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Oz Report

Volume 4, Number 47
11:30 pm, Thursday, March 2 2000

https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

to Table of Contentsto next topic I flew the Ghostbuster today, oh boy

Thu, Mar 2 2000, 4:30:00 pm GMT

Campbell Bowen|Flight Design Ghostbuster|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Poustinchian|Russell "Russ" Brown

Just a quick report with more to follow in later Oz Reports.

Acting on an invitation from Russell Brown, Campbell Bowen, and Mark Poustinchian, I made my way through the Chinese Wall that separates Wallaby Ranch and Quest Air to the north to try out Campbell's new Ghostbuster.  (This is the one that he flew 139 miles on his first flight.) I really appreciate their invitation and thoroughly enjoyed their hospitality.

Mark Gibson (Gibbo) has also invited me to fly his factory-supported Ghostbuster here at Wallaby Ranch (during the week when he's working producing his new slow flying trikes), so I'll have a chance to try his Ghostbuster out and get some more experience with the glider.  Mark says that Flight Design is sending him a Mylar sail, after he said if they didn't he was going to make one himself.

With winds strong out of the west, northwest, I didn’t feel any need to get there too early as it didn't look like a record day.  I found out after I landed back at Quest that Bo Hagwood took off just before I got there at 11:30 AM and flew a Ghostbuster 112 miles to the southeast and landed on the coast.  Perhaps if he'd gotten off at 10:30 (it certainly was soarable then) and pushed further south, he could have made West Palm Beach.

Mark Poustinchian saw me setting up the Ghostbuster and came right over to help me out.  I was therefore able to get quite a few photos as he set up the glider.  His was already to go next to his trailer.

Not only were the winds strong today, but the lift was substantial.  There were reasonably tall cues starting around 9 AM, and by noon, the sky was packed.  I needed the lift because my task turned out to be out and return to almost Wallaby Ranch (intersection of 474/27 and back to Quest).

While I'll leave many of the details to further reports, here's a quick synopsis.  I really had fun flying the Ghostbuster.  This was not true the last time I flew one, and this Ghostbuster was much different than the one I flew just before the Worlds last July in Germany.

I could push out on the base tube in turns, just like I was flying an Exxtacy, and it didn't stall, nose over, and fall off on a tip.  No breaking stalls.  I didn't try real hard to stall it, so I don't know if you can do it easily or not.  But, previously I couldn't fly the Ghostbuster as though it were an Exxtacy, and have it not stall.  This time, it was easy to fly it just like an Exxtacy.

I've been flying Exxtacies a bunch lately, as I sold my ATOS, and my new one hasn’t come, so that is my current point of reference.

The Ghostbuster uses a lot of the same hardware as the Exxtacy, so unless you are looking out at the wing, it looks like you are flying an Exxtacy, also.  Mark and I discussed the roll rate.  He and I agreed that it is about the same as the Exxtacy.  I'm not certain about this, but it did feel very similar.  Mark says 45 to 45° rolls are slow, just like on the Exxtacy.

I flew the Ghostbuster for about two hours in strong conditions, and thoroughly enjoyed the ride.  I pulled the flaps into the sail and flew between thermals at between 45-50 mph, whatever my Ball Comp showed as STF (for the ATOS polar that they supply with the vario). I never flew it past 53 mph, as the air was too rough for me to fly it any faster than that.  I'm not comfortable flying real fast in rowdy air.

I found it easy to fly at 45 mph or so with minimal bar pressure.  I did a lot of speed runs with the flaps in, and found that I could get up to speed very quickly and hold it. This hasn't been true on the Exxtacies I've been flying lately.  I'll have to go back to put the hang point even further forward on these to see if that makes a difference.

I had moved the hang point forward on the Ghostbuster, as Campbell had it set against the uprights.  Mark wanted me to put it back, but I was relying on my recent Exxtacy experience and hoped to cut down on bar pressure.  I got the feeling over all that the Ghostbuster has less bar pressure than the Exxtacy.  Perhaps less twist would be the cause, if this is the case.

After a bunch of speed runs with the flaps retracted, I tried a few with the flaps extended but in the neutral position.  It seemed as though I could speed up just as quickly and go just as fast.  The only problem was that over 40 mph the flaps started vibrating and the control frame would shake.

It was impossible to tell if I was getting a better sink rate with the flaps in or out as I was flying in thermally air.  Mark and I discussed it afterwards, and his feeling was that the flaps just add drag, like say when you are thermaling and you want to slow down the glider.  Retract the flaps into the wing, and cut down on their drag (even though when extended they are in the neutral position).

The argument for retracting the flaps has been that the wing loading goes up as you reduce the wing area.  The question that arises when you look at flaps on rigid wing gliders is, can they really be counted as wing area that contributes to the glider's lift?  Just from looking at these flat plates, it sure doesn't seem that way.

If the effect of pulling in the flaps is to reduce the drag, then that is a benefit, but it is a much different kind of benefit then that which you get from increasing the wing loading.  I'll go more into this later.

Anyway, it was cool pulling in the flaps, and it was cool going fast, and it seemed a lot easier to go fast on the Ghostbuster than on the Exxtacy (or the ATOS). At first, I thought, I sure had better get some ballast when I fly another rigid wing.  Later I thought, I sure had better put the hang point forward.  Maybe I should reduce the twist.  Lots to think about.

I was able to use all my speed to force my way back up wind and get back to Quest Air after a thoroughly enjoyable flight.  The glider was steady in all the rowdy air and it felt solid.  I was probably hanging too low (it's been the case with the Exxtacies lately also), so I didn't feel all that comfortable flying, but that didn't detract greatly from the experience.

Landing in a ten mile per hour ground wind was easy.  I did put on too much flap, but when I pushed out, I noticed that I had done that, and I just eased off on the push out.

I'm looking forward to more flights, and I'll report more on the Ghostbuster details.

Thanks again to the folks at Quest Air.  I much appreciated the opportunity to try out one of their many Ghostbusters.

Discuss "I flew the Ghostbuster today, oh boy" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic Canadian meets for 2000

Thu, Mar 2 2000, 4:30:01 pm GMT

Ian McArthur|Mark Dowsett|Randy Parkin|Canadian Nationals 2000|Canadian PG Nationals 2000|Canadian Footlaunched "Nationals" 2000

I asked Ian McArthur, «ianmc», for the dates of the meets that he wrote about yesterday in the Oz Report.  He wrote back:

The Eastend Towing Nationals are July 01 - 08.

The Paragliding Nationals are July 1.2,3 I believe.  Randy Parkin will know for sure.

The Footlaunched Nationals are May 20 - 27 I think.  Mark Dowsett will be able to confirm it.

Discuss "Canadian meets for 2000" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic Dates for pre-Worlds, Worlds, and Spanish Nationals

Thu, Mar 2 2000, 4:30:02 pm GMT

Pre-Worlds 2000|Worlds 2000|Spanish Nationals 2000

I wrote and asked Juaki a few questions about the pre-Worlds, etc.  He said that there is no web site yet, but that when it becomes available it will be linked to the CIVL web site (http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/).

During the pre-Worlds he says:

The competition days will be 9 days from the 27th June up to the 5th of July.  Until the 30th will be working with two groups, these will merge on two new groups, one with the top pilots (after normalizing both groups) and another one that will run a different comp.  Anyway no cut off.

During the Worlds:

The actual flying will start on the 17th and we will work in the same way as the Pre-worlds, but no cut off.  Only that the group B (not top pilots) will fly a different competition on the second lap.

I intend to get the NACs filling the entries of the teams in both groups, to get two groups the most level-headed possible.  After the first lap, we will normalize both groups, and probably stay with a group of approximately 100 pilots in group A, flying the top comp.  and group B with the rest flying a different comp.  This affects only class 1 and not class 2.

Discuss "Dates for pre-Worlds, Worlds, and Spanish Nationals" 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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