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topic: Kevin Carter

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Flying results »

Thu, Jul 7 2022, 9:09:53 pm GMT

Paragliding

US Open PG Championships 2022

2022 US Open Paragliding Championships in Chelan, Washington: https://airtribune.com/us-open-paragliding/results

# Name Glider Total
1 Nicholas Greece Ozone Enzo 3 4139
2 Josh Cohn Niviuk X-One 4063
3 Evan Bouchier Niviuk X One 4041
4 Francisco Mantaras Niviuk X-One 4037
5 Gavin McClurg Niviuk Icepeak X-One 4017
6 Violeta Jimenez Ozone Enzo 3 3995
7 Michal Hammel Ozone Enzo 3 3994
8 Richard Castro Gin Boomerang 12 3992
9 Alex Leone Gin Leopard 3991
10 Andy MacRae Gin Boomerang 12 3969

X-Pyr: https://x-pyr.com/the-x-pyr-race-is-over-how-it-was/

https://gearjunkie.com/endurance/adventure-racing/x-pyr-2022-paragliding-adventure-race-results

Chrigel Maurer/Ramon Krebs (SUI) – 130:15:35
Maxime Pinot/Jéremie Lager (FRA) – 143:18:33
Pierre Rémy/Nicolas Frio (FRA) – 147:42:58
Simon Oberrauner/Simon Volker (AUT) – 149:49:34

Discuss "Flying results" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Kevin Carter at Applegate Paragliding Competition

Fri, Jun 25 2021, 10:56:58 pm EDT

Linda Salamone hanging around there also

Applegate PG Open 2021|Kevin Carter

"Linda Salamone" «lindajsalamone» writes:

https://www.flyxc.org/2021-applegate.html

Kevin Carter is doing great. 2 tasks left unless they cancel tomorrow due to excessive heat. I’m just here to free fly and chill with Brigieta Balsimo who is killing it with retrieve organizing and getting hitched on Sunday.

https://www.flyxc.org/uploads/5/4/4/1/54413503/race_cumulative.pdf

19 Kevin Carter Ozone Zeolite GT ML 2678

https://wingsoverapplegate.org/open-race-pilots/

Discuss "Kevin Carter at Applegate Paragliding Competition" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The US National Team

May 19, 2021, 11:33:21 MDT

The US National Team

Eight spots reserved for the 2021 World Championships

Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Robin Hamilton|USHPA|US National Team|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

https://ntss.ushpa.aero/ntss1/index.php

Pos Name Points Comp 1 Comp 2 Comp 3 Comp 4
1 Zac Majors 1534 609 PAN2021 482 SCF2018 443 WPN2021
2 Bruce Barmakian 1452 393 PAN2021 385 QA22019 352 WPN2021 322 BSN2019
3 Robin Hamilton 1385 561 SCF2018 467 PAN2021 357 WPN2021
4 Davis Straub 1270 396 SCF2018 338 PAN2021 280 BSN2019 256 WPN2021
5 Pedro L Garcia 1265 496 PAN2021 492 QA22019 277 WPN2021
6 Kevin Carter 1126 445 PAN2021 412 QA12019 269 BSN2019
7 John Simon 1120 437 QA22019 400 PAN2021 283 WPN2021
8 Willy Dydo 1089 377 PAN2021 293 BSN2019 230 WPN2021 189 QA22019
9 Larry Bunner 984 413 QA12019 310 PAN2021 261 WPN2021
10 Gary Anderson 951 315 PAN2021 262 WPN2021 209 BSN2018 165 BSN2019
11 Kevin Dutt 917 497 PAN2021 420 QA22019
12 Phil Bloom 812 420 SCF2018 392 PAN2021
13 Patrick Pannese 669 341 SCF2018 328 WPN2021
14 JD Guillemette 645 264 PAN2021 232 QA12019 149 WPN2021
15 Derrick Turner 634 333 WPN2021 301 BSN2018

I won't be going and pilots are being surveyed right now to see who wants to make up the team.

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7 »

April 17, 2021, 5:54:36 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7

Cancelled

The southwest wind was too strong. If the wind direction had been south, southeast, south southeast, west, east, northeast, northwest, or north, the speed would have been fine. The results at the end of day 6 are the final results.

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6 »

April 16, 2021, 8:30:48 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Results

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

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

# Id Name Glider Time Distance (km) Total
1 948 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:52 57.74 342.0
2 973 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:57:35 57.74 334.7
3 979 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:57:36 57.74 332.4
4 978 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:58:22 57.74 329.8
5 974 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 23.20 168.4
6 985 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 19.23 152.8
7 957 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 12.96 132.0
8 969 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 12.90 131.8
9 946 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 12.68 130.8
10 967 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.11 127.9

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6 »

April 16, 2021, 7:43:02 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Blue Sky|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Wallaby Ranch

You know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy but there's just one thing
You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough

The forecast:

NWS:

Today

A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. West wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Hourly in the afternoon: 6 mph west wind at 1 pm increasing to 8 mph west northwest by 4 PM, cloud cover 64%. Hourly and daily forecast do not agree on high temperature with hourly displaying 78 degrees.

RAP

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 8 mph , 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 5,100'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 600 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4,000'

B/S at 1 PM: 8.0

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 10 mph, 2,000' 14 mh, 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 6,100'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 620 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 5,100'

B/S at 4 PM: 7.0

This is what it looks like most of the day:

Every once in a while it will open up and there will be sunshine on the ground., Cu's form under the high level clouds and there are spots of rain here and there.

We've got a hell of a task:

Wilotree Park to Gore and then back to Wallaby Ranch.

There is some reluctance to launch given how dark the sky looks at times. They delay the launch by 40 minutes so it's not until 1:20 that pilots start launching. Kasey pulls me up at 1:40 above everyone else but two pilots at 2,100' (2,000' AGL). I'm right under those two pilots that are off by themselves and under a weak looking cu. Everything looks weak under the high level clouds.

I climb to 2,800' but fifteen minutes after I pinned off I'm back down to where I started. Despite unrelenting circling and joisting with one pilot after another, half an hour after I launched I'm down to 800' AGL at the south end of the field. I climb at 6.6 fpm until I find 160 fpm west of Wilotree Park and climb to 2,200'. I was previously very concerned about how all of us would land at the same time at the park, which it looked like we were going to do. There were many relights.

After a few different thermals and lift at around 130 fpm I'm able to climb to 3,200'. I'm only 2.5 kilometers from Wilotree, but hanging with four or five other pilots downwind to the east.

I follow the pilots I'm near to the southeast to where just outside the 5 km start cylinder they find 144 fpm and I join in. Pilots are landing every where behind us.

It is all dark and shaded to the south along our course line. We get to 2,900' and then the six of us head south into the darkness. For over 6 km we glide and it looks like we are going to land (as two pilots already did) just north of the mines. Down to 900' AGL I spot Zac below us just north of the mines and to our east when he begins to turn. We come over him and start turning in lift that averages 134 fpm. I'm on top of him for at least 5 minutes when I lose my focus for a second and suddenly I'm on the bottom and out of contact. I see the five pilots I was with climb up faster and get away from me.

I head southeast to get under where they have stopped for lift but it takes me nine minutes to get back up to 3,000' and I can no longer see the other pilots.

I'm just east of the mines but in an area where retrieval will not be easy unless I drop straight down. I've got to go south following where they went to get south of highway 474. I head for the best looking patch of cumulus cloud but there is no lift there. I'm down to 1,400' at 474.

South of this east west road there are very limited access possibilities for quite a ways. I feel that I need 3,000' to chance going out south of the highway. I can see to the south that there is blue sky and lots of cumulus clouds that look so much better than anything that we have been flying in., but they are too far away for a pilot who is as low as I am.

I search around near the highway but not finding any lift land in a field just to the north of the road.

The pilots I was with are able to make it to the cu's and then complete the task.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/16.4.2021/17:40

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2763323

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 5 »

April 15, 2021, 7:55:32 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 5

Very windy and overcast

Bobby Bailey|competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Replay: https://airtribune.com/play/5009/2d

Forecast:

There is a large mass of clouds moving from west to east in the northern Gulf. We saw a bit of this on Wednesday in the morning before the clouds to the north and west disappeared.

NWS:

Thursday

Increasing clouds, with a high near 87. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Hourly in the afternoon: 11 mph southwest wind at noon increasing to 15 mph by 5 PM and turning west, cloud cover going from 19% to 50% then 71% at 5 PM

HRRR

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 14 mph, 2000' 21 mph, 4000' 22 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,800'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 500 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4600'

B/S at 1 PM: 4.3

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 13 mph, 4,000' 21 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 3,900'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 400 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 0'

B/S at 4 PM: 1.4

So we expect a windy and gusty day with the upper level clouds coming completely over us, but letting in filter sunlight. With the southwest direction we first look at a task to the northeast but conclude that with the high winds the safety factor finding landable areas would be very narrow. I propose a cross wind task to the north hoping that we will get lighter winds and it will be soarable.

Results: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 4: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/day/open-class

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 JD Guillemette Moyes RX3.5 26.72 192.0
2 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 23.65 177.4
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 23.67 177.3
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 23.59 176.8
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 23.54 176.2
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 23.12 173.4
7 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 22.75 169.0
8 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 22.40 165.1
9 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T3 154 18.32 122.0
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 18.07 120.7

Cumulative: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/comp/open-class

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2972
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 2936
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2916
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 2845
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 2844
6 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2599
6 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 2599
8 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2541
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2283
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 2220

There was no Sport Class task today given the high winds forecasted.

The winds at launch were within our pre assigned parameters (20 mph south and 10 mph west - so 15 mph southwest). The safety and meet director were monitoring the winds at launch and their criteria was 10 - 15 mph with no gusts over 5 mph. That's what they got.

The high level clouds from the north came near us but there were plenty of cu's underneath them. When I got pulled up after not choosing to go in the first round I pinned off in lift at 1,500' behind Bobby Bailey. I quickly climbed to 5,200' at 335 fpm despite all the upper level clouds. I was drifting at 12 mph out of the west southwest. I wanted to get to the west side of the 5 km start cylinder, which was not all that easy to do.

Heading west and then climbing back to 5,000' it was time to go to get the first start clock.

After the task opened we all raced to the northwest and found lift west of Groveland again back to 5,000'. I followed three pilots ahead and over me and found 350 fpm to 4,500' behind them and they had to come back to me.

As we went further north under the upper level clouds, but still toward cumulus clouds, the lift deteriorated. As we came over Grass Root airfield at a little less than 3,000' we spotted Zac Majors circling low on the north side. We climbed at 140 fpm to 3,300'. Zac headed off to the northwest low and we all lost track of him, except maybe Austin.

I'm only able to climb to 2,800' in the next thermal at 124 fpm. Others get higher. We are all being pushed to the east northeast and there is a small gaggle northeast of the Turnpike. I don't find any lift under them at 2,600' and head west toward the open fields on the south side of the Turnpike and near highway33. I note that the wind is 22 mph out of the west.

Making very slow progress against the head wind, down to 1,200', and not being able to make it to my preferred field to the west I turn east to be able to land near highway 27. There is a huge field there and I come in at 500' and stay prone and on the base tube all the way to the ground not wanting to get turned. My ground speed is less than 5 mph when I land in a nice soft field. It is very turbulent.

Kevin Carter measures 30 mph when he is coming in to land, hits 1,500 fpm low, and just keeps heading into the wind and landing. J.D. gets out ahead of everyone and wins the day.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.4.2021/17:34

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2762660

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 4 »

April 14, 2021, 10:24:21 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 4

Task 3, more blue then a few cu's

Attila Plasch|competition|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

The forecast:

NWS:

Wednesday

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light southeast wind becoming south southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly in the afternoon: 7 mph south southeast wind , 38% decreasing to 23% cloud cover

RAP

1 PM:

South surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 7 mph, 4000' south southeast 6 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,400'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 580 fpm

CB at 1 PM: none (with south southeast there is almost always cu's)

B/S at 1 PM: 9.7

4 PM:

South surface wind at 4 PM: 6 mph, 6,000' 6 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 7,700'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 720 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 7,500'

B/S at 4 PM: 10.0

The Task:

Quest 3 km
Turn33 3 km (Intersection of the Florida Turnpike and highway 33)
T33D 3 km (Intersection of Dean Still Road and highway 33)
Quest 400 m

Results for Open and Sport classes: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 3 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5007/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:24:22 991.2
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:24:24 981.9
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:24:32 973.1
4 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 02:25:03 963.5
5 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:25:27 958.0
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:26:24 931.8
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:27:05 920.9
8 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:30:02 900.3
9 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:30:47 898.2
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 02:39:58 838.2

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 928.2 980.4 898.2 2807
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 822.3 954.9 981.9 2759
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 806.6 941.6 991.2 2739
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 815.0 945.7 973.1 2734
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 779.4 991.7 900.3 2671
6 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 650.1 961.5 963.5 2575
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 655.4 865.4 920.9 2442
8 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 754.7 832.7 834.4 2422
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 634.3 580.8 958.0 2173
10 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 787.1 503.1 804.5 2095

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 828.3 954.8 504.2 2287
2 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 624.4 598.6 986.6 2210
3 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 328.3 581.1 772.6 1682
4 Ric Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 137.6 989.3 475.5 1602
5 Abishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 145 563.4 547.4 462.5 1573
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 624.4 533.6 411.9 1570
7 Attila Plasch WillsWing U2 285.5 479.2 704.7 1469
8 Soham Mehta Wills Wing U2 145 327.7 581.6 524.1 1433
9 Richard Sibley WW T2 144 450.6 361.3 350.6 1163
10 David Hayner Wills Wing Sport 3 155 247.0 438.6 475.1 1161

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 3 »

April 13, 2021, 10:16:54 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 3

Task 2, in the blue

competition|Filippo Oppici|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Live and Replay Open task: https://airtribune.com/play/5004/2d

Results for Open and Sport classes:

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

Task 2 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5004/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Distance (km) Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:55:37 90.70 991.7
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:25 90.70 980.4
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 02:56:36 90.70 961.5
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:48 90.70 954.9
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:55 90.70 945.7
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:56:58 90.70 941.6
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 03:15:26 90.70 865.4
8 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 03:22:46 90.70 832.7
9 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T3 144 85.53 591.0
10 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 82.16 586.8

A blue day with a north wind and a mixed forecast that made us unsure if we would have a lot of lift or just a little. Later the day turned out very well with climbs to 6,000' and sustained 500 fpm.

The Sky Wants Us to Return

Mon, Apr 12 2021, 11:10:54 pm EDT

The forecast was an utter failure

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

We were confronted with a forecast that said we were going to get to only 3,000' and have really light lift. None of that was true but it made life difficult for the task committee. None the less with Larry Bunner's guidance we called a great task that took advantage of the superb conditions and got most of us back to Wilotree Park.

Now we have to be concerned about why the forecast was so wrong and how to deal with the fact that the forecast for Tuesday is similar. Likely we'll just grab another forecast from our set of models and also go with whatever Skew-T brews up for us.

Given our great uncertainty about the forecast we called for an elapsed task with no leading or arrival points. We were concerned that it would be difficult for pilots to hang around for an hour in poor conditions. As it turned out there was no reason for that.

I was about the third pilot to get hauled up as a few pilots in front of me backed out and went to the end. Phill Bloom was first off and I was hauled up right under him. We climbed right to cloud base at 4,100' and then sampled nearby clouds wondering who would go first. Raul left early.

Larry and I left a gaggle of about half a dozen of the top pilots to go to the next cloud just outside the start cylinder and got up back to cloud base. When they came to join us in the lift we headed back and got a later start time by about three minutes. We then caught back up with them.

The task was a bit complex:

There were cu's around and we just hopped from cu to cu, which is why we didn't follow straight along the course lines:

There was plenty of lift under most of the cu's and at one point it averaged 500 fpm for 3,500'.

The results can be found here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5003/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 01:46:52 981.2
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:04:54 804.8
3 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 02:05:27 800.3
4 Pedro L. garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:06:40 790.5
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:06:47 789.6
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:06:48 789.4
7 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T3 154 02:08:55 772.6
8 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 02:11:43 750.8
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:13:13 739.2
10 Kevin Carter Tbd 02:15:57 718.5

Sport Class results here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5002/day/sport-class

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.4.2021/17:08

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

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2761334

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2021/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20210405&gliderclass=hg1

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1 »

April 11, 2021, 12:17:08 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1

We have crushed the drought

Belinda Boulter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|video

It's hard to believe that it will only be from one to two inches of rain today (Sunday).

We have not had anything like this in the five months that Belinda and I have been here:

Those folks staying in tents will be most unhappy. Looks like a warm day tomorrow, sunny, with a north wind.

The Sandhill Cranes can eat and drink at the same time:

https://vimeo.com/535653182 by Randee Azzar.

Discuss "2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th

March 7, 2021, 8:08:17 EST

Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th

$100 per competition

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

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

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

Discuss "Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th" at the Oz Report forum   link»

A Near Cyber Death Experience

Wed, Mar 3 2021, 8:23:21 am EST

We almost lost it

COVID|Facebook|Oz Report|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Wilotree Park|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

You might have noticed that it's been a tough year for most of us. Hang gliding continued without many competitions which would have lead to gatherings which were either frowned upon or completely forbidden by the authorities. Here in Florida we continued life outside where it is is 19 times safer (https://bestlifeonline.com/coronavirus-indoors/). Due to travel restrictions we canceled the Sport Class, Rigid Wing and Women's Worlds as well as all the Nationals competitions. Same for Big Spring.

Now a year later we are planning for the 2021 Paradise Airsports and Wilotree Park Nationals in April to be run under COVID protocols with continued international travel restrictions: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info and https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info.

During the year of crises mode we also decided to move to a new web server to reduce our costs. This transition has not been without numerous glitches as the Oz Report is a complex web site. For example, yesterday the host automatically updated PHP which caused all sorts of problems for Scare. Hopefully over time the situation will stabilize.

At one point we considered just going strictly on Facebook which would relieve us of all the web hosting issues (the high cost being the primary concern). We also were getting most of our content via Facebook posts, so it made sense to go to our Facebook version of the Oz Report.

This would mean that we would drop our email push of Oz Report issues. Also, those who find Facebook objectionable would no longer get to see our content. After a few disappointing experiments we decided to leave well enough alone. There is a Facebook version of the Oz Report and a stand-alone version. Sometimes content from the Facebook version comes over to the stand-alone version.

You can just go to the Oz Report on Facebook and ignore your news feed: https://www.facebook.com/ozreport

We don't know where things stand with our readers. We've decided not to publish every weekday unless there is news every weekday. Before it was publish or perish five days a week for 24 years. Now we are taking a bit more relaxed attitude and publishing when something interesting is happening, and hopefully with a new year and good changes to our pandemic situation coming, there will be more interesting things happening.

Thanks to all the Oz Report readers for their support over the years.

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The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions

January 19, 2021, 9:09:03 pm EST

The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions

They are happening

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

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

April 10th through the 17th.

Competition flying 11th through the 17th.

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

April 18th through the 25th.

Competition flying April 19th through the 25th.

There will be plenty of social distancing and everything will take place outside.

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The Florida Competitions in 2021

November 27, 2020, 10:35:06 EST

The Florida Competitions in 2021

The new meet organizer

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

Stephan Mentler <team> writes:

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

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

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

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

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

The comp organization email address is <team>.

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Electric Power for your Hang Glider

Tue, May 19 2020, 7:42:45 am MDT

RC motors

Charles Allen|COVID|Kevin Carter|video

https://youtu.be/OeCpKL9-WDM

Charles Allen and his electric propulsion system. Charlie writes:

Most the parts I designed in CAD and made in my work shop (https://youtu.be/71oNQoVPJh4). All plastic parts are 3D printed, all carbon fiber plates are cut on a CNC router, and the prop holders are 7075 AU and cut on a CNC Mill.

The remote and power unit each have Arduinos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arduino) which I did all the programming on.

I’ve been working on it for about 5 years and Kevin Carter flew with an earlier prototype last year which was much less advanced and only put out 8.6kg of thrust, this one puts out 20kg of thrust. Kevin’s feedback from his flight was that it turned a dud thermal into just under zero. I haven’t flown with it yet.

My plan was to have it ready for Florida but due to COVID that was a wash. I plan to fly it next time the weather works, just waiting for a 15mph N-NW day don’t want to fire up the motors till I’m at altitude. I think the biggest issue will be getting the thrust line right which is ground adjustable so there will be some trial and error.

With respect to parts the following are the off the shelf RC parts.

2 x drone motors
2 x ESC
Arduinos
Lipo Batteries

Most raw materials are from RC Stores as well such as:

Carbon fiber plates and tubes
Wood props – (I had to CNC cut them to fit in the folding mounts)
Plugs / wires etc.
Random other stuff

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Do not land here

March 24, 2020, 8:53:29 pm EDT

Do not land here

Knowing where you are unwelcome

Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter|Naviter Blade

Kevin Carter <<xckevinc>> writes:

Making the most of my time on lockdown I came up with something cool I thought was worth sharing.

Years ago an ace PG pilot Mike Jobin put together a KML file with a long list of possible LZ's, and most importantly, do not land areas up and down the Colorado Front Range.  I made a quick converter to generate an Open Air Airspace file from that data so I could load it on my Naviter Blade.  Now I can see and avoid the DNLs (do not lands) while exploring some of these routes for the first time.

Just in case my head is really far up my a-- anytime I'm in the air, I also set Airspace altitudes so the warning alarms would alert only when appropriate. Airspace floors were all set to SFC (surface). All the ceilings were set proportional to the airspace size.  I set the ceilings to SFC + width divided by 10 for a conservative 10 to 1 glide ratio.  So if the alarm goes off for a big DNL area like our local state park, turn around because you won't be able to glide to a good field out the other side!  That is important here because in most cases there isn't a clear visual indicator for those boundaries. Everything is brown and looks landable.  On the flip side, with altitudes set this way, you don't hear a peep from airspace alarms when thermaling or gliding high over DNLs that aren't a factor.

I included a screenshot of what it looks like on my map page. DNL's are defined as type R in the Airspace file and I left that colored blue on my Blade. Landable fields are defined as W which stands for wave window so I set my color to green for those. Lastly, emergency PG only LZs are type Q and colored yellow.

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2020 US Nationals Beginning to Fill Up

December 16, 2019, 7:53:24 EST

2020 US Nationals Beginning to Fill Up

Paradise Airports and Wilotree Nationals

US Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2020|Wilotree Park

We've already had 69 pilots sign up for the 2020 World Championships being held in April and that means it's going to be a successful competition with this number of pilots. We say the maximum that we can handle is 125, but we've never expected that many to show up. Pilots need to sign up by January 19th (you don't have to be on a National team to be in the Worlds) so the window is closing quickly on who are going to be coming to the Worlds.

https://airtribune.com/2020-world-championships/info/details__info

We're also putting on two Class 1 Open competitions in April at Wilotree Parks, one the week before the Worlds and one during it. (The Worlds are the combined Women's Worlds, Sport Class, Class 2 and Class 5 Worlds).

Once again last year these Spring open class competitions at Wilotree Park were very popular. Pilots love coming to fly in Florida in April enjoying the marvelous lifting thermals in pleasant air with mild temperatures, puffy little clouds, light winds and open fields. Pilots are signing up now for these competitions, despite the fact that they are not under the same tight time constraints that pilots who are signing up for the Worlds.

We are always under resource constraints (mainly the number of tugs that we can round up to get every one in the air), so it is always a good idea to register as early as possible and become confirmed as early as possible so that you can be assured that you are in the competition. There will be additional resource constraints during the Worlds for the Wilotree Nationals dictated by the fact they the Worlds ahs first claim on the resources and we can fit in open class pilots only after their needs are taken into account. The World's pilots launch first, for example.

At the moment, we can handle all six competitions and we'll see what the future holds. We hope to be able to accommodate open class pilots in both the Paradise Airsports Nationals and the Wilotree Nationals. For sure there is no issue with the Paradise Airsports. It is a bit iffier for the Wilotree Nationals, so you might want to sign up early to reserve your spot (need to be confirmed). We'll keep you informed.

https://airtribune.com/2020-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

https://airtribune.com/2020-wilotree-nationals/info/details__info

2019 XC Contest - USA »

November 25, 2019, 9:04:28 PST

2019 XC Contest - USA

A repeat winner

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|XC Contest 2019

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|XC Contest 2019

Davis Straub|Kevin Carter|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|XC Contest 2019

https://www.xcontest.org/2019/usa/ranking-hg-open/

Davis Straub 1153.11
Kevin Carter 1108.96
Tyson Taylor 769.40
Cory Barnwell 753.79
Mike Bomstad 381.37
Erik Grabowski 306.32
Jon Irlbeck 242.16
Tavo Gutierrez 234.99
Nathan Wreyford 207.35
Sara Weaver 193.14
Leo Siqueira 87.58
Ric Caylor 70.60

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2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2019, 6:21:32 MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A win by one point

Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Facebook|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|photo|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

Tyler Borradaile wins the 2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Fourth task:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:45 74.63 925
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:46 74.63 912
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:56:00 74.63 896
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 01:56:49 74.63 876
5 Bill Soderquist ? ? 02:08:42 74.63 861
6 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T3 144 01:57:23 74.63 860
7 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:46 74.63 822
8 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:02:49 74.63 794
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:18:45 74.63 733
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:19:07 74.63 708
11 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 72.35 502
12 Greg Kendall Moyes RX 3.5 67.07 489
13 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 69.56 488
14 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 66.48 445
15 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 71.81 441

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3364
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3363
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3337
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3268
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3146
6 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 2992
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2904
8 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2526
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2476
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 2373

Sport Class:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:14:07 45.19 1000
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 01:15:01 45.19 977
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 01:56:46 45.19 703
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 43.56 589
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 35.98 518

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 3187
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 2447
3 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 2142
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 2027
5 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 1962

Swift Class:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 01:51:21 1000
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 02:07:01 778
3 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 02:13:27 726

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 3070
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 3047
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 2858
4 Stephen Morris Bright Star Millennium 1316
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 1131

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2019, 6:50:03 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A too short task - the results

Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Greg Chastain|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 00:59:06 864
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 00:59:57 835
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 01:08:21 721
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:09:21 704
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:13:57 657
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 01:16:04 632
7 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 01:17:48 622
8 Greg Kendall Moyes RX 3.5 01:18:33 599
9 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T3 144 01:21:51 577
10 Willy Dydo Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:19:17 570

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 2547
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2487
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2452
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2441
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2352
6 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2343
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2171
8 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 2167
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2035
10 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1704

Sport Class:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Rick Warner Wills Wing Sport 2 155 00:30:35 729
2 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 00:33:29 657
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 00:41:03 560
4 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 00:44:33 525
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 00:49:01 483

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2187
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1624
3 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 1479
4 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 1401
5 Rick Warner Wills Wing Sport 2 155 1314

Swifts:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 01:55:19 998
2 greg chastain Swift 01:55:17 993
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 01:55:48 974

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 greg chastain Swift 2344
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 2269
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 1858
4 Stephen Morris Swift 1015
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 903

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2019, 8:59:49 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Task Two Results

Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Greg Chastain|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 01:47:15 67.83 1000
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 01:52:59 67.83 862
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:55:37 67.83 828
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:58:21 67.83 797
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:10:28 67.83 762
6 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:05:02 67.83 755
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:07:21 67.83 734
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:31:54 67.83 629
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   66.16 497
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5   57.06 445

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 1826
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1785
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1737
4 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1695
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 1665
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1652
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 1613
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1588
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1403
10 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 1116

Sport Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 653 877 1530
2 Hugh Glenn Moyes Gecko 170 356 872 1228
3 Ken Millard Wills Wing Sport 3 155 328 815 1143
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 141 1000 1141
5 Bill Snyder Wills Wing U2 145 209 525 734

Swifts:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 greg chastain Moyes or Brightstar Litespeed 5 or Swift 1000 351 1351
2 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 464 807 1271
3 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 716 168 884
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeriane Swift 415 347 762
5 Stephen Morris Bright Star Millennium 361 275 636

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2019, 8:58:19 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Task two

Kevin Carter|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Kevin Carter|Oleg Bondarchuk|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Kevin Carter|Oleg Bondarchuk|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Flytec 6030|Kevin Carter|Oleg Bondarchuk|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019

Flytec 6030|Kevin Carter|Oleg Bondarchuk|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Volirium P1

It was another exciting day in Arizona. The task was set to the northeast:

The larger circles around the turnpoints are there to keep us away from Class B airspace around Phoenix.

Our goal is a dirt air strip with little to recommend it.

As usual the lift was light under 200 fpm at first after our launches at 1 PM. A few pilots got high. I stair stepped up to 3,400', then 4,000', then 4,900' before heading over to the northeast corner of the 5 km start cylinder. I was too low to make the 1:45 PM start but fortunately there was a 300 fpm thermal right at the edge of the start cylinder so I climbed to 6,700' in time for the second start with all but seven pilots.

I headed out with Zac and shaded to his left to find lift that he came back for just south of the Casa Grande airport. That was half way to the first turnpoint, a 4 km cylinder around Signal Peak. That 300 fpm thermal just before the edge of the cylinder got us up to 5,800'.

As I took off following Zac my GPS in my Flytec 6030 quit. That was quite confusing as I was checking my 6030 to see if I had made the turnpoint. Fortunately my Volirium P1 said I had. In the confusion and with turning off the 6030 and waiting for the GPS to start working again I had shot off on my own losing track of the six or seven other pilots.

That turned out to be a good thing. I got down to 3,200' and had to search around for lift but after circling in 250 fpm I found 340 fpm to 6,300'. That allowed me to glide for 14 kilometers getting the second turnpoint at Eleven and heading back north. Right after I made the turnpoint I spotted Zac just above me and Olav and maybe Kraig nearby. They didn't see me at first.

I shaded to the north northwest even though the course line was to the north northeast. I saw small cu's forming in that direction and was heading for them. Zac, Oleg and maybe Kraig headed down the course line.

I found 250 fpm and thermaled up to 4,900'. Those three pilots finally spotted me as they were getting much worse lift and came in under me much lower, just off the deck.

Soon it was my turn to deal with weak lift over Coolidge. I had to take five different thermals a few less than 100 fpm to finally get to 4,900' northeast of town. I had to back up a couple of times to find better lift.

I headed north northwest to get on the sunny side and windward side of some small hills. The spot was perfect as a thermal gathering spot. I climbed at 230 fpm to 4,800'. Kevin Carter joined me early on and made the smart move of going back upwind when the thermal petered out. He got much higher. I missed that opportunity.

I made the turnpoint and the altitude above goal numbers were positive. As I headed south toward goal I was not sure that the positive numbers were correct. I found 180 fpm 8 km out and took it to 3,900'. That gave me 2,500' above goal 8 km from goal. About 11:1.

At 3.5 km from goal and at 2,100' (700 AGL) I thermaled up once more to 2,700'drifting to the east northeast. I was 1 km out from the 1 km goal cylinder but down to 300' AGL and faced with an unlandable field between the edge of the goal cylinder and me. I was over a plowed field and decided that I wanted to fly the next day.

-

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2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 15, 2019, 10:07:09 pm MST

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Results from the first day

Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 02:11:32 963
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes Rx Pro 3.5 02:11:25 959
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes RX3.5 Pro 02:11:15 958
4 Olav Opsanger Moyes LSRX3.5 PRO 02:11:39 938
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 02:11:43 931
6 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:11:45 929
7 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:13:10 914
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:12:48 904
9 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 02:13:21 881
10 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:17:31 859
11 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 02:29:10 767
12 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:52:44 660
13 Cory Barnwell ? ? 02:55:11 599

WPRS Ranking US pilots

September 2, 2019, 9:44:08 MDT

WPRS Ranking US pilots

As of September 1st

Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Davis Straub|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Willy Dydo|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

Rank Name Points
1 Pedro L. Garcia 253.5
2 Zac Majors 215.6
3 Davis Straub 168.1
4 John Simon 163.3
5 Bruce Barmakian 162.7
6 Kevin Dutt 155.5
7 Kevin Carter 144.9
8 Phill Bloom 142
9 Larry Bunner 135.4
10 Patrick Pannese 104.6
11 Glen Volk 101.2
12 Robin Hamilton 97.7
13 JD Guillemette 75.8
14 Kip Stone 65.2
15 Gary Anderson 59.1
16 Willy Dydo 58.3
17 Jeff Chipman 57.3
18 mick howard 53.5
19 Patrick Kruse 51.1
20 Derreck Turner 49.3

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2019 Big Spring Nationals

Tue, Aug 20 2019, 6:16:31 am MDT

Personal bests

cart|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|US Nationals 2019

"Eduardo Fonseca" «fonseca414» writes:

Here is a quick summary of the comp after my last goal on task 3:

Task 4: Did not fly, too gusty for my comfort level
Task 5: Good tow, but didn’t get to leave the start cylinder
Task 6: Could have been a better tow, got just outside the start cylinder
Task 7: Great tow, great climbs, made goal.

Now, here are the details:

Task 4:
It was gusty, beyond my comfort level. I decided not to fly that day. Perhaps a good decision given that the treachery of the wind that day cause pilots to have two broken downtubes and a carbon speedbar. Most people didn’t make goal, and I feel I made the right decision.

Task 5:
Had the best tow to date. After so much mentoring and feedback I wanted to stick in the cart longer. As Mitch Shipley had mentioned, during Big Spring air pilots need to stick to the cart longer. There is the tendency to leave the cart once we are “lifted” by the prop wash, but there is not enough airspeed at that time to properly maneuver the glider. Thus, pilots need to ride out the prop wash, and then hold on to the hoses to the point that the keel of the glider lifts off the cart. So I did, and the takeoff was so much better. Mick had also given recommendation on how to move the body, relax the knees, and control the glider. This tow was so great thanks to being able to apply all the teachings we had received during the comp. During flight it was not easy to find lift and ended short of leaving the start cylinder. Great approach and landing, which seem to come more naturally now. However, I cannot let my guard down (stay tuned for task 7).

Task 6:
It is important to be consistent, which I did not fully apply on takeoff. After the prop wash I left too early, with just enough airspeed to leave the cart. However, I felt the harness graze the cart. Thus, not the best takeoff and need to stay in the cart even longer. The task was a 110 km flight, but just like the prior day, could not find good lift. This flight taught me the importance of always looking for a landing field, and how easy one can end up getting in trouble. Trying to find lift kept me moving towards a not-so-easy-to-land area and going to an open field was out of the question due to distance. There were two options, freak out or stay calm and deal with the situation. Thankfully, I have experience dealing with stressful and difficult situations that require quick action, so the same methodology from work was applied to the landing strategy. Given the wind direction and landing limitations, I was able to land the glider on a pipeline path that was in very similar direction as the wind. Good landing and not very difficult drive for the retrieval team.

Task 7:
Last day of the competition. 38 km NE downwind. I kept telling myself that just being able to fly is great. But how great it would be to make goal once again. We just have to wait and feel the air.

Another great tow, this time staying as long as I could on the cart. Plenty of speed for control and contingencies. Being towed by Mick, I just felt so confident staying in line and dealing with the bumpy air. Just a great tow.

Waved off in nice smooth lift. I was not sure if it just was weak lift or I lacked thermaling skills, but I could see Mynor from Guatemala just a few miles upwind going up like a rocket. I could try to fly that direction, or stay where I was. I decided to stay with my current little climb (at least I was going up). The only way I could even possibly make goal in my opinion was to capitalize on any lift I could find. Thus, I kept working the lift. I took the time to refine my thermaling skills. As I circled, I thought of the direction of the wind, the path of the glider, and how to adjust the turning radius upwind and downwind to make the climb as efficient as possible.

After 6500 ft MSL I did not look at the vario at all, I just managed the turns and listened to the beeps. After a while, I looked again and for the first time in my life I was above 10,000 ft. It didn’t really feel like it, but there I was. “I might have a chance,” I thought. I did not care if I arrived last, I just wanted to get there.

I got as high as 10,900 ft, and when I could not climb anymore, I set the VG full and went on course. Getting lower again at 6000 ft, I reduced speed and little VG in case another thermal showed up. And there it was.

Climbing once again, I prepared myself for the final stretch, taking note of distance to goal, required glide ratio (compared with current glide ratio), as well as time left on the task. It was 5:15 pm and the task would be stopped at 6:00 pm. Thus, it was time to leave the climb, set full VG, stretch my body and tuck my arms in to minimize pressure drag, and stuff the bar in.

After a couple of minutes, I was at goal. I got to goal at around 6000 ft. So happy to make goal once again.

I felt I could have gone for another 60 km, but the day had to end early due to clos9ng ceremonies. So it was time to land. Thankfully at 6000 ft there are so many options, and I picked a field in which two other pilots had landed (Pete and Max).

What’s funny about this moment for me is that as I tried to go down, lift was happening… where have you been all my life. So I stuffed the bar in, and eventually got low enough to make the final approach. Max and Pete gave me the wind direction. As I went down, I could see Max gesturing to add speed, and I was trying (he would later tell me to just keep a hand of the upright and another on the speedbar). Essentially, need to increase my airspeed, period.

Ground effect coming in, and then time to flare. There was more wind than what I had experienced the other days of the comp, so when time to flare came, up the glider went. Not so much, but it is one of those moments in which some people might think of pulling in, but instead I stretched my arms even more and waited for physics to happen. Landed on my feet, safe on the ground and with a great smile.

This was a great way to end an amazing week of hang gliding. I had dreamed of flying in Big Spring since the the Oz Report started talking about it back in 2002. Now, I have become a part of it.

As Mick has mentioned in prior occasions, the experience gained in competition flying substantially surpasses recreational flying. Not for the competitiveness, but for the learning potential. Here are some of my statistics to show you how valuable competitions can be for pilot development:

- Number of flights: 7
- Max altitude: 10,900 ft
- Max thermal climb: 5055 ft
- Number of tasks flown: 6 out of 7
- Number of tasks completed (reached goal): 2 out of 6
- Total flight time: 7 hours 14 minutes
- Longest flight: 2 hours 18 minutes
- Total distance: 131.6 km
- Max distance in a single flight: 41.8 km

Being in Big Spring has been a tremendous learning experience that far exceeded my expectations and made me a better pilot. Of course there is room for improvement, and I hope that the 2020 Big Spring comp is just as exciting and educational.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 19, 2019, 7:04:44 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The podiums

competition|Facebook|photo|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Open Class:

Sport Class:

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 18, 2019, 6:39:56 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Seven days, seven tasks

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Facebook|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mike Degtoff|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

The pilots made it clear that they wanted the awards ceremony and meal on Saturday night, the last day of the competition and not on Sunday morning at brunch. That meant we had to have a shorter task or a task that brought us back to Big Spring on Saturday. With a 12 mph forecasted southwest wind, that meant a small triangle for the open class and a short downwind task for the sport class.

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 7:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 01:58:23 764
2 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:25:16 724
3 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:10:32 666
4 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:13:51 663
5 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:18:10 649
6 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 02:29:35 58

Final Results:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 5301
2 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 5200
3 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 4690
4 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 4258
5 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 4068
6 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 3919
7 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 3889
8 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3705
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2510
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2409

Sport Class:

Erick R. Lopez won the last task with Ric Caylor second and Anibal Lemus third. Eight pilots made goal with the winner there in 33 minutes (it was a short task).

Jose Sandoval only went eight kilometers, but that didn't stop him from winning overall. Four Guatemalans in the top five.

Swift Class:

Chris won the task again by three minutes and won the meet overall.

The sky was still blue at 1 PM. The temperatures here were about 10 degrees warmer than what we have experienced in the past (104 Vs. 95). The sky has been blue instead of full of cu's reliably appearing at 1 PM. We've also not had good lift conditions until around 2 PM. There has been at least a slight inversion at 1 PM this year.

Three pilots launched at about 1:15 PM and two stayed up but didn't get high. I launched right after we saw them thermaling, and climbed to 5,200' but no higher and then lost the thermal and landed as did Willie Dydo, one of the three The wind was seventeen mph out of the south.

After a new bottle of water I went again at about 2:20 PM and now the lift was there and sustained. I went right up after the Swifts and circled with them over the airport. I circled up to about 8,000' drifting just outside the start cylinder and then went back and tagged it for the fourth start time at 2:45 PM. I was averaging a little over 200 fpm.

I almost took the 2:30 PM clock but decided to stay near or inside the start cylinder by heading back upwind against the seventeen mph wind, to just get the fourth start clock. The Swifts went with me. About six minutes later Erick and Bruce left the start cylinder late, but I was basically on my own. Rudy would take the 3 PM clock.

Five kilometers out I found almost 500 fpm to 8,300' which told me that the day was truly on. There were no cu's in the vicinity though. This can also be a sign that you'd better be careful if you think that all the lift is going to be this good.

That thermal got me to the turnpoint at a little over 7,000' Turning to the southwest, my tail wind turned into a cross head wind of ten mph. I flew almost six kilometers before I found lift down at 4,200'.

I was low and the lift was weak at 220 fpm and I could only climb to 5,800' losing distance all along drifting to the north. I pushed to the south directly into the wind getting south of the course line before once again starting from 4,200' I climbed at 300 fpm to 7,900' but north and east (downwind of the course line and back up the course line) so I had to cover the same ground again.

Heading southwest then south passing under the first cu's, which when they did not have any lift that, I continued to another cu to the south where I found 150 fpm and was heading backwards once again. I moved east a kilometer from 5,400' and worked slightly better lift until I was seeing 1000 fpm on the twenty second averager. I climbed at 400 fpm on average to 9,700'.

There was a large area of uncultivated flat lands to my southwest and toward the second turnpoint. The wind was between eleven and eighteen mph out of the south. A cu formed over me as I climbed and there were now scattered cu's out in front. I was high enough to get over the less friendly area and flew thirteen kilometers to get to the next lift three kilometers from the turnpoint. As I flew toward the turnpoint, I kept seeing wisps of cu's forming to my southwest but they disappeared before I could get to them.

When I found that thermal it took me to 8,000' at over 400 fpm. It was easy to get the turnpoint despite the 13 mph south wind.

Turning east south east twenty two kilometers from goal it looked like there were cu's ahead. Then I spotted Eric and Rudy turning and flew the four kilometers past the turnpoint to them getting down to 4,500'.

The lift was very strong, sometimes at 700 fpm and averaged 540 fpm. Though Erick and Rudy started out about 3,000' over my head I quickly gain most of that altitude up to them flying in the same thermal which was much stronger down below them. I climbed to 9,500' which gave me a 10:1 glide ratio to goal. Rudy and Erick took off about 500' above me and I went with them.

There was a ten mph cross wind going to goal. At first I was all going well and I wasn't losing much altitude, then things changed and I was losing consistently 800 fpm. My required glide was down to 7.5:1 but I was getting 6.5:1. I stopped for a dust devil and a cu above it at seven kilometers out to be sure that I had enough altitude to make it. I came in five minutes behind Rudy and Erick.

It was an incredible competition with great conditions, just what we expect from Big Spring. We held it a week later than normal, and they had rain after four months of no rain. Next year we go back to the first week of August. The only reason we held it when we did was because we wanted to have two weeks between the Worlds and our meet. That was a useless gesture which we won't ever repeat.

The task and safety committees performed brilliantly and made the competitions with their great calls. Mitch was the best CIVL meet steward we have ever experienced, by far. Belinda was a fantastic meet director and very much in charge and worked well with Mitch. Kate Griffin was a fantastic scorekeeper and tracker wrangler. She is very experienced now (Brett Janaway keeps updating the procedures so it is a task just to know what is going on.) Thor was a very calming presence as the launch director and Mike Degtoff was a great second in command at the launch. The tug pilots, Mick, Bobby, and Jim were spot on and their little cooperative of tug pilots is working great.

Thanks so much for all the help from the Big Spring Community. We could not pull this off without their tremendous support - water and free ice cream included. Thanks to all the sponsors for their prizes.

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 16, 2019, 10:58:53 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Another incredible call from the Safety Committee

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Big Spring to Lamesa to Town, 145 kilometers.

Task 6:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:31:00 776
2 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 02:25:57 765
3 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 02:33:31 684
4 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:34:23 671
5 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 02:38:30 642
6 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:39:37 625

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 4537
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 4537
3 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 4103
4 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 3609
5 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 144 3542
6 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 3534
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 3419
8 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3039
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2225
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2191

Open class:

The open class task was stopped at 5:46 PM and scored stopped at 5:31 PM. Seven pilots had already made goal. (Tom McGowan also made goal right after me but was scored incorrectly.)

Sport class:

Stopped at 5:40 PM and scored at 5:25 PM, Jose Sandoval was in the lead when the task was stopped. No one made goal. There was over-development to the west which got close to or came over the course line.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman won the day.

With a forecast for strong lift, cu's, cloud base at 13,500' and 10-13 mph southwest winds we called cross wind tasks to the north. But when we launched at 1 PM it was not happening at all and almost everyone landed and went for a reflight.

When I relaunched at about 2 PM things were much different and I climbed up to 8,500'. I've been adding more layers each day after only two layers on Wednesday (which was very comfortable) with four moderate layers today with the forecast for 37 degrees at 13,500' cloud base later in the day. I don't recall us ever getting that high here before.

There were plenty of cu's after 2 PM as there had been none at 1 PM. I took the last start clock at 2:30 PM, which was the popular start time as almost everyone had to launch late for the second time.

I headed for a fat cu to the north northwest fourteen kilometers and found little lift there. It was all blue ahead so I wanted to get up from 2,200' AGL and I left 160 fpm at 6,000' heading into the blue after a disappointing climb.

Of course, there was good lift right out in the blue and I found 300 fpm to 7,900' and then 400 fpm to 8,900'. It wasn't 13,500' but it was getting up there. The wind had started out at 10 mph out of the south southeast and was now 10 mph out of the south.

I had enough altitude to find the next bit of reasonable lift at twenty two kilometers to the north northwest. I was heading for the ten kilometer cylinder around Lamesa. I headed for an isolated small cu over the canyon area that looked like it was feeding off the gullies. The sink increased dramatically as I approached the spot that I thought looked like the origin of the thermal, and that assured me that there was a good thermal there. I took 250 fpm to 7,200' from 4,500'.

With more cu's ahead I was able to climb to 8,200' at 430 fpm just before the turnpoint cylinder edge. I pushed to the west to get the cylinder and get myself lined up for a cloud street to the north. The wind was averaging thirteen mph out of the south southeast.

The cloud street was working and I was able to climb at 300 fpm and then 330 fpm and then flying straight and climbing to 9,200'. I still had not climbed high and felt the icy cold winds. Speaking of winds, the winds were now eighteen mph out of the south southwest.

For the first time I noticed the over-development and shading from the west. There was rain about fifteen miles away. I wanted to go fast to get north of the rain if possible.

Twenty seven kilometers north of the turnpoint at Lamesa I found a strong thermal at 7,600' It averaged over 500 fpm and I took it to 12,400'. It was cool up there. I was forty three kilometers from goal and had goal at 14:1 with a seventeen mph tail wind. I went on final glide.

During the final glide it showed I had about 2,300' above best glide. That value changed very little no matter how fast I flew nor how much sink or lift I encountered. I was racing the storm to the west which was producing more rain but wasn't effecting goal as yet. Mitch Shipley was at goal and he was saying it was level 1. Tom McGowan and I on the Safety Committee were flying near each other and agreed.

As I got within five kilometers of goal I no longer was losing any altitude even with the bar stuffed.

When I go to goal it was shaded as was the last five kilometers and I found nothing but lift. I had to fly to the east five kilometers to finally find some sink and get down. I assume that it was being affected by the over-development to the west.

The over-development affected the Sport Class goal much more strongly as it built to the south of our goal. Their task was stopped a few minutes earlier than ours was.

The task committee had originally set a task to Levelland to the west of the Town goal. That would have put us right through the over-development. The safety committee moved the task based on the forecast.

So far three days in a row affected by thunderstorms. The task and safety committees have been brilliant in task calling, keeping us safe but with fun tasks. The conditions here have been excellent as well as exciting. All the pilots are enjoying themselves immensely. It was great getting so high today. It was great flying the last forty three kilometers in less than half an hour.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 15, 2019, 7:46:27 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Setting the best task that the weather forecast allows

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Flytec 6030|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 01:55:47 960
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 01:55:57 882
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:13:02 841
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:22 821
5 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 02:08:10 746
6 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 02:24:56 667
7 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T2C 144 02:47:42 589
8 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:34:51 559
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:37:59 544
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 02:44:33 533

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3904
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 3772
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 3761
4 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2967
5 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2909
6 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2858
7 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2748
8 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 2617
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 2041
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1882

Sport Class:

Five pilots made it back to Big Spring with Peter Wall winning the day. Jose Sandoval is in the lead over all.

Swift Class:

They made a task to the south. Chris Zimmerman won the day and leads overall.

The weather forecast was for over development in all directions after 4 PM. So we decided on short tasks with early starts.

There were cu's to the west and east of the airport very early and there were too many cu's to the north with cu-nimbs to the west and north at Lamesa which almost stopped the task at 12:30PM (we launched at 12:15). Mitch was on the radio to the safety committee and we said level 2 and 2.5. We were south of the airfield and in good conditions climbing to 7,400', so we said it was level 1 where we were. We were just concerned about the conditions to the north.

As we were six or seven kilometers from the top of the five kilometer start cylinder I flew up to the north at four minutes before the first start time but found weak lift down to 4,500'. I hung in it with a couple of other pilots trying just to stay up.

We stayed in the poor lift for almost half an hour until, just before the last (third) start time, the lift we were in finally turned on and we were able to climb up to 6,000' before going on glide and finding a good thermal to 7.400', nine kilometers to the north. There were no cu's near us.

The winds were light which is why we called a triangle task for the open class and an out and return task for the sport class. The towering cu's to the north dissipated and there was plenty of sun shine on the ground. It no longer was a level 2.

I was leading out in front of the other two pilots which seemed easy to do. We found 200 - 300 fpm average climbs and hooked up with Rudy for a few climbs south the the first turnpoint. The lift was improving as the day went on. We had taken the last clock at 1:45 PM.

I found a nice dust devil just before the first turnpoint where I had seen Rudy turning a bit earlier under a cu and I climbed to 7,700'. There was a much bigger dusty to the east by the second turnpoint which Rudy got into. Before I got to that dust devil I found a thermal under a small cu that averaged 425 fpm so I took it to almost 9,000'.

As I headed south on my own I could see the over development further to the west. The rest of the sky was inviting. I found a forming cu out in the blue and climbed at 380 fpm average to 9,300'. The 6030 said I had goal but it was 12:1 to get there from twenty five kilometers out so I didn't exactly believe that.

The outflow from the top of the over development was partially shading the ground between me and goal. I could see a nice little cu about half way to goal, but off the course line a couple of kilometers. I felt that there was a good chance of finding lift just going down the course line in spite of the partially shaded ground.

At thirteen kilometers from goal I found 440 fpm and took it to 7,500' with an 8:1 required glide.

I came into goal with 600' AGL and landed. The wind was light out of the west toward the over development.

The over development continued to grow and come toward us but all the pilots who made goal made it in with incident. It was just shaded and there were no thunderstorms near us.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 14, 2019, 9:21:51 pm MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

East northeast wind with low top of lift

competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:26:40 118.09 534
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:52:45 118.09 458
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 03:57:58 118.09 418
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   44.46 235
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3   29.02 188
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136   15.77 132

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 2860
2 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2844
3 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2816
4 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2421
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2297
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2153
7 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 1963
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1904
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 1749
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1362

Sport Class:

Jose Sandoval Sandoval was the only one to make goal at 48T. He continues to lead the sport class.

Swift Class:

Didn't fly.

The forecast was for an east northeast wind, lighter than the previous day. With a huge downpour and flash flooding around Big Spring on Tuesday night we figured the lift around the airport to be very poor. That proved to be the case.

The wind was sixteen mph northeast just south west of the airport so that made things even worse. Our task was to the west northwest given the forecast for lighter and east northeast winds.

I was circling with Bruce and Kevin as we climbed at 170 fpm. That thermal got us to the edge of the start cylinder just in time for the first clock at 3 PM. We joined up with Roger Irby and Rudy Gotes and climbed to 6,800' just outside the start cylinder.

After a short weak climb we headed north northwest to try to get on the upwind side of some shallow lakes. Roger Irby landed and Bruce and Kevin thermaled downwind of the lakes. I pushed further up wind and found better lift at 345 fpm and after a while they came and joined me. We lost track of Rudy.

We climbed back to 6,800' and headed again to the north northwest cross wind in order to go toward the turnpoint at 48T. We stayed above 5,600' climbing to almost 6,000' and hooked up with Rudy. I was able to find lift by pushing up wind to the northeast when after I felt any lift.

The lift gave out for a while and down to 800' I found lift near a very strong gas flare. Rudy came back to join me and Kevin landed. Bruce was behind us and climbing. We were only able to get to 5,600'.

There were now little cu's popping along our cross wind course line so we could fly to them. I found the next thermal and Rudy joined me but it was only 100 fpm. We had lost Bruce who was high and behind us. We only climbed to 5,700'.

Rudy stayed back as I raced to get under the next thin cu, but got low and had to work it back up to 5,300'. The lift was broken up near the top so I went for a cu just forming up wind of us. It didn't work and I soon landed.

Rudy and Bruce were able to make it around to goal with Erick coming later.

I should have been more conservative and not tried to chase cu's. The lift down low was broken and ratty.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 13, 2019, 11:54:10 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Dealing with the forecast for no lift later to the south

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

Today's forecast for lift at 5 PM:

The task committee set a task with a eighteen kilometer radius around the airfield at Rankin so that we didn't have to go over a territory full of pump jacks (oil wells) to get to the airfield. It also helped that it kept us away from the likely over development.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 01:41:50 874
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 02:05:34 777
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:05:22 776
4 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:07:18 742
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:03:44 631
6 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T2C 144 02:11:01 628
7 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:23:03 624
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:32:55 566
9 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 02:36:34 544
10 David Proctor Wills Wing T2C 154 02:40:47 481

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 2442
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2358
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2335
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2310
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2109
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2021
7 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 1877
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1669
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 1663
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1276

Sport Class:

Six pilots in goal with Jose Sandoval winning the day. Jose is now back in first place overall.

Swift Class:

Greg Chastain landed short and now Chris Zimmerman is in first place after making it back to the airport.

With an unusual north northeast wind at launch we launched from the south part of the taxi way. There were no cu's around at first at 1:30 PM. There was good lift just southwest of the airport and I was able to get to 7,400' with half a dozen other pilots. When that lift ran out twenty three minutes before the start window opened I headed back toward the airport and then north to a cu when I didn't see anyone climbing near the airport.

The cu quickly disappeared and I chased a remnant of a dust devil further west to hook up with what remained of it after it disappeared also. That set me up alone north of the course line at a little less than 7,000' for the 2:30 PM start.

To the south the area of forecasted zero lift was already filling up with cu's. There were a few wispies along our course line. The forecast said that we wouldn't get too high, maybe to 8,000'.

I found a couple of good climbs but twenty kilometers out from the edge of the twelve kilometer start cylinder I was down to about 1,000' AGL. I was able to work 250 fpm back to over 6,000'.

There had started to be a few scattered good looking cu's about so it was easier to find the lift. Lots of cu's starting and disappearing quickly.

I kept an eye on the vast area to the south where the thick cu's were forming. They were far enough away that I couldn't see their shadows. They did not look dangerous. There seemed to be a limit on how high they went.

I found a nice set of cu's and was able to climb to 9,200' under the dark bottoms. They were still pretty small. I continued to stay northwest of the course line.

The wind changed from lighter northeast to stronger east northeast. This pushed me further to the west of the course line. I also was following the cu's which were more to the west of the line.

There was a mix of possible landing areas and lots of areas with not such great landing opportunities below. I had already been low so I didn't want to do that again.

Twenty kilometers out from the goal cylinder I chased after some little forming cu's and when those didn't work I flew to the area where I had seen a dust devil when I was a few kilometers to the north. Down to 900' AGL I found that there was good lift under some forming cu's that got me back to 6,000' which was enough to get over a large patch of unlandable area and to goal over a super big cultivated field.

I landed with the areas in shade further to the south but plenty of sunshine where I was. It looks like the task committee called a good task given the conditions.

The thunderstorm did hit Big Spring around 8:30 PM with flash flooding.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 11:37:18 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Air sick

Bobby Bailey|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019

We take a bit later launch than originally planned as the pilot meeting drags on a bit so the launch is at 1:30 PM (half an hour before Sunday) and the start window at 2:30 PM. After all the relights on Sunday pilots are a bit reluctant to go right away, but we see the first few sticking so the open class pilots are all off in half an hour.

The cu's do start late with a few at 1:30 but more at 2 PM. Bobby Bailey tows me up and before we get to the end of the taxi way to the south he's bank up and I hang on as best I can. I  go around with him twice and then pin off at 1,700' AGL. I work that thermal with lots of pilots coming over to join me to over 10,000'.

It's still a few minutes before the start window so we mush around in light sink before heading out at 2:30 PM at about 9,400'. The wind is averaging 7 mph out of the south west. Our turnpoint is to the northeast. There is a big turnpoint radius around Fish at eighteen kilometers and then the course goes north to Jayton airfield.

About eight of us start off together high and head up the highway toward Snyder to the east north east. The optimized course line will take us right over town and right over the sport class goal. We climb to 10,600' nineteen kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder at almost 600 fpm.

After that I struggle with weak lift and not getting high for the next fifty kilometers as the wind turns from southwest to south at 16 - 18 mph.. Down to 5,000' I get too hot (too much clothing) and get nauseous. I check to see if it is heat stroke or air sickness, but I'm still sweating so it's air sickness. I keep flying as it is not overwhelming as it has been two other times.

I climb to 9,400' just before Snyder over the airfield that is the sport class goal. East of Snyder the land mass changes from open fields to canyon lands. I have to go cross wind to get to the turnpoint eighteen kilometers from Fish. I find another thermal twenty two kilometers out from Snyder at 400 fpm to 8,500' but then it all gets worse as I continue to fight with the air sickness.

I'm six kilometers north of the optimized course line and  work my way south southeast to get back toward the optimized waypoint on the eighteen kilometer radius turnpoint. I'm soon down to 2,000' AGL working weak lift and drifting to the north away from the optimized turnpoint. I go back south and back up the course line to try again and it doesn't get  any better. I'm over the canyon lands low with a few landing options that present difficult retrieves.

I was three kilometers from the turnpoint but low and not willing to go cross wind across unlandable area to go further east to get the cylinder. Taking lift I climb to over 6,000', still relatively low but now six kilometers from the turnpoint and it's upwind. All the lift I find under the fast moving cu's is weak.

I push again upwind to get under the best looking cu and there is nothing there. I'm drifting away from the turnpoint. There is no reason to continue and I'm ready to land as I feel pretty ill.

I land near a paved road and fortunately I can contact Tom McGowan who has landed near Snyder and is in the retrieve vehicle not far away. I curl up on the ground under my glider not having moved it since I landed and go to sleep. I can't stand up. Tom and Dave Proctor break down the glider for me as I rest in the air conditioned truck.

The field is full of stickers and our shoes are covered with them.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 10:51:26 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Down and cross wind almost 100 miles

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 2:

  Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:39:00 974
2 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:38:26 935
3 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 02:44:49 917
4 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:44:17 901
5 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 03:00:00 783
6 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 03:00:11 779
7 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 144 03:36:29 599

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 1824
2 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 1700
3 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 1581
4 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 1559
5 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 1525
6 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 1478
7 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 1436
8 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 1103
9 Roger Irby USA Wills Wing T2C 154 1039
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 732

Sport Class:

Twelve out of fourteen made goal at 75.6 km with Max Conde winning the day.

Max Conde is in the lead overall with Jose Sandoval in second. Two Guatemalans.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman and Greg Chastain. They are doing out and return tasks as they don't have a driver.

Greg has won both days.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Mon, Aug 12 2019, 6:23:37 am MDT

Sport Class to La Mesa

competition|US Nationals 2019

Four out of fourteen pilots made it in Sport Class seventy kilometers to the goal at the La Mesa airfield.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Jose Sandoval, Ric Caylor, Max Conde, and John Irlbeck.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 6:19:07 MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

We glide on up to Brownfield

Blue Sky|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results/task4325/day/open-class

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 02:33:51 921
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:26:25 877
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:35:14 772
4 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:56:44 721
5 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:49:29 682
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 03:03:35 662
7 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:07:10 659
8 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:08:43 651
9 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 03:09:12 583

14 to 18 mph south southeast wind. A few cu's. The dry line was clearly visible to the west. Top of lift/cloudbase around 11,000'. A 2 PM launch and 3 PM start to get the better part of the day.

Mick Howard towed me three kilometers south toward the nearest cu due south of the taxi way. The area to the west of launch has proven to be a poor area for lift so I was happy to avoid it. The cu's had been popping since about 1:30 PM (half an hour before launch) on our east side, but we are restricted from going there because it crosses the main runway.

After I pinned off it was a continuous climb from about 4,000' (1,700' AGL) to almost 9,000' drifting seven kilometers to the north northwest in a 15 mph south southeast wind. The start cylinder had a six kilometer radius so given that Mick had towed me way to the south I had no issues staying inside it for the second start time.

North of the airport the cu's were mostly off to the east of the course line about ten kilometers and the first turnpoint was at the La Mesa airfield to the north northwest. While it was all blue ahead I headed in the direction of the turnpoint about five kilometers east of the optimized course line. The start cylinder is centered on a point five kilometers west of the Big Spring airport.

Despite the blue sky there was lift where there were no cu's. I even took a thermal over a gas flare of which there are many (not like years ago north of Big Spring). I was able to hook up with a sweet dust devil north of Ackerly averaging 460 fpm and called Dave Proctor over to join me.

There were towering cu's off to the west quite far aways, but just little wisps along our route. There were some haze domes north of La Mesa which marked 400 fpm lift and I could see ahead a large area of green cotton fields that indicated weaker lift.

I had to search around just south of the cotton fields to find 270 fpm. Bruce, Erick, and Dave came in under me as we all had the idea to get high here before venturing out into the less promising area. I couldn't get any one to go so I headed off by myself (which had been ture for all the flight so far) and it was thirteen kilometers before I found 200 fpm at less than 2,000' AGL (the land elevation was rising).

Kevin and Erick came in under me and we climbed back to 8,000' (5,000' AGL). Kevin had taken the clock after me and Erick the one before me. I couldn't get Kevin to leave so again I headed out on my own as we drifted close to the turnpoint at T-Bar.

There were cu's to the northwest which I had decided to go to before the turnpoint. It was all blue and cross wind to the goal to the west northwest at Brownfield airfield.

I misjudged the distance to the cu's and that took me north and downwind of the course line. Then, when I got to the cu's, they didn't work so I had to go hunting for lift in the blue anyway. I ended up twelve kilometers downwind of the course line working lift to get as high as possible to give me a chance to beat back upwind.

I worked to over 9,600' at 280 fpm and headed southwest knowing that it would take a bit more lift to make it in. Fortunately it was there eight kilometers out and I was able to make it in with plenty of altitude despite the 18 mph head wind.

Kevin went into the blue after the T-bar turnpoint and found lift along the course line going into goal. Willy Dydo took the first clock and grabbed all the extra points getting to goal twenty three minutes before Kevin.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 10, 2019, 11:00:10 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The Welcome Dinner

Gary Osoba|US Nationals 2019

Photo by Gary Osoba.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 5, 2019, 5:13:50 pm MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

It begins this weekend

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/blog

https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/

https://lt.flymaster.net/

Get ready for following the 2019 Big Spring Nationals.

We'll put up the link to Flymaster Live Tracking this weekend when we set things up.

X Flight »

July 4, 2019, 8:11:01 MDT

X Flight

Colorado

Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter|Sara Weaver

Kevin Carter|Robin Hamilton|Sara Weaver

Robin Hamilton writes:

We moved west Wednesday to launch from Lamar in SE Colorado with the plan to fly up the eastern corridor of the state. We were happy to be joined by Colorado pilots Sara Weaver and Kevin Carter for this leg.

We had a good forecast of high cloudbase, moderate tailwinds and strong climbs and put in extra effort to double up on extra clothing, gloves etc. after the ice box experience with the New Mexico flight fresh in our memory. Great preparation but Murphy's law intervened and we found ourselves after launch low and working hard to get altitude to confidently progress. We were all rather toasty in our Michelin man suits - Sara even packed her O2 system.

Conditions were blue with generally light to moderate lift and we were initially climbing to 7,000-8,000' (~3,000-4,000' above ground). Early winds were light and quartering. We initially had a gaggle of 5 (Sara, Larry, Glen, Pete and I) and it helped to find lift in the blue. In the distance we could see a good sky with clouds, maybe some 20-30 miles to the NE.

And then there were three - we lost Larry and Sara after some 30 miles, leaving Pete, Glen and I to slowly progress up the course towards the bespoke clouds in the distance. We covered some 50 miles with this low level routine in the first 2.5 hours but around 5:30pm had to spread out to find lift in what felt like the end of the soaring day.

I ended up gliding down to 400-500' over the dirt fields and joined what I thought was a single hawk in a low level low save. It was initially weak and rowdy, but after a few minutes I started to gain altitude and it formed into a reasonable piece of 300-400 fpm lift. Meanwhile the single hawk was joined by another fifty+ of his friends and family. I have only been in such a raptor gathering in a single thermal in Texas in the fall when they are migrating south for the winter. It was super busy in the thermal. I was seriously concerned I might have a collision with one.

With the height from that thermal I glided towards the remnants of the siren clouds that had called us the whole way from take off and was finally rewarded by a moderate climb up to 10,000', a height I had not seen all day. And it was by then 6pm. Suddenly the forecast tailwinds also turned up and I was quickly being whisked along under the cloud street remnants by a 24-26 mph breeze. I had ground speeds of over 65 mph after having groveled along all afternoon till then. I worked and drifted in the late lift finally landing some 120 miles out from take off at around 7:30pm. After spending around 3 hrs to cover 50 miles, I had added an additional 70 miles in less than 2 hours.

A question I had was why were the conditions so challenging in the early stage vs. the late and can only conclude that the surface conditions are very important. Lamar sits in the Arkansas river valley and is surrounded by heavily irrigated agriculture, suppressing the thermal activity. At one point in flight I looked back up the course line and just saw a broad expanse of dark green around Lamar and it clicked as what our issue might have been. Nevertheless it was a fun flight, flying initially with my buddies in tough conditions, the hawk posse and then the express train that picked me up for the last couple of hours. Cross country hang gliding is wonderfully surprising and today just offered a few more memorable experiences in a trip that has already given many. And we are 120 miles closer to Canada!

Discuss "X Flight" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2019 Big Spring Nationals is on

Tue, Jul 2 2019, 6:57:01 am MDT

We've got enough pilots to keep the loses under control

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|US Nationals 2019

The tee-shirts are going to be donated. Belinda has come up with trophies. The CIVL costs will not be as high as we thought. We still will suffer substantial losses.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots

We look forward to having a great competition in Big Spring.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

June 20, 2019, 10:22:39 MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Get confirmed by July 1st

Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park

I wrote to pilots:

We are very much looking forward to the Big Spring Nationals in August. We trust that you are also. It’s great that this year it will also be the test competition for the 2020 Pan-American Championships.

As you know we have to bring everything to Big Spring to run a championship. This includes the Dragonflies from Wilotree Park. Gregg Ludwig will already have his trike in Texas, even though he now lives in Florida.

As you can no doubt see from the aerotow fee, this is an expensive proposition and we need to know well in advance of the competition how many pilots are coming this year. As we have informed almost all of you previously, your status in the pilot registration needs to be marked “confirmed” in order for you to reserve a spot in the competition. The number of pilots with “confirmed” status will determine the number of tugs that we will have at Big Spring.

For example, if we have 50 “confirmed” pilots we will have a total of 5 tugs at Big Spring. We currently have 53 pilots registered and 13 “confirmed” pilots. You can see the pilot list here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots.

The number of spots reserved on July 1st will determine how many tugs we will have at Big Spring. If we have only 13 pilots “confirmed,” as is the case now, Gregg might be the only tug pilot there.

So to make this competition a success we need your cooperation. If you are coming to the 2019 Big Spring Nationals you need to take the steps necessary to become “confirmed.” They are as follows, and as found here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info:

1) Pay $250 entry fee here: http://ozreport.com/2019BigSpringpay.php

2) Sign waivers and medical information form: http://ozreport.com/onlinewaivers.php or: http://ozreport.com/waivers.php

Pilots not confirmed by July 1st will be so noted and only if there are spots available will they be allowed to enter the competition. Again, the number of spots available will be determined by the number of tugs that we have available at Big Spring and therefore by the number of pilots “confirmed” on July 1st..

If you are registered, but not coming to Big Spring we would very much appreciate hearing from you also so that we can delete your entry from the pilot list. In this case please email Davis at <davis> saying that you won’t be coming.

If everything goes to hell in a hand basket (i.e. the meet is canceled), you will receive a 100% refund.

Again, looking forward to having a great time as always in Big Spring. Hope to see you there.

2019 Nationals - week 1 long task

Mon, May 13 2019, 7:24:37 am MDT

Replay is now working.

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/play/3982/2d

https://OzReport.com/23.94#0

The cloud street is to the left (west) of the course line. Andrew Hollidge has found a wisp along the course line marking lift and keeping him on track to make the last turnpoint.

Carter and Gotes also stay along the course line and get high enough to make it into goal.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/blog__day_5

CIVL WPRS ranking, for the USA

Mon, May 6 2019, 7:36:16 am EDT

Updated after week 2

Bruce Barmakian|CIVL|Davis Straub|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds 2017 Class 1|Zac Majors

CIVL WPRS ranking, for the USA

http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&nation_id=235&

Rank Name Nation Points Rank/Ranking-points/Competition
1
W: 24
ZAC Majors
Civl Id: 10613
 USA 227.0 5 62.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
3 57.4 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
1 54.3 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
7 53.2 HG Brazil Open 2019 Round 1 Valadares
 
2
W: 37
PEDRO L. Garcia
Civl Id: 9442
 USA 185.4 2 59.7 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
37 47.9 2018 Hang Gliding Pre Worlds
18 43.5 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
40 34.3 20TH Fai European Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship
 
3
W: 40
JOHN Simon
Civl Id: 10959
 USA 181.2 3 52.1 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
6 50.7 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
19 42.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
7 36.3 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
 
4
W: 48
DAVIS Straub
Civl Id: 6143
 USA 174.5 10 54.7 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
2 43.6 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
11 40.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
8 36.1 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
5
W: 51
BRUCE Barmakian
Civl Id: 8035
 USA 173.3 7 59.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
7 47.9 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
10 42.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
16 24.2 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
 
6
W: 65
KEVIN Dutt
Civl Id: 9017
 USA 160.6 7 48.5 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
15 47.6 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
9 33.8 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
11 30.7 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
 
7
W: 71
KEVIN Carter
Civl Id: 6871
 USA 156.4 3 65.2 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
11 43.7 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
10 32.1 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
18 15.4 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
8
W: 72
PHILL Bloom
Civl Id: 7426
 USA 156.1 9 44.2 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Class 1
14 40.7 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
7 38.5 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
7 32.7 22D Open De Canaris De Ala Delta Class 1
 
9
W: 82
LARRY Bunner
Civl Id: 6925
 USA 141.9 2 66.8 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
5 39.1 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
39 18.8 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
17 17.2 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
10
W: 99
ROBIN Hamilton
Civl Id: 7536
 USA 131.4 1 54.1 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
4 40.6 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
9 28.8 21ST Fai World Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship
8 7.9 2017 Midwest - Class 1
 

CIVL WPRS ranking, for the USA

Mon, May 6 2019, 7:32:54 am EDT

After the 2019 Nationals week 1

Bruce Barmakian|CIVL|Davis Straub|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds 2017 Class 1|Zac Majors

CIVL WPRS ranking, for the USA

http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&nation_id=235&

Rank Name Nation Points Rank/Ranking-points/Competition
1
W: 26
ZAC Majors
Civl Id: 10613
 USA 215.7 5 62.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
1 54.3 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
7 53.2 HG Brazil Open 2019 Round 1 Valadares
4 46.1 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
2
W: 53
DAVIS Straub
Civl Id: 6143
 USA 170.3 10 54.7 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
2 43.6 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
8 36.1 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
19 35.9 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
 
3
W: 64
KEVIN Carter
Civl Id: 6871
 USA 156.4 3 65.2 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
11 43.7 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
10 32.1 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
18 15.4 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
4
W: 67
JOHN Simon
Civl Id: 10959
 USA 155.5 3 52.1 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
19 42.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
7 36.3 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
13 25.0 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
5
W: 69
PEDRO L. Garcia
Civl Id: 9442
 USA 154.3 37 47.9 2018 Hang Gliding Pre Worlds
18 43.5 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
40 34.3 20TH Fai European Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship
27 28.6 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
 
6
W: 77
BRUCE Barmakian
Civl Id: 8035
 USA 144.0 7 59.1 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
7 47.9 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
16 24.2 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
51 12.8 21ST Fai World Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship
 
7
W: 80
LARRY Bunner
Civl Id: 6925
 USA 141.9 2 66.8 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
5 39.1 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
39 18.8 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
17 17.2 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
 
8
W: 83
KEVIN Dutt
Civl Id: 9017
 USA 139.8 15 47.6 2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) Class 1
9 33.8 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
11 30.7 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
28 27.7 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
 
9
W: 95
ROBIN Hamilton
Civl Id: 7536
 USA 131.4 1 54.1 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
4 40.6 2018 Big Spring National Series Class 1
9 28.8 21ST Fai World Hang Gliding Class 1 Championship
8 7.9 2017 Midwest - Class 1
 
10
W: 112
PHILL Bloom
Civl Id: 7426
 USA 120.1 14 40.7 2018 Quest Air National Series Class 1
7 38.5 SANTA Cruz Flats Race – Mark Knight Memorial 2018 Class 1
7 32.7 22D Open De Canaris De Ala Delta Class 1
7 8.2 2017 Midwest - Class 1
 

2019 Big Spring Nationals and pre-Pan-Americans

Fri, May 3 2019, 8:04:56 am EDT

Get ready for the big fat air

Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info

This is a unique opportunity. This is the test event for the first Pan-American Championships (Class 1 open class). We are looking for pilots from Central and South American to join us and get a taste of that Big Spring air.

2019 Nationals

April 30, 2019, 9:38:36 EDT

2019 Nationals

Some of those who came to help run the competition

Facebook|US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 28, 2019, 3:25:20 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 7, task 6

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 03:00:56 993
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 03:00:36 989
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 03:01:12 987
4 Nene Rotor Wills Wing T3 144 03:01:13 985
5 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:02:08 971
6 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 03:01:58 970
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 03:02:28 969
8 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 03:04:59 945
9 Giovani Tagliari Wills Wing T2C 154 03:05:28 943
10 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:47:06 758

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Nene Rotor Wills Wing T3 144 5614
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 5426
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 5266
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 5153
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 5005
6 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 4827
7 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 4635
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 4620
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 4430
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 4242
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 3956
12 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 3911
13 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3875
14 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 3770
15 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 3747

Sport Task 6:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 48.36 900
2 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 44.29 847
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 42.30 813
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 26.41 528
5 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 22.35 475
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 19.75 431
7 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 16.77 369
8 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 5.00 116
8 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 5.00 116
8 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 5.00 116

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 4531
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 4217
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 3462
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 3063
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 2987
6 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 2716
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 2226
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1541
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1490
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 1287
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 625

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 28, 2019, 3:23:51 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The last day

Jeff Chipman|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 85. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Surface winds 8 mph decreasing to 5 mph east northeast.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 8 mph, east northeast
B/S: 9.8
Surface winds 5 mph east northeast
Cu’s unlikely.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 35.1 km GROSS 3000 m
4 53.4 km CENTER 400 m
5 68.1 km CENTER 15000 m
6 82.7 km CENTER 400 m
7 ES 101.9 km QUEST 400 m

A 15 kilometer exit circle around Center Hill.

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/27.4.2019/17:30

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2257915

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190428&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

The idea is that we would fly west to get away from the lake effect with the northeast wind to the 3 km turnpoint around the Gross airfield. Then back east to Center Hill against the east wind. There is a 15 km exit cylinder around Center Hill so you have to get anywhere outside it to get this next waypoint, then back to Center Hill before heading back to Wilotree Park.

Again pilots were reluctant to launch until they saw a few pilots in the air, and some of the pilots did launch in their original order. When the launch organizer when around again calling upon us to launch, we all launched in our order.

The lift was indeed suppressed by the lake effect and I didn't find anything at first. Then I drifted down wind to the Mickey Mouse lake and with the help of the "locals" skimming over the lake, I found 200 fpm that took me to over 4,300'. And then after every one joined me we went over and found another thermal to 4,300', but this was 8 minutes before the start window opened and with a 7 mph east southeast wind.

Unfortunately I lost a bunch of altitude when this thermal gave out and was down to 2,800' at the start which put me in a bit of a deficit. Others had managed to stay near 4,000'.

Managed to find 200 fpm over Mascotte and was soon back to 4,200'. I could see the lead gaggle ahead and we found reasonable lift going west toward the Gross airfield, at one point averaging over 300 fpm, and getting to over 4,000' so even though I was behind things looked good.

Three kilometers from the Gross turnpoint I came over the lead gaggle. I found the better lift and they all came in under me. I was back in the game.

As I was on top I lead out to the turnpoint, but instead of heading to the east north east headed back toward where we were previously climbing. This turned out to be an error as the guys that were below me were now above me climbing up over a small fire that was now to my north. I quickly got over there but now I was on the bottom instead of on the top. It took a while to center the smoke thermal from 1,800' but I was finally in the 300 fpm core to 3,900'.

South of Bushnell I climbed to 3,800' but only at a little over 200 fpm. I hadn't caught up with the lead guys yet. I saw a few pilots further north higher and turning but didn't go to them thinking that I would find lift to the east toward Center Hill That was my second mistake.

The lift along the east/west highway going to Center Hill was very weak. The first three thermals: 140 fpm, then 50 fpm, then minus 22 fpm. Leaving the last non-lift at 1,600' I thought for sure that we were going down. At 600' AGL as I looked at fields to the north for landing opportunities as we were over intensively farmed nurseries, we found 225 fpm that took us to 3,800' drifting back at 5 mph.

This made it possible to find lift to 3,100' at 284 fpm just before Center Hill. I headed northeast and found 100 fpm then 180 fpm over a very small fire which got me to 3,600' over the forested area on its southeast corner. A kilometer further north Jeff Chipman and I had the help of two bald eagles as we climbed to 4,300' at 250 fpm.

I went further north past the Florida Turnpike to get past the edge of the 15 kilometer exit cylinder. The wind was 5 mph due east. Coming back from outside the cylinder around Center Hill I started at 2,400'.

Down to 1,700' I found 240 fpm just east of the prison. As I drifted over the prison I climbed to 3,900'. I hoped that they didn't think that I was going to drop anything.

Heading south directly across the center of the forest I found a couple of thermals to get me to the south side, north of Center Hill. There I found 190 fpm to 3,900' at 5:49 PM. After that it was a 12:1 glide for 11 kilometers into a 6 mph head wind to one of the most beautiful and friendly landing fields near us, but 4 kilometers short of the chicken coops where I hoped to get back up.

Raul would land at goal about 5 minutes after as the last one to make goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 26, 2019, 10:14:14 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Rain day, winds later

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 11:07:51 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We don't go down wind

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 10 mph, south southwest
B/S: 10
Surface winds 3 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 10.7 km GATORS 400 m
4 31.7 km BARON 4000 m
5 47.5 km PANOLK 3000 m
6 63.4 km KOKEE 3000 m
7 ES 91.5 km QUEST 400 m

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.4.2019/17:27

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255949

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190426&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

There are no cu's in the nearby area so the first pilots (including me at number 3) naturally decline to launch and go to the end of the queue. About half the pilots do this, so we quickly start the second round. We find plenty of lift and climb out slowly while drifting to the north toward the first turnpoint at Gator field.

Our drift in the 12 mph south wind and climb rate (weak) are perfectly timed so that we reach the edge of the start cylinder at our highest altitude (4,500') just as the window opens for the first start at 2PM. Jonny and Jon Simon start with us, but go back later. Kevin Dutt is with us. Nine pilots take the first clock.

Gator field is a short distance away so we quickly get there then head northwest up the Florida Turnpike. I get south of the Turnpike to get to the wispy cu's and climb out at over 200 fpm to 4,800'. I saw Kevin, Patrick and Konstantin higher and in front of me further down wind to the north (the wind is now 13 mph out of the south), but I feel that I can catch them by getting to the cu's and climbing faster.

I keep finding good lift under the cu's along the turnpike and sure enough I run into those pilots ahead of me at the turnpoint at Baron and we climb out fast to cloudbase at 5,800'. We let Chippy and Kevin go out in front.

I wanted to get as high as possible because the next leg looks difficult. It's a straight cross wind leg. It's unclear where we are going to find the lift despite the presence of cu's. Sure enough I get down to 1,900' before I find a little something west of the prisons.

Patrick goes a bit further west and finds better lift. I come over him and climb out to 4,300' while he loses the lift for a while. He fortunately comes back down wind to find it again but I leave him low by the turnpike. The 7 mph wind out of the south southwest pushes us way to the north.

The pilots who took the second clock have almost caught up with us and they are further upwind having found lift near the prisons, which we did not find.

It's an up and back struggle to take the next turnpoint at the grass air strip southwest of Lake Panasofkee and to get away from it to head south southwest to the turnpoint at Kokee. There are plenty of cu's ahead and as soon as I get away from the lake I find strong lift, at one point averaging almost 500 fpm to 5,000'.

That height gets me to 2,500' 3 kilometers north northeast of he turnpoint. I circle there a few times with Jonny in negative 110 and then leave as I can't figure out why we are doing this. I head for the turnpoint while Glen turns back upwind to get up at Bushnell.

I get lucky. Down to 1,100' AGL I tag the turnpoint and then find a thermal which at 250 fpm takes me to 4,400'. This puts me ahead of all the nearby pilots. I head out with Larry Bunner, who took the second clock, nearby.

After an 8 kilometer glide and down to 2,100' I decide to turn back to get under a better looking cu. Larry comes in under me. I climb to 3,800' at almost 200 fpm with Larry right below me. Five or six pilots who were just behind us come in under us as we climb up.

We lead out and find three more thermals for the following pilots, being their guiding lights ahead. The last one just south of the nursery on highway 50 takes me to 3,600'with a 9.5 kilometer glide to goal. With a 4 mph cross wind it is an easy final glide as I lead them all into goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 10:20:58 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Preliminary Results for day 5, task 5 (Kevin Dutt not scored yet)

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:28:56 987
2 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:29:51 968
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:30:59 953
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:43:59 845
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:44:41 839
6 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 02:51:41 798
7 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:09:40 709
8 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 03:21:44 647
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T3 154 03:23:50 641
10 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 03:20:34 636
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 03:39:55 631

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 4634
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 4445
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 4283
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 4121
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 4042
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3978
7 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 3861
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 3655
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3641
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 3631
11 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3415
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 3393
13 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 3364
14 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 3236
15 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 3227

Sport task:

Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 02:23:18 51.30 1000
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 31.46 615
3 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 28.50 584
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 26.15 552
5 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 24.28 522
6 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 19.19 422
7 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 17.67 388
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 17.38 381
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 7.53 155
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 5.00 105
10 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 5.00 105

Sport cumulative:

Name Glider Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 3718
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 3689
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2987
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 2632
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 2140
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 2110
7 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 1816
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1541
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1374
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 918
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 509

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 7:58:08 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 4, task 4

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:43:32 987
2 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:47:40 922
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:51:00 917
4 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:47:56 915
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:51:18 912
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:51:02 882
7 Jeff Chipman Moyes RX 3.5 02:53:35 863
8 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:56:40 847
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T3 154 03:03:09 804
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:11:24 801

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 3666
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3647
3 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 3631
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 3600
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3360
6 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 3296
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3276
8 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3207
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 3203
10 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2908

Sport task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:34:28 38.23 1000
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 01:35:11 38.23 979
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 01:38:31 38.23 934
4 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 35.24 518
5 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 27.66 441
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 26.35 424
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 25.02 402
8 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 11.06 156
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 5.38 87
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 83

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 3074
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 2718
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2606
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 2080
5 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1588
6 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1556
7 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1436
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 1394
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1219
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 530

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 0:20:37 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Counter clockwise around the Green Swamp

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|PG|Steven "Steve" Pearson|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park|Zac Majors

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 6 mph, east
B/S: 10
Surface winds 2 mph south
A chance of cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 11.7 km T50469 1000 m
4 28.2 km KOKEE 3000 m
5 45.7 km DIARIA 5000 m
6 67.3 km T98471 1000 m
7 78.6 km FAMISH 2000 m
8 93.5 km T47433 1000 m
9 ES 110.1 km QUEST 400 m

The replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696#

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255169

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/24.4.2019/17:39

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

The narrative:

Steve Pearson, Zac Majors and Wolfgang Seiss let me borrow the Wills Wing TIII that is here at Wilotree Park and in Wills inventory. So I'm back on the TIII.

After the pilot meeting I go over across the runway to setup the glider. This keeps me from hearing that the task has changed slightly. A waypoint is added at Famish. The meet director, Belinda, forgets to call another pilot meeting at the launch site, forgets to tell the volunteers working the line to mention the task change to pilots, and doesn't have the safety committee review the task change that was made because of pilot input for safety reasons (which were bogus).

She does call a pilot meeting at the normal location but at least three of us are far away near launch and don't hear the whistle. She brings over the amended task board to the launch, but we don't see it. She doesn't even mention it to me. The small blank task board is not used to highlight the task change in the line.

Many of the pilots skip their launch spot given what happened the day before with so many relaunches. There are no cu's in the sky, but Larry thinks that they will show up (he's right).

We go through the list again and with evidence of good lift we all get pulled up. Numerous gaggles form with the lift working and soon a bunch of us head to the edge of the start cylinder as it's only a few minutes before the first start time. We hang in weak lift near the top of the lift at 4,000'.

Ten or so of us head out but don't go very far before turning in more weak lift. I can tell right away that this group is going to turn back and take the next start gate. We come back from 2 km out with 5 minutes to spare and take the 2:20 PM clock.

We're racing west along the north edge of the Green Swamp. The lift varies from 85 fpm to 300 fpm. Mostly it is less than 200 fpm. Pilots are jumping from gaggle to gaggle.

We've got a 3 km turnpoint cylinder at the northwestern edge of the Green Swamp. After finding 300 fpm on the northeastern edge we again find 300 fpm on the northwestern side and climb to 4,400'. It's after 3 PM. We find the first cu's, which then populate the western edge of the Green Swamp.

The lift gets good. We head south and find 300 fpm, 300 fpm, 400 fpm, 300 fpm and 450 fpm in the next thermals to over 5,500', not quite cloudbase. Larry Bunner and I are working with each other to make sure that we find the best lift.

Larry and I head south to the cu's west of the turnpoint at the bottom of the Green Swamp. Those pilots who took the more direct route are down below us as we get nearer the turnpoint at 471 and 98.

Larry and I climb out at 350 fpm to 5,400' under the sweet looking cu's that we come to expect when we do the Green Swamp task. There are more in front of us and we are able to take advantage of them.

I'm cruising along at 5,500' over the Green Swamp when Larry comes back at me from the south and asks if I got the turnpoint at Famish. This is the first I've hear of it. He had just gone to the south to get the turnpoint. I'm quickly fiddling with my instruments to see how far away the two kilometer cylinder around Famish is. I get within less than a kilometer of Famish itself before turning back to parallel the course line.

I head out over the pasture lands, not the forest land toward little wisps. Down to 2,600' I work 190 fpm to 4,400' and then scoot back over the forest to get to 5,000' under some wisps. Based on the latest transmission from Larry who is near the turnpoint 8 kilometers away I should be able to find lift there and can leave at 5,000' to get to it.

Sure enough there is plenty of lift just north the 474 to 5,000' and that makes the glide into goal easy.

Controversy erupts when Belinda comes up with a way to score the day with a bonus for those pilots who made the Famish turnpoint. Only Bruce Barmakian and Kevin Dutt didn't.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 23, 2019, 10:49:16 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

A funny shaped task at 90 km

Flytec 6030|PG|Rob Clarkson|US Nationals 2019|Volirium P1|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Tuesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 – 8 mph, east

HRRR 3, 2 PM:
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northeast
B/S: 7.2
Surface winds 5 mph east
A slight chance of cu’s.

The task:

  Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 17.0 km T47433 400 m
4 31.5 km WALABY 5000 m
5 53.5 km DSROK 400 m
6 71.5 km T47433 400 m
7 ES 88.4 km QUEST 400 m

The Replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2254486

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.4.2019/19:09

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

The narrative:

The wind is out of the east and we're back in the slot at the west end. There are no cu's and with the brisk enough we are probably getting some suppression of the lift from Lake Apopka. But we are not aware of it at first.

I'm 17th to launch and we've already had one pilot land. Tim takes me to the south of the field and I find strong lift, 400 fpm to 4,300'. When it peters out I head north east then east looking for the next thermal.  I don't find anything even in the smoke from the fire to the east. Kevin Dutt is right below me and he turns to go back to Wilotree Park for a landing just as I do.

Unfortunately I take out a down tube on landing, but fortunately David Lopez and Alex Skyride operate as a pit crew and get me back in line for another tow. It's probably been three years since I took out a down tube.

I get back in line but it's time for the sport class launch. Everyone has to wait for them. There is a fifteen minute interval after the end of the open class launch for relights, then pilots have to wait for the sport class to launch. The top three pilots have to wait as they all had to relaunch. There were many relaunches.

It's a long wait, but when we get up we find good lift to the southwest away from Wilotree Park. I climb to 3,800' at 240 fpm and take the fourth clock (out of four) at 3:24 PM (last clock is at 3:15 PM), more than an hour after the first clock. No one is able to take the first clock at 2:15 PM.

I glide 8 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder down to 900' AGL just north of the Seminole Glider Port where I spot hang glider pilots turning. I climb out at 240 fpm to 4,900'. This makes it easy to get the first turnpoint at the intersection of highway 474 and highway 33.

There are a few pilots around and it is five thermals to get to the Wallaby 5 km turnpoint to the southeast. The first thermal is reasonable strong at 340 fpm to 4,300', but the rest of them are weak, under 300 fpm.

I turn around at the turnpoint to head west to the intersection of Dean Still and Rockridge and find 364 fpm to 4,300' drifting to the west. I can see pilots climbing in the distance and after a 10 kilometer glide get under them and it's 250 fpm to 3,500'.  A little over a kilometer further west I find 280 fpm to 4,500'.

I've got two flight instruments the Flytec 6030 and the Volirium P1. I'm noticing a significant different in the indicated distance to the turnpoint. Finally I figure out that I've put the turnpoint at the intersection of Rockridge and highway 98 in the 6030, but the P1 has DSROK. I know that that is the right  turnpoint and this hasn't caused any delays in my flight. I take the turnpoint at DSROK and manually select the next turnpoint on the 6030.

As I make the turnpoint I head into the headwind. The first thermal averages minus 35 fpm. After eight minutes of waiting to see if it will turn on I head out toward public roads to the east so that I can land with a manageable retrieve.

Down to 600' AGL I spot a pilot turning at just above my altitude a short distance to the north. I come in under him and climb out at 134 fpm drifting back to the west. I top out at 2,400'.

I spot Peter Kelley and Rob Clarkson to my north over edge of the Green Swamp. I race toward them and find lift before I get there. It's 180 fpm to 3,200'. They join me.

We move to the east a couple of kilometers to find 190 fpm to 4,400'. Leaving this lift it's a nine kilometer glide to the turnpoint at 474 and 33. My 6030 user fields go blank so I can't see my glide ratio over the ground among other bits information. It states that the wind direction is south west which is a bit confusing. The actual wind is about 5 mph out of the east.

There was a forecast for a sea breeze from the west late and it is definitely late, eight minutes after 6 PM. The user fields return as I get to the turnpoint. They show a north wind component of 3 mph.

I'm down to 1,400' at the turnpoint and head north along highway 33. There are plenty of open field to land in if needed and it appears to be needed. Peter and Rob are just behind me.

I pick out a huge field that I am familiar with just east of the Seminole glider port. I look around and there appears to be no wind in the field. I come in low at the north end assuming a southwest wind, but I am mistaken. It is in fact north east if light. Suddenly I realize that I'm going to eat up the whole field.

Just before I smack into the fence at the southwest corner I turn but hit the fence on the western side. I'm unhurt but there is enough damage to the glider that I won't be flying that one on Wednesday. First time in over 5,000 flights that I've hit a fence.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 23, 2019, 9:25:33 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 3, task 3

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konstantin Lukyanov|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Roger Irby|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:29 88.43 958
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:45 88.43 944
2 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:46 88.43 944
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 15:15:00 02:35:04 88.43 901
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 14:35:00 02:56:35 88.43 862
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 02:58:54 88.43 852
7 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 14:35:00 02:59:28 88.43 846
8 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 14:35:00 03:15:02 88.43 782
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 14:15:00 03:29:18 88.43 778
10 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 81.69 622

Cumulative:

Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2836
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 2827
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2758
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2669
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2654
6 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 2422
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2416
8 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2382
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 2301
10 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 2297
11 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 2175
12 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 2137
13 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 2119
14 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 2118
15 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2047

Sport Task 3:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 19.58 257
2 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 15.34 219
3 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 6.77 145
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 5.00 129
4 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 5.00 129
4 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 129
4 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 5.00 129
4 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 5.00 129
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 5.00 129
4 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 5.00 129

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1853
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1660
3 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 1614
4 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1564
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1375
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1144
7 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1021
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 911
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 869
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 405
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 404

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 22, 2019, 10:19:28 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

100 km, FAI triangle

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

Sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 mph, northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 9 mph, north
B/S: 10
Surface winds 6 mph east
No cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 41.9 km CHIN 10000 m
4 77.4 km BARON 3000 m
5 ES 105.7 km QUEST 400 m

The Replay:

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2253551

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190423&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/22.4.2019/17:56

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

The narrative:

We move the launch from the northeast facing direction to an east facing direction further west in the east/west slot runway and delay the task half an hour to start at 2:30 PM. There are no cu's as forecast. The wind is light out of the east.

I launch 24th and find light lift to the south of Wilotree and climb slowly to 3,600' with a couple of other pilots. Pilots who left this thermal early before getting as high as we did and head to the northwest have to land back at Wilotree Park.

We head northwest toward the first turnpoint, a ten kilometer cylinder around the Chinese airfield. It's still six minutes before the first start gate. We find 200 fpm and then 300 fpm. I leave the start cylinder four minutes after the window opens as I climb to 4,400'. There are about eight guys higher and in front of a few of us behind.

We are doing a bit better behind finding better lift and keeping an eye on the gaggle in front. The lift is poor, less than 200 fpm, and the lead gaggle is getting lower and lower with each thermal.

I veer off to the south a bit just northwest of the lumber yard and south of some greenhouses to find much better lift at 300 fpm and climb to 4,700'. The lead gaggle is far below and soon out of site to the north.

I take over the lead as the lead gaggle struggles and head out on my own toward the turnpoint. I've been out here before so I have some idea of what to look for in order to get back up as I come down from my commanding height.

It's a nine kilometer glide before I find 170 fpm by the Kokee turnpoint and I can climb back to 3,000'. A six kilometer glide and I come over apparently from the smell, some chicken coops just east of a prison (so many of them in Florida). I'm down to 1,400' and looking at a possible landing field just past the prison, but I find little bits of lift and hang with them.

I average a little over 100 fpm to 2,000' which gets me past the prison and the field next to it. I'm familiar with the fields ahead having climbed out of them on a previous flight. They are the last fields before the river which is surrounded by trees. Our optimized turnpoint is just on the other side of the river. I'm too low to cross it.

I see a small bit of smoke in the trees next to an open field and get to it at 600' AGL. I take the 254 fpm to 4,500' where we all get together at the turnpoint. I relinquish my lead at this point.

Now it's sixteen guys racing toward the three kilometer cylinder around the Baron turnpoint to the east northeast with seven guys in front. We race ahead and stop for 200 to 300 fpm about every five kilometers. Five or so guys at the top of each thermal.

As we pass south of the prisons, Phil Bloom goes out in front, with Pedro, Nene and me just behind him getting higher. I lead out to get over Phil who has lost a lot of altitude as we approach the turnpoint. I lead out again with Raul and Bruno just behind racing for the turnpoint. We get the turnpoint and head south.

Those behind us see us plummeting and take a line further to the east also heading south. Bruno moves to the south east to get in the lead with Jonny and Kevin Dutt behind him as they work weak lift from low. Bruno lands.

Raul and I work 25 fpm for twelve minutes to climb from 2,200 to 2,700' as we drift in an eight mph north wind toward Wilotree Park and goal. I lead out as I'm familiar with the area. We work 100 fpm and 55 fpm climbing to 2,800' and drifting south.

I come over the nursery on the north side of highway 50 west of Mascotte but I don't find much. Raul spots a vulture climbing and climbs with him when I turn east to head for the chicken coops and possible landing area. Down to 600' AGL I find a little bit of zero sink and start working and searching for the better core.

The guys to our east are finding better lift. Kevin Dutt gets out ahead and continues on a long glide into goal. The pilots who took the second clock are able to come in fifteen minutes later and score well despite poor leading and arrival points.

It's almost 6 PM. I find the area of better lift over the possible landing field and slowly climb out drifting slowly to the south. I climb at 120 fpm to 3,700' topping out at 6:22 PM with a 6:1 glide to goal. I'm not in the mood for landing short. It's an easy seven kilometer glide into goal for the last guy to make it to goal at 6:28.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 22, 2019, 10:18:12 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 2, task 2

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Fabiano Nahoum|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 14:30:00 17:44:36 03:14:36 947
2 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:59:14 03:09:14 926
3 Jeff Chipman Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:59:23 03:09:23 918
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 14:30:00 17:49:30 03:19:30 905
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 14:30:00 17:49:50 03:19:50 896
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 14:30:00 17:49:55 03:19:55 886
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 14:50:00 18:04:05 03:14:05 864
8 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 14:30:00 17:55:56 03:25:56 861
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 18:05:51 03:15:51 857
10 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 14:50:00 18:06:43 03:16:43 845

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1935
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 1883
3 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1843
4 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 1818
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1814
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1807
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 1802
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 1800
9 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 1771
10 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 1748

Sport task 2:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 27.06 900
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 22.70 803
3 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 20.80 749
4 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 20.11 726
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 20.07 724
6 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 17.60 624
7 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 17.54 621
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 16.19 553
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 15.07 491
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 6.59 177
11 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 142

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1724
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 1485
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1435
4 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1403
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1156
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1015
7 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 892
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 782
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 724
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 404
11 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 276

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 21, 2019, 10:42:08 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We stick together

John Simon|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696#

The forecast:

http://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 78. Light northwest wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 8 mph, northwest

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northwest
B/S: 8.8
Surface winds 10 mph northwest
Chance of cu’s.

There is a strong inversion and no chance of cu's.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 40.1 km Fantasy of Flight 1000 m
4 87.6 km Avon Park 22000 m
5 ES 100.0 km Lake Wales 400 m

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2252178

At one o'clock, there are no cu's and a pretty brisk wind out of the west. I'm scheduled to launch ninth, but will all the help I'm giving to the meet director I'm not ready, so opt to launch at the end of the line. John Simon has already told me that he is launching last so as to not have to wait around for an hour in the start cylinder, so that helps me make my decision to wait.

The pilots that we pulled up before us stick and we get towed up at 40 minutes after the launch window opens and twenty minutes before the start window opens. At almost 300 fpm we climb to 5,000' a few minutes before the start window opens and take it high at 4,800'. I'm not the highest pilot but high enough to not be disadvantaged by launching so late. Almost everyone takes the first start clock.

With no cu's everyone relies on everyone else. We jump from group to group and climb up in a friendly fashion not cutting each other off. We climb to 5,600' before the Fantasy of Flight our first turnpoint with lift averaging 300 and 400 fpm in the last thermals before we cross interstate 4.

We've got twenty to thirty pilots sticking together and using each other to find lift as we move over Winter Haven. The distance between thermals is less than 5 km. We are flying over built up areas with just a few landing areas but with plenty of lift we don't consider the ground below.

Lots of lakes below, of course, but not many indicators of lift with the light winds. Just south of Winter Haven we climb at 300 fpm to 5,100'. I'm near the top of the gaggle now after playing catch up the whole flight. I head off with Bruno Sandoli and one other pilot. We are soon in the lead overall.

There are mostly open fields ahead and we are 23 kilometers from the edge of the 22 km turnpoint cylinder around Avon Park to the south. We expect to find lift quickly and perhaps get away from the rest of the gaggle.

This doesn't work out. We glide for twelve kilometers without finding a bump. I see Sandoli turning to the west and down to 1,600' I go under him, but find only sink. I head further south as I don't see him head north and start rising and down to 800' AGL find 50 fpm to 1,600'. I stick with this for 15 minutes then it improves to almost 300 fpm climbing for the next ten minutes to 4,300' over possible landing areas.

I go from being in front to being behind. But it is quite exciting to be so close to landing and being able to climb in weak lift for so long.

There are a couple of gaggles just ahead hovering around the turnpoint at the cylinder edge. I'll have to work some lift to be able to get high enough to come in to goal behind them.

Thirty pilots in goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 21, 2019, 9:14:50 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|John Simon|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:37:01 990
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 02:36:57 988
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:36:57 987
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:37:03 981
5 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 02:37:20 972
6 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 02:37:24 970
7 Bruce Barmakian Moyes LS 3.0 02:38:07 957
8 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:38:19 954
9 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:38:34 953
10 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:38:19 946

Sport Task 1:

Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 02:08:47 52.28 1000
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 41.31 692
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 40.81 687
4 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 30.45 542
5 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 17.02 376
6 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 11.95 319
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 11.73 316
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 9.33 275
9 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 9.12 271
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 8.99 268

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 20, 2019, 1:40:42 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Too windy on Saturday

US Nationals 2019|weather

At Leesburg Airport to our north:

Time
(edt)
Wind
(mph)
12:53 W 20 G 28
11:53 W 16 G 29
10:53 W 22 G 33
09:53 W 18 G 28
08:53 SW 10

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

The day was cancelled by the Safety Committee and Director.

The second week starts on Sunday. The forecast is for good weather with light winds.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 4:00:43 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Rain day, Friday

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 3:48:34 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Georgia

Bobby Bailey|Christian Ciech|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|PG|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|weather

The flight:

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/18.4.2019/16:37

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2247267

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190419&gliderclass=hg1

The Thursday forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 89. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface wind 10 mph, south southeast

RAP 13, noon:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Wind TOUL: 19 mph, south southeast
B/S: 3.8
Surface winds 9 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, south
B/S: 5.3
Surface winds 10 mph south
A good chance of cu’s.
Strong upper level winds. Convergence over highway 301 to Vidalia, Georgia

The earlier winds make for a few timid pilots at first. David Fynn, the Safety Director measures 7 - 11 gusting to 14 mph. The report from the Leesburg Airport to the north is consistent with that with the wind decreasing from 14 mph to 10 mph by 1 PM.

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

Despite the earlier whining, the pilots get in line and start to launch. It is a little rough coming out of the field, but I've launched here to the south southeast in 22 mph winds and it was fine.

Bobby Bailey takes me south to 2,000' AGL in a 14 mph south wind. He drops me in lift and I climb at 160 fpm to 4,100' and cloud base. We climbed again to cloud base just to the northwest of Groveland within the 10 kilometer start cylinder. As we get near cloudbase we head out. It's Tullio, Larry Bunner, Andrew Hollidge, Guilherme Sandoli, and I. Larry gets low by Grass Roots trying to get his radio working.

Andrew and I do a bunch of the pulling as we head northwest along the Turnpike toward the 5km turnpoint cylinder around Coleman. I keep leaving when the lift gets weak. None of the thermals average over 200 fpm until we get north of the Turnpike next to the turnpoint where we climb back to cloud base.

Northeast of Wildwood I find 300 fpm to 4,800'. Always leaving well below cloud base as the lift peters out. Tullio gets out in front and leads us up highway 301 to the north toward the next turnpoint at the state prison northwest of Starke.

I can't spot Tullio as he is too low on the west side of the Villages quite a ways east of highway 301. I leave Guilherme and Andrew and lead out on my own. I can see them, turning 5 km behind me. The lift is between 200 and 300 fpm.

I pass Tullio and head for a dark cu southeast of Leeward airfield. The thermal is almost 300 fpm as is the next one at the Leeward airfield. I climb to 4,600'. Tullio is back out in front along 301 over east Ocala, a tricky spot with few landing options. We've left everyone else behind.

Tullio gets too low in this poor area and lands.

I fly over the Ocala National Forest and the Silver Springs Conservation area east of 301 toward good looking cu's. I keep heading north northeast off the course line to stay under cu's. I've never gone this far east before on this course. I'm nine kilometers to the east of the course line but it's blue a long the course line.

Suan, Kevin Carter, and Rudy are about 10 km to 20 km behind as I come up east of Orange Lake and far from the paved highway.

Southeast of Hawthorne and ten kilometers east of Lochloosa Lake and at 5,200' I change direction heading north west toward more cu's that are now conveniently closer to the course line. I need to get around the west side of Keystone airfield to stay out of restricted airspace to the north of it.

Northeast of Hawthorne I find a thermal at almost 300 fpm and leave that at 4,800' still climbing but slowly. Southwest of Lake Santa Fe I find over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan has caught me from behind and is just over me. He heads out in front and I follow.

He marks strong lift 12 kilometers south of Stark next to 301. We are well west of the restricted airspace. I climb at a little over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan is way out in front but goes down by the turnpoint at the prison just before a huge expanse of forested lands. I work the cu's northwest of Starke and climb to 5,500' before turning north northwest toward the 2 km turnpoint cylinder around the prison.

Guilherne and Andrew are about 5 km behind near Starke. Kevin Carter, Rudy, Richard Lovelace and Christian Ciech are just behind them another 5 to 10 km.

I make the turnpoint and find 240 fpm right away to 4,800'. It's 4:45 pm. Every where I look to the north northeast I see forested lands, with patches of clear cuts and sand roads. The cu's are to the west of the course line and I head for them. There is only lift under the cu's and it is blue to the northeast. I have every desire to stay up and not land out in the middle of nowhere with bad road access.

I climb at 210 fpm southwest of Macclenney over open fields three kilometers west of the course line. To get under the next cu's I have to turn further to the north northwest to climb at 180 fpm to 4,700'. I'm now 6 km west of the course line. Guilherme comes in 2,000' below me.

Andrew has made a turn to go to the east to get back on the course line and is flying over the Saint Mary river heading north toward the turnpoint at Saint George while I follow the clouds. I wonder if he found a cu out there.

Rudy and Kevin are west of Macclenny and turning to the northeast to get toward the course line. Guilherme and I have crossed the river and are well into into Georgia and he is flying low over clear cuts and forests. I'm staying as high as possible.

I climb to 5,300' drifting a bit with the 16 mph south southwest wind, somewhat closer to the course line. Reasonable landing fields are 12 kilometers to the east. I can't really see them even when I'm at 5,300'. The only other options to my east are rough cut clear cuts.

As I get down to 2,500' I head toward pasture lands to the northwest just in case and find 200 fpm to 4,800' Guilherme is low under me and over the clear cuts. I turn northeast to leave the cu's behind but head toward the turnpoint as I'm about to be blown past it. It seems to me that I will not find any lift in that direction. I see Guilherme land in a clear cut by highway 94.

Behind me Rudy and Kevin with Jonny Durand behind them have made the leap to the northeast. I can see cu's in that direction but they seem far too far away. Maybe not. Andrew has landed after ticking the turnpoint at Saint George. I don't like the landing prospects on highway 94 (that's a mistake) and head for what looks like a farm to the east northeast.

It turns out to be nothing and I, like Guilherme, have to land in a clear cut off a sand road just slightly northwest of the turnpoint a little after 6 PM. My driver does a heroic job as we communicate over the phone navigating six miles in over slippery sand roads.

Nene, Jonny and Olav land a little to the south of me. Rudy and Kevin find lift and able able to make it into goal on a final glide from about 20 kilometers out. They are the only ones to make it.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 3:47:05 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2672#

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 05:17:30 246.97 976
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 05:27:21 246.97 950
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 229.64 797
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 227.50 792
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 223.80 781
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 223.63 781
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 219.65 765
8 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 216.75 752
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 208.10 719
10 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 183.13 666

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2989
2 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 2921
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 2911
4 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2893
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2768
6 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2764
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2569
8 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 2545
9 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 2529
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2504
11 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 2341
12 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 2306
13 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 2058
14 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2020
15 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1987

Sport Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 03:41:08 148.15 984
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 03:45:38 148.15 958
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 132.44 724
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 128.29 709
5 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 111.58 631
6 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 72.18 505
7 James Race Wills Wing U2C 160 49.34 425
8 Bill Snyder Wills Wing U2 145 32.25 362
9 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 31.51 359
10 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 30.49 353

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 3282
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 2725
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2141
4 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 2107
5 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1968
6 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1885
7 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 1826
8 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 1787
9 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1775
10 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1757

Warnings:

Name Note
Patrick Pannese Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Rodrigo Gerundo Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Corinna Schwiegershausen Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Larry Bunner Manually scored based on pilot tracklog.

Penalties:

Name % penalty Reason
Kevin Dutt 100% Violation of R2903A Airspace
Krzysztof Grzyb 100% Violation of R2903A airspace.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 1:26:47 EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, preliminary results

Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 05:17:30 246.97 997
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 05:27:21 246.97 971
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144   229.64 815
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   223.80 802
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro   223.63 801
6 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro   219.65 787
7 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144   216.75 775
8 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5   183.13 696
9 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144   180.76 690
10 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1   175.51 675

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3009
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 2932
3 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2914
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2799
5 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2786
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2610
7 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 2563
8 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 2558
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2525

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 17, 2019, 10:26:30 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

The milk run to Williston

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/17.4.2019/17:09

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2246689

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

The sky is full, really full of dark cu's. Such a great promise for the day. We are excited to go to Williston, 110 kilometers to the northwest. The forecast is for an east wind at 14 mph, so it will be a cross wind task.

I'm pulled up early and pin off at 1,800' in 300+ fpm to cloud base at 4,600'. Unlike on Tuesday when we all crowded together there is lift every where and no need to get in each others way. It's perfectly pleasant to fly around and stick at cloudbase. And that's just what we all do.

The wind is blowing at least 12 if not 18 mph out of the east, so we keep tracking back up wind to not get blown out of the start cylinder. Six minutes before the 2 PM start window a bunch of us head to the northeast east of Groveland over highway 50 thinking we'll be in a good position for a start, up wind of the course line.

Only a few pilots take the 2 pm start time, not doubt one of them being Suan. The rest of us wait for the second start time at 2:20 PM and take it downwind of the course line, just east of Mascotte. Oh, well.

There are plenty of pilots, but no crowding. Finding the first lift is a bit of a core and some pilots find great lift, while many of us work 200 fpm west of Grass Roots. The field splits up. Finally Larry and I find 300 fpm to 5,000' northeast of Center Hill and race to the next thermal.

It's only 200 fpm and there are a good number of pilots out in front of us and leave with 4,300'. I'm out in front of Larry but there are half a dozen pilot heading for the 5 km turnpoint around Baron ahead of me.

Larry sees me falling fast goes left and finds 400 fpm behind me. I don't go back to him. I take the turnpoint at 2,600' and continue falling heading to the northwest along the Turnpike. I'm down to 1,100' AGL before I find the weak lift (155 fpm) over a new housing development. The wind is 13 mph from the east southeast and I'm drifting with the thermal for four kilometers getting to only 3,200'.

With lots of cu's around I head north but it's 6 kilometers before I find lift at 1,400' AGL. Again it's weak at 155 fpm on average, and I climb with a few other pilots to 3,200' once again before leaving.

I head out to the north northeast to get under some fast moving cu's over sun lit fields then spot pilots turning to my west. I join them and we go up at almost 400 fpm to 5,000'.

I head out over Marion Oaks but I'm down to 1,600' on the west side before big open fields to the west. I want to grab a thermal on the east side of the open fields as I would rather drift over them than over the treed area to the north and west. The wind is still blowing east southeast at 13 mph.

I find 300+ fpm and climb back to 5,000', cloud base. This gets me over the Florida Greenway and the populated areas to the northwest and to another nice thermal averaging 400 fpm to 5,400' again cloudbase. I'm just southeast of the optimized point on the 7 km turnpoint cylinder around the Dunnellon airfield and southwest of the Ocala airspace.

After taking the turnpoint I head north toward the next cu's and climb to 4,200', 21 km from goal. It looks like I might be able to make it. I get a 20 to 1 glide but 10 km from goal I'm down to 2,200' and it looks like it might be iffy. There is a dark cloud ahead but it is shading all the ground under and to the east of it along my course line. I'm thinking that maybe I won't find any lifting air there.

I turn upwind to the east to get over sunlit fields and find 100 fpm from 1,400' back to 2,500'. That's all I can get so I go on glide to find a nice tail wind and a 14:1 glide to goal.

Many happy pilots at goal. It was great how Suan took most of the available non distance points. Zac and Jonny tied. Mick Howard, who towed pilots up on his trike, launched his hang glider after the Sport Class launch and made it within 16 kilometers of goal.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 17, 2019, 9:01:58 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 4, task 3, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mark Dowsett|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

What a day. Suan starts early (first clock) and smokes the fields taking huge chunks of the speed, leading and arrival time points.

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 01:52:36 992
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:16:26 670
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:18:12 656
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:21 655
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:18:35 655
4 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 02:18:31 655
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:56 649
7 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:19:46 649
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:20:57 640
10 Malcolm Brown Wills Wing T3 144 02:26:38 614

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2266
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2209
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2001
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1989
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 1963
6 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 1920
7 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 1868
8 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1852
9 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1780
10 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 1749
11 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 1736
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1726
13 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 1662
14 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 1592
15 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 1526

All three women made goal. Sara made goal on her Sport 3.

Task 3 sport:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 00:37:56 847
2 Mark Dowsett Moyes Gecko 155 00:40:56 758
3 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 00:40:44 669
4 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 00:42:45 645
5 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 00:49:28 610
6 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 00:45:44 608
7 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 00:51:09 565
8 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 01:04:41 539
8 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 00:54:56 539
10 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 00:59:32 515

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 2301
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1724
3 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1603
4 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1599
5 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 1583
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1468
7 Mark Dowsett Moyes Gecko 155 1449
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1440
9 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 1412
10 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 1272

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 16, 2019, 10:03:09 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Another blue day with a little more wind than forecasted

Bobby Bailey|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2245839

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Tuesday

Sunny, with a high near 84. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Surface wind 9 decreasing to 7 mph, east, northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Wind TOUL: 6 mph, northeast
B/S: 10.0
Surface winds 5 mph northeast
Looks like a great day with light winds and a high TOL later in the day. No cu’s.

The task committee calls a box task to the northwest. The radii of the turnpoints are chosen very carefully to make it pilot friendly with available landing areas. For example, a three kilometer cylinder around Baron:

We don't have to fly over the swamp to the east and north.

I launch nineteenth just after Larry behind Bobby Bailey. He wraps it up tight low in lift to make his little tug climb, but I hold on any way until he takes me over to the forming gaggle to the north. It's 124 fpm to 3,400'. As I top out it's a little over half an hour before the window opens.

The 5 mph east wind is pushing us toward the edge of the start cylinder, but it's too early to go over there and get trapped against the western side. We hold back in light lift biding out time. I'm on the radio with Larry.

At 1:45 we are near the edge of the cylinder and working up to 3,700'. With the light wind we are able to stay close and take the first start gate at 1PM at 3,400'. A few pilots like Jonny and Zac will take the second gate twenty minutes later.

The thermals are very crowded and we hope to get away from other than a few pilots who we want to work as bird dogs. But for a while everyone sticks together and you are just lucky the out of control pilots, or the rude ones, don't hit you.

We are not going to get high, so it's game of of dare as we head out to the west to see if we can find the next thermal from 2,000'. It takes eight thermals to get to Kokee with a quartering tail wind from the northeast at 7 mph. We find between 100 fpm and 300 fpm climbing to 3,600'. The thermals are still full. Larry and I are working together.

The turnpoint after Kokee is off to the northeast which gives us a bit of a headwind at 6 mph. We're following about four pilots heading toward the town of Bushnell and getting lower and lower without a sign of lift. My neck is sore from all the craning around I'm doing to keep out of everyone's way.

Down to 1,400' AGL I look back to see pilots climbing a little over a kilometer behind me. Larry reports lift ahead but I'm feeling a little too low to make it there in the head wind. This is where we lose contact with each other (other than on the radio). I climb from 1,000' AGL to 3,500' along with half a dozen other pilots.

Pushing ahead I'm back down to 1,100' AGL after 7 kilometers but there are spotters out ahead finding the lift and I climb out at 300 fpm to 3,200'. The head wind continues to be a problem and it is a back and forth fight in weak lift by the landfill trying to make the next waypoint around Coleman north of the mines and west of the prisons. It takes 45 minutes to go 11 kilometers.

I tag the turnpoint at 1,500' and leave it at 2,800'. There are lots of houses in this new development to fly over but fortunately there is also a mine to the south of them. I find good lift over the mines and climbing in a 9 mph east northeast wind get to 4,200' at 250 fpm.

The next optimized turnpoint is due east. I've got some altitude to use. I'm by myself as Larry and his gaggle are ten kilometers ahead and moving slowly.

As I make it to the optimized point on the Baron cylinder five or six gliders come over me about 200 feet higher. Great, now I'll have some help. We tick the turnpoint and head south southeast. I haven't found much lift since leaving the good thermal that got me over 4,000'. We get lower and lower.

Crossing the turnpike to the southeast I see the lowest guy in front of me take one turn then head off with the others to get in a thermal on the north side of the turnpike. I'm down to 800 AGL and don't see any landing areas in that direction. I take a turn in the area where the previous pilot turned, but find just sink. But less sink than I was experiencing. I drift back and find 100 fpm at 700' AGL. I'm over huge open fields.

There is a good paved east/west road just half a kilometer to my north. I'm drifting at 10 mph to the west. There are open fields for 5 kilometers. If I stay up I know that I can get out fairly easily. I hang tight at 97 fpm.

Corinna flies right at my altitude right next to me but doesn't stop and thermal with me. She continues east and quickly lands. After a few minutes two gliders chase back to me from the group that had gone to the north of the turnpike and come in under me. I think it is Olav on a Moyes Litespeed and Hugo Rodriguez on a Combat. I get to hang with them just above them as we drift quickly west.

In twenty seven minutes we climb  to 4,000'. It's 5:15 PM. I follow Olav to the southeast where he finds a little lift. I move over to the small fire to the west but that gives only 50 fpm. I lose track of Olav and stick with Hugo as we head to the next fire. That one provides negative lift.

We head down the road that goes to Center Hill from Mascotte but soon run out of altitude and land in big fields. It looks like Olav got within one kilometer of goal.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 16, 2019, 8:13:34 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 3, task results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Tim Delaney|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 03:03:30 973
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:04:46 962
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 03:07:21 941
4 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:23:36 924
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 03:23:25 923
6 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 03:24:48 918
7 Tullio Gervasoni Wills Wing T3 144 03:24:44 912
8 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 03:25:56 908
9 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 03:27:31 898
10 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 03:33:22 874

All the Sandoli's (Nene and his two sons) made goal.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 1617
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1556
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 1516
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 1494
5 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 1401
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1382
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1374
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 1327
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1266
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1234

Sport class:

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 02:37:20 985
2 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 02:58:54 875
3 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 03:08:22 865

Cumullative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 1443
2 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 1169
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1145
4 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1071
5 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1051
6 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 961
7 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 899
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 820
9 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 787
10 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 755

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 15, 2019, 10:19:36 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 2, task 1

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|PG|Richard Lovelace|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.4.2019/18:13

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2245019

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190416&gliderclass=hg1

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
Surface wind 10 mph northwest.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 500 fpm
TOL: 3,300’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, northwest
B/S: 2.2
Surface winds:11 mph northwest

That forecast was brutal. We wouldn't get high, the winds would be strong, the lift wouldn't be that good.

We felt that it just would not be a good day. Blue, no cu's in the forecast, often difficult launch conditions with the westerly component.

Still the task committee called a couple of tasks for the sport class and for the open class, and the safety committee and safety director felt that the launch conditions were good, even with the wind almost directly west.

I'm sixth to launch in the right line at 2:13 PM. April takes me up and waves me off at 2,000' AGL. I search around and find 24 fpm then 45 fpm drifting east southeast at 10 mph and climbing to 2,300', slightly above the altitude that I pinned off at. This is progress.

Push up wind with other pilots to pilots circling and from 1,100' AGL, climb back again to pin off altitude at 113 fpm. Do this a couple more times not getting quite so low and then down to 1,400' AGL hook into a reasonable thermal at 230 fpm and climb to 3,200' drifting downwind outside the start cylinder to the east southeast at 3:00 PM, so over 45 minutes in the start cylinder basically just trying to stay up. The day has fulfilled the prognosis.

I climb a little more to 3,500' and then head out to the south southwest with others. Today is a day to stay with your friends. No cu's to mark lift. You've got to be careful and use other pilots to indicate where the lift is. Also hold on to any lift. Weak lift is better than no lift or worse.

The wind is pushing us hard to the east but we are slowly working our way west toward the course line. Pilots are pretty scattered but there are a few to hang with. The next four thermals: 150 fpm, 2,800' top, 83 fpm, 2,300' top, 44 fpm, 2,400' top, 106 fpm, 2500' top. These get us to highway 474. Not getting high reduces the chances of finding the next lift, but we seem to get lucky and there is lift out there.

I hook up with Richard Lovelace, Andrew Hollidge, and Malcolm Brown, the UK contingent. We work 101 fpm, 2,600', 123 fpm, 2,200', 166 fpm, 2,800', 176 fpm, 2,800'. That's 13 kilometers from 474 to Dean Still Road. The lift is getting better. We approach the left side of the 5 km cylinder around the Fantasy of Flight and find 196 fpm to 3,000' in a 14 mph cross wind breeze.

We split up and cross Interstate 4. I follow Andrew Hollidge toward some nice looking open fields after flying over lots of forested areas. He's getting lower and lower and I'm getting skeptical. I spot buzzard heading to the northwest (as I head southeast) and turn to follow him. He looks like he's on a mission and indeed he is. He finds the lift and I find it with him.

It's 265 fpm to 3,700', the highest point of the day, the best lift of the day, and only 30 kilometers from goal.

Now the trick is to stay high enough to be able to get to one of the few landing areas as I'm now alone and over built up housing areas. Thankfully there are a few open fields that allow for a reasonable search for thermals. The best lift seems to be downwind of the small lakes. You can see all the wind on the lakes and all the thermals that interrupt the smooth flow of the wind across the lakes.

About twenty kilometers out from goal I'm joined by Bruce Barmakian and Andrew Hollidge coming in at my altitude. We work broken lift often less than 100 fpm to stay between 2,600' and 2,900'. We're right on the course line in spite of the cross wind.

Twelve kilometers out we find 196 fpm and go on glide from 2,900'. It's good all the way into goal.

This day seems totally impossible. How could we get to Lake Wales in a strong cross wind with no cu's and rarely getting over 3,000? I just can't believe that we did it. We were obviously very lucky. Andrew said it was because we were willing to hang on to the lightest lift, like they do in England.

I certainly never ventured out in front and only went off on my own when the leader looked like he was in trouble and I saw a sign of good lift.

Five of the pilots making goal were flying the new Wills Wing T3's.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 01:55:40 682
2 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:56:32 674
3 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:13:26 616
4 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 02:14:38 613
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:18:51 603
6 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:24 602
7 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:32 601
8 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:26:00 587

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 14, 2019, 6:09:26 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

No task on the first day of week 1

record|US Nationals 2019|weather

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Today

A slight chance of showers between 11am and 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Windy, with a south southeast wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Surface wind 15 - 18 mph south southwest gusting to 20 – 24 mph.

At 8 am wind is 8 mph, as per forecasted

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,300’
Wind TOUL: 35 mph, south
B/S: 2.5
Surface winds: 18 mph south
Cloud base at 4,600’.

It rained a couple of times and there was some wind, but not as much as forecasted (the record from Leesburg airport):

Time
(edt)
Wind
(mph)
17:53 SW 13 G 21
16:53 S 10
15:53 S 10 G 21
14:53 S 13
13:53 S 10
12:53 S 17 G 23
11:53 S 14
10:53 S 12 G 21
09:53 S 14 G 22

The task was cancelled.

Getting ready for the ⁢2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Fri, Apr 12 2019, 11:01:40 pm EDT

We fly to Keystone, 150 km.

Bruce Barmakian|Gary Anderson|Larry Bunner|PG|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The flight:

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.4.2019/16:17

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2243108

The forecast:

https://OzReport.com/seweather.php

Today

Sunny, with a high near 89. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface wind 8 mph south southeast

HRRR 3, noon:

Updraft velocity: 500 fpm (other models show 600 fpm)
TOL: 3,600’ (other models show 4,000’ – 5,000’)
Wind TOUL: 19 mph, south southeast
B/S: 2.7
Surface winds: 8 mph south southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 800 fpm
TOL: 7,000’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, south southeast
B/S: 10.0
Surface winds: 10 mph south southeast
Cloud base at 6,300’
Convergence east of highway 301. Earlier starts preferred given southwest flows approaching course line after 3 pm.

Task:

Quest, 5000 m
Keystone, 400 m

Weather Underground showed rain at 2 PM north northeast of Ocala.

Larry Bunner launches first and I'm right behind him at 12:17 PM. Larry finds lift on the southwest corner of Wilotree Park and we climb at 200 fpm to 3,200'. That's not that great an altitude for our first jump over Groveland.

We head for a little cu that doesn't fulfill its promises and immediately turn west to get over the chicken coops and under some good looking cu's that indeed are working. We leave at near cloud base at 3,200' and find less than 100 fpm to the north under cu's. I finally chance it out further north and at 1,800' hit 600 fpm that averages 200 fpm over the climb to 4,400'. Larry joins me. We are drifting in a 10 mph south southeast wind just south of the Turnpike.

There is a series of dark cu's on a line paralleling the Turnpike to the northwest (which is where we want to go anyway), so we fly under them keeping our altitude loses in check and then find weak lift over the prisons. We continue to climb in weak lift checking all around under the sky full of cu's for better lift. We keep drifting to the north northwest just staying above 2,600' and sampling the lift that is on offer.

Finally, northwest of Wildwood, we find 300 fpm to 4,800'. Larry finds some better lift and is above me but when he leads out to the next thermal he doesn't find it at first and loses enough altitude to just get below me. I carefully milk the weak lift while he charges on ahead toward east Ocala. I'm able to stay high.

Working a couple of hundred feet per minute west of Leeward I see Larry coming back south under me to get over the sunlit fields and to get back up before going over the area of few landing spots. I'm high enough at 4,900' to head for the two fires that are burning the underbrush in the Ocala National Forest. I find 300 fpm just on the south side of the smoke plumes while Larry struggles to get up 9 km south of me.

By the time Larry gets up and to the smoke plumes, Tullio, Gary Anderson, and Mick Howard have caught up with him. I dawdle along hoping for Larry to catch up with me so that we can fly together. He can hear me on his radio, but his mic isn't working.

I fly to a dark cloud street going from the south southeast to the north northwest. It goes out over the big lakes, but for now it is a good path. I look ahead for where I can jump to the northeast to get under the cloud street to my east. I stay high. I climb to 5,300' at the end of the second cloud street.

I'm 43 km from goal and there is a blue hole in front of me with cu's far (10 km) to the east over swamp lands and the St. Johns River. It looks like the day is going to end soon. I take a 14 km glide with a bit of a turn to the northeast to get under some little wisps over landable fields east of Hawthorne. I'm down to 1,800'. I find 255 fpm under these almost cu's and climb back to 3,700', 27 kilometers from goal.

There continues to be a blue hole between me and the goal, as well as a big lake and lots of forest. I'm on my own as I can't hear from Larry, but he can hear me calling out the locations and climb rates.

I head to the northeast to try to get as near as possible to the cu's in that direction and also to get over landable fields. Down again to 1,800' I find 70 fpm and start turning in a 15 mph south southwest drift over non landable areas:

I'm only able to ride this thermal to 2,500'. The next landable field is 7 kilometers to the north, which to be sure is downwind. I don't want to chance it and head upwind to the fields just to my south.

I decide which field to land in but before I do I check out the possible lift to the south and east of the field. I can see good looking cu's overhead and a very small fire. I get there with 1,200' to find 260 fpm Climbing to 3,600' I'm confident of making the next landable field and keep searching for better lift.

I spot Gary Anderson to the north and get under him in a thermal going up at 400 fpm. This is way more than I need to get to goal.

Larry has caught me and made it in already. Garry gets there and after me Tullio and Mick. Later Bruce Barmakian who started much later and Phillip Michaud who flew from Wallaby.

Our competitions »

Wed, Dec 19 2018, 10:01:45 am EST

Listed

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pan-Americans 2020|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park XC 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

On Airtribune (where you register):

2019 Wilotree Park Cross Country

2019 Cross Country 101 Clinic details

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) details

2019 Big Spring Nationals (Pre-Pan-Americans) details

2020 World Championships details

1st Pan-American Championships and 2020 Pan-Americans details

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ozreport/events/

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx

Our competitions »

Tue, Dec 18 2018, 1:48:25 pm EST

Listed in every issue

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pan-Americans 2020|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park XC 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

2019 Wilotree Park Cross Country

2019 Cross Country 101 Clinic details

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassicdetails

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) details

2019 Big Spring Nationals (pre-Pan-Americans) details

2020 World Championships details

1st Pan-American Championships and 2020 Pan-Americans details

Oz Report events on Facebook

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx

NTSS returns to the USHPA web site

December 18, 2018, 9:22:27 EST

NTSS returns to the USHPA web site

They made a home for it, not just on the Oz Report

Bruce Barmakian|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|USHPA|Zac Majors

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-1

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-3

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-5

No sport class.

Pos Name Points Comp 1 Comp 2 Comp 3 Comp 4
1 Zac Majors 2257 582 Din2017 568 SCF2018 556 Mid2017 551 QAN2018
2 Robin Hamilton 2089 660 SCF2018 550 Mid2017 493 QO12016 386 BSN2018
3 John Simon 1895 660 Mid2017 437 QAN2018 401 QO12016 397 SCF2018
4 Bruce Barmakian 1775 599 Mid2017 437 SCF2016 416 QAN2018 323 SCF2018
5 Phil Bloom 1710 555 Mid2017 495 SCF2018 355 QAN2018 305 SCF2016
6 Kevin Carter 1666 486 Mid2017 459 SCF2016 376 QAN2018 345 SCF2018
7 Glen Volk 1611 555 Mid2017 409 QAN2018 337 SCF2018 310 SCF2016
8 Larry Bunner 1517 420 Mid2017 384 BSN2018 368 QO12016 345 SCF2018
9 Davis Straub 1472 466 SCF2018 387 BSN2018 314 QAN2018 305 QO12016
10 Patrick Pannese 1414 402 SCF2018 400 SCF2016 333 QAN2018 279 Mid2017
11 Kevin Dutt 1377 466 SCF2018 363 Mid2017 313 BSN2018 235 QAN2018
12 Dustin Martin 1291 567 SCF2018 362 Hom2017 362 SCF2016
13 Kipp Stone 1240 393 SCF2018 340 Mid2017 284 Din2017 223 BSN2018
14 Derrick Turner 1204 355 BSN2018 352 SCF2016 300 Mid2017 197 QAN2018
15 Mick Howard 1087 392 Mid2017 257 QO12016 225 BSN2018 213 QAN2018
16 Jeff Chipman 1085 362 Mid2017 304 SCF2018 249 QAN2018 170 SCF2016
17 Krzysztof Grzyb 1048 499 Mid2017 395 QAN2018 154 QO22016
18 JD Guillemette 1018 454 Mid2017 314 QO12016 250 QAN2018
19 James Stinnet 960 530 Mid2017 430 QO12016
20 Patrick Kruse 929 349 QO12016 323 QAN2018 257 BSN2018

Discuss "NTSS returns to the USHPA web site" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Events

Wed, Nov 28 2018, 9:11:08 am PST

As listed on Facebook

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ozreport/events/

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx

Even more registrations

Thu, Nov 15 2018, 9:57:50 am PST

Lots of pilots have signed up

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds)

79 registered, 13 confirmed

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2)

52 registered, 9 confirmed

2019 Big Spring Nationals (pre-Pan-Americans)

28 registered, 3 confirmed

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

10 registered, 2 confirmed

Huge turnout for registration

Mon, Nov 12 2018, 9:54:49 am PST

We did not expect this so early.

CIVL|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|XC 101 Clinic 2019

We opened registration for all our competitions in the first week of November (along with a few glitches). Well, you have responded, and your response is much more than we anticipated. We're able to handle it all, and it is very gratifying to see that so many pilots want to come to our competitions.

Quest Air Nationals and pre-Worlds (week 1): https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/info/details__info

67 pilots registered (14 from Brazil, 7 from Canada, 5 from Great Britain, 35 overall from outside the US)

Quest Air Nationals (week 2): https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/info/details__info

44 pilots registered (15 from Brazil, 3 from Canada, 2 from Great Britain, 24 overall from outside the US)

This really confirms our strategy of holding two one week competitions back to back to encourage non-US-based pilots to come the competitions.

The Cross Country 101 Clinic https://airtribune.com/2019-cross-country-101-clinic/info/details__info

4 pilots registered so far. We have always felt that it would take a while to get this filled out.

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/info/details__info

10 pilots registered. Last year we had over 50 pilots and 14 mentors. We expect to see similar numbers in 2019

2019 Big Spring Nationals (pre-Pan-Americans) https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info

24 pilots registered (10 non-US-based pilots). This competition isn't happening for 9 months so there is the least pressure on pilots to sign up so early. We had 70 pilots in 2018 and we expect even more in 2019 as the pre-Pan-Americans.

We will know in December what our tug resources are and so will keep everyone updated on the total number of places available in all the competitions. If there are limits on the total number of pilots which requires opening a waiting list, we will choose pilots allowed into the competition by the date that they are confirmed.

We have already met all the CIVL requirements for allowing non-US pilots into the competitions thanks to the strong turnout of pilots from Brazil and other countries. Thanks to you.

2019 Big Spring Nationals (and pre-Pan-Americans)

November 8, 2018, 8:31:33 PST

2019 Big Spring Nationals (and pre-Pan-Americans)

Registration is now open

cart|CIVL|Facebook|record|USHPA|US Nationals 2019|weather|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info

The 17th Big Spring Nationals, site of the 2007 World Hang Gliding Championship, the finest cross country hang gliding competition site in the World. Big Tasks (world records), smooth thermals, unrestricted landing areas, easy retrieval on multiple roads, consistent cumulus development at 1 PM, air conditioned head quarters, hanger for setup, free water and ice cream, welcome dinner, live tracking, many drivers available, strong safety record, highest pilot satisfaction rating.

Also easy airport access to Midland-Odessa airport, inexpensive accommodations, plentiful infrastructure (restaurants), great community support, superb meet director.

Pay $250 entry fee here: http://ozreport.com/2019BigSpringpay.php

Sign waivers: http://ozreport.com/onlinewaivers.php or: http://ozreport.com/waivers.php

Practice, Check-in and Welcome on Saturday, August 10th.

Live tracking with Flymaster trackers provided.

The competition is USHPA and CIVL sanctioned so USHPA NTSS and CIVL WPRS points will be awarded

Maximum 120 (60 class 1) pilots.

Helpful Instructions: http://ozreport.com/2019BigSpringhelpful.php

• Daily Prizes
• Event Tee-shirt
• Medical Emergency Service
• Food and drink for Competition Opening/Ceremony
• Brunch During Prize-giving Ceremony
• Separate mobile sized web page with organizer contact information
• Weaklinks
• Flymaster Tracker
• Live Tracking
• On-line Turnpoint Coordinates
• On-line airspace file
• On-line task maps
• Free Wi-Fi
• Weather Briefing on Pilots’ Phones
• Task Sent to Pilots’ Phones
• Access to Professional Retrieval Coordinators (Retrieval Goddess’s Retrieval Service)
• Hangar space for setup
• Free ice cream
• Free bottled water
• Use of an air-conditioned terminal/headquarters
• Port-a-potties
• Golf cart retrieval for landing near launch
• Lunch concession
• Pilot goody bags
• Help with finding accommodations

Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/274225953217983/

USHPA Competition Calendar for 2019

Wed, Oct 24 2018, 12:13:52 pm GMT

Approved by the BOD

Applegate Open 2019|Belinda Boulter|East Coast Championships 2019|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Jamie Shelden|Quest Air Nationals 2019|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|USHPA|US Nationals 2019|US Open of PG 2019

https://www.ushpa.org/page/competition-calendar

2019 Approved Sanctioned Competitions
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location:Quest Air, Sheets Field, Groveland, Florida
Event Dates:March 23 - 30, 2019
Register Dates:November 1, 2018 - March 23, 2019
Organizer:Belinda Boulder | «Belinda»

2019 Quest Air Nationals (PRE-WORLDS) - Week I
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location:Quest Air, Sheets Field, Groveland, Florida
Event Dates:April 13 - 19, 2019
Register Dates:November 1, 2018 - April 13, 2019
Organizer:Belinda Boulder | «Belinda»

2019 Quest Air Nationals - Week Ii
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location:Quest Air, Sheets Field, Groveland, Florida
Event Dates:April 20 - 27, 2019
Register Dates:November 1, 2018 - April 20, 2019
Organizer:Belinda Boulder | «Belinda»

2019 East Coast Hang Gliding Championship
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location: Ridgley, Maryland
Event Dates:June 8 - 15, 2019
Register Dates:November 1, 2018 - May 15, 2019
Organizer:Dan Lukaszewicz | «Lucky_chevy»

2019 Us Open Of Paragliding Chelan
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Pg Race To Goal

Location:Chelan Butte, Chelan, Washington
Event Dates:July 6 - 13, 2019
Register Dates:March 1, 2019 - July 6, 2019
Organizer:Matty Senior | «Mattysenior»

2019 Big Spring Nationals (PRE-PAN-AMERICANS)
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location:Mcmahon Wrinkle Airport, Big Spring, Texas
Event Dates:August 10 - 17, 2019
Register Dates:November 1, 2018 - August 10, 2019
Organizer:Belinda Boulder | «Belinda»

2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race - Mark Knight Memorial
A Ushpa National Championship Series Event*
Ushpa Sanctioned Hg Race To Goal - At

Location:Francisco Grande Golf Resort, Casa Grande, Az
Event Dates:September 15 - 21, 2019
Register Dates:December 15, 2018 - August 15, 2019
Organizer:Jamie Shelden | «Naughtylawyer»

* Pilots attending a race to goal USHPA National Championship Series event are encouraged to get an FAI Sporting License at least 14 days prior to the event, available through NAA.

Discuss "USHPA Competition Calendar for 2019" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The top six on the first day of the 2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

October 10, 2018, 9:45:25 MDT

The top six on the first day of the 2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A task set for racing and getting pilots to goal

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter

At 3:19:15 PM I'm 5 kilometers out from the edge of the 1 km goal cylinder around the Francisco Grande at 2678', or 1339' AGL. I'm heading into a 5 mph head wind. I've just flown for 12.3 km from an altitude of 7167' for 10:39 minutes at a ground speed of 43 mph (therefore a true air speed of 48 mph) at an L/D of 9:1. I'm about to enter an area of lift. I'm far in the lead overall.

5.5 km behind me is Ollie Chitty the second closest pilot at 5738' flying at 55 mph ground speed. He's got the goal cylinder made easily from his altitude and can fly as fast as possible.

I'm the green line.

Ollie is the red line.

The question after the fact is could I have made the goal flying at best fly to glide (into a head wind) without stopping for lift? Or could I have made it with taking just a little bit of lift?

With 3.1 miles to goal (or 16,368') I would need 12.2:1 glider ratio to make it there. I certainly could have slowed down from 48 mph to get a better glide ratio and I might have made it at 12.2:1.

At 3:21:16, two minutes of thermaling later, I was at 3,036' or 1697' AGL. I would have required only a glide radio of 9.7:1 to make it in. Ollie was still 2.5 km behind me.  But he was flying at 56 mph ground speed. I would no doubt glide at 40 mph ground speed or less going into goal from there. I would take 4.65 minutes to get to goal. Ollie would have taken 4.95 minutes. No doubt he could have sped up even further if he saw me in front and down below him conserving my altitude in order to just make it to goal.

The key overall values for the day:

Finish Glider L/D Average Gliding Ground Speed Altitude Start Altitude Gain (gliding)
(mph) (feet) (feet)
Ollie 1st Moyes RX 5 Pro 13.8 44 6543 1867
Davis 2nd Wills Wing T2C 144 12.6 44 6531 1214
Phil 3rd Moyes RX 3.5 13.7 45 6540 3504
Jonny 4th Moyes RX 4 Pro 14.1 40 6661 2828
Patrick Pannese 5th Wills Wing T2C 144 16.2 40 6499 3550
Kevin Carter 6th Wills Wing T2C 144 15.4 42 6142 3796

Number of Thermals Percent Time Thermaling Average Climb Rate Altitude Gain Thermaling Net Altitude Gain (thermaling and gliding) Time
(fpm) (feet) (feet)
Ollie 12 44 273 13743 14588 1:45:32
Davis 12 43 305 14715 15368 1:47:46
Phil 12 45 257 13668 15974 1:47:24
Jonny 10 38 296 13202 15403 1:50:37
Patrick Pannese 15 38 261 13061 14803 1:52:40
Kevin Carter 13 39 265 13553 15758 1:54:22

Zac Majors is the 2018 US National Champion

September 24, 2018, 12:22:30 pm MDT GMT-0600

Zac Majors is the 2018 US National Champion

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

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

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race results:

Pos Name Score Points
1 Robin Hamilton 3810 660
4 Zac Majors 3607 568
5 Dustin Martin 3604 567
7 Phil Bloom 3145 495
8 Davis Straub 2964 466
9 Kevin Dutt 2962 466
10 Mitchell Shipley 2829 445
11 Ben Dunn 2637 415
12 Patrick Pannese 2556 402
13 John Simon 2523 397
14 Kipp Stone 2499 393
15 Greg Kendall 2359 371
16 Wayne Michelsen 2307 363
17 Larry Bunner 2197 345
18 Kevin Carter 2194 345
20 Glen Volk 2144 337
21 Bruce Barmakian 2053 323
22 Jeff Chipman 1933 304
24 Sergey Kataev 1145 180
25 Mick Howard 1102 173
26 Austin Marshall 1087 171
27 ian Snowball 965 151
28 Luke Waters 894 140
29 Kevin Kernohan 795 125
30 Bill Bennett 654 102
31 Alex Tatom 405 63

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

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

Partial results from the 2018 Big Spring Nationals:

Pos Name Score Points
2 Davis Straub 2327 387
4 Robin Hamilton 2316 386
5 Larry Bunner 2305 384
7 John Simon 2170 361
8 Derrick Turner 2134 355
9 Zac Majors 2074 345
10 Kevin Carter 2023 337
11 Kevin Dutt 1880 313
12 Nathan Wreyford 1828 304
13 Glen Volk 1810 301

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

Results from the 2018 Quest Air Nationals.

https://ozreport.com/22.127#0

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

The top five finishers for the 2018 US National Championship:

Zac = 551 + 568 = 1,119

Robin = 386 + 660 = 1,046

Davis Straub = 387 + 466 = 853

Phil Bloom = 355 + 495 = 850

John Simon = 437 + 361 = 798

The procedure for determining the US National Champion:

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

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2018, 10:10:58 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:43:20 70.37 682
2 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 01:43:38 70.37 676
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 01:43:49 70.37 673
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 01:44:46 70.37 666
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:58:05 70.37 607
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:10:34 70.37 539
7 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144   53.79 401
8 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T2C 144   50.62 366
8 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro   50.16 366
10 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5   49.97 363

Final Results:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 3810
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 3692
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 3620
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 3607
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 3604
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 3313
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 3145
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2964
9 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2962
10 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2829
11 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 2637
12 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 2556
13 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2523
14 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 2499
15 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2359
16 Wayne Michelsen Icaro Laminar 2307
17 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 2197
18 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 2194
19 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 2179
20 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 2144

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

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

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

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 21, 2018, 6:54:50 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

More weakness, but none the less glory

competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

The task committee thought that the day would be pretty good and that the weakness from the previous day would be relegated to a distant memory. It would turn out to be the case that once again the lift would be weak and the top of lift would be low, at least where we would start our flying at the Francisco Grande.

The task set was heroic:

The idea was to head east against a 7 mph head wind and then, if you can make it there, get high on the mountain north of the sailplane port at Estrella, coming back with a tailwind.

With the first start window open at 1:30 PM I launched at 12:55 PM. Even with the light lift I only took the tow to 1,600' and pinned off in light lift with a couple of pilots.

The lift was indeed quite light and the first three thermals averaged 95 fpm, 86 fpm, and 129 fpm. There were just a few pilots around, maybe ten, and I got to only 3,600', or 2,300' AGL.

We were still in the center of the start cylinder with eight minutes to go before the start clock having been pushed back by the west northwest wind and I headed out with three other pilots to the north west to see if we could get closer to the optimum start point and also find better lift.

After gliding about 4 kilometers and finding nothing we all turned around with me as the lowest. Coming back and trying to get near a road in case I landed I found lift at 500'. I was by myself with everyone else high and down wind of me. 130 fpm felt like a strong thermal and climbed right up to all the other pilots at 4,000' without any issues. It was great to be by myself just turning in the best rising air.

Now we all headed north west again, aiming for the second start time at 1:50 PM. A 30 fpm thermal kept me above 3,800'. The next thermal, all of 66 fpm only got me to 3,200'. I was climbing terribly. I wasn't able to climb through anyone and there were twenty pilots in the gaggle, which severely restricted my options.

Heading north west again I was down to 900' AGL as three pilots landed below me. Half the pilots in the last gaggle were here with a few hanging back two kilometers to get the third start time. I joined other pilots in a 64 fpm thermal Again it was terrible. Very weak, only a small portion of the turn was actually in lift.

I was near the bottom of the stack. I was not climbing well and not getting up to where I needed to be. When all my turns were in sink I headed out with four other pilots, but I was by far the lowest at 2,900' (1,600' AGL).

That didn't last long and I found a good field to land in next to the highway.

Other pilots stayed up in the weak conditions very slowly moving against the headwind. They huddled together in groups of four or five. Only eleven pilots were able to get more than 10 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder. Ten of them were able to cross the flats getting to Estrella where the mountains were working. Some got to at least 10,000'.

As we arrived back at the Francisco Grande hotel, Jonny, Ollie, and Tyler were arriving over the hotel. They had made it around. A great day for them.

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

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:40:07 80.76 605
2 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:57:39 80.76 553
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 02:59:49 80.76 545
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 03:02:16 80.76 540
5 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 03:02:16 80.76 536
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 03:03:20 80.76 534
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 03:10:44 80.76 520
8 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13   73.08 381
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C   76.10 365
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144   65.99 362

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 3326
2 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 3134
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 3081
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2938
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2925
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2782
7 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2694
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 2640
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2428
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2357

In the Swift Class, Greg, Chris and Brian made it back to the hotel.

David Aldrich got outside the start cylinder for 10 kilometers (coming low over my head into a landing) as the only Sport Class pilot to get outside the start cylinder. He got 8 points for that effort.

Fred Kaemerer was the only ATOS class pilot to make it around the course.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 20, 2018, 10:18:21 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The weakness after the rain storm

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 36.98 229
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 36.00 227
3 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 35.34 224
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 35.22 223
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 35.25 223
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 33.24 206
7 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 31.39 192
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 29.93 184
8 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 29.72 184
10 Jeff Chipman Moyes Litespeed S4T 29.77 182

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

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2722
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 2690
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2521
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2355
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 2301
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2297
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2168
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2134
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2125
10 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 2069

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

Only two Sport Class pilots got outside the start cylinder.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2018, 9:12:12 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 2 results

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

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

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

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:51:44 89.46 996
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 02:52:02 89.46 987
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 03:09:08 89.46 891
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:08:43 89.46 884
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:18:34 89.46 839
6 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 03:22:08 89.46 816
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 03:43:09 89.46 765
8 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144   86.50 630
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5   77.42 608
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144   77.92 602

Cumulative:

  Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 985 987 1972
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 806 996 1802
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 789 891 1680
4 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 766 816 1582
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 944 608 1552
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 946 602 1548
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 734 765 1499
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 875 599 1474
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 823 586 1409
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 850 526 1376

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2018, 9:10:52 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 2

Bobby Bailey|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018

The task committee called a 90 kilometer task, 20 kilometers longer than the first task. But the winds were forecasted to be stronger than the light to no winds from Sunday. The winds turned out to be northwest at 7 to 9 mph. The task set us way to the east so we had a long slog coming back to the Francisco Grande.

The Monday task:

Bobby Bailey drug me into the air and I pinned off at 1,400' AGL to start climbing at an average of 370 fpm to 5,500'. The next thermal took me to 7,100' so the day was already better lift wise than Sunday.

Unfortunately, the lift after that wasn't nearly as nice and I wasn't able to get quite as high before the start opened at 1:40. Probably twenty pilot started together at around 6,000'.

Even though it was off the course line we headed east southeast toward the Casa Grande mountains and catching the south end of them climbed to back to 6,000' at 330 fpm. There was plenty of company. I would fly the whole flight with Glen Volk although he wasn't that aware of it as I almost always seemed to be just above him.

It was south southeast to the Sunlan turnpoint and I glided fifteen kilometers chasing a dust devil that was pretty weak after I found it, but it got me and a few others around to 5,600'.

The next turnpoint was Newman Peak, the mountains to the east. We had to go through a lot of flatlands and then be able to get there high enough so that we didn't have to climb up from the bottom of the mountains. We took some weak lift in a couple of thermals just to get high enough to feel comfortable heading into the mountain side.

A good number of pilots were in front of us and staying further to the north of our line. It would appear that a few of them went down before Neman Peak including Jonny Durand and John Simon. As I watched them out in front I shaded off to the south just taking a different line as it seemed that they weren't finding anything.

There was lift at the mountain but not great lift, but no turbulent either. The first thermal below the peak was only 230 fpm, but the one above it was only 340 fpm to 6,200'. I was hoping for a much stronger thermal and much higher. This is not why we go to the mountains here in the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Now we had to turn and face the wind. We (Glen and I) glided for 9 kilometers with nothing to show for it. I spotted a pilot turning to our south and came in under him at 1,000' AGL. Glen came in lower.

We spent twenty minutes in 190 fpm climbing back to 6,000' and drifting back to the southeast. We were way south of the course line.

The next thermal, which started just south of where we started the previous thermal, was much improved at 400 fpm. It was almost 3:40 PM, two hours since the start gate opened and we were finally getting back on track. We climbed to over 7,000'.

The next thermal at 500 fpm got us again to 7,000' We were just west of Arizona city. I saw 800 fpm (20 second average) briefly on the Flytec 6060. It was almost 4 PM.

The idea was to get high enough to make it over the Casa Grande mountain and then climb there and get to goal. I worked 360 fpm to 6,000' 8 kilometers from the mountains and felt I had enough to make it. Unfortunately Glen missed out and wasn't able to join Kevin Carter, Felix Cantesanu and I as we headed for the mountains.

We got there with about 3,000' at about 4:15 PM but there was little to no lift there, even though we were at the top of the ridge. We worked broken lift for a while but it never got going. We landed just west of the mountains.

Dustin and Larry came over us half an hour later about 2,000' over the top of the ridge. Dustin made goal.

Seven pilots made goal.

Dusties around here appear to be very weak:

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2018, 6:22:12 MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 1 results

competition|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Zac Majors

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

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 01:46:22 981
2 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:48:17 942
3 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 01:48:09 940
4 Jonny Durand Moyes LSRX 3.5 PRO 01:50:52 915
5 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 01:53:05 872
6 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 01:55:30 871
7 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 01:46:29 857
8 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 01:56:00 845
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 01:55:56 818
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:49:41 787

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2018, 9:37:07 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 1 is just a lot of fun for almost everyone

dust devil|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mike Degtoff|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|weather

The task committee committed to a 75 km task before they came up with the task. The idea was to do a shorter task to get lots of pilots back to goal to start the competition with smiles all around. And besides the days are short now that it is mid September with Sunrise at 6:12 AM and Sunset is 6:33 PM.

Launch opened at 12:15 for the Swifts and ATOSes and 12:30 for the open pilots and the sport class started after them. We expected the lift to stop around 4 or 5 PM. With the first start gate at 1:40, that leaves two hours and twenty minutes to carry out the task. It's got to be short. This is not Big Spring.

With Larry Bunner stuck at the airport in Phoenix with a bomb scare, I subbed in as the weather man and the guy with SeeYou for task setting. We had half an hour to come up with a task among six people. Given a deadline like that it was easy to cut off debate.

The weather called for 500-700 fpm, light winds, top of lift going from 6,000' to 8,000' during the afternoon. The task committee came up with this 75 km task:

I was set to launch 10th, but the pilots in front of me were really reluctant to get going. I don't know what the story was. Finally I launched after a few pilots as I was ready to go. I pinned off at 1,400' AGL in 140 fpm. It took about 15 minutes to find 300 fpm to 5,900'. There were a few pilots around including Glen Volk and Patrick Pannese.

The top of lift kept rising and I was lucky enough to keep rising with it in weak lift getting to 7,000' just before the 1:40 PM start gate opened. 

I was out early with Jonny Durand and another pilot and they quickly let me take the lead. It was only 7.5 km to the optimized point on the cylinder around the next waypoint to the southeast. I hit it almost perfectly and turned east to go to the Casa Grande hills just south of town.

I found 200 fpm just before the hills but kept going when I saw Jonny go to the hills. He was above me and so was another pilot. The lift was 265 fpm just on the west side of the hills and Jonny and Kevin Carter were climbing above me. I had about four or five other pilots nearby including Glen Patrick, Ollie Chitty and Phil Bloom.

With Jonny and Kevin leaving before we got up we climbed to 6,400', spread out and headed east northeast to the next 400 meter radius turnpoint at Grogan. We found over 300 fpm up to 6,600' half way to there. As we approached the goal Jonny and Kevin were below us and turning.

We came in just under them them after the turnpoint but they got high over us again and headed out south southwest to the turnpoint at Sunland. We followed and about ten of us worked scattered 360 fpm lift about 7 kilometers down the course line to 6,900'. Five kilometers later four or five of us averaged 500 fpm to 7,300', the highest we'd been and the strongest lift.

As we approached the turnpoint another 7 km further south we saw Kevin and Jonny a ways below us heading north. The goal was to the north northwest. Glen and I made the turnpoint and headed north to get over Kevin and Jonny but didn't see them.

Instead of going along the course line Glen and I were heading for the Casa Grande hills. After a short climb back to 5,800' I glided into the hills at 2,600'. That was plenty to get over the lower ridges and I climbed with Glen who was just a little bit behind at 400 fpm to 7,200'. I could see a few pilots working along the course line out in the flats to our west.

We left the thermal when we were still climbing at almost 400 fpm with our instruments showing that we had goal by less than 10:1 and by over 1,500'. That was a mistake as we could have taken the thermal probably to 8,000'. We were facing a 5 mph northwest wind to goal. We were 17 kilometers out.

At 5.6 km out I was down to 1,300' AGL. Even with a 1 km goal cylinder it didn't look like I was going to make it. I fortunately found a nice semi-weak thermal at 260 fpm. Of course, at this point I held on to it a little too long climbing to 4,100'. Glen was behind me also fighting the head wind and working his way back up.

With plenty of altitude I headed fast for goal at 50+ mph air speed. I could see a shadow just in front of me of another pilot. I pulled in to go as fast as possible to see if I could catch the shadow. The glider was below me and just to my left but I could not see it, only the shadow. I couldn't quite catch him.

Turns out Ollie Chitty, Phil Bloom and I were first into goal. Jonny came along a bit later. Glen made it in also about 5 minutes later as did other pilots.

The launch crew saved a glider from a dust devil (Mike Degtoff photo):

Because we got back before 3:30 PM, we had plenty of time to relax. People were hanging out at the pool and drinking beers in the pool and just smiling and talking and enjoying the evening after a day that saw 107 degrees. I flew with two light under shirts and speed sleeves and it was marvelous.

2018 Big Spring Nationals

August 9, 2018, 12:38:58 pm CDT GMT-0500

2018 Big Spring Nationals

Task 3 results so far

Attila Bertok|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|Cody Dobson|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Greg Chastain|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2018|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2018-big-spring-national-series/results

Open class:

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:47:16 967
2 Zac Majors USA T2C 144 02:56:43 945
3 Derreck Turner USA Moyes Litespeed RX5 03:04:59 908
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:14:13 864
5 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:18:54 848
6 Erick Salgado MEX RX 5 03:21:24 839
7 Patrick Kruse USA T2C 144 03:43:43 774
8 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T2C 04:08:44 724

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes RX 5 Pro 2801
2 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2323
3 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 13 2314
3 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T2C 144 2314
5 Larry Bunner USA Wills Wing T2C144 2303
6 Erick Salgado MEX RX 5 2253
7 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 2161
8 Derreck Turner USA Moyes Litespeed RX5 2126
9 Zac Majors USA T2C 144 2073
10 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T2C 2013

Sport class:

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Zachary Hazen USA Moyes Gecko 170 01:42:46 976
2 Matt Pruett USA WW U2 145 01:54:13 876
3 Pete Wall CAN Wills Wing U2C 160 02:05:15 819
4 Charles Cozean USA Wills Wing U2 144 02:11:40 791

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Matt Pruett USA WW U2 145 2846
2 Zachary Hazen USA Moyes Gecko 170 2238
3 Pete Wall CAN Wills Wing U2C 160 1763
4 Dan Lukaszewicz USA Wills Wing U2 c 160 1677
5 Charles Cozean USA Wills Wing U2 144 1574
6 Adam Smith USA Wills Wing U2 145 1565
7 Sara Weaver USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1543
8 Tim Delaney USA Wills Wing Sport 2 135 1533
9 Mitch Sorby USA Wills Wing UltraSport 147 1512
10 Jose Sandoval GUA U2 160 1508

Swift class:

# Name Nat Glider Time km/h Distance Total
1 Greg Chastain USA Bright Star Swift 01:40:25 61.7 107.44 952
2 Chris Zimmerman USA Aeriane Swift 01:41:59 60.8 107.44 929
3 Brian Porter USA Bright Star Swift 02:02:30 50.6 107.44 602
4 Cody Dobson USA Bright Star Millennium     76.57 449

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Chris Zimmerman USA Aeriane Swift 2929
2 Greg Chastain USA Bright Star Swift 2338
3 Brian Porter USA Bright Star Swift 2122
4 Cody Dobson USA Bright Star Millennium 1350
5 Stephen Morris USA Bright Star Swift 558

What's the future?

Wed, Jul 25 2018, 7:58:03 am MDT

Looking ahead to 2020

CIVL|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Jamie Shelden|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|World Championships 2020

You might have noted this article https://OzReport.com/22.145#1 which was a call from CIVL to prospective meet organizers about international category 1 competitions in 2020 and 2021. Which means test event next year and in 2020. And CIVL wants to see the bids for those 2020 events within a little over five weeks. For the 2021 events by the end of the year. And preparing a bid is no simple matter.

Doesn't give one much time to plan and think about what pilots might want and that's the first thing a prospective meet organizer needs to look at. Now holding a Category 1 competition in European is a no brainer. The place is stuffed with multiple countries and multiple pilots and they can all get together for a competition. Last week we had the Class 1 European and Class 5 World Championships and next week it is the pre-Worlds. You could easily trip and fall down hurting yourself trying to get around these competitions. This doesn't include the ongoing European Paragliding Championships right now.

But, try to put together a World Championship in the US or other North or South American country and things are a lot tougher. We last held a class 1 Worlds in the US in 2007 in Big Spring, Texas. It was very successful as we have great flying conditions there.

We are right now in the process of creating bids to CIVL for a number of category 1 competitions:

2nd FAI Sport Class, and 14th FAI Women's, and 8th FAI Class 5 World Hang Gliding Championships
Sunday, April 19th, 2020 to Friday May 1st, 2020
Wilotree Park, 6548 Groveland Airport Road Groveland, Florida, USA

and:

1st Class 1, Sport Class, Women's, Class 5 and Class 2 Pan-American Hang Gliding Championships
Sunday, August 2nd, 2020 to Friday, August 14th, 2020
Big Spring McMahon-Wrinkle Airport, 3200 Rickabaugh Drive, W. Big Spring, Texas

These are combined events.

As you can see we are being very ambitious. In addition, we would have to put on test events:

There are two possible test events in 2019 for the first competition. The first is the 2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic. Saturday, March 23rd, 2019 through Saturday, March 30th, 2019 and the second: 2019 Quest Air Nationals, Saturday April 13th through Sunday, April 27th, 2019. Next year

For the Pan-American: 2019 Big Spring Nationals,
Saturday, August 3rd through Saturday, August, 10th, 2019.

As you can see from the numbering scheme this would be the first time ever that anyone has run a Pan-American Hang Gliding Competition. There have been three Pan-American Paragliding competitions.

But some Europeans are very skeptical about whether anyone (they mean other Europeans) would be willing to go to any of these competitions (travel expenses and all).

So we have to ask, are you interested in any of these competitions? We have to tell the CIVL Bureau in advance that there is in fact interest in these competitions, before they will consider letting us put them on. So, you need to send Davis an email to davis and he's at davisstraub.com and tell him that you are interested in coming to one or more of these competitions. Also send your email to Jamie Shelden «naughtylawyerelektratow

We realize that this is almost an impossible ask on our part. Who knows what they want to do in two years? But please if you have any desire to come to these competitions please email to davis. Also please spread the word around. Without your interest they are not going to happen.

We'll report more on CIVL and the upcoming competitions again, soon.

The life of a meet organizer

Thu, Jul 19 2018, 6:05:28 pm MDT

I completed 120 pages of documents just for the insurance part of the competitions that we have organized

CIVL|Larry Bunner|Midwest Championships 2017|video|weather

And we are forever grateful to be able to follow the original work done by Larry Bunner for the Midwest 2017 competition. Here is the required bid information for a Category 1 competition. You have until September 1st to fill this out and submit your bid.:

https://www.fai.org/document-compression/24747

Annexe A – Bid Information


  • The following information must be provided in support of your bid.
  • A bid will be refused if some of the information is missing.
  • This template has to be followed: same items in the same order.
  • Additional information of the bidder’s choice may also be included at the end of the bid (see point 35)

  • This document will form part of the FAI Organiser Agreement. It is binding. Key information (like the entry fee) cannot be changed later without CIVL Bureau and Plenary consent.
  • Documentation required in support of the bid is noted in Annexe B.
  • Outline of the budget must follow the template as per Annexe C.

1. Name of Championship

See FAI document: Naming FAI Competitions available at: http://www.fai.org/fai-documents under Organising an Event.

2. Location(s) of Championship

3. Proposed Dates of Championship

4. Competition allowing the organiser to bid

State here which competition allows you to bid.

To be eligible, the NAC making the bid shall, as a minimum, have held a national championship or FAI Category 2 competition with a minimum entry of 50 pilots for Cross Country events or 30 pilots for Accuracy and Aerobatics events, on the proposed site(s) within the four years before the bid is received.

5. Local Organiser (LOC)

Party designated in the Organiser Agreement who will have contractual responsibility for organising the event, and will sign the Organiser Agreement.

The party has written approval and endorsement of the holder of the Sporting Powers (see point 6).

6. Sporting Power

Party having the sporting power in your country.

  • It can be the National Airsport Control (NAC).
  • It can be another entity (a federation for instance) to which the NAC has delegated its sporting powers. If this is the case, a letter of information has to be sent by the entity to the NAC.

The Sporting Power will also have to sign the Organiser Agreement

7. Detailed Schedule of Championship

  • Free and official training days.
  • Registration.
  • Mandatory Safety Briefing.
  • Opening ceremony.
  • Mandatory training task.
  • Championship flying days.
  • Closing ceremony.

8. Organisers, Directors and Key Officials

Include brief note on qualifications, experience, languages, etc.

For all events:

  • Organisation/Event Director.
  • Meet Director.
  • Safety Director.
  • Meteorologist.
  • Launch (or drop) Marshal.

For Cross Country:

  • Scorer.
  • Live Tracking Manager.
  • Goal Marshal.

9. CIVL Coordinator, Steward, Judges, Jurors

  • At the time of the bid, the CIVL Coordinator will be the CIVL President or the appropriate Committee Chairperson. If the bid is accepted, the Coordinator will be the CIVL Steward as soon as he is appointed.
  • In Accuracy, the Chief Judge and Event Judges will be appointed by CIVL in consultation with the LOC. The Chief Judge will then appoint other Judges in consultation with the LOC. All Judges should be the same at the test event and at the event.
  • In Aerobatic, the Chief Judge will be appointed by CIVL in consultation with the LOC. The Chief Judge will then appoint other Judges in consultation with the LOC. All Judges should be the same at the test event and at the event.
  • The CIVL Jurors will be appointed in due time by the CIVL Bureau.

10. Pilots Entry

Specify the maximum number of pilots allowed overall.

You may want to justify this number in relation to the site and flying conditions.

Reminder:

The maximum number of pilots per nation and the team size will be defined in the championship Local Regulation, which is subject to CIVL approval.

11. Entry Fee

Define the Entry Fee for the Championship:

  • For Pilots.
  • For Teams Leaders and Assistants.
  • What is included in Entry Fee.

Reminder: See Section 7 Common 5.1.2 for the minimum expected to be included in the Entry Fee.

Define what will be optional or subject to additional charges, such as tow fees, retrieve, lunch packs, equipment hire, etc.

12. Test Event

  • Dates of Test Event.
  • Pilot qualifications (open selection or specific criteria if any).
  • Entry fee for Pilots, Teams Leaders and Assistants.
  • What is included in Entry Fee. (see 11. above)

Reminder:

See Section 7 Common 2.4.5 and 12.1.1 for general requirements.

See Section 7 Common 12.3.1 for the minimum International Participation required.

13. Launch sites

Add general comments on suitability of sites for proposed event, competition history, accessibility, availability, permission for use.

For each site, list:

  • Take-off direction(s).
  • Height above valley.
  • Configuration, surface, size of take-offs and rigging/preparation areas.
  • Number of ramps.
  • Hazards (cables, pylons, trees, etc.).
  • Facilities (car park, shelter/shade, water, refreshments, toilets, etc.). 

For winch/aero tow sites:

  • Airfield details, size, wind directions, facilities, etc.

For Accuracy:

  • Height difference between take off and target area.

For Aerobatic:

  • Height above water when reaching the flying ‘box’.

14. Distance/access to launch site(s)

  • Road access: for cars or only 4-wheel drive vehicles or organisers trucks?
  • Cable car or mountain railway to take-off area?
  • Parking available part way up?
  • Organiser transport arrangements to sites.

For Accuracy and Aerobatic:

  • Shuttle time from the landing area to take-off area.

15. Task flying area XE "Task flying area"

  • Type and suitability of terrain.
  • Unlandable and built up areas difficult to avoid.
  • Suitable goal landing fields and height AMSL.
  • Suitable ‘bomb-out’ .
  • Local road quality for retrieves, road traffic problems.
  • Any prohibited flying or landing areas.
  • Include a map or a link to an online map showing airspace, turnpoints, major features, typical tasks (see Annexe A).

For Accuracy and Aerobatics:

  • Target location and specificities.

16. Airspace XE "Airspace"

  • Free to what height above take-off and task flying areas?
  • What limitations? Restricted/prohibited areas?
  • What permission or exclusions required? How likely to be granted?
  • Frontier crossing arrangements?

17. Weather

  • Details of any sites prone to low clouds, possibility of wave or foehn, best time of day for thermal upslope, possibility of residual lift late in the afternoon, known turbulence areas.
  • Weather data and type of conditions to expect during the period selected for the event.
  • Recommended maximum wind speed: on launch and for task flying.

18. Meteorology XE "Meteorology"

  • What arrangements will be in place for daily forecasts during the event and the relevant experience of the forecaster.
  • Details of satellite weather monitoring, most reliable web resources for forecasts, automatic wind station monitoring, webcams, etc.

19. Transport XE "Retrieves"

  • Details of transport provided to launch, organisation vehicles, vehicles to be provided by competi­tors, etc.
  • How retrieve/check-in will be organised.

20. Safety issues

In general:

  • Local meteorological conditions (areas of rotor, strong valley winds, etc.) or local terrain features (pylons). 
  • Task setting/task style/scoring ideas to compensate.
  • Comments on pilot qualifications/skill levels required.
  • Details of any fatalities or serious accidents on the site or in the task flying area in the past 5 years.

21. Rescue XE "Rescue" /Medical Services

  • Information on experience of on-site doctor/paramedic, first aid arrangements, medical first response in tasks area.
  • Helicopter availability including response times.
  • Helicopter landing space for each site.

22. Safety Management Plan

States here what your safety management plan will be.

Reminder:

FAI has published ‘Guidelines in the event of a casualty or of a serious accident’. Please be aware of this document and its sections:

  • Advise Regional ATC Centre and also local ATC organisation.
  • Raise NOTAM.
  • Insurance to cover liability, rescue charges, etc.
  • Advise local police.
  • Advise local ambulance, hospital and other medical services.
  • Arrange medical doctor rota to cover the event also to cover any post-mortem
  • examination and inquest.
  • Arrange site facilities, including a control room and incident room.
  • Appoint officials: Event Director and Deputy Director, Event Safety Officer, Public Relations Officer.
  • Investigate laws, rules and procedures that apply at the event site or sites, for accidents, injuries, fatalities and air accidents.
  • Make plans for dealing with accidents and incidents: release of names, control actions, incident log, official statements after the event, immediate actions, follow-up actions, dealing with press and media, witnesses, details of injured or deceased, National accident investigation procedures, continuance of event, facilities for victim’s team, report to FAI; Injury, illness or death of participants or spectators.

23. Transmissions

  • Radio XE "Radios" s: details including any restriction on frequencies or types of radio, particularly 2m, and any licence requirements.
  • Mobile/Cell ‘Phone Coverage: availability of local SIM cards. Details of best network coverage within the competition area.

24. Liaison with police, military, public services

  • Their familiarity with this type of event. Past experience? Assistance expected?

25. Insurance XE "Insurance"

  • Insurance requirements pilots will be required to provide (third party, personal, repatriation…).
  • Detail of what will be available to be purchased on site.
  • Details of Organisers’ Liability cover for the event (including public liability and CIVL officials).

Reminder:

The LOC must arrange insurance coverage in an adequate amount in connection with the event including public liability insurance meeting the applicable legal specifications. This coverage must be presented to the FAI at the earliest opportunity.

The FAI, its respective directors, employees and assigned event Personnel must be designated as additional insured parties for liability claims.

26. Event Headquarters XE "Headquarters"

  • Location and size of rooms for briefings, registration, equipment checks.
  • Office facilities: AV equipment, office equipment, communication systems (phones, wifi, etc.).
  • Internet access available for Officials.
  • Internet access available for competitors.

27. Local facilities

  • General outline of availability and average prices of hotels, camping sites, apartments and other accommodation.
  • Proximity from event HQ of: car hire, shops, restaurants/bars, repair facilities, etc.

28. Competition website

  • Outline of the anticipated website design/content, which should be the main means of disseminating information about the championship.
  • Confirm that this will be in place prior to the test event, and updated prior to the main event, with all relevant information, at least 6 months before the start of the event.
  • An interactive online registration and payment facility is desirable.

29. Visas, Vaccinations

  • Will any FAI member be refused entry to the country?
  • Details of visas required for visitors from FAI member nations.
  • Details of any vaccinations recom­mended for competitors (or provide web addresses for information).

30. Early arrivals:

  • State any date before which competitors should not arrive.
  • Give details of arrangements for pilots if early arrival is possible (access to launch, etc.).

31. Customs and equipment importation:

  • Information on custom arrangements for temporary importation of gliders and other competition equipment. If necessary, customs at main entry points for the event should be informed of the nature of equipment that will accompany pilots.
  • List entry points that have already been contacted or notified.

32. Medals, etc.

Medals and diplomas will be provided for free by CIVL, but transportation and custom are paid by the organisers.

  • State here if there are any other forms of recognition or prizes.

33. Media coverage, merchandising

  • Outline of plans to promote the event.
  • Media coverage planned before, during and after the event.
  • Facilities for spectators (virtual and physical).
  • Filming/video opportunities.

Reminder:

Coverage produced by LOC or local partners may have to be provided to FAI for international use without any rights restrictions, limitations and costs. FAI retains the right to use any audiovisual coverage of the event without limitation in space or time.

Are also subject to FAI regulation as per Organiser Agreement (obtainable on request at FAI): international distribution; merchandising and hospitality rights; intellectual property, FAI marks and exposure, event logo, mascot…

34. Sponsorship

  • Secured or expected sponsors if any.

Reminder:

If the FAI requests exposure and the LOC has a specific possibility to secure event sponsors of the same products or services categories as the FAI main partners for a major sponsor position, FAI shall be contacted in order to agree on a solution.

FAI shall exercise its right up to 6 months prior to the event. Before this time limit, the LOC may ask the FAI to grant full release from this obligation or to specify which categories have to be reserved.

35. Finance

  • Anticipated sources of finance (local, government, sports authorities, NAC, etc.) and percentage of budget expected from pilot entry fees.
  • Provide an outline budget (see Annexe C)

36. Any additional information in support of the bid:

Name:

Position in Organisation:

Date:

Signed:

Annexe B – Support Documentation


  1. Letter of support from the NAC or delegated entity.
  2. Letter of information from the delegated entity to the NAC (if applicable).
  3. Letter of support from the local authorities.
  4. Map of the area.

Annexe C – Budget

See the Excel file. https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/civl/documents/cat_1_budget_annexe_c_-_v2018.xls

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

April 21, 2018, 1:54:00 pm EDT

2018 Quest Air Nationals

Seventh day cancelled

Kevin Carter|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018

It's looking pretty nice right now at 1:50 PM. The only development is way to our east and very scattered. Towering cu's but no nearby cu-nimbs. Light east winds on the ground. No gusts.

Kevin Carter took a test flight. He said that the wind made for a horrible experience.

14:53 E 17 G 22
13:53 E 17 G 23
12:53 E 14 G 21
11:53 E 13 G 21

Discuss "2018 Quest Air Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

Sat, Apr 21 2018, 8:14:52 am EDT

The happy pilots

Alejandro Riera|Andrey Solomykin|Bruce Barmakian|Charles Allen|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Fred Kaemerer|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff Chipman|Jim Messina|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Ken Kinzie|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Mark Bourbonnais|Mike Glennon|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Raul Guerra|Richard Lovelace|Roger Irby|Sara Weaver|Tullio Gervasoni|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

Joerg Bajewski's photo of all of us:

All the happy pilots at the 2018 Quest Air Nationals. May include, but not limited to: Adam Smith, Adrian Sanchez, Adriano Sorci, Alejandro Riera, Alessandro Silva, Alfredo Grey, Alipio Loyola, Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli, Andrey Solomykin, Austin Marshall, Bill Comstock, Bill Vickery, Brian Vitola, Bruce Barmakian, Carl Wallbank, Carlos Alvarado, Charles Allen, Charles Cozean, Christian Ciech, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Dan Lukaszewicz, David Aldrich, David Hayner, David Whittle, Davis Straub, Derreck Turner, Douglas Hale, enrique arriaga, Eric Williams, Erico Oliveira, Fabiano Nahoum, Fabio Thomaz, Fred Kaemerer, Gary Anderson, Giovani Tagliari, Glen Volk, Greg Dinauer, Greg Sessa, Hollidge Andrew, James Race, James Yocom, JD Guillemette, Jeff Chipman, Jim Messina, Joerg Bajewski, John Blank, John Maloney, John Simon, Jonny Durand, Jose Paulo Tavares, Jose Sandoval, Ken Kinzie, Kevin Carter, Kevin Dutt, Kevin Kernohan, Konrad Heilmann, Krzysztof Grzyb, Larry Bunner, Lee Silver, Makbule Baldik Le Fay, Malcolm Brown, Marcello Pereira, Marcelo Alexandre Menin, Mark Bourbonnais, Michael Duffy, Michael Williams, Mick Howard, Miguel Molina, Mike Glennon, Misael Rosalez, Nick Jones, Patrick Kruse, Patrick Pannese, Patrick Ruber, Pedro L. Garcia, Peter Kelley, Peter Suchanek, Philippe Michaud, Phill Bloom, Raul Guerra, Ricardo Ricky, Ricardo Vassmer, Rich Cizauskas, Rich Reinauer, Richard lovelace, Richard Milla, Rick Maddy, Rob Dallas, Robert Clarkson, Rod Regier, Rodrigo Russek, Roger Irby, Sandy Dittmar, Sara Weaver, Sergey Kataev, Soraya Rios, Stephan Mentler, Steve Hogan, Tullio Gervasoni, Tyler Borradaile, Will Ramsey, William Baker, Zac Majors

The photo is live.

Discuss "2018 Quest Air Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

April 20, 2018, 0:31:42 EDT

2018 Quest Air Nationals

Results

Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:43:28 735
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:53:05 667
3 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 01:53:22 664
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli WW T2C 144 01:52:53 664
5 Krzysztof Grzyb Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:15:03 606
6 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 02:07:18 596
7 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 02:08:12 593
8 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 02:08:14 587
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 02:16:54 567
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:22:07 552

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2136
2 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 2083
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2044
4 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 1923
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1883
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1805
7 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli WW T2C 144 1795
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 1784
9 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 1775

Sport task was cancelled.

The rigid wing pilots didn't fly.

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

April 18, 2018, 10:55:02 pm EDT

2018 Quest Air Nationals

Day four, task two

Andrey Solomykin|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Sara Weaver|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 02:44:41 980
2 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:45:14 964
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:46:01 956
4 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 02:49:30 930
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:51:45 915
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:52:51 912
7 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 03:09:51 877
8 Carl Wallbank Moyes RX 3.5 03:11:47 847
9 Krzysztof Grzyb Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 03:11:47 843
10 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 03:21:34 816

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 1496
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1408
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 1382
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1355
5 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 1331
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1254
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 1221
8 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 1220
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 1192
9 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 1192

Sport Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Andrey Solomykin Aeros Discus 14 02:08:49 38.54 656
2 Charles Cozean Wills Wing U2 145   23.35 438
3 Adam Smith Moyes Gecko 155   23.10 436
4 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4   18.79 382
5 James Race Wills Wing U2 160   18.49 377
6 Jose Sandoval Wills Wing U2 160   18.18 372
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport 3 135   16.52 360
8 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160   17.02 350
9 adrian sanchez Wills Wing U2 145   16.32 335
10 David Hayner Wills Wing Sport 2   15.19 324

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Andrey Solomykin Aeros Discus 14 1000
2 Charles Cozean Wills Wing U2 145 795
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 739
4 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport 3 135 696
5 Adam Smith Moyes Gecko 155 585
6 adrian sanchez Wills Wing U2 145 583
7 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160 544
8 Greg Sessa Wills Wing U2 160 513
9 James Race Wills Wing U2 160 487
10 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 483

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

April 17, 2018, 8:49:48 pm EDT

2018 Quest Air Nationals

Day three, task one, results (ready by 7:30 PM local time

Andrey Solomykin|Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Raul Guerra|Sara Weaver|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/results

Eighteen in goal. The first task was elapsed time with no leading or arrival points following the Australian precedent for the first day. The launch opened at 1:30 PM. The pilots with the fastest times started the task later when conditions improved.

Task 1:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 14:58:33 16:08:02 01:09:29 514
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 14:59:05 16:11:12 01:12:07 488
3 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T2C 144 14:55:56 16:12:35 01:16:39 464
4 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:59:07 16:21:11 01:22:04 442
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 14:58:50 16:21:07 01:22:17 441
6 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 15:24:58 16:51:44 01:26:46 425
7 Malcolm Brown Wills Wing T2C 144 14:41:45 16:10:51 01:29:06 417
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 14:40:42 16:12:04 01:31:22 409
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 14:54:45 16:27:18 01:32:33 406
10 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 14:55:36 16:30:06 01:34:30 400
10 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 14:40:53 16:15:26 01:34:33 400
10 Raul Guerra Moyes RX 3.5 14:41:31 16:15:56 01:34:25 400

Sport task 1:

# Name Glider SS Distance Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 15:43:47 25.76 359
1 Charles Cozean Wills Wing U2 145 15:44:10 25.70 359
3 Andrey Solomykin Aeros Discus 14 15:33:54 24.58 346
4 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport 3 135 15:43:52 22.62 338
5 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 155 15:30:11 16.51 264
6 adrian sanchez Wills Wing U2 145 15:43:17 14.89 249
7 Greg Sessa Wills Wing U2 160 16:04:05 11.57 214
8 Nick Jones Wills wing U2 145 16:11:00 11.51 213
9 Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 135 16:03:50 9.44 199
10 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160 15:42:59 9.90 195

2018 Quest Air Nationals Series

Mon, Nov 27 2017, 7:14:35 am PST

The meet is over-subscribed

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|André Wolfe|André Wolfe|Attila Bertok|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Davide Guiducci|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Marco Laurenzi|Pete Lehmann|Primoz Gricar|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Robin Hamilton|Steve Blenkinsop|Thomas Weissenberger|USHPA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

The meet filled up in three days. We have 82 pilots registered. We are currently looking at expanding the number of pilots who can attend. Frankly we had no idea that this would happen so quickly. We have to follow the following USHPA rule:

All competitors should be registered on a first-come, first-served basis except during the first 30 days of registration, where 30% of the available places may be held for the top 20 NTSS and top 30 WPRS ranked pilots.

We'll use NTSS and WPRS rankings as of November 1st, 2017.

Pos Name
1 Zac Majors
2 Robin Hamilton
3 Bruce Barmakian
4 John Simon
5 Kraig Coomber
6 Dustin Martin
7 Larry Bunner
8 Derrick Turner
9 James Stinnet
10 Jd Guillemette
11 Davis Straub
12 Bill Soderquist
13 Kevin Carter
14 Patrick Pannese
15 David Gibson
16 Glen Volk
17 Kevin Dutt
18 Mick Howard
19 Krzysztof Grzyb
20 Pete Lehmann

WPRS

Rank Name CIVL ID
1 JONNY Durand 2231
2 ALESSANDRO Ploner 5724
3 FILIPPO Oppici 6295
4 THOMAS Weissenberger 7819
5 CHRISTIAN Ciech 6034
6 ALVARO Figueiredo Sandoli 5760
7 MARIO Alonzi 7043
8 ANDRE Wolf 5783
9 PETR Benes 9764
10 DAVIDE Guiducci 6142
11 MARCO Laurenzi 25161
12 DAN Vyhnalik 6089
13 DAVID Brito Filho 13846
14 CARLOS Niemeyer 6001
15 PETER Neuenschwander 398
16 GLEN Mcfarlane 17641
17 VALENTINO Bau 7889
18 GRANT Crossingham 6440
19 STEVE Blenkinsop 7701
20 PRIMOZ Gricar 7437
21 BALAZS Ujhelyi 5893
22 ATTILA Bertok 5885
23 ROLAND Wöhrle 7547
24 JOSH Woods 42097
25 RODOLFO Gotes 12376
26 ANTON Moroder 5842
27 TAKASHI Sunama 7755
28 ROBIN Hamilton 7536
29 GUY Hubbard 6467
30 OLAV Opsanger 7271

To secure a higher place in the order that pilots are chosen to participate in the competition, we need pilots to be confirmed. To be confirmed you need to register, fill out on-line and send in your correct waivers and medical form (use Adobe Acrobat DC - the free version, https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/faq.html), and pay the entry fee. See:

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/info/details__info

https://OzReport.com/waivers.php

https://OzReport.com/2018QuestAirpay.php

We will keep track of the order in which pilots are confirmed (everything is time and date stamped), check any forms for errors, and notify pilots if they are allowed entry into the meet.

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2018 Big Spring Nationals Series

Wed, Sep 20 2017, 8:10:12 am MDT

Do you want to fly in Texas?

CIVL|David Prentice|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|PG|Robin Hamilton|Russell "Russ" Brown|USHPA|US Nationals 2018|weather

If we hold a one-week long CIVL/USHPA sanctioned hang gliding next August in Big Spring (or perhaps Hearne), Texas will you attend?

That’s the question we are asking you.

Please respond with a “Yes” to «davis» if you are as definite as possible now that you will attend.

The story:

A number of pilots have asked us to return with a competition in Big Spring in 2018. Competitions there have been very successful with outstanding flying weather. The 2007 Worlds were held there. We get tremendous support from the community. Pilots have always highly praised the Big Spring competitions.

Tiki at Cowboy Up in Wharton has also mentioned the huge Hearne airfield as a possible site. Two national competitions have been held there. It has excellent flying conditions. It is much closer to Florida and Wharton making it easier to get Dragonflies to the site.

As this meet will be held at a remote location we need to have at least 40 pilots committed to coming for Russell Brown to bring his Dragonflies to Texas. Transporting Dragonflies also adds to the cost and it is likely to be in the $450 range for aerotowing. We expect to keep the registration fee low.

If you have a preference for either Big Spring or Hearne you can add that to your answer.

Robin Hamilton writes:

Yes, interested in Big Spring or Hearne. Preference for Hearne as we haven't flown a comp there for a while and the flying has been consistently awesome when we have.

Mike Williams writes:

Yes, and my preference is for Big Spring. There's been no upkeep to Hearne's infield grass in years. Last time we tried to launch there it was riddled with critter holes, and that was more than 10 years ago. There's also been an automated weather station installed to avoid that's in the middle. I prefer the taxiway launch options at Big Spring, the accommodation options are much better than at Hearne, and let's not forget the Big Spring hangar space.

Greg Chastain «Greg Chastain» writes:

Yes I would attend. Hearne is probably my preference sense it is closer to me and less turbulent air in my experience. But I’d attend in either location.

Glen Volk «Glen Volk» writes:

I am a strong supporter of a Hearne comp. I'd probably go to Big Spring too but I've been jonesin' to go back to Hearne for a long time.

Kevin Carter «Kevin Carter» writes:

I vote Big Spring. Their support for the community going back decades has been amazing.

Dan Lukaszewicz writes:

I would go. Texas flying is awesome. I'm open to whichever venue if it helps with logistics but have to say that I've never been in a more supporting place than Big Spring; the local community loves us.

Brad Morton writes:

Hearne is now a FEMA drop site for trailer homes. They have leased a major part of the airport for up to two years and expect to have as many as 2000 trailers on site at peak. The south end of the runway is closed with trailers currently on it however the run way is remaining active.

David Prentice writes:

Just FYI, that is the week we have been hosting the LoneStar paragliding championships in Hearne, since 2011. I hope your planning will respect our event.

Dinosaur 2017 »

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

Dinosaur 2017

Results

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


Jonny being teleported over launch. Photo by Mike Degtoff.

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

Chitty at goal:

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2017/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Ollie Chitty Moyes Rx5 01:46:55 972
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:48:54 912
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli (Nene) Wills Wing T2C 144 01:50:01 902
4 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 01:55:56 832
5 Jonny Durand Moyes LSRX 3.5 PRO 02:01:38 802
6 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:56:50 797
7 Bruce Barmakian Icaro Laminar 13.2 02:21:25 627
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 02:30:37 614
9 Bill Soderquist Moyes RX3.5 02:30:50 567
10 Will Ramsey Wills Wing T2C 02:34:12 521
11 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2-154 02:54:58 437
12 Wayne Michelsen Icaro Laminar 02:55:35 434
13 Ben Dunn moyes rx 3.5 02:58:17 423
14 Joey Villaflor Wills Wing T2C 144 03:43:44 391

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 3604
2 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 3527
3 Nene Wills Wing T2C 144 3500
4 Ollie Chitty Moyes Rx5 3335
5 Jonny Durand Moyes LSRX 3.5 PRO 3201
6 Bruce Barmakian Icaro Laminar 13.2 2954
7 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 2951
8 Jon Durand Snr Moyes RX4 2484
9 Wayne Michelsen Icaro Laminar 2413
10 Ben Dunn moyes rx 3.5 1938

Dinosaur 2017 »

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

Dinosaur 2017

Results:

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

Ben Dunn landed a little short of goal:

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2017/results

Very preliminary results with many corrections yet to come

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 02:43:02 969
2 Nene Wills Wing T2C 144 03:04:49 847
3 Ollie Chitty Moyes Rx5 03:11:43 809
4 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 03:03:49 801
5 Jon Durand Snr Moyes RX4 03:15:06 796
6 Bruce Barmakian Icaro Laminar 13.2 03:08:59 763
7 Wayne Michelsen Icaro Laminar 04:02:05 569
8 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2-154 04:05:55 546

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


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