Oz Report
topic: Chris Arai
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Chris Arai in Forbes
Chris Arai in Forbes
In 1994
Chris Arai|dust devil|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann
https://ozreport.com/toc.php?25.016#0
Chris Arai writes:
Certainly sounds like my lockout minus the full kite loop. This was a combo of errors. Bad radio, complicated tow releases, no tow car mounted release.
I was towing with Pete Lehmann, Chris & Willie Muller with Vincene driving. Willie connected my release to the tow line, but there was a way that it could be connected such that it made it difficult (impossible) to release. I didn't double check it. On launch I almost immediately started to lockout left. I radioed to stop, but Vincene heard "go, go!", probably due to a bad radio setup. I yanked on the release a couple time and it didn't let go. I then let go of the bar and grabbed the release with both hands, knowing that doing so would mean I had no idea where the bar would be as the tow line was not in line with the glider travel direction. An "all you are worth" yank snapped the weak link and fortunately for me the recoil rotated me to where I could reach the bar. While this was going on I was thinking "I'm going to pile into the cars behind the line." Fortunately I had enough height to finish the left turn, miss the cars and "did a perfect crosswind landing".
It all happened so fast that I hadn't really had time to get worked up about it. That is until people came running over and I saw the expressions on their faces and realized how close it had been.
It was a real exercise in staying calm and focusing to make it that day after surviving the lockout. I think it took me 3 tries to get out of the paddock. I was so late that they had pulled up the goal line, so the lolly gagging, beer drinking pilots at goal made a note of my finish time. One of the interesting features about that year at Hay is that it was drought year; dead sheep in the paddock and fine dust every where. During practice I had noticed that dust devils were leaving tracks on the ground in the dust. One low save on this flight was because I followed one of the dustie trails and a thermal was triggering in the same spot.
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4 topics in this article: Chris Arai, dust devil, Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann, Pete Lehmann
Chris Arai and his fireproof home
Chris Arai and his fireproof home
Watch the embers fly
Chris Arai|video
https://www.yahoo.com/news/engineer-spent-15-years-fireproofing-174700014.html
Engineer Chris Arai has spent more than 15 years fireproofing his Sonoma County home, outfitting it with a gas-powered sprinkler system, flame-repellant window gel, and a concrete basement he poured by hand.
When the Kincade Fire ripped through Arai's rural community last year, the engineer's home was the only one that survived the blaze.
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2 topics in this article: Chris Arai, video
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »
Ends with a bit of a whimper
(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/flex/daily/day5.html
Last day with no one at goal:
1. | Michael Bilyk | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 44.0km | 589.69 |
2. | Oyvind Ellefsen | Nor | Moyes Rs 3.5 | 42.9km | 579.69 |
3. | Larry Bunner | Usa | Will Wing T2C 144 | 42.4km | 574.96 |
4. | Joe Bostik | Cze | Wills Wing T2C144 | 42.4km | 574.69 |
5. | Bill Soderquist | Usa | Moyes Rs 3.5 | 41.7km | 564.73 |
6. | Rudy Gotés | Mex | Moyes RX 3.5 | 41.6km | 562.70 |
7. | Mitch Shipley | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 40.7km | 546.35 |
8. | Chris Arai | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 154 | 39.8km | 528.52 |
9. | Kraig Coomber | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 39.2km | 516.29 |
10. | Robin Hamilton | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 | 37.9km | 490.73 |
Overdevelopment (as forecast) puts shading all over and a bit of rain to the south of the course line. The day ends up shaded and weak.
The final results:
1. | Kraig Coomber | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 4371.35 |
2. | Robin Hamilton | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 | 4320.71 |
3. | Michael Bilyk | Usa | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 4235.36 |
4. | Jon Durand | Aus | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 3961.66 |
5. | Olav Opsanger | Nor | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 3885.14 |
6. | Zac Majors | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 3697.50 |
7. | Bruce Barmakian | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 136 | 3691.22 |
8. | Rudy Gotés | Mex | Moyes RX 3.5 | 3573.95 |
9. | Chris Arai | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 154 | 3275.58 |
10. | James Stinnett | Usa | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 3138.43 |
The Moyes men clean up.
Cory Barnwell wins sport class with a bit of strategy starting early in the open launch and getting out on the course before it gets shut down.
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/daily/day5.html
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/day-by-day.html
Brian Porter hangs on to win the Swift class after a scare from Chris Zimmerman.
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/open/total/day5.html
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11 topics in this article: Øyvind Ellefsen, Bill Soderquist, Brian Porter, James Stinnett, Joe Bostik, Kraig Coomber, Larry Bunner, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014, Wills Wing, Zac Majors
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race
Day 3, cu's galore
(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)
Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Flytec 6030|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/
The remnants of the hurricane left the area leaving behind enough moisture that we had good looking cu's starting around 9:30 am and lasting all day. The forecast is for the moisture to hang around for a few more days so perhaps we'll have more cu's on Friday and Saturday.
With light to no winds in the forecast, cu's, cloud base maybe up to 7,000' and moderately good lift we called a task back and forth for 60 miles:
The sport class had a smaller version of this task.
We started launching at 12:30 PM with the first start window at 1:50 PM. The lift was light at first but as we got higher it improved until we were all above 6,000' just staying out of the cu's. We would find 200 to 300 fpm near cloud base, nothing to suck us up into the cloud.
Not much of a start at 1:50 as we got low, so almost everyone came back and found much better lift and took the 2:10 start time. There were cu's every where on the course.
I was high next to Zac and we raced as fast as possible to the Casa Grande mountain but the lift there was piss poor. We were working junk when my vario died. Turns out I had created the perfect storm to cause the battery to be flat.
I had installed a 16 GB SD card that also serves as a wifi server in my Flytec 6030 (allowing me to transmit track logs to my phone where they can be emailed to the scorekeeper). The server portion turns off after 5 minutes to keep the battery from being drained if it doesn't hook up with a client. But, I had placed my phone in my boot and turned it on to run the Livetracker24 app with the phone plugged into an add on battery. Previously I had used a dedicated tracker24 but Belinda was complaining that it would die after an hour.
But I had mistakenly left the wifi setting turned on on the phone so that the phone and the wifi server on the SD card in the 6030 were communicating and keeping the wifi server running and running down the battery.
With the 6030 dead I headed back toward the Francisco Grande hoping to get there high enough to land and leave my glider set up. I landed about a kilometer short and hiked the glider back.
Meanwhile pilots who weren't fooling around with wifi servers in their 6030's were out on the course and doing well. We got to see Kraig, then Bruce, then Robin all come in far ahead of the other pilots.
All and all a great flying day after two days of not flying.
# | Pilot | Team | Glider | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Kraig Coomber | USA | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 2874.23 |
2. | Robin Hamilton | USA | Moyes RX 3.5 | 2853.87 |
3. | Michael Bilyk | USA | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 2669.18 |
4. | Rudy Gotés | MEX | Moyes RX 3.5 | 2524.98 |
5. | Jon Durand | AUS | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 2494.27 |
6. | Olav Opsanger | NOR | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 2431.27 |
7. | Bruce Barmakian | USA | Wills Wing T2C 136 | 2388.53 |
8. | Matt Barker | USA | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 2309.79 |
9. | Zac Majors | USA | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 2308.08 |
10. | Chris Arai | USA | Wills Wing T2C 154 | 2267.69 |
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11 topics in this article: Belinda Boulter, Bruce Barmakian, Chris Arai, Flytec 6030, Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr, Kraig Coomber, Robin Hamilton, Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014, Wills Wing, Wills Wing T2C, Zac Majors
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race
After two days
(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)
Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors
Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Chris Arai|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/
1. | Robin Hamilton | Moyes RX 3.5 | 1875.36 |
2. | Kraig Coomber | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 1874.23 |
3. | Michael Bilyk | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 1839.52 |
4. | Jon Durand | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 1701.51 |
5. | Rudy Gotés | Moyes RX 3.5 | 1684.46 |
6. | Olav Opsanger | Moyes RX 3.5 Technora | 1644.77 |
7. | Chris Arai | Wills Wing T2C 154 | 1581.40 |
8. | Zac Majors | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 1538.76 |
9. | Dustin Martin | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 1492.31 |
10. | James Stinnett | Wills Wing T2C 144 | 1480.66 |
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6 topics in this article: Dustin Martin, James Stinnett, Kraig Coomber, Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014, Wills Wing, Zac Majors
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race »
Day two
2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race
September 15, 2014, 6:26:02 pm MSTA.I.R. ATOS VR|Chris Arai|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mike Glennon|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014
(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)
http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/
Jonny Durand writes:
Day 2 100km triangle with about twenty pilots making goal! Kraig wins the day ahead of Robin with Chris Arai in 3rd just in front of me. Five Moyes Boys in the top six today.
The task for open class and Swifts and Jim Yocom on an ATOS VR:
In the morning it looks like we'll get to over 8,000', with light or no winds, and no cu's. We up the task length and call for an earlier start to give us more time to complete the task before every thing closes down around 5 PM. The task committee sends the pilots along the freeway, but first to Casa Grande mountain, to the range just north of I 10. Then back to the flats for the weak lift before heading over town and back to the hotel.
The sport class pilots have an out and return also, going to Meyer, which we will also fly over, and over and back over Casa Grande mountain, which should help out.
My forecast said that there would not be a strong inversion and pilots get up right away starting at 12:30 PM. Launch goes very quickly and with no wind and a two kilometer start cylinder pilots stay pretty close and work the good lift to first 6,500', then 7,000', then 8,300' just before the first start window at 1:50 PM.
Most of us are high and we head out to Casa Grande mountain. There is a bit of lift before the hills, and when we get there the lift is not great but pilots seem to want to hang in it. I spot a small cu' high overhead on the south end of the range and decide to go for it. After a bit of a search I hook into 900 fpm. I quickly become an attractive nuisance and the guys now below me race to the south. There are a few above me who came in high to the mountain and watched what happened below.
I leave at 8,700' following four or five pilots who are higher and head along I 10 shading to the north to get back on the course line. The guys ahead find 600 fpm in the flats and we all get high again. It looks like an easy day.
Way to the south we can see cu-nimbs making a line from west to east, the edge of the hurricane. There are also high clouds spreading out to the north from the development to our south.
Another strong climb with the lead gaggle just over my head and then it's time to head into the mountain range to our east. The edge of the 10 km turnpoint cylinder is just on the south end of the range. There are bits of lift going into the mountain and I don't spend too much time working them as there are cu's over the range. I find a little over 300 fpm (it was much better out on the flats not under cu's) to back over 8,000' as I work the range with a few other pilots just overhead. I think I'm with Chris Arai.
We head off to the northwest to the next turnpoint at LaPalma out in the flats. It's a sixteen kilometer glide without any lift to the turnpoint and I'm down to 3,600' before I find the weak lift just past the turnpoint. Half a dozen pilots are higher and working this weak stuff as well as similar stuff in the neighborhood. The shading from the overdevelopment from the south is suppressing the lift.
I think I'm low but then Larry Bunner and another pilot come in at 2,000' just below us. They are able to find weak lift and dig their way out of there.
I move from weak thermal to weak thermal between 4,000' and 5,500' until I finally find a consistent core at 250-300 fpm. There is a bird down low turning and three more come in under me. As I climb up Mike Glennon comes back to join me in the better lift and we climb to 7,400' which is plenty to get into goal.
Plenty of pilots at goal. Most are breaking down as there may be wind tonight.
Sport class pilots make it back to goal also.
7 topics in this article: A.I.R. ATOS VR, Chris Arai, Jim Yocom, Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr, Larry Bunner, Mike Glennon, Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014
Chris Arai is back
Chris Arai is back
Flying with his Tangent flight instrument
(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)
Chris Arai|Wills Wing
Chris Arai|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C
Chris Arai|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C
And a Wills Wing T2C 154:
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2 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Wills Wing
A good sport in sport class
The 1989 Manufacturer's League Meet at Pine Mountain in Oregon
Chris Arai|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Josef "Joe" "Hangczech" Bostik|Kari Castle|Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson
It was the summer of 1989 and I had just flown my second cross country flight ever. I had purchased a used Wills Wing Euro Sport and flown twenty nine miles from Chelan Butte past Mansfield. (My previous cross country flight was on a Pacific Airwaves Vision 20, twelve miles north from Chelan, a year earlier.)
I headed south with my driver to Oregon from Seattle and hooked up with the Wills Wing pilots because I had a truck and a driver and they didn't.
Obviously we all had king posted gliders because there weren't any topless gliders then. I had an intermediate glider but Joe Bostik had won the Nationals previously flying a Sport (it's a long story).
There were seventy five pilots at this high end competition including Mark Newland from Australia (who would eventually win the competition), Mark Gibson, Kari Castle, Jim Lee, Chris Arai, Randy Haney, Larry Tudor, Kenny Brown, and numerous other top pilots. This was one of the big competitions held in the US and I went to it just because it was nearby. All the top pilots from the Pacific Northwest were also there.
Now as a neophyte I was in a competition with experienced pilots but we were flying similar gliders even if mine was not the top end king posted glider. I had Joe's example to refer to. It was possible then to fly in a open class competition with equipment that was similar to that used by the best pilots. I didn't feel that I was greatly disadvantaged by my equipment.
On the first day the goal was seventy five miles to the east. I was the last one to make goal. I had about tripled my longest distance. I continued to do relatively well on the following days, and when the goal was a little over hundred miles to the south almost to Lakeview, I landed just short after climbing to by far my highest point by then, 15,000'. Ken Brown spent the night out next to an alkali lake as we had traveled far over areas that were not that accessible.
I ended up in twenty fifth place out of seventy five surpassing all my "flying buddies" from Washington state.
Things have changed since then. That's why we have Sport Class now. The idea is to have competitions that allow for equipment that isn't the top of the line and promote access to competitions for pilots who have less experience and don't fly on the open class circuit.
It is the fact that things have changed that requires that we support Sport Class and the competition venue it provides to pilots who have less resources and time to devote to competition.
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7 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Jim Lee, Joe Bostik, Josef "Joe" "Hangczech" Bostik, Kari Castle, Kendrick "Ken/Kenny" Brown, Mark "Gibbo" Gibson
Design job opportunity
Design job opportunity
Small devices
Chris Arai
Chris Arai <<araidesi_catchall>> writes:
I have a friend that is looking for someone who has experience in interaction/interface design for a startup hardware company.
A deliberately vague job description:
Active device user that understands the needs of small devices used in sporting environments. Ability to design, articulate and document the parameters of an interface. San Mateo, CA. Immediate opening for a 3-4 month opportunity.
Send a resume to <david>.
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1 topic in this article: Chris Arai
Cloudsuck, chapter 5 »
I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season
Brad Koji|Chris Arai|Cloudsuck|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Larry Tudor|Oleg Bondarchuck|record
Many pilots wonder what it really takes to set a world record. Some wonder what it's like to fly at a place like Zapata or other world class sites. Cloudsuck answers these and other questions while telling the story of how I set the current Distance World Record for Rigid Wings. Over this winter, I am pleased to make the book available as a gift to my readers in serialized form. Each Monday, another chapter will be available for you to enjoy here on the Oz Report. The best read is the one in it's entirety, and both the soft cover book and an ebook are available to purchase here: https://OzReport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can find the Kindle version on Amazon.
If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: https://OzReport.com/docs/Cloudsuck5.pdf
I hope you enjoy the book and this week's chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
The Cauldron from Hell
Albuquerque sits at about six thousand feet on the valley floor of the Rio Grande River, with ten thousand-foot Sandia Peak towering above it just to the east. The city can grow only so far eastward before it's stopped by topography; Indian ownership of the lands at the base (and perhaps the face) of the mountain adds another barrier.
Access to Sandia Peak is made convenient by a tramway that hauls tourists, hikers, mountain bikers, and hang glider pilots up to the restaurant and launch at the top. The east side of the mountain is a gentle, tree covered ski area. The west is a precipice, the sharp edge of an up-thrusted plate.
As you look down from the windows of the tram car you see pinnacles and sharp ridges of rock with debris below. Amongst the trees below the rocks, pieces of a passenger jet that crashed into the mountainside years ago are still visible. You can’t help but wonder whether searchers would find your remains if you were to meet a similar fate.
The hang glider launch next to the restaurant starts with a steep slope for thirty feet, then drops off sharply five hundred feet down a cliff face. The prevailing winds come out of the west, smashing against the cliff face. It often gets too windy to fly. Light winds — or no winds at all — are ideal for hang gliding here. You’d like the thermals generated from the valley floor to be guided gently to the mountainside and finally to the launch, maintaining a usable shape instead of being blown to shreds.
As you look out from the launch to your right, you see a series of pinnacles and rock faces that form the edge of a bowl and then march off to the west toward the bottom of the tramway. This line of pinnacles makes a natural thermal generator, even for pilots who are low. But being low behind those towers gives even experienced pilots pause. This is the cauldron from hell.
Tight, strong thermals forming on the pinnacles and mixing with the winds — especially when there is a bit of north in the winds — produce some of the most turbulent air that anyone hang glides in voluntarily. But all too often this is where you have to go if you want to get up at Sandia Peak. When there isn't a big thermal coming up the bowl in front of launch — and often there isn't — you fly off to the right if you want to stay up.
I was back in Albuquerque in June 1998 for my fifth time at the Sandia Classic, a national level competition, so I had no excuses about not knowing any better. I actively disliked flying Sandia's west face, but was more than happy to be up and over the back, flying east over the high desert flatlands of central New Mexico. In 1998 most pilots thought that terrible turbulence was the price we had to pay, to get high enough to fly in the areas really conducive to long cross-country flights. But the recent long flights in Florida were beginning to prove us wrong.
We were here in early June because later in July the monsoon rains would come to New Mexico. Moisture would swirl up from the south then, causing overdevelopment and dangerous thunderstorms. Even the desert has its comparatively rainy season. But June was the end of the dry season, and the desert was brown.
The setup area behind the launch was limited, so only sixty pilots could fly in the Sandia Classic — but this year only thirty pilots were competing. Since this was one of four U.S. national competitions, all the top competition pilots were here, hoping to earn enough points to make the U.S. National Team. Other pilots, having experienced Sandia’s turbulence, had elected not to return.
Larry Tudor was here. So were Chris Arai and Jim Lee from the Wills Wing team. Brad Koji, another National Team pilot, was flying with Larry on the newly formed Icaro 2000 sponsored team. I had first met all these guys at the 1989 Manufacturer's League meet in Lakeview, and by now they were familiar faces.
This was the first big competition of the year. We were all having a good time, setting up our gliders down behind the launch, renewing our acquaintance with old friends we hadn’t seen since the previous year. No one was in a hurry. Kari Castle took a photo of Brad and me talking strategy..
Brad was the star of the “Front Range” pilots, the guys who flew on the eastern side of the Rockies from sites near Golden and Boulder. Small and thin, the quiet spoken Brad had left his wife and two kids at home to join in the camaraderie found among the nation’s top hang glider pilots. His jovial good spirits made light of the scary moments that we would face soon in front of the mountain.
On that first day the task was a dogleg over the back, northeast about thirty miles to the small town of Lamy, then south along Highway 285 to Clines Corners on Interstate 40. With a predicted wind of fifteen to twenty miles per hour out of the south later that afternoon, it would be hard for the competitors to get to goal from the turnpoint.
The trees on the back of Sandia Peak stop at the base of the mountain, where the brown desert takes over as you head to Lamy. In the higher spots you’ll find thick patches of juniper, but mostly it’s sagebrush and cholla cactus. The cacti are usually far enough apart that they don’t present too great a hindrance if you have to land out.
Conditions that day had started out uninspiring, with cloudbase a thousand feet below the launch at the peak, putting us in fog as we had set up. We expected cloudbase to rise during the day, but it looked as though it wouldn’t be getting very high. We were used to climbing up to almost eighteen thousand feet out to the east of Sandia. This was normally a place where we used a lot of oxygen.
It wasn’t until late in the day, around three PM, that pilots were able to get up to thirteen thousand feet — only three thousand over launch — and head east over the back toward Lamy. At about five o’clock Oleg Bondarchuck, a top Ukrainian pilot, and Brad Koji were near Lamy at about ten thousand feet.
Continue reading here: https://OzReport.com/docs/Cloudsuck5.pdf.
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8 topics in this article: Brad Koji, Chris Arai, Cloudsuck, Jim Lee, Kari Castle, Larry Tudor, Oleg Bondarchuck, record
Cloudsuck, chapter 3 »
Cloudsuck, chapter 3
I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season
Bill Moyes|Bobby Bailey|Chris Arai|Cloudsuck|Dragonfly|record
Many pilots wonder what it really takes to set a world record. Some wonder what it's like to fly at a place like Zapata or other world class sites. Cloudsuck answers these and other questions while telling the story of how I set the current Distance World Record for Rigid Wings. Over this winter, I am pleased to make the book available as a gift to my readers in serialized form. Each Monday, another chapter will be available for you to enjoy here on the Oz Report. The best read is the one in it's entirety, and both the soft cover book and an ebook are available to purchase here: http://ozreport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can find the Kindle version on Amazon.
If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck3.pdf
I hope you enjoy the book and this week's chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Over the next five years I flew in as many hang gliding competitions as possible in Chelan and in the high mountains throughout the west — after all, I still had to run my far flung computing empire back in Seattle. For sure I was not one of the top pilots, not even close. But I could rationalize that I only spent a few weeks each year competing. Still I loved the sport, and I had a great time hanging out with my buds when we’d join up at some odd mountainside.
In those years the national level competitions were held again in Dinosaur; repeatedly at Sandia Peak above Albuquerque, New Mexico; in the Owens Valley ; from Sugar Mountain just over the California border from Lakeview, Oregon; at Chelan Butte in Washington State; and in Telluride, Colorado. All the big U.S. competitions took place out West in the deserts, in the big air conditions. Year after year you'd find us launching off the sides of high, craggy mountains in the heat of the day.
In 1994 we held the national championships in Telluride, Colorado, an out-of-the-way but fashionable ski resort town. Of all the crazy and dangerous places that we could put on a nationals, this place had to be the worst — still, it was so over the top that we really liked it. I’d flown there in a national level meet before, so I knew was I was getting into.
To get us to the top, they’d take us up these steep gravel ski hill service roads in old pickups that were way too top heavy when loaded down with hang gliders. You could just imagine the driver missing a gear or going a little too close to the edge, and the truck with all those gliders on top rolling down the steep mountainside, throwing out hang glider pilots with each flip. They had done just that in the past.
We were launching from over twelve thousand feet, way up near the top of the ski runs and three thousand feet above the valley floor. Up that high the air is so thin that it’s actually quite difficult to get a hang glider to start flying; there just aren’t enough air molecules to support the glider’s weight unless you are going fast. It takes a long run down a steep hillside to get up enough airspeed to get airborne. You start off with your oxygen bottle already turned on and then you climb out in a thermal to eighteen thousand feet, sucking in oxygen as fast as possible.
It was hard just climbing on foot the last few hundred feet up the hillside to the launch from the end of the service road, especially with 125 pounds of hang glider and gear. Then you’d set up on a slope you could just barely stand on, it was so steep. It was great to be surrounded by such natural beauty.
The San Juan Mountains around Telluride are so steep and the valleys so narrow that any wind is extremely dangerous. Often during the meet I would fly out across the valley to get up on the other side, next to the sheer cliffs. I’d be circling up within a few feet of the rocky face and, so help me, holding on as hard as possible, hoping the powerful and swirling thermals didn't decide to flip me over.
I’d finally climb up above the rocks and get on top of the ridge line still going up fast, but at least not in any danger of hitting anything. I’d look around and all I’d see would be trees. Of course, this was high in the Rocky Mountains, so there were trees everywhere, and nowhere to land out on the course line but in those trees. I’d just better get high. It was incredibly thrilling.
Douglas fir and pine trees are no fun to land in. There is nothing to hold on to. You clip the top of the tree and then go for a fast ride to the ground fifty or a hundred feet below.
I was a last-minute replacement on the Wills Wing team at that particular meet, so that meant that I was the “rabbit.” They would send me off early to see if I could stay up. If I could, then I would report back about the conditions. If I did well, great. If not, the other team members would get the points for the team.
I lived through that meet and so did everyone else, but we never went back there to have a national level meet again.
In 1995 I read Chris Arai’s story about the magnificent flying down in Australia, the land that produces many of the world's leading hang glider pilots. His story also spoke about how terrible the conditions had been that year, with a drought until the day the meet started, then floods that wiped out the tow paddock. That’s Australia for you.
Still, I got excited about the prospects of flying during our wintertime, so the following December I took the opportunity to head south for six weeks of full time hang gliding on the Australian summer competition circuit. I'd recently finished a best selling computer book, Windows 95 Secrets, so I could afford to take some time off before starting in on the next one.
Consider this. Australia has a land mass about equal that of the U.S. and a population of competition hang glider pilots about equal to that found in the U.S., but with less than a tenth of the overall population. Ten times the enthusiasm! Here in this land devoted to sport, hang gliding isn't thought of as an activity for crazies only, but a legitimate form of recreation.
Over ninety percent of Australians live within an hour of the ocean, and water sports are an integral part of the lives of many Australians. Many find time to surf, leaving their offices to hit the waves when it is on. Hang gliding started as an adjunct to water skiing here in the sixties then grew into a sport whose participants took off from cliffs overlooking the ocean.
Later it moved into the flat interior, with hang gliders towed up behind cars. Things got even better when pilots recognized that ultralights (light experimental aircraft) could be used to tow up hang gliders. Bill Moyes, the founder of Australia's leading hang glider manufacturer, went further and worked with Bobby Bailey in Florida to produce an ultralight specifically built as a hang glider tow vehicle, the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly. This only encouraged more flying in the flatlands to the west of Australia’s Great Dividing Range.
Continue reading here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck3.pdf.
6 topics in this article: Bill Moyes, Bobby Bailey, Chris Arai, Cloudsuck, Dragonfly, record
Cloudsuck, chapter 2 »
Cloudsuck, chapter 2
I serialize Cloudsuck for the winter season
Chris Arai|Cloudsuck|Joe Bostik|Ken Brown|Larry Tudor|record
Many pilots wonder what it really takes to set a world record. Some wonder what it's like to fly at a place like Zapata or other world class sites. Cloudsuck answers these and other questions while telling the story of how I set the current Distance World Record for Rigid Wings. Over this winter, I am pleased to make the book available as a gift to my readers in serialized form. Each Monday, another chapter will be available for you to enjoy here on the Oz Report. The best read is the one in it's entirety, and both the soft cover book and an ebook are available to purchase here: http://ozreport.com/cloudsuck.php. You can find the Kindle version on Amazon.
If you enjoy the serialized installments, you may wish to skip the text below and jump directly to this week's chapter, including any graphics or pictures here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck2.pdf
I hope you enjoy the book and this week's chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I got my own first taste of long-distance hang gliding at the 1989 Manufacturers' League Meet at Pine Mountain, Oregon. Twenty miles east of the resort town of Bend and on the dry side of the Cascades, Pine Mountain rises three thousand feet above the surrounding flat desert, a perfect spot for a hang gliding competition. The launch area was a broad, gentle slope, facing into predominantly west winds.
My first short cross-country flights had taken place the previous summer, from Chelan Butte in central Washington State. These were truly short flights — in fact it was only a month before the League Meet that I had actually flown further than eleven miles. It had taken three years of baby steps for me to progress from running with a hang glider down a small training hill to flying any distance at all.
The League Meet was one of four top U.S. hang gliding competitions that year. Although I had no competition experience, this meet was taking place only a seven hour drive from my home in Seattle. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to gain some cross-country experience so I figured, why not join in the fun?
That June I had purchased a used Wills Wing Sport 167. Although not a top of the line hang glider, the Sport was a significant step up in performance from my previous wing. Larry’s buddy, Czechoslovakian immigrant pilot Joe Bostik, had won the U.S. Nationals on a Sport the summer before. And on my first flight with it from Chelan Butte, I had flown further than ever before, about 25 miles. I was so exhilarated after the premature end to that flight that my mind was still racing. It was clear to me this — flying across country on a hang glider — was all I really wanted to do.
The League Meet attracted all the top U.S. and Canadian hang glider pilots, plus a number of highly-ranked competitors from Europe and Australia. Everyone came to show off the new gliders from their sponsoring manufacturers. There was (and still is) very little money to support these few top pilots, but they do get to fly the latest models, which helps them maintain their positions in the world rankings.
I was a clueless nobody who was about to get a great education, even though it would take me a good number of years to appreciate those lessons. I brought my new 4Runner that sported a large rack, along with my neighbor Stephanie to act as a dedicated driver — and these resources were in short supply. As luck would have it, I was able to hook up with the elite Wills Wing team, ranked first in the U.S., who were looking for just what this little twerp had to offer.
With the Wills Wing team in my truck, I got to listen in on the ride back as Larry Tudor, Chris Arai, and Randy Haney discussed their flights and tactics. It was way too much for me to understand.
The first day's task was a seventy-five mile race to the east, following Highway 20 to the truck stop at Riley on Silver Creek. Here Highway 395, winding its way up the eastern side of the Sierras from Southern California through the Owens Valley and the eastern deserts of Oregon, joined Highway 20 and jogs east to Burns before continuing north. Silver Creek provided an oasis in this sagebrush country, a swath of green visible from many miles away if you were high in a hang glider.
The thermals that got us above launch and over the top of Pine Mountain couldn't have been friendlier. I looked out for the first time on that big expanse of sagebrush, and was just happy to see that I could follow Highway 20 as I flew east. I had no idea how far seventy-five miles was in a hang glider. There were already plenty of faster pilots out in front of me; I figured all I had to do was look for where they were circling up and I'd probably find the next thermal.
I struggled, flying from gaggle to gaggle and getting further and further behind, but making my way over that bewildering eastern Oregon landscape. It was three hours later when a fast pilot (who had obviously taken a later start time) joined in me in a thermal and then quickly dove off to the west. “Where is he going so fast?” I wondered as I kept circling up.
Oh — oh — there a little to my east I saw not brown desert but this long thin stretch of green around a wandering creek. Uh, let's see, just what is that, oh, wait, it — no, yes it is — it must be goal. Perhaps I'd turned in too many circles, because it took a while to realize I was already there.
I was the last pilot able to make it to goal on that first day, and there were quite a few who didn’t make it that far. I was happy just to be there at all, having flown three times farther than I'd ever flown before. Again, it was all too much for me to absorb. I was delirious.
I continued to fly well beyond my experience level for the next few days, scoring in the upper third of the pilots at the meet. Then on the fifth day the meet director called a 98-mile task south, across an area with only a few gravel roads, to Valley Falls. The goal was a hay field next to an old gas station at the intersection of Highways 31 and 395, only thirty miles north of the Oregon/California border. It was the longest task yet called in a hang gliding meet, from central Oregon to almost California.
With no easy overland route over the back of Pine Mountain and through the Deschutes National Forest, Stephanie would have to take my truck back into Bend and then south on Highway 97. She could veer off to the southeast on Highway 31 and, I hoped, get close enough to hear me calling on the CB radio by the time I was sixty miles or so out on course. This was assuming I could get that far, and was high enough at the time to have decent radio communication.
The early going was really tough. I wasn’t getting high over the mountain, and had to drift downwind in the weak lift that rose off the mountain’s eastern flanks. Dropping below the low hillcrests, I was searching everywhere for less sink — or better yet some air going up. I followed a low ridge line hoping to catch something coming up its sides. I just didn’t want to lose the race so early, and was desperate to get up.
At the last minute, just before I had no choice but to set up a landing, I found a weak thermal over the ridge that slowly got me up out of that sink hole. Later I learned I had been lucky: much more experienced and expert pilots than I was had not gotten away from the mountain on that day.
To the south there were broad areas of old lava flows heated by the sun and small buttes of warm rocks that provided the necessary lift. As the day got later it got better. Since I had no way to contact Stephanie until we got closer together — and no idea how to describe where I was if I should have to land — I was happy just to stay as high as possible and keep going.
The first inhabited spot to the south was Christmas Valley, a small dry farming community forty miles from Pine Mountain; I found myself there working low over dusty plowed fields. At least I could see civilization nearby a few miles to the west, so I knew I wouldn't die of thirst out in the desert if I couldn’t get up. A few thousand feet over the ground, I dove for a tractor working a circular field, and sure enough there was a thermal right over the farmer's head. That thermal took me high enough to get up into the gray, brown and empty hills to the southeast, following a dirt road up the swales.
I knew I had left my chances of reasonable retrieval behind as I worked back into the hills with nothing but jeep trails crossing them. Later I learned that Ken Brown, a highly-respected U.S. pilot, had landed in those very hills and spent the night sleeping in his harness next to an alkali lake. But when I got there I found the strongest thermal of the day and started climbing out fast.
I just hung on as this fat powerful monster took me from six thousand feet to fourteen thousand in just a few minutes. As I looked down, the landscape seemed to have lost all of its features. I had never been so high before, having barely reached ten thousand feet while flying in Chelan. I wasn't carrying oxygen, didn't own an oxygen system, and couldn't imagine getting high enough here in Oregon to need one. I had never been in a thermal so powerful, and I was scared, holding on for dear life. I was also so excited I could hardly stand it. Most of all I was happy to be high enough to cruise way over the tops of the big buttes in front of me, south along the western edge of Lake Abert and on down the ridgeline toward goal.
Finally I had to leave at almost fifteen thousand feet, when I started to experience symptoms of oxygen starvation — there were little black spots wherever I looked. I was still scared, but I was high and freezing cold. And I was even finally able to raise Stephanie on my portable CB radio. She wasn't but thirty miles behind me, driving as fast as she could down Highway 31. It looked as though I would survive this day — and maybe even make goal.
Continue reading here: http://ozreport.com/docs/Cloudsuck2.pdf.
6 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Cloudsuck, Joe Bostik, Ken Brown, Larry Tudor, record
The King Mountain co-Nationals
The King Mountain co-Nationals
What was the pitch?
Chris Arai|Lisa Tate|PG|USHPA|US Nationals
How exactly did Lisa Tate, the organizer and meet director of the King Mountain co-Nationals (and not incidentally USHPA President), entice pilots to come and fly at the meet? Let's see what she wrote about the upcoming competition.
“The ‘Ironman’ nature of the week long event is one of the most grueling and extreme hang gliding challenges in the world,” said Lisa Tate, the meet director.
http://www.flykingmountain.com/kinginfo.html
This area compares quite favorably with the Owens Valley (Southern California). This is a world class Hang Gliding and Paragliding site guaranteed to test your flying skills! There are booming thermals, outrageous turbulence, and the promise of long XC flights.
Lisa is promising that pilots will have a very exciting time at the King Mountain co-Nationals. Having flown in the previous US Nationals held at King Mountain I can attest to her characterization of the type of air conditions one can expect there. Chris Arai stated at the end of that Nationals that it was the most turbulent Nationals ever held. I thought at the time that that was an understatement.
It is completely legitimate to make the test of hang gliding skill the test of the pilot's ability to handle difficult and perhaps dangerous conditions. We all know that pilots have died at King Mountain due to turbulence, both in the air and near the ground. Cheating death is certainly one aspect of piloting skill.
Flying over the back of twelve thousand foot mountain ranges (Mt. Borah is 12,662') in high wind conditions (20 mph is typical) is not done in other locations that I am aware of. Flying over multiple ranges in such conditions has to be unique to the King Mountain meets. The only thing that comes close, as far as I have experienced, is flying in the Alps in the Föhn.
As a fair number of pilots attended the King Mountain co-Nationals this year (although down quite a bit from previous years) it is clear that whatever they read or heard about the King Mountain air conditions didn't provide a deterrent (at least not enough of one to stop the ones who ended up coming to the meet).
The USHPA BOD should reflect for a moment and determine whether this is the kind of competition that they want for their Nationals. While it is completely legitimate to have this as one of the competitions that pilots who wish to enter it can have during the year, and we for sure wouldn't want to take that away from them, does the USHPA think that this is the best type of competition to represent our sport as the Nationals?
I am quite sure that while some (maybe many) pilots would argue that it is indeed the type of competition that should be used to choose the National Champion, it is clear that on a world wide basis, this has been rejected as an appropriate measure of hang gliding skill.
Next I'll discuss safety aspects of the King Mountain co-Nationals.
Discuss "The King Mountain co-Nationals" at the Oz Report forum link»
5 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Lisa Tate, PG, USHPA, US Nationals
The US National Champion, a history
Lots of Champions
The National Champion, a history
October 31, 2008, 8:40:32 PDTA.I.R. ATOS VR|Bo Hagewood|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Campbell Bowen|Chris Arai|Curt Warren|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Eric Raymond|Gerry Uchytil|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Larry Tudor|Mike Meier|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Rich Burton|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors
Mike Meier «Mike» writes:
This is a "complete" list of US National Hang Gliding Champions, as best I can compile it - with one exception - it contains no women champions. There were not that many years that a women's national champion was named, and I did not try to compile a list of those.
The list is complete, except for the glider that Mike Daily flew in 1986, which I could not find, and it is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability to research it. I made only one assumption - that Campbell Bowen flew the same glider in the 2007 Nationals as he did in the Quest Air comp that immediately followed the Nationals. All of the other data listed is documented somewhere, Hang Gliding Magazine, the Oz Report, manufacturer web sites, etc. That does not guarantee that all the data is accurate, but it is all documented. Anyone who has conflicting information should, of course, comment on anything they think is not accurate.
The history of the title US National Champion in hang gliding is not, perhaps, as simple or as clean as one might prefer. As I mentioned above, there was a period (1983 - 1987) where the rules called for a single national champion, to be determined by CPS points, and during this period the winners of the U.S. Nationals competitions, in various classes, were supposed to have been designated as "Nationals Champions" (i.e. Champions of the Nationals), but that convention was not followed, in almost all cases, when the meets were reported in the media, so in those years we had additional "National Champions" beyond what the rules provided for.
Another source of possible confusion or complication is that the term US National Champion has been reserved for a US pilot, so in many cases, after the meet became international in its participation, the National Champion did not necessarily finish in first place in his class in the meet. In the list, I've added a column where I've listed the National Champion's finishing place in the meet, where I was able to determine that, when it was not a first place finish.
Year | Pilot | Site | Class | Glider | (Place in meet) |
2008 | Zac Majors | Lakeview, Oregon | Flexwing | Wills Wing T2C 144 | |
2007 | Campbell Bowen | Florida Ridge, Florida | Rigid Wing | Air Atos VX | |
2007 | Tom Lanning | Florida Ridge, Florida | Flexwing | Moyes Litespeed S 4 | 5th |
2007 | Rodger Furrey | Florida Ridge, Florida | Sport Class | Wills Wing U2 160 | 2nd |
2006 | Campbell Bowen | Florida Ridge, Florida | Rigid Wing | Air Atos VX | <1st |
2006 | Curt Warren | Florida Ridge, Florida | Flexwing | Moyes Litespeed S | 3rd |
2005 | Bruce Barmakian | Quest Air, Florida | Rigid Wing | Air Atos VR | |
2005 | Paris Williams | Quest Air, Florida | Flexwing | Aeros Combat L | 3rd |
2004 | Davis Straub | Big Spring, Texas | Rigid Wing | Air Atos VX | |
2004 | Curt Warren | Big Spring, Texas | Flexwing | Moyes Litespeed S | |
2003 | Bruce Barmakian | Big Spring, Texas | Rigid Wing | Air Atos C | |
2003 | Paris Williams | Big Spring, Texas | Flexwing | Aeros Combat 2 | |
2002 | Bruce Barmakian | Wallaby Ranch, Florida | Rigid Wing (Class 5) | Aeros Stalker | 4th |
2002 | Brian Porter | Wallaby Ranch, Florida | Rigid Wing (Class 2) | Bright Star Swift | |
2002 | Paris Williams | Wallaby Ranch, Florida | Flexwing | Icaro Laminar | 3rd |
2001 | Brian Porter | Hearne, Texas | Rigid Wing | Bright Star Swift | 2nd |
2001 | Paris Williams | Hearne, Texas | Flexwing | Icaro Laminar | |
2000 | Brian Porter | Lakeview, Oregon | Rigid Wing | Bright Star Swift | |
2000 | Bo Hagewood | Lakeview, Oregon | Flexwing | Wills Wing Fusion | |
1999 | Brian Porter | Quest Air, Florida | Rigid Wing | Utopia | |
1999 | Jim Lee | Quest Air, Florida | Flexwing | Wills Wing Fusion | 5th |
1998 | Dave Sharp | Dinosaur, Colorado | Rigid Wing | Flight Designs Exxtacy | |
1998 | Chris Arai | Dinosaur, Colorado | Flexwing | Wills Wing Fusion | 3rd |
1997 | Chris Arai | Lakeview, Oregon | One Class | Wills Wing Fusion | |
1996 | Larry Tudor | Dinosaur, CO | One Class | Wills Wing XC | 3rd |
1995 | Chris Arai | Chelan, WA | One Class | Wills Wing XC | 2nd |
1994 | Chris Arai | Mount Princeton, Colorado | One Class | Wills Wing RamAir | |
1993 | Jim Lee | Lakeview, Oregon | One Class | Wills Wing RamAir | |
1992 | Brad Koji | Telluride, Colorado | One Class | Wills Wing HP AT | |
1991 | Tony Barton | Owens Valley, California | One Class | UP TRX | |
1990 | Bruce Case | Dinosaur, Colorado | One Class | Wills Wing HP AT | 2nd |
1989 | Brian Porter | Dunlap, California | One Class | Odyssey | |
1988 | Joe Bostik | Chattanooga, Tennessee | One Class | Wills Wing Sport | |
1987 | Joe Bostik | Overall (on CPS points) | Wills Wing HP II | ||
1987 | Howard Osterlund | Owens Valley, California | Meet Winner | Airwave Magic IV | |
1986 | Rick Rawlings | Overall (on CPS points) | Wills Wing HP | ||
1986 | Rick Rawlings | Chelan, Washington | World | Wills Wing HP | |
1986 | Mike Daily | Chelan, Washington | Sporting | ||
1985 | Rick Rawlings | Overall (on CPS points) | Wills Wing HP | ||
1985 | Rick Rawlings | Chelan, Washington | World | Wills Wing HP | |
1985 | Gerry Uchytil | Chelan, Washington | Sporting | Airwave Magic | |
1984 | Stew Smith | Crestline, California | Overall (on CPS points) | Seedwings Sensor 510 | |
1984 | Rich Pfeiffer | Crestline, California | World | Seedwings Sensor 510 | |
1984 | Terry Wilkins | Crestline, California | Sporting | Wills Wing Duck | |
1983 | Rick Rawlings | Overall (on CPS points) | Wills Wing Duck | ||
1983 | Chris Bulger | Dunlap, California | World | Bennett Delta Wing Streak | |
1983 | Lee Fisher | Dunlap, California | Sporting | Seedwings Sensor 510 | |
1982 | Rich Burton | Crestline, California | Open | UP Comet | |
1982 | Rich Pfeiffer | Crestline, California | Flexwing | Wills Wing Duck | |
1981 | Fred Hutchinson | Slide Mountain, Nevada | Open | Manta Fledgling IIB | |
1981 | Rich Pfeiffer | Slide Mountain, Nevada | Flexwing | Seedwings Sensor 510 | |
1980 | Rex Miller | Ellenville, New York | Open | Manta Fledgling IIB | |
1980 | Tom Haddon | Ellenville, New York | Flexwing | UP Comet | |
1979 | Eric Raymond | Crestline, California | One Class | Manta Fledgling IIB | |
1978 | Dennis Pagen | Hyner View, Pennsylvania | One Class | Sky Sports Sirocco II | |
1976 | Rob Reed | Dog Mountain, Washington | Standard | Bennett Delta Wing 19/13 | |
1976 | Keith Nichols | Dog Mountain, Washington | Open | ASG 21 | |
1976 | Ken Koklenski | Dog Mountain, Washington | Unlimited | Manta Fledgling | |
1975 | Dave Muehl | Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina | Overall | Eipper 19 x 17 | |
1975 | Chris Price | Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina | Open | Price Special | |
1975 | Chris Wills | Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina | Advanced Standard | Wills Wing Swallowtail | |
1975 | Dave Muehl | Grandfather Mtn, North Carolina | Standard | Eipper 19 x 17 | |
1974 | Bob Wills | Escape Country, CA | Flexwing | Wills Wing Swallowtail | |
1974 | Jack Schroeder | Escape Country, CA | Rigid Wing | Eipper Quicksilver | |
1973 | Chris Wills | Sylmar, CA | One Class | Wills Wing |
22 topics in this article: A.I.R. ATOS VR, Bo Hagewood, Brian Porter, Bruce Barmakian, Campbell Bowen, Chris Arai, Curt Warren, Dave Sharp, Davis Straub, Dennis Pagen, Eric Raymond, Gerry Uchytil, Jim Lee, Joe Bostik, Larry Tudor, Mike Meier, Paris Williams, Quest Air, Rich Burton, Tom Lanning, Wills Wing T2C, Zac Majors
Lisa Tate wants the US Nationals at King Mountain
Lisa Tate wants the US Nationals at King Mountain
But then she doesn't have to fly there.
Chris Arai|Lisa Tate|USHPA|US Nationals
http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13566
It looks like the USHPA President, Lisa Tate, has put in a proposal for a Nationals at King Mountain. We're still checking with the USHPA to see if her name is on the document.
First, the King Mtn. meet is not even sanctioned, and never has been.
Second, the last time we had a National there, a pilot died due to the conditions in the air.
Third, Chris Arai called it the most turbulent Nationals ever.
Fourth, who will recuse themselves from voting on this? Lots of conflicts of interest here. The Competition Committee Chairman serves at the pleasure of the USHPA President.
Fifth, what do the pilots want?
Discuss Lisa Tate wants the US Nationals at King Mountain at the Oz Report forum link»
4 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Lisa Tate, USHPA, US Nationals
Rob Kells »
Rob Kells
Belinda and I are here for his memorial service and Fly-in
(Wills Wing Factory, California, USA)
Belinda Boulter|Chris Arai|Joe Bostik|Mark Tulloch|Mike Meier|Rob Kells|Zac Majors
Picture here.
Thoughts in advance: I must say I'm not great at going to memorials. For one thing, I hate going into churches. I don't like the fact that someone died which brings about memorial. It seems to be such a shame that the person of honor is not here to hear how much his friends appreciated him.
In this case, I do like that fact that there will be a lot of folks that I know and appreciate to see and mingle with a bit (I'm not much of a social butterfly).
I don't like the social obligation part of memorials, that one is expected by social convention to show up. In this case I'm very happy to be able to appear, but I hold nothing against those folks who didn't want to travel half way across the country to join in. I'm quite sure that they also have great memories of Rob, wish to provide solace in a time of grief, and are as deeply moved by his life and untimely death as I am.
I don't like the fact that the people most in need of time to grieve, the people with the most feelings exposed and raw are the very ones who often (maybe not in this case) have to do the heavy lifting of putting on a memorial service. It seems so unfair.
None the less, in spite of these feelings, Belinda and I are very happy to be able to attend Rob's memorial and the fly-in and Andy Jackson Flight Park. Thanks to those who have made it possible. I'll be updating this entry throughout the weekend.
Later on Friday: Left Jackson at 7:30 AM on a flight to Denver. It was 32 degrees when I got up at 5:30 AM and it was great to see the sun rise and show off the Tetons that are next to the airport.
When I arrived at 1 PM in San Diego it was 82 degrees. Cooler to the north by the ocean at Encinitas. Tomorrow we head for the memorial.
Saturday night: Rob's memorial started for us at 10 AM this morning as we (Brad and Donita Hall, Belinda and I) pulled into an office/industrial park in Yorba Linda (Richard Nixon's old home town). Back behind the low slung big box office buildings was a church, which sort of made sense in a Southern California sort of way. There is lots of parking for all the parishioners that drive from their suburban homes on the freeway to the Sunday service at the Rock Community Church. These big box churches disrupt neighborhoods when they locate there as the neighbors don't like all the overflow parking.
We first ran into Mark Tulloch from Vancouver, and we were a little early so we go to see more folks arrived , including JZ and Amy, Reggie, Jim and Kathie Lee, Chris Arai, Bernie, Brett, Vincene, Joe Bostik, the two Jeff's, Zac Majors, and many others. Lots of folks showed up.
There was a very traditional memorial service for Rob with his friends and family relating their experiences with Rob and many of them brought a tear or two to my eyes. I was especially moved by Mike Meier's comments which offered something of a counter point to some later comments.
There was an aspect of the service that did not sit well with this atheist. It was taking place in a church after all, and somehow it turned into an opportunity to proselytize. Talk about fishing in barren water, farming in rocky soil. Hang glider pilots are an irreverent bunch and a few walked out at the point when the desire to save us through Jesus Christ really became a bit too much.
Of course this was all a distraction from our focus of grieving for and celebrating the life of our friend Rob Kells. What really put it over the top for me was the pastor's claim that death is gain. That Rob gained by death was just unreal. I'm quite sure that Rob didn't feel that way and it was obvious from his actions that he wanted to go right on living.
When will these merchants of death stop selling these lies and deceptions to vulnerable people? This denigration of life and celebration of death. Such monsters. False promises of an eternal life thereafter. Such hogwash.
After the service, and digesting the indigestible, we headed north to Andy Jackson Flight Park, to find a place that was really packed with pilots having a great time and really celebrating all the great times that they had with Rob.
The sky was full of soaring craft and we got to see great landings one after another. One landing we didn't get to see down at the LZ, but they did on the Marshall launch, was when Mitch McAleer flubbed a loop and "landed" just behind launch.
Mitch took off from Marshall in a local pilot's Moyes glider to test it for him for aerobatics. He thermalled up for about ten circles. He then did a loop a little behind Marshall launch, then another one which was a little too slow and he ended up on top of the undersurface of the glider upside down. I guess Mitch is too used to how Wills Wing gliders loop.
He wasn't high and he was holding onto the base tube according to one witness trying to "muscle" the glider back around. At less than 150 feet above the launch he let go of the basetube and threw his chute just as the glider slipped to one side and started going down fast. The parachute came out immediately and opened just as he hit the hill side behind launch.
Mitch was relatively unhurt and the glider was unhurt. He quickly left the party.
The party continued with hundreds of pilots and friends enjoying themselves. We had to leave just as folks were getting up to tell stories about Rob. It was so great to see so many people who had been touched by Rob
Rob is dead and gone. Memorials are for the living, not the dead, who have no way of knowing that all their friends really cared this much for them. I miss Rob and wish he were here. Seeing his picture makes me feel that he is here.
7 topics in this article: Belinda Boulter, Chris Arai, Joe Bostik, Mark Tulloch, Mike Meier, Rob Kells, Zac Majors
Polars, such as they are, from Wills Wing, Aeros, and Moyes
Polars
Comparing polars that may or may not be comparable
Aeros Ltd|Chris Arai|polar
Here's where we found the polars and/or data that can be made into polars:
http://www.willswing.com/Articles/Article.asp?reqArticleName=PolarData
175 fpm at 24 mph and 530 fpm at 47 mph, 6% increase in V2 for comp harness (which would give us 49.82 mph).
Converted: Minimum sink speed is 38.6 km/h, minimum sink rate is 0.9 m/s, 80.2 km/h at 2.7 m/s
Wills Wing's comment re streamlined harnesses indicates that a streamlined competition harness gives you a reduction in sink rate of 90 fpm at 50 mph.
http://www.aeros.com.ua/structure/support/polar_en.php
Combat L 13, all-up pilot weight – 87 kg, harness – Aeros Viper S, temperature at the ground – 12o C, VG on, maximal glide ratio – 16,7, minimal sink rate – 0.8 m/s (at 45 km/h). (2. 5 m/s at 80 km/h - taken from the accompanying graph.)
Converted: Minimum sink speed 28 mph with minimum sink rate 157.5 fpm, at 49.7 mph, sink is 492 fpm.
http://moyes.com.au/productdetail.asp?id=115&pg=38&cat=
Minimum Sink Point: -0.9m/s @ 40km/h, High Speed Point: -2.5m/s @ 80km/h
Converted: Minimum sink speed is 25 mph with minimum sink rate 177 fpm, 492 fpm sink at 49.7 mph. Moyes indicates that streamlined harnesses are worth 40 fpm at high speeds.
What I take away from these values is that Moyes and Aeros claim the same sink rate at 50 mph, at almost 500 fpm, with Wills Wing claiming 530 fpm. Moyes and Wills Wing claim the same minimum sink rate at 175 fpm at 24-25 fpm, while Aeros claims 20 fpm less at 28 mph. The polar performance curves at minimum sink speed are pretty flat so the minimum sink speed could be any where between 23 mph and 28 mph.
Other than what Aeros tells us, we don't know the wing loading, or pilot hook in weight. Wills Wing doesn't differentiate between the 144 and the 154 models. We don't know at what altitude these polar values are for.
Taking these published values and creating polars basically by eye and by using manual curve fitting in FlyChart I produce a comparison polar chart:
It is very hard to say whether the values provided by the manufacturers are comparable. For example, why exactly would the Aeros Combat 13 L have a minimum sink rate 20 fpm less than the Moyes RS 4 or the Wills Wing T2? That makes a huge difference in the polars. If the minimum sink rate for the Combat L 13 is the same as the other two gliders than the polars would essentially be the same (at least we wouldn't have enough confidence in their measurement to be able to differentiate them).
Chris Arai states here:
Table 3 shows the glide polars in parabolic form used to make this analysis. Figure 4 shows the polars graphically. These polars are representative of modern gliders, however not very accurately. By that I mean that the accuracy of the measurement techniques used is not good enough to distinguish between different makes of high performance gliders. They are accurate enough for S2F, and have been used for a long time in the Tangent with good results.
Individual polars can be found here: Aeros, Moyes, Wills Wing.
Discuss "Polars, such as they are, from Wills Wing, Aeros, and Moyes" at the Oz Report forum link»
3 topics in this article: Aeros Ltd, Chris Arai, polar
Flying fast/Climbing fast
Tue, Aug 31 2004, 6:00:01 pm EDT
What is Speed To Fly?
Chris Arai
See Chris Arai's somewhat outdated discussion of STF.
I have pointed out numerous times that Christian and Alex chose to fly very fast at the Worlds in Austria and that they finished first and second, well ahead of their competition. The question is did they fly faster than Speed To Fly Speeds?
Just looking at the averages (which cover up a lot of sins): They averaged 55 mph in air that didn't rise at a rate higher than their current gliding sink rate, in lift that averaged 498 fpm. They were sinking at an average rate of 417 fpm when they were gliding in the air described in the previous sentence.
Using my estimates of the VX and Stratos polars (assumed to be close enough to be set to be the same for this level of analysis), their gliders would be falling at about 500 fpm if they were flying at 55 mph. This would indicate that on average they were gliding in air going up at about 100 fpm.
They would slow down when gliding in air that they knew was going up. In this air they averaged 48 mph which corresponds to a sink rate of 370 fpm. Gliding at slower speed in air that is rising is an important part of the strategy as Chris indicates in his article above.
Going 55 mph corresponds to an anticipated lift (climb rate + minimum sink rate) of 900 fpm assuming that you are flying through air that is neither going up or down. If the air between thermals is going down at 200 fpm, then 55 mph corresponds to an anticipated lift of 700 fpm (climb rate at about 500 fpm).
It would appear they were flying at least near STF. If they assumed that they would hit lift that would let them climb out at 600 to 700 fpm, then 55 mph is a reasonable number in sinking air.
But, this analysis is very sketchy. I'll make an attempt to do a much more thorough and convincing analysis later.
1 topic in this article: Chris Arai
2004 US Nationals »
Mon, May 3 2004, 4:00:00 pm EDT
It is filling up fast. Sign up now.
Chris Arai|David Glover|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|US Nationals|US Nationals 2004
Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|David Glover|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|US Nationals|US Nationals 2004
Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|David Glover|Mark Poustinchian|Paris Williams|US Nationals|US Nationals 2004
David Glover «david» writes:
Let your favorite flying buddies know they can now register for the US Nationals - Big Spring, Texas 2004 meet. Fifty pilots already entered, limited space. Excellent flying and wonderful facilities.
Chris Arai, Paris Williams, Bruce Barmakian and Mark Poustinchian are some of the early surprise entries. For more info and registration go to: http://flytec.com/usnats04/index.html
Discuss competition at the Oz Report forum
6 topics in this article: Chris Arai, David Glover, Mark Poustinchian, Paris Williams, US Nationals, US Nationals 2004
Yet another final glide discussion
altitude|Chris Arai|GPS|Oz Report|polar|safety|software|Steven "Steve" Pearson|tail|tracking|Wills Wing
I hope that interested readers will closely follow the arguments presented here as well as in the previous articles that address this issue.
Chris Arai, Arai Design <chris@araidesign.com> writes:
Thought I would chime in on the perennial topic of final glides and whether or not jumpy numbers matter. I have to admit that I don't know to what degree the numbers jump on a Brauniger deck, but I seem to recall that people say plus or minus more than 1000' in certain conditions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'll use that figure for a point of reference. I'll also discuss (again) the why I believe that automated wind calculations for final glide actually reduce the usefulness of the final glide numbers.
(editor’s note: I wouldn’t characterize it as jumping around quite that much, but I’m sure at some points I have seen that level of jumpiness. It appears to be less now with the longer time constants.)
Jumpiness. Why does it matter? If the numbers are jumping up and down +/- 1000 feet, the safe thing to do is pick the most conservative number and climb to that level. Making the assumption that the mid point was the correct number, the safe pilot must climb an extra 1000'. At a nice climb rate of 500fpm that is two extra minutes. Two minutes might seem like nothing to the novice who is grateful to make goal, but anyone who as placed in the top 40 (50? 60?) of a major meet will tell you that 2 minutes is huge. Well 2 minutes becomes 3+ minutes if the climb rate is 300fpm, 5 minutes at 200fpm, and so forth and so on.
I believe Peter was saying that steady numbers are some how masking changes or are stale. Take this example. You’re gliding on final right on the path and suddenly the sink increases by 200fpm. Now assume that you had a 1000' margin built in for safety. It would take 5 minutes before that margin was completely eroded. That is a long time.
Tangent pilots know that by comparing the Altitude Required field with the Altitude field one can easily see if he or she is eroding the margin. Yes, time is required to do a calculation known amongst mathematicians as subtraction. (Most pilots are capable of this although sometimes I wonder when you see how short the collection of money can be when it's time to pay for dinner.)
Now consider using an instrument that the final glide info is jumping around by +/-500 feet (I'm being more lenient than the +/-1000' I said I was going to use.) How do you determine how your final glide is proceeding? One minute you are on the path, the next you have used up all of your 1000' margin. Your choice is to pick a number in the middle of the jumpy numbers or average them. I think either calculation uses far more of the pilot’s minimal bandwidth than subtraction.
Peter Brauniger said that "the quality of a final glide calculation can be measured by the stability of the displayed result is clearly a misconception." As a riposte to Peter I would suggest that what I am hearing from pilots (and from a little personal experience) is that stability seems to be more useful and causes less anxiety, even if it is of lower quality ;-) .
So why are the Brauniger instrument final glide numbers so jumpy? Peter Brauniger correctly points out the variables used in a final glide calc:
Variables: Pilot distance from goal, Pilot height above goal, Speed of wind (component in direction of flight), Airspeed of glider
Two of those variables, distance and altitude from goal are relatively slowly changing variables, perhaps only a few percent per minute.
Airspeed can and does change radically, as much as a factor of 3 (20 - 60mph).
Wind doesn't change quickly unless one of two things happen: first, a strong wind shear, which is rare in my experience. Second, the calculated wind changes due to calculation errors.
The airspeed and wind speed are the key. I'm not sure which has the greater contribution, but my guess is that it is airspeed. As Peter describes in Vol6, N38 of the Oz Report, his arrival height calculation is based upon wind, current altitude, distance, and current L/D. Current L/D is calculated from the polar and current airspeed. The problem with this method is that one’s airspeed will (and should) vary. True, the glide does change with airspeed, but we don't care about where the slope is pointing at any given instant, we only care about where the glide slope points in the long run.
So what airspeed do you use to calculate this L/D? I suspect that the Brauniger decks average the airspeed and that the jumpiness has calmed down as the time constant of that averager gets longer with each software revision. The problem I see with averaging the airspeed is that it may give you information that is too optimistic or pessimistic.
Let’s say you average the airspeed for 1 minute (probably longer than is done on the Braunigers.) After gliding through heavy sink for a minute your final glide calc is now saying that you will now arrive 1000' below goal. Yeah, Yeah, I know it doesn't use sink for the calculation, but it is a speed-to-fly (S2F) instrument right? And more sink means that it has told you to speed up and thus your L/D has been reduced.
That pessimistic estimate will slowly return to normal as you fly in less sinky or lifty air, but you have to chew your nails that whole time, when in reality you may have only lost a couple hundred feet of your margin. The real peril here is that it will tempt you to slow down to improve your glide. We all know that slowing down in sink is a cardinal sin in S2F theory. The optimistic scenario is exactly the reverse. Shortening the airspeed averaging time will add to the jumpiness of the arrival height numbers.
So although lift and sink are not used ("We never take into account a current or an average sink rate.") in the Brauniger decks, sink rate does have a direct effect on the arrival height numbers as shown in the above paragraph.
How does the Tangent avoid this morass? It doesn't use current airspeed at all to calculate the L/D. Instead, it uses the optimum airspeed based on the Speed Ring setting and Wind setting.
Since we all assume that the net airmass sink will be zero, why not calculate your gliding speed in zero airmass sink for a given speed ring and wind setting? Since the vario is telling you to fly the correct speed for those two parameters for any airmass movement, I make the assumption that the pilot will actually try to follow that speed. (Smart people shell out big bucks in the hopes that they can believe what the "instrument" is telling them. The rest are happy if it looks good.) If the airmass is zero in the long run as we assume, then the average speed will be close to that of the one calculated.
It may seem to those who have never used a Tangent that this method denies the pilot of critical information. It doesn't. If the Altitude Required is not tracking Altitude, then something is wrong: More lift or sink than "zero" or the wind estimate is not correct. If the wind speed seems different than the estimate, then change the estimate. If not, then there is too much lift or too much sink. If it's too much lift, then hooray, bump up the speed ring (if you believe the corresponding sink is not ahead.) If it's too much sink, it's time to alter your glide path to get out of the sink.
This brings us to the topic of automated wind vs manual wind in final glide calcs. I have discussed this before (see links below) so I'll just summarize (this is long winded enough, don't you think?) The problems with automated wind input are in two categories.
1. Errors in GPS wind measurement.
2. No ability to compensate for different winds at lower altitudes.
Item 1 can probably be reduced, but will always be a problem to some degree. If the wind measurements are noisy then the final glide calcs will reflect that noise.
Item 2 is important, and can only be done by a human. Although the automated wind will be correct (apart from item 1) at all altitudes, it may give false final glide calcs at the high altitude where final glide begins. If you calculate final glide based on a 20mph tail wind at 10,000' but it doesn't stay 20mph to the ground, you come up short.
More info on the final glide and the GPS wind problem can be found in the Tangent online manual. Go to http://www.araidesign.com and click on the "Manual" button. Then read these sections:
Why Doesn't the Tangent Automatically Use the GPS Wind in the Speed-to- Fly? The Final Glide Calculator Final Glide Techniques
Also see the previous Oz Report discussion on final glides at https://OzReport.com/toc.php?6.038 https://OzReport.com/toc.php?6.044
Steve Pearson at Wills Wing <Steve@willswing.com> writes:
We cleared that up a long time ago, and it's even addressed in Peter's last email. Peter absolutely positively does not use the algorithm Chris speculates about. I think it's grossly unfair to Brauniger to propagate a myth that the display alternately displays goal arrival +/- 1000'.
Discuss final glide at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2
Discuss "Yet another final glide discussion" at the Oz Report forum link»
11 topics in this article: altitude, Chris Arai, GPS, Oz Report, polar, safety, software, Steven "Steve" Pearson, tail, tracking, Wills Wing
Brauninger upgrade for final glide
altitude|Chris Arai|Flytec 4030|Jon Durand snr|Kraig Coomber|radio|safety|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Wills Wing
https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv7n106.shtml
I had a few (perhaps too few) opportunities to try out the new Brauninger upgraded final glide calculations and display at the Wallaby Open. I fly with a Brauninger IQ/Comp and this new version is supposed to give (among other features) a more stable display of the altitude that you will come in above goal (I set my safety margin to zero).
Steve Pearson at Wills Wing sent me an upgraded IQ/Comp loaner to try out and I sent mine in to Brauninger for an update. I appreciate the opportunity to give this new version a try.
Before I get into what I experienced let’s look a little more closely at the issue of final glide calculations. I and others (including Peter Brauninger and Chris Arai) have written extensively on this issue (https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv6n38.shtml, https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv6n44.shtml, and https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv6n203.shtml#3).
Part of the Brauninger final glide upgrade is an attempt to reduce the fluctuation in the height above goal display by reducing the fluctuation in the calculated wind speed (if any) by averaging the wind speed over a longer time interval. The Tangent and the new Flytec 4030 Race get around the problem of fluctuating wind speed calculations by requiring that the pilot input the wind speed (calculated and displayed by the vario) and therefore the wind speed going into goal figure is fixed.
The question is first, does this averaging of the wind speed help with this fluctuation problem, and second, is this really the source of the problem?
In my experience it was hard to tell if there was any difference in the fluctuation of the displayed height above goal with the upgraded IQ/Comp compared to the previous version. It still appears to be the case that if you are in lift or light sink the height above goal figure increases, and if you are in more than light sink it decreases (much more than the amount that you are rising or sinking at the time).
It would appear that the issues that Chris Arai raised in the above articles are still true with respect to the Brauninger IQ/Comp. The fluctuations have little to do with the calculated wind speed, and everything to do with how the final glide calculation is (incorrectly) made. Perhaps Brauninger will now more seriously consider Chris’ critique.
Given that Flytec has apparently solved this problem with their new 4030 Race, perhaps there will be some competitive pressure to match Flytec’s success. I heard from Jon Durand, Jr. (a pilot who was very much disinterested in final glide calculations – he’d just radio Kraig Coomber and ask him if it was time to go to goal) how much he liked the 4030 Race. Apparently there are a number of other pilots who are appreciating the new final glide features of the 4030 Race also.
Of course, for most pilots, final glide calculations are not a major issue. They may purchase a Brauninger IQ/Comp because they like the tones, or the dial or the total energy, or for other features. I like the IQ/Comp and will continue flying with it. I just know that I won’t get the same reassurance on final glide that my competitors who fly with the 4030 Race will get.
Discuss final glide at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2
Discuss "Brauninger upgrade for final glide" at the Oz Report forum link»
9 topics in this article: altitude, Chris Arai, Flytec 4030, Jon Durand snr, Kraig Coomber, radio, safety, Steven "Steve" Pearson, Wills Wing
USHGA NTSS Ranking
Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|competition|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Jim Zeiset|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|USHGA|Worlds
Flex wings:
1 | Williams Paris | 2413 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2263 |
3 | Warren Curt | 2120 |
4 | Rossignol Jerz | 2046 |
5 | Bessa Carlos | 2035 |
6 | Castle Kari | 1922 |
7 | Lee Jim | 1921 |
8 | Hagewood Bo | 1804 |
9 | ZIMMERMAN Chris | 1798 |
10 | Volk Glen | 1784 |
11 | PRESLEY Terry | 1679 |
12 | Bolt Mark | 1634 |
13 | Arai Chris | 1602 |
14 | SAUER Richard | 1468 |
15 | Goodman Bubba | 1458 |
This is the flex wing NTSS ranking that determines who goes to Brazil on the US National team. There are six members of the team. Carlos is eligible for the US or the Brazilian national team. He says that he will fly for the US. You might notice the number of points separating sixth and seventh place.
Rigids:
Rank | Pilot | Total |
1 | BARMAKIAN Bruce | 1825 |
2 | Straub Davis | 1578 |
3 | Yocom Jim | 1439 |
4 | GLEASON Ron | 1432 |
5 | BIESEL Heiner | 1396 |
6 | Bowen Campbell | 1350 |
7 | ENDTER Vincent | 994 |
8 | LAMB James | 883 |
9 | DEGTOFF Mike | 837 |
10 | Zeiset Jim | 800 |
The current ridge wing ranking doesn’t affect anything as any US pilots can go fly in the pre-Worlds in Greifenburg if they like.
The full NTSS pilot ranking will be up next week after it gets reviewed. Check out OzReport.com to find the NTSS ranking under the competition menu item.
Discuss the national team and Brazil at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2
Discuss "USHGA NTSS Ranking" at the Oz Report forum link»
21 topics in this article: Bo Hagewood, Bubba Goodman, Campbell Bowen, Carlos Bessa, Chris Arai, competition, Curt Warren, Davis Straub, Glen Volk, Jerz Rossignol, Jim Lee, Jim Yocom, Jim Zeiset, Kari Castle, Mark Bolt, Mike Barber, NTSS, NTSS ranking, Paris Williams, USHGA, Worlds
The great thermal debate
Chris Arai|magazine|Peter Gasparovic|Speed to Fly
I see that the laws of physics seem to continue to make a strong showing in the pages of Hang Gliding magazine. It’s the best open debate and discussion that I’ve seen in that staid journal since I started reading it 18 years ago. Well, except for the one I had with Chris Arai on Speed to Fly.
Peter Gasparovic <pegasp@orangemail.sk> in Kosice, Slovakia writes:
As we in Central Europe are having unflyable weather, and the only enjoyment was reading of your reports from Australia, I have tried to break this boredom by carrying out a small "research" project on thermal bubbles.
Because the results look nice I am sending to you some pictures:
Temperature profile
Velocity profile
Degree of turbulence
The full article on these experiments can be found on our hang gliding club web page: http://deltaklub.szm.sk/articles/a_thermal_en.htm.
Discuss "The great thermal debate" at the Oz Report forum link»
4 topics in this article: Chris Arai, magazine, Peter Gasparovic, Speed to Fly
NTSS flex wing ranking after the Oz Nats
Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Dragonfly|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Wallaby Ranch|Wayne Sayer
1 | Williams Paris | 2413 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2263 |
3 | Warren Curt | 2075 |
4 | Rossignol Jerz | 2046 |
5 | Castle Kari | 1891 |
6 | Bessa Carlos | 1845 |
7 | Volk Glen | 1784 |
8 | Hagewood Bo | 1747 |
9 | ZIMMERMAN Chris | 1744 |
10 | Lee Jim | 1695 |
11 | PRESLEY Terry | 1663 |
12 | Arai Chris | 1602 |
13 | Bolt Mark | 1561 |
14 | SAUER Richard | 1419 |
15 | STINNETT James | 1378 |
16 | Davis Gary | 1297 |
17 | Goodman Bubba | 1296 |
18 | VASSORT Claire | 1277 |
19 | Shipley Mitch | 1163 |
20 | Sayer Wayne | 1059 |
The only change is that Bo squeaks ahead of Chris Zimmerman. Claire and Jerz add a little to their point totals. The Australian meets did little to change the US NTSS ranking going into the World Championships. The meets in Florida are the last opportunity for pilots to shake things up before they head off to Brazil.
Looking at the top pilots, let’s see what their occupation and Florida flight park affiliation is, if any:
1 | Williams Paris | Part time student, tandem instructor, meditator | Quest Air |
2 | Barber Mike | Advanced HG instructor, aluminum welder | Wallaby Ranch |
3 | Warren Curt | Tandem pilot, Dragonfly pilot | Quest Air |
4 | Rossignol Jerz | Building contractor | S. California |
5 | Castle Kari | Adventure travel guide, rock climber | S. California |
6 | Bessa Carlos | Dragonfly pilot | Wallaby Ranch |
7 | Volk Glen | Commercial real estate broker | S. California |
8 | Hagewood Bo | Dragonfly pilot, tandem pilot | Quest Air |
Discuss "NTSS flex wing ranking after the Oz Nats" at the Oz Report forum link»
20 topics in this article: Bo Hagewood, Bubba Goodman, Carlos Bessa, Chris Arai, Chris Zimmerman, Claire Vassort, Curt Warren, Dragonfly, Glen Volk, Jerz Rossignol, Jim Lee, Kari Castle, Mark Bolt, Mike Barber, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, NTSS ranking, Paris Williams, Quest Air, Wallaby Ranch, Wayne Sayer
New Flytec 4030 Full Race Version
altitude|battery|Chris Arai|competition|flight instrument|Flytec 4030|Flytec USA|GPS|IGC|landing|Mike Barber|Oz Report|Paris Williams|record|software|Steve Kroop|world record|XC
Steve Kroop Flytec USA <flytec@earthlink.net> send in this Oz Report exclusive announcement:
Earlier this year Flytec USA started working with USA number one and two ranked pilots, Paris Williams and Mike Barber, to make substantial changes to the 4030XL. A list was compiled from Paris and Mike’s extensive XC and competition experience, feedback from other world class comp pilots, and correcting deficiencies found in many other flight computers (including our own). The goal was to take advantage of the 4030XL’s strong points and add new features/functions that will benefit the serious cross-country and competition pilot. Today’s competition tasks are often won or lost on final glide; consequently, much of the emphasis was placed on improvements in that area. Some of the new enhancements include:
Instant activation/deactivation of final glide computer
Quick and simple one-touch final glide headwind/tailwind entry
Dramatically improved stability and reliability of goal arrival altitude
Display of altitude above goal, arrival altitude and MSL altitude
Real-time display of actual headwind/tailwind
Paris and Mike have tested the prototype of the 4030Race and are delighted with the performance. Here is what they have to say:
Paris Williams: Over the past year, Mike Barber, Steve Kroop, and I put a lot of thought and work into trying to come up with the ideal flight instrument for XC competition pilots and recreational XC pilots. We took in a lot of feedback from pilots around the world, looked at what we thought were positive and negative features of other varios on the market, put it all together and came up with the latest version of the Flytec 4030.
A new final glide calculator that displays a much more stable, predictable arrival altitude above goal. It’s very simple to use and to understand now and takes nearly all of the guesswork out of when to leave that last thermal to head on final glide. And even better, as you’re gliding on final, it’s ridiculously easy now to stay constantly on top of your progress and maintain the optimum glide path into goal. Some of the current varios (including the old 4030) on the market calculate the arrival altitude in such a way that the number jumps drastically up and down, is very difficult to rely on, requires you to crunch numbers in your head, leaves you guessing and crossing your fingers all the way to goal.
More user-friendly final glide functions. The desired headwind or tailwind for final glide is adjusted instantly now the moment the up and arrow keys are pressed. Some varios on the market try to solve this problem by automatically entering the current headwind or tailwind, but I think it’s essential to have the ability to manually enter the wind component on the way to goal - we all know how much the wind can fluctuate at different altitudes. The final glide calculator is also toggled on and off instantly now at the push of a button.
Headwind or tailwind component display --The screen now displays the current headwind/tailwind, saving you the trouble of having to do the math in your head and providing some confidence in working out lift lines as well as the all-important landing direction.
Mike Barber and I had the chance to try the new vario over the weekend and are both real excited about it. (We were selfishly hoping that maybe we could just keep these new versions for ourselves, but Steve wouldn’t have it.). The new final glide calculator worked even better than I thought it could.
When I was climbing in the last thermal, it was great seeing a solid countdown to my “just make it” altitude (the altitude where I should just make goal at best glide speed) and then a continued countdown to my “optimum” altitude (the altitude that should give me the fastest time to goal). Even better was the ability to constantly monitor my progress as I glided into goal. In the past, I always found myself doing a lot of fairly drastic speed changes on final (you know—“Damn, I’m way high now, I better pull in… Oh sh**, now I’m low, better slow down…”), but these recent final glides on the new Flytec were the most steady, optimum finals I’ve ever done. Since the numbers are so stable now, you don’t get any surprises. You just casually adjust your speed-to-fly to keep the numbers steady.
I found that the new 4030Race also helps tremendously in a common difficult problem - working your way to goal with light lift and a headwind. In this situation, it’s often real difficult to work out whether you’re actually making progress or not. It’s possible that the lift in a given thermal isn’t strong enough to compensate for the backward drift, and it’s real beneficial to know about it. I found I could watch the numbers now and quickly see what was going on - if I was getting closer to my glide slope (the numbers going up), then I was making progress, and vice versa. I sure wish I would’ve had this thing a little sooner.
Mike Barber: Around March of this year Steve asked Paris and me for recommendations on improving the software in the Flytec 4030. We came up with a handful of changes we would like to see implemented. I have been flying with the 4030 with the prototype software and I am very pleased with the results. The final glide computer is working great and is very stable. The actual operation of the buttons has been greatly simplified and is very easy to use in real world flying, not just in the office! My hat is off to Steve and Flytec for spending time and money to get us these improvements.
There was discussion about adding an internal GPS. While at first glance this seems like a good idea, we believe that at this time it is a step backwards. Integrating a GPS into the flight instrument would actually reduce the overall functionality (loss of moving map, advanced navigation features, etc.), decrease battery life, while greatly increasing the price.
Free upgrades from the 4030XL to the 4030Race will be available to 4030XLs purchased after September 1. 4030XLs and 4030s purchased prior to September 2002 can be upgraded for a charge.
For more information on the new 4030Race contact: Flytec USA at 1-800-662-2449, www.flytec.com, E-mail: <info@flytec.com>
(editor’s note: Long time Oz Report readers will recognize some issues that I have been raising here about the Flytec and Brauniger varios when compared to the Arai Tangent. Final glide has been the big issue and it sure looks as though Flytec has been listening and thinking hard about how to solve this problem.
I’ve been talking with Mike and Steve about this issue for a long time and knew the Flytec was working on this. Mike is a big fan of the Tangent and just hated the final glide calculations that the Flytec 4030XL came up with (after the final climb). I have the same exact problem with the Brauniger IQ/Comp. Paris has been moaning about this for a long time also.
It is incredible that they have been able (if this is truly the case) to solve this problem within the existing hardware. I had assumed that there were processor and memory limitations that didn’t allow for the solution. Flytec owners are a very lucky crew if Flytec has indeed matched the capabilities found in the Arai Tangent.
I guess I find it hard to believe that they really did it, but I sure sounds like it from Paris’ report (Mike couldn’t type a two paragraph answer if his life depended on it.). Paris addresses all the issues that I was aware of. I’d still love to hear Chris Arai’s take on this.
If you are a Flytec 4030 owner get on the ball and get this update. They have definitely solved a lot of the problems with final glide and maybe all of them.
Does this put Flytec ahead of Brauniger re functionality? Well if all this is true, that would certainly be my thought about it. Sure the Galileo is nice and produces IGC data files for world record attempts, but as I recall it still uses the old final glide calculation methods. This was a big disappointment to me when it came out.
We’ll have to see if the Galileo with its new processor, etc., can be matched with new firmware that upgrades its capabilities to those now offered by Flytec.)
Discuss "New Flytec 4030 Full Race Version" at the Oz Report forum link» »
18 topics in this article: altitude, battery, Chris Arai, competition, flight instrument, Flytec 4030, Flytec USA, GPS, IGC, landing, Mike Barber, Oz Report, Paris Williams, record, software, Steve Kroop, world record, XC
Flex wing NTSS »
Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paris Williams
1 | Williams Paris | 2369 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2199 |
3 | Rossignol Jerz | 1931 |
4 | Warren Curt | 1858 |
5 | Bessa Carlos | 1787 |
6 | Volk Glen | 1784 |
7 | Castle Kari | 1754 |
8 | Zimmerman Chris | 1739 |
9 | Lee Jim | 1695 |
10 | Hagewood Bo | 1682 |
11 | PRESLEY Terry | 1626 |
12 | Arai Chris | 1602 |
13 | Bolt Mark | 1561 |
14 | SAUER Richard | 1419 |
15 | STINNETT James | 1378 |
16 | Davis Gary | 1297 |
17 | Goodman Bubba | 1296 |
18 | VASSORT Claire | 1210 |
19 | Shipley Mitch | 1163 |
20 | Sayer Wayne | 1059 |
The latest US NTSS ranking reflects the results of the Brazilian Open and the 2002 Pre Worlds in Brasilia. Curt moves up from fifth to fourth. Carlos moves from eighth to fifth. Glen, who stayed home and worked, drops from fourth to sixth. Chris Zimmerman who also didn’t go south falls from fifth to eighth. Kari stays in seventh.
Carlos may fly for the Brazilians in the Worlds next year, so he might not be on the US team. Right now he can choose.
The ranking that will count for the Worlds in 2003 will most likely include the three big competitions in Australia in January, and the two Florida competitions in April.
Discuss "Flex wing NTSS" at the Oz Report forum link»
14 topics in this article: Bo Hagewood, Bubba Goodman, Carlos Bessa, Chris Arai, Claire Vassort, Curt Warren, Glen Volk, Jerz Rossignol, Jim Lee, Kari Castle, Mark Bolt, Mike Barber, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, Paris Williams
NTSS Ranking »
Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Claire Vassort|Curt Warren|Dave Brandt|David "Dave" Sharp|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|James "Jim" Zeiset|Jamie Shelden|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|NTSS ranking|Paris Williams|Reggie Jones|Tip Rogers
After the US Open the US Pilots ranking stands as follows:
Class 1:
1 | Williams Paris | 2369 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2136 |
3 | Rossignol Jerz | 1880 |
4 | Volk Glen | 1778 |
5 | Warren Curt | 1729 |
5 | ZIMMERMAN Chris | 1729 |
7 | Castle Kari | 1711 |
8 | Bessa Carlos | 1692 |
9 | Lee Jim | 1686 |
10 | Hagewood Bo | 1673 |
11 | PRESLEY Terry | 1618 |
12 | Arai Chris | 1602 |
13 | Bolt Mark | 1561 |
14 | SAUER Richard | 1419 |
15 | STINNETT James | 1378 |
16 | DavisGary | 1297 |
17 | Goodman Bubba | 1290 |
18 | VASSORT Claire | 1203 |
19 | Shipley Mitch | 1163 |
20 | SayerWayne | 1059 |
Class 5:
1 | Straub Davis | 1637 |
2 | BARMAKIAN Bruce | 1505 |
3 | BIESEL Heiner | 1339 |
4 | Bowen Campbell | 1285 |
5 | GLEASON Ron | 1236 |
6 | Yocom Jim | 1182 |
7 | Zeiset Jim | 1012 |
8 | DEGTOFF Mike | 983 |
9 | LAMB James | 894 |
10 | DINAUER Greg | 747 |
11 | Brandt Dave | 722 |
12 | Jones Reggie | 692 |
13 | Sheldon Jamie | 688 |
14 | Sharp David | 678 |
15 | ENDTER Vincent | 663 |
16 | FERRIS George | 656 |
17 | POUSTICHIAN Mark | 505 |
18 | Vayda Tom | 456 |
19 | GRYDER Brad | 329 |
20 | Rogers Tip | 282 |
The recent Worlds in Chelan do not count for NTSS ranking. There will be changes in the Class 1 ranking after the three meets in Brazilin August and September.
The above Class 5 ranking is the final ranking for 2002.
Discuss "NTSS Ranking" at the Oz Report forum link»
24 topics in this article: Bo Hagewood, Bubba Goodman, Campbell Bowen, Carlos Bessa, Chris Arai, Claire Vassort, Curt Warren, Dave Brandt, David "Dave" Sharp, Davis Straub, Glen Volk, James "Jim" Zeiset, Jamie Shelden, Jerz Rossignol, Jim Lee, Jim Yocom, Kari Castle, Mark Bolt, Mike Barber, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, NTSS ranking, Paris Williams, Reggie Jones, Tip Rogers
What happened in Florida
Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|David Glover|Florida|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Robert Reisinger|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Ron Gleason|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|US Nationals|Wallaby Ranch|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment
As I reviewed the results of the meets in Florida, I noted quite a few stories within the bigger story.
Many of the world’s top hang glider pilots came to Floridato compete against each other, with twelve of the top twenty flex wing pilots and five of the top ten ranked rigid wing pilots in attendance. This made for a very tough field, and more than enough NTSS points to make for 600 point meets. The Floridameets are truly international events and should continue to be viewed as such.
Glen Volk did very well coming up to capture third in the Flytec Championship after twenty eighth at the Wallaby Open. Paris Williams, currently ranked third in the world – the highest ranking US pilot in years, was consistently very good coming in just behind Oleg in both meets. Oleg, of course, is kicking butt (even though Manfred’s was missing from the Flytec meet). It’s great to see such a sweet guy do so well.
Johann Posch was highly ranked before, but had never won a daily task. He finally did on the second to last day of the Flytec Championship. The big difference for him – ballast. He did much better in these meets than before and the difference was he finally became convinced of the need for ballast.
Robert Reisinger came into the Floridameets with a new relationship with Wills Wing, and a high ranking, that had slipped recently from 3rd to 14th in the world. He did very well on some days, but landed out on a number of other days. He finished below expectations at 23rd and 28th.
Curt Warren moved up dramatically from best new competitor designation last year at the Flytec Championship to finish 18th in the Wallaby Open and fifth in the Flytec Championship where he had a good chance for third. Just a little more patience in light conditions would help, but his go for it attitude also helps him win the day. He was with Johann and I when we were low on the second to last day of the Flytec meet.
Curt came in first on day one of the Flytec meet when he aced out Gerolf by a couple of feet. They were so close that Gerolf did run into him when Curt flaired to land. Gerolf was injried on that day.
Robin Hamilton did well on Manfred’s MR700 WRE coming in fourth at Flytec, but he could have moved up to second or perhaps first with a little more thermaling in weak lift.
Gary Wirdham moved up from 55th at Wallaby to 7th at Quest after he destroyed and then rebuilt his Aeros Combat. Maybe he should do that more often. He really appreciates his helmet (EN 966).
Kari Castle came back from a poor showing at 35th at Wallaby to move into 17th and first female pilot at Quest. She often seems to use the first competition to get herself warmed up.
Gerolf Heinrichs who is ranked as the number one pilot in the world (before the Floridameets) came in sixth at Wallaby, after a number of problems. These seemed to continue at Quest, where he was 44th. It was quite a tough two weeks for Gerolf and I hope he gets some time off to rest and recuperate.
Mike Barber did very well in Floridalast year, and maybe that lead to too high expectations on his part. He came in 7th at Wallaby a few places behind Paris, and the second American, with new American citizen and Floridaresident, Carlos “Cloud” Bessa, right behind him. Then he had some trouble early at Quest and slipped way down in the standings. Going all out on day 6 he hit the deck, and then doing it again on day 7 he won the day.
Speaking of Carlos Bessa (pronounce Base –a) he has been on a tear doing all he can to make the US National team, so that he can go back to Brazil next year to fly in the Worlds. He is now in the seventh position (1 shy of the team), so he has a very good chance. If the Wallaby Open had been fully valid, and everyone had been in their same places, he would have moved into the 6th place on the US NTSS ranking.
Jim Lee had to leave the Flytec Championship because of problems with his neck. This would move him down in the running for the 2003 NTSS ranking to 14th.
Mitch Shipley would do well after taking some time off from competition hang gliding. He would be the fifth American in the Flytec meet. Chris Arai did well enough after not flying for six months to come in 10th and 20th. He moved himself back toward being on the US national team.
Tish the Flying Fish was able to beat Kari at Wallaby and was second behind her at Quest. She seemed to have a great time fly and with her water pistols. Apparently she was aggressive in both fields. Francoise Mocellin was the top women competitors at Wallaby, while Kari was the US Nationals Women’s champion.
Dorval, a Brazilian pilot who learned to fly at Wallaby Ranch a few years ago, improved his performance substantially in spite of a recent operation. He certainly moved up in the ranking for the Brazilians.
Rohan Holtkamp who is currently ranked number 2 in the World didn’t do as well as he had hoped to, coming in 16th and 12th.
So, Johann Posch goes up to Dave Glover and says what a great job he did at the Flytec Championship. He says that Dave is just like Janet Reno. “Janet Reno?” Dave asks quizzically. Yes, just like Janet Reno (who is currently running for governor here in Florida), responds Johann. “Hmmm,” thinks David, “do you mean, Jay Leno?” “Of course,” responds Johann, “the late night talk show host.”
Ron Gleason moved himself way up on the NTSS ranking doing well in both competitions. He came to Floridato get some cross country training after selling his business and purchasing a mobile home. He’s on the circuit like Johann and myself.
Alex Ploner, the current rigid wing world champion and Christian Ciech were almost out of reach to the rest of us. Only Johann was able to pass Alex in the Flytec meet. They are good friends. Christian taught Alex how to be a competition hang glider pilot. They compete against (and with) each other often.
It looks like they will be the rigid wing pilots who are coming from Italy to the Worlds. While it will probably take at least three pilots to win the team competition, they might have a chance with two. They, along with Hansjoerg Truttmann from Switzerland, will be very tough to beat. I’m racking my brain for ways to do this.
Manfred apparently from what I hear had a really good time flying the Swift. Is more in store?
Discuss "What happened in Florida" at the Oz Report forum link»
28 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Alessandro "Alex" Ploner, Chris Arai, Christian Ciech, Curt Warren, David Glover, Florida, Gerolf Heinrichs, Glen Volk, Hansjoerg Truttmann, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, Kari Castle, Manfred Ruhmer, Mike Barber, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, Oleg Bondarchuk, Paris Williams, Robert Reisinger, Robin Hamilton, Rohan Holtkamp, Rohan Taylor, Ron Gleason, Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan, US Nationals, Wallaby Ranch, Wills Wing, World Record Encampment
Flytec Championship – 70 mile fish bowl »
A.I.R. ATOS|Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Aeros Ltd|Alex Ploner|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|cloud|competition|Curt Warren|David "Dave" Glover|Flytec Championships 2002|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|GAP|Gary Osoba|Ghostbuster|job|Mike Barber|Moyes Delta Gliders|Moyes Litespeed|Quest Air|Ron Gleason|Steve Kroop|tail|tracker|tug|video|weather|Wills Wing Talon
David Glover was very smart and every day as the meet went on he would drag up folks to thank them for their help at the Flytec Championship. During the week he thanked the tug pilots, the volunteers, the ground crew, the Quest Air crew, the people who put the dinners together, Frank and Steve Kroop, the registration crew, etc. Because it happened every day everyone got more applause and more attention than if he had put it off until the last night, when everyone gets crammed together.
David and Steve did something also very clever, they had GW create a video taking footage and shots during the week. On Saturday night, the last night of the Flytec Championship, the video was ready to go and we got to see the whole video with the sound track. It was amazing that it had been done so quickly, all the while GW just looked like he was hanging out taking pictures and having fun.
But, not only did we get to see the video, all the pilots and tug pilots got a copy of the video last night. It really showed off what we do at a Floridaaerotow competition and we’ll be able to take it around and show it to our friends (if we have any outside of hang gliding).
Dave was a kick all week making announcements, telling jokes, getting pilots to come to the pilot meetings because they were so much fun. Belinda commented that we hadn’t seen Dave in his element in quite a while. While there were many many people who played keys roles in making the Flytec Championship such a great meet, I’ve got to feel that it was Dave Glover that really put it over the top and made it so much fun.
One of the key elements to its success (I feel), is that he was able to delegate responsibility to others, and in this case I’m referring to the task committee. I had written to him early on stating how giving the task committee the complete responsibility for calling the task was one of the keys to Tove’s great meets in Australia. David, like Tove, had the personality that allowed him to delegate responsibility and not get tied up into knots about it.
Chris Arai, Revo, and I had complete authority to choose the task each day, we took lots of pilot input and we did our best for the pilots to make the meet fair and fun. I can tell you that there was no barbeque task on the last day (although we did come back to Quest Air) as there has been in the past.
Having a task committee made up exclusively of pilots who without prodding from the meet director or organizer (well, we kept Dave away almost all of the time), is a key to having a meet (there are other ways to do it, but there are very very few individuals who can pull it off, and I can think of only one, Mad Dog, in Australia) that satisfies the pilots. This will continue to be a difficult issue and I hope that there will be a way to work this out at the upcoming worlds in Chelan.
Oh, yes, we did have a task on day seven. First, we heard from Gary Osoba:
Looks like a 7 day meet, thanks to the task planners, meet administrators, and reasonably good weather. Congratulations!
For a change, the entire soaring window today should provide for relatively consistent wind directions and strengths. Should make the planning a little bit easier. Here's how it stacks up:
11am Weak lift. Probably a bit early for clouds to be forming yet. When then do (likely closer tonoon), they should be around 2500'. Surface winds sse around 6. Winds aloft a little bit more southerly at 10-12.
2pm Good lift, strong in spots. Cb 5000' to 5300'. Surface winds sse 5-8, aloft sse 12-14.
5pm Moderate lift, good in spots. Cb could go to around 6000". Surface winds sse 8-10, aloft sse about 12.
"Only a fool would try to predict the weather"!
So we’ve got strong winds aloft out of the south, but good lift also. With the good lift we can come back against the strong winds, and that is exactly what we plan to do. We have really been counting on Gary’s forecasts, and he has done a great job for us. We really pick the tasks based on his weather predictions.
We call a 70 mile task (no barbeque task this one) that will first take us downwind 17 miles to the west, northwest to Bushnell, back against the head wind to Quest, south into the head wind to the intersection of highways 33 and 474, then north, downwind past Quest to Gator field, then 7 miles upwind for the final glide to goal.
The task keeps us near Quest, while at the same time making it difficult to complete. We come back over Quest to get everyone on the ground excited and it keeps us out of the swamp.
There are plenty of clouds when we start taking off, and it looks like maybe there are too many, maybe it will over develop after all. The wind seems awfully strong also, but it’s too late now to come up with an other task.
We hang around until the middle start time at 1:15although everyone is in the air in half an hour. We just stay at cloud base for an extra 15 minutes. GAP gives one very little reason to go out in front and leave the gaggle behind. Johann and I have already made up our minds that we will take the middle start time, and maybe everyone else felt that way also, or, when two pilots left, they all decided to go with us.
We can see all the darkness out to our northwest and it looks like we are jumping into a black hole. There are high cirrus clouds that dull the areas on the ground where the cu’s don’t block out the sun.
We spot the guys who took the 1 PMstart time and that makes it easier to make our way to the turnpoint through all this very gloomy looking area. Still we’re down below 1,400’ before we connect with the big lift that gets us to the turnpoint and back out again.
Well, that was a downwind task, but we averaged only 27 mph getting there, so the south wind didn’t help that much. Coming back will prove to be much more difficult (and most if not all of the pilots who don’t make it will drop out here), as the average speed will go down to 15 mph.
I’ll charge across some blue areas to get under what seems to be a cloud street, find nothing then push up wind to get under some pilots turning at 8 miles out from Quest, only to find myself at 450’ and working lift that averages 140 fpm, starting out at a much lower value. It turns out that every one will have difficulty making it back to Quest and will get low on this leg.
Christian Ciech and Alex Ploner are doing much better in this meet than the rest of us, and they have zoomed out ahead. They were half a mile ahead at the turnpoint, and I lost them coming back as I went more easterly, but they will also get quite low. They are flying together.
I’m flying with Johann, but I’ve lost him also. Given how weak the conditions are we are all struggling and it looks like a long day if we can stay up. I’ve got quite a few other gliders here with me, so we hang on and the lift improves, as we drift north away from Quest, but with stronger lift it is no problem. Twenty minutes after coming in low, I’m up to 4,000’ and on my way to Quest with Curt, Paris, Ron Gleason, and some other ATOSes.
We are styling now, hitting good lift and staying high as we come into Quest. We can see a gaggle forming to our south that includes the Swifts, so they must have struggled also. I can see Alex and Christian in the gaggle also.
Johann will lose it here and head off to the west to get under better looking clouds, while I’ll continue to the south to join up with the gaggle. Johann, who is in second place, will almost land at Quest.
I catch up with the lead gaggle, which is putzing along. I guess they don’t see any need to probe out into the blue to the south. All the clouds that we had by Bushnell have not come down here in the late afternoon, and there are mere wisps to our south.
With a bunch of rigid wings, Curt Warren, and above us all the two Italian rigid wing pilots, we start punching our way south only to find good lift, light sink in between, and long patches of buoyant air. We stay high and work light lift to get to 5,000’.
We are still running into the wind, so it takes a while, but we have no problems getting down to the south to get the turnpoint with Alex and Christian leading the way. The Swifts start to get ahead of us now, with Manfred taking the third turnpoint and coming back to greet us when we are 2 miles out from it.
As soon as we get the turnpoint, we can drift back north along 33 in strong tail winds and buoyant air. With the lift averaging less than 200 fpm in the cores, we are just taking a little bit here and there. After the long up wind grind it is a joy to drift toward the Gator turnpoint.
Now there are only rigid wings in the lead as we come into the Gator turnpoint and turn to get back to Quest. It’s been a long glide into Gator before our upwind final glide. My IQ/Comp has been acting up and not reporting any final glide info, so I’m just hanging with the four other rigid pilots. Heiner goes on glide and we all just speed up as it becomes clear that no matter that fact that we are going into a strong head wind, we will make it back to Quest without a problem.
Mike Barber who bombed out on the previous day (after passing up lots of lift trying to go faster) goes all out and will win in Class 1 as the flex wings will come in about 20 minutes behind Alex Ploner who takes first in the rigid wings. Then again he'll start fifteen minutes behind us, so you can see how much Alex and Christian were holding back, just tracking the rigids below them.
Class 5 on the last day:
1 | Ploner, Alex, 65 | Air Atos C | Ita | 13:15:00 | 16:20:00 | 03:05:00 | 953 |
2 | Ciech, Christian, 47 | Icaro Stratos | Ita | 13:15:00 | 16:20:11 | 03:05:11 | 935 |
3 | Biesel, Heiner, 101 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:28:30 | 03:13:30 | 848 |
4 | Gleason, Ron, 300 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:28:35 | 03:13:35 | 839 |
5 | Endter, Vincent, 43 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:28:36 | 03:13:36 | 832 |
6 | Straub, Davis, 50 | Air Atos C | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:28:55 | 03:13:55 | 825 |
7 | Zeiset, Jim, 66 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:38:43 | 03:23:43 | 762 |
8 | Barmakian, Bruce, 17 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:00:00 | 16:34:50 | 03:34:50 | 741 |
9 | Brandt, Dave, 60 | Air Atos | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:48:51 | 03:33:51 | 713 |
10 | Posch, Johann, 112 | Air Atos | Aut | 13:15:00 | 16:54:20 | 03:39:20 | 689 |
11 | Campanella, Mario, 186 | Flight Designs Ghostbuster | Bra | 13:15:00 | 16:54:52 | 03:39:52 | 685 |
12 | Almond, Neville, 116 | Flight Designs Ghostbuster | Gbr | 13:00:00 | 17:45:14 | 04:45:14 | 469 |
Class 5 finals:
1 | Ciech, Christian, 47 | Icaro Stratos | Ita | 5804 |
2 | Posch, Johann, 112 | Air Atos | Aut | 5354 |
3 | Ploner, Alex, 65 | Air Atos C | Ita | 5272 |
4 | Straub, Davis, 50 | Air Atos C | Usa | 4994 |
5 | Gleason, Ron, 300 | Air Atos | Usa | 4983 |
Class 1 last day:
1 | Barber, Mike, 2 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 13:30:00 | 16:41:15 | 03:11:15 | 915 |
2 | Wirdnam, Gary , 39 | Aeros Combat 2 | Gbr | 13:30:00 | 16:41:37 | 03:11:37 | 902 |
3 | Bessa, Carlos, 155 | Moyes Litespeed | Bra | 13:30:00 | 16:42:09 | 03:12:09 | 891 |
4 | Warren, Curt, 73 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 13:15:00 | 16:40:29 | 03:25:29 | 843 |
5 | Zweckmayr, Josef, 18 | Icaro Laminar | Aut | 13:00:00 | 16:33:16 | 03:33:16 | 841 |
6 | Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | Ukr | 13:30:00 | 16:55:38 | 03:25:38 | 800 |
6 | Agulhon, Dorival, 94 | Icaro Mrx | Bra | 13:15:00 | 16:45:15 | 03:30:15 | 800 |
8 | Harri, Martin, 31 | Moyes Litespeed | Che | 13:30:00 | 16:55:41 | 03:25:41 | 797 |
9 | Williams, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | Usa | 13:30:00 | 16:56:04 | 03:26:04 | 793 |
10 | Bertok, Attila, 64 | Moyes Litespeed | Hun | 13:30:00 | 16:56:08 | 03:26:08 | 790 |
Finals Class 1:
1 | Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | Ukr | 5841 |
2 | Williams, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | Usa | 5644 |
3 | Volk, Glen, 5 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 5584 |
4 | Hamilton, Robin, 30 | Icaro MR700WRE | Gbr | 5515 |
5 | Warren, Curt, 73 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 5440 |
6 | Hazlett, Brett, 90 | Moyes Litespeed | Can | 5437 |
7 | Wirdnam, Gary , 39 | Aeros Combat 2 | Gbr | 5434 |
8 | Wolf, Andre, 117 | Moyes Litespeed | Bra | 5389 |
9 | Olsson, Andreas, 27 | Moyes Litespeed | Swe | 5369 |
10 | Rotor, Nene, 77 | Wills Wing Talon | Bra | 5348 |
Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.
Discuss "Flytec Championship – 70 mile fish bowl" at the Oz Report forum link»
30 topics in this article: A.I.R. ATOS, Aeros Combat, Aeros Combat 2, Aeros Ltd, Alex Ploner, Chris Arai, Christian Ciech, cloud, competition, Curt Warren, David "Dave" Glover, Flytec Championships 2002, Flytec Championships 2005, gaggle, GAP, Gary Osoba, Ghostbuster, job, Mike Barber, Moyes Delta Gliders, Moyes Litespeed, Quest Air, Ron Gleason, Steve Kroop, tail, tracker, tug, video, weather, Wills Wing Talon
Flytec Championship – pilot’s choice »
Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Attila Bertok|Belinda Boulter|Brett Hazlett|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|David Glover|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2002|Gary Wirdnam|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|video|weather|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment
While the meet is on I’m a little strapped for time, so I just get out what I can. I’ve got a few other articles that I’ll get to when the meet is over.
Yesterday I wrote:
Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site. Dave Glover had them up by about 10:30 PM. This is the fastest I can recall the results going up on the web in a major competition.
Dave wrote back:
While I appreciate the compliment I need to redirect the credit. Tim Meany, Scorekeeper Extraordinare for the Flytec Championship 2002 is the reason why the scoring and web updates are so correct and timely. GW (by himself) routinely was able to finish scoring by 9pm almost every night at his meets.
Tim and Dave (who are working together as a team) got the scores up on the web by 7:45 PMtonight. They also have an intranet setup to display the scores (Flytec goes high tech) on a separate computer (in this case a Mac). Pilots don’t have to wait until the wood chipper (otherwise known as a printer) prints out the latest updates of the preliminary scores. They can go right “on-line” and see the scores and all the latest pictures from the meet, right at headquarters upstairs at Quest.
I was interviewed by one of the three local newspapers that are covering the Flytec Championships today. They wanted to know from me how we did the weather. There was also a camera crew from the Orlando CBS affiliate here all day getting great shots of pilots launching and coming into goal. The video may go nationwide, so if you see it, please write in.
Gary’s forecast was for winds at 14 mph out of the south, but the windcast said more westerly than southerly. We decided to go with Gary’s forecast with the winds at Quest in the morning were strong out of the south.
The task committee decided to let the pilots help make the choice between a 91-miler straight out to the north to our favorite airport at Keystone, and a 53 miler triangle, up to Coleman, down to the north end of the GreenSwampand then back. Of course, the straw poll from the pilots spilt about down the middle, so our fallback was for the triangle.
Turned out that once we got in the air, the winds at altitude were out of the west instead of the south, so it was fine to have a triangle task, although in this case it would bring us home with a tail wind. Garyhad been worried about the possibility of over development, and we did get some shadowed areas and vertical clouds, but no rain on the course.
Most pilots waited around for the 2:15 PMstart time. This is just a waste of time, and reflects the fact that we aren’t using OzGAP or maybe GAP 2002 (although no one was quite sure what to make of GAP 2002 after the debacle of scoring at the Wallaby Open). All the rigids were at cloud base for almost half an hour just hanging out until forced to go. Even then they didn’t really want to go so I cursed them and headed out on my own at 2:15 PM.
That got me a bit low being the guy in front with no one to watch, so I came into the first thermal low, which can be good as the lift is often better down below, before it tapers off, and you’ve got guys out in front that you can now follow. In this case, it wasn’t so hot (unlike yesterday).
All the rigids are sticking together and we haven’t caught the flexies who start out 2 miles in front of us. There are thick clouds every where, but long patches of blue and sink also, so we’re hoping not to run into a shadowed area with no lift as we head toward the prisons. Christian, Felix, and Johann are together in front and on top.
There is a lot of darkness on the ground and in the air as we approach Coleman. Some of us run to the west by the prisons just to be sure that we get some sunlight mixed with the clouds and get upwind a bit of the clouds so that we can get up before the turnpoint. Even with all the shadowed ground there is lift by the Coleman turnpoint, and we are able to get high.
By this time (one hour into the flight) we’ve caught the flex wings and it’s all a big jumble of gliders spread out over a mile, as there are lots of bits of lift. We head south toward the GreenSwampto get the next turnpoint.
After a five mile glide (long for the day), I find myself with Oleg working 90 fpm at 2,500’. We’ve gone out in front of the gaggle a bit, although there are rigid wings ahead of us. This lift is pretty piss poor after 400 fpm average in the last thermal, and finally we see that Andy Hollidge out in front of us in his Top Secret has found a much stronger thermal down low.
This thermal will average 500 fpm, get us over 4,000’, and make it easy to get to the next turnpoint and on toward goal. All the fast flex wings are in this gaggle, but Alex and Christian are way ahead. Alex will come into goal after making the course in an hour and 46 minutes. Christian is four minutes behind. Belinda has already told me the news on the radio.
A few miles past the turnpoint, we all stop for a thermal that averages 150 fpm. After climbing to 3,000’ with Oleg, I decide that I can find something better than this on the way to goal.
In fact I do find much better lift on the way to goal, but I get down to 1,200’ before I get it. Oleg says that the lift picked up after I left and this enables the gaggle to come over my head and get to goal 2 minutes before me.
Class 5:
1 | PLONER, Alex, 65 | AIR Atos C | ITA | 14:15:00 | 16:01:14 | 01:46:14 | 901 |
2 | CIECH, Christian, 47 | Icaro Stratos | ITA | 14:15:00 | 16:05:16 | 01:50:16 | 831 |
3 | POSCH, Johann, 112 | AIR Atos | AUT | 14:15:00 | 16:22:36 | 02:07:36 | 699 |
4 | BARMAKIAN, Bruce, 17 | AIR Atos | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:24:59 | 02:09:59 | 678 |
5 | GLEASON, Ron, 300 | AIR Atos | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:26:25 | 02:11:25 | 658 |
6 | STRAUB, Davis, 50 | AIR Atos C | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:27:15 | 02:12:15 | 649 |
Class 1:
BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | UKR | 14:15:00 | 16:24:51 | 02:09:51 | 918 | |
2 | WARREN, Curt, 73 | Moyes Litespeed | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:25:07 | 02:10:07 | 905 |
3 | ROTOR, Nene, 77 | Wills Wing Talon | COL | 14:15:00 | 16:25:21 | 02:10:21 | 896 |
3 | BERTOK, Attila, 64 | Moyes Litespeed | HUN | 13:45:00 | 16:02:58 | 02:17:58 | 896 |
5 | BESSA, Carlos, 155 | Moyes Litespeed | BRA | 14:15:00 | 16:25:28 | 02:10:28 | 890 |
6 | WIRDNAM, Gary , 39 | Aeros Combat 2 | GBR | 14:15:00 | 16:25:44 | 02:10:44 | 873 |
7 | VOLK, Glen, 5 | Moyes Litespeed | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:28:00 | 02:13:00 | 838 |
8 | ARAI, Chris, 57 | Wills Wing Talon | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:28:43 | 02:13:43 | 829 |
9 | BAJEWSKI, Joerg, 34 | Aeros Combat | DEU | 14:15:00 | 16:30:14 | 02:15:14 | 812 |
10 | WILLIAMS, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | USA | 14:15:00 | 16:31:00 | 02:16:00 | 804 |
Cumulative in Class 1:
1 |
BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 107 |
Aeros Combat 2 13 |
UKR |
4416 |
2 |
WILLIAMS,Paris, 1 |
Icaro MR700WRE |
USA |
4247 |
3 |
WARREN, Curt, 73 |
Moyes Litespeed |
USA |
4143 |
4 |
HAMILTON, Robin, 30 |
Icaro Laminar |
GBR |
4109 |
5 |
WIRDNAM,Gary, 39 |
Aeros Combat 2 |
GBR |
4069 |
6 |
HAZLETT, Brett, 90 |
Moyes Litespeed |
CAN |
4035 |
7 |
WOLF, Andre, 117 |
Moyes Litespeed |
BRA |
3978 |
8 |
OLSSON, Andreas, 27 |
Moyes Litespeed |
SWE |
3964 |
9 |
ROTOR, Nene, 77 |
Wills Wing Talon |
COL |
3939 |
10 |
VOLK, Glen, 5 |
Moyes Litespeed |
USA |
3831 |
Curt Warren (new pilot of the meet last year) is doing very well as is Parisjust behind Oleg. They don’t have Manfred to fly with (he won the day again in Class 2), and maybe Oleg would have challenged Manfred in this meet, after sneaking by him in the Wallaby Open.
It is great to see all the top competition gliders doing well against each other. There doesn’t seem to be a clear advantage to any flex wing, but Oleg is always blaming his glider for his good performance. This is a much different story than the one I reported last year at this time.
Jim Lee has returned to New Mexicoafter having problems with his neck, that’s why you don’t see him in the results. Robin Hamilton returned to his Laminar after flying his Swift in the Wallaby Open and is doing very well also.
Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.
Discuss "Flytec Championship – pilot’s choice" at the Oz Report forum link»
24 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Alessandro "Alex" Ploner, Attila Bertok, Belinda Boulter, Brett Hazlett, Bruce Barmakian, Chris Arai, Christian Ciech, Curt Warren, David Glover, Davis Straub, Flytec Championships 2002, Gary Wirdnam, Glen Volk, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, Manfred Ruhmer, Oleg Bondarchuk, Robin Hamilton, Ron Gleason, video, weather, Wills Wing, World Record Encampment
Flytec Championship – I think we are having fun yet »
A.I.R. ATOS|Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Aeros Ltd|Andrew "Andy" Hollidge|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|cloud|comic|competition|Curt Warren|David "Dave" Glover|Dragonfly|Flytec Championships 2002|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Moyes Delta Gliders|Moyes Litespeed|Nene Rotor|Quest Air|Robert Reisinger|tow|tug|weaklink|weather|Wills Wing Talon
Many pilots were excited about the short task yesterday and getting to goal for the first time. This really upped the mood of the competitors and brought everyone one into the fold. The new guys wanted to be included also.
I wrote a while back about Tove’s meet in Deniliquin and how she organized it so that it encouraged new pilots to join in competition. No one has taken her example and run with it yet, but maybe we’ll see more of that. We on the task committee have to set tasks for the major racers, so it would be nice to have a meet where we could see tasks for the great middle of the field.
Did I say that we were having fun yet? Seems like the competitors are really liking the tasks and enjoying the facilities here at Quest Air. Good weather helps, of course, and Floridais doing its best to makes us all happy.
There is a lot going on at Quest in addition to the meet. A new turbine Dragonfly flew tonight, so that’s bringing a lot of excitement to all the motor heads. With so many Dragonflies and trikes here, not only do we get in the air in a real big hurry, but all the tug pilots get to talk to one another and encourage each other.
With an east-northeast wind prediction and difficulty forecasting the lift, we call a straight run, 68 miles, out to the WillistonAirportto the north, northwest. We want folks to see a little bit of Florida, if they happen to look down at all. A little cross country flying wouldn’t hurt either.
There is a strong east wind on the ground, and in the air (I’ll measure 60° at 14 mph throughout the flight), so launches prove to be a bit tricky. I’ll break two weak links, which will start me off in a fine mood, nervous as possible.
With the high pressure and shearing winds, the lift above Quest is quite a handful. I’m getting tossed around something fierce and frankly I’m totally terrified. I’m thinking of landing, but the competition spirit keeps me in the air.
We’re waiting for the 2:15 PMstart time, and even with my late start because of the multiple weaklink breaks due to the action at tree top level, I’ve plenty of time to get to cloud base. Russell takes me up on the third tow and it is as smooth as can be. He deposits me under a small cloud that is working at 200 fpm, and I much appreciate it.
All the rigids were out near the start circle circumference, but they come back to join me as we wait until the last start time. I assume that they are thinking like me that we want the full heating of the day to fly our reasonably short task in.
I’m at cloud base at a little over 5,000’ and given that we are all back a mile and a half from the start circle circumference I decide to leave in time to make it there as the start time starts. Seems like some other pilots want to keep working to stay out of the clouds close to Quest.
There are lots of high clouds, and thin cu’s with cloud base at 5,000’ out in front of us. There is very little development today in the clouds, but they are numerous. They are mostly just wisps.
I go on an eight mile glide to 2,300’ and find some lift with a few other pilots under very marginal clouds. It’s 400 fpm back to 4,700’ so I’m happy to be high. I guess I only need to say this once more here. I’ll be terrified for about 75% of the flight. I experience it has very turbulent, and I can’t help thinking that the glider to going to go over at any minute. Other pilots will mention how turbulent it was.
There are flex wings who’ve taken the 2 PM start gate out in front of us, along with a couple of rigid wing pilots who also took the earlier start time. I’m falling behind as I keep leaving uncomfortable lift, and hoping to find lighter, but more comfortable climbs.
At around Wildwood I start chasing the lead gaggle – a gaggle of mixed rigids and flex wings. They are moving very fast, racing from thermal to thermal, but I’ve got the advantage that I’m following and can see where they find lift.
There is a tough stretch right around Wildwood as we head toward I-75, then things start to improve and folks get more and more into the racing mode. I’m still way behind many of the other rigids, and the top flex wings are spread all around. We’ve probably got 20 to 30 pilots in the front of this race, within two miles of each other.
Southwest of Ocalawe get under a cloud street that lasts for maybe 3 or 4 miles, and I’m somehow able to catch up with the top few pilots. We al decide to go on glide from over 5,000’ and this will turn into a ten mile glide down to 1,700 until a flex wing pilot way to my right is the first to find the lift. For the first time during the flight I’m happy to be in a thermal because it is completely smooth and takes us back to over 5,000’.
At 15 miles out my IQ/Comp is telling me to go on final. I’ve got it at 15/1. I head out, but find a small gaggle to my left that is climbing well, and make the mistake to go join them. I really didn’t need the lift and this would have been my opportunity to pass Christian and just go into goal.
The last twelve miles in are full race mode. I can see Andy Hollidge in his Top Secret way in front of me and higher, but I’m pulling in much more than he and catching him. There is little chance to go down before goal, so the only reason to slow down is to absorb the bumps from all the lift we are flying through. Andy can’t pull in any more, so he’s at a big disadvantage.
Christian Ciech is just in front of me, and there is no catching him. I’m surrounded by (but soon they are below and a little bit in front of me) Nene Rotor and Chris Arai (who took the 2 PM start time) and Robert Reisinger and Joseph Zweckmayr who took that last start clock. The first four flexies get in just a few seconds before I cross the goal, second for the day. Curt Warren started much early and came in between Manfred and Brian.
Class 2:
1 | Ciech, Christian, 47 | Icaro Stratos | Ita | 14:15:00 | 16:16:23 | 02:01:23 | 906 |
2 | Straub, Davis, 50 | Air Atos C | Usa | 14:15:00 | 16:17:16 | 02:02:16 | 875 |
3 | Barmakian, Bruce, 17 | Air Atos | Usa | 14:15:00 | 16:19:12 | 02:04:12 | 841 |
4 | Posch, Johann, 112 | Air Atos | Aut | 14:15:00 | 16:19:56 | 02:04:56 | 826 |
5 | Biesel, Heiner, 101 | Air Atos | Usa | 14:00:00 | 16:12:01 | 02:12:01 | 822 |
Class 1:
1 | Reisinger, Robert, 72 | Wills Wing Talon | Aut | 14:15:00 | 16:17:06 | 02:02:06 | 909 |
2 | Zweckmayr, Josef, 18 | Icaro Laminar | Aut | 14:15:00 | 16:17:07 | 02:02:07 | 903 |
3 | Rossignol, Jerz, 6 | Aeros Combat 2 | Usa | 14:15:00 | 16:19:05 | 02:04:05 | 856 |
4 | Williams, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | Usa | 14:15:00 | 16:19:33 | 02:04:33 | 841 |
5 | Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | Ukr | 14:15:00 | 16:20:12 | 02:05:12 | 830 |
6 | Warren, Curt, 73 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 13:45:00 | 16:04:17 | 02:19:17 | 821 |
7 | Hamilton, Robin, 30 | Icaro Laminar | Gbr | 14:15:00 | 16:23:07 | 02:08:07 | 800 |
8 | Rotor, Nene, 77 | Wills Wing Talon | Col | 14:00:00 | 16:16:57 | 02:16:57 | 799 |
9 | Arai, Chris, 57 | Wills Wing Talon | Usa | 14:00:00 | 16:16:58 | 02:16:58 | 795 |
10 | Wolf, Andre, 117 | Moyes Litespeed | Bra | 14:00:00 | 16:17:16 | 02:17:16 | 782 |
Manfred made the task in an hour and a half. Brian in an hour and fifty minutes. Manfred leads overall.
Christian Ciech has to fall down for anyone to catch him in Class 5.
Cumulative in Class 1:
1 | Bondarchuk, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | Ukr | 3498 |
2 | Williams, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | Usa | 3443 |
3 | Hamilton, Robin, 30 | Icaro Laminar | Gbr | 3333 |
4 | Hazlett, Brett, 90 | Moyes Litespeed | Can | 3250 |
5 | Wolf, Andre, 117 | Moyes Litespeed | Bra | 3244 |
6 | Warren, Curt, 73 | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 3238 |
7 | Reisinger, Robert, 72 | Wills Wing Talon | Aut | 3223 |
8 | Wirdnam, Gary , 39 | Aeros Combat 2 | Gbr | 3195 |
9 | Olsson, Andreas, 27 | Moyes Litespeed | Swe | 3179 |
10 | Zweckmayr, Josef, 18 | Icaro Laminar | Aut | 3062 |
Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site. Dave Glover had them up by about 10:30 PM. This is the fastest I can recall the results going up on the web in a major competition.
Discuss "Flytec Championship – I think we are having fun yet" at the Oz Report forum link»
26 topics in this article: A.I.R. ATOS, Aeros Combat, Aeros Combat 2, Aeros Ltd, Andrew "Andy" Hollidge, Chris Arai, Christian Ciech, cloud, comic, competition, Curt Warren, David "Dave" Glover, Dragonfly, Flytec Championships 2002, Flytec Championships 2005, gaggle, Moyes Delta Gliders, Moyes Litespeed, Nene Rotor, Quest Air, Robert Reisinger, tow, tug, weaklink, weather, Wills Wing Talon
Flytec Championship – launch, go on final »
Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Christian Ciech|David Glover|Davis Straub|Florida|Flytec Championships 2002|Gary Osoba|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Martin Harri|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Taylor|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing|World Record Encampment|Worlds
Well, not quite, but close. We’ll call a short task today, and make a lot of people happy (and some others not so happy).
First, a few interesting tidbits.
According to David Glover, the Flytec Championship is the largest aerotow in the world for the second year in a row. Seems to jibe with my understanding of these things. This year there are at least 104 pilots in the meet.
During the peak period when every one wanted to tow yesterday, they were able to launch a pilot every 23 seconds (this is from two lines). Shows just what you can do when you’ve got the resources and the organization.
Both major Floridaflight parks are doing very well on the organizing of resources and all the pilots really appreciate all the folks who’ve brought their tugs and trikes to Floridafor these meets. This really indicates that the next Worlds in Class I (or II) could be here in Floridawith resources shared by both flight parks.
This is the kind of rivalry that we all enjoy. The two major flight parks striving to be the best that they can be both with safety and with efficiency. Everyone appreciates this kind of competition and it is healthy for the sport and the industry. Congratulations to Quest Air for hosting the largest aerotow meets in the world!
Speaking of which I got an e-mail message tonight from the Flying Tush:
I just wanted to say that I think Dave is doing a fantastic job as meet director. I've never really been in a comp where the director doesn't treat us like simpletons and it’s very refreshing. He also has a great manner with the mic which keeps us laughing whilst still dealing with serious topics. I have never been quite so impressed by a meet director before.
I can only agree that David is doing a great job, both with the people relations aspects as well as the technical aspects of the meet. The Quest Air folks are also doing a superb job on the ground, in the air, and at the dinner line. The vegan food is an added plus (except the weird soy bacon).
Did I mention that we had a task today? Okay, okay.
Geez, the weather forecast sucked today. I had three different forecasts to go with this morning, and so we just picked one and said we’ll use that one for the task selection. We decided to go with Gary Osoba’s perhaps just because it was done just for us:
11am Weak lift to around 2,000'. Might be clouds forming up a little higher but probably not reachable yet. Winds at the surface nne 5-8, aloft 10.
2pm Moderate to good lift to around 5500'. Winds at the surface nne 5 and aloft nnw 10.
5pm Moderate lift to around 5300'. Winds at the surface nne 5 and nne to about 4500' at 8, up to 5300' nnw around 6
Now the other models showed weak lift all day. So we decided on a long task to Chalet Suzanne (42 miles) to the south-southeast, then to Wachula (total of 77 miles) to the southwest, and a short task to Chalet Suzanne, if the lift reported by the wind technicians was poor.
With the winds out of the north at 10 mph, and our options of going east/west poor, we decided to run down wind, especially given the possibility of poor lift. Poor lift was the output from the other models, because the high temperature was supposed to be ten degrees cooler than the day before – about 85°, with the north-northeast wind.
With a primary and secondary task set up we get out on the flight line and make arrangements with the wind tech’s to speak with them in the air and get a feel for the day. Earlier reports (10:45) indicated good lift, but a ceiling at 1,800’.
The wind dummies are off at 12:30(as we will open the launch window at 12:45) and they report back lift at 250 fpm to 2,300 and then it stops. They take three or four thermals and then land. No good.
There are no cu’s nearby, and there are plenty of high clouds perhaps from the front that is supposed to be going through. We delay everything 15 minutes, while we wait for the ground to get warmer. We are also discussing whether to call the shorter task.
We can see the clouds to the south and hear the reports from the thermal techs that there looks like there is plenty of lift to the south. They also report winds of 10 to 12 mph at 30°.
We decide to let the first competitors launch at 1 PM, with start windows at 2, 2:15, and 2:30 PM.Ten out of the twelve pilots who launch slowly come back to land. The other three look like they are going to land, and we don’t know what to do. We ask pilots to voluntarily not launch for a couple of minutes while we see if everyone is going to come down. We can call to new task then if we want.
The three pilots still in the air don’t come down, but slowly climb out, so the secondary task – the short one with Chalet Suzanne is on. We’re thinking that this poor lift could be a local effect due to LakeApopkato the northeast, but it does look more widespread than that.
With time running out, and a few pilots staying up, suddenly everyone wants to get into the air. Now it is very important just when you launch, because everyone (almost) will try for the 2:30 PMstart gate, and some pilots will be launching just a couple of minutes before 2:30 PM. They won’t have time to get up to cloud base (and out 3 or 5 miles to the start circle circumference) before the start clock reads time to start.
I get off at 2,000, fly over to the thermal, and get up in a thermal that averaging 300 fpm. The day has gone from really weak to just fine in over an hour. We just needed for it to heat up. The inversion lasted much longer over Quest than Gary’s forecast indicated, not breaking up until around 1:30 to 2 PM. At 2:30 PMwe could climb to 4,500’. The switch over was very rapid.
The start will turn out to be very important today especially as we have such a short task. I’m feeling pretty good even though there are plenty of rigid wings that launchedbefore me and are now higher, as I’m situation in the perfect position away from Quest and climbing at a rate that should get me to cloud base just as the 2:30 PMstart time begins.
A few minutes before 2 L30, ten rigids further out come back to join Alex Ploner and I in our thermal just inside the start circle. Still a few of them, including Christian Ciech are 300 feet over our heads. Not good.
I head out first hoping to get ahead by getting to the start circle first just as the start time begins. If the pilots behind are waiting in lift, they’ll get a bit higher, but be a minute late. Still they come over me.
Alex in plunging ahead trying to find strong lift way ahead of the gaggle in order to catch up and get ahead of Christian. After the first thermal, the gaggle heads toward the sand minds just to the north of 474 as we head a bit west of highway 33 and on the course line. I try keeping a line to the east seeing if I can find a line that works better than the line chosen by Christian who’s about a mile ahead.
The lift lines are the same, so that strategy doesn’t work. I continue it as we approach Old Grade Roadand Dean Still just west of Wallaby Ranch. The clouds seem better to the east, but again the gaggle finds the good lift first, and I’m back with them.
We’ve picked up the flex wings who started 2 miles in front of us also at 2:30 PMand so the gaggle is a mixed bag of rigids and flexies. We are putting our gliders up into steep banks as the lift gets up into the 500/600 fpm range.
The Swifts tried to get out in front, but we catch them at I4 and get over them also. Just south of I4, we hit a strong thermal and climb at 600 fpm at 15 miles out from goal. It looks like this will be all we need to make it.
We head off from toward the goal from 4,500’. So far glides have been averaging about 20 to 1 over the ground with the ten mph tail wind.
At ten miles out I lose my GPS signal and also find 500 fpm, so I take a few turns. The IQ/Comp has already told me to go to goal, so I’m not worried about my elevation, but this lift should speed me along. I know where the goal is, so I don’t need to have the GPS signal.
After a couple of turns, I continue on the ten mile glide across numerous large lakes into goal racing with all sorts of other pilots, flexies and rigids to get there early.
Manfred will get to goal first, come in high enough to get back up, and fly back to Quest. That way he doesn’t have to break down the Swift. Christrian Ciech will be the first hang glider into goal. Oleg will just beat out Paristo goal.
Seventy seven pilots will make goal, quite a few for the very first time. A pilot will come up to me in the goal and say that he’s been reading the Oz Report for two years and this is the first time that he has made goal. He’s obviously incoherent.
Christof, who helps Felix build ATOSes, will make his personal best and his first time into goal. Other pilots will be delirious. Long time competitions pilots will be disappointed with the fact that the task isn’t enough of a challenge and doesn’t differentiate pilots enough.
The field is a very narrow north/south grass patch. Thank goodness the wind is right down the runway. I've never seen so many pilots landing at the same time. Mitch Shipley comes in a few feet over my head and lands ten feet in front of me two seconds after I land.
Class I:
1 | BONDARCHUK, Oleg, 107 | Aeros Combat 2 13 | UKR | 14:30:00 |
15:39:18 |
01:09:18 |
757 |
2 | WILLIAMS, Paris , 1 | Icaro MR700WRE | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:39:24 |
01:09:24 |
749 |
3 | HAMILTON, Robin, 30 | Icaro Laminar | GBR | 14:30:00 |
15:39:45 |
01:09:45 |
737 |
4 | HARRI, Martin, 31 | Moyes Litespeed | CHE | 14:30:00 |
15:41:06 |
01:11:06 |
712 |
5 | BESSA, Carlos, 155 | Moyes Litespeed | BRA | 14:30:00 |
15:41:34 |
01:11:34 |
704 |
6 | CASTLE, Kari, 8 | Icaro MR700WRE | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:41:39 |
01:11:39 |
701 |
7 | OLSSON, Andreas, 27 | Moyes Litespeed | SWE | 14:30:00 |
15:41:51 |
01:11:51 |
696 |
8 | WALBEC, Richard, 83 | Wills Wing Talon | FRA | 14:30:00 |
15:41:53 |
01:11:53 |
694 |
9 | ARAI, Chris, 57 | Wills Wing Talon | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:41:54 |
01:11:54 |
692 |
10 | HOLTCAMP, Rohan, 15 | Airborne Climax | AUS | 14:30:00 |
15:41:58 |
01:11:58 |
689 |
Class 5:
1 | CIECH, Christian, 47 | Icaro Stratos | ITA | 14:30:00 |
15:36:03 |
01:06:03 |
731 |
2 | BARMAKIAN, Bruce, 17 | AIR Atos | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:36:19 |
01:06:19 |
715 |
3 | BIESEL, Heiner, 101 | AIR Atos | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:36:39 |
01:06:39 |
702 |
4 | TRIMMEL, Manfred, 113 | AIR Atos C | AUT | 14:30:00 |
15:40:48 |
01:10:48 |
645 |
5 | STRAUB, Davis, 50 | AIR Atos C | USA | 14:30:00 |
15:41:07 |
01:11:07 |
638 |
Preliminary results are up on the www.flytec.com web site.
By the way, regarding the weather. Instead of 85°, we saw 96°. When the forecast from the weather service is that far off on a critical variable which determines the predictions for lift, then all bets are off.
Discuss "Flytec Championship – launch, go on final" at the Oz Report forum link»
23 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Alessandro "Alex" Ploner, Bruce Barmakian, Chris Arai, Christian Ciech, David Glover, Davis Straub, Florida, Flytec Championships 2002, Gary Osoba, Kari Castle, Manfred Ruhmer, Martin Harri, Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley, Oleg Bondarchuk, Quest Air, Robin Hamilton, Rohan Taylor, Wallaby Ranch, weather, Wills Wing, World Record Encampment, Worlds
Final word on final glide
Fri, Mar 8 2002, 9:00:00 am EST
Chris Arai
I think that Chris Arai «chris» has figured it all out when he writes:
Peter's later comments on encountering sink during final glide show one of the reasons that the IQ/Comp is unsteady. We all assume that lift and sink will net out to zero during final glide. My understanding of the IQ/Comp method is that it calculates instantaneous (or maybe short term averaged) L/D or glide angle and then in turn calculates the destination altitude based on that angle. Thus it is now assuming that you will glide all the way to goal at that angle. Of course you then hit different air and a new angle is measured and the destination altitude is very different.
A way to visualize this is to try and point a laser pointer (or tight beam flashlight) at a wall 100 ft (30m) away. A small angle change in your hand and the light will move a lot. Now tie a string to a point on the ground 100 ft away and pull the string tight at head height. If you move the string up 6 inches, the angle of the string relative to the ground changes only slightly. These two different scenarios are analogous to what is happening with the IQ/Comp vs. the Tangent. The IQ/Comp gives a rapidly changing estimate that doesn't give you an overall picture of how your final glide is progressing, but an instantaneous one that may be overly optimistic or pessimistic.
The answer to why the Flytec jumps around even though the wind is manually input is that it also uses the short term glide angle measurement to calculate the destination altitude. I suspect that if one were to observe a final glide with the Tangent, IQ/Comp and Flytec at the same time the IQ/Comp would be more jumpy than the Flytec due to the GPS wind measurement errors during the final. The Tangent would appear to be asleep by comparison.
More info on the final glide and the GPS wind problem can be found in the Tangent online manual. Go to http://www.araidesign.com and click on the "Manual" button. Then read these sections:
Why Doesn't the Tangent Automatically Use the GPS Wind in the Speed-to- Fly?
The Final Glide Calculator Final Glide Techniques
1 topic in this article: Chris Arai
The final glide
Sat, Mar 2 2002, 2:00:01 pm EST
Chris Arai|Mike Barber|Steve Kroop
Chris Arai|Flytec 4030|Mike Barber|Steve Kroop
Recently I’ve had an opportunity to go back and think about how various varios handle reporting to the pilot that its time to go on final glide if they want to get to goal in the least time. In a competition with all the pilots flying close together in the task, it is often the final glide that determines who is to win and who is to come in second.
If you talk to any of the (now few) pilots that fly with Chris Arai’s Tangent vario they will tell you that one of their favorite features is the final glide display (especially how rock steady it is). The Tangent displays the pilot’s current altitude and the altitude that they should climb to (if they are in a thermal) before they go to goal. The calculation takes into account the current climb rate and the head wind speed (manually input by the pilot after reading it from the Tangent and perhaps revising it to take into account the wind gradient). Of course, it also uses the glider’s polar, the distance to goal, the altitude of goal, and any safety margin input by the pilot.
When climbing in a thermal, say twenty miles out from goal, you can get to goal in the least amount of time by continuing to climb past the altitude that will get you to goal by gliding at your best L/D (over the ground) speed if the thermal is strong enough. You sure want your vario to tell you to stay in the thermal until it slows down. You should now fly to goal by the Speed To Fly speed that corresponds to the climb rate in the last thermal.
As you glide toward goal, the Tangent displays your current altitude and the altitude that you should be at in order to make goal flying at the air speed determined by your McCready ring setting (which should be set to the strength of the last thermal). Tangent pilots find it quite reassuring that these values change in a steady and predictable fashion.
Mike Barber refers to the display of these altitudes, as “Making the Numbers.” When his Tangent shows that he is at or above the glide path determined by the Tangent he is feeling pretty cocky. When he’s below it, he’s thinking about finding more lift if he is a ways from the goal. If he’s closer to goal, then he looks at just how far below he is, and if he’s within his 600’ safety margin, then he just might continue.
Pilots who fly with the Brauniger IQ/Comp or the Flytec 4030 do not report this same rock steady and predictable behavior of the altitude above goal display that the Tangent pilots reported. Instead they find that the displayed distance above goal changes quickly enough going from positive to negative and back to positive that it is hard to put much stock in the values displayed.
After going on final glide pilot should in general just fly there Speed To Fly speed for a speed ring setting for the last thermal, or at least their best L/D speed over the ground, and not be all that concerned about their height. But, of course, it is a very big concern, because you do want to come in low, but not too low. A pilot’s attention will be split between flying the best speed and staying high enough to make goal.
Assuming that the pilot reports are correct and that there is a difference in the steadiness of the displayed altitude difference, one wonders just what causes this. All the formulas for calculating these height values are well understood, so it is doubtful that any manufacturer would be making an algebraic mistake.
I asked Wolf and Peter at Brauniger, Chris Arai, and Steve Kroop to comment on these matters.
Chris Arai «chris» writes:
My understanding of the Brauniger is that it jumps around because of one or both of the following:
1. The goal altitude calc uses current sink to calc L/D, which will vary on the final glide. Every one I've talked to says that this is some sort of average sink, which would negate any turbine vs. pitot tube effects. If it isn't averaged, then I'm surprised the numbers don't change so fast you couldn't read them.
2. The goal altitude calc uses current airspeed and polar to calc L/D. Thus if you speed up your L/D drops and your goal altitude drops.
Either method, even if it didn't jump around, tempts the pilot to speed up in lift and slow down in sink.
The Tangent doesn't tell you height above max L/D slope, it tells you the altitude required, which you compare with the altimeter. In addition, it doesn't use max L/D unless you have the speed ring setting at zero. Instead, it uses either the average climb rate if you are climbing, or the speed ring setting if you are gliding.
The Tangent will tell you you need more altitude if you are climbing in a stronger thermal. Thus if you are climbing in 300fpm it may tell you you need 7000ft. If the strength improves to 600fpm it will to climb to 8500ft (I am guessing at those numbers.) Conversely, if you are climbing at 600fpm with it saying 8500 ft required while you only have 7500ft and the lift starts to drop off, then the alt required will come down.
When you leave, you should set the speed ring to the average climb when you left. If you can't remember this number, then you just adjust the speed ring until your altitude matches the altitude required. By comparing the alt vs. alt required you can see how your final is going and respond accordingly. Dropping the speed ring setting a bit will cause the alt required to go down, which can be used to give you a bit of extra margin.
Peter Brauniger «info» writes:
We never take into account a current or an average sink rate.
Assuming, a pilot is flying towards a goal at normal speed (a bit faster than best glide). Assume that there is no thermal activity in the air. The air speed turbine is transmitting constantly the True Air Speed to the vario. With help of the polar table stored in memory, the vario calculates the L/D in the current air mass at the current speed. Now this value will be multiplied with the wind factor (= groundspeed/ TAS) and you get the L/D over ground. This factor is 1 with no wind; it is smaller than 1 with headwind and higher than 1 with tail wind.
With this calculated L/D (ground) our vario calculates the loss of height to goal and displays the height over the glide path which is also the pre-calculated height over goal when conditions remain stable (i.e. using the assumption of no net rising or sinking air on the way to goal).
If the pilot speeds up (because he is in sinking air) the new L/D (air) found in the table and calculated L/D (ground) are worse than before, the pre-calculated height over goal also is less. If the pilot changes his speed to make the height over goal be zero, he would glide exactly on the glide path to goal. The displayed value showing the maximum height over goal corresponds to the speed which in turn corresponds to the best L/D of his glider.
Now, why the jumpy value for height over goal?
Did you ever driven your car with a GPS-receiver activated? If so, you have surely observed, especially when stopping the car, that the groundspeed shown at the GPS display needs several seconds until coming down to zero. We found out that the GPS time constant (the delay in showing a new speed) is about 4 - 5 sec. Further more, most GPS-receivers transmit new data only every two seconds. All Magellan, MLR and also the Garmin 12 can be set to 9600 baud and transmit every second a new sentence of values (this would help a bit).
When the pilot speeds up in sinking air, his turbine at once transmits the faster air speed to the vario, but the slow time constant of the GPS is still holding the old ground speed value. Our vario now calculates a stronger headwind, determines a worse L/D over ground and a lower height over goal. So, whenever you change speed, for some seconds you get bumpy results. In the latest versions of the IQ/Comp we could calm down this effect by averaging the turbine's speed with the same time constant as the GPS.
Climbing in a thermal before the final glide.
Unnoticed by the user, there is another averaging vario (with a time constant of 30 seconds) built inside the IQ. It samples the average climb rate of the present thermal. In addition to the table for the glider’s polar we have another table in the vario called "speed to fly". For every possible climb rate of this vario (= McCready ring) this table shows the S2F.
With help of the polar table the vario knows the L/D corresponding to this S2F speed, corrected with the wind factor (while circling in a thermal the vario can find out this wind factor) it knows the L/D (ground) to goal. The target symbol will show up in the lower right hand corner of the vario screen when the pre-calculated height above goal gets positive. Leaving the thermal in this moment enables the pilot to reach goal as fast as possible; but it wise to circle up a little more to compensate an unexpected sinking air mass or a stronger headwind.
The Tangent requires that the pilot input their predicted head or tail wind going into goal. It calculates a wind speed for the pilot, but requires them to enter the value back into the Tangent before it uses it in the final glide calculation. Therefore, it doesn’t have the particular problem referred to above by Peter.
Chris writes:
You are right about why the Tangent doesn't jump around. Another reason why the pilot inputs wind is so that compensation can be made for wind gradient. If you calculate final glide based on a 20mph tail wind at 10,000’ but it doesn't stay 20mph to the ground, you come up short.
It is nice to know how the IQ works. I can see only one flaw, and that is the method of calculating the final glide while climbing. That is the S2F table he uses gives the speed to fly for zero wind. He corrects the glide angle based on wind, but the S2F speed should be higher for a headwind, less for tail. His one dimensional table looks up S2F for each climb, but not for wind. A two dimensional table would be required, or the actual formula. So the altitude calculated is accurate for the speed, but the speed is not optimum, therefore the altitude isn't optimum.
Peter writes:
When should a pilot leave the thermal to fly versus his goal?
During circling up, the invisible 30 sec averager vario knows the S2F and tells the pilot in the display the "Pre-calculated height over goal" with a minus sign before the number. This is the display of how many meters he still should climb to reach goal in the shortest possible time. If the thermal is a good one (about 2 m/s average or better) he also knows that the vario has already calculated this height value using a high air speed and a lower L/D over ground; so he could actually start his final glide when the vario displays only a small positive number of meters over his glide path.
Even if he would run into sinking air during his approach and lost some altitude, he still has quite a reserve because he could slow down until the McCready pointer goes down to zero. It is very helpful that the pilot can without touching his vario always knows how high he could arrive at goal for different speeds.
It is very different when the last thermal is weak. The vario would send the pilot on his way toward goal much earlier in order to be the fastest one but the S2F is very close to the speed of best glide and if now he would run into sinking air the possibility of not reaching goal is great. In consequence of these principles we recommend to leave a thermal for the final glide with much more additional height over the glide path when the last thermal is weak.
Now to your questions: The vario by itself cannot know if there is a future sinking or lifting air mass. It only calculates without this, or lifts and sinks cancel each other out. It's the experience of the pilot to know that on the way to his goal he will have lift or not and if there is a wind change in between.
Assume, a pilot is flying towards goal, trying to keep his McCready ring needle at 2 m/s and his pre calculated height over goal is close to zero; if he now hits sinking air of 1 m/s the McCready pointer also goes down to 1 m/s ring. He now knows, he will not be able to maintain the McCready ring of 2 m/s. So long he is not flying with a negative McCready reading he is still faster than speed of best glide. Because of the additional lost height passing the sinking air mass, he will detect that to continue with a pre-calculated height over goal of zero, he only can make it with a McCready ring of maybe 1,5 m/s.
Wind influence: A pilot is circling up under a cumulus cloud and has set his GPS to a Goto waypoint. During each full circle there is a moment when the transmitted track and bearing are the same. (Always when the glider nose is pointing towards goal +/- 20 degrees). Only in these moments does our vario check the wind component. (= ratio groundspeed divided airspeed) Now the IQ-Comp. knows about the flyable L/D over ground towards goal.
Because of the delay of the data coming from the GPS the displayed wind direction could be wrong by max 30 degrees. A jumpy reading of the pre-calculated height over goal comes about for the same reason. This occurs only if the glider is changing air speed, not when the GPS is sending different ground speeds.
Even though the formulas that are used to calculate final glide are quite simple, it turns out that getting the data and properly applying the formulas in the real world is a bit more difficult. I don’t know if the discussion above really addresses why the Brauniger IQ/Comp and the Flytec appear to display a value for height above goal that jumps around quite a bit more than the height values that the Tangent displays. Especially considering the fact that the Flytec, like the Tangent, also uses a wind speed value that the pilot inputs.
I would suggest that this problem bears a great deal more thought and investigation. This particular feature on the Tangent has proven to be very pilot friendly, while pilots appear to complain about similar features on the Brauniger and Flytec. I, for one, would like to know what is going on.
I fly with a Brauniger IQ/Comp, and I certainly climb in the last thermal even after the Go To Goal target shows up. My mind remembers those times when the assumption of no changes in the wind speed (especially at Mt.Beautyairstrip) were wrong. Often I find myself coming in too high at goal (thank goodness for virtual goals or goalies that know me from 2000 feet above them) because I don’t trust the values of height over goal displayed on the IQ/Comp. Perhaps I would have more trust in a Tangent.
Oh, and remember that out and return day at the 2002 Australian Nationals (OzReport.com/Ozv6n8.htm). I came in first and high with a Brauniger, Mike came in fast with a Tangent, Gerolf with a IQ/Comp came in thirty feet short.
3 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Mike Barber, Steve Kroop
Class I 2003 NTSS points:
Bubba Goodman|Carlos Bessa|Chris Arai|Curt Warren|Gary Davis|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS 2003|Paris Williams|Robert "Bo" Hagewood|Steve Rewolinski|Wayne Sayer
2003 US Flex Wing Ranking | 2001 Meets | 02 OZ Open | 02 OZ Nats | 02 Bogong | |||
Rank | Pilot | Total | Points | Points | 0.75 | 0.95 | 0.82 |
1 | Williams Paris | 2163 | 627 | 536 | 374 | 626 | 358 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2136 | 571 | 554 | 452 | 559 | 0 |
3 | Rossignol Jerz | 1809 | 528 | 370 | 393 | 518 | 0 |
4 | Hagewood Bo | 1559 | 493 | 464 | 324 | 87 | 278 |
5 | Zimmerman Chris | 1511 | 488 | 292 | 419 | 312 | 0 |
6 | Castle Kari | 1462 | 383 | 379 | 231 | 469 | 228 |
7 | Stinnett James | 1335 | 364 | 323 | 247 | 345 | 303 |
8 | Warren Curt | 1159 | 345 | 327 | 0 | 487 | 0 |
9 | Lee Jim | 939 | 510 | 429 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
10 | Volk Glen | 902 | 505 | 397 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
11 | Bolt Mark | 892 | 474 | 418 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
12 | Davis Gary | 862 | 475 | 387 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
13 | Presley Terry | 814 | 471 | 343 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
14 | Sauer Richard | 804 | 446 | 358 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
15 | Arai Chris | 739 | 498 | 241 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
16 | Rewolinski Steve | 687 | 354 | 333 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
17 | Goodman Bubba | 673 | 412 | 261 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
18 | Sayer Wayne | 664 | 346 | 318 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
19 | Bessa Carlos | 662 | 386 | 276 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
So this is now things stand in the flex wing category. Jim Lee will need to place well to get back up to the top of the list after not attending the Australian meets (which have become an adjunct of the US meets for top US pilots).
Discuss "Class I 2003 NTSS points:" at the Oz Report forum link»
16 topics in this article: Bubba Goodman, Carlos Bessa, Chris Arai, Curt Warren, Gary Davis, Glen Volk, Jerz Rossignol, Jim Lee, Kari Castle, Mark Bolt, Mike Barber, NTSS 2003, Paris Williams, Robert "Bo" Hagewood, Steve Rewolinski, Wayne Sayer
World Gliding Championships
Wed, Jan 2 2002, 1:00:02 am EST
Chris Arai|Worlds
Chris Arai «chris» writes:
You prompted me to go check out the World Gliding Championships and I found out that Pete Harvey, former longtime member of the UK HG team, is now flying in the Open class in a Nimbus 4 and doing very well at 3rd place. I had an email from him a few months ago informing me that his wife was due in November and he was off to the Worlds in December. He's better organized than I am!
2 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Worlds
Looking at the numbers
Sat, Sep 1 2001, 6:00:01 pm EDT
Chris Arai|Ghostbuster|Jim Lee|Manfred Ruhmer|Mario Campanella|Martin Harri
Encouraged by Jerz Rossignol and Dave Seaburg, I decided to extend and further refine the analysis that I carried out on the Nationals data originally started by Dean Williams. I went back and looked at similar data for the 2001 Flytec Championship and the 2001 Wallaby Open.
I'm not doing a statistical analysis of the data, but rather using the data and what I know about what happened on various days that might effect the average values, I'm looking to see what the data suggests.
What you see, depends on what you are looking for, i.e. what questions you are asking. We would love to be able to answer the question, what is the best flex wing glider, i.e. what flex wing gets to goal the quickest in a contest. This is a difficult question to answer, as the pilot has a lot to do with it. Still if we had equally skilled pilots, with equally slick gear, we would be able to approach answering this question.
The contest answers the question, who is the best pilot, but our analysis will give us a better idea of what it means to be the best pilot.
I won't go through everything in this article, but publish a series of articles that will look at these contests in depth and perhaps give us a better idea about the current state of hang gliding development.
First, let's look at the results of the 2001 Flytec Championship. Pilots only made goal on four days, so we have a lot less data than we do for the Nationals. Here's what a massaged version of the data looks like:
The average speed of the fastest two pilots to goal on each glider type.
The Laminar and the Litespeed pilots are the fastest. You may remember that the Talon pilots were right up there with them at the Nationals. Well, this is the prototype Talon in the spring of this year. A few of the pilots flying the Talon (Jim Lee and Chris Arai) hadn't ever flown one and all Talon pilots were flying the latest prototype which had been only out for a couple of weeks. This would suggest that the Talon has improved since the spring and that the Talon pilots are better able to fly it.
Manfred is flying the Laminar and he is the world's best hang glider pilot. Gerolf is right behind him, and so are the two fastest Litespeed pilots. In fact, they are within 1% and essentially indistinguishable using the speed data for four days. Of course, Manfred distinguished himself by winning the competition.
The ATOS pilots showed themselves again to be just slightly better in terms of speed to goal than the fastest pilot on a top flex wing. The difference is quite small.
Brian, in the Swift, does significantly better than the ATOS pilots, but not nearly so much better as Robin (or Robin and Brian combined) did in the Nationals. This shows that when two Swifts are flying and not being held back by the hang gliders that they can do much better. At the Nationals Robin continually flew his Swift at a level commensurate with its superior performance and thereby pushed Brian to do likewise.
I looked at the data in a number of ways and finally came up with this picture as the best view when it came to answering our questions. But, I had to do a little massaging to get there. First, you'll notice that I left out the Stealth pilots. Well, that was because on one day no Stealth pilots made it to goal. As you can imagine on a difficult day it was a slow slog and on that day the average times were much slower than on the other three days. If I had included in the analysis the Stealth pilot's average for three days, and everyone else's average for four, then the Stealth pilot's average would have been biased unfairly high.
If I looked at just two days that all four flex wings made it to goal, I found that the two fastest Stealth pilots were just 3/10th of a mile an hour slower than the fastest two Talon pilots. The fastest Stealth pilots were also slower at the Nationals.
Overall the fastest two Litespeed pilots flew faster than the fastest two Laminar pilots, but I decided to not count Tomas and Martin Harri's flights on one day (but took the next two fastest Litespeed pilots). The reason was they were very smart and took a different direction and better line and flew much faster than the lead gaggle and almost all rest of the field. They basically flew a different task.
I would have kept these flights in the analysis if I wanted to answer the question who were the smartest and fastest pilots, but I'm trying to answer the question, which gliders are the best. I would hope to have the same pilots flying the different gliders in the same way, but I can't have this, so the closest I can come is eliminating obvious "tricks" like this.
You'll also notice that the Ghostbuster pilots seemed really slow. They really aren't this slow. This is due to a very slow time on the last day when Mario Campanella is the only GB to make it into goal and he is an hour behind anyone else. If I look at the data without this last day, the Ghostbuster pilots are just about as fast as the Talon pilots.
Given that Manfred is a superior pilot, and that Gerolf is very close to him in skill level, etc. I think that this data and the Nationals data published earlier suggest the following:
The Laminar and the Litespeed are very similar in performance. We can't tell from this data if one is better than the other.
The Talon at this point in the spring has a ways to go, as do Talon pilots.
Either the Stealth isn't quite as good at the Litespeed or Laminar or the Stealth pilots are just not up to Gerolf's and Manfred's skill level (or maybe they have draggy gear).
Given the likely level of ATOS pilot skill, the ATOS is a few percent better glider than the very best flex wing, likely in the neighborhood of 5%.
Brian is being held back by the lack of real competition for the Swift.
Next time I'll look at the 2001 Wallaby Open.
6 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Ghostbuster, Jim Lee, Manfred Ruhmer, Mario Campanella, Martin Harri
New US NTSS ranking
Chris Arai|Mike Barber|Bruce Barmakian|Heiner Biesel|Mark Bolt|Campbell Bowen|Richard Burton|Kari Castle|Gary Davis|David Giles|Bubba Goodman|Bo Hagewood|Jim Lee|Mark Mulholland|Brian Porter|Johann Posch|Terry Presley|Steve Rewolinski|Jersey Rossignol|Richard Sauer|Wayne Sayer|David Sharp|James Stinnett|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|Michael Williams|Paris Williams|Jim Yocom|Jim "JZ" Zeiset|Chris Zimmerman
Now that the US Nationals are complete, there are a few changes in the US pilot ranking. I'll post the latest ranking up on the web in a few days. You'll find it at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/2002ntss.htm.
Latest Class I ranking:
1 | Williams Paris | 2184 |
2 | Barber Mike | 2005 |
3 | Lee Jim | 1846 |
4 | Hagewood Bo | 1770 |
5 | Volk Glen | 1643 |
6 | Rossignol Jersey | 1597 |
7 | Sauer Richard | 1484 |
8 | Castle Kari | 1456 |
9 | Presley Terry | 1423 |
10 | Zimmerman Chris | 1364 |
11 | Bolt Mark | 1361 |
12 | Rewolinski Steve | 1309 |
13 | Stinnett James | 1253 |
14 | Arai Chris | 1246 |
15 | Goodman Bubba | 1215 |
16 | Sayer Wayne | 1164 |
17 | Davis Gary | 1132 |
18 | Williams Michael | 1074 |
19 | Burton Richard | 996 |
20 | Giles David | 824 |
Mike Barber didn't attend due to an earlier injury to his shoulder, but this didn't affect his standing. Kari Castle instead went to Austria to speed glide. This allowed Glen, Rich and Jersey to gather enough points to pass her. Chris Zimmerman moved up five places.
I spoke with Kari before she decided to go to Austria. While she was uncomfortable about missing the US Nationals for the first time in over a decade, she realized that with the Worlds two years away, she had plenty of opportunities to obtain a high ranking in time for her to get on the US National team again.
Latest Class II ranking:
1 | Porter Brian | 1887 |
2 | Posch Johann | 1498 |
3 | Straub Davis | 1416 |
4 | Sharp David | 1354 |
5 | Yocom Jim | 1208 |
6 | Barmakian Bruce | 1116 |
7 | Mulholland Mark | 1047 |
8 | Bowen Campbell | 985 |
9 | Zeiset Jim | 982 |
10 | Biesel Heiner | 925 |
The only change in the top ten of Class II is that Bruce Barmakian has moved up from ninth to sixth. The Class II Worlds will be held next July in Chelan. Based on the current ranking the US team would consist of:
1 | Straub Davis |
2 | Sharp David |
3 | Yocom Jim |
4 | Barmakian Bruce |
5 | Bowen Campbell |
6 | Zeiset Jim |
Brian and Mark would fly in Class IV at the Chelan Worlds. Johann flies for Austria in the Worlds.
Discuss "New US NTSS ranking" at the Oz Report forum link»
30 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Mike Barber, Bruce Barmakian, Heiner Biesel, Mark Bolt, Campbell Bowen, Richard Burton, Kari Castle, Gary Davis, David Giles, Bubba Goodman, Bo Hagewood, Jim Lee, Mark Mulholland, Brian Porter, Johann Posch, Terry Presley, Steve Rewolinski, Jersey Rossignol, Richard Sauer, Wayne Sayer, David Sharp, James Stinnett, Davis Straub, Glen Volk, Michael Williams, Paris Williams, Jim Yocom, Jim "JZ" Zeiset, Chris Zimmerman
Pilot ranking for 2001 US National team
Bo Hagewood|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Carol Sperry|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|CIVL|Claire Pagen|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Dennis Pagen|Gary Davis|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|James Lamb|Jamie Shelden|Jamie Sheldon|Jersey Rossignol|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|Judy Hildebrand|Kari Castle|Lisa Colletti|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Bolt|Mark Gibson|Mark Mulholland|Mike Barber|Mike Degtoff|Nancy Smith|Paris Williams|Richard Burton|Ron Gleason|Steve Rewolinski|Tip Rogers|Wayne Sayer
Pilot ranking for 2001 US National team
The Florida meets made a few changes in the composition of the US Class I National team that will represent the United States in the 2001 World Championships in Spain starting in mid June. The US Class I National team consists of the six highest-ranking pilots, 45 days before the World Championships begin. As Glen Volk most likely won't be able to travel to Spain, Chris Arai would take his place.
Current Class I ranking:
1 |
BARBER Mike |
2005 |
2 |
WILLIAMS Paris |
1939 |
3 |
LEE Jim |
1847 |
4 |
HAGEWOOD Bo |
1658 |
5 |
CASTLE Kari |
1456 |
6 |
VOLK Glen |
1406 |
7 |
ARAI Chris |
1365 |
8 |
ROSSIGNOL Jersey |
1352 |
9 |
REWOLINSKI Steve |
1261 |
10 |
SAUER Richard |
1182 |
11 |
PRESLEY Terry |
1131 |
12 |
STINNETT James |
1111 |
13 |
BOLT Mark |
1057 |
14 |
GOODMAN Bubba |
1025 |
15 |
ZIMMERMAN Chris |
995 |
16 |
SAYER Wayne |
918 |
17 |
WILLIAMS Michael |
917 |
18 |
BURTON Richard |
914 |
19 |
PAGEN Dennis |
801 |
20 |
DAVIS Gary |
755 |
As the World Championships are part of the 2001 World Air Games, we can send two additional pilots whose scores will be counted for the WAG Championship. Jersey is eligible to go, but if he doesn't go, Steve Rewolinski can go. In addition, Claire Pagen, our second highest ranked female pilot, will be going to Spain.
Current Class II ranking:
1 |
PORTER Brian |
1575 |
2 |
STRAUB Davis |
1289 |
3 |
SHARP David |
1214 |
4 |
POSCH Johann |
1062 |
5 |
BOWEN Campbell |
924 |
6 |
MULHOLLAND Mark |
905 |
7 |
YOCOM Jim |
903 |
8 |
BARMAKIAN Bruce |
852 |
9 |
ZEISET Jim |
835 |
10 |
GIBSON Mark |
504 |
11 |
BIESEL Heiner |
499 |
12 |
SHELDON Jamie |
465 |
13 |
ROGERS Tip |
460 |
14 |
DINAUER Greg |
442 |
15 |
LAMB James |
424 |
16 |
POUSTINCHIAN Mark |
410 |
17 |
DEGTOFF Mike |
368 |
18 |
GLEASON Ron |
251 |
19 |
ZIASKAS Mike |
247 |
20 |
GRYDER Brad |
210 |
The top four ranked Class II pilots will represent the US in the World Championships and Jamie Sheldon, the top ranked female Class II pilot will be added to the team to compete for the World Air Games Championship.
We are not sure who is actually going to the WAG among the Class II pilots. Last October, Steve Morris wrote, "The Valkyrie achieves its maximum performance with a full-fairing and flying it in competition unfaired is ridiculous."
We assumed at the time that this meant that Brian Porter wouldn't be going to the Worlds in Spain because CIVL won't allow him to fly with his fairing/canopy. I've heard that Brian is in fact going to the World Air Games. We'll have to wait and see if he is flying the Swift or something else (both without full fairings).
The current ranking for US Women's National Team is as follows (as best I can tell, as I don't always know from the name who is female):
5 |
CASTLE Kari |
1456 |
23 |
PAGEN Claire |
627 |
26 |
CAMERON Patti |
511 |
36 |
HILDEBRAND Judy |
351 |
42 |
STURTEVANT Cj |
263 |
48 |
PERMENTER Raean |
185 |
50 |
WHITE Eva |
149 |
52 |
SMITH Nancy |
139 |
63 |
SPERRY Carol |
113 |
88 |
COLLETTI Lisa |
55 |
The full current ranking of US hang glider pilots can be found at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/2001ntss.htm. If you find any errors, please contact me.
38 topics in this article: Bo Hagewood, Brian Porter, Bruce Barmakian, Bubba Goodman, Campbell Bowen, Carol Sperry, Chris Arai, Chris Zimmerman, CIVL, Claire Pagen, David Sharp, Davis Straub, Dennis Pagen, Gary Davis, Glen Volk, Greg Dinauer, James Lamb, Jamie Shelden, Jamie Sheldon, Jersey Rossignol, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, Judy Hildebrand, Kari Castle, Lisa Colletti, Mark "Gibbo" Gibson, Mark Bolt, Mark Gibson, Mark Mulholland, Mike Barber, Mike Degtoff, Nancy Smith, Paris Williams, Richard Burton, Ron Gleason, Steve Rewolinski, Tip Rogers, Wayne Sayer
Florida meets - post partem depression
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkins|Tomas Suchanek|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing
Florida meets - post partem depression
Actually it isn't that bad. We've been on a high from flying ten of the last fourteen days in a very intense competition. Many (if not most) of the world's best pilots have been here in Florida. It has been like a Worlds at a place with superior conditions and flying.
Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch turned into little Olympic villages with so many pilots coming from Europe and South America. It was great to hear all these different languages in dinner. Pilots and friends really love this hang gliding community.
There were quite a few British pilots here (they are not able to fly in their own country these days). Johnny Carr reminded me that lots of British pilots read the Oz Report and he wanted me to mention what a great guy he is. At least he realized that foot landing the Swift was a special event.
We are now slowly packing and cleaning up after ourselves. Repairs are the order of the day. The strong east winds with high and low clouds have stopped any possible flying, so we are entertaining ourselves in other ways. Soon even the holder overs will be gone and the Ranch will seem far too quiet.
There is nothing more fun than a friendly little hang gliding competition. It was great to have Tomas Suchanek back and flying well. It was great to see Paris Williams do so well, after doing so poorly on his last glider at the 1999 Worlds in Italy. It's great that Manfred still dominates, but that others are pressing him hard. Gerolf came in second and came close.
Lots of ATOSes were sold here after the competitions. Seven so far and one is still available, having been brand new, flown only once, before the pilot brought it here. The pilot chose not to fly on a number of windy days, also. Shipping is still quite a barrier, so it is nice to be able to sell your glider after coming to the United States.
I'll be checking on the web site logs to see how many clicks I'm getting on yesterday's special naked hang gliding issue. Too bad I can't identify who clicks on the pictures and downloads them to their special folders.
On the sixth day of the Wallaby Open the Dragon fly pilots flew a special formation in the morning. This is what it looked like and these are the tug pilots:
With this many Dragonflies and a good number of trikes it is possible to hold a major competition at an adequately sized flight park for probably 150 pilots and still get everyone off in time. The Wallaby Ranch is a little small and the new extensions will help quite a bit.
Even Quest Air is a bit small, but adequate for these numbers. You have to be right on top of the organization and do a lot of planning in advance. Getting pilots to launch earlier is crucial.
Both the Wallaby Open and the Flytec Championship could use better organization. The pilot meetings were held too late at the Wallaby Open. They need to be moved up an hour. On the two days that we didn't fly, we probably could have if we had been out at the flight line earlier and had adequate time to launch in reasonable conditions.
The Wallaby Open organizers should have been more cognizant of the launch time validity rule that invalidates a day if there is not adequate time to launch everyone. Starting earlier and applying this rule (like they did at the Flytec Championships) would have reduced the amount of emotional decision making.
Both organizers did not rely on their committees as much as they should have. They tended to take them as advisory, when I find it best to let the pilot task, safety, and protest committees make the decisions. The organizers can then just implement the decisions. This worked spectacularly well at the last Bogong Cup.
The task committee at the Wallaby Open was a bit more emotional than the one at the Flytec Championship. One member in particular had quite a few feelings about which task should be run. Other than the 95-mile square, most of the tasks were under called at the Wallaby Open.
Scoring at both meets was not quite up to the high standards set in Australia. It is nice to have the author of the Garmin checking program as your score keeper at the Forbes meet. In the end the scores did get figured out, and with more experience on all their parts, things will get better.
Overall the emotional content of the launch or not launch decision has to be considerable reduced. The emotions rule both the pilots and the organizers. I believe that we need to plan ways to keep these emotions in check so that our best thinking can be in charge.
Reporting the weather in certain ways feeds into this emotional atmosphere, and after a few days, I tried to watch my words carefully for their emotional content.
Final Results Class I:
1 |
RUHMER, Manfred |
Icaro MRX2001 |
AUT |
4499 |
2 |
HEINRICHS, Gerolf |
MOYES Litespeed |
AUT |
4345 |
3 |
SUCHANEK, Tomas |
MOYES Litespeed |
CZE |
4193 |
4 |
WILLIAMS, Paris |
WILLS Wing Talon |
USA |
4179 |
5 |
SCHMIDT, Betinho |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
4056 |
6 |
REISINGER, Robert |
Icaro Laminar 14ST |
AUT |
3960 |
7 |
MOREIRA, Lincoln |
Icaro Laminar Mrx 14 |
BRA |
3958 |
8 |
ARAI, Chris |
WILLS Wing Talon |
USA |
3881 |
9 |
WIRDNAM, Gary |
AEROS Combat |
GBR |
3664 |
10 |
ZWECKMAYR, Josef |
Icaro Laminar ST14 |
AUT |
3601 |
Final results Class II:
1 |
PORTER, Brian |
BRIGHT Star Swift 135 |
USA |
3633 |
2 |
TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg |
A-I-R Atos |
CHE |
3400 |
3 |
SHARP, Dave |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
3020 |
4 |
ELKINS, Steve |
A-I-R Atos |
GBR |
2871 |
5 |
STRAUB, Davis |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
2797 |
Malcolm Jones feels that the prize money should basically go to the top guy in his competitions. This philosophy is quite a bit different than what we saw at the Flytec Championship, where there was a wider and deeper distribution of prizes:
Class I:
First Place Manfred Ruhmer $4000.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Gerolf Heinrichs $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Tomas Suchanek $500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Fourth Place Paris Williams Brauniger IQ Comp Vario (retail value: $1000.00+)
Class II:
First Place Brian Porter $1111.11 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Hansjoerg Truttmann
Third Place Dave Sharp
Unfaired Rigid Wings only:
First Place Hansjoerg Truttmann $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Dave Sharp $300.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Davis Straub Rotor Kickass Harness (Retail value: $1000.00+)
Total Value of Prizes Awarded: $10,911.11
First Place Class II $1111.11 provided by Super 8 Motel
Third Place Class II Rotor Harness provided by Nene Rotor
Fourth Place Class I Brauniger IQ Comp provided by Wills Wing
Malcolm wanted to separate the faired from the unfaired rigids given the stark difference in their performance potential. Therefore the top three unfaired rigids received prizes. My prize wasn't actually a prize, as Nene and Carlos had already asked me to try one of their harnesses. I agreed to do so, under the condition that it stay their harness and that at a later point I would give it back to them or make other arrangements. Still it was nice to be in third after Brian was pulled from the rigids' scoring.
Full results at www.wallaby.com.
18 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Brian Porter, Chris Arai, Dave Sharp, Davis Straub, Gary Wirdnam, Gerolf Heinrichs, Hansjoerg Truttmann, Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr, Malcolm Jones, Manfred Ruhmer, Paris Williams, Quest Air, Steve Elkins, Tomas Suchanek, Wallaby Ranch, weather, Wills Wing
Wallaby Open – no task today.
Chris Arai|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Peter Gray|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
Chris Arai|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Peter Gray|Wallaby Open 2001|Wills Wing
The front is here. The sky is completely overcast, but the sun is bright in the background and the sky is milky white and bright.
While there is no flying today, Peter Gray can fix the problems the scorekeeping and get out the results.
Class I:
Third day results:
1 |
HEINRICH, Gerolf |
MOYES Litespeed |
AUT |
03:34:33 |
1000 |
2 |
RUHMER, Manfred |
Icaro MRX2001 |
AUT |
03:43:20 |
925 |
3 |
WILLIAMS, Paris |
Wills Wing Talon |
USA |
03:45:09 |
911 |
4 |
ZWECKMAYR, Josef |
Icaro Laminar ST14 | AUT |
03:46:38 |
899 |
5 |
SUCHANEK, Tomas |
MOYES Litespeed |
CZE |
03:46:51 |
894 |
6 |
WOLF, Andre |
Icaro Laminar |
BRA |
03:47:10 |
889 |
7 |
ROTOR, Nene |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
03:54:04 |
828 |
8 |
SCHMIDT, Betinho |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
03:54:08 |
825 |
9 |
MOREIRA, Lincoln |
Icaro Laminar Mrx 14 |
BRA |
04:02:42 |
824 |
10 |
ARAI, Chris |
Wills Wing Talon |
USA |
04:05:30 |
811 |
Cumulative:
1 |
RUHMER, Manfred |
Icaro MRX2001 |
AUT |
2772 |
2 |
HEINRICH, Gerolf |
MOYES Litespeed |
AUT |
2692 |
3 |
SUCHANEK, Tomas |
MOYES Litespeed |
CZE |
2595 |
4 |
REISINGER, Robert |
Icaro Laminar 14ST |
AUT |
2451 |
5 |
WILLIAMS, Paris |
Wills Wing Talon |
USA |
2394 |
6 |
SCHMIDT, Betinho |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
2347 |
7 |
MOREIRA, Lincoln |
Icaro Laminar Mrx 14 |
BRA |
2334 |
8 |
ARAI, Chris |
Wills Wing Talon |
USA |
2262 |
9 |
BONDERCHUK, Oleg |
AEROS Stealth Combat 14 |
UKR |
2216 |
10 |
WIRDNAM, Gary |
Aeros Combat |
GBR |
2183 |
Notice how well Paris is doing on the new Wills Wing Talon. Chris Arai is doing well also. Will Gerolf have a chance to over take Manfred. He was forced by circumstances to take a different path than Manfred and Tomas yesterday. He raced faster when he thought he was behind after he got low, only to slow down when he found out that he was ahead.
Looks like Oleg is doing well. There seem to be quite a variety of top topless gliders in this meet and all are performing well.
Class II:
Day 3 results:
1 |
PORTER, Brian |
BRIGHT Star Swift 135 |
USA |
03:12:58 |
981 |
2 |
Straub, Davis | A-I-R Atos |
USA |
03:44:20 |
785 |
3 |
SHARP, Dave |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
03:45:15 |
771 |
4 |
ELKINS, Steve |
A-I-R Atos |
GBR |
03:56:22 |
721 |
5 |
TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg |
A-I-R Atos |
CHE |
04:25:02 |
653 |
Cumulative:
1 |
PORTER, Brian |
BRIGHT Star Swift 135 |
USA |
2269 |
2 |
TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg |
A-I-R Atos |
CHE |
2091 |
3 |
SHARP, Dave |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
1959 |
4 |
STRAUB, Davis |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
1847 |
5 |
ELKINS, Steve |
A-I-R Atos |
GBR |
1746 |
ATOSes currently hold positions 2 through 11. The first rigid wing hang glider other than an ATOS is Diego Bussinger (the world"><spans Class II number one ranked pilot) in at Ghostbuster in fifteenth.
Full results (when available) at www.wallaby.com.
Discuss "Wallaby Open – no task today." at the Oz Report forum link»
8 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Gary Wirdnam, Ghostbuster, Hansjoerg Truttmann, Manfred Ruhmer, Peter Gray, Wallaby Open 2001, Wills Wing
Wallaby Open – we circle the square
Aeros Combat|Belinda Boulter|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|J.C. Brown|Jim Yocum|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch
Today we played in the Green Swamp. A ninety-five mile task with three turnpoints that were supposed to keep us out of the worst parts of the Green Swamp. Still, that is where we go to have our fun.
The first day at Wallaby Ranch.
The flex wing pilots have been complaining about the rigid wing pilots. The meet director is setting the start times for the rigid wings first with the last start time shared with the flex wings. The flex wing pilots are complaining that Manfred just goes first and uses the rigid wings to go fast when they glide and then sits on top of them in thermals. The other flex wing pilots want to make it so Manfred can't keep using the rigid wings.
The meet director, JC Brown, decides to spilt the classes, with the rigid wing pilots doing the task counter clockwise and the flex wings clockwise. The task is Wallaby Ranch, to Quest Air to Cheryl airstrip to the Intersection of 98 and 301 and back to the Ranch. The reverse for the flex wings.
The forecast for the day looks great. Here is what Gary Osoba reports:
Probably the best day I've seen unless the moisture transport from the Atlantic is more saturated than what is shown. Good looking sounding, good looking wind stack with honest southeast winds feeding into a convergence line which should form through the middle of the state and extend into southeastern Georgia. Moisture profiles in the boundary layer show lots of latent heat adding to the lift. Thermals should be very strong but not violent. Well organized, powerful climbs. Lots of clouds. A real day for racing.
The start window opens at 1:15 and closes at 2:15 for both groups. It looks like an early start might be the ticket given the length of the task. Pilots are still a bit reluctant to get into position to launch, so pilots are still launching after the second start time.
The hot pilots in the flex wing category take the 1:15 start time. A few rigid wing pilots, including the Swift, take the 1:30 clock. Hansjoerg, Dave Sharp, Jim Yocum, Diego Bussinger, and I take the 1:45 start. We are half an hour behind the flex wing guys, but going the opposite direction.
The sky is full of cumulus clouds and there is plenty of vertical development. The sounding shows that it won't go high enough to over develop except in isolated cases. The six of us are gliding together and starting from cloud base. After three miles Diego in a Ghostbuster is quite a bit below the ATOS pilots (the rest of us).
While it is a cakewalk to Quest Air for Dave, Hansjoerg and I, I hear that 1/3rd of the rigid wing pilots go down on this first leg. We are lucky to get the timing right. We scrape off Diego and Jim and pick up an ATOS pilot from the earlier gaggle at Quest.
It is a 15-mile leg to Cheryl to the northwest. Six miles out from Cheryl we spot Brian flying straight to the turnpoint just over us, but quite a bit higher. Maybe we'll catch him.
We approach the turnpoint down below 3,000' and I scoot under a cloud street just before the turnpoint that turns out to be barely working. Hansjoerg is lower and not getting up. Dave and I are barely climbing.
Hansjoerg is trying the ATOS winglets on today. They seem to negatively effect his performance. We have no trouble gliding with him.
Suddenly we lose GPS coverage. We won’t be able to get the turnpoint if it doesn't return soon. Heck, we can't even find the turnpoint as we don't have an arrow to follow.
After a few minutes of weak climb, the GPS coverage returns and Dave and I can get to the turnpoint. We should have gone there first as there was a thermal there out in the sunlight and not under the clouds. We've scraped off Hansjoerg.
As we climb out at the turnpoint the flex wings start diving at us coming in from the south. Looks like there has been good lift along their flight path. Dave and I head out and find good lift all the way to the next turnpoint 25 miles to the south. We are on our own high over the Green Swamp.
Making the turnpoint south of Dade City and getting up at the west side of the Green Swamp, we are sitting pretty at over 6,000' and at cloud base. We now have to cross the Green Swamp going east for ten miles. It turns out to be one long glide with no lift over the Swamp.
We get so low that Dave drains the ballast from his ballast tanks. He's down below 1,500'just as we get to the east edge of the swamp.
I've been watching a cloud just to the north of our line and I find a little bit of lift under it and call Dave over. We climb out to cloud base 17 miles from Wallaby.
There is pretty much of a cloud street back to Wallaby and we just take it home.
We've been getting reports all along from Belinda at goal. The flex wing pilots who started much earlier are coming into goal (Of course, Brian is there long before anyone. This will completely screw up the scoring for rigid wing hang gliders by devaluing their times to goal and not putting much differentiating between other rigid wing pilots.)
Gerolf will win the day by 9 minutes. I remember seeing him launch early. He was on a mission.
Paris Williams will blast around the trees to come in low and fast for third for the day.
Having jettisoned his ballast Dave comes in a little behind me. Much later Steve Elkins makes it, then much later Hansjoerg, and finally just as goal closes Michael Hubert comes in. Another all ATOS finish at goal.
A total of 27 pilots make goal (much better on the goal crew after 73 yesterday).
Here are the preliminary results (I pull these off the goal keepers time sheets, so I'm unsure of the pilot's start time):
Class I:
Gerolf – Litespeed
Manfred – Laminar
Paris – Talon
Zwecky – Laminar
Tomas – Litespeed
Andre – Laminar
Chris Arai – Talon
Nene – Litespeed
Betinho – Litespeed
Reisinger – Laminar
Class II:
Brian – Swift
Davis – ATOS
Dave Sharp – ATOS
Elkins – ATOS
Hansjoerg – ATOS
Second day results:
Class I:
1 |
Ruhmer, Manfred |
Icaro MRX2001 |
AUT |
01:46:22 |
887 |
2 |
RAEMY, Kilian |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
CHE |
01:44:00 |
863 |
3 |
SCHMIDT, Betinho |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
01:49:46 |
843 |
4 |
SUCHANEK, Tomas |
MOYES Litespeed |
CZE |
01:49:47 |
841 |
5 |
HEINRICH, Gerolf |
MOYES Litespeed |
AUT |
01:49:58 |
836 |
6 |
WIRDNAM, Gary |
Aeros Combat |
GBR |
01:45:20 |
830 |
7 |
ROTOR, Nene |
MOYES Litespeed 4 |
BRA |
01:50:44 |
826 |
7 |
WOLF, Andre |
Icaro Laminar |
BRA |
01:50:44 |
826 |
9 |
MOREIRA, Lincoln |
Icaro Laminar Mrx 14 |
BRA |
01:51:24 |
814 |
10 |
REISINGER, Robert |
Icaro Laminar 14ST |
AUT |
01:52:06 |
805 |
Class II:
1 |
PORTER, Brian |
BRIGHT Star Swift 135 |
USA |
01:26:56 |
756 |
2 |
TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg |
A-I-R Atos |
CHE |
01:45:39 |
590 |
3 |
MEIER, Richard |
A-I-R Atos |
CHE |
01:49:58 |
532 |
4 |
YOCOM, Jim |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
01:51:38 |
521 |
5 |
SHARP, Dave |
A-I-R Atos |
USA |
02:01:14 |
514 |
5 |
POSCH, Johann |
A-I-R Atos 140 |
AUT |
02:01:14 |
514 |
Full results (when available) at www.wallaby.com.
20 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Belinda Boulter, Brian Porter, Chris Arai, Dave Sharp, Gary Osoba, Gary Wirdnam, Ghostbuster, Hansjoerg Truttmann, J.C. Brown, Jim Yocum, Johann Posch, Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr, Manfred Ruhmer, Paris Williams, Quest Air, Steve Elkin, Steve Elkins, Wallaby Open 2001, Wallaby Ranch
Flytec Championships – Round Four »
Aeros Combat|Bobby Bailey|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Icaro Laminar MR|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Martin Harri|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Tip Rogers
Tomas sneaks around the lead gaggle to win the day!
We have a conundrum during the task committee. There are two different forecasts for the winds. One says winds at 20 mph out of the east and the other says 10 mph. The task committee can't decide what to do. We look outside and the winds look light out of the southeast.
We send Bobby Bailey up in a tug and he reports 8-10 mph out of the southeast with the cloud base at 4,500'. There are cu's every where (except on the forecasts).
We decide on a 92 mile task due north, so we'll have a cross wind most of the way.
The launch window opens at 1 PM with the first start time at 1:30 so things start happening really quick. The last start time is 2:15, so they only have an hour and fifteen minutes to get everyone in the air and high enough (cloud base) to get the last start gate (which most people want anyway).
Bo gets launched first and takes the first start time. The ground crew and the tug pilots get going right away and the field goes bananas as everyone realizes that they need to go right now. Quiet one minute, the next the place is blasting with engine noise.
Just before 2:15 there are almost a hundred pilots at cloud base or in cloud base 4 miles north of Quest. It is hard making sure that you are high but not too high at the start time and at the start circle circumference. We are near 6,000'.
At 2:15 it is a race straight north as we head toward Leesburg and the lakes to the northeast. We turn to go up wind a bit, but it looks like there won't be any clouds or action down wind of the lakes to our north.
I'm a bit behind today so I get to see the action. Manfred and Betinho are on the left side of the spread of pilots. Tomas and Martin Harri are pushing more up wind to the right and east. I'm following them.
I watch Betinho and Tip Rogers in an ESC. Tip started earlier and is taking a thermal and drifting to the west. I focus my attention on Betinho as he begins to search an area and as he hits something I go toward him. Tomas and Martin will find something in a minute and I see them going up also. But, we are in lift and there are cu's every where around us.
I'm thinking that we had better head a bit to the west because the wind off the lakes is cutting the lift to our east. I'm also thinking that we probably want to be on the west side of the Ocala National Forest so that we should fly to the north west.. It's no fun going down in the forest.
I drive west to the next cloud as soon as we get up and the rest of the pilots seem to think that this is a good idea. We are rewarding with strong lift to cloud base. Now we've got a bit of a blue hole to the north, but lots of open areas that look like thermal producers below.
I lose track of Martin and Tomas, although I do spot some pilots further to our east heading up the west, and downwind side of the lakes. They look low.
We pass over some rigid wing pilots who've gone down earlier west of Leesburg, and it is slow getting up to Bellview. Still we don't get below 2,000' and the gaggle is hanging tight.
Once we get north of the lakes, we get into better lift and start getting back above 5,000'.
I'm not able to stay in front like I did on the previous day, so I have to do a bit of following from below. Still it is possible to stay up with the lead gaggle, and even get in front a few times to lead. I seem to like to be in the lead even if sometimes it is a bit costly in strategic points.
We get strong lift all along the Ocala National Forest and are ripping up the sky. The lift has been strong and often quite a bit too strong and turbulent. I think that courage is the word for the day. I have to keep calling up my courage to get back into rough thermals, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. I just don't want to hit anyone.
At thirty miles out I'm out in front with Betinho and Manfred but a few hundred feet below them. I can't see them so I miss it when they start working something. We are in a big blue hole and I have to keep running to the clouds to the northeast. I find 800 fpm in a smooth thermal at 1,600' over a clear-cut area. The clouds now fill in to the north all the way toward goal (or it looks that way from here).
The lead guys get away from me as I make the low save even as I climb out to 7,400' in strong lift. Dave Sharp and Johann Posch take the lead and get high twenty miles out. Manfred, Reisinger, Zwecky, Gerolf, and Betinho are now a bit behind them to the east.
Dave and Johann head toward goal at Keystone airport thinking that they will find something within the next twenty miles. Brian Porter goes with them. Thirteen miles out they are down to 1,500' with Brian 500' over their heads. He picked the wrong folks to pimp off of.
Manfred and crew are doing much better just a couple of minutes in front of me. I can now follow them from back and below.
We find good lift all along the way unlike Dave and Johann who get stuck. Brian is able to get away from them and get to goal.
Sixty pilots make goal. Glen Volk and Chris Arai head for goal when the Tangent tells them to go, but the air doesn't cooperate and produce no net negative lift. They land 3 miles from goal.
Bo makes it into goal first with the first start time. His speeds are a bit slow, so he doesn't get a lot of bonus points, but he does get enough to put him in third place.
Tomas and Martin make it fast to goal beating the rest of us by almost 20 minutes. They flew on their own and must have found some better lift lines out over the National Forest.
Steve Elkins on an ATOS left 15 minutes earlier, had a good run and got the early bonus points to place first for the day in Class II. Brian and Mark have ballasted up their gliders so that they wouldn't be able to foot launch or land them, and they used the high weights to their advantage on this strong day.
Here are the results:
Day 4:
Class I:
1 |
Suchanek, Thomas |
Moyes Litespeed |
Cze |
02:30:56 |
897 |
2 |
Harri, Martin |
Moyes Litespeed |
Che |
02:33:06 |
866 |
3 |
Hagewood, Bo |
Wills Wing Talon |
Usa |
02:57:54 |
792 |
4 |
Ruhmer, Manfred |
Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 |
Aut |
02:49:36 |
763 |
5 |
Heinrichs, Gerolf |
Moyes Litespeed |
Aut |
02:49:40 |
760 |
6 |
Schmitz, Betinho |
Moyes Litespeed |
Bra |
02:49:42 |
758 |
7 |
Zweckmayr, Josef |
Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 |
Aut |
02:50:34 |
752 |
8 |
Reisinger, Robert |
Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 |
Aut |
02:50:49 |
749 |
9 |
Hazlett, Brett |
Moyes Litespeed |
Can |
02:52:10 |
742 |
10 |
Bondarchuk, Oleg |
Aeros Combat |
Ukr |
02:54:28 |
730 |
Class II:
1 |
Elkins, Steve |
Air Atos |
Gbr |
02:49:54 |
937 |
2 |
Porter, Brian |
Bright Star Swift |
Usa |
02:49:08 |
928 |
3 |
Mulholland, Mark |
Bright Star Millennium |
Usa |
02:49:28 |
914 |
4 |
Yocom, Jim |
Air Atos |
Usa |
02:49:54 |
906 |
5 |
Straub, Davis |
Air Atos |
Usa |
02:51:24 |
892 |
Overall:
Class I:
1 |
Ruhmer, Manfred |
Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 |
Aut |
2691 |
2 |
Heinrichs, Gerolf |
Moyes Litespeed |
Aut |
2554 |
3 |
Schmitz, Betinho |
Moyes Litespeed |
Bra |
2506 |
4 |
Zweckmayr, Josef |
Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 |
Aut |
2470 |
5 |
Suchanek, Thomas |
Moyes Litespeed |
Cze |
2453 |
6 |
Hazlett, Brett |
Moyes Litespeed |
Can |
2441 |
7 |
Lee, Jim |
Wills Wing Talon |
Usa |
2396 |
8 |
Williams, Paris |
Wills Wing Talon |
Usa |
2369 |
9 |
Wolf, Andre |
Icaro Laminar |
Bra |
2319 |
10 |
Castle, Kari |
Moyes Litespeed |
Usa |
2275 |
Class II:
1 |
Porter, Brian |
Bright Star Swift |
Usa |
2844 |
2 |
Straub, Davis |
Air Atos |
Usa |
2682 |
3 |
Sharp, David |
Air Atos |
Usa |
2568 |
4 |
Elkins, Steve |
Air Atos |
Gbr |
2529 |
5 |
Posch, Johann |
Air Atos |
Aut |
2473 |
Complete results at www.flytec.com.
26 topics in this article: Aeros Combat, Bobby Bailey, Bo Hagewood, Brett Hazlett, Brian Porter, Chris Arai, Dave Sharp, David Sharp, Davis Straub, Flytec Championships 2001, Gerolf Heinrichs, Glen Volk, Icaro Laminar MR, Jim Lee, Johann Posch, John "Ole" Olson, Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr, Kari Castle, Manfred Ruhmer, Mark Mulholland, Martin Harri, Oleg Bondarchuk, Paris Williams, Steve Elkin, Steve Elkins, Tip Rogers
Wills Wing Talon »
Mon, Apr 16 2001, 5:00:02 pm EDT
Chris Arai|Jim Lee|Paris Williams|Wills Wing
That's the name of the new Wills Wing curved tip glider. You can order it now from Wills Wing. I got to fly a bunch with Chris Arai, Paris Williams and Jim Lee yesterday. They did quite well flying into the wind and competing against Laminars, Litespeeds, and Toplesses.
I would look at the results of the competitions over the next two weeks to see if you can reassure yourself that the Talon is as good as any other top end topless flex wing glider. It sure looks like it has a chance to do well here, especially after Paris did so well in Brazil (3rd).
4 topics in this article: Chris Arai, Jim Lee, Paris Williams, Wills Wing
Flytec Championships – Day 1 »
Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Mike Barber|USHGA
The forecast called for winds 10-15 mph out of the west. The sounding showed moderate thermal strength with consistent winds (in strength and direction) all the way to above cloud base at 12-15 mph out of the west. The task committee went bananas (I'm on the committee so I can critique it), and called a 62 mile task.
First, there is a leg to the north, northwest 21 miles at 325°. Unfortunately that's 12 miles into the wind. Next comes a leg to the northwest, which includes 10 miles downwind. Finally and then a return leg with a few miles downwind.
The idea was to do basically an out and return at 90° to the west wind (can't go east here unless you want to go into Orlando airspace). The leg to the west was thrown in without sufficient thought regarding the strength of the winds and the moderate nature of the thermals.
Flying, we basically take two steps forward and then two steps back. Here's a look at a track log near the first turnpoint, showing the drift.
Later, I asked Mike Barber what he was showing for winds. He said that earlier in the flight he was measuring 14 mph out of the west. Later, around 3 PM, his Tangent showed 20 mph. My Brauniger was showing 12 mph at 240.
Not only did we have a hard time getting any where, because of the strong head winds going to the first turnpoint, but we also couldn't get very high, 3,800' was the highest, and we didn't climb very quickly, with maximum climb rates averaging between 300 to 400 fpm.
Here's a chart of altitude gains going to the first turnpoint.
With all this wind you would have thought that the air would have been very turbulent, but this was not the case. Perhaps do to the light lift, there didn't seem to be any sharp edges to the thermals. It wasn't always easy coring up, but it was possible even from low even in the strong winds.
Many flex wing pilots were only able to make the minimum distance or less with 40 out of 70 pilots given the minimum distance. Six of the twenty-nine rigid wing pilots got the minimum distance.
I was flying with Dave Sharp and I first heard from him on the radio 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. I was 18 miles out. Half an hour later both he and I were 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. Gives you an idea of the degree of difficulty the task presented.
As we got closer to the first turnpoint, the proportion of rigid wings increased. Many flex wing pilots had gone down before the first thermal on the course. Brian Porter in the Swift, Mark Mullholland in the canopied Millennium and Greg Dinnauer in the faired Millennium were all together 12 miles out.
Manfred, Dave Sharp and Gerolf made the first turnpoint. Gerolf lands a mile and a half beyond it, Dave lands 5 miles below it, and Manfred is able to make the second turnpoint and get some of the way back.
Given that flex wing most pilots didn't make in the minimum distance, the day was very devalued. Rigid wing pilots got a few more points, but not many, as no one made it half the distance of the task.
The charts below show distance and points in the last two columns.
Class II:
1 | Sharp, David | Air Atos | Usa | 27.9 | 211 |
2 | Porter, Brian | Bright Star Swift | Usa | 23.2 | 189 |
3 | Straub, Davis | Air Atos | Usa | 22.3 | 185 |
4 | Yocom, Jim | Air Atos | Usa | 20.0 | 171 |
5 | Mulholland, Mark | Bright Star Millennium | Usa | 17.7 | 158 |
5 | Meier, Richard | Air Atos | Ita | 17.7 | 158 |
5 | Dinaur, Greg | Bright Star Millennium | Usa | 17.7 | 158 |
Class I:
1 | Ruhmer, Manfred | Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 | Aut | 43.8 | 131 |
2 | Heinrichs, Gerolf | Moyes Litespeed | Aut | 24.8 | 102 |
3 | Zweckmayr, Josef | Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 | Ita | 19.4 | 93 |
4 | Wirdnam, Gary | Aeros Combat | Gbr | 18.6 | 91 |
4 | Cook, Steve | La Mouette Topless | Gbr | 18.6 | 91 |
6 | Walbec, Richard | Wills Wing Talon | Fra | 17.9 | 89 |
6 | Lee, Jim | Wills Wing Talon | Usa | 17.7 | 89 |
6 | Hollidge, Andy | La Mouette Topless | Gbr | 17.7 | 89 |
9 | Arai, Chris | Wills Wing Talon | Usa | 17.6 | 88 |
10 | Raemy, Kilian | Moyes Litespeed | Che | 17.4 | 87 |
10 | Barber, Mike | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 17.4 | 87 |
10 | Volk, Glen | Moyes Litespeed | Usa | 17.3 | 87 |
Complete results at www.flytec.com.
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Davis Straub
co-author of Windows Me Secrets
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