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topic: Richard "Rich" Burton (7 articles)

Thanks for Supporting the Community »

August 2, 2019, 8:04:53 MDT

Thanks for Supporting the Community

We've received more donations

Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Richard Burton|Ron Gleason|Tom McGowan|William "Billo" Olive

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/cloudbase-foundation-inc/assist-big-spring-texas-foster-kids

For seventeen years the City of Big Spring has very generously supported hang gliding competition by providing us with unlimited access to their airport (a former airbase with a ten thousand foot runway). They go all out to welcome us to their town feeding us on the opening night, giving us free water and ice cream. We get to set up our gliders in a hangar if we like. The EMS guys are on site for any issues (we've never really had anything other than minor scrapes).

This year were are putting on the pre-Pan-Americans. Teams from Mexico and Guatemala have made it possible for us to hold this meet. We are looking forward to a big competition in 2020.

We would like to raise $5,000 so that we can get $5,000 matching from the Cloudbase Foundation. You can help us out by supporting the good folks of Big Spring.

Thanks to those who have donated in the last twenty four hours: Charlie Allen, Ron Gleason and Phillip Morgan.

We've raised over $3,000 by Friday morning.

Wow! Great response. Nathan Wreyford's 91-year year old Grandmother wrote a check for $500 to the Cloudbase Foundation for Big Spring which we'll get when we get to Big Spring. Also multiple donations have come in today on Friday from: Gregory Billow, Gregg Ludwig, Frank Tona, and Daniel Lukaszewicz.

Thanks so much.

I know that the 2019 Big Spring Nationals is a very expense meet ($600 for aero towing, for example) so I have been reluctant to ask for more. So it is great to see all these donations.

So far we've raised over $4,000 which means that we can give at least $8,000 to the Rainbow Room.

Thanks again.

Well, now (Saturday afternoon) we are over $4,500 with very generous support from Mike Duffy and Tom McGowan. Thanks guys.

Thanks to Richard Burton and Victor Hare for additional donations on Sunday.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 20, 2018, 10:18:21 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The weakness after the rain storm

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Greg Kendall|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

After I wrote about how good conditions were here (https://ozreport.com/22.189#3), they have turned to very weak after a deluge on Wednesday.

The pilot meeting was delayed for a late launch. The start window wasn't set to open until 2:30 PM with a short day forecasted. The task committee set a small task of 63 km:

The forecast for soaring indicated very poor soaring conditions. Pilots were not ready to launch at 1:15 PM. We stood around waiting for some sign that we should get going. Kevin Carter and Bill Bennett flew around but they weren't too inspiring.

Finally an hour later at 2:15 PM a few of us got dressed and that moved the crowd to get out of the shade and get to their gliders. I took off at 2:17 PM.

Jonny Thompson pulled me up and I didn't pin off until 2,000' AGL. There was very little lift. I joined up with Felix and Luke and we just hung in -30 fpm. Zac Majors came and joined us.

Luke drifted a little further east and found better lift and Zac and I joined him. We got up at 90 fpm.

We kept drifting further east at 9 mph and climbing to 4,100'. I noticed that we were right at the edge of the 5 kilometer start circle coincidentally it was about to be the second start time, 2:45 PM. One turn and all three of us got it.

Four or five pilots who had climbed up over launch came flying toward us as we headed out to the southeast. I followed Zac and Luke. Then veering off the course line to the south I found 35 fpm and that turned out to be the hot spot.

After a few turns to the south of me Zac came in under.  The other pilots trickled in. I climbed to 3,300', but something wasn't working. Zac was able to climb up through me even though I was right over him and lost 300' of altitude. I couldn't figure out what was going on.

I finally had to leave and head southeast to the Casa Grande mountains. Nothing there for me and I was soon on the ground.

Eleven pilots were able to continue in the air past the second turnpoint at Arizona City at 25.5 km out.

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 36.98 229
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 36.00 227
3 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 35.34 224
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 35.22 223
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 35.25 223
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 33.24 206
7 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 31.39 192
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 29.93 184
8 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 29.72 184
10 Jeff Chipman Moyes Litespeed S4T 29.77 182

The scorekeeper needs to add 5 km to each of these distances.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2722
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 2690
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2521
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2355
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 2301
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2297
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2168
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2134
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2125
10 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 2069

The ATOS and Swift class pilots passed on flying today, with only Rich Burton on an ATOS flying.

Only two Sport Class pilots got outside the start cylinder.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day 3 Cumulative Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 19, 2018, 8:23:10 MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Ben Dunn|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Sara Weaver|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Open class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 789 891 937 2617
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 985 987 616 2588
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 806 996 527 2329
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 734 765 727 2226
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 512 839 777 2128
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 944 606 531 2081
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 919 228 931 2078
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 946 602 510 2058
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 823 585 542 1950
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 850 518 487 1855
11 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 726 576 538 1840
12 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 766 816 240 1822
13 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 708 235 860 1803
14 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 448 630 652 1730
15 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 752 585 390 1727

Sport Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Matt Pruett Wills Wing U2 145 1000 775 41 1816
2 David Aldrich Wills Wing Sport 3 135 458 757 66 1281
3 L.J. Omara Wills wing U2 160 458 500 60 1018
4 Ric Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 753 197 41 991
5 Jeff Parrott Wills Wing U2 145 624 310 49 983
6 Bill Snyder Wills Wing u2 440 456 41 937
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport3 135 618 230 41 889
8 Abhishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 643 179 57 879
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 427 405 41 873
10 Bill Comstock Wills Wing S3 458 170 41 669

ATOS Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Fred Kaemerer AIR ATOS VR 1000 1000 925 2925
2 Peter Cairns A.I.R ATOS VQ 676 380 411 1467
3 Rich Burton Icaro Stratos 594 325 78 997

Swift Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 991 964 990 2945
2 Greg Chastain Swift 773 1000 986 2759
3 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 951 682 0 1633
4 Stephen Morris Bright Star Swift 287 220 672 1179

NTSS going into 2005

Sat, Nov 13 2004, 11:00:00 am EST

The preliminary ranking in anticipation of the upcoming competition season.

Bo Hagewood|Bruce Barmakian|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|George Stebbins|Glen Volk|Jack Simmons|James Lamb|Kevin Carter|Mark Stump|Mike Barber|Oliver Gregory|Paris Williams|Richard Burton|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|Tom Pierce

https://ozreport.com/compPilotRankings.php

You can find the current rankings at the URL above. The rankings below just include the pilot's best two flights in 2004. Pilots can use these to determine approximately how well they will need to do to get on the US National teams for 2006.

Rigid Wing:
 

1 Straub Davis 777
2 GLEASON Ron 712
3 Yocom Jim 679
4 ENDTER Vincent 652
5 LAMB James 589
6 Bowen Campbell 534
7 Brown Russell 521
8 GREGORY Oliver 462
9 STUMP Mark 437
10 POUSTICHIAN Mark 431
11 BARMAKIAN Bruce 410
12 Evans Joe 275
13 BURTON Richard 273
14 Pierce Tom 222
15 MALLETT Denny 216

Flex wing:
 

1 Warren Curt 1057
2 Martin Dustin 909
3 Barber Mike 896
4 BLOOM Phil 849
5 Volk Glen 816
6 CARTER Kevin 813
7 PRESLEY Terry 780
8 Straub Davis 733
9 Hagewood Bo 690
10 ZIMMERMAN Chris 671
11 LANNING Tom 572
12 Goodman Bubba 568
13 Bunner Larry 567
14 SLOCUM Jack 543
15 Stebbins George 525
16 VASSORT Claire 513
17 Simmons Jack 509
18 HAYWOOD John 477
19 Williams Paris 474
19 Williams Michael 474

US Nationals »

Wed, Aug 4 2004, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Weak lift on a blue day.

Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|James Lamb|Jim Lamb|Jim Yocom|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Rich Burton|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|US Nationals|Vince Endter|weather

Interactive real time pages with a map of the area.

Another option to try. Also  http://aprs.net choose the central map then you can zoom in the action at W9if.

Pilots near goal.   Pilots will be using kf4nsp-1 through kf4nsp-7, click on the icon to see name of pilot.

Alternative way to watch:

Click on any of the pilots

KF4NSP Kevin Carter
KF4NSP-1 Paris Williams
KF4NSP-2 Curt Warren
KF4NSP-3 Brett Hazlett
KF4NSP-4 Kraig Coomber

Meet page.

Results.

Curt has a few words and pictures daily, during the Nats at: www.WarrenWindsports.com.

Today's task and flight.

On Sunday my climb rate on the task was 329 fpm, on Monday, 295 fpm, on Tuesday 245 fpm, and today it was 179 fpm. Things are getting lighter and lighter out here. And today except for the massive cu nimbs 150 miles to the north, north of Lubbock, there were no clouds at all here.

Today the weather models were confusing, because it wasn't clear when the front that was 150 miles to the north would come down here. The FSL RUC did call for a blue day, but it had been under calling the moisture so it was hard to know if it should be trusted.

Dr. Jack was calling for strong (700+ fpm) lift, which proved to be completely off base. But he did get the fact that it was a blue day correctly.

Gary Osoba does no better, calling for better lift than the previous days, and cloud base to 8,500', when we were lucky to finally get to 7,400' when we actually found 400 fpm. I was left to throw up my hands saying that it looked to me like we wouldn't get any higher than we had over the past three days.

We moved everything back based on Gary's advice that things will improve dramatically after 2 PM, which turns out not to be true. The start time for the rigids was 2 PM and for flex wings 2:30 to 3 PM.

We started launching about 1:15 PM and my track log shows that after getting off tow I spent the whole time circling and very slowly drifting toward the five mile start circle and very slowly climbing to 6,800'. There were ten rigid wing pilots with me including Mark Poustinchian, Vince Endter, Russell Brown, Ron Gleason, Bruce Barmakian, Campbell Bowen, Denny Mallett, Jim Yocom, Jim Lamb, and Rich Burton. We were all hanging together in very light lift and waiting until the 2 PM start time.

It was a day that hanging todaywass one every one's mind. Gaggle flying was the order of the day as finding lift would be much easier if we were flying together and helping each other out. Everyone was aware of this and was acting thusly.

Bruce was climbing well just getting above me near the start time along with Denny Mallett in his VX. We all head edoff together. I went out in front with Mark and at nine miles out from the start circle found the first good thermal at 1,500' AGL.

We all continued to keep in visual contact with each other without any clouds to help us know where the lift was organized. Only able to climb to about 6,500' MSL (3,500'- 4,000' AGL), we were continually threatened with the chance of landing getting down to 1,600' a couple of more times.

Our task was a mere 63 miles miles out to the north. At 37 miles out the ten of us came together again, when we saw Mark circling low by himself just ahead of the rest of us. After getting up, Mark, followed by Denny, Russell, and Campbell, headed north northwest toward more cultivated lands. The rest of us headed due north on course over scab lands with few roads but the promise of hot rocks and better lift than the plowed areas.

This promise turned out not to be fulfilled. At 47 miles out we were down to 1,600' and working light lift. Ron got a little too low and landed. Yocom and I worked the lift and later we were joined by Bruce and Vince. We slowly got out of the bad lands and headed for the cultivated and green areas  to the north toward goal.

I had a few hundred feet on Bruce at this point and I was determined to maintain my advantage the rest of the way. Seven miles from goal we found our first good thermal of the day. We climbed at 400 fpm to 7,400'. It wa a 20 to one glide to goal.

Bruce and I went on glide toward goal. At 11 miles out we found enough lift to climb again and leaft together with a 16:1 glide to goal. We were pulled in and flying fast at 57 mph. I was about five seconds behind but 200' above Bruce.

At 3 miles out at 1,200' AGL we stopped again for light lift gaining two hundred feet while drifting closer toward goal. Then Bruce pulled in and I followed at 61 mph, a few seconds behind. We were flying fast and I was trying just to keep up with Bruce.

At a half mile before the goal cylinder Bruce suddenly slowed up so that he could clear a phone line on the south end of the airport. I passed him quickly and got to the goal cylinder two seconds in front of him.

Mark and Denny finding better lift on the cultivated fields to our west were able to get much higher than us while we were struggling just to stay up and beat us by seven or eight minutes into goal. We were followed by Jim Yocom, Vince, and Jim Lamb.

The flex wings didn't start until their last time at 3 PM. It was an hour after we started and we had all broken down and about to go home when we heard that they are coming in. Like us they had all been flying together in one big gaggle, just as we did, not finding any better conditions and actually flying slower than us.

Curt Warren was the first pilot in, followed by Phil Bloom and Kraig Coomber. I also saw Paris, Dustin, Kevin, Jerz, Mike Barber, Larry Bunner, Brett, Robin, Terry and others. The full results should be up tomorrow.

My guess on the cumulative rigid standings:

Place Name Glider
1 STRAUB Davis AIR ATOS VX
2 BARMAKIAN Bruce AIR Atos C
3 YOCOM James AIR ATOS V
4 POUSTICHIAN Mark AIR ATOS VX
5 MALLETT Denny AIR ATOS VX
6 ENDTER Vincent Icaro Stratos
7 LAMB James AIR ATOS VX

 Discuss US Nationals at the Oz Report forum

Icaro and AIR

Wed, Feb 13 2002, 7:00:00 pm GMT

Altair Industries LLC|Gianni Hotz|Icaro 2000|Peter Radman|Rich Burton

Gianni Hotz «staff» writes:

I did not know that things were so confused in the US, the facts are very simple: Before Icaro started producing the entire Atos (when we only made the sails and keels), AIR had given the sole rights for this Rigid Wing in the US to Altair. When we took over the production of the Atos (in October 2001) and started to sell it all over the world, we also continued to respect the agreements which AIR had taken with Altair regarding the sole rights in the US.

On August 20th, 2001 Peter Radman (ex owner of Altair) informed us that from this date on "Altair Inc will cease operations and will no longer be involved in hang gliding Manufacturing/Sales/Distribution. A member of Altair Inc management, Ivan Mrazek has established his own company, Altair Industries, LLC and will continue operations."

Therefore Altair has never really been closed, Ivan continued to sell the Atos in the USA

Last summer we decided with Felix that: AIR could start to produce the Atos again in Germany (this is what Felix wanted). We would start to make our own Rigid Wing, of course with the cooperation of Felix and using the carbon parts of the Atos (we will pay a Royalty to Felix for every Icaro Rigid Wing we will sell).

Because we make our own Rigid Wing, Icaro can sell through its own dealers, in the US, AV8 (Rich Burton).

Of course we wanted to make a rigid wing which is a bit different than the Atos. And for this reason we have made our own model with only some small improvements, seeing that the Atos flies so well! (over 500 Atoses sold in 3 years!).

While we are waiting for our new Rigid Wing to be ready we have:

1) Continued to sell the Atos to Altair

2) Informed Rich that, as soon as the new Rigid is ready, he can sell these as well.

Before starting to sell our Rigid Wing, we wanted to redo the DHV test. The pitch test was passed successfully last week. Now we have announced the beginning of the production with nice pictures of our first prototype.

(editor’s note: The pictures are up on the Icaro web site. www.Icaro200.com. The new Icaro rigid wing – as yet un named - is an AIR ATOS-C with a Wills Wing control frame. Icaro in general indicates that tailplanes are not effective, but I have asked Gianni specifically if he thinks the tailplane will be effective on a rigid wing.)

Discuss "Icaro and AIR" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

US Nationals – never give up »

Sun, Aug 12 2001, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|cart|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Florida|Gary Osoba|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|Richard "Rich" Burton|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|USHGA|US Nationals|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Wow, the results from yesterday are really interesting. The results aren't up yet on the Austin Airsports web site (www.austinairsports.com), and I've had to write down the results from the paper print out, so I'm not able to retype in everyone's name. Hopefully they'll get the results up soon.

Until then, Task I (yesterday):

Class I:

Paris Williams, Icaro Laminar, 3:40 (hours:minutes for the 126 mile task.)
Sugarman, Icaro Laminar, 3:42
Sandy Dittmar, WW Talon, 3:46
Carlos Bessa, 3:59, Moyes Litespeed
Bo Hagewood, 4:00, WW Talon
Curt Warren, 4:00, Moyes Litespeed

Say, what? Sugarman, Carlos, Curt, who are these guys? Carlos, Wallaby Ranch tug pilot, just got his US citizenship a month ago. Sugarman has done well in Florida meets, where he lives. Curt, tug and tandem pilot, just flew 260 miles in Zapata.

Class II:

Here's something different:

Robin Hamilton, Brightstar Swift, 3:09 (same task)
Davis Straub, 3:26, AIR ATOS (same old, same old)
Mark Poustinchian, 3:52, AIR ATOS
Johann Posch, 3:55, AIR ATOS-C
Bruce Barmakian, 4:02, Aeros Stalker (really? – looked like an ATOS to me)
Brian Porter, 4:05, Brightstar Swift

Robin is a long time British national flex wing team member. Got himself a little surgery, and now he comes out as an ultralight sailplane pilot.

Today the task committee called a couple of triangles. With two separate competitions the task committee gets to have prolonged fights about two tasks instead of one. The rigids went around their thin 73 mile triangle clockwise, and the flex wings got a triangle that looked more like at FAI triangle and they did it counter clockwise. Everyone seemed to be happy with this arrangement in the end.

The rigid task was NE (there was a light southwest flow on the ground), 30 miles to the intersection of highway 8 and 979, east, to Marquez, and then back to Hearne, a total of 73 miles. The flex wing task was a similar length. The idea was to get a three-hour task assuming 25 mph.

There were no clouds this morning and it didn't look like they would show up until after one o'clock. The winds were a bit strong, but they were supposed to lighten up. Today we had plenty of time to get out and get ready to go.

I got off early, and pinned off at 650 feet in a bit of lift. I was going up when I noticed that I had screwed my zipper once again (I sure wish I could fix that problem). Other pilots were turning and doing fine over the airport in spite of the blue. I went down to land to fix the zipper.

All the tugs were over at the rigid wing line getting them into the air first as the flex wings had a later start gate. Unfortunately as I landed, I came in a bit down wind, turtled the ATOS and snapped the keel. This 45 minutes before the final start gate for the rigids. The rigid wing pilots were being jerked into the air very quickly at this point.

I had a spare keel in David Glover's glider under my trailer, and it took 1 hour and thirty minutes to replace my keel with the spare with help from Belinda and Gary Osoba, who showed up today to help with the weather forecasting. I got the start gate over an hour after everyone else, and I just had to take it low as I hadn't found any lift to speak of in the first 7 miles.

Meanwhile in the flex wing line, Carlos Bessa who was doing so well yesterday locked out with his VG on. The glider was not too controllable. He crashed in hard into a cart and a golf cart, somewhat hurting himself, and taking on the new Moyes Zoom control frame. Then, Rich Burton did a similar number and took out a down tube. They closed launch for twenty minutes at this point to let wind/thermal conditions calm down.

Otherwise we were just out here recreating and doing a bang up job of it.

The cu's started around 2 PM, so it was good to have a late start if one must. Robin and Brian were out in front racing with each other a bit. I didn't get to see much as I was way behind and all alone.

I started catching folks at the first turn point 30 miles out, and just kept catching more and more of them. They weren't any help with thermal spotting, but it was great to see them disappear in my rear view mirror. Thankfully it was a cloud street all the way from the second turnpoint back to goal.

Johann feels that he is flying too fast on the new ATOS-C. He had a couple of saves from less than 300' AGL. He couldn't slow the thing down while thermaling. I passed him at the second turnpoint and then he was motivated to glide faster and he landed only four minutes behind me.

Task II Class II results:

Robin Hamilton, Brightstar Swift, 2:05:50 (33 mph)
Brian Porter, Brightstar Swift, 2:16:17
Mark Poustinchian, AIR ATOS, 2:46:02
Jim Yoccum, AIR ATOS, 2:52:15
Heiner Beisel AIR ATOS, 2:53:35
Bruce Barmakian, AIR ATOS, 3:02:45

I came in tenth at 3:36:25 with an hour and 4 minute handicap.

Robin and Brian took most of the points today (as they would on any day that they finish much faster than the rigid wing hang gliders). They means that the spread between the rest of us is much reduced and devalued. So it goes.

Task II Class I results:

The score keepers aren't quite ready with Class I prelims just yet. Because Check In can communicate with Race (the scoring program) they can get a pretty good system going and get results out fairly quickly. Should be ready later tonight, while I sleep (didn't get much last night after the long drive).

Gerolf was first and right behind him was Paris. Gerolf led most of the way, but got stuck near the end. Paris almost overtook him. Jim Lee and Conrad Lotten came in at about the same time (4:48) but they took an earlier start gate.

Gerolf was in a foul mood after yesterday and this apparently just motivated him to win the day (not that he necessarily needed all that much motivation).

Tish had to land ten miles short of goal as her old arm injury was acting up and making it too hard to control the glider. This was quite heartbreaking for her. Tish is mentally very very tough, but the body has a few weaknesses (true for all of us).