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topic: Alex Ploner (40 articles)

Alex Ploner »

November 21, 2019, 8:25:59 PST

Alex Ploner

In German

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|video

https://youtu.be/IIkirK-K6Dw

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Oudie, Oudie, Oudie

August 16, 2018, 8:40:25 MDT

Oudie, Oudie, Oudie

The GPS smack down

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner

Tonino Tarsi writes:

Task 3 of the Monte Cucco International Trophy 2018 was a photo finish one between Alex Ploner and Tom Weissenberg. As it was not clear who won the task the two pilots asked us to analyze all the tracks available. Both Alex and Tom own an Oudie and Alex also had a Compeo track log. The analysis we did was very tricky and this is intended to share the results and doubts left concerning the subject.

First, we calculated the score using the two Oudies (the pilots' primary instruments). Result was that Tom won by two seconds:

Tom: 15:43:11
Alex: 15:43:13

Then, we used both Flymaster tracks :

Tom: 15:43:14
Alex: 15:43:14

To add to the confusion we also imported Alex's Compeo track:

Alex: 15:43:16

According to our local rules (primary instrument is the pilot instrument, in this case the Oudies) Tom won the task.

Then we tried to compare Alex's tracks from the three sources we had: Compeo, Oudie, Flymaster tracker. Comparing Compeo and the Flymaster tracker resulted in very similar tracks with less than 10-20 meters maximum error, but comparing the Flymaster Tracker with the Oudie we got a lot of areas with very big errors (up to 300 meters). This looks very similar to the problem Tom had with his Oudie in Macedonia and it looks like Alex's Oudie suffers from the same problem.

If you want to analyze the problem here are the tracks : https://www.vololiberomontecucco.it/Cucco2018/tracks_oudie_FM.zip

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olly_olly_oxen_free

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Laminar at the bank

December 31, 2014, 7:44:39 EST

Laminar at the bank

Commercial

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Icaro 2000|video

http://www.icaro2000.com/News/Pictures/2014/Laminar-giallo-L.jpg

Icaro sends:

An important Italian bank asked us to make a full yellow hang glider to use in their advertisements. In their video you will see the hang glider only at the end and just for a few seconds. Anyway they chose the best available hang glider.

The video was made in the Italian Dolomites and the pilot is the former world champion Alex Ploner.

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International King Ludwig Open 2011 and the German Championships

May 17, 2011, 4:00:19 pm CDT

International King Ludwig Open 2011 and the German Championships

They don't really say who won. It was Alex Ploner

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner

http://www.dhv.de/typo/Competition_News.5862.0.html

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Alex Ploner flying

Mon, Sep 7 2009, 9:30:52 am MDT

The World Champion at Montecucco Trophy 2009

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner

Joerg sends:

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Wing loading »

Tue, Oct 12 2004, 2:00:02 pm EDT

A few additions and corrections.

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Icaro 2000

Model sail glider hook in   pilot   wing   pilot plus
size weight weight   min/   load   hook in ballast
    min max opt max min max 220 lbs 22 lbs
(sq.  ft.) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs) (lbs) lbs/sq.ft. lbs/sq.ft. lbs/sq.ft. lbs/sq.ft.
                   
Climax                    
13 141 73 121 198     1.38 1.92 2.08 2.23
14 154 77 165 264     1.57 2.21 1.93 2.07
Litespeed                    
3.5 144 68 150 240 154   1.51 2.14 2.00 2.15
4 147 68 150 240 165   1.48 2.10 1.96 2.11
4.5 152 68.5 165 265 187   1.54 2.19 1.90 2.04
5 157 68.5 165 265 198   1.49 2.12 1.84 1.98
Talon                    
140 144 74 140 220 140 170 1.49 2.04 2.04 2.19
150 154 76 160 240 170 200 1.53 2.05 1.92 2.06
160 160 78 180 280 200 240 1.61 2.24 1.86 2.00
Combat L                    
142 69.4 140 200     1.47 1.90 2.04 2.19
153 73 170 220     1.59 1.92 1.92 2.06
159 74 190 260     1.66 2.10 1.85 1.99
Zero-7                    
13.3 143.8 67.2 110 187     1.23 1.77 2.00 2.15
13.7 148.2 71 132 198     1.37 1.82 1.96 2.11
14.2 153.3 73 154 220     1.48 1.91 1.91 2.05
14.8 160.2 75 165 243     1.50 1.99 1.84 1.98
ATOS                    
VS 127 79 183 269     2.06 2.74 2.35 2.53
V 152 84 198 331     1.86 2.73 2.00 2.14
VX 172 97 242 489     1.97 3.41 1.84 1.97

The rigid wing loading is much different than the flex wing. I fly an AIR ATOS VX without ballast and don't even meet the minimum hook in weight. But the VX is very easy to fly. Alex Ploner who weighs less than me and flies with little ballast was flying a VX in very turbulent air in Austria seemingly without a problem.

Different manufacturers have different ideas about the hook-in weight range. Icaro 2000 is the most restricted at the upper end. AIR seems to feel that their rigid wing gliders can handle a lot of weight.

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Flytec Championship - day nine »

A tough day, made that way by the task committee (on purpose).

competition

Sat, Apr 24 2004, 7:00:00 pm GMT

A.I.R. ATOS|A.I.R. ATOS VX|Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Aeros Ltd|Alex Ploner|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|cloud|competition|Eric Paquette|Flytec Championships 2004|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Jacques Bott|Johann Posch|Just Fly|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Trimmel|Mario Alonzi|Ron Gleason|Swift|tandem|Worlds 2004

The results will be posted here: http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_04/index.html

We are back to east winds again like for most of the meet. The winds are forecasted to be higher at higher elevation, up to 19 knots. It also looks like the clouds will be thin or not there at all. The top of the lift is forecasted to be 7,400' with lift at 640 fpm, so it should be strong and high enough to come back into the wind.

We hold everything back half an hour as there are clouds forming and we want them to fill in a bit. The rigids will start at 2 PM and the flex wings at 2:30. The clouds do start to look good just on the north side of Quest.

The flex wing contest is very tight with Mario Alonzi in first by less then 40 points over Oleg Bondarchuck. Both these top two pilots are flying Aeros Combat L's. Of course, Bo who won yesterday, is flying the Aeros Combat 2 (not the L). So this day could determine who wins the meet.

The rigid wing contest is not particularly tight (for first at least). Alex had hoped to be 1000 points ahead so that he could go tandem on the AIR ATOS VX today, but he was only 600 points ahead of Worlds Number 1, David Chaumet, on the Tsunami. Alex has won every task. Ron Gleason has a chance to move into fourth behind Eric Paquette (see below), if he does really well today.

We get reasonable climbs to cloud base at 5,000' staying out of the fourteen mile start circle centered around Kokee, 19 miles to the west, northwest. One flex wing, maybe Chris Chris Zimmermann is the only one to go with us, unlike Bo the day before. The rest of the flex wings will wait until later to start.

I'll go down early missing the second thermal, so I'll get a chance to see how the rest of the crew does waiting at goal. Alex Ploner is the first pilot in, with Mark and Brian closely behind him (starting fifteen minutes later). After a bit of a wait David Chaumet comes in, followed by Jacques Bott, Eric Paquette and later Ron Gleason. Then it is a long time until Kurt Schumann gets home and a long time later Johann Posch. The question remains whether Ron will gain enough points to pass Johann for forth.

Now it is time to wait for the flex wings to make it. The sky has been washed clean of clouds for the last hour, but Alex says that he find plenty of lift on the way home. He said he struggled getting to the second turn point, but the guys who came along a little alter timed it perfectly and had clouds form out in front of them as they made it to the second turnpoint to the north at Coleman.

The winds were switchy out on the last leg into Quest from Coleman. So it wasn't as hard making it in as we had thought.

As we break down Alex's VX, we catch site of four flex wings coming in low and fast. In the lead is Oleg Bondarchuck, with Antoine right behind, followed closely by Kraig Coomber and Brett Hazlett. These four are the first gaggle and they are a good ways in front of the next group that includes Mario coming in low and fast just over the trees.

It looks like Oleg has been able to grab the lead back from Mario. It looks like for the first time the Aeros Combat has been the glider selected by the top two place finishers in a major hang gliding meet (outside the Ukraine, that is). Congratulations to Oleg, Mario, Bo, and the folks at Just Fly and Aeros.

The new AIR ATOS -VX, with the very excellent Alex Ploner piloting, it has proven to be the glider to be in in light conditions. It is still not clear what he will be flying at the Worlds in the Alps. Manfred Trimmel won the first day at Bassano in a VX.

Alex, Christian, ad David Chaumet have to be the top favorites at the Worlds coming up in six weeks. Alex and Felix will have an interesting decision to make.

Brian Porter has been flying a very heavily customized Swift with a much smaller cage. He will be flying this in the Worlds. Will this be enough to beat Manfred? We'll see.

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Flytec Championship - day five »

Tue, Apr 20 2004, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Flying in Florida is just about as much fun as it can get.

the competition

Flytec Championship - day five

Alex Ploner|Bo Hagewood|CompeGPS|competition|Flytec Championships 2004|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|photo|Ron Gleason|sailplane|Steve Kroop|Tim Ettridge

The results will be posted here: http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_04/index.html

Task and Flight:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=4130&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=d541cda3b5bfd158c1613bcacda1b61e

For the fifth day in a row we have approximately the same forecast for lift (570 fpm) and height of the lift at 2 PM (5,200'). One difference is that today the winds are predicted to be light out of the east, down to eight knots or less. The other difference is that it looks like the clouds will be very few and very thin, if at all.

What we I don't find in the forecast and we don't see until later are the cirrus clouds that come over around 11 PM and reduce the solar heating and therefore the lift values. The task committee meeting at 9 AM calls a 90 mile task with an 80 mile secondary task, assuming the conditions will be similar to the previous day, although we are concerned about the forecast for no clouds.

When the cirrus clouds come in we drop back to the secondary task and then back even further to a shorter version of the task. It's south south east over Wallaby Ranch to a little grass air strip across from the Wal-Mart on highway 27, then back up to the northwest to Dean Still and highway 33, then straight north back to Quest along 33.

The times get pushed back also as we assume that the day will turn on a bit later, so the rigids will start at 2 PM. The lift is light right over Quest so we spend a long time thermaling up to 4,900'. All the rigid pilots are huddling together given the truly dim prospects out on the horizon with a few miserable looking cu's scattered about under the cirrus and a pronounced visible inversion starting at about 5,000' (just as forecast).

We creep out to the start cylinder circumference and all get the start time about fifteen minutes late. This will give the flex wing pilots a chance to catch us as their first start time is half an hour behind ours, and now they are only fifteen minutes behind us. They can also start early if they want.

We continue to cautiously proceed along the course line with no one wanting to take any great chances and lots of gaggling to find the needed help to make it along without any thermal markers. Five miles northwest of Wallaby Ranch we hit a good one and I climb up with Johann to 5,500'. Johann and I do on a seven mile glide spread out to find lift south of Wallaby that gets us out in front and makes us very attractive to the flex wings and the previously leading gaggle of rigid wings.

We don't find much lift going into Gore, a little grass airstrip just northwest of Haynes City and there isn't much going out of there either, so we have to work light stuff just to stay in the air. I'm in contact with Ron Gleason and he's gone out ahead now and is getting low approaching Dean Still with the lead gaggle, so I hold back and work 100 fpm before heading out to find them low and circling, but in good lift.

We're back in the strong lift regions when we get back to highway 33 and Dean Still. The lead gaggle including the fast flex wings are there, so we climb up to over 5,500' and head north from 16 miles out.

At 10 miles out I've only lost 800 feet in the last six miles and I'm zooming over the sailplane port. My required glide ratio has decreased from 14 to 1 down to almost 11 to 1 and it's looking pretty good.

The top guys in the lead gaggle are also on glide in front of me, and they've got about 500' on me. Ron is right behind about a mile and a half and at 5,000'. All I'm looking for is average moderate sink, but as I get lower the required glide ratio stops dropping, and I'm no longer 1000' over best glide line. My L/D goes to pot under 2,000'.

I come in at about 600' over the last good looking landing field 1.3 miles before Quest unwilling to take a chance on going through the trees. Right after I land, Ron comes over my head at 400' then hits 200' of lift just past me, climbs enough to make it 50' over the trees and into Quest, 30' past the goal line.

Alex Ploner wins the day again with Dave ("Show me the money"} Chaumet in second. It's been pretty consistent.

Krzysztof Grzyb will fly the longer secondary task, come in late, and miss goal by 50 feet. The spectators at Quest will see Bo Hagewood disappear behind the trees, then pop up and over them into the slot at the south end of the field, then glide in ground effect for hundreds of yards to make the goal by fifteen feet.

There are many pilots who make goal, though the times are way spread out, with many pilots coming in much later.

The new competition version of CompeGPS seems to be in terrible shape and Tim is having to do pretty much everything manually. One example, they could see my flight from a few days ago in the folder with all the other flights using Windows Explorer, but CompeGPS could not see it. Tim is use to beating this buggy program into submission, but now it is paying him back for all the bad things he says about it.

The ground conditions are superb here at Quest, the best ever, with lots of heads up coordination from the Quest regulars handling all the volunteer effort. There are absolutely no dramas with the rigid wing towing, and that gets us out of the way of all the flex wing pilots and makes it easier and quicker for them to get into the air.

Some times you forget when everything just goes like it should that a lot of people have to think and work to make it happen that way. Steve Kroop told me that he was feeling very relaxed as he had such knowledgeable help from Flavia, Drew, and Mike.

GW Meadows filming the action. Photo by Tim Ettridge.

Flytec Championship - day three »

Sun, Apr 18 2004, 8:00:00 pm GMT

It's a blue day with a few wisps that give us the dots for us to connect.

competition

Flytec Championship - day three

Alex Ploner|cloud|competition|Eric Paquette|Flytec Championships 2004|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|GPS|Jim Yocom|Mario Alonzi|Ron Gleason|trike

The results are posted here: http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_04/index.html

Saturday's flight:

http://olc.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=3924&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=d541cda3b5bfd158c1613bcacda1b61e

Sunday's task and flight:

http://olc.onlinecontest.org/olcphp/2004/ausw_fluginfo.php?ref3=4002&ueb=N&olc=holc-usa&spr=en&dclp=d541cda3b5bfd158c1613bcacda1b61e

The high pressure ridge which set up on the first day of the competition from the Gulf of Mexico out to the Atlantic off the Carolina coast will apparently be with us through at least Thursday, so we'll have east winds for a good number of days. The winds fortunately are not so strong that we can't call a task and accomplish it.

We again decide to go north west of Ocala for a cross wind task, because unlike yesterday the early clouds thin out and we get only a few wisps to provide an guidance. We also add a south leg cross wind into goal at Dunellon.

Dunellon is a huge sparsely used airfield built during World War II. It was raised out of the nearby swamps, so it is high and dry.

As the clouds thin out before the launch pilots are worrying about whether there will be any lift out on the course line. Didier comes to me to see if they should change the flex wing task.

Most of the rigid wing pilots are in the air already, but I'm waiting as David Chaumet and Alex Ploner seem to go near the end of the launch time. With strong winds and no clouds I figure why get going early when it is likely I'll be blown down wind. Besides maybe I can stick with Alex and David. And, besides, on the last two days we've had big problems with GPS coverage to the east over the cell tower, and I want to stay away from the area.

The trike pilot pulls me right to a wisp of a cloud to the east and I start climbing in 200 fpm. I just hang in there as who knows where there is any other lift. Soon Alex, David and Johann come in under me and we all slowly climb out.

I'm sticking with Alex and David if I can and we move north to try to stay as far east as we can. The entry start circle starts ten miles out, and there is no way that we are going to make it there at 1:30. Still most of the rigid wing pilots are down wind and low. I'm with the top two pilots, so when they start will be good enough.

As we move north, Ron Gleason and Jim Yocom are still over Quest trying to get up. Alex and David are 500 feet over us. Eric Paquette, Johann Posh and I were together just below them and that is where we would stay.

There were very few wisps of clouds to the north as we approached the start circle circumference. Everyone was being very cautious given the lack of visible thermal markers. We all stay together even though the three of us are below.

Just before the prisons (there are four of them now) a few miles south of the turnpike, I follow Alex on a seven mile glide to the next cloud north of the prisons. It's 500+ fpm from 1,500'.

Soon it will be my turn, as I also take a seven mile glide from the turnpike to the spot where I can see the next clouds forming and find 600 fpm from 1,500'. Eric was following behind me and everyone else was holding back but come to join me when they see what I've got.

The day has really turned on and even though there are very few clouds we are getting confident. We can keep track of Alex and David above us as we start racing in the strong lift not taking any long runs getting low.

Fifteen miles out from the north turnpoint Eric trailing Johann and I finds much better lift and gets above us. Johann misses a thermal and gets behind. We are all spread out now as we approach the turnpoint to the north. I can still keep Alex, David and Eric in view.

The flex wings launch behind us and have three start times starting at 2 PM, after our 1:30 PM start time. Given the tough conditions at launch no one is up and able to take the 2 PM start time.

A few get the 2:15 start, and the rest have to settle for the last time at 2:30 with only a few pilots in good position. They all quickly gaggle up given the conditions and cautiously work their way north.

They'll all stay together until five miles before the north turnpoint when Mario Alonzi finds a good thermal and gets above everyone. Mario will stay high around the turnpoint and head back south toward goal.

Alex will get to goal first, followed shortly by David, then Eric, me, and fifteen minutes later Johann. The Swifts will come in just behind me.

Alex Ploner at Quest

Half an hour later Mario will come in and later about fifteen flex wing pilots will make it in.

Flytec Championship - day two »

A cross wind task to Williston.

competition

Sat, Apr 17 2004, 9:00:00 pm GMT

A.I.R. ATOS VX|Alex Ploner|cloud|competition|Flytec Championships 2004|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Garmin GPS|Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|Swift|tug

Results at www.flytec.com

The winds continue out of the east, but the clouds start early, although they don't last all day. Yesterday, the un-forecasted clouds started late and lasted late.

Trying to match the day before we on the task committee call for later start times, when earlier would have been just fine. We also call a task over in the western part of the state to get away from the winds, but later change it to a cross wind task to the north northwest to Williston airport, 68 miles.

The ground and tug crew is very efficient and with the rigids going first, we are on the carts and out of there in a big hurry. We get completely out of the way of the flex wings, and everyone rigid is up in the air together.

The winds are about 15 mph out of the east up above, and the lift is streeted up, completely organized in lines. The clouds are marking the streets and there is no lift in between the clouds when you press north. The smart thing to do, which the Swift's did, would be to drive north to the northeast north of the seven mile start cylinder, but we rigids drift downwind to the western edge and huddle there waiting for the 2 PM start time.

This is a bad idea because there is apparently a cell phone tower near highway 50 seven miles from Quest. So there we are watching our GPSes and combined instruments and the cell tower is causing all sorts of havoc with our GPS signal reception. I lost GPS tracks for eight minutes yesterday when by happen stance we were at the same spot also. It goes out for fewer minutes today but I have to fly away back into sink to get a reading.

Steve Kroop writes about the track logs from yesterday:

I sat down with Tim Meaney (the meet scorekeeper) and looked at several 5030 track logs as well as track logs from Garmin and MLRs and we found something interesting. There were a lot of gaps in the track logs of all of the units and they were predominantly in two places along the route.

There were small gaps with all units at other places but the most of them were in these two places. It seems that there were three 5030s that had several minute outages at these locations (one was Davis’).

Just before the start window opens Ron and I run upwind to get a reading on our 5030's away from the cell phone tower. All the rigids were together near cloud base until then, but Alex Ploner on the ATOS VX is highest.

After the start window opens everyone is still hanging around climbing slowly as it looks blue to the north and no one wants to take the lead. Finally Alex and a few others head out as Ron and I climb back up to get high enough to join them. Alex stays sinking high and finds the lift first which gets him even higher.

The rest of us work the weak lift that we have to in the first thermal over the hamlet of Center as that's all there is to work. Ron and Johann tire of this ratty pathetic stuff and head north northeast only to find themselves over the forest at 800 feet. Alex has moved way ahead.

With the winds strong out of the east, we have to jump from street to street to find lift. We have to be sure to get high enough to make it to the next street and that means drifting downwind in weaker lift if necessary to get high enough.

There are plenty of clouds, but they are mostly thin and ragged. It's hard to find one with any mass to it, anything with a blacker bottom. They come and go in a few minutes. There also are extended gaps between the streets as apparently the lakes to the east influence the thermals downwind. The air down low is broken, but the smoothest thermals are the strongest ones.

The start gaggle has splintered and I will pretty much fly the task on my own which is true for most folks. Just south of Ocala, it turns on, or I finally find the real lift that has been there all along, and climb to 6,400'. It is cold up there.

The clouds are getting even thinner and on the long glide I don't find lift under the next cloud street, which will mean I come into the next one low and have to struggle for forty minutes to go eight miles, much of it low to the ground and downwind. Ron Gleason who was five miles behind me will get high and miss this particular struggle.

I finally find 200 fpm and get to 4,000' ten miles out when I hear from Ron who has now made goal that there is plenty of lift near goal. Yes indeed, just when you don't need it there is more lift then one can deal with and it gets us to goal.

As I'm landing, parachutists come in to land in the same field. I move over to next field to stay out of their way. We know that the airport a mile to our west is a drop zone, but apparently they also land at this field and just wanted to come in to say hello. Thank goodness that no one was orbiting around the goal.

As we break down the gliders we see the flexies coming in with Oleg leading the way. They were obviously flying close together as about fifteen all come in within a few minutes of each other, the first four within a few seconds of each other. Thankfully no GPS interference at goal as there is no goal crew.

So far two good flying days in Florida. No ill effects from the lakes to our east on conditions at Quest as we climb right out in good thermals.

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Alex Ploner on the pre-Europeans

Tue, Jul 8 2003, 6:00:03 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|competition|Worlds

Alex writes:

It has been a wonderful experience! Some time has passed from my last flex wing competition of this level and I did not have any idea on how we "rigid pilots" could have flown amongst all these "bigs". It is unnecessary to say that it was a nice surprise to find myself bothering and flying in front of Manfred, Oleg and company!!

It has to be said that my hang glider (laminar 14 MR tuned by Manfred ) flew very well and allowed me to glide together with the other pilots. And in thermals, according to me, I raised much better than many other pilots.

Millau is a great place to fly! The conditions are generous and the landscape is very interesting. If you consider the level of organization of this competition, then the Euopeans of next year should be an event that must not be missed!!

In the mean time, though, let's think about the Worlds in Brazil. I’m preparing myself at the best and hoping to fly well again :-)

Discuss competition at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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Competition Formats / Start times

Thu, Jul 3 2003, 3:00:03 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Angelo Crapanzano|cloud|collision|competition|Europe|FAI|gaggle|game|GAP|GAP 2002|Gerolf Heinrichs|GPS|Ivan Twose|midair collision|power|Richard Walbec|scoring|Thomas "Tom/Tomas" Weissenberger|weather

Angelo Crapanzano <angelo@metamorfosi.com> writes:

The pre Europeans is over and it was a good competition. The weather was varying but good overall and Richard Walbec was a very good meet director plus all the crew was friendly and willing to help (thanks a lot to everybody!) Unfortunately we lost what we discovered had been the best day ever in Millau: in this day a local pilot got up to 4700 m (15500 ft) while most of the competitors were blocked on takeoff by an unpredicted strong side wind.

This day Federico Bausone waited, ready for takeoff, for over one hour and fifteen minutes (with nobody pushing, of course), then the task was cancelled because there was not enough time for all the pilots to get the start gate. Fifteen minutes later the wind started changing and in half an hour it was perfectly straight but most pilots already packed the gliders :-(

As far as I know Millau was, both last year and this one, the only international competition using the GAP 2002 at "full power" (i.e. with the Leading bonus calculated from the actual tracklog of each pilot). Despite the scoring explanation was published besides the daily score, there were several questions on it; probably because pilots like to ask instead of reading and possibly because they know I like to answer.

I had the feeling pilots did like the idea of the Leading bonus when they exactly understood how it works (to know more have a look at my webpage www.metamorfosi.com and click on the GAP icon). On the first day Betiño did perfectly show how the leading bonus works: he started 15 minutes before the first gaggle, flew always on his own well in front of everybody but landed 4 km short of goal. Despite he was not in goal Betiño got the biggest leading bonus on that day to reward his early flying.

On another day Tom Weissenberger and Alex Ploner were for most of the task in front of the leading gaggle trying to escape but, just before goal, got stacked and the leading gaggle flew above them to goal. Alex and Tom got goal shortly afterwards with, of course, a worse time and less speed points but the leading bonus allowed them to reduce the loss of points as a reward for leading for most of the flight.

During the comp there was some discussion about start systems. Except on the last day, where it was set a pure race with single start for everybody, Richard always set a multiple start (mostly with 15 minutes interval but once 10 minutes and once 30 minutes). There was also a debate (mainly between Gerolf and me) about using a multiple start for everybody, except the first 20 in the general standing forced to get the central start.

This proposal come out because many top pilots prefers races but it was not felt safe to have 110 pilots taking the same start. Top pilots like races because it's more fun, they can fly in the same conditions, it's easier to know how one is doing compared to the others and it's also easy to control the opponents because everybody has to start at the same time.

I was strongly against this proposal because to set a different start system to some pilots compared the others is almost like to set a different task. All pilots in a competition are supposed to play the same game with the same rules but if we force the first 20 pilots in the total ranking to take a single start while the others can chose, we could end up with the same tracklog giving different points depending if the pilot was placed 20th or 21st.

To make it clear let's make an example with five starts every 15 minutes, from 14:00 to 15:00, but top 20 pilots have to start at 14:30. If a pilot placed in the first 20 is late and only manages to start at 14:45 he will be scored as he started at 14:30 while if he's not in the first 20 he will be scored as he started at 14:45. This means the same tracklog would bring to quite a different score and, in my opinion, this is not acceptable: all pilots are in the same competition and must play with the same rules.

Somebody says the priority on takeoff for the best scored pilots is already a different rule but I don't agree: it's just a "courtesy" - on the ground - to the pilots which are fighting for the top positions. Once in the air every pilot must follow the same rules!

Of course I do perfectly agree races are a lot of fun and easier to understand for everybody but, unfortunately, the risk of a midair collision gets quite high if there are too many pilots and there is an easy to get cloud base. The multiple start was invented after at the preworld in Ager '94 we ended up with 180 pilots waiting for the tarp in the same thermal for over half an hour: we were lucky enough not to have a midair collision but it was a nightmare!

Unfortunately it looks that pilots and organizers are too conservative and always want to do the same thing: in Brazil only races while in Europe only multiple starts but, in my opinion, in both cases it's not the best thing to do.

Let's analyze our possibilities: we can use three different start cylinders:

- start on Exit

- start on Enter without achieving the turn point inside

- start on Enter plus achieving the turn point inside

we can use four different in flight start time systems:

- Race start

- Free start

- Multiple start

- Open start. These, combined, give us 12 different options: some bad some better but, several, simply different.

Let's speak first about the start cylinder.

- Start on Exit Most pilots and organizers in hang gliding are used to the Start on Exit: normally it's a 5 km radius start cylinder centered on takeoff, where pilots have to be inside the radius just after start time. Pilot start time for scoring purpose is thus last exit from the cylinder (rounded to the previous start time interval which is usually 15 minutes). This system will somehow reduce the crowding only if the radius is quite big.

Unfortunately there is always a single optimum point where all pilots are likely going to met. With the Start on Exit pilots have to make a GoTo to takeoff then, after start, make a GoTo to the next turnpoint or activate the route which, depending on the GPS used, may require to press several buttons.

- Start on Enter without turnpoint inside this is mostly used in paragliding: Start is usually the first turnpoint and the pilot has to be outside of the start cylinder just after start time, then goes in and can immediately go for the next turnpoint without going to the FAI 400 m cylinder at the centre. This is not much different from the Start on Exit because there is still an optimum point where to make the start. However there are some problems calculating the correct task distance (Takeoff-StartCircumference-TP1) which shall be used instead of the distance calculated by the GPS (Takeoff-StartCentre-TP1).

- Start on Enter plus turnpoint inside this is the system we mostly use in Italy since this season and was often used at the pre Europeans in Millau: usually the start is the first turnpoint, with a big enough radius to have the start at a reasonable distance from takeoff. The pilot has to be outside of the cylinder after start time then has to go to the FAI 400 m cylinder at the center.

With this kind of start the pilot has to remember the start radius (which would be different on each day) but will only have to make a GoTo to the first turnpoint or just set the route. In this case pilots can, theoretically, spread along the whole circumference because any point of the start circumference is at the same distance from the turnpoint at the centre. Of course there would be better places than others depending on ridges, thermals and wind, but is undoubtedly more likely to get the pilots spread than with the other systems.

Giving this analysis, except possibly on some quite particular cases, the Start on Enter plus turnpoint inside should always be the preferred start cylinder: has no disadvantages, it's safer, gives more flight options to the pilot and it's the easier to handle with the GPS.

Now let's go to the start time systems.

- Race start this is for sure the simplest one: there is one single start for everybody. It's a lot of fun, everybody knows if he's doing good or bad and it's easy to understand both for pilots and spectators (are there any?). Pilots will fly in the same conditions and the fastest one wins. The pure race reduces the chance of a lucky start time but also eliminates the possibility to choose a better one.

This system gives to a pilot who wants to recover no options except to try to escape from the first gaggle by flying very fast and gives the pilot which is leading the competition the possibility to better control his opponents. The race will put all pilots at the start cylinder at the same time. This could be extremely dangerous if there are too many pilots and especially if cloudbase is too easy to achieve.

Of course there are systems to reduce the crowding which, in a proper day, could allow to make a safe race even with lots of pilots: should be a good day with good thermals and ceiling to spread pilots vertically, but little no clouds, start cylinder should be on enter plus turnpoint inside and wind should be at an angle to the Takeoff-StartTP direction to help the spreading along the start circumference. Start should also be reasonably far from takeoff (about 15 to 20 km) to reduce the crowding because some pilot would already bomb out and others would be late or low. Taking these expedients it would be possible to make a Race even with lots of pilots.

- Free start looks very simple and easy to handle but is totally unused: with this system the pilot start time is the last time he crosses the start circumference. Top pilots would need to wait forever (and bottom pilots would wait for them to go) because the best tactic is to wait for your opponent to start, then follow him after a few minutes and catch him. Being the tactic the same for everybody, all pilots will wait until it's almost too late to complete the task. This system is unsafe because we'll end up with lots of pilots waiting for a long time. Moreover we'll also waste the first part of the day and everything will end up later.

- Multiple start it's right now the most used system in hang gliding. Normally start interval is 15 minutes and there are 3 to 5 starts (half an hour to one hour). Pilots crossing the start circumference are scored as they started at the previous start interval. It reduces the crowding by spreading the pilots into several starts. Multiple starts also allow good pilots to play different tactics from his direct opponents to recover some places: one could start earlier and fly on his own to get more leading points or one could start later and fly fast by using the pilots in front. This system proved to be well suited on most conditions but this doesn't mean it should be the only one to be used.

- Open start this used by sailplanes and is a good option in some cases. Let's say start is open from 14:00 to 14:30. Every pilot starting while the start is open will be scored according to the last time he crossed the start circumference, while pilots starting after 14:30 will be scored as they started at 14:00.

With this kind of start is likely that several pilots will start as soon as they get cloudbase but the top pilots cannot afford to have their opponent starting just after so would likely wait for the start closing (14:30 in the example). If a good pilot has to recover he could risk to start on his own at start opening (14:00 in the example) and go for the leading bonus. In my opinion the start should, almost always, be 30 minutes long: shorter it would be useless and longer would oblige the top pilots to wait too much.

This kind of start is very useful in case of too much crowding (low and easy to get cloudbase for example) because most pilots would go away as soon as they are high and only the top ones have a reason to wait (but they are the ones which could handle the situation better). The Open start gets, practically, the same results of "forcing" the top 20 pilots to make a race (but using the same rule for everybody) but still gives a top pilot which wants to recover the option to play a different tactic from the others.

Conclusions: analyzing start cylinders format we ended up with the start on enter plus turnpoint in centre to be clearly better than the other possibilities but, speaking of start times, there is not a better one. We have to exclude the Free start but Race, Multiple and Open start have advantages one over the other depending on clouds, ceiling, wind and flight area. In my opinion it's simply wrong to use always the same system: all of them should be used depending on which one is better in the given day. They also test different pilots abilities and that's why, possibly, all these start systems should be used within the same competition: as a minimum it's more fun than playing always the same game :-)

Speaking about testing different pilots abilities, I've designed a system to be able to score an X-MAX task, with GAP scoring, within a normal competition. This way we'll test new pilot's abilities: to be able to find the best route and to correctly judge the day and himself (please don't tell me it's a matter of luck because I bet would be always the same in front…). Ivan Twose had not yet enough time implementing this but I'm sure it would be tested in Italy before the end of the season and would be ready next year.

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Millau – the pre Europeans

Wed, Jul 2 2003, 1:00:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|competition|equipment|Europe|job|Manfred Ruhmer|Richard Walbec

Manfred Ruhmer writes:

It definitively was the best competition held in Europe this year with many top pilots. Millau is a beautiful area and an interesting flying place. The tasks and the take off areas were quite different and challenging. We flew 7 tasks out of 10.

For the first time after many years I did not fly with my big Laminar MR14 (14.8sqm), but with the new Laminar MR4.2 (14.2sqm). I felt very comfortable with this hang glider. It has easier handling in thermals and also with the full tight VG setting on, it has a very good glide rate. I was, though, astonished about the good climb rate of this wing; I was often able to “sit” above the gaggles.

I was surprised about the great performance of Alex Ploner, who achieved second place in this competition. This proves that the top class 5 pilots (Alex Ploner was World Champion on Atos) can be also top in class 1 when they have the right equipment.

It has to be noticed that Richard Walbec is not only a top pilot but also a very good organizer. He and his team did a great job in task setting and also in choosing the right take off areas.

(editor’s note: Richard as the organizer and director didn’t get to fly in the meet.)

All by all it was a good Pre-European comp. I look forward to defend my title of European Champ next year.

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Millau

Sat, Jun 28 2003, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|competition|Gerolf Heinrichs|Lukas Bader|Moyes Litespeed|Sepp "Seppi" Himberger|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon|Worlds

http://millauclassic.free.fr/intro.htm

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 RUHMER, Manfred, 2 Icaro Laminar 4.2 AUT 4955
2 PLONER, Alex, 91 Icaro Laminar 14 MR ITA 4903
3 BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 1 Aeros Combat 13 UKR 4790
4 ALONZI, Mario, 4 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 4599
5 HEINRICHS, Gerolf, 3 Moyes LiteSpeed S4 AUT 4549
6 NÉNÉ ROTOR Wills Wing Talon 143 BRA 4420
7 BADER, Lukas, 114 Aeros Combat 2 DEU 4275
8 WEISSENBERGER, Tom Moyes Litespeed 4 AUT 4213
9 SCHMITZ, Betinho, 12 Moyes LiteSpeed S BRA 4172
10 SALVENMOSER, Seppi Moyes LiteSpeed 4 AUT 4100

This is the final result.

Good to see Alex Ploner do so well. Now the flex wing boys know what we are up against in the rigid wing class. Also, Lukas Bader did very well relative to his previous performance. This looks like a tough crew here at the top for the Worlds in August.

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Millau

Thu, Jun 26 2003, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|altitude|Betinho Schmitz|Bruno Guillen|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|game|Gerolf Heinrichs|radio|Rick Christen|Sepp "Seppi" Himberger|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://millauclassic.free.fr/intro.htm

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 RUHMER, Manfred, 2 Icaro Laminar 4.2 AUT 3955
2 PLONER, Alex, 91 Icaro Laminar 14 MR ITA 3942
3 BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 1 Aeros Combat 13 UKR 3826
4 ALONZI, Mario, 4 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 3685
5 HEINRICHS, Gerolf, 3 Moyes LiteSpeed S4 AUT 3628
6 NÉNÉ ROTOR Wills Wing Talon 143 BRA 3473
7 SCHMITZ, Betinho, 12 Moyes LiteSpeed S BRA 3397
8 BADER, Lukas, 114 Aeros Combat 2 DEU 3336
9 WEISSENBERGER, Tom Moyes LS4 AUT 3265
10 SALVENMOSER, Seppi Moyes LiteSpeed 4 AUT 3249

Saskia <staff@Icaro2000.com> sends this article from Christen Ciech:

Here we are, another time in this beautiful place. This time I'm competing with the flex wing (instead of rigid), because I need points and training for the next World Championship.

Unfortunately, it seems that I'm not in a good condition and in the first two tasks I miss the goal by many kilometres. Alex Ploner seems to be in the opposite condition: he's able to beat everybody and he's in first place, with a good advantage.

In the third day I leave the take off early to try to earn some points and position. It's the best day I ever seen here in Millau, but when I reach 3000 meters I'm still in a 3 m/s lift and Antonio Corradini calls me by radio to say that task is cancelled because the wind conditions at launch are bad. Bruno Guillen, on this day, climbs to 4200 meters over the first turnpoint.

On the 4th day, task is 121 km. Conditions are still good to the north but really difficult around the take off and start area. I leave with the top pilot's goggle at 15.15, but I chose a different direction and start flying by myself. I find very good thermals and easily climb to 3700 m and the task seems really easy. But on the way to the turnpoint I make some bad decisions about the lines to follow and lose 15 minutes.

The lead goggle catches me again and then over takes me. They are able to close the task because they make cloud base at 3000 m at 27 km from the goal. I reach only 2700 m and I miss the goal again. Alex Ploner was flying much faster than everybody, but he made a big mistake at that start and I lose 30 minutes of starting time. And he's still in front of everybody: it's incredible!!

Finally I'm able to reach the goal in the 5th day. We have a 70 km task from Serran take off, about 60 km south-east of Millau. With a maximum altitude of 1400 m the flight is technical even if it is all along some ridges. It seems to me that today I can understand a little more the conditions and close the day in 10th position.

Alex lost 8 minutes from Manfred who it seems doesn't want to play Alex's game any more. But after this day Alex is still leading the competition with only a one point advantage in front of Manfred and Oleg. Just the trip back to Millau in this beautiful landscape and magic light of sunset, it's a good reason to be here.

6th day is another non-fly day, because of a strong south-east wind.

7th day: It seems to me that I'm not able to fly as well as other times. 70 km of task with weak conditions at the beginning, with some high clouds that stop the sun light. I try to do the 14.00 start gate but before 15.00 I didn't reach the altitude; I thought it’s necessary to stay in the air. So I remain more or less alone and even if the thermals are pretty good, I can't fly very fast, because of the low base altitude.

I lost a lot of time and I close the task in 21st position. The fastest is Gerolf Heinrichs who completes the task in 1 hour and 36 minutes. With 1 hour and 51 minutes Manfred is second separated only few seconds from Oleg and Alex who loses first place overall. So Manfred first with about a 10 point advantage on Alex. Oleg is about 100 points behind.

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Millau

Wed, Jun 25 2003, 6:00:03 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner

http://millauclassic.free.fr/intro.htm

Looks like no flying today. After rescoring, Alex Ploner appears to be 4 points ahead of Manfred.

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Millau

Tue, Jun 24 2003, 2:03:02 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|Gerolf Heinrichs|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://millauclassic.free.fr/intro.htm

The report is that after five days Alex Ploner leads Manfred by 1 point.

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 PLONER, Alex, 91 Icaro Laminar 14 MR ITA 3082
2 RHUMER, Manfred Icaro Laminar 4.2 AUT 3081
3 BONDARCHUK, Oleg Aeros Combat 13 UKR 2965
4 ALONZI, Mario, 4 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 2914
5 SANDOLI, Alvaro, 11 Wills Wing Talon 143 BRA 2760
6 HEINRICHS, Gerolf, Moyes LiteSpeed S4 AUT 2682
7 SCHMITZ, Betinho Moyes LiteSpeed S BRA 2628
8 BADER, Lukas, 114 Aeros Combat 2 DEU 2621
9 WEISSENBERGER, Tom Moyes LS4 AUT 2565

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Millau

Mon, Jun 23 2003, 2:03:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Bart Doets|competition|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|safety

Bart Doets <bart.doets@hetnet.nl> writes:

Day 1: 88 km task, 22 pilots at goal, only 40 out of 108 pilots scored at all, the others got only minimum distance!

Day 2: 63 km task, 23 at goal.

On day 3 after 56 minutes window time, the safety committee canceled the task (a.o. a 90º crosswind at launch). Manfred and some others were underway. Then, after some time, the wind turned straight on and remained that way, and the conditions were great, the pilots that were out on course reached over 4000 m., which is not too common here. Too bad.

After two valid tasks Alex Ploner is leading, 2 Manfred Ruhmer, 3 Oleg Bondarchuk.

Day four is called.

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X-MAX 2003

Thu, Jun 5 2003, 2:03:04 pm EDT

accident|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Angelo Crapanzano|Christian Ciech|CIVL|competition|FAI|Flavio Tebaldi|GPS|Icaro 2000|Ivan Twose|Manfred Ruhmer|Mino Bricoli|Olivier Burghelle|PWC|record|safety|scoring|site|space|triangle|Valerio Canestrelli|weather

Saskia at Icaro 2000 <staffbox@Icaro2000.com> sent me this reflection on the XMAX meet.

Icaro's yearly competition in Laveno (Italy) was a great success In 3 days the 26 Flex wings flew in the Alps 3.060 km and the 16 Paragliders km 738 !! The longest flight (km 178) has been made by Christian Ciech on Laminar MR

Flavio Tebaldi, director of the meeting (on the left) Manfred Ruhmer, winner of the flex wings Olivier Burguelle, the president of the CIVL (on the right) who was very thrilled by the X-MAX formula and promised its insertion in the international PWC competitions (Paragliding World Cup)

The X-Max is now a FAI recognized competition.

The 3rd edition of the X-MAX trophy has given the free flight fans three marvelous flying days. Amongst the flex wings there were all the best national pilots, and the World Champions Christian Ciech and Alex Ploner as well as the multi adorned Manfred Ruhmer, the winner of the last X-MAX edition.

Amongst the Paraglider pilots there were other prominent names like Patrucco, Bottegal, Berta and Dondi as well as other very good local pilots.

Sunday is definitively THE “X-MAX” day!

The sky is spangled with very nice streets of cumulus under which the thermals are very generous. In these conditions the pilots are able to show their flying skills.

The hang gliders fly in overall 3060 km, with an average of 110 km each! While the paragliders fly in overall 738 km, with an average of 57 km per pilot!

The new way of doing competitions.

Read the sky, choose the route, fly fast and go far.

(editor’s note: We’ve been doing this for years and years at the Chelan Cross Country Classic. Triangle and out and return routes are heavily promoted in the scoring system. You can even go out again to get more points.)

In any other competition the important thing is to fulfill the flight task, which is indicated by the competition director, in the shortest possible time.

To win the X-Max competition, you need much more!!Flight skill is important but you must use much more your brain:

Be able to interpret the evolution of the weather conditions, decide your take off window, choose how and where to fly, decide if it is more convenient to fly a free distance, a round trip, a triangle alone, or with other pilots

Angelo Crapanzano writes:

Finally we have a free distance competition without retrieval hassles. It's nice to see it's possible to fly, in competition, triangles from 100 to 170 km and get back to goal in normal days, instead of tasks of 80 km where the fast pilots get goal in just over two hours but many pilots land out and have to be retrieved.

With the X-MAX format, pilots are flying more against themselves than the opponents and some brain has to be used: one have to fly the longest distance, but needs to get back to score high points.

In this kind of competition it's useless to follow somebody else trying to beat him on the final glide; pilots do fly often alone and to choose the best route is as important of piloting skills.

During the X-MAX most pilots get back in goal and are often quite happy because they got the maximum they could achieve in that day (it's not by accident that both last year and this one, several pilots made their own personal record).

In case are not satisfied they can only blame themselves like I did in the last day where I was not confident going forward, and made a "V" shaped flight of 160 km (which has been scored like a 110 km triangle) instead of trying a true 170 km triangle :-(

You probably understood I like this competition format, mainly because some "new" flying skills (which are not so important in classic competitions), are required.

It's the pilot to choose when to takeoff… and he cannot blame conditions were not good enough

It's the pilot to choose his route and cannot blame the task setter if it was too difficult or too easy

It's the pilot to decide when to go back toward goal and cannot blame anybody if he lands short

Maybe some good pilots will find this difficult, after many years of flying controlling the opponents, but good pilots learn fast and the ranking proves the good ones are, more or less, still on top.

A competition like the X-MAX is also safe and very easy to organize:

Safe because any pilot can respect his own safety margins and is not pushed to fly a task above his skills

Easy because it's enough to have a good map on a wall (… which was missing at Laveno), plus a good weather forecast and a computer in the goal field. Pilots go on takeoff when they want and do whatever they want.

Having paragliders and hang gliders together was not at all a problem; it was even interesting to note the differences in performances and flying characteristics (just note Patrucco, the winning Paraglider, would have been 14th in the hang glider ranking). Even in takeoff, despite different needs and limited space, there were no problems staying together and everything went fine. In flight we had no crowding, even above takeoff.

The X-MAX format proved itself and Olivier Burguelle (CIVL President), who came to check it out, is now convinced to use it in the Paragliding World Cup too. He asked me to modify the formula (which have been designed specifically for Laveno) to adapt it formula to any flying site and to be able to have an "X-MAX" day within a classic competition format.

The second requirement is already made, while the first one will be very soon and Ivan Twose will implement it into the next version of Comp-GPS. We'll check everything on May 24th during the Valerio Albrizio Trophy (in Laveno again).

Just a quick note: Manfred won (like always) but the "old guys" (read Mino Bricoli and Angelo Crapanzano) proved the experience is not for nothing and did well against the youngs.

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Deployment bags

Thu, May 15 2003, 3:00:07 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Angelo Crapanzano|bridle|Europe|Gerard "Gerry" Farell|harness|insurance|Laurent Thevenot|parachute|Rich Pfeiffer|safety|spin

Angelo Crapanzano <angelo@metamorfosi.com> writes:

Recently, while speaking about rescue parachutes, Alex Ploner told me in US there is quite a bad reputation for "diaper" deployment bags (flat pods with, normally, four flaps), while there is a good one for "envelope" ones (a bag normally opened on one side only). I already knew in US there was a preference for envelopes (while in Europe there is for diapers) but I didn't know it was so strong.

The deployment reliability of a rescue parachute depends mainly on the pod design; that's why I feel important to point out the differences between different concepts and, even more important, what makes a good or bad pod. I'm a manufacturer and of course my own design is my preferred one (otherwise I would make it different), but I'll try to be as general and objective as possible.

In a good deployment bag we need to have: easy extraction from the harness very low risk of accidental deployments, lines stowed inside the pod before deployment, ease of throw, very low risk of untimely opening, easy opening of the pod, staged deployment sequence.

1) An easy extraction may concern more the harness parachute container design than the pod itself. We need to have a big enough handle (remember it's always easier and safer to catch the handle using the thumb) and reachable with both hands (one could be injured or one hand could be better than the other in case of a spin).

The use of Velcro to keep the container closed is not reliable: often holds too little or too much. The Velcro should also avoided to keep the handle in place because if the pilot, at first try, peels out the Velcro but misses to catch the handle, then the handle could become unreachable (this is especially true in paragliding for dorsal mounted parachutes).

Be extremely careful there is not male Velcro on the handle itself: it may stuck on the lines loop holding the pod closed, thus impeding the opening. It's not only a theory: I've seen this happening during parachute clinics and, unfortunately, a German pilot died in Castelluccio di Norcia a few years ago, because of it.

There is one way only to know if your parachute is easy enough to extract: hang into your harness and try! Don't be too much surprised if you cannot get it out: during parachute clinics I've seen several pilots not at all able to extract their parachute.

2) Low risk of accidental deployments means the parachute must not come out by itself. The biggest improvement on this subject were the safety pins (introduced in the hang gliding world long time ago by Rich Pfeiffer) used at first as a safety for the Velcro but, if properly designed, are perfectly safe by itself. In some cases one could add an elastic or a sewing tread to hold them in position (check you are strong enough to break it pulling the handle!).

Be sure there is no way for the handle to get tangled in the side cables or in the base mounted instruments (there have been several accidental openings this way). Be also sure the pins are not too long (longer than the slack in the handle) otherwise there is no way to pull the parachute out of the container. Pins should be properly curved or flexible (straight pins could stuck if pulled in the wrong direction, as shown in several accidents) and be careful the head of the pin cannot pass through the loop (there have been several accidents this way too).

3) The lines stowed inside the pod before deployment are mandatory to reduce the chances of lines getting tangled into the wreckage (one line tangled is enough to get the parachute useless). Unfortunately there are several old pod designs where the lines are exposed.

4) The ease of throw depends on parachute weight but also in handle shape and length. A long handle makes it difficult to control the throw and could tangle on cables (some handles designed as an anchor don't certainly help). A handle attached to the pod in two points gives a more solid hold compared to the, unfortunately now common, single point attachment.

Never attach the pod to the canopy: to save some dollars in case of deployment, you definitively increase the risk of a tangled parachute!

5) Low risk of untimely opening means the deployment bag shall not open before you throw it and let it go. This can easily happen in an old style envelope pod where the handle is in the opposite side of the opening because only the elastics are holding the canopy inside the bag: if they are too old or weak the canopy will fall out before one throws it while, if they are too strong, the pod would be hard to open.

A good envelope pod design is to have both the handle and the opening on the same side, so the elastics don't have to hold the weight of the canopy. On some diaper pod designs the canopy or the lines can fall out if one shakes the pod (still holding the handle). In any case it's important to leave the right amount of slack in the bridle: the pod must not open until you let it go!

6) Easy opening of the pod is mandatory because, in case we cannot throw it forcefully (much easier to say than to do in reality), there is only the difference in sink-rate between broken hang glider and closed pod to open it. Please note that, in most common accidents, the closed pod falls faster than a broken hang glider or paraglider.

In case both glider and pod are falling at the same speed there is still the aerodynamic drag on the bridle which could open the pod. It's clear we are never speaking of big forces, so we need to have the pod open with a very light pull.

7) The correct staged deployment sequence is: bridle - lines - canopy. We first want to have the bridle coming out because we want the pod (still containing lines and canopy) to go away as far as possible to reduce the risks of entanglements. Then we want to have the lines, and finally the canopy must come out only when bridle and lines are stretched. This is the best way to reduce the chances of canopy malfunctions and to reduce the opening shock on the parachute. In a well designed pod, regardless of the strength of the elastics, the lines shall not come out until the bridle is stretched and the canopy shall not come out until the lines are stretched. Speaking of lines and bridle, I would like to point out that we need:

- long bridle to reduce the chances of a tangled parachute,

- long lines to get better sink-rate and stability from the same canopy

- short sum of lines plus bridle to get a faster opening time (it looks impossible at first, but there is a clever solution to this problem).

IMPORTANT: To check out the extraction, hang into your harness, put your thumb into the handle, grab it and pull it out slowly: the pod must come out effortlessly.

To check out a pod for untimely opening, while still hanging, stretch your arm sideway to check the slack in the bridle, then shake the pod without leaving the handle: the pod must not open.

To check out if a pod opens easy enough, put the pod on the floor then pull up slowly the bridle and then the lines: the pod must open easily without lifting the parachute and the canopy must get out easily. The deployment sequence, during the previous test must be: bridle - lines - canopy and must be correctly "staged" (should be the same regardless of the relative strength of the elastics used).

These simple test doesn't take more than 10 minutes (plus repack, which is always useful to get a fast opening) but could save your life: much cheaper and much more useful than a life insurance, but your partner could think different :-) :-)

While you are there, check out how old is your parachute: if it's more than 10 years old consider replacing it. An old parachute behaves exactly as a new one, of the same model, if you are going to deploy it at low airspeed. However parachute fabric is quite sensible to aging and ultraviolet rays: an old parachute cannot withstand the same high speed as a new one.

If your deployment bag doesn't work as it should, fix the problem if possible (and check it again!) or, much better, have an expert professional check and fix it (but check what the professional is doing too. It's your life which is involved!).

I practically didn't speak about the differences between envelope and diaper pods because it's not much important. What is important is that a pod works in the correct way and you can get it both with an envelope or a diaper one. Remember:

- Pods which don't stow the lines inside increase the chance of a line getting tangled.

- Old style envelope pods with the handle on the opposite side of the opening are dangerous because, in case of warn-out elastics, the canopy can easily fall out untimely (it happened to Gerard Thevenot: the pod came out of the harness but the parachute stayed inside!)

- Pods without a correctly staged opening sequence, bridle - lines - canopy, increase the risk of entanglement and malfunctioning.

Well… of course I do prefer my 5 flaps diaper pods because they fulfill all the previous requirements (as a good envelope one) but are "softer" to better adapt to the harness container, require less force to open and, when open, let immediately the canopy fully free.

If you ask a good American manufacturer I bet he would agree on everything… except the last sentence :-)

Discuss parachutes at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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Tsunami »

Sun, May 11 2003, 9:00:06 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|carbon fiber|competition|control frame|Flytec Championships 2003|landing

Was it the cool, sharp control frame of the Tsunami that gave it that little bit extra on the high speed glide? Compare the AIR ATOS-C control frame with the Tsunami and you might come away thinking that that might be the ticket.

The AIR ATOS–C down tubes and base tube are quite a bit thicker than what you’ll find on the Moyes Zoom frame, the new Icaro 2000 MR control frame, or the special carbon fiber frame on the Tsunami. Felix adds turbulators to the front edge of the control frame to keep the air stream attached. This is to offset the thickness of the airfoil section.

Why the thicker section – so you don’t get cut up so bad when you make a mistake on landing. Notice that a few folks have had this problem of late. Felix is thinking about the average ATOS-C pilot, not just the one or two top competition pilots.

Is the trade off worth it? Well, Christian and then Alex Ploner won the Flytec Championship and the Wallaby Open respectively.

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|David "Dave" Glover|Eric Raymond|Icaro Laminar MR|Jerz Rossignol|Kari Castle|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed|Nene Rotor|picture|Wallaby Open 2003|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon|Zapata

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

Heavy rains during the night.

Overcast in the morning. The forecast is for improving weather during the day, but not enough improvement as the winds are predicted to be even higher than yesterday. Winds measured by the buoys are already over 20 knots.

The overcast goes away around 1 PM, and we have blue skies with cu’s at 1,500’ to 2,000’ with winds out of the west.

Things change. The provisional results I received earlier had something wrong with them, so here are the latest results:

Flex wings:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 3984
2 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 3728
3 SCHMIDT Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 3723
4 BOISSELIER Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3721
5 WALBEC Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3670
6 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 3599
7 DURAND Jon Jr. Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 3586
8 RUHMER Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 3567
9 ALONZI Mario Aeros Combat 2 FRA 3518
10 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 3511
11 LEE Jim Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 3501
12 CAUX Raymond Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3472
13 BESSA Carlos Wills Wing Talon USA 3434
14 OHLSSON Andreas Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 3297
15 WOLF Andre Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 3290
16 ROTOR Nene Wills Wing Talon BRA 3232
17 CASTLE Kari Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 3025
18 MULLER Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 CAN 3022
19 RICHARDSON Ron Avian Cheetah GBR 2914
20 ROSSIGNOL Jerz Icaro Laminar USA 2840

A picture of Oleg from Dave Glover.

Rigid wings:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 PLONER Alex Air Atos C ITA 4512
2 CHAUMET David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 4140
3 CIECH Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 3988
4 BARMAKIAN Bruce Air Atos USA 3707
5 POSCH Johann Air Atos C AUT 3414

Alex Ploner taken by Dave at Zapata.

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Thu, Apr 24 2003, 5:00:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|ballast|Betinho Schmitz|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|cloud|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|gaggle|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Ron Gleason|Wallaby Open 2003

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

Our atmospheric conditions are just beginning to be affected by a cold front that is situated over west Texas. In the morning we can see thin high level clouds coming in from the northwest. There are a few very thin cumulus clouds around but they will soon be squashed by the general shading from the high clouds.

The models are calling for east winds a little less than 10 mph, with a area of lighter winds to the west, likely a bit of convergence there, but no real cloud development. I can see from the FSL RUC2 model soundings that the clouds will be little wisps if there at all.

This same model is calling for an eastern sea breeze at 5 PM over Wallaby, so this makes for a good argument to head west. The lift is forecast to be the same as the last few days (500 fpm lift minus your sink rate equals the climb rate). I average 350 fpm over the task, and this is relatively a very high average rate of climb for a task over the last two weeks. I’ll go into more details about that soon.

The FSL model also calls for poor lift here Wallaby in the later afternoon and an inversion all day that would stop almost all cumulus cloud development, even without the sun shade up high. The lift is predicted to be weak after 3,500’, with this rising to perhaps 5,500’ during the day and as we go west. I pull all my ballast, just in case.

The task committee calms down a bit with a spontaneous division of tasks. Richard, Johnny, Betinho and I settle into coming up with the start circles, location and distances, after a basic task is called. We let the other guys worry about exactly which airport we are going to. Three tasks are eventually reviewed, but in the end we will go with the first one called.

As the morning progresses the conditions appear to deteriorate. More high clouds and thicker, and the disappearance of the underlying cu’s. I’m not worried about the lack of cu’s, because we weren’t supposed to have them anyway.

As the launch time approaches it is postponed until 1 PM. The high clouds begin to dissipate a bit, a few cu’s show up and the wind dummies start sticking. The race is on.

The rigids are assigned one start time at 2 PM with a start circle edge 10 miles to the west. The flexies can also go then and their start circle is 5 miles out, or 15 or 30 minutes later. The idea is to reduce the number of gliders in the start gaggle.

I’m the first rigid wing launched and there are cu’s just to the southeast of the Ranch. I can climb out slowly (200 fpm) to 4,200’. I’m hanging at cloud base and waiting because I know that we will all want to fly together today on a task that looks like your friends will be your only help.

So what is the task?

We need to go west to the intersection of Rockridge and highway 98, then northwest to the intersection of 98 and 301, then north to the Inverness airport about 69 miles.

The rigid wings get off early and start joining me at cloud base. We mostly hang around the Ranch as there are no gliders or cu’s to the west to indicate the lift and as this is a race start with everyone going at the same time, there is no need to take any risks as long as no one else does.

We slowly move west as later launching rigids take probing flights out to the west toward the start circle circumference. Still, as 2 PM, our start time, we are still 3 miles short of the start circle and climbing slowly all together. We won’t cross the start circle until 6 minutes after 2 PM.

The few flex wings that want to take the first start time will only be 2 miles behind us and as we haven’t even approached our start circle we will be waiting for them to join us. Going early to join us may not be such a good strategy on their part as we don’t have to go fast (as we are all together), but they will have guys behind them chasing them and needing to go as fast as possible.

We creep toward Rockridge and 98 taking a half hour to go 10 miles, very slow. No one gets away as everyone sees it in their interest to stay together. David gets just past the turnpoint and finds poor lift, while the guys that get there first and a little higher find a good thermal at the turnpoint and the rest of us join them.

Manfred, Brett Hazlett, Andre, and another flex wing pilot are right in the mix with us with Manfred a little lower and out in front, not having found the thermal at the turnpoint.

Speaking of Manfred, it turns out he landed a mile short of goal yesterday. The final glide was a long one at 12 to 1 and Manfred kept going. Brett who was behind him saw that things looked dicey, found a better line to the right with some other pilots, found some lift, and they made it in.

We move slowly toward the northwest to the Clinton turnpoint taking 40 minutes to go 14 miles. Again everyone is together and no one ventures out too far in advance. Well, at one point Ron Gleason and I do get a little out in front, which actually slows us down, as we get a few hundred feet below folks, just as we come into a very strong thermal just before the turnpoint.

Finally the gaggle splits up based on how high you were and how soon you found the good core of this thermal that gets us back to 4,500’. The lift has now really turned on as we have moved west to where the forecast was for the best lift.

The lift continues to be good as we head to the turnpoint and then north toward goal. With the good lift we’ll do the next 35 miles in one hour or less. A gaggle of us will find strong lift to 5,300’ just past the turnpoint and this will get us far enough to the north to catch many of the guys who got higher than us just before the turnpoint. It won’t be enough to get the leaders.

We’ll all go on glide from 12 miles out at 5,000’. The lift was so good in this last thermal that it was hard to leave it. Manfred will come in with us (see results below) with Brett and Andre just a little bit behind. I’ll average 52 mph on the final glide at 16 to 1.

After we get to goal we don’t have to wait too long before the 2:15 gaggle comes in. They all race across the line low. In the end there must be about 50 gliders at goal.

Results:

Rigids:

Alex Ploner 14:00 16:06:49
Christian Ciech 14:00 16:06:51
David Chaumet 14:00 16:09:17
Burce Barmakian 14:00 16:13:00
Johann Posch 14:00 16:13:49
Mark P. 14:00 16:14:16
Davis Straub 14:00 16:14:48

Flex wings:

Manfred Ruhmer 14:00 16:14:44
Brett Hazlett 14:00 16:16:48
Andre Wolf 14:00 16:17:16

You might also try to find results at: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2003/2003_Wallaby_Main.htm

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Wed, Apr 23 2003, 4:00:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|battens|Betinho Schmitz|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|death|gaggle|GPS|Kraig Coomber|Leonardo Dabbur|Mike Barber|news|Swift|Wallaby Open 2003

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

Okay, the lead – Manfred doesn’t get to goal once again. What is the sound of Manfred not making goal? When is a nonevent news? Twice in two days. Yesterday he dropped to second place below Oleg. Today he tumbles further.

As I was breaking down my glider I saw that Manfred was the passenger in the car coming to pick up Alex and Christian at goal. Wow! Things are really open for someone else to win this meet.

Okay, if it hadn’t been for that the lead would have been the mid air. Out on course, in the air, in a thick gaggle, a glider landed on top of Leonardo Dabbur’s flex wing. He apparently bent some of the root battens, as Leonardo had trouble flying the glider after that. Finally he decided to land. We don’t know at the moment who the other pilot was.

But, what about the death gaggle just outside the start window? We had a 20 mile radius entry start window today centered on the first turnpoint. Do you think this would at least spread out the pilots? Well the lift was weak and with 80 pilots in the same or a nearby thermal it was almost impossible to stay in any “core.”

There was no separate start circle radius or whatever for the various classes, so that didn’t help at all. It was truly unbelievably ridiculous. I came very close to being hit or hitting (who knows which is which) three gliders. This was a common experience.

At first we were able to climb up over 3,500’ but as more and more pilots got into the air, it became more and more difficult to stay in the lift without endangering yourself and others. So we slowly began to sink as this chart shows (the red vertical line is when I leave to go on course) down to 2,300’. The last two humps before the red line are when I go inside the start circle (which in this case means I go out on course) to get away from the gaggles, and then I go back outside the start circle (to start) and only a few pilots are in the gaggle with me.

This graphic displays the hour that I spent in flight before I took the last start time at 2:45 PM:

I spent 70 percent of the hour turning and the average rate of climb was 90 fpm. Everyone else was in the same situation, trying to stay up in what seemed like weak lift because none of us could fly in the core.

Some went on course when the death gaggle just became too much. They became the rabbits for us to chase. Oleg went at 2:30 to get out of the death gaggle. I went with him, but went back to get the 2:45 clock.

Alex Ploner, Christian Ciech, David Chaumet, and Bruce Barmakian were high at 2:45 at the start circle. Kraig Coomber and Brett Hazlett left at 2:45 but were able to catch the 2:30 guys as they started high and raced to the Bok Tower where the earlier guys (Oleg, Antoine, Curt, Johnny, Carlos, and Betinho) were low.

What task you ask?

Down to Lake Wales, to a new turnpoint to the south of Bok Tower to keep us in GPS coverage, southwest to Larry to keep us near the orange groves and pasture lands and away from the swamps, and then down highway seventeen to Wauchula airport. With the north-northwest wind predicted to be about 10 mph today, and with moderate lift and no clouds, we were worried about being able to get off a reasonable task.

And talk about anxiety. The task committee is built to enhance anxiety. Mike Barber does not want to call a task until two minutes before the first pilot launches if then. There are so many different personalities going in so many different directions on the task committee that I just keep my mouth shut. They (we) call three task today before at the last minute we decide on the medium task (I want the long one).

So we are gliding south over the orange groves toward Lake Wales and thankfully there are plenty of folks out in front to show us the lift. Nice to have friends when there aren’t any clouds. My gaggle finds some good lift just northwest of the Bok Tower and get the highest that we are going to get at 4,300’.

It’s a short run to the turnpoint in Lake Wales and then we can see the lead gaggle to the west-southwest. Knowing that there is some lift ahead is a great benefit as we can pass up weak lift and go for the good stuff. Just before the turnpoint at Larry we have to crawl up from 1,600’, but that will be enough to get us to 4,100’ and high enough to pick and choose before we go on glide from 10 miles out at 4,000’.

I have a Swift way below and in front of me on final glide also. I figure that he is going to make it, so all I’ve got to do is keep him below me. I’m actually able to beat him to goal.

Plenty of pilots make it into goal.

In order:

Alex Ploner 14:45 16:38:12 1st rigid
David Chaumet 14:45 16:42:19
Christian Ciech 14:45 16:42:35
Burce Barmakian 14:45 16:43:45
Kraig Coomber 14:45 16:47:02 1st flex
Brett Hazlett 14:45 16:47:02
Antoine 14:30 16:47:18
Oleg 14:30 16:47:26
Curt, Jon 14:30 16:47:30
Carlos, Betinho 14:30 16:47:30
Heiner Beisel ? 16:51:08
Davis Straub 14:45 16:55:51

You might also try to find results at: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2003/2003_Wallaby_Main.htm

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Tue, Apr 22 2003, 4:00:01 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Belinda Boulter|cart|Christian Ciech|cloud|Florida|GPS|Jim Lee|maps|Oleg Bondarchuck|site|tail|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

It’s another beautiful day at the Wallaby Ranch in central Florida. The forecast is for winds 10 mph on the ground out of the west rising to 17 mph up near cloud base. The BLIPMAP shows better lift and higher cloud bases to the south east of us along the east coast. We do have a couple of goals over in that direction (River Ranch and Hibiscus), but I can’t get the task committee to go along with me.

The FSL MAP model is showing the possibility of towering cu’s, although thunderstorms are not in the forecast. There is a cold front to the north and it is forecast to come through sometime later in the evening. So far (at 7 PM) the surface maps still show it far to the north. Perhaps it is stalled.

We wrangled around in the task committee (with so many people involved many things can happen). Finally two tasks toward the south, southeast were proposed but later we have to add Bok Tower as there is still a sky diving contest at Lake Wales, and the course line would put us too near them.

The GPS will go out just north of Bok Tower so it’s hard to say just how they will handle this when they score the meet. Do we get the waypoint if it looks like we came close? I think so.

Just before we launch we do agree on a short task to Avon Park airport with a control point at the Bok Tower:

With a stuff breeze in the take off area it is a bumpy ride over the trees. Belinda said that there were a lot of reflights today from pilots that didn’t stick the first time. I find something at 1,100’ over the northwest corner of the Ranch and work up 220 fpm to 3,700’ cloud base.

All of us who get to cloud base work our way upwind to try to get on the west side of the ranch but to the south of Interstate 4, near the edge of the start circle. The gaggles are very small given all the wind at cloud base, and I’m hanging with three flex wings.

On the ground there’s lots of action. Jim Lee has chosen a cart that puts his nose at too high of a nose angle. There are plenty of carts with high tail holders here at Wallaby, and they are to be used by pilots whose gliders have long down tubes. They are painted a different color so you know to use them if you have a Wills Wing Talon, for example.

Jim didn’t use one of these carts.

Apparently Jim was in line with the wrong cart and when he asked for a different cart, he was told he needed to go to the end of the launch line and get a new cart. He chose to continue. Belinda and others witnessed what happened next.

Just like last year it was an immediate lock out with one wing high and a 180° turn. He took out one down tube. He quickly fixed that and was soon launched again (I assume with the correct cart).

Another pilot did something similar again with too high a nose angle. Pilots have got to recognize which cart works for them. Long down tubes equal painted cart.

Meanwhile it is getting toward 2 PM, which it seems will turn out to be the real start (Race) time. We didn’t start launching until 12:30, so 2 PM is really the first time that other than the first early launchers would want to get going.

I’ve pushed west on my own and I hook up with Oleg and Johnny Durand, Jr. and Kurt Warren. There is not another rigid wing in site. There are many gliders miles downwind to the east. We are the pilots furthest to the west.

We race south until Kurt and I find 500 fpm just east of Winter Haven to 4,200’ and cloud base. We then go on a long glide that takes us through the blue toward Bok Tower. At this point we should have gone downwind to the clouds, as that’s where the lift is, but having worked so hard to get upwind we are reluctant to do so.

We get low coming into Bok Tower and Curt turns back and lands. Looks like I’ve led him astray. I head over the tower as I see some pilots turning high, but I don’t catch anything until I’m down to 700’ AGL over the back of the tower amongst the orange groves.

Yesterday it was pleasant at 340’ AGL. Today with the wind it is quite rough near the ground and I’m holding on tighter than normal. Its a few thermals before I get back to 3,500’ and drifting 6 miles east of highway 27. I’ll miss the next thermal and land twelve miles from goal.

Other pilots will be able to keep themselves high and to the west of highway 27 after they get the Tower waypoint and drift slowly to the southeast in the winds that get up to 20 mph at cloud base.

The preliminary results are very preliminary. Oleg Bondarchuck wins the flex wing task today as Manfred goes down way early, even before Bok Tower. Christian Ciech goes down before the goal also, so the two leaders don’t make goal. Alex Ploner wins the day for rigid wings.

The preliminary results aren’t out yet (printed preliminary results for Class 1 with the incorrect distance was out at 8:30 PM), so hopefully there will be something up by the time you read this. You might also try: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2003/2003_Wallaby_Main.htm

Discuss competitions at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Mon, Apr 21 2003, 8:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|aerotow|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|altitude|antenna|Belinda Boulter|Betinho Schmitz|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|cart|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|control frame|David Chaumet|dolly|Eric Raymond|fire|flight park|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|game|GPS|Icaro Laminar MR|insurance|Jerz Rossignol|Kari Castle|Mike Barber|Moyes Litespeed|Oz Report|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steven "Steve" Pearson|survival|transport|Wallaby Open 2003|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

In the competition between the flight parks, 93 entrants at the Wallaby Open and 110 for the Flytec Championship. I guess that bragging rights (for quantity at least) goes to the Quest Air Flight Park (largest aerotow meet ever).

Here at Wallaby the rigid wing class was decimated with the number of pilots falling from 28 to 17. You’d think that once that got here with their difficult to transport rigid wings, they would continue flying in the Wallaby Open.

The launch line on the first day.

So the top two American flex wing pilots have taken themselves out of this premier US competition. Yesterday Mike Barber cut open his knee (the pictures were gross and I publish the least gross one – see below) down to (but not into) the ligament. Today Paris Williams bounced off the cart and smacked into the ground taking out his control frame. You’d think he would be familiar with dolly launching at aerotow parks in Florida. ☺

The story according to Belinda who watched it happen (and who spoke with other observers) is that the cart hit a bump while he was going plenty fast (just at the point where you would take off), the glider came off the cart (Paris wasn’t holding onto the rope), his hands slipped off the control bar, and the Aeros control frame dug into the ground in front of the cart. The glider pancaked into the ground. People rushed over and took the glider off Paris who was then up and walking around. He didn’t fly the task.

Mike Barber didn’t fly the task today either. He is on crutches and happy enough with the fact that he will make the US team without doing well in these meets and get to go to Brazil. Same for Paris.

Speaking of the task here it is:

There are two separate tasks today for flex wings and rigids. The rigids are to start from a start circle seven miles to the south on highway 27, then go through the Bok Tower control point (to keep us away from the sky diving contest at Lake Wales airport), next to Avon Park airport (25 miles miles further south) and then back (through Bok Tower waypoint) and on to Wallaby Ranch. With a five mile start circle radius this puts are start point twelve miles to the south of the Ranch. A total of 81 miles.

The flex wings will be starting behind us (to the north) in order to separate the classes. The assumption being that it is harder for the flex wings to catch the rigid wings rather than the other way around. Their start circle is centered one mile north of the Ranch but with a five mile radius they will in fact be starting four miles south of the Ranch, eight miles behind the rigid wings. A total of 89 miles (from the edge of the start circle).

To keep the two classes further separated, the rigid wings will be starting at 1:15 only and the flex wings fifteen minutes later at 1:30 PM. That’s right it’s a race start, as predicted/urged in the last Oz Report.

With launch opening at noon there is plenty of time to get everyone off in time for the single start time. Many of us will get to the edge of the start circle twenty minutes early, but eventually everyone will be there. The lift is diffuse enough so that we don’t get in each others way too much.

I hear from Oleg that the flex wing start gaggle is not too bad either. There are plenty of cu’s with 4,000’ bases to choose from so perhaps they spread themselves out in a sensible fashion.

It’s great to have a race start. No worrying about whether someone is behind you catching you. You get to see all your competition and the guy in front is winning the day.

We are at cloud base at 1:15 as the start window opens and everyone together takes off spreading out to find the next lift. I’m on the left side with Alex Ploner wandering about. He’s got a good glide, but it seems only slightly better than mine. David Chaumet doesn’t display any better glide either. Interesting how things change each day.

Staying to the left I get a little better line and then hit the first thermal 3.5 miles out. Christian Ciech and the other pilots behind me come and join me, while David, Alex and a few others continue on not knowing that we are climbing behind them. We get a thousand feet on them right away as they don’t find any lift.

I’m leaving with Christian trying to keep him from getting away from the group (or at least from me). I’m just a few hundred yards behind him as we glide and a hundred feet below him climb through Bok Tower and to Lake Wales.

It’s a long glide into Lake Wales and Christian finds something that I can’t seem to find right under him. I’m down to 1,800’ when I get under him but under a cloud with lots of sunshine around and I go looking around for the lift. I don’t find any for eight minutes.

I will spend the next seven minutes below 750’ AGL, getting down to 340’ AGL. That’s fifteen minutes of rescue time, getting myself out of a hole that I have dug and back in the game. I just didn’t want to go back home tonight having screwed up so early in the task.

Fortunately the light lift that I find is next to the only cleared field within gliding distance, so I can both feel the comfort of turning low to the ground knowing that if I don’t get up I can land safely. This lets me let the bar out a bit more and milk the broken weak lift down low.

As I climb out of there I keep my head down and concentrate on survival keeping thoughts about my stupidity at bay. Just enjoy that fact that the lift is weak and therefore not too turbulent. As I climb up it turns on strong and within fifteen minutes I’m back at base. Almost a half hour of slowing myself down. Now it’s time to race.

I make a point of going for the clouds as I don’t have any pilots to help out. I get back on the course line upwind to the east over the lakes and find lift, while most pilots follow highway 27 to the left with few clouds. I can hear from Johann that the lead gaggle (minus Christian who is way out ahead) is only five miles in front of me. I catch most of them by the time we get to Avon Park taking a completely different course to the east.

Now I head downwind to the west to the clouds as the ground gets shaded from the high overcast. They are working great and I’m getting high under them while all the other pilots have disappeared.

The overcast gets darker as we approach Lake Wales and the Bok Tower turnpoint. I stop over a fire finding 100 fpm. Its light lift like this for the next nine miles as we creep toward the tower and I spot the other rigids circling near it.

Fortunately one of them finds strong lift in the sun to the north a mile as the high overcast begins to break up. I hook up with Mark P., and Johann, with Alex Ploner and Bruce Barmakian over us.

There are still plenty of shaded areas with light lift in front of us but we are back high enough to give a few areas a look see to see where the best of the light lift is.

Eight miles out and at 3,400’ high the Brauninger IQ/Comp tells me I can just make it to goal. Belinda, at goal, says Alex and Bruce just came in low and Christian came in a while ago. Well I’ll get a chance to see if the new version Brauninger behaves any differently as I go on glide. Will it be more stable?

An article in https://OzReport.com/pub/Ozv7n106.shtml describes the changes to the Brauninger IQ/Comp.

The sky is dark and so is the ground so I don’t expect to find any more lift, but I also didn’t expect to find any bad sink. There iss no wind (a report from Belinda confirmed this) and I figure there will be net no sink or lift going to goal.

Mark P. and Johann are way off to the right working a bit more lift as I continue on glide. They want the extra insurance.

The go to goal target showed up on the Brauninger, but I couldn’t tell if it was more stable than the previous version. It seemed that way but it was hard to tell for sure. Steve Pearson sent in the description that said a distance above your MacCready altitude would be displayed, but it wasn’t. This was perhaps because the go to goal symbol never flashed while I was climbing. Who knows?

I just saw that the vario said I could make it. I saw that my sink rate was 200 to 400 fpm. I saw how far out I was and how fast I was flying and could calculate how many minutes it would take to get to goal and whether I would still be in the air for that time period. It looked good to me.

I just kept the glider at less than 40 mph for the first six miles just to keep the needle at the best glide over the ground speed as I knew I was close to not making it. When I got within two miles at 1,200,’ I could go sixty mph with ease.

Fortunately our group was able to make it in before Manfred smoked the course starting eight miles and fifteen minutes behind us.

So Alex Ploner won the first day and Christian Ciech won the second day. At the moment David Chaumet’s Tsunami looks mortal, about the same as Christian and Alex.

It seems to me that pilot skills are really being tested here (and maybe a bit of the drag of harnesses and other bits). The gliders are very close to each other (with or without tails) and David’s may or may not be that much better. Alex and Christian are just much better pilots than the rest of us (at least that is my tentative conclusion based on my scraps of observations). Maybe I’ll get more relevant observations later.

One interesting twist was the fact that we had to go by the Bok Tower which is a place where we know that under some circumstances your GPS loses coverage. This is probably due to some nearby antenna that overpowers the GPS signal. Piltos were told that if their GPS coverage goes out but that their track showed them headed for the tower, they would get the turnpoint.

I’m thinking that if you get low near Chalet Suzanne (near Bok) your GPS signal goes out, but not if you are high. Mine does go out on the way back when I’m low, but I get a Mark Enter in the .25 mile circle just before I lose it completely. What luck.

It’s easy to see the Bok Tower so there is no problem flying close to it to get the waypoint. Hopefully all pilots will do this.

The story I heard from the flex wings is that on the way back it got very iffy near Lake Wales with light lift. Just the same as we experienced. The lead gaggle was low over the Orange Juice factory, and Manfred was climbing better than the rest of the group in the lift broken stuff.

He gets high enough to go search for better lift. Brett Hazlett who doesn’t get high enough goes with him and doesn’t make goal. The rest of the flex wing pilots know their place and work the light stuff until they do get high enough to move along.

Very preliminary results for day two:

Flex wings:

1 RUHMER, Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 13:30:00 17:03:05 3:33:05
2 WOLF, Andre Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 13:30:00 17:04:46 3:34:46
3 SCHMIDT, Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 13:30:00 17:06:49 3:36:49
4 BONDARCHUK, Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 13:30:00 17:10:20 3:40:20
5 WALBEC, Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:10:57 3:40:57
6 BOISSELIER, Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:11:28 3:41:28
7 WARREN, Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 13:30:00 17:12:02 3:42:02
8 MULLER, Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 CAN 13:30:00 17:12:23 3:42:23
9 CAUX, Raymond1 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:16:32 3:46:32
10 DURAND, Jon Jr., 49 Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 13:30:00 17:38:42 4:08:42
11 GUILLEN, Bruno, 57 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 13:30:00 17:40:55 4:10:55
12 ALONZI, Mario, 23 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 13:30:00 17:42:28 4:12:28
13 DE LA HORIE, Geoffory Aeros Combat 2 FRA 13:30:00 17:43:02 4:13:02
14 CASTLE, Kari, 15 Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 13:30:00 17:44:15 4:14:15
15 ROSSIGNOL, Jerz, 14 Icaro Laminar USA 13:30:00 17:44:35 4:14:35

Totals so far:

1 RUHMER, Manfred, 85 Icaro Laminar MR AUT 2000
2 BOISSELIER, Antoine, 31 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1842
3 WARREN, Curt, 13 Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 1764
4 WOLF, Andre, 97 Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 1764
5 DURAND, Jon Jr., 49 Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 1762
6 WALBEC, Richard, 94 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1715
7 SCHMIDT, Betinho, 30 Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 1684
8 BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 33 Aeros Combat 2 UKR 1675
9 ALONZI, Mario, 23 Aeros Combat 2 FRA 1588
10 CAUX, Raymond, 51 Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 1574
11 CASTLE, Kari, 15 Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 1471
12 LEE, Jim, 20 Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 1418
13 OHLSSON, Andreas, 108 Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 1397
14 BESSA, Carlos, 16 Wills Wing Talon USA 1370
15 HAZLETT, Brett, 59 Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 1368

Rigid wings:

1 CIECH, Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 13:15:00 16:23:24 3:08:24
2 PLONER, Alex Air Atos C ITA 13:15:00 16:47:27 3:32:27
3 CHAUMET, David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 13:15:00 16:50:45 3:35:45
4 YOCOM, Jim Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 16:50:47 3:35:47
5 BIESEL, Heiner Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 16:55:12 3:40:12
6 POSCH, Johann Air Atos C AUT 13:15:00 17:00:39 3:45:39
7 STRAUB, Davis Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 17:00:43 3:45:43
8 POUSTINCHIAN, Mark Air Atos C USA 13:15:00 17:03:03 3:48:03
9 BRANDT, David Air Atos USA 13:15:00 17:04:57 3:49:57
10 PAQUETTE, Eric Air Atos CAN 13:15:00 17:12:52 3:57:52
11 GLEASON, Ron Air Atos USA 13:15:00 17:19:27 4:04:27

Totals after two days:

1 CIECH, Christian, 114 Icaro Stratos ITA 1781
2 PLONER, Alex, 121 Air Atos C ITA 1687
3 CHAUMET, David, 113 La Mouette Tsunami FRA 1511
4 POSCH, Johann, 122 Air Atos C AUT 1343
5 BIESEL, Heiner, 3 Air Atos C USA 1326

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The 2003 Wallaby Open

Sun, Apr 20 2003, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|Christian Ciech|cloud|Fantasy of Flight|flight park|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|GAP|GAP 2000|J.C. Brown|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|landing|Malcolm Jones|Mike Barber|Oliver Schmidt|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Richard Walbec|SeeYou|Terry Presley|Wallaby Open 2003|weather

http://www.wallaby.com

First of all, the task:

It’s first twenty miles to the west to Rockridge and highway 98, then east to the Fantasy of Flight to keep us from going over downtown Winter Haven, then southeast to Chalet Suzanne on highway 27 near Lake Wales, then back to the Ranch. It’s a 70 mile task, with a substantial east wind of 10 mph predicted.

The new wrinkle is that the start circle is centered on the Rockridge and highway 98 intersection and is fifteen miles in diameter. The idea is that you begin the contest by entering the start circle instead of leaving the start circle. The reason for using such a start circle is to allow pilots to spread themselves out along the circumference of the start circle, all routes to the first turnpoint being equal from that circumference.

Now theory is one thing and practice is another. With a good wind component, only one point is optimal. With other pilots congregating in one location, they form an attractive nuisance and soon there is a party in one spot.

Still it’s quite manageable with twenty pilots looking to take the first clock at 1:30. Which reminds me of another innovation.

At the task committee meeting this morning Betinho mentioned that he wanted more time between start times to cut down on pilots waiting around for a later clock and then catching people in front of them (can you say Johnny Durand, Jr.?). Of course, we were using GAP 2000 at the Flytec Championship (and we are here), which has the minimal early departure/arrival bonus points so of course pilots are going to try to catch others from behind.

So I immediately suggest a half hour and, whoa, it is accepted. This will make it harder for pilots taking a later clock to catch the earlier guys and keep them from getting that extra added advantage without having to pay for it with reduced starting time points.

The task committee calls for three start times, although what they really want is a race, one start time. The compromise with three start times has to be made to allow the flight park time to get everyone in the air. Actually we could call a start time at 1:30 hours after the launch window open time, because that is enough time to get everyone in the air and at the circumference of the start circle, if people start launching at the launch window open time (they never do). So maybe we will have a race start soon.

The task committee consists of Richard Walbec, Betinho Schmidt, Mike Barber and I. But JC Brown runs the meeting and directs the discussion. Peter Gray and the goal crew are there also and Malcolm Jones hangs around the edges. This is quite a difference format (and dynamic) than Jim Lee , Terry Presley and I meeting in my trailer looking over the SeeYou task map as we did last week.

Mike Barber is a high anxiety person. He has extreme difficulty making a decision (especially one related to calling a task four hours in advance of the actual task). He wants to call off the decision until the last moment. He also is very distrustful of weather forecasting (even forecasts four hours out). The funny think is that he also is compulsive looking and listening to the weather forecasts. His anxiety infuses the task committee.

Mike is afraid of the possibility of over development, like the OD we had yesterday. I’m looking at the FSL MAP models and the BLIPMAP. I guarantee to him that there won’t be any OD during the task.

I compare the fear of OD with the actuality of higher winds than the models predict. It appears that the winds are stronger out of the east than the 10 to 12 mph that the models show will be the state of things later in the day. We later get a “sounding” from Paris Williams (taken, who knows how), with the east winds stated to be 20 mph. I’m concerned about the prospect for higher winds (as we are right on the cusp of where it makes a big difference), and I’m looking at the windcast showing a broad convergence and lighter winds to the west (as we had for many days at the Flytec Championship).

The task committee gets through the process and calls two tasks (we never called an alternate task at the Flytec Championship) just to handle all the anxiety (well, okay, that is a bit overstated). Then later, just before the pilot meeting, based on Paris’ “sounding” we call a third task to the west (I’m good with that) and make it the primary.

Now the pilot meeting is at 11 AM, which I consider to be about an hour too late, because it doesn’t give us time to get to the staging line and get ready to go before the launch window opens. I give my little weather spiel (know any good weatherman jokes?) and before we know it is too late to get to the launch line in time to get suited up for the 1 PM start window.

The three start times now become two start times (which is cool with me, as I go for the race concept) of 1:30 and 2 PM. I’m thinking that this is alright. Fifteen minutes are the launch window opens with no pilots launched (did I mention this?) and Bo on hold from JC Brown (talk about last minute anxiety) we call the secondary task (which earlier was the primary task) (see above).

They let the task committee stage in the front, but I get off early anyway, so I don’t clutter up the neighborhood. The lift is light to moderate (200 fpm) the southeast of the Ranch and we just hang out in the big smooth stuff to cloud base at 4,000’ slowly moving our way to the west staying just under the clouds.

Just before the start time at 1:30, there are twenty plus pilots at the edge of the start circle. There is light lift at cloud base so we are all just hanging near the top waiting for the clock to tick. I’m hanging back a few tenth of a mile in better lift getting up in the cat birds’ seat to watch the action in front of me. Position is a big deal for my psyche.

Kurt, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, Christian Ciech, Antoine, Manfred and a few other fast guys are around so I figure that this won’t necessarily be a loser move to go at 1:30, in spite of the weak lift we’ve been experiencing.

At 1:30 the whole group goes and there isn’t anyone else even nearby. It’s great having a few folks out in front and lower so that you can choose other lines to go to. I take a more southern route and hit the clouds early to find the next lift that we all get up in again just north of Polk City.

Christian finds the next one out front and puts himself in the lead with Johann and I right behind him and the flex wings trailing after us. It’s looking good to me. Christian goes on a long/fast glide. He’s doing well. But it is great to see that he is not over powering. He is flying faster than Johann and I, which most likely is a good idea. I’ll have to amp it up a bit more tomorrow.

Johann and I and a few flexies stop for a weak one as Christian heads to the turnpoint still not turning. We then head southwest to get under the clouds. Just before we get there, I see Christian starting to turn and head for him. I should have stayed with the gaggle as they get up quickly and it takes me a while to find the core under Christian. Now he’s really out in the lead. (Was that bonehead move #1?)

Johann and I get up next to the turnpoint and head toward Fantasy of Flight. Johann finds a good one to my right but in another bonehead move I continue on, having to slow down to find a good one seven miles out from this second turnpoint.

Many of the flex wings are doing well now above me and we are fighting up wind to get to Fantasy. I make a couple of more bone head moves and land 5 miles short. Johann gets high at Fantasy and continues to Chalet Suzanne.

Christian gets low by Fantasy also, out there out on his own down to 500 feet and takes 20 minutes to get back to cloud base. Still he is able to fly fast and get to goal first.

Manfred also took the 1:30 PM start time and makes goal soon after Christian. He wins the day for the flex wings (or at least I think he does as he was so fast).

Alex Ploner takes the 2 PM start time, and after a few 1:30 flex wings make it in, he makes it to goal to win the day for the rigid wings. He also got low but found a strong thermal right away. David Chamet comes in a few minutes later. The rest of the rigid wings trickle in quite a bit later. The flex wings are interspersed with the rigids (perhaps we will call separate tasks for them.)

Mike Barber cuts his knee on landing on his back wires. It is a pretty substantial cut with a bucket full of blood down his leg into his sock. He was wearing pants with holes in the knees (he lives out of his truck) and that’s where the wire got him. Can you say stripped wires?

Mike and Dorval came across the line very low and close together with Mike the lowest. Mike basically had to land without much time to think about it. He took out a down tube also without any other damage to the glider.

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Fri, Apr 18 2003, 6:00:02 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Airborne Climax|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|Curt Warren|Dave Carr|David "Dave" Glover|David Chaumet|David Glover|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|GPS|Icaro Laminar MR|job|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed|Paris Williams|sailplane|Steve Kroop|tug|waypoints|weather

The scores:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

We called a 66 mile out and return task to the northwest in order to take advantage of the forecasted convergence. The rigids had to go 5 miles longer than the flex wings, just to keep the two classes on separate routes.

We chose a turnpoint at a little grass airstrip just to the west of Interstate 75 10 miles north of Wildwood. It sure was great to use the Florida sailplane outlanding database for our turnpoints as the task committee had a lot more to choose from.

David Glover and I massaged that database and added quite a few points to it to come up with 171 waypoints and goals for the Flytec Championship. No one had to enter any new coordinates in their GPS, which was our goal. With all the extra waypoints, the task committee had plenty of options in every direction which made it much easier to define a task based on the weather and the Race parameters.

Speaking of David and Steve Kroop, they have been very responsive to our concerns about the meet format. For a week in advance of the meet many pilots went over the proposed local rules and made numerous helpful comments that were incorporated into the rules to make the competition that much more fun and interesting.

During the meet they are also very flexible and made changes when pilots saw that things could be better or the weather changed. I appreciate their support of the task committee, and while I think we did a good job, I only wish we had done even a better job.

Seven days of flying. Strong tasks which really demanded a lot from pilots on a couple of days especially. Also some fun tasks that everyone enjoyed.

Great organization on the ground, with twenty tug pilots and very little waiting. Of course, I launched early everyday, so I never had to wait. It’s a little trick I’ll let you in on. ☺

It took about 45 minutes or less for the ground crew and tugs to get everyone in the air. There are well over a hundred pilots here. Pretty smooth.

The rigid wing pilots were hanging out north of Groveland by highway 19 waiting for the perfect start time today. We were all near or right at cloud base, and the cloud kept forming in the perfect spot at the northwest edge of the start circle. It was like so easy to stay in the perfect spot.

I had an opportunity to circle for about 10 minutes with David Chaumet on his Tsunami. He was just below me so I got a real good feel for how well he climbs. Essentially he gained about 6 inches every 360 on me. Like I said I got to watch this for a long time.

We were in light lift, and we were just hanging out waiting and waiting for yet another start time, so I got a very good view, and I can say that while David flies very well and makes very good decisions, the climb rate of his glider is about equal to mine and other ATOS-C’s and Stratoses.

Of course, later I got to see him glide. We tried to drag everyone out with us at 2 PM, but they were not to be dragged. There were about 17 rigid wings in this gaggle in the start circle, and it was hard to get them going. The start time opened at 1:15, but as the clouds to the north started late, unlike yesterday, so everyone wanted to wait to the optimum time.

Johann and I agreed to go at 2:15 and I made a dramatic move at 2:15 to get everyone to come with me. I’m relying on my reading of the studies of herd behavior, and a start circle full of rigid wing hang gliders is nothing if not a herd. Everyone goes with me.

I do glide with David, but soon he gets ahead and in front. Alex Ploner (ATOS-C) and Christian Ciech (Stratos) are with him, so it isn’t like he is totally cleaning everyone’s clock, but it is still obvious that he has the best glide.

I head northwest toward the prisons while the fastest four rigids head on a more northerly course line. I can see a gaggle of flex wings (who started 5 miles in front of us) over the prison so I don’t want to go in any other direction. The rigid guys who took the route to the right do come join us there and everyone gets up, even the guys who first get there low.

The lift is strong and this is a hard racing day. No time to wonder, just find the next strong thermal and go. Of course, a strong thermal in Florida this year averages 400 fpm.

But wait, to the north it looks shaded, dark, overcast, and devoid of cu’s along the course line. The fast guys in front are heading straight on the course line into the gloom. But on the west side of the course, two miles to the west of I-75, I see a set of obvious convergence clouds.

Now I’m thinking, maybe these guys will find really weak lift along the course line. Maybe they won’t find any lift at all. Maybe the only lift will be these clouds. I’m a couple of minutes behind, so I head for them quickly hoping to outsmart the smart guys in front.

The clouds are working. I find a thermal at 1,600’ and right away I’m joined by a hawk that knows something about clouds (or at least lift) and he really helps out finding the best parts of the lift. As I climb out I look off to the east and there is the lead gaggle, getting up okay. But getting up when I was hoping they would be groveling in the shade.

I move deeper into the convergence area and get even stronger lift before dashing back to the northwest to get the turnpoint at the Savanna grass airstrip. Pilots who’ve made the turnpoint in front of me are coming back to the convergence clouds and I come back with them for more of that good lift to 6,000’. The forecast is holding true.

Now the race is really on and it’s a quick run back to the prisons for that good lift over the concrete. It’s still there and every second counts. The fast guys can’t be caught and don’t get stuck.

I get a long glide into the prison area next to Johnny Carr on a Stalker2, the very one that I have flown. It seemed to me that his glide was almost exactly equal to mine. I then circled with him and his climb rate was also very close. I didn’t see any of the hatcheting that I had seen in Texas at the US Open. There was no yawing back and forth, just a very smooth thermaling. This was true of all the Stalker2’s that I saw during the meet. Of course, I mentioned this earlier when test flying the Stalker2.

After the prison. I race as hard as possible, get a little low 7 miles out and have to waste 5 minutes getting back up. I should have kept going as the next seven miles were nothing but lift. Almost all the rigids and over 50 of the flex wing pilots make it back to goal.

Rigid Results:

1 CIECH Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 5823
2 CHAUMET David La Mouette Top Secret FRA 5721
3 PLONAR Alex AIR Atos ITA 5195
4 BARMAKIAN Bruce AIR Atos USA 4765
5 YOCOM James AIR Atos C USA 4467

Flex Results:

1 RUHMER Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 5625
2 BONDARCHUCK Oleg Aeros Combat UKR 5519
3 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 5457
4 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 5265
5 WALBEC Richard Airborne Climax 2 - 14 FRA 5039
6 DURAND Jon Jr. Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 4999
7 ALONZI Mario Aeros Combat 2 FRA 4909
8 OLSSON Andreas Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 4811
9 WILLIAMS Paris Aeros Combat 2 USA 4796
10 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 4752

Curt Warren won the day by having a fast time and leaving when most everyone else did. It was a very competitive meet with a strong battle for first place in both rigid and flex wings. It’s obvious that the best pilots in the world are here.

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Thu, Apr 17 2003, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Brett Hazlett|Christian Ciech|cloud|Curt Warren|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Jon Durand snr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Marcus Hoffmann|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|photo|Terry Presley

The scores, when they are done, will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

Photo of Mike Barber and Oleg Bondarchuck by Luis Pérez

The task committee calls separate tasks for rigids and flex wings with a few shared turnpoints. The task is basically a race around the Green Swamp going from around the north east side, west, south, east and then back to Quest. The rigid wings have to go an extra six miles.

We open the start time at 1:15 PM 45 minutes earlier as pilots are starting earlier anyway and it looks like the days are getting better earlier. The start circles are a few miles to the northwest and we all drift that way. There will definitely be a group of earlier starting flex wings as they quickly get out to the west side of their start circle by Mascote.

At first there is one cloud that we know is working on the north side of Quest and its only providing 100 fpm. A few of us hang there until enough scouts have checked out the area to the north so that we can feel good about venturing out. There have been good cu’s all morning, but some were dying and bringing some pilots grief.

At 1:15 Johann Posch and I go on glide to the west with another rigid wing over the northern end of the Green Swamp. The flexies are to our right and five miles out they are circling, so Johann goes to join them. Like I said, there are cu’s every where so I keep going straight, but the clouds are lying.

I see a few flexies turning downwind and come in under them at 800’. Soon there are twenty gliders holding on and hoping to get back up as the day starts off weak. Now we are wondering if we should have taken the first start time.

We do finally find the good part of this thermal and get back to 4,000’ cloud base for the first part of the flight. We’ve got a total of four rigid wings out here and half a dozen flex wings in the lead gaggle and we’ll help each other out for the next couple of turnpoints before the rigids have to go their own way.

We’ve got Kurt Warren, Jim Lee, Terry Presley, and Jerz Rossignol. At least those are the ones I can identify. Kurt is leading and pushing the whole way. It’s great to have a guy who wants to go fast in the group.

We fly the clouds and continually go off the course line to get to the clouds. After the first bad experience with getting low going to the first turnpoint (Koke- a grass airstrip to the northwest of the Green Swamp), we want to be sure to hit the lift.

The clouds are now working and we hurtle right along trying to make sure that no one catches us from behind. With Kurt and Johann pushing, we are moving quickly.

Kurt takes a line off to our right and keeps going to the second turnpoint to the south at Clinton where he hits a strong thermal. We join him and this is where we will split up. An ATOS comes in under us, looks like someone is close to catching us.

There are two lines of clouds going to the south east. They are set up perfectly for the two task lines, one for the flexies and one for the rigids. We four rigid guys, including Marcus from Switzerland head southeast while the new rigid wing guy waffles around low below us.

It’s a good run to Rockridge and highway 98 where Johann finds another thermal just past the turnpoint. I’m slowly climbing away from Marcus and Johann and I keep in touch. The low rigid wing guy almost lands but we see him getting up slowly and still low behind us.

There is a lot of vertical development over by Dean Still Road going to our next turnpoint at Dean Still and highway 33. When I get there it is going up at 700 fpm to 5,300’. I dive in under the cloud and keep the bar pulled in so as I don’t go up making the turnpoint. Johann is already on his way home.

As we approach the highway 33 and 474 intersection, we are joined again by the flexies who’ve taken their short cut. There is a strong thermal at this intersection 11 miles out from Quest and I take it to 4,300’ which should be just enough to get me to goal.

I can barely see Quest but my Brauninger says that I can make it and there doesn’t seem to be a head wind. Johann reports that he doesn’t find any lift on the glide in.

I do the final glide without turning and come in with 500 feet to spare. No worries. Thank goodness sink was only 240 fpm over that 11 miles.

Results:

Rigids:

Pilot Start time Elapsed time

Christian Ciech 2:15 PM 2:57
David Chaumet 2:15 PM 3:09
Johann Posch 1:15 PM 3:21
Davis Straub 1:15 PM 3:29
Alex Ploner 2:15 PM 3:31

The pilots that started and finished earlier will get additional points. Thirteen pilots made goal. The race for the top spot is very tight in rigids (the results before today):

1 CIECH Christian ITA 4081
2 CHAUMET David FRA 4072

Christian picked up a few points today, but not a lot.

Flexies:

Jon Durand Jr. 2 PM 2:39
Manfred Ruhmer 1:45 PM 2:50
Brett Hazlett 1:45 PM 2:53
Kraig Coomber 1:45 PM 2:53
Oleg Bondarchuck 1:45 PM 2:53
Curt Warren 1:15 PM 2:54

Given his start time, Kurt could be in second or even first for the day. More than 25 flex wing pilots made it to goal.

The race for the top spot in the flex wing category is very tight with Manfred not running away with the contest. Three pilots before today’s results are very close. Oleg and Kraig are still very close after today. Tomorrow decides it.

1 RUHMER Manfred AUT 3983
2 COOMBER Kraig AUS 3927
3 BONDARCHUCK Oleg UKR 3910

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Tue, Apr 15 2003, 9:00:02 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Betinho Schmitz|Carlos Bessa|cloud|cloud street|David Chaumet|Eric Raymond|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|Jim Zeiset|Kraig Coomber|Luis Pérez|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuck|photo|Raymong Caux|Richard Walbec|Ron Gleason|wheels

The scores when they are done will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

Your editor is beat tonight. He had to walk out a mile hauling two gliders and two harnesses. Thankfully he had his kayak wheels that the lovely Belinda brought in for him. But, let’s say that wasn’t so bad. Lois, who landed with me, had to crawl out, as he doesn’t have full use of his legs. He was looking pretty chipper tonight.

Luis Pérez took this photo of the surrounding area.

The story of the day has got to be Bo Hageman winning the day again. But more on that later.

First, we had to call a task knowing that the forecast was for lighter lift than yesterday, much stronger east-northeast winds, and lower cloud base, at least initially. The wind was the big issue for us. It looked to be 15 mph or maybe a bit more. Yesterday it was less than 10 mph, out of the northeast. The difference between a little less than 10 and maybe a bit more than 15 mph is the killer for hang gliders especially flex wings.

We called a shorter task than yesterday now to the south for the flex wings. We want to keep them up near the Florida “ridge” at highway 27, for perhaps better lift, so we call and out and return to 27 and 547 (57 miles). Their start circle is centered just to the east of Quest.

There is a request from the flex wing pilots for a different longer task for the rigids, and we accommodate them by moving the start point for the rigids 6 miles to the east of Quest and lengthen their task to 544 and highway 27 (66 miles). This means that rigid pilots are going to have to fight their way further upwind just to get into the start circle. And, their task is about as long as their task on the previous day.

Ron Gleason and I talk about launching fairly early and working our way to the east to get into the start circle . It looks like this will be a tough task. The cloud started before 10 PM, so at least we have thermal markers, and with the wind we have streets showing us where to go to get to over to highway 27.

I’m the first rigid off at 12:40. Bo is not even in line yet. He is resting his back he says. I pin off at 1,000’ with the vario showing 1,100 fpm for 15 seconds. Yes, there is in deed lift here and it takes me west as I climb to 3,300’ and then begin punching east under the cloud street.

By this time I’ve got three other rigid wings with me including Jim Yokum and Ron Gleason. As I got off earlier I’m higher and pushing further east. There is a big lake in front of us (Lake Minnehaha), but the lift seems to be there anyway, and I keep finding 300+ fpm as I get next to the lake.

I’m at cloud base (4,700’) at 1:36 and I’m thinking that I should just on course. I’m alone, there are plenty of clouds to the south. I’m just two miles south of the start circle center, no one has been able to get out here with me yet.

I outsmart myself and say why not go upwind another two miles to get on the upwind side of the start circle. There are plenty of clouds off to the east going to Lake Apopka. Ten minutes later I’m down to 1,600’ and running back downwind to find lift.

This is a story that a number of other pilots will replay as they too try to go upwind on the east side of highway 27 near Clermont and find that those clouds are lying.

I climb up in lift that gets to 700 fpm to 5,200’ at 2 minutes after 2 PM. The start window is open, surely I can go with the rigid wing pilot who just left. Nope. I try again to go upwind to get on the east side of the start circle for a better start. I won’t get it.

Jim Zeiset sees this mess, and decides to land back at Quest. Other folks go up and down in the start circle and never get to start. I leave the start circle at 2:30 PM at 900’. I’ll drift away from the one landable field climbing at 50 fpm going over Lake Louise heading toward the swamps on the south side. The start clock games were killers today.

Four rigid pilots did well. Alex Ploner won the day starting at 2:45 PM and taking 2:26 to complete the course. Christian starting at 2 PM did it in 2:45. David Chaumet started at 3 PM and took 2:53. Mike Tyron started at 2:15 and took 3:11. Doesn’t look like any gaggle flying took place there.

Bo started the course at 1:50PM, ten minutes before the official start time. The rules let him do this, but his whole flight gets shifted to start at 2 PM and end 10 minutes later. Manfred who starts at 2 PM catches Bo out on the course, but they part ways and Manfred doesn’t make it back, while Bo is the first into goal.

He’s followed by Oleg Bondarchuck who is 15 minutes behind him, but 5 minutes overall behind him. Then there is a big gap with Betinho doing the course in 2:50, Dorval 2:55, Carlos Bessa 3:13, Mike Barber 3:20, and Raymond Caux 3:25.

The flex wing standings are going to tighten up quite a bit with Manfred not making it. Kraig Coomber, Richard Walbec, and Johnny Durand were up there high, but they weren’t at goal either.

This was a day for pilot skill in reading the conditions. Oleg and Bo were able to go fast by reading the sky.

The forecast for winds tomorrow is for them to back off maybe by a half. That would be great.

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Sun, Apr 13 2003, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|CompeGPS|David "Dave" Glover|David Chaumet|David Glover|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|harness|Jon Durand snr|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Richard Walbec|sailplane|scoring|Worlds

The scores when they are done will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

On the first day David Glover arrives on a camel:

With another blue day predicted, and with the one forecast for weak lift (we don’t get Gary’s forecast until after the task is called), we choose a 40 mile task, that gets the fast guys home in less than an hour and fifteen minutes. We’ll have to make that a bit longer tomorrow.

We keep pilots nearby, but screw up and put them back through the start circle which makes it hard for CompeGPS to know when they really started. Also the start circle gaggle and the gaggle from the guys coming back from the first turnpoint gets a little too crowded.

With a 2 PM start time we open the launch at noon and most people wait around till almost 1 PM to start launching. I’m off at 12:45 as the first rigid wing, and the lift is light to the visible inversion at 4,700’. We’ll all bob up and down for the next two and half hours hitting the top of the inversion and finding lots of light lift.

The first leg is a short one up to Gator field to the northeast. The flex wings and rigids are separated into their own start circles which cuts down on the mayhem a bit. Some pilots take the 2 PM start window, but many hold back for 2:15 for the fastest flex wings and 2:30 for the fastest rigid wing pilots. We actually are low at 2:15, so we have to wait until 2:30 to start.

The lift is much better out on the course than in the start circle and it is a quick flight to Gators and back to Quest with lots of thermal markers from the earlier time slots. We are headed for Bay Lake to the southwest by the Green Swamp and there seems to be a bit of a hold up there as a lot of pilots are milling about. We jump in and out and find strong lift just to the south to get us up and near Seminole Lake glider port.

A turning sailplane does us no good and we have to find lift at the south end of the grass strip to get high enough to get around the turnpoint at highway 474 and 33 and then to the northeast toward Lake Live Oak. A good thermal greets us on the way and a lot of folks bunch up getting high enough to make the last turnpoint and hopefully get to goal.

I’m registering 14 mph out of the northwest, so we proceed cautiously toward goal working a few bits until it looks good to go. The field is crowded with faster guys and pilots who started earlier.

With too short a task, the day is over too soon. All (27) the rigid pilots make goal.

Rigids:
Pilot Elapsed time
David Chaumet 1:14:28
Alex Ploner 1:14:52
Christian Ciech 1:16:07
Bruce Barmakian 1:35:50
Flexies:
Manfred Ruhmer 1:24:08
Kraig Coomber 1:26:19
Richard Walbec 1:26:53
Betinho 1:29:26
Jon Durand, Jr. 1:29:41

I have to type these in myself, so sorry about not putting in the glider make. It’s in the scoring.

David conquers again on his La Mouette Tsunami, but this time Alex with his old harness (his new one was stolen) is close (today his harness didn’t fail like it did yesterday). Apparently David was a mile behind Alex on the final glide and came over the top of his head. That glider has some glide.

The top three rigid pilots at the Worlds in Chelan last summer are the top three pilots today.

The top three flex wing pilot today were the top three yesterday, in the same order. Four Litespeeds after the Icaro 2000 Laminar MR. Paris on the Aeros was next. Oleg was 13th.

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The 2003 Flytec Championship

Sat, Apr 12 2003, 6:00:02 pm GMT

accident|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Christian Ciech|cloud|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|Eric Paquette|Florida|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|Hansjoerg Truttmann|harness|Johann Posch|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Richard Walbec|Ron Gleason|sailplane|smoke|Swift|Wallaby Ranch|Worlds

The scores when they are done will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/index.html

The task committee relying on my statements about 5 mph out of the northwest called a triangular task, 58 mile for rigid wings, 61 miles for flex wings. The rigid wings started off to the southwest of the flex wings.

We went south to Dean Still and 33, 8 miles west of Wallaby Ranch, then south east to an intersection over highway 27 north of Haines City and north of Walmart, then back over Wallaby to the northwest, right into the wind to Quest.

The launch window opened at noon and the first start time was 2 PM. Lots of time to think about when to launch. The rigids have to launch before 1:15 {at least once.)

The winds were a bit too much for the flex wing pilots, and they have my apologies for that.

The forecast was for wispy cu’s or no cu’s also, but some deeper cu’s showed up early and then thinned out to match the prediction. With the strong west winds we had trouble getting to our start circle and kept drifting back to the east of highway 33. When I took off I just nicked the west circumference of the rigid wing start circle and left it at that.

About ten or so of us including a few flex wings took the first start time at 2 PM. David Chaumet in his Tsunami {La Moyette Top Secret), was just behind me. A few other ATOSes and Stratoses including Johann Posch were with me. Hansjoerg and Christian would start at 2:15 PM as I believe would Manfred.

I got out in front as I just nicked the start circle and joined up with a sailplane circling near the Seminole Lake glider port for the first thermal on the course. Looked like a student, and I was keeping a real good eye on the sailplane {given the recent accident) and quickly climbed through him.

David and Johann caught up with me south of Seminole as there were a few wispy cu’s to the north of Dean Still. David was flying well on his Tsunami, but not over powering. I was feeling great. There were a few flexies with us.

You can see from the tracklog above how much we would head to the east whenever we were thermaling. It was downwind to the second turnpoint and at this point David, Johann and a couple of other rigids have gotten out in front of me and a few other rigids. I had to go back at the first turnpoint to get into the lift and got a little behind.

There is a thermal just before the second turnpoint where we all get back together again and get high. The thermals over the course averaged 250 fpm {rate of climb) just about the prediction. They maxed at 500 fpm {at least for me). I heard Manfred found some 1000 fpm.

After the second turnpoint we are heading back into the wind to get to the west and the difficulty factor goes up a lot. Ron Gleason on an ATOS gets down to 600’ at I4 just south of Wallaby Ranch and has to drift east back to highway 27 to get back up. He’ll then fly the Florida ridge to the north finding lift on the “high ground.”

Johann is 3 miles ahead and I’m in contact with him. The lead gaggle gets low east of Wallaby and they are stuck for a short while. We don’t quite catch them as we wait at I4 and get high in weak lift. It will take 45 minutes to go from I4 to 474 about 11 miles to the north. There is a small wisp of a cloud now and then.

I flying with and Oleg on a Combat 2, Richard Walbec, and Kraig Coomber on Litespeeds. Christian Ciech caught us at the turnpoint and I’m flying with him also. It is good to see that he is not completely out climbing or out gliding me like he did here last year and at the Worlds. I’m feeling great about my updated ATOS-C.

Still Christian keeps going when we get below 2,000’ AGL just south of 474, and I hang back in weak lift as I never see him twirling in anything. Richard, Kraig, and a few rigids and I have to work some weak lift just north of 474 as we get down to 1,500’. There is a four pilot gaggle just to our north {including Oleg and Manfred) about a mile that is going up much better, but we have to live with what we are in as we’ll never make it to them.

The lift improves and finally the two thermals merge as we are 2,000’ below the four guys in front.

Those four go on glide and I hear from Belinda that David and his Tsunami are already in goal and we are still 15 miles out with a strong west wind. David has kicked our collective butts. He started in the first time slot, didn’t have many pilots out in front at first, got in the lead by the first turnpoint and kept charging ahead. Pilots flying with him said he had a better glide. I didn’t notice this, but maybe.

Mark Mullhulland joins us in a Swift Lite and I’ve been wondering where the Swifts have been. Usually they start late and then smoke the course going from gaggle to gaggle, but not today. Mark can barely keep up with us and will get into goal after our gaggle.

We keep punching west and a little bit to the north, and the winds are strong and the lift weak. We have to leave lift that is too weak to give us forward progress. I’m especially cognizant of the lines on all the lakes and ponds to see where there are converging winds. There are no wisps around.

Alex Ploner hasn’t caught up with us as he has broken his harness zipper and is having problems. He won’t make goal. Mike Barber broke his zipper on the ground, got help fixing it and had a little later start so he is no where to be seen.

We keep punching into the wind. At about 6 miles to the southeast of Quest I see Ron Gleason head toward goal from 3,500’. He looks really low as I’m at 4,500’. I’m worried about the head wind.

I go on glide with Richard next to me and we keep encounter some lift as we head toward Quest. I can still see Ron and it sure looks very iffy for him.

As I get to 1.5 miles out, I see Ron right on the deck as he enters the field after crossing a good patch of trees. He makes the goal line in the middle of the field with 50 feet to spare. I come in next with Richard a minute behind. It will be hard to get Richard off that

David is the first pilot in followed half an hour later by Hansjoerg and then Christian. Manfred is the first flex wing pilot in. Only four flex wing pilots make it to goal. Three Swifts make it after most of the rigids who make it are at goal.

Elapsed times:

Rigids:

David Chaumet Tsunami 2:15
Hansjoerg Truttmann ATOS-C 2:32
Christian Ciech Stratos 2:33
Bruce Barkmakian ATOS 2:37
Rich Burton Stratos 2:37
Jim Yokum ATOS-C 2:39
Eric Paquette ATOS 2:54
Ron Gleason ATOS-C 3:04
Davis Straub ATOS-C 3:07
then a few more rigid wings.

Flexxies:

Manfred Ruhmer Laminar 2:50
Kraig Coomber Litespeed 3:01
Richard Wallbec Litespeed 3:07
Mike Barber Litespeed 3:50(?)

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The fin

Tue, Feb 18 2003, 9:00:05 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|ATOS|Axxess|Christian Ciech|David Chaumet|Felix Ruehle|John Vernon|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Degtoff|SPAD|Stalker|Tsunami

Ailerons. If one of those rigid wing gliders just had ailerons instead of spoilerons, well then it would just be so much better. Just because it had ailerons. That’s all it would take and if it had them then that glider would be the one, the one that we would all want because it would have so much better performance, because it would have so much less drag.

I mean doesn’t aileron sound so much better than spoileron?

Turned out not to be the case.

If you had a chance to check out Mark Poustinchian’s Stalker web site at http://home.earthlink.net/~mpousti2000/aeros/intro.htm you’ll have been sure to notice the really big item, the fin. The vertical fin. What’s that doing there? Mark really doesn’t say, but I’ve heard the story.

First, it was the V-tails and the floating tails on the other rigid wings to keep them from tucking (we all hope and pray). Then there was the DHV video that seemed to indicate pretty strongly that the ATOS V-tail did a real good job in stopping spins. Now there is Mark building a vertical tail for his Stalker. You’ve got to wonder if it would be a good idea to combine this with a horizontal tail (like the John Vernon’s t-tail OzReport.com/Ozv6n75.htm). You bet it would.

The Stalker suffers from the same problem that all the others rigids suffer from, the relative lack of pitch dampening when compared to flex wing gliders. Because the Stalker has a lower aspect ratio than the ATOS, it is not going to have as small a pitch dampening as the ATOS, but from what I can tell when I’ve flown it, it still has the problem.

But, back to our story. Why is Mark putting a vertical fin on his Stalker? Well, you might remember back when I wrote about Mike Degtoff and his hatchet motion when thermaling (OzReport.com/Ozv6n159.htm). Of course, it turns out that I’m not the only one to notice this exaggerated adverse yaw characteristic of the Stalker2.

The word from pilots in Florida who have been flying with Mark is that Mark’s got the same problem. When thermaling he has plenty of adverse yaw and is hatcheting around like Mike did in Texas at the US Open. Not only that, this motion is considerably reducing his climb rate so that pilots in other rigid wings are significantly out climbing him.

So, the vertical fin. This is Mark’s answer to the adverse yaw problem, and perhaps it is a very good answer indeed. It may solve all the problems that the Stalker2 has with adverse yaw. It may affect the handling of the Stalker2 as dramatically as the V-tail has affected the handling of the ATOS and other rigid wing gliders. It may be as important an addition to the Stalker2 as the horizontal tail is on the Tsunami, and the T-tail is on the Axxess. I haven’t heard yet back from my informants whether things have improved for Mark in this regard. I’ll be there soon so I’ll be able to check it out for myself.

A number of pilots always had a strong skeptical streak about the ailerons only feature of the Stalker as it was proposed and as it was developed. Clearly they were vindicated when the SPADs were added to the Stalker to try to dampen out the adverse yaw. They weren’t enough.

Sure you could learn to live with it and I did. I enjoyed flying the Stalker2 in light conditions and got my timing down so that the adverse yaw didn’t affect my control. But the problem was it apparently affected performance, and Mark won’t stand for that.

I hear that Aeros is working on a Stalker for Mark that will have a longer span and perhaps other changes. This is great news. What we all want is more competition to drive all the manufacturers. Aeros is a great hang glider company and I sure hope that they don’t give up on the Stalker, just because it didn’t work out the first time. Learn from Microsoft on that one.

Of course, the word I also hear from Florida is that the Stalker also doesn’t out glide the ATOS, at 45-50 mph (the range that I’m often gliding in between thermals), but performs just a little bit worse. On the other hand, I hear that there is less bar pressure with the Stalker2 at these speeds than with the ATOS, although I don’t mind the bar pressure myself.

So, I’m sure that Mark is going to do everything he can to have a very competitive rigid wing glider for the Florida cross country season and for the upcoming competitions. Mark’s competitive drive will no doubt be a strong incentive for the Aeros factory.

Oh, did I mention that Gerard will be sending a factory pilot with a Tsunami to the Florida meets? I assume David Chaumet. Christian Ciech is coming and I assume Alex Ploner will also, although I haven’t heard if that is true or not. Felix Ruehle from AIR will be there. Oh, and a few of us local pilots also.

So where does all this talk get me. I’m assuming that it gets the competitive juices flowing and puts the thought in Mark’s mind that he’s going to show that little twerp a thing or two. Yup, I hope that we are all putting it all on the line come this spring in Florida.

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WRE – Flytec vario winner »

Thu, Jul 25 2002, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|André Wolfe|Bo Hagewood|David Glover|FAI|Fly Chart|Flytec|Flytec 4020|George Ferris|Jim Lamb|Mike Barber|paraglider|Pete Lehmann|record|software|Steve Kroop|triangle|Will Gadd|World Record Encampment 2002

WRE – Flytec vario winner

David Glover «dhglover» writes:

The longest flight ever on a hang glider, paraglider and distance to goal - all used the Flytec vario. It was very nice of Steve Kroop of FlytecUSA to add this contest to his already generous support of the event. Over 150 people entered from all over the world.

I was waiting to get confirmation from George Ferris of the longest rigid flight this year.

Mike Barber 438 miles - longest ever Will Gadd 262 miles - longest ever George Ferris 225 miles - George's longest ever

Total Miles 925

This year’s tally of other great flights (almost all in the first week): New distance to goal record 321 miles Pete Lehmann and Mike Barber. 399 mile flight by Andre Wolf. Paragliding record broken 3 times (Dave Prentice, Marcello of Brazil Prieto and Will). Fastest speed ever around a 100km almost FAI triangle (or any triangle size, including Swifts) - Alex Ploner. Fastest speed around 100km FAI triangle - Bo Hagewood. Fastest out and return for CBRW - Jim Lamb.

The winner is: 927 miles - Andre Guindon of Canada (unless someone can prove they guessed closer)

He gets a Flytec 4020 Professional - that comes standard with Flychart CD software, PC cable, Manual, 2 year warranty and bright pink bag.

We will do it again next year!

WRE – disappointment/dispersal »

Wed, Jul 3 2002, 5:00:00 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|André Wolfe|Bo Hagewood|David Glover|Felix Ruehle|Glen Volk|Jamie Shelden|Mike Barber|paraglider|Pete Lehmann|Timothy Ettridge|World Record Encampment 2002

Dark skies cover central Texas as we drive up north along our normal flight route (except for highway 55 which is still closed after flash floods) from Zapata to Big Spring. It is just amazing that we can fly this far in a day in a hang glider. You have to drive all day to get here – 500 miles by the highway.

Jamie Sheldon and Alex Ploner left just before we did this morning on their way to San Francisco to pick up Felix Ruehle and then head for the Worlds in Chelan. We are on our way directly to the Worlds and have to leave the WRE behind.

It is with great disappointment that we abandon our friends and fellow pilots in Zapata, especially after eight days of stratus clouds, cu nimbs, and rain. With the weather forecast not especially encouraging (although the winds look good), and the high probability of very excessive moisture in the ground along our projected route, we bail.

There is over a week left in the second session and David Glover has already volunteered to extend it four days at no additional cost in what appears to be a vain attempt to try to capture some reasonable weather. I feel terrible about the pilots who have come for the second session, and not all that good for the ones who came for the first but missed the big day.

When we got up this morning it was the grayest and darkest we’d every seen in Zapata, looked like Seattle. We’ve had the over run with low cumulus clouds come in early and turn the sky dark, but these clouds were higher and didn’t indicate any heating from the ground.

As we traveled north these clouds accompanied us until we got to Sterling City, where a cu nimb swallowed these clouds and dumped heavy rain on us as we came into town. Even if you could have flown from Zapata, you would have landed at 350 miles out at the edge of the cu nimb. Of course, even that flight was not possible today.

We saw lots of standing water out in the desert as we passed through Carrizo Springs, as well as many signs of flash floods well into the hill country. The federal government has agreed with the state and named Uvalde County a disaster area, along with a number of other counties.

The local disaster warning radio came on and warned of strong rains and flash floods near San Angelo as we passed by to the west a few miles. Already seven people have been killed by the floods.

I feel a great deal of responsibility for having encouraged so many pilots to come and fly in the WRE. I was basically guaranteeing them a 200-mile flight on almost any day. That promise was completely washed out by the conditions that we encountered this year. Not just the rain, but the lack of winds for the week preceding the rain.

Two weeks ago we had two paraglider pilots signed up for the second session. Now there are ten at the WRE all drawn here by the fact that four paraglider pilots broke the current world record on two days during the first session. Days that were not considered to be all that great.

I don’t feel that I led the paraglider pilots astray, after all I can’t imagine that paraglider pilots pay any attention to anything I write, but I do feel sorry for the three French and two Italian pilots (along with two drivers and a cameraman) you came so far on such short notice.

Soon after the four of us bailed, most of the hang glider pilots bailed also. Glen Volk who flew in to Zapata last night broken down his glider and was about to fly back home (but I think he may wait one more day). Andre Wolf came back on the same plane as Glen from San Diego, but saw how bad it was in San Antonio and didn’t even set up his glider. David Glover says the French paraglider pilots are in open revolt (whatever that means).

Mike Barber, Pete Lehmann, and Bo Hagewood are still hanging in there. It looks like the whole California crew has headed for Hobbs, NM, and Prior and Judy Powers decided to drive back to Florida (where it is really really raining). I sincerely apologize to all these pilots for giving everyone the idea that Zapata was an absolute gimme and that you just had to show up for great things to happen.

Sure, a big flood like we’ve had was totally unexpected (but aren’t they always?). I felt and wrote that the summer high pressure weather pattern was so strong and consistent that essentially nothing could get in its way. How wrong I proved to be.

I sure hope things turn around soon, that the ground dries out, and that those pilots left to fly in south Texas get a chance to go for the record.

Will I be back in Zapata next year? If I still want to go 500 miles, you bet. There is no place in the world like it and I think that there will be plenty of chances next year to go very very far. There still is plenty of time to go far this year in July and August as Texas dries out (which it should).

The next stop in Texas after the Worlds in Chelan is Big Spring (which at the moment is fairly dry). The rains occurred almost exclusively to the south.

The San Antonio paper reports that the low over central Texas has become detached from the regular upper level flow (I assume they mean the jet stream with west to east flow) and is wobbling around central Texas without a sense of direction. It keeps pumping in moisture from the gulf which feeds the rainfall.

When it was raining a few days ago in Zapata. Photo by Timothy Ettridge

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WRE – 100-year flood »

Tue, Jul 2 2002, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Alex Ploner|Mike Barber|Pete Lehmann|World Record Encampment 2002

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Mike Barber|Pete Lehmann|World Record Encampment 2002

The rains hit hard Sunday and Monday just to our north:

The picture shows the fire truck stalled in the water of the Frio Riveras it floods over Interstate 35 just north of Dilley. I35 was shut down for ten hours for the flooding. The Nueces and the Frio flooded I35 and the Nueces is supposed to be 15 feet over flood stage this morning. We follow the Nueces up highway 83 to Uvalde and into the hill country. Whenever we’ve seen it from the air it’s pretty much dried up.

The major amounts of rain are just a bit to the east of our normal route, so perhaps we won’t be quite as affected as we could be.

1:15 PM satellite

They are calling this a slow moving storm. I’ll bet this satellite pictures looks just about the same as the one I published two days ago. You’ll also notice that the radar pattern is very similar:

1:45 PM radar

Today the sky was blue in the morning with little cu’s forming right on cue at about 7:30 AM. We were out at the airport a little after 8 AM and ready for action. With so much moisture in the air and in the ground we were worried that the cu’s might be a false indicator of lift and waited a bit before taking off. The clouds were wiping by at about 30 mph with wind speeds 15 to 20 on the ground.

Bo takes off at 9:30 AM, Alex Ploner at 9:45 AM, Mike Barber at 9:50and I’m off at 9:55. Before I launch I hear from Bo that he has landed 9 miles out. Pete Lehmann will launch soon after me with Gary and then Dustin a bit later.

Rhett and Russell tow us up to 3,200’, 1,200’ over cloud base. This will allow us to glide down wind for about 4 or 5 miles before we get in under the low lying clouds. The clouds are streeted up, so it is possible to get right under them and go straight.

I find 50-100 fpm right at cloud base and scoot right along. Within a few minutes I’m almost at the St. Ignacio road, the first retrievable road. Mike is low and about to land underneath me, and my cloud has run out and I need to head east to get under the next cloud street. I hear from Pete behind me that he is low and about to land.

Alex is a couple of miles ahead, low but climbing back up. I jump to the next cloud street, but get there too low and have to land near the road. Gary has gone out and then back to the airport to launch again.

Belinda will get to me right away and we’ll get back to the airport quickly. Alex made 67 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes and then decked it at 70 miles just before the 20 mile stretch of Mesquite. He ran into high overcast that shadowed all the ground (see satellite photo above). Dustin landed with him to get a ride back. Mike Barber went out to get them. Gary went out past Laredo to almost where Alex landed, found the same shadows and then squeaked it back to Zapata after seeing that he couldn’t get around the shadows.

The air was great this morning, just like the old Zapata that I know and love. It was so cool being right under the cloud and just blasting off down wind at 56 mph over the ground under a cloud street. The air felt so good and moist and the ATOS-C was loving it. Landing amongst all the prickly pair was a cinch in the strong winds. I could just pick out where I wanted to land between the Mesquite, the brushes, the cactus and put it down in the perfect spot.

The outlook is for drier conditions as the week proceeds.

The paragliders pilots didn’t fly due to the strong winds (which we are loving). The winds should die down on Thursday. It should also be much drier by then.

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WRE – oh so very very patient »

Mon, Jul 1 2002, 5:00:00 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Doug Prather|Felix Ruehle|George Ferris|Jamie Shelden|Mosquito|World Record Encampment 2002

Some flying today, but no record attempts as the moisture still hangs heavy in the sky. Strong winds – 30 mph – which is what we love. No real rain and little over development.

It is drying out and we expect better flying as the week proceeds.

George Ferris left today headed from Chelan for the Worlds. Jamie Sheldon and Alex Ploner leave tomorrow so that they can pick up Felix Ruehle in San Francisco on Friday and then get up to Chelan.

Doug Prather flies his Mosquito as Zapata:

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WRE – Will Gadd sets new paraglider world record »

Fri, Jun 21 2002, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|David Glover|George Ferris|Jamie Shelden|Mike Barber|paraglider|Pete Lehmann|photo|Russ Brown|Will Gadd|world record|World Record Encampment 2002

Dave Prentice’s new paragliding world record stood for only 24 hours, as Will Gadd today starting an hour earlier set the new world paragliding record at 263 miles (423 kilometers). Dave towed him up after getting back at 5:30 AM. We just heard from Will at 10:45 PM as he got back into cell phone range.

Russ Brown took this photo of will in 2000. David Glover is our official photographer and produced the shots in the last Oz Report.

There are a couple of paraglider pilots yet to be heard from, so who knows.

Conditions were good today (obviously), but not great. Winds were forecast to be more easterly and lighter than yesterday. Lots of moisture with good cloud development early. Hang glider pilots were taking off at around 9:30 AM. Will got off, I believe, shortly after 10, instead of 11:30 AM like Dave did yesterday when he went first (people are learning slowly that they’ve got to go early).

Looks like tomorrow will be more easterly and lighter winds. Maybe another record?

No hang glider pilot tried for a record today. Jamie Sheldon launched early but didn’t get across the first 35 miles of difficult terrain. Alex Ploner stayed near the airport running up wind and over toward the paraglider launch. Most pilots were still getting back from yesterday.

No word on whether Mike Barber set the new world record or not. We will have to do an analysis tomorrow. Pilots who went long said that the flying was easy except at the hill country where many of them got very very low and had very scary experiences in unlandable terrain. George Ferris chose the prickly pair over the Mesquite. He had needle nose pliers to pull out the thorns. Pete Lehmann said he thought for sure that he was going to die.

Notice all the cumulus clouds streeting right along the border of Texas and Mexico at 7:30 PM. This is Will’s probable route to the northwest. The sea breeze has killed the lift to the east of Zapata at this time.

More tomorrow.

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Flytec Championship – 70 mile fish bowl »

Sat, Apr 27 2002, 9:00:00 pm GMT

A.I.R. ATOS|Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Aeros Ltd|Alex Ploner|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|Curt Warren|David "Dave" Glover|Flytec Championships 2002|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|GAP|Gary Osoba|Ghostbuster|job|Mike Barber|Moyes Delta Gliders|Moyes Litespeed|Quest Air|Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|tail|tracker|tug|video|weather|Wills Wing Talon

David Glover was very smart and every day as the meet went on he would drag up folks to thank them for their help at the Flytec Championship. During the week he thanked the tug pilots, the volunteers, the ground crew, the Quest Air crew, the people who put the dinners together, Frank and Steve Kroop, the registration crew, etc. Because it happened every day everyone got more applause and more attention than if he had put it off until the last night, when everyone gets crammed together.

David and Steve did something also very clever, they had GW create a video taking footage and shots during the week. On Saturday night, the last night of the Flytec Championship, the video was ready to go and we got to see the whole video with the sound track. It was amazing that it had been done so quickly, all the while GW just looked like he was hanging out taking pictures and having fun.

But, not only did we get to see the video, all the pilots and tug pilots got a copy of the video last night. It really showed off what we do at a Floridaaerotow competition and we’ll be able to take it around and show it to our friends (if we have any outside of hang gliding).

Dave was a kick all week making announcements, telling jokes, getting pilots to come to the pilot meetings because they were so much fun. Belinda commented that we hadn’t seen Dave in his element in quite a while. While there were many many people who played keys roles in making the Flytec Championship such a great meet, I’ve got to feel that it was Dave Glover that really put it over the top and made it so much fun.

One of the key elements to its success (I feel), is that he was able to delegate responsibility to others, and in this case I’m referring to the task committee. I had written to him early on stating how giving the task committee the complete responsibility for calling the task was one of the keys to Tove’s great meets in Australia. David, like Tove, had the personality that allowed him to delegate responsibility and not get tied up into knots about it.

Chris Arai, Revo, and I had complete authority to choose the task each day, we took lots of pilot input and we did our best for the pilots to make the meet fair and fun. I can tell you that there was no barbeque task on the last day (although we did come back to Quest Air) as there has been in the past.

Having a task committee made up exclusively of pilots who without prodding from the meet director or organizer (well, we kept Dave away almost all of the time), is a key to having a meet (there are other ways to do it, but there are very very few individuals who can pull it off, and I can think of only one, Mad Dog, in Australia) that satisfies the pilots. This will continue to be a difficult issue and I hope that there will be a way to work this out at the upcoming worlds in Chelan.

Oh, yes, we did have a task on day seven. First, we heard from Gary Osoba:

Looks like a 7 day meet, thanks to the task planners, meet administrators, and reasonably good weather. Congratulations!

For a change, the entire soaring window today should provide for relatively consistent wind directions and strengths. Should make the planning a little bit easier. Here's how it stacks up:

11am Weak lift. Probably a bit early for clouds to be forming yet. When then do (likely closer tonoon), they should be around 2500'. Surface winds sse around 6. Winds aloft a little bit more southerly at 10-12.

2pm Good lift, strong in spots. Cb 5000' to 5300'. Surface winds sse 5-8, aloft sse 12-14.

5pm Moderate lift, good in spots. Cb could go to around 6000". Surface winds sse 8-10, aloft sse about 12.

"Only a fool would try to predict the weather"!

So we’ve got strong winds aloft out of the south, but good lift also. With the good lift we can come back against the strong winds, and that is exactly what we plan to do. We have really been counting on Gary’s forecasts, and he has done a great job for us. We really pick the tasks based on his weather predictions.

We call a 70 mile task (no barbeque task this one) that will first take us downwind 17 miles to the west, northwest to Bushnell, back against the head wind to Quest, south into the head wind to the intersection of highways 33 and 474, then north, downwind past Quest to Gator field, then 7 miles upwind for the final glide to goal.

The task keeps us near Quest, while at the same time making it difficult to complete. We come back over Quest to get everyone on the ground excited and it keeps us out of the swamp.

There are plenty of clouds when we start taking off, and it looks like maybe there are too many, maybe it will over develop after all. The wind seems awfully strong also, but it’s too late now to come up with an other task.

We hang around until the middle start time at 1:15although everyone is in the air in half an hour. We just stay at cloud base for an extra 15 minutes. GAP gives one very little reason to go out in front and leave the gaggle behind. Johann and I have already made up our minds that we will take the middle start time, and maybe everyone else felt that way also, or, when two pilots left, they all decided to go with us.

We can see all the darkness out to our northwest and it looks like we are jumping into a black hole. There are high cirrus clouds that dull the areas on the ground where the cu’s don’t block out the sun.

We spot the guys who took the 1 PMstart time and that makes it easier to make our way to the turnpoint through all this very gloomy looking area. Still we’re down below 1,400’ before we connect with the big lift that gets us to the turnpoint and back out again.

Well, that was a downwind task, but we averaged only 27 mph getting there, so the south wind didn’t help that much. Coming back will prove to be much more difficult (and most if not all of the pilots who don’t make it will drop out here), as the average speed will go down to 15 mph.

I’ll charge across some blue areas to get under what seems to be a cloud street, find nothing then push up wind to get under some pilots turning at 8 miles out from Quest, only to find myself at 450’ and working lift that averages 140 fpm, starting out at a much lower value. It turns out that every one will have difficulty making it back to Quest and will get low on this leg.

Christian Ciech and Alex Ploner are doing much better in this meet than the rest of us, and they have zoomed out ahead. They were half a mile ahead at the turnpoint, and I lost them coming back as I went more easterly, but they will also get quite low. They are flying together.

I’m flying with Johann, but I’ve lost him also. Given how weak the conditions are we are all struggling and it looks like a long day if we can stay up. I’ve got quite a few other gliders here with me, so we hang on and the lift improves, as we drift north away from Quest, but with stronger lift it is no problem. Twenty minutes after coming in low, I’m up to 4,000’ and on my way to Quest with Curt, Paris, Ron Gleason, and some other ATOSes.

We are styling now, hitting good lift and staying high as we come into Quest. We can see a gaggle forming to our south that includes the Swifts, so they must have struggled also. I can see Alex and Christian in the gaggle also.

Johann will lose it here and head off to the west to get under better looking clouds, while I’ll continue to the south to join up with the gaggle. Johann, who is in second place, will almost land at Quest.

I catch up with the lead gaggle, which is putzing along. I guess they don’t see any need to probe out into the blue to the south. All the clouds that we had by Bushnell have not come down here in the late afternoon, and there are mere wisps to our south.

With a bunch of rigid wings, Curt Warren, and above us all the two Italian rigid wing pilots, we start punching our way south only to find good lift, light sink in between, and long patches of buoyant air. We stay high and work light lift to get to 5,000’.

We are still running into the wind, so it takes a while, but we have no problems getting down to the south to get the turnpoint with Alex and Christian leading the way. The Swifts start to get ahead of us now, with Manfred taking the third turnpoint and coming back to greet us when we are 2 miles out from it.

As soon as we get the turnpoint, we can drift back north along 33 in strong tail winds and buoyant air. With the lift averaging less than 200 fpm in the cores, we are just taking a little bit here and there. After the long up wind grind it is a joy to drift toward the Gator turnpoint.

Now there are only rigid wings in the lead as we come into the Gator turnpoint and turn to get back to Quest. It’s been a long glide into Gator before our upwind final glide. My IQ/Comp has been acting up and not reporting any final glide info, so I’m just hanging with the four other rigid pilots. Heiner goes on glide and we all just speed up as it becomes clear that no matter that fact that we are going into a strong head wind, we will make it back to Quest without a problem.

Mike Barber who bombed out on the previous day (after passing up lots of lift trying to go faster) goes all out and will win in Class 1 as the flex wings will come in about 20 minutes behind Alex Ploner who takes first in the rigid wings. Then again he'll start fifteen minutes behind us, so you can see how much Alex and Christian were holding back, just tracking the rigids below them.

Class 5 on the last day:

1 Ploner, Alex, 65 Air Atos C Ita 13:15:00 16:20:00 03:05:00 953
2 Ciech, Christian, 47 Icaro Stratos Ita 13:15:00 16:20:11 03:05:11 935
3 Biesel, Heiner, 101 Air Atos Usa 13:15:00 16:28:30 03:13:30 848
4 Gleason, Ron, 300 Air Atos Usa 13:15:00 16:28:35 03:13:35 839
5 Endter, Vincent, 43 Air Atos Usa 13:15:00 16:28:36 03:13:36 832
6 Straub, Davis, 50 Air Atos C Usa 13:15:00 16:28:55 03:13:55 825
7 Zeiset, Jim, 66 Air Atos Usa 13:15:00 16:38:43 03:23:43 762
8 Barmakian, Bruce, 17 Air Atos Usa 13:00:00 16:34:50 03:34:50 741
9 Brandt, Dave, 60 Air Atos Usa 13:15:00 16:48:51 03:33:51 713
10 Posch, Johann, 112 Air Atos Aut 13:15:00 16:54:20 03:39:20 689
11 Campanella, Mario, 186 Flight Designs Ghostbuster Bra 13:15:00 16:54:52 03:39:52 685
12 Almond, Neville, 116 Flight Designs Ghostbuster Gbr 13:00:00 17:45:14 04:45:14 469

Class 5 finals:

1 Ciech, Christian, 47 Icaro Stratos Ita 5804
2 Posch, Johann, 112 Air Atos Aut 5354
3 Ploner, Alex, 65 Air Atos C Ita 5272
4 Straub, Davis, 50 Air Atos C Usa 4994
5 Gleason, Ron, 300 Air Atos Usa 4983

Class 1 last day:

1 Barber, Mike, 2 Moyes Litespeed Usa 13:30:00 16:41:15 03:11:15 915
2 Wirdnam, Gary , 39 Aeros Combat 2 Gbr 13:30:00 16:41:37 03:11:37 902
3 Bessa, Carlos, 155 Moyes Litespeed Bra 13:30:00 16:42:09 03:12:09 891
4 Warren, Curt, 73 Moyes Litespeed Usa 13:15:00 16:40:29 03:25:29 843
5 Zweckmayr, Josef, 18 Icaro Laminar Aut 13:00:00 16:33:16 03:33:16 841
6 Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 13:30:00 16:55:38 03:25:38 800
6 Agulhon, Dorival, 94 Icaro Mrx Bra 13:15:00 16:45:15 03:30:15 800
8 Harri, Martin, 31 Moyes Litespeed Che 13:30:00 16:55:41 03:25:41 797
9 Williams, Paris , 1 Icaro MR700WRE Usa 13:30:00 16:56:04 03:26:04 793
10 Bertok, Attila, 64 Moyes Litespeed Hun 13:30:00 16:56:08 03:26:08 790

Finals Class 1:

1 Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 Aeros Combat 2 13 Ukr 5841
2 Williams, Paris , 1 Icaro MR700WRE Usa 5644
3 Volk, Glen, 5 Moyes Litespeed Usa 5584
4 Hamilton, Robin, 30 Icaro MR700WRE Gbr 5515
5 Warren, Curt, 73 Moyes Litespeed Usa 5440
6 Hazlett, Brett, 90 Moyes Litespeed Can 5437
7 Wirdnam, Gary , 39 Aeros Combat 2 Gbr 5434
8 Wolf, Andre, 117 Moyes Litespeed Bra 5389
9 Olsson, Andreas, 27 Moyes Litespeed Swe 5369
10 Rotor, Nene, 77 Wills Wing Talon Bra 5348

Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.

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Flytec Championship – the sea breeze »

Mon, Apr 22 2002, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Flytec Championship – the sea breeze

Alex Ploner|altitude|Christian Ciech|cloud|David Glover|Fantasy of Flight|flight park|Flytec Championships 2002|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Johann Posch|John Vernon|Mike Barber|Quest Air|Swift|tail|track log|weather

The weather forecast calls for west winds at 10 mph, no cu’s, moderate lift. The task committee wrangles over a 66 mile task down to the south to the Winter Havenairport and back Vs. a 50 mile task to the Fantasy of Flight, also down 33, and back. I’m pushing for the shorter task, given the winds, and lack of cu’s. With a seven mile start circle for the flexies (4 for the rigids) it seems a bit short to the other task committee members, so we go for the longer task.

This will put us in an area of weak lift at the Winter Havenairport which is surrounded by lakes. It could prove to be a tough task. A major concern is the likelihood of a sea breeze from the west setting up in the afternoon. This would kill the lift.

We push back the start times given the prognosis of weak lift and no cu’s early assuming that pilots will not be eager to launch while things look weak. Then at 11:30 AMthe first cu’s start popping a little off to our east and we are taken by surprise.

The cu’s build and spread and within an hour there are cu’s every where. They aren’t getting high, but they are definitely there. This is plenty of encouragement and pilots are talking about starting at the first start time, 1:45 PM.

Mike Barber calls Patty on the west coast and finds out that the sea breeze hasn’t started by noon, and the report is 5 mph out of the north. Maybe we won’t get the sea breeze after all.

Pilots are eager to go and we get a lot of pilots in the air quickly. With the strong winds out of the west, its pretty easy to get under a cloud on the west side and climb up. The lift is light to the west of Quest and strong downwind to the east.

A couple of flex wing pilots head almost straight upwind toward the GreenSwampand I join them. We work our way forward against the wind and toward the western edge of the start circle (smaller for me) climbing in lift that averages less than 200 fpm. With cloud base at 4,000’ it isn’t hard to stay high enough to stay near cloud base.

We’re thinking about the earliest start time (1:45) but I’m only at 3,500’ at the start time, so I continue to head west until I’m almost 6 miles out and work the light lift. I’m figuring that I’ll get under a cloud, hang with it and drift back into the start circle just as the next start time rolls around. Fortunately I’m just able to do this, see the graphics:

The track log shows me circling and drifting to the east to get into the 4 mile radius start circle just in time.

The altitude graph shows me topping out at 14:00(2 PM) right at the edge of the start circle just as the start time begins on the fifteen minute interval. Couldn’t have worked out better.

Alex Ploner, Johann Posch, Christian Ciech and I take the 2 PMstart time. Some flexie and rigid wing pilots have already taken the 1:45start time and are out in front of us. There are also flex wing pilots taking the 2 PMstart time starting 3 miles further south of us, so there is plenty of activity in the air.

Christian comes in under me at the intersection of 474 and 33 as I enter a gaggle with the earlier rigid wings and 2 PMflexies. I’ve taken the tail off to check out whether the T-tail with the wrong pitch angle is the source of all my extra drag from the Wallaby Open and the first day of the Flytec Championship.

Christian and I climb at 200 fpm to 3,800’ and go on glide. Hmmm! Unlike the previous day, now I’m gliding right with him. It sure looks like my misaligned tail was causing the problems. I will go on two more four mile glides with him, and I find myself now able to glide with him.

John Vernon will be sending a new fin for the T-tail that will allow the tail to make a -1° angle with the mean chord line, instead of -6. Should be here on Wednesday. We’ll try the tail again then.

Christian gets me on the fourth climb and gets a few hundred feet over my head. We have completely caught up with all the pilots in front of us. The run south down highway 33 has been consistently good with climb rates at about 400 fpm, and our top out heights rising.

We climb out south of I-4, 5 miles out from the turnpoint at Winter Haven to 4,400’ and go on glide due south hoping to come up on the airport from the west. There are about a dozen gliders in this first gaggle. Christian is on top heading more toward the turnpoint. A number of rigids are heading with me and the flexies to the south.

We are surrounded by lakes, so we are looking for areas of dry land that are continuous to the west, hoping that the cloud streets are setting up over the land.

It doesn’t happen and by the time we are all at the airport turnpoint we are down to 2,300’. This is in an area of weak lift so things look bad. It is at this point that I make a crucial error, but the gaggle doesn’t.

I head back to the northwest to get on the west side of a small lake. The gaggle heads straight north downwind of me. The error – don’t try to go upwind when you are relatively low, find lift first. I choose to ignore the gaggle, also not a good idea when you are relatively low, and then ignore them again when I see them start turning, thinking I can find my own lift. I don’t and soon land.

The gaggle continues north toward I 4 and back toward 33. Meanwhile back at Quest Air, the sea breeze has kicked in and the wind has increased to 15 mph on the ground. All the clouds are wiped away in the area near the flight park. We don’t see this yet further to the south.

As the pilots move north, it becomes clear that the clouds that they are flying under are ending to their north. Some pilots drift east toward Wallaby Ranch to stay under the clouds. Others venture out in the blue to find weak lift.

We made the turnpoint at about 3:10. Christian is able to make it back to Quest first (after the Swift’s) in a total time of 2:30 hours, so it only takes him 10 minutes longer (with four additional miles) to get back to Quest.

Other pilots will dribble into Quest working their way slowly through the blue.

The rigid results so far:

Today – Ciech, Mario, Ron, Heiner (make goal). We will see Johann land about one mile due east of goal.

Cumulative - Christian, Mario, Ron, Alex

The flex results so far:

Today – Hamilton, Paris, Oleg, Wirdham, Reisinger, Bolt, Arai, Olsson, Hazlett, Wolf (first ten into goal) Zwecky will land 2400 feet away from goal in a small yard. Barber lands 150 feet short.

Cumulative – Oleg, Paris, Hazlett, Hamilton, Wirdham, Wolf, Warren, Reisinger, Olsson

Not quite 25 percent into goal.

David Glover is remiss in not putting up preliminary results on the www.flytec.com web site. They should be up some time tomorrow.

Day one finish position by Class:

Flex, Rigid, Swift

Warren, Ciech, Porter
Gerolf, Ploner, Ruhmer
Oleg, Posch
Hazlett, Straub
Wolfe, Gunter
Harri,Campenalla
Jerz, Gleason
Rotor, Hollidge
Walbec, Dinauer
Paris, Barmakian
Dorval, Ferris
Zwecy, Trimmel
Attila
Bessa
Castle
Ollson
Wirdnam
Richardson
Hamilton
Shipley
Reisinger
Holtcamp
Volk
Sugarman
Barber
Pagen D.
Presley