Oz Report
Volume 7, Number 7410 pm, Tuesday, March 18 2003
https://OzReport.com
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
- In this issue:
Florida Report WRE 500! Aeros Super Stalker USHGA - Not a single thin dime CIVL - your FAI Sporting License Wildlife Bad shackle USHGA - Commercial liability insurance Want to keep track of the weather here? Readers respond to my proposal to add ads Correction re: ads on the hang gliding list Flyaware Update
Will fly for subscriptions
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:00 pm GMTDan Johnson|Jaco Herbst|Oz Report|Timothy Ettridge|Tom McFarland|USHGA BOD minutes
Oz Report readers who have helped out on Tuesday: Dan Johnson, Jaco Herbst (Taiwan, “I'm a new-comer to the sport of hang gliding and the Report has made things just so much easier.”), Timothy Ettridge ($50, "I want my, I want my, I want my Oz Report. I still chuckle to myself over your publication of the USHGA BOD minutes that weren't supposed to be published. I had this image of you standing with your shoulders shrugged and palms turned upward, just daring to be struck by lightning.”), Tom McFarland (“Believe it or not I have shown my management classes your web site. Can you imagine a college auditorium with 40 students looking at the OZ report projected on a giant screen. I do it as an example of how there really are people who capitalize on the new niches in the economy and live their dreams based on clever uses of the internet.”)
See reader comments about ads below.
You can see how to send in $10 for a yearly subscription/donation to the Oz Report below.
6 topics in this article: Dan Johnson, Jaco Herbst, Oz Report, Timothy Ettridge, Tom McFarland, USHGA BOD minutes
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Florida Report
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:01 pm GMTAeros Combat|Aeros Discus|Aeros Target|Bob Lane|David Glover|Florida|Gerry Uchytil|Jim Lamb|landing|Litesport|record|Ron Gleason|tow|wires|Worlds
http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/questairweather.htm
West winds today. Quite unstable in the middle of the day. No rain, but good lift under dark sky’s. Tomorrow looks like a day that we may be going for the single surface record. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
Jim Lamb is here. Gerry Uchytil and Ron Gleason also. Ron’s ATOSes need to be X-rayed in San Francisco, so he’s flying David Glover’s Falcon 195. I picked up an Aeros Target from GW today. Also an Aeros Discus, and the larger Aeros Combat, the one that was flown by Natalia, the Russian pilot at the Women’s Worlds.
I might be able to fly the Aeros Discus tomorrow for a short test/demo flight. You can read about it at www.justfly.com. Curved tip, intermediate kingposted glider to compete with the Litesport and the U2. Bob Lane says that it tows with one finger and has a nice light, but positive bar pressure.
The joint was jumping today with lots of tows late in the afternoon after the lift quit (hello?) and the sun came back out.
I noticed on the Target the same thing that Bo mentioned. A little harder to initiate a turn and then the glider wants to spiral in. I hear that this is a design feature. I’ll see how it goes, as this was only a short flight. The cross bars seem to be designed so that they don’t float or move from side to side.
Also the pull back wires on top of the keel go through the king post bracket and under the kingpost. It seems like this would be an area of wear. This also restricts the upward movement of the cross bars, which I assume is the idea.
I have a great landing with it and it was pretty easy to tow for a single surface glider. Hope to learn about 100+ miles more about it tomorrow.
15 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Aeros Discus, Aeros Target, Bob Lane, David Glover, Florida, Gerry Uchytil, Jim Lamb, landing, Litesport, record, Ron Gleason, tow, wires, Worlds
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WRE 500!
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:02 pm GMTaerotow|tow|World Record Encampment 2003|Zapata
http://www.davisstraub.com/WRE
What is the WRE 500!? It is a small group of dedicated cross country pilots who want to set world records and have organized the resources to help them do so. They went to the top aerotow operations in country to get the resources necessary to reliably and quickly get hang glider pilots in the air on those days that the world record conditions beckon.
We didn’t come to Texas looking for a business, but for an adventure. An adventure that we wanted to share with our fellow pilots, challenging them to break our records and all the records that we have successfully set starting in Zapata.
Our only goal is to go to the best place to get the world records, and fly in the best conditions to set those records. The crews that we have contracted with to provide the services that we all need to successfully set the world records, know of our dedication and are likewise dedicated to help us set those records.
We started with paragliding in the second year and we have been improving that part of our operation, moving it in the third year to the east a few miles and increasing the number of paragliding tow rigs. We are looking forward to having four tow rigs this year in Zapata to get paraglider pilots up in the air as fast as possible.
We are also currently looking at how to arrange for retrievals for paraglider pilots. We think that this is possible and are looking into how to arrange it now. Stay tuned.
4 topics in this article: aerotow, tow, World Record Encampment 2003, Zapata
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Aeros Super Stalker
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:03 pm GMTAeros Ltd|Aeros Super Stalker|ATOS
In about two months Aeros is planning on coming out with a new Stalker. This new bird will have a 43 foot wing span and the same sail area - 145 square feet as the present Stalkers. Its span will be equal to the Stratos and slightly more than the ATOS. The Stratos is listed at 148 square feet of sail area.
This means the Stalker will go from an aspect ratio of 10.3 to 1 to a ratio of 12.8 to 1. Quite a jump.
3 topics in this article: Aeros Ltd, Aeros Super Stalker, ATOS
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USHGA - Not a single thin dime
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:04 pm GMTadvertising|branding|harness|religion|TV|USHGA|video|Warren Schirtzinger
Having been really hard on the USHGA lately, I wrote a rather understated critique of the direction that the proposed marketing plan was taking the other day. Today Warren Schirtzinger «warren» www.hightechstrategies.com no doubt wondering why I wasn’t jumping up and down and shouting writes:
Before USHGA spends a single dime on "branding" you should be aware of a few, simple facts.
If you look at the companies that spend heavily on branding (the top 50 of the Fortune 500) here is what you would see. Over the last 10 years, 39 had dropped from the Fortune 50! These are the companies that spend the most money advertising and promoting their brands.
The truth is the $300 billion or $400 billion spent on promotions annually during the past 20 years has not achieved much in terms of lasting performance.
Branding has become a religion in most organizations, and it's very hard to dislodge it, because people believe that the brand itself is something that changes consumer behavior. Managers tend to think that branding comes first and the organization's success follows. In fact, when you look at most businesses, the products came first, they built their infrastructures, and their brands evolved along with the success of the products and services over many, many decades.
Take the branding of coffee in the United States 10 years ago. Today, we're all drinking Starbucks ‹not Folgers, not Maxwell House. Those might still be brands bought in grocery stores, but the brand most people identify with is the one that popped up on a corner in their neighborhood. And that brand didn't make its presence in our lives through promotion and advertising; it did so by actually building service centers in our communities.
The bottom line: no one is going to decide to join the free flight community or become a pilot because of a logo or a name. Marketing is not advertising, or a cool video, or TV coverage.
Marketing is assembling a complete offering (instructor, lessons, glider, harness, financing, etc) and delivering it in a way that people like (professional, convenient, safe, reputable, flexible, etc). The best marketing in the world is a great product.
To be effective, USHGA¹s marketing plan must deal with building and improving the hang gliding infrastructure or "offering." Anything else will be a complete waste of time and money.
8 topics in this article: advertising, branding, harness, religion, TV, USHGA, video, Warren Schirtzinger
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CIVL - your FAI Sporting License
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:05 pm GMTBrazilian Nationals 2003|CIVL|Wallaby Open 2003|FAI Sporting License|Flytec Championships 2003
http://www.naa-usa.org/website/html/membershiptypes/sportinglicenceapp.htm
Did you know that you are supposed to have an FAI Sporting License to participate in a CIVL sanctioned event? Like the Wallaby Open and the Flytec Championship next month? Or the third of the Brazilian Nationals meet in Valadaras next week?
CIVL is increasingly worried about the fact that pilots are not checked for their FAI Sporting License when they register for category II competitions. This deprives CVIL and FAI of a bit of its meager income.
Will pilots be required to show their FAI Sporting License at these meets? Will CIVL de-sanction the meets if the meet organizers don’t check for licenses? Will the meets be devalued if not enough pilots show up with licenses so that pilots will get less WPRS points? Do we really care?
After all, all we are talking about is WPRS points here, and hopefully that creaky system is on its last legs. Then maybe we can get rid of the 25% double bonus in the WPR system. Maybe when the world ranking system is fair, the maybe we should be concerned about getting money to the FAI.
5 topics in this article: Brazilian Nationals 2003, CIVL, Wallaby Open 2003, FAI Sporting License, Flytec Championships 2003
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Wildlife
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:06 pm GMTwildlife
http://www.clubkayak.com/cfkt/trips/trip26p.html
Even after three years of drought there is wildlife on the Withlacoochee River. We saw a couple of alligators along our little stretch of the river. Mark got up close to this one
1 topic in this article: wildlife
Discuss "Wildlife" at the Oz Report forum link»
Bad shackle
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:07 pm GMTMark “Test Pilot” Poustinchian|equipment
This is a shot of the bent shackle that Mark “test pilot” Poustinchian placed (before it was bent) on the Stalker2 to lengthen the side sires that weren’t correctly sized for the control frame.
2 topics in this article: Mark “Test Pilot” Poustinchian, equipment
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USHGA - Commercial liability insurance
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:08 pm GMTinsurance|Quest Air|tandem|USHGA
The USHGA insurance doesn’t cover commercial aviation operations. For example, Quest Air doesn’t have commercial liability insurance. Their approach is it isn’t worth anyone’s time to take them to court.
USHGA insurance has apparently never ever covered commercial hang gliding operations. It does not cover flight instructors. They are exposed and running bare if they don’t have their own liability insurance. Given the price of this kind of commercial liability insurance, it is probably a good thing that they are naked. Otherwise no one could afford to take lessons.
Maybe the liability issue is a major, if not the major, factor restraining the growth of hang gliding. Maybe looking around at all the other issues is irrelevant, if this is the major impediment to growth in the sport.
Many landowners require that pilots flying on their land be covered by liability insurance. Instructors giving tandem flights are not covered. USHGA members flying at the site and who are not engaged in giving lessons (i.e. not engaged in the commercial activity), are covered.
Discuss "USHGA - Commercial liability insurance" at the Oz Report forum link»
Want to keep track of the weather here?
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:09 pm GMTQuest Air|Wallaby Ranch|weather
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KFLCLERM1
There is a weather station right down the road from Quest Air, and it is close enough to Wallaby Ranch (and the Seminole Lake glider port) to stand in for them as their weather station also.
It produces a weather record every five minutes. Wind and wind gusts, wind director, temperature, rainfall, barometric pressure.
Historical records from the site.
3 topics in this article: Quest Air, Wallaby Ranch, weather
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Readers respond to my proposal to add ads
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:10 pm GMTadvertising|Brook Rice|Icaro 2000|Joe Balbona|Jon Straub|Paul Voight|Perry Jones|Peter Smart|Rob Rademeyer|Scott Seebass|Tom McFarland
First, let me say that I have had all the concerns that the readers below raise. I am as concerned as any of you. Icaro 2000 has approached me about an ad. I would be experimenting with their ad and see what happens. I have no idea what to charge them (they have offered $10/issue). I’ll send back a short proposal to them tonight and see where it goes. I await further feedback, and we’ll see what everyone thinks if and when the ad comes out. If it all goes up in smoke, well that’s fine also.
Peter Smart «psmart» writes:
Simple answer really - ads for the freeloaders (of which I am shamefully one) and no ads for the subscribers (of which I intend to become one shortly - maybe when the ads get too much!)
Joe Balbona «joe» writes:
No ads from hang glider manufacturers please. You lose your editorial purity that way.
Rob Rademeyer «eRex» writes:
As one of your most ardent non-payers (but still trying), it's almost farcical to be mouthing opinions and suggesting policy. However, I do feel strongly about advertising content and would prefer NOT to have it cluttering the Oz Report.
Apart from the annoyance of having your reading pleasure disturbed by gratuitous content, you have to take into account the fact that a lot of the world still works on dialup connections - thus, bandwidth is a problem.
My suggestion would be to accept advertising for products reviewed and other associated articles but at the most, to include a URL to your website where both the article (possibly reviewed in more depth) plus the advertising, can appear. This gives the reader the choice (which is what our idiosyncratic bunch of aviators appears to crave the most).
I guess the only thing is, you'd have to adjust your rates viz. you could probably charge more for inline ads.
Scott Seebass «scott» writes:
As a daily reader (and subscriber) I would voice my opinion that running ads is a bad idea. You say "The Oz Report definitely needs the income from the ads." If that is true, once you start relying on them you will have a hard time giving up the income, which makes it hard (not impossible but hard) to be openly critical of your income source.
Look at the magazine and its years of completely catering to their advertisers. Don't you think Wills Wing would have fixed their Mylar pockets a lot earlier if the magazine was willing to come out and say "this design is dangerous and is killing people?"
However, since they were a big advertiser, it never happened. What I enjoy about your report is that I am pretty convinced that your opinions (whether I agree with them or not) are your own. Once you start taking ads I lose that conviction.
Paul Voight «flyhigh» writes:
The idea of ads in your report would necessitate weeding out the "news items" you constantly get (ads) from flight parks and glider importers etc. :-) Sounds like a can of worms. On the other hand with the size & frequency of your readership… you could justifiably charge a decent price for ad space and get these competitive entities all clamoring (and paying) for ad space! And then there is the potential for racy / sexy Fly Tec style photos in the ads! An amusing experiment at the very least :-)
Jon Straub «jon» writes:
I think you should advertise on the web site, not in the e-zine.
Brook Rice «brookr_1» writes:
I would hate to have to navigate around ads in the Oz Report or turn on my Ad Killer to eliminate the pop ups. However, there may be a way to generate income for the Oz Report while "promoting" a product.
Become a test reviewer for these products. Here are the advantages:
1. You could generate revenue by charging manufacturers to review their products (whether it be by test flying a glider or reporting on a new pair of bar mitts).
2. You could still be honest in your review as long as you warn the manufacturers up front that you're going to be honest with your feedback. Hey…if they send you junk and expect to sell the junk to pilots, they deserve to get slammed.
3. It would provide your readers with a great service…sort of like the "Consumer Reports" of hang gliding equipment. Hang Gliding magazine just prints material from the manufacturer's brochures and provides no useful feedback. It's hit or miss when you buy a product that has been advertised in HG magazine.
4. You could get a lot of cool free stuff from the manufacturers…like a pair of those sexy Flytec goggles.
Your honesty is what draws people to the Oz Report. It's your brand and image and your readers respect you for it. A good manufacturer with a good product could parlay this into increased sales. If you get soft, and only write fluff pieces about your products, then this could backfire on you and you could lose the respect of your readership.
Perry Jones «pjones» writes:
First of all, just a brief note to let you know how much I appreciate the work you do to maintain the one site I feel compelled to check daily (well, OK, I check the DOW on Yahoo at least daily to watch the value of my nest egg shrink).
The idea of ads in the world of OZ is OK with me, but I'd like to see the ad section accessed via an "ad link", accessible from your home page. Ads shouldn't clutter the daily stuff you do. It takes time and $ to keep up the OZ report, and any revenue you can generate from posting ads is well-deserved and proper. Manufacturers probably wouldn't like my idea, because the "ad hits" would certainly be less frequent than the "Oz Report" hits. But think about it. Posting links to various manufacturers web sites and ads is a useful service to the readership and to the vendors of flying products and services. I enjoy reading ads in the USHGA mag, but I wish the USHGA mag would put all the ads in an "ad section" so I don't have to jump around from page to page when reading an article. You are in a position to fix this problem but I'd bet the manufacturers wouldn't tolerate my "ad section" idea for the mag.
No matter what you decide to do, I'll continue to enjoy your site. And the nature/wildlife shots remain a personal favorite. Sometimes I share these with my wife and kids. Yep, you are now hitting the highly coveted younger
Tom McFarland «tmcfarla» writes:
It is a tough question because it is a big line to cross. I don’t think it is a matter of your readers trusting your objectivity once the big advertising bucks roll in, just that it may change the flavor of the Oz Report.
11 topics in this article: advertising, Brook Rice, Icaro 2000, Joe Balbona, Jon Straub, Paul Voight, Perry Jones, Peter Smart, Rob Rademeyer, Scott Seebass, Tom McFarland
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Correction re: ads on the hang gliding list
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:11 pm GMTRob Jacobs
Rob Jacobs HG List moderator «Mailways1» writes:
I've never ever said that private advertising isn't allowed on the hang gliding mail list.
(Editor’s note: I was under the apparently mistaken impression that individual advertisements for the sale of hang gliders and such were not allowed on the hang gliding list.)
1 topic in this article: Rob Jacobs
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Flyaware Update
Tue, Mar 18 2003, 8:00:12 pm GMTsoftware|Flyaware|Steven Schacht
Since it was released last week, Flyaware has been updated twice. I think that this is great. Steven is responding quickly to user requests. Steven G. Schacht «shot» writes:
I thought some of you might be interested in knowing that a Fly Aware update has been released - version 1.0.2. This release now supports proxy servers.
I know that some of you were unable to use the program because you were attempting to do so from behind a firewall. Now you can do so by simply entering the proxy server address and port number in the preferences/options window.
I bumped up this feature's priority because of the feedback I received from a number of users requesting it. This should allow folks to use the software from work if they're on a corporate LAN and behind a firewall for instance.
You can get the latest release from:
http://www.adeptool.com/flyaware/release/tryit.html
Anyway, I hope you're all logging some air time or at least preparing to do so. Have great flights and safe launches and landings!
3 topics in this article: software, Flyaware, Steven Schacht
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