Wills Wing
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topic: Malcolm Jones (86 articles)

Felix Ruehle coming to Wallaby Ranch

May 30, 2019, 6:43:44 MDT

Felix Ruehle coming to Wallaby Ranch

ATOS

Felix Ruehle|Malcolm Jones

Ben Herring <<ben>> writes:

Felix Ruehle is joining Wallaby Ranch and A-I-R USA in delivering 3 brand-spanking new ATOS gliders to Wallaby Ranch in Florida on June 8. There will be some informal clinics as well as lots of Q&A and storytelling including more information about the upcoming production of the ATOS Wing.

Pilots, both flex and rigid, are invited to come join Felix, Malcolm Jones, Fred Kaemerer and Ben Herring for a weekend filled with all-things ATOS.

Cooperation and community

February 13, 2019, 8:27:44 EST

Cooperation and community

The pre-Worlds starts at Wallaby Ranch

Facebook|Malcolm Jones|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wilotree Park

https://ozreport.com/22.237

https://www.facebook.com/events/313665572561182/

The Wills Wing Demo Days at Wallaby Ranch end with a big party put on by Wills Wing on Saturday Night, April 13th. Saturday is also the check-in and practice day for the pre-Worlds at Wilotree Park. We have teamed up with Wills Wing to host the dinner and have the pilots and companions coming to the pre-Worlds join up with the pilots at the Wills Wing Demo Days.

When we first saw that Wills had scheduled their Demo Days in the days proceeding the pre-Worlds (see here: https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/info/details__info) we immediately contacted Steve Pearson at Wills Wing and suggested that it would be a great opportunity to build community relations by bringing down the pilots coming to the pre-Worlds at Wilotree Park. We would, of course, use the funds from the pilots' entry fees set aside for the opening night to help Wills Wing pay for the dinner.

It's Wills Wing's party and Steve Pearson asked Malcolm Jones, the owner or Wallaby Ranch, if this would be possible. Malcolm agreed immediately and now we have a great opportunity to share in a communal event.

We have often flown into Wallaby Ranch during our competitions and Malcolm has often provided the beer at the end of the flights. We wish to continue build strong community ties.

Cloudsuck, chapter 4 »

December 27, 2011, 6:41:30 AEDT

Cloudsuck, chapter 4

I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season

Belinda Boulter|Bill Moyes|Bobby Bailey|Cloudsuck|Dragonfly|Larry Tudor|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber|record|Steve Kroop|Tiki Mashy|weather

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

If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck4.pdf

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

In early spring 1997, freshly back from Australia, Belinda and I purchased a small travel trailer and headed across country from Seattle to the Wallaby Ranch Flight Park in Central Florida. Since we wouldn’t have to start on a new Windows Secrets book for a while, we both had decided to spend a couple of months taking in the great springtime flying that in the U.S. can only be had on that tropical peninsula.

We'd been to Wallaby Ranch the previous March for a couple of weeks, and it had only whetted my appetite for a more extended stay. Hang gliding is so weather dependent, I didn't want to go out to Florida for only a short time and wind up experiencing a bad run of cold or wet weather, as we’d had the year before.

Wallaby Ranch is situated on the edge of the Green Swamp, the catchment basin for the Central Florida Aquifer, and is surrounded by orange groves, cattle pastures, and cypress swamps. Situated on a dirt road a mile west of the Florida Ridge and twenty-five miles southwest of Orlando, the Ranch was once a marginal cattle operation. Malcolm Jones, a Florida hang glider pilot with a dream, had purchased the land in the early ‘nineties and was busily changing how those of us outside of Florida thought about hang gliding.

Malcolm had put together a 200-acre parcel, most of which was cypress swamp or palmetto. The palmettos had taken back much of the cleared pastureland and were now impenetrable. In the dry areas, fast growing pines were taking hold. There remained only a twenty acre area of tough, drought resistant Argentine Bahia grass — what remained of the pasture — that served as the launch and landing field for the flight park.

Under the mossy live oaks, near the old farmhouse that stood on stilts ten feet off the sometimes soggy pasture, Malcolm had reassembled a recycled shed of rusted sheet metal that served as the hangar for his ultralight tow planes. Four years later, Malcolm would clear away the palmetto and triple the size of the field, the road would be paved and there would be a new hangar, but all that was yet to come.

Florida is so flat that there is no place to launch a hang glider on foot. The Florida Ridge rises only about 250 feet above sea level at most, and Wallaby lies 125 feet below the Ridge, a mile to the west. The Ridge is really just a gentle north/south sand dune in the middle of the state, halfway between the two coasts. If you want to get into the air on a hang glider in Florida, you have no choice but to be towed up.

Like their counterparts in Australia, Malcolm and many of his fellow Florida hang glider pilots had grown up water skiing, and as teenagers had started towing the early gliders behind ski boats on the numerous local lakes. Later they tried trucks on rural roads out in the cane fields.

Then in the late ‘eighties a few had started towing up behind ultralight airplanes. The local hang gliding club tried running an aerotowing operation at the Gator Field ultralight port north of Clermont, in Central Florida. But soon they had a falling out with the old-line ultralight pilots, who weren't into towing or hang gliding, and they had to move.

It was getting difficult to find suitable roads without power lines or traffic for truck towing. Towing over water required landing areas on the beach, and it wasn’t easy to go cross-country when you started low over the water. Getting permission to aerotow at ranches and turf farms was also getting problematic.

Not only that, but the ultralights were difficult to tow behind, because their slowest speed was almost too fast for a hang glider. It was a rough ride, and hard to stay in control. What was needed was a specially built ultralight that could fly slowly enough to safely tow a hang glider. By 1989 Bobby Bailey, one of the locals, had started designing and building just such an ultralight. Soon he was working with Bill Moyes in Australia to put it into production.

Bob was a wiry, chain smoking, Pepsi-drinking, good-natured misanthrope, and hard to get to know on a casual basis. Yet over the ‘nineties his Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly became the standard hang glider tow plane throughout the world, and Bob had become a household name among grateful pilots worldwide.

Malcolm and his friends thought that if you could combine this specialized ultralight — what had become the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly — with a field and facilities, you could have a flight park that would draw hang glider pilots from around the country. At that time, no one had ever built or even heard of a hang gliding flight park. The Dragonfly was brand new. Almost all the U.S. hang glider pilots were out in California launching off hills and mountainsides. Florida was a flat peninsula surrounded by lift-killing water, for God's sake. Only a few pilots whom no one had ever heard of flew there.

Florida pilots went out west in the summer if they wanted to get the big miles in and go cross-country. For example, every June Michael Champlin and Tiki Mashy would leave their home in Hollywood, Florida and trek out to Rocksprings, Wyoming or Hobbs, New Mexico — Larry Tudor’s old haunts — to get some real flying in.

There were a few South Florida pilots, including Mike Barber and Steve Kroop, who were truck towing in the cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee and getting in some longer flights, but they were just a few. Besides, landing in cane fields was no fun. The cane was so high and thick that it was almost impossible to get your glider out. Often the only other option was landing in the Everglades, with their attendant wildlife.

The club pilots in Central Florida had shown that aerotowing behind ultralights was possible. A few pilots had begun driving down from Michigan and the northeast to join them on the weekends when an ultralight pilot was available to tow them up, and pilots in Wisconsin and Georgia had begun to invest in their own Dragonflies.

But with the opening of the Wallaby Ranch in 1992, hang gliding went through the next phase of a great transformation. Now you could go to a destination "resort," put up your tent or trailer and stay a while. Have someone pull you up, and if you didn't go too far away you could fly back hours later and land where you started.

No longer did you have to bandito a road and watch out for the Sheriff. You didn't have to worry about getting caught in power lines, or getting out of whack coming off the tow truck and smacking a wing on the road, maybe getting dumped into a ditch on the road side. There were plenty of open pastures throughout Central Florida that made for easy landing if you flew away from the Ranch. No longer did you have a semi-nomadic operation dependent on the goodwill of a rancher with an insurance problem.

And of course, Florida had one very big advantage over everyplace else in the U.S. It was reasonably warm in late winter. You could actually fly in February and March and get really good flights. You could even come down there over Christmas and count on a few good days of flying.

Continue reading here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck4.pdf.

USHPA Question and Answer

April 2, 2010, 11:21:59 pm EDT

USHPA Question and Answer

No one showed up to question the USHPA directors

Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Malcolm Jones|Paul Voight|USHPA

I called together Paul Voight, Felipe Amunategui and former Regional Director Gregg Ludwig to answer questions about the USHPA during the Wills Wing Demo Days at Wallaby Ranch on Friday night at 7 PM. We got together and talked about a few USHPA issues. But no one came to talk to us, so we broke up after fifteen minutes. Thanks to Malcolm Jones for letting us have the meeting at Wallaby.

Do you agree with these proposed changes to the NTSS?

October 16, 2009, 8:09:24 PDT

Do you agree with these proposed changes to the NTSS?

Do we really need this?

calendar|Malcolm Jones|record|USHPA

The CWG/LMR proposal for the Nationals and "national-level" competitions have numerous requirements. I'm going to list a few of them which are onerous and will not be followed no matter what "system" we have in place:

Safety director must check adequate wind indicators at launch and in all major landing fields.

Often we land at remote goals where the safety director has not traveled to. We try to land at airfields so there are wind socks, but sometimes we don't. Often we don't have a safety director, so the safety director check list found in the proposal is not applicable.

Entrants should have a radio capable of transmitting and receiving the USHPA authorized frequencies. (recommended for Class A meets, required for Class B and C meets). At the discretion of the meet organizer, additional legal frequencies may be supported.

We haven't used the USHPA frequencies for years.

Pilots must sign a statement that his/her glider is in certified form or is considered safe to fly (by the pilot)

We have never asked for this. This is only a requirement at the Worlds.

Maps available for competitors and support crews

Often we just use electronic maps.

Pilot registration must be open for at least 90 days before the start of Class C events, 60 days prior to the start of Class B events,...

These requirements have been overlooked frequently and should be dropped.

A copy of the USHPA Competition Rulebook, meet specific rules, and a copy of the current FAR Part 103 will be available to any competitor in the contest, and a local, current sectional aeronautical chart will be displayed to all pilots at each meeting.

We don't do this. These are all available on line.

Registrations shall not be accepted any earlier than 15 days after first posting of the competition announcement in the Calendar on the USHPA website at http://www.USHPA.org/calender.asp. The announcement will also appear in the first possible issue of the magazine.

This has been ignored and needs to be pulled out of the rules.

The Meet Organizers are required to keep registration records including date of registration for each pilot. The CCC or his designee has the right to review registration records, and other competition records for compliance at any time.

This Malcolm Jones rule is outdated and needs to be pulled from the rules.

Fair and impartial procedures for complaints and protests to be filed by competitors must clearly be defined in the meet rules. USHPA defines a complaint as a verbal request by a competitor to the designated official, usually the Meet Director or Safety Director, to investigate operational matters with which the competitor is dissatisfied. If the competitor is still dissatisfied they may file a protest to the event protest committee.

A complaint is actually in writing.

Unless otherwise defined in the meet specific rules, a protest committee shall consist of two meet officials and one competitor not involved in the protest to be elected by the entrants.

Our protest committees consist of three pilots and an alternate pilot. This has worked for years and is the same approach used overseas.

In Class B and Class C competitions, no additional flying contests (spot landing, etc.) for the competition pilots shall be sponsored by the meet organizers.

We have been doing spot landing contests for the last three years on the last day of the Big Spring meets.

Radios for all pilots are strongly recommended and required when an event involves cross country flying. When required, the pilot and meet director shall have radios capable of transmitting on a common USHPA frequency unless alternative frequencies are unanimously agreed by the meet director and all participants.

We don't use these frequencies and this section contradicts the earlier section on radios.

When towing, the pilot shall be equipped with a secondary means of disconnecting the towline. At lease one method of completely releasing the towline from the towing device shall be available.

We consider a weak link to be an adequate backup and secondary release.

2009 Team Challenge

October 6, 2009, 8:13:30 PDT

2009 Team Challenge

The last three days

Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Foundation for Free Flight|Jim Lamb|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|Malcolm Jones|Mark Stump|Mike Barber|photo|Steve Kroop|Tennessee Tree Toppers|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2009|Tom Lanning|video|weather

Brandon DeKock <<bkdekock>> sends:

http://hickarus.blogspot.com

Here’s the report from Thursday at the Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge. I want to cover something very important before I get into the day’s flying activities. An important announcement was made by the Foundation for Free Flight, represented by Randy Leggett. The FFF will be giving out five scholarships for pilots to next year’s TTT Team Challenge. The TreeToppers will be choosing the recipients for the scholarships.

The TTT believes that competitions of this type are a great benefit to the sport and think there should be more of them around the country. Thus, scholarship selection will be based mostly on the applicant’s plan and ability to encourage fun educational events similar to the Team Challenge in their local area. Documents describing how the TTT Team Challenge meet is run are available on the tree toppers web site (www.treetoppers.org).

Onto the flying: There was SE flow very early gong SW (parallel to valley) by noon so we headed to the Whitwell launch. The winds were light at launch and Dennis Pagen put on a short “how to launch here today” clinic for those who felt an ounce of prevention and knowledge is worth 45 pounds of bent aluminum.

The launch window opened at 12:45 and a few folks went but there was a mass exodus starting around 1:30 because it looked like there was potential for it to cross up or blow down and become unlaunchable. The lift at the ridge was weak and coming up in small, short-lived bubbles. At times there was a bit of a disorganized bar fight on the ridge, and it was only mitigated by the fact that most folks couldn’t stay up very long. Most pilots who couldn’t find anything to travel with chose to land in the Church LZ, the primary for the site. I didn’t count just how many topless gliders landed at the church, but it looked like more landed there than got up and landed further along the course.

Of course, a few pilots got up and away. No C pilots made the C goal (Galloway airport, about 11 miles downwind). One B pilot, Bryon Estes, made the B goal (Whitwell to Galloway for 11 miles, then another 4 miles downwind and across the valley to Henson's Gap LZ). Only one A pilot, Tom Lanning of Team Aerosnauts, made the A goal (Whitwell to Galloway to Henson’s, then back upwind to Galloway). Just to make the rest of us feel better, Tom admitted it was challenging most of the way. To make us feel worse he let us know it was hard to get down at Galloway at the end of the course.

The evening activities included giving out some of the awesome stuff generously donated by our sponsors (in no particular order), Steve Kroop of FLYTEC, Kriag Coomber of Moyes USA, Maui Jim Sunglasses, Davis Straub of the Oz Report, Jim Lamb of AIR ATOS, Red Bull, Rusty of Gunnison Gliders, SPOT GPS, ICARO, Matt Taber of Lookout Mountain Flight Park, Malcolm Jones of Wallaby Ranch, and Greenlife Grocery.

I’ve also included some photos from the day’s flying. There’s two depicting the barfight on the ridge to get up, one of Matt Dittman getting ready to hang check, one of Erin Rapacki holding her glider’s nose, and one of Leigh Sheridan showing off her hang glider necklace while stuffing battens. Thanks, Brandon DeKock

Friday we had rain and lots and lots of seminars! The weather forecasting seminar made many fall asleep and a few cry. We also had cross country landing fields and how to pick 'em, launch technique and then video launch clinic. We snuck in a few landing videos as well to stimulate discussion of landing techniques. Earlier in the week pilots enjoyed the hands on exercises of gps/flight computer geo cache racing (which was won going away by the comp pilots with Flytec 6030s and a thermal etiquette exercise that was pretty kooky, but effective for pilots who don't have a lot of gaggle time.

Saturday we had a bit too much wind to call tasks for the C's so we gave 'em more seminars. We wrapped it up with a round table question and answer seminar that I thought was very valuable. We simply asked the pilots what they wanted to hear about, then created a list on the dry erase board! The panel of experts knocked 'em off one by one! This gave us time to fill in the gaps left in some of the lectures and get a feel for what we'll need next year.

Whew! It was a lot of fun and intense learning. I'm sure it was the most comprehensive week of hang gliding education on the planet in 2009! We celebrated everyone's great success with a fine meal and party with a DJ, karaoke and a Tara Murphy to entertain us. The awards ceremony was a lot of fun and every pilot attending received gifts and prizes donated by our sponsors.

Unfortunately the weather was below par for TC this year, leaving us with only three days with called tasks, but we held so many excellent seminars, video launch clinics and soaring exercises that the time flew past! Pilots flew on 5 of the 7 days. I continue to learn new information at every Team Challenge. I've been a student of hang gliding for a long time and nothing comes close to this educational experience. Our C and B pilots were awed by this incredible opportunity to learn from the best teachers in hang gliding! I heard some pilots talking about the feeling of Team Challenge, "Its like a fun sports camp for grownup kids." Many thanks to Dennis Pagen, Mike Barber, Tom Lanning, Mark Stump and all the others for helping us understand our sport better!

We had another great year! We are working right now to make it even better next year!

Erin Rapacki

Leigh Sheridan

Matt Dittman

bar fight

Wills Wing Days supports the US National team

April 6, 2009, 8:47:37 EDT

Wills Wing Days supports the US National team

Jeff and I raised money selling posters and tee-shirts

Malcolm Jones

Malcolm Jones and Wills Wing (Mike and Steve) graciously allowed Jeff and I to sell our various wares at the Wills Wing Days. Thanks to all those pilots and friends at the party who helped us out by purchasing tee-shirts and speed sleeves, and donating to Jeff in exchange for posters.

We were able to raise almost $2,000 during the week and that will go a long ways toward helping cover our travel expenses to France in June.

Tee shirts and speed sleeves are still available (although getting very scarce) at: http://flytec.com/worldteam/support.html. We hope to be able to raise at least $10,000 (net) and it looks like we will get there. $15,000 should cover all our expenses.

Wills Wing 35th birthday party and demo days at Wallaby Ranch

April 1, 2008, 7:14:51 pm PDT

Wills Party

Good weather and great flying

Malcolm Jones|Mike Meier|Rob Kells|video|weather

Mike Meier «Mike» writes:

We've just concluded our 2008 Wills Wing Wallaby Demo Days and by all accounts this was our best event yet. The 2008 event was our 11th consecutive annual demo days at Wallaby and we celebrated our 35th anniversary at this year's event. We were fortunate to have Chris Wills and his parents, Bob and Maralys Wills in attendance this year, along with a huge crowd of pilots and family members. Chris gave a great video presentation of the early bamboo and plastic days when he and his brother Bobby and Chris Price were figuring out simultaneously how to design and fly early Rogallo type kites. Maralys even took a tandem flight on Sunday morning with Malcolm Jones.

During the four days from Wednesday through Saturday we have virtually perfect weather, and launched 656 aero tows. More than 75 pilots had multiple opportunities to take demo flights on our complete line of gliders. We wrapped up the official event with our traditional dinner party on Saturday night, and those with enough energy to continue on had live music and dancing late into the night.

Our most sincere thanks go out to everyone who made the trip to attend the event, (some from as far as Tahiti and Japan!), and most especially to Malcolm and the superb Wallaby staff who worked so hard to make the event possible, and to make it such a success!

Kelley, Peter P «peter.p.kelley» writes:

I took a long weekend and went to WW Days at Wallaby. The whole Quest crew came by for the Saturday party. The flying was tremendous both Friday and Saturday with high base on Friday around 6000' and ridiculously easy to stay above 5000' all afternoon. On Saturday nights' party Rob Kells said they'd had something like 660 tows so far for the week without incident.

Pictures to follow.

Wills Wing Demo Days »

March 19, 2008, 7:02:46 +1100

WW DD

The upcoming events

Greg Berger|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|Rob Kells

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

3/25/2008-3/30/2008 Davenport, Florida

Wallaby Ranch Phone: (863) 424-0070
Fax: 8634240070
Malcolm Jones «fly»  www.wallaby.com

Come to the 11th Wills Wing Fly-In and Party at Wallaby Ranch. Help celebrate thirty five years in Hang Gliding! We'll have all our models available to demo, and five Dragonflies to tow you to cloud base.

Bob Wills, Sr. And Marilys Wills will be coming to Wallaby for the first time. Marilys will give a presentation on her new book 'A Circus With No Elephants' which chronicles the Wills family and hang gliding. Chris Wills will also show his great film footage from the earliest days of hang gliding.

Plan on great flying, good food, good friends, a live band for dancing, good beer, and good cheer!

4/12/2008-4/13/2008 Milpitas, California

Bay Area Hang Glider Demo Days with Rob Kells

Mission Soaring Phone: (408) 262-1055
Fax: 4082621388
Pat Denevan «mission»  www.hang-gliding.com

4/19/2008-4/20/2008 Casa Grande, Arizona

Santa Cruz Flats HG Demo Days with Rob Kells

Arizona Airfoils Phone: (520) 790-3507 Eric Smith «azairfoils»

Venture Flight Phone: (928) 308-2409
Fax: 9287719609
Greg Berger «venture»  www.venture-flight.com

Come Fly WW Gliders - 1 Hour South of Phoenix

Today Show's Matt Lauer had to go tandem also

December 20, 2007, 1:32:07 pm GMT+1100

Matt Lauer

He couldn't let Al Roker have all the fun at Wallaby Ranch

Curt Otto|Malcolm Jones

Curt Otto «curauna» writes:

Wallaby Ranch had another visitor from the (American) Today Show. Al Roker's irrepressible enthusiasm for Wallaby made a big impression on Today Show co-host Matt Lauer. Malcolm Jones, Wallaby's owner, was contacted by Matt's representatives, and was asked if Matt, who was vacationing in Florida, could stop by for a lesson. Given a big thumbs up, Matt arrived with his wife in a helicopter, ready to fly hang gliders. The Lauers both enjoyed their tandem flights, and Matt told Malcolm he would be returning with the whole family. Sound familiar?

As our sport's enthusiasts know, hang gliding has a wonderfully compelling dimension. The fact that such high profile celebrities have had a taste of hang gliding may help to spread the word in a way mere advertising never could. The Wallaby server, after the Al Roker Today Show segment featuring Wallaby, crashed as a result of the number of hits. Hits that were counted exceeded 40,000. All in all, good news for Wallaby, but more importantly, good news for hang gliding.

Malcolm is so smart to have the Wallaby Ranch sticker on every one's forehead.

Today show

December 12, 2007, 8:48:01 GMT+1100

Today

Al goes tandem

Malcolm Jones|video

The video link

A very nice look at tandem hang gliding. Excellent publicity for the sport. Malcolm Jones doing what he does best.

Wills Wing Demo Days »

November 14, 2006, 8:32:01 PST

Demo Days

It's party time in Florida

Malcolm Jones|Rob Kells

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

The 10th annual Wills Wing Demo Days and party at Wallaby Ranch will be held April 16th - 21st.

Come help us celebrate 34 years in the hang gliding business with demos, seminars and parties. There will be a catered dinner and a dance band on Saturday April 21st. It's the perfect time of year to fly in Florida. Please come and join us!

Wallaby Ranch
1805 Deen Still Rd.
Davenport, FL
33837
Voice: (863) 424-0070
Fax: (863) 424-0070
«Malcolm Jones»

Click on the photo above.

Wills Wing Demos at Florida Ridge April 12th - 14th

We will be doing demos and delivering gliders before the Florida Ridge Competition, which is scheduled for April 15th - 22nd.

Miami Hang Gliding
c/o Florida Ridge
18265 State Road 80
Clewiston, FL
33440 USA
Voice: (863)-805-0440

Simulator at Fantasy of Flight

February 24, 2006, 11:55:36 EST

Simulator

Fly indoors, or there first before going to Wallaby or Quest

Don Burns|Malcolm Jones

http://ozreport.com/6.030#0

http://ozreport.com/8.082#3

Ken de Russy Andes Computer Engineering Anacortes Office «Ken» writes:

Don Burns and I just finished installing a Hang Glide!! flight simulator at the Fantasy of Flight Museum. This installation brings to four the number of major aviation museums where you can see and enjoy these marvelous flight simulators. Besides the Fantasy of Flight Museum our simulators can now be seen at Museum of Flight in Seattle, the Anderson-Abruzzo, Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, and the Oshkosh Air Venture Museum.

The Fantasy of Flight Museum, between Tampa and Orlando, is one of the coolest aviation museums I have seen. The owner, Kermit Weeks (another south Florida Palmetto High School graduate like me!), flies most of the scores of antiques and warbirds in his collection. Kermit also has done a fair bit of hang gliding both solo and tandem with Malcolm at Wallaby. Kermit and a couple of his friends had fun competing with each other on the hang gliding simulator after we got it up and running. Not surprisingly for such an accomplished pilot, Kermit flew the simulator like a champ. When they finished, Kermit walked out to the tarmac and took his friend up in what may be the only operational two seat P-40 Warhawk (of Flying Tigers fame). What a life!

When in central Florida this is a museum not to be missed. It is only 15 miles from Wallaby Ranch. When it's blown out for hang gliding go fly the Hang Glide!! simulator.

During the week we were in Florida working at the museum we stayed at the Wallaby Ranch. Malcolm Jones treated us like royalty although I suspect he treats everyone that way! I never found time to fly but I will definitely go back. There seems to be absolutely everything a pilot could wish for and I can't imagine a better place to vacation for a hang glider pilot. Malcolm and Lori are the most gracious host and hostess and Don and I thank them for taking such good care of us.

You will recall seeing a very early version some years ago of Hang Glide!! at the Soaring Convention in Ontario, CA however the differences between that one and the current version are night and day.

HangGlide!! is an interactive, full-scale, first person flight simulator, built for entertainment and training. Participants experience flight and control that resembles closely that of a real hang glider. By use of multiple, large, synchronized displays, HangGlide!! convincingly immerses the user in the virtual world.

Participants are given the task to land their hang glider as close as possible to a bulls-eye target. For assistance, a second glider flies ahead of the participant's glider, leading the way. The experience teaches fundamental weight shift control skills as used by real hang-gliders, and glide management. Glide management involves choosing a flight path that takes into account the hang-glider's glide slope (amount of units of distance flown forward for every unit of descent), and choosing turn points that will put the pilot directly on the bulls-eye when it comes time to land.

The visual database is of an actual hang-gliding flying site named Ed Levin Park, in Milpitas, California. Takeoff positions and landing site are the same positions on the terrain, complete with tree obstacles, fences and all visual cues of the actual flying site.

The flight dynamics model used to control the hang glider is the result of years of development and research. At its base is a rigid-body dynamics package. Forces are applied to the rigid body which are derived from static load and stability testing data taken during glider certification processes. The hang glider can be looped, if the pilot is skilled enough!

The flight simulator is designed primarily for high-traffic participation as would be found in a flight museum or location based entertainment venue. The unit has a single button control to initiate each participant's experience and can be left largely unattended. Flights last about 90 seconds with a 20 second interim stage, replaying the previous participant's landing and landing score, which allows time for the next participant in line to get in place for their flight.

Click for bigger image.

The press continues to be clueless

Sat, Jan 29 2005, 12:00:06 am EST

The King.

Malcolm Jones

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-calaction012805,0,4886558.column?coll=orl-caltop 

"Malcolm Jones. He's a very friendly guy, a former world champion, who has introduced thousands to the sport, including folks with physical disabilities and a 90-year-old woman. His passion is infectious, so I didn't need any cajoling as I strapped into the black nylon harness that would be my cradle during the flight."

List of Hang Gliding World Champions: http://events.fai.org/hgpg/chronology.asp?id=11

Discuss hang gliding at the Oz Report forum

Moyes Boys Reunion

Mon, Oct 25 2004, 1:00:00 pm EDT

A quick report.

Ken Brown|Malcolm Jones

Ken Brown «FlyaMoyes» writes:

Everywhere you turned you could spot large and small groups of old friends clustered together reliving the good old days as well as planning for future meetings. We had over 350 people attend the reunion. A great time was had by all! Special thanks go out to Malcolm Jones and the whole of the Wallaby staff for putting on a great party.

The demos of Moyes Sonics, Litesports and Litespeed S gliders highlighted the flying as well as tandem flights by many pilots who had not flown in many years. Jim Bradock (one of the Bradock Brothers) was so taken by the tandem flights that he went on to get checked out for two solo aerotow flights.

Bill and Molly Moyes, along with John Dickenson, were honored with the attendance of so many close and new friends after surviving a close brush with Mr. Death who we now know drives a cement truck in central Florida.

Discuss Moyes at the Oz Report forum

Uncle Bill Bennett dies in trike accident

Fri, Oct 8 2004, 12:00:00 am GMT

Along with Bill Moyes, a true pioneer in the sport.

Bill Bennett

Bill Bennett|Bill Moyes|Bob Wills|Dave Broyles|Delta Kites|fatality|Jayne DePanfilis|John Dickenson|John Fetz|Malcolm Jones|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Shawn Connery|USHGA

I spoke with Malcolm Jones at 2 PM PDT. He told me that Bill Bennett had died in a trike accident seven hours before near Lake Havasu, Arizona where Bill was living. Malcolm had spoken with Bill last night arranging for him to attend the upcoming Moyes Boys gathering at Wallaby Ranch at the end of October.

Malcolm said that what he had heard was that the trike had stalled on launch and cart wheeled in. It was a tandem flight and the flight instructor with Bill suffered a broken pelvis.

A fourth hand report: "This morning at the Lake Havasu Airport Bill was taking some instruction from a new, very low hour BFI (name unknown at this time). They had an engine out on take off, I don't know at what altitude. With 4,000 feet of runway in front of them they veered left and went in hard. Sounds like it was a panic situation and they may have pushed the bar out, stalled the trike and went over. The BFI sustained a broken pelvis. I don't know whose trike they were flying. If it was Bill's trike I know the machine as he bought it from a guy I know. Topdog trike with a 503 and a Gibbo Batwing. I flew that trike two years ago and really disliked the wing."

John Fetz «botmom» writes:

Bill Bennett, age 73, a founder of ultralight aviation, was killed in a crash of a powered trike today, Oct 7, 2004, at 07:30am. While taking off from Lake Havasu Airport, the craft lost some power on the climb out and crashed next to the 32 Runway, nose and left wheel impacting the ground. Bill was taking instruction at the time of the crash and the Instructor was taken to Las Vegas regional hospital with critical injuries.

According to Malcolm, Bill Bennett, Bill Moyes, and John Dickenson were all members of the same water ski club in Sydney. John showed Bill and Bill how to use a flat kite to fly behind a boat. They took off with it after that.

Bill and Bill started to compete with each other for the biggest record, mostly tow records, to see who could tow the highest. Bill Moyes started a kite company in Australia, and Bill Bennett came to the US and started Bill Bennett's Delta Kites, the first and at one time the biggest hang glider (kite) manufacturer in the US.

One of Bill Bennett's first employees was Bob Wills who later took the pattern for Bill's kite and started Wills Wing. Bill flew as the hang gliding wind dummy in place of Shawn Connery in one of the early James Bond flicks (Roger Moore in Live and Let Die (1973)).

Later he had a controversial period as the manager of Torry Pines in San Diego.

Dave Broyles «broydg» writes:

My first flights were in a Bill Bennett glider (water ski kite). I have very pleasant memories of Bill's service under me as treasurer to the USHGA, impartially and fairly, regardless of his business interests and personal opinions. I was greatly pleased by his integrity as a BOD member and officer.

Jayne DePanfilis «jayne» writes:

He was USHGA member number 210. He was a legend in our community and it was only recently, at the board meeting in Kitty Hawk that we viewed historical footage for the first time of Bill Bennett and Bill Moyes from way back when. Bill Bennett was planning to attend the Moyes Boys Reunion this month (of course).

Discuss "Uncle Bill Bennett dies in trike accident" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Instructor⁣ Training Seminars »

Mon, Aug 2 2004, 5:00:02 pm EDT

A revised schedule.

Fly High|instructor certification|Joe Greblo|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|Paul Voight|Rob Kells|USHGA

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

I am happy to report that we've scheduled an eighth certification program in Colorado.

Unfortunately the dates I listed previously for Mission's program were incorrect. This list has all the programs with the correct information.

USHGA Hang Glider Instructor Training Seminars

Ashland Oregon August 20 - 22 FAR UP HANG GLIDING 4945 140th AVE SW Rochester, WA 98579 USA Voice: (360)-357-5203 Fax: (360)-357-5203 Jim Reynolds

Ellenville New York September 24 - 26 FLY HIGH HANG GLIDING 5163 Searsville Rd. Pine Bush, NY 12566 USA Voice: (845)-744-3317 Paul Voight

Milpitas California September 25 - 27 MISSION SOARING 1116 Wrigley Milpitas, CA 95035 USA Voice: (408)-262-1055 Pat Denevan

Denver Colorado October 14 - 17 AIRTIME ABOVE 1372 Sinton RD Evergreen, CO 80439 USA Voice: (303)-674-2451 Mark Windsheimer

Orlando Florida October 15 - 17 WALLABY RANCH 1805 Deen Still Rd. Davenport, FL 33837 Voice: (863) 424-0070 Fax: (863) 424-0070 Malcolm Jones

Georgia / Tennessee October 22 - 24 LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN 7201 Scenic Hwy Rising Fawn, GA 30738 USA Voice: (706)-398-3541 Fax: (706)-398-2906 Matt Taber

Southern California November 5 - 7 WINDSPORTS 12623 Gridley ST Sylmar, CA 91342 USA Voice: (818)-367-2430 Fax: (818)-367-5363 Joe Greblo

Whitewater Wisconsin December 3 - 5 FREE FLIGHT AVIATIONS N463 City Hwy N Whitewater, WI 53190 USA Voice: (920)-728-2231 Tommy Thompson Sr.

Discuss "Instructor⁣ Training Seminars" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Hang Gliding Instructor Certification

Tue, Jul 20 2004, 3:00:03 pm EDT

We need more and new instructors. The USHG Foundation is helping to provided low cost certification.

Fly High|Joe Greblo|Lookout Mountain Flight Park|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|Paul Voight|Rob Kells|USHGA

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

I think one of the biggest problems we have in the sport is the lack of access to quality instruction.

The USHGA foundation is working with a number of schools to help sponsor lower cost regional hang gliding instructor training programs at venues around the country. The administrators will be Paul Voight, Pat Denevan and Jim Reynolds, all of whom are amongst the best in the business.

If you are interested in becoming an instructor, or renewing your instructor rating, you are encouraged to contact the sponsor of the program closest to you.

USHGA Hang Glider Instructor Training Programs:

Ashland Oregon August 20 - 22 FAR UP HANG GLIDING 4945 140th AVE SW Rochester, WA 98579 USA Voice: (360)-357-5203 Fax: (360)-357-5203 Jim Reynolds

Ellenville New York September 24 - 26 FLY HIGH HANG GLIDING 5163 Searsville Rd. Pine Bush, NY 12566 USA Voice: (845)-744-3317 Paul Voight

Milpitas California September 17 - 19 MISSION SOARING 1116 Wrigley Milpitas, CA 95035 USA Voice: (408)-262-1055 Pat Denevan

Orlando Florida October 15 - 17 WALLABY RANCH 1805 Deen Still Rd. Davenport, FL 33837 Voice: (863) 424-0070 Fax: (863) 424-0070 Malcolm Jones

Georgia / Tennessee October 22 - 24 LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN 7201 Scenic Hwy Rising Fawn, GA 30738 USA Voice: (706)-398-3541 Fax: (706)-398-2906 Matt Taber

Southern California November 5 - 7 WINDSPORTS 12623 Gridley ST Sylmar, CA 91342 USA Voice: (818)-367-2430 Fax: (818)-367-5363 Joe Greblo

Whitewater Wisconsin December 3 - 5 FREE FLIGHT AVIATIONS N463 City Hwy N Whitewater, WI 53190 USA Voice: (920)-728-2231 Tommy Thompson Sr.

Surflyvor

Tue, Mar 30 2004, 3:00:08 pm EST

A hang gliding event when it's too windy to hang glide.

Malcolm Jones|Mark Vaughn|Tom Lanning|USHGA|video|weather

Ron Jacobs (moderator of the hang gliding list) sends this directly to the Oz Report:

With names like "Gambalang" and "Toogee", "Walbanga" and "Madawanga" - the tribes were formed, the participants assigned, and the fun begins.

TOOGEE tribe was Marco Weber, Allen Standish, John Sumner, Al Fishalow, Peter Kelly.

WALBANGA tribe was Sontra Yim, David Labagh, Mark Sanderson, Dan Walker.

MADUWANGA tribe was Richard Healy, Tim Wasitic, William Estes, Tom Lanning, Dave Cameron.

GAMABALANG tribe was Roger Sherrod, Clayton Meadows, Isreal, Mark Vaughn, Gerrie Covens.

We had prepped for 150 contestants, and by virtue of the endless phone calls and e-mail to the Ranch, we would have easily hit that goal had the weather been cooperative. Opening this to Hang 2 pilots and up - giving everyone a fair chance to win, made it a very popular concept. Alas, only a handful stayed on board thanks to the wind.

The comp slated to start this past Wednesday was postponed 1 day because of the relentless 8 day "blowing like stink from the east" wind in central Florida - but because this is Hang Gliding, we made sure we had a contingency in the event of foul weather - and we broke out the alternate tasks one by one.

Task one took place on Thursday - which was to take a vintage glider through an obstical course - unhooked. Each contestant had to manuver between flags, the woods, and through the 15-20 MPH breeze without allowing their wingtips to touch the ground. Not only was this the first of many "team building" events, but it showed who was truly the best at ground handling.

We had one contestant with an ankle problem, so Malcolm Jones himself volunteered to take their place - and ran the entire course in 55 seconds - the best time in this task. The lowest score went to Sontra Yim - who unfortunately got his back to the wind, and pinned the glider to the ground. Coming in second was Mark Vaughn and his viking legs at 1 minute. The last contestant to complete the course was Peter Kelly of Vermont who crossed the finish line, then tossed the glider into the wind for a spectacular tumbling finish!

Thursday's "immunity challenge" was to construct a kite from basic raw materials, the first person to get their kite to the end of a 150 ft piece of string, would win immunity - the first to reach this goal was Allan Standish, who's string was cut about 5ft shorter than everyone else, so immunity went to both him and Roger Sherrod. This particular immunity challenge was sponsered by Kitty Hawk Kites - our thanks go out to them and John Harris for providing the kite kits.

"Tribal council" was held in a newly constructed "Pagota" at the ranch, a 100 ft diameter "building", covered in palm froms and moss, surrounded by tiki's - it was truly a sight when all lit up at night.The contestants lined up one by one to vote off a member of their tribe who either posed a threat to them, or who simply didn't pull their weight for the tribe - in the background stood a huge 12 foot video screen showing bits and pieces of the day's tasks - it was truly a sight to see.

Day 2 - wind still raging - brought our second ground based task - as these "tribes" were stranded on a secluded island (Wallaby Ranch), they had to construct an S.O.S. signal which could be viewed from the air by passing aircraft - well we didn't want to attract unwanted attention, instead of SOS, we used "WR". Each tribe was told to construct the SOS from organic, or naturally occuring materials only, no paint, fire, etc. The tribes were given all day to perform the task - until 6:pm in case they wanted to enjoy other Florida attractions while it was blown out. At the end of the day, wind was still a bit strong, but gave us a good enough window to fly over with the video camera to view the SOS signals which were shown later that evening at Tribal Council - then voted on by one of the ranch staff (Lauri Croft). From wood, to limestone, to flour, sand, etc - these tribe members made very clear letters on the ground, one of which you could see from orbit! Tribe TOOGEE walked away with first place on this task - and seeing all 4 signals on the big screen for all to see made it clear that they did a fantastic job - if you have the chance to fly over the ranch - take a look!

Day 2 had another immunity challenge, which was to use a water balloon slingshot to hit a target some 200 feet away, they had the option to self launch, or to use members of their own tribe to launch water balloons into a circle - Day 2 immunity was given to Dave Cameron and Mark Sanderson.

Tribal council was again held at 9:PM at the pagota, each tribe member stepped forward, wrote down the name of the person who was to get booted off the tribe - all of which we video taped for all to see.

Day 3 - 7:am gave us enough window to do a windy, but successful flying task - with everyone clammering to get in the Wills Wing demo flights, and get the tribes launched, the Ranch pulled every tug at it's disposal out of the hangers and were ready to roll with nothing short of raw efficiency - The task was to pair 2 contestants, drop them off at 500 ft, the last one to land stayed in the game, with a 10 point bonus to hit a spot - this eliminated 4 more tribe members, and because of wind, traffic, et al, nobody hit the spot.

Each tribe member was given points - the tribe with the most points at the end of the comp won a "second prize", and the individual witht he highest score was the sole survivor - with the loss of time due to the wind, it all came down to points as opposed to being the last contestant standing.

The sole survivor was John Sumner, ($500), second place was Al Fishalow (IQSonic Vario), Third Place was Dan Walker (A beautiful Wills Wing winter jacket), and honerable mention went to Tom Lanning for 4th place - who received a water balloon slingshot, and a brand new bag of balloons! The first place tribe was TOOGEE, who got a prize package from WW and Wallaby Ranch including tee's, hats, etc.

We'll see a more detailed breakdown of events and pictures in the mag in the next month or so - it was a true success, even with the foul flying weather and limited time.

Sandy (my wife) and I were practically begged to come back and do it all again next year - it sure was a crowd pleaser, and the contestants and audience met alot of new friends, got some great pictures and video, and some long lasting memories.

Sandy and I wish to thank all those who helped us bring this to life...

Everyone at Wallaby Ranch - they gave us our space, rolled out the red carpet and truly made this a fun event. Malcolm Jones runs a class act in central Florida and never misses a beat.

Wills Wing, who provided demos for all to fly, support, advertising and propped Sandy and I up every time the weather sunk us into depression. They too had to deal with relentless wind for over a week, but allowed us to piggy back this event on the shoulders of Demo Days - they are all truly, without question the best at what they do.

John Harris and Kitty Hawk Kites for sponsering our immunity challenge and their last minute reaction to our request.

Mark Vaughn Photography for the logo design, artwork, color seps, and moral support over the months of planning that went into this.

Special thanks to Jayne at USHGA for support, last minute advertising, and hopefully our future support if we choose to do it all again.

If there's anyone I left out - thanks to you too - this was epic.!

USHGA Tandem Administrator

Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Malcolm Jones|Paul Voight|record|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

Paul Voight «flyhigh» USHGA Tandem committee chairman writes:

I strongly feel I need to set the record straight about Malcolm Jones. The discussion in published in the Oz Report concerning his appointment as a Tandem administrator at the BOD meeting unfairly came across as though he is a complete rebel/non-participant regarding the USHGA programs. I realize this is was inadvertent on Davis's part and that he was just doing blow by blow reporting for the most part. But sometimes things don't read like they should.

First off, readers should know that at this meeting the BOD awarded Malcolm/Wallaby Ranch the NAA safety award this year, for their exemplary safety conscious administration of their flight programs.

Secondly, it was at my suggestion that Malcolm's name was added to the Tandem administrator list. My plan is (was) to have an administrator at each of the major tandem training centers. There are administrators at Lookout, Quest, Miami, Raven, Hearn Texas, etc. Pilots seeking Tandem appointments should be able to go to any of these fine places and pursue them. I had Tiki Mashi as an Administrator at Wallaby, but she has relocated.

Malcolm and the Wallaby Ranch crew have been crossing all their t's and dotting all their i's for several seasons now, regarding tandem operations. I have been monitoring this as a result of some old instances of allegations of some non-compliance (not unique to the Wallaby ranch I must add).

I also have had the occasion to witness the progression of a couple of students from first flight through high solo and can vouch that a student rated at Wallaby is in possession of skills far in excess of the minimum for the rating.

Over the years Malcolm has had "philosophical differences" with some pilots here and there, some of whom attend board meetings. Here is where things go sour. At this particular meeting, some of his detractors brought up old stuff, doggedly, until enough doubt was caused in the minds of those less informed on the saga to get the appointment scratched. I personally am very disappointed in the Board for letting this happen.

The BOD acted in the same manner as a small club of who got caught up in mudslinging and allowing old baggage to be re-introduced with no requirement for accuracy. Oddly enough, Malcolm is not so put off by this as you might expect. He has become used to hitting walls and just keeps plugging along.

When I told him (and apologized for) how this all happened he only asked two things: 1) Couldn't the BOD see that the doubts introduced were old and supplied by folks not particularly enamored with Malcolm?, and 2) What does it take to get in to the good graces of the BOD? I couldn't provide a good answer to either question. That is sad. Really sad.

So I feel bad that I instigated a process that got Malcolm some bad press. I feel bad that the BOD doesn't have enough faith in the Tandem committee to adopt our recommendations.

I am 100% confident that any pilot that Malcolm would sign off as a Tandem instructor would be ridiculously qualified to hold the rating. I am 100% sure that all the paper work would be done properly. Those are my main concerns in the administration of the program: that only the very qualified (safe) pilots ever obtain the Tandem Instructor rating.

Currently, Wallaby is the only major Tandem training center that can not sign a qualified pilot off for a Tandem instructor rating. It is the arguably safest flight park in the world. Setting personalities aside, this appointment should have been a no-brainer.

(editor’s note: The reader may have received the incorrect impression from one of my earlier reports about the BOD meeting (https://ozreport.com/pub/Ozv7n260.shtml) that Malcolm was in attendance at the two general sessions where his proposed tandem administrator appointment was discussed and voted on. He was not. He stated to me to the phone on Wednesday as we drove through Indiana that if he had known that this would have been a contentious issue he would have withdrawn his nomination. According to him and Paul, it was completely Paul’s idea and Paul assured Malcolm that it would pass in general session without a problem.

Also I used the word “evidence.” I should have used the words “statements made by two BOD members.” Paul above rebuts the contention that Malcolm has not followed the tandem rules over the last few years, and I’ll certainly accept what Paul says.)

Discuss tandem administration at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA BOD »

Wed, Oct 8 2003, 4:00:07 am EDT

Dennis Cavagnaro|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Worlds

There is a lot more to write about the USHGA BOD meeting, so there will be more to come.

Dennis Cavagnaro «dcavagnaro» writes re my statements re what went down re Malcolm Jones:

A guy risks a career and monies on a concept that help to change and grow a sport. Invests his time, pioneers the sport and in many ways is part of the energy that makes hang gliding what it is today. And you want him to apologized to a committee of people who haven't accomplished anything with a wing or there own money. People who have turned their collective backs on Hang Gliding pilots to cling to any flavor of the month.

This is the height of disloyalty. What hang gliding needs is more Malcolm Jones's and less Mark and Jayne types. All the original hang gliding types were a bit ornery, that's what it took to push the envelope. Now you want Mr. Rogers?

I wrote back:

What is wrong with Mr. Rogers?

You have something against him? I suggest that you could learn a lot from him. Your e-mailing alter ego especially could learn a lot from him. Seriously.

You are absolutely right about Malcolm and everyone on the BOD agrees, especially the people that voted against his appointment.

I want him to admit the errors that he has made and agree to get with the program. Saying that you are sorry and meaning it is the first step to healing a broken relationship. Is Malcolm man enough to admit that he has been wrong?

Can those on the USHGA who made the mistakes re the Worlds likewise admit that they were wrong?

Discuss the USHGA BOD at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA BOD – it was live »

Sat, Oct 4 2003, 4:00:01 am EDT

Bill Bolosky|calendar|CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Jackson Hole|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|record|Tiki Mashy|USHGA|USHGA BOD|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

I’m writing this Sunday evening, and the USHGA BOD meeting is over for the fall of 2003. There will be another one in the spring before the flying season outside of Florida, Arizona, and southern California begins. It will be held in Colorado Spring, CO in March. I hope to be able to attend it.

The next fall USHGA BOD meeting will be held in late September or early October near Rochester, NY (near Finger Lakes Aerosports Flight Park). They hope to hold it in conjunction with one of the two 2004 national fly-ins, the one obviously at the flight park. The BOD voted to hold the meeting at Rochester, but I really assume that means in the neighborhood thereof, as personally I would like to be out in the country side once again, and near the flight park.

Why near Rochester? Dennis Pagen, I and others got excited about being at the Finger Lakes area at Marty’s party. The goodwill that Marty generated just spontaneously got people excited about going there again. It is a perfect time to go there too with harvests coming in.

There were a bunch of nominees including San Diego, the Bay Area (SF), Seattle, Minden, Nevada (my vote), Boston, Hannaford, NH, and others. Lots of good reasons to go to various ones.

Participating in (I’m not a USHGA BOD member) and at the same time covering the USHGA BOD meeting was actually quite a chore, especially covering it often in real time. I often had to both push my positions on various issues as well as report how the meetings were going at that very moment. I had few chances to actually look people in the eye as I kept my eyes glued to the screen and was typing as fast as people were talking.

A few BOD members were apprehensive about my coming to the executive committee meeting (Bill Bolosky responding positively when I asked), and reporting in real time with draft reports on the committee meetings and general sessions (thanks to Liz Sharp who shared e-versions of all the committee notes she received with me). They wrote Bill to tell him so.

At the end of the meeting I got a round of applause for how well the Oz Report forum/blog worked out. Almost everyone felt that the reporting was fair and impartial (I didn’t have time to rant and rave J).

I’m sure that there are a good number of errors in what I and others wrote and I will try to clean up things over the next few weeks. The BOD meeting is way too short to be able to allow for considered judgment of the many issues that the BOD is faced with so there will always be a lot of loose ends at the end of the meeting.

There were three separate independent movements to tighten up the completion of action items that are assigned at the BOD meetings. This was likely in reaction to the screw ups around the membership vote that brought such disrepute on the BOD. There was still a lot of confusion on my part just how this will all be worked out, but a lot of progress was made. There will be a web based calendar for the BOD which will put out automatic reminders re the action items, for example.

Some members have complained that the USHGA does little to market and build the sport of hang gliding. This is not for the lack of effort by many members of the BOD I can assure you. These same complaints were echoed by a number of BOD members.

There looks like there will in fact be a major restructuring of the USHGA administration to take on the task of marketing both sports. The goal is to promote growth in the number of participants in both sports.

It was also pointed out that a number of local chapters are not at all interested in growth when it comes to increasing the number of pilots who would be using their local sites. This makes it counter productive to look to a good number of chapters when it comes to promoting hang gliding. The USHGA will be taking these issues into consideration when looking at a marketing plan.

Some USHGA members have complained that the USHGA BOD is filled with representatives of commercial interests that are driving the board’s goal and programs. Yah, some of that is there. Matt Tabor is a strong voice for interests that coincide with his own. But, that said, they are also positions that are often in line with the general good of the USHGA and the hang gliding community (unless you are one of those who oppose growth).

If you look at the new executive committee (Bill Bolosky, Mark Forbes, Liz Sharp, Randy Leggett), none of these people have any commercial interest in the sport. In general I found the commercial interests to be very muted and in general way under represented at the BOD.

Over the last year I’ve had some conflicts and disagreements with a few of USHGA BOD members (Dennis Pagen, Jim Zeiset, for example). The fact that we have disagreed did not in any way seem to detract from our ability to work together, even when we continued to be on opposite sides of issues. Dennis Pagen and I very much disagreed on the CIVL representative qualifications (mine, for example), but it never got personal (or at least not uncivil).

Dennis made a move to diminish the power of the USHGA president to choose the CIVL delegate and alternate and put some of the power in his committee. I was able to argue against that move in the general session and add an amendment that left the decision up to the president (of course, Dennis can still bully him if he likes). Dennis got his CIVL delegate qualification guidelines passed, but only after I and others got them amended to be more to our liking.

One of the big news items was that Malcolm Jones was not going to put on a USHGA sanctioned meet in 2004. Malcolm feels burned by the USHGA BOD (well, actually mostly by Dennis Pagen and Jim Zeiset) re the 2005 Worlds bid (and I think he has a real point there – see my earlier articles on this), and he also feels that it isn’t any fun to run the meets partly because of his various conflicts with the USHGA BOD over the years.

Malcolm really presented a sad figure at the meeting, and many of us felt sorry for him, and sure didn’t want him to be feeling so burnt out. Unfortunately, many of the problems that Malcolm suffers from are of his own making. By his actions he has burnt so many bridges with his former supporters on the BOD, that he has now too few loyal ones.

He was nominated to be tandem administrator to take Tiki Mashy’s place at Wallaby Ranch (she’s now in Jackson Hole, Wyoming). His nomination was approved in the tandem committee, but rejected in general session. The reason? According to the evidence presented his poor record of supporting the USHGA tandem program procedures.

I sure would hope that Malcolm could make amends for his past actions and transgressions, ask for forgiveness, state that he would rigorously follow the procedures in the future and build a record of accomplishment in this area (sometimes just thought of as the paper work). The BOD really appreciates his accomplishments and his enviable record of safety and want Malcolm to continue to succeed and would love to be able to work with him in a more constructive fashion.

Pilot and instructor rating revocations was a hot topic at the Safety and Training meeting. The issues before the committee were quickly dealt with, but the whole process was overhauled to make it completely transparent and to make sure it had the appearance of fairness to go along with its actual fairness. Paul Sussman’s rating were reinstated in the Bay Area as the proper procedures (well, at the very least) were not followed by Tim West, the regional director.

CIVL is rewriting the Sporting Code Section 7. Dennis Pagen, Jim Zeiset, and I have formed a subcommittee of the National Coordinating Committee to review the Sporting Code and perhaps to provide input on other CIVL issues.

The Competition Committee approved a bunch of new meets. The big changes were first the ten day Flytec Championship in the Spring after Sun ‘n Fun at Quest Air (perhaps using the best seven out of ten days) instead of two meets in the spring in Florida. The Team Challenge is moved to the spring in mid May at the request of the Tennessee Treetoppers.

It was almost totally by accident that on the first day of the BOD meeting that I sat down next to Liz Sharp. Liz is responsible for taking the notes, getting the committee reports, putting together the minutes, and straightening out the action items. She would immediately share with me the committee reports as they came in from the chairman in general session and therefore I could get them out on the forum as or before they were being presented to the BOD. Thanks to Liz Oz report forum readers are much more aware of what goes on at the BOD meeting.

As things settle down over the next few weeks and I have a chance to review more of what actually happened, I’ll write some more about the changes coming to the USHGA.

You’ll find my scribblings and those from others at: https://ozreport.com/forum/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=6

Discuss the USHGA at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

The 2003 Wallaby Open

Sun, Apr 20 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|Christian Ciech|cloud|Fantasy of Flight|flight park|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|GAP|GAP 2000|J.C. Brown|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|landing|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber|Oliver Schmidt|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Richard Walbec|SeeYou|Terry Presley|Wallaby Open 2003|weather

http://www.wallaby.com

First of all, the task:

It’s first twenty miles to the west to Rockridge and highway 98, then east to the Fantasy of Flight to keep us from going over downtown Winter Haven, then southeast to Chalet Suzanne on highway 27 near Lake Wales, then back to the Ranch. It’s a 70 mile task, with a substantial east wind of 10 mph predicted.

The new wrinkle is that the start circle is centered on the Rockridge and highway 98 intersection and is fifteen miles in diameter. The idea is that you begin the contest by entering the start circle instead of leaving the start circle. The reason for using such a start circle is to allow pilots to spread themselves out along the circumference of the start circle, all routes to the first turnpoint being equal from that circumference.

Now theory is one thing and practice is another. With a good wind component, only one point is optimal. With other pilots congregating in one location, they form an attractive nuisance and soon there is a party in one spot.

Still it’s quite manageable with twenty pilots looking to take the first clock at 1:30. Which reminds me of another innovation.

At the task committee meeting this morning Betinho mentioned that he wanted more time between start times to cut down on pilots waiting around for a later clock and then catching people in front of them (can you say Johnny Durand, Jr.?). Of course, we were using GAP 2000 at the Flytec Championship (and we are here), which has the minimal early departure/arrival bonus points so of course pilots are going to try to catch others from behind.

So I immediately suggest a half hour and, whoa, it is accepted. This will make it harder for pilots taking a later clock to catch the earlier guys and keep them from getting that extra added advantage without having to pay for it with reduced starting time points.

The task committee calls for three start times, although what they really want is a race, one start time. The compromise with three start times has to be made to allow the flight park time to get everyone in the air. Actually we could call a start time at 1:30 hours after the launch window open time, because that is enough time to get everyone in the air and at the circumference of the start circle, if people start launching at the launch window open time (they never do). So maybe we will have a race start soon.

The task committee consists of Richard Walbec, Betinho Schmidt, Mike Barber and I. But JC Brown runs the meeting and directs the discussion. Peter Gray and the goal crew are there also and Malcolm Jones hangs around the edges. This is quite a difference format (and dynamic) than Jim Lee , Terry Presley and I meeting in my trailer looking over the SeeYou task map as we did last week.

Mike Barber is a high anxiety person. He has extreme difficulty making a decision (especially one related to calling a task four hours in advance of the actual task). He wants to call off the decision until the last moment. He also is very distrustful of weather forecasting (even forecasts four hours out). The funny think is that he also is compulsive looking and listening to the weather forecasts. His anxiety infuses the task committee.

Mike is afraid of the possibility of over development, like the OD we had yesterday. I’m looking at the FSL MAP models and the BLIPMAP. I guarantee to him that there won’t be any OD during the task.

I compare the fear of OD with the actuality of higher winds than the models predict. It appears that the winds are stronger out of the east than the 10 to 12 mph that the models show will be the state of things later in the day. We later get a “sounding” from Paris Williams (taken, who knows how), with the east winds stated to be 20 mph. I’m concerned about the prospect for higher winds (as we are right on the cusp of where it makes a big difference), and I’m looking at the windcast showing a broad convergence and lighter winds to the west (as we had for many days at the Flytec Championship).

The task committee gets through the process and calls two tasks (we never called an alternate task at the Flytec Championship) just to handle all the anxiety (well, okay, that is a bit overstated). Then later, just before the pilot meeting, based on Paris’ “sounding” we call a third task to the west (I’m good with that) and make it the primary.

Now the pilot meeting is at 11 AM, which I consider to be about an hour too late, because it doesn’t give us time to get to the staging line and get ready to go before the launch window opens. I give my little weather spiel (know any good weatherman jokes?) and before we know it is too late to get to the launch line in time to get suited up for the 1 PM start window.

The three start times now become two start times (which is cool with me, as I go for the race concept) of 1:30 and 2 PM. I’m thinking that this is alright. Fifteen minutes are the launch window opens with no pilots launched (did I mention this?) and Bo on hold from JC Brown (talk about last minute anxiety) we call the secondary task (which earlier was the primary task) (see above).

They let the task committee stage in the front, but I get off early anyway, so I don’t clutter up the neighborhood. The lift is light to moderate (200 fpm) the southeast of the Ranch and we just hang out in the big smooth stuff to cloud base at 4,000’ slowly moving our way to the west staying just under the clouds.

Just before the start time at 1:30, there are twenty plus pilots at the edge of the start circle. There is light lift at cloud base so we are all just hanging near the top waiting for the clock to tick. I’m hanging back a few tenth of a mile in better lift getting up in the cat birds’ seat to watch the action in front of me. Position is a big deal for my psyche.

Kurt, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, Christian Ciech, Antoine, Manfred and a few other fast guys are around so I figure that this won’t necessarily be a loser move to go at 1:30, in spite of the weak lift we’ve been experiencing.

At 1:30 the whole group goes and there isn’t anyone else even nearby. It’s great having a few folks out in front and lower so that you can choose other lines to go to. I take a more southern route and hit the clouds early to find the next lift that we all get up in again just north of Polk City.

Christian finds the next one out front and puts himself in the lead with Johann and I right behind him and the flex wings trailing after us. It’s looking good to me. Christian goes on a long/fast glide. He’s doing well. But it is great to see that he is not over powering. He is flying faster than Johann and I, which most likely is a good idea. I’ll have to amp it up a bit more tomorrow.

Johann and I and a few flexies stop for a weak one as Christian heads to the turnpoint still not turning. We then head southwest to get under the clouds. Just before we get there, I see Christian starting to turn and head for him. I should have stayed with the gaggle as they get up quickly and it takes me a while to find the core under Christian. Now he’s really out in the lead. (Was that bonehead move #1?)

Johann and I get up next to the turnpoint and head toward Fantasy of Flight. Johann finds a good one to my right but in another bonehead move I continue on, having to slow down to find a good one seven miles out from this second turnpoint.

Many of the flex wings are doing well now above me and we are fighting up wind to get to Fantasy. I make a couple of more bone head moves and land 5 miles short. Johann gets high at Fantasy and continues to Chalet Suzanne.

Christian gets low by Fantasy also, out there out on his own down to 500 feet and takes 20 minutes to get back to cloud base. Still he is able to fly fast and get to goal first.

Manfred also took the 1:30 PM start time and makes goal soon after Christian. He wins the day for the flex wings (or at least I think he does as he was so fast).

Alex Ploner takes the 2 PM start time, and after a few 1:30 flex wings make it in, he makes it to goal to win the day for the rigid wings. He also got low but found a strong thermal right away. David Chamet comes in a few minutes later. The rest of the rigid wings trickle in quite a bit later. The flex wings are interspersed with the rigids (perhaps we will call separate tasks for them.)

Mike Barber cuts his knee on landing on his back wires. It is a pretty substantial cut with a bucket full of blood down his leg into his sock. He was wearing pants with holes in the knees (he lives out of his truck) and that’s where the wire got him. Can you say stripped wires?

Mike and Dorval came across the line very low and close together with Mike the lowest. Mike basically had to land without much time to think about it. He took out a down tube also without any other damage to the glider.

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Wallaby Ranch to be on the sectionals

Thu, Apr 10 2003, 12:00:03 pm EDT

FAA|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch <fly@wallaby.com> writes:

FYI, I took action months ago to get Wallaby Ranch marked on the sectionals. It should be included on the next charts the NOAA publishes.

Also, for years now, I’ve arranged for local NOTAMS to be officially posted whenever we have large special events.

Discuss the FAA and hang gliding sites on sectionals at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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Full retraction and heart felt apology

Thu, Mar 27 2003, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Bart Weghorst|CIVL|competition|Competition Committee|Dennis Pagen|flight park|Florida|Gary Solomon|Jim Zeiset|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber|Quest Air|Rob Kells|Russ Locke|Tiki Mashy|towing|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

https://OzReport.com/Ozv7n82.shtml

Yesterday I published a story about the USHGA Worlds Bid that included this statement from an informant:

When asked at the BOD meeting if this offer (free hotel rooms) would still apply if the bid was a joint bid between Quest and Wallaby Malcolm says yes.

Before I published this statement, I checked with a “neutral” person who was present at the USHGA BOD CC meetings to check if this indeed happened. It was confirmed (that person now states that they didn’t confirm this statement specifically.)

And "According to my confirming source, Malcolm pulled the offer from the table before the bid went to CIVL."

I published the story.

First, let me clear up a portion of the statement above. The bid from the USHGA was not a joint bid, but rather a single bid from the USHGA. The USHGA was only proposing to hire the two flight parks (Quest Air and Wallaby) to provide flight park services.

The two bids from the two flight parks were off the table when the USHGA decided not to choose between the two, but to put together their own Worlds bid. They proposed to subcontract with the two flight parks to provide towing and other services.

Today at Wallaby Ranch, I interviewed Malcolm Jones, Rob Kells, Tiki Mashy, Bart Weghorst, Russ Locke, and Mike Barber. Malcolm states that at no point was he asked nor did he offer to provide the “free hotel rooms,” as part of the USHGA bid. Rob Kells confirms Malcolm’s statements, and says that no such offer was made by Malcolm.

Tiki Mashy states that when the issue of the “free hotel rooms” was broached by Jim Zeiset at the BOD meeting as a possible part of the USHGA bid, Malcolm clearly stated that it wasn’t to be a part of the proposal. Bart Weghorst states that Malcolm didn’t offer the “free hotel rooms” as a part of the USHGA bid.

Russ Locke says that there was no offer given or requested in any of the meetings of the USHGA BOD that he attended. Mike Barber, who amazingly was also at the USHGA BOD meeting (never again, he says), states that he spoke with Malcolm as word of a proposed USHGA takeover of the Worlds bid spread and that he and Malcolm both thought that Wallaby Ranch could act as a subcontractor to provide flight park services only.

Earlier in the day, I also received two e-mails from Jim Zeiset confirming my story as originally written. (I had written him last night specifically asking for a confirmation or denial of the story).

I also received this e-mail message from Tiki Mashy <tikimashy@earthlink.net>:

The reason the free lodging was never mentioned in the CIVL Bid was because it was never part of the USHGA Bid. I was present for every meeting that involved this issue. I am a Regional Director and I am on the Competition Committee, so I have first hand knowledge of all that went on with this issue. This is how it went in a nutshell:

There were two World Meet Bids, Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch. In order to decide which bid would get the nod the USHGA formed what they called the Solomon Committee II, a subcommittee of the Competition Committee. The Solomon Committee II comprised of JZ, Dennis Pagen, and RR Rodriguez would advise the BOD on which bid would be presented to CIVL. The subcommittee determined that neither bid was acceptable so the subcommittee threw out both bids.

The USHGA then decided that the USHGA would present their own bid, and that they would subcontract with the Florida flight parks to host the World Meet. I specifically asked JZ, Dennis Pagen and RR Rodriguez, the Solomon II Committee, who specifically is the organizer of this World Meet bid, I was told by JZ that the USHGA is the Organizer.

Once the both bids were thrown out, USHGA had to formulate their own proposal, arrange sponsorship, etc. This is the task of the Organizer. The USHGA took on a weighty task when they decided to present their own bid. I honestly don't think that the Solomon Committee II had any idea what it meant to be an Organizer of such a huge competition.

They were told and understood that this was not a matter of picking the best parts of the bids they threw out. They told me specifically that the USHGA would come up with a whole new bid. As a matter of fact JZ went down a list of things the USHGA would put in their bid, one was the free lodging for all competitors and officials. I perked up my ears as did as did Malcolm, who spoke out at that time and said that the free lodging was not his or JZ's to transfer and that the free lodging was part of the Wallaby bid which was thrown out by the Solomon Committee.

There was no misunderstanding in the CIVL World Meet Bid. The bid was presented with the best the USHGA could come up with, however, it fell short. Yes, Malcolm's bid, free lodging and $20,000 in prize money, would have gone a long way in the US getting the World Meet, however, the Solomon Committee II dismissed all that and advised the BOD the USHGA to go it alone. There is no finger pointing or fault, we lost, suck it up.

I have to make a judgment call here, and in spite of Jim Zeiset’s confirmation, it looks to me like I have unfairly maligned Malcolm’s integrity by publishing what I now believe to be a misstatement of the facts of the matter. Malcolm has done nothing wrong here and it is unfortunate that apparently some people think he has.

Let me also apologize to Malcolm for causing him anguish and pain regarding this issue. I realize that an apology doesn’t make up for it.

A remaining question is how, ethically, can the USHGA, which was the agency that received and was to approve the US bid that went to CIVL, decide not to accept either bid and then send out its own bid to CIVL instead? I’m sure that folks had good motives for doing this (can’t we all just get along), but doesn’t that seem a little suspect?

Discuss CIVL and USHGA political issues on-line at: OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2.

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USHGA - no room at the inn »

Wed, Mar 26 2003, 9:00:03 pm GMT

CIVL|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

I’m trying to track down further details about this, but I have confirmed a portion of the facts (presented here). One informant writes:

At the Fall USHGA BOD meeting Malcolm Jones offered free hotel rooms (he says Super 8 is giving them to him for free) for all competitors and officials in his bid for the World's from Wallaby Ranch.

Malcolm stated this free room offer was worth at least $70,000. When asked at the BOD meeting if this offer would still apply if the bid was a joint bid between Quest and Wallaby Malcolm says yes.

When the USHGA World’s bid is presented to CIVL there is no mention of the "free hotel rooms". Seems like this offer would have gone a long way toward balancing the money issue between the US and Ozzie bid.

According to my confirming source, Malcolm pulled the offer from the table before the bid went to CIVL. My second source was not able to confirm whether this occurred before the written bid in December or at the presentation at the February plenary.

If this it true, I wonder why the USHGA CIVL representative seems to have failed to mention this as a factor in the USHGA losing the bid (according to the unofficial USHGA BOD CC minutes).

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Trouble in Paradise »

Fri, Mar 14 2003, 4:00:00 pm EST

CIVL|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

To continue with the story of the pre-Worlds in Brazil. I had a long talk with Malcolm Jones, Carlos Bessa, and Mike Barber about what went on down there with respect to the issue of sponsorship and the flap about the Wallaby Ranch logo that was placed on the pilot’s leading edges.

Apparently, the meet organizers ask Carlos to contact Malcolm about helping out with sponsorship. It appears as though they were in need of anything that they could get to help out. Malcolm was happy to help and in return they were going to put Wallaby Ranch logos on the leading edges of the gliders.

Malcolm feels now it was unfair to force the pilots to put on the logos if they objected. Certainly it caused some bad feelings, and the good will that he had hoped to get out of the sponsorship has turned sour because of the objections and the feeling that pilots were forced to do something against their will. The question was who owned the real estate?

If only the meet organizers had asked the pilots in the name of cooperation and to encourage sponsorship to put the logos on their leading edges, instead of demanding that they do so and then threatening them with sanctions if they didn’t. I mean, so what if a few pilots didn’t go along with the program, that wasn’t going to hurt Wallaby Ranch. Seems like they made a little mistake there.

Now the world meet organizers have gone to the CIVL Plenary and apparently received CIVL approval for their land grab and now, unlike the last time when they didn’t have the right to do so, they can make pilots put a logo on the left leading edge. Will they try to force pilots again to cooperate? Or will they play nice and ask?

So the pilot’s sponsors (if any outside of Brazil) no longer have a claim on this piece of property during the worlds. It belongs to the world’s organizers. I hope the objectors are ready for that.

And, what does reporting all these issues do for your Oz Report editor? I’ve been discussing with Carlos for a good long time going down to Brazil to report on the Worlds. It seems like a good idea to get some stories with real content out of Brazil and it looks like I’m the guy who is willing and able to do this unique kind of reporting.

Well, it requires the cooperation of the meet organizers and CIVL. I have to be given the right to fly during the meet with the competitors (that’s how I gather the story, after all). This requires an agreement from CIVL and an agreement from the meet organizers.

Now, I’m interested in going down there. I will apparently be able to get a flex wing glider to fly, so that would be cool also. You can imagine that neither the meet organizers nor CIVL would be completely happy with me. They would most likely want a reporter whom they have more control over. Someone not quite so delighted to portray human folly.

Anyway, we’ll see how it all comes out. Carlos is down there in Brazil right now, and he should be getting an earful about these crybaby Americans.

The Brazilian Worlds

Thu, Mar 13 2003, 10:00:04 pm GMT

ABVL|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

And now for the dark side. I have been speaking with my Brazilian informants. They tell me that the Brazilian worlds’ organizers have been very successful in raising money from the Brazilian government to support their meet. They say that they received $200,000 USD in support from the government. It sure is nice to have family members in high places.

They also tell me that the ABVL, the Brazilian equivalent of the USHGA, was a tax delinquent (hey, this is Brazil, after all), and that the government wanted its money. Apparently the ABVL told the word meet organizers that they could have their world meet, if they paid off the debt of the ABVL. Apparently the ABVL knew who was powerful in their organization.

The problem now is that the meet organizers haven’t paid off the ABVL debt yet, only about 60% of it, and pilots are beginning to wonder if they are going to welch on the deal.

So a big check from the government. Big money from the many high level sponsors, and a little measly $2,000 from Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch that turns sour (more on this later). This is way beyond any kind of money (or deals) that hang gliding meet organizers have every seen in the US. Malcolm had trouble even thinking in these terms when I spoke with him about this.

More on all of this in a later issue. More on other scandals also.

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A little twist on the money trail

Mon, Mar 3 2003, 9:00:02 pm GMT

Campbell Bowen|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Malcolm Jones called me up today and came up with a new proposition. He stated that any single surface pilot that launched from Wallaby Ranch, landed at Quest Air, and then got towed up again and flew at least a total of 100 miles from Wallaby Ranch would get the $1000 from Malcolm.

Now, of course, he wants the pilots to fly from Wallaby, land at Quest Air and then fly not a mere approximately 80 miles from Quest, but 100 miles, to get the $1000 from Malcolm and $1001 from Campbell Bowen. A real red letter day for the pilot and both flight parks.

Now, I wonder if Campbell would contemplate what would be possible on the norther day?

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Take Malcolm’s money

Sun, Feb 23 2003, 9:00:02 am GMT

Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch <fly@wallaby.com> writes:

Current Wallaby Ranch Hang Gliding Cross-Country Awards:

First flight from Wallaby Ranch over 300 miles – $2,000

First flight from Wallaby Ranch over 100 miles, on a single surface glider – $1,000

(editor’s note: I really really like these prizes. I won almost all of Malcolm’s money that last time he put up a bunch, so it really energizes me. I can definitely see the possibility of going 100 miles in a single surface at Wallaby. Three hundred miles in a rigid wing or flex wing is possible, but a lot harder (especially on the driver).

You can use whichever vario you want.)

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More Thanks

Fri, Feb 21 2003, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Bart Doets|Brad Kushner|Dave Brandt|Douglas Coster|Gilbert Griffith|James Rowan|Jose Antonio Mejía|Larry Jorgensen|Malcolm Jones|Marc Breton|Martin Henry|Matt Carter|Mauricio Brittingham|Michael Novak|Nancy Smith|Neville Almond|Randal Frazer|Raven Sky Sports|Richard Larson|Richard Mullins|Robert "Bob" Franklin|Scot Trueblood|Stephen Rudy

Oz Report readers have been very generous, many of them way beyond my expectations. Thanks to all of you.

On Thursday night and Friday, I received support from: Richard Mullins (“Where I get almost all my HG news. I'm just jealous because you get to do all this stuff while I sit at my desk and read about it…”), Marc Breton (snail mail, Québec, Canada, “I appreciate it very much and during the winter it help me because it's our dead season here in Québec, Canada { temperature between -30 to -40°C were frequent during the last 3 weeks). I have been dreaming about going in Australia for such a long time, so you can understand the description of your flight there make me happy. Anyway, I read it from the start to the end every day and hope your report will last forever. It's really awesome.”), Dave Brandt ($20, snail mail, “It's fundraiser week on our public radio station and I could not help but reflect on the value services such as public radio and the Oz Report, $20.00 is a great value! But what about pledge gifts?????? The Oz Report coffee mug or lexan wine glass.”), Larry Jorgensen ($20), Bob Franklin ($50, “Excellent job on the Oz Report… It's my #1 read”), James Rowan (“Thanks for the pleasant distraction and occasional bits of useful information.”), Douglas Coster, Mauricio Brittingham ($50, “Keep up the good work.”), Martin Henry (Canada), Nancy Smith (pledge, $20, “I really appreciated your reporting my accident last year. The support I received from your readers meant a lot to me, and I never have really thanked you.”), Scot Trueblood (pledge), Richard Larson ($25, “I haven't flown in 10 years {wife, then children, career, etc.) but I follow the Oz Report and your exploits religiously. Your insights, perspective, and journalistic talents are very enjoyable.”), Matt Carter (“PG pilot here, thanks for all your skillful reporting over the years.”), Jose Antonio Mejía (snail mail, Columbia), Randal Frazer (“I don't even fly! Yet. Got hooked by spending a coupla days at Wallaby last spring watching my brother fly and love the stories especially at the WRE.”), Brad Kushner, Raven Sky Sports, Neville Almond, (pledge, UK), Stephen Rudy ($30, “I have been reading the Oz report for three years, and I figure it is well worth a $10 annual subscription.”), Bart Doets (snail mail, Holland), Michael Novak ($20, “Keep up the faith. You are the only consistent source of USA and World Hang Gliding News {with my american slant) and the only journalist I have ever personally met.”), Malcolm Jones (pledge. $20), Gilbert Griffith (much support and a pledge, rejected by me due to all his past support)

Thanks again to all of you who support the Oz Report and continue to do so.

See below on how to send in $10 to help support/subscribe to the Oz Report. I’m looking forward to thanking every one in the Oz Report.

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Florida meets fill up

Tue, Dec 17 2002, 9:00:02 am EST

Bob Lane|Florida|Malcolm Jones|Steve Kroop|USHGA|US Nationals|Wallaby Ranch

In less than two days after registration opened the Flytec Championship is full (up to 90 pilots) and the Wallaby Open has been oversubscribed by foreign pilots.

Steve Kroop at Flytec USA «flytec» writes:

BEHOLD....the power of the Oz Report;-) We are pleasantly surprised by the first day deluge of entries. The 2003 Flytec Championship is, at this time, full (first day of registration) and the waiting list has begun. Serious pilots should still register immediately at http://www.flytec.com so if a space becomes available they will get a confirmed spot. Please be sure to fill out the application completely. If anyone has a problem with the web form they can email or call Bob Lane at «questair» or fax the online form to +352 429 4846 (+352-429-0213 voice).

Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

The Wallaby Open is over the initially allotted capacity for international pilots, but I think we have the room and the resources to try and accommodate everyone.

The Flytec Championship was also announced in the December issue of Hang Gliding Magazine which many USHGA members may have by now. The Wallaby Open won’t be announced in the magazine until January. But, again Malcolm has apparently said that he will accommodate any US pilot that applies. And, of course, see his statement above.

There was a late notice for the Flytec Championship, as I recall, on the hang gliding list also, and a mention today on the rigid wing list. Looks like it might be a bit late for the Class 2 pilots, but I don’t know the breakdown yet.

I wonder when the US Nationals in Big Spring, Texas is going to be announced? Then there is the 2003 Chelan Cross Country Classic (see dates below). Pilots had better be prepared to enter the meet of their choice on the day it is announced that registration is open.

There is a chance for more Category II competitions, I believe, if meet organizers get it together and put in a proposal at the upcoming USHGA BOD meeting in March in Colorado Springs, CO.

2003 Wallaby Open (registration opens 12/15/02) »

Wed, Dec 11 2002, 12:00:02 pm EST

CIVL|Laurie Croft|Malcolm Jones|Peter Gray|USHGA|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Laurie at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

The annual Wallaby Open International Hang Gliding competition will be held from April 20 to April 26, 2003, at world-famous Wallaby Ranch. As in previous years, this is a USHGA-sanctioned Class A, CIVL Category 2 competition.

Location: Wallaby Ranch, 1805 Dean Still Road, Davenport, FL 33897. Tel: 1-800-WALLABY (US & Canada) or 863.424.0700

Number of Pilots: 90-120 pilots

Competition Entry Requirements: USHGA Membership, USHGA Advanced Pilot rating (or foreign equivalent) with Aerotow sign-off

Glider/Equipment Entry Requirements: Class 1 and Class 2 hang gliders. GPS receivers are required for flight documentation.

Entry Fee: $400, 50% deposit required at registration

Registration: December 15, 2002, through April 20, 2003

Meet Format: Cross-country race to goal with or without turnpoints

Rules: 2002 USHGA Competition Rulebook and the 2003 Wallaby Open Rulebook

Scoring: GAP Meet Organizers: Malcolm Jones and Laurie Croft

Meet Director: J.C. Brown

Safety Director: Malcolm Jones

Scorekeeper: Peter Gray

USHGA Meet Stewards: Jim Zeiset and J.C. Brown

Awards and Prizes: A minimum of $5,000 prize money will be distributed fairly between the classes.

Mandatory Pilot Briefing: April 19, 7:30 PM at meet headquarters.

Rest Days and Contingency Plans: No official rest days are planned. No official practice days are planned. There are no rain, weather or contingency plans to extend or postpone the competition.

First Flight Park

Fri, Nov 29 2002, 1:00:04 am GMT

Malcolm Jones

Malcolm Jones <fly@wallaby.com> writes:

Maybe it’s just our understanding of what characterizes a flight park, but for us, this entails a year-round, professionally managed operation at one single location, dedicated exclusively to hang gliding.

We certainly don’t claim to be the first aerotow group or club (in fact, there were several in Florida alone, not to mention Europe) or deny the efforts of other pioneers trying to make things work in the early days or aerotowing, but we were certainly the first to make the commitment to purchase and develop the land and follow through with the idea of a dedicated hang gliding aerotow flight park that not only offers hang gliding instruction, but also a truly unique atmosphere for students, pilots and their families and friends from around the world.

Besides, we are always looking for an excuse to throw a party.) So come on down and join us.

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The 2005 flex wing Worlds in Florida?

Mon, Oct 14 2002, 7:00:02 pm EDT

CIVL|David Glover|Florida|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

It appears that two bids for the 2005 flex wing Worlds (and 2004 pre-Worlds) will be presented to the USHGA Competition Committee at the BOD meeting coming up this weekend. One bid from Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch and one from Steve Kroop and David Glover at Quest Air.

I sure hope that the USHGA CC can come up with the best bid or combination of bids to send to CIVL for their consideration. Last time a bid for the Worlds came out of Florida there was general consternation and Brazil won by one vote.

Oz Report editor banned from Hearne, Texas

Sun, Apr 21 2002, 4:00:03 pm EDT

Malcolm Jones|Steve Burns|Steve Kroop|USHGA

Steve Burns, proprietor of Austin Airsports informed me after giving an announcement at the Wallaby Open, that I was banned from flying at Austin Airsports. Apparently I have now joined a long list of distinguished Texaspilots who have likewise been banned from Hearne, the municipally owned airport where Austin Airsports runs its operation.

Why was I banned? I assume it was because I published quite a few messages from Texaspilots who voiced their opinions about Steve Burn’s operations. Somehow Steve seems to think that I insulted his family. Hmmm, don’t recall that. I do recall continually praising his and Gaye’s treatment of myself and the other competitions pilots at his meets.

Well you can’t please everyone. I publish an e-zine that takes difficult positions at times. It’s just part of the picture that I’m going to piss off someone (well, maybe every one at some time).

I’m glad to see that Malcolm Jones and Steve Kroop haven’t banished me from their flight parks even though I’ve had critical things to say about the operations at these flight parks from time to time. I guess they fully graduated from high school.

I did remind Steve of the Malcolm Jones/ Mark P. (see, there I go again) rule from the USHGA. You can’t ban a pilot from the USHGA competitions, and as I’ve only gone to Hearne for USHGA sanctioned competitions, I guess Steve will have to put up with me, if only at the minimum level, if he puts on a competition again.

This kind of stunt doesn’t really phase me, and I’ll keep speaking out (or in this case publishing material from other pilots) that is controversial and interesting. No one gets along with everyone and if they all did it would be pretty boring.

Sport Pilot License

Wed, Mar 20 2002, 2:00:09 pm EST

Bill Bolosky|Bill Bryden|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Jayne DePanfilis|Joe Gregor|Malcolm Jones|Mike Meier|Richard Williams|Steve Kroop|USHGA|Wills Wing

Jayne DePanfilis, USHGA Executive Director «Jayne» writes:

The USHGA Sport Pilot Task Force met inOntario,CA on Saturday, February 10th with high ranking FAA officials to discuss our specific concerns regarding the proposed Sport Pilot NPRM. The FAA was represented by Mike Henry, FAA General and Commercial Division Manager responsible for the supervision of Part 103 Operations, Sue Gardner, Technical Expert for the Sport Pilot NPRM and Assistant to Mike Henry, and Scott Sedgewick, Aircraft Certification Service, Small Airplane Directorate. The USHGA Sport Pilot Task Force was represented at this meeting by USHGA President, Jim Zeiset, USHGA Treasurer, Bill Bolosky, Executive Director, Jayne DePanfilis, Task Force Member and Technical Editor, Mike Meier of Wills Wing, Task Force Member and Technical Editor, Bill Bryden. Task Force Chairman Dennis Pagen was unable to attend. Chairman Dennis Pagen directed the preliminary task force meeting the day before. Task Force members Malcolm Jones ofWallabyRanchFlightPark,Orlando,FL and Steve Kroop of FlytecUSA andQuestAirFlightPark,Orlando,FL, were just two of the attendees at the preliminary meeting the day before. A list of action items and a detailed agenda resulted from this meeting under Pagen's supervision.

The Sport Pilot Task Force was able to schedule an exclusive meeting with high ranking FAA officials as a result of the rapport that Executive Director DePanfilis began with Sue Gardner in the aftermath of the events of September 11th. This breakfast meeting held in conjunction with the USHGA Board of Director's meeting and Air Sports Convention in February, gave the USHGA Task Force the opportunity to address issues of specific concern to USHGA members. Please refer to the homepage of USHGA's website at www.ushga.org for a synopsis of that meeting provided by Treasurer Bill Bolosky. This synopsis was posted to the home page of the website immediately following the meeting in February and was recently revised with comments from Bill Bryden.

Hang glider pilot, NTSB employee and friend, Joe Gregor graciously agreed to review the proposed Sport Pilot NPRM in preparation for the release of a comprehensive review of the NPRM which will be featured in the April issues of both magazines. Joe's article not only reviews and highlights the pertinent facts of the proposed NPRM, it also provides detailed critical analysis of the lengthy document. This is an excellent article and one that follows the first article Joe wrote for the magazines last fall when USHGA was anticipating the release of the NPRM. The release of the much anticipated NPRM was postponed as a result of the September 11th tragedy. Both of Joe's articles were reviewed by the NPRM task force and technical editors and the task force agrees that his observations and analysis are accurate and reflective of our true concerns.

A copy of Bill Bolosky's synopsis of our meeting with the FAA will also be included in the April magazines as a sidebar to Joe's article and Bill's synopsis includes USHGA's preliminary opinion and recommendations for USHGA's strategy concerning the preparation of our official Association response due in early May. Bill's letter also includes information pertaining to the second and final meeting that will take place in Florida during the Lakeland Air Show when once again members of the USHGA Sport Pilot Task Force will meet with high ranking FAA officials to discuss USHGA Tandem and Towing Exemptions and the importance of Aerotow Flight Park Operations to the future of our sport. FAA officials expected to attend this meeting include Mike Henry, Sue Gardner, Scott Sedgewick, Mike Gallagher.

The Sport Pilot Task Force will begin the preparation of our final analysis of the Association's response immediately following this meeting. Bill Bryden is the expected author of USHGA's final official response to the proposed NPRM.

Please consider that USHGA learned from FAA officials in February that our response needs to be one that relates to the safety considerations and economic impact of the NPRM as it is currently fashioned. It takes time and a great deal of thought and fact finding to prepare this kind of meaningful report and while it may appear on the surface to our members that the task force is invisible, the task force has been working nonstop behind the scenes to compile resources, collect data and to provide qualitative and quantitative analysis in support of the USHGA's contention that the NPRM in its current format presents serious challenges for aerotow flight park operations and tandem instruction. Aerotow flight parks and tandem training are both critical to the growth and continuation of our sport.

I regret that a staff member from the USHGA office may have inadvertently given Richard Williams the impression that the USHGA and our Sport Pilot Task Force are doing anything but working continuously behind the scenes to be sure the Task Force is prepared for our final meeting with the FAA in April. Allow me to reiterate that the USHGA membership is very fortunate to have such a panel of experts on the Task Force including USHGA officers, manufacturer's representation, aerotow flight park representation etc. Bill Bryden was one of the original members of the ARAC Committee when deliberation of the Sport Pilot NPRM first began. Dennis Pagen's credentials speak for themselves.

Please refer to the USHGA website for updates on the USHGA's position as it relates to the proposed NPRM. You can expect updates to begin immediately after our meeting with the FAA the second week of April. Members will still have about three weeks to prepare statements of letters of concern. It is not yet clear whether a letter writing campaign will be our preferred approach to our response to the NPRM. These letters must be thoughtful, insightful and they must contain real data indicating supporting the argument that both the continuation of tandem training and aerotow flight park operations are critical to the survival of our sports.

Florida Ridge Fly In

Fri, Mar 15 2002, 1:00:04 pm EST

Florida|James Tindle|Malcolm Jones|Marco Oliveira|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Wallaby Ranch

Marco Oliveira «marco» writes:

March 22-24:South Florida's Pre-Season Fly-In At the Florida Ridge. There will be fun for all pilots; X-Country prize to be announced for Hang IV Competition; X-C clinic for Hang III pilots; duration flight, bomb drop and spot landings also will be part of the fun weekend. Entry Fee will include weekend events and Saturday Night Party. Contact James Tindle at 305-2858978 or call The Florida Ridge direct at 863-8050440.

Join World Class Hang glider pilots for a fun filled weekend of hang gliding competition. Meet leading manufacturers of the latest and greatest Hang gliders. Demo flights will be available as well. Take our X-C clinic for H-3 and H-4 and build your knowledge and prepare to fly as free as a bird. Clinics will be given by top pilot Mike Barber and Paris Williams. Also, Malcolm Jones, from Wallaby Ranch, will be joining us as a Meet Director for our X-C Comp. We are looking forward to see you here."

George Ferris – back in the air »

Fri, Dec 7 2001, 7:00:07 pm EST

Dragonfly|George Ferris|Malcolm Jones

Oz Report readers may remember my report on George Ferris and his little accident – launching unhooked behind the Dragonfly at Zapata. George wrote me this week to tell me that he is at Wallaby and has had six good flights (it has been amazing down there of late) and is feeling fine. Malcolm Jones also reports that George is looking good.

USHGA Awards

Thu, Oct 25 2001, 2:00:04 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|David Glover|Davis Straub|Gary Osoba|Jan Johnson|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|PG|Steve Kroop|Steve Mayer|USHGA

I wrote to Jan Johnson «jjohnsn» to get more background information on the folks that one awards from the USHGA for their efforts to support hang gliding. Unfortunately, most people made their nominations via hard copy, not e-mail, so Jan couldn't forward me the details. Unbelievable in this day and age.

Here's an update on the awards from Jan:

Commendations and Special Commendations are given to USHGA members and to individuals/groups in the community at large respectively. The award is given to those who have made significant volunteer contributions at the local, regional, or national levels that enhance the sports of hang gliding and paragliding. Recipients are to members:

Mark Forbes, Ken Baeir, Davis Straub and Belinda Boulter, Gary Osoba, Malcolm Jones, JJ LaMarche, Steve Kroop, and Peter Perrone.

Special Commendations are awarded to:

Bob McVey, Charles Averitt, Joe and Karen Gorrie, Lawrence and Fay Kopp.

Hang Gliding Instructor of the Year: Pat Denevan

Paragliding Instructor of the Year: Nominees are:

George Ridgett, Rob Spooner, Steve Mayer, and Kevin Bernacki. Recipient will be Chris Santacroce.

Newsletter of the Year: This is the first year that web newsletters were included for consideration. Nominees included:

Fly Paper and the newsletter of the SAHGA. Recipient is the Oz Report.

Steve Roti will receive the Exceptional Service Award. We have had numerous changes and issues arise in the Association over the last year. Steve has acted as a key player in addressing operational needs, volunteering his expertise, time, and support during this critical time in our organizational development. Other nominees included Nathan Wechtel, Gary Osoba, and David Glover.

We were fortunate to have several nominees for The Presidential Citation. Paul Rikert will receive the Presidential Citation. In the past, Paul has been nominated and selected for this award. However, as a BOD member he routinely declined the Associations attempts to recognize the work he has done to ensure that the Association remains focused on the original mission and support of it's members. As long time Chair of the By Laws Committee created a structure and process that remains in place, regardless of changes in leadership of the Association. The Board relies heavily on the body of the work that Paul provided to the Association during over twenty year tenure on the Board as a Regional Director as well as Director at Large. This award is the highest and most prestigious and is given to Paul with much appreciation, thanks, and respect.

Commendations from the USHGA

Sat, Oct 20 2001, 6:00:03 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|Davis Straub|Dragonfly|Gary Osoba|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|PG|record|Rhett Radford|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather

Belinda Boulter|Davis Straub|Dragonfly|Gary Osoba|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|PG|record|Rhett Radford|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather|World Record Encampment

Belinda Boulter|Davis Straub|Dragonfly|Gary Osoba|Malcolm Jones|Pat Denevan|PG|record|Rhett Radford|Steve Kroop|USHGA|weather|World Record Encampment

Newsletter of the Year: The fall USHGA BOD makes the awards that are given out at the spring meeting. Guess what, against strong competition, the Oz Report was chosen as the USHGA newsletter of the year. Of course, we really appreciate this award from the USHGA BOD. Just to be clear the Oz Report is not an official USHGA newsletter, nor is it connected with the USHGA in any way. This is the first time an Internet-based newsletter could be consider for newsletter of the year.

More awards: Hang Gliding instructor of the year: Pat Denevan. Paragliding instructor of the year: Chris Santacroci. Exceptional Service to the USHGA: Steve Roti (for his help with the USHGA database). Presidential Award: Pat Rikert (writing the USHGA by-laws).

Commendations: The USHGA wishes to extend special appreciation to the following individuals for their contributions to the hang gliding community:

Charles Averitt, Bob McVey, Steve Kroop, Gary Osoba, Malcolm Jones, Mark Forbes, Ken Baeir, and Davis Straub and Belinda Boulter.

Bob McVey is the editor and publisher of the Zapata County News (motto, "Without Fear or Favor"). Bob was very instrumental in getting the Zapata County Council to approve our request to use the Zapata County Airport as our base of operations for the two World Record Encampments. He basically told them that they had to do something to encourage people to come to Zapata in the summer when the population was one third of the winter population.

Bob also repeatedly highlighted our efforts in his newspaper putting the WRE on the front page week after week. He sent out the results to the Associated Press and the NY Times. The AP did pick up the results and we found an article in the Houston newspaper.

Bob let the WRE organizers stay in his home at no cost during both encampments. He told us great stories about Zapata and filled us in on all the local dirt. He also introduced us to local leaders allowing us to make plans for future WRE's.

Charles Averitt is the manager of the Zapata County Airport and has been absolutely indispensable in making the WRE a success. He has been a big supporter in the community and has gone far out of his way to make us feel at home at the airport. We gave us full use of the hangar and the airport, without which we would not have been able to carry out the WRE. He moved his airplanes to Laredo to give us extra room.

Charles contacted the FAA to make sure that they knew were supported out of Zapata. He notified all the local pilots that we would be in Zapata and that they were to watch out for us. We consequently got great help from a number of pilots.

Charles stayed with us and helped make us feel that we were part of the community. We helped putting on an air show for the locals at the airport. He helped us make additional contacts with the community.

Because of their help the WRE achieved significant results for the hang gliding community worldwide. These results have encouraged pilots everywhere and pushed the boundaries of what pilots thought were possible. We believe that these results will transform the sport and lead it in new directions.

Gary Osoba conceived the idea of the WRE. He was the one who was able through an examination of the weather data to determine that Zapata was the place to locate the WRE. It is because of his focus on world records and his ability to correctly formulate the problem of long distance flying that the WRE was successful.

Gary has provided significant weather prediction services to all the recent major US national hang gliding competitions. Often he has done this while staying at home in Wichita, Kansas.

Gary has been a voice of reason and innovation through his papers and discussions regarding dynamic flight and lightweight flight.

Steve Kroop gave us his $45,000 Flytec Dragonfly. No insurance (is there ever?). No commitment on our part other than to do our best to make the 2001 Flytec WRE the biggest success ever. We paid the costs, Steve gets the glory.

Without Steve Kroop the 2001 Flytec WRE would not have been possible. We just couldn't get that many pilots in the air in a timely fashion. Steve sent off his plane with Rhett Radford ("the Mountain"), i.e. the best pilot/mechanic in an isolated place, to make sure that all of us could get into the air. I can't imagine anyone else making this kind of monetary commitment to our success.

USHGA BOD report – day 2 »

Sat, Oct 20 2001, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Bob Hanna|Bob Hannah|CIVL|Florida|Malcolm Jones|PG|Steve Burns|Steve Kroop|USHGA|USHGA BOD report

Florida meets: The Competition sub committee (called the Solomon Committee) met with both meet organizers and came up with a solution to the fact that both meet organizers were asking for the same date – the week after Sun 'n Fun. The solution is that Malcolm Jones will get his choice of dates for 2002 and Steve Kroop will get his choice in 2003. The Wallaby Open Nationals will be April 13th through 19th. The Flytec Championship will be April 21st through 27th.

The Wallaby Open Nationals: The Wallaby Open Nationals will cost $400 (the original proposal from Malcolm was for $450). Malcolm will give prize money in each class down to 10th place along the lines used by Steve Kroop at the Flytec Championships this year. In both meets the maximum number of pilots is 120 pilots, and they are looking for 90 pilots. Minimum prize money is $5,000.

Meets: So far only two national level hang gliding meets have applied for sanctioning. It is expected that Steve Burns will apply for sanctioning for a meet at the spring USHGA meeting.

US Vs. foreign pilots: In the national meets, 65% of the places will be reserved for US pilots for a 30-day open registration period which starts on the first day of publication of the Hang Gliding Magazine that contains the first official notice of the meet. After that period the registration is on the basis of first come, first serve. No one can be placed on the registration list until the first day of publication of the official notice.

The whiteboard: The USHGA BOD asks meet organizers and directors to provide a whiteboard to be used to allow for the meet director or others to publicly display the names of pilots who are seen to engage in breaking the rules. (More on this later.)

CIVL safety rules voted down: I proposed that the new CIVL hang glider safety rules be adopted for the USHGA Competition Rulebook. This was defeated on a divided vote. It was suggested that it be suggested to meet directors that they apply these safety rules to their meet. I will follow up on this.

Alternate delegate to CIVL: The BOD passed a provision to pay for the travel expenses of the alternate CIVL delegate to the next meeting. They did this because the CIVL delegate is the chair of the committee, which will discuss the items below and therefore can't present or promote the items. The BOD wants the alternate delegate to push for the US proposals.

Tandem fatality: Recently there was another fatality at the Florida Ridge Flight Park. In this case it the tandem passenger was killed. The unrated tandem instructor suffered major injuries. If I get more information on this, I'll provide more later.

Won't pull an instructor rating: The USHGA BOD won't pull an instructor rating because they feel (and have the experience to back it up) that they will be sued and they will lose. There is a sub committee that is looking into developing an instructor's contract which would give the USHGA more leverage.

Attempt to pull Bob Hannah's Tandem Administrator's appointment: The Chirico's in the Pacific Northwest sent a letter to the USHGA BOD asking that Bob Hannah's Tandem Administrator appointment be pulled. The BOD discussed this and voted unanimously not to pull it.

PG Nationals: The bid for the PG Nationals in the Owens on September 10th was agreed to.

Paragliders: If you want your P4 rating you'll now need 50 hours of flying in thermal conditions out of the 75 hours total required.

This report on the USHGA BOD meeting is not complete and may contain some errors. It was created from notes I took as I attended as many of the committee meetings that I could.

USHGA BOD report – day 1 »

Thu, Oct 18 2001, 5:00:00 pm EDT

CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Malcolm Jones|PG|record|USHGA|USHGA BOD report|USHPA|Wallaby Ranch

CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Malcolm Jones|PG|record|Ryan Glover|USHGA|USHGA BOD report|USHPA|Wallaby Ranch

CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Malcolm Jones|PG|record|Ryan Glover|USHGA|USHGA BOD report|USHPA|Wallaby Ranch

Fiscal: Apparently things are much improved under our new executive director, Jayne Depanfilis, and the USHGA has more money in the bank and money market funds that ever before – ¼ Million dollars. It can cover all its obligations to its members (the magazine, for example) with cash reserves. I hope to give you a fuller report from Jayne a bit later.

Membership: Membership is growing, both hang glider and paraglider pilots. About 10,000 members.

Sport Pilot: No one knows for sure about anything that is happening with the FAA. Sport pilot possibility may be on indefinite hold. At the moment the as yet unknown Sport Pilot proposal from the FAA doesn't allow for aerotowing of hang gliders under its provisions. They may continue under the don't tell and we won't ask provisions.

Florida meets: Both Wallaby and Quest want the same date, April 14-20th. No word on a resolution. Your reporter was kicked out of the subcommittee meeting on this issue after being invited by the USHGA President to attend. Dennis Pagen initiated the move to make the meeting closed. No resolution after two meeting with both Steve and Malcolm.

1000 meters: The USHGA "CIVL committee" agreed by acclamation to recommend to CIVL that the 2000 meter rule (height above launch elevation for towing for records) be brought down to 1000 meters. This still has to be approved by the BOD and then Dennis can bring it to the CIVL Plenary (and maybe to the Bureau to recommend to the Plenary). Not gone to the BOD yet.

Tussle: Malcolm Jones asked to be appointed a tandem administrator. Turns out he and Ryan Glover, the other tandem pilot at Wallaby Ranch have not had their tandem ratings renewed in a very long time. They aren't rated to give tandems and haven’t gone to a tandem clinic to renew their ratings. Since the tandem administrator's job is to keep on top of these items, the committee voted down his request 4 to 2. No word about what’s going to happen with his tandem rating.

Name change: Jim Zeiset is proposing that the USHGA change its name to something like the USHPA, US Hang Gliding and Pargliding Association, or something along these lines. There would be plenty of consultation with the membership before hand and if the general atmosphere is positive, it would happen by next fall. Expect an article in Hang Gliding and Paragliding magazines in December. No BOD decision yet on this.

Combine the magazines: The goal here is to reduce the hassle of producing two magazines. Content would be 50-50 hang and para. More pictures. Paid for content. Not approved by the BOD yet, if at all. It would be a phased transition if membership felt comfortable with it.

USHGA Web site: Lots of membership renewals through the web site. The site is making the USHGA good money. Cost them about $150,000 for their current database. Automatic renewals is up and running. Checks the date of your credit card to make sure that it will be current when it is charged for your renewal.

Florida meets - post partem depression

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

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

Florida meets - post partem depression

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Results Class I:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

4499

2

HEINRICHS, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

4345

3

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

4193

4

WILLIAMS, Paris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

4179

5

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

4056

6

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

3960

7

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

3958

8

ARAI, Chris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

3881

9

WIRDNAM, Gary

AEROS Combat

GBR

3664

10

ZWECKMAYR, Josef

Icaro Laminar ST14

AUT

3601

Final results Class II:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

3633

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

3400

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

3020

4

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

2871

5

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

2797

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

Class I:

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

Class II:

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

Unfaired Rigid Wings only:

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

Total Value of Prizes Awarded: $10,911.11

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

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

Full results at www.wallaby.com.

Wallaby Open – an ill wind

Thu, Apr 26 2001, 3:00:00 pm EDT

Florida|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch

When the wind blows out of the northeast here in Florida, which it does after the passage of a cold front, our desire to fly decreases. We saw this during the Flytec Championship and it happened again here today at the Wallaby Open.

First, there were often moderately strong winds out of the east or northeast during the day today. Often the winds were light. Often the moderate winds were straight out of the north.

Second, on the first day of the Wallaby Open, we experienced winds of similar strength (but steady) out of the east. We launched on this day, in conditions were the strongest that we have ever launched in here at Wallaby Ranch during a meet.

Third, there were plenty of clouds coming from the northeast. It was completely overcast in the morning, then it broke up and the cloud base rose. There were plenty of cumulus clouds.

Fourth, the cumulus clouds got sparser and sparser as the day progressed. Finally, the clouds were gone and day would go completely blue after 5 PM.

Fifth, the winds were often switchy going from north to east.

Sixth, we were in the launch area at the slot at the south end of the Ranch. There was an option to launch from the southwest corner that would have been preferred for a northeast wind (but not a north wind).

Malcolm Jones called the day for safety reasons.

While I don't argue with the decision, I am more interested in the psychological background for his and many pilots' feelings about the day and his decision to call the day (it was met with a reasonable amount of applause).

Switchy winds increase anxiety. If we had set up to launch at the southwest corner we would have had much less concern about the east gusts. If we were further away from the north bay head, we wouldn't have felt bad about the north winds.

The fact that the sky was drying out decreased our desire to get into the sky. Cumulus clouds really suck pilots into the sky.

Any winds cause discomfort, and the fact that we have to go through a rotor at tree line level just adds to this discomfort.

Looks like we might have a bit lighter winds from the east, northeast tomorrow.

Full results at www.wallaby.com.

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

Response to this article

Mon, Mar 12 2001, 1:00:02 pm EST

JC Brown|Josh Cohn|Malcolm Jones|Steve Burns|Steve Kroop|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

I don't send out Oz Report articles before I publish them. In this case I decided to send the previous one out last night to various interested parties, and see if they had suggestions or responses before I published it. I did make some minor clarifications to the article, and I have published their responses below, edited to make them clearer.

Not everyone wrote back, and not all those who wrote back wanted their responses published. I have published all that I received and was allowed to publish.

Jim Zesiet «JimZgreen» writes:

Print It!

JC Brown «JChesterBrown» writes:

The Rulebook is still a mess and needs a lot of work to make it a coherent, cohesive document. I hope that this article sparks some changes.

The CC should support meet organizers. Meets don't happen because there is a CC, and they don't happen just because pilots want to fly in them, they happen because people like Malcolm Jones, Steve Burns, Josh Cohn and Steve Kroop put them on. Sanction should be granted or revoked based on the objective qualifications as set forth in the Rulebook.

The best idea that you mention is holding qualifiers for the big, popular meets. This is a win/win idea for everyone. Qualifiers would create more meets and would be a great place to get a start in comps. Qualifiers would also help kill the ridiculous notion that anyone with a USHGA card and the appropriate rating deserves a spot in all USHGA sanctioned meets. A spot at the top needs to be earned.

Malcolm Jones «fly» writes:

Thanks for forwarding us your proposed article on the applications.

There's certainly a lot of room for clarification in these matters for the future and I'd love to be involved in the evolution of the rule book in the interest of encouraging people and making it more attractive, easier and maybe FUN to organize a competition. In the meantime, rest assured that we will adhere to the letter of the rule book and for the time being I'll just be thankful for the wide latitude and discretion given to the meet organizer.

A couple of small points:

1. I hope and pray and we will do our best to include EVERYONE that wishes to participate in the Wallaby Open. I can't emphasize enough that we will bend over backwards to make our customers happy.

2. As you recall I assured everyone as aggressively as I could many moons ago through publication in the Oz Report our commitment to sanction.

3. We did everything reasonable to secure sanction for the Wallaby Open on dates that would not conflict with any other competition at the Fall BOD meeting.

4. Please help us make notification permanent: We are committed, as we have stated before, to holding the WALLABY OPEN every year immediately following Sun 'n Fun (the third week in April). As you know, at the request of many highly respected European pilots we yielded this year to their previously well established meet at Bessano, but ironically it seems this will no longer be an issue and we will adhere to our long stated and original idea of following the Sun 'n Fun convention.

A. Title of Competition: Wallaby Open

B. Dates for:

a. Competition: April 22nd to 28th, 2001

b. Registration Deadline: April 22nd, 2001

c. Practice Days: April 23rd, 2000 - April 21st, 2001

d. Mandatory Pilots Briefing: 9am April 22nd, 2001 (Following days briefing announced daily)

e. Rain: If it does this a lot (from April 22nd to 28th, 2001) we won't fly (Contingencies include hot tub, volleyball, swimming, paintball, rest, etc.)

C. Location: the FIRST, the ONE, the ONLY Wallaby Ranch

D. Entry Requirements: Hang 4, AT rating (or equiv)

E. Glider & Equip. Requirements: Open (subject to Safety Director approval)

F. Entry Fee / Deadlines: $300 / April 22nd, 2001

G. # Of Rounds - min / max: No min, 7 max (not achieving min. is an impossibility)

H. Objectives: FUN, Expect Cross Country Racing

I. Awards, prizes, social events: Daily

Far too popular

Mon, Mar 12 2001, 1:00:01 pm EST

CIVL|Florida|Malcolm Jones|PG|USHGA|weather|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

The nattering nabobs of negativism, whose last redoubt appears to be in south western Idaho, will have a hard time hearing that the Florida tow meets appear to be too popular for their own good. Both meets are way over subscribed. So much for the allure of the black diamond runs (as though the air here in the 'desert' couldn't have 'texture.').

In spite of the complete lack of advertisements for the Wallaby Open (as well as the question of whether it would ever be sanctioned), there are 137 people trying to get into a meet, which may be limited to 100 slots. Similar numbers are showing up for the Flytec Championship, with its long waiting list. Hot pilots from Europe, perhaps displaced by Bassano, as well as inexperienced competitors from the US are left looking for a place to go this spring.

Unless things change there will be a lot of unhappy campers who just won't be able to join in the fun. And this is too bad, because as far as the USHGA and the meet organizers are concerned this overwhelming response is a great problem to have. Competitions are too popular (better get your entry into the US 'Lone Star' Championships right now). We only have three major competitions this year in the US. It looks like we had better think about how to encourage more meet organizers for next year. How about at least six meets – all CIVL and USHGA A-listed?

I hate to see pilots unhappy because they didn't get their entry form in in time for these meets. I hate to see complaints about how meet organizers are running their application procedures just because certain pilots didn't get in. Maybe there is something we can do to help out.

But before I get to that, let me give a little background.

As far as I can tell the 2001 USHGA Competition Rulebook is the "governing authority," when it comes to how meet organizers are supposed to behave. I've looked and looked through the Rulebook, and frankly there just isn't much guidance there. It seems to me, other than a few rules, meet organizers can pick and choose whom they want at their meets by almost any means they desire.

Now, that is the written rule, and maybe the written rules aren't the "best" or the "most fair." Maybe they don't "promote the sport," but they seem to me to be the rules, unless someone's got another set of rules that I don't know about.

Now the arbitrator of those rules would appear to be the USHGA Competition Committee. If there is a dispute, say a pilot is unhappy that he didn't get into the Flytec Championship, and brings his complaint to the Competition Committee, then they may be reasonably expected to make a ruling based on the written rules, or is that what they make a determination on?

This is currently what I'm trying to figure out. What is the basis for decisions from the competition committee? Do they have to look at the Competition Rulebook, make an interpretation based on what is actually written there and then present their argument for their decision based on what is written. Or, can they make a decision based on "principles," or "what is best for the organization or sport," without regard to what is actually in the Rulebook? At the moment, I am just asking the question.

After reading the Rulebook (and I will quote the relevant sections from the 2001 USHGA Competition Rulebook soon enough), it appears to me that when the Competition Committee pulled the sanction from the Wallaby Open last year they didn't base that ruling on anything that was applicable in the 2000 USHGA Competition Rulebook.

Now, the Competition Committee may feel, and it may be true, that they have some other written or perhaps unspoken duty that they have to perform that isn't covered explicitly in the Competition Rulebook. Perhaps they can explain to me just how this applies.

As I write this, it appears to me that if a meet organizer gets, let's say, 200 would be entries applying to come to his meet, and he has only 100 slots, he could put the 200 names up on the wall, throw darts at them, and pick out the names of pilots with dart holes in them. In other words, it is almost totally up to the meet organizer who is allowed in a sanctioned meet (other than one caveat, which we will get to later). There doesn't appear to be any (except for one issue) basis for the Competition Committee to act to in limiting the meet organizer's discretion in this matter (as far as I can tell from the Rulebook).

Here are the applicable rules from the 2001 Competition Rulebook as I see them:

----
8.3 MEET ANNOUNCEMENT. Meet Organizers shall issue and/or publish a meet announcement/invitation containing the following information:

A. Title of competition.

B. Dates for:

  1. Competition
  2. Registration deadline
  3. Practice days
  4.   Mandatory pilot's briefing(s)

5..  Rain, weather or other contingency plans

C. Location of competition and any probable alternates.

D. Competitor entry requirements (see Chapter 3), a request for presentation of USHGA membership wallet card at registration.

E. Glider and equipment entry requirements (see Chapter 4).

F. Entry fees and deadline(s).

G. The minimum and maximum number of rounds and the procedure for splitting the purse or naming a winner if the minimum number of rounds becomes an impossibility.

H. A brief description of meet objectives and what types of tasks to expect.

I. Awards, prizes, social events, information on local accommodations and special pilot discounts, etc.
-----

So, meet organizers have to publish an announcement containing this information. There is no discussion of how this announcement relates to when pilots send in their application, whether before the announcement or after. There is no specific publication that the announcement has to be placed in, nor any time frame for the announcement.

Next:

-----
11. 5 NATIONAL TEAM SELECTION SYSTEM

 A. Purpose. …Assuming the necessary report has been filed in a timely manner, the NTSS will consider in this ranking the results of any USHGA Class A or B Sanctioned Meet which has been published in Hang Gliding Magazine at least two months prior to the scheduled start of competition and at least one month prior to the close of registration...
----

Meet organizers, if they want the pilots to get NTSS points, have to have published some kind of notice about the meet two months before the start of the meet. This requirement was waived for the Wallaby Open.

Here is what Jim Zeiset, the USHGA Competition Committee member assigned to be the liaison between the CC and Malcolm Jones at Wallaby, has stated:

There will be a notice in the March issue of the mag. The rules say that 60 days notification is required and in this case I have approved this sanction with 51 days notice as a special case. This small compromise is in the best interest of the members of the USHGA.

There is a notice in Hang Gliding Magazine in the March issue, so the Wallaby Open is sanctioned by the Competition Committee. Notice, that the competition committee wants to have the Wallaby Open sanctioned, and it appears from Jim's statement, that the meet is sanctioned as the notice was published in Hang Gliding Magazine.

New in the 2001 USHGA Competition Rulebook:

----
5. 4 DEVIATIONS FROM STANDARD ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES. If a Meet Organizer feels he must deviate from standard procedures such as denying entry to a pilot for administrative or safety reasons, the Meet Organizer may petition the CC through the CCC. The CCC will poll the CC and their decision is final . The Meet Organizer must abide by the CC's decision in order to maintain USHGA Sanction.
----

I would refer to this as the 2000 Wallaby Open rule. Unfortunately, there is no definition of what "standard administrative procedures" are in the 2001 Competition Rulebook, so it is quite hard to understand what this rule means, if anything.

- --
12.5.E … 2. Foreign pilots are welcome and allowed in USHGA Sanctioned competitions upon discretion of the Meet Organizer, but entry should not take precedent over U.S. pilots in a limited entry meet unless applying after a deadline set by the Meet Organizer.
- --

Deadline isn't defined, nor is precedent, but I think we can make a stab at that second definition. If the meet organizer doesn't state a deadline (neither of them did) is it thirty days after the first published announcement (in Hang Gliding magazine)? The Rulebook states that the deadline is set by the Meet Organizer, and, only by the Meet Organizer. They appear to have total discretion in this matter.

- --
3. 1 CLASS A & B SANCTION

B. Qualifications which may be imposed by Meet Organizers:

1. A higher (but not lower) pilot proficiency rating.

2. Any "special skills" relevant to the competition site or design.

3. A higher (but not lower) minimum age.

4. Local hang gliding or paragliding association membership.

5. State, regional or national residency if specified on sanction application, and all contest advertising and literature.
- --

The 2000 USHGA Competition Rulebook, included a sixth rule – "6. By invitation only." This is relevant to what happened last year.

Notice that there is little to no guidance about what rules the meet organizer may use for choosing who comes to the meet. If they wanted to choose by USHGA or WPRS ranking, they are free to do so. They are not required to choose by first come, first served. For example, they could choose all pilots, except those whose last names start with Z (sorry Jim).

I have asked Jim Zeiset about these issues. I asked him how one would secure a position in the 2001 Wallaby Open. He stated:

How did you secure a position in the meet? I suspect that you asked him to hold a position for you last year at some point soon after the 2000 Open. How did I secure a position in the meet? Soon after Mar 1 when sanctioning was announced in the Magazine I called Malcolm and asked him to reserve a slot for me and three others and he said done. In my case he said a slot had been reserved for me as it was for you and several others that had been in the previous Wallaby Opens. Apparently since I was able to enter three US pilots (Guggenmos ESC pilots) at that time registration was still open.

I asked him if there were special rules for the Wallaby Open. He stated:

During the process of working with Malcolm to get the Wallaby Open sanctioned I have discovered 14 separate points in the 2001 rulebook that will require addressing at the fall BOD meeting. Many things have come up as a function of giving the Wallaby Open a late sanction and I have the authority to work through these problems in as fair and equitable of a way as possible. We are currently studying the possibility of increasing the number of entrants in the meet by acquiring one or two extra tugs and reserving those new slots for USHGA pilots. Should this occur the slots would be filled in the order in which USHGA pilots signed up on the waiting list. The rulebook does imply that points for national ranking may not be awarded if US pilots do not have a reasonable window in which to register after sanction has been granted.

I assume that by USHGA pilots he means US pilots as defined by the 2001 Competition Rulebook.

Jim wrote about Malcolm's list:

Malcolm's list of 110 pilots included a lot of Brazilians that may not come if the meet is not Brazilian. It also included other pilots that had expressed an interest in attending the meet. I have asked him to pare down the list to only those that have paid a deposit and establish a waiting list in case of cancellations. The official number of entrants is likely to be 100.

I asked him: There is a rule 12.5.E.2 the US pilots have precedent over foreign pilots (foreign is defined in the previous rule) if they have applied before the deadline. What is the deadline for the Wallaby Open?

He wrote:

This is one of the ambiguities. The rulebook does not specify which deadline it is referring to. Is it the registration deadline, which must be sometime before the first pilot launches for scheduled competition? No I think not. I believe the deadline referred to here is at the end of 30 days after the sanction is announced or Mar 30. During this 30 day period qualified USHGA pilots must be allowed to register if the Wallaby is to continue to qualify for it's sanction.

Regarding the question of having thirty days of open registration, Jim states:

I have reason to believe that certain forces will attempt to discard the earned NTSS points which defeats the sanction if we don't require 30 days of open registration for US pilots after the sanction is granted.

Finally, Jim says:

I honestly think you and I are the only ones that understand how bad it really is. I'm charged with performing an impossible task. All I can do is try to get conformance with the spirit of the rulebook. I have the power to negotiate these poorly written rules in the best interest of US pilots in my attempt to "sanction the Wallaby Open".

So will pilots who attend the Wallaby Open get NTSS points? This is still not clear. Will the Competition Committee try to force all (or many) foreign pilots out of the Wallaby Open? Will it dramatically pull the Wallaby Open USHGA sanctioning, as it did last year?

OK, now that we have laid out all the issues that we are aware of for all the pilots who have an interest in going to these meets, what can be done to make them happy? One possibility is to have qualifying procedures. That is you have to be good enough to have the privilege of flying at these meets. Only the best 100 get to compete.

I'm sure that this would be seen as fair, even if hard to swallow on the part of some up and coming pilots. Perhaps those pilots who don't have a certain WPRS (that stinking system) or USHGA NTSS ranking, will need to have a fly off before the meets to determine who gets in.

I do know that people of good will are trying to solve this problem. Everyone wants the meets in Florida to be as great as they can be. They want everyone who can possibly be there to have a chance to fly.

I'll be reporting on developments as they occur.

Notes from the very recent CIVL meeting

Sat, Feb 24 2001, 3:00:00 pm EST

Carbon Dragon|CIVL|Florida|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Malcolm Jones|PG|photo|Quest Air|record|Stewart Midwinter|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Carbon Dragon|CIVL|Florida|Gary Osoba|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Malcolm Jones|PG|photo|Quest Air|record|Stewart Midwinter|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Our national representatives make up the rules that effect our hang gliding lives (more or less). Hansjoerg Truttmann h. «truttmann» sent in the following short notes about the latest CIVL meeting which he attended::

a) The Class I worlds in 2003 will be held in Brasil (Brasilia) and not in US (Florida).

(editor's note: As long time Oz Report readers will no doubt remember, the US bid generated quite a bit of controversy – well, at least in the Oz Report. At the last CIVL meeting a year ago there was notice of two bids for the Worlds from the US and one from Brazil.

It is my understanding that Malcolm Jones will now apply for the Class I Worlds to be held at Wallaby Ranch in 2005. Guess I will have to move up to Quest Air (or one of the other Florida flight parks) for that time period and fly with my rigid wing buddies up there. J)

b) Class 4 is now called "Open Class" and will contain all the gliders that don't fit in the Classes 1, 2, 3.

c) In Class 2 there will be only non-caged gliders in the future (a subcommittee has to find the exact definition). This change will be put in practice at 01/01/2002 unless the organiser of the Class-2-championships 2002 will oppose because of technical reason.

There was only one opponent against the b)- and c)-points in the final voting: USA (G. W. Meadows)

(editor's note: This seems like an excellent solution to the problem to me. Class IV is essentially unused. Only Steve Arndt and Gary Osoba (and their Carbon Dragons) were in this class. It seems just a waste to not let the caged gliders join this class.

I would recommend that Stewart Midwinter's Class II records stand as Class II records, after all they were set when the Swift was classified as Class II. I also suggest that they be made to be the Class IV records in all cases that they would be records. Let the records stand in both classes.

Also, I suggest that meet organizers who have their competitions CIVL sanctioned for Class II, automatically get Class IV sanctioning and are required to allow Class IV gliders to enter. It's up to the Class IV pilots to figure how to launch.

I suggest to the meet organizers who are putting on CIVL-sanctioned Category I and II meets in 2000 that they go ahead and apply these who classifications right now. If future Class IV gliders (Millennium, Swift, etc.) want to fly in these meets, I would suggest that they be allowed to fly in them, just like everyone else, and that the official scoring put them in Class IV (of course, there can be unofficial scoring that puts everyone together, if desired).

Finally, I suggest that the USHGA put the Swift, etc. in Class IV immediately and keep a ranking for Class IV pilots. I want to encourage them to fly in the upcoming meets and to be eligible to fly in upcoming Class II (and IV) World meets.

The USHGA (and all other national hang gliding bodies) uses the CIVL class system for the classification and ranking of hang gliders and paragliders. It makes sense to me for the USHGA should implement this classification change immediately.)

d) In future world championships there will be only GPS-verification (no more photos). There will only be cylinders (no more FAI-sectors).

(editor's note: Start circles would be cool, too. I'm sure that meet organizers are free to use them.)

Please consider that these are my own short notes as I understand what CIVL has decided yesterday. I may have made some mistakes. The exact decisions will be in the CIVL-minutes and in the CIVL-/Section 7 Sporting Code.

Malcolm on his bid for the Worlds

Thu, Feb 22 2001, 4:00:05 pm EST

Davis Straub|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Worlds

Malcolm Jones «fly» writes:

There was one very interesting tidbit of information from the spring USHGA BOD meeting that I intended to relay to you. While addressing the competition committee on my past treatment while attempting to participate in the bid process for a world meet I did say something that brought about a long silence and I quote from my exact words:

"WHAT DEADLINE? Let's see if we can cultivate some truth out of the situation. If anybody can show where there was some published, "well-known" and otherwise publicly knowable deadline to submit a world championship proposal for consideration to the USHGA that I somehow missed or "blew off" I will personally sit down, shut-up, apologize and donate TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS to the USHGA general fund."

(editor's note: I believe Malcolm is referring to statements that there was some deadline by which a bid for the Worlds meet had to be received by the USHGA Competition Committee.)

A few tid bits

Sat, Feb 17 2001, 1:00:05 pm EST

Davis Straub|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|USHGA

We heard that during the USHGA competition committee meeting, Jim Zeiset was made the temporary committee chairman during the discussion regarding the USHGA sanctioning of the Wallaby Open. There seemed to be a perceived (on the part of some party or parties) conflict of interest between John Borton and Malcolm Jones, and this arrangement solved that problem

Real competition

Tue, Nov 28 2000, 7:00:00 am EST

CIVL|Florida|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|USHGA

The Oz Report has repeatedly stated how much we enjoy competition and how good it is for the hang gliding community. Well, now we have another example of just how good it can be. Steve Kroop, who is managing Quest Air in Florida, and who will be running, get this, the Flytec Championship, has just announced that he will be offering $10,000 in prize money at next spring's (northern hemisphere) meet. Steve «USAFlytec» writes:

I just read Oz #204 concerning the $10k prize money for the Xceara. Coincidentally I was going to email you today about prize money for the Flytec Championship. I have attached a sneak peek of the ad that will be appearing in the upcoming HG publications. You are welcome to publish the image, it would go along way to get the message out to the pilots. If you do use the image would you place a link to the Flytec site (http://www.flytec.com) and the Quest site (http://www.questairforce.com) where your readers can get more info on the contest and register on line.

 

In addition to the normal distribution of prize money we will be offering two additional awards (w/prize money). The first is "best first time competitor" (this would simply be the highest placing competitor that has not previously competed in a class A or B meet). The second is "most improved competitor" (the award would go to the pilot who moves up the most number of places comparing the final rankings of the Flytec Championship with the pilots ranking from the previous season).

The hard part is raising the award dollars the harder part may end up being distributing it equitably. So far I am thinking first, second and third for class 1 and first and second for class 2 (only because the percentage of class 1 competitors will probably be somewhat greater than class 2). I would gladly rethink that if there ends up being a lot of class 2 competitors. The distribution of within the various prizes is the next step.

If you go to the above sites you will see that info about the comp is there but the attached image is not up yet. I wanted to give you first crack at breaking the news.

First, we were quite surprised to see the name that Steve has given to his championship – the Flytec Championship. Remember, last spring I reported that Flytec was the first choice of pilots flying at the Atlantic Coast Championship at Quest Air. Second, Steve is the US distributor for Flytec varios in addition to his newer position as manager at Quest Air. Third, it is really great to see this level of sponsorship from a vario distributor/manufacturer and if they are providing the bulk of the sponsorship they should put their name on the championship. Fourth, Malcolm Jones has stated that there will be plenty of prize money available for the 2001 Wallaby Open (which currently has a one-day date conflict with the Flytec Championship). Steve has just raised the bar regarding how much money is plenty of prize money. Paid to fly? Unbelievable!

Steve has thrown down the gauntlet. His ad points out that he has raised the stakes to this new level (for US competition) and reminds his readers that if others respond (put in Malcolm's name here), he was the one who first put the bar this high.

Steve is also highlighting his USHGA and CIVL sanctioning. The Wallaby Open isn't USHGA sanctioned and is not (yet?) CIVL sanctioned, in spite of Malcolm's assurances that it will be CIVL-sanctioned. John Borton, USHGA Competition Committee chairman, claims that the 2001 Wallaby Open will not be CIVL-sanctioned, if it is not USHGA-sanctioned. The USHGA wants no conflict in dates between these two meets (https://OzReport.com/Ozv4n199.htm).

So, we've seen the dark side of competition between these two flight parks – date conflicts, and the bright side – lots of prize money. It sure looks like these meet organizers want our patronage. It is great to be wanted.

So what's in the best interest of the pilots? Both the prize money and clearing up the date conflicts. Will that come about? We'll just have to wait and see. I'll be at both meets, no matter what the dates, and I hope that it gets worked out sooner, rather than later. Still we are six months away from the spring competitions, so we've got a little breathing room (unless you are trying to buy a plane ticket from Europe).

Florida meets

Sat, Nov 4 2000, 3:00:04 pm EST

CIVL|Florida|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|USHGA

The latest word on the spring Florida meets is that the Quest Air meet will take place on Sunday, April 15th through Saturday, 21st. The Wallaby Open is current scheduled for Saturday, April 21st through Saturday, 28th. Notice the overlap.

We've heard that the Quest Air meet is currently sanctioned by the USHGA as a Class A meet (which we assume will include CIVL sanctioning). We have also heard that talks are continuing to see about USHGA Class A sanctioning re the Wallaby Open.

I spoke with Malcolm Jones today. He says that the Wallaby Open will receive CIVL sanctioning and pilots who fly at it may be eligible for US NTSS points.

We await further developments.

Boids

Fri, Oct 27 2000, 4:00:04 pm EDT

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Joe Bostik|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch|wildlife

As we travel around we get to check out a lot of birds. We're currently about ten miles outside of Tucson, Arizona, surrounded by Saguaro cactus and the Sonora Desert. We are camped just a few miles from the Saguaro National Park and the Tucson Mountain Park. There is plenty of bird life here.

We picked up a couple of new bird books lately. After I read the review of the as yet unreleased Sibley Guide to Birds in the New York Times about six weeks ago, I was very excited to see it in the local Barnes and Noble. I immediately picked up a copy. Belinda also found the Lives of North American birds, and is very pleased with it. Christmas is coming folks.

At and near Wallaby Ranch in Florida you'll sometimes see pairs of Sandhill Cranes. There is a permanent resident population of these cranes in Florida and they don't go back up into northern Canadian for breeding.

When I landed out one day during the Wallaby Open, a family – two parents and a young bird of Whooping Cranes landed in the field near me. There are only about two hundred Whooping Cranes in the world. There is a small resident population of Whooping Cranes in Florida started from a group that was in captivity. Malcolm Jones' mother, a life long Florida resident and avid birder had never seen Whooping cranes in Florida and couldn't believe our luck. Fortunately we had Joe Bostik's father-in-law along, and he is an avid birder as well. He also lives in Houston and had seen the other flock of Whooping Cranes (150 birds) that migrate from far northern Canada in the winter to play in the marshes on the Texas coast.

While I was flying out of Zapata, I entered and climbed for a long time in a thermal near Crystal City with a Black Hawk. I wasn't sure at first what kind of hawk it was having never seen a Black Hawk before, and I thought it might be a Harris Hawk which has a somewhat similar white band on its tail. Still hard to be sure that is what I saw, as Crystal City is a bit out of its range, but then there aren't too many birders up there circling around with the hawks. And, that is one of the very cool things about hang gliding.

2001 Wallaby Open »

Tue, Sep 12 2000, 7:00:00 pm EDT

CIVL|Florida|Hans Bausenwein|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch|weather|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds

I got a chance to speak with Malcolm Jones, owner of Wallaby Ranch, the other day about his plans for the upcoming Wallaby Open. It's always good to hear from Malcolm and he is really looking forward to next year's meet.

If there are two meets in Florida they will be crucial in determining the next national team that will represent the US at the World Air Games in Spain in 2001. Due to a change in the rules for US national team selection, all USHGA sanctioned (and CIVL-sanctioned) meets up to 45 days before the Worlds will be used to determine who gets on the US team.

Hans Bausenwein, Oz Report correspondent in German, has been on the phone will Malcolm making sure that the Wallaby Open doesn't conflict with the European Bassano meet held for four days every year at Easter. Often this meet has the typical European lousy flying weather – wind and rain, but in 2000 it had great weather. Hans wants to bring over a contingent of German pilots to fly in the Wallaby Open.

Yesterday, I got an e-mail from Tiki Mashi «fly» tug pilot at Wallaby with the following update:

The dates for the Wallaby Open 2001 are Friday, April 20th to Saturday, April 28th with official practice days on April 16th to the 19th. Also, Malcolm said there would be more prize money than last year, which was $6,500. We are also trying to come up with some interesting cross-country goals/prizes $$ for the winter/spring season.

(editor's note: I'll be there trying to win those prizes. I hope that other pilots are there also trying to out fly me.)

Cool stuff happening here - the county is paving Deen Still Road (hooray!) and, of course, Malcolm is still clearing more L.Z.

Good Friday is April 13th, so it looks like Bassano will be held the 13th of April through the 16th. Pilots will have enough time to get on the plane and make it to Wallaby by the 19th (as long as they bring their gliders with them).

All this scheduling raises some interesting points. Malcolm is committed to going ahead with this Wallaby Open whether or not it is sanctioned by the USHGA (and therefore by CIVL). He has already staked out the dates, and if USHGA wants to sanction it, it looks like it will have to accept these dates. Pilots who want to get USHGA national team or ranking points (as well as CIVL WPRS points) can only hope that the USHGA goes along with this faut accompli.

This raises an interesting issue. Malcolm, as a private flight park owner, feels that he has enough power to create a private competition. Treat the pilots right, provide plenty of prize money, hope the weather works out, and boom, you've got enough of a draw that maybe it doesn't matter about those little points from the national and international aero clubs.

It's no secret that Malcolm and the current USHGA President (as well as the current USHGA Competition Committee chairman) are not exactly the best of friends. I'd say that they (David and Malcolm) would do almost anything to undermine each other.

Will we get hurt in the exchange of firepower? I hope not. I expect the USHGA to act responsibly in the pilots' interest. Whatever that is.

BTW, I heard the new, new clearing at Wallaby Ranch is 5,000' long. World Class so to speak.

Bill Moyes on folding Dragon Flys

Fri, Jul 28 2000, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Bill Moyes|Dragonfly|Ken Brown|Malcolm Jones|Mark Tulloch|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Bill Moyes|Dragonfly|Ken Brown|Malcolm Jones|Mark Tulloch|Quest Air|Russell Brown|Wallaby Ranch

Bill Moyes|Dragonfly|Ken Brown|Malcolm Jones|Mark Tulloch|Quest Air|Russell Brown|Wallaby Ranch

Bill Moyes, «moyes», writes:

I have received a frightening Dragonfly Crash Report from Mark Tulloch and am relieved to hear that he escaped uninjured. Mark had towed a pilot to 5000 ft and commenced a left turn to return to the field when the left wing failed in smooth air above the convection layer. The break occurred inboard of the Strut Junction at the point where the stress relief cuts ended on the inner sleeve.

The importance of this fact is that it clearly showed that the tube had reached its fatigue point. There are some contributing factors, but I would like to encourage all Dragonfly owners to realize that all metals have a life limit and the wings work the hardest.

Contributing factors: The Dragonfly was an 8 years old A Model. It had two previous owners and Mark believed it had 500 hours of use when he bought it. It was fitted with a rebuilt 582 at that time, the engine failed during a climb out causing Mark to crash into a fence. The fence posts took out both struts and Jury Struts. Mark inspected the wings while rebuilding but believed that the wings were not damaged.

Russell Brown fitted a 914 Rotax engine for Mark 18 months ago and it has flown 500 hours since that installation. Mark uses an uneven grass strip. The Dragonfly's previous use, the crash or the big engine may or may not have contributed to the wings fatigue, but I believe that we should use Marks known history to calculate the life of a Dragonfly's wing spars.

WING SPARS: Suffer a lot of flexing when taking off, landing or taxiing on rough ground, Taxiing on rough water is worse, so the condition of your strip will have to enter the computation. A Dragonfly Tug does a take off and landing every 10 minutes.

BIG ENGINES: Two place and floats also add additional loads to wing spars. Bob designed the original Dragonfly for use with a 582.

The aluminum tubes are not the only parts to experience fatigue. The stainless tangs and wires also work harden, particularly those in the prop blast on the emphanage.

If you are using a 4-stroke engine you should change your tail wires every 1000 hours. The wisdom of fitting a 4-stroke engine to an old Dragonfly is questionable, as the wing spars should be renewed. The cost of a 914 exceeds the cost of a new Dragonfly Kit.

Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch has 4 Dragonflys working hard. His mechanic Brett has managed to get longer crankshaft life and smoother running from the 582 Rotax by fitting a centrifugal clutch in place of the rubber donut.

A lot of poor idling and vibration has been eliminated by the clutch. Vibration adds to work hardening.

Malcolm is convinced that the 582 is a better match with the Dragonfly if a clutch is used. The cost is $500 and their life is 500 hours. Some of Malcolm's Dragonflys have flown 3000 plus hours

The instant success of the 914 fitted by Russell and Campbell and the disappointing short life of the 582 had serious air park operators clamoring for a conversion.

Before Bob Bailey or I could react 5 or 6 had been fitted by Russell to A Models. We were watching the wear occur on the Quest Air plane to determine what parts needed modification. We could not afford to wait longer and introduced the B Model in 1999.

The modifications that we felt necessary were:

1: A 12ft continuous 2 1/4" inner Wing Sleeve
2: A strengthened internal sleeved or trussed fuselage to handle heavier landing loads.
3 The geometry of the engine support tubes altered to improved negative resistance.
4: Rear Seat moved 5" forward to keep the C.G. Range constant with a heavier engine.
5: Split Elevators to secure control with increased Propeller blast.

There may be more necessary and we welcome any input that you big engine people feel the Dragonfly lacks.

The long wing spar sleeves will increase their strength, but fatigue will still take place, but later rather than sooner.

LIFE SPAN: 59 Dragonflys have been built, 53 are still in service and some are 10 years old. The life span of past ultralites has been averaging 7 years. It is possible that Dragonflys will live a lot longer as there is no race to compete for beauty. The Dragonfly is a tractor. It is as ugly as a tractor and as beautiful as a tractor. Depends on your point of view. No matter how you view it, fatigue is taking place and we are concerned. We want to offer any assistance that we can.

I suggest that owners of all A Models that have done excess of 1000 hours and still using the 582 should replace the inner sleeves with a continuous 12 ft inner sleeve. Owners of A Models intending to fit any heavier engine should replace the Wing Spars completely and complete the other modifications.

Contact me by email if you feel that the task of dismantling and rebuilding the wings is beyond you. Bob may load the trailer with spars and circuit the U.S.A. if there is a need to do inspections. Ken Brown will be able to handle questions when he is back from Greece. Bob Bailey can also help.

Bill Moyes Phone 61 2 9387 5114 Fax 61 2 9369 3342 Email: moyes@zip.com.au

Ken Brown Phone (w) 415 753 9534 Fax 415 753 9534 Email: FlyaMoyes@aol.com

Bob Bailey Phone 352 429 5660

If in doubt on the condition of your Dragonfly communicate now.

Bill Moyes Email Address: moyes@zip.com.au Homepage: http://www.zip.com.au/~moyes

Orders and enquiries to Bill Moyes, 173 Bronte Rd, Waverley. Australia 2024 Phone No. (02) 9387 5114 Fax No. (02) 9369 3342

Insider dealing at the ⁢USHGA⁣ – the long struggle »

Tue, Jul 11 2000, 7:00:02 pm EDT

CIVL|Florida|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Worlds

Thanks to some critical e-mail messages that I received, I realized that I didn't make clear enough how G.W. was able to get the Competition Committee to approve his proposal without opening up the process to other possible bidders. It is this process that really tells the tale on how G.W. was able work the Competition Committee to keep other competition out of the picture.

Some have mentioned that even though G.W. is on the Competition Committee, he has lost a couple of votes to Malcolm Jones, who doesn't even go to USHGA meetings (not that that is a crime or anything). This fact is supposed to rebut the accusation of insider dealing. We'll see.

GW is no dummy. He realizes that if there is no competition, he has a lot better chance to win. He knows that he has lost a couple of rounds to Malcolm. If he can keep Malcolm out of the bidding, he has a much better chance to win.

GW has been trying to get the Worlds for a while now. First at Dinosaur, and then at some point (somewhat unclear exactly when) in Florida. The USHGA Competition Committee approved GW's first bid for the Worlds at Dinosaur, which subsequently lost to Spain at the CIVL meeting. GW originally wanted to go back to CIVL with the same bid for another try.

Then he changed his proposal (perhaps in the fall of 1998) and got the USHGA Competition Committee to approve this new proposal without giving anyone else the chance to present another proposal, even though it was obvious that there was another very interested person with organizing skills in Florida who had already expressed a desire to have the Worlds while speaking at an official USHGA function.

GW was there at the USHGA Competition Committee making sure that it was his bid and his bid alone that was being considered. As a businessman he didn't have to bring up the fact that there might be other bids that would be worthy of looking at, even though this was in the best interests of the USHGA and the hang gliding community (to see a little competition in the US for the Worlds). Was it his obligation as a Competition Committee member to make sure that the USHGA got the best deal? Apparently he didn't think so.

In a recent inter Competition Committee, John Borton states that he is over the Class I discussion… and (wants to)get back on track to issues that weren't decided years ago. The implication being that GW was given his permission for the Worlds years ago, and of course, it was never opened up again for other prospects after the bid lost at CIVL and after the bid changed location to Florida. Everyone now agrees that it should have been reopened and they are chagrined that it wasn't.

John Borton, realizing that there was a problem, contacted Malcolm Jones a few days before the Wills Wing Days at Wallaby Ranch. He wanted to know if Malcolm wanted to come to the spring USHGA meeting to discuss his position with respect to a bid from Wallaby Ranch to CIVL for the Worlds.

According to Malcolm, John repeatedly emphasized the Competition Committee's and the USHGA's commitment to GW re his bid and the fact that there would be only one bid from the USHGA to CIVL (even though it is unclear if this is mandated by CIVL). Malcolm felt that at this point it was useless to submit a proposal to the USHGA.

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Insider dealing at the ⁢USHGA⁣ – the nature of the deal »

Thu, Jul 6 2000, 8:45:01 pm EDT

CIVL|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|record|USHGA|Worlds

I've tried to find out just exactly what kind of agreement that G.W. has with the USHGA regarding his proposal for the 2003 Worlds. There is a reference to an agreement in the latest minutes of the USHGA up on their web site, but this was G.W.'s proposal. I don’t think he voted on his own proposal although minutes state that his motion that the "USHGA renege on its contractual agreement with GW Meadows to approach the CIVL to hold the worlds," was voted down unanimously. You've got to wonder if the wording of this motion actually reflects what the members of the committee understood as to the nature of the agreement.

John Borton has promised to provide the minutes of previous meetings to Malcolm Jones that are supposed to give us an idea in writing of what the nature of the agreement is. So far he hasn't produced those minutes for Malcolm.

I have seen a good number of e-mail messages that state that there is some kind of agreement between the USHGA and G.W. John Borton states that the agreement is that the USHGA has given G.W. Meadows the exclusive right to approach CIVL about the 2003 Worlds. I await any documented proof that this is the case.

At the last CIVL meeting, G.W. Meadows presented, displayed, but apparently did not submit his proposal for the 2003 Worlds. The time for submittals is the next CIVL meeting. At the last CIVL meeting, G.W. was the USHGA's alternate delegate (he paid his own way to the meeting). At the next CIVL meeting, he will be the USHGA CIVL representative.

Jim Zeiset referred in his message to his feeling that G.W. had not gone through proper channels re his proposal. He was apparently referring to the fact that G.W. displayed his bid at the last CIVL meeting.

So, we are awaiting a record of the minutes of the Competition Committee to determine just what is the nature of the agreement between the USHGA and G.W. re the Worlds. Jim Zeiset seems to think that there isn't much of an agreement. John Borton seems to think that there is an iron clad agreement.

John has argued that it would be unethical to go back on an agreement with G.W. I am arguing that it would be unethical to proceed with an agreement with G.W. We may both be right. Someone will have to choose.

More on this issue in future Oz Reports.

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Wallaby Open – the sour notes

Sun, Apr 23 2000, 12:00:02 pm EDT

CIVL|David Glover|Malcolm Jones|record|USHGA|Wallaby Open 2000|Wallaby Ranch

Oops, I'm putting on the "Reporter from Hell" hat here. There was one or two sour notes that were heard amidst all the hosannas at the Wallaby Love Fest. Malcolm Jones, at the end of his speech thanking all those many individuals who had helped, did not have kind words for the USHGA and by implication the Competition Committee. He implied that he might not apply for USHGA sanctioning next year. He stated that the USHGA was always trying to undermine his good efforts to promote the sport. He asked that people help him get rid of the current leadership, by implication the regional director for this region, David Glover, who is also the USHGA President.

It was real unfortunate that Malcolm had to bring up these topics in the midst of so much good will and genuine appreciation from all (including all those good folks on the competition committee that disapproved of but one small aspect of his behavior) for all he has done. Malcolm has the unfortunate tendency to take such careful aim at his own foot and then let go with both barrels. I guess without these kinds of tragic character flaws there wouldn't be any great drama. Of course they have to be deeply ingrained in our character, or we wouldn't do things that were obviously not in our best interests.

Just to set the record straight, Malcolm received a letter on February 4th, from the USHGA competition committee, which was trying to uphold the honorable position that USHGA meets are open to all USHGA members (unless there is some extreme circumstance), that stated:

"If you exercise your right as owner of the fight park to prohibit Mark from entering this event, the USHGA will exercise it's right to void the sanction approval."

The USHGA and the Competition Committee was for what seems like the first (or second) time exhibiting some backbone when it came to uploading the principles of the organization. Perhaps Malcolm had counted on the old way of doing things.

Malcolm should have been aware (assuming that he read this letter) that when he excluded Mark P. from the Wallaby Open two days before it opened, that he immediately lost his USHGA and CIVL sanctions. Why he would go ahead and do this despite the obvious consequences, just doesn't make any sense. I guess that's what tragic flaws are all about.

This is not to say that Malcolm didn't have many good reasons to exclude Mark P. from "his" meet. I was here on the weekend when Mark first encountered Malcolm and it is quite clear from what I heard from others (not just Malcolm) that his behavior was beyond rude and insensitive. It is also true that that Mark P. wrote a message about Wallaby Ranch to the hang gliding digest that I'm sure he very much regrets now.

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Wallaby Open – it's a wrap

Sun, Apr 23 2000, 12:00:00 pm EDT

André Wolfe|Belinda Boulter|Laurie Croft|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Open 2000|Wallaby Ranch

The great Malcolm Jones Love-in took place last night as everyone shared their appreciation for all those who had done so much to help make the Wallaby Open a success. Pilots had their hearts on their sleeves as they professed their undying devotion and appreciation for all that Malcolm and his crew have done for the sport of hang gliding. Particularly moving was a presentation by Andre Wolf.

Tiki Mashi and Laurie Croft were particularly pointed out as providing strong support to Malcolm. Belinda Boulter was heartily thanked (as the "extreme" better half of the Straub family) for her many hours of creative work producing the very beautiful turnpoint book. Everyone loved the artwork by Laurie Sanchez that was displayed on the cover of the turnpoint book and on the Wallaby Open t-shirt.

Pilots were, of course, well lubricated by this point as the Margarita machine had been operating since early afternoon. Since there wasn't any flying on the last day, there was nothing to get in the way of the Wallaby Ranch eating club thoroughly enjoying the fruits of the Jeremie and crew kitchen. I really think that many pilots didn't mind that much that there were "only" three good days of flying at the Wallaby Open. First of all, because those days were so good, and second, because they were so well cared for. Third, they didn't have to launch on "scary" days.

Everyone really had a good time all week, and if it weren't for the sniping of the press around the edges of the event, you would never have heard a questioning word. Everyone wants to come back again. Andre wants to come and help how when he isn't competing anymore, and even when he isn't flying anymore. It looks like some of these guys have made a lifetime commitment to continuing paradise at Wallaby Ranch.

It is very cool that so many Brazilians come to the Ranch. A great thanks is owed to Carlos for encouraging this connection.

As it was a full day of partying, everyone got into the act:

Many people mentioned how much the Wallaby Open is like a gathering, a place of love and great joy. It feels like everyone is working from their hearts to help everyone else out, and tat they are all doing the best that they can. The emotions have been flowing all week, and love and fellowship are definitely the major emotions.

Much of the magic of Wallaby Ranch is how unlike the "real" world it is. People who are open to it can more quickly drop the defenses that they need to use in the outside world. Everyone is here to enjoy himself or herself and share the joy of the act that connects us all – our experience of "really" flying.

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Betinho on Moyes Litespeed

Wed, Apr 19 2000, 8:00:01 am EDT

Betinho Schmitz|carbon fiber|dust devil|Luiz Niemeyer|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed

So Malcolm Jones bought a small stock Moyes Litespeed for Carlos (one of the Ranch tug pilots) to fly. His fellow countryman, Betinho Schnitz, shows up a couple of days later, and very soon Betinho is flying this new small Litespeed. I spoke at length with Betinho on Tuesday about how it was going with this new glider. This was the day after Betinho had come in second.

This is a shot of Betinho just before the dust devil hit.

He said that he was gliding as well as Luiz Niemeyer on the MR 2000. The stock Litespeed doesn't have the carbon fiber downtubes like the MR 2000.

He felt that he was doing better than the Aeros Stealth at low speed speeds. At high speeds (greater than 70 kph) Manfred was out gliding him. He was gliding a lot better than he had been on the La Mouette Topless, and his climb was good.

So Betinho is flying very well on the new small Litespeed, and Gerolf promised him a "super" version of it when he was in Brazil. Hmmm??!! At the moment Betinho is just flying a borrowed glider.

Wallaby Open – You make the call

Tue, Apr 18 2000, 5:30:00 pm EDT

Florida|Gary Osoba|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Open 2000|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Malcolm Jones, the Wallaby Open safety director, called the day today due to northwest winds of sufficient strength. Now, as Monday morning quarterbacks, you get to make the call. You can also use this information to determine the parameters of conditions that are thought of as safe for a competition day at Wallaby Ranch. You can then compare them with other locations where competitions are held, for your own edification and amusement.

Local weather:

Today…mostly sunny and breezy. High near 80 to the lower 80s. Northwest wind 15 to 20 mph and gusty.

Winds from the balloon at Tampa Bay:

12 knots at 270 degrees on the surface
19 knots at 295 degrees at 3000'
23 knots at 290 degrees at 5000'

Gary Osoba, «go777», writes:

Let me try to get the winds right first. The low up in the Appalacians established itself more quickly than I thought yesterday, clocking the winds more westerly. Today, its firmly entrenched and I don't see it moving very quickly.

Soooo…

Winds aloft today are going to be cookin' a bit.

1pm:
wnw @ about 15 knots a little above the tree line to around 20 knots at 5000'. Direction with altitude shouldn't change much.

4pm:
Backing off about 5 knots up and down the stack, and a bit more northerly. The later in the afternoon , they will be lighter and more northerly at about 300-310 degrees for the top of the climbs. Around 10 knots above the tree line and 15 knots at the top.

The inversion will be lower today by about 1000' avg. The morning soundings aren't in yet but a little enigma is shaping up…classic strategy call for the pilots. It would appear from overnight data that the better climbs could occur earlier in the task if the winds aren't high enough to tear the thermals up significantly…however, the winds will be more of a problem early unless its mostly downwind (aren't you pretty much constrained from going very easterly?). Later in the day, the inversion will rise up to about 700-1000' higher but the climbs might be slower if the overnight data is right. This will be offset somewhat by the advantage of the winds backing off and providing a more northerly component (still nw).

There were plenty of small cu's early in the day, but they disappeared around eleven am.

The winds forecast for 2 PM:

A northwest wind often brings a blue day here in Florida. The soarcast indicated strong lift to 4,500' where there was a mild inversion. On this day, the inversion meant no clouds, and no over development.

I went out to the launch area and for ten minutes measured the winds at 8 feet height. The west facing launch is on the east side of the Ranch and you get about a half mile of open area before the Cypress trees to the west. I measured the winds at about 13 mph, with one gust to 20 mph, and many other gusts to 15 or 16 mph.

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USHGA and CIVL sanction restored to the Wallaby Open

Sun, Apr 16 2000, 5:40:02 am EDT

CIVL|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|Mark Poustinchian|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

John Borton, «CompCommittee», writes:

12:30pm, April 15th, 2000

Notice to Wallaby Open Competitors:

The Organizer has agreed to allow Mark Poustinchian into the 2000 Wallaby Open. At this point in time, full UHSGA and CIVL sanctioning has been restored to the Meet.

Malcolm Jones, «Malcolm», owner of Wallaby Ranch states:

"JB's account was complete bs(expletive contracted). The meet was full when I received the check from MarkPoustinchian. It wasn't worth fighting over."

USHGA and CIVL sanction pulled from Wallaby Open

Sat, Apr 15 2000, 5:00:00 pm EDT

CIVL|David Glover|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|Mark Poustinchian|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

John Borton, «CompCommittee», writes:

Notice to Wallaby Open Competitors:

By majority vote, the USHGA Competition Committee has rescinded the USHGA and CIVL sanctioning for the Wallaby Open. USHGA-NTSS and CIVL-PIRS ranking points are at this time not available for competitors in this event. Below is a brief explanation of the events leading up to this decision.

Near the end of January, USHGA member Mark Poustinchian attempted to register for the Wallaby Open. Mark was informed by Malcolm Jones that because of a past disagreement, he would not be allowed to enter the event. Mark contacted the USHGA for assistance. On February 3rd, I spoke with Malcolm personally for some time. In the course of the conversation, I learned that the meet was not yet half full.

After extensive consideration, both the USHGA Competition Committee and Executive Committee took the position that Mark was qualified and entitled to fly in the meet. On February 4th, Malcolm was informed in writing (see attached) that if Mark was not allowed to fly in the Wallaby Open, USHGA and CIVL sanctioning would be rescinded.

On February 5th, USHGA President David Glover hand delivered to Malcolm a check from Mark pre-paying all entry and tow fees for the meet. Malcolm was told at that time that with the acceptance of entry information and meet fees Wallaby was providing Mark with a guaranteed slot in the meet. Malcolm accepted the entry and promised, in his words, to “not screw the pilots” coming to his event by endangering the sanctioning.

Yesterday, April 14th, almost two and a half months after both Mark and the USHGA were led to believe that this matter was resolved and less than two days before the start of competition at the Wallaby Open, Mark received a letter from Wallaby returning his entry fees and denying him participation in the meet. He was told that he had been on the “waiting list” and that no extra slots had opened up. Since Mark registered and prepaid his entry on February 5th, this position clearly conflicts with both Malcolm’s own conversations with committee members at the time, and also with the large number of pilots who have registered and paid since that date.

The Competition Committee recognizes that many competitors at this meet are not interested in event sanctioning and for them, this matter may be of no interest. Other pilots may be concerned with the loss of sanctioning for this meet and the accompanying loss of ranking points.

The USHGA respects Malcolm’s right as a meet organizer and land owner to have exclusionary policies regarding pilot entries at a private meet. Once however, a meet organizer seeks and secures sanctioning from the USHGA, additional responsibilities must be accepted. The USHGA makes every attempt to include it’s members in it’s sanctioned activities rather than to exclude and in these situations organizers must act in a manner consistent with this intent.

USHGA member pilots who feel that exclusionary policies have no place in our Association’s events, as well as competitors who care about earning National and International ranking points at the Wallaby Open, should voice their concerns to Malcolm Jones. If Mark is allowed to fly in this meet, sanctioning will immediately be restored.

----

February 4, 2000

Malcolm,

I was called by Mark P. yesterday afternoon who was concerned that you were not going to allow him to compete in the Wallaby open. He expresses his desire as a USHGA member to compete in this sanctioned event and wondered if the USHGA supported what he perceived to be an exclusionary policy.

I explained to Mark that there were situations that the USHGA would support a particular pilots exclusion -- safety and qualification issues primarily. I told Mark that I would call you and listen to what you had to say.

Of course as you know, I called you and we spoke for some time. I agree with your point that you would have every right to exclude him from your meet, and you could choose to do this for almost any reason. For the USHGA however to allow exclusion of an Association member from an open USHGA event requires pretty compelling reasoning. The USHGA is a member driven organization, and as such we make all attempts to include members in the association's activities rather than to exclude.

Your stated reasons for excluding Mark are not based on qualifications or safety, but on his past dealings with you and Wallaby Ranch. While I certainly respect your feelings with regards to this situation, I can't conscientiously support his exclusion based on contentious history and bad blood -- however justified.

You point out from the rule book: Section 3.1, B, Titled: "Qualifications which may be imposed by Meet Organizers:" From this section you quote part 6. "By invitation only."

Your stated interpretation of this section is that you can exclude any one pilot from your sanctioned event. My interpretation is a bit different. This section certainly leaves the door open to a sanctioned "invitation only" meet, but I don't think it infers that you can, in the middle of the registration period, alter your pilot qualification requirements -- mixing and matching as you please -- to effectively create an "all but one" policy.

The advertisement for the meet on your website promotes an open meet with the invitation -- "Considering the tremendous success and popularity of last year’s meet, all the "top dogs" will be in attendance, so get your entry fee in early to secure a spot." You have already accepted a significant number of entries (over 30 by your count) to this comp and until this situation arose, it is clear that this wasn't an "by invitation only" event. Also, I'm convinced that the Committee would have wanted to take into consideration an "invitation only" policy when determining the outcome of your sanction request. I'm going to take the position that this is not currently such an event and thus will not support Mark's exclusion based on Section 3.1, B, 6.

The USHGA competition rule book states in section 2.5 D: "Any significant changes in the structure of a Competition Committee approved sanctioned meet such as date changes, Meet Director changes, etc. are grounds for voiding the sanction approval."

Based on the above, changing your policy from an "open, first come first serve" event as it has been administered up until this point, to a "by invitation only" event would constitute a "significant change in the structure" and if done without the consent of the Competition Committee Chair or the Executive Committee would void the sanction approval.

This is the bottom line Malcolm -- Mark has shown through extensive participation in our sport to be a safe and qualified pilot. As Competition Committee Chair, I can't support his exclusion from your sanctioned event. I respectfully ask that you accept his entry fees and allow this member to fly at an event sanctioned by his Association. If you exercise your right as owner of the fight park to prohibit Mark from entering this event, the USHGA will exercise it's right to void the sanction approval.

I'll end with a personal note of thanks to you for your support of our sport and hope that your continued efforts can be aligned with our Association.

JB

Chairman, Competition Committee, USHGA

Malcolm Jones is currently in a meeting and not available for comment.

Staff photographer: David Glover

Stephen Morris' bogus flight comparison

Thu, Apr 6 2000, 5:00:01 pm EDT

Brian Porter|Ghostbuster|Malcolm Jones|PG|Richard Nikoley

Stephen J Morris, «mlbco», writes:

Regarding your recent reports of various gliders flying in ridge lift, I think it is important to mention that none of these comparisons passes for a true comparative test. Unless both pilots arrange in advance to do a side-by-side long glide at fixed speed, the test is not quantitative. Even in ridge conditions there is enough variation in lift that pilot skill and timing can lead to big differences in height. Only when the two gliders being compared fly side-by-side and preferably out of the lift band, can there be a quantitative comparison. The glide must be performed over several miles at each speed to get good results. Remember that I previously wrote explaining that the difference between 16:1 and 18:1 is only 73 feet of altitude over a 2 mile glide! If your reporters aren't flying side-by-side over 2 mile distances, then their data is bogus.

As Richard Nikoley reported in OZ #78, I was at Funston with Brian Porter and we were flying all over the ridge at different heights and speeds. Porter was mostly buzzing the paraglider launch at Westlake and I was mostly flying hands-off and photographing him. I noticed many pilots flying Ghostbusters and Richard in his Atos. Although Richard may feel he conducted a performance comparison with our gliders, from my point of view he was boating around at the top of the lift band and nowhere near the same air I was in, nor at the same speeds. Anyone who is topped out in ridge lift can convince himself or herself they're king of the world when comparing with gliders hundreds of feet below. In this situation you can always dive on another glider and out race him (at least for a while). The true performance comparisons start at the same altitude and speed and in the same air, even in ridge lift.

In the spirit of your recently published bogus performance comparisons, I'm enclosing a photo I took today at Funston showing me in a Millennium dominating a poor hapless Atos pilot. I was above and all over this guy for his entire flight. This photo is the closest he ever got to me. The reality of the situation is, however, that I had returned from a higher ridge (Westlake) and was in a slightly better band of lift that he could not get into. Since we didn't fly at the same altitudes I always had the advantage, and nothing was proven about our glider's relative performance.

(editor's note: As I said to Steve, "Spoke with Malcolm Jones earlier today.

He stated that Torrey Pines was the poor man's wind tunnel.

In the old days they would go there, switch gliders back and forth to cut out the pilot effect and after a few days it was pretty clear which glider had the best performance.

Seems like Dave Ledford was on top day after day in his ATOS.

Maybe it was just the pilot.")

USHGA Competition Committee report

Mon, Mar 20 2000, 8:00:00 am EST

CIVL|John Borton|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

John Borton, «CompCommittee», USHGA Competition Committee Chairman, writes:

The Spring 2000 Competition Committee meeting went off quite smoothly. The meeting was dominated by discussions regarding the future of competition attendance and scoring in the US. The Sanctioning and Scoring, Competition Enhancements, Handicapping, World Team Selection, and Competition Rules Subcommittees were tasked with developing their respective portions of a new rulebook to be ratified at the Fall meeting. There were also extensive discussions on how to get the most bang for our NAA/FAI/CIVL affiliation dollar.

(editor's note: There was some discussion before this meeting regarding the large subsidy that competition pilots receive from the USHGA in terms of the $10-15K cost that the general membership bares for belonging to CIVL. It looks like this subsidy is going to continue. We competition pilots would like to thank all the rest of the USHGA members for their support.)

With the above topics being theoretical in nature, there were only a few motions made and voted on. Among those:

The 2003 Class 1 World Championships comes up for CIVL bid in December of this year. Any meet organizer wishing to bid for the Worlds must have the approval of the USHGA for CIVL to recognize the bid. The Committee voted unanimously to only allow one meet organizer to bid for the Worlds. This was a common sense decision uniting the USHGA behind one bid and thus increasing the US chances of obtaining the Championships. This decision placed GW Meadows as the only bidding organizer as his entry had been approved by the USHGA at previous meetings.

(editor's note: We had heard that two US "expressions of interest" were mentioned at the last CIVL meeting. This means that a possible Malcolm Jones bid for the Class I Worlds won't be considered by the USHGA or CIVL. I think he was interested more in Class II anyway.)

My personal feelings on such Championship bids is that we should change the way that we handle the internal approval process. A request for bids should be published with a date for USHGA review. This would encourage multiple organizers to compete for the right to bid.

A motion was made and the Committee voted unanimously that they would like to see the wording in the rulebook removed that allows sanctioned invitational meets. The consensus of the Committee was that the opportunity to accumulate NTSS points should be open to all qualified USHGA members.

Committee voted to contribute $1,000 to the ongoing efforts to polish the RACE scoring software. This is the dominant XC scoring program in the US as well as the world. Its continued evolution is funded by contributions as well as the efforts of a great many volunteer software engineers. The USHGA contributions will not come from the USHGA itself, but rather from the National Team pilot funds. It is these pilots who benefit most from the Race program.

(editor's note: USHGA contributions to the Race program development were voted down in previous Competition Committee meetings. Volunteer efforts head up by Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch got $500 into the programmer's hands so that we could have miles and miles per hour displayed on the output. It is good to see a concerted national effort to help out with the Race program like so many other countries have done.

I have downloaded and reviewed the current Race 2000 beta 2. It's quite a program, and appears to contain the changes that we wanted.)

The Fall meeting will be big. In addition to the usual slate of competition sanction requests, updating our rulebook to reflect the here and now will be a large task. Comments and questions should be aimed at «CompCommittee».

Ah, competition, isn't it wonderful?

Mon, Mar 13 2000, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Florida|Ghostbuster|Malcolm Jones|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Poustinchian|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

Mike Eberle at North American Flight Design has put up $3000 for the first pilot to fly a Ghostbuster 200 miles out of Quest Air. Hmmm, I wonder who first came up with that specific idea?

Of course hang gliding and hang glider pilots benefit a great deal from this kind of encouragement. It really focuses our attention and tells us that somebody cares. Mike really deserves our thanks.

Back in ancient history, Malcolm Jones, set aside $1000 for the first pilot to fly from Wallaby Ranch to Georgia (still open). There are a bunch of other monetary prizes also (best flight in April, the state record, Women's longest, etc.). By the way, Malcolm is not the answer to the question above.

There will be money prizes at the Wallaby Open, and there is a slight chance of money prizes at the ACC. Manufacturers and flight park owners will sponsor a number of the pilots flying at these meets.

It's really great to see these prizes, and everyone has at least some chance of grabbing the brass ring. Albo, his dad, says that Gibbo will be out at Quest on Wednesday. Maybe Flight Design would come up with a few hundred if I did it on their other rigid wing?

Speaking of long flights, Mark Poustinchian, «markpoustinchian», flew 163 miles the day after Gibbo flew 140 miles and landed in Georgia. Mark got ¼ miles over the Georgia-Florida border, but had to come back to land safely. The interesting thing about the flight was that he did it the hard way, not going for the little bit of Georgia that dives down into Florida. You can read about it at: http://home.talkcity.com/PlayingFields/mpousti/index.html and see the track long at http://home.talkcity.com/playingfields/mpousti/Picture31000.html.

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Women's Worlds and Class II Worlds in bed together

Wed, Mar 1 2000, 5:40:00 pm EST

CIVL|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

I earlier reported that the Women's Worlds will be held in Chelan, Washington, USA, in 2002 (with a pre-Worlds in 2001). The part of the story that I didn't find out until later is that they will be combined with the Class II Worlds and pre-Worlds.

From what I've heard, it appears as though the European CIVL representatives did not like having both Class II and Class I together at the Worlds. In addition, there appear to be attendance concerns with the Women's Worlds. The pre-Worlds last year were canceled, for example.

With poor attendance at the Women's Worlds a concern, and the desire to get the Class II guys out of the Class I pilot's air space, CIVL let the Women's Worlds organizers also host Class II (this cuts down on the cost of sending the CIVL travel club to the meet).

This means that there will be a pre-Worlds for Class II in Chelan in 2001 during the same summer that there is a Class II Worlds (combined with Class I) in Spain. Hopefully they can schedule it for different weekends. It is a bit expensive to ship those rigid wing gliders by air on short notice. I sent mine by boat to Australia, and it was still expensive.

I wonder how the women will feel about sharing the air, and the somewhat crowded launch sites at Chelan Butte, with a bunch of stiffies. There will be different sets of tasks for each competition, but at the launch, and just across the gorge it could get interesting.

I've also heard that both Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch, and GW Meadows have given CIVL letters of intent to bid on the Worlds for 2003 (with a pre-Worlds in 2002). I wonder how they feel about losing the Class II pilots? I wonder if CIVL took into account the fact that they really didn't give the possible future meet organizers a chance to send in proposals for the Class II Worlds. Just gave it by default to the guys who were there (and, who, by the way, had expressed to me last year a desire to have the Class II Worlds at Chelan).

As Chelan Butte is one of my favorite sites, I'm happy to have the Class II Worlds there, and I look forward to flying with the Women's Worlds competitors. Class II pilots will have a much easier time getting over the Columbia Gorge on average days and it is out on the flats that the fun begins.

I'll be reporting on the 2000 Chelan Cross Country Classic, so we'll all have a chance to see once more how Chelan treats rigid wing pilots.

Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly – other motors?

Tue, Feb 29 2000, 6:15:03 pm EST

Bill Moyes|Dragonfly|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

In https://OzReport.com/Ozv4n33.htm I reported on a dinner table conversion with Bill Moyes in which he stated, in his manner, his preference for the original Rotax 582 engine in the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly. My report caused quite a flurry of reaction on the rigid wing mailing list with a number of parties defending the heavier, but more reliable and powerful, four stroke engines that have been fitted onto some modified Bailey-Moyes Dragonflies.

The argument against doing this is that the engine on the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly is aft of the CG, unlike many other ultralights. Adding weight to the plane at the engine causes it to be tail heavy and degrades it's handling.

One argument for doing it is that increased power enhances the safety of the plane by getting the plane and the hang glider away from the ground, and out of the danger zone, much quicker.

I'm not an expert on the Dragonfly, having just flown behind it, but I'm pretty sure that there are two well defended positions on this question and I am willing to publish anything cogent from either side.

Last year Rhett at Wallaby Ranch began testing a differenttwo stroke engine from Rotax, the 670, that promised power nearly equal to that of the four stroke engines (but not their reliability), at a weight increase of only 5 pounds. At the time he was not sure if the 670 would prove to be at least as reliable (200-400 hours before rebuild) as the 582.

Well, now it is 250 engine hours later, and the 670 is still running. I am given to understand that Rhett is still not willing to say what the outcome of the test is, but Malcolm Jones, at Wallaby Ranch, has ordered three more 670 engines.

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AV8 »

Mon, Feb 7 2000, 6:00:00 pm EST

Kenny Brown|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|record|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Scott Weiner|Worlds

Kenny Brown|Larry Tudor|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|record|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Scott Weiner|Worlds

I asked Rich Burton, «indasky», a series of questions about AV8. I really appreciate the time he took to answer them. His answers are thoughtful and straightforward, and his voice comes through very clearly. Here is a slightly edited version of his answers:

As you know there was a serious service problem with the Laminar gliders in the U.S. Even though I consider myself a long time friend (24 years) of Larry Tudor I wasn't able to get in touch with him. Scott Weiner and I started talking about possible solutions to the contact and parts problem.

One solution was to contact Orlando and see if he would allow us to go to Flagstaff and take into possession the AV8 stock of gliders and parts. We would then essentially liquidate the stock and try to get some money back to Orlando and a little for ourselves. The real motivation was that we both had Laminar ST's and we wanted to be able to continue to fly them as long as possible.

Just about this time Larry came back on to the scene. He liked the idea of getting rid of the parts responsibility, in fact, he drove a majority of the parts out to San Diego for us. In June I spent a week in Flagstaff and brought back a couple of more gliders and more of the parts. Larry seemed excited about the direction that AV8 was going. He was going on the road to do demos and try for some World records. Larry was going to do what Larry does best- fly. I was going to handle the parts. While I was in Flagstaff we updated the web page to reflect these changes.

By this time Scott wasn't in the picture anymore other then giving me some sales support in the San Diego area. He started law school at USC in August. Combine that with a new baby and there goes your flying time. Other things were happening too. I started a company called INDASKY to do the shipping for AV8 and we were no longer in the liquidation mode. (I never really liked that idea anyway) And then there was Larry's no show at the Worlds.

To this day I can't answer any questions about Larry, because I don't know what is happening. But I had to make some decisions. One was that if Orlando was still interested in being AV8 and importing Laminar gliders, that I was going to do my best to keep the ball rolling, or should I say "the gliders flying"

Between May and June, ten 99 ST's were ordered so that we would have the new model available. The first shipment arrived at the beginning of June and the second shipment arrived in late August. We also brought in more parts to be sure that we could continue to support these gliders. It's good to have parts anytime. I'm not sure how good it is to receive gliders at the end of the season though. That concern has gone away as I only have two left.

This is to answer your question about how many ST's are flying in the US. I do know that there are eight of the new models flying. AV8 still had some Laminar R (king post) gliders still in stock and they have been sold.

This is what is happening with AV8 at this point. Orlando is still supporting the company. I am working as an independent contractor. All orders are processed through me at this time and I am keeper of the parts. The web page just went off line a week ago or so. The future of that is unknown at this time.

Right now we have eight MR2000 gliders on order for customers in the U.S. You will see at least three of these at Wallaby in April. We also have two 2000 13's coming very soon. I wasn't just making a sales pitch when I said that orders were pouring in for the MR edition. I think that Icaro was taken by surprise with the orders that are going to Pause, the sail maker who is producing there upgrade sails. Production time right now is eight weeks. I will be placing an order for two more MR2000 gliders later today so that we can get them on the production chart. Regular ST2000's are available in four weeks. And of course I have two here for immediate delivery.

The word is slowly getting out that Laminar gliders in the U.S. are still alive and a viable alternative for the demanding pilot who wants performance and quality. Several of the MR2000 gliders that are on order are for people who have been flying the 97/98 models. I believe that the people who have had contact with me have been happy with the service that they received and they are passing the word. I don't have an advertising budget but AV8 has placed two ads in the HG magazine, that have been running for several months under "gliders" and "parts".

There aren't any Laminar EZ's in the U.S. that I know of. For right now our (my) focus is on the ST's. We could order an EZ if someone wanted it though. Icaro is working on a new glider for school use that is scheduled to be released this spring.

Dealerships: or Service Representative positions. I am willing to talk with anyone who would be interested in being involved with the Icaro gliders. Right now, I only consider a couple of people in the U.S. as being active dealers. One is Malcolm Jones and the other is Robin Hamilton. There is a lot of territory available.

Your question about safe is a hard one for me because I never considered the glider unsafe. I am aware that there was the perception that the glider was unsafe. The glider can not be proved statistically any more unsafe then many other gliders. I have some personal opinions about how this unsafe perception was fed by some people who had personal axes to grind.

What flex wings tumbled this past year? I would also like to refer you back to what you published from the Manfred Rumor's article about the MR2000 and their reasoning for producing the MR glider option. I never tweaked my original two ST's because I liked the way that they flew and I don't know enough about what makes a glider unstable. Other pilots did the tweaking. It is ironic to me that it is some of the same pilots who lowered their sprogs and increased the length of the pull back who were the most vocal predictors of doom for people who continued to fly the ST. Time has proved them wrong.

I feel that Icaro has taken a healthy step towards the issue of glider modification with the introduction of the MR option. The orders prove that others agree.

I will tell you this. I am happy to fly the 97/98 model ST and I still do on occasion. Given the choice of flying the 97 or the 99 I now prefer the 99. It doesn't roll as fast as the older model and the trade off is that it doesn't take as much "active" flying. I feel that over the course of a flight the added roll stability makes the glider less tiring to fly. The dive recovery system feels more active to me also. Transition from lift into sink is smoother. The 99/2000 still does the things that I loved with the previous model: it slows down to nothing, it turns flat and slow or you can bank and crank if you want, the sink rate is second to none and the glide is superb.

I flew our stock demo 99ST with a friend flying a King post Laminar and another friend on a 97 model for over two hours this past week end. Some of the flying was just hanging out in tight broken lift, but we also covered about 25 miles. My observations from this weekend and numerous other flights are that the 99ST has about the advantage in glide over the previous model as the first ST's had over the king post model. Just in case the harness question comes to mind, the KP pilot was flying with an M2, the 97 ST pilot was flying a Woody Valley and I fly an M2.

Your final question was "How can Icaro have a presence in the US?" My answer is that I will continue with my efforts, however modest they are. Right now, it may be OK that there is a small society of those who "know". I've really enjoyed the contact that I've had with Laminar pilots over the past few months. They routinely relate their "I got higher, flew longer, flew further got up when others couldn't and enjoyed it immensely stories".

I noticed that I missed one of your questions, the one about Glen jumping ship. I don't look at it that way. Glen had been involved with Kenny Brown for many years and Pac Air. He received minimal support from AV8 and when Kenny went with Moyes I wasn't at all surprised that Glenn found a new home there. Any more detailed explanation would have to come from Glen. Glen remains my personal first pick for a guy I'd like to meet in a thermal.

Hopefully I answered some of your questions. Please ask more if you need.

World pilot ranking

Mon, Jan 31 2000, 11:00:04 pm GMT

G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows|Gerolf Heinrichs|Malcolm Jones|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Sarah Fenwick|WPRS

Manfred's and my comments about the problems with the world pilot ranking system elicited quite a response from CIVL officers and representatives. I'll present edited versions of their comments below.

I did want to add a bit to my earlier comments. It has been the case that a number of meet organizers have not realized the importance of obtaining CIVL sanctioning for their meets. This is especially true of Brazil and Bassano in Europe. On the other hand, the British have seen the obvious benefit of sanctioning their meets (Sarah Fenwick is English, I believe). Therefore they have benefited mightily from having so many CIVL sanctioned meets.

Gerolf suggests that a country can have only a limited number of CIVL-sanctioned meets.

It is incumbent upon meet organizers to obtain CIVL sanctioning. Otherwise the pilots who fly in their meets will not received WPRS points. It is incumbent upon pilots who wish to received WPRS points to contact meet organizers and get them to sanction their meets. Manfred certainly should have demanded that the Brazilian meet organizers get their meets certified.

All other European pilots should make sure that all their meets are CIVL sanctioned (for both classes). The US meets this year should be CIVL sanctioned for both Class I and II. I ask the meet organizers (G.W. Meadows and Malcolm Jones) to be sure that they are.

With the over representation of the British pilots in the top rungs of the World pilot ranking system, we now see the results of having a system that can be easily manipulated by those who are aware of the possibilities.

Second, it appears that some Oz Report readers who are connected with CIVL don't quite read with the depth of understanding that they should. In my article I (actually Gerolf) proposed a new, and very simple, formula for calculating WPRS points. I hope that it can be adopted at the next CIVL meeting.

Gerolf suggests that the CIVL list be given an importance. For example, only the top 100 pilots could go to the worlds. If this were the case, people would be very concerned about getting this ranking correct.

Sarah Fenwick, <cloud10@zetnet.co.uk>, who does the scoring at CIVL writes:

Having now had a little time to look at this supposed anomaly …It's not really an anomaly…all that's happened is that excluding the Worlds and Euros (which Manfred and Allan both competed in) they also both flew in the US Nationals and Wallaby Open. BUT these are the only 2 category 2 competitions Manfred has scored ranking points in over the last 18 months. Whereas Allan has scored ranking points in 5 Category 2 meets and Wallaby and US Nationals were his lowest scoring meets. Allan's best scoring ones were British HG League Open and Spanish HG Nationals, both these have more sanction points available due to their being more competitors than the 2 US meets that they both competed in. As it is a pilot's top 4 scores that count, that's how Allan is ahead of Manfred.

(editor's note: Notice that Sarah doesn't say that Allan is a better pilot than Manfred. Notice also that it was just due to the fact that there were lots of competitors at these meets that Allan had the possibility of getting a lot of points, while there were restrictions on the number of pilots at the Florida meets. There is no consideration for pilot quality. Any local meet with CIVL sanction counts.)

In other sports you wouldn't necessarily expect the World Champion to stay at the top of the rankings if (s)he only competed in a 2 Cat 2 type events and there were others doing more events with larger numbers of competitors!

(editor's note: I would expect the best pilot to be ranked number one.)

However, having said all that, CIVL don't claim that WPRS is perfect and will always try to fix any identified problems and to try to provide a fair and reasonable competitive environment. To do this we need to all work together and welcome the input in the form of CONSTRUCTIVE feedback from interested people, particularly those with competition skill and knowledge, who can present figures on paper to support their philosophical ideas or complaints.

(editor's note: see earlier Oz Report for a better formula.)

There will be a WPRS working group at the plenary meeting. All interested parties should make sure their delegates are informed of their feedback, ideas, etc. so that they can be presented and discussed at the Plenary meeting (25-27 Feb).

(editor's note: please do.)

Michael Zupanc, <zupy@ozemail.com.au>, writes:

There has been some debate recently concerning the CIVL world ranking system, where top pilots do not seem to get the points that they deserve. One aspect of the system that needs to be kept in mind is the fact that to get the maximum possible score for a competition there needs to be 100 competitors in the class. With this in mind, how the top end of the ranking system came about makes sense. I am not saying that the present system is perfect. It was designed with simplicity in mind, and with the benefit of hindsight, it might be too simple ( I am open to suggestions on variations to the formulas) An error in the way the formula was applied has been fixed, but this does not make significant differences to the ranking list.

Any country can run category 2 competitions to get World Ranking Points for their pilots. This gives them a score for the ranking list and it gives them the possibility of entering Category 1 competitions. It would be beneficial to the sport if all the different countries did organize sanctioned comps for their pilots, and furthermore if the smaller countries organized category 2 competitions in cooperation with their neighbors so that they would have competitive events with realistic points being given to the pilots.

CIVL will always try to fix any identified problems and to try to provide a fair and reasonable competitive environment. To do this we need the input of people with competition skill and knowledge, who can present figures on paper to support their philosophical ideas or complaints.

There are a lot of areas in the competition arena that could be improved. There are a lot of existing systems, some good, some maybe not so good. We need to look at and evaluate different ideas and concepts and we need to embrace new technology, as it becomes available.

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John Borton on the USHGA Competition Committee

Sun, Nov 14 1999, 11:00:05 pm GMT

Chris Arai|David "Dave" Glover|Davis Straub|G.W. Meadows|Jamie Shelden|John Borton|Kevin Frost|Malcolm Jones|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Barber|Rob Kells|Russ Locke|Sue Bunner|Tiki Mashy|USHGA

I was going to leave this issue alone after Malcolm's reply, feeling that I had given both sides an equal chance at presenting their cases. That was until I read John Borton's excellent analysis as published in the US Hang Gliding mailing list. The more I hear from John, the more impressed I am with his clear and unemotional thinking. I hope that we hear more from him and that he takes on more responsibilities in the hang gliding community.

Just to be clear, I am not in complete agreement with all of John's points below, for example, I do feel that Malcolm's actions were in the best interests of the pilots. I publish his statement because it is so well written and gives so many good insights. I encourage John to pursue a lucrative writing career.

Here is John's analysis of what happened at the USHGA Competition Committee meeting:

My work has me traveling with the Monday Night Football circus every week. Because of this I haven't had regular access to e-mail and this list. In catch-up mode, I have read the current story line regarding Wallaby, Malcolm Jones, Davis Straub, GW Meadows and "Anonymous". I attended every minute of every competition committee meeting during the Colorado Springs BOD meeting. As has become somewhat of a habit lately, I was attending the meeting only as a USHGA member. I am not a Regional Director, Director at large, nor Honorary Director. I was not a voting member of the committee. I do know however that both "Anonymous" and Malcolm, in his response, presented facts/stories from different perspectives (and what's unusual about that?)

Here is my non-anonymous perspective.

I love Wallaby. I think it is one of the most magical places on earth for hang glider pilots. If you asked were I would like to spend a hang gliding vacation (other than for record attempts) I would answer "Wallaby" every time. The place holds the charm it does because of Malcolm Jones and the fine people he surrounds himself with, period.

As a Tandem Instructor pilot with over 900 foot-launch tandems under my belt I will also add that I truly believe that Wallaby is the safest place on earth to hitch a ride in a tandem glider. The tandem and tug pilots at Wallaby are the best I've ever seen and the 'safety first' attitude is second to none. This too is a reflection of Malcolm and the people who surround him.

Mark Poustinchian says, referring to Malcolm's flight park efforts. <snip> "Let's get real guys, he is making a bunch of money doing it."

I've been to Wallaby numerous times. I've flown my own equipment. I've rented equipment from Falcons to Super Floaters. I've bought accessories and clothing items. I've brought friends and relatives and bought tandem flights for them. I have always settled my bill as I left and (as far as I know) paid posted prices. With those experiences in mind, my minimal business experience tells me that there isn't a chance in hell that Malcolm Jones makes money off of Wallaby. It's nothing less than a money pit. He does it for some reason other than money. Maybe his motives are altruistic, perhaps they are selfish, and perhaps he is an egomaniac who loves all the attention. I know in addition to the Ranch, he supports good people like Hollywood, Tiki and Mike Barber in their flying adventures. With that in mind I don't much care why, I just appreciate that he does.

Several people have commented on their less than ideal experiences at Wallaby. These comments are always from a perspective that Wallaby is a "business". Let's get past that right away. It's not and doesn't claim to be. It's a club. A club where one man decides (and rightly so) who gets to play and who doesn't. Most businesses want your money even if they don't like you. Not Wallaby. If Malcolm doesn't like you he doesn't care if you ever return. In fact, he'll likely make it so you don't want to ever return. If you look at Wallaby from this "one man's toy" perspective rather than from the business model, the varied experiences all seem to come together and make sense.

I regularly end up on both sides of Malcolm's like/don't like line. On one hand, I like the guy and get along with him quite well (hopefully this post won't change that). On the other hand, Jamie and I have seen and experienced the other side of the equation. After Jamie (on the comp committee) voted for inverted dates for the '99 Wallaby/Quest comps, he angrily told her that she couldn't come to the competition in '00 (forgetting that he can't selectively turn away USHGA members at a sanctioned event). After she voted for the same invert this year (thinking that the dates should be fairly alternated year to year), she had to spend a half hour on the phone listening to him literally yell at her. If you disagree with Malcolm, he can't just accept it.

Now, having said what's in my heart, the Competition Committee doings were very accurately reported by "Anonymous". Only the last paragraph was opinion (It read "Malcolm Jones proved that he was more interested in promoting Malcolm Jones than he was in doing the best thing for the pilots. All hail Malcolm.")

Davis, in his first report on the subject said he has unhappy that GW didn't recuse himself from the vote because of conflict of interest. I have seen GW recuse himself several times for just this reason. Why didn't he this time? I can only speculate. Malcolm and his bid were represented by Rob Kells and Jim Zieset. These guys (JZ in particular) supported Malcolm with their votes even as they cursed his inflexibility. Rob has every self-serving interest in supporting Malcolm and not GW since Malcolm is a big WW dealer and of course GW is not. Neither of these guys recused themselves so I would guess that GW felt that he would at least make it two against one rather that two against zero.

>Chris Arai calls Davis printing the Anonymous letter "tabloid journalism".

You may not like it any better Chris, but "mainstream" journalists quote anonymous sources regularly if these sources are confirmable. Davis went to the trouble to confirm the facts in the letter and told the readers so. Heck, it wasn't hard confirming them… there were a bunch of us that could, and even Malcolm in his response didn't try to refute them.

Both guys wanted the same dates last year. Malcolm got them. Both guys wanted the same dates this year.

>Kevin Frost says that Malcolm should be able to reserve dates indefinitely.

You may feel that way Kevin, but there is nothing in the USHGA sanctioning process that allows for that. Sanctioning has typically been awarded at the fall BOD for the following year. There are published procedures regarding this process that have worked quite successfully for some time. Last year, GW was told that preference was given to Malcolm's bid because his bid had been received first. This year GW entered his bid according to the procedures with request for these dates more than 2 months before Malcolm. The committee still voted to give the dates to Malcolm It hardly seemed like a fair decision by the committee to me, but a vote is a vote so I'm not picking a fight with it.

As Anonymous reported accurately, GW proved to be the flexible one at the meetings. He was willing to move six days if Malcolm would have moved only one. This is where I have a real problem with the way Malcolm Jones acted and the way the committee rewarded it.

Anonymous said "Malcolm Jones proved that he was more interested in promoting Malcolm Jones that he was in doing the best thing for the pilots." This clearly is not one of the reported "facts" of the meeting but rather Anonymous' opinion. I can tell you that this opinion was held by a number of people at the meeting, including me, and here's why.

Malcolm held a gun to the committees head by saying that he would hold his meet those dates with or without sanctioning. The question is, "what's best for the competition pilots that want to attend?" Clearly, the best thing for the pilots is for there to be a meet at Wallaby that is worth World Team points. Everyone wants to go to the Wallaby comp so the best pilots from around the world will all attend. Not awarding points for who wins against the world's best is just plain stupid, but that's exactly the situation that Malcolm forced the Competition Committee into. For a one day move, he held them hostage. This was all the proof I needed that in this particular situation, Malcolm was not concerned about the pilots.

In his response to Anonymous, Malcolm says: (and I summarize in my own words)

>GW stole competition materials from me.

I find it really funny (and telling) that Malcolm would publicly accuse GW of stealing competition materials. He would have been better off not bringing that one up, because here is the portion of the story that he didn't tell.

The great "competition material swap" as I call it began with materials from GW competition web pages showing up UNCHANGED on the Wallaby competition web page. GW called Malcolm and asked that these be removed. Davis Straub and Dave Glover even tried to convince Malcolm together that he was violating copyrights of GWs (source David Glover). Malcolm's exact words were (source, GW) "what are you going to do about it? Sue me?". GW decided that no, he wouldn't sue, but rather he called the Chair of the USHGA Comp Committee (Russ Locke) and told him in advance that he would be copying some of the Wallaby's materials to make a point. He told this to Russ to simply have a uninvolved witness. GW didn't need these materials. He had his own from the previous year and I don't pretend that two wrongs make a right. It's just a couple verifiable facts that in light of Malcolm's accusation should be out there.

A really interesting comment of Malcolm's involved the area maps that he accused GW of stealing, even going so far as to say that GW covered the Wallaby logo that was in the corner before copying. What he forgets to tell us is that the Malcolm's crew effectively covered the Rand McNally (or other) logo with the Wallaby logo when they copied it from the local atlas. Seem to me like Malcolm is saying "you can't steal it, cause I stole it fair and square".

In summary, go to Wallaby. If Malcolm likes you, you'll have the time of your life. If he doesn't, go to Quest where they seem to like everybody.

Discuss "John Borton on the USHGA Competition Committee" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Malcolm Jones responds

Wed, Nov 3 1999, 11:00:06 pm GMT

G.W. Meadows|Gee Mathews|Hang Gliding Magazine|Malcolm Jones|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mike Barber|Quest Air|Russ Locke|Tiki Mashy|USHGA|Wallaby Open 2000|Wallaby Ranch

Got a phone call from Malcolm Jones, owner of Wallaby Ranch, about my story on the last USHGA Competition Committee meeting, especially the anonymous report on the discussion and vote about the dates of the Wallaby Open and Atlantic Coast Championships. As you can imagine Malcolm was not happy about what my sources had to say about what went down.

I've asked Malcolm to send me his concerns so that I could finish up this story. His comments follow below.

I also got e-mail from Mark Gibson and Tiki Mashy supporting Malcolm and Wallaby Ranch. I certainly had to agree with their points. Tiki was particularly upset that my report was from anonymous sources and wanted me to reveal my sources. I can certainly understand her feelings, and it was unfortunate that I couldn't get anyone to come forward and give me their report without asking to remain anonymous.

But, if the USHGA is going to not allow the minutes of the committees and the BOD to be distributed to interested members, and I'm not able to use anonymous sources, then I'm going to have a real tough time reporting on what the USHGA is up to. You'll notice that the Hang Gliding Magazine is not going to report on anything controversial about the USHGA. The Oz Report is one of the only sources of information about what is really going on at our BOD meetings.

So, let's go back to the fight over the dates for the Wallaby Open and the Atlantic Coast Championships. First, hark back to an earlier Oz Report (http://www.davisstraubcom/OZ/Ozv3n53.htm), where I report that:

"G.W. mentioned at the close of the US Nationals that Malcolm would apply for a USHGA-sanctioned meet next year right after Sun 'n Fun, and that he, G.W. would apply for the Atlantic Coast Championships to be held at Quest Air starting one day after the Wallaby Open. We got an initial rest day this year, but only because of the weather."

Malcolm stated that he wasn't aware that G.W. was going to change his mind and apply for the same dates as Malcolm has argued for and set aside for the Wallaby Open, ever since its inception. Malcolm argues that he has been giving out these dates for the last few months to folks coming from Europe and wants to have a set date for the wallaby Open every year.

Malcolm stated that he felt it was best for everyone if he started the Wallaby Open on Sunday after Sun 'n Fun. This gives everyone a weekend travel day to get to Wallaby, and allows for the skies to be cleared around Lakeland airport as all the powered plane folks leave during the day on Saturday.

Personally I don't see the need for a rest day on the following Sunday, so that G.W.'s meet could start on that date.

Malcolm feels that he is doing the best possible that he can for the competition pilot community (no one argues with him there), and that he wants to promote another very successful Wallaby Open.

Here's Malcolm's position in his own words:

I resent being forced to defend myself from some cowardly b.s. I can take a potshot from a hothead as well as anybody, but this is ridiculous. The last sentence in that anonymous report - “Malcolm Jones proved that he was more interested in promoting Malcolm Jones than he was in doing the best thing for the pilots. All hail Malcolm.” – burns in my heart. Where is proof of this? I’m afraid the casual reader would think you wrote that report! Someone speaking anonymously is naturally given very little credibility, but by publishing it within your OZ Report you lend them credibility they don’t deserve – that’s the sad part of this. As you “sit back and watch” (me twist in the wind) I hope there is some journalistic lesson here.

In 1992, after looking around at property for 3 years, I decided to risk almost everything I had and buy a farm on the outskirts of town and see if I could make a full time hang gliding school work with aero-towing. This was a long time dream and of course all my flying buddies were 100% behind me and a lot of help, (as long as it didn’t mean writing any checks!). They all thought I was crazy but that it would probably mean a lot of fun for a year or two until I lost my ass. Well, out of that group of about 20 guys, 17 or 18 still make up what is the core group that makes the Wallaby Ranch the magic place that it is. I love them all.

We started talking about having an annual fly-in/meet in conjunction with Sun ‘n’ Fun in about 1996. After a few small fly-ins, we committed to having the first major sanctioned competition ever held in Florida on the 3rd week in April 1998. Unfortunately, on our first attempt, we became involved with GW Meadows. GW wanted to have the meet sometime earlier in the year. I, however, insisted on the 3rd week in April, immediately following Sun ‘n’ Fun, as we had intended based mainly on the weather and the crossover crowd. (I see he now agrees with the merits of that time frame.) When we first started planning these meets, of course there was no conflict, there was no other aerotow flight park on the planet much less down the street.

I should stop here and explain, this is not Wallaby versus Quest as the “report” would have you believe, but GW vs. Malcolm. As I can only assume GW wrote this report himself.

It makes me feel good that others have come along and are trying to create other permanent aerotow hang gliding sites around the country. Maybe I wish one particular one wasn’t so close, but I don’t have anything against the guys at Quest. The principals there used to be part of the Wallaby family. They wanted to go do their own thing and I respect that. That’s what they wanted, that’s what they have. I really don’t have much contact but I hope and assume they are happy.

I did not know that GW would request the same dates this time. In fact, I’d been informed otherwise by him, as you and others had, that he would NOT. (See Oz Report Volume 3, Number 53, Monday, May 3, 1999).

We simply put together our bid for the Wallaby Open and forwarded it on to the Competition Committee. I did not feel it would be necessary for me to go personally to explain our request, as it would be the 3rd year in a row that we had a meet at the Ranch on the 3rd week of April.

The first time I was made aware of any conflict is when I got a telephone call from members of the committee at the meeting. I was told that GW, after saying he wouldn’t, had applied for the same dates - again!

Starting with the announcement at the awards ceremony last year at the Wallaby Open, and continuing after GW’s announcement at the Nationals (that he would apply for the week following the Wallaby Open), we have continually and consistently told all parties interested that we were going to have the Wallaby Open 2000 on Apr. 16th thru the 22nd. Was this out of line? In light of the circumstances I think not. We had no reason to believe the USHGA would not sanction our dates, after accolades from everyone from Russ Locke, Committee Chairman, on down.

The relevance of GW’s own comment and the comments of individuals at Quest cannot be overstated in the context of this issue. They indicated that not only would they not bid on top of us again, but that they would wait at least one day between meets, which made perfect sense and was quite believable.

I just try to do what I say I’m going to do. In the bid for the Wallaby Open ’99 we stated, on paper to the competition committee, that we would bid again for the same sanction in 2000 at the same time (after Sun ‘n Fun). This was an effective notice of one year (incidentally we did the same again in the 2000 bid for the 2001 meet).

GW’s preparation for the Nationals last year amounted to hanging around Wallaby Open after entering the comp (he said he would pay when he arrived – yeah right!) and withdrawing before the first day’s round, using up a slot that would have gone to someone else (the meet was fully booked in advance). I wonder how he would handle this at one of his comps? The major part of his preparations for the Nationals consisted of him taking the turnpoint photo book for the Wallaby Open that we had produced at a substantial expense, our rule book that JC had prepared, and a full color laminated map of the contest area that was put together by Mike Barber, showing all the relevant airspace, turnpoints and relevant information, again at substantial expense. The map even had a Wallaby Ranch logo under the lamination in the upper righthand corner. Again his preparation consisted of taking all these items, having not shared in any of the expense of producing them, taking them to Kinko’s and duplicating them in amounts equal to the number of people entered in the Nationals, up the street. Their turnpoint photos were a little muddy and hard to read, (being second generation). Maybe he should have just asked me for the originals with photos on the pages. And the map was copied with this strange piece of tape over the upper righthand corner! I should have spoken up about it at the time, but I didn’t and I haven’t until now. I am sure that most of them had assumed that we had gone together in producing all these materials and he had shared in the expense. Unfortunately, this is not true, he simply stole them. This is some pretty bad stuff, isn’t it? Well, at least I’m not saying it anonymously. It was never my intention to be so public with this stuff, but I have sort of reached my limit on the being quiet thing.

Anyway, surely a fair-minded person can understand my frustration and put into context some comments that may have been made in anger regarding GW trying to force us to move the competition or not sanctioning it or sanctioning both at the same time or whatever. I did tell Rob that I was committed to those dates in many other ways and I didn’t see how I could renege on what I had been saying to everyone. And yes, I was pissed that GW was trying to pull another fast one.

The real story is, he butted up against our meet last year and didn’t give the pilots a rest day and took a lot of heat for it. Only in GW’s mind is it inherently “better for the pilots” to have a 6 day Wallaby Open and a 7 day Atlantic Coast Championships. Why is a weekend travel day at the end more valuable than a weekend travel day at the beginning? Actually, only by moving the second meet one day can both meets have 7 flying days and a final ceremony on the weekend. I believe these arguments were presented and HEEDED at the competition committee meeting. They just happened to be left out of this so-called “report.”

The so-called “facts” as presented barely deserve attention. Any spin-doctor worth his salt can take small sound bites or subjective conclusions and rearrange them to say what they want. For example, taking something said in relation to trying to get GW to back off the dates without forcing a vote – and applying it to the conversation later when GW is trying to force me to provide a day off for his meet. I guess he feels he can’t really justify following so closely unless he actually asks for the same dates to begin with. Perhaps, he hopes this will shift the blame off of his shoulders and onto mine.

If the facts, as presented in this “anonymous report,” represented the whole story of what was presented at the committee meeting, I feel certain that the vote would have been unanimous against the Ranch, even if I had a vote myself! (Can you imagine that I vote on my own project!?) Also, there was nothing gracious about the way GW agreed to move his dates; he fought tooth-and-nail, until it was forced to a vote.

The whole idea behind having the competition at an annual fixed time is to allow the International hang gliding community, as a whole, to plan around it on a dependable and consistent basis - whether it be organizers of Enduga or a local fly-in. Eventually all would know that the 3rd week in April is when the Wallaby Open happens.

It’s unfair to expect a meet organizer with the intention of holding an annual event (and maybe this is a general issue that the competition committee should take up) to be put in a position of not being able to tell or publish from year to year EXACTLY when their competition is going to be, especially as it relates to publications with significant lead times, negotiation with sponsors and other marketing and planning issues, not to mention the simple scheduling convenience for the competitors.

What am I supposed to tell a professional hang glider pilot when he calls me from Switzerland, trying to plan out his schedule as it relates to his own commitments for the year, i.e. sponsors, other jobs, potential conflicts, etc., “Gee, I can’t tell you when my meet’s gonna be or if it will be sanctioned at all, until after my National Organization has their fall meeting!” It just sucks.

In the past, (I was a sponsored competition hang glider pilot throughout and 70’s and into the early 80’s) organizers who demonstrated substantial commitments were afforded the respect of the competition committee and could count on sanction approval. Competitions like the Masters, Sandia Classic and the America’s Cup could keep their annual dates without the fear of the USHGA pulling their sanction out from under them, and in fact, I would like to stop and thank the competition committee for not pulling the sanction out from under me. And I’m sorry it’s turned into this silly and divisive pissing contest, but it’s obviously not of my design.

It shouldn’t be the job or obligation of the competition committee to deal with this type of problem again and again. It should be voted on once on the merits of the bid for an annual contest and the support should continue as long as they produce a quality meet.

I put on a meet once a year because the locals enjoy it. It promotes the Ranch and people have fun. I get off on that. GW goes from place to place to put on meets to make a profit for GW. I don’t begrudge him that, he does a good job and that’s fine. He shouldn’t begrudge me for having my reasons just because they contrast to his. If he thinks it somehow promotes me over the interest of the pilots, well, we can just disagree. GW has been awarded literally dozens of meet sanctions in his day and I’m sure he’s profited from most of them..We, at Wallaby, have demonstrated that we can put on a good meet and so far we‘ve asked for two. Anyone that was here knows we haven’t profited from this meet and I’m quite sure we never will. That’s not why we’re here.

We’re here to have fun!!! That bothers some people and I guess it also makes us hard to compete with. There is no place like this - I can’t think there ever will be. A few people can’t deal with it because their movie just won’t play here. So they get frustrated and move on. It’s almost always for the best. It reminds me of something an old man in my neighborhood said when I was growing up, “If EVERYBODY is your friend, you must not stand for very much.” There are some real jerks out there.

Some people, in spite of the history, may choose to judge GW and I as equally deserving as it relates to this matter, but the fact is - I was born here, raised here and I’ve sunk my heart and soul into this place seven days a week for nine years. GW drives down from up north one week of the year in his van with a briefcase.

I’m sorry to take so long and my points may be choppy and not grammatically correct. I am not a writer and distain on-going public debates - so for me this must be a stand-alone thing. I’m too busy Hang Gliding.

I believe, as I think most people would, that to claim anonymity and then proceed into name-calling and subjective personal attacks is beyond cowardice. To whomever saw fit to write this “report,” please don’t think you know me! In the future I would thank you to leave my name out of your opinions. May you someday understand how unjust it is to make such subjective and disparaging remarks from behind the shield of anonymity, without any means to assess YOUR character.

All my comments refer to and are directed at the report submitted to the last issue of the Oz Report.

If one must judge me, please judge me on the merits of what I do or have done. Not the slanted words of a coward. And please remember this writing is a re-action - Not an action --- I’m not shooting, I’m returning fire!!

I am sorry that I had to waste time from my life to write this. Only you, Davis, could fan these flames in the name of “having us all just get along”.

Discuss "Malcolm Jones responds" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Race 4.0 after all? »

Wed, Nov 3 1999, 11:00:03 pm GMT

GAP|Malcolm Jones|USHGA

Malcolm Jones has been thinking for some time about making sure that we have available the Race 4.0 program with English units. Now that the USHGA has turned down funding for Race 4.0 (even while requiring the use of the Race program for GAP scoring in the next competitions), Malcolm has decided to go ahead and offer to make sure that Achim Muller will go ahead with the needed changes. Malcolm will provide the support (along with a small grant from the Oz Report) needed to match other countries support for the Race program.

Discuss "Race 4.0 after all?" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The USHGA competition committee

Thu, Oct 28 1999, 10:00:07 pm GMT

G.W. Meadows|James "Jim" Zeiset|Malcolm Jones|Paul Klemond|Quest Air|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

So, what really happened in the competition committee meeting? Well, since I published the minutes of the meeting, I've heard from a number of participants. Paul Klemond wrote to say that he in fact voted for wheels, so that it wasn't unanimous.

Wow, that's great. Now I have one less poor soul that I have to convince that using wheels is a good idea and should be mandated in competitions to make for a level playing field and so as not to give an incentive not to use wheels.

I got another message about the vote that pitted Wallaby Ranch against Quest Air. I was able to check this report with another participant at the BOD meeting, so it seems to have a good chance of being at least reasonably close to the truth, or at least one version of the truth.

I can't reveal my sources, but as I have two, I thought that it would be worthwhile publishing this report and then I would sit back and see what happens:

"I am a person who was at the board meeting. I was in the competition committee during every minute it was in session and I am telling you about what went on. I request to remain anonymous, but the information is verifiable from any other source that you may have that was in the meeting. I think you have a list of attendees. The email from where this comes may or may not be your anonymous source :). You never know.

"Fact: G.W. and Malcolm both put in official bids for the same days April 16-22 for the meets that they want to run in Florida during the year 2000

"Fact: Malcolm was represented at this meeting by Rob Kells and Jim Zeiset who fought very hard for Malcolm's meet to be the chosen winner of the dates.

"Fact: The dates are premium because there are more tugs hanging around after sun n fun which ends the day before the meets would be scheduled to start.

Fact: G.W. Meadows tried a number of compromises that would have ended the debate if they had been accepted. One such compromise consisted of agreeing to give those dates to Malcolm if he would just start on Saturday (instead of Sunday) and finish up on Friday night (instead of Saturday night). This compromise would have allowed each meet to have 7 days with a rest day in between and a Sunday free on the end for travel for those pilots who needed to be home (and work) for Monday. G.W. and Rob Kells asked that the meeting be suspended until Rob and Zeiset could call Malcolm to arrange this compromise. Zeiset was heard to say on his way out of the room to make the call: "Anyone who won't make THAT compromise, doesn't deserve to get those dates" After 15 or so minutes, Rob and Jim returned to the room and announced that Malcolm would not budge on his dates.

"Fact: Rob Kells informed the committee that Malcolm said he would run his meet on those dates no matter whether the USHGA approved it or not. And in case of conflict (2 meetings be held on the same dates) he would just triple his prize money so more pilots would come to his meet.

"Fact: G.W. Meadows (before the final vote) informed the committee that he would not allow the meets to be held on the same dates because that is not in the best interest of the pilots. He told the committee that if they were voted to be on the same dates that basically Malcolm would win because G.W. would move voluntarily.

"Malcolm Jones proved that he was more interested in promoting Malcolm Jones than he was in doing the best thing for the pilots. All hail Malcolm."

Well, there you have it. Perhaps a tempest in a teapot. It sure would be nice if we could all just get along.

Discuss "The USHGA competition committee" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Upcoming US competitions »

Tue, Oct 26 1999, 10:00:04 pm GMT

Brad Koji|calendar|Chris Arai|CIVL Bureau|Dave Broyles|Dennis Pagen|G.W. Meadows|GAP|Gene Matthews|GPS|James "Jim" Zeiset|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lee|John Borton|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Liz Sharp|Malcolm Jones|Michael Williams|Paul Klemond|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|Ray Leonard|Rob Kells|Russ Locke|Russell "Russ" Brown|Scot Huber|USHGA BOD|Wallaby Ranch

At the USHGA BOD meeting last weekend, the competition committee decided (sort of) on the class A competition schedule for the next year. I've included the Chairman's (Russ Locke's) report below, with my comments. Undoubtedly I will make a few mistakes and there will be a need for a few updates to this preliminary report. As I write this I'm a passenger in my truck heading south on Interstate 5 in southern Oregon, and I can't get any further clarifications at this time.

Worldwide Competition Committee Report Fall Bod Meeting, October 21-23, 1999

Attendees: (in alphabetical order by last name) Mark Ferguson, Rob Kells, Paul Klemond, Ray Leonard, Dennis Pagen, Liz Sharp, Jim Zeiset, Jim Lee, Pete Lehmann, Dave Broyles, Gene Matthews, John Borton, John Greynauld, Jamie Sheldon

Voting Requirements: Long Term Committee members (per 10/18/99 Russ Locke Memo). Ken Brown (Ken sent voting proxy to Committee Chair), Mark Ferguson, Rob Kells, Paul Klemmond, Ray Leonard, Dennis Pagen, Liz Sharp, Jamie Sheldon, Jim Zeiset Pete Lehmann (Added John Greynauld at this meeting)

Minutes of Meeting: Old Business:

Speed Gliding WTSS System (Dennis & GW) - Done (see following)

Pagen 6/3/99 memo: First I believe, as does GW that the Canadian meet should count toward team selection because we have so few speed gliding meets. I also think the Preworld meet in Greece should count. Before you worry about it, note that the selection system I'm going to suggest will devaluate the Greek meet because it will have so many pilots that the US competitor will have less chance to gain points.

The system I suggest we use simply consists of using the WHGA round score system (it awards points of a different amount for each place on each round). Pilots who have three or more scoring flights are allowed to drop their lowest. Their total score is the average of their remaining scores. Pilots with less than three rounds will also receive their average score, but will not take precedence over pilots with 3 or more rounds until he has more than twice the 3 round pilot's score.

Because we haven't established a hierarchy and we always will have fewer speed gliding meets than X-C (I think), I don't believe we need as complex a system as for the X-C team. The WHGS scoring system drops off rapidly below first place which is why I use the half score value. Hopefully this system will induce pilots to compete in as many rounds as possible. On the other hand, it behooves you met directors to try to get at least 3 rounds so that a pilot can qualify (at least this year) at one meet. This is an abnormal situation. In future years, pilots will have more meets to choose from (and two years to do it). We may wish to change the number of scored rounds considered in the future.

Posting results on the USHGA Web Page (Russ) - On hold until validity #s decided.

New Business:

CIVL Stuff International Meet Schedule (see Attached)

Glider standards for Class Draft from CIVL (including Dennis' amendment) was discussed (see attached). Rob Kells formed subcommittee including GW Meadows, Jim Lee Pete Lehmann and Dennis Pagen. The subcommittee met to review the proposed glider standards for competition. Several changes, deletions and additions were proposed. These amendments were given to the CIVL Delegate (Dennis) to present to the CIVL Bureau and the technical committee in charge of this matter on behalf of the United States.

Editor's note: You can find Dennis' original proposal on the CIVL discussion board (http://board.fai.org/). Dennis was responding to an initiative from Austria made at the CIVL meeting earlier this year that would try to keep competition flex-wing glider closer to certification standards.

Class 2 vs. Class 4 The Competition Committee instructs our CIVL Delegate to inform the CIVL that we believe all definitions should remain tied to foot launch ability and land ability.

Editor's note: While it's not quite clear what this means (at least to me), it appears to be part of discussion about whether some Class II gliders (Swift and Utopia, for example) are pushing the envelope of foot launch ability as demonstrated at the World Championships this year in Italy. Do these gliders really fit into the CIVL definition of hang glider (for competition class and record purposes)?

This discussion also seems to sidestep the issue of farings and their use in competitions, although it may address them in an indirect fashion as a component of a limit on glider weights. Hopefully someone who actually attended the meeting will be able to give your over burdened editor further clarification on just what instructions the USHGA gave to Dennis on this issue.

Request to spend $1,100 to have the GAP 4.0 system altered to included miles (and other English measurements). No funds are available for this activity at this time.

Editor's note. I've passed along the request from the Race 4.0 author (Achim Muelller) for support from theUSHGA for the software which is used to score hang gliding competitions using the GAP system. The USHGA has not provided any support for the development of this program while numerous other countries have.

Now, as you'll see below, the USHGA will mandate use of the GAP scoring system, which for all practical purposes mandates our use of the Race 3.2 or 4.0 program. What if the author of the program asks that we not use his program without supporting it?

Hang Gliding World Championship's Report (verbal by Jim Lee and Jim Zeiset). Problems with team participation - recommendation to follow the rulebook in this case. Lack of strong Team Leader appointed prior to the Meet allowed other problems to surface between the Team pilots.

Editor's note: As I was on the US World (or is it National?) team this year, you'd think I'd have some idea about what the real problems were. I personally thought things went pretty well. The rigid wing component acted as a team (flew on the same frequencies, had our drivers picked each other up, worked out strategies). We had sufficient resources, and got good support.

The whole team could have used another retrieval driver (none of the five flex-wing pilots arranged for a driver and rejected arrangements we made to help them), and perhaps the whole team could have flown on the same frequency, but with nine members no one proposed that. I wonder what following the rule book means in this case. Perhaps I'll find out.

I felt that Chris Arai did an outstanding job for the team arranging for our lodging at the Villa Dama during the Worlds.

World Paragliding Championships. US Team withdrew because of safety reasons and the fact, not perception, that common sense and reasonable operational procedures were being circumvented. The Competition Committee directs our CIVL representative to strongly protest the events surrounding this meet. Team Leader to supply the CIVL rep with all pertinent data.

Editor's note: The disaster that was the World Paragliding Championships has been previously reported here in the Oz Report. You'll find Paul Klemond's story at http://www.kurious.org/usteam99/Fiasco.htm.

GAP vs. 1000 point systemDecision by the committee to apply the existing rulebook validity to 99 meets recognizing that there are rescoring impossibilities within the GAP system.

Editor's note: G.W. Meadows used the GAP scoring system for the pre-Pan American meet in Dinosaur, which devalued the meet a bit. GAP gives fewer points that the 1000 point system, so this may devalue future meets.

Speed Gliding WTSS Publish current standings. After discussion, it was decided that the current cutoff for the 2000 Team will be June 19th, 2000. The current scoring system will be in place through the 2000 Team. Between now and the cutoff date the system for deciding that a particular meet will count towards the Speed Gliding World Team will be:

1) That the meet is published in hang gliding magazine at least 30 days in advance (counting from the first of the month of the particular issue). 2) The meet must be approved by the Speed Gliding subcommittee consisting of GW Meadows, Rob Kells and Ray Leonard.

Class A Sanctioned requests (Hang Gliding):

Sandia Nationals, Late June - approved by committee.

Editor's note: This meet (formerly the Sandia Classic and not held last year after Brad Koji's death the year before) is now scheduled for late June, after years of bad weather in early June in Albuquerque. There was considerable earlier dissention regarding making this meet being turned into a Nationals (Sandia is no place to start your competition career), but looking at the other competitions, you've got to wonder which one could really be a "Nationals."

The front of the mountain at Sandia sucks big time in strong conditions or with a north wind. The proposal has been to add the launch at the towers, which can only make things worse. I can only hope that by moving the meet till later in the year, that conditions will mellow out, like they did this year at Dinosaur.

I hope that we can get an honest assessment of the likely conditions from the meet organizers, and an early description of their plans. Hopefully I will be able to get a copy of their proposal to the USHGA. As a long time supporter of the Sandia Classic, I would like to see this come off as a successful event, but I also want to report on the real situation.

Lone Star Championships - After discussion with committee, dates were changed to 8/13 - 8/20 and Jim Zeiset was added as Meet Steward - approved by committee.

Editor's note: No further word yet on this one. It is a tow meet, obviously, but just where? Russ Locke will send me a copy of the proposal by fax soon.

Notice that there isn't any word here about a meet at Quest Air (more on this later), and what about the Pan American meet at Dinosaur? I am following up on this as .I write this.

Contact info: Michael Williams, <michaelj.williams@ss.ps.ge.com>, 281-457-7878

No Sanctioned requests were received for Paragliding Meets.

Editor's note: I wonder why there aren't any requests for Paraglider meets.

Rulebook Changes

Editor's note: You are going to have to follow along with your USHGA 1999 Competition Rulebook to see what the following minor changes mean.

1) 1.4 Eliminate: "Any and all changes . at least 30 days prior to the board meeting. (process not followed) 2) 6.2B change "Observation" to "Obstruction." (typo) 3) 6.3E Eliminate all reference to "pins" and substitute "reported landing location" 4) 6.4B Change "recorded to the nearest 1/10th" to recorded to the nearest 1/10th of a mile or less". (GPS clarification) 5) 6.5 Change "Australian 1000 point per round formula described below." To "GAP system." Also change to read, "Each pilot's daily score will be computed according to the most current version of GAP available, but at least as current as that used in the previous year." Eliminate all 1000 point scoring references. Change "After examination of turnpoint photos.. " To read, "turnpoint verification. "Eliminate sentence "To provide uniformity." (new scoring system) 6) 6.6 Change to read, "Round Validity will be determined by GAP." (new scoring system) 7) 6.8A Change to read, ".valid task board photograph on film if used,." (gap upgrade) 8) 6.8C Change "pin placement" to read "landing verification" (gap upgrade) 9) 10.5B & C Eliminate in entirety. (reflects current processes) 10) 11.5B & C Eliminate in entirety. (reflects current processes) 11) 12.2B.1 Change to ".ranking used shall be the ranking as of 45 days prior to the start of the competition. (upgrade pilot selection system) 12) 12.2B2 Eliminate "as of the date. start of competition," and add the underlined in "procedures as outlined in section 12.5 and 12.B1., but substituting." (new selection points system) 13) 12.5B After ".throughout the year." Add, "except when ranked 45 days prior to a World Meet." (new pilot selection system) 14) 12.5D2b Change ".any placing." to read "..first place.." Change "..except that." to ".and.." (new selection system) 15) 12.5D3 Eliminate all starting with "The tenth place pilot would earn." and ending with ".24 WTSS points earned."" Replace with "All other pilots earn points based on the following formula: (Pilot's total score/Winners total score) X ( Winners points - 10% bonus). (new pilot selection system) 16) 12.E1 After ".pilot's ranking." Add "according to the most current PIRS ranking." Eliminate "The equivalent. ranking year, with" Add capital "T" to "the." (new pilot selection system) 17) 12.5F1 Change "USHGA 1000 point" to "GAP" Eliminate all numbers under "Full points." (new scoring system) 18) 12.5F2b Change "Divide the winner's points by 4,680 to obtain the validity factor." (new validity system) 19) 12.5F2c Eliminate.(replaced by 12.5F2b) 20) 12.5F2. Eliminate the example and the exception and replace with another example. (replaced by 12.5F2b 21) ?? Make sure there is a requirement for the World Team to have a Team Leader appointed prior to the meet. 22) Change all references of "World Team" to "National Team" and all references to "WTSS" to "NTSS."

Editor's note: This is the result of a proposal from Paul Klemond. He just felt it was kind of strange to call the US Team the US World Team instead of the US National Team. I'll have to make a few changes on the ranking spread sheets about this.

23) 12.2B Replace "Competition administration subcommittee chairman" with Executive Director or Team Leader." 24) 12.5B Change "At least two such meets must be from the most recent year" to "No more than two meet results may be considered from the prior year (Ranking will still be calculated on an calendar year basis, but the World Team selection window will be extended to 45 days prior to the Meet) (clarification) 25) 12.4A Replace "World Team Sub Committee" with "Team Leader." (current practices)

Committee would like to thank Jim Lee, Chris Arai and Paul Klemond for all their work on the needed changes to the competition rulebook.

Changes considered, but not approved:

1) Request to require wheels in competitions. After short discussion, request was voted down unanimously.

Editor's note: Notice how Russ had to emphasize the unanimous part. Well, I'm used to holding unpopular positions. You have to start some where. I figure with zero votes, I can only get more the next time (maybe at the CIVL meeting).

2) Requests to establish a Class 2 Speed Gliding Structure. Nothing prevents a Meet Organizer from doing this anyway. No action necessary.

3) Mark Ferguson and Paul Klemond requesting Meet Steward status be approved for the following pilots: Paul Ferguson, Dan Olsen, Scot MacClowary, Ken Hjorgensdon???? All four approved by Committee

Action Item(s):

1) Chair to make sure the current rankings are published in the Magazines. By 12/31/99

2) Chair to send approved Class A competitions to Editor. By 10/31/99

3) Office and Chairman to create Speed Gliding World Team Account

4) Chair, with email help from Committee members, to draft a purpose statement to be placed in the beginning of the rulebook. Chair to email to committee members and to be done by end of year to be included in the new rulebook. By 12/31/99

5) Get Speed Gliding Ranking on USHGA web site. Chair & Office By 12/31/99

6) Write up statement that covers situations with dual nationality of pilots. Dennis Pagen By 12/31/99

List Of Enclosure(S): (indicate responsible person, followed by a complete description of action, followed by action completion date)

Editor's note: These are paper documents, so I'll report on them as I receive them.

1) CIVL Competition Dates 2) Proposed Hang Gliding Safety Standards 3) Sandia Meet Proposal 4) Lone Star Meet Proposal 5) Quest Air Meet Proposal 6) Wallaby Meet Proposal

Reconvened meeting to discuss Wallaby and Quest Air meets.

In attendance (* = voting members): *Liz Sharp, *Mark Ferguson, *Russ Locke, *Pete Lehmann, *GW Meadows, Gregg Lawless, *Dennis Pagen, Russ Brown, *John Greynauld, Gene Matthews, *Jamie Sheldon, Jim Lee, John Borton, *Rob Kells, *Jim Zeiset, *Ray Leonard

Discussed several alternatives.

Motion by Pete Lehmann to vote to accept the Quest Meet OR the Wallaby - not both. Seconded by John Greynauld. After Discussion, Roll Call Vote Q=Quest, W=Wallaby, A=Abstain

Editor's note: Both G.W. Meadows (meet to take place at Quest Air) and Malcolm Jones (Wallaby Ranch) submitted proposals for meets to occur at the same time, the week after Sun 'n Fun in late April. Because both individuals wanted their meet to be the one with these dates, a vote was needed to decide which meet got the dates. At least that is how I read this.

Pete Lehmann = Q, Dennis Pagen = W, GW Meadows = Q, Jamie Sheldon = Q, John Greynauld = W, Liz Sharp = A, Mark Ferguson = Q, Rob Kells = W, Ray Leonard = W.

Wallaby bid is approved, 5-4 (1-A)

Editor's note: Wow, close vote! One thing, which you'll notice is the obvious conflict of interest that G.W. Meadows had in voting for his proposal to be accepted by the committee. This is clearly unacceptable. He should have recused himself.

Only two of the people voting in this committee on these meets actually attended at last one of them – Jamie was at the Quest Air meet only last year. Dennis was at both meets. The overwhelming consensus last year among the competition pilots that attended both meets was strongly in favor of the Wallaby Ranch meet.

G.W. Meadows reproposed his Quest Air bid with "to be announced dates" - not to interfer with other approved Class A sanctioned meets. Proposal approved 9-0 with 1-A.

Editor's note: It looks like G.W. will propose to have his Atlantic Coast Championships at Quest Air right after the Wallaby Open with one day in between. I'm very pleased if this is the case.

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Competitions

Mon, May 3 1999, 4:00:00 am GMT

ATOS|E-7|G.W. Meadows|Hang Gliding Magazine|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

After the Wallaby Open and the US Nationals, those pilots that remained behind settled down for a quiet day of demoing the ATOS and the E-7 at Quest and Wallaby respectively. There was plenty of Sunday hang gliding business at Wallaby Ranch as the low clouds (2,500') that had formed earlier in the morning cleared up around 1 PM, and made for a beautiful day. The weather was cool, with record lows around Florida over night, but with the sun it was quite pleasant in the afternoon.

G.W. mentioned at the close of the US Nationals that Malcolm would apply for a USHGA sanctioned meet next year right after Sun 'n Fun, and that he, G.W. would apply for the Atlantic Coast Championships to be held at Quest Air starting one day after the Wallaby Open. We got an initial rest day this year, but only because of the weather.

G.W. didn't mention if he is putting in a bid for the US Nationals next year, or where it would be held. He is running a pre all Americas meet this year, August 21st-28th in Dinosaur, CO, and the all Americas meet next year in Dinosaur.

G.W. will also be running a meet that can be a lot of fun and is sanctioned by the USHGA for WTSS points. It's the Canadian Nationals, and it will be held at Sun Peaks near Kamloops, B.C. It's just a short drive up the Okanogan valley from Chelan, Washington.

Cross country racing takes place July 25 – 30, Speed Gliding and Aerobatics, July 31 - Aug 02. The entry fee is $200.00 Cdn on site, $150.00, if you can register before June 25. Phone/fax 250-578-8402, e-mail: <ianmc@direct.ca>.

I definitely encourage American pilots to go up to this meet to experience a wonderful place to fly in beautiful Canadian mountains and valleys. I thoroughly enjoyed myself there last year. It's dry, unlike Golden, and has lots of different launch sites depending on the winds. Kamloops is a good-sized town (it has more than one movie screen), and is only a few minutes way from the Sun Peaks ski resort. There is plenty of good food at the resort and free camping nearby. Lots of things for the family to do – horse riding, hiking, mountain biking, etc.

Of course, there will be a Chelan XC Classic this year in Chelan, Washington starting the 5thof July. The scoring will be kept separate for the three classes – rigid, flex, and para. This six day meet is a lot of fun, and we'll be there to enjoy it with our old friends from Washington state. Inexpensive camping at the airport. Check out Hang Gliding Magazine for more details.

G.W. mentioned that he would be putting in a bid to CIVL for the 2003 Worlds to be held at Quest Air. Malcolm Jones has also mentioned that he will be putting in a bid for the Worlds to be held at and around Wallaby Ranch. It looks like the competition in Florida continues in Florida in more ways than just between pilots. Neither mentioned if it would be a bid for combined Class I and Class II. Of course, by then, who knows what hang gliding technology will be dominant.

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George on the ATOS

Fri, Apr 23 1999, 4:00:02 am GMT

David "Dave" Sharp|Felix Rühle|George Ferris|Malcolm Jones|Mart Bosman|Michael "Hollywood" Champlin|Peter Radman

George Ferris came down to Florida to see Felix and fly the ATOS. This is his report:

We all know what a brilliant designer Felix Ruhle is, but we were unaware that he is also an artist. I had looked over many pictures of the Atos and admired its sleek appearance and striking look but when I saw the Atos for the first time with my own eyes I truly stood in awe.

Pictures don't begin to do it justice, it's truly a work of art. I have been going to the Ranch for 3 years now. I noticed that Malcolm Jones never seems all that interested in gliders other than his tandems which he uses to teach hundreds of students but the day the Atos arrived it put even Malcolm into a trance. I noticed him gawking over it like a kid in a candy store. He commented how sexy it was.

Each morning while the Atos was being set up he was unable to pass by without stopping to admire it, taking time away from his busy schedule.

Talking about setup… The set up of the Atos is very similar to the Exxtacy but quicker, mainly because the flaps and the spoilers are never removed from the sail. This saves about 7 minutes and a lot of hassle. The ribs attach to the trailing edge by levers and the finish is impeccable.

Talking about finish, Felix went as far as contouring the spoilers so they sit flat onto the sail and the flaps are set into the sail becoming part of it. It's hard to explain but you will see for yourself. The control frame, uprights and control bar, are a dupe of the Exxtacy frame (this may change to a lighter material in the near future) but with more refined fittings.

The dacron sail material used on the ATOS has a different finish than the dacron used on Exxtacy. Felix states that the sail will last longer and doesn't have as much of a tendency to wrinkle. Felix made several Pegasus sails out of this material that are quite old now but have proven themselves.

After admiring it's art I was very curious to find out what it actually weighed in pounds. I went to Wal-Mart and retrieved a scale and Hollywood and I weighed it. It is truly 73 pounds. Davis and I weighed it again so he could take pictures that you will see or have seen on the Oz Report. Its static balance is almost perfect and the wing lifts effortlessly while running into the wind, with half flaps, before you take four steps.

George at 145 pounds:

George with the ATOS at 218 pounds:

Thanks to Felix, Dave Sharp and Peter Radman I was able to fly the Atos three times. The first flights were in the evening and there was no lift. I could not determine any thing concrete but it seemed that Atos had a much better glide and a somewhat better sink. (Time will tell.)

My third flight was at 11 AM. I towed to 2500 ft where I released and flew around finding light lift. Thermals were just beginning to pop. The Atos, remarkably, tows easier than the Exxtacy and I would not have believed it if I hadn't been on tow myself. The Atos like the Exxtacy fly's straight ahead, hands off, like it's on rails.

I pulled on some speed to feel the pitch pressure which appeared to be more than my Exxtacy ( this could be because of the CG location). The pitch pressure was the same from 20 to 60 mph. Looking at the wing on the ground, and noticing how much shorter the cord was than the Exxtacy, and with the span of 42 ft, I was thinking the Atos most likely would have a tendency to slip in high bank turns.

I entered a thermal and initiated a left turn with a moderate bank and let go of the control frame. The Atos carved a beautiful turn on it's own. I changed directions several times going from 45 to 45° banks. Like the Exxtacy it takes longer than a flex wing to do this maneuver but like the Exxtacy the initiation is immediate. I was still in the thermal and had gained 1000 ft and decided to see what she felt like in high bank turns. I kept increasing the bank angle in each 360 until I achieved 90°. There was no tendency for the Atos to slip at all and she carved the most beautiful turn. I did several 90 deg 360's in both directions and the Atos was solid all the way. My fear of her wanting to slip was gone.

The other thing I noticed is the Atos feedback is so easy to read. It's right there all the time and gives you a real secure feeling. I left the thermal and circled down to 1200FT. I raced back toward the Ranch and entered another thermal. This time during my climb I used different flap settings. The lift was light and like my Exxtacy the Atos appeared to climb better (in light lift) with some flap.

I have found, flying the Exxtacy, as a rule of thumb, that the stronger the conditions get the less flap you use (of course, this could be personal preference). I would guess that the Atos is the same, but that's only a guess, for I never got to fly the Atos in strong conditions. Also, the Atos seems to turn quicker with flap.

Maybe Dave will give us a write-up on his perceptions after the Nationals. Does the Atos fly just like the Exxtacy? Well it's similar but there are some differences that I can't put into words in the short amount of air time that I have on it. If I was to say anything it would be the Atos fly's more like a flex wing , high siding need. Well I'll leave it to Dave's two-week experience to describe the differences.

Do I have any concerns? Yes! It seems that the Atos does not fall out of the sky with full flaps like the Exxtacy. It's only a first impression but I don't think the glide is diminished as much as the glide on the Exxtacy at full flap. It was time for me to land, and Dave was waiting patiently. It was only one hour before start time. I had landed the Atos twice before this flight and the landings were straight forward and easy, similar to the Exxtacy.

It was my last day at Wallaby, I needed to return to work. I was elated that I was given the opportunity to fly the Atos seeing that only one arrived, not two. I left the thermal and circled down checking out the wind sock, which was light north the same direction as when I had taken off 30 minutes earlier. I decided to make a long and conservative approach into the wind. I wasn't aware until I was cruising 10 feet over the ground that the wind had switched 180°'s and I now had a tail wind.

At 10 ft off the ground I noticed that my ground speed was not slowing but increasing. Ten seconds later and with no room to turn for correction I flared hard. My feet hit the ground first and with the momentum the glider had I knew that she was going to beak. My mistake was not letting her do so. Normally I let go of the down tubes and if I'm going to fall forward I let myself do so with out touching the uprights. The result is always the same. No damage to the glider and no damage to me.

This time, I was desperate not to beak this work of art that did not belong to me and held onto the uprights hoping to prevent the obvious. I knew walking out of the field that all the people that didn't know who I was were all familiar with my name now. I ended my stay at Wallaby helping Felix, Dave, and Peter, who had been so gracious to me, fitting the Atos with new uprights. Now there… is a short VA_CA I won't forget. SO-oooooooooooooooo what's your most embarrassing moment!

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NetCasting the Wallaby Open and the Nationals

David Glover|Dean Funk|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber

Due to the hard work of Dean Funk (Malcolm Jones at Wallaby is paying him to put up the web site) and David Glover from 1.800 Hang Glide (as well as a little help here from Mike Barber and myself) the NetCasting train has left the station.  You'll be able to see a live NetCast of the Wallaby Open and the Nationals over the next two weeks.

You'll find the Wallaby Open site at http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen. Just click on NetCast.  You should be only able to see a few of our tests at the moment.

There is a vector map that can be zoomed it by holding down Alt and clicking on a location.  There is a raster map that shows more detail in a wider area.

1.800 Hang Glide, the original sponsor and organizer of the NetCast, is holding a contest with a Flytec vario as the prize.  You can enter the contest by guessing the winners of the two meets.  Turn to http://www.1800hangglide.com for more information.  There have already been 25 entries.

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Willie Bob goes tandem

Sat, Apr 10 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Bob Reich|Malcolm Jones

One of the main functions at Wallaby Ranch is to provide tandem instruction for soon to be hang glider pilots. Recently Bob Reich, a long time Florida and later Seattle-area hang glider pilot, visited the Ranch, as part of his recuperation from a water ski jumping accident (three months in bed). Not only did he get to fly a bunch (and roll in on wheels), but his young son, Willie, got to have his first tandem instruction flight.

Willie got to fly in a special harness made just for little people. Here’s a shot of Willie and Malcolm Jones, owner of Wallaby Ranch, and tandem instructor, just after they landed:

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ATOS passes DHV certificationtests

Sat, Apr 10 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

A.I.R. Atos|Bernd Weber|Christof Kratzner|DHV|Felix Rühle

I’ve been doing my best to keep you up to date on the progress of DHV certification. It turns out that the test vehicle operator has been ill lately, but he had returned to good health and we’ve seen a bit of progress.

Here’s an edited version of the latest report from the Felix Ruhle’s partner at A.I.R., the manufacturer of the ATOS:

My name is Bernd Weber. I have worked in the hang gliding business for the last 15 years and I am the owner of one of the oldest German manufacturer Thalhofer (since 1976.). This factory has developed hang gliders, powered Ultralights and 1983 a rigid wing (composite/aluminum hybrid construction, pilot on the wing). Since 1986 I have designed and produced the UP Europe hang gliders and I am a member of the German league.

I am also the partner of Felix Ruhle and manager of our new company called A.I.R - Aeronautic Innovation Ruhle and partner, producing the ATOS.

We are happy to announce that our ATOS passed on Friday, the 10th of April, the official DHV load and pitch test. On Sunday the 12th April, Christof Kratzner flew the official DHV flying tests and the ATOS passed those tests as well.

The detailed calculations of Felix Ruhle, and his engineer colleagues in our ATOS-team, and the unofficial, so called "manufacturer tests" at DHV, had already been done weeks ago. These left no doubt, that the ATOS would pass these DHV tests with a comfortable safety margin.

There is just some paperwork to be done, before the ATOS will be officially DHV certified.

What about production of the ATOS? The pre-production phase happily is behind us. The best proof is the fact, that we started official DHV tests with the final version of the ATOS.

After the DHV certification tests we are not allowed to change anything important on the glider. Serial production of the ATOS has already started.

In the last three months we spent a lot of time, energy and money establishing a professional production facility, providing for an output of more than 30 gliders a month. Of course, if we had produced three or four less leading edge moulds than we did (each mould takes an incredible amount of time), we could have finished making a few more gliders by this time.

If we had done this, we would have been able to produce more ATOS gliders in time for the Wallaby Open (April 18th), which would have been great, but our monthly production output would have been cut in half. We feel sure, that the by far more than 130 pilots all over the world, that have already ordered their ATOS, do agree, we have chosen the right decision; not to speak of the pilots that will follow behind them in the queue.

I do understand your impatience very well. We all want to fly today. Life is too short to fly only tomorrow. But…

Our current understanding is that Felix Ruhle may be able to come to the Wallaby Open, perhaps later in the week. This has not been confirmed and late last week it depended on the DHV certification tests. We are also given to understand that there won’t be any ATOSes flying in the Wallaby Open competition, but again, that may change.

We haven’t heard any news of Ghostbuster DHV certification, and don’t expect to get any reports on the Ghostbuster until the day the Wallaby Open starts. The Ghostbuster is slated to be shown that day at Freeflight in Germany.

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Short takes »

Florida|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

Florida|Larry Tudor|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

Has anyone seen or heard from Larry Tudor recently?  If so, call Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch –941.424.0070.

East winds at the Ranch today made for an interesting downwind, cross wind, and upwind task.  While I was able to get 1000 fpm on the averager on the first thermal off tow, I didn’t see thermals of quite that strength out on the course line.

Patty, Mike and I had a great opportunity to map out the areas of generalized lift and sink under these conditions.  The more practice the better.

The temperatures have risen considerably here in central Florida over the last two weeks.  The days are in the upper eighties, and I’m just wearing shorts in flight.  We are looking for a big south day tomorrow.  We are averaging 3 to 4 hours a day of flying.

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Flying Far in Florida

Thu, Mar 25 1999, 5:00:03 am GMT

Exxtacy|Malcolm Jones|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mike Barber|Wallaby Ranch

Yesterday, Mike Barber, on a La Moutte Topless, Mark Gibson, on an Exxtacy, and I, on an Exxtacy, flew within 33 miles of Georgia, 116 miles over all.

Here’s a shot of Mike off my wing:

The fact that we were within 33 miles of Georgia is significant because the prize from Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch is $1,000 for the first hang glider to make it from Wallaby Ranch to Georgia.

We were taking the shortest route – 159 miles – west along the border of the Ocala National Forest, up Highway 301, and then to the little bit of Georgia that dips down into Florida.

Here’s a shot of Mark as we thermal up near Melrose:

We had to push against a west, southwest flow all day. The sea breeze had kicked in from the west coast of Florida, and we were one cloud street away from the end of the cloud streets.

The last climb 100 miles out from Wallaby was completely smooth and slow. We went on final glide for 15 miles landing in Starke.

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Competition Dates

JC Brown|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air

The Wallaby Open (International) dates are April 18th-24th. This is the week after Sun 'n Fun (April 10-17th). JC Brown is the meet director.  Malcolm Jones is the meet organizer.  The cost is $250. See www.wallaby.com for snail mail address.  E-mail is «gloverdh».

BTW, there are money prizes at the Wallaby Open.  $3000, $1500, $500 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in Class I.

U.S. National Hang Gliding Championships - Quest Air, www.questairforce.com, April 25-May 1. G.W. Meadows, meet organizer, www.justfly.com, «justfly». On-line registration form at www.justfly.com.

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Flying the IXBO

Thu, Mar 4 1999, 11:00:05 pm GMT

James "Jim" Zeiset|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Malcolm Jones|Tecma Ixbo|Tyson Richmond

Kenny Brown has been a friend to me for many years, ever since I first got into hang gliding in 1984. Kenny then lived in the Pacific Northwest and had a small hang gliding business. It sure was good to see him at the Air Expo/USHGA membership meeting. He had shipped his IXBO for a mere $140 from San Francisco to Knoxville, and miracle of miracles it arrived almost unscratched.

While I was hanging out at Lookout Flight Park after the meeting, watching my Sky Cycle get modified, Kenny was down here at Wallaby Ranch dropping off the IXBO and some new Contour harnesses for folks to try out. The new harness sure looks nice. You can read about it in the February 1999 issue of Hang Gliding Magazine, or my earlier review at http://www.davisstraub.comOZOzv2n34.htm.

Kenny told Malcolm Jones, the owner of Wallaby Ranch, that I should be sure to take the opportunity to fly the IXBO and I jumped at the chance. I had seen the IXBO flying in the Pacific Northwest and couldn't wait to try it out.

I've already written up my thoughts about the IXBO in a previous article which you can find at http://www.davisstraub.comOZOzv2n55.htm, so I'll try not to go over too much of that material. When I wrote that article I hadn't flown it, so I basically talked about the construction of the glider as well as comments from the pilots who did fly it.

Now I've had a chance to fly the IXBO, and I'm afraid that Kenny is not going to be too happy with what I have to say. The IXBO is here and is for sale, so I know that if I have anything negative to say, it's not going to help matters.

I took the IXBO up for a tow just after noon today. Kenny had set it up, and told Malcolm that it was in its stock configuration. It's possible to adjust the nose angle a bit with these types of gliders.

I assumed that it was just like the Exxtacy, but with a slightly bigger control frame. A hang test showed that the hang loops that Kenny left on the glider were about the right height, maybe an inch short, but close.

As soon as I came off the cart, I found that the IXBO was no Exxtacy. The control bar was back quite a bit further then I was use to, the glider was difficult to roll, and I was having to fly much faster then what I was use to. I thought that maybe Mike Z., who was piloting the tug, was flying too fast, or the air was especially rowdy, or the wind was too strong. I really don't like flying that fast.

I kept struggling with the glider trying to get it under control. Mike Z. later mentioned how he could feel me back there jerking on the plane, when in my Exxtacy he never feels anything from me.

I pinned off in a thermal at 1300' and noticed right away I was flying 34 mph, 6 mph faster then trim on the Exxtacy. I fly with the hang point on the Exxtacy as far back as it will go and then some. I finally figured out that I must be hanging too far forward.

Pulling myself up and looking up at the hang strap, I found that it was all the way back at the front edge of the apex bracket. But there was a safety loop in front of the hang loop - maybe I was hanging from it. When I preflighted the glider and did the hang check, I saw that the safety was about an inch lower then the main, but maybe that was only at the angle I chose.

My hang loop safety on the Exxtacy is integrated with the main loop and sits outside it. The IXBO the backup hang strap was forward of the main. Perhaps I was hanging too far forward.

I was also getting bumped around quite a bit. Hey, this is Florida. It was a high pressure day, and the lift was strong, and I was climbing to 4500', but still I didn't feel as comfortable as I do on my Exxtacy and I was still flying fast (you put two and two together).

I was pushing out for all I was worth, and only slowing down to 29 mph. I can slow the Exxtacy down to 23 mph easily and if I put on the flaps and push out for all I'm worth in light air, I can get it down to 19 mph. Wait a minute, why don't I pull on the flaps?

I do and things get considerably slower. The flaps have a much more dramatic effect on the IXBO then they do on the Exxtacy. I was now able to slow the glider down to about 24-25 mph, by pushing out all the way.

But, the pitch pressure is much greater then on the Exxtacy, and this is true in both directions. It seemed that the pitch curve around trim is much sharper then I was used to. I left the flaps off, and pulled in - I was only able to hold it at about 45 mph. I can get the Exxtacy to go much faster with a lot less work.

The pitch pressures on the Exxtacy and the IXBO can be greatly affected by the nose angle. It is quite easy to adjust the nose angle on the Exxtacy, but considerably more difficult on an IXBO. It is my understanding that the nose angle on the IXBO is shallower then on the Exxtacy, that is, there is more sweep. This would begin to explain the IXBO pitch pressures.

The Exxtacy control bar position is normally about at your head near trim and then all the way out with your arms extended for slowest flight. I'm use to this bar position, and find it unnerving to have the IXBO bar trim at my chest. I get that tumbling feeling, which is, of course, just a feeling.

After 45 minutes of flying around in an uncomfortable state, I stuff the bar and fly through loads of lift to land back at the Ranch. I immediately check the hang straps to see if I've been flying on the more forward backup loop. Such is not the case.

I had hoped to make some kind of change to the glider and take her up for another spin, in order to be some what objective about my report, but there is nothing that I can do to change it.

I measure the length of the hang loop and the downtubes and compare them with my Exxtacy. The hang loop on the IXBO is almost long enough to make up for the longer IXBO down tubes (within an inch). I am able to put my chin on the base tube of the IXBO while in flight with my head cocked down. My chest is about 4 inches above the base bar.

After a not so much fun flight, I decide to try the Exxtacy again, just to be sure that I'm not making up how it feels to fly the Exxtacy. I get hauled up again by Mike Z. who will comment later that the Exxtacy towed much easier then the IXBO (with me on both).

The Exxtacy aerotow is much easier and lighter and I'm amazed at the difference. The IXBO reminds me of towing a flex wing glider.

I pin off at 1200' and climb out in the same rowdy air, but now it is smooth and light and I'm laughing. I put my chin on the base tube and measure the distance from my chest to the base tube. About four inches.

The wind is still blowing 10 to 15 out of the east south east and I'm still chasing lift as before. It is much easier to pull in and push out and I seem to have a much greater range of bar movement. The flaps do not make nearly as much difference in pitch and speed as they did on the IXBO.

So what? One person's experience on one flight is not the whole story, although I have heard from other pilots about the issues of bar pressure. Perhaps one could trim the IXBO for a wider nose angle, but I understand that the factory doesn't approve of this. Higher pitch pressures are supposed to be correlated with greater tumble resistance. But we've never heard of an Exxtacy or an IXBO tumbling.

We also know that it is possible to change the nose angle on the Exxtacy, and get it to feel terrible, although I have not done this personally. Jim Zeiset took Tyson Richmond's Exxtacy and widened its nose angle until both pilots were happy. It was still within factory specs.

Take all this with a grain of salt, and remember that I want Kenny to still be my friend. I hope he can forgive me, but duty calls.

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The 1999 USHGA Membership Meeting in Knoxville

Thu, Mar 4 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Bill Bryden|Chris Wills|Dan Johnson|John Stokes|Paul Klemond|Russ Locke

Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of details about committee meetings. I'm constitutionally unable to sit in meetings and therefore never find out what happens in them.

I did sit in on the competition committee meeting for a few minutes, just long enough to see Paul Klemond in action (although I missed much of the show). He's sort of in charge of calculating the paraglider pilot rankings. I'm now using his basic spreadsheets to calculate hang glider pilot rankings.

Paraglider pilot rankings are a quagmire because there is no agreed upon way to rank foreign pilots (no PIRS points). Therefore there is an arbitrary system which gives these pilots some sort of ranking. Well, as you can imagine, not everyone is in sync on what the final ranking should be. I'll just bet that it will be cleared up soon.

You'll find hang glider pilot rankings at http://www.davisstraub.com. Russ Locke, the competition committee chairman, and I met, to iron out any differences that we had. I assume that I will hear back from him soon.

There was indeed a general membership meeting in conjunction with the USHGA BOD meeting. It consisted of a morning meeting with a couple of fun presentations (to distract us all), a very small amount of business, and series of talks on Friday and Saturday for our own edification and enlightenment.

Black Vultures

I had written colloquially and mistakenly in an earlier Oz Report about following "turkey buzzards" along a line of lift here at Wallaby Ranch. I had also stated that the Exxtacy seemed to have about the same sink rate as these birds.

First, I heard from one pilot at the USHGA meeting that the Exxtacies in his area didn't seem to be able to climb with the turkey vultures. I began to wonder if I was overselling the Exxtacy sink rate.

Then, John Stokes brought in his birds to the general membership meeting. The first bird to fly repeatedly about the room for us was a black vulture.

Imagine a mid-sized conference room with 50-100 people sitting and standing, and then imagine a black vulture flying low right through everyone. We were enthralled. The bird was beautiful, graceful and fearless. It eats botulism from breakfast and projectile vomits on intruders.

Not only that, but we found out that the black vulture has white areas near the wing tips, just like those birds near Wallaby that we follow around. It weighs as much as a turkey vulture (4 pounds), but has a smaller wing span (4 ½ feet as opposed to 6 feet), and consequentially a higher sink rate. It all began to make sense.

Right after the black vulture, John brought in a red tail hawk. This bird was even more amazing, because it flew even closer, between the heads of sitting USHGA members. It never flinched as it just floated in between 20 people in a 30-foot flight. And not just one flight, but a bunch.

John and his partner also brought in a golden eagle (which didn't fly for us), and Osceola, a bald eagle with one wing that you may have seen as a passenger with John on John's hang glider. The video has been shown everywhere.

When the old farts were young

Chris Wills gave the second presentation during the general membership meeting, and I was prepared to be bored by a story about how it was in the old days of hang gliding. I'm easily bored, and I've run into so many old time pilots with all their war stories, that it gets to me after a while.

In fact, what we got was a fascinating video produced from old 8 millimeter movies taken of Chris and his friends building pre hang gliders starting in the late 1960's, and learning from ground zero (but up a high hill side) how to fly.

The shots of these teenage kids hanging by their arm pits in box frames under bamboo and plastic kites made them appear quite heroic, which in fact they were. It was clear from the footage that there was a historical progression from almost uncontrolled flight to actual weight shift on Rogallo-type wings. This is what it took to learn to fly when all your training came from actual flights.

Soarablity

Gary Osaba gave three talks over the weekend at Knoxville, all to different groups within this combined meeting of the USHGA, Soaring Society, and Ultralight Association. If his talk to the USHGA is any gauge, I'll just bet that there are more then a few people wondering just what all those graphs and charts meant.

Gary packs it in when he gives a talk and if you aren't already very familiar with the issues that he is talking about, it's going to fly right by you. Briefly, he is interested in aircraft that can start soaring at 10 AM and continue on course till night fall.

How do you do that? Make them so that they can circle in small thermals, staying in the lift throughout the turn. Keep the circling sink rate low. Improve the craft's glide ratio at inter-thermal speeds to about 20 to 1 or better.

If you do this you maximize your soarability, that is your ability to stay up in the complete spectrum of the lift throughout the day. If the contest is won by the one who gets to goal the most, this strategy wins the meet.

These were the highlights for me. There were other interesting talks that I attended, especially Bill Bryden's on towing and Dan Johnson's on powered hang gliders, but you can read about what they had to say in the last few Hang Gliding Magazines.

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Wallaby Ranch »

Sun, Jan 3 1999, 6:00:03 pm EST

Christmas|cloud|Exxtacy|food|George Ferris|Kerry Lloyd|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

Belinda and I are at Wallaby Ranch. We arrived here on Wednesday (January 20th). Three great days of flying before the rains today. Got a 73 miler past Silver Springs the second day I was here. Yesterday showed strong winds but weak lift under great looks, but not producing cloud streets. Carlos and I only went a bit over 23 miles.

Apparently flying has been great in Florida, at least since last October, except for a few weeks around Christmas (wouldn't you know it). George Ferris was getting long flights here on his Exxtacy, just before we got here.

The Ranch now has a chef, Jerome, and he is great. Cooks two to three meals a day, and frankly it is a 100% improvement on the Wallaby Ranch as a place to hang out, not that it wasn't already great. Anything to avoid going out for breakfast, and you get to meet and sit down with everyone here. Great food.

Lots of work taking place here, with many people providing the labor. This has been a big Brazilian contingent, and that has added to the atmosphere. Even Rhett's place looks improved. Kerry Lloyd has taken over the accounting, and Quicken Books has been set up to easily track the numerous services provided by the ranch personnel.

See more below for a few tidbits on our travels to Wallaby.

Saturday there was a special 5th birthday party at the Ranch for Malcolm Jones' daughter.

Lots of five year olds, farm animals, ponies, a huge pile of sand, Jerome, the chef and his crew all dressed up, the pole barn all decked out with paper cactuses, cowboy hats for all the kids along with scarfs.

Oh yes, and the tree house out of Dr. Suess through Malcolm. A southern father dotes on his daughter.

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