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topic: Wallaby Ranch

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Mon, Apr 11 2022, 12:17:35 pm MDT

Unofficial last day on Sunday?

Armand Acchione|COVID|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Wallaby Ranch|Wilotree Park

There were two days of early morning landing clinics and then on Sunday with light winds pilots flew with four or five making it to Wallaby Ranch. Pilots are flying on Monday with east-southeast winds 5-10 mph. Krys Grzyb is here from Chicago. Armand is here with his Swift from Toronto.

The Klassic was a super spreader event, the first time COVID-19 has shown up at Wilotree Park, with at least six cases, none requiring hospitalization. Sort of like the Gridiron dinner: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/67-attendees-test-positive-covid-high-profile-dc-dinner-rcna23763

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Mikey's Boogie

Sat, Apr 2 2022, 5:07:13 pm MDT

For everyone's friend

memorial|Mike Barber|Tyson Richmond|Wallaby Ranch

Flying & fun all day, music starts at 6pm, dinner at 7pm.
Call Tyson at 813-610-2526 for additional information.
Call Wallaby Ranch at 1-800-wallaby (800-925-5229) if you'd like to camp or rent a cabin.

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Wallaby Ranch in February

Fri, Feb 11 2022, 5:39:11 pm MST

We're all flying down here

video|Wallaby Ranch

https://youtu.be/a_E6urpUuO4

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Friends of Mike Barber

Fri, Feb 11 2022, 5:15:15 pm MST

Getting together in April at Wallaby Ranch

Mike Barber|Tyson Richmond|Wallaby Ranch

Tyson writes:

Friends of Mike Barber are hosting a "Mikey Barber Memorial Boogie" in honor of our departed friend at Wallaby Ranch (1805 Deen Still Rd E. Davenport, FL 33897), Saturday, April 23, 2022. There will be flying, fun, dinner, and entertainment. Call Tyson at 813-610-2526 for additional information. Call Wallaby Ranch at 1-800-wallaby (800-925-5229) if you'd like to camp or rent a cabin.

Memorials

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Out of the south

Sun, Feb 6 2022, 4:13:38 pm MST

North from north of La Belle

airspace|Pablo Milholo|Wallaby Ranch|XContest.org

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:pablomilholo/4.02.2022/17:06

On Friday Pablo flew 163 km in about five hours and landed north east of Wallaby Ranch. Near the end he was flying under Orlando airspace (6,000' floor) east of highway 27. The wind was out of the south 10 - 15 mph until he got north by Davenport and it turned south southwest.

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Tommy Nejame

July 12, 2021, 13:31:53 GMT-0600

A construction accident

Wallaby Ranch

Tommy is a well known ATOS pilot based at Wallaby Ranch. He told me last Spring how happy he was to be retired from his construction business that he turned over to his sons. He was called in to help out and had an accident with some heavy equipment. We wish him a speedy recovery.

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6 »

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

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

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

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

The forecast:

NWS:

Today

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

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

RAP

1 PM:

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

TOL at 1 PM: 5,100'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 600 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4,000'

B/S at 1 PM: 8.0

4 PM:

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

TOL at 4 PM: 6,100'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 620 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 5,100'

B/S at 4 PM: 7.0

This is what it looks like most of the day:

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

We've got a hell of a task:

Wilotree Park to Gore and then back to Wallaby Ranch.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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December Triangle

December 14, 2020, 7:44:37 EST

December Triangle

Under called

PG|triangle|Wallaby Ranch|Wilotree Park

The forecast was for a high temperature of 72 degrees, with a top of lift at 4,100' at 1 PM, with a chance of cu's. updraft velocity at 500 fpm, with a 6 mph southeast wind at 2,000'. Six or seven pilots were ready to fly. Pilots at Wallaby Ranch were also ready to go.

I didn't look at the forecasted TOL for later in the day or I would have realized that it would be climbing to over 4,700'.

The cu's were thick at about 12:30, much better than the XCSkies forecasts (all of the models) as well as the Skew-T chart. But within twenty minutes almost all the cu's disappeared and we were treated to haze domes.

Pedro, George, and Claudia towed up before Mick and I were ready, but we were soon after them. I was towed to a small cu far to the south but it was falling apart. I headed back north toward Wilotree Park, but after losing 1,000' found a thermal at 1,400' and drifted north west away from the first turnpoint to the southeast.

Pedro was also sticking around the flight park as the conditions weren't that great yet. Mick was nearby and after a while we started getting over 3,000'. I headed east southeast at 3,500' into a 7 mph head wind while Mick lost me as he found 400 fpm to get him up over 4,000'.

Gliding in 500 fpm down I was down to 1,800' when I decided to head back for another try at finding lift over the flight park. Taking a line a little south of my line going out I quickly found lift and was soon going up at 200 fpm average to 3,400'. As I circled up I saw Mick landing just south of me about half way to the first turnpoint.

More cu's were now forming and there were cu's in the direction of the first turnpoint at Sawmill to the southeast. I headed that way and climbed to 4,600' at 280 fpm at about 50 minutes into the flight and a little more than half way to the turnpoint.

With plenty of cu's around now and getting higher than the forecast for 1 PM I quickly found 200 fpm again to 4,800', all the while drifting back at 6 or so mph. As soon as I made the turnpoint at 3,600' I knew the up wind struggle was over. I was only 8 km from Wilotree Park so it was always in sight as I headed west toward Bay Lake intersection just before the Green Swamp.

There was an 11 to 14 mph southeast wind so I was utilizing a cross tail wind and getting upwind of the course line. I had been over plenty of very landable fields and I now I was crossing forested areas but I wasn't getting too low so it was not much of the bother. I found 100 fpm and quickly left that for 250 fpm under better looking clouds. I could see a couple of other pilots nearby higher circling also.

At 4,200' it was easy to make the turnpoint and head back to Wilotree Park with way more altitude than was required. The air had been a bit bumpy at first but had smoothed out quickly even with the wind. It took fifteen minutes to get down even circling in 400 fpm down.

There was no turbulence on the ground which made for an easy landing in light winds. The winds were much stronger up high.

As I was landing I saw Odet flying his ATOS coming from Wallaby and coming down to land at Wilotree. Tom Nejames in his ATOS had climbed out and we presume he was headed back to Wallaby. As the conditions had greatly improved he had a good chance to make it.

The flight only lasted an hour and a half. The conditions were excellent for at least a couple more hours.

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2689951

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/11.12.2020/17:54#fd=flight

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

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January at Paradise Aerosports

January 9, 2019, 8:28:16 EST

January at Paradise Aerosports

Cory Barnwell flying

cloud|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wilotree Park

This shot is from Monday:

Pretty much the same on Tuesday. Cory Barnwell flew from Wilotree Park to 33 / Dean Still intersection to Wallaby Ranch and back.

Sonora Wings sold to Danny and Karen Lange

September 26, 2018, 10:27:57 MDT

Sonora Wings sold to Danny and Karen Lange

Continuing the trend of hang gliding operations for sale

Facebook|Wallaby Ranch

Luke Waters (along with Crissy and Lucy) has sold Sonora Wings (located in Casa Grande, Arizona) to Danny and Karen Lange of Whitewater, Wisconsin fame. Now Danny and Karen have a place to go in the winter all their own (Danny was a tug pilot for Malcolm at Wallaby Ranch last winter).

http://sonorawings.com/index.html

Danny is the main tug pilot and tug owner at the Whitewater Hang Gliding Club: https://www.facebook.com/Whitewater-Hang-Gliding-Club-116581828396373/

http://tetonhg.com/

Luke and family live in Wilson, Wyoming (near Jackson, Wyoming and in Jackson Hole, Wyoming) and they will now live there year round. They want their daughter to enjoy the exceptional public schools in Jackson (in the richest county in the US). Luke runs Teton Hang Gliding.

Danny and Karen will continue Luke and family's location swapping, with Whitewater in the summer and Casa Grande in the winter.

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Bruno on his Russian mouth release

December 14, 2016, 1:06:25 pm EST

Bruno on his Russian mouth release

Not setup correctly

Wallaby Ranch

Burke "Bruno" Schnedl <<rdufokker>> writes:

I had an issue with my Russian mouth release. Two days ago down here at Wallaby Ranch I made two pattern tows and a normal tow. The first tow was nothing out of the ordinary, This is about my 20th tow using the mouth release. The second pattern tow was not good.

I did not connect my bridle to the release but someone helping connected it for me so that all I had to do was bite down on the release. My first mistake was that I didn't completely check the connection. I glanced at it, but it didn't look out of the ordinary.

Reaching 800' I was waved off and I relaxed my mouth to release the release but nothing had happened. I noticed that the bridle was actually over one of the pins and on the wrong side.

I grabbed the line to pull slack hoping it would jump back over the pin but no luck. I went for my barrel release but missed it the first time, by the time I got to it the second time and released, but I was way out of position.

Had this happened to me low to the ground it would have been disastrous. I still feel this is a better design for a release but needed some polishing up. I would also say that I was using spectra line as my bridle, which is very small diameter and more easily caught.

Afterwards, I tried Dacron line and it too snagged but was easier to get loose.  We are trying to contact the Russians who make these releases to advise them.

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Today Show at Wallaby

December 10, 2007, 2:23:41 pm GMT+1100

Today

Liked it so much he said that he is coming back

Wallaby Ranch

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10253

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10243

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Color between the lines

May 25, 2006, 9:17:35 EDT

Color

How about a color coded VG line?

Bill Moyes|Bob Maloney|Litespeed LS5|Variable Geometry|Wallaby Ranch

Bob Maloney «Maloney45» writes:

When I got my new Litespeed LS5 I found the ease of VG adjustment to be a real pleasure. This "easy pull" is a result of more pulley advantage which means a line with more distance between the marks( 1/4, 1/2 , etc.). I found myself looking away from my flight path on final to check the setting of the VG, since I want to be sure to land at about 1/3. Green permanent marker applied to the line between 1/4 and 1/2 solved that problem.

The other color choices are red 3/4-full (rarely used due to how stiff the glider gets) and blue 1/2-3/4. This idea has proved popular with some of the "locals" at Wallaby Ranch. Also I saw Bill Moyes last week, he seemed to like the idea and commented that he hadn't heard of this before.

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The Wallaby Ranch Forum

Mon, Jul 11 2005, 5:00:06 pm EDT

Is this the "official' Wallaby Ranch Forum?

Wallaby Ranch

Here.

Curt writes:

A new forum has been created, called the "Wallaby Ranch Forum." It is not intended to be restricted to Wallaby only topics, it is intended to be an open forum to discuss all issues hang gliding related.

Discuss hang gliding only at the Oz Report forum

Wifi antennas

Mon, Mar 7 2005, 2:00:09 pm EST

Bob's wok lid as a parabolic antenna

Bob Maloney|Wallaby Ranch

Last week Dave interviewed Bob Maloney about his inventions. Needing a better connection to the Wifi at Wallaby Ranch Bob came up with a wok lid and a USB Wifi adapter. The He built the white plastic housing to allow him to move the location of the USB adapter to get the best reception. The tripod is a cheap camera tripod.

Other antennas can be found here:

http://www.freeantennas.com/prod01.htm

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New Year's Party at Wallaby Ranch

Fri, Dec 17 2004, 3:00:01 pm EST

It's been fifty years

Wallaby Ranch

Ralf at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1955!

This New Year’s, Wallaby Ranch resident comedian Tom Ramseur turns 50!

Don’t miss this year’s very special Wallaby Ranch New Year’s Party. Wear your favorite 50’s fashion, practice your jitterbug moves, and swing into 2005 in 50’s style! Come and join us for some good music, strong drinks and wicked dancing!

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Felix at Wallaby

A.I.R. ATOS VX|Felix Rühle|Ralf Jenne|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Mon, Oct 18 2004, 8:00:01 pm EDT

I bet the weather there is nice - it's forecast to be in the eighties.

VX

Ralf Jenne at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

Six brand new ATOS VX's will arrive at Wallaby Ranch on October 21st. Rigid wing designer Felix Rühle will be at Wallaby Ranch from October 21st through 24th (during the Moyes Boys Reunion). For pilots interested in learning more about this new wing, Felix will be available to answer questions and teach the ins and outs of VX setup, maintenance, tuning, etc. If you’re interested in the new ATOS VX, don’t miss out on this opportunity to talk to the maestro himself.

(editor's note: During the Moyes Boy's Reunion?)

World Records for Everyone

Thu, Dec 25 2003, 1:00:04 pm EST

Quest Air|record|Stewart Midwinter|Wallaby Ranch

In case you weren't aware the FAI and the NAC (national aerosport clubs) run a big scam that lets just about anyone have a world record. Stewart Midwinter «stewart» writes:

In the field of powered aviation, FAI has a category called "Speed over a recognized course" (recognized by whom?). That course can be from any one point in the world to any other point (normally between one airport and another). There are thousands of airports in the world, so there are (thousands)^2 possible record categories. All you need is an airplane and some money for the claim fees, and you can get a shiny world record certificate to hang on your wall and impress your uninformed friends.

Recently an Aussie pilot that recently ran out of gas over Antarctica and begged the base there to sell him fuel, to no avail. And then there was the helicopter that recently crashed in Antarctica in poor visibility while attempting a pole-pole flight. Well, both of those events have resulted in world record claims! But really, since when is New York - South Pole a "recognized course"?

If this kind of Category thinking caught on in the free-flight world, every Canadian pilot could hold a world record. "Yep, I'm the fastest in the world to fly from Mt. Seven to the Harrogate Store!". Or, "I'm the world's fastest from Wallaby Ranch to Quest Air!".

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Full timing

Thu, Dec 11 2003, 6:00:04 pm EST

Belinda Boulter|Florida|Jack Kreinheder|Quest Air|Raven Sky Sports|Wallaby Ranch|weather

Jack Kreinheder «jack77» writes:

I would be interested in an Oz Report article on the full-time RV/flying lifestyle. I'm looking at semi-retiring in two or three years and am planning on full-timing in an RV and visiting flying sites (along with lots of skiing, foreign travel, etc) for at least a few years or as long as I'm still enjoying it.

I imagine there are a number of other HG and PG pilots approaching retirement/semi-retirement age who would be interested in your experiences in this area, such as your favorite spots to camp and fly, average over nighting costs, pros and cons of shorter vs. longer RVs for comfort vs. access to LZ/campsites, etc.

I'm happy to oblige.

Originally Belinda and I purchased a small, twenty three foot trailer, and hauled it down to Wallaby Ranch in Florida so that we could comfortably hang out there for a few months. We kept our rooms back in our collective household in Seattle, as we weren't sure just what we were going to end up doing.

After a couple of years we saw that we were spending so much time doing just what you envision in your message, that we moved out of our home in Seattle (me after 32 years) and went full time. I have never regretted it, but Belinda does miss Seattle a little.

We live in a 33 foot travel trailer, it is our only home, and it is just adequate for our basic needs as long as the weather is nice outside. We have a storage unit at the Big Spring airport for heirlooms from Belinda's Grandmother, and we keep about 1000 pound worth of stuff in our trailer (which keeps it well under the Gross Vehicle Weight limit.) You learn to travel with only what you need.

We pulled the dinette set, couch, chair, and TV from the model that we bought off the showroom floor (and pulled all the froo froo out that we could), putting in two small computer desks, my short couch, and a high end electronic piano. I was never able to get all the glue off the walls that held on the wallpaper decorative border. Perhaps someone has some good advice for me - lacquer thinner is too strong.

We purchased the Trailer Life Guide to RV Parks and use it to find RV Parks when we travel around the US. In Australia we stay in Caravan Parks in trailer like accommodations, as they are cheap , you can cook in them, and they have air conditioning.

We almost always stay where we can get electrical, water and sewage hookups, and where there is at least a central modem hookup. With Flying J now providing wireless access, I'm taking advantage of that and sometimes don't need a phone line for modem access. Some parks have wireless access. I think things will improve in this area in the coming years.

I love staying at Quest Air in Groveland, Florida in the spring time and hope to spend more time there. They are very friendly and you get a great view of the lake. Wallaby Ranch also has good accommodations and it is always great to be there. There are other flight parks in Florida, and they would be fun to stay at also.

Last spring we also stayed at Raven Sky Sports in Wisconsin which was a load of fun. Wireless at all three of these Flight Parks, with Quest Air having the fastest access. We also enjoyed driving and flying throughout the North East in the fall of this year staying at Ellenville, Morningside, and Finger Lakes Flight Park. Not to be missed.

I would definitely stay at flight parks even if they don't have full hook ups, as they are the most fun and you can always work around the lack of camping resources. There are many flying sites and parks throughout the US, so it  makes sense to just travel from one to the next, keeping the weather regimes in mind.

Seeing our example, the Posch family (with two teenage boys) and Ron and Elsa Gleason also took to the road in their RV's. These are diesel powered relatively expensive behemoths which means you don't have to haul a relatively heavy trailer, but a light weight truck or van as a dingy. I still prefer the trailer.

I use a special (expensive) hitch that eliminates fish tailing. 5th wheel trailers are much more popular (and more expensive) but they eliminate the place for a rack (which carries the glider) and canopy (which acts as our garage and storage area). RV Parks can handle all the bigger rigs, but US Forest Service camping areas usually only work for small trailers with out slide outs (we have one, and it is essential).

I love being part of a world wide community of hang glider pilots and feel welcome wherever I go. I don't need to have a fixed location to be part of a vibrant community (but then Belinda sees this as a drawback for her). I love having only a small house to take care of, and letting other people deal with the rest of the world (although I really love mowing the 200 acre lawn at Quest Air, and it helps pay the rent while there.)

If you can give up whatever it is that you find good about living in one place, learn to make new friends, and have a taste of adventure, I say go for it.

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Photo/Caption contest »

Wed, Dec 3 2003, 1:00:06 pm EST

calendar|Davis Straub|John Corry|photo|Wallaby Ranch

Marco Weber « selbaer» sends this shot of a tandem at Wallaby Ranch

Check out http://fly.to/wallabyranch

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Fun (of a kind) during Wills Wing Days at Wallaby Ranch »

Mon, Dec 1 2003, 2:00:01 pm EST

Fun|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

http://www.surflyvor.com/index4.html

Like no other flying competition. Fly against the best, and the worst! You could be the sole survivor. In True "Survivor" form, you'll be teamed up with some of the best pilots in the world - and some of the worst! It's your job to score points for the team - win immunity - and become the sole survivor!

March 24th through 27th

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It’s just the Ranch

Tue, Nov 4 2003, 3:00:07 pm EST

Florida|Marc Vinarub|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mike Barber|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Marc Vinarub. «mvin1031» writes:

I have been following articles about clubs in your e-zine and find them very interesting. Thankfully my hang gliding experience currently couldn't really get much better. I live in south Florida and have been flying at Wallaby Ranch for the past six months.

I had a short/bad hang gliding experience in 1980 in Colorado, and waited till this year to pursue it again. I started out doing tandems (10), and soloed a Wills Wing Falcon. I am currently flying a U2 and plan on buying one shortly.

The people who work and I meet at the ranch are nothing less than awesome! Everyone who works and fly's there will go out of their way to help. The best of the best are always available to help.

I took a ground school with Mike Barber, which was great, and am planning on flying with him after I get a little more time on the U2. Gibbo has been here and helped not only answer my questions, but is extremely motivating for me to fly out of the "Ranch Suck" and go XC.

The article in November’s USHGA magazine by Bob Reed is "Dead On"!!! So while people across the country work to enhance their clubs, a vacation to the Ranch to see what about the closest thing to Ideal is, is just a short plane flight away.

I really don't think there is a club or anything so formal there, it is just the Ranch!

Discuss the Ranch at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Wills Wing Anniversary Party

Sat, Nov 1 2003, 3:00:03 am EST

calendar|Florida|Rob Kells|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Rob Kells «Rob» writes:

Wills Wing Annual Demo Days and Anniversary Party, Wallaby Ranch, Florida - March 23rd through 28th, 2004. Mark your calendars! We'd like to try for the biggest fly-in in the history of hang gliding. We will be developing some fun new events for next year. Please email your ideas to «rob».

(editor’s note: The weather was quite good this year and we all had a great time. It is wonderful that Wills Wing can put on this huge event and let us fly all their great gliders. I had so much fun this year.

I’d like to see a spot landing contest and a bomb drop built into the events. May cause too many aluminum problems, though.)

Discuss the fly-in at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA – rules for holding a foreign competition in the USA »

Thu, Oct 9 2003, 4:00:02 am EDT

CIVL|David Glover|PG|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

CIVL|David Glover|PG|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

The competition committee was given the last spot to present its committee report to the general session of the USHGA BOD. There were a number of amendments to the report which changed the results of the committee’s work (there is a legal requirement because as non BOD members can vote in committees, the voting members of the USHGA have to make the final decisions in general session).

One proposed amendment (which was itself amended a couple of times) was to make a requirement that any competition held in the USA that was sanctioned by a foreign hang gliding association also be required to be sanctioned by the USHGA. Holding competitions in foreign countries is a common practice as at least the Netherlands and Britain hold their nationals in France. We suspected that the reason that David Glover brought this up is that he felt that Malcolm might be trying to get around the USHGA sanctioning requirements by sanctioning some future meet at Wallaby Ranch with the Brazilian Hang Gliding Association.

It was felt that Malcolm did attempt in the past to get sanctioning for his meet from the Brazilian hang gliding association to avoid having to deal with the USHGA, so there was some logic with respect to David’s position. The problem is that it is perceived that David has a pathological hatred (dislike? distrust?) for Malcolm. This is seen to be the motivation for his proposed amendment and no matter the logic of the proposal (if any) it is severely tainted by this perception of his motivation.

The proposal was amended twice, once to make it so that the USHGA CCC (and CC) could decide on whatever basis whether it was okay to have a CIVL sanctioned foreign meet on US soil, and secondly, by me to make it so the USHGA CCC would need to apply the “applicable” rules re sanctioning. It was then passed.

It is most unfortunate that these deep personal emotions interfere with the BOD’s ability to thoughtfully consider the major issues. This meeting was remarkably free of most of this relative to previous meetings, but it did come up again around Malcolm’s appointment as a tandem administrator and on this issue.

In the vast majority of the cases that I saw the USHGA BOD stayed the course motivated by the desire to do what is best for the hang gliding and paragliding community in the US.

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USHGA Tandem Administrator

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

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

Paul Voight «flyhigh» USHGA Tandem committee chairman writes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss tandem administration at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

USHGA BOD – it was live »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss the USHGA at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Burning Man

Thu, Oct 2 2003, 4:00:08 am EDT

Florida|record|Wallaby Ranch

Ralf at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

A large organized group of Florida aficionados of the famous ‘Burning Man’ festival in Nevada (www.burningman.com) is joining Wallaby Ranch to put a different spin on our 10th annual Halloween party. From Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, join the ‘burners’ and Wallaby regulars and enjoy kooky art, crazy costumes, huge bonfires, and the famously unique atmosphere of the Ranch (live music Saturday night). We’ve had some crazy parties before, but this one might set new records.

To cap off our busiest summer ever, our core group of locals and regulars DONATED a ‘real’ reinforced concrete swimming pool (25,000 gallons, 7 foot deep) to replace our aging vinyl liner pool – quite a gesture, and we can’t thank them enough!

Discuss flight parks at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Dan Johnson (like) numbers »

Tue, Aug 19 2003, 3:00:02 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Dan Johnson|Gerolf Heinrichs|Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|Martyn Yeomans|Robert Reisinger|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Worlds 2003

Martyn Yeomans <myeomans@denisongroup.com.au> writes:

Interesting to see that only four makes of glider comprise 96.5% (107) of the field of 111. Moyes is way out in front with 57 (51%), then - perhaps surprisingly - Aeros with 24 (22%), next is Icaro with 19 (17%), then Wills Wing with just 7 (6.5%).

Wills Wing has two European pilots, four South American pilots, and one US pilot, Carlos Bessa flying their gliders in the Worlds. Nene Rotor, from Brazil, is a Wills Wing partner (Rotor harnesses) and Carlos represents Nene at the Wallaby Ranch which is a strong Wills Wing dealer. The Talon is a strong glider as can be seen from Nene’s success with it, and it doesn’t get the representation that it seems its performance and price deserve. I’m not sure why. (Price - $5875) (http://www.willswing.com/
prod2.asp?theClass=hg&theModel=talon
)

Icaro in Italy and near Austria has the Italian and Austrian teams at the top, with Kari their female star and US team member. With 17% of the gliders, after two rounds (when I wrote this) they’ve got 33% of the top ten places including number 1 and 2 with Manfred in fourth. How about 66% of the top five places?

Icaro has a problem. The Laminar is likely the most expensive flex wing glider on the market. That means that it is restricted to factory supported pilots and those who can afford it. This would lessen its appeal. Perversely the fact that Manfred does well on the Laminar is attributed more to Manfred than to the glider. The fact that its use isn’t more widespread only reinforces this perception.

Perhaps with Robert Reisinger, Christian Ciech and Alex Ploner also kicking butt on the Laminar, the distorted perceptions about it will fade. (Price –near $8,000) (http://www.Icaro2000.com/
Products/Hang%20gliders/MR%202003/MR%202003.htm
and http://www.Icarousa.com/mr.html)

Aeros with 22%, why not? Aeros has many advantages. First, the Combat is the least expensive glider (although not that much less than the Talon in the US) and second, its performance is right up there with the rest of the high end topless competition gliders. Usually we’d expect to see Oleg in the top five, but he didn’t make goal on the first day.

The Aeros story has been one of slowly gaining new top competition pilots picking them off one at a time from other manufacturers. Oleg is the bedrock of the Aeros competition team, and other pilots have slowly joined him knowing that the glider flies fine. Former World Champion Guido Gehrman is the only Aeros pilot in the top ten, as Mario, Oleg, Jerz, Lukas, and Paris have had troubles. (Price - $5495) (http://www.aeros.com.ua and http://www.justfly.com/gliders/combat2.htm)

The Moyes Litespeed story is pretty amazing. Just what exactly did Moyes do to gain such a huge share of the market place among the World’s best flex wing hang glider pilots? I think this capture the mass of the competition market strategy, is a big part of their overall marketing strategy, but I don’t really know how they did it.

First, of course, they built a very competitive glider designed by a well known and respected hang glider designer and pilot, Gerolf Heinrichs. Second, they may have a price advantage being in Australia which has a devalued currency (although this makes it more expensive for them to purchase tubing). Third, they seem to have cultivated pilot relationships especially through their contacts with pilots coming to Australia for the “winter” competition season. Fourth, they may have been aggressive in sponsoring or supporting many top competition pilots from many nations (although I don’t know this for sure).

Moyes has 60% of the top ten, 20% better than their overall ratio. Vicki and Bill are both in Brazil to support the team and pilot support on-site is, I’m sure, a big part of the equation in Moyes’ marketing success. (Price - $6845)

Obviously the list price in the US is not as attractive as that of the Talon and the Combat, but perhaps Moyes gives lots of special deals to top competition pilots. (http://www.moyes.com.au/
productdetail.asp?ID=104&Cat=
and http://www.moyesamerica.com/forms/pricebook.pdf)

There are only two Airborne Climaxes at the Worlds, one flown by factory sponsored pilot, Rohan Holtkamp. Airborne concentrates on their business on trikes, and hang gliders is their love. (http://www.airborne.com.au/pages/climax.htm)

Discuss glider manufacturers at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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2003 US Nationals – courage on a blue day »

Fri, Aug 1 2003, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Belinda Boulter|Bobby Bailey|Buddy Cutts|Carol Sperry|cloud|CompeGPS|competition|dust devil|FAI|gaggle|Kraig Coomber|Mike Tryon|Moyes Litespeed|Paris Williams|Phillip "Phill" Bloom|Swift|tow|triangle|US Nationals|Vincent "Vince" Endter|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.flytec.com/usnats03/scores.html

First, a few corrections from the last report on the Nationals. The mystery glider was Vince Endter. That mystery was cleared up today when we got together with Tim Meany and used CompeGPS to run the task back on the screen. Quite amazing to live the race over again and see who did what. Campbell and Bruce took a completely different track than the rest of us. And Bruce was way behind us for the longest time but apparently didn’t have to stop and thermal on the way back.

I believe that Buddy Cutts has made goal before, although what I wrote was what my informant told me. Jeremie Hill, you may know him as the chef at Wallaby Ranch, made goal for the first time. He is flying a borrowed Wills Wing Talon (borrow from Wills Wing), and I believe that this is his first competition (don’t hold me to that).

The task committee mistakenly interpreted Gary’s weather forecast as calling for a chance of over development. Sorry for our mistake there. We should have called a longer task, but then Carol Sperry might not have made it in.

There were a few mistypings and I also said that Rich Burton was low on my left. He actually was low on my right. Sorry about any other problems that I didn’t catch today.

Speaking of today. We had a magnificence if rowdy blue day.

The FSL forecast calls for a brisk south-southeast wind (10-13 knots) turning to southwest up high. It also shows an inversion that rises to over 12,000’ after 4 PM. I call for perhaps blue or thin clouds.

There are no clouds when the rigids are set to launch at 1 PM for their race start at 2 PM. It’s easy and fun to do a race with the rigids because there are only fifteen (fourteen with Mike Tryon out of it because of shoulder problems) and there is no crowding in the thermals even at the start gate.

Still given my forecast for the good likelihood of only thin clouds we (Kraig Coomber and I on the task committee) figure that’s just the way the day is and let’s go for it.

I get Bobby Bailey to tow me up and given that I’m the seven or eighth guy in line I let him tow me up as far as he will under the gaggle that is slowly rising in the center of the airstrip. He waves me off before he passes anyone.

The lift is actually pretty good at 200 fpm. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last and the next half hour before the race start we all slowly climb up to 5,000’ AGL. The flex wing guys on the ground are a lot happier to be starting later when perhaps it will be better. There are one or two thin cu’s in the distance. The inversion layer is obvious between 6 and 8,000’ MSL.

The task is a 70 mile FAI triangle (when you subtract the 5 mile start circle), and that may make it available for world records (see article below). The first leg is off to the northeast, then back to the northwest, with a 25 mile final leg to the southeast. If the wind does in fact clock around to the southwest up high maybe it won’t be quite so tough getting in.

We rigids find good lift for the first time right after the start circle which is a surprise (without clouds these thermal are darn invisible) and that gets us to 9,000’ MSL. Another blip a few miles later and the whole crew is sticking together and racing.

Vince and another glider are low off to the north but they get the next thermal first and it is a strong one. The rest of us continue on to find a worse thermal and one that is actually very unpleasant. This will be the story for the next few thermals getting to and around the first turnpoint. Very unpleasant with the gliders doing most of the flying on their own. I’m hoping that everyone realizes that it’s not a good idea to be too close to anyone else.

The rigids thin out with four rigids taking an upwind southern track and Jim Yokum, myself and another rigid or two following the course line. We’ll drift away from it to the north while thermaling as the wind out of the south in measuring well over 15 mph. At three o’clock the four of us hit our first really good thermal that actually gets as high as 700 fpm and I’ll climb out to almost ten thousand feet. I’m not able to keep track of the rigids to the south and there is one rigid that I don’t recognize just 100’ over me.

The last flex wing start time is 3 PM, and Paris will later say that this is when the lift really turns on for them. He’ll take the 3 PM start clock.

I go on a fifteen mile glide without seeing anyone else and from five miles out from the second turnpoint I can see a small dust devil and dust rising in another field from a couple of tractors. I go over to where the dust is rising from the tractors but don’t find anything. I then go to the field where I had seen the dust devil another one or two miles closer to the turnpoint. I’m down to 1,200’ AGL. The dust devil is no longer there, but I’m thinking that the lift will be. It is.

I’ll climb to 10,200’ MSL at times at 800 fpm just before the turnpoint and catch a glimpse of Vince and Bruce climbing just in front of me past the turnpoint. I’ll go on glide and come in under Vince twelve miles later in the only thermal that I’ll take on the last leg of the task. I’ll see 1000 fpm on the averager in this thermal.

The extreme turbulence that we experienced in thermals on the first leg disappeared at 3 PM, and the thermals have been much stronger, much smoother and we are getting much higher. I assume that the inversion breaking was related to this change in the characteristics of the thermals.

I will climb under Vince and Bruce to 10,500’ fifteen miles from goal. Paris will tell me later that when he comes along an hour after us he’ll find 1,200 fpm on the averager at the thermal at the turnpoint and 1,600 fpm on the thermal half way to goal. The clouds are just beginning to form when I get to the second turnpoint and there are a few wispies on the course going back to goal.

From fifteen miles out it’s a 10:1 glide to goal. Vince is two miles ahead and Bruce is about a mile ahead of me. I’m telling Belinda at goal to watch for two gliders and I’ll be right behind.

The lift is good going to goal until about 7 miles out where there is a stretch of 900 fpm down. I’m flying at about 55 mph air speed the whole fifteen miles only slowing up when the bumps from the lift get too hard.

Vince has a problem with his final glide calculator and stops to thermal as Bruce and then I pass unnoticed below him. Bruce will be first into goal and I’ll be a few minutes behind him. Vince will finally see that he can indeed make goal and come in a few minutes later. Then the wait is on for Ron to come in twenty minutes alter and Jim Yokum another twenty minutes later. Twelve out of fourteen rigids make goal.

While we are waiting for the rigids to come in the flexies start coming in with Paris Williams first. He found the strong lift and was able to run very fast. Curt warren came in with Paris but started 15 minutes earlier.

As the flexies came in two cloud streets set up along the course line coming into goal. We had seen the beginnings of these when we were coming in but now they were quite distinct. Still it didn’t help some flex wings who landed short. Bo just made it in by 4/10th of a mile. Rich Burton on a Stratos was just barely in the goal cylinder.

Flex wings:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 WILLIAMS Paris Aeros Combat 2 2:18:20 916
2 VOLK Glen Moyes Litespeed 2:21:47 833
3 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 2:33:41 783
4 SAUER Rich Icaro MRX 2:34:22 769
5 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 2 2:37:41 705
6 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 2:43:25 698
7 HAMILTON Robin Moyes Litespeed 4 2:48:40 632
8 BLOOM Phill Wills Wing Talon 2:57:15 615
9 ZIMMERMAN Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 3:00:25 592
10 LEE Jim Wills Wing Talon 3:12:55 554

Cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 WILLIAMS Paris Aeros Combat 2 4998
2 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 4795
3 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4685
4 VOLK Glen Moyes Litespeed 4634
5 HAGEWOOD Bo Aeros Combat 2 4594
6 HAMILTON Robin Moyes Litespeed 4 4359
7 LEE Jim Wills Wing Talon 4300
8 SAUER Rich Icaro MRX 4269
9 ZIMMERMAN Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 4082
10 PRESLEY Terry Moyes Litespeed 3972

Rigids:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 BARMAKIAN Bruce AIR Atos C 2:35:27 1000
2 STRAUB Davis AIR Atos C 2:38:00 937
3 ENDTER Vincent Icaro Stratos 2:40:09 901
4 GLEASON Ron AIR Atos 3:00:51 736
5 YOCOM James AIR Atos C 3:19:14 628

Cumulative:

Place Name Glider Total
1 BARMAKIAN Bruce AIR Atos C 5152
2 ENDTER Vincent Icaro Stratos 4809
3 SEABERG David Icaro Stratos 4345
4 GLEASON Ron AIR Atos 3946
5 BOWEN Campbell Flight Design Access 3921

Swifts cumulative (30 points separate them):

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 PORTER Brian Aeriane Swift USA 3632
2 NAKAMURA Junko Aeriane Swift Lite JPN 3613
3 MULHOLLAND Mark Aeriane Swift Lite USA 3602

Discuss "2003 US Nationals – courage on a blue day" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Spanish ATOS “incident”

Mon, Jul 7 2003, 6:00:05 pm GMT

accident|aerotow|airline|airspace|altitude|Angelo Crapanzano|bridle|Carlos Avila|certification|cloud|control frame|DHV|environment|equipment|Felix Ruehle|Florida|foot launch|general aviation|GPS|harness|injury|job|landing|military|Moyes Xtralite|parachute|Ron Richardson|safety|site|spin|Swift|tail|technique|tow|towing|tumble|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|winch

David Cross <d.cross@chello.nl> writes:

I have recently had the unfortunate experience of departing controlled flight in an ATOS rigid wing hang glider. I have written this report to share the experience with my fellow aviators so that any lessons learnt may be shared and the accident assessed by those with a better insight in this field than I.

Description of Flight Conditions

I had launched in the mid afternoon with an aero tow from Aerotow.com's facilities near the town of Avila in central Spain. I was planning to fly some cross country under the tuition of the highly experienced Ron Richardson. It was my second flight of the day. On the previous flight I had found the conditions to be weak with the thermals broken and the climbs poor and I had not been able to stay up for long. The afternoon however improved with the cloud base lifting to about 7000' altitude (average ground elevation of 3000'), with promising cumulus development downwind to the east and no sign of the previous day's overdevelopment.

The second aero tow was bumpy but easy to handle on the ATOS with its excellent control harmony between pitch and roll. I was waved off in some lift over a small ridgeline to the south east of the field. I again found the lift to be broken and the climb weak. Ron was at this stage further to the east overhead the town and was calling a 300'/min climb on the averager. As I was at this stage too low to get over to him I focused on what I had in order to build more altitude. I scratched up to 4800' altitude and then ran for a good looking cumulus on the way to Ron's position.

Loss of Control

Entering the Thermal

I rolled right hand into the lift under the cumulus and worked hard to centre it. The conditions were choppy but not rough and smoothed out somewhat above 5000' altitude to a steady 300 fpm up. The conditions downwind were now looking really good and through each turn I was scanning to pick up Ron's Avian Cheetah on the horizon, and I could hear Darren Blackman heading in towards us on his Swift. Things were at last coming together after a week of poor conditions. I was relaxed, thoroughly enjoying the ATOS and looking forward to the afternoons flying.

Turn Reversal

I had in the last turn noticed a slight increase in lift in the southern sector of my circle. I glanced down to see if there were any birds marking the core and was presented with a magnificent stork circling left hand counter flow to me with slightly intersecting circles. After one more turn I saw that (as always) he was doing a better job than I and so I planned a turn reversal into his circle.

The reversal worked out well. As the stork slid under my nose I experienced a moderate pitch up from the stronger lift and eased the bar in to lower the nose and accelerate while rolling out of the right hand turn into a left hand circle. Due to the fair conditions I had been thermalling at 40-45 km/h (25-28 mph) indicated airspeed (IAS) with 20-25° of bank and had felt very comfortable at this speed.

(editor’s note: Unless the thermal is absolutely light (50-100 fpm) and full with no turbulence, I’m flying at 34-38 mph. The speeds indicated above are much too slow for the conditions described.)

As I had now accelerated into the stronger lift I estimate that the IAS was approximately 48-50 km/h (30 mph) as I started the reversal. The flap was set at 8-10°. The reversal was initiated with moderate spoiler application - I estimate ⅓ to ½ deflection. The altitude was now 6000' (about 2500' AGL due to the ridge below).

Departing Controlled Flight

As the left hand turn was established I felt a light short period aerodynamic buffet on the control frame and almost simultaneously experienced a very rapid nose down pitch rotation through approximately 90° of pitch. I estimate the pitch rotation rate to be 50 -60°/sec. There was also some left hand roll rotation, although this was less than the amount of pitch rotation. I was not aware of any significant yaw.

As the departure started my assessment was that the glider was auto-rotating and that I was in the incipient stage of a spin. I had been thermalling with the bar in the upper chest to lower chin position. As the nose down pitch started I rapidly moved the bar in to the mid chest position in an attempt to reduce the angle of attack, un-stall the wing and stop the autorotation. This appeared to stop the left roll rotation rate but had little effect on the rate of nose down pitch. During the latter part of the initial nose down rotation I estimate that the g loading on my body was 0 - 0.5 g (I felt almost weightless).

The glider then appeared to stabilize very briefly in the vertical nose down position before rotating extremely rapidly in pitch to the inverted position. This second rotation was violent and uncontrollable. As it happened I felt a powerful rearward pull from my hang strap and the control bar was pulled from my grip. I was thrown hard into the undersurface of the glider which was now inverted, next to the A frame. I estimate that this pitch down rate was well in excess of 90°/sec.

The glider now stabilized in the inverted position while descending in what appeared to be a relatively gentle oscillatory spiral. I was somewhat disorientated at this point and so may not be too accurate about the motion of the glider. I do however recall some spiral motion and some oscillation above and below the horizon.

I was lying on the undersurface of the wing to the left of and outside the A frame. I immediately checked the leading edges and tips and observed no apparent structural damage. I assessed that I had sufficient altitude and attempted to right the glider and reached for the A frame to do this. When I grasped the left down tube to attempt to right the glider, the glider entered a very disorientating oscillatory rotation but remained inverted. I assume this was caused by spoiler deflection when I moved the A frame.

After two rapid rotations it did not appear to be recovering. At this stage I was losing situational awareness with respect to the height remaining for recovery. In addition the gliders unstable motion had me concerned about the possibility of being knocked unconscious.

Parachute Deployment

I thus looked for clear air and deployed my emergency parachute hard in the direction of rotation half way between the right hand wingtip and the keel. The parachute deployed immediately and then appeared to semi collapse as the glider was rotated by the parachute deployment into the upright position, swinging me hard to hang to the outside of the A frame. The parachute then reopened immediately.

The system of parachute, glider and pilot now became extremely unstable with the parachute and the glider appearing to work in opposition. The glider appeared to accelerate and pitch nose up, causing the chute to collapse and then re-open before the cycle was repeated by the glider. From my vantage point the parachute was describing a sine curve-like path across the horizon while collapsing partially and re-opening in sequence with the pitch motion of the glider.

The glider and parachute appeared to be rotating rapidly about each other with the centre of this rotation somewhere between the glider and the parachute. At no stage was the parachute positioned above the glider. The centripetal acceleration of this system rapidly became very high. I estimate the g loading to be approximately 3 g and I was swung out helplessly under the wing clear of the A frame unable to control the system at all.

Stabilizing the System

I now broadcast a Mayday call, and informed Ron that I had deployed the parachute and was going down. I described my status and informed him that it did not look promising. At this stage the rate of descent and particularly the angular rotation appeared to me to be very high and I was sure that ground impact in this configuration would have severe consequences.

After several high g rotations I managed to grab the hang strap behind my neck and pull myself toward the A frame and grasp a down tube. Adrenaline is a wonderful thing. I then pulled myself into the A frame. This had an immediate positive effect. The parachute stabilized above the glider, the angular velocity reduced and the g loading reduced. I was now descending through about 500' AGL with a moderate oscillation but no angular rotation at all. I now called Ron to inform him that the situation was under control and proceeded to describe my probable touchdown position to him.

Touchdown

I descended onto the slope of a rocky tree covered ridge. Before impact I positioned myself as high into the A frame as possible as I was not sure what the rate of descent was and I wished to protect myself from any impact on what appeared to be very rocky terrain. I kept my legs bent to absorb as much shock as possible.

I was fortunate to impact into the crown of a moderately sized tree. The A frame took much of the initial impact of the branches. The glider was then swung out of the top of the tree throwing me out of the A frame. As I fell to the ground the glider hooked onto a branch and my fall was arrested with my feet 12cm off the ground. I was completely uninjured. I transmitted to Ron that I was down and safe and that he should cancel any ambulance.

The only apparent damage to the glider was a broken main spar and associated sail damage approximately ⅓ in from the right wingtip. This occurred on ground impact and not in flight. My assessment was that the glider was completely undamaged until ground contact.

Discussion

As with any aviation accident there are several lessons to be learnt. Most accidents are not caused by a single event but by a combination of factors. Often an accident could have been prevented if just one of these factors, however minor it may have seemed at the time, could have been identified and stopped. I will now discuss my background, what I think may have been the contributing factors to this accident and the lessons learnt from it. This is obviously my subjective opinion and I welcome any discussion on these points that may offer a more informed insight.

Flying Experience and Background

I am a USHGA intermediate rated pilot who has been flying for three years. I did my initial training in the French Alps mountain launching and completed my training at Wallaby Ranch where I also obtained an aero tow rating. I did a further foot launching course at Lookout Mountain where I obtained cliff launch, flat slope launch and assisted windy cliff launch ratings. My flying has taken place mostly in Florida and the Alps and has always been under the supervision of more experienced pilots. I currently fly a Moyes Xtralite. One month prior to the accident I had flown under the supervision of Chris Dawes in the UK where I did some winch foot launch training and some aero towing as an early season refresher. Prior to this I had last flown the previous late summer in the Alps.

I am a current airline pilot flying Boeing 747's and a current Air Force reserve pilot on fighter type aircraft. I hold a Glider Pilot's License although I am not at present current on sailplanes. I have some experience flying paragliders although I have not yet completed my license. My total flying experience is 8000 hours.

I have mentioned the military experience as I feel it is relevant with respect to my experience in spinning three axis control aircraft. My air force background has provided me with extensive spin training. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity of spinning a variety of aircraft, from military trainers and fighters to general aviation aircraft, aerobatic aircraft and sailplanes.

Two weeks prior to this accident I carried out a maintenance test flight on a military trainer that included several multi turn full spins and recoveries. I thus feel that I may be considered current as far as spin identification, entry and recovery on three axis aircraft is concerned. This has relevance as there has been much discussion about the advantages of doing spin training on three axis aircraft before flying rigid wing hang gliders.

ATOS Experience

I had come to Spain specifically for the opportunity of flying the ATOS. At the time of the accident I had flown 11 flights on the ATOS for a total of 5.00 flying hours. All flight had been under the supervision of Felix Ruehle and I had been extensively and professionally briefed by him on all aspects of the glider.

Although this was my first experience on a rigid wing hang glider I had felt comfortable and confident on the ATOS from the first flight. I had on the second flight in smooth evening conditions flown the glider to the stall and found the recovery to be simple. I had confidence thermalling the glider in the moderate conditions I had experienced and at no stage had any reservations about the handling of the glider. I found the control harmony particularly pleasant and aero towing simple.

(editor’s note: An inexperienced hang glider pilot, new to an ATOS, was flying it too slow in a thermal.)

Equipment

The glider was a standard ATOS. I had for most of the week prior to the accident been flying another standard ATOS. The hang point for the accident glider (as on the previous glider) had been adjusted towards the forward centre of gravity (C of G) limit, appropriate to my hook in weight. On the accident glider my hang position was slightly higher than that of the glider I had flown previously in the week and the trim speed was slightly lower. Both the hang position and the trim speed were well within safe limits. The glider was fitted with an A.I.R. horizontal stabilizer.

I was using a Woody Valley Tenax harness with the parachute mounted on the right chest. The harness was fitted with a Metamorfosi Conar 18 Gore parachute, which was just over one year old and had recently been repacked by myself. No swivel was fitted to the bridle. My weight is 72 kg making a hook in weight of 87kg.

Airspeed information was provided by a Brauniger Galileo set to indicated airspeed (IAS) mode and a mechanical pitot system fitted by Felix. I used the mechanical system for airspeed reference as I had not yet calibrated the Galileo and was not sure of the reliability of the airspeed display.

Departure from Controlled Flight

I feel that the departure from controlled flight had two distinct phases, a non divergent autorotation phase, and a divergent pitch instability phase.

Autorotation Phase

The autorotation phase I would describe as a gust induced stall in the turn followed by an autorotation and an incipient spin (the incipient stage of the spin being where the aerodynamic and gyroscopic effects of the spin are still influenced by the initial flight path of the glider - in this case a left hand turn). Although the nose down rotation of this phase was rapid it did not feel to me to be divergent. I thus do not feel that the gust had at this stage placed the wing at an AOA/hang point loading combination that had exceeded any static stability margins.

I was surprised by the limited aerodynamic stall warning and the rate of the initial nose down rotation. For these reasons I think the gust onset was significant and rapid. All my previous spinning experience in aircraft had led me to expect an initial rotation rate in roll and yaw that equaled or exceeded any initial nose down pitch rotation. As the initial nose down rotation started I had reduced the AOA aggressively. This seemed to stop any further roll or yaw rotation but had little effect on the rate of nose down pitch rotation. At no stage did the glider enter a stabilized spin.

I feel that there are several factors that could have contributed to the initial autorotation.

Firstly the glider was trimmed slightly slower than that to which I had been used to on the previous ATOS I had flown. As stated this was well within safe limits but may have caused a tendency towards slightly slower flight if I was distracted.

Secondly, I was using flap to thermal. This would move the bar position slightly back and I would, if focused primarily on bar position, have the tendency to move the bar further forward than required.

Thirdly, I had completed a turn reversal prior to the autorotation and the spoiler deflection would have caused some nose up pitching moment. If not corrected this would cause an obvious reduction in IAS and place the glider closer to the stall.

All the above factors are conducive to slower flight. However I am accustomed to flying aircraft that require accurate speed control and feel that I was very aware of the IAS while thermalling. I was also aware that the spin behavior of rigid wing gliders can be unpredictable and had no desire to explore that environment. My thermalling speed of 42-45 km/h (26 mph) felt comfortable for the conditions I was experiencing. I have since been informed that it was perhaps on the low side but not unsafe.

(editor’s note: Pilot is unaware that he is flying too slow.)

I had thermalled at similar speeds in equivalent conditions for most of the week without ever approaching any stall margins. The accuracy of the airspeed reference must also be considered. As mentioned previously my primary reference was the mechanical pitot system as I felt it was more accurate than my as yet un-calibrated electronic reference.

Some points with respect to the turn reversal technique. I normally unload the wing (thus reducing the AOA) before initiating any reversal in order to improve the roll rate. This obviously also results in an increase in IAS. Whether my technique was sufficient to counter any pitch up due to spoiler deflection may be debated. I did not notice any significant pitch up during this particular reversal. My limited experience on the ATOS could of course preclude this.

In addition I had experienced acceleration on entering the increased lift prior to the reversal. I had countered the nose up pitch that this had caused and so feel that my IAS margins on entry to the turn reversal were probably sufficient for normal conditions. I had as well been briefed on the "rule of thumb" safe range for forward and rearward bar positions and at all times flew within this range.

I thus think there must have been some significant gust effect present. Simply approaching the stall in a turn should not result in the almost immediate and rapid rotation experienced with minimal stall warning. I have described the conditions as moderate. I was experiencing an average climb of 300 fpm with maximum instantaneous readings of 1000 fpm.

However, Ron Richardson reported some strong turbulence while descending through the airspace I had been flying in, shortly after I deployed the parachute. My assessment is that a gust rapidly exceeded the critical AOA of the wing. As I was not yet fully established in a stable turn, there would have been some asymmetric loading on the wing, possibly resulting in the auto-rotation. I feel that this is supported by the fact that my rapid reduction in the AOA had no appreciable effect on the pitch rotation rate.

Pitch Instability Phase

I will now discuss what I consider to be the second phase of the departure. During the initial auto-rotation I had not experienced any reduction in g loading on my body - the hang point still felt loaded. Although the initial nose down rotation was high, I still felt that I had some control input and that the glider would recover. However, as the glider passed through about 60° nose down I experienced a reduction in g loading and felt almost weightless.

From this point I felt I no longer had control of the glider and I was unable to hold the bar in any longer. This is when the rapid rotation to the inverted position occurred and I lost my grip on the control bar. Perhaps the excessive AOA of the wing combined with the unloading of the hang point caused the static stability margins of the wing to be exceeded, causing a divergent rotation in pitch. The first auto-rotation phase initially felt controllable. The second phase of pitch instability was definitely not controllable.

Lessons Learnt

Thermalling at higher speed, steeper bank angles and higher g loadings, while not necessarily providing an increase in stall margin, will improve the damping in pitch and make a departure less likely.

It would be of value to calculate the exact stall speeds for the actual wing loading at various appropriate bank angles. With an accurate IAS reference sufficient margins could be applied to these calculated stall speeds for safer thermalling. An accurate IAS reference is obviously necessary. Of even more value would be a vane type AOA reference (Here's hoping!).

I found the ATOS easy and a pleasure to fly. However, in retrospect I feel that more time spent exploring the performance of the glider in smooth air would have been of benefit. I think in particular, the effect of flap on trim speeds and bar position, spoiler effect on pitch in turn reversals and approaches to the stall in wings level and turning flight should have been more fully explored before flying in more challenging conditions.

I think that my initial reaction to the auto-rotation phase was correct. Moving the bar in reduces the AOA and places the centre of gravity in the best possible position for dive recovery. Should this happen again I will do the same while attempting to hold on tighter. I do however feel that it was impossible to maintain grip on the control bar during the rotation to the inverted position.

Some comments on pilot experience. I was very excited to be offered the opportunity to fly the ATOS by Felix, as I consider myself a low time hang glider pilot. His briefing was comprehensive and gave me confidence in the glider while making me aware of how it differed from other gliders I had flown. I flew the glider conservatively and felt very confident with the general handling.

The afternoon following the accident I flew another standard ATOS in moderate thermic conditions for a 1 ½ hour flight. While understandably nervous at first the pleasant handling of the glider allowed me to settle down and soon regain my confidence. In summary I experienced nothing in the handling of the ATOS that should exceed the abilities of an intermediate pilot. In most respects I found the ATOS easier to fly than an intermediate flex wing hang glider.

Some discussion on three axis spin training for rigid wing pilots. I feel the main benefit of this would be spin entry recognition and reduced disorientation. The spin entry techniques and recovery procedures for a three axis aircraft are different to that of a rigid wing hang glider and themselves can vary dependant on the design of the aircraft. Practicing these procedures would I feel have limited benefit for rigid wing pilots and may even reinforce incorrect techniques. In this accident the main benefit to me of my spin training was recognition of the initial situation and orientation in the unusual attitudes experienced.

Some points on the parachute deployment. It has been suggested, considering the glider was undamaged while inverted, that I could have tried harder to right the glider before deploying the parachute. In retrospect I am glad I did not. I lost a lot of height trying to stabilize the spinning parachute/glider combination. Had I deployed the parachute any later I might have impacted before stabilizing the system. At the time I did not feel that this would have been survivable.

I have discussed this with Angelo Crapanzano from Metamorfosi. He commented that although I was experiencing high g loadings, because the centre of gravity of the pilot/glider/parachute system would have been very close to the pilot/glider combination, my rotational speed would actually have been quite low. In addition he said that my descent rate would perhaps have been even less than when I had stabilized the system. He thus feels that even when the system was not stabilized, it was survivable. The perception from the pilot's point of view remains unpleasant.

In addition it is not certain how the glider may have reacted in the attempt to right it and there is a strong possibility of pilot injury in attempting this. This may then preclude parachute deployment. I thus feel strongly that if one is fortunate to survive a loss of control situation uninjured, the priority is to get the parachute deployed immediately. Considering the instability after parachute deployment, I feel the priority should be to get ones mass as close as possible to the hang point.

Angelo Crapanzano recommends that one gets as close as possible to the nose of the glider, or at least in front of the hang point. This can however be difficult and the A frame is a familiar refuge when under stress and can provide impact protection. It would have helped if I had held onto some part of the A frame before deploying the parachute, as this might have prevented me from being flung away from the A frame as the parachute deployed and righted the glider.

Had I been able to remain closer to the A frame the spiral motion might not have developed. I also feel that some thought should be given to the option of releasing from the glider prior to parachute deployment. All my complications were due to the fact that I was still attached to the glider.

I am very pleased that I had the Conar HG18 parachute. The rate of descent once stabilized was acceptable and the opening time impressively fast. It worked as advertised.

Some discussion on communications and search and rescue procedures. I was able to transmit a Mayday to Ron Richardson seconds after deploying the parachute as I had a transmit button fixed to my thumb. Ron demonstrated professionalism and true airmanship. He acknowledged my call, was overhead my position within minutes, plotted GPS co-ordinates and arranged a rescue. He then landed in a difficult location and was at the accident site within 30 minutes.

Had I been seriously injured Ron's actions would have been potentially life saving. The lessons here are to always fly with someone, be able to communicate effectively with them, even under duress, and always be prepared to assist effectively in an emergency. I had water in my harness but no first aid kit or emergency rations. This has been rectified.

Conclusion

In summary, I suggest that this accident was a result of a gust exceeding the critical angle of attack of the wing by a large margin. This resulted in auto-rotation with a rapid nose down pitch and unloading of the hang point. The static stability margin of the wing was exceeded and the wing experienced a divergent rotation to the inverted position.

Contributory factors were the relatively low indicated airspeed while thermalling, the effect of flap on the control bar position, pilot technique in the turn reversal and the pitch up effect of spoiler deflection.

Flex Ruehle’s Comments

I have attached an email from Felix Ruehle with his comments on the report and the incident.

You report is excellent however I think it's hard to see how quickly or slowly everything happened because my experience is that reports from stress situations follow a different clock.

Since hang gliding was born turbulence can be a problem for safe flying. However different developments improved the safety. One of the latest developments is the fixed V-tail with a lifting airfoil from A-I-R. How does it work? The glider is designed to have the same pitch up moment with tail like the standard ATOS with 0° flap.

With thermal, take off and landing flap setting the pitch up moment is significantly higher with the V-tail. Additionally the V-tail increases pitch damping very significantly with all flap settings. Of course instead of a tail the sweep angle can be increased too to get the same pitch damping effect. However this didn't work out as well for the ATOS, because higher sweep in combination with wing bending would cause dynamic problems.

With the V-tail the glider flies significantly more comfortable. In opposite to the opinion of some pilots, that a positive pitch up moment only protects a glider from tumbling, this is not the case. It is a result of several flight incidents with all types of hang gliders and as well with the hang glider drop test made by the DHV a few years ago that even with a certified hang glider it is possible to tumble.

According to my opinion the main parameters are: Pitch damping which can be increased by higher speed and by the wing area distribution in flight direction. For example a higher sweep angle or a tail, increase pitch damping as well as a forward pilot position. Pitch up moment. This is the moment which must be above a certain value for certification. Small distance from aerodynamic centre to CG.

For example a short A-frame is positive. High airspeed in relation to the turbulence is positive too.

The incident

The air was not very smooth this day and there was over development with rain shortly after the incident at this spot. Ron who landed close to help Dave (thanks Ron) hit some strong turbulence too. However, the day wasn't that rough that pilots usually would stop flying.

According to my opinion the tumbling from Dave was caused due to low airspeed in relation to the turbulence. The thermal speed under this condition was already little slow. The reversal turn reduced the speed probably further. This for example is a very good practice in smooth condition, doing reversal with constant speed. Take care: If you don't pull in during the reversal the speed drops.

I flew to the same spot the next day and felt comfortable with about 55km/h (34 mph) as min. thermal speed. This day looked smoother to me as the previous day.

Does the tail improve the safety? At the online contest (olc) 2002 the ATOS is the glider which has flown the most km before any other wing (including flex wing) and the ATOS flew much more km than other rigids, too. Many pilots have flown sometimes under extremely hard conditions and have reported the good behavior under turbulent condition.

It looks to me like active flying is getting more and more important. With the fast gliders the pilots have the possibility to fly with extra speed or high bank angle without losing too much of performance and it looks too me like the ATOS with the new V-tail is a step to improve pilots safety to a very high level even with the incident of Dave.

Under strong condition the glider gets extra stability with high bank angle and higher speed. While doing a reversal you can easily lose speed and the pilot has no extra g loading. I think this can be an interesting discussion how different pilots handle turbulent air.

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Flytec/Quest Air WRE – photos and legends

Wed, Jul 2 2003, 1:00:00 pm EDT

cloud|cloud street|George Steinmetz|magazine|Mike Barber|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|National Geographic|photo|Quest Air|record|speed record|sport|triangle|Wallaby Ranch|Zapata

Wallaby Ranch’s Mikey Barber gets ready to launch his Moyes Litespeed S for a photo shoot and is kind enough to voluntarily include one of the major WRE sponsor’s logo on his glider. Mikey feels strongly about supporting those who support the sport.

George Steinmetz is still here on assignment from National Geographic Adventure magazine and trying to get the perfect shot that illustrates the magic of Zapata. Of course, he wants the shot of a pilot at cloud base under a 50 mile long cloud street and we haven’t had those for a few days.

Still Mike and Pete get up and get high as the sky fills with puffy cu’s as the cirrus backs off. The winds are light out of the southeast and I’ll go up a bit later thinking about breaking that small triangle record speed record.

We’re watching the clouds and they are building rapidly. As I climb up the rain starts dropping out of the cu-nimb five miles to the south. Most of us decide to land. Chuck stays up but then he finds lift everywhere and then gets concerned enough about not finding any sink than he comes over to land.

The winds will continue to build out of the southeast in all the coming days.

At 7:30 PM we get a tropical downpour. I expect flash floods.

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Eastern Cougar Network

Mon, Jun 30 2003, 6:00:06 pm EDT

Florida|radio|Wallaby Ranch

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/Conclusions.htm

Two years ago a cougar (mountain lion, Florida panther) was spotted at Wallaby Ranch. Check out the confirmed and probable sightings on the map above.

Was it cougar number 62?

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/seast-desc/panther62-00.htm

He definitely was very very close by a year earlier. The radio collar on him indicated that he was near Baseball City in 2000.

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Flytec 4030 Race for paraglider pilots

Sun, Jun 1 2003, 2:03:01 pm EDT

cloud|competition|flight instrument|Flytec 4030|Josh Cohn|landing|polar|Wallaby Ranch

Josh Cohn <josh_cohn@hotmail.com> who “stomped the competition like a grape” in the recent Superflytec competition writes:

The Flytec 4030 Race turned out to be a very useful flight instrument in the recent SuperFlytec meet at QuestAir. I used to fly with a Ball Graphics comp which gave some glide calculation and speed to fly information, so I was not unfamiliar with the concept. The Flytec speed to fly and final glide features are simple to operate and well-implemented. I liked the updates it gives on headwind/tailwind strength when used with a speed probe. The speed-to-fly is unobtrusive but meaningful (though I may need a more accurate polar to really trust it, having used a stock one that looked in the ballpark).

Where the unit really shines though is on the glide to goal. This function can be easily turned on with a single button press, and the headwind/tailwind expected adjusted with a few more. The philosophy is to give the pilot all the information he/she needs to make decisions, not to make the decisions for them. I like that. When climbing in the last thermal, the vario signals when goal can be made on glide, then later the optimum time to leave. While on glide it reads the height above or below the glide slope. This gives immediate feedback on how much margin is left to reach goal. If the margin gets too slim it is time to slow down or work some lift.

Enough about the theory; how does this work in practice? Great. My most dramatic final glide of the meet was on the fourth day when the task was a dogleg to Wallaby Ranch. A large cloud shaded the last section of the course, forcing a marginal downwind glide over trees. If I had been eyeballing the glide I'm not sure if I would have believed it would work. At the point of commitment about 1.5 mile out the 4030 Race was telling me that I was about 50 feet above the glide slope and the air had been fairly still, so I committed to gliding in over the trees, clearing them by about 75 feet, landing at the far end of the goal field after a 150° turn into the wind, the only one in goal.

The other goal glides were less close but equally confidence-inspiring. I have to give some credit also to my new glider, the Windtech Nitro, which together with the new 4030 Race and a bit of luck, helped me win 4 of the 6 tasks in this meet, my best result ever.

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Superflytec PG Championships

Wed, May 28 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

competition|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Florida|gaggle|Jeff Huey|Josh Cohn|landing|PG|picture|Quest Air|radio|tow|towing|Wallaby Ranch

A cold front slowly moved through central Florida today changing the wind direction somewhat from west to west-northwest. The winds basically died down to light and variable.

With a raft of high level clouds accompanying the front the day looked dismal as we contemplated a task at 10:30 AM. The green dot is Groveland.

The BLIPSPOT predicted lift continuing along in the same vain as the previous days , 450 fpm, but it sure didn’t look like we would get any convergence and therefore help with increasing lift. We wondered if we were going to get any cumulus development at all.

We held the launch window back to 1:30 hoping to get enough filtered sunlight to heat up the ground and produce some lift. The cu’s started forming under the thinning cirrus, so it didn’t look completely hopeless, just almost completely hopeless.

We had had so many tows under beautiful cu filled skies, that the tow crew was not looking forward to hundreds of tows under skies that promised very light lift if any. Josh volunteered to wind dummy if he could get his place back and we let him go over shaded ground to see if there was anything out there. He didn’t get up.

Still that didn’t stop folks who decided to start towing anyway as Josh slowly came down. There was a break in the cirrus and a cu formed over the middle of the field. A few pilots got up and started to stick. Suddenly everyone wanted to go.

Fourteen tows later for twelve pilots and everyone was sticking and gaggling in the same thermal in the middle of the Quest Air tow field. They were climbing slowly but they were together and there is a strong incentive to stay with everyone else and not come back to the field on your own.

So on the worst looking day we have the easiest tow operation and get everyone out of the tow field in less than an hour. One pilot comes back after landing within the two mile reflight zone, but after two tows, decides to go on retrieval and pick up his flying buddies.

The task committee called a 23 mile task from Quest, fifteen miles southeast to the intersection of highway 27 and 474, and then south-southwest 8 miles to Wallaby Ranch. The idea was to keep pilots away from the difficult to retrieve areas and over landable areas on the final glide into goal.

Three pilots including Dave Prentice got high and left together. The next eight had to wait longer and get higher within the two mile start circle before they could head out after the lead gaggle.

The lead gaggle didn’t make it to goal and landed further from goal than the later gaggle. I heard Jeff Huey in the air on the radio early on saying it looked like every one would make goal. Looks like he landed a mile short. Josh Cohn was the only one to make it to Wallaby.

Wednesday:

Place Name mph miles Total
1 COHN Josh 18.09 23.3 855
2 HUEY Jeff 22.4 648
3 BROCK Gary 21.7 635
4 FARRELL Jeff 20.8 614
5 HOISINGTON Zach 18.5 546
6 SWAIN Gavin 15.4 443
7 HOFFMAN Doug 15.4 441
8 MOOK Tom 8.6 261
9 PRENTICE Dave 6.6 223
10 SZAFARYN Len 6.4 219
11 SPORER Rob 5.9 204
12 KEARNEY Bill 2.4 83

After four days:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 2129
2 HUEY Jeff 1895
3 FARRELL Jeff 1806
4 BROCK Gary 1607
5 PRENTICE Dave 1426
6 HOISINGTON Zach 1244
7 MOOK Tom 1099
8 SWAIN Gavin 1054
9 SZAFARYN Len 887
10 SPORER Rob 702
11 HOFFMAN Doug 634
12 KEARNEY Bill 376

David Glover writes:

Picture by: Sir Geoffrey Farrell of http://www.4superfly.com Quest can be seen in the middle far right of the picture - spring fed pond on the east side of the field.

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Total immersion

Tue, Apr 29 2003, 12:00:05 pm EDT

Florida|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Just how fast is the 1.5 Mbit DSL line and wireless access at Quest Air:

It is also great to have satellite/wireless access at Wallaby Ranch. Wallaby is out in the Green Swamp so that it isn’t close enough to any central station with DSL capability.

It is amazing to me that we can get this kind of speed out here in the old Florida swamp town of Groveland.

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Tue, Apr 22 2003, 4:00:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Belinda Boulter|cart|Christian Ciech|cloud|Florida|GPS|Jim Lee|maps|Oleg Bondarchuck|site|tail|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

It’s another beautiful day at the Wallaby Ranch in central Florida. The forecast is for winds 10 mph on the ground out of the west rising to 17 mph up near cloud base. The BLIPMAP shows better lift and higher cloud bases to the south east of us along the east coast. We do have a couple of goals over in that direction (River Ranch and Hibiscus), but I can’t get the task committee to go along with me.

The FSL MAP model is showing the possibility of towering cu’s, although thunderstorms are not in the forecast. There is a cold front to the north and it is forecast to come through sometime later in the evening. So far (at 7 PM) the surface maps still show it far to the north. Perhaps it is stalled.

We wrangled around in the task committee (with so many people involved many things can happen). Finally two tasks toward the south, southeast were proposed but later we have to add Bok Tower as there is still a sky diving contest at Lake Wales, and the course line would put us too near them.

The GPS will go out just north of Bok Tower so it’s hard to say just how they will handle this when they score the meet. Do we get the waypoint if it looks like we came close? I think so.

Just before we launch we do agree on a short task to Avon Park airport with a control point at the Bok Tower:

With a stuff breeze in the take off area it is a bumpy ride over the trees. Belinda said that there were a lot of reflights today from pilots that didn’t stick the first time. I find something at 1,100’ over the northwest corner of the Ranch and work up 220 fpm to 3,700’ cloud base.

All of us who get to cloud base work our way upwind to try to get on the west side of the ranch but to the south of Interstate 4, near the edge of the start circle. The gaggles are very small given all the wind at cloud base, and I’m hanging with three flex wings.

On the ground there’s lots of action. Jim Lee has chosen a cart that puts his nose at too high of a nose angle. There are plenty of carts with high tail holders here at Wallaby, and they are to be used by pilots whose gliders have long down tubes. They are painted a different color so you know to use them if you have a Wills Wing Talon, for example.

Jim didn’t use one of these carts.

Apparently Jim was in line with the wrong cart and when he asked for a different cart, he was told he needed to go to the end of the launch line and get a new cart. He chose to continue. Belinda and others witnessed what happened next.

Just like last year it was an immediate lock out with one wing high and a 180° turn. He took out one down tube. He quickly fixed that and was soon launched again (I assume with the correct cart).

Another pilot did something similar again with too high a nose angle. Pilots have got to recognize which cart works for them. Long down tubes equal painted cart.

Meanwhile it is getting toward 2 PM, which it seems will turn out to be the real start (Race) time. We didn’t start launching until 12:30, so 2 PM is really the first time that other than the first early launchers would want to get going.

I’ve pushed west on my own and I hook up with Oleg and Johnny Durand, Jr. and Kurt Warren. There is not another rigid wing in site. There are many gliders miles downwind to the east. We are the pilots furthest to the west.

We race south until Kurt and I find 500 fpm just east of Winter Haven to 4,200’ and cloud base. We then go on a long glide that takes us through the blue toward Bok Tower. At this point we should have gone downwind to the clouds, as that’s where the lift is, but having worked so hard to get upwind we are reluctant to do so.

We get low coming into Bok Tower and Curt turns back and lands. Looks like I’ve led him astray. I head over the tower as I see some pilots turning high, but I don’t catch anything until I’m down to 700’ AGL over the back of the tower amongst the orange groves.

Yesterday it was pleasant at 340’ AGL. Today with the wind it is quite rough near the ground and I’m holding on tighter than normal. Its a few thermals before I get back to 3,500’ and drifting 6 miles east of highway 27. I’ll miss the next thermal and land twelve miles from goal.

Other pilots will be able to keep themselves high and to the west of highway 27 after they get the Tower waypoint and drift slowly to the southeast in the winds that get up to 20 mph at cloud base.

The preliminary results are very preliminary. Oleg Bondarchuck wins the flex wing task today as Manfred goes down way early, even before Bok Tower. Christian Ciech goes down before the goal also, so the two leaders don’t make goal. Alex Ploner wins the day for rigid wings.

The preliminary results aren’t out yet (printed preliminary results for Class 1 with the incorrect distance was out at 8:30 PM), so hopefully there will be something up by the time you read this. You might also try: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2003/2003_Wallaby_Main.htm

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Mon, Apr 21 2003, 8:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|aerotow|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|altitude|antenna|Belinda Boulter|Betinho Schmitz|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|cart|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|control frame|David Chaumet|dolly|Eric Raymond|fire|flight park|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|game|GPS|Icaro Laminar MR|insurance|Jerz Rossignol|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|Moyes Litespeed|Oz Report|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steven "Steve" Pearson|survival|transport|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

In the competition between the flight parks, 93 entrants at the Wallaby Open and 110 for the Flytec Championship. I guess that bragging rights (for quantity at least) goes to the Quest Air Flight Park (largest aerotow meet ever).

Here at Wallaby the rigid wing class was decimated with the number of pilots falling from 28 to 17. You’d think that once that got here with their difficult to transport rigid wings, they would continue flying in the Wallaby Open.

The launch line on the first day.

So the top two American flex wing pilots have taken themselves out of this premier US competition. Yesterday Mike Barber cut open his knee (the pictures were gross and I publish the least gross one – see below) down to (but not into) the ligament. Today Paris Williams bounced off the cart and smacked into the ground taking out his control frame. You’d think he would be familiar with dolly launching at aerotow parks in Florida. ☺

The story according to Belinda who watched it happen (and who spoke with other observers) is that the cart hit a bump while he was going plenty fast (just at the point where you would take off), the glider came off the cart (Paris wasn’t holding onto the rope), his hands slipped off the control bar, and the Aeros control frame dug into the ground in front of the cart. The glider pancaked into the ground. People rushed over and took the glider off Paris who was then up and walking around. He didn’t fly the task.

Mike Barber didn’t fly the task today either. He is on crutches and happy enough with the fact that he will make the US team without doing well in these meets and get to go to Brazil. Same for Paris.

Speaking of the task here it is:

There are two separate tasks today for flex wings and rigids. The rigids are to start from a start circle seven miles to the south on highway 27, then go through the Bok Tower control point (to keep us away from the sky diving contest at Lake Wales airport), next to Avon Park airport (25 miles miles further south) and then back (through Bok Tower waypoint) and on to Wallaby Ranch. With a five mile start circle radius this puts are start point twelve miles to the south of the Ranch. A total of 81 miles.

The flex wings will be starting behind us (to the north) in order to separate the classes. The assumption being that it is harder for the flex wings to catch the rigid wings rather than the other way around. Their start circle is centered one mile north of the Ranch but with a five mile radius they will in fact be starting four miles south of the Ranch, eight miles behind the rigid wings. A total of 89 miles (from the edge of the start circle).

To keep the two classes further separated, the rigid wings will be starting at 1:15 only and the flex wings fifteen minutes later at 1:30 PM. That’s right it’s a race start, as predicted/urged in the last Oz Report.

With launch opening at noon there is plenty of time to get everyone off in time for the single start time. Many of us will get to the edge of the start circle twenty minutes early, but eventually everyone will be there. The lift is diffuse enough so that we don’t get in each others way too much.

I hear from Oleg that the flex wing start gaggle is not too bad either. There are plenty of cu’s with 4,000’ bases to choose from so perhaps they spread themselves out in a sensible fashion.

It’s great to have a race start. No worrying about whether someone is behind you catching you. You get to see all your competition and the guy in front is winning the day.

We are at cloud base at 1:15 as the start window opens and everyone together takes off spreading out to find the next lift. I’m on the left side with Alex Ploner wandering about. He’s got a good glide, but it seems only slightly better than mine. David Chaumet doesn’t display any better glide either. Interesting how things change each day.

Staying to the left I get a little better line and then hit the first thermal 3.5 miles out. Christian Ciech and the other pilots behind me come and join me, while David, Alex and a few others continue on not knowing that we are climbing behind them. We get a thousand feet on them right away as they don’t find any lift.

I’m leaving with Christian trying to keep him from getting away from the group (or at least from me). I’m just a few hundred yards behind him as we glide and a hundred feet below him climb through Bok Tower and to Lake Wales.

It’s a long glide into Lake Wales and Christian finds something that I can’t seem to find right under him. I’m down to 1,800’ when I get under him but under a cloud with lots of sunshine around and I go looking around for the lift. I don’t find any for eight minutes.

I will spend the next seven minutes below 750’ AGL, getting down to 340’ AGL. That’s fifteen minutes of rescue time, getting myself out of a hole that I have dug and back in the game. I just didn’t want to go back home tonight having screwed up so early in the task.

Fortunately the light lift that I find is next to the only cleared field within gliding distance, so I can both feel the comfort of turning low to the ground knowing that if I don’t get up I can land safely. This lets me let the bar out a bit more and milk the broken weak lift down low.

As I climb out of there I keep my head down and concentrate on survival keeping thoughts about my stupidity at bay. Just enjoy that fact that the lift is weak and therefore not too turbulent. As I climb up it turns on strong and within fifteen minutes I’m back at base. Almost a half hour of slowing myself down. Now it’s time to race.

I make a point of going for the clouds as I don’t have any pilots to help out. I get back on the course line upwind to the east over the lakes and find lift, while most pilots follow highway 27 to the left with few clouds. I can hear from Johann that the lead gaggle (minus Christian who is way out ahead) is only five miles in front of me. I catch most of them by the time we get to Avon Park taking a completely different course to the east.

Now I head downwind to the west to the clouds as the ground gets shaded from the high overcast. They are working great and I’m getting high under them while all the other pilots have disappeared.

The overcast gets darker as we approach Lake Wales and the Bok Tower turnpoint. I stop over a fire finding 100 fpm. Its light lift like this for the next nine miles as we creep toward the tower and I spot the other rigids circling near it.

Fortunately one of them finds strong lift in the sun to the north a mile as the high overcast begins to break up. I hook up with Mark P., and Johann, with Alex Ploner and Bruce Barmakian over us.

There are still plenty of shaded areas with light lift in front of us but we are back high enough to give a few areas a look see to see where the best of the light lift is.

Eight miles out and at 3,400’ high the Brauninger IQ/Comp tells me I can just make it to goal. Belinda, at goal, says Alex and Bruce just came in low and Christian came in a while ago. Well I’ll get a chance to see if the new version Brauninger behaves any differently as I go on glide. Will it be more stable?

An article in https://OzReport.com/pub/Ozv7n106.shtml describes the changes to the Brauninger IQ/Comp.

The sky is dark and so is the ground so I don’t expect to find any more lift, but I also didn’t expect to find any bad sink. There iss no wind (a report from Belinda confirmed this) and I figure there will be net no sink or lift going to goal.

Mark P. and Johann are way off to the right working a bit more lift as I continue on glide. They want the extra insurance.

The go to goal target showed up on the Brauninger, but I couldn’t tell if it was more stable than the previous version. It seemed that way but it was hard to tell for sure. Steve Pearson sent in the description that said a distance above your MacCready altitude would be displayed, but it wasn’t. This was perhaps because the go to goal symbol never flashed while I was climbing. Who knows?

I just saw that the vario said I could make it. I saw that my sink rate was 200 to 400 fpm. I saw how far out I was and how fast I was flying and could calculate how many minutes it would take to get to goal and whether I would still be in the air for that time period. It looked good to me.

I just kept the glider at less than 40 mph for the first six miles just to keep the needle at the best glide over the ground speed as I knew I was close to not making it. When I got within two miles at 1,200,’ I could go sixty mph with ease.

Fortunately our group was able to make it in before Manfred smoked the course starting eight miles and fifteen minutes behind us.

So Alex Ploner won the first day and Christian Ciech won the second day. At the moment David Chaumet’s Tsunami looks mortal, about the same as Christian and Alex.

It seems to me that pilot skills are really being tested here (and maybe a bit of the drag of harnesses and other bits). The gliders are very close to each other (with or without tails) and David’s may or may not be that much better. Alex and Christian are just much better pilots than the rest of us (at least that is my tentative conclusion based on my scraps of observations). Maybe I’ll get more relevant observations later.

One interesting twist was the fact that we had to go by the Bok Tower which is a place where we know that under some circumstances your GPS loses coverage. This is probably due to some nearby antenna that overpowers the GPS signal. Piltos were told that if their GPS coverage goes out but that their track showed them headed for the tower, they would get the turnpoint.

I’m thinking that if you get low near Chalet Suzanne (near Bok) your GPS signal goes out, but not if you are high. Mine does go out on the way back when I’m low, but I get a Mark Enter in the .25 mile circle just before I lose it completely. What luck.

It’s easy to see the Bok Tower so there is no problem flying close to it to get the waypoint. Hopefully all pilots will do this.

The story I heard from the flex wings is that on the way back it got very iffy near Lake Wales with light lift. Just the same as we experienced. The lead gaggle was low over the Orange Juice factory, and Manfred was climbing better than the rest of the group in the lift broken stuff.

He gets high enough to go search for better lift. Brett Hazlett who doesn’t get high enough goes with him and doesn’t make goal. The rest of the flex wing pilots know their place and work the light stuff until they do get high enough to move along.

Very preliminary results for day two:

Flex wings:

1 RUHMER, Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 13:30:00 17:03:05 3:33:05
2 WOLF, Andre Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 13:30:00 17:04:46 3:34:46
3 SCHMIDT, Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 13:30:00 17:06:49 3:36:49
4 BONDARCHUK, Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 13:30:00 17:10:20 3:40:20
5 WALBEC, Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:10:57 3:40:57
6 BOISSELIER, Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:11:28 3:41:28
7 WARREN, Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 13:30:00 17:12:02 3:42:02
8 MULLER, Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 CAN 13:30:00 17:12:23 3:42:23
9 CAUX, Raymond1 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:16:32 3:46:32
10 DURAND, Jon Jr., 49 Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 13:30:00 17:38:42 4:08:42
11 GUILLEN, Bruno, 57 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:40:55 4:10:55
12 ALONZI, Mario, 23 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 13:30:00 17:42:28 4:12:28
13 DE LA HORIE, Geoffory Aeros Combat 2 FRA 13:30:00 17:43:02 4:13:02
14 CASTLE, Kari, 15 Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 13:30:00 17:44:15 4:14:15
15 ROSSIGNOL, Jerz, 14 Icaro Laminar USA 13:30:00 17:44:35 4:14:35

Totals so far:

1 RUHMER, Manfred, 85 Icaro Laminar MR AUT 2000
2 BOISSELIER, Antoine, 31 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1842
3 WARREN, Curt, 13 Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 1764
4 WOLF, Andre, 97 Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 1764
5 DURAND, Jon Jr., 49 Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 1762
6 WALBEC, Richard, 94 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1715
7 SCHMIDT, Betinho, 30 Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 1684
8 BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 33 Aeros Combat 2 UKR 1675
9 ALONZI, Mario, 23 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 1588
10 CAUX, Raymond, 51 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1574
11 CASTLE, Kari, 15 Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 1471
12 LEE, Jim, 20 Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 1418
13 OHLSSON, Andreas, 108 Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 1397
14 BESSA, Carlos, 16 Wills Wing Talon USA 1370
15 HAZLETT, Brett, 59 Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 1368

Rigid wings:

1 CIECH, Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 13:15:00 16:23:24 3:08:24
2 PLONER, Alex Air Atos C ITA 13:15:00 16:47:27 3:32:27
3 CHAUMET, David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 13:15:00 16:50:45 3:35:45
4 YOCOM, Jim Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 16:50:47 3:35:47
5 BIESEL, Heiner Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 16:55:12 3:40:12
6 POSCH, Johann Air Atos C AUT 13:15:00 17:00:39 3:45:39
7 STRAUB, Davis Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 17:00:43 3:45:43
8 POUSTINCHIAN, Mark Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 17:03:03 3:48:03
9 BRANDT, David Air Atos USA 13:15:00 17:04:57 3:49:57
10 PAQUETTE, Eric Air Atos CAN 13:15:00 17:12:52 3:57:52
11 GLEASON, Ron Air Atos USA 13:15:00 17:19:27 4:04:27

Totals after two days:

1 CIECH, Christian, 114 Icaro Stratos ITA 1781
2 PLONER, Alex, 121 Air Atos C ITA 1687
3 CHAUMET, David, 113 La Mouette Tsunami FRA 1511
4 POSCH, Johann, 122 Air Atos C AUT 1343
5 BIESEL, Heiner, 3 Air Atos C USA 1326

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Dried up in the swamps

Sat, Apr 19 2003, 5:00:02 pm EDT

Florida|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Last time we were here at Wallaby Ranch for the Wills Wing Days at the end of March the ground was soaking wet out here by the bay head where all the trailers are parked. It was so bad that my feet were beginning to rot after a week. Of course, there was standing water on huge patches of the field.

Well three weeks makes a big difference and it is a lot drier here now in this bit of the Green Swamp. Malcolm has put a lot of sand around the little hill to our north and that whole area is now dry.

It’s looking good down here at Wallaby Ranch with everyone geared up ready for the next meet.

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Homeland Security

Wed, Apr 16 2003, 3:00:07 pm EDT

gear|Peter Kelley|school|Wallaby Ranch

A couple of weeks ago subscriber/donator Kelley, Peter P (PVTC) <peter.p.kelley@smithbarney.com> flew cross country from Wallaby Ranch but had to land at a middle school while the kids were outside playing. He writes:

You asked about my surprising welcome at the Centennial Middle School over in Dade City. Actually, the kids loved it and by the end even the Gendarmes, principal and ass't principal were won over. Tho' the sheriff said, "It's a good thing you weren't wearing camouflage gear, 'cause it would have been an easy shot, flying so slow and all.”

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Sat, Apr 12 2003, 6:00:02 pm GMT

accident|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Christian Ciech|cloud|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|Eric Paquette|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|Hansjoerg Truttmann|harness|Johann Posch|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Richard Walbec|Ron Gleason|sailplane|smoke|Swift|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

The scores when they are done will be at:

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

The task committee relying on my statements about 5 mph out of the northwest called a triangular task, 58 mile for rigid wings, 61 miles for flex wings. The rigid wings started off to the southwest of the flex wings.

We went south to Dean Still and 33, 8 miles west of Wallaby Ranch, then south east to an intersection over highway 27 north of Haines City and north of Walmart, then back over Wallaby to the northwest, right into the wind to Quest.

The launch window opened at noon and the first start time was 2 PM. Lots of time to think about when to launch. The rigids have to launch before 1:15 {at least once.)

The winds were a bit too much for the flex wing pilots, and they have my apologies for that.

The forecast was for wispy cu’s or no cu’s also, but some deeper cu’s showed up early and then thinned out to match the prediction. With the strong west winds we had trouble getting to our start circle and kept drifting back to the east of highway 33. When I took off I just nicked the west circumference of the rigid wing start circle and left it at that.

About ten or so of us including a few flex wings took the first start time at 2 PM. David Chaumet in his Tsunami {La Moyette Top Secret), was just behind me. A few other ATOSes and Stratoses including Johann Posch were with me. Hansjoerg and Christian would start at 2:15 PM as I believe would Manfred.

I got out in front as I just nicked the start circle and joined up with a sailplane circling near the Seminole Lake glider port for the first thermal on the course. Looked like a student, and I was keeping a real good eye on the sailplane {given the recent accident) and quickly climbed through him.

David and Johann caught up with me south of Seminole as there were a few wispy cu’s to the north of Dean Still. David was flying well on his Tsunami, but not over powering. I was feeling great. There were a few flexies with us.

You can see from the tracklog above how much we would head to the east whenever we were thermaling. It was downwind to the second turnpoint and at this point David, Johann and a couple of other rigids have gotten out in front of me and a few other rigids. I had to go back at the first turnpoint to get into the lift and got a little behind.

There is a thermal just before the second turnpoint where we all get back together again and get high. The thermals over the course averaged 250 fpm {rate of climb) just about the prediction. They maxed at 500 fpm {at least for me). I heard Manfred found some 1000 fpm.

After the second turnpoint we are heading back into the wind to get to the west and the difficulty factor goes up a lot. Ron Gleason on an ATOS gets down to 600’ at I4 just south of Wallaby Ranch and has to drift east back to highway 27 to get back up. He’ll then fly the Florida ridge to the north finding lift on the “high ground.”

Johann is 3 miles ahead and I’m in contact with him. The lead gaggle gets low east of Wallaby and they are stuck for a short while. We don’t quite catch them as we wait at I4 and get high in weak lift. It will take 45 minutes to go from I4 to 474 about 11 miles to the north. There is a small wisp of a cloud now and then.

I flying with and Oleg on a Combat 2, Richard Walbec, and Kraig Coomber on Litespeeds. Christian Ciech caught us at the turnpoint and I’m flying with him also. It is good to see that he is not completely out climbing or out gliding me like he did here last year and at the Worlds. I’m feeling great about my updated ATOS-C.

Still Christian keeps going when we get below 2,000’ AGL just south of 474, and I hang back in weak lift as I never see him twirling in anything. Richard, Kraig, and a few rigids and I have to work some weak lift just north of 474 as we get down to 1,500’. There is a four pilot gaggle just to our north {including Oleg and Manfred) about a mile that is going up much better, but we have to live with what we are in as we’ll never make it to them.

The lift improves and finally the two thermals merge as we are 2,000’ below the four guys in front.

Those four go on glide and I hear from Belinda that David and his Tsunami are already in goal and we are still 15 miles out with a strong west wind. David has kicked our collective butts. He started in the first time slot, didn’t have many pilots out in front at first, got in the lead by the first turnpoint and kept charging ahead. Pilots flying with him said he had a better glide. I didn’t notice this, but maybe.

Mark Mullhulland joins us in a Swift Lite and I’ve been wondering where the Swifts have been. Usually they start late and then smoke the course going from gaggle to gaggle, but not today. Mark can barely keep up with us and will get into goal after our gaggle.

We keep punching west and a little bit to the north, and the winds are strong and the lift weak. We have to leave lift that is too weak to give us forward progress. I’m especially cognizant of the lines on all the lakes and ponds to see where there are converging winds. There are no wisps around.

Alex Ploner hasn’t caught up with us as he has broken his harness zipper and is having problems. He won’t make goal. Mike Barber broke his zipper on the ground, got help fixing it and had a little later start so he is no where to be seen.

We keep punching into the wind. At about 6 miles to the southeast of Quest I see Ron Gleason head toward goal from 3,500’. He looks really low as I’m at 4,500’. I’m worried about the head wind.

I go on glide with Richard next to me and we keep encounter some lift as we head toward Quest. I can still see Ron and it sure looks very iffy for him.

As I get to 1.5 miles out, I see Ron right on the deck as he enters the field after crossing a good patch of trees. He makes the goal line in the middle of the field with 50 feet to spare. I come in next with Richard a minute behind. It will be hard to get Richard off that

David is the first pilot in followed half an hour later by Hansjoerg and then Christian. Manfred is the first flex wing pilot in. Only four flex wing pilots make it to goal. Three Swifts make it after most of the rigids who make it are at goal.

Elapsed times:

Rigids:

David Chaumet Tsunami 2:15
Hansjoerg Truttmann ATOS-C 2:32
Christian Ciech Stratos 2:33
Bruce Barkmakian ATOS 2:37
Rich Burton Stratos 2:37
Jim Yokum ATOS-C 2:39
Eric Paquette ATOS 2:54
Ron Gleason ATOS-C 3:04
Davis Straub ATOS-C 3:07
then a few more rigid wings.

Flexxies:

Manfred Ruhmer Laminar 2:50
Kraig Coomber Litespeed 3:01
Richard Wallbec Litespeed 3:07
Mike Barber Litespeed 3:50(?)

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Wallaby Ranch to be on the sectionals

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

FAA|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

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

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

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

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The infamous broken arm

Wed, Apr 9 2003, 2:00:02 pm EDT

accident|harness|landing|Steve Warren|Wallaby Ranch

Steve Warren <soarnwarren@wideopenwest.com> writes:

Thought I’d clarify the mystery behind “the pilot who broke his arm in five places” last week. I’m Steve Warren, an advanced pilot of fourteen years from Columbus, Ohio. While enjoying a pretty fabulous flying vacation at Wallaby Ranch I just happened to experience a moment of “the stupids” while attempting a landing in a slight cross wind – let the nose rise while transitioning, right wing rose, left wing stalled and spun in, apparently forgetting to get my left arm out of harm’s way. Result: left humorous broken in five places above the elbow.

There wasn’t any attempt to “hush” the “incident.” I just wasn’t there to explain it. What’s important here is to report to the readers how the whole thing was handled.

Immediately after the accident, I was attended to by at least eight other pilots, all being very careful not to aggravate the broken arm (I was conscious and coherent the entire time and was able to help direct the removal of my harness and glider). My arm was stabilized with a blow-up splint prior to any movement and since it was quite apparent that no other injuries had occurred, I asked to be taken to the best (not the nearest) hospital.

I was transported quite comfortably in the back of a helpful pilot’s van (sorry, I never found out his name) accompanied by Ron Kellerman from Ohio. Malcolm followed behind in his car and stayed at the hospital until he was confident that I would be well-cared for.

I couldn’t have asked for a better or more professional group of people to help me in a situation as the one I experienced at the Ranch that day. Many thanks to Malcolm and the kind and professional folks at the ranch as well as my fellow pilots who helped along the way.

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Get on the sectionals

Tue, Apr 8 2003, 2:00:04 pm EDT

airline|Dirk Darling|FAA|Gary Osoba|Jayne DePanfilis|maps|Mark Forbes|Quest Air|safety|site|tow|towing|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

Jayne DePanfilis <jayne@ushga.org> writes:

Mark Forbes has created a document template for the charting of hang gliding and paragliding sites on the Sectional VFR sectional chart. The templated MS Word document is available by contacting the USHGA (<ushga@ushga.org>). It is not online at the USHGA's website yet, but we plan to add this form, along with many other useful forms, to the USHGA's website in the upcoming months.

I am happy to help expedite this process. The template is self-explanatory and needs to be completed and sent to the USHGA office for my signature. I will expedite this request on behalf of the USHGA, its members and approved chapters, immediately upon receipt of the paperwork.

I have only expedited one request since joining the USHGA in 2001 but the process was a flawless one using this templated process.

(editor’s note: At first I couldn’t get the template to work here and when I asked about this, got some quasi religious gobbledygook. I then read the template document into MS Word XP and saved it as a template by first choosing to save as an HTML (but not saving it) then choosing to save it as a template. Word XP then successfully found the correct folder to store the template document as a template.

To use it as a template, I then clicked File, New in the MS Word XP menu, and it found the template correctly. It looks to me like the template could be stored on a web site and MS Word XP could find it their by its URL. Don’t know if earlier versions of Word can do this or not.)

Gary Osoba <wosoba@cox.net> writes:

Geoff May wrote:

"It seems ridiculous, maybe reckless, that somewhere as busy as Wallaby is not marked on the FAA air maps and has not been widely publicized among the many flying schools in the area."

My response is:

I don't know about ridiculous, but it does seem highly irresponsible that the principles at Wallaby would not have taken care of this matter. After all, it is up to them to initiate cartological identifications within the flying community. Mr. Jones regularly (and incorrectly) claims to have pioneered the aero-towing operation concept, and to be the singular person who does this properly anywhere in the world.

Why he would not have looked after an essential safety issue for the pilots flying at his facility is beyond me. I do realize that at times, people who come from a family of attorneys conduct themselves as if they are living within an insulated bubble which gives freedom from liability- after all, they can fall back upon resources not common to others. However, safety issues remain paramount, with or without tort ramifications

Spoke here at Quest Air with Jay Darling, an airline pilot who flies and lives part time with his family (wife and four boys) at Wallaby Ranch. He felt that the Dragonflies should have strobe lights. He says that it is a lot easier for the smaller plane to see the bigger plane, but not the other way around.

He also says that they should not tow in a straight line for an extended period but make turns to give a bigger profile.

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Small plane almost kills Dr. Don

Sun, Apr 6 2003, 6:00:05 pm EDT

Don Netlow|Dragonfly|FAA|Kerry Lloyd|Quest Air|tow|Wallaby Ranch

I spoke with Don Netlow here today at Quest Air after he and Brian flew from Wallaby Ranch. He stated that while on tow behind Kerry Lloyd (piloting the Dragonfly) between the Ranch and highway 27 a small plane came within 15 feet of him and Kerry coming in from behind under his left wing and Kerry’s also. The plane was flying from west to east (as I recall) and Don says there were about ten hang gliders in the air over the Ranch.

Don would like to see a designation on the FAA sectionals for the Ranch.

I thought that I would tone this one up a little, just to tweak a few noses.

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Spectacular day in Florida

Sat, Apr 5 2003, 5:00:03 pm EST

Betty Pfeiffer|Campbell Bowen|Florida|instruction|Mike Barber|Orlando Stephenson|record|Ron Gleason|sailplane|site|tow|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|world record

Well, first it was a pilot (name withheld until notice goes to next of kin) pounding in and doing a nose avulsion (the forcible tearing away of a body part by trauma) here at QuestAir. Dave Prentice, EMT, was on site and got to the pilot right away. Pilot was taken by ambulance to Orlando but fortunately didn’t have to spend the night in the hospital.

Were the pilot’s wires striped of their protecting coating? You bet they were.

Then it was the sailplane whacking into Mike Williams in a thermal just a quarter mile north of Wallaby Ranch. He was under World Team Academy instruction at the time from Mike Barber. The DG 303 piloted by Nathan Miller came into the thermal with four or five hang glider pilots and got real close.

According to Mike Barber apparently while Nathan was watching the other pilots he missed seeing Mike Williams off to the side at this point and getting up from below the sailplane.

Apparently Mike was hit hard by the sailplane with his hang glider draped over the canopy. All Nathan could see, from what I’ve heard, was red. Mike Barber watched and it looked bad as he thought Mike could have been killed or at least knocked out at this point.

Then Mike Williams and his glider slide off and it was 2000’ before Mike got the chute out in the proper order. Apparently when he pulled out the chute the lines dropped out first and over the hang glider wires. Took him a while to get everything straight. Didn’t have the proper diaper bag from Wills Wing or Betty Pfeiffer. Don’t leave home without it.

Haven’t heard of a sailplane hitting a hang glider before. Perhaps if you have you can write in to me. I heard that Nathan is going to make good on the hang glider. Mike Williams may be back in the air tomorrow.

Thanks to Mike Barber for sharing this story with me. I first heard about it and about the other pilot pounding in from Ron Gleason, who was on tow at the time as we were driving to pick up Campbell Bowen on our way back from our little morning flight.

I immediately got on the phone to Mike to get the story and then it finally came out that Mike Williams was his student at the time. Mike Barber had just said to Mike Williams that maybe this sailplane pilot was being too aggressive and perhaps they should bale.

Luckily this took place near the Ranch and not near the sailplane port. We fly with sailplanes all the time, but I’ve never been really close to them. Certainly nothing like this.

It’s great that everyone came out okay. I’ll report more on the pilot when I see the pilot in the morning. I’d given the pilot my Colibri data logger for world record attempts.

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Moyes LiteSport »

Thu, Apr 3 2003, 10:00:05 pm GMT

Aeros Discus|landing|Moyes Litesport 4|Paris Williams|tow|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing U2

http://www.moyes.com.au/Frameset.htm

Model Litesport 4
Area 13.7 sq m (148 sq ft)
Glider Weight 31.8 (70 lbs)
Hook-In-Weight 68-110kgs (150-240 lbs)

I took the Moyes LiteSport for a test flight today after days of flying mostly intermediate gliders. The LiteSport may have a kingpost, but it is not marketed to intermediate pilots and not as an intermediate glider. The Moyes marketing message:

Welcome to the new evolution of king posted hang gliders - the Moyes Litesport. The Litesport performs similarly to a non-kingposted glider, but handles like an intermediate glider, making it suitable for many pilots whether competitive or recreational.

I’d flown the LiteSport a few times before last spring at Wallaby Ranch.

https://OzReport.com/Ozv6n58.shtml

Now I had a chance to fly it after flying some intermediate and single surface gliders. The LiteSport is positioned to sell to advanced pilots, and I would say that it handles a lot like an advanced hang glider. It doesn’t have quite the lag in response and it isn’t quite as stiff, but that advanced hang glider feel is definitely there.

It was easy to set up once I realized that the VG was on in order to allow the wings to be folded together. The tips were reasonably easy to put on, although not quite as easy as the Discus. Much easier than the 1996 Laminar.

With half VG, the tow was a handful in light winds and mid day lift, about equivalent to the WW Talon 150 (at least on the days that I flew each of these two gliders). I got knocked around a bit, but the glider kept flying straight.

Off tow the glider was flying big. By that I mean that the glider was flying me some and I had to fight it. This was also true on the Talon 150 (154 sq. ft.). I noticed that it yawed every now and then, and would put a wing down every now and then and I would climb the opposite down tube to try to get the thing straightened out.

I asked Paris about what he felt in the air today and he mentioned how light the lift was and how much less turbulence there was than yesterday.

After a while things settled down, I quit yawing the glider as much, and I got into thermaling in the 60 fpm at 600 feet over the ground just trying to hang in there. I was able to slowly climb up.

The glider was steady in turns and had no tendency to spiral in at low speed and shallow bank angles I was using. Once in a turn it stayed there. The VG was very easy to use.

The landing was fine with a nice long glide in ground effect with ¼ VG and an easy run out.

Relative to the Wills Wing U2 or the Aeros Discus, the Moyes LiteSport is a glider for advanced pilots, just because of its handling characteristics. I’m assuming that it handles better than a topless, but I’ll have to take more topless flights to see if I still feel that way.

I have no way of knowing about any performance difference between the hang gliders that I’m test flying. That takes side by side comparisons with very similar pilots, in similar harnesses to make any good judgment calls.

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USHGA - Does the USHGA help Idaho flyers? »

Tue, Apr 1 2003, 9:00:05 pm GMT

airspace|FAA|government|Mike Meier|space|sport|Sport Pilot|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Mike Meier was given an award from the USHGA at the Wallaby Ranch Wills Wing Demo Days specifically for his work with the Sport Pilot initiative. This, of course, has been dragging on for years.

The major part of this achievement was working with other groups and the FAA to maintain our flight privileges. As hang glider pilots we are required to fly in uncontrolled and Class E airspace. This air space is available to us because we along with others continually struggle to keep it open to us.

Perhaps pilots in Idaho think that the air above them is theirs to enjoy. Perhaps it is, but I believe that there is a guy with a very big stick, who if he wanted to could destroy that illusion very quickly. You hate the government now? Wait till they ground you like they did in September 2001.

So how much is the USHGA through the efforts of some of its members/BOD members and through the efforts of its executive director actually helping keep the air above Idaho available to Idaho pilots? Maybe a lot.

I do know that they are making a sustained effort to make sure that we all can continue to fly unfettered by undue regulations. Do the non USHGA members want to help out the USHGA in this effort? Do they care? Do they believe that the USHGA is making an effort to help them?

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Moyes Demo Center at Wallaby Ranch

Sat, Mar 29 2003, 8:00:05 am GMT

Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Larry Jorgensen|Mike Barber|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litesport|record|Steve Wendt|Wallaby Ranch|World Record Encampment

Ken Brown FlyaMoyes@aol.com writes:

Right across the field there at Wallaby Ranch you’ll find Mike Barber. Wallaby has been demo central for Moyes Gliders for many years. Mike holds the title of Moyes Guy # 1 with his 437+ mile flight on a Moyes Litespeed last year at the World Record Encampment in Zapata, Texas. Onsite, Wallaby has two Moyes Litesport demos and I stock Mike with a Litespeed 4 or two and currently he has a Litespeed 5 to demo.

The most important point in a demo flight is making sure that the person that is presenting the glider knows how to handle all of the idiosyncrasies of the product and can explain to the potential buyer the features and benefits of the glider and the company that makes it. Moyes is fortunate to have pilots and instructors like Mike Barber, Kurt Warren, Mark Winchiemer, Steve Wendt, Greg Black, Larry Jorgensen and many others that are out in the field doing demos and performing range of tuning and glider service for Moyes pilots, year round.

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Florida Report

Thu, Mar 27 2003, 9:00:02 pm GMT

control frame|lightning|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Rob Kells|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing U2

http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/wallabyweather.htm

The Wills Wing days are going full swing. I kept taking demo flights on Wednesday because it wasn’t clear what the weather would be in the coming days. Maybe clouds and rain. Maybe just the threat.

At 1:45 the rains begin at Wallaby Ranch with a report of a large hail storm 30 miles away at Lakeland. All the demo gliders are still set up so we are hoping that there are no gust fronts nearby. The rains don’t last long, and Mark Gibson got his first flight on his new Wills Wing U2. The Attack Falcon2 shows up:

Rob Kells strips the wires. Steve Pearson will be adding a trip line to the cross bar to keep the air attached to the tubes a bit longer.

The Attack Falcon with the Mylar sail and slipstream control frame.

There were a number of demo flights in the late afternoon in non lifting conditions. Then rain again. It’s wet here in central Florida.

Lightning last night knocks out the power and I’m not able to send the Oz Report out.

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Full retraction and heart felt apology

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

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

https://OzReport.com/Ozv7n82.shtml

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

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

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

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

I published the story.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Quest Air and Icaro 2000

Wed, Mar 26 2003, 9:00:09 pm GMT

Flytec USA|Icaro 2000|Just Fly|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Rich Burton|US National Champion|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

Rich Burton <indasky@yahoo.com> writes:

AV8 and Icaro 2000 are proud to announce a new key player in their plans to continue to increase access to the fine Icaro products to pilots in the US. The team at Flytec USA and Quest Air are now a major demo center for the Icaro line of gliders in the US

This means that pilots will have year round access to demo the Icaro gliders when they visit one of the friendliest flight parks in the US. Vacation in Florida and fly an Icaro glider with US National Champion Paris Williams. What else could you ask for?

Hang Gliding dealers from around the US are encouraged to contact Rich Burton at <indasky@yahoo.com> for details on how they can take advantage of the Quest demo center to build their own local sales.

(editor’s note: I think that this is an excellent approach by hang gliding dealers, distributors, and manufacturers. Develop a real demo center that is well stocked at the flight parks that are heavily visited. A real formal relationship with banners, brochures, available gliders, people at the flight parks aware of the relationship, a network of dealers to sell the gliders in their area, etc.

I’m sure that Aeros/Just Fly also has such a relationship with Quest Air. Maybe Moyes also. And, of course, Wills Wing is here at Wallaby Ranch with over 20 demo glider and a lot of folks flying them. This is all good for hang gliding.)

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USHGA - no room at the inn »

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

CIVL|Malcolm Jones|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Florida Report

Tue, Mar 25 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Florida|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing Demo Days 2003

http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/questairweather.htm

East winds with light to moderate lift today. We were getting up over 5,000’ but stayed nearby, except some individuals who thought it was a good idea to land in the Green Swamp.

We moved down to the Wallaby Ranch for the duration of the Wills Wing Days – their 30th anniversary. It started today and I’m looking to go long tomorrow. It is supposed to turn southeast.

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Break the east coast flex wing record, win $1000

Fri, Mar 21 2003, 6:00:02 pm GMT

Campbell Bowen|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch

https://OzReport.com/Ozv7n58.shtml

https://OzReport.com/Records.htm

Campbell Bowen has raised the ante once again. Break Chris’ east coast flex wing record of 218 miles starting from Quest Air and you’ll win $1,000. Plenty of opportunities for weekend warriors here!

Let’s look at the prize situation once again:

$1000 – fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Wallaby Ranch. Or, fly a single surface hang glider from Wallaby to Quest Air, get towed up again and fly a total of 100 miles from Wallaby.

$1,001 – fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Quest Air.

$10/mile over 100 miles - fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Quest Air and each extra mile gives you an extra $10.

$1000 – break the east coast flex wing record of 218 miles starting 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

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Want to keep track of the weather here?

Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:09 pm GMT

Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch|weather

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KFLCLERM1

There is a weather station right down the road from Quest Air, and it is close enough to Wallaby Ranch (and the Seminole Lake glider port) to stand in for them as their weather station also.

It produces a weather record every five minutes. Wind and wind gusts, wind director, temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure.

Historical records from the site.

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Will fly for subscriptions »

Sun, Mar 16 2003, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Oz Report readers who have helped out on Sunday: Altair Industries ($50, that’s Ivan),

It is always slow on Saturday and Sunday. So nice to hear from the generous Ivan, the US distributor of AIS ATOS gliders.

You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription to the Oz Report below.

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Wallaby photos

Fri, Mar 14 2003, 11:00:07 pm GMT

Bob Grant|Wallaby Ranch

http://members.rogers.com/flyhg/wallaby-photos.htm

Bob Grant sends in this link to his Wallaby Ranch photos.

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Trouble in Paradise »

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Brazilian Worlds

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

ABVL|Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

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

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

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

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

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

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Wallaby Ranch visit

Sun, Mar 9 2003, 11:00:02 pm GMT

Wallaby Ranch

The first thing I notice is the denizens of the Ranch who were out playing a game of golf. Later I was told that there was an actual golf course at the Ranch. I felt that this was a perfect idea. You get too old to fly, maybe something like 38 years old, and then you turn to golf.

But, you don’t want to leave behind all the friends that you’ve made, so Malcolm builds a golf course on a portion of the 500 acres that make up Wallaby Ranch. Young pilots are out flying, and landing on the golf course, where the old pilots are playing.

Now, I must admit that I never really did see the “golf course.” Couldn’t tell if there were holes, pins, or greens. It apparently is laid out, but I didn’t play a game as it started to rain.

It was great to visit the Ranch and see the great community of folks who are there on the weekend as well as those living there during the week. Got to have a great debate with Carlos, Malcolm, and Mike, about the sponsorship signs at the pre-Worlds in Brazil. Very animated, and also friendly and fun. No rancor.

I sure hope to be able to go down to Brazil to be your eye in the sky with almost live reports on how the worlds are going flying with the pilots. We’ll see if CIVL and the meet organizers (who I have been pretty critical of) can swing that, and whether the think it is a good idea to have start circle to goal line coverage.

It was great to have a wonderful lunch ready as the storm approached, and people kept pressing money on me. I loved that. The food was great. I hear that they have two chefs down there these days. The grilled vegetables were out of sight.

The big issue for me was the DSL wireless access. How good was it? Could it be as good as what I’ve got here at Quest Air?

Well, not quite there yet, but they are working hard on it. Most people will be very happy. There is a wireless router in the office and within forty feet of the office (with a PC card) and probably further with a USB Linksys box probably further, you will be automatically on line.

Malcolm spent $3,800 to put in a commercial satellite up and down link on top of his house. Much more expensive than the $700 you’d spend for the residential version of the Direct PC connection. It worked great. Quite fast enough for me to get my e-mail very quickly. I didn’t put it through its paces.

Still, without an external antenna, the range it quite limited, and probably not possible for me to park my trailer there and get a connection. But, Malcolm is committed to getting just such an antenna up this week, so there is hope that I will be down there for the Wills Wing Days, at the end of the month.

Pictures soon.

Great fun to see all the Ranch regulars and the place seemed to be cooking, even with the storm hitting hard in the late afternoon, as it did up at Quest. I didn’t get to see the Sandhill Cranes.

Discuss "Wallaby Ranch visit" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Upping the ante

Wed, Mar 5 2003, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Quest Air|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Ranch

Steve Kroop at Flytec and Quest Air saw Malcolm’s new offer re single surface flights from Wallaby Ranch and thought he would come up with a new idea. Here’s the story: It’s $10 for every mile over 100 (you’ve already got the $1001) and there is also a pool. Put $5 in the pool before you go to see if you can win the pool by going 100 miles on a single surface glider in addition to the other money.

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A little twist on the money trail

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

Campbell Bowen|Malcolm Jones|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

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

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

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

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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.)

Florida Report

Wed, Feb 26 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Belinda Boulter|Brad Gryder|Campbell Bowen|David "Dave" Glover|Dragonfly|G.W. Meadows|Ghostbuster|Mike Barber|Russell "Russ" Brown|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing Falcon

With rain in the forecast for the weekend, starting tomorrow, this looked like the day to fly. Campbell Bowen showed up, Brad Gryder was ready to fly as always, and Mark P. was also ready to go for it. G.W. has sold the Aeros Stalker to a Canadian pilot so Mark is flying Russell Brown’s Ghostbuster while waiting for the new super Stalker to come in. It was supposed to ship last week.

With David Glover in Costa Rica I’ve got the go ahead to fly his AIR ATOS-C or Wills Wing Falcon 195. The $1,000 prize for the first 100 miler on a single surface from Quest (also from Wallaby) made it an easy decision to fly the Falcon. Besides I want to take it easy on Belinda.

Brad was off first but got off too low and came back for another tow. Before he took it he gave me a hand getting going and I had a very smooth tow with Les at the controls of the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly. This was in contrast to my first of the year Falcon flight last spring where I wasn’t ready for the flex wing control movements and was experiencing quite a bit of PIO for the first two hundred feet.

This time I was ready and apparently my body knew what to do, as it was steady behind the tug until Les found me a nice thermal at 2,000’ and I was willing to give it a try. I was flying with only the Brauninger IQ/Sonic vario (audio only), so I have only a rough idea of how high I was or what the thermal strength was, but I could tell that they weren’t strong and I wasn’t getting that high. Probably thermals were at a maximum 200 fpm (that’s what Mark said), and I spent lots of time in ones less than 50 fpm.

With an east-southeast wind, I drifted down wind as I saw Mark P. pin off upwind of me. He was apparently having difficulties, hanging too low, and later not able to pull the flaps out. Turns out Russell had a special extra string that pulled out the flaps if they got stuck, but Mark didn’t know that.

Mark came my way as he saw me slowly circling up and went on to find a bit more further on. The thermals was extremely mellow (I love that), but the lift was also almost non existent and you could only climb about 1,000’ before it would peter out.

I headed north along the west side of highway 33 headed toward the Turnpike following Mark. I didn’t know that he was not a happy camper and not pleased with the light lift. I was really enjoying it and thinking how much fun it was to fly this cross between a rigid wing and a paraglider. The sink was as light as the lift.

Mark get going and going and going and I had to stop and turn as otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stay up. There was water everywhere below me. Not only are the rivers, creeks and lakes full, but so are the fields. There doesn’t seem any place for it to go so it just sits there.

There are soaring bird every where and I’m using them to help me find the cores. I don’t see any black vultures but I do see the better soaring turkey vultures and a number of hawks.

I hang in there in light lift over flooded fields as Mark decides to land as he’s not having fun. Campbell has apparently landed back toward Quest and talks someone into flying out and pulling him out of the field. He continues his cross country flight.

I get up very slowly, but for some reason can’t get to cloud base, however high that is, and it seems to be about 4,000’. Maybe just too impatient. I am hearing the bogus programs that are running in my head masquerading as thought processes, but I can tell they are just tapes, and not any original thinking.

One tape says head out of this weak stuff and find real lift. Another says that this day is too weak to go far. Another says stay by the road. Another says that the water down below is scary. And on and on. These guys never give up.

I finally go on glide after a good long slow climb from about 1,000’ and head toward the next couple of clouds. Mark is packing up and getting ready to go back to Quest. I can’t see Bowen or Brad.

This time there is not light sink in between clouds and I’m heading down way too fast. I go as close to the next clouds as I can get but all I’m getting is fast sink. I come down 20 miles out from Quest just a couple of miles south of the Turnpike.

After I break down I can hear Mike Barber talking to his student on the radio over Wallaby Ranch. He’s in 500 fpm lift, so it sounds like it is a lot nicer where he’s at. He doesn’t have to deal with the swamps to the north of Quest. It can be drier up by the Florida ridge.

Still I’m a big fan of the flats between highway 50 and the Turnpike and it is still quite possible to fly the clouds instead of the ground in this area. The water doesn’t seem to matter as much as you think it would.

Will the super Stalker show up? Will Mark like it? Will it slow down in light lift? Will we be grounded for the next week in rain? Will it be Bo or I or someone else to get the first 100 miler on a single surface glider in Florida?

Discuss "Florida Report" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Florida Report

Tue, Feb 25 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Mike Barber|weather|Wallaby Ranch|Quest Air

Nice cumulus clouds later today with light east winds. Should be similar tomorrow with a bit of southeast perhaps. There is a front on the Florida/Georgia border. The forecast is for rain Thursday through the weekend.

Cold front went through Austin, Texas, and we had to laugh because on our way out we heard an NPR piece from Austin talking about how nice the day was, how spring was here and the peach blossoms were out. Then ice and snow hit there yesterday apparently. It was fine when we drove through Texas.

The lakes and streams and rivers are full here in Florida. It’s back to the state as a swamp. I sure hope it brings back the mellow thermals. Bo went flying yesterday and landed ten miles to the south at the sand mine. Tried to walk out cross country and plunged into the sand up to his arm pits. That got him nervous as he had to swim out of the sand.

Mike Barber is busy teaching students advanced cross country techniques at Wallaby. The ping pong table at Quest is hot and I’ve lost every game I’ve played so far.

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Show me the money!

Mon, Feb 24 2003, 10:00:06 pm GMT

Albert Einstein|Rob Rademeyer|Wallaby Ranch

Rob Rademeyer <eRex@rsp.co.za> writes:

Hello again Davis from sunny South Africa, a land still expectantly awaiting your visit (a thousand people are lined up to give you accommodation, another thousand are preparing right now to transport you to every corner of the country for the best flying possible and hundreds are refurbishing second hand cars to supply you with wheels…).

While the Rand hangs by its whitened finger tips to the cliffs of global economy at a seemingly unbelievably (good) R8.30 to the US dollar, now seems the correct time to "wire you some funds to support the Oz Report". Alas, all good intentions were somewhat stumped by PayPal's list of countries which excludes South Africa (as well as any other African country - which is surprising as we are somewhat of a First World country!).

(editor’s note: I see that PayPal has only 38 countries on the list. The internet may be without borders, but money has lots of borders. It wasn’t that long ago that the Rand was 5 to the US dollar and we thought that was way down there. I wonder what the story is.)

So I considered snail mail. Despite the fact that it's actually my money, the Byzantine process to be followed to persuade my bank that I want to get some of my real money out of the country, left me feeling weak and unable to carry on. Luckily, I have some genuine dollars left over from my various visits to the States (Wallaby Ranch etc.) and I hit upon the Einstein equivalent of mailing that to you.

(editor’s note: Oh, I see how, he has US dollars in South Africa, but it would be tempting fate to actually put cash money in an envelope. Besides, given the inflation of the Rand it was a very good investment.)

After some more moments of careful thought, I remembered our parastatal's policy on postal theft (i.e. steal if you can get away with it - still ongoing despite national TV exposure of crimes in progress at our Post Offices) and I decided that wouldn't be an erstwhile route to follow.

I think my only remaining option is a gift voucher from Amazon.com!?!?

(editor’s note: Is Amazon our only truly international money exchange facility? Perhaps.)

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Quest Air strikes back

Mon, Feb 24 2003, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Ranch

Isn’t friendly competition great?!

Campbell Bowen read in the Oz Report about the great offer that Malcolm has made for the first pilots to fly 100 miles on a single surface ($1,000) and 300 miles on any other hang glider from Wallaby Ranch ($2,000). It seemed to me that with a little luck the single surface one was very doable. 300 miles is a real challenge, but a good one to hold out there for everyone.

Well Campbell just couldn’t stand it. Steve Kroop got a call from Campbell this morning and here’s what he sent me:

As you know Flytec has had a standing prize of a new 4030Race for a 250 mile flight and $1000 for a 300 mile flight from Quest Air. Quest Air wants to sweeten the pot and make the prize for a 300 mile flight (from Quest) $2001. If the pilot uses a Flytec Instrument for the flight he (or she) will also win a new Flytec 4030Race. Flytec Pilots will have loaner barograph equipped instruments available.

Also, $1,001 for the first pilot to fly a single surface hang glider 100 miles from Quest Air.

(editor’s note: I guess Campbell wants to be able to claim that Quest Air has the biggest prizes for Florida cross country flights this year. Technically true, but it seems to me that he has really just matched Malcolm’s generous offer. Which is mighty generous of Campbell, unless, of course, he’s the one to win the money.)

Quest Air, the east coast Mecca of XC flying, currently has the east coast record and the most number of FL/GA crossings. Yea, we know were closer to the border but it is still fun to say.

There are a lot of hot XC pilots here (or soon to be here) so we expect we may have to write a check this season. Paris “I fly with 2 chute do you” Williams, Bo “Hillbilly” Hagewood, Mark “Pistachio” Poustinchian, Davis ”it won’t stand” Straub, Ron “we’ll see about that “ Gleason, Campbell “we hope he wins so we don’t have to write a check ;-)” Bowen, and all the visiting pilots that are here to kick some ass.

(editor’s note: This is a big win all around with both flight parks vying to be the home of big time Florida cross country flying. That’s what it is all about, and it’s great to see this emphasis. Cross country flying is expensive and challenging, and the extra incentive, especially knowing that other pilots are going to be going for it also, is really welcome.

Pilots really respond to recognition of their achievements, and it is great that we have this way to say what a cool thing you did. Just trying and going far, if not far enough to get the money, will result in some new records and some heavy duty flying.

Thanks to Campbell and Malcolm for getting this round of cross country incentives off to a strong start.)

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Going to Quest Air

Sun, Feb 23 2003, 9:00:04 am GMT

Bo Hagewood|David "Dave" Glover|Florida Ridge|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Ranch

When we arrive in Florida this year we plan to stay at Quest Air. Of course, that was before Malcolm put up the big bucks for the big flights from Wallaby. We hope to be down at Wallaby for the Wills Wing Days and the Wallaby Open.

Why Quest Air?

Well, first of all we felt that it was time to try out the “other” flight park (in addition to the two additional flight parks in Florida). We felt that they deserved a chance to put up with us for a few months. It only seemed fair.

Second, we were attracted by the go for it cross country atmosphere that has been so much on display at Quest for the last few years. Yes there are big time cross country pilots at Wallaby, but that hasn’t been as much in evidence the last two years. I was rather subdued last year after my special fun in Australia, and because I lacked a glider.

I see the cross country pilots at Quest going far at every opportunity, or trying to set triangle records. I am looking forward to more pilots helping pump up the enthusiasm.

I don’t know which park is the best park for really long cross country. It might be the Florida Ridge, as they could ride the convergence right up the middle of the state. On the other hand Wallaby always seemed to have better clouds earlier than Quest.

On the other hand, Quest is further up the state and that gets you away from the coast lines quicker, and lets you take the southeast days, not just the south-southeast and south days for long flights. It might be smarter to get into the panhandle quicker or up into Georgia quicker for those 300 mile days.

Third, we’re looking forward to that flight park wide wireless network with the high speed DSL connection. I heard from Malcolm that he’s also in the wireless network business and I look forward to bringing my portable his way also.

I’m looking forward to hanging out with David Glover, Steve Kroop, Bo Hagewood, Paris Williams, and all my other buddies at Quest. I will miss spending as much time with my friends at Wallaby, but hope to see a few of them in the air, and when I come down to visit there.

I love the fact that there is a wide selection of successful flight parks in Florida, all of them quite different in their own ways. It really is a big benefit to the hang gliding (and paragliding) community and I look forward to the strong cooperation that will be needed between Wallaby and Quest Air if they get the Worlds bid.

Will we like staying at Quest as much as we have loved staying at Wallaby Ranch? We have no idea. Given the strong personnel there, we are willing to give it a try and see if it meets our own idiosyncratic needs. I’ll be sure to report on how it goes.

Discuss "Going to Quest Air" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Take Malcolm’s money

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

Malcolm Jones|Wallaby Ranch

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

Current Wallaby Ranch Hang Gliding Cross-Country Awards:

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

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

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

You can use whichever vario you want.)

Discuss "Take Malcolm’s money" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Wills Wing’s 30th Birthday Party at Wallaby Ranch

Wed, Feb 19 2003, 10:00:07 pm GMT

Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

http://www.willswing.com/news.asp?newsSeek=164

http://www.willswing.com/demodays.asp

March 25th through 30th

The last two years have suffered from poor weather, but that can’t happen again can it? I sure hope not because these fly ins are really a lot of fun and you get to fly a different glider without having to rent it.

These are big sales events for Wills Wing – event marketing. It is a great strategy and builds brand loyalty through personal interaction. Other manufacturers should really consider this strategy, but maybe they just see it as a high cost item, which I’m sure that it is.

You’d think with multiple flight parks going full bore in Florida (four) and others around the country, that the smart marketing guys would be hot to follow Rob Kell’s great marketing ploys. Maybe Rob is just a lot smarter than the other guys.

Of course, Rob will also be going down to the Florida Ridge after visiting Wallaby. You can find his schedule on the Wills Wing web site.

I have to treat this party as news, because it is such a big event that it really is news. It’s like moving the commercial out of the 30 second time slot and putting it into the program. Then I go to the party, take pictures, fly new gliders, have a great time along with everyone else and low and behold, news.

Discuss "Wills Wing’s 30th Birthday Party at Wallaby Ranch" at the Oz Report forum   link»

New tiny Talons

Thu, Feb 13 2003, 5:00:03 pm GMT

Mark Vaughn|Moyes Litesport|Wallaby Ranch

Mark Vaughn <KNOWVNE@aol.com> writes:

It seems WW has been busy this winter and is about to release a new Recreation Glider which they're calling the U2. I'm guessing it's a replacement for the ageing UltraSport and their answer to the Moyes Litesport and yes, it has curved tips just like its big brother the Talon.

And like the Litespeed and Litesport, the U2 looks very much like the TALON from below.

The New U2 is approximately 8 lb lighter than a Moyes Litesport and will be released as a 145 and 160 . The 160 is due to be released in a few days.

The U2 is made from 7075 tubing and is reported to be the only high performance kingposted glider without a reflex bridle. I assume this means it only uses Sprogs for its trailing edge reflex.

It also comes standard with a new control frame called the Litestream which appears to be a brand new Down Tube extrusion. The Cross section of the tube which is a tad thicker looks much like the slipstream tube but with the aft section chopped off a half inch. I'm guessing it's a better grip for those who foot launch.

This new Tube is reported to have performance that’s very close to that of the famous and often copied Slipstream Tube. A reported L/D of 14.92 :1 Compared to the Slipstreams even 15:1 when compared on a TALON.

I expect the U2 will make a grand showing at WWs 30th Anniversary party and demo days which is slated for the 25th - 30th of March at Wallaby Ranch. I'd expect to see it pop up on the WW website any day now. www.willswing.com

Discuss "New tiny Talons" at the Oz Report forum   link»

USHGA - Executive Director's Report »

Tue, Feb 4 2003, 11:00:01 am GMT

Dan Nelson|FAA|Jayne DePanfilis|Jeff Goin|NAA|SSA|Tim Meehan|USHGA BOD minutes

From the USHGA BOD minutes for October, 2002.

By Jayne Depanfilis

a. As reported in the Executive Director's Pre-Meeting Report (see Appendix D, pages 21 through 24), the Association's membership is now over 11,000 (see tables also in Appendix D, pages 25 through 28). http://davisstraub.home.mindspring.com/ushga_board_minutes_1002.htm

b. Introduced Jeff Goin, founder and President of the US Powered Paraglider Association, who spoke to a need for a connection between our organizations.

c. Introduced Dan Nelson, the new Editorial Consultant for Hang Gliding magazine; responsibilities will include developing an editorial calendar tied to advertising sales.

d. Also introduced Tim Meehan, the new Art Director for Paragliding magazine.

e. During May, visited FAA, NAA, US Parachute Association (USPA) in Washington, DC, as well as some local hang gliding chapters.

f. Met with Ed Scott, Director of Government Relations for the USPA. " USPA has a staff of 23 full-time employees to serve 34,000 members. " By comparison, the USHGA has only 4.5 staff for 11,000 members. " Insurance premium is $400,000 for only $50,000 third-party liability coverage " Most of recent $5 dues will go to higher insurance premium.

g. USPA, the US Ultralite Association (USUA) and the Soaring Society of America (SSA) are all experiencing a decline in revenue. The SSA recently reduced its staff from 13 to 8.

h. The insurance premium this year will be $110,000; last year, site and event insurance fees brought in $31,000.

i. The cash position has increased 650% and total assets have increased 375%, with only a 7 to 10% increase in membership.

j. With this cash position stability, concentrate on growth, membership retention, and non-dues revenue sources.

Discuss "USHGA - Executive Director's Report" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Vote for the flex wing worlds

Tue, Feb 4 2003, 11:00:00 am GMT

CIVL|Dennis Pagen|Quest Air|Rohan Holtkamp|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

OzReport.com/Ozv6n268.shtml

OzReport.com/Ozv6n266.shtml

Will you be on your national flex wing team in 2004 and 2005? Likely? Maybe? If you want to have a say in where you might be flying in the pre-Worlds and the Worlds, then you’ll want to get a hold of your national CIVL representative and tell them what you think about the prospects of flying in Hay, NSW, Australia or central Florida.

There will be at least two bids presented to the CIVL Plenary meeting in Romania at the end of this month. Rohan Holtkamp of Dynamic Flight will come with one bid for holding the Worlds in Hay, site of numerous Australian National Championships. Dennis Pagen will likely be presenting the bid from the USHGA for the Worlds to be held at Wallaby Ranch and Quest Air Flight Park.

I have asked both parties to place their proposals up on their web sites, but so far no luck. Without this input from them about what they propose, you will have a little less information upon which to base your preferences, but there is plenty of other information out there. You can, of course, read through the pages of the Oz Report to get an idea of what the places are like.

Your national representative will have a lot less to go on when they make their choice, if they don’t hear from you. Since this decision will directly affect you in an important matter, I strongly suggest contacting your representative and making sure that they understand what your preferences are.

Discuss "Vote for the flex wing worlds" at the Oz Report forum   link»

GAP 2002 »

Fri, Jan 31 2003, 1:00:04 pm GMT

Angelo Crapanzano|Compe-GPS|FAI|GAP 2002|GPS|Wallaby Ranch

Angelo Crapanzano <angelo@metamorfosi.com> writes:

Hi Heiner,

I've seen your Hang Gliding Competition Format article on Hang Gliding (a bit late but it takes some time before I get it.). Your article interesting and addresses the real problems of hang gliding competition but, even if I do agree on the general idea of the article, I could not like your comments on GAP (as you probably know I'm one of the designers of GAP. :-).

I do perfectly agree on your worries about gaggle flying and so on and that's actually the reason why I did not like your comments on GAP, mainly because you forgot to say that GAP is the only scoring system who at least tries to resolve this problem. Any other existing scoring simply forget the problem!

In 1988 I was the first one to develop a departure bonus to discourage "keel pig" flying (in Italy we define "pig of the keel" the pilots who never take a decision and are only able to follow the others) and to avoid the fast pilots to wait on takeoff for the other to go, to be able to fly faster using the others as thermal indicators. Since then this departure bonus (with ever increasing weight) has always been in my scorings.

If you are against gaggle flying, keel pig pilots and waste of good thermals at the beginning of the day, you cannot be against GAP because GAP is the only existing scoring system who tries to fix these problems. You could argue that GAP departure bonus is not enough to overcome the advantages of starting late… and I do perfectly agree with you! :-) That's why departure bonus has constantly been increased from GAP96 to GAP98, GAP2000 and GAP2002 (all GAP scorings are intrinsically the same with just some tuning, mainly to fix the relative weight of departure points)

Concerning scorings, pilots are conservative and always against new features. When I first introduced the departure bonus in 1988, I had to keep a very low weigh on it to get the pilots accept it. Ten years ago most of the pilots were still against departure bonus while, nowadays, most of the pilots (even the same pilots) says departure points are not enough.

Using the actual tracklog from each pilot, last year GAP2002 introduced, for the first time, a "leading bonus" instead of the departure one. This was quite a big improvement which should have changed the behavior of pilots but, unfortunately, in it first try at Wallaby Ranch the scoring program had some hidden bugs (now resolved) and did not work properly.

The scoring program failure at Wallaby Ranch came from the difficulty of getting several programs (Race, Compe, GPS, GAP) and all the different people involved working together and was, like any accident, the sum of several small errors from different people, each one trying to do his best, and a bit of bad luck (the Italian competition where everything should have been tested live was postponed due to bad weather). Of course pilots are only interested in the results, and lost any faith in GAP2002 despite there was nothing wrong in GAP2002 scoring system.

Please note there is a difference between "scoring system" (the logic and formulas to value the pilot's abilities) and "scoring program" (how the scoring system is implemented in software to get the scores out from a computer). Just for your knowledge, I'm not a programmer and I'm only involved with the scoring system (which is already too much) and I've nothing to do with software programs (except supporting software developers with my knowledge of GAP scoring system).

In my opinion it's useless for the pilots to understand the mathematics behind the scoring system. If everybody has to understand the mathematics this would bring to a simple but unfair scoring. I, like may others, did start with this "easy and simple" idea (the first scoring I designed was in 1978 and was similar to car race ones) but any simple scoring leads to bad results because competition flying is a complex environment and cannot be resolved with a simple formula (especially if it must work everywhere in the world).

What we need is a scoring with a constant and simple enough logic so pilots may easily guess the results from experience: you don't need to know about ballistic mathematics to throw a ball into a basket. You just need some experience (this also explains why pilot's doesn't like scoring changes: it's like to change the ball weight or the basket height: you have to learn again.)

Just to make it clear, the basic logic behind GAP is extremely simple (but still often unknown). To get more points you need:

to fly a longer distance
to complete the speed section faster
to fly in front of the others (considers the time difference)
to cross the finish line before the others (considers the position)

This knowledge alone could be enough for the pilot to get the experience and learn how to fly but if you like to get a deeper knowledge you need something more:

flying difficult kilometres (example upwind) is rewarded more than easy ones (example downwind) and the difficulty of each part of the flight is measured looking at the number of pilots landed in that area.

flying just a bit more than a group of pilots is practically not rewarded (this is to avoid people landing in dangerous areas).

flying faster is rewarded especially if you are already fast (the faster you are the more difficult it is to go faster)

with GAP2002 flying earlier and in front of the others (thus likely flying on your own and having fewer thermal snoopers) is rewarded more than with previous GAP scorings (it's the only difference to GAP2000) and the earlier you are along the course the more points you get. Besides, leading points are given also to the pilots not completing the speed section.

If you want to know how a task is valued compared to another:

the lower the percentage of pilots flying compared to those on takeoff the lower the weight of the task within the competition (if few pilots launch the day has a very low value and vice versa)

the shorter the fastest flight time (compared a reference time chosen by the meet director before the competition) the lower the task weight.

if the distribution of the pilots along the course is irregular compared to an ideal linear distribution (from data chosen by the meet director) the task has lees weigh (number of pilots in goal is not a direct parameter as you suppose).

Please note: I wrote "weight" and not value because we are not interested in task value but only in how many points we are gaining or losing to your opponent. If, for example, you have a task with all the pilots flying 200 km and landing in same field before goal, all of them will get 1000 points: the task value is 1000 but the task weight within the competition will be zero because no one is gaining or losing anything!

Using Race you can easily know the task weight (and many other things) looking at the Task Statistic page (sorry, but it's not my fault if this page is never printed by the score keepers or if the pilots never look at it).

If you still like to have more info, have a look at the GAP2002 explanation in my web page (www.metamorfosi.com). GAP is, as far as I know, the only scoring system which has been explained in written to the pilots, still most of the pilots say they don't understand GAP, but have never read the explanation :-(

All of this looks to me like a reasonable logic to find out who is the best pilot in a standard competition format (of course we could discuss on the weight given to each part to make it better) and only need some experience from the pilot to "feel" what to do "to get the ball in the basket" (please note: in US there was only one competition flown with GAP2002 and it was even made with a wrong scoring program which gave wrong results! No way to learn anything from that.)

In my opinion, if we look at the classic competition format, there is little to improve in scoring we can make (except some fine tuning) but, of course, nobody agrees more than me when you say:

"As a longtime cross-country pilot … I've learned to fly mostly alone, to evaluate routes and thermals in the absence of other gliders marking them for me and make good progress for many hours during changing conditions" I do perfectly agree with you (but would add "choosing the best route") and that's why maybe I've the solution for your (our) problem.

The best competitions I've ever entered where:

the very old "Lariano Triangle" where all the pilots flew the same day from the same takeoff for a free distance, free direction competition: no pictures no tracklogs, flight declarations just on faith (never a single complaint). To make the competition even better the organizers came to pick you up for free! :-) Unfortunately with the increase in performances they had to stop this format in 1984 when flight distances approached 200 km (imagine a 400 km retrieval into the Alps…)

the old "Lariano Triangle" where the race along a given task was starting from the ground. We lost the possibility to choose the best route but it was still a lot of fun because everybody was constantly racing one against the other just from the beginning. It was stopped because it was not possible to safely handle more than 35 pilots.

Two years ago the Laveno Deltaclub and Icaro 2000 decided to organize an international competition but wanted something new. We came out with the X-MAX: a free distance, free course competition but very simple to organize and without the hassle of long retrievals.

The X-MAX format is extremely simple:

pilots takeoff whenever they want.
they choose their own route in the air.
scoring is made with a single, quite simple, formula which considers the distance flown, how far from goal the pilot lands and, if landed at goal, how fast he flew.
only three flights out of four days are considered.

Goal is the official landing area below takeoff and the distance flown is measured from takeoff to landing, via two turnpoints (chosen automatically by Compe-GPS to maximize the distance). Pilots are not "forced" to get back to goal but, without wind, it's definitively convenient.

This is of course a very nice format and extremely simple (still pilots needed a couple of days to understand it: most of the pilots where landing too early and didn't know how to choose the best course).

Last year, thanks to perfect weather, almost everybody managed to get back to goal (or close enough) and Zweky and Manfred managed to fly FAI triangles of 228 and 224 km, which is quite good in the Alps at the end of March :-). This year the competition is in at the beginning of May and I bet someone will fly a 300 km triangle if we get the same kind of weather.

This format could be used everywhere of course (but the formula I designed works correctly only in Laveno where there is little wind and makes no difference to fly out and returns or triangles. To make it working properly everywhere is for sure possible but needs some work and some complexity is needed.).

To avoid pilots flying for too many hours this format could be developed adding a time limit to land and, maybe, a time limit to start (another possibility is limiting the flight time to three hours for example).

As you see I like this format very much (come to Laveno if you like it too: www.dclaveno.com) but this is just another format - which I hope will spread out - but is not going to replace the classic one (and there is no need to).

Flying on your own course and sometime joining at cloudbase a friend which comes from a different direction (and who knows where he goes…), has his charm but to race a friend on the same course is a lot of fun too… :-)

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Flying Underwater

Sun, Jan 26 2003, 3:00:02 pm GMT

Tom Lanning

Tom Lanning <tom.lanning@att.net> writes:

Graham Hawkes recently unveiled his new underwater craft. As an article in the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/01/24 /BA111378.DTL) states, "What makes Hawkes' sub unique is how it works. Rather than using ballast to dive and rise like traditional subs -- which Hawkes said are to undersea exploration as dirigibles are to flight -- Deep Flight Aviator slices through the water like a jet through the sky."

There is also more information available at (http://www.deepflight.com/subs/dfa.htm).

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

NTSS flex wing ranking after the Oz Nats

Sun, Jan 26 2003, 3:00:01 pm GMT

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

1 Williams Paris 2413
2 Barber Mike 2263
3 Warren Curt 2075
4 Rossignol Jerz 2046
5 Castle Kari 1891
6 Bessa Carlos 1845
7 Volk Glen 1784
8 Hagewood Bo 1747
9 ZIMMERMAN Chris 1744
10 Lee Jim 1695
11 PRESLEY Terry 1663
12 Arai Chris 1602
13 Bolt Mark 1561
14 SAUER Richard 1419
15 STINNETT James 1378
16 Davis Gary 1297
17 Goodman Bubba 1296
18 VASSORT Claire 1277
19 Shipley Mitch 1163
20 Sayer Wayne 1059

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

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

1 Williams Paris Part time student, tandem instructor, meditator Quest Air
2 Barber Mike Advanced HG instructor, aluminum welder Wallaby Ranch
3 Warren Curt Tandem pilot, Dragonfly pilot Quest Air
4 Rossignol Jerz Building contractor S. California
5 Castle Kari Adventure travel guide, rock climber S. California
6 Bessa Carlos Dragonfly pilot Wallaby Ranch
7 Volk Glen Commercial real estate broker S. California
8 Hagewood Bo Dragonfly pilot, tandem pilot Quest Air

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

Aeros Stalker gets a new pilot

Fri, Jan 17 2003, 3:00:03 am GMT

Aeros Stalker|Florida|record|Wallaby Ranch

Aeros Stalker|Florida|record|Wallaby Ranch|World Record Encampment

Aeros Stalker|Florida|record|Wallaby Ranch|World Record Encampment

As reported earlier in the Oz Report Mark Poustinchian has decided to fly an Aeros Stalker 2 in the upcoming Florida cross country season (sponsored by Flytec J) and he will also be competing in the spring Florida competitions (yes, at Wallaby Ranch also). Mark will be an Aeros team pilot and will return to Texas to attempt a 500 mile flight during the World Record Encampment.

It’s great to see another top pilot on the Stalker 2. This rigid wing has not had much support from top rigid wing pilots and it will be great to see how well it does against other top competition pilots in the upcoming meets and in record attempts.

Mark has already had good success going for Florida and east coast records and did well at last year’s US Open in Texas. He holds the open distance record for Hearne, Texas where he flew 242 miles and landed well inside Oklahoma.

Discuss "Aeros Stalker gets a new pilot" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

USHGA – instructor certification revocation »

Sat, Jan 11 2003, 6:00:02 am GMT

Bill Bolosky|Dave Broyles|Hal Hayden

Hal Hayden writes:

Who gives out instructor's ratings in USHGA? I have a good friend who I finally convinced to take hang gliding lessons, and his instructor has turned out to be horrific! This guy sent his student (my friend) off a 1,200 foot hill as a first flight! Then, two lessons later, he decided to lead his students off the same site and broke his arm when he blew His own launch. He needs to have his instructor's ratings revoked and I will initiate this request.

Bill Bolosky <bolosky@microsoft.com> writes:

While there has been a historical perception that the USHGA is unwilling to revoke instructor certifications (and this may well have been the case in the past), we have the ability to do it, and have in fact carried out a revocation recently. I believe that the process that we used for the recent revocation is fair and evenhanded, and if we're sued I believe that it will stand up in court.

If someone has a bad experience with an instructor, they should first try to resolve the problem with the instructor directly. If that doesn't work, then contact the regional director, who has the authority to revoke instructor ratings. If that also doesn't work, they can take it to the Safety and Training committee. Dave Broyles, the Safety and Training chairman, has the authority to initiate proceedings to revoke instructor certifications, and in the right case he is not afraid to use it.

Discuss "USHGA – instructor certification revocation" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Merry Christmas from Wallaby Ranch

Sat, Dec 21 2002, 9:00:04 am EST

Wallaby Ranch

Laurie at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

Merry Christmas from all of us at Wallaby Ranch, and don't forget to join us for our Tenth Anniversary New Years Party!

Artwork by Emily Boespflug, Wallaby Ranch Resident Artist

CIVL – Proposals for the 2005 flex wing worlds »

Fri, Dec 20 2002, 1:00:03 am EST

CIVL|Quest Air|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

The 2003 CIVL Plenary will receive at least two proposals for the upcoming 2005 flex wing worlds at their late February meeting. One will come from Australia from Dynamic Flight, and the other from the USHGA with subcontractors Wallaby Ranch and Quest Air.

Wouldn’t it be a lovely idea if the competition pilots who will actually have to fly in the worlds got a chance to review these proposals in advance?

Wouldn’t it be great if they got an opportunity to help make the decision about where they were going to fly?

Wouldn’t it be great if the Worlds catered to the pilots who actually fly in them and not to the politics of whatever?

Here’s a suggestion. The HGFA and the USHGA post their respective proposals on their web sites in early February. (I would be happy to post them on my web site if they don’t want to). How about in HTML format, guys?

Then pilots could write to the CIVL discussion areas/lists, their own national hang gliding organizations, their CIVL representative, the Oz Report, the hang gliding list, the rigid wing list, where ever they want to. This discussion could go on before our CIVL representatives meet in Romania.

Florida meets fill up

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

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

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

Steve Kroop at Flytec USA «flytec» writes:

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

Malcolm Jones at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

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

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

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

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

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

Florida meet registration

Mon, Dec 16 2002, 12:00:03 pm EST

Florida|Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Ranch

In the first few hours that registration has been open, many pilots have already applied to enter the Florida meets.

Steve Kroop wrote and said that they had 71 entrants as of 9 PM eastern standard time, or 21 hours after they opened registration on Sunday morning at 12 AM. I registered at 7 AM eastern standard time Sunday morning (11 PM on Sunday evening here) and I was fifteenth. I couldn’t be the first to register as I was out flying in some beautiful air at that time.

Ron Gleason registered at around 10 AM this morning (6 PM Sunday eastern standard time) and he was 53rd.

I asked Malcolm and Laurie for their count late in the evening at Wallaby Ranch. They wrote:

Wow, 65 so far! I have to admit I am amazed myself. It's just the first day (and it's not really over yet).

Serious parties probably should get a hold of us right away, in any manner that is easy and comfortable for them.

E-MAIL: «fly», PHONE: 1-800-WALLABY in USA or 1-863 424-0070 from everywhere else or just stop by the Ranch

Steve Kroop has set the limit to 90 competitors, but I expect that this will go above 100 later (as it did last spring). Malcolm as put a limit at 90-120, and last spring it was, as I recall, just over a hundred.

Malcolm has told Ron Gleason, chairman of the competition committee, that no qualified American pilot will be turned away from the Wallaby Open no matter when they register.

The early limits determine how many pilot applications can be accepted – 65% US and 35% foreign and how long the two waiting lists become. Of course with all this interest backed up by deposits it looks like the limits will expand. But they can only go so far.

2003 Wallaby Open - corrections »

Fri, Dec 13 2002, 11:00:08 am EST

USHGA|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch

Laurie at Wallaby Ranch «fly» sends in these corrections to their announcement of the 2003 Wallaby Open registration to begin December 15th, 2002 (you couldn’t do this so fast in the magazine):

1. Most important - phone number should be (863)424-0070.

2. The new Class 5 is included of course.

3. 2003 USHGA Rule Book to be used.

The high cost of Category II meets

Fri, Dec 13 2002, 11:00:04 am EST

CIVL|David Glover|Florida|Steve Kroop|USHGA|US Nationals|Wallaby Ranch|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds

The pre-Worlds in Brasilia entry fee was $400. The 2002 and 2003 Wallaby Open fee is $400. The 2002 Flytec Championship entry fee was $275 and the 2003 Flytec Championship entry fee is $300. The entry fee for the 2002 US Open in Big Spring was $195. The 2003 US Nationals in Big Spring will have a $250 entry fee.

In addition, the meets that require towing charge for that. It’s $15/tow at Wallaby Ranch and $150 for all your tows during the meets at Quest and in Big Spring. These meets work out to costing about $50 - $60 more in tows than the Wallaby Open.

The Category II meets in Florida and Texas are expensive, with the Wallaby Open the most expensive. The US Open last year in Texas was a relative bargain.

$400 for an entry fee for a meet seems a might steep and $150 for towing for the week seems a bit much when it usually costs less. I realize that the meet organizers go to extraordinary lengths to get tug pilots and tugs to Florida and especially Texas. Maybe they don’t meet their tow costs.

I realize also that these are private businesses, and if it weren’t for the fact that the meets are sanctioned by the USHGA and CIVL (and thereby can provide NTSS and WPRS points) they would be free to charge whatever they want. Still pilots can vote with their feet, and head to the $90 Chelan Cross Country Classic that doesn’t require towing. If the good pilots go there, well, it will be worth some points for the first time.

I would like to see some more competition for the USHGA sanctioned meets in the future, so that the BOD can say to a meet organizer that is charging too much, no thank you.

I’d also like to see the use of virtual goals to help cut down on the costs.

While I love my Wallaby Ranch coat and bag, maybe I don’t need to pay for them in the meet fee.

Frankly, the David Glover and Steve Kroop meets were the best run US meets last year. They are the A team. I think that Wallaby Ranch has a chance of meeting the competition when it comes to running the meet, but they’ve got a bunch of work to do.

All in all I am very happy to have any meets at all to go to, and I am working hard to make it easier to have cheaper meets that are also USHGA sanctioned. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to anyone who takes on the thankless task of running a national hang gliding meet.

Aero’s down tube drag »

Thu, Dec 12 2002, 5:00:03 pm GMT

Ron Gleason <xcflying@earthlink.net> writes:

Have you seen this? http://www.justfly.com/gliders/stalkeruprightcharts.htm

Sounds interesting and I would like to understand more. I wonder how the ATOS C compares?

I tried the URL, but while the page was there it didn’t really work that well. GW sent me the charts that were missing and the table of the data:

Source Data for Charts

Length

Uprights chord, b, m

S upright, m

Cd

Cd*S upright

Speed, m/s

Upright drag force, kg

Delta, %

AEROLA Carbon

1.48

0.069

0.10212

0.03

0.0031

20

0.075

Wills Wing

1.48

0.076

0.11248

0.035

0.0039

20

0.097

29

Bautek

1.48

0.053

0.07844

0.08

0.0063

20

0.154

105

Finster Walder

1.48

0.049

0.07252

0.357

0.0259

20

0.637

745

For 120 kg take off weight, 72km/h speed,15 glide ratio, glider drag force is

8

kg

If glider with AEROLA carbon uprights at speed 72km/h has glide ratio

15

with WW uprights you will have glide ratio

14.9

with Bautek uprights you will have glide ratio

14.7

with FW uprights you will have glide ratio

13.2

I am trying to get more information from G.W. I really question the nominal 15:1 glide at 45 mph.

In the mean time I asked Steve Pearson at Wills Wing about the claims made in the charts, especially as they are compared with the WW down tubes. He wrote:

It's impossible to make any kind of informed decision about the relative performance of the Stalker downtubes based on the published information. The link that you forwarded doesn't have any wind tunnel test data, and there's no indication that they even retested our section. Without a side by side comparison in the same tunnel, over a wide angle of attack and Reynolds number range, the information is completely speculative.

It's trivial to design a section that has better performance than the Slipstream at 20 m/s, at low angle of attack, without any other constraints. In fact, any number of NACA sections will do the job. Our wind tunnel tests show that the Slipstream performs 10% better and matches the Stalker's claimed Cd by simply sanding of the trip. The problem is that doubles the drag at lower speeds.

We're not always gliding at 45 mph and (unless you're flying a Swift) you're nowhere close to 15:1 at anything much beyond best glide speed. The advantage of the Slipstream profile is not the minimum drag coefficient at high speeds, but the extremely wide angle of attack range--especially at lower Reynolds numbers--with low drag coefficients. Would you trade.1 point better L/D at 45 mph for.5 point lower L/D at 30 mph?

Another important consideration is the structural performance (column strength) of the tube. Most of the drag advantage in the Stalker calculations is based on smaller size. Obviously, a smaller Slipstream tube would also have less drag. A lower strength tube is probably desirable for the smaller (non structural) rigid wing control frame. I'd be surprised if the new Atos composite downtubes don't have less total drag than a Slipstream also, but there's no chance that they could meet our structural standards.

As far as I know, our carbon bar is the only bar that has been certified on a flexwing. The Talon 150 was load tested to a 3 sec average load of 1700 lb and a peak load of over 2400 lb at 70mph with a Slipstream bar, without failure.

Finally, there's the issue of demonstrated performance. Manfred and many other top comp pilots from Icaro, Moyes, and even Aeros have flown with the Slipstream bars for years and (as you know) the 1st two 400 mile flights were Slipstream equipped.

I'm certainly not suggesting that it's not possible to design a better profile than the Slipstream--it's been out for 4 years and we even published the wind tunnel results http://www.willswing.com/articles/Article.asp?reqArticleName=MeasureDTs - -but there's more to it than making a couple of bar charts in Excel.

Find out more about this at OzReport.comOzv5n40.htm.

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

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

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

Laurie at Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

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

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

Number of Pilots: 90-120 pilots

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scoring: GAP Meet Organizers: Malcolm Jones and Laurie Croft

Meet Director: J.C. Brown

Safety Director: Malcolm Jones

Scorekeeper: Peter Gray

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

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

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

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

What’s new at Moyes?

Thu, Dec 5 2002, 2:00:02 pm EST

photo|Wallaby Ranch

Larry Tudor|photo|Wallaby Ranch

I’m here at Moyes in Botany Bay and the rumor is that Gerolf is working on a new bigger LiteSport. The existing LiteSport corresponds to the Litespeed 4 size. The yet to be developed LiteSport will correspond to the Litespeed 5.

Don’t know when the glider will go into prototype or when it will be test flown. As soon as I know and can get some photos I’ll be happy to report.

The thinking is that the existing LiteSport is sized for pilots of the Gerolf Heinrich, Larry Tudor type size (145-155 pounds). The new bigger one might be better for bigger pilots (I’m 175 pounds).

I asked Vicki at Moyes about flying the LiteSport at the Gulgong meet before I went there and flew the Airborne Climax. It seems that Gerolf was concerned that I might not like the current LiteSport all that much if it was too small for me. Of course, it turned out that the conditions were epic and it would have been just fine.

Also I had flown the LiteSport a couple of times at Wallaby Ranch and really liked it.

New standards for paragliders

Tue, Dec 3 2002, 7:00:01 pm GMT

BHPA|Cross Country Magazine|DHV|Paul Klemond

Paul Klemond <paul@kurious.org> sends in this URL from Cross Country Magazine:

Will your aircraft be facing new CEN standards too? http://www.xcmag.com/read/article.cfm?id=281&language=International

In the article Mike Cavanagh writes:

The desire for this new standard has come from the associations that are meant to represent our needs in various countries. In the UK this is the BHPA. Being a British company we are obviously quite interested in how we have been "represented", I am sad to say we have been disappointed. We are not happy with the CEN standard, as we understand it, as we see the potential shortcomings that might drastically hinder the sports development.

From what we have been told there is every chance that all our gliders from the Atom (DHV 1) to the Octane (DHV 2) would be sat in the B class. This is the same for most other manufacturers and their ranges. This is obviously not ideal as we know that these wings have very different characteristics and are suitable for different levels of pilots. To have such a vast difference in the most popular class is very dangerous.

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Red Bull Speed Gliding on Oz TV?

Mon, Nov 25 2002, 6:00:04 pm GMT

Red Bull Speed Gliding

I was watching the Sports Tonight show on Channel Ten to catch up on the cricket scores last night and there was in the collage of sports images that made up part of their brand was a hang glider and a quick clip from what looked like the part of the Red Bull speed gliding tape. It sure was cool. Wonder where they got it? Look like it was on every night.

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Well, I’m not that happy

Sat, Nov 23 2002, 7:00:03 pm GMT

Ben Davidson|Hang Gliding Magazine

Ben Davidson <tek@snet.net> writes:

Hang Gliding Magazine never printed Alegra's ad for Christmas Cards and it probably wouldn't have done too much good as nobody has received the Novembers Hang Gliding since it got mailed today. So, if you could mention that the Christmas card selection is available at http://acreation.tripod.com/xmas/xmas.htm or via the www.tekflight.com page, it would be neat.

The 2003 Falcon XC contest URL will be http://tekflight.tripod.com/falconxc.html. It may be slightly renamed as Northwing may have some significant winning spots.

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10th anniversary

Sat, Nov 23 2002, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Laurie Croft|Wallaby Ranch

Well it is hard to believe, but the flight park reality is now 10 years along in its evolution. Laurie Croft at Wallaby Ranch <fly@wallaby.com> writes:

A Perfect '10'

The tradition of New Year's at Wallaby Ranch gets even better.

The World's First Aerotow Flight Park celebrates its Tenth Anniversary!

It is with pleasure and gratitude that we offer 10 DOLLAR TOWS from Christmas through January. We want to thank our friends from all over the world for a decade of solid growth. It is your loyal support that made Wallaby Ranch a success. Please join us to celebrate:

* 10 years of spectacular hang gliding

* 10 years without missing a day of flyable weather

* 10 thousand cross-country miles

* 10's of thousands of flawless tandem flights

As always, there will be great food, live music, free beer, and fireworks on New Year's Eve.

So take a break from the real world, come on down and enjoy the unique atmosphere of the place that has it all

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New Aeros Harness

Thu, Oct 31 2002, 2:00:06 pm EST

calendar|carbon fiber|Florida|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

www.justfly.com

G. W. Meadows «gw» writes:

Aeros announces the release of its newest racing harness for hang gliding – the Viper. Being one of the world’s largest suppliers of hang gliding harnesses, Aeros had fallen behind in the past couple of years with new innovations.

In 1997, Aeros introduced the first production ‘internal parachute’ hang gliding harness to the worldwide market. The “Racer” was quickly emulated by nearly all harness makers and many of the features of that harness are still in use in today’s cutting edge harnesses offered by the most successful harness makers in the world.

Adding to Aeros current offerings of harnesses (the Myth, Racer, Extreme and Cross Country), the Viper is without a doubt the lowest drag harness made to date by the Aeros harness factory. This was not without much research and many trial versions. The Aeros design team was able to utilize the Antonov wind tunnel for in-depth study and application of various harness drag reduction ideas. The result is a complete makeover of the Aeros racing harness design. The VIP employs several new features for Aeros harnesses and one particular new feature for the harness market.

Carbon Back frame: This is Aeros’ first harness utilizing a torso-contoured carbon fiber back frame. This 33cm wide, gently curving back support system allows the harness to fit as close as possible to the pilot while still allowing ‘non-binding’ support. Pilots who have tried this back frame system have raved about its comfort. Depending on the pilot’s height, the back frame will be between 80cm -105cm long.

Variable Pitch System: After much R&D on the best system for varying the pitch angle of the harness, Aeros has decided to go with the ‘shoulder line’ system, while utilizing an internal activation of the effective line length. Aeros evaluated many of the other pitch systems on the market and found drawbacks with many – including the tendency of the pitch system to slip or fail to deactivate when necessary.

Employing a brand new (and highly reliable) plate and lever system, know as the PPS (the Positive Pitch System) – more reliable than those used in previous models, the Viper pilot is able to easily adjust the pitch of the harness with his/her butt – without taking their hands of the basetube.

Matrix Outer Skin: The Viper has a Matrix cloth outer skin for drag reduction. This cloth proved in the wind tunnel to be the most ‘slippery’ available to the consumer market. Now for the newest feature on the harness market- with the Viper, the customer will be able to replace the entire outer matrix cloth covering at anytime with a new one. Utilizing a clever system of Velcro attachment, this Viper will be able to ‘shed its skin’ and take on a new one. The customer is basically able to create a new harness for a fraction of the cost.

Dual Parachutes: The customer has the option (included in the price) of choosing dual chute containers (one on each side of the harness) or a single parachute container with a 4 pocket container on the opposite side.

Storage: The Viper allows for a surprising amount of storage for such a sleek racing harness. It has storage in the tail section, as well as a wide storage section next to the back plate. An additional internal pocket for pads and such rounds out the storage offerings for the Viper.

Parachute Bridle Attachment Options: The Viper Pilot will have the option of internal bridle attachment (at the shoulders) or the traditional carabineer attachment. The harness comes standard with both methods in place.

As you can see, Aeros has completely ‘reworked’ its harness design and has come up with a winner. See your local Aeros dealer or contact Aeros for more information.

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USHGA – the improving financial picture »

Wed, Oct 30 2002, 1:00:06 pm EST

Florida|Jayne DePanfilis|PG|Quest Air|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch

Jayne DePanfilis «jayne» writes:

I have some new comparisons on the financials, like a 650% increase in cash reserves since 2000 and a 375% increase in total assets since 2001. I will send you a condensed version of my report next week with some interesting industry wide stats including dues increases for the SSA, USUA, and the USPA, to really put the situation with USHGA into better perspective.

To understand the significance of what happened last year and this year, you have to compare these two years to 2000, and while Bill's report is accurate, and he has an excellent understanding of the financials, you can't get a real feel for the changes until we compare them.

I am going to Chelan this weekend. I was invited by the Northwest Paragliding Club as their guest of honor for the annual Women's Fly In. I am so excited.

Later:

I had such a wonderful time in Chelan. It was beautiful. What a treasure. I will be going back to Chelan for sure. I am finally back in the office with a long list of "to do's". This is on my list for the next few weeks.

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Correction »

Tue, Oct 29 2002, 3:00:06 pm EST

Aaron Swepston|Dick Heckman|Bill Bolosky|Mike Daily|Florida|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch

Tontar «tontar» writes:

Actually, I nominated Dick Heckman as an Honorary Director, while Bill Bolosky nominated Mike Daily for the proactive work he has done for the Trafton Training Hill. I would have if Bill hadn’t beat me to it!)

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USHGA - Wallaby and Quest Air to share Worlds bid »

Sat, Oct 19 2002, 10:00:01 pm EDT

CIVL|Dan Johnson|Quest Air|USHGA|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Dan Johnson «Dan» reports today from the USHGA BOD meeting that:

For the 2005 World Meet, USHGA directors voted to submit a bid to CIVL in which the national club will represent the locations where the meet would take place. USHGA leaders have elected to manage the process and subcontract the contest operations to both flight parks.

After vigorous discussions, both parks agreed to proceed. If the bid is accepted by CIVL, duties will be shared, however, the meet will conclude at Wallaby Ranch where the final ceremony will be held. Successful lobbying by USHGA leaders brought the competing businesses together.

(editor’s note: I wonder how the national club is going to manage this. I assume that someone will be assigned the overall responsibility to run the meet, and paid to do so. Looks like each site will be responsible for having a launch and safety director (or pilot committee). Looks like you’d need a steward (and/or protest committee) at each site.

Of course, you’d also need to run the competition for a week, choose the top half at each flight park, and then run it for the second week with the bottom half at one flight park and the top half at the other.

With Wallaby getting the party, I wonder if Quest Air gets the top half for the second week. I wonder if the first week’s scores get thrown out when you start the second week.)

The 2005 flex wing Worlds in Florida?

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

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

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

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

2002 Brazilian Nationals »

Tue, Aug 13 2002, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Brazilian Nationals 2002|Conrad Loten|Felipe Rodrigues|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Brazilian Nationals 2002|Conrad Loten|Felipe Rodrigues|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Brazilian Nationals 2002|Conrad Loten|Felipe Rodrigues|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

I’ve done my best to select and format the information from the Brazilian PDF files. I’m very thankful that I get something. Neko, Luiz Felipe Rodrigues, «nekorodrigues», has been kind enough to send me the PDF files from the organizers. Claudio Velloso «claudio» sent me results from the third day.

Day two:

Manfred and Oleg are not at the Brazilian Nationals (they should be there for the pre-Worlds). Paris Williams fell down on the first day. Carlos Bessa and Mike Barber, the US Wallaby Ranch contingent, is doing very well. It’s nice to see the Australian/New Zealand contingent up there also. Looks like Betinho is going to have a fight on his hands with Guga.

Day three:

Notice that the times are very close on all days, and that means that pilots are flying in gaggles, unlike at the US Open. It doesn't look like Curt was even in the meet until the third day.

After three days:

1 Betinho Moyes 2593
2 Guga Moyes 2458
3 Brett Hazlett Mo yes 2428
4 André Wolf Icaro 2424
5 Nene Wills 2392
6 Mike Barber Moyes 2325
7 Carlos Bessa Wills 2317
8 Jon Durand Moyes 2215
9 Conrad Loten Moyes 2070
10 Mario Moyes 2032

The 2005 flex wing Worlds in Florida?

Thu, May 2 2002, 2:00:03 pm EDT

CIVL|David Glover|Florida|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Australiahas notified CIVL (at the last Plenary in February) that it intends to put a bid in for the 2005 flex-wing Worlds. It appears that one or two bids will be coming out of Floridafor the 2005 Worlds.

I understand that Wallaby Ranch may be contemplating a solo bid. Also, QuestAirParkmay be contemplating an alternative bid that would involve both flight parks hosting the Worlds. David Glover mentioned this possibility at the last night of the Flytec Championship.

The two flight parks cooperated to put on their two meets over the last few weeks in Florida. Is it possible that they could cooperate even further to provide the extensive services required of a large flex wing Worlds? I guess we might have a chance to see if this works out.

From what I saw at the two meets, it should be no problem launching 120-140 pilots from one location (with enough Dragonflies and trikes), although I would think that the gaggles would be a bit much (see CIVL Sporting for rules on the number of pilots in gaggles), at least near the start circle circumference. If the flex-wing Worlds have additional pilots, or there is a desire to reduce the size of the gaggles, then two launch and start locations may be in order.

Then again, it may be possible to have two launch locations near each other, and two start locations near each other for the same task every day. Then, again, you might want to split up the field into separate tasks if there are just too many pilots.

Anyway, fascinating possibilities. Personal rancor and politics made it difficult for the Floridaproposal to win against the Brazilian proposal last time. Let’s hope that that won’t be a problem the next time, if there are in fact any proposals coming from Florida.

Hey guys, how about the rigid wing worlds?

What happened in Florida

Tue, Apr 30 2002, 6:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|David Glover|Florida|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Robert Reisinger|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Ron Gleason|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|US Nationals|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

As I reviewed the results of the meets in Florida, I noted quite a few stories within the bigger story.

Many of the world’s top hang glider pilots came to Floridato compete against each other, with twelve of the top twenty flex wing pilots and five of the top ten ranked rigid wing pilots in attendance. This made for a very tough field, and more than enough NTSS points to make for 600 point meets. The Floridameets are truly international events and should continue to be viewed as such.

Glen Volk did very well coming up to capture third in the Flytec Championship after twenty eighth at the Wallaby Open. Paris Williams, currently ranked third in the world – the highest ranking US pilot in years, was consistently very good coming in just behind Oleg in both meets. Oleg, of course, is kicking butt (even though Manfred’s was missing from the Flytec meet). It’s great to see such a sweet guy do so well.

Johann Posch was highly ranked before, but had never won a daily task. He finally did on the second to last day of the Flytec Championship. The big difference for him – ballast. He did much better in these meets than before and the difference was he finally became convinced of the need for ballast.

Robert Reisinger came into the Floridameets with a new relationship with Wills Wing, and a high ranking, that had slipped recently from 3rd to 14th in the world. He did very well on some days, but landed out on a number of other days. He finished below expectations at 23rd and 28th.

Curt Warren moved up dramatically from best new competitor designation last year at the Flytec Championship to finish 18th in the Wallaby Open and fifth in the Flytec Championship where he had a good chance for third. Just a little more patience in light conditions would help, but his go for it attitude also helps him win the day. He was with Johann and I when we were low on the second to last day of the Flytec meet.

Curt came in first on day one of the Flytec meet when he aced out Gerolf by a couple of feet. They were so close that Gerolf did run into him when Curt flaired to land. Gerolf was injried on that day.

Robin Hamilton did well on Manfred’s MR700 WRE coming in fourth at Flytec, but he could have moved up to second or perhaps first with a little more thermaling in weak lift.

Gary Wirdham moved up from 55th at Wallaby to 7th at Quest after he destroyed and then rebuilt his Aeros Combat. Maybe he should do that more often. He really appreciates his helmet (EN 966).

Kari Castle came back from a poor showing at 35th at Wallaby to move into 17th and first female pilot at Quest. She often seems to use the first competition to get herself warmed up.

Gerolf Heinrichs who is ranked as the number one pilot in the world (before the Floridameets) came in sixth at Wallaby, after a number of problems. These seemed to continue at Quest, where he was 44th. It was quite a tough two weeks for Gerolf and I hope he gets some time off to rest and recuperate.

Mike Barber did very well in Floridalast year, and maybe that lead to too high expectations on his part. He came in 7th at Wallaby a few places behind Paris, and the second American, with new American citizen and Floridaresident, Carlos “Cloud” Bessa, right behind him. Then he had some trouble early at Quest and slipped way down in the standings. Going all out on day 6 he hit the deck, and then doing it again on day 7 he won the day.

Speaking of Carlos Bessa (pronounce Base –a) he has been on a tear doing all he can to make the US National team, so that he can go back to Brazil next year to fly in the Worlds. He is now in the seventh position (1 shy of the team), so he has a very good chance. If the Wallaby Open had been fully valid, and everyone had been in their same places, he would have moved into the 6th place on the US NTSS ranking.

Jim Lee had to leave the Flytec Championship because of problems with his neck. This would move him down in the running for the 2003 NTSS ranking to 14th.

Mitch Shipley would do well after taking some time off from competition hang gliding. He would be the fifth American in the Flytec meet. Chris Arai did well enough after not flying for six months to come in 10th and 20th. He moved himself back toward being on the US national team.

Tish the Flying Fish was able to beat Kari at Wallaby and was second behind her at Quest. She seemed to have a great time fly and with her water pistols. Apparently she was aggressive in both fields. Francoise Mocellin was the top women competitors at Wallaby, while Kari was the US Nationals Women’s champion.

Dorval, a Brazilian pilot who learned to fly at Wallaby Ranch a few years ago, improved his performance substantially in spite of a recent operation. He certainly moved up in the ranking for the Brazilians.

Rohan Holtkamp who is currently ranked number 2 in the World didn’t do as well as he had hoped to, coming in 16th and 12th.

So, Johann Posch goes up to Dave Glover and says what a great job he did at the Flytec Championship. He says that Dave is just like Janet Reno. “Janet Reno?” Dave asks quizzically. Yes, just like Janet Reno (who is currently running for governor here in Florida), responds Johann. “Hmmm,” thinks David, “do you mean, Jay Leno?” “Of course,” responds Johann, “the late night talk show host.”

Ron Gleason moved himself way up on the NTSS ranking doing well in both competitions. He came to Floridato get some cross country training after selling his business and purchasing a mobile home. He’s on the circuit like Johann and myself.

Alex Ploner, the current rigid wing world champion and Christian Ciech were almost out of reach to the rest of us. Only Johann was able to pass Alex in the Flytec meet. They are good friends. Christian taught Alex how to be a competition hang glider pilot. They compete against (and with) each other often.

It looks like they will be the rigid wing pilots who are coming from Italy to the Worlds. While it will probably take at least three pilots to win the team competition, they might have a chance with two. They, along with Hansjoerg Truttmann from Switzerland, will be very tough to beat. I’m racking my brain for ways to do this.

Manfred apparently from what I hear had a really good time flying the Swift. Is more in store?

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