Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

Volume 6, Number 73
9 am, Sunday, April 7 2002

https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:00 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic Wills Wing Daze

record|sailplane|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing

www.willswing.com

The party is happening at Wallaby Ranch.  It just gets so exciting to see all these pilots come to the Ranch and fly their brains out on Wills Wing gliders.  In addition the sailplane homebuilders association is here admiring Steve Arndt’s Magic Dragon – which is repaired and flying well.

The winds were strong out of the northeast on Saturday so not a lot of folks flew during the height of the thermal activity, but plenty of folks took evening flights in light lift and lighter winds.  Strong east winds are predicted for today of similar strength, but perhaps they will back off a bit.  The winds are clocking around and it looks like it could be a record attempt day again on Tuesday.

Many pilots are here to get ready for the upcoming Wallaby Open so there is even more energy than would normally be the case.  Malcolm and Jeremy are treating us all great with plenty of good food and lots of towing.  There must be fifty gliders set up at any one time.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Falcon 2

Fri, Apr 5 2002, 11:00:01 pm GMT

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Belinda Boulter|Flytec 4010|John "Ole" Olson|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wills Wing

www.willswing.com

After the sale of 2000 Wills Wing Falcons, WW has come out with an updated version of the Falcon, version 2.0. It’s still a Falcon, but it a Falcon with a Mylar leading edge pocket, spring tip battens, 7075 batten material in all battens, new sail cut, reduced stall speed, enhanced stall characteristics with more gradual air flow separation, decreased sink rates, and better handling.  Well, at least these are the claims from Steve Pearson and the other guys at Wills Wing.

Since I’ve had lots of practice flying Falcons lately I was the perfect candidate to go up and try out the new Falcon 2’s. I had an opportunity to fly in late evening conditions in a Falcon 170 (I normally fly a 195 – but there is also supposed to be a greater weight range for these new Falcons). Of course, a glider this small (for a single surface) is going to feel great in light air, and the Falcon 2 felt great.

I wasn’t able to stay up with the Magic Dragon though as it was let off just over my head.  Well, there weren’t many beeps on Belinda’s Flytec 4010 that I was flying with, but Steve was able to stay up in something.

I’ve got to say that I really like the Falcon, but it just takes a bit of patience if you want to go cross country.  The new Falcons don’t provide any improvement in that area, but they are easy to land, so when you do go cross country you can land anywhere.

Steve Pearson encouraged me to push out all the way on the Falcon 2 because he said that it flew just fine in deep mush mode on the other side of the stall point.  I did and it did.  I will do it some more in the coming week.

The 225 Falcon now comes in two models – solo (with a smaller control frame) and tandem that can be fitted with big wheels – three of them, to hold the glider and the pilots off the ground.  In the future Wills Wing will sell the whole tandem tow package with the wheels and extra boom for the back wheel.  The hardware on the tandem version of the 225 Falcon will make installation of the tow package easy.

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:02 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic Stalker 2

carbon fiber|Ghostbuster

www.justfly.com

As long as I was flying the second version of the Falcon, I thought that I would also check out the Aeros Stalker 2. This is quite an upgrade of the Stalker with the addition of large highly canted winglets to significantly increase the Stalker’s span, and a very refined all carbon fiber control frame.

I had only a short opportunity to fly the Aeros Stalker 2 this evening after flying the Falcon 2 to check out the air.  I didn’t just want to jump on the Stalker 2 (my first rigid wing flight since Australia) without knowing what the air was up too.  Once I found that the winds weren’t too string and the thermals had died down, I was ready to try the Stalker 2.

Previously when I flew the Stalker I had a lot of trouble controlling it. With lots of hours on flex wings recently I figured that that would be less of a problem with time.  I remembered that it towed well, and yes this time it towed as straight as one could ask for in the light conditions (well there were bumps at tree level because the wind was still blowing).

The Stalker 2 towed better than I had remembered was the case with the Stalker, and as good as the ATOS, Ghostbuster or Exxtacy.  It was easy to go one handed.  Also, of course, it was quite a bit quicker than the Falcon 2 with a lot less bar pressure.  Overall towing with it was a pleasure.

I find the smallest bit of lift at 2,000’ over the Ranch and started circling.  I was going pretty fast and wondered if I had a too far forward hang point position.  I wanted to slow down, but took my time doing that as I didn’t know anything about the Stalker’s stall characteristics.

Lots of folks were watching and were impressed that I could stay up so well.  Steve Arndt was still around flying in his Magic Dragon and came in under me, although I was just hanging out in zero lift.  I was able to stay over him for a good while, something not possible in the 170 Falcon 2.

I was really enjoying the flight, barely moving the bar to get it to turn.  I was able to be in charge of the glider right away unlike the last two times I had flown a Stalker, and that impressed me. I made sure that I made only very small movements.

The Stalker 2 is much easer to turn than other rigid wings, and very close to if not easier than the Falcon.  Easier than the LightSport.  There is a bit of adverse yaw, but once I noticed it I just realized that I had to wait a bit and the glider would turn in the correct direction.

You would think that the wing tips would slow down the roll rate, and maybe they do, but not so that it would be a problem.  I didn’t get the Stalker 2 up on the wing tip, that will come later as I get more comfortable with it and get a chance to wring it out a bit.

I was concerned about the landing, as I had only been landing LightSports, Falcons, and Superfloaters lately.  I wondered if I would be coming in a lot faster (and not have any wheels). I sure didn’t want to wreck that nice control frame that seemed designed for speed but not for impact.

I pulled the flaps on close to full to allow me to fly slow close to the ground.  There seems to be a lot of resistance to pulling down the flaps, but I could do it. I will have to look at that more and see if I haven’t done something wrong in the setup.  The flaps are relatively small so I didn’t expect much in ground speed reduction from them.

I pulled the control bar in to get good speed, but not over speed as I wasn’t sure that I would PIO the glider.  I brought it right down to the deck with my feet dragging as I slowly let out the bar.  The glider kept flying and slowing down and I wasn’t sure just when it would get too slow and go over instead of allowing me to flare.

Finally I decided to flare and bang, the wing just stopped in its tracks with out much of an effort on my part.  I did a regular flare and it stopped right them.  People on the ground were impressed as I did a no stepper in light winds.

Everyone was impressed and excited about this new version of the Stalker.  Lots of folks around here want to fly it, so I’ll be able to garner lots of impressions.  I’ll report as fully as I can.

I’ll have an opportunity to fly this glider during the next few days at least, so that I can give a fuller report.  Of course, what every one is really interested in is its performance compared with the current leader – the ATOS.  I hope to be able to report on that soon.

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to Table of Contentsto next topic ATOSes show up

Fri, Apr 5 2002, 11:00:03 pm GMT

Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Wallaby Ranch

www.a-i-r.de

Six ATOSes from AIR showed up at the Ranch on Friday in three big boxes.  It looks like it will be an ATOS fest here at Wallaby Ranch.  And then, at the Flytec Championship there should be 25 or so rigid wing gliders (not as many at the Wallaby Open). I guess the European rigid wing pilots think that it is cool to come here in the spring after all even with the Worlds coming up in Chelan.  Two of the new versions of the La Moutte Top Secret should be at the Flytec meet.

It is great to see all this rigid wing interest.  The new ATOSes look great.  They haven’t been test flown, and we’ve got to get the flaps on them, so these are really a factory kind of deal.  All arrived without damage, so those of you expecting to pick up your ATOS here can breath a little easier.

Oh yes, these are ATOS-C’s, but there are no tails with them yet.  Felix says I will be getting a tail when he comes here on the 11th. Alex Ploner the world champion will be coming with him then.

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:04 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic Galileo

Ivan Twose|Rob Kells|Wills Wing

Ivan Twose|Rob Kells|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

Ivan Twose|Rob Kells|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment

www.brauniger.com

It’s not quite ready for prime time.  Looks like the software isn’t quite finished in the new Brauniger Galileo.  The unit that Rob Kells from Wills Wings (USdistributor) has here needs to go back to Brauniger after the Wallaby Open.  Apparently Brauniger took a lot of orders for the Galileo at the show in Garmish last weekend.  I know that Ivan Twose took one home to make sure he can get it working with Compe-GPS.

I got an opportunity to play with it for half an hour on the ground.  I’ll fly with it more later this week, mainly just as a vario.  People noticed right away that it isn’t the most streamlined looking device on the planet, but no one seemed to mind greatly.  It does have a little pitot tube sticking out of it. It looks quite substantial and able to handle a few bad landings.

The screen is quite large and the numbers are easy to read.  I don’t think the on screen buttons were working yet.  It was fairly easy to figure out how the thing worked even with a manual only in German.

One thing that I have disliked about the IQ/Comp is that you always have to set it into flight mode and then in McCready mode, and then turn off the McCready sound every time you turn it on. I would love to have these as settings that you can just set on the menu.  It didn’t look like they were going to do this on the Galileo either.

The menu allows you to set the sounds pretty much the way that you want to hear them.  I guess if you want it screaming at you when you are going up at 100 fpm, you can get that.  I think I would like the encouragement.

The built in GPS is just a compass rose with an arrow.  No maps of course.  Now, an arrow is all I use for competition, but during those long flights over Texasit is nice to know how far I’m from the next road.  Thankfully, I’ve been over the territory enough that I’m pretty comfortable with it for the first 400 miles.  I guess I will just have to relax after that.

What the Galileo offers is an IGC certified (not yet) data logger for the price of a vario and a GPS.  Up until the WRE very very few people needed this kind of functionality.  I’m sure that most of the pilots who will be buying the Galielo won’t need this kind of functionality, but they will want it to be able to write out IGC formatted data files to use with SeeYou, Compe-GPS, and the on-line contest.

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:05 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic MR 700

Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|record

www.icaro2000.com

Duh!  Did I blow it or what?  I didn’t even notice that the new Laminar was the MR 700 for a reason.  The thing that we got so worked up over at the last World Record Encampment.  Manfred flew 700 kilometers.

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:06 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic Aerodynamics – tucks and tumbles

Aerodynamics|Felix Ruehle|Gerolf Heinrichs|Rob Kells|Steve Pearson

Gerolf Heinrichs and Felix Ruehle have agreed to make short presentations on the aerodynamics of hang gliders just before the start of the Wallaby Open, or on a day that gets blown out during the meet (if that happens). Then the floor will be opened up to discussion and questions.  Steve Pearson will be here, as well as Rob Kells, and many other knowledgeable pilots so I’m sure that we can get a free flowing discussion.

I’ll report on the results of any of the discussion, so that Oz Report readers won’t miss out.

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:07 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic SeeYou – FAI triangle helper

PG|SeeYou

SeeYou just gets better and better.  One of the first things I asked for after I downloaded SeeYou was a way for the graphical task planner to help me draw an FAI triangle.  The good guys at SeeYou have done an excellent job implementing this function.  You start with one side of the triangle and then you are shown an area on the map that displays where you can place the second point to get a FAI triangle.

They write:

1. FAI Triangle assistant

After some excursions into spherical maths it is now exactly what it should be. Accurate and easy to use FAI Triangle Assistant will let you design an FAI Triangle and within minutes your waypoints will be in the corners of what is possible.

Choose Edit->Tasks->Add Task or any other shortcut in order to start designing a new task.  Start with the first leg and See how FAI area grows on one side of the leg.  If you need it on the other side, just press Ctrl+R to rotate the area.

After you are done with the basic construction you will need to make fine adjustments.  Turn on the most suitable of areas by using Ctrl+R several times, click on the point you need to move and keep it within the shaded FAI Area.

From here on until the landing it's just your imagination.  http://www.seeyou.ws/tour-planning.shtml

2. SeeYou has a mirror site in theUS

The volume of downloads from www.SeeYou.ws is growing rapidly.  For your convenience we have now setup a mirror site in theUS at http://mirror.SeeYou.ws.

We encourage everyone outsideEurope to download from this location as it will make your experience and our service better.

3. aerokurier Online Contest support

Another rapidly expanding site is the aerokurier Online Contest.  Just in case you are not familiar with it - visit this page: http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-i/wertung.html click on the link under kilometers and let the flight open with SeeYou.  Numerous flights are being submitted daily and there is a lot to be learned from what others are doing around your area.

Recently OLC has grown to accommodate hanggliders and paragliders.  SeeYou has evolved so, that everyone can submit their flights as easily as possible.

http://www.onlinecontest.org/

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Fri, Apr 5 2002, 6:00:08 pm EST

to Table of Contentsto next topic Flying over Vancouver

Mark Dowsett|photo|video

Mark Dowsett «mark» writes:

I have spent countless evenings taking advantage of the privilege of flyingGrouseMountain inNorth Vancouver, just North of Downtown Vancouver.  Yesterday (Wed, April 3rd), I got the privilege to fly outside of our normal flying zone around Grouse Mountain and down to the waterfront in North Vancouver.  This area is usually strictly for controlled aircraft to go in and out of the Harbour airport in the Georgia Straight.

I spent a lot of time calculating this event and was in contact withHarbourTower control tower as well as my ground crew to ensure there are no conflicts and the landing field is in easy reach of thepeak ofGrouse Mountain where I will be launching from.

Why did I do this???? CFOX FM, “The Fox” (99.3 on your FM dial) is running a contest that will award a person that produces the most amount of advertising for their radio station a grand prize of $10,000. So I have turned my hang glider into a mobile, flying billboard for them.

What can you now do to help me win this prize?  Check out the web site I put together with photos of this fun event.  You can get to it directly now at: http://homepage.mac.com/thefoxrocks/ and it will also be off of the Fox’s web site at: http://www.cfox.com. You can also listen to the Fox live on the internet at this web site.  I may even be on the air again on Thursday AM – I was on twice on Wednesday promoting the flight.

Please drop by at least to check it out – there is a counter on there that the Fox will be looking at to pick a winner.  There are some great shots thanks to Tyler, Todd, Robb and Justin.

I will also be getting a video up there on that site in the next day so check back often (it helps the counter too).

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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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