Oz Report

The top flights

James Stinnett|PG|record|Tennessee Tree Toppers

From TTT:

TTT Flight of the Year 2020

The TTT awards jury was made aware of four outstanding flights for consideration of TTT Flight of the Year 2020.

James Stinnett - May 30, 2020 from Henson Gap to Albertville, AL.

We all know James has many years of hang-gliding experience from many competitions. James made the switch to paragliding around four years ago and has about 225 hours on paragliders. He flew a high B wing for this record flight.

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2551593

https://usaparaglidingdistancerecords.com/

Cory Barnwell - May 30, 2020 from Henson Gap to Albertville, AL.

We think many are aware of his h4 resume and competition experience.

https://ayvri.com/scene/49j7d3lzje/ckbf5fo5c00013c6fhl57b7va

https://www.xcontest.org/2020/world/en/flights/detail:haddieman/13.06.2020/17:55

Ivan Manasiev - May 30, 2020 from Henson Gap to Scottsboro, AL.

Ivan was a P2 at the time of his flight. The flight was very similar to JC Goodwin’s. We currently do not have the track log, but will publish if able to obtain.

JC Goodwin - June 13, 2020 from Henson Gap to the Scottsboro, AL High School.

JC was a P3 with about 140 hours on PGs at the time of his flight. JC had flown hang gliders for about 7 years and went bi-wingual 4 years ago. This flight was JC’s personal best by over 25 miles.

https://www.xcontest.org/2020/world/en/flights/detail:Uajc/13.6.2020/18:48

https://ayvri.com/scene/nxkwg9lw58/ckg4lk8qb00013b684g39xt1p

Below are the jury’s findings:

James Stinnett had the longest flight, which is also now a TN state PG record. James also had a number of low saves along his route, where others were able to stay high along their route. There seemed to be no significantly more interesting or more impressive factors to outweigh James’ flight. And, it’s pretty hard to discount the State Record.

James Stinnett is awarded “TTT Flight of the Year”.

Cory Barnwell is recognized for “TTT Flight of the Year – Runner Up”

Honorable mention: JC Goodwin and Ivan Manasiev for similar PG flights, both to Scottsboro, AL. Both were about 30 miles shorter than James, by PG pilots with less experience.

Discuss "Tennessee Flying" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The Tennessee Paragliding Record

92.5 miles

James Stinnett|PG|record|Tennessee Tree Toppers

James Stinnett|PG|record|Steve Lee|Tennessee Tree Toppers

James Stinnett writes:

I launched fairly early from the awesome new TTT Burnside paraglider launch around 11:30 local time and almost sank out right away in a flush cycle.  However, I managed to find a climb and dribble along to the south on various mediocre thermals hoping for clouds.  The great cloud street was just too far to the east on the heavily treed plateau for my liking so I continued on right over the edge of the ridge and crossed the deep river canyon at the safest, spot.

Not too much drama other than one particularly fortunate low save at around the 30 mile mark.  And once I got up here I was better able to move east and line up on the clouds and fields since this area of the plateau has a lot of treed stretches on the western side.

Things were going along slow but climbs were within reasonable glides. When I was around the 50 mile mark I saw a white leading edge of a hang glider coming towards me.  It was Cory and he was about 3 nice clouds back.  It had really turned on behind me and he caught me around what I remember was the 60 mile mark.

We flew together for several miles and then he glided off.  I was able to keep him in sight for all but one 20 minute period when he pushed west.  As I was decently high and gliding towards what was to be my last attempt at a climb in the dying day, I saw Cory lower and behind me turning in something.  He was out of reach and not worth going for.  My climb was not to be either and so I glided across the western side of Boaz for a nice landing.

The final result was a new Tennessee PG record of 92.5 miles (148.86 km) on an Ozone Swift 4 beating Steve Larsen's previous record of 74.1 miles (119.2km).  XContest has the measurement further but wrong as they don't appear to use true point to point measurements which I calculated using Google Earth. 

I was in the air for 5 hours 45 minutes of pretty sweet air. Slow but fun. Cory came away with a kingpost record of 89.5 miles. He beat Steve Lee's really old kingpost record by 1 mile. Nice job Cory.

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Flying out of Tennessee

To Alabama

Facebook|James Stinnett|PG

https://www.facebook.com/cory.barnwell/posts/10102063559008528

https://ayvri.com/scene/49j7d3lzje/ckbf5fo5c00013c6fhl57b7va

Had a great flight from Henson's on the 13^th. 89.5 miles to Albertville, Alabama. It was an epic day with climbs over 8200 feet. It was absolutely incredible. Flew with James Stinnett who was on a paraglider and made it over 92 miles.

Discuss "Flying out of Tennessee" at the Oz Report forum   link»

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

Big Spring 2008

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

Task 2, 2008-08-03, rigid

I completed 120 pages of documents just for the insurance part of the competitions that we have organized

CIVL|Larry Bunner|Midwest Championships 2017|video|weather

And we are forever grateful to be able to follow the original work done by Larry Bunner for the Midwest 2017 competition. Here is the required bid information for a Category 1 competition. You have until September 1^st to fill this out and submit your bid.:

https://www.fai.org/document-compression/24747

• The following information must be provided in support of your bid.
• A bid will be refused if some of the information is missing.
• This template has to be followed: same items in the same order.
• Additional information of the bidder’s choice may also be included at the end of the bid (see point 35)

• This document will form part of the FAI Organiser Agreement. It is binding. Key information (like the entry fee) cannot be changed later without CIVL Bureau and Plenary consent.
• Documentation required in support of the bid is noted in Annexe B.
• Outline of the budget must follow the template as per Annexe C.

…

See FAI document: Naming FAI Competitions available at: http://www.fai.org/fai-documents under Organising an Event.

…

…

…

State here which competition allows you to bid.

To be eligible, the NAC making the bid shall, as a minimum, have held a national championship or FAI Category 2 competition with a minimum entry of 50 pilots for Cross Country events or 30 pilots for Accuracy and Aerobatics events, on the proposed site(s) within the four years before the bid is received.

…

Party designated in the Organiser Agreement who will have contractual responsibility for organising the event, and will sign the Organiser Agreement.

The party has written approval and endorsement of the holder of the Sporting Powers (see point 6).

…

Party having the sporting power in your country.

• It can be the National Airsport Control (NAC).
• It can be another entity (a federation for instance) to which the NAC has delegated its sporting powers. If this is the case, a letter of information has to be sent by the entity to the NAC.

The Sporting Power will also have to sign the Organiser Agreement

• Free and official training days.
• Registration.
• Mandatory Safety Briefing.
• Opening ceremony.
• Mandatory training task.
• Championship flying days.
• Closing ceremony.

Include brief note on qualifications, experience, languages, etc.

For all events:

• Organisation/Event Director.
• Meet Director.
• Safety Director.
• Meteorologist.
• Launch (or drop) Marshal.

For Cross Country:

• Scorer.
• Live Tracking Manager.
• Goal Marshal.

• At the time of the bid, the CIVL Coordinator will be the CIVL President or the appropriate Committee Chairperson. If the bid is accepted, the Coordinator will be the CIVL Steward as soon as he is appointed.
• In Accuracy, the Chief Judge and Event Judges will be appointed by CIVL in consultation with the LOC. The Chief Judge will then appoint other Judges in consultation with the LOC. All Judges should be the same at the test event and at the event.
• In Aerobatic, the Chief Judge will be appointed by CIVL in consultation with the LOC. The Chief Judge will then appoint other Judges in consultation with the LOC. All Judges should be the same at the test event and at the event.
• The CIVL Jurors will be appointed in due time by the CIVL Bureau.

Specify the maximum number of pilots allowed overall.

You may want to justify this number in relation to the site and flying conditions.

Reminder:

The maximum number of pilots per nation and the team size will be defined in the championship Local Regulation, which is subject to CIVL approval.

Define the Entry Fee for the Championship:

• For Pilots.
• For Teams Leaders and Assistants.
• What is included in Entry Fee.

Reminder: See Section 7 Common 5.1.2 for the minimum expected to be included in the Entry Fee.

Define what will be optional or subject to additional charges, such as tow fees, retrieve, lunch packs, equipment hire, etc.

• Dates of Test Event.
• Pilot qualifications (open selection or specific criteria if any).
• Entry fee for Pilots, Teams Leaders and Assistants.
• What is included in Entry Fee. (see 11. above)

Reminder:

See Section 7 Common 2.4.5 and 12.1.1 for general requirements.

See Section 7 Common 12.3.1 for the minimum International Participation required.

Add general comments on suitability of sites for proposed event, competition history, accessibility, availability, permission for use.

For each site, list:

• Take-off direction(s).
• Height above valley.
• Configuration, surface, size of take-offs and rigging/preparation areas.
• Number of ramps.
• Hazards (cables, pylons, trees, etc.).
• Facilities (car park, shelter/shade, water, refreshments, toilets, etc.). 

For winch/aero tow sites:

• Airfield details, size, wind directions, facilities, etc.

For Accuracy:

• Height difference between take off and target area.

For Aerobatic:

• Height above water when reaching the flying ‘box’.

• Road access: for cars or only 4-wheel drive vehicles or organisers trucks?
• Cable car or mountain railway to take-off area?
• Parking available part way up?
• Organiser transport arrangements to sites.

For Accuracy and Aerobatic:

• Shuttle time from the landing area to take-off area.

• Type and suitability of terrain.
• Unlandable and built up areas difficult to avoid.
• Suitable goal landing fields and height AMSL.
• Suitable ‘bomb-out’ .
• Local road quality for retrieves, road traffic problems.
• Any prohibited flying or landing areas.
• Include a map or a link to an online map showing airspace, turnpoints, major features, typical tasks (see Annexe A).

For Accuracy and Aerobatics:

• Target location and specificities.

• Free to what height above take-off and task flying areas?
• What limitations? Restricted/prohibited areas?
• What permission or exclusions required? How likely to be granted?
• Frontier crossing arrangements?

• Details of any sites prone to low clouds, possibility of wave or foehn, best time of day for thermal upslope, possibility of residual lift late in the afternoon, known turbulence areas.
• Weather data and type of conditions to expect during the period selected for the event.
• Recommended maximum wind speed: on launch and for task flying.

• What arrangements will be in place for daily forecasts during the event and the relevant experience of the forecaster.
• Details of satellite weather monitoring, most reliable web resources for forecasts, automatic wind station monitoring, webcams, etc.

• Details of transport provided to launch, organisation vehicles, vehicles to be provided by competi­tors, etc.
• How retrieve/check-in will be organised.

In general:

• Local meteorological conditions (areas of rotor, strong valley winds, etc.) or local terrain features (pylons). 
• Task setting/task style/scoring ideas to compensate.
• Comments on pilot qualifications/skill levels required.
• Details of any fatalities or serious accidents on the site or in the task flying area in the past 5 years.

• Information on experience of on-site doctor/paramedic, first aid arrangements, medical first response in tasks area.
• Helicopter availability including response times.
• Helicopter landing space for each site.

States here what your safety management plan will be.

Reminder:

FAI has published ‘Guidelines in the event of a casualty or of a serious accident’. Please be aware of this document and its sections:

• Advise Regional ATC Centre and also local ATC organisation.
• Raise NOTAM.
• Insurance to cover liability, rescue charges, etc.
• Advise local police.
• Advise local ambulance, hospital and other medical services.
• Arrange medical doctor rota to cover the event also to cover any post-mortem
• examination and inquest.
• Arrange site facilities, including a control room and incident room.
• Appoint officials: Event Director and Deputy Director, Event Safety Officer, Public Relations Officer.
• Investigate laws, rules and procedures that apply at the event site or sites, for accidents, injuries, fatalities and air accidents.
• Make plans for dealing with accidents and incidents: release of names, control actions, incident log, official statements after the event, immediate actions, follow-up actions, dealing with press and media, witnesses, details of injured or deceased, National accident investigation procedures, continuance of event, facilities for victim’s team, report to FAI; Injury, illness or death of participants or spectators.

• Radio XE "Radios" s: details including any restriction on frequencies or types of radio, particularly 2m, and any licence requirements.
• Mobile/Cell ‘Phone Coverage: availability of local SIM cards. Details of best network coverage within the competition area.

• Their familiarity with this type of event. Past experience? Assistance expected?

• Insurance requirements pilots will be required to provide (third party, personal, repatriation…).
• Detail of what will be available to be purchased on site.
• Details of Organisers’ Liability cover for the event (including public liability and CIVL officials).

Reminder:

The LOC must arrange insurance coverage in an adequate amount in connection with the event including public liability insurance meeting the applicable legal specifications. This coverage must be presented to the FAI at the earliest opportunity.

The FAI, its respective directors, employees and assigned event Personnel must be designated as additional insured parties for liability claims.

• Location and size of rooms for briefings, registration, equipment checks.
• Office facilities: AV equipment, office equipment, communication systems (phones, wifi, etc.).
• Internet access available for Officials.
• Internet access available for competitors.

• General outline of availability and average prices of hotels, camping sites, apartments and other accommodation.
• Proximity from event HQ of: car hire, shops, restaurants/bars, repair facilities, etc.

• Outline of the anticipated website design/content, which should be the main means of disseminating information about the championship.
• Confirm that this will be in place prior to the test event, and updated prior to the main event, with all relevant information, at least 6 months before the start of the event.
• An interactive online registration and payment facility is desirable.

• Will any FAI member be refused entry to the country?
• Details of visas required for visitors from FAI member nations.
• Details of any vaccinations recom­mended for competitors (or provide web addresses for information).

• State any date before which competitors should not arrive.
• Give details of arrangements for pilots if early arrival is possible (access to launch, etc.).

• Information on custom arrangements for temporary importation of gliders and other competition equipment. If necessary, customs at main entry points for the event should be informed of the nature of equipment that will accompany pilots.
• List entry points that have already been contacted or notified.

Medals and diplomas will be provided for free by CIVL, but transportation and custom are paid by the organisers.

• State here if there are any other forms of recognition or prizes.

• Outline of plans to promote the event.
• Media coverage planned before, during and after the event.
• Facilities for spectators (virtual and physical).
• Filming/video opportunities.

Reminder:

Coverage produced by LOC or local partners may have to be provided to FAI for international use without any rights restrictions, limitations and costs. FAI retains the right to use any audiovisual coverage of the event without limitation in space or time.

Are also subject to FAI regulation as per Organiser Agreement (obtainable on request at FAI): international distribution; merchandising and hospitality rights; intellectual property, FAI marks and exposure, event logo, mascot…

• Secured or expected sponsors if any.

Reminder:

If the FAI requests exposure and the LOC has a specific possibility to secure event sponsors of the same products or services categories as the FAI main partners for a major sponsor position, FAI shall be contacted in order to agree on a solution.

FAI shall exercise its right up to 6 months prior to the event. Before this time limit, the LOC may ask the FAI to grant full release from this obligation or to specify which categories have to be reserved.

• Anticipated sources of finance (local, government, sports authorities, NAC, etc.) and percentage of budget expected from pilot entry fees.
• Provide an outline budget (see Annexe C)

…

Name:

Position in Organisation:

Date:

Signed:

1. Letter of support from the NAC or delegated entity.
2. Letter of information from the delegated entity to the NAC (if applicable).
3. Letter of support from the local authorities.
4. Map of the area.

See the Excel file. https://www.fai.org/sites/default/files/civl/documents/cat_1_budget_annexe_c_-_v2018.xls

June 19, 2017, 7:57:58 MST -0600

How John Simon won

The last day and then the Midwest 2017

James Stinnett|Kevin Carter

James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter

James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter

https://airtribune.com/play/2536/2d

It all took shape by the second turnpoint.

Simon is near the top of the lead gaggle and a small distance in front with Zac charging out in front by about half a kilometer and 600'+ lower.

Simon arrives at the second turnpoint with everyone else just a little bit lower and behind a couple of hundred meters. Zac is still about half a kilometer further east.

Simon finds better lift earlier and climbs faster than anyone else.

Simon goes on glide higher than anyone else from turnpoint 2 and although no one knows it yet the race is essentially over. Zac is out in front and much lower.

The lead gaggle forms up again but Simon is 1,200' higher. He goes off with Zac who is 1,000'+ below him.

Zac and Simon are about 300 meters in front of the lead gaggle.

Zac has dropped significantly down relative to Simon by the third and last turnpoint and will be the first to land. Simon gets the last turnpoint 600'+ higher than the rest of the lead gaggle and only Bruce and Kevin Carter will be able to make it in from this group. Kevin Dutt will land just short.

Ten kilometers behind I will find a thermal at 800' and climb up to 1,200' AGL when James Stinnett comes in under me at 400'. We will climb to over 5,000' and make it into goal easily as most of the lead gaggle lands out.

They will all be caught by the east sea breeze off Lake Michigan. James and I will glide in above it with a strong tail wind.

Discuss "How John Simon won" at the Oz Report forum   link»

June 16, 2017, 8:21:47 MST -0600

2017 Midwest, Vlog 3

After the first day of competition

Midwest Championships 2017|video

https://youtu.be/nv2tySnyPos

This video covers the winners of task 1 and pilot briefing for task 2 (which was canceled due to low/weak lift and high winds).

June 15, 2017, 7:57:13 MST -0600

2017 Midwest, Vlog 2

The first day of competition

Midwest Championships 2017|video

https://youtu.be/oNlYpOfHkc8

June 14, 2017, 7:06:53 MST -0600

2017 Midwest, Vlog 1

Wills Wing's turn to log it

Midwest Championships 2017|video

https://youtu.be/yZREHtibq0Y

June 13, 2017, 6:54:22 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, a video look

A look around

Midwest Championships 2017|video

https://youtu.be/32ko6enNiJ8

June 13, 2017, 8:48:59 CST -0500

2017 Midwest, my thoughts

Two weeks in Wisconsin

Midwest Championships 2017

We loved being and flying in Wisconsin. It was a wonderful week of competition flying. Eastern Wisconsin is so beautiful and there are landing areas everywhere so you are completely comfortable flying anywhere.

Flying started out a week before the competition on a very weak Saturday after a strong rain storm the previous day. I sure was hoping that we wouldn't have the situation of eighty pilots hanging together in a very weak thermal like the ones we experienced that day. Thankfully that didn't happen during the competition even when we had a weak day or two. There was plenty of room and numerous thermals so that everyone kept out of everyone else's space.

The area around Whitewater is dotted with lakes, small patches of forest and open farm lands. Because of the cold and wet Spring the corn fields were often not planted yet and if they were the corn was only two or three inches high. There were plenty of grass/hay fields with low growth also. One day I did land in a soybean field with the plants just sticking their leaves out of the ground.

Three days before the competition we again had good flying conditions and two days before the competition we had epic conditions which very robust lift and light winds. I had plenty of opportunities to try out various combinations of varios to see what I liked about each one. I'll be reporting more on that later.

With a high level of participation, far beyond what the organizers expected, there were plenty of skilled pilots and tough competition to liven up the meet. We flew in all directions and conditions from a day when almost everyone had to relight to cu filled skies with thermals wherever you went. I really loved the times that I got low and had to dig my way out of whatever I had managed to get myself into.

In my opinion there is no point in flying, if you are flying alone without a goal. I want to fly with others who are striving to do their best. The closer the better and the more helpful the better.

I'm hoping that we all come back to Whitewater next year.

June 12, 2017, 6:14:35 CST -0500

2017 Midwest, the organizers' thoughts

At least Greg Dinauer's

Dragonfly|Facebook|Greg Dinauer|Jamie Shelden|Midwest Championships 2017|weather

Greg Dinauer <<gdinauer>> writes:

Organizing a major sanctioned hang gliding competition is something that Larry, Kris and I have always talked about and, indeed have attempted in the past. Plagued by low turnouts, and of course, the always dubious weather up here in the Midwest, we just lost interest.

This year we finally decided to give it another go. With the lack of sanctioned competitions, due to the complexity of negotiating the minefield of insurance imperatives, and the huge gap in years of having any large scale events like this, we agreed it was a perfect storm of wide open doors.

In October we started drawing up plans. Since then every door has opened, even though the insurance hurtle almost discouraged us out of it. We always had the back-up plan that if only 20-25 pilots signed up and we skimped on everything, we could just pull it off without having to dig too deeply into our new glider funds.

So when after merely five days of the event registration being open, I received a late night call from Larry and Kris confirming that we had 60 registered pilots, I felt like the co-inventor of some unique product that just went nationwide overnight.

Of course we had to have another meeting at Larry’s home (the geographical midpoint) to access what to do about the monster we created. We wanted to limit it to 60, but before we knew it there were 80 pilots registered. So we had to draw a sharp line in the form of strict deadlines to control every ones flying sickness for this event. The glee we shared with the break in the really gloomy weather in the upper Midwest over the prior month well; it was just another of those open doors which seemed as inexplicable as Kris’s “need” to schedule during a full moon. If he is silently gloating, he deserves to be.

In as much as we considered every contingency, now that the competition is over, there were weak places; places that we could have better addressed, had we not also been competitors ourselves. Better communication with the launch process volunteer staff, management of civilities like: the portable bathrooms and waste containers, and the damp condition of the ground, particularly on the first day, are among them.

With all that, the pilots’ response was overwhelmingly positive, and while the soaring was not particularly epic, we did have one or two good days along with some challenging ones.

I really want to say that the three of us never scuffled with each other over decisions or ideas (often done over Larry’s favorite beer), in spite of the daunting insurance mitigation forms that Larry labored endlessly over. Our individual tasks in this came about more or less naturally; just three flying buddies cooperating to make a bigger dream happen.

We want to again thank everyone including the pilots, tug pilots, all the selfless volunteers, and the (more than patient) local pilot community for participating in what we feel was a bit more like what these events use to be. I, for one, while watching Rhett’s vivid green dragonfly depart this morning couldn’t help but feel a bit sad to see it end.

Will we do it again next year? We’ll see. A lot of the busy work is done and as with Jamie, Davis and other organizers in the past, we have learned a lot.

June 10, 2017, 4:11:31 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 7, the podiums

Simon and Myrkle win

competition|Midwest Championships 2017

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/results

June 10, 2017, 4:05:59 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 7

It blows

Facebook|Midwest Championships 2017

https://www.facebook.com/groups/456553944685782/permalink/472285089779334/

The forecast was correct (we knew three days in advance):

NWS forecast: Sunny, with a high near 89. Windy, with a southwest wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph.

Hourly shows southwest surface winds at 21 mph at noon gusting to 31 mph, rising to 24 mph gusting to 38 mph at 3 PM then slowly decreasing. Forecast for 8 AM – 10 mph.

NAM 3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 500 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface winds: southwest 24 mph
TOL wind: southwest 40 mph

4 PM:

Lift: 500 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface winds: southwest 24 mph
TOL wind: southwest 42 mph

The day was cancelled because of the high winds.

June 9, 2017, 10:57:55 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 6, task 5

The luck can be good or bad

Bruce Barmakian|Facebook|Flytec 6030|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|John Simon|Midwest Championships 2017|Niki Longshore|Raul Guerra|video|Zac Majors

Zac Majors called a task to the east given the west winds.

Here is the forecast for the day:

NWS forecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Hourly shows north northwest surface winds at 9 mph.

NAM 3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 500 fpm
TOL: 3,600’ (RAP 13 – 5,000’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface winds: northwest 8 mph
TOL wind: northwest 16 mph

4 PM:

Lift: 600 fpm TOL: 5,000’
Cloudbase: No cu’s or cu’s at 5,600’
Surface winds: northwest 5 mph
TOL wind: west northwest 12 mph

Op40:

TOL: 5,000’
55 degrees
North northwest wind 6 – 10 mph
Reasonable chance of cu’s
Winds move to more westerly later in the day

The cu's were forming as we got pulled up into the air at 1:20 PM. The lift was weak under the cu's but we just held on and climbed slowly getting up to cloud base which was low at 5,000' as forecasted.

Up and down in the weak lift as we tried to stay near cloudbase. I lost track of the time for a few minutes and then realized I was out of place as the start window approached. Found 300 fpm and climbed back to over 5,000' but I was three kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder when the window opened.

Niki was right under me and I told her that I was going to take the first start clock despite being way behind. She decided to wait for the next start window.

I figured that I could use the pilots ahead to mark the thermals and if they slowed down I could catch them.

There was a cu-filled sky to the southeast but quite a ways off the course line to the north. I followed behind the lead gaggle until I lost most of them by the third thermal. The lift was still weak for me and I'd gain 1,000' before running off to the next one as I got near cloud base.

After climbing to 4,900' in the third thermal it was clear that I would have to venture out into the blue to the south to get near the course line and because basically there were no more cu's any where near the direction to the first turnpoint. Raul Guerra had joined me and we spread out looking for little forming wispies.

We found one but it provided only 129 fpm to 4,800'. We headed due south to the next forming wispies and down to 1,400' AGL and after searching around we connected. This thermal was almost 300 fpm and we hung on until 6,400'. The wind was perfect and we drifted right to the turnpoint as we climbed.

Greg Dinauer had come in under us. We heard later that he had lost his flight instrument and was relying on us to tell him where the lift was. He was circling right with us and climbing right with us even though we would have been very hard for him to see.

It was a short glide to the next turnpoint at Burlington airport and while there were little bits of lift we didn't stay but for a few turns before heading to the Bong turnpoint to the southeast. We probably should have worked the available lift a bit more and gained some altitude, but the cu's ahead looked good as did the dry fields below them.

Soon I was on search mode big time. I had lost track of Raul and needed any lift to keep me in the air. Heading over a series of drier fields I felt a little bump. I pushed back upwind into the 7 mph northwest wind and the lift improved. It was weak and broken at first but I was going up from 800' AGL.

I gained about 1,000' and then James Stinnett came in under me at 350' AGL. He was very happy to see me going up. We climbed to 5,100' at almost 300 fpm on average and again drifted toward the turnpoint to the east.

I noticed that a number of pilots who were ahead of us had landed out. As James and I topped out I saw Raul about a 1,000' below us heading for the goal. My 6030 said we had goal by over 1,000' so James and I went on glide.

It's 20 kilometers to the goal but there is a 2km goal cylinder to keep us away from the airfield as it is a drop zone.

There were no clouds a little past the turnpoint at Bong so I was a little cautious at first. Then sped up as I saw that my glide ratio greatly exceeded the required glide ratio and I was not hitting any big sink. It was a breeze making it into goal.

As I worked my way down from 1,000' AGL I noticed that the pilot before me landed going east. The wind had been out of the west or northwest the whole flight. I wondered what's going on.

I had not looked out to the east to see Lake Michigan. There was a sea breeze and that is why all the guys in the first gaggle other than John Simon and Bruce Barmakian are on the ground (or so it appears). James and I got high at the turnpoint, higher than most pilots so we had no problem dealing with the sea breeze.

Zac talks about his flight here: https://www.facebook.com/zacmajors/videos/vb.584324602/10155349211799603/?type=2&theater

June 9, 2017, 8:09:29 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 6, task 5

Looks like five competition days

Bart Weghorst|Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Midwest Championships 2017|Mike Degtoff|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Pete Lehmann|Phill Bloom|Roger Irby

With Saturday predicted to be too windy it looks like Friday is the last competition day.

Niki on launch:

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/results

Task 5:

June 8, 2017, 7:56:05 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 5, task 4

Many Brazilian pilots here

Bruce Barmakian|cart|Derrick Turner|Fabiano Nahoum|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mark Dowsett|Midwest Championships 2017|Mike Degtoff|Moyes Litespeed RX|Niki Longshore|Pete Lehmann|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|Steve Rewolinski|Zac Majors

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

The forecast for the day:

NWS forecast: Increasing clouds, with a high near 79. Light west wind becoming southwest 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly forecast is for a 9 mph west southwest wind

There is a front to our west.

NAM 3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 600 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface wind: southwest 10 mph
TOL wind: southwest 12 mph

4 PM:

Lift: 300 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface wind: southwest 11 mph
TOL wind: southwest 15 mph

With the approaching front, cirrus clouds could shut down the lift early.

OP40:

1 PM:

TOL: 5,000’
53 degrees
Southwest wind 7 - 8 mph
No cu’s

Four models show no lift at 5 PM, 2 (RAP 3 and HRRR 3) show good lift then.

The major feature is an approaching front. I have the task committee move the task up an hour so that we can have a better chance of flying before the front gets here. That proves to be an important change.

The cloud from the front are already encroaching upon us as we start launching at 12:20. I get towed up into no lift and only find a little before landing. A few pilots find the lift and a few more land for reflights.

Despite the nearby mid level clouds associated with the front pilots find lift and get up over 6,000'. Niki and I launch again and climb up to 3,000' AGL. Our thermal stops there and I go west to find more lift. Just as I leave the pilots upo wind of us circling low find lift and Niki heads for them Her radio doesn't work so she can't tell me what's up. I land soon. She gets up and goes on to take the second clock.

With the weak lift the pilots who take the second clock are able to quickly catch the pilots who took the first clock twenty minutes before them. Pilots are just working hard to stay up and drift to the northeast toward the turnpoint 39 kilometers away.

Only David Brito Filho is able to make goal at the East Troy airfield.

Task 4:

Cumulative:

Task 4:

The pilots at the Sport Class goal:

Your editor coming out of the cart:

Photo by Mike Degtoff

Derrick Turner coming out of the cart:

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

June 7, 2017, 11:18:56 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 4, task 3

Light winds

John Simon|Midwest Championships 2017

The task is a triangle with a 14 km start cylinder centered around Palmyra:

I was the first pilot to get towed up. Jim Prahl took me to the north and just barely inside the 14 km cylinder whose edge is just upwind of the launch. The wind was out of the east at about 10 mph, but I was able to stay near the start cylinder as I drifted west in each weak thermal.

I was alone and getting high slowly as other pilots struggled below me. Bart joined me and we climbed to 5,000'. Finally I found a good thermal and climbed to over 7,000'.

The launch was going well and other pilots were now in the air and climbing. I'd been been circling  for half an hour and now the cold was getting to me at 7,000'. I had the feeling that my hands (covered by thin gloves) were getting frostbit. I had half an hour to go.

Finally the window opened and half the field was ready to go from on high and at the edge. Ollie and Zac were a bit higher and out in front the rest of us were chasing.

Majors, Chitty, Bunner, Straub, Simon, Weghorst, Guerra, Volk and Dinauer were in the lead as we go on an 11 km glide into the blue. There had been a few wispies near the launch and the edge of the start cylinder which provided us the visual clues to the thermal that got us high at the start. Now there were no cu's ahead.

We were heading for a good sized lake which would kill the lift if we were on the downwind side of it. We were heading for a turnpoint at the south end of the lake. Half way there we found a thermal in the blue. It averaged over 400 fpm and that got us back over 6,500' before we raced ahead to the west.

No lift on the way to the turnpoint. We turned around at 2,900' AGL and headed into the wind with Majors, Simon, Chitty and Bunner out in front. They weren't hitting anything. It did not look good. Zac was just flying straight.

We were heading for three small lakes, not some nice open brown baking fields. Zac went right over the northern most lake and kept on going. Chitty, a few hundred meters behind Zac turned over a brown field and Zac immediately turned around to come back.

Raul and I found lift a little further back as we were down to 1,100'. Bunner was turning a little further south down to about 600' AGL. We all came together except Larry who had to stay in what he had. Chitty, Majors, Guerra, Volk, Simon, and Straub all climbed up together and then headed out at 5,000' with Chitty in the lead.

It's only 6 km when we find 400+ fpm to 6,500'. All six of us plus Bart get up, then Chitty headed out in front.

I followed Majors to the northeast while every else followed Chitty to the east. Unfortunately I missed the thermal that he found and had to go searching on my own which slowed me down a bit.

It got slow for every one as we approached the turnpoint at Lakeland.  I hooked up with John Simon. Majors and Chitty jumped ahead and got around the turnpoint first with Chitty in the lead.

Once we made the turnpoint it was an easy flight back to the flight park.

June 6, 2017, 10:32:59 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 3, task 2

The results

André Wolfe|competition|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Mark Dowsett|Midwest Championships 2017|Moyes Litespeed RX|Robin Hamilton|Rohan Taylor|Sara Weaver|Steve Rewolinski|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/results

Task 2:

Cumulative:

Task 2:

Cumulative:

June 6, 2017, 10:00:27 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 3, task 2

A sky full of cu's

Greg Dinauer|Jeff Chipman|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Midwest Championships 2017|Niki Longshore|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton

The forecast for the day:

NWS forecast: Sunny, with a high near 74. Northeast wind 5 to 15 mph.

North northeast surface wind, 13 – 15 mph noon through 3 PM, 11 mph after that.

NAM3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 597 fpm (other models similar)
TOL: 5,632’ (other models similar)
Cloudbase: No cu’s (All other models show no cu’s except NAM 12, which shows TOL 1,000’ higher)
Surface wind: north northeast 11 mph (other models show 9 – 15 mph)
TOL wind: north northeast 19 mph (other models vary between 15 and 23 mph)

4 PM:

Lift: 577 fpm (other models vary between 398 and 736 fpm)
TOL: 5,964’ (other models vary between 5,301’ and 7,289’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s or 6,000’
Surface wind: north northeast 12 mph (other models vary between 9 and 12 mph)
TOL wind: north northeast 14 mph (other models vary between 14 and 19 mph)

SkySight (between 1 PM and 4 PM):

Lift: 400 – 450 fpm
TOL: 4,000’ – 6,000’ (6,000’ – 7,000’ to the south later)
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface wind: north northeast 8 – 12 mph
TOL wind: north northeast early at 20 – 22 mph calming to 14 – 16 mph later

OP40:

1 PM:

TOL: 6,700’
42 degrees
North northeast wind 11 mph at surface level and 18 mph at TOL
Thin cu’s possible

4 PM:

TOL: 7,700’
39 degrees
North northeast wind 11 mph at surface level to 14 mph at TOL
Thin cu’s possible

Actually the cu's formed early and they were maybe 1,000' thick and very plentiful.

Niki Longshore, Larry Bunner, Raul Guerra, Greg Dinauer, Kip Stone and I along with a few others took off in early bird. The lift was weak but we managed to climb to 4,700'. We had to go searching after that and hung in zero or less for a good while until Larry showed us the lift to our west, downwind. We all got under him and all climbed to 6,700'.

The wind was blowing 11 to 13 mph out of the northeast so that we were drifting rather quickly to the edge of the 15 km start cylinder so we headed back upwind to the inviting cu's. I found 180+ fpm under an expansive cu and slowly climbed up from 4,700' to 6,900' as I drifted at about the right speed downwind toward the edge of the start cylinder in time for the second clock. Larry took the first one.

Hitting the edge of the start cylinder high ten seconds after it opened was reassuring. Greg and Niki were just behind me. About twelve gliders were below. Jeff Chipman pushed out in front about 1,000' lower and I was just behind him.

The next two thermals came in quick succession at 350+ fpm to 7,000' so I was flying at first at 80 km/h downwind then 85 km/h speed over the ground with an 11 to 18 mph tail wind. We were all pushing it just leaving good lift just before cloud base.

Four kilometers before the first turnpoint we turned in 280+ fpm and I left at 6,500'. Perhaps I should have stayed longer. There were good looking cu's ahead.

On the glide from that last thermal around the turnpoint and off toward the west southwest I lost 4,000' in 16 km, down to 2,500' (1,700' AGL). Niki was nearby also low and Krzys was just above us. Robin Hamilton had gone out in front and stayed higher. He was to our north over Beloit.

Niki and I spent the next fourteen minutes working lift that at best averaged 60 fpm to 3,000', but slowly died out as we searched and searched in the 11 mph wind. Krzys got even lower just a kilometer away down to 1,000' AGL. Robin worked weak lift over the town of Beloit from 2,500' AGL. Everyone else was behind us working whatever they found from higher altitudes.

Back down to 2,500' MSL Niki and I went searching but didn't find anything. Bart Weghorst landed with us.

The whole area was very weak and pilots worked and worked to get any lift. Krzys was able to finally get up as was Robin and the rest of the pilots around us.

Looking over the flight in detail I see that I should have stayed in the lift four kilometers from the turnpoint for another 500 feet at least. I would have had thermal markers out in front if I had done so. Also there was just a bit of bad luck finding weak lift to stay in that didn't pan out.

Many pilots made goal. Some very quick. The replay is great.

https://airtribune.com/play/2518/2d

June 5, 2017, 8:17:24 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, day 2

A bit too windy

Midwest Championships 2017|weather

NWS forecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

The 25 mph gust is forecasted only for 11 AM. Launch wind speed forecasted to be 16 mph northeast.

NAM3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 477 fpm (other models vary between 0 and 517 fpm. But most basically agree with NAM3)
TOL: 3,313’ (other models vary between 2,651’ and 4,307’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s (All models show no cu’s)
Surface wind: northeast 13 mph (other models basically agree)
TOL wind: northeast 18 mph (other models vary between 17 and 24 mph northeast)

4 PM:

Lift: 477 fpm (other models vary between 0 and 537 fpm)
TOL: 3,644’ (other models vary between 3,313’ and 4,638’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s
Surface wind: northeast 14 mph (other models vary between 12 and 16 mph northeast)
TOL wind: northeast 25 mph (other models vary between 18 and 25 mph northeast)

SkySight (between 1 PM and 4 PM):

Lift: 350 – 400 fpm
TOL: 3,000’ – 4,000’ (2000’ – 3000’ at 1 PM)
Cloudbase: 3,000’ – 4,000’ (2000’ – 3000’ at 1 PM)
Surface wind: northeast 10 – 12 mph
TOL wind: east northeast 16– 20 mph

The models more closely match each other than yesterday giving greater confidence in the forecast. For sure strong northeast winds at TOL. Low TOL at under 5,000’ likely between 3,000’ and 4,000’. Strong inversion between 3,000’ and 4,000’ rising during the day. There is a chance for thin cu’s.

I’d say a more difficult day than Sunday and also a later day like Sunday with lower TOL, low climb rates, and stronger winds aloft.

Temperature at TOL: 53°. Five degrees warmer than yesterday at a much lower altitude.

Better conditions on Tuesday.

The meet officials determined that overall conditions were not conducive to safe tasks. Local readings were 18 mph gusting to 24 mph, http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KJVL.html, and the winds didn't quite down until 7 PM.

We organized a big group to go ride single track at Cam-Rock Park https://www.mtbproject.com/trail/577682 and we loved the park.

The Results

Midwest Championships 2017

(Twin Oaks Airport, Whitewater, WI, USA)

Most pilots got minimum distance:

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/results

Jonny is flying the Moyes Gecko for the first two days as he gave Andre his glider. Andre's was damaged in shipping. Art's should arrive today.

Mitch Shipley is also towing, flying a Dragonfly. Linda Salamone did well.

There were five start times. All the pilots who made goal got the last start time which was very likely long before they actually made their start.

Jonny landing back at launch.

Zac helping Majo with her glider.

Sara Weaver ready to launch.

Discuss "2017 Midwest, day 1" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

The heavy penalty for success, it's my own damn fault

(Twin Oaks airport, Whitewater, WI, USA)

Blue Sky|Midwest Championships 2017|Niki Longshore|weather|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

Here's the forecast for the day:

NWS forecast: Mostly sunny, with a high near 87. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon.

NAM3 forecast:

1 PM:

Lift: 477 fpm (other models vary between 0 and 756 fpm)
TOL: 4,307’ (other models vary between 994’ and 8,945’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s (one other model shows cu’s at 8,283’)
Surface wind: northwest 10 mph (other models vary between 8 and 14 mph west northwest to northwest)
TOL wind: northwest 15 mph (other models vary between 14 and 20 mph west northwest to northwest)

4 PM:

Lift: 338 fpm (other models vary between 0 and 577 fpm)
TOL: 5,632’ (other models vary between 994’ and 8,283’)
Cloudbase: No cu’s Surface wind: northwest 13 mph (other models vary between 8 and 14 mph west northwest to northwest)
TOL wind: northwest 18 mph (other models vary between 12 and 18 mph west northwest to northwest)

SkySight (between 1 PM and 4 PM):

Lift: 350 – 450 fpm
TOL: 6,000’ – 7,000’
Cloudbase: 5,000’ – 7000’ disappears after 4 PM
Surface wind: northwest 8 – 12 mph
TOL wind: west 18 – 20 mph
Convergence: west northwest to east southeast Palmyra to Burlington and Richmond to Lake Geneva forming later in the day

With all the rain yesterday I would expect the the climbing conditions to be less like Friday and more like last Thursday. But in addition we will have stronger wind conditions than either day which should increase the difficulty.

The task:

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/blog__day_1

I'm doing the weather and I am on the task committee also. I wanted a 15 km start cylinder to deal with the wind and weak lift, but we compromised at 12 km. That didn't turn out well for me.

We trekked over to the Palmyra Municipal airport for its east-west runway to go with the forecast of an west northwest day with winds up to 20 mph at top of lift. Nice big grass runway 250 feet wide, plenty of room for two launch lines.

The launch wasn't until 1 PM. When we got there at 9:45 AM cirrus covered most of the sky. As the day progressed cu's formed to the northwest in an east west line. By around 12:30 PM this thin line of cu's were over the airport but rapidly moving to the south. Other cu's were way way to the southeast.

With the cu's rapidly disappearing as we started launch, things did not look good. Basically a blue sky with some remnants of the cirrus moving away to the south.

I was nineteenth to launch and pinned off at 2,200' AGL. I had felt a tiny bit of lift after a tow through sinking air. All the pilots ranked higher than me in WPRS points were below me having not found much lift after getting off tow.

I started working the weak stuff at 54 fpm just trying to stay up. I saw two Litespeeds turning near me and way below me so it seemed like a few of us were out there trying to get up. One of them may have been Niki Longshore. The rest of the pilots disappeared back to the launch. We were 2 km south of launch and starting out at 2,200' AGL.

Let me just say that again. All the higher ranked pilots other than these two didn't get up and went back and landed to get another tow up later.

I kept turning and found 214 fpm while Niki and the other Moyes pilot kept turning close by but way lower. I was hoping that they would hang in there with me and that we would be able to get together and fly the course together.

I had taken off at 1:17 PM. The start window on the 12 km start cylinder opened at 2 PM. I was facing a 14 mph west northwest wind. This presents a very tricky problem that I was most concerned about. Could I get high and also stay inside the start cylinder?

I climbed to 5,000' at 1:35 PM. I was way higher than anyone else. Unfortunately I was also alone as Niki and the other Moyes pilot went back to the launch as they weren't able to climb with me. Drat.

Then I spotted two other pilots near me but again way way low. Would they find some lift? I was only 5 km from the start but I didn't think that I would be able to make it back to the launch into a 14 mph headwind even from 4,200' AGL.

I watched these lower pilots as I searched around under wispy cu's for some more lift to keep me up or get me higher. The inversion looked to be about 5,000'. Soon at least one of the pilots landed and I lost track of the other. They were both very low.

I had succeeded in getting high. I wasn't forced to go back to the airport to re-launch. unlike most other higher ranked pilots (if not all of them). I felt that it would be stupid to even try to do so since I had just succeeded where no one else had and where all the best pilots in the meet were on the ground or soon to be. It felt like it would be nuts to give up all my gains and go back and start again. Even though the day might be better later. It did not look good over launch with no cu's around.

I went searching for lift near nearby wispies. I found 22 fpm. Then 20 fpm near the next wispies. And that was it. I was able to stop going down but not stop being pushed by the wind to the east. I needed a strong thermal to make it possible to stay upwind of the start cylinder edge or to go upwind for a few moments.

It was now a struggle to find better lift, not just zero sink because if I started too early I would be very heavily penalized. I had to serve two masters, the need for lift and the need to stop going east. I was not able to fight them successfully. I left the start cylinder racing to get under a cu two minutes too early.

There was plenty of buoyancy as I got closer to the ground but with the strong wind there was not a thermal. After I landed in a nice grass field I spotted the vultures ridge soaring the barn. They sure weren't thermaling.

More news on how the relaunchers did later. Some were doing very well.

Too easy for some

(Twin Oaks airport, Whitewater, WI, USA)

Glen Volk|Midwest Championships 2017|Risk Retention Group

https://airtribune.com/davisstraub/tracks__122221

The open task today was to the south southeast. An easy task for some, a mere 31 km out and then return. The sky was full of cu's and cloudbase was super high.

I took off at 2:05 PM and waited on the line in sinking air until 2,100' AGL. It looked to me like there would be lift ahead under a wispy tiny cu. I was also watching a king posted glider south low over the town of Whitewater turning.

Indeed there was lift and I climbed out to 5,200' at over 300 fpm. This was way below cloudbase but with plenty of cu's ahead I wasn't concerned about getting too high. It was already cold.

I headed west southwest to get upwind of the course line which allowed me to drift with the thermals in the 6 mph west northwest winds. I was soon at 7,600' under just forming cu's. It was cold up there. The forecast was for 40°.

I was the first pilot to take on the task so I knew that I would be alone, but given the conditions I was confident that I would have no problem with the task that now looked very short.

I just ignored lift and glided for 15 km until I got down to my lower limit at 3,000' AGL (3,800' MSL). I took the next thermal at 360 fpm to 8,000' just to see how high I could get. I still wasn't at cloudbase.

It was a 9 km glide to the turnpoint with lift near it which again I ignored. Turning back I found two thermals in the blue at 400+ fpm to 7,500'.

Two more thermals, one at 480 fpm average and it was easy to take the last 16 km glide into goal as fast as possible even with 900 fpm sink before goal.

There were plenty of reflights and pilots who started later came in later.

The flight park is filling up even more. Zac and Majo made it. Glen Volk arrived as did Nene. Mitch is here which should prove interesting regarding the RRRG.

June 1, 2017, 11:11:48 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, getting ready

Tasks completed

Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Midwest Championships 2017|Sara Weaver

The pace of the Midwest 2017 is picking up with lots of pilots here doing tasks. Sara Weaver completed out and return sport class task by landing in the backyard of the neighbor across the street from the airport as her flight instrument beeps when she was 3 feet off the ground.

https://airtribune.com/sweaverflies/tracks__121950

Krzys and Larry completed the 85 km triangle.

The forecast and task for the day was:

Twin Oaks, 3km
East Troy, 1km
Lake Lawn, 400m
Twin Oaks, 400m

NWS: Sunny, with a high near 77. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.

NAM 3 forecast:

Noon

500-600 fpm lift
5000’ – 6000’ TOL
No cu’s
3 mph southwest surface wind
6 mph west wind at TOL

TOL raises 1000’ during the day. Climb rate increases to 600-700 fpm to the east Winds stay similar

Lift stops after 4 PM

Sport Class task was Palmyra and back, 28 km.

The wind turned out to be 12 mph west.

May 30, 2017, 8:42:20 CST -0500

2017 Midwest, getting ready

Forecasts improving

(Janesville-Rock County (KJVL), WI)

Midwest Championships 2017|weather

Tuesday (NAM 3, 1 PM): 600-700 fpm, west 37 mph at TOL.

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.8336&lon=-88.7323#.WS10VMa1uM9

A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 66. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Currently surface winds at 13 mph.

Wednesday (NAM 3, 1 PM):  600-700 fpm, west northwest 23 mph at TOL.

Thursday (NAM 3, 1 PM): 500-600 fpm, west northwest 7 mph at TOL.

May 29, 2017, 4:51:12 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, getting ready

Bruce, Greg and I did a nice 30 mile road ride

Greg Dinauer|Midwest Championships 2017

Greg Dinauer sends this sky picture from the airfield:

The winds were predicted to be west 40 mph at the top of lift. We took our ride on Monday early in the day and the surface winds weren't that bad. Later I road back and forth to town and it was much stronger.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1011453786

Larry says that the forecast for next week is super good. The forecast for this week is not.

May 28, 2017, 6:04:05 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, getting ready

Larry kept flying

Larry Bunner|Midwest Championships 2017

Larry Bunner wrote:

I did manage a three hour flight yesterday and just when it got good decided to land to spend time with Sue on my birthday. Conditions were still good two hours later so in spite of the saturated ground the soaring was good.

This place is a lot like Florida in that if the sun is shining we will be soaring.

Also we have three bands playing during the week, one special guest guitarist on another night, open jam sessions around the campfire each night, a 5km run on one of the mornings, catered breakfast at the airport every morning, wood fired pizzas most evenings and a couple super meals during the event.

Plenty of cool things to do in the area as well, like mountain bike riding on kettle moraine trails, canoeing and kayaking on the numerous lakes and rivers and even a bowling alley in town.

As I mentioned above, on such days launch later in the day. We are far north with later sunsets here.

May 27, 2017, 9:09:55 pm CST -0500

2017 Midwest, getting ready

A typical day with light lift

Midwest Championships 2017

https://airtribune.com/davisstraub/tracks__120937

It's hard to imagine what we are going to do with eighty pilots in the air in conditions like we saw today (Saturday the 27^th of May). It's been raining for two months here. We came through four hours of rain on Friday driving from the south. Neither corn nor soybeans have been planted yet in Wisconsin (although they were in Illinois). The fields are soaking wet.

Conditions much improved much later in the day. Maybe launch at 3 PM.

http://www.midwest2017.com/

Supposed to rain tonight and on Sunday and on Memorial Day.

May 22, 2017, 8:53:45 EST -0400

2017 Midwest

Looks like rain this coming week

Midwest Championships 2017|Quest Air|weather

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=42.8336&lon=-88.7323#.WSJPNsa1uM9

We head out from Quest Air on Tuesday taking four days to get there.

April 23, 2017, 9:08:00 EST -0400

2017 Quest Air Open

147 km to Keystone

James Stinnett|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|weather

https://airtribune.com/2017-quest-air-open-and-reopen/blog__day_6

The forecast with convergence looked good for a task to the north:

2017 Quest Air Open and Re-Open, Saturday April 22^nd

National Weather Service forecast:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. South southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Hourly forecast shows surface winds south southeast 7 - 8 mph.

NAM forecast:

2 PM
800 - 1000 fpm lift
6,000' - 8,000' top of lift
5,000' - 6,000' cloudbase
9 mph south wind at top of lift
8 mph south wind at 30'

5 PM
400 - 500 fpm lift
8,000' - 9,000' top of lift
6,000' - 7,000' cloudbase
8 mph south at top of lift (Convergence smack dab over us and right up 301
to Keystone and beyond)

RAP, a similar forecast

Both models show poor lift just to our south at 5 PM.

Op40 at 2 PM shows cloudbase at 6,700' at 49 degrees, with an south wind of
5 - 6 mph.

Finally with a wind out of the south combined with good looking cu's we are ready for another big distance day. The task is straight north to the large airfield at Keystone, 147 kilometers away over open territory. The sport class gets a shorter version at 63 km to Leeward airfield.

Climbing at 350 fpm after pinning off I get quickly to cloudbase at 5,200' and then work the top of the lift for twenty minutes to stay high and inside the 5km start cylinder with a 8 mph south southeast wind. There are about half a dozen of us hanging out waiting for the 1:30 start clock. The cu that we are under is diffuse and wide so that there is light lift in many places allowing for pilots to stay away from each other.

We all head north when the window opens and work a few 200 fpm thermals. At about 14 km into the course Mick Howard, Larry Bunner and I are at about the same altitude in a thermal together topping out at about 4,100'. Larry and I head off west north west and Mick, at first following us little behind then takes a slightly more northerly track hoping for less sink.

When we find lift at less than 200 fpm, Mick 2 km to our north and unseen finds 500 fpm. We leave our thermal at less than 4,500'. He leaves at the same time at 5,700'. This makes all the difference in the ensuing flights. Mick is 3,000' over us in the next thermal at the Okahumpka service plaza on the Florida turnpike.

We get to the southwest side of Wildwood. I'm down to 1,700', Larry is 3000' under Mick who is at 5,000' just to my north. I have to dig out from an area with few landing spots. I climb out to about Larry's height, but Mick is on his way north. Larry has to come back 1000' under me as I climb to over 4,000'. Mick is 9 kilometers head of us.

I'm on the radio with Mick and sometimes Larry so I know that Mick is out in front. Northwest of Leeward John Simon comes over from the east and joins me. We are now climbing to over 6,000'. Mick is 5 kilometers ahead and we are all high and finding good lift. Larry is just behind.

I fly with John for the 40 kilometers as we now quickly fly up the west side of the Ocala National Forest under a cloud street that goes almost all the way to goal. I join up with Larry again at Hawthorne as Mick is 17 kilometers ahead and 11 kilometers from goal. John is a few kilometers ahead of us.

19.5 km from goal I find 700 fpm and radio Larry to come back under me. I take it to cloud base at 7,300', 1000' higher than I've been all day. Goal is 9:1 and I pull the bar in. Larry will leave at 11:1.

John left the end of the cloud street at 5,800' and got down to 1,700' so that he could not fly over the large lake between us and goal. He had to dig his way out.

I race into goal as John just putts along and suddenly he sees me but it is too late and I cross the line just in front of him. Larry is just behind.

James Stinnett made it to the airfield before us but seems to have forgotten that he needed to go to the 400 meter cylinder in the center of the huge airport field.

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April 23, 2017, 8:16:36 EST -0400

2017 Quest Air Open

A contingent in goal

competition|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Richard Lovelace|Roger Irby|Tim Delaney

https://airtribune.com/2017-quest-air-open-and-reopen/results

Task 6, open:

Cumulative:

Task 5, sport:

Cumulative:

April 20, 2017, 9:39:37 EST -0400

2017 Quest Air Open

Day 3, task 3

competition|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Richard Lovelace

https://airtribune.com/2017-quest-air-open-and-reopen/results

No sport task. Launch conditions too rough.

Task 3:

Cumulative:

April 18, 2017, 9:38:40 pm EST -0400

2017 Quest Air Open

Started low and behind

Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Rich Lovelace|weather

Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Rich Lovelace|weather

Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Rich Lovelace|weather

https://airtribune.com/2017-quest-air-open-and-reopen/blog__day_2

2017 Quest Air Open and Re-Open, Tuesday April 18^th

National Weather Service forecast:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 86. Light east wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly forecast shows surface winds east 7- 8 mph during launch.

NAM forecast:

2 PM
700 - 800 fpm lift (stronger to the north and west)
7,000' - 8,000' top of lift
5,000' - 6,000' cloudbase 1
0 mph east southeast wind at top of lift
10 mph east southeast wind at 30'

5 PM
600 - 700 fpm lift
7,000' - 8,000' top of lift
6,000' - 7,000' cloudbase
9 mph east wind at top of lift

Op40 at 2 PM shows cloudbase at 7500' at 45 degrees, with an east wind of 8 mph.

RAP forecast:

2 PM
800 - 900 fpm lift
7,000' - 8,000' top of lift
7,000' - 8,000' cloudbase
7 mph east wind at top of lift
7 mph east wind at 30'

5 PM
600 - 700 fpm lift
8,000' - 9,000' top of lift
7,000' - 9,000' cloudbase
7 mph east wind at top of lift
12 mph east wind at 30'

No lift to our southwest at 5 PM.

With the slightly stronger east wind we launched out of the west end of the east/west runway. I pinned off early, which was a mistake given the wind speed, at 1,300' when we were going up behind the tug at 1000 fpm. Unfortunately the actual lift without the tug was less than 100 fpm (40 fpm).

Pilots were already skying out to my west and east as I struggled. After searching around I was back at 1,100' at the southwest corner where I found 300 fpm to 4,000' as the first start window opened and me a long ways away from the edge of the start cylinder and many pilots were well over 5,000'.

Still with everyone leaving (or so it seemed) I decided to follow from well below and well behind. Thankfully when I got to the northern edge of the start cylinder I came in under a gaggle and climbed to 4,600' still below the other pilots and drifted to the northwest in the 13 mph wind.

Just south of Grass Roots the gaggle I was following from below stopped for lift that I didn't find below them. Searching from 3,000' I headed upwind toward the nearest cu and found nothing. Continuing to rapidly fall down I turned to the north toward a dark cloud that I knew I could not reach but with the faint hope of finding lift that would be sucked up from the sunny side of the cloud on the south.

Down to 1,100' I finally snagged it as the lift improved to 700 - 800 fpm. I was so lucky. As I climbed up I also drifted toward the optimized turnpoint on the 5 km turnpoint cylinder which was only 0.5 km away when I topped out.

Flying to the southwest toward the lumber yard at the north end of the Green Swamp I had Patrick Kruse, Malcolm Brown and Rich Lovelace out ahead to show me the lift. Larry Bunner was struggling low out in front. Halfway down the leg we climbed up strongly and they were out in front of me as we continued on.

There were clouds to the east and southeast of the turnpoint at the lumber yard. I slid off further south to get to the clouds more directly than did the other three. I also lost a lot more altitude pushing through the sink on the north side of the clouds getting to the sunny side on the south.

But I got the lift that these three didn't as they got trapped in a slow climb area. The gaggle behind made it to the lumber yard as I got up with John Simon coming in after taking the second clock.

Hooked up with John on the third leg just north of the lumber yard and we twirled up at 650 fpm on the averager to cloud base. I pulled out of the thermal with plenty of room to spare and just kept climbing as I headed for the edge of the thermal pacing my climb to make sure I got to the edge with full visibility.

Along with James Stinnett we were now the three pilots in front. Over the town of Bushnell we climbed at 350 fpm to 5,600' before heading north. Four or five came in underneath us as we climbed up. I lost track of James and John at that point. The last turnpoint at Lake Panosoftkee airfield was only 11 km to the north. Then we would turn around and head back south to goal at Cheryl just east of Bushnell.

Three kilometers from the turnpoint I stopped for lift that averaged over 400 fpm to 5400'. As I headed north Larry came over me having climbed higher behind me. I looked down and saw Stinnett and Simon 3000' below me heading south toward goal too low to make it there.

Turning at the turnpoint I saw that goal was a glide of 7.5:1. There was a head wind. Irby and Dallas were pilots just behind me. Bunner was out in front.

Bunner was first in and I was right behind him. We landed in a long east/west field just across the road to the south of goal. The land owner said that we could land there any time. We could camp there if we wanted to.

Most pilots made goal. It was a fast task in strong conditions.

Don Spratt with Mick Howard's glider at goal:

Fabiano Nahoum happy at goal:

Shade in our field:

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April 17, 2017, 8:35:00 pm EST -0400

2017 Quest Air Open

We fly in the smoke going around the Green Swamp

competition|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2017|Richard Lovelace|Tim Delaney

https://airtribune.com/2017-quest-air-open-and-reopen/results

Task 1 open::

Task 1 sport:

April 15, 2017, 2:05:01 pm EST -0400

Aircam at Quest Air

James Stinnett arrives carrying his hang glider

Facebook|James Stinnett|Quest Air|video

https://www.facebook.com/rich.lovelace/videos/vb.776084470/10155125686319471/?type=2&theater

Discuss "Aircam at Quest Air" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flying next to the wall

Where does one land?

James Stinnett|video

https://youtu.be/ufmGOL2rwXg

Thanks to James Stinnett.

Discuss "Flying next to the wall" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2017 Midwest

More pilots signed up than can be accommodated

Midwest Championships 2017

https://airtribune.com/midwest-2017/pilots

Eighty six have registered. Fifty six have paid. Eighty pilots is the maximum.

The entry fee goes from $350 to $650 after February 28^th.

June 4^th through 10^th

CIVL|Jamie Shelden|Midwest Championships 2017|USHPA

Jamie Shelden at the USHPA BOD meeting tells me that only two US USHPA and CIVL sanctioned hang gliding competitions are scheduled for 2017, both in June. I'm assuming the their meet organizers will apply for CIVL sanctioning. This isn't automatic any more. The USHPA office has handled this for the past few years.

June 3, 2016, 8:45:48 CST -0500

Mount Sentinel

Missoula

James Stinnett

http://www.kpax.com/story/32022145/fly-like-a-bird-in-missoula

"We're always smiling, everybody's having fun," the long-haired Shapiro said with a smile. "Because that's what we're here to do. It's not this intense crazy thing, it's a community of people enjoying free flight over the town they live in. And that... It's pretty unique, it's pretty cool."

Thanks to James Stinnett.

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May 15, 2016, 8:51:07 pm EST -0400

The Quest Air Open Part 2

Many different days for different pilots

competition|Fabiano Nahoum|Facebook|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open 2016|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C

Zac writes:

Laying in the grass just past the 2^nd turnpoint, watching the gliders fly overhead. Not how day 1 is supposed to go.

Looks like either Jonny or Oleg won the day. Oleg was in first then Jonny (who took the second clock) and it was a long wait for the next pilots to make it in.

The task was a triangle to the north:

There were cirrus clouds about all morning and when we started launching but there was good lift under them and over shaded ground right on tow. The lift area seems to last at least for the minute on tow so I pinned off in it and it was easy to climb to 5,500' and then do it again all while staying right at the edge of the 8 kilometer start cylinder centered around Sawmill.

The altitude that was lost getting to the edge of the start cylinder was very quickly made up at 460 fpm on average to 6,000' 4 kilometers to the north on the first start. The day appeared to be quite strong.

Larry and I headed out very quickly pushing hard to the west northwest along the course line and toward what we thought would be good lift over the Green Swamp. I saw a pilot or two head on a more northerly course over the nursery north of highway 50 but hung with Larry until we saw that we were not going to be rewarded with any lift and the pilot to the north was turning.

We had headed into a dark shaded area with thick cirrus overhead. It was darker and thicker than what we had been in over Quest and we just didn't take that into account.

We headed for the nursery but found nothing useful there. Zac and Anna had joined our radio frequency (and Zac was very clear on the radio) so I heard form him that he was climbing in 150 fpm 20 kilometers from the first turnpoint. I was 27 kilometers out at 3,300' and I really wondered if I could make it there.

I headed his way as there didn't seem to be many options. Down to a little over 1,200' I came in under the small gaggle that Zippy must have been in. There was a six mph wind out of the north.

I was able to climb 900' at an average of 75 fpm, but at 2,100' it gave out and while I looked around I apparently didn't look in the right places. Heading west northwest to another gaggle I came it at 800' and found strong sink which brought me down.

Meanwhile Larry was circling from even lower in weak lift and then barely getting up moving over to the west to the lumber mill at highway 50 and 471 where he worked for an hour to get up from 600' to 6,000'. Zac was ahead and Jonny was catching up with pilots from behind having taken the second clock. He apparently caught everyone by the first turnpoint.

The cirrus went away about a half hour after I landed and the day looked a lot better. Pilots had been circling low over my head for at least half an hour and were now able to head west toward the turnpoint. The whole area was now brightly sun lit and the day looked a lot better. There were even a few stray cu's.

Results: https://airtribune.com/qao22016/results/task1438/day/open-class

Lots of exciting action with a meth head shooting at Kelly Myrkle while he was at the bottom of a gaggle. Jonny saw him aim at Kelly. The guy will probably be in jail by tonight as he has been identified. We very forcefully had Kelly go to the sheriff. He threatened Kelly later on the ground as well and Kinsley Sykes.

Results

Christian Pollet|competition|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Mike Glennon|Niki Longshore|Oleg Bondarchuk|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

Task 7:

Final:

Sport Class day 7:

Sport Class Final Totals:

May 12, 2016, 10:26:07 pm EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

A difficult day

competition|Gerry Pesavento|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

The forecast was mixed with a chance of a thunderstorm. The task committee was unsure of what to do and even called a task to the north with sort of an exit circle waypoint that required you to go out in any direction 15 kilometers and then come back. That task didn't happen.

The day started with thick cirrus and it got even worse. At first we weren't even sure that we would have a task but the overcast backed off to the north and the cu's started popping. To the north the ground was complete shaded despite the cu's which persisted even though there was still high overcast. Plenty of cu's to the south.

The task committee pushed back the start time as it didn't look ready in the airfield and then changed the task given the shaded ground to the north, calling an out and return task of 61 km, with turnpoint at Deen Still and 33.

It was fairly easy to get up at Quest and seventeen minutes after launch I was at cloud base at 4,200'. Low relative to other days.

All the pilots were nearby and I was able to get above 4,500' (again cloud base) just before the start at 3:30 PM. I raced out right behind Zac.

Larry found 370 fpm 5 kilometers south of the start cylinder and we again got back up to cloudbase at 4,400'. Racing further south and watching all the pilots in front I was waiting for someone to find the lift and no one was finding it.

Soon it was stay alive time as none of the guys ahead were doing me or anyone else any good. Finally I had to get down to 750' over my reliable field where now other pilots were turning just to stay up.

At 33 fpm it was better than falling and we were all just waiting and hoping that it would turn on. Moving south a little bit and drifting with the 6 mph southwest winds we finally started getting good lift, 150 fpm, at 1,200' and that took us to 3,500'.

The question was where to go next. There was no obvious choice. I said to Larry let's go west to over highway 33 to the sun and the thin cu's. He was ready for that. But I went with a couple of pilots to the southwest toward pilots turning where I actually missed the lift.

It wasn't long after that that I was on the ground and I drug Raul there with me. There was a gaggle just to our south over the trees which we missed.

We landed 2 km before the turnpoint.

All the pilots were struggling with the weaker lift. Larry went west and found light lift over 33, and then found better lift to the south. There was a weak thermal near the turnpoint and it continued weak as the overcast from the north shaded over the ground between Seminole and Quest.

Pilots were hanging in the thermals for long periods just to keep going. As the pilots progressed north they started dropping out under the gray overcast and over the shaded ground. Larry pushed west to get under cu's and over sunlit ground and was reward with 500 fpm to 4,500'.

Jonny and Zac went down near Oleg just a little north of Seminole. We heard from Tullia that he was cautious at 2,000' in the dark.

After slow progress four pilots were able to make it into goal (see previous article). By making goal Robin was able to leap frog from third into first. The points are tight and anything could happen on the last day.

Robin goes into the lead:

May 12, 2016, 9:36:42 pm EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

Preliminary results - four made goal

Christian Pollet|competition|James Stinnett|John Simon|Larry Bunner|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C

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

Task 6:

Results for day 5

competition|Gerry Pesavento|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Mike Glennon|Niki Longshore|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Raul Guerra|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Sport Task 5:

Cumulative:

May 11, 2016, 10:04:46 pm EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

Day 5, up and down highway 33 hoping for convergence.

competition|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Mike Glennon|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Raul Guerra|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

With light winds, cu's and a hint of convergence possibility in the center of the state the task committee called a task north to the Turnpike south to Deen Still road and back to Quest, 102 kilometers. The sport class task was just a half sized version of the same task. And we launched the sport class early so that they could fly with the open class if they wanted to.

Launching was smooth and quick and pilots stuck right away. The lift was not so great but it was plentiful. It took me eight separate thermals to get up to cloud base at 5,300'. But I had plenty of time so that didn't matter.

The cu's were filling the sky and pilots were spread out turning and trying to stay out of the clouds. While I thought I was going to take the first clock, the lift was so good at the edge of the start cylinder (and the winds so light) that I stopped inside the start cylinder and playing at staying out of the cloud, spent seventeen minutes just staying at cloud base and waiting with Oleg and John Simon for the second start.

We were a couple of kilometers south of the start cylinder circumference when the second start opened which did make quite a difference as the pilots at the cylinder edge were also high and got the jump on us.

Heading north it was a 10 kilometer glide to the next cu and thermal just on the southwest corner of the Grass Roots airfield. At an average rate of 460 fpm I was at 5,700' in no time. Still there were plenty of pilots out ahead of me. Larry started a bit lower so I was giving him the good news from in front.

It was all blue from about five kilometers out from the turnpoint and a nine kilometer glide to it without finding much lift. Coming back five kilometers more I could see all the pilots ahead of me high just north of Grass Roots. I went under them but they left right away.

Fortunately I had felt a little bit of lift that I flew threw behind me and I went a kilometer back to find the core. I hit it and climbed at 500 fpm on average to 6,000'. There apparently was a bit higher cloud base here and I again escaped being sucked into the cloud.

I headed south toward a huge black bottomed cu that stretched from the highway out to the west. Pilots were heading to the west and after a while I saw pilots turning under the cloud in that direction. I couldn't see the point of going west to get under this cloud when the east side of it was right over highway 33.

As I got closer I saw that all the pilots that were high and well over me in the last thermal were now down below me. Some of them marked a 440 fpm  thermal a little to the west and I joined them to 5,600' again just barely escaping cloud suck.

Flying south on the west side of 33, five of us out in the lead with Jonny Durand we found 570 fpm just southwest of Osborn field. We climbed to 5,700' and escaped the cloud to continue south. Ahead was a dark cloud near the fire and over the Green Swamp.

After an eleven kilometer glide I saw that none of the five pilots ahead of me over the Green Swamp were getting up so I shaded to the left toward the Seminole glider port and found weak lift. Larry found better there and was now able to catch up with me. Tullio was just a little behind us.

Things fell to pieces at this point. I was able to work light lift enough to get over the southeast corner of the Seminole glider port and hook into 360 fpm to 5,600'.

Heading south, I could hear from Larry that he was getting only 100 fpm at the Deen Still turnpoint. He moved west under a better looking cu and climbed to 5,000'.  I came into the turnpoint now behind many of the pilots that I had been able to catch earlier and then headed west to get under Larry. Perhaps I should have gone upwind to the east where other pilots were turning (although I didn't see them, there were nice cu's in that direction).

Not finding much lift in Larry's spot I headed north to where they were circling now and found very weak lift. Things had completely changed in the areas where I was flying from when we headed north and then back to just south of Quest.

After laboriously climbing to 2,500' from 1,300' AGL I headed to the northwest just to try something different. I spotted two pilots turning high above and there was another pilot low heading toward them. We got there at 900' and started working the very light lift. It was a little after 5 PM.

We spent the next 24 minutes climbing to almost 3,000' before that pilot headed south as he hadn't made the turnpoint yet apparently. I headed northwest toward two pilots circling high but found nothing underneath them. Landed by highway 33.

Larry had landed at the Seminole glider port when I started working from 900'. I was not quite able to make it high enough to join him.

Many pilots made goal today obviously not flying in the same conditions that we found ourselves after going south from Quest.

Task 5:

Day 4, results

competition|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Makbule Baldik Le Fay|Niki Longshore|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Richard Lovelace|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

Task 4:

Cumulative:

Sport task 4:

Cumulative:

May 9, 2016, 10:15:27 pm EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

A lucky day with haze domes

Christian Pollet|competition|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

Even with a forecast of 7 to 10 mph south southeast winds, no cu's and a low top of lift early, the task committee called a local task:

They wanted to keep us nearby so that we wouldn't have to drive far to get back to Quest. Hopefully the wind wouldn't be quite as strong as forecast. It turned out that the wind varied between 9 mph and 14 mph and not 6 mph as they had hoped.

I was off early going in open launch and the lift was weak right away. I stayed in it just to stay up. Finally I had to head upwind toward Quest and some pilots turning over it. Getting close the lift improved dramatically and when I signaled that by turning I suddenly became very popular with other pilots.

Climbing to 4,500' it was too early to take the first start time, so I had to stay up and wait. I dropped 1000' four minutes before the start time but found 300 fpm just in time to get back to 4,500' and head back to get inside the start cylinder to get the first start time.

I headed out with only one other pilot not sure that others would take the first start time. It was a 8 kilometer glide and then a bunch of searching and down to 1700' I found the good lift at 200 fpm and it turned out that many pilots took the first start time and they were circling above me.

Working west I wasn't able to get over 3,500' and the lift averaged below 200 fpm. There were plenty of pilots turning in front of me as I started out so low so it was easy to keep going despite the relatively low altitude.

Pilots bunched up at the Kokee turnpoint and leaving at 3,500' I headed east without seeing any pilots ahead. After gliding 5 kilometers I spotted a gaggle on the southwest corner of the forested area. I came in under it and searched around until I was down to 900' AGL. Finally found the lift right at the line between cultivate fields and the forest.

The lift averaged 250 fpm but suddenly stopped at 2,100'. I looked up and saw that all the pilots over me were heading down wind to the north so I followed them. After a two kilometer glide and down to 1,600' I saw some of the pilots circling. Getting under them I found 400 fpm on average and took it to 5,400'. I was low and now I was pretty high.

I headed north east following pilots and they started turning south of the prison in 100 fpm at 3,100'. After a few turns I noticed that there was a haze dome just to the south west. Going back just a kilometer I found 400 fpm on average to 5,600'. Only a few of us found this strong lift including Raul and James Stinnett. I didn't see Johnny but he tells me he was right above me.

Heading off quite high above the pilots who used to be above me and who were turning in weaker lift just a little further up the course line, I ignored their thermal. I found good lift at 300 fpm half way to the Baron turnpoint and then kept going to get it right after James Stinnett who apparently was right above me.

It was a thirteen kilometer glide back to the west southwest toward the turnpoint west of Lake Panasofkee. I headed further south of the course line to stay over landable areas and down to 1,300' AGL I found 230 fpm lift again at the line between an open field and the swamp to the north. As I looked north I could see the haze dome over the swamp and it looked like my thermal was feeding it.

Climbing to 4,800' I was joined by Andy, Raul, Tullio and another pilot as we headed west over the lake finding 200 fpm that took us to 5,300' just before the turnpoint. Getting the turnpoint and we turned south into a 10 mph headwind. South of the lake we found 370 fpm.

I left early at 4,400' and heading into the wind with an L/D of less than 7. I flew over Bruce on his ATOS searching low. Down to less than 2,000' I spotted a haze dome off to the south east. Six kilometers out from goal I wasn't going to make it so I turned in lift that averaged 150 fpm. Bruce joined me having gained some altitude and we climbed to 3,300' losing a kilometer and a half.

When Bruce took off I followed right behind him. Fortunately this time the sink wasn't as bad and I was getting on average 8.5 L/D into goal.

Goal was pretty popular with many pilots making it in.

Task 3 results:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1746710652

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1400749

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&l=en&date=20160324&contest=INT&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/9.5.2016/17:36

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

May 8, 2016, 0:18:45 EST -0400

2016 Quest Air Open National Championships

Fifteen in goal

Bart Weghorst|competition|James Stinnett|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

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

Task 1:

Parts 1 and 2

Bruce Barmakian|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Tullio Gervasoni|Yoko Isomoto|Zac Majors

Who's who is coming to the Quest Air Open.

Jonny Durand,
Zac Majors,
Yoko Isomoto,
Oleg Bondarchuk,
Olav Opsanger,
Robin Hamilton,
Tullio Gervasoni
Pedro Garcia,
Bruce Barmakian,
Larry Bunner,
Greg Dinauer
James Stinnett

Many of the top hang glider pilots in the world and in the US.

The slots are almost full. It is oversubscribed, but not all pilots are confirmed. First confirmed gets enrolled.

https://OzReport.com/2016QuestAirOpen.php

https://OzReport.com/2016QuestAirOpentwo.php

March 22, 2016, 8:39:16 EST -0400

2016 Team Challenge Update

April 17 - 23

James Stinnett|Oliver Gregory|PG|record|Risk Retention Group|Steven "Steve" Pearson|Tennessee Tree Toppers|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2016|weather|Zac Majors

Oliver Gregory <<olliettt1955>> writes:

TTT Team Challenge is coming up soon. We anticipate a great teaching meet with one of the best lineup of cross country mentors ever! Fifty one of sixty slots are taken, but there are always last minute cancellations and opportunities to participate! Sign up now folks! We are having a great spring so far with thermal tops over 7,000 above launch and many personal bests already! We have two launches on both sides of the valley so we can handle a crowd!

As many know, Wills Wing is bringing Demo Days to Team Challenge. Pilots can try out one of the fabulous new WW gliders! I can't wait to run a demo off one of our super easy launch sites! Steve Pearson, Zac Majors, Matt Barker, Corey Barnhart, James Stinnett, Maria and Pedro Garcia and many other cross country dogs are coming to lead cross country seminars and mentor teams!

Paragliding pilots will be excited to meet Koen Vancampenhoudt who has the Belgium cross country record of 383km in Brazil and is coming to give seminars and share his great flying experience! So far it looks like we will have 1/3 para and 2/3 hangie pilots this year!

We have great plans for seminars, parties and raptor exhibits to keep the learning and fun going full speed all week! Good food is available all week on site. Camping is great at the Henson Gap launch site.

Go to http://tttmember.org and register now. If you've donated $175 or more to the RRG after January 9^th, that donation can serve in lieu of payment for Team Challenge registration! So just send us a copy of your donation receipt, join the club for $100 and come fly!

Free fliers and lift technicians are welcome before and after competition launch Windows and during lulls in the competition launch cycles. Come camp with us and enjoy the spring weather, the seminars, parties and great flying!

The registration/check-in is set or Saturday afternoon, April 16^th. The meet starts Sunday April 17^th and finishes with the award party Saturday April 23^rd.

Looking forward to seeing you at the Tree Toppers! We are going to have a great time!

Top pilots are coming to Florida

Chris Zimmerman|CIVL|Davis Straub|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Oleg Bondarchuk|Patrick Kruse|Quest Air|Quest Air Open Nationals 2016|Robin Hamilton|Yoko Isomoto|Zac Majors

Fifty one pilots have signed up for the Quest Air Open National Championships. There are only sixty slots available. If you want to come to the competition it would be best to register now, fill out the waivers and pay for your spot as that determines who gets to come.

https://OzReport.com/2016QuestAirOpen.php

Speaking of who is coming, we have:
• https://airtribune.com/2016-quest-air-open-national-championships/pilots
• Jonny Durand, Australia, world number 1 (http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&)
• Zac Majors, world number 3, US ranked number 1, (https://OzReport.com/19.202#3)
• Yoko Isomoto, Japan, current women's world champion, (http://www.fai.org/civl-events/civl-champions/161-civl/35703-fai-champions-of-the-past-hanggliding-class1-women)
• Oleg Bondarchuk, Ukraine, world number 20, winner last year,
• Tulio Gervansoni, Italy, world number 24,
• Malcolm Brown, Great Britian, world number 41,
• Robin Hamilton, world number 46, US ranked 7,
• James Stinnett, world number 52,  US ranked 4,
• Larry Bunner, world number 64, US ranked 6,
• Davis Straub, world number 70, US ranked 3,
• Olav Olsen, world number 95,
• Chris Zimmerman, US ranked 8,
• Greg Dinauer, US ranked 10,
• Patrick Kruse, US ranked 11.

Five women pilots are entered, the most in quite a while.

Seven sport class pilots and four ATOS pilots (again the most in quite a while).

Most of these top pilots are also coming in the Quest Air Open (part 2):
https://OzReport.com/2016QuestAirOpentwo.php
https://airtribune.com/qao22016/pilots

Twenty five pilots have already signed up for this high level competition.

October 4, 2015, 8:31:47 MST -0600

Keeping score at the 2015 Canungra Classic

Tim Cummings responds

James Stinnett|Tim Cummings

competition|James Stinnett|Tim Cummings

competition|James Stinnett|Tim Cummings

Tim Cummings writes:

The Canungra Classic is trying to appeal to pilots new to competition as well as to the top pilots. We run an "Alternate Launch" for new competition pilots to launch before the main field. These pilots struggle staying in the air for long periods of time waiting for the main start gate so we want them to be able to fly the course early. Unfortunately recent changes to FS mean that any pilot jumping the gun more than 5 minutes before the first start gate are given zero points for the day. This is totally demoralising for any new pilots and will result in them not competing again. I have even heard from top pilots who have been caught out by this rule. Our solution is to run earlier start gates but then these early launching pilots will take away the lead out points from the top pilots starting later so lead out points have been disabled. By using Arrival Time points we will reward the top pilots who are expected to overtake the new pilots before reaching goal. By coincidence this matches OzGap2005.

Personally, I am happy to use lead out points with early start gates. I think that if the first start gate is the optimal start gate then it is not early enough. However, the top pilots argue strongly that if there are lead out points, then they need to be able to get the first start gate.

I am not a fan of Arrival Place Points, because I think they provide a disproportionate incentive for pilots to overtake other pilots while crossing the finish line which could lead to unsafe actions and are not a measure of any hang gliding skill which needs to be rewarded. Arrival Time Points don't have this problem.

Davis describes the choice of a nominal distance GAP parameter of 40km as a sport class or weak site value. Mt Tamborine is a west facing site but due to a coastline and airspace there is no opportunity to head east. Hence tasks from Mt Tamborine will always have a headwind component. Using a higher nominal distance will lead to devalued tasks on days which actually provide quite a good test of pilots skills. The purpose of the parameters is to determine how much luck is involved in doing well on a day compared to other pilots. I think the nominal time parameter does this the best. If the task is too short then the winners will easily beat the nominal time and the task will be devalued.

Hi Tim,

Good to see that you helped set up the scoring.

I, of course, agree with all that you have stated here.

First, while the default values in FS set the Jump the Gun value to 5 minutes you can set it to 1000 seconds, 16 and 2/3 rd's minutes. Also you can set the value of the seconds per point, say 60 seconds for one point, which really decreases the penalty points for going early. Still you get only minimum distance if you go way early.

Second, I don't think that this is a recent change but has been in the GAP 2002 implementation in FS for quite a while.

Third, yes, on one day at Big Spring, with lots of wind, some pilots weren't able to stay inside the start cylinder and jumped the gun without wishing to and the quality of the day was reduced (which James Stinnett hated) because their distances were set to minimum.

https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results/task859/day/open-class

Fourth, it is not a coincidence that it matches OzGAP 2005. It is OzGAP 2005 implemented in FS.

Fifth, I certainly agree with you regarding Arrival Position Points and Arrival Time Points. As I pointed out this could be fixed fairly easily in FS. You would just have to make it so if you check the check box for Leading Points, then Arrival Time Points are only allocated the amount of points that would have gone to Arrival Position Points, not the points allocated to the Sum of Leading Points and Arrival Position Points.

Sixth, regarding the choice of nominal distance, check out the first day's results.

Discuss "Keeping score at the 2015 Canungra Classic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

October 2, 2015, 8:23:08 MST -0600

Ranking

WPRS is updated

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alexandra "Sasha" Serebrennikova|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Chris Zimmerman|CIVL|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robin Hamilton|Suan Selenati|USHPA|World Pilot Ranking Scheme|Zac Majors

USHPA ranking:

http://www.ushpa.aero/competition/ntss1/index.php

CIVL ranking, USA:

http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&nation_id=235&

CIVL ranking:

http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&

Females:

http://civlrankings.fai.org/?a=326&ladder_id=1&female=1

Discuss "Ranking" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Old guys rule

Giving them a run for their money

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Zac Majors

Bruce Barmakian|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Zac Majors

Bruce Barmakian|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Zac Majors

http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/flytec-race-rally-2015/results/class-1-open/task-5-on-2015-05-22/total

At the 2015 Flytec Race and Rally in May I finished 4^th. I am ranked 75^th in the World and 7^th in the US. Behind me were all the US pilots flying in the competition:

Zac Majors, 3^rd in the World, 1^st in the US

Jonas Lobitz, 9^th in the World

Konrad Heilman, 33^rd in the World

Max Turiaco, 39^th in the World

Bruce Barmakian, 35^th in the World, 6^th in the US

James Stinnett, 36^th in the World, 5^th in the US

Dustin Martin, 51^st in the World, 11^th in the US

Larry Bunner, 64^th in the World, 9^th in the US

Now I've doomed myself for the Santa Cruz Flats Race.

Discuss "Old guys rule" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The off switch again on the final day

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Gerry Pesavento|James Stinnett|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|PG|Robin Hamilton|USHPA|US Nationals 2015|weather|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Results: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/blog__day_7

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=328673370

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/8.8.2015/19:06

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1235059

We were faced again with the prospect of a windy (10-15 mph) day with the constraint that we needed to get back to Big Spring at 9 PM for the awards dinner. We often have tasks that come back to the airport because the winds are light in August, but not this year.

The task committee came up with a zig zag task that would give us again a cross wind component of strong winds.

The winds on launch were about the same as on Friday so there was no drama. We've had once again a perfectly safe competition with no injuries.

The sky was blue again as has been the case for most days this year in contrast to all the other years when we regularly get cu's at 1 PM. The wet weather in Texas since the winter has suppressed the lift and there have been inversions (which we never had before) every day.

I got off early again and there was lift right at the end of the runway. Pilots have been asking to be towed straight upwind no matter what the lift and Russell just kept right on going instead of turning in the lift. That was fine because I knew where it was.

Pilots were upset earlier when tug pilots would not continue upwind because with the strong winds it was too easy to get blown back and have to quickly land back at launch without risking going downwind to find lift.

There was lift back where we originally flew through it and I slowly climbed out watching Olav Olsen, Larry, and Dangerous Dave (he really is dangerous in gaggles) thermal up higher than me upwind. I was hoping that my lift would be good enough to get me back up and not drift me outside the 10 km start cylinder. I couldn't really hope to get under them by pushing upwind. I was going up at 94 fpm and drifting at 12 mph.

At 6,700' and feeling okay I moved east a little to over a recently built pond watching the wind lines and found 135 fpm. Now the pilots south of me came downwind and joined me. We climbed to over 8,400' still three kilometers inside the start cylinder with 38 minutes to go before the race start gate.

We pushed up wind and did some more twirling to soak up the rest of the minutes. Other pilots joined us and a few minutes before the start we found 220 fpm and climbed back up to 8,500' and a good start with about a third of the field all enjoying themselves in the gaggle.

Cory and I headed out first when the lift got too weak and no one was willing to lead out. We are all together and it is a race against each other so there is no advantage in leading. But I got tired of the whole wait for the other guy thing (one of my many weaknesses).

After a few thermals with ten of us in the lead the lift was weak, often less than 100 fpm, sometimes a little over 200 fpm on average. Broken and moving about. James, Robin, Olav Olsen, and another pilot or two got high on the rest of us and got away. I was hanging with Zippy and Dangerous with a four or five others following.

It wasn't until we were 27 km north of the start cylinder that we found 500 fpm. I had lead out three times moving quickly to the newly forming wispies and it just took awhile to find the best lift.

Zac raced off right after the 500 fpm thermal, which got us to 10,000' and I took off after him. I could not keep up. One of the keys to Zac's good performance is the ease and willingness that he has to go very fast on glide when conditions allow for it.

Again with light lift and a 12-15 mph tail wind we made it quickly to the west side of the 5km turnpoint at 1T out in the dry areas where the top soil is thin and they don't/can't grow cotton.

Heading to the northwest just behind Dave and Zac and to their right I found the lift over the remains of the canyon before it goes up to the plateau and the croplands at 240 fpm. They both turned around and came back to me. They must have mirrors on their gliders. We climbed almost to 8,000'.

Before us stretched the crop lands and the prospect of weak lift. No cu's or wispies ahead. It looked like we would suffer as we had in previous days when we didn't go to the east and get over the drier and thinner lands. There were ponds and lakes every where, something that we haven't seen before in Big Spring.

A 9 km glide and we caught up with Olav Olsen turning in 8 fpm. Apparently Robin Hamilton was already on the ground.

We moved further west and found 15 fpm. Then found 240 fpm. The guys I was with including Ospanger, Zac, Bruce, Pannese, Dave, and Danny found a better core and left with 500' on me. I left with 6,700' and headed for the 10 km radius turnpoint at Welch northwest of La Mesa.

I watched the guys ahead and above me to see how they would do. Making the turnpoint and heading into the 17 mph south southeast wind toward Tahoka, I didn't see them start to circle. I headed further north, downwind of their track to check out some other areas and watching the ground for ponds or other wind disruptors, I found weak lift that averaged 72 fpm. I was by myself at 4,200' (1,200' AGL).

Although drifting north of the northeast course line I stayed in whatever I had so I could get high enough to head further east. I moved over a little to the west and found 133 fpm and worked it.

One pilot came in under me and then Larry came in at about my level and popped up above me. I worked it until the lift quit at 6,650'. Larry was 200' over me as we headed east northeast 8 km downwind of the course line. After a couple of kilometers he stopped and turned in 50 fpm. I didn't find that lift.

I continued easterly skimming the cotton fields. Down to 100' I had picked out a nice field and then saw that Zippy and Olav were breaking down right there I landed next to them. Larry would continue on for another six kilometers and win the day. No one made goal. I was 15 km short.

Six of us landed within half a kilometer of each other. The guys who got high on me and made the turnpoint in front of me never found lift after that.

James Stinnett was about 8 kilometers behind us but 20 kilometers ahead of Robin so he held on strong to second place after Robin was one point behind him after six days. Robin dropped from third down to fifth.

The wet cropped fields to the north and northwest of Big Spring cut dramatically into the lift that we normally expect here in Big Spring. The combination of strong winds, weak lift and cross wind tasks made it difficult, still we were able to get across a lot of country.

Everyone indicated that once again they had a great time flying in the best competition site in the US. They were very appreciative of Belinda Boulter as the meet director and want to come back next year for some more great flying.

We raised $2,840 for the needy children in Big Spring and the Cloudbase Foundation added another $1,000. The folks from the Rainbow Room came to our awards dinner and presented the USHPA and Cloudbase with plagues stating how much they appreciate our substantial support of their effort.

Matt's landing on the last day:

Task 7 results:

https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results/task7/day/open-class

Final results:

There were a number of former Sport class pilots (last year) flying in open class including Danny Jones, Cory Barnwell, Jeff Bohl, Jeff Kannard, Matt Christensen, and Patrick Pannese. There were a few others that were Sport Class pilots previously. Sport Class is the feeder class for Open Class.

The off switch

competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|Gerry Pesavento|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|PG|US Nationals 2015|Wayne Michelsen|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Results: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

Blog and live tracking and replay: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/blog__day_7

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=195761036

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1233318

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/7.8.2015/20:17

It was windy and blue at launch at 2 PM. Tiki pulled me up fifth and for the first time ever I was being towed so slow that when the rope bellied I broke a two hundred pound weak link at 500'. That pretty much screwed my day.

I got back in line but it was soon too late for the first start clock. I got another tow but didn't find any lift. On the third tow I raced downwind to get under Dave Proctor and we climbed out at 150 fpm as the clocked ticked down to the second time at 3:50 PM for the start window.

After getting up the lift was strong and there were wispies along our route:

We were racing trying to catch the guys a half hour in front. Ground speeds were in the 60's (mph) with a 17 mph south southeast wind.

We climbed higher in each thermal and jumped from wispy to wispy getting to 10,700'. It took merely an hour and forty minutes to go 125 km (plus ten for the start cylinder). Then the lift stopped.

I stayed near or to the right of the course line given the second leg to the north northeast and the south southeast winds.

South west of Post at over 10,000' I headed for some cu's northeast of Post. Down to under 7,000' northwest of Post I took 240 fpm to 8,500' just to make sure that I could make it to the cu's. I figured that they were enough east of the course line and that I would get high enough to make it in to goal from cloud base.

Unfortunately by the time I got to them they were dying and it was all blue out in front in a open canyon. I continued toward the goal but it looked like I was diving into a blue hole.

I saw some little wispies off downwind across the north south highway. I decided that that was my best chance to get up. I went to the best looking and newly forming cu and got nothing. I had gained no distance toward goal. I was 30 km away.

I headed north just so that I could land up on the plateau and have an easier retrieve. When I got to the edge of the canyon I found lift that turned into 190 fpm. I was being blown to the northwest away from goal at 17 to 19 mph.

I figured that if I could climb to 11,000' I could make it back to the goal despite the wind. There were wispies forming further to the northwest and I climbed to 7,500' before going to them and getting up to 9,200' but that was it.

It was a glide toward goal with a strong quartering head wind and I got within 8.3 km.

I was on the radio with Larry Bunner. I almost caught him just passed Post but he took the earlier start gate and was able to get up and into goal before I had to turn and take my chances with the wispies downwind. I landed a little after 7 PM.

Preliminary results:

Updated results

Alejandro Gonzalez|Bruce Barmakian|competition|David Gibson|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Robin Hamilton|US Nationals 2015|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Results: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

Blog and live tracking and replay: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/blog__day_6

Task 5:

Cumulative:

Sport class:

2015 Big Spring Nationals - task 2

A late start after rain in the morning

competition|James Stinnett|US Nationals 2015

Results: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

Dave Gibson and James Stinnett.

Dave Gibson writes:

Had a highly irritating re-light. Flew with James Stinnett and Grant Emary all the way. We mostly hedged slightly upwind of the optimized line in the S/SE crosswind. Weak until we got under small cu's east of LaMesa. Had a semi-low save east of LaMesa, dropped them there as we crossed the windmills.

Lucky.

Dave was happy to finally get a shot of him before launching when he is happy.

With light rain and lots of overcast in the morning but with a forecast of sunshine in the afternoon the task is held until a 3 PM launch and 4:20 PM start. Light to no lift in the start circle. I never found lift after pinning off and heading for a guy circling under the only cu nearby.

Task was short to a 40 km circle northeast of LaMesa and then back to LaMesa airport. 10 mph at least south east wind. Pilots left with out much altitude having to hang around for an hour in strong winds before they could cross the 5 km start cylinder. There were at least 10 relites.

Results are not up as I write this.

2015 Big Spring Nationals - task 1

Rain at the first turnpoint

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Gerry Pesavento|James Stinnett|Moyes Litespeed RX|US Nationals 2015|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Results: https://airtribune.com/2015-big-spring-nationals/results

It was all blue at 1 PM so we held back on the launch half an hour. Just a cu or two, small and very scattered at 1:30 PM, but it was possible to get up in the blue. I notice half a dozen pilots had to relaunch. Dave Proctor landed on the as yet uncompleted freeway that goes around Big Spring to the south.

As the 2:50 PM clock approached a bunch of us were almost to ten thousand feet under a tiny flat cu. It stopped five minutes before the start window opened so we lost 1,000' before heading out to the northwest. There were cu's ahead and we headed for them.

We could see further off to the west between us and the turnpoint 60 km away that the ground was shaded and there looked like there might be rain. As we got closer to the shade it was clear that there was rain and it looked like it was at the turnpoint and to its south a ways.

I was working weak lift in the shade and slowly drifting toward the turnpoint. I had got out in front early but was now very concerned about the rain. The air was pleasant though to the east of the rain so I just hung in light lift low as I approached the turnpoint. I watched the wall of rain for half an hour hoping that it would let up and let us through.

Two kilometers out I was in the light rain at the northern edge of the wall and going up at 600 fpm. It was pleasant enough and smooth and the rain was not bad. I wanted to get high enough to make the turnpoint and then get back under the rain cloud to the north where there might be light rain and lift again, but I was drifting north past the turnpoint at 6,000' so I had to stop climbing and tag it.

Once I headed right for it to the west the rain increased greatly and I was in the down air going down at 1,200 fpm on the twenty second averager. I raced to the point in rowdy air and then turned to run away as fast as possible falling out of the sky. Made it a few kilometers but not too far and landed in a nice big field in the gust front from the rain.

Turns out that the task was stopped three minutes after I landed. My radio wasn't working so I was unaware that Zac had contacted Belinda and said it was unsafe. She contacted other pilots and decided to stop the task at 4:14. Timothy, scoring the task, took the time back one time interval (half an hour on this task) and so the scoring was stopped at 3:44. When I called Belinda to tell her about the rain an the gust front she was already calling drivers to tell their pilots that the task was stopped.

Timothy and I had a nerve wracking time figuring out how to score a stopped task in FS. It ain't what you think it is. They apologize for their method, which doesn't actually work.

A wall of rain at a turnpoint makes for an exciting task. Hopefully that is our only encounter with one of those this week.

2015 Flytec Race and Rally - day 7

A little bit too gusty at the Souther field

(Quest Air, Groveland, Florida, USA)

Davis Straub|Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Flytec Race and Rally 2015|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|Wills Wing T2C

https://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

Mitch Shipley, the meet director, called the day after taking the Dragonfly up and finding the wind a bit too gusty below 2,000'. Hot with no cu's did not entice us into the sky either. Pilots have had a great couple of comps and had no crying need to get into the air again given the uninviting conditions.

Final results: http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/frr-2015/results/class-1-open/task-5-on-2015-05-22/total

On Thursday night Naviter changed the Soaring Spot and SeeYou with an upgrade that caused problems for scoring. Mitch had to stay up until three in the morning to get things working. It was all okay by 7 AM on Saturday morning

Jonny and Oleg changed spots from the Quest Air Open National Championships. Pedro from Spain entered this competition but not the Quest Air Open. The top three US pilots were: Davis Straub, Jeff Shapiro, and James Stinnett. John Simon, who we often see at the ECC, was fourth in the US.

2015 Race and Rally - day 6

We fly cross wind but the first half under the cu's

(Quest Air, Groveland, Florida, USA)

Bruce Barmakian|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Greg Chastain|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konrad Heilmann|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Oleg Bondarchuk|PG|Quest Air|Race and Rally 2015|Richard Lovelace|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

https://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/day-6-2/

After a rest day in Vidalia when the winds were strong out of the west, we looked forward to a nice flight with light winds out of the north. Fortunately the task committee was very flexible and the task was changed twice. The last time based on the conditions just before the launch where a shelf of mid level clouds came over from the east and cut down on the lift. While there were great looking cu's to the west.

Given the forecast for light northerly winds the task committee just a goal 96 kilometers to the west northwest. A cross wind task. The skies looked blue to the south.

Actually the shelf of clouds retreated right after the new call and there were cu's all around us, but not further to the south. The forecast had been for no cu's at all, but there were plenty. I told pilots that it was likely that they would thin out and perhaps disappear later in the day as the cloud base rose and the dry air mass above was encountered. That in fact did happen.

With plenty of cu's marking the lift, launch was easy and pilots went from cu to cu staying up and getting to cloud base around 4,500'. The wind was 7 mph from the northeast and we were heading northwest.

Leaving the start cylinder at 2:30 PM high, there was a choice about how far to head upwind of the course line. John Simon (I can see him because his bottom surface is so green) headed to the downwind side of the course line. The lift was about 200 fpm and broken so it was unclear exactly what line to take.

Zippy and Pedro headed northwest and I followed. Oleg was just below and behind us. After a couple of weak thermals I lost contact with Zippy and Pedro and headed along the course line on the north side while they pushed further to the north northwest. Things markedly improved and I found 400 fpm.

There was a wide forested area ahead surrounding a river. I raced ahead to find John Simon on his own circling north of the course line after he had started way to the south. I came in under him and found 300 fpm. I could not catch up with him over the next two thermals and finally had to ignore him and head for the best looking clouds.

Speaking of clouds, they were thinning out and getting further apart. Crossing the river as it turned to the north northwest, I headed for the few remaining clouds. The climb rates were still high under the cu's.

The cu's were gone 40 km from goal and it was now time to start looking at the ground instead of the sky. The lift seemed to be coming from open fields with trees lining the southwest edges and the wind blowing over the fields and hitting the tree lines. I was still alone but in contact with Larry just behind me.

We worked the fields together and soon were joined by three other pilots, including Richard, Malcolm, and Ollie. Richard was willing to lead out a few times. I saw a little forming wisp ahead to the left and headed for it. Richard turned when he saw it and it was good at 300 fpm. We all packed in together all at about the same altitude.

Richard headed out at 17 km out and I followed to his left. He just missed the thermal at 13 km out and came back to join me as did the crew with Ollie just over my head. We climbed to 4,600' which was plenty for a fast glide into goal.

http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/frr-2015/results/class-1-open/task-5-on-2015-05-22/daily

Cumulative: http://www.soaringspot.com/en_gb/frr-2015/results/class-1-open/task-5-on-2015-05-22/total

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=2126048672

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1166560

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20150304&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/22.5.2015/17:23

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

2015 Race and Rally - day 4

We are supermen as we fly downwind.

(Quest Air, Groveland, Florida, USA)

Davis Straub|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Oleg Bondarchuk|PG|Quest Air|Race and Rally 2015|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/day-4-3/

https://flytecraceandrally.wordpress.com/

The upwind task yesterday tired out the pilots and with a bit stronger winds today they wanted to go downwind. The task was at first from Moultrie to Vidalia, 183 km, but the meet director shortened it to Hazelhurst, 141 km.

The forecast was for good lift, with cloud base between 5,000' and 6,000'. No chance of thunderstorms and a west northwest wind of 11 to 12 mph. The actual wind was up to 24 mph. Most of the wind was above 13 mph.

The sky was full of cu's and Tiki in the trike was going up at 1,100 fpm over the FBO when she took we up the second time. The first time we were doing 100 fpm and when I pointed to a direction I wanted to go I accidentally brushed the release and got off at 900' in sink.

The wind was 11 mph out of the west which formed cloud streets and most of us beat our way upwind to even outside the start cylinder to wait for about an hour to get the first start gate. With the good lift it was easy to stay inside the start cylinder.

After working five thermals to 4,500', cloud base, I worked 125 fpm in the northeast quadrant and drifted a little outside the cylinder before taking the first start time a little to the north of the course line.

I headed out quickly with only one pilot ahead of me but we were soon on the downwind side of the course line. There were at least a dozen pilots nearby including Oleg. Larry was 6 km to the north of the line. We soon found a number of thermals and the gaggles were thick.

After a few climbs, we went on a 13 km glide getting ourselves back to the north side but down to 2,600' in 200 fpm lift. Oleg and Jonny had pressed ahead higher. As a bunch of us worked our way up I saw someone climbing northeast of us and headed there. 350 fpm up to 5,300'. As we headed out to the northeast a number of us flew high over Jonny and Oleg.

As we headed east the wind speed picked up. We would choose to head northeast when possible to get further upwind of the course line but mostly head for the best looking clouds. The lift averaged about 250 fpm. I had a bunch of klingon's, but left most of them behind as I caught up with Larry.

Down to 2,300' I found 300 fpm south east of Fitzgerald, 50 km out from goal, and that proved attractive as Larry joined me again and Oleg flew back to get in it. At the next thermal, we hooked up with Jonny and Max finding 380 fpm and 20 mph winds to 5,800'.

We could see a river and forest ahead on the north side of the course line. We, Larry, Max, Oleg, Jonny and I,  knew about this forest from the pilot briefing at 30 kilometers out we got under a dark cu on the course line and climbed to 5,600', all of us at about the same altitude. Leaving the cu Oleg headed to the north northeast. Jonny got a big bump and got higher. Max was the highest behind the others.

Larry and I headed more along the course line but trending toward going over the river with Oleg, Jonny and Max. It was blue all along the river which did not recommend it.

Down to 3,500' Larry and I headed turned right and headed for a big cu over cultivated lands. Down to 2,000 I saw James Stinnett high above us. We flew into 380 fpm. This got us to 4,200' thirteen km from goal. Oleg had abandoned the river and joined us.

I headed out with 12:1 required. Oleg came right behind me and John Simon, who came from no where, below me. Larry was just behind.

It was a quick glide to goal, where we found that Jonny and Max had found lift over the river and made goal just behind James.

Results for day 4:http://soaringspot.com/2015frr/results/flex/daily/day4.html

Cumulative after four days: http://soaringspot.com/2015frr/results/flex/total/day4.html

Live tracking: and replay (at 10 times the speed) https://airtribune.com/flytec-rally-2015/blog__day_4

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1955565718

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1164403

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20150304&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/20.5.2015/16:57

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

2015 Race and Rally - day 3

We fly upwind for the whole flight

(Quest Air, Groveland, Florida, USA)

Bruce Barmakian|Davis Straub|James Stinnett|Jeff Shapiro|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Oleg Bondarchuk|PG|Quest Air|Race and Rally 2015|Richard Lovelace|Wills Wing T2C

The Race and Rally format presents us with "interesting" flights. Today the task was to fly to Moultrie, Georgia from Live Oak, Florida. The wind was forecasted to be 5 to 9 mph west. The task was to first fly west northwest to a safety turnpoint to keep us out of a swamp and away from airspace, then fly northwest to  Moultrie airport. The wind strength and direction varied, but it was headwind all the way.

Mick Howard towed me to what I thought was a strong thermal so I pinned off early and then promptly proceeded to miss the thermal. After searching around in lift that averaged zero I headed upwind to where other pilots much higher than I had gone. Down to less than 600' AGL, I found a small bit of lift next to the runway and just hung in there as it increased to 200 fpm to 3000'.

I worked patches of lift averaging about 100 fpm as I worked my way upwind to the edge of the start cylinder with a 6 to 8 mph head wind. Ten minutes before the first start gate I finally found some good lift and got up to cloud base at 4,300', which made for a good start.

With better lift, 250 to 300 fpm, we all worked our way west against the wind. I took the lead early but then quickly lost it missing  a climb as I went further south after hearing from Bruce. I got back together with John Simon and Felix and we made a good run to the turnpoint.

Zac and Jonny, who started twenty minutes after us, caught us just after the turnpoint, so it was clear that we were struggling with the headwind and lack of really strong lift.

I pushed upwind further than many if not all pilots going 5 kilometers to the west of the course line and flying the east/west cloud streets. I could see the swamp to our north and wanted to be sure that I stayed over landable fields and near retrieve roads. I was often low and not getting very high. I was also on my own.

Around 4:30 PM we came into an area of few clouds near the town of Quitman. Lift was down to 100 fpm and the west wind was 10 mph.  There were quite a few pilots around and we were all searching and sampling. Little wispies would pop up and we would head for them.

I pushed forward and down to 750' found 250 fpm over a cropped field. That got me back to 3,000'. I pressed forward again and then saw Jonas circling up from 800' just to my north and joined him in 300 fpm to 4,500'.

Jonas sprinted ahead as I took a more cautious line upwind of him to some smaller cu's while he went under a big one but too low and landed. Still I was only able to get back to 2,400' before I had to push into the wind again.

The clouds were returning and I headed for some small ones. Down to 1,100' AGL I worked a row of trees upwind of open fields in light sink pushing north to see if there was a better thermal coming off a small field just upwind. There was and it was 300 fpm .

Larry Bunner came over me (we were in radio contact) and I climbed up with another pilot. At 4,300' we headed toward some thick cu's to the northwest. Larry was already there and going up. A pilot lower than us was working his way up also just downwind of us. I thought I recognized the harness. I went over toward him and sure enough I could see the Red Bull billboard on the bottom surface coming through the Technora top surface. It was Jonny Durand. I hadn't been as slow as I had thought after the turnpoint.

We were going up at 660 fpm and I was the highest glider in the best thermal of the day. This meant that I had to leave first as we were quickly at cloud base. I just escaped the cloud at 5,600' and headed on course. But this was a problem.

We were twenty kilometers from goal and I had positive numbers with an 11:1 glide required to make it but with the headwind I would not get that good a glide. The smart thing to do at this point would have been to wait for thirty seconds and join up with Larry and Jonny.

They took a course to the right toward more good looking cu's, while I headed for not such nice looking ones on course. Those cu's turned out to not work. I even turned ninety degrees upwind to get under more of them and at 6 PM they were just not working.

Jonny and Larry found good lift under the clouds to the right and with a little help from a forming cloud made it to goal. Jonny broke the Wills Wing streak of eight day wins in a row.

The results from day 3: http://soaringspot.com/2015frr/results/flex/daily/day3.html

Cumulative: http://soaringspot.com/2015frr/results/flex/total/day3.html

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1868384582

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1164046

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20150304&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/19.5.2015/16:40

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-open/

Ends with a bit of a whimper

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Øyvind Ellefsen|Bill Soderquist|Brian Porter|Bruce Barmakian|Chris Arai|Chris Zimmerman|James Stinnett|Joe Bostik|Kraig Coomber|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/flex/daily/day5.html

Last day with no one at goal:

Overdevelopment (as forecast) puts shading all over and a bit of rain to the south of the course line. The day ends up shaded and weak.

The final results:

The Moyes men clean up.

Cory Barnwell wins sport class with a bit of strategy starting early in the open launch and getting out on the course before it gets shut down.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/daily/day5.html

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/club/day-by-day.html

Brian Porter hangs on to win the Swift class after a scare from Chris Zimmerman.

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/results/open/total/day5.html

Discuss "2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race

After two days

(Francisco Grande, Casa Grande, Arizona, USA)

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Zac Majors

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

Chris Arai|Dustin Martin|James Stinnett|Kraig Coomber|Robin Hamilton|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2014|Wills Wing|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

http://soaringspot.com/scfr14/

Discuss "2014 Santa Cruz Flats Race" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The final results

(Brasilia, DF, Brazil)

Brasilia 2014|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Wills Wing

Finals:

http://www.abvl.com.br/compes/competicao-2/RESULTADOS/

Discuss "2014 Brasilia" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Team Challenge 2014

Last Sunday of September

(Henson's Gap ramp, TN, USA)

James Stinnett|Jamie Shelden|Mike Barber|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oliver Gregory|Steve Kroop|video

http://tennesseetreetoppers.com/

http://ozreport.com/18.051#1

Oliver Gregory<<olliettt1955>> writes:

We will be starting the meet the last Sunday of September. As always, it is a weeklong meet. We will have catered breakfast and peppers. We will have daily lectures and seminars. We will have video launch and landing clinics as material becomes available. It is an exceptional learning experience as so many pilots across the nation can attest. Mitch Shipley and Mike Barber, among many other talented instructors are coming to help us with the meet. We anticipate the awesome Jamie Shelden, James Stinnett and Steve Kroop will come by and either fly in the meet, or help out with seminars and wing technician duties. It's always a lot of fun and always a great learning experience for up and coming cross country pilots. Go to http://tennesseetreetoppers.org and register now.

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

Results from Day 6

(Souther field)

Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Davide Guiducci|Fabiano Nahoum|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Oleg Bondarchuk|Tullio Gervasoni|Tyler Borradaile|Zac Majors

The top loosens up.

http://soaringspot.com/facsp/

Day 6:

Cumulative:

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

Day 1 results

(Souther field)

Christian Ciech|Fabiano Nahoum|Greg Dinauer|James Stinnett|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Oleg Bondarchuk|Tullio Gervasoni

The 2014 Flytec Americus Cup

http://soaringspot.com/facsp/results/flex/daily/day1.html