Oz Report

Day 1

Forbes Flatlands 2022|photo|Vicki Cain

(Bill Moyes International Airport, Forbes, NSW, Australia) (Goonumbla WP, NSW, Australia) (Alectown WP, NSW, Australia)

With no foreign pilots the Forbes Flatlands is a much smaller meet with only thirteen open class pilots and six sport class pilots.

The day was blue as seen in this photo from Vicki:

Results:
Open Class: http://xc.highcloud.net/task_overview.html?comPk=333
Sport Class: http://xc.highcloud.net/task_overview.html?comPk=334

Day 1 open class:

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Are the monsoons still here?

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, AZ, USA)

Santa Cruz Flats Race 2021|photo

Jamie Shelden|photo|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2021

Photo by Jamie Shelden

Heavy rains today, the day before the start of the SCFR. Rain in the desert. Will the field be passable?

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-2021/pilots

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Second task on Thursday

(Val di Ranco, Monte Cucco, PG, Italy)

Christian Ciech|competition|Filippo Oppici|Marco Laurenzi|Monte Cucco Piero Alberini International Trophy 2021|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T3

https://airtribune.com/monte-cucco-piero-alberini-international-trophy-20/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Photos by Flavio:

More Here.

The real little ones appear

Ping and Pong offspring of Sonny and Cher

April Mackin|photo

April Mackin took these photos from her kayak floating in our lake at Wilotree Park (and Wild Animal Reserve):

The two little ones in the grass.

One of the two, about 6 inches high. Probably born within the few three days.

We had 32 Sandhill Cranes here today to celebrate the newly arrived residences.

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So much nicer

High winds and sweet air, blame the cumulus clouds

PG|photo

The forecast for Thursday:

NWS:

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 92. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. .

Hourly in the afternoon: South southeast surface wind 10 mph, 22% cloud cover.

HRRR 3:

South surface wind at 1 PM: 11 mph, 2000' 17 mph, and 4000' 18 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 5,400'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 540 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 0' (Skew-T shows clouds)

B/S at 1 PM: 4.6

Task:

Quest 3 km
Keystone 400 m

147 km

South very slightly southwest winds at 20 mph at 4,000' at 4 PM north of Ocala.

We're set up and ready to go after the out and return task to Kokee on Wednesday. But we look at the sky and satellite photos animated and they show strong winds blowing cirrus clouds across the state from the west. There are a few north/south streets down at the south end of Florida but nothing near us. The cirrus covers much of the sky and we are experiencing a strong south wind which is supposed to carry us well up the state into Georgia if we want to hold on that long.

A more thorough review of HRRR 3 shows that the cu's should be coming over us and to the north between 2:30 PM and 3 PM. We decide to wait until then to launch.

Sure enough there are a few cu's at around 2:30 PM and we go way down to the far north end of the airfield (now that the north field has been rolled smooth) to get pulled into the air. This takes a little longer than launching from our normal area.

I get pulled up at 3:30 PM but despite being towed going up at over 1000 fpm and pining off at 1,700' I miss the lift when I pin off and land very quickly. Larry Bunner is in the air climbing.

I try again at 3:40 right after I land and hang on to 3,000' this time and find the lift that increases to an average of 300 fpm taking it to 5,900' in a 12 mph 202 degree wind. Mick Howard is ten kilometers further north. Larry has landed near Grass Roots airfield.

As soon as I get to cloud base I head north northwest. The sky has a plethora of cu's and I'm heading a bit cross wind to get to those to the northwest of me to set myself up to get south of the goal at Keystone, 147 km out. You always work yourself west of the course line to Keystone to keep away from the Ocala National Forest east of Ocala.

West of the Turnpike and highway 33 intersection and southwest of Leesburg I climb to 5,500' drifting north toward the Baron airfield over the large swamp and lake. It was great to be so high over this forbidding area that often slows us down and unlike on Wednesday the air was great. The thermals so smooth. The cu's so inviting and telling.

Speaking of cu's they were to the north of me as I got near cloud base. Usually I would head west to try to get on the west side of the Village by highway 301 and Wildwood, but the cu's were looking better to the north. I figured that I would cross to the west further north across the Villages. I knew that there was a north/south strip of open fields between Leesburg and the Villages (along with a set of high tension power lines) that I could land in if needed. I hadn't been here in a while though.

I worked myself to the north northwest watching all the fields and the cu's and getting further and further west of the course line, which is the idea on this task. I was hearing from Mick who was reporting a positive offset (to the right, to the eas) of the course line but it wasn't sinking in that he was headed for a dead end. He kept saying that there were a lot of trees.

I worked myself over the Villages watching the golf courses and the open field that were now to my east and behind me, but there if I needed them. I didn't mind drifting in the weak lift climbing from 3,000' as I got closer to more open fields to the north northwest. The wind was blowing at 17 mph out of the south southwest so that was a lot of help in deciding if I could make it to the next open fields.

I jumped to the northwest to come over a big horse ranch area. I don't like landing in horse operations even if there were no horses in sight, but it was a safety outlet if needed. Another jump to the northwest got me just northwest of the Villages and near highway 301 and over large pasture lands.

I called out to Mick to see if he wanted to land at Leeward airfield as it was already after 5 PM and though the sky still had cu's in it, it wasn't clear that we would get high enough to make it past the east side of Ocala. Also he was about to run into the National Forest.

He thought I was telling him I was landing there, but no I was asking. He said that there were a lot of trees and he thought that he should land. I said okay it will take half an hour for me to get to Leeward and that we would find him a bit later wherever he landed.

With so much lift around it was easy to make it to Leeward and after breaking down I heard from Mick that he was safe on the ground. Turns out he found a huge field to land in near a small airport, Woods and Lake Airpark. He was indeed heading for the forest..

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.3.2021/19:42

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

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2744198

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2021/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20210313&gliderclass=hg1

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Perhaps the Worlds in 2025?

COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

competition|COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

competition|COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

https://airtribune.com/43^rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results

Matt Barlow «Matt Barlow» writes:

Wow what a comp it has been. After not making goal for two days in a row and plummeting in the rankings, John Smith pulled out all stops winning the last three days with perfect 1000 point wins on each day.

As good as this was though Ian Clark flew faultlessly throughout the entire competition making goal every day and was crowned the undisputed 2021 New Zealand Hang Gliding Champion. Outstanding flying Ian, and a job very well done.

John Smith finished in second place, defending champion Matt Barlow 3^rd.

Congratulations also goes out to Henning Kruger, beating out some stiff competition and becoming our 2021 Sport Class Champion.

Inaugural winners of the 'Kahu Cup' - (Inter Club comp) were Southern, followed by Aorangi, and Canterbury taking third place. For full results of day eight and the overall results just click on the link below:

https://airtribune.com/43^rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results/task4960/day/open

For various photos and videos of the last day including prize giving, just visit the Flying Kiwis facebook page below:

https://www.facebook.com/Flying-Kiwis-1080353552175519/

For a look at all comp information and tasks including 2D replays just visit the comp page on Airtribune:

https://airtribune.com/43^rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results

Huge thanks go to the many volunteers and helpers that pitched in and made this our most successful and enjoyable Nationals ever!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - We are seriously considering placing a bid for the 2025 World Hang Gliding Championships. With so much uncertainty in the rest of the world but New Zealand being Covid free, and with Murchison (New Zealand) offering such user friendly spectacular World Class flying, we are excited about the possibility and what the future may hold.

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Near Big Spring, Texas

cloud|photo

Folks across the region this morning looked to the sky and saw an unusual cloud formation. This cloud formation is what's know as a "Fallstreak" or "Hole Punch" cloud. This is caused by aircraft flying through mid to upper-level clouds. These clouds can contain supercooled water. When aircraft interact with this supercooled water it will cause this supercooled water to freeze creating ice. This ice forms at the expense of the surrounding supercooled water, forming the hole in the cloud layer. The ice then begins to fall back towards the ground giving the falling appearance. This is a relatively rare phenomena but is very cool to see.

Training at Stanwell Park

Two brothers

photo|video

https://vimeo.com/499082334

Tony Armstrong writes:

Our flying customers receive complimentary photos however video's are an extra. We complete approx 20 videos each year and it's a challenge to remain creative. This clip is a bit long but when you get a great day and some nice angles, this is the result.

Inspo

Provo, Utah

photo|video

Wasatch Hang Gliding LLC writes:

Kind of the last place to land if you don't climb out so it would be a very big deal to lose. Inspo is a magical sight. Send photos if you got em, help keep this LZ alive.

Lance Merrill <dadds06> writes:

Provo City has started preliminary plans and some subsurface work for a new city park at 3800 N. Canyon Rd. This is the field many hang gliders have been using for an LZ for several years.

I am on the planning committee for this park. Their latest renderings have some obstructions in the middle of the field. I am trying to prepare a brief presentation to show:

1. The rare beauty of the Inspo site.

2. A typical approach to landing there for a hang glider. (I have good pictures and video to demonstrate these points.)

3. The relationship we currently enjoy with Salt Lake and Utah counties.

4. How the public interacts with us as we use of the flight parks at the Point.

Pictures with youth interacting with gliders. We are trying to put together a brief (2 minute) video that will help them understand what we need and how it can enhance the public use of the land. Thanks for any help. You can email me at <dadds06>

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Temperatures in the eighties

Facebook|photo|Victoria Lee Nelson

It was flyable, soarable, and cross country able for five days starting the day before Thanksgiving. Mick and I took advantage of two of those days and tried to go cross country on the fifth day, Sunday, but it didn't work out for us.

Cu's on every day.

Stronger winds on Saturday but it would have been easily possible to fly to the northeast. This wind direction (southwest) is usually pretty severe in terms of the towing conditions and hard on the tugs pilots, but Jim Prahl said that it was not like a post frontal day, which is usually when you experience a southwest situation and towing was actually without drama. In fact the high over Florida has been keeping the front out for days now. Looks like it will come through on Monday.

Lots of pilots flying here and having a great time every day for five days. So nice that this coincided with the long weekend.

We'll see if things warm back up again by next weekend.

Photos by Victoria Nelson.

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How About A Realizable Fantasy?

It'll never fly

costume|Facebook|girls|photo

Not a great launch site either.

Didn't go under the bridge

But whose to say

Facebook|photo|Wolfgang "Wolfi" Siess

The bridge is horizontal on top.

Eduardo Garza

Red Bull X Alps Athlete

Facebook|PG|photo

https://www.facebook.com/paraglidenewengland/photos/a.1734934216809577/2443276785975313

Huge congratulations to New England local, Eduardo Garza for being one of only 25 athletes selected for the 2021 RedBull X-Alps. So amazing to see a pilot we fly with regularly competing at the highest level of paragliding. Paraglide New England is super proud to be one of your sponsors. Good luck with your training Eduardo, we can't wait to watch the race next year.

https://www.redbullxalps.com/athlete/eduardo-garza-1.html

One of the best flying moments has been flying 100+ km tasks in North Macedonia in the 2019 FAI World Championship with some of the best pilots in the world. Racing in strong conditions at over 40 km/hr, where finishing 5 minutes after the leader can mean being in 100^th place, forces you to keep your focus at all times. After 2 weeks, 10 tasks and close to 1,000 kilometers flown, I can safely say this was one of the best competitions I have participated in.

Regarding worst moments, this would be during the 2019 X-Alps where on Day 5 trying to get to TP 6 Davos but I waited too long to take-off for my 3^rd flight of the day, and when in the air a T-storm forced me to land. Skies opened up again to a beautiful blue, so I hiked Motta Naluns, just to be greeted by rain at the exact moment I reached my launch spot (yes, it happened at the precise moment when I laid my pack down!). Waited for a clearing in the rain and launched into strong West winds, which put me on the same spot on the valley where I was 3 hrs before.

Discuss "Eduardo Garza" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hang Glider Photos Wanted

For the 2021 Calendar

calendar|photo

Sander van Schaik <sander> writes:

I would like to make the Hang Glider Calendar 2021 and need your help by sending me photos of your hang gliding activities.

This year, for many pilots, it is a different hang gliding year. By creating this Hang Glider Calendar I would like to send a positive vibe to everybody and especially those that were not able to fly as much as they would love to.

Making a calendar like this is not possible unless you, the hang glider, send me one or multiple photos.

It doesn't matter if you are a beginner on a floater or a hotshot on a topless glider, every photo has got its story and the diversity of the photos make a calendar better

Your Hang Glider photos can be sent to: «sander»

Please include the pilot's and photographer's names as well as the location where the photo is taken.

If the amount of data that makes up the picture is really large, you could use services like www.wetransfer.com

Above is an example of the Hang Glider Calendar 2020

To reward the ones sending photos for the Hang Glider Calendar, the best 12 photos get a free Calendar.

Photos can be sent until October 18^th.

The calendar itself will be available in the last week of October: www.hanggliderproducts.com and will be sent out around November 1^st.

RESELLERS

If you like to sell the calendar in your country as well, please contact me about volume discounts.

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Wilotree Park Tandem

I see the mask, protecting clients

Facebook|photo|Wilotree Park

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Eves Tall-Chief

A hang gliding legend

Facebook|photo|video

Stephen J. Morris writes:

Today we lost a hang gliding legend, a good friend and mentor, Eves Tall-Chief.

Eves (or simply "Chief") started hang gliding at the dawn of the sport and he pioneered flying in Yosemite, launching more times there than anyone. He flew all over the world and was featured on many TV segments for his flying exploits.

The first time I ever "met" him was on TV in 1980 when I saw him flying in Yosemite on a national TV show. He had 40 lbs of camera gear strapped to his glider and he leaped off Glacier Point with his signature holler that signaled "I'm free!" I had no idea that I'd meet him 5 years later in California and have the honor of knowing him for the next 35 years.

He had the biggest heart and would help anyone. He loved flying and often flew in his old-age even when his shoulder would sometimes dislocate in flight and he would land one-handed in excruciating pain. Nothing could stop him except old age and illness. Our small community of pilots will miss him dearly, he was one-of-a kind and a friend to us all.

I don't have any photos of us together, but I caught Chief on video in 2016 when he helped me launch at the Fort Funston Air races. You can't hear our conversation because of the wind noise, but I'm certain I was getting sage advice.

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Vermont State Paragliding Distance Record

120.9 km

Facebook|Jamie Shelden|PG|photo|record|Steve Kroop|USHPA

Calef Letorney writes:

After a half dozen years trying, yesterday I set the Vermont State Paragliding Distance Record at 120.9km with a 5:10 flight. When I first set my sights on it, the record was only 65km. It's been broken a handful of times since and I was always just behind the new record. The record has been held by pilot friends from the UK, Massachusetts, Mexico, Germany, and Russia and secretly the local pilots mused that a Vermonter needs to set the Vermont record at least once.

The flight was an emotional roller coaster as I landed thinking I had it, but 15 minutes later I learned Andrey Kuznetsov, the Cosmonaut (previous record holder at 110km), had gone further, landing 40 miles East. So close, but at least I had smashed my personal record.

It was not until midnight that Andrey loaded his track log and messaged to congratulate me. He had broken his record and gone 116km, but 30 minutes after he landed I landed at 120.9 km. The record is mine (for now).

What a wild day. I've never seen so many pilots at Burke. We were SUPER excited to have Isabella Messenger and Jamie Messenger flying tandems for Paraglide New England for the first time. So honored to have these pros on the team.

They took a bunch of my new solo students out flying to introduce them to the mountains and teach them further about paragliding. Later in the day they had a "little glass off flight" of 50km. 

And, of course, Andrey Kuznetsov did a morning tandem too before his big flight.

On the mid day flight, I had a tricky start and missed the first wave of pilots leaving XC. Then 25 KM in I was in PERFECT position with Bianca Heinrich, Eduardo Garza, Tim Coleman, and Dan Deleo, the gaggle I wanted to be team flying with when I rushed off and made a mistake.

All of a sudden I was alone in 700fpm sink scrambling for a landing zone. Womp, womp. The gaggle (correctly) left me for dead (metaphorically speaking), but I fought back up wind to spot where I thought I might find a thermal and got a save below 1,000'.

It took 2 tries and 30 minutes of patience to get up and out again. By then I was all alone,  so I just took my time and stayed high for the next 100km. High and slow is fast.

Throughout the whole flight I knew if I wanted a record, I had to go west of the Class D airspace around Hartford, NH, so I was always pushing west every chance I could get. In the end, all that working west (into the west component of the northwest wind) paid off as I was in perfect position to get around the airspace and get the record.

We had 7 pilots break 100 km yesterday, all of which would have been a record three months ago: Eduardo, Tom, Bianca, Tim, Andrey, Taru Fly, and I. What a day.

And it would not have been possible without the community effort. This route has a big class E extension to class D airspace sticking out into it, which we previously thought we could not go through. But Bianca, Tom, and Alek Jadkowski did a bunch of research which I pushed up to USHPA and Martin Palmaz got clarification from the FAA that a Drone exception also applies to us.

The last piece of the puzzle was Steve Kroop at Flytec USA (Naviter importer) worked with Naviter to get their Oudie instrument updated to show the airspaces all correctly, so we confidently plowed through the class E and I dodged around the much smaller Class D airspace at the end with 180 meters to spare (The Oudie 4 instrument displays this all so well) before blasting downwind on final glide.

Of course, the flight is only half the adventure as getting home is the other half. I landed with mild hypothermia, 2+ hours drive from my car.

I jogged a bit with all my layers on to warm up and get to a busy road where I pulled out my trusty "glider pilot landed, needs ride" sign and quickly got a ride to the highway. There the signs worked again and Liviu Victor Rusu picked me up as he just happened to be on his way home from Morningside Flight Park. He was headed to a Tesla charger in the right direction and he was super kind to treat me to sushi and hot tea while the dead batteries charged. From there Bianca and Eduardo picked me up and got me north to Saint J, where I met the real heroes of the day, Sarah Robinson and Petunia who I'd abandoned with the truck and completely unpacked adventure trailer on top of Burke.

Big thanks to AJ Siebel who had earlier gone back up the mountain to help helping Sarah hook up the trailer and do a bit of 4x4 to get back to the road.

Super happy to be flying that Gin Camino! What a lovely wing! And that was my 3^rd flight on the new Woody Valley GTO Light 2 harness. Love it, she's a keeper. Photos by Sarah Robinson, Tim Coleman, and Taru, because I was too cold to take my hands off the controls and take photos.

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Dolomites late summer 2020

Next to the wall

photo

The 2020 Dutch Nationals

Two competitions

photo

Sander van Schaik <<sander>> writes:

The Dutch Nationals are two competitions, one is the Dutch Open, which should have been in May at Monte Cucco. This was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The second part is towing in the Netherlands. This competition was last week at Aeroclub Salland. We had three tasks and it was big fun flying again with friends in a competition.

For more information, results and photos you can visit http://www.avda.nl/NK2020/Salland/

Result:

1: Martin van Helden
2: Emiel Jansen
3: Sander van Schaik
4: Arne Tänzer
5: Gijs Wanders
6: Otto Philipse
7: Paul Engelen
8: Holger van Gent

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Air Sports Newcastle

Learn to fly in Australia

Facebook|PG|photo

Air Sports Newcastle has a complete HGFA approved novice hang gliding and paragliding courses that are designed to get you flying solo as safely and efficiently as possible. Our expert instructors will progress you through this complete course in approximately 7-10 days using the schools equipment. Solo training takes place on the gentle sloped sand dunes of Newcastle beaches, then up to the higher hills surrounding the scenic Hunter Valley. Upon completion of the course you will have your restricted pilots rating and be confidently soaring solo up with the eagles.

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2020 Carpathian Cup

Just three tasks

Carpathian Cup 2020|Facebook|photo

http://hangglider.no-ip.org/kk2020/results/

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Last task

Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|Facebook|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo

https://www.hg-slo.si/index.php/en/news

Task 3:

Cumulative:

Matjaz Klemencic sends:

Alexandra Serebrennikova sends:

Left or right, Stol or Polovnik - two ridges towards the waypoint cylinder? Went left, had to go right - now I know Stol ridge with rather strongish face wind has eaten practically a half of the competition who chose this path. The second half went to the right and made it. So no goal today.

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Winds in Florida

Tree down at Wilotree Park

Facebook|photo|Wilotree Park

In the west side camping area:

Coming to Florida soon:

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From Marfa Toward Van Horn, Texas

Robin and Glen out in front

Facebook|Mike Degtoff|photo

The goal on Friday is to the northwest to Van Horn 70 miles along highway 90. Robin and Glen are over 12,000', 7,000' AGL around 3 PM about 20 - 25 miles along the course line.

Larry is working on his harness in the hangar. Mick is at the airport. Patrick and Rick landed out and Rich is back at the airport and Patrick back in Marfa. Nate it out going toward Van Horn behind Glen and Robin, who are right together, it would appear.

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=3275

https://lt.flymaster.net/# (Search for Robin Track)

A couple of Mike Degtoff's photos:

Pilots got maybe 25 miles out then turned around. Looks like it ODed as forecasted. They didn't make it back to the airport.

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World View

Archive of Satellite Photos

photo

https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

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Trike Aerotowing

Great Shot

Facebook|photo

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Archived Surface Maps

Winds on the day of the North American Record

Facebook|photo|record

https://www.facebook.com/mario.arque.3/posts/1768913503267162

What sky did Sebastien Kayrouz have for his 503 km flight last Thursday in Texas? It's what someone asked when they saw the photo celebrating the flight with a clear sky at dusk. Did he make that flight with blue thermals?

No, thanks to NASA's archive, from its Worldview page, we can go back to that day and see photos of the three satellites that passed by there at noon one after another (the Terra, Aqua and Suomi NPP VIRS). They follow a helio synchronous orbit, so every day they pass at the same time over all points of the planet with a difference of time between them.

Around one in the afternoon the photo shows tropical storm Cristobal and that jet planted with streets of clouds, drawing a curious wind divergence as that wind spread through Texas (part of the wind turns to the Gulf of Mexico) and the upper half feeds that southern wind jet that took advantage to make this record.

Surface pressure maps for that NOAA day, also available for previous dates on the Storm Prediction Center page, show how the south wind increased to 15-25 knots in its second half over the day of the flight, while in the takeoff area and earlier, the wind was weaker and more variable, maximum of 5-10 knots.

Obviously this is not a typical day in Texas what with a tropic storm over Louisiana. On the good cross country days out of Zapata you want a high pressure located south of New Orleans and rotating clockwise winds bringing a south southeast flow by Laredo with cloud streets lined up from Zapata to Amarillo.

In this case there was a strong south southwest wind to the west of the tropical storm. That was happening in the area without any clouds as is the case with south southwest winds there in west Texas as the air is coming from over the dry areas in Mexico. But the moisture was coming from the east from the tropical storm and the two air masses met just to the west of his route. Pretty convenient as he could still fly the cumulus clouds with the south southwest wind.

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/

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USHPA Chapter Webinar

RRRG, etc.

Facebook|photo|Risk Retention Group|USHPA

Facebook post here.

As part of our efforts to increase support for chapters, USHPA and Recreation RRG will be hosting a webinar for USHPA chapters this Thursday, June 11 at 6:00 pm MT. The webinar will feature Steve Rohrbaugh, Recreation RRG USHPA Chapter Liaison and Martin Palmaz, USHPA Executive Director covering topics including risk management, commercial operations, insurance coverage, and more. We invite chapter officers to attend and ask questions!

Please register here: https://webinar.ringcentral.com/webinar/register/WN_n7rA7xqiS3SUXbOmMLLwTA. Space is limited, so please get in touch if you'd like more than one officer from your chapter to attend.

If you're unable to join us Thursday, we have additional chapter webinars on related topics scheduled for June 30 at 6 pm MT and July 23 at 6 pm MT (registration information coming soon). We hope to see you there!

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Leggings

Chic

Facebook|PG|photo

Major says that you have to personal message their Facebook Page to see these as they are not up on their web site yet.

https://www.facebook.com/846742885395659/photos/pcb.3804449272958324/3804448916291693/

Girls only apparently. Previously they just had paragliders on their leggings.

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Pan Am Clipper

Remembering where we came from 40 years ago

photo

Ken de Russy <weflyuniv> writes:

Here are scans of a magazine that Keith Nichols just donated to my collection.

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Wills Wing Open

Producing hang gliders

COVID|Facebook|photo

https://www.facebook.com/WillsWing/photos/a.78932019425/10157548140844426/?type=3&theater

Sport 3 155 Race for @juliocesarochoaavila with custom vinyl logo on the bottom surface.

Wills Wing has the capability to make a large variety of custom designs and patterns to build the glider of your dreams! So reach out today! We are back to work, building gliders and can't wait to build your custom dream ship.

On May 8^th, 2020 the state of California has officially moved to Stage 2 of its Resilience Roadmap which allows for the gradual re-opening of lower-risk workplaces which includes manufacturing such as Wills Wing. We are now moving towards full operational capacity while maintaining compliance with the state's COVID-19 industry guidance for manufacturing. We are taking orders, building gliders, and filling parts and accessory orders. We currently have several inventory gliders in stock and ready for immediate shipment. You can see a list of inventory gliders here https://www.willswing.com/inventory/

Production time for new, non-inventory glider and harness orders is difficult to predict precisely, but we estimate a range of seven to fourteen weeks, assuming no significant future increased restrictions on business operations or problems with materials supply.

Outdoor recreational activities like hang gliding are a great way to socially distance and are typically permitted under many state's stay-at-home orders. Now is a great time to order a new glider!

Weather with Honza Rejmanek

Exploring the air's interaction with the terrain, thermal development, convergence, and more

Facebook|photo|record|USHPA

https://www.ushpa.org//member/lecture-series

Thanks to everyone who attended our first USHPA Lecture Series webinar on Wednesday, and a huge thank you to Honza Rejmanek for giving a fantastic presentation!

Honza's talk covered air and the terrain, thermal development, convection, and more, and included a Q&A at the end. The recording is now available for members to view on the USHPA website:
www.ushpa.org/member/lecture-series

We hope you enjoy it and we're looking forward to announcing our next lecture soon!

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Bald Hill Closed

Stanwell park

Facebook|photo|site

City of Wollongong writes:

We’re supporting NSW Police in their enforcement of social distancing measures. That’s why from Thursday afternoon we’re closing the following: Bald Hill carpark (a partial closure, the kiosk will remain open), Sublime Point and Mt. Keira lookouts and kiosks and all Flagstaff Hill carparks. The carparks will reopen after the Easter long weekend.

Weird in the Sky

An unearthly photo

Facebook|photo

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We Love Watching the Satellite Photos

And their animation

Larry Bunner|photo

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus_band.php?sat=G16&band=GEOCOLOR&length=12

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/conus.php?sat=G16

Larry Bunner likes this version. Just scroll over to the part of the country that you wish to view.

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Saturday, the last day of the competition

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|El Peñ|El Peñón Classic Race 2020|Facebook|photo|Tim Delaney

Felix, first to goal:

Task 6:

Final:

Team in Valle

Used to high altitudes

Facebook|photo

Facebook|photo|Sara Weaver

Facebook|photo|Sara Weaver|Tim Delaney

Sara Weaver writes:

Team Colorado! Tavo Gutierrez, me, and Tim Delaney here in Valle representing the high altitude tribe here for the El Peñon Classic.

The Day 4 task was to the volcano and back to Penitas with some turnpoints in the middle, but only Wolfy made goal. The rest of us had a lot of fun and frustration working the low cloud base near the volcano turnpoint and landing in a town full of little kiddos who were fascinated by the bird people who were falling out of the sky. Yesterday was a really fun day.

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El Peñon Classic Race 2020 Results

Monday was the first day

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Erick Salgado|Facebook|photo|Tim Delaney|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/el-penon-classic-race-2020/results

Task 1:

Id Name % penalty points penalty Reason
7 Felix Cantesanu 15% 0 late tracklog

Don't grab there

I have to see to land us safely

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Seascape

Flying over water

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Well, Toto, we actually are in Kansas

Leoti, Kansas

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El Peñón Classic Race 2020

Valle de Bravo

Facebook|photo

Rudy writes:

Join us @vuelolibremexico this year for our annual El Peñón Classic Race 2020 in Valle de Bravo, México! We’ll be kicking off this FAI Sport class event on February 23^rd, for 5 competition days and wrapping up with closing ceremonies on the 29^th.

Attila on the 2020 Forbes Flatlands

Finally

Attila Bertok|dust devil|Facebook|Filippo Oppici|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo|Rohan Taylor

Attila Bertok writes:

After I think 28 years coming to Forbes (except a few years when it wasn’t held) and losing at least 5 un-losable Flatlands, I finally can put this in the collection, too. Josh came 2^nd with brilliant flying and Jonny came 3^rd.

It all started as doom and gloom. The country was on fire and the smoke was delivered to us via the varying winds. Visibility was occasionally nil either due to smoke or dust or both. The first 3 days were cancelled. It surely looked like that we are going to see the worst Forbes Flatlands ever. A few pilots decided to pull out of the competition and head somewhere smoke free. I don’t blame them, time off work is quite precious for most of us. I guess any flying seems more attractive than no flying at all.

The Queensland vs NSW golf tournament was shaping up well. Some rumors mentioned cheating, but it was just some fake news.

The 4^th day our fortune turned and we woke up for a much better day, at least for a taskable one. I was one of the task setters and I must say that we’ve never faced such a challenging forecast on any previous Forbes comps, but we did our best considering the circumstances. So, on day 4 we set a task down south to Old Junee partly because the fires were burning in the mountains and a SW wind change was anticipated. Finally it turned out to be a distance task, largely due to the 1 hour delay initiated by the safety committee. I strongly disagreed with both of the half hour delays, because it didn’t improve safety, but I respected their decision. Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t call them wimps. Trent took the crown for the day pushing ahead as usual followed by Josh then Pedro. I’ve felt the day was quite turbulent, but it was partly due to the upcoming SW wind which created some convergence at first and later stopped us from completing the task. But we’ve had a day in the bank. Lukas also encountered a large brown snake which made his waiting for the retrieve car in the dark a lot less boring.

The 5^th day promised better conditions. Again, we had winds from the west, so we’ve decided on a cross wind flat triangle down south and back via a short final leg to the Bogan Gate goal which is not at all in Bogan Gate. The safety committee has obviously learned something from the day before, so we just got on with preparing instead of spreading pessimism on the ground way before setting up. On course, we encountered strong lift, most thermals were marked with dust devils. Due to the wind there was some ‘interesting’ climbs for me and this made me quite restless pushing ahead. I’ve learned from my previous day’s mistake and didn’t push too aggressively into the cross wind, but everybody did which gave me an early 10 km advantage which I’ve managed to hold the whole way and winning 1000 points for the day. Jonny came 2^nd and Filippo 3^rd. The air was very good on the final glide and despite the strong headwind everybody came in very high.

6^th day. Similar weather but the Skysight forecast seem to get it wrong every day. Cloudbase prediction usually way off, but not bad. Winds are turning out to be stronger. Windy gets it quite right. This is hindsight of course. So again, we went for a flat triangle, this time up to the north turning at Peak Hill, then back to Forbes via a turn point at the corner of the state forest east of Forbes. We had the best conditions on this day, big thermals both in size and strength. It was nice to fly with some people for a change, but it only lasted up to the 1^st turn point, after that was lonely flying again. It is my Hungarian accent, I think.

So I was flying fairly upwind and things were working out nicely until I didn’t find a strong high climb before turning at the forest. So I was quasi-ahead, but it was just that I had a longer fruitless glide. I was quite desperate to find lift turning into the strong head wind and being low, when I noticed a ninety degree wind direction change on the surface of the small ponds which told me which way to go. As soon as I hooked into the 3-4 meter lift I saw the dust picking up.

A little while later I was climbing right over the eye of our micro tornado. The dust tube of the dust devil was so perfectly formed that it was mesmerizing as well as beautiful to look straight down the pipe while going up. By this time everybody was all over me below and above, but I was happy to see that the ones above didn’t have the turn point yet, so I still had a chance to place well. I ended up winning the final glide giving me another 1000 point day, Josh came 2^nd and Rohan 3^rd. A lot of happy people arrived in goal shortly after.

7^th day. A weather change was happening. It complicated matters even further. The temperature diagram looks bad, showing a max climb to 1000m at the beginning of our flight but slightly improving later, however a blue day, for sure.

I even make a little joke about how bad the day looked like. We settled on a short 90km task to Tomigley, fearing bad conditions if we go any further north. I know it is a “pussy” task but we could only make a decision on the information we had.

Anyway, we got going and the prediction was spot on at the beginning of the task, however it was rapidly improving. I climbed out with Jonny quite well and he made a perfectly good decision by going for a large dust devil. This made it obvious to me that he wanted to go early, but I didn’t follow because I wanted to minimize risk by having people ahead of me, about which I usually don’t care. I was on the lead by ~170 points and I didn’t want to lose yet another Flatlands comp, so I hung back. I almost overdid the waiting game, because I wanted to do a better start, but finally I went with about 5 minutes deficit, but with people in front of me. Thankfully I had Lukas with me, so I wasn’t too worried.

As the task progressed I got closer and closer to the gliders in front. It was very obvious, that it is a very short task, so it was much more than just a matter of finishing, the time had to be good, too. Finally I made goal being quite sure that I had done enough. Rohan took the day by completing the task in 1:11 followed by Josh and Trent. I did 1:15 which was already 100 points less than first place, but the plan wasn’t trying to win the task today anyway.

Fun fact: 350 km to north east in Lake Keepit the Womens World Gliding Championship was going on. The very same day the task setters got it so wrong that everybody from all the 3 classes out landed. The closest pilot was 70kms from home in case someone thinks that task setting is easy!

While I am writing this it is raining outside and my mind still keeps looking down to that perfectly formed dust devil.

Peak Pictures from Forbes

Zuppy

Facebook|photo

Facebook|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|photo

Facebook|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|photo

https://www.facebook.com/PeakPicturesMichaelZupanc/photos/a.1207261399469885/1207261779469847/?type=3&theater

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Day 8 results

Øyvind Ellefsen|Attila Bertok|Facebook|Forbes Flatlands 2020|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|photo|Rohan Taylor|Trent Brown

Live Tracking: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=3171

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results/results-2020

Task 4:

Final:

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Attila and Tomas

beer|food|photo

Forbes Flatlands starts this weekend

Fire weather

Facebook|photo|weather

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/01/02/amid-bush-fire-crisis-this-weekend-may-bring-australia-its-most-dangerous-fire-weather-conditions-yet/

Weather during the next few days will be similar to what led to the bush fire crisis in the first place: building heat in the southwestern reaches of the country leading to “catastrophic” fire danger in some regions Thursday and at least “extreme” fire weather danger in South Australia on Friday. Even the city of Adelaide is expected to top 104 degrees (40 Celsius), with temperatures inland climbing even higher, with high winds.

The combination of the heat and strong winds associated with a frontal system will create explosive conditions for supporting extreme fire behavior, including their rapid and unpredictable spread. Similar conditions have already proved fatal to residents and firefighters, with the death toll as of Thursday standing at 17 for the season.

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Ready to Fly

Standing on the top of the mountain

Facebook|photo

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Corryong Cup is over

Pilots Evacuated

Facebook|photo

Some have gone to Forbes where it is smoky also.

Evacuated to the high school gym in Corryong:

The view in Forbes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/12/photos-of-australias-raging-bushfires/604300/

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From Moyes

cartoon|Christmas|Facebook|photo

Great Air Race in 1919

Great Britain To Australia

Facebook|photo|record|video

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=449920955670909

100 years today the flying Smith brothers of South Australia won the Great Air Race in 1919 - the first to fly from Great Britain To Australia.

Tucked away in a quiet area of Adelaide Airport sits a forgotten but amazing piece of Australian history - a century-old plane known as a Vickers Vimy. Made of little more than canvas and wood, this little biplane and two Adelaide brothers made a record-breaking flight in 1919 but, as Tyson Mayr @TysonTravel learns, a series of unfortunate events meant the story got lost in time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=OalgM4OiGAE&feature=emb_logo

https://www.facebook.com/ClassicWingsMagazine/photos/a.441600692547940/3305987126109268/?type=3&theater

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Dixon Park

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Facebook|photo

The launch location here.

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Switzerland

photo|tandem

https://www.birdlike.ch/en/

https://www.facebook.com/flybirdlike/

Hang Gliding Picture of the Day

A trip for photos

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Cutting it too close

Trimming the grass with a tail wind

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Skylights

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366 km from Dalby

Pete Burkitt

Facebook|photo

Congratulations Pete Burkitt on flying your new PB today, 366km from the Dalby aerodrome!

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TopMeteo

Weather integrated with Tasks

Facebook|photo|weather

https://www.facebook.com/naviter.seeyou/photos/a.10150465617365348/10158638161945348/?type=3&theater

https://www.schempp-hirth.com/fileadmin/Minimoa/Minimoa_Sn5_November_2019.pdf

Top-Meteo was one of the first services to make online “friendly” weather prediction for the dumb pilots we all are, without any knowledge about weather science, in just one click.

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Flying at the Airport

John Wayne

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Over the beach at Rio

São Conrado ramp

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Raymond provides a link

photo|tug

https://OzReport.com/23.210#0

More skylights

See through gliders

Facebook|PG|photo

Andy Jackson Airpark paraglider pilot Jana - @dreamsourcestudio - has basically become our resident photographer. If she isn't flying she's shooting and capturing beautiful images like this of @flyingzippy on his new T3 154! Great shot Jana!

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2019 Canungra Classic

Friday Results

Canungra Classic 2019|Facebook|photo|Rohan Taylor

Task stopped.

http://xc.highcloud.net/task_overview.html?comPk=276

Task 6:

Cumulative:

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New Paragliding World Record

582 kilometers

Dustin Martin|Facebook|PG|photo|record

Today Rafa Saladini broke the world record going 581.6 km.

Dustin Martin writes:

The three paragliders from yesterday landed together at 582 kilometers. From a surface tow. I believe Glauco foot launched on his hang gliding flight of 619 kilometers, also yesterday. The paragliders were wondering if 600 was possible, obviously it is and I wonder how long until they actually hit 700. They don’t seem to be in the ideal location for longest duration available. Another hour would make all the difference.

There’s a strange (to me) argument of aesthetics of foot launch Vs towing for a record flight, while (to me) all downwind dashes seem to be incapable of being aesthetically ideal. I think the longest paragliding flight will happen in Texas and will be sufficiently long to make Brazil suddenly less attractive for recapturing the record. Let’s see.

One day after the FAI received this:

FAI has received the following Class O (Hang Gliding and Paragliding) World record  claims:

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Caicó (Brazil)
Performance : 505,6 km
Pilot : Michael Küffer (Switzerland)
Aircraft : Boomerang 11 / Gin Gliders
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : no record set yet

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Straight distance
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 463,00 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 410,72 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 451,5 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 377,00 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 464,4 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 412,3 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

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2019 Canungra Classic

Thursday Results

Canungra Classic 2019|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo|Rohan Taylor|Tim Cummings

Jonny out of the hospital.

http://xc.highcloud.net/task_overview.html?comPk=276

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Tim Cummings writes:

Jonny required strong antibiotics for an infection in digestive tract. If it got worse he would need surgery. Anyway he drove straight from hospital to launch, took off after everyone had left and was first into goal.

Later he writes:

Day 7 has just been cancelled due to rain on course and forecast for so much rain tomorrow we have decided to have presentation tonight.

Lots of rain near first turnpoint so day 7 of Canungra Classic was stopped while we were in the air. I turned around and flew back to this big dry paddock with Keith, Peter and Hagan.

New Women's Paragliding World Record

Now 460 kilometers

Facebook|PG|photo|record

https://www.facebook.com/xcmag/photos/a.138479719102/10156734101579103/?type=3&theater

They have just landed, but it looks like Seiko Fukuoka has flown a new women's paragliding world record in Brazil today, beating Yael Margelisch's 442km women's world record flown on October 4^th Seiko was flying with Charles Cazaux. They were in the air nearly 11 hours for about 460km. Airtribune tracking page: https://airtribune.com/play/4476/2d

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2020 Hang Gliding Calendar

Needs your photos

calendar|photo

Sander van Schaik writes:

Every year I design a Hang Glider Calendar. This is to promote our hang gliding sport. The best way to help me out with this is to send your photos to me. The design will be white and the format to what fits in your mailbox so it saves shipping costs.

Making a Calendar like this is not possible unless you, the hang glider pilot, send me one or multiple photos. It doesn't matter if you are a beginner on a floater or a hotshot on a topless glider, every photo has got its story and the diversity of the photos make a calendar better.

Your Hang Glider photos can be sent to sander@svs-design.nl. Please include the pilot's and photographer's names as well as the location where the photo is taken. If the amount of data is really large, you could use services like www.wetransfer.com.

To reward the ones sending photos for the Hang Glider Calendar, the best 12 photos get a free Calendar. Photos can be sent until October 20^th (less than 2 weeks).

The Calendar itself will be available in the last week of October at www.hanggliderproducts.com (at the moment I am building a new webshop) and will be sent out around November 15^th.

Help promote our sport

The best way to promote the sport is having the Calendar on as many walls as possible. If you order bigger volumes you get discounts. Or you become a dealer, which are already available in Germany and the Netherlands. If you would like to be a dealer for the Hang Glider Calendar in your country, please contact me.

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Cloud Streets in Northeast Brazil

Connecting dots

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2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race

A win by one point

Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Facebook|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Phill Bloom|photo|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2019|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/results

Tyler Borradaile wins the 2019 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Fourth task:

Cumulative:

Sport Class:

Cumulative:

Swift Class:

Cumulative:

In your face

Magpies are fierce in Australia

Facebook|photo

Incoming Australian magpie caught on a bike helmet GoPro - #OnlyInAustralia photo by Monique Wurth Newton.

Recently a magpie in Sydney was killed by the city council because he fiercely attacked everyone who came close. The bird was nicknamed the “Windsor Road Monster”.

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Nature's Work

Sculpting

Facebook|photo

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2019 Big Spring Nationals

The podiums

competition|Facebook|photo|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Open Class:

Sport Class:

Campeonato Brasileiro 2019 Andradas

Jonny wins the meet in the Brazilian National series

Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo

https://sistema.cbvl.com.br/evento/resultado/285

All tasks:

Two Moyes boys on the podium after seven grueling tasks with multiple changes in the rankings throughout the week. Eventually Jonny took a commanding lead after task five where he was the only pilot to make goal, finishing the competition with a 600+ point lead to second place. It was a close race to fill the rest of the podium with just 150 points taking out the next four positions.

Nene's two sons finished higher than he did, but he didn't fly the last two days. I wonder why?

34,000'

Cold up there

Facebook|photo

“I was at 34,000ft, it was -57C and I had never felt such wide open space before. The actual drop was very extreme: in the thin air, I dived 100m head down. The acceleration was huge. The rest of the flight was very tranquil – and fast: 120km/h groundspeed at 10,000m.” In Cross Country 202 (August 2019) and as he approaches his 50^th birthday, pilot and photographer Matthias Küffer recalls the flights of his life, including the day he launched his hang glider from a hot air balloon 10,000m over the Swiss Alps.

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2019 Paragliding Worlds

Honorin Hamard falls down but it doesn't matter

Facebook|PG|PG Worlds 2019|photo

http://pgworlds2019.mk/live/results/

Because they drop bad days Honorin stays in first place. He had a real bad day.

92 pilots with 900 or more points for the day. All within 13 minutes of the leading pilot, 124 in goal out of 150. US still in 20^th place.

2019 Paragliding Worlds

Flying right on top of everyone else

Facebook|PG|PG Worlds 2019|photo

No wonder they want to have a different scoring system that spreads people out.

http://pgworlds2019.mk/live/results/

On the first task, I count about 50 pilots within one minute of the first pilot to goal. 110 pilots scoring above 900 points. 139 out of 149 pilots at goal. 1 point difference between 1^st and second place.

The second task yielded a little more spread in the first 50 pilots, with 53 above 900 points and 92 at goal. A 3 point spread between 1^st and second.

Micro Burst over Phoenix

Atomic Reaction

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2019 Russian Open

Andrey wins open class on a Gecko

Andrey Solomykin|Evgeniya "Zhenya" Laritskaya|photo|Russian Open 2019

Andrey Solomykin writes:

The Russian Open Hang Gliding Championship 2019 has finished and to my small collection of sport trophies I have added a Champion's cup and these three gold medals:
1^st place in Open class;
1^st place in Sport class;
1^st place of our Moscow team.

This is my third consecutive victory (in the USA, Australia, and finally, in Russia), and my first one in the open class.

Competing on a king-posted wing in open class with pilots on topless gliders was far from easy but very exciting. The Moyes Gecko really did great. I was lucky that this year our strongest athletes preferred the Russian Cup on the flatlands over the Russian Open Championship in Utsa. It gave me a chance to be among the leaders and to try to join the national team based on Championship results. I can honestly admit that I did not dare to hope for such a good result.

In addition to the official teams based on regions, we also formed unofficial small teams, such as king posted gliders, topless gliders, women, etc. I must mention our king posted team almost beat the topless guy! We were only six points short from winning in our unofficial team contest.

I really enjoyed this competition and our flying community, and we had a lot of fun. My sincere congratulations to Sergey Lagun (3^rd place) and Vladimir Sokolov (2^nd place), and many thanks to the organizing committee and all the pilots who took part in this competition. And of course, many thanks to my wife Evgeniya Laritskaya who supported me all these days and moreover provided technical support for other pilots, helped with scoring and made great reports with excellent photos (you can find them on the Russian hang gliding forum here: http://www.deltaplanerizm.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=68950#p68950

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Tandem 1's back in action

Update on the tandem exemption

Facebook|photo|USHPA

The USHPA staff <communications> writes:

Great news! We found out this week that the FAA finally approved our revision to our 2018 tandem exemption. As of July 17, Tandem 1 pilots may once again fly with H1/P1-rated pilots and above as Tandem Instructors-In-Training. USHPA SOP 12-12 has been updated to reflect this change. Please be advised that all other requirements in our tandem exemption remain the same. Important points to remember include:

All tandem flights must be for training purposes only; no recreational tandems are permitted by the FAA.

Both occupants of tandem flights must be current USHPA members. For Tandem Instructors, this means that all non-pilots that you fly with (including friends and family) must sign a 30-day form/waiver before each flight, unless the flight occurs within 30 days of their signing a prior 30-day form. (We recently added an Instructor FAQ to explain this requirement and other commonly asked questions related to instructing; please feel free to take a look.)

The FAA requires that training provide sufficient understanding of information included in the FAA Pilots Handbook and the Powered Parachute Handbook. A summary of relevant information from these two manuals can be found on the USHPA website. We encourage you to link to this page on your school website and/or to email it to students to ensure that they have access to the information.

We understand that the months since we received the 2018 version of the tandem exemption have been challenging, particularly for T1 pilots, and we apologize that this issue took so long to resolve. Unfortunately, we have no further information on why the change occurred. We're excited to move forward with T1's once again being able to conduct training flights with other rated pilots. Thank you for your patience, and please let us know if you have any questions!

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2019 Worlds

Results from the seventh task, day nine

Akiko Suzuki|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Christian Pollet|competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Facebook|Filippo Oppici|Manfred Ruhmer|Marco Laurenzi|Moyes Litespeed RX|Petr Polach|photo|record|Suan Selenati|weather|Wills Wing T3|Worlds 2019|Zac Majors

Live broadcasts: https://www.facebook.com/hangglidingworldchamp2019/

Live tracking and replays: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2941

Also live tracking: https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/split/2941

Results: http://www.italy2019.com/news/

Results: https://airtribune.com/22^nd-fai-world-hg-championship/results

Malcolm Brown writes:

Goal field at the Hang Gliding World Championships in northern Italy. I'm feeling tired after 5 hours flying and a 201km flight to goal. This probably ranks as one of my most memorable flights in 30 years of flying hang gliders. The mountains we flew over today are absolutely stunning. I had my doubts about coming here but I was so wrong.

Matjaz Klemencic writes:

Big task was called today at 200 km taking us from Cercivento north to Austria, over Greifenburg, then to Sillian and back to a bit further from Hermagor. I got to the takeoff where at briefing I noticed my Oudie didn't charge yesterday. I must have mistakenly put the cable in and it was 50% battery was ready for 200km. I managed to charge it a bit with power bank from Evan, thank you so much for that.

Since I was running around making this all happen I somehow managed to make a bigger start cylinder which put me back already at start. I flew quite good after and was with Manfred and rest of the gang after Greifenburg. Here the decision of the day was made as we flew over the valley into shitty area with slow speed and horrifying place to fly over so low. I lost the group and had scratched the ridge to get to the Sillian turnpoint.

Then I flew back to Lienz where I got to 3000m and the direct line was tempting again. I crossed the ridge at about 20 m and found out the landing areas are quite further out then expected. Quite some struggle but I made it out of the trap and went ridge racing towards Hermagor. I was too happy with the nice lift on the way and flew to easily only to find that last part is in complete shade and without any lift. I decked in at about 10k short.

Pilots took other lines that were far better today so I am once again not really happy with my performance. Every day I start good, fly a part with good gaggle but somehow I lose the tempo and get myself somewhere in some shitty place. At least I got my wing to climb well today finally, did some strange settings on my wing with turning things the opposite way it should be. Cost me quite some climbing during the race. Now resting time as tomorrow is yet another task.

Task 7:

#	Name	Nat	Glider	Time	Total
1	Eduardo Oliveira	BRA		04:17:20	986
2	Grant Crossingham	GBR		04:20:13	956
3	Primoz Gricar	GER		04:21:40	938
4	Alessandro Ploner	ITA		04:36:04	868
5	Filippo Oppici	ITA		04:36:15	864
6	Genki Tanaka	JPN		04:36:57	854
7	Peter Neuenschwander	SUI		04:35:52	846
8	Mario Alonzi	FRA		04:37:38	845
9	Christian Ciech	ITA		04:39:46	842
10	Gerd Doenhuber	GER		04:40:12	836

Eduardo, Grant and Primoz got way ahead of everyone else. Manfred landed out, or so the scoring says so. U have him landing at goal. Maybe he missed a turnpoint?

http://www.italy2019.com/2019/07/23/il-brasile-nella-task-piu-lunga-del-mondiale-suona-la-carica-con-oliveira-secondo-in-goal-crossingham-terzo-gricar/

"When the going gets tough the tough begin to play." In the aftermath of the extraordinary feat of the Italian Alex Ploner, who in fact dominated task 7 with a masterpiece of wit and tactical wisdom seasoned with a clear knowledge of the Friulian skies, the race direction opted for a task not only incredibly long (well over 200km) but even with a landing outside the Italian borders, in neighboring Austria. The dress rehearsals had already been staged a few days ago, with the turning point of task 4 - won from the Alto Cassino di San Cassiano - in the area of Caporetto, in Slovenia. The pilots unanimously asked to be able to engage in even more demanding flights and, once the weather allowed safety on all fronts, they were satisfied with a real mission to the limit of the impossible.

Before moving on to the story of the day, one can not but spend words of praise for Flyve, AeroClub Italia and AeroClub Lega Piloti, who with so many efforts have succeeded in giving to protagonists and enthusiasts something never experienced before even in the maximum expression of this sport , or the world championship competition. Absolute novelty also that concerning the take-off: the nearly 120 remaining in the race have "tasted" today another characteristic mountain of Carnia and precisely the Monte Crostis, Valsecca, in the municipality of Ravascletto, taking flight already from a very high altitude at 1900m . Another wonderful place from which they were able to admire a breathtaking panorama, an appetizer of an epic challenge that surely wrote a page about the history of hang gliding.

The Czech Dan Vyhnalik was among the first to come out in the direction of the first mark; the Dutch Tanzer together with the American Zac Majors, opted instead for a different trajectory. Selenati, after about twenty minutes of the race, took the reins of the flight with speeds that reached almost 90km/h and over, taking advantage of the positive effects of the mountain ranges of the district, trying to imitate yesterday's exploits of compatriot Ploner.

The Colombian Daniel Velez together with the Czech Peter Polach (who delighted the public during the daily live broadcast with live images from his hang glider), closed the gap in a short time, as Selenati was forced to stop to gain overtaken share from the big group positioned higher than him. Having left to make the difference and seek redemption, the strong Friulian had to surrender after a few kilometers, landing unfortunately out of goal. At the turning point in the area of Emberg, where practically everyone arrived following the optimized line, the first to turn was the Swiss Neuenschwander, followed by the Japanese Nagusa, Velez, Smith, Polach and also by our Christian Ciech, second in general individual at 168 points from compatriot Ploner.

Another Japanese person came to light shortly after and we talk about Minoru Kato: taking advantage of one of the classic flying styles of gliders called in technical jargon "a dolphin" (which allows not having to search for thermals flying in fact directed towards the goal at variable speed), was the first to gain the third buoy, followed by Polach, Klemencic, Gricar, Ruhmer, Ploner and the young but enterprising Manuel Revelli, later forced to abandon hostilities even before so many others, a clear sign of the great difficulties today. On the long journey to the cylinder including the area of Sillian, a municipality in the Upper Val Pusteria in East Tyrol, the group fragmented and Neuenschwander also opted for a very different line than the head line which instead preferred the trajectory more short.

Ciech, Ruhmer, Klemencic, Ploner, Oppici and the German Gerd Doenhuber composed the head of the race, advancing more than 90 km/h along the crest of the mountains. The Swiss, with great intuition, has accumulated more than 1000m of difference compared to the others, flying sent to over 105km/h and soon rejoining at the head of the race. As happened to Revelli, in the vicinity of this buoy even the strong Brazilian Glauco Pinto had to land, as did Selenati (see above) and Tanzer who had to say goodbye practically at the same time to dreams of glory.

Meanwhile, the splendid day allowed Markel Neiderman of Sweden to reach 4049m of altitude on his Combat GT, practically a record in this World Championship. A few dozen kilometers from the finish, the head of the race - who chose the optimized trajectory - was formed by the Japanese Kato and among others by the Brazilian Oliveira, by the English Crossingham, by the Germans Woehrle and Gricar, by the French Pollet and Alonzi and from our Oppici and Ploner.

Before the final sprint, at Hermagor (minus 25km on arrival), Gricar and Oliviera opted for full altitude (with thermals of even 6m/s); Minoru Kato together with Pollet, authors of a superlative performance up to that point, instead found themselves in great difficulty losing altitude and for the Japanese there was nothing to do but land before their due, when there was very little to the goal. The Brazilian has thus concluded in first goal after more than four hours of flight (entirely covered by the live broadcast on the official FB page), followed by Crossingham and Gricar. First of the Italians in goal Ploner (fifth) followed by Oppici: Brazil plays the charge and warns our National team, called to defend the 1825 points that separated it from the South Americans at the end of yesterday's task. There will be fun and the last two days of competition (we remind you that from tomorrow to tomorrow the final day of rest will take place and for this reason we invite you to follow the updates on the official FB page) will announce themselves not suitable for the faint of heart.

Cumulative:

2019 Worlds

A flatland task for the fifth task on the sixth day

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Facebook|John Simon|Manfred Ruhmer|Marco Laurenzi|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo|Suan Selenati|weather|Wills Wing T3|Worlds 2019

The task:

But most pilots used the hills to find lift then scoot across the flats and back to the hills, showing that the "optimized" course is not necessarily the best course.

#	Name	Nat	Glider	Time	Total
1	John Simon	USA		02:12:57	885
2	Arne Tanzer	NED		02:25:32	880
3	Gerd Doenhuber	GER		02:25:53	859
4	Marco Laurenzi	ITA		02:25:31	851
5	Alessandro Ploner	ITA		02:25:38	848
6	Daniel Velez	COL		02:25:44	845
7	Minoru Kato	JPN		02:27:28	835
8	Manfred Ruhmer	AUT		02:27:12	831
9	Primoz Gricar	GER		02:26:27	828
9	Christian Ciech	ITA		02:27:18	828

John Simon took the second clock twenty five minutes after the 1:45 PM clock. He was 21^st into goal.

Nene and Georg Schweier landed in the river bed just outside the goal cylinder getting within 90 and 40 meters respectively. They both made the end of speed section. Their distance points were very slightly less than those who made goal, but their speed points were reduced by 20 percent.

http://www.italy2019.com/2019/07/20/cambia-lintruso-ma-non-la-sostanza-italia-ancora-protagonista-con-laurenzi-e-ploner-ottimo-lolandese-tanzer/

After the grueling day yesterday (much appreciated by all the pilots also for the encroachment in Slovenia that gave them unique scenarios), today's task has developed from the Valinis mountain to the by now tested Bordano landing, with a covered length of almost 100km, practically all on the plain.

Three buoys are planned, with a sort of "zig zag": after taking off from Valinis, the pilots headed towards the area between Povoletto and Cividale del Friuli (a very large cylinder) and then headed towards Rivoli di Osoppo, Tarcento and finally return to Bordano at the landing field.

The start of today's task has been of fundamental importance since it causes a very different weather situation from yesterday (damp air in the lower layers has led to a reduction in the cumulative base altitude of 1500-1700m against even 2300m yesterday, not allowing pilots to develop immediately a lot of altitude as pointed out by Damiano Zanocco weather manager), the pilots immediately had to choose between the way of the plain (faster but very risky today) and the one that skirted the hills (longer but more likely to find thermal).

A group of about ten pilots opted for the "low street", but the choice was rather risky because after a few kilometers more than someone, including the New Zealander Matthew Barlow, they were forced to land early in the Buja area. The most correct intuition turned out to be that of the group of the best in the standings, with - among others - the Austrian Ruhmer (yesterday penalized for an early start), the Italians Ploner, Laurenzi and Ciech, the Slovenian Klemencic, who proceeded towards the first target at about 1000m altitude with a speed of 55 km/h. Among them were the two Japanese Tanaka and Sunama and the Brazilian top pilot Glauco Pinto, who went on to form the leading group together with the German Woehrle and Ruhmer himself.

In the return to Rivoli di Osoppo, the Dutchman Arne Tanzer, who in a previous task had given a hard time to his opponents, who has opted to fly over the flat area not without risks, forced to stop before reach the second buoy in a desperate search for altitude to continue his adventure. Even the Italian Suan Selenati chose this strategy, managing to maintain an altitude of 500m but still struggling to find altitude.

Pinto, Woehrle and Selenati have won it by turning around the second turn with the best time and continuing the race, or rather the flight, towards Tarcento after about an hour and forty minutes.

In fact, a situation has emerged with three groups: the one farther north that managed to make a great deal, the central one that touched the second mark in the first position and the one further south, which instead took longer to tack towards the last turn point. On the way to Tarcento, once it has gained enough altitude, the small group of Ciech, Ruhmer, Tanzer and Laurenzi veered towards the route chosen by Pinto, Woehrle and Selenati, in the hope of being able to proceed without the last obstacle. Further stops towards Bordano. Between Artegna and Magnano many pilots have benefited from the so-called "service pump", that is a very strong thermal that usually develops in these areas and that allowed the Colombian Daniel Velez to take the lead allatask towards the final part of the race, followed by Tanzer and the Italian Marco Laurenzi, once again among the leaders albeit at his second experience in a world championship, a high hopeful driver for our national team. The Austrian Ruhmer, the Italian Ploner, the Germans Gricar and Doenhuber and the same Laurenzi have embarked on a thrilling pursuit of Velez, with Ruhmer who hired a great duel with the Colombian at around 15km from the finish overtaking and counter-passing, managing to win and quickly gaining precious seconds.

The most beautiful surprise for the public was the group that presented itself above Bordano fighting for the success of the day, made up of more than ten hang gliders that at speeds greater than 100 km/h gave great excitement to the fans: the Dutch Tanzer and the Italians Laurenzi and Ploner were the first three pilots to touch the ground, under the watchful eyes of the team leader Flavio Tebaldi who thus demonstrated, once again if there was any need, the great technical skills capable of getting the off to the Azzurri in the various rankings.

Cumulative:

	Name	Nat	Glider	Total
1	Alessandro Ploner	ITA		4704
2	Christian Ciech	ITA		4642
3	Manfred Ruhmer	AUT		4569
4	Marco Laurenzi	ITA		4411
5	Mario Alonzi	FRA		4259
6	Primoz Gricar	GER		4234
7	Suan Selenati	ITA		4191
8	Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli	BRA		4180
9	Peter Neuenschwander	SUI		4123
10	Grant Crossingham	GBR		4075

2019 Worlds

Results from the fourth task

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|competition|Facebook|Manfred Ruhmer|Marco Laurenzi|Moyes Litespeed RX|Petr Polach|photo|Primoz Gricar|Suan Selenati|video|weather|Wills Wing T3|Worlds 2019

Live broadcasts: https://www.facebook.com/hangglidingworldchamp2019/

Live tracking and replays: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2941

Also live tracking: https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/split/2941

Results: http://www.italy2019.com/news/

Results: https://airtribune.com/22^nd-fai-world-hg-championship/results

Task 4:

#	Name	Nat	Glider	Time	Total
1	Alessandro Ploner	ITA		02:45:45	995
2	Christian Ciech	ITA		02:47:56	964
3	Primoz Gricar	GER		02:48:47	952
4	Manfred Ruhmer	AUT		02:48:14	944
5	Glauco Pinto	BRA		02:49:19	939
6	Mario Alonzi	FRA		02:50:39	920
7	Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli	BRA		02:52:40	903
8	Genki Tanaka	JPN		03:02:04	847
9	Marco Laurenzi	ITA		03:02:06	846
10	Grant Crossingham	GBR		03:02:14	842

http://www.italy2019.com/2019/07/19/manfred-ruhmer-ancora-stoico-ma-deve-cedere-al-nostro-alex-ploner-terzo-ciech-che-cosi-completa-la-splendida-doppietta-azzurra/

Tolmezzo, 19^th July 2019

In the longest task of this world championship to date, Italy is still a team to beat. Great is the Brazilian Pinto who redeems the landing out of the third day.

After the stop imposed yesterday due to adverse weather that has actually anticipated the rest day (required by regulation after six consecutive tasks), the XXII World Championship of hang-gliding organized among others by Flyve, Aec Lega Piloti and AeroClub Italia is resumed today with the fourth task, which in the usual morning briefing saw the change of take-off location on Mount Cuarnan near Gemona del Friuli. For the landing instead, once again the Bordano airfield was confirmed, one of the many countries (together with Gemona of course) that on the evening of 6 May 1976 it was razed to the ground by the terrible earthquake, but like all Friuli knew be reborn in a short time and leave again.

Today's task was very demanding, at the moment the longest of the World Championship with almost 143km to go all in one go, with Italy called to defend first place in the team general with 8503 points (according to Brazil with 7746 and third Germany with 7367), as well as the individual where in the order Ploner, Ciech, Selenati and Laurenzi find themselves in the top five positions with a single “intruder” the never-Austrian Austrian Ruhmer, ninth in the FAI ranking and holder of ten world titles.

After the splendid departure from Cuarnan (admired by many people with the "upturned nose" from Gemona del Friuli), the first buoy a few kilometers away was that of Artegna, where our Ciech passed first and left behind the Slovenian Franc Peternel, the compatriot Ploner (second in the flight of debut and in that of the day before yesterday) and two other insidious pilots, like the German Gricar (winner of the second task) and the Swiss Neuenschwander (second Tuesday). The hang gliders continued to the turn point in Slovenia, near Kobarid: for the first time in the history of the World Championships, the race was partially carried out in a different state than the host one, surely due to the organization which it was well spent in order to reach this historic goal.

Polach (Czech Republic), Smith (New Zealand), Majors (USA) and another group managed to find an important thermal just a few kilometers from the turn point across the border; Cantesanu, the only Romanian in the race, has lost altitude instead by landing off goal. Behind this group, the excellent Italian (and Friulian) Suan Selenati quickly arrived; the choice of the group was instead to follow the mountain slope, a fitting decision because in a short time they were re-attached to the fugitives at an altitude of about 2000m of height and over 70km/h of speed.

In the return to Trasaghis, where the third buoy was placed, the leading trio was composed of Gricar, Ciech and Ploner, with Pinto, Ruhmer and Neuenschwander (very fast in the stretch in question) to chase. Most of the group even in this phase, preferred to follow the profile of the mountain, which guaranteed their quotas and speeds always worthy of respect.

Ruhmer first touched the third turn point; unlike the stretch carried out up to that moment along the mountain (continuous line with very high average speed), the path towards the last buoy located at 9km from Cividale del Friuli, flying over a hilly area, required an important mental strategy, where fundamental it was the evaluation of the lines: the development of the heaps and also the flight of the birds, were important references - as underlined by the "meteoman" Damiano Zanocco - transforming the competitive challenge into a real chess game.

Ruhmer continued taking altitude following a line able to make him bypass the plain, flying east and also Ciech, Ploner and Gricar, along with the Brazilian Pinto, opted for this choice. Neuenschwander instead chose the trajectory from Cuarnan (today's take-off site) towards the south, about 3 km from the other pilots, climbing well but not quickly and soon being overtaken by the first group just mentioned that in the meantime had reached almost more than 2000m.

Ciech, Ruhmer and Ploner once again composed the leading group flying at 2200m at about 85km/h "at full throttle" towards Cividale; in the Nimis area they found a thermal with good values (more than 4m/s) and took advantage of the full altitude. In the equally fast return to Bordano, Alex Ploner - thanks to a wonderful tactical choice that guaranteed him a stable speed towards landing more than 70 km/h without ever having to stop to resume altitude - he managed to take a good margin of advantage over Ciech and Ruhmer scoring first with a time of 02.45.46 anticipating the Austrian and his teammate, thus putting another important seal on both the individual journey and the Azzurri towards the final goal.

Petr Polach: https://www.facebook.com/polachp/videos/2582778105113987/

Cumulative:

#	Name	Nat	Glider	Total
1	Alessandro Ploner	ITA		3856
2	Christian Ciech	ITA		3814
3	Manfred Ruhmer	AUT		3738
4	Marco Laurenzi	ITA		3560
5	Mario Alonzi	FRA		3487
6	Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli	BRA		3473
7	Suan Selenati	ITA		3448
8	Primoz Gricar	GER		3406
9	Peter Neuenschwander	SUI		3318
10	Grant Crossingham	GBR		3260

An area of low pressure?

Behind the wing?

Dez Hill|photo

Thanks to Dez Hill.

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2019 Worlds

No task on Thursday

Facebook|photo|Worlds 2019

Apparently their forecasting is foolproof enough that they are calling the day the day before the day.

https://www.facebook.com/hangglidingworldchamp2019/posts/856894181354322

And that the day after that will be flyable.

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Chelan, Washington

This is why we like flying there

cloud|Facebook|photo

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2019 Worlds

Live action

Facebook|photo|weather|Worlds 2019

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2941>

https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/split/2941

Sunday, training day task cancelled due to poor weather. The training day is for training the organization.

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Aus team in Spain

It's sorta like Australia

competition|Facebook|Konstantin Lukyanov|Moyes Litespeed RX|photo|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown

https://airtribune.com/42-nacional-ala-delta-zujar-jabalcon/results

Wow, I bet the Spanish pilots aren't real happy about this. It's their Nationals:

42º Nacional Ala Delta Zujar Jabalcon

And it's all in Spanish, which would be a bit of a handicap for Australian pilots.

In little early and a long ways away for the Australian Team to practice for the Worlds (which begin July 13^th). I guess they are serious.

I see that our friend, Konstantin Lukyanov, violated airspace and got a 100% penalty. Many others got warnings, including Rory and Rohan, but not Steve.

It's the Oz Report after all

Australia’s Bachelor and Spinster Balls

Oz Report|photo

Surreal photos from a two-year odyssey experiencing rural Australia’s Bachelor and Spinster Balls.

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200 criminals

All covered up, many with masks

Facebook|PG|photo|record|weather

David Williamson|Facebook|PG|photo|record|weather

Williamson David <<postmanexpat>> writes:

But there may be a question of legality. Authorities have said that it's a €300,000 fine and 3 years inside.

https://www.ledauphine.com/haute-savoie/2019/06/27/mont-blanc-des-gendarmes-vont-faire-de-la-prevention-aupres-des-parapentistes

This Thursday and Friday, the soldiers of the Chamonix Brigade will go to the Planpraz paragliding take-off area between 11 am and 2 pm in order to make the paragliders aware of the prohibition by joint municipal decree of the town halls of Chamonix and Saint -Gervais to land at the top of Mont Blanc. This device is put in place because of the over-frequentation and the lack of equipment adapted to the high mountain. The amateur public will be more targeted.

Hot weather continues in Europe: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/06/26/european-heat-wave-france-germany-poland-czech-republic-set-june-records-worst-is-still-come/

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Early in the morning

At Lookout

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Not the Red Bull X-Alps

Surfing in calm waters

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Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds

Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

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Wills Wing T3 154

Almost ready

Facebook|photo|Wills Wing T3

Hessiche meisterchaft competition

In Greifenburg Austria

Corinna Schwiegershausen|Facebook|photo|video

Windy:

Corinna at goal - https://www.facebook.com/corinna.schwiegershausen/videos/10156542834226314/

Hiding from the wind:

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Down tube cross sections

Slip, lite, and round

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https://youtu.be/zCPXHuA1MDs

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Wolfi flies a Wills Wing T3

Well, he is a "factory" pilot after all

Facebook|photo|Wills Wing T3

Wolfi writes:

The T3 is hands down the best handling high performance glider I have ever flown. The bearing tips are just amazing—in tight little thermals I can just put it on a tip and bank it up. In big fat thermals, I pull half to full VG. In fact, sometimes I forget to let the VG off and don’t realize until I leave the climb and reach to pull VG for glide.

The handling shines not only in low speed and thermaling but also with my low-to-the-ground high-speed flying. I’m always 100% in control and can make precise corrections with very little effort.

The new extended carbon inserts also make a difference in high speed performance by supporting the leading edge shape more effectively.

All in all, this is my favorite glider ever. Go test fly one and you’ll be impressed.

Full disclosure, I trade advertising in the Oz Report for the use of a Wills Wing T3. In the past I have also done so with Moyes when flying in Australia.

I have to agree with Wolfi. The handling is amazing. I don't know if you can get enough experience on one test flight to see really how much this is an improvement over the T2C. No more bumping to initiate a turn, for example. The swiveling wing tips act as shock absorbers when gliding, at least it feels that way to me. High speed glide? Amazing.

Microburst

The photos

photo

http://canyouactually.com/this-incredibly-rare-rain-bomb-falling-from-the-sky-looks-insane/

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See and avoid

Hey, they are off to my side

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Altair

Using your phone as your flight instrument

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https://www.facebook.com/altairvario/photos/a.407661506273440/839024779803775/

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Flat Earth

The FAI sphere Vs. the WGS84 ellipsoid

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competition|Facebook|photo

competition|Facebook|photo

competition|Facebook|Flytec 6030|photo

A few pilots have been caught out lately having not upgraded or used the WGS84 Ellipsoid setting on their flight instruments. First Kevin Dutt didn't get the first clock despite his Flytec 6030 giving him the happy sound.

The start time was 2:20 PM. The last time he was in the start cylinder according to the WGS84 ellipsoid as illustrated here on SeeYou set to the ellipsoid, was at 2:19:30 PM.

He performed two circles outside the start cylinder and the closest he got back to the start cylinder was at 2:20:20 PM and he was about 45 meters outside the cylinder at that point. Using FS2018 for scoring, and Flymaster trackers for the track logs, and 0.1% error band, he would have had to have been within 5 meters of the edge of the start cylinder.

A review of the difference between the FAI sphere and the WGS84 ellipsoid indicates that it is necessary to set your start radius cylinder for a 5 KM cylinder if your instrument is set for the FAI sphere, to 4.97 km or 30 meters inside the 5 km cylinder.

I came very close to also blowing it that day. I had forgotten to change my setting on my Flytec 6030 to WGS84 Ellipsoid, even though unlike Kevin, I had upgraded the 6030. This is my track log:

I was 10 meters outside the start cylinder at 1 second after the start time, which just put me inside the start cylinder at 16 kilometers per second (35 mph) at the start time. A pretty close shave. Pure luck, of course.

On Tuesday, Matjaz Klemencic, got caught when he didn't go far enough into a large cylinder at the Spring meet.

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/results

https://airtribune.com/springmeeting-2019/results/task4032/day/class-1

The cylinder was 11 KM. The error band would be 11 meters.

The Flymaster web site shows him making the turnpoint and getting to goal in 5^th spot. The Flymaster web site apparently has a different error band than the 0.1% that they were using at the competition.

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