Oz Report

Kathleen Rigg flies again

Christian Ciech|Florida|Kathleen Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer

«rigg» writes:

There is a little FAI cat2 comp going on in Lanzarote, the Spanish holiday island off the coast of North Africa.  Several top pilots are there as can be seen from the results so far.  The island is small and tasks are short - 36km and 25 km so far.

This is the first flying for Kathleen Rigg since her two knee operations after her ACL gave way in Florida last spring.  This was more or less the same thing that Christian Ciech did at the class 5 worlds on the last day.

After two tasks:

Place Name ID Glider Nation T1 T2 Total
1 PUÑET PELLISE, Carlos, 26 450-99 Moyes Litespeed ESP 447 185 632
2 WEISSENBERGER, Tom, 11 6301050018 Moyes Litespeed 4 AUT 449 173 622
3 BAIER, Bob, 36 00178 Moyes Litespeed DEU 447 167 614
4 RIGG, Kathleen, 28 9114 Icaro LaminarST13 MR2001 GBR 428 152 580
5 RUHMER, Manfred, 1 440035 0239 Icaro Laminar AUT 303 249 552
6 JUNG, Jochen, 14 326/01/CA Moyes Litespeed ESP 475 71 546
7 KUZMANICH, Jorge, 122 100/00/CA 2211 Icaro Laminar ST ESP 364 152 516
8 CORUJO RODRIGUEZ, Tomas de Aquino, 10 341/02/CA Moyes Litespeed ESP 328 162 490
8 MARTIN TABARES, Alberto, 8 347/02/CA Icaro Laminar MRX ESP 337 153 490
10 GONZALEZ ROSADO, Esteban, 20 342/02/CA Icaro Laminar ESP 369 85 454

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Jerz goes Laminar

Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Pete Lehmann|record

Jerz Rossignol joins his buddy Paris on the Icaro 2000 Laminar team.  He will be here in Australia to fly in the upcoming competitions.  I’m sure that he will be missed from the Aeros team where he flew the Combat 2 (which he has for sale for $3,400), and will enjoy his new teammates.  Great to see pilots getting support from manufacturers (and other sponsors who can actually afford to sponsor pilots).

It wasn’t too long at OzReport.com/6.21 that Jerz wrote about Paris:

We flew a lot together and not once did he out glide me nor he ever out climb me. Actually the opposite was true.  When I was running with the lead gaggle, I never saw him at the top of the stack or climbing through gaggles or out gliding most of the field.  It just wasn't so.

It's not the equipment you owe the credit to for winning and doing so well.  It's your talent as an awesome pilot, but I also understand that part of your job is to talk the glider up :-) Keep the distortion levels in line though cause you've just spent the last month with your good flying buddies who are going to read this stuff sooner or later.

Speaking of the MR 700, Icaro 2000 has decided to drop that moniker for the year 2003. Last year Manfred’s glider was the Icaro 2000 Laminar MR 700 WRE in reference to Manfred’s 700 kilometer world record flight.

Well, now that Mike Barber has surpasses that flight on a Moyes Litespeed, although much to his embarrassment, not far enough to get a new world record, Manfred is dropping the 700 moniker.  Could there be a connection?

Not only that, but is Mike not getting his due, in spite of the Flytec WRE ads in the US Hang Gliding Magazine that highlight his new world record for a flight to goal (along with Pete Lehmann on a WW Talon) and the longest hang glider flight ever.  You would think that Moyes would point out in their ads that the longest hang glider flight is on a Litespeed, but maybe they are also embarrasses by the fact that it isn’t the world record.

Let’s hear it for Mikey (and for Manfred), they both had awesome flights, and Mikey has the longest flight ever on a hang glider.

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Bo and Curt arrive in Oz

Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Curt Warren|Dragonfly|Rhett Radford

Bo Hagewood and Curt Warren arrived in Sydney on Thursday and showed up here at the Moyes factory on Friday.  Belinda and I have staked out the visitor lounge as our office these last few days as we hook our computer into the big pipeline – Moyes’ fast Internet connection.  It’s been a long time without a good sized Internet pipe.

Bo and Curt are looking good and were on their way to find some Telstra pre-paid CDMA phones.  They will be staying in Coaldale near Stanwell Park.  Curt will be doing tandems again for Chris at Sydney Hang Gliding.

Rhett Radford came in on Saturday.  He’s here to do some aluminum welding on the Dragonflies, as well as be a tug pilot at the meets.

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Local pilots

Oliver Barthelmes

Oliver Barthelmes «oliverbarthelmes» sends in this shot of a local flying near Wollongong, south of Sydney:

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Paris Williams

Thin frames

John "Ole" Olson|Paris Williams

Grant Hoag|Paris Williams

Paris Williams «parisflies» writes:

When I was working at Altair, we had the similar dilemma when designing the small Saturn.  The problem is that small pilots obviously need smaller control frames to comfortably ground handle their glider, but if you hang them any higher (with a smaller frame), they lose a surprising amount of roll authority with only a short increase in hang height (the glider becomes much stiffer), and of course, small pilots need all the roll authority they can get.

So, after a lot of head scratching, I came up with the idea of simply shortening the basetube (considerably), so that hang height remains the same (or even slightly lower unless you shorten the downtubes just slightly), but the control frame is much narrower.

When we tried it, the benefits were even better than I had hoped for.  Since the control from is now narrower, the whole frame sits quite a bit higher on the pilot's shoulders (now the part of the frame that matches the pilot's shoulders is considerably lower); and so the basetube is much higher off the ground.  Also, with the frame being narrower, the pilot's leverage during ground handling and launch is much better.

Another major benefit that resulted was a much easier flare for landing--the narrower grip on flare gives you much more elbow bend to begin the flare with and so much more reach with which to get a good, solid flare.  The only thing to consider is not making the basetube so narrow that the pilot’s hips aren't hitting the tail wires during strong roll inputs in flight, but we found that there's still lots of room to work with here.  We were definitely pleased with the results on the small Saturn.

The idea's so simple, I'm surprised more manufacturers don't incorporate it--just chop the basetube and adjust the wires, what could be simpler?  Am I missing something here?  This geometry can also be used just when you want to lower your hang height a bit to get some more roll (and pitch) authority out of a glider without compromising launch and ground handling.

Possible problems to consider when lowering hang height are the increase of drag when hanging lower (important for comp pilots and serious XC pilots) and a possibility that stall characteristics might sharpen and pitch recovery worsen (though this didn't seem to be an issue on the Saturn). I wouldn't advise that a pilot do this change to their own glider, however, without discussing it with the manufacturer, in case they think the problems I mentioned above or some other problems may exist with their particular glider.

Hoag, Grant «GHoag» writes about short control frames:

Ten years ago I ending up in the hospital for four days due to reducing the control frames.  Because I am short, the control bar was hitting my ankles on the take off run.  I shortened the down tubes by a few inches.  As a result, I had less roll control in my diver.  A few flights later I was ridge soaring when a gust turned me towards the hill.  I was locked out, and crashed.  Short people beware!  Don't weaken your roll authority!

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World Pilot Ranking

Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Tim Cummings|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Tim Cummings|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

(Zupy|Zupanc)|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Tim Cummings|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Tim Cummings|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zupanc)

Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Michael Zupanc|Tim Cummings|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~zupy/wpr/wpr.htm

Michael Zupanc «zupy» writes:

The database has been ready for some time now (Tim Cummings did the programming), there just seems to be some difficulty getting some server space on the FAI server so that it can run in parallel with the existing WPRS.

I have set up some flat pages with the overall ranking so that people can see what their ranking is and also so they can check out the explanation.  I also asked for a link to my page from the FAI page, but that has not quite happened yet http://members.ozemail.com.au/~zupy/wpr/wpr.htm is where the new ranking can be found.

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USHGA - Gil’s parting words

USHGA

A forwarded message from … <…@aol.com>:

I've been thrown out on the street after 25 years, unceremoniously, with no warning and much deceit going on in the background, and with no severance package whatsoever.

I guess I did such a bad job for 25 years that it finally took someone with really profound insight, experience and wisdom to figure out that I had been doing it wrong all along.

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Entrepreneurial hang gliding instruction

Florida|Quest Air

Curt told a story about his hang gliding instruction adventure in Venice, Florida before he came over to Oz. With a connection from his Dad who is a General Aviation instructor in Venice, he got permission to set up a towing operation there are the GA airport (uncontrolled airspace). He then shanghaied a trike pilot into learning how to be a tow pilot.

He then put out a non stop PR effort to get the town aware that he would be doing tandem hang glider flights with instruction down at the local airport at the beach.  Interviews with all the local newspapers, etc.  followed as he generated a bunch of enthusiasm.

For the next five weekends Curt was out at the airport taking folks up in his tandem hang glide.  It was a big success and every one was unhappy to see him go when the sessions were over, and he left for Australia.  Just when everything was really running well.

Curt got four pilots up to the point where they could solo at Quest Air, and so far two have done so and two will soon.  He sold four harnesses.

Go to the right place, have the right combination of skills and personality, get in with the locals.  It can be done.

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The f/w worlds – whose bid will win at CIVL?

CIVL|Florida|The f/w worlds|USHGA|Worlds

Will it come down to a matter of how much the meet directors will charge for the flex wing pre-Worlds and Worlds?  With a presumed bid coming out of Australia and one out of Florida for the 2005 flex wing Worlds, will the US be disadvantaged by its strong currency?  Will the USHGA (which is set to manage the meet if their bid wins) be inclined to or capable of keeping the costs down?

Will CIVL revise their rules so that the pilots (or their national hang gliding association won’t be paying for five CIVL members to come to the meet to act as Stewards and Jury (a major factor in the costs)? Will it really cost that much less to bring them to Australia?  Why would France care?

Who is going to manage the worlds and pre-worlds for the USHGA?  Why would they?

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HGFA⁣ flight regulations

I already was able to get most of the hang gliding regulations from the HGFA web site, but fortunately Craig Worth «hgfaops», the director of the HGFA, has sent me the full set.  You’ll find them at: http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/Oz Visiting Pilot Membership Info.htm

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Garmin 72?

http://www.garmin.com/products/gps72/

«FlyingHolidays» asks:

Can anybody proved any feedback on the Garmin 72, is it suitable for flying and competitions, how many track points can it hold, does it data log altitude, how is the battery life, whether we could specify track log frequency rather than "auto," etc, etc.

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Airborne towing at the meets on the flats

Daveo from Airborne will be towing at Deniliquin and Hay with an Airborne trike.  Hey, I say bring down the one with the 912 engine!  Eight US pilots are signed up to be towed by Daveo.  Bo worked that all out today after Daveo called me yesterday.

Bo will have to be the tow pilot on the last two days as Daveo has to be somewhere else.

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Leading edge ads

Pilots forced to put on ads on their leading edges without any compensation?  An informal discussion at the lunch table here at the Moyes factory found a former world champion (and his mother) not too happy with that prospect.  He’s on his way to making the Australian world team, so he would be affected.

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Aerodynamic center?

John&Heather Reynoldson «aerial» write regarding my interview with Bill:

I think you mean that ailerons themselves are aerodynamically balanced (ie: the pivot point of the ailerons are aft of the leading edge of the aileron itself, thus reducing the force required to actuate them). If the ailerons were at the "aerodynamic centre of the wings", they'd be mounted about 1/4 chord back from the leading edge!!!!!

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Fly-o-rama

Douglas Pohl

Douglas Pohl «dpohl» writes:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,396553-1,00.html

For your continuing flying education or How does a fruit fly really fly?

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Top Navigator update

Top Navigator

Fly Hawaii «hagemann» send in this URL for the latest update:

http://www.aircotec.ch/tncomplete160/tncomplete1.6.0.zip

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Snow and Fire

fires

It was snowing on the ski slopes above Mt. Beauty and Bright (home of the Bogong Cup) on Friday as bush fires continued around Sydney.  Temperatures dropped down to the lower twenties, but there continued to be strong winds but now out of the south.  The snow came with record low summertime temperatures at Mount Hotham.

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