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Oz Report

Volume 7, Number 236
9 am, Saturday, September 6 2003

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

to Table of Contentsto next topic Ellenville - Flying in Fantasy land

Sat, Sep 6 2003, 3:00:01 am EDT

Belinda Boulter|Ellenville, NY|Florida

The nights are cool, maybe in the forties tonight, with the highs tomorrow in the high seventies or maybe eighty.

After days of rain and clouds all day on Thursday, the sun came out early on Friday morning.  We’re camped in the huge landing zone at the Ellenville Flight Park next to the gurgling Sandburg Creek, which is swollen from the recent rains.

We’re here in southwest New York as part of our tour of northeast US flying sites on our way to the party at Finger Lakes Aerosport Park later in September.  Only seventy miles from New York City we are in the foot hills of the Catskills surrounded by tree covered hills and valleys.

The cu’s started forming early, but then a shelf of clouds came in from the northwest and the satellite showed that this was just the precursor of a much larger bank.  It sure didn’t look that good to me.

But Tony Covelli, proprietor of the Ellenville (foot-launched) Flight Park, was enthusiastic and said that folks would be showing up later in the afternoon, perhaps some getting off from work early.  No one was at launch when Belinda and I walked up the short length of road behind the locked gate off highway 52 at 1 PM, but when we went back at 3 PM, the place was packed and more pilots kept streaming in.

It was great to see so many enthusiastic pilots driving in from as long away as Long Island, NY two and a half hours to the east and from Scranton, PA two hours to the west.  JJ, a well known local pilot, had already been flying his ATOS for about forty minutes but had landed by the time I started setting up when he discovered that he hadn’t put on the fish cams on the outer two ribs on both sides.

The Ellenville launch is on the hillside just to the southeast of the landing zone and 1000’ over it. It’s a short drive up the road from the Ellenville making for painless access and vehicle retrieval.

It was coming up light straight in, and I was the third pilot off.  I just listened to my vario, did what it told me to do, and soon I was circling up and away from everyone else as they continued to ridge soar.

The lift was light and thoroughly pleasant as I climbed to 2,000’ AGL from the launch at 1,000’ AGL.  Heading north east along the ridge line I found continual light lift and was just staying about even as I flew past the Ellenville airport and found some sunlight and stronger lift.

The first pilot off had been soaring at about ridge level, so I neglected to put on much clothing, therefore as I approached 4,000’ MSL (the valley floor is 340’ MSL) at 300 fpm, I was starting to shake.  This is not Florida or Texas so it’s cold, but oh the lift is superb.

It was no trick to fly all over the ten to fifteen mile long upper plateau with light lift pretty much wherever you went, but I had to get back down closer to the trees to get warm again.  The birds were out and I just kept getting closer to the trees like they were, wishing I could fly even closer to them.

Much later, after just bobbing around the sky in the most pleasant of conditions with pilots scattered all up and down the long ridge line, I forced myself to come in for a landing in the huge, grassy, soft, and a bit wet lz. Flying should always be this easy.

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Sat, Sep 6 2003, 3:00:02 am EDT

Carol Binder|Curt Warren

Carol Binder|Curt Warren

to Table of Contentsto next topic Cearar Race & Rally

www.goup.com.br/cearar

Carol Binder «binder_carol» writes:

Day three, competition task two was a fantastic day here in Ceara at the Cearar Race and Rally.

All pilots launched at Quixada, the famous site of the Xceara Cross Country competition in moderate E/SE winds.  The total distance of the task was 225km with a race distance of 210km to the NW of Ceara, gradually nearing us to the northern coastline and the big party on the beach.

Eleven pilots of twenty five made goal in the sometimes radical air and sometimes non landing areas but generally everyone came back with a smile on their face.

Quixada - Sobral 210km/225.6km

1. Mario Alonzi (FRA) 2h.54

2. Curt Warren (USA) 2h.59

3. Fernando Azervdo (BRA) 3h.06

 

Betinho at Quixada

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to Table of Contentsto next topic Tsunami tuck

Sat, Sep 6 2003, 7:00:03 am GMT

Bart Doets|David "Dave" Swanson|Steve Uzochukwu

Steve Uzochukwu «steveu» writes:

Dave Swanson wrote:

And if we could understand it, then maybe we could design something to reduce or prevent it from happening again.

We have designed something to prevent it happening.  It's called a pitch test (DHV’s for example). But some pilots won't support it, and prefer to fly uncertified gliders instead.

Whilst I have every sympathy for the deceased and their family, and would not wish this terrible tragedy on anyone, hang glider pilots are still making the same mistakes they made over 30 years ago.  Regardless of the design or competition pedigree of any glider, it should be fully tested before leaving the factory to non development pilots.

It’s the fact that Helite reminds us on the original web site it is a development glider.  I've checked and it's gone now.

Bart Doets «bart.doets» writes:

I have not seen a word about whether Ermino Bricoli was flying with a tailplane or not.  Seems to me this would be essential information, especially when we focus on the pitch down forces on the wing.

Is there a chance Ermino's flap cord did come loose too?  Has it been checked?

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to Table of Contentsto next topic ATOS flaps

Sat, Sep 6 2003, 7:00:04 am GMT

ATOS|Bart Doets|Richard Nikoley|Steve Uzochukwu|Ubaldo Romano

Richard Nikoley «rn» writes:

With regard to Richard Gibbs' article and his experience with the Atos spinning and diving when the flaps were inadvertently released, I've had this happen a couple of times with no incident, other than a far longer ground effect than anticipated.

I suspect that Mr. Gibbs perhaps did not have on enough speed and that this would be his best bet for preventing an accident should this happen again.

Steve Uzochukwu «steveu» writes:

I did a conversion to the Atos last month at Aerotow.com, and they warned me about the possibility of the cord pulling out of the cleat for the flaps.  I'm told this problem can be reduced in likelihood by putting the loose cord end over the base bar.

Valter Romano «tprrom» writes:

Crazy flaps.  During the last three and half years I enjoyed on flying my Atos very much, but sometimes, the loved glider gets me into panic.  This was caused by the unexpected releasing of the flaps' line during the final landing phase.  In these situations only the pilot's skill and quickness of reflex avoided severe injuries to himself and to the glider's structure (malicious observers tell that I may thank my guardian angel, and the wheels mounted on my bar).

I don't know if the cause of the trouble is my hasty maneuver or faulty flaps control, because I use to put flaps line forward the bar after pulling it, and I substituted rope and clam cleat when minimal wear signals appeared.

Then after the last unpleasant episode I acted a simple modification to the clam cleat with the purpose to avoid accidental flaps release.  It requires only a little pulley and a thin bungee.  I suggest the same to those who experienced the described situation, and to those who don’t like to experience it in the future.

Brent Wright «DigitalThreads» writes:

There seems to be quite a few ATOS pilots bringing to the attention of others about situations that have happened to them and to be aware of. If I can add to that, make sure to check more than periodically where the flap cord ties into the downtube.  Mine snapped one time because of rubbing against the downtube hole next to the tie off.

Bart Doets «bart.doets» writes:

When you pull the flap cord on a rigid, you feel the nose come up. The centre section produces more lift with the flaps down.  When the flap cord came loose this extra lift in the front section was suddenly gone, and with Richard already pulling in, it was a logical reaction for the glider to drop the nose; but that was no tuck.

(editor’s note: I have never had a problem with my ATOS flap cord coming undone.  While I sometimes have full flaps on, I often don’t, and so even if the flaps came off it would normally be no big deal.  I use the flaps for glide path control, but I don’t see the point of landing with full flaps on.)

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Sat, Sep 6 2003, 3:00:05 am EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic USHGA – in favor of the proposal

Richard Cobb|USHGA

Richard Cobb http://wind-drifter.com writes:

I have a pro powered harness commentary posted at: http://wind-drifter.com/USHGAVote.htm

(editor’s note: Check out Richard’s web site in general.)

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Sat, Sep 6 2003, 3:00:06 am EDT

to Table of Contentsto next topic Photo/caption contest

calendar|Davis Straub|Gilbert Griffith|photo

Gilbert Griffith «gil» sends:

 

I’m taking off from Mt Buffalo (no ramp then) in my Wings Kestrel (made in Melbourne) in 1977. This had a magic batten and single deflexors, the aluminum batten was about 104" curved and fitted in the sail above the keel.

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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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