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topic: James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw (56 articles)

White Water 250 km FAI Triangle

Fri, Jun 4 2021, 8:26:31 am MDT

More good conditions in the Midwest

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|triangle|Wills Wing T3

Flytec 6030|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|triangle|Wills Wing T3

Larry Bunner writes:

The extraordinarily epic weather continued this week in the upper Midwest with multiple soaring days. On Wednesday high cloudbase (9000’) and light winds warranted a long triangle task. I awoke early to confirm the weather was holding and selected two 250km tasks one of which I extended to 300km in the event the climb rates were exceptionally strong. On my way to Whitewater, WI our longstanding aerotow park that friend Danny Lange operates, I fired off a text to Kris Grzyb about the weather. He responded that he was leaving work to come up and fly.

The top of the lift was predicted to be over 5000’ at 10:00 so the plan was to be ready to takeoff when the cumulus clouds started popping. Kris arrived and we selected a 250km FAI triangle around the city of Madison in a clockwise direction to ensure any high clouds that may arrive from the west later in the day wouldn’t shut the conditions down.

Airspace would be an issue should we have any drift however there was plenty of room on this task to divert should we need to. Danny pulled me and my Wills Wing T3 Team 144 up at 11:11 through a lot of sink before finding lift under a nice cloud to the north. The climb was strong at 430fpm to 7500’, unbelievable for so early in the day. Clouds were lined up to the west toward Lake Koshkonong however the lift near the lake was broken. Better clouds to the northwest resulted in good climbs, one with Kris to over 8200’ right at the edge of a nice street.

The day was shaping up well however the street didn’t work very well for me as I flew under multiple clouds missing the lift and plummeted to 800’ above the ground. A lucky climb over a a farmer on his tractor plowing his field took me to 8000’ at an average climb rate of 424fpm. Whew back in the game again however Kris was long gone.

I continued to plow west under four clouds without a decent climb before managing to get back above 7000’ again at the first turnpoint. It took a long time to get there and I began to doubt whether the task could be finished however the clouds to the northeast looked powerful with dark flat bottoms indicating strong lift. The next climb was to cloudbase at 8700’ and I hit 8 in a row topping out near base in each thermal with the best average climb at 702fpm and top altitude over 9200’. And with that I was at the second turnpoint of Gilbert in just over 2 hours.

On this leg I was beginning to feel fatigued so gorped down a Clif Shot Espresso energy gel, chased it with some water and within minutes the tenseness in my lower back was gone.

Radio problems kept Kris and I separated most of the flight. I could hear him sporadically (and he, me) however the communications were garbled with a lot of static; not really discernible. It was tough to leave the line of clouds that led to Gilbert however the last leg of the flight was 78km back to Whitewater to the southeast. Unfortunately there was big blue hole on the course line with the only reachable clouds to the south.

It turns out both of us took this path. Flying toward the Madison Airport was a bit daunting as we were staring right down the barrel of the main runway. Thankfully no air traffic was on our flight path. I climbed from 3600’ to 6200’, took a look at the airspace on the 6030 map page and knew the only legal path was to head east. This was a good decision as I topped out at 8500’ and headed southeast where Kris was thermaling under the next cloud. Our contact was only temporary as he left up high and I took another path. We never saw each other again.

The climbs were now suppressed as the day was getting long; 250fpm was the new norm and the lift was super smooth. The cumulus clouds were dissipating rapidly so the visual clues of lift were farther apart and less prominent. South of US Rte 94 I found a thermal in the blue and settled in for a long climb. I relaxed and concentrated on maximizing my climb eventually leaving at 7400’, 20 miles from goal needing a 16:1 glide ratio to make it in.

Heading southeast on a long glide into the blue I was maintaining my numbers but wasn’t confident they would last. Off to the east near Jefferson there were the remnants of the last clouds in the sky so changed direction to get one last climb. Ever so faint wisps of cloud were forming before the clouds in front of me where I eventually found lift, starting at 100fpm and slowly ramping up over the next 15 minutes to 450fpm. I left at 7000’ now needing a 10:1 glide with the 6030 showing that I would arrive at 2000’. Woohoo, I was going to make it.

The final glide was surreal as I flew over familiar territory noting the landmarks beneath with the airport slowly rising in the distance. The roller coaster of emotions from the day were now peaking after the low 800’ save early in the flight to the 1000+fpm peak climb on the second leg to this, the thrill of flying my longest triangle. I was totally stoked. There isn’t anything much better than to set an aggressive goal that is on the edge of being achievable and then going out and making it happen. I touched down at the airport after flying for 7hrs and 56 minutes and over 250km (150 miles). Kris arrived ahead of me and was already celebrating with a fine Polish beer. What an incredible day!

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2021 New Zealand National Hang Gliding Championships

Mon, Feb 8 2021, 8:49:02 am EST

Perhaps the Worlds in 2025?

COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

competition|COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

competition|COVID|Facebook|Ian Clark|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Smith|New Zealand Nationals 2021|photo|video

https://airtribune.com/43rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results

Matt Barlow «Matt Barlow» writes:

Wow what a comp it has been. After not making goal for two days in a row and plummeting in the rankings, John Smith pulled out all stops winning the last three days with perfect 1000 point wins on each day.

As good as this was though Ian Clark flew faultlessly throughout the entire competition making goal every day and was crowned the undisputed 2021 New Zealand Hang Gliding Champion. Outstanding flying Ian, and a job very well done.

John Smith finished in second place, defending champion Matt Barlow 3rd.

Congratulations also goes out to Henning Kruger, beating out some stiff competition and becoming our 2021 Sport Class Champion.

Inaugural winners of the 'Kahu Cup' - (Inter Club comp) were Southern, followed by Aorangi, and Canterbury taking third place. For full results of day eight and the overall results just click on the link below:

https://airtribune.com/43rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results/task4960/day/open

For various photos and videos of the last day including prize giving, just visit the Flying Kiwis facebook page below:

https://www.facebook.com/Flying-Kiwis-1080353552175519/

For a look at all comp information and tasks including 2D replays just visit the comp page on Airtribune:

https://airtribune.com/43rd-new-zealand-hang-gliding-nationals-fai-cat-2/results

Huge thanks go to the many volunteers and helpers that pitched in and made this our most successful and enjoyable Nationals ever!

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - We are seriously considering placing a bid for the 2025 World Hang Gliding Championships. With so much uncertainty in the rest of the world but New Zealand being Covid free, and with Murchison (New Zealand) offering such user friendly spectacular World Class flying, we are excited about the possibility and what the future may hold.

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Dynamic Soaring for Snakes

July 7, 2020, 9:11:20 pm MDT

Dynamic Soaring for Snakes

Wiggling in the Air

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/29/science/flying-snakes-physics.html

A professor of biomedical engineering and mechanics at Virginia Tech, Dr. Socha and his colleagues published a study on Monday in Nature Physics supporting the hypothesis that the midair undulations (the wiggles) are actually carefully coordinated and highly functional processes that enhance the dynamic stability of the snake in flight.

Flying is a bit of a misnomer for what the snakes do. The slithering airborne creatures tend to fall strategically or glide, meaning they do not gain altitude like a bird or an insect. Their flights generally last only a couple of seconds, at a speed of around 25 miles per hour, and they land without injury. To the untrained eye, it might look as if the snake just fell out of a tree by accident, wiggling frantically as it plummets to earth. Not so.

Once it goes airborne — after inching out on a tree limb and pushing off the branch — the snake moves its ribs and muscles to extend the width of its underside, transforming its body into a structure that redirects airflow like a parachute or a wing. A cross section of the snake’s body midair would show that its normal circular shape becomes triangular and the whole body undulates as it glides toward its target.

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Suffering in the Oil Patch

May 6, 2020, 8:22:58 EDT

Suffering in the Oil Patch

Bust in Big Spring also

COVID|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

https://nyti.ms/2ShEjNS

MIDLAND, Texas — I cried the day I moved to Midland, the capital of our nation’s oil and gas industry. Back then, almost 10 years ago, my husband’s new job designing control systems for natural gas processing plants wasn’t the sort of work I wanted him to take.

It didn’t mesh well with my increasingly progressive principles. And so on some level, I understand the response from people when I tell them where I live: an odd mix of curiosity, pity and disgust.

Curiosity because, along with our neighbor city Odessa, we’re seen as the land of “Friday Night Lights,” oil barons and women with hair still bigger than Texas. Pity because all they picture is flat, thirsty land peppered with thorny mesquite and bobbing pump jacks. Never mind that the sunsets will leave you speechless. Yet ever since a drop in demand caused by this Covid-19 pandemic caused oil prices to plummet, it’s the last response — disgust — that seems to be everywhere. Disgust stemming from “oil town” stereotypes. And it troubles me. Because I can’t reconcile the disgust-turned-to-glee I see on social media (the “they deserve it anyway” attitude) with the Midland I’ve come to know.

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2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 22, 2019, 10:19:28 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

100 km, FAI triangle

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

Sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming northeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 mph, northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 9 mph, north
B/S: 10
Surface winds 6 mph east
No cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 41.9 km CHIN 10000 m
4 77.4 km BARON 3000 m
5 ES 105.7 km QUEST 400 m

The Replay:

https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2696

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2253551

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190423&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/22.4.2019/17:56

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US

The narrative:

We move the launch from the northeast facing direction to an east facing direction further west in the east/west slot runway and delay the task half an hour to start at 2:30 PM. There are no cu's as forecast. The wind is light out of the east.

I launch 24th and find light lift to the south of Wilotree and climb slowly to 3,600' with a couple of other pilots. Pilots who left this thermal early before getting as high as we did and head to the northwest have to land back at Wilotree Park.

We head northwest toward the first turnpoint, a ten kilometer cylinder around the Chinese airfield. It's still six minutes before the first start gate. We find 200 fpm and then 300 fpm. I leave the start cylinder four minutes after the window opens as I climb to 4,400'. There are about eight guys higher and in front of a few of us behind.

We are doing a bit better behind finding better lift and keeping an eye on the gaggle in front. The lift is poor, less than 200 fpm, and the lead gaggle is getting lower and lower with each thermal.

I veer off to the south a bit just northwest of the lumber yard and south of some greenhouses to find much better lift at 300 fpm and climb to 4,700'. The lead gaggle is far below and soon out of site to the north.

I take over the lead as the lead gaggle struggles and head out on my own toward the turnpoint. I've been out here before so I have some idea of what to look for in order to get back up as I come down from my commanding height.

It's a nine kilometer glide before I find 170 fpm by the Kokee turnpoint and I can climb back to 3,000'. A six kilometer glide and I come over apparently from the smell, some chicken coops just east of a prison (so many of them in Florida). I'm down to 1,400' and looking at a possible landing field just past the prison, but I find little bits of lift and hang with them.

I average a little over 100 fpm to 2,000' which gets me past the prison and the field next to it. I'm familiar with the fields ahead having climbed out of them on a previous flight. They are the last fields before the river which is surrounded by trees. Our optimized turnpoint is just on the other side of the river. I'm too low to cross it.

I see a small bit of smoke in the trees next to an open field and get to it at 600' AGL. I take the 254 fpm to 4,500' where we all get together at the turnpoint. I relinquish my lead at this point.

Now it's sixteen guys racing toward the three kilometer cylinder around the Baron turnpoint to the east northeast with seven guys in front. We race ahead and stop for 200 to 300 fpm about every five kilometers. Five or so guys at the top of each thermal.

As we pass south of the prisons, Phil Bloom goes out in front, with Pedro, Nene and me just behind him getting higher. I lead out to get over Phil who has lost a lot of altitude as we approach the turnpoint. I lead out again with Raul and Bruno just behind racing for the turnpoint. We get the turnpoint and head south.

Those behind us see us plummeting and take a line further to the east also heading south. Bruno moves to the south east to get in the lead with Jonny and Kevin Dutt behind him as they work weak lift from low. Bruno lands.

Raul and I work 25 fpm for twelve minutes to climb from 2,200 to 2,700' as we drift in an eight mph north wind toward Wilotree Park and goal. I lead out as I'm familiar with the area. We work 100 fpm and 55 fpm climbing to 2,800' and drifting south.

I come over the nursery on the north side of highway 50 west of Mascotte but I don't find much. Raul spots a vulture climbing and climbs with him when I turn east to head for the chicken coops and possible landing area. Down to 600' AGL I find a little bit of zero sink and start working and searching for the better core.

The guys to our east are finding better lift. Kevin Dutt gets out ahead and continues on a long glide into goal. The pilots who took the second clock are able to come in fifteen minutes later and score well despite poor leading and arrival points.

It's almost 6 PM. I find the area of better lift over the possible landing field and slowly climb out drifting slowly to the south. I climb at 120 fpm to 3,700' topping out at 6:22 PM with a 6:1 glide to goal. I'm not in the mood for landing short. It's an easy seven kilometer glide into goal for the last guy to make it to goal at 6:28.

Morphing

July 26, 2018, 3:51:02 pm MDT

Morphing

Prone or reclined

Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don Carslaw writes:

Here's something for all those hang glider pilots with back problems:

https://www.cloud9morph.com/

It's an updated version of the one you tried:

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The First International Woodpecker Hang Gliding Championship

May 2, 2018, 8:58:41 pm EDT

The First International Woodpecker Hang Gliding Championship

Cam Long Down, August 1974

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|video

Plummet writes:

https://vimeo.com/200038931

http://www.british-hang-gliding-history.com/1974/articles/woodpecker-champs.html

I was in the final processes of constructing my first wing and this didn't put me off! My first plummet was a couple of weeks later.

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2018 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 24, 2018, 0:20:20 EDT

2018 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Day six, task three

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2018|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Alden|Ken Kinzie|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|sailplane|Tim Delaney

With a due north wind, the task committee called a 53 kilometer task to the south to the Winter Haven Airport with two turnpoints that just provided a little guidance staying over open fields. There would not be any cu's once again. Top of lift at 3,300' at 2 PM, higher later. The winds were forecasted to be less than 10 mph on the ground and just a little higher up above.

We set up two launch lines just south of the east/west runway allowing the planes to land from the southeast or from the south and go directly to the launch lines. This speeded things up.

My team was fourth to launch in the left line, right in the middle of the pack. I chose to launch after my three team mates, Matt Pruett, John Alden, and Richard Milla. This worked out great as we all got up and and I could easily track them with the "E" symbol on the top of their sails. I got towed up by Steve Flynn flying April's plane, but they had fixed the props and it was a great tow.

There were a half a dozen pilots in the thermal drifting south from Quest Air and climbing to 3,200'. We could see a gaggle a few kilometers ahead but we were doing better than they were. A couple of sailplanes came in underneath us and thernmaled for while as we out climbed them. They then headed south toward the other gaggle.

Topping out I hung with my mentees at the top of the lift and then we decided to head south but to stay west of the gaggle that wasn't doing that well. As we got down near them their lift turned on so we headed their direction and we and the sailplanes started going up. We climbed at 200 fpm to 3,300'.

We all headed south and down to 1,900' five kilometers further south found a little over 100 fpm. I was leading out and had to go back to the north half a kilometer to join some other pilots in the lift. We drifted south for 3.5 kilometers passing south of the glider port and climbing to 3,500'. Again I hung around at the top of the lift waiting for my teammates to climb up to my altitude. Matt was right with me.

The team got up but Richard Milla was a bit lower. We headed south and quickly got the turnpoint at the intersection of 474 and 33 and headed for a gaggle a little to the southwest. The lift was only 100 fpm and we climbed back to 3,500'. Again I hung back at the top of lift with Matt just below me and John Alden a little distance down but Richard a few hundred feet lower.

I headed southeast to get to the east of a north/south treed area, onto the course line, upwind of our next turnpoint and over landable fields. This would prove to be a key move although at first it looked like it would put us on the ground. Matt and Ken Kinzie, who had lost all his mentees early as they landed, joined me as I plummeted out of the sky. Down to 1,400' I found 200 fpm. Matt came in under me and got in the lift also.

John and Richard headed south instead of southeast. They would soon land to our west.

I spotted Ken Kinzie to our south and found 600 fpm under him to 3,400', but I was going to wait for Matt, who was still slowly climbing behind me. Ken headed south. I went back and lost 1,400' just trying to stay up near Matt. I had to head southeast to get out of the sink and down to 1,500' found 100 fpm. Matt came after me and lower but climbing also. We slowly climbed back to 3,200' always drifting along the course line and toward the next turnpoint. It was very good of us to get on the course line as early as we did as now we could milk the wind.

Heading south southeast we got 26 to 1 with the 10 mph tail wind and very light sink. We found 190 fpm just before Interstate 4 and the intersection of highway 557 and climbed to 4,000' before heading for the turnpoint.

It was only 14 kilometers to the goal but there were a lot of lakes between us and the airport. We saw Ken Kinzie circling in the distance. He had missed the turnpoint and had to come back to get it. He had plenty of altitude to make it to goal but was feeling the effects of having gotten low turning around.

We got to him, took a few turns then I headed to goal. With very light sink for the first five kilometers I was assured of coming in too high. I made the goal and decided to land in a huge field less than a kilometer to the north. Matt and then Ken came in and then joined me also. About half an hour later we saw Tim Delaney make it to goal as the only other pilot to make it. Later Larry Bunner would land with us. Tim moved into second place with this finish.

My team had all its pilots in the top ten. For the second day in a row I was lucky enough to have the top pilot for the day as my mentee. Goal every day so far. Tomorrow is the last day and it looks like a very good day with good lift to 5,000'.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.3.2018/18:34

https://airtribune.com/2018-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Matt Pruett Wills Wing U2 145 01:31:27 52.77 624
2 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Ultrasport 137 02:18:31 52.77 579
3 Max Kotchouro Wills Wing Sport 2 155   33.16 444
4 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160   35.04 430
5 John Alden Wills Wing U2 145   33.14 417
6 Rick Hines Wills wing Sport 2   29.02 400
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145   31.36 400
8 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145   30.32 390
9 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 2 155   25.75 369
10 Jon Irlbeck Wills Wing Sport 2 155   25.33 364

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Matt Pruett Wills Wing U2 145 1354
2 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Ultrasport 137 1293
3 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1254
4 Max Kotchouro Wills Wing Sport 2 155 1160
5 John Alden Wills Wing U2 145 1040
6 Eric Kriner Wills Wing U2 160 958
7 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing U2 145 934
8 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 915
9 Willie Van Caulart Wills Wing U2 160 815
10 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 811

Ricardo Vasamer won the day in the topless sport class and moved into first overall.

Pilots having a good time:

Angle of Attack Indicator for Aerotow Tugs

January 25, 2018, 7:40:13 EST

No time to stall

Doug DuBois|Dragonfly|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|record

Angle of Attack Indicator for Aerotow Tugs

Doug DuBois, Adventure AirSports Tug Pilot writes:

Aerotow tug pilots spend roughly ¾ of their airtime in very close proximity to their aircraft's "stall speed", and much of this time is done in windy/gusty/turbulent conditions. Hang gliding's remarkably good aerotowing safety record speaks very highly of the skill of our tug pilots, as ultra-light aircraft combined with "stall speed" proximity in gusty conditions could easily amount to a recipe for disaster, especially when you add to the mix a glider on tow! Please note the quotes used around the term "stall speed", as it is somewhat of a misnomer for reasons discussed below.

I'm still a rather new tug driver myself, having started my ATP training less than 3 years ago and having conducted fewer than 300 tows so far. When I first began towing in rowdy midday conditions, I was uneasy with the narrow airspeed margin and also noticed that the normal airspeed cues (airspeed indicator, the feel and sound of the wind, etc.) didn't always seem to give an accurate sense of the tow plane's proximity to a stalled condition. Since we're generally trying to keep the airspeed very low (within manageable limits for the glider and pilot), and a stall/spin under tow could spell disaster, I decided to investigate the use of an angle of attack indicator on our Dragonfly tug.

"A wing can stall at any airspeed or attitude, but it will always stall at the same angle of attack." This axiom is drilled into the heads of new pilots, and with good reason. If we let complacency lull us into the practice of avoiding stalls simply by attempting to maintain a minimum airspeed, that practice can fail us someday. Maintaining an appropriate angle of attack (AOA) for the current conditions is the true key to stall-free flight, and this observance is relevant to any flying machine that creates lift by pushing an airfoil through the air. I can think of no flying activity in which AOA management is more critical to safety than in our low-speed aerotowing.

In theory, AOA is easy to understand. It is simply the angle between the chord of your wing's airfoil and the relative wind. In practice, the path of the relative wind is easy to observe by attaching a piece of yarn to the aircraft in the passing airstream, taking care to locate it in air that is undisturbed by the aircraft. Go one step further and install a reference line for the yarn to register against (relative to the aircraft) and voila, you have an AOA indicator.

This photo shows the first AOA indicator I made for the Adventure AirSports tug. A piece of ⅛" music wire has been attached to the tug's mirror, holding the yarn about 12" above the mirror. This separation is important to keep the yarn out of the disturbed air around the mirror. A metal scale was fitted behind the yarn and calibrated with black tape on the bottom and red tape on top. In flight, when the yarn is in the black, you have a low angle of attack or a "lift reserve". When the yarn is above the black, the critical angle of attack has been reached or exceeded (the wing is "stalled"). For someone getting used to the AOA indicator, the mnemonic "red is dead" might be helpful. In this photo the yarn is in the upper half of the black, indicating a low lift reserve. This is as close to a stall as I care to get while on tow. Having your lift reserve status always available at a glance is very instructional and comforting, especially in turbulence.

The yarn is also quite useful as a traditional yaw indicator. If you look at the above photo carefully you'll see that the yarn has drifted right of the scale, indicating a subtle, uncoordinated yaw to the right. In normal 3-axis flying (no towed glider in the mix), it would be appropriate to add some left rudder or right aileron (or a little of both) to get the aircraft re-coordinated with the relative wind and your desired attitude and/or path. With a glider on tow, however, safe and appropriate technique will not always result in coordinated flight.

Under tow, we primarily use the rudder for yaw/roll control and try to minimize aileron excursions to avoid stalling a wing while flying so close to the critical AOA. In this case "stalling a wing" means asymmetrically exceeding the critical AOA, which can drop either the left or right wing panel and possibly result in a spin. When an aileron is deflected downward, it effectively increases its corresponding wing panel's AOA. When you're flying at an already high AOA — especially in turbulence — an inappropriate aileron input has the potential to ruin your whole day.

During those high "pucker factor" moments when turbulence pops a wing up hard, or you feel the tug "sliding off the edge" into a steep bank, a yaw string can save your bacon by preventing you from reflexively applying opposite aileron and "crossing the controls". This is an unfortunately common cause of stall/spin accidents in light aviation, and something you definitely want to avoid during a tow.

A yaw string will also point out the normal effects of a towed glider on the tug's yaw attitude. Obviously, an out-of-position glider will tend to pull the tug's tail out of place, both in yaw and pitch. But even during turns with the glider tracking properly on the same arc as the tug, the glider tends to induce a bit of "adverse yaw" into the tug's path by pulling its tail into the turn. To maintain a turn under tow, it may be necessary for the tug pilot to hold rudder input throughout the turn to counter this influence from the glider. But outside of the realm of towing, holding rudder throughout a turn is considered bad technique. My ATP instructor yelled at me for holding rudder in turns, but it wasn't until after I started flying with the string that I was able to make the distinction between "good" rudder holding during a tow and "bad" rudder holding when off tow.

In this photo, the glider has released and the tug has begun its descent. Notice that the yarn is well below the black now, indicating a very low AOA or a large lift reserve. Time to chill out and enjoy a beautiful sunset glide to the LZ.

This is the new, deceptively simple version of the AOA/yaw indicator that we're using now. The scale has been removed, leaving only a simple length of bent wire with the upper/forward end flattened where it is drilled for the attachment of the yarn. The horizontal portion of the wire is the key to its function as an AOA indicator. When the yarn is below this horizontal portion, your wing is flying (as shown in the photo). When the yarn is parallel to the wire or higher, your wing is stalled (if you haven't already noticed!). Obviously it is important to calibrate the instrument by bending the wire until it is parallel to the yarn at the break of a stall.

This new version also features a length of miniature streamline tubing over the vertical portion of the wire support, to both streamline and stiffen the device. One weakness of this prototype is that it shakes, rattles and rolls badly when the tug is taxied over rough terrain. Sometimes I'll take off and discover that the yarn has tied itself into a knot from the previous taxiing. Perhaps a carbon fiber arrow shaft or some other rigid but light tube would make a better upright for future iterations, although that will increase the design and fabrication complexity. (If anyone out there comes up with a better version, please contact me through http://AdventureAirsports.com to share your improvements.)

I recommend the use of an AOA indicator for beginning and seasoned tug pilots alike. Sometimes when the tug flies out of strong lift and into sink, your airspeed will seem to plummet. If you're managing your AOA by airspeed alone, the natural and safe response is to shove the nose down quick and hard to prevent a stall. It's very reassuring in this kind of situation to have the yarn to glance at to see what's really happening AOA-wise. In my experience with this indicator, that sudden sinking feeling rarely requires aggressive elevator correction, and by avoiding that I'm not diving away from the glider and slacking the rope as much as I might otherwise. Although I prefer to have the indicator when I'm towing, when I do fly without it my senses, instincts and reactions will be much better informed from all this experience with it. Seasoned ATP pilots will also probably learn some subtle lessons about lift reserve and coordinated flight in a Dragonfly, I'll wager!

Doug DuBois is a GA/UL/HG pilot with a background in aircraft building, machining, engineering and industrial design. He is a partner in Adventure AirSports, LLC, and was the group's first tug pilot.

Pete Lehmann at the Midwest 2017

June 15, 2017, 7:59:32 MST -0600

Pete Lehmann at the Midwest 2017

His log

Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Pete Lehmann|Roger Irby

Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Roger Irby

Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Roger Irby

competition|Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Roger Irby

competition|Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Roger Irby

competition|Davis Straub|Flytec 6030|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Roger Irby

Pete writes:

What follows below are my own log book entries for the just concluded Mid West Championship held at Twin Oaks airport in Whitewater, a pretty little college town in southern Wisconsin. If you'd like to see more detail of who did what in the comp, I commend to you the Air Tribune site where you can see individual as well as collective results. You can download any igc files you desire, and also play back the various flights in 2D and 3D,

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

Pat Halfhill and I stayed together in his trailer, and we both had an entirely worthwhile, fun time flying there. Pat was most pleased by his longest ever flight when he made his first Open Class goal of 90+ miles. We were no threats to the leaders, but we flew well and had a great time.

2017 Mid-West Championship Flight Log

June 4: Day 1 Palmyra Airport :15* & :11*

The first day was a combination of personal chaos and miserable conditions. I’d arrived very late the night before and thus spent the early part of the day sorting out my gear and the T2 which I had not flown in nine months. The main problem was that I had no base tube, having in my rush to leave home forgotten to grab it out of my Sport 2’s bag. Fortunately, Davis Straub had a replacement which he loaned me for the comp, and I was ready to fly in good time.

Due to a forecast strongish westerly wind we moved from the planned contest site to nearby Palmyra airport. Ironically, the wind was not the forecast westerly, but closer to a true north. This resulted in our towing with a nasty cross wind. The other difficulty was that there was at first no lift at all in the blue and quite windy conditions. The earliest launchers all plummeted back to the field.

Feeling a bit nervous on the unfamiliar T2, I took two flights, once gaining all of seventy feet. My landings were good, but I was just as happy to break down at the airport and wait for a better day. Launches had been a bit sporty, with the nasty right cross nearly eating a couple of pilots. Pat and I broke down together, but several people had gotten well out on course so the day was actually quite valid.

June 6 Twin Oaks Airport Day 2: A fine, long task 3:01 7,147 msl 92.8 * mile goal

After an off day due to high winds, we were presented with a fine day of cumulus clouds and a solid tailwind on the way to a long goal to the southwest. To avoid Janesville and Rockford airspaces we were assigned a couple of turn points which were easily attained in the excellent conditions. But the last third of the course became increasingly, and ultimately, completely blue. I had fallen behind as, soon after the second turn point, the harness’ hang strap haul back line had broken, making it very hard for me to rock the harness down to the horizontal position. This made both climbing and gliding quite uncomfortable.

Flying inefficiently, I was soon left to fly utterly alone across the late-day blue countryside. After one low scare at the end of a horribly sinky glide I found a decent climb and easily made goal. Our entire team of Pat Halfhill, John Maloney, Roger Irby and I made goal, and our fine driver Rox had a happy bunch for the long ride home. Happiest of all was Pat Halfhill for whom this was both his longest flight and most distant goal. It was also his first Open Class goal.

June 7 Twin Oaks Airport Day 3: A misbegotten triangle attempt 3:59 o, 7,248 msl; 51.7 holc miles

We began a 64.7 triangle under forecast blue skies. The forecast was soon proven wrong by the presence of considerable cumulus development between launch and the first turn point. There things became difficult as our leading team pilot, Roger Irby, decked it due to ferocious sink soon after rounding the turn point. His fate led me to a bold and ultimately foolish tactical decision to fly due south away from the lake near the turn point. In so doing I was flying far off course, but I thought that it was the smartest way to find lift after the turn point next to a large lake. I was wrong.

The rest of the field embarked on the proper course line to the southeast while I headed south alone, getting ever lower. I finally did get back up, however I had twice been really low (850 and 650 agl) at the edge of Janesville’s airspace before climbing out over the city. It had cost forty-five minutes to again get high before proceeding on course.

Being as much as seven miles off course, I was then understandably all alone as I began the upwind slog towards the second turn point. After making slow progress I finally hooked up with another glider five miles short of the turn point. It was Pat Halfhill. We then flew to the turn point together, but soon parted with me again heading far off course in a desperate attempt to get an evening climb off a big fire.

It was not to be, and Pat and I both landed near six o’clock about nine miles short of goal, on a day when the vast bulk of the field made it. I had really screwed my chances of doing well in the comp by committing that awful tactical error early in the flight. Still, Pat and I had four hour flights, and it really was a fun day’s flying. I’m rather proud of the save at Janesville.

June 8 Twin Oaks Airport Day 4: A big dog-leg, and very little lift :08* and 2:08-, 6602 msl; 38.7 holc miles T

The task was a 48.6 mile dog-leg task, with the first leg to the northeast. The conditions at launch were extremely weak, with me and many other pilots having to return for re-lights. Complicating matters was the approach of a frontal boundary that was accompanied by bands of high cirrus that shaded the ground much of the time. Nonetheless, the majority of the field finally got up and went on course, myself and Pat included. I had left on my own, and after an agonizingly slow, half-hour series of small climbs had gotten to over 6,000 msl and left. Thereafter I never really got low, but I was always worried as the lift I found was extremely weak, and the frontal clouds were becoming ever thicker.

Luckily, I managed to often stay in or reach bands of sunlit country on my way to the turn point where I found the day’s best climb. Linda Salamone and I got to 6,600 msl shortly before the turn point, and just as the overcast became solid. From there it was a thirteen-mile long sled ride to the ground during which I was once spit upon by rain. I was still well short of goal, but had scored quite well for the day (only one pilot attained goal). Pat, Roger and John all landed short of, but reasonably close to the turn point. For an utterly unpromising forecast and gloomy sky, things had turned out quite well. The only bad part was my whacked landing in a remarkably turbulent field. I was completely taken aback by the conditions.

June 9 Twin Oaks Airport Day 5: A Zig-Zag to a Sea Breeze 2:38*, 5,675 msl, 51.6 miles

A zig-zag route eastward towards Lake Michigan began with promising looking clouds, but rather weak lift beneath them. After going on course I once again let myself drift somewhat downwind of course line before having to head into a largely blue hole on the way to the first turn point at Lake Geneva. After fairly easily tagging the turn point I got a bit low on the way to the nearby second one. I was, however, helped in finding a good climb by a couple of other gliders.

After climbing through them I had an easy time, getting high enough to tag the second and third turn points. I then had a technical problem getting the Flytec 6030 to register my attaining the turn point. The difficulty was my ineptitude with the instrument. I had it set it up in such a way (“optimized route”) that it was ludicrously difficult to hit the small 400-meter radius final turn point. I finally became frustrated, figuring I had gotten it, and left on final glide to goal.

Goal was located only nine miles west of the very large Lake Michigan, and the interaction between lake and land mass was producing an onshore wind. That is, our task was flying us eastwards towards a lake, but as we approached the lake a strong onshore (ie. Easterly) head wind was blowing inland. Fortunately, I had gotten high enough at the last line of convergence clouds near the final turn point and could easily glide into goal before hitting the headwind near the ground.

I had a good landing into a 10-15 mph east wind despite nearly botching the landing because I’d forgotten to release the vg cord. It was only later that night that I learned that I had, in fact, missed the damn turn point by two meters; six feet. Fortunately, in the rules there’s a ten-meter margin of error, so the turn point was allowed, and my flight validated. Pat had been quite a way behind me, and he landed near the second turn point with a tailwind. The sea breeze had by then migrated far inland, and Pat hadn’t recognized its arrival in his landing field before experiencing a scary (but ultimately harmless) downwind whack.

Conclusion

With that, the comp came to an end. Other than the sketchy first day we had experienced solid, and sometimes excellent, flying conditions. The contest was well run, low key and flown over pretty country with abundant landing fields. In addition, we had enough tugs to ensure that everyone had a fair chance to launch into the good conditions. Finally, the airport facilities were entirely adequate for the large crowd, and the nearby town of Whitewater is a small-town Middle-American jewel. It was a fine comp.

Trip Totals 7 flights, 12:20; 234.8 miles

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Thanks to Don (Plummet) Carslaw

Tue, Apr 4 2017, 5:51:36 pm MDT

In Magagnosc, France

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don sent me three envelopes with money in them in aluminum pouches. Very cool. Thanks to Don for his support of the Oz Report.

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Downwind

April 27, 2016, 7:34:53 EST -0400

Downwind

At first I thought he was in a powered chute

Facebook|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG|video

Article here.

Mihhail Lebedko smashed into the rocks near the Geirangerfjord in Norway. He plummeted towards the ground at a high speed due to his inexperience of the area and meteorology. The glider is new to the sport and the winds on the day were too strong.

https://youtu.be/_YUrVEb0I4U

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Could be plenty of hotel rooms in August in Big Spring

February 10, 2016, 8:48:58 EST

Could be plenty of hotel rooms in August in Big Spring

Oil Boom is now Bust

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

NY Times article here.

Oil rigs stacked for storage near Midland, Tex. The oil industry regularly undergoes booms and busts. But the downside of this cycle may prove more extreme, and messier.

If prices hold at such low levels — oil traded near $28 on Tuesday — as many as 150 oil and gas companies could file for bankruptcy, according to IHS, an energy research firm.

While that represents a relatively small slice of the overall industry, there are hundreds of other companies that had piled on debt to grow from tiny start-ups into significant players in the nation’s shale oil boom. Now they are likely to be acquired or their assets sold off. As much as a third of the oil industry could be consolidated as a result of the downturn, according to one estimate.

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/10/466250585/low-prices-cause-carnage-in-the-oil-industry

http://ozreport.com/2016BigSpringNationals.php

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Oh jeez, in Las Vegas

March 27, 2015, 11:44:01 pm EDT

Oh jeez, in Las Vegas

Tethered

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwXwjhc9yg0

http://www.8newsnow.com/story/28635456/12-year-old-hurt-in-possible-hang-gliding-accident

A 12-year-old boy and a man are dead after a hang gliding accident Friday afternoon off Sloan Road in the southern part of Clark County.

The family hired the man to take the boy on the flight, the Clark County Fire Department told 8 News NOW. Nevada Highway Patrol Troopers said the crash happened just before 3 p.m. near the Jean Dry Lake Bed.

A truck was towing the glider, police said and the glider was supposed to release the tether, but it didn't and that's when the 12-year-old and the hang gliding employee he was with plummeted to the ground.

http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/nhp-sloan-road-fatal-two-killed/1YlS8qOzDkWWjKZNpvS-5g.cspx

Adventure Unlimited?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/hang-gliding-accident-kills-man-12-year-old-boy-article-1.2165292

The two were flying high around Interstate 15 while tethered to a truck that was towing them, police said. The truck was supposed to release the two into the air, but it did not, and when the truck made a turn, they came crashing to the ground around 3 p.m. Both were pronounced dead on the scene.

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Hang Gliding in a Hurricane

March 13, 2015, 11:05:11 pm EDT

Hang Gliding in a Hurricane

Chip Kelly, formerly from the University of Oregon

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|weather

http://fishduck.com/2015/03/chip-kelly-update-hang-gliding-in-a-hurricane/

Forget the “emotional rollercoaster” cliche. This was hang-gliding in a hurricane, soaring toward the sun on a thermal one minute, then plummeting to the cliffs the next. Rollercoasters only offer the illusion of danger. Your biggest risk there is getting hit in the face with a goose.

This was the real deal. One in a thousand hang-gliders die, every year, even in good weather. Chip has the courage to jump off the cliff and either soar through the sky or crash to death on the rocks.

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The Euro continues to plummet

March 13, 2015, 9:19:30 EDT

The Euro continues to plummet

How low can it go and how long will it stay there?

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

http://ozreport.com/19.13#1

http://ozreport.com/19.14#0

http://ozreport.com/19.015#0

When I wrote/edited the above articles, the Euro was low at $1.16. It is now $1.06.

The high priced dollar means that European (and Australian) imports should be relatively cheaper than they have been in the past. Wills Wing has benefited from the low priced dollar until the last year. They would now have a relative disadvantage selling overseas and Icaro would have a better chance to sell into the US.

You can make adjustments to the figures provided in the above articles to determine prices.

Also, aluminum tubes are purchased by, as I recall, all the hang gliding manufacturers, from Switzerland. The Swiss Franc has risen substantially since the first of the year after the Swiss government decided to no longer tie its value to the plunging Euro.

http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CHF&view=1Y

It went from about $0.86 to about $1.00.

Report on Thursday on NPR, morning edition, was that the prediction was for the Euro to stay this low for at least two years.

I hope to have more news on this soon.

Should be plenty of hotel rooms in Big Spring

January 19, 2015, 9:30:04 pm EST

Should be plenty of hotel rooms in Big Spring

For the Big Spring Nationals

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

The bust has happened.

NY Times article here.

MIDLAND, Tex. — With oil prices plummeting by more than 50 percent since June, the gleeful mood of recent years has turned glum here in West Texas as the frenzy of shale oil drilling has come to a screeching halt.

Every day, oil companies are decommissioning rigs and announcing layoffs. Small companies that lease equipment have fallen behind in their payments.

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Felix Baumgartner's record broken

October 24, 2014, 1:56:06 pm PDT

Felix Baumgartner's record broken

Jumped higher from a balloon

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|record|video

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/science/alan-eustace-jumps-from-stratosphere-breaking-felix-baumgartners-world-record.html

ROSWELL, N.M. — A well-known computer scientist parachuted from a balloon near the top of the stratosphere on Friday, falling faster than the speed of sound and breaking the world altitude record set just two years ago.

The jump was made by Alan Eustace, 57, a senior vice president at Google. At dawn he was lifted by a balloon filled with 35,000 cubic feet of helium, from an abandoned runway at the airport here.

For a little over two hours, the balloon ascended at speeds up to 1,600 feet per minute to an altitude of more than 25 miles. Mr. Eustace dangled underneath in a specially designed spacesuit with an elaborate life-support system. He returned to earth just 15 minutes after starting his fall.

“It was amazing,” he said. “It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.”

Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at 822 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground.

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Paraglider pilot killed at Chelan Butte

July 17, 2014, 3:15:22 pm MDT

Paraglider pilot killed at Chelan Butte

Collapse

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG

http://ozreport.com/18.125#0

Article here.

A 55-year-old man was killed Wednesday when his paraglider chute collapsed and he plummeted rapidly to the ground.

David A. Norwood of Wapato, Wash., was paragliding around 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Chelan Butte area of Chelan County when his chute collapsed and he rapidly fell, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office said.

Witnesses ran about 150 yards downhill to Norwood and administered aid, but he was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at the scene once aid workers arrived.

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Paraglider crash at Woodrat

June 21, 2013, 9:59:20 CDT

Paraglider crash at Woodrat

Didn't get the paraglider inflated

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG|video

Video here.

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April Flying at Quest Air

April 8, 2013, 9:07:52 EDT

April Flying at Quest Air

Sunday was a cu day

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|James Stinnett|Quest Air|video

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?dsId=2875275

http://youtu.be/InLje_K8fpY

With lighter east winds (or so it was forecast) Sunday was a big time flying day at Quest Air and apparently at Wallaby Ranch also. Larry came up with a task that would have put us in some swamp to the west, so on the fly we enlarged the cylinder radius on the first turnpoint to 20 km.

It was weak right after aerotowing as there was a blue hole right over Quest but cu's a quarter mile to the north or south. I pushed up north and then worked weak lift, but finally had to commit myself to going downwind without a chance to get back to Quest if I didn't get up. I was rewarded under a nicely forming cu and Larry was also finally getting up east of me. We took the 2:30 PM clock together high with James Stinnett way below us.

Larry was on my north side as I headed for the Green Swamp and some cu's south of the course line toward Chin. He was plummeting while James stopped to start climbing. Larry thought he was going to land near highway 50 while I worked weak lift under a cloud crossing the Green Swamp (like last Tuesday).

There were plenty of cu's and Larry was working 300 fpm from 900' as I got up over 5,000' into the quite cold air. My whole body was shaking.

With the southeast wind the lift was on the southeast side of the cu's and it was easy to get to the west to the first turnpoint (or at least 20 kilometers east of it). Larry was struggling, not able to get high but still moving along not too far behind. James didn't have a working radio so we had no idea where he was.

I made the turnpoint first and headed northeast toward the 10 kilometer turnpoint at Baron airfield, north of the Turnpike. Crossing highway 301 south of Bushnell I came in under James who was at 5,600' and drifted back to the northwest climbing well again on the southeast side of the cu.

So far so good, the lift had been every where for me and the big problem was getting too cold. Larry was now heading back toward the second turnpoint. I headed out after getting over 5,000' and toward more cu's heading for their south sides.

As I went from cu to cu I wasn't finding any lift and going up wind I was pushing and pushing to try for the next cu. Finally down to 1,700' west of Center Hill I found 50 fpm and knew that I had to stay with it. Just then James came in under me at 600' AGL. He didn't find anything below me and soon landed.

Larry finally found his first good thermal in the cu's behind me that I somehow missed. I worked up as the lift improved to 300 fpm, but only got to 3,500' not concentrating well enough as I drifted back. When I pushed forward again, I saw that I wouldn't make it to the next reasonable looking cu.

Looking back to the northwest I saw a good dark roiling cu on the southwest corner of the forested area. I headed back there to find 600 fpm with a bunch of buzzards. Again not concentrating I only took it to 5,500'.

Heading northeast over the forest toward the turnpoint I headed for good looking clouds trying to get on the southeast side and over the sunny areas, but didn't find any lift worthy of the name. Larry had by now jumped ahead and was about four kilometers in front of me and about at the turnpoint.

After a long search I looked back downwind again to see if I saw any cloud that could get me back up and, if not that, a field that I could land in. I headed way west to the hottest looking field with the best looking cloud over it. There wasn't much when I got there and just hung out at 700' at the downwind end of the field waiting to either get up or for the field to calm down so that I could have an uneventful landing after flying over the cattle. I did the later.

Larry made the turnpoint and found plenty of lift making it back to Quest Air. It looks like there will be a couple more days of lighter east winds here in central Florida for good flying conditions. It's great to have flying partners.

The Chris Zimmerman private flight park

June 20, 2012, 8:59:01 CDT

The Chris Zimmerman private flight park

Launching from his back yard

Belinda Boulter|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|USHPA|video

Belinda Boulter|Chris Zimmerman|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|USHPA|video

Currently (but maybe not for long) Chris Zimmerman lives in a house that he built on a grass airstrip community forty minutes north of Austin, Texas.

Of course, the house includes a hangar which holds his setup hang glider and his ultra light trike (Part 103 legal with the USHPA/FAA exemption for towing).

Belinda and I were out there last Saturday and Sunday (after a father's day celebration). Mike came by and hauled us into the air.

 
Photo by Belinda

I was pulled up at about 200 fpm, and on Saturday the tow was quite rough in the thermally air. Apparently it is easier to tow the high performance gliders.

We're north of the Austin airspace and just outside the new Georgetown airspace to the west. Plenty of open space nearby and to the north, two hundred miles to Forth Worth.

Friends come by to fly.

Here is a video from Nate towing at Chris' place. Mike is towing him and Mike plummets on the back side of a thermal as he tows and Nate pins off to land next door, away from the squirrely air.

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2011 Colombian Competition - the coffee

Thu, Mar 10 2011, 9:25:27 am EST

2011 Colombian Competition

Heat and rain

Colombian Nationals 2011|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|weather

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/science/earth/10coffee.html?hp

Timbío, Colombia — Like most of the small landowners in Colombia’s lush mountainous Cauca region, Luis Garzón, 80, and his family have thrived for decades by supplying shade-grown, rainforest-friendly Arabica coffee for top foreign brands like Nespresso and Green Mountain. A sign in the center of a nearby town proclaims, “The coffee of Cauca is No.1!”

But in the last few years, coffee yields have plummeted here and in many of Latin America’s other premier coffee regions as a result of rising temperatures and more intense and unpredictable rains, phenomena that many scientists link partly to global warming.

Coffee plants require the right mix of temperature, rainfall and spells of dryness for beans to ripen properly and maintain their taste. Coffee pests thrive in the warmer, wetter weather.

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Adam Parer follows up

Wed, Dec 30 2009, 7:15:58 am AEDT

A very very lucky pilot

Adam Parer|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

http://adam-parer.blogspot.com/2009/12/survival.html

Then the equipment broke apart and instantly there was no more ‘G’. I could reach for the parachute but it was jammed.

Free-falling was almost surreal. The vision of earth all that way below moving up at such a rate and the eventual deafening sound of airflow confirmed I was plummeting with nothing more than a damaged harness and virgin parachute, the bare essentials and my only chance of survival.

It could have been a lot worse.

On more than one occasion I’ve heard others criticize my decision to connect parachute to harness instead of to the mains carabineer. If I had taken their advice the glider would have had a very soft landing under canopy that day.

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Jeff O'Brien on flying in Canoa

November 11, 2009, 6:56:10 PST

Jeff O'Brien on flying in Canoa

It's all about the telephone poles

Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jeff O'Brien

His blog post.

Launch looking north. After town the north cliffs begin.

First there's the start: The minimum sink glide to the edge of the start cylinder is practiced over and over. The cylinder must be crossed within five seconds of the start time or you're playing catch up the entire race. This year we flew an exit start 1.5km away from launch. It's necessary to tarry in the clouds over launch to ensure maximum height heading out.

The dive: As you strain to keep your closest competitors in sight through the clouds, your vario signals you've attained the start and you confirm visually. Look right, look left as you bury the bar and feel the speed build. There is nothing to hold back. You've got 700ft. To literally burn as fast as you dare. On day one, I had an ear to ear grin as I looked at my airspeed to see 135kms per hour and Dustin off my wingtip plummeting just a bit faster.

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2009 New South Wales State Titles, day 8, task 8 »

February 8, 2009, 0:29:23 AEDT

2009 New South Wales State Titles, day 8, task 8

Carnage on launch and on the hill side

dust devil|Flytec 6030|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|New South Wales State Titles 2009|Peter Bolton|record

The results.

http://www.westcoastbrit.blogspot.com/

http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/



The last day of the NSW State Titles. The forecast was for no cu's, strong east winds (up high) and strong lift. Things turned out a bit differently. The winds were lighter than expected.

The winds were light on the east launch (as forecasted) with a bit of south in them. We set up on the carpet on the east side. I was hoping to get off on the southeast launch.

Peter Bolton was setup on the south launch. He started the carnage off with a strong run down the carpet and then past the carpet, but the glider never got flying, and he pancaked in with the result being a broken collar bone. He was seen later back at the pub in "good" shape. Conrad looked after him.

Another pilot went in on the east launch taking out two down tubes as he drug a wing and "landed" the glider thirty feet down from the launch, facing uphill. It was quite a sight from above.

Later another pilot was not able to even make it out to the very nearby bomb out zone that is itself almost too small for hang gliders and landed in the trees. I didn't get to see that one.

I had a strong launch from the southeast launch and got up right away. I continued to climb slowly with Joel McKay and Francisco Utero. Allan Bond who launched a few pilots in front of me in an Airborne Fun was high above us and downwind. He chose to fly his Fun today after a dodgy launch the previous day.

I climbed out at 280 fpm, to 6,000'. The GPS record from the Flytec 6030 shows 6634', but I don't remember seeing anything above 6,000'. I had previously (the day before) set the altitude display to display GPS altitude, but I don't know if that sets it as the default. When I looked at the screen on launch it seemed to be the same GPS altitude from the day before (minus the altitude difference between the east and west launches).

I couldn't get over 6,000' and the same was true for Joel McKay who was nearby. I could see Allan Bond higher down the course line outside the start circle and Francisco got a little bit higher than Joel or I. It was 2:15 PM, the second start time. I had launched at 2 PM, the first start time.

I kept flying around in the no lift/no sink area with Joel until almost 2:30 PM. There were now a few people off the hill and flying near the south launch. A bunch had landed in the bomb out zone.

With a couple of pilots getting up above launch I decided to head back to the launch and join them. I didn't want to take the 2:30 PM start with only 6,000' when the forecast for the day was much higher.

I headed back from about four kilometers out to the west and downwind of the hill. I dropped like a stone (after spending half an hour in lift). My L/D was 6 to 1 and I barely made it over the top of the hill. I was then sinking fast on the east side wondering if I would make it past the trees as I hit 900 fpm down.

The sink didn't stop until I made it out to almost the bomb out area. Conrad and Jonas were turning and I joined them. There was a number of pilots low and working bad lift just to stay up.

I climbed out at 127 fpm with Conrad. This thermal finally go to 180 fpm and we climbed to 5,000' just before the last start gate opened. By the time I crossed the start circle I was down to 3,500' much lower than I had been half an hour before when I decided to go back to start again. Oh well.

Conrad was off to my left and a little higher. I followed him over to the small range to an area that should be funneling the lift if the wind was blowing from the east. He found 450 fpm and we took it to 7,500', a big improvement.

Joel McKay, who I had been with earlier had already landed, so perhaps it was a good idea to wait. I headed out early from the thermal and took a northerly route to the hill I had gone to the previous day 14 km west.

There was lift there and then I headed to the middle of the gap as I watched Matt Barlow plummet heading to the north side of the gap over the hills and trees. He showed me where I didn't want to go. I figured that there would be nice lift on the little hills just before the gap, and sure enough that was the case. I climbed out with Bruce Wynn to 7,500'. Conrad was off to our north getting up over the trees over Matt.

I quickly headed for the turnpoint leaving Bruce behind with Pedro a little below me. Jonny and Blay were nearby. As I came to the turnpoint I saw Conrad just ahead of me. The sink was bad, but he caught something just beyond the turnpoint at Wenart. We climbed back to 7,500' joined by Bruce, Pedro, Jonny, Dick Heffer, and Blay.

This was a wicked thermal and I was holding on tight. I saw a dust devil form below us. Then I saw Matt Barlow come over the dust devil at about 1,000' AGL. He later said that he really got tossed around.

I followed Conrad to the north west toward the next turnpoint. He found a thermal near the mine that Bruce was working and when I came over to it I didn't appreciate it so continued on and got in front. It was a ten kilometer glide to the next thermal and I was down to 3,700' before I saw Conrad hit the thermal to my left.

He climbed to 7,200' and I to 6,200'. We had all the other boys (see above) with us also. We made a straight glide to the turnpoint at Baan Baa and found a thermal just on the other side. My vario showed that I had goal by 700', but the lift was strong so I stayed in it for two minutes.

It was a quick glide into goal, which was only 81 kilometers out from Manilla, as we had to get back for the presentation. Seven pilots all came into goal within four minutes of each other.

Francisco, who I was flying with earlier, did take the 2:30 PM start when I went back to the hill, and got to goal in the third fastest time, but got many arrival points, winning the day.

The Spanish team has done very well here at Manilla, second and third overall, with a thirteen for Francisco. Allan Bond made goal on his Fun.

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Going to Oz »

October 23, 2008, 8:13:26 PDT

Going to Oz

It's dirt cheap

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Ron Gleason

Ron Gleason «xcflying» sends:

Today's column offers a rare "travel tip" to our readers... pack your bags for Australia!

Our "tip" comes down to purchasing power. You see, for much of the past six years, the Australian dollar was one of the world's strongest currencies. Australia's economy is dependent on commodity exports... so soaring gold, copper, oil, and uranium prices gave a huge boost to the country's prosperity, profits, and real estate. The Aussie dollar followed suit and almost doubled in value against other currencies from 2002 to 2008.

The strong Aussie dollar was fantastic for natives. Their dollars simply grew and grew in value for years. On the other hand, it was awful for Americans who wanted to go see kangaroos... The strengthening Aussie dollar vastly increased the U.S. dollar cost of a vacation.

But the past few months have been a classic "live by the sword, die by the sword" story for Australia. Commodities have had one of their worst quarters in history. The Aussie dollar has plummeted 30%... a colossal move for a developed country's currency. As you can see from today's chart, the Aussie dollar hasn't been this cheap since 2003... and "all things Australian" are on sale. Make sure to have a Vic Bitter and think of us.

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Flying just behind the Riviera

Mon, Jun 16 2008, 6:32:02 am MDT

Riveria

It's a little like Southern California or Santa Barbara with a convergence line

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG|weather

We've made a few visits in the Grasse area (fifteen kilometers inland from Cannes) only to discover that this is a favored paragliding and hang gliding site, especially in the winter, which the current weather appears to mimic. With the area dominated by the Mediterranean influence, it is possible to fly here all year round, while there is snow to the north in Laragne and the Alps.

At Saturday, we drove up to , a "perched" fortified village originally built for defensive purposes. It is high above the village of a few kilometers northeast of Grasse. Sure enough as we wound our way up we saw a couple of paragliders across the gorge to the east getting up under the cumulus clouds. Later, taking in the view from we could see an obvious hang glider and paraglider landing zone to the south near the village of Pont-du-Loup.

It turns out that the owners of the landing zone are a bunch of heirs that can't agree on what to do with the only open space that we could see, so it remains open. Otherwise landing in this area would be exciting.

The area around Nice and Grasse faces south (just like Santa Barbara) toward the Mediterranean. It is quite hilly and mountainous, with some mountains right at the water's edge and many more a few kilometers more further back up all the way into the Alps. Right now it is quite green.

The area is heavily populated with villas and villages stuck on steep hillsides pretty much wherever you look. Looking south it is not an inviting cross country area with its treed hillsides and "suburban" clutter. But the weather is a great draw to paraglider and hang glider pilots who want to get "air time." And the drive to is but a few hours for cross country flying in the sub Alps.

We were contacted by Don Carlsaw, an Oz Report contributor and supporter (thanks so much for your generous support), who invited us to join him and other locals for dinner on Saturday night. Don said that we almost snuck in and out of Grasse without saying hello. Don, a British expat, lives just up from our farm stay flat in .

In 2001, Don «plummet» wrote to me:

Our hang gliding club here in the south of France is the Club-des-Jeunes de Bar-sur-Loup. For some pictures of the flying here, visit the site of our Italo/Irish pilot Paolo 'Murfy' de Nicola http://paolo.denicola.free.fr. Better still come and visit.

Paolo also came to dinner with us (and helped support the Oz Report) in a wonderful hole-in-the-wall restaurant a walk up the stairs from Don's place, (Jean-Charles Ballembois was also there, but we had missed seeing him earlier in Gourdon, where he runs a glass shop). But before we went out to dinner we stopped by Bruce Goldsmith and his wife Arna's place further up the hill (that's all there are here, hills).

The last time we mentioned Bruce here in the Oz Report he was winning the Paragliding World Championships in at Godfrey's place. It turns out later that he had a bit of an accident landing in (on the Canary islands), running smack dab into a lamp post turning from his base leg onto his final. He got a little lower than he expected in the tight LZ. Wrapping a riser around the post he twirled in breaking some parts of the vertebrae in his back. He's walking around just fine but working at redeveloping the muscles in his lower back.

Bruce said that his only plan for competition this summer is the British Nationals in . Bruce has been living in this area (because of the year round flying) for the last ten years.

Don has been living in Southern France for years, anything to get out of England, he says. He has four hang gliders in his garage, only one less than twenty five years old. The local club apparently has 150 hang gliders stored in its garage, with about only five pilots to fly them. Both hang gliding and paragliding are on the decline in this area.

Thanks to Don, Paolo, and Bruce for cluing us in on Southern France.

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still pre pre-Worlds

June 16, 2008, 2:31:42 pm +0200

pre pre-Worlds

Getting adjusted to the country

Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Robin Hamilton|weather|Wills Wing T2C

We move up to Laragne on Tuesday. Here is the view from our bedroom window in Grasse:

James-Donald Carslaw «plummet» writes:

Have you noticed how green it is here? It's been unusually cold and wet for a month and the flying has been rubbish.

So far we've had sunny mornings with cumulus forming in the later part of the morning bringing small amounts of rain. I can imagine that it is wetter further up north into the mountains. I have been hearing that it has been wet for quite a while in Laragne and there was flooding in the Alps after the early bit of great cross country weather. Looks like the weather in Greifenburg sucks.

Here is what Robin Hamilton, who is in Houston writes, about the weather in Texas:

Rick Walker in Zapata wrote: Winds out of south east 10-15 knots. 101 degres, hot.

Stop! Its been difficult enough looking out my office window the last couple of days, also knowing that I have to get on a plane on Saturday to go to France for the pre-Worlds, where the outlook for the next week is rain, overcast and a max of 73 degrees. What's wrong with this picture?

Dustin Martin was very helpful when it came short packing the Wills Wing T2C 144 that I took with me to Europe, making sure that I was very thorough with the padding job. He had me purchase eight camping pads from Wal-Mart ($5.88/each), which we used for padding everything. The carbon outboard leading edges (with their attached sprogs) where completely wrapped in the blue foam.

The bottom ends of the down tubes (wrapped in blue foam), cross tube/leading edge junctions (bubble wrap), outboard ends of the inboard leading edges (two layers of blue foam), ends of the inboard sprogs (bubble wrap), and top of the cross bar junction (two layers of blue foam) were thickly padded. The Mylar and carbon/Kevlar inserts were taken out of the leading edges. The Mylar was wrapped around the ends of the down tubes. The carbon inserts laid on top of the glider.

The glider was strapped tight and then the glider bag was put back on it. Double thick pads were then wrapped around both ends of the glider. The foam pads (one thickness, about 1/2") were then wrapped longitudinally around the glider and strapped in place with 2" wide straps. The whole concoction was stored inside a thick bag made for me by Mitch McAleer at Wills Wing. He kindly put wheels at one end which did allow me to handle the glider by myself if I raised one end high above my head.

TSA opened the bags (we indicated where the zipper was), undid straps, opened the interior glider bag, left it unzipped, and just sort of put the whole thing back together, slightly. Still it looked like it made it okay. I'll know more next week after I get to Laragne and pull everything out and and inspect it.

I had thought that I needed to get the bag below 70 pounds. Not true. I carried the base bar separate, but if I had wrapped the ends up I could have placed it in the bag also. I'll do that for the trip home.

Quest Air East

April 14, 2008, 7:51:51 PDT

Quest

Great flying this spring

Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Quest Air|Steve Bellerby

steve bellerby «sbellerby» writes:

Whether you're a hillbilly rigid pilot, a top ranked flexie flyer or one of the poke-a-long bottom feeders that learns from them, you've had nothing to complain about at Quest Air, this spring.

Dustin Martin helps a slowpoke to goal, at Quest.

Triangles, out and returns, and perhaps twenty pilot flights into the Wills Wing Demo Days at Wallaby Ranch added to the fun of seeing foreign pilots and seriously experienced Sandia ones, signed off on aerotow.

Most impressive was Dusty's flight back from a fly-in lunch at Wallaby. Launching at almost 6 p.m. after a rain of plummeting pilots confirmed that the sea breeze had kicked in, he arrived back at Quest after one thermal at 6:29 for his scheduled 6:30 tandem!

Dustin Martin's still here and is planning to return after his Santa Cruz Flats Race, the landowner has given Quest at least another season, and there are even (unconfirmed, but not incredible) rumors circulating of another Flytec Competition here next spring.

Nicole, the office manager, is a serious cyclist so don't be daunted if you don't get through on the first try. She's probably tearing up the trails somewhere south of here so try an email or call back.

Nicole? The driver? Wow! I'll be out there soon with Dusty. Hopefully the knee will be in good enough shape for some real riding.

Life in the clouds

Thu, Feb 21 2008, 11:47:17 am MST

Clouds

It's alive

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Steve Bellerby

http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/when-life-goes-cloudy/index.html

But the paper in “Geophysical Research Letters” went further. It claimed not just that microbes are traveling via cloud, but that some of them are actually living there — growing, metabolizing, reproducing — until plummeting back to earth when the cloud rains.

Clouds are much more like tide pools than they are like Arctic lakes. A microbe arriving in a cloud from the ground might experience a drop in temperature from, say, 15C (59F) to -20C (-4F) in a few hours. Worse, as a cloud forms, the osmotic pressure — caused by the difference in conditions between the inside of the cell and the outside — fluctuates wildly. At the same time, the droplets that constitute clouds condense and evaporate rapidly and continuously, and sometimes they freeze. Then, when it rains, the microbes return to Earth, and must be able to survive there, too. So who are the cloud dwellers, and what do they live on?

Thanks to Steve Bellberby

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Santa Cruz Flats, day five

Fri, May 11 2007, 10:47:07 pm MDT

SCF

We don't get that high and we don't climb that fast

dust devil|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2007

dust devil|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2007

dust devil|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jamie Shelden|Jeff O'Brien|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Santa Cruz Flats Race 2007

https://OzReport.com/2007santacruzflats.php

Much of the task and the flight.

The forecast was basically quite wrong today. We didn't get any where here 14,000', and the winds were not 10 to 15 mph, but 5 mph out of the west. And the lift was not strong. Other than that, well, there is no other than that. The forecast was completely wrong.

We set a task any way that was agnostic about the forecasted winds (that were supposed to be 25 knots above 9,000', which we never got to any way). You can see the task at the URL above (the first one).

It was a slow climb above launch in light smooth lift under blue skies. After twenty minutes in the air we were only to 4,000' AGL. Jonny headed out toward town to the east and Scott and I followed. Jonny turned around but we continued to where we found weak lift over town, but scratched to stay up and waited for better lift.

Scott found a decent thermal at almost 300 fpm and we climbed up to 4,200 AGL'. We still had a long wait for the second start time so we hung out in the area working light stuff at the top of the lift. Most of the other pilots came in low under us and climbed up to us at the top.

Jonny, Chris, Conrad, Jeff, I and others started off at 1:45 heading east toward La Palma, the first turnpoint. We weren't that high, unlike the day before, so we were a lot more careful. I saw Jonny turning over the Wal-Mart in weak lift and we joined him and in decidedly poor lift. Eventually we climbed back to 4,600' AGL and headed east.

The eleven kilometer glide got us down to 1,100' AGL just under Jonny and Chris. Again the lift was weak, about 100 fpm, but we were so low that we had to stay in it. Jonny was about 500' over our heads.

We kept working 100 fpm lift in the area just trying to get high enough to search for better lift. Finally watching the dust devils we worked 200 fpm just next to the turnpoint at La Palma where I get high enough to get the turnpoint and head south.

I found 200 fpm just before the prisons but it only got me to 3,500' AGL. I headed south again toward a field with dust devils just past the prison where I saw Jeff O'Brien and Conrad turning. I came in over them but the lift was really poor, broken, and weak. There were dust devils but they don't seem to be working.

I spotted a new one forming on the west side, the upwind side, of the field and flew to it. Nothing but sink. I raced back to where Jeff and now Scott were turning but I was falling like a leaf. I came in under them at 500' AGL and didn't find anything. But the sink had slowed down.

At 300' AGL the zipper was open and I was taking stock of the fields below as the wind was pushing me quickly to the east. I felt a little lift and starting turning. The fields were going by quickly, as were the power lines and canals. I was just holding on as I really didn't want to land in these conditions until I figured exactly where the wind was coming from.

Conrad fell out of the lift and came and joined me as we scurried east. I started climbing at a little over 100 fpm. Twenty minutes later I was at 3,000' AGL and seven kilometers east of where I started the climb heading away from the turnpoint to the southwest. Conrad had landed.

I climbed back to 4,000' AGL and headed for the turnpoint at I 10. Scott and Jeff had hooked up over the field where I got low and were ahead of me having made the turnpoint. Dustin, Jonny and Chris were ahead of them working into the five mph wind toward the turnpoint at I8 southwest of Francisco Grande.

The lift continued to be light and I worked whatever I could find as it got past 4 PM. I started concentrating on the asphalt parking lots next to I10 as the ground is very light colored. They worked.

Chris plummeted on the final leg and didn't make it in. Jonny and Dustin got into goal just before 5 PM. I landed at 5:06 twenty five kilometers short of the last turnpoint near the intersection of I8 and I10. Jeff and Scott landed at fifteen after five, seven kilometers short of the last turnpoint.

The lift was very pleasant today, no doubt because it was so weak. I had a great time with the low save.

http://naughtylawyertravels.blogspot.com/

http://jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

http://hang6.blogspot.com/

http://canadiannationalteam.ca/blog

http://scottgravelle.blogspot.com

http://www.mullerwindsports.com/subpages1/subpage/endless.html

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The 2007 US Nationals, Day Six

April 12, 2007, 10:15:20 pm EDT

US Nats

Wow, forget the forecasts, just go for it.

Blue Sky|Campbell Bowen|Jack Simmons|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jamie Shelden|Jim Yocom|Kevin Carter|US Nationals|US Nationals 2007|weather

The flight but not the task.

At 7:15 we rise to see the eastern sky full of mammatus clouds (see here: http://skyout.blogspot.com). There was a line of thunderstorms that were about to hit us. The winds were not too strong, but we got a nice bit of rain. After the rain we could see the blue sky to the west with its promise of a good day.

The forecast was for another day of poor lift and a low cloud base with winds out of the west 5 to 10 mph. Maybe 15 mph. But we were ignoring these forecasts (other than to come up with some tasks to the east) and assuming that they day would be quite flyable as the blue approached.

The task committee was meeting on the flight line as the blue sky came over head around 1 PM. There was still thick clouds to the south east (the area we had chosen for our tasks), but cu's and blue sky to the north, and back toward Okeechobee, our task the day before.

The wind was freshening out of the west after being south west all day. The forecast showed the possibility of a little north in the west winds. We had to go north to get around Lake Okeechobee to get to the town of Okeechobee if we wanted to go in that direction. It meant a cross wind task and we weren't sure how strong the winds were and the winds would push us into the lake.

We decided on a 73 mile task to the grass airstrip at Hibiscus which would put us right over the airport at Okeechobee on our way. We had to stay above 1,500' if we went within three miles of the airport (which turned out to be a chore).

The launch had been set back to 1:30 PM, with start times starting at 2:30 PM and going to 3:15. We don't start launching until a little after 2 PM. I was off second and everyone got going.

The lift was light, 170 fpm above the flight park, as per usual this week, and we soon gaggled up, Jim Yocom, Campbell Bowen, Jamie Stinnet, Paris William, Bruce Kavanaugh, Kevin Carter, and five or so other pilots working light lift in the start circle and drifting in the 6 mph southwest flow.

Now the question was, what start time were we going to take. All of us here together, as high as we had been yet, 3,700' next to the clouds, but 6 km away from the edge of the start circle with only a couple of minutes before the second start time. No one goes. Paris doesn't want to go out on his own, but with no one to lead, no one goes.

With ten minutes to go before the 3 PM start we are circling at 3,000' 2 km from the start circle, but not going up. With two minutes to go, most of the pilots are getting high just outside the start circle, while a few of us have picked the wrong thermal and are climbing up from 2,000'.

A few pilots get on the course at 3 PM. The rest of us work this light lift back to 3,000', eight minutes before the last start time at 3:15 PM. The lift peters out and I head west for a forming cloud not far away. Oh, oh. No lift there. Now I've got to forget all about the time start and run for lift and I plummet out of the sky.

I run for the nearest warm dry looking field with clouds above it and find the birds (which are very useful here in south Florida, and work 50 fpm from 1000'. My task has begun.

Something in the neighborhood turns into almost 200 fpm and I climb to 2,500' where I spot about ten other pilots climbing to the northeast. Looks like I will have friends, including Kevin.

The wind has now turned west northwest at about 7 mph. Our task is to the northeast so we do indeed have a cross wind. We work 100 - 200 fpm until just north of More Haven where we find 500 fpm to 4,500'. Now the race is on.

Kevin and I and a couple of other pilots head out and spread out finding good lift under the scatter/streeted cu's. It's between 200 and 400 fpm almost all the way to Okeechobee. I've caught up with half a dozen pilots ahead of us.

But this comes to a severe halt west of the town. Down to 1,200' I spend the next twenty minutes working back and forth (west and east) up a slightly lifting line (again watching the birds) never getting above 2,000'. Finally, I spot Jack Simmons turning higher to my north just a short distance, and find 250 fpm under him.

Up to 3,000' I head under the dark clouds by the airport, but don't find really any lift under them. I don't find more lift and land six miles later. Jack is able to go another four miles.

I land next to Jim Yocom. He finds out that Campbell Bowen has made goal. We also hear that at least one flex wing has made goal. We haven't heard about any others. Only half the pilots have checked in at 10 PM. No Brits.

Paris landed back by the airport. So far Jack Simmons is winning the day (with half the field checked in).

You can find the results (in Race output format) when they are ready on Friday morning here: http://ozreport.com/2007usnats.php.

So far we have flown every day. The weather has been much better than forecast. We are truly enjoying ourselves.

Yesterday, it was Rodger Furrey who went far in the Sport Class, not Patrick Kruse.

Rips the wings off his Swift

January 2, 2007, 12:52:12 AEDT

Swift

A little aerobatics

Graeme Henderson|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Article here.

Mr Berry, of Queenstown, told the Otago Daily Times he was performing aerobatics on a recreational flight in his Swift glider when the accident happened about 2.30pm. He was diving down to build up speed, having earlier been as high as 5500ft, when the glider began to buck and shake.

Moments later there was a “catastrophic structural failure” and the wings ripped clean off the glider’s cockpit cage. Mr Berry was sent plummeting down towards the mountain below, still dangling half in and half out of the cage and desperately reaching to find the lever that would deploy his emergency reserve parachute, he said.

Thanks to graeme henderson.

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2006 Bogong Cup - Day 1 »

January 7, 2006, 10:20:35 pm AEDT

Bogong

A happy crew in goal after a blue day with 6,500' inversion, but good flying conditions none-the-less.

Belinda Boulter|Bogong Cup 2006|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor

My flight via the HOLC.

Saturday was the first day of the 2006 Bogong Cup. With a forecast for light southeasterly winds, Phil Schroeder sent us up Mt. Emu on the east side of the Kiewa Valley overlooking Mt. Beauty. Given that we sat on Mystic the day before while it blew up the back, (from the south) this was no doubt a good call.

The road up Emu has been graded and it is passable by two wheel drive (amazing). The winds are coming right up launch nicely and it is some of the best looking launch conditions that I've ever seen at Emu. Very consistent, light to a little less than moderate winds.

With eighteen pilots launching in unordered launch before me, it is a breeze climbing to the top of the inversion at 6,500', 2000' over launch, and 5,500' over the valley floor. The inversion is clearly visible on the horizon and this certainly explains why there are no cu's.

The task is 31 kilometers to the north to Gundaring then up the Happy valley to the west to the Ovens intersection next to the always on and very strong Myrtleford Hill in the Ovens valley, then back up Happy valley to Running Creek intersection in the Kiewa valley, then home to the Mt. Beauty airport. 114 km. A reasonable task for the first day.

There is a twenty five kilometer start circle around Gundaring which keeps us within six kilometers of the launch at Emu and in the thermal producing part of the range. I get down to launch level at 4,600' after hanging about for almost an hour, but find a strong thermal that others are happy to join me in a few minutes before the first start gate opens at 2:15 PM.

The whole lot of us seems to go at the first start gate, so as I'm in a good position, and tired of waiting around, I'm out of there also, right behind Jonnie Durand (he is very visible with the Red Bull sign on the top of his glider).

Ollie, Balaz, and Attila (the Hungarian team) wait around for two more start gates, but the rest of us push fast ahead. I miss the lift at one point and have to slow down and work my way carefully along the ridge line as nine pilots get the jump on me and get out in front.

Moving along I again find the 700 fpm lift and all my friends soon join me, but I'm skying out on them as I got there first. I'm only six kilometers from the turnpoint at Gundaring and I can see the nine pilots ahead of me and they are not so high. They apparently didn't find this strong of lift.

I'm flying next to Rohan Holtkamp a lot. His Airborne C4 - 13.5 prototype is orange just like mine. He has a bigger glider and he weighs a lot less. I can glider faster, but he can climb better. I'm 10 kilos or more over the recommended weight for the C4-13.

I get the first turnpoint watching the lead guys the whole time and come in with Jonnie as he finally finds something to turn in. This is great lift and now I'm back up with the fast parts of the lead gaggle. Lots of others and coming in behind and below me.

We head south the the next range to get up on the hills sides and to follow the ranges through the Happy valley to Myrtleford Hill. I remember the last time I did this when I went straight for the highest part of the range only to have to go to the right to get up after plummeting. The pilots I'm with are shading to the right of the highest point, but I shade to the left thinking that, hey it is the highest point after all and it is facing into the sun.

Gerolf is just behind us and shades even further to the left and when we get to the hill side he scream up and gets the jump on everyone. I go in underneath and find it while the other struggle a bit to the right and don't climb as well. Rohan is just in front of me working lighter lift.

Four of us (including Jonnie on his Litespeed and Kevin on the T2) with Rohan in tow, race after Gerolf who's really moved out ahead of us down the ridge line toward Myrtleford. We find some lift before we get there to get us high enough to make the jump over to the hill as we all spread out looking for lift.

Jonnie stops in lift before we get to the hill, but I keep going to the water tower at the top and get 800 fpm to Jonnie's 600 fpm. This hill almost always works (pine trees on dry ground) and I am rocketing up. The turnpoint is just at the base of the hill on the other side and it is a quick dive and return back to the strong thermal.

I go back to the same stop and am rewarded with 800 fpm again, while the others find some lift off to the right side, which is almost as good. We are racing along, or so it seems.

Racing back up the ridge line that got us to Myrtleford hill, we have to work some not so hot lift (it is getting later in the day) and we only get to 5,500' before an eight mile glide over Runny Creek and almost to the west facing hill sides of the Kiewa valley. We can't quite get there as we are down to 500' AGL, and have to work some weak lift from smaller hill sides in the middle of the valley to get back up.

I'm climbing with Jonnie when Balaz and Attila, who've been blasting from marked thermal to market thermal join us as we climb back to 5,000'. Ollie comes in under us. Four of us in the lead gaggle (Gerolf is off alone in front) head down the ridge line, but the three others scrape me off and I have to run back to find the good lift that they find high above me and climb up under them. The goal is now just to make goal.

Belinda's at goal and telling me that I've got a tail wind, which I need. I work a bit of lift that Ollie spots in front of me, and keep the control bar at the location which shows me at best glide. I make it in with 200' to spare.

Lots of pilots make goal, which made almost every one happy.



Attila gets excited about a rubber snake. Click for bigger version.

More on day one soon.

Discuss Bogong at the Oz Report forum

2005 South Florida International, day four »

Fri, Apr 29 2005, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Nice winds out of the southeast.

Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Oleg Bondarchuk|Russell "Russ" Brown|Scott Barrett|South Florida International 2005

The flight and the task. The flight is not valid for HOLC purposes due to some problem with going back to an earlier version of the 5030 firmware. Hopefully that is fixed now as I've again loaded the latest version 2.18.

Flytec (audio blogs updated during the day) http://flytec.blogspot.com/

The winds rotated around to the east and then southeast during the day. The forecast was for maybe a few cu's and we got them, good lift to 4,000' around 1 PM and up to 6,000' around 5 PM. The FSL forecast 20 mph winds at 167 degrees at 2 PM. The winds were supposed to build during the day and go more southerly.

This is what we got for winds:

I was off right after Campbell Bowen, and found good lift down low and got off. Oleg was right behind me and found the same lift and got off even earlier. We were launched at noon an hour before the first start time at 1 PM.

I pushed 4 miles up wind after getting high but had to come back a couple of miles to get back up. Then it was a fast glide straight north to try to get to the northeast side of the start circle, the upwind side. The task was to got 45 miles to the north northwest to an intersection north of Lake Placid, then 20 miles to the west northwest to an intersection at highway 17 in the middle of the state, then back to the northeast to Avon Park airport.

The rest of the rigids, and a few flex wings including Oleg joined me in the northeast quadrant under wispy cu's as we waited for the start window to open. I wanted to go at 1 PM and not wait until 1:15 and took off first as soon as the window opened. Thankfully all the rigids, Oleg, Hakan, and a few other flex wings came along.

Not finding a lift under the first few clouds, we had to take some weak lift under the next cloud before Oleg spread out and found the better core. Oleg then flew back to find even more lift while I went forward to get under another cloud that also worked. It was Oleg, Johann, Paul, and I,, three of us on rigid wings now in the lead and moving to the next cu's down the course line.

I pushed ahead and found a strong thermal that brought my friends in behind me. Getting to cloud base I had to press ahead again, but this time Oleg took a course to my right about a mile and his rigid klingons followed him rather than me, probably a good idea. But this time it didn't work out.

I found a strong core at 500 fpm which they all saw, but being a mile to my east they decided not to join me but proceed to find lift on their own. Oleg knows he's got two rigids to help him find lift, so he's not worried. The rigid pilots figure they've got Oleg to help them. So who cares about this guy corkscrewing up?

They plummeted as I stayed high and came in over their next weak lift. I saw the bare outlines of a haze dome to the west away from the groves (which we like because they seem to more often have thermals than the green areas) into the grass lands. Sure enough there was a thermal under the ghost of a haze dome and my friends came and joined me, but 2,000' lower.

They climbed slowly and I topped out at 4,200'. I had no choice but to head out on my own. This has been disastrous in previous competitions, trying to win out in front and alone with only a few light wispies to help. Now I told myself to be careful.

While it wasn't possible to jump from wispy to wispy, as they were spaced too far apart, I did find strong lift under those wispies that I could get to. The second leg was out over the mostly pasture area and I had to be careful to stay high enough to get to the cu's. The cu's were disappearing to our east near the lakes, but thankfully there were more near over by our turnpoint and along our course.

The second leg was a cross wind task, so it required getting through the sink to get back over groves when possible and find the lift. The cu's were too far away to get to them at first but were more plentiful at the turnpoint.

On the last leg to Avon Park, there were three cu's that lined up perfectly and stayed there long enough to get me to goal.  Twenty minutes later Paul and then Oleg made it in. Johann unfortunately could hear me on the radio (but not speak), and pushed himself too hard when he heard how far ahead of him I was, and landed 12 miles before goal.

Rigid wings:

Davis Straub          2:44     1000
Paul                        3:05       775
Russell Brown        3:10       727
Campbell Bowen     3:45       542

Cumulative rigids:

Davis      1803
Russell   1627
Johann   1321

Flexies:

Oleg                       3:06     1000
Hakan Anderssen   3:21       831
Scott Barrett        3:32       747
Anders Anderson   3:30       716
Jono Anderson      4:32        429

Cumulative flex:

Oleg     1950
Hakan   1419
Scott    1410
Anders  1222
Tom       1138

2005 Worlds »

Mon, Jan 17 2005, 11:00:00 am EST

A late task as the sun goes down.

Dean Funk|Dustin Martin|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Tom Lanning|Worlds 2005

Results

The flight

The paddock dries quickly after the rain on Monday. It only amounted to a quarter of an inch. The winds are still strong, will they ever stop, and it's twenty mph out of the south when we get to the tow paddock and we are instructed by the safety committee not to set up.

The wind speed maybe moderates a tiny bit, but if we are going to have a task we have to start setting up at 2 PM. We are instructed to set up. Then twenty minutes before 3 PM we are given the obvious task - Booligal and Ivanhoe.

I finally get to launch a bit later than second and with plenty of lift at the tow paddock it is easy to stay up and go up wind to get over 5,000'. Everything is looking good when forty of us head upwind one more time over the tow paddock to stay away from the fifty kilometer start circle.

I shade a little bit to the east to spread out the pack and check out the area. This little mistake proves to be crucial as I miss the lift to the west and can't make it to the rest of the gaggle as they find it. I then plummet wondering just what great sin I had committed after finding plenty of lift earlier over the tow paddock on my own.

It's a fall down to 1,200' AGL as I join five other pilots who have also been assigned to Hell or Purgatory, at least.  We grovel and drift toward the start circle just trying to stay alive and ignore all the pilots four thousand feet over our heads, having the time of their task.

Fortune of a sort does smile on us and we find a good thermal to take the first start clock six minutes late, but at least we are back up with the more talented pilots, who didn't have to suffer so grievously.

Now the race is on as I fly quickly to catch up with the lead gaggle. Most of the pilots have taken the first start time at 4:15 because we have a 182 kilometer task and it will be late by the time we get near goal.

The lift is much better than on the previous days in the sense that it is more coherent and more comfortable to fly in. Even with the strong winds, the air is pleasant.

The task is a sky full of hang gliders racing each other and using the lift found by others. The climbs are fast as are the gliding speeds for the first 100 kilometers as we hurry to get to Ivanhoe before it is too late. We cover this distance is a little less than an hour and a half (67 kph).

Seventy kilometers out from Ivanhoe it is almost six o'clock, and the lift turns off like a light switch as we work our way to the north northwest in a twenty mph south wind. Instead of 4,600' we are getting to 3,600'. Instead of some climbs averaging 600 fpm, we get less than 100 fpm.

Pilots begin to drop out and low saves become the order of the day. Thirty kilometers out I'm groveling again and drifting away from the course line as I follow the lift lines to the north, while the goal gets further and further to the west.

Trying to jump back to the west proves too difficult and I land well off the highway 20 kilometers from goal. Curt is landing at about the same time  (7 PM) ten kilometers ahead of me. Tom Lanning who has been trailing behind me, stops in an area that I was working lift and works back into the wind to keep working it when I chased a couple of thermaling pilots and didn't find their lift. Tom will get up there to 4,500' and almost have enough to make goal straight away, but will have to stop for a little lift when he sees many pilots landing just short of goal. Dustin will make goal ahead of him.

Kevin will stay in the lift lines, and land at about 8 PM well past goal but 13 kilometers to the east of it. At about the same time Dean Funk will come and land just short of my location.

As I come into land I spot a ute heading for a dam. They see my shadow on the dam and come back to check me out. It turns out to be the owner and his family. They've been shearing sheep all day. They are excited to see so many hang gliders landing nearby and give me a lift to the highway.


A big gaggle over the tow paddock from Jonny Durand Jnr.

Skyfloating

Mon, Dec 20 2004, 12:00:01 pm EST

Breen Custom Kite

Bill Moyes|Don Carslaw|Francis Rogallo|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG

Don Carslaw «plummet» writes:

1974-2004: a bit of nostalgia and a lot of thanks for 30 years of the magic of hang-gliding, to all those pioneers who made it possible.

In particular:

Gertrude and Francis Rogallo of course, for the original concept and research

John Dickenson for the execution (years ahead of his time)

Bennett and Moyes for the barnstorming publicity

Dick Eipper and Bill Moyes for the first real commercialization's

Dan Poynter for his 'bible', the Basic Handbook of Skysurfing - a must for home builders at the time
Of course many others not mentioned, but UK pioneer Gerry Breen for selling me the plans and sail of the glider in the picture:.

Apart from vague memories of having seen someone towed round Silverstone motor race track in the late sixties (Bill Moyes, was that you?), I didn't see a Rogallo until March 1974 in Verbier, and thought of it as an alpine sport like skiing. However shortly afterwards, seeing an article about farmer Ken Messenger flying the UK Wiltshire downs made me realise that it was possible even on the local hills, and I just had to do it.

Making the glider was half the fun, and the first take-offs came in Sep '74, first landings came a bit later! Oh yes, instruction came from Dan Poynter's book, and the final page in the plans which went something like: "Run down hill into wind and then push out". The glider flew much better than the pilot of course - something that hasn't changed a lot since! It was not until the next year that I flew a site with any other pilots.

I feel lucky to have participated relatively early in the evolution of modern hang gliding and even after all this time there remains an amazing exhilaration in being able to do what had appeared inconceivable before; that is to step into the air in a personal flying machine controlled simply by the movement of one's body - to fly like a bird.

Finally a big thank you to Colin Lark for converting me to his and Bill Pain's Discovery, my wing of preference for the last 8 years and probably the only double-surface 'skyfloater'. I call it a 'paraglider-with-tubes' - read what Bill has to say about it here at <http://www.skyfloating.com>.

Discuss Skyfloating at the Oz Report forum

CIVL - continental championships and juries »

Wed, Sep 22 2004, 3:00:03 pm EDT

How to cut down on the cost of World Championships by reducing the size of the travel club.

CIVL|Flip Koetsier|Fred Wilson|HPAC|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|John Aldridge|PG|Wesley "Wes" Hill

Fred Wilson «safety» writes:

While the FAI General Section 4.3.2.1 allows Representative Juries, from what I've heard other Commissions have not had success with the system. Our test of the format will be the Hay Worlds, and if we are going to have any chance at all, it could not be better than with the CIVL team selected for this meet (Jim Zeiset, Flip Koetsier and John Aldridge are the CIVL Officials.) A powerhouse team. I don't envy them one bit, but our hopes and prayers are with them.

I can think of no better present place and time to discuss this than on the Oz Report because it is our failure (National Associations outside of Continental Europe) to provide adequate numbers of Stewards and Jury members that is forcing CIVL to go this route.

BACKGROUND

 The travel expenses of CIVL Officials are paid for by the event. In Continental Europe, with their large numbers of very professional National Associations, vast quantities of Cat 2 and Cat 1 Meets and their close proximity to each other, CIVL Officials are plentiful and travel expenses are minimal. Outside of Continental Europe the number of

a) individuals that have the background and training to host Cat 1 events

b) CIVL Officials (Stewards and Jury members) drops exponentially. And that means our costs go up, and our professional standards may be or are lower. As a side note, Hang Gliding numbers are plummeting world wide. Cat 1 events are as high profile a media exposure as we could ask for. More Cat 1 and feeder meets should translate into more pilots entering the sport as the public becomes more aware of the recreational opportunities we offer.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

I'm doing my bit. I'm going to the European Paragliding Continentals on my own dime. Starting Monday I'll be doing secretarial duties for the next two weeks for Leonard Grigorescu, (CIVL Jury & Steward Co-ordinator) updating the missing Jury Reports. We will have this posted on the CIVL Web site in plenty of time for the national teams to study.

What can you do?

If you are a fanatic competitor, you need to think to the future. One of these days you are going to burn out, old age will creep in and / or your competitive edge will begin to fade. But if your passion for the competition scene will stay strong, you need to start getting the background training and education to step up into another level of participation: to take on the role as a top level meet official. That means get involved with organizing and running all levels of meets and go out of your way to volunteer as Task Committee and Jury members at Cat 2 and other high profile meets with a long term plan to become one of the quality people appointed to become CIVL Officials. The perks are impressive.

The Hay Jury National teams need to start thinking about who they are going to appoint to the Jury, and these individuals need to be hitting the books in preparation for their role. The relevant study material is the

a) FAI General Section

b) Section 7

c) CIVL Jury and Steward Handbook

d) Jury Reports

e) the Local Rules

CONCLUSION

If the Representative Jury experiment is not successful in Hay, CIVL will revert to using appointed Juries. In that case, we in North and South America, In Africa, Central and South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand are going to have to step up to the plate and increase our numbers of Jury (and Steward) members to adequate levels. That is one of the key components to ensure the propagation of Cat 1 events outside of Continental Europe.

A sad commentary on the current state of affairs: When was the last American or Pan-American continentals? What is the ratio of Cat 1 events in other Continents compared to Continental Europe? Things are improving, especially recently, but we still have a long way to go.

CIVL, in particular noting the hard work of a few individuals, has recently:

a) made dramatic improvements to Section 7;

b) reduced the organizational headaches of hosting Cat 1 meets; and

c) taken steps to tackle the cost of hosting Cat 1 events.

That should immediately translate into more Cat 1 meets, particularly outside of Continental Europe and that is good for the sport. If the Representative Jury experiment succeeds, all the better. If not, it's up to us to "skin the cat."

Comments anyone? I'm no expert but I feel that this topic is worthy of further discussion.

(editor's note: See my response tomorrow.)

Wesley Hill «wesleyianhill» writes:

The "Representative Jury" was used at the Asian Paragliding comp in Korea. I have met one of the jury members who said it worked well (and saved a lot of money).

Oz »

Sat, Jan 31 2004, 2:00:06 pm EST

Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|record

Don Carslaw «plummet» sends:

AUSTRALIA: We are the people of a free nation of blokes, sheilas and the occasional wanker. We come from many lands (although a few too many of us come from New Zealand), and although we live in the best country in the world, we reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever we bloody like. We are One Nation but divided into many States.

First, there's Victoria, named after a queen who didn't believe in lesbians. Victoria is the realm of Mossimo turtlenecks, cafe latte, grand final day, and big horse races. Its capital is Melbourne, whose chief marketing pitch is that "it's liveable". At least that's what they think. The rest of us think it is too bloody cold and wet.

Next, there's NSW, the realm of pastel shorts, macchiato with sugar, thin books read quickly and millions of dancing queens. Its capital Sydney has more queens than any other city in the world and is proud of it. Its mascots are Bondi lifesavers that pull their Speedos up their cracks to keep the left and right sides of their brains separate.

Down south we have Tasmania, a State based on the notion that the family that bonks together stays together. In Tassie, everyone gets an extra chromosome at conception. Maps of the State bring smiles to the sternest faces. It holds the world record for a single mass shooting, which the Yanks can't seem to beat no matter how often they try.

South Australia is the province of half-decent reds, a festival of foreigners and bizarre axe murders. SA is the state of innovation. Where else can you so effectively reuse country bank vaults and barrels as in Snowtown, just out of Adelaide (also named after a queen). They had the Grand Prix, but lost it when the views of Adelaide sent the Formula One drivers to sleep at the wheel.

Western Australia is too far from anywhere to be relevant. It's main claim to fame is that it doesn't have daylight saving because if it did, all the men would get erections on the bus on the way to work. WA was the last state to stop importing convicts and many of them still work there in the government and business.

The Northern Territory is the red heart of our land. Outback plains, sheep stations the size of Europe, kangaroos, Jackaroos, emus, Uluru, and dusty kids with big smiles. It also has the highest beer consumption of anywhere on the planet and its creek beds have the highest aluminium content of anywhere too. Although the Territory is the centrepiece of our national culture, few of us live there and the rest prefer to flyover it on our way to Bali.

And there's Queensland. While any mention of God seems silly in a document defining a nation of half arsed sceptics, it is worth noting that God probably made Queensland, as it's beautiful one day and perfect the next. Why he filled it with dickheads remains a mystery.

Oh yes and there's Canberra. The less said the better.

We, the citizens of Oz, are united by Highways, whose treacherous twists and turns kill more of us each year than murderers. We are united in our lust for international recognition, so desperate for praise we leap in joy when a rag tag gaggle of corrupt IOC officials tells us Sydney is better than Beijing. We are united by a democracy so flawed that a political party- albeit a redneck gun toting one- can get a million votes and still not win one seat in Federal Parliament. Not that we're whingeing, we leave that to our Pommy immigrants.

We want to make "no worries mate" our national phrase, "she'll be right mate" our national attitude and "Waltzing Matilda" our national anthem (so what if it's about a sheep-stealing crim who commits suicide). We love sport so much that our newsreaders can read the death toll from a sailing race and still tell us who's winning.

And we're the best in the world at all the sports that count- like cricket, netball, rugby league and union, AFL, roo shooting, two up and horse racing. We also have the biggest rock, the tastiest pies, and the worst dressed Olympians in the known universe. Only in Australia can a pizza delivery get to your house faster than an ambulance. Only in Australia do we have bank doors wide open, no security guards, or cameras but chain the pens to the desk.

I am, you are, we are Australian.

We also shoot and eat the two animals that are on our National Crest!!!! No other country has this distinction!

Discuss Oz at the Oz Report forum

Bogong Cup, Day Four »

Tue, Jan 27 2004, 2:00:00 pm EST

Bogong Cup 2004|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Rohan Taylor

Overdevelopment is the main forecast. Also winds 15-20 kph out of the northwest. Phil thinks the winds will actually be light. The task committee sends us back to Mystic launch at Bright.

It is pumping on Mystic with strong gusts and a strong westerly breeze as we set up. There is certainly the threat of overdevelopment from the towering cu's to our right - the east back toward Mt. Beauty, but not excess height in the clouds over Mt. Buffalo, the direction (into the headwind) or our start circle.

At first it looks like it could over develop, but then the clouds really don't get any thicker and there are no cu-nimbs that we can see. The sky out in the flats 50 kilometers to the north is clear of all clouds.

But, on the other hand, the wind on launch is unfavorable, and no one understands how we are going to be able to fly over Mt. Buffalo 35 kilometers to the start circle edge in a strong head wind. Also there is concern about landing in the bomb out zone in rotor conditions (the bomb out lz is on the lee side of Mystic).

Trevor launches to check out the air in front of launch and doesn't get over a few hundred feet above launch for the next hour. This is not a good sign.

Finally the day is called on account of the wind. There is little or no threat of overdevelopment. In fact the main feeling is that we won't get up and be able to get over to Mt. Buffalo.

Bo takes off to free fly. He can get up to 6,000' MSL but has drifted way back. When he comes forward he is only about five hundred feet over launch. Later he heads out to the west and in front of launch and gets into the rotor from the ridgeline to the west. He starts to plummet and everyone stops packing up to see if he will make it out of the valley. Thankfully there are some clear cuts below him.

Bo just squeaks around the end of the ridgeline and lands in the cricket pitch in Bright. He has to cross a fence, trees and goal posts in the middle of the field. He radios that we all made a good decision not to have a task today.

I really dislike flying at Mystic in high wind conditions, so I'm happy about the call. It's funny that on day one we had a prediction for high north northwest winds, twice this strength, and we went to Mt. Emu which faces southwest and had good launch conditions and no problem with the winds other than the difficulty of getting to the turnpoint.

Rohan called me while I was setting up on launch to talk about the turn problem with the Climax and the new battens. He told me how to tell if the batten tension wasn't correct. He also told me that the original battens were in the other Climax that was here.

I haven't had a chance to look at the Climax today, as we stayed in Bright until late adding new springs to the car and getting a flat fixed. I hope to have a chance, but if we fly everyday, it will not be possible to check it out. We are rushed every day as it is.

The Litespeed VG rope is working fine today after help from Kraig. I got advice on how to check it out in pre-flight and it was much better. Kraig says that he foot launches with no VG.

Discuss the Bogong Cup at the Oz Report forum

Bogong Cup, Day Two, Task two »

Sun, Jan 25 2004, 2:00:00 pm EST

Bogong Cup

Attila Bertok|Bogong Cup 2004|Brett Hazlett|Gerolf Heinrichs|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Kevin Carter|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Rohan Taylor

With the north northwest wind dying down to around 15 kph, but otherwise conditions remaining the same we head back to Mt. Emu over the town of Mt. Beauty to get another task in the Kiewa Valley. The task committee goes big and different, which is great, and we have a 120 kilometer task mostly in the mountains.

It's first a 40 kilometer leg down to Gundaring North, like yesterday but without the ferocious head wind, then a 50 kilometer leg over the Happy and Ovens valleys up to the bridge at Nugnug on the back side of Mt. Buffalo, then 30 kilometers over a ridge and out to the flats to Brown Brothers Winery, where we will be able to have a bit of a repast in the Milawa Gourmet District.

Even with a long task, we still don't have an earlier start time as it just takes so long to get up the hill and setup. The open window launch gets going to 1 PM, and ordered launch is 1:30. After yesterday's poor showing, I'm in fortieth, so I push immediately and 40 pilots get off in half an hour in front of me. Perfect.

After the significant right turn in the Climax yesterday, I go back to the Moyes Litespeed. I'm unable to fix the turn in the time frame of the contest. Unlike when it was clear on the Litespeed that the turn was due to the broken tip wand. I don't know how to fix the turn in the Climax.

I got a new set of battens from Rohan and had the first flight on them Saturday and the Climax had a turn. There is not batten pattern that I have for this "different" set of battens. I don't have Rohan here to help me fix the turn. I have no way to test any changes that I make in the battens during the contest. I'm quite willing and delighted to fly the Climax, but not with such a turn. I would also like to understand what the problem was with the Climax VG and the pulley, as I wasn't completely sure a line had jumped out of the pulleys.

The lift at launch level seemed quite light and pilots had to get up a bit before they started climbing well. I had to get use to the Lightspeed S 4.5 again after flying the Climax 14 the day before. Thankfully it didn't have a turn, but I was still below launch in broken lift working to get up and trying to coordinate my turns. Finally after ten minutes I started rising.

Everyone else had gotten up and was down the course line getting near the start circle circumference in anticipation of the 2:30 start window. With half hour start intervals very few pilots want to go in the second window. I'm climbing fast finding much better lift and much less turbulent conditions than the day before. It is so nice that the wind has died down. The glider isn't tossing me around nearly as much today which speaks mainly to the improved conditions, and perhaps because the Litespeed S 4.5 is a bit smaller than the Climax 14.

I'm flying both gliders with 22 pounds of ballast and I weigh 180 pounds. Then add in the standard equipment. It seems like smaller gliders would be preferable and then I wouldn't have to carry the ballast.

Starting fortieth and struggling with the glider at first gets me a bit late for the start line at 2:30, 4 kilometers behind it, but not as late as numerous other pilots who look like they will be forced to wait until 3 PM to get going. A number are drifting back behind the ridge line and still others are low hugging the ridge as I climb up to over 8,000.

We have plenty of clouds to day, and with the lighter winds they are much better formed. I head out far behind the first guys into the valley to get under a forming cloud and it's much smoother out there climbing back to 7,000'. It looks like I might be catching up a bit taking a better line than the guys in the lead.

Quite a few of us will decide to go down the middle of the valley away from the ridge line using the clouds and watching the folks on the ridge line get low and struggle. Usually we stick to the ridge but today with the clouds over the valley and the wind out of the northwest, the valley seems to be the place to be.

Oleg, Kevin and Bo are just a few kilometers ahead. Oleg will get low at the turn point, but find lift under the lead gaggle on the other side of the valley. The lead gaggle will get low just past the turnpoint as I come into the turnpoint, and Bo will head upwind to try to get a better line. They'll all drift back together when Bo finds 800 fpm.

I'm down to 3,000' AGL after the Gundaring turnpoint after climbing up to 7,200' just before it. I'll scrape along the western hill sides trying to find something better than 250 fpm and it will take a while heading toward the second turnpoint at Nugnug before I join up with a few other pilots and we climb up under thick clouds.

There is a cloud street off to the left of the course line going straight to Mt. Buffalo, and given the paucity of clouds over toward Myrtleford, more on the course line, I and the pilots near me head off to the left. The lead gaggle is already at the end of the cloud street and getting low going back toward Myrtleford.

I can fly straight and climb to almost 9,000' under the street which ends about 15 kilometers before Mt. Buffalo. There is a good cloud just south of Myrtleford and I race plummeting to get to it. Bo has already gone down 3 kilometers from the Nugnug turnpoint. Kevin Carter is still in the air after a low save.

Bo said that he went over the lead gaggle at 1,500 'over their heads when they were down to 700' AGL. He went for a cloud before the second turnpoint but didn't get anything.

I find a lee side thermal five kilometers out from the bridge and over a ridge from it and climb up with four other pilots. The lead gaggle is back in the lead and has already made the turnpoint and headed for goal.

Taking the turnpoint I head toward a small cloud and find 300 fpm lift at 6,000'. I spot a pilot off to my left in better lift, but I don't find it and then am forced back by the expanse of trees in the ridge line in front of me. I find the rotor on the backside and plummet to the ground. The other pilots with me stayed back in the lift and I assume did better.

Kevin made goal as about fifteen or twenty pilots also did. Neither Brett or Kraig made it today. Kevin's the leading American this meet, so far.

I'm feeling better about the flex wing glider today and it was a better day for me than the day before. It is a bit difficult to transition between two different gliders so I'm dealing with that.

The clouds got thicker and thicker as the evening progressed and we have seen lots of lightening, heard lots of thunder, and now it is raining hard here in Mt. Beauty. Hopefully no fires will get started in the hills.

Results

1

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat L 13

Ukr

3:16:46

986

2

Hideaki Nagamitsu

Moyes Litespeed 4

Jpn

3:17:04

966

3

Bertok Attila

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Hun

3:17:39

963

4

Bader Lucas

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

3:17:40

957

5

Durand Jon Jnr

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

3:18:44

948

6

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

3:28:56

898

7

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

3:24:16

894

8

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

3:28:18

885

9

Heinrichs Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aut

3:33:43

862

10

Barthelmes Oliver

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

3:30:57

856

11

Paton Len

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

3:22:58

849

12

Schroder Phil

Airborne Climax C2 14

Aus

3:33:22

836

13

Carter Kevin

Aeros Combat L 13

Usa

3:36:16

835

14

Bosman Mart

Moyes Litespeed

Nld

3:39:26

816

15

Matsumura Takahiro

Moyes Litespeed 4

Jpn

3:40:05

808

16

Seib David

Moyes Litespeed S5

Aus

4:03:06

750

Totals:

1

Bondarchuk Oleg

Aeros Combat L 13

Ukr

1891

2

Durand Jon Jnr

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1878

3

Bader Lucas

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

1849

4

Bertok Attila

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Hun

1846

5

Hazlett Brett

Moyes Litespeed S4

Can

1796

6

Heinrichs Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aut

1795

7

Hideaki Nagamitsu

Moyes Litespeed 4

Jpn

1694

8

Barthelmes Oliver

Moyes Litespeed S4

Deu

1690

9

Bares Radek

Aeros Combat

Cze

1612

10

Paton Len

Moyes Litespeed S4

Aus

1557

11

Durand Jon Snr

Moyes Litespeed S4.5

Aus

1555

12

Carter Kevin

Aeros Combat L 13

Usa

1539

13

Seib David

Moyes Litespeed S5

Aus

1481

14

Schroder Phil

Airborne Climax C2 14

Aus

1437

15

Matsumura Takahiro

Moyes Litespeed 4

Jpn

1380

Discuss "Bogong Cup, Day Two, Task two" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Follow up on tandem accident

Fri, Nov 14 2003, 2:00:04 pm EST

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG|weather

midtoad « stewart» writes:

Today I was out at the beach at São Conrado, here in Rio de Janeiro. Though it’s been a couple of days since the fatal tandem accident, there were media reporters present at the landing zone, interviewing local sport leaders and filming the flying. The weather wasn’t very good for flying, so there were few gliders in the air and no tandem flights of either hang gliders or paragliders - the ABVL has banned them until the safety investigation on the accident is complete.

Yesterday a local hang glider dealer was reported in the local paper as saying that the glider used by tandem pilot Valtinho was in need of maintenance. I learned from another source that he had sold Valtinho a new glider, a Falcon I think, but as Valtinho hadn’t paid for it. He eventually took it back, and Valtinho returned to flying a much older glider.

It appears that a downtube may have broken in the air. After that a side-wire snapped, and the glider plummeted into shallow water near the rocky shoreline just west of São Conrado beach. I’ve been told that Valtinho had an emergency parachute, but he didn’t use it. The reason for that remains a mystery.

I spoke with Bruno Menescal, ABVL president, and Rui Marra, a long-time HG and PG tandem pilot with only 15,000 tandem flights under his belt. Rui has been agitating for compulsory licensing and scheduled glider maintenance for tandem pilots. Up to now the government, i.e. the Department of Aviation, has taken a hands-off approach, but that may change. Though there have been a few serious injuries in the past, this is the first time there has been a tandem fatality in Rio - and it’s getting a lot of publicity.

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Hook In »

Sun, Sep 28 2003, 5:00:02 am EDT

Brent Harsh|Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Brent Harsh «bharsh» writes:

Don Carslaw writes: What Dan suggests is OK as far as it goes but ignores 2 facts:

1. Lots of pilots do not have this type of front-loading harness.

Then get one. Or wriggle in behind the straps, we had pilots do that for years because they believed this system was the best. If being hooked in is important to you, ask your favorite manufacturer about it. To me (even though I tow most of the time and it's almost impossible to launch from a platform tow unhooked), the glider, harness and parachute are my vehicle. It's not preflighted until it's all put together - and that's probably more important for me since I fly the mountains so seldom.

Don writes:

2. It opens you to another risk that was unhappily demonstrated here three years ago by a local competition pilot: failure to correctly fasten the harness leg straps.

Then get a harness that has at least one of the leg loops fasten automatically when you zip in, or ask your manufacturer to include it on your next harness.

These two things seem like a pretty easy design element to me, at least one manufacturer (High Energy) has had them both for awhile. The only legitimate complaint I've heard about this method to ensure you're hooked in is that on turbulent mountain sites you might not want to be hooked to the glider until just before launching (Dry Canyon had a fatality like that a year or so ago, I can't remember who). To me, I probably wouldn't want to fly if the wind was that unpredictable

Alexander Prymak «prijmak» writes:

Reading your recent reports I was tempted to share my experience of not hooking in a month ago during our local fun meet at Ellenville, just before you came there. I did hook in at first, but then it started to drizzle and I decided to wait, stepped back, unhooked, put my carabineer on my harness under my arm. After some time I decided to fly but got distracted and forgot to hook in.

I ran as fast as always but glider never took off and I landed into the big bushes under the launch taking out both downtubes but was ok myself. Some pilots came to help and I realized that one of my glider's back wires was inside of the carabineer under my arm. May be it got there when I unhooked and put it put it on my harness. Fortunately, because of that glider never took off and I didn't need to do any gymnastics in the air.

Want some more entertainment? ;)

Three years ago I forgot to put my leg straps on and saved myself from the serious injury because of that. It was blowing strong and the glider was too big for my weight. So I was pushed over the back of the mountain, got in bad rotor and landed on a huge tree. I unzipped my harness and jumped out of it onto the closest branch and waited there for the firefighters with the ladder. Until you last Oz Report I never thought of what could happen if I didn't land on the tree and went to the regular LZ and then unzipped my harness 300 feet about the ground ;)

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Hook In »

Fri, Sep 26 2003, 5:00:04 pm EDT

Dan Keen|Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don Carslaw «plummet» writes:

I have some more information on Noel's accident: apparently he had unhooked to re-adjust his passenger's harness - a known gotcha. I have read other stories like this. If you unhook for any reason, remember - you have a greater risk of forgetting to hook in!

Dan Keen is a very lucky man. But as most people know, it is extremely difficult to lift yourself up over the base bar (even without the extra 10 kilos of harness/parachute and maybe gloves) unless you are young and very fit, or a professional gymnast!

What Dan suggests is OK as far as it goes but ignores 2 facts:

1. Lots of pilots do not have this type of front-loading harness.

2. It opens you to another risk that was unhappily demonstrated here three years ago by a local competition pilot: failure to correctly fasten the harness leg straps.

Unfortunately with the type of harness used by this pilot, the zipper slid open upwards on take-off and he was left hanging by his arms. He didn't survive.

I also know of a few other pilots who have taken off without fastening their leg straps. Luckily their harnesses stayed closed, but the landings were interesting!

Comment: It's fairly easy to verify if another pilot is not hooked in, but not at all easy to see if his harness is incorrectly fitted.

For what it's worth, my current method: When I am unattached but have my harness on and am maneuvering the glider at take off I keep saying out loud 'I am not hooked in'. When I am attached, I lift the glider up until the 'straps go tight' before final positioning at take off - however I realise that doing this is not always possible.

There have been many suggestions in previous Oz Reports on this subject and I think I'll add the simple system of a loop on a bungy-cord which hangs down somewhere in front of me and which must be attached to the carabiner when one hooks in.

Anyway, please make sure you have a system of some kind, and follow it.

Discuss hook in at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Hook-In

Thu, Sep 25 2003, 4:00:03 am EDT

Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don Carslaw «plummet» writes:

 

This weekend we said goodbye to our great friend Noël Veyrat aged 55, who fell to his death 17th September after failing to hook in before a tandem hang glider flight at the Col de la Forclaz near Annecy in France. Noël was left hanging from the control bar and, during the brief time he remained there, he was able to give instructions to his young passenger on how to steer the glider towards some trees. The passenger managed to make a turn and land in a tree as instructed, shocked but unhurt.

Noël was just closing his final season of tandem flying before retiring, giving rides to friends and family who had helped him. He had been flying since 1974 and had been a full-time professional tandem pilot for 27 years.

A tragic reminder that this type of accident is still possible even after thousands of take-offs.

Don't let this happen to you! Make sure you have some kind of a system - don't just rely on remembering. Don't let this happen to someone else - check other pilots before they take-off.

Discuss hook in at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Silly stunts

Tue, Sep 23 2003, 4:00:06 am EDT

David Lizama|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|PG|video

David Lizama «dlizama» writes:

Do you know of or possess a video of some famous footage of a miraculous mishap caught on tape of a guy named Dan Murphy. His wife supposedly shot video of an incident where two parachutes failed to open as he plummeted to the ground from a very great height. He survived the fall and later went on to give an interview for a TV show similar to ours. Do you know how I could get in touch with this person or his wife? I want to inquire if he would be interested in being interviewed for our show. Is he perhaps a member of your club?

I am a Segment Producer with Nash Entertainment and working on a FOX Television special tentatively titled "Embarrassing Moments Caught on Tape." I am searching for blooper-style home video featuring Hang gliding/Paragliding enthusiasts, amateur hang-gliders, professionals, or instructors and respectfully request permission from you to forward this request on my behalf to the members of your organization. Please instruct me on your protocol and/or procedure for this type of request so that it can be properly made. I would appreciate if you would instruct me on an acceptable method of reaching out to them.

I'm basically looking for silly stunts, accidents or mishaps caught on tape--lighthearted stuff where nobody is seriously hurt but where the viewer is left wondering, "what were they thinking?" or "how could this happen?" This is meant to show that amateurs and even experts are not perfect and are prone to having a bad day at the office. I figure this type of video will have been captured at amateur and professional event/gatherings and that there must be those who have friends/relatives taking home video and a 'blooper' style incident was caught on tape. Another option might be incidents in the form of 'outtakes' taped in the making of a promotional or corporate video.

Please understand that we are very interested in getting the athlete's side of the story and would like to interview these folks about their experience. We are not trying to make anyone look dumb, rather we are demonstrating the unpredictability in life and how it is often funny and hilarious.

Would you happen to have any 'whack" videos of your own? Would you be interested? If not, would you please consider forwarding my request to other people, groups or organizations you feel would be interested in providing or referring me to this kind of videos, especially the members of your club? Would it be possible for you to forward this request for footage to all of them?

We pay a reasonable license fee for each clip we use and our clearance department will negotiate the licensing fee with whomever owns the tape. We license footage based on the visual appeal of the 'caught on tape' aspect of the footage. We also will pay a 'finder's fee' for referrals that lead to bona fide 'caught on tape' material; that is, where we actually license footage from someone to whom we have been referred.

Keep in mind that the most appealing aspect we look for is spontaneity since we are not looking for footage that has obviously been "staged" to happen or in any way shot with the intention of misleading viewers into thinking that it was anything but genuinely "caught on tape."

Please call or write me soon if you or any of your members would like for us to consider video footage for inclusion in our show. I can provide my FEDEX account for overnight shipping purposes.

Do you know of any other clubs or groups that I could also contact for this type of request?

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you and your members soon.

David Lizama, Hollywood, California, Tel. 323-468-4784, Fax 323-468-4644, Email: «dlizama»

Discuss whacking like a man at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Photo/caption contest »

Sat, Aug 9 2003, 5:00:05 pm EDT

calendar|Davis Straub|Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|photo

Don Carslaw «plummet» sends:

 

It has been interesting to see some vintage pictures of vintage hang gliders, so I just had to send you these images of a vintage glider still flying regularly today!

The site: Lachens, S. France, 3 Aug 2003. The glider: a British Hiway Super-Scorpion of 1978/79 in original condition! (the type that won the first American cup) The pilot: Jacques Bersia in original Hiway harness and Bennett 'chute. He did a real cool 2 step float off into the evening lift.

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More relaxed flying

Sun, Jan 5 2003, 9:00:07 am EST

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Patrick Laverty|PG|photo|sailplane

Patrick Laverty «patrick.laverty» writes:

For 25 years the development of Hang gliding equipment has been driven by competition pilots primarily. Where has that left us in user friendliness? Since 1975 I’ve seen masses of enthusiastic pilots leave because they were spending more time controlling their sphincters than having a ball. How many sailplane pilots fly prone? Prone flight is physiologically stressful and uses muscles not generally the strongest. Weight shift is at some distance from one’s C of G. Supine flight is much more relaxing, and one can fly for much longer in big stuff. Ask a Bug owner.

I started flying seated, went prone for 17 years, then neckache brought me back to supine. In all that time not even the most expensive hi-tech prone harness gets close to the comfort of a basic early supine unit.

With modern gliders I found Supine TO and landing was too hard to control under a regular length frame. I also tried inside the control frame (same as Bob Thompson). I eventually settled on the set-up in the photos, shorter control frame but in the same position as prone.

I consulted Rumour designer re stress and he thought it would be fine. To be totally sure, when I fitted the frame, I added sleeves to centre of crossbooms and stronger side wires. Dual hang straps have a spreader bar. The paragliding type harness allows rotation forward and back. This one-off harness was made by Bruce Goldsmith. It was spot on first time. A “B” bar was clamped to the straight base bar with thin (anti rotation) struts to the uprights.

 

Pilot rotated back through straps in supine. Lap mounted reserve. Max speed on Rumour1. was 45MPH. Fine by me. Weight shift is in line with C of G – much easier.

 

TO/Landing position exactly the same as for prone pilot, no difference. Nil wind gallops - no problem. I’m 6’1”, yet shorter control frame presented no problem approaching gusty launch. Just bend a bit more. Before landing you swing into same position as prone so full flare available in line with C of G. (Hard flare in supine gives mostly body rotation not glider rotation).

I am a cautious pilot and would be first to quit when things got rough but found my bottle threshold transformed by supine. In the big stuff plummeting to the ground head first is very unsettling, feet first - no problem – all in the mind you see. It's nice to sit up, too, when the going gets rough.

On landing I noted prone pilots tired and sweating when I was fine. Drag is probably a little higher but for 95% of pilots the relaxed comfort and ease of flying more than outweighs that.

Probably the major drawback is it just doesn’t look or feel as cool as prone, and also the comp scene dictates all. The newer more docile gliders are a great step forward but perhaps we’d retain even more pilots if supine were a widespread option too. Crashing feet first is a long way better than head first. A centre bar can be fitted to a large frame, to fly this way, and thus keep crash protection. I tried it before the small frame - worked OK.

See Colin Lark's Supron - http://www.skyfloating.com/supron.htm.

I think Finsterwalder, Germany also offer a supine version as an option.

The advent of paragliding should have sorted the “cool” aspect. The original gliders had short frames. Prone flight inside large control frames was introduced primarily for speed. With the newer gliders speed is no longer an issue for weekend pilots – comfort is. Let the comp guys do their own thing, they're an essential development ground for new ideas. Manufacturers, though, should not let the comp scene dictate their products for the average pilot.

Watch Jon Doe hang glide tonight

Fri, Oct 4 2002, 2:00:04 pm EDT

calendar|Davis Straub|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Mark Dowsett

http://www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/forum/news_toc.htm

Mark Dowsett «mark» writes:

I just found out that Friday was the night for this to be aired (up here in Canada anyways) and am not even certain you Americans get this show.

Watch "John Doe" Friday night at 9:00PM

On August 30th Steve Thoss was the stunt double for the lead actor in this new TV series. It was shot up on Cypress Mountain. I haven't seen the show yet but the just of the show is that this star "John Doe" has amnesia and is trying to figure out who he is and why he has all these skills (sounds a lot like the recent Matt Damon movie "Bourne Identity").

The scene Steve was involved in has the star (John Doe) chasing this woman out in the woods/mountains. She is getting away and he sees her down in the valley driving a truck. It just so happens that there is a teenager just about to launch his hang glider. John pays the kid off for use of the hang glider and launches the glider like he has been doing it for years. When he gets in the air he instinctively remembers that he has to look for ridge and thermal lift to get where he needs to go. He navigates the glider down into the valley along the road where she is getting away. He then proceeds to land the glider on top of the moving car, releases himself from the glider and the glider goes flying off the back of the truck. He continues to apprehend the woman through the window and forces her into the ditch as she swerves around the corner and he jumps into the ditch just before the crash - all unhurt of course.

It should be fun to see how it all comes out on film. It sure was a lot of work from what they will show...and believe me, all of what you will see won't be 'real' - but what on TV is???

I helped Steve the week before scoping out the launch that the set makers built up on the more easterly peak up Cypress. They handled all permissions to do this and built a ramp as Steve asked for. It certainly was needed as it was in the middle of a logging slash (Steve feels rather comfortable in these types of slashes). Anyways, we get up there and the 'ramp' that they built was exactly flat and level - I am sure they spent hours getting it level. Steve had to re-build it (don't tell the union) so that it gave him a good run and he also had to reposition it to get the left wing out of the stumps. We did one flight and it all looked good. He was landing in the first (paved) parking lot as you get up to the village.

The production also hired Jeff Rempel and Greg Buckmaster to be 'glider assistants' to help break-down, transport, hike in and set up the gliders. It was about a 10 minute hike into launch and the bugs were BRUTAL so it was tough work. It was quite the experience working on a movie set. Get there at 5AM and they have full breakfast laid out. Then up the mountain to get the two gliders set up and ready to roll when the rest of the crew get there. Steve of course had to get his wardrobe and make-up done before flying - stuff that Steve is used to anyways before he flies... It was pretty funny to see Steve all done up with makeup, dressy boots and a nice suede jacket...all ready to get into the air.

It was perfect for launching and flying as we were above a lower layer of clouds but of course just as Steve gets ready and they get all the camera angles ready that lower layer of clouds rise up and white us out. It certainly doesn't make the producer too happy. And instead of holding tight, they ask for one of the gliders to be broken down, hiked out, driven down and set up to do some crane work. See, they really didn't expect Steve to land the glider on a moving car (just skim awful close to it) - they used a crane to wing the actor and the glider onto a slow moving truck and then swing the glider off of the truck using the same crane after he releases himself from the glider.

Of course when we get the glider all set up pronto, they don't have the crane ready and guess what....it clears up! So back up the mountain Steve goes to fly the other glider we left up there. Greg and I have to pack the other glider up and take it over to the main parking lot and set it up again for the scene where the actor pays off the pilot. Even this scene is all fake...they truck in all this mulch to simulate a launch and even fake trees. All for a shot that lasts about 5 seconds...too much. The funny part of this was that Greg and I jumped in and consulted them as to how the glider should be positioned on launch as if we were really going to fly and how the harness and helmet should be positioned. We even had to show the teenage actor on how to act around the glider (pre-flight). Too much!

Take 1 - Steve pulled off the first take really well. He was flying with a mike and headset and had the mic locked so he could communicate with the driver of the vehicle (as the driver could never see Steve coming) and tell her to speed up and slow down...and then brake just as he was about to fly down her windshield! Good thing he was using single surface gliders that are so forgiving! We then break for lunch (which was a full buffet - gotta love this movie biz!).

Take 2 - the afternoon is where things get really interesting...I am in the LZ the rest of the afternoon - prime viewing for all the action. They hope to do the remaining filming in two more takes, the third flight is supposed to be with this $20,000+ camera mounted to Steve's helmet to get the pilot's perspective coming in on the truck. If we do it in two takes, we are done by 4PM or so. So now we are flying mid-day at a new site...who knows what the conditions are going to bring! Steve launches and is a bit high so does a 360 to get down and plummets from the sky REAL fast. He ends up landing right at the beginning of the parking lot, the truck barely rolls and he is miles from the cameras....not too good so up he goes again.

Take 3 - mid-day flying...he come in to the LZ a little more conservative this time and a thermal kicks off and he over shoots the entire parking lot and lands on the road on the way down the mountain. Not the prettiest landing but no damage in the least.

Take 4 - still thermic and challenging. Steve really wants to nail this one and is concentrating big time. He makes the mistake of forgetting to tell the driver to brake and has to tell her to gun it at the last second and ends up landing in her wake and breaking a down-tube in the paved parking lot. Minor damage in the grand scheme of things. At the point the stunt coordinator and assistant director is losing their patience, we are losing day and the bill for this 30 person shoot is going higher and higher. It is now about 6PM and they still have to do AT LEAST two more takes. No one was blaming Steve they could see how tough this was to shoot. Up he goes again for take five.

Take 5 - redemption! Steve does a perfect flight with all this pressure on him. He flies right in camera view, right down the windshield and pretty much puts his foot on the windshield as they had hoped. Relief is all over and the tension is cut. Especially since we had educated them on the word 'catabatic' as the winds had now stopped blowing up launch and was now no wind.

Take 6 - the pilot's viewpoint shot. Steve has this HUGE helmet camera on and he looks hilarious. Surely his stress goes up again now that he has this incredibly expensive film camera on his head and he is instructed on what he is allowed/supposed to look at while in the air and how to operate this camera as it only holds 3x 30second shots. Once again, he pulls it off like a pro and it is all perfect. Everyone cheers and we get the classis, "it's a rap".

It is now about 7:30 - Steve and I have been on set since 5AM - Steve has done six flights - since we went long with the extra takes, we haven't eaten since 1PM.

But wait! There is one more part of the stunt that they just have to do today so they don't have to come back. They have to shoot the part where John is on top of the car and forces the woman off the road and John then jumps into the ditch. Steve had no idea he was slated to do this stunt but they tell him to get ready as if everyone knew he had to do it. Steve nails this one on the first take and thank God as I wouldn't want to do that once let alone twice or more. Even Steve was surprised on how small the air bags were in the ditch where he had to jump into. I missed this shot but they said it was quite spectacular with the car speeding around the curve, swerving to miss an oncoming car, goes into the ditch and back up. Should be fun to watch.

Steve did an amazing job. If you know Steve and see how built he is, I am sure you would agree that not too many people could pull off the stamina, concentration and desire to do all of this in one day. It was blazing hot all day and the bugs were driving everyone absolutely crazy. Nice job Steve and I hope it looks great tomorrow night. It was certainly fun helping out with this.

Aaron⁣ on good launch technique

Sun, Aug 4 2002, 6:00:04 pm EDT

Aaron Swepston|Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|video

Aaron Swepston «tontar» writes:

Don Carslaw https://OzReport.com/emailer.php?toName=plummet&code=706p756q6q657420617420656173796r657420646s7420636s20646s7420756o writes:

Interesting to see my neighbour used in your example of your 'how not to launch' (Oz Report #144). I recognise her by her harness and not by her launch technique which is normally excellent. I do know she suffers badly from 'large control frame' syndrome but she says it's more of a problem with the landing flare. You must have caught her on a bad day!

Although I agree with most of what you say, I think you were a bit glib with some of your remarks about taking-off.

I had no intention of being glib. In fact, I found it to be quite distressing to see so many poor launches, regardless of gender, regardless of country of origin. To me, launching is one of the great pleasures of foot-launched flying, and I make a special effort on each and every launch that I make, and truly, it does distress me to see very near misses like I saw at the World Meet. I don;t think it is funny in the least.

Obviously I didn't see any of the launches at Chelan, but have you never had a launch in light thermic conditions where you take every precaution, assess conditions down the hill carefully for several minutes, start your run and suddenly wonder where all the air has gone?

Actually, I am very familiar with these sorts of conditions, and am also very familiar with Chelan in particular. The conditions on that particular day were perfect on launch, at least from my perspective. The winds were pretty much constant at 4-9 mph on launch, this I know because there were people on the launch with wind meters constantly calling out the numbers for the pilots. There didn't seem to be very much in terms of gust factor to upset things. The launch referenced was the lake-side launch, which is quite steep and not needing any significant wind to launch safely from. We use this launch for the local speedgliding event, where we typically launch with ballast and no wind, or cross wind, or unpredictable winds.

I launched this very same launch on the very same day in the very same conditions on a borrowed glider which I had never flown before, in Teva sandals, with absolutely no problems maintaining the proper attitude or proper stride. One foot in front of the other, progressively longer strides, angle of attack low enough so that it is not subject to any gusts or lulls.

Perhaps this particular pilot experienced something unusual, or tripped or something, but it's hard to imagine so many people tripping or stumbling or encountering freakish air currents which would account for the unusual number of awkward launches.

But to answer your question, yes, I have had my share of unexpected fumbles, and because of those I have become far more critical of my launch and landing techniques so that I might avoid future fumbles. I think that my own striving carries over to be expectation for other's striving, and when I see something that appears to be a lack of focus or a lack of dedication to such an important aspect of flying, I tend to point it out. I just think we all should strive to be better pilots, not just in how we manage to chalk up X-C miles, but also in how we approach all other aspects.

Well if so, you know that it¹s technique that then determines whether you get away without touching the sides. And while not being a fan of the 'push - pull' launch, providing the slope is steep enough, it can sometimes be very useful to get one out of a tight corner.

Well, hmmm, what can I say that is not offensive. I don't mean to be offensive at all, but there was gobs of air there. If there wasn't, the picture you saw would not have been one of a survived launch. It was the abundant wind that prevented the launch from being blown completely. A stalled glider will fall at a much steeper path than a glider that has good, clean attached airflow, which actually flies away from the hill instead of mushing towards the slope. I don't want to pick on any specific pilot or launch incident, since there were plenty to choose from. I am only commenting on the technique which was commonly at fault for very near misses on what is essentially a very good slope to launch from which did have abundant wind to make wonderful launches in. That technique being a non-aggressive, short stepping shuffle with the hands on the back of the downtubes pushing the nose up within the first couple of steps. Not as you suggest as a last ditch effort to get the glider flying once all has gone wrong, but at the beginning of the launch cycle where it causes the remainder of the launch to go wrong. Pushing out in the beginning makes it go wrong, as opposed to pushing out at the end to save something unexpected.

I'm not condoning poor launch technique but even the best planned launches can sometimes foul up.

Agreed! Same with landings too.

So it may have looked like a good example but, as I thought, the reality is a bit different.

The photo that I send was one of several that looked exactly the same, with the exception of different pilots and different gliders. This one did represent a great example of the typical posture assumed in many of the launches that I originally commented on. While this one may have been an exception to that pilot's typical style, and I am sure that everyone else would probably say the same thing about their launches, the technique that was used that got this pilot into this situation is pretty much the same technique that got most of the others into the same situation. And it was this technique that I was commenting on, not intending to indicate that any of the pilots using this technique use it anywhere else other than at Chelan while I was snapping p[pictures and while others were shooting videos (the videos capture the launches in real time and real drama!). If this technique is unusual for all of these pilots, then I really wish that they had been using their normally good technique instead of this unusual poor technique. How's that for allowing for the occasional goof up?

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My Neighbor’s launch

Thu, Jul 25 2002, 5:00:02 pm EDT

Don Carslaw|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don Carslaw «plummet» writes:

Interesting to see my neighbour used in your example of your 'how not to launch' (Oz Report #144). I recognise her by her harness and not by her launch technique which is normally excellent. I do know she suffers badly from 'large control frame' syndrome but she says it's more of a problem with the landing flare. You must have caught her on a bad day!

Although I agree with most of what you say, I think you were a bit glib with some of your remarks about taking-off.

Obviously I didn't see any of the launches at Chelan, but have you never had a launch in light thermic conditions where you take every precaution, assess conditions down the hill carefully for several minutes, start your run and suddenly wonder where all the air has gone?

Well if so, you know that it’s technique that then determines whether you get away without touching the sides. And while not being a fan of the 'push - pull' launch, providing the slope is steep enough, it can sometimes be very useful to get one out of a tight corner.

I'm not condoning poor launch technique but even the best planned launches can sometimes foul up.

As for my neighbour, a pilot since 1975, she is quite famous here for having held her glider together to the LZ after the base bar came disconnected on launch a couple of years ago. Strong arms - you better watch out for her right hand! ;-))

I just talked with her as she has just arrived back from Chelan. When I mentioned that there was a photo of her nearly blowing a take-off she said 'Oh that - yes I sort of tripped on my second step and fell forwards and the glider got a bit ahead of me. All my other launches were ok'.

So it may have looked like a good example but, as I thought, the reality is a bit different.

However I know that she does have a really good take-off story to tell from about 25 years ago - something about a cliff face and a small tree and a film crew. Get her to tell it to you sometime. ;-))

Flytec Championship – the race begins »

Sun, Apr 21 2002, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|Curt Warren|Florida|Flytec Championships 2002|Gary Osoba|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Jim Lamb|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Quest Air|weather|Wills Wing

The weather has continually improved since the beginning of the Wallaby Open, and over the last few days it has been great here in Florida. Today, Gary Osoba was predicting:

Looks like a good day for you. There is a distinct morning inversion. Things will start a little bit later than the average last week but when they kick off they'll be just fine for the first day of competition. Here's how it stacks up:

11am Blue. Weak lift to about 1800'. Winds at the surface sse at 3-5, aloft se at 5. As things progress toward noon and beyond, it will kick off for you. May wish to use a wind dummy or two to see when it happens.

2pm Good to strong lift and some clouds to around 5700'-6000'. The thermals might be sheared up a little in the last 1000' or so, depending upon what the upper winds really do. Surface winds sw at 3-5, at 3,000' sw at 7, at 6,000' se at 12. Around 3 pm maximum climbs to around 6300'-6500'.

5pm Good lift to around 6000' with some clouds. Less shearing in the thermals at this hour. Winds at the surface wsw 5-8, at 3000' sw 6, at 6000' ssw 5.

There was a west wind all day, but not enough to keep us from launching to the south. It measured about 10 mph out of te west during the task.

Given the predictions for good lift and light winds, we call an 82 mile triangle, with the first leg north to Leeward, a bit northeast of Belleview, south down to Coleman, and then southeast back to Quest Air flight park.

We are expecting a blue day, or at least clouds that don’t get too high. It certainly is blue in the morning, and there aren’t any clouds when the launch window opens at noon. We’ve moved everything back to a start window at 1:30as there is no chance of over development, and Garyis calling for a later day.

We call a race to minimize any of the effects of departure points and to make sure that pilots can know where they stand by just looking around and seeing where they are with respect to everyone else.

The rigids start at 4 miles out and the flex wings at 7 miles out north of Quest. With no one all that excited about getting into the air given the blue nature of things, the launch times get compressed. Still, with the sufficient resources just like at Wallaby, we all get into the air very very quickly. It is great having this many (17) tugs and trikes.

The lift seems weak at first for most people. I pull the pin when I’m at 2,000’ and my averager is showing 1,200 fpm. It couldn’t have been a better tow, especially behind a trike. A small cu forms over me as I climb out to 4,500’.

I scoot out to the 3.3 mile mark where all the rigids gaggle up and get ready for the start. You’ve got to wonder about the flex wings that are flying with us. Haven’t they heard the news that they are supposed to be out at 7 miles out?

I made a presentation of the strategy for the day after the pilot meeting. I suggested to those few attendees that they not follow the course line to Leeward, but rather head west toward the Okahumpka service area on the Floridaturnpike. This gets them away from Leesburg, away from the lake to the east of Leesburg, and away from the forest between the turnpike and Leesburg.

When the window opens at 1:30 PMI head northwest toward Okahumpka, but at first only a few pilots follow me. Most head toward the gaggle of flex wings straight north toward Leesburg. I find a good line of lift and notice that the clouds are forming to our west, in the direction I’m heading.

I continue pushing northwest to get half way between Wildwood and Leesburg, where I think I will find the good lift over the drier farm lands. Now only one pilot is following me away from all the rest of the pilots. We are hitting good lift. I have to take a six mile glide and get down to 2,000’ to get under the next forming clouds, but the lift continues to be strong and I’m clearly catching the lead gaggle of flex wings that started 3 miles ahead of us.

Just a few miles north of the turnpike I’m next to the forest at its thinnest part, just where I had advised the pilots to go. The lift is light, and the clouds aren’t forming yet to the north of me. I’m checking out a landfill a few miles to the north and thinking that it will be working even if there aren’t any clouds.

The lead gaggle to down wind of me to the east a couple of miles. Suddenly they all turn 90° and head my way as I start climbing. The gaggle includes the two Swifts (one flown by Manfred), Alex Ploner and Christian Ciech on the ATOS-C and Stratos respectively, and a bunch of flex wings – the fastest flex wing pilots.

I really should leave before these guys get to me as the lift is so weak, but now I get a bit nervous after going out on my own up until this point. I wait a few minutes before leaving the gaggle behind when it proves to be just too painful to be with them.

The clouds are now beginning to form, but I find the lift over the landfill first and climb out with enough gusto to bring along the rest of the pilots. To keep away from them I push further west of the course line again, ignoring light lift and looking for a good one under the better clouds to the northwest. At 1,400’ I finally get to the cloud I’m interested in and my 450 fpm attracts a lot of attention. The Swifts have already gone ahead.

The day is improving and we are now under lots of well formed clouds. We climb to over 5,000’. I go on glide with Curt Warren and when he stops to find some lift I continue toward goal and hook into 550 fpm that gets me (and later others) to 5,700’ just before the turnpoint at Leeward airstrip, 40 miles out from Quest Air.

As I approach the turnpoint, I notice Christian Ciech coming into it at the same time from the east. He had not gone nearly as far west as I had. I cut in front of him to get the turnpoint at the edge of the cylinder and head south toward Coleman.

Christian appears to have a much better glide on his Stratos compared to me. I’m not use to seeing other rigid wing hang glider pilots out glide me, other than Hansjoerg. I’m wondering if I’ve got too draggy a harness setup, whether I have enough ballast (I have 11 kilos), whether the T-tail, because it isn’t set at the proper angle, is adding drag, or whether the Stratos has a better glide (see below).

As we head south, we’re in the lead, other than the Swifts which are at least ten miles ahead of us. After a while I notice Alex Ploner coming in 500’ to 1000’ below us. I wonder what happened to him.

The lift going back toward Coleman isn’t all that great, averaging about 250 fpm. The wind is blowing pretty strong out of the west at 11 mph, and I’m concerned about an on-shore flow from the west coast killing the lift. It seems to be dampening things out a bit.

Alex goes off to the west and presumably finds a good thermal while Christian and I head south. At Wildwood, Alex and Christian (who also went off to the west to find lift) join me in 200 fpm under thick clouds, but not well defined clouds. We need the lift even if it isn’t up to the standards we got use to going to the first turnpoint.

Christian again gets a better glide going into Coleman. Alex has a bit better glide than I. He’s not doing as well as Christian. Later he will tell me that he was gliding with Christian in the Wallaby Open, but that Christian was out gliding him today.

I stop for lift just before Coleman having taken a different line trying to get under some clouds on the west side of Christian and Alex. They work for me and I get above Alex. Christian makes the turnpoint and heads southeast toward the prisons.

The gaggle of flexies and a few rigids in catching up with us point men out in front as I approach Coleman, so I hurray up and take the turnpoint and head for the prisons. Alex was chasing Christian and is working light lift just west of the prisons when that effort failed. I’m 500 feet over him, and continue along in buoyant air without any strong cores toward the southeast hoping to find Christian.

I spot him working lift 5 miles south of the prisons and come in at 1,700’. The lift is averaging only 280 fpm, but we are under a large dark cloud and the cloud cover from there toward goal is spotty. We are 15 miles out.

Christian and I will spend 12 minutes climbing here in this light lift while Alex and then the gaggle will come in underneath us. Johann Posch has been listening on the radio and I’ve been providing lift locations and he’s with the gaggle.

Christian and I are playing a cat and mouse game on top of the gaggle. As this is a race we know that where you are determines your position in the race. He is only 200 feet over me (as the lift has slowed down at the top of the thermal). He won’t leave until I do (or until Alex does). I want to force him to leave by staying with him in the thermal until there is nothing left. You only have to beat the other guys and the three leaders all together.

Finally Alex leaves from below, I immediately follow to his right, and Christian can watch us and take an even further right course which proves to be much better. Alex and I plummet from 5,200’ to 1,600’ in 7 miles. I find lift over a brown earthmoving area with clouds above it and Alex comes in below. We climb out to 4,200’ while Christian just continues on toward goal after a few turns in our thermal.

The gaggle has spotted me circling up again and joined in below. Johann comes in just over me.

Alex goes on glide and I follow with Johann right behind me. We hear that Christian is on final glide in front of us.

The final glide is very fast at speeds over 50 mph. We four rigid wing pilots have left just before the flex wings decide to go. Johann and Alex pull in more than I do and I see them out in front and way below me and I’m not willing to go quite that fast. I speed up when I see them in front of me going faster.

Curt Warren and Gerolf Heinrichs are right behind me and below as they have sped up also. They are beginning to catch up and as I’m not willing to let them beat me to goal, I pull in even further and keep them at bay.

Gerolf and Curt are right on the deck and have to slow up a little while I have plenty of altitude and can pull in more as I find smoother air. Christian then a few minutes later Alex with Johann right behind him cross the goal line. I’m not far behind. And right after me Curt and Gerolf right on the ground.

They are right next to each other as they cross the goal line and right next to the ground. Curt is 2 inches off the ground and has been in ground effect for 300 feet. He slows down and flares. Gerolf crashes a bit into him, takes out his own control frame and breaks a few of Curt’s battens.

Gerolf lies on the ground and doesn’t move. We think he may be hurt, but he just doesn’t want to be moved. An ambulance is called, but Gerolf turns out to be okay, well almost – sprained ankle. The rest of the gaggle comes in right after Curt and Gerolf’s show and buzz the launch low also.

We find out after landing that Bruce Barmakian had one of his Wills Wing slipstream downtubes come unscrewed at the apex. It was flopping down on him in flight. He had to climb up into the control frame, untie one of his shoe laces, and tie the downtube back in place. Thankfully downtubes are not structural on ATOSes.

Landings were difficult at the field with no wind. I had a slider and found that the AIR ATOS-C control frame with its little skids would slide just fine.

Felix and Christof finished Jim Lamb’s ATOS-C repair this morning after Jim hit the wind sock pole at the Wallaby Open and he was back in the air at the Flytec Championship today. Oleg, GW and many others helped Gary Wirdham get his Aeros Combat 2 back together after he took out the main windsock at Wallaby and he was back in the air today.

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Heart Attack!

Thu, Jul 12 2001, 4:00:03 pm EDT

James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw

Don Carslaw «plummet» writes:

Back in February another Brit pilot and I arrived at our local site just in time to see our oldest pilot, Roger Pentolini, do a nice smooth take-off out over the picturesque village of Bar-sur-Loup, near Grasse in the south of France. Knowing that it was his 71st birthday we watched respectfully as he headed off towards the landing field in the calm conditions.

As he turned onto his downwind leg over the trees we were horrified to see him enter a series of alarming oscillations culminating in a very snappy right-hand turn onto base/final and almost immediately a cartwheel smack into the landing field!

As we couldn't see anyone else down there or any movement - the landing is 400m vertical and about 4km from take-off - I anxiously called the rescue services. After not too long they and some other people arrived, and everyone and the glider moved to the normal breakdown area, so we breathed a sigh of relief and got ready to fly ourselves.

It subsequently transpired that, although Roger had been up and walking, and apparently only shaken, the rescue services had all the same taken him into hospital for observation. There it was discovered that he had in fact had a heart attack in flight - hence the wild oscillations. The miracles then continued because the specialist on-call just happened to be someone he knew who sent him straight away to a heart clinic where again the specialist on-call just happened to be someone he knew, so he got priority treatment immediately!

Roger says he has no recollection of his approach at all so it's nice to think that his bang on 'landing' might have had some influence on bringing him back to this side of the river, so to speak. He certainly thinks so. Anyway after having the relevant treatment, he's now running around like a spring chicken and we're all very happy 'cos he's such a nice bloke.

We can now say to pilots who have trouble getting into the landing field that our Roger, at 71, can get in with his eyes shut and halfway to another planet!

 

I attach a pic of him, and Simon another 'youth' from the neighbouring club, taken last year at our annual fly-in to commemorate our previous oldest pilot, who died peacefully in 1998 after flying till the age of75. They were fulfilling a 25-year-old bet to celebrate their 70th birthdays by flying in black-tie (Tuxedo). Roger is the one without the hat. And no, they didn't fly that fine vintage 1977 Eipper Cumulus - that was just to reinforce the period look.

Our HG club here in S. of France is the Club-des-Jeunes de Bar-sur-Loup (really!). For some pix on the flying here, visit the site of our Italo/Irish pilot Paolo 'Murfy' de Nicola http://paolo.denicola.free.fr Better still - come and visit before we all start to oscillate!

Australian Hang Gliding Nationals – Task 5

Mon, Jan 8 2001, 10:00:03 am EST

Australian Nationals 2001|Davis Straub|Gordon Rigg|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Mike Barber|USHGA

Australian Nationals 2001|Davis Straub|Gordon Rigg|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|USHGA

Australian Nationals 2001|Davis Straub|Gordon Rigg|James-Donald "Don" "Plummet" Carslaw|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|USHGA

While Gerolf was calling for a long (in terms of time) task, after two days of relatively short tasks (only 100 miles Sunday – but 2 hours and 20 minutes in the air), but still a short task is called of only 118 kilometers. A dog leg, down wind, and then cross wind on the shorter leg to goal – the final glide from the turnpoint if you were high.

There are no clouds in the sky until after 2:30 PM. There is a lot of haze, and a good wind (16 mph) from the east.

Given that the cu's are forming around the paddock, but not over the paddock, things get off to a slow start. We don't start launching until well after 3 PM. The static tow guys are ahead of us this time, which hasn't been the case for the first four days.

With the good winds, there are few gaggles and they are small. Gerolf, Mike Barber, and Gordon Rigg jump the queue and get up quickly (Gordon after his little incident). Gerolf, Mike, Oleg and I take the 4 PM start gate, the latest yet. About five pilots have taken the 3:50 PM start gate and most will serve as markers for us out on the course line.

Gerolf, Mike and I were circling 1.5 kilometers past the start circle as we waited until 4 PM. We then raced back to get the start gate. Mike left 4 minutes before the start time, but I saw that it would only take two minutes to get back, so I waited with Gerolf (turns out Mike had the wrong time).

Mike had seen a small cloud forming behind us, and got into some strong lift, which Gerolf and then I also caught. They were able to get the start gate just before me and 500' higher. Oleg was not visible to us and higher still. This was a pretty small gaggle, but we were off on the course.

About 5 kilometers out, Mike and Gerolf split up, Mike taking the more direct route and Gerolf heading off the course line to the left to get under a cloud with a couple of pilots turning. Mike told me earlier that he followed the contrairian rule, that you can't catch the gaggle by following them. I decide to go with Mike in order to beat Gerolf (my own competition – not Gerolf's).

Gerolf stays high as Mike and I plummet, but as soon as we get under the clouds, we find enough lift to keep going. It's not strong yet, and not as good as the day before, but the clouds are very promising ahead.

It's basically a cloud street all the way – 80 kilometers to west north west to the turnpoint. Mike and I catch up with Oleg 20 kilometers short of the turnpoint, and Mike is doing all the pulling. I'm just a bit under him or behind all the way to the turnpooint. We see a half dozen other pilots as we approach the turnpoint with Lukas Bader just behind us, but no Gerolf.

Mike, Oleg and I get to the same altitude and location just after the turnpoint. My vario is saying that it is a glide to goal, but we go back under the cloud that we got up in just before the turnpoint. Oleg heads a bit to the north not quite under the cloud, and Mike heads to the east and gets a bit of lift. Not great but enough for a few turns as we climb up 1000'. Oleg has headed out and is down 1000' out in front to the right of the course line.

I leave and head straight for goal in spite of the crosswind component. The clouds look good to me along this line. Mike heads toward Oleg to the right a bit, going against the wind in order not to have to get to the goal going upwind.

Oleg hits a boomer and climbs fast. I come in 1 km to his left and hit a good one also over a few pilots who are low. It is 700 fpm, and the vario still says go to goal. It says I've got it by 4500' if there is no net lift or sink on the way to goal.

I leave the lift long before it diminishes as Oleg is coming my way and I want to get there before him (again, just my own contest).

I keep following the GPS not being able to see where the goal is. The Brauninger, reflecting all the sink I'm diving through, now predicts my final altitude at goal at 100'. At 4 kilometers out I see a glider turning above goal and I can dive toward it. There are three pilots on the ground at goal who got earlier start times.

Oleg beats me by 17 seconds. Mike, Gerolf and three other pilots come in about 10 minutes later. Then almost everyone makes it to goal. Attila got a late start gate, and came later so it was hard to know how fast he flew the course. It took Oleg and I an hour and 29 minutes to fly 103 kilometers – 69 kilometers per hour. We had a good tail wind, but the lift wasn't as strong as the day before.

Too short a task, but we didn't get started racing until 4 PM. The days are late here at Hay. With the short task and late start time, we get back to Hay at sundown.

The full results can be found at: http://www.dynamicflight.com.au.

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Italian world team abandons Ghostbusters

Sun, Aug 1 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Worlds 1999|Ghostbuster

Yesterday we noticed that there were new Exxtacy 99's on launch, but no Ghostbusters. Today we went and asked the Italian pilots who were flying the Ghostbusters what was up.

They said that they were too scared to fly them anymore. They kept getting speed bumps at not very high speeds on their previous two competition flights. They are now flying the new Exxtacies instead (which also experience speed bumps, but at much higher speeds).

We previously reported that there were problems with speed bumps with the Ghostbusters and that according to our sources these were inherent in the design. We'll see, but right now, there are no Ghostbusters at the Worlds.

I have been accused of favoring one rigid wing glider over another in an unfair manner. A few pilots have written to say that I wouldn't write anything bad about the glider that I am flying (see the next article). Apparently their memories are a bit short, but they can easily refresh them by looking are my long article discussing all the problems that I had with my Exxtacies. You'll find it on my web site. It hasn’t changed since I wrote it almost two years ago.

When there are problems with gliders I write about them because I want to put the fire to the feet of the manufacturers to get them to fix the problems. I am especially interested in doing this to manufacturers of the glider that I'm flying. I mean it is in my interest to get my glider fixed.

The Ghostbuster appears to have a number of problems, and I am reporting both their successes and problems. I'm sorry if some people think that is biased, but too bad.

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