Flytec
Wills Wing

Oz Report

topic: Cameron Tunbridge (67 articles)

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 20, 2015, 9:59:52 pm EST

New South Wales State Titles

Only five tasks as the cyclone came ashore.

Cameron Tunbridge|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|video|Wills Wing T2C

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Final:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 4563
2 Bruce Wynne Moyes LX3.5 4035
3 Adam Stevens rex 4018
4 Len Paton LS RX4 3948
5 Phil Schroder rAirborne REV 3881

Phil Schroder writes:

It was not so much the cyclone but the trough to our west that finally decided to come over and say "Hello, your comp is over."

https://vimeo.com/120125666

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 19, 2015, 8:18:46 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Eight at goal

Cameron Tunbridge|Facebook|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 5:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=711

Place Pilot Glider SS Total
1 Len Paton LS RX4 2:36:13 967
2 Adam Stevens rex 2:40:46 909
3 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2:40:48 898
4 Bruce Wynne Moyes RX3.5  3:01:13 798
5 Dustan Hansen Airborne Rev 14 3:06:33 770

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 4563
2 Bruce Wynne Moyes RX3.5 4035
3 Adam Stevens rex 4018
4 Len Paton LS RX4 3948
5 Phil Schroder Airborne REV 3881

https://www.facebook.com/groups/220246668163600/350941158427483/?notif_t=group_activity

Cameron Tunbridge writes:

126k task borahw boggabri tanbar springs.. pumping conditions 6-8 in goal maybe a few more on the way.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 18, 2015, 7:56:04 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Cameron wins once again

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 4:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=710

Place Pilot Glider Time Total
1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2:29:03 816
2 Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 2:30:32 784
3 Adam Stevens rev13.5 2:31:15 768
4 Bruce Wynne RX 3.5 Technora Zoom 2:32:41 743
5 Conrad Loten rs3.5 2:43:18 688

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 3586
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 3274
3 Bruce Wynne Rogallo 3203
4 Phil Schroder rev 3084
5 Adam Stevens rex 3037

Cameron Tunbridge writes:

Today's task 107k out to Brezat and return to Manila Sky Ranch. Almost bombed at take off but made goal and flew to the lake for a swim.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 17, 2015, 8:32:17 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Only four at goal

Cameron Tunbridge|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 3:

http://highcloud.net/xc/task_result.php?comPk=147&tasPk=709

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 (open) 3:29:28 987
2 Len Paton LS RX4 (open) 3:46:56 858
3 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora (open) 4:10:21 855
4 Phil Schroder rev13.5 (open) 4:30:28 806

http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

Cumulative:

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2795
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 2617
3 Len Paton   2537
4 Phil Schroder rev 2418
5 Adam Stevens rex 2285

Phil Schroder writes:

Only four of us in goal today. 136km triangle with a stiff headwind on the final leg for good measure. Five hours airtime.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 16, 2015, 8:43:54 EST

New South Wales State Titles

Cameron leads after two days

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

Task 2 results: http://wow.asn.au/comps/?q=node/12

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 1809 1103 706
2 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 1766 971 795
3 Len Paton 1743 1021 722
4 Adam Stevens rex 1713 1036 677
5 Phil Schroder rev 1669 957 712
6 Conrad Loten rs3.5 1620 952 668
7 Bruce Wynne Rogallo 1568 944 624
8 Dick Heffer Moyes RX 3.5 1502 942 560
9 Gary Herman Litespeed S3.5 1445 933 512
10 Dustan Hansen Rev 14 1397 855 542

Single surface glider at goal.

2015 New South Wales State Titles »

February 15, 2015, 9:49:51 pm EST

New South Wales State Titles

No Jonny this year

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2015|Phil Schroder|Wills Wing T2C

http://highcloud.net/xc/comp_result.php?comPk=147

Cameron wins the first day on his Wills Wing T2C 154. Adam Stevens is second on a rex. Phil Schroder third on a rev.

1 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 998
2 Adam Stevens rex 995
3 Phil Schroder rev 963
4 Len Paton 919
5 Conrad Loten rs3.5 877
6 Dustan Hansen Rev 14 861
7 Gary Herman Litespeed S3.5 855
8 Harrison Rowntree RX 3.5 Technora 850
9 Paul Bissett-Amess Litespeed 835
10 Dick Heffer Moyes RX 3.5 828
Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 828

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding 2014

April 9, 2014, 8:42:14 EDT

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

Lenny wins

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2014/

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Len Paton Moyes Litespeed RX 4 01:50:40 999
2 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:51:08 976
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:51:32 958
4 Sam Prest Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:52:20 942
5 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:52:36 932
6 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:53:24 920
7 adam stevens Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:53:35 918
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:53:56 907
9 Rohan Taylor Moyes Litespeed RS 4 02:02:57 824
10 Tim Osborn Moyes Litespeed S 5 02:04:25 814

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2384
2 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 2347
3 adam stevens Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2317
4 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 2314
5 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2252
6 cameron tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 2096
7 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed RX4 2013
8 Rohan Taylor Moyes Litespeed RS 4 1976
9 Len Paton Moyes Litespeed RX 4 1962
10 Tim Osborn Moyes Litespeed S 5 1951

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding 2014

April 8, 2014, 8:25:49 EDT

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

Curt wins task 2

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Grant Heaney|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2014/

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RX 4 01:41:17 1000
2 nick purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:44:32 939
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:45:49 919
4 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed RX4 01:45:50 913
5 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:46:02 908
6 Rohan Taylor Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:46:02 907
7 adam stevens Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:46:44 892
8 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:47:21 878
9 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:47:33 876
10 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:48:11 869

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RX 4 1508
2 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1426
3 adam stevens Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1399
4 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 1382
5 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 1371
6 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1332
7 cameron tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154 1322
8 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed RX4 1208
9 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1164
10 Rohan Taylor Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 1152

Kathryn.

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding 2014

April 7, 2014, 10:09:02 pm EDT

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

Billo re rescores day one

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2014/

After a protest about using altitude to determine virtual distance and pulling out the king posted pilots (for their own sport class) Billo produces:

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 40,58 460
2 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RX 4 37,77 441
3 cameron tunbridge airborne rev 14.5 37,79 440
3 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed S 5 37,73 440
3 adam stevens Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37,78 440
6 Tim Osborn Moyes Litespeed S 5 37,72 439
6 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37,76 439
6 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 37,69 439
6 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37,72 439
10 Frank Chetcuti Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 37,47 435

Discuss "Dalby Big Air HG 2014" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dalby Big Air Hang Gliding 2014

April 7, 2014, 8:40:47 EDT

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

Billo rescores day one

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive|Wills Wing

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive|Wills Wing

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|John Smith|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|William "Billo" Olive|Wills Wing

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2014/

Original scoring: http://ozreport.com/18.66#9

# Name Glider Last
Dist.1
Alt.2 Dist.3 Total
1 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37,66 1081 48,47 480
2 cameron tunbridge airborne rev 14.5 37,79 1039 48,18 478
3 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed S 5 37,71 972 47,43 472
4 Tim Osborne wills wing u2 37,68 955 47,23 470
5 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS4 37,75 926 47,01 469
6 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 35,51 1093 46,44 461
6 adam stevens airbone rev 13.5 37,78 874 46,52 461
6 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 37,74 878 46,52 461
9 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 37,69 746 45,15 438
10 Frank Chetcuti Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 37,47 753 45,00 436

The new version of the FS scoring program allows one to score a distance based on your altitude when the task was stopped.

Discuss "Dalby Big Air HG 2014" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

April 6, 2014, 8:15:25 EDT

Dalby Big Air HG 2014

Day one, a thunderstorm

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Kathryn O'Riordan|Konrad Heilmann|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|Wills Wing

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Kathryn O'Riordan|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|Wills Wing

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|John Smith|Kathryn O'Riordan|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Steve Blenkinsop|Tim Osborn|Wills Wing

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/2014/

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 23,76 121
2 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 21,12 113
2 Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS4 21,13 113
2 cameron tunbridge airborne rev 14.5 21,14 113
2 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed S 5 21,08 113
2 adam stevens airbone rev 13.5 21,14 113
2 Tim Osborne wills wing u2 21,07 113
8 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 21,07 112
8 John Smith Moyes Litespeed S 5 21,04 112
10 Frank Chetcuti Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 20,82 111

Task stopped due to a thunderstorm.

Kathryn O'Riordan took this shot after landing:

Adam Stevens gets this shot:

Day two, the ground is too wet for aerotowing.

Discuss "Dalby Big Air HG 2014" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2014 New South Wales State Titles »

February 17, 2014, 8:50:22 CST

2014 New South Wales State Titles

Short day two

Cameron Tunbridge|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2014|Steve Blenkinsop

Facebook page here.

Task 1:

1 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.5 14,91 25
2 Bruce Wynne Moyes LS RX 4 12,04 22
3 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes LS RX 3.5 8,85 19
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes LS RX 3.5 8,70 19
3 Carl Wallbank Moyes LS RX 3.5 8,83 19
3 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX3.5 8,66 19
7 Cameron Tunbridge WW T2 8,38 18
7 Paul Bissett-amess Moyes LS RX 3.5 8,51 18

Discuss "2014 New South Wales State Titles" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Thanks so much to my Australian friends

February 12, 2014, 7:40:29 PST

Thanks so much to my Australian friends

My trip would not have been possible without them

Belinda Boulter|Cameron Tunbridge|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Judy Durand|record|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Vicki Cain|weather

I traveled in December, January and February with the help of many wonderful people. My wife, Belinda stayed home in the US to help care for her mother and step father, so I really needed the support of others. Without their help I wouldn't have been able to come to Australia and fly in the 2014 Australian Nationals/Forbes Flatlands. Here's the list:

Vicki Cain: I stayed with her and Greg for a few days at their house when I first got to Australia. She also appointed me as the unofficial assistant meet director and weatherman for the Forbes Flatlands, and among much else provided a place to stay with good folks (Bruce, Alan, and Bobby) in Forbes. Thanks to Alan and Bruce for help with the bike.

Jonny Durand, Jnr.: He brought me on as the Official Observer for his World Record attempts, which made it so I could come to Australia. Shuttled my gear and bike to Eucla and back to Sydney (1000's of kilometers).

Steve Blenkinsop: Got me another place to stay in Forbes for a couple of days. He shuttled me to the Victorian Alps and rode with me over the mountains then shuttled me to Port Elliot so that I could continue push bike riding south of Adelaide (the first day with him). I also stayed at his house in Adelaide after riding until heading to Eucla. A great riding companion around Adelaide and to the Tour Down Under also.

Scott and Virpi Barrett: They let me stay at their house over Christmas and before I headed back to the US. I store my Australian bicycle there. Scott took me mountain biking (on his best bike) through the Wallarah National Park.

Curt and Louise Warren: I had a lovely stay at their home with their kids Wiley and Gala and got to fly Curt's Moyes Malibu.

Phil Shroder: Steve and I got to stay at his house in Beechmont before the three of us tackled the ride up to Falls Creek.

Paul Kelley: Long time Oz Report reader. Stayed with him when riding on the Fleurieu peninsula.

Cameron Tunbridge : He gave Paris and I a ride to Forbes.

Hadewych Van Kempen: She gave Paris and I a ride from Newcastle to Cameron's house.

Michelle Taylor and Judy Durand: Retrieving me from the outback north of Eucla when I took out a tire and a tube.

Discuss "Thanks so much to my Australian friends" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Forbes Flatlands, by the numbers »

Thu, Jan 2 2014, 2:56:21 pm EST

Forbes Flatlands, by the numbers

Something seems to be missing from the latest results

Akiko Suzuki|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Enda Murphy|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2014|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kathryn O'Riordan|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

# Name Glider
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5
2 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 13.2
3 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144
6 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5
7 Jeff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5
8 Christian Voiblet Wills Wing T2C 144
9 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5
10 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5
11 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.75
11 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4
13 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5
14 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 154
15 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS
16 Anton Struganov Moyes RX
17 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat
18 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5
19 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5
20 Lukas Bader Moyes RS
20 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4
22 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5
23 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5
24 Andrew Luton Airborne C4
25 Ryosuke Hattori Aeros Combat
26 Olav Olsen Moyes RS
27 Mark Russell Moyes RS4
28 Kathryn O'Riordan Moyes RX 3
29 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev
30 Victor Hare Moyes RX 3.5
31 Peter Lamont Moyes S 5
32 Len Paton Moyes RS 4
33 Maximilian Respondek Moyes RS
34 Peter Ebeling Wills Wing T2C 144
35 Jon snr Durand Moyes RS 3.5
36 Gavin Myers Moyes S5
36 Enda Murphy Moyes RX 3.5
38 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5
39 Dean Hervatin Airborne Rev
40 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5
41 Adam Jones Moyes S
42 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5
43 Akiko Suzuki Icaro Laminar
44 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4
45 Michael Tomlinson  
46 Patrick Collin Moyes RS
47 Tony Masters Moyes RX 3.5
48 Mikhail Karmazin Aeros Combat
49 Jamie Shelden Wills Wing T2C 136
50 Phil Seeley Airborne C4
51 Ai Fukutomi Moyes RX 3
52 Hadewych van Kempen Moyes Litesport
52 Hanspeter Schütz Moyes RX 3.5

Forbes Flatlands, Task 4, day 4 »

Tue, Dec 31 2013, 8:14:20 am EST

Forbes Flatlands, Task 4, day 4

A cross wind leg in the middle of the task

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2013|Glen McFarland|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

Conrad Loten, Glen McFarland and Trent Brown were the task committee today. I've been asking various pilots to be on the task committee one day at a time so as not to over burden any three pilots for the whole meet. Many pilots will not serve on the task committee (it is a lot of work and you get little or no reward). So it comes down to having the same people calling the same type of tasks, which may or may not be appropriate for the long term success of the competition. Also I noted that some pilots were concerned that certain tasks were called by certain pilots to match their skills as opposed to what was best for the competition. I'm sure that they had good reasons for this.

My input to the task committee consists of the weather. I have little or no influence on the actual task, other than to find skilled and opinioned pilots who are willing to be on the task committee. On the second day I proposed a possible task as I had a few minutes extra before the task committee meets (I get there to the bowling club an hour early to go over the weather), and it was rejected immediately. I didn't propose any before and have not since.

The forecast was for 15 knot southwestern wind, lift to 9,000' to 10,000' and better lift than the day before. A good day it appeared. No cu's, of course.

The task committee called a task to the northeast given the winds, but there are limited options (waypoints) in that direction. One possibility was to go straight line 200 kilometers to Dunedoo, but that seemed too easy and a long ways back, especially on New Years night. Glen or Conrad (I don't remember which) proposed a zig zag in the middle of the course to make it more difficult and sent us back to Wellington airfield.

The task guidelines are to set the most difficult part of the task as the last leg, not the second or middle leg, but as I said they felt that there were limited options in that direction. We could have gone straight to Gulgong airfield, as another possibility which was discussed by the task committee.

Here is that task they decided on:

As you can see it goes right through Parkes airspace, which we can do with our VHF AM (airband) radios. The first turnpoint at Yeoval and the second at Cumnoc have five kilometer radii to reduce the cross wind leg. The task is 158 kilometers long.

The wind was out of the southeast when we got to Bill's tow paddock next to the airfield. This would have made it quite difficult to accomplish the task. But just as we started launching it swung around.

I was twelfth in the right line and pinned off at 1,000' AGL in light lift. I finally found the core and the lift was as forecast. I was soon over 7,000' and cold because I didn't listen to my own weather forecast calling for eight degrees Celsius at the top of lift and hadn't worn enough clothes.

Almost all pilots headed northwest toward the edge of the ten kilometer start circle like we did yesterday, but I didn't think that that was a great idea. The first leg of the task today was much further to the east and I wanted to leave the start cylinder closer to the course line. I got near the northeast extent of the start cylinder but didn't find any good lift along the way so had to drift three kilometers outside it before I got up, back over 7,000'. I then headed back inside the start cylinder into a 21 mph head wind to take the second clock, not high (5,200'), but high enough.

Running down the course line I found some nice lift and looking ahead saw Paris was five other gliders very low racing way down below and just in front of me. I checked their progress until I saw Paris turning and then went over to them to find strong lift to 7,000'. Instead of leaving them when I was high above, I waited until they caught up so that I could fly with them. Paris, Conrad and I took off together toward the town of Parkes.

Sixteen kilometers later we were down to below 3,500'. I kept shading to the east (right) toward the airfield (no commercial jets would be landing on this day). They got lower and lower again as I found good lift and watched half a dozen pilots work their way back up again. When they found a good core I joined up with them high.

The next thermal was much better and a dozen of us climbed to 7,800' before the range that we needed to cross to head toward Yeoval. We were just six kilometers south of the Parkes dish (radio antenna).

 I didn't think much of the lift just on the west edge of the range so went to the left of Jonny out in front to see what was on the other side. I found 400+ and then 500 fpm in much better thermals. I was freezing now and shivering at 8,800'.

Getting the turnpoint at Yeoval was easy and then the big turn into the 17 mph direct cross wind went well as I stayed high and found 450+ fpm to 8,100'. I could see Conrad way below.

Racing out of that thermal Rod Flockhart caught me and flying at 55 mph he pulled ahead (I was doing 45 mph) as we quickly made the Cumnoc turnpoint and headed to the northeast.

There was a 350 fpm thermal waiting for us and a bunch of us got up right away to 7,900'. It was beginning to feel warm. There was a range right along our course line just ahead and I went for it. The wind would be flowing along the ridge line.

I glided for sixteen kilometers right over the ridge and didn't find any lift. I had to turn out to the valley to the west as Jonas Lobitz came scooting by and Paris Williams came 500' over us. With the sixteen mph tail wind Jonas was going fast but getting awfully low as was I. Finally at 1,100' AGL he found something and I joined him. We were in survival mode and drifting very quickly down the course line.

We worked 100 to 200 fpm for eight kilometers climbing 2,500' in seventeen minutes. This saved us but really slowed us down. We then found 600 fpm eighteen kilometers from goal and that got us in.

Task 4:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 14:35:00 17:02:39 02:27:39 975
2 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 14:35:00 17:03:42 02:28:42 949
3 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 14:35:00 17:04:30 02:29:30 936
4 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 14:35:00 17:07:03 02:32:03 902
5 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 14:15:00 16:57:04 02:42:04 878
6 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 16:58:46 02:43:46 860
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:11:41 02:36:41 852
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes RX 3.75 14:35:00 17:11:45 02:36:45 851
8 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:11:43 02:36:43 851
10 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 14:35:00 17:12:35 02:37:35 843
11 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:12:42 02:37:42 842
12 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:02:06 02:47:06 828
13 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:03:41 02:48:41 813
14 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:03:51 02:48:51 812
15 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 14:15:00 17:04:28 02:49:28 806
16 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 14:35:00 17:18:55 02:43:55 787
17 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 14:35:00 17:19:02 02:44:02 786
18 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 17:20:24 02:45:24 775
19 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat 14:15:00 17:08:47 02:53:47 769
20 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 14:15:00 17:11:22 02:56:22 749
21 Carl Wallbank   14:15:00 17:11:34 02:56:34 747
22 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:11:40 02:56:40 746
23 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 14:15:00 17:13:03 02:58:03 736
24 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 14:15:00 17:15:16 03:00:16 719
25 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 17:25:01 03:10:01 653
26 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5 14:15:00 17:26:26 03:11:26 644
27 Dean Hervatin Airborne Rev 14:35:00 18:40:45 04:05:45 430

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 3638
2 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 3606
3 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 3593
4 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 3500
5 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 3476
5 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 3476
7 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 3463
8 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 3348
9 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 3314
10 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 3270
11 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 3067
12 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 3030
13 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 2920
14 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 2846
15 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 2750
16 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 2717
17 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 2693
18 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 2652
19 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 2636
20 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 2455

Forbes Flatlands, Task 3, day 3 »

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 8:03:21 am EST

Forbes Flatlands, Task 1, day 1

Attila suggests a change that makes the task easier

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Enda Murphy|Filippo Oppici|Forbes Flatlands 2013|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kathryn O'Riordan|Nick Purcell|Paris Williams|Phil Schroder|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C

The forecast was for lift better than the day before but not quite as good as the first day. We would be able to get to 8,000'. The winds would start light but build to 11 knots south west. Again no cu's.

The task committee called a dogleg to Tomingley (with a eleven kilometer cylinder) just to keep us on the mountain range and then to Yeoval, but there was some kind of hubbub about that so after a discussion with the Task Committee and input from Attila, they changed the goal to Wellington airfield. The course line would have taken us through Parkes airspace which is okay with our air band radios. (The Sport Class goal was straight o Yeoval right smack dab through the Parkes airspace and one pilot made it.)

Unlike day 2 there was plenty of lift right away and I climbed to 5,000' and a little later to almost 6,000'. The winds varied between four and twelve mph out of the south west.

We moved quickly to the northwest to get upwind of the course line and to the edge of the ten kilometer start cylinder. There were plenty of pilots around. The wind pushed us back toward the course line and Jonny, Attila, and Jon Snr took the 2:30 PM first start clock (which turned out not to do them any good at all). The rest of us waited for the 2:50 clock and a big gaggle took off then.

The lift varied between 400 and 500 fpm on average. Good cores that allowed one to put the glider up on a tip if there wasn't any interference from other gliders. There was a eleven mph tail wind, so the going was easy.

I was a bit lower than the top guys in the lead gaggle. Paris, Steve Blenkisop, Jonas and another pilot jumped ahead of the gaggle. Later I took off from lower down the gaggle following one higher pilot while the rest stayed behind. This got me into better lift quicker and when the gaggle caught me I was now relatively much higher.

We came to the ridge south of the Tomingley turnpoint plenty high and found good lift. Paris, etc. were high above us but we were climbing fast. We found good lift going over the ridge to the east and on the other side. Paris, Steve, and Jonas got flushed on the other side and watched us as we flew other them as they dug their way out of a small valley.

We continued to find good lift going east although I had to stop for 250 fpm before I went further into the next set of hills to get 500 fpm to 7,500'. There were pilots all around in various thermals getting up.

It was a nineteen kilometer glide to the ridge west of Wellington and the last obstacle before goal at the airfield. We were down to 1,700' AGL before four of us got into 200 fpm which was the last thermal needed to get to goal thirteen kilometers away. We had no problem making it in.

Plenty of pilots at goal, thirty five to be exact.

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Anton Struganov Moyes RX 14:50:00 17:30:09 02:40:09 952
2 Lukas Bader Moyes RS 14:50:00 17:30:12 02:40:12 949
3 Michael Bilyk Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:30:58 02:40:58 930
4 Jonas Lobitz Moyes RX 4 14:50:00 17:31:00 02:41:00 929
5 Trent Brown Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:31:09 02:41:09 926
6 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 14:50:00 17:31:32 02:41:32 919
7 Christian Voiblet Wills Wing T2C 14:50:00 17:31:50 02:41:50 914
8 Conrad Loten Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:32:02 02:42:02 911
9 Attila Bertok Moyes RX 5 14:30:00 17:19:43 02:49:43 901
10 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:19:54 02:49:54 899
11 Paris Williams Aeros Combat GT 14:50:00 17:35:13 02:45:13 868
12 Glen Mcfarlane Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:35:40 02:45:40 863
13 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:36:21 02:46:21 855
14 Davis Straub Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:39:17 02:49:17 823
15 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:28:01 02:58:01 811
16 Enda Murphy Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:41:06 02:51:06 805
17 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS 4 14:30:00 17:29:25 02:59:25 798
18 Jon snr Durand Moyes RS 3.5 14:30:00 17:31:07 03:01:07 781
19 Andrew Barnes Moyes RS 3.5 14:50:00 17:45:04 02:55:04 769
19 Nick Purcell Moyes RS 4 14:30:00 17:32:29 03:02:29 769
21 Gavin Myers Moyes S5 14:30:00 17:33:26 03:03:26 761
21 Adam Stevens Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:33:26 03:03:26 761
23 Olav Olsen Moyes RS 14:30:00 17:34:53 03:04:53 748
24 Rohan Taylor Moyes RS 14:30:00 17:35:57 03:05:57 739
25 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 14:30:00 17:39:41 03:09:41 708
26 Federico Martini Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:54:41 03:04:41 695
27 Tony Giammichele Moyes RS 3.5 14:50:00 17:55:05 03:05:05 692
28 Victor Hare Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:42:43 03:12:43 685
29 Mark Russell moyes RS4 14:30:00 17:43:52 03:13:52 677
30 Andrew Luton Airborne C4 14:50:00 17:57:39 03:07:39 675
31 Geoff Robertson Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 17:48:54 03:18:54 642
32 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat 14:50:00 18:12:47 03:22:47 588
33 Kathryn O'Riordan Moyes RX 3 14:30:00 18:05:04 03:35:04 547
34 Nils Vesk Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:00 18:12:56 03:42:56 509
35 Cameron Tunbridge Wills Wing T2C 14:30:00 18:26:04 03:56:04 454

Cumulative:

1 Michael Bilyk USA Moyes RX 3.5 2825
2 Paris Williams USA Aeros Combat GT 2763
3 Conrad Loten NZL Moyes RX 3.5 2727
4 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes RX 4 2714
5 Anton Struganov RUS Moyes RX 2690
6 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2651
7 Glen Mcfarlane AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2648
8 Trent Brown AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2625
9 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 2618
10 Adam Stevens AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2506
11 Yasuhiro Noma JPN Moyes RX 3.5 2410
12 Guy Hubbard AUS Moyes RS 4 2378
13 Jonny Durand AUS Moyes RX 3.5 2068
14 Filippo Oppici ITA Wills Wing T2C 2001
15 Rohan Taylor AUS Moyes RS 1971
16 Christian Voiblet SUI Wills Wing T2C 1970
17 Gavin Myers AUS Moyes S5 1944
18 Tony Giammichele AUS Moyes RS 3.5 1930
19 Geoff Robertson AUS Moyes RX 3.5 1890
20 Davis Straub USA Moyes RX 3.5 1877
21 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes RX 5 1815

No Australians among the top five.

The Dalby Big Air 2013

April 19, 2013, 8:24:38 EDT

The Dalby Big Air 2013

Results from day 5

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Grant Heaney|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|William "Billo" Olive

William Olive <<William.Olive>> sends:

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/comp results.html

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 01:58:40 997
2 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:58:45 980
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:00:26 956
4 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed S5 02:04:38 904
5 Guy Hubbard Moyes Litespeed RS 4 02:04:44 898
6 Trevor Purcell Moyes Litespeed S 5 02:06:28 882
7 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:09:28 858
8 Len Paton Moyes Litespeed RS4 02:14:49 820
9 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:16:54 807
10 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:11:54 804

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 4647
2 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4232
3 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4027
4 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed S5 3971
5 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3909
6 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 3767
7 Adam Stevens Airbone Rev 13.5 3481
8 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3365
9 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 3248
10 Trevor Purcell Moyes Litespeed S 5 3243

The Dalby Big Air 2013

April 18, 2013, 9:36:41 EDT

The Dalby Big Air 2013

Results from day 4

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Grant Heaney|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Steve Blenkinsop|William "Billo" Olive

William Olive <<William.Olive>> sends:

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/comp results.html

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 01:32:26 949
2 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed S5 01:43:08 892
3 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:37:10 873
4 Trevor Purcell Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:44:39 872
5 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:43:37 781
6 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:43:37 779
7 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:39:22 775
8 Gavin Myers Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:44:41 760
9 Len Paton Moyes Litespeed RS4 01:58:03 749
10 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:52:02 708

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 3650
2 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3428
3 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3102
4 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3071
5 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed S5 3067
6 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2992
7 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 2982
8 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 2904
9 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2856
10 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 2787

The Dalby Big Air 2013

April 17, 2013, 7:40:36 EDT

The Dalby Big Air 2013

Results from day 3

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Facebook|Grant Heaney|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Steve Blenkinsop|William "Billo" Olive

William Olive <<William.Olive>> sends:

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/comp results.html

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jon snr Durand Moyes litespeed S5 01:55:16 979
2 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:03:22 877
3 Adam Parer Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:13:53 871
4 Adam Stevens Airbone Rev 13.5 02:16:05 839
5 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:09:27 831
6 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:21:26 804
7 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:24:53 782
8 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 02:25:59 777
9 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:25:31 776
10 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 02:29:30 752

Total:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed RX 4 2701
2 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2555
3 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 2503
4 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 2467
5 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2394
6 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2374
7 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 2304
8 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2213
9 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed S5 2175
10 Adam Stevens Airborne Rev 13.5 2136

The Dalby airfield:

The Dalby Big Air 2013

April 15, 2013, 8:33:37 EDT

The Dalby Big Air 2013

Results from day 2

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Grant Heaney|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|William "Billo" Olive

William Olive <<William.Olive>> sends:

http://www.williamolive.com/dalby/comp results.html

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed 01:24:03 990
2 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:25:44 949
3 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:28:05 904
4 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:28:13 897
5 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:28:29 889
6 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:28:51 880
7 Dave Stevens Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:29:16 872
8 Adam Stevens Airbone Rev 13.5 01:34:08 828
9 Jonathan Kinred Moyes Litespeed S 01:42:37 757
10 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 01:42:35 753

Totals:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes Litespeed 1924
2 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 1835
3 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 1820
4 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4 1766
5 Rod Flockhart Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 1728
6 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 1679
7 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 1617
8 Simon Braithwaite Moyes Litesport 4 1616
9 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 1575
10 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 14.5 1557

Swiss Nic Hurt on Christmas Eve

Fri, Dec 28 2012, 9:01:41 am PST

In the Hunter Valley

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Heather Mull|photo|Roberto Nichele|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan

Cameron Tunbridge «Cameron Tunbridge» sends this note from Heather Mull:

UPDATE ON SWISS NIC:

As many hang glider pilots will now be aware, on 24th December Swiss Nic (Roberto Nichele) had a failed hill launch in NSW Hunter Valley, Australia. First aid was given on site by Conrad Loten (hang glider pilot and emergency room doctor at John Hunter hospital) and Nic was transferred to the John Hunter hospital by helicopter. He sustained internal trauma to the head and was put into the intensive care unit in an induced coma and on a ventilator.

With some progress over the last days in the form of responding to voices with hand squeezes, Conrad recommended friends visit Nic to keep the stimulation process going. Mart and I have been visiting Camo, so today (the 28th) we contacted the hospital and all went to visit this afternoon. The timing was great, as when we arrived they were busy taking his ventilator tube out for the first time. We were able to see Nic straight away and spent a couple of hours with him. He was groggy and it was obviously difficult for him to open his eyes, but he opened them on several occasions and recognised who we were - communicating to questions mainly with hand gestures and a reasonably firm hand grip. He slept much of the time whilst his body copes with the recovery process.

The whole time we were there, Nic was able to breathe normally apart from some supplemental oxygen, but he even took that mask off for a while when the tube came out. He has a chest infection as well, so his physiotherapist was wanting him to take deep breaths as often as possible and cough to get the muck up from his lungs. He could understand everything we were saying to him and even managed to whisper and understand some words in four different languages. His sense of humour is still intact, as when Mart made a comment about the difficulty of the Swiss language, Nic slowly lifted his hand and definitely gave him the "bird." Nic sparked up noticeably when the guys took some photos of him for his girlfriend Natalia and the doctor also contacted Natalia while we were there. Natalia was able to talk to Nic.

To summarise what the doctor said to us, Nic has had a severe impact to the head which will take a long recovery - many months, and the extent of the recovery depends on the individual. Plans are already under way for his medically accompanied return to Switzerland by aeroplane (he also has travel insurance). If all goes well, this may be within the next week. We were very happy to see the amount of progress he made just today - breathing on his own again and communicating a little with us. As we left, Tish and Chris came in to visit again. So if you live in the area, the doctor suggested a roster of visitors could be made up so that he is getting lots of stimulation over the coming days. Things certainly looked much more positive for Nic today than several days ago, and we'll all keep our fingers crossed now for a speedy and full recovery.

Discuss "Swiss Nic Hurt on Christmas Eve" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Cloudsuck in Gulgong

December 3, 2012, 7:58:23 PST

Cloudsuck in Gulgong

Cameron plays with the cu-nimbs

Blue Sky|Cameron Tunbridge|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|weather

http://www.nhgc.asn.au/node/1747

Cameron Tunbridge <<cameron.tunbridge>> writes:

Gulgong 2012 task 2, storm chasing or just taking a shower.

The Gulgong Classic provided a great opportunity for many pilots to fly on four task able days, one of which was task two a 130km triangle from Cudgegong gliding airfield to Wellington airfield then to a road intersection direction north and return, a flight that I will certainly recall more specifically than others due to a narrow escape from the jaws of a massive convergence storm.

Our morning weather briefing was delivered and the mention of afternoon storms accompanied the usual cautionary remarks from weather man Alan.

Start gate opened 13:45 conditions where strong climbs and associated cumulus, sun and blue sky as we raced towards the first turn point. However a cu-nimb cell centered some where south west of Wellington already made effects on the task area. It cast a dark shadow, overburden and a band of high cirrus across the second leg of the course as pilots progressed towards the second turnpoint.

I, having already climbed to 3000m above the first turnpoint took a long perusing glide, whilst remaining pilots recovered altitude from long glides with almost zero thermal activity. It was giving the impression that thermal conditions had become somewhat inactive and the third leg became a test of attrition to staying airborne as I slowly picked my way to goal. Having flown the exact same task on a previous year, resulting in landing out, I was determined to exercise enough patience to make it this time.

I was co-flying with fellow pilot Dave May in light lift for over an hour until a radio transition came over the air from Jonny to Glen who had just announced he was on final about 5km ahead, informing us that an LD of 10-1 from 20km was enough to make it in. A while later it was time to make my decision and as a line of sight to goal came into view I made the observation that conditions to the north east of goal indicated storm activity.

Dave went on final at 12 to 1 from slightly above, whilst I estimated enough time to make 10 to 1 and still have time for a conservative glide into Cudgegong airfield hangars before a possible stopped task. Afterwards I learned we were not the only pilots faced with a similar decision. Conrad landed before goal and Trent reached goal and retreated 15km away to land. Some had landed at goal and thought OMG.

As I started final glide and saw gradually overshooting data on my Compeo, indicated a tailwind factor assisting progress, so I sped up the descent for a relatively smooth approach angle and reduced arrival height as further observations gave renewed perspective that the sky was starting to turn ugly above. With nasty turbulence about 10km out, I held true to goal, focused on getting into a safe landing ASAP.

I radioed the pilots on the ground who informed me that conditions were marginal but seemed okay for an arrival just get here quickly. Things were noisy and hard to hear the transition maybe even some jokes about the stratosphere or was this subconscious voices. 5km out I could clearly see Dave about to land and I was totally committed with straight arms, arse clenched and toes pointed, but it was already too late.

At that point the area of the sky that I had just previously flown through had just gone crazy and I was in an area of massive convergence and things were deteriorating rapidly turning black and green, actually faster than I could process. Passing over goal cylinder at 1400 m going up 2-3 mps, my aim was to head east towards some light grey area thinking that I had passed through the worst and find some air to wind down.

After spending some minutes searching for any signs of sink or even less strong lift, attempts at spinning down and spiral diving proved futile and with more lift came the realization that I had grossly miss judged the conditions and I was about 10km inside the jaws of a storm of fast rising air and the potential for serious circumstance had become more evident.

Cloud base was 3000m and I had already risen to 2200m in a matter of minutes beneath a convergence cell of unknown proportions, not a time to panic, but I was getting concerned and needed to make a decision about how to recover the situation and escape ASAP.  I made radio contact with the ground and announced, okay guys I'm in serious trouble, effective pan pan, strong lift, heavy turbulence, options are disappearing fast, conditions are deteriorating even faster and rain approaching quickly.

To the east was forest and rain, north, lightning, south, black and green clouds and west was the track I had already come from, not an option. North west was maybe the only chance. Further communication with the ground confirmed that was the best option and from my perspective this meant getting very wet.

Within a matter of seconds the entire area started to down pour the heaviest rain imaginable. Getting drenched apparently the radio PTT was shorted and locked on talk continuously giving transmit. Not a time to panic, but this was stretching my ability to cope and I  had decided to glide towards the north west. Just repeating on the radio my decision and current situation gave me some reassurance that I was not totally alone in the storm: "heading north west direction of Dunedoo, straight arms, full rope going up 3mps in heavy rain and server turbulence, viability almost zero." Occasional slight view straight down and a few known ground features, a creek bed and road intersection and GPS pointing towards the goal co-ordinate to navigate.

Many minutes passed and the sky became brighter in the direction I was heading. The rain started easing, but still surging strong lift for 20km gliding away from the cell towards Dunedoo. Another cell was forming like an atomic bomb blast and a lower ring of black tendrils in the direction north of Dubbo was sucking surface winds 50-60 kmh. 

After gliding away from Gulgong and the local air mass developing into cu cloud's, then a gust from sheer just to make things interesting before a vertical descent in a large field next to the Golden highway 40 km from goal I unclipped my nose wires and after 15 minutes laying on top of my glider I got a phone call in my harness from Jonny and Glen. Shane was on the way. Thanks guys, yes, down safely now and my retrieve crew is on the way.

Lyn, Adam and Grant arrived and I was please to see them. Yes, I know the situation could have been avoided and it appears there was a motive to compromise personal safety to make goal, but the main thing I learned from this incident is, given best assessments of the soaring conditions, things can be different and can changing faster than anything previously experienced Given the same circumstances leave more margin, nature is all mighty. Weather quote: "when it looks ugly it's ugly."

Later that week during the competition, task four yielded another rain storm and gust front on the course line in Cappatree valley, delivering another drenching and struggle with violent surface winds after landing out. Later pilots managed to navigate around and almost made goal. The area was void of cell phone service so there was not an effective mechanism for communication with head quarters, raising the question of stop tasks. Ultimately it's pilots own responsibility to land for safety.

Discuss "Cloudsuck in Gulgong" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Airborne Gulgong Classic 2012 »

Mon, Nov 26 2012, 4:27:17 pm PST

Results updated

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Gulgong Classic 2012|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Trent Brown

http://www.gulgongclassic.com/

Results here.

Day one:

# Name Nat Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun 02:25:22 940
2 Adam Parer Aus 02:35:12 915
3 Jonas Lobitz Nzl 02:53:57 790
4 Jon Durand Jnr Aus 02:40:25 784
5 Konrad Heilmann Bra 02:55:21 777
6 Glen Mcfarlane Aus 02:44:12 756
7 John Smith Nzl 02:57:40 741
8 Wolfgang Siess Aut 02:49:26 739
9 Dave Stevens Aus 02:57:14 737
10 Matthew Barlow Nzl 02:52:08 709

Day Two:

# Name Nat Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun 02:49:19 1000
2 Jon Durand Jnr Aus 02:53:57 939
3 Konrad Heilmann Bra 03:08:44 863
4 Trent Brown Aus 03:05:33 853
5 John Smith Nzl 03:12:54 830
6 Glen Mcfarlane Aus 03:16:57 827
7 Wolfgang Siess Aut 03:16:48 818
8 Matthew Barlow Nzl 03:20:19 803
9 Dave May Aus 03:33:03 755
10 Cameron Tunbridge Aus 03:41:20 734

Totals:

# Name Total
1 Attila Bertok 1940
2 Jon Durand Jnr 1723
3 Konrad Heilmann 1640
4 Glen Mcfarlane 1583
5 John Smith 1571
6 Wolfgang Siess 1557
7 Matthew Barlow 1512
8 Adam Parer 1389
9 Trent Brown 1334
10 Jonas Lobitz 1291

Discuss "Airborne Gulgong Classic 2012" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2012 Canungra Classic »

September 26, 2012, 8:26:04 MDT

2012 Canungra Classic

Senior wins the day

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2012|Grant Heaney|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2012/CompResults.html

Task four:

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Jon snr Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 4 77,96 343
2 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS4 62,07 301
3 Adam Parer Moyes LS RX 3.5 43,56 257
4 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 42,75 256
5 Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 41,70 251
6 Attila Bertok Moyes RS4 38,29 237
7 Jason Kath Moyes Litespeed RS3.5 37,81 234
8 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes LS RX3.5 36,86 230
9 Adam Stevens Airborne REV 34,64 221
10 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne REV 14.5 28,03 199

Total:

# Name Glider Total
1 Attila Bertok Moyes RS4 2348
2 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2291
3 Adam Stevens Airborne REV 2077
4 Yasuhiro Noma Moyes Litespeed RX 3 2047
5 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes LS RX3.5 2034
6 John Smith Moyes RS4 2023
7 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne REV13.5 1988
8 Adam Parer Moyes LS RX 3.5 1987
9 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 1962
10 Guy Hubbard Moyes RS4 1960

2012 Canungra Classic »

September 25, 2012, 9:02:52 MDT

2012 Canungra Classic

Vying for places on the Australian team

Adam Parer|Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2012|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Moyes Litespeed RX|Nick Purcell|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Trent Brown

Results so far here: http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2012/CompResults.html

# Name Glider Total
1 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2191
2 Attila Bertok Moyes RS4 2111
3 Yasuhiro Noma   1867
4 Adam Stevens Airborne REV 1856
5 John Smith Moyes RS4 1854
6 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne REV13.5 1817
7 Nick Purcell Moyes RX4 1806
8 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes LS RX3.5 1804
9 Adam Parer Moyes RS3.5 1730
10 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne REV 14.5 1729

Discuss "2012 Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dalby Big Air

April 23, 2012, 5:36:42 pm EDT

Dalby Competition

The podium

Cameron Tunbridge|David Seib|Rob Hibberd|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|William "Billo" Olive

Billo sends:

Scott Barrett, Conrad Lotten, and Adam Stevens, in that order. .

Everyone who picked up a trophy at Dalby; from left to right, Shelley Heinrich, Gavin Myers, Adam, Scott, Conrad and Kathryn. Kathyn is holding the "David Seib memorial trophy", a new perpetual trophy from the Dalby club.

Rob Hibberd <<RobH>> sends:

Scott Barrett flying brilliantly won the comp with a good margin on his Airborne Rev 13.5. He was 299 points in front of 2nd place getter Conrad Lotan on a Moyes Litespeed. Adam Stevens was once again showing good form and came 3rd overall on a Rev 13.5. Rohan Holtkamp climbed back up to 4th place after narrowly missing goal on a crucial day. Cameron Tunbridge made it to 13th place on the 14.5 Rev and Phil Schroeder was 19th place.

Paul Barry wrote: Great effort from the Airborne pilots. A combination of great pilots and excellent gliders. Only 7 Revs in the comp and they took out 3 of the top 4 spots with the rest doing pretty well too.

Discuss "Dalby Competition" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Forbes Flatlands - task five results »

January 11, 2012, 11:26:39 AEDT

Forbes Flatlands - task five

A white sky with high diffuse clouds

Attila Bertok|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Forbes Flatlands|Grant Heaney|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Primoz Gricar|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Rohan and Scott, flying Airborne REV's, win the day again and go back to one and two in the overall lead. Jonny out of the competition.

Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 14:34:49 18:27:50 03:53:01 983
2 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 14:32:15 18:27:27 03:55:12 970
3 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes RS 3.5 14:30:04 18:28:15 03:58:11 937
4 Mitch Shipley USA Wills Wing T2C 144 14:29:29 18:28:14 03:58:45 936
4 Roland Wöhrle GER Moyes RS 3.5 14:26:58 18:27:30 04:00:32 936
6 Trent Brown AUS Moyes RS 3.5 14:37:24 18:33:20 03:55:56 933
7 Conrad Loten NZL Moyes RS 3.5 14:30:45 18:32:51 04:02:06 922
8 Rod Flockhart AUS Moyes RS 3.5 14:38:00 18:34:32 03:56:32 920
9 Cameron Tunbridge AUS Airborne Rev 14.5 14:33:02 18:33:16 04:00:14 913
10 John Smith NZL Moyes RS 4 14:32:47 18:33:26 04:00:39 903

Totals:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 4114
2 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 3863
3 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 3731
4 Steve Blenkinsop AUS Moyes RS 3.5 3647
5 Adam Stevens AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 3625
6 Cameron Tunbridge AUS Airborne Rev 14.5 3585
7 Hans Kiefinger GER Aeros GT 13.2 3536
8 John Smith NZL Moyes RS 4 3408
9 Anton Struganov RUS Aeros CombatL 13,7 09 3362
10 Grant Heaney AUS Moyes RS 3.5 3360
11 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 3350
12 Conrad Loten NZL Moyes RS 3.5 3325
13 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 4 3312
14 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 3299
15 Trent Brown AUS Moyes RS 3.5 3279

Wednesday cancelled due to high winds. It looks like we'll have three good final days.

Forbes Flatlands - day two »

Forbes Flatlands 2012

Actual results

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Forbes Flatlands|Gerolf Heinrichs|Primoz Gricar|Roberto Nichele|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C


http://www.forbesflatlands.com/results.html

Eye witnesses had difficulty determining who was actually first into goal yesterday as there was a 400 meter cylinder instead of a line. Also pilots get their individual start times:

# Name Nat Glider SS Time Total
1 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 14:35:33 03:12:05 991
2 Roberto Nichele SUI WillsWing T2C 144 14:33:00 03:14:25 969
3 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 14:35:38 03:13:15 966
4 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 14:31:29 03:17:03 946
5 Jonas Lobitz NZL Moyes RS 3.5 14:33:39 03:16:18 932
6 Adam Parer AUS Moyes RS 3.5 14:31:06 03:18:39 921
7 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes RX 3.5 14:30:50 03:19:38 914
8 Anton Struganov RUS Aeros CombatL 13,7 09 14:30:55 03:19:14 909
9 Jean Souviron FRA Moyes RS 3.5 14:31:15 03:20:17 904
10 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 4 14:30:38 03:21:57 890

Total after two days:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Rohan Holtkamp AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 1497
2 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne Rev 13.5 1458
3 Edoardo Giudiceandrea ITA WW T2C 154 1455
4 Jean Souviron FRA Moyes RS 3.5 1394
5 Lukas Bader GER Moyes RS 4 1385
6 Anton Struganov RUS Aeros CombatL 13,7 09 1310
7 Primoz Gricar SLO Aeros Combat 13.5 GT 1305
8 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes RX 3.5 1297
9 Cameron Tunbridge AUS Airborne Rev 14.5 1278
10 Tullio Gervasoni ITA Wills Wing T2C 144 1271

Forbes Flatlands - day one »

January 6, 2012, 7:44:52 AEDT

Forbes Flatlands 2012

Edoardo and Curt with Jonny third

Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|Forbes Flatlands|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Primoz Gricar|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Trent Brown

Forbes Day One Results

# Name Nat SS Dist. Total
1 Edoardo Giudiceandrea ITA 14:03:12 123.98 600
2 Curt Warren AUS 14:16:31 124.02 598
3 Jonny Durand AUS 14:30:36 117.50 575
4 Primoz Gricar SLO 14:17:33 112.33 558
5 Rohan Holtkamp AUS 14:30:14 108.44 546
6 Franz Herrmann SUI 14:17:01 102.79 531
7 Lukas Bader GER 14:17:50 88.07 490
8 Trent Brown AUS 14:30:08 87.60 488
9 Jean Souviron FRA 14:25:20 86.85 486
10 Cameron Tunbridge AUS 14:06:52 82.27 468

Discuss "Forbes Flatlands 2012" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2010 Gulgong Classic Day Six and Final

November 26, 2010, 9:02:03 PST

2010 Gulgong Classic Day Six

Scott Barrett wins for the third time, Jonny in second, first overall

Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|Grant Heaney|Gulgong Classic 2010|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|Steve Blenkinsop

http://kathryn.typepad.com/kalog/

http://kathryn.typepad.com/kalog/2010/11/gulgong-day-6-tough-for-some.html

Tough day but some smoked it home, for example Scotty and Jonny. You had to be right up on top of the lift today to gain advantage, if you dropped low you were screwed because the climbs were really broken and weak.

http://twitter.com/flymoyes

http://twitter.com/davemayfly

http://twitter.com/flyingtrent

Day Six Results.

Total.

# Pilot Glider Time Points
1. Scott Barrett Airborne REV 13.5 02:02:10 1000
2. Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:02:57 982.89
3. Cameron Tunbridge Airborne REV 13.5 02:07:47 927.26
4. Grant Heaney Moyes Litespeed 02:08:02 924.88
5. Yosuhiro Noma Moyes Litespeed RS 4 02:08:48 917.72
6. Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 02:09:08 914.68
7. Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 02:09:44 909.31
8. Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed RS 4 02:15:35 862.05

On the seventh day the winds were too strong, so that meet ended. The final results can be found here: http://soaringspot.com/agc2010/results/flex/day-by-day.html

Discuss "2010 Gulgong Classic Day Six" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2010 Canungra Classic »

October 7, 2010, 8:15:44 MDT

2010 Canungra Classic

Conrad Loten wins the second task

Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2010|Conrad Loten|John Smith|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Nick Purcell|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown

The Canungra Classic results found here.

Task 2:

# Name Time Total
1 Conrad Loten 01:41:25 735
2 Jon Durand Jnr 01:39:13 730
3 Trent Brown 01:49:43 693
4 Peter Dall 01:52:09 684
5 Steve Blenkinsop 01:53:39 678
6 Tony Giammichele 01:54:08 676
7 Neil Petersen 02:12:01 620
8 Adam Stevens   496
9 Rod Flockhart   467
10 Jonas Lobitz   425

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Dist. Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:42:58 47,13 307
2 John Smith Moyes Litespeed RS 4 01:58:40 47,13 292
3 Jon Durand Moyes Litespeed S 5 02:36:41 47,13 265
4 Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5   47,11 249
5 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5   46,64 248
6 Adam Stevens Airborne C4   40,71 228
7 Davo Staver Moyes Litespeed S 3.5   30,23 197
8 Ward Gunn Moyes Litespeed S 4.5   24,95 181
9 Jonas Lobitz Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5   17,33 158
9 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 13.5   17,21 158
11 Nick Purcell Moyes Litespeed RS 4   12,53 141
11 Regan Kowald Moyes Litespeed S 5   12,61 141

Discuss "2010 Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2010 Bogong Cup - day six »

January 21, 2010, 8:42:42 pm AEDT

2010 Bogong Cup

We gave it a go, but the winds didn't cooperate

Bogong Cup 2010|Cameron Tunbridge|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Evgeniya "Zhenya" Laritskaya|Rohan Taylor|sailplane|weather

While XCSkies said that we would have eighteen knot winds at 4,000' (launch level) at 2 PM, it was very quiet down in Mt. Beauty and we didn't have any clouds to give us an indication of the actual winds up above (the forecast was for winds four knots higher than yesterday). We didn't get a good answer on whether we should have acted on the weather models from yesterday from the pilots who did fly, so there was some uncertainty about how much trust to put in them today.

Going up the hill to check out the conditions was a low cost option. What did we have to lose? We are here to fly after all.

The safety committee asked us to come back at noon to make the decision. We did and I decided to send us up to Emu to see if we could fly.

The launching conditions seemed fine. The task committee came up with a task, but only two members were there. Olli was flying the sailplane. Lukas wasn't set up. Rohan wanted to go big over the back.

Cameron Tunbridge took off to show us the conditions. There were cumulus clouds now and we could see some for ourselves. He reported 18 knot winds as forecast and rough conditions. Corinna on the safety committee was also getting reports from Olli in the sailplane.

The winds picked up on launch., We started seeing lenticular clouds, one other the valley that Cameron was under. The safety committee was not happy with launch conditions, the turbulence in the air, and the task. I had the task committee change the task, well Rohan, as Lukas was against flying at all.

Finally I called the day when no one was making a move toward launch or indicating that they wanted to fly. The lenticulars continued to stack up throughout the area, a cloud mass moved in from the west, and now at 9 PM it is raining.

Discuss "2010 Bogong Cup" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Pay up for the⁢ 2011 pre-Worlds »

Tue, Jan 12 2010, 5:43:01 pm AEDT

Just a few more days to send in the money

Flavio Tebaldi|Pre-Worlds 2011

Flavio Tebaldi «Flavio Tebaldi» writes:

I would like to remind you that in order to confirm your place please pay and send the organisation the payment receipt no later than the17th January. Confirmed pilots whose receipt of payment does not reach the organizers by 17th January, will be moved to the bottom of the waiting list. All other pilots accepted afterwards, will have 10 days to pay the registration fee before their place is reallocated to another pilot.

pre-Worlds - update »

Sun, Jan 3 2010, 8:49:03 am AEDT

150 out of 250

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Pre-Worlds 2011|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

The preliminary pilot list has been updated with the latest WPRS rankings. You'll find it here: http://www.cucco2011.org. Click Pilot Info, then Pilots List. If your name is on the list you have until January 17th to pay your entry fees in order to hold your place on the list.

As of Sunday night there are 150 pilots listed: 145 male, 5 female. Gliders: 58 Moyes, 38 Aeros, 23 Wills Wing, 21 Icaro, 5 Airborne, 3 Laminar, 1 Aeros, 1 unspecified.

  • ARG: Marcelo Chaves
  • AUS: Jonny Durand, Steve Blenkinsop, Cameron Tunbridge, Rod Flockhart, Bruce Wynne, Trent Brown, Neil Petersen, Tony Lowrey, Richard Heffer
  • AUT: Manfred Ruhmer, Thomas Weissenberger, Robert Reisinger, Michael Friesenbichler, Manfred Trimmel, Wolfgang Siess, Günther Tschurnig, Christl Elmar, Christian Tiefenbacher
  • BEL: Michel Bodart
  • BRA: Michel Louzada, Alvaro Sandoli (Nene Rotor), Jose Lessa, Konrad Heilmann, Eduardo Oliveira, Alexandre Trivelato
  • CAN: Brett Hazlett
  • COL: Mike Glennon, Eitan Koren
  • CZE: Radek Bares
  • DEN: Nils Dalby, Bo Klint, Johnny Christiansen, Jens Henrik Badsberg
  • ECU: Raul Guerra, Rafael Arcos
  • ESP: Blay Jr Olmos Quesada, Pedro Garcia Morelli, Daniel Martin Mota, Jose Antonio Abollado, Lucio Nelli
  • FRA: Mario Alonzi, Gianpietro Zin, Luis Rizo-Salom, Antoine Boisselier, Laurent Thevenot, Eric Mathurin, Eric Wyss, Fabien Agenes
  • GBR: Carl Wallbank, Gordon Rigg, Bruce Kavanagh, David Shields, Richard Lovelace, Dave Matthews, Anthony Stephens, Gary Wirdnam, Graham Phipps, Nigel Bray
  • GER: Gerd Doenhuber, Lukas Bader, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Tim Grabowski, André Djamarani, Markus Ebenfeld, Roland Wöhrle, Stefan Boller, Christian Zehetmair, Joerg Bajewski, Hans Kiefinger, Konrad Schwab, Monique Werner
  • GUA: Giovanni Vitola, Jose Herrarte, Dieter Meyer, Rolando Mansilla, Mario Leon
  • HUN: Attila Bertok, Endre Kovács, Attila Kis, Zsolt Balogh
  • IRL: Shaun O'Neill, Geoffrey McMahon, Philip Lardner, Justin Beplate, Kenneth Hickey
  • ISR: Amir Shalom, Ron Wiener, Yaron Levin
  • ITA: Alex Ploner, Christian Ciech, Elio Cataldi, Davide Guiducci, Tullio Gervasoni, Anton Moroder, Arturo Dal Mas, Filippo Oppici, Paolo Rosichetti, Fabrizio Giustranti, Sergio Bernardi, Suan Selenati, Edoardo Giudiceandrea, Vanni Accattoli
  • JPN: Koji Daimon, Hiroshi Suzuki, Takahiro Matsumura, Shogo Ota, Keita Kokaji
  • LTU: Justinas Pleikys
  • NED: Mart Bosman, Martin Van Helden, André Disselhorst, Joost Eertman, Erik Van Keulen
  • NOR: Vegar Hansen, Petter Peikli
  • POL: Dariusz Perenc, Sebastian Olifiruk
  • RUS: Vladimir Leuskov, Artur Dzamikhov, Anton Struganov, Natalia Petrova, Julia Kucherenko, Maxim Usachev, Oleg Andreev
  • SLO: Primoz Gricar, Stanislav Galovec, Iztok Jarc
  • SUI: Roberto Nichele, Christian Voiblet, Francis Gafner, Chrigel Kuepfer, Carole Tobler, Beat Howald
  • SWE: Hakan Andersson, Joakim Hindemith
  • TUR: Tugrul Yilmaz, Halil Caner Atilgan, Kamil Demirkan
  • UKR: Dmitriy Rusov, Pavel Yakimchuk, Sergey Semenov, Dmytro Teteretnyk
  • USA: Zac Majors, Dustin Martin, Jeff O'Brien, Davis Straub, Jeff Shapiro, Derreck Turner, Ben Dunn

pre-Worlds - who's going? »

Sat, Jan 2 2010, 6:58:31 pm AEDT

150 out of 250

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Pre-Worlds 2011|Ubaldo Romano|Wills Wing T2C|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds 2023|Zac Majors

The best guess so far: http://www.cucco2011.org/test_romano/ Click Pilot Info, then Pilots List. Based on December 2, 2009, WPRS ranking, will change when January ranking is available. US pilots chosen to go to the pre-Worlds, so far:

Zac Majors, Wills Wing T2C-144
Dustin Martin, Wills Wing T2C-144
Jeff O'Brien, Wills Wing T2C (144 or 154)
Davis Straub, Icaro Laminar MR1000
Jeff Shapiro, Wills Wing T2C-144
Derreck Turner, Moyes Litespeed S5
Ben Dunn, Moyes Litespeed

Each nation gets up to five pilots independent of WPRS ranking. If more than five pilots from one country apply for the pre-Worlds, then the top five in that nation as per their January 2010 WPRS ranking are allowed in. When all those nations' slots are taken (some nations won't have five slots because less than five pilots pre-registered from that nation, for example, Turkey), then the remaining slots are available by WPRS ranking to the pilots who pre-registered.

Turns out a lot of pilots from Italy pre-registered and they have a lot of good WPRS rankings, and so fifteen pilots are coming from Italy. Derreck Turner and Ben Dunn got in with their WPRS rankings. Many US pilots did not.

Everyone has to get their entry fee in with ten days (January 17th) or they go to the end of the line. Starting on the 17th, pilots are chosen for the now empty slots by pre-registration date.

The actual five man teams will be decided at the competition.

Update: The January WPRS ranking it up and the pilot list will be updated soon.

It looks like a successful ⁢Corryong Cup 2010⁣ is in store »

Thu, Dec 31 2009, 6:12:44 pm MST

Oversubscribed

Cameron Tunbridge|Corryong Cup 2010|Mart Bosman|sailplane|William "Billo" Olive

Wendi Herman «Wendi Herman», the meet organizer, has apparently been very successful when it comes to organizing a competition that lots of pilots want to attend. This year it seems like there is enough demand that she could have organized two Corryong Cups and filled them both up. Cameron Tunbridge tells me that she is a very focused and driven meet organizer and knows how to get the job done. (I'm happy to provide the scoring program and act as a consultant to the score keeper.)

The Corryong Cup is like the Team Challenge, a competition put on with the express intention of bringing new pilots into the competition community. More experienced pilots attend it with the intent of teaching the new pilots the skills that they need to be safe and compete in the "higher grade" competitions.

The meet has been so successful that the South Australia hang gliding club is now considering running a second version at the same location (Corryong) and starting it the week before the regular Corryong Cup. That way there will in essence be two Corryong Cups to try to meet the demand for more of these types of competitions.

I was discussing "Sport Class" with Billo over dinner a few nights back. He referred to it as "The Future of the Sport" Class.

Cameron, Blinky, and Hadewych were down at Corryong a couple of days ago, and reported great flying conditions. Steve (Blinky) was apparently able to fly over Mt Kosciuszko (actually within two kilometers) with Mart Bosman, taking off from Bright, in a sailplane below him.

Discuss "It looks like a successful ⁢Corryong Cup 2010⁣ is in store" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Airborne Gulgong Classic 2009 »

Mon, Nov 16 2009, 9:56:56 pm PST

Adam Parer tumbles

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr

http://www.gulgongclassic.com/

Cameron Tunbridge writes:

209km task, difficult and strong cross wind 64k first leg then to goal, 5hrs flight (1 hour in 38 deg's start cylinder) a glider tumble's the pilot parachute's to safety. Adam Parer a top Oz pilot, landed under his reserve. It's not clearly apparent exactly why. He's in a stable in condition in hospital. Maybe a few broken ribs.

Jonny Durand writes:

My thoughts are with Adam after he broke his Aiborne Rev in flight and separated from his glider. He free fell for maybe 10 seconds before his chute opened. He is in hospital with a separated rib cage but seems no spinal damage or other major injuries. I believe he was flying with a High energy chute which is one of the only chutes designed to withstand free fall.

Discuss "Airborne Gulgong Classic 2009" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Over 200 pilots sign up for⁢ 2011 pre-Worlds »

Fri, Nov 6 2009, 8:58:57 am PST

The limit is 150

Pre-Worlds 2011|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Worlds

http://www.cucco2011.org/

Apparently hang gliding is not dying at the level of World competitions (or at least pre-Worlds) The Italian based pre-Worlds is over subscribed already, just a few days after opening the registration to the waiting list. The local regulations state:

Registration will open on 2nd November 2009. Priority will be given to national teams of up to 5 pilots per country.

Places will be allocated starting from 7th January 2010 to pilots on the waiting list.

Allocation will be based on WPRS ranking on 1st January 2010 followed by order of registration for any unranked pilots.

As from 7th January, all confirmed pilots will have ten days time in which to pay the registration fee, in order not to lose their priority position in the pilot list.

Therefore, confirmed pilots whose receipt of payment does not reach the organizers by 17th January, will be moved to the bottom of the waiting list.

All other pilots accepted afterwards, will have 10 days to pay the registration fee before their place is reallocated to another pilot.

2009 Canungra Classic »

Fri, Oct 9 2009, 8:08:13 am PDT

Ricky Duncan in first place overall

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2009|Conrad Loten|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Nick Purcell|Phil Schroder|Ricky Duncan|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tim Osborn|Trent Brown

It looks like a lot of pilots got penalties of 100%. I assume for airspace violations.

Task 5:

# Id Name Glider Time Total
1 4 Jon Durand Snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:34:14 845
2 20 Regan Kowald Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:35:37 829
3 25 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 01:36:31 818
4 16 Keiran Brown Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 01:39:15 787
5 11 Bruce Wynne Moyes Litespeed 5 01:49:50 681
6 22 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 01:52:55 654
7 10 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 01:56:37 589
8 54 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 02:02:53 574
9 40 Andrew Carswell 02:01:45 540
10 17 Dave May 02:09:02 531

Penalties:
Note: % penalty is used to calc penalty as a % of total score. Both types can be combined. None affect the scoring of other pilots.

Id Name Penalty Reason
45 Peter Smart 100% W4500
46 Adam Stevens 100% N7500
42 Daniel Shaw 100% N7500 W4500
29 Tim Hannah 100% N7500
48 David Leeming 100% No Altitude
51 Tim Osborn 100% E6500
55 Bodie Heyward 100% E6500 N7500
49 Mark Gilbert 100% E6500
57 Scott Ireland 100% E6500
3 Cameron Tunbridge 100% E6500 W4500
18 Neil Petersen 100% N7500 W4500
14 Andrew Barnes 100% N7500
21 Tony Giammichele 100% N7500 W4500
15 Rohan Holtkamp 100% W4500
13 Trent Brown 100% N7500
6 Phil Schroder 100% E6500
19 Conrad Loten 100% E6500 N7500
23 Andy Schmidt 100% E6500 W4500
9 Nick Purcell 100% N7500
36 Joel Mckay 100% E6500 N7500 W4500 8500
8 Warren Simonsen 100% E6500 N7500 W4500 W2500
38 John Blain 100% E6500 N7500 8500
26 Sam Prest 100% W4500
24 Derek Wagner 100% W4500
35 Glen Mcfarlane 100% W4500
7 Trevor Purcell 100% N7500

Overall:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 3779
2 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 3609
3 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 3308
4 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 3247
5 Jon Durand Snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 3187
6 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 3137
7 Bruce Wynne Moyes Litespeed 5 2940
8 Keiran Brown Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2839
9 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 2663
10 Regan Kowald Moyes Litespeed S 5 2660

Discuss "2009 Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2009 Canungra Classic »

October 7, 2009, 8:47:55 PDT

2009 Canungra Classic

A stopped task due to cu-nimbs

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2009|Conrad Loten|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Trent Brown

Task 4:

# Name Glider Dist. Total
1 Jon Durand snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 61,74 699
2 Adam Stevens Airborne Climax C4 13.5 58,12 671
3 Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed S 4 57,14 664
4 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 51,28 619
5 Andrew Carswell 45,56 580
6 Dave Stevens Moyes Litespeed RS 4 41,92 552
7 Bruce Wynne Moyes Litespeed 5 40,97 545
8 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 39,99 536
9 Sam Prest Airborne Climax C4 13.5 39,46 530
10 Tim Hannah Airborne Climax C4 14 39,40 529

Total:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jon Durand jnr Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 3330
2 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 3205
3 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 3137
4 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 2719
5 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 2429
6 Adam Stevens Airborne Climax C4 13.5 2375
7 Tony Giammichele Moyes Litespeed S 4 2369
8 Jon Durand snr Moyes Litespeed S 5 2342
9 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 13.5 2317
10 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 2272

2009 Canungra Classic »

Tue, Oct 6 2009, 8:13:55 am PDT

Jonny goes early by himself

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Canungra Classic 2009|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Phil Schroder|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tim Osborn|Trent Brown

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 02:00:22 1000
2 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 02:10:43 801
3 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 02:15:44 767
4 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 02:16:14 764
5 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 02:18:01 753
6 Phil Schroder Airborne Rev 13.5 02:19:47 743
7 Tim Osborn Aeros Combat L 14 02:20:42 738
8 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 02:20:54 736
9 Adam Stevens Airborne Climax C4 13.5 02:23:04 724
10 Neil Petersen Aeros Combat L13 02:38:02 677

Total:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jon Durand Jnr Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 2854
2 Rohan Holtkamp Airborne Rev 13.5 2601
3 Rick Duncan Airborne Rev 13.5 2586
4 Adam Parer Airborne Climax C4 2250
5 Richard Heffer Moyes Litespeed RS4 2129
6 Tony Giammichele Moyes Litespeed S 4 1998
7 Cameron Tunbridge Airborne Rev 13.5 1912
8 Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 1902
9 Trevor Purcell Moyes Litespeed 5 1890
10 Gabor Sipos Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 1833

Discuss "2009 Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Sprogs?

Tue, Jun 23 2009, 2:58:41 pm EDT

Sprogs?

Phoney prototypes

Andreas Olsson|Cameron Tunbridge|CIVL|Curt Warren|Dustin Martin|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Meier|Oleg Bondarchuk|Wills Wing T2C

As I reported earlier a number of us have refused to sign the CIVL Sporting Code Glider Certification Statement backed up by Mike Meier at Wills Wing. Instead we provided prototype letters from Wills Wing which essentially reasoned along that lines that all production gliders are prototypes because they have been at least slightly changed from the model that was tested at the HGMA.

We are all flying certified models of the Wills Wing T2C-144's. We are not flying prototypes as that word is used in normal conversation. Our refusal to sign the Glider Certification Statement has nothing to do with the certification of our gliders but rather with that fact that we are not in a position to make the declarations required in that statement.

The Sprogs spreadsheet that the meet organizers published states that Dustin and Nick are flying prototypes. They are not. They are flying certified T2C 144's. Also there is no 09 in the T2C 144 model designation.

Andreas Olsson is flying a one off T2 148, a glider that he helped develop. It is a prototype in the sense that it is not a production glider. But it is not going to be the precursor of a production glider either. It is a unique glider that he alone flies.

I still haven't learned why the values that Gerolf gave for the Moyes RS gliders are not being used. I don't believe that Curt Warren is flying a prototype.

It is unclear why different (and much lower) certified values are given for Oleg's Aeros Combat L 13 09 with tail, than for Maxim's. This seems to be a simple error.

I don't believe that Manfred is going to fly the prototype from Icaro. Cameron Tunbridge is not flying the Rev from Airborne, but his C4.

It's not clear if the values have been updated for the latest values after pilots made the changes to get into compliance.

I wonder how they came up with the measured accuracy of 0.2?

These are just some of the errors that I see. I haven't corrected many or any where near all of them. You'll find a new spread sheet with a few fixes here.

The 2009 Hang Gliding Worlds, the anticipation

June 18, 2009, 2:19:34 pm EDT

The Worlds

Another great practice day

Cameron Tunbridge|Dennis Pagen|Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Manfred Ruhmer|Steve Blenkinsop|video|weather|Worlds 2009

    Weather:
  • The wind at the top launch.
  • The satellites.
  • The local weather service forecast here.

Also I am using XCSkies for the soaring forecast. You can sign up for a month for very little.

I spoke with Heather this morning and she said that the flying weather in Europe has been poor this spring. She and Mart have had only a few flights this season so far here in Laragne. It seems that this week is the best so far. We've had outstanding conditions and Steve Blenkinsop has flown every day for a week here.

Manfred Ruhmer is coming to fly for the Austrians, now that Michi Fiechenbichler is out with a dislocated shoulder. The Jeff's have arrived with Zippy, so the whole US team is here. Dustin got back from traveling around on the trains last night.

The Australian team (well, Steve, Scott and Cameron) are in the cabin next to ours, and we are having them, Conrad (and family), and the Dutch team over for dinner each night (or they are having us over). Along with Katharina and her mother.

Dennis Pagen is in the cabin across the gravel path from ours and with help from Thomas Pellicci continues to measure sprogs. He is finding that pilots have their sprogs set at the certified heights unlike what he found at the Europeans last year. We'll see if that holds up when he measures the Brazilians.

We went to Apres to launch today given the forecast for west southwest winds at 7 knots at 4,000'. Although it turned out it was fine to launch from Chabre we had a great time launching at Apres, with its steep launches, grass covered and into the wind.

I was the first one off on the west side (into the wind) but pilots who had arrived an hour earlier had launched just before me. The lift was broken and weak right at launch level, but as soon as I got a little over it turned on up to 1,000'. I had to just barely escape cloud suck at 8,500' (4,000' over launch).

There was a cu-nimb to our north in the Rhone Valley, but nothing too threatening near us. After escaping the cloud suck I headed for our first turnpoint at the mountain just before . Other pilots earlier (and later) headed north into the high mountain and got to 10,000' free of the clouds.

There was good lift and plenty of it getting to Gap and I worked the mountain at the turnpoint before Gap to get to cloudbase at now 7,400' down a thousand feet below cloud base at launch. Conrad who flew after me reported cloud base at 10,000' over (behind launch). Then he saw that the cloud base out near Gap was 3,000' below him. He pulled hard and was able to make it down.

Seeing the low cloud base the the towering cu's beginning to develop right at Gap, I decided to head south 32 km to the Camping LZ. Curt came after me but landed near Gap. I left Warren out there some where also.

There was a developing towering cu between Gap and and despite the shaded ground it produced enough lift to keep going and make it back.

Conrad, after getting up in the gust front, had to run from the rain and then slowly come back to the Camping LZ through the higher mountains south east of Gap. Others had to avoid the rain as more and more OD developed around (but not in) Laragne. Steve Blenkinsop and Cameron Tunbridge were down coming back from Gap. Scott is in the car bringing back Attila.

Many of the US team pilots flew from , up to Apres then back through a bit of rain.

Lots more sprog measurements tonight. Dustin got his measured and they were right around the T2C 144 certified values, 7 degrees outer and 5 degrees inner, not low at all. This is a clarification to all those who dismissed Dustin's video that showed the trailing edge rising and the sprogs not engaged.

In fact, they were not engaged at the slowest speed (full VG) or VG off or actually at any time during the video (and of course not at the highest speed as the trailing edge rises). The sprogs are not affecting the handling because they are not engaged at the certified setting. (The stock setting is 2 turns higher.)

So there is no need to lower your sprogs below the certified setting (at least for a T2C).

The Airborne Rev

June 17, 2009, 2:36:49 pm EDT

The Airborne Rev

Revolution or revision?

Cameron Tunbridge|CIVL|Scott Barrett

Scott Barrett, the designer, and Cameron Tunbridge are flying actual prototype hang gliders here at the Worlds (not those gliders that get defined be omission by CIVL as prototypes). There are three prototype Airborne Rev's and two of them are here.

I'm obligated through journalistic ethics to not reveal too much about the Rev. It is a prototype and not a production glider, but the hope is that it will be ready for sale to pilots who want to fly it at the Canungra Classic in October. This is now the down season for Australian pilots not in the northern hemisphere and the Classic opens the Australian competition season, early because it is in the tropics of Queensland.

I can say that the Rev is not a C5, but an almost completely new glider from Airborne. There are many new features some that have been recognized before as good ideas, but not implemented or not implemented successfully in the production glider, or implemented and then forgotten.

It has a new planform, and a new sail cut, and takes very seriously (as Wills Wing does) the issue of leaks into the sail, which cause additional parasitic drag.  It has a new approach to curved tip wands, composite battens, and shear ribs. It appears to me that if Airborne (and Scott Barrett) are willing to talk in depth about their glider when it is released that they will have a very interesting story to tell.

Here is a non aerodynamic related older idea that has been realized before but not made widely available on production hang gliders:

The kickstand (stinger) is actually attached to the keel when holding up the keel. This is a vastly sturdier connection than you'll find on other gliders with kick stands (Moyes, Wills Wings, Airborne C4). I really hate it when my glider falls over when the base bar moves a little when it's up on the kickstand. This little fix solves that problem.

This view gives you the opportunity to see a couple of other features that have been implemented in the Rev.

I hope to be able to reveal more about the Rev in the future, perhaps before it is finally released. Scott is testing and tuning it now, and it won't be released unless it is an improvement over the C4 and compares well (or better) to other gliders flying in the Worlds.

Scott apparently had implemented at least one of its major features last year on the C4 that he flew at the pre-Worlds, where he won the pre-Worlds.

I hope to be able to fly the Rev (13.5) in Australia in January and give a full report then.

Zac will get a chance to score for the team

May 21, 2009, 8:29:56 EDT

Zac will get a chance to score for the team

Five pilots get to be included in the team score for the Worlds

Bruce Kavanagh|Cameron Tunbridge|Zac Majors

We have been informed by the organizers of the 2009 Worlds that now that all the teams have been offered a fifth position, the fifth team pilot (in the case of the US National Team, case Zac Majors) can count as being scored for the team (the best three performances/pilots on each task are counted).

That means Bruce Kavanagh can score for the British team and Cameron Tunbridge for the Australian team.

Dalby Big Air - Curt Warren wins

Sat, Mar 14 2009, 9:49:06 pm EDT

Jonny Durand, Jr., second

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Dalby Big Air 2009|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Steve Blenkinsop|Trent Brown

Total results.

# Pilot Glider Total
1. Curt Warren Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 3201.62
2. Jonny Durand Moyes Litesport 4 2883.97
3. Steve Blenkinsop Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2843.65
4. Adam Parer Airborne C4 13.5 2520.18
5. Cameron Tunbridge Airborne C4 13.5 2398.50
6. Conrad Loten Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2381.66
7. Olli Barthelmes Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 2281.76
8. Trent Brown Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 2208.32
9. Dave May Airborne C4 14 2000.15

They got four tasks in spite of the cyclone (hurricane). Curt won the last day by a large margin.

Big Flights in Dalby

March 9, 2009, 9:39:05 EDT

Big Flights in Dalby

338 km (but not 346 km)

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|weather

Cameron Tunbridge has reported flying 338 km, for the second longest task called and made in a hang gliding competition (longest in Australia). The longest was last August in Big Spring at 215 miles (346 km) and Cameron's task was 338 km (210 miles). Fourteen pilots made it to goal. Curt Warren is first, Conrad Loten is second, Adam Parer third, Cameron fourth, and Jonny thirteenth. The wind was 20 mph. Speed over the ground greater than 40 mph.

On Monday the weather wasn't so good.

Results here: http://soaringspot.com/dba2009/

Discuss Big Flights in Dalby at the Oz Report forum   link»

Forbes, day nine, task six »

January 11, 2009, 10:47:08 pm AEDT

Forbes, day nine, task six

We fly until the cu-nimbs become a bit too much.

Attila Bertok|Blue Sky|Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Robert Reisinger|sailplane|Scott Barrett|Steve Blenkinsop

The results.

The flight and task.

Similar forecast to the day before. We are looking for OD later in the day, with isolated thunderstorms. The day starts with a blue sky and it stays that way until a few clouds appear near noon. Very dangerous as it is an inviting sky with the prognosis for dangerous conditions later.

We called a 142 km task south southeast to Attila's goal, a field just short of the goal on the last day of last year where Attila landed short. We were not to optimistic that we would be flying later in the day, but as soon as we got to the field we set up in the beautiful conditions with the steady north  wind.

We had an hour and fifteen minutes launch window before the first start time. We had moved the start time earlier in order to be able to get as big a task window as we could given the prognosis for OD later. With the 12 to 14 knot north wind we should be able to get to goal in a little over two hours.

Pilots were ready to go at noon and with the sky beginning to fill up pilots were able to climb up to cloud base at a little over 6,000' MSL. There were soon cu's every where and pilots had to be sure to stay clear of the cu's and run away from them as they got close. There was plenty of lift.

Ten minutes before the start window opened at 1:15 PM I moved to the southeast of Forbes, found strong lift and got to cloud base with Blay and Jonny. It turned out to be perfectly timed and I headed off with Jonny under the dark clouds toward the course line. Blay heads further east and was going down quickly, so the clouds looked like the ticket.

I stopped for 300+ fpm as Jonny moved on. He must have found something better, as the next time I saw him he was a few hundred feet over my head. We all went on glide and it was 16 km for me before at 1,400' AGL I found a weak thermal and was on my own.

I had to pay some dues in this weak bunny and get myself back in the game. The drift was good, down the course line, so I hung in there until I could make the next clouds and not risk landing in the forest that was coming up.

The clouds were working and there were some fellow pilots around so I wasn't all along after all. I climb to almost 7,000' with Steve Blenkinsop and then we went on glide for the next 20 km getting down to 500' AGL. Jon Snr was on my right and I saw him make a little slow non climbing turn as Steve headed east. I turned back toward Jon and we worked the weak lift together. I found the better core and Jon came back to me and we climbed out of there.

As we twirl up we look back and see the area that we just flew from. It was black then, now it is dumping hard. This is the first cu-nimb that we see, but soon there is another between us and the goal. It's not looking good.

Cu-nimbs make me nervous and I leave the lift running to get away from the bad area behind us and hoping to find a path around the rain in front. The cu-nimb it shooting out high clouds over us and the sunlight is disappearing from the ground below. But the lift is still there.

I'm beginning to think that the day needs to be stopped if there are pilots behind near the cu-nimb. I race ahead to get away from the front in front of the cu-nimb as the lift continues and I stay at about 5,000' no matter how fast I fly. Finally I hear that the task is stopped (and the stop time will be set back ten minutes).

I keep racing to find sink and not until I see Lenny on the ground at a small sailplane port do I find any sink. The landing conditions are very mellow and it is only after we get everything broken down and in the bag that the rain comes. We hide under the sailplane trailers.

Task Six:
 

# Name Nat Glider Dist. Total
1 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 113.6 900
2 Robert Reisinger AUT Moyes Litespeed RS 4 109.6 879
3 Jon Durand Jnr AUS Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 108.9 875
4 Cameron Tunbridge AUS Airborne C4 14 106.6 857
5 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 103.8 835
6 Blay Olmos ESP Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 103.7 834
7 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes Litespeed RS 4 102.6 823
8 Scott Barrett AUS Airborne C4 102.0 817
9 Maxim Usachev RUS Aeros Combat L 101.7 815
9 Pedro Luis Garicia Morelli ESP Aeros Combat L 13.7 101.8 815
9 Curt Warren AUS Moyes Litespeed RS 4 101.8 815

Totals:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Blay Olmos ESP Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 5330
2 Jon Durand Jnr AUS Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 5327
3 Attila Bertok HUN Moyes Litespeed S 5 4901
4 Michael Friesenbichler AUT Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 4671
5 Gerolf Heinrichs AUT Moyes Litespeed RS 4 4634
6 Chris Jones AUS Moyes Litespeed S 4 4536
7 Lukas Bader DEU Moyes Litespeed RS 4 4496
8 Pedro Luis Garicia Morelli ESP Aeros Combat L 13.7 4288
9 Maxim Usachev RUS Aeros Combat L 4177
10 Davis Straub USA Moyes Litesport 4 4091

Discuss Forbes, day nine, task six at the Oz Report forum   link»

Results from the first day

The top ten on day one.

Sun, Jan 4 2009, 9:21:10 pm AEDT

Aeros Combat L|Airborne C4|Attila Bertok|Blay Olmos|Cameron Tunbridge|Davis Straub|Forbes Flatlands 2009|Gerolf Heinrichs|Lukas Bader|Maxim Usachev|Michael Friesenbichler|Moyes Litespeed RS 4|Moyes Litespeed S|Moyes Litesport|Pedro Jesus Garcia Aviles|Robert Reisinger

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Attila Bertok Hun Moyes Litespeed S 5 03:34:40 997
2 Robert Reisinger Aut Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 03:34:56 988
3 Michael Friesenbichler Aut Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 03:44:31 877
4 Blay Olmos Esp Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 03:51:37 873
5 Gerolf Heinrichs Aut Moyes Litespeed Rs 4 03:46:35 859
6 Lukas Bader Deu Moyes Litespeed RS4 04:02:17 747
7 Cameron Tunbridge Aus Airborne C4 14 04:10:23 734
8 Pedro Jesus Garcia Aviles Esp Aeros Combat L 13.7 04:19:36 681
9 Maxim Usachev Rus Aeros Combat L 04:21:34 671
10 Davis Straub Usa Moyes Litesport 04:21:37 670

Look who's coming to the Bogong Cup

October 20, 2008, 5:20:15 pm PDT

Look who's coming to the Bogong Cup

So far

Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Roberto Nichele|Robert Reisinger|Trent Brown

www.xcflight.com

The 21st Bogong Cup Hang Gliding Championship will once again be run from from 14-22 January 2009 with  the headquarters in Mt Beauty, NE Victoria.

  NAME Country
1 Cameron Tunbridge Aus
2 Neil Petersen Aus
3 Hadewych van Kempen Hol
4 Warren Simonsen NZ
5 Davis Straub USA
6 Curt Warren Aus
7 Olav Olsen Nor
8 Tony Lowrey Aus
9 Trent Brown Aus
10 Oliver Barthelmes Deu
11 Federico Martini Ita
12 Radek Bares Che
13 Pablo  
14 Dorival Agulhon Jnr Bra
15 Roberto Nichele Che
16 Michael Friesenbichler Aut
17 Robert Reisinger Aut
18 Jon Durand Jnr Aus

Looks like we'll be flying with some of the best pilots in the World. I suspect a bunch more will be signing up, given the numbers going to Forbes from overseas.

Sign up here: http://www.xcflight.com/20.html

There is a limit on the number of pilots who can fly in the Bogong Cup, so sign up ASAP. It was a great meet last year (see the reports in the Oz Report starting here).

Hang gliding images »

March 31, 2008, 7:57:11 PDT

Images

In leaded glass

Cameron Tunbridge|PG|photo

Cameron Tunbridge «cameron.tunbridge» writes:

Authentic hand crafted glasswork and led light, all custom made from photos, own colors and scenic background. Hang gliders and paragliders. Feature mirrors and lighting. Contact «cameron.tunbridge»

Discuss Images at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dalby Big Air

March 19, 2008, 7:03:45 +1100

Dalby

The winners

Cameron Tunbridge|Nick Purcell

The results are here: http://www.soaringspot.com/2008dba/.

From right to left, Trevor Purcell, first, Cameron Tunbridge, second, Warren Simonsen, third. Thanks to Nick Purcell.

Discuss Dalby at the Oz Report forum   link»

Dalby Big Air - day 7

Sat, Mar 15 2008, 9:00:45 am MDT

Dalby day 7

The meet's final day

Cameron Tunbridge|Dalby Big Air 2008|Phil Schroder

The results are here: http://www.soaringspot.com/2008dba/.

We had a nice feed the other night at the Dalby Commercial Hotel, one of our sponsors. Out in the beer garden I set up and took downloads when the pilots came in for their repast. It's great to have the town behind us and behind other sportive events.

The cu's were thick and friendly early in the morning with the winds again (as they have been every day) out of the east (as easterly as yesterday) and even stronger (18-20 knots). So there is only one way to go, but it will be hard to stay on the main highway with goes northwest. There are forests to the west and to get around them you need to go a little north first.

Around noon the cu's filled into the east and there was a cell off to the north east. With the strong wind we postponed launch until the cell passed, the scud went away and the cu's started popping again near us. The task was changed given the later hour and it was once again a straight 77 km shot to Chinchilla to the northwest. Unfortunately for me the wind was out of the east north east (70 degrees), so it looked like I would not have the pleasant time I had a few days earlier when the wind was almost straight down the highway.

None the less I launched first and found some lift after about five minutes of searching around under the cu's. There were two Litespeed pilots just a few feet below me and I used them to help me center the lift and see the stronger bits. Soon I was high above them as they did some less fruitful searching while I stayed in the core, such as it was at 160 fpm.

I climbed to 2,900' AGL as I drifted at almost 90 degrees to the course line. There were plenty of cu's a popping, but the best clouds were even further away from the course. I saw some ragged looking but reasonable cu's back by the course line and headed under them to try to stay on track.

Argh! They didn't work and I had to scrape it off the deck at 500' AGL out in the blue and just go where the lift took me, again way off the course line.

The lift was reasonable at 250 fpm to 3,400' AGL, but now I was west of the next highway. Dave Seib and Cameron Tunbridge were with me as we eked out the last little bit of lift near the top of the thermal less than 10 km from the start point. Dave went on glide and I followed, but of course he got further and further ahead of me. I couldn't get to the little bits of lift that he showed me, and he actually got down to 500' on that glide back to the highway.

I had to stop and find lift in cu's that he bypassed. With the wind going the wrong direction and not getting high I was not doing well.

I continued working light lift and drifting away from the course line until I got to the point where I was about to go into the forest to the west of Dalby. Not that high, my last lunge to the north not working out I found a nice paddock for a safe landing 26 km out

Looking up a saw Phil Schroder not too high. It didn't look good for him either as he was now also blocked by the forest. He landed soon after me.

Cameron got below Dave and I when he went out a bit to search out for the next lift. He came back in under us and then didn't find much. He worked his way back toward the course line but soon landed behind me.

Cameron was ahead by over 650 points on this last day, but now he had landed way short of goal. Trevor Purcell who was in second place, started the task on the fourth start gate (3 PM). He flew down the course line going on long glides, never getting low, finding strong lift and getting high. He made goal in an hour and ten minutes and won the day, thereby winning the meet on the last day.

Discuss "Dalby Big Air - day 7" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Dalby Big Air - day 5

Thu, Mar 13 2008, 6:53:05 am MDT

Dalby day 5

No cu's so a short downwind task

Cameron Tunbridge|Dalby Big Air 2008|Nick Purcell

The results are here: http://www.soaringspot.com/2008dba/.

No cu's all day and reports from the tug pilots of low inversions kept us waiting on the ground until about one thirty. Finally, Kieran launched, as did Rod Flockhart and I was right behind them in Raef's Airborne Fun 190 with the big wheels.

I found a thermal right away, but it only took me to 2,600' AGL before I lost it. Dave Seib and Rod who were just above me went back up wind to find lift, but I couldn't make it that far and landed back at launch. It took a while to get going again. Cameron Tunbridge was going slow also and had three launches, which put him back there a ways in the scoring today.

The second time up I figured I had to go downwind no matter what so I hung with less than 100 fpm leaving the start circle at 2,500' AGL. Things did not look great ahead as there was no where in particular to go.

Losing the lift at 2,800' AGL, I headed back toward the highway and dark fields. Who knew where good lift was?

Down to 1,100' AGL, I felt the lift and climbed out at the amazing rate of 200 fpm back to 2,700' AGL. What is the deal with the lift stopping so low?

Back toward the black fields near the highway again, and I found lift at 900' right smack dab over the highway. Why there is unclear. Maybe the bare fields nearby.

I hung around in this one and gained 1,800' in 17 minutes, drifting down wind. Now I was over the river too far to get back to the highway and no dark fields cross wind toward the highway, so I headed for the cultivated fields downwind. There are so many fewer choices when you don't get up high.

No luck. I came in over Nick Purcell at 100' and landed in the field next to him.

Dave Seib had scooted to goal getting there first by four minutes. Trevor Purcell came in second to gain almost four hundred points on Cameron.

Discuss "Dalby Big Air - day 5" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The New South Wales State Titles - the final results

March 2, 2008, 10:45:30 +1100

NSWST - results

Jonny wins again, Camo second, Scott third when he lands short of goal

Cameron Tunbridge|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2008|photo|Scott Barrett

The results are up at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

Champions (HG Flexible wing)

1Jonny Durand3554Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5
2Cameron Tunbridge2859Airborne C4 14
3Scott BarrettAustralia2847Airborne C4-13.5

The last day turned out to be a good day with eight pilots making goal. Jonny was well in the lead overall so he took his time taking photos in the air. Scott, Cameron and Big Jon and Jonny flew together for the most part. Scott missed good lift 20 km from goal that Jonny and Cameron stopped for, for just two minutes. That was enough to put them 1,500' higher. They made goal easily while Scott landed 700 meters short of the 400 meter radius cylinder.

The New South Wales State Titles - day four, task three

Tue, Feb 26 2008, 4:33:52 am MST

Day four, Task three

We are forced back to the north launch

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|dust devil|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|New South Wales State Titles 2008|Scott Barrett|weather

https://OzReport.com/ozweather.php

The results are up at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

With a bank of high clouds over us and extending to the north and east and a light to moderate (not good) north east wind, we can't launch from the favored west launch and are finally forced to go back to the northeast launch. A number of pilots will refuse to launch from there and stay on the west launch hoping against hope.

When we drove up the hill we went first to the north launch, and found ourselves alone. There was a brisk wind from the left about 90 degrees to the launch, but every once in a while a thermal would come through and straighten up the flags around launch.

We trundle over to the west launch as that is where everyone else is hoping that the day will be like the day before, where it came up on the west side in the afternoon. The strong winds and the clouds will keep the west side from heating up and make this definitely unlikely.

Given the iffy conditions (actually the northeast launch looks better than the day before as there is a good amount of wind there), the pilots opt for nine start gates, so pilots who start later won't get double penalties (they'll already be out of the battle for arrival points). This is passed overwhelmingly with Jonny and Dave Seib complaining about it.

I quickly go back down to the northeast launch and get my glider out, but I'm not fast enough. Maybe I'm holding back a bit based on the day before. Jonny, Conrad, Scott, Cameron, and Dave all get off the hill before I can get to launch. The valley is dark below, there are thick high cloud above, they will ridge soar for the next fifteen to twenty minutes at 200' over launch while the winds at launch blow from the left.

Finally the sun comes out, the thermals start coming up the launch and I launch easily after Bruce Wynn. There are nice thermals and I climb out slowly watching Jonny, Scott, etc. a few thousand feet over me and down wind, but still in the start circle. They had the advantage of that extra bit of thermals when the sun first came out before we could launch.

Jon Durand Sr launches and I come back over him as he looks like he is climbing well. There are maybe ten guys flying just above the launch now but they are not getting up as Jon and I drift south over the range not getting particularly high. The shade comes back again and it is all dark on the eastern side of Mt. Borah. There are cu's and sunlight to the south along our course line.

The guys in front of us and much higher take the second start time, and we are trying for the third (well, at least I am). But the shade on the ridge and the lack of lift means I have to run for the sunlight to the south, starting ten minutes after the second start gate, and we are much lower at 3,300' (2000' AGL) than the first group. The wind is 12 to 15 mph out of the north.

In spite of the good looking clouds and lots of sunlight on the ground, the lift is weak, broken up and rough at approximately 200 fpm. I don't stay in any "thermal" very long only getting to 4,500' before trying the next good looking cloud.

I have chosen a cloud street to the left of the course line for the best chance to find lift but at the rate we are going downwind we will miss the turnpoint. I have to find a strong thermal and fast. It looks like there is one ahead and I race for it leaving Jon in 250 fpm.

It turns out to be 450 fpm and I take it to 6,700' leaving Jon behind. The top of this thermal is north east of the turnpoint at the towers south west of Lake Keepit. I pull out of the thermal early to stay well below the cloud that I'm about to race under, pull in the bar and race to the tower turnpoint. It is raining a few kilometers past the towers and it looks like this will kill the chances for the next guys if they get this far.

There are really thick black cu's south east of the turnpoint over some hills basically along the same line that I chose on the first leg. I head back to the hills and find strong lift where I expected to. This gets me up to 6,900' and lets me go on glide fast. I go at 90 km/h over the ground under the clouds watching a dust devil move south twelve kilometers ahead of me right on my direct line to goal. I will get to that dust devil and climb again.

Off to my right to the west about twenty kilometers is a cu-nimb with a wall of rain about twenty kilometers long going north south. It doesn't look particularly threatening, but I do need to head somewhat toward it to get to goal. It has cleared away an area to its east of cu's so I stay further east. The ground to my west is shaded, but I'm over sunny hot fields with some good looking cu's ahead.

The winds now out of the northwest at about 14 mph. At eighteen kilometers out I find 500 fpm at 2,500' AGL. I watch the L/D required to get to goal and the Altitude above Goal fields as I climb out. At 4,700' AGL I should have goal by 1,000'. There is shade most of the way to goal.

It looks mellow down there, as I can see the dust coming from a tractor in a field and it is moving from the northwest but at a reasonable rate and steady. I can see rain between me and the goal, but it doesn't look like heavy rain, at least yet. There is plenty of heavy rain a couple of kilometers west of the goal though and also northwest.

I do best glide into goal with little bits of lift and reasonable sink over the shaded area. The rain isn't too bad as I fly into it about five kilometers from goal and it stays with me to goal. I arrive with 200' to spare at the edge of the 400 meter cylinder. I don't see anyone else at goal, but they are in a different field and I'm too low to see them. Only six pilots make goal.

Jon Durand Sr decides not to fly into the rain and deliberately lands six kilometers short of goal. Conrad flies away from goal after getting the cylinder to get away from the rain as much as possible. It does pour down a bit for about five minutes after I land. The winds are light.

1. JONNY Durand 01:23:06 413
2. SCOTT Barrett 01:26:18 396
3. DAVE Seib 01:35:49 366
4. DAVIS Straub 01:43:02 349
5. CAMERON Tunbridge 01:51:03 343
6. CONRAD Loten 01:51:21 342

Jonny and Scott took a similar course to mine after the turnpoint, but they and Dave Seib went a lot closer to Lake Keepit than I was willing to go on the first leg. They started a couple of thousand feet higher and ten minutes before Jon Sr and I.

Discuss "The New South Wales State Titles - day four, task three" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The New South Wales State Titles - day three, task two

Mon, Feb 25 2008, 5:16:44 am MST

Day three, Task two

Oz Report editor piles in on launch, relaunches later

Cameron Tunbridge|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Kari Castle|New South Wales State Titles 2008|PG|Scott Barrett|weather

https://OzReport.com/ozweather.php

The results are up at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

The forecast was for south east winds going northeast, light with cirrus and then cumulus clouds, perhaps a shower.

When we get up to the hill at 11 AM, the only wind is coming up the northeast launch, and then it is mostly from the north, almost 90 degrees to launch, right down the ridge line. Not too many people are happy to have to be on this launch. We'd all rather be on the west side, but it is blowing over the back there.

The general situation is that it should turn later to the west side as the sun goes over to that side, but that will be after 2 PM or so. The task committee (including yours truly) make a big error in not calling the day later, and getting everyone to go over to the west side to the safer launch. As soon as we call the task for a 2 PM to 2:45 start window, almost every one sets up, anticipating that they will have to launch on this side to make the start gate.

We wait around, which is not good, as it can only get worse. Then one novice competition pilot launches and sinks out. Then Jonny and Dave Seib launch and sink out. Jonny says this is the first time he has ever sunk out at Mt. Borah. Dave does in a downtube on landing and has to go back to Manilla to get another one.

The launches are harry with long runs and often the wind is sideways. A few more get off after they see a paraglider getting up way out away from the hill over in the valley. Scott Barrett, Cameron Tunbridge, Jon Durand, Sr., and Len Paton all get off the hill. They are able to get up and get pretty high as a few other pilots launch and land in the bomb out.

Finally I slip back into line after declining to launch after Jonny goes down. I take off in dodgy conditions with nothing coming in. After a run that was perhaps a bit too short I take off and start flying, but not fast enough. I am heading for the hill side below. Just before I crash into it I push out hard and slow down enough to keep from killing myself.

This ends launching on this side. No one wants to launch here any more. Everyone packs up and moves to the west.

I patch up and clean out the cuts on my shins and knees, pull the broken and bent down tubes off the glider and join my fellow competitors on the west side. The last launch time is coming up soon. I pop the new down tubes on, and with help from Kari Castle get ready to launch, after the last start time. The wind is coming up the west side nicely, but there are launch potatoes spread out all along the launchable area. I find a slot and take off in good conditions.

I'm off seventeen minutes after the last start window (3:02 PM). No time to spend any time in the start circle getting high without having it count against you. The guys who got up on the east side have started the task an hour previously.

Jonny got back up and launched from the west side, just before the second start time at 2:14 PM. Dave Seib launched at 2:41 PM. Four minutes before the last start time.

Jonny got the last start time six minutes late, spending 41 minutes in the start circle. Dave Seib spent 32 minutes in the start circle and headed out on course 29 minutes after the last start time. I spent 16 minutes in the start circle and headed out 32 minutes behind. Neither Dave nor I started high. I was the lowest.

Jonny went straight down the course line, over Lake Keepit, getting high before he got to the lake, low at the first turnpoint at the towers, down to 2,400' AGL, then super high, over 8,500' and staying high until just past the last turnpoint where he went on glide from 7,500' AGL going at over 110 km/h as he arrived uncharacteristically high at 1,400' AGL. His actual time on the course was 1:25:40.

Dave Seib flew the course in 1:37:07. The winners for the day (who started at the first start time) flew the task in 1:40. Dave flews fast low and did not get high until past the first turnpoint.

Cameron Tunbridge won the day, with Bruce Wynn right behind him, followed by Jonny, Scott Barrett, and Jon Durand.

I flew the course in 1:28:34 consistently finding good lift and staying between 4,500' and 7,500'. Like Jonny I went on glide just past the last turnpoint, but I had to climb in a good thermal there, while he was already high by the time he got to the turnpoint and could just go on glide. I glided in at no more than 90 km/h. Jonny's is the fastest flight of the day and mine is second to him.

Twenty five pilots made goal out of sixty two that are here. This is very high attendance.

Discuss "The New South Wales State Titles - day three, task two" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The New South Wales State Titles - day two, task one

Sun, Feb 24 2008, 4:26:32 am MST

Day two, Task one

Cirrus makes for weak lift…

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2008|PG|Scott Barrett|Trent Brown|weather

https://OzReport.com/ozweather.php

The results are up at the soaring spot: http://www.soaringspot.com/nswst2008/

1.Jonny DurandMoyes Litespeed Rs 3.553.7186
2.Davis StraubAirborne C4 - 13.540.1161
3.Dave SeibMoyes Litespeed Rs 435.1151
4.Scott BarrettAirborne C4 - 13.535.1151
5.Conrad LotenMoyes Litespeed S34.3149
6.Sam PrestAirborne C4 - 13.531.5140
7.Adam StevensAirborne C2 - 13L17.3114
8.Trent BrownAirborne C4 - 13.513.9107
9.Cameron TunbridgeAirborne C4 - 1413.8106
10.Jon DurandMoyes Litespeed S 513.4105

The cirrus clouds were already there in the morning and the satellite showed a wide of band cirrus east/west half way across Australia. It looked like these clouds would be with us for the day at least. That would cut down on the solar radiation and it seemed to me that the forecasted lift from the RASP forecast would be too high. A weak day, with no cumulus clouds, light to moderate winds out of the southwest, lots of periods of shading. Might not even get a flight in.

The conditions stay the same, except that the light winds on launch out of the west, improve a bit by the 12:30 PM pilot briefing, so at least we might be able to ridge soar a bit. We on the task committee call a 66 km task out 44 km 22 km past Barraba, and back to Barraba air field. We don't think that we will get over 4,000'. Launch is 2,800' and the Barraba air field is 1,670'.

There are lots of paragliders around and after the launch window opens four of them are slowly getting up. This is enough to get me going and I take off third, an hour before the last start window. I don't know why everyone is waiting around, other than the fact that this is the first task, and pilots usually are slow to get going on the first day. I find ridge lift and thermals and climb to 5,300' right away.

I like getting off a bit early and getting high so that I can have a commanding view of the competition. I can check out Scott, Jonny and Dave Seib to see how they are doing after they launch. I was able to stay up above everyone as I got so high quickly and even during the down cycles I can maintain my position.

With everyone starting so slowly, we take the last start gate at 2:45 PM at 4,300'. I'm with Dave Seib and Jonny Durand Jr. Scott Barrett is just below us. Pilots are already landing in the bomb out zone. A half dozen pilots that left earlier after they launched right after me, have already landed just outside the minimum distance circle at 5 km. I had earlier decided not to leave with them as none of the top pilots were in that group and they weren't getting up.

With Jonny in the lead, and Dave and I spread out we glide down the ridge. Just past its end and coming to a little plateau north of it I find the lift. Dave joins me and Jonny has to come back underneath us. It is weak and we are only able to climb back up to 3,800'. The four of us are now flying together. Everyone else around us is either landing or about to.

We work a little bit of lift a bit north and then we go on glide into the forest getting down to 2,200', 700' AGL. Jonny has found a strong thermal and Scott is in it with him. Dave and I come in low and find even better lift below them. We scream up at 600 fpm and soon go up through them to 5,000'. It is alternately sunny and shady on the ground below us. The only clouds are cirrus clouds.

We go on a long glide. Jonny is out in front again. Scott is off to the right. I go left feeling something up wind which turns into nothing. I see Jonny hook one and Dave and Scott join him. I come in under them, but just off the deck. I go out over the trees to get under them but I don't find it. I'm at 500' AGL and start working really light lift over trees, but with a bail out upwind.

I work low for the next half hour, in lift that averages 30 fpm. Finally I get to 1,800' AGL and head for another area of likely lift. I find 300+ fpm to almost 5,000' just south east of Barraba. Meanwhile Scott, Jonny and Dave have moved ahead but Scott and Dave don't find much lift near or past Barraba and don't get up. Jonny works weak lift just past Barraba and gets up enough to keep going.

I find good lift past Baraaba, and get back to 4,600' but there is nothing after that as the road rises up high going north and I find a friendly field to land in as the ground up a head quickly gets higher than me.

Jonny is able to get the turnpoint 8 km past where I land. When he turns around the wind is too strong to make much headway.

Almost two thirds of the field didn't get out of the start circle, which is set as the minimum distance. Indeed it was a day of weak lift, but it could be found.

Discuss "The New South Wales State Titles - day two, task one" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2007 Gulgong Classic - a review »

Wed, Nov 28 2007, 2:19:20 pm MST

Gulgong

Low cloud base and interesting conditions

Cameron Tunbridge|Curt Warren|Flytec 6030|Gulgong Classic 2007|Jason Reid|photo|Scott Barrett|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|Trent Brown|video|William "Billo" Olive

The latest scores will be up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

First, the pilot's IGC files can be found at the URL above. You just open up a day file and click on the pilot's number to download their IGC file/ track log for that day. If you have SeeYou installed and have it associated with IGC files, you can automatically open the file in SeeYou and animate it, for example. Or you can open multiple SeeYou files and fly pilots against each other in 3D.

The Soaring Spot is a great addition to SeeYou which was used for competition scoring at Gulgong. It has been improving daily as the folks at SeeYou add to it.

The 2007 Gulgong Classic was a technical and interesting competition. By technical, I mean that you just didn't climb in the strong thermals every day, pull in when the thermal slackened and fly as fast as possible until you ran into the next strong thermal. With days with low cloud bases and often weak scattered lift you had to search, search, search for lift.

Now that the pain of my relatively poor performance has begun to abate somewhat I can go back and look at the week of flying with perhaps a calmer perspective.

The first day started off with good conditions and a 7000' AGL cloud base and light winds. Little did we know how good that day would be compared to some of the following days. Getting "down" to 1,700' AGL on the first glide out from the start circle was avoidable if I had just been willing to take earlier on the glide lighter lift than I had been experiencing in the start circle. The cu's ahead were just too inviting.

With all the good lift after that I wasn't patient enough and smart enough to get high enough on the way back, especially when it came to taking good lift in the hilly region before heading out to the flats, and landed short of goal when almost every one else made it.

I wasn't quite prepared for this first day of racing even with a practice day (which I didn't take full advantage of). Just getting in the air and feeling the glider was a thrill and it was so much fun to fly. I hadn't really learned how to glide with it yet. That took a day or two. Thermaling was almost automatic.

Without the stick on reading lens I couldn't read the arrow on the 6030, so I was at a bit of a loss as to where to go to. I got confused by the 25 km turnpoint cylinder. I didn't slow down a bit and keep climbing in the last thermal. I was losing my focus there. All and all a very fun day and not too bad emotionally when I landed out.

The second day was a strong racing day into a headwind out and tail wind back to goal at the airstrip. There were plenty of cu's, still I got low a couple of times and had to carefully assess the situation to find the best lift. Cloud base was 7,500' AGL. Long fast glides were possible.

On this day I did relatively well, but could have done much better. I was second around the second turnpoint. I just didn't find the good thermals on the way back while others did. I need to improve my thermal sniffing abilities.

On the third day conditions get much weaker. I spent over an hour over the tow paddock just staying up while all but one of the other pilots landed or stayed on the ground. I had to get up from much lower altitudes (down to 500' AGL) on this day than on the previous two days. Still I was able to climb to 5000' AGL before a large shaded area.

Scott was able to get around this shaded area while I flew through it (and didn't find any lift). I was not willing to climb higher before the shaded given the 100% cloud coverage in that area and my desire to keep some distance between me and the clouds. I should have taken the lift 1000' higher, giving me a chance to find some lift just past the shaded area.

Also I should not have given up on the shaded area no matter how wide spread. Scott made his way though it to my right and I could have tried harder to take a different path and looked for lift.

Scott and Cameron did well on the first two days and now on the third day Scott has set the pace (what is possible for that day) by being the only pilot to make goal. A review of his track log shows him finding lift in the shaded area.

On the fourth day, a down winder to Rhylston, I find one thermal to 5,500' AGL but otherwise we stay below 4,000' AGL. We can go down wind fast, but have to keep our eyes out for thermals. Often the clouds aren't working.

Again Scott went fast but Curt went faster starting fifteen minutes later. I didn't climb as well as I should and went back for lift when I should have gone on toward goal. I also didn't find lift under a long line of clouds over the hills,. Afterwards Tish told me that she went further out into the valley at the edge of the clouds and got a much better glide.

It rained hard on the fifth day and this really damped down the conditions for day six. Cloud base was 4,000' AGL and you felt high when you got there. I had to survive after getting down to 350' AGL. Really focusing on that little thermal and staying in it was what saved me.

I made a mistake not getting high before the hills west of Wellington. It was no good just knowing I had enough altitude to get over them hills and hoping for lift over them. I needed to get a few thousand feet more in the flats before attempting the run.

There would be no lift on the lee side of the hills (at least for a few kilometers) because the strong ( 18 mph) winds would push them away from the hills, so it was futile to think that I could get lift low on the lee side. When I didn't get high enough on the upwind side, I needed to turn 90° to the course line and fly along the front of the hills (before the hills) to find lift to get at least three thousand over them.

On day seven I was the first pilot to get to cloud base at 4,000' AGL and I stayed there running just under the cloud street to the edge of the hills. After running off the end of the cloud street I just could not find good lift no matter how hard I looked. Cameron, right behind me, had no problem finding it under a developing cu, that I didn't see. He had me acting as a little sniffer dog out in front.

I was willing (as I always seem to be) to go out in front on my own especially when there are lots of clouds. I figured they are the thermal indicators. Unfortunately, not always the case.

I made many mistakes during this competition. I just wish I knew what many of them were. Just flying with Cameron on the last day instead of going out on my own on a weak day with light lift would have helped immensely.

Billo writes:

The Cudgegong Soarers club hosted the 2007 Airborne Gulgong Classic at their Stubbo airfield. We are lucky to have the use of this facility for this comp. This year we flew six days out of the seven, and while conditions were not epic, the tasks were testing. This year's winners were, Scott Barrett, Cameron Tunbridge and Trent Brown. Jason Reid won kingpost class.

Our tug drivers were Smokey, Matt Olive and Pete Marheine, and they were tireless workers towing up the field every day.

I will update the website with the scores and photos over the next day or two. http://www.gulgongclassic.com

The Gulgong video with the soon to be famous Curt Warren foot launch: http://www.williamolive.com/videos/gulgong-2007-trailer.wmv.

Discuss "2007 Gulgong Classic - a review" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2007 Gulgong Classic - Day 2 »

November 19, 2007, 10:18:34 pm GMT+1100

Gulgong

108 km out and return with a gust front at the end for the late guys

Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Don Cramer|Gulgong Classic 2007|Phil Schroder|Scott Barrett

The task committee called an out and return along the highways to the west given the predict of a northeast wind. The winds turned out to be out of the west. The idea was to get the guys with Stings and Sonics out on the course going downwind on the first leg, but it didn't turn out that way.

We started towing up at noon and the cu's were just beginning to form. I found a little thermal over the tow paddock, Scott Barrett joined me and we climbed up to 5,500' AGL. It looked like a good day, but it was clear that we would be heading into a head wind.

The sky quickly filled up and ten of us found ourselves at the edge of the start circle where we finally got some strong lift to 6,800' AGL just before the first start time at one o'clock. Scott and I had already decided to go at the first start clock and it looked like we would have a lot of company.

We headed out splitting the group up into two sets right away, one headed for a thick cu to the left of the course line and the other toward the wispy cu's along the course line. Not much was working that great so we pushed further up the course line into the wind to find better lift. Chris Jones was out leading the way with Scott behind. Cameron Tunbridge and I were further behind. There was no lead gaggle to speak of.

It was slow going given the wind and the difficulty finding strong thermals. Everyone was spread out and few pilots knew where the other pilots were so they had no gauge to tell them how well they were doing.

Down to 1,300' AGL 5 km from the first turnpoint, I found 700 fpm to 5,500' AGL and was joined by a friendly Wedgie and a couple of pilots. It was getting to be a better day. Out in front by the turnpoint Phil Schroder was about to land. I got to see him do so as I came over the turnpoint. Scott Barrett was struggling low just to the north of the turnpoint and Chris Jones was struggling a little bit to the west.

I flew passed the turnpoint and found 550 fpm to over 8,000' AGL. Scott was working his way up slowly, Chris was out in front with Cameron not far behind. Chris was out in front most of the time but we rarely saw him.

Chris got the second turnpoint first and I came in two minutes after him. It was a fifteen km glide after a strong thermal before the turnpoint, around it and back to the lift again. But we had plenty of altitude from the last thermal.

There were big areas of shade ahead. Also there was a cu-nimb off to the east in the mountains clearing out an area in front of any cu's that might help us get to goal. It looked like we could get home but the guys behind us might have a problem.

Just past the third turnpoint Chris was low and found a strong thermal. Cameron, Scott and I raced ahead not seeing Chris ahead of us, and low still. Cameron is the highest at 7,000' AGL. We all headed for the clouds just passed the turnpoint and the obvious lift.

I just missed it and had to search a bit. Cameron got it higher than Chris or Scott and soon headed for goal. He was way too high. Scott followed Chris but from above and was able to over take him going to goal as Chris had to stop for a bit of lift. I stayed in the thermal until I got high enough and then glided the 20 km into goal.

The gust front didn't hit until later and one pilot, Don Cramer, did come in and land at the airport as it hit.

Scores for both days are up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

Discuss Gulgong at the Oz Report forum     Digg This  Reddit  DelIcioUsdel.icio.us

2007 Gulgong Classic - Day 1 »

November 19, 2007, 6:52:21 GMT+1100

Gulgong

We start with a short task and lots of cu's

Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Gulgong Classic 2007|Scott Barrett|William "Billo" Olive

Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Flytec 6030|Gulgong Classic 2007|Scott Barrett|William "Billo" Olive

We are here to have a great time and we are having it. The tugs are pulling us up fast, the lift is there. The winds are light. The cui-nimbs don't form until very late in the day. Most pilots make it back to goal.

What I saw:

I'm first in line twenty minutes after the start window opens at noon. No one is rushing to launch obviously. They will get going a bit earlier tomorrow as they probably didn't get launched exactly when they wanted to on Sunday. A bunch of us had our gliders already setup in the hangar (you'd think that we were in Big Spring) from the practice day, so we just had to slide on over to launch. They've got five dollies here so there is no crowding.

I pin off at 1,000' AGL in an obviously fat thermal (I've got the averager set correctly now to 15 seconds), and gently climb to 6,500' AGL. and cloud base. There is plenty of lift around. The glider is a joy to thermal in and the thermals are as smooth as can be.

Scott Barrett says to thermal the C4-13.5 just push out, and the glider does the rest. And, in fact, that is all there is to it. Push out and the glider starts turning into the thermal. That makes it pretty easy.

I see Chris Jones head out low just before the first start clock toward some clouds to the west, but they look further than 5 km away from the center of the 5 km start circle to me, so I go back and play in the lift and wait until the second start time at 1:20 PM. I'm high then and head out with four other pilots. There are cu's right up the course line after a patch of blue.

The task is an out and return to a 25 km radius turnpoint circle around Wellington to the west south west. That would make for only a 77 km task.

After a thirteen kilometer glide through the blue three of us have to stop in 100 fpm at 1,700' AGL and work our way slowly back up.

Still it finally turns on and the lift is strong under black clouds after that. I'm having a bit of trouble knowing just where to go. The direction arrow on the new Flytec 6030 is much smaller than on the 5030 and with my 20/30 vision and astigmatism it is really hard for me to make it out. So I get off course a bit, but maybe that is a good thing cause the clouds there are working.

The C4-13.5 is thermaling great. I'm having a bit of trouble getting a feel for the glide though. This will take a few days to feel natural. There is a lot of rope on the VG line which makes for an easy pull, but I'm unsure as to how much to pull. Learning once again.

Scott Barrett started at the first start clock by himself and is out in front doing well. He was further to the north when he started and I didn't see him at all or I would have gone with him then. Many pilots will start later at the 1:40 PM start time.

I get to the 25 km radius turnpoint without realizing that I've made it. I didn't hear or register hearing the beep of the point being lay down in the turnpoint cylinder by the 6030. I'm too used to the 5030. Also, the 25 km radius for the turnpoint was enough to throw my thinking off a bit.

After realizing I've gone too far into the turnpoint cylinder I race back and come in low over a hill that has a nice black cloud over it. This is the last climb I need to get to goal. Unfortunately the cloud is dying not forming and I land 15 km out. Most pilots make goal.

One pilot got a little confused and made it to a 400 meter cylinder around the turnpoint and back to goal for the longest flight of the day. Scott was first into goal. Cameron Tunbridge won the day taking the second start time and going faster than Scott. Chris Jones landed out on the leg out.

Cameron and Billo at the last minute asked to use my SeeYou scoring script for OzGAP 2005 so I'm helping with the scoring. Scores are up at: http://www.soaringspot.com/2007gc/results/

I have limited internet access here in this town that time forgot, so things may be a little spotty.

Discuss Gulgong at the Oz Report forum     Digg This  Reddit  DelIcioUsdel.icio.us

The 2007 Gulgong Classic

December 4, 2006, 7:56:03 PST

Gulgong

The story, not just the results

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Gerolf Heinrichs|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|sailplane

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|sailplane

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|sailplane

http://ozreport.com/10.238#1

Adam Parer «adamparer» writes:

The Airborne Gulgong Classic runs through the last week of November and this small NSW town becomes home to a field of hang glider pilots hoping to sample its world class flying. Gulgong is out west, but it's not strictly flatlands. It's less than 1000ft AMSL, there are small hills in most directions with spectacular terrain to the southeast and seabreeze convergence can also kick-in late in the day. The Gulgong sailplane operation boasts a long, wide grass strip, big hangar space and all the amenities of a camping site, and just for our benefit the club puts on a top feed every night. Anyone who was here for the inaugural event in 2002 scored phenomenal flying with huge climbs, long glides and 14,000' cloud bases and this year saw a return to those incredible conditions. As usual the caliber of the competition was red-hot. Five out of the world top ten, the European Champion, the Pre-world champion, German team pilot Jorge Bajewski, US number seven, Chris Smith, past Oz National champions and the bulk of the Oz top ten were all here.

Day one, 10am and the briefing started with Gerolf Heinrichs presenting a compelling argument about FTV and it soon became clear he was preaching to the converted. But when a vote was taken, it was decided that OzGAP 2005 would be used instead. Then the task committee set a triangle of 110km. The four tugs fired up and within an hour had the whole field airborne. The day started out well with climbs averaging between 200-700ft/min getting us to altitudes of 8000ft but early into the first leg high cloud moved in from the south and threatened to sour the day. Shadow overtook the pilots and the course line. The thermals slowed down and extended glides ate into the altitude. Patient pilots who dropped down a gear were rewarded when the cloud opened up, let some light in and eventually half the field made it to goal. Timing was everything on the last leg: some flew the last 28km straight directly to goal, while others found it a huge area of sink and struggled to make it home. Gerolf made goal first but Michael Freisenbichler won the day.

Day two saw the task committee set a cat's cradle covering over 161km with six waypoints. The local pilots assured us it was a good day and they weren't wrong! Cloudbase looked to be around 14,500' and we soon found standard climb rates of 1000ft/min with many pilots finding much stronger averages. During the race the lead pack dropped some big names towards the end of the course. At 500' and 10Km short of the last turnpoint Jon Durand drifted in zeros while Chris Smith and Jorge circled above him in sink. As they met up with Jon they flew off in search of something better but landed instead. Jon hung with the zeros, eventually drifted leeside behind a small hill and was rewarded with an average of 1300ft/min. Jonny got 6th and Attila won the day.

Day three didn't look as good as day two so a 132km task was called with goal at Glen Alice via Mudgee and Coolyal. But the locals assured us we were in for another good day and once again they were right. Again the cloudbase looked above the 14,000ft mark and climb rates averaged 900-1100ft/min. The last leg provided an incredible vantage point to watch the bush fires raging in the Bylong valley to the east. As a change approached from the south the last leg of the course thickened-up with powerful looking cumuli that quickly developed into a cloud street 20km long, pointing along the course line and into goal. ten made the distance with Jorge Bajewski making it in at 6pm after ridge soaring, below hill height, for ninety minutes. Michael Freisenbichler won another day.
 
On day four we woke to high winds and most pilots admitted they could do with the rest so by day five they were ready for a cracker of a task: 211km with two turn points. But when we got on course it was a surprise to struggle under a solid inversion at 7000ft. After the previous two tasks 7000ft felt low, but the guns pushed hard, with mixed results. Gerolf and Dave Seib bombed out as did many other pilots who had a hard time with the elusive thermals, but those who made the first turnpoint enjoyed better climbs and a higher ceiling for the rest of the way. But the first leg was slow and time was now the problem. Johnny and Attila managed to make goal and enjoyed final glides of better than 16:1 in the buoyant evening air. Some pilots landed after 7pm. Jon won the day.

Task five was a short 81km with a turnpoint at the half way mark. The conditions were inverted again but most pilots pushed hard and were rewarded with improving conditions around the turnpoint with smoother climbs, nicer air and higher altitudes. Gerolf took the turnpoint with the lead gaggle and pointed towards goal with a required glide of 22:1, and made it! The others thought this a bit aggressive and were at least 5 minutes slower after stopping for a top-up along the way. Twenty four pilots made it to goal. Gerolf won the day with Chris Jones in 2nd and Len Paton in 3rd. Overall Attila was ahead of Johnny by over 200 points but when someone suggested this lead was good enough Attila replied in his strong Hungarian accent, "Jonny never gives up".

Task six was another 'spaghetti on the map page' affair: 119km with four turnpoint's that intersected throughout the course. The conditions were great and big climbs averaging 1000ft/min were common. The air was constantly changing and depending at what time you flew the course determined whether you flew directly to turnpoint or sank like a stone. Some big names went down including Rohan Holtkamp, Joerg Bajewski and Cameron Tunbridge. Just as Attila predicted Jonny didn't give up, on the contrary, he won the day with Gerolf in 2nd and Michael Freisenbichler in 3rd. Overall Attila had just four points up his sleeve to stay ahead and win overall.

Discuss Gulgong at the Oz Report forum

Airborne »

July 5, 2006, 8:46:03 EDT

Airborne

The latest news from the factory.

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Rob Hibberd|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor

Rob Hibberd «RobH» writes:

The C4 13.5 development is progressing well. The 3rd prototype has been built with some significant improvements made through sail modifications by Al Daniels at Wingtech. We had the performance right up there but found that handling wasn't quite where we wanted it.

We plan to have the glider on the test rig over winter and available mid spring (October). More soon.

Leading edge and top surface cloth on the C4 has been upgraded to Titanium Oxide coated PX10 and 20. The new cloth is resistant to discoloring from UV exposure.

The Australian National Ladder to date shows 4 Climax pilots in the top 10. These include, Rohan Holtkamp, Scott Barrat, Cameron Tunbridge and Adam Parer. Interestingly in the floater class there are 17 Airborne gliders in the top 20, in fact the whole field is dominated by the Fun and Sting models.

Hang glider wings can now be coloured sampled using the colour picker on the Airborne web site. Click here to try it out!

Discuss Airborne at the Oz Report forum

Canungra Classic »

Fri, Sep 30 2005, 2:00:00 pm EDT

After seven days.

Attila Bertok|Cameron McNeill|Cameron Tunbridge|Chris Jones|David Seib|Michael "Zupy" Zupanc|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett

Michael Zupanc «mike» sends:

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/Competition/results/2005/results.htm

http://www.triptera.com.au/canungra/classic2005/index.html

Seventh day:

Place Name Glider Start Finish Time Total
1 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 12:00:00 13:52:16 01:52:16 996
2 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:45:00 13:51:10 02:06:10 902
3 Scott BARRETT Airborne Climax C4 13 12:00:00 14:07:20 02:07:20 849
4 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:30:00 13:53:43 02:23:43 822
5 Cameron MCNEILL Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:30:00 13:54:01 02:24:01 820
6 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 13 11:45:00 14:05:10 02:20:10 802
7 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed S 5 11:45:00 14:07:19 02:22:19 788
8 Bruce WYNNE Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:30:00 13:59:21 02:29:21 785
9 Rod FLOCKHART Moyes Litespeed S 4 12:15:00 14:29:20 02:14:20 780
10 Cameron TUNBRIDGE Airborne Climax C2 14 11:45:00 14:10:47 02:25:47 768
11 Steve MOYES Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:45:00 14:11:53 02:26:53 762
12 Trevor PURCELL Moyes Litespeed S 5 11:30:00 14:11:22 02:41:22 716
13 Katrinka Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 12:00:00 14:33:32 02:33:32 707
14 Len PATON Moyes Litespeed S 4 11:45:00 14:28:22 02:43:22 682
15 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 11:45:00 14:35:17 02:50:17 654

Totals:

Place Name Glider Total
1 Jon Jnr DURAND Moyes Litespeed S 4 3448
2 David SEIB Moyes Litespeed S 5 3433
3 Attila BERTOK Moyes Litespeed S 5 3394
4 Rohan HOLTKAMP Airborne Climax C4 13 3061
5 Steve MOYES Moyes Litespeed S 4 2827
6 Scott BARRETT Airborne Climax C4 13 2659
7 Chris JONES Moyes Litespeed S 4 2625
8 Dave STAVER Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2624
9 Katrinka Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 2606
10 Cameron TUNBRIDGE Airborne Climax C2 14 2543

Let me say how great it is working with Zupy to make sure that I get results that I can publish. He reformatted the fields output from Race and published the results in HTML, an internet standard. He plays well with others, in other words. Thank you so much.

He also chased down the miscreant pilots who just didn't seem to think it was important that they correctly identified their gliders. The two glider manufacturers who sponsor this competition, Moyes and Airborne, I'm sure very much appreciate his efforts and success.

I have published the results of the Canungra Classic, because Zupy, as the scorekeeper, was more than willing to work with me to make sure that his output was publishable. Other scorekeepers have not been nearly so forthcoming, and in those cases I have not been able to publish their results. I believe it is their loss.

New South Wales State Titles

Sun, Feb 27 2005, 3:00:00 pm EST

Tied, once again.

Barry Bateman|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Ricky Duncan|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|William "Billo" Olive

Billo «william.olive» writes:

Round five was the final round. First place is a tie between Conrad Loten and Jon Jnr with Rick Duncan third. The conspiracy theorists may care to note that Dave Seib was the scorer, and Dave also scored Gulgong 2004 which also gave a tied result for Jnr.

B grade result is Cameron Tunbridge 1st, Dustin Hansen second and Don Gardner third.

Place Name Glider Total
1 LOTEN Conrad Moyes Litespeed S4 4000
2 DURAND JNR Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4 4000
3 DUNCAN Rick Airborne C2 14 3925
4 SEIB David Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 3813
5 HOLTKAMP Rohan Airborne C2 13 3674
6 STAVER Dave Moyes Litespeed S 4 3347
7 BARRETT Scott Airborne C2 13 3214
8 PRITCHARD Phil Moyes Litespeed S 4 3100
9 BARTHELMES Ollie Moyes Litespeed S 4 3093
10 JONES Chris Moyes Litespeed S 4 3014
11 SCHRODER Phil Airborne C2 13 2888
12 PARER Adam Moyes Litespeed 4 2872
13 PATON Len Moyes Litespeed S 4 2781
14 DURAND SNR Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2776
15 TUNBRIDGE Cameron Airborne C2 14 2633
16 DANIELS Al Airborne C2 13 2569
17 WYNNE Bruce Moyes Litespeed S 4 2549
18 HANSEN Dustin Airborne Climax 14 2481
19 DUNCAN Shane Airborne C2 13 2428
20 STEAD Rod Moyes Litespeed 4 2422

(editor's note: It's great to see Ricky Duncan doing so well. He's been a long time competitor, but hasn't attended that many competitions over the last decade, just getting back into it with the Gulgong Classic as few years ago.

Also great to see Conrad Lotten do so well against the very strong Jonny Durand Jnr, the new Australian Red Bull athlete. I remember Conrad feeling bad about competitions, and maybe this will help him overcome those feelings.

Dave Seib continues his strong growth as a competition pilot as does Chris Jones. Great to see all the other competitors also, Both Airborne and Moyes were well represented in this almost all Australian competitions - Ollie is a half time Australian, as is Barry Bateman, almost.)

Gulgong⁣ reprise »

Sun, Nov 28 2004, 9:00:04 pm EST

The weather continued to be great.

Gulgong

Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Curt Warren|record|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Scott Barrett|weather|William "Billo" Olive

billo «William.Olive» writes:

The aftermath: Al Daniel and Scott Barrett flew their hang gliders home to Newcastle from Gulgong. Al set himself a dogleg via Pete Marhiene's airstrip at Denman and landed 5 hours later at Carmel's, a flight of 201 km and the new Hunter Valley record. Bill Poole held this record for many years and it could not have fallen to a more deserving pilot than the unassuming Al.

Shane and Troy Duncan flew back to the factory in the XTS912 tug. This machine lived up to expectation with great climb and descent rates coupled with a low fuel burn.

Cameron Tunbridge and Warren Simenson flew to Manilla caravan park, a 220km flight. I don't know yet where Rohan Holtkamp and Atilla Bertok landed.

Al said the day was similar to the last comp day with 12,000' climbs and abundant lift. The Oz season is off to a boomer start in the lead up the Oz open and the Worlds.

Gerolf showed up on the last 2 days as a "free flyer".

Conrad Loten flew a new litespeed 3.5 on the last day.

I'll put together a short movie clip and post it on the comp site shortly. We could get a DVD of the comp early next year. I believe we will have some great air to air footage from the XTS912 as we chased the lead gliders in, as well as a bit of aerobatics by a pair of masters of the art.

Curt Warren «curt» writes:

The Gulgong comp was FUN! What made it: Camping in the trees, right at the airport. (no driving) Big Barbecue every night. (no driving!!) Good conditions, everyday. Hangar space for most gliders. Midnite Land Yachting. Pony Rides. Queer Crack Hogs. Triangle tasks. (no driving!!!)

An idea. This comp would be fun after Xmas, maybe with an earlier Manilla comp too, to offer something different for the international pilots that like to come to Oz in January.

Discuss "Gulgong⁣ reprise" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2004 Gulgong

Thu, Nov 25 2004, 7:00:00 am EST

Curt chasing Jonny.

Gulgong

Adam Parer|Cameron Tunbridge|Conrad Loten|Dragonfly|Gulgong Classic 2004|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|weather|William "Billo" Olive

www.gulgongclassic.com

billo «william.olive» writes:

We had a good day yesterday. The task committee called what I thought was a slightly short task , which was confirmed by Jnr and Kraig completing in less the 90 minutes. But, we got fifty percent of the pilots back to the airfield and lots of smiling pilots.

Last night they were racing a land yacht over the aerodrome until nearly midnight and Kraig was out on the quad racer until I came and spoiled his fun (must hide those keys). This morning curt and Scott were doing circuits in the XTS912 tug (it's a beauty).

Pilots; a mob of hedonistic children. Would we have it any other way.

Round/day three:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 Durand Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:27:00 943
2 Warren Curt Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:29:21 906
3 Coomber Kraig Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:24:18 890
4 Bader Lukas Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:32:41 860
5 Schroder Phil Airborne C2 01:45:48 786
6 Friesenbichler Micheal Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 01:47:42 766
7 Wynne Bruce Moyes Litespeed 4 01:51:34 737
8 Jones Chris Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:58:21 732
9 Loten Conrad Moyes Litesport 02:03:03 683
10 Seib David Moyes Litespeed S 5 01:41:45 679

If round four was too short then round four wasn't going the same way. Exited by the weather forecast the task committee (Jon jnr, Dave Seib and Cameron Tunbridge) called a 169 km dogleg. It was slightly too long as the day did not develop quite as predicted, but still had many happy pilots. They were back in late though, and we only finished the scoring this morning.

We are in the middle of a locust plague. Grasshoppers are making it interesting on takeoff and giving the tug driver some thing extra to cope with.

Round/day four:

Place Name Glider km Total
1 Coomber Kraig Moyes Litespeed S 4 159.2 898
2 Durand Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4 156.1 887
2 Warren Curt Moyes Litespeed S 4 156.1 887
4 Holtkamp Rohan Airborne C2 155.7 884
5 Parer Adam Airborne C2 14 149.3 841
6 Schroder Phil Airborne C2 149.1 840
7 Seib David Moyes Litespeed S 5 146.5 817
8 Dall Peter Air Atos 144.9 803
8 Friesenbichler Micheal Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 144.9 803
10 Loten Conrad Moyes Litesport 143.0 783

We are coming into an exiting finish, with Jnr only 25 points in front of Curt. Yesterday's task was a 88 km triangle. The weather has been getting better every day and today holds promise of being a beauty.

Yesterday afternoon Pete Wilson and I towed Jnr and Adam Parer up to 3000' and they did formation aerobatics. Said by some to have been the best aeros seen. The Flocky put on a show with the Dragonfly. You can't buy a day like this.

Round/day five:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 Coomber Kraig Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:51:18 998
2 Holtkamp Rohan Airborne C2 02:06:50 869
3 Warren Curt Moyes Litespeed S 4 02:08:46 852
4 Bader Lukas Moyes Litespeed S 4 02:18:26 756
5 Durand Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4 02:27:54 684
6 Parer Adam Airborne C2 14 02:50:00 677
7 Jones Chris Moyes Litespeed S 4 02:50:25 671
8 Reid Jason Airborne C2 Lite 02:53:34 652
9 Wynne Bruce Moyes Litespeed 4 02:47:24 627
10 Seib David Moyes Litespeed S 5 02:42:20 598

After six days of intense competition it came down to 25 points between Jnr and Curt yesterday. Curt beat Jnr today, but not enough to win outright. What a finish. The boys will have to settle the score in Rio next week at the Red Bull. Kraig was next placed not far behind.

The final comp day turned on fantastic conditions and almost all the field made goal. Matt and Pete thermaled the trikes to over 9000' and the competitors were getting well over 10,000'.

The comp philosophy was well met, with over 300 tows incident free, half the field in goal almost every day and plenty of all kinds of flying happening every day.

If you were not here this year, you should plan to be here next year for sure.

Round/day six:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 Warren Curt Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:29:11 916
2 Durand Jon Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:31:14 891
3 Loten Conrad Moyes Litesport 01:32:05 878
4 Coomber Kraig Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:24:45 838
5 Barton Tony Airborne C2 14 01:37:49 818
6 Friesenbichler Micheal Moyes Litespeed S 3.5 01:31:23 743
7 Parer Adam Airborne C2 14 01:45:10 742
8 Holtkamp Rohan Airborne C2 01:32:19 731
9 Daniel Alan Airborne C2 01:53:08 729
10 Schroder Phil Airborne C2 01:46:56 719

Total:

Place Name Glider Total
1 Durand JonMoyes Litespeed S 4 5365
2 Warren CurtMoyes Litespeed S 4 5365
3 Coomber KraigMoyes Litespeed S 4 5003
4 Holtkamp RohanAirborne C2 4590
5 Wynne BruceMoyes Litespeed 4 4354
6 Seib DavidMoyes Litespeed S 5 4206
7 Loten ConradMoyes Litesport 4004
8 Schroder PhilAirborne C2 4004
9 Lawry CrisAirborne C2 3911
10 Reid JasonAirborne C2 Lite 3873

They sure look tied to me! How about Conrad on the Moyes LiteSport! Lots of Airborne gliders in the top ten also. Dave Seib on a Moyes Litespeed S 5? Everyone else went for the Moyes Litespeed 4 instead of the Litespeed 4.5. Gerolf must have stayed at the Moyes factory and kept working on the latest tweaks.

Discuss "2004 Gulgong" at the Oz Report forum   link»