Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

Volume 6, Number 239
10 am, Thursday, November 21 2002

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

to Table of Contentsto next topic The Airborne Gulgong XC Classic – day 4

Wed, Nov 20 2002, 7:00:00 pm GMT

Airborne Gulgong XC Classic 2002|Airborne Climax|David "Dave" Seib|Moyes Litespeed|Rick "Ricky" Duncan|Rohan Holtkamp

Partial overall results:

1 Ricky Duncan Airborne Climax C2 14
2 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Climax C2 14
3 Dave Seib Moyes Litespeed

Sorry that I didn’t get further results, but these were the guys on the podium.

The cirrus moved in over night and when they took a trike up in the morning it looked like 25 km/h out of the north-northwest.  At first it appeared as though the day wouldn’t be that flash.

Then cu’s started appearing under the cirrus at around 11 o’clock that their bases appeared to be over 10,000’ MSL.  Perhaps it would be a lot better day than it first seemed.

Rohan and the task committee called dog leg to the south to Mudgee and then south east to Ryleston, the airport – 76 km. A short task given the upper winds, but still based on the prospect of weak lift under the thick cirrus.

Ricky Duncan thought that going early was the go, so I got out in line at 1 PM. With four ahead of me and two in the air it was unclear what our prospects were.  The ground was dark from the cirrus and the thick cu’s were to the south of the airport.

I had my best tow yet with the C2 behind a trike.  I kept my knees bent and had the bar stuffed to my crotch the whole time.  I hit the first tiny bit of lift at about 1,000’ and pinned off.

The lift was really light and I just let the bar out and started feeling around for little bits as I assumed that there would only be light lift.  The wind was strong out of the west, northwest, and I drifted down the air strip and into better lift south and east of the strip.

This slowly turned on to average 500 to 600 fpm to, well very high, quite a bit higher than I’ve ever been in Australia.  It took a while as I had to climb so high and I was drifting out of the start circle to the east and not to the south, where the first turnpoint was.

Finally I had to fly back to the start circle south of the air strip and still I was able to get back up to real high (again the legal limit in Australia is 10,000’). I saw two other pilots to my west a kilometer or two and they were another 1,000’ over me still below the cloud.  So there were at least three pilots quite high just as the clock came around to 1:50 PM and the 10 minute start interval turned over.

I had been watching the air strip and seeing how pilots were doing.  There were no clouds over the strip, only a few a few kilometers to the south and it didn’t look like many of the pilots were getting up. It would turn out that many pilots did not get up at all even after 3 tows, even when towed to 3,000’. I was darn lucky to get out of there early, leave the field to get up, and find lift from 1,000’.

I watched the two pilots in front and high above me as we all headed out at 1:50 toward Mudgee.  There were plenty of clouds along the way and I stopped for 3,000’ of climb in 600 fpm half way there.  The two pilots ahead of me were still going so I didn’t see them until I got to the turnpoint.  They wouldn’t take a thermal until after the first turnpoint.

Things looked a little iffy after the turnpoint.  Two pilots who had left earlier and the two who went with me (Rohan and Ricky) were turning in a thermal to the east of the turnpoint, but when I went to join them, I didn’t find anything.  I continued on racing for the clouds to the east.

Again the ground was quite dark from the high clouds, and the cu’s below were looking pretty ragged.  I searched around quite a bit, but came up empty and had to land 14 kilometers past Mudgee.

It turns out that the thermal that I didn’t find after the turnpoint was the thermal that got all those four pilots to goal.  They just climbed up at 300 fpm, and when they got almost to the top, they turned and glided to goal.

The average speed over the course was almost 70 km/h.

This has been a great meet and the pilots really had a good time.  The facilities here at the glider port are perfect for an outback experience with a barbie and a hangar thrown in. This is apparently the first time a hang gliding meet has been held at a glider port in Australia.

Turns out it was because the glider and hang glider magazines were combined that Ricky Duncan saw the photo of the Gulgong air strip in the magazine and thought that given its close location the New Castle that it would be the perfect spot for a little meet.

The port is privately owned, has a club house, a repair hangar, a regular hangar, 8,000’ of runway, toilets, some water, although not much at the moment, camping facilities, a barbie, solar power, caravans, a winch for sailplanes, etc.  Ricky thinks that it could handle 70 pilots easy for an aerotow meet.

I’ve been advocating for an aerotow meet at the glider port in Australia for three years now.  Ricky was the guy to find the perfect spot.  Then the weather really cooperated.  It is going to be hard to beat this weather in any meet.

All it took was one thermal on course to make goal today.  Oli made goal and then flew back against the head wind.

Oli coming off the cart

The town of Gulgong is quite small but very friendly and quite adequate for a mob of hang glider pilots and friends.  Maybe a pool (when it rains again) to keep the wife and kids cool at the air strip would be good.

The town is laid out where the tents were staked during the gold rush.  There is still gold here.  With parking there is only one lane open in the main road through town.  The caravan park is quite nice.  Lots of pubs and a motel or two.

And only four hours from Sydney and New Castle.

Discuss "The Airborne Gulgong XC Classic – day 4" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic Flying the Airborne Climax C2 14

Wed, Nov 20 2002, 7:00:01 pm GMT

A.I.R. ATOS C|Airborne Climax|Conrad Loten|David "Dave" Proctor|Ghostbuster|Rick "Ricky" Duncan|Steve Moyes

Tony Deleo «Writetonyd» writes:

I’ve noticed your flying a flex wing.  Are you considering going to same and if so what are the reasons?

I perhaps forgot to mention that my AIR ATOS-C is on the boat coming from Los Angeles.  At the time I left the states I hadn’t contemplated flying at Gulgong because when I sent off my ATOS I hadn’t heard about this meet.

I still wasn’t thinking of coming to this meet, but Ricky Duncan and Rob Hibbard at Airborne offered to fix me up with a Sting, a Fun, or a Climax.  At first I thought the meet was on the east coast, and a Sting seemed like the appropriate glider.  Then I realized that it was out here west of the Blue Mountains, and the Climax seemed the better choice, in spite of my lack of recent experience on a topless flex wing.  BTW, a pilot flying a Sting yesterday did much better than I and almost made goal on the 138 km task with four turnpoints.

I was nervous about flying the Climax, but I’m now very happy that I did.  It is a fun glider to fly and I think that I was beginning to get the hang of it by the end of the meet.

Proctor, Dave «dproctor» writes:

You might want to try a trick I learned while flying my old Formula which had a reputation for yawing all over the place when flown fast.  When you want to go fast don't just pull the bar back but also push down.  Lock your elbows into your sides and concentrate on keeping your arms locked in position.  This accomplishes two things.  It locks your body in position to stop swinging PIOs, and with your mass locked tightly to the glider it increases the yaw moment, helping to dampen out yaw.

Today it went much better with the PIO and the yaws.  I’m finally getting use to the glider and figuring out how to counteract my own inducement to yawing.

It was great towing with the bar stuffed, which I had to do to keep the glider down with the trike.  Without the VG full on this takes a bit more muscle, but I felt fine about it. I really like the idea of balling up with my knees out and getting the weight under the CG.

Overall I felt great about flying the Climax.  Except for some few times in turbulence I felt very comfortable in the glider.  While in the ATOS without the tail my brain would continually go through the tucking scenario every time I hit turbulence.  That tape didn’t play while I was flying the Climax.  This, of course, is a great relief.  It doesn’t mean that the Climax can’t tuck, it just means that the way it feels to me doesn’t trigger my subconscious bad response.  It feels solid.

The tailless ATOS (and the tailless Ghostbuster that I flew the other day) seem to be skittery.  Whatever that motion is it is the one that triggers the tuck tape.  I’m hoping that when I get the tail on the ATOS in Australia, the tuck tape will stay on the shelf.  I don’t know for sure.

I was so happy to find out that I wasn’t scared of hang gliding, just scared of flying the tailless ATOS.  It was a great relief to find out that I wasn’t permanently ruined.  Or that I didn’t have to suffer for a few years until I could enjoy hang gliding again.  If I find that I can’t enjoy flying a rigid wing even with a tail because the tuck tape gets triggered by the feel of the glider, then, I can just fly a flex wing and be happy again.

Thanks to Ricky and Rob for letting me fly their baby.  The Climaxes have definitely improved over their short life time and it is great to see another great topless flex wing from an Australian manufacturer.

Towing the Climax on Monday

How does the Climax compare with the Litespeed?  I really have no personal experience that would let me make anything near a good judgment call.  I do know from watching Rohan that the Climaxes have improved a lot.  Obviously the Climax pilots are doing well in this meet.

One thing that distinguishes flex wings from rigid wings, is that the flex wings can be tuned (and detuned) in so many different ways.  This is both a positive and a negative.  If something is wrong, it is nice to be able to fix it in the field quickly.  But then the chances of something being wrong are much higher than with a rigid wing, because there is so much flexibility built into the design of a flex wing.

With a rigid wing glider, the factory builds it to a specification, and as long as it stays within the spec, you basically aren’t supposed to do anything to it. It is very difficult to adjust the twist, and the sweep has a very narrow range.  You can’t recamber the battens, or without difficulty move one tip up and the other down.

I found that it was easier to set up the ATOS than the Climax, not that it was particularly hard to set up the Climax.  It just took more time as I had to put in all the battens.  The dive sticks were very easy to put in place and fold up in the Climax.  The Mylar sail was difficult to roll compared to a rigid wing, which doesn’t have Mylar and whose sail is very easy to deal with.  Airborne has a Dacron version now.

With a flex wing you feel like you are part of a family as support is usually nearby.  With a rigid, you are part of a minority and you had better be prepared to fix it on your own.

I didn’t feel that there was any difference in the responsiveness of the Climax compared to the ATOS.  They both took a while to initiate turns.  It was a little more work with the Climax, as with any flex wing, because you had to move your body, not just the control frame.  This meant more work for my shoulders.  I started taking Ibuprofen again.

I loved landing the Climax.  The frame is so big, and the glider is so gentle with the VG off.  It feels like an intermediate glider.

After a while I learned to enjoy thermaling the Climax.  I was just getting use to it. With the VG all the way off, it is easy to turn.  Once I got the right hand turn fixed, I didn’t have to high side it.

The VG is very easy to pull on as it has a long throw.  I was a bit nervous flying with full VG because when I hit a thermal I would get tossed about.  You want to get the VG off right away so that you can maneuver in the thermals.

I remembered why we have speed bars: in order to allow you to push against the bar to push your weight over to one side.  I had forgotten about this aspect of speed bars flying the ATOS.

On the last day Steve Moyes thought I might want to fly the Litesport, and I told him yes that I would, but that I felt I should continue flying the Climax through the meet as Airborne had been so generous with their offer to let me fly the Climax.  Hopefully Steve will give me another chance later to fly the Litesport before the Australian Open (maybe at Stanwell) and I will have an opportunity to write about that experience.

I have written some about the Litesport before, but haven’t flown it enough to really get to know it. I did enjoy flying Conrad’s Moyes Sonic at the beach (especially without the harness).

Would I fly a flex wing glider rather than a rigid wing in the upcoming competitions?  Well, I’m going to give my ATOS a go first and see how it feels.  If the inner voices are calmed down by its behavior, then that’s my preferred option.  But life is strange, so who knows what will happen.

Thanks again to Ricky for getting me a wonderful glider to fly.

Discuss "Flying the Airborne Climax C2 14" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic Oz Report in Cross Country Magazine

Wed, Nov 20 2002, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Cross Country Magazine|Oz Report|Peter Loeskow

Cross Country readers may have seen the recent article (in XC #83) on the Oz Report on page 13. The article came from an interview I did while at the Worlds at Chelan Butte.  Noel Whittal, the Cross Country Magazine owner, sent a local paraglider pilot to interview me about the Oz Report.

Here is what Peter Loeskow «Peter.Loeskow» had to say about the article:

I'd like to express my resentment of the tone of that "profile" of Davis Straub.

Matt Gerdes states that Davis Straub is "the creator of the e-zine everybody loves to hate". This is rubbish, worth only a tabloid, and an offense to the multitude of long-time subscribers who I bet like me love to love the result of Davis' great unpaid(!) efforts.

I don't appreciate the choice of picture either.  That one is a fun one meant for those who know from other pictures in the Oz Report what he normally looks like.  Those who don't know that, though, are led to believe that blued hair is Davis' normal "styling", while in reality it was dyed on one occasion, for fun I assume, together with others who also dyed their hair blue.  I doubt that Davis' hair was blue when he met Matt Gerdes.  Depicting Davis as a blue-haired person looks to me like another attempt at ridicule, and I resent that too.

A "profile" does not have to the gushing of an adoring fan, of course, but an interview with Davis could have resulted in something else, somewhat preferable to that article, IMHO

I say go for the publicity.  If more people read the Oz Report, they can make up their own minds.  Maybe Noel will send me a copy of the article and I can publish it also.

Discuss "Oz Report in Cross Country Magazine" at the Oz Report forum   link»

to Table of Contentsto next topic SeeYou – working with the Colibri

Wed, Nov 20 2002, 7:00:03 pm GMT

Colibri|SeeYou

SeeYou how has the ability to upload and download to selected dataloggers.  You can upload waypoints and tasks and download flights.  In order to make this work correctly Andrej «info» writes:

1. Start Connection wizard
2. Turn Colibri on
3. The Colibri should beep after it boots up

Discuss "SeeYou – working with the Colibri" 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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