Oz Report

Will fly for subscriptions

Alejandro Isaza|Bruce Busby

Oz Report readers who have helped out on Friday: Alejandro Isaza, Douglas Koch ($20), and Bruce Busby (pledge).

You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription to the Oz Report below.

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Florida Report

weather

Little bit of rain.  West winds.  Low cloud base.

http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KFLCLERM1

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CompeGPS

CompeGPS|maps

www.compegps.com

This accessory for your 3 D GPS is becoming more and more graphical.  Ivan is working on the next beta and you can display your flight like this:

Also, there are lots of different mapping options and the ones I like include automatic downloading of maps from the Internet.  Here’s an example of the automatic downloading of Map Blaster maps:

I’ll be showing more examples of maps and talking a lot more about maps and how to get them over the next few issues.

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Singe Surface gliders

Kerie Swepston|Steve Kincaid|Tag Cummings

Steve Kincaid «skincaid» writes:

Making single surface gliders perform better has always been a point of interest in the Hang Glider community.  People love their Falcons!  But it was always met with the sarcastic comment, "If you want better performance, don't fly a Falcon."

Now with the $1000 challenge in Florida, I find myself thinking about making these gliders fly better again.  I am enthralled by the efforts of Bo on the Target.  His mods look interesting.  I wish him the best of luck.  I remember reading in an Oz Report about a pilot putting turbulator strips on the Falcon crossbar to reduce drag.  Seems like a harmless and simple mod for Bo to add to his Target.  I also wonder if Bo has tightened the batten strings to reduce washout.  What if you shorten the pullback, just a little?  Can you change the batten profile a bit?  Please keep writing about Bo and his Target.

Setting up on launch at Dog mountain last weekend a pilot said: "Hey, did you hear that Wills Wing is making a new curved tip single surface glider!?!"

Tag Cummings and I popped up: "Sweet!" We were immediately sold.

"Yea, it's called the 'Me2' " the pilot reported.  In hind sight, it was a pretty funny joke, however, Tag and I could not hide our disappointment.  How great it would be to have a curved tip Falcon 170 with aero-downtubes and a folding speedbar.  The ultimate easy-to-setup and easy-to-fly wing.  Then the memory of those bully pilots rang out in my head again reminding me that modifying a Falcon only brought you to an Eagle or a Spectrum.

All of us enjoyed fly-downs that day in our MR700's and Litespeeds.  All of us except Kerie Swepston of course who was the only pilot to manage the incredibly light and tight bits of lift right next to the hill.  She was flying a Falcon 170, without a vario.  That's OK, the rest of us needed the extra time to breakdown anyway.

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USHGA – BOD meeting – Sport Class

Sport Class|USHGA

It’s going on now.  Little word yet.  The competition committee agenda included the items re CIVL that I published earlier: https://OzReport.com/7.59.

Also a proposal for a Sport class which has been discussed extensively (and in three versions) in the Oz Report.  Here’s a synopsis of the Sport Class Agenda item:

Run this new Sports class right along side the three other classes at the current NTSS meets that support the designated task format.  Have two sub classes: Flex Wing Sports and Rigid Wing Sports.  Use the same start window and start circle or line Try, when possible, to use the same goal.  Score it right along with the other classes using GAP or whatever is used.  Do not use a early or separate start time.  Let Sports Class have there own task committee.  Plan tasks for a 70% completion rate.  At the end of the year have a Sports Class Champion and Sports Class ranking.  Let any one compete in Sports Class with the exception of pilots in the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 Rigids.

Hopefully, more news soon.

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USHGA - FAA says no to combo magazine

George Longshore|Jayne DePanfilis|Jim Zeiset|USHGA

George Longshore «longshore» writes:

I called just about every regional director I could today to request a reduced fee membership for people that do not wish to get the "official" hang gliding magazine.  Dead end except for maybe Steve Meyers (pg pilot) my own region four representative.

When presented with this request, Jim Zeiset informed me that the FAA requires that the organization maintain contact with the membership and that the magazine is that vehicle.  Why does it have to be a magazine?  I called the FAA and they have no idea what Jim Zeiset is talking about.  I asked if there were this clause in our instructions from the FAA, could not the web site that the USHGA maintains be used to keep in touch with the members.  Or even just a bi-annual newsletter.

According to the FAA those venues for maintaining contact would be acceptable.  There is no mention in any regulation that the FAA could dig up relating to a magazine.

There is no mention in any regulation that binds part 103 pilots to belong the USHGA.  There was no-one that could find any reference to the maintaining contact with the members clause that Jim Zeiset mentions.  I am not saying that this is something that Jim Zeiset has made up out of thin air.  Just that the FAA has no idea what he is talking about.

If this is the reasoning behind Jayne’s refusal to even consider the proposal of a magazine less membership, I think she is going down with a sinking ship.  If the contact thing is an issue for her, why not a net based mechanism to contact the members?  USHGA already has it in place, use it.

I do not feel the need to get my information from the USHGA when there are so many other options out there (like the Oz Report for instance) to provide that service.  When considering it, I only picked up the mag for the pictures any way.  The information was always at least a month too late to be of any use to me.

And the printed competition announcements to beat deadlines for entry into the meets were never in a timely fashion either.  I missed several chances to get into meets relying on the magazine.

The magazine is the smaller of the evils plaguing us right now.  The major devil at our doorstep is powered flight.  The word is that we are about to ingest the entire USUA into our ranks.  What a nightmare that is going to be. We need power for towing but I do not see needing to dilute ourselves any more than we already have just to keep the USUA afloat.

These are the kind of things that need to be revealed to the membership, not whether Jayne has saved us 6 more dollars by eliminating the paperclips from the jar on her desk.  I love Jayne and do think we need her, but there has to be a stop to this headlong rush to "save" the hang gliding world.  It will kill us quicker than a declining membership ever would.

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Gordon Rigg’s bad mood

CIVL|Gordon Rigg

Gordon and I have been engaged in a “discussion” over on the CIVL info list (http://www.fai.org/general/subscribe.asp?list=civl-info-l) regarding my articles on start time and virtual goals.  Gordon was taking a few personal swipes and when I pointed this out, he explained:

To find out about my mood look at my website http://www.hangpoints.cjb.net and follow the link to the pic of how my glider looked when it got to Heathrow, thanks to British Airways!

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WPR – CIVL dropped the ball

CIVL|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc

Michael Zupanc «zupy» writes:

(Davis)

Is WPR working on the FAI server yet?

(Zupy)

No. Just the "flat pages"

(Davis)

Will it go side by side with WPR in 2003?

(Zupy)

Allegedly, but of course it was to run last year, except that the data was not entered until just before the Plenary, and then there were errors.  (I have since added a mechanism to highlight this error if it happens again).

(Zupy)

One more thing.  I sent the complete ranking to the CIVL Plenary (highlighted here in the Oz Report) from late 2001 up to the present to the meeting (same as what is currently on the web) so that they could look at the way the ranking worked over time and how scores ebbed and flowed.  The original idea was to compare the two systems for a full year (through 2002), which they could have done, if they looked at it.

(editor’s note: How depressing.  After well over a years worth of work the CIVL Plenary doesn’t even look at the results of the WPR project, FAI doesn’t make its database available to the already previously approved WPR, and CIVL, by default, sticks with the old and outdated WPRS system.  It would be unbelievable if it wasn’t so common.

Is this incompetence, or is there a conspiracy to be found here?  Do the Europeans continue to enjoy their 50% bonus and don’t want to go down to their 25% bonus under WPR?  Do some meet organizers stand in the way of a better world ranking system?

What do they think this is, professional tennis?)

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Dynamic Flight harnesses for PGers going rigid

harness

http://www.dynamicflight.com.au/frameset.htm

Mark «Mark» writes:

Thank you.  What a result.  The Oz Report really delivers!!!

Thank you to Rohan at Dynamic Flight for getting in touch and for your generous offer.  Which we would like to accept.

I am more than happy with the terms of your offer.  It is great to see manufacturers like yourself kicking ass and cranking things.  Activity like this directly drives sales.  People rarely change or trade up kit without having good reason.  Flying your ass off on a machine or loving a harness or vario make people think and often buy.

Now we just need some varios ;-) with wind speed indicators so these guys can keep the wings flying at the right speeds :-)

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USHGA - writer’s contract

Bruce Busby|Hang Gliding Magazine|Jayne DePanfilis|Will Gadd

Bruce Busby «buzword» writes:

In the contributors agreement that you were required to print off, sign and send.  Was there a clause stating that your contribution would only be submitted to The USHGA Hang Gliding mag?  This is a possible explanation for the statement Jayne makes… "It is important to the magazine staff that the USHGA's publication, Hang Gliding and Paragliding magazine, not become a "look alike" magazine and we rely on this agreement to help us implement this policy."

Exclusivity agreement would ensure that the Oz Report, Cross Country etc.  would not publish the same work (possibly sooner than Hang Gliding mag) and therefore not make Hang Gliding mag a look alike with 'old news'. Nothing could kill a mag faster than getting your new copy of 'old news' in the mail.

I write back:

Bingo!

“3. You agree that the USHGA will have the right to edit, use, copy, distribute and modify the article and that publication of the Article will be solely at the discretion of the USHGA.  You further agree that the USHGA may transmit and make the Article available to the public via print, electronic, and broadcast media.  Reprint right for use in print or broadcast revert to the author after a period of one year, though you agree the USHGA has the right to publish the article as part of its electronic archive in perpetuity.”

Of course, Hang Gliding Magazine does a good job of publishing old news without my help.  :-)

The irony.

First, the agreement comes long after I wrote the article, and only after it is published.  I didn’t have an agreement for six months.

Second, as I vaguely recall the article was a plea for pilots to support the USHGA.  I just went looking around my computer for the article, but I couldn’t find it. I guess I won’t be publishing it in the Oz Report soon.  ☺

Third, I wonder why the USHGA wouldn’t want me to publish an article every where possible that was a plea to support the USHGA.  I bet really that they would.

Later, Bruce writes:

We suffer from the same issues here in Canada.  We don't have exclusivity agreements with out 'AIR' mag.  'AIR' magazine is well past it's prime.  It's a tired old mag that has a collection of on-line (old) info regurgitated from sites like the WCSC on-line forum www.westcoastsoaringclub.com mixed with some original pieces written by Canadian pilots.

It features fuzzy pictures printed on newsprint.  I voted that we give it up and save the $20,000/year (if memory serves on the $$$), and adopt an on-line e-zine like yours, or a periodical piece with ad's from the Canadian HG and PG business.  I appreciate the effort involved in publishing a paper mag but let's face it. Online e-zines like the "Oz Report" are the new 'standard'.

Immediate information that is current and relevant is the only thing that interests me. If there's a safety issue or alert, the time to learn about it is now, not 2 months from now (ATOS tucks and tail solutions). I want to know about new and coming products before I start the flying season (Salad bowl grows into a helmet with protection and certification).

I sure appreciate your efforts and apparent transparency as an editor.

I'm getting my paypal on-line (waiting for my secret credit card code) so that I too can support the Oz Report.  You can look forward to my subscription soon.

Will Gadd «gadd» writes:

I've gone around with the USHGA on the "contributor's agreement" as well.  Jayne and Dan have been very prompt, professional and good to work with as we tried to sort the actual agreement out.  I think that it's in decent shape now.

The first versions of it were a bit aggressive for a non-profit's "newsletter," but Dan has really made an effort to make it fair.  Dan's a solid guy in my experience, and I think he's on the right track in trying to make the mag more professional with fresher content.

Contributor's agreements do this by avoiding simultaneous publication of the same article in, say, USHGA's mag and XC. I think this is what Jayne meant by avoiding "look-alike" mags.

Most publications do take email as fairly legally binding, and given that this is a non-profit "newsletter" then email ought to be good enough.  I do think that having to invoice on paper is archaic, and having to invoice for your money at all is a bit silly if the mag is supposed to be more professional.  I imagine this will get sorted out eventually, and I'll be surprised if we're still invoicing on paper in a year.

As for the combined mag, well, personally I'd like to see it include sailplane stories too.  Those guys really know how to fly!  I wouldn't even have a problem if it started to include articles on how birds look at the sky, or perhaps military glider training, or paramotoring or whatever.  Information is good.  I want a thicker mag with more of it. Oops, better write something for the next issue, grin.

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USHGA - Corporate speak

David "Dave" Glover|Jayne DePanfilis|Kevin Frost|Tim King|USHGA

Kevin Frost «kevinfrost» writes:

Sorry, whenever Jayne writes something my eyes glaze over after the second sentence, and I had to skip to the Davis’ summary.  I know there is meat in them there paragraphs but the words and sentence structure she uses does something weird to my brain and I have to read very slowly and then two or three times to get what she is trying to say.  If she posted to the list I would think it another Gadfly alias.

My response:

Jayne is just using an idiomatic version of the English language.  It is the one used to keep hicks and blacks in their place.  It has often been used to keep women and anyone who didn't go to an Eastern boarding school in their place also.  I'm deadly serious.

I'm not sure why Jayne has been using this of late, but my guesses are as follows:

1. She wants to command respect from those she sees as "non-hicks."

2. As a women, she is concerned that she will be perceived mainly as a women, and not a member of the ruling class.

3. She has often been under attack from the "non-hicks" and can afford to offend the hicks in order to get closer to the "non-hicks" so that they won't attack her as much.

4. She just gets sucked into it by the daily grind of running a national organization where she has to maintain the impersonal front of being the "guy" in charge.

5. She has spent considerable time dealing with the federal government agencies, and this is how they talk (only much worse).

6. The FAA liaison with the USHGA is a women, and perhaps Jayne admires her and her position and unconsciously is copying her speech and writing patterns.  Humans learn by mimicry, almost all of it unconscious.

7. She is bringing up a part of her past.

8. David Glover isn't around enough to keep her on track.  She heads to Costa Rica to see Dave after the BOD meeting.

9. She has no idea that she is doing it and it just feels natural to her now.  She forgets those many hours spent in the sales office at Lookout Mountain where she was dealing with the hicks.

10. Perhaps she doesn’t realize that short and sweet when it comes it e-mails is the ticket (like I take that lesson to heart).

I feel badly that she is writing like this.  I also feel badly that she often misinterprets what I write about her.

I had a good conversation on the phone with her the other day as we were at the same time exchanging e-mail re the problem with including "Quoted" material in her e-mail messages.  Jayne uses a Mac like an appliance, so she didn't really understand what she was doing.  It was great to talk to her and whenever we do talk we get things straightened out very quickly, much quicker than when I try to communicate with her via e-mail.

Kevin continues:

I don't know what's funnier, $35 a page for writing or having to submit a signed invoice 'by mail' only.  I guess ushga thinking $35 a page is gonna be a big huge incentive that will attract more better (pronounced mo'beddah) writers to send stuff in. Obviously someone has no idea how long writing takes.  I have a better idea than the $35 thing, how bout treating people who write for the mag with just a minimal amount of ethics and respect?

Well I do appreciate getting $35. I would love it if they paid me at that rate for all my past articles.  Anything helps.  I was asked to write that article.  Many, if not most of the articles I wrote for hang gliding magazine, I was asked to write (sometimes with trepidation on the part of those asking), and I got five copies of the magazine in return which I could send to my mother.

Yes, I like the $46.55 and the $150 or so that I got for the previous article.  It is like 4.655 guys signing up to support the Oz Report.  I love that part of it. I need the money.

No $35 is not a professional rate.  It may be a non profit rate though.  I am willing to accept some moral wages for helping the USHGA.

Yes, the USHGA should nurture its writers and photographers.  Maybe it will now.  Maybe it is too late.  Print is dying after all.  The Magazine gets a lot more than it deserves from those members who are willing to write and photograph for it. Look at XC Mag for professional work, at least with respect to the photos.  (BTW, they paid me with a subscription.)

One last point.  Is Jayne so bad really?  I mean is her writing "disease" any worse than Kevin's constant complaining about King Mountain etc?  I mean the guy never learns.  Never comes up with a new argument.  Holds onto the past like he was welded to it. Never wants to work with the USHGA (there are many USHGA's). Won't even go to a BOD meeting when he was offered a free ride.

I kick the USHGA as hard as anyone.  Members of the BOD think of me as an enemy, but I also work to help the USHGA.  I am responsible for proposing new changes to the Competition Rulebook (chairman of the USHGA rulebook subcommittee), I keep the NTSS ranking, and I write articles for the magazine (when asked). I would like to see Kevin do something to help the USHGA so that he can have greater credibility when he complains about it.

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eTrex

J.C. Brown|Linda Salamone|Peter Gray

Peter Gray «peter» writes:

I think the original yellow eTrex is a beautiful little jewel of an instrument: compact, simple, easy one-hand operation, inexpensive, battery-sipping, and with the same 12-channel receiver guts as most other Garmin models.  I bought one for Linda when they first came out, and it’s great for retrieving, hiking, etc.… …but it and the other eTrex models are NOT very good for flying.

The eTrex line (or “lozenge,” as JC Brown dubbed it) has been very popular with PG pilots for the past several years, mainly, I think, because it is so compact.  The fixed 20-second track interval is mostly a minor annoyance on the basic model.  I believe it can record 1024 points, which gives you 5 hours, 40 minutes; enough for most comp tasks.  The more advanced eTrex models (Legend, Vista, Venture) have settable intervals and/or more memory, so they don’t limit recordable flight time.  The display screens are only slightly smaller than, say, the Garmin 12, so that’s also a minor problem.

Other eTrex drawbacks are more serious.  The side-mounted buttons are fine on the ground, but no fun in the air.  I can’t imagine how people control them with gloves on.

The advanced models sorta fix that problem with a tiny front-mounted joystick, but from what I can tell, that’s even worse.  The thing is so small and sensitive that it’s very easy to move it to the side when you’re trying to push it inward (which is the equivalent of “enter”). I say this after trying it on the ground, bare-handed.  I suspect that the joystick will prove to be fragile and unreliable, but I don’t have any data to support that.

The graphical interface of the basic model is overly simplistic for flying, while on the other models, it is too complicated, with lots of fairly cryptic options and menus, all displayed in a microscopic font.

Finally, in our comp experience, there seem to be more pilot errors involving eTrexes than with all other models combined.  Missed turnpoints, tracklogs turned off or inadvertently set wrong, etc People always have problems with them, and they’re somewhat flaky in the download department, too, which is out of character for Garmin.

I strongly recommend against the eTrex for flying.  For pilots on a budget, the good old reliable 12 is a much better choice.  For those willing to spend $300 or so, the Garmin III is very nice, although its shape makes it a little harder to mount, and it has a breakaway antenna.

Another one to consider is the latest MLR model (I forget the number) that is apparently the only receiver designed with flight tasks in mind.  This MLR can be set up so that when you fly into a turnpoint cylinder, it sounds a tone and immediately records a tracklog point—very cool!

The MLRs don’t have as nice a display and user interface as the Garmins, they’re more cryptic, they’re reputed to be fairly fragile, and they have a stupidly designed (and expensive) interface cable.  And in the U.S. it’s not easy to get parts and service for MLR.

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Three CDs full of pictures from Florida

Shane Nestle|Wills Wing Demo Days 2003

Shane Nestle «nestle» writes:

Pictures from last year’s Florida competitions, as well as Will’s Wing Demo Days, are now available on my site: http://homepage.mac.com/nestle.

Most everyone who saw me reviewing the pictures on my computer during these meets asked how they could obtain copies.  I advised them that I would consider making them available when the meets were finished.  Well, I have nearly 2,000 images in digital format on three CDs.  Each image is 1600x1200 pixels and shot in fine quality on a 5.2 Megapixel digital camera.

I’m offering the pictures, including shipping, for less than a penny a picture - $19 U.S. For those pilots outside of the U.S, I may need to charge a little extra to cover shipping.

This is an extremely low price for the amount of pictures, time, money, and effort involved, but I wanted to make them affordable for everyone who loves hang gliding.  These pictures are definitely of interest to everyone, not just those who were in Florida.  As for the video people saw and wanted - like the teenager spinning his glider into the ground from a couple of hundred feet and then walking away - I’m working on a video to be made available in the near future.

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