Oz Report

A competition every weekend?

HOLC|PG

How about we have a contest every weekend?  The guy who gets the most HOLC points (scored like the Chelan Cross Country Classic) wins the competition for the weekend.  Four classes: rigid, flex, sport (kingposted) and paraglider.  Flights must start on Saturday and/or Sunday.

Sign up for the HOLC starting here: https://ozreport.com/compOnlineXC.php

World wide?  US only also?  Winner announced each Monday or Tuesday in the Oz Report.  Starts soon!

Discuss competition at the Oz Report forum

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World Wide Site Guide

PG

Gerry «Gerry» writes:

Using the online map interface at https://ozreport.com/sitesmap.php, pilots can now submit any hang gliding and paragliding sites they can find, just by clicking around on the map then filling in a few details about it. The information gets sent to me and I'll include it in the world-wide flying site guide.

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Cross country for Katrina

PG|weather

Skip and Tony «aomthomas» send:

GLIDING TO HELP
11/18/05
By LEAH ETLING NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Locals taking flight to raise money for hurricane relief

Spectators can best view efforts from Gibraltar Road about 11 a.m. on weekends.

If there were ever two things that weren't compatible, paragliding and hurricanes seem like a pretty safe bet.

But in one of the more unusual athletic fundraising efforts around, local paragliders and hang gliders taking off from Santa Barbara's mountains for three more weekends are competing and collecting for hurricane relief.

Local paraglider Bo Criss and his friend Dean Stratton came up with the idea of holding a local competition and benefit after finishing their paragliding season in Las Vegas in late October.

"We're trying to appeal to a wide variety of pilot's interests," said Criss, who took up the sport 10 years ago.  There are seven ways to win in the competition.

• 1. Fly the farthest distance in their three best flights out of the possible 12 days of competition -- paraglider and hang glider divisions.  Flights could range from five to 60 miles, Criss said.

• 2. Do the most mountain launches during the 12 days of competition.

• 3. Complete the race course the fastest -- paraglider and hang glider divisions.  The course uses virtual GPS points like buoys in a sailboat race.

• 4. Do the most laps in a single flight between two points on the range -- paraglider and hang glider divisions.  Weather conditions play a big part in making this easy or difficult.

• 5. Stay up in the air for the longest time in a single flight.

• 6. Raise the most money for the Red Cross and Hurricane Victims.

• 7. Have the most fun.

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Hang Gliders as symbols

Robert Sweeney

Companies use images of hang gliders when they want to send a message.  Robert Sweeney «soarxc» is trying to find out who this hang glider pilot was:

Southern Company has an ad in most but possibly just the south east regional edition of National Geographic for November.  It features a photo of a red and white king posted glider.  Any idea who the pilot was for this shot?

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Big Five

Harry Martin|USHGA

Harry Martin «harry» writes:

Click on above for the bigger version.

Discuss USHGA at the Oz Report forum

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2006 Canadian Nationals - Turnpoints

Gerry once again turns the powerful Oz Report tools that he has created to solve the problems of meet organizers: https://OzReport.com/GoogleMap/CHGN2006

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Percy Pilcher

Tony Prentice

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/pilcher.html

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/inventors/Pilcher.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/percypilcher.shtml

Tony Prentice «tony.prentice1» writes:

A commemorative stone with inscription and information stand has been commissioned to mark the location of Percy Pilcher's flying test site at Upper Austin Lodge, Eynsford, Kent.

The site was used by Hiram Maxim as a firing range and is set in a steep sided valley.  It is presently in use as a golf course which has preserved it's openness.

The unveiling ceremony has been set for the 17^th of June 2006. Funds are being raised by the local council and Eric Littledike is organising the proceedings.

Eric has recently completed re-building the Pilcher Hawk hang glider that was in the Science Museum, London, which fell into complete disrepair with only a few parts salvageable.  The newly completed Hawk will be on display at Duxford Air Museum Heritage display.

Although there is a memorial stone and a replica Hawk, built by Laurie Watts, located at Stanford Hall much of Pilcher's flying was conducted here in Kent.

 Dignitaries from the aviation world will be there and a relative of Pilcher will do the unveiling.  I have arranged a guard of honour with an Air Scout Group and a fly past of some sort or HG demo may be on the cards.

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The Sheep Look Up

Geoffrey Rutledge

Geoffrey Rutledge «spamfree» writes and sends:

Your article on bighorn sheep led me to pull out an old copy of XC Pilot, Rick Masters' Journal of the XCPA (Spring '84).

On page 38 (of 64!) is an article that described why the Forest service (and the XCPA) asked us to fly with silent varios.  I remember in the summer of '84 adding an earphone jack to my Litek bread pan vario and flying my UP Gemini with the vario earphone in one ear and the CB radio earphone in the other.

Footlaunch soaring in the Owens Valley is done over the pristine wilderness of the High Sierra, Inyo and White Mountain Ranges.  The unique solitude of the heights is the province of our sport, shared only with the whispering wings of the great birds of prey.  It is our obligation to strive, eagerly and willingly, always to be a part of this great realm of quiet.  Here one of the world’s foremost authorities on the rare Sierra and Desert Bighorn Sheep outlines the little known interactions between our activities and these wonderful mountain creatures.  —— Editor

Most of us easily comprehend the meaning of obvious environmental impacts.  Nobody wants oil in their creek or poisons in their drinking water.  Few, however, recognize the potential importance of less obvious impacts, especially those that may adversely influence the behavior of animals.  I will deal here with one such situation about which I have considerable expertise -- bighorn sheep in the White Mountains and foot launched aircraft.

Fundamental attributes of bighorn sheep are their use of steep rocks to escape predators and keen eyesight to detect them.  Their short-legged, stocky body that provides them such excellent agility on steep rocks makes them less than optimally fleet on more gentle terrain.  Consequently, they cannot count on outrunning predators as deer do, but must stay within a dash of precipitous rocks.  How long that dash is depends on how good visibility is. The further they can see, the greater will be the distance at which predators are detected.  This provides more time to reach safety, and allows sheep to venture greater distances from rocks.

Why venture farther from rocks?  The answer is food.  Prey animals are constantly confronted with the problem of balancing risks of predation against gains in terms of more nutrients.  They have consequently evolved behavioral programs that make appropriate decisions based on this balance.  In the case of the White Mountains, bighorn are attracted to the higher elevations in summer because these contain the most nutritious forage at that time.  As it turns out, these elevations also contain the most nutritious forage that they encounter during the entire year.  Hence this habitet is particularly important to the health of the herd.

The problem is that the lack of extensive glaciation in the White Mountains leaves much of this high terrain without many rocky slopes on which bighorn can feel safe, in contrast to the lower canyon slopes.  Further compounding the problem is the need of bighorn ewes to worry about the safety of ‘ small lambs that are very vulnerable to predation the first half of the summer.

How do they balance these conflicting demands?  Because of the excellent visibility in the alpine regions of the White Mountains, bighorn do venture onto it to feed beginning in late June; but they do so with much trepidation.

Their behavior is very flighty and they readily abandon alpine feeding grounds for the safety of the lower canyons.  They flee humans on the ground at all distances up to half a mile.  Consequently, few ever see them.

The potential for disturbance with significant impacts on the population is obvious.  What about footlaunch aircraft?  Eagles are capable of preying on small lambs, and these gliders might easily be interpreted by ewes as “giant eagles.” I have twice in early summer observed groups of ewes with small lambs abandon alpine feeding areas and . Flee to the safety of canyons when the first hang glider appears overhead.  In one case they dropped 4000 feet or more on a run.

What the long term impacts of footlaunch aircraft on the bighorn in the White Mountains will be cannot be predicted.  One possible outcome is habituation, whereby the sheep come to ignore the gliders.  However, to find this out puts the bighorn population at stake.

The U. S. Forest Service has chosen a more reasonable alternative - to attempt to mitigate the situation.  Bighorn may become aware of footlaunch aircraft largely because of the considerable noise associated with their radios and instrumentation.  I have often heard garbled radio voices from footlaunch aircraft a mile or more away from me in the White Mountains.

Consequently, the Forest Service has initiated a requirement that radios and instrumentation must demonstrate silent operating capability by being equipped with earphones.  Certainly this is a small cost toward lessening potential impacts on the bighorn population.  It also carries with it a lessening of impacts on people who go to out of the way places precisely to get away from modern civilization, Including among other things its noise.

What about bighorn in the Sierra Nevada?  Because of the steep, rocky terrain in the alpine regions of that range, the bighorn occupy their habitat with much more comfort than in the White Mountains.  The consequence is much less flighty behavior.  It is unlikely that footlaunch aircraft will have any impact on the Sierra bighorn.

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