Flytec
Wills Wing

Oz Report

Volume 4, Number 121
10 am, Saturday, July 1 2000

https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:00 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Pre-Worlds results

CIVL|Manfred Ruhmer|record|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

Vicki at Moyes came to my rescue (as did a number of others later) and told me where to find the pre-Worlds results: http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001. Just click the little American flag to get it in English.  Then click Results in the upper menu.

Funny, Manfred isn't there.  Anyone know why?  Nene and Betinho are doing well.

Speaking of Betinho, after the Wallaby Open and ACC, Betinho stayed at the Wallaby Ranch.  Malcolm was hoping that he would go for the Georgia record, but I got to Georgia while Betinho was up in New York for a few days to visit his girl friend.

Okay, so now Malcolm decided to come up with a great prize for going 200 miles, and he was hoping the Betinho would go for that.  On the day I went, Betinho stayed in late in bed with his girl friend at the Ranch.

I was very fortunate to win $2,300 from Malcolm, and very pleased that Malcolm put up all this money to encourage pilots to go far from Wallaby Ranch.  Betinho was also very pleased to see that I had accomplished these goals and didn't seem to be the slightest bit put out.  We really loved having him around the Ranch.  It was nice to have his girl friend around the Ranch also!  He's number one in my book, and also in CIVL's book.

Discuss "Pre-Worlds results" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:01 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Spanish Open

André Wolfe|Jim Page|Oleg Bondarchuk|video

Jim Page, «jimp», writes:

The Spanish open was held in Zujar, near Baza in Andalucia.  It is about 200k east from Algodonales having looked quickly at a map.  The take off was a mountain called Jabalcon, 1500 ft above the highlands NE of Granada (about 100k NE of Granada itself). Large (100+ flex wings) T/Os available for southerly and westerly winds, and it is an excellent thermal generator.

It really is a fabulous place, not too desperately hot due to the altitude, as the highlands are about 2500ft MSL.  You can see Mt. Mulhacen (snow capped) clearly though it is 100+ k away, but sadly we never got to fly there.  Landings are straightforward apart from some ravine systems scattered around the plain.

Tasks were mainly organised with a goal close to Zujar, and were in the 50-100k range, with most days featuring hard into-wind legs.  About 10%-30% in goal.  What I haven't got is the final results (I had to catch a plane before the last day's results, and the last day was a bit of a disaster task-wise), but the penultimate day's results were 1st Oleg Bondarchuk, 2nd Andre Wolf, 3rd John Durand Jr. I was 21st. There were about 90 entrants.

The Spanish view is that Jabalcon is better than Algodonales, but neither are nearly as good as Piedrahita or Ager.  However, I have to say that Jabalcon is now one of my top 3 sites in the world.

Discuss "Spanish Open" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic Great ⁢ATOS⁣ spin story

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:02 pm EDT

Alan Hughes|ATOS|Davis Straub|Heiner Biesel|PG

Alan Hughes|ATOS|Davis Straub|Heiner Biesel|John "Ole" Olson|PG

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Alan Hughes|ATOS|Davis Straub|Heiner Biesel|PG

Alan Hughes|ATOS|Davis Straub|Heiner Biesel|John "Ole" Olson|PG

Alan Hughes, «alan.hughes», writes:

After reading all the stuff in the Oz Report recently, I thought I'd better contribute my experience in spinning the Atos in the French Alps earlier this month.  First some background.  I've been flying HGs now for 22 years, and switched to Class II earlier this year.  Prior to my spin, I'd got 2 hrs on an Atos demo (Dec 99 build), and 2 hrs on my own machine (May 2000 build).

We were flying at Plaine Joux, near Chamonix in the French alps.  Conditions were typical for the area - stable, light / nil wind, and heavy inversion in the valley at about take-off height.  This made for challenging flying, with small thermals streaming off the into-sun rock faces, and hugging the hill until they hit the inversion and broke up in a turbulent layer.  I'd spent 2 weeks here the previous year flying my flex wing, and trying to find that elusive inversion-busting thermal.

Day 2, and I followed my familiar flight plan, heading along the ridge to a gully that I knew worked well.  Found my thermal, and started climbing nicely below and about 200ft behind a paraglider (between him and the hill). When I got to about 50ft above his wing, my left wing dropped.  Instinctive reaction - pull in, and shift right.  The glider immediately snapped into a spin - the nose went down, and I was treated a view of whirling tree-tops accelerating towards me. Scary!

Again my reaction was entirely instinctive - go to neutral, centred on the bar, which was pulled in lightly to just below shoulder level, and take stock.  I reached for my parachute handle to make sure I could reach it - which I could easily.  There were no significant g-forces, just a sensation of falling towards the whirling tree-tops.

The glider was rotating rapidly about its axis (keel) and seemed to be pointing vertically downwards.  I thought about throwing the chute, but at the back of my mind was a voice that said "not while the glider's still capable of getting you out of this".

Both hands back on the base-bar, and when the air-speed seemed pretty high, I pushed out gently.  At this stage the glider was still spinning.  I know that theory says that you hold on speed until it stops spinning, but I didn't have the height to wait any longer.  When I pushed out, the glider stopped spinning immediately, and came out in a gentle upward curve (facing up the hill!) without excessive g's. Shift right, away from the hill, and resume normal flight.

I looked up to see the PG now about 100 ft above me. So, allowing maybe 100ft for the zoom, I guess I lost around 250 ft in the spin.  I've got no idea how may times it spun, it seemed like lots of times but may have been only twice.  The whole thing was over in a matter of a few seconds.

So, what happened?

· Like Heiner Biesel (Oz 115) I've given both the Atoses I've flown a thorough work-out, and flown slower in tighter turns - albeit in smooth air with lots of height.

· The spin must have been induced by flying too slow in turbulent air - either from dropping out of the back of the thermal or flying through the wake-turbulence of the paraglider, or maybe a combination of the two.

· Did pushing-out help to recover from the spin?  I really don't know.  I do know it was spinning before, and stopped immediately I pushed out.  Maybe this was just coincidence, and both the glider and me decided we'd got enough airspeed at the same time.  However, compared to other reports of spins on Class IIs, I really didn't lose much height (good job, because I didn't have much height!). I'm not going to test this theory - I'll leave that to a braver soul than me!

And conclusions?

I've changed my strategy.  As per Davis Straub's comments, with an Atos, I really don't need to work the small mucky stuff.  I can use my glide to find the decent thermals that are worth working, and fly just a bit faster when working them (the glide is good enough that you don't need to be that close to stall speed).

Turbulent conditions clearly need more margin - including flying near other gliders.  Paragliders in particular can generate a fair thump of wake-turbulence - more than a hang-glider, in my experience.

I've read everything I could find about flying Class II gliders, and other people's reports of experiences in spinning meant that I recognised what was happening immediately.  Thank you to all those pilots brave enough to go public.

I continued thermalling on the same flight, after the spin, but further away from the hill and with more ground clearance.  No problem.  I continued flying the Atos for the rest of the trip (further week) using my new strategy and got some great, scare-free, flying.

This is a great glider - I got it into the spin, it got me out.  I was left with the feeling that I now know what a spin is like, and that the glider can cope - given the room to do it. However, I'm no hero, and have no intention of ever repeating the experience!

These new gliders remind me of a time in the early 80's when there was a similar step improvement in glider performance - and gliders became capable of stalling, sometimes violently.  The old maxim of the Rogallo pilots "if in doubt, push out" suddenly became fatal.  We've now got gliders that can spin, and we've got to learn how to handle them safely in all conditions.  I hope these thoughts help contribute to this learning process.

Discuss "Great ⁢ATOS⁣ spin story" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:03 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic It's no Foehn flying

Hansjoerg Truttmann

Hansjoerg Truttmann, «hansjoerg.truttmann», writes:

As we know after your reports: three out of the four accidents/incidents with Atos' in Europe that have been described in the OZ-report have occurred in Foehn-conditions (question: is Foehn a well-known expression in English?  Foehn is a usually strong and turbulent wind in the lee side of a mountain range; usually Foehn is the expression for this kind of wind around the European Alps, Mistral near Marseille is the same but not called Foehn).

During the world championships in Switzerland (Wallis) 1989 we had the unintended opportunity to learn a lot about what happens if hang gliders fly in Foehn (it blew on most days). As I remember there have been about 6 parachute-openings after tucks and tumblings and about 5 to 10 incidents of the same kind as it was mentioned in the Oz-Report (Atos turned upside down, recovered and landed safely). In the WC in 1989 I was also turned upside down.  It happened with such a rude force, that - in my opinion - no aerodynamic effects around a hang glider what so ever and no pilot reaction what so ever could have helped.

The accidents/incidents with Atos' in Europe show us (for me it's no surprise actually) that also with rigids we must not fly in Foehn-conditions.  I suppose no engineer, now or in future, will be able to invent a hang glider that allows safe Foehn-flying.  For me it's no use to discuss Foehn-accidents in connection with safety-aspects of a certain type of hang gliders.  All hang gliders are and will be unsafe in Foehn.

I generally do not fly XC in the higher Alps if any overall wind (Foehn or not) blow beyond 25 km/h. The (local) Foehn effects / lee effects - in combination with thermals - are too dangerous for hang gliders (flexies and rigids) and anyway, I don't like to be tossed around.  Most of the tucks and tumblings in the past that I have heard of (and there are dozens of them) occurred in lee/Foehn effects.

The major problem at the moment is the unintended spins as they have obviously happened in calm conditions!  On this topic engineers should concentrate.

Discuss "It's no Foehn flying" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:04 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic You go Berndt

Manuela, who works at AIR, writes:

Bernd Weber flew 290 km (180 miles) distance one way yesterday with ATOS.  5.5 (5.5) hours with average 52 km/h (32 mph) speed.

Discuss "You go Berndt" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:05 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Sandia Open – Heiner comments

Dave Sharp|Heiner Biesel|record|Sandia Open

Heiner Biesel, «trx140», writes:

We had three outstanding days, followed by four of moist and unflyable days, but those first three days more than made up for it. About 17 of the 26 pilots entered had personal bests, and both Dave Sharp and I had two successive personal bests.

Between us we broke the state record for foot-launched flight three times, and it now stands at 242 miles, only 8 miles short of the class 2 world record.  John Woiwode got third overall, and first in the kingpost class with three long flights, and just about everyone had a blast.  You can't ask for more than that.

(I also had the most terrifying landing of my life, landing in east winds gusting from 15 to well over 30, but I made it without injury or damage, so I'm quite stoked as well.)

Discuss "Sandia Open – Heiner comments" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:06 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Ole has Samba

John "Ole" Olson

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|John "Ole" Olson

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson

John "Ole" Olson

John Olsen, «GringoTriker», says that he has a Samba trike on hand (see Ken's article in the last Oz Report).

Discuss "Ole has Samba" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:07 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Ghostbuster, but not in name

Ghostbuster|Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson, «usairborne», writes:

Just a quick note to U.S. & west coast Pilots that U. S. Airborne will be displaying the new space ship, the Eclipse- rigid-wing (19 to 1 glide) wing by (Solar wings) Pegasus.  This is the 1st unit into the U. S. so come see it.

I will also have a batch of the new mini-plane paramotors.  As well as the New Airborne 2000 trike/aero tug.  Come see us at UL booth #20 if you're at the air show.

Discuss "Ghostbuster, but not in name" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 30 2000, 8:00:08 pm EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Chelan today

Gary Osoba

Gary Osoba

Rain and heavy clouds this morning.  Clearing a bit by 1 PM. Some sun by 2 PM. Went up and checked out the top at 3 PM. Strong winds out of the southwest (pretty common for late afternoon). Maybe someone flew, but I have no word.

Gary Osoba, «go777», writes:

The picture of the high "thick ice cloud" in your last Oz Report sure looks like a wave generated lenticular to me.

Discuss "Chelan today" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Sat, Jul 1 2000, 12:00:09 am GMT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Aeroextreme 2000

David "Dave" Glover|David Jackson|John "Ole" Olson|Scot Huber|Scot Trueblood|USHGA

Scot Trueblood, «Hang4av8r», writes:

It is my pleasure to announce that the Jackson Hole Aeroextreme 2000 will be held Sept.  7-10, 2000 at beautiful Teton Village, WY. The contest will consist of Speedgliding and Aerobatics from the top of Rendezvous Mtn.  With Tram service and 4'100' vertical.

Contestants can enjoy the ultimate in convenience while flying the 2nd tallest vertical Speed course in the world.  For aerobatics, the huge vertical coupled with a short glide to the box and huge LZ make this venue superior to Telluride.

The Speedgliding event is USHGA sanctioned, with points available toward SGNT selection.  There will be a significant sport class and I would like to strongly encourage advanced pilots with good low-to-no-wind launches and landings to come participate and learn some of the fresh new challenges and thrills associated with this permutation of the sport.

There is much to be learned by watching the open class pilots, and now those who are interested in Speedgliding have a good way to come participate by simply having good sled-run skills.  The event website is at: www.aeroextreme.com.

Staff photographer: David Glover.

Discuss "Aeroextreme 2000" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Oz Report, a near-daily, world wide hang gliding news ezine, with reports on competitions, pilot rankings, political issues, fly-ins, the latest technology, ultralight sailplanes, reader feedback and anything else from within the global HG community worthy of coverage. Hang gliding, paragliding, hang gliders, paragliders, aerotowing, hang glide, paraglide, platform towing, competitions, fly-ins. Hang gliding and paragliding news from around the world, by Davis Straub.

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