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topic: Tove Heaney

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The Women's Sport Class World Championships

March 21, 2017, 9:32:08 pm EST -0400

The Women's Sport Class World Championships

CIVL has finally come around to my way of thinking about how to encourage pilots

CIVL

CIVL|Tove Heaney

The Sport Class in the US came about when I took Tove Heaney's idea of the floater class in Australian competition and used it to make a class that encouraged less experienced pilots without top of the line topless gliders to compete against pilots similarly situated. I didn't allow top competition pilots to fly in sport class. I created a handicap system that allowed for all type of gliders.

Sport Class has been a big success in the US. It has been adopted by Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico where many pilots can not afford expensive topless gliders.

Colombia brought the idea of the Sport Class to CIVL, but CIVL wasn't interested (until now perhaps) in my goal of encouraging newer pilots to take part in competition. They held a Sport Class Worlds and sure enough invited the highest ranking topless pilots to enter.

But maybe now they are changing their minds.

The main way that we discouraged top competition pilots from entering Sport Class was to hold open and Sport Class competitions at the same time and place. Sure we didn't allow any pilot who had been in the top twenty NTSS ranking over the previous three years to fly in Sport Class, but really, none wanted to fly in Sport Class when they could fly in open class.

CIVL has copied our way of doing things organizing the 2017 Women's' Worlds at the same time and place as the World Championships. Just like we encourage less experienced pilots to enter competition CIVL wants to encourage less experienced women to enter competition and they are doing just the same way we do.

The top women who have made their national teams will be flying in the open World Championship, and the women who didn't make their national teams will be flying in the Women's (Sport Class) Worlds.

It is so refreshing when you see one of your cherished concepts adopted by an international organization.

>

Photo by Adam Bain

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2016 Dalby Big Air - last task »

Sat, Apr 16 2016, 6:14:55 am MDT

Paris wins, Curt second

Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2016|Facebook|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Paris Williams|Rohan Taylor|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2016/comp results.html

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Len Paton Moyes RX 4 01:56:51 994
2 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 01:58:39 964
3 John Smith Moyes Rs 4 01:58:47 948
4 Gavin Myers Moyes RX 5 01:59:50 932
5 Craig Taylor Moyes RX 3.5 02:00:18 922
6 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 02:02:54 893
7 Paris Williams Moyes RX 3.5 02:03:01 890
8 Konrad Heilmann Moyes RX 3.5 02:04:00 885
9 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 02:04:25 878
10 Chris Lawry Moyes Lss 4 02:09:50 838

Final:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 Total
1 Paris Williams Moyes RX 3.5 988 829 1000 796 890 4503
2 Curt Warren Moyes RX 4 866 754 819 1000 964 4403
3 Len Paton Moyes RX 4 715 915 777 856 994 4257
4 Gavin Myers Moyes RX 5 864 835 803 785 932 4219
5 John Smith Moyes Rs 4 727 782 907 837 948 4201
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 658 915 833 751 705 3862
7 Vic Hare Wills Wing T2C 716 913 865 707 625 3826
8 Rohan Taylor Moyes Rs 4 653 916 754 791 651 3765
9 Josh Woods Moyes RX 3.5 832 898 351 759 893 3733
10 Tyler Borrdaile Wills Wing T2C 828 811 818 709 493 3659

The women of Dalby including the Flying Fish:

Tove Heaney, daughter Hannah, Tish the Flying Fish

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2016 Dalby Big Air day one

April 10, 2016, 7:53:23 EST -0400

2016 Dalby Big Air day one

Paris Williams wins the first day

Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2016|Facebook|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|photo|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2016/open%20class/task_result_2016-04-10_%2820160410-1743%29.html

# Name Glider Time km/h Total
1 Paris Williams Moyes RX 3.5 02:08:04 47.3 932
2 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:16:52 44.2 882
3 Gavin Myers Moyes Litespeed RX5 02:18:12 43.8 860
4 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:19:16 43.5 848
5 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RX 4 02:16:41 44.3 835
6 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RX 4 02:17:04 44.2 824
7 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:18:50 43.6 802
8 Tyler Borrdaile Wills Wing T2C 02:18:57 43.6 795
9 Jason Kath Wills Wing T2C 02:19:11 43.5 789
10 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 02:20:23 43.1 778

daughter Hanna on the left, husband Grant on the right, Tove in the middle

2016 Flatter than the Flatlands »

Day 4, I can't believe that they didn't handicap the ATOS

Flatter than the Flatlands

March 28, 2016, 8:53:40 EST -0400

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Flatter than the Flatlands 2016|Grant Heaney|Peter Lissenburg|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney writes:

Birchip flatter than the flatlands comp day 4. Made goal. Neale and Grant smoked it in. Felt great after yesterday's bomb out. Only a 38km task because of bad forecast and very overcast sky. Conditions was much better than expected. Super fun flight. 9 people made it. Scores will be tight in the top spot after Johannes coming first in the Atos ridged wing. Dalby next!

Final results:

http://www.sacra.biz/fttf/

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Johannnes Straub Atos VR 1000 628 945 562 3135
2 Peter Lissenburg Combat 917 428 887 600 2832
3 Neale Halsall RX 4 870 505 784 663 2822
4 Grant Heaney LS 3.5 927 501 760 617 2805
5 Andy Phillips Aeros 9T 07 889 219 432 529 2069
6 Tove Heaney RX 3 857 538 106 539 2040
7 Andy Schmidt C4 307 555 467 639 1968
8 Col Jackson Sting 3 168 427 428 626 456 1937
9 Stephen Norman Atos 464 446 305 553 1768
10 Mike Grimes Litespeed 564 447 502 226 1739

2016 Flatter than the Flatlands »

March 26, 2016, 8:06:55 EST -0400

Flatter than the Flatlands

Day 2

Flatter than the Flatlands 2016|Grant Heaney|Peter Lissenburg

Flatter than the Flatlands 2016|Grant Heaney|Peter Lissenburg|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney writes:

Birchip Flatter than the Flatlands competition Day 2.

Wow what a different day to yesterday. Forecast was for hardly any lift after midday due to too much cloud cover. A short task of 44km was set forecast in mind. But it was pumping!!

So after scratching low all the way yesterday today we raced from cloud to cloud. Cloud base was about 4000ft and not all climbs was worth taking to base but the clouds worked. Task could have been longer, but I'm grateful for the awesome fun flight!!

Results after two days:

http://www.sacra.biz/fttf/

# Name Total
1 Johannnes Straub 1628
2 Grant Heaney 1428
3 Tove Heaney 1395
4 Neale Halsall 1375
5 Peter Lissenburg 1345
6 Andy Phillips 1107
7 Mike Grimes 1011
8 Stephen Norman 910
9 Andy Schmidt 862
10 David Moore 858

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Flatter than the Flatlands

March 25, 2016, 9:07:40 EST -0400

Flatter than the Flatlands

Birchip comp

Facebook

Facebook|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney writes:

First day of Birchip comp. This is part of our awesome tow team. Very challenging day between 1500ft and 2500ft most of the day. 72km task. Thermalled out of the paddock with Emma in the Malibu. Flew on my own and when I got to goal there was no one there! 6 pilots made it in the end. I'm very grateful for making it today!

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March Fund Raising

March 25, 2016, 9:06:31 EST -0400

March Fund Raising

Support the Oz Report

Davis Straub|video

Davis Straub|Tove Heaney|video

The Oz Report started in 1996 as an email list to pilots in the Pacific Northwest to inform them of hang gliding in new locations, in this case in Australia. And today we have Tove reporting on the Flatter than the Flatlands competitions in Birchip, Victoria, Australia. Of course we met Tove soon after we got to Australia in 96. She is still going strong with her young daughter helping out.

Tove has been a major competition organizer in Australia and her innovations have affected the US competition scene through our efforts to bring innovation to competition. See the pictures below.

If you'd like to contribute to our expenses click here: paypal.me/davisstraub and send money as a friend.

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Telomoyo Cup 2015 »

October 1, 2015, 1:47:14 pm MST -0600

Telomoyo Cup 2015

Day three results

Akiko Suzuki|Chisato Nojiri|Facebook|Grant Heaney|Primoz Gricar|Tove Heaney

Primoz Gricar

Task 3:

# Name Glider ES Dist. Total
1 CHISATO NOJIRI COMBAT 12,8 14:02:25 53,66 1000
2 GRANT HEANEY MOYES RX 3 14:02:53 53,66 968
3 PRIMOZ GRICAR COMBAT 13,5 14:05:05 53,66 931
4 SUZUKI HIROSHI TOPLESS 13,5 14:21:08 53,66 829
5 JUN KI JUNG ICARO 14:20:10 53,66 820
6 JAESUN MOON ICARO 14:25:39 53,66 782
7 BRAD PORTER MOYES LS4 14:58:54 53,66 656
8 YUJI SUZUKI LITESPORTS 4   53,41 644
9 KOESNADI H BOHON WILLS WINGS 15:17:00 53,66 608
10 AYAT SUPRIYATNA WILLS WING   48,34 558

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 PRIMOZ GRICAR COMBAT 13,5 2501
2 CHISATO NOJIRI COMBAT 12,8 2478
3 GRANT HEANEY MOYES RX 3 2401
4 JUN KI JUNG ICARO 2172
5 YUJI SUZUKI LITESPORTS 4 2058
6 JAESUN MOON ICARO 1995
7 SUZUKI HIROSHI TOPLESS 13,5 1680
8 BRAD PORTER MOYES LS4 1571
9 AYAT SUPRIYATNA WILLS WING 1529
10 KOESNADI H BOHON WILLS WINGS 1516

Thanks to Tove.

Telomoyo Cup 2015 - Day 3 »

September 30, 2015, 8:46:39 MST -0600

Telomoyo Cup 2015 - Day 3

Lift is too strong

Chisato Nojiri|Telomoyo Cup 2015

Chisato Nojiri|Telomoyo Cup 2015|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney <<tove>> writes:

Day 3

First start gate 12.45. Floater 22.6km task. Open 64.9 km. Cloudbase was about 8000ft. Great mix of great looking clouds and convergence.

Pilots were reporting leaving lift as it was too strong. Great day flying in Java, Indonesia. Chisato Nojiri looks like she will be winning her second day in a row..

Discuss "Telomoyo Cup 2015 - Day 3" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Telomoyo Cup 2015 »

September 30, 2015, 8:37:32 MST -0600

Telomoyo Cup 2015

On now

Facebook|Grant Heaney

Facebook|Grant Heaney|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney <<tove>> writes:

Grant Hannah and I are back at Telomoyo Cup 2015. Grant is flying and I’m “Air Boss” again. (Hannah is “Mini Air boss”)

Scores are to be found at: http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=170 and http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=171.

The Telomoyo Cup 2015 is held in Java Indonesia. We have a task committee of: Roy Sadewo Indonesia, Grant Heaney Australia and Primos Gricar Slovenia/Germany.

Day 1: we ran out of day so we obviously launched too late. Clouded over and the turnpoint back below launch seemed to be the issue.

Day 2: we opened the window at 12.00 and first start gate 12.30. This worked a lot better. Day just got better and better on task.

Morning briefing is at 7:45 AM so better go to bed early.

We have some great Japanese (two female pilots) and Korean pilots here in addition to Slovenia, Australia and of course the Indonesian.

We are launching Open/Sport class first and Floaters directly after. We apparently launched 49 pilots in 40 min so not bad at all. (52 pilots in the comp).

Rory landing at goal.

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Telomoyo Cup 2015 »

March 10, 2015, 8:32:15 EDT

Telomoyo Cup 2015

Indonesia

Facebook

Facebook|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney <<tove>> writes:

September 27 until October 4, 2015.

Mount Telomoyo is located in Central Java Province of Indonesia. Take off site is 1950 meters above sea level or 1500 meters above landing site.

The first international hang gliding competition in mount Telomoyo was in 2014.

Schedule:

Sept 26 : Registration and technical briefing.

Sept 27 : official practice day and welcome dinner.

Sept 28 : Competition day 1.

Sept 29 : Competition day 2

Sept 30 : Competition day 4

Oct 01 : Competition day 4

Oct 02 : Competition day 5

Oct 03 : Competition day 6

Oct 03 : Closing ceremony

e-mail: <info.telomoyocup>

Facebook Page: Telomoyo Cup 2015. Hang gliding competition.

https://www.facebook.com/events/385823211589884/

Tove Heaney was comp director in 2014. She is happy to answer any questions as well. <tove>

The organiser is working hard towards getting deals on glider transport etc. Last year the offer was free glider transport with Garuda. Garuda flies from Amsterdam Europe as well.

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2015 Forbes Flatlands »

January 5, 2015, 8:11:13 pm EST

2015 Forbes Flatlands

Task 4

Facebook|Forbes Flatlands 2015|video

Facebook|Forbes Flatlands 2015|Tove Heaney|video

http://www.flytrace.com/tracker/map.aspx?group=280

They are on their way to the east in light wind and light lift conditions with a 256 km task. Zippy and Blenky seem to have landed back in the tow paddock.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=703781446404723

Tove's sky for Task 4:

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2015 Forbes Flatlands »

Sat, Jan 3 2015, 8:12:35 am EST

Pilots are super fast to goal

Øyvind Ellefsen|Attila Bertok|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2015|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Steve Blenkinsop|Tove Heaney|Trent Brown|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes RX 5 02:25:56 989
2 Jonny Durand Aus Moyes RX 3.5 02:25:45 987
3 Len Paton Aus Moyes RX 4 02:28:01 948
4 Gordon Rigg Gbr Moyes RX 3.5 02:28:22 935
5 Tullio Gervasoni Ita Wills Wing T2C 02:28:38 927
6 Filippo Oppici Ita Wills Wing T2C 02:28:45 923
7 Olav Opsanger Nor Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:01 915
8 Steve Blenkinsop Aus Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:10 912
9 Trent Brown Aus Moyes RX 3.5 02:29:28 905
10 Glen Mcfarlane Aus Wills Wing T2C 02:30:28 888

It didn't work out for Zac starting at the second gate at 2 PM. The first 16 in started at 1:45 PM. Jonny was first in but didn't have as many leading points at Attila.

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes RX 5 2650
2 Jonny Durand Aus Moyes RX 3.5 2587
3 Gordon Rigg Gbr Moyes RX 3.5 2576
4 Olav Opsanger Nor Moyes RX 3.5 2555
5 Zac Majors Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 2482
6 Trent Brown Aus Moyes RX 3.5 2429
7 Jonas Lobitz Nzl Moyes Rs 3.5 2410
8 Christian Voiblet Sui Aeros 2395
9 Oyvind Ellefsen Nor Moyes RX 3.5 2360
10 Olav Olsen Nor Moyes RX 3.5 2344

Blenky at goal:

Photo by Jonny.

Photo by Glen.

Cloud streets to goal. Photo by Tove.

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Coaching Clinic

December 18, 2014, 8:55:19 EST

Coaching Clinic

At Forbes

Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney <<tove>> writes:

Forbes Airport 29th, 30th & 31st December (Just before the Forbes Flatlands Hang Gliding Championships)
Tune your flying skills and equipment ready for the comp or just free flying.
Daily theory sessions, tasks and buddy flying.
Includes retrieves and priority aerotowing.
Coaches: Jonny Durand, Gordon Rigg, Grant and Tove Heaney
Cost $100 per day plus tow fees

    What you need:
  • Hang Glider (well maintained!)
  • Harness (well maintained)
  • GPS or GPS/vario
  • Tow release and bridle
  • Recently repacked parachute
  • Helmet
  • Current HGFA membership
  • VHF Rating and equipment (on line test is available)
  • Aerotow Rating

Contact Tove Heaney to sign up or for more info. <Tove> Mobile: 0458 133 866

Discuss "Coaching Clinic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Girls⁣ going for it »

Tue, Dec 2 2014, 7:11:05 am PST

Tove short Kathleen long

Facebook|girls|record

Facebook|girls|record|Tove Heaney

They are on a quest for records.

Spot here.

Discuss "Girls⁣ going for it" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

October 18, 2014, 9:20:22 MDT

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

Cross winds and then a day of spot landings

Tove Heaney|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Tove Heaney <<hannah>> writes:

No flying on Friday. Wind was too cross. A handful of pilots free flew after we cancelled the day at 3pm.

Tomorrow is fun flying with spot landing for the spectators, paramotor display and presentation dinner.

Wesley Hill scored this competition remotely from Australia. We just provided him with the downloads via Dropbox.

Worked really well. The whole competition was a huge team effort.

Looks like Grant was the winner.

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

October 15, 2014, 10:18:54 MDT

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

Tove helps organize

Grant Heaney

Grant Heaney|Tove Heaney

Tove writes:

We are having a blast here in Indonesia. I was asked to come over to help run the comp and thought this will be a great adventure and signed up to come. Everything is organised for us visitors from Korea and Australia. We are being chauffeured around everywhere. Picked up from the airport, to and from our hotel, up and down the mountain, all retrieves are organised. If you need to go somewhere there is a car available to take you (even shopping).

Driving here is crazy, with cars and mopeds going in every direction, wrong side of the road doesn’t matter, but after some days we are starting to see the system in the chaos. It actually works really well! Whole families on motorbikes, no helmet, I even saw a mother driving with one hand as she was holding her baby with the other!

Lunch is being provided on the mountain for us crew or in the goal tent where most pilots land (or get retrieved to) even if they don’t make the whole task. At goal there is a huge restaurant complex in the middle of the rice field. It has a floating restaurant and the water is full of colourful big fish. There are restaurants everywhere and dinner will cost you $3-5 per person including drinks. Take away food comes to your door on the moped street kitchen. I had a look in the fridge here at HQ were many are staying and it's empty. Either we eat fresh coconuts or fruit from the garden or we just eat out or takeaway/brought to your door.

Grant is starting to get the hang of the flying here. He has flown every day since we arrived.

The ramp is super easy launch, once you get over the first impression, as it looks quite scary, as it is so high (Reminds me of Mt.Buffalo, Australia)! 1400m above landing. I’ve been launching pilots off the ramp for many days now and it’s so safe and reliable.

We got the set up and feed to the ramp (still another ramp 100m up the road we are not even using) working perfect. Field is split in half, set up on the road, either side of the ramp and we simply feed the launch from both sides. Today we launched 30 pilots in 33 min, and that included a little waiting a few times, for the gliders thermaling right in front of the ramp. We could easy handle more pilots, as set up is no issue on the road in both directions, and we still have another ramp we could use.

Mt.Telomoyo is amazing, it always seems to be on. We have had days with a lot of wind on the flats, we get up to launch and its 2kt straight in on the ramp. We can see the wind coming over the back on the ridges surrounding the mountain, but on the launch is 2kt and straight in and still smooth in the air. Today cloudbase was below the top when we got there, but at 12.30 cloudbase lifted and we had 2-5kt straight up the ramp.

The air has been quite hazy here the last two days , but its super smooth and a combination between convergences and thermals. Cloudbase was low above Mt.Telomoyo today but as soon as you got going away from the mountain is got higher.

Yesterday’s winner, Korean Jun Ki Jung, got up from 100m at the second turnpoint and blitzed the field after that.

Landings are big flat rice fields but you need to pick the dry ones. In my opinion not too bad as in worse case you will have a safe landing, but just get wet feet!

Today is Day 3 and we had a 45km task with 5 turnpoints. Just spoke to Grant and he was at 5000ft just needing one more to get to goal he was flying with very experienced Roy Sadewo from Indonesia.

In Goal there is 200 school children, many other spectators, farmers, press and photographers waiting to greet them. All happening here in Java, Indonesia.

Ersy Firman, the main instigator of this competition, has poured an enormous amount of time, effort and resources to make this event happen. We have staff, crew and helpers everywhere plus all the specialist care like specialist medical teams, air traffic controller to communicate with the major airports etc. Ersy is planning to organise more competitions so if anyone is after a well organised flying adventure I would highly recommend to join in. Once you are here everything is taken care of.We feel like privileged guests here and once you get to know the Indonesians you can’t stop laughing all day. They are all half-crazy in a fabulous way!

Just driving around is also entertainment on its own. It actually cools down at night so we don’t even have the air con on for sleeping.

Sorry have to run, GPS’s are arriving!

Tagor Siagian <<tagorgantolle>> sends:

Telomoyo Cup 2014 International Hang Gliding Championship, Semarang District, Central Java, INDONESIA, October 12-19. 30 pilots from three countries are taking part. Grant Heaney (Australia), Korea (4) and 25 host pilots from Indonesia.

Photo by LASSAK IMAJI/TAGOR SIAGIAN:

Roy Sadewo (Jakarta/Indonesia)

Sy Firman (Jakarta/Indonesia) taking off at Telomoyo Mountain, Semarang district, Central Java, Indonesia, Sunday (10/12).

Discuss "Telomoyo Cup Indonesia" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

October 14, 2014, 9:30:46 MDT

Telomoyo Cup Indonesia

Grant and Tove and Hannah are there

Grant Heaney

Grant Heaney|Tove Heaney

Open Class:

http://www.sacra.biz/TELOMOYO/

# Name Nat T 1 T 2 Total
1 Jun Ki Jung KOR 472 467 939
2 Grant Heaney AUS 458 473 931
3 Roy Sadewo INA 393 316 709
4 Rosyid INA 396 286 682
5 Jeasun Moon KOR 342 329 671
6 Wawan INA 404 217 621
7 Herda Eka INA 392 218 610
8 Rijalul Fathani INA 335 209 544
9 Ahmad Tw INA 242 207 449
10 Mustofa INA 230 211 441

Sport class: http://www.sacra.biz/TELOMOYO/overall_sport.html

1 Wawan Ina 404 217 621

Floater: http://www.sacra.biz/TELOMOYO/overall_floater.html

1 Ferry Ina 267 172 439

Discuss "Telomoyo Cup Indonesia" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hot down under

June 2, 2014, 9:34:37 EDT

Hot down under

This is the Oz Report, after all

record|Russell "Russ" Brown|Tove Heaney|weather

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/02/3443604/australia-hottest-two-years/

The last two years in Australia have been the hottest ever recorded, and there’s no sign that the heat wave is going to stop any time soon, a report released Sunday showed.

According to data compiled by Australia’s biggest crowd-funding campaign, the independent Climate Council, the period from May 2012 to April 2014 was the hottest 24-month period ever recorded in Australia. Next month, when the two-year period spans from June 2012 to May 2014, those above-average temperatures are expected to be even greater, the report said.

“Climate change is here, it’s happening, and Australians are already feeling its impact,” Professor Will Steffen of the Climate Council told the Guardian on Sunday. “We have just had an abnormally warm autumn, off the back of another very hot "angry summer".”

Lots of hang gliding in Australia this autumn.

The exceptional heat has now continued into Australia’s current autumn, the report said, delaying the onset of winter conditions across the southern portion of the country.

Tove Heaney on May 25th:

Short flight from Conargo. Wind was perfect when we arrived but ended up 90 deg cross with tail. A lot of smoke in the air. Had a tow got a light dribbly one and floated over the back. Heaps of hawks in the air but they couldn't save me this time. Top and shorts. Loving the weather!!!

http://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2014/05/30#.U4yk7Cggut9

Thanks to Russ Brown.

Rattling the tin cup »

March 13, 2014, 9:11:23 EDT

Tin Cup

A little bit of paragliding

Davis Straub|PG|Quest Air|Tove Heaney|video

While I don't do a lot of reporting on paragliding, I do report on the interesting bits as seen by the latest controversy regarding the Ozone Enzo2. Of course, I can't resist the story above since the young lady launched from our old field (most likely) near Deniliquin where Tove held a couple of hang gliding competitions.

He is looking for your help, as are we.

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Hang Gliding is Colorful

October 14, 2013, 12:20:32 pm MDT GMT-0600

Hang Gliding is Colorful

Tove in Oz

Tove Heaney

Discuss "Hang Gliding is Colorful" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2013 Flatter than the Flatlands »

April 3, 2013, 9:05:47 EDT

2013 Flatter than the Flatlands

Birchip competition report

Flatter than the Flatlands 2013|Tove Heaney|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Wesley Hill <<wesleyianhill>> writes:

Results here.

Over the last 21 years, Birchip has given us some great flying, even though it is approaching the end of our flying season. We've had 73 tasks out of the 86 days of competition. This year was 4 out of 4 with plenty of gliders at goal every day.

Day 1: 72.8km to Nyah West.

There were clouds (4500-5000ft base) over the paddock giving good climbs, but they dried out about 20km into the task. Still some good 600fpm climbs in the blue - and some not-so-good climbs from low saves.

14 in goal with Grant taking 1st, Tove in 2nd and Andy in 3rd.

Day 2: 50.6km to OakVale.

100% cloud cover, both upper level and low level - we weren't worried. Base was about 4500-5000ft again and there were still good climbs (500fpm) even without the sun. A few pilots found it hard to get up and get going, but it started working again late for those that kept trying.

Grant wins again, with Hughbert less than a minute behind and Tove in 3rd. 14 in goal again today.

Day 3: 60.8km to Lake Boga.

The RASP shows lift decreasing during the day so we head out early. Lots of nice looking clouds but base is lower (3500ft, rises to 4500ft late in the day). A lot of low saves, but also some fast times for those that were able to connect the dots. Beavo had trouble getting out of the tow paddock initially - but 5 tows saw him going late and taking advantage of the higher base.

Grant wins another day, Beavo is very close in 2nd (flying a floater) and Nick takes 3rd. 10 in goal.

Day 4: 46.2km to Llalbert Road.

A short task and an early start so everyone could get home at a reasonable hour. A lot of cloud while we're setting up, but plenty of sun on the ground by the time we launch. Base at 4500-5000ft and many pilots got 5-10km runs under the streets. 5 floater and race class gliders at goal with a few Pbs and first time goalers.

Grant wins yet again, Tove in 2nd and Hughbert in 3rd. 20 in goal.

No surprise that Grant won overall, Toby came second (first time at the comp), Nick and Andy were equal third.

2013 Worlds »

January 19, 2013, 5:35:44 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Party after the competition and the rains came

Conrad Loten|record|Tove Heaney|weather|Worlds 2013

Dancing with the stars:

It's a clown with Tove.

No rest days.

Thick clouds and rain around but not at the Forbes airfield the day after the competition. On Saturday it looked like this:

The forecast is for a high chance of thunderstorms every day for eight days after the competition. Thanks to Molly Moyes for the good weather.

Many pilots showed up at Stanwell Tops on Saturday for the southern change that occurred late Friday evening. A little bit of rain now and then but strong winds. Was 46.5 in Sydney before the cold air came in to make it 22. Hottest day on record for Sydney.

2013 Worlds »

January 18, 2013, 11:58:09 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Final results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Total:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 9010
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8871
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 8560
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 8531
5 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 8249
6 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8242
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 8171
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 8131
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 8131
10 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8128
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 8069
12 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 8031
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7888
14 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7878
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7854
16 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 7842
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 7734
18 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 7641
19 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7631
20 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7584

Teams:

# Name Total
1 ITA 26212
2 USA 26140
3 GBR 25215
4 AUS 24849
5 GER 24754

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5930
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4414
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3849

2013 Worlds »

January 17, 2013, 7:52:29 AEDT

2013 Worlds

Pictures

Tove Heaney|Worlds 2013

Greetings from the gate crew:

Linda and Tove in the wild:

News from Ben, British Team Manager here.

2013 Worlds »

January 17, 2013, 7:05:39 AEDT

2013 Worlds

A very tight competition

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

Task 9:

1 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 05:16:07 1000
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 05:23:15 956
3 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 05:36:06 905
4 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:36:58 901
5 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:37:22 898
5 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 05:37:31 898
7 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 05:39:36 885
8 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 05:40:37 879
9 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 05:39:42 875
10 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:47:33 863
11 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:46:09 862
11 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:46:10 862
13 Lukas Bader GER Moyes Litespeed RS4 05:47:04 860
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 05:48:37 856
15 Olav Opsanger NOR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:48:58 854
16 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 05:53:30 849
17 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 05:50:28 848

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 8163
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 8148
3 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7820
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 7775
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 7705
6 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 7496
7 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7385
8 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7324
9 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 7277
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 7228
11 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 7227
12 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7185
13 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 7183
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 7168
15 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7166
16 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7040
17 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7020
18 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 7006
19 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 6977
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 6918

Team:

# Name Total
1 ITA 23874
2 USA 23464
3 AUS 22611
4 GBR 22577
5 AUT 22347

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5509
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4048
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3696
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 3316
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2919
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2198
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1179
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1123

2013 Worlds »

January 15, 2013, 11:11:55 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davide Guiducci|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Kraig Coomber|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Robin Hamilton|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Task 8:

1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:53:56 997
2 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:54:19 983
3 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 03:54:21 979
4 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:54:23 975
5 Peter Neuenschwander SUI Aeros Combat 13.5 03:55:22 962
5 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:55:25 962
7 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:55:28 960
7 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 03:55:28 960
9 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:55:31 947
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:55:34 946
11 Walter Mayer AUT Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:55:39 945
12 Davide Guiducci ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:56:17 938
13 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 03:55:59 934
14 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 03:56:36 931
15 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 03:56:42 930
15 Matjaz Klemencic SLO Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:56:25 930
15 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:56:58 930
18 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:57:12 919
19 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:57:33 916
20 Joerg Bajewski GER Wills Wing T2C 154 03:57:34 912

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 7464
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 7192
3 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6922
4 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 6900
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 6856
6 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 6710
7 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 6676
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 6611
9 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6537
10 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 6491
11 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6490
12 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6462
13 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6381
14 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6369
15 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6336
16 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 6322
17 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 6317
18 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 6312
19 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 6303
20 Kraig Coomber USA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 6265

Teams:

  Name Total
1 ITA 21068
2 USA 21033
3 AUT 20372
4 AUS 20301
5 GBR 20148

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 5074
2 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 3616
3 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3451
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2968
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2568
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1954
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1035
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1014

2013 Worlds »

January 15, 2013, 2:04:02 AEDT

2013 Worlds

The results from the seventh task

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gary Wirdnam|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paris Williams|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Suan Selenati|Tove Heaney|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Paris and Manfred tie for first place.

Task  7:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 03:10:01 968
1 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:10:01 968
3 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 03:10:06 959
4 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 03:10:52 940
5 Christian Bartschi SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 03:10:54 936
6 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 03:10:56 933
7 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:12:17 915
8 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 03:12:51 906
9 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:14:09 893
10 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 03:14:10 891
11 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:14:47 880
12 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:14:49 877
13 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 03:15:07 872
14 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:16:58 856
15 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:18:34 837
15 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 03:30:20 837
17 Suan Selenati ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:28 827
18 Miroslav Cap CZE Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:22 826
19 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 03:32:33 825
20 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 03:20:34 818

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 6467
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 6229
3 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 5947
4 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5944
5 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 5934
6 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 5920
7 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 5787
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 5724
9 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5696
10 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5612
11 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5570
12 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 5543
13 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5463
14 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 5462
15 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5461
16 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 5460
17 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5445
18 Gary Wirdnam GBR Icaro Laminar 13.7 5377
19 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 5376
20 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 13.5 5372

Teams:

# Id Name Total
1   ITA 18230
2   USA 18184
3   AUS 17662
4   AUT 17505
5   GBR 17418

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 4224
2 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 3058
3 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2951
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2726
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2266
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1782
7 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 1000
8 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 772

2013 Worlds »

January 14, 2013, 7:10:31 AEDT

2013 Worlds

The results from the sixth task

Akiko Suzuki|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Christian Ciech|Conrad Loten|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gordon Rigg|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kathleen Rigg|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Primoz Gricar|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013|Zac Majors

Chasing the English: http://pressbhgc.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/sunday-13th-january-2013-here-we-go.html

Task 6:

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Zac Majors USA Wills Wing T2C 144 131,09 917
2 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 131,09 915
3 Lukas Bader GER Moyes Litespeed RS4 131,11 914
4 Adam Stevens AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 130,81 912
5 Trent Brown AUS Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 130,62 911
6 Olav Lien Olsen NOR Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 120,87 854
7 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 120,58 853
8 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 120,32 851
8 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 120,30 851
8 Conrad Loten NZL Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 120,24 851
8 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 120,25 851
8 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 120,27 851
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 120,25 851
14 Max Turiaco BRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 120,16 850
14 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 120,22 850
16 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 119,48 840
17 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 119,09 834
18 Robin Hamilton USA Moyes Litespeed RX4 119,02 832
19 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 118,93 830
20 Walter Mayer AUT Moyes Litespeed RX4 118,72 826
20 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 118,72 826

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 5515
2 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 5358
3 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 5166
4 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 5101
5 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 5054
6 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 5052
7 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 5047
8 Pedro Luis Garcia Morelli ESP Wills Wing T2C 5018
9 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 4950
10 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 4949
11 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4902
12 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 4855
13 Gerd Dönhuber GER Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4778
14 Christian Ciech ITA Icaro Laminar 14 4738
15 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 4725
16 Grant Crossingham GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4723
17 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 4709
18 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4681
19 Gordon Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4672
20 Yuji Suzuki JPN Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 463

Teams:

# Id Name Total
1   ITA 15621
2   USA 15519
3   AUS 15303
4   GBR 14999
5   AUT 14897

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 3542
2 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 2392
3 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2236
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 2143
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 2032
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1749
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 757
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 674

2013 Worlds »

January 13, 2013, 11:46:10 AEDT

2013 Worlds

The Task 5 results

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Chisato Nojiri|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Filippo Oppici|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jamie Shelden|Kathleen Rigg|Lisa Bradley|Manfred Ruhmer|Moyes Litespeed RX|Primoz Gricar|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Worlds 2013

Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Balazs Ujhelyi HUN Moyes Litespeed RS4 156,38 916
2 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 154,94 911
3 Dan Vyhnalik CZE Aeros Combat 09 GT 13.5 154,23 906
4 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 153,33 901
5 Petr Benes CZE Aeros Combat 09 14.2 153,31 899
6 Seppi Salvenmoser AUT Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 152,43 897
7 Christian Voiblet SUI Aeros Combat GT 13.5 152,33 894
8 Carl Wallbank GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 152,10 893
9 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 152,06 892
10 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 151,96 891

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Manfred Ruhmer AUT Icaro Laminar Z9 14.1 4666
2 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S5 4513
3 Alessandro Ploner ITA Icaro Laminar 14.1 4502
4 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 4361
5 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 4282
6 Antoine Boisselier FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 4258
7 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne REV 13.5 4210
8 Mario Alonzi FRA Aeros Combat 13.2 GT 4203
9 Franz Hermann SUI Aeros 13.5 4175
10 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Revolution 13.5 4154

Team:

# Name Total
1 ITA 13265
2 SUI 12846
3 USA 12822
4 AUS 12625
5 AUT 12356
6 GBR 12346

Women:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 3200
2 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 1813
3 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1793
4 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 1496
5 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1455
6 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 1434
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 721
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 506

2013 Worlds »

January 11, 2013, 11:01:43 AEDT

2013 Worlds

Fourth task

Facebook|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2013

A thirty five kilometer start cylinder centered around a point about twenty five kilometers to the northwest of the Forbes airfield. The first leg is south east (with a west northwest cross wind) to Tyagon, 65 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder, then a 104 kilometer quartering tail wind leg to a grass strip near Blaney following the highway. The ground rises from 700+ feet to 2,800+ feet.

Three start gates half an hour apart: 2:40, 3:10, 3:40. Yesterday pilots taking the 3:00 PM clock easily caught the pilots taking the 2:40 clock. An hour and forty minutes to get everyone off with launch starting at 1 PM. Should be sufficient time for pilots to get to the edge of the start cylinder also.

83 kilometers from goal pilots encounter airspace restrictions (red line above), Class E airspace, and must stay below 8,500'. Penalty is zero for the day with a warning for the first time that you enter at less than 100 m above 8,500'. There is a strong inversion again today (no cu's), so pilots should be able to stay below 8,500' (barometric altitude)

Longer task today as so many pilots made goal yesterday. Wind stronger than yesterday and from the west northwest.

Meet director on his bike at goal yesterday with the women's winner, Tove Heany and husband, Grant. Breaking down in the shade.

2013 Worlds »

January 10, 2013, 11:17:56 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

The third task, the women

Chisato Nojiri|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jamie Shelden|Kathleen Rigg|Lisa Bradley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2013

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Corinna Schwiegershausen GER Moyes Litespeed RX3 1946
2 Tove Heaney AUS Moyes Litespeed RX3 1369
3 Kathleen Rigg GBR Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 1242
4 Francoise Dieuzeide-banet FRA Moyes Litespeed RX3 1191
5 Chisato Nojiri JPN Aeros Combat 09 12.8 1017
6 Linda Salamone USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 867
7 Jamie Shelden USA Moyes Litespeed RX3 454
8 Lisa Bradley NZL Aeros Discus 12 398

2013 Worlds »

January 9, 2013, 10:23:03 pm AEDT

2013 Worlds

Very preliminary results

Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2013

Thirty or forty pilots in goal. Thick cirrus just before the turnpoint put many pilots on the ground. Corinna, the only women in goal. Tove, one kilometer short. Christian Ciech 3/4 kilometer short.

It's 10:22 PM here now. More news in the morning.

Cloudsuck, chapter 12 »

Mon, Feb 20 2012, 4:40:20 pm GMT

I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season

Belinda Boulter|Cloudsuck|Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Jim Lee|Michael "Hollywood" Champlin|record|Tiki Mashy|Tove Heaney|weather

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

If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: https://OzReport.com/docs/Cloudsuck12.pdf

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

Wandering in the Desert

After Dave set his two new records, our World Record Encampment broke up. Dave had to go back to work in New Mexico, and Gary had obligations back in Kansas. Dustin and the boys went back to Phoenix. Belinda and I were left behind to suffer in the heat, waiting for a day with sufficiently strong winds and early morning thermals. With our friends gone and Larry’s record broken, the excitement was over.

We felt cast adrift, sitting in our trailer in this almost-ghost-town empty of its winter Texans. With no other pilots to encourage me, I felt desperate. Would the conditions improve so that I could get my chance to break Dave's new record?

Before we had come to Zapata, Gary had forecast such consistent weather conditions that it had seemed every day would be a day to break the record. We were looking for that huge high pressure system to set up in the center of the Gulf of Mexico, bringing on-shore flow to the Texas east coast and warm, moist, predominantly southern winds throughout the state. But as that last week of July dragged on, the promised weather failed to show up.

I wanted to ride the southern winds far up into the Texas panhandle, but the high pressure was not centered in the Gulf where it was supposed to be — instead it was up near New Orleans. With the center of high pressure so far north, the winds spinning clockwise around the center were coming from the east here in Zapata, toward Mexico. We had only light winds, and the morning thermals were too weak to keep me aloft in my hang glider before noon.

July 26th, a week after Dave had gone so far, Belinda towed me up at the airstrip at 11:30. I knew it was late, but the conditions hadn’t been good enough for an attempt all week, and I was anxious make any effort no matter how futile.

We'd come to Zapata expecting winds out of the south-southeast, but today they were instead out of the southeast. If I were to fly straight downwind I would soon have been crossing the Rio Grande. Every time I stopped and circled in a thermal I would drift downwind toward Mexico. I knew I would have to drive continually upwind to the east on each of my glides, as Dave and I had done on his record day.

With my late start I should have been finding some reasonably strong thermals, but all I was getting was weak lift. I had to concentrate more on staying up than on racing north, constantly searching to the east and west of my fastest course line for any lift that I could find, just creeping along. At one point I was down to less than 450 feet over a natural gas well, sure that I was about to land.

While it is a definite struggle to stay up when you're so low, it is also a great adventure. First of all, you are right next to the ground, so everything is going past you really quickly. The lift is usually quite light (the reason you are low to begin with), so you're not getting tossed around — although this is not always the case, as I had found out the week before.

Hanging low in light lift calls upon all your senses. You feel every bit of lift on your wings and do everything you can to get in just a little bit better lift. At the same time you just can't strike out in some direction hoping to find better lift, because you'll be on the ground long before you find it. You have to work whatever it is that you are in.

Your attention keeps shifting between the ground, with its potential landing areas and potential lifting areas, and the texture of the air around you. You can't pay much attention to the sky since any clouds are usually too far away to be of much help in spotting lift. You are right in the thick of things, with the earth twirling around below you. It is a lot like those flying dreams.

I struggled low for a good long time, maybe fifteen minutes of just hanging onto the barest indication of lift, before I slowly climbed out high enough to get into a reasonably coherent thermal. And this took time and detracted from the bigger goal. It took me an hour and a half just to fly the forty miles to the southeast side of Laredo.

Small cumulus clouds were forming near Laredo, and I could now find the lift more quickly with the help of these visual lift indicators. The lift was also improving as the day got later; I was now able to climb up high, to five thousand feet.

With the strong easterly wind component I’d been pushed right toward Laredo and the airport on its eastern flank. Normally I was required by law to stay six nautical miles to the east of the airport, to avoid controlled airspace. Frankly, given the steady stream of traffic at this airport, I wanted to stay as far away as possible from the north and south ends of the runways. But today, given the strong drift from the southeast, I had little choice but to head toward the center of the airport.

I was fifteen hundred feet above the top of the controlled airspace; at this elevation it was perfectly legal for me to fly right over the airport. While I was not that happy about being pushed so far the west of my planned course, it was pretty cool flying right over the top of the airport and checking out the whole busy scene below me.

Laredo is the biggest inland NAFTA port, and all aircraft bringing goods into the U.S. from Mexico must stop there. I could see plenty of general aviation traffic on the runway and taxiways. I was in little danger of interfering with airport air traffic, high as I was above the center of the airfield, since the air traffic would be low coming in from the north or south. I got to see quite a few of the big cargo jets.

Most of the time when I'm flying, I'm out over open ranch and farmlands. I rarely fly anywhere near urban areas because of the lack of landing areas near them. So it was quite a rare sight to be able to fly over such a busy airport, perfectly legally and safely, and be able to take it all in. I knew that down below were all those pilots who were taxiing airplanes. Here I was way high over them, just flying. Not “piloting” a hang glider, just flying.

The southeast winds pushed me northwest from Laredo up the Mines Road, which follows the U.S.-Mexico border along the Rio Grande for a hundred miles to Eagle Pass. Most of that distance was rough gravel road, which would make things a bit slower for Belinda in the truck down below. From Eagle Pass it would be another fifty miles on Highway 277, still hugging the border, to Del Rio. I figured I could follow this route all the way to Del Rio and then head toward Fort Stockton in west Texas — that was unless the winds shifted direction as I move northwest.

I was high over open and empty desert with just the dirt road way below me. On my left was Mexico; the road on the Mexican side of the border was a major highway. I found this totally strange, flying high out in that empty desert, which I knew was a highly charged military area — the border, and there was not enough traffic to justify a paved road.

While there was a staggering level of truck traffic in Laredo heading up toward San Antonio, apparently no one wanted to go to Eagle Pass or Del Rio. I later learned the reason: the road was gated further to the north to cut off all traffic going to Eagle Pass. In fact, this was considered to be a very dangerous area for travel, the province of drug runners and bandits.

The moist air from the Gulf was encouraging the development of cumulus clouds, which now appeared everywhere over my head and out ahead of me. But I was concerned that I was moving west, away from the Gulf air mass. I would have to fly quite a long distance west to get away from its influence, but there would be less and less moist air as I progressed further away from the Gulf. I wondered what air mass I would find myself in many hours from now. It seemed likely that the cumulus clouds would disappear and I would be left to hunt for lift out in the blue.

The sight of the beautiful cumulus clouds was alluring. It was a perfect day for flying two hundred miles — but I believed it was already too late to make three hundred. Finally, after much internal argument, I made the decision to land eighty miles out from Zapata. I just didn’t think I could set the record on that day. I wanted to have plenty of energy to fly again on a better day.

I landed in a little area mostly free of cactus and Mesquite. There was no one out there, not even any evidence of the Border Patrol. I tried not to look up at the inviting sky as I broke my glider down and put it up on the truck.

The next day I was out at the Zapata airstrip for another attempt. Again the thermals just weren't happening early enough for me to get going when I needed to, and I stopped after sixty miles. The skies filled with beckoning cumulus clouds, but I knew that I couldn't make three hundred miles that day.

After a week of only marginal opportunities, we broke camp. Belinda and I needed to get away from the heat and the frustration. I was unable to think straight about how to break the record, and pretty discouraged. Belinda flew from San Antonio to Nevada to visit her brother and I drove our truck to Roswell, NM for repairs.

But August 5th found us back on the highway to Zapata from San Antonio. We were both rested, and I was convinced that we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what was possible at Zapata. When we arrived to find that Tiki Mashy and her driver Dale had just driven in from Hobbs and were already ensconced at Bob McVey’s house, I felt my enthusiasm returning, too.

All during the planning period for the World Record Encampment, I had pushed hard on Tiki, a former women’s world record holder, to come to Zapata. I had sent her all the advance weather data from Gary that pointed to great conditions for setting a world record. I wanted Tiki to retake her former record from the Australian/Swedish pilot Tove Heaney, but I hadn't succeeded in convincing her to come earlier. Instead she had chosen to go back to Hobbs, where she felt some measure of comfort, and where she and Hollywood had spent many summers together.

Tiki had recruited Dale, a novice pilot in her late forties who was living and working part time at Wallaby Ranch, to be her tow and retrieval driver for the summer. Since Michael’s death Tiki had been working at the Ranch as a Dragonfly pilot, under Malcolm’s protective eye. She and Dale had driven west in Michael’s old truck, with the platform setup and winch they had used at Hobbs.

“Hobbs has been terrible this year,” Tiki shook her head. “My longest flight so far was only a hundred miles — and that took me four hours. Jim Lee’s been there all month too, trying for a record, but he’s not getting any long flights either.” Tall, and muscular, Tiki was a tenacious competitor and it hurt her to be missing out on the good flying.

I had thought Tiki a fool to go to Hobbs when we offered her the chance to come with us to Zapata. It was clear — to me, anyway — that she wouldn't get what she was aiming for in Hobbs. I started to fill her in on the Zapata area and what we’d learned so far about flying there.

“There are a few dirt roads north of the airstrip, but for the most part they’re behind locked gates,” I warned. “So you need to be at least two thousand feet over the airstrip before you start to head north. Don’t let yourself get so far downwind that you can’t make it back, unless you’re over two grand.

“And if you do go down near the airstrip, just have Dale call the Sheriff to locate the keys and come open the gate. Dustin had to do that a couple of weeks ago, when he landed four or five miles from the airport. Bob McVey contacted the Sheriff for us, and a deputy got us through the gates. We had Dustin packed up and in the car within an hour. It's a three-mile walk out to Highway 83, so good luck trying to walk out with your hang glider and the rest of your gear, especially by yourself. The heat is a real killer.”

The mesquite-covered countryside to the north of the airstrip had only a few areas big enough to allow for a hang glider landing. There wasn't a paved road for nine miles. If you left too low and didn’t get up, the chances of getting to a road where you could be retrieved easily were quite slim. It was better to land at the airstrip and relaunch than to let yourself drift downwind chasing a weak thermal that might leave you stranded with over a hundred pounds of gear.

Next morning, a Sunday, Tiki and I were both out early towing at the airstrip, but neither of us found any lift. The early low cumulus clouds disappeared and we were left to flail about in the blue. Gary's e-mailed morning weather forecast had been accurate about early light thermals, but it was wishful thinking to believe that we could stay aloft in such conditions. After numerous attempts we quit around noon and hoped the next day would be better. Two hours later, the sky looked agonizingly beautiful as the ground heated up and thermals began to form.

Continue reading here: https://OzReport.com/docs/Cloudsuck12.pdf

Discuss "Cloudsuck, chapter 12" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Forbes Flatlands - what rest? »

January 10, 2012, 0:17:23 AEDT

Forbes Flatlands 2012

A good way to hurt yourself not flying

Forbes Flatlands|Jamie Shelden

Forbes Flatlands|Jamie Shelden|Tove Heaney

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/2012/01/norest-day.html

Tove hurts her leg and can't fly the next day. Others have a great time.

Discuss "Forbes Flatlands 2012" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Women With Wings

March 15, 2011, 9:56:34 EDT

Women With Wings

It happened last week

Brian Webb|Kathryn O'Riordan|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|PG|photo|Tove Heaney|video|Warren Windsports

http://www.kathrynoriordan.com/2011/03/07/mellow-days/

http://www.kathrynoriordan.com/2011/03/10/women-with-wings-day-2-and-3-training-hard/

http://www.kathrynoriordan.com/2011/03/10/women-with-wings-random-photos/

http://www.kathrynoriordan.com/2011/03/12/women-with-wings-all-over-till-next-year/

Here McKerral writes:

Well, the votes are in: WWW2, held in Bright, Victoria, from 7th-11th March, was a great success. The aims of the event were to increase confidence, skills and to promote safe decision making in a fun, supportive, collaborative environment without the pressure of competition. Skill improvement increases confidence, but pilots lacking in confidence learn poorly; WWW2's rationale and structure were to increase confidence so that learning and skills (launch, landing, cross country technique) could more easily grow. Integral to this process was for each pilot to recognise, accept and trust her own individual journey in flying and to give her the confidence to resist the peer pressure and expectations (external and internal) that so often divert us in unproductive directions. Paraglider pilots flew (and flew away) from Mystic every day but one, while we hangies also had exhilarating thermaling flights to cloudbase at Buffalo and Tawonga Gap, plus multiple sleddies in silk at Mystic to practice those nil wind foot launches and landings.

The thermals all week were soft and pleasant due to the amount of moisture in the ground - and here in Australia everything is still so green - amazing for autumn! The views were breathtaking in this alpine region - tarns, waterfalls, massive rock faces, forests with tree ferns... glorious!

Forty six hang glider and paraglider pilots (just 8 hangies) attended, making it the biggest gathering of female free-flyers ever in Oz. Pilots from SA, Vic, ACT, NSW, Qld attended, plus visitors from NZ, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, but our two Far North Queensland and Western Australian hangies who registered couldn't make it at the last minute because of travel costs, even though we had arranged gliders for them to borrow, to avoid the expense of transporting their own. Organisers of the next event should probably consider rejigging funding to make it easier for the most distant pilots to attend.

I haven't revisited the personal best list in detail yet but at least fifteen pilots, probably closer to twenty, had their very first inland/thermalling/and/or cross country flights. Many pilots are successfully hooked!

We publicised the availability of check flights beforehand and at least six pilots whose membership had lapsed rejoined/had check flights for this event after not flying for 18-48 months due to accidents or fear issues. Many more said the event had rekindled their joy of flying. The HGFA has made a profit on its investment!

Most of the Paraglider pilots had multiple flights on the four out of the five days that it was flyable, and many also flew an extra day before registration on Sunday. Every attending pilot flew. Even to us hangies, the improvement in paraglider flyinh technique was obvious comparing Monday and Friday on launch, so CASA should be very happy with the outcome of their funding too. In fact, there were huge across-the-board increases in both confidence and technique amongst the Restricted and Intermediate pilots especially.

Oli Barthelmes was an amazing mentor for the more advanced hang glider pilots, while Tony Barton was great for our newer ones; Tove Heaney polished up our landings and was an inspiration just by being herself. Tove arrived without a glider, rejoined the HGFA after a three year break on Monday morning, and flew six different gliders during the week, starting with our spare Fun 190 for a check flight to ease back into things; "I'll just go to the bombout," she said, and we all laughed, because of course after cranking it to cloudbase she immediately disappeared into the distance! I hear she flew a Litespeed3 when she got home the following weekend. Tove's BAAACCCKKK!!!!! Yay!

We had many workshops scheduled on the understanding that these would fit around flying; because we flew all day every day but one, a couple fell off the list, but the introductory airspace/ safety session, Dealing with Fear, Secret Women's Business and cross country theory workshops by Brian, Tony, Oli, Tove and Andrew all went ahead. Craig Collings gave an incredible workshop on mountain cross country flying, packed with information even for advanced pilots; John Chapman, president of the Northeast Victoria Hang Gliding Club, ran a parachute repack clinic. Lots of safety information gave everyone confidence.

We had asked pilots to bring video cameras, and passed them to drivers and partners to video launches and landings each day. Kathryn then separated the videos into paragliding and hang gliding, and we split into two groups to watch them on the non-flyable day. This proved not only fun (who doesn't like to watch themselves launching and landing?) But also invaluably instructional with instant feedback on technique from our instructors and mentors as we watched them together. The vids also allowed experienced pilots and instructors to identify line issues with a number of paragliders.

In other workshops, we learned about glider tuning from Oli, who tried to get Kathryn O'Riordan's Litesport flying more sweetly. Tove flew both Kathryn's wing and mine and the difference in handling was significant. They both have the same sail and carbon options, and soft tips. But at least Kathryn will now be confident of a nicely tuned wing for the Florida comps. She won't know herself in a glider that handles properly - watch out, competitors!

Day prizes at debriefs comprised Skypig, PB Star, Brown Trousers, Big Sista and Koala Awards ;-). This allowed us all to learn from each others' triumphs and mistakes in a fun and light-hearted way! WWW2 Trophies were: Flygrrl (by vote, to the pilot whom we all aspire to be: confident, skilled, intelligent, enthusiastic, positive, inspiring, supportive - basically someone who has their flying shit together): Sonja Fardell, who received a Go Pro helmet cam donated by Warren Windsports, Big Sista: Alex Bryse, Little Big Sista: Christa Texler, Peregrine Award (Most Improved hang glider pilot): Brigitte LaFontaine, Peregrine Award (Most Improved paraglider): GABRIELLE DAVIDSON, Eagle Award (Best personal best): Gia Arbuthnott, (who had never thermalled, who was in less than ideal equipment, and who had her first thermaling flight and cross country in one day).

Injuries were one broken arm (hang glider) and one corked thigh (paraglider). 100% launches nil-3 kts wind for us hangies, 100% landings in nil. Zero broken aluminum! But ironically if the aerofoil down tube had broken in what three of us witnessed as only a slightly high flare and what looked a minor whack for a petite pilot, the arm would not have. Of the paraglider pilots, about half were Restricted rated, many with little or no inland experience, and many with only a few hours logged, so Brian Webb's safety structure was highly effective. Accommodation in Bright was cheap. As a group event we got a significant discount at The Outdoor Inn. Camping AUSD$14/night, twin share cabins $19/night, single cabins $23/night (per head). Hot showers, a camp kitchen with fridges and all cookware and crockery, microwave, stoves, kettle etc: easy to prepare your own food, no need to bring anything, just buy supplies at the supermarket when you arrive - great for O/S pilots!

We employed three full-time drivers; one for the hangies and two for the paraglider pilots.

Moyes, Airborne, Ozone, Supair, Gradient, Brauniger, One Small Planet and many other flying-associated and local businesses donated prizes to our event. One of our pilots was a publicist and we had 4 or 5 radio interviews; I'll also be writing up the event for various magazines in the next few weeks. Check out Kathryn O Riordan's blog http://www.kathrynoriordan.com/ for pics and her take on the week.

Our budget was about $13,500 and we charged just $95/head registration for the week. We could keep the price so low because we won funding from the HGFA, CASA, and many state associations and clubs. 13 grand sounds a lot but we were paying evening meals for all instructors, drivers and mentors, as well as their fees and honoraria, plus travel and accommodation expenses where applicable, plus fuel, bus hire - it's terrifying how quickly the expenses climb! Our surplus after tense calculations over my spreadsheet gave us a slim $250, which will go towards the committee's accommodation expenses. The instructors were extremely generous in keeping their fees modest.

The committee will now go through the feedback questionnaires and fine tune the programme and format - there are always improvements to be made and a glance at the questionnaires raises some excellent suggestions - then bundle up everything (budget, templates, registration forms, handbooks etc) and make the package available to anyone anywhere in the world who wants to run a similar event. We hold copyright of the logo but will make it available upon request to anyone who is running a Women's only free-flying skills clinic (but not competition).

Despite a few naysayers who during the planning stages dismissed the value of funding our event, the information from the president of the Women in Sports Institute on attracting and retaining women in male-dominated sports has proven to be spot on. The format of WWW2 was highly effective in attracting female pilots to inland flying. Many new pilots enjoy flying cross country or tasks but are intimidated by competition environments; indeed, many pilots of both sexes never become interested in competition, but still want to improve their cross country flying. The supportive, collaborative and fun environment of a Skills Clinic provides a stepping stone in confidence and cross country skills for those who feel they are not yet ready for competition, or those who simply aren't interested in competition. With the inclusion of highly skilled mentors, there is also plenty for confident, Advanced-rated pilots to gain.

The committee would love to see more of these events around the world.

Women With Wings 2

December 16, 2010, 8:51:51 PST

Women With Wings 2

Skills Clinic

Brian Webb|PG

Brian Webb|PG|Tove Heaney

Helen McKerral <<hmckerral>> writes:

WHAT: A fun, inspiring skills clinic for women hang glider and paraglider pilots of all experience levels

WHERE: Bright, Victoria, with flying in the Ovens and Kiewa Valleys.

WHEN: March Mon 7th- Fri 11th 2011, with registration on the evening of Sunday 6th.

COST: $95 early bird, $120 late; http://womenwithwingsclinic.blogspot.com

ACCOMMODATION: Headquarters is Camp Krusty (the Outdoor Inn in Bright) with camping or cabin accommodation.

We have fantastic mentors, instructors and guest lecturers on board including Brian Webb and Andrew Horchner, Tove Heaney, Craig Collings and Olli Barthemeles. And our HG instructor is the very experienced Tony Barton, so even the newest HG & PG pilots with only a few hours or who have never flown inland before will be building their skills in the most supportive and confidence-inspiring environment. At the last WWW event, most participants had PB's - furthest, highest and longest flights - and came away empowered in their flying and decision making.

There will be theory workshops and guest lectures on topics including XC skills, Instruments, Dealing with Fear, Human Factors/Situational Awareness and of course lots and lots of FLYING!

With funding from the HGFA, State Associations and CASA, early bird registration fee for participants will be only $95 for the full 5 days flying! What a bargain - such skills clinics with fulltime instructors normally cost more than $1000! But wait, there's more! Registration includes a welcoming barbeque plus a yummy presentation dinner, club membership, goodie bags, prizes, T-shirts and more! Airborne and Moyes are generously helping out by supplying a few loan gliders to make it more affordable for HG pilots travelling from distant states. We've also applied for funding to cover your accommodation expenses and will know in February whether we can make this event even more affordable!!

To register and pay online (payment via Paypal, credit card or direct deposit) and for more information, go to the website at http://womenwithwingsclinic.blogspot.com and join our forum <womenwithwings2> to introduce yourself to other female pilots and arrange carpooling, share accommodation etc.

Don't miss out on this fantastic event. You will gain skills, confidence, inspiration and friends!

For more information contact Helen McKerral on <hmckerral> or telephone 0427 65 65 45

Discuss "Women With Wings 2" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flying the Wills Wing T2C 144

May 5, 2008, 8:44:20 EDT

T2C 144

The wings just fit on my back

Tove Heaney|Wills Wing T2C

While I didn't do well at the Santa Cruz Flats Race, I can't blame the glider I was flying. In fact, I was able to make two really low saves with it (and get myself out of other low situations), when you might think that this glider would have a tough time with those low saves as it had a relatively high wing loading with me on it.

I found the Wills Wing T2C 144 easy to fly and easy to launch and land. It wasn't a toy glider, like Tove's Moyes Litespeed S3.5, that I test flew at Forbes with Steve Moyes, but it wasn't a "big" glider like the Wills Wing T2C 154 or the Moyes Litespeed RS 4.0. It was a glider that had an in between feeling. "Big" enough to hold my weight (80 kg), and "small" enough to handle nicely.

My first criteria for a glider is that I don't want to be scared by it in the air. I have to feel that I'm in charge of the glider, not the other way around. In turbulence I want to feel that I can muscle it back into shape. I felt that way with the T2C 144. I flew the T2C 154 in light conditions and that was fine, but it felt like it might feel a little too "big" for me in rowdy air.

Of course, I also want to go fast with a good sink rate, and with the T2C I've got a higher wing loading that should give me a good sink rate at the higher speeds. I tend to go fast (45 - 50 mph) when I'm high and have many opportunities to find lift.

The glider was a joy to turn. I knew right away how to do it without any acclimatizing to the the glider. I could put it into a steep bank and feel totally confident of the glider.  I just wish that there had been more strong tight cores to climb in at Casa Grande.

One day I had a death defying ride behind one of the trikes. The trike pilot was making all the wrong moves, but the glider and I held on and did not have a problem staying safe. I did pin off on my own when it got too crazy, but the glider didn't have a problem.

With a smaller glider you'd think that it might come in a little fast on landing for my weight, but that was not the case. I had no problem with no wind landings, even with a knee in a brace.

I didn't get to glide much with other folks, but when I did I was right there with them. I did follow a pilot on a Moyes glider for four or five miles right behind him and at his altitude. There was no difference in glide. I don't know the model of the Moyes glider.

I had no problem climbing with other pilots. I spent plenty of time in the start cylinder in good sized gaggles and it was great to have the confidence that I was in control of the glider.

I'll get to fly the glider a bunch more this summer and I'll be sure to fully report on it in all sorts of conditions.

Forbes last weekend

February 19, 2008, 6:42:36 GMT+1000

Forbes

The boys and girls have a good time.

dust devil|Flytec 6030|Tove Heaney|Trent Brown

Armand went out to Forbes again to tow up pilots. They took advantage of the Dragonflies stored out there. He writes:

On Saturday, Grant pinned off at about 300m. I told Tove about it. So, she pinned off at about 200m and climbed to cloud base.

On Sunday, Steve (a pilot with out five flights) in a Wills Wing Falcon 195 soared from 10:30 to 11:30.

The guys didn't start until about 1 PM with a task of 175km. Big dust devils. Trent said he got over 7000' asl.

On one tow a pilot released, I powered back the tug, diving at 50mph to the ground, and I was still going up at 300fpm for about 15seconds. Half the day my feet where coming off the rudder pedals.

Trent Brown «Trent.Brown» writes:

Saturday was great. A tail wind run to Condobolin. Most of the crew landed at town with Grant, Tove and myself stretching it out to 100km. Phil continued on into the boonies for 160km and a character building retrieve in a constantly overheating van.

Sunday, the wind was blowing us towards West Wyalong. Once again almost everyone made it to goal landing at WW Airport. Base 7000 amsl.

Tove was high over West Wyalong but Grant “persuaded” her to land in order to look after the kids while the rest of the crew returned to get the cars from Forbes. A shame, as I was looking forward to sitting in a pub in Hay with the person that originally taught me how to fly one of these things.

I missed West Wyalong (some bugger moved it) as I only had Hay in my 6030. By the time I had a visual on West Wyalong I was downwind. I couldn’t fight my way back SE (wind was 30km/h from east by this stage) so just headed South instead until I met up with the Newell Hwy. Lucky Peter Garonne gave us a description of where the Hwy tracked as it went south so I knew I should hit it sooner or later. This would make for a much faster trip back to Canberra that night. I ended up just short of Grong Grong, of Forbes Flatlands 2008 fame. Andrew, Nath and Deb were in my landing paddock as I descended on final glide.

Scotty Hannaford replied:

I had the same issue with the downwind drift, but realised I was losing touch with the course early enough to correct it - my track when you look at it is going to be pretty ugly - there was plenty of flying backwards to find lift, following wrong roads and generally faffing about. Of course there was oodles of lift over the airport when I arrived, making it very difficult to get down. If I wasn't already buggered I would have followed you down the road, but in hindsight it was probably wise to land where I did rather than risk a boonies expedition!

I was flying Dave May’s Airborne C4 13 as opposed to my usual C4 13.5 on both days. A nice feeling glider but it does not do the whole self coring thing that makes the 13.5 such a breeze to fly. Glides were quick as you would expect from the higher wing loading. Following lift lines in this glider also seemed to be easier due to the super responsive nature of the glider. Landing either glider is a pleasurable experience with generous flare windows and a crisp rotation with a bit of VG on.

Flights:

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=26840

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=26839

Pics will be up tonight on www.thebombout.com

Forbes, Sunday, the cu-nimb comes to us »

February 3, 2008, 7:10:39 pm GMT+1100

Forbes

An overcast sky, test flying the RS 4 and the S 3

Davide Guiducci|Scott Barrett|Tove Heaney

http://moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?ID=115&Cat=

Span:
RS 3.5 - 10.3 m (33.7 ft)
RS 4 - 10.4 m (34.1 ft)
S 3 - 10 m 32.8 ft
C4 13.5 - 10.00 m 32.8 feet
C4 14 - 10.4 m 34.1 feet

A number of pilots who tried to go north on Saturday decided that they would rather go downwind and headed toward Grenfell. Some headed for West Wyalong. Phil Shroder headed that way, then decided after 30 km that it would be best to come back and land at the airport. He did.

When I awoke on Sunday morning a mid level layer had moved in covering most of the sky, shading the ground and filtering the sunlight. The forecast was for rain and scattered showers. Still there was no reason not to ride my bike out to the air field and see what was up.

Steve Moyes was there and he had offered me the opportunity to test fly Davide Guiducci's new Moyes Litespeed RS 4. I asked him if I could also test fly Tove's Litespeed S 3.5 (not RS 3.5) after I test flew Davide's glider (there are four gliders headed for Italy and Bassano that are getting ready to be shipped out together). You might remember that I had a little trouble with Steve's red RS 4, and I wondered if it was just his glider or whether I had trouble with all RS 4's. See here, here and here.

The sky was still gray and the ground was still shaded but there were areas of blue and a few cu's off in the distance. After I set up Davide's glider Steve inspected it and we found a bad VG cord in the sail. It was about to break, so we replaced it. Good thing I set up the glider.

Armand towed me up and I pinned off at 1000' AGL in a thermal having gone through one at 500' AGL. I missed the thermal I pinned off in so went back to the earlier one and climbed up from 500' AGL to 4,200' under cu's that were now all around us. They were getting really thick to the north and soon it would be raining there.

The RS 4 was definitely more spanny than the Airborne C4-13.5 that I have been flying. I felt that right away, still it wasn't as bad as Steve's red glider (also a RS 4). I had mentioned to Steve about Blinky's issue with his red glider and the tip wands, and Steve pointed out to me where the yellow marks were on the carbon fiber wands, and how I needed to be sure that these yellow dots were on the trailing edge of the wands. I made sure that I put them in the right way.

The glider was a bit stiff, but reasonably easy to turn and get into the thermal. It was a light thermal and I was glad I had a bigger glider. It didn't have to high side it at all with just a little bit of VG on. This is in contrast to my Airborne C4-13.5, which now requires high siding after we tuned that out previously. It'll have to get Scott Barrett's help to retune that out of the glider.

It was a smooth climb up and very enjoyable. After I got high I pulled on the VG line and tested how straight it flew. I noticed that if I pulled in the VG line to just past the half way point, that the bar pressure dropped off to where it was comfortable to pull in the bar a long ways, for a long time. Steve wanted me to pull the VG line full on to get 1 KG of bar pressure at up to 120 km/h. I didn't get a chance to try that.

The glider flew straight and the bar pressure was light, but not scary light. And now it was time to land the glider, but there was lift every where over all the shaded ground, with lots of dark cu's and the rain from a cell maybe ten or fifteen kilometers away. It took a while, and the wind was blowing maybe ten mph out of the north northeast. Finally I was able to find enough sink to get it down and had a delightful landing. I had been concerned about the glider flying me, and it did that to some extent, as I came in in the buoyant and bumpy air with all the lift around, but it was so easy to land.

Next, I took up Tove's Litespeed S 3.5. She had been complaining to me about it and how much she like the S 3 that she had flown. Then again she had flown a S 3.5 in Greifenburg at the Worlds and loved it. On this new glider she had Moyes replace her previous all white sail with a inlayed one (like on the glider she flew in Greifenburg), hoping that would make it less stiff. Steve had test flown it and was happy with it.

This glider is a toy. It flies so sweet there is no way Tove is not going to love it. Maybe it is just Steve's weight or my weight (she can add some ballast), but this thing turns on a dime with the slightest of effort. I felt that I was flying the glider, unlike the contest I was having with the RS 4 for who was in charge.

Like when I was flying the RS 4 I found a nice light thermal after getting off low and now it was getting really dark. It was easy to stay in the thermal and there was no high siding at all. I got up and then pulled on the VG to 3/4's. The bar pressure was light, but again not scary light and it flew straight.

I thought with the smaller glider that there might be an issue with it landing faster, but again the landing was easy. It flew straight and there was no problem with flare timing.

We got the gliders back in the bags and made it back to the hangar just before the down pour from the cell hit and soaked the air field (but not the town). Perhaps I'll have a chance to test fly a RS 3.5 before I head for home.

So the question is, should one fly a glider that sometimes wants to fly you (and just learn to be a man about it), and this was in light Forbes soft conditions, or should one always feel in control of the glider, even if perhaps it is a bit "too small?" Of course, the spannier glider has better performance in glide (perhaps, it also depends on your wing loading), so the idea is that you are willing to go with a glider that you have to wrestle with to get that extra performance. See the URL's above for more on this issue.

Armand is scheduled to be back out at Forbes towing on the weekend of the 15th, 16th, and 17th.

2007 Birchip, Flatter than the Flatlands »

April 10, 2007, 8:54:41 pm EDT

Birchip

Four days in a row of good flying.

Birchip 2007|Steve Blenkinsop|Tove Heaney|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Wesley Hill «wesleyianhill» writes:

Results for the 2007 Birchip Flatter than the Flatlands are available at: http://www.hgfa.asn.au/~fttf

Birchip turned on one of its best years, with 4 excellent days of flying.

Day 1 - 79 kms to Mittyack. A blue day with a light SSE wind. Weak thermals below 2000 ft made low saves difficult, but there were occasional 400 to 500 fpm climbs to 4200 ft if you stayed high. 6 pilots made goal. 1st Wesley Hill 38.7 km/h 2nd Hughbert Alexander 37.5 km/h 3rd Steve Blenkinsop 34.2 km/h

Day 2 - 65 kms to Boolite. Another blue day with a very light ENE wind. The wind earlier in the day had been north so we set up to tow north. Half the field was didn't get away when the surface winds turned more east, making launches difficult. It was a good day for those that got away with 12 in goal, and climbs of 600 fpm to 6000 ft. 1st Gary Fimeri 34.0 km/h 2nd Tove Heaney 33.1 km/h 3rd Trevor Sangster 32.3 km/h

Day 3 - 104 kms to Tottington. Yet another blue day (there were a few cus while we were setting up) with a fresh NNE wind. The task committee picked the direction badly, but strong thermals made it possible for 9 pilots to make goal (a couple of pilots ended up 30 kms off track). We were getting over 6000 ft, with the better thermals averaging 800 fpm. 1st Gary Fimeri 43.4 km/h 2nd Tove Heaney 39.7 km/h 3rd Ian Rees 39.6 km/h

Day 4 - 74 kms to Rich Avon. Blue again, with a moderate NNE wind. Weaker lift down low made it hard to get out of the paddock with a few late starts. 12 pilots at goal. Nick Isaacs deserves a special mention - he started flying 4 months ago, had his first XC flight yesterday and made goal today flying a kingpost glider. =1st Andy Schmidt 43.9 km/h =1st Paul Kelley 43.9 km/h 3rd Phil Campbell 42.6 km/h

Overall results: 1st Gary Fimeri 3141 2nd Paul Kelley 2989 3rd Steve Blenkinsop 2753 State challenge - SA Team - Show me the money Kingpost Class - Jeronimo Lavanchy Floater Class - Rob Swart

Hang Gliding is alive and well

Mon, Jul 17 2006, 3:58:30 pm CDT

Alive

Build it and they shall come.

Grant Heaney|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Lee Patterson|Tove Heaney

Lee Patterson «lee» writes:

As you may know Kath and I started hang gliding in March 1999 and we were taught by Tove and Grant Heaney. We were very lucky indeed! It completely consumed us both and it was not long after our training that we were going cross country and entering competitions. A couple of years later I started to help Tove out with her courses and decided to concentrate my efforts on helping people to get that same buzz that I had been getting every time we went flying. More so, I wanted people to learn the way that we learnt and that was by having a reliable and enthusiastic instructor that was passionate about hang gliding and also very skilled.

I learned a lot over the following years with Tove and Grant from ground towing, aero towing, cross country flying, comp flying and instructing students, which is something that you can not learn on your own. They both did this in good will and it is invaluable to what I know today.

Fast forward a few more years, quit my job in the snowy mountains, a move to the centre of the hang gliding universe of Australia (Canungra), A flight instructors certificate (thanks to Tove and Ken Hill), a supportive income from my beautiful partner Kath, we even threw a kid into the equation, little Taj (the next world champ!!) And presto the birth of a little hang gliding school is born.

The name of my business is Altitude Windsports and I am working under Ken Hills facility, South East Queensland Hang gliding. Ken has had a school here for near on twenty years and is an awesome ambassador for our sport. I am also lucky enough to have young Jonny Durand, Jnr (current world number one) helping me out from time to time, from first day student training flights right through to post training skill advancement like cross country flying and advanced thermal and flight planning techniques. Combined we have a very healthy hang gliding eco system working here that gives the new student a very positive, informed outlook and skill base that will hopefully ensure a good name for our sport within the community.

I have had the school running for one year now and the interest has been overwhelming. Just a few statistics to bore you with! Ran about seven hang gliding courses, one ground tow course and one aero tow course. Approximately thirty five new students did a full course or intro course. Of these around 20 have achieved their restricted licence.

Of this twenty student, approximately eighteen are actively flying most weekends and have different levels of ability due to outside influences. Three or four have their intermediate licence already and a couple have their ground tow and aero tow endorsements.

Approx five students have had an cross country adventure already including Dirk Barber's 100km flight in the flats this summer with Jonny, a standout indeed.

Two new female pilots have been licenced, one of them aero towing after only ten hrs airtime. In fact most of the students we teach have had their first cross country flight within 10 hrs of their first flight!

After reading so much negative press about the 'death' of hang gliding etc, I felt the need to share some positives about the future of hang gliding. I am only a small school with a small amount of infrastructure and have only been operating for a short time to achieve the above results.

I put this down to having a positive approach, a passion for what I am involved in and having some of the most experienced people in the game helping me out, something you cannot place a value on. I am looking forward to this next year and hope that we can double what we did this year. I would also like to pass on my thanks to everyone involved in this awesome sport/past time whatever you like to call it, we are the lucky bunch!!

Who said hang gliding was dying? They obviously have not been to Canungra lately!!

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Sportavia - in a funk »

Tue, Jan 24 2006, 6:12:48 pm AEDT

Sportavia

The day is called again as the bad mood deepens.

Sportavia International Open 2006|Tove Heaney|weather

Four days ago a pilot was killed here while towing. His death has cast a shadow over the meet and strongly effected the feelings and actions of a number of principals. Tove has been under severe stress due to the accident as well as threats from a number of enemies of hang gliding (GA businesses) that have done all that they could to stop our activities here. Jonnie Durand appears to be in a deep funk also due to the death and I continually see him carping and complaining. He's on the task committee.

Tove and Grant are the kinds of people that the sport of hang gliding needs. They are desperately trying to bring in new people and organize the sport for more fun and encouragement of existing pilots. They are under extreme pressure here in Tocumwal from those who wish to stop them in their tracks.

The weather hasn't helped. We had a great first day, but partly because of the inability of people to deal rationally with the situation (because of all the free floating angst), one very very good day was called way too prematurely by the safety committee. My opinion, of course.

Hopefully the winds will die down a little and the lift will improve after two bad days and we will be encouraged to fly once again.

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Sportavia International Open

Sun, Jan 22 2006, 1:49:02 pm AEDT

Sportavia

The day is called

Len Paton|Sportavia International Open 2006|Tove Heaney|weather

The safety committee called the day. Tove said that the reason was not the launch conditions but that they felt that the combination of strong winds and strong lift would make it too rough out on your flight.

I measured the winds at seven feet above the ground at a steady twenty two mph with gusts to twenty six mph out of the north northwest. The cu's were popping, likely at about eight or nine thousand feet.

Len Paton, who helps a bit with the weather for the comp, was the only safety committee person to vote to launch. He has been a strong voice in the past for setting wind speed limits.

The forecast was for forty one or forty two degrees today, and it was likely getting close to that out on the runway.

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Death at Tocumwal

Thu, Jan 19 2006, 6:43:53 pm AEDT

Pilot dies

The glider collapsed after going upside down at 500' while on or shortly off tow.

Belinda Boulter|Dragonfly|fatality|Tove Heaney

Today was the last day of the Top Gun Challenge, an instructional "meet" pairing Jonnie Durand and me by default with less experienced pilots to help them go cross country. With high pressure centered to our south and east, the winds were 20 knots out of the north east.

We waited until later in the day for the mixing to occur to bring down the wind speed a little when the higher slower winds above would have reduced the on ground wind speeds. That happened a little as we got ready to tow around 3 PM.

The high was forecast to be about 35° and with the northeast wind it was pretty pleasant getting ready to be towed up. I waited until a few students were almost ready and then took off behind the Dragonfly.

The tow up was pretty rough and I was ready at any moment to release. I did release early anyway just because it was so rough. The thermals were tight and chopped up down low. I had barely hung on while on tow.

The thermals improved greatly as I got up turning into completely smooth 900 fpm. I got out of the thermal to stay low to stay closer to Dirk, my first student, who got let off below me but wasn't climbing that well. I came back over the runway as I heard from Belinda that there had been an accident on tow. I could just make out the folded glider to the north of the paved runway.

With the possibility that there might be a helicopter coming in, I headed south to catch up with Dirk and see if I could find him a thermal. We was too low so when he landed I came in and landed with him to give him a ride back.

Belinda and Tove had watched the pilot, with Belinda only seeing him after the wings folded. Most of the witnesses spoke of a loud bang. I spoke most extensively with Chris Smith. He said that he watched the whole flight.

He stated that the pilot was getting out of whack, both yaw and roll, behind the Dragonfly. Then the Dragonfly and pilot entered a strong smooth thermal and they were both going up fast. When the Dragonfly got out of the thermal he went down fast and the hang glider pilot pulled in to follow him, getting out of whack again. He significantly reduced the distance between himself and the Dragonfly.

Then the radical actions continued and the glider went upside down and the wings folded. From 500 feet the glider tucked and spun. The pilot got the parachute out, but it did not open in time to stop the impact.

The police from Albury are conducting an investigation.

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Sportavia »

January 17, 2006, 11:35:19 pm AEDT

Sportavia

We are here getting ready for the upcoming meet.

weather

Tove Heaney|weather

Here.

We are here at Tove's place, staying in a motel-like room on the grounds of the airport. The gliding center is the big operation at the airport (although there are other GA businesses here).

Sunday was overcast and pilots in the Top Gun Challenge, those learning to fly better, had an opportunity to practice their aerotowing in light conditions in the late afternoon. We were towing from one portion of the north south grass runway, which runs right next to the main paved runway.

Today the weather was much better. They are using an American based world wide weather forecasting model, GFS, found here: http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html.  This seems to be their favorite tool.

We had blue skies that slowly filled with little white puffy cu's all about. I was the first to tow and got off low in the first lift that I found, and promptly lost a glove off my base bar when I pulled on the VG. I marked it with the 5030 and was able to go back and get it later finding it within .8 10ths of a kilometer of my mark.

I was flying a new harness that I'm trying out, a Skyline Zero Drag. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was set for between head way way down to head way down. To get upright I had to open up the zipper, bend my legs, and let the slider come forward. This worked fine but wasn't optimal, so after getting almost to cloud base (and flying in some wave), I came down and landed to try to fix these problems, as well as the radio that wasn't working.

All is well now with a little adjustment and I had a nice test flight at 5:30 Pm with the cu nimb threatening to the west.

Look like we will have a great time at Sportavia. So far we've all been eating and socializing every night at the on site restaurant. Tove is ready to go.

The lift here is quite a bit stronger than what we were getting in the mountains. We are only two hours away by car from Mt. Beauty.

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Grant goes for the big one

December 26, 2005, 5:19:12 pm PST

Sportavia

Will he make it?

weather

Tove Heaney|weather

Tove Heaney  «theaney» writes:

THE GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS!

THE GOOD NEWS:

Two days ago at Sportavia the rumor started circulating “tomorrow looks like a 1000km day.” Apparently Ingo Renner (four times gliding world champion) was in the hangar preparing his standard class Discus for the next day's flight. (Ingo’s wife, Judy told me later that Ingo wanted her to fly (she’s a glider pilot too), but she kindly declined, since Ingo works and can only fly on his days off, she can fly any day. Isn’t Ingo a sweety!)

The forecast looked just right: Pre frontal. North West, hot ( 39degrees) and windy. In the morning (last wek) the gliders were being pushed out of the hangar before briefing. At the weather briefing Eddie our CFI kept stumbling, not normal for him, and he blamed it on being excited!

There was forecast for high clouds coming in from the SW, but the task area to the north should be clear, and flying back home into the high cloud, should be final glide anyway! Forecast for 12 000ft, chance of cumulus.

At 9.20 Ingo launched, straight after release he just glided off across the start line and on course, north, that was the last we saw off him for the rest of the day.

Grant had early prepared the Nimbus, 24.5 meter wingspan glider, and after helping a bit on the ground, he launched at 10am. He had an FAI 1000km loaded on the logger, and he was wearing shorts and T-shirt.

At 11 am the high clouds came in thick from the south west, it didn’t look so good after all. Too the north though, you could just see it was blue and clear and cumulus where popping. A few pilots came back and landed after an hour and they said it was too hard, and not the day!

It was very windy from the North West and by mid afternoon it was 42degrees Celsius. Some of the pilots were still out there, but quite a few were back, the 1000km fever was pretty much gone, the high clouds were just getting thicker.

Some guys were coming back though telling of 13,000 feet and beautiful cumulus to the north. Grant had apparently called the first turnpoint at Galong to the NE, Ingo was not talking, this is normal for him.

In the gliding world one of the golden rules is to have “your cut off time, the last time to turn around and come home ”. Grant’s limit was 4.30pm. He still hadn’t reached the last turnpoint, Tottenham to the North. He pushed on and rounded the last turnpoint at 5.10pm with 425km to fly home. He called from the mobile phone, to tell the us about his position, since he was too far away to use the air band radio.

Grant was getting 1000-1500 feet/min climbs, and kept pulling out at 15, 000ft, not at cloudbase, because the climbs were getting slower with altitude. Under 1000 up, not much point in staying. Ingo said cloudbase was probably 18,000ft, but like Grant found the top of the climbs too slow. Ingo was pulling out at 16,000ft.

Back here at Sportavia the clouds from the south were getting thicker. It looked like it was going to rain. We now had a moderate Northwest. Eddie (CFI), was hanging around, watching the weather radar, and fiddling with the final glide calculator.

Grant is his little apprentice, and Eddie had given him the 1000km talk before take off. We knew Grant had called both turnpoints, but was he going to make it home?

Ingo was relaying messages from Grant, and slowly we could start hearing Grant on the radio as well! Ingo told us he had to cut the corner, and didn’t do the Tottenham turnpoint. He had reached his “turn home time” before the turnpoint. (Ingo was flying a much lower performance glider.) Ingo came home with a distance flown of 910km. 10 ½ hours in the air.

Grant ended up gliding the last 200 km home pretty much, cross tailwind and landed after 10 hours with a distance of 1007km flown! He was still a bit out of it (hypoxic?) After landing, and his legs were like ice!

Grant said this was the highest flight he’s ever done in Australia, and it reminded him of the flying we were doing in Hang Gliders, years ago, in the Owens Valley, USA. As the good wife I was there with Champaign when he landed!



Since this 1000km flight is a FAI triangle it also qualifies for the Baron Hilton Cup! Every year the glider pilot with the best flight, gets invited to go to the Hilton Ranch in the USA with a partner, for flying, all expenses paid, two week holiday!

Australian pilots compete with pilots from Africa. Grant is currently on the top of the Baron Hilton Cup list. I can only dream!!!!

THE BAD NEWS: It was too windy for Hang Gliding!

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Sportavia »

December 21, 2005, 9:12:11 PST

Sportavia

Tove and the crew get things ready for the upcoming meet.

Chris Fogg|sailplane

Chris Fogg|sailplane|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney at Sportavia «Tove» www.Sportavia.com.au writes:

We finally got the HG officially going (gee only took about a year). We are currently running a XC tour here at Sportavia, and it’s so much fun!

Currently we are operating on the grass runways with the gliders (sailplanes). It’s like a big social club out on the runways etc. We are all learning so much from each other.

Yesterday wasn’t a special day, but one of the hang gliding guys Paul did a personal best of 90km, and one of the gliders got up in wave (yes on the flatlands) to 11,000ft. The rest flew east to the start of the mountains and airspace and landed.

Two Hang Gliders and a Nimbus glider (was thermaling together over Lake Mulwalla (Lake full of dead trees) the glider pilot said it was beautiful to watch. Ingo Renner 4 times gliding World Champion this morning gave us (hang gliding and gliders) a great talk on thermaling, XC, and wave flying here in the south eastern part of Australia.

Heaps of the gliding guys are waiting on getting hang gliding tandems, we haven’t even have had time to fly the tandem yet, since we only got permission to operate hang gliding last Friday and the XC tour started on Saturday.

Our future permanent paddock needs to be smoothen, (crop is harvested), and marked as an official landing area, before we can start using it. Operating on the grass with the gliders has gone amazingly smooth. The runways here are absolutely huge, so that helps!

The “Civil Australian Safety Authority” has been extremely supportive and helpful in getting hang gliding going here at Sportavia as well as Chris Fogg, the General Manager with the HGFA also went out of his way too.

The Sportavia International Hang Gliding Competition and the Top Gun challenge is getting closer.

Can pilots that are coming please let me know, so we can organize appropriate numbers of Tugs.

We here at Sportavia are really looking forward to organizing a great Aerotow Comp, we are even training the gliding field runners in dolly ops etc. There is still quite a few overseas pilots coming. A bit surprising, but the number will not be as high as the last few years.

I think this gives us very much the opportunity for the first year to organize a fun, safe and smooth Aerotow comp.


Click for bigger version

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Our Oz Schedule

Wed, Nov 23 2005, 2:00:05 am EST

Where we will be in January.

calendar|Carol Binder|Heather Mull

calendar|Carol Binder|Heather Mull|Tove Heaney

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/compcalendar.htm

Australian Free Flying Festival, Registration 29th Dec 2005, event runs from 30th Dec to 3rd Jan 2006 Bright, VIC To promote all free flying sports in general to the public, and to have fun! The comp will be an accuracy landing and XC distance comp in the Bright area in a safe environment. The fifth day will be a club fundraiser. Contact Carol Binder

Bogong Cup, 7th to 14th January 2006, Registration and practice, 6th Mt Beauty, VIC Strictly 70 pilots max. Minimum rating - intermediate with inland experience. Entry $195 -before Dec' 10, 2005. $205 - entry after Dec' 11, 2005. Club. Open, Kingpost, Floater & Female categories, also the Joel Rebecchi award for most improved Australian pilot. The dynamic team of Carol Binder (Organiser) and Heather Mull (Director) will once again ensure for heaps of fun, prizes (serious & novelty) and social events. GPS, radio, parachute and a passion for flying mandatory. Contact Carol 0429 403 606

Top Gun Apprentice Challenge, 16th - 19th Jan Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW Combined XC Clinic and Competition. Open to all pilots eager to learn about XC flying. Top rated international pilots (the "top guns") will be hosting XC competition clinics during the event. A number of Top Guns will each coach a team around the course each day with the scores being the sum of the scores of the learner pilots. Costs $450 which includes all tows and all clinic sessions. Contact Tove

Sportavia International Hang Gliding Championships, 21st - 28th January Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW Aero competition. Open to all pilots (floaters -> topless), but all pilots need an aerotow endorsement (even a fun can be aerotowed) Entry fee $200 plus $400 for tows. Will be run at Sportavia or a paddock nearby. Contact Tove

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Sportavia »

Thu, Oct 13 2005, 4:00:00 pm EDT

Hang Gliding at a glider port in Oz.

Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney « Tove» writes:

We got permission yesterday afternoon to operate Hang Gliders here at Tocumwal Aerodrome.

After one year of lobbying, we got it!

We had a lot of opposition, especially from the General Aviation crew. Amazingly, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority here in Australia has been one of our biggest supporters. A few of the statements from CASA was: Hang Gliders and Trikes are one of the safest aircraft to be operating in a CTAF.

The future in aviation is Sport Aviation, and General Aviation is in a big decline. We will operate in the NE corner (huge) of the cross runways, so we can rig in the middle and always tow into the wind. Once we get established, airborne, we will confirm to circuit direction. This is great, because we don’t have to wait on anybody, we can launch whenever we like.

The NE corner currently has a crop of Barley on it, so we have to figure out what to do with it short term. Long term we’ll plant grass. It does mean that Hang Glider Pilots will have to behave here in Tocumwal and learn about circuits etc.

We’ll have our VHF Airband frequency re - transmitted on our chosen UHF channel. John Reynold’s great invention. We’ll send you more info with some aerial shots etc. and our overall plan of operation.

Today I had my first glider flight in a single seater. At 10.30am this morning I was cruising from cloud to cloud at 5500ft. It’s so lush and green here the view looks like its Vietnam or some place similar, but the thermals are pumping.

Click above for bigger version.

How green is this! Grant flew 286km triangle with 6000ft bases and 5kt climbs

Yes, the photo from yesterday was taken near here.

Discuss Tocumwal at the Oz Report forum

Tocumwal Meet

Tue, Sep 20 2005, 1:00:01 pm EDT

An all aerotow comp at a soaring center

Tove Heaney

www.sportavia.com.au

Better here

http://www.sportavia.com/HangGliding/main.htm

Sportavia International Hang Gliding Championships

AAA 21st - 28th January Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW Aero competition. Open to all pilots (floaters -> topless), but all pilots need an aerotow endorsement (even a fun can be aerotowed) Entry fee $200 plus $400 for tows. Will be run at Sportavia or a paddock nearby. Contact Tove

Discuss Tocumwal at the Oz Report forum

Going to Oz »

Mon, Sep 19 2005, 4:00:03 pm EDT

Yup, we're headed that way once again.

Belinda Boulter

Belinda Boulter|Tove Heaney

Belinda and I will be heading for Australia after Christmas for six weeks on the Australian Competition circuit. We'll be in Bright, Mt. Beauty, and Tocumwal checking out Tove's new aerotow competition.

This year I'll be flying the new Airborne C4 13 (trading glider rental for ad space in the Oz Report, as I always do). Last year I flew the Moyes Litespeed S 4 (a little bit bigger glider than the C4 13) and loved it. I thought that it was only fair that I fly the other Australian glider this year. I look forward to this little race horse of the glider (one that should be easier on my body than the C2 14 or Litespeed S 4.5).

Of course I will be reporting in the Oz Report on and from Oz.

Discuss Oz at the Oz Report forum

The Oz Competition Season

Thu, Sep 15 2005, 2:00:01 pm EDT

A full compliment, but only two majors (AAA) in January

calendar|Carol Binder|Heather Mull|Peter Lissenburg|Tove Heaney|William "Billo" Olive

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/compcalendar.htm

Canungra Classic

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

AA 24 Sept to 1st October Canungra, QLD Another classic week. Contact Jon Durand

Airborne Gulgong Classic Aerotow

http://www.gulgongclassic.com/

AA 22nd to 26th November. 21st practice day Gulgong, NSW Entries will be strictly limited to 50 Aerotow qualified pilots. Entry fee of $350.00 covers T shirt, presentation dinner, strip and hangarage fees and all tows on competition days (practice days are pay per tow) Due to the complexity of organising tugs a late fee of $50.00 will be imposed for entries received after 30th of September. Enquires or phone 0249-423131 0412-423133 on line info and rego

Gathering of the Moths Fly-in

19-20 November 2005 Mt Beauty, VIC Pilots of all denominations are invited to fly the sheltered Kiewa Valley at the foot of the picturesque Victorian Alps. Range of accommodation available. Contacts: Mark Ghirardello (03 57544 572, 0409 544572) or Don Pollock (03 57541301).

Denni Tow Comp

http://www.sensair.com/hanggliding/denicomp.

27 December 05 to 1st January 06 Denniliquin, Conargo. NSW The Deni comp lives on, slightly reincarnated. No practice day, but the 2/1/06 is being reserved for a "Fly Away Day" ­ an opportunity to fly open distance, maybe trying to get to the party at Bright. This will be a fun comp, run with a similar philosophy as the Easter comp at Birchip, Victoria, each year. Ground tow only, because we want to keep it simple and it will be more friendly to new towing pilots. For further inquiries phone Peter Lissenburg 03 5962 9371 (almost all hours).

Australian Free Flying Festival

http://www.xcflight.com/first.html

Registration 29th Dec 2005, event runs from 30th Dec to 3rd Jan 2006 Bright, VIC To promote all free flying sports in general to the public, and to have fun! The comp will be an accuracy landing and XC distance comp in the Bright area in a safe environment. The fifth day will be a club fundraiser. Contact Carol Binder

Bogong Cup AAA

http://www.xcflight.com/7.html

7th to 14th January 2006 Registration and practice, 6th Mt Beauty, VIC Strictly 70 pilots max. Minimum rating - intermediate with inland experience. Entry $195 -before Dec' 10, 2005. $205 - entry after Dec' 11, 2005. Club. Open, Kingpost, Floater & Female categories, also the Joel Rebecchi award for most improved Australian pilot. The dynamic team of Carol Binder (Organiser) and Heather Mull (Director) will once again ensure for heaps of fun, prizes (serious & novelty) and social events. GPS, radio, parachute and a passion for flying mandatory. Contact Carol 0429 403 606

Top Gun Apprentice Challenge

http://www.sportavia.com/HangGliding/main.htm

16th - 19th Jan Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW Combined XC Clinic and Competition. Open to all pilots eager to learn about XC flying. Top rated international pilots (the "top guns") will be hosting XC competition clinics during the event. A number of Top Guns will each coach a team around the course each day with the scores being the sum of the scores of the learner pilots. Costs $450 which includes all tows and all clinic sessions. Contact Tove

Sportavia International Hang Gliding Championships

http://www.sportavia.com/HangGliding/main.htm

AAA 21st - 28th January Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW Aero competition. Open to all pilots (floaters -> topless), but all pilots need an aerotow endorsement (even a fun can be aerotowed) Entry fee $200 plus $400 for tows. Will be run at Sportavia or a paddock nearby. Contact Tove

Corryong Cup

B 15th to 21st January 2006 Corryong, VIC Fun comp to foster XC flying and sport competition. Chill out in a relaxed competition atmosphere. Contact Cameron

Tocumwal Challenge

http://www.sportavia.com/HangGliding/main.htm

25 - 26th February 2006 Sportavia, Tocumwal, NSW National Flyin. Fun fly in fly out weekend for all pilots run in conjunction with Tocumwal town festival with mega parties and all sorts of activities with all flying sports and other things. Contact Tove

NSW State Titles

AA 5th to 11th February 2006 Manilla, NSW NSW State Titles. Registration at Royal Hotel on Friday 4 Feb. GPS turnpoints and goal verification. Pilot requirements: int rating with inland experience. Entry fee $120, includes T-shirt and presentation dinner. Contact Billo: 0412 423133

Birchip

B Easter Birchip, VIC

Discuss Oz Comps at the Oz Report forum

Deniliquin Competition

Wed, Sep 14 2005, 4:00:01 pm EDT

The paddock needs to be filled up.

calendar|Peter Lissenburg

calendar|Peter Lissenburg|Tove Heaney

Peter Lissenburg «peter» writes:

The Deniliquin Competition lives on, slightly reincarnated.

We are running a Towing comp at Deniliquin (NSW Australia) again this year. As Tove has moved on, to run an Aero Towing Comp later in the month at Tocumwal, we felt there was a sadly unoccupied paddock at Conargo, that we would like to populate with like minded weekend warriors.

Dates. 27/12/05 to the 1/1/06 inclusive. Plus the 2nd of January.
No Practice day, but the 2/1/06 is being reserved for a "Fly Away Day". An opportunity to fly open distance, maybe trying to get to the party at Bright.

This will be a fun comp, run with a similar philosophy as the Easter Comp at Birchip, Vic each year. This does not mean, bomb drops and spot landings, but XC. Cross Country flying at it's best. What it does mean?

Well for starters, the comp organizers will be flying in the comp. Ground tow only. This is because we want to keep it simple, and as easy to organize as possible. Also there is an Aero Tow comp just around the corner. And a smaller ground based comp will be more friendly to new towing and cross country pilots.

No appeals, lots of encouragement to new, and less experienced pilots. Novelty prizes. Lots of talking, eating, drinking, flying, drinking, eating, talking, flying.

The biggest difference to the Birchip comp, will be the use of GPS scoring, so we will have turn points for the Kingpost and Open classes, and straight line for Floater. So yes, we are keeping Tove's 3 classes idea alive. Tasks will be challenging, but obtainable by the weekend warrior.

Straight line and small dogleg tasks 120 to 150kms, triangle and big dogleg tasks 80 to 120 kms. We hope there will be a reasonable turnout of around 60 pilots, utilizing the many strips available at the Comp paddock in Conargo.

So if you are, like us, lamenting the end of the car towing comps at Christmas, grieve no more but get your entries in. Further details available on the HGFA web site, Comp Calendar page. www.hgfa.asn.au  www.xcflight.com  and http://www.sensair.com/hanggliding/denicomp.  Or call 61(0)3 59629371 for further details.

Discuss Deni at the Oz Report forum

Missing Some WPRS points?

Wed, Jul 13 2005, 9:00:01 pm EDT

Did you turn in your FAI Sporting License number?

FAI Sporting License

Øyvind Ellefsen|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jacques Bott|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jacques Bott|Kevin Carter|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Brett Hazlett|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jacques Bott|Kevin Carter|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Brett Hazlett|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Jacques Bott|James Lamb|Kevin Carter|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Øyvind Ellefsen|Brett Hazlett|Chris Muller|CIVL|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|George Stebbins|Jacques Bott|James Lamb|Kevin Carter|Tove Heaney|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

David Glover «davidhglover» writes:

Right now only the pilots on the following list will receive points for the 2005 Flytec Championship. We requested multiple times at the pilot meeting for pilots to show us their FAI License. These are the only pilots that we received information from. Many top pilots and world champions, who I am sure have an FAI Lic.enses, may want to contact Paula at FAI/CIVL < «paula», if you want points for the 2005 Flytec Championship.

No action needed if your name is below:

ALMOND Neville, ANDERSON Anders, ANDERSON Hakan, BOTT Jacques, CARTER Kevin, CHOPARD Patrick, DIEUZEIDE-BANET Francoise, DOLWIN Craig, ELLEFSEN Oyvind, GRICAR Primoz, GUERRA Raul, HAZLETT Brett, HEANEY Tove, HINDEMITH Joakim, LAMB James, LANNING Tom, LANSER Pascal, MARTIN Dustin, MATHURIN Eric, MULLER Chris, NEIDEMAN Markel, NICHELE Roberto, OLSEN Olav Lien, PARCELLIER Thierry, STEBBINS George, STRAUB Davis, WINKELMANN Bernard

Discuss "Missing Some WPRS points?" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Oz Report Radio »

Sat, Apr 23 2005, 5:30:02 pm EDT

Ozzie's

Grant Heaney

Grant Heaney|Tove Heaney

To see a list of and then listen to archived interviews on Oz Report Radio click here.

Tove and Grant Heaney on their flight park in Australia.

this is an audio post - click to play

Please send suggestions for interview subjects «here».

How to catch our Ozcasts.

Discuss Oz Report Radio at the Oz Report forum

Recommendations based on Robin's accident

Mon, Feb 14 2005, 3:00:03 pm GMT

Rohan did the evaluation of Robin's bridle after the accident at the Worlds.

Dragonfly|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|Tove Heaney

Rohan Holtkamp at Dynamic Flight «dynamic» writes:

Recommendation One:

Do not use a 'wishsard' or 'spinnaker' release directly connected to a string or rope. This type of metal release has a metal knob on the opening arm that a rope will catch on, even when the release is activated and open. You must have a metal ring on this type of release. The ring must be large enough to slide past the knob under all angles and situations. A reliable release applies to both ends of the system.

Click above photo for a high resolution view.

Outcome: Sadly, this type of release/weaklink combination is still commonly used on Dragonflys, without the metal ring!

Recommendation Two:

Use a ninety meter tow rope which will allow the glider pilot twice as much time to react/release in the event of an emergency, as a sixty meter rope. I showed on the whiteboard these angles verses distance?

Outcome:

Sadly, we tried to put our ninety meter ropes (which we had prepared before the meet) on Bill's tugs but he said no way and reportedly cut them off his tugs. On the positive side, all the trikes used ninety meter ropes from day one, as past accidents have taught the aerotowing community this lesson before.

Discussion of weaklinks ensued;

Recommendation Three.

Weaklinks shall be no stronger than one 'G', i.e. equivalent to the combined weight of pilot, glider and gear. This applies to the tug end as well. The glider end is best set at 15% weaker to avoid having the glider pilot fly with the rope in the event of a weaklink break at the tug end.

String weaklinks should be comprised of short loops to avoid twisting and therefore altering the strength.

Outcome:

Most tug pilots refused to tow unless the glider end was reduced to 30% weaker i.e. 80kg. The next flying day this proved to be too weak, and the number of reflys too high for the tug pilots, so there was a return to the breaking strain of around one G as recommended in the 'Local Rules' from the start.

The long weaklinks that Tish and Tove insisted upon, tested to be a little too strong when twisted up, so did not break as often. This turned out to be fine as the tug pilots thought the weaklinks 'looked right' because they were comprised of four strands.

Our hang gliding community, like other facets of aviation (and life) must learn and adapt if deaths are to be avoided in the future. I feel saddened and frustrated when facts and physics prove change is needed, then the solutions that are offered are rejected.

Discuss "Recommendations based on Robin's accident" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

WGS84 and other datums

Thu, Feb 3 2005, 6:00:02 am EST

It's a small world after all.

(Zupy|CIVL|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Quest Air|Tove Heaney|Zupanc)

When I got to the Australian Nationals and found out that Zupy was using WGS84 instead of the Australian Geod '66 datum I was very pleasantly surprised. WGS84 is the world  standard and it was great to see Australian scorekeepers and meet directors stop being so parochial and start using a standard that works seamlessly with the GPS system and is familiar to international pilots.

Of course, Michael Zupanc has been Australia's CIVL representative and so is familiar with international concerns. Also, Tove, the meet director, is Australia's most progressive and innovative meet director (we in the US have based our meet structures on her innovations) so it was natural to see this change happening at a meet that she was running.

Zupy explained to me that he was using OziExplorer, an Australian electronic GPS/map software, and low and behold, their maps of Australia used the WGS84 map datum and not the outdated Australian Geod '66. The lame argument for using this datum is that some of the paper maps were based on it. Like 200 meters made a big difference for new waypoints and goal determined in the tow paddock by the task committee.

When the waypoints are transferred to our GPS's from the scorekeeper's computer, they are transferred assuming the WGS84 datum (this was not the case for the 5030 and Compeo if you set the datum in the flight computer to something other than WGS84). The waypoints are stored in Garmin GPSes using WGS84 at the datum, no matter what datum is used to display them.

Of course, it doesn't matter what datum Australian meet organizers use as long as they don't add any new waypoints to their already existing list. We can display them in degrees minutes.decimal minutes format with the WGS84 datum even if that's not the format that they give them to us. It just adds a level of uncertainty when we look at their printed list and requires a bit of testing on our part to make sure everything is okay.

It turned out it wasn't okay if Compeo or 5030 users had set their instruments to Australian Geod '66. The display of coordinate values for the waypoints didn't change when you switched datums, as is the case with the Garmin GPSs. This was obviously unnerving.

I would hope that in the future all competitions with international pilots use the international datum, WGS84. Perhaps CIVL can make this a requirement, and not just a recommendation for CIVL sanctioned meets, as one scorekeeper in Australia seems resistant to this. I would personally like to see meet directors and scorekeepers give (at the same time) new waypoint coordinates in dd mm.mmm format also, in addition to whatever their preferred format is (UTM, for example).

I appreciate the fact that Paul Rundell, meet director at the Worlds, was willing to use the WGS84 datum for all new waypoints at the Worlds, and was just sorry that he didn't provide dd mm.mmm formats at the same time as he broadcast UTM formatted coordinate values. Still, to reduce confusion, it would be much better to have this worked out in advance.

Again, this only matters if new waypoints are added by the task committee when the task is called. There is a significant time pressure at this point, which is why we need to eliminate the uncertainty.

If the 2007 flex wing Worlds are in Big Spring, Texas, WGS84 and dd mm.mmm will be the standard used. They will also be used at the Women's and Rigid Wing Worlds and pre-Worlds at Quest Air in Florida in April 2005 and 2006.

2005 Worlds »

Thu, Jan 13 2005, 10:00:00 am EST

No one at goal once again.

Attila Bertok|Brett Hazlett|cart|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Tove Heaney|weather|Worlds 2005

Results

The weather forecasting has gone to pot here and no one seems to know what is up. The trike goes up at 8 AM, but the winds that are reported then have nothing to do with what we see. Today the trike went up to 10,000', showing high winds up to seventy three kph at 10,000', and almost as high at lower elevations, but very light winds on the ground.

But the winds remain light even after the thermal mixing. A forty one degrees ground temperature forecast is supposed to get us to 10,000'. We don't get anywhere near that high. Just up to 5,400'. On Friday it is supposed to get to forty five.

Too many pilots, dress from 10,000', but after being way too hot yesterday, I have less on and I'm comfortable. Some have asked me whether they can get heat stroke flying in this heat with so many clothes on. If only we could get high.

The weaklink saga improves with new weaklink material from Tove - direct from Norway. I get a cart without bungee material, so I'm happier. I get towed into the wind, which I appreciate.

The hard working ground crews are making up the new weaklinks every morning. It is quite an effort and much appreciated. Paul Rundell is doing a great job making sure everyone is organized.

There is no drift over the tow paddock as we climb up in reasonable lift. At first there seems to be a good number of thermals and even though the lift is ratty and unpleasant, it does get us up.

There is a forty to fifty pilot gaggle at 5,000' just outside the entry start circle at 3:15 so it seems like a good prospecting team for finding the first thermal out on the course line to the east. We then go on a ten kilometer glide to under 2,000' AGL before hitting even rattier lift.

I've got my right turn back, so I'm holding onto my left down tube in right turns, and trying not to hit other pilots. Some don't realize the danger and get pretty darn close. I have to leave the thermals to feel safer.

Most of the rest of the pilots continue on without me and make the turnpoint sixty five kilometers to the east, without any help from the winds, in about two hours. Then most make it to or near the second turnpoint, thrown in to keep us out of Griffith airspace, twenty five kilometers to the southeast.

It's another eighty eight kilometers to the goal, but by then it is after six o'clock and there are cirrus clouds blocking the sun in the west. Pilots drop out along the last leg.

So far on our flying days Hay has been high pressured with low inversions, ratty thermals, and challenging conditions. Great for a true test of champions, but not all that inviting for a little fly.

Jon Durand Jnr got this shot of the tow paddock on Wednesday. Look closely and you can see the gliders lined up on the ground ready to be towed up.

Dustin, Kevin, and Curt got to about forty four kilometers from the goal. Tom Lanning was seven kilometers short of the second turnpoint after two low saves at four hundred feet. Dean landed five kilometers short of the first turnpoint.

Oleg won the day coming with sixteen kilometers of goal.

Task four:

Place Name Glider Nation km Total
1 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat L UKR 176.5 900
2 KEIJZER Koos De Icaro Laminar MR 14 NLD 174.1 892
3 PATON Len Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 173.3 888
4 UJHELYI Balazs Aeros Combat 2 14 HUN 172.2 883
5 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 AUS 170.4 872
6 KOJI Daimon Aeros Combat L JPN 167.8 857
7 FRIESENBICHLER Michael Moyes Litespeed S3.5 AUT 167.2 854
8 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed S4 CAN 166.7 851
9 BARES Radek Aeros Combat 2 15 CZE 161.8 824
10 BADER Lucas Moyes Litespeed S4 DEU 161.3 821
11 BERTOK Attila Moyes Litespeed S4.5 HUN 157.9 806
12 CARTER Kevin Aeros Combat L USA 151.7 781

2005 Australian Nationals »

Fri, Dec 31 2004, 11:00:00 am EST

The goal keeps filling up and almost everyone is happy.

Australian Nationals 2005|Belinda Boulter|Bill Moyes|Curt Warren|Dragonfly|dust devil|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|sailplane|Tom Lanning|Tove Heaney

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/Denni/Denni.htm

The results found at the URL above are not available this morning.

We are having a gas. Each day is getting better. This, the last day of 2004, and the task committee calls three tasks for floater, king posted, and open classes, all ending at the Sportavia Soaring Center  in Tocumwal, where Tove, the meet organizer, is the manager, and where her trike towing husband, Grant, also works. The idea is that we fly into a full fledged flight park for sailplane pilots, and we'll have a party at the on-site restaurant and be able to break down on the huge shaded lawn next to the pool. A flight park in Australia, it's like flying in Florida, but with big time thermals.

Speaking of thermals, it is a continuous thermal in the tow paddock to 9,400', the highest we've been here this year. Joe Fussel takes me right to it and I just spend the next hour turning. Bill Moyes tows Tom Lanning into a dust devil at 600', and gets himself and the Dragonfly knocked out of the dust devil. Tom pins off, not wanting to follow Bill over and down, and climbs out at 1,400 fpm. That got Tom's attention.

While the floaters and king posted gliders are tasked to fly straight south west to Tocumwal, we in the open class need to fly south to east of Deniliquin, then east past Finley to almost Berrigan, then back to Finley (the old sink hole from yesterday) and then 20 k south down the road to Sportavia. 130+ kilometers. With light winds a nice task, and a great place to fly to.

Lisa Miller, flying a floater has her personal best flight of 70 kilometers making goal. She is lit up like a headlight at Sportavia.

We'd flown to Tocumwal before, a few years back, but now with it under new management there was a whole different attitude. They love having hang glider pilots here and next year instead of going to Deniliquin we'll likely have a meet centered right here. That would be so great. (It means no car towing, only aerotowing.)

Everyone here at Sportavia is excited about the cross country energy. The more pilots around who want to go cross country, the better.

The first start time is 3 PM, and we are all high. I can easily spot Curt and Kevin with their Flytec and Quest Air on the tops of their wings. Jonny Durand is trying to get next to me for a shot that he knows will get into the Oz Report. He has a new 7 megapixel point and shoot camera.

A few pilots head out, but the big gaggle waits until 3:15 with a few holding back until 3:30 hoping to catch the guys in front. There are no cu's, but patches of cirrus are ominously passing by overhead.

We (those of us starting at 3:15) are getting so much higher than on the previous two days and finding moderate lift out on the course line so it's a 25 k race to Deniliquin and east 57 k toward Berrigan. There are so many pilots around it is much easier to find the best lift. The lift is spotty but gets really good as we come up to Berrigan, turn and start upwind 20 kilometers back to Finley.

The cirrus are thick to the west as the sun gets lower and it's getting shaded by Finley. Belinda is hanging out by the lake there, spotting gaggles. The two ahead of me came in low, 2,500' to the turnpoint west of Finley and had to work it up slowly near the lake.

I, and those pilots with me, had to do the same thing, but now it is really shaded and we climb slowly out just as we had the day before. The lift starts at just slightly positive, and finally gets up to 200 fpm at 5,000' as it takes seventeen minutes to get to 5,000'. I'm the brave one and take off for the goal leaving the others hanging onto the lift that just saved their bacon.

Many pilots make goal today with all the classes here. The restaurant and pub at Sportavia are packed, with folks eating dinner all over the lawn and by the pool. I'm writing the Oz Report on Tove's computer in the Sportavia office.

I've heard that it's likely that Craig Coomber won the day. He started at 3:30. Oleg was the first guy in from the 3:15 group. Curt Warren mentioned how Oleg was just able to out climb everyone by 200' in the last thermal. The whole US team made it into goal.

It is really wonderful having so many pilots at goal. It means that the task is a race and not an endurance contest or a matter of luck. Three hour tasks seem about right to me for a good test of pilot skills.

We have New Years in Tocumwal and Deniliquin. As I write this (paragraph) at 1:30 AM January 1st ,2005, there is a big Red Bull and Vodka party (but all the Vodka is gone) of hang glider pilots here at the Deniliquin Golf Resort.

Flights for the first three days:

Day One.

Day Two.

Day Three.

Jonny captures Antoine upside down going up in a 700 fpm thermal on day three of the Oz Nats.

Discuss Oz Nats at the Oz Report forum

Norwegian record in Australia

Wed, Dec 22 2004, 12:00:00 pm EST

300 km.

record

record|Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Last Friday Otto Baste set an new Norwegian record of 300km flown in Australia. The flight was out of the competition paddock in Conargo (place of the Australian Open Championship) straight north were he landed 30km north of Ivanhoe. What makes this flight even more amazing is that Otto has been fighting cancer for the last years. In the tow paddock he had only a limited amount of energy. Rigging, getting his gear together and moving the equipment around was quite an effort for him.

My father, Ole who was helping on my XC Tour in Deniliquin/Conargo, became Otto's personal assistant in the paddock. Otto would fly one day and then rest for a few days. After getting Otto in the air last Friday, I said to Dad you stay underneath Otto until he lands. Then pick up pilots that have landed around him, before returning back to Deniliquin.

I could hear Otto and Dad on the radio going scoobie, doobie, doobie (Norwegian) as they chatted via the radio about which road to follow etc. until they disappeared into the distance. We had a busy day in the paddock 20+ pilots, and eventually finished for the day and headed back. Some of the other guys did over a hundred, 140km etc. They said last thing they heard from Otto he was over 200. The other pilots could hardly believe it, the day didn't seem that good!

When Otto called from his satellite phone just as it got dark, we were all amazed: 300km. I couldn't connect with Dad, so I called the police station. Dad was thinking the same thing, as he got invited to come around to the police station to sort things out, after running into the officers at the Pub. Otto in the mean time had gotten a ride in a Ute into town, they met half way, dad being escorted by the police to find him.

This is Australian country hospitality for you!!!

It's amazing what Otto has achieved not feeling his best, on an average day! Imagine what he can do feeling better on a good day!

This picture of Dad and Otto is taken 23rd December at Tocumwal Sportavia, after a relaxing local flight. Otto had a swim in the pool, before putting his glider in the hangar ready for today. Dad was there for support as usual!

We've got a nice group of international pilots here hanging out for Christmas! Having some relaxing flying waiting on that awesome day, getting ready for the Australian Open and the worlds!

Discuss Oz at the Oz Report forum

Australian Nationals

Tue, Nov 30 2004, 2:04:01 pm EST

It's looking good out there.

weather

Tove Heaney|weather

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Update from the Riverina in Australia (Tocumwal, Deniliquin and Conargo).

 I went to have a look at the competition paddock in Conargo last Thursday. The paddock is ready to go already! All the strips were graded last year in preparation for the competition, and they are this year still in perfect condition. The farmer leasing the paddock has had 1600 sheep in it to graze it down. They did a fantastic job. The grass is really short and around the little hangar, (aerotow section) there is hardly any grass at all!

The Fire captain and Conargo Ranger as well as Conargo Works Manager met with me to inspect the paddock. All were extremely happy with the status of it. www.taragoflightpark.com.au  (click on the link to Australian Open)

Please remember the Fire extinguishers all cars (tow and retrieve) has to carry. The cost has been reduced to $35 per unit. Please order these (via e-mail) from the Conargo General Store « Brennann».  The units can be picked up and paid for as late as the first competition day, on the way to the paddock. (If you are flying on the practice day you need to have the fire-extinguisher)

Just a reminder there is to be no free flying in the paddock at any stage. Only competitors and registered Tug's are allowed to fly. All cars have to be insured.

The weather here has been fantastic here this last week. Everyday above 10,000ft. Saturday we had 14,500ft. Last day of our little gliding competition here at Sportavia. www.sportavia.com.au

In the comp we flew everyday (fourteen days) and the biggest tasks were 850km triangles. Grant was flying in the comp in a Nimbus 3, 25.5 meter wingspan, scoring the comp, as well as retrieving (aerotow) outlanded pilots. Grant is one of our certified retrieve pilots.

When customers outland in our gliders they are not allowed to pilot the glider out of the paddock. So Grant flies out with the tug pilot, then jumps in the glider to fly it home. The longest retrieve last week was 250 km out. Some of the staff here is worried he's working too hard, but Grant is walking around with a big smile on his face, clocking up hours like there is no tomorrow.

Can't wait to get the hang gliding operation going here. I've been quite busy getting the resort up and running. The bar and restaurant is going great, and we have an awesome chef from Denmark working here!

I'm looking forward to seeing you guys out here soon, and I just hope the conditions stays as they have been.

Discuss the Nats at the Oz Report forum

Tove at the office

Thu, Oct 14 2004, 5:00:03 pm EDT

Brining hang gliding to a sailplane port in Tocumwal.

Bill Moyes|sailplane

Bill Moyes|sailplane|Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

http://www.sportavia.com.au/

Like our new office? We have been here at Tocumwal working for a few weeks now.

Sunday Bill Moyes with his crew flew two Dragonflies down from Rylstone. They started at six am and got to Tocumwal at about five pm. A nice cross country of more than 500km. So now we got two Dragonflies parked in the hangar amongst all the other gliders and aeroplanes.

Bill flew them down to be ready and close for the comps, and we want to get some lessons on them. We are working towards getting hang glider operation in Tocumwal up and going!

On Tuesday we got to thirty six degrees Centigrade here in Tocumwal, no clouds and quite inverted looking. Grant and I jumped in the IS28 and the conditions were great! We got to 8200ft and were whipping around the sky. It was great for me to get some airtime again in a glider sailplane. It's so green on the ground it looks like Europe.

We got all these amazing toys here, we just need to learn to fly them all!

Discuss Tove at the Oz Report forum

Women at the Worlds

Tue, Sep 7 2004, 1:00:00 pm EDT

A special welcome from Laura and Tove.

Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Laura Bazan and Tove Heaney would like to offer help for the female pilots coming out to OZ to fly in the World Championship! Laura lives at Stanwell Park (one hour from Sydney airport), and are more than happy to pick the women pilots up from Sydney airport as they fly in. Stanwell Park is also the perfect place to test fly a new glider and ease back into flying after you arrival.

If any of the pilots need tow training/practice we can do this in Tocumwal (where Tove will be), and Laura is happy to take pilots to Tocumwal. Also we can help with getting gliders organised, as well as teaming up for retrieves, etc. Please contact us if you are coming so we can get plan. (Tocumwal is three hours from Melbourne, so it's an option to fly in to Melbourne rather than to Sydney.)

Please contact Laura or Tove
Laura Bazan «bazanlaura» 
Tove Heaney «chgpgc».

Tove in Tocumwal

Fri, Sep 3 2004, 2:00:03 am EDT

She's the boss.

sailplane

sailplane|Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

I'm extremely happy to tell you all, I have been approached for and accepted the position of General Manager of Sportavia in Tocumwal NSW. Sportavia is a big gliding (sailplane) center on the Murray River, boarder between NSW and Victoria (near Hay and Denniliquin).

Sportavia is a resort with accommodation (motel, rooms and caravan park), restaurant, bar, swimming pool and green grass. It has a gliding flying school, glider hire, glider maintenance workshop and aircraft maintenance workshop. It has one of the best fleet of glider you can hire anywhere in the world. It is filled with Europeans during the European winter.

I'm moving to Tocumwal with my family and will start in my new position the 22nd of September. Our life has turned upside down in the last few weeks. Grant has also been offered a position at Sportavia (so he will be working for me), so we can move down as a family. This is going to be a lot of hard work, but I'm so looking forward to it.

The owner has great visions of a soaring sport aviation center, that will challenge and support pilots to develop their skills in advanced soaring.  The owner is an amazing man that loves advanced gliding, but works too hard to often enjoy it. I think we can create something great for both sports, and others.

All of you who know me well will understand there is no other place in the world I would rather be than at a tow sports aviation center in the middle of the Australian Flatlands. The whole family is looking forward to a lot of awesome flying, as well as waterskiing on the huge Murray river.

I will be moving the Hang Gliding school from Tarago to Tocumwal, and as soon as we get organised we'll be offering towing services and more for Hang Glider Pilots . All of my Tours and the Australian Open Hang Gliding Championship, will run as planned. I will also compete in the World Championship in Hay, if I get my spot.

Please consider joining us at Tocumwal for a warm-up and tune-up before the Australian Open and the World Championship. (Deniliquin 40 min and Hay less than 2 hours drive away).

I will keep you posted on our development!

www.taragoflightpark.com.au

www.sportavia.com.au

Discuss Tove at the Oz Report forum

Australian Open Hang Gliding Championship

Sat, Aug 21 2004, 2:00:02 pm EDT

Before the Worlds.

Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

The Australian Open Hang Gliding Championship is on again in Deniliquin , Australia from 28th Dec 2004-3rd Jan 2005. A lot of negotiation has been going on and we have a full guarantee the comp will go ahead - 100%.

All cars have to have comprehensive insurance or third part property. (Most cars have this insurance.) All tow and retrieve cars needs to have a fire extinguisher. Most people will already have one to bring, or pilots can buy them at registration A$55.

This comp is catering for all level of pilots - Novice to top star! It's a perfect warm up for the world Championship, as well as an opportunity to let crews for the worlds get some flying in.

we will have ground towing as well as aerotowing, so pilots can choose their favourite way of getting in the air.

The grass is long and green in Deni at the moment, whilst here at Tarago Flight Park it's like a desert. (Two and a half hours south west of Sydney)

I would like to welcome all pilots, at all levels from all over the world to join our comp for some awesome flying and a big party! Contact Tove for more info! «chgpgc»  or look at our website; www.taragoflightpark.com.au.

The Worlds - the top level results »

Thu, Jun 24 2004, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Doing the first part of a wrap up.

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Icaro 2000|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

http://www.drachenflieger.at/html/results.html

http://www.a-i-r.de/pages-d/a_300-Bewerb-WM-2004.htm

http://www.Icaro2000.com/Home.htm

Internet access has been very hard to come by since we left Greifenburg (until we got back here to Quest Air). Even in Greifenburg it was much more difficult than what we have come to expect. Also with the scorekeepers insisting on using PDF files for results the Oz Report was lacking (except through links) in its ability to report more fully the outcome of the Worlds.

My desire is to highlight the hang gliding competitions around the world. Previous to the Oz Report (starting in December, 1996), you might hear about some result from some one you knew or maybe read about it months later in our association's magazine (very unlikely in the US for any European results). Now you expect to know the results the evening of each day as the scorekeepers put them up on their web site. One DHV pilot each day is required to put up their day's story on the DHV web site.

Here are the top twelve places in the rigid wing class:

1 CIECH, Christian, (Icaro Stratos C) ITA 5200
2 PLONER, Alessandro, (AIR Atos VX) ITA 5076
3 CHAUMET, David, (Helite Tsunami) FRA 4620
4 RAUMAUF, Anton, (AIR Atos V) AUT 4167
5 GRICAR, Primoz, (Aeros Phantom) SVN 4059
6 GEPPERT, Walter, (AIR Atos V) AUT 4023
7 MIEDERHOF, Ralf, (AIR Atos C) DEU 3911
8 RIS, Jürg, (AIR Atos C) CHE 3860
9 LAVERDINO, Franco, (AIR Atos C) ITA 3751
10 POSCH, Johann, (AIR Atos V) AUT 3572
11 LEISER, Rene, (AIR Atos V) CHE 3488
12 POLOVYY, Mykola, (Aeros Phantom) UKR 3469

Sorry about the lack of formatting above (see the comparison above at the European Championships), but the results are published in PDF which is not an internet standard and refuses to play well with others. Please tell all your scorekeepers to use HTML output from RACE if they want to have their results published in a nice format in the Oz Report (and other publications) in a timely fashion. Maybe they want to force the reader to their site, so they don't play nice.

Women's flex wing:

1 SCHWIEGERSHAUSEN, Corinna, (Moyes Litespeed S 3) DEU 3809
2 DIEUZEIDE-BANET, Francoise, (Icaro Laminar Zero 7) FRA 3571
3 BRAMS, Rosi, (Moyes Litespeed) DEU 3301
4 CASTLE, Kari, (Icaro Zero 1) USA 3207
5 BAEUMER-FISCHER, Sybille, (Aeros Combat) DEU 3100
6 PETROVA, Natalia, (Aeros Combat 2) RUS 2898
7 KHAMLOVA, Natalia, (Aeros Combat 2) RUS 2888
8 BAZAN, Laura-Nidia, (Moyes Litespeed 4) ARG 2831
9 WERNER, Monique, (Aeros Combat 13) DEU 2686
10 HEANY, Tove, (Moyes Litespeed S 3.5) AUS 2618

Swift Class:

1 RUHMER, Manfred, (Swift) AUT 6611
2 PORTER, Brian, (Swift) USA 4744
3 BAIER, Bob, (Swift) DEU 3913
4 NADLINGER, Arnold, (AIR Atos V) AUT 3797

I have special HTML templates for scorekeepers that help get the results formatted in even a better fashion. I can send them to any scorekeeper and will do so.

Discuss "The Worlds - the top level results" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Australian Open/Nationals

Wed, Jun 16 2004, 8:00:05 pm EDT

It's is happening this year in Deniliquin.

Tove Heaney

Tove reports that the folks appear to have resolved their differences and the meet is on again this year to begin the day after Boxing Day (two days after Christmas). It will run likely to just before the first comp day at the Worlds above.

The Worlds, day nine »

Tue, Jun 15 2004, 8:00:00 pm EDT

Light winds, a low cloud base, and the chance to run through the valleys staying close, very close, to the hill sides.

Brian Porter|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jim Yocom|Manfred Ruhmer|The Worlds|Tove Heaney|weather

http://www.drachenflieger.at

http://www.drachenflieger.at/html/results.html

We've got internet access here on the wireless $0.10/minute plan. You have to check out wireless cards from the front desk to get access, and until yesterday they were only available from 8 AM to 8 PM. Therefore, I'm on the net for a few minutes each morning and evening here. I don't get the results until after access to the internet is over in the evening (if then) and I have just a few minutes in the morning to publish the already completed Oz Report before starting up the hill at 8:30 AM.

I haven't had an opportunity to put the results up in the Oz Report, but just link to them (see above) as you have better internet access than I do. Also, I was discouraged to see that the results are published in PDF format. They look very nice on the screen or on paper, but is almost impossible for me to incorporate them into the Oz Report in any formatted manner. It's easy to do with plan text.

I'm hoping that my readers can avail themselves of the possibility to find the results each day and see how things are going here. I'll try to do the on site reporting (as do others, including Vince and Jim). I do my best to contact as many pilots after the day as I can to get their reactions and stories, but I'm only human and can only get so much done.

You'll also find some track logs at the news page at the site above. You can see what is happening there in more detail.

The winds died down today, and the forecast was for moderately strong thermals to 10,000'. That is low for here with 9,000' peaks, but it would be cold none the less at this altitude, as it was cold at launch.

The meet organizers really want world class tasks, and they definitely call one for us today. It's 130 miles, with our favorite turnpoint/start point, Almrast Tessenberg, at the lower launch site west of Lienz, 55 kilometers away, then back north east of Lienz to Restaurant Glocknerblick at about launch altitude, southeast 70 kilometers to Amberger Alm past a lake, and back into the Drau valley to the Fliegencamp at Greifenburg.

The women have a somewhat smaller task (120 kilometers) going west like us past Lienz, then east down the Drau and then back to Fliegencamp.

With plenty of clouds over the mountains and ridges, and a nice breeze up the launch it looks like Junko and the rest of us will have a chance for quick and safe launches. She and Brian Porter drove to Linz last night to get her a new wing and with the help of Theo she put her Swift back together on launch.

We were given an early start time at 1:15 so we were launching before noon. I was off early, unlike the day before, and much of the US team was off soon after me. We climbed out quickly and headed down the Kreuzeck Gruppe to the west to get near the start circle. The word then came from Vince to head to the south range, the Gailtaler Alps, to join up with the main gaggle.

Ron and I headed over at 40 kilometers from the start point, with a 38 kilometer start cylinder radius. We missed the fact that the lift was great on the south side at 38 km, and hung on in weak lift over a knoll. If we had just traversed over a narrow valley, over power lines to the west side of the ridge, we would have found the strong lift that had twenty or more pilots at cloud base, 2,000' over us.  We just couldn't see the pilots.

At 1:13 we headed out and then see these pilots high above us as we found the lift that they'd been hiding high in and climbed up quickly behind them. We raced down the Gailtaler Alps under dark clouds and started catching up with some of those who'd been taunting us with the altitude above us and the distance in front of us.

It was a quick run as we were soon high and near the first turn point. Ron and I had also hooked up with Vince and Jim. Bruce was far behind us, I assume having some trouble getting up at launch. We had to cross a narrow valley to get the first turnpoint, which we did without any trouble, and headed up the western side of the valley back over Lienz and toward the road going to the Grossglockner, the highest mountain in Austria, to the northeast.

The lift was strong and the main problem was staying out of the clouds. We jumped across the Drau valley getting north of Lienz, but found weaker lift than we'd seen so far and had to slow down. I was out in front of my teammates, but struggling.

I raced for the knoll just before the turnpoint after getting back to 7,500' only to find a thermal that was more interested in tossing me about than getting me up. I thought that it was just because I was trying to climb up the face, but Jim Yocom would later report that he came in over me and experienced the same bad air and left it as I did to search for more friendly lift. Ron and Vince stayed in it and got up higher than Jim.

Neither Jim nor I find better lift at the turnpoint, but Jim got the turnpoint and went on. I did not and landed in the valley below in a beautiful flower-filled field having left the lift that was not worth risking tumbling for. The rest of the team continued toward the third turnpoint heading back toward the Drau valley. Behind us Bruce had just made the start point and headed toward the second turnpoint.

Unfortunately, all the other American pilots other than Bruce went down about half way to the third turnpoint. Bruce took his time and made goal at about 7:30 PM. The second to last one in.

Way ahead of every other rigid wing pilot Alex and Christian came into together (about an hour before David Chaumet) and after Manfred. Manfred was the only Swift pilot to make goal. About ten rigid wing (other than David, all ATOS pilots) pilots dribbled in slowly after Alex and Christian.

I spoke with Alex and asked him what he could do to beat Christian overall (Alex is less than 100 points behind Christian). He said that it was not possible. That he and Christian think alike. On this day he had to work to catch back up with Christian, and then just barely beat him in.

Francoise was the first women pilot in with Corinna soon behind her. Three women made goal with Sybil in third.

Kari, Tove, and Kathy Kelley, along with a number of other women pilots, found themselves at cloud base at the start circle at the start time. Then a flight down the north ridge lead to a flush cycle that put many pilots, including Kari, out in the valley low. Kari had to slowly work her way back up to get high enough to continue her flight toward the start point.

Tove found herself in a similar situation falling out of the sky as she approached the start point. Kathy Kelley started off her flight with a quick loop soon after launch as she flew into a thermal that pushed up her nose and sent her over the top, then straight down heading for the trees, before she pulled out and continued her flight.

Both Tove and Kari did not get much past the start point coming back from west of Lienz. Kathy landed in the same area. Corinna has moved into first place, as Kari dropped to sixth. Tumbling will do that for you. Kari said that there were many times during the flight that the little voice kept telling her to land.

The weatherman says we will have three more days of competition.

The Worlds - day four »

Fri, Jun 11 2004, 12:00:00 am GMT

Tossing and turning, what's the key to keeping us upright?

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|David Chaumet|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jamie Shelden|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Natalia Petrova|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

It didn't seem that bad. At least as far as I could tell. Wasn't quite as nice for me as yesterday, but wasn't bad (well, more about that later). Tove thought it was the smoothest and most fun day yet.

But, Kari Castle tumbled in her new Icaro 2000 Laminar at 11,000' over the range to the south of Greifenburg while thermaling up. Tove was high above her when she saw a glider first showing its white top, then the Red Bull undersurface, then the top, then the red side, and on and on. She knew right away that it was Kari and was waiting to see the parachute which finally came out after the glider destroyed itself.

Tove was thermaling up in a nice little thermal at almost 12,000' and was enjoying the lift and searching around a bit for more of the core. This was the thermal that Kari came over to and joined. She was just thermaling up as usual, when the glider got yawed around in the opposite direction. Then suddenly the bar was jerked down. She held on tight.

The next thing she knew the glider was rotating around as she continued to hold on tight to the control bar. Soon the glider was breaking up into pieces and after a while the control bar was pretty much all she had that was intact.

With plenty of time she reached for her chute found a clear area and hucked it out. Now she found herself coming down on the ridge top, with lots of rocks below, so she started trying to steer the wreckage around to guide herself to one side or the other hopefully over to the trees.

But the steering didn't do all that much as the winds took over and she ended up unhurt on the steep hillside with her parachute holding on to a tree and the wreckage about to slide down the hillside.

A sailplane pilot also saw the tumble and called air traffic control which got a chopper out right away. They still didn't have good co-ordinates, but Natalia Petrova did and got those to the chopper. They also apparently triangulated on her cell phone and found her. She was airlifted out under the chopper in the same manner that we saw last week at Gnadenwald, with a rescue person with her at the end of the line. Kari said that she loved that part of the flight.

Kari has a few minor cuts and bruises but she was doing fine when we saw her and talked with her a few hours later. The women's task was called for the day.

But, Kari wasn't the only one who tumbled on Thursday. Apparently Uschi Broich, flying a Seedwings Vertigo (according to the scorekeepers), also tumbled near where Kari did and threw her chute. I don't have her story, but it was said that she was drinking a beer at the goal field.

Also, a rigid wing pilot, an ATOS pilot, I assume, had trouble with one of his spoiler wires and decided to throw his chute. He first reported that he was having a "technical difficulty." Maybe he didn't know how Jamie Sheldon and Bruce Barmakian have recovered and corrected these problems in the air (see earlier Oz Reports).

Just to add to the carnage today. A free flyer doing a high bank turn coming into the landing field here at the Fliegercamp broke his Laminar at 400' and got his chute out in time to save himself. A paraglider pilot apparently stalled his glider at 20 feet at the Fliegercamp and broke his back and leg and had to be helicoptered out. And there was another paraglider accident at launch.

The weather forecast was for northwest winds at 25-35 km/h at 3,000 meters, pretty much like yesterday with a cold front approaching on Friday from the west. The trigger temperature was 30° and cloud base was expected to be around 14,000'. I dressed with two coats and stayed warm.

Our task in class five was to head northwest on the north side of the valley beyond Lienz, then back north of the launch to the east end of the valley, back to the castle on the south side past the goal field at Berg, then back to Berg, 156 km.

The weather man was very concerned about the chance of over development again and even more so on Thursday. He felt that there was a good chance of gust fronts in the valleys if there was a thunderstorm at the top of the valley. They called for the task to be stopped in advance at 5 PM.

No one seemed to be concerned at all about the forecasted winds, even when I pressed the point. Later there was plenty of over development and cu-nimbs but just not along our course line.

Given our late start yesterday everyone was ready to launch early and it was no problem climbing up to over 12,500' and moving down the range to get to the start circle. We were facing a 20 km/h west wind as we moved west.

There were forty gliders milling around at 13,000' just before the start circle at 1:15 the start time and we all went on a long glide to get to the hills just above Lienz.

Flying past Lienz, the wind changed from west to south, and I wondered where this north west wind was supposed to be. We were staying high, well most of us were, and racing over the snow fields at the peaks to get to the first turnpoint. A few of us climbed up to over 14,000'.

Marcuse, a Swiss ATOS pilot, would later mention that he got into a situation near here where the wind noise completely stopped, then in slow motion his nose rotated until it was straight down, still no wind noise, then slowly rotated back up, still with no wind noise.

Racing back from the turnpoint, I decided to take the less direct route and stay in the Drau valley instead of the valley and hills to the north. That slowed me down a little, but I found sweet lift on the ridge lines that made me enjoy the flight a little more.

Getting to the second turnpoint past the east end of the valley, I had Jim Yocom and Vince just behind me. They had taken the back route. Bruce had just gone down in the Drau valley after taking the turnpoint ahead of us. Ron hadn't gotten up at launch and was reporting conditions.

I raced to a paraglider on the south side and slowly got up while Vince and Jim headed to the north side to find better conditions and get ahead of me. I soon made my way over there to find that there was light lift all along the hill side on the north side and I could just fly straight and come in over the launch with plenty of height to make the turnpoint and goal.

Jim and Vince had just reported no sink on the way to the turnpoint at the castle and back downwind to goal so I kept going. Unfortunately within the next few minutes everything changed.

As I approached the castle on the south side of the valley with 3,000' AGL I suddenly turned into a leaf in the wind and was falling at 1,000 fpm. I stupidly continued and made the turnpoint only to land after racing back to the north side hoping to get out of what I assumed was rotor.

In fact the south winds had suddenly picked up and Jim and others were now having a hard time getting down safely at goal a few kilometers away. I thankfully had a safe landing, even if it was a slider in a recently manured field.

When we got back to the goal field, everyone was freaked out about all the incidents. It was unclear why the women's task had been stopped (and therefore not scored as no one was in goal from that class). Perhaps it seemed like the pilots were raining out of the sky and it was unsafe to continue.

As an outsider I don't understand the conditions here and have to take people's word on it on what are safe conditions. I spoke with Gerolf and he says that locally the wind will go to south with an approaching front. Perhaps this clash of air masses was the cause of some problems over the southern range.

I asked Gerolf about foehn conditions and he says that it requires an upper level layer of stable air and that you can usually see the lenticulars. There has been no indication of upper level stable air except perhaps a bit on day two.

The preliminary results have Christian Ciech winning the day, a Aeros Phantom pilot in third, David Chaumet in fourth and Alex Ploner fifth.

Belinda's shot of the launch over Berg on Thursday morning. We get up there at 9 AM..

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

The Worlds »

Mon, Jun 7 2004, 8:00:00 pm EDT

It begins on a glorious day.

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Tove Heaney

http://www.drachenflieger.at

I don't know if scores will be put up on the web site above.

With the forecast for light winds and good lift the task committee for the rigids calls a huge 213 km task (132 miles), first far to the west then far again to the east and then back to Berg. The women have a 120 kilometer task starting at 2 PM fifteen minutes after the rigids. The Swifts will go with the rigids.

The course line take us over the mountain, over the Drau valley and over Lienz, into another valley, back over the Drau valley to the mountains to the north side and to the valley behind. Then back over the Drau way east of Spitall, before coming back to Berg right below launch. Lots of wild country out there over the ridges to the north.

The winds, as they have been every day that we've been here, are over the back from the north, but there are good cycles on the southern face and I'll find 900 fpm to the left of launch. With the good launch conditions everyone gets off very quickly after 12:30.

Cloud base starts at 8,300', 2,300' over launch but rises as we head west. It is soon easy to get well over 10,000'. The start circle is 11 km to the west of launch. The thermals are strong enough to over come the north winds and it is easy to climb up on the lee sides of the peaks and ridges.

The short story on the flight that I am most familiar with is that my zipper blows out right after launch. Later I'll have an additional problem with my harness which pulls the hang strap all the way to the back of my slider and doesn't let me get my chin off the base tube. I'll decide to land after getting the first turn point and coming half way back.

This gives me the opportunity to go quickly to goal so that I can watch and report on all the action. Manfred  is already there having flown the 213 km, in 2:40. He ground loops on landing taking out the front wheel and mechanism, punching a hole in his fuselage. Repairs are finished with it by late evening.

Next in is Kari Castle, winning the women's task for the day, far ahead of any other women. Bob Bier will come in next in his Swift and also ground loop with some damage, which is quickly fixed.

More women will arrive including Tove Heaney in second or third, before Alex Ploner on an ATOS VX comes in alone as the first rigid wing. Christian Ciech in a Stratos will follow, with an Ukrainian pilot on a Aeros Stalker Phantom in third. David Chaumet, the world number one, is a  ways behind.

After that women and rigids will trickle in with Brian Porter the third Swift to goal. Neither Brian nor Junko bring about any damage to their Swifts. The same can't be said of the rigid wing pilots who consistently plow into the landing zone, sometimes taking out complete control frames.

There are plenty of visitors viewing the carnage and applaud when any pilot has a good landing. Most of the women seem to know how to land. Many of the rigid wing pilots land going down hill in light switchy winds. I was so happy to have landed in a strong valley wind at a small airport.

Apparently local pilots know that this field is pretty difficult. We will be landing here all week. If the valley winds aren't acting normal we can expect lots of trouble. Hopefully the results are up on the web site above.

Yesterday, we had a first grade girl holding the sign for our country (USA) and the flag. Belinda later helped her and carried the flag while she marched with the USA sign.

Later during the ceremonies the young girl asked Belinda where USA was. Belinda told her that it was the United States of America. Her eyes got really wide, not longer feeling saddled with this usa country that no one ever heard of.

The German State Championships in Greifenburg

Sat, Jun 5 2004, 9:00:02 pm EDT

The warm up for the Worlds

Corinna Schwiegershausen|Tove Heaney|weather

corinna schwiegershausen «corinna» writes:

The week after the Austrian Nats, we flew one of our German state championships, the Hessen-Meisterschaft, also in Greifenburg. A lot of rigid wing pilots and a few of us women used it as a last comp training session for the upcoming World Championships.

Between Monday and Friday the weather allowed for only three tasks, but in really strong conditions. After those rough north wind days during the Austrian Nats, it wasn't getting much better for our comp. One Laminar pilot even tumbled but fortunately recovered alright and could land without injury with only a bent upright. Due to a cloudbase of up to 3400m and climb rates of 8 m/s we had decent task lengths of more than 100 kms with almost half of the 55 participating pilots in goal everyday.

Before the comp I had been a bit nervous, because the late arrival of my new glider left no time for test flying. Luckily it came race ready and straight out of the box. Let me tell you, for a light weight girl like me it's an unreal feeling to do 100km in under 2 hours, finishing just behind the big boys! It's actually been the first time for a while when I felt properly geared up to challenge Kari. I hope Tove Heaney (AUS) and I will be serious competition for the current women's world champion. Looks like even in female class it comes down to the old Moyes-Laminar story.

However, on the last day we could even afford to enjoy the spectacular view over the alps. After crossing the goal line, Joerg and I climbed out again and went sightseeing for another three hours, admiring the beauty of the Austrian, Slovenian and Italian snow covered peaks.

For those who intend to fly the Championships at Greifenburg, bring really warm clothes- it's a freezing cold year, too cold for this season!

Before the Worlds

Tue, Jun 1 2004, 6:00:00 am EDT

It was time to practice and lo and behold the weather was pretty good.

Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|PG|Tove Heaney|weather

http://www.drachenflieger.at

Breaking with past practice the weather before the Worlds wasn't too bad and we got in some practice rounds. The US, French, Australian, and Ukrainian Aeros teams are here.

It was over the back on Wednesday and Thursday, as seems to be normal, a north wind, maybe 10 mph, but it came up the south facing launch so we can got off and got up. First, I watched quite a few pilots get above launch in apparently benign conditions before I set up. The clouds were thick and you could easily see them coming over the back.

In the air it was quite benign, nothing like we experienced at the Alpen Open, but rather sweet air right over launch. I climbed up 1,500' (7,500' - 5,500' AGL) before, on the report from Jim Yocom, I headed for the north facing side of the valley. Like he said it was smooth and comfortable climbing over there above the quarries bathed in sun light.

Tove Heaney, Kari Castle, and Johnny Durand headed west along the lee side, the launch side of the valley, at cloud base and after a few miles got hit hard by the rotor, which was completely benign over launch. Kari counted four times she thought that she was going to tuck. She swore she would turn into a free flyer if this is what the Worlds were like. She raced for the other side of the valley.

Tove got yawed ninety degrees, and found herself flying sideways. Johnny got beat up near a canyon and ran to escape. Meanwhile those of us on the north facing side of the valley were having a pleasant flight in light lift and light winds.

The Worlds begin on Monday after a parade on Sunday. We're staying at the headquarters at the Fliegencamp, the flying camping area in the middle of the valley. There is a paragliding school here, and there must have been twenty students out in the lawn yesterday practicing kiting their paragliders.

The general area is more open than what we saw at Gnadenwald where the mountain sides rise up very steeply right out of the valley. Here the valley walls are less steep and the rock faced mountains are a step back from the valley.

The other side of the valley near Innsbruck.

The valley is sparsely populated (for Europe) with plenty of open fields within the reasonably wide valley. There are plenty of high peaks with lots of snow covering them. I'm sure we'll get to see more of them soon.

Golf⁣er's Elbow »

Tue, Mar 2 2004, 3:00:05 pm EST

Hurting from flying flex wings

muscle strains

golf|Tove Heaney

Fletcher, Nick «Nick.Fletcher» writes:

I think you've got 'golfers elbow' which I believe is an overuse injury similar to 'tennis elbow'. I understand this is a fairly common injury and often found on climbers - you may notice a swelling on the inside of the elbow when you exercise (larger than the normal muscular lump that appears).

It seems to be the grasping and pulling motion that aggravates it - you most commonly do this motion either in a 'chin up' or when trying to get a sticky wing down on a glider.

I suffered this injury about six years ago and it still niggles now, interestingly I did this over training for climbing and I carried on exercising through an increasing soreness - I think there is a message there!

I've spoken to a few doctors about this now and all have said it is a very difficult injury to heal. However, the good news is that I've managed to learn to live with it fairly effectively. I use a tennis elbow support, I ice it if it becomes swollen and I use ibuprofen if it becomes sore.

I also avoid grasping heavy objects for any length of time if I've aggravated it already (for instance carrying a very heavy suitcase or lifting a glider by the carry handles.) Once I got over the acute phase it certainly never stopped me flying, although it has occasionally stopped me climbing.

Tove Heaney «chgpgc» writes:

Tennis elbow. This is the only problem I have with my body when I fly a lot! It doesn't worry me when I fly, only when I try to sleep.

One of my XC tour customer has done a lot of research on the matter and believe he has found help. Exercising by squeezing a squash ball in your hand. Keep the ball in the inside of your hand, go through and squeeze the ball with your fingers from little finger through to the thumb and back. This should strengthen your elbow, so you can take the heavy work load when you need it.

I'm going to try this, it will be interesting to see if it'll work.

Discuss "Golf⁣er's Elbow" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Tove needs a ride

Thu, Feb 26 2004, 3:00:02 pm EST

Tove wants to go to the Worlds.

Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney needs a ride or a team to hook up with at the Worlds in Austria. She's going now because she heard about the new rule that allows the top six women in the Women's Worlds to go to the Worlds in Hay. Contact Tove if you have a spot for her at: « chgpgc».

Cloud flying and airspace violations

Sat, Jan 31 2004, 2:00:01 pm EST

Tove Heaney

Tove mentioned that she would like to see a discussion/debate of how to deal with instances of cloud flying and air space violations in future Australian competitions. I mentioned in the Oz Report that pilots reported that they were briefly in the clouds flying from Mt. Emu to the start circle.  I heard that some pilots were seen circling up into the clouds at Mt. Emu launch also.

Also there is the situation of flying at Buckland Gap and getting into air space at over 4,500' MSL (quite low, of course) even on days with very low cloud bases.

If desired you all can use the auspices of the Oz Report forum (certainly appropriately named) for such a discussion.

Discuss breaking the rules in competitions at the Oz Report forum

The 15th Annual Pre-Worlds 2004 - day seven, task four

Wed, Jan 21 2004, 5:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros|Aeros Combat|aerotow|Airborne Climax|Dave Seib|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Pre-Worlds 2004|Rohan Holtkamp|safety|Steve Moyes|Tove Heaney|tow|weaklink

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/preworlds2004/

Like I reported yesterday the day was forecast to be windy and with thunderstorms, and it is blowing 40 kph when we get to the paddock. But, unlike yesterday, the safety committee now is committed to waiting to see if it calms down, even if we have to wait until 3 PM. The lift is predicted to stop at 4,000'.

There are some cu's forming in the distant east which look like the precursors of a little over development. It doesn't look nearly as bad as it did the day that we canceled the task in mid flight, but it could be a bother.

The task committee has set a task 137 kilometers to the east down the Sturt highway. We will stick to that task the whole day in spite of arguments for the different directions (not possible given the 40 kph winds), the coming change (slowly coming), and the line of towering cu's (fly under them) in our way.

The safety committee is unfortunately split between two car towing guys and Martin at the aerotowing place. This is a bad idea. In the Hay Open we had all the safety committee at the car towing end, so that they don't get scared by the wind noise in the trees at the aerotowing spot. Also you need to have the safety committee all in one place to make a decision. The task committee doesn't even hear from the two other safety committee members until way late.

No one is setting up their gliders as we wait out the strong surface winds with the thought that it looks like they should calm down. Attila gives us the same report on the upper winds as the day before, with 35-40 kph strengths and bumpy.

Finally, at 2 PM the surface winds die down to reasonable strengths. I don't know if the safety committee at the car towing area is set up all ready or not, but the aerotow folks get their gliders off the cars and begin to setup. We call a three o'clock launch window and a four o'clock start clock.

The launch gets delayed at 3 PM when the surface winds come up again for a few minutes. The clouds are building quite nicely to the east and that is freaking out some people. Paul, Martin, Jonny and I are flaying about trying to get the task going, when I finally realize that we haven't heard from the other two safety committee guys. Paul calls them up and sure enough they are keen to go (Dave Seib, one safety committee member, relies on the other, Phil Schroeder, to make the call). Well, that's a majority, so I say, let's go, it's decided.

The launch reopens at 3:30 and the start time starts at 4 PM. I insist on starting a half hour after the launch window opens because: Everyone was ready for 3 PM, there is no need to wait and we want to encourage pilots to start launching right away and not wait because they thin that they will be blown out of the 20 km start circle before the first start time, in fact, there is no way anyone is going to get to the start circle circumference by 4 PM because it is 20 km away, so I want the start time opened so that pilots can start whenever they get to the edge of the start circle, and finally we set 10 minute start intervals given all the winds.

Bo is off first in our line and I'm right behind him. Unfortunately at 600' the tow rope breaks (I've got a stronger weaklink) under only minimal pressure. This puts me to the back of the line. Not good.

No gaggles form over the paddock as most pilots are blown down wind in light lift. Bo gets to 7,000' over the tow paddock and Jon Durand, Sr. gets to over 7,500'. They are the exceptions.

I don't launch until 4:30 and there are still five or six guys yet to tow. I drift out of the paddock at 2,500' with the wind west at 40 kph.

I'm down to 900' AGL before I find some good lift that gets me to 5,000' at the edge of the start circle at 5 PM. This is a late day, and for the most part the lift is quite weak although on the first two thermals both inside the start circle it averages 300 fpm. It will average 150 fpm after that.

Even with the strong winds and gentle lift I'm really liking flying the Moyes Litespeed S 4.5. It seems very responsive in this air and I'm pushed out circling up in the lift when I find it. I'm relaxed, the glider feels stable, and I'm zooming fast over the ground. My average L/D will be 25:1, so you know the wind is blowing.

About forty kilometers out from the tow paddock I'll come in under three pilots including Steve Moyes. Tove will come and join me low and we'll work from 1,200' to 3,000' AGL in 200 fpm. The guys above us will just continue to stick in the thermal even when it gets very very light.

We'll go on glide from low without the other higher pilots and look for lift along the Sturt highway trying to stay away from the large rice operations with their wet fields. I zig zag about and finally find lift at 900' AGL again while Tove misses it to the right and lands. Steve Moyes is right near me and watches as I dig out from this hole. He and I are going up.

The cu nimbs have formed in a line off to our northeast. It looks like it is possible to make it to goal without getting in under the over development. I can see lightening under the area where it is raining, and a wall of dust stretching about 30 kilometers. The wind has switched with west northwest to southwest as we approach the storm. It feels like the cloud of dust is far enough away and stationary so that it won't bother us. The wind is so strong out here away from the storm that it is hard to imagine the storm doing anything but calming the winds.

I'll circle while drifting almost twelve kilometers getting to 3,400' AGL. Then it is an eighteen kilometer glide toward the wall of dust without a low save at the end, even though I find zero sink at 800' for about five kilometers.

I'll end up 48 kilometers out at sixteenth for the day. Steve Moyes who was just above me will get to within 41 kilometers. Kevin Carter will make goal (among the few) and Bo will go down 89 kilometers out from goal. Bo doesn't find any lift after getting high at the tow paddock. The same will happen to Diego Bussinger.

Some of the pilots who make goal well get nearer the storm cell and ride the air above the wall of dust. The winds die down in this area, but the air gets bumpy. Rohan Holtkamp will fly until 7:45 and get to within 25 kilometers of goal. Kraig Coomber will land 53 kilometers out.

Results from task four:

1

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

1:36:05

892

2

Pritchard Phil

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1:51:47

846

3

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

1:43:14

834

4

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat 2 13

Ukr

1:52:15

825

5

Durand Jon Jnr.

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1:52:20

820

6

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

1:49:06

808

7

Carter Kevin

Aeros Combat 2 13

Usa

2:08:36

761

Overall Results:

1

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

3602

2

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat 2 13

Ukr

3474

3

Durand Jon Jnr.

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

3423

4

Holtkamp Rohan

Airborne Climax 13

Aus

3120

5

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

3089

6

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

3087

7

Coomber Kraig

Moyes Litespeed S

Aus

3039

8

Moyes Steve

Moyes Litespeed S5

Aus

3018

9

Barthelmes Oliver

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

2875

10

Pritchard Phil

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

2847

Oliver Barthelmes «oliverbarthelmes» sends this picture of Belinda and I (that I think Carol took) in from of the Airborne Climax:

The 15th Pre-Worlds - day one, task one »

Thu, Jan 15 2004, 12:00:00 pm EST

the Pre-Worlds

Aeros Combat|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|The 15th Pre-Worlds|Tove Heaney

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/preworlds2004/

It seems like Attila and Gerolf and some other pilots were upset that the task weren't long or tough enough. That the pilots here weren't impressing the Euro-wimps back home. So now we've got Attila, Jonny, and me on the task committee. I'm supposed to be the one that they can easily push around. Well, I don't think we did so good on the first task.

The forecast was for an inversion at 5,000' if the temperature didn't get above thirty two on the ground. Grant flew his trike in and said that it was very warm below the inversion which at 11 AM was at 2,200'. The winds were predicted to be light southwest maybe up to 10 knots. Attila took a tug up and said the winds were light.

We call a 150 kilometer task, not any longer than the other days, but with a forecast for poor lift and a fairly low inversion it doesn't look easy. The first leg is a 50 kilometer run northeast up the Midwestern highway to Gunbar, which is the center of the 50 kilometer entry start circle. Then 60 kilometers north-northeast to the Hillston airport and a 40 kilometer return against the light winds to Merriwagga.

The lift is predicted to start late, so we call a 2 PM first start time. In fact the lift is poor and we don't get much over 4,000' at the tow paddock at around 2:30. I'm last in line again, with Bo joining our towing team. I'm happy to be late as I'm looking for a late start with the better lift. Maybe 3 PM.

In this contest I'm flying a new Moyes Litespeed S. It is the one made out of a clear Mylar with black threads so it looks smoked. This will be my first flight on a Litespeed S. I'll have more to say on the Litespeed S later.

All the top pilots are launching late so it looks like I'm in good company again. Grant finds a thermal a bit upwind of the tow paddock and I'm off early again by myself as the gaggles are pretty thin nearby. Jonny comes in underneath me and we are going up much better than I had expected.

It's a left turn day and as I start turning the glider really wraps into the turn and I'm high siding just to keep it from spiraling in further. I'm actually wrapping my arm around the right down tube and hauling myself up hill to keep the thing in reasonable shape. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong and why can't I seem to learn to fly these flex wing gliders. Jonny slowly climbs up through me as I fly as a fairly fast clip holding on as best I can.

Well, this is the first time I've flown this glider so probably I just don't know what I'm doing yet. I decide to put on a little VG and see if that helps, and at about half VG it gets a little better. I'm happy for that.

At the top of the thermal I head out looking for lift but find that I can't get the glider to fly straight or head to the right. It continually wants to bank to the left. I go off by myself and find lift because I want to turn right in the lift (on this left turn day) given how hard it is to control the glider when banked left. When I do get the glider in a right turn I have to again hold on to the right downtube and pull my body all the way over to the right to get it to stay in the turn. I've got the VG half on because with the VG off it is much worse.

I continue to wonder why I can't learn to fly flex wing gliders. I was hoping for a nice relaxing day, but I'm getting beat up and my arms are sore. Drifting toward the entry start circle I find I have to fly the glider staying on the right side of the control bar even with the VG ¾'s on.

As 3 PM approaches I find myself in good company with Craig and Rohan and I'm high in the small gaggle. Plenty of pilots have gone on course at 2:45. Given the poor lift and low inversion we have been waiting around for better conditions. I'm getting use to the glider and feeling I had just better get going and learn to fly it.

There is a bit of wind out of the southwest so it's a quick run up the Midwestern highway to Gunbar. All the fast guys are out flying me again, which is disappointing since I started with them, but I'm not losing too much time. I can see the gaggle just ahead. It marks a thermal that I come in low (1,000') at and is the best thermal of the day so far. I have trouble staying in it, but I climb out with the pilots around me.

The lift gets us back to 4,000' each time until just before we get to Gunbar when the day starts to improve and we climb to over 5,500' AGL. It looks like things are getting better and the chances of landing out are decreasing. I hear from Bo that he took the 3:15 PM start and is slowly catching up with me.

We're off the paved road heading cross country to Hillston after Gunbar, but there are plenty of wide red dirt roads below. I head for a circling pilot 10 kilometers out from the turnpoint and climb up through him to 6,500'. It's looking good.

It's a good ways between thermal and the pilots around me are scattered about, but I keep finding lift although I can't find another one to get me back as high. Half way along this second leg Bo comes in underneath me has we skip a poor thermal and head for the next one.

Bop and another pilot behind him are getting low and searching. I'm feeling that these guys are not going in a good direction and head off a little more to the left at and find weak lift at 1,200'. Bo and the other pilot go down 25 k from the Hillston turnpoint. We hear from Kevin Carter, the other US pilot, that he is scratching along low near the first turnpoint.

There are clouds to our east and it looks like we might be able to just get under them. I make a run for it after getting up and find lift at 1,000' under the edge of the wisps over two pilots on the ground and nine kilometers from Hillston. The lift will get me back to 4,000' AGL where pilots who've made the turnpoint at Hillston, including Attila will join me.

There is no lift on the glide into Hillston and after rounding the turnpoint I land at 6:15. I will hear later from Tove that she started the course at 2 PM, and flew for six hours landing eight kilometers short of goal.

I'm breaking down the glider and it is at this point that I get a clue as to why I've been having such trouble with the glider. It has a broken tip wand. It appears that the wand smashed itself just from the pressure of the sail as nothing happened in the tow paddock and the landing was perfect. My right arm is aching.

Belinda comes by and we head out to pick up Bo and Kevin out in the paddocks to the southwest. It's nine o'clock by the time we get to check up on Oleg who we hear has made it there. No one is around. We drive into Goolgowi 110 kilometers from Hay to get some dinner at the pub and the place is packed with hang glider pilots.

The Swiss pilots come in and they have hit a kangaroo and taken out their radiator. Each truck takes one of their gliders and a couple of the pilots get rides also. The driver and one pilot has to wait for the tow truck which costs them $500.

Results:

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

1

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

HAZLETT Brett

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed S4

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

CAN

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:18:42

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

1000

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

2

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

HOLTKAMP Rohan

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Airborne Climax 13

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

AUS

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:23:59

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

956

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

COOMBER Kraig

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed S

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

AUS

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:29:17

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

933

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

4

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

BONDARCHUK Oleg

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Aeros Combat 2 13

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

UKR

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:38:53

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

927

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

5

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

DURAND Jon Jnr.

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed S4

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

AUS

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:45:51

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

898

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

6

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

MOYES Steve

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed S5

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

AUS

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

3:49:44

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

887

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

7

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

BUSSINGER Diego

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed S

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

CHE

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

4:01:25

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

868

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

8

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

HIDEAKI Nagamitsu

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

Moyes Litespeed 4

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

JPN

0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

4:18:34

0in 5.4pt; height:12.0pt">

825

Discuss "The 15th Pre-Worlds - day one, task one" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hay Open - day seven, task five »

Tue, Jan 13 2004, 5:00:00 pm GMT

the Hay Open

Angelo Crapanzano|Belinda Boulter|David Glover|Hay Open 2004|Joe Balbona|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Rohan Taylor|Tove Heaney|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/hayopen2004/

It's Wednesday, the 14th, and today was supposed to be the first day of the Pre-Worlds, but the pilots voted to make this a practice day for the Pre-Worlds (as incorrectly indicated on the Dynamic Flight web site). It was a close vote, with one vote for the majority, but given that it blew hard out of the south all night and is still blowing this morning, it looks like a good call.

The pilots were really beat up after day four with Oleg not flying and going to the doctor to get treated for Bronchitis. Everyone seems to be doing a lot better after the fifth day of flying yesterday.

Often, in spite of its many physical demands, hang gliding competition is for the most part a mental game. Flying a flex wing has reminded me about how physical it is (and by getting more experienced at it, it becomes less physical), but yesterday's task also brought the mental aspects to the foreground. We've been doing a lot of flying into the wind in this meet, and yesterday we really put ourselves to the test.

I am a big proponent of giving the pilot task committee all the authority to choose the tasks. David Glover and Tove Heaney follow that approach, and Tove was the one that taught me the benefits of such an approach. Paul Rundell and Wesley Hill have always reserved the ultimate authority to choose the tasks here at Hay, for good or ill. One problem here is that we have two venues, the aerotow area and the car tow area, and with the task committee members widely separated it is hard to get them together for a consensus.

Yesterday, there apparently was no consensus and Paul made a task call that was different from any that the task committee came up with, perhaps unduly influenced by his desire to get us here home for the presentation (that was in fact later postponed for today). Part of the reason I favor a pilot only task committee is to get rid of these possible influences, or even the appearance of these influences on task calling.

With the winds projected to increase to 20 to 25 kilometers per hour of the west-southwest, Paul calls an "interesting" task. We are to go northeast thirty kilometers to Old Gallah, turn around and come southwest thirty five kilometers back down the Midwestern highway to the tower at the intersection with the Carrathool Road, then 66 kilometers east, downwind over the road by the Murrumbidgee to our first turnpoint on the first task, then back straight west twenty five kilometers to the Race Track.

This tasks puts the upwind leg as the second (and four) leg meaning that those who are able to make it around the second turnpoint will be able to fly much further easier than those who don't get that far. We try to avoid this situation, although Angelo Crapanzano claims that GAP should account for most the the difference.

The forecast calls for higher bases (maybe 8,500' MSL, and the change of thunderstorms. While there doesn't appear to be any chance here, we can see the clouds out past Griffith, 100 kilometers to our east. The clouds don't look too threatening at noon, but who knows.

With the ever eager boys from Western Australia already lined by to tow with Grant I'm last in line again, which is fine by me, because I'm looking for a later start. The winds in the tow paddock are light on the ground, so the predicted winds haven't come yet.

I keep an eye on the Moyes tow line and see that the leader, Craig Coomber, is launching two minutes before me so I've got a big psychological boost. There is a big fat thermal right in front of the tow line, but I signal Grant to come around once more to get some altitude and then pin off in it at 1,000' AGL.

The wind up above has spread everyone out, so I'm alone in the sweet fat lift, until Craig and a few others nearby spot me and come in under. The lift is much wider and softer than the previous day as the high pressure weakens and the instability increases.

We drift toward the 30 kilometer entry start cylinder climbing to over 5,000' AGL. My supposed strategy is to stay with Craig and we are looking good. The gaggle in front of us is going to be forced to take the 2:30 start and we'll be in a great position to take the the 2:45.

The six pilots in our gaggle drift into the entry start circle but then head back out just in time to get the 2:45 start time. I'm in front and a little lower but get the start time first and head out. It's looking good and I'm not worried about being a little below the rest of the gaggle as I figure I can get the lift first and catch up.

There is good lift out on the first leg and we all fly fast and climb to 7,000'. It takes half an hour to fly 30 kilometers. My average L/D over the ground while gliding was 21:1.

As we round the turnpoint at Old Gallah, we get to face into the winds. Belinda has previously called from the tow paddock saying that soon after I launched the winds picked up strongly.

Our gaggle is staying strong together and I'm with Bo, Diego, Craig and a few others. We find good lift and in spite of the winds we are doing fell and feeling good. Everyone begins to spread out and soon the gaggle is no more.

I'm noticing that the 5030 is measuring the winds at 30 to 35 kph out of the west. This is far stronger than any winds we've encountered during the meet. With the strong lift we are still doing fine, but the highway is further and further away to the west.

Jonny gets very low, down to 500 feet soon after the turnpoint. Many pilots are landing by the highway or to the east of the highway. Those of us finding lift are getting up to 7,000' or even higher. It always seems to be more turbulent when flying upwind, but the thermals are in general pretty smooth and large enough for getting lift all the way around.

I've got a couple of pilots following me so I've got some help centering the thermals. Looking ahead I see a few pilots low not finding much lift. When you see a pilot turning ahead, there is only a slight chance you can get to them given the strong winds.

It's now a tricky question of motivation, desire, and uncertainty. With few pilots to see, its hard to tell how things stand overall. With the strong winds, its hard to see much progress. You lose about three kilometers with each climb, and the lift has to be stronger than 400 FPM for you to be able to make progress toward the turnpoint. This cuts down a lot on the lift you can afford to take. The fact that this upwind leg is earlier in the task means that there is a better chance for strong lift.

I hear from Bo he is now 8 kilometers ahead with Rohan. Jonny has drifted all the way back to the turnpoint and is getting up. Bo will later say that four times he went back and forth between 3 kilometers from the turnpoint to seven kilometers to the turnpoint. Finally, he will just push straight ahead and land at the second turnpoint with Rohan finding the lift to get around the turnpoint.

I climb up to 8,500' feet at 700 FPM and go on glide. My 5030 is showing that I am often getting a glide ratio of 2.6 to 1 going into the wind. I glide to within eight kilometers at 2,500' to find 100 fpm lift that takes we further away from the road. I haven't been able to get to the road during this second leg.

I drift even further away from the road low and in broken light lift. I lose the thermal and head straight from the road hoping against hope for more lift but not finding any I land .8 of a kilometer of the road. It will take two hours to go the 26 kilometers with an average glider ratio of 7.5:1. I'll land at 5:30 PM.

Meanwhile Craig will be nearing the turnpoint. He will push a little too hard and land next to it. Jonny is still in the air having been left far behind. He is working his way closer to the turnpoint but feels that he won't make it around. Attila is unable to make the turnpoint and lands and Jonny right above him finds a thermal and is able to get back up. AT 6:30 Jonny climbs to over 8,000' and makes the second turnpoint.

Rohan, Gerolf, and Lukas Bader have already rounded the turnpoint and are heading downwind to the third turnpoint. It is now late in the day and while the wind is now very much in their favor, there is less lift and the winds are so strong that the thermals are widely spaced. When I was at 3,000' AGL I noticed that I was getting 45 kph winds out of the west. I had difficulty ground handling the glider, so I didn't attempt to walk at glider to the road with it set up.

Jonny finds almost no lift but gets 40 kilometers just drifting downwind from 8,000'. As Craig has landed at the turnpoint it appears that Jonny has past him for the lead. Lukas is able to get the turnpoint and come within 8 kilometers of the goal, and he is the closest one. Gerolf makes the third turnpoint.

The results are not published yet and won't be until tonight at the presentation dinner. So at the moment we don't know who has won. The day will be less valid given the fact that most of the pilots didn't get 50% of the course distance.

Results tomorrow or see URL above.

Joe Balbona «joe» writes:

So Davis is the number one US pilot after three days, number ten overall and he still wants to fly an ATOS? Maybe in another 5 years, not now!

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Hay Open - day five, task three »

Sun, Jan 11 2004, 12:00:00 pm EST

Hay Open

Aeros Combat|Attila Bertok|Brett Hazlett|Davis Straub|Hay Open 2004|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver Barthelmes|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tove Heaney

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/hayopen2004/

I like to fly with the lead gaggle. I'm just not that happy when I'm not with the fastest guys, out in front, high, leading the way. Of course, without the ATOS flying against flex wing gliders, I don't have that extra performance that always permits me to get with the lead gaggle.

Still I just don't feel comfortable unless I'm right there with the fastest guys. I know that they are going to race, push, and spread out (except Brett Hazlett) to find the next thermal. I want to have the best pilots with me and I don't want anyone holding back.

Today we again had a late task call, and I again look at 2:30 as the premium time to get the start. I'm out to the launch line a little earlier at 1:25, but we've got some organized guys on our tow team and three of them march out to the tow line fully ready to go just as I get my glider out there. Still it looks good for a 2 PM launch (15 minutes after the start window opens).

While the forecast calls for winds at 20 kph out of the south-southwest, it doesn't feel nearly as strong in the tow paddock as Saturday. Maybe there will be time to get high before the start circle on this day. It is again inverted, so it will be blue with no upper level clouds.

It turns out that everyone gets a chance to get high in the start circle, well, at least as high as every one else, which is the real issue. We get to 5,000' AGL quite a bit lower than the day before, but with the light winds there is a 40 or 50 pilot gaggle hanging around the edge of the start circle. We even skip the 2:15 start time given our ability to stay put and not get blown downwind.

I'm getting use to the Airborne C2 and starting to use pitch (pushing out) to coordinate my turns and to wrap the glider around when I feel a surge of lift. I'm able to stay high in the gaggle in the start circle, so I must be remembering something about how to fly these flex wing gliders.

At two thirty almost all the pilots head out with Oleg and Gerolf plus a few others hanging back for the 2:45 PM start. I see Craig, Brett, Rohan, and Jonny going and I'm out there heading off with them near the front. Unlike with my ATOS I don't feel any moral obligation to be the glider out in the front of everyone searching for the lift and taking all the risks.

We're heading northeast 80 kilometers up the Midwestern highway to Goolgowi and then north to Hillston airport for a task length of 147 kilometers. As we spread out we're picking bits and pieces of lift staying between 3,500' and 5,000' AGL. I'm slowly losing a bit on the lead gaggle of five pilots, and it is heart breaking. I'm trying to figure out how I can out smart them, if I can't out fly them.

Bo blew the second day after coming in second on the first day. After crossing the start cylinder low he tried to come back (against my advice) to to get a alter start time. With strong winds and no one there to show him the lift he didn't make it. Now Bo has blown off the meet heading out at 1:45 on his own. He's already down at 45 kilometers short of the first turnpoint,

Kevin Carter, the other American pilot here, in his first major competition is out with us at 2:30, but he didn't bother to go back a half a kilometer and get the 2:30 PM start time. He wondered why the rest of the gaggle headed back suddenly and it was only a few minutes later that he realized that they went back to get the last start time. He wasn't going to go back now as he was with the main group of pilots.

I'm just at the bottom end of the lead gaggle in a good thermal as we get to about 15 kilometers out of the first turnpoint. The five pilots just over me head out and I follow a bit lower, and to their left. We keep on gliding and gliding and I notice that they aren't hitting any lift as I shade further to the left to stay off their course line. Soon they are racing down to almost 1,000' AGL as I move further to the left and find lift. Not strong lift, like earlier in the task, but much better than the sink that the lead guys are in.

Now I'm thinking that they may bomb out, or at the least get stuck, and that I'll be in the lead by myself, a scary prospect, but an exciting one. I climb to 5,500' and watch to see if they get any lift. I can't see where they've gone to but I start heading straight for the turnpoint and see that they've found a strong one and aren't that far behind at all now.

I come into the turnpoint from the northwest a few seconds after the lead pilot, Craig Coomber, comes into it from the southeast (we'd all been approaching the turnpoint from the southwest) . Further behind him the rest of the lead gaggle with some additional folks that caught up to them are climbing even higher in strong lift. Perhaps I should have gone back and got in the good thermal with them, but I want to stay with Craig and zoom out in front. Rohan, Brett and Jonny are back there getting high just behind Craig and I.

Unfortunately, I find a bad line and within 6 kilometers I'm down to 1,100' AGL while everyone else seems to be stinking high. Oh well, now I just have to ignore my bad feelings about not being with the big boys and save my sorry butt. The winds is about 20 kph out of the south west, so it is a quartering tail wind, that drives me to the northeast, right of the highway, as the task follows the road to the north-northwest.

I hear from Kevin that he's about twenty kilometers behind with Oleg. Oleg got the later clock and is in a hurray to catch the lead gaggle starting fifteen minutes behind them. Bo, Oleg and Kevin are all suffering from allergic reactions to Australia and Hay. There is a not of new growth here this year. Bo might not fly on Monday to try to get over the effects.

While the lift is broken and light at first, it quickly turns on to the best thermal of the day and I climb to over 6,000'. Meanwhile Rohan is high and has been pushing ahead with Brett right on his tail. The other pilots who got high hold back a bit and Rohan is able to find a strong thermal and get high with Brett, leaving the other guys behind.

I go on glide after the strong climb only to find myself down low again at Merriwagga ,trying to find lift right over the covered stack of wheat, not wanting to go and join some other pilots who were low and turning as they seemed to be too much off the course line. Pride goeth before the fall.

This time the lift at 1,100' AGL is really scratchy and I have to work hard and hold on tight to stay in it and start climbing. Again as I get up the lift improves and I attract other pilots who are also looking to save themselves. We climb out to over 5,000' and for me it looks like goal is achievable.

Oleg has caught me from behind as we top out in the thermal. I go on glide from about 25 k out (half the distance of the last leg) and even with the cross wind it is easy to make it to goal as I don't run into any bad sink as I had on the first half of the leg.

Meanwhile, up in front of me, Rohan and Brett are near goal on final, and Brett has chosen this time to no longer follow Rohan once he sees that he can make goal. Brett will be first for the day followed by Rohan.

Rohan won the first day, but inadvertently he didn't turn off his Garmin GPS at goal (his Polaroid glasses told him the screen was blank, i.e. the GPS was off, after Rohan pressed the off button). With wrap mode on, he wiped out his start time.

While this is a good long task, the tail wind component of the cross wind was a big help getting many pilots to goal. On Saturday over thirty pilots made goal and it looks like that many will have made it on Sunday. We've got two more days of the Hay Open before the pre-Worlds start (an eight day meet).

Results:

1 Hazlett, Brett, 60 Moyes Litespeed S4 Can 2:51:52 978
2 Holtkamp, Rohan, 9 Airborne Climax 13 Aus 2:52:53 963
3 Durand, Jon Jnr., 46 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 2:53:18 954
4 Barthelmes, Oliver, 25 Moyes Litespeed S4 Deu 2:53:41 946
5 Bader, Lucas, 22 Moyes Litespeed S Deu 2:53:59 940
6 Coomber, Kraig, 77 Moyes Litespeed S Aus 2:54:24 932
7 Itagaki, Naoki, 14 Moyes Litespeed S4 Jpn 2:54:36 927
8 Keijzer, Koos De, 12 Icaro Laminar Mr 14 Nld 2:56:30 907
9 Bussinger, Diego, 40 Moyes Litespeed S Che 2:56:39 902
10 Seib, David, 33 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 2:50:44 885
11 Matsumuta, Takahiro, 10 Moyes Litespeed 4 Jpn 3:00:06 872
12 Bondarchuk, Oleg, 32 Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 3:04:25 799
13 Schroder, Phil, 53 Airborne C2 Aus 3:11:39 794
14 Paton, Len, 58 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 3:05:14 790
15 Moyes, Steve, 61 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 3:10:24 751
16 Straub, Davis, 38 Airborne Climax 14 Usa 3:20:57 730
17 Bertok, Attila, 59 Moyes Litespeed S45 Hun 3:15:53 715
18 Bosman, Mart, 13 Moyes Litespeed Nld 3:16:12 711
19 Hideaki, Nagamitsu, 20 Moyes Litespeed 4 Jpn 3:25:27 703
20 Minoru, Kato, 18 Icaro Laminar Mr Jpn 3:34:46 702

Totals:

1 Coomber, Kraig, 77 Moyes Litespeed S Aus 2823
2 Hazlett, Brett, 60 Moyes Litespeed S4 Can 2731
3 Barthelmes, Oliver Moyes Litespeed S4 Deu 2728
4 Durand, Jon Jnr., 46 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 2720
5 Moyes, Steve, 61 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 2589
6 Bussinger, Diego, 40 Moyes Litespeed S Che 2554
7 Bader, Lucas, 22 Moyes Litespeed S Deu 2486
8 Bertok, Attila, 59 Moyes Litespeed S45 Hun 2455
9 Holtkamp, Rohan, 9 Airborne Climax 13 Aus 2450
10 Straub, Davis, 38 Airborne Climax 14 Usa 2274
11 Keijzer, Koos De, 12 Icaro Laminar Mr 14 Nld 2104
12 Bondarchuk, Oleg Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 2070
13 Bosman, Mart, 13 Moyes Litespeed Nld 2060
14 Heaney, Tove, 52 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 2034
15 Thompson, Mark, 56 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 2015
16 Seib, David, 33 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 1975
17 Itagaki, Naoki, 14 Moyes Litespeed S4 Jpn 1876
18 Jones, Chris, 44 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 1869
19 Mengelt, Rolf, 24 Moyes Litespeed 1847
20 Barnes, Andrew, 42 Moyes Litespeed S35 Aus 1842

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Hay Open - day four, task two »

Sat, Jan 10 2004, 12:00:00 pm EST

Hay Open

Aeros Combat|Attila Bertok|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Davis Straub|dust devil|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hay Open 2004|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver Barthelmes|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tove Heaney|weather|Wills Wing

Results (thanks to Dave Seib) at:

http://www.moyes.com.au/hayopen2004/

When you launch can have a great effect on your flight. This is such an important parameter that you need to spend considerable effort getting it right. It depends on the conditions, the task, and the actions of your fellow competitors (those folks that are going to help you find thermals and encourage you to race).

A 137 kilometer straight downwind task was called when Paul Rundell, the meet director, and Len Paton, the weather man, realized that their earlier predictions for very light winds were all wrong and that we would have a 30 kph southwest wind instead. Given the late breaking weather news, the task got called late and the first start time was 1:45 PM. I was looking to try to get the 2:30 PM start time (the third start time always seems to be the most popular).

The day was inverted again, but the forecast was for a 7,000' top of the lift for hang gliders. There would be no clouds. The task was downwind (east-southeast) with a strong tail wind component (southwest wind), so it looked doable later in the afternoon when the lift was stronger without having to be in the air real late, like the first day.

2:30 looked like the optimum start time to me and given the strong winds in the tow paddock, it seemed like a two o'clock launch would be about optimum. Otherwise you'd get blown out of the start cylinder before 2:30.

I got in line but I could see that the tows were taking longer than the ten minutes each that I had predicted. I finally launched at 2:05, but I could already tell I was ten minutes too late. I'd been watching who was towing in the Moyes line next to me and Craig and Attila got away before me.

I got off tow at 1,100' AGL as my bridle came out when we popped into a light thermal, so at least I was in something. The guys who got off earlier were stinking high downwind, as they had found something much better than I.

Bo was with me as we slowly climbed up but drifted even faster. He missed one piece of lift and was soon groveling low past the start cylinder as I continued to slowly climb going through the cylinder at 4,500' at 2:25 PM, five minutes early, with the main gaggle at over 7,000' and coming back to get the 2:30 PM start time.

I went back to get the 2:30 start time and with the help of three other pilots that were also relatively low with me (but not as low as Bo who was drifting to the northeast along the Midwestern Highway at 600') we found a good thermal that took us to 7,000' AGL but six kilometers past the start cylinder and no way to get back against the strong winds to get the 2:45 start time.

The main gaggle was how ten minutes ahead of us, but hopefully that strong thermal would let us catch up with them assuming they had to working something weak and we hit all the good stuff. Of course, it was not to be.

The lift was often light as the high clouds that are associated with a thermal low came over us again like the day before and shaded the ground. Kevin Carter, who got in that first high gaggle, said the best thermal he got was over the tow paddock at over 1000 fpm to 7,200' AGL.

Oleg said that he and a few others in the front hung on at 1000' over the highway for 15 kilometers, so that slowed them down a bit. As it was a downwind task a bunch of people made goal (see the results below).

I saw from a review of my flight statistics that the average glide was 18:1 (remember this is in a flex wing racing (but going downwind)). The average climb rate was 300 fpm out on the course line, but we did get some stronger bits that didn't last as long because they took us high quickly. Going downwind we were able to stay between 3,000' AGL and 6,000' other than the first good climb to 7,000'.

It took me a little under 2:20 hours to cover the course with an average speed of 34 mph.

At 22 kilometers out from goal I was in one of the strongest thermals of the day and because it was so strong I took it to 5,500' AGL knowing I'd get a higher optimum speed into goal. The 5030 was telling me to stay in the lift even though I was well above the best glide line into goal. Actually I couldn't flight as fast as I would have liked going into goal because there was too much lift and turbulence. Still I averaged 53 mph on final glide (ground speed), and a 20:1 glide ratio.

Ten kilometers out from goal I heard from Belinda that a dust devil had just come through the landing zone at goal wiping out a number of gliders, tossing them into the air for long rides before they were smashed up. We'll see tomorrow who has been able to rebuild their glider. I saw little Jon holding his sore arm that came about when he tried to hold down his glider.

The wind was blowing so hard at goal (cross ways to the final glide), that some pilots came in landing on their bellies as they were afraid to let go of the control bar.

Results:

1 Coomber, Kraig, 77 Moyes Litespeed S Aus 1:56:48 1000
2 Heinrichs, Gerolf, 57 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aut 1:57:59 969
3 Moyes, Steve, 61 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 1:58:11 962
4 Bertok, Attila, 59 Moyes Litespeed S45 Hun 1:58:16 957
5 Bussinger, Diego, 40 Moyes Litespeed S Che 2:00:01 931
6 Barthelmes, Oliver Moyes Litespeed S4 Deu 2:00:44 919
7 Bosman, Mart, 13 Moyes Litespeed Nld 2:02:42 896
8 Hideaki, Nagamitsu Moyes Litespeed 4 Jpn 2:06:08 858
9 Yasuhiro, Noma, 45 Moyes Litespeed S Jpn 2:07:02 848
10 Bondarchuk, Oleg Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 2:07:52 838
11 Hazlett, Brett, 60 Moyes Litespeed S4 Can 2:09:52 818
12 Holtkamp, Rohan, 9 Airborne Climax 13 Aus 2:10:05 814
13 Durand, Jon Jnr., 46 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 2:10:09 812
14 Beavis, Alan, 102 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 2:11:28 800
15 Nichele, Roberto, 50 Wills Wing Talon 140 Che 2:11:31 798
16 Straub, Davis, 38 Airborne Climax 14 Usa 2:21:42 722
17 Bader, Lucas, 22 Moyes Litespeed S Deu 2:21:44 721
18 Heaney, Tove, 52 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 2:24:08 704
18 Mengelt, Rolf, 24 Moyes Litespeed 2:38:24 704

Total:

Name Glider Nation Total
1 Coomber, Kraig, 77 Moyes Litespeed S Aus 1891
2 Moyes, Steve, 61 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 1838
3 Barthelmes, Oliver Moyes Litespeed S4 Deu 1782
4 Durand, Jon Jnr., 46 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 1766
5 Hazlett, Brett, 60 Moyes Litespeed S4 Can 1753
6 Bertok, Attila, 59 Moyes Litespeed S45 Hun 1740
7 Bussinger, Diego, 40 Moyes Litespeed S Che 1652
8 Bader, Lucas, 22 Moyes Litespeed S Deu 1546
9 Straub, Davis, 38 Airborne Climax 14 Usa 1544
10 Holtkamp, Rohan, 9 Airborne Climax 13 Aus 1487
11 Heinrichs, Gerolf, 57 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aut 1485
12 Thompson, Mark, 56 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 1459
13 Heaney, Tove, 52 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 1408
14 Yasuhiro, Noma, 45 Moyes Litespeed S Jpn 1368
15 Bosman, Mart, 13 Moyes Litespeed Nld 1349

Again the weather has been very pleasant here in Hay will a high yesterday of about thirty degrees. The nights are cool and we haven't turned on the air conditioning in the cabin at the Caravan Park yet.

Discuss "Hay Open - day four, task two" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hay Open - day three »

Fri, Jan 9 2004, 12:00:00 pm EST

Aeros Combat|Attila Bertok|Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|cart|Davis Straub|Grant Heaney|Hay Open 2004|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver Barthelmes|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tove Heaney|weather

The weather turns with "light" winds out of the west. We're out of the paddock at 11:30 and it is completely pleasant with temperatures in the mid twenties. They don't seem to grow grass here for the sheep, but let them eat the weeds that do show up when the rains have come through. Still it is most pleasant with no blowing sand like last year.

A most interesting task is called, with a 70 k downwind leg east along the Murrumbidgee, then a 50 k cross wind north to Goolgowi, and a final leg at 29 kilometers back west on the Midwestern Highway to Gunbar. It's a good long task at slightly less than 100 miles, and with cross wind and upwind legs making the task progressively more difficult it should test the skills and patience of experienced competition pilots.

I spend all my time in the tow paddock getting ready for the upcoming task, and working as quickly as I can after getting there reasonably early, I'm the sixth pilot in line to be towed up by Grant Heaney. I haven't been this far back in years, but seeing as how I'm flying a flex wing for the first time in big time competition in at least five years, I'm happy to have other pilots in the air ahead of me to spot the thermals in the start circle.

Moyes has got three Dragonflies pulling up a hoard of folks and Grant's got ten pilots to pull up also. The cart's set for way too high a nose angle, so I have Belinda pull out the pins so that when it gets to me I've got a fighting chance of keeping the glider from stalling and still on the cart. I might even push up the keel rest a bit more tomorrow.

We've got a 12:30 launch open window and a start time of 1:30, open for 15 minute intervals thereafter. Pilots are late getting going, and I'm not in the air until almost 1:30. The tow is as gentle a tow as I've every had, and a really appreciate the Airborne C2. It is my understanding that since I last flew it last year they have solved the problem of yawing through a different design of the tips. I'm having no problem with one half VG and the staying behind the trike.

Grant drops me off at 1,700' AGL with a couple of gliders turning and I'm back in that Hay air that we love so much. With the good breeze out of the east we drift quickly downwind as we slowly climb up to a little less than 5,000' AGL. With the brisk breeze we are quickly approaching the circumference of the 10 kilometer start circle.

The pilots who got earlier tows including Gerolf, Oleg and Bo are in a gaggle in front of us taking the 1:45 start time, but getting stuck in a thermal 1.5 kilometers past the start cylinder. Bo will decide to come back and take the 2 PM start time with Jonny Durand, Brett Hazlett, myself and a couple of other pilots. We really had no choice, as we drifted past the start circumference also and had to come back for the 2 PM start time losing a good bit of altitude.

Thankfully the task and the wind takes us right along the river road so we can head downwind with no worries. There is a strong inversion near 5,000', high clouds and no cu's, so it will be a blue day in Hay.

I'm trying to remember to push out in thermal to help coordinate the turns. This was something that I didn't have to do on the ATOS (in fact it is not a good idea). I'm still trying to to get the glider to turn with just weight shift in roll, but it certainly isn't helping me stay up too well with the others.

We've got a 20 kph tail wind every once in a while we'll find almost 500 fpm lift. For me, the lift is broken unless I can get the glider twirling which happens every so often when I remember to push out. I'm losing the fastest four gliders that I'm not able to climb with and head a bit to their right (south) to get closer to the river. Jonny and Bo are out there also and we hit much better lift and get to almost 6,000' AGL.

This gets us into the first turnpoint, on the road going north to Goolgowi, where we find more lift before we have to start the cross wind leg. I've got Bo on my left heading a bit more upwind on this leg, with Jonny out in front more along the course line. I split the difference until Bo finds the good lift and I join him as Jonny disappears.

Three other pilots out in the lead are to our right and groveling now on the deck as they get swept to the east by the wind. Bo goes too far and has to come back to join me in a thermal that gets us high and attracts five other pilots as we push our way north on a 345° bearing toward a turnpoint that is at 360°.

In a few thermal we find Jonny again as he had to save himself while out there alone. Gerolf and Oleg are apparently out there in front of us going down near the second turnpoint. As the upwind leg comes next I want to be sure to be high at this turnpoint and work upwind and in lift in order to be able to drift into the turnpoint climbing.

I see pilots low around the turnpoint and some drifting back east past the turnpoint just trying to get back up and save themselves for the upwind leg.

We are all spread out now. Bo and Rohan are in the lead on this upwind leg taking it carefully to make sure that they can make goal. I get down to 1,400' AGL, but find strong lift back to 6,000' AGL, while only losing a couple of kilometers. There is enough help around to be able to take a few chances and plung ahead to the next thermal.

I'm nervous about not making goal in the strong headwind, and climb in a strong thermal 7 k from goal until the L/D required to make goal is 5.9 to 1. This turns out to be plenty to make goal with 1000' of altitude above the goal. I'm the eight pilot in. Rohan was the first in.

Results:

1 Durand, Jon Jnr., 46 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 14:00:00 18:14:32 4:14:32 948
2 Hagewood, Bo, 30 Aeros Combat Ii 150 Usa 14:01:00 18:20:49 4:19:49 908
3 Coomber, Kraig, 77 Moyes Litespeed S Aus 15:00:00 19:07:50 4:07:50 887
4 Hazlett, Brett, 60 Moyes Litespeed S4 Can 13:45:00 18:17:23 4:32:23 879
5 Moyes, Steve, 61 Moyes Litespeed 5 Aus 14:00:00 18:28:36 4:28:36 870
6 Itagaki, Naoki, 14 Moyes Litespeed S4 Jpn 13:45:00 18:18:57 4:33:57 869
7 Barthelmes, Oliver, 25 Moyes Litesport S4 Deu 15:00:00 19:10:18 4:10:18 860
8 Seib, David, 33 Moyes Litespeed S5 Aus 14:00:00 18:37:30 4:37:30 831
9 Bader, Lucas, 22 Moyes Litespeed S Deu 13:45:00 18:31:52 4:46:52 822
10 Straub, Davis, 38 Airborne C2 Usa 14:00:00 18:40:52 4:40:52 817
11 Crapanzano, Angelo, 29 Moyes Litespeed S4 Ita 14:00:00 18:41:16 4:41:16 813
12 Bertok, Attila, 59 Moyes Litespeed S45 Hun 14:30:00 19:08:01 4:38:01 780
13 Thompson, Mark, 56 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 13:45:00 18:42:39 4:57:39 779
14 Paton, Len, 58 Moyes Litespeed S4 Aus 14:00:00 19:06:41 5:06:41 732
15 Holtkamp, Rohan, 9 Airborne C2 Aus 12:30:00 18:12:45 5:42:45 731
16 Bussinger, Diego, 40 Moyes Litespeed S Che 14:15:00 19:18:10 5:03:10 718
17 Heaney, Tove, 52 Moyes Litespeed 4 Aus 14:00:00 19:15:53 5:15:53 702
18 Keijzer, De, 12 Icaro Laminar Mr 14 Nld 13:45:00 19:15:40 5:30:40 682
19 Barnes, Andrew, 42 Moyes Litespeed S35 Aus 13:45:00 19:37:50 5:52:50 625


Discuss Hay Open at the Oz Report forum

Discuss "Hay Open - day three" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Drivers for Oz Comps

Tue, Dec 23 2003, 11:00:02 am EST

Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Lately we've had heaps of 10 000 plus days, with beautiful cumulus clouds. A lot of big flights are being done here almost every day!

I've been contacted by people keen to drive for the comps, so if pilots are after drivers contact me and I'll give you a list of names etc.

Discuss drivers at the Oz Report forum

Bogong Cup – Australian Nationals »

Tue, Nov 25 2003, 1:00:00 pm EST

Bogong Cup

Bogong Cup 2003|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney «chgpgc» writes:

Due to the cancellation of the Australian Open in Deniliquin Bogong has been upgraded to AAA. Also the Australian Nationals has been moved to Bogong. We do currently have forty entries, and we'll only take seventy.

After the 16th December all priority entry will stop, and pilots can secure their spot regardless of ranking. So if you want to fly in Bogong, please enter ASAP. Even if you are number one in the world or number one in Australia, after 16th December if the comp is full you'll miss out.

I hope all that want to fly Bogong can get in, but this is the only way to make it fair. If you are not sure if you have entered or not, please look at: http://bogongcup.dustydemons.com at the pilot list.

Discuss "Bogong Cup – Australian Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The Oz Competitions

Wed, Oct 29 2003, 10:00:04 am GMT

James Freeman|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Tove Heaney|Worlds

Michael Zupanc <zupy@ozemail.com.au> writes:

After much confusion, there have been some changes to the HG comp calendar. The final version of the changes are:

Australian Nationals (Australian Open) 28th Dec 2003 to 4th Jan 2004 Deniliquin, (unchanged) Multi-class competition Tove Heaney

Hay Open 6th to 13th Jan 2004 Hay, NSW New comp, bit more laid back than the Pre-Worlds.

Dynamic Flight Pre-Worlds 14th to 21st Jan 2004 Dynamic Flight, James Freeman

Bogong Cup 24th to 31st Jan 2004 (unchanged)

In amongst this is the Corryong Cup 18th to 24th Jan 2004 for those that want less stress.

(editor’s note: The Oz Report calendar has been updated: https://OzReport.com/calendar.php).

Discuss oz comps at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "The Oz Competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

You can join an Australian XC hang gliding tour

Sat, Oct 18 2003, 6:00:08 am EDT

Tove Heaney

cart|Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney is again going to lead her Australian cross country tours through the NSW outback. These tours have been a big success over the last few years with less experienced pilots going for their personal bests.

The first tour is December 6th through 14th, just before the Australian Nationals (starting on the 28th). The second tour is after the Bogong Cup starting on February 7th and going through the 15th.

These tours will all take place out in the flatlands of NSW and are open to beginner, intermediate and experienced pilots looking for big cross country miles in wide open spaces.

 

Contact Tove at «chgpgc». And, yes, she offered to provide a donation to the Oz Report for this notice, so I took her up on the offer.

Here’s her story of past tours:

Pioneering the Flatlands! Tove's XC Tour.

We been running XC tours from Deniliquin/Conargo for about 8 years. In the early days we towed out of a the reserve a couple of km south of Conargo. It was good, but didn't take all wind directions. If the crosswind was too severe we just towed off a road. Quite a sight if you were coming down the road, every couple of km it would be a bunch of gliders and a nice shiny Toyota Tarago (hired). Fortunately on average we had two cars come by per day. Unfortunately one of them complained.

What happened next was we had the shire Ranger call me up on the mobile: "We've had a complained, the police has been in touch, but I didn't want the police to talk to you, any chance we could sort this out?" Lucky the next day the wind was good for the paddock.

Our accommodation was one of the local pubs! Great atmosphere when you wanted to part, not so good when you wanted to sleep. Some days it was 45 degrees C outside, it was probably 55 degrees upstairs in the pub where we were sleeping. Hardly anybody complained; "the pub is great the bar is always open downstairs and were all together.

Another problem was one year we set fire to the paddock! I'm not kidding!

One of the pilots on tow said just go on a bit longer, I'll get the thermal it soon. I kept driving into the long grass. "Good to get him off, I shouldn't really be driving in this long grass!"

15 min later we could see smoke 1 km down the paddock. Nothing to do with us I thought. A tow later the smoke/flames was a lot bigger. Gee! We better get out of here.

We called up on the local fire channel. Not too much later we had 50 utes, half a dozen big water tankers fighting the fire, and the fire was taking off!

It was nothing we could do we just had to pack up in a mad hurry and get out of there. Still pilots were complaining about not getting a tow. The locals got the fire under control. Just before the boundary fence. On the other side was a 6 million dollar wheat crop!

That afternoon I walked into the Conargo pub, heaps of ash-covered (black) locals were crunching the thirst. I said loudly;" I'm the one in charge, if you have anything to say, say it too me, by the way for the rest of the afternoon drinks are on me!" As I looked around at their faces, I thought, this is one of those cases when it's an advantage to be a not so tall, blonde female. One of the guys said nicely. "It was a better spent Sunday afternoon than watching cricket on TV". After a few beers a few of them started mention, "I started a fire once". I was happy to be welcomed back the following year. Do you know understand why I'm paranoid about anybody driving through long grass in the tow paddock?

Since then we've come a long way. We're now towing out of Private property that has nice prepared strips for all wind directions. The local fire brigade is lending us a one tonn'er fire cart, just in case, and we have their direct line! We now stay in a nice air-condition motel with a swimming pool.

Highlights of passed tour: The not so trimmed German pilot wearing a tight wrestler outfit (lycra singlet / bike tights) outfit.

Norwegian super pilot Flew so far (250km +) he new he had to wait for a while to get picket up, so he called a taxi from his mobile. The only problem was the taxi driver had no idea where this farm was. The police got involved, and eventually the taxi showed up. When our driver showed up at the 24hour truck stop in town, the pilots was happy, and fed.

Discuss cross country tours at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Oz Comps

Fri, Oct 17 2003, 6:00:01 am EDT

Tove Heaney

Tove Heaney «chgpgc» writes:

We have the websites for Australian Open and Bogong up and running:

(editor’s note: Looks like we now have two competitions called Open in Australia this year. I’ve got Tove’s Open called the Australian Nationals, which it is also. And the other Open is in Hay. Maybe they’ll tell me how they work this out.)

http://australianopen.dustydemons.com 28 Dec 2003-4th Jan 2004

http://bogongcup.dustydemons.com 24th Jan 2004 - 31st Jan 2004

Bogong has a max number so please enter early!

Both of these comps have an option for lower airtime/low experienced pilots to enter a more suitable (low stress) part of the competition. Please have a look at the websites.

Aerotowing options for Australian Open are listed.

(editor’s note: Rob Hibbard sends me this note: “I just talked to Peter Wilson, and he mentioned that he available as a tug pilot for the comps. He has a late model Airborne tug. Those that have towed with Peter know that he is a very experienced tug pilot. He would prefer a team booking. Pete's email «airscape»”)

If anybody has any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!

It's been a lot of talk about rain here in Australia. Were I live we've had OK rain but not enough. Long range forecasters (mix of meteorologists, old farmers etc) are forecasting a summer with temperatures higher than average. The belief is also that dry summers (drought) gives a lot of wind, like the last couple of years. This year with a bit of rain might give us unstable air, high cloud bases and not too much wind.

I'm going out to Deni and Mt. Beauty in a few days, and will give you guys a bit of an update of how it looks, and what the locals say, when I get back.

You are all welcome to come and join us here in OZ this summer.

Discuss Oz Comps at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA - Sport Class »

Sun, Mar 9 2003, 11:00:08 pm GMT

Buddy Cutts|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Dean Funk|Nick Kennedy|Ron Gleason|Tove Heaney|USHGA BOD

Nick Kennedy <nkavalancheranch@yahoo.com> sends in the proposal that was passed at the USHGA BOD:

I would like to thank Ron Gleason, Dean Funk, Buddy Cutts, Jim Youcom, and David Glover for contributing to this project. We've been working on this for several months and I'm stoked that it got accepted!

Currently we have a competition system that is geared towards training and producing a high quality US Hang Gliding team, capable of competing with the worlds’ best, through a series of 4 sanctioned NTSS points contests, that result in a ranking for 3 classes, Flex Wing, Rigid Wing and Swift Class. The US Team is selected through this process.

To obtain this lofty goal of creating a good US Team, long, difficult tasks must be called to train the Team for World Meet level competition.

The result of this is at least two things: The US Team and its aspiring group of wanna bees gets better and better through tough long tasks.

The second thing that occurs is that a very large group (the ones that make up the bulk of the field and the ones that provide a large percentage of the money to fund these contests), never get to complete the task and land at goal, simply because the task is always too hard for the average recreational XC contest pilot in the system today. With a planned completion rate of some low number to begin with, we factor in unforeseen weather and we currently have contests where 70-80 % of the entire field will not make the task ever. This is a fact.

If this keeps up for much longer, contests outside of Florida will cease to exist because meets like Texas 2002 with very low entry numbers simply cannot continue to operate due to lack of the needed monies to pay the bills.

Why Sports Class? Sports Class is an alternative for just about everyone who wants to compete on a new, smaller scale level. Both Flex and Rigid Wing Pilots are welcome with just about anything that flies, i.e. KP and SS gliders, older Exxtacy Rigids etc. The only restrictions are: no top 20 Flex wing pilots and no top 7 rigid wing pilots.

We plan on a high percentage task completion, even if this means a very short task in difficult conditions. If we have a short task, time wise, we hope to let the pilots continue flying after they finish, if they desire.

Quite a few pilots are getting really burned out by going to a contest, run by and run for the World Team, paying out the nose, burning all our vacation time and never having a chance to make goal, simply because we are forced, due to no alternative, to flying a World Meet task everyday. Our voices do not count in the task selection. Sports Class is that alternative…It worked for our Sailplane Brothers in the late 80's; They were in the exact same boat as we are. Now the Sailplane Sports Class Contests are full.

Take the whole US field in the last 4 years in the Florida contests. Take out the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 in Rigid. What you have on that remaining list is a big group of really frustrated pilots. One task for everyone, this has to change, it just does not work anymore. And that can be accomplished with this new Sports Class.

When the Rigids came on the scene how long did it take to create a whole new class for them? Not long.

When the Swift came along. Same story and whole new class for a micro group!!

We need a new Class for the masses who want a choice and can really have a say in their task.

Sports Class

Run this new class right along side the current 3 other classes at the current 4 NTSS meets that support the designated task format.

Have 2 sub classes; Flex wing Sports and Rigid Wing Sports

Use the same start window and start circle or line

Try, when possible, to use the same goal.

Score it right along with the other classes using GAP or whatever is used

Do not use a early or separate start time.

Let Sports Class have there own task committee.

Plan tasks for a 70% completion rate

At the end of the year have a Sports Class Champion and Sports Class ranking.

Let any one compete in Sports Class WITH THE EXCEPTION of Pilots in the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 Rigids.

(editor’s note: The reader is free to go back and look at the discussion that preceded this proposal for the Sport Class. The original articles in the Oz Report were inspired by Tove Heaney’s Australian Open which included floater, kingposted and race classes. From there three proposals were developed. You can read about them starting at OzReport.com/Ozv6n188.shtml and going through OzReport.com/Ozv6n196.shtml.

Discuss "USHGA - Sport Class" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Waypoints for competition

Sun, Mar 2 2003, 9:00:03 pm GMT

competition|GPS|Tove Heaney|waypoints

Meet organizers do not provide enough pre selected waypoints for competitions. We have gone over to GPS contests during the last few years, but meet organizers haven’t yet caught onto the fact that they’ve got to get a whole bunch of waypoints in their waypoint list that can be downloaded at the start of the contest.

The only waypoints that really need to be associated with ground features are landing/goal areas, and these should be especially designated waypoints (using a symbol). Waypoints can be associated with ground features, and it is pilot friendly to do so, but they don’t need to be super accurate. As long as they are close, the pilots can use what they see while flying to match what their GPS is telling them.

Also, it would be great if the goal waypoints had six character names, the last three of which were the goal altitude in hundreds of feet. For example, GLF015, would be a goal field with an altitude of 1,500 feet. This would be a big convenience to pilots flying with Brauninger IQ/Comp varios.

The meet directors should put out waypoint lists with a couple of hundred waypoints. In this way the task committee won’t be choosing new waypoints at the last minute, the pilots won’t have to enter the new waypoints at the last minute (perhaps in a format they hate), and the meet organizers won’t be miscalculating where the goal fields are and sending pilots to goals in the middle of nowhere.

Tove had well over a hundred waypoints at the Australian Open and this is a very good start and the best showing so far. The problem was that she had almost all of them within too short a distance of the tow paddock. She needed another hundred spread out for the big days, so that we didn’t have to do so many zig zags.

Tove directing the Australian Open

As you get away from the tow field the waypoints can be further apart, less dense, than near the tow field, so you don’t need necessarily as many. Getting a couple of hundred waypoints and a good map that prints them out for the task committee really helps making decisions.

If the meet organizers do this in advance then it really cuts down on the work that pilots have to do at the last minute, makes for better decision making on the part of the task committee, and much reduces the panic that pilots as they are pressed for time right after the task is called.

How is this best done?

Meet organizers can use MapSource from Garmin or SeeYou to create a large list of waypoints just by pointing and clicking on the built in maps. They can read their current list of waypoints with G7ToWin, and convert them to PCX files for importation in MapSource or CUP files to be read by SeeYou. They can change the symbols in these programs to mark goals. Let’s use symbols to designate goals, and not special names (except for last three digits).

They can then add to their waypoints lists using the maps in these two programs (available around the world). When they are done they can download directly from MapSource into GPSes. Or, the can download with G7toWin.

I’m sure the other programs will also allow for the easy creation of waypoint files from built in maps or easily available maps (although Street Atlas doesn’t version 8). Goal coordinates can in some cases be taken from maps, but in most cases it is best to take coordinates from actual visits to the goal sites, if possible.

I really strongly urge meet organizers to see it as an important part of their meet organizing efforts to come up with a couple of hundred turnpoints and enough goals to help make their meets run more smoothly and with a higher degree of validity.

Discuss "Waypoints for competition" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Will fly for subscriptions »

Sun, Mar 2 2003, 4:00:00 pm EST

calendar|carbon fiber|David Hempy|Dennis Cavagnaro|Flytec 4030|PG|Quest Air|record|Richard Heckman|Tove Heaney|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|weather|World Record Encampment

Oz Report reader who have helped out on Sunday: Wayne Ripley.

So how am I doing asking pilots to volunteer to pay for their subscription to the Oz Report? Well, pretty good. I’ve received money or pledges from 165 pilots. The total pledged, sent electronically or handed to me so far is $2385. I’m stoked.

The total number of regular Oz Report readers is about 2,400. About 3,000 were reading during the peak of the Australian competitions. 165/2,400 = 6.9% of the Oz report readers are voluntarily supporting the Oz Report. This is actually a pretty high number. I just bet that public radio stations would be very happy to get 7% of their regular listeners to support the radio station.

Now Oz Report readers have been very generous, and given much more than the asked for $10 donation/subscription. Many pilots who’ve given extra money have done so with the thought that “Hey, Davis, isn’t it about time? I’ve been reading the Oz Report for years now, and here is three year’s worth of subscriptions,” so I can’t expect such generosity when I ask for renewals next year. None the less, just assuming that the money was coming in $10 donations from 238 pilots, then that is 10% of the Oz Report readers supporting the Oz Report. Very cool.

You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription to the Oz Report below.

OzReport.com/Records.htm

The Oz Report is going to keep track of hang gliding (and a few paragliding) records. Not just the World Records, like the ones set at the World Record Encampment, but also national, regional, and state records.

Also, single surface and kingposted records. And women’s records.

We probably won’t have all the possible records, but enough to encourage hang glider pilots to go for it.

If we haven’t got a record up that should be there (and I’m sure we’ve missed plenty) you might want to make fun of us by sending in the record. Thanks.

The east coast flex wing record is 218 miles. Set last summer in Leland, Illinois (see above). The furthest a flex wing glider pilot has gone in Florida is 203 miles. What about trying to set the new east coast record on a flex wing glider?

Yesterday, Bo was testing his Aeros target with carbon fiber down tubes. He’s going for the single surface record, and he’s not alone. I’m trying and I’m not alone. It’s the $1,000 and the focus of going for the $1,000. It’s also the fact that you only have to fly 100 miles.

But, who’s going to try to break the east coast flex wing record? Who’s going to try to fly 250 miles in a flex wing hang glider on the east coast?

Let’s look at the prize situation:

$1000 – fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Wallaby Ranch.

$1,001 – fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Quest Air.

Flytec 4030Race ($900) – fly any hang glider 250 miles from Quest Air (must fly with Flytec vario)

$2,000 - fly any hang glider 300 miles from Wallaby Ranch

$2,001 - fly any hang glider 300 miles from Quest Air (reduced to $1,001 if flown on non Flytec vario)

Do we need a little more encouragement in the 250 mile range? For flex wing hang gliders?

Meet organizers do not provide enough pre selected waypoints for competitions. We have gone over to GPS contests during the last few years, but meet organizers haven’t yet caught onto the fact that they’ve got to get a whole bunch of waypoints in their waypoint list that can be downloaded at the start of the contest.

The only waypoints that really need to be associated with ground features are landing/goal areas, and these should be especially designated waypoints (using a symbol). Waypoints can be associated with ground features, and it is pilot friendly to do so, but they don’t need to be super accurate. As long as they are close, the pilots can use what they see while flying to match what their GPS is telling them.

Also, it would be great if the goal waypoints had six character names, the last three of which were the goal altitude in hundreds of feet. For example, GLF015, would be a goal field with an altitude of 1,500 feet. This would be a big convenience to pilots flying with Brauninger IQ/Comp varios.

The meet directors should put out waypoint lists with a couple of hundred waypoints. In this way the task committee won’t be choosing new waypoints at the last minute, the pilots won’t have to enter the new waypoints at the last minute (perhaps in a format they hate), and the meet organizers won’t be miscalculating where the goal fields are and sending pilots to goals in the middle of nowhere.

Tove had well over a hundred waypoints at the Australian Open and this is a very good start and the best showing so far. The problem was that she had almost all of them within too short a distance of the tow paddock. She needed another hundred spread out for the big days, so that we didn’t have to do so many zig zags.

 

Tove directing the Australian Open

As you get away from the tow field the waypoints can be further apart, less dense, than near the tow field, so you don’t need necessarily as many. Getting a couple of hundred waypoints and a good map that prints them out for the task committee really helps making decisions.

If the meet organizers do this in advance then it really cuts down on the work that pilots have to do at the last minute, makes for better decision making on the part of the task committee, and much reduces the panic that pilots as they are pressed for time right after the task is called.

How is this best done?

Meet organizers can use MapSource from Garmin or SeeYou to create a large list of waypoints just by pointing and clicking on the built in maps. They can read their current list of waypoints with G7ToWin, and convert them to PCX files for importation in MapSource or CUP files to be read by SeeYou. They can change the symbols in these programs to mark goals. Let’s use symbols to designate goals, and not special names (except for last three digits).

They can then add to their waypoints lists using the maps in these two programs (available around the world). When they are done they can download directly from MapSource into GPSes. Or, the can download with G7toWin.

I’m sure the other programs will also allow for the easy creation of waypoint files from built in maps or easily available maps (although Street Atlas doesn’t version 8). Goal coordinates can in some cases be taken from maps, but in most cases it is best to take coordinates from actual visits to the goal sites, if possible.

I really strongly urge meet organizers to see it as an important part of their meet organizing efforts to come up with a couple of hundred turnpoints and enough goals to help make their meets run more smoothly and with a higher degree of validity.

You’ll find a couple of web sites for keeping track of the Florida weather: www.davisstraub.com/Glide/wallabyweather.htm and www.davisstraub.com/Glide/questerairweather.htm

There is a bunch of overlap between these two sites. Get ready for your next trip south or see what is going on before you get here for the upcoming competition season.

David Hempy «dhempy» writes:

Don't overlook the Garmin eTrex series. Despite that they are some of the least expensive GPS units available ($99 at Amazon for the base model), they really pack a punch. They offer a 12 channel parallel receiver, 20 hours life on 2 AA's, 1500 track points on the base model and 2000-3000 on the other models, serial port, etc. Different eTrex models have other features, including map databases, barometric altimeter, etc. We allowed a variety of GPS at the 2002 US National Microlight Championships, and the eTrex were the most successful in every measure. I have personally found them to track better and more reliably than other (low-end consumer) GPS units I've flown with.

For more details, click on the "Comparison Chart" link on this page: http://www.garmin.com/products/etrex/

http://www.garmin.com/products/comparison.jsp?products=010-00190-00&products=010-00212-00&products=010-00256-00&products=010-00225-00&products=010-00243-00&products=010-00190-40&banner=/graphics/outdoorPIC.jpg

(editor’s note: Well, not quite. The problem is that the cheap models don’t allow you to set the tracklog record time interval, but only have automatic mode. Fine if you are going straight like on an ultralight that doesn’t matter, but if you are making a bunch of turns, the GPS uses up all its track log points before the flight is over.

David writes:

Here is a log of a flight I made this month with the tracklog increment set to "auto" on the yellow (cheapest model) eTrex. (I also have the green "Venture" model, but I actually prefer the human interface of the yellow one)

http://www.davidandjanine.com/ul/straub

In the two detail images, you'll notice the trackpoints are spaced every about every ten seconds (about 200 m) flying straight and level. Then, during a 1 minute 360, the interval drops to around 3 seconds a pop (50 m or so). After powering up the GPS, and leaving it on the hood of the car before the flight, it took one trackpoint in 16 minutes. The two points were 3.02 m apart. That would have consumed about 1000 trackpoints at a 1 second interval, or 200 trackpoints at a 5 second interval.

In the "whole_log" map, you can make out the trackpoints joining the alternating red and green segments of the track. (Sorry for the quality...I compressed the images pretty tight.) The 360 in the detail is at center of the semicircular course. (Ever try to fly a 15km-radius circle? Not easy!)

You'll see in the "detail_data" file that it took 569 trackpoints for a 97 km trip. That's about 1/3 of the little eTrex's capacity, and 1/6 of some models' 3000 trackpoint capacity.

You can see more about this flight, including the .loc file that has the raw data, here: http://www.davidandjanine.com/ul/tasks/2002-02-01/

I just checked, and I had them reversed. You cannot set the tracklog interval on the yellow unit. You can on the green Venture model. (I was mistaken when I called it the Vista...It is the Venture).

As for the distance interval, the minimum setting is 0.01 units, where the units are miles or kilometers, depending on how you've got the default display set up. So, if you're enlightened enough to use the metric system, you can set it to a 10 meter increment. I have not tested it in this configuration.

We generally will make three turns on a triangle course (Well, six or seven including the pattern.) so Auto is pretty ideal. I didn't consider that you guys spend much of your time thermalling. I can see know why Auto works so well for us, and not so well for you.

Perhaps the Venture would be a better fit then. With 2048 track points, and the ability to set the interval to any number of seconds, you could get 5.5 hours out of a 10 second interval. I think I paid $169 at WalMart in December 2001 for it. (MSRP $194) (http://www.gpsnow.com/gmetvt.htm)

I also notice the top-of-the-line Vista (MSRP $375) has glide ratio and glide ratio required to make goal functions. I don't know too much about that, but it sounds like it might be right up your alley.

Richard Heckman «hekdic» writes:

I've been on glucosamine 1500 mg /chondroitin 1200 mg for about 4 years and my orthopod says that the Hopkins guru that just invented the latest knee prothesis has been on it for about that long and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for his patients. Long term studies are still under way but short term European studies look good.

I had the last two fingers of each hand going numb back in 1990. I started isometric exercises to strengthen my neck and stopped sleeping on a pillow and substituted a 4" roll of foam under the back of my neck. 4" foam is about the right height when you roll over and it seems to cradle my neck just about right. It took about 6 weeks but my numbness went away. Since then, I've had an occasional feeling of numbness if I've been in some weird position but that's it.

It might be interesting to find out if there is a larger number of HG pilots with neck problems than the general public. Prone flying might be making us more susceptible.

Dennis Cavagnaro «dcavagnaro» writes to Jayne, executive director of the USHGA:

I would like to respond to your letter and explain why the first issue of the real combine magazine has unleashed such a strong protest.

You are right that there was a positive higher numbered second vote after the first one was determined to not be representative. The fist vote didn't have the benefit of your public relations campaign, all the USHGA resources and a very comprehensive "sample magazine to influence it. It was a plainly ask question and a small group responded negatively.

You have a agenda that I thinks stretches the authority of being the organizations executive director. It appears you see it as your role to shape the perception of Hang Gliding and Paragliding and in doing that a single voice would be helpful. Having a single magazine and not allowing the two different sports some autonomy will help you meet those agenda's needs.

We have gone from a situation where each sport, hang gliding and paragliding, had their own publication, their own photographs and their own set of feature articles (February issue in Hang Gliding alone had six) to a magazine that is less the 25% bigger with larger type and only 4 features to cover both sports. We have gone from a staff of 2-3 producing two magazines to a staff of 4 hired professionals producing fewer results.

The latest issue is nothing like your public relations "sample" that was distributed before the second vote. You promised and displayed double the magazine and double the content with that sample. In reality you only doubled the staff.

I wonder how the paraglider pilots feel about one featured article and I note we hang gliding pilots haven't experience a one-sided Paragliding issue yet with paragliders only on the cover. I wonder what our reaction will be then.

I ask that you consider either another vote now that everyone is paying attention or a non-magazine membership with a reduced cost ($15-$20) so we can go an support our publication of choice.

That would be a much fairer way of settling this and dealing with all of your constituents.

(editor’s note: I am waiting for one comment from a specific paraglider pilot, then I’ll leave this to the hang gliding mailing list for further discussion (or you can go to the new Oz Report hang gliding discussion group, see below).

I would love to see a membership choice, such as a check box:

[  ] Send me HG/PG Magazine

[ ] Send the $15 to the Oz Report.

Yah, that seems like a good vote.)

More Thanks

Sat, Feb 22 2003, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Jim Page|Tove Heaney|Vince Furrer

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

On a slow Saturday morning (most of the Oz Report readers seem to read it at work), I received support from: Vince Furrer, Tove Heaney at Tarago Flight Park (Australia), Jim Page ($20, France!)

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

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

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Deniliquin »

Tue, Feb 18 2003, 9:00:02 pm GMT

Airborne Fun|Tove Heaney

Tove <chgpgc@goulburn.net.au> writes:

Just read the bit from Manilla. We were back out in Deniliquin leading a cross country tour the week before, and had some of the best weather in seven or eight years of going out there. We had many days with 200-240km flights. This crew of inexperienced pilots had their personal bests most days.

We flew every day, and it was pumping! Ann did over a hundred kilometers on an Airborne Fun (single surface) and she only has thirty hours of airtime.

It seems to be, this whole summer has been a week on and a week off. Until now, we seemed to always get the week with bad weather.

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The Oz Open – impatient with catch up

Fri, Jan 31 2003, 1:00:00 pm GMT

Anton Raumauf|Grant Heaney|Paris Williams|Tove Heaney

It is not at all clear to me that it is possible to change the mis-programming that is clearly there in one’s mind (certainly in mine) by reflecting upon one’s errors in judgment. Hang gliding is a real time activity that requires decision making in difficult and uncertain circumstances. There is a significant element of chance in each outcome, so drawing conclusions from limited experience is not without pitfalls. None the less.

At the Australian Open in Deniliquin I was inclined to call difficult tasks with upwind legs. This did not make me a hero to my fellow pilots, and they showed this by voting my out of the task committee at the Bogong Cup. I was forced back down their throats by the meet organizers at the Australia Nationals, where I generally deferred to Attila, who was really Mr. Long, but Not-So-Hard, as downwind was his only direction. Even cross wind was an anathema to him.

My goal as a task committee member is to set a three hour task (for the open class) assuming at average of 40 km/h without figuring for a wind component. It’s easy just to add in the average wind to get the task distance. Other task committee members seemed to have a more intuitive feel for what sounded like a good task.

On the first day at the Open, we called a task with a cross wind leg in the middle and downwind legs at the beginning and end. This was not a good idea. I was trying to use the turnpoints provided by Tove, the meet organizer, in order to make it easier for pilots to input the task into their GPSes while out in the tow paddock. A nice thought, but also not a good idea, as we really needed to just use the weather information to call the task and forget about what we’d find when we got to goal.

On this day I launched first but chose to get off low and early in strong winds in order to help out the pilots in line behind me. I was being far too nice. There is a very big risk getting off at 600’ in the strong wind. This put me to the end of the tow line and behind most of the pilots as well as the curve. It also put me in a bad mental state, the behind and trying to catch up state. This is personally my weakest decision making state.

At least this is a lesson I can learn (and have learned repeatedly before). Launch early and pin off in good lift at a reasonable altitude. Much easier to learn a lesson that you can apply before you start flying.

On this first task I landed on the second leg because I was impatient and unwilling to work weak lift that maybe would get me high enough to find the better lift. I was impatient both because I saw myself as behind, but also because I was drifting so far off course in the cross wind. I also wasn’t aggressive enough flying upwind between thermals when I started the leg when I had plenty of height.

The initial strong lift in the start circle lured me into thinking that there was plenty of lift out on the course, when in fact we were at the edge of the good air mass, and we were flying into an air mass with much weaker lift. There were plenty of signs of this, if I had only paid attention. I could have stopped on the first leg and climbed in reasonable lift, but my first thermal got me in a greedy mood and as I was trying to catch up I passed up good lift. I wanted to race to catch up with the guys who went earlier.

On the second task at the Open, we again called a cross wind second leg, but this time we made it a lot shorter than the other two down wind legs. A lot more pilots were able to make it through this difficult leg, even though most flew in shaded conditions for the first two thirds of the flight.

Going early was the go for me, hooking up with Grant Heaney to team fly the first leg of the flight and then finding other pilots to help out on the other two legs. Being in front helped me out psychologically and flying with others working together helped tactically. I flew with Paris on the last leg, and he not only flies fast and aggressively, but he is more than willing to team fly. This really builds one’s confidence in the decisions that you are making. Paris and I were first and second for the day.

On the third task, we’ve got first a downwind leg and then a second leg with a bit of a cross wind, or quarter tail wind leg to goal. Pilots are able to gaggle up in the start circle and we have plenty of helpers out on the course. The lift is regular and reasonably strong. There are no hard or slow parts until the last leg. All the front running pilots are together on the last leg.

The order of finish is determined by who finds the best lift in the weak area going to goal. We went on a long glide after the turnpoint before I was first to find the lift, but it was weak. If I had been willing to go a few kilometers further on that glide I would have found much better lift and made it to goal first, but I was already down to less than 2,500’ AGL. Being out in front I was unwilling to take the extra risk.

All the top pilots finished close to each other, so the point differences were small. I was moving up on Ron, who was the top scoring rigid at that point, but I wasn’t making much headway against the flex wing pilots who did well on the first day when I fell down.

Oleg started ten minutes after the main gaggle on this day, but was able to catch up with us. From then on we call for fifteen minute intervals to keep top fast pilots from catching early strong gaggles.

On the fourth day we get the weather completely wrong, not that we’ve been doing so great so far. We call a 100 km triangle and then find that the wind is 20 mph out of the west. With strong lift we are able to do well on the first downwind and cross wind legs with pilots staying near one another and flying fast. When we get to the upwind leg we are all there together.

This is where small differences make a big difference and it is hard to recover for little errors. Anton Raumauf and Oleg get just a little above me on one climb to goal about half way back and I’m not able to stay up with them. They go ahead and now I’m back in my worse position, trying to catch up and going upwind. I’m impatient for better lift.

I head upwind still plenty high and Ron’s gets low taking a bad line to my north away from the clouds. Johann, who was quite a bit in front, but out on his own (dangerous for Johann), also gets low, lower even than Ron. I’m staying high and watching the other pilots near me pushing hard against a strong headwind on a long glide. This is a particularly tricky part of the flight as the uncertainties are weighing heavily on me and I’m quite unsure about what will work.

Ron has to drift back downwind in order to try and stay up. I can see Johann struggling low and these are clear messages to be careful and not to waste altitude. Ron lands and I now know that I can go into first place in the rigids, and up into at least third overall, if I just take care to make goal, a mere twenty kilometers ahead of me.

In most cases twenty kilometers to goal is a final glide, in fact way into the final glide, but this is not true today with the strong head wind. I’ve got to get this final glide thought out of my head. I find strong lift and get to 7000’ seventeen kilometers out with three other flex wing pilots. Lift doesn’t look good ahead, I wonder if I can make it. It’s right on the edge.

I go on a long glide without finding lift and get down to 600’ AGL four kilometers from goal before I turn in a small one. Going this far without really upping my chances by searching harder for lift is my biggest error. It was more hope than thought that kept me pushing when I needed to stop and work something light higher up than 600’. But the mistakes don’t stop there.

I climb to 2,400’ AGL in this thermal, but I’m drifting back up the course quickly. Johann is nearby having recovered with a low save and climbing, but I don’t hear from him. I leave too low, when I really needed the patience to hang on a little bit more and improve my chances. I don’t get any closer to goal than when I started.

Johann will get another 1000’ near me and just make goal. I won’t be able to get into first place in the rigids although I will move up on Ron. Getting to first place would have made my last day a lot easier. Impatience and being behind Tony kept running through my mind keeping me from relaxing and enjoying the final struggle into goal.

On the last day of the Open, we call a task with downwind, then cross wind, and finally a short (fifteen km) upwind leg. It is the upwind leg that will be my nemesis once again. Johann, Ron and I are team flying, but all Ron has to do is stick with me to win the rigid class and place high overall (fourth). The top two flex wing guys (Oleg and Paris) are a good ways ahead of us in this meet.

The gaggle forms up at the start circle and as there aren’t any clouds, we’ll be gaggle flying the whole task. This is especially true on the second cross wind leg as we need each others’ help in the difficult parts. We aren’t getting at high as the day before so help is appreciated.

At the last turnpoint before our upwind leg to goal, I find the strong lift first and get the highest which puts me in front and vulnerable. If I had been at goal on the previous day I could be shadowing Ron for the win, but he is shadowing me, and I need to have him fall down while I make goal.

Getting to goal is a frightful struggle against a strong head wind into the blue, and in spite of the fact that I’m in front and not trying to catch up, I’ve still got a tough task in front of me. With Ron and Johann just behind me we find Toni still on the downwind leg turning in something that turns out to be disappointing.

I’m trying to get away from Ron, but this is not helping as all four rigids turn in less than 100 fpm out in front of everyone else. After a short climb I elect to push on and this puts me on the ground instead of at goal. Ron will wait a little longer and then make goal with Johann behind him.

Three days out of five I continue to make similar errors without seeming to learn from my mistakes. You’ve got to wonder if there is a learning machine inside that thick skull, or just a set of faulty habits that die hard.

Conclusions:

Launch first (second when necessary) in your tow line and after a couple of others have launched in theirs, near the start of the launch window. Use the time before the start window opens to get yourself higher than other pilots and near the fastest, most aggressive pilots.

Leave with the first gaggle of top aggressive pilots, but take the second gaggle if conditions indicate that you can catch the first gaggle.

If below a fast gaggle in weak conditions or in cross wind or upwind conditions slow way down, ignore your position with respect to other pilots and concentrate on getting high. Don’t follow a fast gaggle from below in uncertain conditions. Realize that there will be another day or maybe a chance later in the day to overtake them.

Upwind is five to one over the ground not fifteen to one.

Don’t lead alone on an upwind leg, but stay even or just behind the leaders so that you can team fly and all help each other.

Well, time to take the show on the road, and we are off to Mt. Beauty and the Bogong Cup (or the Buckland Ridge Flats as it will turn out).

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Thanks to all our friends in Australia

Tue, Jan 28 2003, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Moyes|Tove Heaney|Vicki Cain

Thanks to Vicki and the crew at Moyes Gliders for helping all of us (too many to mention) ship our gliders in and out of Australia. Thanks to all the folks at Airborne for putting on the Gulgong meet and for letting me try out their great gliders.

Thanks to Tove and Dynamic Flight for putting on the three Australian meets. Tove, relax.

Thanks to all the helpful and friendly people of Australia who don’t deserve the kind of press their press gives them.

We head back to the US on January 30th.

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Deniliquin weather

Thu, Dec 19 2002, 12:00:05 am EST

weather|Tove Heaney

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

It's been over 40 degrees for days in Deniliquin. Two days ago it was 44 degrees and at Tocumwal (just down the road) the gliders thermalled up to 16,000 feet. They got 14,000 ft the day before. So let’s cross our fingers!

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Tove in Deniliquin »

Thu, Dec 12 2002, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Tove Heaney

Oliver Barthelmes <oliverbarthelmes@gmx.de> writes:

Here a shot of Tove’s efforts to prepare the Oz Open in Deniliquin:

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No grass in Hay

Wed, Dec 4 2002, 2:00:06 pm EST

Tove Heaney

Tove was out in Hay last week towing at the standard paddock. She reports that there is absolutely no grass and that the dust is piled around the gates and fence posts like snow. BTW, they really were flying in gliders in snow at Tocumwal the other day as the snow came down above the dust storm.

There is plenty of grass in Deniliquin and Conargo. The owner of the tow paddock planted wheat and had water and now has the thickness wheat paddock in the area, at a time when wheat prices are very high.

Tove said that the slightest winds got the dust going. Let’s hope that that isn’t the case when we get to Hay in mid January.

Tove will run the Bogong Cup!

Mon, Sep 23 2002, 7:00:00 am EDT

Tove Heaney

http://www.cool-ether.net.au/australianopen/bogong/index.html

http://www.cool-ether.net.au/australianopen

Tove «chgpgc» writes:

Since Phil Lahiff is not able to run Bogong Cup, I have from today taken over the responsibility of organising and running the Bogong Cup.

January 6th will be practise and registration day, just to make it possible for me to finish in Deniliquin and move toMt.Beauty in time.

Sport Competition

Sat, Sep 21 2002, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Nick Kennedy|NTSS ranking|Tove Heaney

How would Sport Competition work? Would it disrupt our existing NTSS points system?

Nick Kennedy has advocated changing competitions so that pilots could fly in a Sport Competition if they so choose. His point was to let pilots fly reduced tasks that had a greater chance of getting them to goal. The benefit was encouraging more pilots to have fun and attend the competitions because they got back to goal and didn’t have to land out. He wasn’t worried about NTSS points.

I think Nick has a good point here. We want to build up hang gliding, encourage pilots, encourage competition, and generally have more fun. Setting goals that just make it too difficult for the vast majority of pilots who don’t live on the competition circuit just ensures that they won’t show up for competitions.

We saw what a great success Tove had with her Floater, King Posted and Racer classes in the Australian Open last January and we can learn from that example. Her meet was the best attended meet of the year.

To use a version of her system in the US, we could do the following:

First, there is no distinct sport class. At the beginning of any competition you can decide whether for that competition you will fly in the sport competition or the full timer (can you think of a better name?) competition. Your choice. Nothing permanent.

Second, all the NTSS points that the pilots who enter the sport competition bring to the competition are used for that competition only. The pilots who enter the full timer competition bring their NTSS points to that competition only.

Third, the total of the NTSS points brought to the sport competition are multiplied by ⅔rd’s to get the total NTSS points available for the sport competition. I don’t know if this is really necessary, but we could start off with this and see if it works well this way. This would discourage the “professional” pilots from entering the sport class.

Fourth, as Nick pointed out before, the tasks for the sport competition would be called to try to get more pilots back to goal and the same goal as the full timer competition. I found that this was easy to do in Australia. The task committee took about ten minutes to call three tasks.

This system would require no changes in our existing NTSS ranking system, allows pilots to decide which competition they want to fly in at the start of any competition, and generally promotes hang gliding without disrupting the selection of our national team.

Meet organizers could choose whether to implement the sport competition or not (maybe based on how much pilots want it). We could do this for next year (2003) and see how it goes. Maybe have a couple of competitions implement the system.

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