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topic: Dustin Martin

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Dustin's the Man

Sat, May 28 2022, 9:45:48 am MDT

If you ever need your harness fixed

Dustin Martin|harness|Jeff Shapiro|John Hesch|Moyes Matrix harness

«John Hesch» writes:

I was in need of a zipper replacement in my Moyes Matrix harness, which as you know, are sewn in and quite a challenge to replace. I was also in need of a new glider bag, tip bags, harness bag zipper and repairs, and leg loops in the harness. I was looking around locally and found a sail loft that was willing to perform the repairs, but not in a "factory"-like fashion.

I put out a query on a forum and someone suggested Dustin. Well, of course! Why didn't I think of that myself. He was willing, items were sent, and repairs were made in the flawless fashion that you would expect from a craftsman with his talent!

Most know Dustin because of his world distance record, but not all know that he designed and built beautiful, carbon instrument pods, and collaborated on the Covert harness with Jeff Shapiro. I asked him if he would be willing for me to put in a shameless plug for this kind of work and he said, "Sure. Just tell anyone wanting harness work done, to strip and clean their harness first, like you did, so that I don't have to dump out 10 pounds of dirt and crap when it arrives!"

http://www.flywithdustin.com/about-me-1.html

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Cold and Windy

Tue, May 17 2022, 3:20:19 pm MDT

Krzysztof Grzyb goes far

altitude|Dustin Martin|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|record

Larry Bunner writes:

Sorry for the small graph:

17-22knots from the surface to the TOL at greater than 10000' A little cold at 26°F. Krzys the only pilot able to fly on Monday. Should be 200+ miles today. We shall see.

Krzys flew 444.92km (276 miles) in 7:14, top altitude was 8874' with multiple climbs over 1000' and greater than 500fpm. It was truly an epic day.

He launched the first time just after 11:00 but despite the cu’s over head could not get up. His next launch was an hour later.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:grzybk/16.05.2022/16:20

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Dustin on Flying in Arizona

Sat, Jun 26 2021, 8:10:33 pm EDT

Are the monsoons coming?

Dustin Martin

"Dustin Martin" «flydustin» writes:

This is the sky yesterday, one day after the first real rain in many months.

Was a very rare 10/10 day that I took advantage of. Base 10.5 in the flats, 11.5 in the hills, relatively light 10-20k west wind, clouds actually got better and better until sunset and winds dropped to zero.

Been the windiest spring I’ve ever seen, hope it calms down with the monsoon.

Got sort of warm for a week then back down to decent temps lately. We’ll see what September has in store. This year so far has been completely unpredictable, not like normal at all, let’s hope it shapes up.

Forests were closing down. Now they’re all closed and starting today all state trust land as well as some other state administered properties are off limits indefinitely, something I’ve never seen happen before. So unless it rains a ton, which it might, I would recommend pilots bring a winch or find another state to get flying in before the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

These shots are between Florence Junction and the Coolidge airport.

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New Paragliding World Records

June 20, 2021, 1:11:05 pm MDT

600+ KM in Texas

Dustin Martin|PG|record

Cross Country Magazine writes:

Midsummer magic! We can confirm that Sebastien Kayrouz just broke the paragliding world record in Texas! Still to be ratified, it's 613km on the tracklog, 610km on his vario screen. First 600km by paraglider. Average speed 61.39km/h. It was a tow launch and he was flying an Enzo 3. He also set a hit a declared goal at 557km for a new declared goal world record. Nearly 11 hours in the air. This is the same classic line that Dustin Martin set the hang gliding world record on in 2012. Congratulations Sebastien!

Sebastien started further to the west and north of Zapata, about 320 km north northwest of Zapata, just east of Del Rio. It was the "classic" west Texas line in the sense that he passed just west of San Angelo and just east of Big Spring, east of Lubbock and landed just southeast of Amarillo. The wind was much more south than south southeast, which is the "classic" wind direction.

Track: https://loctome.com/u/sebastienkayrouz/1624114210

3D: https://ayvri.com/scene/ogklqz8e5n/ckq4ky3z000013a6iuab4m5fs

His flight last year, starting here: https://OzReport.com/24.114#2

Like last year a storm in the Gulf.

Claudette yesterday:

Sebastien obviously knows where to go to get record flights. (Earlier version had a photo of another Claudette from years ago. Fooled me.)

His IGC file: https://OzReport.com/data/sebastienkayrouz_2021-06-19T14-50-42Z.igc

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Dustin, Attila, and Butch at Sonora Wings

Thu, Feb 18 2021, 9:01:37 pm EST

Getting to 7,000'

Attila Plasch|Butch Peachy|Dustin Martin|PG|Sonora Wings

Attila Plasch «Attila Plasch» writes:

Guess who's flying a hang glider? It's a long drive back, but that's Dustin Martin flying a Falcon here. Oh yeah, he arrived here on his paraglider after launching South Mountain.

Top of lift today was about 7,000'. I flew concentric circles for over an hour and Butch Peachy flew from here at the Ak Chin Airport to the Ak-Chin Casino in Maricopa and back (26 km).

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Dustin Flying

Wed, Dec 2 2020, 8:09:16 am EST

Locally

Dustin Martin

Dustin writes:

Really engaging hour and a half of leeside practice at the local hill today. No one around, flying or otherwise, made it very peaceful turning circles with just the birds.

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Still Number 1

June 9, 2020, 9:19:51 pm MDT

Still Number 1

By far the longest flight

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|record

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/tracks/world/alltimes/brand:all,cat:0,class:all,xctype:all,club:all,pilot:0_0,takeoff:all&sortOrder=LINEAR_DISTANCE

(Ignore the bogus entry and the paramotor flight .)

That would be Dustin's (followed by Jonny's) World Record.

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/634487

283.8 miles (456.8 km)

Tue, May 12 2020, 6:40:09 am CDT

WGS-84

Dustin Martin|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Quest Air|record|XC

Krzy sends:

I looked at Johnny Durand's flight (and Dustin's) from Quest Air on April 24, 2007. It was 456.2 kilometers or 283.5 miles. Both WGS-84 ellipsoid.

Therefore Krzy has set a new eastern US record (as I wrote earlier).

Just why XContest recorded the flight at 455.66 km is not known to us. Perhaps they use the FAI sphere.

https://fai.org/page/world-distance-calculator

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Illinois to Ohio

May 11, 2020, 7:33:04 EDT

Illinois to Ohio

New East Coast hang gliding record.

Blue Sky|Dustin Martin|Greg Dinauer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Quest Air|record

Krzysztof Grzyb <<doitkg>> writes:

We have had a very cold spring here in the Midwest this year but lately every couple days good flying conditions are showing up.

Last Wednesday top of the lift was up to 10K, thermals around 1000 fpm with 20 mph NW wind encouraged us to fly a challenging 90+ miles triangle from Whitewater WI. Two days later (Friday) the sky was covered with very high Cumulus clouds from Wisconsin to Kentucky with straight north wind. The problem was the forecasted extremely low temperatures (3.0 F) under cloud base so Larry Bunner, Greg Dinauer and I gave up on flying that day.

Instead we focused on Saturday with higher temperature but lower cloud base, weaker thermals with 12-15 mph west wind. Our choice went to Cullom with a static tow system to be able flying cross country straight to the East. Late Friday afternoon we found out that Enjoy Field would start their weekend only aerotowing season. Laura confirmed that a tow plane was ready to tow us.

Our plan was to take off at 11.00 am and get in the air as close together as possible. Larry, John Enrietti (who was driving for us) and I came around 9:00 am to the airport. It was cold, a little above 40° F, and less windy than we expected. Around 10:00 am the first cu showed up 10-15 miles east of us. After setting up our gliders and gear, wearing ski masks, we were ready on the east side E-W runway at 11:00 am and waiting for our tow plane. After 15 minutes I was able to take off first, Larry was second. More pilots were arriving to the airport at this time.

Laura towed me straight into the wind without any turns, exactly what we need from a tow pilot in this windy condition. During tow we hit lift around 200-300 fpm so I stayed in it. Larry took off 15 minutes later. He released very low having some towing issue mixed with low thermal. Finally, he was able survive without landing and climb to be in our game.

We flew straight east with predefined waypoints to avoid airspaces around Kokomo, Fort Wayne, Dayton and Columbus. Sounds optimistic, does it not?

We had a perfectly clear blue sky above our head and we saw also some cu's down wind. The goal was to catch these clouds. It was not easy; these clouds were moving away from us as we flew toward them. To catch them we needed to increase our average speed but in the conditions it was difficult. The air was turbulent (wind) with lot of broken thermal bubbles. In this roller coaster, time to time we were able to find a tight strong thermal up to 500 fpm and climb to 4.5-6K but this was not enough to speed up. I did not have an idea on what strategy I should fly.

I did not want to fall out at noon. Going below 2500 ft in these conditions was very risky. The distance between any active air was long enough to easily make a mistake. I was a little frustrated that in such bright sun I was fighting to survive and flying slow. Larry had the same feelings. We were flying very conservatively.

When we passed I-65 I get low at 1500 ft. Larry was 2-3 miles south of me with better altitude. Luckily I found a bubble which extended later to a strong tight thermal.

From this point (after around 2 hrs from takeoff) we began flying in friendlier conditions with solid thermals up to 8K with 700-800 fpm and cu's closer and closer to us. Average cu life time was not more than 5 minutes, so many times we started turning in the blue sky, but when we reach 7.5-8.0 K cumulus started showing overhead.

Finally, the fun began.

Watching for airspaces we were cruising to the East. We did fly together, but we did not see each other. I was flying on Larry’s south side. A couple miles north of Kokomo a majestic C-17 flew below me not more than 200 ft. I hope the pilots were not texting on their smart phones and that they saw me above their heads.

I had a camelbac but it was useless, the pipe was frozen so no drinking during the whole flight. I had forgotten to push water back from the pipe before takeoff. At top of the lift it was 24-28 F. Only energizer gel was keeping me “alive”. The tail wind at the top of the lift was mostly 20 mph but sometimes more, but at lower altitudes it was slower, so the best thing was to stay high and try not to be frozen.

Passing the Indiana/Ohio border around 200 miles from Enjoy Field Larry suddenly “fell from the sky”. Leaving his last thermal he sank all the way to the ground. Bad luck. John reported that he was on his way to pick him up.

I was still going straight to the east passing Dayton airspace and Columbus air space on North side. Conditions began slowing down, the sun was getting lower. Around 7:00 pm I hit my last thermal which gave me a climb rate of 200-400 fpm. Now, I was afraid of not landing after the sunset, so gliding straight to the ground and not hitting any bumps I landed 5 minutes before sunset 283.8 miles from Enjoy Field in Centerburg, OH.

I was able to break my glider down before dusk, but my remaining gear I packed in flashlight beams. John with Larry came to pick me up 25 minutes later. Now we have 5.5 hr drive to Enjoy Field. I finally got to bed around 4 am.

This flight is my longest cross country flight ever and 0.8 miles longer than the previous US East Coast Record set by Jonny Durand and Dustin Martin from the Quest Air/Sheets Fields in Groveland, Florida almost to South Carolina.

It was great to see again Sandy, Joe, Laura, Danny and John Licada. Huge thanks to John Enrietti for helping us make our dreams come true.

Tired but happy Kris

Flight data:  https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:grzybk/9.5.2020/16:16

455.66 km or 283.134 miles.

New Paragliding World Record

October 11, 2019, 8:16:29 MDT

New Paragliding World Record

582 kilometers

Dustin Martin|Facebook|PG|photo|record

Today Rafa Saladini broke the world record going 581.6 km.

Dustin Martin writes:

The three paragliders from yesterday landed together at 582 kilometers. From a surface tow. I believe Glauco foot launched on his hang gliding flight of 619 kilometers, also yesterday. The paragliders were wondering if 600 was possible, obviously it is and I wonder how long until they actually hit 700. They don’t seem to be in the ideal location for longest duration available. Another hour would make all the difference.

There’s a strange (to me) argument of aesthetics of foot launch Vs towing for a record flight, while (to me) all downwind dashes seem to be incapable of being aesthetically ideal. I think the longest paragliding flight will happen in Texas and will be sufficiently long to make Brazil suddenly less attractive for recapturing the record. Let’s see.

One day after the FAI received this:

FAI has received the following Class O (Hang Gliding and Paragliding) World record  claims:

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Caicó (Brazil)
Performance : 505,6 km
Pilot : Michael Küffer (Switzerland)
Aircraft : Boomerang 11 / Gin Gliders
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : no record set yet

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Straight distance
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 463,00 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 410,72 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Straight distance to a declared goal
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 451,5 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 377,00 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

and

Sub-class : O-3 / Paragliders
Category : Female
Type of record : Free distance using up to 3 turn points
Course/location : Assu (Brazil)
Performance : 464,4 km
Pilot : Seiko Fukuoka Naville (France)
Aircraft : Enzo 3 / Ozone
Date : 09.10.2019
Current record : 412,3 km (25.10.2018 - Marcella Pomarico Uchoa, Brazil)

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Fly Paragliders with Dustin in Brazil

July 3, 2019, 7:59:36 MDT

Fly Paragliders with Dustin in Brazil

Sort like the old days but with less hassle

Dustin Martin|PG

Dustin Martin|PG

http://www.flywithdustin.com/

Fly with Dustin is back! And for 2019/2020 we are exclusively PARAGLIDING!! Yes, PG! I took a break from clinics and focused myself the last couple of years on the challenges and opportunities that PG offers, not least of which is the ultimate freedom of having your wings in a backpack. This defines the entire process, from travel, to setup and breakdown, to retrieval, and also opens up incredibly deep lines in new areas. And enjoying the process is one of driving reasons for flying after all. I hope to see many of my hang gliding friends who also fly pg joining me this season to learn how to convert all those years of experience to cross country enjoyment on their new wings.

Why Fly with Dustin? From the start, I've made a point to set these courses apart from the typical 'tour'. This is not a ..point at the lz and kick you off, good luck... tour. The intent, and the focus at all times, has been developing safe, knowledgeable cross country pilots that have foundational XC skills and knowledge to apply wherever they fly. It is nice to get lucky here and there, but what's nicer is making that luck happen on every flight. Consistently finding climbs, consistently following good glide lines, consistently being aware of the other pilots around you, and consistently thinking ahead will make you a very good XC pilot. Talking or reading about these skills is one thing, but actually practicing them daily for a week or more as a team will put the skills in your hands.

Join me, Dustin Martin, a veteran of South American free flight guiding, for highly focused, small-group PARAGLIDING cross country courses. Maximum four pilots per course, exactly as I run my hang gliding tours. My focus is on developing and improving XC skills at safe, reliable, predictable sites, with consistent cross country conditions.

I'm pleased to be starting up again, with a 2019 season opener in Brazil. Dates available as soon as next month (Please contact me for dates and availability on these fall tours). FYI, US citizens will no longer need to go through the complicated visa process to visit Brazil. No visa, no cost, no hassle!

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Applegate - results

Sat, Jun 22 2019, 11:05:00 pm MDT

Dustin Martin does well

Applegate PG Open 2019

Applegate PG Open 2019|Dustin Martin

https://OzReport.com/23.123#3

https://www.flyxc.org/2019-applegate-open.html

https://www.flyxc.org/uploads/5/4/4/1/54413503/race_cumulative.pdf

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Applegate

June 19, 2019, 8:38:48 MDT

Applegate

The successor of the Rat Race in the Rogue Valley, Oregon

Dustin Martin|PG

Dustin Martin|PG

https://wingsoverapplegate.org/

When the organizers of the Rat Race announced that 2017 would be their last year producing the competition, a group of local Rogue Valley Hang Gliding and Paragliding (RVHPA) pilots got together to look at the feasibility of continuing the event. We knew it was going to be a huge undertaking, but with the outpouring of support from the international paragliding community and the local Applegate community, we have been inspired to create a new competition that will not only uphold the high standards set by the Rat Race but also bring new life to the event as a whole. We feel very fortunate that nearly all of the key team members who made the events at Woodrat a success over the past 15 years have been recruited and will be collaborating with us on the very first Applegate Open.

Rogue Valley, Oregon here.

Dustin Martin is flying it was is apparently his first paragliding contest

https://www.flyxc.org/2019-applegate-open.html

https://www.flyxc.org/uploads/5/4/4/1/54413503/race_cumulative.pdf

It's a PDF so I don't republish it as the formatting is a mess. Dustin is in eighth after three tasks. 85 pilots.

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Big Spring 2008 »

At the time the longest task in the World called and made

Big Spring 2008

June 10, 2019, 6:41:19 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|James Stinnett|Jeff O'Brien|Jim Yocom|Kent Robinson|Kraig Coomber|Zac Majors

Task 2, 2008-08-03, flexible

1 140 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 13:45:00 18:49:38 5:04:38 68.08 km/h 345.67 km 871.716
2 115 Jeff O'Brien Wills Wing T2C 154 13:45:00 18:49:56 5:04:56 68.02 km/h 345.67 km 866.393
3 121 Glen Volk Moyes Litespeed RS4 13:45:00 18:50:10 5:05:10 67.96 km/h 345.67 km 863.622
4 101 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 13:45:00 18:54:49 5:09:49 66.94 km/h 345.67 km 827.303
5 126 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RS 13:45:00 19:01:36 5:16:36 65.51 km/h 345.67 km 788.358
6 122 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 13:55:55 290.45 km 475.445
7 111 Mick Howard Moyes LiteSpeed 4S 14:07:01 287.83 km 472.662
8 116 Mark Frutiger Wills Wing T2C 144 14:02:13 243.37 km 412.361
9 106 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed S5 13:58:08 223.99 km 380.565
10 108 Kent Robinson Wills Wing U2 - 160 14:08:57 221.20 km 376.378

Task 2, 2008-08-03, rigid

1 3 118 James Stinnett Aeros Phantom 13:30:00 18:29:49 4:59:49 69.18 km/h 345.67 km 500.25
2 1 135 Benjamin Herring AIR Atos VR 13:26:15 290.27 km 267.649
3 110 Jim Yocom AIR Atos VR 13:26:08 109.83 km 131.325
4 1 119 Campbell Bowen Air Atos VX 14:00:25 34.11 km 48.813

Improved consistency

May 7, 2019, 7:20:49 CDT

Improved consistency

What makes for better results?

Dustin Martin|Joerg Ewald|Steve Kroop

Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Joerg Ewald|Steve Kroop

Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Joerg Ewald|Steve Kroop|Volirium P1

Over the last year I have been flying with two flight instruments. The Flytec 6030 as my main instrument and the Volirium P1 (formerly Flytec Connect) as my secondary instrument. The Flytec 6030 is next to my left side corner bracket in an aeropod from Dustin Martin. I use it to see my average climb rate, my distance from the center of the start cylinder, and the wind component. On final glide I watch carefully my L/D over the ground, my required L/D to get to goal, my projected height above my best glide altitude at goal and my projected altitude above goal given my current ground speed.

I know where all these fields are located and on which page (of three). I can quickly switch between pages. I have confidence in the final glide numbers although I always determine how much confidence I have given how far away from the goal I am, how high above the best glide line I am, and what the wind component is (head or tail wind).

The weakness for me of my Flytec 6030 is how it sounds when it encounters a thermal or when I'm thermaling. It feels weak and not very encouraging. It quickly changes from no sound to some sound, but not enough sound.

I rely more on the sound coming from my Volirium P1 to help me find the thermal and stay in the best part of it. I do look at one of the six screens that tells me my 20 second average climb rate, and wind direction (which I can't see on the Flytec 6030) and wind speed. Although I have completely configured all the screens on the P1, I have not memorized each one of them yet (http://ozreport.com/22.142#0). 

When I'm in a good thermal both instruments are chirping away and I try to make the 6030 sound as happy as possible. I can definitely see the difference in lag time between the two, and it feels like the P1 continues beeping for a few seconds when I'm actually not climbing according to the 6030. Hard to say for sure.

But it is the extra encouragement of the sound of the P1 that has really made the difference. Psychologically I hear that sound and I am more likely to stay in a thermal and more likely to turn and find the nearby thermal. It just sounds happier and I really want to follow its advice.

I have asked both Joerg Ewald and Steve Kroop whether it was possible to make the 6030 sound like the standard setting for the P1, but they didn't provide me with explicit instructions about how to do so. Joerg stated:

The 6030 and the P1 share the sensor and our special secret calibration procedure, that’s correct. But the electronics surrounding the sensor are different, with a much lower noise level in the P1. This allows us to increase the sensitivity on the P1, without increasing the risk for false positives (beeps when you’re not going up).

There are numerous setting that allow for adjustments to the sounds coming from each of the flight instruments. These settings are quite complex and I have not gone into them to make any adjustments other than sensitivity on the Flytec 6030. Any guidance from other pilots would be appreciated.

I had similar experiences with using the XCTracer as a secondary instrument, sound only. It was also more encouraging that the 6030. The only issue with it was that it wasn't as loud as the P1. Both the P1 and the XCTracer lack pitot tubes, so they can't distinguish between airspeed changes and changes in lift.

Flight instruments and pilots form a bond. The flight instrument is an extension of your senses. Your mind incorporates it into its functioning just as though it were an actual part of you. This goes a bit below the level of consciousness although you are conscious of it also. You are drawn to act to get the best sound indicating the best lift, and you don't have to constantly tell yourself to make this or that decision about where to aim the glider. The 6030 sends a "choppy" message, while the P1 sends a more consistently encouraging message.

The Volirium P1 has been a happy addition for me. It's improved my performance in competition. It's improved my flying and I really appreciate what it has done for me. I am happy to incorporate it into my mental functioning.

I would love to hear from other pilots, especially if they have a different experience with these instruments or with other instruments.

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Dustin going east

April 30, 2019, 8:52:51 EDT

Dustin going east

293 kilometers

Dustin Martin|Facebook|record

Dustin writes:

Right around 300km on Saturday in the Zeno and gto light. A smooth start after an hour of hiking, full on aerial battle mid day, and alarming tailwind at the end of the day. Had sights set on the foot launch record but was held back by lighter than forecast winds most of the day and hard to find, broken climbs all day. Topped off by being alone and in the blue with legit sink. Loving this performance in a backpack. Landed after sunset far from home. XCSkies is pretty accurate and it’s costing me tons of work days.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:Flydustin/27.04.2019/18:22

From near Tucson, Arizona (Mustang) into Texas.

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NTSS returns to the USHPA web site

December 18, 2018, 9:22:27 EST

NTSS returns to the USHPA web site

They made a home for it, not just on the Oz Report

Bruce Barmakian|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Robin Hamilton|USHPA|Zac Majors

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-1

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-3

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-5

No sport class.

Pos Name Points Comp 1 Comp 2 Comp 3 Comp 4
1 Zac Majors 2257 582 Din2017 568 SCF2018 556 Mid2017 551 QAN2018
2 Robin Hamilton 2089 660 SCF2018 550 Mid2017 493 QO12016 386 BSN2018
3 John Simon 1895 660 Mid2017 437 QAN2018 401 QO12016 397 SCF2018
4 Bruce Barmakian 1775 599 Mid2017 437 SCF2016 416 QAN2018 323 SCF2018
5 Phil Bloom 1710 555 Mid2017 495 SCF2018 355 QAN2018 305 SCF2016
6 Kevin Carter 1666 486 Mid2017 459 SCF2016 376 QAN2018 345 SCF2018
7 Glen Volk 1611 555 Mid2017 409 QAN2018 337 SCF2018 310 SCF2016
8 Larry Bunner 1517 420 Mid2017 384 BSN2018 368 QO12016 345 SCF2018
9 Davis Straub 1472 466 SCF2018 387 BSN2018 314 QAN2018 305 QO12016
10 Patrick Pannese 1414 402 SCF2018 400 SCF2016 333 QAN2018 279 Mid2017
11 Kevin Dutt 1377 466 SCF2018 363 Mid2017 313 BSN2018 235 QAN2018
12 Dustin Martin 1291 567 SCF2018 362 Hom2017 362 SCF2016
13 Kipp Stone 1240 393 SCF2018 340 Mid2017 284 Din2017 223 BSN2018
14 Derrick Turner 1204 355 BSN2018 352 SCF2016 300 Mid2017 197 QAN2018
15 Mick Howard 1087 392 Mid2017 257 QO12016 225 BSN2018 213 QAN2018
16 Jeff Chipman 1085 362 Mid2017 304 SCF2018 249 QAN2018 170 SCF2016
17 Krzysztof Grzyb 1048 499 Mid2017 395 QAN2018 154 QO22016
18 JD Guillemette 1018 454 Mid2017 314 QO12016 250 QAN2018
19 James Stinnet 960 530 Mid2017 430 QO12016
20 Patrick Kruse 929 349 QO12016 323 QAN2018 257 BSN2018

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Episode 80 – Can Hang Gliding be saved?

Fri, Nov 30 2018, 7:19:10 am PST

Cloudbase Mayhem podcast

Cloudbase Mayhem|David Glover|Dustin Martin|Francis Rogallo|Larry Tudor|PG|podcast|record|Steven "Steve" Pearson|USHPA|Wright Brothers

https://www.cloudbasemayhem.com/episode-80-can-hang-gliding-be-saved

Hang gliding is arguably the first “extreme sport” in human history and its influences radically changed the world. Drawing inspiration from Leonardo Davinci, Otto Lillienthal built the first foot-launched hang gliders in the late 1800’s. His wings inspired Octave Chanute and his assistants to make thousands of flights at the turn of the last century on the shores of lake Michigan which led to the Wright Brothers’ remarkable inventions and humans take to the skies.

Orville and Wilbur Wright’s flights in the early 1900’s are still hard to wrap your head around. Imagine picking up a 150 pound glider built out of bamboo, balsa and muslin cloth in 30 miles per hour of wind and actually soaring! Their flights in 1911 wouldn’t be matched until the early 1970’s!

Their passion for flight lead to the rapid development of powered aircraft which had a massive impact in the devastating air campaigns of World War I and World War II. Interest in unpowered flight returns after the Wars and the arrival of Francis Rogallo and his genius leads to Hang gliding as we know it. Suddenly we can chase the birds, fulfilling a shared dream that has existed from the beginning of human history.

The sport goes crazy in the early 70’s, over a hundred manufacturers get into the game, performance gains go through the roof, but then so do the accidents. In the late 70’s the Hang Gliding Manufacturers Association creates a certification process and the sport becomes more interested in safety than just getting off the ground at any cost. Gliders continue to innovate at an insane pace and incredible distances are flown: the first 100 mile flight goes down, then Larry Tudor flies 200 miles, then 300 but as wings get more and more sophisticated and fast, they also get more difficult to fly and importantly- to learn.

In 2012 Dustin Martin flies an unbelievable 475 miles in Texas, the farthest anyone has flown on unpowered aircraft but the future of hang gliding is anything but encouraging. What’s next for the sport, and has what’s happened to hang gliding foretelling of paragliding’s future? This is a remarkable tale told eloquently by the legendary Bruce Weaver from Kitty Hawk Kites, the president Wills Wing Steven Pearson, the former president of USHPA and former world record holder David Glover, the “Dark Prince” Larry Tudor and the current world record holder, Dustin Martin.

Jonny and Dustin duke it out on final glide

October 9, 2018, 8:46:33 MDT

Jonny and Dustin duke it out on final glide

Task 5 at the Santa 2018 Cruz Flats Race

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

The start of the final glide before the last turnpoint:

Dustin is 784 red line.

Jonny is 759 blue line.

Dustin started 474' below Jonny and 18 seconds in from of him.

Dustin's statistics (Wills Wing T2C 144):

Dustin glided 21.7 km at 43 mph average ground speed for a mean L/D of 13.7. The lower he got the more tail wind he had. After 23:19 minutes he arrived at 2187' or 848' AGL.

Jonny's statistics (Moyes RX 4 Pro):

Jonny also glided 21.7 km at 1 mph faster on average at 44 mph. His mean L/D was 12.8. After 23:18 (one second less than Dustin) he arrived at goal at 2226' or 887' AGL. He arrived at goal 17 seconds behind Dustin.

Dustin felt that there was very little lift on final glide on this day. It certainly was the case earlier when we started.

Why did I stop and search for lift?

October 4, 2018, 9:14:45 MDT

Why did I stop and search for lift?

Could I have made it into goal directly instead?

Dustin Martin|Larry Bunner

Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Larry Bunner

Larry Bunner asks:

Could you have glided from Mobile into goal? What was your final glide performance when you did leave?

Let's look at the final glide on the last day of the 2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Five of us left the thermal south of Mobile close together. Just looking at Zac, Dustin and I, Zac left at 15:30:44, Dustin 18 seconds later at 15:31:02 and I left at the same time as Dustin, but as I'm using my Flytec 6030 IGC tracklog with five second intervals I chose the 15:30:58 track log point to be the time I left. Zac was at 7426', Dustin at 7558', and I was at 7270'.

After a 10.8km glide I started circling at 4.5 km from the edge of the 1.5 km goal cylinder. My 6030 was showing goal at 7:1 (this is to the edge of the goal cylinder) and my then current L/D was 5:1. I was facing a 17 mph head wind.  My mean L/D since leaving the thermal was 9.1 (mostly perpendicular to the east wind) and my average ground speed was 35 mph. I had flown 10.8 km and I was at 3359' or about 2,000' AGL. I'd flown for 11:31 minutes. I started circling at 15:42:29.

Zac was close to the location where I start circling at 15:39:55 or about two and a half minutes before me. He was at 3,712' or 353' above the altitude I would be at when I got there. He was facing similar winds. His mean L/D since leaving the thermal was 9.4 (close to mine) but his ground speed was much higher at 43 mph. He'd flown for 9:11 minutes and covered 10.6 km.

Dustin came to the same location at 15:40:40, forty five seconds after Zac and not quite two minutes before I got there. He was at 3453' or about 100' higher than I would be at that point.

Both Dustin and Zac kept gliding toward goal from this point. I felt the lift and turned in it then scooted north less than a kilometer to find even better lift.

Zac made goal from there with a mean glide of 8.3 at 50 mph ground speed down to 1898'. He lost 1,814' and arrived at about 600' over the ground and still had to glide to the airfield center 1.5 km away.

As we discussed before in the previous article the wind was much lighter below 2,000' AGL.

Dustin made goal from that point with a mean glide of 16.6 at 42 mph ground speed. He arrived at 2538'. He lost 915' and arrived at about 1,200' AGL.

It is pretty clear that because the wind died down to 5 to 7 mph below 2,000' AGL I would have made it into goal by just continuing to fly straight to goal and not have taken the last thermal. At the time I was not quite low enough to see the head wind component on my Flytec 6030 drop to 5 or 7 mph instead of 17 mph which is what I saw. From the contours of the nearby hills it appeared that I was in a venturi and I had experienced the high winds throughout the flight. I had no desire to come up short.

After climbing in my last thermal to 5934' I flew to goal against a 15 mph head  wind with a ground speed of 33 mph. My mean L/D was 13.5.

Discuss "Why did I stop and search for lift?" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Final glide, last day SCFR

October 1, 2018, 9:36:07 MDT

Final glide, last day SCFR

Four pilots went on glide close together

competition|Dustin Martin|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

Here are the tracks for them:

A error-prone version of the track logs can be found here: https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/blog__day_6. I had to obtain the Flymaster tracker track logs from the scorekeeper who downloaded them from the Flymaster server. The tracklogs on the Airtribune server were downloaded automatically to that server in "real" time from the Flymaster server but we found them to have errors. Those error may not have affected our analysis but we went to the better IGC files which matched the IGC files from the pilots' flight instruments (We just checked Robin's).

Here are their starts:


These are their altitudes during their final glide:

Here are their finishes:

These are the altitudes and times at goal (Tyler is off by one second compared to the official results).

Zac Majors (Wills Wing T2C): 792 red line
Tyler Borradaile (Moyes RX 3.5 PRO): 755 green line
Robin Hamilton (Aeros Combat 13): 772 blue line
Dustin Martin (Wills Wing T2C): 784 purple line

Here are the stats for their final glides starting at the time that they left the thermal as determined by looking at their track logs, in the order that they left the thermal:

Zac's (Wills Wing T2C) final glide:

Tyler's (Moyes RX 3.5 PRO) final glide:

Robin's (Aeros Combat 13) final glide:

Dustin's (Wills Wing T2C) final glide:

Final Results: https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results/task3767/day/open-class

Zac 1:43:20
Robin 1:43:38
Tyler 1:43:49
Dustin 1:44:46

Zac started first five seconds ahead of Tyler. Robin was fourteen seconds behind Zac to start. Dustin was eighteen seconds behind.

Zac and Tyler started at the same altitude. Robin started 100 feet higher and Dustin 125 feet higher.

Zac averaged 45 mph (ground speed), Tyler 44, Robin 45, and Dustin 42 mph. I use ground speed because the trackers calculate air speed, they don't measure it.

Zac arrived at the edge of the 1.5 km goal cylinder at 1,900', Robin about 2,700', Tyler 2,500', and Dustin at a little over 2,500'. The ground elevation is about 1,300'.

Zac got an 9.1:1 glide ratio, Robin 10.3, Tyler 10.1, Dustin 10.0.

At about one kilometer before the edge of the goal cylinder Zac was going 68 mph (GS), Robin 58 mph, Tyler 59 mph, Dustin 52 mph.

From 3 kilometers out Zac averaged 60 mph (GS) with an L/D of 6.9, Robin averaged 59 mph with an L/D of 8.5, Tyler 53 mph with an L/D of 10.7, and Dustin 48 mph with an L/D of 13.8.

Here's how the pilots line up at 15:41:41 about 2.7 km to 3.6 km out:

From there Zac flew 2.7 km in 1:39 minutes at 62 mph (GS) with an L/D of 6.4 (this is all into a head wind calculated to be 5 mph at these lower altitude). He found no rising air.

Robin flew 3.1 km in 1:57 minutes at 59 mph (GS) with an L/D of 8.6. He found no rising air.

Tyler flew 3.9 km in 2:09 minutes at 53 mph (GS) with an L/D of 10.3. Twenty two seconds were in rising air.

Dustin flew 3.6 km in 3:05 minutes at 44 mph (GS) with an L/D of 18.5. Forty two seconds were in rising air.

Obviously there was rising air earlier for Robin as well as for Dustin and Tyler. This arising air made a significant difference in the altitude that Robin, Tyler, and Dustin reached goal at.

After the ⁢2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Tue, Sep 25 2018, 1:23:54 am GMT

Monday

Dustin Martin|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018

Dustin Martin «Dustin Martin» sends:

Clouds everywhere. Smooth 800s to 10800 ft bases. 5 mph winds.

Discuss "After the ⁢2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Zac Majors is the 2018 US National Champion

September 24, 2018, 12:22:30 pm MDT GMT-0600

Zac Majors is the 2018 US National Champion

This is my calculation and I don't think that it is official

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|Ian Snowball|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Quest Air|Robin Hamilton|Wayne Michelsen|Zac Majors

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race results:

Pos Name Score Points
1 Robin Hamilton 3810 660
4 Zac Majors 3607 568
5 Dustin Martin 3604 567
7 Phil Bloom 3145 495
8 Davis Straub 2964 466
9 Kevin Dutt 2962 466
10 Mitchell Shipley 2829 445
11 Ben Dunn 2637 415
12 Patrick Pannese 2556 402
13 John Simon 2523 397
14 Kipp Stone 2499 393
15 Greg Kendall 2359 371
16 Wayne Michelsen 2307 363
17 Larry Bunner 2197 345
18 Kevin Carter 2194 345
20 Glen Volk 2144 337
21 Bruce Barmakian 2053 323
22 Jeff Chipman 1933 304
24 Sergey Kataev 1145 180
25 Mick Howard 1102 173
26 Austin Marshall 1087 171
27 ian Snowball 965 151
28 Luke Waters 894 140
29 Kevin Kernohan 795 125
30 Bill Bennett 654 102
31 Alex Tatom 405 63

The Pos column is the results of the race. The score column is the pilot's score the 2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race. The points columns is the NTSS points from the competition.

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results/task3767/comp/open-class

Partial results from the 2018 Big Spring Nationals:

Pos Name Score Points
2 Davis Straub 2327 387
4 Robin Hamilton 2316 386
5 Larry Bunner 2305 384
7 John Simon 2170 361
8 Derrick Turner 2134 355
9 Zac Majors 2074 345
10 Kevin Carter 2023 337
11 Kevin Dutt 1880 313
12 Nathan Wreyford 1828 304
13 Glen Volk 1810 301

https://airtribune.com/2018-big-spring-national-series/results/task3576/comp/open-class

Results from the 2018 Quest Air Nationals.

https://ozreport.com/22.127#0

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/results/task3172/comp/open-class

The top five finishers for the 2018 US National Championship:

Zac = 551 + 568 = 1,119

Robin = 386 + 660 = 1,046

Davis Straub = 387 + 466 = 853

Phil Bloom = 355 + 495 = 850

John Simon = 437 + 361 = 798

The procedure for determining the US National Champion:

A pilot's National Champion ranking is based on his/her total NTSS points accumulated in their best two US “National Championship Event” competitions for the current year.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 22, 2018, 10:10:58 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The lift returns along with the high top of lift. No cu's, of course

Ben Dunn|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Flytec 6030|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wayne Michelsen|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

I wrote in a review of the 2018 Big Spring Nationals that luck is an important part of a hang gliding competition. Today really illustrated that truth. Larry Bunner launched early and climbed up to 6,400'.

I launched in the tenth position with Gregg Ludwig pulling me behind his trike upwind and took me to a thermal where I pinned off at 1,600'. That thermal averaged 270 fpm and it got me to 5,700' (the first piece of luck). I had just a couple of other pilots with me in the thermal (none at my altitude) so it was no problem staying in the best part of the lift.

Four or five of us headed northeast against the 11 mph east wind and down to 3,100' (1,600' AGL) I found a nice thermal that averaged 450 fpm (second bit of luck). Robin came in under me and Zac, Dustin, Tyler and Mitch came over me. We all climbed to 8,000' with me ending up just slightly on the bottom. As I was climbing up I heard from Larry and he was landing back at the tow field having not found any more lift.

This was our task for the day. The forecast was for a strong east wind:

After topping out at 8,000' we headed northwest three minutes late for the second clock just the six of us with no one else around. This seemed like a good group to go with (third bit of luck) and I doubted that we would get any higher in the start cylinder.

I followed just behind and just below the other five pilots. I would do that all day. It was a 16 kilometer downwind glide to 300+ fpm to 6,700' before the turnpoint at Maricopa. A bit of nothing didn't work out after the turnpoint, but further south we found 280 fpm in a 15 mph east wind to 5,500'. We lost contact with Mitch at this point as he didn't connect well with this thermal.

At the second turnpoint we found 225 fpm climbing to 5,700' in a 17 mph east wind. I had now caught up with Zac, Tyler, Robin and Dustin, finding my spot about 100 feet below them. I would spot the best core just below them and they would use me as a sniffer dog to keep climbing at the best rate.

Heading north toward the three kilometer cylinder around Mobile and down to 3,200' I found a thermal that averaged 290 fpm and the four other pilots joined me as we climbed to 7,300' yet again in a 17 mph east wind. I had hoped to climb to 8,000' but Zac headed out and we all went with him.

After a 10 kilometer glide I was down to 3,600' (2,200' AGL) 4.5 kilometers from the edge of the goal cylinder at Estrella. The Flytec 6030 was showing a required L/D of 7:1 and I was getting 5:1 going into the 17 mph head wind. I felt a little lift and felt around going a bit to the north.

I found 460 fpm and took it way too high at 6,000'. That got me to goal in fifth position at 4,500'. The four guys in front of me found lift from four kilometers out and were able to stuff the bar in on the rest of the final glide.

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:43:20 70.37 682
2 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 01:43:38 70.37 676
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 01:43:49 70.37 673
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 01:44:46 70.37 666
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:58:05 70.37 607
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:10:34 70.37 539
7 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144   53.79 401
8 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T2C 144   50.62 366
8 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro   50.16 366
10 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5   49.97 363

Final Results:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 3810
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 3692
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 3620
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 3607
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 3604
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 3313
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 3145
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2964
9 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2962
10 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2829
11 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 2637
12 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 2556
13 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2523
14 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 2499
15 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2359
16 Wayne Michelsen Icaro Laminar 2307
17 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 2197
18 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 2194
19 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 2179
20 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 2144

None of the ATOS Class gliders made it around the task, but Peter Cairns from Australia won the day (his first win here) getting almost to the last turnpoint. Fred Kaemerer won over all.

Greg Chastain won the day in Swift Class and the competition ahead of Chris Zimmerman, Brian Porter and Stephen Morris.

Dave Aldrich won the last day and Matt Pruett won overall in Sport Class with David in second and L.J. Omara in third.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 21, 2018, 6:54:50 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

More weakness, but none the less glory

competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|sailplane|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

The task committee thought that the day would be pretty good and that the weakness from the previous day would be relegated to a distant memory. It would turn out to be the case that once again the lift would be weak and the top of lift would be low, at least where we would start our flying at the Francisco Grande.

The task set was heroic:

The idea was to head east against a 7 mph head wind and then, if you can make it there, get high on the mountain north of the sailplane port at Estrella, coming back with a tailwind.

With the first start window open at 1:30 PM I launched at 12:55 PM. Even with the light lift I only took the tow to 1,600' and pinned off in light lift with a couple of pilots.

The lift was indeed quite light and the first three thermals averaged 95 fpm, 86 fpm, and 129 fpm. There were just a few pilots around, maybe ten, and I got to only 3,600', or 2,300' AGL.

We were still in the center of the start cylinder with eight minutes to go before the start clock having been pushed back by the west northwest wind and I headed out with three other pilots to the north west to see if we could get closer to the optimum start point and also find better lift.

After gliding about 4 kilometers and finding nothing we all turned around with me as the lowest. Coming back and trying to get near a road in case I landed I found lift at 500'. I was by myself with everyone else high and down wind of me. 130 fpm felt like a strong thermal and climbed right up to all the other pilots at 4,000' without any issues. It was great to be by myself just turning in the best rising air.

Now we all headed north west again, aiming for the second start time at 1:50 PM. A 30 fpm thermal kept me above 3,800'. The next thermal, all of 66 fpm only got me to 3,200'. I was climbing terribly. I wasn't able to climb through anyone and there were twenty pilots in the gaggle, which severely restricted my options.

Heading north west again I was down to 900' AGL as three pilots landed below me. Half the pilots in the last gaggle were here with a few hanging back two kilometers to get the third start time. I joined other pilots in a 64 fpm thermal Again it was terrible. Very weak, only a small portion of the turn was actually in lift.

I was near the bottom of the stack. I was not climbing well and not getting up to where I needed to be. When all my turns were in sink I headed out with four other pilots, but I was by far the lowest at 2,900' (1,600' AGL).

That didn't last long and I found a good field to land in next to the highway.

Other pilots stayed up in the weak conditions very slowly moving against the headwind. They huddled together in groups of four or five. Only eleven pilots were able to get more than 10 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder. Ten of them were able to cross the flats getting to Estrella where the mountains were working. Some got to at least 10,000'.

As we arrived back at the Francisco Grande hotel, Jonny, Ollie, and Tyler were arriving over the hotel. They had made it around. A great day for them.

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 02:40:07 80.76 605
2 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:57:39 80.76 553
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 02:59:49 80.76 545
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 03:02:16 80.76 540
5 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 03:02:16 80.76 536
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 03:03:20 80.76 534
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 03:10:44 80.76 520
8 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13   73.08 381
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C   76.10 365
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144   65.99 362

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 3326
2 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 3134
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 3081
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2938
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2925
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2782
7 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2694
8 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 2640
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2428
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2357

In the Swift Class, Greg, Chris and Brian made it back to the hotel.

David Aldrich got outside the start cylinder for 10 kilometers (coming low over my head into a landing) as the only Sport Class pilot to get outside the start cylinder. He got 8 points for that effort.

Fred Kaemerer was the only ATOS class pilot to make it around the course.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 20, 2018, 10:18:21 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

The weakness after the rain storm

Ben Dunn|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Greg Kendall|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

After I wrote about how good conditions were here (https://ozreport.com/22.189#3), they have turned to very weak after a deluge on Wednesday.

The pilot meeting was delayed for a late launch. The start window wasn't set to open until 2:30 PM with a short day forecasted. The task committee set a small task of 63 km:

The forecast for soaring indicated very poor soaring conditions. Pilots were not ready to launch at 1:15 PM. We stood around waiting for some sign that we should get going. Kevin Carter and Bill Bennett flew around but they weren't too inspiring.

Finally an hour later at 2:15 PM a few of us got dressed and that moved the crowd to get out of the shade and get to their gliders. I took off at 2:17 PM.

Jonny Thompson pulled me up and I didn't pin off until 2,000' AGL. There was very little lift. I joined up with Felix and Luke and we just hung in -30 fpm. Zac Majors came and joined us.

Luke drifted a little further east and found better lift and Zac and I joined him. We got up at 90 fpm.

We kept drifting further east at 9 mph and climbing to 4,100'. I noticed that we were right at the edge of the 5 kilometer start circle coincidentally it was about to be the second start time, 2:45 PM. One turn and all three of us got it.

Four or five pilots who had climbed up over launch came flying toward us as we headed out to the southeast. I followed Zac and Luke. Then veering off the course line to the south I found 35 fpm and that turned out to be the hot spot.

After a few turns to the south of me Zac came in under.  The other pilots trickled in. I climbed to 3,300', but something wasn't working. Zac was able to climb up through me even though I was right over him and lost 300' of altitude. I couldn't figure out what was going on.

I finally had to leave and head southeast to the Casa Grande mountains. Nothing there for me and I was soon on the ground.

Eleven pilots were able to continue in the air past the second turnpoint at Arizona City at 25.5 km out.

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 36.98 229
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 36.00 227
3 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 35.34 224
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 35.22 223
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 35.25 223
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 33.24 206
7 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 31.39 192
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 29.93 184
8 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 29.72 184
10 Jeff Chipman Moyes Litespeed S4T 29.77 182

The scorekeeper needs to add 5 km to each of these distances.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2722
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 2690
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2521
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2355
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 2301
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 2297
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2168
8 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 2134
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 2125
10 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 2069

The ATOS and Swift class pilots passed on flying today, with only Rich Burton on an ATOS flying.

Only two Sport Class pilots got outside the start cylinder.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day 3 Cumulative Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 19, 2018, 8:23:10 MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Ben Dunn|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Rich Burton|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Sara Weaver|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Open class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 789 891 937 2617
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 985 987 616 2588
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 806 996 527 2329
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 734 765 727 2226
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 512 839 777 2128
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 944 606 531 2081
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 919 228 931 2078
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 946 602 510 2058
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 823 585 542 1950
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 850 518 487 1855
11 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 726 576 538 1840
12 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 766 816 240 1822
13 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 708 235 860 1803
14 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 448 630 652 1730
15 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 PRO 752 585 390 1727

Sport Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Matt Pruett Wills Wing U2 145 1000 775 41 1816
2 David Aldrich Wills Wing Sport 3 135 458 757 66 1281
3 L.J. Omara Wills wing U2 160 458 500 60 1018
4 Ric Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 753 197 41 991
5 Jeff Parrott Wills Wing U2 145 624 310 49 983
6 Bill Snyder Wills Wing u2 440 456 41 937
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport3 135 618 230 41 889
8 Abhishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 643 179 57 879
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 427 405 41 873
10 Bill Comstock Wills Wing S3 458 170 41 669

ATOS Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Fred Kaemerer AIR ATOS VR 1000 1000 925 2925
2 Peter Cairns A.I.R ATOS VQ 676 380 411 1467
3 Rich Burton Icaro Stratos 594 325 78 997

Swift Class:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Chris Zimmerman Aeriane Swift'Light 991 964 990 2945
2 Greg Chastain Swift 773 1000 986 2759
3 Brian Porter Aeriane Swift 951 682 0 1633
4 Stephen Morris Bright Star Swift 287 220 672 1179

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

Day 3 Results

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

September 18, 2018, 9:25:14 pm MST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS Time Distance Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 14:00:00 02:18:17 81.04 937
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 PRO 14:00:00 02:19:01 81.04 931
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 14:20:00 02:20:29 81.04 860
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 14:00:00 02:42:56 81.04 777
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 14:20:00 02:51:07 81.04 727
6 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 14:20:00 03:24:30 81.04 652
7 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 14:00:00   72.00 616
8 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 14:00:00   69.79 571
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 14:00:00   65.00 542
10 Kip Stone Moyes RX 5 PRO 14:00:00   65.00 538
11 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:20:00   64.97 531
12 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 14:20:00   63.86 527
13 Peter Suchanek Wills Wing T2C 136 14:00:00   62.76 512
14 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 14:20:00   63.45 510
15 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 14:00:00   59.07 487

Cumulative results haven't been posted yet. Kate, the scorekeeper, is likely fixing earlier results.

Fred Kaemerer, flying the latest tricked out version of the ATOS VR, won the day and it looks like he is leading over all.

The Swift results aren't final for the day as there is no score for Brian.

The Sport Class had a tough day with David Aldrich wining but only going 13.83 km.

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 18, 2018, 9:09:35 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 3

Dragonfly|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|weather

Bobby Bailey|Dragonfly|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|weather

The task committee scrapped the original task that would have brought us home into a 17 mph head wind according to the NAM 3 weather model. They instead sent us crisscrossing downwind to a little airfield south southeast of Coolidge.

Pilots were reluctant to start launching after the early birds, but I was ready so off I went. I got Bobby Bailey to tow me again and sure enough he just went right to the first thermal he could find as he always does to help him climb in his 2-stroke Dragonfly and I pinned off early again as I do when he tows me at 1,500' and climbed right out to 3,800' and a bit later to 4,700'.

Unfortunately 4,700' was the limit. Whenever I would go looking for lift in other locations I would lose 1,000' and have to go back to the main gaggle. Fifteen minutes before the start window opened at 2 PM, and at 4,500' I  headed for the north northeast to get lined up at the optimum start point and fell like a rock down to 1,200' AGL.

The west wind pushed me out of the start cylinder as I struggled to stay up.  I ignored the start gate time and just concentrated on climbing no matter how far out side the start cylinder I drifted. The next start gate was 2:20 PM.

I clawed my way back up to 4,600', two kilometers outside the five kilometer start cylinder. With seven minutes to go before the start gate and with the help of a light thermal I was able to make the second start time at 4,000' five minutes late.

The start is about 50 percent of a task. If you have a good start you are high and you're with the other pilots who did well in the start cylinder. You'll be able to fly with them during the task and they should be relatively fast. I was in a deep hole.

Speaking of deep holes I glided about 6 kilometers and was down to 700' AGL when I finally found something. That thermal at 155 fpm got me to 3,800' and I drifted to the east in a 12 mph wind with David Aldrich flying in the Sport Class (and winning the day). The next turnpoint was to the north northeast. I was way downwind of the course line.

I headed due north to try to get myself in a position where I could not have to fly upwind to get the turnpoint of Signal Peak. Fortunately I hit 360 fpm that got me to 6,900' (David joined me there also). Finally I was not scraping along the ground just holding on.

I glided straight north with a 13 mph west  wind, tagged the turnpoint and came right back to the same spot for more lift, 340 fpm to 6,300'.

I got on the radio and heard from Larry that he and Dustin were just south of me heading for the second turnpoint. Larry and Dustin also took the second start clock. As I was much higher than they were I raced south toward the turnpoint at the intersection of I8 and I10.

I passed them but found only 150 fpm lift at 4,200' so I chased a dust devil being blown downwind. That proved to be futile so I grabbed the turnpoint and headed north northeast down to 1,100' AGL before finding 100 fpm. Larry came after me as we were communicating on the radio and found better lift just behind me. I came in under him and it averaged 200 fpm for me but he found much better just above me.

I was able to get to 4,000' with Dustin and Larry out in front of me. They spotted the next thermal for me and at 240 fpm over a feed lot I was able to get to 4,700' as they pressed on.

At 20 kilometers from the next turnpoint to the north northeast they were climbing. I found a dust devil that just formed one kilometer behind them and stuck with it. It was only 180 fpm, but as it was after 4 PM I figured that this might be the last thermal. I took it to 6,000'. I would be proved wrong about how long the soaring would last.

Larry radioed that he was climbing at 300 fpm 13 kilometers to my north again with Dustin. I headed off and found his lift at about 4:45 PM, at 1,500' in a 11 mph west wind. It averaged 200 fpm to 4,000'. He was able to leave this thermal, as I entered it at 4,800'. It topped out too early for me.

The edge of the turnpoint cylinder was seven kilometers to the north. The area around the edge of the cylinder was shaded by high clouds. I got within 1.7 kilometers of it and down to 700' AGL over a hill side when I decided to head out downwind to the east for a better spot to land if needed. I was already downwind of the optimum point of the turnpoint.

Larry and Dustin made the turnpoint and Larry came in low over me as I landed. There were a couple of other pilots with him also low. He was in light lift. He kept turning and both he and Dustin made the goal, Larry fifteen minutes before 6 PM and half an hour before sunset.

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2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2018, 9:12:12 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 2 results

Ben Dunn|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

You'll find all the results for all the four classes at the link below:

https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2018/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:51:44 89.46 996
2 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 02:52:02 89.46 987
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 03:09:08 89.46 891
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:08:43 89.46 884
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:18:34 89.46 839
6 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 03:22:08 89.46 816
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 03:43:09 89.46 765
8 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144   86.50 630
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5   77.42 608
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144   77.92 602

Cumulative:

  Name Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Oliver Chitty Moyes Rx5 Pro 985 987 1972
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 806 996 1802
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 789 891 1680
4 Ben Dunn Moyes RX 3.5 766 816 1582
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 944 608 1552
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 946 602 1548
7 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T3Cx 144.2 734 765 1499
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 875 599 1474
9 Mitch Shipley Wills Wing T2C 144 823 586 1409
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 850 526 1376

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 17, 2018, 9:10:52 pm MST

2018 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 2

Bobby Bailey|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2018

The task committee called a 90 kilometer task, 20 kilometers longer than the first task. But the winds were forecasted to be stronger than the light to no winds from Sunday. The winds turned out to be northwest at 7 to 9 mph. The task set us way to the east so we had a long slog coming back to the Francisco Grande.

The Monday task:

Bobby Bailey drug me into the air and I pinned off at 1,400' AGL to start climbing at an average of 370 fpm to 5,500'. The next thermal took me to 7,100' so the day was already better lift wise than Sunday.

Unfortunately, the lift after that wasn't nearly as nice and I wasn't able to get quite as high before the start opened at 1:40. Probably twenty pilot started together at around 6,000'.

Even though it was off the course line we headed east southeast toward the Casa Grande mountains and catching the south end of them climbed to back to 6,000' at 330 fpm. There was plenty of company. I would fly the whole flight with Glen Volk although he wasn't that aware of it as I almost always seemed to be just above him.

It was south southeast to the Sunlan turnpoint and I glided fifteen kilometers chasing a dust devil that was pretty weak after I found it, but it got me and a few others around to 5,600'.

The next turnpoint was Newman Peak, the mountains to the east. We had to go through a lot of flatlands and then be able to get there high enough so that we didn't have to climb up from the bottom of the mountains. We took some weak lift in a couple of thermals just to get high enough to feel comfortable heading into the mountain side.

A good number of pilots were in front of us and staying further to the north of our line. It would appear that a few of them went down before Neman Peak including Jonny Durand and John Simon. As I watched them out in front I shaded off to the south just taking a different line as it seemed that they weren't finding anything.

There was lift at the mountain but not great lift, but no turbulent either. The first thermal below the peak was only 230 fpm, but the one above it was only 340 fpm to 6,200'. I was hoping for a much stronger thermal and much higher. This is not why we go to the mountains here in the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Now we had to turn and face the wind. We (Glen and I) glided for 9 kilometers with nothing to show for it. I spotted a pilot turning to our south and came in under him at 1,000' AGL. Glen came in lower.

We spent twenty minutes in 190 fpm climbing back to 6,000' and drifting back to the southeast. We were way south of the course line.

The next thermal, which started just south of where we started the previous thermal, was much improved at 400 fpm. It was almost 3:40 PM, two hours since the start gate opened and we were finally getting back on track. We climbed to over 7,000'.

The next thermal at 500 fpm got us again to 7,000' We were just west of Arizona city. I saw 800 fpm (20 second average) briefly on the Flytec 6060. It was almost 4 PM.

The idea was to get high enough to make it over the Casa Grande mountain and then climb there and get to goal. I worked 360 fpm to 6,000' 8 kilometers from the mountains and felt I had enough to make it. Unfortunately Glen missed out and wasn't able to join Kevin Carter, Felix Cantesanu and I as we headed for the mountains.

We got there with about 3,000' at about 4:15 PM but there was little to no lift there, even though we were at the top of the ridge. We worked broken lift for a while but it never got going. We landed just west of the mountains.

Dustin and Larry came over us half an hour later about 2,000' over the top of the ridge. Dustin made goal.

Seven pilots made goal.

Dusties around here appear to be very weak:

Unsafe tasks, courage Vs. and/or skill

August 28, 2018, 7:44:43 MDT

Unsafe tasks, courage Vs. and/or skill

Cancel tasks found to be mistakenly called

CIVL|competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kari Castle|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|PG|Quest Air|record

It is likely that the vast majority of the world's people believe that it takes courage just to fly a hang glider or paraglider. When I started I don't recall now at least being particularly afraid. I certainly don't appreciate being afraid and overcoming my fears when I'm hang gliding. Feeling courageous just because I have felt fear and still kept on flying just doesn't provide a lasting sense of satisfaction. It doesn't seem to be worth the initial emotional reaction.

https://www.facebook.com/rich.lovelace/posts/10156548598079471

Here is a pilot's story from Monday:

First day of the British Nationals and we go to At Andre. Task and flying conditions looked pretty good with a 7k base. Unfortunately, the first turn point was a totally stupid and dangerous place. Tried several times but decided it wasn't my time to die or wreck my glider. I guess my balls must have shrunk somewhat. Had a pleasant float up and down the ridge in the end which is why I fly, not the dumb ass stupid my gonads are bigger than yours. Roll on Florida and the Quest Air comps.

A task committee person writes:

We (task setters) miscalculated the turnpoint radius. It was 3km too deep into difficult/dangerous conditions. I also failed to get it too Rich.

I wrote:

How about canceling the task after it was found to be unsafe? Is that possible? Seems like it should be. That's why CIVL has the form for pilots to report on task safety.

This issue of the extent that courage is required to fly and do well in competition versus how much success in competition should be a measure of skill, not courage, has come up earlier this season at the pre-Worlds. It comes up often, at least in Europe. In the US it comes up when we fly on days where thunderstorms threaten, which thankfully isn't that often.

I personally do not like being tossed around by violent air when I'm flying my hang glider. I do my best to get out of the edges of thermals and will leave a thermal if it is just too much. I must admit that I do find it thrilling to fly near enough to thunderstorms and attempt to outrace them. So far successfully.

I do have a regret about leaving one thermal where I was getting tossed about too much. It was on the day that Jonny and Dustin went far from Zapata and Dustin set the world distance record of 475 miles.

https://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/01/13/sports/13hangglide_ss.html

I was flying a Falcon 3 170 (which never tuck nor tumble) 169 miles out from Zapata trying to break my single surface world record of 205 miles. I was climbing in a rough thermal that I left once and then went back into again and got tossed around some more. I left the thermal and unfortunately landed soon after in the middle of a 300,000 acre ranch which took some effort to get out of.

Pilots, male pilots at least, like to be thought of as courageous. So it is difficult for them to say that tasks should be cancelled just because some pilots felt that the task was dangerous. But that is exactly what we are supposed to do. Competitions need to be safe, fun, and fair. If they are not safe, if pilots are put in dangerous situations, they are not fair.

Of course, there is always a dispute about whether some task was dangerous or not. In this case there is not a reasonable dispute because a member of the task force has already admitted their error in calling the task. The task should be cancelled. Of course, some pilots will suffer a diminution of their achievements, and their bravery, but clearly the task was not fair and what is the glory in winning an unfair task?

I had an opportunity to hear from Mitch Shipley, who was the CIVL steward at the pre-Worlds in Italy this year, about how various pilots experienced a certain area on the south side of the Alps. He looked at their tracklogs which showed the pilots were in this area within a few minutes of each other and had vastly different experiences. One number one rated pilot felt that it was the worse turbulence that he has ever experienced. Another left and two others thermaled right up.

In this case it becomes quite tricky to make a distinction between skill and courage. I know from flying in the Alps, very near this location, and all pilots who have flown in the Alps know, that there is often very violent air in all sorts of spots throughout the Alps. The very best pilots can find themselves in situations where their skill is of no use, just ask former multiple time world champion Kari Castle.

In the US we are very fortunate to have hang gliding competitions in locations where violent air is only on rare occasions an issue. We choose to fly and compete in such locations. We have a greater emphasis on skill over courage. We do not have cute little alpine villages and we do not have spectacular mountain vistas.

X-Pyr comes to an end

July 1, 2018, 8:10:48 MDT

X-Pyr comes to an en

For Jeff, Dustin, and Huntley

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro writes:

The Xpyr Race is over and it was indeed a grand adventure. We were in good position at the beginning of Day 3 and a flying error that put me on the ground early during a great forecast, unable to get back to cloudbase until later in the day, cost us valuable time and distance. I put myself in a tight spot but with the amazing help of my team, flew my way out in a series of flights that put me under storms.

Every step was earned, we worked hard, learned a lot and most importantly, kept laughing our way down course line. Although we didn’t get as far as we’d hoped this race, finding ourselves deep in the middle of the Pyrenees 7 days after running off the beach was an epic place to end our race.

On our last day, we hiked to launch, and as Dustin flew off toward Castejón to a much earned beer, Alistair Andrews and I flew toward turnpoint 5. It was windy and I got the feeling we were both psyched to get on the ground at the end of our flights.

I hiked down to our support rig and Huntley Badger decided to hike the last evening with me so, with heads down, we went as far North as we could and met Dustin for high fives and beers.

I must say, it felt a little strange to ride in the van after a week. The X-Pyr is over but, my motivation to continue learning and to do more competitions like this one is strong. I’ve got memories from this experience that I couldn’t make up and as a team, we’re better friends than when we started. I’d say it was a successful first crack.

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Shapiro in the Pyrenees Day Five

June 28, 2018, 7:18:39 pm MDT

Shapiro in the Pyrenees Day Five

Afternoon hail

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeff Shapiro|Pyrenees 2018|video

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.shapiro.5/posts/2111358932270364

Jeff writes:

Woke up this morning and hiked up to a beautiful launch. Took around three hours but the payoff was an epic peak top with some nice take off options, proven by birds circling when I arrived. I pulled the wing up as soon as clouds started forming and climbed to base with two Griffon vultures.

Three ridge lines later, it seemed like it was going to be an epic day. Just before 1:30pm, the clouds started exploding and overdevelopment seemed in full effect. Not wanting a repeat of yesterday, I spiraled down and landed. In hindsight, I should have been patient and taken one more climb to get over the next peak (saving me what ended up being around 18 kilometers of walking/running). Another mistake and another lesson.

It was a super fun hike and flight and the afternoon did get wild with hail, heavy rain and lots of lightning. I think I ended running somewhere between 30-40 k after landing to get to a town on course, for the night.

Dustin Martin and Huntley Badger were supporting in the van and keeping morale high with water, food and of course, heckling. This type of race has many decisions each day that hold varying levels of consequence. There’s so much to learn. One step at a time.

I'm going around a tunnel since going through tunnels is cheating.

Shapiro on Day four

June 27, 2018, 3:08:50 pm MDT

Shapiro on Day four

OD

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeff Shapiro|Pyrenees 2018

Jeff writes:

Last night I felt trapped in a cirque. With north winds predicted, and being that I was on the south side of some big mountains with a lot of terrain and distance between us and the turn point, which I had to fly around airspace to the north to get to.

I wasn’t sure how the morning should go. I figured it was going to be an all day suffer fest on my feet to extract myself from where I had ended up. We got up this morning and put our heads together and figured that our best option was to hike and climb up to the ridge line to our north to see how strong the wind was and whether or not I might be able to fly.

Dustin Martin and Huntley Badger were amazing and hiked with me, through cool limestone towers and up permanent snow and ice fields. Dustin came with me on the last, sketchy bit to a tight saddle/col at the head of a big mountain canyon. The high Cirrus clouds were shutting down any potential energy in the airmass and the wind was pretty much perfect.

It would have been far too dangerous in any other conditions because the launch was steep and on partial rock and steep snow. Dustin was a CHAMPION, proving again how lucky I am to have him as a partner on this crazy adventure. He laid my wing out at the top of the col while I tried to control it and then came down to hold onto me so if I lost footing when the wing came up, I wouldn’t go for “the ride” down the steep slot. I was so grateful to have him up there and even though it all went as perfect as it could have, just the mental support was priceless.

I ended up flying off and gliding out around airspace, landing with a no stepper right at Astune ski area, directly under the turn point cylinder. It was a beautiful morning, mellow glide and one of the most satisfying flights I think I’ve ever had.

Gonna go tag the turn point now and the sun is coming out and burning off the high clouds. Maybe the conditions will get good to fly later toward turn point 4.

Just landed safe after trying to fly toward turn point 4. Saw the overdevelopment happening all around me and was concerned but wanted to get out of the higher peaks. As I approached a lake, there were white caps and the trees beneath me were bent over.

I used every descent technique I know and was flying backwards any time I came off the speedbar. Thought of Cedar Wright as I hovered down in a SIV landing (thanks Bradley Gunnuscio) in front of some high tension power lines. Had a good landing and as soon as I got the wing pulled together thunder started exploding above me. Now, I’m sitting under a tree in the rain.

Shapiro on day three in the Pyrenees

June 26, 2018, 3:28:49 pm MDT

Shapiro on day three in the Pyrenees

A lot of walking and a little flying

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeff Shapiro|Pyrenees 2018

Jeff Shapiro writes:

Tough day for me today. Dustin Martin and I hiked for 4 hours to a beautiful spot to launch from in good position to make use of a good forecast. We launched under forming clouds and I got to share climbs with vultures before heading toward turn point 3.

With cloud base just below peak height, I kept finding myself a little low at each pass and, as unlikely as it seemed, got flushed out a bowl and before I knew it, was on the ground. Huntley Badger was right there and helped me find another launch, which I ran and hiked to as fast as I could.

Dustin was in the air and reported good climbs which turned out to be exactly what I found. I climbed to cloudbase and headed out under big, dark clouds.

Turn point 3 was deep in the mountains and was engulfed in clouds but it looked like I might be able to get it and then head back out toward turn point 4. I landed high on a grassy pass that I couldn’t get over, ran up several hundred meters and relaunched. I was able to ridge soar to about 50’ over a notch and dove through it into the next cirque.

The picture above is that high basin. I landed super high on the slopes thinking I could perhaps walk to a ridge line and re launch but, after looking at my maps, discovered that I’d be in a worse hole than I was. The basin was totally in shade and I had scratched around for lift, hugging the slopes and rock walls trying to use any lift I could find to no avail. So, I ran down 80 meters or so, to a bench and relaunched.

When I flew out toward the mouth of the canyon, it was a LONG way out over nothing but trees so I stacked it on a knob right by a refugio and a high, alpine hiking trail.

At first, I was a bit frustrated. Ok, maybe a bit pissed off. But, I stopped and looked around and remembered why I’m here.

I didn’t get super far today but I tried and worked really hard. I’m making progress (albeit not much today) in one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring mountain ranges in the world. And, after four flights and some monumental hikes, I ended up in one of the most epic, green, high mountain hanging valleys I’ve ever experienced! There are water falls everywhere and although my heel is still black and blue, I feel healthy and totally stoked. his is indeed a Hell of an adventure. Sometimes perspective is all it takes to remember how incredibly lucky I am to be here.

Huge thanks today to Dustin and Huntley. You guys are solid friends.

http://www.x-pyr.com/LiveTracking/Live2D.html

Cross Pyrenees

June 12, 2018, 7:02:15 pm MDT

Cross Pyrenees

Jeff Shapiro and Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin|Jeff Shapiro

http://www.x-pyr.com/en/teams-2018/teams-jeff-shapiro/

Starts June 24th.

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Xpyr Race

April 24, 2018, 9:04:47 EDT

Xpyr Race

I assume that means across the Pyrenees

Dustin Martin|Jeff Shapiro

Jeff Shapiro writes:

For the last six months, between trips, I've been focused on training and preparing for this year's Xpyr Race in June. With the help of The Mountain Project, LLC, Mike Wolfe, as my training coach and Brittany Aäe helping me with nutrition and recovery strategy, I'm feeling more and more prepared every day. Two months to go.

I get six days a week to run (with and without my pack on) and to fly cross country every day that it's possible. I honestly couldn't be more psyched for this adventure across the Pyrenees. Huntley Badger and Dustin Martin will be there with me and as a team, our only goals will be to try hard, have fun and stay safe. From the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean. This is gonna be a wild race. Follow the live tracking if you're interested here: http://www.x-pyr.com/en/

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Baofeng headset

March 29, 2018, 10:42:09 EDT

Baofeng headset

Dustin Martin aprroved

Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin writes:

I’m on the same headset for three or four years already. Same one for all seasons of my tours which was probably 500 hours. Pretty amazing.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D4MIR46/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_c_FzRUAbXQD33YY

$24.00.

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2018 Quest Air Nationals Series

Mon, Nov 27 2017, 7:14:35 am PST

The meet is over-subscribed

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|André Wolfe|André Wolfe|Attila Bertok|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|CIVL|Davide Guiducci|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Marco Laurenzi|Pete Lehmann|Primoz Gricar|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Robin Hamilton|Steve Blenkinsop|Thomas Weissenberger|USHPA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

The meet filled up in three days. We have 82 pilots registered. We are currently looking at expanding the number of pilots who can attend. Frankly we had no idea that this would happen so quickly. We have to follow the following USHPA rule:

All competitors should be registered on a first-come, first-served basis except during the first 30 days of registration, where 30% of the available places may be held for the top 20 NTSS and top 30 WPRS ranked pilots.

We'll use NTSS and WPRS rankings as of November 1st, 2017.

Pos Name
1 Zac Majors
2 Robin Hamilton
3 Bruce Barmakian
4 John Simon
5 Kraig Coomber
6 Dustin Martin
7 Larry Bunner
8 Derrick Turner
9 James Stinnet
10 Jd Guillemette
11 Davis Straub
12 Bill Soderquist
13 Kevin Carter
14 Patrick Pannese
15 David Gibson
16 Glen Volk
17 Kevin Dutt
18 Mick Howard
19 Krzysztof Grzyb
20 Pete Lehmann

WPRS

Rank Name CIVL ID
1 JONNY Durand 2231
2 ALESSANDRO Ploner 5724
3 FILIPPO Oppici 6295
4 THOMAS Weissenberger 7819
5 CHRISTIAN Ciech 6034
6 ALVARO Figueiredo Sandoli 5760
7 MARIO Alonzi 7043
8 ANDRE Wolf 5783
9 PETR Benes 9764
10 DAVIDE Guiducci 6142
11 MARCO Laurenzi 25161
12 DAN Vyhnalik 6089
13 DAVID Brito Filho 13846
14 CARLOS Niemeyer 6001
15 PETER Neuenschwander 398
16 GLEN Mcfarlane 17641
17 VALENTINO Bau 7889
18 GRANT Crossingham 6440
19 STEVE Blenkinsop 7701
20 PRIMOZ Gricar 7437
21 BALAZS Ujhelyi 5893
22 ATTILA Bertok 5885
23 ROLAND Wöhrle 7547
24 JOSH Woods 42097
25 RODOLFO Gotes 12376
26 ANTON Moroder 5842
27 TAKASHI Sunama 7755
28 ROBIN Hamilton 7536
29 GUY Hubbard 6467
30 OLAV Opsanger 7271

To secure a higher place in the order that pilots are chosen to participate in the competition, we need pilots to be confirmed. To be confirmed you need to register, fill out on-line and send in your correct waivers and medical form (use Adobe Acrobat DC - the free version, https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/faq.html), and pay the entry fee. See:

https://airtribune.com/2018-quest-air-national-series/info/details__info

https://OzReport.com/waivers.php

https://OzReport.com/2018QuestAirpay.php

We will keep track of the order in which pilots are confirmed (everything is time and date stamped), check any forms for errors, and notify pilots if they are allowed entry into the meet.

Discuss "2018 Quest Air Nationals Series" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Dustin

November 14, 2017, 4:03:36 pm PST

Dustin

Martin

Dustin Martin|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|record|sailplane

The photo is live.

In 2012 Dustin Martin beat out legendary Red Bull pilot Jonny Durand by a couple kilometers in Texas to go farther than anyone ever has in a hang glider- 761 km. And the record still holds. Was it his most memorable flight? Hardly. Dustin began his flying career in his early teens by flying RC airplanes and his love and interest in the sky hasn’t abated since. From RC he graduated to sailplanes but his first flight in a hang glider at the age of 15 lead to being fired at the local Sailport because the first flight became an obsession that didn’t allow for much on the side. In this wide-ranging and laugh-out-loud episode Dustin takes us through some close calls with tornados (plural!); how to assess a gust front; a brief history of hang gliders; the importance of mentors; how to find good lines; avoiding sink; working light lift; reducing drag; advice for new pilots; chasing world records; sponsorship; being a student and building a foundation; the origins of the Cloudbase Foundation, the dangers of moving to a higher performance wing too fast; what it takes to win; speed to fly; maintaining passion and a TON more. This was one of the most enjoyable and informative discussions we’ve had on the Mayhem, please don’t miss this one!

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Cross Country Bohl

September 26, 2017, 10:27:18 MST -0600

Cross Country Bohl

At Cowboy Up in Wharton, Texas, October 7th through 9th.

Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Robin Hamilton

Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Robin Hamilton

Tiki at <<fly>> writes:

We haven’t done much advertising for the XC Bohl outside of Texas because, as you know, unless we get RSVPs, we won’t know how many pilots to plan for - hence how many tugs we would need - we are limited on tugs here. We do not have access to Mick’s Dragonfly, so we have only one Dragonfly and one trike. I am going to try and recruit other trikes in the area to see if they would like to help.

This is just a fun memorial Flyin’ where we honor Jeff’s memory. This year we are honoring Robin Hamilton for his contribution to Texas hang gliding, his excellent showing in Brasilia and particularly his help with the local pilots in our area.

Robin will be giving his two day cross country lecture as usual and setting a task each day, but this is mainly an easy-breezy affair.

Zack, Majo, Wolfi and Dustin are coming, so that will make it special. It’s also a fundraiser for our local charity.

People from out-of-state need to RSVP and space will be limited for out-of-state folks. Last year we had 25 pilots. It all may sound harsh but at the moment we are just not set up for a large group and I’m afraid that is what we will get if we open it to everyone.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/818952661513536/

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US Team at the Worlds

August 7, 2017, 8:04:49 MST -0600

US Team at the Worlds

No Dustin

Dustin Martin|Jamie Shelden

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com.br/2017/08/brasilia-worlds-opening-ceremonies.html

Discuss "US Team at the Worlds" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Crop dusting

August 1, 2017, 10:43:25 MST -0600

Crop dusting

Skimming the corn field

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/klemencicmatjaz/videos/807467746093167/

Discuss "Crop dusting" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Help fund the ⁢2017 US National Hang Gliding Team

Tue, Jul 4 2017, 10:20:19 am MDT

Double your money

Dustin Martin|Niki Longshore|USHPA|US National Hang Gliding Team

Niki Longshore, who is not on the US National Team, was smart enough to ask for money early enough to be the first one out the gate with a GoFundMe campaign. Well, the 2017 US National Hang Gliding team (at least some of its members) are living the hang gliding life (doing tandems at the Florida Ridge for example, instead of building cabinets now that that has been taken over by the Chinese). A few of the team members could definitely use your help (Zac, Derreck, and Dustin, for example).

I ask that 2017 US National Hang Gliding Team members that don't really need this support, shift the donated funds over to those who in fact do need it. You could give to them individually, and I have, but that doesn't get doubled.

You can double your support of them through donating on a special USHPA web page and your donation will be matched by the USHPA.

To support your US National Hang Gliding Team do the following:

1) Log in to the USHPA web site: https://old.ushpa.aero/member_login.asp.

2) Go to here: https://www.ushpa.org/page/donate-to-the-national-team

This is basically their GoFundMe page with the added advantage that your donations are doubled and tax deductable. And no fees taken out.

Not a USHPA member? You can donate here: http://foundationforfreeflight.org/donate.html. Not doubled but still tax deductable.

Discuss "Help fund the ⁢2017 US National Hang Gliding Team" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Sat, Jan 28 2017, 7:39:04 pm EST

Results from day seven, task six

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Yoko Isomoto

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 30.76 115
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 16.12 84
3 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 14.77 81
4 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 13.52 77
5 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 144 11.21 70

Final Results:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 3928
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 3780
3 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 3635
4 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 3278
5 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 3064
6 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 144 2657
7 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 2656
8 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2C 144 2595
9 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 2544
10 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 2540

Sport Task 6:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 11.21 197
2 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 8.48 166
3 Jose Sandoval Aeros Discus C 7.12 149
4 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 6.87 147
4 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 6.79 147

Final Results:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 2281
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 1860
3 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 1415
4 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 1413
5 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 1276
6 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 1092
7 Andres Pena Moyes Litesport 1056
8 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 909
9 Julio Galindo Wills Wing U2 145 903

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Sat, Jan 28 2017, 10:15:10 am EST

The last day

Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/blog__day_7

Pete Lehmann captures Dustin on launch yesterday as he began to come down with this cold:

Discuss "2017 Hombres Pajaro" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Fri, Jan 27 2017, 9:54:50 pm EST

Results from day six, task five

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Yoko Isomoto

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 02:02:34 465
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 02:12:39 427
3 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 144 02:13:25 425
4 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 02:27:29 403

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 3895
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 3696
3 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 3520
4 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 3197
5 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 3017
6 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 2623
7 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 144 2587
8 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2C 144 2562
9 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 2495
10 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 2463

Sport Task 5:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 11.21 130
2 Julio Galindo Wills Wing U2 145 7.44 102
3 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 7.25 101
3 Jose Sandoval Aeros Discus C 7.28 101
5 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 6.91 97

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 2115
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 1827
3 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 1270
4 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 1218
5 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 1129
6 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 945
7 Andres Pena Moyes Litesport 914
8 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 766
9 Julio Galindo Wills Wing U2 145 761
10 Jose Sandoval Aeros Discus C 724

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Wed, Jan 25 2017, 9:27:23 pm EST

Results from day four, Dustin wins big

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Konrad Heilmann|Mike Glennon|Moyes Litespeed RX|Raul Guerra|Yoko Isomoto

Going into the valley instead of the hillsides Dustin got to goal fifteen minutes earlier than Rudy. Eighteen in goal. Mike Glennon, meet organizer and director, took over from the task committee to get a task that got pilots to goal.

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 01:36:13 1000
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:51:40 831
3 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 01:54:08 785
4 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 01:54:10 783
5 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2C 144 02:02:00 721
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 02:02:54 716
7 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 02:06:22 695
8 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 02:06:56 677
9 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 02:16:06 630
10 Paulo Xavier Wills Wing T2C 144 02:21:54 587

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 3430
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 3269
3 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 3201
4 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 2794
5 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 2702
6 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2C 144 2340
7 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 2333
8 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 2315
9 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 2312
10 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3.5 2195

Sport Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 01:03:34 180
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 01:11:52 161
3 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 01:12:33 158

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 1162
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 1017
3 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 716
4 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 614
5 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 586
6 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 528
7 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 439
8 Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 135 366
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 365
10 Jaime Gomez Wills Wing U2C 335

https://www.facebook.com/hombrespajarocolombia/

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Wed, Jan 25 2017, 8:17:48 am EST

A flying place

Belinda Boulter|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Hombres Pájaro 2017|photo|video

Belinda Boulter|competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Hombres Pájaro 2017|photo|video

Belinda Boulter|competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Hombres Pájaro 2017|photo|video

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

This where we are:

Photo by Belinda at the restaurant for lunch.
https://www.facebook.com/hombrespajarocolombia/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf

Launch on Tuesday:

The upper launch:

Dustin swooping goal on day 3, the video: https://vimeo.com/200974157

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2017 Hombres Pajaro

Wed, Jan 25 2017, 8:16:48 am EST

Results from day three

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Raul Guerra|Yoko Isomoto

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 01:55:23 1000
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 02:01:49 933
3 Alejandro Trujillo Montoya Aeros Combat GT 02:24:27 827
4 Alexandre Marchesini Wills Wing T2C 144 02:24:28 823
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 02:34:59 803

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 2599
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 2418
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 2269
4 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 2117
5 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 2007
6 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 144 1750
7 Alexandre Marchesini Wills Wing T2C 144 1683
8 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 1682
9 Alejandro Trujillo Montoya Aeros Combat GT 1659
10 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 1633

Sport task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 01:08:16 33.93 880
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 27.64 624
3 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 25.93 606
4 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 25.51 601
5 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 22.54 524

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 1462
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2C 145 1197
3 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 983
4 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 853
5 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 751
6 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 655
7 Julio Galindo Wills Wing U2 145 472
8 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 471
9 Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 135 405
10 Jaime Gomez Wills Wing U2C 339

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Tue, Jan 24 2017, 5:52:49 pm EST

The day clouds over

Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Yoko Isomoto

At goal early:

Shigeto Ishizaka (missed the last turnpoint as it was a little too high for him), Rudy, Alejandro Trujillo, Botinho (Alexandre Marchesini), Daniel, Dustin. Probably the only ones at goal. Yoko came in a little to low at the launch turnpoint also.

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2017 Hombres Pajaro

Tue, Jan 24 2017, 11:01:51 am EST

Results from day two

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Raul Guerra|Yoko Isomoto

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time km/h Distance Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 02:22:27 31.0 79.01 1000
2 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 03:14:06 22.7 79.01 789
3 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 03:15:00 22.6 79.01 782
4 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 02:43:04 27.0 79.01 717

Daniel jumped the gun at the first start clock. The other pilots took the second clock. There were two yesterday, instead just one like the first day.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 1666
2 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wing T2 144 1540
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 1466
4 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 1418
5 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 136 1339
6 Oscar Morales Wills Wing T2C 1158
7 Jorge E Garcia L Wills Wing T2C 144 1025
8 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 1019
9 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 969
10 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 956

Sport Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 01:05:26 534
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 01:20:21 457
3 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 02:03:54 334

Although not at goal (but at the bomb out LZ) these pilots were together in Sport Class.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jose Luis Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 145 582
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 573
3 Juan Luis Palma North Wing Freedom 382
4 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 281
5 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 260
6 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 247
7 Hugo Rodriguez Airwave Klassic 227
8 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 226
9 Jaime De La Calle Wills Wing U2 145 221
10 Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 135 209

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Mon, Jan 23 2017, 6:50:25 pm EST

Four at goal

Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Yoko Isomoto

Dustin didn't make goal. Yoko did:

She is flying a Wills Wing T2C 136, which she says is perfect even in these very light conditions.

Four pilots made goal according to Konrado, who didn't.

2017 Hombres Pajaro

January 23, 2017, 12:49:33 pm EST GMT-0500

Results from day one

competition|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Raul Guerra|Yoko Isomoto

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Juan Camilo Marin Giraldo Wills Wings T2 144 03:10:10 80.65 919
2 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2CX 144 03:54:37 80.65 828
3 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 5 68.64 707
4 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 66.34 701
5 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 62.59 666
6 Juan Fernando Arango Wills Wing T2 144 50.32 571
6 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 49.61 571
8 Alejandro Trujillo Montoya Aeros Combat GT 49.88 569
9 Yoko Isomoto Wills Wing T2C 48.98 550
10 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 45.74 526

Sport class:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Jose Sandoval Aeros Aeros Discus C 12.20 117
2 Daniel Jaramillo Wills Wing U2 12.11 116
3 Luis F. arias Wills Wing Sport 2 6.85 83
4 Daniel Perea Wills Wing U2 6.57 82
5 Anibal Lemus Wills Wing U2 5.71 75
6 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 4.54 65
7 Jaime De La Calle Wills Wing U2 145 4.29 63
8 Jaime Gomez Wills Wing U2C 4.02 60

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Sat, Jan 21 2017, 6:24:32 pm EST

Practice day

Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|PG

It rained hard all night and by morning the road to the upper launch was not passable. The sun came out late in the afternoon and some paraglider pilots flew from the lower launch. Looks like it could be good for the first day of the competition.

Pete Lehmann and I are flying Dustin's Wills Wing U2's.

2017 Hombres Pajaro

Thu, Jan 19 2017, 3:51:14 pm EST

Thursday in Cali

Belinda Boulter|Dustin Martin|Hombres Pájaro 2017|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Glennon|PG

Belinda and I are at Mike Glennon's house in Cali, Colombia. Mike is at the airport picking up the Brazilians.

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/pilots

Pete Lehmann, Dustin Martin and I are the only Americans who are attending. There are six Mexicans, three Brazilians, three Ecuadorians, and many Colombians.

This is the third year that the competition has been held at Santa Elena, Pie de Chinche, northeast of Cali about an hour.

https://airtribune.com/hp2017/info/details__info

Launch is on the eastern foothills facing west and into the prevailing winds when, as there always seems to be, an on shore flow from the Pacific Ocean to the west. The previous launches at Roldanillo (where there is currently a large scale paragliding competition - https://airtribune.com/roldanillo_2017/info) are on the western side of the valley facing east and prone to downwind launch conditions, which doesn't seem to affect paragliding.

I have launched once previously from the eastern side of the valley (Valle del Cauca) and very much appreciate having wind in my face when launching.

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USHPA NTSS ranking for 2017

October 17, 2016, 9:26:19 MST -0600

USHPA NTSS ranking for 2017

Used for points brought by pilots to the 2017 meets

Dustin Martin|USHPA

Dustin Martin|USHPA

https://www.ushpa.org/page/ntss-class-1

Pos Name Points   Comp 1 Comp 2 Comp 3 Comp 4
1 Zac Majors 2234   660 For2015 577 BSp2015 569 QO12016 428 SCF2016
2 Robin Hamilton 1998   581 QO12016 503 SCF2014 466 SCF2016 448 BSp2015
3 John Simon 1821   486 FRR2015 472 QO12016 436 QAO2015 427 SCF2016
4 Larry Bunner 1810   494 QAO2015 466 FRR2015 433 QO12016 417 SCF2016
5 Kraig Coomber 1804   660 SCF2016 583 SCF2015 561 SCF2014    
6 James Stinnet 1685   506 QO12016 496 FRR2015 475 BSp2015 208 QO22016
7 Bruce Barmakian 1663   515 SCF2016 472 BSN2014 460 FRR2015 216 BSp2016
8 Davis Straub 1626   523 FRR2015 478 BSN2014 359 QO12016 266 SCF2016
9 Derrick Turner 1597   509 BSN2014 431 BSp2015 415 SCF2016 242 BSp2016
10 Dustin Martin 1472   563 QAO2015 483 FRR2015 426 SCF2016    
11 JD Guillemette 1457   410 QAO2015 370 QO12016 349 SCF2015 328 SCF2016
12 Patrick Pannese 1380   471 SCF2016 314 SCF2015 305 QO12016 290 BSp2015
13 David Gibson 1361   508 SCF2016 463 BSp2015 390 CNa2015    
14 Patrick Kruse 1315   411 QO12016 400 SCF2015 350 QAO2015 154 QO22016
15 Gerry Pesavento 1242   414 QO12016 349 SCF2015 338 BSp2015 141 QO22016

3. 3 NTSS Pilot Ranking

A pilot's ranking is based on their total points accumulated in their best four meets from the 36 months immediately previous to the ranking year, subject to these conditions:

• No more than one meet result may be considered from the earliest 12 months of the 36 month window

• Any meet included from the earliest 12 months of the 36 month window is valued at 85% of its original value

• No more than two meet results may be considered from the earliest 24 months of the 36 month window

• No more than 2 meets outside of the US, Mexico, and Canada may be used

On the NTSS ranking web page you can click on the person's name to show all the competitions in the system for that person. It also highlights in bold ( hard to see ) the four competitions selected according to the rules that gives the person the highest overall NTSS points.

Discuss "USHPA NTSS ranking for 2017" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hang Gliding Competition - it is emotional

September 22, 2016, 10:21:57 MST -0600

Hang Gliding Competition - it is emotional

Dealing with failure

competition|dust devil|Dustin Martin|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner

This is a difficult article to write because it deals with failures and readers don't take well to failure. Apparently it is considered contagious. But to start off a bit of humor.

I remember the time a few years ago in Australia that I had a short bike race with Kraig Coomber. He came in second and as I recall he was pretty shocked that this old guy could best him. After a too short a time period Lukas Bader challenged me and he was first. I'm quite certain that I could best them both now.

After each day's task at a hang gliding competition I have a lot of feelings. This is especially true after I do relatively poorly. These feelings hang on and on and even a good day can't eliminate them from my short term memory. I involuntarily obsess over my poor decisions and their outcome.

I had a reasonably good day on the first task at the SCFR. https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1931/day/class-1

I liked the fact that I was able to recover from chasing a dust devil (after ignoring a bump) that didn't work and got me lower than the lead gaggle. I felt good catching excellent lift after the first turnpoint and getting out in front with Dangerous Dave. Later I appreciated staying in strong lift over Picacho Peak and not leaving it when Jonny left. I was happy that I turned to the south seeing another pilot thermaling on the last leg and climbing to 7,000' as John Simon continued out along the line that we were following and landed.

I felt good about shading way off to the west when we all left the lift following Jonny trying to find a better line against the head wind. The fact that I was able to come back to where Jonny found light lift and get in it and stay up for a couple of more thermals seemed like a victory. I finished in the middle of the pack, but there was satisfaction in much of the flight.

Afterwards I wished I had turned in that bump before the dust devil chase, wished I had stayed in that thermal at Picacho to 10,500' like Larry Bunner instead of 8,800'. I really regretted not having gone to that single only cu of the day to the west over no man's land after the second turnpoint instead of hanging with everyone else. This was the only cu any where near the course line all day. It was small but very thick. It wasn't in the right direction, but it was close enough that it appeared to be the case that if I found the thermal under it I would still be high enough and if I didn't I could make it to a landable area. The only real issue was if I did indeed find the lift, the others would come over to me and what would be my advantage, but getting in the lift first.  Further I wished I had worked harder to stay up in light lift at the end of the day. Regrets.

On the second day there were cu-nimbs to deal with and because the day was canceled later it wasn't scored. The tension revolved around how to avoid the shading from the cu-nimb, avoiding the cu-nimb itself and staying up. Since the cu-nimb was heading in our direction as we flew cross wind to the south eastern turnpoint it was a difficult balancing act.

I liked the fact that I could climb up over shaded areas and make the second turnpoint while others were behind. I would have loved to have spent more time getting high near the first turnpoint to make it easier to get around the second, but the approaching cu-nimb cut off that possibility.

The fourth day and the second scored task was a complete embarrassment:  https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1936/day/class-1.

I could not have done worse. After uneventfully climbing up to 6,200' but drifting just outside the start cylinder everything started to slowly fall apart. Each climb was worse. Half an hour after I launched I was above half the field but after that slowly got lower and lower with each climb being weaker and the top of each climb lower.

It was so frustrating seeing pilots above me but not being able to climb up to them. And they were not all that high either. Add to that the feeling that I had been in a much better situation a little earlier and it was just getting worse and worse. What was really weird was that Zac and Jonny were down there with me. What was up with that?

An hour and twenty minutes after I had launched I was now down to 1,000' AGL, three kilometers from the launch and over unfriendly terrain. Zac and I had gone northwest to get under some lift that we just saw Jonny catch. We had been climbing in 70 fpm to 1,800' AGL when we headed to a spot a little over a kilometer to our northwest where a couple of pilots showed lift including Jonny.

We didn't find it and Zac was now much lower than I and there I was low at 1,000' AGL. Panic mode set in. As I saw Zac head north over shaded country with poor retrieve options, I headed south to fly over sunny areas closer to the launch field. I hit little tiny patches of very weak lift but did not turn in them. I was more focused on checking landing options than staying up in weak lift again.

Zac and Jonny got up. I landed. Just too many unhelpful feelings after first getting up.

On the fifth day it was all different: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1940/day/class-1. Almost all of the pilots were able to climb to 8,500' on the east side of the start cylinder. This gave me the opportunity to feel very comfortable about my chances to fly far and find lift. No more desperately hanging on to anything available.

When Jonny headed south southwest and I headed southwest with Zippy and Larry I felt great as I knew that we were going to an area that had in the past been a great source of lift and it proved to be the case.

When half a dozen pilots came in under us as we climbed up quickly back to 8,500' just before the window opened I could not have been happier or more confident. Everything was well timed and well positioned. We were going to go south to the hills where I have always had great lift and good luck. We were going to fly over the driest areas where the lift can be expected to be great.

We got even higher as we raced to the southern turnpoint. I sometimes hit lift at over 800 fpm. There were a good number of pilots nearby and in the same thermal. We were all racing hard and pulled in.

As I got to within one kilometer of the edge of the turnpoint cylinder I saw Zippy coming back under me. Oh, oh. How did he get two kilometers ahead? That's about two minutes.

Turning around I raced back to the remnants of the second gaggle that broke up just as we got there. There were now eight pilots just in front of me. I don't know how they were able to get that extra distance on me. I had glided into turnpoint cylinder neck and neck with about five pilots matching their glide foot for foot and I turned very quickly at the turnpoint, so who knows how I got a little behind these pilots.

Heading back to the Francisco Grande I shaded to the left quite a ways to head for the last hill before the flats going to goal. I don't know why Zippy and his followers were avoiding the peak going to the right. I had always found lift on this hill and earlier Jonny and others climbed up over it on the way out, although they were way below us.

I didn't find the lift I had hoped for and had to join the others in first some 200 fpm and then a little later much stronger lift that got all of us into goal. Three minutes behind Zac but eight minutes in front of Jonny.

Racing felt good but not enough to erase the feelings from the day before.

On the sixth day here: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1944/day/class-1 we headed for the mountain range to the northwest. Again we got over 8,500' in the start cylinder and got a good start although not as high as the previous day hoping to stay north of the cultivate fields and make it to the mountain to get even much much higher. I had dressed up warmly hoping to see 14,000'.

With eight guys again ahead of me (must have found better lift to our north) I raced along behind trying to catch up. It was a long glide down to 3,500' before those of us around me and I found the next thermal at 300+ to get back to 7,000' Bruce and Dustin and one other pilot were above me as headed for the northwest corner of Maricopa.

There we saw the pilots in the leading gaggle at least three thousand feet below us, very low and climbing at only 100 fpm. I was positively giddy. I had been chasing these guys wondering if it was the right move and noticing that they weren't getting up or finding any thermals, so it affirmed my choice to stay back and climb with the pilots who had been just behind me.

The lift was weak over these guys and the alluvial fan from the mountain range beckoned ahead. With Dustin and Bruce heading out just over me I went for it. I had always found good lift in this area and even though it is only accessible on a small dirt road and there are lots of tall saguaro cactus up the fan, it was still landable.

I had hoped to find strong lift as I approached the mountain side but only found 120 fpm. I knew I was out in front of the other pilots with only three pilots with me. I also knew that I had previously found good lift right at the mountain side. I kept turning but wanted more.

I saw Dustin head in and hit some good lift right at the mountain side. I chased after him. I should have waited because he only took a few turns before heading further northwest around to the west side. Bruce had followed him also. I was about two hundred feet lower than they were.

When I came to the mountain side I didn't find much lift. I saw them turning on the west side and getting up. I proceeded west low and didn't hit anything that would get me up. It was just down down down until I landed three miles down a jeep track.

A little patience was in order. I really need to keep working the 120 fpm to get high enough to have a better chance at finding lift on the mountain side. I needed to not jump at the first sign of lift when Dustin turned in it. I needed to stay away from the west side with its limited landing options until I was sure I could stay up or have other options. I needed just to calm down and wait for some others to join me and help out and not just follow from below.

On the last day my troubles continued: https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results/task1947/day/class-1. It started when I declined my opportunity to launch early because I had been able to climb up well on the previous day even with a later launch. Now scrambling to climb up with the earlier launchers in order I thought to take the first start clock I made one bad decision after another as I was in a hurry.

I got up quickly to 5,200' but that wasn't enough for me. I "needed" to find really strong lift really quickly to get up to those pilots that were very high above me. I went looking in all the wrong places, not waiting to find good lift. I headed east to get on the right side of the start cylinder but there was nothing there. I went over the mine to find what is usually good lift there to find 900 fpm down.

It was a trap and I was quickly on the ground. Again a mindset that was sure to produce bad results. I didn't focus during the pilot meeting on what would be the best strategy for launching but took into account other considerations that were not pertinent. Once I went down that rat hole I found it hard to do a reset.

All the articles on the 2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race here.

A little of Dustin's history with harnesses

September 19, 2016, 8:59:18 MST -0600

A little of Dustin's history with harnesses

I was pretty amazed when I heard from Dustin that he would become the US distributor for Rotor

Dustin Martin|Jeff Shapiro|Larry Bunner|Steven "Steve" Pearson

First Wills Wing was the US distributor for Rotor, but it was difficult to communicate with Nene Rotor in Brazil (language issues, for one). I purchased a Rotor harness during that time. Loved it and still have it.

Then Jeff Shapiro designed the Covert to be the next step and worked with Wills Wing to represent the Covert. Dustin at times worked for Jeff in Montana at Jeff's house producing Coverts.

Then Wills Wing took over Covert production when Jeff wanted his life back and Dustin worked at times at Wills in California producing some Coverts.

I purchased an original Covert from Jeff and then had it upgraded by Wills and Dustin to the latest version when Dustin came up with some new ideas to lighten the harness. I sent my carbon fiber back plate with Steve Pearson back to Wills and it was used on my latest Covert. You'll see Zac, Wolfi and Larry Bunner as well as others flying them

Now, with Wills apparently unable to get American made carbon fiber back plates at prices that compare with those produced overseas, they are not in a position to produce new Coverts (but continue to support pilots who have them) Dustin is free to use his Portuguese language skills to professionalize the connection between Brazil and the US with respect to harness distribution.

Anyway, that is the story as I can construct it.

Rotor Harness USA

September 19, 2016, 8:57:04 MST -0600

Rotor Harness USA

Dustin Martin becomes the US distributor

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dustin Martin <<flydustin>> writes:

http://RotorHarness.com

Rotor Harness USA is now the distributor for all Rotor harnesses and accessories in the United States. All harnesses are custom fit and are available with an impressive list of options. Harness repairs, zippers, etc are now also available at Rotor Harness USA in Arizona.

For dealer info please contact me here: http://RotorHarness.com/contact.html

See the latest developments out of the Rotor factory here: https://www.facebook.com/rotorharnessusa/

Discuss "Rotor Harness USA" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2016, 10:36:58 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Friday's task with very preliminary results

Belinda Boulter|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Facebook|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

The forecast was for very light winds, no cu's, of course, and good lift, hopefully as good as Thursday. I encouraged the task committee to keep us out of the cultivated areas and for the most part they did.

I was near the back of the staging line a few pilots in front of Zac and that turned out to be a great thing for all of us as we didn't have spend an hour and forty five minutes in the start cylinder. Just forty minutes, thanks very much.

The lift was good right at launch and I pinned off at 1,000' after being pulled up by Bobby for the third day in a row. He stated to the folks on the ground that no one deserved a second tow as the lift was so plentiful.

The lift in the first thermal to 5,500' averaged over 400 fpm. Then the lift slowed down but soon almost everyone was up over 8,500'. We had to hang out for another twenty minutes but still were able to take the first start window at 7,000' and then quickly find a 300+ fpm to over 8,000'.

The course was to the northwest to Montezuma Peak, south to the off ramp for highway 84 at I8 and then back east to the Francisco Grande hotel. It was possible to stay north of the course line on the first leg to stay out of the cultivated fields out of Maricopa.

I raced following about eight pilots, four of who I could see, toward the north side of Maricopa. It took fifteen kilometers before those of us behind found 300+ fpm to get back up from 3,500' just on the dry east side of Maricopa.

I climbed back up to 7,000' with Bruce and Dustin and another pilot a little higher. We headed northwest again and just over the northwest corner of Maricopa we came in over eight pilots struggling at least three thousand feet below us. We had just flown over the lead gaggle.

The lift was a little over 100 fpm above these guys so Dustin, Bruce and I headed toward the big mountain and over the alluvial fan that spreads out from it to the south and east. I have been over this area a number of times and always found good lift before getting to the mountain side itself.

The lift before the hill side was only 100+ fpm and after gaining 500' I followed Bruce and Dustin in to the mountain face. I had seen one of them start climbing well so I went for it at about 4,000'. We were in the lead by far.

Getting to the hill side I didn't find any lift. Bruce and Dustin continued after the brief episode of lift to the west side I followed but didn't find any thing and had to land way back off road to the west of the mountain and on Indian land. Fortunately I found a nice open area to land without having to negotiate too many saguaro cactus.

Walked out about three miles on a jeep track just in time to find Belinda driving up a dirt road that connected to the jeep track. We drove back in to pick up the gear and glider.

A great romantic adventure for our anniversary.

Other more patient pilots got up on the mountain but not as high as we have been before, merely to about 9,000' and then they headed south along the low north-south range finding little if any lift. Dustin mentioned that he faced an 18 kmh east wind as he got to the second turnpoint and after working an hour to get to 6,000' being pushed to the west still landed at the turnpoint. The winds were forecast to be very very light today.

Preliminary results:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 94.48 917
2 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed RX 4 89.76 881
3 JD Guillemette Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 89.14 880
4 Bill Soderquist Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 88.79 876
5 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 87.49 864
6 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 87.61 861
7 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 86.69 852
8 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 86.56 846
9 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 86.05 840
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 85.94 835

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3258
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 3022
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 2992
4 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2871
5 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 2827
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 2635
7 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2626
8 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 154 2487
9 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2439
10 Alex Cuddy Moyes Litespeed RX 4 2405

We also had an unfortunate incident where a pilot clipped a tree on landing out. He was unconscious and was helicoptered to the hospital. Larry Bunner was on the scene quickly and stated later that the pilot and John Simon got themselves in a situation where they did not have good landing options.

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 16, 2016, 10:14:44 MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Rescored with proper track logs

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

Task 4 from Thursday redone:

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:19:24 979
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 01:19:31 956
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:19:36 946
4 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:19:48 931
5 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 01:20:22 923
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:23 912
7 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:27 903
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:22:02 879
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:22:48 867
10 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 01:28:11 805

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 2409
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2341
3 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2161
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 2160
5 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2157
6 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 2049
7 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2043
8 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 1981
9 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 1808
10 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 1771

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 15, 2016, 9:00:04 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 5, preliminary results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time km/h Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:19:24 52.2 979
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:19:36 52.1 952
3 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:19:48 51.9 937
4 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 01:20:22 51.6 928
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:23 51.5 916
6 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:27 51.5 906
7 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 01:22:02 50.5 882
8 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:22:48 50.0 869
9 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 01:28:11 47.0 806
10 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:30:47 45.6 769

Not Yet Processed: Glen and Kevin Carter

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2347
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2162
3 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 2161
4 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2160
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 2049
6 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 2045
7 Derreck Turner Moyes Litespeed RX5 1986
8 Kevin Dutt Icaro Z9 1808
9 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 1777
10 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 1732

Task 4 sport:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 01:07:35 1000
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 01:42:07 579
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 01:58:53 452
4 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko   334

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 2671
2 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 1869
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 928
4 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 503

We're happy here at the SCFR

September 13, 2016, 9:21:16 MST

We're happy here at the SCFR

It was an interesting day

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Photo by Bouchi Bellendier, Dustin's mom.

Discuss "We're happy here at the SCFR" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race »

September 11, 2016, 10:07:59 pm MST

2016 Santa Cruz Flats Race

Day 1

Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|dust devil|Dustin Martin|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Phill Bloom|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2016

Too long a task and against the wind. I knew right away that we would not make it back unless the lift was really much better than usual and we started getting to 11,000' as forecast right away. That didn't happen.

The task was a triangle to the east then south then back to the Francisco Grande Hotel, 130 km. Quite a task for days that end around 5 PM and the tasks start at 2 PM.

We started launching a little after 12:45 PM and there was plenty of lift. Launching eleventh I was able to climb right up to 7,500'. The wind was west northwest at about 8 mph so a bunch of us were soon on the south eastern edge of the start cylinder.

We pushed back up wind getting down to 6,000'; but were able to get back up to 7.400' in time for the first start time. Zac went out in front by far. Larry Bunner next, then me and I was followed by the rest of the pilots. Pilots bunched up and we found 200 to 300 fpm over Casa Grande, getting back over 6,500' and continued east. I chased a dust devil that gave out before I got to it and ended up 500' to 1,000' below my gaggle.

There was a reasonable amount of lift out on the flats and I went chasing the gaggle to see if I could find some. A couple of hundred foot per minute got me close and the lift was spread out and there were not consistent cores. Even closer by the time I got to the first turnpoint out over no man's land 7 km from the Cactus airport.

We headed south for the hills which were small bumps as we approached them from the north. But the bumps were hot and at almost 400 fpm and back to 7,300' it was time to race down the ridge line. Another 380 fpm north of Newman Peak and back to 7,300' before heading across the gap to Picacho Peak and what looked like it might be the last good lift of the day as we would soon be on the return leg into the wind over the flats and irrigated areas,.

Took the 400 fpm to 8,800' which was the highest so far. Jonny left early below a few of us. Later Larry with Kevin Carter below him would get to 10,500' staying at Picacho until he couldn't get any higher. Smart move. He had forecasted the 11,000' so he needed to get high to show that he was correct.

We thought we were pretty smart to let Jonny go out in front low and stay in the lift that much longer, but Larry was smarter.

Catching the edge of the 15 km cylinder around the next turnpoint John Simon and I headed northwest over a small range. It didn't work. About half way through it I saw a pilot turning to the south over more no man's land. I headed right for him. Jonny was working up slowly low on the small range.

The lift averaged less than 150 fpm and we were drifting back in the 5 mph head wind. But it was easy flying and the lift  had been very comfortable all day. John Simon headed out without climbing much with us and we saw him later on the ground not too far down the course line.

There was a cu to the west and I dearly wanted to go to it but no one else seemed to be inclined to do so. It was over the no mans land but we were high enough to make it as it died out. It was off the course line a bit but the only nearby cu we had seen all day.

Jonny headed out and we all followed along the course line all spread out. I was way to the west hoping the there would be lift toward where that cu had been. Jonny out in front finally found some light lift and I came in under him (I had been over him since the first turnpoint although he took a later clock) at 900' AGL to find 80 fpm and a head wind. I climbed 900' back to 3,500' and as I watched the four or five guys over head head north west I headed also in that direction.

Again back down to 900' AGL I found 175 fpm to 3,900' but that was it. I went on glide to land about 33 km short. Jonny geot to within 15 km. Larry within 17 km. No one made goal.

https://airtribune.com/santacruzflatsrace2016/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.91 916
2 Robin Hamilton Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.72 912
3 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 120.29 909
4 Phill Bloom Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 119.95 906
5 Glen Volk Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 119.54 905
6 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 116.52 875
7 Kevin Dutt   115.18 859
8 Alex Cuddy   112.48 825
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T2C 154 112.47 820
10 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 107.09 737
11 Bruce Barmakian Laminar 103.81 700
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 102.94 687
13 Sergey Kataev Wills Wing T2C 99.30 641
14 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 95.26 604
15 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 95.04 598

Task 1 sport:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Niki Longshore Moyes Gecko 39.00 900
2 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 38.72 896
3 Gary Anderson Wills Wing Sport 2 13.36 353

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2017

Mon, Sep 5 2016, 8:29:59 am MDT

21st and 28th of January 2017

Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Mike Glennon|Raul Guerra|Zac Majors

Mike Glennon «Mike Glennon» writes:

We are glad to announce the confirmed dates for the 8th Hombres Pajaro Colombia Competition to be held at Santa Elena (same site as the two last comps) between the 21st and 28th of January 2017 .

Pilots interested in competing in this competition can find information and also will be able to register on the Airtribune web page.

The competition includes both Open and Sport classes .

Over the years we have had a great number of top ranked pilots fly with us, such as Davis Straub, Dustin Martin, Wolfi, Rudy Gotes, Luis Rizo, Zac Majors, Pedro Garcia, Raul Guerra, David Filho to name a few and they have all insisted this is a fantastic place to fly .

Taking all 8 meets into account we have averaged 6 out of 7 days flown in the comps, and at this site we are using now, Santa Elena, we have flown 7 out of 7 days for the comps we have held at this site .

We invite all pilots to come and fly with us in the beautiful valley, with great conditions, big fat thermals, no strong winds, no strong turbulence, just an ideal place to fly .

Discuss "Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2017" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Ben sets new world record for 100 km triangle

June 29, 2016, 12:02:28 pm MST -0600

Ben sets new world record for 100 km triangle

Class 5 record

Dustin Martin|record

Faster than Dustin's class 1 record, as to be expected, slower than Rob Hamilton's Class 2 record.

Gary writes:

A blistering 52.53kmh and 13% faster than prior record.

http://www.fai.org/fai-record-file/?recordId=7525

http://www.fai.org/fai-record-file/?recordId=15520

Discuss "Ben sets new world record for 100 km triangle" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2016 World Record Encampment »

June 20, 2016, 8:49:44 MST -0600

2016 World Record Encampment

It has started

Bobby Bailey|Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Gary Osoba|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|record|weather|World Record Encampment 2016

Jonny Durand's attempt to break Dustin Martin's 475 mile world record for flex wing open distance is on in Zapata. Jonny is there. Bobby Bailey is there. Mick Howard with his Dragonfly and trike is there. The Red Bull filming crew is there.

They apparently don't have the liability insurance issue dealt with completely yet. But hopefully by Wednesday, when the conditions look good, it'll all the taken care of.

The Weather Channel filming crew isn't there yet. Maybe they are just going to rely on the Red Bull crew.

http://www.livescience.com/55117-hang-glider-attempts-record-breaking-flight.html

On or soon after Monday (June 20), Jonny Durand will attempt to glide from Zapata, in southern Texas, to Lorenzo, in northern Texas, a distance of about 475 miles (764 kilometers). Aiding him on his journey — on (or around) the summer solstice, the longest day of the year — are what may be the most ideal atmospheric conditions for long-distance hang-gliding on Earth.

Zapata is also home to winds "that blow in a pretty straight line for a long distance," Durand said. "It's why world hang-gliding records have been set here for the past 15, 16 years."

"[At] most places on Earth, weather systems change every few hundred miles or so, but by Zapata, the winds are very strong and steady for 500 miles or more in a straight line," said Gary Osoba, an aerospace engineer and atmospheric physicist who recently retired from Google. Osoba previously set numerous world gliding records himself.

Discuss "2016 World Record Encampment" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fly with Dustin in Colombia

June 16, 2016, 8:54:38 MST -0600

Fly with Dustin in Colombia

December 1st 2016

Dustin Martin|PG|video|weather

http://FlyWithDustin.com/

Registration is open NOW for my 2016/17 full service cross country clinics in Colombia. This year I'm bringing Wolfgang Siess on board as a guest instructor to lower the student to instructor ratio. Join us in Colombia this winter to enjoy the most consistently flyable weather in the world while improving your skills!

Show up with your harness and let us take care of the rest.

For the 2016/17 winter season, beginning in December, I am again offering full-service tours in Roldanillo and Piedechinche, Colombia. Slots are open to pilots at the advanced intermediate level or higher with significant and current foot launch experience on U2 or higher performance gliders.

The latest paragliding Worlds took place in Roldanillo last year with incredibly consistent conditions, high bases, and light winds. A week later the hang gliders converged on Piedechinche for our annual Hombres Pajaro competition and were rewarded with equally consistent days. This year's Hombres Pajaro comp had incredibly strong and consistent conditions once again.

https://youtu.be/tDgBTavrHxA

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2016 World Record Encampment »

June 7, 2016, 8:48:51 MST -0600

2016 World Record Encampment

Jonny gets Red Bull to fund his attempt to break Dustin's world record

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Gary Osoba|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|record|video|weather|World Record Encampment 2016

The weather channel is interested in getting the video produced by the attempt and will send out a video team. Gary Osoba flies out to Atlanta on Wednesday to talk to the Weather Channel people.

https://www.facebook.com/TheWeatherChannel/videos/10154335291720921/

Exclusive LIVE interview with Jonny Durand, who is going to attempt to break the open distance hang gliding world record this summer with Red Bull. Get your questions ready!

Discuss "2016 World Record Encampment" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Wills Wing Demo Days »

April 1, 2016, 6:16:46 pm EST -0400

Wills Wing  Demo Days

Coming to Texas

calendar|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Steven "Steve" Pearson

https://www.facebook.com/tiki.mashy/posts/10153680620328681

https://www.willswing.com/calendar/

Steven Pearson <<Steve>> writes:

Zac will be with me at Cowboy UP and Ryan is joining us for Wallaby. Zac, Dustin and Matt Barker will be at the Team Challenge and then I’ll return home the following weekend for demos at Crestline. I have a full selection of demos for each event including blinged out Falcons, S2Cs, U2Cs and full-carbon leading edge T2Cs.

Dustin leaving Colombia

February 22, 2016, 8:49:59 EST

Dustin leaving Colombia

The End of the Tour

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://youtu.be/e4A8yaynEPY

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/posts/1152075968151035

Today's flight signals the end of my winter season in Colombia. I am ready to go home to the desert, and also super reluctant to leave the tropical paradise of cloud-hopping where the most important thing is to fly our asses off all day every day (we missed one day since Dec 12th). And find delicious beer.

There is a tiny depression every time a group of pilots leaves and a little excitement every time a new group arrives. So with this last group thankfully we all go out with a bang - one last amazing flight in epic conditions. 1000 up to 9500 feet for a couple hours of cloudstreet fun.

Thanks to all the people who have helped get this tour business on its feet, and those that continue to help, just because that's the way they are. And especially thanks to all of you pilots who came for my second season of mayhem and treated my gliders like your own, hopefully things were a little more refined and the flying a little more amazing this year.

Hoping and planning for an even better time next season, starting in December, this time with a special guest instructor so that we can provide services for more pilots, and so we can lower the pilot>instructor ratio by one. His shenanigans should improve things all around!

Until next time.

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Carbon inboard leading edges

February 22, 2016, 8:47:42 EST

Carbon inboard leading edges

Dustin's TC2x

Dustin Martin|Larry Bunner

Dustin Martin <<flydustin>> writes:

The carbon inboards are either available as an option. If Pearson says they have em, they have em. Most of the carbon inboards I flew had slightly better handling. One had the best handling I've experienced so far. The Canoa glider had them. That was sold to David from Brasil and he just won the Colombia comp with them. The weight difference is very noticeable the first time you lift the glider on your shoulders to launch.

Larry Bunner just got his. The glider is about three pounds lighter. Now it is under 70 pounds. $850.

Not shown here yet: https://www.willswing.com/hang-gliders/t2c/

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Proof that the earth is a sphere

February 10, 2016, 5:45:30 pm EST

Proof that the earth is a sphere

Dustin and clients in Colombia

Dustin Martin|Facebook|photo

Great day with everybody shooting to base right away with 6-700 up everywhere. Good tour of the valley followed by a decent scratch back home when the sea breeze pinned us downwind of goal.

Discuss "Proof that the earth is a sphere" at the Oz Report forum   link»

100kph cloudstreet in Colombia

February 3, 2016, 10:14:04 pm EST

100kph cloudstreet in Colombia

Going fast in Colombia

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/vb.493989140626391/1141702612521704/?type=2&theater

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Dustin in Florida

February 1, 2016, 8:10:56 EST

Dustin in Florida

Florida, Colombia

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/vb.493989140626391/1139789066046392/?type=2&theater

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Dustin in Colombia

January 27, 2016, 10:14:03 EST

Dustin in Colombia

Going well

Dustin Martin|Facebook|photo

Dustin Martin|Facebook|John Beckley|photo

Dustin Martin|Facebook|John Beckley|photo

New addition to the group John Beckley. His first flight yesterday we had 700 up to close to 10,000. Definitely a classic day in Colombia.

Discuss "Dustin in Colombia" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 18, 2016, 9:24:27 EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Who was flying what?

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

Dustin Martin <<flydustin>> writes:

David was flying my Canoa glider that he just bought. The so called x. Mine is the one I brought here last year and for some reason I am listed as flying my Canoa wing here. Maybe a leftover from the Airtribune database.

I should have spotted this from the pictures I published.

Jamie's landing just before she broke her arm:

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Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 17, 2016, 8:57:09 EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Dustin coming into goal on the last day

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/vb.493989140626391/1131118756913423/?type=2&theater

Last day of the comp. Got into goal fourth. Got up from 400 feet. That was the strongest climb and highest altitude of the competition. Smooth 1000 fpm up to 10K. Went to find my team mate, Enda, and guide him through the last half of the course in deteriorating conditions. In the end, the whole team made goal.

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Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 16, 2016, 8:46:20 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Final results

Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog

Last task:

  Name Glider Time Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 01:14:32 961
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 01:14:55 933
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 01:16:02 899
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 01:22:59 808
5 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:24:44 789
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 01:30:11 744
7 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 01:31:48 724
8 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 01:44:34 613
9 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 01:49:18 591
10 Jelko Loor Wills Wing T2C 01:54:57 543

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 5665
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 5608
3 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 5409
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 5198
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 5082
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 4287
7 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 3815
8 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 3316
9 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 3264
10 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 3235

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 15, 2016, 9:47:22 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Results

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 03:07:49 122.10 1000
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 03:07:50 122.10 978
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 03:08:24 122.10 960
4 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 03:09:53 122.10 944
5 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 03:29:41 122.10 867
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed   109.90 651
7 Pedro Alejandro Montes Aeros Combat GT 15   109.48 622
8 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5   104.16 619
9 Rodrigo Alva Wills Wing T2 144   93.39 543
10 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144   77.84 479

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 4704
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 4675
3 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 4620
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 4390
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 4183
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 3543
7 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 3281
8 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 2741
9 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 2632
10 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 2576

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 15, 2016, 6:59:01 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Preliminary Results

Dustin Martin|Facebook

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

https://www.facebook.com/hombrespajarocolombia/?fref=nf

Live tracking (and replay): https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog__day_7

https://siroco0120.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/hombres-pajaro-2016-4/

https://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com/

Looks like David came in enough ahead of Daniel to put himself back in first place overall. But we can't see what is happening with a number of pilots, like Dustin, for example.

David confirms this.

Daniel, David, Rudy at goal.

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Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 14, 2016, 9:59:21 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Results

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Filippo Oppici|photo|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

Dustin Martin writes:

Team Wills Wing with Daniel, Filippo, me, and David all coming in within a couple of minutes. 120 kms in about 3:20. Very nice final glide conditions.

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 02:17:44 112.99 1000
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 02:22:31 112.99 929
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 02:24:45 112.99 907
4 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 02:25:21 112.99 894
5 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 03:17:14 112.99 697
6 Pedro Alejandro Montes Aeros Combat GT 15 03:20:21 112.99 679
7 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 03:17:22 112.99 659
8 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed   100.40 588
9 Alfredo Grey Wills Wing T2C   88.27 502
10 Alejandro Hoyos Wills Wing T2   80.65 498

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 3731
2 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 3709
3 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 3528
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 3227
5 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 2924
6 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 2853
7 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 2800
8 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 2288
9 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 2227
10 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 2175

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 13, 2016, 9:30:40 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Results of the fourth task

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 01:33:30 1000
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 01:36:05 936
3 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:36:24 920
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 01:37:55 895
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 01:42:40 851
6 Shigeto Ishizaka Wills Wing T2 01:55:45 755
7 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 01:55:29 740
8 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 02:02:39 707
9 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 02:07:31 687
10 Alejandro Hoyos Wills Wing T2 02:33:16 589

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 2815
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 2782
3 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 2731
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 2621
5 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 2384
6 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 2336
7 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 2298
8 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 1811
9 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 1638
9 Alfredo Grey Wills Wing T2C 1638

Dustin says that this is the street from turnpoint 4 going to turnpoint 5:

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 13, 2016, 5:59:49 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Fourth task

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

https://www.facebook.com/hombrespajarocolombia/?fref=nf

Live tracking (and replay): https://airtribune.com/play/1172/2d

Jamie landed next to the cane:

Daniel barely beat Rudy into goal as the only pilots that were in the lead on Live Tracking (why not Dustin).

David Brito Filho says that he came in first:

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Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 12, 2016, 9:11:00 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Results of the third task

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 03:41:37 80.07 987
2 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144   72.39 833
3 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144   72.30 828
4 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144   69.81 806
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144   56.36 691
6 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144   54.22 670
7 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed   54.22 669
8 Rodrigo Alva Wills Wing T2 144   53.96 666
9 Oskr Morales Wills Wing T2C   49.74 609
10 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5   49.00 601

Cumulative:

  Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 1862
2 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 1815
3 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 1795
4 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 1726
5 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 1649
6 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 1645
7 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 1447
8 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 1306
9 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 1298
10 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 1104

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 12, 2016, 9:00:51 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

Dustin at goal

Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jamie Shelden|photo

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/blog

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results

https://www.facebook.com/hombrespajarocolombia/?fref=nf

Jamie landing out:

Dustin at goal:

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Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016 »

January 11, 2016, 10:45:22 pm EST

Hombres Pájaro Colombia 2016

No one at goal

competition|Daniel Vé|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Daniel Vélez Bravo|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Raul Guerra|Wills Wing T2C

https://airtribune.com/hp2016/results:

Task 2:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 43.07 609
2 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 42.32 599
3 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 41.07 587
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 40.98 587
5 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 40.99 585
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 40.85 584
7 Oscar Gomez Wills Wing T2 40.72 579
8 Carlos Correa Wills Wing Fusion 150 40.22 567
8 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 40.18 567
10 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 39.86 557

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 1034
2 David Brito Filho Wills Wing T2C 144 1009
3 Alfredo Tello Moyes Litespeed 980
4 Gustavo Adolfo Jimenez Wills Wing T2 144 975
5 Daniel Velez Wills Wing T2C 144 962
6 Juan Arango Wills Wing T2 144 860
7 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 756
8 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2Cx 144 739
9 Raul Guerra Moyes Technora RX 3,5 705
10 Oscar Gomez Wills Wing T2 579

A nice launch in Colombia

January 8, 2016, 8:19:49 EST

A nice launch in Colombia

Pete takes off.

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/vb.493989140626391/1125560007469298

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Kip is flying in Colombia

December 28, 2015, 7:16:26 EST

Kip is flying in Colombia

It's nice down there.

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/vb.493989140626391/1118027641555868

Kip leaves winter behind and discovers Colombian flying.

Still have a couple spots open! Early January and early February. Get in before they're gone.

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Dustin in Colombia

December 22, 2015, 8:16:32 EST

Dustin in Colombia

Getting high quickly

Dustin Martin|Facebook|video

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/videos/1114800628545236/

Short clip of Kip and I topping out Friday after launch to begin our 90 km flight to goal. Took off around 10:15 and were climbing 500 fpm to base shortly after. At 11:20 and many miles down the ridge we rocked into 1000 up on a 20 second averager to base at 9200 feet. Goal took 3.5 hours but Kip couldn't get down at goal for another hour. Tough life.

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Dustin and crew in Colombia

December 17, 2015, 9:25:13 EST

Dustin and crew in Colombia

Flying in nice conditions

Dustin Martin|Facebook|photo

First week of the season, and today we had some nice 400 ups to 7500 feet. Looks drier and higher tomorrow.

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Last minute Christmas shopping

November 26, 2015, 9:19:10 PST

Last minute Christmas shopping

Fly with Dustin in Colombia

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dustin Martin|Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/DustinMartinHangGliding/posts/1099660323392600

Special last minute price: For the week of December 12-20 (one day longer than a standard tour), I have one single slot left for a full-service tour/cross country clinic in Colombia. This will be a super personalized group, two pilots total, to kick off the season in Colombia. We will spend four days/nights in laid back Piedechinche getting some sweet air and dependable all day flying, then four more days/nights in Roldanillo, site of some epic cloud flying and big air.

25% OFF (standard prices here: http://www.flywithdustin.com/prices-options.html)

I have a 145 or 160 U2 for you to use (or try both), both crispy like new wings, but ONLY ONE slot to fill. Come get some great air and full service guiding with the glider, hotel, breakfast, cross country hand holding, retrieves, airport transfers, everything included! Bring a harness and your radio, that's it.

Must have current significant foot launch experience on a U2 or more slippery glider. Need to confirm by next weekend latest.

http://flywithdustin.com

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Dustin's Tour

November 13, 2015, 6:49:16 pm PST

Dustin's Tour

Fun in Colombia

Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin

Dustin:

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Dustin's Colombia tour almost full

November 12, 2015, 7:41:29 PST

Dustin's Colombia tour almost full

After exposure in the Oz Report

Dustin Martin|Facebook|photo

Dustin writes:

FlyWithDustin.com.

Discuss "Dustin's Colombia tour almost full" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fly with Dustin in Colombia

November 9, 2015, 9:37:33 PST

Fly with Dustin in Colombia

A few slots left

Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin

Dustin writes:

Escape winter and hop from cloud to cloud with me in the beautiful Cauca Valley of Colombia!

Limited slots are still available for my full service tours which include a crispy new glider, radio guided cross country flying, hotel, breakfast, airport pickup and drop off, and daily retrieval:

Dec 12-19 -- 1 spot left
Jan 2-9 -- 2 spots left
Jan 30 - Feb 6 -- 2 spots left
Feb 6-20 -- 2 spots left

Also, I have one remaining U2 145 available for rent during the competition in Roldanillo Jan 9-16. Bring a harness and fly the comp! Contact me for pricing and other details.

Www.FlyWithDustin.com

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Dustin reports

November 6, 2015, 12:14:35 pm PST GMT-0800

Dustin reports

5 fpm advantage at 70-90 kph

Dustin Martin

Dustin Martin

Dustin writes:

The Canoa race is about as pure an idea of glide across the speed range you will ever get. With the track logs available I'm not sure how much more resolution of data you're after.

The RS was carrying slightly more ballast with a very slightly higher area for almost identical wing loading.

It was a tighter race than I expected but there really was no chance for the RS to win.

Could a new RX? I really don't know. Raul was racing his new RX at a higher wing loading than either me or Tom and was minutes behind each day. His harness is a matrix but he flies very slightly head up which doesn't help.

Day 1 was an all out effort with a huge gap over Tom, but he made some of the crossings too low to be perfectly efficient.

Day 2 was probably most representative because he learned to do the crossings higher and I was still putting out 95% effort regarding risk and crossing height.

Day 3, besides the last leg where he shortcut a turnpoint was otherwise a great representation of sink rate @ 70-90 kph since I put my nose basically even with his while riding the lift band about ten meters higher. Probably a difference of <5fpm over him but still significant enough to allow control of the race.

Obviously, on the last day of such a low altitude race, if you are leading by such a big margin it would be insane to push in the front, especially with the fickle conditions of day 3.

I'm more interested in how the tweaks to the glider, which were very minor, could produce such visible advantages.

Rudy was quite close in his sort of new T2C and held a clear advantage over Daniel in a slightly older model. It's obvious that each generation is making steps in the right direction.

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Are Wills Wing gliders really that much better than Moyes gliders?

November 5, 2015, 7:35:01 PST

Are Wills Wing gliders really that much better than Moyes gliders?

Looking at the World Record and the Canoa Ridge Race

competition|Dustin Martin|Facebook|Jeff Johnson|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo|record|Steven "Steve" Pearson

Dustin goes a bit longer than Jonny in Zapata to claim for himself the world record. Dustin flies 475 miles (474.7). Jonny flies three miles shorter. The percentage difference? 0.63%.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/sports/two-men-one-sky-the-silent-realization-of-a-purer-form-of-flight.html

http://ozreport.com/16.135#4

Dustin flies the Canoa Ridge Race task on the first day (the key day for the competition) in 39:11. Tom is next at 40:14. The percentage difference? 2.6%.

https://airtribune.com/canoaopen2015/results/task1125/day/class-1

The Moyes gliders are really only very very slightly lower in performance according to these measures. Certainly not enough to be of any concern when purchasing a glider. As Dustin states these glider performance differences are swamped by differences in pilot judgment in cross country races.

The machine that makes it all happen. Had a blast in Ecuador helping Wills Wing deliver a 1-2-3 sweep and taking all three day wins at the Canoa ridge race against a strong field and a defending champion. Spent a week in my backyard tweaking and taping and polishing, then three days flying performance comparisons with Steve Pearson and our tow pilots Luke Waters and Jeff Johnson to make sure it was an aerial killer. It was.

Handles like a toy, glides like a beast.

The open class podium shot

November 3, 2015, 12:53:10 pm PST GMT-0800

The open class podium shot

Three Wills Wing pilots

Dustin Martin|Facebook

Dustin, Rudy, Daniel.