Oz Report

Will fly for subscriptions

Oz Report|Scott Smith

Oz Report readers who have helped out on Monday: Scott Smith ($20, “It's a daily read for me- thanks for the hard work!”)

No great words to urge you to become a paying subscriber today.  I’ve spent all my time thinking and writing about content and not coming up with something cute for fund raising.  One of my big problems.

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

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Other than that Mrs.  Lincoln, how was the play…

book

OzReport.com/4.107

We went to a play tonight about Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and her book Cross Creek, which depicted 130 of her neighbors in Cross Creek, Florida.  One neighbor didn’t like how she was depicted in the book and sued.  The suit helped destroy this Pulitzer Prize winning and much beloved author.  Marjorie won the suit, lost on appeal and had to pay $1 in damages to the neighbor.

The issues are complex.  Artistic inspiration and license.  The right to privacy, also for the author.  The nature of truth.

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Wallaby Ranch visit

Wallaby Ranch

The first thing I notice is the denizens of the Ranch who were out playing a game of golf.  Later I was told that there was an actual golf course at the Ranch.  I felt that this was a perfect idea.  You get too old to fly, maybe something like 38 years old, and then you turn to golf.

But, you don’t want to leave behind all the friends that you’ve made, so Malcolm builds a golf course on a portion of the 500 acres that make up Wallaby Ranch.  Young pilots are out flying, and landing on the golf course, where the old pilots are playing.

Now, I must admit that I never really did see the “golf course.” Couldn’t tell if there were holes, pins, or greens.  It apparently is laid out, but I didn’t play a game as it started to rain.

It was great to visit the Ranch and see the great community of folks who are there on the weekend as well as those living there during the week.  Got to have a great debate with Carlos, Malcolm, and Mike, about the sponsorship signs at the pre-Worlds in Brazil.  Very animated, and also friendly and fun.  No rancor.

I sure hope to be able to go down to Brazil to be your eye in the sky with almost live reports on how the worlds are going flying with the pilots.  We’ll see if CIVL and the meet organizers (who I have been pretty critical of) can swing that, and whether the think it is a good idea to have start circle to goal line coverage.

It was great to have a wonderful lunch ready as the storm approached, and people kept pressing money on me. I loved that.  The food was great.  I hear that they have two chefs down there these days.  The grilled vegetables were out of sight.

The big issue for me was the DSL wireless access.  How good was it? Could it be as good as what I’ve got here at Quest Air?

Well, not quite there yet, but they are working hard on it. Most people will be very happy.  There is a wireless router in the office and within forty feet of the office (with a PC card) and probably further with a USB Linksys box probably further, you will be automatically on line.

Malcolm spent $3,800 to put in a commercial satellite up and down link on top of his house.  Much more expensive than the $700 you’d spend for the residential version of the Direct PC connection.  It worked great.  Quite fast enough for me to get my e-mail very quickly.  I didn’t put it through its paces.

Still, without an external antenna, the range it quite limited, and probably not possible for me to park my trailer there and get a connection.  But, Malcolm is committed to getting just such an antenna up this week, so there is hope that I will be down there for the Wills Wing Days, at the end of the month.

Pictures soon.

Great fun to see all the Ranch regulars and the place seemed to be cooking, even with the storm hitting hard in the late afternoon, as it did up at Quest.  I didn’t get to see the Sandhill Cranes.

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Tidbits

Carlos Bessa|CIVL|Kurt Warren|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Barber|Peter Batey|Vicki Cain

According to Vicki at Moyes, Kurt Warren hurt (broke?) his shoulder piling it in on landing at Hill 60 (OzReport.com/6.269) south of Stanwell Park.  Don’t know how bad, but Kurt wants to be flying in a couple of weeks.  No word on now his new Moyes Litespeed fared.

Carlos Bessa is going to the Brazilian Nationals meet at Governador Valadares on Thursday.  Mike Barber decided that he needed to stay around and earn money, especially after he and Pete Lehmann had to pay a total of $700 to NAA ($120) and CIVL to homologate their joint world record.  In the US, hang glider pilots have to pay hundreds of times more for a world record homologation than any other pilots in the world have to pay.

Peter Batey «Peterbatey» writes:

Just got back from a couple of weeks in Brazil.  Thought you'd appreciate a pic looking back to launch at Governador Valadares.  Every day was flyable and the sky typically looked like this.

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Brazilian Nationals

Brazilian Nationals 2003

www.abvl.com.br

The Brazilian National Champion is the number one ranked pilot in Brazil.  The Brazilian pilot ranking is determined by now the pilots do at the three meets that make up the Brazilian Nationals.  The US has three or more meets that make up their domestic NTSS point opportunities.

http://www.abvl.com.br/rankings.htm

In Brazil, your ranking for your national team is determined by now you do on these three national meets.  Unlike in the US, it isn’t affected by now you do in international competition.  You don’t get any Brazilian national points for flying in Australia, Europe, or the US. This means that the pilots who can’t fly to other parts of the world aren’t at a possible disadvantage.

I think I’ve captured their names:

The points that you get are a sum of your best days over the three meets.  If you fly in all three meets and they have a full set of days in the meets, then you get to drop off your lowest four or five scoring days.  You can do badly on one day or so in each meet, and lose the meet, but do well enough on the other days, to be the national champion.

Check out the ranking (please, no more PDF files!!!) and you can see the days that are dropped off on the right side of the chart.

http://www.abvl.com.br/pdf/RankingBrasileiro2002.pdf

Compare the Brazilian method of choosing their team and their National Champion with the US methods.  Different strokes for different folks or something to learn from others?

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GPSes for records

GPS|Stewart Midwinter

www/ozreport.com/4.182

Stewart Midwinter «stewart» writes:

I note that OLC allows the use of 2D track-logs for flights worth less than 100 points.  At 1.75 point/km on open-distance flights, that means that 2D is allowed up to distances of 57 km, enough for the Silver badge distance of 50 km. Since my interest is in enabling as many people as possible to go after their Silver badge with a minimum of fuss, I see this as acceptable (maybe the distance limit for 2D needs to be set at 75 km or some other value, since pilots may not be able to land between 50 and 57 km).

(editor’s note: I am completely in favor of using 2D GPSes on the HOLC.)

I am not in favour of only allowing 2D GPS in the presence of a barograph.  Barographs are only included in the more expensive varios, and the people who are the target market for their first badges are not likely to own these devices.

(editor’s note: I agree.  The 2D GPS should be allowed for the OLC and badges, and national records.  All I am asking is that the 2D GPS be allowed to replace the camera for WR purposes.  All other requirements for world records would be kept in place.

As for faking a flight by repeatedly landing and towing aloft.  I would submit that this is not possible in many parts of the world due to terrain limitations that prevent towing.  And a towed flight will look different, even in 2D, than a free-flight.  And, by overlaying the 2D tracklog over a high-resolution map, it would be possible to see that the flight characteristics were not those of a continuous flight.

I don't personally use a 2D GPS now, but I still think we need to enable their use in at least a limited way for the next few years.  For national records and upper-level badges, like Gold and Diamond, I still see the need for corroboration of the flight through the use of an O.O., at least in an interim period.  For instance, the O.O. has to witness the flight declaration for a closed-course flight.  (Sailplane pilots don't need an O.O., since the Logger itself records a flight declaration).

(editor’s note: With an official observer, a 2D GPS should be able to be used for a world record.)

Lastly, I think that barographs in varios can be eliminated altogether with the use of 3D GPS.  They are redundant!  So why pay for them or require them in any way?  Having said that, if a pilot has, and uses, a 2D vario and a barograph, and the vario manufacturer can provide software that allows the two data streams to be stitched together, then I'm not opposed to it being used.  It is just far more complicated than is necessary - just buy a 3D GPS and be done with it! Even a basic eTrex records in 3D (yes, I know it has some limitations).

(editor’s note: This software is available and we are working on getting more available.)

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Stealth glider

Gerry "Scare!" Grossnegger|picture

Scare sends this:

Strange how water always reflects the true inner image of something, eh?

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USHGA - Report from the BOD meeting

Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|USHGA

Ron Gleason «xcflying» writes:

(Davis)

Well as your editor isn’t there to act as a reporter, he has to rely on people whose first instinct is not to get the news out, but to wait until it is “official.” The BOD as a whole votes tomorrow on the issues that were tackled by the committees on Friday and Saturday.

(Ron Gleason)

I have to believe that you are referring to me. My first thought and reply is tough.  I am attending the BOD meeting to get things done and that means dealing with the process and procedures within the organization.

The BOD is responsible for making decisions that affect the USHGA.  The role of the committees is to dive into the details, hash out the details and make recommendations to the BOD.  The majority of issues are approved by the BOD, though many are not.  The issue is either sent back to the committee to be dealt with at the next BOD meeting (or between meetings) or a discussion ensues and is hashed out right then.

I do not and will not disperse important information that is not factual and accurate.  If that means you and the readers of the Oz Report have to wait for the cogs to turn so be it. It is the right thing to do.

Plus, if you do not like the job I am doing for the Oz Report, then fire me, cut back my salary or better yet take away my vacation and flying privileges :-)

(editor’s note: Yup, this is why I should go to the BOD meetings.  Ron is just more loyal to the USHGA than he is to Oz Report readers.  They want the news today, not tomorrow.  BTW, I am promised the rough competition committee minutes soon, I think.)

(Ron Gleason)

The posting of the rulebook had nothing to do with the BOD meeting, it was just lucky timing.  You did get something out of me, the competition committee agenda and hand outs, in electronic form, before anyone else (for what it's worth). I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the rest of competition committee (attending the meeting or not) for not including you on the original distribution of these materials.

(Davis)

Just a note.  I am the chairman of the subcommittee in charge of the 2004 Competition Rulebook.  I have already gone through the 2003 Rulebook and noticed a number of minor errors that might confuse pilots.  I therefore suggest caution when reading.  I’ve fixed up these errors (and hopefully not introduced to many others.)

(Ron Gleason)

Oh please!  The rulebook was developed and evolved over time, many many years, by interested pilots.  We are not, nor ever confessed to be, writers, lawyers, or publishers.  We did our best.  I am grateful to you for accepting the role of rulebook ownership.  It is a thankless but necessary job.  You have set the 'expectation bar' very high and I will enjoy watching you jump over it. Hopefully there will be no limbo contests with you trying to wiggle under the bar!

(Davis)

I didn’t make it to the BOD meeting.  When I heard (and I indeed did ask) whether the meetings rooms had wireless access, and found out it would be hard to find a phone line, I knew I couldn’t leave here.

(Ron Gleason)

I hoped you asked more than me. BTW, there were two of the meeting rooms that had live phone lines in them, though no power outlets anywhere near them and the other 2 floors had active phone lines in the lobbies.  I wish United Airlines had seats available so I could have gotten you a ticket, your input and energies would have been used to the fullest

I am catching up on Oz Reports and other email as we work our ways across Kansas.  Should we stop to observe the 300 pound prairie dog, pet the live pigs and admire the live 5 legged cow?  Maybe next time.

As you say in a number of your reports, please read this message in the nature in which it was intended

(editor’s note: I heard from Steve Kroop that a wireless network was spontaneously set up by those with Airport cards in the meeting room.  With the help of the new USHGA IT guy at the meeting, he immediately became the help desk, and he was helping people get documents sent over to the computer that became the server.  That computer was burning CD’s and printing committee reports for presentation to the BOD.

I hope that this means that we’ll get the minutes out much quicker than before.

Of course, there wasn’t a DSL connection available.  Of course, if they had really tried, they could have had the server hooked up to the phone line and then have that computer share the connection.

I hear that at the next meeting, these issues will be a major focus.  Perhaps we could have a blog going on in each of the meetings and pilots around the US could be commenting and making motions, etc.)

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USHGA - Sport Class

Buddy Cutts|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Dean Funk|Nick Kennedy|Ron Gleason|Tove Heaney|USHGA BOD

Nick Kennedy «nkavalancheranch» sends in the proposal that was passed at the USHGA BOD:

I would like to thank Ron Gleason, Dean Funk, Buddy Cutts, Jim Youcom, and David Glover for contributing to this project.  We've been working on this for several months and I'm stoked that it got accepted!

Currently we have a competition system that is geared towards training and producing a high quality US Hang Gliding team, capable of competing with the worlds’ best, through a series of 4 sanctioned NTSS points contests, that result in a ranking for 3 classes, Flex Wing, Rigid Wing and Swift Class.  The US Team is selected through this process.

To obtain this lofty goal of creating a good US Team, long, difficult tasks must be called to train the Team for World Meet level competition.

The result of this is at least two things: The US Team and its aspiring group of wanna bees gets better and better through tough long tasks.

The second thing that occurs is that a very large group (the ones that make up the bulk of the field and the ones that provide a large percentage of the money to fund these contests), never get to complete the task and land at goal, simply because the task is always too hard for the average recreational XC contest pilot in the system today.  With a planned completion rate of some low number to begin with, we factor in unforeseen weather and we currently have contests where 70-80 % of the entire field will not make the task ever.  This is a fact.

If this keeps up for much longer, contests outside of Florida will cease to exist because meets like Texas 2002 with very low entry numbers simply cannot continue to operate due to lack of the needed monies to pay the bills.

Why Sports Class?  Sports Class is an alternative for just about everyone who wants to compete on a new, smaller scale level.  Both Flex and Rigid Wing Pilots are welcome with just about anything that flies, i.e. KP and SS gliders, older Exxtacy Rigids etc.  The only restrictions are: no top 20 Flex wing pilots and no top 7 rigid wing pilots.

We plan on a high percentage task completion, even if this means a very short task in difficult conditions.  If we have a short task, time wise, we hope to let the pilots continue flying after they finish, if they desire.

Quite a few pilots are getting really burned out by going to a contest, run by and run for the World Team, paying out the nose, burning all our vacation time and never having a chance to make goal, simply because we are forced, due to no alternative, to flying a World Meet task everyday.  Our voices do not count in the task selection.  Sports Class is that alternative…It worked for our Sailplane Brothers in the late 80's; They were in the exact same boat as we are.  Now the Sailplane Sports Class Contests are full.

Take the whole US field in the last 4 years in the Florida contests.  Take out the top 20 in Flex and the top 7 in Rigid.  What you have on that remaining list is a big group of really frustrated pilots.  One task for everyone, this has to change, it just does not work anymore.  And that can be accomplished with this new Sports Class.

When the Rigids came on the scene how long did it take to create a whole new class for them?  Not long.

When the Swift came along.  Same story and whole new class for a micro group!!

We need a new Class for the masses who want a choice and can really have a say in their task.

Sports Class

Run this new class right along side the current 3 other classes at the current 4 NTSS meets that support the designated task format.

Have 2 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.

(editor’s note: The reader is free to go back and look at the discussion that preceded this proposal for the Sport Class.  The original articles in the Oz Report were inspired by Tove Heaney’s Australian Open which included floater, kingposted and race classes.  From there three proposals were developed.  You can read about them starting at OzReport.com/6.188 and going through OzReport.com/6.196.

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Windows Secrets – XP utilities

book

http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2912274,00.html

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