Oz Report

Our flying friend from Michigan

(Cloud 9, Iosco, mi, USA)

death|Mark Bolt

http://www.coatsfuneralhome.com/Obituaries/viewObituary.aspx?ID=1764

https://www.coatsfuneralhome.com/obituary/Mark-BOLT

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A few slots left

(Henson's Gap radial ramp, Sequatchie County, TN, USA)

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

Ollie Gregory «Ollie Gregory» writes:

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

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

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

http://vimeo.com/31648164

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

103 miles in Michigan

Mark Bolt

(Cloud 9, Iosco, MI, USA)

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Mark Bolt

Bob Grant <<caskydog>> writes:

Mark Bolt went 103 miles to Lake Michigan from Cloud 9 and Brian Deimling went sixty miles both on Saturday September 17, 2011. The whole story is on my website at - http://www.skydogsports.com/hg-1/2011-Cloud-9.htm

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Elberta, Michigan

(Elberta, mi, USA)

Green Point|Mark Bolt

James Gibson «James Gibson» writes:

Quick update to let your readers know that the annual Green Point Flyers Labor Day Wing Ding celebration in NW Michigan had outstanding flying conditions on Sunday. Mark Bolt on his T2C heading out to check on the lake thermals. The Green Point launch site is located on the primary coastal ridge in the upper right.

Discuss "Green Point⁣ Flyers Association 2011 Labor Day Wing Ding" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Quite valid

(Big Spring, TX, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams|Tom Lanning|USHPA|US Nationals|US Nationals 2011|Zac Majors

http://ushpa.aero/competition/ntss1/index.php

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Saturday

A little too much wind for a final day

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|David Glover|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Owen Morse|US Nationals|US Nationals 2011|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

We call the last day as there is too much wind for the spot landing contest at 9:00 AM (20 mph gusting to 29 mph), and then the wind doesn't lay down until after 12:30, when we decide that it is too windy. Yes, it mellows out to what we launched and flew in the day before (when it was quite a bit lighter in the morning), but given the prospect of too strong winds, no cu's (until an hour after the task was cancelled), six days in a row of outstanding flying, and the need for a smaller task to get back in time for the awards, it is a reasonable call.

Everyone was stoked about the flying here at Big Spring. They were just so darn happy with what they got to experience. Owen Morse was feeling discouraged about his flying, it was quite a blow to the old ego when he didn't make goal. Larry ran through his flights in SeeYou in the morning of the last day and found the problem. He was thermaling way too fast, having gotten used to that style in southern California, he would put his wing up on a tip and twirl around three hundred and sixty degrees in under ten seconds (you can download any of the tracklogs at the URL above)

There are bullet thermals in the mountains out of Crestline apparently and that's what you have to do to stay in them there. In Texas the thermals are big and fat and you have to flatten out your thermal circles and you have to extend them to climb the hill of lift to find the highest mountain top. Owen was just not used to that idea at all and so he had a much harder time climbing than the rest of us.

He was feeling bad that it wasn't until the last day that he got straightened out on that aspect of his flying. He was also astounded on Thursday by how fast Joe, Alex, and I ran away from him going out on course. Although I had told him at the beginning of the competition that you needed to really really pull the bar in, seeing it happening in front of you is a whole nuther story. He was at cloud base with about ten other pilots so got a good view of what it takes to fly hard and have a chance of getting to goal quickly in a competition.

Here's a shot of our 206 km FAI triangle which we flew on Thursday:

I'll probably have more to say later about how things went for me and others at the 2011 US Nationals, but I can give preliminary credit to my good result to the outstanding glider than I am flying. The aspect that made it better for me than previous gliders is the ease with which I can pull on the VG and how that encourages me more than any other feature to pull it tight, drastically reduce the bar pressure and fly as fast as I possibly can given the conditions.

As far as I'm concerned the 24:1 VG line ratio is a miracle. It is like gaining an accelerator, adding a little nitro. I just hadn't experienced what pulling the bar in really means (as it was too hard with too much bar pressure) until I got this glider. Now I can keep up with Joe (and Alex flying a Moyes glider). By the way I have not changed my sprogs from the stock settings as there is no need given the light bar pressure.

I'm going to make sure that any other glider that I fly has this feature and why don't all pilots demand that their VG lines be as easy as possible to pull on tight? I swear that the easier it is to use, the more it will get used, and using the VG is the key to speed.  And you have to fly fast if you want to win.

When conditions get uncertain and the lift a little weaker I know that I have a tendency to slow down a more than I should. Zippy doesn't do this. It just comes from experiencing the bad feelings of landing out. Sure you have to get into search mode and fly best L/D in circumstances where you are low and haven't found lift in a while, but this is not true when you are still high and haven't found lift in a while.

I hope that all the pilots who came to Big Spring this year will bring along a friend or two next year. David Glover doesn't really promote the US Nationals in Big Spring because it is a lot of work to gather the tug resources to handle all the pilots that would want to fly here. But if many came (this is the best place in the World to fly) then he will be forced to gather more tugs and tug pilots.

Next year there will be two tow competitions in Texas in July. One in Luling (not just the Single Surface Shootout) and right after that the US Nationals. They will be timed so that pilots can then go to the competition in Brazil (and Brazilian pilots can come here before their competition). The dates for the meets (tentative) are:

Luling: July 15^th through 20^th (Saturday through Friday)

Big Spring: July 22^nd through 28^th (Sunday through Saturday).

I don't have the dates for the Brazilian competition yet.

The results:

The 2011 US National Hang Gliding Championships - Tuesday

We go 242 kilometers to Muleshoe

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

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

http://soaringspot.com/2011bsn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midwest Championships - second task

We don't make it back

(Enjoy field)

Dustin Martin|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Midwest Championships 2011|Paris Williams|weather

http://www.midwesthgcomp.org/

http://soaringspot.com/mhgc2011

Carl Wallbank won the day and the meet by hanging on in light lift just as though he was in England. Larry Bunner was second less than eight points behind and Paris Williams third. Basically their finish on the second day.

The day's (Friday) forecast was for good lift, but we knew that there was a front to the west coming in on Saturday. The local forecast was for an 80% chance of precipitation on Saturday so the last day was canceled in advance.

The winds were forecasted to be southeast at six to ten knots. The task committee decided on a 129 kilometer triangular task to the south and then back to the north, a fat out and return with two big cross wind legs.

Jochen was off first, then Mark Bolt, and I was behind him. We had three tugs working so things were going quickly. My climb on tow was very slow, sometimes zero fpm. When we got in lift that was 800 fpm on tow I decided that was enough to keep me up without the tug.

Paris was towed up after me and was climbing a bit better to the north, but I parleyed the weak stuff into 300 fpm and as there was plenty of time before the start clock, I stuck with it as it turned to 500 fpm and soon I was at 4,500' and cloud base. I dressed warmer today so I was happier at base.

I joined up with Jochen as we were on the radio together and we flew to various clouds always finding lift and staying high. We came to a cu just east of the twenty kilometer start cylinder around the first turnpoint to the southwest and joined up with Larry, Mark Bolt, Jim Yocom and a few others. I noticed Dustin about two thousand feet below us as the first clock was about to open.

I headed out in front with everyone else also heading out for the 1:30 start time, the first start time. No Jonny or Carl or Paris around. The sky to the west was mostly blue, not a good sign.

We went on a long glide under some haze domes. Not finding anything I made a ninety degree turn to the south to the closest clouds. Jochen kept going and got low. Larry, Mark and Jim joined me and we climbed up at 600 fpm.

After climbing up to cloud base over 4,500' we flew over Jochen and didn't find anything and so headed south southwest toward the turnpoint but more toward the next cu's. The cu's were very widely spaced and off the course line so you just had to fly to them if you wanted to stay up.

I found strong broken lift three kilometers from the turnpoint and Larry joined me. Jochen was getting up to our north. Larry and I climbed up and then I headed out first for the turnpoint. Jim was around high.

After making the turnpoint we headed due south, for the next leg was forty three kilometers to a small airfield. We had a quartering head wind of about eight to ten mph. Less wind up high.

I missed the next lift and searching all over the place had to take weak lift from 700' AGL, twice in almost the same spot, as the wind was driving me back. Jochen and the others, including Kris, were higher and found better lift and pushed forward, so soon I was on my own.

It took way too long to dig myself out of the hole that I had put myself in. I dove forward for a cu and climbed out strongly, then pushed forward again coming over a small town. Pilots who had started after me had landed there. I spotted Dustin downwind and joined him in lift that got better and better as we climbed out.

Up high I decided to push south and east again toward the turnpoint twenty seven kilometers away. Dustin went to the good looking cloud downwind even further off the course line and climbed to 6,200' AGL. I worked another thermal with Ben Dunn, who was free flying, south of town and then proceeded further south heading for the next clouds.

The clouds from the front where shading the west side of the course line. The southeast winds had already forced me to the west of the course line and I was trying to get away from the shade.

I went under four cu's but unlike previously on the course I didn't find any lift under them. The winds were very light on the ground as I landed.

Dustin was not able to make the turnpoint to the south and landed with Jonny who just made the turnpoint and a few kilometers to the north. Jochen made it exactly to the turnpoint. He saw Carl, Larry, Jonny and Paris make the turnpoint and then go downwind. Jonny didn't get that far.

Carl found 200 fpm just past the turnpoint, but nothing over 100 fpm after that. The sky was getting grayer from the clouds coming from the west and the ground was getting darker from their shade. Carl worked seven thermals before going down a little over twenty kilometers from goal.

We only had two days of flying out of a five day competition. The weather gods weren't as beneficent here as they were in Georgia. Still we had a great time and loved the flying. Big, really big open flat plains. The crops haven't been planted for the most part as it has been too wet (and really dry in Texas).

The flight park is well stocked and we had lots of tow planes. The grass is thick (unlike in Florida). Everything was wet. The farmers were very hospitable.

Three firsts

In one day

(Cloud 9, Iosco, MI, USA)

Bob "Skydog" Grant|Mark Bolt|scooter tow

Bob Grant <<caskydog>> sends this story by Trevor Gildersleeve:

There are days in everyone’s life when things happen for the very first time. Some things are simple like learning to whistle or snapping your fingers. Others are bigger like a first kiss, first date, first time driving a car, getting married, kids, etc. As we get older, “firsts” become far less frequent; however, Monday, July 26^th, 2010 has added at least three new firsts for me.

The day was forecast to be a great soaring day, so good in fact that I decided to take the day off work. I wasn’t the only one with this plan as I was joined with two of the other 2010 rookie pilots, Tom from Indiana and Greg from Michigan. We all had the same “first” in mind for the day. A fantastic soaring opportunity! We were all there early and eager.

Setup and ready to fly by 11 AM, Greg was the first one up. His goal for this flight wasn’t necessarily a big time soaring flight, but rather his first foot-landing attempt. He had spent the calm early hours of the morning doing some scooter-towing and simulator practice in preparation. His tow up was great and while he was boating around Tom launched next. I had decided to wait a bit longer to let things heat up a bit more, plus I had Chris Bratsis in my head saying “you can still see the moon and you can’t soar under moon thermals”! Anyways, both Greg and Tom came down within fifteen minutes. Greg had a great first foot landing and Tom landed safely as well.

After some lunch and additional thermal cooking time, I launched in the Sonic 165 around 12:30. The tow was great, as I finally worked out my “Pilot Induced Oscillations” or PIO. Frankly, now I don’t know why it was such a problem initially because they’re just gone, which I’m grateful for. Once released, there was lift here and there, but it wasn’t very big, and sink was more readily available than the lift, so I headed back to the field.

While I was about 200 over the southern end of the field, I kept hitting a razor thin 300 up piece of lift that I kept trying to get into. I did get back up to 800 feet, but I couldn’t find it again after that. Thinking back it either bubbled up out of my reach or drifted where I wasn’t searching. Regardless, I setup for a landing and came in just short of the spot. The guys back at launch said they saw me working the low save and thought I was going to pull it out, but that didn’t happen. Mark Bolt expertly pointed out the HUGE (and growing) cumulus cloud over the spot I was working and said, “If you could’ve stuck with it you’d be up there in that right now”. Thanks Mark, a little lemon in the wound doesn’t bother me!

By this time Greg and Tom took another flight as well, but soon all three of us were sitting at the picnic table again watching the veteran pilots (Mark, Dave, Chris, and Floyd) getting setup. Us three rookies decided not to try again until these guys launch! By around 3:00 it was go time and Mark launched, followed by Dave. I was anxious to go and jumped back in line next. The tow was showing a lot of promising lift (read: white knuckle rookie towing), and Tracy waved me off in the center of a great thermal. I went straight up to cloud base at 4,900 feet.

While having the time of my life, and watching Dave quickly work his way up to me, I saw a couple of other pilots launch, and a few sink out and launch again. It was an amazing feeling being the highest one up and watching everyone else down below working diligently to get up as well. I watched Tom work his Falcon for the longest time, and I knew he was having the time of his life.

It was right around this time of euphoria (and cold hands) that I started noticing the fog starting envelope around me, and the vario screaming at me that I was being sucked up into a cloud. This is the first of the aforementioned “firsts”. So I commanded myself, “don’t go in the cloud! You know this. Go DOWN”! My first thought was to pull in and spiral down out of it, which I tried unsuccessfully. I really wrapped it up too, but I was still going up. Now it was really getting harder to see, and I started to get worried briefly.

Lots of thoughts raced through my mind, what if I can’t get out?? How fast is the VNE (velocity never exceed) on this glider, I pulled the most G’s I’ve ever pulled, how many is TOO many? I DO know how to throw a parachute, right? Ok, I know those are some dramatic thoughts, but remember, this is the FIRST time I was ever faced with such a situation and I was covering all the bases! Then, all of a sudden, it dawned on me. Duh, just fly straight and get out now while you can still see. Which of course moments later I was back out in the sunshine at 4,890 feet thinking what an idiot I was. The excitement wasn’t quite over yet, because about a minute later I saw Tom doing the exact same thing I just did, getting sucked up into the powerful lift, only to start struggling to get out of it. It was like watching myself in the 3^rd person. We both had a good laugh about that one later.

I was up at cloud base for about an hour, and this was my second “first”! I was foolish not to wear any gloves, and it was about 55 degrees. My hands were cold, but I didn’t care one bit. It was all like a dream, watching everyone beneath me, all circling in the same direction at various altitudes and circumference. It reminded me of a baby’s mobile that hangs over a crib. I suppose it was my version of my own personal mobile. Although with Floyd’s rigid wing Atos, he kinda threw off the symmetry of dance, and was a bit of the odd duck in the group.

At this point, I’m feeling really confident. I’ve been in the same spot, in the same thermal cycle “all day” about two or three miles out from the airfield. I saw Mark about a three quarters of a mile away at a different cloud base further north west. Feeling like I should try something a little different, you know, to get more experience, fly with a pro and overall just change it up a bit. So I headed out on best glide from a nice comfortable altitude of about 4500 feet over to where Mark was skimming the bottom of a huge cumulus.

Now begins the story of my last “first” of the day…

Interesting, I thought to myself, I guess Mark was a little further away than I thought. I was at about 3200 feet by the time I got under the same cloud. Expecting to find lift, but there was none. “Uh-oh” I said to myself. At this point I looked to the airfield due south, and I knew right away it was too far, and even if I was to take a bee-line, if I didn’t make it I’d be stuck in the middle of fields and woods with no roads leading in. Don’t panic, I assured myself, go back to where you were in lift all day. I convinced myself it’s still there, so I spun around and headed back to my “old faithful”.

Once back, and at about 1900 feet or so, I suddenly realized why everyone was always below me, which is because it was really hard to come up from a lower altitude! Needless to say, at this point my worst fears set in, and I knew I was totally screwed. It was like the movie Top Gun, when Maverick was in a dog fight without Goose and feels helplessly lost, only to clutch his pals dog tags and whisper, “Talk to me Goose”. Although my thoughts were, “Talk to me Tracy! Now what the %&$# do I do”!?!

What I settled on was a few basic and obvious facts. Don’t land in a dangerous spot. I quickly ruled out all the woods, ponds, and barbed wire enclosed cattle filled pastures. Next was to try to land near a road. Everything was happening so fast, yet so slow. I was cruising down Bradley road scanning the fields and debating, which one? At about 800 feet, and bumping on a bit of a lift, I chose a bean field that adjoined an alfalfa field. It was somewhat narrower than I would’ve liked but was still the best option around. Totally aware that this was really happening at this point, I focused on where to land, and knowing I could NOT overshoot. I did two s-turns and at about 150 feet turned in on final and burned in over the beans (and one last check to make sure there were no fences ahead of me), I crossed into the alfalfa and flared. The field was on a slight downhill grade, and it made for a bit harder landing that I hoped for, but I didn’t care, I was fine, I was safe, and nothing was broken or in a tree.

My choice of landing place (given the circumstances) couldn’t have been better. It was a short carry (100 feet tops?) to a mowed grassy entrance to the field just off the dirt road. I had my cell phone, and extremely embarrassed, and upset with myself, I had to face the music and call Tracy for help. Relieved, he didn’t sound upset. He said he would come out to get me and to start breaking down the glider.

Right then, a truck pulled up and into the field where I was. Praying it wasn’t an upset land owner, I was relieved to see it was the very same neighbor that the night before stopped on his bike to watch us launch tandem flights. We had chatted a bit that night and he said how he sees the gliders over his farm quite often. I never thought that the very next day I would be in his farm! Regardless, I apologized and offered to pay for any damage if there was any. He asked me, “You didn’t land in my beans did you?” Which I quickly assured him, “No sir, I cleared the beans”! Relived, he offered me a ride back which I was grateful for, but politely declined since I already had someone coming for me. As quickly as he arrived, he was gone and I continued to break down.

Tracy pulled up with Greg a few minutes later and gave me a look of “did you learn something from this?” which I of course did! We finished breaking down the glider and in a bit of nod to my landing choice, he commented that it was a tough landing since it was downhill. I of course attribute the fact that I could pull that off on only my 10^th or so solo flight because of the excellent training and rigorous approach and spot landing emphasis.

Once back at the airfield, I took my well deserved ribbing from the guys, and Tracy told me how everyone was calling me the “sky king” because I was doing so great, however; that title was quickly replaced with “field king”. For another Top Gun analogy, it’s like when Jester says to Maverick, “That was some of the best flying I've seen to date - right up to the part where you got killed.” Or thankfully in this case, only landed in a field two miles away.

2010 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Finally we get to goal

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Chris Zimmerman|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Mark Bolt|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2010

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

After the forecast yesterday which called for strong lift to maybe 9,000', and we come up with weak lift and we don't get high, I'm a little gun shy about believing the models for this area even when the RUC and the NAM agree. The forecast is for strong lift and a high top of the lift, but we discount this in the task committee meeting and assume that the lift will be like the previous day.

The forecast does call for 7 to 10 knot northwest winds, which we take as probably reliable. These models do seem to get the wind value pretty much right. Given the wind, and the feeling that the lift will be weaker than forecast and the top of the lift less than we had hoped for, the task committee calls a downwind task to the RC field west of Tucson with a turnpoint at Picacho to supposedly keep us over cultivated fields and not in no man's land.

We push back the start time to 1:20 (launch opens at noon) for the first start giving us eighty minutes to get everyone up in the air if they want to take the first start clock. Of course, this just means that pilots will wait around even longer (be realistic about human behavior and don't wait for the "new" man). Three pilots do take off soon after the window opens, but everyone else is content to watch them from the shade of the RedBull tent that shows up this morning and is placed next to the launch. This makes it much more comfortable to be on the ground (and therefore pilots aren't as eager to get into the air).

Dustin is the second or third pilot to launch and we all wonder why. He doesn't get up and after a while lands. He reports that the lift is weak which we can see as he and the other pilots climb very slowly. No one is at all ready to go after the first three or four pilots, waiting around for others to go or for better conditions. Dustin launches again and then we have a forty five minute lull.

Dustin and the other pilots stay up if not get high so finally around 1 PM, one hour after the launch window opened and one hour before the last start time (and twenty minutes before the first start time) pilots begin in line up. I'm usually among the first to launch, but I'm sixth or so in this second line up for launch. I'm hoping to have some markers out in front if me.

I get hauled up to 2,400' without much lift, but better than the no lift launch on the second day. I am hauled to the northwest into the wind, but I can see Dustin turning two kilometers downwind of the launch. I can't see any of the five "markers" that were pulled up before me, except Jim Yocom, very low by launch.

As soon as I pin off I head downwind toward the tower and toward Dustin and don't find lift until I am down to 1,000' AGL and two kilometers downwind (7 mph) of the launch. The lift averages zero for about three minutes until I find a bit better core and climb up to 4,400' with Dustin and Zippy, getting within a kilometer of the edge of the start cylinder.

I have to go back upwind to stay within the start cylinder and get the timing right for the 2 PM (last) start window. This puts me back down to 1,400' AGL but it is possible to find more lift and I climb slowly back up again to 3,500', just 2,100' AGL, but every one else is at about this altitude also when it is time to take the last clock.

A bunch of us head out, maybe fifteen pilots and find better lift, 183 fpm, just outside the start cylinder. As this is a race start so no one is ahead (maybe there is a pilot or two down the course line that we don't know about) and because we are low and need some altitude, we all huddle together and climb up to almost 5,000'. We are climbing and drifting downwind down the course line so we are relaxed.

It is an eight kilometer glide to the next thermal which is an improvement at 320 fpm. It is at the south end of a very small range of hills southeast of Casa Grande, usually a good thermal location. We are pretty much all together and I'm continually cutting off Kraig Coomber as he relaxes in the thermals. I can see Jonny with his arms just draped across the base tube.

We climb to 6,000' in the good lift and then head out together. It's a nine kilometer glide to the next thermal and with so many pilots spread out and flying as a team to optimize the search, we have no problem finding the next thermal. It's less than 100 fpm, but who cares? Well, we do leave it after a few turns, go another couple of kilometers and find 200 fpm than gets us back to 5,000'.

Six more kilometers of gliding and we find a strong thermal, 340 fpm on average that gets us to over 7,000'. When it starts to get weak I'm ready to leave, but no one is leaving. I'm not at the very top, although plenty high in the stack, but finally Shapiro leaves and I go with him, 300' below him.

The turnpoint is only eight kilometers away and we get to it at 5,000' (or at least that is my altitude). I'm even with Jeff now but 500' below him. Everyone else is just behind us.

The turnpoint marks the edge of cultivation. Further down the course line is wild territory with Saguaro cactus, a dirt road or two (no telling if they are behind locked gates) rocky outcroppings, and a long retrieve. Still we are high. I head for the first rocky outcropping and don't find anything. I then turn east follow a low ridge line over more black rocks, still nothing, I then head into the gut of no man's land going for a pilot circling low over a rocky hillside, eight kilometers past the turnpoint. I'm now down to 2,000' AGL over bad landing areas.

Jeff and Craig and a couple of other pilots are heading deeper in the territory that they don't wish to land in. I stop before the pilot and take 100 fpm up just to assess the situation. It is still possible to scoot out to a semi cultivated area if things get worse. I'm climbing near a hill side, so it's okay for now.

Jeff and Kraig search a couple of kilometers further in and finally find strong lift which keeps them happy and in the air. I'm working weak stuff further back on the course line. This is the first time I get separated from the main gaggle.

Chris Zimmerman, Robin Hamilton, and Glen Volk are near me and heading back toward the cultivated areas. I leave my thermal, join up with them, and work weaker lift (77 fpm) for twenty minutes off another more comfortable hill side further along the course line but closer to cultivated areas. Jeff, Craig and others are working much better lift just out of sight ahead of us.

I finally get back to a comfortable altitude at 4,800' and head down wind along the course line as I watch Mark Bolt scoot along the ground below me very low and heading for an isolated air field out in the middle of this waste land. Jim Yocom has landed just east of the airfield.

Mark gets down to 200' but finds a thermal and Chris and I watch him as we circle up in the next thermal. I go over Mark, find some lift at 89 fpm, but figure that there is better ahead. At 5,000', even though the ground elevation has gone up 1,000' since we started, I'm feeling secure.

The wind has picked up significantly since I came over Mark and is now seventeen mph, a ten mph increase. My glide ratio is much higher. I climb to 2,400' AGL ten kilometers from goal and go on final glide. I'm the tenth pilot in. You can see the results on the scoring server at the URL above.

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The 2010 US Nationals at Big Spring

Larry loses as Zac wins

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

US Nationals

Mark Bolt|US Nationals

Mark Bolt|US Nationals

http://soaringspot.com/2010bsn/

It was Larry's to lose, and when he committed an error and Zac flew superbly, lose it he did. Going into the last day Larry was 263 points ahead of Zac. Both were on the task committee. It was a difficult day to choose a task. We went through four of them before I came up with a compromise, a 97 kilometer straight line downwind (we hoped) to Welch, northwest of Lamesa. The wind direction forecast was mixed so it was hard to say which direction to go.

The launch was 1:30 PM and again I was off first. Unlike the day before pilots were lined up to go after me. I found lift to the west of the airfield which made sense given the southeast wind. I climbed with Ricker, who got towed above me, to 6,000' drifting to the northwest. I headed up wind, found better lift and climbed to 7,000'.

The wind was heading right down the course line, but I was a couple of kilometers to the west of it. As it was more than a half hour until the first window opened (we had three start windows at 2:30, 2:50, 3:10), I pushed upwind and then east to some circling pilots, and then further east to the course line and climbed with others coming in below to 7,800'.

Unfortunately, it was still sixteen minutes before the start window opened, and we were three kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder and drifting toward it in a fifteen mph wind. At this point Larry and three other pilots left heading west. This looked like a very bad idea to me (and to apparently the half dozen pilots in the gaggle who stayed there). I could see the wisps of clouds that they were likely heading for and I knew from previous days experience that they were not inside the start cylinder. I also knew that it was a terrible idea to go downwind with sixteen minutes to go before the first start time.

Well, Larry screwed himself with this move. He left the start cylinder thirteen minutes before the first start time. This means that twenty six minutes were added to his actual start time (it went from 2:17 to 2:43), and to his actual finish time (4:14 to 4:40), and of course his actual time interval was the same. But moving his start time to 2:43 gives him a start time of 2:30 starting thirteen minutes late for the first start time.

So his scored time interval was 2:10, while he actually flew the flight in 1:57. He was also scored as though he arrived at goal at 4:40 instead of at 4:27 which he would have arrived at goal if he had started at 2:30 and flown the course in 1:57. This cost him in the neighborhood of 100 points. (Let this be an example to those who think that this method of penalizing pilots who start early doesn't work.)

I stayed with the other pilots who tried to hang on to lift in the blue in the start cylinder. We found bit and pieces of lift and hung around as best we could. At five minutes to go the lift gave out and it was a scramble to find the weakest sink. Finally fifty seconds early I took off at 6,300'. The others waited.

I saw Mick Howard (I believe) circling two kilometers downwind of the course line. I didn't want to go in that direction (the direction that Larry and three others went earlier). But there was a pilot climbing well and I wasn't going to pass that up. That thermal averaged almost 400 fpm to, 7,700', so it was worth it. Many of the pilots behind me circled in worse lift that I had made two turns in before heading for the circling pilot.

I left and headed downwind and saw Bob just to my right turning back to circle again. I should have gone to him as he was upwind of me and he was at my altitude. By I decided to "beat" him and headed out on my own. Bad choice. (BTW, in the previous article I confused Mark Bolt for Bob Flipchuck, a young pilot from Maryland. )

Zac had not been in the gaggle with the rest of us nor with Larry. He was three kilometers east of the course line while we were half a kilometer west of it. Zac stayed east of the course line for the whole flight and flew on his own. The wind was basically right down the course line on average, but at times it was a bit more easterly.

To the west of the course line there were wispies, the only clouds in the sky. They appeared to mark a line of line. While I hate leaving a course line as it is the quickest course to the goal, and I hate going downwind, as at the end of the task it can mean a hard drive upwind to goal, the wispies were a draw and when I got there they were rewarding.

I kept going to them and kept being rewarded. They got me to goal. Not fast but faster than many others. I was up to thirteen kilometers west of the course line.

Zippy moved fast on his course alone. He also took a chance and was down to 600' ten kilometers from goal. He found lift that averaged 275 fpm and it got him to goal, high.

Getting to goal first and early meant he got an about extra 100 arrival points over what Larry would have received if he had started on time. He also earned about 250 speed points more than Larry would have received, by flying faster. 

Zac was able to best Larry by 180 points. So Zac didn't need Larry to make his error starting early in order to win the day and collect enough points to pass him for first place. His speed and his early finish were enough to do it. Of course, the extra margin was nice.

Bob Flipchuck was second in on the last day with a fast time, crossing the course line at Lamesa getting to the upwind side after climbing to 9,000'.

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The 2010 US Nationals at Big Spring

Back in the game

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Gary Osoba|Jim Yocom|Larry Bunner|US Nationals

Gary Osoba|Jim Yocom|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|US Nationals

Gary Osoba|Jim Yocom|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|US Nationals

http://soaringspot.com/2010bsn/

It's Larry Bunner's competition to lose. He and Zac both made goal today, so it all depends on how well Larry does tomorrow.

When I went outside in the morning it windy and blue and dry. I could tell right away that it was likely that we would have a blue day, a tough day, a day that would send out down wind.

The forecasts showed that the wind would decrease somewhat later in the afternoon especially as we went north, so that was something. They also showed high thin cu's, but it sure looked like that wouldn't happen. The task committee called a 186 km dogleg to the north to Crosby with a turn at Tbar. The backup was straight to Town and Country airfield just south of the Lubbock airspace. We would call the secondary if the start time got pushed back because of new cu's.

We set the start time at 2:30 with launch at 1:30. It was clear before 1 PM that there would be no cu's so we pushed back the start time half an hour. Then we sent Gary Osoba up in his Woodstock to test the lift. He didn't find any before 2 PM, so we moved the start time back another half hour and changed the task to Tbar only, 110 km.

Gary went up again at 2:15 and again didn't find any lift. But we decided to leave things as they were and just tough it out. I was ready to launch into the blue void, so at 2:30 PM I was off down the runway.

I pinned off at 2,000' AGL at the end of the runway in 100 fpm. I figured at least it was lift. I climbed to 5,000', then flew back upwind to find another thermal on the west side of the field, climbed to 6,000'. Went back again upwind where I could see Ricker and Mark climbing in the same location that I had started out in, and climbed to 8,300'.

The start window was open as it was an open start, your time started when you went past the 10 km start cylinder. I headed out and Mark and Riker came with me and we found another thermal that got us to 8,800' still inside the start cylinder. as this was free altitude (our climb time was counted against us), we took it and then headed out on the course line.

I took the lead for the first run and after that Mark was in the lead showing Ricker, who was following me, and I where the better lift was. There were no cu's so we basically had to blunder into the lift. We quickly left the cultivated areas and went out over the rougher canyon areas marked with oil or gas wells. We were the lead gaggle, by far, as others were reluctant to launch after I did, and so it took a while for other folks to get going.

Mark marked a number of thermals for us then disappeared. Ricker was now following just me. We got to 8,400', 44 km along the 110 km task and lift had been 300 to 400 fpm. Not bad.

Another twenty kilometers further and Ricker and I were down to 1,100' AGL when I found 300+ fpm. I had been looking at the few roads and noticed that a paved one was ahead so I was bouncing along hoping to get to it at least when I found the lift.

The thermal was a rough one from so low, but I had to stay in it if I wanted to stay in the game. I climbed to 7,100' leaving Ricker behind and heading toward the plateau and the cultivated areas ahead. I was getting light sink and bits of lift so I took another climb to 7,500' just before leaving the scab lands.

It was an 11 kilometer glide out over the flats and it was clear that this would be a different area. Much weaker lift and very wet. There were ponds every where. I had never seen so many ponds in Texas.

I searched and found 200+ fpm, weaker that we had been experiencing, and spent thirteen minutes climbing to 8,100'. I basically just wanted to stay in this thermal as long as possible to get as high as possible, as it looked weak ahead. I left when the thermal petered out.

I also figured that with 30 kilometers ahead of me I would find some lift, even if weak. I was only 200 feet below best glide to goal, but 21:1. I had a 10 mph tail wind.

The short of it is, I didn't find enough lift to get me into goal. I turned for a few turns in lift but it was gone after four turns. Maybe I just got on the wrong side of it.

I circled low letting the wind carry me across the country side from about 800' AGL, losing 75 fpm, until I turned one more time and landed three kilometers from goal.

From there I got to watch four pilots make goal. Mark Bolt had landed earlier having hit sink before he got up on the plateau. Ricker was first into goal having found lift up on the plateau. Jim Yocom missed goal by 0.1 km.

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The 2010 US Nationals at Big Spring

Not as good as it looked

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Campbell Bowen|Jim Yocom|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Russell "Russ" Brown|US Nationals|weather|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/2010bsn/

Sunday was the first day of the 2010 US Nationals, taking place this year at Big Spring, Texas. The cu's started popping at 9 AM, which is not a great sign, because it indicates the possibility of over development. The National Weather Service indicated that there was a front right over us that would stall, with a 10% change of isolated thunderstorms. But the XCSkies NAM forecast was for strong lift and a high cloud base going from 7,000' up to 10,000' later in the day. The winds were supposed to be 14 knots out of the southeast.

The task committee called a dog leg task to Lamesa airfield, seventy kilometers to the north northwest, and then northeast, cross wind, to Garza, 143 km. The Sport Class only had to get to Lamesa.

Mark Bolt was first to launch, and I third, after the launch crew found that Patrick Halfhill didn't have his leg loops buckled. Russell Brown towed me up to 1,800' AGL in bouncy air before the core seemed good enough to stay in. I pinned off and climbed to 7,600' 4 kilometers west of the Big Spring airfield in an eight mph southeast wind.

Given the wind, and our first turnpoint to the north northwest I decided that it would be a fine idea to head east to get under some of the good looking clouds in that direction and get upwind of the course line. I made it over to the town of Big Spring. I went under plenty of cu's, but the lift was quite weak over there and I finally had to leave the start cylinder, alone, at a little after the 2 PM race start time, at about 5,500'.

No one had joined me in my tactic to get upwind of the course line and under the better looking cu's. Of course, they looked good but did little. So now I was out on my own.

I headed for a small building cu on the course line three kilometers past the five kilometer start cylinder and was rewarded with better lift, 400 fpm. This got me back to over 7,000' and on my way. The wind was 13 mph out of the east southeast, a quartering tail wind.

I took a more northerly route attempting to stay upwind of the course line. I saw Rodrigo de Obeso climbing about five kilometers west (downwind) of me with an ATOS and a couple of flex wings. These were the first pilots I had seen since heading east from the airfield while still in the start cylinder.

A little south of Ackerly, half way to Lamesa, I hooked up with Rodrigo just upwind of the course line. Zac Majors was way below us running fast but very soon landing. The wind continued strong out of the east southeast as we worked various clouds heading north northwest. It was pretty much a cross wind leg.

Ten kilometers south of Lamesa Rodrigo spotted either Jim Yocom or Campbell Bowen climbing from below us fast, but when we got there we couldn't find it below him (as he was above us by the time we got there). The ATOS pilot headed downwind high and I followed him as Rodrigo headed toward the turnpoint. I found the lift under the circling ATOS pilot and Rodrigo came back to me as we drifted downwind away from the turnpoint.

But we were able to climb to over 7,000', so it was well worth it. I headed out with Rodrigo off to the side and then found even better lift toward the turnpoint and gliding northeast, climbing to 7,800'. I continued on toward the turnpoint and it was tough going at times with all the cross wind. Rodrigo had shaded a bit to my right but was basically following behind.

I got the turnpoint at 5,800' and headed east. While the clouds looked like what we had seen on the first leg, I didn't find any lift. Rodrigo was less than 200' over me when I landed, and there wasn't a puff of air in the field, but somehow he found a quiet thermal and climbed out. It was ten or fifteen minutes later that he came back now high and worked it again before going on.

No one made goal. Larry Bunner was first, Rodrigo second and I was third for the day. You can see the results for all three classes at the link at the top of the article.

There was a cu-nimb over Big Spring at about 6:30, lasting for about an hour or two. It did drop a bit of rain on the town. We saw one other cu-nimb late in the day out toward goal.

2010 Midwest Competition

Go around twice

(Hang Glide Chicago)

Andrew Vanis|Gary Solomon|Greg Dinauer|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mark Bolt|Midwest Competition 2010|Pete Lehmann

www.MidwestHGComp.org

http://soaringspot.com/mhgc2010/

On the third task they go around a 63 km triangle task twice. Monday was rained out.

Gary Solomon <<gary>> writes:

2^nd day Open Class task was from Enjoy field, Chebanse, IL 133 miles to Princeton, Iowa, across the Mississippi! Two of six pilots at goal. They reported a mix of fantastic cu's supporting high speeds with a few difficult spots (which may have had extra ground water killing the lift).

Sport Class task a Dog leg 59 miles. Two pilots made distance (one narrowly missing the turnpoint).

Day2 pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/jedzowata/Midwest2010Day2#

The final results:

Rob Kells Competition - Task 2

We outrun the overdevelopment and heavy rains

(Florida Ridge, Florida, USA)

Campbell Bowen|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Mark Bolt|Rob Kells|Rob Kells Competition 2010|Zac Majors

The Blogs and Tweets:

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

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

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

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

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

http://skyout.blogspot.com/

http://gottafly.blogspot.com/

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

With a NWS local forecast for a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms after 1 PM, it would be tricky to call a task. The forecast for light winds would indicate that we should come back to the Florida Ridge, but the forecast for thunderstorms said don't come back. The RUC/Dr. Jack forecast showed a convergence with very light winds to the west.

Jeff O'Brien, who was on the task committee today, suggested going west then straight north for a 105 km task. We also came up with an out and return task in case we decided to call that. I am trying something different, with a new task committee of three pilots every day, a total of twenty one pilots on the task committee. They also meet one day on the safety committee. So far it has worked out well.

The sky was blue at 10:15 when the task committee met with a few low level cu's forming around us. It looked like a thoroughly pleasant day, and we would feel that way too if it wasn't for the forecast of thunderstorms.

As we got ready to launch at 12:15, the cu's were thickening up especially to the west. You could also see some vertical development in them. I had added an additional start time at 1:15 PM, just to give us more options and to get people launched as they had waited around on the first two days. Launch still took a while to get going. I was again the first flex wing off, with only two rigids in front of me, and I was off at 12:35.

There was plenty of lift, better than the previous day, and it was easy to climb up to cloudbase. Jeff Shapiro was soon up with me and Dustin as well, although we couldn't hear from him. It soon became an issue of staying out of the clouds at 3,200'. The lift was weak at 120 fpm but consistent.

I followed a Olli and Jim in their ATOSes to the northwest to get over the highway (80) and found weak lift near the edge of the start circle, something just to hang out in until the start clock showed 1:15 PM. Shapiro and then half a dozen other pilots joined us hanging out and waiting.

When it is time to go I'm the first to leave the gaggle at 3,000', which of course on a weak day can be a pretty dangerous move. All the pilots behind can follow your track and if it looks like you aren't doing that well, they can take a different line. Jeff shades to the left as I search under a cu. He finds 200 fpm first and I come in 400' below him finding only 125 fpm. He'll quickly work this advantage into a five kilometer move ahead of me as I struggle in the weak lift for the next few thermals.

The cu's to the west have thickened up and now much of the ground is shaded, although still sunny where we are. It is clear that there is OD in the vicinity. Still no rain nearby and the air in mellow.

We race west and I find some good lift working thermals with other pilots and getting back up to over 3,000', then to over 4,000'. We are on a track south of LaBelle over orange groves. We are plenty high so there is no need to be concerned about possible landing areas. The orange groves are shaded, there are solid cu's almost every where and as we head west we can see rain to the south far enough away not to be a concern.

We race down the Caloosahatchee canal finding lift under the dark clouds. The turnpoint is just ahead just as the river opens up into the bay at Fort Myers. We head north westerly to get the turnpoint at intersection of highway 31 and 78 away from the dark clouds that have been mostly just to our south as we raced west.

Jeff O'Brien and Zippy caught up with me before the turnpoint and Shapiro was still about five kilometers ahead. They had taken the second start time at 1:30 PM and got a better start than I did. We had all been in communication so they also knew what Shapiro and I were encountering and where so that they could jump gaggle to gaggle.

O'Brien was flying smooth and mellow, just taking it easy as he looked about for the best lift and the best line.

Out north of the turnpoint in the sun we come in under Shapiro and a few others, probably Dustin and Jonny. They are topping out over 4,000' as we search for the lift down below that they were just in. With about ten pilots you would think that we would find it but we don't. We flail around for a few minutes before one pilot is willing to take the risk and go north a bit and suddenly there it is. We climb at 400 fpm to 4,300'. The lift is getting stronger.

There are a good number of pilots around now as we race to track down the front runners who are only a few kilometers ahead. Zippy and O'Brien will track them (Carl, Jonny, Dustin and Shapiro) down before the goal. We are flying over large tracks of Cypress swamp with little to no landing areas so we are grateful for the good lift when we get to it. Everything down below is of course soaking wet from days of rain.

Thirteen kilometers out I find 400 fpm with Derrick and Alex Cuddy. They are just above me and head off first. Using them as a gauge to the sink and lift in front of me, I go on final glide fast with a slight head wind. We all land in the field next to the former air strip, which has been sold and has a power line through it. Eighteen pilots make goal. Jeff O'Brien won the day. Jeff Shapiro is in first place over all.

The Sport Class had a goal at our first turnpoint. They had more difficult conditions given the black clouds on the course line. They were there a little later than we were. Mark Bolt made goal in a Wills Wing U2. A number of pilot's in Sport Class had their personal best flights.

A bunch of the rigid pilots made goal also. Campbell Bowen is in the lead in that division. At one point half way up the last leg  I was flying with three ATOS pilots and no other flex wings. Seemed like I was able to stay with them as they weren't pouring it on.

It rained heavily back at the Florida Ridge, so it was good that we didn't try to do an out and return task.

Big Spring US Nationals

Task seven day seven

(Big Spring, Texas, USA)

Ben Dunn|Chris Zimmerman|David Glover|dust devil|Facebook|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|John Hesch|Mark Bolt|Russell "Russ" Brown|US Nationals|video|weather

• The results will be here.
• Jeff O'Brien's blog
• Jeff Shapiro's blog
• Timely Oz Report Updates on Facebook
• Timely Oz Report Updates on Twitter
• Wills Wing Twitter
• Alex Cuddy
• Eric Donaldson
• David Glover's meet blog
• Ben Dunn
• John Hesch
• David Glover's tweets
• Russell Brown's twitter updates

Launching videos: http://www.youtube.com/davidglover

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/davidhglover/2009USNationalsBigSpringTexas?feat=directlink

Ah, it is bitter sweet that it is over. Big Spring proved once again why it is the best place to run a hang gliding competition in the US at least if not the World (a lot more on this in later issues).

With a forecast of a thirty percent chance of thunderstorms, we had to be very careful about how and where we called the task. We screwed up a little. We could have called a task straight to Garza, and that would have been best. We called a 151 km task to Tahoka and then to Garza (near the town on Post). So first to the north and then to the east. The idea was to keep us near the cultivated areas and hopefully away from the possible OD.

Well, it sure didn't look like OD when the day got going. It was hard to imagine a forecast of mostly cloudy as the morning clouds gave way quickly to light blue skies and no clouds. And there were no cu's at 1 PM when we expected to open the launch, so we moved it back to 1:30 PM.

At 1:30 I was the only one remotely ready to launch and there were still only one or two cu's any where near us (not close enough to reach). I got pulled way to the south and there wasn't any lift to circle in that I could find. I came back to the airport but found a line of zero sink heading upwind over the launch line. I followed it until I found 300 fpm and joined a bunch of birds circling up.

What I didn't know is that there was a big discussion going on down below me about changing the task. If I had landed we might have shortened the task. Jeff didn't want to change the task and as soon as he learned that I was getting up well he launched and the day was on.

Still there were very few cu's except the ones way to the north and one of those was a cu-nimb. We just kept circling up in pretty much the same spot until more cu's formed nearby. The inversion was finally breaking near us. The start time was 3 PM.

Just before 3 PM we (Glen, the Jeff's, Zippy, Chris Zimmerman, Derreck, a few others) headed north northwest to the forming clouds. The lift was good and we climbed up to 7,500', the top altitude improving as the day proceeded. We weren't in time to take the first start clock at 15 km from Big Spring, but we all took the second one together.

We climbed to 9,000' in the next thermal, and then headed north northeast across highway 87 to the better looking clouds as there was a blue hole to our north. We could see Campbell in the ATOS climbing. I shaded the run to the north a bit to the west to pass under a nice looking cloud that was between Campbell and us.

That cloud turned out to have great lift. I stopped in it and radioed my lift and position. My team mates turned around as I climbed up and brought most of the followers with them except Derreck. The climb was great and even Campbell came back to the west a bit to get in it.

Leaving the cloud at 9,700' and after hitting the next cloud we headed northeast under O'Brien's direction to the cloud street going up the east side of the course line. O'Brien climbed to 9,300' but Zippy and I who were continually flying next to each other didn't find as nice lift. We continued flying north northeast under the cloud street.

After 23 km I finally found strong lift over red rocks. Zippy joined me and we saw Jeff at cloud base high above us. Jeff left us at 10,600'. We climbed up at 600 fpm and I left the thermal at 11,000' just getting escaping the cloud.

There was a cu-nimb to our west. It was raining hard 15 km to our west, but we didn't see a gust front. We glided 18 km to the east side of the cu-nimb, to the last cu's in front of it. There were a couple of small dust devils there. I found the lift and Shapiro, Glen and Zippy joined me.

We climbed to 9,700' and then the four of us went on glide together side by side toward the turnpoint. We wanted to get past the cu-nimb to our west. There was another cu-nimb to the north about 10 km north of the turnpoint with heavy rain and lightening. It was a 23 km glide into the shaded area just before the turnpoint.

I found light lift 2,000' 2 Km before the turnpoint and we all turned in it hoping to stay up in the dark, but also get out of there before the rain and gust front came. Jeff O'Brien came over to us at 500' above us.

We only gained about 500' so it was touch and go getting to the turnpoint and avoiding the cu-nimb. We all headed out with Shapiro and O'Brien higher.

We made the turn and headed downwind toward the Garza goal. We were down to 1,500'. Down to 600' Zippy and I found zero sink. We worked it for six minutes before I lost it. Zippy held on and got back up. Shapiro and Glen came over and joined him. O'Brien higher than the rest of us found nothing and landed north of me.

Campbell, who we saw at the turnpoint, was the only one to make goal. Mark Bolt, turned at 20 km from the turnpoint and got to goal in the sunshine.

The gust front came to us, but it was mild at least where I landed.

The end of a great meet that had lots of weather to deal with. Only one day did we have to stop a task. Conditions were generally very safe, but we did play a bit with the edge of the dangerous conditions.

We are flying with the cu's here in central Michigan

Triangle

Cloud 9|Mark Bolt|triangle|Wills Wing

(Cloud 9, Iosco, Michigan)

http://members.aol.com/cloud9sa/

Saturday, I finally was able to complete my 50 km FAI triangle that I've tried to complete on and off for a couple of weeks here at Cloud 9. The cu's formed around noon and the winds were light. The Hughes internet satellite was malfunctioning so we didn't have a forecast for the day, but the winds seemed to be about 5 mph out of the north

The flight.

On Sunday, Mark Bolt flew 102 miles to the south (it was cold up there) while I went down early at 34 miles. Lots of cu's and a reasonable north wind. The cloud base was supposed to get high.

I got to get a couple of Spaaten Meisters here at the Drachenflieger Club on Friday and Saturday with my first landing within one step of the 4" center. On the second landing I was going to over shoot and flared hard for a soft perfect landing inside the spot. This Wills Wing Sport 2 - 155 is very nice to land. Extremely nice. I haven't tried that kind of flair in a very long time.

Discuss "Finally, my 50 km FAI Triangle" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Michigan

Connecting the dots in the sky

(Cloud 9, Iosco, Michigan)

Mark Bolt

http://members.aol.com/cloud9sa/

We've had a great time flying here the last couple of days. Lots of super nice cumulus development and southerly winds. Today Mark Bolt and I flew to the northeast south of the Flint airspace and north of the Pontiac airspace. The goal was to get to Lake Michigan but we only got about 40 miles: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1793782503.

The flight started at around 3 PM. We had both gone down in earlier attempts. The cu's almost overdeveloped early (high towers at 11 AM), but then settled down, then blued out, then came back for our second flights.

I'm flying a Wills Wing Sport 2 - 155 and was keeping up with and often leading Mark in his topless Aeros Stealth. We both landed in the same field after a big jump to the next cloud and not finding lift there. Mark was impressed about how well the Sport 2 did on glide.

Things are great here at Cloud 9.

Mon, Sep 12 2005, 7:00:00 am EDT

Getting around Michael Moore's hometown

Belinda Boulter

Belinda Boulter|Mark Bolt

Belinda Boulter|Mark Bolt

The flight

With the wind forecasted to be southwest we (Mark Bolt and I) were looking forward to heading up the Michigan thumb to Port Hope on Lake Huron. Mark had always wanted to do this flight (he lives in Pontiac, Michigan) and now with Belinda chasing he had the opportunity.

The ETA forecast the day before had been for cu's at 5,000' MSL (the ground elevation here is 900'), but the RUC on Sunday called for a blue day, like the day before. The ETA has been consistently calling for clouds up here while the RUC on the next day shows no clouds.

Cu's or not I committed to launching around 1 PM, and around 12:30 we started getting little cu's. The inversion was well defined, and there was so much moisture in the air that the haze was thick and the visibility was ten miles or less. The cu's were forming right at the top of the inversion. They were mere wisps.

I was off first and found good lift to 5,700' while I waited for Mark. I figured we would fly together and that would make the retrieval that much easier.

The idea was to go east north east around the south side of the Flint class C airspace, then head north north east to Port Hope, 118 miles away. The problem was that the wind was south southwest (200 degrees) instead of southwest at 225 as I had expected. The clouds looked better to the north also, but after some discussion we felt that the day was good enough to get us around the airspace to the south.

It would have been possible to go up the west side of the Flint airspace and then go northeast toward Port Hope. All in all I wish now that we had made that effort.

The clouds quickly died as we headed east. We heard later that they also died over Cloud 9 about forty five minutes after we left, so maybe it didn't matter that we headed cross wind or not. Without clouds it was a crap shoot. You just flew along and hoped that you stumbled into the lift.

There were few obvious thermal sources below. I looked for dry fields and gravel pits hoping for hotter ground spots than the lakes and forests.

I had to keep heading east to get under the airspace centered at Flint. Flying over Fenton I was low working up from 1,100' AGL and drifted to the north northeast about a quarter mile into the airspace (which is why I made sure that the flight wasn't validated on the HOLC). I had thought that 10 nautical miles was 11 miles, and stayed 11.25 miles away from the center of the airspace, but when I got back and checked the airspace circle was 11.5 miles.

When I got around the airspace the clouds were almost all gone. After a good climb over a fair I took an eleven mile glide to land 50 miles out from Cloud 9. About half an hour later we guided Mark into a landing in the same field.

Discuss Up the thumb at the Oz Report forum

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Belinda Boulter|Cloud 9|Dragonfly|Mark Bolt|record

Fri, Sep 2 2005, 11:00:01 am EDT

155+ miles to the south in a northwest wind

The HOLC version of this flight

The Google Earth track log

Saturday:

The cu's suddenly appeared at around 10:30 AM. They were a bit unexpected quite so early after a blue morning. We scrambled and I was hauled out to the southeast launch here at Cloud 9 at around 11:20 AM. Mark Bolt had already commented to me that it sure looked soarable, so I got ready as soon as I could. He was still setting up his glider, but mine was had been set up all week.

The winds were forecasted to be coming from 315 degrees, i.e. northwest, at 10 to 12 mph. The winds on the ground were that already. When the winds are due west, like they were on Thursday, you are blown right toward the Detroit controlled airspace. Northwest winds blow you toward Ann Arbor's controlled airspace, then Detroit's, and if you can get further south then it's into Toledo's. You've basically got to keep on a track due south from Cloud 9 to get around the west side of the Toledo airspace. It does seem "possible" to go east of the airspace directly over Toledo just west of Lake Erie, but not having been there, I was wary about trying that tricky maneuver. I loved flying over the open farm lands of Michigan and Ohio.

The cu's were every where, but cloud base was only 4000' AGL, so there wasn't a lot of room for mistakes. The lift was light at first as I got hauled a mile to the north of the Cloud 9 field. I had to just hang on as I drifted southeast and slowly climbed. The clouds looked good in all directions and I knew that I had to head south southwest to get back south of Cloud 9.

The lift was plentiful but generally weak and I was often down to 1,300' AGL or less for the first forty miles. I worked to the southwest to get around a treed area fifteen miles out and had to drift downwind over a lake at 1,200' AGL where I caught a thermal under a nice looking cloud as I headed for an open field and a gravel pit.

The farms lands opened up further as I got twenty miles out, 18 miles west of Ann Arbor, but I had to continue to work weak lift to get up from 1,300' AGL. I kept looking for soy bean fields and making sure I had one nearby, and not a corn field to land in.

At forty miles out I got up over a dry field from 900' AGL to 4,200' AGL but I was on a heading to enter the airspace at 60 miles out so I had to push as much as I could to the south southwest, under the nearest clouds that I could get to. I had watched a flag in the yard of the house I was over show light winds from the west as I climbed in the sunny area just to the west of dark clouds. I was drifting to the east in the thermal and coming in under the nice dark clouds.

At 59 miles out I was two or three miles out of the airspace and I had to make a greater effort to get around it. Every time I thermaled I drifted right toward it. Again there were plenty of cu's and I could see the northwest wind whipping the shadows quickly along. I had to push low upwind to get under the clouds and stay up and still stay out of the airspace. I pushed up wind to the southwest and taking a long glide not very high I was able to get to the spot, the hump spot, just west of the airspace.

It was a coal fired power plant, and the coal storage areas were kicking off lift as I came in over them at 1,200' AGL. It was too turbulent as far as I was concerned and I headed further southwest a mile to a cloud over a smoke stack to find much smoother lift and climbed back up to 3,400' AGL.

The lift, other than at the power plant, had been great to fly in so far.  On Thursday with a 15 mph west wind, the lift was chopped up and unpleasant, so I went and landed. On Saturday, I was really enjoying the flying.

Once I got around the Toledo airspace I knew that I wouldn't have to worry about airspace for the next 100 miles. I had set up a waypoint point at London, Ohio to guide me between Springfield and Columbus airspaces at 180 miles out. Unfortunately, I had remembered that it was at 176 degrees out, but actually it was at 169 degrees and I forgot to just look at the London waypoint on my active route on my Flytec 5030 and see what direction I had to go to get to London, Ohio.

Given the northwest winds I figured that I needed to get to a bearing back to Cloud 9 of 345 degrees to get east around Columbus. Turned out that would still just get me around Columbus to the west.

Fortunately, I was really still just following the clouds and a seventy mile cloud street set up to the south southeast right after I got high and for the next two hours I just flew the cloud street stopping only when I would find 500 fpm or better. The winds had died down, but still I averaged 35 mph, while getting about 45 mph on glide. I was actually on a 170 degree heading which was perfect for getting through the airspaces ahead.

At the end of the cloud street I had to head for a dry plowed field to the southwest and found good lift back to 4,200' AGL, but the clouds were drying out and much more widely spaced. No more cloud streets. After a long glide, I came in under clouds that just weren't well formed enough to indicate strong lift. I landed on a dairy farm after a 156.9 mile flight.

I landed at 5:25 PM, and I had been hoping to find lift until 7:30 PM. Even at 35 mph that wouldn't have given me the new East Coast record (234 miles). I hadn't thought about that record until I was able to make it around the Toledo airspace. Certainly it can easily be broken from Cloud 9 on a good day with a north wind, a high cloud base, and streeting.

After I got back I heard that the conditions at launch greatly deteriorated, with winds gusting to 25 mph. The tows were very bumpy and after a few tows they stopped towing for an hour. I never saw strong winds while flying.

I had hoped originally just to break my site record of 112 miles set last year in September also (but later) when I headed north. The country side here is wide open and easy to fly in, and given a great retrieval driver many new records are possible.

Belinda is the key reason I am able to go for long distance site records. Without her expertise at the wheel and on the radio, I would not be able to go. We really act as a team and those pilots who don't have such an asset have a much tougher time.

The other reason is the great glider that I'm flying. The AIR ATOS VR is easy to fly, easy to thermal, and has great raw performance. Its low sink rate often makes up for my many mistakes and foibles.

This flight was fun and Belinda really enjoyed driving through the villages of Ohio. She thought that they only existed as remembrances of the past on the Prairie Home Companion. We had a good dinner very cheaply in downtown Findley, Ohio in a restaurant that was right out of the fifties. It was completely unhip.

The Dragonfly has certainly opened up the Midwest to wonderful flying opportunities. With a rigid wing glider and a great driver, you can get to see a lot of it as I did. There sure are a lot of soybeans and corn out there. No wonder Iowa and Ohio want Ethanol to be 20% of your fuel. You can get a really good idea of the countryside by looking at the flight track using Google Earth.

Sunday:

Cloud 9 on Sunday.

Bets day of the year for the locals and this has been a great year. High clouds in the morning broke up around 12:30 and everyone got plenty of air time. Light winds. Everyone stayed nearby, and not too many landed out.

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

After the Nationals and before the Worlds in Australia.

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

The rigid wing ranking:

The flex wing ranking:

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

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

Mon, Jul 12 2004, 1:00:03 pm EDT

For flex wings the Nationals will determine who goes to the Worlds at Hay in January.

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

The flex wing standings after the Europeans and the Team Challenge.

The Nationals with likely be worth 660 points to the winner.

The rigid wing standings after the Team Challenge:

As the rigid wing pre-Worlds to be held at Quest Air in 2005 are open to anyone, the current rigid wing standings don't mean much.

Tue, May 11 2004, 2:00:00 pm EDT

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

The ranking of US pilots going into the summer competition season with four USHGA sanctioned meets coming up (https://ozreport.com/calendar.php).

Rigid wings:

Flex wings:

The top six flex wing pilots get to go to the Worlds in Hay, Australia in January. You can find the complete listings at: https://ozreport.com/compPilotRankings.php. The rigid wing pilots have a Worlds in June and then in two years at Quest.

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|calendar|Carlos Bessa|Chelan XC Classic 2004|Chris Zimmerman|Claire Vassort|competition|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Flytec Championships 2004|George Stebbins|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|Paris Williams|Phil Bloom|Richard Sauer|Scott Angel|South Florida Championships 2004|Steve Rewolinski|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2004|Terry Presley|USHGA|US Nationals 2004|Worlds 2004

The points from the Australian meets add up as we look at the NTSS standings for US flex wing pilots and how they effect who's going to the Worlds in Hay in 2005.

https://OzReport.com/compPilotRankings.php

The race to be on the flex wing national teams is on. Pilots were in Australia flying to gain points on their country's team so that they can go to the Worlds in Australia next January. In the US, the pilots are chosen on the basis of their four best competitions results. They can use their two best flights from 2003, and their best flights from 2004. One new rule is that only two flights from competitions outside the United States count. Here's how things stand today:

Of course the pilots who went to Australia got a head start. Bo has four meets that count now and Kevin has three meets. Other pilots have only two meets that count. Both Bo and Kevin have meets with low points that can be overcome with better results in 2004.

It takes about 1,900 NTSS points to gain a place on the US National flex wing team. That means you've got to average about 475 points per meet to make it. Placing first in a fully valid, well attended meet gives you 660 points.

There are five USHGA sanctioned meets in the US in 2004 - Flytec, South Florida, Team Challenge, CXCC, US Nats. All these meets are worth at least 330 points to the flex wing winner (with a minimal number of days flying). The rest of the pilots get a percentage of the winner's points.

See https://OzReport.com/calendar.php for a list of the competition in 2004.

Australia|Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Florida|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|US Nationals|Worlds|Worlds 2003

Here’s now things stack up with the NTSS points this year going into the US Nationals in Big Spring at the end of the month. This 2004 NTSS ranking isn’t the one that is used for the 2003 Worlds in Brazil, but is the current NTSS points accumulation for 2002 and 2003.

Mike Barber didn’t go to Australia and cut his knee at the Wallaby Open so he doesn’t have a fourth high points meet. Kari, Jerz, and Curt where at the meets in Australia and got points there.

Claire is doing very well moving up. Dennis Pagen also. A lot could change at the Nationals. The Nationals is a very important meet this year as far as NTSS points are concerned. There are just three big points meets this year in the US – the Florida meets and the Nationals. The CXCC and the MidWest Regionals had fewer points.

Flex wings:

OzReport.com/Glide/2004class1ntss.htm

Rigid wings:

OzReport.com/Glide/2004class5ntss.htm

Discuss NTSS at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "NTSS points going into the US Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|competition|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Jim Zeiset|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|USHGA|Worlds

Flex wings:

This is the flex wing NTSS ranking that determines who goes to Brazil on the US National team. There are six members of the team. Carlos is eligible for the US or the Brazilian national team. He says that he will fly for the US. You might notice the number of points separating sixth and seventh place.

Rigids:

The current ridge wing ranking doesn’t affect anything as any US pilots can go fly in the pre-Worlds in Greifenburg if they like.

The full NTSS pilot ranking will be up next week after it gets reviewed. Check out OzReport.com to find the NTSS ranking under the competition menu item.

Discuss the national team and Brazil at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "USHGA NTSS Ranking" at the Oz Report forum   link»

ballast|Brett Hazlett|cloud|David Chaumet|Flytec 4030|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|GPS|Hansjoerg Truttmann|harness|Johann Posch|Kraig Coomber|Mark Bolt|Paris Williams|picture|radio|Ron Gleason|Timothy "Tim" Ettridge|Timothy Ettridge|tow|track log

The scores when they are done will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

Yesterday Bo was able to grab the bag that David was holding up at goal for $50. David said he could see him aiming at him from 3 miles out.

Photos by Timothy Ettridge (as was the camel picture yesterday)

There was an inversion at about 1,000’ and it didn’t break until a little after 1 PM. Mark Bolt and Bo gave it a try at 12:30 and both came down and then relaunched. The second time they stuck, but Bo had to circle up from about 300’ at the west end of the runway.

I had been waiting in the ready line waiting to see if anyone stuck. As we watched Bo slowly climb out pilots began to get ready. I just waited here the front of the ready line until there was pressure from behind to get going and launched at 1:25 PM. That meant that 95% of the pilots now had to get launched in 35 minutes if they wanted to get in the air by the first start time. What it really meant is that the first start time would probably not be the favored start time.

Amazingly it looked like only a couple of wings were still on the ground at 2 PM. Pilots must have pinned off low to get the tugs back on the ground so quick for the next tow.

It was a strong climb to 3,500’ and then a slow steady climb thereafter to over 6,000’ and cloud base. It was great to be bundled up in warm clothing which I made sure that everyone knew they might need today.

I was on the radio with Johann Posch and watching David Chaumet climb up to cloud base with us from a later launch. We let the 2 PM start time go by even though we were high as it didn’t look like anyone wanted to go. David headed west (downwind) and Johann and I followed him to keep him in our sites. We were again at cloud base at 2:15 PM and it looked like David wasn’t going to go. Then he did and we were right there with him.

I always want to fly with the fastest pilots and here was David off by himself and I wanted to be sure I was sticking with him today. We didn’t have any of the other fast guys, but they were starting also from cloud base to our east, upwind.

We were right on a line for more clouds (there were less to the northeast) so this looked like the hot spot in spite of the fact that we were a bit downwind of the course line. We were hitting the clouds right as we went north so that looked good.

David has a superior glide. Johann was slightly out gliding me, but David was going faster and staying even with us as he moved out ahead. At first we were all together going in the mid thirties speed wise and I couldn’t see any difference between us. When we started flying in the mid forties, then he pulled ahead and still had the same glide.

I was carrying 22 pounds of ballast (hook in weight of 222 with ballast). Either he carries more ballast, or his glider/harness has less drag than the ATOS-C with me or Johann on it. He is a skinny guy.

We were able to keep up with David by finding the cores faster and climbing quickly. His climb rate was about the same are ours. No dramatic difference there. The question is is this a one of a kind La Mouette Tsunami or are the others like this one? We haven’t seen another Top Secret (Tsunami) perform this well at all, so it is hard to know if this is a production model. It seems to be the same glider he had at the worlds in Chelan.

We came in under Hansjoerg by the prisons (surprise, there is a new prison going up next to the other two southeast of Coleman) and got back to cloudbase. Then off to Wildwood for the next cu. We joined up with Jim Yokum there who had started from a position to our east. We could see flex wing gliders also to our east.

Gliding toward the first turnpoint, I got out in front, a little lower and in the wrong position and the wrong tape went off in my head (the I can get ahead and find lift under these clouds even though I’m getting low tape). I tried to save my sorry ass at 1,000’ but just couldn’t stay with the weak lift drifting fast to the west.

Johann, Jim and David got up in the strong one that I refused to go back to (part of that bad tape), and got high before going into the turnpoint where they also found good lift. I was scratching too low one mile to the west and couldn’t chance going up wind to find that thermal.

There had been blue holes and clouds on the way north, but the blue hole got bigger as pilots headed south to Center Hill. Jim and Ron Gleason fell back to the west and got up to 7,200; over highway 75 quite a bit to the west, while Johann plowed through the blue and landed just south of Center Hill.

The flex wings were gaggling up and helping each other out more. By starting at 2:45 Bo, with Paris, Brett Hazlett, Johnny Durand, Jr. and Kraig Coomber, they were able to catch the 2:15 and 2:30 starters. Manfred started at 2:30 PM.

With a big lead gaggle they made their way through the blue hole and then at the second and last turnpoint 12 miles out from Quest were able to make it back against the head wind.

Bo won the day followed by Paris, Johnny Durand, Brett and Kraig. Johnny Durand had his GPS go out on him and he saw Bo and Paris go for it. He said that he wished he had a Flytec 4030 Race for this final glide.

Christian won the day starting a half hour after David. David was second.

To see how the top pilots did check the URL above and click Top Tracks. The animated track log for Sunday for rigids is at http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/top5/rigidtracksat.HTML (ignore the paraglider symbol).

You’ll need http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/comprigid.html to know who is who. Go to the scores URL above and click competitors to get their numbers.

Discuss "The 2003 Flytec Championship" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Dragonfly|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch|Wayne Sayer

The only change is that Bo squeaks ahead of Chris Zimmerman. Claire and Jerz add a little to their point totals. The Australian meets did little to change the US NTSS ranking going into the World Championships. The meets in Florida are the last opportunity for pilots to shake things up before they head off to Brazil.

Looking at the top pilots, let’s see what their occupation and Florida flight park affiliation is, if any:

Discuss "NTSS flex wing ranking after the Oz Nats" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bo Hagewood|Bob Lane|Chris "Hawkeye" Giardina|Dean Funk|Henry Bittner|Jen Richards|Jim Prahl|John Borton|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Mark Bolt|Matt Taber|Rob Kells|Robert "Bob" Lane|Russell "Russ" Brown|Scot Huber|Scot Trueblood|Scott Angel|Scott Trueblood|speed gliding|Steve Kroop|US Speed Gliding Nationals 2002

Scot Trueblood <Hang4av8r@aol.com> writes:

The U.S. National Speedgliding Championships, at beautiful Lookout Mountain,GA came to a conclusion Sunday with a bang rather than the expected weather-induced whimper.

After good practice flying Wednesday and 3 very good valid rounds Thursday, the weather closed in for the next 2 days due to the effects of hurricane Hanna moving inland. Winds over the back and considerable rainfall squelched even the possibility of aerotowing, and Sunday started out looking much the same. However, patience proved to be a virtue as we kept the pilots and volunteer course officials on hold, hoping for even a brief window and the possibility of one more round. What happened was beyond our wildest expectations.

Winds were calm in the LZ and the ceiling was lifting, so I decided to check conditions from the top. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rain had stopped, the winds over the back were very light, and the visibility was improving. We mobilized the forces and in less than an hour were ready to begin.

As winds were still persisting over the back, we elected to run the alternate course, which involves a start above the normal low-fly start gate and sends the fliers away from the ridge to a turnpoint over the flag in the Lookout LZ, thereby avoiding any potential rotor encounters. The pilots already had some practice on this course as well as 2 timed runs on it, so the round went off without a hitch. This course is not as technically demanding as the "A" course, but allows safe speedgliding in slightly textured air. It is not quite as steep either, and presents a whole new set of challenges as speed management and efficiency become paramount. The final turn into finish is quite exciting with proper turnpoint and gate clearance being essential to getting a good score. To nobody's surprise, Scott Angel won the round, followed by Ken Brown, Chris Giardina, and Bo Hagewood.

After a brief intermission, the conditions had improved even more and it was decided to fly the "A" course for the next round. This is what we all came for, and the excitement level was starting to build as the fliers prepared to sink their teeth into a big filet of perfect racing air. The round was again taken by Scott Angel with a time of 1:07.6, which translates into an average speed of 65.6 mph. This was Scott's fourth run in a row with a time of1:07, once again displaying the type of robotic consistency he is known for. He was closely followed by Ken Brown at 1:08.2 and a hard-charging Bo Hagewood at 1:09.5.

The next round saw identical conditions but Bo pulled a rabbit out of his hat and turned the tables on Scott by occupying the 1:07.4 time slot with Scott slipping up to a time of 1:08.3 and Kenny missing his start gate. This left the number 3 slot open to Henry Bittner and his now world famous start-gate dives, resulting in a time of 1:10.6. Henry amazed everybody watching at launch with his 70° dives from 300 feet above, definitely even a notch better than John Borton's screaming launch dives which helped win him the Championship last year. The idea of the low-fly start gate is to get everybody into the course at the same altitude and position, and a high speed dive puts you there with a lot of energy stored. Chris "Halkeye" Giardina had a slightly faster raw time of 1:09.7, but a partial miss of the turn 2 pylon cost him a 5 second penalty and put him in a respectable 4^th place for the round.

The conditions kept improving and I decided to keep them racing until they begged me to stop, which proved to be the case. Round 4 saw some interesting developments with the fast time being torn off by the fangs of Kenny "Wolfdog" Brown at 1:07.3. It was a squeaker with Bo also wanting a taste of the glory at 1:07.7. Henry was getting more than just his launch dives working right and nailed it at 1:08.2, his fastest run of the contest. Scott had a relatively poor run of 1:09.4, his worst of the meet which was still considerably faster than 10 other fliers’ best. After this round, they had all started to become crybabies about the fact that everybody's arms had turned to rubber and they were hungry, so it was decided to take a one hour break for everybody to refuel and hit the restroom. The course officials needed it just as bad as the pilots.

The overcast had worked in our favor all day by keeping a lid on any thermal development, and when the tugs fired up again at about3:15 the flying conditions were still smooth and calm. Amazingly, this turned out to be the fastest round of the entire meet. This was Bo's turn to howl as he rocketed through the course with a 1:05.4, with Kenny nipping at his heels at 1:05.9. Scott's Talon was ripping up the leftovers with a 1:06.8, and Henry wasn't exactly dragging his feet at 1:08.3.

By this time it was late and we knew it was time to start scoring the day or the awards ceremony would be atmidnight, and the pilots were on strike, this time parking their gliders at their respective camps rather than staging at the tow paddock. It had been a long & very successful day of speedgliding and everybody involved was pretty well whupped but deliriously happy for the unexpected extra rounds.

When the dust settled there were 8 rounds of speedgliding on the books, allowing us to drop the low score and high score for each flier. The suspense for your dutiful meet director and his assistant Jen Richards was almost unbearable. When the scores were finalized, it was Scott Angel once again being the victor along with the spoils, which included a beautiful traveling trophy already engraved with the name of last year's champion, John Borton. We didn't want him to travel home with a light load, so we also heaped on a very niceFirst Place plaque and a fairly hefty paycheck in the amount of $1000.00 due to the generosity of Matt Taber. Mike Theeke, a fellow competitor, had also donated a very nice stained glass biplane which is actually a kaleidoscope and I'm sure will occupy a very special place in Scott's growing collection of prize booty. He has flying in his blood, being the third generation of the Angel clan to take to the skies, the first being his grandfather for whomAngelFalls is named.

The second place trophy and check for $500 went to Bo Hagewood who was trailing by a mere 39 points out of almost 6000. I knew going in that Bo would be a serious contender but frankly a little shocked by his audacious display of speed & finesse.

Third place also included a plaque and a $300 paycheck for Ken Brown, seeing Kenny flying fast and winning rounds doesn't surprise anybody. Only 74 points behind Bo, one more round of flying could have easily altered these top 3 standings in anybody's favor.

4^th place was well deserved by Henry Bittner and won him a Flytec Windwatch handheld weather station, courtesy of our friend Steve Kroop of Flytec USA, as was the Altimeter Swiss Army Knife won by Chris Giardina for his 5^th place showing. Thanks again to Steve & Flytec for his continued support of Speedgliding in theUS.

Lots of good swag was also donated by Rob Kells and crew from Wills Wing, Kenny Brown of MoyesAmerica, and numerous other contributors in the local community in the form of gift certificates and such. Much of it was given away in drawings which included pilots as well as the hard-working volunteers. There was something for just about everyone, and in the end, we all had a very fun time. Many thanks go to the tug pilots for keeping gliders in the air and on course with almost military precision. Eric Graper, Joel Finley, and Jim Richardson drove the LMFP Dragonflies, and a very generous Russell Brown donated his tug and services, which really kept the action moving.

In typicalLookoutMountain style, the camaraderie was great, the cookouts delicious, and the parties almost excessively fun. I can hardly wait for next year…!!!

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Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams

The latest US NTSS ranking reflects the results of the Brazilian Open and the 2002 Pre Worlds in Brasilia. Curt moves up from fifth to fourth. Carlos moves from eighth to fifth. Glen, who stayed home and worked, drops from fourth to sixth. Chris Zimmerman who also didn’t go south falls from fifth to eighth. Kari stays in seventh.

Carlos may fly for the Brazilians in the Worlds next year, so he might not be on the US team. Right now he can choose.

The ranking that will count for the Worlds in 2003 will most likely include the three big competitions in Australia in January, and the two Florida competitions in April.

Discuss "Flex wing NTSS" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Dave Brandt|David "Dave" Sharp|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|James "Jim" Zeiset|Jamie Shelden|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|Reggie Jones|Tip Rogers

After the US Open the US Pilots ranking stands as follows:

Class 1:

Class 5:

The recent Worlds in Chelan do not count for NTSS ranking. There will be changes in the Class 1 ranking after the three meets in Brazilin August and September.

The above Class 5 ranking is the final ranking for 2002.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Class 5 today:

Class 5 cumulative (going into the last day):

Class 1 today:

Cumulative Class 1:

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

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

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Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Curt Warren|Gary Davis|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS 2003|Paris Williams|Robert "Bo" Hagewood|Steve Rewolinski|Wayne Sayer

So this is now things stand in the flex wing category. Jim Lee will need to place well to get back up to the top of the list after not attending the Australian meets (which have become an adjunct of the US meets for top US pilots).

Discuss "Class I 2003 NTSS points:" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Chris Arai|Mike Barber|Bruce Barmakian|Heiner Biesel|Mark Bolt|Campbell Bowen|Richard Burton|Kari Castle|Gary Davis|David Giles|Bubba Goodman|Bo Hagewood|Jim Lee|Mark Mulholland|Brian Porter|Johann Posch|Terry Presley|Steve Rewolinski|Jersey Rossignol|Richard Sauer|Wayne Sayer|David Sharp|James Stinnett|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Michael Williams|Paris Williams|Jim Yocom|Jim "JZ" Zeiset|Chris Zimmerman

Now that the US Nationals are complete, there are a few changes in the US pilot ranking. I'll post the latest ranking up on the web in a few days. You'll find it at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/2002ntss.htm.

Latest Class I ranking:

Mike Barber didn't attend due to an earlier injury to his shoulder, but this didn't affect his standing. Kari Castle instead went to Austria to speed glide. This allowed Glen, Rich and Jersey to gather enough points to pass her. Chris Zimmerman moved up five places.

I spoke with Kari before she decided to go to Austria. While she was uncomfortable about missing the US Nationals for the first time in over a decade, she realized that with the Worlds two years away, she had plenty of opportunities to obtain a high ranking in time for her to get on the US National team again.

Latest Class II ranking:

The only change in the top ten of Class II is that Bruce Barmakian has moved up from ninth to sixth. The Class II Worlds will be held next July in Chelan. Based on the current ranking the US team would consist of:

Brian and Mark would fly in Class IV at the Chelan Worlds. Johann flies for Austria in the Worlds.

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Bobby Bailey|Brian Porter|calendar|CIVL|Jamie Shelden|Jim Lee|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Bolt|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Robert Reisinger|Rohan Taylor|Vicki Cain|Worlds 2001

Last two days have been called due to stability. Out of nine days, four have been flown for points. The Worlds calendar called for 6 days of flying, one day of parades and then a second 6-day leg. They flew on the day of the parade (all right!).

No word yet about the fact that Mark Bolt is missing from the USA scoring as is Jamie Sheldon from rigid WAG scoring.

Vicki Cain <vix001@hotmail.com> writes:

Task 4: Saturday 23^rd June Super hot today, about 43°, a 84 km task is called with 4 turnpoints and the goal back near Algodonales. We head down to the goal paddock to arrive there about 7 pm, as we figure they will get the 5pm start gate, a 2 hour course and be there by 7 pm as the last 2 days. We stopped for lunch at headquarters at about 6 pm and to escape the heat for a bit. When we get to goal it's hot, hot, hot. The goal paddock is a ploughed dark brown field, like Forbes, and at 8 pm it's still 40°.

The day is way stable and tough going on the course, we hear there are about 20 pilots just 5 kms from goal and just need to get enough height to get over the last hill before goal but there is a thin cloud cover that has come over. Then we see them circling above the hill, scraping to get up enough height to get there, there are about 8 in the gaggle, one heads off then they all straighten up for final glide.

Just at that time Steve calls to say that he has landed about 10 kms from goal. He says stay to watch them come in. It's really exciting, Claudia (Manfred's girlfriend) is sitting with us. Manfred was first, then Nene, Gerolf, Betinho and Robert Reisinger. 3 Austrians and 2 Brazilians, 3 Litespeeds and 2 Laminars.

Class 2 there are 4 rigid wings. Alex, the pilot in first place comes in first then another Atos, then a Top Secret then Brian Porter. (Sorry I don't know their names) I spoke to Brian this morning in the internet cafe and he said that the first day he was flying too aggressive for the light conditions, day two he got stuck low and day 3 he was too aggressive again. Day 4 was his first best day. Nene Rotor- Brazil won the day.

We find out later that there are another 10 pilots that couldn't get enough height to get over the last hill, Bob, Attila, Antoine, Guido amongst them, they landed just outside Algodonales. So we head off to get Steve, then Attila calls, he is closer so we get him first as I can't get the GPS working properly and I'm not confident to head out for Steve without a GPS.

By the time we get to Steve and Brett it's been 2 hours since he landed and they are cooked and exhausted. I'll have to pick my game up or I'll get the sack! There are pilots all along this road just before the last turnpoint. We get back to town about 11pm and head out for dinner.

Task 5: Sunday 24^th June Yesterday the temperature was a lot easier to handle, with a bit of a breeze on the top of the hill. We have not been heading up the mountain until a bit later, leaving about 1pm, get there at 2pm, set up by 3pm. By the time we arrive most everyone is set up. Yesterday the early bird window started at 3.15 until 4 because of the stable air. No one was getting above hill height.

The organizers believed the inversion would lift around 4.30 so they started the ordered launch at 4 pm. Steve was first off as he placed 30^th the day before and they reverse the launch order for the top 30 for the previous days results! He sat on launch not wanting to go as there was no where to go except up with the other 15 early bird pilots that were just hanging around the mountain.

He didn't have to go unless someone made a push, about 4.15 Jim Lee made a push so he had to go in 1 minute, which he did. Steve radioed back " make sure Jim Lee gets off"! 15 minutes later at 4.30 pm the task was cancelled, everyone was relieved as the day was so late and going nowhere. There were already about 50 pilots in the air when the day was cancelled.

Gerolf made a low fast pass over launch which started off a little aerobatics show. Luis Niemeyer did some real fast close passes then the young Aussie, Adam, did a real nice loop out in front. That bought some ohhhs and ahhhhs out of the crowd. It was Sunday so there was quite a local crowd on launch and they were treated to a great show!

Steve and Brett were already in the air and flew to the landing area at the back of the town, the landing area is a strawberry patch next to the river. Just near the landing area along the river there is a gypsy camp, which looks pretty sad. Molly didn't come up the mountain today as Bill went to Portugal to pick up Bobby Bailey so we only had one car and just enough room for Steve, Attila, Brett and me.

The plan was for Bill to meet us at Goal, which was about 20 kms from Seville, on his way back from Portugal but when the day was cancelled he just headed back to Algodonales, he got back to town about the same time as us, 7pm The gaggles are huge, there have been 3 mid air touches already, none too serious thank goodness.

Just some notes to your questions: A few days before the start of the competition it was announced that about 30 of the entered pilots would not be allowed to enter the competition, Jamie was one of these. There is apparently a new rule just passed that you have to have competed in a category one competition in the last 3 years or a category 2 comp and placed in the top ⅔rds of the field. The pilots protested on the grounds of lack of notice, all but about 5 were eventually allowed to fly the comp.

(editor's note: We heard that this was the case when the meet organizers realized how much money they would be out if these pilots didn't get to fly. I'll just bet that Jamie is not very happy having flown to Europe and then not being allowed to fly.)

Rohan did make goal that day but had some GPS problem, there was no signal over launch for some time, and lots of other pilots had the same, his points have been revised. He still holds 3^rd.

Juaki the meet organizer wrote to complain about my long and loud complaints about PDF files. First, he is very nice to tell me that he will send me the results of the Worlds in HTML at the end of the meet (the only results I'll need for US pilot ranking). I really appreciate this, because it makes it much easier to determine the US pilots ranking if I get the results in this web standard format.

I have complained long and loud because PDF is not a standard. It is proprietary format. It does not play well with others. You can't take data from it and put it into other programs with any ease. (I'll just bet someone has written a shareware program that will convert PDF to HTML, but I don't have time to look for it.)

Juaki is unhappy that I have complained and blames his PDF usage on the Spanish National Aero club. Well, if someone doesn't complain then how is any one to know that there is a problem? There is a very big problem. PDF sucks big time. There is no need what so ever to use it on the web. The Race 2000 program produces HTML just as easily as PDF. PDF requires a separate reader, it is very slow to download. PDF is not compatible.

HTML is an internationally agreed upon standard maintained by a standards body. It formats just as well as PDF for the Race output.

Australian CIVL representative, Michael Zupanc, wrote in to complain that Juaki isn't publishing the complete Race output, including the statistics. With those statistics we would have some idea of what was going on with the poor scoring – low validity.

Juaki also complained that I published Steve Blenkisop's complaint that the team scoring was not using the daily pilots scores, but the overall pilot scores. I don't have access to other than a smattering of team scores at the moment, but unless the same top two guys score all the points for the four member team (quite possible), then Steve is right. I'll check with him again and hopefully get access to the web soon to see what the problem is (if any).

WAG Hang Gliding web site: (http://www.wag2001.org/Hang%20Gliding/Main%20Frame.htm):

You can find results (if and when) at:

http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c1.asp
http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c2.asp

or

http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultadosing.htm
http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultados.htm (Spanish)

or

http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/worlds/worlds.htm

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Pilot ranking for 2001 US National team

The Florida meets made a few changes in the composition of the US Class I National team that will represent the United States in the 2001 World Championships in Spain starting in mid June. The US Class I National team consists of the six highest-ranking pilots, 45 days before the World Championships begin. As Glen Volk most likely won't be able to travel to Spain, Chris Arai would take his place.

Current Class I ranking:

WILLIAMS Paris

CAMERON Patti

Here are the top twenty Class I pilots for the 2000 World team.

The current rankings for the 2001 World team include only the best two meet scores in 1999. The rankings are as follows:

Here are the top ten Class II pilots for the 2001 World team.

Here are the top twenty Class I pilots for the 2001 World team.

Arai Chris