Oz Report

November 26, 2013, 7:52:10 PST

Don't hit the baby

A top landing gone bad

Carl Wallbank

Carl Wallbank <<carlwallbank>> writes:

What would you do? You're making a top landing at an official landing area. The situation changes during the ten seconds prior to this shot:

More spectators walk out onto your runway and another glider cuts in front trying to make a quick landing. All of this was not in your landing plan.

Then you spot among the couple of people right in front of you an innocent young baby and mum and dad unaware of the developing situation. What would you do?

Just like the "child in front of a bus scenario" none of us could throw ourselves in front of a bus, but put a child in front of that bus and in a heartbeat we would put ourselves in danger to protect that child. It's a perfectly normal human instinct to protect mankind. Well, that's what my mate did, and he now has the wheelchair to prove it.

Dig deep folks. Lea needs our help. And keep your precious loved ones off the landing areas.

Sponsored 100 mile cycle ride.

Please donate on PayPal at <carlwallbank>.

Discuss "Don't hit the baby" at the Oz Report forum   link»

June 24, 2013, 6:36:56 CDT

Clear the LZ

Windy Knoll

Carl Wallbank|Facebook|PG

Carl Wallbank <<carlwallbank>> sends:

If you free fly whether that be on a hang glider or paraglider please read this, think about it carefully and try to understand that your actions and attitude now and in the future can make a big difference to the safety of fellow free flyers and friends. I've kept quiet up until now but as most now are aware, there was an accident involving my best friend on the Long Mynd on the 26-5-13, it was not an horrific, dramatic accident, but nothing more than a hang glider nosing in, sadly resulting in very serious and life changing injuries. The BHPA are currently investigating this case and we all look forward to seeing this investigation complete.

However there are aspects that are relevant to this case that have been a problem for a long time and something that we have all either ignored or turned a blind eye too, this is not a particular site problem or a problem only in UK, this is a worldwide issue that has been getting aired around Facebook by unhappy pilots for a long time, although it's far to late and sad in my eyes, we need action now to stop something like this ever happening again, and we can all fix part of the problem easily with very little effort and at no cost.

The first subject involves all free flyers, and their friends and family who may visit the flying sites we use. I will talk about helmet and hang glider design in the coming days.

Airfield etiquette I have many friends who hang glide and paraglide, I do not like the us and them attitude, I believe we are all free flyers "we just fly different aircraft" and we all share the same zest for free flight. But below I'll have to talk about the two disciplines differently to highlight the difference in aircraft performance, requirements and attitudes.

We all gain our pilots licenses and in doing so we learn how to have good airmanship, I believe that good airmanship starts on the ground and finishes on the ground, the bit in the middle is just one part of it. The flying sites, top landings and bottom landings we use, are classed as airfields and as such have basic rules to follow, on busy days our sites are more busy than regional airports, but our control of this is purely through very good airmanship and following rules. This is were we are failing, failing to respect each others discipline and failing to follow site rules.

As all airfields have different performing aircraft coming in and out all day, the airfield is always ready to accept the highest performing aircraft, with the exception of when the airfield is in use by any another aircraft landing or taking off in which they then have full control of the airfield. Our sites are no different than this. From a hang gliders point of view, they have a high speed range, and they can ground effect for a very long way. They act and fly more like a conventional aircraft or glider, they are also big, bulky, heavy, and hard to handle and carry. A paraglider has a small speed range and does not ground effect due to design, they are lightweight, very controllable and easy to carry.

The common reality observed, are all the hang gliders are rigged together out the way on the take off on top of the hill, or huddled together to the side in the top or bottom landing field, on my experience when a hang glider sits in the middle of the field, this maybe due to inexperience or through a bad landing and maybe a damaged A-frame, his fellow hang glider's shout at him to move to the side or go and assist him to carry his damaged wing to the side, the hang glider's do this because either they have been trained to do this, or they have very good airmanship, or their peer's do it so they copy, or just maybe they don't want anyone else landing on their very expensive wings.

If you go to a high level hang glider competition, the goal field can be a very busy place, these elite pilots who are focusing on the competition maybe more than safety, still, immediately upon landing, look around for others and quickly move to the side and all huddle together out the way to allow the most available space to land for others. I call all of this very good airmanship that is in bread in to all hang glider pilots from around the world. Yes some still make mistakes, but others nearby are accountable enough to help them and correct them.

The paragliding world is not the same as above, they do not need the clear "runway", there wings when parked are not tall and bulky and thus don't pose an obvious problem to others, they land slow enough that they all can land next to or on top of each other, therefore they initially don't appear to be a hazard or problem to others. In high level PG competition the goal fields also are very busy places, however, their appears no consideration for others and these elite pilots just land and don't really move, and in all honesty they don't really need to due to design.

Obviously you can see from the two paragraphs above that our sports are different and we require different requirements to safely perform our sport. This is exactly the problem we have, while each discipline maybe acting safely with regards to its own discipline it is not respecting the others discipline. Apart from high level competitions were sites are closed to others, everywhere we fly is a hang glider and paraglider site and as such, our actions on the airfield must respect all users that can use the airfield, "whether they are present or not."

This is not major change, this is just re-aligning our attitude towards safety for all disciplines.

1) Once landed, look around for others and move to the side quickly, and move "all the way" to the fence, wall, trees.

2) When someone is landing, that is their airfield, respect them, do not walk across their airfield or do anything that may allow them to lose or change focus.

3) Don't assume everyone is a sky god like you! If you don't know the pilot you may be landing next too, do not cut him up or push him over a bit, he may be test flying or be very new in the sport, if you don't know his ability. Then you give him room.

4) If your friends or family are on the airfield, teach them what to look for, you don't allow your children to play of the railway track, the landing field is exactly the same.

Whether this attitude is not taught correctly in flying school, or does not follow down the ladder from our sports disciplines peer's, or gets lost over time as we only focus on our own sports safety procedures, or because so few hang gliders are seen on the airfield nowadays I'm not sure? All I do know is we all share the same sites and thus have to adhere to the rules to protect the safety of all users of that airfield. I actually enjoy the paragliding world and have thought of taking it up on many occasions, and nowadays I get my fuel to perform better in my own discipline from the paragliding world as the paragliding world is active, enthusiastic, competitive and there is a lot of very hard working and driven individuals which excites me and keeps me focused.

I do not want to see a split in our sports but I do want to see a mutual respect for each others disciplines, which is something I don't believe the hang gliding world gets from the paragliding world at present. I look forward to future flying with you all and we can discuss this as much as is necessary from a safe area on our flying sites.

http://derbyshiresoaringclub.org.uk/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?17843.0

http://officialwmas.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: “The 31 year old man had reportedly been hang gliding when he crashed on landing. Crews assessed the man and found he had sustained serious neck and back injuries. He was given pain relief to help stabilize his condition before crews worked carefully to immobilize his neck and back with the use of a neck collar, spinal board and pelvic splint.

Discuss "Clear the LZ" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Mon, Aug 22 2011, 7:53:57 am MDT

Carl reports

Carl Wallbank

(W LP, Saint-André-les-Alpes, France)

Carl Wallbank reports:

Day 1, they set a 138km up and down the milk run, conditions look fantastic and I can't believe the task choice. Unfortunately one glider tumbled at Dormilos and under an unsuccessfully deployed chute he came down inverted behind the main Dormilos ridge in a pretty inaccessible area, despite the chute not opening properly the glider, inverted and undamaged came down slowly, to me anyway.

We couldn't see him move so a circled over him for a while, whilst trying to make contact with ground crew and calling his position, unable to make contact with ground crew. Phipsy landed to assist but not sure how close he could get, and I got as high as possible to try and contact ground crew and relay messages. Once Phipsy had made contact by phone I carried on coarse. With my day now screwed I decided to go to the next suitable fields towards home and land.

This was the goal field at Thorham bass some 20km away. It was raining in that valley when I get there "but the task is still running" so I didn't want to land there. I got rained on a little trying to get into the St Andre valley were it was also raining. We get up there and finish the coarse, but find rain again before the last turn point. The task never got stopped till after 5 PM when the thunder came. When we will learn!

Discuss "2011 UK Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

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

Just a few more days to send in the money

(Grotta, Monte Cucco, PG, Italy)

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 the17^th January. Confirmed pilots whose receipt of payment does not reach the organizers by 17^th 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.

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

150 out of 250

(Montecucco, Italy)

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 17^th 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

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

150 out of 250

(Montecucco, Italy)

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 17^th) or they go to the end of the line. Starting on the 17^th, 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.

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

The limit is 150

(Grotta, Monte Cucco, PG, Italy)

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

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

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

As from 7^th 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 17^th 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.

Sun, Jun 15 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Airborne Climax|barefoot|Bubba Goodman|Carl Wallbank|cloud|competition|cost|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|flight park|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Moyes Litespeed|Oz Report|Paris Williams|photo|Raven Sky Sports|release|Rik Bouwmeester|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|safety|sport|students|tug|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.flytec.com/mwregionals

Check out the animated track logs (click “Top Tracks” - you have to wait for a few minutes for them to begin animating).

Check out the photo gallery (http://flytec.com/mwregionals/gallery.html)

Have I said often enough just how much fun it is flying and competing here in the Midwest? Twin Oaks/Raven Sky Sports is a great flight park and the air conditions here in southern Wisconsin are phenomenal. We’ve had a great competition with seven days of flying out of nine days.

Competition developed out in the west with the big air conditions back in the days when hang gliders were more hang than glide. With the outstanding performance we can get from our super ships these days, we can have very valid competitions in areas where only short flights were possible in the past.

Competitions are competitions between glider pilots. Everyone is in the same conditions and you’ve got to see if you can do better than the next guy in whatever conditions you’re in. It doesn’t matter that conditions are “weak” and scratchy. If you can stay up in those conditions while everyone else goes slower or lands out than you’re the top dog. So what if it takes two hours to go twenty miles?

Any half witted hang glider pilot can get up and go far in strong conditions. Just what are competitions in such conditions telling us? Who can handle the rough stuff?

It takes real skills to be able to fly together with your friends in minimal lift conditions with no sunlight under black clouds.

Of course, not every day has been extraordinarily weak. We’ve had plenty of lift on most days and the last two days a significant number of the pilots have made goal. And as I found out on the practice day, conditions here can be booming, if you like that sort of thing (I don’t).

“Low and slow.” Didn’t that use to be a major identifier for hang gliding in general? Here in Wisconsin we are practicing it every day and frankly it is the most fun you can have in hang gliding. The country side is very beautiful here, the people are friendly, the fields are in clover (I’m flying barefoot). What more could you want?

Did I mention how great it was here at Raven Sky Sports? How well we’ve been treated by all the staff and the owner Brad?

http://www.hanggliding.com/

We didn’t get to see that much of Brad as he takes responsibility for the marketing, sales, and reservations end of the business (and he definitely has the feel of a business oriented type a guy) from his home office. It seems that Brad started off possessed like all other folks who are starting a new business with no money and almost succumbed to “founders” syndrome where the founder can’t ever let go of the business and let it grow.

Finally Brad realized he was either going to go nuts or he was going to hire good people and have them take responsibility for the flight park (and of course he had to get out of their way so they could). One way to do that is spend your time at home making sure that there are students coming to the flight park for lessons from your crew.

Thanks to Brad for making sure that we could come here and have a great competition and to David Glover for assuring him that it would all work out even if we didn’t have 50 pilots. Thanks also to Brad for his support for the Oz Report and for helping out with my tows in exchange for my weather forecasting. Forecasting has turned into a nice little income (actually cost reduction) supplement.

David Glover, America’s best meet director, has turned in another low key behind the scenes performance keeping everything working and letting the pilots make all the tough decisions – tasks, safety, and protests.

Speaking of tasks. The weather forecast was for stronger lift (400-500 fpm) and 15 knot winds out of the northeast. There would be cu’s, but little if any vertical development in them. Cloud base was predicted to be 6,000’, but the height of the lift was predicted to be 4,000’. Funny, that doesn’t really work out.

When we get out on the run way it looks a lot more northerly than easterly, so I go back and come up with a 44 mile task due south to a farm grass strip just south of I 90 in Illinois. After the launch window opens but before anyone goes we decide to use that task instead of the same task as yesterday. Our goal is to get two thirds of the pilots to goal.

There are cu’s but they are small. There is a big block of cirrus right over us which is cutting off the lift. The tug pilots take us to the east where the clouds are lining up pretty nicely.

Russell Brown is in second place and is the only pilot who has a chance to catch me on this last day. Paris is far ahead in first in the flex wings, but three pilots are close for second. Paris could be caught if he falls down.

We get towed over to the clouds but there is very little lift. We have to work everything we can find and the strong wind is pushing us to the southwest off the course line. I’m slowly climbing to cloud base with Chris Grzyb, but we are alone. I’m covering Russ but he’s gone back toward the air strip and is down to 300’. Ron Gleason has to land.

Chris and I are at cloud base at the start circle circumference, but there is no one to go with. I decide to fight back up wind to cover Russell as he is getting up with an ATOS pilot (Jim or Dave), but my Velcro on my nose nappy comes loose and the glider starts vibrating. I don’t know what the problem is by Chris can see it from above.

I get back to the air strip and after trying to get back up with all the flex wings and rigids now high above me decide to land and get towed back up. I find the problem with the nose cone right away and it is quite a relief to fix it.

I’m towed up just as the last start window starts and I release 6 minutes after it starts up high. After one else has taken the 1:45 PM start time and I’m starting at 2:08 for the 2 PM start time.

The wind turns out to have a lot of easterly component in it and there is a big blue hole to the south of the start window. I push southeasterly for six miles to get under some forming clouds and get my first lift out on the course line. I’m down to 1,200’ so I take the 60 fpm that is offered and stick with it for 12 minutes before I can slide with an extra 500 feet over to a better cloud and climb out to 4,000’ AGL. That thermal will average 300 fpm.

The next two which get me to 5,000’ AGL will average 600 fpm. Whoa, this is the best lift I’ve seen during the contest. My average climb rate over the task today will be 250 fpm, much better than any previous day.

The strong lift gets me fifteen miles down the course line and I finally see four flex wing pilots off to my right a mile. I won’t get any more strong lift, but I’ll get enough to get over 3,500’ AGL a couple of times. I haven’t seen Russell or any of the ATOSes and no flex wings other than the four to my right.

There are plenty of clouds in front of me and now the question for me is can I get in quick enough to beat Russell in speed or at least get close to him so that I can win the meet. Since I can’t see him I’ve got to keep trading off rates of climb (which are weaker now) with how fast I can get down the course.

Four miles out I’m down to 1,600’ AGL as I had assumed that I would have hit something a bit better after going on what I though was a final glide at 11 miles out at 3,500’ AGL. My IQ-Compeo was saying I had 650 feet above my best glide line. I was slowing the glide way down to 35 mph to make sure I was flying near best L/D speed (and , of course, I was watching the vario to make sire I was doing that).

I decided that I needed 500’ at 100 fpm in order to make it safely into goal, as the IQ-Compeo was telling me that I was only 100 feet over my best glide line. The height of above goal had been jumping all over the place just like it use to on the IQ-Comp (same algorithm).

I zipped on into goal with 400 feet at the quarter mile cylinder. Since I had been pulling in for the last two miles, it was clear that I would have made it without taking that last bit of lift and spending 5 minutes climbing 500 feet.

As I come over goal I see that Russell has just landed a couple of minutes before me. All the other rigids are there also. They all started 23 minutes before me.

Paris, Bo and Andreas are also there. They were the first three into goal coming into together after flying together within a few seconds of each other. Why didn’t Bo start doing this when the meet started?

Terry, Dennis, Chris, Bubba and Carl all come in a few minutes later. It is the first time Carl has made goal.

The goal is just a grass strip at a farm. Apparently no one had been flying out of it recently as the grass is a foot high. They have been mowing the lawn though, so we break down there. No one is home.

Flex wings today:

Place	Name	Glider	Finish	Total
1	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	15:14:44	971
2	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	15:14:46	948
3	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	15:15:05	922
4	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	15:48:23	627
5	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed	15:52:04	599
6	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	15:52:43	592
7	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	16:05:37	520
8	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3		382
9	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP		188
10	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon		134
11	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth		129
11	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax		129
11	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE		129
14	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport		0

Flex wings total:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	4462
2	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	3912
3	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed 4	3572
4	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	3498
5	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	2961
6	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	2785
7	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	2579
8	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3	2039
9	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon	1550
10	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax	1505
11	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth	1278
12	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP	1226
13	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE	751
14	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport	550

Rigids today:

Place	Name	Glider	Time	Total
1	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	1:41:37	938
2	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos C	1:44:48	831
3	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	1:46:26	802
4	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	1:43:56	799
5	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	1:56:50	780

Rigids total:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	4875
2	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	4518
3	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos C	3646
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	3200
5	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	2990
6	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	2026

Discuss "Midwest Regionals – the final day" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Sat, Jun 14 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Airborne Climax|airspace|altitude|Bubba Goodman|Carl Wallbank|cloud|competition|Dave Brandt|James "Jim" Lamb|Jim Lamb|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Moyes Litespeed|Paris Williams|photo|Rik Bouwmeester|Ron Gleason|sport|tail|tow|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.flytec.com/mwregionals

Check out the animated track logs (click “Top Tracks” - you have to wait for a few minutes for them to begin animating).

Check out the photo gallery (http://flytec.com/mwregionals/gallery.html)

The FSL forecast shows that there is the possibility of over development, but while I inform the task committee of this possibility I forget to mention it to the pilots. There is large patches of cirrus both north and south in the late morning, and the cu’s are forming slowly and they look soft and weak.

The wind dummies are up and staying up, so it’s a good sign. We’ve got the option of launching at 12:30 PM with a 2 PM start window (way more time than we need to get everyone in the air with four Dragonflies waiting to pull us up).

I notice that Jim Lamb is suiting up early and he’s thinking that its time to go soon after the launch window opens. The task is a 46 mile dog leg to the east south east, away from Class D airspace at Janesville and over to an airport at Monroe where hang gliding pilots use to truck tow.

The five rigid wing pilots all notice that Jim and Dave are getting ready so we all get ready and we are all in line together by ourselves as the flex wing pilots look on. No body wants to be left behind.

We’re up in a few minutes and it is a quick climb to cloud base at 4,400’. The flex wing guys get in line right behind us and everyone other than Paris who has been sitting around in a lawn chair is off before 1 PM. No waiting around today.

The cu’s get thicker and thicker and it looks like we won’t be waiting until the 2 PM start time. Dave Brandt heads out to the south and the rest of us rigid wing pilots up high follow him and Russell out toward the start circle. But Dave doesn’t get up and everyone but Russell turns back to get back up again with the flex wings.

Dave gets lower and lower out on his own, as he’s not willing to come back and join us low, and I’m wondering what the point is. This meet has taught us to work with our friends above all else, and I can’t figure out why Russell and Dave have gone out on their own, way early.

The rest of us are back working lift and getting back up to cloud base. We drift down wind under the clouds and get right up to cloud base and near the start circle circumference. I watch as Ron Gleason and Jim Lamb head out on course as I hold back. Three flex wings cross the line also. I wait and let them check out the lift out in front while I get to start my start time later than them.

Finally I head out and head right for the rigid wings who are five miles out. I get there with their altitude and I’m feeling great. We’ve got six guys together and it looks like we’ll have plenty of helpers.

Eleven miles out we encounter a large cu nimb just to our south. We are working on the northern edge of the cu nimb. The ground is completely shaded. The cu-nimb stretches to the west for another fifteen miles. Thank goodness we are just on the northern side of the cu-nimb and the winds are out of the northeast.

Brad sends over this graphic that shows the raining part of the cu-nimb.

We climb up slowly at first with everyone looking around. Jim and Ron are just above me climbing a little bit better. I have no idea where Russell is.

I’m looking back and seeing Rik Boumeester flashing his wings in a high bank. Ron and Jim who were just above me have gone further along the course line and don’t see Rik a few hundred feet behind us. I go over to him and soon Krzysztof Grzyb and I are two thousand feet over the five guys who’ve gone ahead.

The cu-nimb is right next to us as we head west quickly trying to run past it. Everything is as dark as can be, both the sky and the ground. We continue to find bits of lift on the edge of the cu-nimb and we can see the rain coming down five or ten miles to the south.

As we are circling up I see a lightening strike to the south about five miles away. I’m wondering if the cell is going to come our way. I can see that if we go another ten miles to the west we should be able to get around the storm. I’m hoping that there aren’t any gust fronts or more lightening.

I’m nervous about the storm so I’m leaving lift earlier than usual. I’m leaving everyone behind and I got out fast on my own hoping to get away from the storm. Whoa, I’ve caught up with Russell. I come in under a few hundred feet below him. It is great to be able to cover Russell.

We’re almost to the Albany turnpoint and I climb back to cloud base as Russell heads out. I can see a few of the guys I was with behind me getting up from below. I’ve got to hang with Russell now.

Things are happening fast as it is only an eleven mile leg to goal. I’m at 4,000’ AGL 14 miles out, three miles before the turnpoint. I’m hoping that this is enough with a good tail wind to make it to goal.

Nine miles out I see Russell come in a few hundred feet over my head. We work a bit of lift gaining two hundred feet. I can see the guys behind me at the turnpoint climbing high. Given how low they were when I left them, they must have found much stronger lift than I did.

Four miles out from goal I’m at 1,250’ AGL. That’s a 17:1 glide to goal, so I decide to take the weak lift I’m in and climb 500 feet. Russell continues on to goal to get there first. A few of the pilots behind me catch up and keep going just over my head.

I will have the extra 500’ when I get to goal with 500’ to spare.

Paris started late at 1:45 PM and wins the day getting to goal as the first flex wings. Ron gets across the goal line a few minutes before me. Bubba, Chris and later Dennis comes in.

All the times get moved to 2 PM as everyone started before the 2 PM start clock. The finish times just represent there total time to goal.

Flex wings today:

Place	Name	Glider	Finish	Total
1	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	15:20:06	932
2	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed	15:34:24	776
3	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	15:35:28	756
4	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	15:36:56	742
5	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon		464
6	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax		452
7	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4		420
8	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4		357
9	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3		351
10	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2		327
11	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP		258
12	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE		68
13	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth		59
14	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport		0

Flex wing totals:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	3556
2	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed	2997
3	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	2987
4	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	2899
5	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	2461
6	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	2209
7	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3	1679
8	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	1669
9	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon	1416
10	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax	1378
11	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP	1035
12	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth	971
13	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE	631
14	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport	409

Rigids today:

Place	Name	Glider	Finish	Total
1	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos C	15:35:27	986
2	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	15:36:03	930
3	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	15:45:16	793
4	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	15:53:01	718
5	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos		274

Rigids total:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	4076
2	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	3716
3	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos C	2815
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	2262
5	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	2210
6	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	2026

Discuss "Midwest Regionals – cu nimbs and guys at goal" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fri, Jun 13 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Airborne Climax|altitude|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carl Wallbank|cloud|competition|Dave Brandt|gaggle|James "Jim" Lamb|Jim Lamb|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Moyes Litespeed|Paris Williams|photo|polar|Rik Bouwmeester|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|safety|sport|tail|Terry Presley|triangle|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon

http://www.flytec.com/mwregionals

Check out the animated track logs (click “Top Tracks” - you have to wait for a few minutes for them to begin animating).

Check out the photo gallery (http://flytec.com/mwregionals/gallery.html)

While it has been great fun flying in overcast conditions here in Whitewater, Wisconsin (half way between Milwaukee and Madison in southern Wisconsin) today we were actually blessed with sunshine. While it has been a while since we’ve seen that luminescent orb during the flying part of the day, we quickly adjusted ourselves to the prospect of calling a task and having pilots actually make it back to goal.

There was a low pressure centered off to our southwest with an east/west front in Illinois. We could see the upper level clouds from the front overhead as the task committee met. The one o’clock BLIPMAP showed weak lift, and very low cloud bases but the 3 PM FSL chart showed good lift and high bases (4,000’ MSL). At least they both agreed that the winds would be light.

Given that we are conflicting forecasts for lift and heights we called two triangle tasks to the south (hoping for the flatter, hotter bare field to the south), one fifty miles and one thirty. A short time later Jim Lamb who had suggested we go south, thought better of his suggestion given that the southern sky had the high clouds and the weaker looking cu’s underneath. I came up with a 50 mile triangle task to the north and east.

As one o’clock rolled around the high clouds had disappeared as the front headed off to the south and east. There were cu’s ever where and it looked like it might be possible to go 50 miles, and not settle for a 32 mile out and return, which was now our secondary option.

I got towed up after Bo and immediately climbed out to 4,000’ MSL and cloud base. We were repeatedly able to touch the bottoms of the clouds today without any fear of being sucked up given the light lift.

The cu’s got big, and the ground got dark. In spite of all the sunshine it would have been good to use the yellow lens, but I had my orange ones.

Everyone was getting up under the dark cu’s and shaded ground and we all gathered up to take the first clock at 2 PM. Might as well if everyone else will go with you.

There is a northeast wind going to the first turnpoint, and we don’t get out very far as we find the first lift, after leaving the three mile radius start circle at cloud base. At 3:11 (four minutes before the next start window), we have drifted back right next to the start circle. Still no one goes back to take a new start time. Paris and a few others have been holding back and will take the 2:15 PM start time.

Half the field is with us as we head out after climbing almost back to cloud base. The ground is shaded ahead and there are dark cu’s everywhere. It is hard to find any sunlight. But, then, this is what it has been like the past few days, so it is not a great worry. We are already getting 1,400’ higher than we were over the last two days, so a little (or a lot) of shading doesn’t hold that much terror for us.

While a couple have dropped out, we climb back to cloud base at 4,300’ MSL and look out to more shading, but now under clouds that are flat and gray, not puffy and back. It looks like a dead zone in front of us, and we are slowly progressing into the wind toward the first turnpoint nineteen miles to the northeast.

A few flex wings are out in front and Bubba finds very light lift at 800’ AGL under the a gray sky with the tiniest bit of light on the ground. Soon there are eight of us in the gaggle. Luckily I’m on top, because the middle six are all on the same level with Terry Presley on the bottom. Six pilots have to learn to get along on their marry-go-round and I merrily float above them as though I had hollow bones or an extra hit of helium.

It takes 17 minutes to climb 1,000’. The clouds disappear and there is sun every where and we get over a hot spot to the north and we get up to 4,500’. Now the dark clouds are much further apart. There is sun on the ground and things are looking better.

I’m with Ron Gleason and Russell Brown on rigids and Terry Presley on a flex. As we approach the first turnpoint I can see four flex wings to the south high, obviously a mix of later starters and some of the flex wings from our previous gaggle. Ron heads out first toward the turnpoint as Russell and I hold back. Ron gets ahead by finding a good thermal on his own just before the turnpoint.

The flex wings from the south, Russell and I come in under Ron, get high fast and I make the turnpoint as Russell has already taken it.

Now it is a chase as Russell, Dave Brandt in an ATOS, and I push to catch up with Paris Terry, Dennis and Ron. We are just behind and below them in the next thermal and Paris, Ron and Russell get away from the four of us five miles before the second turnpoint. We can see them getting high two miles before the turnpoint as we work a thermal also getting high two miles back.

Terry, Dennis and I get to the cloud that Paris, Ron and Russell left five minutes previously and we climb to almost 5,000’ two miles before the second turnpoint. I head out as we hit cloud base on a mission to catch up with Russell so that he doesn’t gain too many points on me.

I find Dave Brandt south of the turnpoint as he didn’t go to the good cloud with us. We’ve got a sixteen mile leg back to Twin Oaks, due south with an east wind (just as forecast). I spot Paris way high above and out in front of me climbing under very small clouds. He’s right on the course line so I go for him and start climbing in lift that averages 200 fpm. Good for the day that averages 130 fpm.

I’m down to 2,400’ AGL when I enter the thermal and 13 miles out. I climb to 3,500’ AGL before it gets weak. It’s 19.6 to 1 to get to goal. My IQ-Compeo says I’m 350’ above the best glide line. It must think I’ve got a tail wind. My polar is about 17 to 1 at best L/D speed of about 32 mph.

I go on glide as I can see good clouds ahead of me if I need any lift. I’m watching the final glide calculator. I’m aware that the goal is a quarter mile cylinder so I have a little extra margin of safety.

At eleven miles out I come in under the clouds Dennis and Terry are way back below me and Dave has gone way off to the east to get under some clouds. I get 500 fpm as I glide straight. The vario says I have the goal so I just push out and don’t turn. I climb 400’ and am at 3,500’ AGL 10.5 miles out. It’s a 15.8 glide to goal. The IQ-Compeo is saying I’m 1250 feet over the best glide line and that I’ve got goal by 1,250’.

I keep flying straight given the IQ-Compeo reading and my feeling that I’m going to make it. Also I really want to catch up with Ron and Russell and I know they aren’t at goal yet, but I haven’t seen them.

As I keep gliding suddenly I see Ron and Russell 700 feet above me a mile to my right more on the course line. They are just a little in front of me and now I’m sure that I have to keep gliding so that they don’t get into goal too far in front of me.

I glide for 10.5 miles in sixteen minutes averaging 39 mph over the ground. I tried to fly at the indicated best L/D speed over the ground. My average rate of sink over the last 10.5 miles was 220 fpm.

I came into Twin Oaks at 100 feet over the quarter mile cylinder and would have made the goal with zero altitude to spare. I didn’t speed up at the last minute I’ll tell you that.

I wonder what happened to the 1,250 feet of extra room over the best glide line. Was I just going too fast? Perhaps I should just have made sure that my air speed was 32 mph.

Ron and Russell are first and second into goal. I’m two minutes behind Ron. Paris uncharacteristically came in high behind me, but won the day as he started at 2:15 PM.

Terry and Dennis were able to get to goal also along with Dave Brandt. Campbell Bowen left to go to a wedding so he wasn’t here to fly the last three days of the meet. We will fly through Sunday.

Paris moved from third to first and Andreas moved from first to third. Terry Presley stayed in second.

Flex wings today:

Place	Name	Glider	Finish	Total
1	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	17:03:10	906
2	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	17:22:04	749
3	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed	17:22:36	737
4	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4		474
5	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700		333
6	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4		328
7	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3		238
8	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP		182
9	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2		163
9	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport		163
9	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon		163
9	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE		163
13	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax		0
13	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth		0

Flex wing total:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	2766
2	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	2656
3	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	2637
4	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed	2338
5	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	1747
6	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	1497
7	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	1352
8	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3	1336
9	MORRIS Dan	Wills Wing Talon	954
10	CIZAUSKAS Rich	Wills Wing FusionSP	783
11	BURICK Carl	Airborne Climax	765
12	BOUMEESTER Rik	Aeros Stealth	750
13	DUGGAN Dan	Icaro MR700WRE	569
14	GILLETTE Rhanor	Wills Wing Ultra Sport	163

Rigids today:

Place	Name	Glider	Time	mph	Total
1	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos C	2:59:52	17.03	1000
2	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	3:00:32	16.97	946
3	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	3:01:48	16.85	908
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	3:22:08	15.16	739
5	LAMB James	AIR Atos C			209
6	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	ABS		0

Rigids total:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	3146
2	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs GhostBuster	2923
3	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	2026
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	1988
5	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos	1829
6	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	1492

Discuss "Midwest Regionals – sunshine, cu’s, goal finishers" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Mon, Jun 9 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Andreas Olsson|Belinda Boulter|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carl Wallbank|cloud|competition|Dennis Pagen|gaggle|Ghostbuster|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Moyes Litespeed|Paris Williams|photo|Raven Sky Sports|Rik Bouwmeester|tail|Terry Presley|Wayne Sayer

http://www.flytec.com/mwregionals

Check out the photo gallery (http://flytec.com/mwregionals/gallery.html) and the animated track logs (Top Tracks button - you have to wait for a few minutes for them to begin animating).

With a strong west wind we initially call a 75 mile out and return due south (east takes us into Milwaukee). But as we get ready to launch this task looks less and less like a good idea given the winds. We quickly switch to a crossing tail wind 35 mile leg to the northeast, and then a final 50 mile leg north-northeast along the coast of Lake Superior. We’re hoping for a little bit of convergence from an on shore flow going against the strong west wind. Maybe just enough to cut down on wind speed.

The BLIPMAP forecasts 500-600 fpm lift (not climb rates) and 7,000’ cloud bases at 1 PM. It sure is looking a lot lower than that at noon, about 4,000’ MSL, and it’s not clear that it is going to get warm enough on the ground to get us that high.

Bo is off first at 12:20 and I’m right behind him. We’ve got 1 to 1:30 PM start window times with 15 minutes intervals. I climb out to cloud base at 4,400’ MSL and immediate head to the north to get at the top of the five mile start circle, so that I can be upwind of the northeast leg with the west, northwest wind.

I hang out there for almost an hour until finally Campbell Bowen, Terry Presley, Andreas Olsson, Wayne Sayer, and Dennis Pagen join me just before the 1:30 and last start time. Bo has already taken an earlier start time thinking that I went on course, when in fact I went five miles to the north. He’ll find himself out there alone.

Given the strong winds (measuring 16 mph), I am absolutely not going to get caught down wind of the first turnpoint and keep pushing north, assuming that I’ll drift to the east when ever I’m thermaling. The rest of the pilots started the task along the course line or down wind of it so we don’t ever see them.

Given my paranoia about not getting caught down wind, I’m soon on my own as the rest of the gaggle moves along the course line to the northeast, except for Campbell whose just south of me. Ten miles out I find myself down to 240’ AGL, but I’m in zero sink. The wind is blowing fiercely and this is usually a bad combination – light lift, strong winds, down low. But this time it works out as with a help of a couple of hawks I slowly climb out to 2,000’ AGL.

There are cu’s every where and the forecast was for strong lift, but other than right over Twin Oaks airport and Raven Sky Sports, the lift has been very light. I’d already warned myself that I had to be especially careful, now I had just been given another warning and a reprieve. Fifteen minutes later I was back down to 450’ AGL.

Two warning and now I was going to make sure that I started working weak lift a lot earlier and not wait until I got too low. The average rate of climb during the task for me was 150 fpm, which is pretty darn low. So much for the forecasted lift. I should have paid more heed to the FSL chart which showed that the lift wouldn’t be as strong as forecast by the BLIPMAP.

With more patience I spend more time in the weak lift (rarely finding any better) and start getting a lot higher. Still it takes a little over two hours to cover thirty five miles. Getting low really slows you down. Weak lift doesn’t help either.

I find the best thermal of the day right at the turnpoint northwest of Milwaukee, and climb to a little over 5,000’ MSL. Campbell Bowen joins me for the ride up, the first pilot I’ve seen in a while and when we head out we almost immediately catch up with Terry Presley and Andreas Olsson.

It’s great to have three more pilots to help out finding the lift and we worth together heading north-northwest trying to stay upwind of the course line. Campbell gets low about eight miles out from the turnpoint as the three of us head northwest to get on the front side of some clouds and avoid the blue hole to our north. This turns out to be a mistake and looking back on it we should have gone northeast to the clouds more on course line. We’re still trying to make our way upwind, when the winds have actually died down some.

It’s a long glide and Terry Presley gets a bit lower and lands. Andreas finds the light lift a mile behind me at 500’ and I go back to join him. The lift is extremely light and we spend the next twenty minutes gaining 2,000’. Andreas is about 500’ over my head having reached the lift first.

It’s now 6 PM and the day is dying. We are still more than 30 miles out. Terry Presley on the ground calls Belinda up and tells here how impressed he was with our low save and that Campbell is high to our east, more on the course line.

Andreas and I work out way slowly to the north working very light lift under any clouds we can get to, but they are drying up, there is cirrus overhead to the north, the sun is filtered and at about 25 miles out the cu’s give out. We land about two miles apart. Campbell is able to eek out another mile and a half not having to make the save that we did.

Flex wing round two:

Place	Name	Glider	miles	Total
1	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	62	900
2	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	53.1	813
3	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	42.9	697
4	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed 4	41.1	675
5	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	30.9	540
6	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3	22	430
6	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	21.9	430
8	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	19.9	400
9	MORRIS Dan		17.8	363
10	BURICK Carl		16.2	331
11	BOUMEESTER Rik		15.5	316
12	CIZAUSKAS Rick		7.3	131
13	DUGGAN Dan		0	0

Cumulative:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	OLSSON Andreas	Moyes Litespeed 4	1556
2	PRESLEY Terry	Moyes Litespeed 4	1301
3	WILLIAMS Paris	Aeros Combat	1287
4	PAGEN Dennis	Moyes Litespeed 4	1059
5	GRZYB Krzysztof	Icaro MRX700	841
6	SAYER Wayne	Moyes Litespeed 3	831
7	GOODMAN Bubba	Moyes Litespeed 4	753
8	HAGEWOOD Robert	Aeros Combat 2	752
9	MORRIS Dan		524
10	BURICK Carl		498
11	BOUMEESTER Rik		483
12	CIZAUSKAS Rick		334
13	DUGGAN Dan		139

Rigid wings, round two:

Place	Name	Glider	miles	Total
1	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	63.4	900
2	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	60.3	868
3	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs Ghostbuster	32.2	501
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	22	385
5	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos-C	19.9	358
6	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	12.6	239

Cumulative:

Place	Name	Glider	Total
1	BOWEN Campbell	Flight Designs Axxess +	1800
2	STRAUB Davis	AIR Atos C	1768
3	BROWN Russ	Flight Designs Ghostbuster	1400
4	BRANDT Dave	AIR Atos	877
5	LAMB James	AIR Atos C	731
6	GLEASON Ron	AIR Atos-C	565

Discuss "Midwest Regionals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Wed, May 14 2003, 7:00:00 pm GMT

Carl Wallbank|FAI|Gordon Rigg|landing|record|Steve Elkins|Trevor Birkbeck|triangle|XC

Gordon Rigg writes:

The XC conditions have been good in UK as well (as Germany)

Carl Walbank, Litespeed, 227km stopped by the North Sea while still at 5000ft (UK open dist record is 252km).

Gordon Rigg, Litespeed, the same 140 km goal on the North Sea coast twice in two weeks, plus a 91 km FAI triangle before Easter

Steve Elkins, (ATOS-C), 110 km FAI triangle same place same day landing at 7.00pm (2 weeks before Easter!)

Trevor Birkbeck, Aeros, 140km stopped by the north sea same day as Gordon's goal the second time.

With the exception of the triangle day the winds have generally been a bit strong for the paragliders who must be sick as parrots!

(England 5 Germany 1, just in case anyone forgot!)

Discuss "Spring flying in rainy old England" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Thu, Feb 13 2003, 5:00:05 pm GMT

Bogong Cup 2003|Carl Wallbank|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Oleg Bondarchuck|Paris Williams|Richard Walbec

The WPR ranking system (see the next article) is a big improvement on the existing WPRS ranking system. It more accurately reflects flex wing pilot skills and accomplishments in competition flying. Still it, like the WPRS, gives an unreasonable and unjustified bonus to pilots who attend the Worlds and European championships.

This unfairly penalizes pilots who don’t attend these competitions especially non Europeans. As you can imagine some European pilots are happy to keep the system of extra credit for them just the way it is.

What would you say if the pilot placing 33^rd in the 2001 Worlds (Richard Walbec* - http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultadosing.htm) got WPRS ranking points equal to what Oleg Bondarchuck got winning the 2003 Bogong Cup against top ranked European, Australian and US competition, including Richard who was 21^st? Would that be fair? That’s what happens now.

Would it be fair for Carl Wallbank* who placed 14^th in the 2002 Europeans (http://events.fai.org/eurohg2002/results2002/results2002.htm) to get as many WPR points for this achievement as Kraig Coomber got for first place in the 2002 Australian Nationals beating Oleg, Paris, Gerolf, Jon Durand, Rohan, Gordon, Antoine, Richard, and many other top ranked pilots? Well this is the existing WPR system (see article below).

If you think that this is fair then you’ll be in favor of our existing pilot ranking systems. If you think this stinks, then all we need to do is get rid of the 25% bonus in the WPR system and go to it leaving the WPRS system behind.

(* the positions and names used above are my best guess at how the two systems would allocate points. Any corrections are appreciated.)

Discuss "Artificial bonuses distort the flex wing world pilot ranking" at the Oz Report forum   link»