravel road going both east and west toward populated areas. I searched all over the mine area find bits of lift and after ten minutes finally hooked 160 fpm. It later turned into 300 fpm.

The wind was not so bad, 6 to 8 mph out of the south west. The goal was due west. I climbed to 7,800' and started pushing southwest. I knew that I would have to find more lift no matter what the 6030 said my chances of making goal were.

At 13 km out it was 8:1 at 6,600' (5,300' AGL) after climbing at 200 fpm with a 6 mph direct head wind. I figured that I could find bits and pieces of lift along the way to make it in. Civilization and housing developments would soon present interesting obstacles, so I was checking out possible landing areas as I made it closer to the goal area.

There was a mining area to the south of the homes which I used to my advantage finding those crucial bits and pieces. My main goal was to not find myself without a place to land. I kept watching out for the bigger open fields.

It was touch and go as I had to head further south than I had originally anticipated as the field we used for goal was now a cotton field and they are no fun to land in. Google Earth, of course, shows it fallow.

I made it in with altitude to spare and landed back east of the goal with Mitch and another pilot who came in later.

Jonny had his VG line break during the task and didn't make it to goal.

Results will be here: http://soaringspot.com/2013scfr

https://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?dsId=3384537

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Scoring a real competition

Fri, Feb 22 2013, 8:10:04 am CST

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OzGAP 2005 GAP 2002 GAP 2000
Jonny Durand 5427 Jonny Durand 5343 Jonny Durand 5325
Paris Williams 5251 Paris Williams 5177 Paris Williams 5152
Zac Majors 4855 Zac Majors 4805 Zac Majors 4789
Derreck Turner 4123 Derreck Turner 4133 Derreck Turner 4077
Ben Dunn 3893 Ben Dunn 3996 Ben Dunn 3935
Chris Zimmerman 3563 Joef Bostik 3590 Joef Bostik 3544
Joef Bostik 3549 Chris Zimmerman 3531 Chris Zimmerman 3511
Konrad Heilman 3403 Konrad Heilman 3508 Konrad Heilman 3429
Pedro L. Garcia 3387 Pedro L. Garcia 3395 Pedro L. Garcia 3345
Wolfgang Siess 3157 Ricker Goldsborough 3264 Ricker Goldsborough 3202
Ricker Goldsborough 3112 Wolfgang Siess 3139 Wolfgang Siess 3088
Larry Bunner 3035 Larry Bunner 3104 Larry Bunner 3058
Greg Dinauer 3025 Greg Dinauer 3062 Greg Dinauer 3044
Glen Mcfarlane 3009 Glen Mcfarlane 3010 Glen Mcfarlane 2970
Jesus Hernando 2880 Jesus Hernando 2935 Jesus Hernando 2902
Jose Iriarte 2785 Jose Iriarte 2835 Jose Iriarte 2847
Fabiano Nahoum 2303 Fabiano Nahoum 2408 Fabiano Nahoum 2371
Charles Allen 2142 Charles Allen 2207 Charles Allen 2142
Linda Salamone 1677 Linda Salamone 1739 Linda Salamone 1697
Mitch Shipley 1567 Mitch Shipley 1544 Mitch Shipley 1527
Bill Reynolds 1468 Bill Reynolds 1510 Bill Reynolds 1473
Pavel Vasilev 1416 Pavel Vasilev 1425 Pavel Vasilev 1416
Gennadiy Khramov 1065 Jamie Shelden 1089 Gennadiy Khramov 1065
Jamie Shelden 1031 Gennadiy Khramov 1065 Jamie Shelden 1031
Claudia Mejia 494 Claudia Mejia 494 Claudia Mejia 494
Alexsi Smirnov 432 Alexsi Smirnov 432 Alexsi Smirnov 432
Davis Straub 230 Davis Straub 230 Davis Straub 230

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2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2012, 9:24:17 pm MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day three, task three, Tuesday

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

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

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

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

Results will be here later.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Day three:

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Robin Hamilton Moyes 85,88 916
2 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 85,61 913
3 Obi WW T2C 144 85,31 911
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 83,65 892
4 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 84,04 892
6 Pedro Garcia WW T2C 144 82,64 881
7 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS 3.5 81,37 860
8 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 81,28 853
9 Michael Bylik WW T2C 79,69 829
10 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 79,62 826

Totals:

# Name Glider Total
1 Obi WW T2C 144 2674
2 Robin Hamilton Moyes 2638
3 Mitch Shipley WW T2C 144 2497
4 Matt Barker WW T2C 144 2494
5 Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat L 13 2475
6 Ben Dunn Moyes RS 3.5 2442
7 Zippy WW T2C 144 2404
8 Davis Straub WW T2C 144 2384
9 Dustin WW T2C 144 2354
10 Chris Zimmerman WW T2C 144 2329

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2012, 6:28:36 MST

2012 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The morning of day three, task three, Tuesday

Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Patrick Kruse|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012|Zac Majors

http://tinyurl.com/davisspot

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

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

Results will be here later.

There are nice fuzzy creatures out here in Arizona, not just in Texas:

Photo by Patrick Kruse.

Jeff O'Brien is in the lead, followed by Joe Bostik and Zac Majors. Kraig Coomber wasn't able to get here for the first day. Alex McCulloh started early on Monday and was penalized 151 points.

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2012 Team Challenge filling up

Fri, Aug 24 2012, 9:16:17 am MDT

A few slots left

Dennis Pagen|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|Jim Rooney|Joe Bostik|Mark Bolt|Mark Stump|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Ollie Gregory|PG|Tennessee Tree Toppers|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2012|Tom Lanning|video

Ollie Gregory «Ollie Gregory» writes:

Team Challenge 2012 is filling rapidly. If you plan to participate in this awesome event, please register and send in your fees to hold your place. We'll cap Team Challenge at 10 teams of 5 pilots each. Right now we have 40 pilots on our list. I'm not sure how many have paid to hold their spots, but those not paid up by August 30th will lose their spots. We have some super people coming to help out this year, so get on board while you can! Jamie Shelden is coming to help lead a team! Mike Barber, Dennis Pagen, Mitch Shipley, Jim Rooney, Mark Stump, Mark Bolt, Tom Lanning, and more experienced hang gliding leaders will be here to help you learn more in a week than you could in a year of free flying. Joe Bostik is gonna be there, so it'll be crazy fun for sure! Don't miss out! Register now!

Don't forget! Hang 2 TTT pilots may participate in the launch and landing clinics for the week and enjoy all the seminars, camaraderie, camping, and fun stuff for $50 to be paid on site. This Team Challenge is going to be special with our paragliding friends participating in many of our seminars and discussions. The party is gonna be a blast!

Register at www.tennesseetreetoppers.org and go to the Team Challenge link. You can pay with the paypal button!

http://vimeo.com/31648164

Go to our Facebook page and see more pictures and videos. https://www.facebook.com/Tennesseetreetoppers

2012 Big Spring Championships »

July 29, 2012, 8:32:01 pm CDT

2012 Big Spring Championships

The last day

Big Spring Championships 2012|Bill Soderquist|dust devil|Glen Volk|Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Russell "Russ" Brown|weather|Zac Majors

It's been an incredible competition and we had fun every day. The weather was amazing and the lift was so strong and smooth.

The forecast for Saturday was for strong winds (10-11 knots) out of the south, with strong lift, but maybe no clouds, but if clouds, a few wispies at best.

The task committee was late in forming so Larry Bunner and I came up with a 113 kilometer cross wind task, that would get us back to Big Spring (by driving from Lamesa) in time for the awards. This did not sit well with Glen Volk when the task committee finally formed as he was eager for a big task, three to four hours for the winner. We had called a 200 kilometer task the day before, but that one was stopped.

So the task committee with a little help came up with a Z task (which you can find at the Soaring Sport URL above), 163 kilometers, with all legs cross wind in strong wind, and the last leg straight cross wind. A real man's task.

The sky was almost complete cu free was I launched fourth at 12:51. I pinned off at 1,200' in 200 fpm and climbed to 6,000' but no higher. Yes, not only would we be flying with few or no cu's, but the cloud base would be low and the wind would not be our friend.

The start cylinder proved to be difficult as those of us in the air struggled to stay up. Jonny launched and landed and had to go again. Bill Soderquist had three launches.

The strong wind kept us forcing our way upwind to stay near the air field incase things went pear shaped, as they did for a number of pilots. An hour into it, Zac Majors mentioned that he was getting 300 fpm over the terminal and I raced toward him finding 300 fpm north of the hangars and near the prison. The thermal quickly filled up with twenty more pilots some not that high above the prison.

This time things were better and we climbed to 7,800'. With seven minutes to go before the first clock, and I was sure to take the first clock on this long task. I left the thermal when the lift gave out. Zac had already headed south west to get way back upwind and be prepared to take a later start. I headed off into the blue in that direction which would also put me closer to the cylinder edge as the start window opened.

Two minutes before the window opened and three kilometers from the cylinder edge I spotted a wispie to the northwest toward the first turnpoint and the cylinder edge. I headed for it alone.

I got there just as the start window opened to find 400 fpm, the strongest lift so far. Zac was way to the south. I told Jeff and Zac what I had found as I quickly climbed to 7,900' and other pilots came in below. I drifted outside the start cylinder four minutes after it opened and went on glide at cloud base. I was alone and in front, with Larry Bunner also starting but way below me. I left a number of pilots climbing behind me, including Jeff.

I raced to the northwest to get over a dust devil and under a cloud, but north (downwind) of the course line by four kilometers. It worked at 400 mph and I was alone and out in front and going fast. Jeff was waiting for the next clock and Zac for the third.

I headed west and then had to work 200 fpm searching for better as the dust devil disappeared into a green field. After getting to 7,300' I headed west northwest to get under the wispies near the turnpoint. I was rewarded with 600 fpm 8,500'. This got me quickly to the first turnpoint. I had covered 50 kilometers in less then fifty five minutes in the cross wind.

There was a good looking set of cu's to the northeast of the turnpoint, again downwind of the course line, but I needed to get up from 6,000'. It was 400 fpm as Larry Bunner came in under me. This thermal got us to 9,400' and we headed out to the east to get upwind of the course line. I was reading 20 mph wind speed out of the south, although SeeYou shows 15 to 18 mph.

Larry drifted back to the north in the next thermal at 280 fpm, but I pushed forward and found 370 fpm. Joe Bostik and Eduardo Oliviera came in under me and we all climbed to 8,200'

We worked weak lift just past the highway between Lamesa and Big Spring, then Joe and I found strong lift (500 fpm) over the oil patched further east and off the cultivated fields.  Eduardo continued off to the south and we lost track of him. Larry came in under us but was too low to continue on with us.

Joe and I were now a couple and the next thermal with a nice cu was 600 fpm to 9,000'. Not only that but we found a good line of lift and for the next eight kilometers we only lost 500'. We were only eight kilometers from the turnpoint and 8,500' and cruising.

Joe shaded to the right, upwind a bit as I headed directly for the turnpoint. The next eight kilometers were not nearly as the previous eight as we lost 3000'. Joe didn't bother with the turnpoint but headed to a spot two kilometers past it. I saw him beginning to turn and raced to get under him. I had made the turnpoint with 3,000' AGL and still had plenty of altitude.

The sink was big and when I came under Joe I just couldn't find what he was in. While Joe was getting 400 fpm up, I found 60 fpm up that I lost as I quickly drifted to the north. I landed north of the turnpoint.

Joe was able to gain a couple of thousand feet, and then move west to get in a weak thermal that drifted him way to the north and away from the straight west leg, until it turned into 600 fpm and made it possible to get to goal. Larry worked a bunch of thermals in the last fifteen kilometers to the turnpoint and made it with 9,000', making it significantly easier to make it back west to goal at Lamesa. He was the first pilot into goal.

Eduardo made it back to within four kilometers of the goal. Jonny won the day, starting with the third clock and coming in sixteen minutes after Larry. He said that the second leg was hard, but Larry and I and Joe and Eduardo found it to be easy.

Jeff O'Brien came behind me taking the second clock and came in one minute before Jonny. Zac landed way short not making the first turnpoint. Glen Volk landed 30 kilometers past the first turnpoint.

Last Year Zac and I finished first and second in this competition. This year I was 21st and Zac was 22nd. We each won one of the tasks. Things can change quickly in hang gliding.

On the first two days I didn't have the VG working with the wheels that I had on my base tube. The VG is my most important tool for going as fast as possible. Finally I bit the bullet and drilled two new holes to move the cleat on my borrowed glider.

On the fifth day I flew with Jeff's aluminum base tube as I had cracked my carbon fiber one and flew without wheels. Russell Brown repaired the base tube overnight and I got to fly it with wheels on the last day.

I was quite happy with my flying on the last two days especially. Catching the lead gaggle on day six to win the day was great. Flying fast for the first two legs on the last day was also great and I just missed a thermal.

It looks like we'll come back to Big Spring (in August and not July) as even when the weather isn't perfect it is great.

2012 Big Spring Championships »

July 26, 2012, 9:57:38 pm CDT

2012 Big Spring Championships

Day Five

Big Spring Championships 2012|Blue Sky|Joe Bostik

http://soaringspot.com/2012bsc/

http://tinyurl.com/bigspringspot

Big Spring blows up.

The models (RAP and NAM) were contradicting each other, one showing that we would be completely covered with clouds and the other showed areas of lift. The forecast for winds were also not in agreement. The local winds were 15 mph at 9 AM, but the forecasts seemed to indicate lighter winds.

The moisture and clouds from the night before were hanging around in the morning and the local forecast was for a 40% chance of rain. It was hot and sunny on the tarmac at the launch area with light winds at 1 PM.

The task committee delayed the launch after seeing cu-nimbs on radar over the goal. Then called the task to the south to try to run from the cu-nimbs to the northeast and delayed the task another fifteen minutes more.

The cu's started forming to our south in areas that had been covered with mid level clouds as we started to launch. I was the sixth pilot in the air. I was pulled toward a big cu to the southwest and pinned off in light lift at 2,000' AGL. Ricker, Matt and I found better lift under the edge of the cu and started climbing at 350 fpm.

Getting to over 7,000' I came around and saw that we were next to a rain shower. We were only three kilometers southwest of the launch area. I immediately left the area and headed east toward blue sky and isolated cu's. I had no desire to be near this cu that was now towering and black and raining.

East of the runway I headed north back toward the airport as I watched pilots continue to be towed into the air and wondered what was up. My radio wasn't working so I didn't know if the task had been cancelled or not, but from the activity it seemed to be on.

Then I noticed a tug stopped in front of the line of pilots and not going to the tow position. That was enough to tell me that the day was called or about to be. I could still see pilots thermaling in what looked like the rain showers to my west.

I headed east to the Big Spring Country Club, which looked like it had a nice landing area. There were wind mills nearby so I thought that I would have good wind indicators. Unfortunately while they were next to each other they were indicating winds in the opposite directions.

As I got lower I could feel the winds, but then saw that the flags in the driving range were blowing the opposite direction. I fortunately came in and had an uneventful landing, if not that elegant.

Back at the airfield, Joe Bostik was fighting for his life landing in a gust front. The other pilots who didn't launch had scurried back into the hangar. While I had headed east Zippy headed south to get away from the storm and landed safely.

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The Flytec Race and Rally

April 28, 2012, 11:04:17 EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

We fly east and then drive north

Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Quest Air

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com/

SPOTS:

Wolfi here
Ben here
Konrad here
Jonny here
Alex Cuddy here
David Aldrich here

The fourth task was to the east south east on the first leg, then a short leg to the northeast, from the airfield at Live Oak to a little grass strip with a very friendly owner who was amazed at how bad the landings were. Apparently the wind was switchy. Length, 99 kilometers.

Thirty five or so pilots made goal. Zippy was the first pilot in. Carl perhaps won the day taking the second start.

While there were cu's when we started launching, the sky dried up as forecasted.  The winds were out of the west southwest and the course line took us over swamp lands requiring safety oriented pilots to go south of the course line. Most pilots went right over the swamp lands as the winds were pushing them to the north of the north of the course line.

Joe Bostik had an interesting time landing on prison grounds and getting a complete dressing down by the guards. There was a strong inversion which kept most of the climbs under 5,000' often far under.

I had a pleasant enough thirty kilometer flight starting near the end of the line after the rigid wings. Kept up with them for twenty kilometers. At thirty kilometers out the forest began along interstate ten and I went south to stay over cultivated areas, but went down immediately when I did so.

We are in Moultrie and ready for a good task tomorrow.

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

The Rob Kells Meet

April 16, 2012, 5:47:52 pm EDT

The Rob Kells Meet

Shading and then the sky opens up

Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Rob Kells|video

http://soaringspot.com/2012rk/

The task committee called a 121.4 km to the north with a turnpoint at the Hennessey airfield, and then to Wauchula. But with dark cu's making for widespread shading. The task committee delayed the task by half an hour and shorten it to 85 km to the arcadia airfield. Zac called both airfields and got permission to show up. They were all very happy to have us.

The sky opened up after 2 PM after a day of shading. We were ready to go and I got in line behind Joe Bostik on my Wills Wing Falcon 3 170.  Most of the pilots who launched earlier had landed.

I found lift but it was weak and broken up by the wind. I climbed a little, but when I moved over to get in better lift I fell out and had to land back at the flight park.

Soon I was ready to go again. I got towed into lift, but again it was weak and broken. I just couldn't climb greater than 50 fpm. I hung in the lift until I lost it and was again forced to land, this time five miles out. In the Falcon I just had very limited range to find the next bit of lift. Pilots around me were able to go upwind and get into better lift.

When I got back to the Oz Report World Headquarters I was able to track Jonny (who made goal quickly), Konrado, Wolfi, and Ben, at the SPOT sites above.

Ben made it. Wolfi finally made it and Konrad looks a little short.

More later today.

Two landings in thirty eight seconds here. High Definition in full screen is spectacular.

Paris wins the day and takes the lead.

Steve Pearson on landings

March 27, 2012, 8:44:42 EDT

Steve Pearson on landings

The hands low on the down tubes

Jim Rooney|Joe Bostik|Steven "Steve" Pearson|video

Steve Pearson at Wills Wings shows how to land:

No step landing. My hands are never higher. Lateral control is the most important factor for a good landing.

Pearson whacks Greblo (Thanks to Joe Bostik): http://vimeo.com/39102874

Jim Rooney on landing: http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26379

Cloudsuck, chapter 2 »

December 12, 2011, 9:12:40 PST

Cloudsuck, chapter 2

I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season

Chris Arai|Cloudsuck|Joe Bostik|Ken Brown|Larry Tudor|record

Many pilots wonder what it really takes to set a world record. Some wonder what it's like to fly at a place like Zapata or other world class sites. Cloudsuck answers these and other questions while telling the story of how I set the current Distance World Record for Rigid Wings. Over this winter, I am pleased to make the book available as a gift to my readers in serialized form. Each Monday, another chapter will be available for you to enjoy here on the Oz Report. The best read is the one in it's entirety, and both the soft cover book and an ebook are available to purchase here: http://ozreport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can find the Kindle version on Amazon.

If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck2.pdf

I hope you enjoy the book and this week's chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I got my own first taste of long-distance hang gliding at the 1989 Manufacturers' League Meet at Pine Mountain, Oregon. Twenty miles east of the resort town of Bend and on the dry side of the Cascades, Pine Mountain rises three thousand feet above the surrounding flat desert, a perfect spot for a hang gliding competition. The launch area was a broad, gentle slope, facing into predominantly west winds.

My first short cross-country flights had taken place the previous summer, from Chelan Butte in central Washington State. These were truly short flights — in fact it was only a month before the League Meet that I had actually flown further than eleven miles. It had taken three years of baby steps for me to progress from running with a hang glider down a small training hill to flying any distance at all.

The League Meet was one of four top U.S. hang gliding competitions that year. Although I had no competition experience, this meet was taking place only a seven hour drive from my home in Seattle. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to gain some cross-country experience so I figured, why not join in the fun?

That June I had purchased a used Wills Wing Sport 167. Although not a top of the line hang glider, the Sport was a significant step up in performance from my previous wing. Larry’s buddy, Czechoslovakian immigrant pilot Joe Bostik, had won the U.S. Nationals on a Sport the summer before. And on my first flight with it from Chelan Butte, I had flown further than ever before, about 25 miles. I was so exhilarated after the premature end to that flight that my mind was still racing. It was clear to me this — flying across country on a hang glider — was all I really wanted to do.

The League Meet attracted all the top U.S. and Canadian hang glider pilots, plus a number of highly-ranked competitors from Europe and Australia. Everyone came to show off the new gliders from their sponsoring manufacturers. There was (and still is) very little money to support these few top pilots, but they do get to fly the latest models, which helps them maintain their positions in the world rankings.

I was a clueless nobody who was about to get a great education, even though it would take me a good number of years to appreciate those lessons. I brought my new 4Runner that sported a large rack, along with my neighbor Stephanie to act as a dedicated driver — and these resources were in short supply. As luck would have it, I was able to hook up with the elite Wills Wing team, ranked first in the U.S., who were looking for just what this little twerp had to offer.

With the Wills Wing team in my truck, I got to listen in on the ride back as Larry Tudor, Chris Arai, and Randy Haney discussed their flights and tactics. It was way too much for me to understand.

The first day's task was a seventy-five mile race to the east, following Highway 20 to the truck stop at Riley on Silver Creek. Here Highway 395, winding its way up the eastern side of the Sierras from Southern California through the Owens Valley and the eastern deserts of Oregon, joined Highway 20 and jogs east to Burns before continuing north. Silver Creek provided an oasis in this sagebrush country, a swath of green visible from many miles away if you were high in a hang glider.

The thermals that got us above launch and over the top of Pine Mountain couldn't have been friendlier. I looked out for the first time on that big expanse of sagebrush, and was just happy to see that I could follow Highway 20 as I flew east. I had no idea how far seventy-five miles was in a hang glider. There were already plenty of faster pilots out in front of me; I figured all I had to do was look for where they were circling up and I'd probably find the next thermal.

I struggled, flying from gaggle to gaggle and getting further and further behind, but making my way over that bewildering eastern Oregon landscape. It was three hours later when a fast pilot (who had obviously taken a later start time) joined in me in a thermal and then quickly dove off to the west. “Where is he going so fast?” I wondered as I kept circling up.

Oh — oh — there a little to my east I saw not brown desert but this long thin stretch of green around a wandering creek. Uh, let's see, just what is that, oh, wait, it — no, yes it is — it must be goal. Perhaps I'd turned in too many circles, because it took a while to realize I was already there.

I was the last pilot able to make it to goal on that first day, and there were quite a few who didn’t make it that far. I was happy just to be there at all, having flown three times farther than I'd ever flown before. Again, it was all too much for me to absorb. I was delirious.

I continued to fly well beyond my experience level for the next few days, scoring in the upper third of the pilots at the meet. Then on the fifth day the meet director called a 98-mile task south, across an area with only a few gravel roads, to Valley Falls. The goal was a hay field next to an old gas station at the intersection of Highways 31 and 395, only thirty miles north of the Oregon/California border. It was the longest task yet called in a hang gliding meet, from central Oregon to almost California.

With no easy overland route over the back of Pine Mountain and through the Deschutes National Forest, Stephanie would have to take my truck back into Bend and then south on Highway 97. She could veer off to the southeast on Highway 31 and, I hoped, get close enough to hear me calling on the CB radio by the time I was sixty miles or so out on course. This was assuming I could get that far, and was high enough at the time to have decent radio communication.

The early going was really tough. I wasn’t getting high over the mountain, and had to drift downwind in the weak lift that rose off the mountain’s eastern flanks. Dropping below the low hillcrests, I was searching everywhere for less sink — or better yet some air going up. I followed a low ridge line hoping to catch something coming up its sides. I just didn’t want to lose the race so early, and was desperate to get up.

At the last minute, just before I had no choice but to set up a landing, I found a weak thermal over the ridge that slowly got me up out of that sink hole. Later I learned I had been lucky: much more experienced and expert pilots than I was had not gotten away from the mountain on that day.

To the south there were broad areas of old lava flows heated by the sun and small buttes of warm rocks that provided the necessary lift. As the day got later it got better. Since I had no way to contact Stephanie until we got closer together — and no idea how to describe where I was if I should have to land — I was happy just to stay as high as possible and keep going.

The first inhabited spot to the south was Christmas Valley, a small dry farming community forty miles from Pine Mountain; I found myself there working low over dusty plowed fields. At least I could see civilization nearby a few miles to the west, so I knew I wouldn't die of thirst out in the desert if I couldn’t get up. A few thousand feet over the ground, I dove for a tractor working a circular field, and sure enough there was a thermal right over the farmer's head. That thermal took me high enough to get up into the gray, brown and empty hills to the southeast, following a dirt road up the swales.

I knew I had left my chances of reasonable retrieval behind as I worked back into the hills with nothing but jeep trails crossing them. Later I learned that Ken Brown, a highly-respected U.S. pilot, had landed in those very hills and spent the night sleeping in his harness next to an alkali lake. But when I got there I found the strongest thermal of the day and started climbing out fast.

I just hung on as this fat powerful monster took me from six thousand feet to fourteen thousand in just a few minutes. As I looked down, the landscape seemed to have lost all of its features. I had never been so high before, having barely reached ten thousand feet while flying in Chelan. I wasn't carrying oxygen, didn't own an oxygen system, and couldn't imagine getting high enough here in Oregon to need one. I had never been in a thermal so powerful, and I was scared, holding on for dear life. I was also so excited I could hardly stand it. Most of all I was happy to be high enough to cruise way over the tops of the big buttes in front of me, south along the western edge of Lake Abert and on down the ridgeline toward goal.

Finally I had to leave at almost fifteen thousand feet, when I started to experience symptoms of oxygen starvation — there were little black spots wherever I looked. I was still scared, but I was high and freezing cold. And I was even finally able to raise Stephanie on my portable CB radio. She wasn't but thirty miles behind me, driving as fast as she could down Highway 31. It looked as though I would survive this day — and maybe even make goal.

Continue reading here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck2.pdf.

Competing, flying, thinking and reviewing, part 4

Fri, Oct 7 2011, 8:53:00 am MDT

Competing, flying, thinking and reviewing

Flying fast on final glide

competition|Dustin Martin|Joe Bostik

Thursday, September 22nd, the fifth day of the Santa Cruz Flats Race was a good day for me and I stayed with others near the end, but not at first.

I'm very happy to be with others in gaggles in the start cylinder. I'm relying on how I see other pilots doing in whatever lift that there is to help me get as high as possible. So at the start of each day I'm near the top of the gaggle when the start window opens. I'm in great position as a large number of us head out at 1:45, the third start time. Kraig and Robin made the error of starting at 1:15 and we would catch them.

We hit a strong thermal four kilometers into the task that got us the highest so far of the competition and I was cold at the top of the thermal at 10,000'. This is not good as the most pressing thing on my mind when I'm cold is to get low to get warm. You'll notice that this is not the best idea for a hang glider pilot.

Also Jeff Dustin and I knew that Joe Bostik had gone back for the next clock as we were such a short distance into the entry start cylinder and so near the fourth start time as we got to the top of the thermal. The idea would be to go back, get the next start time, come back to this strong thermal and get high again. Because I was cold I didn't want to do that again. Because I was with everyone else I didn't want to leave my fellow thermal markers. Because Dustin and Jeff decided to continue I did. Because I felt if I also went back that might encourage others to do so also and then there would be no advantage but just wasted time.

But it would have been better to go back if everyone else stayed the course, then I would have had the thermals markers out in front of me. I would have had a fifteen minute advantage. I would have Jeff and Dustin on the radio with their reports in front of me.

Instead I was again out in front of a crowd of pilots who were more than happy to let me go and see what I could find. It was a long glide with no lift until I got low just south of Coolidge. I had to find lift then after I didn't find it over the hills on the way (and found big sink to their east). Everyone behind me could now use me as a marker and see if they could find better lift near by or go to me if not. The lift was quite weak.

Joe, in the meantime, found the strong lift over the hills where I did not find it and it was easy for him to catch up with us and come in high.

We all worked our way through the weak area, got the next turnpoint and headed south for the Newman Range. I deviated from the main group of pilots heading due south to try to shade into some small hills at the end of the range, but again the gaggle was better at finding lift and they got higher while I had to find the lift on my own after Larry headed over to them. I didn't get too far behind, but they were able to mke better time getting to the bigger hills further south, while I had to climb the faces (and take greater risks). I was behind Jeff, Dustin, and Larry as I climbed up over the highest peak.

But now with these guys in front I had some help with the conditions ahead. After getting the turnpoint to the south of the peak and getting high again at the peak I was able to glide right to the slowly climbing gaggle that most pilots were in. I made sure that I got the correct distance to the gaggle from Jeff. This put me in a much better position having made up many kilometers on the leaders.

I followed Glen out whenever he left the gaggle and that allowed me to stay with the fastest guys and w=have five in front of me searching for the best core as we came to the Casa Grande hills. I was able to find some of the best lift and then drift into even stronger lift gaining even more altitude on other pilots from below and quickly rising to near the top.

As soon as Robin or Kraig to my north (and in weaker lift) turned to go on final I left the lift and pulled in to fifty mph with plenty of altitude above my best glide line. I didn't pull in enough (to 60 mph) as about three quarters of the way on the nineteen kilometers to goal Dustin and then Jeff caught me. But the differences in points at this point were small.

Again, going out alone in front, not such a good idea. Flying with others and watching them, much better.

Discuss "Competing, flying, thinking and reviewing, part 4" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day two, task two »

September 19, 2011, 6:38:42 pm MST

2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Weak lift away from the launch (and early in the launch)

Brett Hazlett|Dustin Martin|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2011

The task:

http://santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/

With a forecast similar to Sunday the task committee called a task that they knew would allow pilots to avoid the green areas that proved to be so soft on Sunday. They also wanted to get pilots up on the mountains north of Picacho Peak and let them run the range to the second turnpoint making it easier to get back to the Francisco Grande.

Pilots weren't as lackadaisical today getting ready to launch. In fact there was a long line before the launch opened. We forced the ATOSes and Swifts to launch early and the flex wings were lined up behind them. The rigids starting launching at 11:45.

Unfortunately the lift was quite weak at noon and it was a struggle to stay up. Nothing like when I launched 56 minutes after noon on Sunday and immediately found good lift and climbed to over 7,000'. Everyone was huddled together and not venturing out to find if there was better lift some place else, because we were all too low.

As the hour and fifteen minutes elapsed toward the first start time the lift began turning on slowly. At first we were able to get almost 200 fpm around 1 PM. Then we found a little over 200 fpm and by the time the third start time cam around we were able to climb to 8,000' where as we had been stuck below 3,000'for the first half hour.

A good sized bunch of us took the 1;45 clock and headed for the little range south of Casa Grande. I got out in front as usual and found a strong thermal, 400 fpm on average, to over 9,200', before we got to the range. We then picked up the pace and came into the hills to join Dustin and Bunner.

Dustin and I headed out after a couple of turns but I was soon out ahead again flying fast. It is lonely out in front and I need to slow down a bit here in Casa Grande to stay with others. After a seventeen kilometer glide down to 3,000' AGL I hooked another 400 fpm thermal that took me back to 7,500'. As it broke up I headed out toward the turnpoint looking for O'Brien who was now working weak lift just in front of me.

Unfortunately I didn't see him and kept going not finding lift for 16 kilometers. I went under two circling gliders that had started half an hour earlier but there was nothing but sink below them and I landed.

Jeff worked the weak lift and got up slowly over my head with the two gliders that I had gone to. Dustin behind also worked his way up. Pilots were working very weak lift where I went down for a long time.

Once they got high they headed for the range, were able to get up and then make it back to Francisco Grande.

Brett Hazlett flying a Moyes Litespeed was able to nip Joe Bostik for the win today. Kraig Coomber was third, with Dustin then O'Brien. Then a long wait for the rest of the goal finishers. Bunner made it by 20 meters.

Discuss "2011 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Jonathan on an Wills Wing T2C 154

September 7, 2011, 8:34:02 MDT

Jonathan on an Wills Wing T2C 154

Lightweight

Bruce Barmakian|Joe Bostik|Rob McKenzie|video|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGi7f__duCI

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=23057

Jonathan writes:

Thanks to your reporting on Joe Bostik's impressions of the Wills Wing T2C 154 from the Nats, I blew off a perfectly good opportunity to sleep in (I had a cold) when Bruce Barmakian informed me Rob McKenzie had this glider for demo flying. Definitely worth losing sleep over!

Comparing the Wills Wing T2C 144 and 154 Thursday

August 19, 2011, 11:54:23 pm CDT

Comparing the Wills Wing T2C 144 and 154 Thursday

Joe Bostik could out climb me and had the same glide at the same speed and could go fast.

Joe Bostik|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wills Wing T2C

I had some long glides and climbed with Joe Bostik on Thursday. He is flying the Wills Wing T2C 154. He is 165 pounds and hooks in at a little less than 200 pound. I'm 175 pounds and hook in at 210.

He can climb slightly faster in thermals than I can. He glides very fast and his glide ratio is the same as the 144 at the high speeds that he glides at.

He likes how the 154 handles in thermals better than the 144. He says it just thermals itself and doesn't need as much pilot input.

Joe Bostik writes:

I had originally ordered a T2C144 as a replacement for my 2 year old 144. The glider was not ready when I met Steve Pearson in Utah over 4th of July. Steve offered me to fly his T2C154 and I asked, if I could tune it to my liking. He agreed and after few flights I fell in love with the climb performance, handling and the ability to track straight at high speeds. Steve offered to make me a new T2C154, if I took it to Big Spring Nationals and compare its performance to the small T2C and other gliders.

Well, here is my report to him:

Performance is absolutely identical to all the other high performance new racing gliders. Other pilots also agree. My ability to climb has significantly improved, and I spent less effort in thermals at slower speeds. Long glides require less effort to keep the glider flying straight, especially at high speeds. Towing and landings are significantly easier than in the T2C144.

I have to stress that I really loved my T2C144, but given the identical performance of the T2C154 there is no reason to leave the extra sail behind. I gain speed around the course by climbing faster.

The big glider requires a little different thermal entry techniques and that is the area where one can have some issues at first, especially at low wing loading. This can be more than compensated for once the glider is established in the thermal.

I am very happy with my choice and will be flying the T2C154 this and next season. My hook in weight is exactly 200lbs for those who wonder.

My glider will be available for Demos to comp pilots after Big Springs at Wills Wing. Great flying with you this week Davis. You are flying really well and deserve to be National Champion.

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Thursday »

August 18, 2011, 11:02:26 pm CDT

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Thursday

The best hang gliding in the world

David Glover|dust devil|Flytec 6030|Glen Volk|Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|record|US Nationals 2011|weather

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

There is no better location for hang gliding than Big Spring, Texas. After the flying that we have experienced so far this year and for the last eleven years, it is hard to imagine a better venue for actual hang gliding than right here.

The conditions, the consistency, the safety, the marvelous feeling in the air just can't be matched by any other location. For sure, it does not have a majestic beauty of, for example, the Dolomites or the Alps, but then again I spent every day of the 2011 Italian Nationals sitting at the hotel often just watching the rain. Perhaps someone should tell the meet organizers not to call for such meets in early June.

The conditions were so good on Wednesday it is hard to describe. We love cumulus clouds. We had plenty of love on Wednesday. We love strong smooth lift. We had plenty of that. We love racing right with our friends going as hard as possible. We had that and a lot more.

Being able to fly back to the airport and not just going long, even when there was a reasonable amount of wind is a blessing. Everyone loves to be able to just leave their glider setup in the huge hangar and to go have a bite to eat and get to bed before midnight.

Dave Proctor flew for almost six hours on Wednesday and made it back to goal with a thermal at 7 PM giving him 700 fpm. Where else are you going to find that?

David Glover, the meet organizer, always says that what keeps us coming back to Big Spring is: 1) the conditions, 2) the facilities (airport, hangar, water, terminal), and the people (very friendly and providing $20,000 each meet in services). It isn't the scenery (although it is interesting and beautiful in its way), and it isn't the great food (this is no southern Italy, but there are a few good restaurants). It's the world class flying.

Should we bid for the Worlds again, just to give the pilots what they want, great flying? Or are they actually just a bunch of tourists that want to have something other than hang gliding to entertain themselves?

So, now to Thursday. The task committee called at 202.6 km FAI triangle. Please let us know if a longer FAI triangle has been called and made in a competition. It may (or may not) be the longest FAI triangle called in a competition.

The weather forecast was for moderately light winds, cu's, strong lift. The winds were strong in the morning so we called a backup task to the north if they stayed that way. But with the lighter winds forecasted, the task committee called the big FAI triangle. The winds turned out to be pretty strong but not so strong that the task wasn't doable.

The cu's showed up after noon, but they were pretty sparse at first. Pilots were a bit reluctant to get going, at the 12:30 PM launch time, but they finally got into line at ten to one. I started fairly early, seven after one,  and this time found strong lift right away with Glen just below me and Bostik off to one side.

After we climbed to 9,000' we flew over to a nice looking cu on the east side of the runway and climbed up to cloud base at 10,000'. A bunch of us would stay at cloud base until it was time for the first start clock at 1:40. Obviously we didn't spend much time in the five kilometer start cylinder.

The wind was fifteen kilometers per hour out of the south. Our first leg was sixty six kilometers to the northeast. There were plenty of cu's in that direction.

A number if us who had been sitting around at cloud base decided to take the first clock, given that the task was long and should take almost five hours to complete. We wanted to get back to Big Spring before the lift died out.

Joe Bostik was first across the edge of the start cylinder and I crossed it eight  seconds after it opened. Alex Cuddy was just behind Joe and to his right. The three of us raced off without bothering to see if anyone else was coming with us. There must have been ten pilots at cloud base.

The first glide was eleven kilometers and we were averaging fifty five mph over the ground with a quartering tail wind. We raced hard and found strong lift repeatedly back to over 9,000'. Joe was leading and I was following from behind and lower.

About half way to the turnpoint Joe went on a path that didn't appeal to Alex or me and we shaded right to get under some clouds. We hit good lift and got back to over 9,000' As we headed from the next thermal I saw Joe low and circling in a sunlit area far from any cu's.

We hit another thermal then headed directly for the turnpoint and some scattered cu's before the turnpoint. I was leading and this was a mistake on my part. We should have continued shading to the right to get under some better clouds and approach the turnpoint from the south and not the south southwest given the fourteen mph winds out of the south.

This mistake was almost fatal. The scattered cu's formed a big cu, but the lift was barely positive, and we were being blown past the turnpoint to our east. Finally I ran for the turnpoint with Alex following and then ran back to the west. The sink was 600 to 700 fpm down. It looked like I would be flushed to the ground.

I passed over a field that look landable and kept going a little bit further down to 600' AGL. I could feel just a hint of lift in the next field and went for it. It was going up and I hopped on the train.

After I made a few turns Bostik came in under me, having not yet made the turnpoint and we climbed to 6,700' before he took off for the turnpoint back upwind and to the east. I headed south upwind to where Alex and another pilot were turning.

The lift was rough and not going up very much at first but down to 4,500' I was going to hang with it after my near death experience. Alex saw some birds circling and headed off south getting low quickly and soon landing. The other pilot and I finally found the good core and I climbed to 11,200' as he went back to get the turnpoint.

The wind was now twelve mph out of the south southeast and our next turnpoint at La Mesa was due east. I headed west south west fourteen kilometers before I got in a nice thermal under Glen Volk. I had a glimpse of Glen earlier on the course and it was good to see him as he was in second just behind me. We climbed to 10,500' and then headed off west southwest trying to stay upwind of the course line to La Mesa.

It was a saw tooth course all the way to La Mesa with a now ten mph south southeast wind. We were getting to over 11,000' and jumping from cu to cu. Joe Bostik caught up with us, and there were a few other pilots around. We were racing as hard as possible and taking only the good lift.

Bostik, Zippy, Volk, Shipley and I all hooked up at the La Mesa turnpoint. We were at 9,500' and heading south back to Big Spring. Joe was pulling. We were heading into a ten to twelve mph head wind.

After a few thermals Joe headed off further to the west than pilots were comfortable with so we headed for some cu's and found lift. Joe was low and turned east apparently to get back under some cu's. The four of us continued to fly together working one cu after another.

At first Zippy and Mitch were leading then after Glen and I spotted a dust devil Glen and I were leading. At twenty five kilometers from goal, I got dropped off the bottom end when I didn't climb as well as the others. Glen at cloud base headed off toward goal with Zippy and Mitch following.

I followed for a little while but it was all blue ahead to goal and I was too low to make it unlike what it looked like for the other three.

I turned west to get under some forming cu's (this was at almost 6 PM) and found strong lift after a bit of a search. I climbed in that thermal at eighteen kilometers out to 10,600'. I had an required 8:1 glide to goal with a ten mph head wind.

I started gliding in and then noticed Glen low circling about ten kilometers out. A few kilometers ahead of him was Zippy, way below me, but going on glide toward goal. I pulled the bar in figuring that he if could make it I certainly could. The 6030 said I had goal by 800'.

 I raced Zippy to goal and lost by a couple of seconds. I was so excited because he had been so high above me twenty five kilometers out and I wasn't even sure I would make it in. Mitch came in a little later, but Glen did not make it in.

Larry Bunner was the first pilot in ten minutes before me and he took the second clock. It turns out that Zippy and Mitch also took the second clock.

Now the question is did Larry beat Attila's 200 km triangle record set in 2000? It looks like he did. This wasn't a real 200 kilometer triangle because we didn't account for the cylinder radii. Still he did 195.6 kilometers at an average speed of 45 km/h, which is indeed faster than Attila's record.

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Tuesday »

August 17, 2011, 7:38:07 CDT

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Tuesday

We go 242 kilometers to Muleshoe

dust devil|Greg Chastain|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|US Nationals 2011|Wills Wing T2C

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

The task committee called a big task, 380 kilometers (236 miles), the longest task ever called in a competition. But they had a backup in case it looked like the cu's might show up to the northwest and not to the northeast, 242 kilometers (150 miles) to Muleshoe. During the 2007 Worlds the longest task was to Clovis just west of Muleshoe, so this was a little bit shorter.

The cu's did not show up at least any where near Big Spring, or La Mesa or Brownfield. They sure didn't show up on the eastern side of Lubbock and there were no cu's around the airport when we started launching at 12:30. Pilots like to see cu's before they commit aviation especially on a windy day.

The task committee switches to the back up task to Muleshoe given the lack of cu's. The winds die down just in time for the launch so everyone is feeling a little less apprehensive. I launch fairly early just behind Joe Bostik.

Jonny Thompson pulls me into a reasonable thermal and I pin off just short of 2,000' AGL and start twirling up. Apparently there isn't any other good lift around because everyone who launched earlier and a few who launched later came and joined me in that thermal as I climb to 7,700', the top of the inversion. The forecast was for 12,000' cloud base, but there are no cu's and there is a very visible inversion that is not broken and is preventing us from getting higher.

Joe climbs up under me as I hit the ceiling as does Mark Bolt. I know that Joe is going to take the first start time at 1:40 PM because he thinks that there is no way that we are going to make it to goal. When he heads off toward the edge of the fifteen kilometer start cylinder, too late to make a good start time, I half heartedly head in his direction just to see if he finds some lift. Mark heads that way also.

There is no lift to be found as Mark and I search around in the general direction of northwest from the airport. This looks like a difficult day. Back at the airport pilots are not sticking as a flush cycle moves through. Zippy and Glen will have to relaunch later. Zippy never found lift on his first flight and Glen went back to the airport from 6,000' and didn't get back up.

Mark and I spot Joe climbing (but not well) at the edge of the start cylinder and not finding any other lift go over to him. This basically commits us to the first start clock seven minutes late. Oh, well, one has to stay up first.

The three of us work together working 250 fpm broken lift and not quite getting back to 7,500'. We spread out and search for the next lift thinking that we've got a long day ahead of us if this is what we can expect for lift. The wind is fifteen mph out of the south and we keep edging to the north northwest toward Muleshoe.

We drop Mark around Ackerly thirty kilometers out and Joe and I race ahead toward the eastern side of La Mesa where we find 500 fpm and climb up through the inversion to 8,900'. I'm leading from just below and finding tiny dust devils that mark good lift. After two thermals that average over 500 fpm, it seems like the day has finally turned on and we can go for the stronger thermals, instead of hanging on to 250 fpm. I lead out again (watching Joe's and my shadows closely to keep a tab on Joe). I fly straight through 300 fpm lift over a small dust devil not worrying about it but just slowing down and head for what I hope is better lift ahead.

This, of course, turns out to be a mistake and I have to take 170 fpm at 6,000' northwest of La Mesa to try to stay up high enough to find the next lift. I will spend the next ninety kilometers low and in weak lift. Joe was smart enough to stay back a little from me and turn in better lift.

I struggle in the broken lift drifting along the course line and trying everything that I can to find better lift. I'm so low that I have to stay in anything I can find, but I can search in the general vicinity of the lift to see if there is anything better.

About half way through this weak area I go on a long glide that looks to me will end in landing. Heading for the highway I go over the grassy areas away from the cultivated field and find lift at 600'.  It only averages 150 fpm, but it saves me from landing. After a few minutes Larry Bunner, who took the second clock, comes and joins me. And then gets away from me as he found the better core before I did.

I can see the first cu's maybe twenty kilometers to the north northwest. I've got to make it through the weak area in order to get under those cu's and finally get some good lift. I climb in 300 fpm and to over 7,000' and head for the clouds. Unfortunately although I line myself right up with a row of them I can't find any lift under them.

I center punch three or four clouds and get nothing. Then I see a little dust devil off to the west and jump over to it to find 300 fpm. It's all broken and it sure isn't strong like it was on Monday but I'm going up.

There are plenty of cu's ahead and while most of them don't work, a few do. I jump to a field with a few dust devils (they always seem to work) just east of Leveland and climb up to 9,600' at 500 fpm. I'm high for the first time since La Mesa.

The cu's along the course line are sparse but I head out in that general direction shading a bit toward some possible lift under cu's and looking for ones that are just forming. Jumping to the west I get up under some forming cu's staying between 5,000' and 6,500' as the ground rises to 3,300' from 2,500' at Big Spring.

I can see a well formed, high, cloud street going street to goal twenty kilometers ahead and to the west. I work my way over in that direction to get lined up with the cloud street having to work some light lift to get there high enough. I see a small dust devil under the south end of the street and assume that this is a sign that the cu's won't let me down this time. I leave a 250 fpm thermal and head for the dust devil.

When I get there I find lift that averages over 700 fpm, with long stretches of 900+ fpm. I'm twenty six kilometers from the goal and given this rate of climb there is no reason not to take it until I am absolutely certain I can make goal at the fastest possible speed.

I leave the lift at 10,500' and try to get away from the cloud street as far as possible to get into the sink and avoid being tossed around with the bar stuffed. It is pretty turbulent at 50+ mph, but I'm getting over 70 mph over the ground. I'm able to get the glider down to 1,200' AGL at the goal.

Larry and Joe are there already. Larry was first into goal about eleven minutes before me at 6 PM. Looks like he won the day. Pilots slowly dribble in with Greg Chastain fourth. Much later Zippy and Glen and then Bob Flipchuck come in after 7:30 after taking the last clock. It's nice to have lift so late.

Mark Bolt made goal and later said that he watched me pulled away from him and climb on him flying straight. It appears as though this Wills Wing T2C-144 is flying very well.

Scores will be available later in the morning on Wednesday as we got back at 11 PM.

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Monday »

August 16, 2011, 8:10:31 CDT

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Monday

To go fast, pull in the bar

Belinda Boulter|dust devil|Flytec 6030|Glen Volk|Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner|US Nationals 2011|Wills Wing T2C

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

The water in Big Spring tastes terrible, so we drink bottled or filtered water. 

Texas plant will turn sewage into drinking water

The Colorado River Municipal Water District in West Texas began considering a wastewater recycling plant back in 2000 and broke ground last month on the facility in Big Spring, about 100 miles southeast of Lubbock. When finished late next year, it should supply two million gallons of water a day.

I've never flown flex wings fast enough. I flew an ATOS for years and I was able to fly plenty fast on that because you don't have to pull on a VG line and it is easy to pull in the bar. Now flying with the latest Wills Wing T2C 144 with the 24:1 VG line, I'm finally able to easily and consistently pull most of the rope on the VG line and get the bar pressure reduced to a very manageable amount, making it easy for me to pull and then push the bar to my waist or beyond.

In order get to goal quickly you need to fly fast between thermals. Much faster than best Speed to Fly speed. In strong conditions with consistent thermal spacing so that you don't have to worry about searching for thermals you need to fly between 45 and 55 mph. The rate of climb indicator that reflects my current air speed on my Flytec 6030 is for the most part pegged. I'm flying almost as fast as the air will let me, meaning that I am flying through sink and not being tossed about by lift.

To get to goal fast, fly fast. To fly fast, pull in the bar. To make it possible to pull in the bar for hours, pull on the VG to reduce the bar pressure.

The forecast on Monday morning was for a return to normal Big Spring conditions. A strong south wind, about 15 mph, cloud base around 10,000', cumulus clouds, lift 500-600 fpm, temperatures at cloud base around 54 degrees. The task committee called for a slight dog leg task to the north to a small paved runway to the east of Lubbock, 164 km. With the wind it looked like we could do the task in about two and a half hours.

The cu's started forming around noon, just as we like it here, but they are pretty sparse indicating that there won't be over development like on Sunday.  Larry Bunner and I talked over the task as we stand next to the launch box and given the slowly developing cu's and the short task, decide that taking the last start clock is the way to go. It seems to us that the later the better as we will then be able to race in the best part of the day.

All the pilots in priority wait for a later launch and the launch proceeds quickly with pilots not having to wait and getting pulled up efficiently. A half hour after the launch opens we all get in line and are soon in the air which is surprisingly smooth given that the launch conditions seemed a little rough with so much wind and thermals cracking through.

I climb up with Glen Volk to cloud base at 9,300' as we drift north at fifteen mph toward the forty five kilometer start cylinder. We join up with four other pilots under the thin cu's and hang at cloud base waiting for the later clocks.

Glen takes off for the second start time at 2 PM. I wait around with Bruce Barmekian and another pilot for the 2:20 final start time. I lost Larry after the launch as he didn't get pulled up that high and he takes the 2 PM start.

Cumulus development has proceeded and there are widely spaced but nice looking cu's to our north toward the first turnpoint, an intersection. The wind is out of the south southwest but is predicted to be southwest as we get near Lubbock. Our course line to the north northeast takes us over Mesquite covered areas to the east of the cultivated lands that are for the most part barren because of the lack of rain.

With the strong south southwest wind varying between sixteen to twenty six mph and the strong lift (700 fpm) under the cu's it is no problem staying high and going fast. I see 75 mph over the ground as I pull in to go 50+ mph on glide.

Belinda is racing with the truck on the highway just below me. She reports that Larry Bunner is down 6.7 km for the turnpoint. Just before the turnpoint I join up for a minute or less with Zippy, and then race off to the north diverting from the now north northeast course line to get under a line of clouds eleven kilometers away.

I find dust devils and strong lift under the cu's. Some of the thermals start off at 300 fpm but as soon as I find the core they go to 700 fpm. I'm soon passing pilots who started earlier.

I get further and further away from the course line sticking with the clouds until I can find a line of clouds that will take me back to the course line and to goal. More cu's are developing and it looks like I will have a chance ahead as I stay to the west of a big windmill farm, ten kilometers west of the course line.

Sixty kilometers out I start heading north northeast. I'm going more directly downwind now so I'm zooming across the landscape and finding strong lift under the increasing thick and inviting cu's. Thirty kilometers out I climb in a thermal that's averaging 600+ fpm to 9,700' and that gives me plenty of extra altitude to get to goal. I'm 2000'+ above the best glide line to goal, and I'm flying so fast that I'll be at 1000' below ground by the time that I get there. I figure I can slow up if I need to.

I stop for a couple of quick turns ten kilometers from goal is super strong lift but this turns out to be a mistake because all I hit is lift all the rest of the way into goal. This means that I can't fly fast enough as I am being banged around too hard by the lift. I come into goal with five gliders already there as they started at early start times. I make the goal in a little less than two hours, much less than we thought it would take.

Twenty or so pilots make it into goal. I don't actually land at the goal as there was too much lift there and I went weightless trying to get down. I found 800 fpm down to the east of goal and landed there.

Joe Bostik, yesterday's leader, had some "issues" and landed thirteen miles from goal.

Campbell and Greg on a bucking bronco on the first day.

Results can be found at the link above.

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Sunday »

August 15, 2011, 7:56:51 CDT

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Sunday

We fly the first day with challenging conditions

Belinda Boulter|Gary Osoba|Glen Volk|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Owen Morse|photo|US Nationals 2011|weather|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

In the middle of the night on Friday, the rains came. The first rains in either six months or a year depending on which local you're talking to. Texas is drying up and blowing away (See here.) There was a substantial amount of rain (maybe a quarter of an inch), and it rained into the morning. But by Saturday afternoon it had cleared up and a good number of folks were able to get some practice flights in.

The remnants of that storm were hanging around on Sunday as we looked to the south in the morning and saw cu-nimb development maybe fifty miles away. The forecasts showed it coming close to us later maybe even going to our north. With a higher temperature predicted to be 89, six degrees lower than normal, and a low cloud base forecasted to be between 6,000' and 7,000' (ground level is 2,500'), it looked like a day for a shorter task.

Zac Majors, Larry Bunner, and Glen Volk, the task committee, called a zigzag task to the north with a turn thirty three kilometers to the north east at Ackerly then thirty kilometers to the northeast Gail and then back to the airport at La Mesa to the west. When I called the weather in the morning I noticed the cu's forming to the north and west of us in addition tot he cu-nimbs to the south, but didn't think deeply enough about them to realize that maybe we should set the task at an earlier time. On the first day of the competition things are still a bit disorganized. The cu's normally form here between noon and one o'clock, which is what we like. If they were forming at 9:30 that meant that we could expect over development (there was forecasted at a 30% chance of thunderstorms) and we should have got going early. I just missed that one as I wasn't thinking as clearly as I should have about the task.

A shelf of stratus clouds approached us from the cu-nimbs to the south as we waited for the launch to open at 1 PM. There were towering cu's also to our south and the stratus clouds were shading almost everything to our south. It look like we had a very iffy day and we weren't even sure that we would be able to launch. The wind was five to ten mph out of the east or southeast.

I decided to get going early even though the conditions might be a little unsettled. It could gust from the south, or the shade might shut us down, but there seemed to be little harm in trying. I was the first one to get to the launch box and that pulled four or five pilots behind me. It was just a couple of minutes after the launch open time at 1 PM that Jonny Thompson pulled me into the air and waved me off in a little lift at 2,000' AGL on the east side of the airport.

The stratus clouds were blocking the sun at the airport and as far south as I could see from my high vantage point. There was sunshine on the ground five km to the north and cu's over the hot fields. There was a wisp of sunshine on the ground near the park on the east side of the airport and I was in a light thermal going up at 140 fpm. I was watching the next pilots get towed into the gloom as I slowly climbed up trying to concentrate on getting as high as possible before possibly racing to the sunshine as it looked like the shade continued to move to the north. And I was also thinking about getting the earliest cleverest start at 1:19 and a few seconds which meant I would have to run to the sunshine perhaps sooner than I would hit cloud base. My head was spinning.

I stayed in the weak lift topped out at 5,800' and headed north toward the sunlight trying to make the edge of the start circle a little less than forty minutes before the opening of the start window in order to get my amended start time to be just past the last start time at 2:40 PM. If you start early your start time to shifted past the first start time (2 PM) by the amount that you start early.

Belinda told me that the four or five pilots that were towed up behind me did not get up and that no one was launching. I was the only one to get away from the airport before the shade shut it down. I raced toward the sunlight and went past the edge of the five km start circle with four seconds to spare. As I started 39 minutes and 56 seconds before the first start clock at 2 PM, I would have my start time (and my whole flight interval) shifted to forty minutes after 2 PM, the last start time. I had tried starting early a couple of times previously in competition, but it never did me any good. And it wasn't clear if this was going to do me any good as I was out on my own in very weak conditions. Also if the task was stopped I would have my time reduced by eighty minutes thereby significantly reducing my scored distance. It sure looked like the task would be stopped given the cu-nimbs nearby.

It was a nine kilometer glide from not very high before I found any lift at 600' AGL. It was weak at an average of 92 fpm, but I needed anything I could get. At first I had to keep searching for its core and at 600' that's a nerve racking task. There was a dispersed looking cu some where over my head, but no real clues other than the bits of lift to guide me. When I found something that I could actually turn in and keep going up for the whole turn I stayed with it for twenty minutes the whole time wondering whether I could get to the next thermal and whether I should search around for better.

An hour later Larry Bunner, Joe Bostik, Bruce Barmekian, and Owen Morse would be in the same dilemma, climbing very near where I was, rifting away from the course line and wondering whether to stay in the weak lift. Bruce and then Owen would bale on the lift and soon land. Joe and Larry would hold on for twenty five minutes and get out of there.

Six hundred feet is low when you don't really have a purchase on the lift, but it is not as low as Dave Gibson got today. He had a save from a genuine 200'. That's a real 200', not a perceived 200'. And he stayed at 200' for quite a while before he zoomed out of that hole. He said the secret was not to open his harness.

I was out on my own, and the airport was still shaded. There were no cu's above it. I heard from Belinda that no one was launching. I had just climbed back up to over 5,000', only 2,500' AGL, and I was being blown downwind of the course line by the southeast wind. There was a lot of shading all around from stratus clouds and a cu-nimb to my southwest. There were nice looking cu's ahead to the north toward Ackerly and patches of sunlight. More shading to the east and northeast. I was happy that the cu's and the sunlight were all on my course line. I was wondering if anyone was going to be flying behind me and whether the task would be stopped because of the rain to our west.

I knew that if I got further north I could out run the approaching shade from the cu-nimb and the shade from the east, but the lift was even worse under the next cu to the north at an average of 89 fpm and I hadn't found it until I was down to 800'. I had to stick with it until I was over 5,000' again so that I could get far enough to have a good chance of finding better lift in the sunny areas with cu's nearby. On the next thermal I finally found 300 fpm and climbed to 6,000'. The race had begun.

Seven kilometers south of the turnpoint at Ackerly I found lift under a cu that averaged 500 fpm with plenty of 700+ fpm to 7,800'.  Now things looked really good. It was easy to get the turnpoint and head northeast toward Gail. The cu were quite sparse ahead of me so I had to be careful. There was shading on all sides from stratus clouds but there were open areas with cu's along the way. It was raining to my south west in an area that appeared to be just west of the course going to Ackerly and it was all shaded in that direction. It appeared as though no one would be able to get very far behind me.

It was into the wind to Gail, but the winds were not that strong. I was able to glide at approximately 47 mph into the wind and find good lift under small cu's getting back over 7,000'. I heard from Belinda that pilots were being towed back up and while there were many relights, some pilots were sticking and would soon be out on course. I was about an hour ahead of every one else.

The course line from Ackerly to Gail was over Mesquite territory with just a few open roads so I wanted to be sure that I stayed high especially going into the wind. There were just enough cu's to keep me encouraged and going for it and not banking off toward some paved road.

Within ten kilometers of Gail I climbed up in 500 fpm lift, but I couldn't get as high as I wanted to as the cloud base was low. It had varied all over the place from the start of the flight. I left with 6,500'. I actually had climbed above some wispy clouds that were forming off to my side below me. I wanted lots of altitude because the turn point was in a shaded area. I could see a big shelf of stratus above the turnpoint and they had cooled the ground near there for a significant period. There were a line of cu's to the west of the course line that I was hoping would give me the altitude that I needed to make the turnpoint.

I flew under the cu's but there wasn't any lift. They were just too weak given the nearby shading. I was drifting north about to go downwind of the turnpoint and I turned up wind trying to get under another cu, but it didn't produce anything so I was forced to land in a nice big field by the highway with Belinda nearby to see me land.

I had had the option of continuing downwind to perhaps actual lift past the turnpoint and that's what I should have tried for. While I was showing fifteen mph winds at the wind pushing me sideways past the turnpoint, I would probably have been able to get up and make the turnpoint then head back west toward La Mesa.

After I had slowly packed up and was ready to leave Larry Killer Bee Bunner came and landed in the same field. He was about an hour behind me.

Joe Bostik was near us about ten minutes before Larry landed. He found a nice thermal to the west of Gail just where I would have drifted to about an hour earlier, and was able even after drifting away from the turn point to tag it and then head northwest. Given the deteriorating conditions by the time Joe got to us, he was not able to make it back to La mesa all the way to goal, but plenty far enough to win the day.

10 AM pilot meeting at the airport lounge.

Half an hour before the 1 PM launch start looking northeast into the sunshine and away from the gloom to the south.

Photos by Gary Osoba.

2011 Alpen Open - day 3 »

June 5, 2011, 9:16:04 GMT+0200

2011 Alpen Open

We lose the task on a beautiful day

Alpen Open 2011|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|sailplane|weather

Here.

At the 8:30 AM pilot briefing (called so early so that we can get going early unlike the previous day) the weather briefer said that the Foehn was coming. This would be a south wind (that's the direction it goes in here) coming out of the Brenner pass. At our launch above Innsbruck we can look right up the valley at the Brenner pass. In general in the Alps you don't fly when the Foehn is coming.

Also we learned that there was a sixty percent chance of thunderstorms in the evening. And there wouldn't be all that much lift around.

During the briefing I pulled up XCSkies and using the GFS model saw that it called for good lift early (11 AM) and then good lift later (2 PM) from our launch point to the east and light winds from the south both on the ground and at the top of the lift. No mention of the Fohn.

We got up to the launch above Innsbruck early, and the gliders arrived right away so I got set up quickly in the front next to the launch corridor and just behind Manfred. I thought that we would be going early or at least earlier than the day before.

The wind was coming in nicely at launch, not too brisk, but just about right for easy launches. But the sky did not look great to me. There was about fifty percent cloud cover and the clouds were not recognizable to me as simple cumulus clouds. It was clear that the winds were brisk on the ridge above and behind us. I really had (and have) no idea about how to read the sky here in the Alps, as it is completely different than what I see else where.

We had readings of 43 km/h gusting to 50 km/h on the mountain to the south across the main valley and on the east side of the valley going up to the Brenner pass. Above us on the ridge line the readings were 20 km/h with gusts to 38 km/h. But the winds seemed quite benign on launch. We were also told that the winds were very light in the valley.

Looking south toward the Brenner pass. The Europa Bridge is in the middle of the picture (click on it to get the higher resolution version). The mountain across the main valley (left to right in the photo) to the left of the valley going to the Brenner pass is the mountain where the wind readings are being taken.

We waited and waited. The task was called but the start times were not posted. I was quite nervous about what I saw in the sky, there was rain to the south in the high mountains. There seemed to be a wave cloud in the middle of the main valley. But Manfred said that this would be a great day, that we would essentially fly smooth ridge lift up and down the mountain range with occasional light thermals. He was reading the sky much differently than I was and with much more experience than I. I found it very difficult to believe that a great day was ahead of us. I thought that he was putting me on. He'll do that.

Looking east down the valley. Was this a wave cloud? This photo was taken right after the one above.

We continued to wait wondering what was up. It appeared as though the meet director was getting the latest wind readings and determining if the winds were getting stronger or not. The winds apparently were still light in the valley and at the LZ. The Foehn was predicted to turn the normal valley wind from east to west at our LZ.

Finally after much delay and as the sky got worse and with more rain across the valley and more shading and a dark cloud approaching us, the meet director called the day with gusts to 60 km/h on the mountain across the valley and 50 km/h on the ridge line above us. That was the signal for pilots to start launching and Joe Bostik was the first one off the hill.

Joe went up right off launch in super smooth air. It was clear that he wasn't getting tossed around at all. We had had an earlier communication with the sailplane pilots saying that the air was smooth and the lift light and Joe confirmed it. Half to two thirds of the pilots launched and had great flights. I didn't launch as I was concerned about the LZ, when I shouldn't have been (but didn't have information about). The pilots circled up and had great flights in smooth ridge lift and light thermals, just as Manfred predicted.

The winds stayed very light in the valley and there were no issues at the LZ. The sky cleared up a bit as the day progressed and there was lots of sunshine. The pilots all reported smooth conditions. Joe was still flying when we got to the LZ, as were a number of other pilots. I had heard that Joe went at least sixty kilometers to the east.

Manfred and others read the sky correctly. The meet director did not. When I spoke with him, he appeared to be quite chagrined about his decision to cancel the day when he saw the pilots flying in the nice air a few minutes after he canceled the task due to the high winds.

It seems to me that if we had had a wind dummy take off around 11 AM or even noon, then all of us would have seen that the air was great and been much more inclined to go. Those of us ignorant of the conditions and inexperienced in Alpine flight really had no chance to understand what was happening with the sky or the conditions and could not be relied upon to make a proper decision.

Discuss "2011 Alpen Open" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2011 Alpen Open - day 2 »

June 3, 2011, 7:18:03 pm GMT+0200

2011 Alpen Open

Davis beats Manfred yet again (who writes these tag lines, anyway?)

Alpen Open 2011|Dustin Martin|Francesco "Franco" Rinaldi|Franco Rinaldi|Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner|Manfred Ruhmer|Wills Wing T2C

Here.

Did you check us out live? Live Tracking. Wouldn't have been too exciting today.

The forecast was all wrong (when it came to the wind), but that was a good thing. There were midlevel, lower level, and upper level clouds every where. Not much that looked like clouds produced by lift. The winds were in fact light, at least on launch.

The view from launch. That's Innsbruck down below. The launch faces south.

We (Franco Rinaldi, Nuccia (his wife) and I) drove up the road to the gondola in Innsbruck while the rigid wing pilots went to the launch above the main LZ in Gnadenwald. We had a truck take the gliders to our launch.

The forecast was for strong east winds in the afternoon, say twenty five km/h, when the valley winds combined with the prevailing east winds. It looked like it might be windier than the first day when there was carnage in the LZ due to the high winds. That was the forecast any way.

It took a while for the gliders to get up the hill as they were logging next to the switch back road that goes up under the gondola. We hung out on top at the restaurant on the sunny deck and enjoyed the comfortable temperatures in the partial sun.

Finally the truck made it to the top and they unloaded the glider:

Given the forecast I wasn't up for flying as I didn't want to be a leaf in the wind as a number of pilots were on the previous day when they came to the LZ. But the forecast changed as the day went on with a south component and lighter winds forecasted. So I was the last one to setup.

The task was called, an up and down the ridge race of a mere forty seven kilometers given the poor conditions. They looked safe, but the amount of lift looked very minimal.

As you can see from the view from launch there was a lot of shade, but every now and then the sun would peak through. A couple of pilots got off the hill and circled up, with at least one getting high over the peaks behind launch. It looked perfectly safe.

I think Manfred was next and then three other pilots, before the launch process stopped as the last four pilots were not going up. In fact Manfred soon landed in the bomb out LZ. I think he may have been the only pilot to land there, although perhaps another one or two did also.

The other three pilots were low but higher than Manfred and they worked light lift and headed east toward the turnpoint. We lost track of them down the mountain range. It did not look good for them.

No one wanted to launch as the valley was shaded for a while. There was one start time, 2:30 PM and that was fast approaching before pilots started launching again as the sun came out. A few pilots maybe fifteen pilots in front of me got up to the right of launch and got over launch, but how high after that I don't know. I launched near the end of the queue with Joe Bostik a few pilots behind me.

It was after the start window opened when I got to launch. No one was getting up to the right of launch and the valley was shaded below, with spots of sunlight. There was a nice brisk breeze coming up the launch and I took off right away and turned left toward the first turnpoint.

There were maybe a dozen or more gliders in front of me and I figured that the best strategy was to use these guys as thermal markers to see if they would sniff out the lift for me. The air was buoyant and the sink light. Every once in a while I'd hit some light lift and I could actually climb a little bit, but the edges were 400 fpm and the thermals were just not coherent. Nice air, not scary, but not lifty either. We were right next to the trees.

Nobody was finding anything useful out ahead. My strategy was not working. I had passed Manfred (who flew less than two kilometers) but that was about it for glory points. I just kept on gliding hoping that someone ahead would find a stray thermal soon. There were a number of gliders above me, but they didn't have that much privilege, as they weren't finding much either.

About ten kilometers out from the launch (there was a five kilometer start cylinder) the valley was no longer next to the hillside and we were faced with going over a long stretch of trees to get to the first turnpoint, which was the LZ. The higher lands in front of us were above us so it was unrealistic to continue.

I noticed a dozen pilots had landed on the hillside below me in large cultivated fields so I left the hills and went out over the valley, probably one thousand feet over the valley floor.  The wind had picked up a bit from the east but the landing was uneventful. It appeared as though about twenty five pilots (half the field) landed in the neighborhood.

I was flying Dustin's glider, 2010 Wills Wing T2C-144. That boy makes stiff glider. It was tight as a drum. It caught me off guard at first but wasn't a problem afterwards. It has those nice carbon fiber down tubes. Larry Bunner is going to fly it in the Worlds.

The first pilot to get high made the turnpoint at the LZ high and then just glided until he landed back at the bombout LZ with Manfred Ruhmer, not making the second turnpoint at our launch. Did I mention that I flew further than Manfred did today.

No one made goal. No one made the second turnpoint (back at launch). One rigid wing pilot made their first turnpoint (our launch) and didn't quite get to the second one.

The sky cleared up a little later in the day. If someone had taken off later it might have worked out for them. There was a launch close time at I think 4:30 PM.

As I recall I beat Manfred last at the 2009 Worlds in France on the last day. Oh glorious day.

2011 Alpen Open - day 1 »

June 3, 2011, 8:30:33 GMT+0200

2011 Alpen Open

European weather

Alpen Open 2011|Joe Bostik|weather

Here.

As a pilot in competition I am always interested in whether the meet director will send us into unsafe conditions. I listen to the weather briefer and make my own  determination of whether the day is safe for flying, or marginal, or unsafe. I then carefully watch the meet director to see how he responds to the forecast and under what conditions he will cancel the day or not.

On the first day there where many indications that it would not be a taskable day. The primary dangerous condition was the forecast for a strong northeast wind which would be over the back and cause significant rotor and turbulence away from the hillside and in the landing area which is quite a ways up the hillside. Also the low cloudbase, below launch at first. And the high relative humidity, which foretold clouds and perhaps rain. In addition, the soarcast was for non-soaring conditions.

After two postponements the meet director canceled the day but opened the launch for free flying. Fifteen to twenty pilots flew. I have a few reports of what happened after that.

The launch conditions were light with an incoming breeze predominantly from the left. The light conditions didn't help Monique who on the first step had her left wing (the eastern side) come up. She stopped, but with the narrow ramp, she was pushed off it to the right and went in upside down into the trees. She wasn't hurt but the glider is being repaired now.

Franco and Nuccia mentioned the landings that they witnessed with the pilots being turned 180 degrees just before touching down. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the winds at the LZ were ninety degrees cross (and it is a narrow east/west LZ).

Joe Bostik did not like the conditions at all. He took off and climbed up (most pilots flew immediately down) and went to cloud base going to the left into the wind and up against a hill side facing into the wind. He had taken a thermal that drifted away (south) from the hillside and then found zero sink/lift going around the hillside to the east.

When he came into land it was quite turbulent, as the other pilots had experienced, the wind was cross strong from the hill side which is at the edge of the LZ. He stayed on the base tube the whole way (for control) and landed on his belly.

My take away is to be careful. If the weather briefer is calling for strong (greater than 15 km/h) winds from the north or northeast, I say don't fly. Really only fly in light and variable conditions. Even if the meet director calls a task.

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The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally - fourth task

May 13, 2011, 8:41:42 EDT

The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally

It just gets better and better each day

Dustin Martin|Flytec Race and Rally 2011|Jamie Shelden|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Timothy Ettridge|video

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com

http://skyout.blogspot.com

http://flyingjochen.blogspot.com

http://kathrynoriordan.com

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/jonnydurand

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com

We stayed a second night in Americus, Georgia after the task was canceled and Jamie felt it was a bit late to drive to Auburn. So we were back at Souther field for a second task on Thursday.

The organization decided to launch us from the taxi way, the same way we do it in Big Spring. It's paved, of course, so the pilots have to deal with the fact that if you pile in, the pavement is less forgiving. The taxi way was mostly into the wind, so that was a nice feature. The winds have been light and were yesterday. In fact, the task yesterday was into the wind before it was canceled.

Given the westerly winds and the forecast for less chance of rain to the east on Friday an Saturday the task committee decided to go to Vidalia with a turnpoint at Dublin to keep us out of airspace (a class D air field with a top of air space at 2,500'). This meant that we were committed to head to eastern Georgia or even South Carolina and had no chance to make it to Lookout Mountain, always our fantasy goal at the end of the Rally.

We had been committed to going west around the Atlanta airspace yesterday but those plans were scuttled when the task was canceled. Looks like going east was the better decision.

The task committee had us launching at noon with the first start time at one o'clock. Two additional start times at 1:15 and 1:30. All the pilots were ready around noon (unlike the previous day) at the east end of the taxiway. We were towing across the main runway. Timothy Ettridge was on the local aircraft frequency telling any incoming pilot about our activities.

I rolled out about 12:30 and was the fifth pilot to launch. The line filled up quickly and all pilots were in the air before the first start time. The sky was filled with cu's that started popping at noon.

At first the lift was only 200 to 300 fpm and it took a while to get near cloud base at 5,500'. The NAM forecast had called for 6,500' at two o'clock and 8,500' cloud base at five. Lift was predicted to average 500 to 600 fpm. The winds were four to ten mph out of the west southwest.

It was easy to hang out near cloud base and wait for the gate to open. As I had been in the air for an hour I was ready to go for the first clock. Also I wanted to capture the leading bonus points by going early (as Jonny had done the previous day).

Six minutes before one Dustin and Zippy headed fast away from everyone to the north of the course line. I, for some strange reason, followed them, just like I had followed Shapiro on the second day as he flew to Dustin. This was a disaster as they didn't find any lift. I stopped in zero just at the edge of the start cylinder as they continued going away from everyone else and getting lower.

Down to 4,200' and now on my own I started the task at the first start time. Dustin and Zippy found nothing, came back to the pilots who would take the second start time low and had to climb out to take the last start time at cloud base.

I went on glide toward the forest ahead with some open areas in the middle. There were plenty of cu's overhead as forecast, but I wasn't finding any lift. I had to go over more forest and heading for a dark field under cu's I found weak lift at 1,200' AGL. I had to hold on to keep from landing as I drifted slowly toward the forest.

Losing the lift at 3,500' I had to go search over the forest before I found a developing cu that produced weak lift, but enough to get me out over cultivated fields. I was slow and low and alone, just where I didn't want to be.

There were widely space cu's ahead. I had been two kilometers north of the course line and now running to cu's I was seven kilometers south of it. The lift continued to be weak as I just held on from cu to cu hoping to find something over 200 fpm.

I caught sight of a pilot high above me in a cu, and thought that I had been so slow that this must be one of the later starting pilots. I continued to move ahead in the weak lift. I could see a good cu over Unadilla, a town I remembered was south of the course line. There were a couple of pilots high in the thermal and when I got to it the lift was strong and smooth, up to 900 fpm. The day had finally turned on for me at least.

After my initial struggle I began to race as I climbed over 6,000' and a little later over 7,000' and gliding at 43-46 mph air speed, 48 to 50 mph over the ground. It was cool up there but I wasn't high enough long enough to get that cold. The cu's were spread out but there were enough of them to allow me to connect the dots. I was catching and passing pilots. Zippy came in low below. He would land fifty four kilometers out from goal.

I wasn't stopping for anything under 600 fpm and would leave lift if it got down to 300 fpm. The lift was for the most part strong all the way to almost cloud base. Half way into the task, Dustin was there with me after he spotted me climbing.

After a few more thermals hanging with Dustin, we caught the lead gaggle (except for Joe Bostik who started at the first clock and was alone twenty kilometers out in front). Patrick Kruse and Tulio joined up with Dustin and I and the four of use continued on slicing through most of the lead gaggle.

As we approached the turnpoint at Dublin after 120 kilometers Larry Bunner found 900 fpm before the rest of us and got a jump on us. We joined the thermal and got plenty high before the turnpoint over the airport. We headed south east at almost 7,000' with Dustin in the lead. Dustin, Tulio and then Patrick were always just a little below me so I had a good view of the action.

With the day getting later and the cu's a few kilometers away we stopped for weaker lift. Dustin went out a little further and found the next thermal to get away from his three followers. We didn't really need Dustin, but it was nice to fly with him for about fifty kilometers. Dustin is hard to lead as he leaves early. Dustin was always gliding fast, in the mid to upper 40 mph.

We kept hitting the good lift and saw Paris below racing ahead. Paris gradually almost caught up to us and at seventeen kilometers out from Vidalia airfield he went on glide from below. We were climbing at 450 fpm to 7,000' and elected to stay in it. We would have to cross the town to get to the airport and I didn't want to go over the town low. I was on top of our little lead gaggle.

It was a well mannered glide into goal with not too much sink or lift. Paris had to take a few extra turns for safety but made it just before me. I was in early with Tulio and Patrick just behind. Dustin, Joe, Jochen, Larry, Curt and Paris got in before us.

About forty pilots made it into goal later. Joe Bostik was the first in. Jonny came in shortly after me also taking the last clock.

The cu's in the sky said that we could have flown for another hour. I was in the air for five hours. It was 194 kilometer task.

The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally - first task

May 10, 2011, 9:25:15 EDT

The 2011 Flytec Race and Rally

We fly from Quest Air to almost Keystone

Dustin Martin|Flytec Race and Rally 2011|Greg Dinauer|Jamie Shelden|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|video|weather

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com

http://skyout.blogspot.com

http://flyingjochen.blogspot.com

http://kathrynoriordan.com

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/jonnydurand

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com

Despite the fact that the forecast was for a northwest wind we headed north northwest to a turnpoint east of Ocala at the Greystone airfield and then north northeast to the airfield at Keystone, a task of 150 kilometers. We also didn't expect to see any clouds during the task, and the weather didn't disabuse us of that prediction.

Given the wind we took off from the south end of Quest Air. It was a bit iffy at first with a few pilots dropping out. We then caught a thermal on the west side of Quest and regained our composure.

The pilots bunched up and moved north, with four of us spread out and searching. Tulio found it first at 2,000' west of Groveland on highway 50 and attracted a crowd. More pilots were coming and we huddled together with a few pilots taking the first start time including Joe Bostik, Tulio, Greg Dinauer and Jochen. The rest of us milled about waiting for the second clock. The inversion was clearly visible.

Most of the field took the second clock and headed north northwest with the west cross wind. With so many pilots we found lots of thermals and it took eight thermals just to get to the Villages north of the turnpike. Five of us headed out after getting to 4,200' over the forest north of the turnpike widely spread out. I found it on the west side at 1,800' and that pulled everyone over.

We took five thermals just to get up to Belleview and then those of us in the lead were down to 1,700' before we climbed back to 4,500'. The sky was blue so we were counting on everyone to help everyone else find the lift.

We were slogging along as we worked our way toward Greystone airfield. The last few thermals didn't get us back to 4,500' so we went in low to the three kilometer radius turnpoint down to 2,600'. It took almost half an hour to climb out of the turnpoint with a number of pilots going down nearby. I found lift low at 1,900' and Larry Bunner joined me. He was able to find the better core and jumped back to the lead gaggle, which I was dropping out of.

After climbing to 4,800' I went chasing the lead gaggle and came in under them south of Hawthorne. Dustin was soaring the trees way down below and Dinauer was soaring with me as we climbed up very slowly.

We got up and moved north after drifting in the thermal to the east, away from the 301 highway and over the forest. Shapiro came in low under us. Joe joined Dustin when he was half way up to us but we left him behind.

We joined some bald eagles a little further north but still south of Hawthorne for 180 fpm thermal to 4,500'. It was almost six o'clock and the lift was getting weak. The lead gaggle was a few kilometers in front of us.

Dustin went back to join a couple of bald eagles just as the lift got better, so when he glided back after climbing he was at about the same altitude as Greg and I. I went with Dustin to the next probable thermal.

I came in under Dustin over a small lake just southeast of Hawthorne but got nothing but sink. I was quite low and headed for an open field to the north. Dustin and Greg went there also but were able to climb in fifty fpm while I went down.

After a slow climb Dustin jumped north and found the good lift. Still it wasn't enough to make goal at the airport. Dustin landed just behind Jonny nine kilometers out.

The 2011 Rob Kells Meet - First Task

May 1, 2011, 9:15:48 EDT

The 2011 Rob Kells Meet

Off to a fantastic start

Blue Sky|Curt Warren|Dustin Martin|Joe Bostik|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Rob Kells|Rob Kells Meet 2011|weather

http://soaringspot.com

The weather forecast was not great. The main issue was the forecast for east northeast winds up to eighteen mph. Pretty windy. Also the winds would be coming from across Lake Okeechobee, which would mean that the lift would most likely be greatly suppressed near the flight park.

The task committee set a challenging task, quarter tailing to the first turnpoint to the northwest, then downwind west along the highway, then cross wind (slightly into the wind) to the north, a total of eighty kilometers. The lift and cloudbase was supposed to be better as we got away from the lake to the west, but still they weren't supposed to be great.

The first launches started after noon with start times one o'clock through two with fifteen minute intervals. As the time to launch approached the blue sky turned dark gray as thick rolling clouds filled the sky. Previously we had seen lenticulars so were expecting high winds, but the winds were quite reasonable at launch. But the dark sky shaded almost all the ground and made it appear as though we would have a hard time getting up.

The wind was twelve mph out of the east northeast as I was pulled up to 2,600'. All alone I didn't find anything until I was down to 1,200' just to the north of the Ridge. I had launched about tenth so there were other pilots around to provide assistance. Jochen and I were on the radio to help each other out.

The lift was weak and we climbed at only 150 fpm to cloud base at 3,300' five kilometers downwind of the Ridge. It was already ten minutes past the first start time and we had a long ways to go before we got to the start cylinder fifteen kilometers out from the Ridge. It was almost completely dark and shaded to the northwest, the direction of our first turnpoint.

An eight kilometer glide and we were down to 1,700'. There were a few pilots out there in the dark with us so we were helped to find 130 fpm and drift to the west. Still it seemed to be just a game of survival. Back to 2,900' Jochen wanted to head out, but I quickly realized that we were going two minutes too early and that we should wait for the next start clock. I told Jochen but he felt it was too late to come back to the edge of the cylinder. I hung back and took the 1:30 PM start time.

After getting the fifteen minute later start time I came in under Jochen who was working weak lift (111 fpm) just west of highway 29. This became a popular gathering spot as Curt Warren, Tulio, Jeff and Tom and other pilots joined us.

We all worked together and it took five thermals to get to the first turnpoint only eleven kilometers away. All the thermals provided lift between at 100 to 200 fpm back to 3,300'. We were being pushed hard by the wind and just trying to stay up. The next leg would be downwind.

After making the turnpoint on the east west highway I headed for some turning pilots six kilometers to the west. I could see a pilot turning low then lose it. It was Curt Warren and he landed just as we arrived at the lift that was just beyond him. Down to 1,000' we found 98 fpm.

Tulio fell out of it and moved to the west to find better lift down low. I came over to him to find 200 fpm and climbed to 2,500'. Drifting west and down to 1,400' I saw Mitch Shipley landing below me.  I found 136 fpm to his south a couple of kilometers south of the highway and under cu's. The sky had opened up quite a bit just before the first turnpoint and there was now plenty of sunshine and differentiatable cu's.

Running out of cu's at 2,800' eight kilometers from the second turnpoint at highway 31 I headed northwest to the last cu in that area as I saw a bunch of pilots circling under it. It turned out to provide 300 fpm to 4,200', by far the highest I had been all day. The was perfect for a chance to take the turnpoint and then go cross toward goal.

A ten kilometer glide took me down to 2,200' thirteen kilometers from goal. I climbed back up at 186 fpm but drifted in the fourteen mph northeast wind away from the goal. At 3,000' I headed upwind only to lose all the altitude I had gained and then some ending up in almost the same spot.

Back up again in 150 fpm I moved further north and found better lift with a number of other pilots in the neighborhood. Joe Bostik was just above me as we climbed out at 275 fpm nine kilometers from goal. I went on glide from 3,500 into a fourteen mph quartering head wind and got to goal with 700'.

Other pilots found much better lift or ignored the weak stuff that I found necessary and made it to goal much faster. Dustin won the day. You can find the results (such as they are so far) at the link above. Just click on the Rob Kells Competition.

The forecast for tomorrow (and the next day) is very similar to today with strong east winds. We'll see what we can come up with for a task.

Pictures.

2011 Flytec Race and rally »

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

Over subscribed, six over the fifty pilot limit

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

http://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

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

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2011 Flytec Race and Rally »

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

Top pilots coming from Australia

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

https://OzReport.com/calendar.php

https://OzReport.com/uscompetitiondates.php

http://FlytecRaceAndRally.wordpress.com/

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

Tom Lanning, Jochen Zeischka, Curt Warren, Dave May, Dustin Martin, Filippo Oppici, Kraig Coomber, Jonny Durand, Roberto Nichele, Dean Funk, Mark Frutiger, Alex Cuddy, Larry (Killa Bee) Bunner, Ricker Goldsborough, Mitch Shipley, Davis Straub, Mike Glennon, Joe Bostik, Ollie Gregory, Patrick Kruse, Jeff Shapiro, Greg Dinaur, Allen Stanish, Charles Allen, Bill Reynold, Kathryn O’Riordan, Zac Majors, Glen Volk, Carl Wallbank, Lauren Tjaden

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

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2010, 10:35:20 pm MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The sixth day and task (we fly every day here)

dust devil|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Jeff Shapiro|Jim Yocom|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

I'm going full bore with the forecasting models (RUC and NAM on XCSkies) as they are giving us great glimpses of what we will see later in the day. And they are predicting great days, with strong lift (700-800 fpm (you have to subtract your minimum sink rate)) and high top of the useable lift (9 - 10,000' MSL). And the forecast has been for light winds and even lighter today with the winds rotating around as you climb up the column of lift (FSL-RUC forecast).

The task committee is split with Dustin wanting to go on a site seeing task to the north east to see some great red cliffs. Jonny wants a task that gets us back to the Francisco Grande. Ben is indecisive. We put it up for a vote and 17 to 14 the pilots vote to come back to the hotel.

The task is a variation on the previous days task. First we head thirty five kilometers to the very small air field of Sarita to the east, with a thirty two kilometer entry start circle. Then it is forty kilometers back to the turnpoint at the Bon intersection northwest of the Francisco Grande. Then southeast twenty two kilometers to the intersection of Interstate 8 and Chui and then ten kilometers back to the hotel. The task is shaped like a lopsided bow tie.

The idea is to keep the course line mostly over the driest areas with the best lift potential and away from the cultivated areas as much as possible (but we do go over them).

The wind starts off the day out of the southeast but light. This puts us in a downwind launch condition or at least cross wind, so launches aren't quite as quick as we would like. Also unlike the previous day when pilots got going early because they knew we were down one tug, they are not all that excited about jumping on the carts at the crack of noon. In addition, the conditions appear to be a bit weak (at least for some pilot who don't stick) when the launch first opens so this is not encouraging. Launch starts slowly.

I told myself that I was not going to launch early (but go with the top guys). In fact, we went back to our hotel (the Holiday Inn five miles east of the Francisco Grande) and I had a little nap (as I got up at 6:30 AM) before heading out to the field. But as I saw how things were going in the launch line, I decided not to wait too long and got in the launch line about 1 PM.

It took thirty seven minutes to get launched, given the wind conditions, and the lack of tugs, and the dust devil that threatened the line. I pinned off early to get the tug back to the pilots on the ground. The lift was only 240 fpm, so I was beginning to worry that I would not get up in time for the start. I could see a bunch of pilots super high to the north. Given that the lift was not strong enough to get me up there in time, I headed north hoping to find strong enough lift to get me up to them.

Unlike the day before the pilots didn't take the 2 PM start clock, which gave me a reprieve. I now had twenty more minutes to climb up. I found 300+ fpm and climbed to over 9,500'. We all then had to mill about for eight minutes in zero lift/sink waiting for the last window to open. Just before it did, I joined a few pilots in better lift and got to 10,300'. The race was on.

We were north by the Casa Grande airport and way high over it so that we posed no interference issues with the aircraft taking off and landing there. It was a twelve kilometer glide to the first thermal on the course line, found by pilots to the south of me. I had faded left to the north towards Dustin's line, wanting to stay away from the cultivated areas, but not as much off the course line as Dustin was going. But the guys over the flats got the lift first and many of them were now much higher than me.

We climbed at 400 fpm in the thermal to 9,900' (other were much higher) and continued east toward Sarita. It was a twenty kilometer glide with no thermals that anyone found. I came into the turnpoint at 2,500' AGL and was soon down to 2,000'AGL to the southwest circling in 170 fpm and drifting away from the next turnpoint at six mph.

At first I was the guy on the bottom of the stack wondering what I had done to deserve this fate. Then Derrick and later Shapiro came along to relieve me of that concern. Joe Bostik came on the radio and said that he was just above me climbing at 300 fpm.

Climbing to 6,300' I followed Shapiro west toward some indication that there were pilots turning out in front of us. Eleven kilometers of gliding later and down to 2,200' AGL we came over a power plant where I had seen a few pilots turning earlier. It turned on to 500 fpm to 9,000'. I couldn't see Shapiro above me, but I saw Derrick and four or five other pilots below. The idea of going upwind to the next turnpoint didn't look that bad from that altitude.

I took off on my own for another eleven kilometer glide and found 350 fpm to 6,300'. A short six kilometer glide to the area just south of the airport where I had to search around a bit before I found 375 fpm. Larry Bunner came and joined me in this one. I had seen a few pilots earlier ahead of me circling, but I hadn't been able to reach them.

Larry headed out first from the lower position from this thermal going toward the huge mining pit. It was only three kilometers before he found a very strong thermal that averaged over 525 fpm to 10,100'. We were high and now only twelve kilometers from the turnpoint. We went on glide.

Joe Bostik finally came up on the radio again (I wish he would fix his setup) and said that he just made the turnpoint at 5,600' as I was five kilometers out from it and at 7,600'. It looked like I would make it higher than he did. I could see the pilots past the turnpoint much lower.

We had to glide a total of sixteen kilometers before we came to the next "thermal." Almost all the pilots that had been in front of us were in this gaggle that was going up well below us, but was soon going down at our higher level. There must have been a dozen pilots.

What I didn't know at the time and what I found out later from Joe (and very much would have appreciated knowing at the time) was that Joe decided to bypas this thermal and head out toward the Francisco Grande, which is on the way to the next turnpoint.

I joined Jonny, Craig, Glen, Robin, Shapiro and the others in this stupid thermal that averaged for me 44 fpm, as I want to have the safety in numbers. The day was getting late and who knows if there are any other thermals out there. I don't because Joe doesn't get on the radio. Since we started on the last clock and sort of didn't get going launching in a hurry we only have ourselves to blame for the weak conditions this late in the day. We are over open desert so there is no issue of cultivated (wet) fields.

After the lift at the top turned to sink I headed out with Larry and Jim Yocom toward the Francisco Grande. We found 222 fpm in about the same place that Joe (joined by Dustin) are climbing, but high above us. We can't see them.

As we climbed half way up and after a while are joined by the rest of the crew from the previous loser of a thermal, Joe and Dustin topped out at 8,000' and went on glide toward the turnpoint ten kilometers southeast of the Francisco Grande. I spent another ten minutes climbing in the thermal but left with Glen just below me at 6,500', with the numbers showing on the 6030 just barely positive altitude at goal. This was a mistake, I should have stayed there in the thermal and continued climbing. Joe and Dustin glide the twenty five kilometers to goal.

A bunch of us were on glide but it looed very iffy. We were hoping for a thermal, but hope is not a plan. Four kilometers out from the turnpoint, Dustin passes less than forty feet below me. I never saw him until he was right there. I doubt that he saw me. Less than a second later Joe Bostik passed barely under me. I know that he didn't see me. I didn't realize than anyone was out there in front of us.

I came back after getting the turnpoint and landed five kilometers short in a nice long cut alfalfa field. It looked like there was no wind, and my track log showed that there was no wind below 150'. I just kept gliding toward goal (as the field was so long) until I touched down. I snapped my left tip wand as I forgot to take the VG off and it was under so much tension that when I flared it touched the ground and broke. I have a spare that I've been carrying around for a couple of years.

Jonny landed 200 meters short of the one kilometer goal cylinder. Jim Yocom landed just inside it as he was flaring. Jonny says that he flew a little too fast. Maybe Jeff Shapiro had that problem also. Robin moved ahead of Jonny for the lead, as did Craig into the lead.

Check the updated scores at the URL above.

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2010, 8:53:08 pm MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Zero not hero

dust devil|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Chipman|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

Well my trust in the forecasts of the models is coming back. We were still a little skeptical today in the task committee (I just support the task committee, I'm not on it), but they called a triangle task to the northeast assuming that the winds would be as light as the forecast and more importantly that the lift and the height of lift (the two parameters that seemed to be off on the first two days) would be as forecast.

The RUC and the NAM forecasts on XCSkies (which I use here in Arizona because I can zoom down to the local area instead of seeing the whole southwest in BLIPMAPS) said 700-800 fpm to top of the useable lift (which seems to be the parameter to use here, instead of thermal tops) at 8,000-9,000'. And sure enough some pilots got that today.

The task committee called a task to Sarita, a very small paved air strip 34.4 kilometers east of the Francisco Grande hotel and east of Casa Grande, out in the flats, an area of mixed dry fields, cotton and alfalfa. Then a short leg (thirteen kilometers to the edge of the turnpoint cylinder) to the northeast to near Florence, a turnpoint with a ten kilometer radius that will keep us out of the supposedly active bombing range and out of Phoenix Class B airspace, then forty two kilometers back to the hotel with a one kilometer goal radius. Overall a eighty seven kilometer task (assuming you just nick the ten kilometers turnpoint near Florence).

We're one tug down as the prop of the local tug blew off yesterday while a pilot was on tow. No one hurt but no prop either. It may be fixed in time for a day or two of towing. So pilots were encouraged to get going early. Of course, the top pilots in priority staging wait until the last minute (to save all their flying energy for the course). Joe Bostik was the last to launch as he keeps having trouble with his zipper (he also had trouble with his 6030 yesterday forgetting to program it for the route and then missing the second turnpoint cylinder by 163 meters). Being down one tug proved to be no problem as pilots didn't wait for an hour to start towing and there was plenty of time to get everyone in the air.

Pilot lined up and I got pulled up at 12:30, about half an hour earlier than I have been getting going on the previous two days. The last start time is 2:20, so this is way early if you are going to take that start. I pin off at 1,600' AGL as we are in a light thermal as I assume that I can stay up in it and I feel a bit of an obligation to let the tug resources go down quickly for the next guy. I climb out to 4,400' at 145 fpm. Pretty damn light.

There is a six mph wind out of the northwest which is quite light and after I get up I go searching for better lift. After looking around in zero until almost 1 PM and down to 1,100' AGL, I find my own thermal that averages 250 fpm. I start climbing and ever so slowly everyone in the air no matter how far away comes and joins me in the thermal as I climb to 7,700'.

When we get to the top of the thermal it still is lifting but very slowly. There are seven minutes to go before the first start time, I'm high and if this holds out I'm thinking of taking the first start time, even though I "know" that I will be the only pilot to leave at the first clock. But first the lift has to hold at zero or better for the seven minutes. I'm just one kilometer outside the entry start cylinder of thirty two kilometers which puts me just east of the hotel. The wind is very light.

The lift holds out and I am high and so I decide to go on my own. I figure with an hour head start (assuming most pilots take the last start time) if I can find some good lift (harder to do on your own without other sniffers around) then I have a slight (very slight) chance to win the day, basically on arrival points (flying slower than the other pilots, but getting to goal first). The arrival points go down to almost zero if you are forty five minutes behind the first guy to goal.

A hero or a zero. A slim chance to be a hero (it just depends on getting a couple of good thermals) or a zero, landing out because I didn't get what I needed and didn't have any help to find it.

I take off at 1:20 PM with 7,500' (6,000' AGL) and glide east northeast toward Sarita. It is a twelve kilometer glide until I find the first hint of lift. I have to search all around to find the actual lift (255 fpm) so that slows me down, but gets me ready for the rest of the task. It was a long glide without lift. I got down to 2,000' AGL. I needed to work hard to find the lift. It wasn't that strong.

I continue on after topping out and find broken (and smelly over feed lots) bits of lift, but no cores. I am in search mode as things aren't working yet and I need to find a good thermal to get back in the comfort zone over 6,000'. I get down to 4,000' and work 71 fpm for a few turns but that doesn't work out. I continue on and get down to 1,800' AGL and start working 61 fpm.

I'm just focusing on the thermal and searching and searching for better lift. Where is it? I move a little to the side and pick up 183 fpm and climb to 4,900'. This allows me to glide to the turnpoint cross wind (in the light wind) five kilometers to get the Sarita turnpoint.

There is no lift at the turnpoint at 2,500' AGL so I continue northeast toward the next turnpoint searching and searching. Finally down to 1,500' AGL, I find 114 fpm. Three pilots come and join me, two below and Jeff Chipman at my altitude. The two of us climb to 4,300'.

When that lift stops, we head out and Jeff spots the lift when we are down to 1,400' AGL. It averages 182 fpm and I'm feeling pretty good as this is the best thermal in quite a while. And it is nice to have some help. I've just been scratching across the country side since I left the start circle and I'm not feeling the love. I like the fact that I've been on my own for almost the whole flight and responsible for keeping myself in the air in very light conditions, but it sure would be nice to get high.

Jeff spots a dust devil down wind of us to the east. We're in a ten mph wind with the turnpoint to the north east. I watch him go for the dust devil staying in the present lift because I'm already run to three or four dust devils and they didn't provide any lift. He starts turning and climbing in the dust devil so I head back toward him in lift all the way and we climb up at 225 fpm. Where is that 500 to700 fpm that we should be climbing at given the forecast?

The lift gives out early again at 5,400' (4,000' AGL) and we head north toward the turnpoint. It is only six kilometers away. I find 88 fpm for a dozen turns half way there then watch a big strong looking dust devil form right where the course line would take us if we made the turnpoint and headed west toward goal.

I leave our weak thermal, pull in hard to make the turnpoint cylinder edge quickly then head for the field with the dust devil. Two more smaller ones are forming upwind of it as it goes over the cotton patch at the downwind end of the field that it formed in and begins to disappear. I fly over it and get nothing. I fly over the other two dust devils, and almost nothing. I search all around the big brown dust devil field and finally find 138 fpm. We climb to 4,700'.

As we climb up three pilots come over our heads. Most likely Dustin, Shapiro and Zippy, but maybe not. As the lift peters out we head east toward goal. I see a few kilometers off to the north Dustin or some other pilot turning and climbing. This is way off the course line, but I make a mistake and don't go to him.

Chippy and I glide six kilometers into a fourteen mph wind and find very little. I go down first, but Chippy soon after.

I hear later from Shapiro that he and Zippy and Dustin came over us and kept going and a little ways further, got down to 500' AGL in a dust devil and finally found 500 fpm just outside the dust and climbed back up to 8,000'. When I got out of my glider I looked up and saw five pilots at eight or nine thousand feet over my head. Shapiro said that they had experienced the first leg as very iffy also, but obviously somebody found some good lift just behind us.
 
Pilots made it back to goal with Shapiro winning the day.

We have had light winds every day here, except near goal on the third day (and today when Chippy and I were low). This makes is possible to have triangle tasks which we much prefer as we want to get back to the hotel and not have to setup and land on the green grass. I've been able to setup or leave setup my glider at the western edge of the golf course staked down and tied to a tree, just covered with my ultra violet resistance cover (by Marilyn).

Pilots are flying in tee-shirts and that's all. I have a thin Lycra short sleeve tee-shirt and speed sleeves and that is a bit too much, too hot down low. It was very pleasant at 10,400' on Wednesday. Southern Arizona is the hottest spot in the nation this week. It's 106 on the ground. We have a RedBull tent, plenty of free RedBull, and lots of water provided by Jamie Shelden (as the meet organizer).

Given the high temperatures pilots have to be especially careful to take care of themselves. Stay out of the sun as much as possible. Drink lots of water (and electrolytes). Put on sun screen. Don't stand in the launch line too long.

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 13, 2010, 10:26:22 pm MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Wow, another weak day

Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

The RUC and NAM forecasts were aligned and both predicted much more lift than we eventually found during the day. We did not get 700 to 800 fpm, and we did not get to 9,000'. Well, Bunner got to almost 8,000'.

Unlike the day before, there was lift right in front of the launch do it was easy to pin off at 1,300' and climb up. Better lift a little to the north marked by Jim Yocom, so I moved in under him and climbed to 4,500'.

The task start cylinder was an entry start cylinder of twenty four kilometers around the Cornman turnpoint to the east of Casa Grande. After getting up I followed Dustin over to the northeast to get upwind of the course line. We found lift out near the airfield and climbed to 6,300' but took the second start time from 5,800'.

On the glide from the edge of the start cylinder I followed Dustin a bit to his south. Shapiro was south of us. Half a dozen pilots were spread out on glide heading for the first turnpoint, obviously, twenty four kilometers away, to the east.

No lift after six kilometers. Dustin kept going but I stopped for something that turned out to be 28 fpm. The next thermal was 18 fpm. I headed south with another pilot to a shopping center and found 160 fpm to 4,500'. Dustin came in under me but Jeff stayed in the previous (18 fpm) thermal that got stronger (or they found a better part of it). We climbed 500' higher than us.

The next five kilometer glide put me down to fourteen hundred AGL, but I was able to climb out at 140 fpm (jeez, where is that good lift) to 4000'. Dustin and Jeff kept going and didn't find any lift.

It was a seven kilometer glide to the next thermal just north of the turnpoint down to 600'. I heard from Joe Bostik that he was just seven kilometers behind me at 4,000' having started twenty minutes later.

Being this low was tough and then Jonny Durand came over me by 200'. I didn't see him but he knew that we both were low as were a number of other pilots below me. We suffered for eight minutes getting no where when Jonny spotted some birds going up upwind that I didn't see (and I was watching for birds and had seen a bunch doing nothing at this spot) moved upwind and found 600 fpm while I struggled in zero one kilometer east of him.

I drifted past the turnpoint low not realizing that I had missed it and had to go back and get it after I finally got up to 3,400' in 93 fpm.  After nicking the turnpoint I didn't find lift until down to 250' where I stuck around in zero sink long enough to get to a nice landing field, after not getting up.

A while after I landed I heard form Bostik that he was at 6,500' at the mountains just to the east. Bunner was with him having thermaled up from 300' AGL over an unlandable area (cactus). Larry eventually climbed to over 7,000' on the mountain and after finding even better lift by the second turnpoint further east won that day (no one made goal).

Joe made it back to the Picacho Peak, but was unwilling to risk going on the windward side where there were few if any landing areas. He drifted back in the headwind to land near the freeway.

Another tough day.

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2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 12, 2010, 10:23:39 pm MST

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Practice day was strong, first day, not so

Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

http://soaringspot.com/2010scfr/
http://www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com/
http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/
http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/
http://www.willswing.com/blogs/PilotBlogs/tabid/38/Default.aspx

Saturday was the practice day for the 2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race, and despite plenty of cirrus, it was a nice strong day with light winds and good lift to over 6,000'. I pinned off at 1,200' AGL in good lift (the elevation here is about 1,400' ) and climbed out steadily. No cu's, just shading from the cirrus clouds which didn't seem to affect anything.

Sunday, the first day of the competition, was a different story altogether. The monsoonal moisture was streaming in from the southwest and there were multiple streaks of mid level clouds, some with vertical development, shading sometimes all the ground around us. This continued from sunrise to sunset and substantially reduced the potential lift.

I was the second pilot to tow up a few minutes after noon and I did not feel a bump. The tow plane that normally tows us up at 700 fpm was averaging 400 fpm to 3,000' AGL.

I flew all around and didn't feel anything at all until I was down to 1,000' AGL just south of the launch area (there was a slight north wind) seventeen minutes after I launched. I was the first pilot to find anything, in fact they had stopped launching because no one was getting any lift.

I worked the light lift at 110 fpm just to stay in the air. The glider has a bad right turn in it and I was thinking of heading for the ground to get it taken care of, but here I was going up so I stayed with it. Other pilots were landing.

I drifted south east in the six mph northwest wind and climbed back to 4,400' finding a little bit better lift that averaged 175 fpm. It was a weak day and a low day, it seemed.

The last start time was 1:40 PM, and given the weak conditions and the fact that we couldn't get high and that we were being pushed away from the edge of the start cylinder that was nearest the first turnpoint to the southwest it looked like we would have to work hard just to be able to make the last start time. Plenty of pilots were on the ground even though we've got five tugs, as the pilots in front of them get dragged around the air in weak lift or none at all.

I push off to the northwest to try to get in a better position for the task given the winds, and find nothing at all and have the crawl back to the launch area and slowly climb back up again. It is a bit discouraging, but the air is certainly pleasant enough.

Finally pilots begin moving toward the southwest edge of the start cylinder. They spot the lift and I join them. As the last start time approaches at 1:40 PM we are climbing slowly conveniently right next to the edge and I get back to 4,300', with a few others a couple of hundred feet higher.

I've heard from Joe Bostik on the radio that he is about to land at the first turnpoint which is seven kilometers to the southwest. This is not good news as we have just taken the last start time and he took the previous one and we are all headed for Joe. He doesn't come back on and tell me that in fact he found lift at the turnpoint at 400' and is climbing out.

All of us are on glide heading for the turnpoint and no one is finding any lift even though we are all spread out. I come into the 400 meter cylinder around the turnpoint down to 500' and there is the thermal, incredibly well placed. It's 175 fpm back to over 4,000'. How do things work out this way?

A few of the pilots who started a little higher than me are turning a kilometer down the course line as a bunch of us climb up. I'm flying with Zippy and Glen Volk. Shaprio and Dustin have come in also a little below me. There are about five pilots ahead of us.

The ground is almost completely shaded for the next twenty five kilometers down the course line to the east. We've got a forty three kilometer leg to do with only the last part out in the sun.

We limp along climbing in thermals often at rates well less than 100 fpm. It is dark every where below us. Whenever any one finds something four or five of us are on it quickly. I keep an eye on Dustin and Shapiro who will be just below me for the next twenty five kilometers. It's great to have them around to help out.

Joe Bostik goes down out in front with the lead gaggle heading off on his own while the rest of the gaggle waits patiently.

We find a nice thermal at 163 fpm and climb back to 4,000' then head on a five kilometer glide east toward the hills just south of the intersection of interstate 8 and 10 southeast of Casa Grande. Dustin and Jeff are just in front and below me but they don't find it. Another pilot to their left starts turning and I join him. Jeff and Dustin come back and we work 75 fpm as we drift toward the foothills. This is where Jeff and Dustin get above me and now I'm in trouble without my faithful companions.

We spread out and work weak lift just west of the hills. I can keep Dustin and Jeff in sight. I am averaging 37 mph in a seven mph wind and we are high enough to be able to get up on the hills if we think that they would be producing anything at all.

There is strong sunlight on the ground just on the other side of the hills and it is awfully tempting tophead for it but Jeff and Dustin are playing around in this almost zero lift under the mid level clouds and over the shaded area. Finding myself mostly in sink I decided to head over the hills to see if there is any lift and go for the sunny areas if I don't find any there.

Jeff and Dustin decide to stay where they are and they'll find themselves going up and down until they finally find some better lift and gain 800'. They watch what I and another pilot do as we don't find lift over the hills. I land after gliding five kilometers, just north of the freeway and west of the fourth turnpoint.

Jeff and Dustin take a course to the south of my line, which is already five kilometers south of the course line and find lift. Approaching the turnpoint at La Palma Jeff will dive in for it low with shaded ground and end up landing near it with other pilots, Glen Volk and Greg Dinnaur. Dustin will not dive into the turnpoint as he knows from previous experience there that it doesn't work and he heads off to find good lift and finds some that gets him to 5,600'. The lead gaggle sees him behind them way high as they struggle.

Bostik and I are watching five pilots low struggling against the head wind to get the next turnpoint as we pack up my glider. It doesn't look like they have any chance of making it back to the Francisco Grande. There is a good six or more mph wind coming from the goal.

Jonny Durand is able to make it in and he is the only flex wing pilot to do so. Larry Bunner has to stop just before the power lines and is just a few meters short. Robin Hamilton is also very close. You can see the results and download the track logs at the URL above.

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The Flytec Race and Rally

May 1, 2010, 9:07:48 pm EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

It blew in Moultrie

Belinda Boulter|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo|Quest Air|weather|Zac Majors

The Blogs and Tweets:

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

Wills Wing pilots - Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro, Dustin, Zac Majors

http://rich-lovelace.blogspot.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

Scores on-line: http://soaringspot.com/2010frr/

The forecast for Moultrie, Georgia was for a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms before 2 PM. To me that meant that the conditions would improve after 2 PM, and that if we could wait that long we would be rewarded with good conditions. The wind forecast was for twelve to sixteen knots the average wind throughout the boundary layer, out of the south.

It had rained hard the previous day and night and there were low clouds throughout the morning as we prepared the task of 120 km to Americus, Georgia. We could tell from the satellite photos that the overcast clouds were to our west so that the sky was blue above the low cumulus clouds. That held out a promise of better conditions if we could only wait.

The wind was brisk on the ground but not overwhelming. The field is huge and the tree line almost half a mile away to the south. We all were waiting for the clouds to rise and for breaks to appear between the cu's so that we could have some sun on the ground.

I got into the launch line and was quickly followed by Daniel Velez and Jeff O'Brien. We weren't willing to launch just yet as we would be blown outside the 10 km start cylinder before the first start time, and the clouds hadn't broken up quite enough yet, and there was a promise of better conditions. The launch opened at 1:30 PM with the first start time at 2:30 and the last at 3 PM. As we waited I was hoping that we were pulling a squeeze play forcing the pilots to launch by waiting for the time before the last start time to get too close.

Then the task committee wrecked that play adding two more start times as pilots weren't willing to even join us in the launch line.

Derreck joined us in the line and moved to the front to tow. Jeff O'Brien set to go after him then Daniel and me. Derreck was pulled up and the tow was rowdy. He also pinned off low. Then Jeff O'Brien took off and had even a rougher tow, flopping around quite a bit under his glider. But he held on and the tow smoothed out.

Daniel seeing the first two tows didn't want to tow next. I went instead. I had a perfectly smooth tow and the tug pilot and I went racing after Jeff. Jeff was towed up way above cloud base, maybe over 3,000', but I pinned off at cloud base at about 2,5000' and went to a nearby cloud to find light lift.

The air was quite pleasant and the lift nice. I could see that the winds were about 20 mph out of the south. Jeff came back to join me after not finding lift above cloud base and turned in the weak lift that I was in.

Having not really gained anything and drifting quickly, I headed west for about 600 meters to a forming cu and found 400 fpm to cloud base. Jeff was a kilometer down wind under a dark cloud but not climbing well.

While Jeff and I were drifting away from the airfield, Derreck was on the ground after a difficult landing. He reported the difficult conditions that he found.

The safety committee suspended launch after watching our three launches. Then they stopped the task.

At cloud base and enjoying the air and having some of the best lift that I had experienced in the competition, I checked out the fields down wind. Cloud base was only 2,500'but there were plenty of cu's ahead and it looked good to me. I was feeling confident as I would be flying with Jeff. Then Belinda called with the news about the task being stopped.

I could understand why that would be a case given the strong winds and the two launches that didn't look so good (although the pilots did well and controlled their launches). I flew back to the airfield and had an exciting if uneventful landing.

Joe Bostik and Yulia launched after the task was stopped to get in a little flight. Joe landed back at the field next to the gliders. Yulia got tossed around in the back side of the thermals and was excited when there didn't seem to be any air for her glider to fly in. Then she noticed that she was going backwards below cloud base at 12 km/h when her air speed was 40 km/h into the wind.

She couldn't make it back to the airfield and landed in a big open field on the way toward town.

We held the prize giving at a restaurant at 4:30 PM and Jonny won his seventh out of seven meets in 2010. Dustin was a mere nine points behind and Zippy not far behind him. Check out the scoring page above.

The Flytec Race and Rally was a competition that tested the pilots' skills and decision making. Not a single task was easily made. Filippo Oppici stated on the day that he almost made goal going south toward Avon Park, that this was the first time that he had flown 100 km without finding a thermal.

We flew the first day toward a massive front under gray skies and only Dustin and Jonny made goal. Jonny had to save himself from 800' over a swamp.

The second and third days I flew but the winds were too strong for a real task. On the fourth day, four flex wing pilots made it to goal with many top pilots dropping out in weak conditions along the way.

On the fifth day there were no cu's, a low top of the lift (except at a large fire), very weak thermals inside the start cylinder, and a cross wind there. The lead gaggle stayed together until the very end as everyone needed everyone else to be able to get to goal.

On the sixth day, the clouds predominated except right at launch and there was sunshine only for a small part of the race. Grey clouds, shade, and approaching rain cut the task in half. And on the last day, well it was too windy to safely carry out a task.

I did get to fly everyday and for that I was thankful.

All the pilots had a good attitude and no one whined or complained about the conditions. They all knew that it was a very good test of pilots' skills and we all had fun together. Jamie Shelden did a great job as the meet organizer and meet director.

We started the Flytec Race and Rally from the Florida Ridge and right from the get go we had to deal with difficult to forecast (and deal with) weather conditions. I worked very diligently to be able to have us make the right decision and that turned out to stay at the Ridge and run the task and still have the time to make it to Quest Air with the tugs before the front hit. And it hit hard.

We didn't have the option of continuing on to Moultrie that night as the tugs wouldn't be able to make it from Quest Air to Moultrie Georgia the next morning. We didn't have the option to go to Williston as we can only tow out of there in a south or north wind and the wind was forecasted to be strong west and even stronger west up at Moultrie.

On Monday the task committee called at task to the northeast. Our plan was to fly the task and then drive to Moultrie to fly in the west winds that were forecasted to be a little lighter than the previous day in Moultrie. We had everything packed up to go to Moultrie. It would still be tough for the tugs to get there in one hop, but with two they could get there in time to tow the next day.

We were not able to hold a task on Monday at Quest Air given the high winds. Three of us flew, but the day was called due to difficult launch conditions. Once we were back (or still) at Quest Air, going to Moultrie didn't seem like a good option. It was now much later in the day and no one was pushing for that.

The next day the task committee called an impossible task given the west winds (which turned out to be as strong as on Monday), and we were committed as a group to going to Moultrie or to Greystone 100 km to the north if we could get permission to launch out of there. We already knew that the next day would require us to fly to the south given the northwest winds.

After we were again not able to hold a task at Quest Air given the west winds, we all met again and there was about a half and half split about whether to now drive to Moultrie. We didn't make any decision given this impasse, but soon found out that one of the tugs was down, so that indicated that we should stay at Quest and get it fixed.

The next day the task was to the south, which meant that we would again be stuck at Quest Air if we wanted to head north as again the drive would be difficult from Avon Park.

On Thursday we took off from Quest Air and had a great task to Williston where we spent the night. With a south wind predicted for the next two days we had laid out a task from Williston to Moultrie and another from Moultrie to Americus. It looked good.

After a blue day all day and all the way from Quest Air to Williston it was an unpleasant surprise to see all the clouds blackening the sky at Williston and the rain the next morning. Then after we got to Moultrie and set up for the last task we found that the winds were too high for a task, on a day that forecasted much lighter winds at Moultrie than were forecasted for Moultrie back on Monday and Tuesday. That is, even if we would have gone directly to Moultrie on Sunday night (almost impossible driving from the Ridge), we would not have been able to fly at Moultrie Monday and Tuesday, if the forecasts were accurate.

Did we do the best that we could under the circumstances? Did we make the best decision given hindsight? Maybe someone has some evidence either way.

The Flytec Race and Rally

April 29, 2010, 10:56:59 pm EDT

The Flytec Race and Rally

A sweet day flying to the northwest and finally in the Rally

Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Lucas Ridley|Quest Air|Rich Lovelace|Zac Majors

The Blogs and Tweets:

http://westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

Wills Wing pilots - Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro, Dustin, Zac Majors

http://rich-lovelace.blogspot.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

Scores on-line: http://soaringspot.com/2010frr/

With a light east wind, the task call was 109 km to Williston to the northwest, if only to get out and on the Rally part of this Race and Rally. We got stuck at Quest Air with two days of strong west winds which pinned us against airspace from Orlando, and one day of northwest winds which sent us back in the wrong direction. Finally we've made out way out of Quest Air and are spending the night in Williston.

The RUC and NAM forecasts were not in sync (as per usual) other than for the wind speed and direction. It was supposed to be east south east below the inversion at about 10 mph. The lift looked to be maybe 400 to 500 fpm, but the height of the lift looked low and it sure didn't look like there would be cu's in spite of the fact that they were forecast by the RUC.

At 12:30 the sky looks uninviting. Alex Cuddy goes up and finds lift low but we call him back down so that we can add two start times to the task. We don't start launching until well after 1 PM, with the last start time at 2:30 PM.

Once in the air the main task is staying up. There are no cu's. The wind is out of the east and the climbs are very weak. Pilots are spread out in numerous small gaggles, all not doing so well.

We gradually drift to the northwest area of the start cylinder as the last start time approaches. The highest I've been is 3,000' and when its time to go I'm only at 2,700'. There are pilots out ahead a bit higher.

The lift is instantly better as we head north. I climb to 3,600' with Joe Bostik who started fifteen minutes earlier. One gaggle is to the north up highway 33 and another is to the west a bit. I glide the five kilometers to the west gaggle and find good lift. The day is already much better.

All the pilots are in sight and I fly north to climb to over 4,000' south of the turnpike. There are a number of pilots nearby and I watch them as I also keep an eye on the main gaggle of maybe ten pilots a few kilometers to the north. They mark good spots to go to to get back up even after they have left.

Northwest of Wildwood and down to 1,600' I run to a spot at the lead gaggle has left. Another pilot joins me finds a better core and we climb up to 3,500'. It's feeling like a good day, but a blue day. You've got to search for the lift.

We head over to Interstate 75 just southeast of a large housing development. We work 200 fpm up here to get high enough to cross the development if need be as there are few small landing spots inside it. Maybe a high school field or two.

I make it across with Lucas Ridley and another pilot but get low on the other side in a huge cultivated area under the lead gaggle. Down to 700' I head for the northeast corner of the field and see a bird in action. I feel the lift and hang on for dear life. I'm being blown back over a forest but I can make it back out to the field if I lose the lift. There is a big fire a few kilometers to the west and I'm drifting toward it.

I climb up high enough to make it over the forest and the next housing development and then I find even better lift over the forest and climb to 4,100'. I can spot a pilot flying over the fire itself.

On my own after the low save, and now not able to spot the lead gaggle in the smoke I take a seven kilometer glide to a new small development that has a lot of exposed sand and ponds. I search around for the lift coming off the sand and finally find it in the northern section of the development down to 1,000'. The good lift gets me to 4,400' as four pilots come in under me two of them quite low.

After another seven kilometer glide I start searching at 2,800' not as willing to wait until I'm really low again and not having an obvious thermal producer ahead. I head east a little over drier looking areas as Rich Lovelace joins me.

We work 100 fpm then move to 230 fpm that gets us over 4,000' sixteen kilometers from goal. That seems like enough for me. I go on glide and Rich follows and then heads a bit to the west while I keep going straight. I hit some good lift, stop for a few turns and then rush into goal.

Goal is pretty crowded by the time that we get there, but it is great to get there at all after the first few days of this competition. We are able to leave our gliders set up as they are behind a locked gate. I stake mine down and cover it with my sail cover.

Check out the scores. Different folks won the day. Dustin still in the lead, Jonny, then Zippy. Some folks are unhappy not making goal.

The glasses didn't help

April 27, 2010, 8:56:08 EDT

The glasses didn't help

On the first day of the Flytec Race and Rally

Jeff O'Brien|Joe Bostik

Joe Bostik and Jeff O'Brien:

Discuss "The glasses didn't help" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Rob Kells Competition - Task 3

April 21, 2010, 7:19:25 pm EDT

Rob Kells Competition - Task 3

Bad timing

Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Richard Lovelace|Rob Kells|Rob Kells Competition 2010|Tom Lanning|Zac Majors

The Blogs and Tweets:

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19703

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

Wills Wing pilots - Jeff O'Brien, Jeff Shapiro, Dustin, Zac Majors

http://rich-lovelace.blogspot.com/

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

http://ozreport.com/twitter

Scores on-line: http://soaringspot.com/2010rk/

Unlike the previous day where the forecast for thunderstorms was after 1 PM, today the forecast was for thunderstorms before 2 PM. What that meant was that a trough was pushing through from the northwest and would be through our area by 2 PM. After that things would clear up a bit. We knew this going into the task, but it didn't sink into the task committee (or me) that maybe we should call the task later in the day instead of launching at 12:30 PM and starting the task at 1:30 PM.

A pilot mentioned that maybe the Sport Class could go first today, so we let them go giving them half an hour to get into the air. Perhaps this wasn't the best day to go first, as they probably would have been much happier to start a few hours later.

It was looking pretty iffy at launch time. We gave the Sport Class half an hour to launch from noon to 12:30. There were lots of cu's around, but also lots of scuddy looking clouds, shaded areas, vertical development, but no rain or anything else dangerous looking. Almost all of them got up fine and stuck under the cu's.

Now the task committee called an out and return task of 85 km first to the east (downwind) and then south (cross wind). I reported that the forecast was for a reasonably breezy west wind (8 knots) so although I had come up with this task, along with half a dozen others, I wasn't too keen on it. Jonny went out side and said that the wind was light west southwest. It was in the field, but that was not the forecast for the wind going up to cloud base.

The Sport Class representative on the task committee also wanted to go down highway 31 to the south, and have the goal down there at our second turnpoint. I sure couldn't figure that out. Anyway that was the task setup for the day, and the day was looking real iffy.

Jonny, Zippy, and Richard Lovelace were meeting (sort of) in the staging line back from the head of the launch line trying to come up with an alternate task or get everything postponed. But the rigids were pushing ahead ready to launch right after the Sport Class guys and a few flex wings were right behind the first two rigid wings.

The task committee needed to actually meet at the front of the launch line to make the launch line stop and wait for their decision on the task, but they didn't and the pilots launched and that was that for the task calling.

The lift was good under the local cu's and pilots were getting up to cloud base and waiting for the first start clock at 1:30 PM. I got towed up to 2,400' under a big black cloud so it was easy to just hang on and get to cloud base and then work to stay out of the cloud. That cloud drifted in the brisk west wind and dissipated about eight minutes before the  start window opened, so the fifteen pilots under it had to go back to another cloud closer to the Florida Ridge and work much weaker lift and except for Carl and another pilot not get to cloud base or above it when the first start window opened.

We headed out anyway as conditions were deteriorating, with a patch of rain to the northeast. It took less than four minutes to get to the first turnpoint five kilometers away to the east. Nice to have the downwind leg first, I guess, but I could only wish for it to be a bit longer.

There was a nice thermal just to the east of the turnpoint, downwind, but it looked good. I got in it, Julia joined me at the same level and we climbed to almost 4,000'. Ahead to the south it did not look good. A number of pilots had just taken the turnpoint and headed south, but it looked very dark and not very lifty in that direction, so I wanted to get high first.

Patrick Kruse, James Stinnet and I headed cross and upwind after leaving the thermal. Julia headed south toward a gaggle that Zippy had reported on earlier. I could see that they were climbing slowly and drifting quickly off course to the east. I wanted to find lift to the west upwind.

I saw Joe Bostik low thermaling west of that gaggle and came in at his level and we thermalled up to 3,100'. Still we were drifting east at 12 to 14 mph, away from the south course line.

To the south was a stretch of shaded ground at least ten miles thick on our course line. Zippy was reporting weak to no lift as he dove in there. I headed west on the north side of the shaded area hoping for better lift under the fast moving cu's. But I didn't find anything. I then saw Joe and Tom Lanning turning a bit to the south under the dark cu's. I went to join them.

The lift there was basically zero or a little less. And again we were drifting far to the east. There was an orange grove below us, a sort of a subdivision in the swamp just to the south, and open fields far to the east. I saw that we weren't going to get up or go anywhere along the course line so I headed south over the subdivision, which was drier anyway, and found a nice field to land in free of trees and power lines and fences. Joe and Tom landed further east not making much headway if any on the course.

Zippy landed about a kilometer from me, Jeff Shapiro about a kilometer behind. We found Dustin and O'Brien about six kilometers further along.

As we were picking up O'Brien we could see Chris Zimmerman overhead at about 3,000' He, Richard Lovelace, and Larry Bunner had low starts and had struggled on the first part of the course. This meant that they were about an hour behind. The shaded area had cleared up quickly and a half hour after I landed the sky was blue overhead with puffy cu's.

Larry didn't get but a little further than Zac, but Richard came within ten kilometers of the second and furthest turnpoint and Chris was within five kilometers to win the day.

The day got very nice looking at 2 PM and we all wished that we had been patient and delayed the task until 2:30 PM. Of course at 12:30 PM it looked like we had better get going or the day would be over soon.

Rob Kells Competition - Task 1

April 19, 2010, 6:07:41 pm EDT

Rob Kells Competition - Task 1

The weather changes

Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jim Yocom|Joe Bostik|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Rob Kells|Rob Kells Competition 2010|weather|Zac Majors

The forecasts have been changing rapidly during each day. So we haven't paid much attention to them other than for the wind speed and direction. The RUC and NAM are way under calling the surface temperature relative to the NWS local forecast for the Florida Ridge, so if the NWS is right we are going to have better lift and a higher cloud base than the soarcasts are predicting.

With a forecasted north northeast wind at up to 20 knots through the boundary layer (top of the lift) we call a turnpoint to the southwest and then Imokolee airfield  to the south. We need to get over to an actual highway going south to make for a possible retrieve and we can't go any further south than Imokolee as we soon run into the Everglades for real (well, actually Big Cypress Swamp).

It's a short task but given the vast uncertainly in the weather, the limits on what we can do to the south, the huge tracts of difficult retrieve to our south (but not to our south southeast or south southwest) it is the best we can do. We would call some upwind legs if we thought that cloud base would be high or if the lift looked like it would be strong, but we don't know that and after a full day of rain and rain the day before we aren't looking to find crackin' thermals.

We also set a Sport Class task, a short one, just to the turnpoint for the open class. We are very concerned that Sport Class pilots will not stay away from the difficult to retrieve areas and I caution them to go against the north wind and stay as close to highway 80 as possible. Still some will end up where they will be unhappy with their ride home if and when it comes.

I launch along with the rigid wings who took their own sweet time about getting going. No one in the Open Class is all that excited either. I pin  off a little early in weak lift that is attractive enough to bring over Campbell Bowen and Jim Yocom in their exotic versions of the ATOSes, but which doesn't get very strong or get us very high.

I'm struggling along with Jeff O'Brien who got off early also, having to push back upwind to find lift and still stay in contact with the launch area. We both lose it and land and get yanked up a few minutes later. By then Jeff Shapiro and Jonny Durand have gone on course at the 1:30 PM start clock.

We both get good tows to a well marked thermal/gaggle two kilometers south of the Florida Ridge flight park. This is necessary but it's not great as we really want to stay as far north as possible against the north wind. The wind is averaging about 13 mph out of the northeast.

The lift is much better when you start higher up and O'Brien and I climb up and join Zac Majors. There is a line of small cu's coming at us from the northeast so we just jump forward and a little north to get under them and stay in the lift. We could leave at 1:45 PM from 3,500' but we wait for the 2 PM start gate at 3,200' and a bit further to the north, which makes it easier to stay upwind of the course line.

Zac leads out with Max, a Brazilian pilot next too him. I'm third with Derrick Turner. and Joe Bostik in tow. We head west northwest away from the west southwest course line to get to the nearest bank of clouds and stay away from the blue hole on the course line. The cu's are congested to our west and north.

Zac finds good lift to 3,900' as the wind pushes us down the course line just north and upwind of it. Zac and Max leave, then later Derrick and finally Joe and I. We see them head into the dark and get low so Joe and I head toward the light and the edge of the congested cu's to the south and stay higher. Soon we are high over Derrick but don't see Zac or Max. Jim Yocom is low and soon landing. Another ATOS pilot is low there also way below us but gets back up.

I find weak lift (50 fpm) and five or six of the pilots who started behind us come in under and join me including O'Brien. This only gets me to 3,000' so I move ahead.

Joe and Chris Zimmerman have gone ahead but are in the shaded area and low. I find 170 fpm just before the turnpoint and climb back to 3,300' before nicking the turnpoint and heading south. Zac is low at 800' and climbing slowly. Jeff is likewise.

I see a pilot in front of me turning wide turns, climbing slowly and drifting downwind. I make the mistake of not joining him, as all those behind me do, and don't find any more lift over the soaking wet fields.

Jeff Shapiro was the first into goal with Jonny Durand three minutes behind him, then Dustin. Zac, Joe,Julia, and O'Brien made goal, as did about ten pilots, a third of the field. The task was short (in time and distance) relative to the GAP parameters so it will be devalued. We knew before we started that it would be a less than 100% valid day.

Scores should be up late tonight. Jamie Shelden will start the downloads in half an hour and I'll do the scoring after that.

Friday at Quest and Wallaby

April 3, 2010, 3:11:24 pm EDT

Friday at Quest and Wallaby

Saturday there was a white sky

Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Tom Lanning

With a nine mph or so east southeast wind on Friday, light lift, and the top of lift no more than 3,000', and often a lot lower, it was a yoyo day for those of us who at first wanted to go south. Some folks (maybe four pilots) from Wallaby and three from Quest drifted down wind hanging in the weak lift as it pushed them toward the west coast. No one got that far.

Dennis reports that he landed eleven miles from Quest Air and that Tom Lanning and Larry Bunner got about forty eight miles, not quite to the goal at Crystal River.

A few pilots from Wallaby headed south but as Joe Bostik said they got a zero for the day landing later back at Wallaby not able to penetrate that far past the I4 freeway. Those of us at Quest would head southeast only to get down to less than 1,000' and have to work really light lift drifting far back to the northwest of Quest before we could even begin to get up.

Today the sky is white from high clouds.

Steve Pearson reported more demo flights than ever before at the Wills Wing Demo Days given that it has been flyable every day starting with the first day of the Demo Days on Wednesday. I had heard that in spite of all the demo gliders that they had down there, the lines were long for demo flights.

More fun in Florida

April 1, 2010, 9:46:01 pm EDT

More fun in Florida

The light winds and warm temperatures continue

Gary Osoba|Jamie Shelden|Joe Bostik|Quest Air|sailplane

Thursday promised to be a second day of good flying. With fog in the morning reinforcing the idea that the winds would be light:

The Oz Report World Headquarters at sunrise on Thursday. Photo by Gary Osoba

With over a dozen pilots here, choosing Quest Air even with Wills Wing Demo Days happening just to the south, there was a lot of activity at launch. Joe Bostik had written to say that some of those launching from Wallaby would be doing a six turnpoint task up highway 33 to its intersection with 474. I called a task to the south to Dean Still and 33 over to Wallaby and back to Quest. The idea was to run into the Wallaby pilots and join them for part of the task.

I launched first while the others were holding back under the supposition that the lift was weak and the inversion low. I pinned off at 800' AGL as we were going up 1000 fpm. The lift wasn't as strong as I had hoped, but I hung on in the weak stuff searching for better even while low. It must have taken half an hour to get up over 2,000'.

Gary Osoba was pulled up next in Steve Arndt's Magic Dragon:

Photo by Gary Osoba.

I climbed out to over 4,000' west of Quest with a 4 mph east wind. Heading south east I didn't find any lift and had to come back for another try south of Quest. There was enough lift to get up there and start heading south to test out the day. So far it had been very light.

No one else wanted to go with me or even later (other than Jamie, who couldn't get anyone to go with her). I worked my way slowly south hoping to run into the Wallaby pilots but thinking that it was unlikely that they took on the task after all.

I found good lift just north of the Seminole glider port. I had been flying with numerous sailplanes that were having a difficult time getting very high. The inversion was thick, but I kept finding enough weak lift to keep going.

I headed for the turnpoint at 474 and 33 hoping to find some friends, but there was no one there. I should have tuned my radio to their frequency to see what was up. I turned around to go back to Quest given the weak conditions, but I hadn't hit any lift since leaving Seminole and didn't find any on the way back either even though I took a different route.

I found a bit of lift at 800' over the glider port but it didn't last. There was plenty of activity on the runway, but they held up a tow and let me land.

It looks like we will have light winds for the coming week.

Spring arrives in Florida

March 31, 2010, 10:48:44 pm EDT

Spring arrives in Florida

With a forecast for good weather through Sunday, at least

Belinda Boulter|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Jeff Shapiro|Joe Bostik|John Chambers|PG|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Bellerby|weather

While the fifth day of the Brazilian Nationals at Andradas was canceled, we here in Florida had a day with light winds (such a blessing), no cu's, light to moderate lift (nothing scary), top of lift at 4,000', warm on the ground (not in the air). It was perfect.

My flight:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1227205315

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/31.3.2010/17:14

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=131135

http://www.xccomp.org/module.php?id=21&l=en&contest=INT&date=20091001&reference=f47c18ebdca88dc9

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/309878

One flight crunched by four different chunks of software.

The RUC/Dr. Jack and NAM/Dr. Jack were undercalling the soaring and surface temperature relative to the local NWS forecast. The NAM was a lot closer so we went with it and it proved to be about right.

Our task was a 50 km task to the north. First to the north east corner of the Green Swamp, an intersection west of Mascot, 13 km northwest of Quest, then the overpass over the turnpike of highway 33, then back to Quest, a mere 50 km. I planned to add on another 35 km and to go south to end up at Wallaby. Belinda was picking up Jeff Shapiro's wife and daughter at the airport and taking them to Wallaby, so I thought I should end up there.

We didn't expect to cu's and there weren't any. Greg Dinaur, John Chambers and I just worked light lift to 4,000' as per the NAM, and then took the 1:45 start time at 3,200'. I didn't mind heading out in front and found the first lift a couple of kilometers outside the 5 km start circle at 2,000'. A mellow 200 fpm go us back over 3,500' so we were good to go.

Nicking the turnpoint at 3,000' I headed back over the huge nursery that always looks like it should be putting off some thermal. Down to 1,600' at the east end (downwind end) of it I finally found the lift as John and Greg followed along. We were able to climb back to 3,700'. Greg had stayed back and high and was now in the lead as I continued to climb, John not far behind him. We had to go straight north with a 7 mph west wind to get the next turnpoint.

 I saw Greg and John low out in front of me and I stopped for 140 fpm. John kept getting lower and had to come back under me as I cored up through a sailplane. Greg wasn't doing any better a mile to the north.

Heading out at 3,000' toward the most wide open and sun light dry fields I could find, I found lift at 1,000' and worked 80 fpm to 1,500'. I could see Greg just a head of me about two miles, working light lift and went for it. Down to 600' AGL, I found what Greg was in and just stayed in zero on average for three minutes until it turned on or I found the core. Then it really turned on to over 500 fpm and I climbed to 3,600'. Greg came in under me having nicked the turnpoint 1.5 km away.

I took the turnpoint and headed south not to see Greg again. I continued to work with the sailplane and it was an easy ride hitting 200 to 300 fpm lift going south and staying above 1,800' and up to 3,600'. I passed Quest Air to the east, downwind of it and headed south east toward Wallaby Ranch.

Eleven kilometers south of Quest and on the edge of the wild areas, I was down to 1,000' on the last cultivated fields. I held on for fifteen minutes climbing back to 2,700' at 100 fpm. That gave me enough altitude to go out over the forested areas to see what I could find. I found 260 fpm to 4,000' so things were looking up. Steve Bellerby from Quest came in under me in that one and he was heading south to Wallaby also.

The next jump was over to highway 27 and the 474 intersection. Too many trees and wet fields before there. I knew of a high and dry field on the south west side of that intersection so I was going for that. I knew that I could land there if I didn't get up.

I found a thermal just at the end of the trees on the west side, and stuck with that as it drifted to the north east at 3 mph. The thermal was coming right off a house complex and at 170 fpm, I was plenty happy to get up and get high. Highway 27 runs north south along the Florida Ridge and its good to be over a high dry spot.

I saw three gliders come in under me at the intersection. Steve Bellerby was low. Joe Bostik who was flying at Wallaby and doing a box to the north with the last turnpoint at 474 and 27 came right nearby. It was good to have a companion after being alone for most of the flight.

We had Wallaby Ranch made from 3,000' twelve kilometers out, but we found some good lift 10 km out and climbed back to 3,000' before racing in. It was great to finally be able to stuff the bar and go fast.

The new T2-C 144 with its new VG system is much easier to use than the previous version. I can pull the VG on all the way without a problem. That was never true last year. And it flew straight with the bar stuffed.

All and all a great soft low flying day. The thermals were very gentle and it was fun to fly in them. As long as you can stay up and are patient these days are just the best.

Wills Wing Days at Quest Air, first day

March 27, 2010, 10:13:43 pm EDT

Wills Wing Days at Quest Air

Saturday started off the demo days with good flying

Joe Bostik|Quest Air|Russell "Russ" Brown|Steven "Steve" Pearson|weather|Wills Wing Demo Days 2010

The wind was strong, 14 - 20 mph, out of the east (180 degrees from the day before), but that didn't stop too many from saddling up and getting jerked up out of the field. The local cu's started forming around 2 PM and stayed until sundown. Pilots were able to head south to Seminole and come back, or make it up wind to highway 27. Joe Bostik was the only one to go down wind and not come back.

There were two tugs in operation which kept the lines down. Russell Brown was working on the motor of a third tug. Steve Pearson was handing out new WW T2C's to pilots who had ordered them earlier.

Lots of pilots and friends around Quest on a nice sunny warm day. The weather for the next two days looks poor with an approaching front, but after that it looks great.

Flying without Joe Bostik

March 10, 2010, 8:15:21 pm EST

Flying without Joe Bostik

It wasn't as much fun

Joe Bostik|Paul Tjaden|PG|Quest Air|USHPA

Flying with others is what makes hang gliding a lot more fun (which is why I like competition). Unfortunately, Joe had to go fly a big airplane later today, so he didn't get to fly although he came by Quest Air thinking that he would be flying a hang glider.

I took off at 12:05 with a few thin little cues around Quest Air. Paul Tjaden hauled me over to one, I pinned off a little early, but then went over to it to find 600-800 fpm,  to 4,700', and so smooth. The wind was 15 mph out of the south southeast and I had been worrying about it being rough, but the tow out of the field was super smooth and the thermal was even smoother. This was going to be a day that I liked flying.

There were only two cu's around and after I got up I went on glide into the blue. There would not be another cu to get under during the flight.

It was  15 km to the next thermal and I was down to 1000'. Unlike the first thermal under the cu it was 150 fpm, but I figured this was the way it was going to be on this blue day with a defined inversion. I was drifting down wind fast, and that was the direction I was headed anyway, so I might as well just hang with it. It was very pleasant air to be up in. I was paralleling the Turnpike.

As I approached the prison and then Coleman I had to be sure to get high even to get over the forests ahead. I wasn't getting over 3,000' so I took my time hanging in very light lift, well under 100 fpm. I figured that I could just stay in the lift as I drifted over the forests if I had to.

I was high enough to jump over the Turnpike southwest of Wildwood and picked up a thermal at 1,000' as I was just keeping an eye on what fields away from the high tension lines I could land in if necessary. This thermal was almost 300 fpm to almost 5,000'.

Freed from my pre-occupation with reasonable landing zones I zoomed with the strong tail wind at 55 mph right up Interstate 75 toward Ocala. I was able to pick up the next thermal at 200 fpm at 1,700', so this was beginning to set up a pattern for me. From 4,600' I headed toward the southwest end of the runway at Ocala airfield.

Down to 1,400' I joined a young eagle (the birds had been very helpful all day) and climbed again to 4,600'. I was thinking that I should just keep this up, glide fast until I got down to near 2,000', then search around for the next one.

I picked a weak one up at 2,200' but lost it at 2,600' and oops, I didn't find another one as the territory below up highway 27 turned in to well fenced small horse farms. I saw a big field near highway 27 with a large horse show going on. I could land in the field well away from the horses, so I did. It was this show here.

After I landed I looked up and there were in fact cu's forming over the field. I had just barely missed them. Maybe they were there when I headed for the field, but maybe they were there just after I landed. They were the first cu's I saw after leaving Quest.

The flight:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1250584086

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/10.3.2010/17:04

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=128177

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/304327

A nice little cross country flight before my cross country flight to the USHPA BOD meeting.

Discuss "Flying without Joe Bostik" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flying with Joe Bostik

March 9, 2010, 9:11:38 EST

Flying with Joe Bostik

Cross country at Quest Air

Joe Bostik|PG|Quest Air|sailplane

Joe Bostik (former US National champion) showed up yesterday at Quest Air for a little cross country time. The forecast was for moderate lift and none to light winds, the first time we've had really light winds so far this season.

I had mapped a 50 km triangle route to the north which we quickly abandoned once we got in the air. Alex Cuddy wasn't on our frequency so he didn't hear Joe when he suggested going south as that's where all the sailplanes where high over the Seminole sailplane port for the Seniors Championship.

The cirrus had been increasing in sky coverage before we launched and Joe and I noticed that there was a lot less to the south of Seminole. The lift was pretty weak at first under the cirrus, and shadows from thicker cirrus would periodically come through from the north. We were only getting to a little over 3,000' when we headed out.

Down to 1,800', 8 km south of Quest, I found our first nice thermal of the day and I climbed out to 4,700' (Joe at 5,000'). The rest of the way south for thirty three kilometers (a bit south of Deen Still Road) it was weak. Joe did find one good thermal which got him high, but I came over to it a bit late and didn't get as high.

There was weak lift around the turnpoint at Deen Still and Joe was dodging the shadows heading further south. I kept going with him but found some lift a couple of kilometers to the north of him and told him to come back as we were way passed the turnpoint. He didn't want to come back to the shadow and headed further south to get back in the sunshine. I was going up in the shadow.

At 3,200' I headed north back toward Quest to do the out and return. Joe was working weak lift in the sun a few miles to the south over a grass air strip. He would be there for a while.

Passing the turnpoint I was down to 800' closely watching for birds. They had been a big help so far in the flight. There were a dozen vultures circling low, but they seemed to be too low and too many. I worked very weak lift just to their west knowing that I had to stay up in anything that was available.

That one really was weak and I only got back up to 2,700' before it gave out. I headed north really paying very close attention to the air and to the land below trying to make sure I didn't get so low again before I found something. At 1,500' 10 km south of the glider port I found a strong one that took me to 5,000'. Now it looked like things would turn out alright.

I kept in contact with Joe as he worked his way slowly back toward me. I slowed way down so that he could catch up. Four kilometers south of the glider port I climbed back to 5,400'. I had Quest Air on a glide, but hung back waiting for Joe. He was catching up.

I hung around the airport but it was getting cold being so high. I moved slowly north finding zero sink and just hanging out in it to see if I could spot Joe. He told me that he was just north of the glider port but low. I couldn't see him.

He worked a thermal from low but ended up not too high on the south of the glider port. He came north, but then told me he was down to 1,000' and felt that he might be landing. I had moved further north and went on glide to Quest getting there way high and heading north to Groveland to find some sink. There had been plenty of lift for the last ten kilometers.

I was about to get him with my truck after landing at Quest when I saw him coming in to the field. He had dug his way out of the hole that he got himself in.

The flight on various on-line contests:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?dsId=1128011

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/8.3.2010/18:04

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=128117

Uploading to the site above, also put it here:

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/304181

I've tried repeatedly to get the following to work but it doesn't:

http://www.xccomp.org/module.php?id=35&date=20100309&competitor_id=100285#

Discuss "Flying with Joe Bostik" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Thirteen US pilots have signed up for the pre-Worlds

Thirteen US pilots have signed up for the pre-Worlds

Including Joe Bostik, who won't be selected to come

CIVL|Joe Bostik|Larry Bunner|Mike Haley|US Nationals|World Pilot Ranking Scheme


http://www.cucco2011.org/

Given the rules promulgated on the pre-Worlds site it is not very likely that all thirteen US pilots (nor all twenty Russian pilots) will be allocated spots at the 2010 pre-Worlds by the organizers of the 2011 Worlds.

See the rules here: http://ozreport.com/1257526737

Current US WPRS ranking is found here. This may change by the end of the year.

This is an unprecedented level of interest in the pre-Worlds by US pilots when it has been held overseas. There were plenty of US pilots in the pre-Worlds in the Owens (it was a US Nationals) and at Big Spring in 2006. Only a few US pilots showed up in Hay for the pre-Worlds there (and very few wanted to go to the Worlds there). Five of us showed up in Laragne in France last year.

It is great to see this level of enthusiasm for the pre-Worlds and for foreign competition. It's great to see Joe Bostik back into it. Joe is also signed up the the 2010 Forbes Flatlands (as is Larry Bunner and 59 pilots) and the 2010 Bogong Cup.

Contrast this level of enthusiasm for foreign competition with Mike Haley's comments above.

The US National Champion, a history

Lots of Champions

The National Champion, a history

October 31, 2008, 8:40:32 PDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Bo Hagewood|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Arai|Curt Warren|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Eric Raymond|Gerry Uchytil|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Larry Tudor|Mike Meier|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Rich Burton|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Mike Meier «Mike» writes:

This is a "complete" list of US National Hang Gliding Champions, as best I can compile it - with one exception - it contains no women champions. There were not that many years that a women's national champion was named, and I did not try to compile a list of those.

The list is complete, except for the glider that Mike Daily flew in 1986, which I could not find, and it is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability to research it. I made only one assumption - that Campbell Bowen flew the same glider in the 2007 Nationals as he did in the Quest Air comp that immediately followed the Nationals. All of the other data listed is documented somewhere, Hang Gliding Magazine, the Oz Report, manufacturer web sites, etc. That does not guarantee that all the data is accurate, but it is all documented. Anyone who has conflicting information should, of course, comment on anything they think is not accurate.

The history of the title US National Champion in hang gliding is not, perhaps, as simple or as clean as one might prefer. As I mentioned above, there was a period (1983 - 1987) where the rules called for a single national champion, to be determined by CPS points, and during this period the winners of the U.S. Nationals competitions, in various classes, were supposed to have been designated as "Nationals Champions" (i.e. Champions of the Nationals), but that convention was not followed, in almost all cases, when the meets were reported in the media, so in those years we had additional "National Champions" beyond what the rules provided for.

Another source of possible confusion or complication is that the term US National Champion has been reserved for a US pilot, so in many cases, after the meet became international in its participation, the National Champion did not necessarily finish in first place in his class in the meet. In the list, I've added a column where I've listed the National Champion's finishing place in the meet, where I was able to determine that, when it was not a first place finish.
 

Year Pilot Site Class Glider (Place in meet)
2008 Zac Majors Lakeview, Oregon Flexwing Wills Wing T2C 144
2007 Campbell Bowen Florida Ridge, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VX
2007 Tom Lanning Florida Ridge, Florida Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S 4 5th
2007 Rodger Furrey Florida Ridge, Florida Sport Class Wills Wing U2 160 2nd
2006 Campbell Bowen Florida Ridge, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VX <1st
2006 Curt Warren Florida Ridge, Florida Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S 3rd
2005 Bruce Barmakian Quest Air, Florida Rigid Wing Air Atos VR
2005 Paris Williams Quest Air, Florida Flexwing Aeros Combat L 3rd
2004 Davis Straub Big Spring, Texas Rigid Wing Air Atos VX
2004 Curt Warren Big Spring, Texas Flexwing Moyes Litespeed S
2003 Bruce Barmakian Big Spring, Texas Rigid Wing Air Atos C
2003 Paris Williams Big Spring, Texas Flexwing Aeros Combat 2
2002 Bruce Barmakian Wallaby Ranch, Florida Rigid Wing (Class 5) Aeros Stalker 4th
2002 Brian Porter Wallaby Ranch, Florida Rigid Wing (Class 2) Bright Star Swift
2002 Paris Williams Wallaby Ranch, Florida Flexwing Icaro Laminar 3rd
2001 Brian Porter Hearne, Texas Rigid Wing Bright Star Swift 2nd
2001 Paris Williams Hearne, Texas Flexwing Icaro Laminar
2000 Brian Porter Lakeview, Oregon Rigid Wing Bright Star Swift
2000 Bo Hagewood Lakeview, Oregon Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion
1999 Brian Porter Quest Air, Florida Rigid Wing Utopia
1999 Jim Lee Quest Air, Florida Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion 5th
1998 Dave Sharp Dinosaur, Colorado Rigid Wing Flight Designs Exxtacy
1998 Chris Arai Dinosaur, Colorado Flexwing Wills Wing Fusion 3rd
1997 Chris Arai Lakeview, Oregon One Class Wills Wing Fusion
1996 Larry Tudor Dinosaur, CO One Class Wills Wing XC 3rd
1995 Chris Arai Chelan, WA One Class Wills Wing XC 2nd
1994 Chris Arai Mount Princeton, Colorado One Class Wills Wing RamAir
1993 Jim Lee Lakeview, Oregon One Class Wills Wing RamAir
1992 Brad Koji Telluride, Colorado One Class Wills Wing HP AT
1991 Tony Barton Owens Valley, California One Class UP TRX
1990 Bruce Case Dinosaur, Colorado One Class Wills Wing HP AT 2nd
1989 Brian Porter Dunlap, California One Class Odyssey
1988 Joe Bostik Chattanooga, Tennessee One Class Wills Wing Sport
1987 Joe Bostik Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP II
1987 Howard Osterlund Owens Valley, California Meet Winner Airwave Magic IV
1986 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP
1986 Rick Rawlings Chelan, Washington World Wills Wing HP
1986 Mike Daily Chelan, Washington Sporting
1985 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing HP
1985 Rick Rawlings Chelan, Washington World Wills Wing HP
1985 Gerry Uchytil Chelan, Washington Sporting Airwave Magic
1984 Stew Smith Crestline, California Overall (on CPS points) Seedwings Sensor 510
1984 Rich Pfeiffer Crestline, California World Seedwings Sensor 510
1984 Terry Wilkins Crestline, California Sporting Wills Wing Duck
1983 Rick Rawlings Overall (on CPS points) Wills Wing Duck
1983 Chris Bulger Dunlap, California World Bennett Delta Wing Streak
1983 Lee Fisher Dunlap, California Sporting Seedwings Sensor 510
1982 Rich Burton Crestline, California Open UP Comet
1982 Rich Pfeiffer Crestline, California Flexwing Wills Wing Duck
1981 Fred Hutchinson Slide Mountain, Nevada Open Manta Fledgling IIB
1981 Rich Pfeiffer Slide Mountain, Nevada Flexwing Seedwings Sensor 510
1980 Rex Miller Ellenville, New York Open Manta Fledgling IIB
1980 Tom Haddon Ellenville, New York Flexwing UP Comet
1979 Eric Raymond Crestline, California One Class Manta Fledgling IIB
1978 Dennis Pagen Hyner View, Pennsylvania One Class Sky Sports Sirocco II
1976 Rob Reed Dog Mountain, Washington Standard Bennett Delta Wing 19/13
1976 Keith Nichols Dog Mountain, Washington Open ASG 21
1976 Ken Koklenski Dog Mountain, Washington Unlimited Manta Fledgling
1975 Dave Muehl Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Overall Eipper 19 x 17
1975 Chris Price Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Open Price Special
1975 Chris Wills Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Advanced Standard Wills Wing Swallowtail
1975 Dave Muehl Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina Standard Eipper 19 x 17
1974 Bob Wills Escape Country, CA Flexwing Wills Wing Swallowtail
1974 Jack Schroeder Escape Country, CA Rigid Wing Eipper Quicksilver
1973 Chris Wills Sylmar, CA One Class Wills Wing

Rob Kells »

September 5, 2008, 9:32:40 MDT

Rob Kells

Belinda and I are here for his memorial service and Fly-in

Belinda Boulter|Chris Arai|Joe Bostik|Mark Tulloch|Mike Meier|Rob Kells|Zac Majors

Picture here.

Thoughts in advance: I must say I'm not great at going to memorials. For one thing, I hate going into churches. I don't like the fact that someone died which brings about memorial. It seems to be such a shame that the person of honor is not here to hear how much his friends appreciated him.

In this case, I do like that fact that there will be a lot of folks that I know and appreciate to see and mingle with a bit (I'm not much of a social butterfly).

I don't like the social obligation part of memorials, that one is expected by social convention to show up. In this case I'm very happy to be able to appear, but I hold nothing against those folks who didn't want to travel half way across the country to join in. I'm quite sure that they also have great memories of Rob, wish to provide solace in a time of grief, and are as deeply moved by his life and untimely death as I am.

I don't like the fact that the people most in need of time to grieve, the people with the most feelings exposed and raw are the very ones who often (maybe not in this case) have to do the heavy lifting of putting on a memorial service. It seems so unfair.

None the less, in spite of these feelings, Belinda and I are very happy to be able to attend Rob's memorial and the fly-in and Andy Jackson Flight Park. Thanks to those who have made it possible. I'll be updating this entry throughout the weekend.

Later on Friday: Left Jackson at 7:30 AM on a flight to Denver. It was 32 degrees when I got up at 5:30 AM and it was great to see the sun rise and show off the Tetons that are next to the airport.

When I arrived at 1 PM in San Diego it was 82 degrees. Cooler to the north by the ocean at Encinitas. Tomorrow we head for the memorial.

Saturday night: Rob's memorial started for us at 10 AM this morning as we (Brad and Donita Hall, Belinda and I) pulled into an office/industrial park in Yorba Linda (Richard Nixon's old home town). Back behind the low slung big box office buildings was a church, which sort of made sense in a Southern California sort of way. There is lots of parking for all the parishioners that drive from their suburban homes on the freeway to the Sunday service at the Rock Community Church.  These big box churches disrupt neighborhoods when they locate there as the neighbors don't like all the overflow parking.

We first ran into Mark Tulloch from Vancouver, and we were a little early so we go to see more folks arrived , including JZ and Amy, Reggie, Jim and Kathie Lee, Chris Arai, Bernie, Brett, Vincene, Joe Bostik, the two Jeff's, Zac Majors, and many others. Lots of folks showed up.

There was a very traditional memorial service for Rob with his friends and family relating their experiences with Rob and many of them brought a tear or two to my eyes. I was especially moved by Mike Meier's comments which offered something of a counter point to some later comments.

There was an aspect of the service that did not sit well with this atheist. It was taking place in a church after all, and somehow it turned into an opportunity to proselytize. Talk about fishing in barren water, farming in rocky soil. Hang glider pilots are an irreverent bunch and a few walked out at the point when the desire to save us through Jesus Christ really became a bit too much.

 Of course this was all a distraction from our focus of grieving for and celebrating the life of our friend Rob Kells. What really put it over the top for me was the pastor's claim that death is gain. That Rob gained by death was just unreal. I'm quite sure that Rob didn't feel that way and it was obvious from his actions that he wanted to go right on living.

When will these merchants of death stop  selling these lies and deceptions to vulnerable people? This denigration of life and celebration of death. Such monsters. False promises of an eternal life thereafter. Such hogwash.

After the service, and digesting the indigestible, we headed north to Andy Jackson Flight Park, to find a place that was really packed with pilots having a great time and really celebrating all the great times that they had with Rob. 

The sky was full of soaring craft and we got to see great landings one after another. One landing we didn't get to see down at the LZ, but they did on the Marshall launch, was when Mitch McAleer flubbed a loop and "landed" just behind launch.

Mitch took off from Marshall in a local pilot's Moyes glider to test it for him for aerobatics. He thermalled up for about ten circles. He then did a loop a little behind Marshall launch, then another one which was a little too slow and he ended up on top of the undersurface of the glider upside down. I guess Mitch is too used to how Wills Wing gliders loop.

He wasn't high and he was holding onto the base tube according to one witness trying to "muscle" the glider back around. At less than 150 feet above the launch he let go of the basetube and threw his chute just as the glider slipped to one side and started going down fast. The parachute came out immediately and opened just as he hit the hill side behind launch.

Mitch was relatively unhurt and the glider was unhurt. He quickly left the party.

The party continued with hundreds of pilots and friends enjoying themselves. We had to leave just as folks were getting up to tell stories about Rob. It was so great to see so many people who had been touched by Rob

Rob is dead and gone. Memorials are for the living, not the dead, who have no way of knowing that all their friends really cared this much for them. I miss Rob and wish he were here. Seeing his picture makes me feel that he is here.

Joe Bostik importing Czech Republic Light Sport Aircraft

October 10, 2007, 4:30:27 pm PDT

Joe

A sporty plane as well as a motor glider

Joe Bostik

josef bostik «josefbostik» writes:

I am still an Airline Pilot and now I am trying my luck on this import business.

The Magnum Ballistic Parachutes are selling nicely and now I am setting up a dealership network for Urban Air s.r.o. aircraft. The Lambada motorglider is the first type I am concentrating on. The SambaXXL will come next year. The websites are: www.urbanairusa.com and www.magnumparachutes.com.

Click for a montage of urbanair pictures.

The Lambada is a one of a kind two seat, side by side, aircraft. It is truly a universal S-LSA sport plane, that can be flown as a motorized cruiser at 100mph or as a 49ft wingspan motor glider with the glide ratio of 30:1.

The 12 G wings and the horizontal stabilizer can be easily removed for storage alongside the fuselage on two gear wing cradles. The 912 Rotax engine will achieve climb rates of 1600 ft/min and can be shut down for soaring flight, and the propeller can be fully feathered.

Useful load of over 600lbs allows for two 200lbs pilots, 100lbs of luggage and full fuel in both wing tanks of 26 gallons to fly over 800miles! And even farther, if air currents are utilized by an experienced glider pilot.

Over 100 Lambadas have been built and are flying worldwide. Magnum Ballistic Parachute is included as a standard safety equipment. All this coming in 2008.

Discuss Joe at the Oz Report forum     Digg This  Reddit  DelIcioUsdel.icio.us

It was a truly great party

Fri, Apr 8 2005, 1:30:01 pm EDT

And a great bit of event marketing.

Joe Bostik|record|Rob Kells|weather

www.wallaby.com

The Wills Wing Anniversary and Demo Daze wound down today, Sunday, after a truly spectacular week of good weather and good times. On Saturday Malcolm and the crew at Wallaby set a new world record and put 277 pilots into the air off the carts (without any mishaps, by the way). As I vaguely recall the previous world record was also set at Wallaby and was 247 pilots. I'm betting that it was set at the Wills Wing Party five years ago.

Not only that, Wills Wing paid for the dinner and the party on Saturday that served 350 people (when 225-250 were expected). The food was great (I got in line early), and the presentation from Wills Wing was perfect (listen to Oz Report radio). The pilots and family were smiling and having a great time.

This is the perfect kind of event for Wallaby Ranch which is dedicated to fun and fun flying. Joe Bostik, former US National champion, came out and flew a hang glider for the first time in four years. Interested readers might search through the Oz Report and see what happened the last time he flew (which was also at a Wills Wing party at Wallaby Ranch). He flew a Falcon at 7:45 PM.

Rob Kells worked hard and got a lot of pilots in his gliders. He and Steve Pearson continually worked on tuning the T2 during the week. I hope to have a chance to fly it again this week (as well as the Attack Falcon).

The heart of hang gliding is still beating! Reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Will fly for subscriptions »

Sun, Feb 23 2003, 9:00:00 am GMT

Patrick Schwitter|Peter Hughes|Joe Bostik|Miguel Molina|Rodney Pendry|Thomas Prouhet|Belinda Boulter

The Oz Report fund raiser continues (and of course, unlike on public radio you can just jump over it and get the full news below) as a reminder to readers that they can make the economically irrational move and pay $10 for a free subscription to the Oz Report. One way I make that seem okay is to publish the names of those who have taken that step, so you don’t feel quite as bad about doing something that doesn’t make any sense from a purely selfish point of view. It’s always nice to be in such good company.

Of course, in the big picture, it does make perfect sense. You all know that if everyone is a free rider then you will have to rely on my ability to subsidize the Oz Report 100%, and it’s probably a better bet that it will continue to exist (and meet whatever needs it currently meets) if you and I combine our efforts.

Oz Report readers who have helped out over Saturday afternoon and Sunday: Patrick Schwitter (Switzerland, snail mail), Peter Hughes, Joe Bostik ($20, sent it to Belinda to help her put up with me!), Miguel Molina (Puerto Rico), Rodney Pendry ($20, “I'm continually checking my computer for the latest edition of your report. Thanks for all your hard work. I admire your dedication because I know it would be very easy to just go to sleep after a long flying day.”), and Thomas Prouhet.

You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription to the Oz Report below.

Discuss "Will fly for subscriptions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fun gliders

Thu, Sep 19 2002, 12:00:06 pm EDT

Joe Bostik|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Wills Wing

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Joe Bostik|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik «JOSEFBOSTIK» writes:

The Wills Wing Sport helped me to climb to the top of the World ranking also, in 1987. I won the French Nationals and got 2nd place at the Preworlds inFiesch,Switzerland. Never in my whole soaring experience I had more fun than when I flew the Wills Wing Sport 167 European (7075 frame).

Biggest advantage was the ease of handling. It was not a racing glider, but it was fun. And fun is what one has to have to win contests. Or continue hang gliding. It was safer to land, that is why I picked it to begin with.

These days everybody needs to have the best equipment. But the best equipment is hard to fly, it is unforgiving. It takes a season to grow into it, and that is about the time to get a better glider.

Consider a top hang glider pilot returning to the sport after 10 years. It will take him at least 6 month to feel totally comfortable to fly contests. Now you put a new guy on a top of the line hang glider. At first he will be blown away by the performance and then he will be very upset when he can not thermal with everybody.

So he switches to the next manufacturer. He tries them all. And tries and tries and tries. Keeps tuning and tuning. Talks numbers and glides. In the mean time there are a lot of pilots who fly only the intermediate gliders. They all walk around with smiles and stories to tell. And hope to get a high performance glider some day. Why are we this way?

Czech this out

Wed, Sep 11 2002, 1:00:04 pm EDT

Joe Bostik|sailplane

Joe Bostik «JOSEFBOSTIK» writes:

I would like to echo Tomas's remark. It is great that you do not drink and smoke dope in the evening. That way we all stay informed. You are truly the uniter of all soaring humanoids.

I do not know where you get the energy to withstand all the abuse from some unsatisfied readers. But I know that I check your website every time I log on.

I hope the ultralight sailplane class catches on. My plane is almost finished; maybe I will get to fly sailplanes next year.

Whip stalls on purpose

Thu, May 2 2002, 3:00:05 am EDT

Joe Bostik|record|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|record|Wills Wing

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Joe Bostik|record|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik|record|Wills Wing

www.willswing.com

Last year Joe Bostik destroyed a Wills Wing Talon doing whip stalls. Here he talks about why he was doing whip stalls at all.

I am just not so sure people understand why I did my whipstalls. (Well, let me say I do not know why I did them in front of all of those people either.)

I can only tell you Wills Wing gliders were all tested this way by me since the DUCK. I tested other gliders too. In many cases I was able to predict if the glider will have bad tumbling record in the future. This test works, if done properly. The fact is that ALL hang gliders will tumble or tuck under the right conditions. Some sooner, some later.

I do not know that I did not perform the test correctly. I did 25 degree or so nose up stall and about 80 degrees nose up stall (tail slide). Obviously, I am missing whole range of data and I am not coming back to get it. By the way, this is not a Wills Wing test. Nevertheless, they did not object to it for years, until I screwed up.

There is another issue. No two gliders are the same and so two of the same make and model will have different stall characteristics. One will be more tumble prone than the other. The object here is to have a glider with a little bit of pad.

I found that if I stall a glider with nose up attitude of 45 degrees and keep my arms fully pushed out during recovery and it does not tumble, it is an awesome glider. I also found that some models scared me at 20 degrees nose up stall attitude.

This is a very advanced maneuver and one has to predict if the glider will go all the way around or not. This point of no return is when the nose falls through the horizontal. If you pull full in and recover, the test is invalid because you do not know how far the nose must drop before the glider starts to pitch up on its own. So if one gets scared, there is no data.

One does not have to go that radical to get an idea about this. Just stall nose up 15 degrees and see if the nose goes past 10 degrees nose down. (Look at the wing the whole time). It should not.

Then 20 and it will go almost 20 down. You will find at 25 degrees nose up it gets interesting, because you have full 50 degrees of nose swing. And if it does not stop your legs fall in the sail during recovery. Or you loose the bar and tumble.

Here you can see my point. We fly at about 15 to 20 degrees nose up in thermals. If we loose speed and push out to get back in the core, we all are performing my test. How come it is not considered radical in this case? Wouldn't you want to know how much reserve you have?

I always did and felt very comfortable, because I did my test. Of course if you keep your bank angle the margin is much wider. I know I am not very scientific about this, but believe me it works.

DHV used to have something similar (maybe they still have it). It was the drop test in level condition. It did not keep the CG back, though. Invalid results. And manufacturers hate it. It destroys the glider.

The whipstall test can be repeated if done with care. The test is affected by pilot’s arms length, bar position, CG weight and amount of forward velocity at stall entry. The beauty is, the same pilot can test all these factors at once and get the general feel for the glider.

How could you incorporate this in a DHV test? I do not know. The engineers will have many sleepless nights to figure all this out in a dark room. So they will discredit it. And also, I hold the trademark to this test. Just kidding

Ballistic chutes

Tue, Feb 19 2002, 4:00:05 pm EST

Angelo Crapanzano|ballistic parachute|Joe Bostik|PG

Angelo Crapanzano «angelo» writes back to Joe Bostik:

I agree with you that a rocket (if aimed in the right direction) stretches a parachute much faster than an hand thrown one… but this has nothing to do with the filling distance which only depends on the canopy diameter. Once stretched (regardless of how), a bigger parachute needs a bit more distance to open (maybe only a couple of meters?).

Personally, I don't like ballistic parachutes. The advantage is that they allow optimal positioning of the deployment handle and bring the parachute to full line extension very quickly. The disadvantages are that it's impossible to choose the direction of deployment and system complexity is significantly greater (thus reliability is reduced). If the rocket is directly attached to the apex (as often is) and the broken glider is falling slowly, the weight of the exhausted rocket could keep the parachute upside down (and the parachute would never open or would take a very long time). If the rocket is attached to a socket holding the canopy and, for any reason, the socket is not fully extracted then the parachute will not open. I know of several cases where a ballistic system failed:

- the rocket did not fire for many different reasons…

- the rocket hit something and lost energy…

- the parachute come out damaged…

- was too hard to pull the handle…

Anytime you add something you reduce reliability! Of course, I also know of some cases where (like yours) a hand deployed parachute got tangled. Percentage wise hand deployed parachutes are safer (but this doesn't help if you are in the wrong side of percentage). If you like to use a ballistic parachute go on, but I recommend you to have a spare hand deployed one ;-)

I can easily understand that, after your accident where your hand deployed parachute got tangled, you want a system that brings the parachute as far as possible from the wreckages of the glider. In your case, throwing the parachute hard and sideways would have helped a lot (easier to say than to do). I'm not totally sure a ballistic chute would have made the difference. If you look at the pictures you see the rocket would have been aimed down and you were falling slowly…

Please remember: no emergency parachute, especially in our difficult situations, can provide a 100% guarantee, and as such should be seen only as another possibility. The last chance is luck (like you had), but we should never count on it!

I would like to make a clarification: I do not want to suggest using a parachute that brings you down fast just because it opens a bit faster. I suggest not using parachutes bigger than those, which give you a reasonable sink-rate (according to your weight and physical condition). Once you'll likely be uninjured, a slower sink-rate is useless.

People think a bigger parachute brings you down slower, regardless of design: this is an evident fallacy! It would be like to say that an old Rogallo glider has a better sink-rate of a modern glider because it has more surface area.

Just to give you an example a couple years ago Vol Libre magazine tested seven different parachutes for paragliders: the Conar PG18 (28 m2) was the smallest one but still got the best sink-rate (4,8 m/s with 97 kg pilot's flying weight). The only other parachute that matched this sink-rate was 43,4 m2 (i.e. 55% bigger). Sink-rate depends on surface only within the same design of parachutes.

When buying a parachute first you choose the model (mainly considering your preferences and how much you trust the manufacturer), then you choose the smallest size which gives an acceptable (for you) sink-rate.

Discuss "Ballistic chutes" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

CIVL Sporting code changes

Wed, Feb 13 2002, 12:00:05 am GMT

GAP 2002|Gerolf Heinrichs|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc

Michael Zupanc <zupy@ozemail.com.au> writes:

Weight limits

Regarding whether or not ballast should be included in the weight allocation for a HG, Hmm… Actually I would think not, as it…

  • Is not part of the structure
  • Can be said to be simulating a heavy pilot (which, of course is OK)

S7 Proposals

The S7 proposal can be found at; www.ozemail.com.au/~zupy/draft/draft4.zip. The proposal is a zipped word document which is using the "Track Changes" feature. You will notice 1.1 has a change which says that the safety standards and class definitions are to be in force for Cat 2 comps.

Scoring systems

After OzGAP was put together, I sent the idea out to the "GAP" people (Gerolf, Angelo, Paul). Angelo then came up with GAP 2002. I had a few objections concerning some aspects of the system (It relies on assumptions to form conclusions regarding how much a pilot had "lead" during the flight, and it can give points to pilots that launch very early and just hang around (causing congestion) waiting for other pilots to launch which will then give them someone to follow). But I am not saying that GAP 2002 is a bad system, just that OzGAP is better :-)

Only CIVL approved scoring systems can be used in a Cat 1 comp. As far as I am aware, GAP is the only scoring formula that has had such approval (not to sure if that is written down anywhere). Anyhow, When that was decided GAP 98 was the only GAP around, so I guess it really means that GAP 98 is the only scoring formula that can be used in a Cat 1 comp!

There needs to be a list (in chapter 8 of Section 7). This would be a job for a scoring system subcommittee. Later versions of GAP should be specifically added (exclude the earlier versions?), and OzGAP, as well as any other scoring formulas that can be supported with convincing argument

Discuss "CIVL Sporting code changes" at the Oz Report forum   link»

My thoughts on my tuck

Wed, Jan 30 2002, 6:00:01 pm EST

Angelo Crapanzano|Bo Hagewood|Gilbert Griffith|Joe Bostik|sailplane|Wills Wing

Angelo Crapanzano|Bo Hagewood|Eric Beckman|Gilbert Griffith|Joe Bostik|sailplane|Wills Wing

Angelo Crapanzano|Bo Hagewood|Eric Beckman|Gilbert Griffith|Joe Bostik|sailplane|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik writes:

Tucks and tumbles are a part of hang gliding and unless pilots and manufacturers fess up to this reality, nothing will change.

You have the voice, so please use it to make hang gliding safer.

(editor's note: Joe's last act in hang gliding was to whip stall a prototype Wills Wing Talon until it tumbled or tucked and broke. More on the issue of the pilot below.)

Angelo Crapanzano writes:

Aerodynamically there is quite a difference between Gilbert's "tumble" and your "tuck":

- A tumble normally happens when flying at slow speed and the glider immediately flips over.

- The tuck is when the glider pitches down, picks-up speed and then goes negative.

Steve Morris writes:

…I will say that the stick controlled swept-wing glider with a fixed pilot position is the most stable type of tailless aircraft for flying in rough air.

Eric Beckman (former Bright Star test pilot) has flown Swifts extensively in extreme turbulence and has been pitched past vertical on several occasions. In each case he flew the glider out of the unusual attitude (obeying Vne limits, of course) without incident. There is always a chunk of nasty air somewhere in the sky that can pitch a glider past vertical. This is a fact of life for those of us who choose to fly low wing loading aircraft in soarable (turbulent) air. What matters is that the aircraft return to stable flight quickly after encountering the turbulence and do so without damage to the structure or pilot.

What caused my glider to go nose down?

An invisible dragon.

I have experienced plenty of stalls, spins, and one spiral dive in sailplanes. I have also experienced stalls and spins on rigid wing gliders. When the ATOS-C's nose went down, the event felt much more violent than any of my previous experiences.

I had never previously gone straight over. In all previous cases, except for gentle straight-ahead stalls, one wing went down first and I was spinning. While I have felt plenty of acceleration while spinning, it was not anywhere near the strength of what I felt in this case.

I have thought about what I could have encountered in the air, and I don't have a good idea about what it was. It may be that whatever it was it just caused a very sudden stall and that I was just feeling the violence of the recovery. Plenty of hang glider pilots have reported similar experiences.

My glider went in an instant from flying straight and level at approximately 36 mph to a nose down attitude. I wasn't flying slow (unless you consider 5 mph about the best L/D speed to be slow). I didn't perceive the air to be turbulence or rough. I didn't feel anything in advance of the sudden nose down attitude. I can't think of anything I would have done differently without knowing what would happen to me in advance.

Hang gliders tuck?

Right after the glider's nose went down I experienced a significant increase in wind speed noise and what felt like strong forces pulling me down. (I did not feel weightless.). This indicates that I was in a tuck and not a tumble. I believe from the wind noise that the glider quickly exceeded its VNE speed (my best guess of the VNE speed for an ATOS is 50 mph).

Usually we think of VNE speed as a warning to the pilot. Don't do anything to make the glider exceed this speed. In this case (and I'm sure many others), the glider exceeded the VNE speed all on its own.

I have no idea about my position with respect to the glider at this time. I don't know if the control bar is down below me, or back at my knees. I don't know if I'm holding onto it or not. I do know that I had no choice in the matter of where I was in relation to my hang glider as the forces on me were well beyond my capacity to overcome. The time interval was also too short for me to take in action within it.

Going past 90 degrees?

The glider continued to rotate past ninety degrees. At some point I went weightless and the right leading edge broke at 4 feet out from the nose. It is not clear whether I hit the keel first before the leading edge broke.

The glider started to tumble at this point and the other wing broke. After a few rotations the glider stabilized with the wreckage above me. Finally I was able to have a say in the next events. I threw my chute.

Hang gliders often break in tucks. After they pick up speed in the dive, the forces on the glider increase with the square of its speed. When they go inverted the sudden braking effect of putting so much sail area into the wind breaks them.

Hang gliders, including the ATOS, are certified by the DHV to withstand a certain amount of negative loading. I can only assume that it is remarkably easy to exceed this value. By easy, I don't mean that this happens other than on rare occasions, but rather once one encounters certain air conditions (or goes into a tuck for other reasons) it requires no effort on the pilot's part to break the aircraft. Also, that it appears to be quite likely that the glider will break if it goes into a tuck.

Other recent ATOS incidents

Gilbert Griffith tumbles his ATOS while flying a bit too slow in turbulent and strong thermal conditions. His glider immediately flips over without picking up any speed and he lands on the keel. The glider doesn't break and he is able to climb up the control bar and get the glider to right itself.

Tyrg Hoff tumbles his ATOS in strong thermal conditions, falls into the glider when it instantly flips over and the glider breaks around him.

Bo Hagewood puts the ATOS into a tuck while attempting a recovery from an intentional spin. The nose goes down and the airspeed increases. Just as he goes weightless the two wings break off at the mid point.

Tentative conclusions

ATOSes appear to be likely to break when they tuck. I don't know if they are more likely than other hang gliders to do so. DHV certification doesn't provide much guidance about whether your glider will break in a tuck.

Pilot actions or air conditions can put hang gliders into tucks or tumbles.

In at least two incidents there were not sufficient dive recovery forces from the glider to allow the gliders to rotate out of the tuck.

Blaming the pilot detracts from the fact that hang gliders can more easily than we like to imagine tuck and tumble.

Swifts are much more likely to come out of a tuck in a positive attitude and unbroken than hang gliders.

Video with Joe Bostik coming down under canopy

Thu, Jun 7 2001, 4:00:01 pm EDT

Bob Grant|Florida|Joe Bostik|photo|Quest Air|video|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Bob Grant|Florida|Joe Bostik|photo|Quest Air|video|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Florida|Joe Bostik|photo|Quest Air|video|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Bob Grant|Florida|Joe Bostik|photo|Quest Air|video|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Bob Grant «skydog» writes:

Catch Joe Bostik's amazing parachute deployment on Video. "THE FLORIDA HANGLIDING EXPERIENCE" the latest video release from Bob Grant Productions has all of the exciting action from a week in Florida starting at Quest Air Flight Park with awesome thermal flying through the clouds and personal pilot interviews. Next our footage takes us to Wallaby Ranch Flight Park for the Wills Wing 28th Anniversary fly-in and party. The action at Wallaby is hot with the full line of Wills Wing gliders being offered for demos, lots of pretty faces, spectacular flying, and of coarse Joe Bostik spinning down under canopy. You may have seen the photos on the OZ Report https://OzReport.com/Ozv5n60.htm and now you can see it in a full featured twenty four minute video. Catch all the explosive action.

Order your copy today $14.95 plus $3.00 shipping from, Bob Grant Productions, 437 Burbrook Place, London, Ontario, Canada. N5W 4B5 For on line ordering, check our website at -http://www.skynet.ca/~skydog/Payment-Options.htm.

(editor's note: I don't remember all that much happening as the weather sucked, but I'm sure that if you compress it down to a video it could look pretty exciting. Well, Joe's canopy ride was exciting.)

Wallaby Open – Jim Lee finds a tree

Wed, Apr 25 2001, 4:00:02 pm EDT

Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch

cart|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch

Oz Report readers may remember my earlier article about Joe Bostik stalling when cart launching the Fusion last spring here at Wallaby Ranch. Yesterday, the same problem bit Jim Lee.

Jim knew that there was an issue with nose angle when launching from a cart. This is especially true for the Fusion and apparently the Talon, for the same reason, they have such long down tubes and therefore the pilot is automatically hung way back, when the tail is low.

Jim looked around for quite a while to find a cart that was more appropriate for a Talon but could only find carts that gave his glider too high of a nose angle.

The way to deal with this issue is to pull on the bar immediately as the tug starts to pull you. The idea is to get your weight forward and your chest over the base bar. This is supposed to raise the keel off the back support and decrease the nose angle. Jim said that he did this immediately, but even then it was too late.

The glider was stalled right from the beginning and Jim wasn't able to get it flying fast enough. The wing picked up from the right, and although he went all the way to the right to correct the lifted wing, he wasn't able to get it corrected in time to be able to follow the tug, which was in the process of making a right turn to clear the tree line.

The weak link broke, Jim flew the glider toward a slot in the trees. He flared and clipped a tree with his wing tip. Superficial damage to the leading edge cloth and no damage to the pilot. He relaunched twenty minutes later.

Pilots who cart launch in high performance gliders with long down tubes should be aware that they need to reduce their angle of attack. I always pull in immediately and get over the base bar.

Discuss "Wallaby Open – Jim Lee finds a tree" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Moyes Litespeeds for Kari and Bo

Fri, Mar 23 2001, 3:00:01 pm EST

Florida|Joe Bostik|Kenny Brown|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Worlds

I heard a little rumor hear about Kari and Bo flying Moyes Litespeeds at the upcoming competitions in Florida. I followed up with an e-mail to Bo, Kari, and Kenny Brown, the Moyes US distributor. I also spoke with Steve Pearson from Wills Wing who is hear at Wallaby Ranch until tomorrow.

Steve said that they couldn't guarantee getting the new prototypes to Bo or Kari in time for the Florida meets. Kari had asked and Wills specifically told here that it was OK for her to find another glider. They know how much these two meets mean when it comes to the Worlds and getting on the US National team.

Kenny Brown «FlyaMoyes» writes:

A little back ground from my perspective.

Wills pilots have found that they are out gunned in serious competitions at the top level. Wills is working on improving that situation but is not there yet.

Bo and Kari have a lot riding on these two Florida meets and need to be competitive. They have both spoken to me and I have made arrangement for them to fly Litespeeds. Bo is on a Litespeed 5 Mylar from last year and Kari is sporting a new Mylar Litespeed 4 2001 version with the new sail cut and rib layout.

I don't have any long term plans with Bo or Kari. They are free agents and we have no agreements with me other than to fly the glider and talk nice about it. Wills continues to flatter Moyes with their choice of competition gliders to fly and build.

(editor's note: Joe Bostik's little fling with the Wills Wing Prototype last weekend put a two to three week delay in the development process. There will be WW Prototypes – whatever name they come up with – flying in the Florida competitions, but there will likely be another round before they become a production item.)

Joe's flight

Sun, Mar 18 2001, 5:00:04 pm EST

Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|photo|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|photo|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Joe Bostik|photo|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|photo|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bob Grant, «skydog» sends in these photos of Joe Bostik's flight at Wallaby Ranch on Saturday:

 

Joe as Bob first got him on his video camera

 

Joe twenty six seconds later

 

Joe near the ground 30 seconds after Bob first starting filming him. Notice how much the parachute is wrapped up given where it was when Bob started filming.

Photos courtesy of Bob Grant, London, Ontario, Canada.

Bounced Czech

Fri, Mar 16 2001, 3:00:00 pm EST

Belinda Boulter|Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Belinda Boulter|Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Belinda Boulter|Bob Grant|Joe Bostik|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Belinda Boulter|Bob Grant|cart|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Belinda Boulter|cart|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Belinda Boulter|Bob "Skydog" Grant|Bob Grant|cart|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Mike Meier|Richard Walbec|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson|video|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik just about killed himself in front of over a hundred witnesses today at the Wallaby Ranch. Later, when I talked to him I mentioned how cautious and careful he had been over the last year, he said that the impulsive guy was still there and that he wasn't practicing impulse management this morning. For a few minutes there he thought he was Mitch MacAleer.

I was with Joe just before he took off in the cart flying the Wills Wing prototype number 10. Numbers 9 and 11 are in Brazil with Paris and Richard Walbec. Number ten is here so that Steve Pearson can spend next week working on it. Looks like he'll have to come up with new plans.

WW Prototype number 10. Belinda Boulter in front, Rob Kells to the side, Mark Forbes, photographer

I was laughing with Joe as he was just about to go as he was pulling himself way far forward on the cart and sticking he elbows way out to the side. He was a site. Joe likes to get far forward so that the glider sticks to the cart until he is going nice and fast.

The next time I saw Joe he was rotating quite quickly under a glider that was doing its best to resemble a maple seed with only one working wing. There was a twisted and partially inflated Laura Gold parachute entangled in the tip of the most broken wing.

My first thought was, was the parachute going to twist up even more and thereby become total ineffective. After a couple of revolutions it seemed like the parachute was finished wrapping up, and that it would not get any worse. Then, I realized that this was the Wills Wing prototype – orange, but I still hadn't realized that I was watching Joe, five feet below the twisting wrecking twirling toward the ground just behind us.

It looked the glider was actually the parachute as the wing that still resembled a wing was flying in circles and Joe was coming down pretty slowly from about 300 feet. Still he was horizontal and completely exposed. He would hit the ground first, and I sure wanted him to hit the newly disked ground to the west of the tandem launch.

He landed, we were right there. I thought someone would have actually been close enough to catch him. He was fine but we sent him to the hospital for a check up right then. There were medical personnel who attended to him immediately.

Mike Meier, Steve Pearson, and Rob Kells, all of Wills Wing, after they knew Joe was fine, began to examine the glider and Joe's harness to try to figure out what happened. There were a number of eyewitnesses who saw the actual breakup, so that helped.

Joe was doing whip stalls. He did one and then he did another. Nothing bad happened. He liked it. He was feeling very good about the glider (this was his first flight on it). He was feeling a bit too good.

Each whip stall was progressively stronger. On the third whip stall, he held the nose up for a count of 4 second according to Neal who was flying over him in a tug. Joe says that he felt that he could just get that glider's nose up and hold it there like he had seen Mitch do. He wasn't going to pull in until he felt himself tail sliding. When the wind started coming from his back, he pulled in.

The glider didn't go straight over, up one wing went down first, and Joe was now above the glider. Now no one is quite sure what happened then. Joe either lost the base tube at that point, or after one more tumble.

When he lost the base tube, he slipped down and back over the trailing edge. After a day's worth of detective work, Mike was able to determine that Joe's harness straps came over the trailing edge and started a rip there. This rip quickly spread to the Mylar sail pieces and the sail ripped in half to the nose.

The right wing with nothing to hold it back swung forward causing the right leading edge to fail in compression about four need from the nose, something that they had never seen before. As the wing continued to swing forward the thicker (3/32") side wire connected to the cross bar junction put stress on the thinner (5/64") right side rear wire. This stress broke this thinner wire at the nico at the keel.

Now this is the preliminary finding and Mike will come out with a complete report later after he thinks through everything and gets further information from witnesses. Bob Grant has a video of Joe spinning, although not of the original break up.

It is clear that this accident like almost all hang glider accidents was a case of pilot error (hubris). The glider failed in a manner that was to be expected given where Joe fell.

Joe also screwed up his parachute deployment. He reached for the parachute and got it out, but then just mildly tossed it into the air. He said it was floating out there about ten feet from him still in the deployment bag until the bad wing came around and hit it. The lines were immediately tangled up in the broken wing.

Joe was lucky that it inflated at all. He needed to get that bag out there twenty feet away from the wreckage. He needed to grab the bridle and pull on it to get the bag off, but the wing got the parachute before he could.

Finally, he had checked his deployment bag and rubber bands, but one rubber band was melted into the hole and didn't release. Joe didn't notice this problem with the rubber band. The parachute came out of the bag through a reduced orifice.

We are very happy that Joe didn't die in front of us. We are sorry that Wills Wing has a destroyed glider, but the bargain was worth it. We hope that everyone will think better about how to avoid this situation for themselves.

Wallaby Open

Sat, Feb 17 2001, 1:00:02 pm EST

André Wolfe|Joe Bostik|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Robert Reisinger|Wallaby Ranch

Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

The Wallaby Open is sanctioned.

Joe Bostik said there is some doubt whether his friend Tomas will actually be able to make the Florida meets (we hope he can).

He and Manfred have been registered in the Wallaby Open for weeks along with Gerolf Heinrich, Josef Zweckmayr, Robert Reisinger, Atilla Bertok, Andre Wolf, Mike Barber, Betinho Schmitz (the entire World Champion Brazilian team) and (including the waiting list) well over 100 other pilots from around the world.

Boids

Fri, Oct 27 2000, 4:00:04 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Joe Bostik|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch|wildlife

As we travel around we get to check out a lot of birds. We're currently about ten miles outside of Tucson, Arizona, surrounded by Saguaro cactus and the Sonora Desert. We are camped just a few miles from the Saguaro National Park and the Tucson Mountain Park. There is plenty of bird life here.

We picked up a couple of new bird books lately. After I read the review of the as yet unreleased Sibley Guide to Birds in the New York Times about six weeks ago, I was very excited to see it in the local Barnes and Noble. I immediately picked up a copy. Belinda also found the Lives of North American birds, and is very pleased with it. Christmas is coming folks.

At and near Wallaby Ranch in Florida you'll sometimes see pairs of Sandhill Cranes. There is a permanent resident population of these cranes in Florida and they don't go back up into northern Canadian for breeding.

When I landed out one day during the Wallaby Open, a family – two parents and a young bird of Whooping Cranes landed in the field near me. There are only about two hundred Whooping Cranes in the world. There is a small resident population of Whooping Cranes in Florida started from a group that was in captivity. Malcolm Jones' mother, a life long Florida resident and avid birder had never seen Whooping cranes in Florida and couldn't believe our luck. Fortunately we had Joe Bostik's father-in-law along, and he is an avid birder as well. He also lives in Houston and had seen the other flock of Whooping Cranes (150 birds) that migrate from far northern Canada in the winter to play in the marshes on the Texas coast.

While I was flying out of Zapata, I entered and climbed for a long time in a thermal near Crystal City with a Black Hawk. I wasn't sure at first what kind of hawk it was having never seen a Black Hawk before, and I thought it might be a Harris Hawk which has a somewhat similar white band on its tail. Still hard to be sure that is what I saw, as Crystal City is a bit out of its range, but then there aren't too many birders up there circling around with the hawks. And, that is one of the very cool things about hang gliding.

Responses to Wallaby Open dates

Tue, Oct 24 2000, 7:00:02 pm EDT

David Glover|Florida|Joe Bostik|John Borton|Mike Meier|record|Steve Kroop|USHGA

John Borton«CompCommittee»writes:

Joe Bostik says: The USHGA rules specifically state that the competition subcommittee does not have any jurisdiction over the dates of specific contests, when it comes to the question of sanctioning.

Joe is somewhat correct in the above statement...but he is *totally* wrong in his final conclusion. I'll explain:

In the USHGA, there is no "competition subcommittee" to which Joe refers. One of the six permanent subcommittees *under* the Competition Committee is called "Competition Scheduling and Sanctioning". By his comments, it appears to me that this is the subcommittee to which he is referring.

David Glover is the Chair of this subcommittee whose purpose (like all the others) is to make *recommendations* to the Competition Committee for vote in full session. It was Dave's extra efforts on this subcommittee that resulted in the Hearne "B" meet being sanctioned with full NTSS points last year. The SOP for this subcommittee states:

2. 05 (Subcommittee responsibilities) C, (Competition Scheduling and Sanctioning)

1. "This subcommittee does not have any authority over competition scheduling within the United States, but should actively provide suggestions to meet organizers to ensure the dates of meets overlap as little as possible, as well as providing situations where competitors can conveniently attend meets back to back in geographic areas."

The problem with Joe's final conclusion that the Competition Committee has no "jurisdiction over the dates of specific contests" is that the SOP he is referring to is not the SOP for the Competition Committee itself, but rather for a subcommittee tasked with making recommendations to the full Competition Committee where such authority does reside. Of course, all decisions of the Competition Committee are then passed on to the full BOD where the final vote to accept or reject the vote of all committees is held.

(editor's note: Malcolm Jones asked me to call him. I did and he stated – to the best of my recollection, and without any input from me, that the Standard Operating Procedures re the subcommittee apply to the Competition Committee when they discuss scheduling as they are then meeting as the subcommittee and they can not change the dates of a proposed meet. Anyway, I'm not arguing either way, and trying to keep a very low profile on this issue, and just publish each side. I have asked Malcolm to send me anything he likes. I have also asked Mike Meier, at Malcolm's urging, to supply any clarification about the SOPs re this issue.)

Steve Kroop«USAFlytec»writes to Joe Bostik with a copy to the Oz Report:

I do not speak for the entire USHGA BOD, but I can personally say that I resent your comments that USHGA is pushing Malcolm around.

The dates that you say are his are his are not his any more than they are mine. If he want sanctioning he must go to USHGA and ask for it. When they grant the dates, then the date are his. He wants something from USHGA...sanctioning. It seems USHGA wants something in return...dates that are in the best interest of the comp pilots.

The "pushing" around that you say USHGA is doing is simply them attempting to make the dates for the two Florida meets work so the most number of pilots can attend both meets. Since nearly every comp pilot that has been asked has stated that they want the meets back to back and they want to go to both meets then what USHGA is doing is reasonable.

No offense intended Joe, but I think that it is inappropriate for you to pass judgment on the USHGA since you were not present at the CC meeting and that it is clear you have only heard one side (Malcolm's) of the discussion.

For the record, I went to Malcolm and attempted to work out the dates for the meets prior to the CC meeting. I made a proposal that was very reasonable and was truly in the best interest of the pilots. The compromise would have been relatively minor. Malcolm was unwilling to be flexible so the USHGA comp committee attempted to resolve the dates. If you look deeper into this situation you will find the cause of all of this is not the Quest meet or USHGA. If you or any one else wants to hear the other side of this I encourage you to call me 352-429-0213 or 800-662-2449.

CIVL, are you listening, yet? »

Fri, Aug 11 2000, 9:00:05 pm GMT

CIVL|G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows

G.W. Meadows, <gw@justfly.com>, writes into the CIVL list:

Sarah Ferguson wrote: Whilst, initially, it may seem unfair to non-European pilots, when considering the options available and providing feedback please remember that other continental regions are encouraged to bid for and hold continental championships (e.g. a Pan-American hang gliding championships was scheduled for 2000 but cancelled due to lack of support from pilots).

I would like to point out as the organizer of the Pan American hg championships that the Category 1 championships was not cancelled due to lack of support from the pilots. The Category 1 Pan Am was cancelled due to inflexibility of the CIVL. The CIVL rules state that Category one meets can only have one team per country. When this was realized by myself at the meeting in Spain (this year) I did some calculations and determined that there was no way to fill up the contest with only one team per country. Subsequently the meet was cancelled after I could not get a waiver to this rule at the Spain plenary meeting.

I then "downgraded" the meet to a Category 2 meet and have cancelled that in the last 2 weeks due to lack of pilot participation.

I feel this was a bit of a "catch 22" situation. The Latin American pilots weren't interested in the expense associated with coming for just a Category 2 meet, but myself, as an organizer could not hold a Category 1 competition (with it's associated extra "travel club" expenses) while only being allowed one team per country. At most, we would have had 6 teams competing.

I would like to take this opportunity to point out a few things about the western hemisphere's hang gliding that the European dominated CIVL hasn't been made very aware of:

Basically, most of the Americas (except the U.S. and Canada) is made up of poorer countries where vast majority of the population in general cannot afford to hang glide and the majority of those who can simply can't afford to travel to places like the U.S. and Europe. When you look at North America on the map, it is made up of 3 countries. Canada, US. and Mexico. This covers a very large area much greater than western Europe which is made of nearly 20 countries (almost all of which are "richer" countries like the U.S.). Traveling from South America to North America in the summertime is a very expensive proposition. It is not at all like traveling in an "inter-European" situation. For this reason, if the CIVL ever expects to ever have a continental championships in the Americas, they will need to be flexible on the qualifications of the championships.

In the U.S. in particular, there is another problem that I'm not so sure that most European countries experience. We get no funding from our government for hang gliding. The pilots don't get any support and the organizers of meets do not get support from the local or national governments to put on competitions. What this means is that any one in the U.S wishing to put on a competition does so solely at a risk to their own pocketbook. That, in itself is not such a problem - it's kinda the American Way, but it does seem to be a bit of a surprise when I tell many of the European organizers about this.

I just wanted to take a moment to educate a few of my fellow CIVL delegates as to the situation with continental championships in the Americas.

Discuss "CIVL, are you listening, yet?" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Update on Tiki

Thu, Aug 10 2000, 6:30:01 pm EDT

Joe Bostik|Tiki Mashy

Tiki was still experiencing some reactions to her dehydration experience in Zapata, cramping headaches that would come on instantly and last for ten seconds She decided not to fly, and took her Fusion to Austin to give back to Joe Bostik and get another one to fly. She should be back in Hobbs, NM.

Zapata – better »

Tue, Aug 8 2000, 6:45:00 pm EDT

Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Joe Bostik|Kenny Brown|record|Wills Wing|Zapata

Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Kenny Brown|record|Wills Wing|Zapata

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Joe Bostik|Kenny Brown|record|Wills Wing|Zapata

Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Kenny Brown|record|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment|Zapata

Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Kenny Brown|record|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment|Zapata

Tiki is doing better. We made sure she didn't fly today. She went out and got some real food. Still, she isn't all back together mentally. Hopefully a good night's sleep will help.

A ranch hand found another dead illegal immigrant (undocumented worker) a few miles north of the airport today. He was 15 miles north of the border. The idea is that you walk all the way to San Antonio.

The border patrol has an immigration station at Hebronville, about 50 miles to the north of Zapata – but it only monitors highway 16. The folks coming across the border walk to get around this station. In this heat, walking 50 miles is way impossible.

We had thick cu's that formed at 9 AM and didn't let up all day. They wind was a bit more out of the east than most days, but lighter than previous days. I wasn't able to launch until 11 AM because of problems with the rope, but there was a cu right over the airport and I was able to climb to 3,000' and leave the airport.

With the lighter winds, the more eastern component and moderate lift, I was only able to average 35 mph over the whole flight in spite of really pushing the speed to fly button the whole flight. Made a slight mistake at 100 miles out and it cost me dearly landing at 106 miles.

Gary Osoba had mentioned that there would likely be over development in the Zapata/Laredo area and I was flying as fast as I could to get away from that possibility. After I landed I looked back, and sure enough the whole area had exploded about 30 miles behind me. Storms from Corpus Christi to 50 miles north of Laredo. Cu nimb's still forming near dark.

Tomorrow looks better, although there is a chance of over development early. Still the high pressure isn't centered further south which would give us more southerly winds. 

By the way, thanks to Kenny Brown and Moyes for supporting Dustin while he was here for the first World Record Encampment. Dustin went 202 miles on his Moyes Litespeed, setting, I believe, the Texas state flex wing record. 

Wills Wing and Wallaby Ranch are supporting Tiki while she is here at Zapata. Hopefully she'll recover enough to try again for the record. She's flying Joe Bostik's Fusion.

Florida – as it was »

Sat, May 27 2000, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Joe Bostik|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Belinda Boulter|Florida|Joe Bostik|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Gary Davis|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Gary Davis|Joe Bostik|John "Ole" Olson|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

On Friday, we left the Wallaby Ranch and headed north toward Raven Skysports in Whitewater, Wisconsin, site of the rained out Midwest Championships. Looking for west/southwest winds at 15-20 mph on the ground, and, of course, a modicum of lift. We are here at Lookout Mountain, stopping to visit with friends and hang gliding buddies over the weekend.

We left Florida on a very good day, but then, aren't they all in Florida? The good conditions lasted all the way to Lookout, and it would have been a great day to connect the two sites with a hang glider flight (a bit tough). The winds were light, great and early cumulus development, high cloud bases.

On the morning that we left, Belinda mentioned that the air felt like desert air – hot and dry. It has been very dry in Florida, as I have pointed out in previous articles. There were plenty (140) of small fires burning in the dried out swamp muck.

Unlike the large fire that disrupted the ACC meet at Quest Air, the small fires around Orlando and north of Wallaby didn't disrupt any of our flying. We could get a good view of the fires during any flight, and still avoid the smoke, with few concerns about its lift dampening effects.

A few days before we left, I had one last chance to retake the East Coast record. This day represented what have become for me the classical go-far conditions for Florida, as least in a La Nina year. Forget hoping for a downwind component, look for abatement of the east or west winds and some convergence. Here's what the windcast showed for that day:

 

Notice that in the morning the winds are quite light, the blue color indicating light winds. As the day progresses, the light west winds to the north of Orlando are predicted to be turned to the north as the offshore flow begins from the Florida east coast. By late in the day, the windcast forecasts a deep blue area of light winds right up the middle of the state from south of Fort Myers far into Georgia. It sure looked like a day to head to the notch.

The cu's started fairly late, after 10:30 AM, with light west winds on the ground. Getting off a few minutes after eleven, I found light lift to the northwest of the Ranch, and worked under small clouds at 50 fpm, climbing only to 1,800', waiting for something better to develop.

Joe Bostik, the next to launch, was doing well to the southeast of me getting to 3,200' and Sugarman (Gary Davis) was finding good lift to the east over highway 27. I told Joe that I had finally hooked 300 fpm and he came in under me. There was a north/south line of cu's 7 miles to the west, with only a few cu's to the north.

Unlike what we had been experiencing so much this spring in hot dry Florida, the air was soft and smooth and the thermals were wide and solid. It looks like a very pleasant day to be in the air.

Joe and Sugarman were having a difficult time whenever they tried to head west against the five to ten mph breeze. I knew that I had to get on the west side of the Ocala National Forest and had an easier time of it flying the ATOS. Joe flew his WW Fusion and Sugarman was on his new Laminar MR200.

An hour later, by the time I was flying up the west side of Quest Air, the cu's had developed over a wide area, and not just to our west. Joe and Sugarman were just behind me and to the east doing well. They would later go up the west side of Lake Apopka.

Lift was already strong (about 600 fpm), just after noon, and I was already climbing to over 4,000'. The windcast had predicted that the convergence area would be right up the middle of the state, and it sure looked like we were in it, but there was still a strong west wind.

By one, as I came up just west of Leesburg, it was clear that we were back to the rock and roll air that has characterized the conditions in Florida this spring. Frankly, I wasn't all that happy about this situation, hoping that the cu's had signaled a drop off of the high pressure-type conditions that I experienced on my last long flight.

I was still fighting the west winds, as I worked my way north toward the south end of the Ocala National Forest. I would still have to work to the west to get on the western border of the forest. Joe had gone down east of Mt. Dora and we lost contact with Sugarman as he inadvertently changed his radio frequency.

I was now quite tired of being tossed about in the continual turbulence, and by the time I was north of Silver Springs, I was saying to myself that if I didn't find a good strong and solid core, I would at least really think about landing. I had been experiencing strong lift – 800 fpm, but it hadn't been pleasant.

Finally, I did find a strong, tight core, and even though I was up on a tip, I felt quite confident that it would be solid enough to make me smile. Things had changed. I quickly climbed to 6,500'. There were cu's everywhere. The clear line to the west was over 20 miles away, so I was way into the convergence area. Still, I had only a west wind. Sugarman had decided to land at Hontoon Island near Deland.

For the next twenty miles, I experienced some of the strongest climbing conditions that I've seen here in Florida. I was much happier as the big strong thermals overpowered any of the turbulence, and I consistently climbed to over 6,000'. I was an hourly earlier along the route than on my previous flight. Given the strong lift, it looked like a day that I could go much further than 200 miles.

Those hopes ended near Hawthorne. After a very strong climb to 6,500' I headed out through a ten mile wide blue hole toward a large black cloud. Unfortunately I missed the lift at its base and, after wandering around in the former lifting area, landed 95 miles out from Wallaby Ranch.

The cu's continued until well after sundown, with very high cloud bases. It sure seemed like I made a very costly mistake.

This year at least, eight out of ten times the winds in Florida blew out of the east or west. When it blew from the south, there was often a storm to the north, which limited the length of the flight. North winds brought blue days, although there could be clouds, especially with high cloud bases.

I got little help from the winds on any of my longer flights, and had to use the good lift conditions to go far instead. Still it seems quite possible to go far to the west along the Panhandle, by first going crosswind to the north.

Soon we will be heading for areas where downwind goals are much more available. We'll see if this will actually improve flight distances.

ACC – the flight »

Sun, Apr 23 2000, 12:00:04 pm EDT

ACC|Bo Hagewood|Chris Arai|CIVL|David Glover|dust devil|Felix Ruehle|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Joe Bostik|record|USHGA

ACC|Bo Hagewood|Chris Arai|CIVL|David Glover|dust devil|Felix Ruehle|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Joe Bostik|Paris Williams|record|USHGA

The Atlantic Coast Championships start tomorrow at Quest Air. Given the very light winds, no cu's, but predictions of good lift to 5,000', many of us decided to fly from the Ranch to Quest. It was quite warm, with cirrus at 20,000'. We had some huge dust devils at the Ranch after 1 PM, and there were still plenty of pilots here flying around (especially since no one had flown in the last two days).

Smooth, fat, 800 fpm thermals right at the Ranch got us all right on our way, and I believe everyone who tried made it 20 miles to the north to Quest. Now all our gliders are still set up, tied to the thick tied down cables at Quest.

Felix Ruehle, the Exxtacy and ATOS designer, arrived last night, and he flew his ATOS (which Hansjoerg had been flying) up to Quest. Paris Williams moved up to Joe Bostiks' WW Fusion (the all Mylar one). Bo Hagewood gets Paris'. It looks like there might be 20 rigid wing pilots are the ACC, out of 60. Mario from Flight Design takes over for Joseph on a Ghostbuster.

When we got to Quest, everything was very relaxed. The place has been cleaned up quite a bit, and I was very pleased to see that the stairs to the second floor of the clubhouse had been fixed up a bit. David Glover, USHGA President, is over at Quest making sure that they do their best to get pilots in the air quickly and smoothly. We all got a great dinner in honor of Mark P.'s record 192-mile flight, in the air-conditioned clubhouse (it was a bit too cold for my tastes).

G.W. is using 200-meter diameter cylinders only for the turnpoints. No cameras and no FAI photo sectors. He has a 2 mile start gate (so hopefully Chris Arai won't miss it this time). He is combining virtual goal lines and actual ones, and taking the times from the virtual goals, unless there is a problem with this method. He is also using the CIVL rules for canceling a day (scoring pilots were they were at at the time the day was canceled). We appreciate his willingness to be flexible and applying the rules to encourage and support the pilots.

Staff photographer: David Glover

Wallaby Open – the flex wing results

Sat, Apr 22 2000, 9:00:01 am EDT

André Wolfe|carbon fiber|Chris Arai|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Kari Castle|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Rich Burton|Wallaby Open 2000

You'll find them at http://www.davisstraub.com/wallabyopen.

There were some interesting results in the flex wing category. Paris Williams, who was ninth, was the second US pilot after Jim Lee in sixth. This is the first time that Paris has been flying with a manufactured topless glider. He is flying a WW Fusion with the fancy carbon fiber control frame. Glen Volk did well on his Moyes Litespeed coming in tenth. And, Joseph Bostik, returning to competition after so many years of absence, was the next American at 13th, also flying a WW Fusion.

The top five pilots have been among the top pilots in the world of late. Two pilots flying Icaro Laminars finished first and second: Manfred Ruhmer and Luiz Niemeyer. Betinho on a Moyes Litespeed was able to beat Andre Wolf on an Aeros Stealth. Joel Rebbecchi did quite well on his Moyes Litespeed and came in fifth.

Kari Castle, after not flying hang gliders for a year, came back strong on one of the new WW Mylar Fusions and finished right behind Joe Bostik. Rich Burton, not known as a regular competition pilot, did well on his Icaro Laminar equipped with a WW carbon fiber control frame. This control frame may become the standard of the industry.

Mike Barber didn't do as well as expected, having flown one day without bothering to zip up his undersurface. Chris Arai missed the start gate on the third round and got the lowest points possible for the day. Otherwise he was flying with the front flex wing gaggle (or, at least was when I was there to see him on the last day).

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Getting off the cart

Thu, Apr 20 2000, 5:30:02 pm EDT

David Glover|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Radman|US Nationals|video|Wallaby Ranch

cart|David Glover|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Radman|US Nationals|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bruce Barmakian|cart|David Glover|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Radman|US Nationals|video|Wallaby Ranch

Bruce Barmakian|cart|David Glover|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Radman|US Nationals|video|Wallaby Ranch

JZ had two crashes trying to launch his ATOS today. According to eye witnesses (there is a video) a wing immediately went down as soon as he started rolling. As soon as the wing hits, the glider turns turtle and JZ is on top of the glider. Now the glider is being pulled backwards across the ground.

JZ has a strong link instead of a weak link and it doesn't break as he is being pulled along. The tug pilot gives him the rope. I believe that JZ started using strong links after his experience last year with the "gag weaklinks" at the US Nationals.

After doing this once, JZ, replaced the downtube on his ATOS with the help of Peter Radman from Altair and got ready to go again. Almost exactly the same thing happened the second time, but this time we have been told that he had a real weaklink, so he didn't get drug as far. Also the tug pilot let go of him real soon.

I asked JZ about the strong links and he denied it. You've got to wonder why people lie to me when I ask them a straight question. I told him that I already knew that answer and I wanted to hear from it from him directly. Where is the profit to JZ from lying, especially when he knows I know the truth?

The problem with strong links is that they endanger the tug pilots. The tug pilot was dragging JZ across the ground up side down. What if JZ had caught something and stopped? What would happened to the tug before his weaklink broke (did he have one)?

Anyway, this started off as a story about something else, just why JZ had this problem of the wing hitting the ground as soon as he started to roll.

The problem is he is immediately stalled (heh, why else would a wing come down in very light wind conditions) and here's why. I had spoken to JZ days earlier to tell him to use only one of two carts here at the Ranch for launching his ATOS. The tails are these two carts are higher and they provide for a lower angle of attack. These carts will keep him from stalling the glider immediately when he has no air speed.

JZ followed this advice until today. Today he chose one of the regular carts that puts your nose at too high of an angle of attack. Manfred had a big problem with this, the other day, and so did Bruce Barmakian.

Not only did he choose a cart with a high angle of attack, but also he removed 8 pounds of weight from his nose. His ATOS was been flying too fast for him, and he has been putting his glider bag in his nose. He decided to remove it today.

He also decided to put his hang point back a ways in order to further slow down the glider. Three items that all lead to two immediate stalls on launch.

A number of us have told JZ that the ticket is to let the tug pull you forward as it starts until your shoulders are over the base tube. When you are in this position your tail comes up off the too low brace in the back of the cart and the glider's angle of attack is reduced to the proper angle of attack for an aerotow launch. You have to do this immediately as soon as the tug starts to pull you.

I was hoping to get an article from Joe Bostik on this issue after he had a similar problem launching his Fusion here at Wallaby Ranch. Originally one of the carts at Wallaby Ranch was modified by Paris Williams just for Fusion wing pilots so that they could stop having this very problem.

I'm writing this article at Joe Bostik's insistence because he feels that people should be aware of this problem. It is important that the glider pilot know that they have to be responsible for setting a proper angle of attack with their glider. Otherwise 1 out of 100 times it will stall immediately. If you can't change the configuration of the cart, pull forward until your shoulders are over the base tube as the tug pulls you.

Now there is a situation in which you would not want to do this. If you are a very light pilot it is possible for the tug to pull you right out of the cart and onto your nose. No fun.

In this case the only way to resist the tendency of the tug to pull you over, is to keep back enough at the first of your tow to get the cart going with you, then you can move forward to get your shoulders over the base bar. The problem with this is that you are subject to the immediate stall, so it is a trade-off between which problem has a higher probability of happening to you.

Staff photographer: David Glover

Wallaby Open - A race south to the airport at Avon

Mon, Apr 17 2000, 4:00:00 pm EDT

André Wolfe|Brian Porter|Dave Sharp|Gary Osoba|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Paris Williams|Wallaby Open 2000|weather|Wills Wing

The weather forecast called for moderate to strong winds out of the west building during the day:

The local forecast was for 15 to 20 mph increasing. Gary Osoba, who is helping out with the weather from his Kansas vantage point said:

Winds aloft very consistent out of about 226 degrees from 8 knots near surface increasing steadily to 12 knots at cloudbase.

He also called for:

Anyway, looks like earlier in the afternoon on cloudbase could be in that 5000' plus range…possibly up to 5,400'. As the afternoon progresses, it could raise a thousand feet higher or it might not, depending upon the mixing of the air. If it were to raise and we are to believe the empirical data, a tendency toward inversion could develop below the cloudbase in the final 1000' or so…I don't buy that. Might indicate a more difficult climb in that segment, however.

Ignoring the possibility of a south component, given the west winds at Wallaby and the wind lines as shown at Intellicast, the task committee set a cross wind task of 44 miles to the south along 27 to the airport at Avon. Again the rigid wing pilots would go first with a final start gate at the intersection of highway 27 and Interstate 4, just south east of the Ranch, at 1:30 PM.

While Gary missed the wind direction a bit, he did get a good call on the height of the mild inversion. We started getting very small cu's before noon, and they continued throughout the day mostly to the west of course line. Most often no more than 100 feet thick.

I got off early after Bruce Barmakian drug his wing tip on his ATOS while on the cart and then popped up, just like it always seems to happen with these rigid wings (dihedral and the spoiler on the other wing do it).

It was a nice climb out above the Ranch as we drifted east in the blue. At 4,000 over highway 27 I headed south to a small cloud forming by the start gate. No one joined me, and they all almost landed back at the Ranch. Dave Sharp got pulled up just then, and did have to land.

While I waited around alone at the start gate around the time of the second start window at 4,200', some of the rigid pilots were finally able to find a thermal a few miles to the north, and without my noticing it, they soon got high. Now it was my turn to be relatively low (although not as low as the two that landed out) as the last start time approached. I had to come back and come in under everyone else in the thermals to the north of the start gate.

Given the light lift, pilots were reluctant to go through the start gate even as the start time approached. They kept working whatever lift they were in. As long as everyone could spy on everyone else, it didn't matter much. The best strategy was to get as high as possible, and not go to the start gate until other pilots did.

I was still on the bottom, but I moved slowly to the start gate, and went through it second at 6 minutes after the start time (the last start time was 1:30 PM), encouraged by one pilot heading out on course. Most pilots were still climbing slowly and hanging back.

Gibbo got the start gate and headed west upwind to get under the clouds. I headed south, lower than anyone and in front. But, there was a small cloud ahead and I went for it.

Like all the clouds today, this one was working, and I was soon joined by Hansjoerg, Dave Sharp on ATOSes, Joseph Stellbaur on a Ghostbuster, and another pilot on an ATOS.

We became the first gaggle, and quickly moved south using each other to find the next thermals.

By the time we got to Haines City ten miles to the south, Hansjoerg and I had broken away and moved ahead to find the lift for the next 10 miles down to Bok Tower. Hansjoerg would gain about ten feet on me in each thermal though, and at the Tower he was able to up that to 200 feet. Dave Sharp, Joseph, and the other ATOS pilot found a bit better lift to the east (downwind) and came to join me at the Tower as Hansjoerg got away.

There were no other pilots around, especially no flex wing pilots as they wouldn't start the task until 2:15 PM. I like this separating the classes as it makes it real easy to fly in the gaggles. Less thermal markers, but it is easier to climb.

The four of us behind Hansjoerg get to almost 6,000' and head south from Lake Wales straight toward goal on the east side of 27 and over Frostproof. There have been small cu's all along the way for us (most just forming as we move south), but now it is a blue hole all the way to goal. We are on the east side of a set of large lakes, but this doesn't seem to stop the thermals. We head back cross way upwind whenever on glide, but we are continually being pushed to the east.

I'm out in front again (my hubris gets the best of me), and pick up 200 fpm over a bare field 12 miles out from goal at 2,400'. Five miles back we had a glimpse of Hansjoerg turning on the course line, and it looked like these fields would bake, even though the lakes were nearby.

Dave and Joseph join me and we climb slowly up to almost 6,000'. It’s past time to glide to goal and we do, getting there too high. I start out first, but Dave, with his fifteen pounds of lead, is able to catch me before we cross.

Hansjoerg has arrived at goal 15 minutes before we get there. ATOSes come in the first three places with Joseph on his Ghostbuster in fourth. I felt that Joseph was climbing and gliding as well on his Ghostbuster as we were on our ATOSes. You really couldn't tell any performance difference.

Not long after we get there, Manfred and then Betinho cross the goal line. Andre comes in next. In spite of a later start they are almost able to catch up with us. With the later start they did get better conditions (we rigid wing pilots were a bit nervous at first).

Betinho has decided to fly a Moyes glider. He has been flying for Gerard Thevenot on La Mouette for the last six years, so this is no small switch. Obviously he is doing well on it.

Slowy more flex wings and rigid wing pilots came in. Brian Porter on the Swift came in fith. Mark Mullhulland on the Millennium didn't make it to goal. Neither did Gibbo or Johnny Carr on Ghostbusters. Jamie Sheldon made it in on her Exxtacy.

About forty pilots made it to goal (so it was a bit short of a task). All the Wills Wing team made it with Jim Lee and Paris Williams leading the way. Joe Bostik brought up the rear. His father-in-law is our friendly driver.

I saw Andre Wolf lying in pain on the ground after his flight. He said that heading into the wind was the worst part of hang gliding and his shoulders were sore. Didn't someone mention something about the "stiff Stealths?" Betinho was on the ground also feeling all the pain.

When we got back to the Ranch, we heard that Hansjoerg might not have gotten the start gate. I had pressed the meet director and organizer two months before the meet to allow pilots to miss the start gate and still get their distance points (in this case, goal) as we did at the Oz Nats. They didn't put this provision in the rules. Well, I wonder what they are going to do now.

Yesterday I was able to post the results early in the morning. I hope to get them up even earlier tomorrow (if not tonight). I will send out a notice if I do.

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Wallaby Open – day one

Sun, Apr 16 2000, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Brian Porter|carbon fiber|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

Brian Porter|carbon fiber|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Brian Porter|carbon fiber|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

Brian Porter|carbon fiber|cart|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

Brian Porter|carbon fiber|cart|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jamie Sheldon|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

Brian Porter|carbon fiber|Dave Sharp|David Glover|Flytec 4030|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lamb|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Gibson|Quest Air|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 2000|weather

Let's hit the high points (the scoring isn't anywhere near done, heck the GPS verification isn't anywhere near done yet).

Class I and Class II pilots were divided into two separate start times. The start gates opened for Class II at 1, 1:15 and 1:30 PM. The flex wing's 3 start gates started at 1:45 PM.

The rigid wings lined up on one side of the launch, and all the flex wings on the other side. With the earlier start gate, the rigid wing pilots were given the preference for launch times, and with lots of trikes and tugs around, they got into the air real quick like.

There were cu's everywhere, but the cloud base was low (less than 4,000'). The weather forecast was for light west winds, and 30% chance of showers or thunderstorms later in the day. There must have been almost twenty rigid wings (mostly ATOSes and a few Ghostbusters) milling around waiting for the last start gate time. I didn't see the Millennium or the Swift at all.

While we were circling up, lots of exciting things were happening on the ground. Hansjoerg Truttman, who was second in line behind me, had his ATOS collapse on him on the cart. Hansjoerg has Felix's ATOS and his very, very thin carbon fiber downtubes with turbulator strips. The downtubes collapsed and broke Hansjoerg's Flytec 4030.

With lots of help from various Ranch support crewmembers, Hansjoerg got his replacement set of downtubes installed. Steve Kroop, from Flytec USA, came up with a brand new 4005 to replace Hansjoerg's. Didn't even know who he was giving it to.

Given the late start, Hansjoerg wasn't able to get the start gate until 15 minutes after the rest of us. This was to prove to be quite a boon for him.

Brian Porter in his Swift got his nose way up high right after launch and the trike pilot gave him the rope. He then proceeded to smash in his nose taking out some struts that held the skid plate. He could no longer launch (and land) on his back wheel and skid plate. The support crew put the Swift on a dollie, fixed up a new bridle and release and got Brian into the air way late for the rigid wings.

Betinho (Top Tape), a Brazilian pilot, had a very scary launch. He claims to have had ten aerotows a year ago, but didn't have an opportunity to aerotow here before the meet. He wasn't experienced enough to get it right the first time. He took off with his nose way high, he locked out to the right, broke the weaklink at about 80 feet, stalled the glider, went straight for the ground, and just barely recovered in time before pounding straight in. Not good.

Away from all the action on the ground, the rigid wing pilots were getting out on course slowly, huddling close to one another in the light lift and not getting higher then 3,800'. Dave Sharp, Mark Gibson and I were on top at the start gate, and Dave and I would stay on top of everyone for the next two thermals. Jim Zeiset, flying an ATOS and a CG Carbon Fiber harness, was doing much better than what we had seen in the past few meets.

About ten miles out at 474, the ten rigid wing pilots in the first gaggle spilt up and moved either north, east or west, but in the general direction of Quest Air (the first turnpoint). The clouds were thick, but the lift continued to be weak until Dave Sharp found a screamer a mile to the north of 474.

Jamie Sheldon in her red Exxtacy was with us in the gaggle, but she just wasn't doing as well. There were a number of Ghostbusters also in the first gaggle, but they weren't doing quite as well as the ATOSes (only my opinion, of course).

Hitting the big lift to the north got the rigid wing pilots excited and with everyone (almost) making it to cloudbase, we all started racing toward the turnpoint to the north at Quest Air. Oops, there was a rain cloud right there, just as we approached Quest.

We're just 3 miles off to the south east of Quest Air, working the lift on the east side of the rain. With the wind out of the west we are drifting away from the turnpoint, and at some point we are all forced to fly through the rain to get to the sunny spots on the other side.

I see Dave Sharp, Mark Gibson, Johann Posch, and other rigid wing pilots get very low at the turnpoint. Instead of joining them I head west 3 miles under a cloud street away from the rain and the turnpoint, getting down to 1,000' but finding lift over the dark ground. Meanwhile Dave Sharp and another pilot find some lift over Quest, but everyone else in the neighborhood decks it there. Fortunately there are beers all around for pilots who land at Quest or nearby, thanks to the folks from Quest.

While we are struggling at the turnpoint, Hansjoerg is racing after us trying to make up for his fifteen-minute handicap. Give the light lift at first this tactic just puts him almost on the deck and now he is struggling low way behind us. As he works himself out of a hole, he sees the first of the flex wing pilots out on course coming his way. He can head off on his own, but decides that it is a better idea to join up with the flexies.

As Dave Sharp gets up at the turnpoint, I get up way to 3,300' way to the west, and start back to get it. Unfortunately, I don't find anymore lift and have to land about two miles to the north west of Quest. Dave gets a 200 fpm thermal just to the south east of me, and now is trapped behind a line of rain to the south west on course line to the Fantasy of Flight.

The flex wing pilots skirt the rain line going to the east and a number of them make the turnpoint with Hansjoerg in tow. Betinho, Joe Bostik, and numerous others have landed out at the Seminole sailplane port on their way toward the turnpoint.

Manfred,Luiz Niemeyer, and Hansjoerg, head downwind far to the east after making the turnpoint, to get away from the line of rain showers south of Quest. Dave Sharp, Johnny Carr (in the GB), and Jim Lamb (ATOS) all land across the street from the sail plane port.

A while later folks at the Ranch notice three pilots way high over the Ranch heading back up wind toward the Fantasy of Flight. It had been raining hard at the Ranch but that was over with by the time these three pilots came over. They had run straight south down highway 27 a mile east of the Ranch and were now headed ten miles west upwind to the second turnpoint.

Manfred, Luiz, and Hansjoerg were able to get the turnpoint at Fantasy of Flight, and make it back a short ways toward the goal at the Ranch. Hansjoerg, on the ATOS, flew the furthest. Manfred and Luiz lead the flex wing class.

Given the high percentage of pilots that didn't go over half way, the day will be devalued quite a bit. A lot of good work for not that many points.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but the staff photographer was not working as hard as he should.

Staff photographer: David Glover

Whose glider is it anyway?

Sun, Apr 9 2000, 5:00:08 pm EDT

CIVL|Gordon Rigg|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer

CIVL|Gordon Rigg|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk

CIVL|Gordon Rigg|Joe Bostik|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk

Gordon Rigg, «Rigg», responds

In the good old days when the market was bigger there were lots of pilots supported to a greater or lesser degree by manufacturers. There were test pilots who worked for the manufacturers who often had special gliders some of which never got sold on because the innovations on them weren't so good. Then there was a second tier of supported pilots who were the first to get gliders with the latest developments - perhaps six months ahead of production. In those days most of the top 100 world ranked pilots came into this category with one of the manufacturers.

Today the second tier has largely disappeared. Those pilots who were once supported are now the most important customer group for the manufacturers. Thus the only people with special gliders are not supported pilots, they are full time test pilots.

Oleg, Manfred, Gerolf, Joel, they all work more or less full time on glider development. Their gliders are paid for by the development budget and as such often have extra innovative features on them. These may add or subtract from the performance.

Typically Manfred will have two gliders per year to fiddle with. These may eventually be sold on, or if they have too many features that don't work on them they might have to be scrapped. Either way there may be too many uncertified features that may make it difficult to sell that glider in some countries.

So sometimes you might be able to buy Manfed's glider, sometimes not. Similarly with Gerolf's glider. The one he flew in Hay was the prototype LS4 and had a unique sail, many features of which made it onto the production sail. The glider he flew in Valedares had a production sail and I bought it at the end of the meet.

However Gerolf couldn't part with his carbon control frame as these are not yet in production, and won't be until the CIVL ruling on downtube thickness is withdrawn as we all (except a few German League people) hope and expect it will be.

So sometimes you can buy the glider that won the meet (It won the Valedares2000 International, and placed second in the Brazil Open Nationals) - well nearly all of it!

Back in the kingposted days I spoke to someone who bought Manfeds glider at the end of a meet that Manfred won. He packed the glider himself in the goal on the last day so there were no changes made to the wing.

Next time out he was expecting to blow away his friends on the glide, but sadly the performance was little different from the standard mylar Laminar!

The ability of the top pilots should not be underestimated! Its not all the glider!

1988 Joe Bostik won the St. Andre French Nationals on a WW Sport. This involved beating pilots such as Drew Cooper, Mark Newlands, (Moyes GTR), Several British Team members on Magic Kisses, Allan Chauvet, Gerard Thevenot on the La Mouette compact... ...on big tasks in strong conditions.

Strangely nobody queued up to buy the meet winning glider that time!

Escape – tossed around in the surf

Sat, Mar 25 2000, 4:00:02 pm GMT

James "Jim" Zeiset|Joe Bostik|Joe Greblo|Jos Guggenmos|Josef "Joe" "Hangczech" Bostik|Mike Barber|Paris Williams

Joe Greblo, <windsports@earthlink.net>, writes:

When it comes to reviewing hang gliding products there's one thing I learned long ago. Fair reviews require a thorough and working knowledge of the product being reviewed. This is especially difficult when looking at a product with the habits and experiences given by differing products over a long period of time.

With that in mind, the following is, not a review, rather a report.

I've been flying a lot of different rigid wing and flex wing gliders of late. That is one of the great things about this Wills Wing Fly-in. So many folks are here that you just get all these opportunities to try something else out. I've flown different gliders every day this week.

Jim Zeiset had Rob bring down a Guggenmos ESC, which Jim imports from Germany. The ESC is an evolution of the E-7, which I've reported on previously, for example, https://OzReport.com/Ozv3n54.htm.

The ESC has a stiff curved wing tip (no fiberglass or carbon fiber rod here) and a higher aspect ratio that the E-7. Also the spoilers are moved back a bit from the high part of the camber. They are still quite small relative to the spoilerons found on the Ghostbuster and ATOS.

The E-7 weighed in at 68 pounds, as the lightest rigid wing glider. The Jim's ESC is 72 pounds (bigger wing), and the ESC that Rob brought down weighs 80 pounds. Joseph Guggenmos has added additional resin to the leading edges to reduce the chances of car top damage – the kind that you will find on your Ghostbuster or ATOS is you aren't very careful with extra padding.

I got the chance to fly the ESC at Jim gracious offer last Thursday. The day before we had a nice north wind at about 10 to 15 miles per hour. I flew a borrowed Exxtacy 78 miles in just over two hours before I made a crucial error (flying too fast) and landed in Florida cowboy country.

Thursday was not so nice a day. There was a 22-25 mph wind out of the northeast instead of the north. We would have to push south as much as we could to keep out of the Tampa TCA. The lift was obviously quite strong as the clouds started streeting up early. There was no need to take off early as we would just hit the coast before the lift ran out anyway.

On Wednesday I had taken off first at 11:30 AM, made a 500' save two miles south of the Ranch, and then just connected the dots. On Thursday, we were willing to wait until 12:30 PM.

George went up first in his ATOS, pinned off at 1,000' and the tug was right back down for me. I also pinned off at 1,000' as the lift was rowdy and there was plenty of it.

Mike Barber, flying a La Mouette Topless, saw what we did, and said no way was he going to pin off that low in such a strong wind. You would be blown down wind so fast that you had to get up or else. So what happened, he pinned off at 1,000' because he was tired of being tossed about on tow. The lift was good for him and he also got up.

Towing the ESC was fine even in the rowdy conditions. It was great to see that I didn't have the yaw problems that I had had on the E-7. The ESC did get a bit more tossed around than what I normally expect on a rigid wing, which are much better than flex wing gliders, but it wasn't too bad.

Off tow, I soon found myself holding on for my life as I tried to learn to fly this new rigid wing in what appeared to me to be very turbulent conditions. Realize that only two more pilots were willing to fly from Wallaby Ranch that day – Paris Williams and Joe Bostik. Everyone else (many, many pilots) looked at the wind speed and stayed on the ground.

Mike has said that the thermals are too broken up when the winds get over 20 mph in Florida. The thermals may have been broken up, but they were definitely there, and I was riding 'em as though I were out west. The conditions and this glider (couldn't tell the difference) were a handful.

I followed George to cloudbase and headed south to Auburndale and a nice patch of lift between the lakes and over an orange grove. Got one wing picked up and I was put into a spiral dive for ¾ of a turn. George was right above me and commented to himself that the ESC could sure turn quickly.

Meanwhile in the ESC I was having a difficult time getting it to respond to my commands. It seemed to have a mind of its own, and with the conditions appearing to be the strongest I had ever been in in Florida, I was just hoping to calm things down.

After climbing back to cloud base, I pushed south to get toward highway 17, which heads south in the middle of the state. All of this was familiar territory, and I headed for the western edge of orange grove to find a thermal coming out a brown field on the edge of a pond.

The thermal was a screamer and my borrowed demo Flytec 4030 was pegged, for about half a turn, and then nothing. Back again, the same. OK, maybe I'll just go someplace else and get some nice consistent lift. I landed shortly afterwards next to highway 17. Happy to be down on the ground.

Can't say as I had proper conditions to evaluate the glider. Perhaps I should have taken a flight at around 8 AM (but it was blowing then also). It did seem a lot more like a flex wing glider than an Exxtacy, ATOS or Ghostbuster. It is quite small at 142 square feet, so it is sized more like the ATOS and Ghostbuster.

Of course, Joseph has again created a beautiful glider with his excellent craftsmanship. Carbon fiber keel as well as leading edges and spars.

Hopefully I'll get other pilots who've had experience flying this glider to write in. I'd love to hear if they thought it handled more like a flex wing than other rigid wing gliders.

To get a sense of the day, after the flight I asked Mike Barber and George Ferris, what they thought about the turbulence. Mike, flying a topless flex wing glider, said he experienced very turbulent conditions. He had slack wires a number of times and diving turns when a wing was lifted. He was spit out of thermals often. Even observers on the ground at Wallaby noticed this happening to Mike.

George said that the day wasn't all that turbulent, and that he had experienced worse turbulence on a day that we flew together to the coast. On the Exxtacy I hadn't noticed any strong turbulence that day.

Soon, I'll report on the Raptor II, which I got to fly yesterday, in somewhat calmer conditions. At the moment I'm wondering about this test pilot bit.

Discuss "Escape – tossed around in the surf" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WW Daze

Sat, Mar 25 2000, 4:00:01 pm GMT

David "Dave" Glover|Joe Bostik|Josef "Joe" "Hangczech" Bostik|Rob Kells

We're here at Wallaby Ranch in central Florida. The party is on going as I type these words. The Wills Wing party, which has been going on here since Monday and runs through tomorrow, has been an incredible success.

Rob Kells (the guy from Wills Wing that puts this show on) stated that he thinks that this is the largest US fly-in since the 70's. So many people have come here from through out the world (Europe, South and Central America, Canada, and the US). For example:

David Glover had to play around a bit with the new fish eye lens, so I made him take this photo.

I guess the prospect of demo gliders to fly at no cost, great food from Jeremie, the Wallaby Ranch chef, tows from the Ranch tug pilots all day long, and a great party on Saturday night was too hard to resist.

Here's a shot of cookie (Jeremie in his southern dress up) from the Waffle House:

The lines for the tugs have been long, but the wait times are short. It is unbelievable how this place can absorb such an onslaught.

Today, it was really, really hard to get down. For example, this was Fusion day for me (more on the Fusions in a later Oz Report). On my second flight at around 9:15 AM, I felt a couple of bumps at about 500' as I was coming in to land after wanging Joe Bostik's carbon frame Fusion around hard.

I thought I would just turn in the bumps for a minute. Then I saw a couple of turkey vultures, not really turning, but they weren't going down, so I followed them. Then I spied Bo with his Flytec sticker on the leading edge of his Fusion. He was turning over the hangers at the Ranch a few hundred feet from me.

I got over him by about 50 to 100 feet and started turning. Slowly I started to rise up, and continued to work my way back to 2,500' feeling the bump. Bo, slowly sunk out, not quite able to work it. I then flew around until I had to get down for breakfast. Lots of other folks by this time were soaring with me.

Oh, yah, I forgot to say. I didn't have a vario, as I was just taking the glider up for a quick wang. The lift was so good that one didn't need a vario to get up from low at 9:15 AM.

Well it only got better after breakfast. Folks who had never gone cross-country before left the Ranch at 6,000' and did out and returns never getting below 4,000'. A whole crew flew in from Quest for the party.

As people were getting lined up for launch the first dust devil that many of us had ever seen in Florida swept through the waiting gliders. Three gliders were picked up, with the mini-tornado swirling the gliders and tossing them upside down.

Later, you literally had a very difficult time getting down anywhere near the Ranch. The sink holes were very small and you had to core them to get down out of the lift.

Discuss "WW Daze" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Big dogs at the Florida meets

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

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

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

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

The Wallaby Open:

In Class II:

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

In Class I:

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

GW writes:

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

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

At the ACC

In Class II:

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

In Class I:

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

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

Joe Bostik returns

Wed, Feb 23 2000, 9:00:00 pm EST

Florida|Joe Bostik|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Joe Bostik, the former national champion, is returning to competitive hang gliding after a ten-year absence to begin and pursue a career as a commercial airline pilot. He will be flying as a Wills Wing factory supported pilot, just like in the old days.

Joe has recently moved to Florida and a few days ago installed a 1979 Air Stream at Wallaby Ranch. His family home (a wife and two kids) is 100 miles to the south.

Joe is looking to get back on the US National Hang Gliding team. Looks like it may turn into a dog fight.