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topic: Fred Kaemerer (44 articles)

Go Long in Texas 2022 »

Thu, Jul 21 2022, 12:24:54 am GMT

Day Four

Ben Dunn|Danny Jones|Fred Kaemerer|Jim Yocum|Ken Millard|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Nathan "Nate" Wreyford|Rich Reinauer|Tiki Mashy

Larry Bunner writes:

Texas Go Long is full on with drought conditions making for some good flights. A lot of personal bests and many 100+ milers. Pete L and I teamed up and on day 1 flew ~130 miles to Madisonville, day 2 Robin, Mick and Rich Reinauer did the same to Madisonville, day 3 we set 300km to the NE and Pete and I made 290km on a mostly blue last 70 miles. Mick, Rich and Ken Millard also got close.

Tiki Mashy writes:

Go Long in Texas day 4 another great day!!
Robin 181 miles Palestine Tx
Ben Dunn Palestine Tx
Danny Jones Centerville, Tx
Jim Yocum 176 miles
Still Flying (still in the air) near Palestine,Tx:
-Nate Wreyford
-Fred Kaemerer

https://cuhanggliding.com/golongintexas/

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Comparing the ATOS VR to the Aeros and Moyes gliders

Fred Kaemerer asks me to include his ATOS

Comparing the ATOS VR to the Aeros and Moyes gliders

October 5, 2018, 8:28:47 MDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|competition|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

https://ozreport.com/22.198#0

Three gliders come in close together on the third day.

https://ozreport.com/22.188

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

Fred on his AIR ATOS VR is the red line.

Here's Fred's final glide:

He flies at 57 mph and gets a 14.1 glide.

Robin's final glide:

He flies at 54 mph and gets a 13.3 final glide.

Jonny's final glide

He flies at 50 mph and gets a 12.3 final glide.

Fred starts after Robin and Jonny and beats Jonny to goal.

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 »

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 Quest Air Nationals »

Sat, Apr 21 2018, 8:14:52 am EDT

The happy pilots

Alejandro Riera|Andrey Solomykin|Bruce Barmakian|Charles Allen|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Fred Kaemerer|Gary Anderson|Glen Volk|Greg Dinauer|Jeff Chipman|Jim Messina|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Ken Kinzie|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Mark Bourbonnais|Mike Glennon|Patrick Kruse|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Raul Guerra|Richard Lovelace|Roger Irby|Sara Weaver|Tullio Gervasoni|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

Joerg Bajewski's photo of all of us:

All the happy pilots at the 2018 Quest Air Nationals. May include, but not limited to: Adam Smith, Adrian Sanchez, Adriano Sorci, Alejandro Riera, Alessandro Silva, Alfredo Grey, Alipio Loyola, Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli, Andrey Solomykin, Austin Marshall, Bill Comstock, Bill Vickery, Brian Vitola, Bruce Barmakian, Carl Wallbank, Carlos Alvarado, Charles Allen, Charles Cozean, Christian Ciech, Corinna Schwiegershausen, Dan Lukaszewicz, David Aldrich, David Hayner, David Whittle, Davis Straub, Derreck Turner, Douglas Hale, enrique arriaga, Eric Williams, Erico Oliveira, Fabiano Nahoum, Fabio Thomaz, Fred Kaemerer, Gary Anderson, Giovani Tagliari, Glen Volk, Greg Dinauer, Greg Sessa, Hollidge Andrew, James Race, James Yocom, JD Guillemette, Jeff Chipman, Jim Messina, Joerg Bajewski, John Blank, John Maloney, John Simon, Jonny Durand, Jose Paulo Tavares, Jose Sandoval, Ken Kinzie, Kevin Carter, Kevin Dutt, Kevin Kernohan, Konrad Heilmann, Krzysztof Grzyb, Larry Bunner, Lee Silver, Makbule Baldik Le Fay, Malcolm Brown, Marcello Pereira, Marcelo Alexandre Menin, Mark Bourbonnais, Michael Duffy, Michael Williams, Mick Howard, Miguel Molina, Mike Glennon, Misael Rosalez, Nick Jones, Patrick Kruse, Patrick Pannese, Patrick Ruber, Pedro L. Garcia, Peter Kelley, Peter Suchanek, Philippe Michaud, Phill Bloom, Raul Guerra, Ricardo Ricky, Ricardo Vassmer, Rich Cizauskas, Rich Reinauer, Richard lovelace, Richard Milla, Rick Maddy, Rob Dallas, Robert Clarkson, Rod Regier, Rodrigo Russek, Roger Irby, Sandy Dittmar, Sara Weaver, Sergey Kataev, Soraya Rios, Stephan Mentler, Steve Hogan, Tullio Gervasoni, Tyler Borradaile, Will Ramsey, William Baker, Zac Majors

The photo is live.

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

2018 Quest Air Nationals »

Results from day six, task 4

Fri, Apr 20 2018, 11:58:13 pm EDT

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Andrey Solomykin|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|Fred Kaemerer|Glen Volk|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Phill Bloom|Quest Air|Quest Air Nationals 2018|Richard Lovelace|Sara Weaver|Zac Majors

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

Task 4:

Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1 13:30:00 16:09:48 02:39:48 877
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 14:10:00 16:34:49 02:24:49 860
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Ww T2C 144 13:50:00 16:34:55 02:44:55 729
3 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 13:50:00 16:35:06 02:45:06 729
5 Malcolm Brown Wills Wing T2C 144 13:50:00 16:36:11 02:46:11 720
6 Sandy Dittmar Wills Wing T2C 144 13:50:00 16:41:14 02:51:14 694
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 13:30:00 16:34:49 03:04:49 687
8 Carl Wallbank Moyes RX 3.5 13:30:00 16:35:00 03:05:00 685
9 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.1 13:30:00 16:35:01 03:05:01 681
10 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 13:50:00 16:43:49 02:53:49 675
11 Krzysztof Grzyb Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 13:50:00 16:43:53 02:53:53 674
12 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C 144 13:30:00 16:35:06 03:05:06 673
13 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 13:30:00 16:37:22 03:07:22 646
14 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 13:30:00 16:45:08 03:15:08 620
15 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T2C 144 Carbon 13:30:00 16:46:58 03:16:58 614

Sport Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 James Race Wills Wing U2 160 01:38:00 985
2 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 155 01:40:33 935
3 Makbule Baldik Le Fay Aeros Discus 13B 01:46:14 866
4 Andrey Solomykin Aeros Discus 14 01:50:45 822
5 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 01:53:08 801
6 Charles Cozean Wills Wing U2 145 01:55:33 781
7 Sara Weaver Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:56:02 777
8 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 01:58:43 756
9 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing U2 145 01:59:53 747
10 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 02:00:18 744
11 Ricardo Ricky Wills Wing T2C 01:37:41 700
12 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 02:18:14 622

Rigid task 4:

# Name Glider Sponsor Time Distance Total
1 Fred Kaemerer Air Atos Vr Air Usa 03:03:53 126.60 995
2 Patrick Ruber A-I-R Atos Vr A-I-R 03:04:08 126.60 992
3 James Yocom Air Atos Vr 10 My Beautiful Wife! 75.82 326

Rigid final results (they all left early Saturday morning):

# Name Glider Total
1 Patrick Ruber A-I-R Atos Vr 2509
2 Fred Kaemerer Air Atos Vr 2263
3 James Yocom Air Atos Vr 10 1875

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships »

May 9, 2016, 8:47:43 EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

Sport class and rigid class

competition|Facebook|Fred Kaemerer|Niki Longshore|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016

https://airtribune.com/2016-quest-air-open-national-championships/results

None of the Sport Class pilots made goal on Sunday. Their task was a smaller triangle than the task called for the open class. We actually flew with the Sport Class pilots on the second and third leg.

Niki Longshore flew the furthest and Kelly landed three kilometers behind her, six kilometers from goal. I was climbing and flying with him about twelve kilometers from goal and even though he worked two more thermals he couldn't get the Gecko into goal.

Kelley was barely first yesterday with a 6% anti-handicap.

Niki leads overall with Kelly a good ways behind in second.

Fred Kaemerer is now in first place on his ATOS after winning the day on Sunday.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 7 »

September 19, 2015, 10:42:30 pm MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 7

Pedro doesn't make goal

Chris Zimmerman|competition|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Fred Kaemerer|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2015scfr/results

Task 7 (those at goal):

  Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 02:27:52 1000
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:29:23 960
3 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 02:29:23 959
4 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:33:59 882
5 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 02:47:12 858
6 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 03:03:15 803

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 5765
2 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 5692
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 5599
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 4985
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 4908
6 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011) 4780
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 4597
8 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 4562
9 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 4508
10 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 4097

In a surprise victory Jonny Durand won the competition after Pedro led it all week. Pedro was three kilometers short.

Fred Kaemerer won the day and overall in the ATOS class.

Floyd Fronius won the Goat/Superfloater class overall.

In a surprise victory Chris Zimmerman won the day in the Swift class and overall (by 17 points out of 5847), and is the Swift Class National Champion. For the first time in like forever the class was very competitive.

John Maloney won the last day which was worth almost nothing. Zachary Hazen is the overall winner in sport class.

Zac Majors is the Class 1 open national champion.

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 4 »

September 17, 2015, 7:05:28 MST

2015 Santa Cruz Flats Race - day 4

The results

Brian Porter|David Gibson|Dustin Martin|Filippo Oppici|Fred Kaemerer|Greg Kendall|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paul Voight|Ryan Voight|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2015|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time km/h Distance Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 01:51:19 42.7 81.41 986
2 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:51:23 42.7 81.41 969
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 01:51:24 42.6 81.41 960
4 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 01:51:37 42.6 81.41 948
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 01:52:33 42.2 81.41 925
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 01:53:21 41.9 81.41 912
7 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 01:53:17 41.9 81.41 911
8 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:05 42.0 81.41 906
9 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:28 41.9 81.41 895
10 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144     81.01 622
11 Josh Woods Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5     80.74 604
12 Ryan Voight Wills Wing T2C 144 (2011)     76.80 578
13 Greg Kendall Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 03:09:48 25.0 81.41 564

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 154 3175
2 Jonny Durand Moyes Litespeed RS 3.5 3081
3 Kraig Coomber Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2925
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T2C 144 2899
5 Olav Opsanger Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 2869
6 Tyler Borradaile Wills Wing T2C 2764
7 David Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 2711
8 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 2701
9 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 2614
10 Dustin Martin Wills Wing T2C 144 2546

Fred Kaemerer leads Peter Cairns in the ATOS class. Brian Porter has the overall lead in the Swift class. Floyd in the Goat leads in the Goat/Super floater class. The Sport class is not fully scored yet.

Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers »

September 7, 2015, 8:27:25 MDT

Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers

A pilot had qualms

Dinosaur 2015|Terry Reynolds|weather

https://www.rockymountainglider.com/locale.html

WEATHER

(1) While no one would be so foolish as to guarantee the weather for any hang gliding contest, the period scheduled for this meet should yield seven straight days of outstanding flying conditions. The desert area around Dinosaur is not affected by the high mountain weather which makes many mountain sites inconsistent. (2) While a high mountain site could have a solid week of virtually unflyable conditions, it is unlikely that there will be even a single day at Dinosaur on which a safe, valid task cannot be called. (3) During the post-monsoon period of this meet, pilots can expect a weather pattern dominated by high pressure, with light westerly winds aloft and blue thermals/small cumulus. Climbs above 17,000'msl are normal.

The numbers in parentheses and emphasis added.

The pilot writes:

Terry Reynolds and Crew, Jim and Amy Zeiset, and all those vested deeply in Dinosaur 2015 should be applauded and recognized for their enthusiastic and significant effort in putting on such a comp from scratch. Events such as this are a labor of love and demonstrate both a philanthropic and historical support for the sport of hang gliding. They are by nature cash negative.

However, when will event organizers properly recognize the importance of meteorological assessments and strategies? Pursuits which rely upon harvesting energy from atmospheric discontinuities which is both reliable and safe must fully understand the scope and impact of these parameters.

Reading the paragraph about the weather from the Dinosaur 2015 website in advance (see above), and being somewhat familiar with the area, meteorological patterns, and time of year for this event, I bit my lip, sublimated the skepticism, and hoped for the best.

The good (1) and the bad (2), bad (3). Unfortunately my concerns about the conditions proved to be only too well founded. Congratulations to Zippie on another top performance and extending something of a real roll! Congratulations to the organizers for putting on a very special event at a special site. It's unfortunate that the weather didn't run against historic patterns, but it didn't, and that's like crying over spilt milk.

The message: Make sure events, sites, and meet practice synch with meteorological realities. Time is precious, as are the best and well-meaning efforts and lives themselves.

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Dinosaur day 7 cancelled »

September 5, 2015, 1:59:22 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 7 cancelled

Gail force winds force the end of the meet after three days of flying.

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Final:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 962 928 1000 1962
2 Glen McFarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 947 1000 945 1947
3 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 987 916 730 1903
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 935 897 416 1832
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 833 878 374 1711
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 576 969 442 1545
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 880 472 448 1352
8 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 556 102 709 1265
9 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 812 443 380 1255
10 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 266 536 673 1209

Sport class final:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Aeros Discus 844 133 451 1295
2 Beau Buck North Wing Liberty 148 794 107 464 1258
3 Nathan Grimes Wills Wing U2 145 652 272 514 1166
4 Brian Morris Freedom 170 862 220 194 1082
5 Josiah Stephens Predator 142 450 114 468 918
6 Rob DeGroot Moyes Gecko 321 477 265 798
7 John Christian Wills Wing U2 145 613 107 0 720
8 Carlos Alvarado Wills Wing U2 145 363 272 203 635
9 Jon Lindburg Wills Wing Sport 2 135b 319 114 126 445
10 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160 195 0 164 359

Kelley

Jim Yocom was the first of two ATOS pilots.

Dinosaur day 6 cancelled »

September 4, 2015, 2:00:05 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 6 cancelled

Forecast for unpleasant conditions

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

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Dinosaur - today's forecast »

Fri, Sep 4 2015, 8:17:14 am MDT

30 mph gusts again forecast

Dinosaur 2015

Forecast here:

Isolated showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Breezy, with a southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS AFTERNOON…WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FORMING OVER THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE AREA. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

Forecast for Saturday:

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 5 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

Forecast by Rich Jesuroga. Tomorrow looks worse.

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Dinosaur day 5 cancelled »

September 3, 2015, 1:59:48 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 5 cancelled

Windy with gusts to 30 mph

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

This Afternoon: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Glen sends:

And reports 30 mph gusts just as forecast. I wonder if there is anything to do in Dinosaur, Colorado.

From the cancelled day:

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Dinosaur - Hazardous weather forecasted »

Thu, Sep 3 2015, 9:44:04 am MDT

Thunderstorms for the Yampa

Dinosaur 2015

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS MORNING AND SPREAD SLOWLY NORTH DURING THE DAY BEFORE DIMINISHING THIS EVENING. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

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Dinosaur - Thank goodness for the Sport Class »

Thu, Sep 3 2015, 9:29:20 am MDT

So few open class pilots

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/pilots

There are only eighteen open class pilots flying in the Dinosaur competition. But, fortunately there are eleven sport class pilots and two rigid wing pilots. This with a competition that promised in advance $15,000 in prize money and had lower costs because there was no need for towing.

Without the sport class this would be a very poorly attended competition. It is also a warning flag to future meet organizers that they should be careful about how many pilots might want to come to their competition and how carefully they should encourage sport class pilots.

It wasn't that long ago that there weren't any sport class competitions in the US. We have worked hard to turn that around despite lots of discouragement from old fart pilots who felt that this was a travesty. It has turned out to be very favorable to competitions and has been a whole lot of fun.

It's great to see such enthusiasm from these newer pilots and the fast learning that is taking place.

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Dinosaur - day 4 »

Wed, Sep 2 2015, 10:37:51 pm MDT

The results

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Dist.
Points
Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:59:35 115.67 717.5 49.4 197.8 35.3 1000
2 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 02:04:37 115.67 717.5 42.8 167.6 16.6 945
3 Dave Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:32 115.67 717.5 7.5 8.8 734
4 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 107.93 688.0 41.6 730
5 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 112.99 709.2 709
6 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 105.07 672.8 673
7 Cory Barnwell Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 56.85 480.2 480
8 Aaron Rinn Wills Wing T2C 144 53.12 464.5 465
9 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 51.86 457.9 458
10 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 50.24 447.5 448

I'm quite certain that Christian was happier to get his leading points than not.

Cumulative (well here's a little different outcome):

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 962 928 1000 1962
2 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 947 1000 945 1947
3 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 987 916 730 1903
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 935 897 416 1832
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 833 878 374 1711
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 576 969 442 1545
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 880 472 448 1352
8 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 556 102 709 1265
9 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 812 443 380 1255
10 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 266 536 673 1209

Only the best two scores are used. Clearly, so far, Zac and Glen are disadvantaged by this elimination of the worst day (perhaps they'll have bad days later), while everyone else was advantaged, especially Christian.

Four sport class pilots made goal. Kelly Myrkle is in the overall lead.

Dinosaur - day 4 »

Wed, Sep 2 2015, 4:32:36 pm MDT

Zac tasks wins task 3

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook

https://airtribune.com/play/995/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_4

Zac in first, Glen second, Christian lands 9 km short. No one else in goal.

Dave Gibson makes it in later in third:

Nice looking sky. Thanks to Glen for his on the spot (goal) reports.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 11:06:19 pm MDT

Just like the good old days

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo

Jonny Durand «Jonny Durand» writes:

If you want to know why I was not in goal today it was because I was in front and at the last turnpoint I went to land because there was lightning and rain on course. Glen reports he flew through hail to make goal and win the day. I did the safe thing and turned around and landed away from the storm.

Every day of the 1990 Nationals at Dinosaur was like this. We didn't know any better then.

Good for Jonny making the safe decision. There is a reason I'm not flying at Dinosaur.

Photo from the first task.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 10:59:34 pm MDT

The results

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 01:52:45 85.1 340.5 60.8 1000
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:09 78.2 330.7 46.0 969
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:55:55 78.2 301.7 34.5 928
4 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:56:22 78.5 298.1 26.0 916
5 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 01:57:21 72.5 290.7 20.1 897
6 Josh Woods Moyes RX3.5 01:58:15 66.5 284.4 16.1 881
7 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 01:59:14 72.4 277.9 13.8 878
8 Pete Lehman Wills Wing Sport 2-155 03:11:37 9.4 12.6 536

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 1946
2 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 1902
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1889
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 1831
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 1708
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 1537
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 1350
8 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 1251
9 Pedro Montes Aeros Combat GT 15 1143
10 Josh Woods Moyes RX3.5 1119

Rob DeGroot was the only sport class pilot to make goal on a Moyes Gecko.

Brian Morris on a North Wing Freedom 170 (single surface) is in first place over all with Kelley Myrkle on an Aeros Discus right behind him. There is a handicap.

Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 5:57:20 pm MDT

Rudy second, Zac third, Christian, fourth, only seven in goal

Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

Jonny Durand, not in goal.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 5:01:53 pm MDT

Glen wins task 2

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 12:46:34 pm MDT

Watch live tracking

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Dinosaur - day 2 »

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 9:53:41 pm MDT

Christian 40 seconds ahead

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:39:40 81.3 354.9 63.4 986
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:20 86.0 340.0 46.0 959
3 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:22 82.4 339.5 33.2 942
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:35 82.1 336.5 24.2 929
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 01:47:25 88.7 278.3 18.4 872
6 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 01:51:11 66.5 255.2 15.0 823
7 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 01:52:55 57.7 245.4 13.3 803

Notice that Arrival Position and Time points (the difference between the values given) are way more important than Leading points (where the differences are very small among the top five pilots).

Sport class: Most pilots not scored yet.

Dinosaur - day 2 »

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 5:13:26 pm MDT

Zac and Glen first into goal

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/play/975/2d

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Dinosaur - day 1 cancelled »

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 3:20:56 pm MDT

Over development - just like in the old days there.

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_1

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 29, 2015, 7:06:04 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Dinosaur 2015 (see http://rockymountainglider.com) is a maximum NTSS points (600) meet (+$10,000 prize money). Also, at least fourteen Sport Class ($5000 prize money) pilots have signed up and more to come. Entry fee goes up August 1. Pilots registering and paying before then get an embroidered fleece jacket instead of a t-shirt. So far all entrants are foot launching, so too bad we built Dinosaur International.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 16, 2015, 8:00:22 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

150 million years of soaring

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 ( http://rockymountainglider.com ) goes up to $425 August 1.

As anyone who has been part of organizing a hang gliding comp could tell you, it would be much easier and better for all concerned if competitors were able to plan ahead and pay the earlier, lower prices ($300 for Dinosaur.) For pilots registered and paid before August 1, the “T-Shirt Size” requested on the pilot registration form is actually for a nice fleece jacket (or vest, as shown) with “Dinosaur 2015; 150 Million Years of Soaring” embroidered around a pterodactyl and hang glider. Entrants paid after that date - we have to place the order - will get a t-shirt. Extra jackets for family, crew, etc. can be ordered by paid up pilots, before August 1, for $55.

The event is non-profit and any money left over will go to the Cloudbase Foundation.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

June 25, 2015, 5:15:33 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up July 1 to $400.

The comp was conceived last year to boost hang gliding through competition by providing a major foot launch meet in a proven location. (Although designed primarily as a footlaunch event, we built a runway just for this comp for those who prefer to aerotow.) While aerotow contests have evolved and been refined to a fine art, particularly through the work of Davis Straub and Jamie Shelden, large footlaunch comps in the U.S. seem to be a thing of the past.

Dinosaur 2015 aims to:

1) To attract the world’s top pilots - the World Champion and the U.S. Champion are coming;
2) To bring back former regular competitors - “The Jeffs,” among others, are coming;
3) To build on the well thought out efforts to encourage the Sport Class.

Most of the Sport Class pilots signed up thus far have never flown in either class of a major comp. Nothing changes the fact that only the individual pilot can determine what is safe or not for that individual pilot. That said, we are making special efforts to encourage and cater to Sport Class:

1) Ryan Voight, USHPA Instructor of the Year and experienced big air pilot, will teach a free clinic, including video critique of launches, onsite Friday and Saturday before the contest starts Sunday;
2) Sport Class competitors will drop their two low score days - bomb out or choose not to fly and you’re still in the comp!;
3) Jim Zeiset has pledged $5,000 prize money (split $3K, $1500, $500) to the class.

To register, and to see the answers to more questions than you thought to ask, please go to http://rockymountainglider.com.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

May 26, 2015, 8:27:04 EDT

Dinosaur 2015

Entry fee rises soon

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Reminder, the entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up June 1. Please see http://rockymountainglider.com for more information and to register. Contact us at <rockymountainglider> with any questions, to volunteer, etc.

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Dinosaur fees to rise

March 30, 2015, 3:09:16 pm EDT

Dinosaur fees to rise

March 31st.

Dinosaur 2015

Terry writes:

March 31 is the last day for the Dinosaur 2015 early entry fee. Go to http://www.rockymountainglider.com/registration-fees.html to fill out your Pilot Entry Form and pay before the entry fee goes up!

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2015 Dinosaur »

March 16, 2015, 9:01:12 EDT

2015 Dinosaur

Registration is open

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Registration is now open for Dinosaur 2015. Open ($10,000 First Prize), Sport ($5,000 prize money) and rigid classes. August 30 - September 5. Dinosaur, Colorado. Please see http://RockyMountainGlider.com for complete information.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

December 4, 2014, 8:51:59 CST

Dinosaur 2015

Terry is up and going for it

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Tim Collard, longtime Colorado tow pilot, stood in for me with the Mayor of Dinosaur and a local rancher/county road grader artist building the new hang glider towing runway (1800' x 75') just east of town. While Dinosaur 2015 is being organized primarily as a foot launch contest, we want to provide an alternative for pilots who prefer to tow. The runway is within the same 10k start circle as the foot launches and a 2000' tow puts the pilot at the same altitude.

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/

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Dinosaur 2015 goes topless

September 17, 2014, 6:37:26 MST

Dinosaur 2015

No longer restricted to kingpost only

Dinosaur 2015

http://www.rockymountainglider.com

August 30 - September 5, 2015

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 4, 2014, 7:08:31 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

$5,000 prize money for sport class

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

Terry<<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Jim Zeiset just kicked in another $5,000, designated for Sports Class prize money. This will be escrowed as will the $10,000 from us.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

June 23, 2014, 7:44:53 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

King posted only - open and sport

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

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A-I-R USA

Thu, Feb 14 2013, 8:23:19 am PST

New owners

Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Fred Kaemerer|James Lamb

James Lamb «James Lamb» writes:

I have transitioned AIR USA to Fred Kaemerer & BJ Herring. There’s an update to my website with some info available. I’m very confident in their ability to do the business of AIR USA in a very credible, capable manner. They’re very excited, have lots of new energy and ideas, and new gliders on the way including the new VR190 and the new VR-S!

http://www.a-i-r-usa.com/

http://www.a-i-r.de/ger/air_02.php?kat=118&par=0&gp=2

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http://www.a-i-r.de/ger/air_02.php?kat=118&par=0&gp=2

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Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2008 »

October 24, 2008, 7:28:29 PDT

Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2008

The whole story with pictures and videos

Dave Giles|Dave Hopkins|Dennis Pagen|Fred Kaemerer|James Stinnett|Jim Lamb|Kevin Carter|Kraig Coomber|Lucas Ridley|Mark Stump|Mike Barber|Oliver Gregory|photo|Steve Kroop|Steve Prater|video|weather

Lucas Ridley and oliver gregory «olliettt1955» writes:

I thought we'd never beat the fantastic soaring weather and the great line up of speakers we had for Team Challenge 2007, but we did. BY A LOT!

We stayed at Henson's every day. Only Wednesday was called due to high winds, but high wind aficionados flew for fun. Every day was soarable and good for XC for those with solid thermal soaring skills. Camping was so pleasant! It never felt too hot. Fall is wonderful in Tennessee Tree Toppers land!

We had fine meals on site made by Tennessee Tree Toppers volunteers. Aldonna had breakfast ready for us right on site every morning. The dinners for affordable donations were a big hit. I'm hungry for some of Jeff's cooking now! Jeff Wilson fed us like kings and queens. Dinner menus included ribeye steaks, pork butt, chicken and gourmet burgers and fantastic sides.

I can't say enough about the Tennessee Tree Toppers volunteers. The place looked great. The hand outs were excellent. The launch crew was top notch. We had excellent help all week! Tennessee Tree Toppers supporters were very creative this year. We had homemade Tennessee Tree Toppers soap, cologne, stickers, magnets, gift boxes, Tennessee Tree Toppers license plates and cards for sale to help with fund raising for our Whitwell LZ Field of Dreams project.

I want to thank those industry supporters who contributed items to award to our pilots. Steve Kroop of Flytec USA, Wills Wing, Kraig Coomber of Moyes USA, LMFP all helped out with great hang gliding bling. And, of course, we want to thank you, Davis, for getting the word out on the Oz Report!

We went high tech this year with video and Power Point presentations! Every evening and all day on the windy day we enjoyed great seminars. Our great A pilots were helping out in every way possible. Mark Stump led the Arkansas Air Hogs and did his hilariously funny talk on assessing the air and one's personal skills in the context of the micro meteorology of the day. Mike Barber became our most professional wind technician, did several excellent talks ranging from XC decision making, to landing video clinics and safe flying. Boy, Mike pulled us this year! Thanks Mike!

Hang gliding author, Dennis Pagen led a team, led a wonderfully effective video launch technique seminar where every launch was analyzed. Dennis promotes the prolonged grape vine launch technique and it works great. My launch technique certainly improved due to this unique seminar. Dennis also did a great "Scratching" seminar for soaring in light lift.

Jim Lamb led the Ohio Flyers to second place, did a fantastic "Soaring 101" that explained polars, thermal soaring efficiently and using the MacCready function correctly. For a lot of the C's, this talk was a little over their heads, but all the A's and B's were nodding and smiling enthusiastically as Jim made points we put to use the next day.

Terry Presley substituted for an absent A pilot, pulled a C to goal, made goal himself so the team scored big that day! (They won overall!) Terry also did a seminar on "XC Landing Field Assessment." We learned to read the terrain, look for hazards and set up good approaches over unfamiliar fields. His seminar also included short field landing techniques. I didn't hear of anyone needing to use the short field techniques, because the Sequatchie has so many big fields, but the guys were ready. Kevin Carter led a team and gave a great "Gettin' Ready to Race" seminar addressing the unique skills needed to move up to XC racing.

We followed the format set a couple years back. We called conservative tasks for C's, B's and challenging tasks for A's. The scoring system is designed to heavily handicap A pilots on super ships, but our A's were so good, they were scoring more than the C's who made their goals. C's who were making shorter goals got big multipliers of their milages. In the spirit of Team Challenge, we made a big adjustment mid week. The adjustment resulted in all pilots at every level getting a score of 100 when they made their goal. We made this scoring format retroactive to the first day. The handicaps were simply accomplished by the progressively tougher tasks for the 3 classes. A's still got bonuses for "really, really" helping their C's make goal. This put the scoring emphasis back on the C's and turned the scores around and away from teams loaded with A's. At any other comp, fist fights would have broken out, but everyone at Team Challenge welcomed the adjustment which rewarded the C's for their flights.

Courses always overlapped so the A's could help their team mates make their shorter goals before the A's took off for their more challenging task. We usually did race track or out and back, and repeat tasks so the A's could stay with their team and help the less experienced pilots. A good example is the last task. We called a C pilot goal to Galloway Airport 5 miles into the valley on a light wind day. B pilot task was to fly to Galloway and back to Henson's LZ for a about 9.5 miles. The A pilot task was fly to Galloway, back to Henson's, back to Galloway and back to Henson's to land for a task of almost 20 miles.

This format keeps the A pilots flying with or overlapping their team and allows the A pilots to get a section of their task done while their C's and B's made the shorter goals or missed it the first time. We allowed as many reflights as possible as long as the landing was in one of the designated LZ's. Actually all relights got bonus reflight points.

This is what happened to me on the last day. I love my Pale Glider Team, but they had a tough last day. I launched right with most of my C pilot buddies but they all missed the light thermals and landed. I got up and ran the first lap with my free flying buddy James Stinnett. When I got back to Henson's after lap one, I waited around in yo yo mode till my team set up again to re-fly.

I spiraled down to take off height when they got close to the front of the launch line. This allowed me to fly with them a second time. I helped as much as possible, as did one of my VR flying friends David Giles. I know it was kinda cheating to have Dave on his VR space ship spiraling down with me to get below launch and help out, but that day, my guys needed all the help they could get!

We did everything but throw 'em a rope! Unfortunately, the guys still didn't get their climb tickets punched, so I ran the second lap of the task with my friend Dave. Lots of fun, but it would have been even sweeter if we'd pulled some of the boys out to their goal.

This meet was all about the C's and B's. I want to thank all the A pilots who spent the week working with their less experienced team mates. I'm happy to say that all 4 of my C pilots made their XC goals at least once this week. I believe all of my guys had their longest XC flights this week! It was clear all 52 competitors had a blast and many pilots had personal bests this meet.

Here's how the teams ended up after a 6 days of Team Challenge flying:

In Tenth place were Team Mountaineers with A pilots Will Jenkins on a topless, A Jim Rowan on a double surface. A pilot Patrick Brooks on a double surface. A pilot Patrick Brooks on a double surface, A pilot Pat Halfill on a double surface, A pilot John McAllister on a topless.

In Ninth place were the Arkansas Air Hogs. They had 6 and flew 5 a day. They were loaded with A+ pilot and my best old flying buddy Mark Stump on a VQ, A pilot Barron McKinley on an ATOS C, B pilot Walter Jordan on a double surface, B pilot Butch Pritchett on a topless, C pilot Steve Prater on a double surface, and my old buddy Miller Stroud making his comeback to hang gliding on an ancient wing, the Manta Fledge IIB! The last time I flew with Miller, I was on one too! On that last day, Dave Giles and I were spiraling down to get with my C's when Miller launched. I asked Dave if he'd ever seen one of those funny looking wings before. Dave said, "Maybe in a museum!"

In Eighth place were The Leftovers with A+ pilot Bruce Engen on a VX, B pilot Kinsley Sykes on a topless, C pilot Jonathan Small on a double surface, C pilot Rodger Tubbs on a double surface, and C pilot Kevin Sheridan on a double surface.

In Seventh place were Team Colorado with A pilot Jeff Laughery on a topless, B pilot Fred Kaemerer on a double surface, B pilot Shawn Banks on a double surface, B pilot John Wilber on a double surface and C pilot Rick Maddy on a double surface.

In Sixth place were my boys! The Pale Gliders had 6 and flew 5 a day. Our team was full of talent with C pilots Colin Hodson on a double surface, Jake Mitchell on a double surface, Jeff Bozart on a double surface and Ricker "The Ringer" Goldsborough on a double surface. My old buddy A pilot Larry Snyder flew in from Seattle WA, rented a Sport 2 from Lookout and had a blast. I was on The Pale Glider VR and am ranked A+. We had a so much FUN!!!

In Fifth place were Team B'Low Me Again with A+ team leader Dennis Pagen on a topless, A pilot Stephen Krichen on a topless, B pilot Jesse Fulkersin on a Topless, C pilot Donald Campasino on a double surface, and C pilot Edward Jowett on a double surface.

In Fourth place were The Comp Concepts with A++ pilot Kevin Carter leading, B pilot Jeff Nibler on a double surface, B pilot Bryon Estes on a topless, B pilot Peter Kane on a topless, and C pilot William Estes on a double surface.

In Third place were The E Team with A+ pilot Dave Hopkins on an ATOS B with a tail and modified spoilers, A pilot Stan Roberts on a Phantom, B pilot Lindsey Chew on a double surface, C pilot James Donovan on a double surface, and C pilot Gavin Riley on a double surface.

In Second place, was Team Ohio led by "The Man" Jim Lamb A++ on an ATOS VQ that my old buddy Miller took home with him after the dust settled. The rest of the Ohio boys are C pilot Terry Mull n a double surface, C pilot Mark Thogmartin on a double surface, C pilot Christopher Thale on a double surface, and B pilot Crain Hassen on a double surface

Winning it all, a team with some local boys leading was Team Thermal Underware. The Underwares were made up of A pilot Eric Donaldson on a WW T2, A pilot Lucas Ridley on a Litespeed S, C pilot William Baker on a double surface, B pilot Keith Smith on a U2, and Bob Belshan on a double surface.

I can't wait to do it again next year. Team Challenge is evolving in a very interesting and healthy way. Just don't miss it next year! The winning Thermal Underwear team was led by super duper A's Eric Donaldson and Lucas Ridley. They were the coolest team leaders beyond a doubt! Here's the story of the Thermal Underware A leader and prototype Team Challenge pilot Lucas Ridley. Thanks Lucas for all the help with the write up! In Lucas' words:

My Team Challenge history begins one year ago, the day before the meet started was the first day I thermal soared! I went into that meet a new H3 with only ridge soaring under my belt. Now, a year later, I am a leading a team with Eric Donaldson. Because of that one week of flying a year ago I was propelled into another dimension of hang gliding that would have taken much longer to find on my own, if at all. After Team Challenge 2007, I flew all winter and spring and got up the nerve up to go to the East Coast Championships. I was hooked! Only two months later I went to the Big Spring Championship. All this within less than a year of Team Challenge.

I credit Tennessee Tree Toppers's incredible meet with motivating me to fly a lot and teaching me cross country skills. Otherwise, I think I would have puttered around my home site for another year or two before I built up the courage to venture out.

Encouragement is where Team Challenge really excels. Team Challenge like meets can do a lot for our sport by creating opportunities for those pilots in H2 purgatory who have not had a formal introduction to cross country flying or competition to try it out in a welcoming environment. Heck, Kevin Carter's first competition was a Team Challenge and he went on to be a World team member and comes back to help give seminars and lead his own teams. Ollie's H2 driver even learned a lot just from listening to the seminars and the radio each day and plans to come back next year on a team.

I have new respect for what A-pilots do and what Mike Barber does all the time when helping out lower air time pilots. It adds a new dynamic to not only try to make your goal, but fly as a team and help others along. Many times that required spiraling down to be at the same level with those you were trying to help and sacrificing altitude that you've struggled to achieve.

One of the best video seminars featured Dennis Pagen critiquing everyone's  launch! Not to say you can't pop your nose with the grapevine grip, but the worst launches I witnessed were using the bottle grip. I think everyone took something away from the talk, and here are a few example pictures of what we saw:

The first and second photo sets show how easy it is to pop your nose with the bottle grip where the only contact with the glider is through the hands, not the shoulders. The next two photos show what most people did at the meet: start with grapevine and transition to the bottle grip during the launch sequence. Dennis called this transition 'unnecessary' and felt it still allows for an opportunity to pop the nose. Bottle vs. Grapevine:

The last two sets of photos show holding the grapevine grip throughout the launch sequence by allowing the hands to slide down the downtubes as the glider begins to lift above the pilot. The shoulders lock the glider to the pilots body as it continues to lift, enabling three axis control during the entire launch sequence.

That is just one example from the many great seminars that were given by the pro's that came out to volunteer their knowledge, many thanks to them! I hope to go to more competitions in the future and it all started at Team Challenge where I continued to learn so much this year. I would encourage all H2's to try to get their H3 by next Team Challenge so you can get signed up early. It filled up early this year, and I anticipate it filling up even sooner this coming year. See you there! Lucas Ridley

Below are some of the comments made on our club email list after the event and links to videos from the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AXAYoENhlQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9LsxxNiEu4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLgg_5OLpLw

There is a loss for words on how to express my deepest appreciation for all who contributed to this years team challenge. I am blessed to know that there is NO where else in the world that you can go to learn at this level from the best pilots ever. (This is history in the making)

The level of knowledge at this event was unprecedented. We had the top pilots there to teach us what they know. It is one thing to be a great pilot and another to have the ability and willingness to teach others. The best pilots in the world were there and ALL of them knew how to share their knowledge with passion and a genuine loving spirit.

I THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO GENEROUS WITH YOUR SHARING AND TEACHING. The knowledge base was HUGE! Even our drivers were amazed in what they learned.

Ollie, I have to give you thanks for keeping a tight hold on the leash. Even when you are stressed out you have a rather calming nature about you. You are truly blessed with many positive personality traits that I hope to obtain in the years to come.

Congratulations Bill for clenching the "C" pilot Rookie of the Year award. You truly earned it.

I will see you all next year.

2006 Colorado Fall Hang Gliding to Sammy Hagar

October 16, 2008, 12:07:08 pm PDT

2006 Colorado Fall Hang Gliding to Sammy Hagar

See who is listening

Colorado Fall HG to Sammy Hagar 2006|Fred Kaemerer|video

Fred Kaemerer «fred_kaemerer» sends a copy of this email from YouTube:

Your video "2006 Colorado Fall Hang Gliding to Sammy Hagar" has been identified by YouTube's Content Identification program as containing copyrighted content which UMG claims is theirs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVJLaoTwDgs

Your video "2006 Colorado Fall Hang Gliding to Sammy Hagar" is still available because UMG does not object to this content appearing on YouTube at this time. As long as UMG has a claim on your video, they will receive public statistics about your video, such as number of views. Viewers may also see advertising on your video's page.

The Hang Gliding Channel

August 4, 2007, 8:04:57 CDT

Channel

One million viewers on YouTube

Fred Kaemerer|video

http://www.youtube.com/hanggliding

Fred Kaemerer «fred_kaemerer» writes:

Late last year I created a hang gliding channel on Youtube and today the channel celebrated it's 1,000,000th visitor! I was surprised that it started racking up hits so quickly. Then I scrolled down to the bottom of the web page and started reading the comments.

It seems that some poor spellers are using Google to search for Youtube. They leave off the 'e' and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button. Google then immediately directs them to the hang gliding Youtube website! Who can guess why - or how this got started, but it's hilarious! Just go to Google, type Youtub, and hit "I'm feeling lucky".

Scroll down to the bottom of the channel and read the comments, they're great.

I'm thinking that I should sell advertising on the main video. Perhaps an ad for these guys.... http://www.learntospell.net/!!

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The old Tin Cup »

Fri, Feb 27 2004, 3:00:00 pm EST

In depth articles and series on current issues - software and the validation of IGC files, for example.

Chris Cioffi|Fred Kaemerer|Henry Bittner|Jules Gilpatrick|Tyson Richmond|Vincene Muller

Scroll down to near the bottom of this issue to see how to support the Oz Report or click here.

Thanks to: Bob McGowan, Henry Bittner, the very generous Hancock Simon, Antonio Sequeira from Portugal, Mike Foy, Dick Vobroucek, Tyson Richmond, Ed Horton, Vincene Muller, the very generous Jules Gilpatrick, Fred Kaemerer, Chris Cioffi

In this issue I cover the software that works with your GPSes to provide IGC formatted files for the on-line contest. There are a few problems with some of this software especially when working with the Brauniger Compeo and Flytec 5030 (although this doesn't effect competitions and can be worked around for the on-line competition).

I have been working on this issue ever since I discovered it inadvertently at the Australian competitions. Since then I have been getting deeper and deeper into it and I will have more to report on the issue in later issues of the Oz Report.

There is a real story here and I feel great about the opportunity to follow up on it and get the situation improved for pilots as well as give them current information that they can use while there are still problems.

I don't see any other publications engaged in this kind of sleuthing. It sure seems necessary to me when I see these kinds of problems.

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My Jet powered projects

Mon, May 5 2003, 2:00:08 pm EDT

Fred Kaemerer|powered

http://www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/

Kaemerer, Fred <Fred.Kaemerer@ps.net> writes:

A jet powered HG/UL. Look at how a Kiwi has improved on the original idea!

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Discuss "My Jet powered projects" at the Oz Report forum   link»